vampire Q? i think i recognized all your wips but that one
It's an Avatar story in which Q contracts a fucked disease after getting a cut from an arrow. The microbes react differently to the recom DNA and fuck with his mind. The issue is that I started with chapter 2, which is finished, and the first half of chapter 1... Then bailed out on the part where the fever should ratchet up and up, till Miles loses himself and starts feasting on some RDA staff :3
--
It all starts with the graze of an arrow, courtesy of Sully's woman.
The neurotoxin immediately gets to work, burning as it spreads. Miles reaches for the antidote on automatic, punches it into the side of his throat and tosses the empty canister aside. He discards any concern just as easily. They're pinned down, the hostages scattered, and this is the one fucking alien on this moon whose brains he most wants splattered on the greenery. He's not letting his chance slip.
His arm screams in protest as he signs for Lyle to go around dear Mrs. Sully, or when he grabs Walker and yanks her back behind cover. It shakes under the recoil as he fires into the canopy, half blind in the rain. It nearly gives out when he hoists the kid over his shoulder and clips into the lines.
They fly off and Miles presses himself into his seat, head spinning and an uncomfortable stinging sensation spreading down his chest.
It doesn't matter. He doesn't care. His son is safe in his arms. Bleeding and zoning out, yes, but safe. Kid could have had it worse. He could have eaten a bullet or an arrow.
'He'll be fine, he's probably concussed by the blast and fall,' Lopez declares after a cursory inspection. 'But sir, you shouldn't hold him that way. You could pop the seal of his exopack.'
Miles grunts and adjusts the kid's position, arm twitching in protest. Lopez catches it. Or maybe it's the blood, still sluggishly oozing from the slice in his deltoid. Lopez presses his fingers along the cut, pulling out his small torch to get a better look.
'You took the anti—'
'What d'you think?'
'I think it was a bit of a shitshow, sir. Wouldn't blame you for missing it.'
Miles can't exactly counter that. You don't lose half your team to three natives with bow and arrows and not call it a shitshow.
'I got it immediately,' he says, 'and I'll be heading to the medbay anyway.'
To deliver his unconscious son, if nothing else.
Walker leans into him and whispers an apologetic, 'That was intended for me.'
'And it got neither of us,' Miles mutters.
An easy half lie, but the arrow head and the yellow, striated fletching got under his skin, just in different ways.
--
That's what I have for chapter 1. Chapter 2 was in Lyle POV and much better imo buuuut, the entire story was hefty and long, with no way to shorten it significantly. I should yeet chapter 2 as standalone on ao3 and be done with it tbh.
Even made some doodles for this AU
One of these things about parasitism, building an organic convent, a sort of weird eldrritch horror competition to Eywa, leading the RDA and local tribes into uneasy cooperation.
It's a story that was discussed too much. It was fun to chat about, but my energy got spent on making the world, meaning I never got to sit to the writing fully.
I also had a really unpleasant interraction with some other fans around this particular story concept, so it really soured things, as often in Avatar sadly.