#sad to say he corrupts himself with a power to kill the monsters he finds family in eventually

[tmabutlesbian]

i need to study mike crew's character cause i wanna ship him n integrate him in more of my hc's. this is me, reacting to his wiki page.

love that the only thing they say abt mike at the start of his page is that he's an avatar of the vast. like yh no shit

oh damn we have his date of death, i always forget tma is like. very well dated?? like months n days n shit i always forget, i assume its all very. up to interpretation. some of it definitely is. we dont got no bday tho :((( thats kinda sad

mike is: thin, pale, short, has the iconic scar on his neck n back, n has pale eyes. he also smells of ozone. king <3

ok, age 8, boy got hit by lighting, n then because his life might as well get worse, he gets chased around by a spiral avatar (not the distortion, which is always fun seeing other interpretations of the fears outside of the more iconic or reoccurring ones), that tormented him with illusions of storms, poor guy

omfg????? boy became an orphan by 17 cuz he found some corruption leitner n it killed his parents. king moved on tho n right away wanted to search for more, hoping it would help him with his spiral problem. pretty cool. true that i cant remember how he reacted during his statement, the wiki is just here to inform n shit, but hes very practical in a way. parents die because of powerful book. hes being chased by a powerful entity. theres gotta be some book that can help him. smart n practical, might also be a way to like. quickly move on from his parents' death by just. focusing on a goal. he sure is stubborn, so many years still alive whilst being chased by a monster is amazing

ok, 1996, we dont know how old he is, but he finds boneturners tale, tries to remove his scar, doesnt work cuz he's full of fractals ig so he leaves it in some library with some other books. he probs doesnt like his scar for trauma reasons, might also be for insecurity reasons, we all know how cruel children n teenagers can be

1997-98, he found ex altiora after frequenting some library. he bound the spiral creature to the book n devoted himself to the vast. i mean, shit, me too, u go ur whole life being tormented by some monster, some other power kills it, i too would devote myself to it, if anything for the fact that it can provide some type of protection. again, mike's a pratical n smart guy, but he obviously doesnt rly know know a lot abt the fears, hes kinda winging it, which is. very impressive. all that he's learned has been on the fly (not a pun either)

2005, he becomes a stalker, 2006 he keeps doing it n feeds his god of the vast by freaking one of the guys out. this is in paris, which means hes travelling around. probs already used to doing so on the hunt for leitners, he might as well keep going now that he has funky sky powers

2017 he meets our boy jon. scar is still a sensitive issue, which is valid, so he fucks jon up a bit after he offended mike abt it. he gives a statement but then he is killed n buried which is. just sad. he was so iconic

im gonna go down the statements n add anything else of value.

mag 4: page turner: love that the spiral creature is stuck there on the book, with mike's scarring, its kinda cool. also this was in 2012, statement in 2013. im assuming dominic n mike r of the same age since they used to play together, so i was hoping to see some hint abt his age.

also mike smells of ozone constantly probs due to becoming n avatar of the vast, since the book ex altiora also smelled of ozone. interesting.

mag 46: literary heights: mike is a uni student, or at least looks like one. so im gonna assume he was in his 20s?? during 1998. he also keeps his scar hidden.

books on demonology?? does he think the spiral monster is a demon? kinda fair tbh. also what kinda akward situations arose from mike having to run away from the spiral thingie everytime he smelled the ozone? did he leave in the middle of multiple classes?? did it catch him mid piss one time?? actually what if he was in the bathroom chilling n smelled ozone?? wtf do u do???

ok, mike being a bit of a hermit n staying inside his home for weeks, bunch of latin shit around him, probs from the demonology books. he stole ex altiora n then fled not after herbert found him but when the creature found him n he ran, with herbert giving chase.

mike performs some ritual with latin to bind the creature to the book in exchange for his devotion to the vast. he throws himself out the window with the creature following behind. jon believes the mike was using the book to protect or ward him, which yh seems like it.

ah ok the spiral thing is the lichtenberg figure which is what gives mike his scars ig. interesting how smth so related to the vast can actually be from the spiral depending on what it does n means, with the illusions of storms n what not. we always assume anything sky related is vast but here lighting is very much spiral. thats cool.

mag 75: a long way down: mike is described as a short young man. event happened during 2006, so rly it depends on what young man means for the statement giver. if in 1998 he was in his 20's, in 2006 hes around 28 years old, maybe. hes also wearing a grey faded suit so 1) not much for colors huh n 2) wears shit until they break, same

mike feeding the vast in a pretty chill way, probs very happy to be free of torment n also have cool fear powers. he does seem bored so it could be more of a chore for him than anything else, mike just wants to live basically. also pre leitner mike must be different from post leinter mike, since jon notes ppl change after using leitners. so theres also that. the loss of ur humanity might also do that to u but idk

mag 89: twice as bright: jude is in her 50s!! didnt know that.

mike hangs around with the fairchilds, which is just jude's way of saying hes from the vast. id assume mike wouldnt hang out with them, just feel like hes used to dealing with things alone. also he is closer to jon's lot than hers, which could mean several things. i guess mike did search for knowledge everywhere for a while, even if it was all for survival n not for a need to know.

mag 91: the coming storm: love how jon goes to meet mike n he offers him tea, which means they r at mike's house, he has a home. with tea in it. i wonder if hes good at making it or not. mike likes his privacy n also that jon should learn how to respect others, which tbh just feels like he is older than jon which yh, if this is 2017 n if in 2006 he was around 28, he is around 39, maybe.

theres no lasting damage from his lighting incident the doctors say, except the trauma i guess. "Lichtenberg figures are fractals and while he could not see them, his fingers could feel them on his skin. When he felt them in the dark they went on and on" now thats pretty interesting, no wonder he didnt like his scars much if they felt all weird n funky like that.

i just googled them n see this: "Lichtenberg figures are fern-like patterns that may appear on the skin of lightning strike victims and typically disappear in 24 hours." thats not what happened to out boy!! might been because it was a supernatural thing tho so yh. wonder if his doctors freaked out a bit, also wonder what kind of treatment he got from his unusual scarring. but i also think this might happen, but its rare.

after touching his scars, the spiral thing started chasing him. it tricked him by making him think a storm was always coming, n it never hurt him but it always terrified him, which is fair cuz i mean wtf

ohhh very much avatar of the spiral with the corridors, making him dream of endless lighting corridors. then he woke up, went to his small garden at the back, n he saw an endless dark forest, the branches reached down from the sky n there was a strong smell of ozone. its interesting how this is an avatar of the spiral but its so laden with the vast.

after parents die he understands theres more to the supernatural n starts exploring. "The creature that followed him was a branch of the Twisting Deceit, which had, perhaps foolishly, taken a form from the sky" interestinggggg so the entities can take forms of things related to other entities, this is so cool!!

"he faintly remembers feeling resigned and desperate, though he cannot understand these feelings now" hmm so post leitner n post becoming an avatar he doesnt remember why he felt resigned before doing so, but like, ure giving up ur humanity n shit, n mike did it cuz he wanted to live in peace, like ofc. its like choosing the lesser evil n shit.

he has killed multiple ppl since he says its hard to keep track, but also i feel like his memory is not the best, considering he cant remember the night he became an avatar correctly.

can be punched n killed pretty humanly so theres that as well. might also be because daisy is from the hunt tho.

thats all i have, this was kinda cool. my boy mike <3<3

#tma #the magnus archives #mike crew #tma mike crew #tmalesbeen talks

[mrcrowblargs]

been a little while since I updated my BG3 log and I got lots done aaaa feeling excited and a bit sad that I'm nearing the end. I've really enjoyed this adventure.

After Cazador, took Gale to visit Mystra. Got some big news but I urged him to seek forgiveness and freedom over anything. I like that Gale is on the surface one of the good guys but he can fall into power corrupts as easily as say, Astarion.

On the hunt for the House of Grief I ran into THE WORST FUCKING QUEST EVER OH MY GODDDDDD this haunted ass house handed my ass to me over and over. I hated every inch of it.

Fashion time! It's so late in the game that you find new underwear

got one little tag on my doodle comic like "OP is in denial about the rotting teeth" and im just like I DONT SEE IT HONESTLY??? they just look yellow and like there's a of a snaggletooth.

More plot based stuff under the cut!

Wrapping up Shadowheart's quest was harder than Astarion's by virtue of TWENTY FUCKING ENEMIES I had to restart twice before the first round ended... made liberal use of Hypnotic Pattern. I didn't find it as cathartic an end as Astarion's but there was still definitely like, a release. And I love Shadowheart's last line there.

The reward was great tho. My bard now has 24 CHA baybeeeyyy

time to rescue Lae'zel (she was kidnapped before Cazador) and OH SHIT THATS THE SKULL FROM THE MAIN MENU SCREEN??? AAAA The Baahlists are a bitch and a half with all their murder status effects and I was SO GLAD I respecced Karlach into Barbarian 8 / Thief 4 for that extra cunning action when the "defeat this guy before he casts Power Word Kill at you" fight came up. What a fucking mess that was.

Fighting Orin was easier... I was not expecting her to transform into a big dumb monster honestly! I expected she would be teleporting around or use some shapeshift abiltiy to be all annoying but it was a really straight forward fight.

Oh, aaaaaannnd I did not fight Sarevok, so that was another Weird Ritual to inspire my tav. He's now an unholy assassin and I'm sure Astarion must appreciate the smell of being absolutely soaked in blood. I don't feel too bad about killing Valeria because she seemed like a terrible detective though I did have karlach skip her turns in the fight because I couldn't imagine her being for it. Like it's just pathetic.

Took Astarion to the drow twin courtesans... tbh I appreciate the game showing like, yes he is healing and doing better but some things you just don't get over right away. But I also want to get the spray bottle out like dude!!! don't force yourself!!!

I used a growth elixir on Karlach for the Orin fight which didn't use up that many character resources and the elixir lasted all day so... directly to the House of Hope with Karlarge it was!

Bit of a visual glitch because it reappeared later but it was nice to see Aldrich without the raccoon eyes and veins again. Just went around sitting on things in Raphael's house.

AND THEN UH???? UHH??? This supremely awkward scene with Raphael's personal incubus who looks exactly like him??? I didn't wanna start a fight because I thought Raph himself might show up but I could not pass the fucking Con check afgkdd

"you can have my body but not my soul" AGSFKHDDS???? I'm jelly tho I wish I had these eyes (but more purple) for Aldrich

Reloading and fighting the incubus was absolutely worth it for this Speak With Dead bit. the answer: he bottoms exclusively.

AND THEN THE FIGHT WITH THE BIG DEVIL HIMSELF!!!! I was already amazed when vocals dropped into the fight music BUT THEN HE WAS SIGNING HIS OWN BATTLE MUSIC???? It absolutely slapped. Amazing fight. I had Hope with me and convinced Yurlgirldsbfjs whatever his name is to join which greatly reduced the chaos. The only criticism I have is that it was a big of a slog getting Raphael down from 666 HP. but damn what a great loot payoff!

Getting near the end now. Of outstanding quests I have now, I gotta pass the hammer off to Voss, find/recruit Minsc, see if anything else is in the sewers, then sabotague the Steel Watch factory, infiltrate the Iron Throne, and confront Gortash. Then we'll see how it goes for the finale.

I'm still kinda worried what it will mean for my Tav going partially illithid and also aiming for freeing Orpheus. Seems like freedom really rides on the guy cooperating with us.

#crowbar plays bg3 #aldiirn bg3

[arthyritis]

Here's a little thing about Shells and Paulie from the Irisona Monster AU!

Death warning.

Paulie and Shells knew one another basically their whole lives. They had planned to get married out of compulsion (even though Paulie was out to her about his lack of feelings) once they both turned 25, but Shells died a few years before that could happen from an illness contracted by misprepared food.

It was upsetting to see how she had deteriorated overnight and she ended passing in the hospital a few days later.

From that moment, Paulie knew something was off, feeling a cold sensation every time he went near her things or their old favourite places, sometimes even just thinking about her, until eventually she appeared to him. At first she played it off as a joke, but seeing how she had actually spooked Paulie made her sad and she stopped, explained, and they lived on. She protected him as much as she could.

She, however, wasn't there the night a few years later when Paulie was turned. When she did return and found out what had happened, finding Paulie alone and shaking in his room, she wanted to kill the bastards who were making him do this, but Paulie forbade it, the first of his vampire powers kicking into action. He persuaded her against it, saying he'd get his own revenge, and that he did, eventually.

Over time, as Paulie became more and more corrupted by the other vampires, Shells worried over him, trying to keep him on the right path. Again, he assured her everything was fine, then once he finished everything off with his warden, left to find a new place to call home. Shells moved in with him as basically a roommate, except neither of them sleep or anything so it was more just a place they stayed.

When Paulie got his job at IRIS, Shells was happy, but did some snooping. At this point, Paulie could handle himself better than ever, so she warned him of what she had found. And that's what lead to the story of today :)

#vampire paulie #ghost shells #irisona #irisona monster au

[fenharael]

Top 5/10 Soulsborne characters~?

In no particular order I present to you:

1. Mohg

Fucking badass monster with an impeccable sense of style. But aside from the purely aesthetic love for everything Mohg, he's probably the soulsborne character I feel most emotionally invested in. Others have said it better than me, but Mohg is complex and tragic. He's the son of the Golden Order, seen as cursed and defiled by his own mother and sent to live in the shadows essentially to carry the burden of her sins. He, like Morgott and everyone else, carry the consequences of Marika's actions on his body and in his behavior. His twisted sense of love is borne of his treatment and he unleashes it on the world in the form of blood and violence. The mother he choose for himself and the path he walks is a giant "fuck you" to everything that shunned him, all the while still trying desperately to emulate it and carve out a holy and divine place for himself. The fact that he chooses Miquella, the demigod most likely to succeed Marika and who bears her likeness (that we can tell), the demigod who makes a haven for the forlorn and mistreated, is so fucking sad. He literally takes what he never had by force and says "you WILL love me". He does this in a sense to everyone he encounters. Whether it's his intended consort or his followers. They are all compelled by bloodlust or force or some twisted love of their own to keep his company even as it destroys them. The fact that he transforms the Mausoleum complex into a sewer/swamp reminiscent of the shunning grounds is just salt in the wound. He's legitimately and desperately trying to create a world he believes is good and right (for him) (and possibly other shunned creatures) based on the only world he even knew and the only love he ever received. All of this sadness and tragedy and pain result in a DEEPLY screwed up individual who is quite literally a monster in every sense of the word, but at his core he's just a sad, scared child who wants to be loved.

2. White Maks Varré

Someone at Fromsoftware tailor made this horrible, disgusting man exactly to my tastes and every day I thank god for that. Ethically dubious doctor? Check. Bride vibes? Check. Gender? Check. Murdered? Check. Condescending and insulting but in a sexy way? Check. Violence but it's obviously a stand in for something sexual? Check. Pathetic, prideful, tries to kill you but is played by his own hubris? Check. COURTLY LOVE???? CHeck. I adore the contrasts in Varré's character and design. He was a man of medicine and healing before being corrupted by his own dark nature. He values love but it's sadistic and violent. He craves power, gave up EVERYTHING for the promise of it, all for it to amount to nothing at the end. He insults you by saying you'll die nameless and without ceremony, and at the end of it all he bleeds out alone and abandoned in a forgotten tomb to a dead god. Absolutely merciless Fromsoft 10/10. I'm obsessed.

3. Marika

I don't even know where to begin with Marika but I have a lot of emotions about her.

4. Ringfinger Leonhard

I'm a simple man. Sexy voice, mask, insults me, I'm all in. I love his design and I'm just a sucker for knight's devoted to their duty despite it ending in tragedy.

5. Fausefka/Imposter Iosefka

I debated this spot with Solaire because he gives me a LOT of emotions but I think I'm gonna go with Iosefka. Again, predictably she's a questionable doctor who experiments on her patients. But I'm just so curious about her? And I admire her in a way, she's uncompromising in her quest for answers, she needs to ascend, she needs to understand, and she'll do anything to find out. She may sacrifice countless innocents to understand the Eldritch Truth but hey, when it comes down to it, she's willing to go under the knife herself.

6. Solaire

7. Valtr

8. Ebrietas

9. Yorshka

10. Anri

#ask meme #ask box #fenharael #soulsborne #white mask varré #varre #mohg #queen marika #marika #ringfinger leonhard #iosefka #imposter iosefka

[braxis393]

The reason why so many people have a problem with c!Dream (In my humble opinion). Is very similar to the question.

(If you could turn back time to the point of Adolf Hitler being a baby, would you kill him?)

And I know, I know this sound fucking extreme but think about it.

Cause on one hand, yes Hitler was the reason behind death of untold millions, and he was a piece of shit but he's choices weren't 100% random.

He had an abusive father.

He's mother died early in his life

He got kicked out of his dream school.

Served in WW1, as a young adult.

And couldn't find a job after the war cause most of businesses and fabrics were controlled by foreign (mostly Jewish) business man.

Does it excuse the Holocaust? NO for god sake NO. No one's "sad backstory" excuse anyone's action. It may tell us the reason why?. But it's never an excuse.

But you may be wondering, where do I go with this.

Dream wasn't always the monster we know now on Dream smp. Of course we wasn't sunshine and rainbows. A little over the top over here, a little controlling over there, but he was an overall morally gray character. What was the metaphorical "push over the edge"?. I really like to think that just as the beginning of L'manburg and subsequent War for independence was a beginning of C!Wilbur downright spiral, I also think it was a start of c!Dream's too.

Cause there are moments from (for example) Punz's POV of Pogtopia Arc where you can see c!Dream struggling with the "narrative", asking himself if he was a villain for example.

And just as the feeling of your own creation, sliping through your finger drove C!Wilbur to the 2 Destruction of L'manburg and his death. It drove c!Dream to horrible things that happened later, like exile, or doomsday. You could say c!Dream said "Fuck it, if I can't create the opportunity to swoop in during some crisis and take back the rains of MY server, the I'm gonna MAKE the Crisis". Also I want to point something (I think) Done unintentionally.

In one of his Streams C!Techno says quotes, saying "Absolute power corrupts absolutely"

And what's more powerful than control of life and Death!. If creation of L'Manburg was Dream's moment of peaking behind the vail of madness, then him getting the revive book was, tearing the vail and tearing Dream straight into the center.

Cause now Dream could quite literally stop thinking about consequences. Cause if he messed up,or killed somebody, he could just Revive them!. Or (and I have my suspicions) could kill some near and dear (for example c!Phil to c!Techno) and then force that someone to do he's bidding if he ever wanted to see that person again.

(Okay I'm gonna stop now cause my fingers hurt.)

#c!dream apologists #tommyinnit #dsmp michael #tubbo dream smp #tubbo #dream smp techno #dreamwastaken #dream smp

[ohifonlyx33]

I want to talk about something that struck me the other day, which I have been thinking about for a little while since finishing the Shadow and Bone trilogy. And that is the way empathy is built into Alina's character as a core trait. I didn't necessarily notice it between the bouts of craving power, but she is empathetic in her thoughts and actions. I just didn't label it as empathy because it's reasonable to assume she's just this young woman who doesn't want to kill a stag, right? Right. And surely she's just not used to this new world and looking for approval and belonging, right? Right. She is looking for belonging and approval and no no she's not really comfortable harming the mystical creatures... or her best friend (OBVIOUSLY). But those go along with her being empathetic.

It's also there when she narrates her thoughts towards others, when she treats them with kindness, when she tries to understand them, and when she looks for the underlying motivation into people's actions... With Mal when they are hunting the stag but he won't tell her what happened and she's concerned, with Genya's backstory and betrayal, with Nikolai's story... and yeah.. with the Darkling.

And if you ship Dark!lina, this is your warning that if you continue to read, you might not like this post.

But this where this gets interesting.

Because he plays off of Alina having empathy in order to get closer to her. He immediately opens up and tells her the parts of his sad backstory. Her empathy actually softens her to him, and allows her to see him several times as "just a lost boy" when she knows he's ancient.

He even draws the comparison between them which makes her empathize more, as she sees him as what she might become.

In Lord of the Rings, Gollum had the One Ring for a very long time before Bilbo took it to the Shire and eventually gave it to Frodo. Gollum was once named Sméagol, and he was happy. But as the ring corrupted him, Gollum became a violent, shriveled up and boney creature living under a mountain. And yet, Frodo finds him strangely pitiful. Deep inside of Gollum, there remains the last shred of Sméagol. And as Frodo feels himself becoming corrupted, he wants to believe Sméagol can be saved.

The Darkling is the Gollum to Alina's Frodo. A dark shadow of what she might become if the temptation of power overcomes her. Not just a foil, but a warning of what's to come. He says she will become like him as she ages, that it's inevitable and even good to become detached from morality and humanity... if she is disgusted by him right now, well then, he wants to wear down her empathy so she can join him--they will both be ageless and lonely and bitter and cynical and maybe they can rule together in misery... once she gets tired of losing otkazat’sya and gets past hating the only other nearly-immortal Grisha. Eventually she will understand, right?

Except she doesn't want to.

Instead, Alina, empathetically, wants to believe in his redemption, that she can bring him hope. Again, because of her empathy. Because there's maybe still just a speck of the little boy in there who was burdened right?

He tries to appeal to her empathy by making her out to be responsible for him, as if she should be his "balance." the ONLY one who can save him. But that's not her job.

"You might make me a better man." "You might make me a monster."

And when she sees him for what he is, when she rejects his justification for evil, when she refuses to be part of his plan, he lashes out. He sneers, "Fine, make me your villain," when he's on a path that he chose. It is not Malina's fault that he went on a few murder sprees.

He also preys on her empathy by threatening her with Mal's life, and then later with the lives of children.

But Alina doesn't play his game. She rejects his philosophy of psychopathy AND keeps her empathy in tact. Her empathy won't be manipulated by lies. Her empathy won't be worn down. And her empathy won't be controlled by fear.

In fact, instead she weaponizes her empathy against the Darkling. She didn't kill him out of cruelty the way he would have done with his enemies. And that is why, even while the man she hates is dying, she's still able to empathize with the little boy he once was.

He didn't succeed in destroying Alina's empathy. And that is why she truly won when he died.

#alina starkov #shadow and bone #grisha trilogy #grishaverse #the grisha trilogy #anti darkling #anti darklina

[rokutouxei]

like flashes of starlight

genshin impact | G | 4331 | ao3 link in bio xiao / aether

summary: Xiao’s entire existence is rooted in Liyue, all thousands of years of his life, and when he begins to develop a fondness for a traveler whose journey takes him farther than he can ever imagine, he finds himself seeing his much smaller world, its time and space, a little differently.

--

Liyue Harbor will always be in a state of flux—always changing, always inviting the newness of the world into its docks. History will paint it in vibrant colors, its most beautiful traditions alongside the innovations of ever-changing cultures. But to Xiao, Liyue will always be the same.

His Liyue. His to protect. Rex Lapis’ Liyue.

The fittings may change, but the core is the same.

When he’d first met the traveler, a thought crossed his mind that slowly embedded itself deep into his consciousness. Xiao knew with one glance that Aether was not of Teyvat. The way he held himself; the way he wielded his elemental powers; the mere energy of him was not human, or demon, for that matter. Aether felt like something different, like the night sky, broad and all-encompassing to those on the ground.

Had Xiao’s apprehension not superseded his curiosity, he would have asked: what does Liyue look like, to an outsider like you?

As a fellow outsider, do you see it as I do?

-

Rex Lapis’ decree is simple. Protect Liyue. Vanquish demons. Restore order through slaughter. Purge evil through battle. Nothing more, nothing less. The five yakshas' existence, purpose, and meaning all lie within that framework of being the weaponry by which Liyue is guaranteed safety.

As the last remaining of the five, despite being also assisted by the many remaining adepti, Xiao holds his mission close to his heart.

When the threat of Osial befalls Liyue, both the mortal millelith and Qixing, and the mighty, illuminated adepti come to the rescue. It is not easy to put aside their differences, but in the end they come together to fight for their nation, standing on top of the Jade Chamber, overlooking the monstrous water dragon haunting them all from the past. All are willing to fight until their deaths. But there is another one, standing on the battlefield, that does not need to be there—and yet is there—and does not back down despite every opportunity he gets.

Aether.

Aether is not of Liyue. Aether doesn’t even look like he’s from anywhere in Teyvat, for that matter, the true fittings of an actual wanderer, as if he were from an entirely different world of his own. And yet he is here. Bruised and still injured from a previous battle—he had heard the floating girl that they had come from the Golden House, and a battle with a Fatui Harbinger had led to the summoning of Osial—Aether still stands with the rest of them, ignoring any weariness from previous battles.

“What can I do?” he offers, and the adepti share a look at each other as if gauging the situation. They know. It is not exactly easy to hide that Aether is not like other travelers, other adventurers. They lend him their power. Slowly, gauging how much he can handle of their energies. They convene on the ballista, fighting Fatui and avoiding the strikes of the fallen god, water blasting them painfully.

At some point during the battle, Aether and Xiao meet back-to-back as they dodge from an attack. The former glances at the adeptus with an unreadable smile.

Xiao has long been used to being the strongest one on the battlefield, the one most proficient at killing. But with Aether here by his side—blocking and returning a strike, a Fatui agent dropping to the ground—there is a feeling that fills him about having someone near his equal, if not even stronger, fight with him.

Excitement? Thrill?

The tiniest bit of lax, like he would be safe with him?

So when the ballista cracks open with a particularly hard strike, and Aether has no choice but to obey gravity, Xiao does not fight the instinct to leap between debris to catch him before he lands on the ground.

Only a quiet tsk comes out of him once Aether is safely in his arms, to which the other’s gasp of surprise melts into a brief, sheepish grin.

He'd imagined the traveler would ease his murderous workload—not add to it. And right now, Liyue might be lucky to have a willing outsider to help them out in such a time of crisis, but like this… Xiao wonders if the nation will be any safer with a savior as reckless as him.

-

Aether calls it an offering out of jest. Xiao seems exasperated every time, but he does not reject the plate of almond tofu that gets offered to him anyway. Besides, it tastes different when it’s the traveler that makes it.

It is unfair in a way that Xiao hears ahead if Aether might pass by the Wangshu Inn—related to commissions from Verr Goldet or Huai’an, or perhaps from a brief sighting of him from the mountains of Liyue. But he finds it no sort of nuisance, because that only gives him more time to prepare himself to meet the traveler.

The plates of almond tofu, like all offerings to archons and adepti, are made with a wish in mind. Like this, Aether subtly asks for a sliver of time, a moment with some company other than his floating companion. And the Xiao before Osial, before saving Liyue, well, he would have turned him down, would have thanked him for the plate and then disappeared into the night, but—

Here, he does not.

Instead, he guides Aether up to the rooftop of Wangshu Inn. Here, the history of Liyue unfolds behind Xiao’s eyes, a history he knows like the back of his hand. Jueyun Karst to the left. Dihua Marsh to the right. And should the night be quieter, and Xiao allows himself to stand on the lower floor, there are the broken ruins in Guili Plains, where the war he had fought still rings clear.

Wangshu Inn fills his mind deafeningly with memories, but when Aether is there, all goes quiet.

Sometimes, Aether talks to him. Speaks to him of developments in his journey, or about a notable yet stray monster that he had fought with. Other times, it is mundane stories of his adventuring with Paimon. But a lot of times, Xiao’s company seems to be enough, Aether looking out at the view with an indistinct expression on his face.

It is in moments like these that Xiao recognizes something in Aether that he’s only ever seen in a mirror.

A deep welling of sadness. One that has been sharpened and smoothened and shaped by time.

Is this why Aether smiles at him like he understands his loneliness?

“My sister,” he said once, voice nearly just a whisper, “I’ve never been without her this long.” And that was it. No other explanation. He does not expound on what it means. It feels too heavy to say anything more than that. So when Aether leans his head against his shoulder, awake but not quite in his head, Xiao lets him, letting his questions disappear in an exhaled breath.

Eventually, if the Archons allow them, Aether will know of his secrets in time. And Xiao will know of his secrets in time.

Right now, it does not feel like it is his to ask.

But he can stay, he can keep watch, so that he does.

-

It isn’t that Xiao does not understand what draws the citizens of Liyue—and other nations as well—to the yearly celebration of Lantern Rite, it’s just that such a loud and joyous eruption of fervor has always had a different connotation to him, the one who protects Liyue from the monsters hiding in their shadows.

While Aether explores the newly-decorated streets of Liyue with the enthusiasm of a young tourist, streamers of red and lanterns bathing the city in a beautiful gold, Xiao looks over the harbor feeling like a foreigner. He hates the Lantern Rite. And not only because of the general adepti dislike of mortal life. Of course, he will never be one to complain about his duty, but the pain… The Lantern Rite is flashy and joyful—exacerbating the usual haze of the residual hatred of defeated gods.

On those days, Xiao finds no rest.

(Not that any kind of rest has ever been truly restful, not in what seems like ten thousand years.)

No room to breathe. Only the briefest of moments between fighting tainted monsters that spawn from the ground, his spirit black and blue and choking from corruption.

His one fear is what would happen to Liyue if one day, he becomes unable to fight?

When the karma that weighs down on him becomes too much for him to bear?

He has to continue to believe in his battle, lest he forgets it.

He sees the lanterns and chants to himself, like forcing himself to believe it:

It is worth it.

A camp of hilichurls reek blackness, slowly creeping into the territory of Wangshu Inn. There are innocent people there. As silently as possible, as to not draw any more attention, he quickly clears them, granting no mercy. Their anger dissipates from their bodies and sinks into his skin.

It is worth it.

Their eyes all black now, growling and hissing, a group of vengeful, corrupted treasure hoarder spirits track a caravan carrying stocks of food and materials on its way to Liyue Harbor. They promise sickness and death to whatever they touch. Before the driver and the millelith even notice him creeping by, the spirits are dealt with. When he breathes in, he feels them calling him unforgivable.

It is worth it.

He’s never been partial to crowded areas, not with his constitution being as it is. He’d rather be as far away from other people as possible, as to not bring any more danger than he already must. All of this human experience of the Lantern Rite—peeking in between stalls, checking wares, tasting the festival food, creating lanterns—are for individuals like the traveler.

There is evil out there to be cleansed, he does not have time for “merriment.”

Which is why he does not understand why Aether does not understand.

Why they insist to “bring the Lantern Rite to him”, serve him food that reminds him of sweet, sweet dreams. What they get out of dragging him all the way to the outskirts of Liyue Harbor, if only to overlook the Mingxiao lantern, a quiet reminder of a battle fought what feels like eons ago. The closer they get to the festivities, the more Xiao feels out of place, the more he wants to run.

But he does not, because Aether is by his side. And on the walk to the harbor, he asks Xiao about the Lantern Rite, as if he hasn’t heard about it before. Forces Xiao to form the words with his own mouth. Filling in the blanks when he no longer knows what to say; when he’s forgotten what it truly is now, to the people he is protecting, what happens on the stage while he is on the sidelines.

That the Lantern Rite is a celebration of the new year, a thanksgiving for the previous year’s joys, and a prayer in anticipation for the coming year’s blessings. That the Lantern Rite is a commemoration of its long past, its commercial hub status getting adorned with its intricate history, traders and storytellers coming together to speak of old wars and adepti and long-fallen gods.

Lanterns as beacons in the night, guiding bygone heroes back to their homeland.

Aether could be fair and say it as well, but he gives Xiao a taste of his own medicine and lets it sink in on its own.

This celebration is for you too, Xiao.

And when the traveler is long gone, he and Paimon in the streets of Liyue no doubt looking in awe and wonder at the culmination of the Lantern Rite festivities, Xiao sits on top of the mountainside on the outskirts watching Liyue light up with brilliance.

And he tells himself:

It’s worth it.

This is worth it.

Perhaps on the next Lantern Rite, Xiao wouldn’t mind taking a walk in the city with him.

-

No one prays to adeptus Xiao.

Not in the same way other adepti have served the citizens of Liyue, at the very least. There are no prayers of good tidings and great harvest; no pilgrimages made up to abodes to seek wisdom.

This has never bothered Xiao in the slightest, not in his hundreds of years of service.

It is better off this way. He doesn’t have what other adepti like Mountain Shaper or Cloud Retainer can offer, no knowledge and insight that he finds worth sharing. Even half-adepti like Ganyu would perhaps have more to give to a longing pilgrim.

The only thing Xiao can give is his executioner’s blow.

That doesn’t stop him from hearing them cry. Wishes for death from the most desperate, like silent bells tolling in the dead of the night. Demands for violence that are whispered into the traitorous air, reaching his ears without fail. They don’t have to speak his name for him to feel their prayers.

They twist, turn, mutate into the most horrible of requests, the hatred and miasma from old fallen gods corrupting even the most innocent of pleas, Xiao’s spear materializing in his hand as if on instinct, to kill, to eradicate, to cleanse, to kill kill kill kill—

This is why Xiao does not like to sleep.

Slumber means dropping his guard, letting the swirl of the voices take over him until he’s at his most vulnerable. Sleep is only more cause for trouble.

The yaksha soon learns, however, that sometimes, it is worth the spare openness; his emotions remaining unsaid and yet seen, somehow, because Aether is Aether. Xiao wonders if, to the traveler, he is transparent. Aether does not even flinch when Xiao misses to restrain the growl that crawls up his throat in response to the clamor of pain. Instead, the golden-haired boy readjusts where he’s resting his head on Xiao’s shoulder, and reaches the small distance to place his hand on his. Rubs two, three gentle lines with his thumb on the back of the adeptus’ hand before he promptly falls back into slumber, a well-deserved afternoon nap after a long morning of commissions.

Xiao’s spear dematerializes without a sound.

And, equally quietly, loud in its silence, Xiao rests his head against Aether’s, and closes his eyes.

-

Anger is not an emotion Xiao would associate with Aether, and yet here they are, at the highest peak of Qingce Village in the late afternoon, after he had asked Xiao if he knew someplace quiet where they would not be interrupted.

“I don’t understand,” he says, sat down with his arms on his knees, his head on his arms, curled up in a ball. Xiao stands next to him with his arms crossed over his chest, listening patiently. “She didn’t want to. …I’d finally found her, and yet…” There lingers the quiet kind of anger, voice calm yet cold. On the inside, Aether is trembling with irritation and swaying with dismay. The backlash of betrayal. “We’ve been separated for more than five hundred years.”

I’ve never been without her this long.

For what seems like an eternity after that, Aether is quiet. Understandably so. This is none of Xiao’s concern, at least not in the sense where he would have the duty to step in, and yet the chaos of it is one he could only ascribe to be some sort of nightmare. Perhaps similar to the ones he gets often. He imagines Aether’s world turned cleanly upside down—those he had considered his greatest allies now potentially his worst enemies; and that he had thought was his enemy is under the hand of the one person he trusts the most in the entire universe.

It is heavy.

In the silence, Xiao recalls when there were still five yakshas around. How the mist of karmic pain that entangled around them for eons of dutiful slaughter had begun to choke them, turn them into twisted versions of themselves. He had seen each of them fall from being unable to tolerate the agony.

He worries the same might happen to Aether. He worries that when that happens, he will only be able to watch, the same way he did back then.

That he would have to be the last resort to slay him.

It is only when the sun is long out of the sky when Aether speaks again, his voice hoarse as if he’d been screaming, sobbing openly—“I want to go home.”

Xiao… places a comforting hand over Aether’s shoulder. He knows that Aether would have been ready to go in a heartbeat. That Teyvat and Khaenri’ah are nothing but a blip in the grand canvas of his journeys. And that, unlike him, all permanent miasma and choking with his feet sunk into the ground, unable to move, forever rooted in Teyvat, in Liyue, in his karma, Aether has and always will be like flashes of starlight, beautiful and faint and gone in a moment.

That he would be gone before Xiao learns how to miss him.

The only question the yaksha has is, when he finally goes, if he would take the rest of Xiao’s heart with him.

-

He would have pulled a classic “foolish mortals” had he known no better about Aether’s own expansive lifetime. Like this, then, perhaps they are the same in their foolishness. At least the citizens of Liyue know better than to acquaint with him, their guardian whose only strength is in pursuing death. They hear the mere word of him and they scutter in the opposite direction. It is better that way. It is safer that way.

But Aether does not, and now it is too late.

Xiao stays up late wondering how much of what has befallen Aether is from him. How much of it is his own karma, spread by their bond—whatever sense he may make out of it—and leading to the other’s pain? Aether complains of nightmares, of being in that domain and calling out for his sister, only to be pushed back, thrown off, like he had never been wanted in the first place.

So Xiao sets up for an apology for what he has done, the least he can do for spreading the black miasma that surrounds him into someone unrelated like Aether, but the latter only throws him a look of confusion that slowly evolves into a now-familiar, cryptic smile.

“Why would I want to sever it?” Aether asks, “I’ve never thought of that, Xiao.”

Xiao is quiet, too dumbfounded to say another word.

So instead, Aether puts his hands over his hips and says, “When I am in Liyue, you make me strong, Xiao, knowing you are out here protecting the land as well. I have no regrets about being close to you.”

Then stay, Xiao nearly says.

“What does Liyue look to you,” Xiao finally asks, though he intones it not quite like a question, like he’s still apprehensive about it. Aether turns back toward him, all gold eyes and hair, stars in the night sky.

“Beautiful,” the traveler answers immediately, as if he had long thought of it that way. “Rich in its history, steeped in tradition. And with guardians that look after it long after the people have forgotten them in time. It’s a stunning nation.”

Then stay.

“I know you keep yourself all wrapped in secrecy for the people, but—think about it, everything they do is in debt to you.”

“A debt that does not need to be repaid,” Xiao says. “I only follow through Rex Lapis’ original decree.”

“And that’s exactly why it’s so praiseworthy.” Aether nods to himself. “It’s a negative cycle where only you bear all the consequences. Had they known about you—should they still honor you the way they did then—they would see you as the hero that you are, Xiao. As the hero I see you as.”

Then stay.

Yanxiao avoids eye contact with Xiao but does not hesitate in giving Aether a judgmental look when he orders a plate of almond tofu for breakfast. What the cook doesn’t know is that it’s a reward for a restless night of nightmares, and an apology for a friendship that has always been wanted.

For the something more that cannot be claimed.

As they share the plate of sweet dreams, Xiao realizes, while looking at Aether enjoying a bite, that one day, like everything else that has happened in the past, he might be able to forgive himself—forgive Aether—for what they have done to each other. No grudge can last a thousand years. And should the thousand years pass—well, Aether would have been long gone, and Xiao knows better than to dig himself an even deeper grave for his sorrows.

Xiao has lived more than a thousand years in the loneliness, where there is only his spear and his darkness, but now, bathed in starlight, he feels lost and ill at ease. Perhaps, in a different life, things would not have ended this way, and there would have been compromises to be made, and there would have been promises to be kept. He considers the possibility of a universe where that occurs, if it would be better, if it would be worse.

The young-seeming adeptus searches his heart, only to find no answers.

 -

The prowess of that one mortal Beidou is not one that has escaped Xiao, and once Aether informs him that she would be allowing him safe passage into the closed country of Inazuma, Xiao is certain the traveler would be alright. It doesn’t entirely ease his worries, however, so once the day of departure arrives, he slips into the nearby Guyun Stone Forest to observe the ship as it prepares to sail away.

His mind is so clouded he doesn’t hear Aether approaching him from behind.

“Xiao?”

The adeptus feels a pang in his chest in the other’s tone of surprise; on the other hand, a breeze of thankfulness fills his heart—perhaps he is less see-through than he’d once thought. He turns to the golden-eyed boy with his usual blank face, hoping his mask does not break.

Paimon speaks before he can. “Are you here to say goodbye, Xiao?”

“Hmph.” If he was, he would need more coaxing to admit it. “I wanted to see to it the ship wouldn’t sink before you’ve even left Liyuen premises.”

Aether smiles like he knows what that sentence really meant. Xiao wonders if Aether really understands, or he just likes to believe it is that way. “Thank you.”

He’d promised once, after all, that he would protect Aether, hear his call, for as long as he is in Liyue. Anywhere beyond there… is entirely out of his jurisdiction.

“You know,” Paimon begins, crossing her small arms over her chest, “Paimon thinks it would be great if Xiao came with us. Then I wouldn’t be worrying so much about you getting in weird stuff, Aether.”

Xiao gets interrupted before he can reply. “That wouldn’t be a nice thing to ask, Paimon,” he explains, patting the fairy’s head gently before turning to Xiao. “Liyue is Xiao’s home, he belongs here. I can’t take that away from him—and him away from Liyue. Don’t you think, Xiao?”

Home, huh?

Two pairs of gold eyes meet, and in the other, Xiao sees a longing that he wonders is what foolish mortals would call love.

“May your journeys allow you to reach your sister soon,” is, instead, what Xiao settles with, and Aether pulls out another one of his cryptic smiles. Like he hears the Thank you. Like he hears the Liyue—and I—will always be here. Like he understands the I hope you, too, reach and return to that place where you belong.

Like he knows this is a goodbye, but of a different sort.

Xiao is too far from where they are to be visible when the two get on the ship. They wave vaguely in his direction, his attention called back by a whisper of his name in a familiar voice, carried by the sea breeze. Xiao watches as the anchor gets hoisted, the sails opened, and the ship begins to make its way into the great sea. Once it is out of his sight, he has no way to find out if Aether will be alright.

At dusk, the stars are beginning to come out, perfect for wayfinding. Its deep blueness is all-encompassing, as if cradling Xiao in familiar darkness.

The adeptus raises his head to the wide sky. The god he has worshipped is dead. Only Archons know where his pleas will end up in. But even if he does not know who will hear his wishes, for Aether—he prays.

-

Time is a silly thing. At first, a day feels like a hundred years, and then, a hundred years pass by in what feels like mere days.

What felt like the entire world once is now but a passing memory.

Liyue Harbor will always be in a state of flux—always changing, always inviting the newness of the world into its harbors. History will paint it in vibrant colors, its most beautiful traditions alongside the innovations of ever-changing cultures. But to Xiao, Liyue will always be the same.

Once, there was a traveler that roamed the landscape of Liyue, changing it and influencing it wherever he went. Shifting its colors; turning it upside down; leaving his stardust on it.

Liyue will always be the same.

The same harbor.

The same rooftop on Wangshu inn.

The same cliffside in Qingce.

The places Xiao went to, trying to understand what Liyue looked like to one who had come from the heavens, looking down.

The traveler he wished on stars to.

Xiao still finds him everywhere, in things beautiful and faint and gone in a moment.

#genshin impact #genshin impact xiao #xiaoaether #xiaoether #fic

[dangermousie]

CFC 183

1. XQC going “at last, no distractions, I am now super efficient” is actually profoundly sad. Because of course a machine is more efficient than a human but efficiency should not be the end all and be all, he should not justify his continuing existence like an employee about to be downsized. Being happy is what a human should strive for and it’s one thing if being an alone workaholic with no connections to the human world would make XQC genuinely happy (there are people like that and it’s fine) but we just spent over 180 chapters establishing it’s not the case, that he wants to be loved and he’s got so much damage and that this state he is currently in is not a happy thing for him.

2. XQC being described as being more and more like a machine makes me think of Meatbun’s original scifi concept for CFC where He Yu was an android. It would have been fascinating to see this same dynamic in that setting - where it would be a machine who is much too human and a human trying to become a machine.

3. Wei Rong was in the lab when LZS got infected. I bet she infected her.

4. Also XQC finds out the Hes are neck deep in the org and the little glimpses we get seem to demonstrate HY is very efficient - it looks like he took control from LZS (who I think was in charge of all the illegal stuff, I don’t think HJW knew.)

5. The elderly cop warning XQC about HY and saying people can change power corrupts etc but XQC being unshaken in his belief in HY’s goodness (and he was his greatest victim, if you think about it - HY never harmed another living soul but XQC and he wronged XQC so badly) is just how far we’ve come!!! And Meatbun made me believe it, from chapters where I thought HY was an irredeemable monster to now where I am nodding “of course!” to XQC’s defense of HY.

6. Bwahahah when MTL is genius:

Sexual thinking indeed.

7. When XQC confirms that he KNOWS that HY is not like this but if he thought he was he’d act appropriately - I can totally see Meatbun turning this into a knife later somehow but I do hope it won’t take the form of XQC believing the worst and giving up on HY because we had a lot of that already.

8. Yes!! He figured out LZS is evil! Though he’s thinking she killed Wei Rong and I am thinking she IS Wei Rong. And he’s gonna call He Yu. I am sure that’s gonna go swimmingly. Like a fire at a bomb factory.

9. I was cracking up from the mini theater. It’s like the opposite of the saying that eavesdroppers hear no good of themselves - HY would have been better off eavedropping since it’s the only time XQC praises him.

Not really related to the chapter but I’ve read a lot of interesting discussion on discord as to whether HY realizes XQC loves him after that one passionate night. And my two cents is that he does not, that he thinks it was pity sex or compassion sex or w/e. Because even the most secure and well-adjusted people second guess themselves in love since it’s so emotionally important and we have HY who has (he thinks) never been loved by anyone, not even people who HAVE to love him - his parents (and the fact that he still believes and hopes he can find love if he just gives enough of it and tries hard enough to be more loveable is amazing. In that one regard he’s stronger than XQC who shut that down for himself, who believes he’s only loved for what he can do and be to others not for his essential self. He came closest to believing with HY but even there I think a lot of his acceptance of HY ending it and not thinking further is because at base he believes he’s unworthy of lifelong devotion by anyone so of course it makes sense for HY to choose the company over him.) And there is the fact that XQC has repeatedly tried to push him away, never told him he loved him and in fact repeatedly pushed him away, said HY misread all the cues, said he was like Chen Man blah blah blah. It would take a truly secure narcissist to believe XQC loves him in light of all that. Sure, the sex was mind blowing but they had mind blowing sex before and even sex where XQC took initiative (though not to the degree he did here) and most of those times XQC put his armor back on and pushed him away. (When they are an official couple, I bet it will take a long time for HY to get over fear of the afterwards every time they have sex tbh.) So I think HY thinks XQC cares for him but not in a romantic sense.

#case file compendium #cnovel #meatbun doesn't eat meat

[is-nini]

Corrupted Albedo x reader

Requested by: Aru/Haru(~‾▿‾)~

A/n: I don't usually make angst..(because i suck at it) but i will try my best and (i suck at writing fight scene too.. but i will try my best). I also will tweak some stuff so it may not be 100% true.

WARNING:

mention of blood, bruise, overall a pretty dark war below..(in my opinion) Please look away if you're uncomfortable or trigger a dark memories.

Half of the Mondstat is a wreck, everything is a mess, covered by blood and Destruction all over. The overwhelming massive power is becoming too much to handle, causing normal humans immune system to slow down as alot of damage started to appear on their body because of the monsters

The red mist covered the whole windrise, springvale and whispering wood as heartless monsters destroy and hurt every living creature they see. The dark sky didn't help the slightest either as it seems like even the sky is against us.

Your body is covered with scars, bruise and blood as you grip your sword harder. Dead and heavily injured body is pooling on the ground in front of you. The screams and despair cries engulf Mondstat.

"Barbatos guide us!".

A hoarse shout from Jean was heard and a breeze of wind flows through you body as your body slowly heals.

"We can do it!".

Barbara shout as she tried her best to heal everyone and hold of the monsters, worries and a pool of tears threatened to fall from her eyes.

"H-help...".

A little voice was heard, you tore your eyes from a certain bright dark red light from behind the mist.

One of the leg of a man was stuck under a rock that one of the monster throw. You instantly run to get him as his body slowly getting engulf by the red mist.

"Y/n! Stay there! I'll help him!".

Noelle shout's, you looked at her in worried as a tear that you didn't even realize was there fall from your eyes but proceed to listen to her anyway. In order to save everyone you need to stop the cause.

Albedo.

You put up a shield around Mondstat, trying to hold everyone safe inside the shield but your geo shield crumbles down instantly when a festering desire sword hit the shield.

The sword that was supposed to be used by Aether has been thrown at the shield.. that means.. where is Aether? He is in danger-! Your breathing gets heavier than before knowing your dearest friend, Aether is in deep danger.

"Where are you going y/n?!".

Diluc shout when he notice you started picking up your pace and running towards the mist but you didn't stop, you keep running and running. Before your whole body is drowned by the sea of mist you stopped and looked back at your friends with tears and determined smile on your face.

"Hang in there!".

Is all you said before you run deep inside the mist, ignoring the calls from people.

"Y/n-! Ugh"

"Kaeya!"

Kaeya was about to run to take you to a safer place but a monster scratch his arm. Venti release his ultimate power, sucking all the monster away from Kaeya as Venti immediately bring Kaeya to heal afterhe shout towards you.

"BE SAFE Y/N". Venti said you just keep running inside the mist. Your leg is aching, how many scars you have now? You don't know and you don't care. Albedo is the only thing you cared. The source to stopped this hideous fight.

I'm sorry

You thought, directing your apologies to your family and friends. gripping your sword harder you slash through the monster left and right, wanting everything to get over with.. wanting a bright future for Mondstat there's so much thing to be discovered and you cannot let the dreams and your friends die. Not now. not ever. As long as you're alive.

When you're inside the mist nothing makes sense, you almost lost your way as monsters coming for you from every side. the only thing guiding you is the bright red light that you detect as a light that erupts from Albedo's corrupted body.

as a bright red light starting to get closer and closer to your eye sight. Your eyes widened, the horrific sight in front of you. Albedo is slowly levitating upwards, bringing Aether by his neck.

"AETHER!".

Aether grip Albedo's veiny wrist as a light emerge from Aether's hand meaning he is slowly purifying Albedo.

A wave of burn suddenly rush throughout Albedo's corrupted body. He suddenly opened his grip on Aether, without wasting anytime you instantly rushed to aether, letting you a geo shield that pushes Albedo backwards a little bit.

You glance backwards to Aether, he slowly stood up, coughing trying to gain the oxygen back to his lungs. You stab your sword to the ground as a geo shield went around you and Aether.

"MoVe Y/n".

Albedo said. You look up at him, eyes wide. If he really is corrupted all the way how can he still know you. You shake your head, staying strong to protect Aether.

"Y/n...".

Aether whisper, looking at you with sadness. You must've felt pain to hurt Albedo, the man you love so much and he is right but for Mondstat and for Albedo himself. You are determined to save both Albedo and Mondstat.

You pulled out a bracelet from your pocket and throw it to Aether.

"Aether.. can you focus your purify energy to this bracelet? If we put this on Albedo he won't be able to get it of".

Once you put this bracelet down on Albedo's wrist he won't be able to pull it out and if Aether fill that bracelet with Aether's purify energy, maybe.. maybe We can save him. You look back to the hurting Aether and whisper to him.

"I'll hold him and you'll purify him okay".

You whisper, Aether nod as you looked back to the now growling Albedo. Albedo released a spear like weapon out of red light and throw them at you. You run out of your shield and dodge them by jumping from one weapon yo another.

Finally reaching Albedo you grab his hair and pulled it as he falls down along with you. You summon a chain out of geo from the ground and hold Albedo by his neck as tears running down your face.

"I'm sorry this will hurt".

You whisper as you felt Aether run and snapped the bracelet on Albedo's wrist. A loud Pained shout was heard from Albedo as he trashed around the chain and dirt. You hold Albedo's hand, pinning it to the ground on one side as Aether held the other.

The veins on Albedo's body slowly fading out as a heavy breathing was heard from him. Slowly but surely his breathing goes down as his red and black eyes slowly closed.

"A-albedo?".

You call out, removing your hand from Albedo's hand, summoning away your geo chain and looked at Aether. You were about to say something when all of the sudden the red mist surrounding you is slowly disappearing. In your mind there's only one thing.

Albedo has been lifted from the darkness.

His dark power is fading away. You turn your gaze back to Albedo and Aether. Albedo slowly sits up, holding his head with a groan. You and Aether cannot hide your excitement so you both just rushed to him, hugging Albedo tightly.

"Y-y/n... A-aether?".

He whispered after seeing your faces. Years of joy is running down your bloody faces. Shout's was heard and a bunch of foot hitting the ground.

"Albedo!"

Shout's from Sucrose, Kaeya, Diluc and the others filled Albedo's ear. He looked around the place.. Everything is filled with bodies, people crying in pain, loosing their loved ones.

Albedo look at his hand.. he did it.. he hurt Mondstat.. he is a monster. Tears are pooling on the corner of his eyes, no one saw Albedo cried until now as a regretful and despair sob comes from Albedo's mouth as his Sobbing gets louder and louder.

Albedo's body is trembling as he looked down to his hand. He suddenly felt a hand, one by one hugging him, without him realizing Sucrose, Venti, Jean followed by Lisa, Barbara and Noelle hugs Albedo.

"I-i-i'm so-sorry-! I didn't mean-".

"It's okay".

Jean assured him.

"We will find a way to fix this mess".

And with that the sky slowly clears out, Albedo's bracelet is locking away all his curse. The sun started to set as you guys bask in eachother's presence Albedo, being basked in the warmth and reassurance from his friend.. and his beloved y/n makes him calm for a little while. Mondstat will never be the same after this, the damage and the event still lingers.

From there Albedo worked 10x harder to find a way to revive people. Albedo asked and beg for the dead to be froze so when the time comes, he will be able to restore them back to life.

Some people forgive Albedo, some people sill hates him.. wich is understandable, some people never really think it's his fault but either way the only thing you care about is that Albedo is safe.. even if he hurts you.. even if he tries to kill you.. you'll still love him with all your heart.

A/n: i feel like there's something lacking on this story.. i deeply apologize if there's any typo.. and mistakes, feel free to leave a criticism please!

#albedo x you #genshin fanfic #genshin fanfiction #genshin x reader #albedo x reader #albedo x y/n #genshin albedo #genshin fluff

[therealvinelle]

“By contrast, I can think of characters who resemble most other Twilight characters with a relative amount of ease.”

You put this at the end of an ask and was just wondering if you would please elaborate? Have a lovely day

(Anon is referring to this post.) Do you ever look at two characters, realize they have a few things in common, then blink, take a step back, and realize that they really do have an awful lot in common? That they're more or less the same person, only in different circumstances? The same archetype, at the very least.

I'm open to the possibility that you'll say no, @thecarnivorousmuffinmeta and I are strange people who see strange things.

All the same, here are a few examples.

Also, this contains spoilers for the animes Fate/Zero, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and Revolutionary Girl Utena, as well as the play Vildanden, the book Candide, and the show I, Claudius.

Aro: Kiritsugu Emiya from Fate/Zero.

Kiritsugu is a highly effective assassin whose defining trait, and curse, is his willingness to commit any atrocity in the name of the greater good. His ambition is to save the world. Over the course of the series he sacrifices his father, surrogate mother, best friend, wife, and daughter, and treats everybody else like chess pieces. It will all be worth it when he has saved the world.

He is the opposite of Bella, who would let anything burn for the sake of her loved ones. Kiritsugu loves fiercely, but he will sacrifice that which is most precious to him with a steady hand.

Aro has that same ruthlessness combined with idealism. He sacrifices his sister and is willing to kill his only friend as well, to say nothing of the many other things he has done. He creates child vampires and will kill anyone who stands in his way. This is what he must do to gain and maintain power.

Aro and Kiritsugu will sacrifice anything and anybody if they perceive it to be beneficial to their goal, a goal they happen to share.

Also Aro: Claudius from I, Claudius.

Cladius is the emperor of Rome not because he wishes to be, but because the moment he steps off the throne, Rome will fall to pieces.

Aro did seek out the throne, Claudius very much did not. However, both are in the precarious situation where they can never leave their respective thrones. Rome would fall to pieces without Claudius, and the world would burn without Aro.

Also Aro: Voldemort in an AU where he won.

We're deep in la la AU land now.

But, Aro had to commit atrocities to get to the throne, we only meet him millennia later when his rule is secure. A post-victory Voldemort (and I here mean years and years and years have passed) would be a figure quite similar to Aro. A harsh, uncompromising leader, yet he’s been around for long enough to shape the world into what he wants it to be, people don’t remember that it was once different, and he is regarded as the distant, yet necessary leader.

Bella: Hedda Gabler from Vildanden.

Hedda finds out she's a child born of infidelity, and that her father no longer loves her. Wanting to win back his love she kills herself. Bella, too, has that utter lack of self-love, that willingness to sacrifice herself, and it’s all too easy for her to believe Edward never loved her. Both Hedda and Bella fail to understand there are people who love and would miss them

Also Bella: Homura Akemi from Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

This is not an obvious one.

But they both have that uncompromising drive to do anything and everything for the one they love, and by love I mean the one they fixate everything they are or have ever been upon. Homura, over the course of P3M, goes from wanting to use time travel to save everybody, to being content with saving only Madoka. She will destroy herself for Madoka in a very literal sense, seeing no worth at all in her own survival.

Give Bella a time machine and a timeloop where Edward always dies at the end, and she will go down Homura’s path.

Caius: Every warrior king ever. Ooh and he and Iskandar (again from Fate/Zero) have very similar vibes, although they're far from the same character.

Iskandar believes that kingship and leadership is not about being noble or virtuous or showing a good example to your people, it's about strength, conquest, and glorious victory.

Caius, I imagine, would heartily agree with that.

Carlisle: I love Carlisle, but there are Carlisles everywhere, especially in anime. Utena Tenjou from Revolutionary Girl Utena comes to mind in particular, though.

Utena begins her story as a righteous and brave girl who wants to be a prince. She wants this without quite understanding what it truly means to be noble, nor does she know what it means to save a person.

Her desire to save Anthy is especially this. Anthy is a traditional damsel in distress at the beginning of the story, and Utena is so eager to save her that she never takes what Anthy herself into account. She judges herself harshly for this failure, but comes to understand what it truly means to save Anthy in the end.

Carlisle has that same nobility and willingness to do good, he is the moral compass of those around him, but all the same he is hoodwinked and does not always know where best to thread. His rescue of Rosalie is a good example of this, he saw a young woman who’d been raped to death, and did the only thing he could to help her, only to learn this wasn’t what she wanted.

Also Carlisle: god, so many characters.

Shirou from Now and Then, Here and There. Suffers a ridiculous amount, but never loses his goodness and insists even in the most extreme circumstances upon the inalienable worth of human life.

Duck from Princess Tutu. Never uses violence or even powers to win against her opponents. She talks to them, finds out why they're unhappy, and wins through healing them. They become friends with her after.

Akane Tsunemori from Psycho-Pass. In a world where people’s souls can be calculated mathematically, Akane Tsunemori is objectively a good person, empirically proven to be incorruptible. That’s her defining trait, no matter what she endures she never loses her upstanding morals. The kind of person who wouldn’t succumb to the lure of human blood.

Just gonna drop the fact that Carlisle’s hair and eyes are the same color, Edward with his vampire sight notes that they’re only one shade apart. The guy is a misplaced anime character.

Oh, and Candide from Voltaire’s Candide. This is just a loose association, but “beautiful blond man travels the world, meets people who are over the top cartoonishly miserable (just... multiply Meyer’s backstories with each other and add 10. Victoria’s life + Rosalie’s life + Esme’s life + their mother is pushed off a cliff by dalmatians) but he carries on with a big smile, and eventually settles down with his found family of hilariously wretched people” gives me Carlisle vibes.

Edward: He's so many people and in so many different ways, oh my god.

He's a mommy's boy who cries because I'M A MONSTER - Buster Bluth. Arrested Development.

He thinks too highly of himself - Gilderoy Lockhart from Harry Potter.

He GOBs - George Oscar "GOB" Bluth. Again Arrested Development.

He appears normal to the outside world, yet there's a complete meltdown with incoherent rants, strong opinions about music, and strong disturbing tendencies towards violence he may or may not act on - Patrick Bateman from American Psycho.

He's weird about women, mother figures, himself, and violent. Creepy yet undeniably charming - Norman Bates from Psycho.

The way he regards Bella - strong Humbert Humbert from Lolia vibes. Replace "nymphet" with "singer" and there you go.

Really, though, with Edward, he is like these yet unlike them all. He’s... he’s a lot.

Emmett: Much like how Caius is a warrior king, Emmett is Frat Bro™.

Jasper: Clint Eastwood for reasons outlined in this post.

Marcus: Arwen after Aragorn inevitably dies.

A sad sad elf who's fading away.

Rosalie: Cordelia Chase from Buffy

Speaks her mind, no matter how brutal it is or how little people want to hear it. She does not forgive those who wrong her, she is proud, and most importantly, she is misjudged. Her beautiful appearance and bitchy veneer make her easy to dismiss, but once the going gets tough she is a deeply good person. She’ll make bitchy comments about watching your back, but watch it she does.

-

I also do this with ships. Aro/Carlisle are a great match for Dorian Gray and Lord Henry, if Lord Henry had failed to corrupt Dorian Gray and been delighted by that fact.

I have other examples, but they go weird places so let’s not.

TL;DR: I'm Miss Marple.

#long post #twilight #twilight meta #twilight renaissance #aro #carlisle cullen #bella swan #edward cullen #caius #jasper hale #emmett cullen #rosalie hale #marcus

[davidmann95]

How about those JL storyboards?

In case you haven’t heard, Zack Snyder is putting on display the ‘storyboards’ - i.e. a rough plot summary accompanied by some Jim Lee sketches - for what would have been Justice League 2 and 3, or as this puts it 2 and ‘2A’. You can see them here (I imagine better-quality versions will soon be released), and read a transcript here. This is evidently a very early version: this was apparently pitched prior to the release of BvS and Justice League being rewritten in the wake of it, with numerous plot details that now don’t line up with what we know about the Snyder Cut, plus it outright mentions it builds on the originally planned versions of the Batman and Flash movies. But it’s a broad outline of what was gonna go down, and while I initially thought it was Snyder throwing in the towel, the timing - paired with the ambiguity left by the necessity for changes, including that this doesn’t factor whatever that “massive cliffhanger” at the end of the Cut is - says to me he’s hoping this’ll be a force multiplier behind efforts to will sequel/s into existence. He’s probably right.

I’ll be discussing spoilers below, but in short: with this Zack Snyder has finally lived up to Alan Moore, in that like Twilight of the Superheroes I wouldn’t believe this was real as opposed to a shockingly on-point parody if not for direct, irrefutable evidence.

Doing some rapid-fire bullet points for this baby to kick us off:

* Folks who know the subject say a lot of this is a yet further continuation of Snyder doing Arthuriana fanfic with the League reskinned over those major players, and I’ll take their word for it.

* I don’t know whether I love or hate that in Justice League 2 the Justice League are only an extant thing for the first scene, and then it’s Snyder giving everybody their own mini-movies. It’s compressing the entire MCU “loosely interconnected solo stories leading to a single big movie later” strategy into a single movie!

*  Funniest line in the whole thing: "Even Lantern has heard of the Kryptonian, worried that he's under the control of Darkseid. He heard his spirit was unbreakable." Hal what fuckin' Superman movie did YOU watch? Second funniest being “IT WILL GIVE HIM POWER OVER ALL LIVING LIFE”

* 90% of the plot I have nothing to say about, it’s generic stage-setting crap. That to be clear is the ‘shocked it’s Snyder’ element, it feels so crassly commercial in a way I can’t believe is coming from the BvS guy.

* Most of what I have to say is unsurprisingly gonna be about a handful of characters but Cyborg’s happy ending being “he isn’t visibly disabled anymore!” is not great!

* The Goddess of War battle with Superman...never pays off? No clue why it’s there.

* What I’d originally heard was that the Codex in Superman’s blood was the last key to the Anti-Life Equation and that’s why Darkseid was coming to Earth. It’s not like all of this wouldn’t have already been averted by Kal-El’s pod smacking into an asteroid on the way to Earth so it’s not as if this makes it any more Superman’s fault, and it would have at least tied all this back to the beginning of the movies, but I suppose that was either fake or from a later draft.

* I have NO idea how this was reimagined without the ‘love triangle’, it’s the central character thing and the entire climax flows directly out of it!

* Darkseid’s kinda a chump in this, huh

Anonymous said: So: Does Zack Snyder hate Superman?

Look: the hilarity of this when Cuck Kent has been a go-to Snyder cult insult towards ‘inferior’ takes on Superman for years cannot be understated, yet at the same time I can almost wrap my brain around where Snyder’s coming from with that as the end for his take on the character. He talked in that Variety piece on how his interest in Superman is informed by having adopted children himself, and Deborah Snyder is the stepmother to his kids by previous relationships, so I can see where he’d be coming from, and I can even imagine how he’d see this as ‘rhyming’ in the sense of “the series begins with Kal-El being adopted by Earth, it ends with him adopting a child of Earth!” In the same way as MARTHA, I can envision how he would put these pieces together in his head thematically without registering or caring what the end result would actually look like. In this case, Superman raising the kid of the man who beat the shit out of him who Batman had with Clark’s wife, who earlier told Bruce she was staying with Clark because he ‘needed her’, suggesting if inadvertently that this really honest to god was a “she’s only staying with Superman out of pity, she really loved Batman more” thing.

But Clark is nothing in this. He’s sad and existential because of coming back from the dead I guess, then he’s corrupted, then time’s undone and he woo-rah rallies the collective armies of the world (interesting angle for the ‘anti-military/anti-establishment’ Superman he’s talked up as) as his big heroic moment in the finale, and then he stops being sad because he’s adopting a kid. So his big much-ballyhooed, extremely necessary five-movie character arc towards truly becoming Superman was:

Sad weird kid -> sad weird kid learns he’s an alien, is still weird and sad, maybe he shouldn’t save people because things could go really wrong? -> his dad is so convinced it could go wrong he lets himself die -> ????? -> Clark is saving people anyway -> learns his origin, gets an inspiring speech about being a bridge between worlds and a costume -> becomes superman (not Superman, that’s later) to save the world, albeit a very property-damagey version, rejects his heritage he just learned about and space dad’s bridge idea -> folks hate him being superman and that sucks though at least he’s got a girlfriend now -> things go so wrong he considers not being superman but his ghost dad reminds him shit always goes wrong so he should be good anyway, which sorta feels like it contradicts his previous advice -> immediate renewed goodness is out the window as he’s blackmailed into having to try and kill a dude but the dude happens to coincidentally have some things in common so they don’t kill each other after all -> big monster now but superman keeps supermaning at it because he loves his girlfriend and he dies -> he’s brought back, wears black which apparently means now he likes Krypton again? -> he has work friends now but he’s still sad because he was dead -> evil now! -> wait nevermind time travel -> rallies the troops -> his wife’s having a kid so he’s not sad anymore -> Superman! Who gives way to more Batman.

Do I think Zack Snyder is lying when he says he likes Superman? No. I think he sincerely finds much of the basic conceits and imagery engaging. But I don’t think he meaningfully gives shit about Clark as a character, just a vessel for Big Iconic Beats he wants to hit. Whereas while for instance he’s critical of Batman as an idea (at least up to a point), he’s much more passionately, directly enamored with him as a presence and personality. So while Superman may be the character whose ostensible myth cycle or arc or however it’s spun might be propelling a lot of events here, it’s a distant appreciation - of course the other guy takes over and subsumes him into his own narrative. Of course Batman is the savior, the past and the future (though if he’s supposed to be Batman’s kid raised by Superman there’s no excuse for him not to be Nightwing), the tragic martyr to our potential. Admittedly the implication here is also that Batman can apparently only REALLY with his whole heart be willing to sacrifice his life to save an innocent, for that matter apparently his great love, once said innocent is a receptacle for his Bat-brood, but he and Clark are both already irredeemable pieces of shit by the end of BvS so it’s not like this even registers by comparison.

Anonymous said: That “plan” Snyder had was utter dogshit. Picture proof that DC & WB hate Superman. Also I love how you’re like Jor-El: Every single idealistic take you had about Snyder, his fandom, and BvS was wrong. Snyder’s an edgy hack, his fanbase just wants to jerk off to their edgy self-insert Batgod as he screams FUCK while mowing people down with machine guns, and the idea that BvS said Superman was better than Bats was completely wrong. You know what comes next SuperMann: Either you die or I do.

In the final analysis, beyond that mother of god is there sure no conceivable excuse for the treatment of Lois in this? The temptation is to join that anon and say as I originally tweeted that these were “built entirely to disabuse every single redemptive reading of the previous work and any notion of these movies as nuanced, artistic, self-reflective, or meaningful”.

...

...

...yeah, okay, that’s mostly right. Zack Snyder’s vision really was the vision of an edgelord idiot with bad ideas who was never going to build up to anything that would reframe it all as a sensible whole. He’s a sincere edgelord genuinely trying really hard with his bad ideas who put some of them together quite cleverly! But they’re fucking bad and the endgame was never anything more than ramping up into smashing the action figures together as big as he could, the political overtones and moral sketchiness of BvS while trying to say something in that movie reverberated through the grand scheme of his pentalogy in no way beyond giving his boys a big sad pit to rise out of so when they kicked ass later it’d rule harder, and all the gods among men questions and horror and trappings were only that: trappings. Apparently he’s really pleasant and well-meaning in person, but at his core his art as embodied in a couple weeks in his 4-hour R-rated Justice League movie meant to be seen in black-and-white all comes down to that time he yelled at someone on Twitter that he couldn’t appreciate Snyder’s work because it’s for grown-ups. He made half-clever, occasionally exciting shit cape movies for a bunch of corny pseudo-intellectual douchebags, folks latching onto and justifying blockbusters that at least acknowledge how horrifying the world is right now even if the superheroes are basically useless in the face of it if not outright part of the problem until a convenient alien invasion shows up to justify them, and a handful of non-asshole smart people who vibe with it but...well. ‘Suckered’ is a harsh word, and definitely doesn’t apply to all of them re: what they’ve gotten out of it up to this point and would (somehow) get out of this. But it doesn’t apply to none of them, either.

#Justice League #Zack Snyder #Superman #Batman #DCEU #Opinion

[lokiodinsonofasgard000]

Witcher Reader x Loki

“Alfather… more of our men have died in attempts of containing the creature” an injured guard general “Did you get any more information regarding why this creature may be?” the Alfather asked staring down the general “It is nothing like that of this world...it feels that of such chaos. It’s unworldly we have lost many warriors-... more and more innocent people are being massacred, they grow restless and fearful-” “That is enough. Make your way to the healing wing and any other injured guards.” With a nod, the general limped out holding his side out of the throne room. The room fell silent as the door closed shut; Queen Frigga looked to her husband with a grim look. The old king was in deep thought, their sons gave a look to one another in slight worry unsure as to what would happen; it was the youngest son who spoke up “Father, surely there is something we could do? Perhaps sending in our mages could help with healing and defending our guards in containing this creature?” “Loki” his mother spoke with sternness to it “Mother brother is right” spoke the older brother “Thor, my sons… this is out of our hands, if this is of another world our magic will have no effect on it. How it got here is unbeknownst to us and Heimdall’s eyes, how and why this creature has come through a mystery. However, there is one person that may be of assistance to us” the Alfather spoke “Odin no! We can not. The mere ceremony and preparation of such a conjuring will have draining effects on you and your health” Frigga exclaimed “I can conjure it. Tell me what I have to do and I shall-” “I forbid it!” Frigga said sternly making her youngest son flinch slightly “Mother, Loki is one of our strongest mages; he is young I doubt he will be drained too quickly” Thor the eldest spoke with some reasoning “Enough. What I can do is conjure an opening between our worlds…” the Alfather spoke but pause in thought before explaining; “My sons...I ask of you this for the first and last time, I wish for you to go to a world known as the Conjunction of Spheres, in this world you will be placed in a world known as the continent it is similar to Midgard-” “Father please be more specific. Midgard has over the centuries, changed vastly since the last time you set foot there. Are we talking modern 21st century Midgard or medievaleque” Loki the youngest sighed “Don’t test my patients, boy? Now as I was saying, I wish for you to seek a witcher; Her name is (Name) but best known as her title of the White wolf of Rivia; she is an emotionless, ruthless,  monster killer. I would hope you retrieve the witcher as soon as possible, and be wary your magic will not be as strong over there so be wise with whom you speak with and Thor make sure Loki doesn't get his silver tongue cut off.” The Alfather finished “One question, father. With all due respect, how can you be so sure this creature was of the continent of the conjunction of spheres? How do we know it is not of another unworldly place? Not only that, how can we be sure that this White wolf will comply with our request?” Loki questioned. Thor watched Loki, he agreed on why; how could their father be so sure of this creature's origins if he himself is unsure of what this creature may be “The power of chaos is what generates the magic in that world...the stronger the chaos the more power the creature or individual has. I trust that you Loki will be able to control yourself in that world, and if not I know Thor will be able to bring you back…” “Odin this is madness!” Frigga yelled with tears in her eyes “You are sending them to their graves!” “You think I do not know the consequences! It is either I conjure the Witcher to us and die from the process, or Have Loki do so and take my place and die...is that what you would rather? We are sending them both to that world and have Heimdall bring them back via Bifrost and that is final” Odin spoke sternly to his queen who gave him a hurt glare. The Queen stood from her seat and teleported away. Both Thor and Loki called out for their mother but she ignored her sons to have time to calm down and let her emotions unclouded her judgment. The King dismissed his sons as he started his preparations to have his sons travel to another dimension and world.

Loki and Thor Asgardian armor and some belongings and weapons in order to help them on their travels of the new world they were being set to, to retrieve (Name) the White Wolf of Riva.

Frigga looked at her sons with a sad look as Odin began to recite an old spell foreign to all. Loki held a calm exterior much like his older brother Thor who stood by his side, for once Loki was glad that he wouldn’t be alone and that he was fortunate enough to have Thor with him; the two as they got older would have more arguments and as of recent years Loki had resentment for him for he would have the throne while Loki would have nothing, part of him believed he was to retrieve the witcher back to Asgard then there was a possibility he could convince his father for letting him take the throne instead of Thor- “My sons...Take care, may we meet soon” he spoke as his sons began to disappear. Frigga left the throne room and vowed to never speak to anyone including Odin until her sons are returned home safely.

Loki fell through some dead trees and on to the ground. He groaned out as he slowly got on his knees and elbows, that was until Thor landed on top of him. The younger brother yelled for his brother to get off him, shoving him off with the little magic he could conjure up for the meantime. 

A young woman sat in the shadows of the forest polishing her silver sword, Without a mind in the world as she relished in the nature of the night around her. (Name),The witcher, the White wolf of Rivia that she was, emotionless and ruthless as some may depict her but she was kind, and only did her best to distance herself from humans as some go to the extent of trying to kill her. She stared at her reflection in the lake next to her as she polished her sword; white hair and pale skin; her eyes flashed a black and back to their unusual gold. She let a click of her tongue as she put away her sword; she laid her head against a tree as she closed her eyes in hopes of luxurious sleep. In the distance, she could hear the trotting of hooves from a mile away. Getting on her feet  made sure to hide from the approaching humans. “Can’t we just stop for the night, Brother” spoke a blonde male with a gruff baritone “No” grumbled the man with darker hair spoke more eloquently. “What about the horse! It needs the rest too Loki” exclaimed the blonde “...the next town isn’t far, we mustn’t waste time. We must reach the next town to find this witch” the one with dark hair, Loki spoke out with annoyance. “Brother listen to me. We need to rest, if not we will exhaust ourselves; if we rest we will be revived and ready to deal with anything in our way” the other said firmly stopping his horse

As the two ‘travelers’ came closer their bickering hurt her ears; a light growl in her throat as she moved around to have a better look. Once seeing them in the moonlit night, she saw a young male with black above the shoulder hair slicked back. He was undoubtedly attractive however, something was off about him. The blond was well built and had a somewhat royal aura around him but a good one, not like the corrupted kings she knew of, and yet he was as well there was something very wrong with the two.

The young woman sneaked up a tree to be off the ground and to hopefully cause less attention to herself. She perched on a high branch as she watched the strangers from below. A smirk came on her face as she put her hands together slightly, close to her mouth, she made a howl. Grabbing the attention of the younger dark-haired male

“Thor, do you think it wise we take rest, here in the woods. I mean that howl sounded awfully close and we are in no shape in defending ourselves in our current situation” the younger male said addressing the blond male “Brother Loki, please I'm sure a measly wolf is no match for me and Mjölnir,” the blond male, Thor, said, holding up a hammer with foreign symbols. (Name) saw the game glisten with what seemed to spark almost like lightning in the sky. She glared as she could not recognize the symbols and runes scribes into the hammer the blond male, Thor held in his hand.

“Something is here, that's for sure,” Loki informed the older brother.

The young woman was a little impressed by the younger male. He could sense that she was around; however, could not distinct if she was human or other. She felt herself smile slightly knowing she was going to have some fun with the two

------

I’ll leave it here for now. Part of me wants to see how it goes and if there is a demand for a part two or to make a story about this Witcher X Loki crossover. I hope you enjoyed this one so far part two will be coming soon

Pt.2

#loki x reader #loki odinson #Loki Laufeyson #loki of asgard #x reader #witcher reader #fandom crossover #marvel x witcher

[merctrovert]

Ragnvindr || Chapter 7

I am a slave to time and its cruel memories that bind around my heart, leaving me an empty vessel for fear. I am not my own so how can I ask you to be mine? - merc

It’s finally hereee, the next chapter. So sorry to all those who patiently waited, I hope this chapter was worth the wait. I am wishing you a great day and much love & appreciation from yours truly :)

"There is no escape."

You stumbled back as the Fatui mages advanced, taking out the small knife you had strapped to your waist.

"Diluc?" You turned to the man who was still staring at the purple chains and magic, eyes wide. "Diluc!"

He snapped out of his reverie, looking down at you, brows furrowed in confusion. His claymore sat in his hand, wielded, but he seemed as though his mind was in a different place, eyes empty, distracted.

"We've got to get out."

Kaeya from beside you took out his sword, pointing it at the mages. "I'm sure we've fought worse." But his chuckle was dark and morbid, sending shivers down your spine. The grim smile on his face did little to help.

Chaos erupted in the blink of an eye. As you all prepared to lunge forwards to attack, a cloud of dark purple mist blocked your vision and you were suddenly immersed in a sea of purple mist, eyes blindly looking around.

But Diluc was nowhere near you and Kaeya had disappeared.

Red, blue and purple flashed through the mist like lightning and your hands fell onto an unfamiliar body, tugging them towards you.

A Fatui mage.

His completely black eyes widened as you drove home the blade in your hand, wincing at the blood that splattered over your face and arm as you let his body fall, taking the knife out of his neck.

The black ink drops of blood pooled at your feet and you looked back up, hearing grunts and cries of pain. These Fatui mages were corrupted, had almost become consumed by the Abyssal power. Their blood and bodies were already far from human.

Moving towards the flashes of red, feeling the burn of fire sizzle the hair on your skin, you dove and tackled past whatever mage you saw. A hand grabbed your arm, tight and you spun around, slamming your elbow against their ribcage.

They stumbled back, the blade in your hand spinning, prepared to lodge the dagger between their ribcage when you recognised the red hair and your arm froze.

"Diluc?"

He winced as he raised his claymore, rubbing his chest with his other hand.

You, however, were stuck frozen at the realisation that you had nearly murdered your own friend.

"Duck!"

You fell to the floor, hands and knees hitting the ground in pain as Diluc slammed his blazing claymore into the body of an enemy that fell to the ground, screaming as his skin burnt away into ash.

It was no time for you to be caught up in what you had nearly done; with hands shaking from adrenaline, you cut through whoever came at you with Diluc wielding off the giant purple chains emerging from the ground.

"There! The door!"

It was right in front of you, the smoke parting just slightly, the door frame mocking you both as you struggled to move towards it.

Just as you could clamber out from the chaos, there was a loud grating noise, the sound of metal clashing against metal and you turned, watching Diluc fight off chains that had wrapped around his claymore.

"Diluc, watch out!"

The words escaped your lips before you could control yourself and you had lunged mid-air as a purple chain came spiralling down to pierce his back.

It wrapped around you as you jumped in between, seizing your body, your dagger clattering to the ground at the sudden force.

"At least I saved you this time..." You laughed as you tried to get out of the purple chains but they only bound around you tighter, purple smoke crawling up your legs and arms.

Diluc had dropped his claymore, rushing towards you with sudden desperation to get rid of the chain wrapped around you.

You watched as his knuckles bled trying to tear it away from you and looked away, feeling faint as the tendrils of purple smoke wrapped around your neck, squeezing your throat.

"Well, isn't this interesting?"

You both froze, Diluc's chest moving heavily, heart beating dangerously fast as the smoke parted, a dark silhouette stepping through the mist.

"Let her go, this instance."

Diluc bent down to pick up his claymore, but as he grabbed onto the hilt, it refused to move. Even as he grunted, it wouldn't budge.

Small shimmering chains had winded themselves around the weapon, tying it to the ground and the figure chuckled, your eyes never moving from them.

A man's voice.

"My, my. I forgot how much you looked like Crepus."

At the name, Diluc felt a pang in his chest, nearly falling to one knee. His heart jolted, red rushing through his mind and he was back there, eighteen years old, his world ending.

He looked up, through the smoke, at the leering figure. "How do you know my father?"

But all he received was a chuckle and you whimpered as the chains tightened, the man raising his hand. At once, the chained stilled completely.

"It makes me wonder... just how much truth have you found?"

Diluc frowned, on edge, his fists clenched.

"Who do you think gave your father that delusion?"

The same delusion that killed him in front of Diluc's very eyes.

The rage he felt at that moment felt like fire rushing through his veins, molten and boiling. And he would burn and burn those that had killed his father with him.

You watched as he stood up, fists clenched, facing downwards.

"You killed him."

"No." There was a beat of silence as the figure stepped forwards, once, the smoke moving along with him. "He killed himself. He knew what he was doing."

"You killed him! That creature, that Delusion-"

"Diluc, don't!"

But the man had already lunged towards the figure, grabbing him by his collar. The figure stumbled from out of the smoke but Diluc faltered then, for it wasn't a face he saw, but nothing at all.

It was a face covered in moving, swirling shadows and Diluc pushed the man back, stumbling back himself.

The figure's ominous laughter grew from a dark chuckle, echoing off the wall of the laboratory.

You looked around, still frozen in place, at the growing purple darkness that loomed at the figure's feet, as though at his beckon.

"You're a monster."

Diluc shot back up, never once backing down. He lunged with a flash of silver - a hidden blade it seemed - and dove straight for the man's shadowed face but never hit his target.

His arm instead was restricted by a cold, icy tendril.

An Abyss Mage.

It cackled at the side of the man in the smoke but Diluc grit his teeth and with rage he had never felt before, his hands blazing as he grabbed the tendril and tugged the mage forwards. With a clean slice, its head fell to the floor, mouth open and frozen in a laugh.

The body dropped to the feet of Diluc and he looked up, feeling the crimson blood running down his face and hands.

"A war is coming." His cold voice rang. "It is better you realise sooner that we are all monsters before it shows you instead." He turned, footsteps echoing emptily as he walked away.

The chain from around your body loosened and you fell free, stumbling towards the red-haired man that watched as his father's murderer walked away.

And he let him, with blood dripping down from his body onto the ground.

As the smoke disappeared, the purple mists retreating allowing you to breathe again, Diluc fell to the ground onto his knees.

He kneeled in blood, the body of a disintegrating abyss mage lying in front of him and said one thing ushered under his breath, as though anything else would simply break him.

"He wasn't lying."

You shook your head, taking his blood-stained hands into your own. "He was only saying that to get you angry, Diluc. Your father was murdered and he-"

"But-" Diluc grabbed your arms. It was only then you realised his trembling body, his shaking hands, his fragile voice. "But I saw, at that moment, he was telling the truth. Why would my father... take such a thing... if he knew it would kill him?"

You could only stay silent, watching as Diluc felt his heartbreak again. Your hand raised, gently falling onto the head of the boy that rested on your shoulder.

"This. I took this."

The stench of blood was sour, copper and metallic and you looked down at what he presented you with. A small, metal emblem shining in the darkroom, in his rough palm.

The Mondstadt Knights of Favonius Insignia.  

Your heart skipped a beat, your eyes fluttering closed. That figure was carrying an insignia of the knights.

"We will find that man." A quiet whisper, like the promise of two children facing a world that you had never seen before. And all you had was each other.

Diluc pulled away, his hands falling into his lap, dry and crusted with dark blood. He was quiet as he looked down at it, at the marks on his fingers and hands where he had picked away at his skin in the past, leaving behind rough scars. "It never washes away."

With hesitant fingers, as though exploring unknown territory, you brushed away the flakes of blood. He let you, watching as the dry blood from his hands fell to the ground. Your fingers traced over each mark and scar he had left on his hands, which he kept hidden underneath his thick gloves, but you didn't say anything. You only held his hands in your own as though holding his fragmented heart.

"I have murdered hundreds for my father. And when I finally find his murderer... I let him go."

"You couldn't have done anything."

He chuckled, empty, mirthlessly. "Was it worth it? Was it all worth it if I had known I'd be here right now?"

Diluc closed his eyes, squeezing them shut, expelling the image of his father from his mind.

He was so proud of him once. He had said he was proud of Diluc the day before he died. When he had become a Knight.

"What is it worth now?" He muttered but the darkness did not answer.

When he looked up, there was a small smile on his face that was neither happy nor sad but one of pure bitter heartbreak as he looked at you. His hands tightened around yours but the hopeless, afraid eyes never faded.

You saw him then.

As the boy who had lost it all. Him, his eighteen-year-old self, wandering alone. He, who lost everything, standing on the edge of the world, searching for a home that no longer existed.  

Your hand grazed the cut on his cheek. His name fell from between your parted lips as your own heart ached for him.

But all you wanted to say came in the form of silent waves of abandon and grief.

It had always been the three of you and it would never change.

The three of you.

Your hand abruptly fell as you looked around, clambering up onto your feet.

"What is it?" He was alert too, eyes hardened as though what had happened was a moment of weakness.

"Where's Kaeya?"

In the dark laboratory room with floors stained in crimson and black blood, Kaeya was nowhere to be found.

Your name was called and you ran over as Diluc picked something off the ground.

"Look. This is..."

Your heart froze, your breath stilled. Your eyes connected, wide and riveting with fear.

You couldn't lose another. You wouldn't. That was all that rushed through your mind as you stared down at the single, lonely Vision glowing blue lying in Diluc's hands.

w.c 1.9K

Thank you so much for reading!

And update on me wanting Yanfei... I made a new friend who told me to sacrifice Childe and so I reluctantly did so. They sacrificed Zhongli and then I pulled and the second single pull in... I got her. Hehe. Now it is time to save for Canada boy! 

Be taking care, as always <3 ~ merc 

makeshift taglist:  @fishyfish-y @simpsscentral​

#diluc #diluc genshin impact #genshin impact diluc #diluc ragnvindr #diluc ragnivindr #genshin #genshin diluc #diluc genshin #diluc fanfic #diluc fanfiction #genshin impact fanfiction #genshin fanfic #genshinimpactkaeya #kaeya #genshin impact kaeya #kaeya genshin impact #dilucfanfic #genshinimpactfanfiction #fanfic #i love you all #dilucragnvindr #if you see this #you're amazing

[outoftimewriting]

Imagine (Son of Hades! Percy; Godswapped! Big Three's kids (6/7) or (11/12)

House of Hades Pt.2 - In the Argo II

Hello darlings! Before reading this, there's at least other 11 parts - and I almost had to divide this into two - check on the masterpost - but don't be sad is ending :(

First - I have no idea if I'll divide Blood of Olympus in two because I hate the climax Rick wrote - so probably? Also not sure if I'll need an epilogue - we're not delving into TOA, though.

Second - I'll keep writing! I have a handful of ideas that I want to do next - and the next AU will have Female! Percy - so keep logging in!

Check on the warnings before proceeding, and good reading :))

To say that things are tense in the Argo II is downplaying the major depression the ship seemed to be sunk in since Perseus fell.

Leo and, surprisingly, Nico are the only ones who are able to get anything done in the first couple of days, but they aren't fooling anyone - the white eyes of the son of Zeus seem to be every day a little more bloodshot, and more than one fire happens without no explanation.

Annabeth didn't stop crying for a second - even throughout Will's examination of her and her brother - for at least 12 hours. Then she crashed for another 12 hours - and when Annabeth woke up, she was enraged.

She is going to bring the damned statue back to Camp - and then she will kick her mother's ass. That's her best friend, not collateral damage.

And when her dumbass of a best friend comes back, Annabeth is going to kick his ass too. How dare he fall - for her, not even his closest friend - into freaking Tartarus?

Frank is devastated - he and Piper are coping by planning the future - how they can spend the summer at Camp and live in Nova Roma, how they'll visit Perseus if he decides to go to college in the mortal world. It feels a little like denial.

Hazel and Jason are coping in the totally opposite way. Where Leo and Nico are fueling themselves with determination, Annabeth is anger personified and the other two went in the road of negation - they're both in a deep state of panic.

The sea became too dangerous to travel - the tides answering to Jason's turbulent emotions - and any metal on board keeps exploding or becoming so fueled with energy that no one but Nico and Hazel can touch it.

They pray together - for Neptune, Jupiter, Pluto, Letum, any god that Perseus ever helped (a lot of them) - for his protection. Jason holds evening prayers - just like in Nova Roma - and they offer anything, everything, for Percy to be alive. Everyone goes.

Except for Will, who is in a whole other league. The moment that he arrived at Camp, Percy was the one to settle him, and calm him, and take care of him. It was a side of him no other person in this ship had ever seen - Nico got in Camp in the worst timing possible, and all the others were pretty independent when they met Perseus.

But Will remembers - the nights with hot chocolate, Percy's warm sweaters, a pair of blue gloves messing his hair, the anxiety when the boy left for school, just for him to keep IMing Will every evening - and he misses Percy.

After the Labyrinth, the war, the losses, they reconnected - the prejudices against Percy's parentage long gone - and it felt like nothing ever changed.

It was Percy who helped him coming out for his mother. It was Percy that held Will after he lost Sibele - a daughter of Momus - to her injuries. It was Percy, always Percy.

Percy is much more of a father then Apollo - and much better as a brother then some of Will's siblings. So Will just locks himself up in his infirmary - and grieves. It's weird in such a hard mission to remember that Will is just fifteen and that he is a veteran of war.

The mood lingers, even when they start fighting regularly against the Apennines - and isn't this a whole other mess.

The mountain spirits are pissed - because Hades/Pluto and his wife are really pissed. It's Malcolm - the only one with a phone and a good connection to the internet - that tells them that the world started having earthquakes every few days.

The mortals are confused because most of these are not even close to the tectonic plates - and none of those cause turmoil at the sea. It's just Hades - mightly pissed his only son is beyond even his reach.

Three days in fighting the Ourae - who don't like having their mountains shaken over and over again - the sky also starts thundering. Coincidentally, it's July 30th - they've been traveling for twenty-two days - which also marks Thesmophoria - the greek festival of harvest.

But, alas, nothing is blooming. Persephone is as dangerous as her husband - and Demeter seems to follow her daughter's lead. With the Earth corrupted - the crops aren't growing.

Jason doesn't blame his matron - he is not really happy himself. Besides praying for Perseus' safety, he spends most of his days in patrol against boulders and rocks of all things.

Leo barely sleeps - too busy keeping the ship from falling apart - and Nico is, most of the time, right behind him keeping the ship steady. They try using canons and fail miserably. There's no way to fight against mountains - it's like Dom Quixote fighting against the windmills.

The others, even Will, rotate between fighting rocks and sleeping. Four days after Thesmophoria, Leo decides it's enough, turns the ship around, and solves to not cross the Apennines.

He just hopes Perseus can last another seven days.

Hazel - the only one awake, because this is supposed to be her patrol and Leo finds her the most reasonable out of all their friends, who would probably insist on keep fighting the freaking mountains - is praying. Like always.

Leo doesn't know how he feels about praying. His extended family was very catholic - they prayed for a god that they couldn't see or touch. But Leo met the gods - or, if Annabeth is to be believed, one set of them - and he doesn't like them.

They're petty children who have no care for the fate of their children - the ones who fight for them, go on their errands, keep them alive, y'know. Leo doesn't want to praise them. He doesn't think they deserve it.

But Hazel's prayers are answered when her venti, Tempest, appears aboard. Hazel tells Leo to go on without her - she'll be back soon.

He is concerned for her - like always. Of all new people, Leo seems to be the closest to her - his overall cheeriness and electric behavior are endearing to her, a light in these dark times. Sometimes, his smile makes her flush - just like Frank's did and still does.

Hazel mounts Tempest and the venti takes her, through mountains and hills, to a door. There's mist curling at her ankles and a chill in her spine.

She isn't very thrilled by meeting Trivia - Hazel heard stories of her greek son by Perseus, who seemed to hold the guy in high standard, but she knows gods. The goddess of magic wants something.

Trivia is an imposing woman - taller than Hazel, she has the same midnight skin as Perseus, though hers looks purple-ish, and her eyes are entire universes - stars bloom in her irises and twin moons rise in her pupils.

The goddess is fickle - she seems to be there and not, at the same time. Ghostly. There's three of them, then one, then five.

Trivia beacons to the daughter of Jupiter and she follows, the cursed little girl she is. The goddess offers her three options: Perseus, prone in the ground as she, Leo, and Annabeth battle an invisible foe, the two demigod installments at war, or the Argo II.

Hazel chooses the Argo II, but she promises herself, and the goddess, that she will save Perseus, and that no demigod blood will be spilled by other demigod's hand. Not again.

She will learn how to control the Mist. But Trivia is very mistaken if she thinks Hazel is going to become her acolyte. She remembers well what happened last time - she died.

The Argo II is traveling without much hassle - when they're crossing Monte Falterona, in the Campigna National Park, they are attacked by a new mountain spirit - and this one talks.

"Get Pluto his brat back, you useless halflings!"

Like the boulders the immortal is throwing at them will help. Leo screams this back at the mountain, who is not impressed at all.

Their next foe is in San Marino - a chimera. Most popular knowledge is wrong about those monsters: chimeras are not just goat-lion-snake mixes. They are an amalgamation of any three or more animals.

This one, in particular, is a very... candid mix of a Pyrenean chamois, a monk-seal, a mouflon, and a goose. Not very lethal or hazardous - just very angry. It's the first time they hear Annabeth laugh since Perseus fell.

While Malcolm is chasing and being chased around by an evil goat-goose-seal-weirdass deer chimera that he is fending off with an encyclopedia, the others can't even bring themselves to help. It's ridiculous - the thing is not even big. It's just ugly and it sounds like a honking clown.

Eventually, they get around to killing the clown chimera - it honks as it vanishes - and following route to Bologna. Frank tries to mutate to the chimera during the travel - to different levels of failure - which makes everyone laugh.

Thanks to their two encounters, the crew gets to Bologna at two in the afternoon.

Frank can't help counting the days as they pass him by. He is not the only one - he can see Annabeth muttering the time every now and then - but it feels like a countdown. Can Perseus survive one more week in Tartarus?

Even with the pressing worry for his lost friend, he can't stop thinking about Hazel and Leo. The two of them are thick as thieves - and Frank wants in.

But he knows it's wrong - Leo is a boy. Hazel is younger. Leo bares a power that could kill him. Hazel is his best friend. They're two people. - but he sees them flirting and can't keep his eyes to himself.

It's wrong. Soldiers aren't supposed to date men. Men who dated men are prostitutes, entertainers. Less. And two people at the same time? Outside of a bedroom? Preposterous.

Frank wishes he was more like Perseus. Perseus is all about duty: he would eventually marry Reyna. Or Annabeth, or other pretty and intelligent warrior, and have two point five kids with a picket fence.

But no. Here he is - midday, they are stopping for lunch, and he can't keep his eyes off Leo and Hazel - who are quietly chatting in the other end of the long table.

Frank ponders what would they think. Would the two be repulsed? Would they laugh at him? He can deal with laughter. Their disgust, however, would cut his heart in half.

Nico is in a very similar, and yet completely different, situation. He has been in love - or as close as love could be when you never dated the person - with Perseus Jackson.

He knows it's okay to be gay - he is friends with Will and Jake. He lives on CHB since he was a pre-teen. Perseus himself was - is - queer.

But the thing is, he'll never have a chance with him. Not the chance he is longing for gods know how long. He failed Perseus yet again - he let the demigod fall.

Perseus can have anyone. Perfect Annabeth Chase, Shrewd Reyna Arellano, Magic Alabaster Torrington, anyone. And he wouldn't have a problem with that - no. The problem is that he can't make a choice. Because he is in Tartarus.

Because Nico. Let. Him. Fall.

He isn't even sure if he let Perseus fall on purpose. A part of his mind knew someone would have to go. It was always meant to be Perseus. Did he purposefully let him go?

The rational part of his mind knew that if he tried to fly them off, all he would accomplish is falling into Tartarus with Perseus, probably dragging Annabeth with them.

But the guilt creeps into his heart - again, yet again, Perseus suffers for something he did or failed to do. He can't sleep. He doesn't know how anyone can eat.

A rock for him in these difficult times has been Jason. The son of Neptune seems to be as affected as Hazel or Annabeth - but Nico would never be able to rely on them.

Hazel has her own problems - a lot of them since Trivia appeared - and Annabeth is a painful reminder of everything Nico is unable to have.

Jason, however, is different. They had dreams of each other - something about their conquests, Nico didn't pay attention - and that apparently brought them close. Jason, differently from Annabeth, isn't a competition. He isn't vying for Percy's attention and love.

He is just a close friend - like Nico pretends to be most of the time - incredibly worried about the son of Hades. Nico would tell Jason about how he feels - but the militar roman's sensibilities might not be adjusted to the greeks' freedom yet.

Nico, however, is also not the only one with heart problems. Piper finds himself entranced by Annabeth Chase - even when she knows, she knows because of her powers, that Annabeth is painfully straight.

And Piper knows it's not love - it's the heat of the upcoming war and the hormones of being cooped up with just other teenagers for twenty days. She sees the blossoms of young lovers everywhere.

The yearning between Leo, Hazel, and Frank; Nico and Jason unconsciously sharing long-term crushes on Perseus; Will missing Jake and his parental figure;

She wishes she was more like Malcolm. Malcolm is asexual - besides being the only other transexual person on board.

Before this war spiked from nothing, the boy was just back from his mission for Hermaphroditus - a two-month search for a missing choker. He is still adapting to his body - it's bigger and broader and he doesn't have to wear a binder. Piper thinks it's amazing - he tells her it isn't that easy.

It's not a slow transition. One second your body is something - and then it isn't. One morning, the demigod caught him holding a red binder in his hands. Sometimes, she sees a shot of testosterone tucked in his pocket.

One day, he was a boy stuck in a girl's body. Then, he wasn't anymore. He has the body he dreamed of for forever - and it's difficult accepting it. Malcolm tells her is not exactly body dysphoria - is just difficult to conciliate.

Piper thinks after this, she'll get her body. After all of this, she deserves it - her body, all hers, with boobs and a killer jawline. Maybe then, it'll be easier to like girls as well. Maybe then, she'll shave half of her head and get a piercing. And maybe, a couple of tattoos.

But while this doesn't happen, she is whining to her asexual friend about her crush in his sister. Malcolm crushes her with logic - "Annabeth has only shown interest in men. She might be bi or pan or even a lesbian, but the odds aren't on your favor" - and she tries to put the blonde out of her mind.

Lunch, however, is a little ridiculous for her. As a daughter of love herself, that table is such a mess of yearning and pining and infatuations.

Malcolm seems to be the only rational - but even he is a little flushed. Piper totally saw that picture of Mitchell in his drawer last week.

She couldn't blame him really - her brother is hot. All demigods are - in very different ways of course, but their godly blood made them more or less otherworldly compared to mortals. Didn't matter their ethnicity, their gender, if they're disabled or not - they are all hot.

Piper, however, doesn't spend all her time freaking over hot people. She is a teenager with a friend who has a good connection to the internet, so she does that a lot - but most of her time these days is looking at Katoptris.

She's waiting for a vision of Perseus. Anything - just proof that he is alive, that he hasn't curled in a ball on whatever is the ground down there and went mad.

It doesn't come. She is looking at this ridiculous lunch table, eating vegetarian burgers, and waiting. Just as it seems like her dagger starts glowing gold - two monkey twins sweep down and steal it. And Leo's tool belt and Archimedes' Sphere.

Piper is really pissed. She wants this mission to end - she wants to find Perseus and stop Gaea, and that's her magical item. It's important. So she and Leo go after the twin monkeys.

Using one of the armory's javelin - for lack of a better option - they sprint over roofs and marketplaces. Bologna is a beautiful city - but they have no time.

They corner the twin monkeys, get their things back - and some things pertaining to a god of harvest - Triptolemus. Perhaps if they make an offer to him, Demeter and Persephone will be more cooperative. Maybe Persephone will be able to calm her husband.

Piper really doubts it. If she learned anything in the nineteen days she traveled with Perseus, is that he calls Persephone "Kore" or "Mater". The only other person he refers to with such open childish joy is his own mother, Sally.

The guy IMed both of them twice a week - enough that Piper knows their voices. While Hades isn't high in the demigod's list of people, his wife seemed to be at least number #2.

But they go back to the ship and relay their plan anyway. They set route to Venice. In the hour that it takes them to get there, they're delayed twice: once by the personification of River Ádige - which enabled them to pass until Jason helped with a small problem - and then by a couple of ventis - which Hazel sent off.

Frank, Annabeth, Hazel and Nico venture into the drowned city - Piper declines to go, saying that she is waiting for Katoptris to cooperate - being Nico the only one who actually speaks Italian in the ship.

The city is infested with anteater-like herbivorous monsters called katoplebones, which are pointedly not from the Greek pantheon. It's pretty rare for monsters to cross pantheons - and the Egyptians are pretty good in keeping them under lock and key - but sometimes, this happens.

They aren't capacitated to deal with those. Annabeth has half a mind to call the Kanes and demand an explanation. Pretty sure they were possessed by the gods to avoid this kind of situation.

She doesn't have much time to think - Hazel is quickly overwhelmed by the poisonous breath of the cows. Of course - is there anything in Egypt that isn't connected to snakes?

They find Triptolemus - who is not thrilled with their presence. Demeter - his mistress - and her daughter are distraught by Perseus' missing status - and he blames Annabeth and Nico for it.

Annabeth tries to persuade him - after all, they have Jason on board, and he is blessed by Ceres. Triptolemus - a very greek god - is not swayed.

"Your trickster words shall not fool me, daughter of Athena."

That's how Annabeth became a rosemary bush - good for memory and brainpower. Nico, when he tried to fight back, became a corn crop.

Mars is whispering in Frank's mind - he is not really fond of his father but uses his help to kill the evil Egyptian cows and get a python for the god's chariot.

He can't let Hazel die. He can't see the light go off her eyes - to see the same pain reflected in Leo's eyes. But Frank is so using Nico's stunt as a corn plant as blackmail material later. Not with Annabeth thought - she would stab him.

Triptolemus, pleased, turns Nico and Annabeth back to human and heals Hazel. Then, he tells them they have to eat barley cakes - so they can survive the poison needed to enter the house of the dead.

Proceeding south down the Adriatic toward Greece, a journey that should take about half a day, the crew of the Argo II is first accosted in Koper - a city on the coast of Slovenia - by four monocerus in the middle of the night.

Monocerus, in Leo's very succinct explanation, are "evil unicorns with big feet that can't fly and shouldn't be in a flying ship".

Whoever, the monsters apparently don't care where they should or not be - and Annabeth - still reeling for her time as rosemary - takes two of them out, keeping the horns as a prize. Nico takes one, who is so beat that leaves nothing, and Malcolm kills one with a handgun.

It's not the most practical weapon, because celestial bronze is not that easy to fabricate/find/obtain - so to use it in bullets that will explode and render it unusable it's kind of a desperate - but it's the first thing he could get - Malcolm's double tessen was being repaired by Leo.

Because yes - not only was the twenty years old able to fight with normal blades, he also fights with freaking fans made of iron.

After the run-in with the evil unicorns - Annabeth looks really cool covered in gold blood and curved silver horns in her hands - they proceed across Croatia.

It goes well for about thirty minutes - in Zadar, they cross paths with Sciron. Sciron is a bandit and outlaw, who - for some reason, is assisted by a giant predatory sea turtle.

While Hazel tricks him into throwing himself off the cliff using her new-discovered Mist, Jason talks to the turtle. It says its name is Chelone - that it's the turtle who took Aphrodite Ourania from the depths of the sea to the shores of Cythera - when she was still young, with remains of other goddesses in her anima - Innana and Ishtar.

He convinces the turtle to stop killing people - mainly by saying that he should hunt elsewhere, deeper onto the sea. It may become a problem for his father, but Jason has bigger issues right now.

They go to sleep, and Hazel dreams. She expects any god to come - but who comes to her is none other than Pluto and his wife, Proserpina.

Proserpina is shrouded in black, and her eyes are not green - but yellowish, like dead leaves. She talks - and tells Hazel that the Doors of Death are in the bottom of the Necromanteion - her powers over metal energy would guide her - and will be guarded by Pasiphae, vengeful of Pluto - and, by default, Perseus - for the lack of punishment for Minos.

Her husband is a silent presence by her side. He is not in mourning... probably. It's difficult to tell, as he is always in black. But his eyes hold a weight easy for Hazel to understand - he just lost a son to the abyss. No matter that Perseus might be alive - he wouldn't get back whole and safe.

Proserpina ends her dream by telling her to wake up Piper - the goddess is putting all her strength to send a vision of Perseus to Katoptris - they need one much more than her, seeing that they are able to interfere.

What Piper sees don't tell them a lot - Perseus seems mostly okay, with some sort of companion that Nico says it might be Iapetus, a brand new scar over his face and a bad limp.

It's the last they'll see of him until their eventual meeting face to face, but it gives them hope.

Annabeth herself has a dream - a dream that the Romans give the statue to the greeks. She sends an iris message to Rachel - so she can meet personally with Reyna.

Reyna, on the other side of the world, mounts her pegasus, Scipio, and leaves. Not only her co-praetor is in freaking Tartarus, but they are on the verge of two simultaneous wars. They need peace.

As soon as she is out of the roman range, however, she sends an iris message to Jason - telling him to go to their hero's place of rest - she had a vision from Mars. That she will meet them in Greece. Jason tells Leo to set course for Split, in Croatia. There's a roman scepter there.

Of all of them, the most capacitated for this mission are Frank and Jason, who are both educated Romans, and Nico, who can fly - a very good power to have in unstable ruins.

They're confronted by Favonious, who takes them to his master, Cupid, in Dalmatia. Nothing good can come of talking to the personification of love - such an old concept that the god has been reborn twice.

"Well, well, well"

"What do we have here?"

Jason falls onto the ground - "You think you found true love, haven't you? But alas, I was where you last expected me" - and he hates love, for that single moment.

"I shall give you what you want, Romans, if each of you is able to tell me - who do you love the most?"

Nico trembles - guilt is a difficult pill to swallow - and Frank visibly wants to bolt out of there.

"Oh, are you afraid? But there's no hiding in the face of true love"

Jason - always the brave one - gives a look at Frank. His friend never met the greeks. He might hate Jason after this.

But they need this scepter.

"Perseus Jackson"

Two heads whips in his direction - one unbelievingly, and the other distressed.

"Ah, love crafted in dreams - the perfect mix between me and my wife. Tell me, Jason Grace, was it bad when he looked upon you and saw naught but a myth?"

A laugh creeps upon Jason's spine, and he turns around. His blade hits something hard, and he is on the floor again.

"Such luck, to be able to even graze love. Perhaps yours is the purest of all - not yet tainted by failures and mistakes. On that note, why don't you go next, Nico di Angelo?"

Nico shivers - he... they have no time for that. That is unnecessary drama - to cause unnecessary problems.

A memory rushes to the front of Jason's mind - that quick chat with Reyna in Nova Roma. "The blond girl, Di Angelo"

Nico loves Perseus. It rushes to Jason now - the way that the younger boy stared adoringly at the son of Hades. The drunkness of his lovesick gaze. The despair when Perseus fell.

"Tell them Nico di Angelo" Cupid prompts "Tell them all about your guilt, your mistakes, the way you let him down, again and again, and again."

Nico floats a little off the ground. It's years of pain and sorrow that won't bring Perseus back.

"Will you fly off yet again, in the face of rivalry? Will you be my next servant - just like Favonious, consumed by jealousy, Nico di Angelo?"

Jason sees the memories. Nico screaming at Perseus. Grover reluctantly telling him about their adventures. The way he betrayed Percy - and a dozen more scenes he never saw from Nico's perspective, only Percy's, that made him unable to speak.

"It's okay Nico... I.... I get it."

It's painful to utter these words - it's almost like he is giving up Perseus. But they have a war to get through - and then, when the other demigod is back, they can figure this out.

"P-Perseus Jackson"

And then it's Frank's turn. But Frank is as pale as a ghost - he seems to be close to vomiting.

"It's a costly thing isn't it, looking at the true face of love. Now it's the turn of the brave son of Mars. Will you tell your friends easily, or shall you be a coward like the son of Zeus?"

Frank doesn't talk. Jason doesn't understand why - it's Hazel, isn't it? Is it because of Nico? He mentions talking to the son of Zeus, but Di Angelo doesn't look at him - the Cupid knew very well how to play his game.

"Come on. Tell them - tell them of whom you think before you sleep and who dominates your first thoughts every morning."

"You don't scare me"

"Oh, I scare you very, very much. Face me. Be honest."

"H-Hazel. Levesque."

"That's just half my question, little half-blood. If you want to lead the roman legions, you must answer it fully."

"I love H-Hazel. She is the one I think before I sleep and when I wake up."

"Still hiding. You're not strong enough, Frank Zhang."

Frank tries to charge at the wind, but it just mocks him. It's weird seeing Frank crying - it looks like the world is crumbling at his feet.

Jason, yet again, doesn't understand. Nico is also confused - he looks between the Romans as if he never saw any of them before. But then it dawns on the son of Zeus.

"Not only my sister. That's why you keep gazing at them, isn't it?"

All the fighting and denial leave Frank at once. His sword clangs in the ground.

"I love both Hazel and Leo. Together." He spits out, still trembling. "That's the truth. Are you happy now?"

"I wouldn't say Love always makes you happy. It can make you incredibly sad, sometimes. But you have faced it now. It's the only true way to conquer me."

Cupid appears - in a flash of white wings. It might be the god Jason hates the most - his eyes seem to penetrate his very soul. There's a scepter in his hand.

"Only a true child of Mars Ultor can yield it. It's your destiny, Frank Zhang."

Then he promptly disappears. The demigods look at each other - there's a flurry of emotions deep inside their chests. Frank looked at both of them, waiting for an attack, or for them to start fighting.

"No one has to know" He starts "I'm s-so-..."

He doesn't end. There are copious tears rolling through his face - his cheeks are a deep shade of red. A sob escapes his throat.

"P-please, p-pleased-don't t-te-tell anyone." Frank sobs, and it's such a jarring sight that both Nico and Jason rally to reassure him, leaving their own issues aside.

"There's nothing wrong with loving two people at once. No one will have a problem with it, Frank - fuck, this isn't Nova Roma. Most of us are greek."

"Hazel would hate me though. This is unnatural- I- I can't."

"You don't know that. Hazel loves you, Frank"

But the son of Mars just keeps crying until they both promise not to tell another soul what they saw. It's enough for the weird atmosphere to return.

Midway in the trek back to the ship - a six-hour walk - Nico is too riled up to safely fly with two people and none of them being too fond of air right now - Frank summons enough power to ask the question.

"So... uh... hm... Perseus?... like, uh, I can see the appeal-... but... both?... forget I asked, just....uh oh, sorry."

Jason and Nico pointedly avoid looking at each other. It's very bizarre - Jason knows a lot about Perseus, but now he knows Perseus also from Nico's perspective - and this is all messy.

They go back to the ship, relay to Annabeth that they got the scepter, and immediately go back to their cabins - to cry, to scream, to think.

It's been a day and a half - and they're still eleven hours off Epirus. Leo is pissed - because not only their three heavy-hitters are pissed at something and won't communicate, and they're of course.

Emerging from the infirmary for something other than to eat and mend people is finally Will - at least. He takes patrol in place of Nico - the boy quietly mumbled at his friend that they had a run-in with Cupid. Will can imagine how that went.

He doesn't have a clue about Frank - but Jason and Nico? They have the same long-lasting crush on Perseus - everyone on board knows that. Except, apparently, for each other. And Perseus - because his mentor/kind of brother/bother figure is a dumbass.

When they're passing through the coast of Albany, they're attacked by Khione - who is still very pissed her ex-lover's son doesn't want to spend eternity frozen with her. Leo ends up being sent away - for the distress of both Hazel and Frank and the anger of his best friends, Piper and Jason.

Piper ends up stabbing Khione - while Frank transforms into the giant dragon and burns her - making her unable to freeze them. Eventually, she runs away.

Leo, however, wakes up on an island. There's a sad girl at his side - she is using a modern blue dress, and there's a crown of black flowers upon her head.

"You were not the one I was expecting."

The son of Hephaestus wants to scream. Well, he didn't want to be whatever here is either! But her face is so sad - her gaze down to her bare feet. She seemed to be crying. He settles for asking who is her.

"I... I am sorry. My name is Calypso. This is Ogygia."

It startles him. Mainly because he has heard this name before around camp - wasn't she supposed to be freed?

"What happened to you?"

The immortal girl relays her tale - how she got freed for a year, and then the war started. The gods - Zeus - didn't trust her not to turn against them. So they locked her up - she was not the only one. Leto, Themis, Rhea - good titans or their offspring. Locked away.

She, after a year of freedom that Perseus got her, was back into her old shackles. Calypso is waiting for him for months now - but she thinks he forgot her.

So Leo tells her what happened - the bits he knows anyway. Juno/Hera, Nova Roma, the mission. Calypso seems calmer. They stay together for a while - friends it seems.

Calypso tells him about her year - about how she wanted to explore the world. She tells him she wanted to join Artemis' hunt - but, courtesy of Odysseys, she is no maiden.

He tells her about Hazel and Frank, Perseus, and the love hexagons he doesn't even know he is in - omitting the part that he is now in Tartarus. They talk about Festus - Calypso tells him about how his father is good to hear - how he came to visit, sometimes.

A week passes, maybe a week and a half. Leo vows to take Calypso off the island once the war ends, and she believes - once, a hero as brave as Leo made her the same promise, and stuck with it through the end.

In Cancun, Africa, Jason and Nico are having daily audiences with Auster, the Roman god of the south wind, in connection with the Seven being able to proceed on their way to Epirus - seeing that their ship is all broken and they have no Leo.

Auster is indolent and seems increasingly disinclined to cooperate with Jason and Nico: he dislikes the son of Zeus, and the wind never had a good relationship with the sea. Annabeth also tries her hand at it - but it's rebuffed at every turn. Piper is prohibited from entering the palace because of her magic voice.

Jason and Nico - even though they aren't speaking to each other - have for a long time admitted they don't fit completely at either camp. Jason is still too militar for CHB. Nico is too old for CHB. Both are too free with their personal lives for Nova Roma.

Auster agrees to meet with them and tells them to commit to one side - greek or roman. They deny it - they're both. The gods are both, they have been thrust in a war of both sides, they commune with gods on both aspects and they ask them to run errands for both pantheons. They have the right to be both.

Auster is not happy with this - mainly because he believes they should keep the sides separated. But it's the first time Nico and Jason agree on something - and they fight together for it. No god has the right to define those petty things when the demigods are fighting their war.

Auster merges with his greek counterpart Notus - an amalgamation of both his carefree and his militar side - and sends The Seven on their way when coerced by the threat of a hurricane and a typhoon.

He sends them to Valletta, Malta, where they find the Argo II fully repaired and in the harbor. In the port, on a small cafe, there's Leo - sitting and raging internally against the gods, who once again, fucked up something.

They trade stories, and Leo just rages more. He isn't sure how Perseus didn't ally himself with Kronos in the first war if that was the bullshit he had to deal with every day.

First Khione, then Zeus locking Calypso up, then this Notus guy - they are a week and a half late. Is Perseus still alive after nineteen days in the Pit? Is he sane? Did he tried to get out - and they weren't there?

It's with a shocking gasp from Annabeth that they realize that Perseus's birthday is in three days. They have been traveling together for thirty-seven days now - and they have to get Perseus out of Tartarus before the 18th, at least. Is the minimum.

It takes them a day to get to Epirus. There are enough monsters in their way to start a menagerie - Gaea is actively trying to stall them, so there must be a reason. Perseus might be alive.

Arriving at the Necromanteion, which they learn is just a very fancy name for catacombs, Hazel, Frank, Leo, Annabeth, Will, and Piper descend into the ruins, leaving Nico and Jason - who are both completely useless under the earth - behind with Malcolm - who, since Arachne, is pretty much claustrophobic.

They eat the barley cakes to protect themselves against the toxic potion they must drink in order to enter the temple. It's difficult to swallow poison - it burns as it goes down.

The mist tries to confuse them at every turn - Hazel diverts it. Her power over metal energy guides them - she can feel the basis of the building, way down where they are.

Katoptris burns in Piper's hand. It shows her Perseus' face - he looks cadaveric, shrouded in death. Sometimes he flickers, like a ghost - but he is alive, and heading to the Doors just like they are.

It's enough to spur them forward. Perseus is doing the same journey - from a much difficult side. They will meet in the middle.

Earthquakes strike the caverns, making part of the floor collapse. In a side, Piper and Will, surrounded by monsters in all sides. In the other, Frank, Leo, Hazel and Annabeth. The son of Mars doesn't think twice - the scepter.

He uses the Scepter of Diocletian to summon ghostly Roman soldiers, and as a Legatus Legionis, he does have the power to command all of them. It would be more controlled if he was Praetor, but the actual Praetor is Perseus, and so, in his absence, Frank will have to do.

The tunnel collapses. Hazel. Leo. They might be dead - but Frank can't panic right now. They are alive. They will protect each other, they have Annabeth Chase with them. Hazel controls the mist - everything will be just fine.

Anger grew in his chest. Those are his friends, his... his loved ones. This freaking ruin don't get to kill them before Frank summons enough courage to submit himself to the ridiculousness of telling them.

Hazel wants to cry - they left Frank behind. He might be dead - they might be all dead. Leo isn't much better. For all that Zhang seems to hate him, his infatuation with the Canadian never disappeared.

Annabeth however, is practical. She tells them Frank will be fine - the guy can transform into a dragon. Or a chimera. Probably a poisonous one, after the stunt in Venice. He has an army - it's okay.

Pasiphae is a bitch. Leo hates the woman - she reminds him of Aunt Rosa. Or Juno. Or Lady Muddy herself. He and Annabeth let Hazel do the majority of the talking - but both of them bristle as the Doors shake.

An unauthorized presence. Perseus actually did it - they have twelve minutes, in accord to Annabeth - who Leo knows better than to doubt - to open the Doors. Or he is dead, lost forever.

"It's a pity Gaea needs a son of the Earth and a daughter of the Sea... But none of you are children of the Underworld or the ocean, are you? Not even the acolyte of Trivia."

Everything indicates that she'll open the door herself - but Annabeth can't risk she whisking Perseus away to Gaea before they can reach him. So she sneaks past with her cap while they fight.

Pasiphae goes down to Hazel's illusions. Annabeth opens the Doors, before cutting the chains as Hazel and Leo distract Clytius. Perseus stumbles out, a giant tiger in his heels.

Leo didn't think he would ever see a harsher picture. The tall boy was still muscular - but gaunt as if he hadn't eaten since the fall. There were scars everywhere.

He couldn't look more - Clytius is threatening Perseus, but both Annabeth and the tiger stay in his way. Trivia appears - but they aren't truly winning until Piper, Will, and Frank are able to reach them through Hazel's magic.

Will goes immediately to Perseus' side - there's panic in his eyes. Leo can't see much this far - he hopes the son of Hades isn't dead. Piper and Frank fight alongside them. Annabeth is still hovering protectively over her best friend's prone body.

There's not much need for help - between Hazel and Trivia, the bulk of Clytius powers are unusable. The shared power of Piper (love is never where you expect it), Frank (and his undead soldiers), a very angry Annabeth, and Leo is just overkill.

They win. Will is feeding Perseus ambrosia - there's something really wrong because there are tear tracks in the blonde's face. Leo comes closer - their friends follow.

Perseus is destroyed. He looks like he has been through hell - there's a scar crossing his face and his eyes are sunken in. But that's not where it stops.

Leo's gaze goes down, to the ragged clothes that are barely recognizable - the sweatpants he was convinced to wear to go underground, the once-green sweater - and sees what is missing.

Where Perseus' leg once was, there's a metal one. The boy is curled in the fetal position - his metal leg sticks out like a sore thumb, and it looks like he might cry if he wasn't so dehydrated. The tiger nudges its head against the boy's leg and growls at them, but it doesn't attack.

"I... I can't touch him. I touched him and he started panicking... I... We have to take him back to the ship. He is stable, but..."

Frank picks up Perseus in a bride-carry - a month ago, he wouldn't be able to do it. But now, he is stronger - and Perseus must weight ninety pounds wet.

The tiger follows - when they cross to the daylight, they can see it's not a normal tiger. Annabeth - with a distraught look in her face - tells them it's a skeleton tiger. Probably a saber-tooth.

They go back on board - Piper goes up to call Nico, so he can fly Perseus into the ship. He does, but the expression in his face is so crushing Leo almost wishes they had delayed it by destroying property and landing the ship on the street.

The mood of the ship is yet again somber. No one wants to leave the infirmary - but Will forces them to rotate, so as to not overwhelm Perseus. Hypocrite - he is living in there.

Leo, Malcolm, and Piper - the least close to Percy, even though they are friends - let the others take the bulk of the shifts. Annabeth, Nico, and Jason almost get into blows about it - she wins on the fact that she knows Perseus longer.

It's difficult to IM both Rachel - who is a minute away from depression since he fell - and Lady Persephone. It's even harder to tell Sally - they leave the task to Annabeth.

They harbor for two days, waiting for Reyna. She appears from the sky during dinnertime - her horse has to be euthanized almost immediately after a run with the spirit mountains.

They talk - and end up deciding that she will take the statue back to Camp with Malcolm, the most resourceful out of them. Percy would be the logical solution - taking him out of Gaea's reach - but the son of Hades would probably be unable to shadow travel so soon.

While this happens, the others will set course to Athens - to stop Gaea and destroy the Giants. For now, they eat.

Midway through their meal, Will comes into the board - everyone knows what it means. Perseus is awake - on his birthday to boot. They take their food to the infirmary - to see the boy looking at the ceiling.

He gives them a faint smile, but no one misses the way he curls into himself any time there's someone a little too close. Perseus relays his tale - it's heavily edited, Annabeth can tell.

But he tells them about the leg - but not how he lost it - about the tiger - the name is Small Bob, but he doesn't talk about Bob - and about the firewater - but not how he got the injuries.

Small Bob never leaves Perseus's side. The demigod insists that he wants to go outside - he ate enough ambrosia and drank enough nectar that even some of his scars are gone. Not the one in his face though. Will let him go - but Annabeth thinks that he just asked out of courtesy.

He doesn't have green eyes anymore - they darkened to a point they can't distinguish his pupil. They observe as he sits calmly in the deck, metal leg sticking out, and strokes the head of the tiger, who is acting more or less like a giant house cat.

None of them miss the tracks of tears across his face, or the look he gives the night sky - it's bittersweet.

"Bob says hello"

#percy jackson #jason grace #pjo #nico di angelo #au #heroes of olympus #percy jackson son of hades #nico di angelo son of zeus #nicercy #jercy #annabeth chase #will solace #malcolm pace #leo valdez #frazeleo #frank zhang #hazel levesque #piper mclean #trans piper mclean #poc percy jackson #jason grace son of neptune #bi jason grace #reyna avila ramirez arellano #cupid scene #argo ii #calypso #tartarus #gods #percy jackson and the olympians #bob

[catmetchu]

Bots/Cons discover their charge is a Puella Magi (Part 1/4)

You are partners with Miko and got introduced to the bots together. Both of you sometimes use your magic to fight cons but only when you won’t blow your covers.

Listen to this while reading

Optimus:

He noticed the mysterious beams/lasers/bullets/swords etc. that aided them during battle early on, and figured out your secret before you knew it.

So, one day, he asked you two in secret about your special powers and you had to spill the beans. He advised you to not use your power to fight Decepticons, but instead to save it up for witches. He also managed to persuade you into telling the rest of the team about it, as he was afraid of your safety.

Everyone was slightly concerned about your lives as Puella Magi, but Ratchet wouldn’t stop loudly voicing his complaints about illegal contracts with children who can’t consent…

Optimus never stopped you and Miko from fighting witches but he asked you to always inform the base beforehand. He also asked anyone to help you two, when they’re off duty.

When the witchs' origins were revealed, Optimus was visibly upset, but he was more sad, than angry at the Incubators. He began comforting you and spending the little time her had with you, after learning that Magical Girls don’t live past their teenage years. He also took it upon himself to hunt witches sometimes and always had grief seeds in his subspace. (He asked everyone to store some as well)

You felt bad for putting this burden on Optimus, with all the other responsibilities he had to carry you couldn’t accept his concerns and grief seeds without feeling guilty. You have always seen him as a father figure and a hero, which was who you wished to become, but you soon realized how delusional you were, thinking that being a hero was so easy.

Optimus soon noticed you avoiding him and fighting witches all on your own, and giving all the grief seeds to Miko.

You tried sacrificing yourself to make up for your mistakes.

Your grief seed hatched when you asked Optimus to drive you to a forest to relax a little. You knew your end was near and you can’t bare to let him see your downfall, so you escaped into the forest and your witch was born.

You left him a note, saying: “I’m sorry for making myself a nuisance to you and that I couldn’t make you proud. I would have already turned into a witch as you’re reading this. I’m sorry.”

Ratchet:

Ratchet found out about your identies when Miko was so badly wounded during battle with a witch, that you had to call him for help.

When you told him about your secret he was PISSED! How could you subject yourself to such danger! And Kyubey is getting a wrench to the skull when he sees them!

He immediately called the base and informed everyone despite you pleading him not to.

He is absolutely against you fighting witches. The first few times he even went after your cellphone signals, but he always ended up losing you after you crossed the witch’s barrier. It took Optimus himself to convince Ratchet to let you go.

He would force you and Miko to spar with team members, commissioning training dummies from Wheeljack for you to sharpen your skills. However he would not let you on the battlefield, despite Miko’s complaints.

When everyone learned of the truth of witches. He completely flipped out, cursing out the incubators. He even broke one of his own tools out of rage. You attempted to calm him down, saying that being a magical girl isn’t all that bad, given that you have saved plenty of people.

“You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villian”, he had said to you, almost like he had someone in mind.

When Bulkhead's processor was overridden by data logs, you saw first hand how Miko’s soul gem darkened rapidly. Her resentment towards the Decepticons made her use up all her magic in a battle that followed. She turned into a witch before she could see Bulkhead recover.

After learning about what happened to Miko, you developed intense hate towards the enemy. You swore you would avenge your friend and partner.

Your intentions were no longer to fight witches, but to kill every Decepticon you crossed paths with. Ratchet noticed the shift in attitude in you and confronted you, which lead to you lashing out at him. You called him weak and a bad friend for not doing everything in his power to fix Bumblebee's voicebox, while you are fighting to avenge your friend.

Your grief seed hatched, when the realization dawned upon you, that you have just hurt your best friend. Your thirst for revenge ended up corrupting your moral believes. You pushed away those who cared until it was too late…

Your witch was born inside your very own bedroom, as you whisper your last words: “I lived long enough to see myself become a villian…”

Bulkhead:

He discovered the identity of both you and Miko, when she didn’t answer his calls past the time of her detention. You two always use detention as a cover up to fight witches.

This time you were both heavily wounded and barely made it out the labyrinth alive, when he found you two exiting the witch's portal in your magical girl attires.

After some explanation he was a little upset that you didn’t tell him, but also mad at himself for brushing off the weird things you two would do sometimes. Like, finding excuses last minute to not go to the base, or the weird beams/lasers/bullets/swords etc. he would see being shot at cons, on the battlefield. If he had noticed and helped fighting these monsters, maybe you two wouldn’t have nearly died.

He agreed to keep your secret from the rest of the team, but made you promise to always inform him when you need to hunt witches so that he can have your back.

When time allowed it, he would fight witches alongside you.

When the secret of witches was revealed he had sworn to punch Kyubey with his wrecking ball if they ever crossed paths. He understands that entropy must be stopped but he only wishes there were better solutions then to sacrifice innocent lives.

Knowing both you and Miko’s lives were significantly shortened as a result, he spends any time he has with you and Miko, watching TV, playing games, playing music.

He also made sure to hunt extra witches to supply you with grief seeds.

Throughout this time he hasn’t told anyone of your identity. But the truth got revealed when Miko died in a battle with a witch and the team was informed of your secret identies.

Everyone was upset that you didn’t tell them, especially Ratchet and Arcee, having lost two partners, she was especially upset. But Bulkhead defended you saying that Kyubey tricked you two into contracts and you kept the team in the dark to protect them.

Your grief seed hatched during a mission when Breakdown teased Bulkhead about the absence of Miko, and you attacked him out of rage. With all the blame you took for Miko’s death, your soul gem darkened rapidly. Bulkhead noticed this and called in back up.

The bots tried to pry you away from Breakdown but you fought them off. After realizing that you have hurt your friends, and murdered someone who wasn’t a witch, guilt pushed your soul gem over the edge.

Your last words before the Bots escaped were: “I’m sorry I killed someone again.”

Smokescreen:

When Smokescreen came to earth, your secret was already known to the Autobots. However, unlike everyone else from the team, he was ecstatic! He immediately overwhelmed you with questions: Why did you become Magical Girls? Can you really wish for anything? Can I become a Puella Magi?

The mission of Magical Girls, for Smokescreen, was the equivalent of a dream come true. Maybe not quite the life of a hero he had dreamt of, but saving innocent people from evil witches was close enough.

He would beg you to let him join you in battling witches. You two weren’t so sure at first, but you did accept his help in the end, since you don’t have to share grief seeds with him. And his superior firepower aided you both greatly in fighting witches.

Killing witches together became valuable bonding time between you and him. Miko would tease you about being more than just friends with him. You find yourself finding much enjoyment in hunting witches when he was around, and would put effort into impressing Smokescreen with your fighting skills, performing stunts etc.

When the truth behind witches was revealed, immense guilt filled your soul and you felt resentment towards witch hunting, and avoided the witches instead.

Smokescreen noticed your shift in attitude, so he tried to convince you to keep fighting by reminding you that you’re doing this for the greater good, that you are a hero.

“Maybe there is a way we can help those witches, and solve the problem in a peaceful way instead! Maybe then they’ll drop a soulgem instead of a griefseed or something.”, he had said. Those words filled your heart with warmth and you were willing to try. And you and him will succeed!

You told Miko of your plan. She was skeptical but complied with you anyway. If it didn’t work you can always just kill the witch.

The next time you found a witch you tried talking to her, dodging her attacks than trying to fight her. But it didn’t seem to take effect on her, but you had faith in saving her poor soul. You kept trying and trying, and your soulgems kept darkening and darkening. But you kept pushing.

Until you saw Miko’s death before your eyes. Smokescreen was quick to kill the witch before it could get to you.

Only for another witch to be born in the exact spot. Your griefseed hatching right after your last words: “I just wanted to make things right.”

#transformers #transformers prime #tfp #transformers scenarios #transformers crossover #pmmm spoilers #pmmm au #puella magi madoka magica #madoka magika #tfp optimus prime #tfp ratchet #tfp bulkhead #tfp smokescreen

[inviouswriting]

Benvenuto all'inferno - Darkwardens AU

Going off of @maiden-born-in-snow ‘s oneshot she did where Thancred slays Shuri.

Some warnings - Death. There is death. Of a favorite, mentions of Divinity’s past, Kivera’s, and Shuri’s death following her oneshot she did. I know Thancred might be ooc. This is an AU. No smut in here.

But here we are.

Title is “Welcome to Hell.”

“We can’t feel mama anymore.” Divinity’s demeanor changes immensely, she knew it, she felt it. She is as linked to Shuri as Kivera was. All she could do was collect the children as they went to her to grieve. The moments that follow the death felt, were a calm before a storm. That storm that was about to hit, was Kivera. Divinity knows she felt her death, and from the eerie calmness she felt through her link. The only thing she could hope for, was a swift merciful death upon Shuri’s murderer.

However, she knows her leader won’t be that forgiving to grant such a thing.

Divinity felt two approach her, and she didn’t need to turn her head at the hoof falls of Chiron. Or the timid steps that belonged to Parn.

“We should take them into Paradise. They’ll be safer through the gates, they won’t have to feel or see a world burn from Purgatory.” Chiron says to Divinity who nods, she had forfeited her sight to resume her own role as a star spirit. She knew better, not with what she feels, that intense sadness that returned through the link she shares with Kivera. They had a bit of time before her heart is thrown into chaos.

Parn helps guide the group from the Sanctuary into Paradise. He was a small boy, well pass four hundred years but retained a small body per his death and role as Capricorn’s spirit. He had a deep connection to Kivera before she passed on her name to Kiya. He was the second being to show the reaper kindness following her death and guided her to Chiron after she stumbled onto the very shores of Purgatory.

Parn could tell Kivera is restraining her emotions, her domain linked with her power. She was holding off till Shuri’s children were secure and safe. The last thing the angel wanted was to scare them worse than losing their mother. She needed to be a face they could still trust after what she was about to do. What she will do.

Kivera in question had fallen to her knees just outside of the Malikah’s Well. She had just left to go in search of aether for Anubis, she had only hunted powerful A and S rank monsters that provided enough for her. Finding they sustained her in the same manner that Kivera sought another’s essence. To her it was no different than if she devoured a soul, it was nature to her. That is where she and the Scion’s differentiated on morals. They want to protect the all from an unseen danger they don’t know. She on the other hand was protecting that very soul from giving into that nature that separated Shuri from becoming a full monster.

Yet here Kivera is, doubled over on her hands and knees, her soul ached in the same fashion she felt when she had lost Damien. Only this time, she can’t bargain to reverse time for Shuri. And she knew the consequences for that action.

Yet she knew Shuri was not meant to die by this fate. Her fate was something else, yet someone deemed it fit to murder her.

Kivera searches the air itself for something, the last thoughts, moments from Shuri. What she senses ends off her tongue.

“Thancred..” Kivera recalls the last hour to herself, using her own abilities to be able to seek to understand what happened. Before she made her choice, before she committed to being The Scion’s end. 

Instead she found the resolve to end them entirely. Devastate them enough to never step into her affairs ever again.

There was no justified reason to the death. Not one Kivera could find. The hand that pulled the trigger, was one of fear, the “what if.”

She waited.. just a little longer. She could sense those in her realm, her home, where she was getting ready to transport Shuri to, to keep her within Purgatory, to keep her safe, and able to see her children as a chance to stirr Shuri within. To break from Anubis, and maybe find a way to shake the unending darkness off her. The very light that she never wanted to see without parents. What any mother strives to protect is her children.

Kivera feels Divinity give her a ping, only to shut her out. The Libra spirit knew what she was about to do. She was in the state where she could destroy the realm. She didn’t want to let Shuri’s children feel her anger or dwell on the sorrow yet.

Once Kivera was certain that Shuri’s children, all souls and her zodiac spirits were out of her sanctuary. Was when she allowed herself to howl in pain. A scream that reaches the very ends of The First, a scream of pure anguish and agony as the sky falls to darkness itself. 

Thancred took time to look over Shuri’s fallen form, still stained black, but after her death she had regained her former self. Pristine white, looking like she had never been touched from the start. Only lifeless and blood pooled underneath.

“I’m sorry Shuri, this was the only way. We had just saved this world, only to have another threaten it. Right when we’re about to go home. We could never leave if we knew there was another fight waiting.” Thancred tried reasoning more with himself, to make what he did sound right.

It was in this moment he heard the scream, he ducks down on himself as it shakes the well, shakes the entire domain itself. 

“What... in the seven hells.” Thancred doesn’t finish that thought, instead he feels searing heat engulf him and throw him across the bottom of the well. He regains himself fast and pats out dark green flames that leech on him and he feels his very soul burning from their touch. 

When he regained himself he saw Kivera standing over Shuri’s form. Her attention fully on her fallen lover. Thancred notes there is a calm about the reaper. One he had noticed before when he first approached Holminster where she had previously hid Shuri before relocating her to Malikah’s Well, further away from the possibility of encountering humans.

Kivera kneels down to check over Shuri, as if seeing if there was a glimmer of life left in her. She knew there wasn’t, her soul had returned to the aether, she felt the cord sever from herself, and everyone she was soulbonded to.

“If you are at Acheron, please wait there for me. I will collect you for Paradise myself.” Her voice solemn and full of emotion. She refused to allow her to be buried in a world where her body would rot. Kivera under a gesture she could do to preserve her. She lets the pricks of permafrost ebb off her hands and encases her body in an ice crystal. She further sends this to her Sanctuary. To tend to her and let her children and Estinien say a proper farewell for The Source, just to the vessel, her soul she would find.

Kivera stands, only then did she even acknowledge Thancred. A pair of bright red eyes, different than their cat-like appearance, the whites of her eyes had stained black and she seemed to stand there waiting for something. Kivera was far too calm for someone who lost someone dear to her. He does note that there is fire that seems to swirl around her. Her energy giving off her rage. She wanted nothing more than to destroy the star they were on. She didn’t but it didn’t mean she would let the man or his band of scion’s continue their paths.

Thancred finally finds his resolve, getting up to his feet using his gunblade to steady himself.

“It had to be done. She could not go on living like that. You saw her for yourself. She was too far gone, her very aether was corrupted.” He uprights himself just as Kivera turns enough, he had her attention. She wanted to hear his excuse. Try to reason with what she truly knows.

“I am listening. Let’s hear you make light of murder.” She leans back folding her arms, yet at her feet the ground is scorched being eaten away.

“That was not Shuri.. I felt it, that she did not want to continue like that. She accepted it.”

“Interesting coming from the likes of you. A soul who has cheated and is cheating death once again. You guys spent months and years in this world trying to figure out how to change a calamity. To try and find a way back to your bodies.. yet you couldn’t give Shuri more time. For fear? Fear of her undoing all of you and yours precious heroism.” Kivera reaches out into the air and grasps something. This something attached to Thancred, she twists what she sees and brings him to his knees.

“You know as much as I do. There was no reason to kill her. She was not hurting anyone, she had enough process in herself to not go into the towns and hunt townsfolk. She knew she couldn’t. Even when she had ran out on her own for aether. She attacked an S mark instead of people. Thancred. She was still there! Yet for your own reasons you decided to kill her. Tell me, was this the action of the scion’s as a whole? or yourself?” Kivera’s tugging on the cord in her hand, she sends a stream of fire through it and into his chest. Connecting her to him, with Thancred understanding her being more clearly. 

Kivera peers into his soul and shows all his deeds before him. From the time when he was the cause of Minfilia’s parents, the time he had met Shuri for the first time, to her heartbreak realizing he was a player. The trickery he had shown, the time he was taken over by Lahabrea. Everything Kivera wanted to know she looked for it. It was like a picture book being flipped before her eyes. To the most recent of time where the truth of his kill on Shuri was out of fear, and on his own. Not the scion’s doing. They were not as stupid as he was. They knew the powerful being that Shuri had at her side.

They could sense her power, they would have kept her as an ally and let her take Shuri to her domain if it meant keeping all realms secure without a needless death. If anyone could have found a reason to reverse it would have been Kivera in her knowledge in her home world without the risk of Shuri being killed on her mind.

So here she was looking for any sort of justified reason that Thancred could have had. Yet she knew the truth of it. There was no reason other than the “what if” factor. What if she had lost her humanity, what if the public saw her, what if.

Those were the very factors that angered her more than Shuri’s death itself. Done on someone’s fears. She has seen deaths like that, the one that claimed Divinity’s life in the Salem trials. She had sat with Divinity on her stake pyre till she took her last breath and was the Libra spirit’s last sight before she asked to be allowed to see again.

“I’ll ask once more. Was this you, or your scion’s order. Your answer is highly important regarding their lives. I want to hear it straight from you so that I can present it to them after I’ve tossed them your head. If this was their order. I will hunt each and every single one of them down. There will not be a “scion’s”  by the time I am done. That whatever little agenda you all have going, ends.” Kivera tugs the cord for an answer.

“Mine! It was only mine..” There was no use lying to her when she could see the answer for herself. He barely understood her being, and that was done on purpose.

“You had no right to claim her life. Your scion members would have said to focus on the empire, your next bigger threat than worrying over Shuri when she posed you no threat. She could have broke out at anytime and lain waste to so much here. Yet she didn’t. Nor do you care to know, all you wanted was to prove some self righteous reason that it had to be “you” to put her out of her misery.” Kivera shared the feeling Shuri had, her true desire was that of anyone who had gone months without seeing their loved ones. Loneliness, self fear of whether or not she would come out of it or lose herself further.

“She did not want to die, she had lamented to me. She wanted to go home, she wanted to see her children, Estinien, her family. I was trying to make that possible. I had made it clear to you what would happen if you came for her. That I would erase your entire existence. Now I rethink that. I think the world should know what sort of faith they’re putting into you and your kind. That you would hunt and kill someone innocent who never once stained their hands in blood except under your commands.” Thancred knew her right, hell she is death. Of course she was right. He knew she did not pose threat to them as of now, if there was something they could have sent the next warrior of light, but he had seen the aftermath of the former warriors sent. Each of them had been dropped at his feet by the angel that stands before him now. She had been generous to return each of his failures for him to bury. She did not kill all of them, some she returned broken or the ones she made see her reason left with scorning Thancred’s ideas.

Thancred is without words, and he found the ground at Kivera’s feet, where he could focus instead of her face. He couldn’t focus on her eyes, their inhuman appearance unnerved him. Yet it seemed she was waiting for him to look away from her. 

The tension in the air shifts, and he sees her sweep a foot in a circle as if making a rune. When she places the sole of her foot on top of it the ground after that softens where he is, he felt himself sinking. He had seconds to react, the grace period was over. He forgot that she is an opportunist fighter. Him bowing her head away from her eyes enabled her to take an advantage. His unsteady on his feet was not what he needed to focus on. It was the blade swinging towards his neck.

Thancred had seconds to block it with his own, to be knocked back. Kivera is fast on her feet, he knows her to be fast. Estinien has shared stories of their sparring. She has only been beaten because she allowed him to win. Here he sees her round and aim again with the blunt end of her weapon towards his side. She connects with his arm and that was enough for her to engulf him in a burst of flames dark black and purple flames. 

He felt his very soul on fire as they race through his being scorching almost as if taking root within his very core. He would question her about it, but not with those eyes calculating his next move if he would falter down or try to launch his own attack. This was going to be a fight he knew he couldn’t win. Unless she felt merciful.

The flames around him seemed to leech his very life, like she was removing something. He readies his blade to fire at her, it then clicks at what she was doing when the power to use it fades. The aether within the gun was stolen out. All that the gun had now were useless bullets. Not like using them would have had an effect on a spirit.

Kivera kicks a foot to the ground, the ground underneath him cracks and he recoils jumping away from her. Moving hurt, his soul was in pain from her flames. He wondered if this is what each warrior felt before they were killed. Like all the weight of what they were doing was forced on their shoulders and burned them within and out.

“This must be why you sent all those warriors to me. You are no fun if you are succumbing so soon just to my miasma and hell flame.” Hellfire.  Thancred looks up.

His looking up was what she wanted, as he looks up she sends a fire bolt his way. He blocks it with his blade letting the embers scatter around him. Those embers engulf and spark off like hundreds of a little explosions. He begins to move running around to try and get an advantage or at least breathing room. Every part of him felt as if it was heavy. Like heavy had been casted on him. 

Kivera was hot on his heels intending to not let him gain a chance, they both exchange blows of their weapons. Kivera seeming to dance around his attacks, on his attacks. He threw off the gunblade after it seemed useless for the rogue knives he kept in back, as a last resort. He could still fight this way.

He felt a wave of cold as she shifts her elements, at his feet he slips on ice she engulfs the floor with. He remembers Shiva to stay still, yet the jump attack Kivera does sends him sliding backwards to a wall. He regains himself enough only to have the crescent of the blade slam towards his head at his neck. She was aiming to kill him, the fastest was beheading. He ducks under the blade by sheer luck looking at how deep she embeds it within the wall. Had he still been there he doesn’t escape the blade without a deep graze on his forehead. 

Kivera raises a foot back and kicks it towards him. He catches her foot with one of his daggers. There a burst of flames off her foot rains down on him. She pulls her scythe free, and turns it to slam it again, point towards the top of his head. Thancred rolls to the right to avoid it, feeling the ground cleave next to him where she strikes it. How her blade doesn’t even chip, he notes her shoes seem to be made with the same material as her scythe.

Thancred regains himself, and dashes away from her, she gives chase, this was a losing fight, he had to get away from her. Kivera sees him running through the long hallway that leads to the bottom of the Well. She summons a “door” in front of him, and he foolishly takes it thinking it was a way out. When he passes through it, he is dropped to the ground in front of her. She was waiting for him and hits him with the blunt end of her weapon knocking him through another door she summoned. 

Thancred feels like he is falling, spinning even, this was her doing. The door she knocked him through wasn’t a door, it was a mirror for a different dimension. One she commands alot of respect in. The feeling of falling ends with another hit from the weapon she carries, and he lands across from her at a shore. The water was on fire, and he notes a deafening roar of screams.

Kivera lets him gather himself and his bearings to take in the burning land he was on. In here, the guise she used in his world ebbs off in ashes from her. She retains the dark complexion yet appears more at home, her wings black and white instead of just black. Almost a symbolism that there was still good in her. If she chose it. The scythe she has even takes on a different appearance. Like it has a life of its own. Antares, he remembered the name of it.

“I don’t think you would give me an answer of where we are, would you?” Thancred feels the air thick with ashes, he faintly is aware of a “rain” but did not want to know the source of it.

“I think you should guess that answer. You remember where I am from. To humor you, you are in Hell itself. I brought you here, body and soul. As for your essence in Eorzea or The First, among your friends, scions. They felt your death in the same manner we felt Shuri’s. They know you as dead.” Kivera rests her blade under her feet standing on it like she can’t touch the ground herself. Or refuses to touch the ground she herself had crawled on to get out of the plane of existence.

“But you didn’t kill me yet.” He sees her grin, and put a hand to her face. He noted how her eyes had returned green briefly. She peers at him through her fingers, her right eye red again while a grin spreads.

“You don’t even realize it yet. I don’t know whether to laugh, or leave you in suspense.” He stares at her confused, what didn’t he realize. What did he miss. What did she do that ended his life.

He thinks of all her attacks, he didn’t feel any of them that would have ended his life. Kivera keeps herself suspended waiting almost for his realization.

“Perhaps, I should show you.” She summons a mirror in front of him, and he looks on into it. It was when she had grabbed the very soul cord he had. When she was getting him to look at all the things he did, the things Shuri felt. There in her hand she had burned it off. The connection between his soul and body. 

“Oh! It seems to click now doesn’t it? Yet I like to remind you. You are already a spirit! The reason you are even able to see me. Is because you have been on death’s door the whole time. I just took you as payment for the others.” Thancred looks on in realized horror, she had been kicking him around as a spirit this whole time, the reason his weapon didn’t fire, the way her flames were alot hotter when she used hellfire. She was burning his very spirit, marking him as a hellbound spirit.

“You should have left Anubis alone. I warned you. Did I not? Yet, you escaped back to The First, when you should have left these matters to me. Thought I wouldn’t notice a spirit walking through The First again? After Kiya had painstakingly helped bring you back to The Source. Risking her life. You owed alot to my successor too. Who do you think kept bargaining your lives?” Kivera looks at her nails in a manner of being bored.

“You may have doomed both stars! I thought you weren’t suppose to intervene in fate.” This earns a glare from her.

“You know, eventually you all will die some day. Every single act you do, just extends the time. What will happen with Zenos? That lunatic Fandaniel, parading around in Asahi’s body? It was suppose to have happened already. Your deaths. You were suppose to have died to Black Rose. Remember? Yet that idiot cat interfered with what was already in motion.” Kivera was getting bored of the monologuing, she finally sets her feet on the ground, here it didn’t matter if she used her full power. It would give the gods and goddesses of the lands some entertainment. The real Hades would already be looking, the one being she answers to next to Thanatos or her guarding deity in Pluto.

“You would have been content with the death of an entire star?” She looks at him as if it was the first time he has seen a reaper.

“Do you not get what I am? You recall Amaurot? I was there. Maybe you need an explanation of one of my titles. I am a doomsday reaper. What do you think that entails? I end worlds. The death and destruction of a star is a day job to me. All to increase the subjects Hades wants.” Kivera even shows her spot after Therion had descended as the third Doom. Her overlooking the star as it burned from the edge of the thermosphere.

Thancred takes a leap towards her, and she steps around him, he seems to slow in his fall, while she kicks him rounding it so the sole of her foot hit his abdomen. Sending him back across the field she had brought them to. Close to the burning river. He had almost fallen in, the heat on the shore enough to make anyone scramble away from it. Yet every surface was burning with the same dark purple flames that she had engulfed him in.

“I should leave you here. To wander lost, to wallow in your days, wondering what you had done, when you knew the catalyst that started this sentence in Hell. I had warned you from the very beginning. That if you sought to end Shuri’s life. I would plunge you into Tartarus myself. Next to that unforgiving time god himself. I’m making good on that promise. We’re only in Hell after all. Tartarus... is a bit further down!” Kivera finishes her words with using her scythe to hit Thancred across the field towards a pit. Where she had been aiming him to, he catches himself on the lip with her standing over him. 

With her feet on the ground she uses one of her elemental abilities to soften the ground at his hands into sand, watching him slip into the pit further. She jumps in after him, and with his fall, she hits him again till he lands at another ledge. Thancred hits into something, and looks to it. He is met with a face, a giant, he alone  was barely the size of his nose. Yet this being was of titanic porportions. An eye is open as it looks at him.

“Kivera, what is this?” The being speaks. Thancred sees her stroll up to this being as if this was normal for her. 

“You should be glad. I brought you a friend. You two can be miserable together. Kronos.” Her tone is cheerful.

“What do you want.” He cuts to the chase, wanting to know the reason she is there. She only bothers him to bargain.

“Come now.. I come with innocent intentions. Besides... I know from the last time of bargaining a life. I won’t repeat that mistake. I genuinely brought you a friend for eternity.”

“I don’t want him. What use have I of him?” Kronos eyes him, and Thancred worries as Kivera talks of bargaining lives. To realize she was keeping her word, she would leave him here. With this titan.

“Where do you suggest then? I brought him all this way! Surely you can’t be mean in refusing my gift. I’ll tell Hades.” Kivera feels Thancred trying to inch away and swiftly pins him with her scythe embedded in the ground in front of him.

“Do not move.” Her only warning.

“Fine. I’ll keep him. Suspend him next to me then.” Kivera smiles and does as she is instructed. Placing Thancred in a orb to leave him with the time god. Leaving him at eye level to him. 

“Kivera, why not just end me entirely?” Thancred wonders why she is leaving him like this. Kivera shows the reasoning behind her leaving Thancred to Kronos to the god. That he had broken a taboo, in taking a life he wasn’t suppose to claim. For she had claimed Shuri’s soul when she had soul-bonded with her.

The time god howls in laughter at this.

“You are asking her now? Why she is leaving you to an eternity with me? You pissed her off! This is light compared to what she usually does! What’s the matter? Not liking my company already? Well, we ought to get use to each other. She did gift you to me. You took the life of someone she loved. Be glad she didn’t retaliate in killing someone you treasured. She knows what each person despises deep in their souls. What is more boring than being left in a pit with an old god like me. She thought your punishment through. Thancred is it, an eternity is excruciating slow here.” A fate worse than death, is spending endless time in nothingness. Not dying, not withering away to rot. But spending a true eternity in idleness. 

“Welcome to Tartarus.” Slow realization that the only face Thancred would be able to look at, is Kronos. Only him to talk to, and he is powerless here, except as the key component in all time in the universe. Thancred has nothing to offer the god, and Kronos wants nothing he could give him anyway. A perfect punishment for one who has cheated death, is a deathless death. The surface already knows his death, they would only grieve him. 

Kivera returns to the surface, to inform the Scion’s of her doing. She looks at each of them with a warning of hers.

“Do not ever meddle in my affairs again. Or I will throw each and every single one of you where he is.” Kivera shows them all the needless death, how she was working on trying to save Shuri from her affliction. That she was about to move her to her realm. That was Kivera’s plan, Anubis would have endless aether in Purgatory. While Kivera could actively look for something without Thancred’s warriors hunting her down or killing her. 

Kivera glares over towards G’raha Tia.

“It was you, that enabled him to cross worlds wasn’t it?” He shrinks back.

“He begged me to do it. To send him there.” He did not lie to her, he could not lie to someone who can see the truth. She would pull it out of him in the same manner she did Thancred.

“He’s an idiot. And you are one as well. All of you. Your deeds do nothing but annoy me. I wonder how you all will fall from here without him. I’ll be watching from the shadows.” Kivera leaves them not entertaining them longer with her own pain. She had a more important role to do, a soul that needed her was in Acheron.

She leaves The Source the same way she entered, through a mirror. A conduit between dimensions for her. After she passes through it, she shatters it. The group looks between each other, they truly wonder how to press forward without Thancred. Kivera showed them the truth of what he had done, they couldn’t be upset with her. They were upset that she didn’t seek them out. Yet they were enemies because of Thancred sending people out to eliminate Shuri as a threat. 

His own undoing because he feared Shuri would have eventually harmed Ryne, or any of the people they fought so hard to save. 

The shores of Acheron was always in a dense fog, Kivera looks among the many hooded figures. She focuses for a specific shine to a soul, one she knows, and the other ferrymen would know as one of her spirits she has marked. She finally sees her, and drops in front of her. 

Shuri almost bumps into her, the face that greets Kivera is one she is glad to see. Herself, pristine white, a look of fear in her mismatched eyes. Kivera takes the ladle she was given full of water and pours it out before she can drink the water of Lethe. If she had let her, she would truly be lost to her. Kivera knows the expression, anyone would in the underworld. Confused of where to go, who to follow, no direction other than waiting for the Charon or herself. 

“Let’s get you to Paradise. It’s where your family waits.” Kivera knows her soul is pure, she has seen it from the very start, she shined like Divinity, a reason the reaper was drawn to her. If there was ever a soul to take over as the spirit of Virgo, she would easily replace Beatrice with Shuri. She fell into the category of qualifying for one of the star spirits. Endless tragedy on a soul marked for destiny she didn’t want.

“I can’t wait to see them... it feels like ages since I have held them. Won’t they be confused? They felt me die..” Kivera presses her forehead to Shuri’s showing her bright gold eyes, relief flashing through her irises, brief in blue at the mention of her death, then softens down to a soft green.

“The older ones will be easier to explain than the younger. I think they’ll be more happy to see you, over wondering why they felt you gone. Estinien, I still have to track him down. I’ll let him know you are safe now in my domains.” Shuri is lead to a boat that Kivera has waiting for them to begin their travel. 

“Why are they not in your sanctuary?” Shuri asks as she is seated, Kivera uses her scythe as an oar to guide them. The first time Shuri has seen her do this, she notices how her reaper looks alot different, she remembers this form from the first time she took her to her home. This was the full angel of death, the one face she keeps hidden from all that lives.

“Divinity and Parn took them to Paradise where it was safer, so they didn’t feel my anger and pain. So I didn’t scare them. Children should never witness someone in pain the way I was.. I didn’t want them to feel that hatred I had. Or feel off of it. They’re in safe hands. The very realm I safeguard is of peace.” Shuri is still confused, yet Kivera is sure of herself. She is relieved they’re safe, even for Kivera being safe. She knows she wouldn’t fall in a fight with Thancred, but if he had recruited a white mage or Ryne. It would have been different. 

Shuri knows that she is not immortal. That scared her as much as her own death, that she could lose her permanently. 

Once they had crossed from the main section of the Underworld into the burning Sanctuary, Shuri understands why she had them moved. Her rage would have burned them, her sanctuary is linked with her emotions and power. If she loses herself, her world burns like her heart does. 

“All of the souls you housed here are in Paradise too?” She remembers all of the other child souls she lets roam her home.

“They are. I would never do anything that will scare them worse than when they died.” Kivera stops their travel to take care of her home. She quells her own anger and rage inside, while repairing the small place. Regeneration to the things that were within the domain, her books, scrolls, the ground, house, everything touched by her fire to restore. 

Like a phoenix to renew from the ashes. as if it was never burning a few minutes ago. 

Kivera looks back to Shuri, and helps her out of the boat, to guide her to the house in the center. Something she does with each soul she saves from the shores. 

Kivera lets her have time to recollect herself, have real food she hasn’t eaten in what felt like years as Anubis. Bathe and heal her spirit from what she had endured. Let her cry it out over being killed. Kivera let’s Shuri rest on her lap hand guided through her hair to comfort her.

“You’ve done this for alot of souls.” The words come out idle, the meek voice hoarse a little from the screams and cries she had let out. 

“Divinity. She died a similar way to you. Pursued, hunted down, killed for a “just” cause, because the people were afraid of her and her father Seth. Just because they feared the unknown. I don’t know if Divinity told you her story herself. I sat with her as she burned. She smiled the whole time, she resigned herself the same way you did to Thancred. Just.. accepted her death. I petted her head the same way here.” Kivera cards her fingers through her hair from forehead to a horn. 

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you... I’m sorry I failed your children... Estinien... Ardbert... I...” Kivera bows her head into the side of Shuri’s head and finally cries. Shuri feels her tears in her hair and on her face. Shuri places a hand to Kivera’s face and rubs gently.

“You protected me as much as you could. I am here now, you did so much to keep me safe. You protected our children, you protected me to the very end, stained your hands when you didn’t want to. You did everything you could.” Shuri turns her head to see the deep blue irises Kivera has, Kivera looking away in shame at her failure, till the auran girl grabs her by her hair and gives her a full kiss. 

Kivera feels a hand at the back of her head threading through her hair the same way she had been doing to Shuri’s. Comforting as she holds her giving them the time they need to compose themselves before they go to Paradise. To have her see their children.

For now, Kivera wanted to keep her to herself, just be a little selfish. Shuri allows her to be. Kivera is thankful she did not have a repeat of Damien, her losing all of her memories, being forced to watch her from afar as a pact. Being the one that houses all of what they knew. To mourn a second time.

The reaper knows not to keep her from her children long, she knows more than anything how much she wants to see them. So after gathering her back into the boat they arrived in. She continues their path on towards Paradise.

 Kivera ringing a bell to open its gate. 

#and leaving it there~ #because this is getting long! #kivera x shuri #some angst and fluff in there #I apologize on Thancred fans sincerely #Kivera Siverstein #shuri fontaye #thancred waters #tw death in here #darkwarden au