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rainsonata · 4 years

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Doppelgänger 11/15

Chapter 11: Echoes

Fandom/Pairing: Elsword; none Rating: T Word Count: 7,958

Summary: It was like looking into a mirror. What happens when one’s reflection talks back and throws uncomfortable questions? El Search Party struggles to find entrance into the Demon Realm, but Dominator has a plan.

Alternative Title: Dominator fucked up and now everyone meets their alternative selves

AO3 Link / FF.NET Link

— [Chapter 01] [Chapter 02] [Chapter 03] [Chapter 04] [Chapter 05] [Chapter 06] [Chapter 07] [Chapter 08] [Chapter 09] [Chapter 10] [Chapter 11] [Chapter 12] [Chapter 13] [Chapter 14] [Chapter 15] —

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Class Notes:

Canon Path: Knight Emperor, Aether Sage, Daybreaker, Rage Hearts, Code: Esencia, Comet Crusader, Apsara, Empire Sword, Doom Bringer, Ishtar and Chevalier (Innocent), Bluhen

Alternative Path: Rune Slayer, Oz Sorcerer, Anemos, Furious Blade, Code: Ultimate, Fatal Phantom, Devi, Flame Lord, Dominator, Timoria and Abysser (Catastrophe), Richter

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Oz Sorcerer

Dusk bordered at the horizon when Oz returned to camp. Dozens of tents rose in a mass of colors and arranged into smaller circles with a smaller campfire for each group. Oz saw tents of the close-ranged fighters placed closer to the edge of their resting site, the ones ready for combat to the sound of intruders. Those that relied more on magic or needed more time to prepare like Rune and Dominator placed their tents more inward from the edge of the area they resided in.

“Hey, ‘cuse me,” a male voice grunted. “Sorry, come through.”

The smell of blood and dirt filled the air. Knight was hauling a wild boar that was easily twice his size. Blood was dripping down the carcass and onto Knight’s armor. His great sword was tucked into a scabbard strapped to his back, grating against the gravel as he dragged the ridiculous sized animal over his shoulder. A quiet gasp escaped from a lower tree branch whipping into his vicinity and swapped the young man.

“Need help?” Oz leaned forward, “I can barely see your face from here.”

“Yes,” Knight groaned under the weight of the boar. How could someone so short carry a monster of that size? She was impressed.

With the help of Angkor (“I’m not here to do grunt work!” He huffed.), she helped him carry the dead animal across camp. It took all of Oz’s effort now to lower the boar over a pile of dried leaves. They placed the boar next to a campfire. She watched its beady eyes staring back at her, dead and fish-eyed in death.

She didn’t know the Demon Realm had animals.

Then again, Angkor didn’t really tell her much about the realm that demons called home. Oz looked up to see the moons nestled among the clouds. Angkor and Timoria spoke of their old allies and enemies, but their narrative of the Demon Realm varied. She guessed that it was as big and diverse as Elrios was. It took her weeks to journey from Sander all the way to Ruben in search of the Ring of Mimir, so maybe it would take weeks to reach the other end of the Demon Realm?

“What are you doing?” Oz observed Knight taking out a dagger from his belt. Angkor scurried off in bat form when Knight started skinning the animal with precision.

“Prepping for dinner,” Knight said. He let out a nervous chuckle. “Do you want to help?”

“Sure,” Oz placed her staff on her belt to make her hands free. “What do we do first?”

“Uh, right.” Knight looked happy? He moved aside to patted the ground to gesture at her into joining him, nodding his head, “I want you to grab a bucket or any containers you have. We’ll be draining its blood to make pig blood curd for soups and congee in the morning. Once we finish, we’ll be carving the meat and use half of it to make dried jerky for battle rations. I already cleaned it out before I started skinning it.”

“These? Do you make everyone you talk to do this?” Oz asked. Placing the bowls aside, she sat on the floor next to Knight. “What happened to your friends?”

“Most of them are still resting after the fights,” Knight chuckled. “And you looked like you weren’t busy. What’s so funny?”

He stopped to give her a strange look. What? Was Knight already detecting her sad attempt to keep a poker face during his long lecture? He glanced over Oz before making note of Angkor, who was back to his bat form. Angkor settled on her lap as a bat and giggled when Oz tried to move it. Did Angkor gain weight? Oz placed her hand over her chest and pretended to blush.

“See something you like?” She teased.

“I’m surprised you’re helping me after some of my friends tried to hurt you,” Knight was not fazed.

“This wouldn’t be the first time our enemies became our allies,” Oz mused. “Rune asked me to do the same when we first met.”

“Oh… sorry about that.” He was embarrassed.

“What are you apologizing for? It’s always good to have a refresher!” Oz exclaimed, “Your hands were full and you looked like you needed help.”

Knight looked relieved and nodded to himself. It was subtle, but a distinct smile. The kind Rune had when he learned a new technique to manipulate his runes. He was taller than Rune, towering over her with sleeves rolled back while working. His hair was a short neat cut, matching his eyes and the rest of his armor.

After they extracted blood from the boar, they let it sit in one of the metal bowls to solidify. They would then slide the curd into smaller pieces to be salted and heated in a pot. Knight handed her a dagger and they began dividing the meat into sections. Oz let the man take the lead and insert the sharp edge towards the spine, cleaning the meat off the bone in one swipe. Knight expertly placed the meat into a separate container for later use and hummed as he worked. For a moment, she caught serenity in his silence, taking pride in his hard work.

“Is it always you who does this?” Oz asked.

“Sometimes it’s Elesis or Raven,” Knight said. “The others have offered to help, but I’m doing it today. Are you okay with that?”

“You’re asking me now?” Oz let out a mellow laugh, “It’s gross, but you look so sad doing it by yourself.”

“I look sad?” Knight chuckled, “I’m used to doing it by myself. I had to do it when ‘sis was out of the picture.”

Stupid, Aisha! She scolded herself. Now she made him remember a lonely part of his life. Oz took deep breaths and counted backwards from ten. He didn’t even look upset about it and laughed.

“But thank you for offering to help,” Knight said. “Food will be ready sooner and we can focus on everyone recovering.”

“When was the last time you visited Ruben?” Oz asked.

“It’s been years,” he admitted. “Haven’t had much time to return with everything that’s been happening.”

“Do you miss home?”

“Sometimes,” Knight said. “But when I’m with my friends, it’s like I have a second home. You know what I mean? Don’t laugh, but I hope I can one day show them Ruben when things are peaceful again.”

“No, that sounds like a wonderful dream,” Oz softened her expression and thought about the people she grew up with. She wondered if her teammates felt the same.

Oz started setting the seasoned meats onto a dry metal tablet to be smoked when she heard Angkor squeak. She looked up to Aether stomping over to her. Dressed in a white skirt accented by purple, Aether wielded a staff and looked short out of breath. Did all of Knight’s friends wear white?

“Aisha?” Knight didn’t notice the dark aura radiating from the sulking mage.

“Elsword,” Aether stopped to catch her breath. The twin cowlicks sprouting from her roots drooped as she rested her hands over her knees before bringing her head up. Her face was flustered, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Helping Ciel prep for dinner. Oz is helping me.” Knight said and looked at her with pleading eyes. Did he just give Aether puppy eyes? He and Rune were cut from the same cloth. “Did Bluhen heal your arm?”

“No one else can heal besides him, my arm is fine.” Aether huffed. “Did you just kill that boar by yourself? You should be resting. You’ve gone missing for two days!”

“I’m not hurt!” Knight stood up for Aether to see. “Not a single cut! Ain healed most of my injuries!”

“You can’t rely on him all the time for heals,” Aether glared. “I just talked to him and he said you should be resting. I bet you didn’t tell Ciel that, did you?”

“I… no.” He said in a small voice.

If looks could kill, Knight would have died twice fold from the intense looks the mage was sending to him. Oz held back her laughter as Aether scrutinized the red-haired man. Aether threw a side-eyed look to Oz as if debating if it was the dark mage’s fault for letting Knight do things by himself.

“I helped him before no one else was,” Oz said before Aether could open her mouth. “We were almost done before you came here.”

Glancing at the smoked meats and the pork blood curd finished steaming in the heated pot, Aether didn’t argue. She turned pink, embarrassed and offered an apology to both of them. Oz overheard Angkor chattering to her and hushed him to be quiet.

“Do I look that awful?” Knight asked.

“You look like a zombie,” Aether said.

“Really? I was thinking more like a sad phoru.” Oz pointed to the bags under Knight’s eyes. Knight tilted his head to the side in confusion.

“Go wash your hands and rest until dinner is ready,” Aether groaned before gesturing to Oz. “I’ll help her finish up the rest of what you already started.”

“All right,” Knight walked past Aether. “Sorry for making you worry.”

Oz wished he would stop taking blame for things in a feeble attempt to soothe anger from either side. It was grating on her nerves and didn’t suit him at all. It made her miss the slight flare of arrogance Rune had when thinking he found the perfect ratio of hot pepper flakes to apply to pork jerky, or when he set the entire demon army on fire.

“Hey, worrying is our job.” Aether stopped him, “That’s what we’re here for.”

Knight laughed.

There was silence between the two women when he left. Aether finished slicing the meat into thin pieces. Her slices were sloppier than Knight’s but cut close to the bone of the boar and marinated the meat in a metal bowl. Oz rotated the smoked meat for the other side to be cooked and checked on the pork blood curd. Their campsite smelled of smoked and seasoned meats.

“So you do have a demon,” Aether looked at Angkor with the same fascination as one would with deadly forest fungi.

“Have?” Oz rolled her eyes, “He’s not a pet. More like a contract.”

It was hard to believe Angkor was a demon god for the number of times he wouldn’t stop chattering demon gossip to her or demanding for more cookies. Oz wondered if looking like a child brought in the childish tendencies in the demon bat. His powers on the other hand were worth discussing and helped her in battles countless times.

“How did that happen?” Aether asked.

“Well, I was practicing dark magic when Angkor approached me.” Oz said, “He saw talent in me and offered a deal to me.”

“And the clothes?”

“That’s what you’re worried about the most?” Oz said, “I don’t mind. Maybe more ruffles than I wanted, but the gain in power was what mattered.”

“You didn’t find the Ring of Mimir either?”

“No,” Oz shook her head. The blood curd was done. She drained water from the pot and transferred them over to a container for storage. “Are you still looking for it?”

“Yes,” Aether closed her eyes. “We were so close to catching the culprit. He ran off before I had the chance to get it back.”

“Do you think it will return your powers?”

“I don’t know, maybe? I relearned the fundamentals of elemental magic, but there’s still more to be learned.” Aether said, “Hennon doesn’t have rights over that ring grandfather worked hard to uncover.”

Oz tried to remember a time when she believed in having the ring restore her powers. After no leads to it, she turned to dark magic because she didn’t want to relearn something she had already lost. The Hennon of her world also had the Ring of Mimir, but that was the least of their concerns when there was an urgent matter of restoring the El.

“So what’s with you and Elsword?” Aether asked. “I saw you two talking.”

“Still obsessing over that boy?” Oz teased.

“What?” Aether paused, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You keep looking at him.” Oz teased. “It’s like I’m not even here.”

Aether sat still, frozen in time, and forgot that she had a knife in her hand. The knife remained suspended in a fist hold grip, losing its use in her hands. Her eyes widened, shocked by the statement and Oz’s impatience. Talking to Aether was coming into contact with a reflection of herself when she was eighteen years old, infatuated and hopeful in catching the attention of a red-haired boy.

“It looked like you two were having fun,” Aether turned pink. “You two share nothing in common, but you made it look easy to talk to him about anything.”

“I just let him talk about things he’s interested in,” Oz shrugged. “Didn’t you travel with him for five years?”

“Yes, but I’m not sure if I know him as well as I thought I did.” She confessed, “When he went missing, I mistook Rune for him. It was so obvious. I feel like an idiot.”

“They’re pretty similar,” Oz said. “Both of them act like idiots, won’t stop talking about meat, insist they’re used to doing things alone...”

“That’s the thing!” Aether threw her arms in the air, “He always does all these things by himself, acting like everything is his fault. It’s so frustrating! How many times do we need to tell him we don’t mind?”

“I think that’s why Knight hides things,” Oz leaned back. “He probably didn’t want to make you all worry, even if it’s a stupid idea and you all care about him either way.”

Oz collected the remnants of the skinned and deboned animal. The bones were saved to be used as a base for soups and broths. She was impressed by Knight’s work ethic that expanded even outside of his training. Left to live by himself at a young age, Knight must have learned to never let food be wasted. He and Rune were masters in hunting and finishing chores, but worked twice as hard in training.

“I wonder if I scared him away, yelling at him like that.” Aether thought aloud. “I can’t stand seeing him get hurt again.”

“You still like him,” Oz commented.

“Don’t you?” Aether asked.

“Maybe not in the same sense as you do,” Oz said. “We tried to connect a few times but decided it wasn’t working for us. He’s now with Chung.”

“What?”

Aether dropped the metal container with the blood curd. Luckily, it was sealed shut. Oz retrieved the container from the mage with a kind expression.

“Elsword and Chung are dating,” Oz said. “Or Rune and Phantom if you’re keeping track of nicknames.”

“No wonder they kept looking at each other,” she overheard Aether mutter to herself. “Does that mean our Elsword and Chung are…”

“I don’t know,” Oz said. “Not everything is set in stone. Your timeline is already different than ours, so I wouldn’t give up yet. Knight might like Crusader, you, a random village girl, or even Add.”

“Ha!” Aether snorted. “Unlikely.”

Oz grinned. She liked her.

“Let’s deliver these to Ciel and Abysser.” Aether started collecting the containers, one under each arm. “They said they were going to cook something tonight.”

Would this be enough to feed all of them? After washing her hands, Oz joined in helping her, taking the containers that were left to bring over to their teammates. She couldn’t imagine how Knight could have completed this task on his own. The next time she saw Rune attempting to do the same, she’ll have to make sure she or someone else would help him.

“It’s always a pleasure talking to myself,” Oz tipped her hat and feigned a formal bow.

“You’re ridiculous,” Aether rolled her eyes but softened his expression. “I think it’ll be easier to talk to Elsword now that I understand him a little better.”

“I think you already do,” Oz said. “You’re already thinking like him and helping people.”

“Is that a compliment I hear?” Aether’s grin mirrored hers, “Don’t expect less from the great Aisha!”

“Do you talk like that to everyone?”

“...shut up.”

Oz snickered.

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Apsara

“And then Elesis set the pole on fire,” Anemos said.

“A pole?” Apsara repeated.

“She got her tongue stuck on one and tried to free himself by setting it on fire,” the elf explained. “The city wasn’t happy and we had to pay for the damage. Luckily, we had enough from the major mission in Hamel.”

W-wait, that didn’t sound good! Apsara panicked as Anemos let out a noble woman’s laugh. It was good that they had enough money to pay for the damage cost, but was it okay to cause a fire in the middle of a city?

“B-but, Flame was okay, right?” Apsara stuttered.

“Oh, she was perfectly fine,” Anemos added. “Can’t say the same about the rest of the city. That was rough.”

“There’s more?” Apsara squeaked.

“Trouble always seems to follow your team, it seems.” Daybreaker chuckled. “It sounds like your friends ran into a lot of strange adventures and close calls.”

Apsara nodded in agreement. She gripped her cup, running her thumbs over the edge and watching the tea steam rise and fall. It was her own personal tea set from what was left over of her ruined home in Fluone's Northern Empire. Bamboo and cranes were painted in dark green onto the cups. The tea kettle was decorated in a similar theme with a giant crane spreading its wings in bamboo bedding. It was a gift from her late mother before she passed away.

Anemos was just as she imagined the other Rena to be. Kind, funny, always ready to share stories of her travels and offering great advice, although Anemos had a more playful side. A smirk grew at the edge of Anemos’ lips, sipping from her cup of tea.

“I can say the same to your team,” Anemos said. “Unconventionally breaking into the Demon Realm and angering Dark Elves sounds like a rough trip.”

“We were lucky that Rena was here to talk it out and help us work together,” Apsara beamed. “Without her, we might still be enemies!”

“It’s a good thing we understood each other,” Daybreaker said. “I didn’t think we would meet Dark Elves so soon.”

“What are they like?” Anemos asked.

Both of them are correct, Eun yawned. Luck has saved you and your friends many times. How much longer will it carry you until it runs out?

Apsara shivered at the meaning behind Eun’s words. The nine-tailed fox was not one for talk and preferred being a spectator from the safety of her mind, but occasionally left a piece of wisdom for her to think on.

Eun was right. They were lucky that she accidentally fell into the labyrinth of ruin that connected Elrios to the Demon Realm. According to Daybreaker, the language the Dark Elves spoke was closer to the Ancient Elven tongue, a skill not many elves possessed. After struggling to rescue Knight from the El, things were beginning to line up for them. However, as lucky as they were, there were just as many misfortunes that fell on them and stalled time for the enemy to get away. It was something Apsara couldn’t forgive. They had to do more than fall on lady luck to seek justice for the lives of those impacted by the enemy.

“Apsara?” Anemos broke through the martial artist’s train of thought. She had a gentle expression, “Was the medicine too strong? You look out of it.”

“I’m fine,” Apsara rubbed her forehead. It still hurt where she fell on her face. She was going to let it heal naturally. It was barely a scratch worth using healing magic. “Hey, Anemos? How do you plan to return back to Elrianode?”

“Tired of us already?” Anemos teased, placing her finger over her lips. “With the teleportation device broken, we won’t be going home until it gets repaired. Why do you ask? Was your trip a one-way trip?”

“I’m afraid it was,” Daybreaker said. “We were planning to find an alternate way to get back once we found the Dark El.”

“Your team didn’t look good when we fought you,” Anemos commented. “Was a demon giving you trouble?”

“Nephilim Lord,” Apsara said. “It looked like the one in Velder, but bigger. You saw one before, right? It warned us about a fiery aura.”

The one they fought was several times the size, asbestos white and covered in bright rainbow-colored armor-like scales. It had horns protruding from its body and had no need to move to efficiently burn through their defense. The most powerful of all Nephilim, it was sentient and lost control of itself until it was taken down by the El Search Party.

Anemos frowned and bit her lip in deep thought, mumbling to herself in Elven. At the mention of Nephilim Lord, the gears in the elf’s mind began to turn. Her eyes were calculating and darted up to where the sky was. Apsara looked up to see where the older woman was looking.

Cloud swirled collectively around the portals appearing and closing, deviating from one another. Apsara became dizzy looking at them and returned her eyes to Anemos, whose complexion remained serious.

“Was Nehphilim Lord the cause of this?” Anemos asked.

“I don’t think so,” Daybreaker shook her head. “It’s been like this since Paradox fought with us. He seems to have control over those portals.”

“Maybe we can use those portals to go back to Elrianode!” Apsara exclaimed.

“Assuming we can control them ourselves,” Anemos sighed. “Unless you know anything about time and space.”

Apsara felt her cheeks turn warm and pouted. Was it unrealistic in trying to secure a way back to Elrios? She already felt guilty leaving behind the world she and her friends worked hard to protect. On the other hand, the Dark Elves were relying on them to sort out the unstable spike of energy coming from the shadows of Varnimyr, a place where even Eun was uncertain about their safety. Ever since they have arrived at the Demon Realm, they have dug their feet into the dark with little guidance of where to go. It was worrying not knowing if there was a way back.

“I’m not even sure if one of those portals even works,” Daybreaker said. “We don’t know what’s on the other side. What if we end up in another world like you and your friends did?”

Apsara stared into the dense forest surrounding the cavern area. She didn’t even think about the possibility of coming out on one end of a portal into a world that bore little resemblance to Elrios or the Demon Realm. They would have to start all over again from scratch and adjust to a world with new laws and boundaries like they did when they first arrived in the Demon Realm.

It would be difficult to find a way back to Elrionode, Eun said. There is little else that can be done without taking a risk.

“We haven’t had the best luck in making things go according to plan,” Anemos added. “We still need to find the Dark El first before returning. Those portals will still be here when we find it.”

“Finding the Dark El won’t be easy, but I believe we’ll find it soon.” Apsara finally said. “We have even more people now to make it work. We’ll all be coming home soon.”

“How touching,” a new voice drawled. Devi emerged from the shadows, letting the flame light flicker across her amber eyes. She looked down at Apsara’s smaller form. “I never thought of myself as a wide-eyed optimist.”

Apsara turned around to see a round face covered by dark black locks. The long ripples from the ends of her dress made Devi appear taller and thinner. Next to Apsara, she was covered in black and orange, resembling a dark butterfly spreading its wings in her dress billowing in the gentle breeze. Devi smiled, but her eyes held an unsteady gaze.

Careful, Ara. Urgency rose in Eun’s voice, She’s dangerous.

“A-ara! I mean me! Devi, I mean, uh, what do you prefer being called?” Apsara cried and lowered her head in a ninety-degree bow, “I didn’t see you there, did you need something? Of course, you did, that’s why you’re here. Are you mad at us for hurting your friends? I’m so sorry. You must be furious with us, please forgive us. I-”

“You talk too much,” Devi silenced Apsara with a single motion of a raised hand. “I barely caught any of that. Are you a mouse? I hear a lot of squeaking.”

“A mouse?” Apsara felt dizzy. She lifted her head, moving her hands behind her head in a daze. “You mean the animal?”

“You’re scaring her,” Anemos chided.

“I’m not scared!” Apsara protested. “She caught me by surprise, that’s all! ”

“Am I not allowed to join tea with you ladies?” Devi poured a cup for herself and nestled herself between Devi and Anemos. Like Apsara, she drank her tea from a cup carefully held between her delicate fingers. She ignored the milk and sugar provided for Anemos and Daybreaker, who were less accustomed to drinking tea without them.

“Careful, it’s still hot-” Apsara stopped when Devi chugged the rest of the tea and blew hot air from her mouth. How scary, she thought.

“Your tea is all right,” Devi said. “Needs more herbs.”

Apsara stopped breathing. Her head was still spinning from processing that they were the same person. The way Devi carried herself was something only Apsara could dream of when she let Eun take over. She couldn’t sense Eun’s presence being the dominant one from her alternate, so the confidence was all Devi.

Devi and the rest of the alternate El Search Party reminded her of the old folk tales she had read as a child. Doppelgangers from another world that bore resemblance to the people she knew. The doppelgangers in the stories were often demons or evil spirits in disguise, but Devi and the others were neither of them.

“We’re running low on tea,” Apsara said.

“You were talking about the Dark El,” Devi narrowed her eyes. She glanced over her shoulder to scan their surroundings before lowering her voice, “I don’t think I need to explain what it is or why it’s important. Where is it?”

“We don’t know,” Daybreaker said. “We’re still searching for it like you. We’re only a few weeks ahead of you.”

Devi cursed.

“But since you’re here, we can look for it together!” Apsara said. “Nephilim Lord said it would offer us information about it if we search for the source of aura that’s been unstabilizing its home.”

“It’s our best shot at the moment,” Anemos agreed. “With this many people, we’ll find the source of the aura in no time.”

“You don’t think you’re being used to take care of someone else’s problem?” Devi looked at Apsara with skepticism. “Your girlfriend told me it tried to kill you.”

It was true that Nephillim Lord tried to kill the El Search Party, but it wasn’t the first time an enemy was restrained under mind control or agitation. How much did Empire tell Devi about their circumstances?

“We’re doing this because we want to punish those that tried to take advantage of the people living here,” Apsara said. “I won’t stand for that.”

“Nephillim Lord was influenced by the aura,” Daybreaker explained. “We made a promise to help it out. The Dark Elves revere it as a god and protector. We’re not leaving until everything is back to normal.”

“They have a better lead than we do,” Anemos placed her hands over her lap. She kept her voice low. “This may be our only chance.”

Devi folded her arms back and grasped the handle of her spear. Still smiling, it was unnerving to see red flash through Devi’s eyes before returning back to amber. It took Apsara a moment to remember that Devi must have Eun too. Those two must be close for Devi to maintain the same facial expression even when Eun had its brief moment of existence.

“For the monster’s sake, I hope it understands the consequences if it doesn’t follow through with its promise.” Devi mused.

“Elesis told me you used different martial arts,” Aspara ignored the dark comment. “What are they?”

“Is that what’s on your mind?” Devi rose a brow. “They’re secret arts from a book that specializes in dark energy. I’m curious about you as well. We’ll have to find out in a spar.”

“Another time,” Anemos said. “There might be more fighting if we’re going to find the source of the aura.”

“We thought the source of the aura was you and your friends,” Daybreaker admitted to Anemos. “But that wasn’t it. The aura is not from you, but somewhere else. We might be struggling to find it because it’s still dormant.”

That meant they had more time to prepare for another battle, right? Apsara pulled the kettle to pour herself another cup of tea. Blowing the fumes away, she sipped as she gripped on her spear with her free hand. It was unclear what the source of the aura was, but she could feel its presence hovering over the region, a dull uncomfortable weight over her shoulders. It was going to get worse if it awakened. Their friends were still recovering from the last battle and they needed to regroup with a new plan.

“Elesis mentioned your name when I talked to her,” Apsara looked at Devi, who was already on her third cup of tea. “What did you do to her?”

Empire gave her a wide-eyed look when Apsara asked about her alternate. Her complexion was the same color as her hair before Apsara took her girlfriend’s hand and offered to change the topic.

“Hm?” Devi giggled when Apsara gave her a questioning look, “Oh, I may have provoked her into fighting me, called her princess, and now she’s angry at me.”

“You need to go back and apologize to her!” Apsara shook Devi by the shoulders and cried when the other woman cackled. “Devi! That’s not funny!”

“They’re so lively,” Anemos commented.

“With two of them, I’m sure they were going to be.” Daybreaker chuckled.

“Are you happy with your progress?”

Huh? Devi’s question was one that haunted Apsara, an anxious voice whispering into her ear in the darkest of nights, taunting her with doubt that fed off of her uncertainty. Apsara felt Eun tense, rising from her subconscious and voicing its opinion of her counterpart, none of them were kind or generous. She ignored the fox spirit and had a thoughtful expression.

Devi was terse, asking biting questions and offering brisk answers in return. Despite being squished in between Apsara and the two Renas, she never relaxed. Legs crossed with one hand kept close to her spear, Devi’s smile failed to reach the rest of her face.

“You keep following these people, nowhere close to your goal and walking in circles,” Devi said. “Are you satisfied?”

“I am,” Apsara examined the woman with sadness. She reached for Devi and placed one hand over her alternate’s forearm. “Why are you always sad?”

“I’m not sad,” Devi forced a laugh.

She was lying.

“It doesn’t bother me that we keep getting sidetracked,” Apsara said with earnest. “I’m not even sure if we’re doing the right thing, but I want to help my friends stabilize the El because I know they would do the same if I needed help. Do you ever feel like that?”

“I do,” Devi said. For the first time, she relaxed and looked at Apsara with a pensive expression. “We’re lucky to have people like them.”

“I think they would be happy if we let them know that,” Apsara smiled. “Tell me about your friends.”

And Devi did.

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Timoria

Smoke filled the campsite as Timoria hopped over to put out the fire with a pan lid. Hot air hissed from the top and she jolted back. Her tail curled up and her eyes grew wide, panicking and rushing to put the lid back on. Puffing air into her palms, Timoria shrieked when she bumped into Abysser from behind.

“Sorry!” Abysser put up her two hands. “Didn’t mean to scare you like that. I’m not sure what has gotten into you today, but I can take over now.”

“You said you felt light-headed,” Timoria accused him.

“I feel better, I promise!” Abysser laughed. “Not sure what the fuss is about.”

“You passed out from an explosion,” Timoria said.

“But I’m still alive and kicking,” he grinned. “You don’t need to sacrifice your time to cook for everyone.”

An overreaction? Perhaps, especially when her partner in crime was no longer human but now a fully fledged demon, but Abysser wasn’t replaceable. He was more than that, a chimera between a butler and a close friend. People have mistaken them to be related and it didn’t bother Timoria as much as she would have expected. Their bonds were no longer linked as a single unit, but she could tell when the dummy showed his teeth and cocked his head to the side in an attempt to reassure her that he was fine.

What was Abysser thinking getting up close to shield her from Bluhen? Humans called it heroic, but she called it foolish and impulsive. The man who called himself a priest was suppressing his energy to create an explosion that could have wiped out a demon army. There was nothing heroic about a nearly dying face planted into the dirt.

“You said someone taught you how to bake and cook,” Timoria said. “Why don't you teach me too? I’m ready to graduate from, ‘Lu, go pick some herbs.’, ‘Lu, can you set up the table?’, and ‘Lu, where’s the spoon?’.”

She made faces and lowered her pitch when she did her Abysser impersonation, pacing around the campsite.

“Do I really talk like that?” Abysser scratched his head but softened his expression. “I didn’t know you wanted to learn.”

“You make it sound like I never help,” Timoria pouted and tucked her arms under her long sleeves, feeling the pain crisscrossing into her bandaged fingers like pin needles. “Did I do a good job of cutting the vegetables?”

Who knew humans consumed so much of them. She didn’t realize how picky Abysser was in how he wanted things to be cut and presented. One would think he was about to serve a meal to the king of Velder.

“Never said you didn’t.” Abysser said, “I think it’s great you want to help. You did good for a first-timer.”

There he goes again, Timoria placed her hand over her hip. Making that face again, borderlining on smug in catching her showing consideration for others, brimming with the kind of pride she associated with parents to their children. Any outsider would have mistaken them to be related, but she never protested because she saw how happy it made Abysser. People still mistook her as a child, but she was getting taller, she was sure of it!

“Now we wait until it boils, right?” Timoria asked.

Abysser hummed and nodded his head for an affirmation.

Timoria hovered over with her wings out for a better view of the stew. She knew there was a lot of stirring involved, but she would leave that to Abysser. The last time she attempted, the campsite was nearly burned down and she didn’t trust herself to know when their meal would be ready.

She went back to the stream flowing at the edge of camp to wash her hands, carefully cleaning the dirt under her claws. The demon lord felt the cold water run between her claws and relished the familiarity of it. It wasn’t the dark quarters of her old realm, but she recognized the moons passing by when she returned to see a figure waiting for her.

Sitting at the edge of a fallen log was a demon adorned in white and royal blue. Pale locks cascaded past her thighs and touched the back of her heels. Cyan colored horns similar to Timoria's protruded from the side of Ishtar’s head. Bright eyes the color of starlight gazed past the horizon to meet Timoria’s.

“Do you always talk to him like that?” Ishtar asked.

“Who?” Timoria tried not to stare. It was blinding to look at her other self, ethereal under the moonlight and projecting the very image Timoria once wished to reclaim. “Ciel?”

“You look like you two were having fun,” she looked sad. Was Ishtar envious of them?

“I don’t expect him to do everything when he needs time to recover from a fight,” Timoria said. “Does he not let you help out?”

“He does, but insists he can do everything.” Ishtar rolled her eyes, “I don’t think Ciel knows what I can do.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Timoria said.

Chevalier was a quiet man. Exchanging a polite smile to Timoria, he waited for Ishtar to talk first before replying back with an equally amicable response. He maintained an air of dignity, but Timoria sensed a difference in his dynamic with Ishtar than her’s and Abysser’s. His hair was a light shade of blue, but it was clear that he was still partially human.

Ishtar and Chevalier’s relationship wasn’t one of malevolence if she was to believe Richter’s account and from her own observations. Timoria recalled how he and Ishtar fought back at the edge of the forest, perfectly synchronized on the same wavelength of El resonance. Bounded together by powerful magic that turned their souls into one, Ishtar relied on Chevalier as much as the butler did to her. It was not unlike the bond Timoria used to share with Abysser before they parted to become equals.

“I suppose you’re right,” Ishtar mumbled. “I sometimes wonder if it bothers him doing everything for me.”

“I think you would be the first to know.” Timoria thought about the time Abysser was depressed after being rejected by a phoru. She bit her lips, “but I think he would appreciate it if you showed him your thanks.”

Her counterpart rose, parting her lips and rounding them at the realization. Nodding her head, she accepted Timoria’s explanation and scrunched up her brows in deep thought. Much to her annoyance, Ishtar towered over her by almost a head. To outsiders, Timoria was a child while Ishtar had the appearance of an older teen or a young adult.

“What would make him happy?” Ishtar wondered out loud. “He likes phorus, but I’m not very good with them. I tried baking cookies for him once, but he choked on it and I guess humans don’t like too much red pepper paste-”

“You put what in cookies?” Timoria interrupted. She tried to imagine what those cookies looked like when they were finished and presented to the butler. Poor Chevalier...

“I wanted to make them red because he once said he liked that color,” Ishtar protested.

“I’m surprised he didn’t try to rescue them and make them edible,” Timoria said.

“He did,” she said. “I’m not sure how he did it, but it was delicious. Humans are more adaptive than we demons give them credit for.”

It suddenly made sense why Chevalier didn’t let Ishtar take up on cooking duty.

“Is this why he still treats me like a child?” Ishtar sighed. “I made him do extra work he didn’t have to do.”

“My Ciel treats me like a kid too,” Timoria said. “It’s annoying, but he once told me it was because I reminded him of someone he knew. Did yours ever tell you that?”

Ishtar shook her head.

“Aren’t you the one bounded to him?” Timoria asked.

“That doesn’t mean I make him share everything. He doesn’t like talking about the past,” Ishtar said. “It isn’t fair for me to ask Ciel to tell me everything about himself if I’m not ready to talk about myself. There are many things I regretted doing as Luciela. I’m afraid of what he would think of me if he knew half of it.”

A sad smile appeared on Ishtar’s features, her eyes wandered over to Chevalier, who was standing at the opposite side of the campsite and talking to his counterpart. Abysser laughed at something Chevalier said, occasionally stopping to skim bubbles from the stew.

“Does yours know what you did?” Ishtar asked, “What we did.”

Timoria felt her limbs growing limp, unable to even lift them up to do something with them. Her silence answered Ishtar’s question, unsurprised by the revelation. Ishtar sat beside Timoria and kept her legs tightly together, contemplating on how much to ask. Demons were aware of multiple dimensions existing, but to meet oneself was something not many experienced.

“Then both of us are cowards,” Ishtar laughed quietly to herself.

“How is that funny?” Timoria asked.

“You’re a little small to be a demon ruler,” Ishtar smirked. “I was wary about whether or not you and your friends were a trick set up by Henir cultists.”

“How rude!” Timoria exclaimed, “I want nothing to do with those boorish deviants! I don’t think it’s necessary for him to know about my past, but I do want to tell him eventually when we aren’t being chased by Henir cultists.”

“You have them too?” Ishtar asked.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Timoria said. “They made a fuss about the Dark El and now we have to go fetch it before they do.”

It has been days since Timoria last saw the creeps in black hoods, but that could be a bad sign if the cultists found more allies in demons that may see the El Search Party as a threat. To demon residents, they were foreign invaders from another world and Timoria was a traitor. It wouldn’t be the first time the Demon Realm witnessed a powerful leader backstabbing them. She didn’t like to think about what that meant if word started spreading around about the former demon ruler returning to the Demon Realm.

“How does it feel to be back home?” Ishtar asked.

“This is hardly home,” Timoria laid down on her back. “Haven’t had one since the attempted assassination. I don’t think Ciel and I can rest until we find a way to take back power over the realm that was stolen from me.”

“Your bonds feel different,” Ishtar noted. “What made you separate?”

“Ciel and I had an understanding,” Timoria said. “I didn’t want Ciel to feel like he was forced to follow me. We don’t need a contract to stay together and I saw him as my equal. It was his idea to abandon his human side.”

“As equals, huh?” Ishtar repeated her words. “I think I get it. When you were gone, Abysser wouldn’t stop talking about you. He kept saying your name, which is infuriating because it’s my name too!”

Timoria snorted, “That sounds like him.”

“But I can see you mean a lot to him,” Ishtar said. “You better be grateful you have him!”

“You’re one to talk!”

She couldn’t believe she was being lectured by herself. Timoria sat up to stretch her arms, going on her tiptoes and reaching for the skies. Dinner should be ready soon. She could smell the inviting aroma from the stew she helped Abysser with earlier. She overheard Abysser talking to Chevalier.

“Oh, so that’s how you do it.” Abysser rubbed his chin, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

The demon lord showed his teeth, slapping one arm over Chevalier’s shoulder and twirling about to reach over for the ladle to try the stew. His hand was slapped away by his counterpart and whined. Chevalier tasted the stew, glaring at the bubbling water before tossing in a garnish of green onion and a pinch of salt.

“I didn’t even know you existed until yesterday,” Chevalier said.

“Ouch, that’s cold.” Abysser feigned a hurt expression. “You don’t even have questions about me or Lu?”

“I do, but isn’t it rude to ask these types of questions when we just met?” Chevalier said, “I think it’s more appropriate to ask how it’s even possible for you to be here.”

“Blunt and to the point, I get it.” Abysser waved his hands, “I thought your Add would explain all of this to you.”

“He would, but ours passed out.” Chevalier said.

Fair enough.

It was hard to have an impression of someone they fought once and only stopped long enough to deliver provoking taunts and snarky comments. Staggering over with his back hunched and a crazed look; if it wasn’t for the mechanical eye and flying plates (“They’re called Dynamo!” Dominator protested.), Timoria would have mistaken Bringer as someone else.

“We jumped over here to find the Dark El by opening a portal with a device Add made,” Abysser explained. “You already know the rest.”

“You’re not an illusion or a manifestation of the El.” Chevalier said. There was a sharpness in Chevalier’s expression when he examined Abysser with a critical eye.

“From the Hall of El?” Abysser had a sly smile. “Yes, I was wondering the same about you and your friends too, but you are a chattier bunch and more fun to talk to.”

“Fun?” One could hear the blood vein threatening to burst from the side of Chevalier’s head.

“For one thing, you and your friends weren’t threatening to kill us or attempting to absorb us into the El.” Abysser didn’t seem to notice the irked brows from his counterpart and chuckled, “Isn’t that right, Lu?”

Timoria tried not to laugh when Chevalier was taken back when looking ahead, only to lower his gaze to finally notice her. His eyes averted over to Ishtar pulling out a set of silverware and utensils to set up the table, then back to Timoria, who was patiently waiting for the half-demon to talk. She could see the gears turning as Chevalier processed that there were two Lus.

Placing her hands over her hips and puffing out her chest, Timoria wore a grin identical to Abysser. This was going to be fun.

“I’m not sure what I should be more insulted by,” Timoria cackled. “Being compared to Henir cultists by Ishtar or being mistaken as a false illusion.”

“Our enemies are always a few steps ahead of us. This isn’t the first time we had to fight people with the same abilities as us,” Chevalier was defensive. “You’re the first to join our side.”

“Sounds a little like us, don’t you think?” Abysser asked.

“They are us,” Timoria pointed out.

“Not everything is the same,” Chevalier disagreed.

“It’s the hair, right?” Abysser asked eagerly as if he had been waiting for Chevalier to ask. He beamed, “Doesn’t it make me look cool?”

“No, you’re stupider.” Chevalier deadpanned.

Abysser dropped his smile and cried crocodile tears, “How could you say something so cruel to yourself? You hear that Ishtar? He doesn’t like himself!”

Timoria covered her face. Abysser really said that in front of Ishtar and Chevalier with no irony in his words. Placing the last bowl down, Ishtar turned to giggle when Abysser continued going on about how cold his alternate was. Chevalier ignored the rambling demon as he silently walked over to the side to chop more green onion for garnish.

“I like him,” Ishtar said. “He’s funny.”

Chevalier stared at Abysser and mumbled, “How are we the same person?”

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

Author Notes: There was a lot I wanted to get in, but cut out in the end because it wasn’t relevant to what I wanted to address in this chapter. It was challenging to write certain characters I never wrote before, but rewarding because I discovered them as a person in the process. Everyone’s comments were encouraging to read and helped me see that every character will be someone’s favorite. We still have a few characters left in terms of having them talk to their counterpart.

#eltag #elsword #mywriting #my writing #elsword fanfiction #doppelganger #Elboy (Elsword)#Aisha (Elsword)#Rena (Elsword)#Raven (Elsword)#Eve (Elsword)#chung (elsword #Ara (Elsword)#Elesis (Elsword)#Add (Elsword)#Lu (Elsword)#Ciel (Elsword)#Ain (Elsword)

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grigori77 · 5 years

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Summer 2019′s Movies - My Top Ten Favourite Films (Part 2)

The Top Ten:

IMPORTANT NOTE: You WILL NOT find It Chapter 2 here, but that does not mean it isn’t awesome. I saw it AFTER I had sompleted this but while it was still editing., Technically it’s part of the Autumn/Winter period anyway, opening as it did in September. Undoubtedly look out for it at the end of the year when I post my Top 30 for the year.

10. CAPTIVE STATE – WAY back in 2011, Rupert Wyatt followed up his impressive directorial debut The Escapist with an even more astounding show helming sci-fi franchise reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and I knew here was a talent it was definitely gonna be worth my while to watch in future. Then the years ticked by and he spectacularly failed to follow it up, and I began to think he might become one of those frustrating auteur talents that explode onto the scene, wow us with their wares and then just STOP, like Donnie Darko’s Ryan Kelly or Blade’s Stephen Norrington. I was just about to give up hope when Wyatt returned with this dark and troubling skewed take on the alien invasion trope, but now, perversely, this film’s failing fortunes make me think his career might just take a swan dive after all, and as far as I’m concerned, on the evidence of the final film, that would be a crying shame. Instead of telling the story of how the Earth falls to the conquering might of invading alien forces, Captive State concentrates on what happens after, focusing on a humanity stagnating under the thumb of an all-powerful occupying force, the collaborating police force that maintains discipline on the populace through tagging and intrusive surveillance, and the deep cover resistance movement that’s built up in the eight years since “The Legislators” took over. The main narrative focus of the story is Gabriel Drummond (Moonlight’s Ashton Sanders), a downtrodden Chicago youth working a menial job but dreaming of getting out with his pregnant girlfriend, who discovers a tentative connection to the underground resistance when his brother Rafe (White Boy Rick’s Jonathan Majors), whom he previously thought was dead, re-enters his life with a desperate request. Unfortunately Gabriel has also come to the attention of local cop Will Mulligan (John Goodman), who’s looking to use this connection to finally penetrate the “dangerous terrorist element” his office has been working for years to eradicate. This is about as far from the classical invasion action territory of films like Independence Day, Skyline or even Signs as you can get, playing out much more like a World War 2 occupation thriller, and this is, in my opinion, one of its great strengths – there’s a palpable, knife-edged tension throughout, Wyatt cranking up the suspense as each new plot development ups the stakes for all involved, and when that tension does eventually break it does so in suitably explosive style, leading to some taut and harrowing set-pieces, while the director and his co-writer Erica Beeney pull off some impressive twists and skilful rug-pulls that consistently surprise. Indeed, this is one of the most skilfully written pieces of science fiction I’ve come across for a good while, brimming with big ideas and asking some suitably challenging questions throughout, before finally paying off our patience with a suitably powerful climax. It’s also extremely well-performed by a uniformly impressive ensemble cast – Goodman offers a performance of cool subtlety that proves the equal to much of his showier work on hits like 10 Cloverfield Lane and The Big Lebowski, while Sanders and Majors are both exceptional in what should have been major breakthrough roles that really built on their already impressive debuts, and there’s quality support from the likes of Machine Gun Kelly, Vera Farmiga, Alan Ruck, Kevin Dunn and Madeline Brewer. This is DEFINITELY one of the most robust and challenging pieces of scif-fi cinema I’ve seen this decade, and it certainly does deserve a lot more attention and appreciation than it’s received – it essentially bombed on its long-delayed release and suffered from painfully mixed, sometimes quite negative reviews, and I genuinely don’t understand either. This is an EXCELLENT film, and it’s a strong indicator of just what a great talent Rupert Wyatt is – I just have to hope this hasn’t ruined his chances for the future, because I couldn’t bear seeing him pull an undeserved vanishing act like so many others …

9. GODZILLA: KING OF MONSTERS – back in 2014, rising star director Gareth Edwards (already one-to-watch thanks to the sleeper hit success of his debut Monsters) proved he wasn’t going to be a one-hit-wonder when he aced his first major studio gig, reinventing Japanese superstar property Godzilla for western audiences and EFFORTLESSLY wiping out the appalling stigma of Roland Emmerich’s underwhelming previous attempt (needless to say he was then a no-brainer to helm the first Star Wars spinoff movie, Rogue One, but that’s another, even more awesome story). Suffice to say, the Big G’s name was good in western cinema again, and Legendary Pictures swiftly put their planned Monsterverse franchise into action, building on this solid foundation with a similarly stylish “prequel” in 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, with a showdown between the two screen icons intended further down the line. The next major hurdle, however, was this super-important follow-up, intended to get all the gears turning – if THIS ONE flunked, the Monsterverse would take a massive nosedive. Did it pull it off? Not quite … turns out this one’s not looking likely to scrape even on its massive investment, never mind make a profit, but that sure ain’t for lack of trying. Sure, the plot’s a bit of a far-fetched muddle and, as with its predecessor, the human characters are drawn in broad strokes and somewhat lacking in real spark, but the spectacle’s still there in spades and besides, the REAL selling point of these movies has always been their more gigantic characters. Godzilla’s just as much of a colossal badass as he was in the first film, still a skyscraper-high bruiser with a moody mean streak and some suitably apocalyptic bad breath, but ultimately just the kind of monumental reptile you want on your side in a cataclysmic scrap, and he’s sure got his work cut out for him with one serious collection of similarly massive monsters crawling out of the woodwork (or, in this case, compromised secure black sites controlled by covert Titan management organisation Monarch) – they’re a colourful bunch, from returning nasty Muto to newcomers Rodan and, particularly memorable, the beautiful but deadly Mothra, and most of them are heeding the call of the film’s TRUE scene stealer, triple-headed rival alpha Titan King Ghidorah, who is in every way a genuinely viable nemesis for the Big G himself. Needless to say, the BIG stars are presented without compromise throughout, as gargantuan and terrifying as their reputations make them out to be, and whenever they’re on screen it just lights up, the visual effects budget working overtime and all the money’s up there on the screen, while the property damage quota shoots through the roof in suitably pulse-racing style … and yet again, the human story does kind of get buried in the fallout. Not that they’re a completely unmemorable lot – it’s great to see Ken Watanabe return as elegantly noble Monarch honcho Dr Ishiro Serazawa, along with his assistant Dr Vivienne Graham (another winning turn from Sally Hawkins), and the rest of Monarch gets much stronger representation this time round as we’re introduced to a crew that includes Bradley Whitford, Ice Cube’s son O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Outta Compton) and Aisha Hinds, while there’s a typically classy bad guy turn from Charles Dance as Alan Jonah, the amoral ex-soldier leading an eco-terrorist group who (for baffling reasons) want to awaken all the Titans at once so they can fight for supremacy. The main narrative focus, however, is on the fractured family unit of former Monarch specialist Dr Mark Russell (Super 8’s Kyle Chandler) and his fellow scientist wife Emma and daughter Madison (Vera Farmiga and Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown), who have both been kidnapped by Jonah, a story that’s contrived and clumsily written, shot through with plot-holes when the twists aren’t painfully telegraphed ahead of time, and Brown barely gets ANYTHING to do other than be scared or stubborn, but they still give it their all and, since they’re all great actors, they largely win out against the writing. This certainly isn’t the best movie released this year, definitely leaning more towards the guilty pleasure category, but there’s more than enough good here to outweigh the bad, so this is definitely one of those wonderful movies where you get PLENTY out of it if you just sit back and GO WITH IT. It’s certainly got a strong director and co-writer in Michael Dougherty, who cut his teeth working for Bryan Singer on X2 and Superman Returns (which was similarly flawed, but still enjoyable in its own right) before making his big break behind the camera on Krampus, and for all its clunkiness it wins you over with its big-wow factor, can-do attitude and industrial-sized bucket-loads of heart and emotional heft, as well as a particularly cracking score from Bear McCreary, one of the most deservedly well respected composers working on both the big and small screens today, so in spite of the flaws this still deserves to be counted as a pretty rousing success. Thankfully Godzilla Vs. King Kong is still greenlit and scheduled to arrive next spring, so there’s still life in the old lizards yet – long live the King indeed.

8. DARK PHOENIX – wow, this really has been a summer for mistreated sequels, hasn’t it? There’s a seriously stinky cloud of controversy surrounding what is now, in light of recent developments between Disney and Twentieth Century Fox, all but QUARANTEED to be the last true Singer-era X-Men movie, a film which saw two mooted release dates (first November 2018 then this February, before finally limping onto screens with very little fanfare in June, almost as if Fox wanted to bury it. Certainly rumours of its compromise were rife, particularly regarding supposed rushed reshoots because of clashing similarities with Marvel’s major tent-pole release Captain Marvel (and given the all-conquering nature of the MCU there was no way they were having that, was there?), so like many I was expecting a clunky mess, maybe even a true stinker to rival X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In truth, while it’s not perfect, the end result is nothing like the turd we all feared – the final film is, in fact, largely a success, worthy of favourable comparison with its stronger predecessors. It certainly makes much needed amends for the disappointing mismanagement of the source comics’ legendary Dark Phoenix saga in 2006’s decidedly compromised original X-Men trilogy capper The Last Stand, treating the story with the due reverence and respect it deserves as well as serving as a suitably powerful send-off for more than one beloved key character. Following the “rebooted” path of the post-Days of Future Past timeline, it’s now 1992, and after the world-changing events of Apocalypse the X-Men have now become a respected superhero team with legions of fans and their own personal line to the White House, while mutants at large have now mostly become accepted by the regular humans around them. Then a hastily planned mission into space takes a turn for the worst and Jean Grey (Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner) winds up absorbing an immensely powerful, thoroughly inexplicable cosmic force that makes her go powers haywire while also knocking loose repressed childhood traumas Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) would rather had stayed buried, sending her on a dangerous spiral out of control which leads to a destructive confrontation and the inadvertent death of a teammate. Needless to the situation soon becomes desperate as Jean goes on the run and the world starts to turn against them all once again … all in all, then, it’s business as usual for the cast and crew of one of Fox’s flagship franchises, and it SHOULD have gone off without a hitch. When Bryan Singer opted not to return this time around (instead setting his sights on Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody), key series writer Simon Kinberg stepped into the breach for his directorial debut, and it turns out he’s got a real talent for it, giving us just the kind of robust, pacy, thrilling action-packed epic his compatriot would have delivered, filled with the same thumping great set-pieces (the final act’s stirring, protracted train battle is the unequivocal highlight here), well-observed character beats and emotional resonance we’ve come to expect from the series as a whole (then again, he does know these movies back to frond having at least co-written his fair share). The cast, similarly, are all on top form – McAvoy and Michael Fassbender (as fan favourite Erik Lehnsherr, aka Magneto) know their roles so well now they can do this stuff in their sleep, but we still get to see them explore interesting new facets of their characters (particularly McAvoy, who gets to reveal an intriguing dark side to the Professor we’ve only ever seen hinted at before now), while Turner finally gets to really breathe in a role which felt a little stiff and underexplored in her series debut in Apocalypse (she EASILY forges the requisite connective tissue to Famke Janssen’s more mature and assured take in the earlier films); conversely Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler) and Evan Peters (Quicksilver) get somewhat short shrift but nonetheless do A LOT with what little they have, and at least Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult still get to do plenty of dramatic heavy lifting as the last of Xavier’s original class, Raven (Mystique) and Hank McCoy (Beast); the only real weak link in the cast is the villain, Vuk, a shape-shifting alien whose quest to seize the power Jean’s appropriated is murkily defined at best, but at least Jessica Chastain manages to invest her with enough icy menace to keep things from getting boring. All in all, then, this is very much a case of business as usual, Kinberg and co keeping the action thundering along at a suitably cracking pace throughout (powered by a typically epic score from Hans Zimmer), and the film only really comes off the rails in its final moments, when that aforementioned train finally comes off its tracks and the reported reshoots must surely kick in – as a result this is, to me, most reminiscent of previous X-flick The Wolverine, which was a rousing success for the majority of its runtime, only coming apart in its finale thanks to that bloody ridiculous robot samurai. The climax is, therefore, a disappointment, too clunky and sudden and overly neat in its denouement (and we really could have done with a proper examination of the larger social impact of these events), but it’s little enough that it doesn’t spoil what came before … which just makes the film’s mismanagement and resulting failure, as well as its subsequent treatment from critics and fans alike, all the more frustrating. This film deserved much better, but ultimately looks set to be disowned and glossed over by most of the fanbase as the property as a whole goes through the inevitable overhaul now that Disney/Marvel owns Fox and plans to bring the X-Men and their fellow mutants into the MCU fold. I feel genuinely sorry for the one remaining X-film, The New Mutants, which is surely destined for spectacular failure after its similarly shoddy round of reschedules finally comes to an end next summer …

7. FAST COLOR – intriguingly, the most INTERESTING superhero movie I’ve encountered so far this year is NOT a major franchise property, or even a comic book adapted to the screen at all, but a wholly original indie which snuck in very much under the radar on its release but is surely destined for cult greatness in the future, not least due to some much-deserved critical acclaim. Set in an unspecified future where it hasn’t rained for years, a homeless vagabond named Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is making her aimless way across a desolate American Midwest, tormented by violent seizures which cause strange localised earthquakes, and hunted by Bill (Argo’s Christopher Denham), a rogue scientist who wants to capture her so he can study her abilities. Ultimately she’s left with no other recourse than to run home, sheltering with her mother Bo (Middle of Nowhere and Orange is the New Black’s Lorraine Toussaint), and her young daughter Lila (The Passage’s Saniyya Sidney), both of whom also have weird and wondrous powers of their own. As the estranged family reconnect, Ruth finally learns to control her powers as she’s forced to confront her own troubled past, but as Bill closes in it looks like their idyll might be short-lived … this might only be the second feature of writer-director Julie Hart (who cut her teeth penning well-regarded indie western The Keeping Room before making her own debut helming South By Southwest Film Festival hit Miss Stevens), but it’s a blinding statement of intent for the future, a deceptively understated thing of beauty that eschews classic superhero cinema conventions of big spectacle and rousing action in favour of a quiet, introspective character-driven story where the unveiling and exploration of Ruth and her kin’s abilities are secondary to the examination of how their familial dynamics work (or often DON’T), while Hart and cinematographer Michael Fimognari (probably best known for his frequent work for Mike Flanagan, including forthcoming Stephen King horror Doctor Sleep) bring a ruined but bleakly beautiful future to life through inventively understated production design and sweeping, dramatic vistas largely devoid of visual effects. Subtlety is the watchword, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t fireworks here, it’s just that they’re generally performance-based – awards-darling Mbatha-Raw (Belle) gives a raw, heartfelt performance, painting Rith in vivid shades of grey, while Toussaint is restrained but powerfully memorable and Sidney builds on her already memorable work to deliver what might be her best turn to date, and there are strong supporting turns from Denham (who makes his nominal villain surprisingly sympathetic) and Hollywood great David Strathairn as gentle small town sheriff Ellis. Leisurely paced and understated it may be, but this is still an incendiary piece of work, sure to become a breakout sleeper hit for a filmmaking talent from whom I expect GREAT THINGS in the future, and since the story’s been picked up for expansion into a TV series with Hart at in charge that looks like a no-brainer. And it most assuredly IS a bona fide superhero movie, despite appearances to the contrary …

6. ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD – since his explosion onto the scene twenty-seven years ago with his runaway smash debut Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino has become one of the most important filmmakers of his generation, a true master of the cinematic art form who consistently delivers moving picture masterpieces that thrill, entertain, challenge and amuse audiences worldwide … at least those who can stomach his love of unswerving violence, naughty talk and morally bankrupt antiheroes and despicably brutal villains who are often little more than a shade different from one another. Time has moved on, though, and while he’s undoubtedly been one of the biggest influences on the way cinema has changed over the past quarter century, there are times now that it’s starting to feel like the scene is moving on in favour of younger, fresher blood with their own ideas. I think Tarantino can sense this himself, because he recently made a powerful statement – after he’s made his tenth film, he plans to retire. Given that OUATIH is his NINTH film, that deadline is already looming, and we unashamed FANS of his films are understandably aghast over this turn of events. Thankfully he remains as uncompromisingly awesome a writer-director as ever, delivering another gold standard five-star flick which is also most definitely his most PERSONAL work to date, quite simply down to the fact that it’s a film ABOUT film. Sure, it has a plot (of sorts, anyway), revolving around the slow decline of the career of former TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo Dicaprio), who languishes in increasing anonymity in Hollywood circa 1969 as his former western hero image is being slowly eroded by an increasingly hacky workload guest-starring on various syndicated shows as a succession of punching-bag heavies for the hero to wale on, while his only real friend is his one-time stunt double, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), a former WW2 hero with a decidedly tarnished reputation of his own; meanwhile new neighbours have moved in next door to further distract him – hot-as-shit young director Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha), riding high on the success of Rosemary’s Baby, and his new wife Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie). Certainly this all drives the film, along with real-life events that involving one of the darkest crimes in modern American history, but a lot of the time the plot is largely coincidental – Quentin uses it as a springboard to wax lyrical about his very favourite subject and pay loving (if sometimes irreverently satirical) tribute to the very business he’s been indulging in with such great success since 1992. Sure, it’s also about “Helter Skelter” and the long shadow cast by Charles Manson and his band of murderous misfits, but these are largely incidental, as we’re treated to long, entertaining interludes as we follow Rick on a shoot as the bad guy in the pilot for the Lancer TV series, visit the notorious Spahn Ranch with Cliff as he’s unwittingly drawn into the lion’s den of the deadly Manson Family, join Robbie’s Tate as she watches “herself” in The Wrecking Crew, and enjoy a brilliant montage in which we follow Rick’s adventures in Spaghetti westerns (and Eurospy cinema) after he’s offered a chance to change his flagging fortunes, before the film finally builds to a seemingly inevitable, fateful conclusion that Tarantino then, in sneakily OTT Inglourious Basterds style, mischievously turns on its head with a devilish game of “What If”. The results are a thoroughly engrossing and endlessly entertaining romp through the seedier side of Hollywood and a brilliant warts-and-all examination of the craft’s inner workings that, interestingly, reveals as much about the Business today as it does about how it was way back into Golden Age the film portrays, all while delivering bucket-loads of QT’s trademark cool, swagger, idiosyncratic genius and to-die-for dialogue and character-work, and, of course, a typically exceptional all-star cast firing on all cylinders. Dicaprio and Pitt are both spectacular (Brad is endearingly taciturn, playing it wonderfully close to the vest throughout, while Leo is simply ON FIRE, delivering a mercurial performance EASILY on a par with his work on Shutter Island and The Wolf of Wall Street – could this be good enough to snag him a second Oscar?), while Robbie consistently endears us to Tate as she EFFORTLESSLY brings the fallen star back to life, and there’s an incredible string of amazing supporting turns from established talent and up-and-comers alike, from Kurt Russell, Al Pacino and a very spiky Bruce Dern to Mike Moh (in a FLAWLESS take on Bruce Lee), Margaret Qualley, Austin Butler and in particular Julia Butters as precocious child star Trudi Fraser. Packed with winning references, homages, pastiches and ingenious little in-jokes, handled with UTMOST respect for the true life subjects at all times and shot all the way through with his characteristic flair and quirky, deliciously dark sense of humour, this is cinema very much of the Old School, and EVERY INCH a Tarantino flick. With only one more film to go the implied end of his career seems much too close, but if he delivers one more like this he’ll leave behind a legacy that ANY filmmaker would be proud of.

5. CRAWL – summer 2019’s runner-up horror offering marks a rousing return to form for a genre talent who’s FINALLY delivered on the impressive promise of his early work – Alexandre Aja made a startling debut with Switchblade Romance, which led to his big break helming the cracking remake of slasher stalwart The Hills Have Eyes, but then he went SPECTACULARLY off the rails when he made the truly abysmal Piranha 3D, which I wholeheartedly regard as one of THE VERY WORST FILMS EVER MADE IN ALL OF HISTORY. He took a big step back in the right direction with the admittedly flawed but ultimately enjoyable and evocative Horns (based on the novel by Stephen King’s son Joe Hill), but it’s with this stripped back, super-tight man-against-nature survival horror that the Aja of old has TRULY returned to us. IN SPADES. Seriously, I personally think this is his best film to date – there’s no fat on it at all, going from a simple set-up STRAIGHT into a precision-crafted exercise in sustained tension that relentlessly grips right up to the end credits. The film is largely just a two-hander – Maze Runner star Kaya Scodelario plays Haley Keller, a Florida college student and star swimmer who ventures into the heart of a Category 5 hurricane to make sure her estranged father, Dave (Saving Private Ryan’s Barry Pepper), is okay after he drops off the grid. Finding their old family home in a state of disrepair and slowly flooding, she does a last minute check of the crawl-space underneath, only to discover her father badly wounded and a couple of hungry alligators stalking the dark, cramped, claustrophobic confines. With the flood waters rising and communications cut off, Haley and Dave must use every reserve of strength, ingenuity and survival instinct to keep each other alive in the face of increasingly daunting odds … even with a premise this simple, there was plenty of potential for this to become an overblown, clunky mess in the wrong hands (a la Snakes On a Plane), so it’s a genuinely great thing that Aja really is back at the height of his powers, milking every fraught and suspenseful set-piece to its last drop of exquisite piano-wire tension and putting his actors through hell without a reprieve in sight. Thankfully it’s not JUST about scares and atmosphere, though – there’s a genuinely strong family drama at the heart of the story that helps us invest in these two, Scodelario delivering a phenomenally complex performance as she peels back Haley’s layers, from stubborn pedant, through vulnerable child of divorce, to ironclad born survivor, while reconnecting with her emotionally raw, repentantly open father, played with genuine naked intensity in a career best turn from Pepper. Their chemistry is INCREDIBLY strong, making every scene a joy even as it works your nerves and tugs on your heartstrings, and as a result you DESPERATELY want to see them make it out in one piece. Not that Aja makes it easy for them – the gators are an impressively palpable threat, proper scary beasties even if they are largely (admittedly impressively executed) digital effects, while the storm is almost a third character in itself, becoming as much of an elemental nemesis as its scaly co-stars. Blessedly brief (just 87 minutes!) and with every second wrung out for maximum impact, this is survival horror at its most brutally, simplistically effective, a deliciously vicious, primal chill-ride that thoroughly rewards from start to finish. Welcome back, Mr Aja. We’ve missed you.

4. BRIGHTBURN – torpedoing Crawl right out of the water is this refreshing, revisionist superhero movie that takes one of the most classic mythologies in the genre and turns it on its head with TERRIFYING results. The basic premise is an absolute blinder – what if, when he crashed in small-town America as a baby, Superman had turned out to be a bad seed? Unsurprising, then, that it came from James Gunn, who here produces a screenplay by his brother and cousin Brian and Mark (best known for penning the likes of Journey 2: the Mysterious Island, but nobody’s perfect) and the directorial big break of his old mate David Yarovesky (whose only previous feature is obscure sci-fi horror The Hive) – Gunn is, of course, an old pro at taking classic comic book tropes and creating something completely new with them, having previously done so with HUGE success on cult indie black comedy Super and, in particular, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies, and his fingerprints are ALL OVER this one too. The Hunger Games’ Elizabeth Banks (who starred in Gunn’s own directorial debut Slither) and David Denman (The Office) are Tori and Kyle Breyer, a farming couple living in Brightburn, Kansas, who are trying for a baby when a mysterious pod falls from the sky onto their land, containing an infant boy. As you’d expect, they adopt him, determined to keep his origin a secret, and for the first twelve of his life all seems perfectly fine – Brandon’s growing up into an intelligent, artistic child who loves his family. Then his powers manifest and he starts to change – not just physically (he’s impervious to harm, incredibly strong, has laser eyes and the ability to disrupt electronic devices … oh, and he can fly, too), but also in personality, as he becomes cold, distant, even cruel as he begins to demonstrate some seriously sociopathic tendencies. As his parents begin to fear what he’s becoming, things begin to spiral out of control and people start to disappear or turn up brutally murdered, and it becomes clear that Brandon might actually be something out of a nightmare … needless to say this is superhero cinema as full-on horror, Brandon’s proclivities leading to some proper nasty moments once he really starts to cut loose, and there’s no mistaking this future super for one of the good guys – he pulverises bones, shatters faces and melts skulls with nary a twitch, just the tiniest hint of a smile. It’s an astonishing performance from newcomer Jackson A. Dunn, who perfectly captures the nuanced subtleties as Brandon goes from happy child to lethal psychopath, clearly demonstrating that he’s gonna be an incredible talent in future; the two grown leads, meanwhile, are both excellent, Denman growing increasingly haunted and exasperated as he tries to prove his own son is a wrong ‘un, while Banks has rarely been better, perfectly embodying a mother desperately clinging to the idea that her son is innocent no matter how compelling the evidence becomes, and there’s quality support from Breaking Bad’s Matt Jones and Search Party’s Meredith Hagner as Brandon’s aunt and uncle, Noah and Meredith, and Becky Wahlstrom the mother of one of his school-friends, who seems to see him for what he is right from the start. Dark, suspenseful and genuinely nasty, this is definitely not your typical superhero movie, often playing like Kick-Ass’ even more twisted cousin, and there are times when it displays some of the same edgy, black-hearted sense of humour, too. In other words, it’s all very James Gunn. It’s one sweet piece of work, everyone involved showing real skill and devotion, and Yarovesky in particular proves he’ll definitely be one-to-watch in the future. There are already plans for a potential sequel, and given where this particular little superhero universe seems to be heading I think it could be something pretty special, so fair to say I can’t wait.

3. FAST & FURIOUS PRESENTS HOBBS & SHAW – it’s official, this summer’s most OTT movie is THE MOST FUN I’ve had at the cinema so far this year, a genuinely batshit crazy, pure bonkers rollercoaster ride of a film I just couldn’t get enough of, truly the perfect sum of all its baffling parts. The Fast & Furious franchise has always revelled in its extremes, as subtle as a brick and very much playing to the blockbuster, popcorn movie crowd right from the start, but it wasn’t until Fate of the Furious (yup, ridiculous title, says it all) that it really started to play to the inherent ridiculousness of its overall setup, paving the way for this first crack at a new spin-off series for the post Vin Diesel years. Needless to say this one has fully embraced the sheer ludicrousness, and director David Leitch is the perfect choice to shepherd it into the future, having previously mastered OTT action through John Wick and Atomic Blonde before helming manic screwball comedy Deadpool 2, which certainly is the strongest comparison point here – Hobbs & Shaw is every bit as loud, violent, chaotic and thoroughly irreverent, definitely playing up the inherent comic potential at the core of the material as he cranks up the humour. Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham take centre stage now as, respectively, DSS agent Luke Hobbs and former SAS black operative Deckard Shaw, the ultimate action movie odd couple once again forced to work together to foil the bad guy and save the world from a potentially cataclysmic disaster. Specifically Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), a self-proclaimed “black superman” enhanced with cybernetic implants and genetic manipulation to turn him into the ultimate warrior, who plans to use a lethal designer supervirus to eradicate half of humanity (as supervillains tend to do), but there’s one small flaw in his plan – the virus has been stolen by Hattie Shaw (Mission: Impossible – Fallout’s Vanessa Kirby), a rogue MI6 agent who also happens to be Deckard’s sister. Got all that? Yup, the movie really is as mad as it sounds, but that’s very much part of the charm – there’s an enormous amount of fun to be had in just giving in and going along with the madness of it all, as Hobbs and the two Shaws bounce from one over-the-top, ludicrously destructive set-piece to the next, kicking plenty of arse along the way when they’re not jumping out of tall buildings or driving fast cars at ludicrous speeds in heavy traffic, and when they’re not doing that they’re bickering with enthusiasm, each exchange crackling with exquisite hate-hate chemistry and liberally laced with hilarious dialogue delivered with gleeful, fervent venom (turns out there’s few things so enjoyable a watching Johnson and Statham verbally rip each other a new one), and the two action cinema heavyweights have never been better than they are here, each bringing the very best performances of their respective careers out of each other as they vacillate, while Kirby holds her own with consummate skill that goes to show she’s got a bright future of her own. As for Idris Elba, the one-time potential future Bond deserves to be remembered as one of the all-time great screen villains ever, investing Brixton with the perfect combination of arrogant swagger and lethal menace to steal every scene he’s in while simultaneously proving he can be just as big a badass in the action stakes; Leitch also scatters a selection of familiar faces from his previous movies throughout a solid supporting cast which also includes the likes of Fear the Walking Dead’s Cliff Curtis, From Dusk Till Dawn’s Eiza Gonzalez and Helen Mirren (who returns as Deckard and Hattie’s mum Queenie Shaw), while there’s more than one genuinely brilliant surprise cameo to enjoy. As we’ve come to expect, the action sequences are MASSIVE, powered by nitrous oxide and high octane as property is demolished and vehicles are driven with reckless abandon when our protagonists aren’t engaged bruising, bone-crunching fights choreographed with all the flawless skill you’d expect from a director who used to be a professional stuntman, but this time round the biggest fun comes from the downtime, as the aforementioned banter becomes king. It’s an interesting makeover for the franchise, going from heavyweight action stalwart to comedy gold, and it’s direction I hope they’ll maintain for the inevitable follow-up – barring Fast Five, this is the best Fast & Furious to date, and a strong indicator of how it should go to keep conquering multiplexes in future. Sign me up for more, please.

2. SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME – this summer’s been something of a decompression period for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with many of us recovering from the sheer emotional DEVASTATION of the grand finale of Phase 3, Avengers: Endgame, so the main Blockbuster Season’s entry really needed to be light and breezy, a blessed relief after all that angst and loss, much like Ant-Man & the Wasp was last year as it followed Infinity War. And it is, by and large – this is as light-hearted and irreverent as its predecessor, following much the same goofy teen comedy template as Homecoming, but there’s no denying that there’s a definite emotional through-line from Endgame that looms large here, a sense of loss the film fearlessly addresses right from the start, sometimes with a bittersweet sense of humour, sometimes straight. But whichever path the narrative chooses, the film stays true to this underlying truth – there have been great and painful changes in this world, and we can’t go back to how it was before, no matter how hard we try, but then perhaps we shouldn’t. This is certainly central to our young hero’s central arc – Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is in mourning, and not even the prospect of a trip around Europe with his newly returned classmates, together with the chance to finally get close to M.J. (Zendaya), maybe even start a relationship, can entirely distract him from the gaping hole in his life. Still, he’s gonna give it his best shot, but it looks like fate has other plans for our erstwhile Spider-Man as superspy extraordinaire Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) comes calling, basically hijacking his vacation with an Avengers-level threat to deal with, aided by enigmatic inter-dimensional superhero Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), who has a personal stake in the mission, but as he’s drawn deeper into the fray Peter discovers that things may not be quite as they seem. Of course, giving anything more away would of course dumps HEINOUS spoilers on the precious few who haven’t yet seen the film – suffice to say that the narrative drops a MAJOR sea-change twist at the midpoint that’s EVERY BIT as fiendish as the one Shane Black gave us in Iron Man 3 (although the more knowledgeable fans of the comics will likely see it coming), and also provides Peter with JUST the push he needs to get his priorities straight and just GET OVER IT once and for all. Tom Holland again proves his character is the most endearing teenage geek in cinematic history, his spectacular super-powered abilities and winning underdog perseverance in the face of impossible odds still paradoxically tempered by the fact he’s as loveably hopeless as ever outside his suit; Mysterio himself, meanwhile, frequently steals the film out from under him, the strong bromance they develop certainly mirroring what Peter had with Tony Stark, and it’s a major credit to Gyllenhaal that he so perfectly captures the essential dualities of the character, investing Beck with a roguish but subtly self-deprecating charm that makes him EXTREMELY easy to like, but ultimately belying something much more complex hidden beneath it; it’s also nice to see so many beloved familiar faces returning, particularly the fantastically snarky and self-assured Zendaya, Jacob Batalon (once again pure comic gold as Peter’s adorably nerdy best friend Ned), Tony Revolori (as his self-important class rival Flash Thompson) and, of course, Marisa Tomei as beloved Aunt May, as well as Jackson and Cobie Smoulders as dynamite SHIELD duo Fury and his faithful lieutenant Maria Hill, and best of all Jon Favreau gets a MUCH bigger role this time round as Happy Hogan. Altogether this is very much business as usual for the MCU, the well-oiled machine unsurprisingly turning out another near-perfect gem of a superhero flick that ticks all the required boxes, but a big part of the film’s success should be attributed to returning director Jon Watts, effectively building on the granite-strong foundations of Homecoming with the help of fellow alumni Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers on screenplay duty, for a picture that feels both comfortingly familiar and rewardingly fresh, delivering on all the required counts with thrilling action and eye candy spectacle, endearingly quirky character-based charm and a typically winning sense of humour, and plenty of understandably powerful emotional heft. And, like always, there are plenty of fan-pleasing winks and nods and revelations, and the pre-requisite mid- and post-credit teasers too, both proving to be some proper game-changing corkers. The future of the property may be in doubt, but this is still another winner from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but then was there really ever any doubt?

1. JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3 – needless to say, those who know me should be in no doubt why THIS is at the top of my list for summer 2019 – this has EVERYTHING I love in movies and more. Keanu Reeves is back in the very best role he’s ever played, unstoppable, unbeatable, un-killable hitman John Wick, who, when we rejoin him mere moments after the end of 2017’s phenomenal Chapter 2, is in some SERIOUSLY deep shit, having been declared Incommunicado by the High Table (the all-powerful ruling elite who run this dark and deadly shadowy underworld) after circumstances forced him to gun down an enemy on the grounds of the New York Continental Hotel (the inviolable sanctuary safe-house for all denizens of the underworld), as his last remaining moments of peace tick away and he desperately tries to find somewhere safe to weather the initial storm. Needless to say the opening act of the film is ONE LONG ACTION SEQUENCE as John careers through the rain-slick backstreets of New York, fighting off attackers left and right with his signature brutal efficiency and unerring skill, perfectly setting up what’s to come – namely a head-spinning, exhausting parade of spectacular set pieces that each put EVERY OTHER offering in any other film this year to shame. Returning director Chad Stahelski again proves that he’s one of the very best helmsmen around for this kind of stuff, delivering FAR beyond the call on every count as he creates a third entry to a series that continues to go from strength to strength, while Keanu once again demonstrates what a phenomenal screen action GOD he is, gliding through each scenario with poise, precision and just the right balance of brooding charm and so-very-done-with-this-shit intensity and a thoroughly enviable athletic physicality that really does put him on the same genre footing as Tom Cruise. As with the first two chapters, what plot there is is largely an afterthought, a facility to fuel the endless wave of stylish, wince-inducing, thoroughly exhilarating violent bloodshed, as John cuts another bloody swathe through the underworld searching for a way to remove the lethal bounty from his head while an Adjudicator from the High Table (Orange Is the New Black’s Asia Kate Dillon) arrives in New York to settle affairs with Winston (Ian McShane), the manager of the New York Continental, and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) for helping John create this mess in the first place. McShane and Fishburne are both HUGE entertainment in their fantastically nuanced large-than-life roles, effortlessly stealing each of their scenes, while the ever-brilliant Lance Reddick also makes a welcome return as Winston’s faithful right-hand Charon, the concierge of the Continental, who finally gets to show off his own hardcore action chops when trouble arrives at their doorstep, and there are plenty of franchise newcomers who make strong impressions here – Dillon is the epitome of icy imperiousness, perfectly capturing the haughty superiority you’d expect from a direct representative of the High Table, Halle Berry gets a frustratingly rare opportunity to show just how seriously badass she can be as former assassin Sofia, the manager of the Casablanca branch of the Continental and one of John’s only remaining allies, Game of Thrones’ Jerome Flynn is smarmy and entitled as her boss Berrada, and Anjelica Houston is typically classy as the Director, the ruthless head of New York’s Ruska Roma (John’s former “alma mater”, basically). The one that REALLY sticks in the memory, though, is Mark Dacascos, finally returning to the big time after frustrating years languishing in lurid straight-to-video action dreck and lowbrow TV hosting duties thanks to a BLISTERING turn as Zero, a truly brilliant semi-comic creation who routinely runs away with the film – he’s the Japanese master ninja the Adjudicator tasks with dispensing her will, a thoroughly lethal killer who may well be as skilled as our hero, but his deadliness is amusingly tempered by the fact that he’s also a total nerd who HERO WORSHIPS John Wick, adorably geeking out whenever their paths cross. Their long-gestating showdown provides a suitably magnificent climax to the action, but there’s plenty to enjoy in the meantime, as former stuntman Stahelski and co keep things interestingly fluid as they constantly change up the dynamics and add new elements, from John using kicking horses in a stable and knives torn out of display cases in a weaponry museum to dispatch foes on the fly, through Sofia’s use of attack dogs to make the Moroccan portion particularly nasty and a SPECTACULAR high octane sequence in which John fights katana-wielding assailants on speeding motorcycles, to the film’s UNDISPUTABLE highlight, an astounding fight in which John takes on Zero’s disciples (including two of the most impressive guys from The Raid movies, Cecep Arif Rahman and Yayan Ruhian) in (and through) an expansive chamber made up entirely of glass walls and floors. Altogether then, this is business as usual for a franchise that’s consistently set the bar for the genre as a whole, an intensely bruising, blissfully blood-drenched epic that cranks its action up to eleven, shot with delicious neon-drenched flair and glossy graphic novel visual excess, a consistently inspired exercise in fascinating world-building that genuinely makes you want to live among its deadly denizens (even though you probably wouldn’t live very long). The denouement sets things up for an inevitable sequel, and I’m not at all surprised – right from the first film I knew the concept had some serious legs, and it’s just too good to quit yet. Which is just how I like it …

#movies 2019 #captive state #godzilla king of the monsters #dark phoenix #fast color #once upon a time in hollywood #crawl #crawl movie #brightburn #hobbs and shaw #spider man far from home #John Wick Chapter 3 #awesome sauce

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devi-nyx-elsword-theorist · 4 years

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Alright, I prep myself to make the post for a second for one of Eve's paths as we all know I adore Code Ultimate's path, I love-hate the Code: Sariel path now before you all grab your Adds, or whatever. Wait do the smaller part of the Adds in the Els community bugging Eve to this day? I don't hang out in most places in the game. Also this is my opinion

I still liked the path don't get me wrong but before, I was in a guild and this was when I had 2 Eve's one is a Code Nemesis and the other was the Code Battle Seraph as i was playing her path. Hooo boy " This class is easy" a guild member said, I mean it felt easy but realizing you had to spam like El Crystal Spectrum when it goes out but because I wasn't a Code Nemesis where whenever I got the chance to update my buff, it was waiting for the buff to end ( they made it now to switch from that to Electric Heart not at will that much but COOLDOWNS), but this was also the time where I barely did pvp this Aisha having Slow movement to where I socket my spar gear with Attack speed and Movement Jump speed, so I outspeed her and she got all rude because I had a little experience of the pvp setting plus freeze attribute. Yeah I asked a friend in guild for idea and they told me that, really, I should've experimented a bit but hey my skills were doing more of my damage when ready, but yeah a base level 12 Aisha just really wanted to beat a level 23 Code Electra, I was nice to tell her she can teleport when she gets up, and she didn't realize she had mp to fight back and evade me like all the other Aisha's but thats not what this is about, I'll make a post of the best kinds of people in pvp I met especially that Grand Master who wouldn't let me attack at all with a Crimson Avenger, I cann tell you all about it in the future.

but after CBS, oh my loooord I wanted to give up, but because it was still one of Eve's paths. So I gave up, so rest the class for years, until I asked here for some pro and cons. I played casually with my friend so we were even level of bossing and clearing, really spammed support with Critical Aura, El Crystal Spectrum Blue, Electric heart combined with Energy Needles while chugging MP potions. So really I loved just clearing waves after waves after waves until a good length of a straight line is Psychic Artillery. It is fun clearing thats only how I solved the situations in dungeons.

But now the part of hating the path is, aside from lagging especially in Sanders Secret dungeon that place is naturally laggy to my game, and friends currently as a host and on their own knows it is laggy for them to but side track already, CBS skill Thousand Star although I love the naming for it, you have to make contact for Mass Release to even use the skill but most CBS and CS have it up and not use mass release at all but it hits regardless when you attack, except its Mod counterpart where it will hit anyways as Mass Release. But the fact that, like I don't mind if people say its the best Eve class(because it can clear) but really, chugging MP and it will screw you over once or twice from my own solo experience as a Code Sariel like literally I knew but I wasn't expecting to pay for all of my Mana Potions more than my Potions, and then dying by mistake thats always fun, but in a light hearted note she was my first Eve to be third class before my Code: Empress and Code: Nemesis. Did I mention that my Code Sariel managed to survive Solace while my friends Lunatic Psyker kept getting whooped, that was fun to watch mostly until i spent my ressurection stones on him.

#Elsword #Elsword Eve #Another Code #code: electra #code: battle seraph #code: sariel #C:El #C:BS #C:S #CEL #CBS #CS #Devinrockx #Devinrockx moments #elsword liked disliked love-hate #Eve

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springmarshmallow · 5 years

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El Gang appetites and palettes (sorta) headcanons

Monstrous appetite:

Elsword : He will eat anything you put in front of him except for leafy greens, which are his mortal enemies. Absolutely anything else disappears at a frightening rate from his plate.

Ara : The Meat Queen. Can eat any amount of meat without any sides. Comes a close second to Elsword's appetite, but unlike him, eats all her vegetables. The only thing that can turn her off is dishes made using insects. She nearly puked when Raven unknowingly bought Beondegi for them in Sander.

Above average appetite:

Rose : She is the least picky eater in the whole gang apart from Laby, and eats a very healthy amount as well - a combination of her military training and her own excellent metabolism. Ate the aforementioned Beondegi without batting an eye, much to Ara's horror.

Lu : Can scarf down insane amounts of food for her size, provided it's tasty. Eighty percent of her intake is sweets and desserts though. Ciel has commented that her teeth would be full of cavities if she was a normal girl.

Elesis : Has a very healthy appetite (it runs in the family) and is the resident Queen of Spice. Add once dumped an unholy amount of Tabasco sauce into her already spicy supper during an argument, and she just polished it off like it was nothing. The others have gained even more respect for her since.

Laby : Will eat anything happily. Her favourite food is the canned peaches that Calonne gave her, which earned the distinction due to a combination of taste and sentimental value. She also liked the rock candy Gaia had bought her once.

Chung : Had a very poor appetite through his childhood due to his sickly constitution, but it very slowly increased with the help of Rena's herbal medicines, his own physical training and his growth into adolescence. Once they reached Lanox everyone was shocked and amused to see him digging into the meal Edel's butler prepared for them with almost as much enthusiasm as Elsword and Ara. He enjoys seafood as it is a staple of Hamel he grew up with, and is allergic to mushrooms.

Average appetite:

Raven : Most of the gang think it's sad that his favourite food is jerky. He thinks it's practical. Like Rose, his military training has disposed of particular pickiness about food when it comes to taste, though interestingly, he has expressed distaste for packaged food of any kind on more than one occasion.

Rena : Has a well-balanced diet but is a pure vegan. The gang is always in for a delicious meal when she is in charge of meal prep, but have learnt the hard way not to ask her to cook meat or fish. She eats veggies, fruits, yams, lentils, cheese wholeheartedly, though her all-time favourite is a classic Cobb salad.

Ciel : It's more quality than quantity with Ciel. He has a sweet tooth, though he hates anything strawberry flavoured. He enjoys making pancakes whenever he's stressed, and ends up sharing them later with Lu, Elsword and Add. His favourite flavour in desserts is blueberry.

Add : His appetite used to be almost as poor as Chung's, mainly because he had to make do with small portions to get by on the limited store in the ancient library. He still isn't a big eater by any means, and increased his intake only when he started developing a more aggressive and active fighting style. Can, however, devour Ciel's cookies at a pace to rival Lu.

Aisha : The pickiest eater of the bunch. She will not eat anything that has an unusual texture or smell, and despises anything she can taste cheese or cinnamon in, or is remotely bitter. Her favourite food item is strawberry cake. She eats dainty portions "fit for a lady".

Below average appetite:

Eve : Adrian did build in taste receptors in Eve's mouth, but they are very rudimentary and as such she can only identify textures and the dominant flavour of the food, ie, sweet, salty, bitter, sour and spicy. She cannot detect variations in the scale of these flavours either unless they are very large. As such, she doesn't have much preference in the way of food, having no actual need for it in the first place despite having a 100 percent efficiency digestive system (no waste products created - the energy produced by the food becomes additional energy at her system's disposal). She does however, seem to prefer salted nuts and iced tea. She eats with the gang more out of a sense of courtesy, taking only tiny portions at each meal.

Ain : Ain, like Eve, does not need food to survive. However, unlike her, he has fully functioning taste buds and yet has no preferences in food. He eats at all only to keep up the impression that he is a human priest.

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overanalyzingelswordiswhatido · 5 years

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Time for some Eve analysis

I'm like 90% sure Eve has anxiety. The first actual emotion we see from her is doubt. Not only that, its SELF doubt. Then she gets wrapped up in a war where she watches Nasods get turned against each other with the Alterasia plants. Her next actual emotion is loneliness when she wakes up to find all her friends essentially the equivalent of dead. But hey! Theres hope. She brings the core back online and tells it to rebuild her people. She uses all of her power for that and needs a nap but thats okay. Except oops. Adam is bad at communication and fucked all of that up because he didnt tell anyone why he was making this army and he went and hurt people in the process. And now she is well and truly alone. The only Nasod left on Elrios. With a savage looking redhead boy telling her he will be her friend. I also think that her anxiety is very apparent in the Ultimate and Sariel routes. They design themselves into battle Nasods to protect a kingdom they haven't even built yet.

Also, its very interesting that the first solid dynamic we see between her and the El Search Party is her looking after Elsword. Now part of that is learned. Eve doesn't quite have a concept of what friendship really is when they first pick her up. She doesn't even seem to be familiar with the word. Aisha and Elsword are the most obviously close in the El Search Party. Aisha is always going after Elsword and saving his ass and yelling at him for being dumb. Aisha's reasons for that are because she's tsundere. Eve's reasons are because she doesn't have an exact idea of what friendship is and because Elsword is the one it seems she's most likely to lose should something go wrong. Rena and Raven are sensible. Aisha is pretty sensible and only likely to get hurt when she follows Elsword in. It's also stated when the Glitter Vanguard explodes in the palace entrance that Eve was the only reason they made it out of there. She's shown to get after Add when he does something to hurt someone, more so than any other character in the game. When Elsword merges with the El Eve tells him that just because she said she would respect his decision doesn't mean she would accept his sacrifice. She's also shown to be uncomfortable with the idea of sacrifice in general. Unless of course. Its her thats doing it. At which point, its shown that if she deems it necessary she would sacrifice everything she is. She advises certain courses of action throughout the game, that are often designed to minimalize casualty. She prioritizes the safety of those with her, not just the El Search Party, when things go wrong in Velder. In the Sander end scene she crushes Karis under Adam's fist when Add decides it would be a good idea to take her on himself. When Rena collapses in Feita, Eve has knowledge of her condition that would only be possible by being with Rena. She's shown to be concerned about Raven, even when first meeting him, despite his very distinct distrust of her. While she isnt leaping around trying to please him she is also conscious of his triggers and doesn't bring them up.

I've said this before but Eve is shown scolding Elsword and Add on multiple various occasions but its interesting to me that the only time its Eve that scolds them as opposed to Elesis or Aisha or one of the others, is when what they're doing/saying is likely to hurt themselves or someone else. Otherwise she has very little to say about their behavior. With Add, she doesn't just scold him when he's causing harm to Nasods or putting them in danger. She also scolds him in Lanox when he starts shooting rapid fire interrogating questions at Gloria and Darkmoon and making them cry. She also scolds both him and Elsword in the end of dungeon dialogue of Phantasmal Geyser for peeping in the girl's bath. She is ready to execute them. Also, Add and Elsword, who are the two most prone to getting themselves into a situation they can't get out of, are the only two characters she is shown to scold and come to the aid of most often.

All of that being said, since Eve is still learning emotion and all of its complexities, I'm not sure she is completely aware of the source of her anxieties. She knows that when her friends/other people around her are put in danger or hurt in some way, she worries about them and depending on the severity, she may even feel powerless. In order to prevent herself from feeling uncomfortable (or possibly even doing something stupid to protect them), she takes steps to prevent them from getting hurt. She knows she cant keep them out of danger, but she will keep them from getting hurt badly enough that she might lose them.

On a complete side note, Eve mimicking Aisha is probably the cutest shit I've ever seen. They are definitely best friends at the very least and I am not at all unhappy at shipping them. And even as Eve grows into her own person, she retains what she learned from Aisha. Despite being more kuudere (with a small himedere streak) than anything else, Eve continues to express her connections in ways that more resemble Aisha's tsundere attitude. As she grows though, she basically puts her own spin on it and I love it. This is the shit I am here for.

#elsword #elsword online #eve #code architecture #code empress #code esencia #code exotic #code nemesis #code ultimate #code electra #code battle seraph #code sariel

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blazingsnark · 6 years

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Mistake

Pairing: None Wordcount: 1234 Rating: PG Notes/Summary: Ain watches in horror as Elsword screws up and Diabla wrecks everything. Which could be a summary for the entire game, but let’s not talk about that.

The mistake was Elsword's, in Ain's opinion.

Quite a few members of the Elgang were in the common area of the Sander inn, where they'd quite recently been joined by two new members. Demon members. Ain had wanted to kill them on sight – but Elsword, as merciful as he always was, even under Conwell's influence, had talked him down. Had talked down the entire Elgang. So Lu and Ciel were with them, for better or for worse, at least until Karis died.

He watched lazily from his place half in the void as the Elgang took advantage of their free time. Elsword and Aisha were talking in low voices. Ain didn't care enough to eavesdrop, but Aisha's hand kept going to her chest, and Elsword's mouth twisted continuously further in displeasure.

The two new members came in from patrol. There was blood on Lu's gauntlets, on Ciel's face. He quickly moved to the adjoining kitchen. She tried to follow, but Elsword stood and blocked her way.

“Hey,” he snapped. “Lu. I heard what you did.”

Lu tittered, her head thrown to one side. “What did I do?”

“You hurt Aisha yesterday.” Conwell's sheath winked in and out of existence at Elsword's side. “Don't play dumb with me.”

“Aaaah, the magical girlie,” said Lu. She tossed a glance over her shoulder and a wink at Aisha, outrageous, unrepentant. “We were just training. Don't get your horns in a howl.”

“You broke three of my ribs!” Aisha came to her feet, reaching for her staff. Lu tossed her hair.

“You're fragile.” She tried to sidestep Elsword. Conwell's sheath materialized a sword. Elsword's fingers curled around it, white-knuckled on the hilt, blocking Lu's way with conjured steel.

“Lu,” he growled. “I'll give you one chance. Apologize.”

“Apologize?” Lu sounded out the word between giggles. “Ah, did I hurt the girlie's feelings? Well, chit. I'm sorry you're fragile.”

“That's a shit apology!” snapped Aisha. Her hand closed around her staff, the head shimmering with magic.

“Lu,” said Elsword warningly.

Lu's tail switched back and forth, the laughter suddenly gone from her voice and demeanor. Ain couldn't see her face. He wasn't sure he wanted to.

“Fine, fine. I apologize.”

Elsword should have left it at that. But he didn't. He barely even nodded in satisfaction or paused before moving on to his next point.

“Lu. I know you're a demon queen, but I'm the leader here. You aren't. If you dare lay a hand on any Elgang member again, or injure them in any way, I swear my next sword will go through your throat.”

Ciel stepped from the kitchen behind Elsword, quietly watching. The rest of the El Search Party had gathered around by now. Lu glanced to them for support and found none – Raven's golden eyes hard, Aisha's chin raised in defiance, Ara's red mouth set tight.

She looked back at Ciel, their eyes meeting.

Then she stepped away from Elsword's blade and shrugged. “Fine.”

“Fine?” Elsword sounded a bit taken aback. Lu's tail switched as she giggled.

“Fine, fine, are you going deaf? I promise. On my honor as Queen, I won't lay a single claw on any of the El Search Party.”

She held up her right hand in a mockery of human custom, her tail twitching. The Elgang members relaxed just a little.

But Ain saw Ciel convulse.

He staggered forward, stopped, clutched his chest, and gagged, nearly falling forward before catching himself on the wall. Darkness wrapped his wrists, ankles, throat, and chest like chains, bubbling and swallowing him whole even as he thrashed and tried to fight it.

He fell to his hands and knees, the darkness engulfing him. And what arose most definitely wasn't Ciel.

Black claws grabbed Elsword by the throat, yanked him back against the shadowy figure's chest. He struggled as much as he could. Ain materialized to try and help, but Lu blocked him as soon as he stepped forward.

Her laughter filled the room. The thing that had been Ciel locked a forearm around Elsword's throat and kept him pinned as a human shield, one of Ciel's long gunblades threateningly close to his chest.

“Lu!” The vents of Raven's Arm clicked with his words. She laughed in his face.

“I'm not laying a finger on him,” she mocked. “Am I? My Ciel isn't a part of your merry little band.”

Elsword gagged, desperately clawing at the half-formed black arm cutting off his air. The shadow's flaming blue eyes held no pity. Ain reached for his scythe.

“I wouldn't,” chided Lu, pointing directly at him. “If any of you move on me, your little leader will be dead faster than you can say 'no'. And it's a very short word.”

Everyone froze in place. Elsword's struggling grew weaker. Lu looked around at them all, then threw her head back and cackled.

Ain hated that cackle.

“Who's the leader now?” she shrieked, whirling on Elsword. The shadow-Ciel's arm stopped tightening. Elsword's gaze could barely focus.

“Lu,” he rasped out through gritted teeth. Blood beaded on Ciel's gunblade as he pressed it into Elsword's chest, breaking the skin, sending the sharp scent of blood through the small, hot room.

“No, no. I didn't say you could talk,” chided Lu. Her tail lashed. “Now, let's see. I won't lay a claw on any of you. Fine. I promised. But Elsword, you swear me something in return: You'll never dare interfere with me.”

Shadow-Ciel's arm loosened just enough for Elsword to speak. He hung limp, taking as deep of a breath as he could, his blood running down the gunblade.

“No.”

Lu's smile twisted with the weapon. Elsword cried out through gritted teeth as Ciel's blade drew out of his body, blood pouring down his torso and staining the floor.

“No?” she purred.

“Yes,” snapped Raven. Lu glanced at him over her shoulder, and Ain looked towards him too, seeing hard golden eyes and a clenched metal fist.

“We'll leave you alone. He promises. Now let him go.”

“And you'll not lay a finger on me?” Lu asked.

Elsword shook his head, but shadow-Ciel's arm clamped down on his throat again. He gasped for air audibly. Raven nodded.

“Let. Him. Go.”

Lu stepped to the side, and Ciel threw Elsword at Raven by the scruff of the neck, some unnatural strength sending him to the floor at Raven's feet. The Elgang grouped around their coughing, gasping leader. Rena tried to set up a healing spell. Aisha helped her.

Ain hung back, watching Lu and Ciel, seeing Ciel staring unseeingly into the distance as Lu walked past him. He only followed after she snapped her fingers.

The door to the kitchen shut. Ain dissolved, the string of his pendulum sliding through his fingers once more as he slipped through the kitchen door and watched Ciel collapse out of the darkness.

“Lu-?” he rasped, sitting on the floor. Lu sat herself on the counter and started kicking the cupboards with her heels.

“Hmm?”

“What- happened?”

“You were baking cookies,” said Lu blithely. “Hurry up. I'm hungry.”

Ciel stared at her. Then he raised his hand, rubbing his head. “Is that..?”

“You're acting so weird,” said Lu. “Stop daydreaming. I want food.”

#so long since i wrote els fic #stares into distance #gets fly in eye #three tears and one dead fly later #welp #I've been playing too much closers and skyrim lately #and exams #so many exam #hmmm #i have too high of standards for my skyrim fic so I doubt it'll ever get finished

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coolcolourstournament · 1 year

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Round 2

Chris & Martin & Aviva (Wild Kratts) vs Lloyd & Nya & Pixal (Lego Ninjago)

Finn & LSP (Adventure Time) vs Peridot & Lapis & Amethyst (Steven Universe)

Green Crewmate & Blue Crewmate & Purple Crewmate (Among Us) vs Mike & Sully & Boo (Monsters Inc)

Farran & Naida & Aira (Lego Elves) vs Shaggy & Fred & Daphne (Scooby Doo)

Tinkerbell & Silvermist & Vidia (Tinkerbell Movies) vs Cure Mint & Cure Aqua & Milky Rose (Yes Precure 5 GoGo)

Isa & Benny & Tico (Dora the Explorer) vs Aisha & Bloom & Tecna (Winx Club)

Remus & Logan & Virgil (Sanders Sides) vs Quasimodo & Phoebus & Esmeralda (Hunchback of Notre Dame)

Ralsei & Kris & Susie (Deltarune) vs Evie & Mal (Descendants)

#bracket #tournament #color bracket #color tournament #not a poll

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simping-on-the-daily · 3 years

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Remy: 80% exhaustion, 10% puns, and 20% doesn’t care.

Aisha: That’s 110%.

Remy: 20% doesn’t care.

Aisha: .......I should’ve seen that coming.

#sander sides #sanders sides #fander sides #sander sides ocs #sanders sides ocs #fander sides ocs #sander sides aisha #remy sanders #sander sides remy #sander sides incorrect quotes #ocs #source: tumblr

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ao3feed-trc · 2 years

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Raven’s prompts - Requests

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3maTc3H

by The_King_Of_Ravens

Hi! I’m stuck in quarantine, and then it’s Christmas break. I want to use this time to write more stories. Please send me prompts for these fandoms.

Words: 93, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner, The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner (Movies), Cobra Kai (Web Series), Descendants (Disney Movies), Sanders Sides (Web Series), Once Upon a Time (TV), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV), Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other

Characters: Newt (Maze Runner), Thomas (Maze Runner), Minho (Maze Runner), Chuck (Maze Runner), Alby (Maze Runner), Gally (Maze Runner), Winston (Maze Runner), Frypan (Maze Runner), Brenda (Maze Runner), Teresa Agnes, Clint (Maze Runner), Jeff (Maze Runner), Jorge (Maze Runner), Vince (Maze Runner), Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz, Demetri (Cobra Kai), Miguel Diaz (Cobra Kai), Aisha Robinson, Samantha LaRusso, Moon (Cobra Kai), Yasmine (Cobra Kai), Piper (Cobra Kai), Tory Nichols, Kyler (Cobra Kai), Bert (Cobra Kai), Nathaniel (Cobra Kai), Harry Hook, Uma (Disney), Uma's Crew (Disney), Gil (Disney: Descendants), Mal (Disney), Ben (Disney: Descendants), Carlos de Vil, Jane (Disney: Descendants), Evie (Disney), Jay (Disney), Doug (Disney: Descendants), Li Lonnie, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders, Morality | Patton Sanders, Emma Swan, Captain Hook | Killian Jones, Alice Jones | Tilly, Felix (Once Upon a Time), Peter Pan | Malcolm, Henry Mills (Once Upon a Time), Evil Queen | Regina Mills, Snow White | Mary Margaret Blanchard, Prince Charming | David Nolan, Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold, Belle (Once Upon a Time), Jake Peralta, Amy Santiago, Rosa Diaz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Terry Jeffords, Charles Boyle, Ray Holt, Noah Czerny, Blue Sargent, Ronan Lynch, Adam Parrish, Richard Gansey III

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3maTc3H

#ao3feed #fanfic #the raven cycle #trc

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shaexbutterx · 4 years

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connections

VIDALIA BANAI “You and I are more than friends. We’re like a really small gang.”

Vida is quite literally my favorite person, my absolute best friend, and the only person I really trust. It all started when I stumbled upon a doorway in my salon basement sanctuary that seemed to connect to her neighboring business. I never would have guessed that a visit to Ring of Fire and a simple question about a door would blossom into a lucrative business deal, as well as an amazing friendship. She helps me with my blood supply, not only from her underground business, but also with her newfound interest in pursuing the way of Satan. She might not be interested in converting, but she’s certainly enjoyed learning thus far, and I’ve enjoyed sharing my religion.

JUNIPER SOLIEL “A true friend stabs you in the front, not the back.”

Upon first meeting, Juniper was brash, judgmental, and plain out rude. I had never met her before, yet she acted like she knew everything about me. But that’s not new in my messed up world. When your name is in the headlines for months on end, most people tend to create their own version of you. This is exactly what Juniper did. However, when I called her out on it, she was one of the few people that actually had a good reason to hate the version of me she created. It took some time, but eventually I convinced her I wasn’t all that bad. I’ve been helping her cope with the traumas of her past because my past happens to provide some illuminating insight.

DONNIE DIMAGGIO “If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.”

During a visit to New York, I had the misfortune of stumbling into Donnie’s club. Despite my uneasy feeling upon entry, I decided to stay and to this day I regret it. Although I left the establishment on my own freewill, I was following provided directions and was ambushed in an alleyway and taken back into the club. I was beat, tortured, bound, and abused, not only by Donnie but by his disgusting lackey as well. Thankfully, I refused to let him break me, and with every minute, hour, and day that I fought back I finally gained my freedom. I got out of there, somehow alive and in one piece, and never looked back. Unfortunately for me, Donnie never stopped looking for the one that got away, or so he says, and has now showed up in Sloane in some desperate attempt to prove his dominance over me. It’s a constant back and forth with him, and despite my animosity, Donnie has offered me a lucrative deal that I can’t pass up. Do I really want to go into business with this monster? No. But I’m desperate for cash, and cash is what he’s offering.

OLIVER JONES “Chance made us colleagues, our craziness made us friends.”

Once I looked at Ollie’s resume, I just had a good feeling about him. He had a questionable past, one in which a lot of employers would immediately pass on him for, but I just happened to understand that. I was him once, lost, alone, and desperate for a chance. A chance to prove that I’m not that person anymore. So, much like my mentor, I took Ollie under my wing and gave him a chance. Not only was my feeling accurate, but we’ve grown from being colleagues to establishing a solid friendship that’s founded on similar views and opinions. Getting to go to work every day and seeing Ollie there, getting to chat with him, and learn from him, and plan our next feminist rally together really grounds me. Not to mention all the clients that we help who come into the salon and silently beg for change. He’s an amazing man, with a troubled past, and it’s no wonder we clicked.

MICK SANDERS “We cannot accomplish all that we need to do without working together.”

Mine and Mick’s meeting was anything but ordinary, but it seems only fitting for a convicted criminal and a storybook killer. See, we both were out hunting and after the same game. Mick won the hunt and took the victim down, but not before I made my presence known. It was a calculated risk, approaching a man dressed up in a Cat in the Hat costume and moving an unconscious male to his trunk, but it was a risk I was willing to take. Maybe, just maybe, I found someone to help me with my rituals. The hunt and transfer is always the worst part for me, and Mick, or should I say Kutter, seems to be an expert. I haven’t asked him for help yet, in fear he may end my life, but I intend to learn as much from him as I can... at least while he tolerates it.

MIA MITCHELL “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”

I was pleased when Mia returned to Sloane and became the town medical examiner. I was quick to strike up a deal with her, in order to discreetly dispose of my ritual sacrifices. She gets rid of the remains and in return she gets free services at the salon. I was expecting more resistance, but she was more than eager to help me out. Part of me is concerned, but the other part is just pleased that the disposal aspect of my rituals is taken care of and in good hands.

EDEN STARK “You can go wrong by being too skeptical as readily as being too trusting.”

Eden is still very much a mystery to me. First and foremost, she’s my client, and when she’s in the salon, we have pleasant conversations and everything seems normal. However, she’s recently started to ask me more about my adoption with Heather, which at first seemed normal since she’s attempting to gain custody of her brother... but she came in after blatantly breaking a nail I just filled for her the previous day. It was odd and I remain skeptical. I tend to keep my personal life out of the salon. The chair is there for clients to come in and talk about themselves, the services are for them after all so it only makes sense. However, Eden seems more interested in me and I can’t quite understand why. I guess only time will tell.

MASON DAVILA “Hating you is easy, but healing the scars of being betrayed by you is difficult.”

Mason used to be my best friend. He was one of the few people that reached out to me while I was in the detention center that I remained in contact with outside of lock up. He understood me and I felt comfortable confiding in him in my most vulnerable state. At one point in time he was like a pseudo-father to Heather. However, much like everyone else that I let in, he betrayed me. He took advantage of my vulnerability and played games with me, when he knew how badly I needed some stability. Despite his attempts to reconnect, I have no interest. I will never trust him and I will never respect him. I’d rather just keep my distance as my life has been significantly better since he left it.

AISHA HOSHI “There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.”

In order to incur more profit on my wine bar, I decided to approach Aisha at Sugar Rush in an attempt to collaborate. She would supply sweets to the salon that would pair well with the available wine selection, and in turn she would advertise Shears at her establishment. In fact, we were in the midst of ironing out a date for a wine and chocolate tasting when her shop was robbed. There’s nothing quite like looking up the barrel of a gun to really bond with someone, and it was awesome that two, independent business women were able to take down the vile man who dared to steal from her. I gained a lot of respect for Aisha that day, and I am so excited to continue doing business with her.

RUSSELL CRAWFORD “Safety isn't expensive, its priceless.”

My ex was helping me gather intel on Angelo to eventually take him down, but when that line of communication was cut off, my sense of safety was taken away. Therefore, it seemed fitting that after my relationship crumbled a private investigator strolled into town. Well, not exactly a traditional PI considering Russell’s side business isn’t quite legit, but because of this I hoped I could make my case. I needed a new safety net, and I felt... or more so hoped that Russell could give that to me. I’m unsure exactly how to approach him though. You see, I’ve requested far stranger things from others so this shouldn’t be this hard, but the fact that I’ll be letting a stranger know the darkest and most vulnerable parts of me is intimidating. I’m not sure if doing this is the right thing, but I need help.

ARES PRESCOTT “The supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy.”

It’s no surprise that a convicted criminal like myself has some animosity towards authority, especially those in law enforcement. Despite my completely clean record since being released from juvy and during my parole, Ares always makes me a person of interest or suspect in the strange happenings being investigated in Sloane. He seems to forget that there is this infamous person out to get all of us, including himself, and finds it easier to stop by my salon and question me in front of my employees and clients. I can’t stand his holier than thou attitude and his inability to believe that I am not the person I was eleven years ago. So, I intend to do his job better than him and find the real criminal in the next case he decides to accuse me of. Look out Prescott, you’re about to be shown up by a convict.

NOAH DIAZ “Creativity doesn't wait for that perfect moment. It fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones.”

I love my job, and thankfully my clients love my work because this is how I met Noah. Per a recommendation from a former client, Noah was sent my way in order to help her create the look for her on-camera persona. It’s been a blast helping bring this woman to life, and I truly enjoy helping Noah create something that will hopefully keep her safe. Much like her second identity is to be kept secret, our arrangement is completely off the books. I support Noah in her professional endeavors, and by doing so she supports me.

KANE GRIFFIN “You can talk bad about me all you want, but if you say something to hurt my child... no one can save you.”

There are very few people that Angelo inserted into my life that I am thankful for; however, Kane is one of them. He broke into my home one night in an effort to avenge some bullshit story Angelo told about me killing Heather in a support group. I, of course, greeted Kane with a knife and a slice across his arm as I defended my very much alive daughter. He respected my demands, and I allowed him to explain himself while I bandaged up his wound. It was then he confided in me about his son, and maybe it was the whole parent connection thing or whatever, but I believed him and we somehow managed to bond. I look forward to getting to know Kane and his ulterior motives more. I have a feeling we have a lot more in common than just being a parent.

GIO DE SANTOS “Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.”

I’m not entirely sure why I dislike Gio so much, it’s like I know him from my past but I just can’t place it. Part of me gets this uneasy, distrusting feeling from him and I just can’t shake it. Despite those feelings, he is a raging misogynist and against everything I stand for. So, maybe it’s just that, but I just can’t shake the feeling that there’s something more...

KATARINA REYES “Anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you.”

One day, this passive, quiet, and beautiful woman walked into the salon in hopes of a total makeover. I saw a lot of myself in her, the uncertainty in oneself and the self doubt, and thankfully for her, I was covering the walk-in appointments that day. While she explained what she wanted, she continued to apologize, and it was clear that this woman had been under someone’s thumb for quite some time. I felt inclined to help her, not just with her makeover, but with her confidence. Much like my other clients, Kat uses the salon chair as a pseudo-therapy chair and confides in me about her past and present. Our once client-stylist relationship has since transformed into this true, pure friendship, and I find myself looking forward to her appointments and also confiding in her.

JULIAN RUIZ “Appreciate your rude/blunt friends. They’re always the realist.”

Julian, Julian, Julian. Where do I began? On the surface, most probably would not think that the two of us would be friends. In fact, when I first met Julian I thought the same thing. We are very much alike in our personalities, and it’s refreshing to converse with someone who is real and blunt. Sure, I don’t agree with everything he says, but for the most part I respect him as a person... which says a lot in a place like Sloane. I’m happy he decided to come back to Sloane. I missed his public roasting and constant subtweet turned into a direct call out posts. Except... he seems a bit off? I’m unsure exactly what’s going on, but I intend to find out.

#activity check

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archekoeln · 7 years

Text

myosotis

notes: hanahaki au x vacation prompt.

my entry for the halloween elforum fic thing.

disclaimer: tw vomitting

characters: elesis, harnier, ventus, the priestesses, elsword

They’ve all been tired lately, and how couldn’t they be, stripped bare from countless fights and invasions. Even her, the Red Knight, while thinking of her role in Elsword’s life as he continued to grow from a runt to a capable person, wanted nothing more to put her worries to rest, put her body far from training and fighting and terror. Just for a moment, a second even.

When Aisha proposed a vacation - to take it easy for a while, forget their troubles for a while - Elesis found herself wanting to visit Elrianode. It was odd that she would go there, of all places, when everyone else drifted towards Sander or Ruben or Hamel.

But they let her go alone anyway. Elsword had asked her why, before she left. She said something about a feeling. She didn’t really know. She also told him not to worry about her, grasping his shoulder comfortingly.

"I’ll be fine. Don’t worry, don’t worry!"

Elesis found herself at the very edge of Elysion, steps away from Elrianode's entrance. She waited.

Elrianode eventually let her in.

Her time was spent talking to the priestesses, trading stories and beliefs. They were still there, all of them, along with the El Masters. Along with the El Lady. They tell her about the antics that occurred between the masters, as silly as it sounded. They tell her about themselves, about the world. Elesis laughed at everything, easing up to her surroundings. It was simple to do so. Everyone was so accepting, thankful for the El Search Party's help.

They didn't ask why she was the only one there.

At the behest of an energetic El Lady, Elesis visited her room.

They talked through the night, an abundance of silly stories filling the silence. Elesis shared her experiences to Harnier, even as the latter told her that she knew. But she listened anyway, giggled when she found something funny, frowned when it wasn't as funny.

There was something bewitching about the way Harnier turned towards Elesis, melancholy present in her eyes. Elesis noticed, and the thing she thought to ask in Harnier's room, alone with the El Lady, was where Master Solace was. The almost goddess had laughed at that, saying he's at Elysion. Something about apologizing. Something about getting back what was lost. Something, something that Elesis forgot after hours of sharing trivial and not so trivial things.

They forgot to sleep, but it was okay. The morning came with the sun, even with the absence of the Sun Master.

And with that morning, it started. It felt like nothing at first. Felt like a fly landing on skin, shifting against pores. But it persisted, and suddenly, there was an itch in Elesis' throat, insistent, ardent - and when Sasha gave her a glass of water, she greedily drank everything until the last drop. The look she got from the priestess and from the El Lady was nothing short of concerned, but she assured them that nothing was wrong.

"It's okay, I was just thirsty." Yes. That must be it. That could only be it.

Harnier flashed her a smile. Tucked a strand of hair behind an ear. "That's good. Drink some more if you need to."

The itch disappeared.

It started again when Elesis entered their shared common room, in a house far too large for ten people. It wasn't actually a house, but it functioned as one, so she supposed that the word fit perfectly.

She found Artea carrying a tray of freshly baked treats, with Ignia and Anduran behind her. It almost looked like Ciel lording his cookies over Lu and Add, which Elesis found hilarious. But she didn't laugh in response to that, couldn't, not when she felt the itch again, throat in mild agony as Harnier walked past, stopping to pluck a treat from Artea's tray ( at the indignant reaction of both Ignia and Anduran ).

Elesis' first instinct was to flee ( but why? ), as her throat constricted on itself and before a flurry of coughs could catch the attention of the other inhabitants of the room.

Too late.

Harnier moved past the priestesses to stand by Elesis' side. The knight was grateful even if the coughs only worsened ( because of? ). Harnier pressed a hand on Elesis' back, rubbed it gently, soothingly, cooing with each second. She asked for water from the priestesses and they complied. Elesis watched all of this unfold, blinking furiously, shame written on the edges of her mouth. Embarrassment.

Water satiated the itch, but she could feel it bubbling again, craving release. Elesis excused herself and returned to her room, waiting for it to come.

It never came.

A week passed. Elesis hadn't thought of going home yet. She hadn't coughed again after the last time.

But she also hadn't seen much of Harnier.

"She went to Elysion," Gloria said, "Checking up on Master Solace. She'll be back later, I think."

That was good, wasn't it? She loves Solace. She misses him.

The itch started to squirm within her lungs, at the thought. Elesis said her thanks to Gloria and left to go outside. A little bit of fresh air, or maybe she should've gotten a glass of water. She didn’t get that far when it turned into full-blown coughing, pain racking through her lungs, clawing their way out. Elesis doubled over, a hand covering her mouth. She felt something in it. Spitting, palm wet - it smelled like copper, tasted like copper.

When she checked, there was blood on her hand... and a small flower petal.

Blue. She blinked, crushing it in her hands. She needed water. She also needed to get away from there.

She didn’t know someone was watching her.

Harnier came back with Solace.

The coughing only got worse.

The petals only continued to multiply.

Master Ventus dropped by her room one afternoon.

"You don't need to hide it from me. I know."

His voice was soft and there was no judgment, just a quiet prodding. He sat there, silent, like a lamb, waiting, waiting, waiting until Elesis couldn't keep it to herself anymore. No judgment, no nothing - just confirmation - and when she nodded, he felt the air around them grow lighter. A burden lifted from her shoulders.

He understood. He understood completely because he didn't recoil in disgust, or shock, or even fury. Somehow, Ventus understood what was happening to Elesis, and somehow, Elesis found it in her to share what was happening.

The book he had with him was thick, cover worn from decades of use. Ventus opened it, flipping through pages. The smell was abundant, musty and old, aged with knowledge and time. He pushed it towards her, pointing at a particular paragraph.

"Hanahaki disease," he murmured, looking at the knight, something glinting in his eyes, "a disease born from one-sided love, where flowers grow in the afflicted’s lungs." He paused, a hand covering the graphic representation of a person drowning in lilies in the next page. "In its own way, it sounds romantic. Until it kills you, that is." The... joke, if it could be called that, hung awkwardly between them but it made Elesis smile all the same. He coughed. It lacked the wheezing Elesis had gotten used to.

She looked up, made a motion as though to explain... everything. But she couldn't really, so she just sighed, said, "I don't know. It just happened, when I got here.", with as much honesty as she could. She didn't sound like herself, the confident commander of the Red Knights, the self-assured older sister of Elsword. She sounded tired, sad, guilty. That’s right. She sounded guilty most of all. The feeling coiled in her throat, almost teasing, and she can’t help but wish it was Harnier in front of her now.

But that would’ve made her guiltier. But that would’ve coerced the feeling to grow even more.

At first, she tried to avoid Harnier. Spent more time with Ventus, with the other priestesses. Explored what she could of Elrianode. Entertain herself through whatever means she could think of.

But the El Lady was tenacious.

Harnier followed her when she wasn't doing anything, whispered apologies, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry for choosing you. For almost taking you away.", provided her with warmth and tenderness, showered her with words of wit and praise. Even... even when Elesis would hide behind pillars to ease her throat, duck into bushes, escape the notice of Harnier when the sensation of choking would get the better of her. Convulsions beneath her neck that she wanted to scratch at, but didn't. She would run instead, find an empty room, consider her options.

Harnier was so understanding. Even when. Even then. "Drink some more, some medicine.", "Maybe we can get someone to look at you.", "This is getting worse.", "Did you not want your brother to see you like this?", and on, and on, and on.

She dreamed, one night, of white hair, of teal eyes, of soft hands attempting to hold her. A wispy, sort of existence, foggy, lingering between the cracks of her fingers when she tried to hold back. She breathed in, out, in, out - the hand turned to dust, scattering, surrounding her. Like butterflies, bright and glowing, flying around and around.

She would spin in a rondo, around and around like the butterflies, and when she looked down, her chest would be nothing but a gaping hole. But she’d continue spinning anyway.

Elesis woke up, bathing in a cold sweat.

It was a that dream again. The one she started having since Lanox.

This was supposed to be a vacation, a time to rest, recharge her passion. But it became something else, something unwanted. The trash bin next to her was overflowing with discarded tissues, tinted red. Blue flowers, forming clumps, stuffed into the deepest part, hidden from view. Maybe she should've never come here.

She considered going home.

Ventus approached her again, days later. He was smiling this time, good news at the tip of his tongue.

"It should go away," he said as a preamble, with Lincy perched on his shoulder, "provided you tell her."

She almost choked on the bread she'd been eating and it took a moment to calm herself. Arms wrapped protectively around her body - she's not shaking, she's not shaking. The thought of admitting it, to Harnier, was something she hadn't really thought of. Not to such a sweet person, overflowing with kindness and compassion, her sense of duty encompassing her life. Not to her. Not to someone who loved everyone to the best of her abilities and who loved one person unconditionally, despite his mistakes.

Someone she had been destined to replace.

Elesis felt her body quiver in fear - she didn't want to admit it, because she couldn't even admit it to herself. She shouldn’t even be feeling such things for her. She knew this. And yet, and yet! She couldn't control the urge. The thought to come clean hummed beneath her fingers tapping against skin, and her eyes darted away from her current companion. Endlessly, they rang, "What if she says no?" or, "What if she's disgusted?" or, "What if what if what if what if.".

She really didn't need reciprocation. She just needed to tell her. Elesis knew Harnier would never choose her. Did she even want that? No, no, no, of course not. But something’s pulling at her chest, and if she could rip apart skin, she would, just for her lungs to jut out, revealing sinew stitched together with flowers dyed red.

She just needed to tell her. And she ought to, even against her own conflicting judgment, warring for supremacy within the space between her head.

"Before I leave," she finally said to Ventus, "I'll do it before I leave."

Before she leaves didn't mean at once. But it did mean not to avoid Harnier anymore. Unfortunately, she had to come clean with the bloody flowers. Even the other priestesses noticed them now. Scattered all over, decorating any space hidden by a shadow.

It all trailed back to Elesis’ room. So she had to tell them.

She didn’t tell them how. Thank Elia that Ventus had hidden the book.

One night, Harnier visited her room.

Elation and dread pressed against the walls of her chest. Harnier was so bright, like the sun, shining high above her. But her countenance was different. Like she’d be eaten alive if she stayed standing by the door, like prey facing a predator.

Ragged breathing. Unsure posture. No eye-contact. She knew, or at least, suspected.

The itch was starting again. Elesis had been vomiting full clumps now, a handful of forget-me-nots, drenched in spit and blood. Water didn’t help what she’d just heaved onto the trash bin. To try drinking was an exercise in futility, as much as she wanted to reach for the cup by her bedside. And, well, she had to say something, because letting Harnier stand there, like an unappreciated guest, would only serve to worsen her condition.

Eventually, she said, "Come in."

Elesis watched as Harnier made her way towards the bed, sitting beside her. She smiled at the knight, but it dropped as soon as her eyes glanced at the trash bin, to the smudged red on Elesis' bed covers, to the longing spread taut across pallid features. "This started when I first possessed you, didn't it." It wasn't a question. The words were a mess, garbled, dripping regret. Harnier sounded sad, horrified even. "It's my fault. It's my fault. Let me help you, please."

Silence. Moments passed.

And then.

"I love you." Just like that - like picking out what to eat or mentioning something non-committal, Elesis finally said it. Whispered past pale hands, admitted beside the warm light of a candle, beside the blindingly bright Harnier. It was a testament to how much Harnier knew when she didn't react outwardly, opting to remain silent. Elesis continued, "Or, or, I don't know. Do I? This," a hand of hers, laid on her chest, signaling the flowers growing in her, "this'll kill me if I don't tell you."

She sounded greedy, desperate, and, truthfully, she was. She could've just left, said her goodbyes, but Ventus had warned her that it might not go away if she'd did so. "Distance makes the heart grow fonder.", he had said to her.

Under the surface, something stirred. Something like, rejection hurt, something like, she didn’t want to impose this burden on Harnier, something like, she didn’t want to admit this. At the same time, she wasn't looking for Harnier to return her feelings. All she had was the resolve to push through with her admission, no hope, nothing of the sort lingering with her words.

But when their lips met, touching suddenly, when the female leaned towards her, Elesis couldn't help herself. Eyes closed, she leaned back into them, something missing put in place. The room felt a little bigger, less suffocating, and the coppery scent faded, replaced by a sweetness she couldn’t explain. It was just a small peck, and it was awkward, like it was both their first. It was like falling, dropping from five stories to a bed of flowers, and when she turned, the other was laughing. Confusion spread throughout her features, incomprehensible reaction regardless. It was like barring her soul for a small chance, the smallest miracle to occur, and failing even then, left to starving cats, to be devoured and feasted upon. She'd thought of hope, even when she told herself there wasn't any. It was like that sensation of just being whole, pieced together to form a full picture.

It was a moment of pure elation and pure dread. It felt like hours - it probably would have been hours, had the other not pulled away. Elesis opened her eyes to a smiling Harnier, felt her lips blistering even at that soft graze, felt her heart loudly protesting at the abrupt end - thumping, thrashing about the flowers wrapped delicately across her rib cage. She could feel her stomach lurch, and before she could run to the trash or elsewhere, bile, blood and flowers forced itself from her mouth. Every other second was punctuated with coughing, with a hand soothingly massaging her back.

"I know. Or, well, I knew," Harnier's voice hitched as she watched Elesis expel fluids and flora, "since the beginning. But I didn't think that," that this, probably, would happen,"you'd feel it so, so strongly... for the flowers to manifest." She swept the younger female in a hug, let the words fall into a rhythm with her breathing, soft and controlled. Elegant, divine, even despite the circumstance.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I should've done something. I should've."

She continued to murmur beside Elesis. Continued to grasp her hand, rub her back. On and on and on, until the knight stopped. Until the knight rested her head on Harnier's shoulder, mumbling softly, "This is enough. Thanks. This is fine. This is alright." repeatedly.

Blood dribbled from her chin, but Elesis smiled all the same. Something in her, once flailing helplessly, now settled quietly.

Maybe tonight, she's fall asleep in peace.

When Elsword came to pick up his sister, at the request of Ventus, he was a little shocked. Elesis didn't need picking up. Usually, it was her job to pick him up whenever he landed any trouble. Trepidation caught in his throat when Elrianode came into view, but the entourage greeting him dispelled the worry.

Elesis was there, waiting, alongside the other priestesses and masters. He could see her smile even from afar and he broke into a sprint, stopping once he was at arm’s length. A hug, greetings, goodbyes - Elesis lingered longest by the El Lady’s side, Elsword noticed, though he didn't question why - and before they knew it, the siblings were off.

"You really should have come with us to Hamel. Did you enjoy your vacation here though?" He asked, watching her as they strolled past Judge's Sanctuary.

She hummed out a reply, carefree smile still in place, saying, "I'm fine Elsword," she can’t help but let out a guffaw, teeth showing as she added, "and actually, I really needed the visit. It cleared my mind off some things. Are we going to meet up with the others somewhere?"

He nodded.

"They're still at Hamel. You have to do the dares."

A pause. He could see her eyebrows furrowing at his words.

"Dares?"

Laughter. From him first, and then she joined in. Whatever problem she'd been thinking, it seemed to have cleared up. He was glad for that, at least.

"Hehe- You'll see, big sis!"

#elsword #**fic #how this won is beyond me honestly but here you go #honestly also i want more lesbean fics in this fandom....#there is also a part that i alluded from a scene in a manga #that i am still v salty about

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