Discover Top Posts Tagged with #harlock ti

Fanfic:: Proud of Your Girl

Harlock thought she knew what she was getting into when she went into the past. What she didn't plan for was those most important to her.

In which I take a crazy fan theory by @mathes0n and make it a fic.

Harlock-centric. Takes place during Harpy’s Nest. Minor Thashe. P much fluff

Huge thanks to @wooferdill for betaing!

On AO3

Harlock knew she was crazy. She knew no one thought it could be done. But she had to. She stepped back to admire her work. The gray metal box stood out from the vacant field she had made her work space for the past few months, covering her creation with foliage to camouflage it. Standing at six feet high, gears and wires and who knows what else poked out from the sides, gently being blown by a breeze that threatened to pick up. It had taken years to gather all the materials she needed, test smaller versions of the machine, and finally put it together. It... It wasn't pretty, but if her calculations were correct, it would work. "You're crazy," said a muffled voice.

She tore her gaze away from her creation to look at the bottle on the ground. "And when have I started listening to you?" "Maybe you should start. You might die in there.”

"No we won't." She started to pick up her tools and papers strewn across the grass. “Besides, you already have experience with time magic.” "Yes, but that was because I was sent here by acciden- Wait, what do you mean 'we'? What makes you think I'd ever- put me down!" "What? I can’t hear you. You’re breaking up." She lowered the bottle into the bag.

“Why do I even know you?” was the last thing Harlock heard before turning her attention to the rest of her materials before they blew away in the wind.

Sooner than she wanted, the space before her was clear, leaving only the machine and her bag. She had been waiting for this moment for years. Why was she getting nervous now?

Here goes nothing.

She took a deep breath, stepped into the foreboding box, and shut the door.

The inside was far more complicated, full of lights and buttons and levers that would make an average person’s head explode. She flitted over the controls with years of experience. She sat in the chair she borrowed for a nearby bar and started flicking buttons and levers. Before the box started shaking and powering up, she strapped her backpack in below her seat and powered off her prosthetic.

Better safe than sorry. She had to stretch to reach some buttons with her flesh arm, but she made due. Soon, the machine was vibrating, more lights blinked at her. She held onto the armrests with a death grip

In a couple moments, the box was gone, to the immense confusion of some sheep that passed by.

--- The box reappeared silently in another field just as deserted as the first. The door opened and out tumbled Harlock, who immediately fell onto her hands and knees and threw up.

Vaguely, she could hear her bag loudly grumbling about her weak stomach, but she ignored it, staying low and just breathing. Remembering how solid earth felt, how solid the ground was. She had no idea how long the trip took, but it felt like a lifetime, and the grass was so soft.

When her stomach didn’t feel like it was twisted in knots and clutching onto the grass wasn’t such a novelty, she stood up. The field wasn’t so different from where she had been; more trees here, more flat, but that was about it.

And now it had a big metal box in it.

She walked toward it, grabbing her backpack and powering off the machine. She had no idea where she was, but she needed to keep the box here and kept secret. She didn’t feel like being stranded here, wherever that was.

More grumbles came from her bag as she leaned it against a tree. She ignored it while she covered her creation with tree branches and dirt and whatever she could without destroying it. She’d probably set up shop here, as long as it wasn’t property. Maybe she’d make a proper house, or she could be like her mother and sleep in a tree.

She found herself smiling at the thought of her parents. This entire trip was for them.

A small part of her she didn’t want to admit existed hoped they would be proud. ---

The field was free land, which seemed apt for a town in “Freearch.” She set up shop there, only sleeping in trees when she got too tired to work on a place to live (which was often enough the birds started leaving a branch free for her).

Getting a job was easy enough; her tech was more advanced than anyone in this time period. When signing out the forms to be eligible for jobs, she almost put down “Adventurer,” but stopped herself. That was her parents’ job, that was their specialty; her talents were elsewhere. She filled in “Mercenary.”

Besides, this will probably be the best way to see them.

As irritating as it was, the job offers did not immediately roll in, leaving her stuck doing “exposer” jobs and lots of free time to build in her part of the forest.

And plenty of time for Homunculus to bitch at her.

“Why are we even here?”

Harlock frowned as she nailed in another floorboard. “I wanted to see if I could do it.”

“You- what?” The gray blob was quiet for a blissful minute before breaking it, before shattering the silence. “You mean we nearly died because you wanted to see if you could travel back in time?!”

She shrugged. “Yeah, and now I can make my parents proud.”

“How?”

She grinned. “By speaking their language.”

“What do you even-” It sighed. “Humans are fucking stupid.”

---

As her reputation grew, more jobs came through for her. None of them were particularly interesting, none really sticking out unless it got her a lot of money or a lot of injuries. She was still focused on one specific job. It finally came the day two hooded men met her in town.

Their skin was covered in intricate, purple tattoos and they spoke with a strong accent, but Harlock could understand them perfectly fine. Apparently, no one else would take the job. It had been rumored the women and her fellows had killed countless gods, making no mercenary want to touch that job with a ten foot pole. But gods or not, the pirates were persistent. Aesling needed to be returned home.

When Harlock finished reading the contract, she grinned.

“Good thing I don’t believe in gods. Now where do I sign?”

---

“Is it really them?” homunculus said through the backpack.

“Shush!” Harlock hissed. The group had just entered the forest, five of them, unlike the four she had expected. Had it just been Ashe, Harlock guessed she’d have a much harder time keeping track of them, but Thog trundling behind helped by cracking ever branch in the path apparently.

“Well, I can’t see."

“Well, I wish you couldn’t talk.”

Homunculus harrumphed as Harlock ignored him, focused on the group as Thog and Gregor ran away and Kathradi descended on them.

“I can’t see it, but I’m definitely hearing some stupidity right now,” Homunculus grumbled.

“Shush. We should go on ahead.”

“You just don’t want to fight Kathradi again.”

“They’re really annoying. I don’t know what you want from me.”

“Maybe pulling the cork-”

“No.”

She got a long sigh in response as she climbed through the trees. There were traps to set and a bounty to make good on.

---

“Dammit, you’re not the one I wanted.”

Thog looked at her, wide-eyed and shocked, which she couldn’t really fault him for. Her traps were pretty spectacular and had created a real scene beyond the trees.

She was about to go on when there was an explosion and a large mass colliding nearby. Harlock was about to grab Thog when she and the new man made eye contact.

Uncle Markus?

“Oh, hello there!” the horned man said, seeming unfazed by any of the fire or destruction or traps anywhere.

Yeah, that’s Uncle Markus.

“Hey, how you doing?” She bit her cheek to keep from smiling. He looked so… dorky, being this young, with such small horns compared to how he was... in her timeline.

She let Markus blabber on before she grappled onto another tree, Thog in tow.

If there’s anything to get Ashe to me, it’s bound to be kidnapping Thog.

It worked, and she jumped twice before stopping, seemingly not knowing Thog wasn’t her target… and then going to the next tree. It was rather amusing actually, more fun she’s had in awhile.

Then Uncle Markus flew overhead and vanished just as quickly into the ground.

Maybe I’ll actually let them catch up this time.

A few more jumps between trees with her grappling hook and she had put enough distance between her and the group to set her small trap of tying Thog to a tree branch and waiting.

And somehow it worked.

Damn, they are so married.

---

The sixth man was a surprise, but she’d heard her parents talk about a strange man named Rat and this man seemed to fit the bill. “I think I just doomed both of us by giving him that money!” Ashe explained as Rat giggled menacingly.

And that’s why Dad handled the income.

Thankfully, she had multiple runes to take care of the cursed man and get Ashe in the boat.

“Isn’t this nice, just the three of us, on this boat?”

“Wha- wait, three?”

Harlock couldn’t help herself. “I like to keep secrets. Don’t you worry.”

She didn’t notice Uncle Markus conjure the black magic until the boat was half out of the water and she was gripping to Ashe for dear life as Uncle Gregor swam to them. She wasn’t giving up that easy-

-but she couldn’t help getting in a spite match with Ashe while Gregor fruitlessly tried to rescue them from the side.

In her slight panic, she forgot all about her mechanical hand.

“Oh, that’s a good point.” Thanks, Uncle Gregor.

The docks were… messy. Everyone was exhausted, Ashe was furious, the new girl was acting cute, and Rat stared at them from a distance.

Then came the winking.

Gregor started it, innocently enough, but then Ashe and Firi were doing it as well...? Was this some weird form of communication from this time period?

“Hom-Homunculus, what’s going on?”

“Yes… Harlock, what do you want?”

Everyone stared at Homunculus and Harlock hoped it wouldn’t say anything stupid.

It locked eyes with Ashe. “Oh, yes… you.”

Harlock shifted her bag to jostle Homunculus enough to get the message across of “Nothing about the time travel.”

Homunculus distracted them enough that they didn’t restrain her. Surprisingly, they never did restrain her, but maybe that had to do with the gun to Markus’ head. (She made a mental note to give Markus from her timeline something nice). For being the person who kidnapped two people from their group and nearly killed most of them, they were rather civil in negotiating with her. Before it fully hit her what she was doing, she had 27 gold bills on her hands, and the promise of more to keep her on their side.

Then the… “harpy” came through.

She wasn’t expecting to fight alongside the group, but, here she was, asking them to hold off the harpy while she built probably her best impromptu trap ever, ripping it limb from limb. Adrenaline still pumping through her, she barely realized where she was going when she boarded a shadow boat with the rest of the group.

It hit her when Gregor started singing. The entire. Way. To the Nine Shrines Bar.

---

Then there was the walk to the bar, which she passed the time counting her money.

Ooooh hell yeah, 27 gold bills richer. She grinned. Mom and Dad would be proud.

She pocketed the money in her back back, beside Homunculus.

Now, to get the pirates who threatened my mother… once I get off this island.

Her thought was punctuated by Thog slamming down his glass as he loudly told the story to those who hadn’t been there. Everyone was crowded around on table in the otherwise barren bar. As vocally as she complained, it was… nice. Not that she’d ever admit it.

She stood up and sauntered over with Aunt Inien, who didn’t look like she aged a day since when Harlock knew her. Good ol’ Aunt Inien.

She let a small smile slip as she snarked about how drunk Thog had gotten.

Maybe she’d hang around this timeline a bit longer.

Just maybe.