#echo week 2018

Echo Appreciation Week - Day 6

Alternate Universe - angels and demons

That heart of yours (is what I have left)

Echo has been alive for as long as humanity itself, or she thinks so. It’s getting kind of fuzzy the further back she tries to think. She’s seen the rise and fall of entire civilizations. She was there when the pyramids were constructed. She saw what happened to Atlantis. She’s been alive for so long that nothing can surprise her anymore.

She’s made friends, made enemies, had friends turn to enemies. But for the most part, she’s been alone. She had an allegiance with a woman named Nia and man named Roan for quite some time, but they weren’t friends. It was just a way to stay on the safe side of the power struggle between immortals. On the winning side of the wars. Using her skills to manipulate others and finding safety for herself.

Until the last century. She’s found a family. She’s found people she would fight for, even if she wasn’t sure they’d win. She’s found people that care for her, despite her sketchy past. She’s found people that are worth spending her never ending life with. People she loves.

Harper and Monty, who found each other right at the beginning of time and never looked back. A couple who welcomed Echo with open arms and kind hearts. Murphy and Emori, who’s relationship defied all odds and were such strong and passionate individuals on their own that they would have been fine if it didn’t. Raven, the strongest of anyone, immortal or otherwise, that she’s ever met, as well as the most intelligent and the best friend she’s ever had. And Bellamy.

Bellamy had been someone that she once considered an enemy, someone she didn’t trust. But she had always been fascinated in him. Despite their dislike for each other, she could see that he loved with his whole heart. She could see that nothing was more important to him than his family. He would do anything to protect them throughout the various immortal fight and power struggles that occurred throughout the ages. There was a large group that he cared for and she watched from a distance as that group got smaller and smaller, sometimes at her own fault. It breaks her heart, thinking about the fact that she caused so much of his pain. So much of all of their pain.

But then in one of the most recent battles, against his sister no less, she had stepped in and offered her help. She no longer wanted to be affiliated with Nia and Roan, it wasn’t where she wanted her loyalties lying. But it didn’t end well and they found themselves in hiding, the seven of them. They took her in.

Echo ending up on the Ring was chance, the universe sparring her life from certain doom, leaving her with people who ranged from hatred to total indifference towards her.

But slowly, with time, and with work, she starts to feel like maybe this group could be her family.

Echo Positivity Week Day 3 - Favourite Relationship (Space Sisters!)

Read on AO3

4 days post Praimfaya.

The air rattling through the grates on the wall was loud.

Echo wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to the fact that there was no silence. The air rattled. The walls and floor creaked. The electricity hummed through the lights and the walls. The noise meant they were going to live.

So much noise. So overwhelming.

She was sitting on the floor, on the wall. It had been almost 4 days, and she had helped as much as she could, searching through rooms and under floorboards and in every nook and cranny to find anything they could use. She wasn’t sure she was even sure what would be useful, there was a good chance half of the stuff she had brought into the main room would be useless.

Her ears were ringing. The noise never stopped.

She hadn’t slept.

She also hadn’t showered. Monty, the nice boy who was with the pretty blonde girl, who’s hands were burned and raw and swollen, was in charge of getting the water running. Raven had promised she would help when she could but she had so much else to do. Monty was directing people, and it was taking very long.

She was parched. They were rationing the water they had brought with them, and it wasn’t much.

It helped that she hadn’t spoken much. She had no one to talk to anyway.

Raven was so busy she wasn’t sure she even noticed anyone, so focused on the ship. Monty too.

Bellamy had been fine, but he was busy, and certainly wasn’t going to go out of his way to talk to her.

The joke about throwing her overboard rang in her ears.

The frikdre- Emori, she mentally corrected, kept a wide berth, her eyes flaming anytime they were close.

Murphy, the boy she was with, was so protective, Echo didn’t dare step close to either of them.

She slept with her sword next to her in bed, just in case one of them had the idea that taking her out would make Emori safer.

Make any of them safer.

She was the threat.

They all had someone. It looked like Emori and Murphy were a little bit separate, but Murphy seemed to be part of the fold, and the other four were already a well oiled machine.

A yell broke her out of her mind.

“I DID IT!” A male voice echoed through the ship.

“We can shower?!” A girls voice called back.

“I mean yeah, and we can you know… drink water and start growing the algae.” Monty. Of course.

“Yeah yeah yeah. I wanna wash my hair.” Harper, she finally placed the voice.

The war paint on her skin was still caked on. She wanted to wash it away. To start fresh, to feel clean, and forget the pain that it brought up.

As if she could ever forget.

The blood from her hand was still caked on her stomach.

The cut on her hand was still throbbing, she hadn’t asked anyone to care for it, using small amounts of her water rations to rinse it every day and hiding it.

Not that anyone was really paying attention.

Good thing that loneliness was something she had long ago learned to live with.

She stayed sitting while the rest of them ran towards bathrooms, and listened as the water started hitting the floor, and the smell of shampoo wafted through the halls.

She stayed sitting while they all whooped and hollered, excited to be clean, cheering and chanting Monty’s name.

She stayed in her spot while they all got clean, while they found towels, while they all got redressed, and grouped up in the common space, sounding happier and more relaxed.

She waited until they all sounded settled, and then quietly stood and found her way too the closest shower.

The knobs were different than she was used too, but she twisted and turned until the water was scalding, almost too hot to touch, and pulled her sticky dirty clothes off her her skin, and stepped under the hot stream. She washed her hair first, pulling it back into a knot behind her head, and then turned and started to try to scrub away the paint and blood, but it proved difficult, like it had become one with her skin. She kept scrubbing, so hard her skin started to feel raw, but it wouldn’t come off.

The memories of the small candle, the knife to her gut, the despair, came rushing back, until she couldn’t contain it anymore, and sat on the ground under the stream and sobbed, curled into a ball.

She didn’t know how long she had been there crying when the cool touch of someones hand startled her, and she kept back.

Echo Appreciation Week - Day 7

Free day

Favourite Relationship - Echo and Raven

Being in space is terrible. Echo hates literally everything about it. It’s weird to walk and she doesn’t understand why. The air doesn’t feel right and it always smells the same. It’s always a little bit cold but it’s not the cold she’s used to. It's a weird kind of cold. She can’t find the right amount of layers that keep her comfortable. She can’t move as stealthily as she’s used to because when she steps on the tin floor it sounds like it echoes through the entire ring. She just wants to go home.

But home is burning below them.

The worst part though isn't the weird air or the lack of privacy or the fact she hasn't had fresh food in months, it's how alone and out of place she feels. It’s not like she’s not used to being alone, it’s all she’s ever been. She’s just not used to being in a group. She’s used to having privacy. She’s not accustomed to sharing meal times. And it’s with a group of people that are already friends. That already care about each other. People that put all their own lives at risk to save each other. Echo can’t remember ever having someone she would risk her life for. And she's definitely never had someone who would risk their life for her.

With the exception of the Freikdreina (and even she seems to fit in better than Echo does), they’re a family. A family in mourning and wherever she goes, she feels unwelcome. So more often than not she finds herself walking the ring, exploring what she can and hiding from the others. She’s always liked her own company and it feels less lonely when she’s not the outsider of a group.

They’ve been in space for what would have been the whole winter if there were seasons in space when she finds herself in what she’s heard Raven call the control room. It’s dark in here, only the lights from the screen illuminating the room and it doesn’t look like anyone is coming back, so she pulls the door behind her quietly.

With the door shut and the weird humming in the room blocking out any other noise, Echo feels like she can let out a breath. She collapses in one of the big chairs, her stomach surging when it spins because that’s just something else she’s not used to. Chairs are supposed to be stationary. Why change that? Why do any of the weird things that seem to happen in space?

Echo was the best spy in Azgeda, but something falling from the sky could distract anyone. If she had just been paying attention, maybe she would have seen the Mountain Men.

Echo Positivity Week Day 2 - Pre - Canon (Echo Gets Captured by the Mountain Men)

Read on AO3

“Find me the trishanakru scout who stole from me.” Nia commanded.

Echo knelt on one knee, her head bowed, and then she stood, and turned, to do her duty to her queen.

She made her way to the trishanakru village where the scout had come from, blending into the background of the world, like she had been taught. She listened, and waited, and heard his name.

He had gone to polis, to bring his stolen goods to Lexa kom Trikru, Heda of the 12 clans. No doubt to try to find a way to get Azgeda removed from the coalition.

Nia had not told her what had been stolen from her, but she had no doubt it involved some plan to try and over throw Lexa.

Ontari’s face flashed in her mind. A full grown natblida, hidden away. A conclave between Ontari and the noviciates in Polis would be no contest. Ontari was a fierce and brutal warrior, and the noviciates were just children.

An Azgeda Commander hadn’t been seen in 7 conclaves.

If Nia wanted power, killing Lexa and presenting Ontari would get her that. A heda that she could control.

She rode towards Polis, stopping in every village along the way to find him.

When she made it into Trikru territory, she slept in high trees and rode only at night.

She may not have scars on her face like the Azgeda soldiers, but the white fur on her coat would be telling enough here, amongst the green and brown, amongst the trees.

She had made her way almost all the way to Polis when a loud sound made her turn her head towards the blue sky.

A huge object, made of metal, surrounded by fire, was falling to earth from the sky.

She had seen rocks fall before, but nothing like this. Nothing this size, and certainly nothing made of metal.

It slammed to earth, shaking the tree she was perched in, and she could see trees falling away from the sides of the giant object.

Her interest was peaked.

She leapt through the trees towards the huge object, stopped far enough back to see it, but to stay unseen by whatever may come from it. Her curiosity did not disappoint.

While Echo waits for the conclave to begin, in the weapons room with Roan, she finds herself walking over to Luna.

The last nightblood, who fights for death.

In this, she finds understanding she never expected

Echo Positivity Week Day 5 - A Character She has Never Interacted With Before (Luna, before the conclave, 4x10)

Read on AO3

The air was frigid, as each clan’s warrior stood in the weapons room, quietly selecting the weapon they thought would best keep them alive to save their clan. They each had someone, an advisor, a friend, a family member, standing near them, rubbing their shoulders and giving them advice. Bellamy and Kane stood off in a corner with Octavia, talking in hushed, angry whispers.

Echo stood near Roan, taking in the room.

The only champion with no one was Luna.

Roan was picking through the weapons in front of him, paying her no mind, so she walked over towards the last living night blood.

“You walk quietly, azloufa.”

She didn’t respond, just watching the natblida prepare.

“Why do you fight for death?” She finally asked. “Why fight at all, if this is your cause? There is no honour in this.”

“What do I care of honour. There is no one to prove myself too. I spent my whole life avoiding violence, and look what I earned for it. My clan. Dead. My body, used stolen from by skaikru like I was some resource to be tapped. The earth was destroyed by humanity, and now those same people, from lifetimes ago, are causing it to end again. And what do we do, in the face of certain death? In the face of the end of the world? We fight. We fight to leave others out in the fire, because we value ourselves the most.”

“But shouldn’t at least some people get to live?”

“Why does the person who kills the most warriors deserve to be the one who lives? The person who causes the most death, who causes the most pain, who determines the death of thousands of others, get the honour of living?”

She settled in next to her on the bench, and Luna sharpened the knives in her hands.

“So why not fight for everyone? Why not fight to share the bunker?”

“Because why would I fight to save people, when people are the problem?”

“Maybe giving humanity another chance will help us want to be better?”

“Do you actually believe that, as we stand here and watch 13 people prepare to fight to the death for this?”

Echo looked around the room. She watched as trikru’s warrior stood sharpening his blade. She watched as Roan swung his sword around. She watched as Octavia stood close to her brother, listening to him try and help her win.