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boldlyvoid · 3 years

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Amoreena | Chapter two

Chapter Two

summary: Heaven is a real place and it's located exactly 14.6 miles away from the FBI, Quantico Headquarters. Off behind a small park, under a fantastical willow tree surrounded by wildflowers, in every colour young minds can imagine.

Don't forget, heaven also comes with angels.

Warnings: fluff, hurt/comfort, depressed spencer, reader has a daughter, falling in love, strangers to lovers

word count: 6k

a/n: this is set May 2021 in my brain just in case anyone was wondering while reading it !! here is the pinterest board and the spotify playlist for the fic too!

from the beginning <3

They were sitting on the steps of the Smithsonian when he arrived. Y/N was a vision in a yellow blouse and blue jeans, basking in the sun's rays when she looked more like sunshine herself, throwing seed at the birds with Amoreena.

He took a deep breath and smiled, waving to get their attention.

“Spencer!” Amoreena cheered, running down the steps and into his arms. Almost knocking her hat off as she leapt into his arms.

“Oof,” is all he can say as he makes sure to catch her, surprised to get this sort of reaction from someone.

She fixes her hat and leans back in his arms, “do you like my outfit? I’m the old man from Tarzan and mom is Jane!”

He sets her down then, watching her stick a foot out so he can get a good look at her olive-coloured jean shorts, button-up shirt and blue bowtie and brown boots. She went all out for her adventure today, making his heart burst.

“I looked into that Milo guy,” he says, showing off his own outfit. Pushing his glasses up and adjusting his red bowtie.

“You look just like him!!!” She was beyond excited, turning to Y/N who was all smiles on the steps.

She stood as they walked towards her, “mom look, he’s Milo!”

“You look great,” she complimented him, that twinkle in her eyes back as she blushed.

“Thank you, so do you,” he said softly. “Both of you are dressed for the right adventure today.”

“What do you have in store Mr. tour guide?” Y/N teased, taking Amoreena’s hand and walking into the museum.

“Dr. Tour guide,” he corrects her softly, making her smile and shove him lightly.

“Sorry,” she teased him, “Doctor tour guide, what is your plan for today?”

“I bought 3 tickets ahead of time,” Spencer admits, taking three lanyards out of his jacket pocket and handing them each one. “We have special access today, just show the guards these and we can go almost anywhere.”

“Are you sure you don’t work here? Not even undercover?” Amoreena interrogated him, narrowing her eyes as she watched his response.

He laughed, “I promise, I helped them on a case once, and my old boss knows the curator, they owed me a favour.”

“Old boss?” Y/N catches it.

He nods lightly, “he quit a while ago to have a family.”

“Smart man.”

“I sent in my letter of resignation last night,” he adds, “if you’re still looking for a literary historian?”

She beamed at him, reaching out an arm to tuck under his and pull him in close. Following him through the doors with Amoreena’s hand still in hers. “I’ll arrange an interview this week.”

The rotunda was one of the coolest parts of the Smithsonian Museum of National History. A beautiful African Bush Elephant greets them in the centre, tusks extending out towards them as Amoreena gasps.

“Wow,” her small voice whispers.

“Cool, huh?” Spencer leans to look at her expression, she’s absolutely gobsmacked.

It makes him smile, that beautiful glimmer of amazement spreading across her face as her small brain tries to understand what exists in the world outside of her mind's grasp. It was priceless, he loved every moment.

“So, I was thinking you could look around and whenever you’re ready, we have access to the Student Centre. You’re going to get to look at some special bones and fossils, and even dig some up!” He was so excited to share the plans with her.

She let go of her mom's hand to flap her arms wildly, excitement coursing through her veins as she shook, grinding her teeth together as she smiled, it was how he remembered feeling as a child when something good happened. Pure joy, excitement level 1000.

“Sound good?”

“Spencer,” Y/N placed her hand on his shoulder, taking over for the speechless child, “that sounds perfect, thank you.”

“The Dino’s are this way,” he leads them down the corridor, through a set of doors towards a large swirling sign,

“Journey through deep time!” Y/N read the sign, smiling at Amoreena as she ran towards it, touching the swirl as she read all the words to herself.

“It’s so sad they died,” Amoreena says so matter of factly that it makes him bite back a smile.

“Yeah,” he agrees with a small laugh. Y/N's shaking her head with a sigh of pure love. “What kind of dinosaur is your favourite?”

“The Jurassic era,” she responds, standing closer to the sign and reading all the words. “Did you know the earth used to be mostly desert? There was a massive heatwave, that’s why they believe dinosaurs were most likely scaled but thanks to the melting ice caps as we recover from the ice age and move back towards being tropical, we’re discovering dinosaurs frozen in ice with feathers and fur!”

It takes his breath away, seeing someone so much like him with a mother who loves every single word that leaves her mouth. Pride on her face as she looks at her little genius and back towards Spencer, waiting for his response.

“So you’ve been a paleontologist this whole time and you never told me?”

She laughs and swats the air, “no, I just read a lot of books.”

“She can read really fast, like Matilda,” Y/N bragged.

“I do too,” Spencer knelled down in front of her. “It’s a very wonderful thing to have a brain as big and magical as ours, never let anyone tell you otherwise okay?”

“Never, I’m the smartest in the kingdom,” Amoreena smiled.

“Yes, she is,” Y/N smiled again, placing her hand on Spencer's back as they continued to walk around the exhibits.

He felt like he had a family, like one of those couples who would go to Ikea and pretend they lived in the sets. This was the most perfect make-believe day of his life, leading a child just like him through a world of things she loved.

Y/N was quiet most of the day, watching them interact with a soft smile and sad eyes. Spencer noticed it but let it slide, he’d ask her about it later when she could be honest with him. He didn’t want to profile her, it wasn’t fair to judge her before he knew her, nor taint the fantastical thoughts he already had about her.

They had lunch in the butterfly exhibit, sitting at the seat by the fountain, Amoreena asking nicely if Spencer could sit in the middle so they could both talk to him. It was adorable, Amoreena was so intrigued by his mind she couldn’t stop asking him questions.

Y/N made him a sandwich and brought him a water bottle, as well as bringing some apple slices and grapes, goldfish and juice boxes for when Amoreena got hungry on the way home. Like a true mom, her purse was full of napkins and hair ties, random books and toys. Rocks, pine cones, everything a young mind would find exciting.

She was like Marry Poppins, pulling everything and then some out of her purse as she searched for something specific. “I brought you something, I’ve had it sitting around the house just moving it to different spots over the years, and thought you’d like it.”

It made him giddy to know she was thinking about him, he couldn’t sit still as he anticipated what it was. She pulled a small metal pin out of her bag then, taking the backing off and clipping it to his pocket.

“Best tour guide ever,” she whispered, reading the words to him with a smile.

“We haven’t even gotten to the best part yet,” he shrugged, pushing down the butterflies in his stomach as they were swarmed by the beautiful creatures.

“It’s like animal crossing in here,” Amoreena said to herself as she looked around, kicking her feet as she sat on the bench, tilting her head back and forth absentmindedly as she took it all in.

He wasn’t sure when he stopped doing that; when he started to mask his true self so much that he no longer felt free in public, taking a moment to copy her movements and just enjoy the moment. Making her smile as she noticed him copy her with adoration, not to tease her in any way whatsoever.

“Can we talk when she’s looking at the fossils?” He asks Y/N softly, knowing that she’ll be the most open when Amoreena’s tiny ears wouldn’t be there to remember everything she says.

“Yeah,” she nods with a small smile. “How about I throw out our garbage and we head to that surprise?”

Amoreena jumped off the bench, tugging Spencer towards the door as Y/N cleaned up, following them eventually.

—

They had the classroom all to themselves and Amoreena was still for the first time all day. Standing in the middle of the room as the lights adjusted, changing the glow from blue to amber as they warmed.

The walls were filled with posters and informative signs, there were glass cases showcasing all the finest fossils and bones known to man. And a sand table in the middle of the room, smocks and brushes for archaeology all set up and waiting for her.

“Once you get all suited up, and we’ll get you a little mask so you don’t breathe in any of the dirt and dust, you can dig up whatever is hidden in there!” Spencer announced.

Y/N helped her into a smock, handing her the brushes and asking her to be extra careful with the plastic chisel and hammer. She was beaming from ear to ear the most toothy smile he’s ever seen.

Y/N stopped to take a photo of her then, holding her instruments in front of the sand table, “get in, we’ll tell everyone that Milo took us on a special tour today.”

Spencer kneeled close to Amoreena, she leaned in and wrapped an arm around him to get him in closer, always being the one to choose how much contact she made with Spencer. He would never want to overstep with someone else’s child.

“Beautiful!” Y/N cheered, locking her phone and slipping it back into her jeans as Amoreena turned to the table of sand, dirt and clay.

She got right to work, not skipping a beat as she leaned in and started to dig. Spencer stepped back with Y/N, knowing Amoreena was going to be in her own little world for as long as they left her alone.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m great, I’m just a little surprised,” her voice is soft, low enough that it stays with him. “You’re really good with her for a fed.”

He laughed, nodding his head as he registered her joke. “Ex fed, and I have a 12-year-old godson, Henry.”

“Ahh, so no kids of your own?” Her voice was small, she took a look at his hand to avoid eye contact and he understood.

“None, no wife, no love children hiding out there in the world that I know of, it’s just me, I promise,” he tried his best to ease her anxiety about introducing a new man into her child’s life.

She nods slightly, “you seem too good to be true sometimes.”

He huffed out a small laugh, pressing his lips together as he looked at her, “pretty sure I’ve been dreaming since I saw you.”

She shoved him as she laughed, “would you like to come back to our place for dinner? I know it’s a little weird, believe me, I know, but we live on my parent's land and my mom’s making enough shepherds pie to feed an army.”

“Yeah I’d love to, I’ll get a cab home after,” he felt a swirling in his stomach, nervous and excited all at once.

“Okay,” she whispered, “or we can get to know each other, and then you could sleep on the couch and I’ll bring you back into DC in the morning? I have to drive in any way.”

He licked his lips and nodded his head, wondering what other kind of invitation this could be. If it was pure hospitality, wanting him to be safe for the night instead of inside some stranger's car, or was she wanting alone time with him.

The thoughts turned around in his head over and over making him dizzy, “okay, yeah I’d love to,” he managed to slip the words out without falling over them.

She smiled, tight-lipped and small. Looking up at him with a new look he hasn’t seen on her yet, one he’s only seen in a few faces in his time, and yet he believed her’s the most.

She was smitten with him as much as he was with her.

He sighed, smiling back at her just as soft. She reached her hand out to hold his, walking towards the table with him in tow. Leaning over Amoreena’s shoulder as she unearthed her new most prized possessions.

—

Amoreena was the funniest kid to drive with, He sat in the passenger seat of Y/N’s car with her in a car seat directly behind him. She was singing, cheering, pointing out the window to show him all her favourite things on the way to her house.

Telling him stories about the make-believe people she created to live in the houses, the trolls under bridges and the names of every cow in the field along the long driveway of her grandparent's farm.

“Bob and Linda are an interesting pair,” she warned him as they pulled in closer and closer. Dirt flying up behind the wheels as she drove fast, knowing every bump and turn from memory.

“They will be asking you every question in the book and if you’re going to be looking at the animals they will insist on putting you in flannel and a cowboy hat, it’s a tradition for visitors,” she explained it in a way where he knew she wanted him to think she hated it, but actually she looked excited to do it to him.

“I can’t wait,” he smiled.

“Amoreena has already told them all about you at dinner last night, so they are expecting her to drag you here tonight,” she pushed the blame onto Amoreena, downplaying her affection for him in a self-conscious way he could feel.

He didn’t want to profile her, but it wouldn’t turn off. He was desperate to know her more, to know if she felt the weird tugging in her heart that made him think soulmates might be real. A pain so intense that if he had to explain it to a doctor, it was like his heart was a negative charge and he was being drawn to her much more positive one.

“We have 16 cats, 46 cows, 13 chickens, 4 ducks, 50 sheep and 1 horse, her name is buttercup,” Amoreena informed him, stealing the attention once again.

“Wow, who’s your favourite?” Spencer turned to her, watching her kick her feet as she looked out the windows.

“Probably Alfonzo our fluffy show cow, or Rufus, our dog,” she said softly. “Sometimes nanny lets him sleep at our house.”

“That’s so cool, I’ve never had a pet.”

“What?!” Amoreena stopped, pressing her lips together as her eyes shot wide open, thinking it was the most absurd thing anyone has ever said.

“My mom was sick when I was growing up so I spent my time taking care of her, I didn’t have time for a dog,” he said softly, saying it in a way that wouldn’t scare her.

“I’m sorry,” Y/N said softly, reaching her hand out to pat his knee as she kept her eyes on the road.

Then she was pulling in past a big house, around the bend behind it, past the garden and the trail to the barn towards another house. It was big and white, probably big enough to have 4 bedrooms. Many levels, with multiple build-ons from years ago ageing to match eventually.

It was covered in vines, ivy and flowers. It was just like miss honeys. He felt something unspeakable, opening his mouth softly to breathe as his eyes trailed up the siding to the shingles.

He couldn’t believe it.

“Home sweet home,” her wonderful voice brought him back to reality. Saying the word that matched the feeling in his chest.

“Wow,” he whispered. His mouth moved to say words, not a single one slipped through the cracks, his lips touching with fake syllables as he stared at it.

“It was my grandma’s, it’s the house she raised my dad in,” Y/N explained as she put the car in park.

“Mommy had me as a gift for GG,” Amoreena added from the back.

“Her great-grandma,” Y/N nodded with a soft smile, biting the inside of her lip as she fought her feelings. That was a touchy subject that he was going to pry into, later on, wanting to know every single thing about the most exceptional women in the world.

There was a cat sitting on their front step, introduced to him as toothpick because he was the smallest in the last litter. And then the name of every single cat on the way back up to the main house.

Simon and Gar-funk-field twin orange brothers, Alaska the all-white one, strawberry shortcake had a red heart on her butt, oven-mitt for comedic effect obviously as if they others weren’t funny enough, as well as shovel and Catrina… all 16 of them had a name and Spencer was not going to forget a single one.

“Welcome! You must be Doctor Reid,” her father was a very large man, it shocked Spencer slightly.

He was like Santa Clause, it was more than a bit of a shock. Thick grey beard, bald head, red flannel and dirty work jeans, probably in his late 60’s. He was what you imagined Santa to look like outside of Christmas, on holiday with his wife.

He looked like a man who lived a long and happy life, he had a wife who cooked good meals for him, he probably didn’t mind sitting back with a beer most nights. There was definitely going to be sports memorabilia inside and a million photos of Y/N and Amoreena, and the purest energy known to man. Family love.

He hated how fast he profiled it all in his mind, trying to drop that aspect of his inner monologue moving forward.

“It’s so nice to meet you, Sir,” he said softly, nodding lightly as he placed his hands in his pockets. Letting it be known he didn’t touch people, and weirdly being respected.

“Please, it’s Bob or Poppy Clause,” he laughed, shifting his attention to Amoreena as she climbed the stairs towards the porch.

“How is my lovey?” Bob asked her softly, “may I have a welcome home hug?”

“Ah,” he smiled and nodded to himself. He was used to it, asking permission for her sensory issues. Spencer was impressed, and a bit emotional at the fact someone his age was respecting a way of life many didn’t care to understand.

Amoreena gave him a hug, throwing herself into his arms, “no beard tickles,” she instructed, holding onto his shoulders as he kept his face away from her.

Y/N placed her hand on Spencers back, “I told you they were a lot, my mom is worse.”

“I feel very comfortable here, don’t worry,” he assured her.

“I should worry,” she laughed, “you’re one of them, oh god.”

“One of who?”

She tilted her head at him, shaking her head, “eccentric, full of life, bursting with weirdness that would probably be a strange purple goo if I could see it.”

He pressed his lips together as he thought about it, nodding softly in agreement. “There is nothing wrong with that, it just means I’m having fun and living my best life from now on.”

“Welcome to the family,” Bob added, a simple saying that invoked a feeling of pride he long yearned for.

—

Dinner was lovely, he’s never had shepherd’s pie before. Learning it was ground beef, beans and potato casserole, and somehow there was also corn in there… he wasn’t sure why it was so delicious but he enjoyed it a lot.

It might have simply been the ambiance that made it so good.

Her mother was the sweetest woman, she made everything from scratch. Including bread that he was obsessed with and a pie for dessert, she was overjoyed to have an expected yet unexpected guest.

Knowing there was a possibility he’d come, but not setting a place for him at the table unless he showed. She wrapped him up in a big hug when he arrived as well as after dinner when he helped her move the plates to the sink.

Her dad offered him a beer after dinner, taking him to the front porch to talk while the ladies cleaned up for the night. Amoreena had a strict bedtime routine to stick to, and it wasn’t his place to witness nor get in the way.

“So,” her dad started the interrogation easily. “I’m sure you wouldn’t be here if Y/N didn’t trust you. And she doesn’t trust many people.”

“I can promise you I’ll never hurt either of them,” he said with the utmost confidence. “It’s been two days and they’ve brought me more joy than I can explain, and I’m never going to take that for granted.”

“Good answer,” he smiled. “Now, farmhouse rules are as follows; you can roam where ever you please, just ask permission before using any equipment, we’re more of a petting zoo than a farm now so the animals are overly friendly, try and keep them inside the gates.”

He was a bit flustered, computing the fact that he just trusted him like that. Maybe he was Santa Clause, making a list and checking it twice, and Spencer happened to cross off every box to land him on the nice one.

“Sounds good,” he smiled. “Thank you.”

“Believe me, sonny, I know what it’s like to want to impress the old man, but it’s all about Amoreena,” Bob warned him. “If she loves you then so will Y/N, and she falls fast.”

He couldn’t help but chuckle, “I’m the same way.”

“That’s what Y/N was saying, I think it’ll be good for Amoreena to know someone like her, we try our best to get her out there and making friends, she’s smart enough to move up some grades but she’s a kid, y’know?” Her father basically describing his own childhood back to him.

“I graduated high school at 13,” he presses his lips together, hoping it doesn’t come off as a brag. Taking a sip of his beer to take the edge off how awkward he felt.

“Do you regret it?”

“No,” he smiled at Bob, who was smiling right back, “it led me here.”

Bob hummed in response, taking a sip as well as he sat back in his rocking chair, watching over the cows in the field as the sun began to set. It was picture perfect, unbelievable.

Wet feet on the hardwood floor caught his attention then, Amoreena was in her PJ’s as she ran towards the door. Putting on her rubber boots and swinging open the screen door.

Her hair was wet, falling into her eyes as she pushed it out of the way, “are you joining the parade and dance party?”

He acted like he knew what that meant, “sure?”

“Yes!” She cheered, “hurry up mom!!”

Y/N walked down the steps slowly, shaking her head as she laughed. “You are so impatient, the animals aren’t going anywhere.”

“No, but Spencer will!”

It made his heartache, the thought of leaving.

“Come on,” she slipped back into her shoes and joined them on the porch. “Off we go, see you later dad.”

“Be good, make wise choices,” he teased her.

“Okay old fart, sleep well,” they had a friendship that was admirable.

Spencer followed with glee as Amoreena said goodnight to all the animals, parading down the path towards their house as she made sure to talk to everything on the way there.

“Every night we pick 2 songs to dance to, it gets all the sillies out and rewards us for a day well spent so we can bless our bodies with a good sleep,” Y/N explains as she unlocks the front door.

A cottage full of books in the middle of the woods, that dream he always had, coming true as she ushered him inside. The smell of coffee drifting towards him as he noticed the brown candle on the mantle surrounded by photos of Y/N and her family.

She placed her keys beside it, kicking off her shoes and making sure Amoreena did the same. In the living room, she connected her phone to a set of speakers, letting the little one pick out 2 songs, queueing them up to play as she bounced with anticipation.

“Tonight’s selection is today was a fairytale by miss Swift, and Anne Hathaway’s cover of somebody to love, form the cinematic masterpiece that is Ella Enchanted,” Y/N announced like she was hosting the grammies, pretending her phone was the mic before hitting play.

He knew somebody to love, the Elton John version, it was a song that Penelope and Emily sang at karaoke when they reached 11 shots each, so not very often. But enough to have him remember the words, singing along with them as they danced.

It was a better workout than Derek had ever put him through, they held hands and jumped around, he twirled Amoreena around, pretending to do the tango with Y/N. Waving their arms in the air, it was the most carefree he has been in ages.

The songs fit the situation more perfectly than any of them seem to realize, he’s falling head over heels in love with this family that he met yesterday. Something in him saying that he needs to stay, that this is where he was supposed to be.

Getting Amoreena into bed was more difficult than Y/N imagined, she didn’t want to stop talking to Spencer. Only finally agreeing to sleep when she learned he would still be there for breakfast in the morning.

“Can you read me a book from your brain?” Her sleep-deprived eyes blinked as she asked him softly.

He looked at Y/N from the doorway, she nodded, patting the bed for Spencer to sit on the edge.

“Any book?”

“Any book.”

“Bedtime for baby star,” he says softly. Remembering all the late night’s he’s heard JJ whisper it on the back of the plane, in the corner of a police precinct in the middle of nowhere, in a twin bed beside his as they shared a hotel room.

“Once there was a baby star, she lived up by the sun. And every night at bedtime, that baby star wanted to have some fun,” he recited the words in an exciting tone, just low enough to soothe her into sleep. “She would sine and sine and fall and shoot and twinkle, oh so bright, and she said ‘Mommy! I’ll run away if you make me say goodnight.’”

Y/N looked at her with a fake stern look, leaning in enough to rub their noses together. “And then her mommy kissed her sparkly nose and said, no matter where you go,”

Y/N kissed her on the nose, “no matter where you go,” she repeated.

“No matter where you are, no matter how big you grow and even if you stray far,” to which Y/N repeated. “I’ll love you forever because you’ll always be my baby star.”

“Goodnight my sweet Amoreena,” Y/N kissed her head softly and stood, Spencer, joined her by the door.

“Can I have a hug?” She asked him softly, he looked at Y/N for approval once again.

She placed a hand on his back as she nodded, watching him lean in and hold Amoreena softly, “goodnight, I had a fun day today.”

“See you tomorrow,” she smiled, closing her eyes for the night.

Y/N replaced her lamp light with a night light, closing the door on the way out of her room as she blew a kiss towards her baby, “love you.”

“Love you more,” Amoreena whispered back.

Spencer was nothing but smiles in the hall as she looked at him, “I’m going to pour myself some wine and sit in the garden, are you interested?”

“Ecstatic actually,” he replied, following her towards the kitchen and letting her pour him a glass.

Behind her house, she had an overgrown garden, every area of her life had a reference to a book somewhere, a story someone else told that she’s now claimed as her own. Living in the world she always wanted, inviting Spencer to stay a while.

She let out a deep sigh as she sat down on the outdoor couch beside him, dropping her head on his shoulder softly, it was more contact than he was expecting. She had barely touched him.

“You should know that I like you a lot,” Spencer spoke softly. “I don’t want you to think I’m just some creep trying to get close to you and your kid, I genuinely think you’re wonderful and Amoreena is magnificent.”

“I trust you, I googled you and everything, don’t worry,” she laughs. “I wouldn’t invite you to the museum and let you give my kid a hug without doing research.”

“Not everything is on there you know.”

“I think you are very wonderful as well,” she said softly, “but I know it’s just the fact that you’re so darn cute that’s making me feel like I should drop everything and invite you into our life.”

“I understand,” he replied. Waiting for her to tell him that this was the last time she’d see him, it was inevitable at this point in his life. Nothing good lasted for long.

“So I need you to know all about me and I need to know all about you before you decide you want to stay because I can’t handle bringing you into Amoreena’s life for you to just leave her,” another deflection.

“You might want to hear mine first before you decide if you want me to stay around her,” it sounded scarier than he planned.

“Alright then, you go first,” she insisted with a small smile, eyes darting past him towards the cows in the field. Not ready to be vulnerable with him.

“I worked with the FBI for 15 years, I’ve helped catch some of the worst people in America, and some of them have vendetta’s against me. As far fetched and insane as that sounds,” he pre-warned her, watching her face drop as she understood the weight of his words.

“I have been framed and sent to prison for three months, I was kidnaped, tortured, drugged, and assaulted, not to mention shot a few times. I have more trauma than you can imagine. So that’s something you have to consider in a future with me,” he whispered so she wouldn’t hear how ashamed he was of himself.

“And the fact know that I can’t always keep myself or you safe, no matter how far disconnected I am from the FBI. It doesn’t matter if I change my name and hide here for the rest of my life off the grid. There are some fucked up minds out there that don’t want to let me experience true happiness. But in all honesty,” he finally stops his long-winded rant. He bites his bottom lip as if he is holding back someone worse than all the things he just said.

“I’m willing to die tomorrow if it means my last day on earth was this fucking perfect.” Tears welled in his eyes, “I am so tired.”

“It’s okay to cry, I would be too,” she says softly, a frog in her throat as she nodded. Tears welling in her eyes as her face scrunched.

He blinked and a tear escaped, slipping down his cheek and being swiped off by her thumb in an instant. She kept her hand on his cheek softly, he leaned into it.

“I’ve been running for so long,” he whispers because then the words don’t really exist. They’re secrets only for her to hear and then they’re gone. “I was basically groomed for the FBI, I was their personal computer and they didn’t give a single shit about the wear and tear on me.”

He started to sob. She cradled his head against her chest in one swift motion, holding him close and rubbing his back. Shushing him softly as he cried into her shoulder.

“You know that Katy Perry song?” she changed the subject as he calmed down, understanding his pain and accepting his warnings, but continuing down the path anyway.

“Summer after high school when we first met,” she sang like an angel. “It was like that, I thought I met the love of my life after I graduated, we got engaged a year later, then he died in a car crash and I was single for a very long time.”

“Then my grandma got sick and she made a bucket list. Number one was to become a great grandma,” her words became whispers as she tried to stop the tears, following Spencer’s tactic even though it failed so miserably.

“I said fuck it. I’m going to have a baby and make my own family, one person I can truly care for and never lose. She’s my world, she was the light of my grandma’s life until it burnt out, she has changed my world in ways I can’t even explain.”

It fell silent as they absorbed each other’s explanations of their issues. The root of their problems, the core of their soul were the most hurt was kept locked away, opening the doors and swapping scrapbook snapshots of terrible memories.

“I think,” she says, finally, like music to his ears. “I think that I’m okay, I’m positive actually that I want you in my life like this. All of you is fine with me, you’re not that scary, and I’m tired of waiting for the right moments because it means losing the people over time missed. I want to live my life fully, I’m at peace with the unknown and with you.”

Peace.

“Not to quote Taylor Swift at you or anything, but she does have a point in that song,” she laughed lightly and he felt her chest jump. Life bursting through her as she made light of an incredibly touchy subject.

“I don’t know the song,” he whispers.

She gasps, “oh that’s the line, I finally found it. Our first fight can be whether or not you like Taylor Swift, don’t even think about how upset Amoreena will be if you’re not, I’ll kick you out.”

He can't stop laughing then, digging his face into her neck as he holds her closer to his chest. Breathing her in as she finishes his laugh in a giggle, rubbing her hands down his back as she presses her cheek to his head.

“I haven’t had the time to listen to her this year I know she’s been busy releasing music,” he admits, “but I’m sure I’ll love it.”

She shifts awkwardly on the couch to take her phone out of her pocket, opening her music and playing the song she was speaking of.

He simply rests his head on her chest, both of them laying back onto the cushions together, finding a comforting spot for their arms as they listened to the words, silently.

He absorbed it all, every word she said bringing forth a feeling he’s never felt before. True understanding, like someone, gets him. Gasping audibly when she says ‘robbers to the east clowns to the west, give you my sunshine, give you my best.’

He wasn’t alone.

#spencer reid #spencer reid smut #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x y/n #spencer reid x you #spencer reid self insert #spencer reid request #criminal minds smut #criminal minds imagine #amoreena

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gusu-emilu · 3 years

Text

orange segments

Ship: Jiang Cheng / Qin Su (one-sided, sorry JC)

Summary: Jiang Cheng and Qin Su share a few moments (and an orange) with Jin Ling and each other.

Rated G, Fluff, brief mention of canon-typical violence

Read on AO3 or on Tumblr below

* * *

A-Ling passes the orange back and forth between his tiny hands, nearly dropping it once. His eyes shine bright with mirth at this simple game.

He's still so little. Jiang Cheng has seen plenty of children in Lotus Pier, yet he is always surprised by how small A-Ling is if he thinks about it too much. Both of his hands, still fiddling with the orange, could fit in Jiang Cheng’s. His nose is a little bump; his oversized ears stick out and somehow make him look even smaller.

Perhaps it is so difficult to process how little A-Ling is because it seems like every time Jiang Cheng visits Jinlintai, A-Ling is a bit bigger. Today he's two years old—and a half, as he’s been proclaiming.

With a sudden peal of laughter, A-Ling places the orange on the floor and rolls it to Qin Su, who is kneeling in front of him with Jiang Cheng. The round fruit gently thuds into her knee. “Shenshen!” A-Ling calls. “Make it for me?”

“Alright,” Qin Su says softly. She glances at Jiang Cheng with a smirk, then picks up the orange, cleans it, and begins peeling it. “How come you don’t make your jiujiu do any work?”

“He makes me do plenty,” Jiang Cheng counters before A-Ling can erupt into one of his new favorite remarks to offend him. It doesn’t make a difference.

“Jiujiu is too busy pouting!” A-Ling says through giggles, and Qin Su laughs with him. He undoubtedly learned this jab from her.

Qin Su has only been in Jinlintai for several months, her lavish wedding to Jin Guangyao still a fresh memory in the cultivation world, yet she has taken a liking to teasing Jiang Cheng quite rapidly. Somehow, they’d become friends over A-Ling after just a few times meeting each other. Qin Su, eager for a child of her own and perhaps even more eager to make pleasant acquaintances outside her maids—a difficult task in the snake pit of Jinlintai—latched onto him and A-Ling quickly. Although Jiang Cheng is not sure how he counts as a pleasant acquaintance.

As for how he ended up taking a liking to Qin Su…he supposes that anyone who treats A-Ling well will inevitably gain his favor. The fact that Qin Su is warm-hearted and sensible, intelligent and down-to-earth enough to see through the vacuous opulence of her new clan, and stubbornly cheeky enough to poke fun at Jiang Cheng of all people—and also that maybe Jiang Cheng is a bit lonely—that could have something to do with it, too. Potentially.

He might also have a miniscule crush on her.

But Qin Su is a married woman, expecting her own son in the coming months, and even if three quarters of the matchmakers have blacklisted Jiang Cheng like he’s some threat to womankind, he isn’t so much of a monster that he would dare disrespect Qin Su’s honor. A crush is not an idea he can entertain.

They're just friends who happen to look after the same little boy.

“If I did pout,” Jiang Cheng says, shooting a stern look at Qin Su, “which I don't, it wouldn’t incapacitate me so much that I can’t peel an orange.”

“Ah, this is good to know,” Qin Su says as she delicately removes another strip of orange peel, then holds the fruit out to Jiang Cheng. “Then I suppose your scowl right now will not hinder you from finishing my work for me.”

A-Ling cackles. Little brat. He probably doesn’t even know why he’s laughing.

The boy watches with twinkling eyes as Jiang Cheng sighs and takes the orange. The bittersweet fragrance of orange rind swirls around Jiang Cheng as he peels the fruit, while Qin Su starts playing a clapping game with A-Ling.

These moments in A-Ling’s room every few weeks hold Jiang Cheng over until the summers, when A-Ling lives in Lotus Pier. Although, now that Jiang Cheng gotten used to Qin Su's company, he’s beginning to wonder if he will miss her during the months he no longer needs to travel to visit A-Ling.

He’s formed comradery with his senior disciples during the war—the cultivators he’d trust with his life—in a way he’d never been able to while he was still the sect heir during times of peace. Watching your home be burned to the ground and fighting back-to-back soaked in blood and mourning the lost can build strong bonds with one's clansmen, if not happy ones.

But this is different.

This might be the closest glimpse of something like family that Jiang Cheng has had since…since two years ago.

Peace, for once.

Half an hour later, A-Ling falls asleep, and Qin Su tells Jiang Cheng about her hometown as they watch over him. Her voice is soft and quiet as she speaks about trips to the ocean and the time she and a friend found a giant sea creature’s fossils sticking out of a crumbled cliffside after an earthquake. Jiang Cheng tells her about the boat racing games he’d play on the lake and the time he got buried under lotus pads, although he doesn’t mention who accompanied him back then.

It’s nice, to share these lost memories, with a child’s cheerfulness between them to break what otherwise might be sorrowful. Qin Su has been separated from her hometown. Jiang Cheng lives in an empty hometown.

Sometimes, he wonders what his life might be like now if it had been he, not Jin Guangyao, who saved Qin Su during the Sunshot Campaign, and if she had pursued him instead. He had never truly wanted a wife (or he at least tries not to think about the one time he considered it), but if marriage could be like this…comfortable, like sitting beside a friend…

What is he doing thinking this way? Even if these wandering delusions weren't about a married woman, he has seen how marriages fail. With his days and his entire mind revolving around his sect when he isn't with A-Ling—or isn't wallowing in his own miseries or isn't lashing out in anger—he's just tired. Callous. He has so little care to offer that the matchmakers were probably right to blacklist him.

Qin Su slides an orange slice between her lips. “Jiang-zongzhu. May I ask—your birth name is Jiang Cheng?”

Surprised by the sudden question, Jiang Cheng just nods.

“Cheng as in chengzi (orange)?” She smiles wryly.

He crosses his arms. “No. Cheng as chengqing (clear). No parents would name a sect heir after a fruit.”

“I think it would have nice imagery. A river of oranges to go with the lotus lake.” She separates a piece of fruit and hands it to him. Although he glares at her, he takes the orange segment, careful not to brush her fingers. But just as he is about to eat it, she adds, “It could also be inspiration to give the Jiang Clan robes a makeover.”

His hand drops to his side, fist closing over the orange segment. “You don’t like our robes?” he asks with more distress in his voice than he intended.

She laughs, eyes bright. “I do. Don’t worry. Violet is a nice color.” She focuses her gaze back down on the orange half she holds in her hands, lips quirked. “You know that I was only pretending to insult you; do not insult me. Eat the piece I gave you.”

“Hmph.” Jiang Cheng pops the orange slice in his mouth and looks away.

“Thank you, Chengzi.”

“You—”

She shushes him. “If you start yelling, A-Ling will wake up.”

Across the room, A-Ling breathes deeply, eyes closed, one side of his faced smushed against his hand. The sight calms Jiang Cheng, although he is still offended.

“Have I ever yelled at you?” he asks.

“You haven't,” Qin Su says thoughtfully. “You can be a bit loud, though.”

Heat rises to his cheeks.

Qin Su doesn’t look over, but somehow she notices the faint blush, as if she has some magical sixth sense for detecting embarrassment. “I enjoy the color violet, I enjoy the company of people who are a bit loud.” She gestures toward A-Ling with the orange in her hand. “So does he, when he's not napping."

"Understood,” Jiang Cheng says, and nods. "A-Ling...A-Ling likes your company, too."

Qin Su smiles and hands over another orange segment. Holding back a smile of his own, Jiang Cheng eats it quietly.

The comfort of a friend, and a glimpse of something like family, is already satisfying enough.

* * *

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this story, you can be a supportive sibling like Jiang Yanli by visiting me on AO3! :D

江澄 - Jiāng Chéng - "river" and "clear, transparent" 江橙 - sounds exactly the same! - "river" and "orange" hence the "river of oranges" joke shoutout to @qi-ling for mentioning this a few days ago lol

I'm not sure if shenshen (father's younger brother's wife) is what Jin Ling would call Qin Su but I think it's right? Feel free to correct me.

#mdzsnet #chengsu #jiang cheng #qin su #mdzs #cql #the untamed #mdzs fanfic #cql fanfic #the untamed fanfic #mdzs fanfiction #cql fanfiction #the untamed fanfiction #emilu fics #emilu creations

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glitch-in-space · 3 years

Note

Fic request? A nice Becker/Connor one?

Oof, this took me a stupid amount of time to get round to doing, I’m sorry anon. But, it was also a lot of fun! I’m still open to prompts, so ask and ye shall receive...

———

“Marry me.” The words were out of his mouth before Becker even registered the thought, but he stood by them, love swirling in his heart as he watched Connor.

“What?” While understandably startled in tone, Connor’s question didn’t seem to hold any deep panic to it. In fact, Becker was sure he spotted hope in Connor’s eyes, only helping to cement his spontaneous decision.

Becker dropped to one knee, pulling out the box he’d been carrying with him for weeks.

“This wasn’t how I was planning to ask,” Becker admitted with a shaky- nervous and oh so exhilarated- smile. “Abby’s gonna kill me for doing it now. But I can’t think of a better place to ask.”

It was true. He’d been planning a long, romantic date, ending with a walk through the park as a string quartet serenaded them, all designed to appeal to the cheesy romance cliches as a gesture of both genuine romance and a terrible inside joke.

But this was so much better. After spending the morning in a military museum, Connor patiently allowing Becker to show him each and every tank-related display, listening with an indulgent ear as Becker spouted off facts about his favourite weapons. The afternoon saw their roles reversed as Connor dragged Becker around the Natural History Museum, showing him every dinosaur and prehistoric creature on display, hardly pausing for breath as he rambled about everything from trilobites to Tuojiangosauruses. With Connor talking endlessly about the dinosaurs, staring at the fossils with wonder- “wouldn’t it be cool to see one of these in person? Terrifying, for sure, but just imagine the discoveries you could make”- Becker couldn’t helped himself.

“Connor,” he began his carefully planned speech, but, gazing up at Connor’s stunned and loving expression, he found himself hard pressed to remember the words. “Almost seven years ago today, we met for the first time. We worked our first shift together in this very museum and, despite the loose crocodile-” Connor gave a quiet, suspiciously wet laugh at that, “-it was the most fun I’d had at work for a long time. Even if I didn’t really know you then, I think most of that was to do with you. You’re the love of my life, Conn, I can’t imagine having to live without you. Doing it for only one year was a kind of hell I never want to repeat. So, Connor Temple, will you marry me?”

Connor laughed quietly again, a soft grin stuck on his face as he sniffed. Connor sank to one knee in front of him, hand pulling something from his pocket. Becker’s confusion was short lived as Connor opened his hand.

Becker laughed in surprise, staring at the matching ring box in Connor’s hands. He met Connor’s eyes with a large grin of his own.

“I love you,” Connor declared, “so much.”

“Is that a yes?” Becker teased.

Connor nodded. “Is that?”

Becker nodded too, another laugh escaping him as he offered his left hand to Connor, who slipped the black ring carefully in place, grin never leaving him. He offered his own hand in return and Becker slipped the gold ring onto his fiancé’s hand. Ignoring the quiet cheering of the other museum patrons, Becker used the grip on Connor’s hand to pull the enthusiastic man in for a loving kiss.

End.

#primeval #connor temple #captain becker #hilary becker #connor x becker #fanfic #proposal #fluff #slash fic #word count: under 1k #asks answered #prompt fill

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dragonrajafanfiction · 3 years

Text

The Red Well (Part 2) Sword of Gathering Clouds

Body Horror Plus Ruri equals <3<3<3 apparently. @rurifangirl by request.

Deep in the Red Well, Ruri Kazama had subdued the Yamata-no-Orochi so thoroughly, it fell into the water at the bottom and did not rise again.

The engineering team poured out of the safety cabins and filled the water with liquid nitrogen. The water temperature dropped rapidly and half a meter of ice formed on the water surface. The amount of water stored at the bottom of the well was too large to freeze solid, but the lower water temperature was able to reduce the vitality of living things, and dragons were no exception. The king stepped out on the blood-red ice, stretching his arms upward like a preacher, silently praising all this.

Deep in the red well, the engineering team used a laser cutter to open the hole in the ice, draped the sling around it, and used mechanical hands to slowly lift the great creature sealed below the ice onto the maintenance platform where the heavy machines awaited it.

The god was still alive, but like a shark with its fins cut off. Its abdomen was destroyed, four of its eight heads were severed, and the remaining four were scarred. No one knew how Ruri Kazama had managed to do it. It was too dark for them to see and everything happened too fast. It was amazing to them that this humanoid monster's body harbored a power more terrifying than that of a dragon. At the moment, he is wearing a ghoul-like bloodstained white tunic standing on high overlooking the operation below, his white hair hanging down blocking his eyes. You were clinging to him, like a cursed maiden.

Ruri whispered urgently to you. “Drop down.”

You comply, letting him go and dropping the several feet between you and the concrete platform. The skirt of the wedding dress that Ruri had conveniently cut short flutters about and you stick the landing. Immediately, everyone turns to you. You walk and they back away from you. You’re shrouded in freezing fog and rain like the spirit of a dead bride. The residual liquid nitrogen should have bitten and burned at your exposed skin and the concrete should have given you frostbite on the soles of your feet. Part of you wanted to shout to the Devil Clan and wave like a princess because they were watching you so intently. But you stay silent, ignoring the cold, the dragon and even the King. A few took out their phones and snapped pictures.

They were curious about you at first. The last they had heard of the Dragon Lord’s private life was that Ruri Kazama was in love with The Ryoma, that is, Kogure Sakurai. You seemed to appear out of thin air and some said that you were the ghost of The Ryoma whose love couldn’t perish. Some may have thought you seemed ordinary, but after they witnessed you drop into the well with Ruri Kazama and heard the sounds of the screaming and crying of Yamata-no-Orochi, they feared you as much as they did him. Ruri was no fool. At this point, even if Herzog ordered them to turn their guns on you, they would hesitate. Watching you walk in a bloody torn gown in your bare feet, as though it were a day at the beach, solidified that image in their minds.

You stood still and quiet but you couldn’t help but smile when you saw Herzog looking at you. There was no one else here that really mattered. You would keep an eye on him at all times. When he fled and prepared to bury this place, you would be ready to capture him. For now it was time to ignore everyone, the same way Ruri was doing.

The god, or Yamata-no-Orochi, was laid flat on the ice, and the working group kept pouring liquid nitrogen over its body to prevent it from lashing out and hurting people. The King twirls around it, admiring the incredible creature. Its eight cervical vertebrae grow out from different places of the torso, twisted and grotesque, like a monster with a failed genetic modification.

The most stunning part of its body is the Sword of Gathering Clouds, a bone that protruded beyond its scales, a wonderful moon white color, sharp to the extreme.

"It's a pity. Just one step short. Not a king among dragons, after all. Just a monster that inherited the legacy of the White King." The king clicked his tongue and sighed, his voice floating to your ears from the ice below.

"If a monster that inherited the legacy of the White King is so powerful, what a terrifying creature the real White King should be!" The head of the engineering team trailed behind.

“It only got the body of the White King, but failed to possess the mind of the White King. But if it was the complete White King, there is no way we could have captured it.'' The King raised his arms and shouted, ''Now, let us find the White King's legacy, the Holy Skeleton from within it! Start cutting!''

The engineering drill pierced through the god's various joints, severing tendons, drilling holes in locations carefully chosen so as to completely paralyze its massive body. The god's cells were still regenerating at high speed to heal the wounds, but repairing the bones was far more difficult than repairing the muscles. The iron hook penetrated the god's neck bone and the crane hoisted it up in the air. Its four remaining heads spewed icy breath but were unable to rise up to attack. In addition, the engineering team injected chemicals into its nervous system and vital muscles. That large body that was still slightly twitching gradually relaxed, with only the four pairs of dragon pupils still glowing like candles, proving that this great creature was still alive. Occasionally, it would turn those eyes and look down on the White King descendants that were about to dismember it, with a look in its eyes that humans could not understand.

"You were able to research a drug useful for dragons!" The head of the engineering team marveled.

"Because I once had a live individual to use for research." The king would say softly, "Back then, when I opened that mysterious cave located in the Arctic Circle, that great creature had been torn down to half of its body by the crazy animals, but it was still not dead. I tried almost every chemical agent I could find on it, and eventually it couldn't tolerate those agents and died, but I had learned about the biological properties and structure of dragons and became the most knowledgeable person in the world about them."

The head of the engineering team cringed. In the most brutal part of human history, humans had done scientific experiments on the bodies of their own kind. But the King used chemicals to torture a dragon to death!

King General Herzog turned to the engineering group waiting on the side of the well, raised his hands high and said in the most flamboyant voice: "The great Darwin in his Origin of Species expounded the truth of the weak and the strong. Once you were all weak, struggling in the food chain and inevitably reduced to food, but today the strong and the weak will be completely reversed! We will complete the great evolution! In front of us, humans and ancient dragons are all weak! We are the new dragon race, and we will share the world!"

Cheers resounded through the deep well. Some of the workers embraced each other with tears streaming down their faces, while others were wooden and independent, showing a momentary expression of ecstasy and a momentary expression of bitter hatred, as if their five senses were completely out of control.

Every hair raises on the back of your neck. Those words rang like a death knell, a signal. The scene in your mind is superimposed with Herzog’s words in the Golden Hall of Black Swan Bay. You’re heroes, Herzog had said back then, you’re all going to vacation in the Caspian Sea! He had said.

Minutes later, everyone was dead.

An intense anxiety grips you as you look around. The sky above seemed miles away and shrouded in clouds and rain. There was no scaffolding, the elevators would take several minutes to raise up there. Unless you could sprout wings and fly… this was a complete death trap!

Giant cutting machines moved over as the beast was raised to the maintenance platform and laid on a great metal plate. A large crane lowered a circular saw that spanned over three meters in diameter. That large saw wheel began to tear this body, sending out sparks from the scales and bones. The metal screeched against the hard armor and only by the constant flow of water did it not glow hot and melt completely. The god did not struggle. The great creature opened its golden eyes and watched in silence as it was cut, its blood spurting out in all directions and splashing on everyone's protective clothing. The saw wheel first severed the Orochi's long tail, and the naturally occurring bone sword, "Gathering Clouds", fell from the cutting table, piercing the concrete as easily as it would pierce tofu.

The saw wheel then cut off the remaining four heads of the Orochi one by one, and every time a neck bone broke off with sparks and blood, a pair of golden pupils went out. When the final four heads were severed, the people gathered around could let go of the last trace of worry. The great creature that had been hiding in the polar abyss for countless years was finally dead, dead under the most sophisticated human technology. The cutting table turned 90 degrees by some remote control and the saw wheel sliced the torso of the Orochi into three pieces lengthwise.

The crane lifted each of the three pieces, and only then did people see the extreme complexity of the dragon's skeletal structure, which had far more bones than humans. The various subtle skeletal structures had an otherworldly beauty, a noble dark gold color, like sophisticated machinery, and reminiscent of ancient fossils overlapping in the strata. There weren’t just bones but layers of them.

The engineering team immediately dispersed to three dissecting tables, using various tools to split these skeletons stained with black blood.

As fascinating as all this was, you’re still watching as the King General looked at the watch, and looked up at the late dark sky. He was obviously full of worry about time. Again, everything about you screams bomb! Bomb! You look up at Ruri Kazama who’s still hanging there. But his eyes are still fixed on what was happening below.

You feel that you’re the only sane one in a sea of madness. You wanted to flail your arms. No one who has plenty of time looks at their watch! People only check the time if requested or if they have less than an hour. Perhaps you have 30 minutes? Maybe even less than that?

At the central dissection table, sharp gears cut through layers of muscle after stripping out the huge heart. A dark green heart wrapped in a network of blood vessels is protected inside a dark golden bone cage, like a mysterious and magnificent gem. This heart was lifted in the air by a mechanical arm.

The head of the engineering team took a few steps closer to look up at this incredibly huge organ, and in this instant, he stopped.

You follow his gaze. You feel like you are being watched by that huge heart. You suddenly feel the eyes of a huge creature on you. The blood vessels on the heart were like the blood vessels in those eyes!

At that moment, Ruri Kazama, who was high above you, suddenly moved and threw his crimson sword, the light of which penetrated the chest of the head of the engineering team and then stabbed into the huge heart. A split second later, you heard him scream. The sword had traveled faster than the sound!

You’re suddenly released from the trance you were in and stagger back a step. Why would he just suddenly kill the head of the team? Was this the time to escape? Your eyes scan the crowd and you back closer to the safety cabins in confusion.

Thick fishy-smelling green juice splashed in all directions through the hole in the heart. A golden eye in the fissure swept everyone in its gaze! You feel a heavy intense dread, the type of paralyzing fear that makes you want to go weak in the knees. The heart suddenly contracted mightily and the eye drilled out as hard as it could, emitting a harsh hissing sound as it did so!

“The Holy skeleton! The Holy Skeleton! That's the Holy Skeleton!" The king shouted, his voice hoarse. Even he couldn't keep calm at this moment.

Ruri Kazama descended from the sky, already holding another long sword in his hand. He lands between you and the heart. He’s seething with indomitable rage. He roared at you. “Get away from it!”

You turn and run a few steps. What was that? Your steps slow and you turn back around. You’re scared, but at the same time, strangely drawn by something powerful, terrifying, yet… beautiful. Like meeting a mythical creature in a deep forest.

You step a little to see around Ruri. The head of the Engineering team was still standing! Something was wriggling in his mouth and then disappeared down his throat.

"Everybody back up! Fire!" The King yelled.

The sound of gunfire made you clap your hands over your ears. Tens of thousands of bullets were fired at the engineering team leader. Everyone was gripped by terror and no one worried about friendly fire or saving ammunition. Everyone poured bullets at top speed and did not stop as seconds went by. If they ran out of ammunition they feverishly reloaded and within half a minute more than a dozen kilograms of slugs hit the engineering team leader's body. The man who should have died countless times already did not fall. The bullets came from all sides. The kinetic energy from all sides supported him in a standing position. He swayed violently like a dancing zombie.

Eventually, his whole body was shrouded in gun smoke. He should be nothing but a smear on the concrete floor. The smoke cleared slightly, and a wavering cry of fear arose from all those present.

The head of the engineering team still had the shape of a human, but the surface of his body was covered with bullet holes without even an inch of intact skin left. He had still not fallen, but froze in a backward bend at the knees, his body laid back horizontal, defying gravity.

King General starts to slowly retreat. Only Ruri Kazama stands firm, his breath hissing through his teeth in boiling anger. He has turned into a vicious ghost and is as crazy as he is fearless. He holds his position as what was left of the head of the engineering team slowly rises back upright. This moment everyone feels that they are standing before a being that goes against everyone's common sense, a body pounded with more than a dozen kilograms of bullets that can actually move. That man’s bones should have been broken into thousands and thousands of pieces but the bloody human form moved aimlessly, extremely slowly. He lost his eyes so he had no vision. Every nerve in this body should be gone so he should have no sense of touch. He could no longer be called human or even alive but was an object under the control of some kind of power that was still trying to lurch towards you.

The humanoid turned its head and looked at you. Its face was caved in by the rain of bullets, the facial bones were rearranged with large caliber slugs, some of which were still embedded. Those brass slugs shined with a shimmering light, as if countless eyes were watching you. People did not dare to move or make a sound, fearing that it would suddenly run towards them.

Ruri Kazama silently shifted and stood behind the monster with his long sword. His eyes were bloody with rage, daring the beast to step towards you again.

The monster seemed to realize that there was an enemy behind it, dragging its injured legs to run towards the Sword of Gathering Clouds. The sharpest bone in the world was responding to it with violent vibrations. Ruri Kazama trailed behind, keeping a certain distance. The monster ran faster and faster, and Ruri Kazama followed faster and faster, but the distance remained the same. The monster stretched out its hand in front of it and leaped up at the same time. Gathering Clouds in the ground vibrated and leaped up in the air, that bone obeying its master’s call! Ruri Kazama's sword finally lashed out like twisted silver lightning.

In an instant, both Ruri and the skeletal being were right in front of you, suspended in mid air. The tip of Gathering Clouds was barely an inch from your chest. Ruri Kazama and the monster staggered through the air and each landed on the ground. You’re frozen in place unable to process what happened other than the fact that the only thing standing between you and instant death was that monster of a man.

The hand of the monster holding the Gathering Clouds fell to the ground together with its head and half of its shoulder. You didn’t even see Ruri cut it but he swung so hard his blade was broken in half! There was no blood flowing out! You can see with your own eyes the muscles of the fractured zombie creature squirming, and the cells still frantically repairing what should be an impossibly damaged body. All of this was so far over your head, so beyond you that you’re completely speechless. Ruri Kazama reached and grabbed the Gathering Cloud Sword and pushed it through the monster's spine, then wielded the broken blade to hit it in the chest. The lifeform, which had been forcibly enhanced by the holy skeleton, finally collapsed, bones scattering out in all directions mixed with rolling bullets still embedded in it.

The Gathering Cloud sword penetrated the target's body and nailed something to the ground, something with a single golden eye that was still fixed on you, even now.

"Liquid nitrogen! Liquid nitrogen! This is the true nature of the holy skeleton! It's a parasitic creature!" The King called out in ecstasy.

The engineering team snapped out of their shock and rushed to pour more liquid nitrogen to cool the dangerous thing. Once they were sure it stopped moving, they placed a thick cylindrical glass capture chamber over it to hold the skeleton in place. Apparently, Herzog had long expected the thing's true nature. The real god was not Yamata-No-Orochi nor any mighty beast. The real god is the holy skeleton, which is not made of bone, but a parasitic being capable of manipulating giant creatures. This way it can never be killed and can always transform from one form to another. It can take the form of a bloated super giant creature, but also can hide in the body of Susanoo, or the head of the engineering team.

This time it met a real rival of equal strength. It met the most horrible human.

Ruri Kazama walked up to you, holding out the precious bone sword. You look up at him in confusion. “A gift for you, my love. Something to trade that silly dagger with.”

Your breath fills your chest in shock. Ruri smiled, sly at your astonishment. He’s covered in red and black blood but he still had the presence to act silly here. Was killing something of this impossible nature so vanishingly casual that he would take the most powerful weapon on the field and give it to you like a rose?

You accept it with shaking hands. It was light, hollow like a bird-bone.

#Dragon Raja

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fnaf-is-awesome201 · 3 years

Note

I want you to talk about dinosaurs

Really? You do?! Hell yeah! Okay, I'm gonna ramble for a bit about dinosaurs so hope you don't mind if you do mind then I'm sorry. This is gonna be a long post, just warning you now.

Okay, so dinosaurs are cool as fuck and I love them so damn much. They’re just so... awe-inspiring. And they’re some of the coolest animals to ever walk the earth. Some were gigantic, with necks that stretched up towards the sky. Others were tiny, maybe even smaller than a chicken. Some had sharp teeth and claws (usually the most memorable ones like T. Rex and such) and some had armor-plated bodies (like the ankylosaurs). I love them all to death and I love how unique and diverse they were! All these fantastic beasts that one day just disappeared forever. I want to see one. I know, that’s crazy, and Jurassic Park shows how that could be a very bad idea, but I want to see one. Not just in the pages of a dinosaur book. I want something I can touch and feel and just see how truly magnificent they were. Dinosaurs like Dilophosaurus, Velociraptor, Parasaurolophus, Edmontosaurus, Albertosaurus and so many more! I want to see them all. How they lived, what they looked like, how they acted...

Tyrannosaurs are some of the biggest carnivorous dinosaurs, with T. Rex being the most famous. No one talks about the other Tyrannosaurs! Albertosaurus, Gorgosaurus, and probably several others yet to be discovered! These were the “tyrant lizards”! They’re big and scary and utterly fascinating! And T. Rex was the king. Tyrannosaurus Rex, or “tyrant lizard king”, was huge! 40 feet long on average and with a powerful bite, I’m willing to bet they were quite a sight to behold! It’s probably the most famous of the dinosaurs, and I can see why! It commands your attention and your curiosity more than most, and it makes for a great movie monster! Those huge teeth and crushing jaws mixed with it’s powerful legs and instinct to hunt make it an exciting creature!

Even so, it was not the biggest carnivorous dinosaur to roam during the Mesozoic! Even Carcharodontosaurus, the “shark-toothed lizard”, was bigger than a T. Rex! Or Giganotosaurus! I suppose T. Rex gained more of a spotlight because it’s easier to say the name, but there are so many other large predatory dinosaurs that deserve attention and public view!

The smaller carnivores are super cool, too! Allosaurus, the “different lizard” (and my personal favorite medium-sized carnivorous dinosaur) had a narrow head and large claws on it’s three-fingered hands. I’ve seen fossils up-close of these guys, and I have to tell you, it’s amazing. It may not be as big as your favorites, but it is an amazing dinosaur! They have horn-like protrusions over their eyes, and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. They are absolutely beautiful and fascinating creatures!

And as for Velociraptor, you might know them from Jurassic Park. However, the real velociraptor is not nearly as big as those ones, which stand at about 6 ft. tall. The real velociraptor was about the size of a turkey! At about 2 ft. tall and 6 ft. long, Velociraptor (”speedy/quick thief”) was a tiny terror. They most likely hunted in packs to bring down animals much larger than they are. The sickle-shaped claw on both feet was used to puncture, not to tear. They were quick and effective hunters. They were also intelligent, based on the fact that they had a large brain compared to their body size. I love Velociraptors. I really do. I want to understand how they work, what they looked like, and how they lived.

Then there’s the herbivores! Undoubtedly some of the biggest animals to ever roam the Earth! The largest dinosaur currently on record was the Argentinosaurus (”lizard of Argentina” or “Argentina izard”, etc.), a monstrous titanosaur that was about 120 ft. from head to tail and likely weighed nearly 100 tons (200,000 lbs. or so)! They were huge! bigger than even the biggest land-dwelling animals today! Taller than giraffes, even! And you most likly don’t know the sheer scale of dinosaurs like triceratops or Stegosaurus! I’ve seen a Triceratops skull up-close, and I must tell you it was much bigger tahn I thought it would be! Triceratops was about 30 ft. long, with a neck frill span of about 6 ft. and horns that could reach over 3 ft. long! It was much bigger than your car, to give you some scale! And Stegosaurus is quite a sight even as a fossil! With a length of 21-30 ft. and a height of about 14 ft., this massive dinosaur had a very tiny brain. It’s brain is said to be the smallest brain proportional to body size of any dinosaur (any brain size currently known, that is)! Isn’t that fascinating? I’ve seen them up-close, too, and I can tell you that they have a very small head for such a large animal!

Then there’s hadrosaurs, which are amazing on their own! Look up Parasaurolophus, Lambeosaurus or Iguanodon and you’ll see what I mean! There’s so many more, like Corythosaurus, Oranosaurus, Tenontosaurus, etc.! They were herd animals, staying in large groups and nesting together. There’s even evidence, like in the case of Maiasaura, that they took care of and watched over their young! Most of them were pretty big, but an even more fascinating feature was their crests. These dinosaurs often had large crests on their heads, though their function is still debated. They could have been used to make unique calls or to amplify their calls, or they could have been used to identify each other! It really is interesting to think about it!

Then there’s the real oddballs, such as Psittacosaurus, Saltosaurus, any of the Ankylosaurs, and even dinosaurs like Dilophosaurus (two-crested lizard), Monolophosaurus (one-crested lizard), Spinosaurus, and the Pterosaurs! Ankylosaurs (like Ankylosaurus or Euoplocephalus) were large, heavily-armored reptiles, with Ankylosaurus even having armored eyelids! Their backs were covered in bone plating, and they were often covered in spikes or nodules. Several also had a club of solid bone on the end of their tails! The muscle power, combined with the club, could cause some serious damage! Only the most ferocious or desperate of dinosaurs would dare to try and take on these living tanks! The only way to have an advantage would be to hit it from beneath or to flip it over, which wouldn’t have been easy. Spinosaurus was quite an odd creature. With its odd proportions and dense bones, it was likely quadrupedal to help balance it’s weight. It had large, heavy, hooked claws on its arms and a long skull filled with cone-shaped teeth, perfect for catching slippery fish, but not so good for tearing flesh. They were very top-heavy, and likely walked on their knuckles like an anteater so they didn’t dull down their claws. Then there was the sail. It’s still unknown what exactly this sail was for. It would have made it a bit more difficult to move around, but it may have been used to regulate body temperature or to serve as a display! There’s also a possibility that it had webbed feet! While it may look very weird to us, Spinosaurus was perfectly adapted to life by the water! Dense bones helped keep it submerged, likely with only it’s nose and eyes above the water (like a crocodile), while it’s teeth and claws helped it hunt fish and other water-dwelling creatures! Basically, all of that weirdness had a very unique and cool purpose! Spinosaurus looked very different from the Spinosaurus in Jurassic Park 3, but it’s still just as cool! Then there’s the Pterosaurs. Some as small as bats or small birds, and the largest being about the same size as a small plane! They fill a specific role it the prehistoric world, later filled by birds! Pterodactyl was not a dinosaur, but Pterodactylus was! The largest of these creatures, standing taller than a giraffe and with a wingspan of about 50 ft, was Quetzalcoatlus. It’s thought they were likely scavengers, like vultures, but may have occasionally caught their own food. Some Pterosaurs would travel long distances often to reach their nesting grounds, while others did not. Like bats, Pterosaur’s wings were made up of a skin membrane stretched between the body and the elongated finger making up the outer edge of the wing. They were light-weight animals, and everything about them was evolved to make them perfect and graceful fliers, though this likely made them very awkward when on the ground.

Then there’s also the prehistoric marine reptiles! Mosasurus, Tylosaurus, Plesiosaurs, Pliosaurs, Ichthyosaurs, and many more! Ichthyosaurs were basically like the dolphins of the prehistoric oceans! They had almost fish-shaped bodies and long, usually toothed beaks. I’d definitely recomend looking up a picture of these guys! They breathed air like all reptiles and did not have gills. All prehistoric marine reptiles breathed air, similar to today’s sea turtles or sea snakes. Mosasaurus was a large predatory marine reptile, with lots of teeth and a long, slender body with a powerful paddle-like tail and four flippers instead of legs and feet. Tylosaurs are similar (I think... if I remember correctly...), though if I remember correctly, not all of them had long tails, and some had large powerful flippers instead of a long tail. Plesiosaurs had a very long neck, a small head with interlocking teeth (essentially creating a fish cage), and a large, slender body with a very short tail an four large, powerful flippers. Some of these animals preyed upon other marine reptiles and larger marine creatures, while others only ate fish and other small marine creatures. They’re all so unique and look nothing like anything we have today! And there’s so many more that I haven’t even talked about that I would seriously encourage checking out!

I’ve loved dinosaurs for as long as I can remember. I even still have my first dinosaur book! It’s a neat picture book full of pictures of dinosaur sculptures and dinosaur names! I have a sauropod plushie that I’ve had forever! He’s a little beat up and has a few places where he’s been sewn back up, but I still have him! And I have a model Kronosaurus that I can show you if you’d like! I love dinosaurs so damn much, and I really want to know more about them! I want to know what colors they were and what their skin feels like! I want to see one someday, but until then, fossils are just as good! I FUCKING LOVE DINOSAURS AND THEY’RE SO COOL AND I WANT TO PET ONE SO BAD!

Anyway, that’s my long, rambling post about dinosaurs! I’m glad I got that out! Hope I didn’t confuse you or bore you. I just really love dinosaurs and get super excited and disorganized when I talk about them! I love them so much and they’re really amazing once you start learning about them!

#ask #asks #anon ask #dinosaurs #late night ramblings #sleep deprived ramblings #rambles #long post

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thesvenqueen · 4 years

Text

Jurassic Park

Rating: M (welp) Pairing: Kristanna Also on AO3

Previous Chapters ( One Two Three )

Note(s): lmao like I could go a fic without some bit of fun. plus, they’re allowed some fun before all hell breaks loose..

{Chapter 4}

“This is crazy.” Anna said, looking out from their hotel room window, twisting a stray piece of hair between her fingers.

They had retreated to their room before lunch, a much needed moment to catch their breaths. With everything they’d seen, from the full grown dinos to the newly hatched ones in the lab below, Anna felt completely overwhelmed by it all.

This was all amazing but also way too much to completely digest. Even now, just looking out their hotel room window, Anna could make out a small herd of dinosaurs slowly making their way across a small valley below.

“I mean...who would’ve thought they or anyone would have this kind of technology? To bring them back, so accurately too I...I can’t believe it.”

Kristoff hummed a response behind her, and he sounded distant. She turned to find him sitting at the edge of their bed, running his hand through his hair as he looked down at his feet, deep in thought.

There had been a moment, as they were climbing the stairs to the next exhibit Dr. Hammond wanted to show them in the main building that Kristoff had paused. Anna had nearly ran into him, had looked up to tease him for such but stopped when she saw the look on his face. His brows were furrowed, his eyes filled with concern. She followed his gaze to see the giant fossilized statue of a T-Rex. She turned back just in time to see him shaking his head slightly,

“Hey,” She’d whispered, grabbing his arm lightly, “What is it?”

Kristoff sighed, not tearing his eyes away from the skeleton, “We’re out of a job.”

“Don’t you mean extinct?” Sven had teased but even that hadn’t deterred Kristoff from his thoughts.

She’d never even considered that fact before. Scientists would be able to study the dinosaurs lived and breathed, and there would be absolutely no use for paleontologists anymore. Kristoff was right, they would be out of a job.

The whole rest of the tour, from the lab to the raptor exhibit, Anna could see the concern and worry hidden behind Kristoff’s excitement. Though later, Anna was sure the fear that she saw in his eyes wasn't so much from the risk of losing their jobs.

Anna slowly came over, standing in front of him. “You ok?” she whispered.

Kristoff sighed, closing his eyes as she moved to run her fingers through his hair. He wrapped his arms around her legs loosely, idly rubbing his thumb on the back of her thigh.

“It’s just...it’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of. I mean, I got to see baby raptors hatch today. It’s incredible, it’s all absolutely incredible.”

He paused, and Anna waited patiently as he pieced his thoughts together. “...but?” She whispered after a moment.

“But I...I can’t help but have this feeling that this is all wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s just...man and dinosaurs were never meant to be together. To exist at the same time. Now we do, but do we really know what we’re doing? Do they really know how to handle them like they say they do?”

Anna lightly raked her nails on his scalp as she hummed in agreement, “I get it.”

“It’s amazing, it really is.” Kristoff said,

“But it just doesn’t seem right.” Anna finished for him.

“Right.”

“Everything we know about them is all based off of what we’ve discovered fossil wise. Even that is not completely accurate, we could’ve been wrong on so many things. We already were about brachiosaurus.”

“Exactly.” Kristoff said, taking one hand to rub his face, “It’s all a guessing game at this point.”

“Which is dangerous.”

“For the dinosaurs and us.”

Anna sighed, “That raptor exhibit really got to you, huh?”

Kristoff huffed a laugh, confirming her suspicions, “They were testing for the weakest part of the fence Anna. How could I not be?”

“I know.”

“They’re trying to find a--”

“Way out. I know, I figured that out too.”

“They’re far more intelligent than they give them credit for.” Kristoff said, “The fact they’re not concerned about it at all has me worried. They’re not dumb. None of these creatures are. They’re all smart in their own way, the raptors being the most intelligent of them all. I mean christ Anna, they had to change how to feed them because they kept figuring out where they’d be. Someone could get hurt. Shit, someone probably already has been hurt by how terrified the trainers and workers look. Now they want to bring people here, kids even...I’m not sure if I’m ok with that.”

Anna sighed, wrapping her arms loosely around him and pulling him to his chest. “You need to tell him.”

“I don’t know if I can.”

“Why not?”

“What if we lose the funding? What if me telling him the truth takes it all away?”

“Kris,” Anna said, pulling back and lifting his head up to look into his eyes, “We’ll figure it out if he does. He brought us here to get our opinion and no matter what, we have to give it to him whether he likes it or not.”

Kristoff smiled up at her, grabbing one of her hands and bringing it to his lips to kiss her palm. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Anna said with a small smile, “And for what it’s worth, I agree with you. There is so much we don’t know, so much they are guessing on that they could be getting wrong. They could be slowly poisoning them with berries or ferns they thought looked pretty for the landscape.”

Kristoff snorted a laugh, “You would be worried about the plants.”

Anna rolled her eyes, “I’m not worried about the plants just...there are too many unknown variables at play here. Not just in feeding or plants or taking care of them but like you said, safety too. I’m just not sure they’re considering them all.”

“I agree.” Kristoff said, furrowing his brow. “Sven had a point today too.”

“Oh did he?” Anna teased.

“Shut it.” Kristoff said, squeezing her thigh as Anna giggled. “He said you can’t control everything, that life always finds a way.”

Anna tilted her head at him, “You think he’s right?”

“I don’t think he’s right per say, but I think he makes a good point. I mean...how can they be so sure they’re all females?”

Anna ran her fingers through his hair again, pushing it back from his forehead as he closed his eyes. “I really think you need to tell Dr. Hammond how you feel.”

“I know…” Kristoff said, sighing as he opened his eyes to look back up at her, “I’m just not looking forward to it.”

“You and me both.” Anna said, but she smiled softly at him, “But I’ll be right there with you.”

Kristoff squeezed her thigh again, “Always?”

“Always.”

He leaned into her then, laying his head against her chest once more. They sat there for a moment, enjoying being wrapped in each other's arms.

As she ran her fingers through his hair, listening to his soft breathing, she wondered if now was the time. She didn’t need an answer today, no, but she didn’t want the conversation from yesterday to die out yet as it had before. This time she was serious, more so than she had been in the past. Mostly because they were married now, comfortable in their jobs enough to have stability that they needed.

She knew it wouldn’t be easy, but she wanted this. She wanted a family with Kristoff more than anything. Kissing the top of his head, she began mustering up the courage, going over what she would say in her head...

“Hey,” Kristoff murmured, pulling her from her thoughts. She could feel him smiling, turning his face to kiss her stomach. Even through her shirt, she could feel the warmth of his lips. “How much time do we have?”

Anna hummed as he continued to trail kisses along her abdomen, “Not long enough.”

“You sure about that?” Kristoff said, looking up at her with dark eyes. His hands pushed her shirt up gently, his hands working up to her breasts.

“I think…” Anna bit her lip, her eyes closing as he squeezed, “mmmm...maybe…” He paused his work to start slowly unbuttoning her shirt. She looked down at him, her heart racing, trying to come up with a complete sentence, “We should…”

“Less talking,” Kristoff said, pushing her shirt off. He wrapped his arms around her then, pulling her closer to him. “More this.” He kissed the top of her breasts, his hands slowly pulling the straps of her bra off her shoulder.

Oh the hell with it, they could talk another time.

Anna sighed as he kissed along her chest, throwing her head back as his hands returned to cup her breasts once more. She felt him gently pull her bra down, exposing her breasts fully to him now and Anna nearly screamed as he took one of her nipples into his mouth, sucking and licking her as his hand teased the other.

She gripped his hair, pulling gently as he pulled back with a soft pop and moved to the other. His free hand moved slowly down her abdomen, making her twitch at his light touch till she felt him reach the top of her shorts. Her hips bucked, encouraging him to keep going and was rewarded as he popped the button of her shorts.

A sudden knock made them both jump, Kristoff instinctively tightening his hold on her.

“Y-Yes?” Anna called, trying and failing to hide the strain in her voice as Kristoff slowly slid his hand into her shorts.

“Sorry to disturb you,” the voice called through the door. Anna bit her lip to hold back the groan as Kristoff began to slowly work his fingers over her clit, continuing to suck her breast. “But Dr. Hammond wanted me to inform you that lunch will be served shortly.”

Anna bucked her hips against Kristoff’s hand before he stopped, pulling his hand back out from her shorts. She whined at the loss, only to gasp as he yanked her shorts and underwear down in one swift pull.

“Dr. Arendelle?”

“We--we’ll be down--” Anna stopped, gasping as Kristoff slipped a finger inside her, curling it in a way that made her toes curl. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe as he slowly pumped his finger in and out of her. She let her hands slip to his shoulders, gripping them gently as he sped up his pace.

Then, he slowly slipped another finger in and Anna closed her eyes, digging her nails into his shoulder to hold back her scream.

“Ma’am?”

Kristoff groaned, the vibration as he still sucked her breast sending a chill down Anna’s spine. He pulled back, “We’ll be down in a moment.” Kristoff called gruffly, a hint of annoyance in his voice. Anna huffed a laugh, opening her eyes and looking down at him,

“Not as much time as you thought, huh?” Anna teased, watching as Kristoff smirked up at her with dark, hooded eyes.

“It’s enough.” he said, pulling her with him as he fell back onto the bed.

#kristanna #kristoff #anna #jurassic park au #jessica writes

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thefloatingstone · 5 years

Text

hey who wants to watch me write a post about my own lore in my own fanfics nobody cares about like it’s a wiki article or a Matpat video?

here I go

When I was writing my MLP fanfic back in 2013, there was a chapter where the girls (and Discord) get attacked by a Basilisk in a cave. I wanted a fantasy monster not featured in the show (at least up until that point) so I went for a commonly known fantasy creature... but then I decided to be all artsy and shit with its design and used my big history-nerd galaxy brain. This is that story;

It had a broad, square torso, on each side of which grew something resembling wings. They'd never be able to keep anything in flight, though. Rather than elegant beaters of the air they were large, awkwardly shaped fins that jutted out and upwards. A muscular neck curved into a small, triangular head that looked too small for the rest of it. A whip-like tail dragged behind it as it marched in the direction away from them, it's two, thick legs ending in dark, curved claws.

So this is the description of the Basilisk I wrote for the fanfic.

Basilisks were mentioned in the MLP cartoon but never shown. What HAS been shown, however, is a cockatrice.

which is historically, a mythical creature that kinda overlaps with the Basilisk in a historic sense. A Cockatrice is a creature that hatches when you take an egg laid by a cock (a male chicken) and have it be incubated by a toad (or sometimes a snake). The Cockatrice has the ability to kill people by looking at them, touching them, or sometimes breathing on them.

The Basilisk is hatched from the egg of a serpent or a toad incubated by a cock. So the exact opposite of the cockatrice.

The Basilisk is a creature described as “a serpent king” as well as a “hybrid of a rooster and a serpent” who can “cause death with a single glance.” However the Basilisk has also been described as looking like a snake that leaves a trail of venom behind it. Like the Cockatrice, the Basilisk is thought to be lethal to all living things apart from the weasel, and its believed that Europeans seeing fights between cobras and mongoose in the more arid countries of the world could be what spawned this part of the mythology.

This print is from 1260 and features a “basiliscus” fighting a weasel. The text was translated to “Cockatrice” in 1397. Basilisks are not usually depicted with wings.

doing a google search for “Basilisk” brings up a mixture of images, some showing a creature looking more like a cockatrice and some more like a serpent or wurm, and in others like a reptile with many legs.

You can kinda start narrowing down images showing the Basilisk which look closer to my description of the creature.

I based my basilisk somewhat on the classical look of the monster, but I also took a large inspiration from a book I bought at a fleamarket a few years ago and which I highly recommend if you can find it. It was originally published in the 70s.

The book covers the many different ways that taxidermy and accounts and bestiaries have been used to manufacture “evidence” or mythical or unknown animals. (such as the fur-bearing trout which is a personal favourite)

One of the taxidermy creatures in the book are mummified creatures called “Jenny Hanivers”. Sometimes they have a more humanoid appearance (I want to save you from looking at too many taxidermied animals so I’ll ship those) but now and then one would appear looking more animalistic.

Jenny Hanivers were most commonly believed to be the dried remains of basilisks. And since Basilisks can kill people with a single glance, it wasn’t like there was any concrete proof to what one REALLY looked like. Fishermen would sell mummified Jenny hanivers as “curios” to sailors, naturalists, scientists and the wealthy as remains of basilisks and they were a very popular collectors item. Especially since having a “Cabinet of Curiosities” was a popular “status item” in the 16th century. However these were more entire rooms then just a cabinet as we think of them today. Rich people would often fill it with strange and bizarre items, such as “unicorn horns” (Narwhal tusks) seashells, foreign coins, mummified fish, fossils, paintings, sculptures etc etc. Essentially they were the precursors to museums. But in the 16th century it was more for rich people to show to other rich people and go “look at all this weird shit I have.”

The earliest known picture of a Jenny Haniver is from 1558 from “Historia Animalium vol. IV“ by Konrad Gersner.

Gesner warns in his book, that the “Jenny Haniver” often sold for high prices as “taxidermied Basilisks” were not as fanciful as the people trying to make money off of them would have you believe. As the Jenny Haniver is, in fact, the dried and disfigured remains of rays or skates.

The “eyes” next to the mouth are in fact the ray’s nostrils, and the “wings” are the fins of the ray that have been cut away from the head and dried at an odd angle to appear more like “wings” than fins.

Anyway.

And that’s the story about how my history nerd ass put WAAAAAAYYY too much fucken thought into a monster that shows up in a fic to be a threat for a single chapter which had no plot relevance whatsoever.

(drawing time stamped as drawn by me in December 2013)

#My Little Pony #History #Cryptozoology #lore #?#My Art #Long post #C-Puff self congratulates for a loooong time #I actually drew a lot of pictures for this fic #showing what OCs looked like and the 2 original monsters I came up with for it #Where did all that energy go?#cw #taxidermy

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zodiacal-dust-and-curls · 5 years

Text

Death by Natural Causes

Word Count: 2117

Warnings: None that I can think of. Very fluffy! (Please let me know if I need to add any)

A/N: Happy belated Valentine’s Day! 🖤 I finally finished writing something. Gwil’s look is inspired by the above picture (yes, i know that’s technically Charlie Nelson). Also, a big thank you to my beta (and platonic soulmate) @mollymarymarie for proofreading and fixing my mistakes. ILY, bae. I hope you enjoy it! It is based on things I’ve actually done in real life. Enjoy!

You were awake suddenly. Why? You weren’t entirely sure why. The room was still dark from behind your eyelids; the bed was still warm. The thought of ‘well, why not?’ seemed to echo through your otherwise quiet mind.

A quick peek at the clock didn’t offer much comfort or clarity to your situation. Its only offer was the numbers 5:57 glowing in the soft green light that greeted you every morning. No alarms had been set, that was the deal made on your shared days off, as rare as they were.

Slowly turning over, you found that the bed behind you was still occupied. Gwilym must not have gotten up for his run yet, under the pretense of trying to let you both sleep in today. It was quite shocking to be awake before him, with or without alarms, so you took the moment to just observe him.

He slept on his stomach, turned away from you. You couldn’t see his face, but the slow, even breaths he took were enough to know he was untroubled. After a few moments, you made your move to wake him and smiled at the memory it conjured.

– “Love, I’m the big spoon. I’m taller” Gwilym nearly whined from his spot behind you on the couch.

“Well, that’s great and all, but what if,” you turned over to face him, “just this once – I could be the big spoon?” you had said it with such a cute pout on your face that Gwilym couldn’t help but acquiesce.

“Alright, just this once, you can be the big spoon.” The look on his face was priceless, almost like he couldn’t believe he gave in so easily. But, the sound he made after you switched spots and started playing with his hair made it sound like he didn’t mind so much. -

“Get up, Lazy Bones. If I have to be awake, so do you” you mumbled into his hair as you pressed a kiss to the crown of his head and threw an arm around his waist.

“Why?” It was more of a rasp than a spoken word. The sweet, sleepy sound that followed made you hesitate before responding.

“Why not?” You wanted it to sound like a challenge, but the sleep in your voice drug it down a little too far.

“Well, if that’s how you’re gonna be about it” he chuckled as he turned over to face you and sat up on his pillows.

Gwilym in the morning was always like a work of art. A little different every day, but always with the same base feeling. Today, his bedraggled hair caught the early morning light and all the little bits of gold made it look like he was wearing a halo, possibly even a crown. His eyes, though half-lidded and still heavy from sleep, held the depths of the ocean and mysteries of the forest in the small amount of the iris you could see. His mouth, always your favorite bit, was still turned up in the first smile of the day.

“Good morning, dearest,” you breathed out, moving your hand up to his bare chest.

“Good morning to you, too,” he yawned and stretched. “Now that we’re awake, what do you want to do today?”

“I was hoping we could go to the museum? Definitely after breakfast, but hopefully before lunch.” It came out a little quietly as you looked at him through your lashes. You’d wanted to go to the museum for a while now, but never had enough time off from work or anyone to go with. Today just so happened to be a day off for you and Gwil, giving you both time and company for the outing.

His eyebrows raised into his hairline and his smile widened as he took in your request. It was so simple and so sweet. How could he say no?

“That sounds like a wonderful idea, love. Usual morning routine and I’ll meet you in the kitchen for breakfast, yeah?” He pulled you in for a quick cuddle, resting his chin on the top of your head for just a moment.

“Yeah” you agreed as you pressed a quick kiss to his jaw.

A quick jog and shower later, you were in the kitchen waiting for your coffee to finish brewing. You knew Gwilym would laugh a little when he saw you in today’s outfit. He loved your sense of style, but it always tickled him how you would dress for whatever aesthetic you had in mind for a particular day. Today would not be an exception.

When he emerged from the bathroom, you couldn’t help but giggle to yourself. Even with just a glance in your peripheral, you could see that he seemed to be on board with today’s chosen aesthetic. What a sight the two of you would be. Perfect for carefully, or not so carefully, planned Snapchats and Instagram posts.

“I swear, I can read your mind at this point.” Gwilym announced from behind you.

“Either that or I’ve finally trained you to dress properly out in public. Tea?” you offered up his favorite cup without turning, choosing to use your gaze to will your coffee to brew faster.

“Thanks,” he mumbled into your hair while he took the cup out of your hand and placed his other hand on your hip, “what time do we leave?”

“I bought tickets for the 10 o’clock tour, but I want to see other parts of the museum. So, 30 minutes? That way we have time to fight traffic and find parking.”

Instead of hearing his agreement, you felt his nod near your shoulder. Affectionate was one of your favorite moods on Gwilym. He loved to stand behind you and just hold you to him. Honestly, there was no point in fighting him, you loved it, too. The world would be still for the two of you in those moments and all you had to focus on was each other.

Traffic wasn’t as bad as you expected, so you found yourselves at the museum with just over an hour to explore before your tour started.

“So, what’s on the agenda?” With tickets in hand and a free day ahead, it seemed that Gwilym couldn’t wait to explore with you. As it was, he didn’t want you to get too far away. He’d managed to keep a hand on you during the entire car ride in.

“Well, the tour is for me,” you admitted, “so we can go into any of the permanent exhibits you want before it starts.” You turned to smile at him. He returned it easily and eagerly.

“In that case,” he paused, looking around for something to catch his eye, “how about the hall of paleontology?” He offered with a quirked eyebrow. Goodness, could he use those eyebrows to his advantage. Not that he really needed to, you were all too happy to agree.

After making your way through the trilobites, you were waiting at the corner for him to finish taking pictures of his favorite prehistoric plant impressions. It was cute the way he insisted it was art. What was not so cute was him threatening to put it on the wall in your shared flat. It was breath taking, but maybe not something you could see in your living room.

“I just think this would look lovely over our sofa. I really think it fits the room.”

“Dearest, I don’t think I could look at these very pretty, but very dead plants every day. I don’t think it will keep the same effect if we look at it constantly. I think it should stay special.” And out of my living room. Really Gwil, how on earth could that brown go with all our blues and greys? But you didn’t voice that opinion.

“I think it would still feel special. I’d wager that in 6 months, I’ll still love it AND it will have grown on you.”

“I’ll give you a wager,” you retorted, “but instead of our flat’s future, how about lunch?”

“Lunch?” His eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hair.

“Yes, lunch. It’ll be just about time when we finish the tour.” It could also save my flat from that monstrous rock, or one just like it.

He stepped closer to you and wrapped an arm around your waist, effectively pulling you into his chest. “So, what’s the task?”

“We take selfies with the fossils and post the best one with different captions. The one with the most combined likes and comments on Insta by the time we leave gets to pick where we eat. Loser buys.”

Gwilym thought it over for a minute, moving his eyebrows and hand in sync as he stroked his stubbled chin. After a moment, he looked down and spoke.

“You’re on, love, and when I win, I want Thai.”

“We’ll just see about that, won’t we, mister? Because when I win, I’m going to want Greek.” You looked up and pressed a kiss to his nose before pulling out of the embrace.

Forty-five minutes later, you had harassed every skeleton in the hall, as well as a few life-size sculptures, and were deciding on which picture was the best. Once you had picked a goofy selfie of the two of you, you sent it to Gwilym and waited for him to open his Instagram.

“Okay, let me know when you’re finished with your caption and tags. I want us to post at the same time.”

“Ooh, scared I’ll get more likes in 2 minutes than you will?” He nudged your elbow.

“No. It’s more like I know you can be a dirty cheater when you want something.”

“Fine,” he rolled his eyes and gave an affected sigh, “finish up or we’re going to be late to your tour.”

“Done! We post in 3, 2, 1!”

Post: @/mrgwilymlee: Spending the day with my love, @/yourinsta. Who would’ve thought that even while surrounded by several millennia of history, she’d still be the most breathtaking creature in the room? #me #lookatthislittlenerd

Post: @/yourinsta: Isn’t he just dino-mite? Nothing will tricera-top this day. @/mrgwilymlee #badpuns #sorryimsuchanerd

“No peeking,” you warned as the pair of you hurried to the temporary exhibit hall. “I know we will probably Snap part of the tour, but no checking Insta until we walk out the front door.”

Gwilym raised his hands in surrender, “whatever you say, love. I promise to be on my best behavior.”

“Really, love, Death by Natural Causes?” Gwilym questioned as you approached the gates of the exhibit, which had been designed to look like the entrance to a gothic cemetery.

“What? It seemed interesting! And it was popular enough to get an extension here. So clearly, I’m not the only one fascinated by it.” You furrowed your brows as you spoke.

“I don’t doubt it will be fascinating,” he defended himself, “I just can’t believe you gave me all that grief over thinking the fossil would look good in our flat and then drag me to see more things about death.”

“Hey!” You pushed his shoulder just hard enough to make him lean to the side for one step. “I did not give you grief, I saved our living room from housing a brown rock.”

Gwilym seemed to consider your objection as you handed over the tickets for the exhibit.

Two hours later, you had read every bit of information offered and played ever educational game in the hall, including the ‘place your hand to reveal the answer’ spots that showed what a disease did to a body externally. Gwilym actually found those to be quite entertaining, mainly due to the way you approached them.

For the first, you had slowly put your hand in the box to light up the plaque with the answer, but you were not ready for what happened next. A loud noise, accompanied by a vibration, shook the display and made both you and Gwilym jump. Luckily for you, Gwilym’s reaction was to pull you away from the offending object, while you just let out a loud shriek in the quiet exhibit. That coupled with all the laughter that came after, was enough for the security guard to come check on the two of you.

Finally, you emerged in to the bright sunlight of the day, having survived Death by Natural Causes when Gwilym spoke up. “Well then, love, I think it’s time to check on our little wager. Don’t you?”

Your stomach growled in response for you. “I definitely think it’s time.”

You had Greek for lunch that day.

A few days later a grey fossil found its way to your flat.

#gwilym lee x reader #gwilym lee #gwilym lee fluff #gwilym lee imagine #bohemian rhapsody imagine #fluffy imagine #fluff #t writes

191 notes · View notes

thenixkat · 5 years

Text

Animorphs notes: Megamorphs 2

Megamorphs 2

Marco 1

Saw something on the news and mentioned it to the others leading to everyone in a storm trying to breathe in dolphin morph

Of course its not like sharks need to breath air and might be better in some cases

Marco uses humor to cope

Rainy day

So why are the animorphs getting involved with a sunken nuclear sub?

Marco wants to go out of his way to save people again.

Him and Rachel are like the most likely on the team to become superheros

Or they could put their stuff in a bag and bury it on the beach instead of putting things in the trash?

How exactly do these guys plan on rescuing people?

Cassie 1

Everybody morphs dolphin

They find the sub

Jake 1

Ah yes the plan to kidnap an officer. Totally would have no negative reprocussions

Can’t just act in a weird and obvious manner to direct people to the sub

Sometimes dolphins help people, sometimes dolphins kill people. Its a rulette game as to whichever a dolphin is more interested in at the moment

The writter makes a comment on war and nukes

A nuke goes off and instead of being vaporised by the light the kids get transported through time and space for some reason

Rachel 1

One of these days a kid is gonna get trapped in morph when they’re uncoincious

Cassie’s the only one who had any injuries from the fucking nuke going off

Why is there a volcano over there? There shouldn’t be volcanoes where they are

Rachel watches the Magic Schoolbus

That’s not how plesiosaurs work and you could never mistake them for a whale even with sonar

Ax is smug about those not being whales

Tobias 1

Why the hell are fucking plesiosaurs intered in them in the first place?

Tobias got vored by something big enough to swallow a 10ft at least dolphin whole

This is causing me pain

Rachel got vored by something that can fit 2 ten or so foot dolphins inside its stomach

Looked it up and yeah no, plesiosaurs were def known to not have flexible necks by the time this was written

No that can’t be an ichthyosaur b/c they’re gone by this point in the Cretaceous and the on ly ones that big were likely FILTER FUCKING FEEDERS

Random ass gulper eel dolphin sea monster

Rachel decides that morphing is the best idea in the stomach

Tobias morphs too

Jake 2

Ax doesnt get to have a turn yet what a surprise

Cassie says they should try to rescue Rachel and Tobias, Jake says thats a fucking dumb idea and he’s right

Jake is pissed at people getting themselves eaten and Cassie coming up with dumb fucking idea

There should actually be some seagull like dinosaurs but I think those were discovered much later than these were written

Kids finally put 2 and 2 together and realized that they aint in Kansas anymore

They havent actually put togther the gone back in time bit yet

Jake and the writer seem to be under the impression that dolphins have no natural defenses

They are almost there in realizing what happened

Cassie 2

Still no fucking Ax narration

THESE KIDS ARE REALLY FUCKING DUMB

Sauropods did not leave elephant like foot prints. At all

Nope not figured it out yet

Cassie, you should know that whales can’t swallow whole full gown dolphins

Cassie almost gets eaten by a crocodilian and these kids still haven’t fucking figured it out

Wait a minute. Grass doesn’t exist in this time period

Also Cassie should know better. Herbivores can and will fuck you up with little provication

They finally figured it out

I see we have movie monster Tyrannosaurs

Rachel 2

Wow Ax really doesnt have any rights does he?

...that’s not how anatomy

Bears are not herder to digest than dolphins

This is hurting ,me

Tobias everything you said aside from the hadrosaurs was pure bullshit

Rachel thinks the dinosaur angle is rediculous

Tobias 2

Tobias you have a fucking hork-bajir morph you utter dumbass

Wow Tobias is bad at morphing, he can’t even get rid of his injuries

Tobias gets to be extra useless and cause Rac hel pain by haveing to perch on her

Grass doesnt exist in this time period

There was a gradual decline in the late Cretaceous of nonavien dinosaurs, the asteroid was the last nail in the coffin

T. rex was just another animal not not much more dangerous than say a lion, just bigger

Marco 2

Ax doesnt get to narrate I guess

There is no reason for the tyrannosaur to be chasing them it just made a fucking kill

They aren’t even the right size to be worth the fucking effort either

Marco almost gets eaten and is saved by Ax who papercuts the thing to death

Ax 1

Yeaaaah Ax vs Tyrannosaur should not end in victory for Ax

I flatout don’t belive this rediculousness and my suspension of disbelife died several chapters ago

Ax is fucking shook that worked

Ok good Ax was very very fucking lucky that worked and not gonna try that again

No, Ax, no that is not scientificly possible b/c theres no fucking dna in the fucking fossiles they are bone and other shit shaped rocks

When the fuck did Cassie get any survival skills? Did she decide to brush up after the Karen incident

Well we have ‘I will survive this with or without you’!Cassie today

Yall could actually morph Ax and have your own andalite tails. Or fucking morph hork-bajir

Rachel 3

Grass still doesnt exist yet

At no point did rachel think to escue some modesty and make wraps for her feet

Rachel suggests that Tobias morph human, even perminatly

He is very shit at morphing

I guess he expects that he’s got days to live as a wounded bird over anything else he could fucking morph

Rachel refuses to fucking make it known that she’s suffering

In what fucking world does that description matach a triceratops

Also deinonychus, not around at the end of the cretaceous

Deinonychus is about almost 3 ft tall at hip and a ft longer than that

Naked ass ones at that

Them going after them at least makes sense

Cassie 3

Camping and eating tyrannosaur meat

Gonna sleep in shifts

People keep forgetting that they have hork-bajir morphs which are amazing and also that they could just aquire Ax

Tobias 3

Nothing about the majority of large dromaeosaurs suggests that they’re fast. The opposite actually. Ambush predators not chasers.

Tobias and Rachel split up

Tobias and the writers forgot about wing assisted incline running and the fact that raptors can fucking climb if the have to

Tobias drops on one and aquires it

Tobias 4?

This is going with the not-dynonicus being diurnal for some reason

Tobias lost control of the morph and will probably attack Rachel

Jake 3

The rock that was the final nail for the dinos is estableshed bvery firmly\

Stampede

And a nother tyrannosaur

Jake trips and falls when it matters most

Rachel 4

Tobias is really serious about not identifying as human

Rachel tries to reach him over smashing the lead raptor

Jake 4

Jake gets vored by the tyrannosaur whole even tho it was already eating bigger more interesting prey

Jake aquires the thing and starts morphing imediately

That tyrannosaur broke its fucking tail

Everyone aquires the injured dinosaur

Marco 3

Marcos not happy and everyone misses Rachel

More travel

Ax says the flash of light that started the stampede was artifical

Did Ax just say he can see ultraviolet and infrared

They find an alien city

Tobias 5

Tobias is bitching about Rachel still being mad that he gutted her

Neither of them are healing their injuries for no good reason

Ew, Tobias gross.

Rachel has a raptor morph now

Rachel isn’t a coherent person when hrungy and tired

Why are there coconut trees? They dont exist yet

Rachel eats a not coconut

No. That is not a fucking spinosaurus. Spino is fucking African and didn’t live at the same time as T.rex

Tobias metally calls Rachel stupid

Rachel 5

This is really fucking poorly reserched

And lo an alien:

And that's when I noticed the other creature step smoothly out from the

bushes.

It walked on two legs. It was rough-textured, like it had really chapped

skin. It was reddish in color. It had two big eyes and a small mouth,

all of the same reddish-rust hue. It stood about eight feet tall. It was

carrying a weapon.

The creature gazed curiously at us with what seemed to be eyes, although

they were mere indentations in its face. From its head a pair of

antennae, flexible as whips, grew and began waving toward us.

The alien calls dibs on the dinosaurs and speaks Fucking English

The nesk

The nesk is a pile of antlike creatures

Anmd really Rachel just fucking escalate things to outright violence

Cassie 4

Cassie suggests that they just go see who the aliens are

And that Jake stay behind b/c she doesnt want to loose more people

The alien city:

We flew toward the shining city in the valley. With osprey eyes I could see much more clearly. I saw buildings that rose in steep, smooth sweeps, like they'd grown from the bedrock. Windows were stuck in odd locations, some aiming out, others more like skylights. And there were fields planted with green and arranged in neat circles instead of rows.

The aliens themselves:

As we got closer, I could see creatures of some sort. They looked a little like large - very large - crabs. Only with shells in a wild array of colors, deep blue, spring green, orange. And while on one side there was something very much like a large pincer, on the other side there was a pair of hands.

Crab people

TRhe kids are attacked by naked pterosaurs

Tobias 6

Wow its almost like starting a fight with an unknown party can go wrong

The ship:

The ground beside me exploded, like it had been ripped by an invisible

plow. I jumped. Another plow mark just behind me! I saw movement. And

there, racing toward us across the plain, was a gleaming, silver craft.

Maybe twice the size of a Bug fighter, but shaped like an elongated

pyramid, long end forward.

The nesk herd Rachel and Tobias away from their claimed territory

Ah they’re falling over the cliff of the mercora city

Jake 5

Daring mid air antics and the team is reunited

Also a force field wich is smart\

Ax is tired of having to be the info guy

At least its not a killer forcefield like the kind that yeerks use

The mercora introduce themselves

Ax 2

Ax and his andalite bullshit

More of the mercora:

There were three of the creatures. They moved upon seven legs. Four on

one side, three on the other. To make matters worse, the four

legs were larger than the three. So they scuttled sideways in the

direction of the small legs.

They stood about half the height of a tall human, and seven or eight

feet wide.

On the side with the four big legs, there was a sort of three-way pincer

claw. It looked very powerful. It looked like the sort of thing I would

not want to have to fight against.

On the other side, the weak side, there were two arms similar to my own,

but even stronger than human arms. The arms ended in long, tapered,

delicate fingers.

There were a lot of eyes. They kept opening and shutting, one or two or

three at a time. They were each hidden beneath tiny trap doors in the

Mercora's exoskeleton or shell. Eyes were forever appearing and

disappearing. It was very, very distracting.

Which is a cool design

They talk in thought speak

Just b/c humans in the future don’t know about the mercora doesnt mean they left or were destroy you dumb fucks

Marco 4

The mercora healed Tobias, gave everyone food, a place to stay and even offered to make them soem clothes

The crabs wear clothing or at least make it

And they have force field furniture

Also that’s not how broccli works

Marco makes a vore joke about the mecora

Really Cassie?

The mercora are herbivores

All you have is the mecoras’ word on that and they are in direct conflict with the nesk

And so what if they’re scavengers?

Very rarely but sometimes Cassie has a valid point

Ax 3

Ax is still kinda specist

Hmm I wonder why the mercora aprove? Its not like they can have an alterior motive here

And the mercora are going to help

Ax is very lonely in genera;

Cassie 5

The writers are fucking awesomebros

And they can’t control the morphs

Cassie gets wounded by a ceratopsian

Jake 6

What? We were just with Cassie oh forget it

Jake is suicidally confidant that Cassie wouldn’t eat him

Apparently Jake is right

Cassie freaks out

Ax 3

Tobias keeps being wrong.

The nesk have thought speak detectors

Tobias 7

They group steal an explosive and destroy the nesk ships

Rachel 6

The nesk retaliate very effectively

Ax calls for back up

TRachel throws herself around to draw away fire from the others

The mercora attempt a rescue and loose a ship

Culture:

The Mercora saucer picked us up, us and our little nuke. But they were a

grim, depressed bunch of aliens. It was hard to tell at first. But then

I noticed that each of them was minus one of their smaller legs. There

were just oozing stumps.

"What happened to your legs?" I asked. But even as the words were out of

my mouth, I saw the limbs in the corner. They were laid out on a

brightly colored cloth which was draped over a shelf. There was

something ceremonial about it. Almost religious.

<Can you explain the meaning of this?> Ax asked politely.

<We must make the sacrifice of pain. The legs will regenerate, but those

we honor will not,> the Mercora pilot said. <This is a symbol. It speaks

to our spirit's pain, by echoing it in physical pain.>

"They did this for the Mercora who were in the other ship?" Jake asked.

<For those who were in both ships,> the pilot said. <To be killed is a

sadness. To kill is a sin.>

Jake says the they owe the mercora for saving them

Fuck you Tobias

Tobias 8

Tobias this is premeditated murder

The nesk have decided to leave the earth

The mercora claim that the nesk altered the path of the meteor

They want to use the bomb to save themselves

Cassie 6

Fuck you Tobias

You need to be held accountable for this shit

Its almost like the vast majority of things to ever live never leave any fucking fossils you nit

This bastard is really trying to justify himself like this is anyway defensible

Fuck you Tobias, you get to join Cassie and Jake in the bin of fucking terrible people

Jake 7

Oh what you little bitch babies can’t handle the consequences?

Tobias deserves his unhappines and eventual death

Cassie 7

Cassie at least decides to bear witness to their crime

CVassie saw the time pass

No good reason given why they can’t retain those morphs

Tobias needs to pay for his shit

#nix reads animorphs #animorphs #this was very poorly reserched #and tobias deserves his suffering

5 notes · View notes

e8luhs · 6 years

Text

WOKE UP NEW.

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY

TRACKLIST & ANNOTATIONS UNDER THE CUT! (last edited 03.16.19)

I. ARE YOU SATISFIED? / MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS

cause it’s my problem if i want to pack up and run away it’s my business if i feel the need to smoke and drink and swear it’s my problem, it’s my problem if i feel the need to hide and it’s my problem if i have no friends and feel i want to die

II. LIFESPAN / VAULTS

oh, you took what you wanted to take and yet you never wanted nothing from me oh, you took what you wanted to take and yet you never wanted nothing from me

III. RAIN IN SOHO / THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

no promise sweeter than a blood pact nothing harder to go through than a vanishing act no morning colder than the first frost no friends close than the ones we've lost

IV. LEMON GLOW / BEACH HOUSE

read my fortune too, tell me what you see cross it like a t it's all the same to me this game i play, i do it every day i promise I'll be fine, bear it every time

V. SATELLITE MIND / METRIC

i’m not suicidal i just can't get out of bed i drift into a deep fog lost where i forgot to hold it i can feel you most when i'm alone i can feel your ghost when i'm alone

VI. PEDESTRIAN AT BEST / COURTNEY BARNETT

my internal monologue is saturated analog it's scratched and drifting, i've become attached to the idea it's all a shifting dream, bittersweet philosophy i've got no idea how I even got here i'm resentful, I'm having an existential time crisis want bliss, daylight savings won't fix this mess under-worked and over-sexed, i must express my disinterest the rats are back inside my head, what would freud have said?

VII. BORN TO LOSE / SLEIGH BELLS

took a shot to the head in the back near the crib such a legend now, you were born to lose ‘cause i know that the pain keeps you close to the flame you know everything, you were born to lose

VIII. STICKS AND STONES / THE PIERCES

sticks and stones will break your bones and leave you lying in the mud but you get scared when we're alone, like i might suck your blood and i could tell you a witch's spell but it just might blow your top and you start to run just as I'm having fun and it's awfully hard to stop, it's awfully hard to stop

IX. BLACK OUT DAYS / PHANTOGRAM

speak in tongues i don't even recognize your face mirror on the wall tell me all the ways to stay away

X. THE OUTSIDER / MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS

i look myself in the face and whisper "i'm in the wrong place" is there more to lose than gain if i go on my own again? (on my own again)

XI. SPELLBOUND / SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES

following the footsteps of a rag doll dance we are entranced spellbound

XII. ARTIFICIAL NOCTURNE / METRIC

i’m just as fucked up as they say i can't fake the daytime i found an entrance to escape into the dark got false lights for the sun it's an artificial nocturne an outsider's escape for a broken heart

XIII. AUTOCLAVE / THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

i am this great, unstable mass of blood and foam and no emotion that's worth having could call my heart its home my heart's an autoclave my heart's an autoclave

XIV. BAD DREAMS / PHANTOGRAM

bad things never neglect me i'm just a scene in a movie bad thoughts never arrest me i'm just a flash in a memory

XV. BEAT (HEALTH, LIFE, AND FIRE) / THAO & THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN

and oh my gunpowder and with emergency i must battle without her she is surely killing me

XVI. EVERY TEAR DISAPPEARS / ST. VINCENT

oh, the more that i struggle i'm deeper in the pit if i can show a hand then i can show a fist call the twenty-first century, tell her “give us a break”

XVII. FIREWORKS / MITSKI

one morning this sadness will fossilize and i will forget how to cry i'll keep going to work and you won't see a change save, perhaps, a slight gray in my eye

XVIII. UNICORN TOLERANCE / THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

and when the clouds do clear away get a momentary chance to see the thing i've been trying to beat to death the soft creature that i used to be the better animal i used to be

XIX. GROW UP AND BLOW AWAY / METRIC

if this is the life why does it feel so good to die today? blue to gray grow up and blow away

XX. NUMB / MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS

i feel numb most of the time lower i get, the higher i'll climb and i will wonder why i got dark only to shine looking for the golden life oh, it's a reasonable sacrifice

XXI. AMERICAN DREAM / EMILY HAINES & THE SOFT SKELETON

grab your clothes and head to the doorway if you dance out, no one complains find the place where you can be boring where you won't need to explain that you're sick in the head, and you wish you were dead or at least instead of sleeping here you prefer your own bed, come on you just suck at self-preservation versus someone else's pain

XXII. WEAR BLACK / THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

wear black when it's light outside wear black when there's no light wear black following the left hand path wear black but i get right

XXIII. SPAT OUT SPIT / LADY LAMB

was i born wild? have i been asleep this whole damn time, dreaming up a life? will i awake to find that I'm deep in the woods? and i'm snarling on all fours

XXIV. MEDULLA OBLONGATA / BUKE & GASE

since i left you with these broken fingers broken tongue broken ears from not listening false hopes and happiness in the barrel of my god

XXV. PARIS IS BURNING / ST. VINCENT

they say, “i’m on your side when nobody is, 'cause nobody is come sit right here and sleep while i slip poison in your ear”

XXVI. IN THE CRATERS ON THE MOON / THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

if the strain proves too much give up right away if the light hurts your eyes stay in your room all day

XXVII. GETAWAY / MOTHER MOTHER

we gotta get away from it all we gotta get away from everything we've grown to know we gotta get gone like on a holiday, but for longer away from all the silly things that haunt us

XXVIII. YOUR FACE LEFT BEFORE YOU / BUKE & GASE

breaking down my brick wall brain nothing worse than everything to gain too bad it's not my turn you've got witches to burn

XXIX. FUNERAL PYRE / PHANTOGRAM

my funeral pyre my ship of fire as it sinks, i rise all i see is your eyes

XXX. HOLLY / SLEIGH BELLS

wasted all day killing all the capulets!

XXXI. GUILTY / MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS

oh i’m a guilty one, and know what i have done yeah, i'm a troubled one, and i won't be forgiven

XXXII. KILLER / PHOEBE BRIDGERS

can the killer in me tame the fire in you? is there nothing left to do for us? i am sick of the chase, but i'm hungry for blood and there's nothing i can do

XXXIII. TIPTOE / THE ANTLERS

[instrumental]

XXXIV. GOODBYE, MY DANISH SWEETHEART / MITSKI

now i lay as i study a blank wall would you spare me your voice if i call? ‘cause you waited and watered my heart till it grew you just grew a little smarter too

XXXV. HERMIT THE FROG / MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS

yeah i feel i’m watered down whenever he's around i put on the crown of clowns and melt slowly to the ground

XXXVI. LAST WORDS OF A SHOOTING STAR / MITSKI

you wouldn't leave till we loved in the morning you'd learned from movies how love ought to be and you'd say you love me and look in my eyes but i know through mine you were looking in yours

XXXVII. 9TH PAWN / OHO

i'm the 9th pawn of the chessboard take it apart, take it along, dark and light squares i'm the thirteenth labor of Hercules give it a try or give it up give it up to me

XXXVIII. HUMPTY / MITSKI

i'll live in the bathtub surrounded by tiles all so square and so steady i will die in their cool, cool arms

XXXIX. I FIRE MYSELF / MARY TIMONY

a demon lured me to his bed where i fell into a poison sleep i dreamed of a river of ants inside me and they were sad and started to bleed

XL. THE POINT OF IT ALL / AMANDA PALMER

“but no one can stare at the wall as good as you, my baby-doll and you're aces for coming along you're almost human, after all and you're learning that just 'cause they call themselves friends doesn't mean they'll call...” they made the comment in jest but you've got the needle i guess that's the point of it all

XLI. SQUARE / MITSKI

your room was square i once noticed from there in your bed, as you slept and i held my breath everything had its own place and i wondered; what space would i take, in the order you kept?

XLII. SAVIOR / ST VINCENT

adore you to the grave and farther honey, i can't be your martyr maybe it's just human nature but honey, i can't be your savior

XLIII. VALLEY OF THE DOLLS / MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS

in the valley of the dolls, we sleep got a hole inside of me living with identities that do not belong to me in my life, i got this far now i’m ready for the last hoorah dying like a shooting star in the valley

XLIV. STATUETTE / EMILY HAINES & THE SOFT SKELETON

with a feather in your cap another jewel in your crown another notch in your belt you’re the captain at the helm the statuette on your shelf says you’re better than me better than me

XLV. HAVE TO EXPLODE / THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

the stage is set, someone's going to do something someone else will regret i speak in smoke signals and you answer in code the fuse will have to run out sometime something here will eventually have to explode, have to explode

XLVI. THE BOX SONG / AMANDA PALMER

and you were sure that you could keep it all off in a tower where there’d always be space and you were sure that if you read it all you would eventually come across your own name

XLVII. I DON’T SMOKE / MITSKI

if you need to be mean, be mean to me i can take it and put it inside of me if your hands need to break more than trinkets in your room you can lean on my arm as you break my heart

XLVIII. ICICLES / THE SCARY JOKES

but as for me, i can only be forgiven if im givin myself up to you on a silver serving tray must i bare myself to the stabbing of your knife and gnashing teeth, while our lovely company appears so entertained? ah yes, good etiquette demands i remain soft and accessible in the face of my own ending so i will try to be discreet; through my full-blown implosion, i’ll stay golden and retreat into my sweetest fantasy

XLIX. CODES AND KEYS / DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE

when you scream, “love you, see”, like a child throwing stones at the sky when they fall back to earth as minor chords of major works separate rooms of single life we are one we are alive

L. WASHING MACHINE HEART / MITSKI

baby, though i've closed my eyes i know who you pretend i am i know who you pretend i am

LI. THE KILLING TYPE / AMANDA PALMER

i couldn't kill to get you back and i've officially been asked i couldn't kill to save a life i'd rather a die a peaceful piece of shit-bait shame-filled coward, thanks

LII. HAVE IT OUT / MOTHER MOTHER

i have it out, i have it out, with myself, with myself, i have it out it's gonna get ugly it's gonna get messy it's gonna be world war iii of myself

LIII. CATABOLIC SEED / THE SCARY JOKES

oh i made a silly mistake (what'd you do?) i've given up more than i can take (uh oh!) and left hollows in my wake my structure's compromised but you still batter at all my fault lines i can't run, i can't hide, but you can't say i didn't try

LIV. DOPPELGANGER / THE ANTLERS

and now's he howling, but i'm muted by the horror how he's everywhere and waiting now he's just around the corner

LV. LEFT ALONE / FIONA APPLE

and now i'm hard, too hard to know i don't cry when i'm sad anymore, no no tears calcify in my tummy, fears coincide with the tow how can i ask anyone to love me when all i do is beg to be left alone?

LVI. HEEL TURN 2 / THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

spend too much of my life now trying to play fair throw my better self overboard shoot at him when he comes up for air come unhinged get revenge i don't want to die in here i don't want to die in here

LVII. NOT ABOUT LOVE / FIONA APPLE

conversation once colored by esteem became dialogue as a diagram of a play for blood took a vacation, my palate got clean now i could taste your agenda while you're spitting your cud

LVIII. SEVENTEEN / MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS

oh, you were embarrassed of me 'cause i used my tongue freely bet you wish i couldn't speak 'cause when i do, you know i tell you why you appear weak

LIX. YOUR WOMAN / WHITE TOWN

now i know your heart, i know your mind, you don't even know you're being unkind, so much for all your high brow marxist ways, just use me up and then you walk away boy, you can't play me that way

LX. DEADBODY / MIYA FOLICK

i need you to know i'm not powerless my strength lies within my gentleness and i'm already hurt so now i don't have to hide and i hold all the heads of my brothers and my sisters high

LXI. YOUR DOG / SOCCER MOMMY

i'm not a prop for you to use when you're lonely or confused i want a love that lets me breathe i've been choking on your leash

LXII. RIPE / SCREAMING FEMALES

i built this game to play and to pretend you are a dark machine and i'm a cog when engines crack, when fuel lines break off i'll save your bits and let your motor rot

LXIII. WINDOW / FIONA APPLE

i was staring out the window the whole time he was talking to me it was a filthy pane of glass i couldn't get a clear view and as he went on and on it wasn't the outside world i could see just the filthy pane that i was looking through

LXIV. BLUE TRASH MATTRESS FIRE / SLEIGH BELLS

i'll do it, i'll jump not for kicks, not for fun but because this shit is too much it's fucking me up enough is enough, enough is enough!

LXV. BITE THE HAND / BOYGENIUS

who do you think you are? who do you think i am? what do you wanna say? what do you think will change? maybe i'm afraid of you maybe i'm afraid of you

LXVI. VENGEANCE / HOT SUGAR

[instrumental]

LXVII. EYES ON FIRE / BLUE FOUNDATION

i'm taking it slow feeding my flame shuffling the cards of your game and just in time, in the right place suddenly i will play my ace

LXVIII. NO CHILDREN / THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

and i hope when you think of me years down the line you can't find one good thing to say and i'd hope that if i found the strength to walk out you'd stay the hell out of my way

LXIX. FUCK WAS I / JENNY OWEN YOUNGS

love grows in me like a tumor parasite bent on devouring its host i’m developing my sense of humor till i can laugh at my heart between your teeth till i can laugh at my face beneath your feet

LXX. SERPENTS / SHARON VAN ETTEN

serpents in my mind, i am searching for your crimes everything changes in time you'll stay frozen in time collaging girls, controlling minds you hold the mirror well to everybody else

LXXI. IF YOU FEEL BETTER / EMILY AUTUMN

if you feel better telling me i'm cruel saying i'm unfeeling i don't mind if it's necessary, if it helps you out crying that i'm heartless it's alright

LXXII. THE GOOD THAT WON’T COME OUT / RILO KILEY

i do this thing where i think i'm real sick but i won't go to the doctor to find out about it 'cause they make you stand real still in a real small place as they chartup your insides and put them on display they'd see all of it, all of me, all of it

LXXIII. THE BODY IS A BLADE / JAPANESE BREAKFAST

try your best to slowly withdraw from the darkest impulses of your heart try your best to feel and receive your body is blade that cuts a path from day to day

LXXIV. GET LONELY / THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

and i will go downtown, stand in the shadows of the buildings and button up my coat, trying to stay strong, spirit willing and i will come back home, maybe call some friends maybe paint some pictures it all depends and i will get lonely, and gasp for air and look up at the high windows, and see your face up there

LXXV. MOTION SICKNESS / PHOEBE BRIDGERS

i hate you for what you did and i miss you like a little kid i faked it every time but that's alright i can hardly feel anything i hardly feel anything at all

LXXVI. EMPTY / METRIC

sickness was fixing me some coughed out my heart in the last stall now that the damage is done i never miss it at all

LXXVII. TINDER / ORIGAMIBRO

[instrumental]

LXXVIII. REMEMBER MY NAME / MITSKI

'cause i need somebody to remember my name after all that i can do for them is done i need someone to remember me

LXXIX. THE EXECUTION OF ALL THINGS / RILO KILEY

soldiers come quickly, i feel the earth beneath my feet i'm feeling badly, but it's not an attempt at decency and if you're well off, well then i'm happy some for you but i'd rather not celebrate my defeat and humiliation here with you

LXXX. THE THUNDER ANSWERED BACK / Ó

i screamed out, “how'd it get this bad?” and the thunder answered back “if you know not what you lack then you must unturn your back your inside is overcast and you are tethered to your past and it must feel like fucking hell to be a patchwork of yourself a bunch of scraps thrown and sewn around your bones and though you're alone it's holding you too tightly but who are you? from where do you come? what do you believe in? and whom do you love?"

LXXXI. DIE HAPPY / METRIC

this city is thick with common thieves still passing around the same disease who's running this town and why are we? still drinking that kool-aid like it's free

LXXXII. ALL MY PRIDE / BLACK HONEY

all my scars will heal in time now he's gone with all my pride everybody's saying what i need to do but i haven't got a thing to prove, prove to you

LXXXIII. HEADS WILL ROLL / YEAH YEAH YEAHS

glitter on the west streets silver over everything the rivers all wet you're all chrome

LXXXIV. ART OF DOUBT / METRIC

you said "don't let your heart give out" no, i won't let my heart give out you said "don't let your breath run out" no, i won't let my breath run out

LXXXV. BLACK EYE/BURNT THUMB / METRONOMY

[instrumental]

LXXXVI. KLAPP KLAPP / LITTLE DRAGON

somebody from my heart sang i could turn off and never wake up and everything's clear, my breath made like-steam fake feel better fallin' apart, apart, apart, apart, apart

LXXXVII. VANISHING ACT / THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

[instrumental]

LXXXVIII. AUBERGINE / LADY LAMB

i was unborn when i was younger i was unborn when i was younger but i was rebuilt when you spoke i awoke when you spoke

LXXXIX. PSYCHIC READER / BAD BAD HATS

when i look at you, i get a good vibration stay on the line until i hit your station i was meant for you so i can be patient, yeah

XC. BETS AGAINST THE VOID / THE SCARY JOKES

the sun is just a copper coin i flip in bets against the void imitating choice 'til i feel good again, i'll keep them in a tin can then i'll have copper coins to spare

XCI. GIRL / THE INTERNET

passion burning, causing rapture of laughter pressure building, falling faster and faster if i told you that you rock my world, i want you around me would you let me call you my girl? (my girlfriend, my girlfriend) i can give you the life you deserve, just say the word and i got you, baby i got you

XCII. BUZZCUT SEASON / LORDE

i remember when your head caught flame it kissed your scalp and caressed your brain well you laughed, baby it's okay it's buzz cut season anyway

XCIII. GEYSER / MITSKI

you're my number one you're the one i want and i've turned down every hand that has beckoned me to come

XCIV. A KISS / THE BLOW

those dances that I did, they really weren't all that fun to do i only did them 'cause they were the only ones i knew they called me player, i just played who i thought i should be i'd still be her if you hadn't come and interrupted me from the kiss

XCV. CRANE YOUR NECK / LADY LAMB

and i placed my palm upon your collarbone and i wished to fall asleep deep in your marrow as gently as a mouse curled up in a ball as gently as a mouse until tomorrow

XCVI. DANCE YRSELF CLEAN (COVER) / MS MR

walking up to me expecting walking up to me expecting words, it happens all the time present company accepted present company, except the worst it happens every night

XCVII. SOFT SOUNDS FROM ANOTHER PLANET / JAPANESE BREAKFAST

in search of a soft sound from another planet in search of a quiet place to lay this to rest striving for goodness while the cruel men win there's no part of me left that can feel or hear it

XCVIII. A BETTER SON/DAUGHTER / RILO KILEY

and sometimes when you're on, you're really fucking on and your friends, they sing along and they love you but the lows are so extreme that the good seems fucking cheap and it teases you for weeks in its absence but you'll fight and you'll make it through, you'll fake it if you have to and you'll show up for work with a smile and you'll be better and you'll be smarter and more grown up and a better daughter or son, and a real good friend

XCIX. TRAUMA / HOT SUGAR

[instrumental]

C. WOKE UP NEW / THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

the first time i made coffee for just myself, i made too much of it but i drank it all, just 'cause you hate it when i let things go to waste and i wandered through the house like a little boy, lost at the mall and an astronaut could've seen the hunger in my eyes from space

#plylsts #we are back in business baybee... no actual cover art this time though because im lazy. soz #ill probably add some at some point though. someday #cataclysmalbound #also literally so sorry for you mobile people out there but it had to be this way. glad you were all willing to sacrifice yourselves

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witchyfictional · 2 years

Text

Week 12 pt.2 (SPRING 12/13)

Professional Log of Harper Tobin, Journeyman Witch

[see PART 1 here]

Additional Notes:

Cleaning all the yeti hair off of my bed and out of my kitchen motivated me to find a contractor in town and pay 300 silver for an actual Treatment Room to get built alongside the apothecary cottage. I’m getting pretty tired of cleaning the entire house and disinfecting my own furniture after every patient. I was told it could be finished and ready by the end of the week, which was a relief. I instructed Dwayne to supervise the proceedings and make sure everyone stays on track.

After taking care of that problem, I went to find Ariadne Soriah in the tavern she’s been staying in. I took her out to tea and told her about my struggle with Bàs Bàta’s remedy these past several weeks, and everything that happened today when I was finally able to treat the creature. I described what I glimpsed at the bottom of Meltwater Loch, and asked if it might possibly be in line with what she’s been searching for – the ancient underwater city she want to study. Ariadne was extremely excited and drilled me for all the details. It seems this might be a lead after all.

We picked up some supplies in town and headed out for the Loch, stopping briefly at the Boot & Breakfast (the giant’s shoe where the Trippins live and work) to tell Calliope of our discovery and invite her along. She grabbed her gear as well and the three of us set out on an expedition together. We made our way to the beach, took our breathing pills and dove into the water close to the place I’d last encountered Bàs Bàta. Ariadne was in it for her studies, Calliope and I mostly for the adventure of it – although I also was pretty eager to do some foraging along the way. Specifically, I want to find another of that Fossil Fish that Calliope gave me a few months back. Señor SkeleFins is a dearly sentimental pet by now, and I would be loathe to have to utilize him for a remedy, no matter how valuable he might be.

As we swam just past the sunken pirate ship, the lake bottom dropped into a deeper slope and we could see farther down into its depths. From such a distance – who knew a lake could be this deep? But then, this is also home to a sea dragon and sunken pirate ships, so what do I know – we could not see much, but we certainly saw enough to hint that there was more than sand and algae below. Mysterious silhouettes and the occasional flicker of strange light drew us forward, down farther and farther. We had to take several rests before continuing, but eventually we found ourselves entering a wondrous landscape of ruins rising up from the lakebed. Spires and citadels, gardens and great stone bridges all crusted over with coral and surrounded by shining schools of fish. Among the ruins there were numerous glowing figures drifting about in slow patterns, too far away for us to make out clearly.

We descended into a courtyard to decide where we would explore first. As we swam around the next corner we encountered the sight of a brightly colored merfolk swimming ahead of us. They had hair like fiery red coral and skin tinged a pale, minty green. Its tricky to guess at gender, since they aren’t mammalian and don’t have some of the same differentiating features that we do, but they were very beautiful. The way they moved was mesmerizing, like a spectacular, glittering dance. We were spellbound.

They eventually noticed our staring and approached, beaming widely. We tried to greet them but we quickly found that we didn’t share any language, although we made a very determined attempt using mostly pantomime and hand signs. It’s difficult to say for sure what they wanted to tell us, but I got the hunch that they were celebrating the banishment of Bàs Bàta’s wrath. At some point they tugged at our hands and drew us into dancing with them, humming a slightly surreal but lovely melody. Their voice resonated in the water in a similar way that Bàs Bàta’s did, but on a much smaller and less unsettling scale.

Ariadne has dubbed our new friend “Coral,” because it’s thematic and sounds vaguely similar to the word they used when they seemed to be trying to tell us their name. After we all had our fill of dancing, Coral stuck with us as an impromptu tour guide to the sunken city. The place is magnificent and enormous. I am certain we won’t be able to see it all in one outing. It’s not all dancing and sightseeing, either – as we drifted through the sunken streets, we were able to see those glowing shapes from befores a little more clearly, and realized that each and every one of them was a a ghost. Unsure which, if any, were malevolent, we followed Coral’s lead and did our best to avoid their notice.

As we passed what seemed to be an ancient temple domed in colored glass, which was somehow mostly intact, I finally spotted a Fossil Fish around one of the open archways. I was able to catch it, but then there was a sudden shriek as a ghost darted at me from inside. I’ve never gone up against a ghost (at least, none free of suits of armor). I had no idea how to react. Although it seemed to be trying to strangle me, it passed right through me – harmless, physically – and then faded into the silt. I was paralyzed for several breaths as my vision blurred into what was probably a memory, or the echo of a memory.

The courtyard was under the sun instead of underwater; the air smelled like salt and iron. My hands – which weren’t actually my hands but someone else’s – were wrapped around somebody’s throat. I felt them squeezing and shaking and I felt my teeth gritting painfully and in the distance I could hear another voice screaming…

…Then it all abruptly ended, and I was back in the muffled quiet of the lake, although my hand were still shaking. Although I was fine, and I told my friends I was fine, and we continued our exploration, it took me a while to shake it all off to be honest.

I found another Fossil Fish just before the end of the expedition. Or, well, the end of the expedition for me. After bottling my second catch up, I thought I saw another through the cracks in a stone wall, but it turns out it wasn’t a Fossil Fish. It was a breed I’m unfamiliar with, and it fed from me in a jet of warm water sprayed directly into my face. I lost consciousness, and am writing this now in the wagon home, having only woken up hours later. I’ve already apologized to the others for the necessity of dragging my limp body around.

I’m very embarrassed, but also a little intrigued by the incident. Whatever that fish sprayed at me gave me intensely vivid dreams – not at all horrible like the vision I had from the ghost; these were very, very good dreams. The details will remain private, but I will say I feel extremely well-rested for the first time in weeks, and I’m finally feeling like I’ve got the hang of it here in High Rannoc. It’s an exciting place, and I feel like I have the energy to take on aynthing now.

OOC: Rep – 19 [Intermediate] Silver – 74 Tools – basics / coracle / sickle (+2 foraging points) Familiar skill – Hunter (-3 to find Animal reagents) Golem Helper: supervising construction

Upgrades: – Garden plot (x1; Surgeon Sap) – Raven Loft (take 2 jobs; if both on time, x2 pay for second draw) – Treatment Room (+3 all Timers, +10 silver /successful potion)

Surplus reagents: ** Surgeon Sap [wound] [burn] [+1s] — (freely available) *** Amethyst Antlers [magic] [curse] [mood] — (x2) ~Candy Rock [+4s] — (x1) * Coldrust [hot] [magic] — (x1) * Deep Reed [ear] [blood] [stomach] — (x1) ** Dentist Crabs [teeth] [mouth] [lungs] [infection] — (x1) ** Foot Fungus [burn] [boils] [rash] [+2p] — (x2) *** Fossil Fish [time] [magic] — (x3) * Gas Weed [lungs] — (x1) *** Ghost Goo [spirit] [curse] — (x1) ** Glittersnow [curse] [magic] — (x1) * Hermit Snails [wound] [bones] — (x1) *** Innocent’s Suffering [pain] [sleep] [nerves] [wound] — (x2) ! *** Jumpkin [stomach] [cold] — (x1) ** Mermaid’s Gift [hair] [+1p] — (x1) *** Moon Moss [blood] [curse] — (x1) ** Princess Toad [wart] [rash] [mood] — (x1) * Scramble Bramble [mood] [senses] [+1p] — (x1) * Skullcap [poison] [pain] — (x4) **Shadow Shark [pain] [burn] [rash] [-1s] — (x1) ** Shockfish [nerves] [pain] [boils] — (x3) * Silverleaf [infection] [rash] — (x1) *** Wigfish [mood] [sleep] [hair] — (x2)

#Apothecaria #Apothecaria logs #Treatment Room #Bàs Bàta #Dreamwater Depths #Ariadne Soriah #Calliope Trippin #Señor SkeleFins #Merfolk Coral #pt. 2 #downtime

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 6 years

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A Yellowstone guide to life on Mars UC geologists are looking for an elemental biosignature that might help NASA identify life on the red planet during the Mars 2020 rover mission. A University of Cincinnati geology student is helping NASA determine whether life existed on other planets. Doctoral candidate Andrew Gangidine is working with UC geology professor Andrew Czaja to develop a marker for ancient bacterial life on Mars. The research could help scientists put to rest one of our most fundamental mysteries. "We're trying to answer the question: How rare is life in the universe?" Gangidine said. Czaja, an assistant professor in UC's McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, serves on a NASA advisory committee that will decide where on Mars to send the next remote-controlled rover. Among other objectives, the rover will look for evidence that life once existed on the red planet. The advisory committee has narrowed the list of landing-site candidates to three and will recommend a finalist later this year. Meanwhile, Gangidine is studying microbial life in silica hot springs to come up with a useful indicator of life on Mars. For the past two years, he has conducted fieldwork in the geyser basins of Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park to examine what elements are associated with bacteria that live in these geothermal pools. "We want to remain objective. Some people think there has to be life on Mars," Gangidine said. "Others think there certainly isn't life on Mars. And either side has a good chance of being correct. Both have valid arguments. Which is why if we go there and don't see anything, it won't be 'mission fail.'" Gangidine presented his research April 25 at the Second International Mars Sample Return conference in Berlin, Germany. Today, we know that life cannot exist on Mars, at least not on its dry surface. Solar radiation split most of its surface water into its elemental parts nearly 3 billion years ago when the red planet lost its protective magnetic field. But scientists are debating whether life might exist somewhere deep underground, among pockets of water trapped around geothermal areas similar to Yellowstone's geysers. Finding evidence of life on Mars is surprisingly complicated. If Mars ever sustained life, it's possible that it was wiped out when most of its atmosphere vanished in the solar wind, Czaja said. So NASA scientists must be prepared to look for fossil evidence of bacterial life dating back that far. Gangidine said the good news is that similar fossils of early bacterial life more than 3.5 billion years ago have been found on Earth. This makes him optimistic that if similar life ever existed on Mars, NASA has a chance of finding a fossil record of it. "We can look at life being preserved in these silica deposits today. We have evidence of this happening throughout geologic time," Gangidine said. "What we're trying to do is catch fossilization as it happens. What happens to the microbes themselves? And what happens to the trace elements we think are associated with them while they're alive?" To unearth clues about ancient life on Mars, geologists look to hot springs such as those found in America's first national park. Gangidine and his colleagues need permits to collect samples in the park's backcountry. But exploring the geyser basins can be tricky and dangerous. A tourist died in 2017 after falling into one of the basin's boiling pools while hiking off-trail. "These things really can strip the flesh off your bones," Gangidine said. "At the bottom of hot springs we study you see skulls of bison and other animals that were unfortunate enough to wander too close." Gangidine's team includes an experienced backcountry field researcher, UC postdoctoral fellow Jeff Havig who is now with the University of Minnesota. They pick their way carefully across the caldera. Sometimes, they can see where a bison's hoof has broken through the thin crust to reveal steaming mud. The geology work takes them across "quaking bogs," a thin layer of peat and grass covering deep shifting mud. Gangidine was walking alongside a colleague on one such hike when he sank above his knees in the treacherous mire. "Luckily, that place wasn't super hot. But I was walking just a foot away from someone else. The ground can really change quickly," he said. "When we go into these settings, we have to be very careful." Boiling acid and lava-like mud aren't the only hazards for researchers in the geyser basins. They also have to be careful not to spend too long around the steam vents, which contain a mix of gases such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and methane that can asphyxiate a person under the right conditions. The U.S. Geological Survey documented this phenomenon in 1888 in part of the park nicknamed "Death Gulch," a natural depression between two steep hills where toxic gases bubble up from Cache Creek. Harvard University geologist T.A. Jaggar Jr. returned to the area in 1899 and found six bears, an elk and various small animals that died apparently after succumbing to the toxic fumes. But even in the fresh air, the gas rising from the ground can have a cumulative effect, Gangidine said. "These hot springs emit a lot of gases you don't want to breathe in. They bind to the hemoglobin that carries oxygen through your body. Breathing that in, you get very fatigued," Gangidine said. "That's why we try to schedule a day out of the field for every three days we work in the field. If you're there for four days, you can really feel like a zombie. It's really hard to think, hard to move." As a biology undergraduate at UC, Gangidine worked with UC biology professor Dennis Grogan to examine microbial life called extremophiles that live in hostile places such as Yellowstone's acidic or alkaline hot springs. Now as a geologist, Gangidine is studying the fossils these hardy single-celled creatures leave behind. "Hot springs make silica deposits that preserve life really well," Gangidine said. "When left exposed on a planet's surface, it doesn't crystallize and doesn't metamorphose. So these samples should be relatively well preserved if we find them." In UC professor Czaja's geology lab, Gangidine peers through a microscope at slides he prepared from chunks of Yellowstone silica he took from a mountainous steam cone geyser. The bacterial filaments from samples taken at the top of the geyser are full of color. But the older samples, some perhaps thousands of years old, are colorless, even if they hold their shape. So for more clues about this basic form of life, Gangidine subjects the bacterial samples to elemental analysis using a secondary ion mass spectrometer. The analysis renders the elements in vivid color: deep yellows, reds and greens representing chromium or gallium perhaps associated with the bacterial life. If Gangidine finds a correlation between the concentrations and spatial distributions of particular elements and the bacteria, it might serve as a biosignature that scientists can use to identify past life on Mars. "The reason we chose gallium is it's not known to be associated with life. But when we look at the fossilized bacterial samples, we find it, so there must be something going on," Gangidine said. "Do the bacteria store certain elements preferentially as opposed to what you would find elsewhere in these rocks?" Gangidine is working with researchers in Australia, home to some of the world's oldest fossils, some dating back 3.5 billion years. "If I want to create a biosignature, I have to prove that it persists throughout time," Gangidine said. "It exists in these relatively younger samples. But does it exist in these ancient samples, too? That will be crucial to figure out." Gangidine also plans to build an artificial hot spring in a lab aquarium using similar elements found in geysers. By introducing a super-saturation to the water, the excess silica will precipitate much the same way it does in nature. Then he can add trace chemicals associated with life and study what happens in a miniature world absent of life. "To prove we found a biosignature, we have to prove the signature doesn't occur without life," he said. "Gallium is the one we were surprised by," Czaja said. "It is associated with silica near the bacteria but isn't in the bacteria." Like Gangidine, Czaja got his start in the sciences by studying biology before pursuing a career in paleontology. Czaja's NASA advisory committee will meet in October to decide where on Mars they would like to send the rover among the three preferred destinations. The rover is tentatively slated for launch in July or August of 2020, arriving on Mars about seven months later. "NASA tends to like to go new places to push the frontier. Geologists like to go back to the same places over and over to ask new questions," Czaja said. The rover will collect samples in sealed containers for shipping back to Earth in a later mission. So it could be many years before geologists such as Czaja and Gangidine know whether their hunches about where best to look for life on Mars were correct. Helping to frame a question that you may never live to see answered is one of science's most selfless pursuits, Czaja said. "One thing I like about these NASA missions is the long-term thinking and planning," he said. "People working on these projects now may never see the results. But they're still willing to put in the work because it's such a fascinating question." The Mars 2020 mission will not be a failure if scientists find no evidence of life. Quite the contrary, Gangidine said. "If we find it, we can say maybe life is not that rare among planets," Gangidine said. "But if we don't find life in places that would be the most ideal and best preserved candidates, then maybe life is pretty rare." But if NASA does find evidence of life on Mars, that might suggest that sparking life from a primordial soup isn't so extraordinary after all. And the first question will be how life on Mars compares to life on Earth, Czaja said. Was there a common ancestor? "Maybe we're all Martians," Czaja said. Any claim about the existence or absence of life on Mars will be subjected to worldwide scrutiny and skepticism. Czaja said researchers must be prepared to provide a wealth of evidence to fortify their findings. "It's not nearly enough to find something that looks like a bacterial cell," Czaja said. "There are nonbiological things that could look like that. But if you have a cascade of traits -- this and this and this added together -- it's hard to explain it any other way except for life." TOP IMAGE....UC geologists stand near one of Yellowstone National Park's famed hot springs in its geyser basin. UC hopes to find an elemental marker that could help NASA identify life on Mars. CREDIT Annie Gangidine LOWER IMAGE....A UC analysis using a secondary ion mass spectrometer reveals elements such as gallium associated with bacteria found in silica deposits in Yellowstone's geyser basin. CREDIT Andrew Gangidine/UC

#space #science #Astronomy #astrophysics #planetary science #Mars #astrobiology #geology #yellowstone

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vasilinaorlova · 6 years

Text

Letters from the Depths of Solitude. Embrace

I saw a very bright, very green ray sifting through blinds, as the sun hit one of the highest mirror skyscrapers in the sunset Austin; it was not a beam itself but its reflection ricocheting off of the window frame.

It overshone the Christmas tree that we put in front of the window in the living room this year. My child said that the wooden railroad we constructed under the Christmas tree reminded him of the time when he was a baby. "That brings me to the time when I was a baby." (I think he's gotten the railroad for his 4th New Year celebration).

It is astounding to me how children perceive reality. I am never able to predict, with all the ways my thought might run, what my child will say next. They pause before they say anything. They think before speaking. They have few automatic reactions compared to adults reproducing learned behaviors.

If only we were capable of providing our children with safety, comfort, and joy that they deserve. The planet could be beautified over the course of several generations. To give them an opportunity to learn dance, music, languages, math, physics, art, the way they like it—not hate it... But we fail at that, and our children grow up into mere versions of us.

And us, who is us? Are we happy? If so then not with a shallow happiness of reliance on others. I cannot be happy but I can be content. Happiness is as elusive as any other feeling and equally torments one as longing does with its feeble inconstancy. Perhaps the way to be happy in the world is the way to abandon hopes that are too lofty and dreams that soar too high.

Why can't we remain children forever? Why can't we preserve the feel of the time that promises miracles, gifts, travels, adventures, encounters, findings, surprises? In the shimmer of the New Year's eve dim lights, one realizes with an undeniable poignancy that one is no longer a child and has no big hope for oneself or for the world. Yet there are still things to be charmed by and to look forward to.

My lack of happiness strikes me as a lack of gratitude to something. In a pagan or Christian, or any other spiritual perspective, this equation is perfectly logical and makes wonderful sense. There are always supranatural forces that are benevolent or evil and that require sacrifice or pacifying, as well as the gratitude and humility at failures. But my world is devoid of beings on this level of abstractions. Without engaging in any progressivist talk, spiritual realm no longer makes any sense to me and frankly, it is too boring (and gets you nowhere) to even speak in these terms.

The other day, I observed a collection of stromatolites--petrified structures that colonies of photosynthesizing bacteria leave. Texas is an incredibly rich land. I became something of a patriot of celestial Texas over my seven years of living here. (On a side note, I never ceased to be a patriot of celestial Russia.)

I like to visit the stone store "We Rock" near I-35 in Austin. It is a showcase for the overabundance of Texas soils and caverns. But even there, I've never seen stromatolites before. And then I saw them: the sandlike texture of circles; heavy, compact structures. The bacteria that form sandlike concentric rows, are dead for possibly billion years. These fossilized objects are the realms, kingdoms, and countries of tiny creatures. (Perhaps, nation-states, with their own patriots, so to speak.) These are universes, considering that the bacteria in one of these fossilized sedimentations are likely more numerous than all the human population the world has seen, including those human beings who are dead. Despite their damaging influence on the environment, human beings are comparatively few on this planet. One will unavoidably contemplate the scarcity of human population, observing the world's overabundance. Stones make one think about the fleeting quality of life, the scale of worlds unfolding and collapsing in front of our eyes. Stones are memory objects that are not objects, and also have no memory in a sense that it is us interpreting them and trying to penetrate them who can speak of memory at all. Their memory is devoid of memory, nor does it need to memorize itself. It is memory objectivized, petrified but fleeting; palpable, visualized, vivid, textured. These sculptures are memorials to the effervescent and the ephemeral.

Somehow petrified objects--particularly once-living beings or their whole colonies--seem to be more content with their existence than you are, a fickle human, always fidgeting. But in the evening, I read a striking confession of the Austin artist, with a penchant to all things magical, and a practicing taro reader herself (not unlike the one I saw in that stone store, asking a client: “So, what are we discussing today? Ah, you’re getting the new job. I see.”

The artist wrote that a year ago, on the solstice, she fully and wholeheartedly embraced celibacy; she irrevocably decided to end a damned circle of searching to love, understanding, deep connection that is sustainable, abandoned even the thought of trying, and returned to herself that she had been neglected for too long. Not only did she mean to mend her wounded, broken, and re-broken heart, but to un-grasp the clasp on the very idea of sharing her solitude with someone. She wrote, she needed her solitude, for herself and for her writing. She said longing, wishfullness, wishing, desire, its griefs and failures, the deep dissappointments of love, passion’s absurd hopes, enchantment’s self-abduction, no longer resonated with her. She did not wish to experience any of those any longer. No further wanted she love someone who, she felt, too often took advantage of her. She has taken a vow of celibacy for herself, herself the only witness, and in one year she talked about how much of deadends and loopholes in her previous passions she came to understand with clarity.

I sensed such an abyss of aloneness in her writing. It was more than a human solitude; it was a solitude of a fossilized object in the endless wild, spacious void of the indifferent planet. The winter embraces the glass body of a petrified being, buries it under brown, discolored leaves and snow; the sun licks the glass eye of the deer. Silence is descending upon the city and the park, the forest and the lake. Sounds are muffled; voices muted. The winter solstice; the shortest day, the longest, darkest night to survive: to sleep away, to breathe away, to talk away, to write away, to forget like many such nights. Let the only witness be a stone nautilus, a prehistoric bone, somewhere far away, in dunes, under the wind, offering itself like a flute if the bone is hollow, or if solid, washed with sand grains, lost feathers, hair wisps, paper shreds where letters, if printed, are already always indiscernible. The stars will look at the face of the earth, a tiny dot of it in a constellation of worlds--Cassiopeia, Perseus, Pegasus, Hydra, Corona Borealis, all observing, at an unimaginable distance, our little human mournings and joys.

(Written on a taro master’s ad.)

#letter #letters

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