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starlightcleric · 1 year

Note

flower prompts: Iris, for whoever you'd like

Thank you for your patience as I changed my mind six times on what to do for this. Ahead we have some Wrath of the Righteous Commander & Nenio!

iris - your friendship means everything

Also on AO3

Years later, Woljif and I ran into Nenio again. Quite literally.

We were just walking down the streets of Absalom, minding our own business (and some other peoples’ pockets), when a commotion broke out in front of (what I later learned was) the Forae Logos.

“And stay out!”

A woman tumbled out of the door of the library straight into me with a yelp. “Some people have no respect for research!” she shook her fist at the door, which slammed shut.

The spiky, black hair was unmistakable. “Nenio!” I tried to give her a hug.

“Wha–?” she stiffened, then finally processed that I was there. “My loyal assistant!” Then she frowned and slapped my arm away. “Not so loyal! You abandoned me right when we were at the height of our research!”

“Uh, yeah, sorry about that.” I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. Woljif and I had booked it out of Drezen as soon as possible, which hadn’t left a lot of time for goodbyes.

“Nenio!” Woljif cut in smoothly. “How’ve ya been? I love what you did with your hair.”

Nenio stared at him, blinking, as if trying to process who he was. Being Nenio, it’s entirely possible she had completely forgotten him. “Thank you for noticing, tiefling boy. I am attempting to determine if hair length is proportional to strength as suggested in some ancient legends.”

“Well, that’s great, great to see you, we really should get going–” Woljif grabbed me by the arm and started to drag me away, but I grabbed onto Nenio’s arm.

“Hey! Why don’t we all grab a beer and catch up?”

Woljif gave me a long, suffering stare. Nenio just blinked at me, but allowed me to guide her along. With both of them on each arm, I guided us to a nearby tavern. “So how is that experiment working out for you, Nenio?”

“Inconclusive. Hair growth is agonizingly slow. It also requires me to spend the majority of my time in my human form, which is… frustrating.”

“Miss your tail?” asked Woljif in spite of himself.

She nodded. “It is disconcerting to lose one of my appendages.”

I left them at a table while I grabbed some drinks from the bar, Woljif watching Nenio like she might explode, and Nenio measuring the napkin dispenser.

I returned with beers to find them silently measuring each other up. I passed out the drinks and sat down next to Woljif. I opened my mouth, trying but failing to find something to say. I’ll admit, it was kind of surprising that Nenio remembered me, let enough to be miffed at me for leaving.

“So have you two reproduced yet?” Nenio asked.

Woljif choked on his beer mid-sip, some of it coming out his nose.

“Uh, no.” I handed Woljif some napkins.

Nenio blinked. “This is an appropriate ‘catching up’ question for friends, is it not?”

I pressed my palms together, resting the tips of my fingers on my lips. “Most people don’t approach it quite so bluntly–wait, did you just acknowledge that we’re friends?”

“We did the friendship activities together. We meet the definition of friendship.” Nenio looked down.

“It sounds like there might be a little bit more to it than that,” I said gently.

Nenio dragged each word forth with effort. “You proved I was more than nothing, Poetry. Then you ended the greatest experiment in history! And then you left.”

I looked at her in shock. “Wait, did you just remember my name?”

“It’s worth remembering now. You are the opposite-Areelu Vorlesh. And the latest mortal to ascend to demi-god status. Congratulations.”

“Uh, yeah, thanks.” But back to the actual problem. “Look, Nenio. I’m sorry for running away. I couldn’t deal with being the Commander anymore. But I should have said goodbye.”

She shook her head.“I’m not upset. That would be illogical. I’m merely disgruntled that I was unable to conduct any experiments on the subject directly after Worldwound closure. At this point too much time has passed to gather statistically significant data.”

“Right… I also agree it’s not worth experimenting on me now. But what have you been up to? How’s the Encyclopedia coming along?”

Back on her favorite subject, Nenio perked up. “After you left and the Crusade disbanded, I decided to see how long it would take to visit every nation on Golarion. The answer is one year, six months, and three days. I collected so much new information for the Encyclopedia! But those simpletons,” she spat out the word, “at the Forae Logos refuse to add my work to their collection!”

“Yeah, well, everyone knows those stuffy bozos can’t recognize real genius,” said Woljif. “Who doesn’t want to know about the time you tried to smother me with a pillow?”

I raised an eyebrow at him, and he just shrugged.

The sarcasm was lost on Nenio. “Right! I know!” She threw her arms in the air.

An idea came to me. And maybe a way to apologize. “Hey, Nenio. I have an idea for an experiment. What if we find out how long it takes glitter to disperse through the library when pressed between the covers of a select few random books?”

The answer is that all three of us are now banned from approaching a three block radius of the Forae Logos for the next three decades.

#thank you for the prompt!#apologies it took so long #wrath of the righteous #crusader poetry #nenio #fanfic #my writing

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crystalninjaphoenix · 1 year

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ALTR 114209

A JSE Fanfic

Septics Inverted AU

First IRIS Chapter | Previous

(It feels like it’s been forever since I updated this. I think I was a bit intimidated by this new chapter. How does one cover the history of Anti and IRIS? In a chapter-long flashback spanning a couple decades but focusing on a couple key instances. That’s how. And that’s what this chapter is. It’s longer than the previous chapters of IRIS Inverted, but shorter than the rest of my recent work by about 2000 words. Have fun!)

One night, a television in a suburban home turned on all by itself. The screen flicked through channels, blasting fragments of audio into the empty living room before settling on the static of a lost signal. A shape seemed to move in the white noise. A person’s head and shoulders.

Anti wasn’t sure how much time had passed since he’d last been in the world. It had to be a while, just judging by the way technology had advanced. These boxes of coils that displayed images were new. They were all connected by cables and wires that beamed radiation. People had figured out how to combine radio and motion pictures. Fascinating.

Footsteps in the house. The television clicked off, just in time for a woman to look into the living room, confused. She walked up to the television and pressed some buttons on the box, turning some dials as well. Trying to figure out what was wrong. It got annoying after a while, so Anti shut down all signals going to and from the television, leaving it on static. The woman messed around some more, then sighed and left.

Anti leaned out from the static screen, his form nothing but flickering shadows, and watched her go. Once he was sure she was gone, he stepped out entirely. He was still a shadow. Now that he’d severed his connection with his host, he couldn’t take a solid form. That was the price he’d paid when he left.

Jameson was probably still alive. If Anti wanted, he could go find him. But he didn’t want that. Even after spending a couple decades cooling down, he was still angry with him. And... well, he didn’t know if he wanted to see what happened to Jameson. He could think of no good outcome there.

In fact, he wasn’t sure he even wanted to chance running into him. The world was a big place. And it was all connected through electricity now. Anti could go wherever he wanted.

And so he did.

He flitted around the world for a couple years before finally deciding to stay in America for a while—New York, to be exact. The city was a web of energy, giving him a lot of places to go and a lot of things to do. It was in this city—in the year 1953—that he first heard of IRIS.

Anti had taken to living in a skyscraper where they broadcasted television. He liked the connection he felt there, where the cameras beamed out to every CRT box in the nation. But his presence hadn’t gone unnoticed. Flickering lights, shadows of people film, the hum of static and the feeling of charged air right behind you. It wasn’t long before the TV studio employees began to whisper that the whole place was haunted. Anti would have felt bad, but it was sort of fun to frighten them. It wasn’t like he could stop the electrical problems anyway. He was pure energy without a host, and that was bound to affect the electricity whether he wanted to or not.

And the effect he had was bound to attract attention.

One day, a man came into the broadcast studio. He wore a blue jumpsuit and carried a black duffel bag, and wouldn’t have looked too different from any maintenance worker or janitor if it wasn’t for the logo on his lapel. A white outline of an eye, accompanied by the letters I.R.I.S. Back then, the eye only had one circle for an iris. They would change it eventually, as all companies do.

The man talked with the studio owner. Anti listened to their conversation from the overhead light. “There is a chance that something dangerous is in your building,” the man said. “We at IRIS are offering a free scan.”

“Dangerous? Dangerous how?” The studio owner asked.

“We are unsure at this time,” the man replied. “That is why the scan is free.”

“What if you find something? Are you about to charge me for getting rid of it?”

“It will be a small fee if something is found. Only one hundred dollars.”

The studio owner looked surprised. Anti didn’t really understand currency, but even he knew that was shockingly cheap. “Well if the scan is free...” The owner mused. “Go on ahead. Do I have to clear out a space for whatever scanning equipment you’re about to bring in?”

“Thank you, sir.” The man in the blue jumpsuit turned and started to leave. “Don’t worry about clearing a space. We at IRIS are very efficient.”

Anti followed the man as he walked through the studio hallways, causing the electric bulbs to flicker whenever he shifted to a different one. The man looked up, noticing this. He seemed concerned, but not worried. He walked until he was alone in a small hallway, home to some storage rooms. And then the man pulled something out of the duffel bag. A small... slab. Made of metal. With a screen. Anti could feel the buzz of electricity coming from it, but... it was so small. The man could hold it in two hands. What was it?

The screen turned on, a white grid on a black background. The man turned in a circle and the grid slowly filled in with more lines. It was an outline of the hallway, complete with rooms. A map. The man fiddled with some buttons at the edge of the screen—and then the device started making a beeping noise. Two dots appeared on the map: one yellow, and one red right behind it.

The man froze. He slowly raised his head and looked around. Anti understood what was happening. Somehow, that device knew where Anti was.

He didn’t like that.

The lights overhead flickered, going out for five seconds straight. Anti stepped out of the building’s wires and manifested behind the man, his shadowy form insubstantial. The beeping coming from the device rose in pitch, speed, and volume. “What the hell?” the man whispered. When the lights turned back on, the man spun around, only to freeze the moment he saw Anti there.

Anti drifted closer. The man remained frozen for a second more before suddenly pulling something out of the duffel bag: a metal rod similar in size and shape to a screwdriver, connected by a wire to something inside the bag. He jabbed it towards Anti’s form. The rod made an electronic whining noise as it passed through Anti’s shadowy chest, but nothing else happened.

The man went pale. His nose started to bleed. Anti drifted closer still, raising a hand and brushing it through the man’s arm. He yelped as a shock passed through his arm, making him drop the rod and the flat device. “G̸et ͟out͟,” Anti whispered. His voice buzzed and popped.

Instantly, the man ran, only sparing a moment to grab his things. Anti followed him through the lights, making their flickering follow him. He considered causing the elevator to stall when the man stepped inside, but decided against it. He wanted this man and his strange devices out. Stalling the elevator would just delay that.

Unfortunately, Anti left the building not long after the man did. He knew that there would be more people poking around, possibly with more strange devices. And he didn’t feel like dealing with that right now.

But he would have to deal with them eventually.

Over the next couple decades, Anti traveled gradually westward across America. And every year or two, the same thing would happen. He would take up residence in some building. At first he preferred commercial ones, since they used more electricity and connected to more places. But people in commercial buildings were more likely to check out the weird electrical problems. After all, it could interfere with business. And once someone decided to investigate the problems, inevitably, someone would show up in a blue jumpsuit with the IRIS logo on the chest.

He saw them as an inconvenience at first. Something that forced him to move location when he was just getting comfortable. But then they started getting smarter. They would stay outside the building in cars full of electrical devices, scanning the building from a distance. If Anti didn’t catch them in this phase (often by shorting out their devices and manifesting in front of them to scare them off), they would call for backup. Four or five others in black, with the same eye-shaped IRIS logo on the sleeve of their uniform, would show up, carrying more of those handheld devices, often armed with a handgun of some kind. And they were trouble. Because they refused to leave.

Anti was forced to get aggressive. Well... maybe not forced. But these IRIS guys in black got on his nerves easily. They brought with them strange equipment. Spheres that irritated the energy in the air, grids that set up invisible barriers of electricity, and cameras that could tell them where Anti was. None of it had any real effect on him. But it was annoying and uncomfortable. Like nails on a chalkboard. Like metal squeaking on ceramic.

So...he lashed out.

He never wanted to hurt them. Not permanently. Just scare them. And at first, he was able to. Shutting down the lights and all other electricity was bound to freak anyone out, and he would add sounds in the darkness to make the experience that much more unnerving. One of them would stand in the darkness, staring through their small camera that was their only way to see their surroundings, and then there would be the sound of hissed words right in their ear. They didn’t want to stay long after that.

But IRIS became bolder. They brought more equipment with them, bigger and bulkier... and more powerful. They did much of the same things, but stronger. And it started to affect Anti. Just barely. Just an annoyance. But now he was the one being unnerved. What was this? As far as he knew, only magic could affect him in this shadowy form, but this wasn’t magic.

So his attacks against them grew more aggressive. He didn’t just turn off the lights, he made them glow red. The whispers grew louder, and he let electricity fill the air, giving a few of these IRIS employees shocks. He manifested more and more, still unable to be physical, but certainly able to look frightening. He’d long ago figured out that humans didn’t like things that looked human, but had too-long proportions, or joints that bent the wrong way.

And yet, IRIS kept coming back. Anti picked up some information from their employees’ conversations. The people in black belonged to a division called C&C: an acronym he never heard fully explained. But he guessed it was something to do with “capture,” or maybe “containment,” because they always spoke about doing that. And they always used the word “ALTR” as well, something he would later find out was another acronym, though that was never explained either.

That’s what Anti was to them. An “ALTR.” One time, he heard one of their scouts in blue jumpsuits get on a radio channel to report a “possible ALTR 114209 sighting.” That was him, wasn’t it? So... they wanted to capture him, did they? They thought they could pull that off? Like hell they would.

Anti still remembered vividly the day he went a bit too far.

He was squatting in a suburban house at the time. Two stories tall with a basement, in a neighborhood of identically-built houses, right smack dab in the middle of the United States. No one was living there at the time. It was for sale by the previous owners, who had already moved out. They’d left a lot of their furniture behind, including their television and appliances. That was one of the reasons Anti had chosen to stay there.

He hadn’t even seen the blue-jumpsuit-wearing IRIS scout. There must have been one in the area, but they had managed to slip under his notice. Instead, the five-person C&C team in black had barged right into the house one day, carrying electronic boxes on their backs and handguns on their hips. It caught Anti off-guard, and he always wondered if that was one of the reasons he was so... aggressive... this time.

They left the front door open. But Anti had long since figured out that if you moved the charges in the air around, you could move certain light objects... like a door. It hadn’t slammed closed behind them, but one of them noticed something on his handheld device. He spun around quickly and grabbed the handle, only to cry out as it shocked him even through the thick fabric of his glove. “The door’s closed,” he said, taking a radio off his belt to report it to the others. “I think it’s trapped us in here.”

“Is it locked?” asked another IRIS agent. That one was in the kitchen, which Anti knew because the hoard of electronics these agents carried were beacons to him.

“Unconfirmed, but I didn’t hear the deadbolt. It did shock me when I touched the doorknob, though.”

“That’s fine. We can break the door down if we need to. Or get out through one of the windows. Just focus on finding the ALTR.”

The five of them spread out through the house. For once, Anti didn’t try any of his usual tricks, though he knew they were picking up on some signals on their devices. They could probably feel the static in the air, too. He could see some of their hair standing up a bit. The air in the house smelled of ozone.

“Nothing in the kitchen or dining room.”

“Living room is clear.”

“Hallway is clear.”

“Office is full of energy, but not more so than anywhere else.”

“Alright, we’ll have to check the other floors, then. The floor plans say they’re both smaller than this one, so we can split up—as long as we don’t let each other out of our sight. Tanner, Herrera, take the second floor. Jacobsen and Knight, you’re checking out the basement with me.”

Did they know that Anti could hear them? Were they aware that he didn’t need to choose which group to watch, that he could watch them both at once?

When the group of three went into the basement, he shut the door behind them and fried the light system down there, sending sparks flying from bare lightbulbs. Let them deal with the darkness for a while. He would keep an eye on them while he paid more attention to the pair upstairs. They were in different bedrooms now. He closed the door to each.

The lights turned red, and though the windows were open and it was daylight outside, barely any sun came in. “Herrera, do you hear that whispering?” one of them said through the radio. He didn’t let the signal go through. Instead, he went through the radio, coming out on the other side as static-filled laugher.

“Tanner, was that you?” the other one said into the radio. But of course, that didn’t go through, either. They were alone. Except for Anti. He manifested in front of them, shadows gathering into a semi-human form. The agent stepped back, looking afraid, but didn’t run. They reached back and turned on the electronic box on their back. It started to whine, and the strange energy caused Anti’s form to shiver, but didn’t dissipate.

“Th̷a҉t'͞s usèless͟,” he whispered, and raised a shadowy arm. The box began to smoke and its whine increased, and the agent actually started to panic. They scrambled to pull it off, throwing it to the ground as arcs of lightning scattered along the surface. Anti stepped closer. “Leave͢.̡ No̵w̛.”

The agent seemed frozen. Anti could see the fear in their eyes, but they didn’t back down. He walked closer still. “I ̷s͡a̴i͡d͝ l̸eáve,” he growled. “O̸r—”

And then the door burst open. The other agent, who he’d trapped in the other room, came screaming into this one. The doors didn’t have locks, after all. Anti turned to them, prepared to intimidate them as well, but instead they threw a strange box right at him—small enough to fit in one hand, with bulky bits sticking out. It passed right through Anti’s shadowy body

That’s when he felt it. A horrible pull, like the box had its own center of gravity. His visible form dissolved, but he was still there, fighting against that pull. The box began to beep, several lights turning on and glowing red and blue. It rapidly grew hot, and that pull increased. Anti fought against it. He struggled. It was like being sucked into a whirlpool. Like scrambling to hold onto the edge of a crumbling cliff, he was trying to dig his fingers in but the ground was caving beneath his weight.

His vision locked onto the agent who had thrown the box. Instantly, rage consumed him. He lunged forward, looking for something, anything to grab onto—yes! There! He could feel something solid! He surged forward—

And the pull stopped. He staggered backwards, feeling... heavy. Heavier than he had in a long, long time. The agent was staring at him with wide, horrified eyes. Good. How dare they?! How fucking dare they?! They deserved to be horrified. Snarling, he leaped forward.

Anti did not pass through the agent like he was expecting to. Instead, they made contact, rolling out through the open doorway into the hallway. That was odd, but he took the opportunity. How dare they?!

He had hands, and they wrapped around the agent’s neck as he stared into their eyes. “You made a terrible mistake,” he hissed. The words were also heavy in his mouth. “You made a mistake, and now you will pay.”

He truly didn’t want to hurt them. But his anger carried them away, and he squeezed. The agent gasped and began to choke, and for a moment, he wanted to go further.

And then he heard shouting from the radios hanging from their belts—both of theirs. And then he realized that the hands he had wrapped around the agent’s throat were wearing black gloves—like all the other agents wore. And then he realized why he’d felt so heavy, why he managed to collide solidly with something.

To escape the awful pull from that box, he’d grabbed onto the other agent in the room, possessing them.

The shock of that made him let go of the agent’s neck. He wasn’t supposed to do that. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t do that. But here he was, staggering to his feet. No, not his feet. There was warm liquid on his face—not his face—running down from his eyes—not his eyes. Blood. Everyone responded differently to possession, and it seemed he’d grabbed hold of someone who reacted terribly. Unsure of what else to do, he stood there... and laughed.

There was shouting within earshot now. He turned his head—not his head—and saw a staircase. Unused to this physical body, he clumsily walked over to it, grasping the bannister and peering down the stairs to see the other three agents standing at the bottom. Their expressions were all the same. Confusion. And then fear. Deep, deep fear. And yet, despite that fear, they all started to move within a split second, reaching for items in pockets and switches on their electronic packs.

Anti laughed some more—did they think they could do anything to him while he was possessing somebody?! They would just hurt their fellow agent. “Be careful!” he shouted. “You might get someone hurt!” He screamed that last word. Then he screamed again, wordlessly, just to see them back away. And he stepped out of the agent’s body.

Not a good idea, as it turned out. Because he was leaning forward, down the stairs. He’d forgotten that a human doesn’t just stay where they were once the possession was over. Their body went limp. And that’s what happened this time. The agent’s eyes rolled back into the head, and as all their muscles released, they fell forward. They fell down.

The sound was awful, and so were the cries of the other agents as they watched their colleague fall towards them. But Anti couldn’t stay to see what happened next. He only hovered nearby long enough for them to gather around the fallen agent, laying them out on the floor. Only long enough for one to hold up a handheld device and seem to scan the now-unconscious agent, and announce “There’s a heartbeat!” Only long enough for that.

He had to leave. He had to get away. Otherwise... what was it for?

Anti jumped all the way across the country after that, wanting to get as far as possible from what happened in that house. He ended up in another big city, the first he’d been in for years. For three days exactly, he stayed in a shop that sold televisions (always more televisions nowadays) and caused a lot of frustration for the owner when their TVs would randomly stop receiving signals.

For three days exactly, he hid. Until... someone found him.

It was the middle of the night. The shop was closed, and the door should have been locked, but somehow the man walked in anyway. His hair was black, as was his suit, and he carried a cane. He looked around the shop, then leaned back against the counter, as if this was all perfectly normal.

Anti wanted to be left alone. He didn’t want to see anyone, so he reacted poorly. Specifically, by turning on all the televisions at once, filling the air with static that barely concealed his whisper of “L̢eav́e.”

The man was unphased. He glanced around with eyes that were pure black, not reflecting the new light, and said, “I certainly will not.”

How annoying. Anti had enough annoyance these days. He didn’t waste time at all, manifesting directly in front of the man. “Lea͝v͡e̷ ͢me̴ a̧lon̸e̸,” he hissed.

Now the man looked irritated. “It’s not a crime to loiter in this state.”

“You̢ d͠on͞'t̷ ̀ow̴ǹ ̛t̢hi̸ś pla̴ce̵. T͢respa͏ss̕e̕r.”

“Oh, and you’re saying you aren’t trespassing?” The man flicked his hand dismissively. “Being a disembodied entity doesn’t give you the right to go wherever you want.”

“A̡n͏d̕ ýou hav̵e th͢at r͢i̶ght͏,̡ dò you?̨” Anti manifested a smile on his shadow face. “Hyp̶oc̕rite.̡”

The man chuckled. “Perhaps you have a point. But I didn’t come here to argue.”

“Co̕uld̢'̴ve ͠f͡oǫĺe̢d me.” That piqued Anti’s curiosity—and dulled his hostility. “W̢ḩy͢ ͟di͏d ̀yo͝u cóm҉e ̵he͏re̢, ͞the̡n?”

“I was looking to see if the rumors were true, about there being some sort of spirit living in the televisions here,” the man said. “I thought that, perhaps... we may be able to help each other.”

Anti tilted his head. “Wh̨at̵ ͝do you̧ ͟w͠àn̶t?”

“I’m looking for a friend of mine and I believe your ability could help me find him. Do this for me, and I’m open to do... well, anything within reason for you, as long as it isn’t too immoral.”

Interesting. Maybe something like this could help get Anti’s mind off the recent events. “I̵'͡m̸ ͞li͡st̵e̕ning̵.͏"̶

- - - - - - - - - -

“I got a little off track there at the end, but that’s the whole story.” Anti propped his elbow on the sofa arm, resting his head in his hand. “I hadn’t even heard of IRIS again until all of this shit started up. Which is kind of amazing, if you really think of it. I tried to be more careful, but gods know I still did all sorts of weird shit, intentionally or unintentionally. I’m guessing they got busy with something else.”

“...Wow.” Jack wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He finally settled on, “I can’t believe I never knew this.”

“Should I have told you earlier?” Anti asked.

“No, it’s fine, I just... you think that would come up sooner.” Jack laughed tiredly. “We’ve known each other for a long time now.”

“I didn’t want to talk about it until now,” Anti said slowly. “It’s... not my proudest moment.”

“Hey, it’s fine,” Jack said gently. “Clearly, these IRIS guys wanted something from you, and they weren’t about to stop. You freaked out a bit too much, yeah. But... you didn’t really... Once you got a hold of yourself you stopped. And I think that’s what matters.”

“Not to the guy who fell down the stairs.”

“Well, yeah, obviously. But that was a mistake. It’s fine.” Jack gave him a small smile. “Honestly, the only new information for me there was the IRIS stuff. I didn’t learn anything about you that I didn’t already know.”

Anti stared at him. “Thanks,” he said slowly.

“No problem.” Jack paused. “That man at the end was Dark, right?” Anti nodded. “Does he know about IRIS?”

“I never told him about them,” Anti said. “But I did some research, and California is where IRIS comes from. Maybe he already knew back then. Or maybe he’s found out in the time that’s passed. Do you think I should ask him?”

“Might be something worth checking out.” Jack shrugged, trying to appear casual. “If, uh, someone else could, you know, know about all this happening to us, then I think... that’d be good. Probably.”

“Just tell me you want me to talk to him, Jack.”

“Okay, fine, I want you to talk to him.”

Anti chuckled. “Alright. I can do that. But... tomorrow. I want... to stay here for now.” He shifted position, fully lying down. He didn’t look at Jack.

Jack had spent enough time around Anti to figure he felt bad about leaving for so long. “Yeah, hang out for a bit, chill,” he said casually. “I know you don’t sleep, but take a rest.”

“I’ll do that.” Anti sighed, and closed his eye.

“I’ll be here,” Jack said quietly.

“...I know,” Anti whispered. “Thank you.”

#jacksepticeye #jacksepticeye fanfiction #jacksepticegos #septic egos #septic egos au #jacksepticeye au #antisepticeye #brigid writes fanfiction #septics inverted au #invertedau

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worldtravelerbuff · 9 months

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youtube

That's right folks! If anyone is seeing this including Ranboo fans/Generation Loss fans, I'm officially a GenLoser!

Recently, I completed my first Generation Loss Marathon and loved it! GL was introduced to me through Game Theory's first video, a teaser of the first episode, followed by a full theory when the entire series came out. Then, I would discover more content related to GL, such as fan art, clips, memes, vines, scene moments, cosplay, and so on. What I hadn't done was a marathon, and that's what I did. Watching the episodes inspired me to make a video. The video you are watching is my own GL-related video. Some of the more relevant parts were recorded with my webcam, while some of the smaller parts were recorded with my phone camera. Additionally, I typed out a letter with huge font letters and drew the GL logo as if I had been sent a letter from them welcoming me. The thumbnail you also see shows me doing the GL logo with my hands. I'm looking forward to seeing The Founder's Cut and more to come in the future for the story. GL is now one of my favorite interactive videos to watch (even if they are on Ranboo's VODs Youtube channel now) next to In Space With Markiplier and The IRIS Project created by Jacksepticeye! Well done Ranboo!

I also premiered this vid when I uploaded it, but sadly the comments were turned off. But you can put your comments here.

#ranboo #generation loss #youtube #youtube premiere #genloss #Youtube

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fear-is-nameless · 2 years

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Antimatter

From the spellbook in Argentum Inanis;

IRIS = Antimatter

But what exactly is antimatter?

(It’s complicated).

In the 1920′s, scientists were figuring out an equation to go with the theory of relativity (E=mc²; mass transforms into energy/ energy into mass) to describe the behavior of an electron moving at a high speed.

They succeeded. But this new equation could have 2 solutions; 1 for an electron with negative energy & the other an electron with positive energy. The conclusion is for every particle there exists a corresponding anti-particle that's an exact match & behaves identically, but with an opposite charge.

The theory is matter & antimatter existed in equal amounts after the Big Bang. However, if true, as soon as each atom connected to its’ twin counterpart, they should’ve obliterated each other into pure light energy. It’s thought there was ever slightly more matter for unbalance, but that (& why antimatter’s so rare) is a mystery.

So, what does this mean for Anti?

It shows more of his persona- deeper than just “Jack’s evil ego”.

Think about it; particles that behave in the similar way but with the opposite charge. His text is zalgo. His speech is electronic/ layered. His movements unnatural, glitchy & spontaneous. He distorts reality itself at his height of power.

He is broken in our world. It’s not by his own choice, but what he’s created from & existing in a universe that can’t support him.

Also, it explains some destructive traits. Antimatter is extremely unstable; any contact with its’ twin counterpart would be instant annihilation for both-

into an enormous amount of pure energy. Maybe Anti has the scale tipped in his favor to not be destroyed himself permanently, or he’s a lesser form of antimatter all together. But that potential energy. Can Anti harness it? Is that how time travel is possible or why time is broken at all?

If he really is a fractured entity misplaced in this world, maybe that’s why he’s willing to lash out;

To make everyone else suffer for his own existence ?

In KJSE, Anti kept saying that “there are no strings on me”, how he's “in control” & “this is MY world!”. Almost as if he wants that stability (no matter how to get it), that normality, & that's why;

But how? How do we help someone so unhinged, violent & constantly tearing apart the fabric of reality? Or can we only watch?

Finally, I’m curious about IRIS = Antimatter.

I wondered if it was an acronym as it’s all capitalized, but (at this time) I couldn’t find anything 6/22 update; it is an acronym! I also think of the the colored band of an eye around the black pupil.

That thought alone brought back a lot of old theories. How often we’ve been told to keep watching, even though in the very same spellbook (& vid description/ title at one point) said DON’T MAKE EYE CONTACT. How eyes (even Jacksepticeye/ Sam, the channel logo) are like reflective surfaces, not unlike mirrors.

And Anti’s been making said eye contact with US since the start.

Perhaps our attention is still something he needs, as he knows we’ll never stop watching.

But... Why is this sidenote, “IRIS = Antimatter” in the spellbook in the first place?

Why was Marvin researching this? What exactly is he looking for? I know the video’s short, but he didn’t seem to take the warnings seriously (use with caution, inform an AIMC immediately! DON’T make eye contact) he still touched the orb. Yes, he was startled to see those images, but that same vortex also appeared at the end-

..... Marvin, despite the risks, either intentionally or by accident,

what have you DONE?

#jacksepticeye #antisepticeye #antimatter #spooky magic 10/2020 #really curious for your guys' input

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septic-alex · 2 years

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My theories, a list.

REGARDING IRIS:

What if IRIS used C!Jack as an experiment for their researches, making clones of him aka "ALTR's". One of the ALTR's DNA sequence severely backfired, AKA Anti.

Each egos DNA sequence was created using different traits and such, but IRIS fucked up Anti's sequence, corrupting that ALTR.

Each ego might be an ALTR in this case with an assigned number. The time thief being 5194, if that is one of our known egos or whatever creature.

So all the ego's could be a product of IRIS.

IRIS seems pretty damn keen on the whole imagination typa thing. They could be trying to make Anti even more powerful to see just how far imagination can take em. But they severely overstepped.

Anti has been gone for a long time, and when he has shown up the scenarios have been rather minor. What if it is because IRIS had him contained all this time, but now they messed up?

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"It turns out that characters with multiple pupils in their eyes are somewhat common in Irish literature (such characters sometimes appear in non-Irish works as well). However, the meaning of this varies between characters. In some instances, having multiple pupils is a sign that the character has an "evil eye."

Found this, pretty interesting regarding the IRIS logo.

And, another thing; An eye symbol can have different meanings.

They can represent a gateway to the soul, or omniscience and all seeing amongst other things.

I wonder how all seeing IRIS is?

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IRIS WTCHR cameras kinda feels like the "Observation duty" cameras. Flipping through them, looking for anomalies. Perhaps Anti is a type of anomaly created by IRIS. As you can see in in the video where there are security cameras on Jack, the door opens and somebody enters, but the person entering isn't visible on the camera. Perhaps IRIS fixed the "anomaly", not letting us see what is going on. Like they are keeping things away from us. Not wanting us to know what they created.

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REGARDING CHASE:

When Chase said in IRIS trailer "You guys knew and did nothing" he could either be referring to us as the viewers, or IRIS.

IRIS could have been observing Chase all this time, just watching.

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REGARDING JACK AND ANTI:

Seán acknowledges all other egos but he's pretty good at dodging Anti. Ego art week, birthday wishes, and the socks. Everytime Anti has been "thrown aside", something has happened. Usually text being Zalgofied. Anti does not appreciate being ignored since attention more or less fuels his powers.

#jacksepticeye #anti septiceye #chase brody #septic egos #ego theories #bellas theories #iris

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inkribbon796 · 2 years

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Egotober 2022 Day 21: Refracted Lenses

Summary: The WTCHR facility is dedicated to safety and security, for its clients and employees. And Henrik knows that promise well, because he’s a completely normal IRIS scientist and nothing is wrong with him.

A/N: This doctor’s name is a placeholder until Jack tells me the name of the character that Arin is playing.

Prompt: Iris

Characters: Henrik

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31

Henrik hadn’t slept well last night. Nights were long in the IRIS labs and they all kind of blurred together.

But that’s what coffee was for. Henrik loved coffee.

He was in the lab floor break room, stirring in his coffee and ignoring the two armed guards that were a fixture in every breakroom.

When he turned, Henrik watched one of the head doctors walk in. He stopped in front of the little pastry display close to the IRIS logo. His brown shoulder-length hair was meticulously cared for, a couple dyed blond streaks in the hair.

“Hey, Henrik,” Dr. Hanson smiled as he plucked a little raspberry donut from the display and closed it back up, leaving the plastic tongs on top.

“Hallo, Doctor,” Henrik said, sipping on his coffee. As he stepped away.

“About to head home?” The doctor smiled.

Henrik turned his wrist to check his watch. “Nein, I have about one hour left.”

“Well that’s good, you’ll get some sleep, been a bit of a busy week,” Dr. Hanson smiled at Henrik.

“Ja,” Henrik affirmed before sipping down some more coffee. His eyes suddenly became heavy and he blinked a couple of times to clear the heavy, sleepy feeling when he opened them he was suddenly at a desk with several files and clipboards around him in his office.

He felt weird, and glanced at the coffee on his desk. He felt weird but he looked at the files on his desk and glanced back at the door to his office. He basically lived and worked in the facility. For security and safety. IRIS had thousands of secrets people wanted to steal.

A knock came at his door and Henrik turned back as Dr. Hanson walked in. “Hey, Henrik, just checking to see if you have the file we need.”

“Oh, of course,” Henrik said, his hands finding the file he was looking for.

Dr. Hanson walked over and looked Henrik in the eyes. “You sure you’re doing alright?”

“Ja,” Henrik said as he passed the file to the doctor.

The head doctor thanked him and walked out, as if moving between layers in reality. The scene for him changed as he walked out of the room. Instead of a desk and a bed, there were three doctors standing around a table that Henrik was resting on. He was unconscious and the doctors were injecting something into his arm through an IV. Dozens of sensors and machines were hooked up to the unconscious doctor, giving all kinds of readings for the researchers in the room.

“I don’t want him waking up again,” Dr. Hanson said. “Yesterday was an absolute disaster. We lost one of them, we’re not losing this one too.”

“Yes, Sir,” one of the doctors said. “What simulation should we run for him this time?”

“Anything other than the apartment,” Hanson told them. “Keep that other glitch out of his thoughts.”

“Got it, Sir,” another doctor said as they turned to a computer to start up a particular program.

Dr. Hanson walked down the hallway. This particular wing of the facility was still heavily damaged. Claw marks and electrical scorch marks were up and down the hall. Dents were still being patched up.

A pair of guards walked in lock step with him and the head doctor turned around angrily. “How extensive are we looking at?”

“Sector I is still down, but the other sectors are back up and running,” one of the guards said.

“I want the guards that were on duty in my office,” the head doctor said. “That glitch escaped and we need to get him back under control.”

“Right away, Sir,” the two said and walked off so that the head doctor could return to his office to begin working on the massive migraine they had found themselves in.

All the while Henrik slept, his brain lying to him as he did so.

#Egotober2022 #Superhero AU #Masks and Maladies #Henrik #IRIS #Dr. Hanson #mentions of Antistein #deception #medical imprisonment

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dissonantia-goddess-of-chaos · 2 years

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Ambrosine "Amber" Smasher/"Lone She-Wolf"/"Spider Daemon"/"Crimson Smasher": [Artificially, 1/Appearance and mentality, 18]

Ambrosine, or "Amber", is the byproduct and artificial daughter of Adam Smasher and Dissonantia, with her mother using her Smasher's DNA and her own to create Amber in a artificial womb, all part of an Arasaka program started by Dissonantia and funded by Yorinobu Arasaka to create the ultimate supersoldier. It took nine months for Amber to grow into an adult, then was experimented and modified (willingly) with Cyberware. And yes, due to Dissonantia's DNA, Amber is a reality bender of sorts, but prefers to fight fairly. After she finishes her military training program, she is put to the test by subduing a Militech task force—she succeed, slaughtering them just like her father would. A living, walking weapon of mass destruction. Dissonantia, noticing this, decided to revive David Martinez and his old gang (literally placing them back together), and strike them with a deal: no conflicts from Arasaka, become immune to cyberpsychosis with a single pill (idea from @fanofrandomawesomeness), and they get to have a killing machine on their side. Becoming more socially open-minded as she hung out with David, Amber started to become attached to the Edgerunner, liking him more and more, and started to enjoy the company of Lucy and Rebecca.... especially Becca. She eventually started dating all of them, sharing a platonic relationship with all three. While she has a very little sex drive, Amber still feels love and attachment despite being numb most of the time and undisturbed by gore. Every single cyberwear and ability available at her discretion, with a highly modified black Night Terror supersuit, black supersuit chrome motorcycle mask, and black cyberlegs. Her favorite things in the world are watching the sunrise, her friends, her parents, and watching the blue and red butterflies that flutter around Arasaka Tower's inside gardens. [Demisexual/Pansexual] (Cyberpunk 2077/Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)

Appearance:

Pale peachy skin tone

Blue right eye

Left eye has black sclera, with a glowing red "circle reticle" crossfire as her pupil and iris

Shaved head; she used to have long black hair and bangs before her training, but had to shave it off to avoid enemies grabbing it, but she can grow it back quickly with her body modifications that adjust her hormones

She has every upgrade that V, Adam, David, Lucy, and Rebecca has, hidden underneath her realistic skin.

Clothes:

owns a black leather jacket with a logo of a blood moon and a howling werewolf on the back

Saeko's DarkerNET tactical balaclava with nanotubing

Arasaka cap with camera

MaxTac tactical helmet with multifunction infovisor

Ergonomic SAFETY 3201 military shades

Arasaka tactical techgogs

Corporate blazer with bulletproof lining

Victorian Rose anti-shrapnel pencil dress

Rozovaya Reka pencil dress with protective membrane

Elegant hybrid-lining pencil dress

Lady in White hybrid-weave pencil dress

Demon Rhapsody reactive-layer pencil dress

Green Viper double-nanoweave pencil dress

Durable synweave corporate dress

Arasaka polyamide corporate dress

Spotted armor-coated corporate dress

Phoenix formal dress with microarmor layer

Brass Harmony composite-reinforced formal dress

Schwarze Limette aramid-fabric dress

Trilayer aramid-weave fixer skirt with jacket

Marbre Doré suit jacket with discreet bulletproof lining

Arasaka polycarbonate corporate blazer

Durable synsilk blazer

Gatto Nero evening jacket with tungsten-steel microplates

Synthetic corporate jacket

Arasaka formal jacket with light armorplating

Danse Macabre crop sweater

Asa no Heiwa enhanced yukata

Elegant nanoweave yukata

Synweave armor-coated yukata

Wakai Umi flame-resistant yukata

Murasaki tear-resistant yukata

Carbonweave silk corporate shirt

Reinforced breathable dress shirt

Paris Blue office shirt and vest with reinforced seams

Heat-resistant hybridweave netrunning suit

Armorweave rocker bra

Composite Arasaka netrunning nanoweave suit

Ultralight Jasmin Doucet syn-cotton bustier

Breathable reinforced bio-cotton corporate slacks

Classic immuno-cotton corporate pants

Bái Lóng formal pants with reinforced neo-silk

Classy aramid-weave skirt

Arasaka reactive-layer office skirt

Tear-resistant office skirt

Burgundy formal skirt with reinforced synfiber

Saeko's Limited elegant duoweave skirt

Hēisè trilayer formal skirt

Brass Harmony skirt with double nanofiber weave

V's office slacks

V's streetwear pants

V's pants

Elastic flame-resistant rocker pants

Armor-plated syn-leather solo pants

No shoes or socks

Arasaka hazmat suit

Arasaka spacesuit (with helmet)

Any Arasaka merchandise

Any gifts her friends give her

Cyberwear: (She is built to be the best of the best, so she's going to have everything on this list, minus the tattoos)

Thermal edged Mantis blade (left)

Electrical edged Mantis blade (right)

Lightweight "Animal" Gorilla arms knuckles (both, bioluminescent blue)

Legendary monowire cables (both, bioluminescent red)

Arasaka military explosive projectile round launcher (right shoulder blade)

Tranquilizer projectile round launcher (left shoulder blade)

Sensory amplifier

Sandevistan: Arasaka Software

Beast Mode berserk fragment

Ultra Kiroshi Optics Fragment (all fragments combined into a single chip, including night vision and automatic target tagging)

ultra strengthened black cyberlegs (equipped with hidden razors on the upper shins)

Retractable sharp nails, can cut through anything like butter (both, bioluminescent blue)

Enhanced internal military cyberskeleton

Cybernetic lungs

Supersuit chip "Changeling Skin", user is able to change appearance at will with enhanced cybernetics (stolen by Dissonantia from the Night Terrors)

Supersuit chip "Metamorphosis", user is able to change into an animalistic abomination, both physically and mentally, with the help of an advanced jumpsuit and mask outfit.

All quickhacks

Godly cyberdeck

Weapons:

Ranged:

"The Headsman" power shotgun

"Widow Maker" Tech Rifle

"Breakthrough" Sniper Rifle

"Kongou" Pistol

"Archangel" Revolver

Melee:

"Jinchu-maru" Katana

"Headhunter" knife

Tomahawk

Arm/Body:

Gorilla arms (detachable)

Mantis blades

Monowire

Projectile launch system

Armor:

Supersuit (made up of tiny microbots that weave into stretchable bulletproof fabric, and acts like her second skin, shaping to fit her Cyberware modifications)

Motorcycle helmet (made up of bulletproof metals and glass. Her left eye can be seen glowing through the one-sided shaded glass.)

Vehicles:

"Colby C125" economy car

"Cortes V5000 Valor" executive car

Arasaka Motorcycle

Black "Kusanagi Ct-3x" motorcycle

"Quartz Ec-l R275" sports car

#oc #pink #purple #cyan #original character #cyberpunk 2077 jackie welles #cyberpunk 2077 fanart #cyberpunk 2077 art #cyberpunk 2077 #cyberpunk 2077 edgerunners #cyberpunk #cyberpunk anime #Cyberpunk 2077 Adam Smasher #david martinez #lucyna kushinada #edgerunners rebecca #Cyberpunk 2077 V

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starlite-sin · 2 years

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Titleless

A prequel to Scarlet Cross

Jackie landed on a building, worn out and sore after that last fight. His phone had been buzzing for a minute so when he finally was able to look at it, he was bombarded by texts telling him to get to Chase’s immediately, that there was a break in, and he was missing.

When Jackie arrived on the scene, Marvin was already there. The place was trashed, furniture broke, the tv was lying face down, and there were holes in the walls. Pictures laid broken on the mantle and floor, making them be careful in case of broken glass. The cops had just left which meant that the three could start their own investigation and maybe be a bit more thorough than the cops had been.

“Did that catch anything?” He asked Henrik, pointing at the WTCHR Cameras. The camera’s cold eyes watched them silently, none of them realizing that it was zooming on them individually.

“We don’t know. They were connected to Chase’s phone and that’s gone as well,” Henrik responded, drinking a cup of coffee. He was still in his scrubs, so it was safe to assume that he had just gotten off work. He looked exhausted.

“You work tonight?” Marvin asked; their brother just nodded silently.

“Go to bed. Marv and I will take it from here.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

“So, any theories?” Marvin asked an hour later of looking.

“Nothing stolen. Chase’s office looks clear. It was only condensed here so it must’ve been quick.” A knock on the door interrupted the conversation. It was their brothers’ neighbor, an older woman from next door.

“I’m so sorry, boys, but what happened to your brother back there?”

“That’s what we’d like to know. Did you see anything?”

“The whole neighborhood did. It was so loud and the trucks sure would have caught anyone’s attention. Well, the police already talked to me, but I did remember what I was missing. On the men that took him, they had this weird eye logo on their uniforms. An eye with three irises.” Marvin and Jackie glanced at each other.

“Thank you for that. That helps a lot, actually.” As she turned to go back to her home, the twins turned to the camera.

“They have a police force? Wouldn’t they just notify the actual authorities?” Marvin asked. Jackie started trying to dismount the camera from the wall.

“That’s what I’m thinking. Unless…help me get this down.” The two were able to get it partially off the wall.

“Warning: any unauthorized tampering of this device is strictly prohibited,” The camera warned them.

“Yeah, shove it.” Marvin responded. There was a usb cable on the back, hidden in the wall. “Maybe we can connect it to the computer upstairs?”

“Let’s try.”

“Damn thing’s locked. Hen might know the password, but I don’t want to wake him up for this.”

“We might just have to. Did anyone call Lucas and tell him what was going on?”

“Not yet. I think he’s at work but if you could shoot him a quick text. I just don’t want him worried on shift.”

“He might be able to come and help us.”

“Maybe. But we got enough here and besides, from what Chase’s told me, he needs the shifts so just tell him not to come over, that we got it.” As Marvin replied back to Lucas’s very frantic texts and then phone calls, Jackie focused on the computer. The password was Chase and Stacey’s anniversary.

“Does Lucas know that?”

“If he doesn’t, do not tell him. Nothing good comes out of it plus he could have just forgotten to change it.”

A few hours passed, and now Henrik joined them. By that time, the cameras were connected to the computer. Now Jackie was scrubbing through hours of content, trying to find where the attack happened. Marvin was falling asleep, and Henrik was trying to find someone to cover his shift when Jackie yelled and scared them both. Marvin damn near fell out of his chair.

“Got it!” The three watched as the attack occurred, as Chase tried to get away from the attackers and how the living room became trashed. Sure enough, they had the logo for IRIS on them.

“Okay, so now what?”

“We need to get him. We need to plan and can’t just go in guns blazing.”

“Alright, let’s get on that.”

#jacksepticeye #jse egos #jacksepticeye egos #jacksepticeye fanfic #jse fanfic #jackieboyman fanfic #jackieboyman #marvin the magnificent #marvin the magnificent fanfic

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suzyq31 · 2 years

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Chapter 23: Preview

Wanted to give people a sneak peek as full chapter should be up in about a month. Title a work in progress but currently labeled in my google docs as this haha.

THE FIGHT

“Do you think it’s possible to ever see the past as it actually was?”

― Ann Patchett, The Dutch House

Harry emerged from the green flames into his flat already drained from the long day. He’d known they would be there, yet was still unprepared for the sight that greeted him.

Iris was slumped on the sofa, her thumb in her mouth, eyes glued to the television with Hermione seated at the other end. A large book was on her lap, and she absently stroked Crookshanks, who appeared pleased to have her back.

Hermione pulled her eyes from her book and locked on to him. He found he suddenly couldn’t move. She was wearing an oversized navy jumper with her University logo on the front and black cotton shorts which gave him a view of her bare legs. His whole body tensed up.

A squeal of delight cut through his thoughts when Iris broke out of her reverie and noticed him standing there.

“Daddy!” He had only a moment to brace himself before the blur of curls that was his daughter launched herself at him. ��You’re home!”

Her words caught him off guard. Harry swallowed the lump in his throat and hugged Iris to him.

She was already ready for bed wearing the familiar blue nightgown. “I am. Did you have a good day?”

Iris nodded excitedly. “Mummy and I made you supper! Well… Susan made it, but we saved you some!”

His mouth pulled up into a grin. “You did, did you?”

She nodded once again, “And I’m watching a film!”

He glanced at the television and saw another animated film playing.

“Will you watch it with me?” she asked as she looked up at him sweetly.

“As you wish, Buttercup.”

The smile that spread across her face, her nose crinkling and eyes sparkling, took some of the edge off the day he’d had. The meeting had conveyed minimal new information, and his thoughts had been consumed by the fact Hermione was at his flat.

He moved towards the sofa and sat down with Iris on his lap on the other end, avoiding looking directly at Hermione.

“This is based on a real live life, did you know that?” Iris said as she stared intently back at the screen. Harry saw an auburn-haired cartoon woman arguing with a cartoon man about something.

“Is it?”

Iris didn’t take her eyes off the screen as she replied. “Yes! But Mummy said it’s not all real. Some of it’s just a story.”

“Ah.”

She looked back at him. “Yes, because bats don’t talk… even in the magic world.”

“Hmmm.” Harry glanced at Hermione, who had gone back to her book but the small smile on her face gave away that she was listening. He didn’t think it was worth bringing up vampires with his small child even though she seemed to have an affinity for anything spooky.

They sat in relatively companionable silence, Iris curled into a ball on his lap as she watched her film. The only other sounds were Hermione flipping the pages and Crookshanks’s cacophonous purring.

Harry wasn’t really paying attention to the screen; his treacherous eyes kept sliding over to Hermione, who appeared to be lost in her research. How she could concentrate so deeply with the singing blasting from the television was beyond him.

Every time she came into his vision, he felt his heart lurch at the familiar and foreign sight. How easy it was to imagine they were simply sitting in the Gryffindor common room, though he was sure she’d never worn anything that had shown that much skin.

Eventually, Iris started to nod off, but when he stood up to take her to bed, her eyes blinked open.

“It’s not at the best part yet.”

Harry turned to Hermione, who glanced at the clock on the wall.

“It’s getting late, sweetheart. Why don’t you finish it in the morning?”

“No!”

Hermione gave Iris a pointed look.

“I meant please, can I?” Iris added after a moment, her tone pleading.

Hermione sighed before relenting. “Alright. But it’s straight to bed when it’s finished.”

He sat back down and Hermione closed the book on her lap, moving gingerly to stand. Harry forced himself to look back at the television. The creepy villain was back on the screen.

“Have you eaten?”

He looked up. Her warm brown eyes on him made it hard to think.

“Er…no. I can grab something in a bit.”

She shuffled her feet awkwardly and bit down on her lip. “I might make a cuppa. Would you like one?”

“Yeah, sure,” he said quickly, looking back down at Iris. Her eyes kept half closing, seemingly only awake due to the sheer force of her will.

Hermione eventually came back in with the tea, setting it on the coffee table. Taking a sip he felt another pang: she hadn’t forgotten how he took it.

There was another dark turn in the animated film as the protagonist fought off the villain.

Had children’s films always been this grim?

He turned to Hermione whose eyes were glazed as she clutched her mug of tea to her chest -another achingly familiar sight. Suddenly she was looking at him, her face carefully held, eyes dark and sombre.

Harry couldn’t bring himself to look away as memories and emotions rushed through him, all conflicting with one other.

There was the image of her taking him by the hand as they sprinted against time to save Sirius in third year, again in fifth. The tent; that liminal time of falling further and further in love with her.

A flash of memories, a warm summer afternoon, the rowan tree, her hair dotted with leaves, head thrown back as she laughed in his arms under the weak spray of the shower, a stonechurch filled with candlelight, the feel of her skin against his.

The terror he’d felt at loving her and everything that had come next.

Her eyes held his now and it made his stomach twist as he was reminded of those long aching months where the distance between them had felt unbearable. At least until she'd disappeared, nothing, not any of his previous losses had prepared him for that.

Their child on his lap was the constant reminder that nothing was like it was before, that she had left him behind.

#harmony fanfic #Harmonie #harmony #Harry/Hermione #harry x hermione #angst #harry potter fanfic

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