#sorry for posting old empires clips it will happen again

[funkily]

these 10 seconds have changed my brain chemisty like nothing else

transcript:

Pix: Scott!

Scott: (distant) So I think I have - Oh! Um... hello?

Pix: Hey.

Scott: Hellooo? Hi!

Pix: Come out here. We need to talk.

Scott: Talk about what?

Pix: I think -

Scott: How are you? You look dashing today.

Pix: Uh, that's... neither here nor there.

#i hope the transcripts ok ive never done one before #anyways . fight flight or flirt amen #sorry for posting old empires clips it will happen again #empires smp #scott smajor #smajor1995 #pixlriffs #id tag this ship but im not entirely sure what their portmanteau is . and my other options are weather husbands (s1) or graverobbers (???) #so . #babbleeng #fav

[yeoreos]

avid || jjk (m)

pairing: demon!jungkook x human!reader

genre: 18+, smut

summary: jungkook finds you at a bar and sets you as his night's target

warnings: oh lord smut. lots and lots of smut.

wc: 4k

note: i was kind of lazy to finish it, but hey, its 4k of foreplay; nothing beats that! (also sorry for not posting in a while i was busy with beginning of year exams *cries*)

jungkook first noticed you in a bar. on weekends, it was transformed into a seedy nightclub. he liked to go there while he was looking for something to eat; something to conquer for the night. he discovered a plethora of attractive females and, each with broken hearts and hungry gazes - all yearning for a nighttime lover.

he never believed his eyes when they landed on you. the state you were in was pitiful. he guessed that you had just broken up with this boyfriend of yours, hence the mascara and ruined makeup on your face. or perhaps it was a platonic breakup. despite your state, his mahogany orbs never left your figure. what a cute thing you were.

a pretty face that was exactly his type, the perfect curves of your tits, hips, and ass has his knees weak. if you were to ask, he would give.

of course, his initial plan had been thrown out the window the instant he saw you. you leaned against the bar, accepting an order, with a grin on your lips. It sparked something in him, all the confidence (whether it be from the alcohol in your veins or not, it didn't matter to him) and allure.

he knew your name. how could he miss the way your own name rolled off of your tongue so easily? how could he miss the way your lips formed a smirk after seeing jungkook? how could he miss your scent when you pulled him in to kiss you?

this was jungkook's specialty, depravity. wherever he went, he brought a tale of wickedness and depravity with him, the quality hooking onto him like a magnet.

he was a fallen angel, to be sure. a demon, a fallen angel. to be more specific, an incubus. he fed off of sex and vice, appetites and irrational cravings. he drank often in front of ladies like you, at bars or in beds, whose gazes wracked over him, and he fed off of human energy.

over time, after a handful of centuries, he had gotten bored of playing the same old games in bed. jungkook knew what he wanted, however, he was never able to satisfy that itch in the back of his throat, yearning for something to quench his sinful thirst.

he was tired, watching from atop the hill nearby, where he watched the sun rest for the night. just like you had. the darkness of the night overtook the city of seoul and jungkook knew it was his hour to strike; to feed his thirst.

so, the demon went after you, hovering over your small figure over the pathetic excuse of a bed. the soft rising and falling of your chest and the soft snores that escaped from your mouth once in a while, was all the proof jungkook needed that you were fast asleep.

jungkook extended his hand towards you, brushing his knuckles on your cheek, a tremor coursing through his body as a result of the contact. the energy you were emitting caused every molecule in his body to twitch in response. captivating.

oh how badly he wanted a taste.

when you stirred a little, a small groan leaving your lips, jungkook stilled. had you woken up? however, it was just a small movement you were causing in your sleep which allowed you to further curl up against the pillow.

he grinned.

it was time.

"let's go in that dream of yours, shall we?"

-

when he opened his eyes again, jungkook didn't expect himself to be in the same bar, be in the same exact position as before. however, this time, you were looking directly at him with your hungry eyes, mimicking his.

ever since heaven had decided to clip his wings, jungkook gave up on the little purity he had left, letting himself follow his heart.

so that's why he felt no shame in eyeing your figure up and down multiple times.

it wasn't necessarily anything that stood out about you, but it was just the aura you were giving off, that sweet feminine scent that lingered near the air around you, that small curve of your lips. but it might have mostly been the way you called for him, despite not knowing his name.

"hello, handsome."

jungkook didn't really have a preference when coming to his targets. he didn't prefer virgins; he always thought that they were inexperienced and didn't know how to give a good head. he didn't prefer the experienced either; he always thought that they knew too much and made the sex too sloppy. it was somewhere in between. and by the looks of it, you seemed like the perfect target. it had his insides churning, a long yearning for a good fuck. he thought he was going crazy.

throughout his centuries of living, he saw empires and clans of royalty fall and rebuild itself, being reborn. he didn't go out of his way to feel good, but he took whatever the universe offered to him. in this case, it was you.

when the surroundings suddenly changed to a much quieter one, where no one was bumping into each other, jungkook furrowed his eyebrows. it did not, however, take him long to notice that you were in the premises of your bedroom, the small plants on your windowsill being a huge clue.

“who are you?” you inquired, your voice scarcely audible. smirking, the man took a step forward. in contrast to his sparkling eyes, the moonlight from the window follows his body flawlessly, giving him a blue tone on his skin. you became aware of his exposed skin due to his lack of clothing. as you took in his powerful body, a flicker of longing tingled between your legs.

the man stayed deafeningly silent. instead, the man crept onto the bed, trailed by what appeared to be a shadow. you kept a tight eye on his every move because you couldn't move. you felt yourself spreading your legs wide as he crept over top of you. you had a tremendous want to feel him and be completely consumed by him.

despite being a demon, a sex demon (literally), jungkook still understood the morals of consent, making sure it was his top priority. after all, he wouldn't want it if he was in your position.

"are you okay with what's going to happen?" his words were like a captivating chime in your ears, quickly relaxing you and making you desire more. you found yourself placing our hands on his shoulders in order to feel his silky skin. how was it possible for a man to be both burning hot and icy cold at the same time? the dampness between your legs was unbearable, and you were drawn to him with all your might. your nipples perked beneath your shirt as you didn’t wear a bra to bed, you remembered. this made sense. something you remembered vividly. just a shirt and panties was all you wore to bed. clearly you must be dreaming, so you may as well indulge without regret.

"y-yes." you dropped your hands to grasp your shirt and pull it over your head to display your nakedness while looking into the man's eyes. with a hunger for your every move, he kept an eye on you. as he glanced over you, his throat vibrated with a palpable growl. you noticed he was completely hard as your gaze slid down your body with his. in a humble tone, you inquire, "is this real? this isn't a dream, is it?"

the man's grin makes your entire body twitch. you feel him quickly remove your underpants and fling it somewhere off the bed. you become acutely aware of the excitement between your legs as well as the heat emanating from his body. he lowers himself still more until he's right up against your door.

“would you prefer to be dreaming... or would you prefer to be here with me?” the man inquires, his tone innocent but with a sinister undertone.

when you reached for your thighs to give yourself some relief, there was nothing there. as your eyes scanned your surroundings, all you could feel was the chill of your own flesh. red. your vision was completely red. it was almost as if someone had brought in a red mood lamp and shone it throughout the room. it was entirely painted in a bright crimson color. your epidermis. the walls on all four directions. it was all red.

everything seemed hazy and perplexing, and you wondered where you were. you were in a new environment. some may even argue it was a living hell.

you sat up and wrapped yourself in the nearest blanket you could locate before standing up. warm wooden floorboards greeted your bare feet. “what?” kneeling down, you firmly pressed your hand on the wood once again to be sure you weren't hallucinating, but then again, what's to say you weren't hallucinating the whole thing?

'im not a lunatic... you thought to yourself as the warm sensation of the wood stretched across your palm. you straightened up and looked about your flat, trying to figure out what you could do about the red. you stood up straight and began to look around your apartment to see if there was anything you could do about the red. nibbling on your lower lip gently, you stood up straight and began to look around your apartment to see if there was anything you could do about the red.

the door to your bedroom squeaks open just as you were ready to turn on the light switch. the sound reverberated throughout the room with such eerie intensity that you were nearly persuaded your tv had turned back on and was showing yet another horror movie. then something happened. from your room, a man who could only be described as the devil strolled in as if he owned the place. you would be fascinated by this man's beauty if he hadn't just walked in like that. a scar runs from the left side of his jaw all the way down to his neck, giving him a strong jawline. his delicate yet sharp-looking features are caressed by soft wild hair, and his adorable small head is adorned with two pointy horns. it was the eyes, though, that drew your attention.

not the fact that he emerged from your room shirtless. nor the fact that he had claws and a commanding tail swishing back and forth. no, it was those soulless black eyes that were piercing right through you. your very being. you were in some type of trans as the mystery man - no, not man - thanks to those black coals. devil. That sounded more like it.

you couldn't take your gaze away, but as your feet shuffled you further away from this entity, they did all the thinking for you. it only appeared to encourage the beast to keep going before you pressed up against him and the wall. as you summoned the strength to speak up, your grip on the blanket trembled a little. “wh-what are you looking for?” your voice faded away quietly.

the devil had smirked at your frailty and little dread before running a clawed hand through your unkempt hair “i'm starving, my love.” before leaning in and drinking in your aroma, it spoke in the lowest, almost infantile voice. “won't you feed me nice and well, love? after all, you did want this to be real, right?” you weren't sure if it was the tone of his voice or the proximity, but you nodded in accord.

he grabbed your neck and ran his tongue across his lips before taking you into a harsh but passionate kiss. soft cherry red lips ravished your lips in a ravenous embrace while his hands roamed across your body, grasping and groping everything it could find.

a deep moan emerged from both of you as you felt the tightness of his jeans against your leg, causing a burning feeling. the burning of want burned through your skin everywhere he touched, everywhere he invaded with his mouth, hands, and body. it was almost a nasty, twisted euphoria that made your cunt clench around nothing in eagerness.

as the unnamed monster looked you up and down, an almost animalistic growl exited his throat as he took a deep inhale, you gasped for air. “love, you smell so fucking amazing for me.” he spoke in hushed tones through little pockets of air. “you're so delicious that i could devour you whole.”

the very thought of doing so appeared to amuse him, as he let out a brief but malicious laugh before narrowing his focus to the blanket still clinging to you.

with a scowl on his face, he clasped his larger hand around the one holding the blanket in place before yanking at it, only to have you keep it in place. the devil, with his head cocked to the side, gazed at you, perplexed, as if he didn't understand what you were doing.

“it's just that,” you murmured, tightening your jaw at the gaze those empty eyes gave you like a chill up your spine, "i feel comfortable like this...” you muttered the last bit, swallowing any spit you had.

but there was no justification or apology for him, so he raised his claw into the air and cut the blanket, ripping it open wide.

fear, as well as the lust racing through your veins, were clouding your judgment once more. the notion that his claws were so near to slicing you terrified you and turned you on like nothing you'd ever experienced. it gave a sense of how perilous it was to be so near to this creature, which was part of what made it so thrilling.

"baby, nothing is safe when i'm around."

those words, on the other hand, did it for you. you reached out to him as soon as you dropped the tattered blanket on the floor, exposing yourself to him. you drew him back into another intense kiss by wrapping your arms around him and springing up to wrap your legs around his waist. as he grasped your thighs to keep you in place, he was caught completely off guard by your sudden bravery.

each passing breath spent on one another battling for control, hips sliding up against each other as your damp panties rubbed up against his encaged dick, which was most definitely pressing painfully against the denim trousers he was wearing, made the kiss more hungry and animal-like. the cool contact of skin moving up against your back and down your underwear made you whimper.

despite his animalistic state, you always thought he was beautiful, a rare creature. "you're beautiful," you murmured, oblivious to the fact that you were saying it aloud. he laughed with his head tilted back. his neck was big and thick, but it was the raised markings that went all the way around it that caught your eye; they were woven together like chains, as if he had been choked with scorching metal.

the demon kissed you long and hard, barely pausing to breathe. His tongue was lengthy and had a split down the center. it was a novel experience that was strangely addictive. you became engrossed in the way it encircled your own. with his fangs, the monster simply paused to tug on your lower lip. as his hand moved down to your thigh, you let out a faint little groan.

he sang, “such a good girl,” as he drew you up into his arms. Jungkook snatched you up like feather. as you placed your legs around his tiny waist, his arms bulged. before he entered your room, he gave you a lengthy, scorching kiss. you had your arms around his neck, sliding your fingers through his hair and scraping against the base of one of his horns as an experiment.

the devil looked down at you as you lay on your bed, his crimson eyes flashing in the dim light. only those eyes and the white-tipped base of his horns could be seen with the moon blearily seeping through your blinds. it felt as though the monster beneath your bed had arrived to devour you. slowly, he moved his hand up the wall, flicking on the light and bathing you both in a golden glow.

you eventually let your gaze drift away from his, focusing on his toned chest, tight waist, and muscular thighs. when you noticed the bulge yearning to be freed from his pants, you licked your lips. he finally went closer, his lips brushing against yours as he crept between your legs. his hands crept up to the band of your shorts, the heat of his palm scorching and heavy on your bare thighs.

he yanked your shorts down your hips and flung them behind him as he kissed you. he tore through your shirt even quicker, softly cursing as he saw your naked breasts. you yanked on his shirt, trying to get a better look at him and to touch every scrap of exposed flesh you could discover. he sat back and yanked his shirt off, displaying golden skin stained with crimson ink and muscular abs that rippled with each breath. you were so focused on his appearance that you almost missed the expression in his eye as he glanced down at you.

“fuck, you look like an angel,” he said, reaching down to rip your panties apart, only to shred them. your moist lips were exposed by the chilly air as you gasped. at the sight, he bit his lower lip and groaned. “very gentle and plaint." slowly, he ran his hands down your body, starting at the rib cage and working their way down to your thighs.

his fingers became hotter and hotter along the way, till they were on the verge of burning. until he came to your knees and quickly shoved your legs apart and up, crimson streaks remained on your skin. smirking at your hiss of pain, his palms pushed your thigh back till they touched your chest. “so ready to be used,” he states.

"please do."

“well, angel, since you asked so nicely,” he leaned very close to your cunt and licked a lengthy strip. his forked tongue slithered inside your slit, relishing in the lengthy groan that came out of your mouth. he swirled above the opening for a minute, then slipped just the tip of it inside when you finally relaxed against him.

jungkook gradually started penetrating your pussy with his tongue. the warm, slithery appendage that slithers in and out of you with increasing ease, flicking at your g-spot and making you whine in delight. you exhaled with relief when he licked up to your clit, only to scream when he clamped his mouth over the delicate nub and sucked hard enough for you to see stars.

moans and groans emitted from your lips and the demon could have sworn he had never heard anything prettier. his mouth salivates against your lips, only causing him to dip down near your entrance and trail his tongue back to your little nub. oh how sweet you were.

"my angel's already close to cumming?" there was no denying that. he had already noticed you were quickly approaching your high by the way you tugged on his locks and the way your moans became higher in pitch.

the demon took two of his long fingers and slipped them into your pussy, a squelching noise emitting from the action. you tugged so hard on your lips that it was plump and swollen, the irony blood almost spilling from them. he quickly started pumping his fingers and curling it, sending you seeing stars. he wanted you to get ready for the real deal (aka his cock).

"god, please fuck me, please please i'm so close to cumming but i wanna cum on your cock, please," if it weren't for you sounding so pretty and desperate for him, the demon would have prolonged the foreplay.

“there is no ‘god' here,” he hissed, sliding two fingers inside your pussy and sucking hard on your clit as you almost shouted in delight. his fingers curled within you quickly, drawing you closer to the brink. your fingers ran aimlessly through his hair, yanking it back to keep him near. you scratched on one of his horns with your nails.

it wasn't until another orgasm crashed upon you that the demon stopped.

you were spent; messy hair, hazy eyes, drool dripping down your chin and onto your neck and some parts of your chest.

as sly as a fox, you felt jungkook pressing his heavy length on your clit, the warmth and hardness of it evident in the way it pressed up against the little nub. jungkook evilly rutted against the bundle, sending sharp pleasures erupting from the mere action.

you thought he would stop at a few thrusts, however, jungkook had other plans in mind. those being seeing you completely helpless underneath him (not like you weren't before).

with one more came a push, your insides clenching and squeezing the head of his cock like a vice. jungkook stills above you; only the tip in and you're already this tight? he allows a shaky breath to reveal itself from his throat, the sound coming out a little more strangled and choked that he intended it to be.

you took him inch by glorious inch. the two of you reveled in the pleasure, drinking off of each other's moans and heat.

the rest of the night was spent in each other's arms. it wasn't romantic, but it sure as hell was full of pleasure.

#bts smut #jungkook #jungkook x reader #jungkook is a demon #jungkook ff #jungkook smut #smut #bts fluff #jungkook fluff #jungkook angst #jungkook incubus #incubus!jungkook #bts incubus au #jungkook incubus au

[violetpunk666]

Contrary to popular belief, Scott's finale episode (Empires SMP) actually solidifies and, sort of, confirms my Alinar and Connell physically being Scott and Xornoth theory for me lol

So I, uh, I ended up making a refined and updated version of my The Clash of the Great Stags analysis.

[original post here]

I don't think Alinar actually died. I think when Aeor warped his memory he woke up as Scott (Alinar had probably been grieving for at the very least a few decades before Aeor got tired of waiting and just went like; BLIP! Gone)

Same with Xornoth being Connell, er- what's left of him after the corruption took over at least

Connell's corruption happened similar to how Sausage's did, but he hadn't had the backup plan, so it resulted in his soul getting trapped in limbo, the corruption taking complete control over his body (he couldn't have been perma-dead, as evident to Scott still being alive at the time)

Scott started to slowly regain his real memories over time once Xornoth showed up again. which is why we have scenes like - despite not knowing he even had a brother in the beginning of the series - Scott yelling, "If it weren't for you, mom and dad would still be here!" During the battle in which Xornoth was locked away inside a crystal

The brothers are Archfey. I've theorized this for a while now, but it's relevant so I'm putting it here. (The way both Xornoth and Scott's powers spread are very similar to that of an Archfey, plus this clip just screams Archfey to me)

This means both the brothers are tall. Xornoth is the 2nd tallest on the server (only bested by the 12ft ocean goddess herself) and just ever so slightly taller than Scott (horns not included in statistics)

which makes this clip where Scott calls shrub cute 100x better

This also means that the brothers are immortal (as in they cannot die from old age. However they can still perma-die if they get too badly injured)

something, something, immortal Flower Husbands, something, something

Agh- sorry, back to stag lore stuff–

Ik Xornoth called Scott his little brother in the finale, but they're twins. Xornoth is just the older twin.

Part of the story says:

"After making his way down the caves, he found his brother surrounded by the remains of the missing people and strange symbols on the walls and the floor. Alinar no longer could see his brother but just the monster that he had become,"

and Scott yells at Xornoth during their fight

"If it wasn't for you, mom and dad would still be here!"

did 2 of those missing people just so happen to be the boys' parents? or was that a separate incident?~

Connell was corrupted. We've seen with Sausage how memories from when people are under the influence of the corruption are incredibly fuzzy, if not nonexistent

Connell was long gone by the time Xornoth came to Empires, the corruption fully taken over their body. But when Scott drove the Rune Blade into his own chest, Connell was released from Exor's grasp.

That was Scott's Xornoth there with him in his afterlife~

#empires smp #empires scott #empires xornoth #empires connell #empires alinar #aeor #exor #empiresblr #bubbles headcanons #empires headcanons #the clash of the great stags #bubbles ramblings

[votederpycausemufins]

no, you know what, next chapter now! remember this is chapter 3 of this war arc thing so if you didn’t read chapter 2 since i posted it like 5ish hours ago, go read that first. look! here’s some links!

Chap 1   Chap 2

Hey, can you tell I like grian? cause today i’m using Avian!Grian, Watcher!Grian and Triplet!Grian all together. 

Next chapter is gonna be a flashback based loosely on the fic @strawberrylemonz wrote of the triplets in the Antarctic empire.

but for now, have a sprinkling of angst. or maybe more than just a sprinkling.

When Tommy opened his eyes again, he found himself with all the Hermits in the town hall. A few Hermits that were already there like Zedaph brought out potions and food and other items for everyone to recover. Nearby Grian was shaking out the water that got on his wings from the emergency button being used.

“How’re ya doing Big G?” Tommy asked as he walked over, grabbing another mask of his own face from the table.

“Fine, what about you Tommy?”

“Dream kinda saw me right before the button got pressed. But he didn’t get a chance to hit me.” Immediately Grian was acting like a mother hen towards him and Tommy had to push the avian away. “Grian! I’m fine!”

“Are you sure? Because Techno and d- Philza were also there.”

“Yeah, I heard you confronted them.” Tommy softened his voice, noticing the look of pain on Grian’s face.

“Neither of them recognized me. I mean, it makes sense since it’s been so long for me and I look so… different.”

Tommy hugged Grian. He didn’t believe it when he learned that this was his missing older brother, but when Grian used his real name, something he shouldn’t have known, Tommy changed his mind. “Hey, c’mon, once this is all over you can brag about being the oldest now.”

Grian laughed and ruffled Tommy’s hair. “Yeah, and you look as old as Techno did out there.”

“No I don’t, he’s an old fart!” Tommy complained. “I’m still a teen!”

“You’re twenty-one!”

“I’m a child!”

Grian laughed. When Tommy had first shown up, he did everything to seem older than he was, now he refused to admit he’d grown up. “C’mon, let’s just-” He was cut off by a buzzing from their communicators. The two of them looked around and noticed the other hermits were doing the same. Everyone was here, so it couldn’t be a death message.

Xisuma tapped his helmet and everyone saw the glow of him looking at the communications chat. “Iskall, someone named Fundy is saying they’re at your tree.”

The redstoner immediately messed with his robotic eye to look at his own chat. His other eye widened and he equipped his elytra. “I’m going to go after him. I doubt it would be an ambush, there’s no way they could have gotten a whole group there while we were fighting.”

Rendog also put his elytra on. He said he would go with Iskall as some extra muscle just to be safe. The two of them flew off, careful to stay out of range of anyone in Dream’s army before heading toward the Omega Tree.

“Hey, now that they know I’m here, should we use me more as bait?” Tommy spoke up, causing Grian to pull him closer.

“Absolutely not. Any mistake and you could be captured!”

Before Tommy could complain, False spoke up. “Actually, it’s a good plan. You helped him learn to fly so he’s great at it. He’ll have no trouble escaping into the air. And he can also set up another pearl if they do capture him. Someone can watch in the sky and send word if he needs rescue.”

“But what if he-” Grian tried to speak up, but Tommy stopped him.

“Grian, I know these people. It would work. And I know how to get out of tough situations. And I’m not going to be the only one down there. Doesn’t make sense to send me there alone.

Reluctantly, Grian let Tommy go. The blond smiled and then gave his brother one last hug before pulling his mask on and leaving with a group of Hermits. All of them placed ender pearls in the emergency button and then left the town hall through bubble columns. Grian watched them go before following behind to be their eyes in the sky. Cub came with him, his vex wings still there from his earlier confrontation with Dream.

When the Hermits suddenly reappeared, Dream was ready for them. Instead of an axe, he held a sword. Whenever a Hermit got close, he would injure them and then use the long blade to pull off or break their mask. Tommy was going to be there, under one of those masks. And when Dream saw his sorry face next, he would drag the teen back home.

Dream heard a grunt from behind him and glanced back to see Philza with his weapon clashing with a hermit’s sword. Even with the mask, Dream could see the silver hair of said hermit. Dream may not have been familiar with their enemy as much as he wished, but there was one well known name he recognized. Etho. While Philza was a man who had lived years on hardcore, Etho had been living on a single world for longer. Both were very experienced men. 

In his distraction, a hermit attacked Dream. He deflected their attack but in the process managed to hinder his teammate and suddenly Philza was killed. Dream attacked back, and while the Hermit who attacked him got away, Etho did not, having been left on a single heart when Phil died, only being alive from Dream’s mistake.

But he didn’t have time to dwell as more attacks came from the hermits. Once they had defeated these people, he could take over as admin and bring them back.

Philza gasped as he woke up on the bed, energy flowing through him from respawning. It wasn’t something he was used to, and before he almost didn’t link with the bed. When he started to get up, he heard rustling and immediately turned to fight. But no one was there, which was fine as his death had left him with no gear. Phil could hear fighting from outside the building and he quickly looked in the various chests for anything.

Philza ended up breaking part of the building for sticks and made himself a sword with the diamonds they found earlier, even finding more of the gem in chests they hadn’t bothered to check before. It wasn’t enough for a full set of gear, but it was enough. The only problem was trying to put on his chestplate, Phil finally noticed what happened. 

It was impossible. They had been too damaged and the last time he had to respawn, nothing had happened. But there, right on his back were his wings, undamaged. Not a single feather was harmed or scorched or missing. 

A shout from outside drew Philza’s attention back to the battle. He nearly put his wings away to put on his chest plate when he remembered how their enemy had elytra. He was the only one on their side who could fly. Phil stored the chest plate in a nearby barrel for later and left the building through the open roof. None of the hermits seemed to notice him until it was too late and his weapon cut into them. There were one or two of those from the smp who attacked him before realizing who exactly they were seeing, but otherwise, the reappearance of his wings was appreciated.

When Tommy saw his dad in the air, he couldn’t help but stare for a moment. He had told Xisuma about the situation of his dad. At first he thought that Philza had completely lost his wings, which would make sense why a respawn couldn’t help. But since he still had them, the admin was able to set a trigger for the avian’s wings to heal when he respawned. It was a risk that could help Dream, but Tommy hoped that the return of Phil’s wings would help him switch sides.

The sight invigorated Tommy and he was slashing at his old friends left and right. He managed to catch sight of False nearby and Techno fighting so he moved over to assist her. It was perfect timing as False managed to be cornered and Techno proclaimed the kill for the blood god just before Tommy could manage to remove the weapon from his brother’s hand.

“Leave her alone.” Tommy said as Techno glared up at him. He had hit a growth spurt while in hermitcraft and his voice deepened, so Tommy wasn’t surprised that his brother didn’t recognise him. Behind him False got up and ate a gold apple as well as splashing a potion over her own head, a bit of the liquid managing to splash onto Tommy, giving him a few seconds of healing.

But as Tommy stood to cover his head, Dream joined next to Techo and sliced the mask off Tommy’s face. When it fell, Tommy could clearly see the slight surprise on Techno’s face. While the warrior wasn’t that expressive, growing up with him made it easier for Tommy to read his face. Dream on the other hand grinned so large his smile could be seen out the sides of his mask.

Before Tommy could react, his arm was grabbed in a crushing grip from Dream. False in a panic simply yelled Tommy’s name, which ended up bringing the attention of the rest of the SMP members.

False swung her sword at Dream, giving Tommy just enough of a gap to use a firework and launch himself into the air. Dream called for the smp members to focus on Tommy and suddenly arrows were flying at him. With another rocket he flew further into the air. Looking down, Tommy saw an arrow coming towards him. He attempted to dodge, but it clipped his elytra, leaving a small tear in one wing. 

A few more arrows also managed to reach him. When he wasn’t sure he could dodge them, the blond tried to make sure they directly hit him. Tommy had plenty of healing items and had nice armor, but if his elytra were too damaged, no amount of armor would help a fall like that.

Then, the thing he feared most happened. As he flew, rain started to fall. A few moments later there was the sound of a riptide trident being used. He turned to see Punz, having used his trident to get just close enough then he pulled out a crossbow and shot it. There was no time for Tommy to react and it went through one wing of his elytra. As Punz descended, Tommy tried to use fireworks to push him towards the ocean, but in his panic, all he did was push himself further up into the air. And then the elytra gave up on him and Tommy started to fall. 

Philza heard the noise of a trident as the rain started to fall. He looked around in the air just in time to see Punz’s arrow destroy Tommy’s elytra followed by what sounded like Tommy calling for help. While he had trouble getting used to flying again after months of being grounded, Phil immediately flapped his wings as hard and as fast as he could. He refused to lose another child. So he pushed himself to get to Tommy before the worst could happen.

Grian wasn’t sure how he missed Tommy flying into the air, but he didn’t miss his brother screaming his name. He looked down to see Tommy falling, his elytra in shreds. He saw another avian flying towards his fallen brother. Grian knew that he was the only avian of the hermits so this other person had to be working with Dream. 

As Grian pulled his wings in to dive towards Tommy, he realized he wouldn’t be able to make it. Sure there was enough time to reach Tommy before he hit the ground, but not enough before Tommy was grabbed by the other avian. As he continued to fall, Grian closed his eyes. He searched for something he buried deep inside himself. The red, yellow and blue feathers on his wings changed to purple, black and salt & pepper. When he next opened his eyes, there were 6 of them, all glowing a purple color. He opened his wings once more and gave a mighty flap, sending magical energy out through them and creating what sounded like thunder as the expelled energy propelled him faster towards Tommy. 

Just before the other avian could reach his brother, Grian’s arms wrapped around Tommy and the wings wrapped around both of them. He didn’t have enough time to use more energy and teleport them away or slow them down, so he just braced himself. Then they hit the ground, all the force going into Grian’s wings. It was painful, but right now he didn’t care. The adrenalin from nearly losing Tommy was kicking in and the pain made his mind hazy. 

The powers he had gained from being a watcher were dangerous and something he usually kept blocked off so he wouldn’t lose himself in it, but right now, with his current state, he wasn’t thinking of that, and slowly the previously locked away powers grew more dangerous and tempting.

Dream held his breath as Tommy fell. He didn’t want them to have come all this way for Tommy to lose his last life here. Luckily Phil was in the air, racing towards his son. He was sure that the Avian would reach Tommy until there was the sound of thunder and the sky lit up with a purple light. The figure that was lit up made his blood run cold. No. It wasn’t possible. A watcher. And not just any watcher. The Dreamslayer himself was a watcher. In a way it made sense how this would be the one person who seemed to be able to kill him, but knowing the full power he held was not a happy thought.

Dream managed to get his army to retreat just far enough in time that no one ended up in the destruction of Grian crash landing. Everyone stared, no one moved. Even the Hermits looked terrified of their own ally. Phil landed safely and tried to move to the crater, but Dream grabbed him. Techno was the next to move as The wings parted revealing Tommy hidden beneath them. Again, Dream tried to stop him, but Techno was further than Phil had been. While Techno had recently been staying out of things, Dream didn’t want to lose someone who was so good at making his stories perfect.

Techno held out his axe, ready to strike Grian, but the avian watcher just grabbed the blade of the axe. His head looked up and all six eyes focused on the weapon, each of them blinking out of sync. He only stopped looking when Tommy groaned, while he was physically uninjured, the rush of falling and the rapid pressure changes as well as the energy from Grian had caused him to pass out.

Techno pulled his weapon back, unsure if he should strike again. Half of the voices were telling him to attack and kill this person who took his brother, but the other half seemed to actually want him to stop. But the first half was louder and he swung the axe down again. Time seemed to slow down as he saw the supposed avian look back up and smile hauntingly. He resolved himself and cried out, “Blood for the Blood God!” as he put more force into the swing.

The moment the axe blade hit Grian’s skull, it shattered. Around them people started moving. A quick glance let Techno see the Hermits moving the smp army away, trying to protect their enemies. Looking back at his own enemy, Techno was met with Grian standing up. He spoke, but instead of his own voice, Grian spoke in Techno’s voice. He parroted the line the pvper had just spoken, only saying it louder and louder.

“Blood for the Blood God! Blood for the Blood God!!! Blood for the Blood God!!!” And then, in his normal voice, he shouted once more. “BLOOD FOR ME!!!”

#hermit!tommy au #tommyinnit #grian #grian xelqua #watcher grian #technoblade #dreamwastaken #philza #time displacement

[the-last-kenobi]

angst bingo prompt idea for "came back wrong": rex tries to rescue one of his brothers post order 66 but something goes wrong after the surgery to remove the chip

I love this. Let’s see what I’ve got in me today, shall we?

Tw for mental manipulation, non-consensual drugging, trauma, abuse, conscription/enslavement, murder, and VERY MORALLY AMBIGUOUS BEHAVIOR that I will not spoil here. Just be careful. It’s fairly sad.

What struck Rex most was how familiar his face was.

Of course, he was one of the brothers - the Clones - and all their faces were familiar.

But somehow he had expected him to look different, changed somehow, damaged, from his life under the iron grip of the control chip.

Instead he looked the same as he always had.

The twisted scar down the left side of his face, the jaw that was slightly blunter than Rex’s own, the extra stress line between his eyebrows that had somehow been there since birth.

Sleeping as he was right now, he looked more relaxed than he had ever seemed while conscious.

Rex rubbed his face in exhaustion as he finally stopped stumping about the recovery room and took the chair beside the bed, groaning a little as his knees protested at the movement.

“We’re getting old, Cody,” he said aloud, staring at the sleeping face. “We were always gonna get old before normal humans, but this... all this... I feel old before my time, that’s for damn sure.”

Cody, of course, did not reply.

Still, Rex felt better. He settled as comfortably as possible in the chair and closed his eyes, content to wait until his vod finally woke up — a free man for the first time in ten years.

][][][][][

Rex woke suddenly, inhaling sharply and jolting in his seat, feeling weirdly as if his consciousness had just been dropped unceremoniously back into his body. He’d really been sleeping.

Then he saw Cody, and his breath caught in his throat.

Cody was looking right at him, sitting up in bed — just sitting there, staring, no cold glare in his eyes, no clipped Imperial arrest declaration coming from his lips. His hair had gone more salt than pepper these days, but he was Cody, through and through.

“Hey—Cody!” Rex said, gasping. He leaned forward in his seat and grabbed Cody’s hand, squeezing it reassuringly.

Cody just blinked at him.

“It’s gonna be okay, vod,” Rex assured him, feeling a stupid grin spreading over his face. “I know it’s overwhelming right now. It happens to all the guys. But I promise this is real.”

The familiar scarred face tilted slightly to the side as Cody studied him intently with those mirror-image dark eyes. His hand remained limp in Rex’s.

“Some... memories will start coming back soon,” Rex continued. “But I’ll help you. It’s not your fault. Anything you can remember, I swear, it’s not your—”

“My fault,” Cody said hoarsely.

His grip suddenly turned to steel; he squeezed Rex’s hand so tightly that it hurt.

“No,” Rex said hastily. “No it’s not. Cody, it was a—”

“It’s my fault,” the former Marshal Commander of the 212th said firmly, his eyes roving around the room, taking it all in. “I need to get out of here. I need to fix this.”

Cody was not panicking as all the other dechipped brothers had, but he was still gripping Rex so hard that it was bringing tears to the other man’s eyes. “Cody...”

“I need to fix this. I failed,” Cody repeated. “Let me out.”

“I can’t do that, Cody, you’re not well...”

“Let me out. Now.”

“Cody—”

“Let me out. That’s an order.”

“No, Cody—”

“Let me out. I have to go.”

Feeling like he had no choice, Rex used his free hand to reach across and trigger a switch next to the bed. They always had to do this for newbies, although normally they were crying and screaming instead of just issuing orders.

In less than ten seconds Cody was unconscious again.

Rex peeled his hand away, wincing.

The door opened cautiously and a figure stepped inside, a cloak raised high to help conceal the magnificent montrals she was now sporting.

“I wonder how much he remembered,” Ahsoka said thoughtfully. “I feel like he would have been more distressed if he fully recalled... well, Utupau.”

“And everything after,” Rex sighed, rubbing his sore hand.”

Ahsoka nodded, still studying the man on the bed.

Rex looked at him too.

“He’ll pull through,” the former Captain of the 501st muttered. “Fine.”

][][][][][

The next day Cody woke for only minutes at a time, sleeping off sedatives and enduring scans.

Rex was away most of the day, but his friend was on his mind all the time, distracting him.

Cody’s solemn confusion hadn’t been as jarring as the screaming and anguished guilt he was used to seeing in his freed brothers, but there was still something so...

Unbearably sad about it.

Rex decided to spend the night on a cot in Cody’s room.

So he wouldn’t be alone.

He fell to sleep quickly, as he had been trained to do a thousand years ago in a world where everything had seemed simpler — even war.

Sometime in the night he woke to see Cody blinking blearily at him, saying: “...I... I failed... Do you know that Rex? I did.”

Before Rex could reply, Cody was asleep again.

][][][][][

The next morning before dawn, Rex was woken by the sound of Cody attempting to climb out of bed. He was unbalanced and clearly in some form of pain, his forehead deeply lined, but he persisted.

“Woah!” Rex stepped up and tried to take his old friend by the wrist. Cody batted his hand away without even looking at him. “Cody, hey, you can’t go yet. You’re not fully healed.”

“I have a duty,” Cody said. “I have to fix my failure.”

Rex bit the inside of his mouth, a sudden fear crossing his mind. “Cody... this can’t be... fixed. He’s... they’re all...” he swallowed hard, his throat so tight that it hurt. “He’s dead. You can’t—”

Cody’s head jerked up sharply.

Rex blinked in the fixed stare those dark eyes were giving him, a penetrating and cold look.

“Dead?” Cody questioned. “...Did someone kill General Kenobi?”

Rex’s heart plummeted.

He doesn’t remember...

“I... yeah, vod. Someone did. But...”

If Rex had thought his heart had stopped before, it was nothing, nothing to what it did when Cody shook his head and said, so very calmly, “I shot him off the cliffside, but I’m sure he survived. It was a controlled fall. The Jedi survived. I failed in my duty. I have to fix it.”

“No,” Rex croaked out. “No... that’s not...”

The door opened again, and Ahsoka stood framed there. She must have overheard, because she was looking at Cody with pity.

Cody locked his gaze on her, drawing himself up to his full height. “Jedi,” he addressed her. “Duty. Have to fulfill.”

“He’s dechipped!” Rex shouted desperately. “I don’t understand!”

“I have to go,” Cody said placidly. “Excuse me. Don’t worry vod. I’ll come home when I’m done.”

“You can’t!” Rex shouldered his way between his brother and his only remaining Jedi, terrified of the serenity of both of them; Ahsoka’s quiet sympathy, Cody’s placid desire to murder a man that was already dead, a man he had loved— “You have to snap out of it, Cody!” Rex bellowed, and shook the man by the shoulders. “Please!”

“But I’m fine, Rex,” Cody said, sounding surprised. “I just have one more thing to do. You saved me from the Empire. But Kenobi must die. It’s my job.”

“It’s not!” Rex screamed. “He’s dead, Cody! Dead! You already killed him, he’s dead, he’s been dead for over a decade! You already killed him!”

He was crying now.

For Cody.

For Obi-Wan.

For himself.

For Ahsoka.

For everyone.

Everyone.

“Excuse me,” Cody said politely, addressing Ahsoka over Rex’s shoulder. “I need to go kill Kenobi. Do you know where he is?”

“You have to fix him,” Rex begged her, struggling to keep Cody in the room. “Please. The Force. Something!”

Ahsoka glanced at him. Then she stepped forward and carefully pressed two fingertips to Cody’s forehead. She closed her eyes.

Cody closed his too, and for a moment there was silence.

Then he slumped in Rex’s arms.

“What - what happened?” Rex demanded, clutching his unconscious friend and looking around at Ahsoka in panic. “Wha—did you fix him?”

She shook her head. “No, Rex. There’s nothing to be done.”

“That’s not true,” argued Rex. “That can’t — don’t be — Ahsoka, we just have to help him!”

“Cody wasn’t ever fully under the chip’s sway,” she whispered. There was an apology in her blue eyes that he did not want, did not want to see. “Like you were - but he - he wasn’t able to resist it like you did. But he was... conscious... beneath the surface.”

No.

“Always beneath the surface.”

An Imperial trooper. Treated like garbage, like something disposable, barely worth keeping. Barely even worth using.

“He knew what was going on. He didn’t know why, but he learned over time. Overheard things.”

Forced to follow orders. Wage war on innocents. Execute innocents.

Cody felt so heavy. Like Rex was holding the weight of all his friend’s trauma instead of just his physical form.

Forced to issue despicable orders. Forced to be a cog in a machine that served the people and ideals he had so hated.

“He was constantly at war with himself. When we removed the chip from Cody’s head...” Ahsoka’s eyes were grieved. One slim hand came to rest against Rex’s shoulder. “His mind wasn’t prepared to cease battle so quickly. It... it broke him, Rex. The two sides of his mind clashed so violently out of nowhere with nothing to control which one was winning, and...”

“No,” Rex repeated. “No.”

“I’m so, so sorry Rex,” whispered Ahsoka. “We tried to bring him back, but he just... came back wrong. There’s nothing that can be done to fix him.”

Rex’s shoulders shook; he stumbled and slipped to the floor, Cody unconscious in his arms and Ahsoka kneeling beside him, her face painted with pain and concern.

Cody. Cody, and his scar, and his stress lines, and his familiar face.

“What... what do I... what...” Rex heaved for air, finding it suddenly so hard to breathe. His chest felt heavy, his throat so tight he almost thought he was being throttled by invisible hands. “What am I supposed... to do? J-just... put him out of his misery?”

Ahsoka took a deep breath.

Held it.

“...I don’t know. He’ll never be right again. He’ll never be...”

“Free,” Rex finished. “He’ll never be free.”

][][][][][

They had tried to heal him. They had tried to recondition him. They had tried erasing his memories of Order 66. They had even tried erasing his memories altogether.

But the broken mind of Commander Cody did not respond to time or treatment.

Most of the time he was calm. Sweet, reasonable, capable of cracking sly jokes.

But the slightest thing that triggered memories of Utupau would set him off.

Asking oh so politely for permission to go seek and kill a man long-dead, a man that he would once have never considered raising so much as a finger against.

He never harmed anyone in his attempts to leave.

But he harmed himself, skipping meals and sleep, banging slowly and repeatedly on closed doors, and demanding over and over and over to be let go.

And it took too much manpower to keep a constant watch on him. Manpower they didn’t have.

...So Rex, eleven years to the day after Order 66, settled his brother in a bed in the medical wing and set everything in order.

Waited for Cody to drift into a natural sleep.

And then, tears sliding silently down his weathered face, Rex pressed the button that would flood Cody’s veins with a drug that would ensure he would never wake again.

Cody slept.

][][][][][

#star wars #star wars fic #commander cody #captain rex #ahsoka tano #obi wan kenobi #darth vader #tw murder #morally ambiguous #order 66

[supremesukuna]

Part 2 of Jedi!Reader please? Maybe Jealous!Mando and uhh.. Smut (maybe) lmao I'm sorry

"So I’ve had this idea floating around in my head for the past couple of days. Could you write something where the reader just randomly gets kissed by someone and mando gets super jealous because he wants to be able to kiss them? I love your writing so much! It always makes my day when you post something 🥰"

Hope you dont mind that I put these two together! This was getting a bit long so the smut will have to wait until part 3 😅

part one

***

"I'll go and get the supplies. You wait here. I'm not sure how long this will take, so don't wander off." Din informed you.

You nodded. "I'll keep myself busy here." You smiled as you looked across the square of the little town you had stopped in. There was a small market which you could occupy yourself with.

You had taken your time looking across the various fruits, trinkets and foods for sale, many of which you had not seen before. You didn't have any credits on you to purchase anything, which had you kicking yourself, as you had already seen about 8 items you wanted to buy.

You were snapped out of your daze when you heard a familiar voice call your name. You turned to see who the voice belonged to.

"Tarver?" You questioned, a smile overtaking your face. "Is that really you?"

You rushed towards him and pulled him into a hug. He was an old friend of yours, you had both trained together and fought against the Galactic Empire together. You hadn't seen him since the fall of the Empire, when all the Jedi scattered.

"What brings you here?" He asked, his smile equally as bright.

"Just stocking up on supplies. You?"

"I live here. Moved here after our final battle."

"Have you seen anyone else? I haven't seen any of our Jedi friends for years!"

"A few, a lot of people pass through here."

"Prime spot for travellers I'm guessing?"

"Correct."

You continued catching up, talking about your old memories, your current lives, your future plans. It was comforting to have a reminder of where you had come from, it reminded you of how far you'd come, and how much your life had improved since choosing to travel with Din.

"I best let you go about your day."

You nodded in agreement. "If we don't go now, we'll be here all day." You joked. "See you soon, yeah? I'm sure I'll come this way again."

"See you too!" He leaned forward, which caused you to instinctively pull away. "Come on, you know I can't not kiss you."

You laughed, "you make it sound so romantic." You knew it was far from that.

Tarver came from a community who kissed friends and acquaintances goodbye, it was seen as offensive to avoid it. You had made many jokes about it in the past.

"Ugh fine. Make it quick. I don't want your germs." You joked, easily falling back into your old routines.

"Always so polite."

He leant towards you, pressing a quick kiss on your lips. You let him, but didn't pass up the opportunity to fake gag.

"That felt like kissing a sibling." You overreacted.

"Blame my ancestors for putting it into our etiquette."

"Curse you!" You waved your fist at the sky, causing the two of you to double over in laughter.

A sudden tight grip on your arm snapped you out of it. You looked up, seeing Din.

"Oh hi." You didn't bother to hide your surprise. That was much quicker than you expected.

"We need to go."

He didn't give you a chance to respond, moving his grip to your wrist and pulling you along, forcing you to fall in step behind him.

You yelled a quick bye over your shoulder, before concentrating on keeping up with Din's quick steps. Your heart was hammering in your chest. Something had really worried or annoyed him, hence your quick getaway, so you kept an eye out for any suspicious activity. Perhaps you had been followed to the little town, or Din had bumped into trouble.

But you only grew more confused when there was no sign of any commotion or any sight of people spying or trying to follow you. You couldn't sense anyone nearby either. It was when you had exited the town and started down the route back to the Razor Crest that you voiced your confusion.

"Din, can you please tell me what's going on? Are we in danger?"

"No." He responded, his tone clipped. Din's footsteps did not get any slower, nor his grip any looser.

"Then why are you so quick to leave?" You tried to pull your wrist away, but he didn't let up.

"Let's just go."

You dug your heels into the ground, forcing him to stop. Din swung round to face you, his posture showing annoyance.

"I'm not going anywhere unless you tell me what happened." He had a habit of hiding things from you, thinking it protected you, but it only made you ill prepared for when you inevitably ran into trouble. You had repeatedly asked him to start being more open, but knew it was difficult for someone so used to travelling alone.

He sighed loudly, tugging your arm, but you wrenched it away from his grip, crossing your arms.

"Stop being awkward. Let's go." Din stepped forward to reach for you again, but you took a step back.

"No, not unless you start being honest with me. What happened?"

"Nothing happened."

"Then why are you acting so odd? Something must have happened for you to be so rattled."

"I'm not... rattled." He didn't sound convincing at all.

"Well you're something."

"You wandered off. I told you not to do that."

Now he was making excuses. "You told me to make myself busy while you got our supplies. I stayed near to where you were, so don't blame this on me."

He didn't say anything, and an awkward silence fell over the two of you. You scraped your boots against the ground, waiting for him to explain, but he stayed silent.

"Please just be honest with me." You half begged.

"Who were you speaking to?"

You were taken aback by his question, and his unnecessarily rough tone. "Someone I know."

"Someone you know?" He repeated.

"Yes." You spoke slowly, unsure what he was getting at.

"You know them well?"

"Define well?" You had no idea what an earth he was on about.

"Well enough to-" he stopped himself, but you knew now what he was getting at.

"To what?" You were visibly annoyed now, realising what he was probably getting at. But he didn't need to act like such a child.

"You know what."

"So you're spying on me now."

"If you won't be honest then I'll have to."

"How have I not been honest?!" Your voice raised in annoyance.

"Keep your voice down. And how can I keep you safe if you run off with other men?" He regretted what he said once it was out of his mouth, not realising how bad it sounded until it was too late.

"Seriously? Din, what the hell?" You sounded genuinely hurt, at it made his chest ache.

"I didn't mean that to sound so... accusing."

"Well it did." You tried not to sound so offended, but failed.

You continued, explaining yourself to stop him thinking the worst. "He's a friend, I trained with him. We were Padawans together. And if you'd just asked me instead of assuming everything, you would know that."

"...And the kiss?" His own insecurity caused him to ask. It's not like he was able to do that with you whenever he pleased. You'd never openly discussed what your relationship was prior to this moment, but you both knew there was an unspoken thing between the two of you.

"Din, it was nothing. It's a weird etiquette thing from his home planet."

"To kiss people on the mouth?"

"Yes." You were exasperated. "Honestly, he'd probably try to kiss you if I introduced you." It sounded ridiculous out of context. You reached for his hand, knowing that your touch helped ground him. "Din please believe me." You looked up at him.

"I believe you."

He hated how upset you looked, especially as it was his fault. You were blaming yourself for his own insecurity.

"I didn't mean to upset you." His voice was soft, trying to remove the hurt expression currently dominating your features.

You took a deep breath, but Din didn't miss how shaky it was. "It's fine. I get that this-" you gestured between the two of you "-is different for you, and for me as well. I wasn't thinking."

Din's chest felt heavy at your response. You were so good, always thinking of him over yourself. Even when he was most arguably in the wrong, you were the one apologising.

"Don't apologise. I overreacted."

"No you didn't."

Din cupped your face, forcing you to look at him. "Yes I did. I shouldn't have done that. I got jealous and stopped thinking straight. It's not your fault."

"Jealous?" You tilted your head questioningly, a gesture you'd unconsciously picked up from Din.

"I..." He hesitated.

"It's okay. You can tell me." You encouraged him gently. Your tummy was doing somersaults at his unspoken confession.

"I... care about you. And I like having you around. It's nice. I would hate for you to leave."

"Din, I would never leave you. Why would you think that?"

He shifted uncomfortably, and you realised he'd probably opened up more than he had done to most people. Discussing insecurities out in the open would not be at all easy or comfortable for him.

You approached him and wrapped your arms around his waist, resting your head on his chest. You pulled him towards you, squeezing tightly.

"I care about you too. And I love being with you. Please don't ever worry about me leaving. I would never."

"I know."

"You're all I have, you know? And the kid." You reassured.

His chin rested on top of your head, his arms wrapping around your back just as tightly as yours were around him. His hands felt warm against your back, and you loved having him so close, despite his beskar armour not being the most huggable material in the world.

"We can go back to the ship if you want to?" You asked.

"Okay."

You went to pull away but he kept one arm wrapped securely around you as you fell in step side by side, your own arm around his waist.

***

part three coming soon!

#mando x reader #mando oneshot #mando one shot #mando requests #din djarin x reader #din djarin requests #din djarin oneshot #din djarin one shot #the mandalorian requests #the mandalorian one shot #the mandalorian x reader

[faelune-home]

FFXIV Write 2020 #15: Ache

(A/N: I say on my last prompt post that I inadvertently have a theme going in my pieces, and this prompt just enables me to keep working with it lol XD

Not every prompt is gonna lean into it, but most of them have halfway into the month now. The only thing I would say is unfortunate it that I’ve said my miqo WoL is a cheery positive character but most of these being focused on loss or sad things has presented her as more weepy or frustrated :’’D I’ll need to balance these out with cheery miqo!Fu fics after the month lol

Well loss and sad feels are the thing right now, so let’s look at heartache! Aka, I’ve written myself into the corner that is no WoLShipping cos my WoL is more focused on her duty and the pitfalls that mean relationships would be a lot harder when you have so many responsibilities :’) All WoLships are anchored for miqo!Fufu. If I ever want to do shippy stuff, I’ll have to AU it off my WoL timeline rip

Mostly smaller spoilers to the end of Heavensward, 3.3/.4 era, but the actual timeline placement of this one, I’m actually not sure, it could just happen after 3.4, but I could have it happening in 4.1 or 5.3 when the game also has story downtime.

Word count: 1953

@ffxiv-writers)

The low attendance in the Rising Stones made for a quiet atmosphere. One could hear a pin drop, or a door creaking open, as happened to the returning Fufu, dressed in a short ruffled dress gifted to her by the Scion’s own receptionist earlier that day. She only hoped to sneak in and hurry to her room, avoid any chatter. But her luck was against her, as a waiting Alisaie and Tataru jumped to attention at her arrival.

“Well, you’re home earlier than expected,” the lalafell giggled, “No-one here would’ve questioned if you’d enjoyed a longer dinner with Ser Aymeric.” The miqo’te flushed, averting her eyes from the grinning girls.

“There was no need to go any longer, it was just dinner,” she said.

“Just dinner,” Tataru scoffed, shaking her head. “Someone as hopelessly smitten as you just shrugged it off as dinner when he’d get to his knees for your any request?” Ignoring Fufu’s cry of umbrage at the suggestion, which itself drew a laugh from the younger girl in the room, Tataru jumped from her chair and declared, “You two wait right here. I will be back with tea and we are discussing the evening events.”

As she marched off for the Stones’ kitchen, Fufu just sagged, grumbling, “But there were no events.”

“She’s not going to take that as an excuse you know,” Alisaie smiled, “And even if you went off to your room, she’d just drag you back here or insist on having the conversation there instead.” The woman sighed, knowing the elezen’s word to be true. Resigned to the badgering to come, Fufu took her seat at the table beside Alisaie and placed her head on the surface, earning a sorry pat on her shoulder.

“I have to confess, I don’t see why it was only dinner,” the red mage hummed, eyebrow arched and a cheeky smirk spreading on her lips, “I did promise profusely not to go off and get shot with another poison tipped arrow to spoil this one like I did the last. With extra reassurances to my brother of course.”

Fufu pouted, but didn’t protest, which allowed Alisaie to continue, “Not to mention all the small tasks and missions were handed to every other soul here, leaving you a free bird for the day. Therefore, you had all the time in the world to engage the man in any affairs. More than just ‘dinner’, if you get me.”

Giving the girl a side eye, the miqo’te mumbled into the table, “Where did you learn about anything like that?” Alisaie simply smiled and leaned back in her chair, content to not answer.

To her credit, Tataru returned at this point, holding a tea tray. As she began setting up their cups on saucers and sliding a plate of bite sized biscuits into the middle, the lalafell said, “Y’know, as well as making sure everything here was all cleared up, we called ahead to make sure he wasn’t busy. Bless the Twelve for Lucia helping to negotiate his work in his stead.”

“I’d say you all have too much time on your hands if you’re this invested in playing matchmaker. You’re taking precious focus away from Ishgard’s workings and the rest of Eorzea,” Fufu monotoned. Alisaie rolled her eyes and countered, “That you say your part is to care for all of Eorzea vs his own single focus on Ishgard betrays that you are far too overworked and you deserved a break.”

The miqo’te frowned, idly running her fingertip around the rim of her freshly poured cup of tea. Tataru finally sat herself down, saucer in hand and declared, “There! We’re all set. Now tell us what happened?”

Fufu took a sip. “We had dinner. Went for a walk around the Hoplon-”

“Oh, that would’ve been nice,” Alisaie interrupted, taking a biscuit and ignoring the sharp look Tataru shot her way.

“...And then I left.”

Tataru coughed on her tea, hissing back a curse at the heat. “Wait, that’s it?” Even Alisaie tilted her head, confused.

A nod. “Yup. Dinner, a walk, then home. I told you nothing much happened.”

“W-well, what did you talk about? Surely you didn’t eat in silence,” the shorter woman stumbled, bewilderment writ upon her face.

Fufu shrugged. “Yeah, we talked. He said Ishgard was adapting well, though a few old guard types were still being stubborn about the change in policies, and the dragons coming and going into the Firmament. He was happy with how that’s been going, and pretty surprised when I said I was helping out there. I figured Francel might’ve brought it up.”

“And as nice as that is to hear, truly, I don’t think that’s what Tataru is looking for,” the girl said, seeing the quivering pout on the frustrated woman’s face.

“You’re absolutely right. Where is the romance? The sweeping declarations of courtship and love? You have had wider mooneyes than any miqo’te for this man since day 1 and now you tell me you had the best opportunity to be forthright and honest with him and you didn’t take it?” Tataru jumped to her feet onto the chair, hands slamming down on the table, making the tea shake. “And as I said before, he is just as obviously infatuated with you right back. Even if you somehow bit your tongue, surely he must’ve said something.”

Fufu carefully regarded the other woman, taking another sip. “I think you’ve been indulging in too much local gossip.” As Tataru near comically brought her head down against the surface, Alisaie frowned and stared intently at the keeper, eyes narrowed.

“You are being awfully cagey about this. Normally you’re much more full of life, or at least trying to be cheery even in a bad situation.” The Warrior noticeably avoided looking at the girl. Finally deciding to put her foot down and see to her friend’s uncharacteristic behaviour, Alisaie put her cup on the saucer, pushed it far away and asked, “What happened?”

An ear flicked. “I already said.”

“And you’re clearly leaving something out. Did he say no? Or did someone else say something? I know you’re not usually the type to let other people’s words bother you, but if it got to you this time--”

“Nope. Nothing like that,” Fufu clipped back, reaching to take another sip of her tea only for Tataru to grab hold of her arm, stopping her.

“Even if people did talk, it’d be more good than bad. At least the good would outweigh the awful, people would be delighted. Imagine the buzz across the lands; ‘The Warrior of Light and Ishgard’s own Lord Commander enamoured toge-’”

The cup slammed to the table, tea sloshed out onto the wood as the woman snapped, “And that’s the problem!”

Both girls jumped back at the outburst. Fufu lowered her head to her hands, letting out a watery sniff.

“You mean,” Alisaie tested slowly, watching for the miqo’te reaction, “the attention?” Her head shook, still buried in her hands.

“No,” she sighed, lifting her head again, her eyes glistening. “The problem is who we are, and what we do. He’s the Lord Commander of the Temple Knights and one of the Speakers of the House. Ishgard’s fresh out of a thousand year long war and people still struggle with the shift. There’s dissenters in the ranks and the lowborn people still don’t trust his words even with the efforts of Hilda and the House of Commons. He doesn’t have time for relationships, and neither do I.”

She stood, tail curling and lashing. “I’m the Warrior of Light. I’m needed in so many places and I know you’re arguing that I need a break sometimes, I’m not refuting that, but with how many problems the realm has going on that need me at a moment’s notice, I can’t dedicate any time to another person that wouldn’t already be part of the Scions.” She took in a breath, trying to calm herself.

“Neither of us has the time or the energy. He has his duties to Ishgard, and I to the rest of the realm. When would we even find the time for each other? And I can’t imagine the worries he’d go through whenever I have to go off on another dangerous mission halfway across the star. Even with every promise under the sun that I can handle it and I’d come back safe, I wouldn’t resent him if he worried all the same.”

She finally collapsed back into the seat, sliding down into a depressed slouch. A heavy silence spread over the table, the tea chilled fast in the pot.

“I see,” was all Alisaie could add.

“He did ask though,” Fufu said quietly, making the others perk up, curious. “During the walk through the Pillars. He sent off his guard that came with us for some privacy.”

A sad smile inched across her lips, as she recalled, “And it was so sweet. Calling me things like ‘the fire that warmed Ishgard’s hearths’, ‘the lost sun returned to her highlands’, and ‘his own shining light of hope’.” She giggled when she saw Tataru’s eyes light up.

“But I told him my piece, ‘cos I’ve thought about it for a long time, and I couldn’t see any way for me to commit to him so long as there’s Ascians and Primals and the Empire breathing down our necks,” she sighed, “He took it well at least. He understood. I hope.”

“He should,” the elezen nodded firmly, a hand on the woman’s shoulder, “He’s a reasonable man, and after hearing all you’ve laid out, I’m sure even he can see the pitfalls of such a relationship. But perhaps he has the good patience to wait for you, whenever we finally bring a modicum of peace to the lands.”

“Oh he better!” Tataru huffed, hands on hips, “If he decides whenever you’re ready for some tender love and care that he’s not interested, then we will personally be marching to Ishgard and giving him a piece of our minds.” She thrust an open hand out, and to Fufu’s amusement, Alisaie took it and they shook, such serious looks on their faces that she couldn’t help but laugh.

“I didn’t ask you both to be my wingwomen!”

“You don’t ask for a lot of things, so often you have to be told what you need,” Alisaie smirked, picking up the plate of biscuits and bringing them to the slouching woman, adding, “Speaking of which, take one of these. They’re quite good and after that tirade, you look like you could use a pick-me-up.”

Fufu smiled, doing as she was told. And as she let out a pleased hum of approval, Tataru gave a shrug and said, “For someone who’s normally not fussed about all the work you have to do as the Warrior of Light, it’s a touch odd to see you complain about this side of it. Oddly refreshing I’d say, but odd all the same.”

Her ear flicked. “I know. But just ‘cos I don't mind the work doesn’t mean I don’t also see the burden in it.”

“Well, we try not to let you shoulder that burden entirely on your own. Just because we can’t help with primal fighting doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t pull our weight elsewhere,” the younger girl smiled, leaving them the plate and taking hold of the tray, saying, “It’s a shame teatime didn’t work out and most of this has gone to waste, but I’m glad for the chat at least.”

“Yeah,” the warrior nodded, “I appreciate you two listening, even if I didn’t want to talk about it at first.” 

Tataru laughed. “But of course! What are friends for?”

#ffxivwrite2020 #ffxivwrite #alisaie leveilleur #tataru taru #keeper of the moon miqo'te #my wol #my writing #fufu faelune #aymeric de borel #he's not featured physically but he's a main focus it feels right to tag him too lol #final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #aymeric x wol #unfortunately anchored rip

[medievalraven]

Plot ideas???

(From this post - and if you weren’t asking about season three plot ideas I’m super sorry because that’s what you got haha) 

If I learned anything from watching season two live last year, it’s that it is almost impossible to really guess what plot points the show will focus on (especially since a lot of the marketing for this season has reused A LOT of old footage from seasons one and two).  

That being said based on interviews and the trailer I think a lot of this season’s driving forces are going to be centered around the themes of family and identity. 

Ruby and Stan

Of all the girls we have the most information about Ruby and Stan’s potential S3 storyline.  We know that Stan is now working security at a strip club, that Ruby isn’t happy with him working so many nights, and that Ruby has a new job at a nail salon.  And thanks to a couple interviews by Retta and Reno we have some hints that Stan is going to be joining the girls and that the Hills will need help paying for medication for Sara again this season.  

Now the last time we saw the Hills in season two Stan essentially told Ruby that she was done with her life of crime and look we all know how hard the Hills had it in season two with Turner.  So in the fallout of 2x13 I think we’re going to see Ruby struggle with her role in the girl’s new empire especially when Rio comes back - but the possibility of Sara’s failing health will pull her back in and possibly Stan too.  And remember the last time Ruby robbed a grocery store to save her family (she’s that bitch!), so who knows what Ruby will do this season to save her family again.

Annie

Besides the fact that we know Annie steals Lucy’s bird, they haven’t released that many details about Annie’s storyline this season.  But thanks to one of the only interviews Mae’s given, it seems like after the Noah breakup Annie is going to be focusing on being more of a mother to Sadie and less of a friend - that she’s going to mature throughout the season and maybe even reflect on who she is outside of her relationships (with men and her son).  

Mae’s also hinted that Sadie takes Noah’s departure especially hard which makes me think that Annie’s going to be very cautious with how she treats Sadie and other people that come into her life (we’ve already seen that in the one clip they’ve released where the girls meet Lucy!).  

Plus, as others have said, it seems like Sadie’s transition is going to play a role this season too!  

So I think we’re going to see a different side of Annie this season, one that isn’t as brash and impulsive.  Like Ruby, Annie seemed apprehensive at the end of 2x13 at continuing the counterfeit game without Rio forcing them, but Sadie’s transition will definitely be a driving factor for Annie in the early season.

Beth

Oh Beth, well Beth is going to have a fun season three haha.  I’ve talked about it before, but I think at least until Beth learns that Rio is alive she is going to struggle with her self-identity of being a good girl when she’s killed someone.  That really was the one line that Beth never wanted to cross and now she has to deal with the consequences.  And I do think we’ll see a small continuation of her season two conflict of balancing crime and family.

Plus when Rio does come back and takes over her business there’s bound to be conflict for Beth to relinquish control of the business she created to him and working for him again.  

But on top of all of this, I do think we are going to see the end of Beth and Dean this season.  And based on a specific spoiler, it looks like Dean is going to have done something significant that may not immediately lead to their break-up but will probably be a contributing factor.  I really do think it is only a matter of time before these two crack - plus personally the amount they’re pushing Beth and Dean in these early promos definitely makes me believe they aren’t going to last.

But I do know that no matter what happens, I’m really excited to see what comes!  I never would have predicted so many of the amazing parts of season two so I am dying to see what comes starting next week!!

#i hope this makes sense #i don't have a good answer! #so enjoy my rambles haha #mine #asks

[eravici]

VLD // Five Times

Title: Chapter 4 - The Fourth Embrace Series: Voltron: Legendary Defender Pairing: Keith x Pidge | Katie Holt Rating: Explicit Chapters: 4/5 A/N: Arachnophobia Summary: Fourth.

ao3.

The fourth time was when she lost Keith.

Pidge was starting to become numb to the entirety of the battles they have fought in. Even if it wasn't the Galra, there was another that would appear to try and usurp the power that came from the vacuum of power. The emptiness of power that was attempted by those that was once in Zarkon's command, the very people he commanded with sheer fear rather than the respect and pride that Hunk had learned from his time with the governess of Lotor.

This time, with the Galra gone, another had taken its place.

Another older and ancient race that exceeded perhaps even that of Zarkon and the legion of the Galra Empire. Their forces were just as mighty, their fighting prowess lethal, and their strength was overwhelming. They were unlike the Galra and used abilities that no one had ever seen before.

After all, the universe was millions and millions of years old, and the inner intellectual in her understood that the entire universe was only as big as she knew it could be.

The task was to find out more information of this force that was consuming the universe as they knew it. More terrifying than the Galra Empire, this destructive force was taking life wherever it touched. Like a plague, it continued to eat and devour worlds and planets as though it was a mere appetizer without any consideration to the life that resided there.

They took life without the thought of its repercussions.

But what was once a mission that would give them more information on the enigmatic force of death, turned deadly when they knew they were coming. Even for Voltron, who was the defender of the universe, struggled against such a power that they needed to find out who and what they are. Maybe even a weakness, anything, if it meant that they would gain some footing to be level with them.

Once more, they were the universe's last hope if they stood a chance of survival.

"Alright, everyone ready?" Keith spoke into the comms.

"Ready," Lance, Pidge, Hunk, and Allura responded.

They had to leave behind their ship for the sake of a more covert mission. It was a gamble, but they just needed something for Voltron to look over if they wanted to understand the new enemy's motives. Their lions flew in low and quick, silently approaching the seemingly silent base that was on the outskirts of the perimeter of their dominion.

"Pidge?"

"There's nothing on my sensors," Pidge replied, using her systems on her Lion to check the interior of the strange and foreboding space station of black spires and low glowing red lights. "It's strange… it's almost as if it's deserted."

"There's no way they would leave this place unguarded," Allura remarked apprehensively. "It looks well maintained."

"Yeah, why would they would they make a base out here if they have no intentions of coming back?" Hunk commented.

"I don't like this," Lance said warily. "Something feels wrong."

"I don't like this either, but we have no choice." Keith sounded frustrated. "As much as I want to say that we can find another way to find more information about the enemy, we can't. We've already tried—this is our only option left, and we've been watching this station for weeks."

"And there's been no activity…" Lance sighed. "I know, I know."

"None of us like this," Allura said soothingly. "But, let's just get this over with."

"Let's go." Keith led Black into the station, and the other Lions shot off in different directions in pairs. "Pidge, with me."

Old habits die hard, and the pair went into the station with unease.

But, thanks to Shiro's and Coran's relentless observations and watches on the station, there were no guards posted as they had reported. Readying their Bayards, they entered the station. Cosmo followed closely by Keith's heel.

"Keith and Pidge, in," Pidge reported.

"Hunk and Lance, in," Hunk reported just shortly after.

"Allura?" Lance called.

"Here, I just entered," she responded. "We're only in a few moments, and it already feels as though Coran's and Shiro's reports are right—this place is deserted."

"Either way, keep your guard up and the comms open," Keith commanded. He clipped the Bayard to his hip and Pidge followed after.

"Roger."

Silence fell as they began to investigate the eerily quiet station.

Through each empty and darkened corridor they went through, Pidge could feel the sweat perspiring. The silence was deafening, and the tension was so thick that she could cut it with her Bayard. The corridors were misshapen, sharp, and from what she had only seen in her books, stylized like a cave with jagged edges that bordered on gothic. Where the Galra had a dim accent lighting of violet, this place had black walls, ceilings, and floors that the only light there was the thin strip of dark blue along where the floor and wall met.

At one point, Cosmo bumped reassuringly into Pidge's leg. With a quiet sigh, scratched behind his ear in appreciation. She hadn't realized how tense she was becoming.

If it weren't for their helmets, Pidge knew that she would be smelling something bordering on humidity mixed with the sharp cold of what this darkness had.

"Man, this place is creepy," Lance said aloud, startling Pidge from her thoughts.

"Lance," Hunk admonished. "You scared me." He sighed.

"Sorry, but even the Galra wasn't this—this—"

"Dark," Pidge finished for him. "It's like those horror movies we used to watch back at the Garrison, only, this isn't a horror movie—this is real life."

"Horror movie?" Allura piped in. "What are those?"

"Guys, focus," Keith interjected. "We can talk later when we're safe and out of here."

There was an uneasy silence that followed as they silently obeyed Keith's command.

Pidge had lost count of how many halls they had gone through, looking for any room that would allow them to find any terminal that would give Pidge access to their network. It took another ten minutes before Allura spoke up.

"Guys, I found something."

"We're on our way," Keith responded. He turned to Pidge, and they exchanged a grim glance. Heading to Allura's location, they entered a room that looked oval, like an egg, with an eerie low dim green light along the floors and the systems ahead of them.

Pidge made her way over and pulled out her laptop. Unlike the Galra, where Keith would've aided in using his genes to give them access, this empire had no such thing. So she had to give it a try herself. Only, she paused for a moment before she realized what she was staring at on the screen.

"Guys," Pidge called to their attention when they all had wandered off to investigate the room. She turned to face them. "We're in the middle of a spider web."

The entirety of the screen zoomed out to show the strange networked corridors that all led and pointed to where they stood.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hunk asked, even though she could see the look in his eyes that said something else.

She turned away before she could understand it and bravely plugged in the little computer she had brought with her. A strange and foreign text popped up on screen and using whatever Altean tech she had to decipher the language, she sighed in aggravation. "The language isn't known to the Alteans so we might take a while to figure this out."

And then a massive boom echoed throughout the halls that it reverberated to where they stood. It was enough that they felt it through through their boots. They all snapped their heads to the only open door that led out to the web of halls. Cosmo growled and readied for a fight.

"What was that?" Lance readied his Bayard.

"Not good, whatever it is," Allura tightly gripped her own, "it's big, and it sounds like it's coming for us."

"Lance, stay here and give Pidge backup. Hunk, Allura, and I will go and see if we can find out whatever made that noise." Keith looked resolutely toward the dark shadows.

Pidge tensed.

Again, that feeling, one she hadn't felt since her time back on the Galra ship when they had to rescue Shiro, came back. Viciously lashing through her like a sharp dagger at her stomach and chest, she stilled and slowly turned to where Keith stood.

"Keith—"

"Is that understood?" he asked.

Everyone but Pidge responded. When Keith turned to face Pidge and ask if she had heard his command, she couldn't stop the shaking of her hands. Something worse was going to happen, and she couldn't prevent the feeling from overwhelming her.

"Pidge?" Keith called softly.

Another boom echoed in the halls outside of their terminal room.

She clenched her fist, resolving herself to fight off the feeling. Instead, she said, lifting her gaze from her computer to look with worry and a silent request. "Please, come back safe."

There was a flash of a crooked smile and the nod. "I will. We will." And then his smile was gone just like he was.

Pidge wished that her gut feeling wasn't right.

"Pidge, what was that?" Lance softly asked while she typed algorithm after algorithm in an attempt to hack this terminal.

"I—I don't know what you're talking about."

"Look," Lance started, positioning himself just by the door, "I know something's changed between you and Keith—you guys have something different from anything I've seen before. But what just happened? Just now? That wasn't just asking for him to come back—that was a promise for him to return to you."

Pidge didn't reply. Trying to focus on the task at hand, she couldn't ignore that day when Keith had kissed her to distract her from her hysterical fear of never finding her father. She couldn't ignore or forget the reassurance he gave her after the mission where Shiro had briefly disappeared.

She couldn't.

But they never did anything more beyond those moments where they just needed each other. The words that they both felt they could not convey, they conveyed it through their body language. A silent way of holding each other close so that they wouldn't break. And from that, her love from him was born and had only grown since then.

She closed her eyes and reopened them. Aware that the conversation was spoken into their comms, she didn't want this to be the way for her to convey her feelings to Keith. It was too public, too wrong of a place, and a terrible way of saying something that was only positive. She wanted to see the smile on his face and the way he would laugh in embarrassment in a place where they were both safe.

Pidge took a deep breath. "Yeah, what about it?"

"Pidge, how long?"

"This isn't the time for it."

"It's damn right the best time for it," Lance snapped. "Pidge, we're at the near end of the universe, and we're fighting in a losing war. You honestly don't think that this is a good time for you and Keith to confess if you love each other? You too, Keith! You and Pidge both! I know you can hear me. At any moment, we could all go down, and we might die, and you'll end up with regrets."

And then, there was only silence.

Immediately right after, alarms rang throughout the quiet station as red lights blared. A voice spoke through its intercoms, indiscernible, and Pidge's screen lit up with a mass of red dots that told her of enemies. They were converging on both her and Lance's positions and where the others were.

Lance began to fire at the incoming enemies, and Pidge tried to accelerate her work and was typing as fast as she could. As her fingers flew over the keyboard, she could hear Lance beginning to fire his Bayard at a rapidly increasing rate that she knew she needed this data now. Trying to ignore the background noise as she focused on the program, she was breathless when her computer program managed to copy the entirety of their terminal with no difficulty.

To hell with its foreign language!

"Pidge!"

"Got it!"

"Good, now some backup down here would be appreciated!" Hunk shouted into the comms.

Lance managed to clear a path with the Altean longsword when he needed to go faster, words she could hear him faintly saying through their mental connection as paladins.

Faster, we need to go faster, were the thoughts he exuded. We have to hurry!

No.

Lance couldn't have the same gut feeling like she was having, could he?

It couldn't be.

"We're on our way!" Pidge could barely respond as they began to beat their way through the horde of enemies that they could only vaguely see in the dark corridors. She didn't think and solely focused on taking enemy after enemy down. Enemies she had never seen beyond the shadows, she had a vague idea of what they looked like but didn't dare to have her thoughts linger.

But she knew they were a nightmare come true.

They fought their way up to where the four of them were, Pidge monitoring them to notice that they were trying to make their escape. They managed to get to the hangar, or what looked like one, and the three of them were back-to-back. Cosmo took down the shadows in his jaws and continued to aid them the best he could. They were shouting something, words she couldn't hear with widening eyes, as they tried to fight off the sprawling mass of darkness that surrounded them.

Closing her eyes and taking a deep and ragged breath to focus, she looked through her Lion's eyes and began to fire on the Station. It was enough of a distraction that a good portion of the strange blackness to part from fighting their friends. The station shook that Pidge came back from fighting as her Lion and jumped down to the platform that their friends stood on.

She noticed after a moment that all of her friends were speaking, but none of their words was being heard. Judging from the looks on their faces, they realized the same thing. While relieved that they were no longer separated, they were without any way to communicate.

The same boom that had reverberated throughout the station came terrifyingly close, and they shot their gazes to a figure that was stood haunched forward on several legs.

But what scared her was the disturbing cracking noises that came from its body as it began to stand upright. Taller than Shiro, taller than Zarkon, Pidge realized that this lanky figure of a thing was more towering than anything they had ever seen before. There was no face, no discerning of their arms or legs—only shadows aside from the subtle shape of a what might be ahead.

It jumped over the railing and landed in front of them, scaring the rest of the shadows away.

"Will you continue to sin and fight against us or will you join us and cleanse yourselves of your impurities?" it asked in a distorted voice that sounded like many overlayed on top of one another.

For the briefest of moments, Pidge was able to hear Keith and Allura speak into their comms, and in turn, for the enemy to listen to them.

"No, we won't join you and we never will," Keith stated. "You destroy worlds without consideration to any of the life on any of them."

"You are a monster for doing what you do," Allura managed to say. "You are even worse than the Galra."

"Then you shall die."

It lunged at them—its long arms appearing and reaching out with its shadowy and spidery fingers and trapping them in its grasp. Lance fired his Bayard and Keith tried to cut himself free.

Pidge rolled out of the way, losing focus on the rest of her team as she tried to dodge its growing number of arms that appeared from its back. With each attempt to try and hit them with its sharp and pointed end, it dug through the surface of their station like it was butter. She could barely register the sounds of Keith and Allura parrying with their weapons that made her relieved to hear that the Altean technology could withstand this creature's attacks.

Thanks to her consistent training alongside the other paladins, she was able to parry some of the blows that would've been too close. With narrowed eyes, she smashed her bayard into one of its many arms when Lance had managed to land a hard enough hit that it made a grotesque sound mixed with the deep screams of a creature that was bigger than this one appeared. Deep, wheezy, and disconcerting with how it screeched, Pidge winced.

Another howl of pain and its arms lashed out, twirling around them that it smashed against all of the paladins and Cosmo to slam them into the nearest wall. Pidge slid to the ground with a groan, her arms, and legs shaky from the amount of dodging and parrying she had been doing for the last few minutes. Trying to push herself up on her arms, they gave out before she could, and all she could do was shift her head to look at where the enemy was.

Again, her eyes grew wide when it slowly approached her.

There was a garble of noise in her ears, but she couldn't hear it.

This shadowy figured loomed close to her, and spider-like arms appeared once more from its back and aimed it at her.

And then it roared out in pain and turned to Keith, barely standing and with a Marmora blade wedged into its back. It shifted from its more substantial form and back into its smaller form that it slid out of it and dropped to the ground. With narrowed eyes that irises that dilated to slits, Pidge could barely speak to try to get Keith to stop and to run.

His sclera bled yellow as he dashed toward it, sliding on the ground around the creature to pick up the fallen dagger and swing at the beast again in light of purple.

Standing between her and the creature, she could make out his words.

"Leave her alone!"

Tears burned her eyes, helplessly watching as he fought the creature with all of his power, and watching as his body became slowly more beat up as time progressed. Every time he dodged one, he'd be hit by another arm in a relentless stream of attacks.

It only lasted a few moments too long before the creature had a successful opening.

With a sickening crunch, she screamed with tears rolling down her cheeks when she watched one of its arms plunge deep into Keith's abdomen.

He instantly dropped to the ground, unresponsive and everything that happened after that was a blur.

Hunk and Lance had managed to sneak in their attacks while the creature was distracted by Keith and with Allura's aid, came out—just barely—victorious.

But was it a victory when their leader was down?

The dark mass had faded and left only them in the hangar. Pidge could remember Allura shouting that they needed to get back to the ship, back to where they could treat him immediately upon arriving there. All she remembered was clutching Keith's body to her, in her arms, sobbing as her tears fell on his pale face.

"Please wake up," she sobbed while she bowed her head close to him. "Please, you promised. You promised you'd come back to me. Please, Keith, please."

With what immediate aid they could give Keith what supplies they had, they began to make their way back. In the cargo of the Black Lion, Pidge stayed beside him while he rested in the healing pod that they had managed to take with them.

He was dying.

Only, her screams became silent when they underwent another attack, and she needed to be in Green to fight back. Somehow, they had lost their grip on the Black Lion, and they were floating away from them. Just in time for the enemy ship to fire upon it and it exploded in a flash of light, and he was gone.

#kidge #kidgemas #keith kogane #pidge gunderson #Voltron fanfiction #Voltron: Five Times #*writtenbyme

[mysticdragon3md3]

5:49 PM 4/23/2021

The Falcon and The Winter Solder ep6

So when Marvel Movie Marathons return to movie theaters, are they going to include Falcon & Winter Soldier (and WandaVision)? Because The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is pretty much like 3 movies.

I'm kind of glad this ep begins by kind of quelching theories about Sharon being the Power Broker. They needed another hand to help for this mission. So no use complicating things by making Sharon a secret bad guy. Still, why did she hire that French mercenary Batroc?

It's really cool how Sam throws the shield then catches it mid flight. *o*

Karli is really escalating, but it happened so gradually, you can feel her followers didn't know how they got to this point.

Wait. What? I gotta pay attention vs typing notes. ...Oh, the NYPD chopper got clipped.

"I don't wanna hurt people that don't matter." Ouch.

Maybe it's just me, but I like that they got an Asian woman to play the random extra with the helicopter training. Ayla. Especially now that AAPI community is trying to get visibility vs the hate crimes lately. And I really like this idea of Captain America working with normal people. It gives a sense that he's really part of the community, represents it, and will fight for it. And he'll best represent the will of the people.

I don't know how I want this fight between Karli and Walker to go. Man...

Oh, she brought the hostages to Bucky. How convenient.

Oh, I guess we gotta have some pathos for Walker. I gueeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssss~ -.-

Oh wow. The vehical got caught again. By Falcon---SORRY. I mean Captain America. Goddamn, how did I make that mistake when that's what this whole series is about?!!!

I know the crowd reaction---the extras aknowleding that Sam is no loinger "Falcon" but "Captain America"---is cheesy, but I'm crying. I love sincerity. ;u;

"You of all people bought into that bullshit?" I love that the antagonist and the protagonist of this series recognize their ideological connection. So that Karli can speakwith camraderie and disappointment when she has a fight with Sam, instead of fights just being "Argh~! I hate you! *violence*!".

Maybe Sharon is the Power Broker. Wait. Did that mercenary Batroc just arm Karli? Oh, the smoke screen was just Flag Smasher backup.

Shouldn't Bucky go with Sam since Sam isn't a Super Soldier? Can't leave Walker alone because he's going to do something crazy, huh? Anyway, Sam is Captain America now. It shouldn't matter if he has super strength or not. He's got the character and brains.

Oh man, Sharon really is the Power Broker. Ug. Kind of weird to hear that Sharon wants an Empire.

Oh, they're going for the sacrifice-redemption route?

"I'm not gonna fight you!" I like that that's what a shield is for. And I like that it demonstrates that Sam believes in negotiation and people understanding each other, more than just fighting. It reiterates that Sam believes that violence is a last resort, and has a character we can believe in. Or at least a character I can admire and believe in. Throughout this series, I've really liked the emphasis on Sam's skills as a soldier counsellor. It's those skills, reiterated on his purely defensive fighting style vs Karli in this scene that have convinced me he is best to be Captain America.

"Stay down". Ooh. Reference.

Before you die, tell Sam that Sharon is the Power Broker! I like that Karli's last words were "I'msorry". I really think it captures the dichotomy of her motivations. She wanted to do good things, but she was doing bad things, to do good things...

Wow. Angelic pose.

I'm surprised this episode is short. Feels a little cut short. But it's an action and stunt heavy ep, they can't afford too much. No, wait. I forgot that Disney+'s mintue counter is different from Netflix's. The number on the right is how much time is remaining, now the total episode length.

Sam's monologe was beginning to feel a little bit cheesey or rather, artificial, but that reaction shot to Isaiah really got to me. Crying again. ;u;

Bringing it back to the plot, reminding them to ask why Karli did what she did, really help ground this monologe too.

I liked that Sam equated the decisions the council would make, to having the same impact as what Thanos did.

So is Sharon going to walk-off a gunshot??? lol Superhero logic! lol

I'm really in denial about Sharon being the Power Broker, because I just don't want it to be true!!! ;O; Tho, I am a sucker for the ambiguous, "on no one's side" female character. Plays into the Universal Mother Goddess archetype that I love from mythology.

GASP! When that military guy told the Flag Smasher prisoners their motto "One world, one people", I thought that meant they were going to be rescued from the Raft. Not exploded! O.O!!!

Wait. So is this old guy the *real* Power Broker? The statement that Sharon was the Power Broker was said by Karli, afterall. Not an admission straight from Sharon herself.

Oh,it was Zemo's butler.

"Or did I?" Stop it, Elaine. lol

It's probably the helmet. lol I'm sure the costume department designed that first helmet to make him look goofy on purpose, when he first appeared. So you'd recognize "Captain America, but ASKEWED". So I guess they gotta fix that now that he's going to stick around and in a different, US Agent role that better suits him.

I must be color blind because I didn't notice his suit was black. I thought it was just the scene'slighting, shadow.

And Disney+ crashed. omg. At least it was during the epilogue scenes.

Oh..Here we go. Bucky is going to confess to killig Nakajima's son. ;~;!!!!!!!

I like that the shrine to his son is visible whenever he opens his door. I wish I could be thoughtful enough to shoot compositions like that. Today is Figure Friday.

Well, if Nakajima wants to hit him or hate him, that's fair. Wow. They cut out his reaciton to Bucky's confession. Well, more than that "Why?" and silent reaciton.

So Bucky just gave away Steve's book?

Well, at least the waitress is keeping Nakajima company.

I like how Isaiah is so old but he so easily picks up that GIANT potted tree. So casually portrayed too! lol

I mean, it's a great gesture if Sam got the Smithsonian to put Isaiah into the museum. But isn't publicity going to get him killed by some shady organization trying to cover up what they did? I'm afraid for him! Aw, but it means so much to Isaiah! ;O;!!!!!!!!!! Maybe the exhibit only mentions how he saved that group of POWs, and not that he was part of a Super Soldier program.

So is this ending theme a Marvin Gay song? After all that dialogue setting up how much Marvin Gay's music means to Sam, it would only make sense to use it as the ending theme.

Is there a post credits scene...?

So is Sharon going to use her pardon as just freedom to move into more territories as the Power Broker? Mysterious slow motion! ...Kind of sad that she's a "bad guy" now tho. But hey, they got to use the ironic line, "The Carter name has always been synonymous with service and trust." to add so much intrigue. Well, it's very possible something big with her character could happen in one of the movies and she'll then stop being the Power Broker. I mean, SHIELD was revealed to be infiltrated by Hydra in one of the movies. I mean, being the Power Broker wouldn't be bad if she wasn't arming criminals...and stealing art to replace with replicas so that underground elite could buy the authentic art...And probably lots of other crimes that hurt people... Ugh. She's a bad guy now. o_o;

Y'know, a lot of the powerful authority figures in the villains side have been women in this series. The crime boss that Zemo met with, Contessa Val, and now Sharon Carter. It's a nice inclusion. If this was a few decades ago, all those characters would have been cast from white male stereotypes of 1950's Chicago mob bosses. Female representation!

Now I can watch everyone's reactions and browse Twitter without worrying about spoilers. ^_^

#reactions #spoilers #americomi #md3 watches the falcon and the winter soldier #md3watches

[captain-zajjy]

Solstice, Chapter 24 - A Final Fantasy XV Story

Pairing: Ignis x Female Original Character

AO3 | Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

A/N: I'm trying to get back into a better writing routine, so I hope I won't have any more weeks without posting. Sorry again for being so slooooow. :(

On her second visit to Silvia Fontaine at the EXINERIS offices, Valeria felt every bit as uncomfortable as the first. The woman had a direct, unblinking stare that made her feel like she was sitting under a magnifying glass, like every twitch, every blink was being marked and catalogued to use against her at some later date.

“So, you’ve managed to start a food bank.” Silvia’s lips quirked upward, an expression that was more menace than smile. “Even got the Hunters to do the legwork. Impressive. What I don’t appreciate is you making promises I can’t keep.”

Valeria narrowly resisted the urge to squirm in her chair. “You’re talking about the permits.”

“What exactly did you tell them?”

“That any business that donates food or other supplies will sort of be....grandfathered into whatever’s guaranteed by their permit when this is all over. Even if they close up shop in the interim.” It had been the only way to convince them to hand over the supplies the city so desperately needed. All these people still so focused on the future...Valeria could only conclude that none of them had been outside the city walls and seen what the world had been reduced to.

Silvia flexed her sharp jaw. “The law clearly states-”

“The law was clearly written for times of peace, not global crisis.” Valeria cut her off, feeling her ire rising. “The law also states that the city will be governed by a mayor, not a power company.”

Silvia narrowed her eyes at the jab, glaring at Valeria as if she could intimidate her into taking it back. But Valeria wouldn’t allow herself to be cowed by people like her, not anymore. Not after she’d seen daemons tearing men limb from limb.

After a long moment, Silvia made a grunt of irritation and pulled a crumpled pack of cigarettes from the desk drawer, along with an ashtray and book of matches. She lit one up and inhaled deeply, not offering anything to Valeria, nor asking if she minded the smoke.

“You’re vexing,” Silvia said, exhaling smoke through her nose. “You do know that, don’t you?”

“I’ve been called a lot worse,” Valeria admitted.

“I’m sure you have,” Silvia muttered, then leaned forward in her chair. “Let me tell you about the mayor, because I know what they’re saying about me out there. It’s no secret that I couldn’t stand the woman. I certainly didn’t vote for her.” She took a long drag on her cigarette.

“Right after the darkness fell, she left to go check on the people of Old Lestallum - stupid, if you ask me, to go personally, but frankly, she never stuck me as terribly bright. After a week with no word and no sign of the fool, I took over. Someone had to.”

Somehow, I doubt you mind being in charge, Valeria thought, but she kept it to herself. “Okay,” was all she said aloud.

“Contrary to popular belief, I’m not trying to be some dictator, throwing out all the rules and starting some revolution.”

“Well, I don’t think living up here in this nice building is helping your image,” Valeria replied. Somehow, knowing she got under the woman’s skin, made her feel emboldened.

Silvia sucked on her cigarette, watching the tendrils of smoke spiral toward the ceiling. “What do you want me to do? No one is paying me for the all the power I’m running to keep this city safe, which means I can’t afford to pay my employees. What I can give them is a nice place to live, safe and clean, away from the crowds.” She pointed the cigarette toward Valeria. “You know as well as I do that people don’t work for free.”

Valeria wanted to tell her she was wrong, that in the worst times people banded together and lifted each other up. But she’d had far too many experiences to the contrary to argue her point with any sincerity.

“It...it’s good of you not to charge.”

“Well, thanks.” The sneer around Silvia’s words indicated she took the compliment as more condescending than genuine. She ashed the stub of her cigarette, contemplated what remained in the package, before tucking it all back away in her desk.

“Are you familiar with Fort Vaullerey?” Valeria asked.

“Of course I am,” Silvia replied. “No one liked having the Niffs so close to the city. Not that the mayor was going to do anything about it.”

“And...what about the Niffs stuck outside the city now?”

Silvia crossed her arms over her chest. “What are you getting at?”

“Relocating the refugees stuck outside the city to the Fort. Assuming we could connect it to the existing power grid,” Valeria said.

Silvia gave her another long, probing stare before speaking. “Extending the lines would take a few days of work, but it’s feasible.”

Valeria perked up. “I’m sure the Hunters could provide protection for the workers.”

“Before that, though, I’d need numbers. Measurements. Niffs can’t even be bothered to use standard light bulbs, so I have no idea what sort of load we’re talking about.”

“The Hunters-”

“No, no, no.” Silvia cut her off, wagging her index finger. “I don’t trust those idiots to add two plus two. I’m sending you.”

Valeria could have sworn the walls began to cave in as her stomach plummeted to the floor. “M-me?” Outside?

“Of course,” Silvia replied. “I know I can trust you to bring me the numbers I need, and you seem to be awfully passionate about this. You wanted a job, didn’t you?”

For a moment, Valeria thought she was going to be sick right there, all over the EXINERIS CEO’s desk. But she swallowed it - the fear, the smell of blood and death, the screams...I can’t go back there. I can’t... But she’d promised Ignis she would help. How could she explain to a man who’d faced down daemons and the Empire, literally blind, that she was too afraid?

“I’m sure the Hunters will protect you,” Silvia said. Was that a smirk on her face? She must have seen it with those hawk-like eyes of hers, seen that Valeria was terrified.

Valeria wondered if this was all part of some elaborate way of getting back at her mother. Mom... She must have been frightened too, that night in Insomnia when the Niffs came. But she hadn’t frozen or panicked. She’d fought her way through, took control, and threw herself in front of bullets so her daughter could live.

Valeria couldn’t speak; her mouth was too dry. But she looked at Silvia Fontaine and nodded.

Ignis had spent the day assisting at the food bank - which, for the moment, was functioning more as a soup kitchen than anything else - established at the former location of James’ restaurant. The man had generously donated the space, reasoning that it was functioning more as a charity anyway, and Valeria had assured him that he’d be able to reopen as a proper restaurant once the Light returned. And if EXINERIS or whomever took issue with that, Ignis had no qualms about using his relationship with the King to ensure James stayed in business.

James was the first real friend Ignis had made since moving to Lestallum, and, in truth, it was a bit of a relief to pass the time with someone who had never known him before he lost his sight. Someone who simply accepted him for what he was, who wasn’t constantly comparing him to his former, sighted self, who didn’t see him as less. Ignis could hardly blame anyone for doing these things (he himself did it all the time), but James’ friendship was a welcome change of pace.

And, more importantly, Ignis was starting to feel like more of a help than a hindrance in the kitchen. The two of them had put their heads together to concoct something palatable from the myriad supplies that had been donated, many of them on the verge of spoiling. In the end, the stew they’d come up with was perhaps neither man’s finest work, but it was tasty enough, filling, and nutrient-rich. At least, Ignis had not heard any complaints from the many hungry people they’d served.

He told Valeria as much when she’d returned that evening, after preparing a bit of weak tea for them to share (they’d decided to save his dwindling Ebony supply for special occasions). She responded in short, clipped phrases or single words, and Ignis wondered if she was even listening to him at all.

“Has something happened?” he asked, unable to bear her stoicism any longer.

“...Not yet,” Valeria replied, her leg bouncing nervously against the underside of his kitchen table.

So, he was going to have to pry it out of her. Ignis barely managed to suppress a sigh. “Would you mind elaborating?” He stopped himself from making a (poor) joke about being in the dark.

“I went to EXINERIS today,” she said.

“Ah. Were they angry about the permits?”

“Not really.” The way Valeria brushed off the question made Ignis think that wasn’t what was bothering her. “We talked about Fort Vaullerey.”

“Oh, yes,” Ignis said. “Moving the foreign refugees. Were they receptive to the idea?”

“Yeah. They, um...” He heard her take a deep breath. “They want me to go. To, uh...to go to the Fort.”

Ignis could feel the scowl forming on his face. “Whatever for?”

“To calculate the power they’d need to generate to keep the Fort running.” Her knee was practically shaking the table.

“There must be dozens of people qualified to do that. You don’t have to go.”

“She said me,” Valeria replied in a small voice. “Specifically.”

Ignis folded his arms over his chest. He wasn’t certain of the current situation at the Fort, but as he’d recently learned first-hand, any trip outside the safety of Lestallum’s walls and lights, no matter how safe it seemed, was a risk.

“They’re using you,” he growled. “Using you to do the jobs they don’t want to.”

“I know.”

Ignis hated how small she sounded, how defeated and afraid. She still hadn’t shared the details of her journey in the Darkness with him, but he knew it must have been harrowing, and had fundamentally changed her outlook on the world.

“You don’t have to do this,” Ignis asserted, desperate to find her a way out. “I know the Marshal said he needed help with EXINERIS, but you don’t have to-”

“I have to,” Valeria said, a bit of her usual fire back in her voice. “Not because of what the Marshal asked, but because...because so many people died, died before they even had a chance to...” She trailed off, voice trembling, before regaining her composure. “I can’t just sit around and play house. I have to do something. I owe it to those people, who...who didn’t make it.”

Ignis shook his head. “You don’t owe anyone anything. And you’re already doing plenty. We must have fed at least a hundred people today, and that was thanks, in large part, to you.”

“Iggy.” Valeria’s knee had ceased its violent shaking. “You’ve always helped other people. Put them before yourself. I didn’t. I - let me finish,” she said as he opened his mouth to argue.

“I did what people told me to do, what was expected of me, because I wanted their approval. That’s all. When the Niffs came, and I thought I might die, I realized my life - it was nothing. There was nothing there. I...I am Gods damned terrified, but I want to start doing things because they’re the right things to do, and not for just some...some pat on the back.”

“Well, I...” Ignis cleared his throat. The swell of admiration, of affection and pride he felt for her, threatened to knock him out of his seat. He couldn’t think of anything remotely adequate to say in response. “That is...that is quite admirable. But, you don’t want commendation for your actions, so...”

“Maybe still from you,” she said softly, almost sounding shy. “It’s not a good reason to do something, but it still feels nice.”

“Ah.” The warmth spreading through his chest felt like it was going to engulf him. The only thing he could do was turn to the practical, factual part of the subject. “Gladio will go with you. He’ll protect you.”

Ignis felt smaller, gentle fingers on the back of his hand, grabbing it and holding it tight. “Okay. But, I want you to go too. Please.”

Gods. His mind immediately conjured up a handful of memories of her round, hazel eyes, staring up at him through long lashes, imploring, making him feel like he was the only man in the world. She could look at him like that and ask for all the water from the ocean, and he would have immediately been off in search of the nearest bucket.

Ignis moistened his lips. “The Marshal, he...”

“The Marshal doesn’t really have a choice,” Valeria replied. “Not if he wants this done.”

“Well, I...” Ignis tried to straighten in his chair, regain some semblance of order in his ardor-stricken mind. “I could never let you go out there alone.” I could never say ‘no’ to someone who makes me feel like this.

That night, Ignis dreamed he was back at Noctis’s apartment in Insomnia, predictably busy in the kitchen. Steaks were sizzling in the oven as he got to work chopping potatoes - the only vegetable he could convince the Prince to consume. Noctis himself sat splayed on the couch in the living room, lazily swiping at King’s Knight on his phone.

Regarding the mound of dishes in the sink with a weary sigh, Ignis turned back toward the stove, throwing the potatoes onto the skillet. Then his own phone began to ring, buzzing insistently on the counter. Ignis frowned, feeling a stab of guilt when he saw Valeria’s name on the display as he went to silence the ringer.

But it didn’t work. The phone kept ringing and ringing, growing louder and louder, no matter what buttons he pressed. Frustration gave way to panic. I can’t, he thought. I have to look after the Prince.

A chuckle came from across the room. Ignis looked up and saw Noctis watching him, a knowing smile on his face.

“Aren’t you going to answer that?” Noctis asked.

Ignis glanced at the dirty dishes, the bags of trash waiting to be taken to the dumpster, the dust settling on a nearby window sill.

“But, I...”

Noctis’s chuckle turned into a laugh. “Come on, Specs. Don’t you think you’ve kept her waiting long enough?”

Ignis’s working eyelid snapped open, and the enveloping darkness told him he was awake, no longer dreaming of his lost King. Dreaming of Noctis always left him feeling unsettled, filled with a bittersweet nostalgia that left him wistfully longing for another time.

In his arms, Valeria briefly stirred, her silken hair tickling the tip of his nose. Even after Talcott had returned to the Amicitia suite, they’d continued to share his narrow bed, as innocently as that first night. Innocently, even as his body and heart yearned for more. Haven’t you kept her waiting long enough?

Noctis - or rather, Ignis’s subconscious - was correct. He’d made excuses for so long, lied to others and himself, lied until those words began to sound like the truth, and it was all because he was afraid.

Ignis tightened his grip on the hollow of her stomach, pulling Valeria’s body just a bit closer. He thought about what she had said to him hours before, about living for something more than another’s approval, and just how wrong she was about him and the way he lived his life.

That was exactly what he’d been doing, ever since he was five years old and felt obligated to do whatever he could to please the uncle who had taken him in. Then came his teachers, the Marshal, and the King - important people whose approval meant a great deal, to be certain, but maybe there really was more to life than that. In fact, the first truly selfish thing he’d done was insisting that he continue on the journey with Noctis and the rest after losing his sight; he knew others saw it as brave, even selfless, but the simple truth was that he simply would not have known what to do with himself if he were left behind. Left alone, with no duty to fulfill, and no one to commend him.

What do I want? Ignis wondered. The fact that such a question was so difficult to ask himself, let alone answer, spoke volumes.

As Valeria had ensured, the Marshal had little choice but to acquiesce to her request to allow Ignis to join the party to Fort Vaullerey. Gladiolus had taken the lead, of course, but he had more than the success of the mission to worry about - Iris had somehow managed to worm her way into coming along (being Cor’s best and favorite young pupil certainly must have helped), and although Gladio hadn’t actually said anything about it, Ignis could tell from his friend’s intermittent grumbling that he wasn’t pleased. Prompto rounded out their group; he had only returned from the Chocobo Post a few days prior, but had immediately volunteered upon learning that the purpose was to relocate and ultimately improve the lot of the Imperial refugees.

They’d stopped on the way at a rest stop the Hunters had transformed into a fortified base; Valeria had described the high fences, topped in floodlights and razor wire, as they’d pulled in, seeming to relax at how well-secured the area was. Their plan was to eat a meal and get some sleep before setting out for the Fort. After a meager supper of canned beans and vegetables, Ignis settled back in the flimsy plastic chair at the flimsy plastic table, contemplating the report they’d received from the scouting party.

All dark. As recently as a week ago, Hunters had observed the presence of Imperial soldiers at Fort Vaullerey, and though estimates on their numbers were unclear, their seeming disappearance was troubling. Perhaps even more troubling was that there was no sign of the likely culprits. They - which is to say, Professor Sania Yeager - were still working to understand daemon behavior, but it was generally theorized that they tended to linger near areas of human habitation, even after destroying all the inhabitants.

No Imperials, and no sign of daemons. Ignis knew it was too much to hope that they had all packed up and moved on, leaving Fort Vaullerey free for the taking.

Beside him, Valeria pushed out her chair and announced she was going to get more to drink. Ignis opened his mouth to offer to join her, but Iris beat him to it.

“You want more?” Valeria asked, laying a gentle hand on his wrist.

“If you don’t mind,” Ignis said.

“Not at all.” Valeria took the empty cup from him, her footsteps receding in time with Iris’s as they walked away.

After the women were out of earshot, Prompto let out a long, wistful sigh. “Maaaan, you guys are totally, like, relationship goals.”

Ignis scowled. “What in the world are you talking about?”

“You and Val,” Prompto said. “You’re like, so in sync. You even sit the same.”

Did they sit the same? Ignis had never noticed before, and now, well...it was more difficult for him to tell.

“You do,” Gladiolus said, as if he could read Ignis’s thoughts.

Not you too, Gladio. “We’ve known each other a long time,” he explained. For a reason he couldn’t quite place, talking about this with his friends made him feel flustered. “That’s all.”

“Come on, Iggy,” Prompto chided. “Just accept it, okay? You have an awesome girlfriend and I’m totally jealous.”

Ignis sighed and adjusted his sunglasses. “I suppose you’re going to believe what you want, regardless of whatever I say.”

“Yup,” Prompto replied.

“You hitting that?” Gladiolus asked, far too casually.

“Gladio!” Ignis shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Prompto laughed awkwardly. “I prefer to keep my private affairs private, thank you very much.”

“Not asking for a play-by-play,” Gladio said, undeterred by Ignis’s embarrassment. “Just saying.”

“Yeah!” Prompto said. “It’s okay to kick back a little bit, you know? Noct would want you to enjoy yourself.”

Even though he was sitting across from him, Ignis could have sworn he felt Gladiolus suddenly tense up like a coiled spring at the mention of their erstwhile king. He knew that wasn’t Prompto’s intention, so he tried to keep his response light.

“Indeed. If I’m occupied with other matters, I can’t harp on him to eat his vegetables.”

Prompto laughed at that, but Gladio remained silent and still as a rock. They were rescued by Valeria’s approaching footsteps.

“Here you go,” she said, taking Ignis by the wrist and placing his refilled cup in his hand.

“Thank you,” Ignis replied as she pulled her chair alongside him and sat down.

“What?” Valeria said, then leaned into Ignis to clarify, “He’s looking at me funny.”

“Prompto?” Ignis replied. “I believe that’s just his face.”

“Hey! Come on.”

“Where’s Iris?” Gladiolus barked out, his tone reflecting what Ignis already suspected.

“Chatting with a few of the Hunters,” Valeria replied. “Said they were her friends.”

“Uh-oh,” Prompto called out, his tone sing-songy. “Friiiends?” He elongated the word in a way that even Ignis found grating.

“Shut it,” Gladiolus snapped.

“And mind your own business,” Ignis added, not unkindly.

“So tell me,” Valeria began, obviously sensing they needed a change of subject, and probably wanting a distraction herself. “What’s the funniest thing that happened while you guys were out on the road?”

Prompto exhaled deeply. “Hmm...let’s see...Oh! Yeah. Definitely that time a chocobo stole Specs’ spectacles.”

“What?” Ignis thought Valeria turned toward him as she asked the question, and hoped his cheeks hadn’t gone too crimson.

“Yeah,” Gladiolus agreed, although he didn’t sound particularly amused. “That was pretty good.”

“Neither of you were even there!” Ignis protested. Of course Noct told them. Of course.

“Nope. But we heard you freaking out back at camp,” Prompto said.

“Pretty sure the whole Myrlwood heard him,” Gladio added.

“Oh, come now,” Ignis said, crossing his arms. “It was hardly the funniest thing to happen.” Although he could think of no good counterexamples at the moment.

“How in the world did a chocobo steal your glasses?” Valeria asked.

Damn , he thought. Must I be spared no humiliation? “I, well...I was trying to get a photo with it, if you must know. And it plucked the glasses right from my nose.”

Prompto burst out laughing. “You were trying to take a picture? Noct didn’t tell me that.”

“Yes, well, I haven’t your talent for self-photography. Clearly.” Beside Ignis, Valeria was doing a very poor job trying to conceal her own laughter - a sound he usually relished, when it wasn’t at his expense.

“What the hell were you trying to get a picture for?” Gladiolus asked.

Ignis sighed, certain he was blushing even harder than before, and he jerked his head toward Valeria. “She loves chocobos. And since the black variety are so rare...”

“Awww,” Prompto cooed while at the same time, Valeria grabbed Ignis’s arm.

“Stars, It was a black one?” she asked, her voice high. “Did you get any pictures at all?”

Ignis spread his hands as if to say to his friends, ‘Do you see what I mean?’ Aloud, he replied, “Alas, no. I was rather preoccupied trying to reclaim my spectacles.”

“I got a shot of one!” Prompto said. There was a rustling noise like he was going through his things. “Check it out.”

Valeria let out an adorable, girlish squeal. “It’s a baby chick! Gods, it’s so cute.”

“We rescued her as an egg,” Prompto said proudly. “She’s still at the Chocobo Post if you ever wanna go see for yourself.”

“How is that chick doing, Prompto?” Ignis asked, recalling Prompto’s recent visit and trying to steer the topic to something less embarrassing.

“Great! She’s got lots of friends. Not really a chick anymore, though.”

Ignis nodded appreciatively as Valeria reluctantly returned to photograph to its owner.

“I’ll make you a copy!” Prompto offered.

“I would love that,” Valeria replied. “Thank you!” I told you so, Ignis thought.

“Hey, Gladio,” Prompto ventured, apparently picking up on the larger man’s silence. “Wanna play some King’s Knight?”

“Meh.” Gladiolus grunted in indifference.

“King’s Knight?” Valeria’s phone beeped as she powered it on. “I’ll play.”

Ignis couldn’t help but smirk. “You’re in trouble now.”

“I...I am?” Prompto asked. “I mean...I like to think I’m pretty good...”

Ignis merely chuckled in response, knowing what sort of misfortune was in store for his friend.

“Give me your phone,” Valeria said to Prompto. “The reception’s pretty bad here, but I’ll set up a local network so we can play without any lag.”

“You can do that?” Prompto sounded awed.

“Sure, it’s easy. I’ll show you.”

Ignis sipped his water while the two of them walked through the process of setting up their game. A rather pleasant evening, he thought. If only Gladiolus would come around.

It wasn’t as if the rest of them didn’t miss Noctis, and terribly, too. But, they had the Glacian’s assurances that their King was safe, and it was just as Prompto said: Noct wouldn’t want them sitting around and moping on his account. He would want his friends to live happily and in full, and to do any less than that would be doing a disservice to their liege. Ignis, admittedly, was still struggling with aspects of that as well, but he was trying, at the very least.

“Alright,” Valeria said, scooting her chair so close to Ignis that she was practically on his lap. Prompto was probably swooning at that.

He heard the familiar tones of the game starting up, the ding of cards being drawn, and then Valeria’s voice was in his ear, whispering the outcome of her spread. She certainly did not need his advice, but he knew she was just trying to ensure that he was included - a small, simple gesture that meant more to him than she could ever understand.

“Hey, no fair!” Prompto cried out. “Two against one!” It would have been more fair if Ignis advised Prompto, but he’d much rather have Valeria sitting this close and whispering in his ear.

So he merely shrugged and said, “At least you’ll have an excuse when she demolishes you.”

“‘D-demolish...?’” Prompto repeated in a panicky voice.

“I’m not going to take any of your cards,” Valeria said. “Frankly, I don’t want any of your cards.”

That made Ignis laugh, but his mirth was short-lived when Gladiolus abruptly stood and muttered, “Gonna go check on Iris,” before stomping away.

“Is something wrong?” Valeria asked quietly.

Ignis shook his head. “He’s not handling Noct’s ‘absence’ well.”

“Yeah,” Prompto said, setting his phone down on the table, King’s Knight abandoned in the wake of their friend’s apparent distress. “I mean, it’s been pretty tough for all of us, but Gladio...he just kinda shuts down.”

Ignis sighed and felt Valeria’s hand on his knee, giving him a reassuring squeeze. He’d hoped with Iris and Talcott to look after, Gladiolus might be able to find some renewed sense of purpose, but Iris was proving more than capable of defending herself, and Talcott hardly needed a bodyguard to get him to and from school every day.

“But...Noctis is safe, isn’t he?” Valeria asked. “I understand missing having him around, but it’s not like you have to worry about him. Right?”

“Yeah, and he’ll be back,” Prompto said with all the certainty in the world, illustrating exactly why he was able to handle the situation much better than Gladiolus.

“I believe Gladio took the Astrals’ intervention rather personally,” Ignis explained. “And, thus far, refuses to entertain any arguments to the contrary.”

“Maybe we should talk to Iris about it,” Prompto said.

“A capital idea,” Ignis said, nodding. If anyone could reach Gladiolus, it was his cherished little sister.

“We stayed here before, with Noct,” Prompto said, wistful. “This exact spot.”

“We played King’s Knight here as well,” Ignis added. “If I recall correctly.” He’d won, of course.

“Sorry,” Valeria said, suddenly, inexplicably forlorn. “I suppose I’m a poor substitute for the King.”

Ignis frowned, confused. “No one expects you to behave as a substitute, Valeria.”

“Yeah,” Prompto said, trying to sound cheerful. “Noct is Noct, and you’re you, right?”

Sometimes (oftentimes), Ignis could barely decipher what the younger man was trying to say, but his optimistic demeanor was appreciated nonetheless.

“I dunno...” Prompto began to fidget with his phone, repeatedly knocking it on the table. “For me, at least, it’s easier when other people are around. When it’s just the three of us...” Ignis shook his head, trying to tell Prompto he didn’t have to go on. “...Yeah...” Prompto concluded.

“Let’s finish King’s Knight,” Ignis decided. He wanted to get back to that pleasant evening. Noctis would have wanted them to get back to that too. “Val went to all that trouble to set it up, it would be a shame to let it go to waste.”

“You just want to laugh at me when I lose.” Nonetheless, Prompto picked up his phone and Ignis heard the tune of the game booting up once more.

Ignis smirked. “Perhaps, Prompto. Perhaps.”

#final fantasy xv #final fantasy 15 #ffxv #ff15 #ffxv fanfiction #final fantasy xv fanfiction #ignis scientia #ignis #ignis x oc #gladiolus amicitia #gladio #prompto argentum #prompto

[whenthemarshmallowmettheslayer]

Another Tarsus IV fic rec. Thirty in all.

These recs are made of fics that are about Tarsus IV or reference Tarsus IV. Hope you enjoy. 

Rivers by n_anon on archiveofourown. Rated Mature. Summary: A tale of two people averse to the concept of destiny, but who can't seem to escape it.

The Cave by elospock on archiveofourown. Rated Mature. Summary: Most probably a slow K/S, post-STID. After Khan was defeated, the Enterprise was given a five-year mission to explore the uncharted and the unknown. However, things seem to be quite rocky between Captain James T. Kirk and his First Officer Spock. And they don't seem to get any better as Kirk's past resurfaces in disquieting circumstances...The rating might have to be changed to rape/non-con and graphic depiction of violence, though it doesn't concern the first chapters. It might eventually get pretty intense, though that part of the story is not written yet. Not for the fainthearted (though I don't know, it might not be that extreme... better be safe than sorry, in any case! And I don't want to mislead anybody either!)LLAP!

Five People Who Were Affected by Kirk's Death by Starsinger on fanfiction.net. Rated Teen. Summary: And One Whose Death Affected Him. Okay, so I'm trying my hand at this five things thing, and it'll probably be lame. Who knows? I don't.

Jim's Haunting Past by kiylitier on fanfiction.net. Rated Teen. Summary:Jim and Bones are contacted to secretly meet Pike at Star Fleet's headquarters. But when attacked in an alleyway injuring Kirk, a figure appears to bring back memories that were buried deep. Kirk goes instantly into PTSD causing Bones to worry about his friends. Who is this figure? What causes Jim to act so irrationally? A fight to save each others lives begin. Kirk/McCoy Injured

Murderer, Myself by heathersdomain on archiveofourown. Rated Teen. Summary: Anton Karidian is dead - shot by his own daughter, who had been aiming for Captain Kirk when Karidian stepped in the way.But there's more to it than that. It doesn't take Spock long to see the discrepancy, to notice the difference, to realize its implications. The problem is, what to do once he's realized the truth: that Karidian died because Captain Kirk allowed him to?Post The Conscience of the King.

What You Are by melonbutterfly on archiveofourown. Rated Teen. Summary: Spock and Jim are getting closer and closer, gravitating towards each other. They're not quite there yet, though, and Jim has something important to tell Spock.

Test of Time by notboldly on archiveofourown. Rated Explicit.  Summary: While balancing between two sides of a war, Jim is forced back in time to relive his worst memories.

Strength of Men by 1lostone on archiveofourown. Rated Explicit. Summary: While a deadly disease incapacitates the Enterprise, an old enemy of Jim's forces him to remember his time on Tarsus IV. Spock finds Kirk's pain unacceptable.UPDATE: 7, August 2015. Wow, this fic is five years old and I've changed a LOT as a writer since then. I hope, anyway. With the help of FoxyK I'm finally getting around to betaing this for typos. Most of the fic- plot points, etc- should stay the same, unless one of us finds something especially cringe-worthy!

Melt This Frozen Heart by Boonaddicious  on archiveofourown. Rated Teen. Summary: Kirk receives a unique gift on an away mission - a gift that will bring his fears to the light, and test his relationship to the most important person in his life."Kirk took a deep breath and dropped his impromptu weapon. The energy had left his hands, but adrenaline still pumped through his system. He knew this would require quite a bit of explanation, but the sheer elation of having beaten this psycho with some preternatural ability made him feel like he could walk on water. However, his mood darkened when he turned to look at Spock.Spock was gripping his injured arm as he sat on the ground, and was staring at Jim with unmasked fear."

the violence of comets by viverella on archiveofourown. Rated Teen. Summary: Jim has never once, in his life, believed in love. He wears his bare skin with only his own tattoo circling his ankle as a badge of honor.He meets a man named Leonard McCoy on a shuttle in Riverside, Iowa who believes exactly the opposite.(That AU in which everyone is born with a unique tattoo on their ankle that no one else has and every time you fall in love, their tattoo appears somewhere on your body.)

Crash of Expectations by vamprav on archiveofourown. Rated Teen. Summary: In another place, in another time Kirk hacked into the Kobayashi Maru and broke it. In this place and in this time Kirk hacks and the Kobayashi Maru and fixes it. But what's different about him, what made him change his mind. The answer is obvious of course. In that other place and in that other time Kirk was fully human. In this place and in this time he isn't. (Another T’Pring on Tarsus IV fic.)

His father's eyes by Captain_Mercurian  on archiveofourown. Rated Not Rated. Summary: “I found George's son,” Pike told him 21 years later with a gentle and somewhat guilty expression on his aging face. Spock felt numb all over. “He was rotting in Iowa and I convinced him to join Starfleet.” There was a slight pause. “He has George's eyes.”

Jim's Wounds by slytheringreen91 on fanfiction.net. Rated Mature. Summary: Jim beams back from the Narada with some 'not so superficial' wounds. What happens when Bones and Spock find out? Rating for language only.

Harnessing Starfire by Sherza on archiveofourown. Rated Teen. Summary: The Enterprise has a crew unlike any other. They are the best and brightest that Starfleet has to offer, the vast majority of them are painfully young, and they are largely untried. They are led by the most unpredictable and explosive duo that has ever graced Starfleet Command.Alpha and Beta Quadrants are reeling under the after-effects of Nero's second rampage. The Klingon Empire's fleet has been gutted. The Romulans are ominously silent. The shattered remnants of the Vulcans are desperately trying to save their culture and their people.All eyes are on the Enterprise, the boatload of children who succeeded where an entire armada failed. Depending on who you talk to, they are heroes, villains, or ignorant, blindingly lucky upstarts. After their rather explosive beginning, how will the Enterprise and her command crew fare?

Space Husband Ficlet Collection by Phyona on archiveofourown. Chapter Summary: Kirk was saved from Tarsus IV by Vulcans when he was fourteen, but the memory of Kodos the Executioner and his child soldiers still haunts him. It takes another Vulcan to save him when a man resembling Kodos comes aboard the Enterprise, reminding Kirk that he never truly escaped his past.Based on 'The Conscience of the King' from Star Trek TOS. Mentions of trauma, panic attacks, and starvation. (Link takes you to the chapter about Tarsus IV.)

Not This Time on SineadRivka on archiveofourown. Rated Teen. Summary: The crack of rock startled Spock, causing him to bark for a status update from Chekov. He wrapped an arm around his mother’s waist, fingers gripping hard enough that he hoped he wouldn’t bruise his human parent. And then the ground gave way. Distantly, the words, “I’m losing them, I’m losing them!” echoed from the communicator clipped to his belt.White surrounded them, and he felt himself falling . . .

Overcast Horizons by Ael on archiveofourown. Rated Not Rated. Summary:  Spending three years exploring deep space is starting to take its toll on the crew of the Enterprise. The discovery of a new planet should be routine, but this time, the consequences are greater than anyone was expecting.A rewrite of Star Trek Beyond, in the mutantverse.

To the Sea and the Sun by perhapsoneday on archiveofourown. Rated Teen. Summary: Everyone's heard of the Kelvin Incident. The same can't be said for the Massacre of Tarsus IV, or even the name James T. Kirk. But for every two things that change, at least one remains the same.

Genesis by beamirang on fanfiction.net. Rated Teen. Summary: A Captain is all things to all people. Jim is running on fumes, and it takes more than good luck and nerves of steel to be the leader the crew of the Enterprise need.

Men and Monsters by  Aneeta Potter on fanfiction.net. Rated: Teen. Summary: Kirk's never really come to terms with the mess of his life before Starfleet, opting instead to ignore it. But when (one of) his childhood monsters reappears his past slams into the present.

The Reminders of Yesterday by Nibelethe on fanfiction.net. Rated Teen. Summary: During a routine mission, two years after the Narada incident, the Enterprise beams its Captain and away-team back from an uninhabited planet, only to find them drastically altered. No Pairings.

When Q Becomes Your Last Chance...  by  whiteraven1606 on livejournal. Rated NC-17. Summary: Jim Kirk gets himself de-aged and his crew can't figure out a way to fix it until Spock Prime makes a suggestion that leads to drastic actions.

Reunited by golden_rhythm on livejournal. Rated Not Rated. Summary: Written for this prompt on st_xi_kink: So, how about Kevin gets assigned to the Enterprise, and Kirk instinctively becomes big brother protective over the guy, even putting friendships and relationships on hold for Kevin(but no sacrificing the ship for him)! Taking a hit or almost dying for Kevin on a mission is fun!! Angst ensues! 

Streetlight People by adyblahblah on livejournal. Rated NC-17. Summary: AU. Strangers waitin up and down the boulevard, their shadows searchin' in the night.  Streetlight people, living just to find emotion; hiding somewhere in the night.

Marching On by Rusting Roses on livejournal. Rated R. Summary: For the Tarsus IV fic challenge #29: I want to see Jim forced to relive Tarsus IV--but not just because some aliens were sadistic or whatever, but as a test--and I would love the reward to be one of two things 1) either Vulcan is restored or 2) Amanda is alive again. I'll make you wait til the end to see which one I picked. The title is taken from the OneRepublic song Marchin On. 

The Handmaid of Genius by ladyblahblah on archiveofourown. Rated Teen. Summary: For the [info]trek_hc fic exchange.  When the replicators go offline, Jim reacts unexpectedly.

Wholesome Heart by WerewolvesAreReal on m.fanfiction.net. Rated Teen. Summary:  14 year old James Kirk finally encounters someone else on Tarsus IV, the first ray of hope he's encountered since the takeover. Mirrorverse, Tarsus ficlet.

Anything by IvanW on archiveofourown. Rated Explicit. Summary: Spock would do anything to be with Jim...for real.

Time's Divergence by logical_stimuli on livejournal. Rated Not Rated. Summary: Written for st_xi_kink http://community.livejournal.com/st_xi_kink/4104.html?thread=9589768#t9589768 Let's pretend that Spock Prime came through the same time Nero did, and Kirk lost both parents in the attack. Spock Prime raises Kirk, teaching him all he needs to know. Bonus points if Kirk ends up meeting nuSpock.You own my soul if you include the line: "He is just like you Jim. A bit more calm, a bit more knowledgeable, but I can see you in every move he makes. You'd be proud of him, dear friend."

can't watch you drown anymore, my friend by pieandsouffle on archiveofourown. Rated Teen. Summary: Normally, Nyota is happy than usual when Kirk shuts his stupid mouth. But this kind of quietness... it doesn't make her happy. It just doesn't feel right.

#tarsus iv #James T. Kirk #Jim Kirk #spock #Leonard McCoy #spirk #mckirk #mcspirk #fic rec

[sleepy-apricot]

Of the Highest Security

Voltron fic. Post Season One (Not taking into account the Season 2 Trailer or clips. Written 3 months ago). Plot- driven. Lot’s of sub-textual Klance. Genre: Adventure/Scifi. 10 Chapters total. 20k.

Description: This fic follows Lance as he’s launched into an unknown region of the Galaxy to a solar system that hasn’t been invaded by Galra yet. However the natives have also heard of Voltron and don’t want to be associated with it either. The authorities get suspicious enough about an unknown species (Lance) taking scrap metal from the junk yard for the past three months on one of their planets, Cortaalis, to put him in a maximum security prison. Now that he’s the talk of the solar system, he runs the risk of the Galra finding out where he is. (Keith will wiggle his way into the story early on too tho)

There’s swearing, some angst, and some violence, but that should be it.

Hope you enjoy!!!

Chapter 1/10: Split

He missed Blue the most. If anyone had asked him three months ago he would've said he missed his crew, Shiro, Hunk, Pidge, Allura, Coran the most... hell, even Mullet floated into his mind with great frequency. But that was three months ago. Three months since the Wormhole Incident.

And it had only been a week and a half since he's been forcefully separated from Blue. Her easy and smooth tone had been the only thing to remind him to be hopeful at times like this. He dug his head into his hands and pressed his knees closer to his chest. He remembered everything so clearly...

...

The moment he went through the blue swirling vortex the feed on his helmet was cut off. No more teammates by his side. He was all alone. The starry scene in front of him, while serene, panicked him. Everything was silent for just a second, save for the soft hum of Blue's engines he had grown accustomed to, like being in an airplane. The way he could hear her breathe even though she was technically a machine. He gasped for air, fogging up the inside of his helmet.

"Guys?"His voice was a sharp contrast to the dead silence of space. But no one responded.

He tried again, feeling his stomach twist. "Can any- AGH!" He was interrupted by a loud jarring crash. His head reeled as he was jerked around, the only thing keeping him from becoming a human pinball being his seat belt. His head smacked against the back of the seat, sending an intense wave of pain through his rattled skull. Something had collided with Blue. Something big. There was a loud metallic lurch deep inside Blue's chest.

"What was that!?" He asked her, one eye closed. Every light and every color had intensified to the point of nearly blinding him. Blue's head turned and he jumped. It was a giant asteroid. She kicked, trying to get her engines working again, but they were failing. And now the two were being rocketed away, incapable of changing direction. Blue's control room was creaking and shaking, giving away to intense nausea that threatened to soil his armor and anything else that happened to be in the vicinity.

Land. Blue's voice echoed in his mind. Find land.

Lance rubbed his eyes, but his vision would not clear back up. His hands flailed around him trying to locate the familiar grips of the controls. Her engines may be damaged, but he could at least try to steady themselves. He blinked several times and then let out a curse. He could see nothing. Too many sounds, too much light. One of his ears muted out all other sounds except a high pitched ringing noise. One of his hands found a grip.

He pulled with all of his might on the single control. Lance could not tell by sight whether it was working, but the turning in his stomach calmed down and alleviated the nausea somewhat. Good good. She's steadying. With the other hand he checked his head. His elevated heart rate sent a new wave of adrenaline through his body with every pulse, each beat causing an explosion in his brain. He wrenched his helmet off his head, sending a spray of sweat across the deck. "Ooww..." He chocked out through gritted teeth.

Land. There's a planet. Lance took a few deep breaths, trying to block out the pain. If he could connect with Blue he could in theory see what she could see. He knew how much trouble he'd had connecting with his lion like Shiro could do. And he was not in the best head space to try it now. Nonetheless a fuzzy image came through. I did it! Yes! I guess it only takes a concussion and free floating through space. Blue was still spinning. The stars were still a blur. But she was right, there was a greenish planet not too far off. In fact, a whole solar system of six or seven planets of various sizes lay out in front of them, with an enormous sun right in the middle.

He wanted to worry about his teammates so badly, but the situation would not allow it. Lance only hoped that they hadn't had the misfortune of colliding with a giant space rock like he had.

"Okay Blue. Let's make this landing as easy as it can be." He tightened his grip on the control, and untensed his body. She guided him to the second control, and he prepared for a tough impact. The planet should have been far enough away that it would have taken a long time to get pulled into its atmosphere. No, but we're going fast enough we'll get there in a couple seconds. Here comes the hard part Blue. He felt her nod in wordless agreement.

Lance hoped the little he'd retained in high school about physics would save his life. His lion's velocity increased as they were pulled into the planet's atmosphere. The stars were replaced with the first clouds under the thin outer layer of life sustaining gases. Time to pull up. He pulled on the controls, hands trembling and knuckles white under his now uncomfortably warm armor. It's gonna get hot, I'm sorry girl. He apologized to his lion. Some of her would burn up on their way down. But he planned to minimize that as much as he could. By pulling up every time they gained too much speed, he could slow the heating process, and maybe they could live when they reached the ground.

Each time he pulled up he felt the slight relief of gravity putting a strain on his bones and his limbs. It was hard enough holding on to the controls when the entire deck was rattling non stop from the turbulence of actually free falling, but when gravity applied, it was a whole new story. His fingers were numb. He was squeezing all of the blood out of his clenched fists. His eyes hurt from squeezing them shut too.

When he got close enough to the ground to see it, a new rush of fear seeped into his mind. The land was much less land as it was a green blur. We're going so fast. Blue...

We will live. She replied curtly. She extended all four limbs.

Ha. Cats always land on their feet, huh? He forced a smile. He may have felt humor on the inside, but his body was devoid of any discernible emotion. She did not reply, but he could feel her cold hard glare burning through him. Just like old times. Still got it. He let one eye open to test his sight. The colors were still bright as hell, but the ringing in his ear had subsided and he was able to see what was in front of him. They were close now. Lance was above a forest, about three hundred feet up still. Blue's body was smoking, Lance's own armor searing. They were flying nearly parallel to the ground. His grip loosened. Just a few more seconds and they would have impact. The lion wavered side to side. She was attempting to land on her feet, even though her back two legs were mangled. This is it.

Put your helmet back on. She ordered, and he did. They braced for impact.

...

He was brought back to reality. The dull repetitive thunk of a prisoner's giant fist one cell to his right had been droning on for hours. He did this a lot. Others near him shouted and complained, some even going so far as to insult the guard every time she walked past, and trying to bypass the light green electrified energy shield, only to be shocked and howl in pain. Lance had only ever tried it once. And the scar left on his right hand was, he had to admit, a powerful deterrent.

Lance didn't belong here. The only reason he'd been put here was because some had gotten suspicious about who he was.

He understood why they were wary of his identity. Apparently this solar system was not yet part of the Galra Empire, and their leaders were not happy about the idea of joining them. But at the same time they despised Voltron, and wanted nothing to do with them either. Any association meant being noticed by the Galra, putting their planets at risk. That made sense.

Throughout the last two and a half months he'd been living as a regular citizen of the green planet known as Cortaalis. He spent his days wandering around the nearby cities trying to find the parts to repair his lion. Her chest was split wide open, and massive dents and slashes scarred her. He knew very little about mechanics (that was Hunk's department), but no one knew Blue better than Blue, and she'd been walking him through it. The problem was it was incredibly slow- going. After every long day he slept in the control deck. He could understand why people would get suspicious of the same guy desperately looking for spare junk metal and various different reactors. Lance had made some acquaintances along the way, those who would help him find what he needed, or a close proximity to it. That was a plus. He had to admit it was a pretty nice place to live, too. The cities were large and they were advanced enough for him to find what he needed for Blue."When I fix you up, we'll be outta here and we'll find our team." He kept telling himself then.

His fatal mistake was when he was interrogated by some officials, some strange orange tinted aliens, he'd accidentally used the name "Blue". That was enough for him to be shipped off to the highest security prison on the planet of Cortaalis. This was the place they sent the baddest of the bad.

"'We'll find our team'. Yeah right." He muttered to himself now. He'd overheard from the guards the other day that news had gotten out about a paladin being discovered on Cortaalis, and the entire solar system was in an uproar now because of him. They'd all been ordered by whoever was in charge to keep quiet while they decided what to do. Some argued that they should just hand him over, others wanted him killed, and still others were in favor of simply shipping him out in a space pod to fend for himself.

His only comfort was that to his knowledge, they had not found Blue yet.

"Hey, keep it down over there!" The guy on the other side of the guy banging his fist against the wall yelled at Lance.

"It's not me Dreks, it's the other guy again." He replied, voice muffled by his arms.

"Oh! My apologies Lance." He sputtered. Dreks was his only ally. A giant dark green alien with some humanoid features about his like his face and hands, but everything else was a wide array of different limbs and spikes. His shoulders were always hunched, and he was missing an eye and many teeth. Dreks was arguably the scariest person locked up here. And yet he was probably also the nicest. I mean, he's still pretty screwed up in the brain. I heard in the mess hall that he'd stabbed four other prisoners with one of his own spikes he'd torn off of himself to use as a shiv. But Dreks been sympathetic toward him. And plus, making friends with the scariest guy there guaranteed his safety.

"It's cool bro." He said unenthusiastically. Lance was just tired. he wanted to sleep. All of this noise made that damn near impossible too.

#Apricart #Voltron #Voltron legendary defender #Vld #voltron fic #voltron fan fiction #vld fic #vld fan fic #vld fan fiction

[koltarmi]

A Truth Universally Acknowledged - Chapter 3

Guess who finally updated! I’ve been kicking my ass into gear and I can promise another chapter soon! 

Read it on AO3

Jyn was certain that Baze was absolutely smitten with Chirrut.

Everyday after work, Baze would return home with a slight grin on his face. Chirrut had become a regular at Baze’s cafe and the two would talk for hours on end.

As nauseatingly sweet as it was to watch them interact, there was one downside to it all: Cassian Andor.

Cassian accompanied Chirrut on his visits to the cafe, which was where Jyn spent her time in between lectures.

Chirrut was an absolute pleasure to talk to. Cassian, on the other hand, sat silently sipping his iced tea as he judged everyone in the store. Some days, he would work on his laptop, which significantly lowered the amount of judgemental staring that occurred.

There was one brightside to the whole situation. The first time Cassian visited with Chirrut, he was wearing a newsboy cap and Jyn thought he looked ridiculous in it.

Despite getting tons of material for her vlogs, Baze's cafe was the only good place for coffee in the entire town, so Jyn had no choice but to suffer his presence if she was going to avoid falling asleep in class.

Occasionally, he would look at her and open his mouth, as if he was going to say something to her, but he never spoke a single word to her.

She was glad. Anything he wanted to say to her was most likely condescending or rude.

As the universe didn't think that Cassian's presence was torture enough for Jyn, he actually decided to talk to her one day about the one subject she loathed.

Baze and Chirrut were taking by the counter. She was in the middle of writing some notes down when she noticed Cassian, who was across the table from her. His eyes were on her once again.

"What?" she asked. Her pen glided across the page as she glared at him. He seemed surprised that she was initiating a conversation with him.

"Probably hasn't interacted with a normal human in years," she had thought, noting the comment in her head for a future video.

"Erso, that is your last name, right?" She only just registered that he spoke with an accent. She felt the oddest sensation of camaraderie because of it. She, Bodhi, and Baze weren’t the only people in town who spoke in a ‘funny’ way anymore. It was the only thing she didn't completely despise about him.

She nodded, continuing on with her notes.

"As in Galen and Lyra Erso?" he queried. She felt her muscles tense as an automatic response to her parents' names. "It was a case in London about-"

"I know what happened," she snapped at him.

‘I know that my parents were condemned by a system they believed in. I know exactly when my life went to shit.’

Cassian continued, unbothered by Jyn’s terse response. “The case was quite fascinating. Were they your parents?”

She couldn't speak. The pen in her hand made a sharp noise as it cracked.

“If they were, I'm sorry for your loss.”

“I don't want or need your pity, Andor,” she replied, her voice finally returning to her. Jyn threw her things into her bag and left the cafe without looking back.

Baze had warned Jyn that posting videos of herself expressing her hatred for Cassian Andor was not a smart move, but she waved off his warning.

There was little to no chance that he would ever find it. He was always too busy working and believing he was better than everyone else in the world.

After all, it was her vlog and her thesis project.

Baze then attempted to convince Jyn to portray a less biased opinion of Cassian on her videos. She scoffed and said that her portrayal of him was quite accurate to the original and reiterated the two arguments she had for Baze's original warning.

She thought that was the end of it.

Looking back, she realized she should have known better

Jyn clicked the most recent video on her channel titled, "Jyn Erso is in Denial"

Bodhi was wearing a newsboy cap similar to one Cassian wore. Baze sat across from him, his long hair tied up and clipped away from his face.

"Hello, everyone," Baze said in the video. "I have a point to make to Jyn. She hasn't been the most understanding when it comes to the portrayal of certain events." He shifted over in his seat and Bodhi slid into frame, a grin on his face.

"My name is Bodhi Rook and this is Baze Malbus. And we're here to say that Jyn Erso is in denial."

The two then proceeded to reenact the past weekend where Baze had invited Chirrut, Kay, and Cassian to hang out at the local bar, The Whills. Jyn had purposely not been informed of Cassian's presence and her mood had instantly soured when she noticed that he had been invited.

Bodhi had assumed the role of Cassian while Baze pretended to be Kay. According to her two roommates, when Kay had told Cassian that Jyn was walking in his direction, Cassian immediately pulled out his phone and looked down at it.

"Are you fake texting?" Baze as Kay asked, incredulous.

"It's important," Bodhi's Cassian replied, turning back to his phone.

She made the mental note to change all her passwords and to log out of her account on her computer.

Every year at Jedha University, representatives from across the state would come by and recruit potential employees for their companies. Students found it was the fastest way to get a job once they were finished with their studies.

Jyn watched as Bodhi pulled at the collar of his suit.

“Bodhi, stop fidgeting,” Jyn whispered as they walked by the various booths.

“Sorry.” He smoothed his palms down the front of his suit jacket. “I just want to make a good impression,” he sighed.

“We all do, but you’re not gonna do that if you act like you’re being interrogated,” Jyn said, straightening his tie. “You’re going to do fine. Any company would be lucky to have you as their software engineer.”

Bodhi nodded his thanks at her encouragement. “I hope so.”

“You don’t need hope. You’ve got talent and that’s what matters.”

Bodhi stopped in his tracks. “Thank you for coming with me, even though there’s only three booths for your major.”

Jyn grinned sarcastically. “Just goes to show how much the world needs students with a Masters in Communications.”

They continued walking down the booths until Jyn noticed someone familiar in the crowd.

“Oh god, what’s he doing here?”

Bodhi followed Jyn’s gaze and found Cassian and Kay amongst the crowd of students. “Oh yeah, I forgot Cassian owns a company. Maybe they decided to have him set up a booth instead of sending some representative to little old Jedha,” he commented.

Jyn scrunched her nose and tried to disappear in the crowd. “I feel so sorry for the poor people who have to work for him. They must be glad to be rid of him for the summer.”

However, Kay was observant as always and noticed the two in the crowd.

“Bodhi, it’s good to see you,” Kay greeted. “Jyn, you don’t look awful today.”

Jyn looked at the blazer and pencil skirt she had worn and laughed. “You’re just upset that I beat you at Just Dance at The Whills. Turns out those long limbs of yours are more of a nuisance than anything.”

Kay shook his head. “The sensor was poorly orientated.”

“We can have a rematch next time,” she replied. She looked over at Cassian, who stood silently beside his friend. Jyn could feel the grin on her face sink and turn into a frown. “Andor,” she said in greeting.

“Jyn,” he replied, awkwardly nodding his head.

“So, are you two here to set up a booth?” Bodhi asked.

“We are,” Kay confirmed. “We must be heading back now, our lunch break will be over in 35 seconds.”  

Bodhi waved goodbye to the pair as they walked away. “Jyn, I’m so proud of you. You were actually civil with Cassian.”

Jyn shoved Bodhi with her shoulder. “Oh, shut up. I still haven’t forgiven you for that video you and Baze filmed. Plus, there was no point in making a scene here. I probably would have been kicked out and then who would be here to give you moral support?”

He shrugged. “Wouldn’t the first time you’ve been kicked out of somewhere.”  

“You are asking for a black eye.”

“Oh, look!” Bodhi exclaimed as he walked out of what he dubbed Jyn’s punching range. “Empire has a booth set up here.”

The Empire was an up and coming cybersecurity company based in San Jose. The company promised career stability, a great health plan, and secure income to its employees. Two smiling employees stood by the booth, ready to hand out pamphlets.

A slideshow of images projected photographs of Empire’s Headquarters across the back wall. The recruiter smiled at Jyn and Bodhi. “Are you interested in a job with Empire? ” he asked.

Jyn shook her head. “This isn’t my field, but it is my friend’s,” she said, pointing at Bodhi who was engaged in conversation with another Empire representative.

Behind the man was a board featuring pictures of the executive board of the company.  Her cursory glance landed on the man who was labelled as the Director of Operations. Something about him was familiar.

She felt a sudden shiver run of recognition flood her senses; it was the man in white from her childhood.

The representative noticed Jyn’s attention had shifted to the board behind him. “That would be Director Orson Krennic,” he said. “He’s quite a fascinating man. He shot up through the ranks in the company and was eventually promoted to his current position in only six years.”

Jyn stumbled back a step. She could feel the anger surge in her. It was a familiar thrum of anger that was once a constant in her life when she still lived with Saw Gerrera. She fought against it. Instead, she ran out of the building as fast as she could in her polished black heels.

#atua #rogue one fic #rebelcaptain fic #my writing