#freedle writes

[shy-forceghost]

I wrote another religious/family trauma fic. Everyone act surprised.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[shy-forceghost]

Madrid in between scenes

Once they retrieve their backpacks from the hotel room, they settle down on two cots in the corner of the refuge. Beatrice has insisted on going with her, even if she’s still walking on zigzag and squinting at the lights.

“Are you alright?” Ava asks, once they are back at the refuge.

“Yes. A little dizzy, that’s all” Bea answers while starting to unpack. Ava lets out a small laugh.

“What?” Beatrice asks.

“Nothing. I’m just surprised, you know?” Ava admits with a grin, “that a single tranquilliser dart did more than seven lemon drops”. Beatrice’s scandalised face after hearing that is completely worth it.

“Ava!” she shushes her, while looking around to see if anyone heard her, “You can’t say that here”.

“Ok, ok. Not a single word from me ever again, I promise.” They share a shy laugh, and Ava is silently relieved that Beatrice doesn’t show any regret about what happened at the bar.

“They were not seven” she clarifies after ten long seconds “I may not remember a lot from that night, but I’m sure I still knew how to count.”

“Oh, they were, Bea” Ava says “in fact, I lost count at seven …”

Beatrice throws the sweater she was folding at her.

“Shut up” she says, and she’s laughing. Ava notices that this is the first time she has heard her laugh after that night. “Stop defaming me.”

“Me? I wasn’t going to say anything else. You are the one overthinking it!”

She is about to throw the sweater back at her when the effort of stretching pains her on the lower stomach, right where Vincent punched her. Beatrice is at her side in two seconds, concerned.

“I’m fine” the younger girl reassures “just a little sore. For a priest, he can really throw a punch”.

Beatrice doesn’t laugh, and that catches Ava’s attention. She looks at her, inquiring.

“It’s just that … I wasn’t there, I couldn’t help”, she admits, guilt in her voice “Why didn’t you want to tell us it was Vincent?”

Ava ponders her answer. She had hidden that fact while telling the story to Mother Superion, that's right, brushing it out under the argument that "it could've been anyone else, Vincent or FBC, they are all the same".

But Ava knows that's not the truth.

Because I’ve seen the way you get when anyone mentions him. I’ve seen that you are angry at him, but under all of it, you are scared.

“I knew you would overreact” she chooses to say, and regrets it immediately.

“Overreact?! Ava, you were there by yourself. He could have hurt you, taken you to Adriel … out of all people, he’s the one who wouldn’t hesitate on killing you!” Bea yells, and behind the anger, Ava is unable to see the panic.

“You don’t believe I can fight him” she blasts, outraged.

“That’s not what I said” Beatrice says “It’s just that – he overpowered us all, back at the Vatican. We trusted him too much and look at where it brought us. We no longer know what he’s capable of, what else he could do to you!”

“Beatrice, stop. I beat him. I practically kicked his ass and the only reason you should regret that you weren’t there to see it is because it was fucking awesome” Ava is angry, so angry at Beatrice for being so blind “He had a gun. Have you thought of what could’ve happened if it had been a bullet, instead of the dart? Have you?!” she’s yelling now, because she has been thinking about it nonstop since she saw the gun, back at the alley “You are not the only one who worries.”

Beatrice lowers her gaze and puts her hands on her pockets, something she always do when she’s being yelled at. Ava takes a deep breath before continuing, feeling the guilt hovering over her.

“Come on, I was trained by the best sister warrior ever …” she says, in a calmer tone, as she puts both of her hands on Beatrice’s shoulders. “I’m going to be fine. I just ask you for a little faith.”

“I do have faith in you, Ava” Bea says, her gaze softening. “You know that. And just for clarification, you weren’t trained by the best sister warrior. But I was.” She smiles, lightly, and nods to Ava.

They are going to be fine.

[shy-forceghost]

Beatrice has a very high resistance to pain, Ava knows that. She has seen her bump into an infinity of furniture during their time in the Alps (a surprisingly weird number of times considering she’s talking about tactically trained, over-careful sister Beatrice), and not even once did Bea let out a single complaint. She was scandalised when she learnt that Bea goes through her period without taking a single painkiller for her cramps, to “grow her pain threshold” (“ seriously, Bea? You are insane!” ). During their training, it had been rare the occasion in which Bea had whimpered or complained after her trainee’s hits, and only once Ava had managed to draw the very minimal show of tears from her eyes. Not that she was completely proud of that, though.

So, yes. Beatrice is very resistant to pain.

That’s why, when Ava wakes up in the middle of the night and finds her silently crying and shaking, she can’t stop her heart from breaking a little more.

Darkest hour, Chapter 4: Featuring medical mysteries, a bonding history rant, and an unpleasant surprise for Beatrice.

Read more here!

[shy-forceghost]

Darkest Hour, chapter 5

"Your wounds are still not healing, are they?” she asks, signalling to Beatrice’s abdomen as a silent question, and the woman lifts the fabric to reveal a still very wounded flesh. Jillian nods, an uncomfortable feeling travelling all the way to her throat, and instinctively starts scratching her left arm, the compression glove brushing over her sensitive skin. “We are dealing with forces we have not enough understanding about. Not their action mechanisms, and therefore neither their effects.”

The sister warrior looks at her, and her gaze is warm and understanding. She knows Jillian is trying as hard as she can, and a part of her wants to tell her to stop. To focus on anything else, on something more important. She can endure this. 

“I’ll run more tests”, the doctor says instead. “We’ll figure this out.” She brushes her hands over Bea’s arms and smiles shily.  

“You don’t have to -” the other woman starts, but it’s cut with a pointing finger.

“You are my patient,” she says with a tone that leaves no room for confrontation. “I decide when I have to stop trying. As long as you are comfortable with it [...]”

Jillian doing hot cool science woman things. Bea getting more questions than answers. Ava ignoring (one of) the elephants in the room.

Read the whole chapter here

[shy-forceghost]

Darkest Hour, chapter 6

Training with Michael is … not fun.

At first Ava was excited upon the prospect of getting to use the Halo more, to try and expand its capabilities without the worry of hurting Beatrice or setting the Alp’s woods on fire in the process. But she is not the biggest fan of showing to a session of physical torture in which she’s also constantly told how she isn’t paying attention, how she doesn’t try enough, how useless she is even with a divine artefact embedded in her body and …

Okay. Training with Michael sucks.

Where Ava fights Beatrice, trains with Michael, and gets her ass beaten -physical and emotionally.

Continue reading here!

[shy-forceghost]

It's just me and 4426 words of Warrior Nun fanfiction against the world.

[shy-forceghost]

I forgot to post here about Chapter 1, but here's chapter 2 so hehe

A while ago @shipsa-hoy shared a cool prompt on discord and I liked it so much I decided to try and write something. Here it is my attempt. Also, @feiquacker has been the most supportive beta ever so lots of love to them<3

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

It happens in a second.

Ava's plan for escaping the tarask at the Church was perfect, until it wasn't. Until Beatrice was teared from her arms, and left at the mercy of the creature.

By the time Ava gets to her, Beatrice might have more than a few scars.

[shy-forceghost]

I'm an aroace aspiring writer, which means that the amount or research I need to write a character developing a crush on someone is the same, if not more, than for the characters sword fighting.