Fic: Target practice
For the Multimedia Fanworks Exchange on the SSSS forum. Prompt: "Emil talking to someone about cleanser training. Specifically, bullies. Flashback meeee."
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Fic: In the right hands
Lalli regards other people’s hands with a healthy dose of suspicion.
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Emil's hands are different from other people's.
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Fic: On the unhurried journey towards morning
It’s the same story every night: in the last twilit hour before dawn, when his sleep is light but still has a firm grip on him, he finds himself in the boat, and Lalli is there with him.
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Fic: Etiäinen
Emil has heard that the Silent world can drive people mad, of course. He just hadn’t thought he’d be one of those people.
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Fic: The Family Business - Chapter 6
Chapter 6: Plague Park
“Ruttopuisto?” Emil’s voice is incredulous. “As in Plague Park? What is it with you Finns and your place names?”
“It’s just a nickname, but we do have a Cholera Basin, too, and I swear I’ll drown you in it if you don’t stop distracting me. In case you haven’t noticed, my brother’s been kidnapped by a demon,” Tuuri snarls.
( Read more... )Fic: The Family Business - Chapter 5
Chapter 5: I Will Protect You from Anything
“Are you sure you did the ritual right, Mikkel?” Sigrun is leaning against the wall, arms folded. Next to her, Tuuri is standing ready with a vial of holy water in one hand and a gun loaded with rock salt in the other. The tables and chairs have been moved to one side of the room, and the floor is covered in a web of complex painted symbols. There are also candles everywhere, and Emil is sulking in a corner after being strictly ordered not to go near them. Lalli is crouching next to him, also feeling grumpy. He has been allowed far too little sleep after the ordeals of the previous night. On top of that, he has been subjected to a thorough interrogation by Mikkel and also, to his indignation, been splashed with holy water and forced to ingest copious amounts of garlic and salt to make sure that nothing evil is possessing him. His taste buds will never be the same again.
In the centre of the room, a pentagram with a candle in each corner surrounds the three mysterious feathers.
“As certain as I can be,” Mikkel tells Sigrun. He has several thick books on the table next to him and a sturdy iron bar in his hand. “However, as we do not actually know what it is that we are attempting to summon –”
The bottles on the shelves behind the bar counter begin to clink softly against each other. Then a tremor runs through the floor, rattling the furniture and making Emil grab hold of Lalli’s shoulder in fear. A second tremor shakes them, more powerful than the first, and glasses crash to the floor from their shelves. Sigrun swears. The lights are flashing on and off, showers of sparks flying through the air.
Then there is a blinding flash of light, a crack of thunder ‒ and suddenly, someone is standing in the middle of the pentagram at the centre of the room.
( Read more... )Fic: The Family Business - Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Häyhä's Rifle
A steady drizzle of rain is falling down from the grey clouds above the Helsinki Cathedral. Lalli shivers. If he doesn’t catch Mikkel’s throat illness, all this running around in wet clothes is surely going to give him pneumonia. Sigrun, of course, says that the weather is perfect because it means no one will want to be outside at 3 a.m. and there’s a smaller risk of anyone seeing them, but then she isn’t the one who has to stand around in the rain keeping watch.
He is standing on a terrace behind the great white bulk of the cathedral, while below him, at street level, Emil, Sigrun and Mikkel are working on breaking the lock on the decorative metal gate protecting the glass door to the crypt. Judging by the cursing in three different Scandinavian languages, it is not easy.
( Read more... )Fic: The Family Business - Chapter 3
Chapter 3: The Idiot, the Madwoman and the Man with the Throat Illness
“We need a plan.”
Lalli groans into his cup of coffee. He’s slept for roughly twenty hours, but he wishes he could crawl back under the bed instead of facing Tuuri’s determination. He hates plans. They always go wrong anyway.
“Look, Grandma thought she could protect us from… it, but she’s not here to protect us anymore, so we have to do something ourselves.”
“If it got Grandma, how do you think we can beat it?” Lalli asks pessimistically.
“I don’t know, but we have to try, don’t we?” Tuuri snaps. “We can’t just stay holed up here and hope that a bit of rock salt keeps it away.”
Reluctantly, Lalli has to agree.
“Right then. I’ve been going through Grandma’s notes, and there are a few contacts I think we could ask for help. People who might know what leads she was pursuing during her last months.”
She means they need to talk. To people. The plan already sounds horrible.
( Read more... )Fic: The Family Business - Chapter 2
Chapter 2: Näkki
He regrets it even more when Tuuri arrives to pick him up the next day.
“Why are you driving… that?” Lalli gestures towards the ancient, battered grey van with distaste.
Tuuri shrugs. “It seemed appropriate, somehow. Taking Grandma’s van on its last hunting trip. In any case, you shouldn’t complain, you hate taking the bus even more. And I found the puke bags where she always kept them for you, so we’re good to go.”
( Read more... )Fic: The Family Business - Chapter 1
“I think Grandma wants us to pick up where she left off. Saving people, hunting things. The family business.”
Lalli Hotakainen thought he had left hunting monsters and ghosts behind him for good. But after their grandmother’s death, his cousin shows up, asking for Lalli’s help to fulfil her last wish. Although they do not know it, an old enemy is also hot on their heels…