#(...actually. they only have the individuals. hmm. that might cause problems too) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

aikoiya · 7 months ago

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Hmm… Well, first off, in this situation, I’d definitely say that it makes sense for Toriel to be sick as, if she raised Frisk, then I just don’t see her letting Frisk leave without her except in this sort of situation, so good choice.

Also, I can see Frisk being much more prepared for the Underground as well.

Frisk is likely the Ruins’ little sweetheart, too. I definitely see Napstablook coming over often to lay down & feel like garbage with Frisk. And that the Spider adores him, often mending the little tears that he gets in his clothes, free of charge. Which just causes the sweetheart to insist on buying plenty of donuts. However, as a result, I see Muffet already being aware of Frisk. Including his description. Because of this, I see Muffet's encounter being completely different. No fighting, just doting & maybe making a joke of him being so cute that she could just “eat him up,” but it's just a bit of dark humor.

Then, when it's time for Frisk to go, she sort of whines, but puts him down & then proceeds to load his pack up with donuts & cider. (Because I imagine that Frisk has probably bought a bunch of stuff from the Ruins Spider over the years.)

I also see Frisk knowing Dalv & being friends with him. I wouldn't be surprised if Frisk reminded him of Clover & began to send letters to Martlet, Starlo, & Ceroba telling them about the little human.

As for Sans, there ain't no way he believes that Frisk is a monster even after Flowey's explanation. Absolutely not. And Pap might initially believe Frisk until Sans says otherwise.

Though, the big difference here is that Sans actually knows the kid & has likely spoken with Frisk a number of times over the years. So I see him being much more likely to actually look after the kid here. Partly because he knows & likes Frisk, partly because Toriel raised Frisk from infancy, so he might think that Frisk's Monster nurturing might offset his human nature?

Per your stipulation, both Pap & Sans can tell when someone is lying, so not only can they tell that Frisk fully believes that he's a Monster, but they also know that Flowey is lying about Frisk being a Monster.

Which, I believe that Pap would want to tell Frisk the truth, but at the same time, I think that Sans & Flowey would veto him for different reasons.

I also think that Undyne would be much more ready to believe the assertion despite having watched Anime. And the reason is partially because of how in Anime there can be a number of very human-looking characters that aren't actually human. Like, in Tenchi Muyo or Dragon Ball Z. There are numerous human-looking characters, but many are actually aliens that happened to evolve similarly to humans. So, it's entirely possible that she'd use that logic.

The problem is that this would sort of take away from the bravery & valor that Moki (Monster Kid) showcased in standing up for Frisk.

This issue between them would likely come about in the fact that Frisk wants to stop the war. Because the reality is that the Monsters aren't in the best of situations. Though, rather than attacking Frisk, I think she'd just start calling him a punk traitor. Because in this situation, she'd be in the frame of mind of seeing Frisk as a weirdly human-looking monster.

For Alphys, I think she'd not believe Flowey, but would realize that Frisk really & genuinely believes that he's a Monster. Thus, I think that she'd play along. Not sure whether or not Mettaton would, too, though. Like, this sort of au really has the potential to sidestep a lot of the conflict in the story if you're not careful.

Though, something important for the story, I think, is Toriel being open about the fact that Frisk isn’t biologically hers, as well as the fact that she’d known Frisk’s mom & that she’d been a very good individual. Telling Frisk whatever she could about his biological mom & dad even if it wasn’t much. Just also being careful to not let slip that either were human or that they were from the Surface. Possibly even about how his mom asked Toriel to care for Frisk before the very end.

As for Asgore, he, more than anyone, would know that Frisk is a human & he may even believe that Frisk was trying to trick him initially. As such, I see the fight taking place regardless. Just that Frisk would be trying to convince him that he wasn't. However, because of this, Asgore would basically be stonewalling him. And there are 2 ways that this could go: either Frisk stops trying to convince Asgore that he isn't a human or, failing that, Frisk is forced to repeat the fight over & over until he realizes that he can't go forward. In my mind, this would cause Frisk to question why he was so certain that Frisk was human when he wasn't.

Regardless, I think that New Home would be the start of Frisk eventually being forced to believe the truth, because of just how New Home is set up. With the Monsters that tell the story of the first Human that fell & the picture of the Dreemurr family in Asriel & Chara's room. Obviously, Frisk would probably try to deny it, but even if Frisk were to manage that at New Home, he'd be unable to keep it up.

Problem is I can’t quite remember the chronological order in which Frisk was introduced to this info in the game. So, that could alter how Frisk reacts, if only a little. But what I think would be harrowing regardless would be the room with the coffins. Now, whether or not Frisk realizes what they are is up to you, but even if not, I do think that he'd become tense… without understanding why. Possibly due to the ominous, grieving atmosphere in the room. A sense that, “there's something very sad about this room.” The kids room likely having a more melancholic feel to it.

Anyway, I think that after a number of reloads, Frisk would ask Flowey why Asgore wouldn't listen, which may cause Flowey to go silent & contemplative. Then, after a few more reloads, he eventually prompts Papyrus to start the True Lab storyline. And, I think this would end up being how Flowey admits the truth without actually telling him. And, as Frisk goes through the tapes, he'd recognize Flowey's voice, remember the story of the first fallen human, read about the flower that bloomed where Asriel's dust fell, & put 2 & 2 together.

At which point, I do think that Frisk would force the truth out of Flowey. And, he'd tell him… everything… About how he'd seen his mom. How she'd fallen into the Underground looking for a new life for herself & her son. How she'd met Toriel & they'd become friends. How she’d asked to be let go, saying that being trapped was no way to raise a child. But Toriel told her to prove that she could handle herself out there. But in the fight, Toriel had accidentally killed her. That Toriel told the truth when she said his mom asked her to care for & protect Frisk. That almost everything Toriel told Frisk was true, just not his species.

This would obviously cause Frisk's entire worldview to be upturned.

And, if you go this route, it'd likely be only here that Frisk would be able to get through to Asgore.

Afterwards, he informs Asgore of his mom being sick & needing his help. Obviously, he'd be concerned & would acquiesce, & he'd likely oblige even faster if Frisk told him it was Toriel. Don't know where to go from there, but I think that Frisk would suddenly have a much more melancholic aura about him as he looks upon the Souls & the coffins. Likely even pulling out the many sets of human items he'd gathered over his time there. Especially the toy gun & hat. It wouldn't take much to figure out that they probably belonged to Dalv's friend Clover.

But this is just my perspective. Sorry it took so long to reblog a response.

What if Frisk was raised by Toriel and eventually the child leaves the Ruins to find a way to save Toriel from a sickness?

*Baby Frisk and his single mother fell into the Ruins...

*The mom was poor and was trying to get away from the city to start a better life for her child in the country.

*Frisk's dad died of a terrible illness.

*Toriel meets and takes care of the small family, while Flowey watches from a distance.

*Frisk's mom never meets Flowey.

*Toriel explains to Frisk's mom that she can't leave the Ruins because the rest of the kingdom wants to harvest her human soul for freedom, revenge and war.

*Frisk's mom tries to convince to let her out of the Ruins, because being trapped in fear is no way to raise a child and the human mom even tries to convince Toriel to come with her.

*Toriel agrees on the condition that Frisk's mom proves that she's strong enough to survive.

*Frisk's mom was a strong fighter despite being a rookie, but Toriel ends up accidentally killing her with magic fireballs.

*Toriel was consumed with guilt and tearfully apologizes to the human soul that float in front of her.

*The soul tells Toriel that she'll forgive her if she promises to raise Frisk with love.

*Toriel agrees and the soul fades away.

*The first thing Toriel when she sees Baby Frisk again is apologize and hug the sleeping infant.

*One time, Baby Frisk got very sick and almost died, but Toriel's healing saved him.

*Flowey tries to attack Baby Frisk with pellets at first, but Toriel stops him.

*Later Flowey becomes Frisk's 'friend', mainly out of curiosity at what chaos Frisk can cause when he grows up.

*Flowey grows a soft spot for Frisk, especially since Frisk reminds him of Chara.

*As Frisk grows older, he believes that he's a monster like Toriel (not the same species of course) and Toriel didn't have the heart to correct Frisk.

*Toriel makes Frisk believe that he's an elf born with rounded ears.

*Toriel tells Frisk they're round, because Frisk got sick with a dangerous illness as a baby (which isn't a complete lie).

*Flowey and the other Ruins Monsters play along.

*Frisk has no idea what an actual human looks like.

*Toriel tells Frisk stories about monsters getting along peacefully with humanity on the surface before the first war.

Toriel also tells Frisk that the monsters beyond the Ruins are corrupted, cruel and violent... and Asgore as well as his kingdom wouldn't hesitate to strike innocent children like Frisk down (which isn't a lie).

*Frisk was trained in self-defense combat and fire magic.

*Frisk loves Toriel and doesn't care that she's not his biological mom.

*Toriel would later take Frisk to talk and make jokes with Sans.

*Sans grew a small soft spot for the 'Old Lady's Child'.

*One day, Toriel got sick, bedridden and was at the brink of fallen down (Frisk doesn't know what that is yet).

*To save his monster mom, the child Frisk (with Flowey's reluctant help) plans on going to Asgore's castle to convince the king to heal Toriel with his royal magic (and maybe stop the war against humans, because war is wrong).

*Frisk knows it's insane and risky, but he has to try because if he doesn't... Toriel will die.

*The Ruins Monster promise to take care of Toriel, while Frisk and Flowey are away.

*Frisk wears a mask (on Flowey's insistence), a coat, gloves, boots and grabs a baseball bat while heading out to the world.

*Flowey stays on Frisk's shoulders at all times.

*Frisk meets Papyrus and Sans who believe Frisk is a fellow monster, thanks to the disguise.

*Papyrus begs Frisk to test out his puzzles to see if they'll work on humans, Frisk tests the puzzles and becomes Papyrus' friend.

*Papyrus tells Frisk that he'll help take Frisk to Asgore, if Frisk helps Papyrus train with a battle, but during the battle a bone accidentally breaks Frisk's mask, revealing Frisk's human face.

*Frisk still has no idea they're a human though, but Flowey and Papyrus and Sans are all freaking out inside for different reasons.

*Flowey tries to quickly put the broken mask back on, but it doesn't work anymore.

*Sans still made a promise to Toriel and realizes that Toriel's child that he talked to behind the door was a human all this time.

*Papyrus is conflicted because he made a best friend, but they're a human, which he has to capture to get his dream job.

*But the worst part is that Papyrus and Sans can tell when people are lying to them, so they know that Frisk genuinely believes that they're a fellow monster.

*How do you explain to someone that their sick monster mom has been lying to them all this time?

#frisk #flowey #toriel

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nat-20s · 4 years ago

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#10?

prompt 10- recognizing the other's voice in a crowded room

so uhh u didn't specify this being a pairing, and it ended up jonmartin lol

this is like? an au where one of the domains of the lonely (and also maybe stranger) plays off the specific loneliness that comes with parties. u kno the one, where you have fun for about an hour and then realize that you're fundamentally isolated and you need a breather?

anyway

~*~

Upon opening his eyes, he is not where he last remembers being. He is not sure how long his disorientation will last, but considering he's standing up right, at the edge of a crowded ballroom, he suspects it may be the entire time that he's here.

He had fallen asleep on the couch, the TV blaring away on a program he didn't know any of the details of. It hadn't mattered what was playing, as long as it had some of the natural rise and fall of other people speaking. He had been severely mising that lately, those gentle rhythms of conversation, and trying to listen to an audiobook while staring at his bedroom's popcorn ceiling just wasn't cutting it. So, TV dreaming it was.

Oh, that could be what was going on. An elaborate dream, constructed from the sound of a scenario he hadn't paid any attention to. He didn't think he'd fallen asleep watching anything to spark this kind of dreamscape, but that didn't mean much. It'd be oddly lucid, for a dream. And oddly sharp. His dreams, much like his memories, were always somewhat clouded over, and never as colorful as reality. Even his grayest waking days, of which there were many, had colors more distinct than what appeared in his mind's eye.

Simple test: he could never read or write in dreams. The words always swirled and distorted, and he somehow lost all manual dexterity. He needed a book, or a pencil, or both. He began to wander the ballroom, and abruptly realized that this was a masquerade, everyone wearing elaborate costumes with animal shaped masks. Did he fit in? Did he belong? He hoped he wasn't in what he fell asleep in, the worn hoodie and sweatpants barely worth making a grocery run in. The outside world wasn't supposed to see him looking comfortable, but presentable. He liked to think that if he left the apartment appearing at least somewhat put together, maybe people would believe that extended to other areas of his life. That it would be easier to ignore the increasingly dark circles under his eyes, that his nice sweater had been getting gradually looser as the tool of everything literally wore him down.

Small mercy, he wasn't like that now. A glance down showed that he was, like the rest of the guests? Captors? dressed to the nines. He has a suspicion that his own elaborate outfit, dark blues with gold and pearl embroidery, was a part of it. It was not a mercy to blend in here, it was a design element. Standing out would result in being noticed, being noticed meant being seen as an individual, and they can't have that.

It is with that line of thinking that he suddenly becomes aware of the weight of the mask on his face, the restriction of his sight through eyeholes. Looking into a teapot that's been polished to a mirrored shine, he see that he bears the incredibly crafted face of a field mouse. It would almost be plain, if it didn't have matching embroidery to his coat.

Fitting, he thought. It made him look smaller than he was, and he had so often wished to go unnoticed. A fly would've also worked, but he imagines it would be rather hard to make that into a suitably beautiful mask. Either way, he was level with the rest of the crowd. Even believing it to be part of the trick, even knowing that the masquerade was meant to make you false, there was some level of comfort to it. He was not going to be seen here. Instead someone more handsome, more charming, more even with his peers was allowed to take his place, as false as they were. Best of all, that's what all of them would be doing here, the whole appeal of a masquerade in leaving behind the person you loathe most and can never be free from.

Seems lonesome, for a party. So structured around the theater of it all. You can connect with countless people, and you don't get to actually connect with any of them at all.

Oh.

Oh, now this made all made sense. Crave interaction, and get a warped version of it.

He could see the napkins, emblazoned with a name that he didn't recognize, presumably the host, and, in much smaller font, the company name. Every one of them was consistent.

Easy enough to receive the message. This wasn't a dream. This was a punishment.

Hmm. Well, no, punishment might be the wrong term. Punishment implied that it was a consequence, a direct cause and effect of doing something wrong, by someone's definitions of "wrong". No this was. Torture is too strong of a word, and again, has the problem of making this seem willful. Deliberate. And maybe it was, but more likely, whatever this was had just sort of happened. A cruelty that comes with being in the universe they all happen to occupy.

This wasn't a dream. This was a consequence.

He doesn't know how to get out of here. He can't see any doors, and exits. The only approximation of one is some giant frosted glass that seem like they might lead to a balcony. They're only on the other end of the ballroom, but that lengths feels impenetrable, like it spans for miles and miles of harsh terrain.

There's a few options available to him.

One: Try to fall asleep, and see if he can get back to where he started. Lowest effort option, but he's pretty sure he hasn't been this fully awake in months. Maybe years. Something about the environment makes it feel as though electricity sparks throughout his entire body. It's an interesting sensation, certainly, akin to anxiety taken to an extreme degree, yet it's not particularly conducive to sleeping.

Two: Make a break for it. He doesn't know if there's anywhere to make a break for, but he also isn't sure how high up this place is. Maybe the balcony is a viable option for escape. Or maybe he'll find a door that had previously been hidden from him. Hell, maybe he won't fully escape, but he'll find somewhere quieter at the very least. Somewhere that he doesn't leave him so thoroughly dazed. This is probably the best option, even account for the wall of people surrounding him. But.

Option Three: Join the Dance.

Inadvisable. Foolish, really. The best outcome is..what? Is there a best outcome? Worst outcome is he's dancing forever, until his feet wear down to stubs of bone, until he dies, until he cant remember anything but the dance. Never a connection with any dancer, all of them, eventually, a blur of activity and nothing more.

Yet, it's what he's going to do. He's not the most curious person he knows, that honor goes to a man that he's been in love with for years, but can't grasp any of the details of while he's here. That can't be good. What was his name?

Anyway. He's not the most curious, but he's hardly immune to a detrimental sense of interest. He wants to know what the dance is like. He wants to see the intricate costumes of the others stuck here, and see if there's anything behind the masks. He knows it will, inevitably, leave him lonelier. He knows, inevitably, that he does not care. At least this version of loneliness is more interesting than sitting in his flat, wondering whether having thin enough walls to hear the echo of his neighbors' voices would make things better or worse. So, when someone approaches, adorned in a shrew mask, hand outstretched to pull him into the fervor, he accepts.

The dancer is competent. Neither of them steps on the others foot, and he lets himself be led. Even better, the dancer is willing to talk. A man named Tom, his voice cheerful even as he confirms that he doesn't know how he came here either. Tom shrugs when he asks if this bothers him, saying if you're going to end up somewhere mysteriously, gliding across a ballroom with a handsome stranger is hardly the worst place to be.

It takes a second for him to register the fact that Tom's flirting. It makes him laugh, and it feels wrong in his throat. The sound is unfamiliar, almost belonging to someone else, but it's brief enough not to hurt. He'll grieve all the time he's lost later, for now, he says, "How would you know if I'm handsome with this mask? Or are you just making a flattering guess?"

Tom opens his mouth to answer, a grin on his features that suggest something playful and wry is about to come out, but then the song ends. They both know, somehow, that the brief rapport they've gotten to enjoy has come to an end. They swap partners, and as much has he would like a second dance, when Tom gets swept into the throng, he knows he won't be seeing him again.

The next dancer is at a higher skill level at him, which results in nerves encroaching on what limited ability he has. Perhaps the peacock mask should've been a tip off. He doesn't speak to them, more focused on trying to keep up. He doesn't regret that they'll only have one dance, but he is slightly remiss that his own costume doesn't have feathers after watching the way they move.

The dancer after that catches him for a slow dance. Her name is Shelia, and he's never seen such a dazzling smile. He tells her as such, and she tells him that she would tell him the same, but she hasn't actually seen his own, yet. He makes an attempt, and she tells him, "Oh honey, you're waiting for someone here, aren't you?"

When he states his confusion, that nobody comes to mind, or at least, that nobody is going to come, she shakes her head. Apparently, she can always tell when her dance partners have somewhere else to be, and she doesn't resent it, but it does mean she's not going to give him her number for after the night ends. He's amazed she believes this night will end, but it's a sentiment that seems far too rude to voice out loud.

He also knows that he doesn't have somewhere else to be. If he did, he would've never joined in.

The music continues, and so does he. He tries to get names, tries to get connections. He flirts with Mark, and Nadia, and Jamie. Those people are his favorite during the dances, but losing the also feels the most acute. Robert is his least favorite, even more so than the peacock, for how incredibly small the fox makes him feel. Nothing is even said, it's just the entirety of body language screams that Robert doesn't think he belongs here, that he's not worthy of the clothes he's wearing or the hall he's haunting. Ironically, he's right. He doesn't belong here. These clothes, these people, are not his. Only Robert is quite so skilled at making that seem like a bad thing.

About ten dances in, long past the point he should be winded, he realizes two things. One, there's no pain in his feet, no heaviness to his breathing, confirming once again that no aspect of this environment is natural. Two, is that he's actually had a path. Sometime in the spins and leads and follows, he had been making his way towards the center of the floor. He denies the next partner, likely the worst of a faux paus in this environment, but he needs a moment to stop. Taking in the scene, he has yet to find the source of the music, but he has found the host of this party.

There's nothing to physically show that he's the host. His costume isn't particularly ostentatious, at least not compared to the rest of them. He's not surrounded by a horde of people clamoring for his attention. He doesn't glow or sparkle or have a spotlight on him. The only reveal of his status is the fact that the second he looks at the man in the owl mask, fear floods through him.

Now he needs to run. He needs to leave, he needs to get out, he can't let the man in the owl mask see him, let alone approach him. Pushing his way through the crowd is a bad idea, will bring too much attention to himself. However, he's not in a state to think about that sort of thing, panic gripping his actions. As he shoves his way past one person, he swears ten more people tke their place, and he, oh so close to despair, is unable to tell if there's any actual distance being put between him and the owl masked man.

As he's about to start biting, clawing, screaming his way out any way he can, he hears something that makes him stop.

"Let him go, or I will make you let him go."

The statement is cold, filled with vitrol and determination. It should only make him more afraid. But as he turns around, he sees someone he never expected to be here, someone who has come here anyway. In an all black outfit, the man's face is covered with that of a cat's, but he has not a single ounce of doubt as to who it is. And he's facing off against the owl man, the absolute fool. He's facing off against the owl man, and Martin knows that it's on his own account. What the hell? He can't...he doesn't know what's going to happen to him, what exactly the owl man is going to do, but he can't let Jon get hurt. Begging his voice to pierce through the pandemonium of people and noise, he calls out, "JON!"

Jon finds him in an instant, eyes locking. They only have a second before the crowd pushes in, before the owl man reaches out, wing-like cape ready to wrap Jon up and snatch him away. Jon simply calls out, "Balcony!" before he's once again out of sight. Martin wants to go towards him, wants to follow the instinct to try and protect the one he loves, but going forward is impossible.

The tempo and volume of the music has swollen, and he's surrounded by hands reaching out, trying to pull him in. One of those hands, much to his surprise, belongs to Tom. He stares, uncomprehendingly, and Tom shoves his hand out even further in an act of urgency. He has to participate to make progress.

He holds on tight, all the basic skill of their first dance lost. It doesn't matter, as long as Martin participates, he is rewarded. When the next song begins to play, Tom strengthens his grip, and they manage to prevent the switch. In a manner of minutes, or perhaps hours, they make their way to the edge of the crowd. Martin can see those beautiful frosted doors only about 10 meters away, mostly unobstructed, and releases Tom from their dance. "Thank you. I seriously didn't think..just, thank you."

Tom gives him a nod, his expression much more solemn than it had been during their initial meeting. "After our first dance, I remembered my kids. A daughter and son. If they're out there, wherever out there is, I need to get back to them. If you can get yourself out, maybe there's hope for the rest of us, yeah? I think you might be a tipping point."

Martin had no idea if that was true. Sounded a bit too..center of the story for him. The hero, the chosen one, he was never going to fufill those roles. But. But he doesn't know what a denial would serve, and if he can go through those doors, who knows? "Yeah...yeah, maybe. I'll certainly try."

Tom clasps one of Martin's hands between both of his own, and with a quick shake, tells him, "That's all I ask."

In a blink, Tom has once again been swallowed by the fray, and Martin strides to his goal. He catches glimpses of the owl man out of the corner of his eye. Despite the sight making his heart race, the owl man never makes it to him, almost as if the dancers had forcibly blocked his path. Fascinating, isn't it, how a crowd can turn against someone in a matter of moments. Fascinating, isn't it, how a crowd can decide to help someone in the same span of time.

As Martin stands in front of the exit to the balcony, he has to take a breath. This could be a trick. A trap. A cruelty. If it is, he'll deal with it. If not, well.

Well.

The doors are heavy, but he's still able to push them aside. The sight outside is incredible. The stars are dazzling, brilliant, and numerous, resembling themilky way that Martin has only ever seen in pictures.

It's wrong. It's obviously wrong. Martin's never been anywhere remote enough to escape the effects of light pollution, and he's pretty sure a brightly lit manor isn't the exception to that rule. Yet, that's not what's bothering him about it. He can't quite articulate why, but the sky in general should be..different. Worse, maybe. Greener?

Jon is staring up into the night sky with a fascination that confirms Martin's suspicion. After he takes a step towards him, Jon turns towards him, and a smile appears that knocks the breath right out of Martin. When has Jon ever smiled at him like that? It doesn't make sense, feels like another trick of the party, but Martin decides he doesn't care, he'll enjoy it while it lasts. "I have to say, this is definitely one of the nicer looking domains we've wandered through. Always a plus when we end up somewhere without any bloodstains."

That's not... "Huh?"

With an aftertaste of a laugh and a shrug of his shoulders, Jon tells him, "Just that, for as much as I despise the loneliness, it does at least have cleanliness going for it."

He knows of the fears, at least, but the way that Jon is talking about them doesn't make sense. He's going to ask about it, try to get some clarification, but then Jon takes off his mask. There's more grey at the temples than he remembers, more eyes than the average person, and he's stunningly beautiful. Martin's always found Jon rather good looking, even when he didn't particularly like Jon himself (god, what a fool he was. Maybe what a fool they both were). Combined with the softness in the line of his mouth, the adoration in his eyes, it leaves Martin breathless, speechless, thoughtless. Feet moving of their own accord, he drifts closer to Jon. Once he's standing in front of him, Jon reaches up, then pauses, as if asking for permission. Half in a daze, Martin nods, then leans down. Ever so gently, Jon lifts Martin's mask off. The pinpoints of contact between his face and Jon's fingers almost burn, and he realizes that despite the electrified sensation under his skin, he's been cold this entire time. Mask fully off, Jon beams at him, and lets out a quiet, "There you are."

It's too much. It's the tipping point for him to go from enamoured back to properly baffled. "Jon, I don't..what are you doing here?"

Jon smile drops, and Martin almost wants to take it back. Almost, because he needs answers, because if this is a dream, if this is a nightmare, it's more wicked than he could've ever expected. Being stuck forever in a dance with only partners whose greatest talents were being alone in a crowd is one thing, but having a..a false Jon, one that regarded him with...that acted like...that felt anything close to the same as Martin was so..exacting. When it got taken away, when the illusion shattered, it would hurt. It's already hurting, anticipation of the wound causing a phantom pain. Jon's brows are furrowed, and at least that is familiar, expected. "I..thought you would want to leave. I came to get you out."

"I do," did he?, "but that still..that's not the why? Why would you come for me?"

"Because I love you? I know I'm not much for the swashbuckling hero role, bit I figured that would make me rather uniquely qualified."

Martin sucks in a breath through his nose and his eyes go wide. Ability to read be damned, this is a dream, and mean one at that. He's going to wake up, and he's going to remember, and he's going to be as alone as he's always been. "Since when? You're not..I think we've just started being friends, and it's not even, fuck, we're not even that close! And even if..if things were in development, which they aren't, you're supposed to be in America right now. Or, no, wait you're in a coma, or maybe..no, that's not-"

Martin's spiralling is abruptly cut off by Jon taking his hands. Looking at his face, he finds Jon staring back, his eyes, his two eyes, are searching him, and Martin realizes he might not be the only one that's lost right now. "Martin...what's the last thing you remember?"

A mostly empty flat, the delightful mix of insomnia and exhaustion, and the TV with the volume turned down low enough to not bother anyone but himself. The context around that scene is a bit fuzzier. "I..was at my place. It was..I dunno, it was boring."

"Anything else. Do you remember Jane Prentiss?"

"Of course I remember Jane Prentiss. Not likely to ever forget the worst two weeks of my life."

"What about Scotland?"

Scotland? "I'm mean, I've never been, but I, uh, am aware of the concept."

Except that wasn't quite true, was it? He had been to Scotland, and Jon had been there, but when? Why? What had they..

Jon's frown deepens. "Martin, do you trust me?"

He did. Despite everything, or maybe because of an everything he couldn't quite access, he really, really did. His response of "Yes" is more of a breath than a word, but Jon understands nonetheless. Jon reaches up, places his hands on the sides of Martin's face, and tells him, "Close your eyes."

Martin does as told, and Jon brings their foreheads together, an approximation of a kiss. There's a buzzing at the base of his skull, not painful, but not particularly pleasant, either. As Jon leans back and he opens his eyes, the sky is wrong, but it is the wrong that he has become increasingly accustomed to.

He remembers.

Jon hasn't fully released him yet, asking still ever so gently, "Back with me?"

Martin nods, and Jon drops his hands. Immediately, Martin grabs one of them with his own, because while it may be the apocalypse, at least he can do that as freely as he likes. "Yeah, yeah, I'm good, " he looks down, and sighs, "Eugh. Do miss the clean clothes though."

Jon gives a hint of a smile, and as he begins to move forward. "Now you understand my point about the lonely having a tidiness to it."

"If it's all the same to you, I think I'll take grime over memory loss any day."

"Next domain is a corruption one, so we'll see how much that holds true."

"Of course it is."

They walk in silence for a few moments until Martin gives Jon's hand a quick squeeze. "Hey Jon?"

"Hmm?"

"Thank you for getting me out."

Jon replies, "Of course," as an easy statement of fact, and Martin believes it. He has to add, "And I love you too."

The responding smile he gets from Jon makes him think he might be one of the few people in existence to feel lucky after the end of the world.

#replies #fluff prompts #tma #jonmartin #martin blackwood #jon sims #anon

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latte-fairytaekwoon · 4 years ago

Text

𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐧 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞 (𝐃𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞!𝐉𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐠) 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝

𝙿𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐: 𝙳𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚎! 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 𝚈𝚎𝚘𝚜𝚊𝚗𝚐× 𝙳𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚎! 𝙲𝚑𝚘𝚒 𝙹𝚘𝚗𝚐𝚑𝚘 (𝙰𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚣)× 𝚂𝚙𝚢! 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛 (𝙵𝚎𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚎)

𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: 𝙰𝚗𝚐𝚜𝚝, 𝚂𝚖𝚞𝚝, 𝙵𝚕𝚞𝚏𝚏, 𝙳𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝙰𝚞

𝚂𝚞𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚢: 𝙻𝚒𝚎𝚞𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝙲𝚑𝚘𝚒 𝙹𝚘𝚗𝚐𝚑𝚘 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙲𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 𝚈𝚎𝚘𝚜𝚊𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚎𝚍 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚊𝚗 𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚘𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚜𝚙𝚢 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚏𝚞𝚜𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚊𝚢 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐....𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎'𝚜 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚊 𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎 𝚋𝚒𝚛𝚍 𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐.

𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝: 𝟻.𝟻𝙺

𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜: 𝙾𝚛𝚊𝚕 (𝚏𝚎𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐), 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚐𝚑 𝚛𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚝*𝚝𝚝𝚢 𝚏𝚞𝚌𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚞𝚗𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚍𝚘𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 (𝚊𝚕𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗), 𝚌𝚞𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚢.

𝚃𝚊𝚐𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝: @little-precious-baby @multidreams-and-desires

↬↬↬↬↬↬↬↬↬↬↬↬↬↬↬↬↬↬↬↬

The lieutenant ran his fingers across his hair, letting out an exasperated sigh as he paced back and forth around the desk. His eyes would sometimes look back at the young woman sitting in the chair across the desk, arms crossed, leg draped over the other and a stoic facial expression that had been plastered on since the moment they caught her.

It wasn't an easy task. She nearly slipped out of their hands like most of her colleagues did, but not this time. This time they were finally able to catch one of their enemies and they were going to make use of it through interrogation.

The problem?

There was nothing that would make her budge. The other sergeants and officers already put her through the grueling process of locking her up in solitary confinement, used menacing intimidation and even threatened to kill her on the spot, which did result in finally getting a reaction out of her, an amused smirk on her lips.

"You're not going to kill me. You need me, no matter what way you look at it. If you finish me off, you won't be any closer to finding out what we're planning. But please, feel free to pull the trigger if you wish."

She was smart, too smart, too loyal and to stubborn to say anything other than mock teasing and sarcastic comments to all members of the police force. The chief of police was so tired and irked by her uncooperative attitude and the ineptitude of his subordinates that he delegated the task of breaking her to the two men whom he knew would definitely get the job done:

Captain Kang and Lieutenant Choi.

They both knew they were up against a hard headed individual, but even she was testing their patience. The lieutenant was already tired and ready to punch that pretty face of hers, while the captain was still sitting on the couch next to her, silently observing her every move and facial expression, or lack of one, to see anything that might give something away. But even he admitted to himself that he was quite impressed by her devotion to her gang.

He was broken out of his trance when he heard the lieutenant punch the wood desk in front of him.

"That's it! I'm sick and tired of you little vixen being so stubborn! I'll get the answers out of you one way or another!"

When he began marching over to her, the captain immediately got up and held him back.

"Jongho! Stop. We're not supposed to lay any hands on a suspect." Yeosang calmly reminded him.

"I don't give a fuck right now Yeosang! Hongjoong told us to get the job done by any means necessary and I'm honestly not above beating the crap out of a cold blooded killer like her."

The killer in question let out a scoff and rolled her eyes.

"You call us cold blooded killers, but how many times have your subordinates shot people right on the spot before even confirming it was the right target?"

Both of the men looked over at her, their faces looking somewhat ashamed.

"Exactly what I thought." She concluded her point.

Jongho was going to say something, but Yeosang hushed him.

"Let me handle this for a moment."

Jongho shook his head and went to go slump down on the couch, exhausted from dealing with the suspect after 4 long hours. Yeosang calmly went to stand right in front of her. As opposed to sitting on the chair behind the desk, he casually hopped on top of it and let his legs swing on the air.

"Y/N, is it?" He tilted his head.

"So the folder says right?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Pretty name nonetheless."

His smile caught her off guard. He, like her, had a usually cool and collected expression, so to see him suddenly show emotion kinda startled her. Yeosang folded his hands across his lap.

"Now then my dear Y/N, you've been here for nearly 2 weeks now. I'm sure you, like most of my men here, are exhausted and utterly tired from all these....negotiations."

She held back from saying anything. She wouldn't necessarily call it negotiations if it was all very ine sided and they just seemed to throw threats at her left and right.

"So...tell me, what is it going to take for you to talk? Hmm?"

Yeosang batted his eyelashes at her, looking at her with such an intense gaze that burned a hole in her skin. She felt herself flush. He was remarkably good looking, and that formal attire wasn't helping. Noticing that he was indeed affecting her, Yeosang smirked and got off the desk.

"Tell me....is there something you want in exchange?"

His hands were placed behind his back as he rounded up behind her, eyes bearing down on her, catching sight of the cleavage peeking out from the beige trench coat she was wearing. Unconsciously, he licked his lips as a dangerous yet thrilling idea popped into his head. Placing his hands on her shoulders and rubbing them gently, Yeosang bent his head down to whisper in her ear.

"Come on doll, everyone cracks at one point or another.......so what's it going to be for you to put that pretty mouth of yours to work?"

She involuntarily shivered at his deep voice, which he purposefully lowered to produce a bigger effect on her. Dragging his lips down the side of her neck, his fingers began undoing the belt across her coat. The suspect looked down and panicked as she remembered that she wasn't wearing any actual clothes under it, only a black lingerie set consisting of a bra, panties and fishnet thigh thighs with a garter belt, a naughty little secret that Yeosang soon found out about it.

"Oh god, you kinky little girl." He chuckled as he placed hot, open mouth kisses on her shoulder.

"Ummm....Yeosang? We're not supposed to-...."

Jongho's tense voice reminded them both that they weren't alone.

"I know, not supposed to lay a finger on a suspects. But as you said, Hongjoong gave us permission to get her talking by any means necessary..."

Yeosang looked back at his partner as he began to turn Y/N's chair so he could get a glimpse of her.

"Now look at this pretty little doll and tell me you don't want to put your hands on her."

Jongho's eyes widened when he saw her undergarments on display, a tent immediately growing on his pants that made him feel embarrassed.

"Bloody hell..." Jongho bit his lips.

Agreeing with him, Yeosang turned his attention back to the young woman in the chair.

"Now babydoll, I'm going to say this once again: are you going to start talking or should my partner and I break you?"

The spy let out a dry laugh.

"You'll never break me."

Both Yeosang and Jongho glanced at each other, smirking at her answer.

"Is that a challenge? Fine. Have it your way."

Not knowing how he did, Y/N soon found herself on top of the desk in the blink of an eye, coat dropped to the floor, legs spread with Yeosang in between them. His delicate fingers held her chin up as he kissed her roughly. He slapped the bare skin of her thigh when she tried to push him away, eliciting a sharp whine from her. Moving his fingers to harshly squeeze her cheeks, Yeosang growled as he bit down on her lip.

"Open your mouth." He commanded her.

When she yet again refused, he slapped her once again on the same spot he had hit previously, this time with more force. Taking advantage of her parted lips, he slipped his tongue inside her mouth, one hand going to the back of her head and pulling her hair back so he could explore her mouth even deeper.

Meanwhile Jongho was squirming in his seat, hand restlessly palming in between his legs.

"Hyung....can't I at least see?" He complained as the older male's body prevented him from seeing the scantily clad woman.

"You'll get your turn eventually Jongho. I'm simply warming up our suspect first."

Yeosang dragged his mouth down her neck, suckling at her soft skin til he was sure to leave bruises plastered for the days to come. Y/N gasped when he suddenly slipped a hand inside her panties, hand palming at her folds, feeling all the arousal she had already produced.

"You're being very cooperative so far doll." Yeosang pecked her lips and chuckled darkly.

"Even if I did have to get a little rough."

Moving aside so Jongho could get a clear view, Yeosang began to strip off the remaining clothing off her til she sat there naked in front of the two men who were still in their uniforms. Feeling shy at being exposed in front of the two authority figures, she quickly clenched her thighs shut and wrapped her arms around her chest. Frowning at her actions, Yeosang pulled her arms away.

"Hey, baby, no. We're having none of that. Don't make me get the handcuffs."

She let out a shameless moan, her tight hole clenching around nothing as she pictured them bending her over the desk and binding her arms behind her.

"Hyung, I think she'd like that." Jongho didn't miss the way she reacted, a snort coming out of his nose.

"As much as I'd like that, I wanna see her be a good girl for us, cause she can be. Right doll? You can be a good girl for us right?"

Y/N wanted to do the exact opposite, disobey them and be the bad girl she knew she was. She looked over at Yeosang with a defiant look that seemed to ask 'try me', which he noticed. When she was about to speak, he quickly shushed her when he cupped her soaked heat, thumb circling her clit, causing her to let out a choked gasp.

"There now, you see you can be a good girl."

With his thumb not leaving her clit, 2 fingers began probing at her entrance, testing the waters before pushing them inside her. Y/N threw her head back and hummed erotically at the way Yeosang worked his fingers inside her, curling the tips to brush against her sweet spot.

"God Jongho she's so wet and tight."

Jongho let out a moan, the hand that was wrapped around the base of his thick and girthy cock pumping faster, thumb playing with his slit.

"Fuck. I can't wait to be inside her, I bet she'll hug our cocks very nicely." He groaned.

Yeosang sped up his movements, fingers circling in and out of her.

"I can't wait to taste her. Shit."

Y/N squeaked loudly when Yeosang dropped to his knees and attached his lips to her clit, slurping and sucking at it, tongue toying around with it as he pleased. He alternated between giving it kitten licks before covering it entirely with his mouth, tongue lapping at her bud as if it was his last meal. It is too much for her, having his long fingers pumping in and out of her at an incredible speed while his mouth was focused on playing around with her clit.

"Hyung I think she's going to cum." Jongho pointed out, fascinated by the scene taking place in front of him.

Humming into her mound, Yeosang smirked before stuffing a third finger in, effectively sending her over the edge as she began cumming on his face and fingers. He let out an accomplished sigh as he pulled his fingers out of her and spread her folds apart to place his mouth on her dripping hole, collecting every last bit of her juices.

Although she was worn out, she had no time to rest as Yeosang picked her up and began carrying her over to the couch, placing her on Jongho's lap.

"She's all yours for now Lieutenant. I suggest you behave darling, he's known for getting a little rough." Yeosang winked at her.

Y/N looked down at the dark haired male, his deep brown eyes staring at her with intense lust and want. Her eyes took in his arms, the sleeves of his white dress shirt were rolled up past his elbows, but even underneath the fabric, she could see his muscles poking out, threatening to tear through the shirt. He was big, and it made her wonder how it would feel to have those strong arms hoist her up into the wall and fuck the living daylights out of her. Before she could even finish that fantasy, her gaze traveled further down and noticed how ridiculously thick his thighs were....

And she was straddling them right at that moment.

Noticing where she was looking at, Jongho let out an amused laugh.

"You like them baby?"

She nodded immediately, hand reaching down to grip one of them. His muscles were no joke and when he flexed his thigh, she felt herself get heated once more. Understanding what the situation was, Jongho leaned in and ran his thumb across her bottom lip.

"Wanna ride my thigh babygirl?"

Seeing her eyes sparkle at his suggestion, Jongho couldn't help but mutter to himself how cute she was. Setting her down next to him, he quickly pulled his pants down, leaving himself only in his boxer briefs. Y/N was practically drooling at the sight of his thighs. They were even better than she imagined. Jongho patted them.

"Take your pick love."

Y/N scrambled to sit up and hoist one leg over the thigh nearest to her. Jongho's large hands gripped her hips, eyes looking up at her.

"Go ahead. Fuck yourself on my thigh babygirl."

Jongho watched in amazement as she began grinding her hips down onto him, the slick of her previous orgasm coating his skin. He couldn't keep his hands to himself as they went from her hips down to cup her ass, squeezing her cheeks apart and then harshly pinching them. One hand even came up then came back down to slap her thigh harshly, making Y/N yelp.

"I said fuck yourself on my thigh. Can't even do that? Is that too much for a dumb slut like you?" He mocked her.

Her hands held onto his shoulders as she began to rut herself faster on his thigh, desperate to chase the high was fast approaching her once more. Jongho's hand slapped her ass once more.

"That's it. Just like that. Fuck yourself on my thigh like the horny little bitch you are."

He slapped her 3 more times before he opened his mouth and took one of her breasts inside it. His tongue swirled around her nipple before sucking on it. Feeling a little more sadistic, he actually placed much of her breasts in his mouth before sinking his teeth down, causing her to let out more than a couple shrieks at his rough treatment.

"Oh shut up you know you like it you whore." He said as he slapped her chest with full force, her breasts bouncing from the hit.

She never thought she'd ever get turned on by such disrespect but here she was, fucking herself on a detective's thigh as his hands were either slapping her ass or tits and his mouth left bites across her chest, slurping away at her succulent nipples.

"You gonna cum you little bitch? Cum again like the slut you are? I bet you are."

Jongho flexed his thigh as he felt her speed up her movements. His hands grabbed both of her tits and pressed them together. Dipping his head low, he sucked both of them into his mouth, unashamedly letting out loud suckling sounds as he worked her towards her second high. With her head thrown back, Y/N quivered on top of Jongho. With a loud popping sound, he released his hold on her boobs to grip her thighs and keep her from falling onto the floor. He kept pushing his thigh up into her, fucking her through her high, tears spilling out from how sensitive she was.

"You wanted to cum and making sure you cum as much as you can. Make a mess on my thigh."

Jongho watched as a thin trail of slick rolled off his thigh and onto the carpet under his feet. His hands still bounced the girl on top of him until her breathing calmed down.

"That's a good little bitch." He giggled softly, staring proudly at his work in front of him.

Turning back towards the desk, Jongho looked at Yeosang who by this time had already stripped himself completely of his attire.

"What do we do with her now?" Jongho waited for instructions.

With a mischievous grin, Yeosang beckoned both of them over with his finger.

"Bring her over here. It's our turn to have a little fun."

Getting the hint, Jongho effortlessly picked her up as if she weighed nothing. He delicately carried her over to the desk, peppering butterfly kisses on her face, getting her guard down for the moment. When she was relaxed, he immediately slammed her down onto the desk, her body jolting up from how hard she fell back. Yeosang looked back at him with furrowed eyebrows.

"Jongho, she's still a material witness. Try not to break our only piece of evidence please."

Jongho scoffed.

"We're literally about to make a mess all over her body and then fuck her dumb, I doubt there's no way we can't not break her. Besides....."

He looked down at her flustered figure, hand caressing her cheek.

"The kitten here likes it rough. Why do you think her claws haven't retracted yet?"

Giving her cheek a little pat, Jongho began untying his tie, loosening it up before throwing it across the room, his shirt soon following in the similar fashion. Y/N's eyes shot wide when she saw his buff, toned body, his arms were huge and could probably crush her without breaking so much as a sweat. Her gaze was ripped away when she felt Yeosang crawl up her body, his thighs straddling her chest as his long member slapped in between the valley of her breasts.

"Let me give you a run down of how this is going to work doll. I'm going to fuck these pretty tits of yours while you make sure to suck Jongho off real good. Got it?"

Y/N obediently nodded, more than willing to let the two men use her like a mere fuck toy. Her hand gripped Yeosang's cock, spreading a bit of precum around before lightly stroking him, working him up before he fucked her tits.

"Spit on it."

Following his orders, she spat on his cock, using it as lubricant to spread all over him. Her thumb played with the head, circling around it and toying around with the slit. They were so immersed in their little world, the man next to them fuming at being forgotten. He caught her attention once again when he hit her face with his thick cock. Y/N's mouth dropped open immediately when she saw it. It was so big, bigger than anything she'd seen let alone put inside any of her holes. He teased her by sliding the tip across her face, her tongue darting out to have a little taste but he pulled back, making her whine.

"Tsk. I knew she was a hungry little cockslut." Jongho said in mock pity.

"Don't tell me you're actually going to turn down her offer of sucking you off." Yeosang knew better.

"Fuck no. But she's not just going to suck me off. I'm going to fuck that little face of hers until her lips are red and swollen. Gonna make a mess all over that pretty face of hers." He grinned evilly.

Removing her hand from his cock, Yeosang instead guided her to cup her breasts, squeezing them together before he slipped his cock in between them. Y/N kept her eyes glued on the sinful image, enjoying seeing his head poke out from her tits. As if it couldn't get better, Jongho placed his hand on her chin, guiding her face to look up and take his cock inside her mouth, barely fitting half of it inside.

"It's so warm." Jongho held back from immediately fucking her mouth.

"Makes you wonder how her pussy feels doesn't it?" Yeosang chuckled.

Looking back down at her stuffed face and chest, the men lightly cooed at her, moving some hair away from her face.

"If you want us to stop or it gets too much, just tap on Jongho's thigh 3 times ok?"

She held up a thumbs up at their words. Once she gave them the green light, they didn't hesitate to start moving, one sliding his cock back and forth between her boobs while the other pulled in and out of her mouth. Y/N worked hard to concentrate on sucking Jongho off while keeping her breasts pressed around Yeosang's cock. She felt so dirty committing all these sinful acts with these men of power, what would her gang say if they found out she got involved so intimately with the enemy? She didn't care. She was too stuffed with 2 large cocks to give 2 damns at the moment.

"Fuck- just like that baby- Oh god yes! You're doing such a good job." Jongho hissed as he pushed deeper into her mouth, grunting when he heard her gag around his length.

Unlike his more vocal partner, Yeosang was more on the quiet side, mostly letting out blissful sighs and heavy breathing, although occasionally he let out a loud groan when he rubbed against her squishy skin in a certain way. His hands moved to keep her breasts pressed against his dick, letting her take a break and steady herself on the desk underneath her for what was going to come.

Jongho was the first one to get rough. His hands held her face in place as he began furiously fucking her mouth. Y/N hollowed out her cheeks as much as she could, saliva pouring down her cheek and chin from how hard Jongho was going. She began releasing a series of whimpers which were occasionally choked out when he forced her to deep throat his entire length, her nose touching and inhaling his large balls.

Yeosang soon followed suit, his thrusts becoming more sloppy, voice now becoming louder as he felt himself cumming any minute now.

"Fuck! Oh my-"

Yeosang dug his nails into her skin from how tightly he was gripping her tits together, he began gasping as he tried to fuck himself over the edge. Jongho noticed and couldn't stop the shit eating grin on his face from appearing.

"If only you could see Hyung's face right now kitten. He looks so pathetic, whining like a little brat trying to cum all over your tits."

"Sh-shut up!" Yeosang stuttered, eyes clenched as he felt himself on the brink of his high.

"You ready to have your tits all covered in his cum? Hmm? I bet you are, Hyung is just dying to paint all over them."

No longer able to hold back, Yeosang released his hold on her breasts, one hand coming up to finish jerking himself off as his cum spurted all over her chest, some of it hitting her chin. Y/N moaned erotically when she felt his hot and sticky liquid coat her boobs. Pulling Jongho's length out of her mouth, she began to pump him to get him to spill himself as well.

"Cum on my face Lieutenant, please. Make a mess on my pretty little face."

Unable to resist her begging nor her mouth opening wide, tongue sticking out to catch his semen once it did come out, Jongho cursed loudly. His hips stuttered and Y/N closed her eyes when his cum began to shoot at her face. Her hand didn't cease to pump him until she made sure she had milked him out of all his cum. Swirling her tongue around her lips to collect more of his cum in her mouth, her hands went to her breasts, groping them and spreading more Yeosang's cum across her body. The men were left speechless at her actions.

"Holy shit." Yeosang stared in shock while Jongho snickered.

"Told you she was a dirty little slut."

Y/N couldn't help but giggle at his words.

"Guilty as charged."

Struggling to sit up, Yeosang kindly helped her out, his arms wrapping around her waist as he stared at her with loving eyes.

"You know, even with all that cum on your face, you're still very beautiful." He complimented her, giving her nose a tiny peck.

"Don't fall for her yet romeo, we still need to get her to talk and frankly...I'm not done with her yet."

Yeosang looked back at Jongho.

"Ok, so you wanna go first in pounding her sweet pussy?"

Having another idea, Jongho had a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

"Actually.....I was thinking about stuffing my cock inside her ass."

Y/N whipped her head back at the strong male, Yeosang also looking at him with an incredulous look, but Jongho simply shrugged.

"What? You got a thing for tits and I have a thing for ass. Who are you judging? Now if you're not going to do anything else, hand her over to me and I'll handle her."

Yeosang thought about it for a few seconds. Still holding Y/N, he picked her up and moved her to the couch, whispering something in her ear. She blushed at his suggestion, making Yeosang giggle.

"If you don't want to, that's ok." He assured her, lips kissing across her temples.

Y/N looked at Jongho, who was waiting impatiently for an answer. Cupping Yeosang's face, she kissed him softly before pulling back and nodding. Feeling content with her answer, Yeosang pointed to the spot next to them on the couch.

"Sit."

Although he was taken aback by the sudden order, Jongho nonetheless went over and sat next to the rather lovey dovey couple. Yeosang carefully lifted Y/N up and placed her on Jongho's lap.

"Be extremely gentle when entering her behind ok? It doesn't work the same as the other hole."

Jongho furrowed his eyebrows.

"Are you seriously about to give me a sex ed class right now? I know what I'm doing man."

Wetting one of his fingers, Jongho circled around Y/N's rim, gently testing at first. Slipping his finger in, he payed attention to her body movements and breathing, stopping whenever she squirmed too much or when she inhaled too sharply. Once his finger was in, he stilled in there for a few seconds before proceeding to stretch her hole out. It was a foreign sensation to her, and although it ached for a fat minute, Y/N soon found herself loving the feeling. And soon Jongho's finger wasn't enough and she craved more. Her hand reached back to grip his arm.

"Please.....more.." She pleaded with him.

Slipping his finger out, Jongho quickly positioned his thick cock at her ass, slowly sinking her down onto it. Y/N lost her voice, the noises that were supposed to come out of her mouth becoming mute as she felt overwhelmed by Jongho's cock ripping through her virgin ass.

"Easy there. Give her time to adjust." Yeosang reminded him, his hands going to her hair to caress her scalp in a tender way.

Y/N took deep and steady breaths, letting her body become adjusted to the intrusion of Jongho's cock. She lifted herself up and sank back down, experimenting for a moment to check if she was ok. Twisting her neck, she caught sight of Jongho's eyes which were silently asking her if it was all right to proceed. She nodded and with that, his hands lifted her up and sunk her back down onto his length.

"Jesus. She's so tight." He rasped out, wanting to bounce her as he liked but held back until he felt she was ready.

Y/N soon got adjusted to having him hit her from the back, but she felt like something was missing. Her hand reached down to play with her clit, but even that didn't prove to be as effective. Turning to Yeosang, she looked up at him with glossy eyes.

"Yeosang can you-?"

He looked towards where she pointed at. Getting the hint, he guided her to lean back against Jongho so it'd be easier for him to push inside of her. Locking eyes with her, he slammed his length fully in her with one swift roll of his hips, making both of them moan at that.

"H-hyung! Even I felt that!" Jongho blurted out, his hips snapping up and making Y/N bounce on his cock.

"Good. I want you both to feel as I fuck and claim this little pussy."

Draping her arms around his shoulders, Yeosang began a rather fast pace as his cock stroked deep inside of her. The room was filled with nothing but the lewd sounds of their skin slapping against one another, squealching noises from their previous spurt of liquids and the harsh breaths and pants coming out of their mouths. Jongho had his head thrown back against the wall, hands digging into the sides of Y/N's waist, swears coming out of his mouth so many times it'd put sailors to shame. Yeosang either kept his eyes glued towards where he and Y/N were connected or back up at her face, watching her face contort with pleasure as she was being fucked past her limit. Kissing her once again, he muffled both hers and his grunts, hand reaching down to rub at her clit. Y/N whimpered uncontrollably as she felt her third orgasm for the night wash over her, body shaking and quivering wildly. If she wasn't being held up by both men, she would have surely collapsed on the floor. Her walls tightened around Yeosang's length, inching him closer to his second orgasm.

"Is it ok if I cum inside you doll? Will you let me do that? Please?"

Through tears in her eyes, she quickly nodded nearly combusting for another time when Yeosang coated her inner walls with his cum, a chant of her name coming out of his mouth as he continued to thrust inside her until he came down from his high. Jongho was not far behind. Feeling her thrash on top of him and seeing Yeosang cum served to push him over the edge as well. He slammed up against Y/N as he fucked his cum up her ass, some of it leaking out and spilling onto his thighs.

"Oh god oh God Oh god!" He cried out, hips stilling when he finally stopped cumming, his body desperately gasping for air.

They all stayed quiet for a moment. Yeosang was the first to recover. Pulling out of Y/N, he then lifted her off Jongho. She grimaced at the dull sting she felt after having both of her holes used and at ached at the empty feeling afterwards. Yeosang carefully laid her on the couch while Jongho went to go get some wet tissues and hand towels they kept in the room to clean themselves and her up. After making sure she was wiped down thoroughly, Yeosang grabbed one of his coats that were hanging in the room and covered her in it. His hand lightly patted her head, fingers delicately running through her hair, a fond smile was plastered on his face. Knowing that look too well, Jongho shook his head.

"Hyung, don't get any ideas. She's still a suspect and we still have a job to do."

Getting brought back to reality, Yeosang let out a defeated sigh.

"I doubt she'll still want to talk though."

Opening her eyes, Y/N finally admitted something.

"It's not that I don't want to, it's that I'm scared."

Both men looked at her with concern.

"If I open my mouth, I know they'll come hunt me down and do god knows what for opening my mouth." She explained.

Finally understanding what she meant, both men sat down beside her.

"Y/N, you don't have to be afraid. I give you my word, not only as captain of the police force, but as me, Kang Yeosang, I promise that I won't let anything happen to you should you choose to cooperate with us. I won't let anyone hurt you."

Lifting her hand up, he placed a tender kiss on the top of it.

"I'll make sure to keep surveillance on and around you at all times and you can stay with one of us until we bring the criminals down." Jongho added as well.

Looking into their eyes, she felt comforted and safe enough to trust them. Sitting up, she clutched Yeosang's hand tightly and gave them both a dry laugh.

"Guess you guys really did break me huh?"

Both men laughed along with her.

"What can we say? We're just too good at our job."

They both sent each other a mischievous wink and smirk, before returning their gaze back to the female on the couch, ready to start listening to her story.

317 notes · View notes

razorblade180 · 4 years ago

Text

Company

Zhongli:Aether, I require advice. Relationship advice.

Aether:!? Why come to me?

Zhongli:Should I have chosen to go to Childe?

Aether:No no, you did the safe thing. Honestly I can’t think of anyone in Liyue to give the most sound advice on these things. Except maybe Ningguang.

Zhongli:.....

Aether:*eyes widened* Oh my goodness it’s about Ningguang!?

Zhongli:Very observant of you. We are to meet up later for dinner. Though I’ve talked casually with her and countless others before, I fear I may somehow...squander this opportunity to connect with someone; it has been awhile.

Aether:You don’t have to pull at my heart strings like this. Now I feel nervous. But uhhh, you sure about Ningguang? Like have you thought that through?

Zhongli:I don’t know what you mean. Ningguang is a fine, respectable woman that’s dedicated to her craft. The Jade Chamber was a testament to that.

Aether:Yeah, it was. It’s as great as she is smart. That means I don’t think you’d be able to keep up being a regular funeral parlor employee. You’re going to slip up, Rex Lapis.

Zhongli:Hmmm I have thought about this. Part of being a human should include sincerity. If I am to connect with her, then it is only right that I be honest with her. However, it is unwise to open with news like that so soon. But I am sure she won’t be as surprised as common folk.

Aether:.....Zhongli, I don’t think you- actually, *pats back* I say you go on that dinner and pose a hypothetical question about Rex Lapis being alive. I think that will make things clear to you.

Zhongli:I suppose that would be better than speculating. Very well, I shall try.

Aether and Paimon:(He really doesn’t see it.)

[Half an hour into dinner]

Ningguang:Hehehe, I must say Zhongli, you continue to be quite the interesting character. If only we weren’t so busy, then we could do this more often.

Zhongli:I imagine in terms of schedules, you have hands fuller than my own.

Ningguang:True. Though I made the Jade Chamber once before, the time and effort it is taking to bring back my pride and joy isn’t going much faster than the first time it was made. I’m a patient woman though. I wouldn’t be good at what I do if I wasn’t one.

Zhongli:Well said. Say, Ningguang?

Ningguang:Yes?

Zhongli:I was discussing matters with a friend earlier today. Nothing factual, more so hypothetical and thought provoking.

Ningguang:Oh? Do tell. *sips drink*

Zhongli:My friend holds suspicions over Rex Lapis’s passing. Those suspicions gave way to the idea of the Geo Archon being alive. How would that make you feel?

Ningguang:Me? Well...I’d be as stunned as anyone else if it were true. After all, he fell from the sky right down in front of me.

Zhongli:Ah yes....that did happen didn’t it? (In hindsight, that may have landed on her on anybody for that matter.)

Ningguang:The idea of him being alive would raise a lot of questions easily. Though if you’re asking how I’d feel....I’d be happy to know such a being was still among us. Rex Lapis was quite generous and fair.

Zhongli:*smiles* That’s nice of you to-

Ningguang:But I’d also be upset that I sacrificed my Jade Chamber and Liyue was thrown into chaos over a faux death. I put everything I have into that place and being a voice to the people. To have gone through such an experience that wasn’t because of natural causes, I can’t say I’d be pleased by such knowledge.

Zhongli:Oh...I see. (That makes sense)

Ningguang:Then there’s Ganyu. She’s felt so at odds with who she is and what to do next since his passing. Seeing her lost like that pains me a bit. I doubt even she would be okay with Rex Lapis’s death being fake. Hehe, she’s a nice girl but I’m sure she’d have words with him.

Zhongli:Ah, so you would believe if he were alive, it was Rex Lapis himself that faked his death and not some outside force?

Ningguang:Of course. He’s Rex Lapis. A plan like that could only be full proof with his approval, or we would’ve intervened. I may sound a little bias, but I can’t imagine anyone containing him by force. Our Lord of Geo was far too strong for that. Unless multiple Archons were ther perpetrators, then he organized is own death; and sense the land is ravaged with warring archons right now, I don’t think they had a hand in it. They aren’t known fighting quietly.

Zhongli:(Truly...the word clever isn’t enough for her.) So you’d be angry and resent Rex Lapis? I...can understand that completely. His actions would come off a bit...much. *frowning*

Ningguang:.....

[Earlier]

Ningguang:Hello Traveler. It’s been awhile since we-

Paimon:Do you like Zhongli?

Ningguang:*red* E...Excuse me!? Wha-

Aether:Because I can tell he really likes you. Like a lot. Do you like him back?

Ningguang:I....find him charming. *blushing*

Aether:So yea?

Ningguang:Why have you come to ask this!?

Aether:...*bows*

Ningguang:Traveler?

Aether:Zhongli is a good person, but I’ll be the first to say he’s a bit of oddball. There are ways he goes about problems that I don’t necessarily agree with and he tends to rub someone the wrong way sometimes when he’s being helpful. Still, he’s a really kind individual and I can understand his actions even if I disagree. If you really like him then I hope you can see those merits too.

Ningguang:This is...sudden. Why do you feel the need to tell me this? And to bow as well, please, rise.

Aether:*relaxes* I just felt like it needed to said. That’s all.

[present]

Ningguang:...I never said I’d resent Rex Lapis.

Zhongli:Hmmm?

Ningguang:Our Lord of Geo, he’s done countless things; knows countless things. To fake is death would mean he had reasons. I know without a doubt those reasons, whatever they might be, still had Liyue and it’s people in mind. So why I personally may be upset if such a hypothetical were to be true, I also think I’d understand it; and forgive it in time. Rex Lapis, he’s kind hearted. What ever the reason, I know I could accept it. However, I wouldn’t let him off the hook. I’d make sure he continues helping people in whatever way he can. That includes helping fix the Jade Chamber. *smiling*

Zhongli:So that’s your full answer? Hmm, interesting.....*trembling* Ummm Ningguang?

Ningguang:*takes his hand* Yes?

Zhongli:If...you need assistance with the chamber, don’t hesitate to ask.

Ningguang:I won’t, thank you. (Honestly...how could I resent you when you’re this nervous?) Oh yeah, you’re gonna have to breakdown the news to Ganyu.

Zhongli:Hehe, I guess we’re done speaking in hypotheticals then?

Ningguang:I find it cute you thought we ever were.

Aether:*watching tables away* Well, guess that solves that.

Paimon: All’s well that ends well! Paimon was worried for a bit, but you’re such a bighearted softie that you basically told Ningguang what was up.

Aether:What are you talking about? All I said was Zhongli is a man with good intentions, even if they are a tad selfish. Sigh....no one wants to feel alone. Especially in a world that’s constant changing and you can’t help but be different. Finding love makes everything feel not so bad.

Paimon: Paimon couldn’t agree more!

Aether:Well now that one dinner is going well, might as well have one ourselves right? We have menus.

Paimon:Actually.....Paimon has to pass sadly. Chow down for the both of us though! *disappears*

Aether:Paimon!? But...you never miss a chance to eat. Where’d you-

???:Excuse me, mind if I join you?

Aether:*turns around*......*red*

Amber:*red dress and curly hair* I was told by someone a certain traveler would be at a table for two, looking for company?

Aether:Would this someone be a certain little floating companion that is always scheming something?

Amber:You know... I think so. *smiles* So, mind if this nervous outrider who may be a tad overdressed for this restaurant keep you company?

Aether:*smiles* I wouldn’t mind at all.

#zhongli genshin impact #ningguang genshin impact #amber genshin impact #aether genshin impact #paimon #genshin impact #aether x amber #zhongli x ningguang

152 notes · View notes

mageofseven · 5 years ago

Text

The Brothers’ Reaction to MC smuggling in a pet from the Human World

Depressed MC asking the brothers to let her back into the human world to “grab something important” but won’t say what it is. Once back from the human world, they reveal that the item of importance is actually her pet. Let the battle to keep it commence!

Lucifer:

Being the observant guy he is, Luce notices MC’s change in mood rather quickly

Thinking maybe you were just having an off day, he didn’t say anything about it

But then the end of the week came and you still seemed out of it, lacking your usual enthusiasm

When finally approached about it, you wouldn’t meet his eyes

“There’s...something I need to get from home. Back in the human world...”

A moment of silent passes.

“Would you care to elaborate on what that may be?”

Avoided answering like the plague. Instead, a day of constant begging ensues.

This man is usually pretty resistant to such a thing, thanks to his brothers (especially Mammon).

Still, your their low mood mixed with his mild curiosity led him to give in.

Next day, he agreed to let you go, under the condition that you show him whatever items you took as soon as you’re back.

He never expected that the “something important” was going to be a small, chubby dog.

Cue the frustration

“MC, you are well aware that no animals are allowed in the dorm--”

“BUT YOU HAVE CERBERUS!”

“Cerberus doesn’t live in the dorm with us and actually serves a purpose--”

Angry Dog Mom™️ activated

For once, Lucifer is the one on the receiving end of the lecture as you list all of your dog’s important qualities and why you need your furbaby with you.

Man is stressed out just wants to be down with the conversation; time to choose his battles. Spoiler: he doesn’t choose this one.

Negotiation ensues. Outcome? Two weeks. MC gets a trial run for two weeks. If they can take care of the dog by themselves for two weeks without any major issues caused by the dog while also taking up the grocery shopping for the next month, the dog can stay.

This man does not have high hopes for the dog, but will humor MC for the time being.

Mammon:

Of course he’d know when his human was feeling down. Who do you think he is?

In truth, it took him about a day and half to realize that they were feeling sad and not just too busy to hang out.

To his credit, he didn’t wait around for MC to perk up on their own.

“Yo, what’s the big idea? If you’re sad, just say so!”

Don’t bother denying it; the poor boy is already worried.

“Mammon... I kinda need a favor...”

Boy wouldn’t admit it, but he was eager to do what ever he could to cheer you up

Until you say you need to get to the human world to grab something

He already knows he’ll be hanging from the ceiling when Lucifer finds out, but this boy just can’t say no to you.

Makes a few deals with some witches and has you out there the next day

Is confused as hell when you bring back a cage

“What even is that thing??”

“It’s my chinchilla, Kiwi.”

This boy is dead when Lucifer finds out, by hey, at least the little rodent is kinda cute?

Leviathan:

This boy was too absorbed in the anime to really notice anything wrong with you at first.

He was a big fan of the manga series the anime was based off so when he heard they made the anime for, Levi needed you to watch it with him.

When he had paused it to rant about an inconsistency between the manga and the anime however, he noticed you were spaced out

Poor boy is instantly insecure.

“Of course you’d ignore a waste-of-space otaku like me...”

“No, no! I’m sorry! It’s just...”

It takes a moment to explain why you zoned out.

“Levi...can you please help me get home? Just long enough to get what I need!”

Boy is lowkey worried that you actually plan to leave and not come back. After spending time reassuring him that you really do just mean a quick trip to grab something important from your home, he’s a little more comfortable with helping.

Luckily, your goals seem to align with his.

He recently found out that his favorite mangaka is doing a book signing in the human world, but Lucifer had already refused his request because he didn’t trust Levi to go alone.

So guess whose making this trip a reality? You!

The two of you go to Lucifer right away to beg him to let you to go to the human world just for a day.

Though still a bit iffy about his decision, he did eventually agree since he knew if Levi were to fall out of line for some reason and do something he shouldn’t, MC could use the power of their pact to bring his actions to a halt.

Mission one success!

Two days later, the two of you are on the way to the human world.

You had to spend the first couple hours of it in line at the manga shop so Levi could get his book signed.

Not as boring as you may think. You got to talk to Levi for a while and it was really cute seeing him all excited.

Once the boy got his book signed though, he was too absorbed in the fact that his favorite manga artist wrote on his book cover that he forget his end of the deal. This dude was totally ready to head home till you reminded him about why you’re here.

Right, onward to MC’s house.

Awkward boy is awkward. He waited outside as you rushed into your house so he didn’t have to deal with uncomfortable conversation with your family.

You eventually come out with a backpack full of who-knows-what and a fish bowl with a tiny, almost translucent fish.

“Okay, I got her! Let’s go home!”

“Wait, you have a fish too??”

You two would get in trouble if Lucifer found out you made an unapproved stop at home, so you decided to pretend that the fish is Levi’s for now.

He’s actually glad to know you both have another thing in common.

Satan:

It was just a normal Sunday afternoon. You were relaxing with Satan as you both read your individual books.

However, he looked up from his book to find your eyes staring out the window instead of on your book.

Satan knew since he saw you at breakfast earlier that morning that you were upset about something, but decided to wait and see if you’d to come to him first.

So far, that hasn’t happened yet. He sighed and lowered his book.

“Okay. So what is the problem?”

Denying it just receives an eyebrow raise from the blonde. Try again.

“Look...there something from home that I miss. Like, a lot.”

Even after asking a series of question about this ‘something’, all he got in return was a sad shrug.

“Do you think...is there any way I could go home and get it?”

Satan questions if the item is truly that important, but of course you say yes.

Only Diavolo and Lucifer can activate the teleport magic in the student council room because of a series of issues that took play like 50 years (three of them were Mammon’s while one was Levi’s) so now all of the brothers are locked out without explicit permission. Satan was never particularly interested in going to the human world before, but once Lucifer decided he wasn’t allowed to anymore, Satan started searching for a way to do so.

And he succeeded. Lucky you.

It took three days for the perfect opening. Lucifer had to handle some legal matters with Diavolo further to the west of the Devildom. He let everyone know at breakfast that he wouldn’t be back till later that evening.

The two got to MC’s house without any problems (well, except for Beel, but a promise to get him something from Madam Screams when they got back helped him to ‘forget’ the comment MC made about their trip before they left)

Your family was out when you got there so the two of you entered the house without distraction.

As soon as you entered, you started searching under the couches, behind the TV, in your room under your bed, various different spots.

Satan raised an eyebrow at your actions, curious about what you were searching for, but didn’t ask. After all, you already decided not to tell him earlier. He just had to be patient and see for himself.

While you did that, Satan wandered into the kitchen to see more of the house. That’s when he spied an orange ball of fluff on top of the fridge.

He smiled at the cat as it jumped down to counter to meet with him. Reaching out to pet the orange tabby, it purred against his hand.

“CHEESE!”

MC raced into the kitchen to embrace the cat.

“Cheese?”

“Yeah, her name’s Cheese.”

So this was what you were looking for. Hmm. That explains the secrecy, he supposed.

Not sure how you both are gonna hide the cat from Lucifer back at House of Lamentation, but hey, Satan’s all for cats.

Asmodeus:

Asmo was actually pretty observant when it came to your mood change.

He didn’t really ask about it though. Instead, he launched into just comforting and cheering up.

As soon as he saw the mood shift, it was officially a spa day; he had you take a nice relaxing bubble bath, lit scented candles, and even gave you a makeover. Picked out an outfit that he had been practically dying to see you in and did your hair and make up too.

Honestly, you did feel a lot better. All the attention Asmo was giving you really did help you cheer up and you even felt extra beautiful by the end of the night.

It was while he was doing your nails and you both were talking about anything and everything when you finally confessed to why you were so sad today.

“It just hurts, ya know? I know I really didn’t have a chance to bring it with me, but still...”

Before you even a chance to say what ‘it’ is, this boy already saying you should just go get it. As if it’s that easy.

Or is it?

The next day, he talks Lucifer into letting you both go grab a few things from your home in the human world.

Honestly, things should not have worked out as well as they did, but no complaints here.

When you get there, this boy is exploring every little corner of your house and isn’t even being subtle about.

Oh well, you start packing up different items from your room as he judges the brand of shampoo and skincare products in your bathroom.

Wasn’t as surprised you might think to find a ball python snake in your tub.

Boy has obviously dealt with bigger snakes in the past.

Decides to the charm the little boop noodle and comes into your bedroom with the snake on his shoulders.

“MC, look at this! Isn't this the cutest little thing I could find?”

“Oh nice! You found Lyla!” You smile. “She always finds away out of her tank, but I was worried about how far she made it.”

Asmo wasn’t particularly interested in helping you carrying the tank back so you had to call Beel to come help you.

You two are basically in trouble the moment you walk in to the door and Lucifer sees the snake.

You have to do the dishes for the next two weeks and Asmo has to pick up more days to cook dinner, but you somehow manage to keep the snake here with you.

Beelzebub:

Another brother who notices your sad mood fairly quickly

But he doesn’t really know what to do about or what to say

So he basically just tries to spend more time with you when he can so you aren’t stuck being sad and alone.

Starts walking you to class and doing homework with you more. He even skips his workouts some days so he can take you out some where and keep you away from your room.

He takes you out to eat a lot over the next week and you have to admit, it really does cheer you up when you see him happily munching on his favorite meal.

Beel’s presence is a mostly quiet one, but very comforting.

Still, you can’t help but to miss a certain piece of your home.

When the weekend comes, you finally confess to Beel about what has you down.

“Can’t I just...just real quick? I just want to stop at home to get something.”

He tries to ask about what it is specifically that you need, but you just get all fidgety and deflect from his question.

Poor boy is worried that he just upset you more by asking so he drops it.

Helps you get permission from Lucifer, who relents that it wouldn’t hurt for you to have more personal items here with you during your stay in the Devildom.

In the human world, you hadn’t even put your key in the lock before barking was heard from inside. As soon as the door opened, an excited husky jumped you.

You give out a big laugh as the dog puts its front paws on your shoulders and licks your face.

“Chaos, down! Down boy!” You say between laughs. I takes a minute for the good boy to settle down and put all his paws on the ground.

Beel’s original surprise melted away to a sweet smile.

The three of you went inside. As you went to grab a bag and gather different items, Beel sat on the couch (after his offer to help was rejected and he was told to relax).

The slightest movement made by the demon made the fluffy boy jump and let out small barks; he wants to play!

Beel finds a ball on the other side of the room and starts throwing it for the husky. The good boy duo plays fetch!

Eventually, MC comes back in the room, beaming at the sight.

“Aww you’re such good friends now!” You say before picking up a leash and calling Chaos to you. “Come on, boy; you get to come back with me.”

“...What?”

You explain to him that you came all this way for Chaos because you missed your big fluffy furbaby so much.

Sweet boy doesn’t have the heart to tell you no, that Chaos can’t come back with you.

Lucifer, on the other hand, had no issue telling you such when you got back

And, in fairness, its kinda hard to sell the idea that a dog named Chaos won’t cause any trouble in the dorm.

Beel steps up and says he’ll help you take care of the dog.

Lucifer let’s the dog stay

...for now

But if the dog does anything at all wrong, both of you are expected to take responsibly (and punishment) for it.

Belphie:

This boy noticed you started sleeping more, which was the telltale sign that you were feeling sad to him.

Believe me, this boy gets it

And honestly, seeing you turn down spending time with his brothers just hide away in your room to sleep, it hurt to much to see and really hit close to home

Like, only he is allowed to be that depressed. You’re suppose to be cheerfully buzzing around the house like always.

At first, he just kinda inserted himself in your nap times

I mean, he always felt a little better when you or Beel joined him, so it was a good place to start.

He was honestly kinda hurt when you rejected his offer and said you just wanted to be alone for a while.

It only made Sleepy Boy a bit grumpy though. He still laid right beside ya and wrapped an arm around you.

Sleepy Boy wasn’t accepting a no from you

Belphie wasn’t going to leave you alone because he knew all too well that just because you said it, doesn’t mean you actually want it.

“Watching you be like this is just making me sick. I’m not leaving you.”

So yeah, cuddle time is non-negotiable.

One day, you laid there, but couldn't really sleep.

Your problem was just spinning through your head. You wonder if you told Belphie... would help you? Could he help you?

"Hey, Belphie?"

Opens an eye just slightly to look at you.

"Is...is there anyway I could go home? A way that doesn't....doesn't involve Lucifer knowing?"

That got his attention and the boy wasn't too pleased. Opens both of his eyes.

"You've only been back for like a month and you already want to leave us?"

"No! Just...look."

You explain to him the situation and how you just want to grab something from home, but you know Lucifer wouldn't allow you to bring back what you need.

A chance to go behind Lucifer's back and piss him off? Well, why didn't you say so?

Gets help from the other member of the F.A.L.L. (Former Anti-Lucifer League), aka Satan.

Basically gets you home the same way you did in the Satan scenario, but with Belphie tagging along instead.

When you get to your house, you raced inside with Belphie just trailing behind.

Doesn't make it passed your living room, just kinda lays on your couch till you're done grabbing things from your room.

Has to be woken up from his nap when you're ready to leave.

You decide to wake him up in a cute way.

Sleepy boy wakes up to find a fluffy long-earred creature on his stomach.

"What the hell am I looking at?" He yawns.

"Its my bunny, Bella." You grin. "She says 'hi'."

He reaches out to pet the bun's soft fur.

Doesn't really ask anything about it.

I mean, if all it takes is a rabbit to make you happy then it's nothing to question.

Not sure how you'll be able to KEEP the rabbit with you in the Devildom, but hey, that's your problem when you both get back.

Masterlist

#obeyme #obeymeotome #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me levi #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #obey me mc

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aomineavenue · 5 years ago

Text

Homesick (Miya Atsumu x f!Reader) | 006. dinner disaster

Summary: Six years ago, L/N Y/N wouldn’t exactly say that she loves her life. It had always been problematic but her best friend, Miya Atsumu, since she was eight when she moved to Hyōgo, has always been there for her, and she wouldn’t change it for the world. However, things would always fall apart for her ever since, so she should have expected of such. Running away from her problems seemed like the easiest route to take at the time, so what happens when the past comes barging back into her life demanding answers? Will she be able to confront her demons?

Pairings: Miya Atsumu x f!Reader

Updates: irregular.

Genre: Angst, ANGST I LOVE ANGST, a lil bit of fluff here and there.

Warnings: Language, etc. (Will be mentioned once posted because I don’t want spoilers huehue)

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters except for the reader and my ideas. I do not claim any images used for content in this fic, everything goes out to their respective creators unless it is mentioned that it is mine.

Status: ongoing. | series masterlist

↩ confessions | dinner disaster | realizations ↪

mia’s note(s):

can you find the easter eggs in here?

i am sorry, i am not very fond of this chapter lmao i told you guys im bad at writing that isn’t angst man

i hope you guys enjoy anyway, lemme know what you guys think!! and tell me if you find the easter eggs mwa mwa

You nod eagerly as you shut the menu in your grip, completely ignoring Reiji’s protests from beside you as the rest of the individuals seated around the table either watch in amusement or curiosity. “I believe there is always a three special course meal that changes every day according to the chef, we’d absolutely love that.”

At the sight of Reiji’s features scrunched up in horror, you inwardly squealed in victory.

Years have flown by, you’re both practically strangers at this point. Yes, strangers. Just two strangers who know every shameful secret, every hidden freckle, and even every fatal flaw in each other. Who were you kidding anyway? Six years have gone by just like that, but you knew it yourself, deep down that you still strongly cared for the man that now stood before you, his eyes the only thing you could focus on, not even the soft chatter of the other guests or the soft instrumental melody produced by the restaurant’s speakers could capture your attention and disrupt your thoughts. Mesmerized, that is what you are. What even.

It has been six years and to this day, he still completely steals your breath away.

Not that it should surprise you or anything. Despite everything, how he had hurt you back when you were both 17 and in your second year in senior high school back in 2013, or the hurtful words that spilled from his mouth from the running emotions that day back at the sports complex when the truth revealed itself, you couldn’t bring yourself to hate him or even be angry. You’ve thought of this a billion times since you left Hyōgo. You have imagined a billion scenarios, trying your best to prepare yourself because you knew. You knew that it was inevitable to stay hidden, to keep your secret hidden. A part of you always knew you were going to meet him again. Not that your reunion was delightful or anything. It was nowhere near such. No matter how many scenarios you created in your head, it had not been enough for you to prepare for any form of response.

You hadn’t realized it at first when you had met him on that day because of the emotions running high through your veins, but now, standing in front of him, your eyes drank him up completely. Of course, you notice the differences from six years ago. It wasn’t as if he was going to stay how he had been back then, nor was it difficult to notice the changes from the boy you used to adore. Looking at him now, it was clear as day that he had grown up from the charming boy next door to a breathtaking man that you can’t seem to tear your gaze away.

As your name rolls off of his tongue, you snap out of your trance, blinking a couple of times. Thankfully, you suppressed your emotions quick enough from allowing the warmth that wanted to creep across your cheeks. God, how embarrassing. Did he notice you were practically devouring him with your eyes? Hopefully not.

However, despite his handsome features, you are suddenly reminded of the last conversation that the two of you shared and it was enough for you to push your mushy thoughts to the very back of your head. Ah, right. You remembered now, before being distracted by Atsumu’s ridiculously handsome face, you were going to give Asuma and Reiji a good smack. If only you had known of this setup, you would have never agreed. Jumping back to reality, you were about to take a step back, wanting to leave the premises, only to be held back by Reiji, gripping onto your arm to stop you.

You were cut off from your protests, Reiji moving closer to whisper in your ear with the all too familiar tone he uses on you during arguments. Before he could even finish his sentence, you already knew that the excuses you have in mind were no use. There was no room for negotiations. “Stop being stubborn and sit down. Do this for your kids. It’s not like it’s a date or anything.”

Grumbling underneath your breath at how much of an ass he was, he only replies with a chuckle as he releases his grip on your arm, neither of you realizing the green-eyed monster’s gaze that followed the whole interaction. The two of your friends took their seats, greeting the rest of the party, while you’re left standing there before Atsumu. As you stood there face to face, you didn’t realize the two occupants around the table sharing hushed whispers amongst each other, berating each other for bringing other people along. Meeting his gaze once more, you give him a small nod, “Atsumu. Shall we then?”

He nods, his voice cracking slightly because of his nerves, “Yeah.”

However, as you turn to greet the rest of the party, you feel your shoulders grow tense at the realization of what your two friends did once again. They had occupied seats around the table, leaving the only available seats next to each other for you and Atsumu. If it’s one thing you hated, it was when your friends become the meddling monkeys that they are.

Not wanting to cause a scene, you inwardly groan and occupy the seat next to Reiji, leaving the seat next to you for Atsumu. In spite of your irritation, you find yourself flashing a half-hearted smile at the three across from you.

“Hi!” the one in the middle greets you happily with an enormous smile plastered across his face, “I’m Hinata, it’s nice to meet you.” He extends his arm across the table, holding out his hand for you to shake, which you gladly take.

“Nice to meet you too,” you respond with a nod of your head as you release your grip from his hand, just in time to retrieve the menu that the waiter had passed throughout the group. Flipping it open, you avoid the glances from Bokuto and Osamu, who looked as if they were itching an interaction from you, but because of your irritation, you definitely didn’t want to talk to them just yet, they probably had helped your friends in setting this up. “So Hinata-san, I’m assuming you're Bokuto’s teammate?” you ask before tearing your gaze away from his to examine the menu in your hands. You don’t notice the frown that briefly appeared on Atsumu’s lips.

“Oh, Hinata’s just fine!” he waves his hand with a laugh, “Yes, I’m Bokuto and Atsumu’s teammate. We actually wanted to bring our friend Sakusa here too, but he said he has an emergency at some hospital.”

"Hmm…" you hum, letting your eyes scan the menu, thinking you might as well enjoy the food, "Oh, I hope everything is okay with your friend Sakusa and it’s nothing too serious, but now that we're here, might as well enjoy and run Rei's wallet dry. Right, Rei?"

You tilt your head a bit, glancing over at Reiji from the corner of your eye with a sly smirk forming on your lips. Ah, the man could only let out a nervous chuckle, knowing full well what you were planning as he recalls a similar scenario a few months back in the very same restaurant that put a dent to his savings because of the ridiculous price of the meals you had ordered that night. Not tearing your gaze away from your best friend, you call for the waiter's attention, who quickly responds by walking over and pulling out his tiny notepad to jot down your table's order.

"Hello, I'm Daiki and I'll be your waiter for the night." He greets with a friendly smile, not realizing the awkward atmosphere among the group, "What will we be having?"

Clicking your tongue against the roof of your mouth, you give Reiji an innocent grin before turning your gaze over to the waiter to return his smile with your own, "Hello, Daiki. You see, my friends here aren't really sure what to order, but I told them not to worry since I've been here so many times, so I'll be ordering for everyone!"

"Excellent, ma'am!" He nods his head, matching your enthusiasm.

At the sight of Reiji’s features scrunched up in horror, you inwardly squealed in victory.

It was going to be a long night.

Mayuzumi Asuma and Suwa Reiji were now considered dead.

To you, at least. And somehow, you knew that, despite them avoiding meeting your gaze alongside with the other three across from you who freely interacted with each other, they themselves knew what they were getting themselves into. They were digging their graves for this stunt they have pulled.

You’d got to give Reiji credit, though. Despite pushing his buttons by ordering everyone the high priced three course meal, he wasn’t his usually squirmy and irritating self. You had at least expected sharing a heated argument with him after such a display, but instead of giving in, he continued to pursue his plan with the others.

Oh, they think they were so slick, as if you hadn’t caught on with their little plan. Not a date, they say. It might as well be one, since they’re bluntly ignoring your attempts to converse with them. All was missing was some privacy. At first you hadn’t thought about it when you had tried to share a conversation with Hinata, it was only right for you to get to know someone; you were just being nice. However, before Hinata could respond to your question, Bokuto had dragged him into a conversation about volleyball. You brushed it aside, not thinking anything rude of it, as you knew Bokuto would often speak with anyone out of the blue. It was just how he is.

You hadn’t even thought about it the second time around when this time; you tried conversing with Osamu, wanting to know about how his business is going so far. Except, the conversation between you and Osamu never happened due to the fact that Asuma had cut you off mid-sentence, engaging the man in a ridiculous conversation about healthy diets. Like, what the heck was that all about? Asuma and healthy diets just don’t sit well with you. Nevertheless, you brushed it aside, shifting your attention to the first course meal of the night that had been placed before you.

They think they were so smart, trying to pull it off. Ah, but no. You had caught on with their little plan the third time around when you tried to join in Bokuto and Hinata’s conversation. You were instantly shot down by Reiji, shifting the conversation to another topic that only they could understand.

They were dead men. All of them.

Placing your chopsticks down, you turn your head towards Reiji’s direction with a false innocent smile curling upon your lips. “Reiji, dear.”

Ah there it was, catching the nervous bob of his Adam’s apple in this throat with your gaze. "Yeah?"

"I hope you know—”

Hinata cuts you off by standing up abruptly from his seat, waving frantically towards someone’s direction, “Ushijima-san!”

You blink before turning your head to look at whoever Hinata was waving to, catching a glimpse of a tall, muscular man nodding towards Hinata’s direction in greeting, a woman trailing close behind him. Not wanting to be rude, you return to your previous position to face Hinata that was seated across from you, “Was that the Ushijima Wakatoshi?”

Hinata nods as he sits back down, a huge smile on his face. “Yeah, I’m sure you know about him.”

“I suppose,” you lift your shoulders up in a shrug as you pick up your chopsticks once more, completely forgetting to reprimand Reiji’s actions much to his relief, “I was volleyball manager back then in high school, so I would know a few things, including some players.”

“Where did you go to school?” Hinata asks, tilting his head a bit as he looks at you curiously. You wonder, briefly, had Atsumu not mentioned you at all since the incident at the sports complex? Weird.

As you were about to reply, the man seated on your left answers for you. “She went to the same school as me, Shouyou-kun. She was our manager.”

Hinata stares at you for a second, blinking a couple of times before realization hits him, his eyes widening, “I remember you now! You were that pretty manager!”

The men around the table chokes and sputters their food, causing you to scrunch up your nose in disgust. Atsumu is first to respond after clearing his throat, “What? I mean, yeah. She was our pretty manager.”

“I remember her because it was the first time I saw Tsukishima look stupid over a girl,” Hinata chuckles, shaking his head. “But, how come I only saw you once? Were you a third year at the time?”

Suddenly, the tension was back in the air. You catch from the corner of your eye, Atsumu growing tense from Hinata’s question, and you had to fight the urge to show your own emotions. Everyone else was silent, probably waiting for you or Atsumu to answer. “Ah, I left high school towards the end of our second year, and moved to Kanagawa. I had my hands full at the time, so I didn’t return to high school.”

“But wh—” Hinata gets cut off by his own yelp, making you raise a brow in confusion. He turns his head towards Osamu’s direction, wincing slightly, “Osamu-san!”

Osamu lets out a laugh, not looking anywhere near apologetic. “Ah, sorry buddy. I was reaching over Bokuto but you were in the way.”

An awkward atmosphere engulfs around the table once more. This dinner was certainly not going according to Osamu and Reiji’s plan. Opting to avoid the awkward glances from the other individuals, you turn your attention over to focus on your food while Osamu and Reiji were sending glares towards each other once they realized your attention elsewhere. The two had talked with Atsumu earlier, devising a plan for the two of you to talk things through. Originally, Osamu suggested that the dinner should be just you and Atsumu, but Reiji declined such an idea because of two reasons. First, you would completely decline yourself to go to a dinner and leave Atsuhiro in the hospital despite your mother being present, Reiji knew you too well that the idea of dinner at a fancy restaurant without your sons was a big no. That is, unless a friend of yours were to force you by dragging you to the restaurant. And second, if you were to be left with Atsumu alone, Reiji fears that you would leave almost immediately.

And he was right for both. If he hadn’t dragged you here himself, you wouldn’t have bothered to go. And if he hadn’t stopped you earlier, you would have ran out the moment you saw Atsumu. However, they hadn’t expected this. Reiji hadn’t expected Osamu to bring two other people, while Osamu hadn’t expected that Reiji was going to bring someone else along. Yes, it was a disaster.

Reiji had opted to bring Asuma along, because he knew you were going to be suspicious if it were just the two of you going for dinner. You would have accused him of coddling you like a child, it was something he would do now and then when he wanted you to release all the emotions you had kept bottled up. It’s not that you didn’t appreciate him for it, he just knows that if he did such a thing during such an emotional time, you would push him away when Reiji wanted to speed things along. As much as Reiji disliked the father of his favorite twins, he wasn’t going to deprive the little boys any longer of the chance of finally getting to know their father. If he was going to force everything on you, he would do it. He, too, has grown tired of your decisions of run away.

Osamu on the other hand, only decided to accompany his brother himself but as he and his brother were leaving the apartment, the other two barged out of Bokuto’s room claiming to be starving from the lack of food the past couple of hours because of some intense gaming session on the PlayStation 4 that Bokuto brought along with. Not being quick on their feet, the twins had blurted out they were going out to eat. They unfortunately could not decline the two balls of sunshine.

Clearing his throat, hoping to shift the tension in the air. “Anyway,” Osamu starts before tearing his glaring gaze away from Reiji over to where Ushijima was seated across the room, “Who is that girl Ushijima is with?”

“She kinda looks familiar,” Bokuto hums, placing his chopsticks down after finishing his first course meal, shifting his gaze over to Ushijima’s table.

“That’s the heiress of the Akita Empire,” Asuma answers, “Pretty woman, she is. I didn’t know she was dating anyone.”

Hinata lets out a gasp of excitement, his eyes going wide. “I wonder if Ushijima-san is really dating her!”

“Maybe you can ask him at the party…” Bokuto suggests while the rest of his words are drowned out by you, growing bored with the night as you wonder when you can possibly leave.

Despite drowning out the conversation around the table and focusing on the food, Atsumu pulls you in with his voice from the side, “Hey, I’m sorry about this. I told Osamu and Reiji it was a bad idea from the start.”

Ah, so it was those two who had planned the whole thing out. You let out a sigh, turning your head to face him to answer, your voice low to keep the others out of the conversation, “There’s nothing that we can do now.”

“Would you have preferred that it was just the two of us?” he asks, hope laced in his voice.

Lightly nibbling on your bottom lip, you tear your gaze away from him. Did you? You actually wanted to talk to Atsumu after having the talk with your sons. You were going to express your disappointment towards Reiji and his plan full of flaws. Had they planned this for the two of you to talk? If so, this was stupid to begin with. Something so serious between the two of you and Atsumu should be discussed within private walls, and this was nowhere near private. So maybe, yes. Perhaps, if the two were you alone, then it would have been better. “I guess,” you finally admit, “Maybe the two of us can talk things through properly when this is over. I think it’s time. For now, I hope you can accept my apologies.”

“And I hope you accept m—”

Hinata’s loud voice booms excitedly, “Oh remember that party!”

The two of you snap your attention over to Hinata, the disappointment clear in your features for the disruption. What were they talking about? However, curiosity gets the best of you and you entertain him anyway. “What party?”

“The Christmas party last year!” Hinata announces with a chuckle, “At first, I was thinking why Reiji-san and Asuma-san here look so familiar then I remember I attended the party with Bo-kun and the others!” As if on cue, the moment those words left Hinata’s mouth, Atsumu and Bokuto visually stiffened, causing you to grow more curious.

“Ah, that party.” you let out a laugh, nudging Reiji with your elbow, “He’s talking about your all-time favorite party.”

A scowl makes its way to Reiji’s features, “Please, do not remind me of that horrendous party. I had to move rooms just because of that, and I replaced the mattress too.”

“You’re so dramatic,” you drawled, laughing along with Asuma as you remember Reiji going crazy the next day after the party. “Just because your guests did the dirty on your bed—” Reiji cuts you off by pinching your side, which causes you to let out a yelp in both pain and surprise.

Osamu interjects with a grin, “Actually, I have a feeling that Sakusa would have died hearing such information. But I would be pissed off too, Reiji. That’s nasty. I would have moved out the whole place entirely.”

“Right?” Reiji exclaims by throwing his hands in the air, “I couldn’t step inside the room without wanting to poke my eyes out.”

“That’s why we no longer let Atsumu drink too much because he’ll probably do that again,” Hinata adds, laughing along.

Once again, silence.

“Wait, what?” Reiji asks, the first to break the silence. “That was you?”

Bokuto smacks Hinata’s head before looking away awkwardly. Hinata, on the other hand, takes a minute to realize his mistake before flickering his gaze back and forth from Atsumu over to you, waiting for his mistake to backfire in his face. The rest of the individuals around the table turn their attention over to Atsumu, waiting for his response.

You were the first to defend him, letting out a laugh. “Okay, enough of this. Let’s leave the past in the past. Let’s not make things awkward, it’s not like Atsumu and I are dating or anything,”

“Tsumtsum!” a squeal echoes throughout the restaurant and all you could think now was “What now?”

#atsumu x reader #atsumu miya x reader #atsumu imagine #atsumu imagines #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu x you #haikyuu imagine #haikyuu imagines #hq #hq x reader #hq imagine #hq imagines #homesick

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hellpark · 5 years ago

Text

GREGORY: Oh my, seems Craig’s little online army doesn’t have a care at all that I’ve taken command of his weblog.

GREGORY: Estella, there are people who are actually curious about the true side of things, would you believe that?

ESTELLA: Are you really fiddling around with that stupid thing over there?

ESTELLA: Of course you couldn’t hold back from sating your bloated ego, you needed electronic strangers to help inflate it even further, you limp, detached and wounded tail of a diseased lizard.

GREGORY: Goodness, there are questions regarding both you and I, you know.

GREGORY: I haven’t so much as talked about myself at all, mind you.

ESTELLA: Why are there people attempting to talk to me through that device.

ESTELLA: Are you truly so stupid as to inform everybody of our whereabouts?

GREGORY: Heavens, no.

GREGORY: Just having some fun, is all.

GREGORY: You should join me with this one, spare yourself a moment why don’t you.

ESTELLA: Ugh, if it will get you off my back, fine.

GREGORY: Now this one asks what our impression of each of those incessant dullards Craig calls friends is.

ESTELLA: All of them are as stale and boring as a long forgotten water biscuit fallen beneath a dumpster.

GREGORY: Right you are.

ESTELLA: Can I get back to what I was doing, now?

GREGORY: Not quite, I think I’d fancy tearing down the walls of each individual here.

GREGORY: It’s only fair that these curious strangers get their just earful.

ESTELLA: [sigh]

ESTELLA: If you insist.

GREGORY: I suppose we might as well start with the most likely focus of interest, the original owner of this log.

GREGORY: Craig.

GREGORY: You know originally, I didn’t have all too much of an issue with this brain dead husk of a man.

GREGORY: I told him.

GREGORY: If he doesn’t fuck with me, I would have no qualms against him.

ESTELLA: And yet here you are, still plucking splinters from the backside of your head.

GREGORY: I could tell he was going to be a problem from the start, I just figured he’d be too slow and careless to be much of an actual threat.

ESTELLA: I’d almost say it’s adorable how angry you are over such a nuisance of a boy; But you’re far too revolting to ever be adorable, so I will just say it’s amusing.

GREGORY: ...

GREGORY: I don’t like him.

GREGORY: I’ll leave it at that.

ESTELLA: I couldn’t care less for that gelatinous clump of blue ink.

GREGORY: I suppose next would be his subordinate friend-- Clyde, is it?

GREGORY: The one you stupidly chose to take control of.

GREGORY: Over just about any other candidate.

ESTELLA: I do not need to be reminded.

ESTELLA: He was simply the most emotionally compromised at the time.

GREGORY: It’s become clear that’s just how he always is.

ESTELLA: You sure took your oh so pleasant time getting me out of that putrid cauldron of body odor and unpleasantly placed hair.

ESTELLA: He’s quite revolting when he’s all alone, do you know this?

GREGORY: Do you mean... more so than you find other men to be, or...

ESTELLA: Yes, I do mean more so.

ESTELLA: You have no idea the things I had to sit through with that horrid, small manhooded caveman.

GREGORY: I’m sure.

GREGORY: I have no real feelings towards him either way, though he seems a little too keen on Tweek for my liking.

GREGORY: Or, I should say, Tweek seems a little too trusting of him.

GREGORY: So in turn, I am not too fond of him, either.

GREGORY: Now, the one I find the most tolerable of the bunch is certainly Token.

GREGORY: I remember him well from when I was still alive.

GREGORY: Truly, if there were anybody to rival Wendy and I’s intellectual abilities together, it would be him.

ESTELLA: Well, he did throw all of us under the bus by telling Damien exactly what we’ve been up to on the surface, so I do not think I can possibly see him in the same light as you.

GREGORY: Oh, well I suppose there is that.

ESTELLA: Other than that, I find him a rather boring, simple minded individual.

ESTELLA: He could die the most foul and upsetting death imaginable, and I would not think any different of him-- same goes for the rest of those boys.

GREGORY: Mm, well, I still think I find him the most bearable of the bunch.

ESTELLA: If you say so, you blood-drunk man loving tick.

ESTELLA: Let’s talk about the best of the bunch, why don’t we?

GREGORY: Oh? Do you suddenly have a favorite?

ESTELLA: Why yes I do.

ESTELLA: Stan, of course.

GREGORY: Oh. Him.

GREGORY: That thick-headed, good for nothing drain on society...

GREGORY: That’s who your favorite is?

ESTELLA: Yes indeed.

ESTELLA: I just love it when the real you comes out.

ESTELLA: Look at you now. Can’t help your horns from showing, you’re just so upset that anybody could possibly like that van-hit skunk.

ESTELLA: As if I’d actually enjoy him any more than the other bloody idiots.

GREGORY: There are few people more deserving of hell than Stan Marsh.

ESTELLA: I could think of many, but if you take such offense to your own personal death, I won’t stop you from thinking of that.

ESTELLA: My, you’re so much more pleasant to be around when you’re angry...

ESTELLA: My opinion of him is rather neutral, but he’s a man so there isn’t much about him that’s favorable anyways.

GREGORY: Let’s talk about his counterpart instead.

ESTELLA: And who would that be?

GREGORY: Kyle.

GREGORY: The bloke with the ugly green ushanka.

ESTELLA: Oh, that collapsed anal cavity of a sewer rat.

ESTELLA: The opinionated one who thinks his insufferably bland words actually matter.

ESTELLA: Rather rich, but that’s all I can give him.

GREGORY: He’s always thought of himself as some sort of martyr of first world problems.

GREGORY: I’m sure if he wasn’t so full of himself he’d be less of a drain to talk to.

ESTELLA: Funny, that’s how I feel about you.

ESTELLA: You’re really just describing yourself, you know.

GREGORY: When I fight for justice, I’m not doing it to make myself feel good.

GREGORY: I do it for those who cannot take action themselves.

ESTELLA: Oh, I’m sure you love to tell yourself that.

GREGORY: Speaking of selfish drains...

GREGORY: It truly shows how utterly stupid all of Stan’s friends are, still hanging around that tub of lard Eric.

ESTELLA: He didn’t really speak much while I was around, so all he is to me is another worthless sausage on a rusted old pan.

GREGORY: All I saw was that he still looks like he’s 10, and certainly still sounds like it.

ESTELLA: Smells like it, too.

GREGORY: I never did like the boy, he completely ruined an entire covert operation, you know?

GREGORY: Directly caused the death of a fellow comrade.

GREGORY: Of course we were all turned back before the war, thus nullifying all of our actions henceforth, but it still stands that the old paranoid fool he killed never quite was the same.

ESTELLA: Oh, let’s not start this conversation again.

ESTELLA: You talked my ear off for days on end the last time I decided to indulge in your simplistic babblings of self-perceived hardship.

GREGORY: Though who I find most interesting throughout all of what we went through was who really saved us all in the end.

GREGORY: I hadn’t seen all too much of him beforehand, yet he sacrificed himself for the entire town over in the end.

GREGORY: That Kenny fellow...

GREGORY: You know, despite spiking me over the head with that lawn ornament earlier, I don’t really have too harsh a thought on him.

GREGORY: I blame Tweek and Thomas for not warning me more than anything, really.

GREGORY: There’s something about him that seemed all too familiar, though, even as a young adult now...

ESTELLA: I am taking advantage of the fact that you look like you’re lost in your tiny, hollowed out peanut shell of a brain to say that I am leaving now.

ESTELLA: There are better things to attend to.

GREGORY: I can’t even remember how he came back from the dead, he just appeared one day, good as new.

GREGORY: I never knew the original ruler of hell personally, only his son of course, but perhaps there was some sort of additional deal made for him to return to the land of the living once more?

GREGORY: Honestly, this perplexes me severely now that I think about it, and I can’t believe I’ve not thought about it more until now.

GREGORY: Needless to say, this one’s an interesting individual, to say the least.

GREGORY: Definitely not one I’d think to trust any time soon, however. He’s far too... suspicious of a person...

GREGORY: Hmm...

GREGORY: Well-- that’s all of them I suppose.

GREGORY: Though, hmm...

GREGORY: I could have sworn Craig’s friends had one more on their team...?

GREGORY: I wonder where they could be in all of this mess.

GREGORY: ...These are quite fun, I think I may indulge myself in a few more...

#south park #craig tucker #stan marsh #kyle broflovski #eric cartman #gregory of yardale #token black #clyde donovan #kenny mccormick #estella havisham #hellpark

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juniorfics · 4 years ago

Text

Favorite color

mina x GN!reader

written by: R

word count: 1.8k

Warning!: one-sided pining, the word dude used as slang, slight angst, and just a wee bit of internalized homophobia (but only for like, a paragraph) ((also, mina might be slightly out of character, so..sorry about that :p))

y/n was distraught.

No, distraught wasn't the right word...conflicted maybe? Well, whatever the correct word is, they were feeling it.

Allow me to give a bit of context; you see, y/n was crushing on someone. Quite aggressively, actually. they couldn't stop thinking about them. the way they smiled, the way their hair bounced slightly when they walked, the way they could brighten a room so easily with only their presence. Yes, y/n was crushing, but that wasn't the issue. they've had many crushes before. So many, some would see it as a bit of a problem. No, the crushing itself wasn't a huge deal, rather, it was who the crush was on. The gender of the person, to be more specific.

y/n was always more attracted to guys, never finding herself attracted to females in any sort of romantic way. But ever since their first year of high school had begun, it seemed to them that that might not be the case anymore. All because of a certain pink-haired individual. Well, pink hair is a bit of an understatement. Everything about her is pink! Her hair, her skin, her personality, everything! And it suited her too, the color pink. She was a very bright and optimistic person, looking to the bright side of things as often as she could, making others happy by just simply being herself. Not to mention she was very pretty to look at, but that’s more of an opinion that can vary from person to person.

It's pretty safe to say that y/n was more than a bit confused when these feelings first emerged. they can practically pinpoint the moment it happened- when all this crushing began. It was during the school festival, back when they were all still first years. To be more precise, it was when 1-A was performing their concert. The two of them hadn't been in the same class at the time, in fact, y/n wasn't even planning on going to the concert at all, but their friend had convinced them that it would be fun, and they eventually caved, agreeing to go only if he would buy them a strawberry-banana crepe afterward. They had managed to get good seats near the front and patiently waited for the show to start. Then, the lights went out, the curtains opened, and a bunch of people, including their friend, began shouting out the name of one of the girls on stage. ‘Fanboys..’ they thought, waiting for the show to start. Then, before they knew it, the music started, and a bunch of dancers came out. That's when they saw her- Ashido. they had remembered her from the sports festival, as well as seeing her in the hallway a few times. they thought nothing of it and continued enjoying the show. But then, something happened that would change y/n’s perception of the world forever- Ashido had winked.

Granted, Ashido hadn't winked directly at her, rather to that general area of the audience, but y/n saw it nonetheless, and suddenly, their heart had started beating faster, their face steadily increasing in temperature, their hands went clammy and their mouth went dry. Why were they feeling like this? they had never reacted to anything as subtle as a wink this aggressively before. Plus, they had never developed a crush for someone this quickly before, ever! Even their fastest crush had taken a day to develop. ‘Wait, crush? No, I can't have a crush on her! That-that's impossible!’ they thought, shaking their head. they had tuned out the rest of the concert at this point. ‘I don’t like her! No, I can't like her! I like guys! Dudes! Men! people who portray as masculine! I don't like girls! Never have, never will!’ they thought, the words sounding like screams to them. 'And besides! The wink probably wasn't even for me. There's no way she could even see me among all these other people! Yeah, it was probably just to the crowd.’ that's what they told themself, but there was a small voice in the back of their mind that stayed with them for the rest of the day, once the concert was over, while they were eating the crepe they were promised, while they were lying in their bed in the middle of the night; “what if it was for me? What if she did see me? What if she winked at me?’

Over the next few months, they had come to terms with their emotions, accepting the fact that they did, indeed, have a crush on Ashido. Well, less of a crush, more of an obsession. But hey, this was how they always handled these things. their feelings were still a bit confusing, but they couldn't just ignore them. they promised themselves a long time ago that they would always acknowledge their feelings, no matter who they were for. So this has become y/n’s current dilemma. They were already halfway through their second year and they hadn't even made an attempt at confessing. However, a few weeks ago, they decided that they would confess on the last day of April.

Which just so happened to be today.

y/n was extremely nervous. they were gonna confess her feelings, of course they were nervous! But they told themself they would, and that's what they were gonna do.

The final bell rang, and school was officially over. y/n practically jumped out of their seat, speed walking out of the classroom, and into the hallway. This was it! they were gonna confess her feelings! they had to find Ashido first, though. Luckily, they had memorized Ashido’s schedule, and what hallways she normally took, so this wouldn't really be a problem. Yes, a bit stalkerish, but it came in handy for moments like this. Finally, they got to the hallway they needed to be at and waited for a moment. Soon enough, a bunch of footsteps, along with idle chatter, got closer and closer, and closer, until-

“Aghhh, today’s training was super tough today! I'm so soreee…”

“Right? I can barely feel my legs, it's like I'm walking on jello,”

“It doesn't help that midterms are coming up as well, my brain is just as sore,”

y/n watched as the friend group passed by, not even noticing them. Just when they were far enough so it didn't seem creepy, they walked out, clearing their throat.

“U-um...Ashido?”

The group turned around, signs of confusion on their faces. The girl in question stepped towards them slightly, a small bounce in her step.

“Hmm?”

y/n’s face tinted pink. they hoped it wasn't too noticeable. “U-uh, hi. I-i know you don't know me, b-but do you think I could talk to you for a sec? I-it won't take long, promise!” they blurted out, hands behind their back.

Ashido smiled, thinking it was probably a shy fan or something. “Yea, of course! What's up?”

There was a small silence.

“...a-alone?” y/n muttered, their face getting slightly redder.

Ashido blinked. “Oh, alright!-” she turned to her friends, making a small shooing motion with her hand.- “you guys go on ahead! I'll catch up later,”

“Well, okay. Just don't take too long, or we're gonna get boba tea without you!” the blonde one joked, waving behind him as the other two followed after him. Ashido stuck her tongue out at them, before chuckling and turning back to face y/n.

“So, what were you saying?” she said, smiling at them.

y/n almost had a heart attack. ‘So cute..’ they thought, fidgeting with the hem of their shirt. “W-well, I just wanted to-”

“Wait...you’re the crush dude, right?” Ashido questioned, snapping her fingers as if she had an ‘aha!’ moment.

y/n blinked. “...c-crush dude?”

“Yea! I've heard about you from some of the general student kids!”

“O-oh...well I just wanted to tell you that-”

“Wait, WAIT! Don't tell me...you like one of my friends, right?”

“H-huh? No, that's not-”

“Lemme guess, it's Denki, isn't it? Wait, no, you don't really seem like you’d be into him...what about Hanta? He's pretty cool, and you guys would look good together! Ooh, did you want me to tell him to you? Cause I can do that if you want-”

“ASHIDO!” y/n yelled, getting frustrated. Ashido froze, looking at y/n. She admits that she does have a tendency to talk over people, but she definitely didn't expect someone like y/n to flat out yell at her. y/n took a deep breath, looking back at Ashido.

“Look, i-I'm sorry I yelled, it's just- I have something really important I wanna tell you.” they looked at the ground, their blush getting darker. Ashido wasn't saying anything, so they began speaking again.

“I-i don't like any of your friends...I like you, Ashido. A-and I'm not entirely sure if you swing that way or anything, to be honest, I didn't think I did either, but here I am!” they chuckled nervously, staring at their shoes. “A-anyway, what I'm trying to say is, y-you don't have to reciprocate, I-i just thought you should know.”

they looked up, finally ready to see Ashido's reaction, and- blank. Her face was completely blank. y/n could feel tears welling up in their eyes. Had they said something wrong? Who were they kidding, of course they had. they had confessed to a girl. Ashido probably thought they were super weird. To make matters worse, they’ve never even spoken to each other before this! y/n had completely screwed up. If there was any sort of chance that they could've been friends, let alone romantic partners, it was all gone now. they sniffed, wiping their eyes. they turned around, not wanting to hear any of the comments they expected.

“Hey, wait!”

they froze, turning back around. Ashido was a few steps closer now, a look of concern on her face. She looked like she had to say something, but couldn't find the words to do so. After a few seconds of silence, she spoke, clearly nervous.

“Well, first of all, thank you for telling me. I appreciate it. And, um…” her face began getting pinker. “I...I wouldn't mind going on a date. A-as long as you’re comfortable with it, of course.” she smiled, rubbing the back of her neck.

A date? y/n couldn't believe it. they were speechless. they didn't think they were weird, or a freak, or anything? “You...you don't think I'm weird? We’ve never even talked..”

“Well, that may be true, but that's what dates are for, right? To get to know someone better! Plus, it would be nice being seen in public with someone as cute as you!” she winked, a huge grin on her face.

‘C-cute?!?!? She thinks I'm cute!! Omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg-’ y/n’s face was practically as red as an apple, but so was Ashido's, so they felt a little bit better about it.

“Y-yeah, a date sounds wonderful,” they said, fidgeting with the hem of their shirt again. “I-i’m free on the 4th!”

“Alrighty then! Here, gimme your phone.”

They then traded numbers, and Ashido ran off to meet up with her friends again, promising to work out the details later. y/n smiled.

Yep, there was no denying it- pink was definitely their favorite color.

#Mina #Ashido #Mina Ashido #mina x reader #mina x y/n #y/n #favorite color #bnha #my hero academia #my hero x reader #mha #slight angst #just a tad bit of homophobia #please dont cancel me for this-#yuri #fanfiction #fanfic

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linkspooky · 5 years ago

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The Unforgivable One

Someone in my inbox accused me of not treating the heroes like “flawed human beings”. However I think they had a fundamentaly misunderstanding of the way I read characters, both heroes and villains. I don’t see people as good or bad. I see everyone as equally human and flawed. Bad people don’t do bad things because they’re psychopaths, they often do these things for very understandable and human reasons. You can often hurt someone for very normal reasons. Abusers are in fact human too, and often they don’t really see themselves as bad people. Most people are not in fact cackling villains but in fact perfectly normal human beings going through mental gymnastics to justify themselves. So with that in mind let’s take a look at the incredibly flawed human being that is Todoroki Enji. Obvious content warning for discussion of child abuse under the readmore. If you can’t stomach it please don’t read this post for your own safety.

1. Endeavor’s Motivations

Endeavor’s motivations aren’t hard to understand, because they’re basically the same as Bakugo’s his foil. This is something the manga itself has commented upon. Bakugo gives us a view into the mindset of teen Endeavor and likely the attitude that led him to becoming the adult he is.

Endeavor is, in a way, as much of a victim of hero society as Bakugo is. In the fact that Enji has been negatively influenced by a lot of the views of hero society. Bakugo and Endeavor both have incredibly flashy quirks more suited to combat and defeating villains rather than saving people which makes them the ideal of hero society’s quirk prejudgice. People are not born equal, that’s the words that the manga start with, and it’s imporatnt to notice that people like Bakugo and Endeavor are heavily favored by hero society but that too comes with its own unique set of pressures. As hero society is ultimately a very toxic system overall that holds up an unhealthy ideal.

Bakugo is a bully, ultimately. He wants to make other people feel small to make himself feel big. Endeavor is the grown up version of that same bully. However, Bakugo while being a bully Bakugo also has an extremely uhealthy mindset where he is constantly piling up pressure on himself and never really feeling satisfied. A mindset which instead of trying to correct Hero society praises Bakugo for having, and encourages.

Let me explain. Basically, Bakugo and Endeavor are both the living embodiment of “damned by faint praise.” They are constantly being praised and told how special they are because of their quirks. However, while this may have been enough for them early on in their lives while they are little kids they eventually get the sense that they haven’t really earned the massive amounts of praise people give them.

This causes both of them to be struck with a serious case of what most people call “Imposter’s Syndrome”, they don’t really feel like they’re the ones getting praised. They don’t feel like they’ve earned it. This is when one of their first mental traps springs. They decide they have to become the really great person that everyone sees them as. They’re always specifically aware of how short they fall as a hero from the expectations of everyone around them, and they are constantly working to make the difference up.

Endeavor and Bakugo are people who have incredible drive, and also an incredible motivation to improve themselves. This has been stated before by the story several times but none of these are bad traits to have. Wanting to improve yourself. Wanting to live up to everyone’s expectations of you, or even your own expectations of yourself can lead to you pushing yourself to do good things.

However, the problem is for both Bakugo and Endeavor that no matter how much they build themselves up in their head they’re building on very flimsy foundations. Both of them are building towers of sand, or houses of cards. They have a lot of self-confidence in themselves but it’s always fragile. Because they have confidence, but no security in themselves. They are extremely insecure individuals.

They both pile up an incredible amounts of stress and pressure on themselves to be the best, or at least to be as good as they think they should be, but they also both suffer from the two same critical flaws. Number one, they have been taught no healthy ways to deal with this negative buildup of stress. This is once again one of the faults of hero society, if people are strong then nobody around them will ever see them as week.

Bakugo is kidnapped by a villain at the start of the manga, not a single person is worried that he might be traumatized from nearly being killed. Of course not he has an incredibly powerful quirk. He’s strong, so he must not suffer from trauma like the weak kids.

Bakugo is uniquely pressured because he has a strong quirk, everyone around him expects him to be strong at all times and Bakugo himself does not allow himself to show any vulnerability. Bakugo legitimately believes that if he was strong enough, he would never fail, never lose. Bakugo basically doesn’t allow himself to be human in any of the ways that count. Bakugo only sees himself but that’s a double edged sword, when things go wrong the fault has to be with Bakugo, it’s because Bakugo was weak. So, Bakugo has been severely emotionally neglected by the institutions around him including UA, which after Bakugo has been kidnapped by several murderous villains did not think to check if a fifteen year old was traumatized and mentally healthy enough to return to classes.

The second flaw in their mindset is that they are continually forced to prove themselves. They work hard, but feel no satisfaction no matter what they accomplish. Even if they have the most resolved cases, even if they get number one in the tournament. This is because once again, the enormous pressure and expectations they push onto themselves. If a Straight A student gets A’s, it’s not extraordinary he’s merely doing what’s expected. If a C student gets an A that’s an accomplishment. Their expectations are so high for themselves that they can literally never be met, and therefore they feel no relief from the constant piling up of expectations and stress.

This is why Bakugo is fundamentally insecure. He’s not good enough to meet his own standards, and it seems like everyone else exists to prove how small he is. Bakugo sees the world as everyone else looking down on him because he’s so stuck in his own head. Bakugo cannot emotionally process this, and because of that at even the smallest upset he starts crying and acting like a child because he just can’t handle these emotions. He’s unstable, mentally always in a very precarious place.

What Bakugo wants is to feel good about himself. He wants to feel like all his hard work is accomplishing something. However, Bakugo’s self esteem comes not from what he’s accomplished but rather that feeling of being better than others, the societal pressure to be the best, which is why he not only has to be the strongest but has to put others down below him. Not only that, but if he feels like somebody is disrespecting him or not taking him seriously then Bakugo even goes as far as to lash out violently. He literally tried to attack an unconscious Todoroki (who was holding back due ot having flashbacks of his father in the middle of a fight against Bakugo... hmm, i wonder why). Bakugo’s mindset is very insular. Bakugo just kind of assumes that everybody thinks exactly the same way he does, because he’s not emotionally intelligent really to understand other people. So he just assumes Todoroki holding back is an intentional insult against him and gets angry. In Bakugo’s mind it’s justifable to be violent against an unconscious Todoroki, because Todoroki’s the one intentionally provoking him and looking down on him.

Bakugo and Endeavor go through a similiar arc. They both build these giant towers on foundations of sand, only to watch them crumble and be left with nothing. They both realize that they were fighting for the wrong thing all this time.

When they realize they were fighting for the wrong thing, all they can feel is emptiness and their own personal disatisfaction. Bakugo and Endeavor were chasing something they were never really going to have in the first place, because even if they became the number one hero, even if they were the strongest in the world it would never be enough for them. Which means they’ve accumulated all this stress but have no healthy way to deal with it so they vent it out. Literally the only thing Bakugo can think of to do when he’s at his limit is beat up Deku one more time and try to make himself feel strong again and prove that his way of doing things wasn’t wrong.

Bakugo and Endeavor find themselves at similiar points. They both realize everything they were devoting themselves for was wrong from the start, and they were never going to get what they wanted out of life. While Endeavor’s reasons are not necessarily sympathetic, they are at least understandable and human. Endeavor feels like he’s owed a reward for all of his hard work. He wants to feel like he’s someone special and important. Endeavor and Bakugo are selfish yes, but a selfish drive doesn’t have to be a bad thing necessarily. Endeavor and Bakugo are always pushing themselves to be the absolute best version of themselves because they believe in society’s pressure to be the best wholeheartedly. They’re also continually made to feel worse than everyone around them. Their tremendous egos are actually fueld by very small insecurities.

They also much like human beings don’t absolutely think they are right all the time. Bakugo and Endeavor both have hit their limits so to speak. Their struggles are sisyphian. They push the boulder up the hill, watch it roll down, push the boulder up the hill, watch it roll down and are slowly realizing that all of their struggles are getting them absolutely nowhere. At which point both of them begin to self reflect and think they may have been going about things all wrong from the start. Bakugo and Endeavor both have some awareness of how unhealthy their mindset is, or at least that it’s not getting them what they want. They are sometimes capable of questioning themselves and where they’ve gone wrong.

2. A Show Parent

Psychological projection is a defense mechanism people subconsciously employ in order to cope with difficult feelings or emotions. Psychological projection involves projecting undesirable feelings or emotions onto someone else, rather than admitting to or dealing with the unwanted feelings.

Endeavor is constantly battling with his own feelings of inferiority in weakness. However rather than process these feelings in healthy ways, Endeavor has always chosen to take his feelings out on his family. The reason why is because from the start Endeavor has viewed his family in a selfish way, they existed, and continue to exist for him and not the other way around.

The way Enji projects on his family is actually for pretty common every day reasons. Enji himself feels like he can’t achieve what he wanted out of life. He wasn’t good enough to become number one, he couldn’t hack it and therefore he’ll never be good enough. That’s why he made the decision to instead try to live vicariously through Shoto, who he sees as an extension of himself. Enji has projected all of his wants and desires entirely onto Shoto. When he was raising Shoto, it was never about having Shoto’s needs met, but rather what Enji’s wants were.

Enji feels that he himself is not good enough so he projects himself onto Shoto to accomplish what he can’t, belcause he thinks he will be able to find the fulfillment he’s seeking that way. It’s the same as a person with dreams of becoming an actor pushing their child onto the stage at young ages instead of letting them go to school with all of the other kids. It’s the same as a person who wasn’t able to achieve their dreams in sports pushing their kid to be good at sports. In that sense Enji is not Todoroki’s father, he is his coach, or his manager. He’s not responsible for taking care of a child he’s raising them for a purpose.

This is the reason why we see Enji get physically angry at Shoto. Enji has so thoroughly projected himself onto Shoto, that anything Shoto wants outside of what Enji wants, Enji perceives as resistance. Enji does not seem to get that a five year old can’t take the intensive training because he sees himself as that five year old. He thinks that Shoto must just not want it enough. That he’s not motivated enough. That he’s resisting him purposefully. It’s the same reason as Bakugo getting violent towards the unconscious Shoto near the end, when Shoto stopped fighting him seriously Bakugo in his fragility perceived it as Shoto holding back from him on purpose because he was looking down on him.

If Shoto succeeds then Enji expects to feel that success. If Shoto fails that means Enji is not only reminded of his own inferiority again, but he also is forced to relive his lost dreams. Shoto doesn’t know any of that though, he’s just Shoto, just a kid, so of course he’s going to fall short of Enji’s extremely schewed expectations which is where the negative feedback loop beings.

Because, even though Enji is using his family to try to make himself feel better that doesn’t work either. The truth is Enji can’t live vicariously through his son. Shoto’s success is not his success, and Shoto himself even wants nothing to do with him anymore. Enji has been using his family for completely selfish reasons up to this point and we reach a point in the narrative where Enji at least seems to grasp the fallout of his actions. Enji is at least aware of the fact that his family doesn’t like him, and that he’s done a bad.

Reconciliation and calm are both stages that are written into the cycle of abuse for a reason. Most abusers are not heartless monsters, but rather humans. The frightening thing is abuse is a very normal thing, that arises from normal circumstances. Almost anybody can become an abuser, because it’s an abuse of power, it’s a cycle people get trapped in. A lot of abusers realize that what they are doing is wrong, this is called th reconciliation stage of abuse. Most people do in fact feel bad about it when they hurt another person and want to make ammends.

The reason abuse repeats however is because the core behavior does not change, and the power dynamic remains in place. Abusers apologize for the wounds they caused, but don’t really address the problems of their behavior on a deeper level, and because of that they let the tensions build again and another incident always occurs.

So what we are seeing post All Might retirement is not really a change in Enji’s behavior, because the core of who he is remains the same. He has perhaps had a change in motivation, he’s realized that trying to be the number one hero is never going to get him what he wants, and the way he’s treated his family has made his family hate him. However, he never addresses the core of the issue which is that he thinks his family exists for his sake. This is not my analysis these are things Enji has literally said, not in the tournament arc but post Kamino. Endeavor still says I’m going to leave everything to Shoto. Not even asking what Shoto wants to be. He still sees Shoto as his heir who exists to carry on his legacy.

Enji is still essentially doing exactly what he did before and expecting a different result. He even says so to Shoto, if he’s a good enough hero, then Shoto will watch him, and be proud of him. These are Endeavor’s own selfish motivaions and not what the other people around him really want him to do. He’s doing this for the acknowledgement he thinks he deserves, and the attention from his family he thinks he deserves and not really for altruisitic or heroic reasons.

Enji repeats a lot of his behavior from before. He still piles attention and attention onto Shoto that Shoto does not want. He is still essentially projecting himself onto Shoto and the rest of his family, that behavior has not changed, it’s just his method. He thinks if he becomes number one dad now instead of number one hero that will get him the sense of accomplishment he craves. The problem is underneath all of his actions, Enji has yet to really grasp what he did wrong. He doesn’t grasp how selfish his actions are. He doesn’t seem to understand how messed up it is, that he seems to think his family exists for his sake. He found a wife, he had children, he had Shoto, not because he wanted to make a family happy but because he wanted to use them to further his own amibtions to become a hero.

Enji is both capable of realizing that he hurt people, and feeling genuine remorse fo his actions but also not really making any signficant changes for his behavior. The fact that both of these can be true simultaneously is what allows abuse to continue.

While he knows he did something wrong you also get a sense he doesn’t truly understand how truly heinous some of his actions were. Enji always has this narrative inside of his head that he simply made a mistake somewhere along the way, that he acted without even realizing what he was doing.

It’s not that Natsuo is angry with him and will never stop being angry with him, it’s that Enji has somehow said the wrong words by mistake. It’s not that Enji violently beat a child because he was angry that child wasn’t living up to his impossible standards, but Enji somehow just ignored Shoto’s wishes.

He always makes it sound like it was accidental, like he didn’t know what he was doing, like he somehow didn’t mean to abuse them. He wasn’t beating up a little kid he just ignored Shoto’s wishes and it somehow went wrong along the way. This complete lack of culpability that Enji has towards his own actions is also what leads him to repeat several really bad aspects of his behavior, such as hyperfocusing on Shoto to the point of ignoring Fuyumi and Natsuo, forcing Shoto to live up to his legacy and accept his help, still vicariously living through Shoto instead of letting Shoto be his own person.

Enji doesn’t address the root cause of the behavior and doesn’t change himself in any real way. The bad behavior repeats. The cycle continues. What Enji has been avoiding and what he needs to acknowledge is that there was genuine malice in the way he treated his kids. He sees his whole family as existing for his sake, to meet his own emotional needs and when they failed he always took it out on them.

For Enji it’s always Enji first and everyone else second. It’s always primarily about what Enji wants. He doesn’t seem other people, only himself, and what he wants. That’s why when Shoto literally has half of his face burned off as a result of Enji’s actions, all Enji really cares about is that it’s going to interrupt Shoto’s training.

Whenever Enji’s family existed outside of what he wanted them to be, or got in his way in any significant way he always vented his frustation on them. He resorts to hitting for the same reason that Bakugo always feels the need to bully Deku. A grown up bully. Enji needs to make others feel small to feel assured of his own bigness. Deku has to always be underneath Bakugo, otherwise Bakugo’s worthless. Enji has to put his family back in their place. If they resist or show desires of their own otuside of what Enji needs for them he turns violent to try to force them back. It all arises from an incredibly unhealthy way of viewing himself and his own emotions yes, but it’s also something that other people suffer the consequences of.

His family exists for his sake, which is why he’s at the same time both extremely controlling of them, but also just straight up ignores the ones who aren’t useful to him.

These aren’t a result of Enji going too far, these are all intentional cases of neglect. Especially if you consider the way Natsuo and the others were treated. Enji didn’t even bother to take care of them and raise them as his children because they weren’t of any use to his ambitions.

He straight up had no presence in their lives whatsoever. These are things he intentionally chose to do. For his own selfish reasons, because he thought his children existed for his own happiness and not the other way around that he was not responsible for his children.

These aren’t things that can happen on accident. Neglect is as much of an abusive behavior as what was done to Shoto. It’s a parent failing even their basic responsibilities as a parent to be present and around in their child’s life.

Even the children he neglects he still controls though. When Natsuo’s cooking wasn’t good enough, Enji forced him to stop cooking anymore.

Enji had to have intentionally does these things, but when confronted with them he always acts clueless. He even claims to Natsuo’s face it was never his intention to shut any of them out of his life, even though he literally says on panel in the past that Shoto shouldn’t pay attention to his siblings because his brothers were failures.

He’s even referred to his other children as things like Shoto is somehow different from them. So how can both of these things be true at the same time? Enji had to have chosen to done these things to intentionally neglect his family, so how can he claim he never meant to shut them out of his life? How can Enji both get genuinely hateful of his children, especially Shoto when they don’t act the way he wants them to, and yet also want to do the best for his family? How can he be completely absent in Natsuo’s life his entire life and yet claim to have wanted the best for him? How is Enji capable of feeling genuine remorse for his actions and realizing that they are wrong, and still have done what he did? It’s at this point we reach the psyhological excuses. The great many hoops that he’s jumped through and mental gymnastics Enji has performed to justify himself.

3. The Shadow of the Hero

So there seems to be two contradictory sides to Enji. There is Endeavor the hero who stops at nothing to be number one who sees nothing else but his ambition and his burning drive to be better, and then there’s Todoroki Enji the family man who just seems to be sort of awkward, emotionally absent, and not at all present in his children’s lives.

Endeavor is overconfident, short tempered, and also an extremely volatile person who will get violently angry if the wrong buttons are pushed. Enji is very quiet and almost self reflective. As if Endeavor is almost always burning, and Enji is burnt out. We see this same kind of emotional dissonance happen with Bakugo too, Bakugo is either on top of the world at which point he’s firing on all cyllinders and acts like an overenthusiastic angry idiot, or he’s very quiet, withdrawn and tends to dump on himself a lot. It’s important to remember that neither of them handle their emotions in any kind of remotely healthy way, so in Enji’s case it makes sense that when he’s not angry he just becomes kind of withdrawn and empty. A person who doesn’t know how to deal with emotions becomes very emotionally awkward when they’re asked to do anything besides, be angry, or punch a villain.

However it goes to a much more extreme extent with Endeavor. To the point where it does almost seem like there are two people. There’s the much more calmer, and reasonable Enji that he has been showing around his family lately.

Which even Natsuo says that this change is so sudden and different it’s unnatural. I call this “good behavior” Enji. It’s when he’s restraining himself and holding himself back because he has at least realized that a lot of his interactions with his family in the past were wrong. But good behavior once again doesn’t necessarily mean a change in one’s self, because as stated above there’s a stage in the cycle of abuse specifically for when the abuser starts acting better for a period of time.

There has always been two faces to Endeavor. Not only does Endeavor see himself that way, but that’s also the way the public in general reacts to him. There is Endeavor the hero, and Enji the person. Shoto even comments on this word for word, that he knows Enji is a very respectable hero especially to the public but that doesn’t cancel out a single thing he did.

This is where we get into the psychological excuses. Enji’s arc deals with heavy Jungian themes, specifically that of the shadow.

In Jungian psychology, the "shadow", "Id", or "shadow aspect/archetype" may refer to (1) an unconscious aspect of the personality which the conscious ego does not identify in itself, or (2) the entirety of the unconscious, i.e., everything of which a person is not fully conscious. In short, the shadow is the unknown side.

Because one tends to reject or remain ignorant of the least desirable aspects of one's personality, the shadow is largely negative. There are, however, positive aspects that may also remain hidden in one's shadow (especially in people with low self-esteem, anxieties, and false beliefs).

For Enji, his conscious personality is Endeavor the hero. That’s the one everyone sees and reacts to. However, his shadow his the actions he’s done to his own family, what he keeps hidden and concealed from the world. The things he refuses to acknowledge such as how selfish his actions truly were.

Enji has a narrative for himself where everything he did was just because he wanted to be the best possible hero he can be. Even though his actions are entirely selfish, he’s convinced himself that he’s doing these things for Shoto, for his family. The problem is Enji’s entire identity is so focused around being a hero that he doesn’t really have an identity, or much of a personality outside of his career as a hero which is why he’s so underdeveloped as a person. Being a hero is his life. He doesn’t see the parts of his life that don’t relate to his career as a hero.

He’s able to ignore the selfish aspect of his actions. All of the contrdictory parts of his actions because he’s in denial. He still sees himself as that hero who wanted to be number one. He thinks everything he did was in favor of that and he just messed up along the way. It doesn’t occur to him that he had geniune malice towards his children, or his family because he chooses to ignore those inconvenient points of his psychology.

Enji is, two people in a sense. It’s because he revolves everything in his life around being the best hero he absolutely can be, that he doesn’t see how his actions are downright villainous. Enji is essentially trying to have it both ways. He thinks he can become the best hero that he can be, and also the best dad at the same time.

However, his behavior is the same. He’s not trying to prove himself as a father not really, he’s just doing the same thing he always did which is put his job as a hero above everything else. Enji is just so completely in his own head, so in denial of his own actions that he just doesn’t see these things.

Enji’s actions are a shadow that have escaped from him because his way of atoning and fighting against his past actions is to just do the same thing he’s always did and try his best as a hero. Even though being a hero is literally what caused him to abuse his family, and Natsuo and Todoroki have both pointed out several times that being a good hero doesn’t really atone for what he did in any real way.

Enji’s narrative for himself is that his attempt to be number one was a good thing. That his striving to be the best hero he could be was a good thing. It just somehow got bad results for him. He doesn’t really understand how he got to point A and point B, and part of that is again society’s image of Endeavor the Hero is pretty messed up too. Everyone around him praises Endeavor for being a hero while absolutely nobody talks about what happened in his home life and therefore Endeavor faces no real consequences for it.

Everyone sees this heroic figure out of the image that Enji projects. Because that’s the light. That’s who he is on the surface. If you look on the surface of his actions only you just see a guy who doesn’t know how to give up, and was trying his best to be number one. It almost looks heroic to see his struggle. However, once again if you only view things from the surface you can’t really understand him or his actions. Which is why Endeavor only viewing himself as Endeavor the hero misses his own shadow and what he’s done to the other people around him.

The person who Endeavor thinks he is, and who Enji really is are two different people. This is because of that unacknowledged shadow. It’s because Endeavor has this huge selfish element to his actions that he’s just completely in denial of. Not because he doesn’t feel guilt for his actions, but because he does and he’s avoiding it.

Enji sees himself in the high end Nomu he struggles against, but even that is an incorrect viewing of himself. Nomus are victims, ultimately. They were people who were kidnapped and had multiple quirks loaded into them in the name of mad science. The Nomu is Todoroki, Enji is Ujiko. He’s the one who created several children trying to mix quirks together for his own purposes and then dodged responsibility for that for years. He’s not the monster, he’s Doctor Frankenstein himself.

Enji when confronted with these behaviors, with the absolute worst of his personality, and the dark sides of all of his intentions never acknowledges them. He never tries to integrate them into who he is as a person. He just tries to fight against them and defeat them.

“Unless we do conscious work on it, the shadow is almost always projected; that is it is neatly liad on someone or something else we do so we do not take responsibility for it.” Robert Jonson

You don’t destroy a shadow. You don’t make the bad things you’ve done and the bad parts of your personality go away. The only way to defeat the shadow is to integrate it and consciously acknowledge that you are like this. This shadow stuff is not something I’m applying to the text either, the text directly references it.

This is Jungian symbolism. The light of the conscious mind creates the shadow. It’s because people only pay attention to Endeavor that hero, that his shadow Enji the person becomes thicker and blacker. The longer people go without acknowledging it, the darker his shadow will become.

Which is why Dabi is in a way his shadow as well. The violent parts of his personality that Enji has failed to acknowledge or do anything about, part of Enji that still believes that the only thing that matters is strength.

Enji would never approve of Dabi’s actions, and yet Enji also created Dabi. Once again think of frankenstein and the monster. Dabi wouldn’t even exist if Enji had never abused his family. The monster argues against Doctor Frankenstein that yes he has murdered people, but he never would have existed in the first place unless the doctor had created him which manes the doctor shares respsonsibility for even the unintended consequences of his actions. A person is responsible for their shadow, intentional or not. Dabi is the shadow of Endeavor’s actions in human form.

He exists to bring into conflict what Enji has been ignoring. That he can’t be good to his family and be a good hero at the same time, because his drive to be a hero was the source of his abusive behavior in the first place and drove him to do what he did to his family.

Enji is a very selfish person who hasn’t confronted his own selfishness in any significant way. Do I care that he’s only atoning for selfish reasons. No, that’s not the problem exactly. You could argue that all atonement is selfish in nature. The fact that Bakugo and Enji are very self-driven individuals is not necessarily the problem, it’s not a bad thing to want to be selfish, or even desire to better yourself. It can lead to good things. It’s that in Enji’s case, his selfishness always comes at the expense of others. He completely shuts people out and doesn’t even see them. All he sees is what he wants to see. Above all else this viewpoint of the world is very narrow and self-serving. He only sees the surface of his own actions. He only ever sees himself as the hero and can’t acknowledge that to his family he’s the villain.

Enji only ever saw himself and his self-centered view of the world, and everybody else, including the children he was responsible for and the wife he forced a marriage on only ever got in his way, which is why he resented them. If Enji wants to atone that’s one thing, but if Enji wants to stop being such a selfish person and truly do things for the sake of his family as he’s stated he wants to in the past that means acknowledging his actions.

Enji continues to be a hero because that’s what he wants, it’s what he’s built his whole life around. He even sees his path forward to atonement as just continuing to do his job as a hero, even when he’s told by Natsuo that won’t work. Which is why the only real substantial way for Enji to change is to actually have to give something up. To acknowledge that he’s in fact a bad hero. He even stated himself, there’s something he wants even more than being a hero now. He wants Toya to be there.

Which is why Dabi is such an important character because he not only forces Enji to realize the worst of his actions but also to choose, between what is best for himself and his career as a hero which is the only thing he’s ever really cared about and what is best for his family. It’s only in the confrontation with his shadow that we can see what Enji is really made of.

#todoroki enji #endeavor #meta #mha meta #my hero academia meta #bakugo katsuki #todoroki touya #foiling #dabi

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max1461 · 4 years ago

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Just read Scott Alexander’s post on “conflict theorists” vs. “mistake theorists” and, hmm. I have several thoughts. First, to summarize the concept for anyone who hasn’t seen it before: Alexander links to a reddit post by user u/no_bear_so_low, who originated the idea, saying

There is a way of carving up politics in which there are two basic political meta-theories, that is to say theories about why different political ideologies and political conflict exist. The first theory is that political disagreements exist because politics is complex and people make mistakes, if we all understood the evidence better, we’d agree on a great deal more. We’ll call this the mistake theory of politics. For the mistake theorist, politics is not a zero-sum game, but a matter of growing the pie so there is more for everyone. The second theory is that political disagreements reflect differences in interests which are largely irreconcilable. We’ll call this the conflict theory of politics. According to the conflict theory of politics, politics is full of zero-sum games.

u/no_bear_so_low claims that both the far left and far right are more amenable to conflict theory than liberals are, who lean more towards mistake theory. Alexander seems to agree, though in his own post he’s speaking mainly about Marxists in particular. He summarizes the concept as follows:

To massively oversimplify:

Mistake theorists treat politics as science, engineering, or medicine. The State is diseased. We’re all doctors, standing around arguing over the best diagnosis and cure. Some of us have good ideas, others have bad ideas that wouldn’t help, or that would cause too many side effects.

Conflict theorists treat politics as war. Different blocs with different interests are forever fighting to determine whether the State exists to enrich the Elites or to help the People.

In addition, Alexander subdivides the categories further into “hard” and “soft” versions:

Consider a further distinction between easy and hard mistake theorists. Easy mistake theorists think that all our problems come from very stupid people making very simple mistakes; dumb people deny the evidence about global warming; smart people don’t. Hard mistake theorists think that the questions involved are really complicated and require more evidence than we’ve been able to collect so far [...]

Maybe there’s a further distinction between easy and hard conflict theorists. Easy conflict theorists think that all our problems come from cartoon-villain caricatures wanting very evil things; bad people want to kill brown people and steal their oil, good people want world peace and tolerance. Hard conflict theorists think that our problems come from clashes between differing but comprehensible worldviews.

So what do I think about all this?

Well, it seems to me that this framework is (a) a fairly reasonable descriptive dichotomy, in the sense that, yes, a lot of people do genuinely seem to fall into one of these two camps, and (b) a horrible dichotomy on which to base any prescriptions about political meta-theory, in that these are both awful (and obviously wrong) ways to think about the world. Now, Alexander doesn’t explicitly give any such prescriptions, but he does describe SCC as “hard mistake theorist central”, and generally speaks of mistake theory in approving terms, while speaking of conflict theory in disapproving ones. I think this is bad.

At a base level, my problem with both these “theories” is that they’re, in some sense, just too optimistic.

I agree, for example, with the hard mistake theorist sentiment that the world is full of extremely challenging technical problems, that these problems can be the source of real human suffering, and that the only way to address these problems is through data collection and empirical analysis and hard technical work. And I agree that this will often produce unintuitive conclusions, that run against people’s gut sense of what the right policy might look like. I agree that the state is diseased. I do not agree that “[w]e’re all doctors, standing around arguing over the best diagnosis and cure.” People, it turns out, often do have genuinely different and irreconcilable values, and genuinely do envision different ideal worlds. In addition to that fairly mundane observation, there genuinely are a lot of bad actors, who are just in the game for their own benefit. The world is full of grifters, schemers, and petty (or not so petty) tyrants; on an empirical level that’s just not something you can deny.

On the other hand, I agree with the easy conflict theorist sentiment that, e.g., “bad people want to kill brown people and steal their oil.” There’s plenty of pretty immediate proof of that to be found if you look into the history of colonialism¹, or the slave trade, or US foreign election interference in the twentieth century. Actually, just so I’m not pissing anybody off by only mentioning “western” examples, I’ll include the Khmer Rouge and the Holodomor and comfort women and uh, you get the picture. For god’s sake, the Nazis really existed, and yeah, they really believed all that Nazi shit. In retrospect they may seem like implausibly evil cartoon villains, but in fact they were real flesh and blood humans, just like the rest of us. You think that was just a one-off?

And on a much more mundane note, sometimes (actually, very very often), ordinary people just have incompatible ethical axioms. Sometimes people have genuinely different values, and there are no rational means to sort out which value-set to choose. I suspect this is at least part of the reason for the rationalist community’s skew towards mistake theorizers, in that their favored intellectual tool has more-or-less nothing to offer when it comes to selecting your values (=ethical axioms, =terminal goals, etc). I mean, of course rationality is good for diagnosing contradictions in your value set, but it can’t tell you how to resolve those contradictions. That’s the domain of intuition, empathy, and aesthetics, were data cannot light your way.

However, I do not agree with the conflict theorists’ underlying sentiment that if “the good people” were just in charge, everything would be better. After all, there are all those pesky technical problems with unintuitive solutions getting in the way, requiring all kinds of expertise and thorough empirical study and uh, plenty of them might not even be solvable.² This is a huge deal. It’s incredibly easy to have the best of intentions and still make horrible mistakes by virtue of just... happening to have the facts wrong. Not through malice, or self-interest, or even some nicely-explainable sociological bias like white fragility or whatever. Just because problems are hard, and sometime you will fail to solve them. Even when people’s lives and livelihoods are at stake.

Here’s a handy latex-formatted table for your comprehending pleasure:

lol, we live there.

So this all sounds a bit pessimistic and, well, I suppose it is. I think we have a responsibility to acknowledge the gravity of our situation. We could, conceivably, live in a world that was structured according to either the conflict theorist’s vision or the mistake theorist’s vision, but we don’t. We live in a much scarier world, and if we don’t face that terrifying reality head-on, we’re not going to be able to overcome it.

Now, in general, I’d say I spend a lot of my internet-argument-energy-allowance trying to persuade [what I perceive to be] overly conflict-theorizing leftists in the direction of a greater recognition of the genuine technical difficulty of the problems we face. It's probably worth making a separate post about why I think a “denial of unintuitive solutions” is so common on the left, but I’ll just mention here that I think it relates to what I once jokingly called the “Humanistic gaze”. That is, the bias to view everything quite narrowly through the lens of the humanities, and to view all problems as fundamentally sociological in nature. When the world is constructed entirely by humans and human social relations, there’s a level at which nothing can be unintuitive. After all, an intersubjective world must ultimately be grounded in subjective experience, and subjective experience is literally made of intuition.

I usually don’t spend much time pursuing the dual activity (trying to argue liberals out of [what I perceive to be] an overly mistake-theorizing perspective). This is largely because, well, I think the optimistic assumption that mistake theorists make —that most people have basically compatible goals, and that relatively few people are working out of abject self-interest or hatred or whatever— is so obviously false that it doesn’t warrant as much genuine critique as it warrants responding with memes about US war crimes. The principal of charity is best extended to ideas, not people or institutions. You can take the neocons’ arguments seriously without extending charity to the neocons as agents.

The post concludes with Alexander writing

But overall I’m less sure of myself than before and think this deserves more treatment as a hard case that needs to be argued in more specific situations. Certainly “everyone in government is already a good person, and just has to be convinced of the right facts” is looking less plausible these days.

And uh, yeah. Indeed.

So, in conclusion: is politics medicine, or is it war? No, it’s politics.

There are disagreements, and conflicts of interest, and coalition building, and policy-wonkery, and logistics. There is, as with anything involving the state, the implicit threat of violence. (That’s where the state’s power comes from, remember? Whether it’s their power to tax, or their power to enforce individual property rights to begin with. Their power to regulate or build infrastructure or legally construct corporate personhood or whatever. There’s more than a bit of game theory involved, sure, but the rules of the game are set through the armory.) Every scholarly technocrat with double-blind peer reviewed policy suggestions still ultimately just decides who the guns get pointed at, if at several layers of abstraction. Every righteous people’s vanguard is still bound by the mathematics of production and the dynamics of a chaotic world. There are no easy solution, not conceptually easy nor practically easy. And unless we recognize that on a very deep level, we have no chance of fixing anything.

[1] I’d quote my go-to example here, of the truly ghastly stories relayed to linguist R. M. Dixon by the Dyirbal people of Australia about their subjugation at the hands of white settlers, but unfortunately I don’t have his book with me at the moment. Also this post would require several additional trigger warnings.

[2] I mean, after all, there are only countably many Turing machines, and the set of all languages with finitely many symbols has cardinality 2^(aleph_0)!

#society #for posterity

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novantinuum · 5 years ago

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Crack the Paragon, Chapter 11

Fandom: Steven Universe

Rating: Teen Audiences (I have upped the rating in consideration of sensitive topics I aim to depict later on.)

Words: 3000~

Summary: In another world, he doesn’t have his mother’s sword or shield to hide behind when Bismuth lands her strike. The bubble pops.

Steven falls apart.

Chapter summary: In which Lapis is a flight risk, and Steven begins to doubt himself.

You can find the AO3 link in the reblogs! (I have to omit them from the original post these days to ensure this will show up in the tags.) If you enjoyed this, I’d greatly appreciate your support through reblogs here, or kudos/comments on AO3 as well.

Chapter 10: Beta, Part 2

When your life has become a continually evolving string of heart pounding adventures linked together by the odd few days off, you quickly learn to fixate on the fine details no matter what the circumstance, as you never know when one of those details could be used to save everyone’s butts. Sure, it’s not like this outlook did him any favors back in the forge, but his point still stands: a Steven who isn’t constantly paying close attention to his surroundings is a Steven who can’t properly help his friends. If he’s not innately aware of everything around him, he can’t raise his shield in time. He won’t be able to pull the right tool out of his cheeseburger backpack. He can’t give a perfectly worded response to a soul in need. This is a non-negotiable fact, and the reality of what happened with Bismuth merely cements it ever more solid. Which is why— deep beyond the wandering disorientation of his current surface thoughts— he can’t help but wonder why he’s unable to pay attention to the details that actually matter right now. The individual threads of all his friends’ panic, confusion, and attempted explanation overlap and intertwine, weaving an audible tapestry of emotions. Their precise words, however, may as well have died in the wind. Mentally, he is not here. Instead, the fragmented remains of his focus choose to zero in on the wood grain pattern spread across every beam and board of the barn’s rustic infrastructure. Wholly enamored, his eyes trace a path between the dark ridges as if traversing a maze. Tree rings are super pretty, huh. He absolutely doesn’t give them the love and admiration they deserve. But as is evident from the slight musty smell and the dainty mushrooms beginning to sprout by the floor in one of the corners, some of the boards are beginning to rot. His mouth falls slightly ajar, and he stares at these fruiting bodies with such stubborn commitment that for a moment he forgets anything else was ever a priority. Have Peridot and Lapis noticed? Do they even know what wood rot is? Upon that thought, he frowns pensively, balling his fist at his chin. Hmm. Given their relative inexperience with Earth stuff, the most likely answer to that is no. He’ll have to call Dad about fixing the boards before this grows into an even bigger problem. It’d be awful if their home became unsafe to live in because he didn’t do his part to help. But then again... “What do you mean, none of you know why she did it? That just makes it worse!” “Lapis! Lapis, wait! They said she’s—“ “Let go of me!” she says, struggling in Peridot’s grasp, her water wings flaring outwards at the ready. “Don’t you get it? I can’t live here on Earth anymore, it’s not safe! None of us are safe!” Is he already too late?

Lapis’s impassioned cries continue to echo at the edge of his awareness— something paranoid about shapeshifted disguises, about the Diamonds— but his feet are still anchored to the boards below, his body all but stagnant in shock of the current maelstrom of emotions. And yet, it’s strange... while a sum of him dimly recognizes he’s still attached to reality, it’s almost as if he’s watching all of this from above himself, stuck as a passive observer to his failure. Helpless. ( C-cracked, I’m- I’m cracked, I’m split I, I can’t... feel... need... I-I need to —) Slimy tendrils of guilt slither around his heart. He wasn’t paying close enough attention to the mood. He wasn’t careful. He wasn’t convincing. He was scared that everyone would devolve into petty argument, and look what happened! He ran his mouth when he should’ve stayed silent. He caused his own nightmare. His family’s splintering apart once more, and it’s all his fault. “But it’s not like that,” Ruby hastily interjects, “I’m sure it’s not like that!” “Really? You’re seriously jumping to defend Rose, after all the lies she fed us?” Amethyst spits back. “N- no! I’m just saying, why would—“ The constant chirping chorus emanating from the birds of the nearby woods steals his fragmented focus next, and he can’t help the sense of relief that bubbles up from within as he willfully sinks into the distraction. The birds, their songs are beautiful. He wonders what they’re saying to each other... if they’re arguing about territory, warning friends about predators, or simply having a friendly conversation. Maybe his dad might be able to distinguish the difference. When he was still living in the van, they used to lay on that ratty old mattress side-by-side late at night, listening to the crashing tides and the distant squalls of birds picking at trashed food on the boardwalk. Because one of his relatives was big into birding when they were kids, Dad was always able to stake a reasonable guess on the species class based on call alone. And honestly, that’s a pretty amazing power to have. As he related earlier, it’s important to fixate on the fine details. Attention to detail can save lives. It can soften hearts. It can make or break friendships. But as he’s grown to fear, it can’t fix everything. He can’t fix everything. The blue Gem’s features twist with simmering fury. “Peridot, I told you to let me go!” she hollers, and in a single jerk rips herself away from the shorter Gem’s desperate embrace. Her wings swing like a whip behind her as her body follows the motion through. It’s enough of a shock to the system that his sense of awareness comes rushing back. He ducks, the water swishing right over his head. Something behind him snaps and clatters to the ground. Ruby presses a bejeweled hand to her face, muttering something he can’t distinguish. “‘Kay, I’m out,” Amethyst cuts in through the chaos, throwing her hands up. “Y’all are whack, this whole convo is whack, and I can’t deal with any of this right now.” Not wasting a single second, she tucks herself into a ball and super-speeds it out of the barn. Mouth caught in a tiny, helpless ‘o,’ Steven whisks around, only barely catching a glimpse of her retreat before he spots the damage. It’s one of Lapis’s morps, that wooden hanger displaying all the baseball paraphernalia. Now it lies rejected on the floorboards, one of the strings broken and the bat rolling towards Peridot’s feet. He watches, feeling lambasted with regret for his role in sparking this argument, as the green Gem’s face cripples much like the structural integrity of that meep-morp. She blinks away the threat of tears and quickly averts her gaze from the group, bending to pick up the bat before clutching it to her chest in a protective manner. The water Gem huffs and storms out of the barn as well, fists unyielding at her side. Heart pounding amidst all the uncertainty of this fraught situation, Steven scuttles after her. Come on, think! he snaps at himself, chewing pensively at his lip. There has to be a way he can still save this, a way he can stop his family from splintering apart yet again... “Lapis,” Ruby begins, delicately edging towards her. “No, stop,” she holds up a hand. Her expression— as nebulous and hard to ascertain as always— is caught at some weird nexus between blinding anger, terror, and... is that guilt he spies? “Stop talking! I’m not asking any of you to change my mind. I’m leaving, and all of you should be too!” Turning on her heels, she squares her stance and flares her wings to their full width in preparation for her flight. Just before those watery wings can beat downwards, propelling her lithe form away from his world forever, he leaps forward. Dares to grab her wrist. She sharply inhales, briefly tugging against him before she notices who the hand belongs to and falls slack in his hold. Static assails his mind as he assesses every angle of this jerk-moment decision. What on earth is he doing? (He can practically feel Ruby and Peridot’s anxious, curious gaze drilling into him from behind, and they’re not even in his line of sight. No matter what happens, this is all on him. No one else.) “I-I, um,” he stammers at first, desperately scouring his brain for the right words to say. “Please, I’m... You don’t have to be scared like this. I may have her gem, but I’m not her!” Lapis gives a shaky sigh. Her wings droop right along with her shoulders, the persistent burden of thousands of years of captivity evident within her posture. Waiting in the shadow of her silence, his focus falls on the gemstone adoring her back, that smooth, glossy teardrop. Golly, somehow it doesn’t feel that long ago at all that her gem was cracked, and— scared, angered, and confused— she lashed out in much a similar way. “I’ve always known you’re not your mom, Steven,” she says lowly, still not meeting his gaze. “This- this isn’t about that!” “Then... what is it about?” She growls in frustration, clenching her fists as she yanks her wrist away from his grip. “Have none of you been listening to me?” “Have you been listening to us?” Peridot mutters flatly from behind him.

Lapis shoots her a sour look, but continues, pacing across the grass as she speaks. “If one diamond was able to fool an entire empire into thinking she was a quartz for thousands of years,” she says, gesticulating to emphasize her words, “then- then how do we know the other Diamonds aren’t already here doing the same, already watching from a distance, just waiting to shatter us for everything we’ve done??” The sharpened words echo across the fields, familiar bird calls cut short as even nature falls silent in their sway. Steven stands motionless, her paranoia-tinted prophecy sinking in through his flesh despite all efforts otherwise, sowing roots in the darkest corners of his mind that he dare not peep into. When no one responds, the blue Gem exhales, lowering her face to the ground. “I’ve let my guard down too much here, I’ve let myself grow soft. I’m sorry, but I have to go.” He swears he hears a note of disappointment laced between the layers of her uneven breath, or perhaps it’s heartbreak. He can’t tell. Despite his usual aptitude at interpreting others’ feelings, Lapis is consistently hard to read. And it’s this very thought, this subtle dissonance from the expected in her intentions, that encourages him to reach out one last time. Her wings flare out again. Blood and hard light thrum at an almost dizzying pace through his parallel veins. It’s now or never.

“Lapis, wait!” he calls, palm open wide. “Please, please don’t leave! Not now, not like this.” Their world crystallizes into ice as he vies to meet her fears head on. There’s no sunlight, no bird calls, no wind, no Ruby and Peridot behind him. No more untimely distractions. Only Lapis, desperate and hurting amid the heart of the storm she created. She holds her wings taut, ready for flight, hovering at the edge of her metaphoric tower. Breath trembling, she glances behind. The sheer complexity of emotion Steven discovers in those sea blue irises almost makes his eyes water. Cautiously, he steps forward.

“Maybe you’re right,” he begins, fidgeting with his shirt’s bottom hemline. His fingers briefly brush against the edge of his gem as he does so, and he jerks them away in blind rebellion of this reminder. “Maybe this planet never will be completely safe. Maybe nothing ever goes to plan. But the Crystal Gems have survived this long because they stood together instead of breaking apart. A-and... I know you don’t think of yourself as a Crystal Gem,” he cuts in quickly with a placating gesture, noticing the question forming on her lips, “but please-! With everything else that’s happening, I really, really still want you in my life.”

Tightly, she wrings her fingers around her opposite arm, face dipping dolefully towards the soft soil squishing up between her bare toes. “Steven, I...” “I can’t promise you’ll be safe on Earth, but I can promise you won’t have to be alone,” he says, voice thick. “Please.” Stay, he mouths, his body nearly shaking in fear of how she’ll respond, of all the inner thoughts flooding through her mind he’ll never wholly decipher. Their gaze locks, souls laid bare to each other as they engage in a rapid-fire dialogue no other creature of this world will ever be privy to.

If you can't stay for yourself, he cries silently, can’t you stay for me?

The seconds are punctuated only by the reverberant tremor of his heartbeat, as he stands upon a precipice in wait of her pivotal, defining answer.

Eventually, her expression softens. She folds her wings, standing down.

“Fine,” she spits. “I’ll wait and see what happens... for now. But if I ever find out any of the Diamonds are inbound, or worse? I’m out of here.”

A stiff gust of wind rushes past, threading through her hair and causing her dress to undulate like mid-ocean waves. Shadow obscures her face.

“I’m not getting pulled into another war.” Giving no further explanation, she turns tail and storms past the tent, past the rickety fence bordering her and Peridot’s barn, and into the overgrown wildflower field beyond. Once she’s reached a far enough distance, she extends her wings and begins to fly, hastily disappearing beyond the tree-line. Everyone stares at the thick swath of forest she escaped to with dumbfounded shock at first, no one quite sure how to proceed after that bomb of a conversation stopper. Ruby mutters something under her breath, clear frustration coloring her voice. Behind him, he hears Peridot reverently set the bat down on the barn’s floor.

“I’m... gonna go find her, and help her calm down,” she says. Clutching her hands close to her chest, she passes him and Ruby and begins her long, flightless trek into the Beach City woods. Steven himself migrates towards the grassy patch beyond the pool, and falls to his knees amongst the dandelions growing there. Most of them are still flowering, their lithe golden yellow petals fanning out from the head. A few on a separate plant are white and puffy, though, ready to disperse seeds. He’s drawn to one in particular, a seedhead that’s already missing half of its progeny. Biologically, he knows it’s a good thing that those seeds have flown away and might get a chance to germinate elsewhere, but regardless the sight of this lonely, barren dandelion strikes a dour note. Was he wrong, asking Lapis to stay? Could she eventually heal and become happier, leaving the burden of this place? He swallows hard, gripping the balding seedhead between two fingers and decisively plucking it off the stem. A few more seeds blow off with the disturbance, their feathery parachutes falling into the arms of the wind.

Lapis...

What if his selfishness is only holding her back?

And then there’s Amethyst to worry about. There’s no point overextending the sad dandelion metaphor to fit her situation, because hers is something entirely unique. She’s still in his life, just emotionally closed-off. Bitter. Avoidant. Unfairly antagonistic to others. By inviting her out here he hoped she might take the opportunity to kick back and blow off some steam, but now, after watching her abruptly leave the group a few minutes ago, he’s worried this trip only succeeded in further stressing her out.

A gem adorned hand falls upon his shoulder then, pulling him to the present. With a startled yelp, he tosses the dandelion into the grass as he flinches away. His heart drums uncontrollably, so much so that his cheeks burn with embarrassment when it dawns on him who this hand belongs to. He sucks in a shaky breath to calm himself down before allowing himself to sink into her comfort, glancing behind to meet Ruby’s tired, kind eyes. “Hey. Are you okay?” she asks. His tongue suddenly feeling as limp and dry as all the fallen leaves beginning to sprinkle the ground, he nods his head yes. In an overt betrayal of his response, his big, stupid, puffy eyes begin to water. Hurriedly, he wipes the burgeoning tears away with the butt of his palm. Frustration bubbles at his core. Since when was he such a crybaby? He’s cried far too much lately, and he’s sick of it. He rubs harder as the tears begin to fall anyways, his bottom lip quivering as he vies with every last ounce of control he still has to not look entirely pathetic. The skin around his eyes, sensitive and raw, begins to sting from the friction. Wordlessly, Ruby wraps her hands around his wrists and leads them away from his face. His chest tightens. He fails to choke back a sob as she pulls him into her embrace, his own arms trapped between them. She buries her face into the crook of his neck, and it’s then that he realizes with a shock of surprise that she’s crying too. Her quiet tears dampen his collar; her fingers clutch at the back of his shirt. “You don’t have to pretend to be strong for us all the time,” she says softly. “I wanna be here for you too, okay? It’s just like you said... no matter what, we stand together.” “But I- I have to go find her,” he chokes out, the words sticking in his throat in the most pathetic manner. “Who, Lapis? Peridot‘s prolly fine handling her on her own.” “No, I mean Amethyst. I saw her run off, an, and she’s been so upset today, and...” “Steven,” she says, leaning away and gently lifting his chin so he can’t avoid her compassionate gaze. “You’ve been under a lot of stress lately, and honestly? A lot of it’s been our fault. You should take a moment to rest, okay?” Grinning, she ruffles his hair. “Enjoy the breeze! Climb a tree! Kick back for once. I’ll check on Amethyst this time.”

He hoarsely whispers an ‘okay’ as he sits back on his heels in the sun and watches her run off, allowing the wind to whip through his curls. Sighing, he splays his fingers just above the grass, allowing their tips to gently tickle his palm as they brush back and forth, and futilely tries to convince himself he’s cultivated enough good into the world today to deserve this break.

#su #steven universe #su fanfic #su fanfiction #lapis lazuli #ruby #peridot #amethyst #my writing stuff #crack the paragon

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atomic-taco-muffin · 4 years ago

Text

The Lost Princess Chapter 67

Warnings: still don’t know

Rating: SFW

You and the others arrived in what looked like a bedroom and all of the objects looked huge.

“What in the world?” Sora asked as he passed an equally oversized xylophone and soccer ball.

“Where are we?” you asked. Vanitas looked up to the larger-than-life bedside table and realized...

“Oh my gosh! Have we been shrunk?! And...and look at us!” he said. You all looked at yourselves, a similar figure though with considerably more plastic.

“You know what the magic is for. We have to protect the world order!” Donald said.

“Border?” Rumi asked.

“‘Order’!”

“No one can understand you, chicken,” Roxy said.

“I’m not a chicken!” Something to the left caught Goofy's eye.

“Gawrsh...” he said. You and the others looked over. “Who's gonna protect the order from them?”

“Heartless!” you and the others said. You all summoned your weapons and ran at the Heartless.

“Okay. We go on three. One, two...” Woody said. Buzz's wings opened suddenly when he saw you and the others arrive.

“Wait!” he said. Rex, already at a running start, almost fell off the bed.

“What are you doing?!” Woody asked. Buzz directed Woody's gaze back to the floor.

“Who are those guys?” Woody asked. You and the others took out all the Heartless as the toy gang made their way to the wooden floor.

“Are they new?” Hamm asked.

“Wait! Ah-- Ah-- You look familiar!” Rex said. He shoved past the rest of them toward a confused Sora. “I know this. You're, uh, you're, uhhh...”

“Yozora!” Hamm said.

“Huh? My name's Sora.” A red dot appeared on Sora's chest as Buzz stood on alert.

“Stay back! For all we know, the intruders sent them,” Buzz said. Rex excitedly tackled Sora.

“Yozora!” he said.

“Slow down there, Rex. We don't know them,” Woody said.

“But we can trust them. They're the number-one-selling heroes in the country!”

“Yeah, Andy's mom must've bought 'em for him,” Hamm said. Rex shook Sora's hand as Buzz continued staying his distance, walking around you all in a circle.

“Hamm's right. Did you see how easily they took care of the intruders? I bet they're here to figure out why all our friends have gone missing, and why Buzz's laser started actually laser-ing...and all the weird stuff that's been going on,” Rex said. Buzz stared at the laser gun on his arm. “I mean, that's what heroes do, right?”

“Let's not jump to conclusions,” Buzz said.

“Hmm...” Woody said.

“Gotta be smart, Woody.” Woody casually walked up to Sora, surprising Buzz.

“So, you're...Andy's new toys?” he asked.

“Toys?” you and the others asked.

“You sure did a number on those intruders.”

“Those are the Heartless,” Goofy said.

“The bad guys!” Donald said.

“There’s also these creatures called Negaverses. Super dangerous,” Rumi said as she played with one of the bunny ears on her hood.

“We've been fighting against those ‘intruders’ for a while,” you said.

“I knew it!” Rex said. Hamm chuckled.

“Hmm... Okay,” Woody said.

“Huh?” Buzz asked.

“In that case, you're all right by me. My name's Woody. Put 'er there.” He offered a hand and Sora shook it.

“Hey,” Sora said.

“Now hold on,” Buzz said.

“I'm Sora--”

“Yozora!” Rex said over excitedly. He got forlorn looks from everyone and joined the rest of Andy's toys.

“Actually, my name's Sora...”

“I’m (Y/N) and that’s my brother Vanitas over there.”

“‘Sup?” Vanitas said.

“I’m Yui and this is my twin sister Roxy.”

“I’m Rumi.”

“And I'm Donald.”

“I'm Goofy.”

“And I'm...Buzz Lightyear.”

“Call me Hamm. It's a real honor.”

“And I'm Rex! I'm your biggest fan. In fact, I've been playing your game for months now. And I've already gotten you all the way up to LV 47. But that Bahamut boss is really tough. Slinky and I can't figure out how to beat him.” The Green Army Men walked up to you and the group. “Oh, I wish Slinky and the others were here. They'd be so happy to meet you!”

“All troops at attention, sir!” Sarge said. The Army Men saluted and you and the others returned it. A rolling sound caught your attention and your heard a squeak as the three Little Green Men coasted toward you on Andy's skateboard.

“Weeee!” they said. You and the others leaped out of the way. After leaving the skateboard, the toy aliens waddled over to Donald, their eyes blinking individually.

“Strangers,” one of them said.

“From the outside,” another said.

“Welcome,” another said. Rumi squealed and tried to hold one in her arms.

“They're all toys? So that's why we look the way we do,” Vanitas said. He saw Buzz walking towards him and Sora as the aliens go on their way.

“Excuse me. You said that you've battled those intruders before. Tell us where and why,” Buzz said.

“Oh... Well, uh...we are--” Sora said.

“Order!” Donald said to him. Sora covered his mouth, making Vanitas snort and roll his eyes.

“Well? You must have come from somewhere,” Buzz said. Hamm agreed while Woody walked over.

“Take it easy, Buzz. What matters is that they got those intruders out of our way--for at least a little while. No need to interrogate them,” Woody said.

“Yeah, Buzz!” Rex said.

“Woody's right,” Hamm said.

“Noted. But still...” Buzz said.

“Oi. Have those ‘intruders’--the Heartless--been a problem around here?” Roxy said.

“No, they just showed up a little while ago,” Woody said.

“In fact, those ‘Heartless’ materialized...right after our friends up and vanished,” Buzz said.

“You don't think...” Donald said to Goofy.

“Well, gee. It can't just be a coincidence,” Goofy replied. Sora nodded and Woody gazed up at the window over Andy's desk.

“It wasn't always this lonely. One day we woke up, and we were the only toys left here. Nobody's heard from Mom, Molly, or Andy...” Woody said. He sat on a wooden block and stared at the underside of his shoe where the name "ANDY" was written in faded ink. “We keep waiting for Andy to come home.”

“You really care about him,” Yui said. Woody nodded and stood back up, rejoining you and the group.

“Yeah... He's the best friend that toys like us could ever hope to have,” he said. He placed a hand on Buzz's shoulder and the toys smiled.

“All right. We'd better start looking!” you said.

“Huh?” Woody asked.

“Have you gotten any clues we can go on--any other strange things that happened?” Sora asked.

“Well... Hmm. There's one thing.”

“One big thing,” Hamm said.

“Huge, sir,” Sarge said.

“What thing?” Rex said.

“After everyone went MIA, the intruders didn't come alone. They arrived with a guy wearing a hood, dressed in black, just like you. As a matter of fact, he's the only other toy we've seen, outside of you guys,” Buzz said.

“A black hood?” Vanitas gasped. “But that would mean...”

“The Organization!” you and the others said.

“You know who it is?” Woody asked.

“Yeah. They're bad news,” Roxy said.

“Seems like you have a lot of enemies,” Buzz said.

“We may have a hunch what's causing all the weirdness. Would you mind if we handle this?” Sora said.

“I'm sorry. But we're not gonna leave this to you,” Woody said.

“Huh?” you and the others asked.

“If that guy had something to do with our friends vanishing, then he's our problem too. We've got to work together.” He extended a hand once more to Sora, who reciprocated.

“Right!” Sora said. You and the others shared a delighted response.

“So then, where can we find that guy?” you asked. Woody knelt toward the Army Men.

“Sarge, any word from the recon team?” he asked.

“The latest reports place him in town, sir. At Galaxy Toys!” Sarge said. He pointed to the Galaxy Toys flyer on Andy's bulletin board.

“Then Galaxy Toys is where we're going. Sora, (Y/N). Follow me,” Woody said. He looked up to the window and you and the others followed his gaze. “It's out the window and down the roof.”

“Not so fast, cowboy,” Buzz said.

“Hm?”

“You seem pretty gung ho about going, but shouldn't we stay here and wait for Andy?”

“Well... You've got a point, but...we've tried waiting. Look, if we go with Sora, we might find a clue. Are you with me, Buzz?” Buzz smiled.

“Of course. Okay, let's move out!” he said. You all exited through the window and down the roof of the garage to the driveway, engaging in spars with the Heartless that blocked your way. You all reached Galaxy Toys, home of Vic the Visitor, their alien mascot, displayed by the gigantic flying saucer that stood atop the building. You all crossed the threshold and entered the enormous toy store, Rex running in ahead.

“We're here!” he said. You all followed in awe of the spacious place. Large displays of Gigas were scattered on different shelves along with game boxes of all kinds. In the center of the first floor was an oversized gumball machine labeled "Space Capsule" with metal tracks leading in spirals to the upper floors. Roxy noticed the giant red Gigas.

“Oi, why doesn't THAT toy move?” she asked.

“I guess it hasn't figured it out,” Woody said.

“Figured what out?” Sora asked.

“I can make it move for you,” someone said. You and the others looked above the Space Capsule, where a black hooded figure entered through a dark portal, uncovering his hood and revealing himself to be Young Xehanort.

“You!” you and Vanitas growled.

“You're from the dream--the first of the Xehanorts!” Sora said.

“I'm so honored you remember me,” Y!Xehanort said. He snapped his fingers and three Heartless appeared along with three Negaverses. One Heartless jumped into the helmet of the red Gigas and assumed control of it. Its claw arm started to move with clicking sounds and it leaped toward you and Sora. Woody raised his hat to see better.

“Oh no! He CAN move!” he said.

“Way cool!” Hamm said. The arm spun backwards into a fist with Hamm giving off a startled shriek.

“Look out!” Vanitas said. As the Gigas attempted a punch, you and your team held him off while Woody knocked Hamm out of the way.

“One heart's shadows fill the emptiness of another. See how they bring him to life? Like Heartless and Nobodies, they fit together,” Y!Xehanort said.

“Enough! Why the hell are you doing this?!” you said.

“There's a darkness we are missing and must reclaim. The way hearts connect in this world can provide us with a clue. So we made a copy of the world, and then pulled those hearts apart. I wonder how you'll handle the strain.” Hamm ran off to hide behind a potted plant with Rex. Young Xehanort summoned the portal again and began to enter.

“Wait! What the hell does that mean?” Vanitas said.

“Don't let me down.” Young Xehanort left and the Gigas knocked you and your team away. Woody caught you all.

“Oh no!” Rex said.

“Woody! What is going on? Is this toy a friend...or foe?” Buzz said. The Gigas stood, aiming its arm cannon at them.

“I think we've got our answer,” Woody said. The cannon fires burst, causing you all to flee in opposite directions, hiding behind shelving units.

“Oi, (Y/N)! You wanna take this?” Roxy said.

“Yeah! If the Heartless know how to do it, there's no reason you can't,” Sora said.

“I’ll give it a try!” you said. You ran toward the Gigas, taking a spinning leap and landing inside. You grabbed onto the two control sticks inside and closed the helmet, leaping down to the floor to face off against the Heartless-controlled Gigas while also having Odile close by. Using the toy mech's various blasters, punches, Odile’s power, and explosions, you defeated the main Gigas troops while the others took down the small Heartless and Negaverses legions on the floor. The red Gigas slowed to a stop and the helmet opened as a Heartless disappeared, the Heart being released from inside it. You leaped out of the blue Gigas.

“He was being controlled? He wasn't just switched into battle mode by accident?” Buzz asked.

“Buzz?” Sora asked. Buzz turned away

“It’s nothing,” he sighed.

“I'm confused. That guy in the black coat--did he say he made a copy of the real world? What's that mean?” Woody said.

“It...prob'ly means they split this world in two--your friends in one world, us in the other. Only one of the worlds is real, and the other is just really convincing,” Vanitas said.

“You can't be serious. Oh! That's right, you're from a video game. Well, maybe in your game, that's how things work...but here in reality, you can't ‘split worlds.’” Buzz said. You and your team were at lost for words.

“This is ridiculous,” Buzz said. He waved you and your team off and walked away towards Woody. “Woody, let's go.”

“I admit, it does sound just a little far-fetched,” Woody said. Donald and Goofy rejoined the group. “But...say we HAVE been taken to some kind of alternate world. That would explain why your laser's real. And is it really that crazy? Worse than ‘evil emperors’ and ‘protecting the galaxy’? Any of that ring a bell?”

“Point taken. But that just means these strangers are part of the delusion. And I say it's time we parted ways and went home,” Buzz said. Donald and the others looked crestfallen.

“Thought we were friends, not strangers,” Yui said.

“Look, I get that it seems weird, but we know something's wrong with this place. We should stick together,” you said.

“(Y/N)’s right. They helped with the intruders, so they might help find our friends,” Woody said. Buzz started walking toward the red Gigas.

“They have been there for us so far. You can't deny that. Come on. Every toy deserves a fair shake. Am I right?” Woody said.

“Tell it to that toy over there,” Buzz said as he pointed to the Gigas. Woody fell silent.

“Sheriff, sir!” Sarge said. Woody looked atop the shelf to see Sarge and another Green Army Man. “Rex has just been dino-napped!”

“What's that?!” Woody asked. Sarge turned to his fellow soldier, who saluted.

“My men saw him get hauled up to the second floor, sir! And Hamm and the Aliens are MIA,” he said.

“Come on. We have got to find them!” Woody began running and Sora followed.

“Please, let us help!” he said.

“Yeah!” you and the others said. Woody looked over his shoulder at Buzz who hadn't budged and ran back over to him.

“Well, Buzz? Do you really think we can save our friends on our own? We didn't get very far before. We gotta take all the help we can get,” he said. Buzz gave an abject sigh.

“Don't worry. Sora and (Y/N) can be reckless...” Goofy said.

“Wha?” Sora asked.

“Excuse me?” you asked.

“...and Donald grumbles a lot...”

“Huh?” Donald asked.

“It’s true,” Yui said.

“...And Roxy and Vanitas do lose their temper easily...”

“Say that again,” Roxy said.

“...And Rumi does get scared easily.”

“That was so uncalled for!” Rumi said.

“But you can trust 'em!”

“Hey! He suspects you, too!” Vanitas said.

“It's true,” Sora said.

“Huh? He does?” Donald threw his hands up and Sora chuckled.

“See, they don't seem bad. Am I right, Buzz?” Woody said.

“Okay, fine. We do need the extra help. But just so we're clear: I remain skeptical about this. I'll work with you till we find our friends,” Buzz said.

“Ohhh...kay,” you and Sora said.

“Thanks for the help, Sora, (Y/N), Vanitas, Yui, Roxy, Rumi, Donald, Goofy,” Woody said.

“My troops will return to the field, sir!” Sarge said. The Army Men saluted and walked off. You and the group walked over to the Space Capsule and Buzz ejected his wings right as Woody walked into them. He scowled at Buzz for a moment, but the feeling passed.

“This ascent is gonna be rather tricky,” Buzz said.

“Too bad we're not strapped to a rocket, huh?” Woody smiled. He leaned on Buzz's wings, but Buzz retracted them back into his suit.

“Hey! Think we could use that?” you said. You pointed upwards and you all saw the spiral tracks leading to the other floors,

“It's perfect. C'mon, guys!” Woody said. You all rode the rails up to the 2nd Floor and entered a store named Action+, where you all gazed in awe of the seemingly endless shelves of action figures. Woody saw something tail-shaped out of the corner of his eye and he turned in surprise.

“Rex!” he said. He dashed around the corner of a display, but saw no one there. “Where'd he go?”

“You sure you saw him?” Buzz asked.

“Yes, he just--”

“Shh. Do you guys hear something?” Vanitas said.

“What's that?” Rumi asked as she held her hood tightly. You and Sora saw waves of darkness though a break in the boxes on display where something was moving.

“Something feels wrong...” Buzz said. With a huge swipe of its claw, an immense dragon model toy called the Supreme Smasher knocked over the display of Smasher toys in front of you all. Donald and Rumi started running back to the exit, when the store's sliding door slammed shut. The Supreme Smasher let out a giant bellow and you all clearly saw the Heartless symbol emblazoned on its neck. You all summoned your weapons and guardians.

“Another toy's being controlled!” Sora said. Buzz shook off a worrisome look and readied his laser.

“Buzz, you sure?” you asked.

“If it wanted to play nice, then it should've stayed away from my friends,” Buzz said. You and the others managed to free the controlled toys and Sora and Vanitas dispelled their Keyblades with a sigh of relief. Suddenly, another Supreme Smasher landed behind you all and roared. You and the others heard a scream and looked over to see a dragon-shaped glider hooked to the ceiling flying in circles piloted by a shouting Rex. It spun at full speed, knocking the hook out of the tile, sending the glider and Rex flying into the Supreme Smasher just as it reached back for a claw slash at you and Sora. The dragon toy fell over as Rex flew into an Air Droid display along with an orange puppet hanging from a cloud-like gear. After landing on the floor, the gear tried to float away but Rex landed on it.

“What's this?!” he asked. The puppet turned its head to face Rex menacingly, revealing a Heartless symbol on its hat. “Oh no! What did I do?!”

He ran away from it while Sora and Vanitas struck down the Marionette Heartless with one swipe of their Keyblades. Woody sighed with relief, wiping his brow.

“Nice moves, Rex,” he said.

“That was great!” Rumi said.

“Great? Really? Would you say I was impressive?” Rex asked.

“Very impressive, Rex! We couldn't look away!” Roxy said.

“Hurray! Oh, that makes me so happy!” Rex turned to Donald. “Were you watching too? Did you see what I did?”

“Yeah, good for you,” Donald said as he and Woody tried to calm him down.

“Listen, Rex,” Woody said.

“I was going for fearsome...” Rex said.

“Would ya--”

“...but I think I might've actually achieved something close to terrifying!”

“Earth to Rex!” Rex stopped.

“Do you know where the others were taken?” Sora asked.

“What do you mean? Did something bad happen?” Rex asked.

“Back to square one,” Buzz said.

“Oh, great,” Roxy said. Woody heard a clicking sound of plastic on metal and looked up to see the sergeant climbing down the vent near the ceiling.

“Sarge! Have you got a status report?” he asked.

“Sir! One of my men just located Hamm forward of our position, in Babies in Toddlers,” Sarge saluted. You and the group smiled with the good news. “The corporal was debriefing him, but something must have gone wrong. All radio contact has been lost.”

“Anything more specific we can go on?” Vanitas asked.

“Right before I lost contact, I heard music with some sort of sonic interference.”

“Music?” Buzz asked.

“Ya think it could be the Heartless?” Goofy asked.

“Or a Negaverse?” Yui asked.

“What if it's another big monster?” Donald asked.

“Let’s find out,” you said.

“I agree,” Woody said. You and the group started walking ahead, while Rex stayed put.

“Actually...I think I'll head back and wait by the entrance. I'm sure those vents are gonna be much too narrow for my big dinosaur tail,” he said. Sora looked up at the vent.

“Really? I'm sure you'd fit,” he said.

“Rex is right. Besides, we need a lookout at the entrance. It's an important mission. Can you do it?” Buzz interjected.

“Yes, sir!” Rex made a determined fist with his little arm and Buzz saluted him. You and the rest chuckled and made your way up into the ventilation shaft. Using the vents to reach the third floor of Galaxy Toys you all exited into the Dolls section of Babies & Toddlers.

“This is Babies and Toddlers. Where do you guys think we should start?” Woody said. Goofy bent down to speak to the sergeant.

“Sarge, didn't you mention music?” he asked. Sarge hopped to face him.

“Affirmative, Goofy,” he said. You peered out through the vast toy section.

“Hmm... All right. Why don't we look for things that make noise?” you said.

“Sure!” Sora and the others said.

“That's good thinking for you,” Roxy said. She walked off, cackling.

“Wha... What do you mean, for me?” Roxy broke off into a run.

“Hey, where ya--” Roxy ran around Vanitas.

“Roxy!” you laughed. The two of you ended up in a standoff around Vanitas.

“I think they really are good guys,” Woody said. You tried to grab Roxy but she runs past you and shook her butt while sticking her tongue out.

“Hold still!” you said. Yui and your team chuckled and you ran after Roxy.

“Well, you wouldn't have trusted them otherwise,” Buzz said. Roxy tried to run around Vanitas again but you blocked her, prompting Roxy to dive through your legs. Yui and the team laughed harder.

“What?” you asked.

“Missed me!” Roxy laughed as she leaped onto her feet.

“Don't!”

“And I know that your trust is a hard-earned treasure,” Buzz said. You and Roxy continued to play cat and mouse.

“No! Stop that!” you said.

“Victory is mine!” Roxy laughed. Woody smiled softly at Buzz.

“Well...for all our sakes, let's hope you're right, cowboy. I'm willing to give 'em a chance at least for a little while longer. Especially if it means getting Andy and our friends back,” Buzz said.

“Agreed,” Woody said. You and the others searched through the store, taking out more Heartless and Negaverse-possessed toys, until you all reached a large gramophone in the corner at a display labeled Musical Toads. Sora and Vanitas hopped onto the turntable.

“Is this it?” Vanitas asked. He and Sora began to run on the record and the symphony of toads on the display lit up and began playing.

“Come on, you two...You've never used a record player?” Woody said.

“Huh?” Sora asked. He and Vanitas slowed down and the music stopped as Woody leaped up onto the record as well.

“Like this!” Woody said. He started running along the record, throwing Sora and Vanitas off-balance. The two boys returned to a run and laughed as the orchestra continued playing.

“It's working!” Rumi said. One of the instruments played a false note.

“Wait, did that sound off to you?” Yui asked.

“It did,” Donald said.

“Huh?” Sora and Vanitas asked. Distracted, Sora and Vanitas slowed down and almost crashed into Woody.

“Heeey!” Woody said. Sora and Vanitas sped back up and you called up to them.

“Sora! Vanitas! There's some kinda strange noise coming from the orchestra!” you said. Sora, Vanitas, and Woody exchanged glances.

“Got it! Woody, you keep the record going,” Sora waved. He and Vanitas jumped down from the turntable.

“Whoa-whoa-whoa!” Woody said. You and your team searched the orchestra for the instrument that's playing off-rhythm and found that it's the tuba-playing toad. Woody struggled to catch his breath as he kept the music playing while Goofy peered into the tuba.

“Hmm... Somethin' seems to be stuck in this tuba,” Goofy said.

“I'll get it out,” Vanitas said. He reached into the tuba, feeling around for the obstruction. He found it and struggled to get it unstuck.

“Almost got it...” he said. With a loud pop, he pulled out...”

“Got it!” he said. ...the corporal. Vanitas placed him gently on the table.

“Corporal!” Sarge said. The sergeant hopped down from a higher ledge and walked over to the corporal, placing a hand on his back. “You all right, son?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” Corporal said.

“That's the soldier Sarge lost contact with,” Buzz said. Sarge got the soldier to his feet and put his arm around his shoulders, hoisting him up.

“So you found Hamm?” Sora asked.

“Yes. But...while I was radioing in, a giant hand grabbed me, and it stuffed me in there. They must have taken Hamm to another location. We have to hurry!” Corporal said. He tried to walk his injured self, but fell over.

“Wait, Corporal. You're not fit for action,” Sarge said as he helped him stand again.

“But Sarge...”

“Your tour is over, son. And it's all right. Our trusted allies will take over.” You and your team saluted them and the corporal started tearing up. “I will move the corporal to a safer location.”

“Good luck,” Corporal saluted. The Green Army Men walked off as the music continued to play and Woody continued to run. They reached the edge of the orchestra ledge and gave Woody a salute.

“Huh...?” Woody asked. They hopped down the ledge. “Hey, hey, hey, hey! What is...going on?!”

“Oh, right!” you said.

“Woody! Mission complete!” Buzz said. Woody leaped off the record player and the music slowed to a stop.

“Why didn't...you tell me...a little sooner?” he asked, winded. He fell to his hands and knees, trying to catch his breath.

“Sorry, there's no time to rest. Hamm needs us,” Buzz said. He hopped off the table and Woody gave an exhausted salute. You and the others soon found a dollhouse that was rattling around in a window display. You all struggled to get the side of the house open, but with everyone's help, it unlatched, and the you all landed in a pileup.

“Talk about cabin fever. Thanks for the save,” Hamm said. He walked out of the dollhouse much to your surprise.

“You okay, Hamm?” Woody asked.

“Yeah, aside from being locked in, the accommodations were fine.” He nodded over to the fully-furnished inside of the house, where Rumi and Donald stepped inside.

“Aww. What a tiny little house. Reminds me a lot of the one I used to have,” Rumi said. They walked by the window where a giant doll peered inside.

“Huh?” Donald asked. The doll brimmed with darkness and its sudden appearance caused Rumi and Donald to thrash about the house.

“Who was--” Woody asked. Hamm shrieked in terror and backed away.

“What's wrong?” Buzz asked.

“She's back! That's the doll that pig-penned me!” Hamm said. The doll's eyes glowed orange, matching the glowing Heartless symbol on her left bunny ear.

“Hamm, take cover,” Woody said.

“Uh, copy that. One stay in the dread-and-breakfast was enough for me!” Hamm said as he ran away.

“Not another possessed toy...” Buzz said.

“Guys, look alive!” Yui said. You and the others fought the possessed Angelic Amber doll along with a horde of Bouncy Pets and Patchwork Animals also under the Marionette Heartless's and Negaverses control. The doll stopped floating and its eyes return to their normal shade of blue. It slumped against the floor, lifeless.

“Wait... What if we end up just like her? Forgetting ourselves and... attacking each other?” Buzz asked.

“No way, Buzz. That won't happen,” you said.

“No way!” Donald said.

“You guys are too strong,” Goofy said.

“You can't be sure! What if I get taken over, then attack you?” Buzz said, hotly. Woody placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Buzz, you're overthinking it,” he said.

“Yeah. The Heartless--the darkness--can only creep in when our hearts falter. Trust me. You'll be fine if you don't lose heart,” Sora said.

“Well, that's good. Because I know you, Buzz. You'll never lose heart when it comes to your friends,” Woody said as he flicked his hat upwards.

“True enough, cowboy,” Buzz said as he gave a small smile. “Sorry to have worried you all.”

“No problem. Now, let's go find the others.” You all returned to the window, Buzz helping Woody up to the windowsill, and met back up with Hamm. Donald and Goofy spotted something through the glass.

“Look!” Donald said. A UFO with a crane claw sailed past the window, a trail of darkness behind it.

“A flying saucer!” Goofy said as Woody adjusted his hat.

“I think I know who that might lead us to. C'mon, guys!” Woody said. You all opened the window right as the UFO passed by and Woody waved you all through when the coast was clear.

“Hey, Woody. I'd just slow you down, with all the loose change I'm carrying. I'll hang by the entrance,” Hamm said.

“No problem. Be safe, Hamm,” Woody said as he leaped out of the window.

“Hey, thanks, buddy. You just take care of your old self.” He left and Woody rejoined you and the group.

“Now, let's follow that UFO!” he said.

“Right!” you all said. You all entered the Outdoor playplace of Babies & Toddlers where the UFO was flying through. The Aliens spotted it with glee.

“They have come for us,” the first one said.

“The mystic portal awaits,” the second one said. The UFO stopped over the three Aliens and the claw descended, sending you and the group running after them.

“Oh no!” Buzz said.

“Wait!” Rumi said.

“Stop!” Woody said. The Aliens were snatched up into the mothership.

“Farewell!” they said.

“It's getting away!” Buzz said.

“Don't go!” Rumi said. Surrounded by Toy Trooper Heartless, you and the others took down the possessed UFO. It dropped the Aliens, which Rumi caught quickly, and faltered in the air, eventually losing power and sinking to the floor.

“We are back!” the Aliens said. They escaped from Rumi’s grasp and they started to run in different directions.

“Our ship is no more,” the first one said.

“Nirvana will not be reached,” the second one said. Sora picked one up with a squeak.

“Sorry I trashed your ride,” he said.

“Fear not,” it said.

“We still have our new home,” the first one said.

“The Chamber of Andy,” the Aliens said.

“They're right,” Buzz said. Sora set the Alien down. “This isn't where we belong. We've been in this toy store long enough. It's time for us to go home to Andy's room.”

“But...dad told us that room isn't even his real room,” Vanitas said.

“Can you prove that any of that nonsense is true?” Buzz asked. You and the others sighed. “And even if that Andy's room IS fake, it doesn't mean he's not somewhere in this world with us. I'm going home to wait for him. No more debate. Are you with me Woody?”

“Hmm... You’re right, Buzz. Now that we're all accounted for, we should meet up at the entrance and go home,” Woody said.

“Okay. We could have used friends like you for the final showdown...” you said.

“But Organization XIII's our problem to solve,” Yui said. Sora nodded and Donald hopped in place.

“Yeah, I can take 'em!” Donald said.

“I'm not so sure about that...” Roxy said. Goofy chuckled.

“I'll show ya!” Roxy laughed and ran up to Woody and Buzz, you and the others following suit.

“Guys, can we see you off?” you asked.

“That would be great,” Woody said. You and the others returned to the first floor.

“Sarge, roll call,” Woody said as he pointed to the Green Army Man and walked past him.

“Sir, yes sir! Roll call! All toys, fall in!” Sarge saluted. The Army Men, Hamm, and the Aliens formed a line as Buzz walked by them.

“Sarge... Army Men times four... Hamm... Aliens 1, 2, 3...” Buzz said. The Army Men saluted and each Alien squeaked as they raised their hands. “Wait. Where's Rex?”

“Aw, he took off. Said he wanted to prove to you you could trust Sora. He's up there by the video games,” Hamm said as he pointed up to the third floor and Buzz sighed.

“Well, here we go again.”

“Huh? This is about us?” Sora asked as he gave a worried look.

“He's not safe. The Heartless and the Negaverses are out there,” you said.

“You're right. Any chance you guys could help us one last time?” Woody said.

“Sure!” You, Vanitas, and Sora said.

“Of course!” Rumi and Goofy said.

“You bet!” Roxy, Yui, and Donald said.

“Thanks guys.” You all returned to the third floor and entered the video game store where you all found Rex among the Verum Rex merchandise.

“Hurray!” he said. He hopped down and rushed over to Sora with the game in his hands.

“Look! Look! I found it!” he said. He held it almost too close to Sora's face, trying to show him the cover.

“See, Sora?” The cover showed an image of the silver-haired Yozora lazing on stone steps with his sword and crossbow.

“Well, I never look THIS good. The clothes kinda match,” Sora said. Buzz and Woody walked further into the game store around a giant poster for Verum Rex, where they could see a much larger version of the game cover.

“Whaddaya know! They ARE video game figures. See? I told ya, Buzz. They're toys, just like the rest of us,” Woody said. Buzz looked over to you and your team as something caught Rex's eye.

“Well, I suppose,” he said. You and Sora Sora leaned over to speak privately with Donald and Roxy.

“Donald, I thought your magic decided how I look. Explain,” Sora said.

“And I thought that Spirit’s don’t change their looks,” you said.

“It doesn’t apply to all of the worlds,” Roxy said.

“And that’s not you,” Donald said.

“Say, Riku would make a great action figure!” Goofy said.

“Must be him!” Rumi said.

“It kind of looks like him,” Vanitas said.

“No! It's me. I've got the black clothes and, uh...” Sora trailed off slowly.

“So what?” Yui asked.

“All right, everyone. Now that we're back together, it's time to return to Andy's room,” Buzz said. Rex was reading the back cover of a Play Plus strategy guide.

“Now?” he asked. He dropped the book and searched through the shelf, tossing books aside.

“But can't I at least check the strategy guides? I want to know how to beat Bahamut!” He said as he managed to find the Verum Rex guide.

“Next time. Right now, we need to go home,” Buzz said. He took the book and tossed it away. Rex's face turned sad and Buzz consoled him with a tap him on the snout. Rex walked away hesitantly from the book, following Buzz back to the group. A figure with a pair of boots landed on the floor nearby.

“Oh, but you needn't rush off,” Y!Xehanort said. The voice caught your attention and you all summon your weapons and guardians.

“You!” You and Vanitas said.

“I have more to observe. I can't let you leave yet.”

“It’s me that you really want. Leave my friends out of this!” you said. Y!Xehanort smirked.

“You WOULD say that, Spirit of Light,” he said. Suddenly, a pounding headache ran through you, causing you to scream in pain.

“(Y/N)!” Sora and the others yelled. You fell to the ground, whimpering in pain.

“Roxy, Vanitas, stay with (Y/N) while we deal with Xehanort!” Sora said. Roxy and Vanitas nodded while Sora turned towards Y!Xehanort.

~~~~

You looked around and saw that you were in a dark place. You tried taking a step but found that you couldn’t.

“What’s happening?” you asked. Suddenly, memories of you as a child started showing up. From the day you were found by Xehanort to the day you met Sora.

“Why is he doing this?” you asked yourself. You heard someone singing and looked over to see what looked like a woman in the Realm of Darkness.

youtube

“Who is she?” you asked.

“(Y/N)...stop Xehanort...” a voice said.

“Huh?” Before the voice could say another thing, you were brought back to your friends.

“(Y/N)! You’re okay!” Vanitas said.

“Yeah...” you said as you sat up slowly. You looked over and saw Sora still talking with Y!Xehanort.

“What did you do to him?!” he asked. You looked over and saw Buzz trying to shoot Goofy with his lazer. Sora attacked Y!Xehanort, who phased away in the blink of an eye.

“I thought I made it clear. I am testing the strength of their bonds,” Y!Xehanort said. He walked around the room, phasing in and out as Sora tried to strike him down, but only slicing air.

“In this world, toys have hearts. And those hearts come from a powerful bond,” he said. Sora looked around, seeing Y!Xehanort on a high display case above a video screen.

“So what happens when those bonds are stretched to their limit? When they are worlds apart, can cloth and plastic hold on to their hearts?” Sora leaped to the top of the display with another failed attack.

“All I needed was a wedge to widen the divide--someone like you to fill them with distrust and doubt.” Sora found him walking along the display and Y!Xehanort dodged each of Sora's blows effortlessly.

“And that chasm you created can be filled with a vast darkness.” He appeared on the floor and Sora leaped down at him, striking nothing.

“Witness it for yourself.”

“Sora!” you and the others said. You and the others were trying to hold Buzz at bay, but he continued his laser blasts unflinching as Goofy stopped them from hitting Woody.

“Do somethiiing!” Rex said.

“On my way!” Sora said. He tried to run to their aid, but Y!Xehanort snatched him up.

“Sora!” you said.

“Not this time!” Y!Xehanort said. He summoned a concentrated energy blast near Sora's waist, which then exploded, blasting him into the nearby video screen. He phased into it, sending a ripple through the screen. He landed on a metal surface of an enormous boat several miles from a nighttime city skyline.

“Sora! What did you do to him?!” you said.

“Nothing that will kill him. Or maybe that’s my intention.”

“You son of a--!” You ran over to him and attacked him with your dagger. Meanwhile, Sora landed in the video game that Y!Xehanort was standing in front of.

“Where am I?” he asked.

“Haven't you heard? In this world, you come from a video game. So now, you can watch my experiment from inside that screen. That is...if you manage to find a moment's rest,” Y!Xehanort said. He teleported out of the store as Sora came face to face with the Gigas inside Verum Rex.

“There's got to be a way out. Buzz, Woody, hang on!” Sora said. After a few minutes, Sora leaped out of the television screen to the delighted faces of his friends except you. You sat on your knees, looking at where Y!Xehanort was.

“I’m gonna kill him...” you mumbled.

“Wait...Where's Buzz?” Sora asked. You looked behind you and saw him standing there. You stood up and walked over to him.

“He disappeared into a dark corridor,” you said.

“Oh...”

“Sora, how do we get him back?” Woody asked.

“I don't know. My power won't open those.”

“Neither will ours,” Roxy said. Yui nodded in agreement.

“Vanitas, what about you?” Sora asked.

“Same situation as the twins.” Woody breathed a large sigh as the Green Army Men walked nearer.

“Sir, did I hear you say ‘dark corridor’?” Sarge asked.

“That's right, Sarge. Any ideas?” Woody said.

“Well, it might be a long shot, but we've sighted a shadowy portal in the Kid Korral. We can infiltrate from a window inside Babies and Toddlers.” Woody's disposition lightened. “I'll head there and get it open.”

“Sarge, you're a lifesaver!” Woody turned to your and the others. “You guys in?”

“Yeah!” you all said.

“Please promise you'll bring Buzz home,” Rex said.

“With batteries included?” Hamm asked.

“Journey safely,” the first alien said.

“Farewell!” the second alien said.

“Don't worry. WE'RE gonna get our friend back,” Woody said. You and the others returned to the Outdoor section of Babies & Toddlers.

“Vani. Can I talk to you about something?” you said.

“Sure.”

“I think we have another sister.”

“Huh? How do you know?”

“During that headache, I caught a glimpse of a woman. She was in the Realm of Darkness and she was trying to tell me something.”

“What did she say?”

“She said to stop dad but before she could say another thing, I was brought back here.”

“Well, if she is dad’s daughter, then we need to save her before something bad happens.”

“I know she is. I can feel it.” Vanitas wrapped an arm around your waist and kissed your temple.

“It’s gonna be okay,” he whispered.

“I hope so.”

“Guys, look!” Woody said. High above on a windowed wall with the design of a house was a much smaller window.

“That must be the window Sarge mentioned,” Yui said. You all made your way up through the window and entered the Kid Korral, where Sora saw odd green cubes piled against the main door.

“The entrance was blocked by BLOCKS?” he asked.

“Can you use the Gigas to move 'em?” Vanitas asked.

“Yeah, maybe. I'll try.” Sora piloted a nearby blue Gigas, stretching its arm out. He activated the claw which sent magnetic bolts to the green blocks, causing them to glow and disperse, unbarring the door. You and the others moved further into the room where Donald spotted something.

“Up there!” he said. A stream of darkness emanated from the uppermost vent in the room, much too high to reach by normal means, especially at toy height.

“How we gonna reach that?” Sora asked.

“(Y/N). Your guardian is a swan. Maybe you and Odile can pile up the blocks so that we can reach up there,” Rumi said.

“Okay, if you say so,” you said. You pulled out your dagger and held it up into the air. “ODILE!”

From behind you, Odile was summoned. With the help from Roxy, you climbed on Odile and told her what to do. She gave a honk in agreement and she helped place the blocks together while Sora and the others took down the Heartless and the Negaverses. Once all the blocks had been gathered and piled up, three cones landed on top of the green figure assembled and a fanfare played. The figure, with a permanent surprised look on its face, leaned over toward the wall, providing a path up to the vent.

“Hey, is that...” Roxy asked.

“A cactus?” Rumi asked. The vent cover fell open.

“Yep, and it's our way up to the dark corridor,” Vanitas said. You and the others made your way to the vent and entered it, finding a corridor of darkness.

“It looked like this?” Sora asked.

“Yup,” Goofy said.

“Here goes,” You said. You and the others passed through the ominous portal, finding themselves in a hazy abyss. Buzz was hovering in the center, darkness coming off of him and spreading through the air. Y!Xehanort waited for them, waves of dark energy covering the floor as pieces of toys were scattered about the abyss, floating on invisible strings.

“Buzz!” Sora and Woody said.

“Dad!” you and Vanitas said.

“What do you want with my friend?” Woody asked.

“Look... Such tremendous darkness. All because he was ripped away from the boy who cares about him most,” Y!Xehanort said. The waves punched upward.

“Does that mean...we'll all be like Buzz...” The waves coalesced around Woody. “...if we don't...find Andy?”

“Wrong! Distance doesn't matter. Andy's part of their hearts, just like my friends are part of mine,” you said. Sora and the others nodded in agreement, glaring at Y!Xehanort.

“You can't rip that apart!” Sora said. Woody looked at the bottom of his shoe where Andy had written his name years ago, and then at Buzz's, just the same. Buzz was carried higher by the waves as Xehanort raised an arm.

“What? ‘Your friends are your power’? Ah... How very true. But if the light of friendship is a form of power...the darkness of being alone is a power...even greater. Darkness is the heart's true nature,” Y!Xehanort said. You were stunned to silence, but Woody placed a hand on your shoulder and walked past you.

“Whatever you're talking about, I don't care. Put Buzz back the way he was, then get lost!” he said.

“Or else what, toy?”

“Yeah, I am a toy. And a friend.” Woody stamped down with his foot, breaking the waves of darkness slightly, revealing the floor underneath. “My guess is no one's ever loved you before. Because you know NOTHING about hearts and love.”

“WHAT DID HE SAY?!” Roxy cackled.

“Roxy!” Yui scolded. You and Sora joined Woody in the circle of light, both making steps forward.

“There are hearts all around us, trying to connect. Your ‘loneliness’ only made Woody and Buzz's connection stronger. THAT's the heart's true nature--to never, ever let go. Wherever they are, Andy and the other toys haven't let go either,” you said.

“Yeah! You can't keep us from Andy. We're going home no matter what. And taking Buzz!” Woody said.

“Xehanort, you're so caught up in finding the shadows, you forgot about the light that cast them,” Sora said. The force of light broke through the dark waves, tearing apart the darkness holding Buzz in the air. As it reached Buzz, it shined out with a brilliant light.

“No!” Y!Xehanort said. You and your team charged forward, forcing Xehanort to summon his Keyblade, blocking the you all.

“Woody, now!” Vanitas said. Woody leaped forward over them, tossing out the pull string from his back. It latched onto a Lego floating in the air and Woody swung around, using the momentum to snatch Buzz from his tangled perch. You and Sora smiled and Y!Xehanort scowled as the pull string retracted back inside Woody with a message of "Giddy-up, partner! We gotta get this wagon train a-movin'!" Suddenly, Buzz opened his eyes, seeing Woody on top of him. Woody lifted his head and gazed back at his friend. He turned over and sat with Buzz, who held his head.

“Woody...Wait, how did I get here?” Buzz asked.

“Hmm. Oh, I don't know!” Woody elbowed Buzz. “Maybe somebody switched you into ‘dark and stormy’ mode.”

“But I don't have a-” He realized what Woody is saying. The cowboy extended a hand to him and Buzz smiled, taking it, getting to his feet.

“Thank you, Woody,” he said.

“Good to have ya back, Buzz.”

“Oi, hurry up!” Roxy said. The two of them looked over to see you and your team locked in combat with Y!Xehanort.

“We can't hold him much longer!” Rumi said.

“Don't give up, guys!” Sora said. Young Xehanort knocked you all back.

“So, even empty puppets can be given strong hearts. I am going to have to remember that,” he said. Buzz aims his laser beam at Y!Xehanort.

“Remember this--our hearts will always be connected to Andy's. No matter what you do!” he said.

“And that's something you'll never understand, because you're hollower than any toy,” Woody said.

“But now I know a heart can be placed in the vessel of our choosing. For that, let me give you a parting gift to play with,” Y!Xehanort said.

“Wait!” you and Sora said. The two of you ran at Y!Xehanort and slashed right through him.

“Find the hearts joined to yours,” Y!Xehanort said. (why did that feel like he was betraying org.xiii?)

“Huh?” you and Sora asked. Xehanort vanished and Donald leaped up, pointing at the sky where the darkness had begun to break.

“There!” he said. You and the others rejoined as the darkness was swept up, forming a giant flying saucer Heartless, revealing the room as a toy-sized cityscape with a puzzle-piece road.

“Careful!” Woody said.

“Here goes!” you said. After a long battle with the King of Toys involving an electromagnetic tornado, you all succeeded in finishing off the Heartless and returned to the first floor of Galaxy Toys. You all regrouped with your friends and began walking toward the exit.

“So, crusty got away again,” Roxy said.

“Not so much as crusty but more of a brat,” Yui said. You gave a small chuckle but it didn’t make you feel better. Sora hung his head and stopped walking.

“I’m sorry!” Sora said. You and the others turned back to him, confused.

“I wanted to get you back to the real world,” he said. Woody and Buzz looked at each other and smirked.

“It does seem that we're trapped here,” Buzz said.

“We'll never get home,” Rex said.

“Yeah, stuck like pigs,” Hamm said.

“Our position appears fixed,” Sarge said.

“Oh nooo,” the three aliens said. You and the others gave a sad sigh.

“A shame we'll have to stay a little longer...with our new best friends,” Buzz said.

“Huh?” you and your team asked. Woody walked up and leaned on Sora's shoulder.

“After all the adventures we've had, we're not quite ready to say, ‘So long,’” he said. Sora laughed.

“You guys...” he said. The space ranger extended a hand.

“I'm sorry that I was being so stubborn. Please forgive me,” he said. Sora shook his head, smiling, and shook Buzz's hand.

“Hey, you were just looking out for your friends. No biggie,” he said.

“Yeah, somebody's gotta be the sensible one, especially since Woody's always gettin' in trouble,” Hamm said.

“Gawrsh, that sounds a little like Sora and (Y/N), don't it?” Goofy asked. You, Sora, and Woody exchanged a look, pointing at yourselves.

“Yeah, and I'm the dependable one!” Donald said.

“Like Buzz! ...Kinda,” Rex said. You all laughed.

“Besides, if we do go back to the real world, we'll never see you again, right?” Woody asked. Sora scratched his cheek.

“But...what about Andy? You care about him so much,” Rumi said. Buzz put a hand on her shoulder.

“And he's still right here with us,” he said as he touched his heart, smiling. Woody put an arm around Sora.

“If we follow our hearts, we'll find him again,” he said.

“Yeah!” Sora grinned. You and the others continued walking to the exit.

“So, Sora, (Y/N), are you goin' after the guy in the black coat?” Woody asked.

“Something tells me we can't join you on that mission,” Buzz said.

“That's okay...because you've become part of our hearts.” Woody pointed to Sora’s heart. “So let us become a part of yours.”

You and the others extended joyous laughter and infectious smiles as Sora side-hugged Woody.

“Thank you!” he said.

“Now, off you go. To infinity and beyond!” Buzz said.

To be continued...

#kingdom hearts #kingdomhearts #kingdom hearts 3 #kingdom hearts iii #khiii #KH #kh 3 #kingdom hearts imagine #kingdom hearts imagines #kingdom hearts x reader #kingdomhearts x reader #kingdomhearts imagines

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ryttu3k · 4 years ago

Text

Onwards with more CoNY! Night 6 through to, well, endgame (it’s not a long game XD;; ), and some closing thoughts.

Oh impressive, didn’t actually piss off Kaiser! Still, that was a hell of a bust XD

Who’s next... Agathon, I think. Heh, when I was watching Outstar’s LP, she got up to the animal blood part and I went, “Huh, I wonder if that’s a Tremere thing, since Invidia was working on sheep blood too?” And, well. Small world XD

“After Agathon parks the car, it’s time for you to enter the nightclub. You glance at the Tremere, evaluating him. It’s obvious this is not his kind of place.” Oh mood.

Juno’s rude :(

“You were too busy licking Aisling’s boots to realise what you had!” “Aisling doesn’t wear boots.”

Oops. Yeah, didn’t impress either Agathon or Aisling much there, alas.

Stalker spotted! :o

Okay, more fun with Kaiser. Wine shop at 232 Mullberry St, ask for the 1821 Special Reserve Donatello Negroamaro. When they decline, say you’re a ‘fedele servitore della famiglia G.’ Ugh, fuckin’ Giovanni. Take it, say ‘grazie’ and nothing else. Got it!

Ugh, Willets Point doesn’t look cheery! Oh well, got the address, at least.

I hear a ‘shrill, unpleasant laugh’. Oh boy, him XD;; Didn’t actually speak to him earlier in this run.

Well, rest of the night is free! Time for D’Angelo, this time! Man, never thought I’d be so relieved to see his ugly mug, but hey, beats the NYPD XD

I mean, being right is one thing, but it’s pretty uncool to realise what’s going on and what it could mean :-\ I like that he does seem fairly compassionate towards the Thinbloods, like he recognises how shit they have it and doesn’t want to make it shittier.

Yeah, Larson’s in a really tricky situation too :-\ But yikes, this shelter is... deeply unpleasant. Definitely prefer Santa Monica beach XD;;

Hi, Sana, nice to meet you. Are you a serial killer, by any chance?

Buaargh grabbed by the throat that was very rude!! Ooof, blood hunt. Even ruder :( Scourge, not fun. Has it ever occurred to them that maybe the mass killing off of Thinbloods would lead to Gehenna? I mean, call it a wild and crazy theory... XD;;

Ooh, lots of choices tonight. I think Benoit, then back to D’Angelo. There’s also the stalker and reporter sidequests, but I want to save those for later (reporter with the Ventrue, stalker with the Brujah, although I think there are two options for the stalker so I might do that one with the Ventrue too... for now, focusing on Benoit with Lamar).

...uh oh. Hunters.

Hmm. That sure was a thing. Back to D’Angelo, let’s see if we can find Sana before the Scourge does...

lmao feeding opportunity on the random flask. Sure why not.

“Something about impending doom and oh lawd, he comin’.” *SNORTS*

“Who are we meeting?” “Better strap in, ‘cause this one’s a doozy.” “Am I meeting your parents?” Wow and it’s only the third date XD

“We want her alive.” / “Don’t be a murderous bitch.” God you have no idea how much I want to do the second one...

D’Angelo and Valerie, huh XD

Poor Sana :(

Oh, uh, hi Qadir! Make yourself at home. Oh you already did. Okay then!

...good talk!

Awww fuck it’s Emma :(

Mrph. No time for that yet, so back to D’Angelo. Sana seems calm. If we can get her out of the city, that’s a better option than turning her over to Panhard, that’s for sure. Hmm, Larson turned someone over to the SI. That is... uncool. Still, if helping her get out is feasible, let’s give it a shot.

Dee and jello. Hee.

Oh fucking - um, hi, Qadir? Okay, yes, fair to say that did not go well.

God this is just sad :( But if we had gone to Elysium, she probably would have been publicly executed, and if we had turned in Larson, he would have been killed instead...

Ahhh, the book reveal. I had already been spoiled for this, alas, but it’s still a pretty neat - and sad - twist.

I’m having emotions over the friendship between a Toreador and a Nosferatu don’t mind me ;_; And that is D’Angelo’s arc complete and achievement got!

Now to say goodbye to Emma :(

“It’s going to leave a scar, boy. But a true artist knows those are not something to hide, but to display with pride.” Man, I so wonder what Qadir would be doing if he wasn’t Sheriff. He’s a Toreador! What’s his creative outlet?

God that scene is so sad ;_; Also Qadir is such a good character, seriously.

Next up - now that D’Angelo’s arc is done, over to Agathon.

He’s such a good grandson ;_;

Time for Benoit part three. Final part, I think? God that’s an intense scene. In Outstar’s LP, she had Lamar run, so I haven’t seen the outcome of it, but. Yeah. That’s full-on. And that’s the achievement done, so back to Agathon!

Ahh dang. Asked about the notes instead of the missing Invidia. Ah well, I’ve seen that text option - the next step is syncing it up with Night Road.

I mean. In fairness. Juno’s right, the Tremere are pretty shitty XD;; Got the notes back with Celerity, though! (Didn’t think Presence was a good idea, she’d probably just counter with Dominate.) Oof, wonder what she did to Agathon, though?

Oooh, she’s House Carna!! Okay, that’s damn cool... and now I’m wondering if she was right after all XD No chance of convincing Aisling and Agathon to ditch the Pyramid and go join Carna too, huh? Either way, arc done, and achievement got!

Oh huh, now I’m out of options XD Won’t have enough time to do Hope or Tamika’s runs, so... I guess let’s start the stalker and journo ones? I think I’m going to run out of time before endgame, though. Or, I can deliberately fail at recruiting someone for the achievement... yeah, okay, let’s go say hi to Hope.

Hi chat! Nice to meet you all! Friendly crowd here! God this is so much funnier having seen Hope’s arc already.

“Any last words?” “Your chat room sucks ass.”

V I B E C H E C K

Lamar: “What.”

Hope’s show is goddamn wild. Also, confirmation that it definitely is set in 2019.

Huh. Not the impression I got from the description of v5 Blush of Life, it’s supposed to be normal saline.

Aaaand the reveal! I love the username InfodumpDeliveryService lmao

Whoops. Accidentally succeeded in recruiting her XD Well fuck it, we’re only just meeting with Torque now, let’s see how far I can get before endgame!

“Heard this is the place to meet hot chicks who hate the patriarchy.”

Man I wish you legit could join the Anarchs XD;;

Yeah not surprised Mia is a Brujah XD I bet she and Damsel would get on!

Hmm. Fun times with stalkers, I guess. Oh rude just got beaten up :(

Huh. Wonder if Bruce’s mysterious master is Samira, the Banu Haqim primogen?

Hrmm. Could try failing with Tamika, I guess. Hi Gangrel dude I like your tree tattoo! Raoul, gotcha. Oh goddammit I accidentally recruited again XD

Oh fuck police D8 Oh, right, that was the stalker. Fun times! Oh shit that note was from Adelaide, right, because those definitely sound like stereotypical Malk speech patterns XD;; ...Or not, because it’s time to meet ‘the boss’ :|

RIP Vince but not too much of the P.

God Callihan is repellent I’m so glad, uh, SoNY happens.

Okay, nasty stalker, let’s see what you’re on about! Or not because Sophie is being scary as fuck and forcing the poor kid to meet with Torque D:

Poor Lamar’s just realised he’s a pawn and is like, “...well fuck.”

Okay, now we’ve set all that up, now we go meet with the stalker XD;; Aaand... she thinks Lamar is pretty, and got an achievement XD;;

Well that was a rude as hell awakening. D’Angelo, you are a sight for sore eyes!

Man the music that plays here is giving me super strong Bloodlines vibes.

Ooof, back to that apartment. That’s fun.

And of course this is the part where the game all falls apart :-\

Just... god. This is probably the biggest problem with CoNY, and the reason I didn’t bother getting it until it was like... 60% off. The bulk of the game is great - the writing is intriguing, the design is stunning. But the choices themselves are so limited it’s barely worth even getting it at 60% off!

You have three choices of characters, with their own opening chapters and own individual scenes with their touchstones. You have four choices of coterie members, and three sidequests. You can probably get in at least three full story arcs and a sidequest or two, but you’re only ever limited to two of your coterie members showing up at the not-yet-endgame.

So let’s say you decide to play all three protags, which, indeed, is encouraged (there’s an achievement for it). You are going to repeat coterie arcs and side quests, because there simply aren’t enough for three unique playthroughs.

And then you get to the end and literally everything is scripted. You get attacked by the SI. You get rescued by your two coterie members (and then never see them again, despite the game being called Coteries of New York). You meet Torque, you escape the SI, Sophie reveals her plan to Torque, you go to Ellis Island, Adelaide kills Sophie (and despite the fact that you’re given multiple options there, none of them work), Arturo does his spiel, end of game. You don’t even get to choose between ending up blood bound or going “no fuck you” and at least dying with a bit of dignity!

I just. I really want to like it, and there genuinely is a lot there to like! But uuuugh the ending. Like damn at least give the poor protag the option to choose what happens to them!

Anyway. Not sure what’s next. To get all the achievements, you have to finish with all three protags, so that’s three full runs and a lot of repetitiveness (compare to, say, Bloodlines or Night Road. I have eighty-five hours on Night Road and there’s still stuff I haven’t seen!), so I can’t even just... rush it through up to the meeting with the touchstones on the third play. Nope. Gotta finish it :-\

Final rating: 6/10

8/10 characters, 9/10 atmosphere, 8/10 story aside from ending, 3/10 story ending, 2/10 replayability. Final consensus: get it on major sale if you can, otherwise, you might as well just watch an LP. I might do that instead of doing a third run, although I at least want to do a second.

But yeah. Either way, I’m definitely going to be setting it aside for a while. I want to do a short-play game (probably ABZU), then back to Bloodlines for my Tremere Cammy run. At least there’s still plenty there to explore, even if the endgame combat is pretty repetitive! It has actual different endings and your choices actually matter!

#ry plays cony #vampire the masquerade #vtm #vtm coteries of new york

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