#issa rat

[artharakka]

When the antagonist npc your DM created is so hot that you have to hijack a nameless bandit npc to take a bullet for her.

💐 RIP Issa, who died like she lived: loving Areta 🧡💐

#dnd #d&d #Dungeons and Dragons #Heartland campaign #Issa #remember that comic I drew about the duel between Verna and the bandit leader Areta? #Well apparently all the commotion they caused attracted a really big carnivore fantasy beast remona #which attacked them from the bushes and aimed to bite already injured Areta in half #as a hopeless lesbian I immediately yelled ''CAN THE FANGIRL (as she was named before becoming Issa) TAKE THE BULLET FOR ARETA?!'' #@artist-rat allowed that and so I had to roleplay Issa's final moments as she run between remona and Areta and got to feel the beast's teeth #but Areta my beloved survived 😔❤ #gods I love this campaign and the bandits

[ocean-not-found]

#i wish i could say im lying #but this is true #google it #Frank iero #issa #greasy #italian #rat #And Frank #being a greasy #italian rat #will pop up #In all his glory #uhm #my chemical romance #mcr #emo #fronk #frank iero #being a #greasy italian rat

[morallyinept]

The Pit - An Ezra One Shot

^ Sound on 🔊

Summary: Ezra and you stumble into an ominous pit on a prospecting mission for coveted azure diamonds on the Narillan moon, and find more than you bargain for.

Pairing: Ezra x F!Reader (No name or physical description of reader. It’s you, bub.)

Word Count: 11.9k 👀 'Issa long one!

Scoville Smut Rating:🌶️🌶️🌶️ “You tell me I’m doing well, and then, you try to kill me.”

Check out my Scoville Smut Ratings here

Explicit - DARK-ISH themes/kinks/smut. Possibly an attempt at macabre/gore type horror? Ezra being a roguish douche (but that’s why we love ‘im). Tentacles. Lots of tentacles. Sex/Unprotected PIV (wrap up, folks!) Oral/insertion/pregnancy/birthing some weird stuff/alien life forms/interspecies intercourse/some mild dubcon/anal/slight hints of cannibalism, because at this point, why not? 🥴 And some other fucked up shit that my brain rot conjured up. Did I mention the abundance of tentacles?

Sci-Fi/Horror-esque. There’s some plot in there somewhere, I swear to Kevva.

NSFW. MINORS DNI! OVER 18’s ONLY. YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT YOU READ. ☝🏻Don’t come at me; you’ve been plenty warned.

Author’s Note: Had this idea slithering around the ol’ noggin. Figured Ezra would be down because he’s fancy like that.

I am well aware that this won't be for everyone. If it's not for you, that's absolutely fine. Just quietly slip out. No need to make a fuss.

I'll have more Ezra that's coming soon, in different varieties/genres.

I'm pretty happy with the way Ezra talks in a manner befitting for him in this. I took my own advice. But I'll let you guys be the judge of that. Let me know if I captured him.

Enjoy! 🖤

MASTERLIST | EZRA MASTERLIST

“... Blasted, shit-eating things, channel rats. Did I regale you with the time my crew and I were subject to an unfettered infestation?”

Ezra prattles on ahead of you, further up the caverns, the light from his helmet casting an eerie glow about the dark boulder formations.

As far out as he is ahead of you, stepping oafishly over a knuckle of rocks, his voice is sound and droning inside your ear and there is no way to drown him out. Unless you garrotte him, of course.

Now, there’s a thought.

“Yes,” you sigh wearily. “I’ve heard all about the fucking channel rats.” Clubbing him to death with a rock sure sounded like a mighty fine idea about now.

You’re blinded by a small, white light flickering into the back of your retinas when he stops and turns to look back at you.

“Irritation becomes you, Birdie.” Ezra observes with a breathy gruff. It sounds like the crash of the ocean on Lau inside your ear. "Still captivating though."

You're beyond irritated having had the misfortune of listening to him rabble non-stop on this Kevva forsaken journey into the back end of the universe’s rectum it feels like. One that you’re beginning to regret inherently.

“We’re lost, Ezra. We’ve been lost for hours now. I thought you said you knew-”

“-Know these caves like the back of my right paw, yes. That is what I confirmed.” He offers a crooked smile as he waves his stump at you as you catch up to him. "Well, that's not at all disconcerting now is it?" He teases as the place where his right hand should be is filled with an obvious emptiness.

He frowns when you fail to laugh. “I may have offered you a partial truth. But I'm fairly certain I can navigate us to the root of our coveted gain unscathed.” He adds.

“Fairly?”

“It’s a diminutive guarantee.” Ezra affirms with a serious face. “Although, if I’m to be completely notwithstanding, Narilla is a place I’ve not set foot on before myself. But I've conversed greatly with those who have.”

“Fucking great.” You gripe as you reach him.

Your hair sticks to your face with sweat inside your helmet and it irks you that you can’t simply wipe it away as it catches on your lip tiresomely.

Traipsing around this dank, humid cave system on the forgotten moon of Narilla, with the wily and grossly unpredictable prospector as your guide, is not exactly the mission you'd envisioned when he’d lured you in over strong stout on Puggart Bench of such a daunting, yet rewarding charge.

You’d sat bemused, a few tables away with your scuff booted feet up eavesdropping, as you nursed your own beer, at vicarious tales of skulduggery and betrayal - his own included.

His aquiline face was well known around these putrid parts. As much as you’d love to avoid a feculent swamp like this on The Pug, populated with unsavoury characters in their swarms, it was a necessary evil to hear of good places to prospect now they’d closed up the Bakhroma route for good.

Kevva knows that prospectors could pilfer and loot better than anyone in The Fringe, and your own talents attested to this. Ezra too, had garnered himself an erudite reputation, even if marred in deceit, and a small fortune to retire from past ills that haunted the creases around his sullen eyes.

But yet he was still greedy for more as he bewitched you with promises of riches that would weigh down your pockets despite the preposterousness of it all. Such is the nature of a prospector; their greed knows no bounds. Cannot be satiated. And he could certainly talk the alluring talk, that was for sure.

Something more had drawn you in though; something about his Southern loquacious snap in which he weaved the threads of the fable about his eventful escape from the green moon of Bahkroma; an arm lost to it as well as some semblance of sanity it appeared.

He spoke through glassy, dark eyes, wide with tenacity, sluiced with the oncoming inertia from the hops and grains, and his story pulled a crowd of fellow miners and prospectors keen to hear the anecdotes pouring from his foam drenched moustache, as ludicrous as they were.

Most dismissed it as the drunken ramblings of a mad man quacking into his drink; scarred by his time on the haunting moon and her secrets, and perhaps it did drive him crazy to some extent.

However, Ezra rambled on animatedly about plentiful azure diamonds to anyone that would listen that were hidden in the caves under the frozen surface of Narilla. His story was backed up by those who had heard their own quips. Someone who knew someone who had garnered the moon's wealth for themselves, it was all the same spiel.

Like the twinkle in his eye, you simply couldn’t resist the temptation of their siren call and offered yourself up to accompany him on the collection of such rare, precious gems - Kevva knows the fortune was needed on your part - when a scant few turned away unconvinced. Gems that would fetch much more than Aurelac on the black market anyhow.

Whilst some of the gnarly men expressed their keen interest, Ezra denied them, setting his deep eyes on you.

I require a right-hand… woman, Ezra had stated, looking you up and down with something else inside of his vortex gaze as he supped at the foam from his weighty glass.

He’d shooed away the other potential partners in favour of you and your shapely form that he drank in as much as the beer.

You’d discussed with him the terms and your share of the haul, insisted on absolutely no impropriety, (for which you fell short on later that evening) and here you both were now, docked and stationed on the frozen moon and wandering around the intestines of the caves listening to him harp on about everything and nothing, and all that was gassy air in between.

Your teeth ache from all the grinding.

“Can you attach a slurry? I'm irrevocably parched, pet.” Ezra asks you, panting a little. There's condensation frosting around the rim of his helmet and sweat beads glistening on his forehead.

"I'm not your pet."

"Merely a term of endearment. An otherwise befitting compliment may be too fruitful to assume your acceptance into anything more than acquaintance." He shrugs.

"You assume much." Sighing, you busy yourself with the idle task as you attach the pack to the back of his cargo belt and cap it into the feeding tube for him.

“Do you have any idea where we are?” You query, checking your chronometer and scanning the vast dark abyss that presents itself to you.

The green icons and symbols are blurring faintly through the invisible static, fading like emerald apparitions.

Back on the lander, the static interfered with everything as soon as you entered the atmosphere, and it only unnerved you that, if things should go awry, you would be out here by yourselves.

“Shouldn’t be much further ahead, I’d wager.” Ezra breathes around his straw inside his helmet. He licks his lips as he watches your scornful look tossed back at him. He simply offers you a knowing smirk.

“Lead the way,” you instruct with a knitted brow.

You follow him further into the breach of the dark; the strobes from your mutual head lamps making eerie patterns on the rock walls that claw and silently growl as they come to life like shadow puppets.

A while later Ezra stops dead in his tracks, raising his singular left hand. You hadn’t noticed he’d stopped; too occupied with convincing yourself that you weren’t seeing ominous things slithering around in the shadows.

You walk right into the back of him; your helmet bonking against the back of his. You utter some annoyed profanity that fuzzes into his ear piece.

“Kevva! What's that smell?” You question, wrinkling your nose as it seeps through your respirator. It smells like tar, coating the back of your throat in its thickness like amber tobacco as you inhale.

Ezra studies the wall beside him carefully, noticing the ominous sheen and runs his gloved hand through the goop that coats it.

“The stench emanates from this peculiar secretion.” He pries apart his velvet fingers and the sticky substance is stringy between the fibres. He lances you a look with keening eyes.

Your mind is flooded with skewbald images of your cunt slick beading over his lips, making them shine up at you as your thighs cushion either side of his head. Your groans, his lavacious grunts, batter around the back of your skull and leave broken contusions.

The shiny strings snapping on his gloves serve as a harsh reminder, which you're certain he's recalling in all it's sordid vividity too. Your pussy certainly is as it clenches involuntarily.

“Gross.” You declare as he tries to stifle a wolfish grin at your reaction.

“We push on, Birdie.” Ezra announces, wiping the slime down on the thigh of his olive flight suit.

“Stop calling me that.” You mutter, following behind.

“Well, you won’t tell me your name so I have to call you something.”

“No names.” You remind him.

“I recounted mine freely.”

“No names.” You confirm.

"Kevva's sake, you are stubborn as you are loathsome, woman." He mutters.

“That’s not what you said the other night." You smirk.

"I divulged a lot of soundbites that eve." Ezra can still hear the sounds you made around him, not put off by his apparent incapacitation. “As did you. But yet a mere name seems implausible.”

"Do you ever shut up?"

Ezra thought for a moment then smirked brazenly. "Only when a succulent quim takes throne on my face."

You roll your eyes. "Look, we get the diamonds, we leave and I don’t have to suffer your intolerable, repetitive anecdotes ever again. My name is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things." You growl, sucking your bottom lip into your teeth.

You can hear him chuckling away in your ear piece with a wheezy rasp. “Desperate to be rid of me already? I might flirt with the offended.”

“Pfft. You’ll get over it.” You mirth.

Although a shifty flush creeps insidiously into your already overheated cheeks, as uninvited images of him grunting as you sat on his hawkish face invade your mind like knives at a target board.

He could certainly put that mouth to good use. The thoughts your mind still conjures makes the inside of your helmet stifling.

The smell gets stronger as you meander closer to wherever the heck it is that Ezra is leading you into. A wider cavern opens itself up and you climb upon its slope exercising caution at his instruction to follow.

“One slip and the void will take you,” he warns with a simper rolling around his dry lips.

“Don’t tempt me,” you reply sardonically. You both step slowly and carefully along the ledge as the vertigo sways you towards its jaws. Steadying yourself, you push on behind him.

The tar-like smell intensifies when Ezra announces you’ve both arrived. Although you're hardly impressed - it's just another cavern like the million you’ve already hiked through to get here. You watch as he unclips his helmet spokes and the hiss of his respirator sounds snakelike inside your ear.

“Can we breathe down here?” You question warily at his flippancy.

“Assist me, would you?” He asks as he inhales through a toothy grin, nodding.

Once your own helmet is off, the subtle breeze of clean oxygen hits your face, cooling it. It's incredibly warm down here, considering the moon is in the midst of a deep freeze on the surface.

You watch as Ezra steps forward to another ledge and looks down. “There,” he points.

You step forward yourself and shine a light and are aghast at what you see.

A writhing mass of black, wet tentacles, twisting and undulating in an eerie dance. The glistening surface of each tentacle reflecting an otherworldly sheen, while they move with an unsettling fluidity.

Unfathomable thrumming spirals are spilling out around the pit below the ledge, moving in a coordinated, yet unpredictable manner, in various girths and lengths. Slick as they writhe against one another, pulsing like a singular heartbeat.

“What is that?” You mouth incredulously.

Upon closer inspection, faint iridescent patterns shimmer along the length of the tentacles, creating an illusion of ethereal beauty amidst the stark darkness, like they almost glow in places. The patterns shift and change as the tentacles move.

As the mass undulates gently, it seems to emit a low hum, barely audible, but one that can be felt deep within your chest, resonating with a haunting melody. It's a sound that stirs emotions buried in your subconscious, eliciting a mix of awe and wonder, tinged with an underlying sense of unease as you feel prickles shoot down your spine.

“Our entrance. Hmm. Bigger than I was infromed. No bother. We'll go through it.” Ezra pulls down the zipper of his flight suit and begins shaking it off of his only arm clumsily.

“Wait, what? Through it? What the fuck is it?!” You query, wide-eyed.

The enigmatic display of black, wet tentacles in this mysterious mass is a surreal and haunting sight, one that leaves you captivated by its beauty, while your rational mind reminds you of the depths of the unknown that lie within.

All you can envision is teeth. Sharp, piercing teeth.

“Take your suit off, pet.” He instructs calmly.

“Ezra.” You shake your head concerned.

He rolls his suit over his stump and down to his thermals. “It protects the diamonds. We need to go through it. We’ll pass right through, out to the bottom when they see we're not a threat to them. No harm done.”

“Are you fucking insane?”

“That's yet to be determined officially.” Ezra responds nonchalantly. “Although, I’ve been reassured that this is-”

“Wait, you’re basing this off of hearsay? How do you know that thing won’t fucking eat us?” You're sweating again.

Ezra rolls his suit down to his ankles and begins pulling at the lace of his worn boot. “I don’t.” He simply retorts.

“No.” You shake your head adamantly. “You can go and die if you want. I’ll wait here.” You’d encountered many odd alien-like entities in your time prospecting, but this? This is something else entirely.

You peer carefully over the ledge, seemingly unable to look away at the mass of tentacles that are free of suckers. They're just smooth and slick in their perfection. Lost in the horrific beauty and mystique of the scene, you feel a magnetic pull, as if the mass of tentacles beckons you to join its dance.

A part of you yearns to step closer, to unravel the secrets it holds, and yet another part hesitates, fearing the unknown consequences of such a connection. In the midst of this ghastly display, a heavy feeling of dread envelops you, like an invisible hand tightening around your heart that crushes.

“Nu-uh, Birdie." Ezra warns, darkly. "We go together as agreed upon in our oath. You need to play your part and help me to retrieve the diamonds. Can’t embark on this without you, given my infernal impediment.” Ezra turns to look at you with those muddy eyes, and it's beguiling as it is dangerous.

You stare down at the pit unmoving.

"No harm will come to you under my watch." He reassures, but it fails.

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

He simply offers you a small smile. "Can but wait, Birdie. Let's get a leg on."

“I must be fucking insane…” You mutter, shaking your head. Sighing, you take off your own suit and strip down to your undergarments.

“Good girl,” you hear him say.

You catch Ezra glancing at your bare legs as you're dressed in nothing short of flimsy shorts and a thin camisole that barely covers your modesty under your thermals.

His own undergarments are a frayed t-shirt and some fusty long johns that sit awkwardly under the small paunch of his soft belly.

But he seems to pull them off as your own eyes sway towards the memory of his body on the fraying futon as it writhed and shuddered whilst you sucked down the swell of his cock, back in his dingy bunk apartment nestled in the Noki District on The Pug.

For a man of his advancing years, you think him to be attractive in a roguish kind of way; a scummy diamond in the rough. Scummy enough to have let him eat you out, anyway.

Breathing calmly - or at least trying to - you sit beside him on the edge of the pit staring down at the glistening appendages that swam in a hypnotic pulse against one another.

The sounds of their wet slick can be heard as they slide and pass over one another in heaving waves; a wet shine evident on their alien corium that glimmers at you.

You’re not sure why you're doing it, but you reach forward instinctively and feel the skin of one as you run your palm over it gently, awed by the sensation that leaves prickles flooding down your spinal cord.

The electricity creeps up each nodule and into the bottom of your neck. It feels comforting, soothing as the previous hesitation you felt is washed away in a calming opacity that soon melts your eyelids shut.

The tentacle arches up into your palm, bumping it benignly as its secretions coat your skin with a cooling, thin substance that feels miry as it greets you.

As you attempt to retreat, the allure of the scene grips you, holding you in a trance-like state, unable to tear your eyes away from the eldritch horror that unfolds before you. It's as if the entity, sensing your fear, seeks to draw you deeper into its realm, to become a part of its ancient enigma. To whisper it's secrets in your ear.

The luminescence now reveals disturbing images etched into the tentacles' surface - visions of cosmic terrors, nightmarish landscapes, and grotesque creatures. Each tentacle seems to bear the collective knowledge of the horrors of the universe, driving you to the edges of precarious sanity.

A cacophony of unnerving sounds emanates from the mass - the raspy whispers, unnerving wails, and an ominous heartbeat that seems to reverberate through your own veins. The dread within you intensifies, and an overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia engulfs you as it reaches its zenith; as if the darkness itself is closing in on you, and it has snapping jaws.

“Birdie,” you can hear Ezra bleed into your ominous tranquillity, but he sounds so far away. Like his voice is at the bottom of a metal wire, sounding tinny and ruptured.

The sudden panic in his voice shakes your foundations leaving you unsteady. But it's not him making you sway as you open your eyes to see yourself falling, face first.

You’re tethered by the tentacles wrapping around your ankles and wrists and pulling you forward into the mass of them.

“Ezra!” You gasp trying to repel them as they reach for you, but the combined strength of the slithering organs is undeniable.

You're both immobilised as you're dragged down into the pit. Ezra disappears first; the whites of his wide eyes are the last thing you see before you're blinded by the black.

The stickiness coats your face, your eyelids. It slicks through your hair; a clear, thin mucus that smells like musky, rich leather and allows you to move freely through the tentacles as you descend further.

"Birdie!" You hear Ezra call out to you and you call back frantically. "Just relax, it will pass you right through."

"Relax?!" You splutter when you feel the prevalent tightening around your waist. It's too tight as it starts to bind and crush against your pelvis.

"Trust me!" He calls again. Oh, if it were that simple, you snarl to yourself.

You try to calm yourself, relax as he so eloquently puts it. But it’s hard; the panic seeds and flowers in you and the coil only tightens under your rib cage in response. It knows your fear.

As it embraces you, tentacles wrapping around every limb and numbing them out, you feel the weightlessness of your body as it travels to the back of your cranium and ignites. You can't see anything, just the never ending void of black that hurts your eyes to try and strain them to reach beyond it.

A sense of foreboding lingers, as if a malevolent entity from the mass of tentacles watches from the shadows; its sinister presence ever-present in the periphery of your senses.

As you sink through the darkness, the very air seems heavy with an oppressive weight, and the pulsing surroundings of the tentacles appear distorted, as if the boundaries between reality and the unknown have blurred.

Each sound in the darkness makes you jump, fearing that some other force might be lurking too close.

A small glimmer fizzes somewhere in the distance, blink and you’d miss it. Purple, maybe blue flashes that spark through a plasma network of neuron pathways that fire and snap ahead. A brain that grows in size and expands. A dying star implodes and blinds you for a moment.

You gasp out in awe and are then fully weightless; floating in the violet nebula that’s haunting in its brilliance, its swirling tendrils stretching across the cosmic canvas like an ethereal tapestry.

As you gaze at the purple nebula, a sense of calm washes over you, momentarily easing the fear and tension that had consumed your senses previously.

The swirling clouds of gas and dust seem to dance with grace, performing an elegant ballet that holds you in rapt attention. You forget everything, you forget it all.

You can't feel your limbs, you can't feel the weight of your bones or the blood in your organs. You can't smell or taste. You're deafened by bubonic silence save for the heavy whooshes of your own breath inside your ear canal.

And then the nebula shrinks, collapsing upon itself into two tiny balls of light that morph and shape into eyeballs with irises the colour of those tasteless Bitz Bars you’d endured on lengthy missions.

The eyes stare at you, they see into you; unblinking and you can feel them rifle around inside the deepest trenches of your mind, picking and rummaging with spidery fingers. And you can only let them as they see all of your sordid secrets and lay them out like sharp medical instruments.

Then thin, wiry nerves root and track from behind them; a skull forms around the eyeballs. Muscles and viscera wrap and coil around a skeleton as the skin grows over it like fungi and tans in colour.

Ezra is before you; naked and plump in his lower belly fat and a thick, flaccid cock hangs between his legs. He’s staring back and floating like you are in this chaotically still space. His stump bears no scars, just perfectly smooth, taut skin around the missing bone like marble.

You can only watch as his cock stiffens and begins to drip mercury. You’re not sure where it comes from, maybe something in the stratosphere, maybe something in your core, but the overwhelming feeling of desire bubbles and courses through your veins making them burn under your skin.

You feel the tentacles again, pulsing and vibrating around you.

There is no other sensation except the feeling of his only arm pulling you towards him and then his lips are crushing against your own, smothering.

You're not repulsed as you taste him; his invading tongue filling your mouth and sliding down your throat that opens willingly for him.

You let him in, you want him to be inside you like this, even though somewhere inside of you, your voice is shrieking and howling at you to resist the ratty bastard. It’s a need that requires satiation.

Any resistance is smothered by the heat between your legs; the wetness that leaks from your swollen cunt lips and mashing into the meat of your thighs as you squeeze them together deliciously to equally appease and chase that desire.

You feel his ever-growing tongue reaching into the back of your oesophagus and expanding; sliding deep down into your guts as you choke and splutter around it as it restricts your airway.

Breathing through your nose is impossible as it fills with the sticky mucus that attaches to the fine cilia suffocating you further.

You try to resist now, to pull away but your limbs still won't work. Your fingers won’t cooperate. You can't feel them. All you can feel is Ezra invading your body through your mouth and licking out every crevice of it with his elongated tongue.

You can feel the cramping in your stomach as he prods around down in there, pushing against your muscles and fat; crushing your offals and lapping at your stomach acids.

You want to scream so badly, but all that comes out around his tongue is moans of abject satisfaction. Your own voice, your own sounds are so alien to your ears. You're enjoying this and you want more, so much more from him.

You feel your mouth fill from your gullet upwards; something warm rising up from the back of your throat from around his tongue as it floods you. Its viscosity bubbles and pools out the side of your lips and down your chin.

Ezra pulls back and you see it; his tongue now black and shiny and no longer pink and fleshy - or human. The flippering tentacle disappears back into his smiling mouth as you gasp for air.

You cough up a thick, white substance that projectiles from you, choking you as you heave it out down your chest.

Somewhere, you know this taste; familiar from your own experiences of swallowing unworthy men’s loads on your knees as they ejaculated into your eager mouth on lonely nights around The Pug.

Somewhere through the heady confusion, you know this is wrong on so many levels as you belch and splutter through bringing up the seminal pearl flow in droves.

A subtle yet unsettling change occurs. The glistening black, wet tentacles from the malevolent mass re-emerge in the scene, twisting and snaking their way into the cosmic display as you splutter.

At first, the juxtaposition of the tentacles against the cosmic backdrop seems incongruous, like an intrusion of darkness into the splendour of the nebula.

However, as you watch, you begin to sense a strange harmony between the two that bleeds into your skin.

The tentacles are back around your body, cinching and curling around your waist, clamping around your wrists. You feel the alluring tickle of something travelling up your thigh and your eyes widen.

“Ezra… It’s-it’s-” you stutter as you feel it snake up your inner thigh and under the hem of your shorts.

“Let us in, Birdie. It’ll feel so good.” Ezra drenches the promise inside your ear, licking and sucking the shell of it. His fingers skim your clit, furrowing inside your shorts and opening your lips for the tentacle to slip fully inside, filling you up. “We’ll make you feel so good.”

You cry out as it slides in, slippery and thick. It stretches you wide, a slight burn from the jarring friction that soon settles into undulating pleasure.

It shouldn’t feel like this, it shouldn’t feel so… good.

You feel a mix of emotions - fascination, fear, and an inexplicable sense of reverence - as you feel it penetrate you deeply. The tentacles, once harbingers of horror, now evoke a different kind of awe.

“Fuck, it feels so good...” You chime falling backwards into the universe.

“Mmm, there you go,” Ezra smiles and you feel his fingers slipping quicker over your engorged clit making you flinch and breathe out dust each time he flicks it. “Let us fuck you, little bird. We’re one now.”

You can hear Ezra; the haunting groans and gasps fill your ears like lead. It’s everywhere around you, echoing and you can’t escape the sounds of his pleasure on loop as you’re fucked by the rogue tentacle stretching you out the further it whelves inside of you.

You can see yourself, devoured by the coils slipping all over your skin; watching yourself get dicked by this entity that knows what you want, knows how to pleasure you like no man could.

Your pussy welcomes the deep thrusts it gives you and you writhe and moan, losing your eyesight. The features on your face dissolve away leaving you a faceless putty for them to remould and sculpt, and you twist and bend to their will.

You’re lost to it; succumbed fully by an invading desire and heat, and the sounds of Ezra’s grunting hammering inside your ears as it rocks through the nebula; a big bang of grunts and heady snarls that rip through the very seam of existence.

But when you finally open your eyes as they grow back into your sockets, he’s no longer there.

All you can see is the nebula again. All you can feel is the fullness between your thighs; the never-ending release it offers as it pumps you full of its seed. The nebula winks back at you and pulses around the edges.

You feel the bunching behind your stomach walls, the fluttering of your pussy spasming and squeezing as you’re pulled apart and smashed back together again, at one with the cosmos.

You cry out; you can see your voice as it shatters into metallic fragments and rains chrome glitter all over you that coats and nicks your throat.

Your gasps birth new stars from your mouth as they find their place in the dust and gases that swirl around your body, completely obliterating it.

And when it’s come and gone, the waves settling as you fall still from the exhausting aftermath, there’s nothing once more; just the never-ending expanse of black.

You breathe out through soaked trembles, and just as he advised, the grip falters and you descend again slowly through the pulsating coils that slide sticky against your face and gums.

You drop and land clumsily onto something solid; the hard, real ground. Your tailbone hits it first and you wince.

Your fingers shakily register the feel of something you recognise and yet it doesn’t seem entirely real as you scrape your brittle nails into the rock beneath your face to be sure.

But your cunt is still contracting; squeezing around a vacant space where you were sure you were penetrated and filled by something thick and binding, and oh so fucking good.

Something that felt indescribable and you mourn its loss irrevocably.

You eye him carefully as he looks back at you with a singular outstretched palm laced with blisters and callouses lanced towards your face.

Ezra helps you up onto jellified legs and above you the tentacles writhe a lowly metre or so above your heads in a hypnotic dance that seems to defy and mock gravity.

Ezra reaches up, his only hand brushing against the swell of the membranes that roll and curl tightly around one another.

"Curious…" He mumbles as the slick glides effortlessly through his calloused fingers; a cosmic ballet of twisting and pulsing.

“What is it?” You ask, dumbfounded and awed.

Your voice doesn't register as your own. You feel like you’ve been swamped in a heavy sleep, plagued by dreams of untold, lucid delights that you can still feel throbbing on your clit.

You’re unsure if it really happened or not and try to shake the delusion, yet you feel yourself pining for it.

You peer at Ezra carefully, looking for any sign that he endured a similar experience, and yet his face is as unreadable in its mischievousness and stoniness as usual.

Your skin feels wet and sticky, your mouth remembers the taste, and his body mirrors your own, coated in the shiny lacquer from passing through the tar coils. His hair is slicked back and darker, almost black, save for the white patch that is stark in its platinum yellow glow; a tiny sun being swallowed in a sea of putrid oily tufts.

The undergarments cling to his skin, saturated and binding and making no attempt to hide the swell of his cock inside of them.

As he glances at you with an astonished smirk, you feel something pull tight in your abdomen; a distant hunger gnawing at the edges of rationality and the sense that you’re unable to get a firm grip on reality anymore.

“A cephalopod of some origin, or many. I've heard tales of Krakens before, but not like this.” Ezra admires bewitchingly as he strokes above him. “It feels…” He closes his eyes and you watch him rise on his tiptoes with a small smile blooming over his mouth. “Sentient.” He concludes through a nasally breath lost inside his thick drawl.

He drops his hand slowly as a lone tentacle feeds down from the others in front of him. You watch rooted as it rubs itself across his broad chest and slithers around him. It runs between his thighs and he moans as it brushes against his cock.

"Uh, this one seems incredibly obliging," Ezra exclaims as he glances at you with astonished mirth bleeding into his ratchet peepers.

You watch it disappear down inside the back of his long johns.

He groans out, his body jars forward but he doesn’t fall; the tentacles have him secured by his arm and back as he becomes weightless in front of you.

“Ezra,” you start forward to assist him, but are stopped when he hisses out, baring his teeth.

He loses his eyes as they roll back into his skull.

“Fuh-uck,” he whines loosely as though his teeth are no longer in his mouth, and you realise you’ve heard this sound before; the sounds of pleasure bursting through the cavity of his chest into your ears.

The same noises he made under you on The Pug with mouthfuls of your seeping cunt.

The tentacle penetrates him and you're drawn into the vortex of his mouth pulling your eyes from their trenches to drink their jelly. You can only watch, body pulsing, skin fraying, as it fucks him right in front of you.

"Kevva, that's deep," he groans, with a blissed out smile.

Then you feel it; it's warm as it glides over your navel and across your skin leaving a moist, sluggish trail. The tentacles bring you together, cocooning you both as Ezra pulls you towards his chest.

And you're not resisting again, instead letting him welcome you into his one-armed embrace.

His body feels good against yours, too good. Like the slats in your rib cages were meant to interlock.

It seems as if he can hear your thoughts and you watch as he opens his chest from the centre; fingers ripping through flesh as he pries open his bony cage and welcomes you into the balloons of his lungs.

Your nose wanders and inhales through his papery bronchioles; they dust into your face like fluffy dandelion seeds and float into the ether.

"Need you inside of me," you groan to him as if in a trance as his sticky heart jostles against your lips as it beats.

You lick across it, sucking on a throbbing ventricle delicately as his blood coays your teeth, and he whines out louder as he ejaculates into his long johns.

“I already am,” Ezra grunts, eyes rolling to the back of his skull again like loose marbles as the crest of his hips buck forward.

You pull back to see him whole once more and glance at the huge, black shape filling you up, fucking into you.

His own cock is hard and weeping pearly globules of come as it rubs against the tentacle with fantastic friction. Your fingers peel him apart; stripping him down to the hard, muscled core of his dick, and he writhes and groans under your touch as you obliterate him.

You look back at his face and he’s swallowing down a thick tentacle inside of his plush mouth before yours is invaded again by the wet velvet.

He fills your holes, all of them. You can feel him stretch out your pussy, sliding in and out with his thick appendage that makes you buck uncontrollably. He feels so plentiful and thick. He slips into the tight crevice of your ass, filling and stretching you wholly and he's inside your mouth; feeling him graze at the back of your throat as he thrusts and chokes you.

He's everywhere, and yet Ezra pulls you close into his scarred chest again whilst he himself is filled in every orifice he possesses and it's still not enough.

He wants to climb inside your skin. You know it, because it's exactly what you want. It’s what you crave. To rest in the sponge of his brain.

You can hear him insipidly rambles to you all the ways in which he wants to devour you for eternity.

His whines set your skin alight; the oil burning you up as it sears and chokes you. That tar-like smell wafting around you both as it smokes you out and leaves you breathless.

“I can see it,” he mutters, but it doesn't come from his mouth, no that’s full of the pulsing thick membrane that fucks him like they fuck you.

Instead, you can see his voice, moving across the nebula as he sings on music scales, lighting up the treble clefs with supernovas.

“Can you see it, Birdie?” He asks you, each red giant twinkling with his din and tone before it dies, and you can. In their dance, the tentacles reveal a deeper truth - that even the most terrifying entities can be transformed by the beauty and wonder of the cosmos.

They are a reminder that in the vastness of the universe, there is a balance between darkness and light, chaos and order, horror and beauty and you understand that now as you approach another climax.

“It’s so fucking beautiful.” You gasp, tears filling your eyes.

You arch your back; your spine cracks through each vertebrae as they pulverise into dust and you collapse in on yourself, boneless and spent once more.

You can feel it and it feels exhilarating to die and be reborn over and over.

You gush around the tentacle and onto Ezra’s soft stomach swell as you come unrestrained, and for what feels like for infinity.

You’ve never fully understood the meaning of the word euphoria until now.

Soon Ezra lets go of you; his own body arching grotesquely and crushing inwardly. His mouth opens as the tentacle ejects, spewing out thick, creamy liquid in a silent scream as he rolls back into the mass of pulsing coils to be devoured all over again.

He twists and turns and you see his left hand come down his shoulder, tugging at the skin below his blade that houses his clipped stump.

Then another hand, and another; more human hands that are his own with the thumb on the left side and all with the tiny bullseye tattoo inked and faded on the web of skin between his thumb and forefinger.

His various left hands are pulling the skin open so you can see his spine through the tears. Small, onyx tendrils move under the bones and he bleeds out that thick, seminal fluid between his contracting muscles.

Ezra removes his skin like removing a sweater and you scream into the void.

Birdie.

You hear him through the sludgy goop inside your ears; a faint rumble of your body as you are gently shaken awake by thick fingers pulling you out of inertia.

You're on the ground again and the pit of writhing tentacles is still a dark swarm threatening to rain upon your heads. You stare at it, watching it pulse and simper. Trying to understand its secrets, its desires.

Trying to detest it with every fibre of your being but not quite managing to.

There's a chasm where that feeling should be.

Ezra's worrisome face pulls your senses towards him and you clutch onto his arm, reassuring yourself that he's real. Real muscle and bone.

You flinch when you think you see something move under his skin, but it’s just his vein as he tenses.

"What did you see?" He asks you darkly. His eyes are as black as the darkest corners of the universe.

"See?" You ponder it dumbly for a moment as it all floods back to you.

“You were screaming.” He explains.

"I... I'm not sure." You mumble.

"I've deduced that this creature can telepathically link itself to our minds in a mere quest of bewitchment. It can show us our wildest, unarmed desires, or toss us into a gully of the most sordid nightmares." His eyes have shifted into something that you’ve never seen on his face since meeting him - fear.

"What did you see?” You prompt him instead, sitting up. Your head feels like it’s been split into two and neither of your brains can comprehend this scenario fully.

His eyes drop to you and he helps you to your feet clamping his singular hand around your elbow as he yanks.

"Felt so real," he utters through a clenched mouth. Or surreal. You're not quite sure what he says as your face draws up to his.

He glances at you and touches your cheek, cupping it gently. You feel the thick pad of his thumb pull on your bottom lip as he admires the wet, pink flesh of your gums with some irreverent hunger.

"So real." He repeats with darker, hooded eyes.

"Ezra," you steer, peeling his fingers delicately from your skin, despite them soldering into your flesh, and he seems to snap out of it.

He recoils back as though he has been stung. "We need to find a way to leverage our exit." He announces flatly.

"What about the diamonds?" You rub at your arms and they don’t feel like they are attached to you anymore. Neither do your legs and it takes you a moment to realise you are standing freely on them.

"They don't appear to be harbouring any gems down here. I fear we may have been taken in by a ruse." He scowls bitterly.

"You mean you were." You mutter. “I just stupidly came along.”

Ezra sighs loudly and sharply and steps forward craning his head up to the tentacles. He mutters something that you don’t quite catch.

"You're expecting them to give us a ride?" You scoff at him.

"Do you have a more eloquent stratagem? I'm all ears."

"Yes. I'm not going in there again." You say with an inherent coldness prickling at your skin. But yet it’s still hot and dense between your legs.

"Tell me woman, what's rattled you with the visions they gave you?"

"It doesn't matter," you say, turning away from him.

Although you’re not entirely sure if they were just visions. You search along the sharp rocky walls and follow them round with your eyes and there is no obvious sign for escape.

The only way out is back up through them. If they will allow you to leave, that is. The thought makes you cold.

“Birdie, I…” Ezra starts and pauses for a moment. “I know this outcome isn’t what we forecast when this expedition matriculated between us.”

“You think?”

“But I must riposte, that we need to find a way out and the only one presented to us is from whence we came. So if you would find it in you to trust me, then I believe I can lead us out of here fully intact.”

“Trust you, you say?” You snort flippantly.

“Yes. A big ask, I am well aware of its weight.” He scowls at you this time.

“We did things.” You breathe. "You and I, we... copulated."

The words roll off your tongue and you want to shove them back into your mouth and suck the fat from them, but he’s already heard them and is mentally clipping them apart in his bank of memories to keep the best of them - the most sordid.

“I remember vividly our foreplay on The Pug, but you insisted on no penetration and I kept my word. I may not be a gentleman, but I'm no cavalier scoundrel."

"Yes, I know-"

"-Was a satisfaction garnered for us both as I recall. No-one has ever... ” His head snaps towards you with intrigue. "Are you keen to indulge the liasion?"

“No. I mean... Here. That’s what I saw. We didn't just play this time. Us. It’s what I-”

“Felt.” Ezra finishes for you and you nod as you realise that’s what he felt too. His cock, still tenting against his undergarments, reassures you of that.

“And then we were apart. Like, pulled apart from the insides. I watched you remove your skin. Was it real or did we dream it or…? Kevva, I have no idea what is fucking real or not right now.” You mutter, running your hand through your damp, disgusting hair.

“Did you hit your peaks of satisfaction?” Ezra asks.

"What?"

"Did you come, pet?"

Your cheeks feel hot and you fold your arms sighing. “Yes.” Your stomach pulls tight and it makes you grit your teeth.

“As did I.” He admits freely. "Felt like I couldn't stop. It was kinda nice. Tingly."

He closes his eyes and you watch as his free hand drifts down his sternum and palms his cock over the wet fabric with a soft squeeze, clearly not deterred by your presence.

“It wasn’t you. I mean you weren’t inside me, but you were all the same. It’s confusing. What does it want?” You ask looking up at the swell that seems to hum again. Your palm is running gentle circles against your gut that feels hot.

“I don’t believe it wants anything insidious. It just feels and thrives like we do. It has cravings.” Ezra explains, wandering closer under the centre of it.

You shudder and ponder the creation of such an organism, that you summarise mentally and agree, is not too dissimilar from yourself or Ezra. It exists in the most basic of forms, to feed, to fornicate, to-

You feel a sharp twinge in your lower belly and groan.

“You creamy?” Ezra asks.

“Yeah just… Aaargh!” You hiss and double over clutching your stomach. Horrific cramping churns inside of you and you watch aghast as watery blood trickles down your thighs and legs.

“Ezra!” You shriek hysterically, but he’s wrenched away from your aid as the tentacles swoop down and grab you up in their clutches.

His frantic voice is drowned out as the black takes you again.

This place is too bright.

It glitters and glares at you in a striking cobalt like you’ve never seen before. It takes a while for your eyes to adjust but when they do, you find yourself sprawled on a never-ending bed of sharp diamond pieces.

Millions of them are scattered over the ground, around your feet; cutting into your buttocks and back as you’re spread over them like you’ve been dumped in here carelessly.

They’re protruding out of the rock walls and you can see them sparkle above you, twinkling like distant stars through a kaleidoscopic blue galaxy.

Your fingers rifle through them and clutch them, squeezing the shards. You watch as your skin is pierced and bleeds, yet you feel no physical pain.

The beauty stuns you for a moment and you forget your predicament for a while as you just marvel in the perplexity.

But you’re soon shoved back into it when you feel the cramps twist up your cervix and you scream out in agony.

“Ssh, it’ll soon be over, dove.” You hear Ezra’s soothing drawl and see a million of his hawkish faces in every facet gleaming at you.

He crunches over the diamonds as he walks, bare feet bleeding and he’s naked. Cock lithe and hard, dripping with a pearly secretion you long to drink from.

He no longer has a stump where his right arm should be, but a long thick tentacle that pulses and squirms excitedly as he strides towards you.

He crouches down at your feet, parting your thighs and runs his tongue up the sweaty streaks of them.

“Ezra, what the fuck is happening?” You gasp and grunt through a fierce contraction. Your insides feel like they’re ripping open and your cervix tightens in a way you’ve never felt before.

“Hush now. You give it what it wants and we can have what we want.” He runs his tongue over the bubbly seam of your dilated cunt and sucks upon your clit hungrily for a beat, pulling a convulsion out of you. “Play your part, Birdie.”

You hum out, head lolling backwards as you can’t help but succumb to the intense sucking on your bud from his lips.

“We knew you’d taste so good.” He whines and the thick black of his arm scales your throat and wraps itself around you, choking you as you gasp.

You cry out as another contraction bears down on your uterus and you can feel a heavy rush followed by a saturated squelch.

Ezra draws back and watches keenly as you birth the pupate azure eggs planted inside you. You scream through it; the agony makes your cunt and womb feel like they’re on fire and he coaxes you through it, lapping up the amniotic fluid each time you disembogue it out.

Sparkling diamonds fall from your hole and Ezra leads you into a jubilant climax as he sucks on your clit and furrows his fingers inside to help pull them out.

The diamonds shatter as the tiny organisms inside birth and slither away into the walls; the glittery shells they leave behind are your trophy.

You watch, astonished and soaked in sweat, as they vacate the discarded diamonds to join the mass of tentacles where they’ll grow and eventually breed another like you who should be so gluttonous as to seek their treasure.

You give it what it wants and we can have what we want.

An exchange. A life cycle. A quid pro quo.

Play your part, Birdie.

“Mmmaaaah!”

Your attention is diverted by Ezra pulling another orgasm from you into his mouth. Then, he’s climbing up your body like an arachnid. His tentacle arm slithers behind you and he spreads you open with his thick cock.

He brutally fucks your spent, stretched hole; his seed soothes the pain, numbs it out almost like a leeches bite.

You cling onto him as he grunts and wheezes inside of your ear.

“You did so good for us, Birdie.” He praises and you can’t help but smile and welcome him in fully as he drills so deep inside of you that you can feel the tip slither out of your mouth between your teeth and into his as he kisses you; becoming an entwined ouroboros of unrelenting pleasure.

It feels like it will never stop as his hips crack and hammer into yours, and you pass out, weighted down by exhaustion of all extremes.

Puggart Bench, 4 cycles ago...

“I feel some convival attraction to you, despite my infructuous emancipation of it.” Ezra says as he sups at his glass of golden suds. "Your pluckiness appeals to my better nature, Birdie."

"That's the beer talking." You smirk.

He eyes you with a slightly arched brow and wet pink lips. The foam of his beer drags along his moustache and you watch him lick it clean with a quick flick of his tongue. "A siren, no doubt... I'll willingly drown in you."

"Stop with the sweet talk, prospector and get to the point." You mirth. Although his carnal wooing leaves sweat beading on your skin.

“You understand the objective?”

You nod. “Seems simple enough.”

You’d discussed it at length despite the slight buzz you’d gotten from the beer intake, and yet the plan came together without as much input from yourself. He knew the route, he knew the place. He knew where the diamonds were.

And he did all the damn talking.

All you had to do was assist him with the manual labour of it all, as he put it. Mine and prospect. Fly you both in and out too. An extra pair of hands where he only had half.

But it seemed a little too good to be true and you went to question him further when you felt someone knock into your chair from behind.

A wayward hand was felt trying to cup your breast and you grabbed it and squeezed it in a tight crush.

“I’d rethink that, friend. Unless you still want this hand to jerk you off tonight?” You spoke over your shoulder to the drunk assailant trying to grab at you.

He dribbled something shy of an apology onto your shoulder and you let him go, not before removing the ring on his middle finger that encased a shiny, expensive looking gem. Might fetch some credits for your inconvenience.

“Fiery one, aren’t you?” Ezra mused as he observed the whole thing.

“Just another night in this squalor. I can hold my own.” You replied, stuffing the ring in your pocket.

"Good. I require you strong. You play your part, Birdie. I'll see that you're rewarded handsomely for it."

"You speak as if mining diamonds is a dangerous art. It isn’t. I’m fairly astute in the work of dirty hands."

"These aren't just ordinary diamonds to cut your teeth on." He leaned in, placing the glass down on the table with a heavy thud.

You could smell the stink of the alcohol on his breath and that putrid musk of sweat wafting from him, mixed in with something else sweet and foreboding.

He smelled like death - sweet, alluring death.

His scruff was oily and scattered across his ageing, tan skin and throat, and his dark brown eyes bore into your own for a few moments, contemplating.

Ezra ran his hand around his grazed chin, rubbing at the stubble there now peppered with scabs and grey whiskers as he mulled over the thoughts about you accompanying him in his mind.

Black gunk was embedded in his nail beds. His hand was large for his frame, like a great big shovel for a palm; one that could crush a human skull with little effort, you thought. Once armed with two, you could only speculate as to what vile menace those hands could have caused.

“Where do you come from?” You ask him curiously as you sup. That stark blonde streak at his hairline catches the light and looks like it shimmers at you with tempting promises and false conviction.

Ezra looks up at you from his position at the table and smirks. “Where do you come from?” He challenges back.

He looks at you with a haggard expression that is unchanging. It begins to creep you out a little bit the more you see it, making prickles rise on the back of your neck. He suddenly has a way of making you feel nervous for no reason at all.

And men usually don’t make you feel nervous.

You draw back with a contemplative hiss. “The less we know about each other, the better.” You taunt. “No names, for instance.”

He's already haunting your blood as you feel it warm under your skin, and the slick bubble of sweat upon the back of your neck makes its presence known.

“Why the ambiguity?” He questions with a glass stare. "My name is Ezra." He casually tosses his name in front of you on the table, expecting you to return.

But you don't.

You're feeling prickles run all over your skin. You just want to wash him away with the grime and murk that coats his breath.

A spooky, amaranthine being regarding you from opposite the table and he smirks crookedly again through those swollen lips, pursed out, yet remains tight-lipped. You wonder what they taste like.

You wonder whether his foreskin his clipped, what his come tastes like.

“Getting cosy isn’t my style, Ezra.” You mutter, gulping back more foam and blinking the wanton haze away.

“Well regardless, what a delightful romp it would be to charter to Narilla with you, pet. I’m in if you’re in.” Ezra says after some time of eyeing you.

“I’m in,” you agree, sealing your fate. “Although, wouldn’t you rather have some strong muscle to offer us some leverage in case things go awry? There’s plenty of dick-for-brains to choose from.” You glance around the bar at the crass prospectors and miners in all their lunkhead glory.

“Nothing will go awry.” Ezra shakes his head. He clears his throat. “You’ll do just fine. You're Kevva sent for it.”

You feel his eyes drink you in as they wander over your body and you consider for a moment if you’ll end up back at his place tonight riding his face.

The idea isn’t as heinous as you’d like.

“A quick expedition then.” You confirm.

“That it is. We needn’t linger on the moon in the throes of a harsh winter.” His eyes dart away as though recalling something execrable as he struggles to swallow his beer. “In and out.” Ezra clarifies. "It'll be over quickly."

You nod once in agreement.

“There is a price for what you seek, prospectors. Especially you, girlie.” A foreign voice comes from beside you on the adjacent table.

A man with one eye glares under the shroud of his hood at you. A horrific scar as deep as a magenta trench replaces his other eye. Encrusted with old yellow skin like scales that were in various decays of flaking.

“Balderdash and frivolous superstition.” Ezra simply rebuts and knocks back the remnants of the amber beer down his throat.

“What do you mean, a price?” You query with a lazy smirk over your own numb lips to the creepy eavesdropper.

“He means nothing. Just trying to rile you, Birdie, is all. Come on now, we’ll drink some more. I insist. Celebrate our impending agreement.”

"Are you trying to get me drunk?" You muse.

"Why? Is it working? Am I attractive enough to you yet that you'll let me…" he looks up and down your body and licks his lips. "Indulge?"

"You're so presumptuous, Ezra" You smirk. "Maybe I'll be the one to indulge."

Ezra sways you up towards the bar with him and you think no more of it.

Later, you do indeed indulge, and ride hard on his hawkish face as he makes you come hard through juddery breaths as he fucks you with his serpent tongue relentlessly.

You can feel that heady pull on your clit as he sucks out your pleasure greedily in droves whilst you fist through his greasy hair in rapture as you grind your cunt against the furry graze of his chin.

As you suspected you would.

But now, that odd stranger is here, in the diamond pit with you; staring you down with his singular ragged eye watching as the glory of Ezra buries himself inside of you, and that man is whispering to you and now you know.

He was right, there was a price for Narilla’s diamonds.

You know everything now.

“You knew, didn’t you?” You question Ezra as his silhouette fuzzes into clarity.

The look on his face tells you all you need to know.

Of course he did. It all makes sense now.

“It’s why you favoured me over the other miners to accompany you; because I have a fucking womb!” You spit. "This was my part to play, wasn't it?"

You throw the diamonds you’d been holding at him, and he flinches as they pelt at his feet; his coveted prize.

“Birdie-” He holds up his palm, open in surrender.

“Don’t. Fucking. Call. Me. That!” You launch yourself at him and you both clatter to the stony ground.

You claw at him, aiming for his bastard face, but his free hand captures your fist. He clamps his legs around you to stop you gaining height over him and rolls, pinning you beneath him with ease.

For a man with one arm, he's still incredibly strong and slippery.

“No harm done.” Ezra sneers as you falter; his grip on your wrist flexing it backward a little until you feel a subtle crack and you hiss. “You fulfilled your part, yes. That is true. You got yourself remunerated. We’re free to depart now. It’s how this arrangement works.” He says, darkly.

“I should kill you, you piece of shit!" You seethe at him.

He looks offended. “Now, now. You weren’t saying that earlier when I was buried deep in the hilt of you.” He smirks sinisterly.

“You weren’t,” you shake him off and he rolls onto his back and snickers though rasps. “It wasn’t real.” You affirm, sitting up and flexing your wrist.

"Are you sure?" He questions you smugly.

"No. It was just-" You shake your head.

“Real enough for you to gestate and birth its offspring in droves.” Ezra reminds you.

“You want to lose your other fucking arm?” You warn through a snarl.

He sighs, the smirk dying. “You can’t simply procure the diamonds; you have to replenish your fill. They won’t let you leave if you just take from them. You have to have something to offer in return.” His eyes fall on your body, hungrily. “As I man, I can’t replenish. But you can.”

“You're not a man, you’re a fucking insect!” You rile.

“If I had delineated you the truth, you would never have accompanied me on this treacherous quest.” Ezra mutters, annoyed with clicked lips. “You were an unwitting comrade in my mournful web of deceit, I admit. I'm the arachnid, and you the fly..."

"Fuck you."

He snickers breathily. "I harbour no ill will towards you. You’re quite amiable despite your folly. I would have never let any permanent detriment come to you, Bir-.” He stops short of the moniker as he witnesses your stony glare.

“That’s fucking noble of you.” You growl.

“You’re still alive, yes? All supple appendages intact?”

You glare at him some more.

“Then we completed our charge fully unscathed and significantly richer for it.” Ezra simply says with a casual shrug of indifference.

You really want to punch him and feel his large nose shatter under your knuckles.

“What we possess now is incredibly rare. So few venture here because of the down payment required. You'll be a queen among mere men. You should think yourself fortunate.” He puts, examining one of the diamond shards carefully.

“Tell that to my insides!" You snap. You can still feel the ache; the rawness from the unexpected birth.

"It's what your glorious body was made for. To bear the fruit of life, is it not?"

"That," you point towards the swarming cluster "is not fucking fruit, Ezra!"

Ezra sighs and reaches for you gingerly. "I am burdened with my part in this. I am a host to belligerent shame. Honesty is a skill I do not possess in its entirety. But you and I, we make a damn hoot of a team."

"The prospector and her pimp!" You scoff.

"I'll make it right, if you’ll permit me?"

His deep, brown eyes bore into you and you feel something wobble inside you.

“I meant it when I said I liked you, pet. That clandestine night on The Pug with you? Kevva, it replays in my mind and won't let me have no peace. Your cunt stink is still all up in my sheets." He licks his lips, sucking on the bottom and recalling your taste for a beat with a satisfied murmur - a groan that your skin ignites to in response.

"Who would desire me like this now aside from the whores on Luxillion who take my credits and don't remember my name? They just remember this..." Ezra glances down at his missing appendage.

"I ponder if it was pity on your part, and I would not linger in offense if it was, but regardless, it was something. To me. And I do not take the pleasure you offered me so freely, and with an inkling of that desire for yours truly returned, lightly and with regret." He finishes.

You sigh and shake your head, unable to ignore fully the fizzing inside your veins as he says it, how earnest he suddenly appears.

Despite yourself, that night with him was indeed... something.

There was something so deliciously unkempt about him. Frivolous around the seedy murk. Something that your better nature repelled against, and yet caved to all the same.

“How the fuck do we get out of here?” You groan, looking up at the swarm of tentacles engulfing the only means of escape.

You're not sure if you can take another mind fucking, or a physical one. But your pussy clenches and it zaps on your clit regardless.

“The way we came in, I have already iterated that escape route to you, despite your reluctance to partake. It seems appeased, I think. Satiated. Might pass us up without further incident.”

"Well, I guess we have no choice." You utter.

Ezra gathers the diamonds and shoves them into his wet pockets until they bulge. He looks at you forlornly. “Thank you,” he notes.

You soften despite yourself. “Hold my hand this time. I don’t want to be separated from you and left behind now you’ve gotten what you wanted. I would expect no less from you.”

You can feel it on your skin. The dread. The desire the pit had for you. The fact that, despite his slimy betrayal, you still feel it burn in your core when he smiles crookedly at you.

"I would gladly leave these treasures here, if it meant not taking you with me." He says through molten brown eyes.

"You're so full of shit." You sigh, smirking.

Ezra reaches out with a timid grin of his own and you step forward, interlocking your fingers tightly in his.

“That's as may be, but I won’t let go.” He promises and you believe him as his thumb strokes over the ridge of your knuckles.

You feel his sincerity crush the bones in your hand.

“Once we get out of here, I think I never want to see your face again.” You warn him, but you can feel that your resolve already has cracks in it as you offer him a small, twinkly smile.

“That might be difficult…” Ezra holds up your interlocked hands and they are no longer hands in a muscled knot.

Instead, they are a singular arm that starts from your shoulder and ends at the ball joint on his. The skin is perfectly smooth and there is no separation on where you begin and Ezra ends.

“What the fuck?” You gasp.

“Embrace it, Birdie. It’s the only way we’re getting out.” Ezra smirks. "One last hurrah." He laughs and his breath suddenly smells like the dead Trogs on Ajaxia, as you inhale it into your stomach where it soils and grows roots.

You feel your toes leave the ground as the tentacles lift you upwards. Your joint appendage with Ezra stretches as you feel them try to separate you both.

Somewhere under the muscles and sinew, you grip onto him and he grips you back just as hard.

The nebula rises above you both and you cover your eyes with your free arm as it swells in intensity and size.

Your hand is pulled out of his from under the skin, like taking off a glove and Ezra desperately pulls you into his lap. You wrap your legs around his waist tightly locking you in and he grunts at the welcome intrusion from the crest of your pelvis crushed against his own.

"Not letting you go," he assures. Or warns. They sound one in the same.

His free fingers now push into your skull, sinking into the soft jellied mass of your brain and your own hands grip onto his shoulders, sinking into the bone beneath his flesh.

They slide in so easily, like fluid and you gasp out as he fills your cunt; that pulsing cock free from his undergarments and pumping his spend liberally into you and doesn’t stop. It floods your pussy, leaking out around his fat shaft and dripping down your thighs in thick globules.

“You taste so good, Birdie.” Ezra rasps and his voice is sulfuric. “We could devour you for eternity.”

He pulls back and his mouth is full of your milky flesh; your blood pooling from the corner of his lips and you hear his molars crunch through your bone fragments.

“Stay,” he wheezes. “Stay with us here and let us live inside you.” He pleads as he takes another bite, consuming you whole; his cock thrusting deeper into you and you groan and wail as he drowns you.

You can feel it filling you, that thick seminal fluid pouring from your ears, your nostrils and your eyes.

You're slipping, fading.

You want to stay but you know you should be somewhere else. Somewhere you’re not sure is real and you only dreamed of it.

But the nebula… it’s so fucking beautiful.

To never see it again wrenches your heart. You pluck it from your chest; a mass of sloppy ventricles and offer it out to the amethyst abyss.

You watch as it disintegrates into ash in your palm. You can still feel Ezra filling you, drowning you and you know this is where you belong.

You belong with them; this mass of tentacles that feeds you everything you could only ever imagine and crave. At one with the universe and home inside of the purple nebula that speaks the same language as you and shares a brainstem and-

“Birdie!”

You’re wrenched and you surface; spluttering as your grapple for the ledge with slippery fingers.

Ezra pulls you over, groaning with the strain as you topple onto him and gasp out. The diamonds spill from his pockets around you both and he pants into your face, his own reddening from the exertion.

“I got you,” he says, his face shiny and wet. "Easy now."

Your shaky fingers around the familiarity of his brackish features as you realise you're back on solid ground and out of the pit.

You can feel his chest heave against yours as you're crushed to him; his arm tight against your back.

“You didn’t leave me in there.” You marvel at him with those pink cheeks around his scruff.

“Do you think me completely unscrupulous, woman?” He frowns.

You lean in and kiss him, planting a deep relieved smooch onto his chapped lips and he’s taken by surprise.

You suck on his tongue and your kiss erupts into something unfinished. He groans back into your mouth as you can still feel how hard he is, how he pulses under you with need and it spreads into you.

“So, I assume by this mere token of affection, you no longer wish to gut me?” He gasps around your mouth.

“No, I still very much wish to,” you smile. “But right now, I just want you inside of me, Ezra. Fuck me.”

His grip on you strengthens. “I can certainly oblige to that,” he gruffs. "Seeing as we almost perished today."

"Almost," you growl.

He pushes his head up to kiss you again. He wastes no time and reaches down as you both fumble around your sticky, cloying undergarments.

He shimmies his long johns down his thighs as best as he can, pulling out his turgid cock that's pulsing with need and slippery with pre-cum.

You pull your shorts to the side as you sit down on him, sinking all the way down to his swollen balls.

“Fuck, Birdie... Better than the visions,” he whines, the cords in his neck straining and pupils blown wide. “So tight..." He gasps as you start rocking on him. "Oh, forgive me, pet. I won't last.”

"I don't care." You grunt wanting him and taking him, as you grind your hips back and forth sloppily.

He feels fucking divine; packing you out and stretching you through this frantic, clumsy fuck you’ve instigated, and you deduce you’re probably still out of your mind on whatever it was that had you feverish and delusional in the pit.

But it's of no matter; you’re too riled up to give a damn about anything else other than your release. And you want nothing more than to soak him.

It’s fast approaching as you grind down harder on him. You can feel him in the places where you’re still raw and tight, but you push through it; the pleasure is your driving force and it bubbles under your abdomen muscles and makes your toes spark.

"In Kevva's name, I swear you're magnificent," he rambles, reaching up with his free hand to grope and palm your breast over your camisole. He watches as you slide up and down on his cock, bewildered and in awe as your slick oils up the dark hairs around the base of him.

"Oh shit," he cants.

You suck on his deceitful tongue as you ride him and milk his cock for all it’s worth. Your peak is so close, quick and bursting like colourful strobes under your eyelids as your clit rubs deliciously against his fuzzy groin curls.

Your walls tighten and flutter around his girthy muscle buried to the hilt in you.

“Mmm fuck, Ezra, I’m going to-” You pant.

“Me too, come for me. All over my cock.” He hisses. “Now! Gah, sweet mother of Kevva,” he groans. “Ohshitohshitohshit… oh-oh shit!"

You tense and shake over him like an earthquake; eyes rolling back into your head and fingers digging into his chest meat.

Your thighs smack against the soft paunch of his stomach as you slow your pace and ride it out until the stars dissipate and that purple nebula fades into the black for good.

A small part of you is sad to see it go.

You feel Ezra pulse and fill you with his own warm heat and it spills out of you as you collapse onto his sternum, your cheek sticking to his wet clothed nipple, satiated and exhausted.

You glance at your discarded flight suits, after what feels like an eternity later of just laying stuck to him and listening to his heartbeat ebb, before you’d entered the creature's pit and realise this was all so very warped and that you actually made it out unscathed, like he had said.

Like he'd promised.

You’re still unsure if it all really happened or if your mind is playing tricks on you. All you can remember is the violet beauty and the feeling of being filled so deeply.

You feel his thick fingers run through the oil of your hair gently rousing your focus. "As much as I'd enjoy staying here with you on this idle precipice, it appears we should make haste to depart before anything else untoward occurs."

You nod and glance up at him, placing a gentle kiss on the scarred skin of his stump poking out under his t-shirt, which makes his eyes glisten at you.

You shuffle off of him and reach for your suit, careful not to eye him and a small part of you wanting to forget it all.

But you can’t forget a man like Ezra so easily - he’s furrowed in too deep already; got those grubby, thick fingers embedded deep into your skin and poisoning you with the dirt that constantly lives under his nails.

He bore witness to your ruining down in the pit, your undoing.

He was there with you as your skin was flayed down to the bone. The complete annihilation of your soul as it tarnished before him. He sought to devour the nerves under your flesh, the depraved delights that the pit drew out of you and into his waiting and willing mouth.

He didn't choke on you like you wanted.

Ezra regards you with a shine in his dark, beady eyes and offers you a small, creeping smile which you can’t help but return as you both dress and reattach your helmets.

The diamonds glitter all around your feet and the euphoria of knowing they’re yours is a little overwhelming.

"I would kill for a shower right now." You say as you follow him back the way you came through the internalised cave systems. Your body stills feels sticky and wet under your flight suit.

You hear him guffaw inside your ear. "Is there not a sanitation pod housed on your lander?"

"No," you frown. "Was too expensive to rent one with luxurious amenities."

"A shame." He concurs. "Although, we can bathe in the waters with the nymphs on Luxillion now if we wish."

"Luxillion?" You snort. "Burning a hole in your pocket already?"

"A man can but dream." Ezra husks inside your ear. "What of your ambition, Birdie?"

You shrug. "Haven't really thought about it."

"You can afford to mull it over some." He crackles.

"Yes I can," you smile, realising that both Ezra and you can simply afford anything you want right now. No matter how ludicrous a thing it is that you desire.

Back in the confines of the lander, you take the controls as Ezra tucks your share of the diamonds into your knapsack.

“If you’ve short changed me, I’ll hunt you down, prospector.” You warn him though a short side glare.

“Perhaps I should recount if you make tempting promises such as those, Birdie.” Ezra quips and smiles at you like a dim light bulb before it runs out of juice.

The thrusters roar into life and the lander pod launches into a frosty orbit. The static still blocks everything out as you fly blind up into the ether. The radio comms crackling and tinny in their off-beat drones.

“Don’t call me that,” you simply say; a small smirk of your own breeding across your lips that you lick away.

“Then what do I call you? I wish to let it roll off my tongue when I fuck you some more back on The Pug.” He simply croons.

You scoff. “You’re so presumptuous, Ezra.” You shake your head with a breathy snuffle of a laugh. “Perhaps, I’ll be the one to fuck you."

And the thought makes your clit throb excitedly, despite it's over-stimulated ache.

"I'll ensure you're held to that bold proposition, pet." Ezra simply clicks his tongue around his teeth, the taste of you still in his gum meat somewhere.

"I would expect no less from you." You quip.

You feel his singular hand creep onto your thigh and give it a good gentle squeeze. Instead of being disgusted, you smile and enjoy the pleasure it evokes through your bloodstream as he warms you.

You then surprise him by caving and finally revealing your name, casually letting it flow from your lips as you release the landing gear.

"Well, it's nice to finally meet you." He grins slickly at you in some deft accomplishment. "Wasn't such a hard endeavor now, was it?"

Ezra sits back in the nav seat smirking as you launch fully into The Fringe, leaving the delectable nightmares of Narilla behind you both.

MASTERLIST | EZRA MASTERLIST

I really hope you enjoyed reading this Ezra story of mine. I had a lot of fun writing this and really wanted to challenge myself with this genre. Please let me know your thoughts. I'll be writing more Ezra for sure. 🖤

#ezra prospect #prospect ezra #pedro pascal characters #pedro pascal #ezra prospect x f!reader #ezra prospect x you #ezra x female reader #ezra prospect x reader #ezra prospect smut #ezra x you #ezra x reader #prospect film #prospect 2018 #prospect movie #prospect #pedro pascal smut #pedro pascal character fanfiction #pedrostories #pedro pascal stories #jett's pedro boys #jett's writing

[gritsandbrits]

Rewriting Secret of NIMH 2: My Style

Issa mess but here's my rewrite of The Sceret of NIMH 2. First let's change the title to something more adventurous because Timmy to the Rescue sounds lame. How does "Salvation of Thorn Valley" sound?

Second let's remove that dumb prophecy, it makes no sense and tbh Timmy didn't do anything to warrant the Chosen One. Instead his rivalry with Martin is given more focus.

The tone is still serious like the first movie but with more hints of romance. Dr. Valentine is the main villains overseeing all operations and a very intense final battle amidst a burning building. And lack of Jeremy until the finale also shows the darker tone compared to the canon sequel.

The new story is a blend of the movie's plot and the novel sequel Racso and The Rats of NIMH.

Just like canon the movie takes place 7-8 years after the original. Mrs. Brisby is a storyteller who doesn't care for pomp over her adventures. Her sons Martin and Timmy pursue different interests. Martin wants to be a warrior and spars a lot, while Timmy spends his time out exploring the woods collecting plants and rocks. Because of these differences the brothers tend to butt heads.

After a particularly rough argument ruins a ceremony meant for their mama, the frustrated woman sends her sons away for a few weeks in Thorn Valley so they can learn peace from Justin.

Thorn Valley is now a city populated by the mice of nimh and other intelligent animals. Timmy and Martin meets three other teens: Racso, a streetwise rat; Jenny a feisty female mouse, and their shy friend Maggie (an OC). These three work like a well oiled machine, unlike Martin and Timmy.

Timmy manages to adjust to Thorn Valley quite well but Martin's attitude makes him unpopular with the class, and even more unpopular with Racso.

Martin arrogantly assumes Maggie for her supposed boringness. During a fencing class Martin and Maggie are set to spar, Maggie shows great talent with a sword and beats martin. She goes over to him to help him up, but he ejects her, ashamed over losing to a girl. Maggie leaves disappointed prompting Justin to intervene and tell Martin he has to learn to work with others.

With Timmy while he adjusts to the city, he is problem to be something of a know it all, much to Jenny's annoyance. However she softens up after hearing about Timmy's past. She opens up about her own past as an orphan, her parents being the rats who died in NIMH.

The Thorn Valley council receives word that NIMH plans to build a dam. Justin and Brutus goes to stop them, Martin tries to go but is told to stay home. Justin tells them it be best to stay because martin's temper is a liability. That night Martin sneaks out of his dorm but is stopped by Timmy. Martin explains that he wants to prove his stuff but timmy said they need to follow orders. The two start bickering but then they see a weird shadow and run to see who it is. The shadow turns out to be Jenny, who also planned to sneak out. She wants to find her parents who she believes is still trapped in NIMH. Racso agrees to go with her since he knows the human city well. Timmy resigns and agrees to go on the condition that they need a medic. Maggie is the last to go because she fears for her friends' safety (and to spite Martin).

In the forest the five encounter threats like birds of prey and a rabid fox. At one point, martin and Maggie saves each other, resulting in mutual respect. Timmy also learns to trust Racso and Jenny and rely on his own strengths by identifying plants that could be useful for their journey. Jeremy takes them to see Cecil the Caterpillar. Cecil was an apprentice of Nicodemus who taken over after his death, he's comedic but is also wise. He tells the group that they need to find their worth outside petty squabbling and their father Jonathan would hate for his boys to be estranged. Feeling guilty, Timmy and Martin realize that they need to work together. Before the group leave, Cecil requests to talk to Racso privately. We don't know what he says to Racso but it is enough to leave the boy visibly shaken.

The quintet find a truck belonging to NIMH and hitch a ride on it. In the city Racso takes the group to the Underground where they meets up with his old friends the Savage Rats. The rats aren't as friendly towards the other four mice. However the rats are called off by none other than Racso's mother.

Racso's mom explains she and Jenner had a fling which resulted in Racso, but was separated after the first escape from NIMH. Racso corroborates her story and admits kept it a secret so his friends wouldn't judge him. Jenny replies she and Maggie will never judge him for his father's sins. Jenny glared at timmy and Martin daring them to disagree. Racso's mom easy she has no plans to leave the city but wants her son to pursue his own life. She adds she did meet some lovely male rats who Timmy realize she was referring to Justin and Brutus.

Things fall apart when Martin and Maggie are kidnapped by two cats, who take them to NIMH. Timmy, Jenny and Racso go and find Dr. Valentine has been conducting illegal experiments. They hatch a plan to free their friends, then they are discovered by Justin and Brutus. They're angry at the children's disobedience but Timmy tells them they got martin and maggie and they they know how to stop Valentine.

At NIMH Martin and Maggie find Jenny's parents who tell them Valentine is using the mice to create biological weapons. Valentine also oversees on creating a dam that could flood Thorn Valley. Martin uses his dagger to unlock the cage, and he and Maggie go about freeing tbe othet animals. As everyone make a run fir it, Valentine's cats Floyd and Muriel chase them. In an act of selflessness martin distracts the duo long enough to Maggie to escape. Martin is then brought back to be experimented on.

Timmy and Jenny meet the escaped animals and Maggie, who got the schematics.

The evil martin and timmy duel, while timmy holds his own for a bit the sheer strength from martin proves too much and he is knocked down. but just as evil martin is prepared to strike he notices the lack of fear in timmy's eyes. This causes an internal struggle as he starts to remember his brother, seeing this timmy loudly encourages martin to fight back against The brainwashing. Martin thrashed about and knocked himself out. When he comes to Timmy is tending to his wounds. Horrified at what he tried to to Martin somberly apologizes but Timmy says he doesn't hold it against him. No matter what happens they will always be brothers. The two make up and leave but Martin suggests staying to try to stop Valentine. With Justin and Brutus they managed to lure muriel and floyd to their deaths.

Racso publicly admits he is jenner's son and he doesn't care what they (the townsfolk) think of him because he has real friends who accept him no matter what. He begs them to save the judgement late and help him save the city. Together everyone starts to sabotage the machinery guerilla style using the schematics Maggie brought.

At NIMH the four mice try to flee suddenly Dr. Valentine arrives with a butcher's knife ready to kill them. Justin attempts to use the amulet but is knocked back, causing it to slip. The brisby boys scatter trying to avoid the blade but timmy sees that there is a live wire and as Valentine approaches, Martin bites the mad scientist causing him to stumble onto the wire, electrocuting him and shutting the motherboard down. They stare at Valentine's body for a bit then realize the fire is close and they escape. As fire engines circle around the building timmy and martin are outside and climb onboard Jeremy (who was flirting with female pigeons when he heard about tbe incident) and gets his bird friends to carry the mice back home.

Back in the valley, the kids are reprimanded for disobeying. Mrs. Brisby defends them and says they more than made up for it by saving the valley and the experiments. Racso & Martin bury the hatchet. Jenny reunites with her parents. Timmy and Martin are changed by the experienced Martin having taken a life deciding to use his strength to protect people, and Timmy decides to be a master healer. Maggie is gifted with her very own sword and she and Martin admit their feelings. A few weeks later everyone gathers in the valley to welcome the two statues of Jonathan and Mrs. Brisby.

Mrs. Brisby doesn't play much of a role here, but to be fair the same can be said about the books. But she does get full recognized as a hero, she's just more humble about it. I also decided not to use the amulet too much or else it may come off as a deus ex machina. i want to emphasize the characters' strengths and how they work together.

Maggie is an oc meant to be martin's love interest, i thought it make for a cute Parallel to timmy x jenny. Racso comes from Racso and the Rats of NIMH.

#the secret of nimh #timmy to the rescue #the secret of nimh 2 #rewrite #fanfiction #timmy brisby #martin brisby #jenny mcbride #racso #racso and the rats of nimh #nimh oc #oc x canon

[webslingingslasher]

I haven’t sent anything since I first read it bc I needed to gather my thoughts bc OH BOI it was brilliant!!! I am absolutely feral about your writing in general for UNI!!

Like idk how you did it but I almost forgot that I knew what was going to happen with Trouble and Peter eventually! All of a sudden I was reading something completely new!!!

I was almost rooting for Ethan and bio girl even though I knew wtf was going on!!!

That Ethan thing might have been more me…And my god I was so attracted to Lily it isn’t even funny

(I’m not normally chatting on here but I figured I’ll probably yell some more abt each chapter so I implore you to decide which of these I shall now be christened as🎲🧶🦝)

AAAAA when people don't normally send asks or talk but they wanna do it w me it makes my heart flutter like boom boom boom!!!!!

i am so so so glad you like it and are excited to read more, it fr makes me wanna keep posting cause i know people actually like it 🫣

i was excited bc i thot that was a rat but issa raccoon. it'll do i guess.

#🦝 anon

[thequeenofdragons]

Issa rat! Issa motherfuckin' rat!

#tw swearing #alph pikmin #oh shit a rat #tw rats #memes #shitpost drawing

[nikaidou-stan]

issa keeps his hair styled like that to hide the rat that's been secretly controlling him and playing his matches by pulling his hair

#finally cracked the code #march comes in like a lion #sangatsu no lion #3 gatsu no lion

[achitka]

Doors (Chapter 37) If Only...

If Only...

Summary: I don't usually spend time within a story - retelling it. It seems it was mildly necessary...and people say I ramble. Oh I do but off we go. To the mountains with wine and fog. Only one plot bit left to wrap up. Go me.

Siendo el Milagro - Being the Miracle was an alternate title...let me know if think it better than the one I chose.

If Only...

Mariano Guzman was listening to Señor Aguilar when Dolores began speaking to him. He was no longer startled by Dolores randomly talking to him in this way. In fact, he saw it as just one more way to spend time with her. She asked him to come to Mirabel’s room. Bubo did not appear to be taking the realization of Tuli’s condition upon her arrival well at all, and he was gonna need a friend. She said the look on his face made her think he was planning to do something dire.

Mariano had seen the child who walked through the courtyard and assumed it was Camilo. Dolores said that once Camilo chose a form that was new to him, he would remain in that form for as long as possible, so he could not be startled out of it. But if that was how Tuli looked when she was found, he certainly could not fault Bubo for being angry. Having no siblings or cousins, Mariano was at a bit of a loss in this area. He waited for Señor Aguilar to finish, then excused himself and headed up to Mirabel’s room and stopped just outside the door.

Bubo was sitting very still in an overstuffed chair with a rat in his lap. He was watching something on the floor and those long fingers of his were tapping up a storm, and Mariano thought, Oh, he’s furious. While he’d never known Bubo to be quick to anger, it was obvious from his dark expression, he meant to do great harm to Santiago. Tuli and Mirabel were kneeling on the floor reciting the rosary, and Mariano moved away so as not to disturb them and quietly added his voice to the prayers. He realized he needed a better game plan than just teasing Bubo about Issa. He would do his best for him, though.

He spoke the final Amen and was about to go in when Dolores told him to stay where he was for a moment. Mariano did and heard Mirabel say, “Casita, where is Tío Bruno?” there was an answering clatter and Mirabel said, “Tuli, can you take Fura to my Tío? He’s in Antonio’s room. You can wait there until we need you.”

Tuli must have nodded because Mariano did not hear a response, and shortly after that Tuli ran out of the room with her tiny passenger. She did not notice him as she was very focused on getting her charge to where they needed to be.

“If you’ll excuse me.” He heard Bubo say, and just as quickly he heard Mirabel say, “Bubo, please wait. There’s something I need to say to you.”

Mariano moved to where he could see them but stayed in the hall. Mirabel’s tone was not much different than the one her Abuela used when she wanted to make sure she had your full attention. But with Mirabel, it was softer, as if in hopes that her words would land more gently.

“What is it you need, Mirabel?” Bubo asked, there was an edge of impatience and almost a challenge in that statement, that was as close to being condescending that Mariano had ever heard from him.

Mirabel was not put off, if anything she looked more determined as she adjusted her glasses and said, matching his tone, “First, I need for you to calm down before you go off to do whatever nonsense is going through your head.”

“I’m sorry, excuse me?” Bubo asked, but it wasn’t really a question, to Mariano it was more of a ‘how dare you’ sort of thing.

Mirabel took a deep breath and answered in a much calmer, but firm voice, “No, I will not excuse you and more importantly, I really need you to not do that, Bubo.”

Bubo cocked an eyebrow at her change of attitude and, though his jaw was set, he asked in a politer voice, “And why is that?”

“Because you made a promise, Bubo. Tuli’s doing her best, but your prima is terrified right now, and once the others come back she’s going to need you to be here.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I think you do; right now, you’re angry enough to want to hurt Santiago, and I don’t blame you. I’m not thrilled with that person either, but Bubo, that’s not what’s needed. Tuli told me you promised her you wouldn’t leave her alone… again.” That small pause made Bubo flinch slightly. Mirabel may be young, but she was not pulling any punches. “Tuli needs her family,” Mirabel continued, “and maybe you should consider of all the places she could have ended up, why she landed here. Where you are. She needs you, not an avenger.”

Bubo did not reply, but no longer looked angry. He was thoughtful and seemed to see Mirabel in a different light. Still, Mariano knew what that calculating look on his friend’s face meant. He’d only ever seen that expression when his friend was fed up with whatever someone was saying, and it rubbed him the wrong way. That usually led to an argument, then… Mariano’s eyes drifted up when he heard the tiles above the door shift. Casita was not the most patient entity, and would act directly if it thought for half a second Bubo was a threat to any of the Madrigals. But with Mirabel, it most definitely would and with less provocation. And from what Dolores had told him, Casita would not be gentle.

Hopefully, Bubo was not about to say something really dumb. But angry people often say foolish things. When he heard the tiles shift again, Mariano decided he’d best do something more than watch it happen, so he stepped through the doorway. This had two effects, first, Bubo and Mirabel looked away from one another. Second, his large frame effectively blocked the door as Mariano smiled at Dolores. Bubo then turned to glower at him and asked, “Here to offer more clever remarks, Mariano?”

Well, at least he was aiming it at him and not Mirabel. Mariano continued to smile as he lifted his hands and replied, “Who me? No no no no, of course not. Just came up to check on Dolores. To see if she was hungry…” he said as he looked at Dolores and asked, “Are you okay, mi vida? Can I get you anything?”

Dolores, who had been ignored during the exchange, nodded and said, “I’m doing pretty good so far, but could you please get me something to drink,” she paused as she was listening to something, then added, “and maybe a snack.”

Mariano nodded, and then he turned and asked Mirabel, “Anything I can get for you, Mirabel?”

Mirabel seemed thankful for the distraction and replied, “The same, please.”

“Okay,” Mariano said and turned to Bubo and asked in the way you do when you’re not really asking, “How about you come with me, going to need some help,” Mariano indicated that Bubo should precede him and though Bubo’s eyes narrowed briefly, he nodded to Mirabel and then Dolores and walked out the door. Mariano also nodded and pulled the door closed behind him.

As they were walking toward the stairs, Mariano purposefully took the long way around and Bubo paused as they were passing Isabela’s door. Bubo looked back at Mirabel’s room, then returned his attention to Isabela’s. Mariano wondered what he was thinking and realized he hadn’t really looked at Isabela’s door before now. He noticed along the bottom were butterflies that alternately glowed a deep blue, then would shimmer golden. You wouldn’t see the change, it only happened when you blinked. Kinda weird but neat. He’d have to take time to examine the others.

Isabela herself also looked so different from the woman he thought he knew. Once Mariano agreed to propose to her, he found, that try though he may, he had never actually gotten Isabela to show any kind of interest in a relationship. They would date and even marry, but as for the rest. He felt a bit of regret for harassing Bubo, or perhaps he was just a tiny bit jealous. It really was a good thing that proposal dinner had gone wrong, he thought and looked across the courtyard, seeing Dolores’s door. A very good thing.

Bubo had moved away from the door to the rail, and he was watching but not seeing the activity in the courtyard. He did not seem to be looking at anything in particular and was silent for a few minutes as he stood there, gently tapping the wood.

“Is something wrong, my friend?”

“No,” Bubo said, but Mariano noted the anger that was evident in his voice before was gone. “I was just wondering,” Bubo said as he turned toward Mariano. He pushed up his glasses and waved at Isabela’s door. “When I asked you earlier if Issa was… like that all the time, you said no. So, my question is this; was that before or after the proposal dinner when Issa broke your nose?” Mariano barked a laugh and smiled. Then Bubo added, “Just need to know if I’m taking my life into my own hands by pursuing this.”

Mariano let out another laugh, and he again clapped Bubo on the back, "She actually broke it twice, but who's counting?"

“You need to stop doing that," Bubo said and twisted his neck, "you’re going to throw my back out.”

“Sorry, old habit. But honestly, your guess is as good as mine, amigo. Ours was an arranged relationship, that neither of us asked for, so there was a lot of awkwardness. Nothing like I have with Dolores now. Besides, Isabela wants to get to know you, Bubo. So, I’ll leave it to you to figure that out. Still, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you heard about that. The gossip network in the Encanto has always been quite lively. Dolores tells me it’s even more so since that meeting today. It appears you are now the Encanto’s most eligible bachelor,” Mariano said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you can expect some random attentions from women who believe they should have whatever Isabela thinks is interesting. If only to try and keep that thing out of her reach,” Mariano chuckled as he again started moving toward the stairs.

“That’s insanity.”

“I agree, and I am thankful I no longer hold that dubious title,” Mariano said.

“Oh, Dios Mio. How did this get so complicated?”

“It’s only ever as complicated as you want it to be, Bubo. You should consider, you almost got into an argument with Mirabel, and an argument with her means an argument with Casita. All because you wanted to go find Santiago and… give him a good talking to.”

“I wasn’t planning to talk.”

“And Mirabel knew that, why do you think she dropped Fura in your lap? It wasn’t because she thought you wanted a better look at her. She did it, so you wouldn’t leave. Make no mistake, this house is as alive as anyone in the Encanto, and if Mirabel wanted you to stay, there would be no leaving. She was giving you a choice because she sees that you are a far better man than most, Bubo."

"I just didn't want to harm something that Tuli cares for, that's all. Though I suppose I should thank you for your intervention, Mariano. Still, why would it matter to her if I did?” Bubo asked as they turned the last corner toward the kitchen, “These people hardly know me at all.”

“It would matter, Bubo. Especially to Mirabel, since Abuela Alma put Tuli into her care. But even before that, Tuli’s plight caught the attention of the Heavens, maybe even the same ones that saved Abuela Alma all those years ago. I, personally, believe those Angels sent her the Madrigals. Your family has been touched by the miracle that permeates this place. I know you feel it too. It’s peaceful here, and that makes people want to stay. Didn’t you tell me six months ago that this town was too sleepy for you and that you were going to go back to Bogotá? Yet somehow you ended up watching a river for the last three?”

Bubo didn’t answer as they entered the kitchen. Mariano smiled when they saw two trays with juice, crackers and cheese on them sitting on the counter and said, “Gracias Casita.” There was an answering clatter of countertop tiles as Mariano picked up the first and handed it to Bubo. He retrieved the second, and they headed back to the stairs. When they reached the top, Mariano stopped and said as he used his tray to point toward Antonio’s room, “I guess, my friend, what it comes down to is this; Do you truly believe Mirabel was wrong to say what she did or is your sudden desire for revenge so great that Tuli has become secondary to that desire.”

Bubo was now looking in the direction of Antonio’s room. “Go find your prima, Bubo,” Mariano said and gave him a nudge in that direction, “The others should be back soon.”

------------------------------

Mirabel watched the men leave but turned away from the door because she could not bear to look at it and felt a moment of extreme anxiety as she plopped onto the sofa. When her gaze fell on the tiny lights and faces moving around on the map of the Encanto, Mirabel sighed. So many people to try and look after, and at that moment she did not feel up to the task. She was worried about her family up on that mountain. Worried about the women and children being stalked by Santiago. Now she added to that, the worry that Bubo would, in fact, do what he planned and somehow, she knew that would devastate Tuli. She stared at the rosary she was still holding and began once again to recite the joyful mysteries. Pausing after each decade, she rubbed the butterfly shaped beads between each before moving on. Each time stopping and saying an extra prayer for everyone’s safe return. The Miraculous medal was also in the shape of a butterfly, and she kissed it.

If only she could just will it to be so. If only she could do more than sit around and wait. If only…

------------------------------

Bruno was lying in a hammock with Fura perched in his hair while he read a book to Antonio and Tuli. It was a rousing adventure story of Buz the honeybee. It followed her life as she first wakes up from her cell, her first flight with her sister Hum, and how they learn to fulfill their roles as bees in the colony. The story was interrupted when Chipsi let out a loud chirp near the door. This was echoed by her pups, and Antonio looked down to where Parce was lounging beneath them. Antonio nodded to Parce, who got up from under the hammock and headed toward the door.

Tuli watched the jaguar leave and looked at Antonio. Her expression was a determined one, and Bruno wondered what they were up to. Antonio laid back and tapped his arm. Tuli laid back as well and Bruno finished reading the story. When Fura suddenly popped up and squeaked, Tuli smiled and scrambled out of the hammock when she saw Bubo was there with a tray of juice and cheese. He set it on the small table nearby, but Tuli ignored the tray and wrapped her arms around her cousin, giving him a hug. She grabbed his arm, and Bubo used his other hand to straighten her flower crown. Antonio did go to the table and grabbed a piece of cheese and popped it into his mouth.

He drank some juice as he grabbed a small fist full of cheese and a few crackers, which he brought to Bubo, saying it was for Fura. He dropped the contents into Bubo’s free hand and pulled at Tuli, then said, “See, I told ya he’d come. You worry too much. Come on, you promised and there’s something I want to show you.”

Tuli scrunched her face at him and stuck out her tongue. She looked up at Bubo. He nodded and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll be here when you get back.” She let out an almost imperceptible sigh as she gave his arm a hug, then followed Antonio. Antonio was waving for her to come deeper into the tree, and Bubo watched Tuli as she disappeared around a corner. Bubo chuckled to himself as he looked at the cheese and crackers in his hand.

“She’s a good kid,” Bruno said as he got out of the hammock and took some of the food.

“She is. I have to thank you and your family for being so kind to her,” Bubo said as he put the crackers back on the tray, then added, “and patient with me.”

When Bruno first met Señor Márquez, he was not at all sure he liked him. He was a bit more rigid and proper than Bruno cared for. Such people tended to be closed-minded at best. Bubo was not from around here, but Bruno realized that as the day went on, Bubo was being pulled closer to their family. First by his mother. Then Mirabel, can’t forget Issa, and it was all because one little girl needed help. Rigid or no, Bubo was a good person at his core, something you don’t always find.

Bruno had not told anyone which one of the dozen or so requests he’d accepted. He reached into a pocket he’d sewn into his ruana and pulled out a slightly crumpled envelope that contained a short note. Bubo stared at it, knowing what was written there. It was a request to find out if the author's cousin was doing well back in Bogotá. “I'm guessing you forgot about this.” Bruno said as he held it up. “You should know I only accepted this one request, and that was well before the meeting. Still interested, Señor Márquez?”

Bubo looked back toward the tree, they could hear the echoes of the kid’s laughter up there and Bubo turned back to Bruno and shook his head, “No. I already have my answer, and though I am still concerned about meeting my Tío tomorrow, I think I’ll just wait and see how it goes.”

“Glad to hear you say that Bubo,” Bruno said and smiled as he returned the envelope to his pocket and sat on the floor. Once he handed off a piece of the cheese and a cracker to Fura, he noticed the other rats now congregating around him. There were two new rats among the pile, and wondered if they were the ones that told Tuli about this place. “So, what changed your mind?” Bruno asked as he doled out more snacks to the rats.

Bubo sat down as well and replied, “This has had to have been one of the strangest days of my entire life. A roller coaster of so many unexpectedly good things. You know, when I made that request, it was on a whim, since I was still considering leaving here, I told myself it was to go back to school. But I've had a more or less constant worry about Tuli. Watching the river gave me time to sort some things out, and I was going to tell your mother after the meeting that I would be going back once someone else could be found to lead that group.”

“Did you tell her?” Bruno asked.

“No, when I saw your sketches at the meeting, there was no doubt in my mind that my Tío was one of the people shown, but then your mother brought up Paola, and I thought maybe it was a coincidence. It couldn't be Tuli. That's why I asked to see if you had any sketches of that child. I was not completely sure they were my cousin. During lunch, I was sitting by myself trying to decide the best way to ask you some more questions. Then Mirabel sat with me... then Isabela was there, and I got very… distracted."

Bruno felt the urge to remind Bubo that Isabela was his sobrina but restrained himself. This was getting interesting; He didn’t often get the chance to hear what people from outside the family thought of the goings-on in such a non-critical light. Bruno nodded and Bubo continued, “So, after the people stopped drifting toward Mirabel, I thought I saw Tuli with her. Then Isabela started to... wobble even more, and you requested my help bringing her back to Casita. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you only asked for my help, so you could ask me if I knew who Paola was. I mean it did solve one of my difficulties, but that’s ridiculous, so when you told me that you knew about Paola’s situation and that it wasn’t a problem, my brain just stopped working at that point. People generally do not respond as your family has to Tuli’s way of seeing herself. I needed to think things through again, so I went to talk to Mariano. He’s actually been a good friend to me since I got here, and I, of course, drank a lot of wine.”

“You didn’t seem particularly drunk, Bubo.”

“I ate a ridiculous amount of rice and beans, so by the time I ended up here, I was just a little lightheaded. I don’t know what was in the coffee your sister made, but I felt fine after that, and look,” he said holding up his hands, “All the damage I did to my hands when I was bug hunting by the river was healed as well,” Bubo paused, “But you would know that since she is your sister, sorry. Oh, dear God, I am rambling now, aren’t I.”

“You’re fine Bubo, please continue,” Bruno said and realized he was out of cheese. Bubo noticed and lifted the tray and set it on the floor and said, “I was not sure what I was going to say to my cousin, but when I finally saw her as she sees herself. It was quite the revelation for me that something as simple as acceptance would do so much for her. That left me a little off balance, which only got worse when Isabela asked me to go out with her tomorrow…”

“Well, there’s something I hadn’t heard about.” Bruno said but was not surprised to hear that happened. It looked like Isabela was taking a sledgehammer to that pedestal his mother had put her on. Bubo gave himself a shake and continued.

“Believe me, it was never something I thought would happen. Mariano, however, thought it quite hilarious. Anyway, just when I was sure nothing else could happen that would surprise me, you dropped off Fura and left me alone with all those women. When I heard Tuli’s story, I was ready to go out and, as Mariano put it, ‘give Santiago a good talking to’. Mirabel, however, had trapped me in a chair with Fura, so I couldn't just go out and commit murder while she was praying with Tuli.”

“Actual murder?” Bruno asked.

“Obviously, that did not happen, but as angry as I was, I seriously thought about it. Your sobrina is a very convincing person, and she reminded me what my priorities should be... I am starting to wonder if I am doomed. You know, there are some folks in this town who say chaos follows the Madrigals. I am now leaning toward agreement with that.” Bubo finished and leaned back against the wall; the poor guy looked exhausted. That was a lot to happen in less than 24 hours.

Bruno had listened and nodded where he thought was appropriate, and was doing his best not to bust out laughing. He was gonna need to write this all down. Be the perfect scenario for a novella. Just the right amount of drama and suspense. Chaos and his family were definitely one in the same, but he was curious about one thing and asked, “Bubo, what’s a roller coaster?”

“Oh, ummm, it's a mechanical ride that takes you up and down hills at great speed.”

“Really?” Bruno asked and Bubo nodded. “I think I saw one of those once… I would like to try that. Oh, one other thing...” Bruno said and pulled out the small radio and handed it to Bubo. "What are the chances you can get this to work?"

Bubo took the radio and switched it on. Only static came from the device and Bubo asked, “You’re not getting a signal. Where did you get this?”

“Bogotá,” Bruno added when he saw the look on Bubo’s face, “It’s complicated and has to do with the magic-”

(… “Tío, can you come to Mira’s room? …) there was a short pause and Dolores added (… Quickly, please ...)

“Bubo, I gotta go, can you keep an eye on the kids for me?”

“Of course, is something wrong?”

“I hope not,” Bruno said as he set Fura next to him. “You lot stay put,” he admonished to the rats that were all watching him. Bruno then turned and ran to the door.

------------------------------

Pepa looked at Julieta as she took the small cup of wine from her. There was already a base of mist swirling about their feet, so definitely no more wine. Dolores was giving them directions, go straight, go left here. Stop before you go off the cliff. That little scare caused the fog to thicken rapidly, and Julieta, still holding the cup, drank the rest of the wine. Everyone stopped when they heard the sound of a child’s voice calling out. “Tía, where are you?”

“Don’t move. I’ll come to you,” A woman responded, probably Doris.

It was hard to orientate on them, so Pepa whispered, “Dolores, how far away are they?”

(… probably no more than fifty meters to the left …)

Pepa almost jumped out of her skin when Issa walked along each of them, running a hand gently across their waists. She looked down to see a slender vine rope secure itself around her. Pepa remembered Issa would do this with Mirabel and Camilo to keep them from wandering off when she had charge of them. Camilo would try to shape change out of it, but Issa could shrink or grow these vines to her needs. Eventually, Camilo just gave up trying to escape his prima. Luisa was at the front of the line and could just see over the fog.

“Pepa,” her mother whispered, “is there any way to thin this out?”

“Probably, but we never got that far with the experiment this afternoon.” Pepa whispered back.

“This is going to make finding the exit a bit of a problem,” Julieta added.

Pepa was a little surprised that her mother only nodded and withheld any remarks about her being foolish. A dog’s bark silenced everyone, and they could hear the dog getting closer. Well, nothing to do now but wait for it to find them. The fog was now getting very thick, she could only see an arm’s length away. The dog overshot them at full speed and ran beneath Issa’s vine. Pepa realized it had a lead and Julieta, who noticed the same, pulled the vine tight at the same time, just as Doris came barreling through.

Doris, also running full speed, hit the vine, flipped and hit the ground hard enough that she lost consciousness and that set the dog loose. Pepa was weirdly not concerned about the dog, but instead let out a laugh, and the fog dwindled somewhat. Well, that mystery was solved as she could see further down the line to Luisa. Isabela let the vine melt away and everyone gathered around the fallen woman.

Doris was a taller than average woman with long twists in her hair that were tied back with a bit of rope. Her clothes were somewhat strange to them, but not unrecognizable. The dog returned, but only growled until they moved away from Doris. The pooch laid down next to her but was watching them, and every so often it would stare off toward the cliff, but otherwise it did not move from its station.

Pepa noticed her mother was looking at something in the distance and asked, “What do you see, Mamá?”

Her mother didn’t answer but began walking in that direction. “Oi Mamá,” Julieta said, “Pepi, Issa, stay with Doris and keep her here. Tie her up if you have to, but be gentle, Issa. Luisa, you come with me.” then both started off after their mother.

“So, tell me Issa,” Pepa said, stepping closer to her. They sat on the ground near the unconscious woman and Pepa asked, “Did my eyes deceive me or were you asking Señor Márquez out on a date?”

“I ummm…” Isabela paused when Pepa elbowed her. She let out a small laugh and said, “Yeah, I did.”

“He’s so tiny,” Pepa said, then realized it was the wrong thing to say when Isabela frowned as she looked away and said, “I guess, Tía.”

Pepa put an arm around Isabela and said, “I’m sorry. I was just teasing, Corazón. He seems like a good person, and Tuli clearly loves him.”

“I guess, I just want to get to know him better, you know... as me, not as Señorita Perfecta. He never met her, and I don’t want him to. When I overheard him talking to Mirabel, and he said he ‘wasn’t good enough for someone like me’ It made me want to show him who that someone actually is. It doesn’t hurt that the things he knows about are interesting to me. I also really like his accent… Does that sound kinda creepy?”

“No, mi vida, that sounds absolutely wonderful.”

The dog let out a small whine as Doris groaned. The dog began licking her face and Doris laughed a little and said, “Bruno, stop it.” Pepa let out an involuntary snort, and Doris focused on her and her sobrina. She immediately tried to scramble away from them, but before she was on her feet, Issa loosely wrapped her up in some vines and Pepa said, “We’re not here to hurt you Doris. Not you, Inez, or the children with you.”

“How do you know my name,” she snapped, “Who are you people?”

“My name is Pepa Madrigal, and this is my sobrina Isabela. We came because someone you know asked us to help you find our village.”

That set her back and she asked, “Who?”

“You know them as Fernando.”

“Fernando is alive?”

“Yes, we found them yesterday, but you should know that Fernando’s name is actually Tuli, and she is currently safe in our home.”

“She?”

“Yes.”

“You’re lying, Fernando is a boy.”

“Yes.”

Again, Pepa’s answer caught Doris completely off guard, and she just stared at them. So Pepa continued, “They are who they are, Doris. But if not for her, we wouldn’t have known about you or the problem that is the smuggler named Santiago. He is not far away, and he is looking for Tuli, and that’s why we’re here now. To get you off this mountain before he catches up with you.”

“If what you're saying is true, then untie me. I need to get back to my family.”

Pepa looked over to Issa, who shrugged, and Doris looked mildly confused as the vines shriveled then faded away and asked, “How did you do that?”

“That’s complicated,” Pepa said. “I’ll explain later.” Doris almost looked like she would bolt, but she looked back to where Inez and the others waited. She nodded, then picked up the dog’s lead and started in the direction her mother had taken earlier.

A few somethings small and colorful flitted past, and Issa said, “Oh look, butterflies. I wonder if they’re hungry,” and began to leave a trail of various flowers behind her. Doris’s eyes were wide, but she just sighed and continued forward.

The fog continued to dissipate or rather Pepa pulled a wind down the mountain that pushed it toward the cliff’s edge and Isabela leaned in and said, “Dang, Tía, maybe you should drink wine more often.”

------------------------------

Alma smiled as the fog began to dissipate. Pepa’s growth in using her Gift was something Alma never expected. She was looking in the direction that Doris had come from and thought she saw a line of something that was alternately golden then would wink out of sight. It appeared to be making its way closer to the old oak tree. Intrigued, she started toward it. Pepa said something, but Alma’s curiosity pulled her forward and she did not respond. As she got closer, she realized Julieta and Luisa were with her now, and all three watched the fluttering colorful line as it danced above the children’s heads. The woman with them could only be Inez, and she was smiling as she watched them play. Her long hair was braided in a way similar to Doris’s but with a distinctly blonde tint to it that made her darker skin stand out.

She started when she noticed them watching her, and she placed herself between them and the children and asked, “Who are you? What do you want?” The children, alerted to possible danger, stopped playing and immediately formed a small group behind her. While they looked concerned, the children seemed more curious than frightened as the one closest to her asked, “Inni, maybe they’re friends of Fernando.”

Alma resisted the urge to move forward. She wanted and needed Julieta to be the leader in this situation. Alma was realizing she needed to take a few more steps back if any sort of transition was going to happen smoothly. The townsfolk especially looked to Julieta, and Alma touched Julieta’s elbow, indicating she wanted her to handle this. Julieta looked surprised but nodded and went a little ahead of them and said, “Hola Inez, my name is Julieta Madrigal, and this,” she said as she indicated behind her, “Is my daughter Luisa and her Abuela Alma. We’ve come to help. We understand you helped someone who recently came to our village.” Inez did not answer, she just stared. So, Julieta added, “Do you know little Fernando?”

Inez took a small step forward and asked, “He is well then?”

Julieta smiled and nodded as she said, “Yes, she is safe, and her name is actually Tuli.”

“Her? Fernando is a girl?” Inez asked, but Julieta did not get to answer as the dog ran up and quietly stopped at her feet. Everyone turned and the butterflies that had landed, scattered. Alma was pleased to see Pepa and Isabela were walking toward them with Doris, who was not looking at all angry.

The children behind Inez let up a cheer, and Inez waved a hand to shush them. The butterflies had not dispersed, but instead began to land on the children. Luisa, who was quietly standing beside Alma, let out a gasp. Julieta and Alma turned to see several of the creatures had landed on her as well.

Doris immediately went over and hugged Inez as the kids surrounded her, the dog intermittently barking and jumping. Everything stopped when there was a blood-curdling scream, followed quickly by a second from lower on the mountain. Pepa’s fog immediately sprung back to life, but this time it formed a wall around the group instead of enveloping them.

“Impressive, Pepi,” Julieta said looking at the wall of fog and winced when there was another scream.

Silence reigned and Alma asked “Dolores, someone was screaming, do you know what’s happening?”

(… I think Santiago might be… dead… his light just winked out …)

“Are you certain, Dolores?” Alma asked.

(… No. That’s never happened before… hang on, I’m gonna talk to Camilo …)

“What did she say, Mamá?”

“That the smuggler might be dead. She said his light went out.”

“Is everyone else alright?” Pepa asked and then immediately relaxed and said, “Oh, thank goodness.”

“Okay, it’s time we got off the mountain,” Julieta said and walked over to Doris and Inez. She spoke to them briefly, handed off the basket of treats and returned to their little group. Alma was again watching the butterflies as they started to settle back on everyone who was there. It was odd, to say the least.

------------------------------

Pretending to run afoul of Santiago was actually easier than Camilo expected. With Dolores constantly telling him how far, how close and what direction the smuggler was. It was really more like a game of ‘Let’s Play in the Woods’ and Camilo was an expert at that one. He’d purposely stumbled onto the game trail in front of Santiago in Tuli’s shape. The look of avarice on the old man’s face made him want to wretch, so Camilo bolted toward the clearing he knew was ahead. Santiago immediately gave chase, cackling as he ran.

Camilo ran along the game trail as he blew the whistle Antonio gave him three times, just like his little brother had told him. The whistle made no sound that he could hear, but Dolores assured him it was working just fine. He stopped to catch his breath and waited a whole minute before he repeated the process. After a few more minutes, he arrived at the place his father told him he should stand. Once in position, he shouted and cried out again like he was hurt but using only Tuli’s voice. He glanced up and saw the fog that his mother had made was still higher up the slope but had started spilling over like a fluffy avalanche. He blew the whistle one more time before he put it away.

When he heard the sound of footsteps, he cried out again, just to make sure that rat bastard came the right way. When the old man leapt out at him from the bushes, Santiago said, “I told ye, ye’d be back. Ain’t no one but old Santiago gonna keep you Paola me boy. No one wants a twisted little thing like you.” Camilo backed up to stay just out of reach of that creepy bastard and said in Tuli’s voice, “I’m not afraid of you.”

“Is that so? Well, ye should be,” and Santiago lunged forward. His foot hit the trigger, and he was caught by one leg upside down. He bounced two or three times until the branch the rope was secured to broke with a loud crack and the old man hit the ground headfirst, pretty hard. Camilo scrambled back and up the tree, and a sound above him made him look up. There was a jaguar perched above him, and Camilo hoped it was Parce. As if sensing his worry, the jaguar chuffed at him, and Camilo relaxed just a little. The big cat came a little lower and just as Santiago was getting up from the ground, the jaguar dropped out of the tree on top of the old man.

Santiago let out a loud grunt and several curse words, thinking it was Paola that had dropped on him. When he was unable to shift the weight from his back, and Parce let out a satisfied growl, Santiago froze when he realized there was a jaguar on him. Parce slowly lowered his head, nose right next to Santiago's eye, and licked his face. Santiago let out a terrified scream, but Parce, made himself comfortable and again licked the side of Santiago’s face. This inspired even more screaming as his father, Tío, and the abuelos came out of hiding. All four were reluctant to interfere, so they watched as Santiago continued to struggle, then quite suddenly, he went stiff and then... completely limp.

Camilo wondered if perhaps Santiago was playing dead in hopes that the big cat would get off him, but Parce just stopped licking and put his head down when a blue and red butterfly landed in the grass nearby. Minutes stretched until Dolores asked, (… Camilo, Abuela says someone was screaming. Santiago’s light just went out. What is happening? ...) she sounded a bit frantic.

Camilo shifted back to himself and said, “Don’t know. Heart attack, maybe?”

(… Oh …)

Camilo looked up the hill and there appeared to be a new wall of fog up there. His mother was getting good at that. Dolores must have conveyed what she knew to the others as they came closer. Parce did not move from his chosen position until his father asked Parce to move aside. The jaguar did, and several yellow butterflies took flight when the jaguar got up. His father checked for either breathing or a heartbeat. Having found neither, he got up and said, “He’s dead, all right.”

“It’s too bad we didn’t bring a shovel,” his Abuelo Juan Pedro said.

Camilo started when a butterfly landed gently on his nose, and he asked, “Where did all these butterflies come from?”

------------------------------

Dolores removed her hands from the map, sat back and sighed. Thank goodness that was over with, she thought. “Hey, Mirabel, looks like everyone is okay and headed back. Isn’t that wonderful?” Mirabel, who was sitting in the center of the sofa, did not respond and Dolores thought, ‘That’s odd.’ “Mira?” still no answer. A little nervous, Dolores touched her Tío Bruno’s face on the map and said, “Tío, can you come to Mira’s room…” Mirabel still hadn’t moved at all, so Dolores added, “Quickly, please.”

Dolores knelt in front of her prima and realized Mirabel was holding her glasses in one hand and the Rosary in the other. Her eyes were closed, and her heart was beating normally. She looked like she was sleeping. She touched Mirabel’s arm, thinking she might be cold. But she was warm, but not like she had a fever, and Dolores felt a tingle. She realized what she was feeling was the same warm tingle she’d felt when she opened her door again.

She looked at Mirabel’s door and realized the smaller butterfly was no longer stationed above the lower hand. It was suspended above the smaller tree, but was larger. It changed color each time she blinked, and Dolores started when the door opened and her Tío Bruno came in.

“What’s happening, Dolores?”

Dolores just pointed to the door and Bruno closed it, and Bruno reached out a hand and gently touched a flower on the smaller tree. The flowers were now all in full bloom, and Mirabel mumbled something when he pulled his hand away. “Casita?” There was no response from the house, and Bruno came and sat on the floor next to Dolores.

“Call me crazy, but I think Mira’s not here,” he said as he pointed at Mirabel. “She’s there.” and pointed at the door.

Bruno noticed the Rosary in Mirabel's left hand. She had the Miraculous medal pinched between her thumb and palm, and Bruno wondered, 'Where have you gone, Mirabel?'

------------------------------

Luisa was delighted with all the butterflies that intermittently landed and took off. It was almost like they were trying to protect her. Doris and Inez had their heads together while her Abuela, Mamá and her Tía were speaking nearby, and Luisa looked at Isabela. Her sister was growing flowers for the butterflies, and Luisa went over to her and said, “You might want to take it easy on that, unless you want to pass out again.”

Isabela frowned and nodded, “Good point,” she said and sighed. “They’re just so pretty.”

Doris approached their mother and said, “You say Fernan … I mean, Tuli wanted you to bring us to your village. Can I expect that the children will remain with me?”

“Of course,” her mother said.

“Then please lead the way.”

Her mother looked at the wall of fog and said, “Pepa? Is the clear area starting to shrink?”

Her Tía said a little nervously, “I’m not sure how to make that stop,” she said and waved a hand at the fog, “I made the fog, but the clear space… I am not sure that I am responsible for that.”

Luisa noticed the butterflies were no longer landing on people but were instead flying in a thick line above them as if waiting for something to happen. A small cluster of them came to her then and pulled her attention to the right.

“Mamá?” Luisa said tentatively.

“Yes Luisa?”

“This is gonna sound crazy, but I think we need to follow the butterflies.”

Her mother looked up and was surprised by the sheer number of them and nodded. She turned to Isabela and said, “Issa, I want you to link everyone like you did before. Luisa, you’ll be in front. Doris, can you all get in a line, it appears we’re going to need to be creative to get past this fog and I don’t want to risk losing anyone, so my daughter Issa will be linking us all together.

Doris nodded and herded her group into a line, with Inez at the front and herself at the rear of her group. Isabela then went down the line and once everyone was secured, Luisa looked up and said, “Lead the way, Mira.”

The butterflies responded by dancing above her head, and Luisa knew she wasn’t wrong. She didn’t know how Mira was doing this, but she was certain it was her little sister trying to help. The butterflies circled down the line and Luisa started forward.

The group was not moving quickly, but the butterflies continued to fly just above them, and Luisa was relieved when she finally broke free of the wall of fog. She continued forward until everyone was out and her mother turned and said, “Up ahead is a path that leads to our home. When you walk onto it, you’re going to feel very cold for a moment, but it really only lasts for a moment. Just keep moving forward.”

Luisa noted the butterflies were fewer and only enough of them were there to outline where they needed to go. “Is everyone ready?” Luisa asked.

There was a lot of nodding and her mother said as she touched Luisa’s arm, “Take us home, mija.”

Next Chapter:

Previous Chapter:

#encanto #tio bruno #encanto dolores #pepa madrigal #casita #family madrigal #the family madrigal #julieta madrigal #encanto pepa #felix madrigal #abuela alma madrigal #augustin madrigal #encanto fanfic #my fanfic writing #mirabel madrigal #encanto Disney #disney encanto #isabela madrigal #antonio madrigal #camilo madrigal #dolores madrigal #doors #Bubo Márquez #Mariano is a troublemaker

[harrylee94]

In the Footsteps of Luminous Beings - Chapter 11

You can also find this on AO3!

Summary: “I didn’t know it would feel this way.”

Ben sighed as he stepped out of the entrance, collecting a stool so he could sit next to him. “To be connected with the Force as we are is a gift… and a curse.”

“Feels pretty bad right now,” Cobb said, leaning into Ben’s hand when he felt it land on his shoulder. “I’ve had to kill people before, but this…”

“It’s like a hole, one that keeps getting bigger,” Ben said. “It makes the light feel that much dimmer.”

“It feels so cold.” Cobb swallowed and looked up at him. “How will I feel warm again?”

Notes: This one takes place almost directly after the previous chapter.

TW for mentions of the previous battle

Chapter 10

——————————————————————

Adrift

Issa-Or had arrived sometime around sunset, accompanied by what must have been two thirds of the able fighters from her base. They arrived to the sight of over two dozen fresh graves, less than half of them filled in. An effort had been made to push the bodies of the thugs and mercenaries away from the rest, but there had been too many to properly take care of. Some more courageous womp rats had even attempted to eat them, but they’d been scared away with a few shots from a blaster.

The scavengers would have brought a whole host of other unwelcome things, and they didn’t have the energy or the means to defend themselves from much more.

Ben had stayed with them, even after Myra and the others had returned from their, thankfully, successful hunt. He’d aged since Cobb had last seen him, though that was hardly surprising. Whereas before he’d had grey hairs in his beard, now most of his hair had lost its colour, only a fraction of it keeping its original auburn sheen. He’d gained more wrinkles, worry lines around his mouth and eyes, and his movements were a little slower.

Life here may have been hard, but it seemed to have hit Ben harder than some. Cobb couldn’t help but be grateful of his presence though, leaning into it both physically and through the Force when he felt as though he might keel over, and he helped them with their dead.

When Issa and her band had arrived they had been ready for a fight, instead what they got was a funeral.

When the suns had finally dipped below the horizon, the graves had been filled and a pit for the others was being dug. Once even that had been filled they sat around a fire and told stories, recounting tales of those they had lost, sharing memories so that they might not be forgotten.

As was expected, Ben’s presence had been met with suspicion, but Cobb spent a lot of his time at his side, mostly silent, and as the evening dragged on people attempted to pull him into  conversation, especially when they started to notice how comfortable Cobb was around him.

Ben, being as sly as he ever was, his mind unaffected by the passage of time, carefully answered each question with non-answers, and soon enough he was left alone, though Cobb could tell that he would encounter a number of those queries himself later.

When people came to ask him questions though, to share his tales of the dead, he found his usually inexhaustible talent for talking to be incredibly lacking, and he could only manage a few sentences and phrases. He was still feeling the shocks from the deaths in the force, and being so surrounded by life while still feeling that cold chill was confusing.

At some point — possibly after eating, though he couldn’t rightly recall doing so even though his bowl was empty — he excused himself from the ring of light by the fire and wandered back to the cave. None of them had come back to it, save to remove the bodies, and so it looked almost like it had that morning.

Sears’s knitting was still on the stool where he’d dropped it, a basket of yarn and threads ready to be used.

Kel’vir’or had dropped their tools haphazardly back in their box, some of them spilling out from the open lid onto the dusty floor.

A small doll one of the children had dropped was lying next to the rocks that had blocked off the exit tunnel, one he could remember Hargin giving to them before they were taken away.

He knelt down and picked it up, running his fingers over the rough spun fabric of the doll’s dress, touching its bantha fur hair, and sighed.

“I didn’t know it would feel this way.”

Ben sighed as he stepped out of the entrance, collecting a stool so he could sit next to him. “To be connected with the Force as we are is a gift… and a curse.”

“Feels pretty bad right now,” Cobb said, leaning into Ben’s hand when he felt it land on his shoulder. “I’ve had to kill people before, but this…”

“It’s like a hole, one that keeps getting bigger,” Ben said. “It makes the light feel that much dimmer.”

“It feels so cold.” Cobb swallowed and looked up at him. “How will I feel warm again?”

“Grief for life cut short is natural, even when it’s done by your own hand,” the older man said. “For you, the grief is deeper. You must find your centre again, meditate, create a balance within yourself, or that chill may swallow you whole.”

Slowly, Cobb nodded. “Will you help me?”

Ben gave him a soft smile — the one he used to give him when he was pleased, or proud — and waved for him to get comfortable. Once Cobb had crossed his legs beneath him, turning to face Ben properly, he took a breath and closed his eyes.

“Focus on your breathing,” Ben instructed, his voice a balm to his frayed emotions. “Listen to your body; the beat of your heart, the air in your lungs, the feel of the earth beneath you. Let it focus you, let it calm your mind.”

Cobb breathed deeply, slowly, allowing his thoughts to become loose and foggy as he listened. He still felt shaky, unstable, like the still healing holes in the Force around them were making the ground beneath him unstable, but with Ben as a ballast, a pillar of stone in this nightmarish storm, he was able to keep himself from falling.

Each breath he took brought him closer and closer to the stillness he so desperately needed, and while it still felt too cold in the Force, he himself felt more in tune with the light that still shone inside him.

“Good,” Ben said. “Listen to your light, let it guide you.”

Cobb hummed, his head bowing as his spirit curled around that small spark, letting it warm him. To his great surprise though, it was not so small a flame as he thought it had been, and he felt its presence wrap around him, soothing his ills and his grief, the weight of its sympathy bringing tears to his eyes, tears he had thought he had already run out of.

He could still feel the weight of those losses, the deep holes that would take time to heal, but now it was as though he had someone to help carry it, a way to see it with clearer eyes, if not to understand it.

Wrapped in the Force as he was, he almost didn’t notice the other lights around him, but then, with a nudge from Ben, he couldn’t look away.

He always knew that every living thing was connected in some way, that the Force was that connection. He would feel their presence around him, even how they thought if they were being particularly loud, but he had never felt it this way before.

Each light was not a spark or a candle flame, but a bonfire, blazing brightly within each of his friends. And not just them. He could feel smaller infernos beyond that circle, and if he really looked at them, he could see their fires form the shapes of their physical bodies.

There was a nest of womp rats, a lizard out hunting for insects that fluttered in the air, a small herd of ronto passing by in search of their next grazing ground, all of them shining brightly enough to bring him comfort against the cold dark loss.

Even then, those spaces he had once thought had been holes torn in the Force revealed themselves to be places where the Force had only faded, the light diffusing now into the atmosphere instead of being concentrated in one spot.

Witnessing the truth behind those dark spaces in the Force brought him a relief he couldn’t disguise, and he opened his eyes with a gasp. “It’s…”

Ben smiled. “Do you understand now?”

Cobb sniffed, using his sleeve to wipe at his nose, though his cheeks remained damp. “Their light… It’s returning to the Force.”

“Yes,” Ben said. “All life comes from the Force, is sustained by it, becomes it, and when that life ends, it returns to it.” He looked out of the cave and out to the stars. “There is no death, there is only the Force.”

It sounded like a mantra, a phrase practised and spoken over and over again until it slipped off the tongue with ease. It also didn’t sound right.

“No, there is death,” Cobb replied, looking at the doll in his hands before setting it on the ground. “I’ve seen it, caused it, felt it. My friends… they might’ve been the Force once, and they might be returnin’ to it now, but they were still alive, and now…” He brushed at his cheeks. “It’s nice to think, but it ain’t true.”

Ben considered him for a few moments before sighing. “I had a feeling you’d disagree with Jedi teachings.”

Cobb smirked. “That’s ‘cause those Jedi teachings and rules were made up by musty people who lived too long ago or in temples and planets too far away from reality.”

“Maybe so,” Ben chuckled, “but allow this old man to keep hold of them for a bit longer. They’re one of the only things I have left.”

Cobb could recall the old cave Ben lived in, how far from civilization it was, how isolated, and he looked again at how the planet had weathered the man. “It doesn’t have to be.”

Ben sighed. “Cobb…”

“You are welcome to join us,” he continued. “You don’t have to fight, you could help in other ways. There’s even a town we have that could use some help and protection, or even just another mind to plan what we should do about the krayt dragon.”

“Krayt dragon?” Ben repeated. “My, what a mess you’ve found yourself in.”

Cobb gave him an unamused look, drawing the man's smile into a look he still couldn’t understand. “Why won’t you help us?”

“I have a responsibility.”

“The kid?” He shook his head. “There’s more in the galaxy to care for than just one boy. Why won’t you see it?”

“I do see it,” Ben replied. “It’s for the rest of the galaxy that I must do this.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I wouldn’t expect it to.”

“Why? What aren’t you telling me?”

Ben said nothing, only looking at Cobb in sorrow. It made him feel weak, stupid, and after everything he’d gone through that day he couldn’t take it.

“Fine, I get it,” Cobb said, pushing himself to his feet. “I guess I wouldn't trust me either.”

“That’s not what this is,” Ben said.

“No? Then what is it? What has you trapped in this… this loop? Why are you so afraid of leaving your post?”

“If the Empire knew—”

“No,” Cobb snapped. “I might have believed that before, but I can recognise a lie when I see it.” He tried to think, to remember the conversations and debates they’d had before, but the details were hazy. If he could only remember, then maybe that could have given him something to work with, but it had been so long… “What’s the real reason?”

Ben made to answer but fell short before the words could escape. There was something that caught his eye over Cobb’s shoulder, something that, when Cobb turned to look, felt like something he couldn’t quite see. There was something there, he could feel it, but it was invisible to his naked eye. Whatever it was though, it didn’t feel dangerous, just… there.

“Do you remember I used to compare you to my friend, Luke’s father?” Ben asked, drawing his attention back again, though he did send a wary glance at that empty spot a few more times.

“Yeah,” Cobb replied. “The brother you wished you had. You said… you said you’d failed him.”

Ben nodded. “I did. I failed him. I said that a few times, if I remember correctly.”

Cobb frowned, trying to understand where he was going with this. “And?”

“... What did I not say?”

“His name?”

“Beyond that.”

Cobb huffed, but turned away in thought, looking out across what had once been a field of battle. A field of… “Oh.”

“There are more ways to fail someone than to lead them to their deaths,” Ben said. “Some fates are worse than that.”

“You’re afraid that his father will find him.”

“I’m afraid that when they do meet, and they will, that Luke will be unprepared for him.”

Cobb turned back to him. “But his uncle won’t let you near him.”

“And so I must wait until the time is right.”

Cobb huffed. “You could be doing other things while you do.”

Ben smiled. “I know my role. I cannot help you in the way you wish.”

“But you could still be there.”

There must have been something about his tone that gave him away, that revealed just how alone he felt sometimes, even when surrounded by the people he loved, that gave away just how vulnerable he truly felt, as Ben’s gaze softened.

“... If you ever feel like you need me, I don’t live far from that cave you found me in,” he said. “It’s a small hut, but it’s home. Just follow your feelings and the whispers of the Wizard of the Wastes.”

Cobb deflated in disappointment, but nodded. “I hope the uncle lets you teach him soon.”

“As do I,” Ben said, even as he looked doubtful. “As do I.”

——————————————————————

Well, he tried. Ben's just a 'stubborn old fool' I guess.

Chapter 12

#writing #fic #fanfiction #fanfic #the mandalorian #mandalorian fic #star wars #cobb vanth #obi wan kenobi #ben kenobi #force sensitive cobb vanth #tw talk of battle #tw talk of death

[teonys-jf]

brenban in whatever time because omi i forgot i put all of my focus on his mcd counterpart ＿|￣|○

he’s about nicole’s height in pdh, freshamn year {kiki older sibling supremacy}

he’s short and then gets tall

probably gets a job around junior year

im thinking smoothie, snow cone, or ice cream place

probably played football, befriended dante there

through dante he met travis, and they spent a couple weekends together

he was spending time with kiki when cadenza came over, to which he willingly got a makeover

he also met laurence through cadenza during band class

saw sasha and wanted to date her, ended up with some weird rat kid instead for a friend

from the outside it looks like they hate each other with how often they {physically} fight, but they think of each other as brothers

he had a pet hamster named cuddlezilla when he was 8

kiki helped him take care of it

when cuddlezilla passed, the kids grieved and buried him in the backyard

after highschool he adopts a baby named dell, he found out he was infertile and was hit with ‘oh my irene i want to be a dad’, he’s a very protective father

when he can’t watch over her, he asks dante and travis to take care of her

they don’t really have experience with babies, so they tried to feed her a cheeto with brendan there

after he freaked out for an hour and a half, he gave them supplies

he’s a carpenter and helped make changes to his friends’ houses

he added a reading corner for zane and jay

katelyn got a basement gym

nana got an ‘updated’ kitchen, it was made bigger which cut into her living room, but she was fine with it

laurence and garroth wanted fancy bathrooms, but brendan had to call a guy for the water since he wasn’t the best at it

nicole had a fox house built, since she got a pet fox named roxy

he met jay when hanging out with laurence, to which they mutually agreed to become siblings

kiki laughed when she came over, saying she was surprised to see that they hadn’t met sooner

dell and abby have playdates, where jeoffery and brendan take a nap in the living room in case the kids need them

travis, dante, and katelyn are there so the dads can sleep

their cooking gets better too

brendan is a good cook

once dell is old enough to go looking for her birth mom, brendan offers to be there for support

she accepts and she’s holding his hand when she calls out ‘mom’

brendan steps back so they can meet each other, but the mom starts to run away

after comforting dell, he goes out looking for her mother

he finds her having a panic attack and tries to get her to open up

issa had to give dell up for adoption, since she was a teenager

she already looked young, younger than brendan

he offered to go with her to meet dell and mediate between the 2

she declined, saying that she just wants to go home

issa leaves, having brendan explain the situation to his daughter

brendan is a cat person

he has a long hair tuxedo cat named ‘belly’

it was one of issa’s first words

years after belly, he gets a beagle named bagel

he thought it would be funny

issa met bagel she made sure to give him lots of attention when home from college

he/him, heterosexual biromantic cis

#irena's afterthoughts #irena's sticky note #irena's inkwell #aphmau brendan #brendan irmán #oh im gonna post about pdh zenix too #phoenix drop high #mystreet

[webseriesviral]

Night Country’ Frozen Corpse Centerpiece – IndieWire Twisted engravings from Dante’s “In... #movie quote #movies #movie line #movie line #movie scenes #cinema #movie stills #film quotes #film edit #vintage #movie scenes #love quotes #life quotes #positive quotes #vintage #retro #quote #quotes #sayings #cinematography

[tvsotherworlds]

[pipelinelaserraygun]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/11/14/march-for-israel-dc-rally-national-mall/

MUST ⬆️📢 PARTICIPATE: Protestors are the MINORITY.

Patriots confront 💥 CHAOS.

Taking streets 🔙, FROM 👺: MUST 🚏⬆️ ACT/SEE, x2‼️

🦏 8 GOP (in name *ONLY) need to face the 🎶 music:

Republican rinos who joined demo- 🐀 RATS are 🦏🦏 Ken Buck, CO., Darrell Issa, CA., Tom McClintock, CA., John Duarte, CA., Patrick McHenry, No.C., Virginia Foxx, No.C., Cliff Bentz, OR., and Mike Turner, OH.

🕎✝️🛐 Father God, FILTER out COWARDICE.

🕎✝️🛐 Father God, FILTER out the 👺🦏 double agents.

⬆️⬆️ Begin the FIRST clip at second 00:37. For the 🔚 3 chapters (5 total), scroll a little bit 👇🏼 FURTHER down.

Seek 🙏🏼 BRAVERY.

There's a 🎯 bullseye on the forehead of Israelis. Next up will be ALL of Christendom.

NOW is the time to take 🔙 the streets. Send protesters 🔙 to unemployment lines.

The Day of Reckoning is near.

[innermuse24]

Games which Piqued my Interest List (1 of ?)

1. Dark Pictures Anthology Collection

Plot Summaries: (SPOILERS ALERT IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED THE GAMES)

- The Man of Medan:

Man of Medan is presented as an unfinished story in the possession of the omnipresent Curator (Pip Torrens), who requests the player's assistance in completing it.

A prologue, set after World War II, details an American warship in Manchuria being overrun by ghostly apparitions, causing the death of the crew.

In the present day, brothers Alex (Kareem Alleyne) and Brad (Chris Sandiford) are preparing for a diving expedition into the South Pacific Ocean alongside Alex's girlfriend, Julia (Arielle Palik), Julia's brother, Conrad (Shawn Ashmore), and the ship's skipper, Fliss (Ayisha Issa). Alex and Julia seek out to find a World War II wreck plane rumoured to have crashed. Meanwhile, a group of fishermen crash into Fliss' boat, the Duke of Milan. After the expedition group celebrate, the fishermen, led by Olson (Kwasi Songui), ambush the boat and take the protagonists hostage; Brad may optionally remain in hiding. Conrad attempts to steal the fishermen's speedboat, which he can either successfully do so and flee, remain captured, or be killed in the attempt. Olson discovers the coordinates of a seemingly hidden treasure named Manchurian Gold and seeks out to find it with the Duke crew in his captivity.

The Duke crashes into the SS Ourang Medan, the freighter featured in the prologue, which the fishermen board, taking the Duke of Milan's distributor cap to prevent the crew from fleeing. The protagonists immediately plan to regain the distributor cap and escape. The group is split after Fliss is recaptured and Brad is either too captured or leaves the Duke and re-joins her, while the others secretly follow. Both groups begin to witness unknown threats, optionally resulting in deaths: Fliss searches the ship's lower deck, potentially alongside Brad, and locates the Manchurian Gold, a leaking chemical substance; Conrad, if he remained captured, pursues Fliss and is pursued in turn by a female nurse; and Alex and Julia are attacked by Olson and a hallucinogenic version of Alex.

The surviving protagonists regroup and head towards the radio room to request extraction. They contact the military, optionally revealing their co-ordinates and the ship name. The group then again splits, with one team heading further into the generator room and the other remaining with the radio. The team heading to the engine room successfully reactivate the power and surmise that Manchurian Gold was actually a hallucinogenic bioweapon developed during World War II to induce hallucinations on victims.

As Olson pursues, one of the protagonists at the radio decides to investigate after hearing a gunshot. If Alex stayed behind, he goes down with whomever is with him and finds Olson dead before being attacked by rats and optionally destroying the distributor cap and/or dying. If Alex did not stay in the radio room, only one protagonist will investigate. This protagonist is forced into a fight with Olson, with the distributor cap either being recovered or destroyed in the onslaught. If at least one of the generator protagonists survived, they emerge and send a cargo door crashing down on Olson to kill him, with the other protagonist either escaping or being crushed also. Otherwise, Olson kills the radio protagonist before succumbing to a heart attack.

The surviving group members reunite on the outer deck of the ship, with the overall outcome depending on the fate of the group via player choice, whether the Duke of Milan's distributor cap was saved or destroyed, and whether the military was called for assistance alongside whether the ship name was disclosed.

- Little Hope:

Little Hope is presented as an unfinished story in the possession of the omnipresent Curator (Pip Torrens), who requests the player's assistance in completing it.

In the present day, a bus driver is taking four students, Andrew (Will Poulter), Angela (Ellen David), Taylor (Caitlyn Sponheimer), and Daniel (Kyle Bailey), and their professor, John (Alex Ivanovici), on a class trip, before crashing after being forced to take a detour through the ghost town of Little Hope. The story then jumps back to a prologue set in 1972 regarding the Clark family: the parents, Anne (David) and James (Ivanovici), and their four adopted children, Anthony (Poulter), Tanya (Sponheimer), Dennis (Bailey), and Megan (Skye Burkett). Megan places her doll onto a stove lit by Anthony, starting a house fire where each of the family members die except for Anthony, who runs back into the burning house as the prologue ends.

Back in the present, the group set off into Little Hope to search for help as the bus driver goes missing. They enter a bar to use a phone and encounter Vince (Kevin Hanchard), Tanya's boyfriend at the time of the house fire, who reveals that there is no power. On the way up the road, Andrew and Angela find a doll and are dragged backwards in time by a ghostly figure named Mary (Burkett). The group all begin to collide with Mary and see flashbacks where Reverend Carver (David Smith) is blackmailing Mary into helping him frame residents of Little Hope (doppelgängers of the present-day group) for witchcraft. Each member of the group except for Andrew witnesses their doppelgänger be executed before being attacked by a demonic version of them and either successfully fleeing or dying based on player choice. Ultimately, the group ends up at the Clark family household and witness one final flashback where Carver has betrayed Mary and has her framed for witchcraft. Andrew can instruct his doppelgänger to either blame Carver and have him taken away, have Mary's doll burned, or blame Mary and have her executed.

Returning to the present, Andrew is revealed to have actually been the bus driver, Anthony, who hallucinated the present-day group and the residents from the flashbacks as figures from his past, including his family, after being forced to return to Little Hope. Depending on his treatment towards Vince, who he ultimately blamed, and whether he has a gun, Anthony will either be arrested, commit suicide, continue to blame himself for his family's deaths, or accept that the house fire was not his fault.

- House of Ashes:

-----------------------

2. Plague Tale Collection

Plot Summaries: (SPOILERS ALERT IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED THE GAMES)

-----------------------

#Part of Games which Piqued my Interest (1 of ?) #the dark pictures anthology #plague tale requiem #plague tale innocence

[tashabilities]

If it’s not a racoon, issa rat Today it was a rat at the dumpster These people are fucking trifling and disgusting And I don’t understand how the rent is astronomical But the neighborhood is dirtier like,  What circle of hell do you motherfuckers come from and can you please go back?  There’s trash all over this place because someone keeps putting their personal household trash in the mail trash can So people don’t have a place to put their junk mail And they throw it on top of the household trash in the junk mail can that’s already overflowing Or leave it on top of the mailboxes to blow around the parking lot And I hate it here and I want my house These people are terrible and pathetic with zero life skills and I hate them all.

[nadakhaderblogspost]

Ägypten entdeckt 9 Meter langen Korridor im Inneren der Cheops-Pyramide

Auf einer Pressekonferenz am vergangenen Donnerstag gab Ägypten bekannt, dass im Inneren der riesigen Cheops-Pyramide ein 9 m langer und 2 m breiter Geheimgang gefunden wurde.

Die Ergebnisse des Erkundungsprojekts "ScanPyramids" wurden vom Minister für Tourismus und Altertümer Ahmed Issa vorgestellt, und der Generalsekretär des Obersten Rates für Altertümer Mostafa Waziri erläuterte die Einzelheiten des Projekts.

Waziri erklärte, dass dieses bedeutende Forschungsprojekt nach der Genehmigung durch das Ständige Komitee für ägyptische Altertümer im Jahr 2015 begann und seitdem unter der Aufsicht und in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Ministerium, vertreten durch den Obersten Rat für Altertümer, der Fakultät für Ingenieurwesen der Universität Kairo und den besten internationalen Universitäten aus Frankreich, Deutschland, Kanada und Japan durchgeführt wird. Seit 2016 wird die Arbeit des Arbeitsteams von einem internationalen wissenschaftlichen Komitee überwacht, das von Zahi Hawass geleitet wird und aus führenden Archäologen aus den USA, Deutschland und der Tschechischen Republik besteht, die sich auf Pyramiden spezialisiert haben.

Während seines Vortrags berichtete er auch über die Ergebnisse der wissenschaftlichen Studie, die durch die Platzierung eines Teleskops und einer Kamera in einer der Öffnungen am Eingang der Pyramide, die eine ästhetisch ansprechende Form hat, ermöglicht wurde. Dabei wurde ein Gang mit einer Länge von 9 Metern, einer Breite von 2,10 Metern und einem Dach in Form eines Al-Gamalunis entdeckt. Es ist möglich, dass dieser Tunnel entdeckt wurde, um Spannungen und Druck abzubauen.

In der Zwischenzeit betonte Zahi Hawass, dass die heutigen Errungenschaften des Ministeriums eine der bedeutendsten wissenschaftlichen Entdeckungen in der Cheops-Pyramide darstellen.

Er wies darauf hin, dass die Geheimnisse der Pyramiden von König Cheops und König Senefru gelüftet wurden und dass Ägypten 9 Pyramiden besitzt, die seinen großen Monarchen gewidmet sind, und 14, die seinen Königinnen.

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Tagesausflüge nach Kairo sind eine fantastische Gelegenheit, die Stadt mit all ihren Attraktionen kennenzulernen. In dieser blühenden Metropole ist für jeden etwas dabei, von historischen Monumenten bis hin zu modernen Einkaufszentren. Kairo unterscheidet sich von anderen Städten auf der ganzen Welt durch seine lebhaften Straßen, seine köstliche Küche und seine gastfreundlichen Einwohner.

Tagesausflüge nach Luxor sind ein spannendes und lehrreiches Erlebnis für Reisende. Luxor liegt in Ägypten und beherbergt einige der beeindruckendsten archäologischen Stätten und Denkmäler der Welt, darunter das Tal der Könige, die Tempelanlage von Karnak und die Memnon-Kolosse.

Ganz gleich, welche Art von Erfahrung Sie auf Ihrer Reise durch dieses erstaunliche Land suchen - lassen Sie sich auf keinen Fall die Chance entgehen, Erinnerungen zu schaffen, die ein Leben lang halten, wenn Sie mit unseren Ägyptenreisen all die wunderbaren Dinge erkunden, die innerhalb seiner Grenzen auf Sie warten!