multimuse

COMING SOON. UNDER CONSTRUCTION. NOT OPEN FOR NEW INTERACTIONS UNTIL CARRD COMPLETED.

[bethestone]

@everythingheard (for enzo (+ jake if you desire)

if you'd asked bella where this moment ranked on her list of things she'd wanted to do, it wouldn't have been present. the chaos inside her, her emotions, her thoughts, her entire state of being nearly made her head dizzy; and yet, it wasn't as if she could avoid this. she'd known that as soon as rosalie had shown up. if she's honest, maybe she'd known since the moment victoria had started her spree in seattle. a part of her wants to believe she'd let everything go, moved on, come into her own and yet that moment when the family-- not her family, not anymore, really they never were even if she'd allowed herself the fantasy of such things-- arrives there's some part of her that wants to run into their arms. to hug alice, to be embraced by esme-- the care she'd showed her so much more impactful now after her own mother's fate-- and even a part of her longs for edward in those brief seconds he rushes toward her and pulls her into his embrace before anyone has a chance to make a move, even her. everything falls away. she forgets about victoria and deaths and disappearances. she forgets about jake and enzo and the bprd and her cousin bonnie and all the shit that's happening and just remembers being a girl in science class back in forks. but that only lasts a moment, the preternatural allure of vampir and perhaps even his own desires projecting upon her. she has an understanding of that now after all this time. and there's something else too, something she can't quite place as if even though enzo hadn't reacted to this moment, she could feel the weight of his presence near her. the tug of it into her being. as if somehow there was some kind of thread between them. and with it she remembers that forest in forks, the way she'd felt when edward had disappeared. all of her memories swirl within her, the last few years, the present, the feel of enzo in that cell when he'd fed on her... it's then that bella shoves at edward's chest with a force she think surprises him. she's sure the emotion from her he's most likely reading through jasper does.

confusion is present upon his features, along with something... else she can't quite place. perhaps bella had allowed herself to become overwhelmed for a moment and she could chastise herself later for it but did he really think showing up would wash away everything that's transpired? regardless, when edward resists and shoots a sudden glare toward enzo, bella takes a protective sidestep in front of enzo even though she's well aware enzo's diet would ensure he'd be able to hold his own if edward tried anything. she barely registers that rosalie's done the same though rosalie has one hand shoved at edward's chest as a physical barrier, causing everyone present to suddenly become tense.

"everyone needs to calm down. there's a enough to bloody deal with than petty squabbles over a girl who's frankly capable of taking care of herself these days." a note of surprise creases bella's features, though she's grateful all the same. (she also notes, it hasn't taken long for some part of rosalie's childhood to come out through her time with enzo, at least in the from of her lingusitics.) still, if the situation wasn't so serious it'd be a comedy show especially given at least one of the woman in front of enzo was a human.

"rosalie's right about one thing, i can take care of myself. and what did you think was going to happen edward? you left. i grew up. i moved on. i lost people. and i learned what family i'm a part of, the swan family. the hunting family. and frankly, i know rosalie's told your coven at least some of the situation here, even if i asked her to leave my part out until you arrived so i'd think it's more important for us to go inside and discuss what happens next than being sitting ducks out here for victoria's army. i'm going to be an active player in this battle and i'm aware of your diet but enzo's staying and if you're going to be here than you're going to need to be okay with that." as she speaks her hand moves backward to enzo's arm, offering a small comforting squeeze because even if she can't explain it, she knows that enzo had seen and felt her history with the people before them now. he could have left after that cell. he could have gone about his life. but he hadn't. he'd stayed. and he was here with her now and he'd made that choice before his sister had come to seattle. he'd made that choice for her and they hadn't had time to process the in and outs of meanings about that yet though she knew in her soul that it was more than just a sense of obligation.

[bethestone]

rosalie drabble ft mentions of: bella (this blog) + @everythingheard (enzo/jake)

when rosalie arrived a few weeks prior nothing that prepared herself for the chaos of which had followed. of course she had seen the news reports just as her family had. the deaths, the disappearances around seattle.

they hadn't held the full picture.

they'd known for months that victoria was seeking revenge. a revenge of which emmett had paid the price first. a price which had nearly sent rosalie over the deep end. it had sent her upon a blood bag diet for a few weeks before carlisle had talked her down (she hadn't wanted to take a life, unsure she'd have been able to resist even if they didn't have to kill to feed). she'd wanted to forget. wanted to fly into the sky as bird or run deep into the forest as an animal and scream her pain into the universe alone.

but they hadn't considered that victoria would target bella, they'd merely thought she was after their coven.

it had been naive. finally alice had seen pieces, distant of victoria as they searched for their own revenge and a few confused flashes of bella-- that's what shifted things. most were blurred or unable to be attained (she'd learn soon of enough such was because of jacob's presence) however with victoria in the picture the family couldn't arrive all at once without a scout. hell, it was one time rosalie actually lemented the diet her family had chosen and put her back onto and the lack of ability to shift into animal form. sure the power might have been able to be felt by victoria but rosalie would have held more ability to conceal it.

still, even if they could shift, it wouldn't serve anyone if they were taken out as soon as they appeared even if it took edward some convincing of such. edward was intelligent yet annoyingly blind when it came to anything involving the human girl-- especially if said things were counter to his established notions. rosalie, despite the way her emotions sometimes manifested, held a clearer mindset. it helped that she spent a decent amount of time with jasper too. they talked, not just about superficial things but about his time in the war. his ability to create strategy. rosalie liked to understand how things worked, liked to learn, it's why she'd studied some of the fields she had. so when it came time to send someone that wouldn't create a huge fuss, it made sense for her to go, plus, she held better control than jasper.

edward even made her swear not to harm bella. she might dislike the girl and her choices and a part of her wanted to go the easy route and blame the girl for emmett's fate but it just showed how much of a lack of understanding her 'brother' held of her, if he thought she'd contribute to the target on her family's back in such a manner. besides, she didn't agree with bella but she didn't hate her and there was someone else more to blame for the creation of the situation to begin with.

(then again maybe edward was just still pissy she'd managed to get a witch to help her shield her thoughts from him.)

regardless, when rosalie had gotten to seattle she had expected heated chaos with all of her pent up frustrations and anger toward the human girl coming to the surface and yet somehow all of that had disappeared the moment she'd found the girl, no, the woman and most importantly who was with her. this wasn't the fragile girl they'd left all that time ago. no, this was a woman who had used her pain and turned it into something powerful, a woman who didn't want that lovesick fate she would have been turned into had she remained with her brother-- her adoptive brother. this was a girl who had learned about her own family and taken that helpless feeling she'd felt and turned it into a hunter of the swan family. somehow it figured of all the hunting family's bella would have been part of it would have been one of the only ones which lived in a precarious gray area. her father was best friends with werewolf descendants wasn't he?

all in all, this bella wasn't terrible, even if the source of all the danger happening in seattle had been the product of her love of edward, or well, former love. and even rosalie could admit given everything, edward was more to blame for the situation than bella was. he understood the risks. bella hadn't fully. and it's because of that lack of forethought that a part of rosalie would always hold some form of anger over emmett's death toward edward.

as it stood, rosalie had come to discover, there was already moving pieces at play, a human faction, werewolves, the bprd, and... and enzo. even rosalie couldn't explain the feelings which had washed over her when she'd seen him again. standing steadfastly alive- or well, undead-- and ready to protect bella from the danger of a vampire.

(how was it that even when bella no longer desired to be a vampire, she still managed to attract them to her side?)

yet even that hardly mattered in the moment. her memories had flown to over a century before in an instant, before the evil that had been done to her. though perhaps some of the conditions of her childhood had also been les than ideal but enzo had tried. he had tried hard to protect her and provide for her even when it left him without. and lily... god, lily had told her he was dead. it's why she had allowed herself to adapt to the hales so easily. it's why she allowed herself to drop her accent and stop talking about everything before and accept only what was then. yet her heart, deep within never truly had forgotten.

and his hadn't either. she'd known the moment their auras had held a moment to open themselves to each other, she'd known the moment they'd truly connected gazes and seen their sibling within them. her brother, her true brother was alive and something that she thought was dead inside her after what happened in new york and what happened to emmett more recently sparked. some part of her life was there again, before her. life and family and somehow in some epic and fucked up twist of fate, she had bella to thank for this moment. not just for their reunion but for saving him from certain death weeks before.

it changed everything for her.

and now, these weeks later, when so many moments were shared with her brother she'd almost felt alive. and... bella and even jake hadn't been terrible either. not that she made a point of hanging out with werewolves but they weren't as terrible as other things or people she'd come across and it wasn't as if they were at war with each other by a norm, as long as no one was trying to bite the other there wasn't a threat, especially with born wolves. though she understood with so much media out there why people made the assumptions they had. that said, her and jake weren't exactly buddy-buddy either. they tolerated each other because they were all on the same team at the moment. team kill victoria and she supposed, team protect bella too even if rosalie had come to see bella was her own force to be reckoned with. and well, jacob wasn't the biggest fan of enzo's influence on rosalie's own diet but she felt like perhaps he at least held held her higher than enzo given he drank from the vein.

who was she to speculate though? it wasn't as if she cared what he thought as long as they could all function in this war that was rapidly approaching.

but that was another thing. the human faction, jacob, seth, and leah, and even the bprd's agents they'd sent could only do so much on the ground. a battle was coming and that meant the rest of the coven was going to have to show up and based on the call she'd just completed, it meant that day was close but how it'd play out was anyone's guess. she knew edward and his obsession and she knew enzo-- and.. she'd seen how enzo acted around bella. and frankly, she'd come to understand a lot of things about the woman bella had become. there'd be a few battles alright, and the first one was going to have nothing to do with newborn vampir or victoria.

[hachi-bi0]

💙🤝❤️

[bethestone]

@everythingheard (leon)

[everythingheard]

Although Leon no longer recognizes himself as the rookie cop who had driven into Raccoon City one fateful night in 1998, some facets of that kid still remain — like the part of him that knows Kara Zor-El. Seemingly, he has never lost the ability to read the subtle alterations in her expressions, or to sense her presence by the manner in which the air shifts around her. Thus, he had expected she would be awaiting him at his apartment before he was even halfway there, and he was right. It's a little, well, easier for Leon to see Kara now at his place than it had been earlier that day. He can never fully shake the grip of reality ( even if he could, he feels that he shouldn't; everyone who had helped him, that he had failed to save, deserves to be remembered, and he'll carry the weight of their memories forever ), yet when they're like this? At the very least, he can forget that she's entwined with the worst elements of it, too.

So, a corner of Leon's mouth inches a little higher at the sight of his new guest hovering above the floor when he crosses the threshold. He play-wrestles with Krypto ( he might like to have a dog, if he didn't travel as often — it doesn't seem to fair to leave a pet behind all alone so much ), cooks dinner while she pilfers some of the comfortable clothes from his closet ( Pollo alla Cacciatora, the best thing to make when he doesn't want to waste time thinking about what to make ), and doesn't mention their prior meeting even once. Kara hasn't broached the subject either, though he isn't sure whether it's because she doesn't want to, or because she's aware that he doesn't want to. Probably both.

When she does eventually drag the topic into the light, it's while Leon and Krypto are sitting on the couch, one of the canine's paws draped over his thigh while he scratches behind a fluffy ear. He feels the cushion dip as she joins them, and he suddenly knows it's coming. His blue eyes lifting to meet Kara's, the disquietude is as evident on her features as it is in her voice — of course it is. ' They really think someone is developing a virus capable of affecting metahumans and maybe… maybe even Kryptonians don't they? ' Leon allows a beat to pass before he answers. "Yeah." It's difficult to arrange his thoughts into anything more than that, because they're too saturated with emotions he's usually adept at numbing out when he needs to. If he's honest, he doesn't want to talk abut it; what he really wants is to pull his feet up on the sofa, press his forehead against his knees until it starts to hurt, and scream.

Life's not fair, nothing's fair: Leon's understood that since he was eight years old, watching as his entire family was gunned down while his grandmother's blood soaked into his clothes. But there has long been a kind of comfort in the idea that she can't be touched by any of the viruses created by Umbrella or their successors, not in the same way as a human being — she'll never lose who she is as it twists her into something else from the inside. Although the part of him that hates himself suggests that the relief he garners from it is selfish, he still remains resolute that it's not. Perhaps he needs to know that she'll always be herself, but so does the rest of the world that they're both hell bent on protecting.

Now, that's in jeopardy. And Leon can't fit anything tangled up in his chest or his head into words that don't make him sound crazy. But he also can't say nothing.

Leaning further back against the couch, his gaze flickers to the wooden floor ( tracing the pattern in the grain for just a moment ). "They say they're telling me everything, even though I doubt they are." Leon assumes this is true about everything, on general principle. "But they tell me everything they're sure about. They kind of have to." One, because sending him into a situation without all of the relevant information is not a recipe for their success and two, because Benford insists on it. For as much as he can't stand a majority of politicians and the petty people around them vying for power on the backs of those they think they can get away with stepping on, he's unintentionally managed to garner the utmost confidence of the past two presidents. Funny how that works out.

"Different companies and groups have been trying to create viruses that can affect metahumans for a while. It's just been notes, ideas — nothing past the point of what ifs." Leon has come across it himself on missions a few times, an entry or two in a notebook or a short e-mail memo ( full of what if we could? as opposed to here's how ). "But things are changing. Some metahumans are willing to work with these groups to help make new types of viruses, take it from theories to something they can test." It's still removed from Kryptonians and others who don't originate from Earth, yet it's a step closer. "It'd change everything." Finally, he looks to Kara again, his voice quieting. "In a lot of ways."

[bethestone]

there's a few beats of silence which encompass the space following kara's questions. kara knows leon's thinking… remembering… adjusting, accepting this new reality that's been thrust upon them. she understands not just because she knows him (though perhaps that is a large part of it) but because she does the same. it's why kara hadn't brought these topics up until now— after the decompression of the last hour or so. they've seen each other multiple times over the last few years, she thinks maybe even more than he's seen his friend claire.

claire.

claire can't fly across the country in a relative instant or find him even in the middle of a south american jungle like she can. and, maybe, just maybe there's a part of kara that is glad for it. not because she's jealous but because kara knows leon and knows how he feels when others are in danger. claire, based on everything kara knows of her, is highly capable. she thinks had the universe planted them all back on krypton the girl could have even perhaps given the sagitari a run for their money but kara knows leon would blame himself if something happened to her.

even when kara finds him in dangerous situations, up until now, there had always been a quiet confience and relief she's seen in leon when she shows up.

the girl of steel.

kara’s been protected in a way, able to help him without distracting him in tactical situations because he doesn't need to worry about her. (not that's she's popped up on him that many times, no, instead she's been partying across the galxey while too much reality progesses forward and now there's fucking even more advanced monstrousies out there.)

all that's to say, kara thinks they deserved the last hour of playful banter and domesticity of playing with the dog that they'd had. a calm before the storm of further reality that will blanket them in chaos and unknowns and danger.. even for her.

kara shifts slightly, listens to leon's voice as she pets krypto's head.

"well-- now you have someone with superhearing on your side and i have no qualms with spying on their conversations." it's stated as a joke, though there's a serious undercurrent to her tone. she's attempting to balance the conversation, a tactic she thinks maybe they both learned from their trauma, a way to process it and not be crushed under the weight of reality around them.

"this planet isn't the first to fuck with stuff like this." it's not going to be the last either, she thinks bitterly. "even krypton had some crazy episodes with the clone wars years ago and well, i know experiments happened even before... anyway, we aren't going to let earth end up like those places." a deep breath is inhaled and then exhaled krypto seeming to understand kara's intension and shifting a bit.

kara reaches over gently, without really thinking about it, tugging lightly on leon’s arm until she can shift him to having his head on her lap like they used to sit back in smallville. she hasn't done this since then, even when they'd shared their moments over the years. they weren't... well, she's not entirely sure what they are anymore, in some weird in-between state but there was a comfort in whatever it was and she thinks perhaps they both needed that now.

comfort in the simplicity of trust.

her eyes shift toward the plates on the table, her hand moving to rest on his hair. "we used to have a dish like that on krypton. it wasn't something we had all the time, our bot seemed to think we were living in some kind of five-star restaurant. but sometimes mom would get time and make something for us from scratch. something fun and hardy." she's letting herself live in the nostalgia for a moment, enjoying the familiarity they have. she's not like this with most people, sometimes she's still at a distance from kal and the kents too though she's attempting to mend that.

"also tastes better than that time elena's aunt tried to use the kents as her thanksgiving preview dinner guinea pigs." she jokes. it's just a few off-beat moments, a slight diversion before she refocuses on their actual conversation.

"you'd think metahumans would want to make the planet better. so many people here take things for granted. i'd give anything to have those simple moments back with my parents. even my aunt and uncle who's yeah-- their mentality may have been flawed and you can judge me for this all you want but some part of me understands why they said what they said on that video even if kal and i would never you know, seek world domination like that wesker guy." desperate people come up with desperate solutions. also, kara appreciates the kents, now more than maybe she even did before, but it wasn't the same. this planet didn't know what it was like to lose your world. but kara wasn't going to lose this world too and she didn't want the kents to ever know the pain of seeing their friends taken over like one of brainiac's sentries.

"we should look into luthor corp too. i don't care if lex is in prison or if outwordly he was more focused on kryptonians. i wouldn't put it past anyone in his organization to have had ties at some point with these groups." a pause, her hand pausing its movement on his hair. "and even if they don't, i'm not going to put it past his research having fallen in the hands of those it shouldn't." research on her and kal and god knows who else.

[mikyapixie]

𝓢𝓾𝓹𝓮𝓻𝓰𝓲𝓻𝓵 #14 𝓒𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻𝓼

[demigodoreo]

Supergirl (2016) #21

[myersbprd]

When the draugr sends John flying backwards into the side of the closest tombstone, the air is knocked fully from his lungs. He hadn't expected Kara to awaken the creature, much less for it to burst forth with swiping hands and a strange burning deep within in its darkened eye sockets.

So — it's just another Friday, really.

As he shoves himself up from the ground, he grits his teeth at a sudden pain in his side. Glancing down, John catches sight of a tear in his shirt, hints of red beginning to seep into the dark fabric of his sweater. Dammit. The draugr's claws must have caught him when it lashed out. The vexation he hears in his friend's voice alerts him that she hadn't escaped its reach, either.

John's gaze snaps to her now, though her reaction is tied to her hoodie. Or, more specifically, his hoodie that Kara had appropriated as her own since moving into his apartment. Although he's not entirely certain why she's developed such an affinity for it instead of acquiring her own, he hasn't made any genuine efforts to take it back.

Letting his jacket fall back over the evidence of the rip in his side ( it's not debilitating and they need to get rid of this thing ), John sees that the draugr is already reaching for her again. The shifting of its body as it absorbs the heat from Kara's strike reveals that its not a typical draugr that simply needs to be returned to its tomb; not impossible to defeat, but far more involved.

"Even though iron will hurt it, that's not enough to take it down on its own like some fae. We need to use fire, but it won't work unless we decapitate it first."

Unfortunately, iron bullets won't fire out of a gun to slow it down with any force like ones made out of lead ( he would know, he's tried ); he has his iron knife, yet drawing close enough to use it will be a problem. "You can try ripping its head off." If anyone has the strength for that, it's her. "Or — " He takes swift stock of their surroundings, including the fancy wrought-iron fencing around the cemetery, complete with curlicues and pointed spires. "Or maybe you can use a piece of the fence. And I can distract it, so it won't swipe you away again."

[bethestone]

rotten heat-- such is the only expression that comes to kara as the monster peers angrily at them, her own heat vision hitting the being and bringing forth its own internal flame. it was rotten. aggressive, foul, wrong-- and all too familiar.

it hits her like a tidal wave, the sensations... the moment her muscles tense when she traces the faint metallic scent of john's blood in the air around her as his jacket falls back and the wind catches it. no, she's not a vampire though kara has had fun joking about it once or twice when john brought home some old book about vampires due to a case he was handling for the bprd and she'd taken to glancing over his shoulder. yet, she also remembers the end of her world.

it hadn't happened in a day or a week. no, the gods hadn't been kind enough for such.

it hadn't been just brainiac's sentries blasting innocents infront of her though this is the beginning of the stream of thought the scent brings forth within her mind now. instead, kara had bore witness to desperation and sickness brought forth by an attempted last hope.

it all melds together within her now, then and now, and it ignites something deeper within her because of the arena.

they are standing in a garden of death.

she's been here before, somewhere else and yet the same. too many times. too many.

and... john was injured even if he wasn't telling her. kara didn't expect he would. perhaps that's an element of why he's always fascinated her. in many ways they are alike even if they often go about things in very different manners. she thinks maybe some element of their hearts are the same. he still has what she lost and is still trying to find again and maybe she has something he needs too. at least, she'd prefer to find out and that brings kara's swirling mind back to focus, one simple fact: this wasn't going to end well-- at least for the monster.

"you can try ripping its head off.... or — or maybe you can use a piece of the fence. and I can distract it, so it won't swipe you away again." he tells her as if it's an everyday type of thing. except... these days it was wasn't it? kara's mind supplies.

kara zor-el could be a violent person if the situation called for it. it wasn't that she liked the idea of harming others. no, it was far from that-- simply, she did not have the same mentality as her cousin often met situations with. when kara could solve a problem with her mind instead of strength she did (at least if her anger wasn't boiling over but she was getting a lot better with that!). the issue was most times she was met with a dangerous situation such as this, there was only one way out, a battle. she might not always want in her heart to have to battle but kara also didn't think there was anything wrong with gaining a certain thrill from a good fight especially when one's enemy was of the living dead variety. still... the twist to her features at the notion of ripping the monster's head off spoke to the less appealing nature of the suggestion.

light hues follow john's line of vision toward the fence line.

now that was more like it.

"you know, sometimes you're a very smart man, john myers. i think you could have given some of the boys i grew up with a run for their money." there's a hint of something in her tone which perhaps speaks to something more than teasing. of course, she knows john is smart but she also knows he knows she values intelligence and.. well, despite the situation (or perhaps because of it being such a distraction), there's a bit of a flirt in her tone at the way she mentions boys. still, one simple fact remains, the kara who he'd first met wouldn't have made such a comment at all but the current kara, still a mess despite her clarity of life direction, was a kara who was wearing john's now torn up hoodie.

"roger that." she begins. then, "but don't let him get too close. this is going to have to be a ranged attack for both our sakes." with that kara begins to put his plan into action, moving through the air so quickly she's a blur, ripping at the iron fence as if it's pasta which causes the monster to look toward her given the noise.

a breath in and out.

in and out as she waits for john to clear the path. then, finally, she sends two rods through the air horizontally, heating them with her vision for good measure.

impact.

clean slices through the monster's neck brings it's head tumbling to the ground in a fashion that makes even kara want to throw up. she doesn't dwell on it, instead, she moves closer letting her vision heat and meet with first it's head and then it's body, the scent of rotten flesh permiating the air the closer she gets until finally she lands at john's side and lets her features return to normal.

"that was kind of disgusting." kara sighs lightly but it's clear this battle has taken something out of her. she's sore, a little dizzy, and there's some cuts and bruises on her that usually wouldn't be present after a battle with something that didn't have some element of magic. "okay, i want full honesty from you because i'm gonna be pissed off if you lie and then we have to go back out ot the hospital especially when there's a good bottle of some sort at home. do those injuries you're hiding need advanced care or we good to go home and have me patch you up?" even if kara was no doctor, her knowledge of medicine far exceeded a lay person of earth.

[bethestone]

@everythingheard (leon) continued by claire from x

there's an infinity within a singular moment, two forces joined in the simple act of gentle touch. the world around them is in chaos, this much claire redfield is aware of even if she's been locked in one facility or another for twenty-three days. a strange mirroring of memories, of past and present circling around each other of paris and rockfort and antarctica with prismya and it's city and now castle. it's the same kind of strange memory amalgamation that had washed over her the year before when claire had decided to drive a rental back from harvardville instead of take a plane back to the capitol because after nearly dying multiple times in twenty-four hours (again!) she hadn't wanted to enter another airport for at least a year (funny, she'd been right in her assumption that she wouldn't make it a year without flying again).

oh, she'd wanted to take the chopper with leon and enter a bright house to find her daughter having cooked leon's dog a two-course meal of people food instead of his dog food when he'd pick up the dog a few hours later but she'd still had work to finish and it'd taken her three more days to get there.

except, she hadn't gone right home then, had she?

claire thinks that maybe the words spoken that night with a hand on his front door because something had made her have to see him,-- she wasn't always sentimental, but maybe that road trip had made her such as memories of them traveling during those months came back to her-- had been the beginning of this moment that was coming full circle now.

'ever wonder what would have happened if we'd had more than a few days after paris?'

what would have happened if they hadn't been captured and if he hadn't joined the government in the way he had and been ushered to training. if she hadn't been thrust into a semi-monitored life (at the time). if she'd just had more time to decompress from what happened in antarctica and steve's death (because even if she hadn't returned the boy's feelings when someone declares their love for you and then dies for you a moment later it shakes you to your core and maybe makes you a little scared to go around exploring more with the person you did feel...) and if they'd had a few more days to just breathe after their reunion at a safe house outside paris where they'd held onto each other a bit longer and tighter than was necessary.

but claire hadn't given leon a chance to respond, only smiled at him softly before closing the door and gone home to see sherry. she thinks maybe those words had lingered within them and weighted those moments outside the white house even more when she'd refused to see him as she always had. when she'd been so blind to so many things and allowed her own pride to color her perceptions, even of him.

she sees everything now though. they both do and despite the way her hand or his breath shakes, they are steady. steady together. grounded. strong. they've always been stronger together. they've always been the best version of themselves with each other. it's that knowledge that lets her see the chaos in him in that moment. the fear of what this means. of knowing. it lets her hear it, hear him in a way that spoke to how well they did know each other. how well they still did, how well they always have when they'd allowed themselves to.

don't say you know.

claire knows he's thinking it and her whole being rebels against it as her hand touches his face, forcing the shake to subside and her breath to heat the air between them.

it's okay to know. because i know you like you know me. together, whole. mirrors. a circle. she's herself because he's brought her back. his warmth, a calling she wants to live in. a need that maybe she's always wanted in some strange kismet way that only ducking for him to shoot a zombie over her head could bring upon them because in that moment she'd known that somehow, in some way, this other person, leon, would impact the rest of her life not just because he'd been the only other person alive she'd come across at the time but because some part of her had recognized something in him, something that called to her. something that couldn't be kept apart for long, that kept circling back, them finding each other again and again. coming full circle.

the center will hold. she thinks as his hand warms her own.

saving you is saving myself goes both ways leon. if i'm getting out of prismya, so are you. believe it, leon. and even if you don't i'll make damn sure it's how it goes down. maybe he'd come to save her, but claire thinks as their words wash over each other with a kind of effortless ease and understanding they used to have in those months on the run, maybe they were going to save each other. maybe they already had in the infinity of this moment. maybe that was what love was and maybe that's what they'd always had even when they'd been too stubborn to admit it.

yeah-- claire thinks, the smell of sweat and dirt but also quintessentially him washing over her senses as his jacket is draped over her. --the center will hold. we will hold, together. we survive together.

her arms move into the arms of his jacket, letting her blue-gray eyes move to the knife he offers her. she's there, present. there's a strength returning to her, to her mind now that she feels steady. they'll fight this together. and they'll get out of this together. "i'm here. with you. all the way." she states determined, her face leaning into his brief touch as he shifts her hair. then her hand raises up to take the knife in his other hand though it makes her lips turn downward for a moment when she looks at it strangely.

"it's steel not silver right?" she asks though she's fairly certain of the answer, her mind seeming to begin to recall something and with it her awareness of the room but more importantly that they and the boxes weren't the only things in the storage room. "it'll help if we encounter a human but i don't know how many still--- fuck!" she suddenly moves, a hiss escaping her as her body aches, her nearly slipping into leon in her effort to seek out one of the men he'd fought when he'd crashed into the room in the first place. the fact he'd been able to do that and that they hadn't been attacked again since then meant he hadn't been dealing with a vampire but that hadn't meant it wasn't someone infected. then again, she's not sure how much leon knows and how much he doesn't either.

"he could come back." she reveals, pausing to steady herself and looking at leon. "the guy you fought. i know some of the scientists were human, maybe there's some armed humans too under control but this isn't the same as raccoon, leon." the zombies in raccoon were still living on some basic level, not truly undead. they also were hindered by injuries and once they got put down with a shot to the head they stayed dead, well usually.

"these... the infection-- i think this is the first strain the new one.. they can still.. think.. in a corrupted way like the plaga you talked about.. but the infection it's only one form. they change again when they die. they get stronger when they're dead, they can heal. and-- they can smell blood. they have to be set on fire or.. their head has to be completely gone. but there's vampires here too. vampires that aren't like the infected. vampires that have all their powers. this--" claire lifts the knife up, her tone and the clarity within her now so much the embodiment of the claire redfield she's been since that night in raccoon. the claire that was resourceful and put the knowledge she'd found in all those littered documents to use.

"--isn't going to do much against them. we need silver and wood. i don't think their wounds will heal as easily with silver and.. wood through the heart will kill vampires-- at least.. some vampires, maybe the infected too."

she pauses, lets out a breath now that she's rattled off all the information coming back to her and while she's managed to get it all out it's clear it's taken something out of her too because she has to take a few large wheezing breaths. but leon needs to know and she's not going to let her own body's battle delay them or hinder them anymore than she's going to allow her mind to delve back into fragments. he needs to understand if they have any chance of getting out of here or finding what they need to find.

"but-- on the bright side, that means we should have an easier time finding weapons instead of hoping to find some spare ammo." a pause. "on the less bright side, as long-- as long as i'm with you, we're gonna be dealing with a lot more than just vampire zombies. so-- lets just-- he may not pop up.. lets get out of here and find something we can use." claire glosses over the first part though there's something unsettling that mixes with her tone as if there's another layer she's not saying. then she uses leon's shoulder to lift herself off the ground, tilting slightly to one side as she gains her barrings.

"i'm good-- i'll, it's fine." she reassures stubbornly, before moving into the dark corridor.

[everythingheard]

Tugging at the hem of his fresh shirt with his left hand, Virgil rolls his right shoulder in an experimental fashion. It had been knocked clean out of its socket when he had slammed another wolf out of the way in his momentum to reach Aleyna. Although he hadn't known what would happen as he shielded her from danger with his body ( so much sturdier now yet far from infallible ), some part of him hadn't quite anticipated Ariadne's intervention. Perhaps it's a holdover from that long stretch of time after James' death when Virgil had done everything alone, seeking out information about who, precisely, was responsible. Yeah, yeah — revenge doesn't heal the wound and all of that shit, he's heard that line before, yet that hadn't been the point. Not entirely.

But mostly.

He hadn't intended to end up bitten by a wolf ( who the fuck would? ), nor to be dragged in front of Nikolaos Demetriou. Ariadne had saved Virgil then, even if he hadn't been particularly worthy of it by his standards, and she had saved him today. They've made a pattern of that, protecting each other; not the worst habit he's picked up, that's for damn sure. Family and ' standing by them ' has served as a complex matter in his mind ever since attempting to help his dad had shattered parts of him that he's given up trying to get back, but how could he do anything differently after meeting his niece? Virgil had cracked at that, just a little — and Ariadne continued proving herself as trustworthy as he had once believed her to be. They shield one another, they shield Aleyna.

And they shield Devin, even if it's without his brother's knowledge and bereft of permission.

Situations like this one would elucidate anybody on the reason why. Although the the smell of blood permeating the air and soaking into the dirt beneath their feet are potent to his enhanced senses, the strength of it suggests that it's noticeable to whoever stands close enough to feel the weight of death hanging around the house. As investigators zip up the last body bag , Virgil watches with a hint of amusement at the arrival of BPRD agents. A few of the officers appear relieved to lose the responsibility of such a brutal scene, while others' emotions flare with indignation. If they only knew what they would be up against here, they wouldn't be complaining.

Amid the sudden influx of voices, he hears a name that sends a wave of dread crashing over him. Dr. Harkness. Immediately, his gaze snaps in the voice's direction. Standing there, eyes shifting to meet his and Ariadne's, is Devin. Fucking hell. She grabs his arm like she might sway on her feet if she doesn't, and he's too rattled to move.

This can't get any fucking worse.

Arms folded over his chest, Devin's brow furrows as a badge is flashed at he and the officer beside him — some offshoot of the FBI, the agent says, and he's no longer needed. He's inclined to argue because he hasn't received a satisfactory answer as to what's going on here when suddenly, movement from the corner of his eye grabs his attention. Turning his head, his pulse fairly leaps in surprise as he gazes into the faces of Ariadne and Virgil. What are they doing here? They wouldn't have called Ariadne for extra help here without informing Devin of it, would they? And that hardly explains Virgil's presence.

The confusion etched across his countenance deepens as he begins walking towards them. ' Devin, this can be ex — ' Her words are cut off by another shock: a little girl he's never seen before, dashing out of the house to cling to Ariadne and Virgil's legs, as though she knows them. ' Uncle Virgil, is the scary man gone now? ' Why is she referring to his younger brother that way? What the hell is going on? However, it's what the child says next when her eyes alight on Devin that halts him in his steps. ' D — daddy? '

What.

Before he can react, to refute the title she's bestowed on him, she's pushed away from Ariadne and Virgil to instead fling her arms around him. Aleyna. That's what Ariadne had called her, isn't it? When his bewildered attention shifts to her, her visage is stricken with panic. It can't be due to Devin, right? Although he has no idea what's happening, the notion of her fearing anything about him feels foreign, horrible.

His mind is scrambling, unable to fit all the pieces together into a cohesive thought. Ariadne is saying that they need to go inside ( how can she simply march them into someone else's house? ) and that it's not safe here; the danger of the situation is over, that's why Devin's here to examine what remains. Then, she's speaking to random people that have come out of nowhere, giving them orders and referring to names he's never heard before. If he didn't know any better, he would swear he's fallen into some alternate dimension, because none of this aligns with his life or hers.

' We will speak inside. ' Perhaps it's not in Ariadne's words, yet it's in her eyes — a kind of pleading with Devin. Glancing down at the girl still clinging to him, he slips his hand into hers. Whatever's going on here, Ariadne seems desperate for Aleyna to go indoors. And him, too. "Come on," Devin murmurs, then looks to Ariadne again. "I'll come with you." Of course I will. "But you've got to tell me what's going on."

[bethestone]

life was a strange amalgamation of moments, sometimes disjointed, sometimes vivid in their clarity. sometimes, it was a mixed of both. ariadne's senses are alight, pools of wolfblood and human blood--from those on staff who hadn't survived-- invading her very being and yet it's these simple few moments where devin's features meet hers with such shock and confusion and her daughter-- their daughter-- holds onto him which seem almost blurred in slow motion. ari can feel virgil's tension too, sparking and swirling around their auras in unison. this wasn't on their bingo card for today (or any time soon) any more than an attack on the estate had been. her anxiety spikes in that sameway it had when she realized she'd lost elements of her memory, except now it was because of something much more serious. things were spiraling out of control, any form of a plan they'd been following turned to chaos and thrown out the window. what the fuck had she expected when these worlds met? no, she wasn't an idiot, she knew this would be hard, but today of all days? now?

what kind of sick cosmic joke was the universe thrusting upon them?

dark hues finally dare to part from devin's, glancing down at her daughter's hand in his again and a breath she wasn't aware she was holding escapes her. no matter how all this was coming out now what she bares witness to is something she holds no doubt over. devin would be a good father. even now, amid all the confusion he's gentle, caring, taking the child's hand in his to lead her up to the house ariadne has no doubt he thinks is some stranger's. god, she wishes she could have told him sooner. after all the anger and confusion of his abrupt leave from london had passed, she'd wanted to reach out. he deserved to know. but then everything had gotten so chaotic with vampires and then virgil that even when she uncovered the truth, or what virgil believed was devin's reasoning for leaving in the manner he had, it was too dangerous to seek devin out and grant him the truth. maybe in another universe where the present paranormal threats weren't present it could have been as simple as telling him her godfather could protect them but that wasn't their world. what did any of that matter now though? it was all coming out in the open now.

ariadne lets devin lead their daughter up to the house, her eyes scanning the tree line the entire time until finally they all find themselves in a large sitting room. there were multiple in the house, however, ari had always favored this one just off the patio because it felt more homey with a wall of books and a view of the horse pasture off the side. a few scattered couches, chairs as well as a large area in the corner which seemed dedicated to the child's toys completed the space. more ominous, however, were the three men who planted themselves outside the windows once everyone was inside. another breath escapes ariadne, her gaze meeting virgil's for a moment as she reaches out for his arm again, a small comfort. they had always had a kind of closeness, getting along since she'd met him when he had visited his brother, yet now he truly had become her family. she wished she could just hug him and hide which she was fully aware was a rather cowardly thought but since when had she ever not met things head on? another breath and finally she lets go and turns around to find her daughter had led devin to the couch. somehow the weight of everything feels compounded, made worse still by the traces of wolfblood in her system.

"she's your daughter devin." is the first thing ariadne manages to say. wanting there to be no doubt in his mind about this fact to begin. "aleyna has always known. we both have always told her about you so that she would know who her father was for when it would be safe for you to know." there's a kind of desperation in her voice, her eyes changing color ever so slightly like they did whenever she was on the verge of crying. even turning into a vampire hadn't changed that and a small part of her heart wonders if that will matter when he finds out what she is. ari's lips part to speak again, halted only when her daughter interjects and nearly sends ariadne into a fainting spell-- if only such were possible right now.

'baba couldn't know because of the bad werewolves that want to hurt uncle virgil and the bad vampires right mum? the ones that aren't like uncle osman or you? but-- but now he's here so we can all be a happy family now!'

shaky breath escapes ariadne. fuck. this was the one and only time she cursed the fact that their daughter shared both her parents' intelligence. granted, while violent bits were always kept from the child, ariadne had always stressed, even to devin's brother virgil that they needed to provide aleyna with some level of honesty. it could only serve to protect her if the need arose and a threat like this day came upon them. and so the child was aware of the paranormal nature of members of her family and had been granted the knowledge that there were others who were not like them. the part ariadne held mixed feelings about was the child's quick acceptance of osman in an uncle kind of role all things considered. though, even if ari doubted at times osman's care for humans, she did trust he wouldn't harm her child and well, he had saved herself even if he had to turn her to a vampire to do it-- and it hadn't been the first time had it? she knew that now. still, leave it to aleyna to throw the most extreme knowledge bomb out there right off the bat.

god, she really was her and devin's daughter.

"a--aleyna..." ariadne attempts to speak, needing to clear her throat for a moment to finally get her daughter's name out. she looks from her daughter to devin and back again, taking a few careful steps toward the couch until she drops down to kneel in front of her daughter next to devin's feet. panic, fear, worry, relief, pain, all mix across her features when she meets devin's gaze again though she steels herself when she looks at aleyna. her eyes change slightly, focusing on her daughter as she reaches out and runs her hand through her hair, bringing her other hand to support her daughter's side as she tells her to rest for a little bit, guiding the child's head to the pillow on the couch next to devin as the child falls into a slumber. ariadne did not have the heart to send her daughter out of the room away from devin, but there were things the child shouldn't hear.

finally, she glances back at virgil again, and then meets devin's gaze, letting herself hesitantly sit next to him and her daughter's sleeping form. "devin-- i know all this seems like insanity. everything you thought you knew... vampires and werewolves aren't exactly the same thing as superman. but aleyna wasn't wrong about what she said. i understand this is a shock and you can hate me for not telling you the truth sooner or for what i am now, but devin.." araidne's starting to shake now, as if she can't contain it even if every fiber of her being is trying to.

"there are forces at play that are dangerous. forces that--- that murdered me and murdered james and virgil and i were trying to protect you. i wouldn't be alive or well, what i am, if my godfather didn't have ties to vampires...these forces could have killed you to hurt us and if you had known about aleyna it could have exposed her more too. we were going to tell you once it was safe. hate me if you have to devin. but please don't hate your brother. he was trying to protect you and.. my godfather made him promise too, to protect alyena and i, and you too because he's always known how i feel about you and he knows you are aleyna's father." not that devin knew who her godfather was. "this is my godfather's house devin." a pause. "but-- i'm still.. me. and virgil is still your brother." her voice breaks and a few tears fall, her needing to voice this at least once before she's silent. she needs him to know that even with all of this shock thrust upon him in quick succession, this fact is truth.

[bethestone]

valdelobos, spain may 2022 alternate timeline @everythingheard (leon)

claire hadn’t been dressed to be trekking through mud or climbing through windows or for any physically taxing activity though the twenty-two year-old was glad, now, that she’d opted out of the heels she’d contemplated however many days ago she’d been standing in front of the mirror and looking at the blue-grey dress she had chosen to wear. a dress that was torn and blood-stained in multiple places but thankfully still covered most of her. at least the dress had had sleeves and been multi-layered even if the top layer was nearly sheer. she thinks it could have been three or four days when she focuses on the moments of clarity her mind recalls in-between slices of chaos but it’s hard to pin-point when consciousness had failed to be her friend for a large part of the last few days.

claire remembers the impact to the vehicle on the way to the ceremony; the shattered glass as it flew through the air and sliced parts of her body with minor cuts and the radiating pain of a head wound from the whiplash. she faintly recalls shots, agents engaging with whoever had targeted them. well, claire hadn’t thought they were targeting her. no, they definitely would be after ashley. yet it was a bold move and in the moment claire had understood the agent in charge of ashley’s safety’s displeasure with ashley’s insistence of showing up to the event in a normal looking transport rather than something more flashy. there’d been valid points made on both sides though: perhaps less obvious security even if they were in cars surrounding the vehicle and inside it, but it also meant no one on the outside should have known who was in the car. how had they known? it’s something claire remembers pondering before being yanked out of the wreak and drug toward a van with ashley, a trail of dead agents and a car exploding in their wake.

claire remembers a stone room too. remembers being restrained and waking ashley up. she remembers speaking quickly and observing everything she could about the items around them. she remembers telling her what to look for when they come for them, what openings to find and telling her to hit anything that moved once she managed to get a hold of any sort of heavy object. she remembers telling ashley not to worry about her too. run if you get the chance. whatever you do, don’t look back. and she remembers driving it home with a comment that if ashley escapes it means more help for both of them sooner. claire just hadn’t expected to be the one to escape. she wouldn’t say she’d delight in it or what it’d mean for her, but she’d much rather have been the distraction for ashley to escape.

though, there was no telling if ashley had made it out of that church or not. considering claire had literally gone through a window, she doubted it. but claire hadn’t held any choice in the moment. ashley wasn’t there when she’d awoken in another room again, cool stone under her and someone else’s blood staining her clothes from the alter they’d put her on. there were too many of them for her to get through to try to find ashley, at least without weapons. claire would have to get out, find some way to send some kind of signal, and circle back with whatever she could find. she finds the moment of her almost death to also be her saving grace, fear rising within her when she sees someone coming toward her with a silver weapon. she struggles, ropes burning her skin before their action is halted a moment later because they see something in her face. something’s taken to her blood and it’d seemed to take a bit longer than others, making them think it hadn’t her. if she’d had more time she might have been more disturbed by the words but she uses the moment when they loosen the restraints to move her and someone bursts into the room to say the girl wasn’t in the room anymore to kick out at the person closest to her and launch herself through glass as if she was channeling her boyfriend.

the action causes the cuts on her skin to burn and the bruises of another impact from when she’d hit the ground to ache. yet claire had risen all the same, forced one foot in front of the other until she’d managed to get into tall grasses and began to try to find anything of use. it feels like raccoon all over again when the zombies that weren’t quite zombies find her. the men from before fail to show yet it doesn’t take claire long to determine two things: firstly, they were likely much more tied up in trying to find ashley who’d clearly listened to her survival tips and secondly, that they or someone they worked for controlled these ‘zombies’.

at least umbrella hadn’t had that power.

at some point over the next half-hour claire finds an old first aid kit in a semi-dilapidated house with the umbrella logo on it causing her to curse herself for jinxing it. she vaguely recalls umbrella’s attempt after raccoon three years ago to save face by sending aid kits into villages after some sort of natural disaster hit a section of spain. but their attempt had been futile when everything had come out about umbrella and the government a month later followed by the resignation of the president that led to ashley’s dad’s election. even so, claire recalls enough from raccoon to know that the spray in the kit could do wonders for the wounds plaguing her now. she never thought she’d be thankful for anything umbrella, but she supposed there was a first time for everything. or, it was merely the universe’s version of a cosmic joke.

regardless, claire uses it before another zombie prompts her into a two-story house that also was worse for wear. if nothing else, she considers maybe, finally, this place might be able to offer her something else more practical and less torn (which was becoming more of a hindrance in every fight) to wear and possibly some kind of weapon. if she was lucky she’d find some means of devise to get a message out. hell, she’d even take a psp that still had any power. at least that had internet function and if it was turned off when shit hit the fan it might still have enough juice to power on. claire allows herself that moment of hopeful fantasy that she knows is downright stupid wishful thinking before she’s startled by the sound of a crash from upstairs and then gun shots.

she just manages to hide as a large man in a trench coat and hat (that reminds her way too much of a tyrant) moves down the stairs and out the door before she’s scrambling carefully up the stairs and toward where she thinks the sound came from. claire grabs a broken piece of a knocked over statue from the hallway, edging toward the door before she hears a voice (speaking to hunnigan on comms) that causes her to drop the object in the door way. “holy fuck, l–leon?” relief courses through her, though perhaps not total surprise; the fact he’s found them or well, her, thus far, or rather she has him, here, makes sense considering his job and the fact both her and ashley were abducted.

“leon– ashley.. she’s at the church. she was not that long ago at least.” claire begins because no matter how much she wants to have at least one moment with her boyfriend after all the shit she’s just went through and no doubt about to still go through she needs to tell him where ashley is before anything else, just in case. “i didn’t want to leave her but i didn’t know where in that place she was and they wanted to fucking sacrifice me on an alter until.. they said something about a gift and my blood. it doesn’t matter. i was trying to find a weapon and.. some means to send for help but you’re here now.” she also needed to find clothes before her dress ripped anymore than it already had. but considering they were standing in a bedroom, maybe she was in luck on that front.

“–you’re here.” claire repeats, taking a step forward as if, while she had known it, now that she’s stopped talking for a moment and really looking at him she’s fully realized it. she reaches out for him. “we– really have to stop meeting like this.” the last part is breathed out into his chest as she collides with him.

[bethestone]

@everythingheard​ (for bruce from rachel)

it had been so much easier to see things in absolutes before aliens rained from the sky and the man she had thought she loved turned upon everything he stood for and been consumed with villainy. locked in a jail cell among the very people he’d put inside. she had been so idealistic and young when bruce had returned, so sure of right and wrong and the need to live in the light. she couldn’t reconcile the boy she’d run around the manor with with the dark knight that had drug his sister into a life in the shadows. (though, even rachel at her core could admit there was no talking kara into anything, she’d made her own choice and that choice just so happened to line up with her brother’s path.) with the man who’d become hardened and brutal in his quest to strike fear into the city’s underbelly. fear. fear couldn’t solve the cities’ problems. but harvey’s quest, standing up to criminals in the light of day, had purpose, had potential. she had immersed herself within it and existed behind a vault of blindness. not that she still did not believe in the quest, but, her eyes had been awoken to a very many shades of grey since those days. 

zod had attacked their world and powered people escaped the shadows. jokers reigned terror and bruce had led gotham through floods. him and kara had become symbols not of fear but of hope and rachel had seen what she had not allowed herself to before. bruce had evolved, grown, but the bruce that tugged on her hair to get her attention when they were young was still a part of him. she could see it in his quest to repair his family’s name. in the way he took dick grayson in as his own. in his conviction to aid in reforms at arkham and help rehabilitate those who resided within it’s walls. yes a part of him could be brutal but he still held hope for those he fought. she could see it in the way that he worried about a sister who proved fully capable of protecting herself. she could see it in the way he had sat at alfred's side in the hospital after the explosion. and now, in the wake of harvey’s trial and superman’s death with forces beyond their comprehension just past the horizon rachel finally comes to him at the manor, sharing a look with alfred before she’s making her way to the room bruce is in. alfred had told her when bruce, dick, and kara had returned from superman’s funeral. 

this world was not the one they’d grown up in and it’s a wonder how anyone was coping in the wake of what had transpired in metropolis. footfalls echo throughout the room, rachel coming to a stop just inside the doorway before shutting the door. all their moments in recent history have been so fully charged with chaos and tension, with her in danger from an alien battle or flooding waters, with two friends sitting in a hospital with alfred’s life in the balance, with her kidnapped and strapped to a bomb that kara had very nearly failed to protect her from that they’ve never had time to truly sort out where they stood. maybe she hadn’t been ready yet. she was now. yet what that would look like she wasn’t sure. 

“i want you to teach me to fight. self-defense.” she begins, unsure why that’s the first item on the agenda she broches. “not that it’ll help me if we have another alien invasion. god, i still can’t believe i’m even saying that. aliens. metahumans. and now superman’s gone.” there’s a pause as she allows the weight of that statement to linger. she hadn’t known superman but rachel had always been close with kara and she knew the impact his death had on her, and, she knew bruce felt the loss too. 

“--but if i’m going to be the new district attorney and connected to bruce wayne i think i ought to be able to at least prevent my own kidnapping.” she never wants to feel as powerless as she felt when crane had drugged her or when she’d been in that warehouse with bombs around her again. another step is taken forward, followed by another until she’s nearly reached him-- standing just a mere foot away from him. they haven’t spent any significant time together in so long, haven’t been this close to each other even when he’d used his limo to save her from press after harvey’s sentencing because lex had been there with him too. 

a part of her wants to reach out though she doesn’t, not yet. maybe she’s waiting for him to meet her half-way. for them, in the wake of everything, to make this choice together. “of course, that’ll mean i’ll be spending a fair amount of my free time here, with you, when you’re not out there.” she motions outside the window. there’s a weight to what she says, words unspoken between the lines but implication clear. she’s taking the first step, making a choice to accept being in his life again and all that entailed.

[bethestone]

@myersbprd

the expression upon kara's features is somewhere between bewilderment and annoyance. this wasn't what she expected when moving in with john even if she knew there was a chance some kind of crossover could happen with the 'professional' part of their lives.

what kind of joke was this?

the real issue, however, was that this was far from a joke. "shit," a pause, "this is so not fair. it ripped my hoodie!" she's not in uniform though the hoodie in question is actually not hers but john's that she'd taken a liking to wearing. moreso, what would have been the point of being in uniform when she had been merely tagging along with john when he got called in since they were already out-- though, she had removed those stupid glasses kal made her wear.

"how in rao's name was i supposed to know that if i touched that some drau-- draugr? whatever the frack that agent said it was.. was gonna appear?!" it's that moment she's thrown backward, away from john, kara catching herself in the air as she hovers above the monster.

heat rises through her body until a faint orange glow appears by her eyes. finally she blasts the monster with her heat vision, sending him barreling backward against the tomb he'd apparently been guarding. instead of going up in flames, however, the creature shapeshifts itself into something that reminded her of a flame dragon. ironic considering her mode of attack. more pressing concern, had it pulled that image out of her mind?

that little bitch.

"ideas?" kara questions to john, dropping back down to his side but remaining slightly in front of him until she determines the creature's next move. "because clearly fire isn't working and you're supposed to be the paranormal agent man."

[bethestone]

@everythingheard (for kal from kara)

while some people might have thought it wild for kara kent to have programmed a chip from some planet far away from earth to interface with an earth cell phone, it was child's play to her. melding of technologies was something krypton had experimented with literal ages ago and the science guild had been the guild she had intended to devote her life to-- just as her father had. even so, kara's fairly certain the idea of her drunk calling her cousin from a planet he's never heard of had taken kal a bit of time to get used to. (to her credit, she rarely called drunk anymore.)

either way, the point of notice remains the fact kara's tone is a bit frustrated when her voice comes through the phone. "fucking rao, it's not my fault i couldn't answer. there was blood on my fingers and the touch screen wouldn't work." she gives no more context than this or the distance from earth she currently was located. "whatever face you're making get over it. what's up?" if kara was honest, she wasn't that far from earth but she did want to deal with whatever he was calling about? only time would tell.

[n-eptunia]

„my parents are always working...“ Resident Evil 2 Remake (2019)

[bethestone]

september 8th, 2007 multi-locational @everythingheard (leon from claire)

they hadn't even known who or what exactly they were up against. that happened sometimes, or, maybe more accurately, a lot more often than any of her fellow agents liked. it's a real kicker at times when attempting to figure out what they might need in the field or what they might not. sure there were the context clues that always led up to missions.

a string of missing hikers in a spot close to a water source. a body found hanging upside down and drained of blood but not bitten. spirits in a haunted house that weren't actors and somehow turned out to not be ghosts either.

and it helped when abe was involved because he could perceive things they couldn't. still though, claire figures part of it was simply the nature of the paranormal. there were elements of which overlapped like the use and need of blood and elements that failed to like something only being able to utilize a person of a certain age or attribute for whatever their diabolical purpose. sometimes it was hard to know from the initial reports when those giving them had no fucking clue the reality they were dealing with. so when the bprd was called in to investigate a series of disappearances on a small island off the coast of maine because two of those who had disappeared had managed to reappear suddenly in random places (though not random to them) definitively not in maine they weren't exactly sure what they were being led into or what had happened to the ones who hadn't popped up yet.

(two of twelve, it wasn't great odds but it'd been enough to validate the first person's account as being real and not all in their head.)

maybe claire should have known something like this was bound to happen though; especially when the mysterious voice had started prompting them with strange questions and riddles and other agents had begun to disappear into the foggy mist. it had appeared whatever the entity was had a preference for certain answers because their manic laughter had only increased as they caused agents to disappear into the unknown, half uttered words of hunger and being fed within the being's disembodied voice. it speaks of boredom and humans all being the same and claire's weapon is never lowered even if her hair whips around her shoulders as she attempts to get a read, any sort of read on where the being is.

would bullets even affect it?

maybe these ones would. they were special. hellboy had made them himself, she'd been told. but there was no real way to know without testing them. comms were touch and go too. there were moments in the fog they worked and other moments all there was was static, as if they were passing in and out of some in-between place. sometimes she saw another agent a few feet away only to react to something only they could see and disappear before their eyes. it's disconcerting and sets a kind of unease into her bones as her hands grip her gun tighter. she wants to believe the others with her are alright, that if they disappear they'll be like the civilians that reappeared and not find themselves somewhere else that she was beginning to suspect somehow fed this creature.

it gets to her eventually, claire's body jerking back and forth as she attempts to be able to focus upon the entity. it's there but it's not, as if her ability to perceive it was distorted. but it's there, she knows it and she hears the question as if it's in her ear. a part of her wants to resist it, to not give it the satisfaction of an answer. however, claire doesn't think that'll help matters either. where ever they are, in this in-between place inside the very real cave they'd entered, she had a feeling only the being in question could send them away from, for it had brought them into it. and so claire answers honestly, the laughter of the creature halting as it considers something. there's a kind of glee in it's response to her, as if something about claire's words has intrigued it just enough. as if the lack of typical response surprises it enough to allow life instead of death.

claire thinks it asks her where home is, or something to that affect, or maybe it's a self-imposed place her mind goes in a moment of restrained fear where she hadn't known what next awaited her. regardless, her mind thinks of home but instead of a house in dc or the old home in new york she'd grown up in, a face comes to her mind. a person. a person that she thinks has always felt like home and with it a kind of longing that's permeated the last months of their interactions. ships passing in the night. him home when she had a mission and her home when he had one or them both on mission at the same time. this last time they'd barely had a few hours of overlap where they'd been so tired they'd slept instead of spent any real time together. it wasn't always like that. their world wasn't mission after mission after mission back to back most times, but it'd been how the cards had played out lately. in any case, claire doesn't realize she's falling until she suddenly feels weightless and the mist swirls around her and suddenly the temperature of the air feels different and a whole new set of smells form around her. then awareness comes with a sudden jolt. she's not weightless but falling through a ceiling or a roof or whatever the fuck is above him and colliding quite unceremoniously with the man she's fucking lucky hadn't had time to point his own gun upward at the sudden new sound of her gasping curse.

arms reflexively grip onto his clothes when they hit the ground, him on his back and her on top and somehow she knows before her hair is moved out of her eyes or her breath even catches who she's just landed on. "you know, i feel like this is a sign from the universe saying lovers aren't meant to be apart for so long." her voice is a bit strained, her breath labored as she tries to catch it and lifts her head so her hair falls to the side and she can see. somewhere in the back of her mind claire knows she needs to find out if her comms work. doubtful. and if they don't she needs to at least call in. she has no idea where she is either-- that's an issue and she hopes it's close enough to get back to where she'd come from-- or what she's just fallen into because leon might tell her a bit about his missions when he's able to but that's usually after the fact and she has no idea where he'd been sent this time. for all she knows there could be a zombie about to eat them or a spy ready to shoot them. that was another fucking issue. lovely. "putting aside the fact that i literally just popped out of thin air for a moment.. you on a normal mission or a b.o.w. kind of mission?" a pause. "oh fuck, i lost my gun. more pressing question, you have a second weapon and do i need it?"

[bethestone]

@everythingheard (leon) from kara

in the aftermath of the meeting with the president supergirl had been called into, kara and leon standing on opposite sides of the room and acting far too distant to have ever known each other before said moment (ha! if only they knew what great actors they were! or rather, perhaps, and kara dislikes her thoughts for going there even if she's well aware of the reality of it, he'd learned his lesson about what the government was willing to use against a person with sherry.) the woman had beat him to his own abode, hovering about a foot off the ground for good show when he'd entered his apartment. his expression when he'd walked in had proved she'd been correct to presume he wasn't surprised and they'd proceded from that moment to engage in more domesticity than she often showed around others that didn't have the surname kent-- even now. then again, perhaps that came along with the fact he'd been the first earth person she'd fully trusted and connected with back on that farm when she'd still held so much anger inside her. the anger hadn't really gone away until more recently though perhaps it wasn't that hit had gone away as much as she was finally repurposing it into something that could help her heal. sure there had been kal's parents but it'd taken her more time with them, still rebelling against any notion of having her parents replaced. eventually she had come to see things differently. they hadn't wanted to replace them, had only wanted to provide for her as they had for her cousin.

still, it was leon who'd discovered what she was and who'd dared to still be at her side. (who dared to love her, once, still? no kara don't go there.) it was leon who she'd found in that police station in the middle of chaos that had her flashing back to the last days of krypton and yet was somehow even more horrific. it was leon who had calmed her enough so that she could go out and save as many as she could while he did the same and helped a girl named claire and a little girl named sherry. rao, she still remembers the heat from that explosion too. a whole city washed away just like her planet had been. and now, these few years later... it was them having found each other again. (not that they were ever very far away from each other-- she could find him simply by listening for him, and she had even when he was training.) this time, however, was different. she'd found a purpose now and so had he. it no longer mattered how they'd gotten there. they had. and now they'd work together against these new kind of threats. the government hadn't asked her cousin-- she's sure they'd know his answer. but kara wasn't held back by the same things he was. she understood there was going to have to be some compromise and even if she didn't trust the powers that be fully, she trusted leon.

it's an hour later now, kara having not bothered to bring any of her own clothes even if she had declared herself as his new roomate. instead, she's wearing a pair of his work out clothes, a large "dso" planeted on the front of the shirt. they've skirted around actually discussing things for too long and when kara plops herself onto the couch next to him and krypto who she'd brought for good measure, she turns to him with a more mixed and serious expression.

"this is going to get really complicated isn't it? i know you haven't told me everything, even if you have told me a lot. but do you even know all of it? if they are making this joint task force or whatever you want to call it, then.. they really think someone is developing virus capable of affecting metahumans and maybe... maybe even kryptonians don't they?" there's an unease to her voice now and krypto picks up on it, inching a little closer and laying his head on her lap.

[bethestone]

@myersbprd

the twelve year old remembers that night when buildings fell and fire rained down around everyone. she remembers the bus and the military. she remembers seeing ships and hearing a roar and seeing godzilla rise out of the water. she remembers the facility she'd been in before that too. too many children for too few people to take care and while she'd often found herself picked on, learning quickly to keep to herself and off the older children's radar, some of the adults there had tried to be there for her and the others. they'd all died when what the news had called mutos came crashing through the city. she'd been one of the few, a nine-year-old, pulled out of the rumble and taken to the hospital and then ushered onto a bus with strangers. dilara remembers seeing him and while everyone else seemed more afraid of him than the chaos happening around them, she remembers a strangely different feeling having washed over her as she stared at the titan. she'd feared many things that day and perhaps she'd feared falling into the ocean off the bridge too-- and that would have been inadvertently because of godzilla-- but she hadn't feared the massive titan and to this day she hadn't understood why. maybe it was because in the end he'd saved the day before going back into the ocean. maybe it was because he went into the ocean and that, the open water where she could dream up stories about mermaids and all manner of aquatic escapes, had always been the one thing to make her smile. but dilara hadn't known he would do that when she'd first seen him towering above the city.

that had been a lifetime ago now, the home she'd found herself in on the other side of the country in the nations capitol, had been a far cry from any gentleness she'd known before. if it was possible, the child had learned to close herself off more. she'd had bad dreams about the mutos when she'd first come and when she'd awake crying she'd been yelled at for it. when it'd happened again, they'd locked her door during the night. children learn and dilara had learned a lot of things in the three years she'd lived with the rasputin's. but something had changed a few months prior. a man with her eyes and her hair had come from monarch and even a child as she was she'd heard of them. they'd been all over the news. she just hadn't understood why he'd come to their house or why her foster parents had been angry when some other lady said they had to let him in to visit or why he'd seemed upset at the rasputin's after seeing her room, his eyes having lingered on the spot they'd removed the chain lock from that morning (that'd been a new development). dilara had always been observant and apparently so had the man. they'd just talked that day, him asking her random questions and her sinking herself into the hoodie she'd been engulfed in, her remaining curled up in a chair awkward. but he'd been kind and he hadn't shouted at her or gotten upset when she'd accidently admitted she had bad dreams about the mutos when he'd asked her why she was yawning so much. that had caused a reaction, her asking him not to tell her parents because then they'd lock the door again and her apologizing for yawning. she hadn't understood why that'd made him frown.

it was the second time they'd met, this time at a park her foster parents had reluctantly drove her to, that he'd told her who he was. the child wasn't sure at the time that she believed him and she'd been angry and reactive and un-understanding of him saying he hadn't known about her otherwise he would have come for her. didn't all mommies and daddies know they had children if they had children? and if what he was saying was true than why hadn't her mother... wanted her? dilara hadn't understood yet she also hadn't wanted to go back to that house so she had been stuck on the park bench in silence after she'd stopped crying. she wasn't sure how it had happened but that afternoon had ended in him hugging her and once he had she'd latched on as if her life depended on it because it'd been the first hug she could really remember in a long time. but then she'd had to go back to her house again and his promise about wanting to be her dad seemed hollow because she'd asked him, in those last few moments in a panic that if he was her dad, to take her away, and she'd gone back to that house all the same. she hadn't understood.

but then he kept coming there and she'd managed to figure out the email at school and they'd talked. he'd told her he thought about godzilla in the same way she did and that had sparked her to be more open and excited and smile, to begin to accept him as a figure in her life even if she couldn't quite believe him when he told her she'd be living with him soon. adults made a lot of promises. still, she'd told him when her dreams had shifted away from replayed memories and into something else. she'd tried to draw pictures of what she'd seen, flashes of images, strange ones and beings that didn't look like the mutos or godzilla but something else. a lot of them seemed scary except for the pretty one. dilara had liked that one. it was like a flying mermaid with so many colors. she'd shown him the drawings the last time he'd come, let him take them with him when he promised that next time he came she'd be going with him. that's when he'd made her memorize his phone number. just in case. the rasputin's had seemed especially angry that day and that'd confused her because didn't they hate her? why wouldn't they want her gone?

that'd been two weeks ago, dilara waking up two days ago with a start and news reports going wild switching from talk of some court thing about the man-- her father's-- workplace and the titans to destruction beginning. it seemed like it was spreading and it'd scared her, dilara starting to cry when the news people had begun to speak of likely courses for the titans wreaking havoc. she'd hidden behind the couch and covered her ears, closing her eyes and crying as images played across her mind. it was happening again. it was going to happen again. and worse, the tv had shown what she'd already seen in her dreams and the child didn't understand. the lock had gone back on her door that night but soon enough it had begun, sirens outside. people evacuating. the rasputin's did too, she'd seen them get in the car outside the window but they hadn't come for her though at least they'd unlocked the door she'd found out an hour later when she'd tried it. that's when dilara had gone outside and realized everyone was gone from the neighborhood and she'd dialed the number her father had given her, panic in her tone as she'd begun to cry.

he'd told her to stay where she was. that he was going to come for her and that he'd send people to the house to get her out of there. but those people hadn't come because fire had begun to reign from the sky and she could feel the shake of the ground. she'd barely made it to the bathtub (something she'd learned during a drill in school after what'd happened with godzilla and the mutos) before it felt as if the whole world was exploding around her. when she'd woken up, she'd somehow managed to crawl through debris, cuts having torn through parts of her clothes, though most of it thankfully missing where she'd been. for awhile, she hadn't been able to move but something in her forced her to. it seemed as if the whole world was on fire but even the child knew she had to move.

the park wasn't that far, it was the only other place she knew how to get to. and so she'd trekked, dodging fires and broken homes. the park seemed to be narrowly missed though she knew that monster that continued rampaging through the city, raising clouds of smoke everywhere could easily move back in her direction. but the park had a field house with an underground basement. she remembered that from that one time they'd done a community drill. when she gets there, the doors are locked, however, and no people were around, having already evacuated. but the air is hot and ashy and she hears roars and feels the shake of the ground and it's all too much for her because she's alone and she's a kid and no one is coming for her. he'd said he'd come but how could he? maybe he was like the rasputin's too. maybe she shouldn't have let herself hope. there's another shake and dilara moves, finally, follows the side of the building until she takes the few steps down to a small alcove in the side of the building that led to where they kept the sports supplies locked up and she hides herself in the corner on the ground, wrapping her arms around her legs that she brings up to her chest.