#turns out they were unpathed

[rokurodokuro]

Howdy, just dropping by to say I really like your SF OCs! I like the backstories you've given them, especially Maria's :^] I'm definitely curious, what would Judas and Maria be doing after the fall of Shadaloo?

Ah, thank you! Here's what I have for post-A Shadow Falls:

Judas tries to blend in with regular society to the best of his ability, even going so far as to get employment at a mom-and-pop convenience store. He tries his hardest to, y'know, not kill anyone, but sometimes... he slips up, or someone tries to get the drop on him to try to mug him. Sometime later, around the events of SF6, he's found by Maria, who invites him to see to Shadaloo's resurrection. Will update this when SF6 comes out.

Maria feels like her whole world has ended with Bison's death. She falls back on her previous career in marketing bioweapons, using the funds to travel the world in search of any remnants of Shadaloo to aid in her goal of resurrecting Bison. She finds Josef Urquhart, my friend's OC that acted as the therapist for Shadaloo and one of Bison's advisors, in her travels, and he advises her to learn to use her years of rage and grief to hone her strength. Inspired by footage of Urien, she picks up the art of pankration, and becomes a terrifying force when crossed. Her, Josef and F.A.N.G gather together and begin a project to return Shadaloo to its former glory. Also will update with SF6's release.

#oc: judas savage #oc: maria fortunato #street fighter #street fighter oc #sorry this took so long to reply to! my bf just got home from work #and we had to look into how to get the 2 tb hard drives on our desktops to work #turns out they were unpathed #oops

[babyspacebatclone]

@dameferre , I’m going to be replying to this post like this because I’m trying to keep my blog Spoiler Free for the Barbie movie atm, but I really wanted to agree and discuss with you!

I definitely agree that, even in the modern era, the discussion about “Queerness” is more than just having characters in media who loudly identify as somehow not CisHet or showing a romantic attraction to a non-heteronormatice partner.

Being Queer is about the Queer experience, and there are a lot of aspects about that, and the romance/sexuality/gender portion is only part of that!

Yes, Weird Barbie is Queer, because her inability to conform to the other’s expectations of “Being Barbie” is so Queer!!! And it’s multi layered: She’s the most Horny on Main Barbie shown, so she doesn’t confirm to her “designed” sexuality, she’s not “pretty” and “perfect” and so she embodies a divergent “gender presentation.” In one character, she’s all the “Active” elements of Queer, ostracized but still not conforming until she just “Owns it” and loudly acts her Queerness as a choice to be herself.

And then we have Stereotypical Barbie, who doesn’t have to be AroAce but you can bet I’m headcanoning her that way!!! Her lack of desire for a romantic partner is significant, even if it was “normal” for Barbie World, because she chooses to become a human and confront all the heteronormative expectations there.

And the movie ends with her beautiful, head turning, embracing her female body (Barbie needing to see a specialized doctor for her new genitalia is somewhere on a Trans or Intersex spectrum and I will bite anyone who argues!) - and never shown to have any new romantic needs to accompany her other life changes.

Somehow who, even if they appear to slot nicely into a CisHet identity, has still gone through the indelible Queer experience of having emotions and body perceptions and everything else divergent from the “mainstream” of either world.

And can we talk about Ken going through the experience of being an internalized homophobic Gay or Trans person???

Someone who’s so scared of what they are inside and believe others will not accept or respect them that they embody all the toxic elements of what they think they have to be in order to convince others “No, really, I’m strong, there’s no reason to abuse me, I’m the one that will follow the rulebook for presentation and therefore I will have the power.”

Despite never feeling comfortable or happy as either Stereotypical Ken or Patriarchal Ken?? Admitting out loud that he hated everything he’d done and insisted was “really” him at his most blatant, all because of his own fears about not being loved and respected for himself?

Having to find something a little in-between, not Barbie’s Boyfriend but also not Patriarchal; just Kenough?

I’m so gender agnostic I present as Cis because I literally don’t care, so someone else can correct me, but I’d argue that’s a neopronoun, something new that describes his Queer experience as he works through and heals his internalized homophobia???

And Allan, just…. Allan.

Yes, we need more same sex and bi couples in media. We need more clear cut representations of Trans and Intersex and more diverse gender presentations.

But saying the Barbie movie is “heteronormative” when the literal entire plot is neither Ken nor Barbie ended up happy with what they were made and told to be, decided they needed something other than a romantic/sexual relationship, did not get paired up with someone else as a “consolation prize,” and ended the movie choosing their own presentations, no matter how hard it would be going forwards, how unpathed, how different from everyone else they’d ever been told to be like.

Literally, what can be more Queer than Barbie saying “Fuck the boyfriend, I’m going to go get magic bottom surgery!”

…..

Ok, Barbie practicing contact splits with Weird Barbie, I’ll give you that one. 😜

#barbie #barbie movie #barbie spoilers #lgbtqia+ #queer #queer experience

[tippytopdays]

In the Dead of Night, I Found You

Category: Gen

Word Count: 9482

Characters: Ingo, Akari/Dawn (though I use Dawn)

Summary: She couldn't sleep. Not until she saw him, the man who shared her fate, and made sure he was alright.

That he hadn't disappeared to leave her alone in this Hell.

Ao3 version

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

It had been weeks. Weeks since she’d been dumped into this place with only one command, the words ringing through her skull like a church bell.

‘Seek out all pokemon, and confront me’

For as simple as it sounded, it definitely wasn’t turning out to be.

Just getting to the point where the mere idea of running back out into the wild to grab as many pokemon as she could didn’t send her running had taken about half that time. And even then she was still fighting off the nervous jitters to keep her aim straight. Granted, dealing with the smaller and friendlier types wasn’t so bad, fun even; but every time she had to face more powerful, higher evolved forms of pokemon she had to stifle her own panic just to get out unscathed. Not to mention the amount of rugged wilderness she had to go through in the process. Trudging through unpathed marshes, clambering up cliff edges sharpened by weather–all of it hard. All of it stressful.

It didn’t really make much sense to her for something as powerful as Arceus itself to summon someone as ridiculously unprepared as her.

She’d never seen herself as too young; if anything she thought herself to be plenty old enough. She wanted to take the gym challenge back then, she wanted to climb the ranks and face the regional champion–not even failure was enough to really chase her off. And when Team Galactic came and set out to take over the world, she was ready for that too. After everything she’d faced, all the challenges she’d conquered, what was a simple world-ending event?

But to be thrust into a world that needed to be built from the ground up? It sounded fine, at first, but now it was making her head spin. How could she do this? How could anyone do this? It was hard enough for a group of adults that had an entire survey corps built for the exact same purpose so what could one teenager do? She wasn’t a hero; and when she thought about it, just going to the store was a big enough journey for her after everything she’d gone through before.

Maybe she was just some overzealous kid that was way too over her head.

And then she was facing another frenzied noble, and she met him.

Of course she had questions the second she’d seen him. The tattered coat and hat were things she hadn’t seen very much, given how few trains there were in her region, but she did remember seeing them in books and on tv. And from what she could recall at the time, it had to be at least close to her time period if not within her generation specifically; but then again she didn’t really know much about trains at all.

What was a conductor doing in Hisui? How did he get here? Maybe they had their own trains and she just didn’t realize yet? What if he had some kind of accident after coming to the region and it took away all his memories?

But as they traveled through those darkened caves he spoke, and they were words that hurt to hear.

He didn’t remember where he had come from, nor did he remember how he’d gotten here either. She’d talked with others afterwards out of curiosity; nobody had ever seen his type before. Not even the professor knew where he’d come from because according to him trains weren’t very common in his hometown either, and they didn’t dress the same either. He was completely out of place in this region; an outsider to everyone. And if she could guess it was very unlikely that he was chosen and brought here too, because she didn’t see anyone else in that fever dream of a talk with Arceus.

He must have been taken. Just up and kidnapped or abducted from his own time and place, from his home.

And just knowing that he’d had someone once, someone very close to him, made everything worse.

She didn’t know why she’d latched onto that conversation so tightly. They hadn’t talked to each other past that first moment when he’d offered to start a battle arena, hardly even seen him in fact. But there was something in that conversation, with how passionately he spoke of a past he could barely remember. And whatever it was had clung to her thoughts like a tumor.

Which was probably making her finally go insane, because it was enough to drive her out of the safety of the borrowed lodge she’d been living in to climb up Mount Coronet just to see him again. Frankly, she didn’t even know why she’d listened to it. With their limited contact there was little chance that she could simply just walk up and ask him how he was doing.

He’d think she was crazy. Weird and crazy. As if Jubilife thinking she was weird wasn’t enough.

The cold wind bit into her cheeks and she hiked up her tunic. It wasn’t thick enough to ward off the weather up here, but it was what she had. She really needed to stop spending all of her money on pokeballs and get some more clothes; definitely something thicker or at least a bit more comfortable. Her sandals were just as bad, because while they were good for trudging through dense foliage and muddy terrain they absolutely failed at keeping the wind out.

She forged on anyway. The idea of leaving this Warden, this odd yet fully grown man, by himself for too long left a bad taste in her mouth.

The path was always a bit treacherous to climb with all the wild pokemon roaming that were eager to kick her face in, but it was even worse without Lady Sneasler. Sure, she could call her, but that might wake him up too. And if there was anything she wanted less, it was for him to know she’d come out to check on him specifically.

Check on him? That was a new way to put it, whatever this was. It certainly made the aching in her chest fade some from the weird comfort of it.

So she just, didn’t stop to try. It’s not like she needed Sneasler or anything. She had traveled this path before, more or less, she could do it again. At least she hoped she remembered it correctly.

A shuffling in one of the many trees she had passed nearly jumped her out of her skin, hands going to her pokeballs on reflex. Her eyes flickered around towards any reflective or out of place colors hiding under the leaves, and after she’d stepped back several paces with nothing coming out, she bolted.

But she’d never been out here in the dark. Something she hadn’t really thought about until right now.

The brittle brush of the mountainside rustled as she ran. Trees were sparse this high up the path so the chance of more surprises grew slimmer by the minute, but the harsh air kept getting colder the further she went. She had to slow down back to a normal pace once a crack in the earth nearly took off her sandal, and she didn’t need to be looking for her shoe of all things in this darkness as she stumbled to a stop. The wheezing gasps made her lungs hurt from the cold as she braced on her knees.

This was stupid. She was stupid. Why was she out here?

She sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve, eyes stinging.

No. No she would not cry. She was the hero here. She was supposed to do all this by herself, and she couldn’t do that by crying like a baby.

It had been late evening when she’d left, but now the sun had long since fallen below the mountains. A deep, heavy darkness had covered the land like a cloak, making it difficult to traverse the path he showed her. The cold didn’t help either with the lack of the warm sun to combat it. Still she pressed on, hands stuffed under her arms with the wind at her back. She had to check, or at least make sure he was alright. That he was still there.

Another spark of pain brought more tears, something she chased away with an aggressive scrub of her sleeve.

No. No crying.

Up and up and still further up. The path to the summit was a dangerous climb she’d made before, but only a few times had she done so on her own. Usually, the morning light made it seem less threatening as it shimmered through the branches of the few trees strong enough to grow here. It helped to disperse the continuous reminder of how wild this time was and how many untamed pokemon were roaming freely all around.

A loud howl from one of the many ghost types that wandered around made her hair stand up on end and she nearly stumbled over another crag in the path.

But now it was dark, in the dead of night. The only light beneath her feet was that of the moon, and with the wind steadily growing stronger it was likely that it wouldn’t last. A steady stream of wispy clouds would periodically block out the moon and cast her world into darkness, leaving her to stumble until it saw fit to light her path again. It was an arduous climb filled with stumbles and the occasional scrape or bruise whenever the light faded. Worse yet, the shadows of some pokemon rustling from their resting places caused many a fright that had her jumping out of her skin and reaching for her team that no doubt slept peacefully on her belt. The only ones she had on her person at all.

It was a cruel truth that in the rush fueled by some mournful pull she’d left without any extra pokeballs. Because of course she would. She would pull something this stupid.

Dawn shook her head to disperse the pressure before it could settle in her eyes again.

She didn’t even realize she was at his tent before the firepit nearly tripped her. Her sandal caught onto the edge of the ring of stones and she stumbled. It wasn’t even snowing yet there was already a fine layer of it across the ground that covered the coals.

There she stood with her hands under her arms before the cabin of the Pearl Clan Warden, Ingo. The light from the windows cast almost eerie shadows across the cliffside framed in a shade of orange.

It was a very unceremonious feeling having found it again on her own, as the first time she’d merely followed after the Warden only after just meeting him a second time when Melli had taken the torches down again. The building, though small, held some form of homeliness in its design. Meant to survive the terrible weather of the mountain it held firm against the winds that threatened to blow her bandana clear off her head.

It was here the urge that had plagued her began to build into something more, firm yet fragile all the same. Like she would shatter if it were wrong.

Her mouth felt dry.

It was kind of silly when she thought about it. Here she was checking up on an adult when she should be out there doing more research and catching more pokemon. He could handle himself, right? From the battle they shared he was more than capable enough to live out here alone.

The ache in her chest grew worse, and she wasn’t sure anymore as to why.

Dawn swallowed, nerves spiking at the sight of the door. The Pearl Clan symbol had been carved into it, a frame of metal to reinforce the wood. It wouldn’t be hard to prove her worries wrong and put it to rest. Just a knock, a simple calling out would be–no, that wasn’t a good idea. Just thinking about him being woken up and seeing her out all alone had all sorts of new anxiety flaring in her head, so it was quickly tossed. Maybe she could check through a window and see if he was there? No, that was creepy and even worse than just asking him directly.

The cold was getting worse. A thick shroud of fog had started to settle in over the moon and slowly blot out its glow. Shivers wracked her thin frame as the wind cracked against the mountainside. Her breath had started to turn into an icy mist as she stood unstable and stared at the door.

Maybe she could hear him? From what she remembered, the door was thin enough for that, right? At least, Warden Melli’s definitely was considering she could hear most of one of his ranting fits that one time.

It was risky, yes, but far better than anything else she had.

The thin blades of grass that had long since died under the weather crunched under her feet as she edged closer. No lights were on, as far as she could tell at least, so it was probably likely that he was asleep or at least close to sleeping. She could do this, just for a few seconds then she’d go back. And as quietly as possible she pressed her hands against the wood, the rough texture digging into her cold palms, and leaned in close.

A familiar rumble came from within. Words she couldn’t quite make out breaking the silence and settling within her skull.

He was awake. Ingo was awake.

He was still here. He hadn’t left her.

Dawn’s eyes clouded, and for once she wasn’t fast enough to wipe the tears away. They stuck to her lashes and froze over but she didn’t care. The temperature had started to drop rapidly, the few heavy flakes of a blizzard whipping from the clouds above but she couldn’t bring herself to move. The frigid air biting into her lungs definitely wasn’t enough to make her pull away as she pressed her forehead against the door.

“Are you finished with that, Gliscor? If you are, I'm going to need to clean it as it isn’t very good to have a cluttered station before bed.”

Warm. He sounded so warm and so, so much like something familiar that it made her sick.

It was too much. The ache in her chest–no in her heart, was building up more and more and spilling into her throat and closing it up and she just couldn’t take it. She nearly slumped against the door as her knees gave out, her hands curling into fists as a howling gust kicked up. The stinging in her eyes only got worse as even more tears tried to burst through but she squeezed them shut, biting her tongue to choke down the knot in her throat

She couldn’t cry. She wouldn’t cry.

Heroes don’t cry.

“We must be ready to depart by tomorrow morning, so I suggest we all get to bed quickly. We’ll be needing the strength if we’re to set course to the arena.”

A gasping sob tore through her throat before she could stop it. Instinctively she recoiled and slapped her hands over her mouth. But it was too late as shuffling came from the other side.

“Yes, I heard that too. Give me a moment to..”

His voice faded the further she stepped back, and with it went the comforting heat that had warmed her chest. The frigid night air began to bite into her skin like a knife as another howling gale tore through the cliffside and straight through the uniform that definitely was not built for this weather.

She didn’t know how long she’d been standing there but it had definitely been for too long.

The snow had gotten heavier. Huge clumps of snow fell all around her and gathered in sheets on the ground. Her feet tripped on the new snow banks that had formed with the wind, nearly knocking her sandals off. With her hair thrashing she tried desperately to turn off into the storm and get away before she was spotted but she had stepped back so far that the fire pit snagged her heel. She fell into it with a yelp, scattering the ashes and coal into the snow. Her eyes were so cold from her half stifled tears that they burned when she wiped them with her snow-mottled sleeve, cloth scratchy from the frigid temperature.

Not here. Don’t cry here, not now!

The door opened to the warm glow of a crackling fire. And standing within the doorframe was Warden Ingo, haloed by the orange light behind him that cast his shadow across her.

His eyes were as silver as the moon, but upon seeing her sorry state they sparked with something so full of concern that it was like they were glowing. Even with the howling winds, his voice still cut through loud and clear, “Miss Dawn? What are you doing out here at this hour?”

A voice. Warm and rich and familiar with a power like a thunderstorm. It danced across the space between her ears and knocked hundreds of scattered memories loose like a skitty had clawed them off the internal shelves of her brain. Memories she barely remembered after she’d buried them when the pain had become too great. Scenes of people she’d known to turn to when the world had been too much. People that weren’t born yet, and would never be in her life.

The heat seared in her eyes, and finally the traitorous tears fell. They scorched down her already frozen cheeks as another sob broke through the knot in her throat.

He was still here. Ingo was still here and she could see him. She wasn’t alone.

And the dam, cracked and leaking, broke into a thousand pieces as she utterly shattered.

She threw an arm over her face to muffle the sudden wail that tore out of her chest, trying so hard to just keep it together but she couldn’t. The ache in her heart had exploded into a raging inferno that she couldn’t control as it burned throughout her chest and up her throat. Desperately she curled into a ball, wrapping her arms around her head and pulling her knees up to her chest.

Stop crying. Stop crying!

Scalding water trickled down her face and pooled at her chin. The uniform wasn’t meant to absorb water. It scratched at her skin and bit into her joints from the thick fabric bunched up there.

Her sobbing had gotten worse until she was choking on her own saliva. Her nose clogged at the odd position her head was, and the pressure only added to the building headache in her skull.

Why couldn’t she stop!?

She had to leave. Had to get away and back to her lodge before he found out. If there was anyone she didn’t want to see her cry, it was him. A Warden who’d been bent to lead her through the caverns under the concern that she might get hurt.

Another sob stopped in her throat, choking out in a wet gag.

But he was already crunching through the snow to kneel before her, the heat of his hands on her shoulders, “Miss Dawn, are you alright!? Is everything sound?! Are you hurt?!”

And once again the warmth that she’d once lost had returned with a vengeance that seared her to her core.

Whatever was left of her already tattered composure fell apart as she lunged at him, arms snagging tightly around his neck and practically crushing herself against him with her hands digging into his back. Forgetting all sense of decency she buried her face into the crook of his neck, likely wiping her snot on his tunic but it was a far off thought at the moment. And as his arms wrapped around her much smaller frame, more likely trying to make sense of whatever she did than to comfort, she sobbed wetly into his neck.

He was real. He was real and sturdy and so very warm like a hot summer day that she used to let her Piplup waddle along beside her on the paths around her house so she could spray mist into the air and not get everything in the house wet because it was so hot.

Like home.

Ingo was like home.

Her throat hitched on another gag, the sob caught in between a gasp and a cry. Wet fabric dug into her stinging nose and scraped at her eyes. The tunic he was wearing was hard to hold onto with how thick it was, but she refused to let go. She wouldn’t lose this; she wouldn’t lose him.

She wouldn’t lose home, not again. Never again.

But she couldn’t contain it. The ache in her chest had already burst, and there was no stopping it anymore. Even if the Warden didn’t understand why she was there and just wanted answers, she couldn’t give them. Not in the state she had let herself dissolve into.

So they sat there, in the dead of night with the ashes of the fire pit scattered all around as she bawled all she had into him. Her hands had started to freeze in the bitter cold yet she refused to move, still clinging to him even as her fingers began to ache. A chill began to set in as the snow soaked into her leggings but she remained stagnant and clung ever tighter. Minutes chugged by at a pace that she didn’t pay attention to. The only current knowledge of time passed was the intensity of the wind.

It was only until Ingo himself spoke again that she came to, voice soft and light, “Miss Dawn..? Am I to understand that you are unwell?”

She wanted to bawl again, but forced herself to pull away, “I-I..” She croaked over her tears, trying in vain to wipe them on a sleeve but it had frozen over from earlier as the harsh cloth scraped her skin. Already her cheeks were starting to freeze with the lack of hot tears to keep them warm, the now cold water pooled in the uniform’s collar starting to seep into her bones. Still, she shook her head, “N-No I..I-I can go back…” She was already out far too late and she knew it was likely too long a journey , but she didn’t need him to worry over her either.

Heroes don’t need other people to worry about them. They could handle themselves and do everything without help. Because that;s what she was now, right?

Right?

“Nonsense.” His voice, loud as ever, cut right through her thoughts, “You may have come here unattended but the track ahead is unclear and doesn’t seem to be clearing anytime soon.” He had leaned out of her reach by now and was holding her up by her shoulders, the constant frown on his face even more serious than usual, “I don’t know how long you’ve been out here in this weather, Miss Dawn, but it will have been for far too long if this storm keeps up. At this rate your engine will freeze before you can make it back down the mountain.”

Had he not been holding her already she would have toppled over in the sudden gust that swept away her voice. The storm had gathered into a blizzard by this point, the wind whipping through her hair with so much force that it was a wonder that she could see at all. And with the snow well on its way to drenching her tunic entirely the likelihood of walking was getting slimmer by the minute. She shivered and clutched at her arms.

When had it gotten so cold?

His eyes were like a storm as they narrowed, “I see we can no longer make delays.” She winced as his voice became even louder to overpower the wind, “It would be cruel of me to leave you to fend through this storm yourself, and seeing as the night is underway the chance of being found by another is slim at best.” The wind tossed his hair into a frenzy; it was weird to see him without it, she noticed, “I will summon Sneasler to-”

“N-NO!!” He didn’t get to fish out the flute on his person before she was on him again, practically knocking him over when she lunged at him. Her voice was so loud that it almost rivaled his, “J-Just-! I can-!” Words were not her friend in the sheer panic that rattled in her chest. The mere thought of being so far away, in a place she barely knew surrounded by people who just didn’t understand, was making her ill.

She couldn’t lose home again.

He was so close she could hear him swallow thickly, “Miss Dawn, I’m not sure what is wrong, but I do know that we can’t stay out here in these conditions.” His arms were back around her again, much tighter than before, “If you don’t want to make the journey tonight then you don’t have to. But it would mean that we’d have to share board for the night.”

She jolted a bit and started to lean back, “W-Wait no, i-it’s alright you don’t have to-” It was hard enough just staying out here and listening to him talk in the first place, not to mention she’d already broken down and cried her eyes out on him. Being in his home for real would probably break her even more.

But he snatched her back up against him before she could pull away, “Please, Miss Dawn. I won’t be able to rest if I knew you had gotten hurt on the trip back.” His voice was strained slightly, harsh breaths warming the top of her head. She could even feel the dig of his chin against her bandana that pulled harder in what she could have guessed was a deeper frown.

The all too familiar aching began to bubble in her chest again, but it wasn’t as aggressive anymore. It was cooler now, still biting at her insides just as fiercely yet quieter all the same. Tears stung in her eyes even though she was certain she didn’t have any more to shed.

“O-Okay…” Her voice was practically unrecognizable from how hard she was shivering.

She was so cold that she didn’t notice him adjusting his hold on her until she was already being lifted off the cold remains of the firepit. Snow clung to the back of her legs that fell in clumps but he said nothing even if it was soaking into his clothes. He was far stronger than she’d first thought, since having her legs over one arm and her back braced by the other didn;t hinder him at all even as he whipped around, towards the glow within his cabin.

Not even the wind slowed him down much as he trudged back inside, closing the door behind him with his heel. It whipped like a skitty’s tail and slashed at the loose edges of her uniform before the abrupt halt of the door being kicked shut. The slam of it made her jump slightly but she was so cold she could have mistaken it for a strong shiver.

There was another fire pit in his tent, far smaller than the one outside and against one wall where a chimney had to be if she could glean from the crude stone mantle surrounding it. It was smaller than it had been with the open door and had lost some of its intensity. The pincered pokemon had extra clumps of branches in its claws that it was tossing onto the flames inside. Its bright yellow eyes turned towards them once Ingo had closed the door, dropping the kindling entirely as it fluttered closer.

Outside, the storm rumbled, muffled through the door but still spitting its ire.

“Ah, Gliscor,” The pokemon answered with a chirp, “Thank you for manning the furnace in my absence, I’d apologize for the departure but as you can see,” She jostled a bit as he shuffled her higher to show the pokemon, “I had a detour.”

The heat was all encompassing without the constant wind sweeping it away, settling in around her shoulders where the snow hadn’t permeated like a thick wool blanket. Whatever skin that wasn’t properly covered from the storm immediately sprung to life in a painful bout of tingles as her nerves woke up from the freeze. Another shake rattled her to the bone but she made no move to escape his hold.

Somehow, even with the fireplace practically within arms reach, he was still warmer. His frame against her side was like a ponyta’s mane against her skin, the chill long since left those parts of her that touched him. And that fact made it difficult to part once he’d started to set her down, “No..” Her hands grasped at his tunic again, holding as tight as she could while curling in with a scowl.

His voice rumbled, no less concerned but also a bit amused, “Miss Dawn, you need to let go.”

She buried her face in his chest, “Don’t wanna..” The dense fabric muffled her voice, making her sound nasally in comparison to his own clear tones. Even the sigh he made sounded loud, though it was probably because she was far too close in the first place.

“Miss Dawn, you need to take off your gear before you freeze. I doubt that they’re very useful when soaked.”

She blinked slowly. Oh. Right; the snow that covered the back of her legs and everything. If she were honest she’d completely forgotten about that, but maybe that was because she was already frozen, “....Okay..”

It would be fine. She could stand for a few minutes. In his cabin where it was far warmer than she could remember being in this land.

Her stinging eyes fluttered but no more shed.

Even though she’d mumbled he still heard her, “Good. I’m going to set you down now, but you’ll need to stand for a few moments while I get you something to sit on.” While Dawn wasn’t exactly sure how she’d manage without his sturdy grip on her there wasn’t much room to argue as he lowered her shoes to the floor. As she slowly found her balance he moved his hand from her back to her shoulder, “Will you be alright on your own?”

He was worrying over her so much it was almost like she was home again. Flickering memories of her mother fussing over her shoes being dirty or her knees getting scuffed up from playing too hard renewed the sting in her eyes but she willed it away, muttering ’uh-huh’ Even though she’d already reached up to hold onto his wrist for balance, knees knocking as another shiver wracked her small body.

The hand on her shoulder tightened, “I will be nearby, but I will need to leave you for the time being.” Hunched over as he was it wasn’t hard for him to reach around both her shoulders and help her steady herself that way. Once her legs had stopped shivering as much he slowly let go, stepping back.

Whatever he was going for escaped her mind because as soon as he let go a spike of terror shot up her spine. For a few moments she was back on the beach, waking up in the middle of nowhere with nothing to her name but a single device that couldn’t call anyone nor do anything to help beyond a map and directions to follow. A crushing weight of responsibility that she didn’t want, from a being she couldn’t fight or even talk to. A reality of isolation and fear in a land she didn’t know.

The wind howled, shaking the walls.

She cried out, arms pressed to her chest as she stumbled backwards

“Dawn-!”

The same hands that had held her moments ago were on her again as Ingo abandoned his previous goal to snatch her back up, holding her tightly against his chest. The momentum had made him stumble slightly but he caught himself before they fell. His voice rumbled against her back as he cursed to himself, “A-Are you alright? Are you sure you didn’t get injured during the trip?” He was checking her over again, one arm wrapped snugly around her ribs as the other gripped around her chest and bound her arms together.

Immediately the bubble of crushing thought popped and she startled back into reality, the heat of another person against her spine snapping her into attention, “N-N-No!” Her voice was shrill and squeaky and she struggled to pull it back down into a normal enough tone, “N-No I’m..! I’m just-uh-?” Think, think, “T-tired?” She wanted to cringe and her face already pulled into one before she could control it.

It was a poor lie, one that even she could see through, but it was what she had. What mattered was that he wouldn’t question it.

“Well…I believe that is a good assumption to make.” She wanted to sigh in relief but kept quiet, “You have been out in unpleasant weather before, I’ve heard, but this isn’t a regular storm either. It’s not too far to assume that the cold would have gotten to you eventually. But if you will forgive me it’s more likely to have affected you worse given your young age.”

She swiftly ignored the comment as she was swaddled in warmth. He was ridiculously warm, even more so when he was pressing her against him like this. She’d never realized that he wasn’t wearing his jacket until now. The heavy sleeves of the Pearl Clan tunic draped over her like a thick blanket and trapped the heat very well. Combined with the steady and encompassing heat from the well kept fire it was as if the blizzard outside was miles away. Sleep was quickly trying to pull her under and her eyes were already trying to shut. The lingering ache in her legs could wait.

It struck her then that he hadn’t let her go yet. A small part of her, one quite insistent in the pleasant silence of her thoughts, was very glad that he hadn’t. It chirruped with glee like a starly that was returned to its nest, all warm and giggly in the safety of its home. Her head lolled to the side to press an ear back to his chest.

“...Miss Dawn..?”

“Hm..?” Her voice was light from the rawness of her throat. Had she been crying that hard? Or was it just the intense cold?

His voice rumbled against her ear, “..Why were you really outside my station at this hour, Miss Dawn?”

And immediately the exhaustion was gone, popping like bubble gum, “Uh-I-uh-” Her wide eyes flicked around in a panic, “U-um,” Voice catching in her throat she rattled through every excuse she could find but came up empty.

A powerful gust of wind rattled one of the few windows the cabin had.

What could she say? That she had unfinished business? He’d just scold her for that at this hour. Most of her errands were largely done in this area, not to mention that the pokedex for this region was almost complete with only the lower valleys left to clear. She didn’t exactly have a good reason to even be here off the top of her head.

There was. There definitely was. She just really didn’t want to tell him that, of all people.

Ingo pulling her closer startled Dawn out of her thoughts, “Miss Dawn, is there something wrong that needed my attention?”

“N-No I..”

“Has Warden Melli removed the torches in the caves again?”

“I-I don’t know-” Had he? She’d been pulled too deep in her own thoughts to notice, but it had also been dusk when she’d been there last. The caves had been bright enough then.

“Was..” It may have been subtle, but she could still feel his arms tighten around her, “Was there something you needed of me?”

Her eyes were flicking around the room, stinging with mortified tears as she hoped to find something to either escape this conversation or get him on another topic, “U-Uh-”

A particularly crafty bout of wind had whirled down the chimney and fluttered the fire. Another bundle of twigs flying towards it caught her attention and the Gliscor returned her stare confused, “I-Ingo I think the fire’s going down-”

“Dawn..” She gasped softly, though he made no show of hearing it. The grip on her waist disappeared as Ingo wrapped both arms around her chest in a proper hug, “Please don’t lie to me. I can’t assist you if you refuse to ask for it.” His voice had lowered to slightly above a mumble, a shake in his words that she couldn’t place. But it wasn’t so much as how he spoke so much as what he’d said that made her quivering start up again.

Another baleful gust. The glass panes clinked in the frames from the force.

She’d been around him maybe a handful of times, but as far as she knew he’d always referred to her as ‘Miss Dawn’. The perfectly formal, business nature of it had helped to keep her frankly unreasonable attachment to him at bay, since he’d only seen her as another passenger to help. It would be rude of her to be so personal upon their meager interactions so she’d only called him ‘Sir’, something he’d always answered with a tip of his hat in her direction. The informality–no the casualness of him addressing her by name was startling, frighteningly so. It was almost as if they’d known each other for years and had become close friends in that time.

Snow had started to gather around the windows. It layered quite thick with the intensity of the blizzard outside, miniature snow drifts quickly forming along the edges where the slope was too steep.

But ‘friend’ didn’t sound quite right, however. How long he’d kept the title and how many times they’d actually interacted didn’t match with the sudden shift. She didn’t quite understand etiquette that someone like Irida would have, but she did understand the implications of referring to someone by something different than the usual repertoire. Respect was normally the answer, but this felt different. Almost, personal.

Almost……familial.

Somewhere within the howling storm, the distant wails of pokemon leaked through. A mournful song bellowed into the sky from a distant memory of better weather.

Her lips quivered, parted in a silent gasp, “I wanna go home..” The words left her mouth wetly, stifled through a sob,

He flinched, arms tightening before slowly releasing their hold on her, “I..I see..I can still summon Sneasler to-”

“N-No!” Immediately her newly freed hands flew up to his arms and crushed them back to her chest, “I don’t want to go back I just–” Dawn sagged in his arms again as her legs failed her, far too many conflicting emotions preventing any stability, “I just wanna go home!”

Ingo gasped and tried to hold her up, “D-Miss Dawn!” She wanted to bawl again at the title,”I don’t understand what you’re referring to. I thought that the Galaxy team had-”

“No–no they don’t-! I can’t–” Not even she understood what she was trying to say anymore. Her voice was cracking from the sobs that were trying so hard to wrench out of her throat. Go back? Go back to the silent, foreboding air of the small lodge she had been given? Did that even count as a house? And to have to walk back through the wandering gazes of people who still held suspicion so potent it made her skin crawl?

Frost was gathering on the glass.

He was clinging to her fiercely now as he struggled to glean something from her frantic babbling, “Miss Dawn! Miss Dawn have they-” A shaky breath had him hold her closer as he lowered his voice, “Have they harmed you, Dawn?”

The flip back to informality had her head spinning as she tried to answer, “N-No they just–they–I can’t–!”

The walls had begun to softly pop and crack as the building settled. Though it was warm inside the raging blizzard outside was enough to cause a temperature difference within the walls, the materials it was crafted from stretching and bowing to combat it.

“Dawn, please, I’m not above begging if you won’t tell me. Don’t force me to plead with you.”

The same weak, almost shaking timbre was back in his voice. A crack in a crumbling facade that sounded so close to her own. Something she’d kept well behind locked doors, what she cried into her too thin pillow at night. It was that same fragility that had seeped into his words back when he was trying to convince her to stay. Like the idea that she could have been hurt was too much to bear. That being all alone was too much to stand.

The fluttering of wings had her looking directly into the yellow eyes of his pokemon. The Gliscor was staring up at her, just a few inches shorter than she was, eyes wide and tilted in an almost somber way. As it placed its pincers on its Warden’s arms it leaned in close and chirruped questioningly.

She stifled a wet gasp as Ingo pressed his nose into her hair and mumbled, “Please, Dawn. Let

me help you…I cannot conduct you down this track until you tell me what’s wrong..”

Something clanked against the window, an unfortunate passenger to its powerful wind. Gliscor jumped, chittering curiously at the glass.

She broke, “They don’t understand!” He flinched against her back as she shouted, “They don’t u-understand! Th-They just don’t!” The Gliscor had long since jumped back at the sudden increase in volume but she stoutly ignored it, “Th-They try to make me f-feel better and-and m-make me feel like it’s normal but it’s not! It’s not and I-I can’t stand it! I can’t take it any-anymore!”

What was she saying? What was her intention beyond screaming her frustrations to someone who she barely met?

Dawn didn’t know anymore. And frankly, she didn’t care either.

Her fingers dug into the sleeves of his tunic, “I just-I-I just-!” She sniffled as the glowing mantle distorted behind the tears she didn’t know she still had.

It was all too much. Too much pressure, too much responsibility. She was drowning and nobody was trying to help. Nobody would save her.

She was completely, utterly alone.

A sharp snap followed another bout of wind as a crack formed in the glass. The pressure of the storm was too great, wind leaking through with a sharp whistle. Gliscor’s ears twitched as its head snapped towards the noise.

Dawn ripped his arms away and whipped around to grab onto his neck, the Warden nearly doubling over as she shouted, “I want to go home!! I want to go back!! I don’t want to be here anymore!!”

And like that the dam broke, a flood of tears and snot she didn’t know she still had flowing out of her and all over him. The weight of her emotions made her already weakened legs wobble and give and they took Ingo with them as he gasped at the sudden shift in balance.

Slowly they fell. Unable to hold her up without strain, the Warden led her further and further down until he was practically cradling her in his lap. Somewhere, the chirps of his Gliscor quickly became a distant memory along with the crackling of the fire.

She crumbled. Completely and utterly sobbing, “I want to go home! I wanna go ho-ome!” She shoved her face into the crook of his neck again, trying so desperately to believe that it wasn’t the Warden of Hisui but someone from her hometown. That she wasn’t still here in this waking nightmare.

A few stray snowflakes were able to flutter through the crack. It was wide, splitting the pane in two from one corner to the other. The pokemon was investigating as it batted the shard curiously.

The wind howled as they merely sat there together. He let her cry out on his shoulder again, nose buried in it and all. The clan tunic would probably need washing when she was done but she didn’t care. She’d help him do it if he asked. She’d do anything, even. All he had to do was tell her what.

Would she do this for anyone else? Not here, not in this timeline.

Slowly, her cries petered out, a few stifled sobs shaking her shoulders periodically. It felt like a weight had been lifted to finally tell someone what she really felt in all this, but now a new feeling settled in. Crippling anxiety on just how he would take it.

The fire didn’t seem as warm anymore. The cold was seeping in quickly, setting a chill up her spine

Dawn crumpled slightly, gripping tighter and screwing her eyes shut. Would he be insulted? Would he think she was being ridiculous and that she needed to grow up? Or, worse yet, would he tell her that she needed to leave. That he didn’t want to see her again. That he was disappointed.

“....I think I understand.”

Dawn inhaled sharply, eyes wide.

Again his arms wrapped around her. If she’d believed he had held her tightly before, it was nothing compared to the near brutal clutch he had on her now. Now he held her properly with his arms wrapped firmly about her waist and shoulders. A hand weaving into her hair to cup the back of her head, the heat in his palm near scalding on her cooling skin.

He tucked his chin over her shoulder as he spoke, “Being left on your own…in a land you couldn’t recognize…its a feeling I know more personally than I want to admit. And knowing that you are the only one who understands, that need for a connection that cannot be filled….it is a devastating feeling. One that crushes spirits easily.” Briefly, his grip on her hair tightened before relaxing, “It leads to brash decisions and unreliable safety, such as seeking for pieces lost in the night.”

Tears still stung her cheeks even as she stared wide eyed at the far wall behind him. She’d frozen in his arms, unable to fully process what he was saying.

The weight of his hands shifted to hold her closer again, pressing her more firmly into himself, “Yet, even then, one cannot let themselves fall victim to such a thing. If one were to let this terrible isolation take over then they would quickly derail into an oblivion that they cannot be pulled from.”

She wanted to cry even more now. Was he saying that she needed to be a hero? The pressure was building again as her shoulders stiffened. Maybe he didn’t understand at all; maybe she’d always been wrong and it had been wishful thinking. But she hadn’t been around him long enough. She didn’t know what else he could say.

“You should never have been facing this alone.”

She sucked in a stuttering gasp.

The glass pushed together with a click, held firmly by one claw as the other rummaged through a nearby satchel.

“This train you’ve been forced to board is not one you deserved, and you have been left on your own to conduct it. Though you are strong you are still young. You cannot hold these feelings to yourself forever. An engine without maintenance will inevitably fail if it is forced to haul a load greater than is regulated.” His hands tensed, “I should have been summoned earlier. Maybe I could have done something to help you surpass this, before it was too much for you to handle….”

The pincered pokemon held a glob of sticky material in its free claw before pushing it into the crack. The wind still howled, but it was waning. Without the weather seeping in the fire crackled back to life, the whistling dulled to a hum. It would still need repairs, but it would do.

He adjusted her in his arms to hold her lower, closer. He was pressing her so close to his chest that she’d thought he’d crush her. The shivers that had been wracking her small body were no longer that of the cold, but from the mixture of all consuming emotions that had abruptly left her. Exhaustion was quickly trying to reclaim its importance as head of the pack as it pulled at her eyes.

She could feel his nose brush through her hair as he rested his lips on her hairline. The pseudo kiss was enough to make her quiver again, “I believe we have ignored both of our sleeping schedules for long enough. It is late and the storm is still strong, it’s likely that we’ll both have unsavory weather to traverse in the morning.” It was hard to imagine that it was the same man holding her who could yell her ears off, but now it was so soft and humble it made her insides warm.

A thick, soupy feeling settled into her ribs. It made her bleary eyes sting, but not so much from tears as it was pressure. A heavy weight still sat in her chest, present as ever. Yet it wasn’t as stifling anymore.

The wind rattled the windows, the glass panes fogged from the cold outside. The glow of the fire remained strong even through her breakdown as the pokemon returned to watching it. Dimly she realized there was a table pressed into the farther wall with a cup of something still resting on its surface. Whatever it had been was probably long cold by now.

He nudged at her side with a mutter, “Miss-” He paused as she stiffened before correcting himself, “Dawn…I don’t believe you can sleep with your uniform still on. I doubt it has dried enough yet.”

Dawn blinked blearily. Whether she wanted to believe him or not, he was right in that she couldn’t sleep like this. The cold bit into her shins as a bitter reminder that she was still soaked quite thoroughly. Reluctantly, she groaned, “..I don’t have anything…”

“I have some spare clothing I could lend you. Though it won’t fit properly I believe we’re both too tired to care.”

He wasn’t wrong about that, “Okay…” Dawn shuffled to sit on her knees and tried to stand. He held her arms firmly as he got up with her.

Once on her feet he stepped to the side, one hand still on her shoulder as he pulled the chair away from the table and offered it to her, “Dawn, I need to look through my luggage to see if I have anything for you.” His hand tensed, her tunic bunching a bit, “Will you be alright if I proceed?”

It was strange now, that after all that, the pressure didn’t quite return. Though it was settled firmly within her ribs but held little power now. It just existed as a reminder of what she didn’t have, but it definitely wasn’t enough to bring back the fear she felt when he left her earlier, “Yeah,” She nodded, “I-I’ll be fine.”

He waited a moment, hand releasing her shoulder to hover over it. Once he seemed content to leave her be he turned to the cabinet and rummaged through it. Never for a moment did he stray any further than an arm’s reach even as he crouched down to the lower shelves.

After digging through it for a moment he pulled out an extra tunic, one without his clan’s symbol. Ingo stood up, holding it out to her, “Here. It’s at least warmer than what you have now.”

She mumbled a small ‘thank you’ as she took the article. The fabric was soft between her fingers and about half as thick as what he wore now. As she looked up at him he was still watching her, an unfamiliar gleam in his eyes. She just stared back before she spoke up, “Um….C-Could you turn around..?”

A moment passed as his frown pulled a bit lower. There was confusion in his glare before Ingo stiffened, eyes wide before he turned around, “A-Ah! My apologies. I was..” He reached up for the hat, realized it wasn’t there with a nervous twitch of his fingers and dropped his hand all in the same motion, “I was in thought.”

“I-Its okay..” The rawness of her throat made it difficult to talk but simple words and phrases were manageable. Again she looked at the clothes in hand before pulling off her uniform. Normally she’d just stand up and change but with how her legs felt like jelly it was easier to simply tug her pants off while sitting before putting on the tunic. She held out her arms once it was on, sizing it.

It was definitely too large. So much so that if she were standing she was sure it would reach past her thighs. The large sleeves covered her hands but it didn’t matter much if she was just going to sleep in it.

She glanced at him. Maybe Ingo was just too tall.

Smoothing the fabric the best she could she muttered, “O-Okay, I’m done..” A yawn broke up her words though she tried to stifle it. Instinctively her hand covered her mouth, though she wasn’t sure how much good it did.

Ingo glanced over his shoulder to check before he turned around. He was staring at her again though she wasn’t sure as to why as she rubbed at her eyes. She’d started to pick at the clips in her hair when he finally spoke, “Come. The resting quarters are already prepared, and it’s long past your bedtime.”

She couldn’t protest before he was already picking her up. Sleep weighed heavy in her eyes to the point that just looking at the Warden proved difficult as he carefully set her down on the only bunk in the cabin. The cushion was surprisingly soft under her much lighter weight yet she could still feel the divot of where he’d likely slept under her ribs.

When had she gotten so tired?

Once she was settled he sat on the edge of the cot. There was the vague feeling of a blanket being hauled over her shoulder. Her eyes struggled to stay open as he brushed a lock of hair behind her ear, “Don’t worry, I will keep watch for a while longer. In the morning I will escort you back down the mountain.”

For a moment the embers of panic swelled again, “W..Will I see you again..?” The words left her unbidden, thick with sleep as they were.

She had to know. She had to know that he wouldn’t push her away after all of this. That she wouldn’t be on her own again.

Ingo removed the bandana and clips from her hair. Though he was quiet there was a firmness in his voice, “As long as you will have me, my station will remain unchanged.”

And just like that the fire was gone. All the aching, all the digging shards that cut into her soul and left her sanity in tatters–all of it was snuffed in an instant. Ingo didn’t chase her away, didn’t find her strange or unbearable in her attachment. No, he’d accepted it, practically leaped into it like a Basculegion to water. Because he knew her pain, had experienced it beforehand. He’d been left alone, and refused to leave her to suffer the same. He said he would still be here.

And she believed him.

As Ingo stopped brushing through her hair to reach for something, possibly for the Gliscor that hovered about worriedly, Dawn wiggled a hand free from the blanket to hold onto the one he’d left near her side. As he flinched she worried she’d overstepped, only to relax further when he turned his palm up to hold hers properly. And as she laid in his tent, in his bed next to the steady glow of the fire the warmth of it made her eyes heavy.

Outside the wind howled. A bitter cold coated the mountainside in a thick layer of snow, but it was far, far away from her thoughts.

She cast a glance to the Warden through her heavy eyes, focused on the thinnest upturn of his mouth before sleep could claim her.

It may not be the same, but for just a few moments she could believe that she was home.

#pokemon legends arceus #pokemon #warden ingo #ingo #subway master ingo #no idea what to tag Dawn as here #my writing #can you believe I spent weeks on this and ignored practically everything #send help

[owlish-owlhouse]

Ooo ok! Yeah I wasn’t gonna do an NSFW ask because that’s just,.. no. I was wondering if you could do a golden guard x flirty female reader fluff where the reader is a criminal (not like a very bad criminal just she uses magic that doesn’t go with her coven). But when golden guard goes to bring her to Belos she flirts with golden guard which he’s never experienced before but he’s intrigued and flirts back until she has him agree that he won’t say anything about her doing any illegal magic then she leaves him standing there while he wonders when he’ll see her again? Sorry it’s so long kinda got carried away. am curious about the softer side of golden guard. If you’re not very comfortable with doing it it’s alright there’s no pressure. I hope you have a nice rest of your day :D

( I always do gender neutral reader and I loved this ask it wasn't too long :D )

"You know doing magic outside your designated coven is a crime." Turning away from the stand I was at I was surprised to see the golden guard in all his glory. I'd just turned in a bounty and was counting my snails when he showed up behind me, Beloses right hand henchmen. Lucky me.

"Good sir you surely couldn't be talking about me?" I feigned innocence as I quickly scooped up the snails tucking them into a pouch no longer caring if the amount was wrong. As he tilted his head and glanced at something next to me I smiled wider. I had a feeling the wanted poster next to my head with my face on it wasn't doing me any favors.

"It's not often a magic user rejects Belos personal offer for early acceptance into his coven or quits magic school when their such a good student. You really embarassed our great emperor. You should apologize." As he stepped closer his staff began to glow red illuminating his golden mask in a threatening way.

Checking our surroundings realizing this was quickly going to become a fight, I could see some coven guards stationed behind him as backup scattered through the stands. Hands burning with the need to cast magic I knew this would only end in a fight.

This wasn't good. I needed to stall for time and run.

"Apologize? Last time I checked using magic isn't illegal." I joked. Tensing ready for the Golden Guard to strike first the witch who'd just gave me my bounty closed her stand as other stand members packed up in a hurry, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire. The coven members began getting closer and I felt boxed in.

"No your right. Magic usage isn't illegal. But your use of magic is." Ducking as he swings his staff sending a red pulse of energy at where I'd just been, I roll forward retaliating by throwing a fire ball back at him.

"Neat trick. But how do I apolgize if I'm dead?" I demand before summoning a shield of light as I pull out my sheathed sword. The air smelled of smoke and swallowing nervously I see the place I'd just been standing had been turned into ash.

"Oh my bad that was supposed to be on stun. Whoops." The Golden guard pauses as he flips his staff over and begins fiddling with something. "One moment I-"

Taking off hoping to get away from the stands and into the woods so no unescessary damage is done I can hear him growl. Swinging his staff at me sending another spell, I turn and summon a return circle. As his red beam goes into the circle the spell bounces back at him, shooting him with his own magic. Continuing to run the talented magic user gets thrown back more than a few feet crashing into some barrels.

Snickering as I run into the woods Emperors Coven guards help him up but he smacks their hands away like a child. Charging after me into the woods the guards remain in the market as we run through the branches and leaves.

"MAYBE YOUR DEAD BODY WILL BE MORE THAN ENOUGH APOLOGY FOR THE EMPEROR!" Weaving on and off pathed and unpathed paths in the woods trying to loose him as he shot strange spells at me, I had to admit the Golden Guard was fun. He was way more interesting than the people who were always trying to capture me. One moment witty, the next full of spite and hate. He was a powerful witch but he was still young just like me.

Laughing at I run faster he continues to chase me. As he shoots red beams I bend plants to my will and shoot rocks at him. Guess the detention track and all its spyong portals was useful for something after all.

Turning to aim a spell to trip him up so I could take off I pause not seeing him. Holding my sword out in front of me looking for his golden armor I don't see him. Pausing as I take some deep breaths I smile. I think I lost him...

Grunting as I'm tackled into the hard dirt his mask hovered centimeters over my face. His white cape covered my arms and legs and I was suddenly pinned by roots that ripped out of the ground. My eyes widen seeing how close he is but he doesn't seem to care as he keeps me pinned with his body and his magic.

"I should kill you for all that trouble." He states staff clenched tightly in his grip as he points it at me. The red reflects off his mask and my eyes making everything a blinding crimson but I'm not buying it. Smiling at him I know he won't. He had said earlier he wanted me alive after all.

"Where's the fun in that?" I tease before wincing as the roots suddenly get tighter. Rocks dig into my clothes and back as I stared up at him suddenly worried. I couldn't read the Golden Guard with his mask. I didn't know if he was serious or not. Would he actually kill me? I thought at the worst I'd be sent to the Conformitoruim or forced to join a Coven not sentenced to death.

He tilts his mask and I stare. I assume its to get a good look at me but I'm not sure anymore. I don't make any movements as his staff hovered over my face, red light becoming blinding as I feel heat radiate off the glass orb.

"Your not like other bounty hunters. You don't run away screaming or immediately give up." He hums. I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not but if it kept him stalling who was I to care?

"Yeah well..." Looking at the woods wondering if I could throw him off me and escape the roots I turn back towards him. "You're not like most Emperor Coven guards. You're actually good." Smirking at him he chuckles back before the staff suddenly flickers off. The roots loosen and now its only him keeping me down.

"What's your name? The posters only have a title they don't say your actual name." He questions. Unsure but not wanting that weird staff in my face again I swallow hoping my name will calm him down. It's not like it meant anything it was just a word.

"Oh Uhhh... I'm (Y/N)." I introduce awkwardly. The Golden Guard hums before nodding. Curious I shift to get a better look at the talented witch. "What about you? What's your name?"

Pausing the Golden Guard seems to take a moment to think. I'm not sure he's going to answer but he surprises me.

"... It's Hunter." He finally states and I smile. Hunter huh? Cute.

"Well Hunter your hunting my heart." I state with a little wink. Listening to him snort at my corny joke I smile before blinking in shock as he gets off me. Shaking his head and brushing off his pristine uniform he holds out his gloved hand. Unsure but feeling more safe around him I take it letting Hunter pull me up. He looks me over before turning to leave with a shrug.

Watching him walk away he pauses and I get ready to attack just in case this is a trick, but he doesn't turn his staff back on. He doesn't seem interested in capturing me anymore.

"... You're not one of my missions so I don't need to take you in. But I'd suggest keeping your head down and not making anymore of a fuss than you already have. The Emperor is not a kind man and he won't spare you from punishment just because you're young. When you've come to your senses I'm sure he'll welcome you to the Coven with open arms. Until then I hope we don't meet again lest it end in unfavorable circumstances." He warns in a serious tone before he goes to walk away. Biting my lip I try and hold it back but I can't.

"I hope we do!" I call after him and as Hunter walks away disappearing into the bushes I swear I hear him mutter, 'maybe we will'

Smiling unbelieving that I just survived the Golden Guard I turn and begin running summoning my staff to fly away. Feeling giddy as I rush home I really do hope that me and Hunter would meet again...

#toh x reader #toh insert #magic reader #witch reader #the owlhouse golden guard x reader #the owl house golden guard #toh golden guard #golden guard #golden guard x reader #goldy #the owl house gg #toh gg #toh gg x reader #gg x reader #wild witch reader #vigilante reader

[norringtxn]

“happy birthday, mi amor.” a misfortune, perhaps, to be at sea during such a day, when there was such an abundance of delights to be found ashore, but Esmeralda had been most devoted in her preparations: now, she balanced herself on her side, resting on an elbow in their shared bunk, leaning over to deliver a gentle kiss as his eyes fluttered open. ( it was quite a challenge to wake well before her early-rising husband, but she managed - only dozing off for a few moments now and then in the interim. ) when he began to stir, she placed gentle palm at his chest, rather insistent on keeping him abed; for now, at any rate. “I’ve already let Lieutenant Groves know that the Commodore deserves a day of leisure, and he quite agreed with me.” hand moved to rest a finger on his lips before he could protest, as she knew he would. “here. It was quite the challenge keeping you from finding it early, I’ll have you know.” from the space between the mattress and the wall of the cabin, just behind her pillow, Esmeralda withdrew an elegantly carved, dark wood box, embossed with an inscribed image of the dauntless. within, bedded down on navy blue velvet, a silver spyglass engraved with ‘J.N.’ in elegant script, and a note: “to unpathed waters, undreamed shores. with love, E.”

It was already gift enough to be awoken by gentle kiss from wife’s lips, his own curling into a long and tired smile as he tried with all his will to truly awaken instead of slipping back to sleep. Far too easy, it was, to be enraptured by her warmth and her caress and fall into a drowsy trance. James would gladly sleep the day away if he duty were not calling to him already. But, as he began to try to twist himself out of the sheets, his efforts were halted by Esmeralda’s hand upon his chest.

Blinking in surprise, James relented and obeyed, letting his back rest against soft mattress once again, eyes glued on his wife as she retrieved a gift for him.

A gift.

For him.

An expected action from a spouse, especially now that love reigned between them, but James was still full of gleeful surprise. “For... For me?” He asked, as if there were another Commodore Norrington who also had a birthday today. With hands trembling with childlike excitement, James took the box, letting a finger trace the design and taking his time to appreciate every detail. If he was already enchanted by the exterior, James was captivated by what awaited within. 

With great care, James lifted the spyglass out. He turned it about as he admired it, holding it as if it were made of the finest glass. “This is beautiful, Esmeralda.” He said, voice full of emotion, as he cautiously placed it back in the box, hands free to gently pull wife towards him and give her a grateful kiss. “But there is no greater gift than having you at my side.”

#{ ask: ic } #{ emcads } #{ james & esme | emcads } #{ v: i found love in your laugh | marriage verse | emcads } #// ESMEEEEE OMG

[babiesdreams]

Superhuman +18 Chapter 1 [127]

Warnings: mentions of: blood, rape, traumas, gore (kind of)

Jungwoo’s story:

It’s always been in my blood, but I wasn’t aware of it at first. Maybe I should have noticed in the way my anger came out like a power bust sometimes. Maybe people around me should have noticed before. But now is too late to feel sorry about things.

It isn’t something bad to take advantage of your situations, to help your relatives, It shouldn’t be bad. 

The police’s siren marked the rythm of my heartbeats, but I tried to stay calmed, there was nothing suspicious about a young adult driving his car a few miles /metres away from a recently robbed bank. Not even if they cassually had a bag with a million dollars on the backseat. 

“Can I talk to you sir?” A tall policeman says tapping on my car’s window. “Yes” I politely reply, while I rolled the window down just enough for him to hear me. “Can we inspect your car? There’s been a robbery near by and we wanted to make sure-” My foot quickly stepped over throttle, to start driving through the busy streets. 

My mind was too focused on not driving into other cars that I almost forgot about my powers. After driving through three streets, I stopped the car completely, concentrating like I practiced. Everyone and everything freezed around me. Everything stopped, except me. 

I took my time to escape, as I had literally all the time on my hands. I was so scared of what could happen to me that I simply kept the world on pause for a whole month. Hours, days the all went through like nothing. 

I only stopped because my headaches were getting worse every minute, the pain was way too much to take, so I had to stop using my powers for a while. They eventually got me, and took me to prison, but luckily I could give the money to my family first. I hope they all can enjoy the life they deserved now.

I really hope so.

Taeyong’s story:

It’s always been a curse to me. I never felt normal, I was never normal I guess. I first noticed when I was five. My mom told me I was the best thing that happened to her, and the images passed through my head.

I was a product of a rape, and she tried her best to abort me, but it was too late, and then she just got used to it. She lost her job because of me, and all her friends left her. We moved to a new city and bills were trapping us in. I got to know that when I was only five.

Since then, I could always know when someone lied to me. I thought it was a stupid power, useless and harmful for myself, but it turned out to be harmful for others as well.

Knowing secrets is powerful, much more than what I thought. I got out a job because I knew the boss was cheating on his wife. I got a promotion because I knew a workmate was stealing stuff from the office.

I worked hard since I was fifteen to get to where I am, and I’m not gonna risk it all for a stupid project. I wasn’t gonna, but they have my mother, so I’m here to tell the truth. 

Yuta’s story:

When you’re like me, people misunderstand a lot of things. I was diagnosed with TDAH when I was three. Doctors said I lives a fast life, and that I should relax. They were simply wrong.

I live my life in between pills, xannys and all sorts of medication. But that shit only stops my body, my brain still works an 180% faster than the average human brain. My Iq was qualified as “untestable” and I’ve lives in labs my whole life.

Doctors wanted to figure out what caused my “disease” and they never stopped testing me. 

So I plotted an escape plan on a free hour I had. I faked eating the pills so that I could take back some of my physical speed, and then I left the lab, as fast as I could. When they realized I was out, I was already exactly 10.000 km away from them.

But I didn’t realize how freedom would get me lost, unpathed and really pityful. So I ended up taking drugs, which actually helped me getting some of my brain speed out, and be free of my own thoughts for a while. But drugs led me to a shameful path full of crimes.

Dongyoung’s story:

I’ve always lived apart from other humans. I was trapped into a jail, where the experimented with me. I never saw another human, not that I remembered. Everyone was so scared of my power I guess.

Nobody likes to be manipulated, but it’s something I couldn’t control. They made me believe I was a monster and I acted upon that. I never wanted to be harmful. But do you know how it feels to feel what others feel?

I get to feel others feelings constantly and they all get mixed up, and there’s so much anger in this world, and sometimes I can’t control that anger.

So yeah, maybe I manipulate people, but they made me feel bad first it’s just fair. I don’t want to feel this either.

When I escaped, everyone was too scared of me, I had to turn that into something less harmful, like, like exhaustion. I made them fall asleep, but I didn’t think about the consequences it all may have. 

So when I felt overwhelmed... well you know what happened... I also felt their sadness, the way their souls got out of their bodies, the way they cried their lungs out. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.

So I came here to learn how to control this.

Taeil’s story:

My powers came like something to be grateful for. My family were farmers, and the business kept going down. I still got the motivation to kept the farm going, and helping my family over the hardships of summer. 

I don’t even know how it happened. I guess I just grabbed a bunch of rotten tomatoes and picture them to be the best vegetables I could imagine, and It changed, taking the form I had in my head.

Of course I didn’t tell my parents how I got the perfectly looking vegetables and fruits, but it saved the business, and I kept on doing it until I realized it waisted too much of my energy. 

I want to make sure I can keep this going for more time until we get better, so I want to know how to improve with my powers.

Jaehyun’s story:

Transforming is never easy you know? The way I have to shape my body into something new and different from my original form, is not easy at all. I can transform myself into other humans, animals and even objects. 

It causes my body to get stiff sometimes, and even if the things I transform into are a perfect copy of reality they have certain limits. Human limits I guess. 

I remember this one time I turned into a plane, to escape from a robbery we did at a famous bank, it was kind of epic, but I ended up crashing into the ocean half way. 

The rest is kind of history, everyone knows me and my mate. Rest in peace. But now I want to take a good turn and use my powers for good.  That’s why I came here. But I must say I think I have what it’s needed to be a leader, so if we need a lead I think I can do it.

Mark’s story:

Okay so I was in middle school when this happened. I was too angry at my classmates, because they were always you know bullying me. So the thought came out of nowhere and I was just looking at the boy, and then his nose started bleeding a lot. 

I thought it was just a coincidence, until I bumped into that guy. Yo he was raping a girl, and I got too angry and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know his veins would explode like that. 

He bleed out in front of my eyes, I will never forget how life escaped his eyes. But the girl kept saying I was a hero so I thought it wasn’t that bad you know. I had the good luck that I was wearing a costume for my theatre classes. 

Media named me as the bomb hero. They thought I used some sort of inner bombs, I don’t know honestly. I just want to control myself to have a normal life for once. 

Johnny’s story:

I thought they were healing powers at first. My mother was at the hospital when I first noticed. I wanted her to get back to normal, and I guess I did. The thing is that I have to know exactly what I want to do to the body.

I knew my mother needed that cancer out so I just pictured it out(? I don’t know how to explain I just did it and she got back at her normal self instantly. 

But It is also harmful, like my brother Mark, I can make organs and veins explode, or modify them as I want, tho I’mm better at healing.

We came here together because we wanted to live as a family, without feeling weird or different. And I feel like we can get that in here.

Donghyuck’s story:

I discovered my powers a week ago but you already know that, you also probably know that I’m the most powerful out everyone here, so I don’t get the point of sharing my story when you literally recruited me. 

972: Lee Donghyuk, it’s a formal aspect we all agreed on, please do as you were told.

The robotic voice resounds all over the room, provocking me to sigh. “Fine. You want to know what I do?” I say, concentrating for a second, before I make the gravity dissappear on the said room. Everyone started to float in the air as I kept my feet on the ground. 

Then gravity came back, when I stopped controlling it, making them all fall into the ground. 

“You didn’t have to do that asshole” Jaehyun said in the distance, and I smiled to his stupid expression. “There’s no point in this anyway” I say, but everything turned a weird shade of blue fastly.

972: Welcome to the unit 127, you have been selected to the protection unit, you will be assigned with daily missions around the world that you will have to accomplish. I will always be watching your actions and if you go against the companies policies, we will inform the police to take you away. As long as you are here you are protected. 972 will always look after you.

“Are you like us?” Mark asked from the distance. The robotic voice answered a yes, that felt odd for everyone, but Taeyong started speaking the truth “She is more powerful than us and she’s leggit. Also she’s hiding behind that wall” The boy speaked calmly. 

Jaehyun turned into one of the security guards body, breaking the glass that was covering the misterious girl with a stong punch. Her soft and calmed expression got us all. She got out of the cage she was in gently, supporting herself on one of the guard’s hand. 

“You didn’t have to break that” She says calmly, repairing the broken mirror like nothing. The pieces slowy got back to place, like nothing had happened, at all. “I trust your ability of keeping secrets from now on, Lee Taeyong” her voice said calmly to the boy who simply nodded.

And like that she left the room, leaving us behind with all sorts of doubts. But I guess that’s how 972 worked, always wanting to keep the misterious atmosphere.

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

This is like a character introductions sorta so be patient for more parts pleaseee

Masterlist --requests open-- How to request?  Check out your score.

#nct #nct scenarios #nct imagine #nct reactions #kpop #kpop scenarios #kpop imagine #kpop reactions #kpop scenario #nct superhero au #superhero #hero #superhuman #nct 127 #nct127 #nct 127 blurbs #nct 127 reactions #nct blurb #kpop blurb #nct blurbs #series

[rumbelleshowdown]

Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores

Author: Moody Orange Prompt: This gifset

The rain was steady, constant. A thick curtain separating Belle from the safety of the village. The nearing sounds of thunder and flashes of light were promising that it was only going to worsen.

The cave they’d found shelter in was spacious enough, but the walls were damp and the air muggy and thick. The cave wasn’t the problem. The rain, only a symptom. No, her current issue was the man she had been forced to take shelter with: The Light One, Purveyor of Truth, Peace Bringer and Hope Maker, the Exalted One and Only Rumplestiltskin of the Front Lands.

As far as Bell is concerned, the man was nothing but trouble.

If not for him, she would’ve already tracked down the Yaoguai and defeated it, like she promised Mulan she’d do. If not for him, she would have made it back to the village before the storm hit, and be curled up in the inn with her book and a cup of tea, content on a job well done.

If not for him she’d have never found cover, either, but considering it was his fault she got caught in the storm to begin with she was electing to ignore that. It was all the Light One’s fault. All of it.

Thunder sounded in the distance, closer than before. The Light One stared straight ahead into the curtain of rain, unseeing. There was anxiety at the corner of his eyes, in the squeeze of his hand on his hilt. At every flash, every rumble, his grip tightened.

Belle, sitting as far into the cave as she could, was tired of pretending not to see him flinch.

“Not a fan of storms?” she asked.

He answered with the glare. Rumple was at the mouth of their shelter, leaning against the wall. If she were feeling charitable, maybe she’d offer to sit with him, or invite him closer to her.

“You have magic,” she pointed out. “You could whisk the storm away with a thought.”

“The price isn’t worth it,“ he sniffed.

Right. She rolled her eyes. He was always going on about how magic had a price. A steep one too, if you weren’t careful. It sounded very arbitrary to her.

“What’s the price for something so simple?“

He snorted. “Simple.”

“It’s just a storm,” she said, resisting the urge to throw a rock at his stupid head. “You’re said to be the strongest user in all the lands.”

“It’s not a matter of—look, it’s the logistics of the thing, okay?”

Belle stared at him. She was wet, sore, and trapped in a cave with the last person she ever wanted to see again. She was not in the mood for his half-answers. “Logistics.”

He sighed. With the forced calm of someone explaining for the thousandth time, he said, “The storm has to go somewhere, doesn’t it. Contrary to popular belief, things whisked away by magic don’t just disappear into nothing. They all go somewhere.”

“But that would mean you can’t create, either” Belle said, interested despite herself. “If, say, I wanted a book, or an apple, or—anything—magic couldn’t create it for me.”

“That’s...trickier.” He rubbed the side of his face. “Far easier to summon what you need. Less costly, too.”

“So what’d be the cost of ending this, then?”

“It’s not just a sprinkle of rain.” He grit his teeth as thunder sounded, loud and crushing above them. “Maybe I could wave my hand and break the clouds up, but this is the elements we’re talking about, a literal force of nature. It would take a lot of magic to even touch it. And—” he said, before she could interrupt. “Magic doesn’t take the price outright. It’s not a previously agreed upon transaction. Any number of things could happen, the least of which being I cause a drought because my magic is keeping any storm from forming at all.”

Belle leaned back against the wall, a frown deep on her face. It made a lot of sense, really.

“So you’re telling me that the great and mighty Light One can’t do away with a simple storm. Hm.” She hated how petulant she sounded but couldn’t do anything to stop it.

“I am saying,“ he said with exaggerated patience, “it’s best to just let things be as they are.“

“Right,” she scoffed. “Because that’s the most important thing.”

“Belle…”

“Don’t call me by my name as if—“ she swallowed, throat tight. “—As if we’re. Friends.”

The Light One turned away, saying nothing.

For a little while, at least.

“How is your leg feeling?“

Belle shifted. “No worse than before.” The pain wasn’t gone, but the makeshift brace he had put her in was holding. She could tell it was going to heal straight, at least. That deflated her a little—here she was, trying to pick a fight after he carried her to the cave and bound her leg. He had used magic, too, must have for the pain to have receded so much in the time they had been here.

“So elemental magic isn’t worth it,” she said, happy to hear her tone was less waspish, more genial. “But Mr. Best-To-Let-Things-Be thinks healing magic is fine?”

She waited for him to explain, perhaps to explain that the shock and pain of the injury was enough to pay for anything, let alone a little faster healing (it made sense to her), but he kept staring moodily out into the rain.

“What am I paying for it, anyway?” She tried again.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said.

She pursed her lips, starting to get annoyed. “It’s my leg, I should know the cost.”

“My fault.”

She scoffed. “So is us getting caught in the rain but you’re not doing anything about that.”

“Belle, please. I’m happy to pay for this myself.”

She sighed. Bickering was only worth it when the other person was willing to engage. So what if he wanted to pay some nebulous price for healing her broken leg. Which he broke. Indirectly. She was the one who slipped.

But if he hadn’t been there, appearing in the woods of the East Lands, of all god damned places in the world just when she was finally—

“Why did you come back?”

His brows drew together in confusion. “This is my first time in the Cherry Oak Woods.”

Belle made a frustrated sound in her throat. “I mean—”

She waved her hand, gesturing between them as if that was the answer. He continued to look at her, not catching on.

That was just as well. What a stupid question; why come back. He never did come back, that was the problem, had always been the problem.

God, she was so foolish. So stupid. What a stupid girl.

Belle bit her lip to keep it from trembling. No more tears, she promised herself. Not over him.

And she wasn’t stupid—it had taken quite a lot of smarts to make it this deep in the woods, this close to where the Yaoguai was hiding. Quite a lot of bravery, too. The only one willing to come with her had been Mulan, but she couldn’t leave her post at the village, not when she was the only one defending it.

The Light One was still looking at her, waiting.

His hair was longer, a little more grey, but otherwise he looked exactly the same as when he appeared at her town. Same leather jerkin, same deerskin gloves. He didn’t look like a knight, certainly not like a powerful magic user. But his eyes were hard as steel, and warm as a summer rain. He knew such amazing things, could tell her stories of far off lands and kingdoms she had only read about in her books.

It was inevitable she’d be drawn to him like a breeze to an open window. She needed to stop blaming herself for that.

But it hurt when he’d walked away as if nothing between them mattered. As if she didn’t matter, like she was just another face in a long line of admirers.

“If you didn’t want me, you could have just said so.” She spoke to the cave wall in front of her, the stone craggly and uncaring.

He sighed, like he was expecting this. She was more than happy to deliver. “Belle—”

“You didn’t have to kiss back.”

“It’s not like that.”

“If I offended you somehow by inviting you to my room—”

“Just surprised me, not—”

“You shouldn’t have agreed to meet me if you were just—”

“I couldn’t take that from you!” He shouted, voice filling the space around them.

“Take what? I was offering!” She snapped back.

Belle turned to look at him. His face was red, his mouth open, teeth bared. She had liked his teeth, how they were a jagged line. She’d wondered what it would feel like to have them nip at her neck or shoulder, had wanted desperately to find out.

Rumple was the one to break the silence. “I didn’t want you—“

“Clearly.”

“I didn’t want you,” he said again, forcefully, “to give me something so precious out of misplaced gratitude.”

If Belle could stand, she’d have stormed out of the cave right then and there, weather be damned. “I did not,” she said, voice cold, “invite you to my room because I was grateful.”

“You don’t know what you were offering,” The Light One insisted. “What it’d have done to you.”

“Done to me.”

His blush was deepening, his eyes looking everywhere but at her. “I don’t make it a habit to leave ruined women in my wake. Just because I saved your town from the ogres doesn’t mean I get to bed the first pretty maiden who—”

“Ruined me?” her mouth opened, then closed. Of course that was the issue. Somehow she thought him above man’s fixation on a woman’s purity. “What makes your dick so special?”

It was his turn for his mouth to open, then close. He opened it again, but the only sound to come out was a very confused, “Ah?”

“I haven’t had a maiden head in years, Rumple,” Belle said. She narrowed her eyes. “You knew that, though. You were there when Gaston called me—”

“I know what he called you.” He shrugged, looking lost. “But—but Belle—you were a lady! The heir! The woman that everyone looked to for strength and guidance! Far too good for a man like me to—to—”

“To fuck?”

He made a distressed noise in the back of his throat.

“...Have sex with,” Belle amended. She watched him pull at the neck of his jerkin, likely questioning his high collar.

“It was wartime,” she explained. “Our land had been ravaged and despite what my father would have us believe, our stronghold couldn’t last. That kind of thinking tends to mellow even the most straight-laced traditionalist.”

Rumple nodded. He swallowed. “I didn’t, uhm. Realize the full. Nng. Circumstances. I apologize. I made a choice for you, and—I shouldn’t have.”

Belle looks down at her lap. She flexed the toes of her broken leg, first forward, then back. No pain at all.

“Think of all the fun we could have had if you’d just talked to me instead of running off.”

He huffed. “I do.”

She blinked. “What?”

He turned to look at her, his eyes soft and warm like sand pooling in her hands. “I’ve missed you,” he admitted, his voice a breath louder than the rain.

Something inside her chest unclenched. “I’ve missed you too.”

He stood, his figure impressive in the small cave. He walked over to her, slid down the wall so they were side by side. Rumple held out his hand, hesitating as if unsure she’d take it.

Belle wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip through her fingers, so that’s exactly what she did. That is, slip her fingers through his. She squeezed. He squeezed back.

“You’ll be safe to walk in another hour or so,” he murmured, leaning down to place a gentle kiss to her temple.

She hummed, pleased. They sat for a long moment, Belle leaning into his side, him leaning into hers. He didn’t flinch when the thunder rumbled.

“How did you come across the Yaoguai?” she finally asked. “It doesn’t seem quite your style.”

Rumple raised his eyebrow. “King Hubert of the Rose Kingdom got in touch. His son disappeared around the time the first reports of the beast came through.”

“Did he try his hand at hunting it?” Belle sit up a little straighter. She loved a good mystery. “Wait, the Rose Kingdom? Do you mean Prince Phillip?”

“Yes. You didn’t happen to meet him…?”

“No, sorry. But I know a friend of his. Mulan said he was visiting her when—when he vanished. She was distraught.” It took a lot to crack Mulan’s outer shell.

Belle bit her lip. “If only we had been sooner. The Yaoguai is a fire demon. It won’t come out for days after a downpour like this.”

“We’ll wait it out, then go back to the village. We can regroup there and decide our next action.”

Belle kissed his jaw. He let her linger before turning his head and capturing her lips with his.

“Together?” she asked when they broke apart.

“Together.”

#rumbelle showdown #rumbelle fic #rumbelle #final round entry #author: Moody Orange #rumbelle showdown 2019

[twilight-resonance]

Tracking Practice

Each year, I go out to visit my immediate family in another state. They live far out in the middle of nowhere; in the woods and the hills along a dirt road where the sky is so dark that you can see the stars bright and clear, some half hour from the nearest town and three times that from the nearest city. The “backyard” is many acres of mostly unpathed woodland, and every year I try to spend some time walking it. It’s so rare to find a place you’re allowed to go off-trail, and I relish the practice in navigating and walking the land only by my own guidance.

Hearthsnail and I went for a walk today. Not all the way out into the woods; just to the creek that stands between the bottom of the hill and the woods on the hills behind it. We didn’t have long to walk, since the sun was going down; but I wanted to walk at least a little since we hadn’t had a chance yet. I doubt we were gone even an hour. It was little time, but we encountered plenty.

There’s a place down by the creek that’s one of the crossing-places; on the other side is a gate, crossed itself by a road made only by its form cut through the trees and impression beaten into the dirt. Evidently the animals agree that it’s one of the best crossing-places over the creek as well; we stopped there briefly and found tracks from several kinds of animals. Deer, wild pig, turkey - and housecat. All imprinted clearly and cleanly into the loose, sandy, silty soil along the bed of the river. 

The first stop - on the way out - we spent most of our time inspecting some tracks further into the riverbed rather than those on the shore. There were some deer tracks in the bank that were puzzling; there was a caving pattern on the hind part of the foot that I was having trouble reading - an extra ridge pressed into the sand behind the foot that didn’t fit with having slid or weathered that way. Initially the closest we could come up with was that the deer was turning and changing direction - but then realized that it was jumping too, and that was the cause of the depth of the ridge (and the lack of tracks coming after it). That was a satisfying realization; and, having realized it, moved on.

We went a little further down the creek - not much more. I discovered some wild alliums - probably onions - and having identified them found many, many more along that stretch of field. Then we came to a spot where the creek split and allowed passage over the near fork; watched some small fish in a deep, calm pool and poked at rocks as we do. 

There was also a deer corpse. Fresh - not the freshest I’ve seen (or smelled), but still red with blood and white with fur. All skin and bones with no flesh; the skin was turning blue-green except where it was stained red, and the body was empty and desiccated but still held together with leather-soft-hard skin that had yet to decay. We surmised, from the state of the corpse and its location, that it had spent some time underwater. Most deer we find are ones felled by coyotes; but this was wasn’t nearly torn-enough apart, and we never quite figured out what it was that killed it. Not age - it was two or three years old at most. Not something hunting it, though scavengers certainly picked at it after. Or, maybe coyotes - but if so, a small group, for the amount they left behind. 

We turned back then, as the sun was going down. We stopped back at the same crossing along the creek and spent more time with the other tracks along the bank; I challenged Thoronthol to tell me which tracks were most recent and which were oldest, and we spent some time puzzling through them. More recent than the rain a couple days ago; the sand around it was marked by gentle drops, and the tracks cut through them. The turkey tracks sometime after that, from when the river swelled after the rain; the back half of the tracks had been washed away by a stream then higher, now lower. The wild pig more recent than the turkey - they never quite overlapped, but the sand displaced by the pig crept just enough over the tip of a turkey’s claw mark to mark it as more recent. The deer before that; the deer were oldest. The weathering was subtle enough to make it hard to tell, but the track placement suggested that the creek had been higher then - higher than the turkey track marked it at. Deer, then turkey, then pig. And housecat - the cat had been by most recently, most likely this morning.

It was a good exercise. It’s not often that we find such a good spot to practice - but this was almost as perfect as you could ask for. Sand that shows the track easily but holds onto it as well; a place where several animals have come and gone, it being an easy spot to cross or to drink water; and a density of creatures that mean they have come near enough the same time that it takes some work to sort them out, even with the weather of the last few days. 

We discussed, on the way back, the difference in how we collect such information. He is more likely to notice something that “breaks” the pattern of the landscape, be it a track or an animal hiding in the brush; I’m more likely to notice that the area suggests a presence, look for it, and find it. Area search, tracking. It’s a good pair and they support each other well, and it makes nature adventures - even small ones, like this - more illuminating. 

I was glad for the tracking practice, even if not for the practice walking through the rest of the woods. Other years, it’s the practice of slipping through narrow spaces through the trees and thorny vines, up and down steep hills and over the deep clefts of streams, sneaking up on rabbits and birds and finding the deer bones in the woods - not so, this year. Not yet, likely not at all. But the practice tracking - that was good.

#tracking #tracks #woodscraft #woods #nature #deer #wild pig #turkey #creek #backwoods #survival skills #nature walks #hearthsnail #practice #learning #forrester #tracker #area search #death #winter

[monsycamour]

To unpathed waters, undreamed shores

“Oh my, will you be able to move comfortably in that?” Sophie asked her arms full of shovels and maps.

Serena blinked in confusion a few times.  Behind the professor, assistants were frantically milling about packing things into crates to be carried by Charizard and Garchomp and whatever large flying Pokémon the lab could spare.  Serena looked down at her sundress and wedged strappy sandals. Another cute outfit wasted.

“Désolé ma cherie, I thought Dexio might have gotten a hold of you.  There was a massive storm off of Route 8 last night.  It caused a rock slide.  No one was injured, but all of the local Binacle got disrupted and are causing quite the stir for residents and passersby.  All of us at the lab are rushing to rehome the disturbed Binacle. I’m afraid our date will have to wait.” His look was pleading and distracted. He clearly wanted to spend more time with her, but also had his duties to consider.

“No worries!  Let me change and I’ll help out too!”

“Ah!  Merci mon ange, merci!”  He kissed her cheek and set off to help finish packing the crates.

“Sorry about your date Serena, but it’s almost like a date?  You two still get to go to the beach together…” Sophie drifted off. Usually she loved teasing Serena about her once seemingly one-sided crush, but today she seemed sincere.  “He definitely could have used the break.  He’s like a volcano about to erupt.  We all would be grateful if you could help relieve some of that pressure.”  Her final words were said with half lidded eyes and crude hand gestures that caused Serena to blush and curse herself for thinking Sophie could ever change.  She sighed and stormed off.

“No can do Soph.  We have Binacle to save!”

Although the pace of everyone at the lab was frantic at best, the actual task of rehousing angry Binacle was slower.  Much slower.  The rock slide had caused happily bonded pairs to split, newly unhappily bonded pairs to form, and left enough mud and loose rocks that no Binacle could move away from a despised partner or towards a beloved partner easily.  The task of all of the volunteers was to gather the unhappy Binacle and bring them to a mostly uninhabited region of the coast. It was slow, back-breaking work. Humans and Pokémon were both quickly drained of their energy.  Worst of all, Serena was nowhere near her beloved Professor as she worked.  As the region’s Pokémon Professor, it made sense that he would be the lead, but that meant he was out and about overseeing and directing all of the volunteers.  Serena did not have the instant notoriety as Champion that Diantha enjoyed and felt too guilty to try to throw her title around to get out of the heavy labor. Besides, she had a full team of Pokémon to help her.

“Here you go!”  Serena almost jumped out of her skin when she felt the cold bottle touch the back of her neck.  She turned quickly and saw her friend Shauna smiling at her and offering her a cold drink.  “You look like you need it.”

“Are you saying I don’t look cute and refreshed and full of energy?”  The two girls laughed.  Serena pulled her hair into a high ponytail and accepted the drink. “What are you doing here?  Come to help?”

“Sure.  But do you want me to help you or the Binacle?”

“Help me help the Binacle?  Huh?”

“Well, you know, I was just hanging out when I got a newsflash on my HoloCaster about the beached Binacle.  And who happens to show up at the forefront of the action? None other than your very own Professor Sycamore!  I knew you two had a date today, so I figured I’d come check on you.  How are you?”

“Sore.  But… it’s fine really.  He’s not my professor.  He’s Kalos’ professor.  And when Kalos is in trouble, of course he’ll answer that call.  That’s just who he is.  That’s… what I like about him.  If someone or something is hurting, he notices and he does everything in his power to ease their pain.  He isn’t one to just let people—or Pokémon—suffer if he can help it.”

“Oh barf, okay, you’re fine.  Let’s move these Binacle.”  The two got to work together.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh… the sun has set and so must I.”

“What does that even mean?”

“It means I’m done.  I cannot move even one more Binacle.”  Serena threw her hands into the air. “No more!”

Her waist was caught in an embrace from behind and her favorite voice spoke into her ear, “Lucky you, mon chou, we are done. Crisis averted thanks to you and everyone else who came out today.” He looked up and faced his other former student, “Merci Shauna!  I’m glad you two were able to be together.  Especially after I had to break a date with our beloved Serena.”  He placed a quick peck on her neck and pulled her body closer against his.  This was what he wanted.  He could do without the accolades; he just wanted to spend time with the woman he loved.

Sensing the shift in mood, Shauna bounced up to make her exit.  “Well, I’m beat, I’m going to shower and sleep for a day.  I wish there was a way I could shower while I slept, but I guess we haven’t come that far as a society yet.  Bye!”  She cheerfully skipped away.  Serena shouted her goodbyes after her friend before turning to the man who was currently trying to melt into her.

“Professor!  I really don’t think this is the time or place for this.”  She waved her arm to indicate his cuddling and dangerously tempting kisses he kept placing on her neck.  Thankfully (?) the pair was interrupted by Sophie.

“Oh there you two are!  Not even trying to hide your burning passions, huh?  Here, you’ll need fuel for your next activities.”  She handed them a large picnic basket and blanket. She leaned in to Serena and pointed, “There’s a deserted sandy spot about 300 meters that way, around the cliff. Don’t worry, we already roped it off as a temporary sanctuary.  No one should stumble upon you two over there.  And if you could… take care of what we talked about earlier…”  Her words were followed with more crude gestures and some equally lewd sounds.  For the second time that day Serena stormed away from Sophie.  Professor Sycamore happily followed after her.  Sophie smiled to herself.  She loved teasing the two endlessly, and was genuinely sorry for their ruined date, so she felt satisfied that she could help them have a lovely evening together.

The sun was sinking into the ocean, leaving the sky a vibrant hue of reds, pinks, and purples that were certain to melt into a clear night sky.  The two slipped passed the temporary barrier and found a dry sandy spot to place their blanket and enjoy their picnic.  Their dinner consisted of sandwiches, macarons, and a hefty bottle of sparkling rosé. Augustine poured them each a glass while Serena split the sandwiches.  The two leaned against each other as they ate in silence.  Their silence wasn’t awkward; they both enjoyed being in the other’s presence and after such a long day, felt more when they pressed against each other than words could convey.  Augustine stretched out and lay down on his back.  He felt full and bubbly after his meal.  Serena was still sipping her wine; the bubbles and alcohol hitting her faster after her day of hard labor.  She slipped down next to him and wound her body about his.  She was pressed tight against his side; half lying on him as she lazily traced little patterns into his chest.  He moaned at her touch and considered himself the luckiest man to ever live.  His beautiful girlfriend was lying beside him and the stars twinkled overhead.  He was trying to think of the right words to use to tell her how much he loved her—how he admired her strength, her willingness to help others, her selflessness, and her ability to smile even in disappointment.

He wasn’t sure when the patterns were replaced with the weight of her still hand but her steady and deep breaths told him that she was asleep.  He couldn’t blame her.  She worked longer and more tirelessly than anyone today.  He settled down to let her rest when she bolted upright with a start.  “We didn’t go swimming!”

“Quoi, cherie?”

“Swimming!  We didn’t go swimming.”

She seemed to be half asleep.  “Non, we didn’t go swimming.  But we don’t have suits.”

“That’s fine.  We still have water.”  She quickly stripped down to her undergarments—matching: it was a date night after all—and started pulling off his clothes.  “Come on, we can’t have a beach date without going in the water!” He too was stripped down to nothing but his boxers and before he could protest the two were running into the freezing water.  They both let out squeaks of shock at the cold but kept pressing forward.  When the water got too high, Serena started swimming and taunting Augustine to catch her.  He was amazed by her energy and did his best to keep up.  She turned around and quickly caught him in a deep kiss.  “I win!”  She laughed and kissed him again.  “I’ll have to think of some proper punishment for you, but for now, let’s go somewhere to warm up.”  She smiled lasciviously at him and swam back to shore.

I love her.

#lacewoodshipping #lacewoodweek #lacewoodshipping week #pokemon xy #day 1: beach date #professor sycamore #trainer serena #everyone's adults #writing