A Match Beyond Measure Pt 11

A Match Beyond Measure Pt 11

Rebecca met Cecilia in a room in the back that was mostly taken up by a large cylindrical tube, like what someone might see at a drive-thru bank, only much bigger. On the far side of the tube, was a slidable door that Rebecca pushed back, revealing at the bottom of the tube a stack of giant styrofoam cups. With the press of a button, a mechanical claw dislodged one of the cups from the stack before it was sent upwards and stopped where the rim was just below chest level.  

“What do you need?” asked Cecilia. 

“He asked for a hot chocolate, so get me what I need for that.” 

She nodded before hurrying away, returning a minute or so later, arms full of jugs of milk. Cecilia repeated this several times, running back and forth, dropping off armfuls of ingredients while Rebecca poured container after container into a massive pot in the far corner of the room where a fire burned below it. Once the pot was filled, she would haul it over to the tube and dump it into the cup. The first time she did this, she pressed a small button on the lower half of the tube that activated a system that kept the drink warm.  

After ten minutes of constant running back and forth, stirring, and pouring, they were almost finished. Cecilia hobbled back in for the final time, carrying three marshmallows, each of which was the size of a large pillow. She tossed them into the now full cup.  

“Alright,” Rebecca breathed, shaking out her arms. She stepped forward, about to press another button on the tube but turned back to Cecilia, “You promise me that you’re telling the truth when you say he’s not forcing you into anything?” 

She nodded, “I promise.”  

Her friend gave her a single nod before turning her focus back to her job. When she pressed the button, a small compartment further up inside the tube opened up. It pushed out a lid that slid down the tube before landing on top of the drink. Rebecca leaned forward and using all of her body weight, snapped the lid into place. She then pressed yet another button, causing the small door to shut and after a small hiss of air, the drink was sent rocketing upwards, disappearing into the ceiling.    

They both headed back to the front of the cafe. Cecilia was expecting to see Maddie and Sean waiting for them, but they were nowhere to be seen. It was only after Rebecca gestured outside that she saw them. Her stomach twisted itself into yet another knot, oh God. Garret was crouched down with Sean between his shoes and the two looked to be talking while Maddie was leaning up against one of Garret’s shoes, still somehow solely focused on her phone.    

When the two stepped outside, Garret looked up. He smiled down at Cecilia while also eyeing Rebecca with caution, “Hey, I forgot to pay for that,” he pointed at the roof of the cafe where his drink sat in the designated pickup area, “One sec,” Sean and Maddie both scurried away as the giant above them began to move, rummaging through his jean pockets, “Ah, here” he pulled out a crumpled up bunch of Lumins. After pulling out the right amount, he leaned down, holding the large slips of paper out to Rebecca. She snatched them up and tucked them under her arm, making them look like a couple who newspapers.  

“Oh, right. Let me run in and get your croissant” called Sean who had already started jogging back to the cafe.  

“Thanks,” Cecilia muttered as he passed her.   

Garret stood up and leaned down towards the building, completely encapsulating it with his shadow. As he straightened, drink now in hand, Sean came running back outside and handed Cecilia her food. 

“It was nice meeting all of you,” said Garret, glancing over at Rebecca sheepishly before he looked to Cecilia, “Ready?”  

Her fingers fidgeted with the paper bag in her hands. She spared one more look at her friends before she nodded, “Yeah, I’m ready.” 

The ground beneath her rocked as Garret fell to one knee, placing his open hand before her. She could feel the intensity of her friends' stares as she stepped closer. They could probably see that she was shaking. Could Garret see that right now? 

Just as she had done earlier, she clambered onto the fleshy platform, situating herself as far away from the edges as possible. Instead of straining her neck to look up at his face, Cecilia gave the surface beneath her two taps. Garret must have felt it because he began to move, bringing his hand closer to his torso as he stood.   

When everything stilled and Cecilia could open her eyes, she couldn’t stop herself from peering toward the ground. There was the cafe, looking like nothing more than a dollhouse, and all the cars parked out front looking like toys. From up here, her friends' features were all blurred together, too minuscule and far away to make out.   

Is this how he saw everything? Without detail? Without clarity?  

Garret’s palm shifted beneath her as he turned and began to head back into the city. Cecilia’s hands fumbled for something to hold onto once more and was surprised to see his thumb flex so that the top half hovered right in front of her. She stared for a moment, before wrapping one of her arms around it while a smile crept onto her face.

“They seem nice.” 

“Huh?” 

“Your friends,” said Garret, “They seem nice.”  

“Oh, yeah. They are.” she suddenly went red, “I’m s-sorry about Rebecca. She- she misunderstood the situation.” 

Garret gave a weak chuckle, “It’s fine. Sean said that she was just worried.” Cecilia looked up, opening her mouth to say something but stopped. Though she couldn’t see much other than the underside of his jaw, she could see that he was frowning, “Anyways, thanks for coming with me. Usually, I spend lunch with some of the other guys from work, but someone always ends up drunk and it's nice to have a break from all that.”  

“D-do you drink often?” 

Garret made a noise of disgust, “Me? God no. I hate how it burns your throat, and the ones that actually taste good are so expensive. You?” 

She shook her head, “Not really.” A drunk giant, that was an uneasy thought. A part of her felt relieved. 

“Yeah. My old man had a taste for the stuff. Nothing too bad” he assured her, “Just spent a good chunk of money on six packs.”   

“Mine too.” 

“Yeah?” 

Cecilia nodded, “Yeah, and I don’t blame him.” 

“Why’s that?” 

She shrugged, “He had to put up with a lot. He was a part of the military and often worked overseas. Often he dealt with g-” she stopped herself, peering anxiously up over her shoulder. “A….. good deal of things.”

The back of her mind began to buzz and soon spread like a swarm of static throughout her head. A foggy image unfolded in her mind’s eye. She shook her head, trying to rid herself of it, but it was no use. She was staring down a long sterile-looking corridor with dozens of doors lining either side. There was noise too. She could hear a voice. Her mother’s voice, sobbing.  

“I actually considered joining the military.” Cecilia was instantly thrown back into the present by Garret’s thunderous voice, “Though I didn’t love the idea of traveling all around and the strict schedule.” 

She didn’t respond, staring down at the palm beneath her as she began to tremble. No, not now! Please, not now. Stop that! 

A small yelp escaped her as she was brought up and closer to Garret’s face. He peered down at her, eyes narrowed, “You okay?”  

She timidly looked him in the eyes. Like every time before he had looked at her, there wasn’t an ounce of anger, irritation, or anything that a part of her expected to see. No, right now his bottom lids were wrinkled in concern, concern for her. 

Why? Why was that? Why would he be concerned about her? What reason did he have? For him to want to know if she was okay? What did he have to gain from that? It didn’t make sense to her.  

“Monstrous they are, coldhearted creatures.”  echoed a familiar voice. A voice for the longest time she thought was correct.

Her body began to relax. She tilted her head up at the giant one before her. 

“I’m fine.” she averted her gaze, “Thank you.” 

Garret lightened up slightly at her response, “Oh uh, yeah. You just seemed a little-” 

“And thanks for choosing a human cafe. It was….. Thoughtful.” 

“Well I…… I just thought it made sense.” 

She smiled up at him, not sure if her heart was fluttering out of nerves or something else, “Still, it was nice.” 

He stared back down at her, looking confused and honestly a little shocked. Cecilia was certainly taken aback when she noticed his cheeks begin to turn pink. Was he- he couldn’t possibly be…….

“I Uh, no problem.”  he stammered. She almost felt like laughing. Him being the one stammering seemed ludicrous. He cleared his throat, “So uh speaking of which. That cookie was awesome. How long have you been baking for?” 

My father recently gave me a really good piece of advice.

“Don’t listen to criticism from someone you wouldn’t take advice from”

I don’t know if that’s from movie or other media but I thought it was helpful so maybe others will too

Tried my hand at an actual G/t sort of drawing

(Also may be a scene from a later chapter)

Original pose from @albanenechi

Mice Among Beasts Pt 1

A Baldur's Gate fanfiction.

The dungeon-like space smelled awful, like death, rot, and goblins. It was impossible to see where they were going, what with the cage constantly rocking back and forth with each step the goblin took, clearly taking pleasure in jostling them around.  

A look of shock was still painted across Willow’s face, her brain struggling to keep up. How had she been so stupid?! Trying to steal food from that camp, and without any sort of plan? Had she even taken the time to scope the place out? No! She had simply seen the food and gone for it. Now, she was facing the grim reality that they themselves might become food. Did goblins eat her people? It seemed like a very real possibility, seeing what had been on- 

She jumped when a loud, high-pitched wail filled the air, the source being right next to her. Belle had been sniffling and whimpering from the moment they had been captured, but now she was screaming.   

The goblin above them groaned. He gave the cage a good shake, sending the two tiny humanoids falling from one side to the other, “Shut up!” 

Belle only cried louder. Holding her aching head, Willow stumbled over to her. She wrapped her arms tightly around her sister's frail body and pulled her into her lap. Cooing at her and petting her golden hair very slowly quieted the girl down, being content to cry into Willow’s shirt.   

The two were both trembling, but Willow tried to mask it by slowly rocking the sobbing mess in her arms. The corners of her own eyes burned, but she gritted her teeth and tried to remain composed. It wouldn’t help anyone if both of them began to crumble. Then again, could anything help them now?  

She turned her head to glare at the underside of their captor's chin, “What do you want?” she hissed.  

The two shrunk away as the cage was brought up to the goblin’s eye level. He smirked, “Entertainment.” 

He lowered the cage back down to his side, pushing open a large double door with a guttural grunt. Willow peered through the bars, vaguely able to make out the room they had entered. There were two rooms on either side of them, but the goblin walked past them and down a short set of stone steps. All sorts of crates and wooden boards peppered the room's perimeter, but what caught her eye were the two large cells across the room, one on the left, and one on the right.   

The goblin turned right, going down another short flight of stairs. Willow’s eyes widened, seeing ahead of them a small group of even more goblins. Three looked to be young ones, all of which were cackling with laughter. A guard of sorts seemed to be supervising them, a look of content amusement on her face.  

“Listen! Did you hear it squeal?” one of the young ones laughed, pointing into the cell before them.  

“Make it do it again!”  

One of the goblins bent down and when they straightened, had a large rock in their grasp. They promptly threw it into the cell. A deep yet pained whimper came from behind the bars, pitiful and animalistic. Willow tensed at the sound, goosebumps beginning to pop up along her arms. What sort of animal did they have in there? Anything larger than a rabbit would have been enough to send her running.   

The group burst into laughter, “Hand me another one!” 

Willow flinched as their captor cleared his throat. The oldest of the group turned, her face lighting up with a similar sinister smirk.  

“Hey, Crusher! Come to join the fun?” 

“Actually, I plan to add to it.”  He raised the cage and gave it another harsh shake, exciting a shriek out of Belle, “Lookie what I got ‘ere.” 

The whole group descended upon them. All the kids hurried forward, pushing and shoving one another to get to the front and peer inside the birdcage. Willow’s arms tightened around her sister as the pairs of eyes on those hideous faces slowly settled upon the two of them.  

“Woah!” exclaimed one child, “What are those?”   

The goblin next to him gave him a shove, “They’re clearly some kind of fey, idiot.” 

“What kind though?”  

“Well… uh…” the smartass peered through the bars once more, “Uh… I’m not sure. Are they pixies?”  

The eldest pushed them aside, leaning her ugly face down to scrutinize the girls, “No… no, pixies got wings, and these nibblets seem smaller. At least from what I’ve seen.” she gave the cage a small shove, causing Belle to cry out once more, her bony fingers clawing into her sister. 

“Hah! They make even funnier noises!” Willow flinched at the volume of the child’s voice, wishing her hands were free so she could cover them, “Make ‘em do it again!”  

“Oh oh! Let me see!” the smartass lept forward, his massive pudgy hands groping for the cage.  

Their captor- Crusher he seemed to be called, held them higher up, chuckling, “Now now, you’ll all get plenty of time to hear them make their noises.” he shot the two a grin before turning to the other adult, “Notice you haven’t fed that furball to the worgs yet.”  

“Nah, I’ve been having too much fun with ‘em.” she peered over her shoulder, “But if we ever run out of fresh meat-” 

Crusher held up his hand, silencing her and turning to the kids, “How would you guys like to see a real show?”   

Those greenish-yellow faces lit up, “Yeah!” 

“You wanna see a real show?” 

“Yeah!”  

“Alright then.” he smirked from the cage to the cell, “This will be fun.”  

The cage started to sway once more as Crusher pushed past the kids, approaching the cell. Willow, her sister still in her arms, began to back towards the opposite side of the cage. 

They were suddenly lifted higher, being held right against the bars. Her heart hammered against her ribs as if trying to escape itself. She didn’t want to look, didn’t want to know, but her eyes betrayed her as they peered down into the cell.  

She gasped. Through the bars, standing in the very center, was a bear. An absolutely massive brown bear.  

Belle screamed, trying to backpedal further away to no avail. The goblins burst into fits of laughter, “What? You don’t like ‘em?” The cage was spun so now their backs were right up against the cell. Willow held her sister’s head against her chest as she whimpered. 

Chancing a glance over her shoulder, Willow saw that the bear’s eyes were fixed upon the cage. When Belle let out another whimper, its ears perked up at the sound.  

“D'aww look, I think he wants to be friends” teased Crusher, receiving more laughs in response.  

A shiver ran down her spine as the bear released a low, long drawn-out growl. Oh gods. 

“You wanna go in and say hello?” 

Belle shrieked, frantically shaking her head as if it would do anything.  

“Is that a yes?”  

“No!” she screamed. 

“Well, if you say so.”  

They began to be lowered, the cage nearly being touched down to the ground before the floor suddenly began to tilt. Willow hurriedly pulled her and her sister up the growing incline and wrapped her legs around the cage bars. Her sister screamed, clawing her way up her body and desperately trying to also grab onto something as their world continued to turn.  

Her arms began to burn as they became vertical, but she didn’t dare let them loosen their grip around Belle, not even for a moment. A large clawed hand came around and pried open the cage door.

“Come on now, “ Crusher gave the cage a good shake. Willow winced, straining to keep the two of them up, “Don’t want to keep ‘em waiting do ya?” His eyes zeroed in on what was keeping them from falling. Those clawed fingers crept towards her, nails slipping beneath her legs. A mere flick of the finger, and they were falling, falling into a death trap.  

She spun around in the air, putting herself between Belle and the approaching stone floor. An airless gasp escaped her as she collided with the ground. She coughed and wheezed, wincing at the throbbing pain now blooming across her whole back. 

Belle began to shake her and tug at her shirt collar. Willow pushed her away, forcing herself up. She froze as another low growl filled her ears. Grabbing hold of her sister, she looked up and wanted to scream. The bear’s eyes were fixed upon them. Even from afar, it towered over them, a huge mass of fur that could swallow them whole.  

Whipping her head around, her eyes landed upon the cell’s bars. The space between them was big enough for them to slip through. She ran for it, dragging her sister behind her. Almost as soon as she had started towards it, the goblins took notice. All of them crouched down in front of the cell to block her path, laughing at her pitiful attempt at escape.   

She spun around, heading in the opposite direction. Heart pounding in her ears, she began scouring the stone walls for cracks, holes, anything. The ground beneath them quivered and Willow looked over to see the bear taking a step towards them, head lowered and shoulders up.  

It stalked towards them, throwing her off balance with every step. She frantically continued to search the walls, running along the perimeter of the cell. When she reached a corner, she stopped, out of breath. She turned and froze. The bear was close now, its shadow beginning to cover the two of them. They couldn’t run now, they were cornered.  

Belle began to whimper. Willow stepped in front of her and began to back away. She only made it a few steps before they were pressed against the wall. Looking up in horror, she watched as the bear's head began to encapsulate her entire vision. The air around them stunk of its rancid breath. Its eyes were piercing, the gaze as sharp as its protruding fangs. This was it, they were dead. 

Willow’s arms came up to shield her and her sobbing sister. She braced herself as the beast closed in, opening its gaping maw. It descended upon them and she snapped her eyes shut, praying it would be a quick death for the both of them.  

Nothing. Nothing happened. She didn’t feel anything. Not the feeling of teeth tearing them to shreds like she had expected. Not the feeling of being doused in drool, not anything. However, she did hear something, the snapping of the bear’s jaws. 

Willow cracked open her eyes, freezing. The bear was mere inches away, its warm breath blowing back her silvery hair. It was still staring at them. It remained motionless.  

Suddenly, its massive form began to shift as it turned away from them. It began to make a noise that sounded like chewing. Willow hurriedly checked behind her, worried that it had somehow gotten a hold of Belle before her. But no, her sister was still huddled up behind her, looking up in terrified confusion. 

The bear continued to chew, at least that’s what it sounded like. She wracked her brain for an explanation of what else it could be but came up short.  

“Aw man, where’s all the blood?” rang out the familiar voice of one of the goblin children.   

Another voice sighed, “I guess if we wanted a real show, we should have thrown in something bigger, or maybe something that would have at least put up more of a fight. Ah well.”  

Willow’s eyes widened. Did they think that they had been- she looked up, seeing that the bear’s form was completely blocking them from the view of the goblins.   

“I guess we should get you lot back to work.” 

The young goblins all began to protest, “Aw come on! Can’t we throw more rocks at it or-”  

“Do you want to keep our True Soul waiting?” growled Crusher. 

True soul? 

“N-no. N-not at-” 

“Then get to it!” he barked, and Willow felt and heard the multiple pairs of feet hurry away, “Oh, and Butch wanted to see you, something ‘bout his worg. Won’t stop whining over it.”  

“Ugh, fine. Take me to him, will yah?” 

Another rumble of footsteps and the goblin’s grumbling murmurs slowly grew distant. With the slam of a door, the room fell silent.  

Hope you enjoy! and let me know if you want to hear more!

I guess that includes me

If you post g/t or follow the g/t tag please interact with this post in someway so I can follow you. I need to know all of the peeps so I can collect them like a g/t infinity gauntlet

Pls Reblog so that I can follow as many people as possible the goal is constant g/t on my feed :)

Master post of Stories

Main story: A Match Beyond Measure

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Other random side stories (that may or may not be continued):

Slave to the Light

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Mice Among Beasts

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

A Growing Problem

Part 1

Part 2

Short stories/ One-shot (Open for requests!)