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bbangsoonie · 4 years ago

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creker academy

member: eric genre: fluff (ft some angst), fantasy au word count: 6,182 synopsis: after finally triggering your hidden powers, fate lands you at creker academy, a special boarding school meant for shapeshifters. there, you learn how to control your abilities and that opposites do indeed attract.

The day you found out that you were adopted was the day your life fell apart. The secret was hidden from you until your uncle coldly drew the line at your parents’ funeral. He told you that he had no intention of taking responsibility for his brother’s actions and that you were no longer a part of the family.

That was how you ended up living alone in a tiny half-basement studio. You barely managed to afford the deposit and rent with the consolation money you received from the funeral.

Every day, Hyunjoon would come knocking at your door and every day, you would turn him away. It had only been a month since you became independent and the scar of losing your parents was still fresh. You were also too ashamed to face your friends. You didn’t want their pity and so you hid away in isolation.

On the night of your birthday, the pain became too unbearable. Although you aged another year, you were still only a teenager. Granted, you were in your last year of high school but you were still a minor. Having to fend for yourself in this harsh world was too much for you to handle.

As you cried yourself to sleep, you could feel a cold coming. The heat from your headache spread to the rest of your body and you felt yourself burning up.

After you bought some medicine from the pharmacy, you slipped into a deep slumber. Your dreams were wildly vivid. You dreamt of an enchanted forest that enticed you to take refuge in its comfort. There, animals of all species ran free and in harmony. It promised you acceptance and a home.

“It’s time you learn of your identity,” a soft voice spoke.

As soon as the whisper tickled your ears, the entire forest was up in flames. Strangely, you weren’t struck with fear. Rather, you felt empowered.

“Y/n, you need to learn how to control yourself,” the voice warned.

It was only then that you started to panic. The flames were engulfing everything in sight and all the animals were running for their lives.

“Y/n, you have to wake up. Now,” the voice commanded.

With that, your eyes shot open. To your horror, the scene in your dreams reflected the view in front of you. Your house was on fire and you were slowly getting cornered by the heat. Frightened, you look to the door only to see it consumed by the blaze.

“Trust your instincts, Y/n,” the voice in your head cooed. “Let your body take control.”

Bewildered, you had no idea what that meant. All you knew was that you had to get out of there. You squeezed your eyes shut, hoping to think of a solution. When you reopened them, the room seemed to be a lot bigger than normal. At that moment, you saw the window cracked open. It was your only hope.

Your body felt different when you stood up.

“Why am I so short all of a sudden?” you wondered.

You looked down and almost screamed when you saw paws instead of your feet. Except a meow came out of your throat instead.

You didn’t have time to freak out about it. Feeling something hot graze your tail, you jumped up and landed on the window sill. Your innate desire for survival kicked in and you squeezed through the opening to escape.

Once you felt fresh air in your lungs again, you ran. And ran. And ran. You didn’t know why or where you were going, but something in you told you to run. Your legs kept sprinting until they reached the forest that appeared in your dream. They came to a slow stop when you realized where you were.

“What is this place?” you pondered.

“This is the border between our world and the human world,” a woman in white suddenly emerged from the trees. “You are now about to cross into our territory.”

It was the same voice from your dream. Trying to grasp the situation, you opened your mouth to ask a million questions. But again, a meow replaced your voice.

“It’ll be easier for you to transition back once you're on our grounds,” she assured. She bent down and gestured for you to jump into her arms.

Not seeing any other option, you hesitantly took her offer. With you safely in her embrace, she passed through a translucent wall that revealed what looked like a huge campus. Your jaw dropped as you observed your surroundings. There were students walking around the magical place. You saw a girl tending the garden and gasped when her hands hovered above the flowers to revive them.

The woman brought you to an office you presumed to be hers and placed you in front of a mirror. Your shriek came out as a cute yelp and she chuckled.

“I-I’m a cat!” you thought.

“There’s an outfit you can change into once you return to your human form,” she pointed at the black dress neatly prepared on the table.

The second she finished her sentence, you felt a bare sensation. Looking down, you screeched at your naked body. Embarrassed and horrified, you quickly clothed yourself with the dress.

“W-What’s going on?” you asked, relieved to finally hear your own voice again.

“I’m sure you felt different from others your whole life?” she asked. It sounded more like a statement rather than a question.

She wasn’t wrong. All your life, you never felt like you fitted in anywhere. Maybe your body knew you were adopted before your mind did and ostracized itself. Or maybe you truly were different. You had weird talents that other kids thought were freaky, making you hide them and become introverted. For instance, you were suspiciously good at starting fires from scratch at summer camp and didn’t feel any pain when your shirt accidentally caught on fire.

“I know this must be shocking to you but you’re special, Y/n. We’ve been waiting for you. Waiting for you to trigger your powers to bring you here,” she smiled.

“My what?” you gaped.

“Your powers. What you just did back at your old house and right now. You’re a shapeshifter, Y/n. A shapeshifter with the element of fire,” she explained.

“I’m a what now?” you scoffed in disbelief.

“Creker Academy is a school and home for students just like you. It’s a place meant to train you how to control your powers. Without our guidance, you’ll lead down a path of self-destruction.”

Baffled by her words, you stared in silence. There was no way any of this was true. Surely this had to be a dream.

“This isn’t a prank or a dream, Y/n. You’ve finally found where you belong,” she clarified.

Belong. You had never felt like you really belonged anywhere. But now, someone was telling you that you belonged with them. That they wanted you there. That they had been waiting for you.

“I understand you must feel overwhelmed. But there are procedures to follow so I’m afraid you will have to begin your tour first. A fellow student will be arriving soon to show you around.”

As if on cue, a boy around your age knocked on the door and came in after receiving the woman’s permission to enter.

“Hello, Headmaster,” he bowed.

“Eric, this is Y/n. Y/n, this is Eric. He will be helping you adjust here,” she introduced.

Eric was bright eyed and eager to meet a new friend. You, on the other hand, were quite reserved and uncomfortable in your new environment.

He was excitedly pointing out the purpose of each room you passed by and rambled on about the social norms of the boarding school. You learned that on top of academics, there were classes on virtues and physical training. And of course, classes that taught you how to properly use and contain your powers.

The use of magic was strictly prohibited inside any and all buildings. Students could practice their skills outside but were forbidden from any acts that could potentially put someone or something at risk. That was the one rule that was rigidly enforced and obeyed.

“So what animal and element are you?” he curiously pried. “I’m a dog with the element of water.”

“I’m… apparently a cat,” you felt ridiculous saying it aloud. “And control fire.”

“Ah, you’re a member of the fire element,” he nodded. “What that means is that your element rivals with mine. Some people see fire elements as hotheaded, impulsive, and extreme. Water elements are sometimes emotional, sensitive, and antisocial. But those are all just stereotypes, of course. Not everyone fits into the standard. I, for one, am very outgoing. And your animal obviously plays a role in your personality. I guess the dog in me overpowers the water.”

You had moved on from the indoor portion of the tour to the outside part. He was showing you the garden you had passed by earlier. It was full of flowers that wouldn’t be in bloom this season in the normal world.

“I’m a strong believer in that there are good traits about each element. For example, fire elements are passionate, inspirational, and expressive. They’re arguably the most fun people you’ll ever meet. Water elements are empathetic, imaginative, and loving. But again, all this is relative and doesn’t accurately describe each person,” he reminded. “The only reason there’s still a stupid feud is because some people love sticking to the status quo and labeling others.”

“What are the other elements? Air and earth?”

“Yup! Air elements are independent, talkative, fickle, and nonconformists. Most likely social butterflies. Earth elements are disciplined, loyal, organized, and judgemental. Oftentimes the leader.”

Eric greeted a male student who was passing by with two other boys. He exchanged smiles with the three of them who offered you a kind nod of acknowledgement.

“That was Sangyeon. He’s a bear. On his left is Jacob, a rabbit. The one on the right is Younghoon, who’s also a dog like me. They’re all earth elements,” he disclosed. “Sangyeon is the class representative of our grade. Definitely fits the leader stereotype.”

You couldn’t get over how thrilled he was to be your tour guide. He was filling you in on even the little details of the social life at the academy. He told you about how transfer students were rare and that it was his first time seeing a new student.

His vibrancy contrasted your somber aura. If he noticed, he didn’t comment on it. He was having too much fun getting to know you.

“Oh! That’s Hyunjae and Juyeon,” Eric suddenly pointed at a pair of boys on a morning run. He waved at the two who waved back before speeding up.

“The one with brown hair is Hyunjae, a wolf and fire element. His real name is Jaehyun but he changed it to Hyunjae once he got to Creker Academy. Juyeon’s the one with black hair and is a cat like you. Except he’s a water element like me,” he grinned. “They’re my best friends. Oh, and this guy named Sunwoo who’s a raccoon with the element of fire. As you can see, water and fire elements can get along fine and well. So don’t listen to anyone who says otherwise.”

By the time he was done showing you around, a bell rang and students began to convene inside. Eric explained that the bell was signaling the beginning of classes and brought you to his homeroom.

“Breakfast is buffet style and self served. It’s up to you to wake up and come down to eat. The cafeteria remains open for an hour until that bell rings and we have to get to class,” he said you entered.

Looking around for an empty seat, his face lit up when he spotted one. He sat at his desk and tapped on the one behind him to let you know that it was yours to take.

You still hadn’t processed all that’s happened since dawn. Everything felt like a haze. Nevertheless, you found yourself paying attention when the teacher walked in. He scanned the room to find a new face and smiled when he made eye contact with you.

“Alright, guys. I’m happy to announce that we have a new student that will be joining us starting today,” he beckoned for you to come up to the front of the classroom.

You wanted to shrivel up and crawl into a hole. Feeling your classmates gazes on you, you gulped and began to sweat. You were never a fan of attention. You quickly introduced yourself before rushing back to your seat, eliciting giggles from a few students. Your cheeks heated up and you felt that burning tingle again.

The awkwardness made you transform back into a cat, making your classmates gasp. Their intensified stares made the tips of your fur ignite, alarming the teacher who tried to calm you down.

“Well I guess she’s a fire cat,” a girl snickered.

Eric shot her a glare before leaning in to ask if you wanted him to put the fire out with his water. Not knowing what else to do, you nodded and the next thing you knew, you were drenched.

So much for your first day.

You ran out of the room before you could change back into a human. You fled but didn’t know where to go. You grew anxious, desperately hoping you wouldn’t end up flashing anyone.

“Hey!” someone called out. You turned around to see a male approaching you. Panicking, you dove into a bush.

“You’re the newbie, right?” he asked, taking something out of his bag. He dug out a large t-shirt and a pair of shorts and placed them in front of you. “I usually carry around a spare outfit in case of emergencies. I hope you don’t mind the fit.”

You were still in your animal form so you peaked your head out to look at him.

“My name’s Chanhee. Air element penguin,” he squatted down to meet your eyes. “Everyone’s first day is rough. You’re not the only one who’s had incidents like this so try not to feel so bad about it.”

He stood to go back to class, leaving you to change in privacy once you returned to your normal body. Your hair was still wet as you dragged yourself back to the headmaster’s office.

The headmaster looked at you with pity when you walked in looking worn out. You didn’t have to tell her for her to know what happened.

“How about I show you to your dorm?” she warmly suggested. Anything was better than returning to the classroom.

Due to your late enrollment, you were assigned a single room as opposed to the traditional double rooms. You were glad you didn’t have to go through the process of meeting and getting used to a roommate. It was a small but cozy space and the closet was filled with clothes.

You realized all of your belongings were probably burned down in your old home. Now you really didn’t have anything to go back to.

Before the headmaster left to allow you to settle in, she insisted that you join your classmates for lunch later. You wanted to say that you just wanted to stay in your room but her stern look had you close your mouth.

So you begrudgingly made your way to the cafeteria and gawked at the amount of students packed inside. Feeling them stare at you, you tried to ignore their whispers as you grabbed a tray of food. To your relief, you saw Eric motioning you over and went to go sit down next to him.

His group of friends was fairly large. You saw the boys he had named earlier that day and were surprised to see Chanhee again.

“Hi! I’m Changmin,” one enthusiastically waved. “I’m an air squirrel.”

“Haknyeon, air pig,” another raised his hand.

“My animal is a hamster and my element is water. You can call me Kevin,” the last one smiled.

After shyly exchanging greetings with everyone, you poked at the rice on your plate. The food was undeniably better than the food served at your old school. However, thinking about your old school made your stomach drop as you thought of the friends you left behind. You were sure Hyunjoon was worried sick about you.

“Do you hate water? And have you always hated water? I would assume you don’t like it very much as a cat and fire element,” Changmin looked at you with sparkling eyes that displayed his curiosity.

“Yeah I actually never learned how to swim. I guess that explains why. I never had a reason when my friends asked me about it,” you mused. In hindsight, your unreasonable hatred and fear of water made sense.

“Interesting, interesting,” he nodded.

Like that, the next couple of months flew by. You were put on an intensive program to catch up with your peers and received one-on-one tutoring to help you learn how to shapeshift at will. You could now easily turn into a cat but still had trouble returning to your human form.

To your dismay, you were denied communication with the outside world. The headmaster was very much against risking having the academy and everyone’s identities exposed. Which meant that you weren’t allowed to contact anyone from your previous life.

One good thing was that you were no longer the hot topic of the school. People’s interest in you died down when you didn’t reciprocate theirs.

You grew close to Eric and his group of friends. They were an interesting bunch. Each of them were uniquely chaotic.

Eric was the exact opposite of you. Literally. As a water element dog, his personality contrasted your fiery cat. Everything from your food tastes to fashion style were different. Yet, you felt the most comfortable with him. He brought light into your life and made adjusting to your new school easier.

You were also always at odds with Juyeon. Although you were both cats, he was everything you weren’t. He was sweet but you just didn’t match on so many things. This meant for a very awkward but pleasant friendship.

You got along best with Chanhee. His air side complemented your fire and he quickly became your closest friend. He was both sassy and caring and you appreciated his endless concern and support for you.

Changmin was a wild card. He and Sunwoo wrecked havoc everywhere they went as Younghoon and Haknyeon incited them while Kevin and Jacob were trying their best to prevent them from destroying the campus. Sangyeon and Hyunjae, who were usually busy with student council matters, were the only ones who could calm everyone down but sometimes chose to enjoy the mayhem.

“Did you guys hear the rumors?” Sunwoo bursted through the classroom door panting. “The headmaster is considering an overnight field trip for the seniors!”

Jaws dropped and gasps spread throughout the students. The room was immediately in a buzz as everyone was shocked and excited at the possibility of leaving the sealed territory. It had been 5 years since students were allowed a trip in the outside world.

The homeroom teacher came in and hushed everyone to quiet down. He couldn’t hide the smile that forced its way onto his face after seeing how happy his students looked.

“Is it true we might get a senior trip?” Haknyeon impatiently asked.

“I cannot comment on that. An official announcement will be made later today,” the teacher said.

“That’s not a no!” Younghoon squealed.

True to his words, the headmaster’s voice was heard over the PA system before the dismissal bell. She congratulated the seniors on their hard work and announced that they would be given the opportunity to sign up to spend 3 days and 2 nights on a cruise.

The entire floor of students erupted into cheers and you heard footsteps run across as they barged into classrooms to find their friends and rejoice together. Changmin came into your classroom dragging Kevin and Juyeon behind him.

“Guys, I can’t believe it! It’s been forever since I last saw humans,” Changmin gushed.

“The whole point of us going on a private boat is to ensure that we don’t have any run-ins with humans,” Kevin reminded.

“Yeah but I’m sure we’d pass by them on our way there,” Changmin rolled his eyes.

Sangyeon, Hyunjae, and Jacob strolled in, greeting your group of friends with a nod of acknowledgment. They waited as the rest of you gathered your stuff to leave together.

“Everyone’s going, right? Y/n, you too?” Eric asked.

“Umm,” you hesitated as you looked at their expectant eyes. “I honestly don’t know if it’d be a good idea… I’m still not in complete control over my powers.”

“Aw but Y/n! You can’t miss out on this once in a lifetime trip with all of us!” Sunwoo whined.

“Yeah, it’ll be your last time leaving campus before graduating! Plus, it’ll be your first and last major bonding experience with our class,” Younghoon pouted.

“I know how hard fire can be to control. If you want, I can stay with you and try to help you detect signs of distress before it manifests itself,” Hyunjae offered.

“And I‘ll be next to you to put out any accidents!” Eric beamed.

“You know I always have extra clothes in my bag,” Chanhee added.

You couldn’t say no to the 11 pairs of pleading eyes. They all so desperately wanted you to go with them that it warmed your heart. It hadn’t even been long since you first met them but they always treated you like you were with them from the start.

So you added your name to the list of students and that was how you ended up dragging your suitcase to the giant cruise ship. Haknyeon was bouncing in excitement next to you as the throng of high schoolers slowly made their way inside.

Room assignments were the same as back at the academy, which meant that you were in a single by yourself again. Changmin expressed his envy as Chanhee happily pulled him into their shared room.

Once you were unpacked, you headed to the deck and admired the seascape. The ship was already sailing into the vast ocean and the endless horizon felt so freeing. Leaning on the handrails, you closed your eyes and took a deep breath. The salty smell brought back memories of visiting the beach with your parents.

You felt someone join you but didn’t open your eyes. You could tell by their footsteps that it was Eric.

“Enjoying the change in environment?” he asked.

“Makes me a bit nostalgic,” you said as you opened your eyes.

The wind was strong and the waves were violently crashing into the sides of the boat. With the sun glistening in the water’s reflection, you squinted a bit to appreciate the scenery in front of you.

“Isn’t the view so pretty?” you sighed in content. You didn’t notice that he wasn’t looking at the sea. Instead, he was staring at you.

“Yeah. Extremely pretty,” he found himself saying with a soft smile.

To Eric’s slight annoyance, Sunwoo came and tactlessly interrupted the moment to tell you two to meet everyone else at the pool. He was raving about the jacuzzi next to it and eagerly tugged at Eric’s sleeve to hurry him up.

Younghoon was already shoving Hyunjae’s head underwater when you arrived. Jacob waved at you from the chaise lounge and you sat down next to him. Giggling, you watched Sangyeon climb on top of both of them as Juyeon egged him on. Changmin and Chanhee were relaxing in the jacuzzi while Kevin and Haknyeon were piling food on their plates at the snack bar.

Eric was thrown into the pool thanks to Sunwoo’s push and he emerged to the surface screaming and laughing. Using his powers to add more pressure, he splashed Sunwoo with water, who ran off shrieking.

“Do you not like the water as well?” you turned around to face Jacob.

“I don’t necessarily dislike it but I don’t really like it either,” he shrugged. “I don’t mind jumping in if the guys tell me to join.”

“Do you hate the water or are you afraid of it?” Haknyeon asked as he and Kevin took a seat next to you.

“I guess both?” you answered.

“You know, contrary to popular belief, I’m actually not that fond of large bodies of water either,” Kevin said as he offered Jacob a bite of his pizza. “Pretty weird for a water element, huh?”

“Hey, hey, we don’t stick to stereotypes. We are all individuals with personalities and preferences unique to our own character,” Jacob chided.

“Oh how I love confirmation biases,” Haknyeon joked.

You had to admit it was pretty interesting to see how each person matched and defied their element and animal characteristics. It was like taking a personality test and fervently agreeing with the parts that were true and blatantly ignoring the parts that weren’t.

The rest of the day was spent fooling around and playing games. There was never a dull moment with the boys. They were always in high spirits and full of energy.

Even at dinner, your table was the loudest one. Juyeon had been sneakily stealing a few bites of fish off of Haknyeon’s plate, who took great offense when he finally noticed. Meanwhile, Eric was bargaining with Younghoon for his chicken. At the mention of chicken, Hyunjae joined in on the negotiation of the last piece of meat.

So far, you haven't had a risky moment with either your element or animal. You were in complete control and didn’t need guidance—although Chanhee remained by your side just in case. When you made it back to your room to call it a night, you were relieved and proud that the trip was going smoothly without any hiccups.

Perhaps you spoke too early.

In one of the rooms down the hall, a girls’ night had turned awry. One of the girls, a water element, began crying and started a waterflow that got out of hand. The more she panicked and tried to stop it, the higher the water rose. It quickly seeped into the hallway and into other rooms.

With her friends screaming at her to make it stop, it only escalated with a loud whoosh as the door broke open from the pressure. Now in full panic mode, the girls shrieked and realized that the place was flooding from the inside out.

They trudged through the rising water to flee, banging on doors on their way out. Doors swung open as students woke up from the commotion.

By the time Juyeon finally managed to wake Eric up from his deep sleep, the water was nearly up to the bed. The roommates freaked out, wondering what the heck was going on. Juyeon quickly grabbed his bag and hurried Eric to leave.

On their way out, however, they saw that your door was still closed.

“Shit, Y/n can’t swim,” Eric gasped.

“The water’s not that deep yet. Let’s get her out while it’s still walkable,” Juyeon said as he threw his bag down and started walking towards your room.

Meanwhile, you were still sound asleep. You were startled awake by the pounding. When you registered the situation, the fear made you shift into a cat before you could get up and unlock the door. You anxiously glanced at the closed door as the water began to climb up your body.

Outside, Eric felt a pit form in his stomach. Getting worried, he decided to break your door open. With the help of Juyeon, he barely slammed the heavy wood down by mustering up all the strength he had.

“Y/n!” he yelled when he finally saw you.

You were struggling to keep your head above the water and it was getting harder by the second to not breathe in the liquid. He rushed to pick you up and kept you afloat even when he stumbled. The waves were now reaching his chest.

Juyeon transformed into his cat form to swim as Eric trekked through the hall. You were clinging onto him and Eric was holding onto you tightly as well. You could feel him pant and his heart beat fast. Tucked under his arm, you looked up to see beads of sweat falling from his forehead.

Your own heart skipped a beat at the sight. You could tell how much he cared for you. He made you feel wanted. Needed. Important.

You two were polar opposites but still complemented each other so well. He was the optimism you lacked and you were his rock. You kept him grounded and he made you laugh.

When you finally escaped to the deck, Juyeon stepped away to change back into a human and put on clothes. Your friends crowded around you, Younghoon drying you off with a towel and Chanhee placing a clean outfit next to you.

“Alright, everyone, settle down,” the headmaster called out, turning heads. “I’m glad you’re all safely out but it’ll take some time to drain the water. Please calmly stay in groups until we sort everything out.”

Thanks to your months of training, you were now able to sense when your transformation was about to occur. You grabbed the clothes with your mouth and ran off before you could flash anyone. You sheepishly returned wearing one of Chanhee’s pajama shirts and with water still dripping from your hair.

“Y/n!” Sunwoo dramatically whined, jumping you for a hug. Displeased, Eric peeled him off of you and handed you another towel.

“Thanks, Eric,” you smiled. “For… everything.”

“No problem,” he grinned as he ruffled your head.

“Thank God these two got you out safe and sound,” Sangyeon sighed in relief. You apologized for worrying everyone, to which Hyunjae insisted that you had no reason to feel sorry.

Luckily, the next day was not as eventful. A dinner party was prepared for the last night on the cruise and you got to dress up and have fun. You enjoyed a relaxing time in the ballroom with music playing from the speakers and the boys embarrassing themselves on the dance floor.

You giggled as you watched Changmin ask his crush for a dance after Chanhee quite literally pushed his friend to approach her. It was sweet to see both of them all shy in each other’s arms.

Juyeon nudged Eric and nodded in your direction to ask if he was going to ask you to dance as well. When Eric pretended not to know what he was talking about, Sunwoo joined in to tease him.

“Come on, bro. We all know you like her. Just hurry up and make a move already,” Sunwoo snickered.

“Ooh are we talking about Y/n?” Hyunjae came after eavesdropping.

“I hate you guys,” Eric rolled his eyes as he tried to hide his blush.

Learning from Chanhee, Sunwoo shoved his best friend towards you and fled after he bumped into you. Shooting him a glare, Eric silently swore at him with his eyes. He cringed before turning around to face you.

He felt his breath being stolen away when his eyes met yours. You were absolutely stunning. The glimmer of the chandelier shining on your enhanced your features and he found himself lost in your orbs.

From a few tables away, Kevin and Jacob had joined the other three guys to fanboy over the interaction. Juyeon whispered “he’s totally whipped” to Sunwoo who failed to hold back his laughter. Eric, however, didn’t even notice. He was too busy gaping at you.

“Uhh is there something on my face?” you asked, bringing your palm to your cheek. You were slightly self conscious at his intense staring.

“Beauty,” he blurted. Trying to play it cool, he acted confident and ignored the burst of laughter from his friends. You felt your face heat up at his comment and awkwardly coughed as you looked away.

“Y-You look great too,” you stuttered.

On his way to pour himself some more punch, Chanhee loudly told you to just dance with Eric. He passed by and continued to walk towards the drinks without a care as to how flustered he left you two. Your friends were practically doubling over in laughter at this point.

So Eric boldly held your hand and gently guided you to the dance floor. Feeling your body heat up, he applied his cooling powers on you to prevent you from igniting flames.

“I guess we could say there’s a spark between us,” he joked.

The rest of the night flew by in a blur. You hadn’t felt so carefree in so long. For the first time in a while, you weren’t hung up on the past or worried about the future. You simply appreciated the moment as you were living it.

You never expected things to turn out the way it did. With the death of your parents, you lost a lot of things. But your new friends made you feel complete again. They healed you in ways you couldn’t have imagined.

The revelation of your true identity also brought you peace. You no longer felt like the odd one out. Your own powers didn’t scare you and you felt safe learning about them at the boarding school.

However, you began to doubt all of that the second you docked back on land. You were chatting with Eric about his favorite ramen brand when an all-too-familiar voice made you freeze.

“Y/n..?” he carefully called out. He slowly came up to see if it really was you and gasped when he saw that it was.

Eric didn’t know why he suddenly felt uneasy. Maybe it was because an unknown male had made a reappearance in your life or maybe it was because he recognized the way he was looking at you. It was the same way he looked at you as well.

Chanhee, now protective and defensive, slightly pushed you to the back to ask who he was.

“It’s okay, Chanhee. He’s my friend,” you assured, stepping forward.

Juyeon scowled, not liking that you were interacting with people from the human world. It was borderline going against the rules.

“Hey, Hyunjoon. Long time no see,” you timidly greeted.

“Are you kidding me? You disappeared after a fire burned down your house and that’s all you have to say to me?” Hyunjoon fumed.

You winced at the pain evident in his voice. It had hurt you to ignore your best friend and there hadn’t been a day where you didn’t miss him. Guilt-ridden, you were unable to meet his eyes. He took you by surprise by pulling you in for a hug.

“We thought of the worst, Y/n,” he murmured. “I forgive you for going M.I.A. on me. It’s okay. Everything’s fine as long as you’re here.”

You choked back tears but couldn’t stop one from falling down your cheek. You heard the headmaster gathering the students to get on the bus back home and knew that you didn’t have much time before you had to leave him again. Sangyeon patted you on the shoulder and ran ahead to ask the headmaster for leniency.

“I-I have to go soon,” you stammered as you broke away from his embrace.

“Go where? You’re not coming back home?” Hyunjoon asked.

“I… have a new home now,” you gulped. “I can’t tell you where and I can’t promise that I’ll be able to see you again. But I’ve missed you. I still do.”

“Are you safe?” he whispered after staying silent for a bit. “Are you happy?”

You took a glimpse of your group of friends that was unconvincingly pretending to not listen to the conversation. It almost made you chuckle despite the situation.

“Yeah,” you trailed off. “I’m doing well, Hyunjoon. And I hope the same for you. I’m sorry.”

“Then that’s all that matters,” he forced a smile as he hugged you one last time. “Bye, Y/n.”

“Bye, Hyunjoon.”

It pained you to see him watch you walk away. Your heart broke with each step you took. On the ride back to the forest, you stared out the window. Eric, sitting next to you, softly squeezed your hand to offer you some comfort.

“I made the right choice, right?” you asked, leaning on his shoulder.

“Do you regret it?” he cautiously asked.

You thought about it. You definitely missed Hyunjoon and all of your other old friends. You also definitely felt bad that you left them behind without a word and still couldn’t provide an explanation. But at the same time, you’ve grown to love your new school and new friends. You no longer had to be on edge without even knowing the reason why. Creker Academy made you feel confident. The boys made you feel accepted. Eric made you feel loved.

“No,” you answered with certainty. “Not at all.”

a/n: for the eric to my sunwoo, @sohnhorizon

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mellointheory · 4 years ago

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la lune, within our bones

He should probably be thinking about the kiss, but there’s pulsing lights and deep, determined bass and the buzz in his head from alcohol. The woman was sitting next to him at one point, but now one of her legs is hooked over his lap and her hands are in his hair and her lips are on his. He’s kissing her back, because on some level it’s what he wants to do, but most of his mind is occupied by watching the slow transition of the throbbing lights from blue to purple to red. There’s the wet-velvet sensation of another tongue in his mouth and the taste of peach from a drink he’s never tried, He’s not sure if he forgot her name already or if she never introduced herself in the first place.

“Oi, Punz!” Someone shouts. The woman pulls back, glancing over her shoulder at where Red stands with his boyfriend slumped in his arms.

“Stop trying to get your cock sucked and keep an eye on Ant for me while I go find Gumi.” Red orders, dumping Antfrost on the couch next to Punz.

“Sorry about this,” Punz says to the woman, compelled to apologize as he eases her off of him. She smiles, a little regretfully he thinks, and slides off the couch.

“Hi, Punzo.” Ant slurs, his cheek squished up against Punz’s shoulder. He’s absolutely wasted, eyes dilated from a combination of alcohol and lack of light to the point where his pupils have widened to take up most of his irises. His ears are perked upright, twitching and swivelling at the slightest noise.

“Hi, Ant.” Punz whispers back, because he knows the hybrid’s ears are sharp enough to hear him even if he keeps his voice down. “You ready to head home?”

Ant nods. His shock of pink hair looks purple in the blue lights, and Punz is compelled to reach over with the arm Ant isn’t pinning down and pat him on the head. Ant blinks, eyes drifting closed, and a stuttering purr starts up in his chest. If Punz had been irritated in the first place by getting interrupted, it would have taken no more than this to mollify him.

“Where did Red go?” Ant asks, lifting his head slightly.

“Getting Gumi.” Punz runs a hand through his hair, trying to get it to look less messy. He’s nowhere near as drunk as Ant is, but most definitely not sober enough to drive. Thank god Red’s less-than-legitimate profession as an enhancement maker gives him a better alcohol tolerance than the other three of them.

Red slides through the crowd again, this time hauling Gumi with him. She wavers a little when he lets go, but manages to stay upright.

“I’m gonna go get the car,” Red turns with a two-fingered salute and ducks through the throng of dancing, swaying people. Punz meets Gumi’s eyes as she waves, her mask removed for once and clutched loosely in one hand. She walks, very carefully, over to him and folds her arms.

“What’s up, bastards?”

“Hi, Gumi.” Ant lifts his head off Punz’s shoulder and raises his hand. Gumi lurches forward and high-fives him with more enthusiasm than her balance can handle. She stumbles and Punz rises to his feet and grabs her by the elbows, keeping her from falling.

“Can either of you walk?” He asks, turning to look at Antfrost still settled into the couch.

“Shut up, Punztholemew, I can walk better than you can!” Gumi declares. Punz already knows she’s lying. He takes a deep breath and turns around, hauling her up onto his back. She used to weigh less than she does now; but the metal reinforcements in her arms and legs add to it. Her chin rests on his shoulder and she folds her arms around his neck.

Moving slower, careful to keep from overbalancing the cyborg on his back, Punz reaches over to Ant and heaves him upright. If Foolish had agreed to come to the club tonight he would have someone to help him drag these two to Red’s car, but as it is he has to maneuver his way through the crowd and down the street without any help. He can sling Ant’s arm over his shoulders to help the hybrid walk, but Gumi’s too short for her to reach. He used to tease her for getting so many augmentations, yet not changing her height at all.

Red’s car is idling in the street when Punz has finally managed to shoulder his way through the crowd and get outside. The enhancement dealer reaches over and opens up the passenger side door, holding a hand out to his boyfriend. His pale green eyes catch the light from the club’s sign, turning reflective like a stray dog’s at night. Red is full human, much like Punz, but the amount of time he spends with whatever ingredients he puts in his concoctions...it changes him, subtly.

Punz slides Ant’s arm off his neck and helps the hybrid into the car.

“I miss my dawg.” Gumi mumbles into the back of Punz’s neck as he opens the car’s side door and eases her off his back into the middle row of seats. He slides in next to her and closes the car door.

“I miss Floof.” Ant says sadly from the front seat as Red steps on the gas.

“She’s literally at our house.” Red tells him patiently.

Gumi leans over and bumps her head against Punz’s shoulder. Her purple eyes are dark violet at the moment, lit only by the sporadic brightness of street lamps they pass. She’s not using them to read communications or analyze weak points or capture images, so their glow is dormant. It reminds him of back before she got her enhancements, when her eyes were always this dark and her bones weren’t reinforced with steel.

“Kazu’s at your apartment with your roommate, right?” Punz asks her, because he’d like to reassure her but he legitimately has no idea where her dog is. It’s not something he often concerns himself with.

“Yeah, but I miss him.” Gumi sighs, making grabby hands at Ant in the front seat. He flicks his tail back, above the center console, and she immediately wraps her hands around the soft fur. She always gets like this when she’s drunk; wanting to go pet whatever animal is in the vicinity. Antfrost is usually willing to stand in as a replacement when there are none.

The car falls into a comfortable silence. Punz stares out the window, watching the play of street lamps on the ground, how the light they cast dims almost to darkness until, just in time, another lamp is stationed to brighten the road again. Ant is purring in the front seat, the noise barely distinguishable over the rumble of the car’s engine. Gumi hums quietly to herself as she rubs the fur of his tail between her fingers. Every once in a while the humming becomes soft, mumbled singing that Ant joins in on before they both fade to silence again.

Sometimes Punz thinks about the irony of him and Red, both full unmodified humans, dragging a sloppy drunk cyborg and cat hybrid home from a club. Street noise down below, Gumi’s weight on his back as he stands outside the apartment door. Red fumbles with the keys, one arm wrapped securely around Ant’s waist as he tries to unlock the door. The hybrid is almost asleep on his feet, and as soon as Red gets the door open he uses his free hand to pick his boyfriend up and heads straight to their bedroom.

“I claim the burrito blanket!” Gumi whispers into Punz’s ear as he kicks the door closed behind them and carries her to the living room. He’s not actually certain if he’s ever been in this house sober, but both of them have slept on these couches enough that they know where everything is. He lowers Gumi to the loveseat and she immediately snatches the fuzzy burrito print blanket that’s draped over the top of it.

It’s easier for him to think without the overwhelming sound and lights, but his head is still foggy as he goes to the kitchen, squinting against the light that shines from the fridge when he opens it. He pulls out a bottle of water for Gumi, then one for himself, and leans against the door to close it.

“Punztholemew!” Gumi calls from the living room, head poking out over the top of the couch. She’s wrapped herself in the blanket, black jacket discarded on the carpeted floor. He looks over, then sighs and starts back to the living room.

“I love you!” She says, poking a finger into the side of his cheek.

He hands her a bottle of water. “Drink water, Gumi.”

“Say it back, bastard.” She frowns at him.

“I love you too, Gumi.” Punz says gently as he sinks into the recliner. She smiles and snuggles down against the arm of the couch, uncapping her bottle.

He lets his mind drift down into the haze of alcohol and exhaustion, staring at the blue light from the back of the tv. It’s the only light in the room and it illuminates the pair of couches, shag carpet, and Gumi’s curled-up form in soft milky light.

“Punztholemew,” she whispers, her face shadowed by the blanket wrapped all around her.

“Yes, Gumi?” Punz’s voice is gravelly in his tiredness.

“Where did my mask go?” She frowns.

Punz pats the front pocket of his hoodie and finds the curved dark mental there. He pulls it out and puts it on the coffee table. Gumi always wore the mask, even back when she was full human like Punz. He couldn’t have forgiven himself if he let her forget it at the club. “Here.”

“Oh, good.” Gumi yawns. “I miss my dawg.”

“You said that already.” Punz tells her. They keep their voices low, partially out of worry of waking up Ant and Red and partially because the dark room and the faint street noise and the blue, steady light of the television demand it from them somehow.

“Gumi…” Punz puts the hood of his jacket up and pulls on the strings, engulfing his face in white fabric. “Do they still hurt?”

She’s quiet, lifting a hand out of her blanket cocoon and staring at it thoughtfully. Hurting isn’t the word for it, Punz knows. Gumi could afford a technician who knew how to augment someone without fucking them up in the process. Hurting was just the way Gumi described it to Punz years ago, when they got drunk a few months after her surgery and she passed out on his couch crying about it. It wasn’t pain, she’d said, it was feeling like there was something missing about her, like the metal woven into her system made her less human. They didn’t talk about it often, only on nights like this when secrets whispered may not even be remembered when morning came.

“It still feels weird sometimes.” Gumi closed her fist, then tucked her hand back under the blanket. She lowered her cheek to the arm of the couch, the side of her face squishing up. “But nights like this are good. We all get to ignore them.”

Punz wasn’t known for his eloquence or anything, nor his ability to verbally comfort his friends. He wasn’t good at that kinda thing, nor did he fully understand what it was like for Gumi to have all of the little modifications that made her slightly more than human. All he could do was treat her the same as he’d always done: help carry her home even with the new solidity of the metal in her bones, let her lose her balance in her alcoholic haze even though if she wanted she could automatically stabilize herself even unconsciously. Let her have nights where she drank until she forgot, because sometimes it felt wrong to remember everything.

“Do you ever wish you hadn’t done it?” Punz asks. When she first made the decision she’d asked if he was going to do it too, and he’d said no because he couldn’t imagine letting his entire body no longer be wholly his.

“No.” Gumi’s answer comes without any hesitation. “I’m all strong and buff now. And I’m fucking cracked at combat.”

Punz cracks a smile. “You are.”

“I just like not always having to be like this.” One of her hands is absent-mindedly caressing the felt of the couch covers. “Is it annoying sometimes?”

“Is what annoying?”

“Havin’ to do all this funky monkey stuff for me when I’m wasted.” She giggles.

“Ant gets drunk as hell too and no one ever gets bothered by him.” Punz points out.

“It’s different, bastard.” She waves her middle finger at him.

“Damn, okay.” Punz laughs softly. “No, it’s not annoying. You’re just being you.”

“I’m s’posed to be better.” She mumbles, pushing her face into the arm of the couch. Silky black hair, highlighted in blue, blocks her face from his vision.

“You’re not supposed to be anything except our friend, Gumi.” Punz says gently. “And you still are. Always will be.”

“Pinky promise?” Gumi sticks out her hand across the gap between the two couches, hand in a fist except for her smallest finger sticking out. Punz stretches across, leaning a little to reach, and wraps his pinky finger around hers. She knocks their fists together, then lowers her hand.

“Love you, Punztholemew.” Gumi curls back up in her blanket burrito.

This time he says it back before she can remind him to.

#punz #vgumiho #antfrost #velvetiscake #velvetfrost #tw alcohol #a little different from what i usually write #mello writes #pummel party crew #ppcrew cyberpunk #long post

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exhausted-dog-mom · 4 years ago

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Underwater (2020) Fix It Fanfic

Last year, I was commissioned to write a fix it fic for the horror movie Underwater. I had no idea it was a horror movie until after I agreed to write it, lol. I'm a coward at the best of times and writing this gave me nightmares for months. It's 24k words and almost 55 pages long. I rewrote the whole dang movie, lol. The entire fic is on my Patreon, but here are the first 2k words.

Norah followed behind Rodrigo as they picked their way carefully through the debris. Her body shivered uncontrollably, her meager clothing long soaked through by water of questionable quality. The tinny, prerecorded voice of the infographics which once lined the walls echoed in the too tight hallways, skipping as sparks crackled along the broken screens. Great slabs of concrete and torn sheets of metal made their progress slow, their flashlights illuminating little more than water. The hallway they were following to CR-7 was far from a direct route, but it was the only one they were both able to traverse, and Norah knew she wasn’t alone in wanting to stick together—not after closing the bulkheads.

She dismissed that thought. She didn’t have time to think about that. Not when the path before them suddenly stopped, the way forward cut off by a serious cave in.

“Can we dig through there?” She asked, watching as Rodrigo crouched down and began moving loose bits of rubble.

He called back, uncertain but willing to try, and Norah began scanning the area for alternate routes. They didn’t have time to double back and find another way. The Kepler wouldn’t last long and every second they wasted not getting to the pods was another second the entire station deteriorated around them.

She took a chance and put her weight on a ledge above where Rodrigo was digging, shining her light down a narrow passage that might allow them both through. Maybe.

“Hey,” she called down to her colleague. “I can fit through there if you can.”

He came up and looked at her discovery, considering the rough looking tunnel.

Distantly, Norah heard something. A voice. She had to turn her head to catch it, the hearing in her left ear completely gone, but it was there.

“Hello?” She called out, hope rising in her throat. “Hello? Can you hear that?” She didn’t wait for Rodrigo’s response, leaving him behind as she clambered over derelict ductwork and dodged sharp edges, shining her flashlight on everything as she searched desperately for any sign of life. “Keep talking, I can hear you!”

She turned her right ear to the ground, tracing the source of the muffled voice to a pile of concrete slabs, the edges sharp against her hands as she began to pull on them with a strength she didn’t know she had. Rodrigo came up beside her, helping to free whoever was trapped underneath. The first thing she saw as they pulled back a layer of rubble was a stuffed rabbit, the furlike fabric covered in grease and who knew what else. She stared at it, confused, for all of two seconds before joy and recognition filled her with renewed vigor.

“Paul?” Sure enough, as she took the rabbit from upstretched hands, her friend’s face came into view, his eyes clenched shut against the brightness of Rodrigo’s flashlight. She handed the rabbit to Rodrigo, reaching down into the crevice to get better leverage for lifting Paul’s not insignificant weight. With Rodrigo’s help, she pushed back the final slab, revealing the drill worker in all his bare chested glory, his skin coated in dust and grime. His hand held on to hers tightly and she watched as recognition bloomed in his eyes.

“Norah?”

“Hi.” She was as breathless as he was, a shaky laugh passing through chattering teeth.

Paul smiled up at her, squeezing her hand as he laughed right back. “Oh, you sweet, flat chested elven creature.”

She couldn’t even be mad at him. She was sure she made quite the sight, in her sports bra and sweats, but it was no better than his.

She watched her friend breathe harshly for a second, lungs taking full advantage of their renewed capacity now that the weight of the debris was no longer crushing his chest. She knew the instant his brain had reoxygenated, because he turned to Rodrigo, a man he’d probably never interacted with before, like Norah, and asked after his rabbit.

His concern for his little buddy was endearing, though she knew the stuffed toy couldn’t hold a candle to the real Little Paul, alive and waiting seven miles above them on dry land.

Getting Paul out of the hole was a process, but they did it, the large man standing before them in nothing but a robe, boxers, and one lucky sock. He cradled the rabbit against his chest like a living animal, his attachment to the thing so much stronger after so long down in the deep.

Norah lead the way back down the hall, flickering blue lights casting eerie shadows on the walls. “There are pods in CR-7,” she explained over her shoulder, the joy she felt at finding her friend alive tempered by a renewed desperation to get out. “The upper decks are collapsing, so we’ve gotta move fast.”

She pulled herself up onto the ledge, Rodrigo helping her from below. She caught the tail end of Paul’s whining complaint and she rolled her eyes. Leave it to him to find something to complain about during a life or death situation.

Paul was much larger than either her or Rodrigo, but, as Norah crawled through the cramped tunnel, she was pretty sure he’d be able to fit. She had little trouble scooting through the dark, her movements sending the light from her flashlight in all sorts of disorienting directions. Everything was grey, with the exception of the odd wire or two, exposed copper stinging her wet skin as she brushed up against it. She turned back to look at her two companions, the men clearly having a harder time than she was.

“You guys ok?”

“Yeah,” Rodrigo nodded to her, dust clinging to his dark skin. Behind him, Paul grumbled out an affirming expletive.

Turning back, she immediately recoiled, flashlight dropping from her grasp and teeth clacking loudly in her skull.

Closing her eyes against the terrifying sight, she called back to the boys. “There’s-there’s someone up here.” She swallowed thickly. “It’s McClellen.”

Just like that, the high from unburying Paul was gone, replaced by the grim certainty that his survival was nothing short of a miracle and the odds of finding anyone else alive were incredibly slim.

How many were left alive? How many more would there be if she had waited just a little longer? How many were dead because of her?

McClellen had no answers for her, blue eyes locked unseeing on something far in the distance. Norah took a shaky breath, bolstering herself as she began to move past the other woman. Their hands touched as she did, the fading warmth she felt deepening the ever growing pit in her stomach.

If she’d waited, would McClellen still be alive?

Would Paul be dead?

Those questions, like all the others, were tossed aside as she resumed the slow journey forward, eyes locked on the darkness ahead of her. There was no telling what waited out there, just beyond the range of her flashlight, but she didn’t have time to lose herself to what ifs and should haves. There were two men behind her, two living, breathing men, and that was enough. It had to be enough.

The cramped tunnel let out to an open space—another hallway, by the looks of it—and Norah carefully climbed out and set her feet on the ground. The light here was red, a sign that the emergency systems were working, at least, and she could only hope that the way to the escape pods was open. She led the way, following a mental map of the rig as automated voices rang out overhead. Their flashlights reflected off the tall windows which surrounded the evacuation room, the reinforced glass surprisingly intact compared to the wreckage all around it. Norah stumbled over a rogue pipe, her mind going blank as it struggled to put together what she was seeing.

“Captain?”

Sparks flew, the display illuminating Captain Lucien’s back where he sat hunched over inside the closed off rotunda. He made no indication that he’d heard her, his head in his hands as he sat alone in the dark. Norah hit the control panel, but he didn’t react to the obnoxious sound it made in protest. Squinting through the glass, her heart sank as she took in the damage surrounding him, the escape pods they’d all put so much hope in clearly no longer an option.

“Shit.”

“Shit?” Paul winced as he came over to stand beside her, looking over her shoulder into the dark. “What’s shit?”

“The evac pods are gone.” Norah tuned out her friend’s frenzied cursing as she pounded on the glass, calling for her Captain. Could he even hear her through the reinforced windows? They were designed to withstand sudden changes in pressure—likely why they were still intact—but did that mean they also blocked out sound?

The answer was no, they couldn’t, and Norah deflated with relief when Lucien turned around, face lighting up as he recognized first her then the men behind her.

“Norah,” he called, his voice muffled but still intelligible through the glass as he rushed over. “You’re alive.” He didn’t sound like he believed it, but she could understand the sentiment. “The door’s jammed.”

Right. Of course, it was. He probably would have left if it wasn’t. Norah quickly moved over to the control panel, mentally apologizing to the machine for hitting it as she tried to find some way to override the lock. Absently, she recognized the Captain giving orders to Paul and Rodrigo, both men rushing to obey, though Paul complained loudly between hissing breaths.

“On a scale of one to ten, how bad’s my rig?”

His attempt at humor fell a little flat and Norah looked up at him incredulously as the doors opened. “Uh,” she looked him up and down in the harsh white lights which conveniently decided to turn back on. His left arm was in a sling, miscellaneous bruises and cuts littered across his face. Shit. “Ten. We’re, um, seventy percent compromised—breathe too hard and we’re in trouble.”

He didn’t appreciate her candor, turning away from her with a grim expression before turning back around and reaching for her face with his good hand, looking at her damaged ear with a grimace.

“What happened,” she asked through chattering teeth, the two seconds she’d spent standing still reminding her body of how cold it was. “Was it an earthquake?”

“I don’t know.” That wasn’t what she wanted to hear. “I’m trying to figure it out.”

She watched, still somewhat dazed, as he pulled a large red med kit out from seemingly nowhere, using his one hand to its full effectiveness as he rummaged through it.

“I don’t understand.” Her voice forced its way through her tight throat, swallowing only thickening the knot living there. “Why are you still here? There were pods here, you could have left.”

He gave her a look she was sure he’d leveled on his child a thousand times before. It certainly made her feel like one. “That’s what Captains do.”

“Who cares?” She couldn’t stop the words or the incredulity which laced them. “You have a kid. You should have gone up.”

He froze, expression blank as his mouth opened and closed, eyes shut as he tried to find the words to respond to that. Instead, he urged her to sit down, returning to the med kit as though she hadn’t said anything.

“You know any one of us would have shoved your ass into a pod—.”

“Listen to me!”

Norah shut her mouth, staring wide eyed at her Captain as he kneeled in front of her, mouth tense as he glared up at her. His French accent was thicker in his anger, coloring his words as he gestured wildly with his good arm.

“Everyone is getting out of here alive.” He said it with such conviction, Norah was almost able to believe him. “You here me? I already sent twenty two up, Smith reported seven dead.”

Warmth spread in her chest at the news that Smith, at least, was still alive. She hadn’t let herself consider any other possibilities but having her old friend’s survival confirmed relieved a tension she hadn’t realized she was carrying. She gave a stuttering report of the dead she and Rodrigo had found before coming across Paul, and she struggled past telling him about McClellen, nonsensical words spilling from her lips—she lived three floors up, I was brushing my teeth, her hands were still warm, I shut the bulkheads on the entire East Wing so there’s definitely more.

Captain Lucien, to his credit, remained staunchly focused on cleaning her ear, damp gauze coming away from it bloody. Whatever was wrong with it, it stung when he touched it, the pain a welcome reminder that she was alive, only living people could bleed, and a grim one that so many people weren’t.

#fanfiction #my writing #underwater #underwater 2020 #this took months to finish #i really am a coward #nothing in the synopsis prepared me for a horror movie #i thought it was just a survival drama #lmao

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saikagerights · 4 years ago

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Lay Me Down to Rest - Entry for Day of MirSan 2021

Hello there! And welcome to my first Inuyasha fanfiction, as apart of the @dayofmirsan event.

I initially was planning to be an observer of the event, but sudden inspiration struck at 1am during my nightly routine of falling asleep to Inuyasha. Rewatching the Monkey Sprite episode is interesting for many reasons. For one, there was an unhealthy amount of filler added into the anime adaptation of this story-line, which gave hit-or-miss comedy. But the most important thing is that Miroku and Sango are mostly unaccounted for in this story-line, which gives shippers like me an opportunity to write some “off-screen development” for them. And though the anime does give us an idea, I’m afraid that Miroku’s indifference and frustrated edge in the scene feels a bit off, so I decided to add a bit of a bit of context. Consider this a bit of a fusion between the anime in manga, though the scene is based off of the anime. Also I was very liberal with my use of English/Japanese dub terminology. I watched the anime in English, but switched over to the manga to replace the Final Act, so it’s a bit inconsistent.

I’ve been observing this fandom from afar ever since I started getting into Inuyasha back in December, and though I wanted to try and engage with it, it seemed very daunting given this fandom’s age and organization. But I’m very grateful that I was given the chance to participate in this event, and lucky that inspiration struck me at the right time. I’ve really been looking forward to seeing the works that come out of this event, and I hope you enjoy my contribution.

And thanks for the mods for allowing me to share my work with you fellow fans

InuYasha and it’s properties are owned by creator Rumiko Takahashi and Sunrise

Read on AO3

Sango tailed the monk as he led their investigation. The villagers they had asked so far had no knowledge of the wicked demon, only of the pestering monkeys that were ravaging their fields. Her companion simply nodded, thanking them for their time and promising that the Inugami would save their village. They soon found themselves at the outskirts of the village on an empty patch of land outside the forest, save for one tall tree. Sango found his behavior during their search to be strange, especially as he now paused at the tree, leaving his Shakujo leaning against its trunk.

Was he just as stumped as she was? Would this reprieve be a chance for them to rethink their approach?

“Why have we stopped here, Miroku?” She questioned. “Aren’t we supposed to search for Naraku’s whereabouts?”

Her befuddlement heightened as he laid his body to rest in the grass underneath the shade of the tree with a sigh, both hands pillowing his head. His intentions then became clear at the sight of his eyelids slipping shut.

“How might we do that when we have neither Inuyasha’s nose or Kagome’s detection?” His tone reflected his relaxed poise. “I merely said that so that Inuyasha would be more inclined to help those villagers.”

Her head tilted downward towards the monk’s resting face. “I understand wanting to help, but do you honestly think that Inuyasha dealing with those monkeys will get us any closer to finding him?

“Not particularly.” He punctuated the off-handed remark with a yawn, overstating his disinterest. “But enough of that... Why don’t you join me here?”

She stood awestruck at his bold request. He lays there while their friends were helping this poor village and now he asks her to do the same? If Inuyahsa were to find out, he’d surely have more pressing things to worry about than the food security of the village.

“I don’t think it would be wise, considering your flippant lies.”

The man remained still, no sign of concern disrupting his posture.

“If you changed back into your battle attire before our return, they’d never suspect a thing.” He ignored her statement, a peaceful smile casually appearing on his face. She instantly recognized this move. He was fully convinced he would get his way, the sleazy crook. “Besides, I’m sure sleep has been as kind to you as it has been to me as of late.”

Although it was usually hard to detect amongst his manner of speaking, the monk��s sarcasm was not missed by the slayer. She knew very well that Naraku’s sudden disappearance had their whole group on edge, including herself. And while sleep had become its own battle, the desperate investigations of their enemy have left her distracted from everything else. Sleep meant the rest needed to fight again, but it also meant time alone with one’s most intimate thoughts. What always plagued her mind nowadays were things she’d rather not willingly engage. Finding Naraku should be her biggest concern now, but she indulged her companion despite what she would consider was her better judgement.

The monk had a particular talent for steering her away from rationality.

“Knowing your pervy ways, I’m sure you’d try and sneak a peek at me”

The monk could’ve never noticed the sneer on her face behind his still-closed eyes. The same smile was plastered on his face as well, despite her accusation. He really did enjoy giving her grief, didn’t he...

“Trust me, my dear. I have no intention of moving from this spot for a while. Or at least until Inuyasha comes for my head.”

“Then I guess you wouldn’t mind if I left Kilala here to guard this spot until I returned.”

He chuckled at that. “I don’t mind at all. I’m sure she’d love to watch me lie here, right Kilala?”

Sango looked to the nekomata, who merely chuffed in response. She was wary of Kilala’s strange trust in the monk at times, but she was sure that the demon would keep an eye on him in case he tried something funny.

Miroku took this as the perfect time to reveal his indigo eyes to her.

“Please, my intentions are more honorable than what they seem, believe me.”

There it was, that gentle voice of his used to convince her of his authenticity. The same breathy tones that sent her heart racing and her stomach in somersaults. She knew Miroku was confident in his charms, but she also liked to think that he was fully aware of this game they played. She only came to grips with it recently, but there was something going on.

They’d fight, they’d talk it through, and just when she thought he would try to make a move, that damn hand of his would find the wrong place to caress. Or it would be when she found herself grieving once more, and he could comfort her with his words alone. How did he always know what to say that made everything clear and could heal every fiber of her being, but also had a hand that never failed to do the exact opposite? He was a truly frustrating man, but he was the only one she ever considered more than just that.

But did he really know? That was a puzzle Sango couldn’t solve. It wasn’t as if anything meaningful resulted from these escapades. Afterwards, they would act as if nothing happened, and he would return to his typical flirtatious ways with any woman that entered his line of sight. So Sango liked to think that Miroku fully knew that he was toying with her feelings. That way it made it easier to lower her expectations and resent them despite Kagome’s not-so-subtle prodding.

When she became abruptly aware that her eyes had been locked on him for too long, she made her hasty retreat, hoping he didn’t catch her bright red flush in the shade of the tree.

“This man will be the death of me,” she softly cursed herself as soon as she knew she left his earshot.

_______________________________________________________________

Upon her return to their little “spot,” she was greeted by an alert Miroku. His body was now fully upright and turned towards her approaching form.

“You’ve accepted my invitation, I see”

“I thought you were trying to sleep”

“I still am, but I’d figured it would help if I got a quick glimpse of your beauty before-hand.”

She rolled her eyes at his shameless attempt. “You really are troublesome, you know that?”

“You wound me, dear Sango!” He unceremoniously flopped back into his previous position, his left hand patting the spot next to him. “You are free to lie beside me if you wish.”

Without the need for consideration, she silently opted to sit against Kilala’s curled form, stretching her legs in front of her. He managed to convince her to relax alongside him, but she had no intention of allowing herself to get too comfortable around him in the likely case the monk’s wandering hands wandered once more. He sighed audibly at her decision, but allowed his eyes to close again without any further word. He could act like a child all he wanted, but she would not budge.

She watched the man for a while, observing his state of rest. She could tell as much that he hadn’t fallen asleep just yet by all of his idle noises and the way he kept trying to steal a glance in her direction.

“Can’t sleep?”

She hadn’t even tried to close her eyes just yet, as she was still trying to grasp their current situation. Why was he so insistent on sleeping if he was just going to try and stare at her the entire afternoon? Why did he lie to Inuyasha in the first place if this was how they would spend their time? With all these questions moving around in her head, she might as well ask for the most basic of them.

“Miroku? Why do you lie and steal as casually as you do? I always thought that monks were pure-hearted.”

“What a wonderful question!” He exclaimed. With such enthusiasm, she was almost afraid of the answer she would soon receive from him. “I’ve been traveling on my own for so long, and it’s quite difficult to acquire wealth in such unfortunate times. I wish to give aid to those in need, but I also believe that it never hurts to help yourself as well.” He settled for an even tone and let his eyes slip open once more.

“And you are right, It is true that holy-people such as myself are meant to be free of sin. But, I was born tainted by the hole that resides in my hand.” His voice tapered off at his pause, the newfound silence growing thick with each passing moment. His sound returned to him, soft and low, as if it were only meant for his ears alone.

“It doesn’t matter how much I devote myself to my faith to any idol or deity. My curse is hell-bent on deciding my fate....”

But we are trying to stop Naraku! To free you from the Kazaana. You can always change your path after that! She immediately contested, perhaps a little too loudly, but she didn’t care. How dare he speak so little of himself and avoid her gaze as he did it?! She refused to accept his belittling statements.

“It is very hard for me to see a future for myself at this time, I’m afraid…” He brought his head up to look at her. A flash of fear ran through his eyes before he looked down once more. “I’m sorry… I shouldn’t speak like that.”

He’s afraid…

And he had every right to be.

“Please don’t apologize.”

He never showed it in front of their group, but behind that calm and smooth exterior remained a man trembling under the weight of his own mortality. He was a man after all, and men were never to show what made them most vulnerable. But with how much he gives to help others, it feels unfair for him to just allow himself to suffer inside as he did.

If they understood each other as well as he liked to claim, then she knew he hated the restless feeling they had knowing nothing of where their wicked nemesis resided, surely plotting something to exploit the fears he caused within their hearts. Knowing that her poor brother remained in that demon’s grasp sickened her to her core, and sitting around with no leads made it hard to lay dormant as they did now.

“I get it. I am just as frustrated as you… About Kohaku-”

“-You don’t need to go any further” He interrupted her thoughts, I didn’t mean to remind you of your pain like that.”

“Miroku-”

“-Please,” he sharply cut in once more, hoarseness settling into his throat. He must’ve noticed it as well, as he cleared his throat soon after. “let’s just try to find rest while we still can.”

He squeezed his eyes shut, clearly trying to force unconsciousness upon himself. Sango relented, trying to relax her body, idly stroking Kilala as she watched the man slowly succumb to rest. It was surreal to see him struggle like this when it seemed like meditation was second nature to him. She decided on trying for sleep once his breathing evened out and all the remaining tension left his face.

________________________________________________________________

Miroku wasn’t sure how long he had been asleep, but he could tell from the shadows before him had grown considerably when his eyes peered open. He turned his head to see Sango now curled up against Kilala, her face all but buried in her demon companion’s fur. He slowly rose to his feet, slightly stretching as he made an intake of his surroundings. It looked as if the sun would soon begin it’s retreat from the sky. The monk knew the rest was necessary, but he definitely didn’t look forward to another predictively sleepless night.

One more glance at Sango’s sleeping form was enough to convince him to approach her, neglecting his Shakujo to silence his movements. He knew, probably better than anybody, of the threat imposed by the slayer’s attuned senses. He also knew the danger of being caught if she awoke to his gawking. Unfortunately it was a risk he was willing for one small fleeting moment to stare at her.

What an idiot he had been for making her sympathize with his life. Even worse that it reminded her of her own grief. He was happy to indulge her curiosity, but when he looked up at her, he turned cowardly at what he saw. It wasn’t fear, or sadness over his grim fate. It was the very same fire that lit behind her eyes in battle.

She was prepared to fight for him, it seemed…

He dare not think that she would go any farther for that. He was not worth her death. In fact, nothing was worth her death. The honor of her clan was at stake, and her life was essential in carrying on their legacy. One measly itinerant monk with a fated death should be worthless in her eyes, even if he wanted nothing more than to keep her alive.

Even if he wanted more than anything to see a future with her.

He turned away from her, returning to his spot in a now seated position. The monk had half a mind to wake the woman, but decided against it. Every waking moment for her was its own battle, after all. She needed all the rest she could get. And he’d gladly wait for her until that battle resumed, and fight with her at every step.

And if dying for her now meant he could spend the next life by her side, then he would welcome death with open arms.

“I hope this woman is the death of me,” he softly wished before all else melted away to his own meditation.

______________________________________________________________

Yeah I realized I took some liberties here with how Miroku and Sango’s relationship was at this point. This episode takes place after the Temptress of the Mist and Demon-Head castle, but far behind Mt. Hakurei, so what was going on with them hadn’t really become a “pattern” just yet. And Miroku had just comforted her in her grieving state for the first time right before that. Sango wasn’t deep enough to say he was her reason for living, so that’s why I kept her on the fence and didn’t have her feel too disappointed, because that’s what came after Mt Hakurei.

I’m a sucker for long winded perspective changes, especially here with all the parallels I draw between them. Some of my best lines were written here, especially the ending line. My GOD. I swear, I wrote that and everything made sense. I said “yes” over and over again, it was so good.

Also can you tell whose voice I’m talking about when describing Miroku’s? The answer is Koji Tsujitani. I always knew about Tsujitani’s delivery that makes Miroku sound truly “fake” but I noticed rather recently how he would add so much breath, especially in serious scenes. On the other hand, Kirby Morrow played the character down and deep in his throat, which isn’t bad when talking about his overall performance, but I decided to favor Tsujitani’s performance in this instance.

(I’m a classically trained singer and a music education major, so I’m a nut for analyzing voice acting. I have respect for both of these men may they rest in peace.)

Thanks again for the opportunity, and I hope to write more for this series.

-Saikage

#inuyasha #mirsan #mirsan day #dayofmirsan2021 #Miroku #Sango

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proudfreakmetarusonikku · 4 years ago

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anyway I need to go to bed but I have too much energy so I am channeling it into headcanons. here u go species headcanons for Everyone on the Dream smp with explanations because I’ve put a TON of thought into this. They’re probably like half contradicted by canon but fuck it My City Now.

Dream- A (juvenile) stage of being a god. He, DreamXD, and Drista have become known as “dreamons” but that’s technically a separate species, all spawned from them. He's not really focused on being worshipped in his own right, preferring power in the mortal realm, though he’s not averse to pretending to be his brother (the god worshipped by Church Prime) or his sister (a minor goddess of death worshipped by many hidden cults) if it can help him get power. He’s got pure white skin everywhere except his face (which is pale but human-like), black blood, entirely green eyes, pointed ears, fangs, claws, and digitigrade legs ending in hoof-like claws.

George- A human, the only human on the whole server. Humans are pretty rare, vastly outnumbered by hybrids but outnumbering any other species, and “pure” humans (what we'd consider to be a completely normal appearing human) are all but nonexistent. For example, George has eyes with dark sclera and white irises.

Sapnap- A blaze hybrid. He’s got a few rods surrounding him and his eyes blaze with fire. It’s usually just warm but not hot enough to hurt but if he's agitated or upset it can easily burn hot enough to set things ablaze.

Callahan- A reindeer hybrid. He’s got antlers, reindeer ears, fur around his arms, and hooves.

Awesamdude- A creeper hybrid. He's tauric, with four insect like legs. His skin and is green and mottled and has a texture similar to leaves. His eyes are pitch black. He has a tendency to make hissing sounds when stressed, though he can’t explode like a full blooded creeper.

Alyssa- A mouse hybrid, with large mouse ears and a long tail. This definitely isn’t an in joke for the thousands of hours I spent browsing TVTropes as a child and the “what happened to the mouse” tROPE SHUT UP.

Ponk- A demon hybrid, with pointed ears, slit pupils, a small spaded tail, and small horns.

BadBoyHalo- A full blooded demon, with pointed ears, a tall stature, pitch black skin and hair, fangs, claws, hooves, a long spaded tail, long horns, and small bat like wings. He’s rather self conscious about how intimidating he looks. He's also a lich (with Skeppy as his phylactery) which is why he has pure white eyes (a trait the undead share).

TommyInnit- An absolute mess, genetic wise, since I’m taking Tommy's joke about being born in a lab and running with it. He's mostly angel, and was basically cloned from Phil's DNA (from a feather that fell off his wings that somehow someone got a hold of) but had a bunch of other hybrid and human DNA mixed in to make him somewhat stable enough to actually survive gestation. He has very small, dark wings that are useful for balance and little else, fangs, claws, and pointed ears. His bones are very light, making him fragile but a lot more dexterous. His blood is slightly off a human's, being slightly pinkish. His freckles, wings, blood, and eyes glow slightly and are patterned like the night sky. Technically undead as of his resurrection, and maintains the many injuries of his death permanently (bruises stay and don’t heal but don’t worsen, broken limbs can be moved at unnatural angles, ect.), pale, corpse like skin, and one of his eyes turned pure white.

Tubbo- A ram hybrid, with small curved ram horns, horizontal pupils, ram ears, a tail, and hooves. Nice and simple after the absolute mess that was Tommy.

Fundy- A limited shapeshifter, able to change his species, though he prefers to be in a fox-like form. He inherited this from Sally, who had similar abilities, though with more strength. He's always got certain features he inherited from each parent that he can’t change though- wings, pale skin, and ice-like freckles from Wilbur, and salmon scales coating his wings and cheeks, and ginger-and-white hair from Sally.

Punz- A dragon hybrid, with dark horns, dark sclera and slit pupils, wings just large enough for limited flight, a strong tail, fangs, claws, and blue scales coating his cheeks, wings, tail, arms, and legs. Has a natural inclination to sleep in a pile of his wealth he only holds off on when he feels it’s at risk of being stolen (which, since this is the Dream SMP, is almost constantly).

Purpled- An enderman hybrid, with small horns, pointed ears, purple blood, and ender particles surrounding him. Parts of his arms and legs are covered in leathery, pure black skin.

Wilbur- Half angel, half fucking refrigerator because cc!Wilbur hates us (affectionate). His skin is unnaturally, icy pale, and his blood is an icy blue. His freckles are the colour of ice reflecting. He's got wings from his father, large enough to glide, but they’re pale coloured and slightly transparent. He has fangs claws, and pointy ears. His blood, wings, and eyes glow slightly and are patterned like the night sky. As Ghostbur, he’s got the injuries of his death apparent at all times, though they don’t hinder him or cause him pain, corpse like skin, pure white eyes, and is permanently transparent.

JSchlatt- A ram hybrid. He’s got large ram horns, dark sclera and horizontal pupils, a ram tail, fur around his arms, and hooves.

Skeppy- A construct made to be Bad's phylactery. He's fully made of diamond, and appears as a moving human statue (though entirely made out of diamond), though he has limited shape shifting ability to change his “hair” and “clothes”, though he has to remain the same mass. He has some small red detailing on him out of redstone (which was used partially in his contruction). The egg flipped the red and teal in his colour scheme. Also he's smalllllllllllll.

Eret- Part ghost, due to being descended from Herobrine. She has pure white eyes, pointy ears, and under stress he becomes partially transparent. They tend to hide their nonhuman features (ears under hair or hats and eyes under sunglassses) and are often mistaken for human.

Jack Manifold- Started as a wolf hybrid, with large wolf ears and a tail. After dying, he came back from hell as a hellhound with red and blue “flames” coming from his eyes, ears, and replacing his missing tail he lost in one of his deaths with two made of this fire. The fire is chillingly cold to the touch, and not warm. His eyes are also monocolour, though in heterochromatic red and blue instead of the usual pure white found in undead.

Niki- A moth hybrid, with antennae, monocolour amber eyes, fluffy wings, and more fluff around her neck, wrists, and torso. These and her hair are patterned gold and black, though as of now she’s dyed them all pink. Idk I just feel like moths fit her for some reason.

Quackity- A duck hybrid, with golden wings and webbed hands and feet. He’s also a shapeshifter of sorts, however instead of shifting into different forms he shifts into different beings, from alternate realities that never came to be. These can be used to shift into near identical copies of those around him, to impersonate them, or to shift into alternate versions of people (like Mexican Dream to Dream). These aren’t Quackity, though, and as such they have their own pool of canon lives, and while he has lots of influence over them they can still act autonomously.

Karl Jacobs- An inter dimensional being made of time itself. While his current form is mostly human, he has technicolour rainbow blood, freckles, and patches on his skin, along with clock-shaped pupils that change with the time. His “natural” form is a vaguely humanoid mess of ever shifting colour.

HBomb- I didn’t know what to do with him at first- he was a cow hybrid in my pfp set- but I just think the idea of him being a chill cat hybrid who turns full nyaa whenever he’s in a maid dress to be funny so he’s a cat hybrid now. With dyed-white cat ears and a dyed-white cat tail.

Technoblade- A piglin hybrid primarily, but he’s definitely got some weird traces of other species. He’s got tusks, pink hair, pink pig ears, a pig tail, and hooves, but he’s also got paws from some other animal hybridisation in his blood, and has a tallness that suggests demon blood somewhere down the line. His red eyes aren’t natural, and only occurred after he was sacrificed to be the vessel of the Blood God.

Antfrost- A cat hybrid, with blond and brown fur, a cat tail, paws both on his hands and feet, and cat ears. He’s also got split pupils and blue sclerae (though a different shade to his irises).

Philza- An angel- the creation of a god or goddess to help serve them (Dreamon's would be an example of the angels the Dream's can create, though they’re primarily running wild nowadays.) The creation and servant of one of the gods of death, Kristen, to serve her in the mortal realm. He’s got very large feathered dark wings, pupilless unnaturally bright eyes, pointy ears, fangs, claws, and dark blood the colour of the night sky. His wings, eyes, freckles and blood glow brightly and are patterned like the night sky. Injuries reveal that he's fully inhuman under his skin, appearing to be a void of colour that also glows and is patterned like the night sky. His crows, who are messengers from the afterlife, have this same pattern on their feathers.

Conner- I don’t know much about him tbh but. He’s just a hedgehog hybrid. I mean he’s joked enough about canonically being the kid of Sonic and Elise. He’s got blue hedgehog ears and a tail, and blue spines mixed in with his dark hair.

Captain Puffy- A sheep hybrid, with small curled sheep horns, sheep ears, a fluffy sheep tail, hooves, and hair curly and soft like wool. The split in her hair between brown and white is natural, though she keeps a small section dyed rainbow.

Vikkstar- Another angel, though of a god long gone. His entire body, even his “clothes” (which are made of flesh) glow intensely bright and have the pattern of the night sky.

LazarBeam- A gingerbread hybrid, which I’d say is dumb but we’ve already had a refrigerator hybrid so. I don’t know what else to say here.

Ranboo- Half enderman, half god of some sort. Has small horns, pointy ears, an inhumanly wide mouth with fangs, claws, digitigrade feet ending in hoof-like claws, pure black and white skin, pure black and white hair and freckles on the opposite side of the skin, red and green heterochromatic eyes barely distinguishable from their sclera, and red and green blood. Hmm, I wonder what other character shares similar descriptions... :)

FoolishG- A more matured god than Dream. Appears to be made entirely out of gold, with his hair and freckles appearing like copper. His pure green eyes have a similar texture to emeralds. Also he’s like. Massive. He’s like eleven Skeppy's.

Hannah- A nymph of the forests. Has prehensile vines and flowers flowing in her hair all the way to the ground, and half of her face and one of her arms are entirely made of these prehensile vines and flowers. Makes flowers grow in her step, after being corrupted by the egg they wither around her instead.

Charlie- Slime hybrid. Honestly just kind of got the most impractical parts of being a hybrid, having random sections of skin changed into green slime which drips everywhere and kind of gets in the way. It doesn’t seem to bother him though.

#my headcanons #making that a tab cause this was fun to write #dream smp #dsmp #dream smp headcanons #dsmp headcanons #dsmp species #dream smp species #the whole dsmp cast #literally all of them #excluding npcs #but including Mexican dream and Drista technically!#under a read more because LONG #i wasn’t joking when I said I did everyone

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wilhelmjfink · 4 years ago

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Daryl Dixon Drabble #6 - Part 4 (Finale)

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST BRI GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!!!

I absolutely despise how Tumblr formats these on mobile. If anybody knows how to fix this, let me know PLEASE

thnx for waiting

—

You assumed it was around high noon when you woke up, judging by the thick layer of sweat that replaced your sleeping bag in hugging your entire body. It was now sprawled across the canvas floor, forgotten, and your hair clung to the skin of your forehead. And between the heat and the events of the prior night, you felt almost feverish and sick.

It was a nice surprise that nobody had disturbed you, though — and you silently hoped that theme continued throughout the remainder of the day as you begrudgingly emerged and reveled in the cool fresh air that greeted you on the outside of the sauna that was simply a tent in the Georgia summer heat. Judging by that sun... it was going to be another miserably hot day.

Before, you had never been one for swimming in any body of water that wasn’t a clean and chlorinated pool. Maybe it was the small part of you that had been spoiled, but ponds and creeks weren’t your favorite means of cooling off until you, quite literally, had no other choice; but you would always fondly reminisce of the in-ground swimming pool at your moms house growing up as you waded into the cloudy pond water. You were only ever there one week a month, so it was a damn luxury even then, and a far-fetched dream now.

The suns reflection shimmered on the water ripples you caused as you waded in and you sighed contently, actively trying to ignore the constant lingering scent of fish and mud and algae as you scrubbed your filthy fingernails against the soap bar in your hands, lathering it up enough so that, maybe after one or two rounds, your skin might begin to feel relatively clean again. Your now-soaked tank top clung to your skin — you think maybe it was white at one point, but decided not to question the faded stains that decorated it now.

Dunking beneath the surface you rubbed your fingertips vigorously against your scalp, silently wishing you hadn’t spent years taking advantage of all of the luxurious products and fancy soaps always at your disposal. Fuck — even a new, cheap 50¢ soap bar would be like gold right now compared to the slimy old bar in your hands. Your hair was dry and coarse, and admittedly you’d be mortified at the current condition of it if you had any time to worry about anything other than not starving or getting eaten alive. You scrubbed your eyes free of the murky water and stretched, content to take your time and daydream for the moment until you had to start your day. You’d been left alone, and figured it was intentional.

Good. You could get some shit done.

So you hadn’t expected to turn towards the shore and find Daryl standing there, frozen like a deer in headlights when your eyes met — yeah, modesty had gone out the door for you months ago, but you couldn’t fight the smile that crept up on your face when Daryl instantly whipped around and threw a hand up to shield his eyes as if he had really anticipated finding you pond bathing, what, fully clothed? What was he expecting to see?

“Shit,” he stammered, “uh, ‘m sorry, I just —“

“I do have some clothes on,” you replied as you fully emerged onto dry land and doubled over to pick up your dirty towel tossed carelessly into the grass. Even in the skew of the sunlight and shadows you could see the flush creep up his neck and cheeks and turn the tips of his ears pink. But you found yourself wanting to squash any sort of relief or joy you’d first experienced upon noticing him there when last nights fiasco began to run through your mind. You had no idea what he possibly wanted with you — was he going to chew you out again? The mere notion had your stomach twisting in knots as you rung out your soaking wet hair and cast your eyes back down to the ground and away from his own piercing gaze that had returned upon hearing you weren’t completely nude.

“I thought.. I thought you were doin’ laundry,” he explained, again turning away as he spoke, quickly and sheepishly. Like a child caught red-handed, he was always fleeting and nervous and ready to escape. “Nevermind, ‘m sorry, I’ll — “

You didn’t allow him to finish because, when you saw him start to take a step forward and leave, you lunged your hand on to his shoulder. Where the sudden balls came from, you had no fucking idea. Daryl was the one notorious for his bravery when everyone else needed the strength, but situations like this? He would turn tail and run away at the very first opportunity you even hinted at that might give him some sort of escape. But the way you saw it, he had obviously sought you out for a reason; and the way that things had ended last night left a bad taste in your mouth that you, whether you admitted it to yourself or not, we’re desperate to alleviate.

“Stop.” It was a bit more forceful than you’d intended but you were so positive that he would break into a sprint just to get away from you at that moment that you didn’t try to soften it. To your surprise, he stiffened, but nonetheless halted in his tracks. “Do you need something?”

Almost as if to prove to you that you knew nothing about him the way you thought you did, he spun toward you abruptly: “M’sorry — for last night.”

The apology took you by surprise in the best way, uncoiling the anxiety that had slowly begin to twist around in your gut. He had a way of keeping you on your fucking toes, it sure seemed. Quite literally speechless, he’d blindsided you, and you shook your head to clear the swarm of thoughts and prioritize your next words knowing that you didn’t have a lot of time to voice them before he would inevitably shut you out again or take off running. “Wait,” you tried, feeling him start to pull away at your lack of an immediate response; you could see the uneasiness etched in his features and even feel it in his stance. “Wait —“

But he cut you off, just like he did when he was chewing you out back in the woods the night before. This time, however, was far different, and you couldn’t quite decide what exactly had changed.

“Jus’ listen to me for a second, alright?”

He was breathing heavily and rapidly through his nose — not from overexhetion, but in an unreliable attempt to keep his voice steady and confident. You nodded in response.

The tensity in his body, the stiffness in his muscles, it was tangible — his legs were actively trying so hard to move him away from the situation, to let him pace like the caged animal he always reminded you of, desperate to run and hide. He wanted so desperately to speak, but seemed unable to form the words.

“I didn’t... I never meant to...”

Seeing him so vulnerable and helpless, it absolutely broke your heart as you stood there watching. Waiting. Waiting for some other words to come to you because the ones that you kept drumming up inside your head just weren’t good enough to fall on his ears.

Shoulders slumping in defeat, Daryl’s head dropped, and he choked out a sob.

You felt strangled. The breath was knocked from your lungs at the sound. The guilt that followed was crippling and seized your entire body within its white-knuckled grip, but was almost instantly overshadowed with fear; fear and regret and shame and you thought you might be sick with the overwhelming emotions before you just decided to throw your arms around his broad shoulders, standing on your tiptoes, pressing your still damp body so close to his that maybe you could meld the two of your souls together.

“I’m sorry, Daryl.” Face pressed into his chest, your words were muffled and wavered unsteadily as you struggled yourself not to break down. “I never shoulda said what I said. It was fucked up, but it was a lie. I swear I didn’t mean it, I just wanted to piss you off.”

“That don’t make it okay to hurt you!”

Admittedly, you faltered at his reasoning, but your mouth kept rolling on autopilot because you knew how Daryl would take to your silence as a reply. “No, but —“

“No, it ain’t ever okay to do what I did.”

He shook you off with a violent shrug of his shoulders, your arms falling limply to your sides.

“I shouldn’t have pushed you,” you offered, not surprised when he shook his head in response and gestured wildly with his hands on either side of your head, hands clenched in fists, almost as if he was fighting some internal battle and, by the looks of it, losing miserably.

“Ya don’t get it, Y/N!” He spun on his his heels, abruptly turning away from you and replacing that distance between the two of you that you were growing to detest. “Ya don’t get it. Ya were right.”

You raised your eyebrows at him though you weren’t sure if it mattered with how he faced away from you, and you weren’t sure if you could just see his own features particularly well today or if it’d come from hours of staring at him, watching him, studying him while you simply tried to figure him the fuck out.

“I dunno why, but ya get me so.... fuckin’ mad sometimes. It’s like, ya know how to get right under my fuckin’ skin.” His voice was low now, rough with exhaustion and the scent of lingering alcohol. And while you could feel your heart drop at his admission, you had to fight the sense of pride and joy you were feeling that he even fucking admitted it.

This is what you’d been working so hard to get from him; it’s also exactly what got him so mad in the first place, and therefore the mess you were currently in that ensued. Whether or not the alcohol coursing through both your systems had anything to do with it didn’t matter to you anymore.

“When ya said that, it just...I dunno. I didn’t wanna fuckin’ believe it,” he ran an exasperated hand down his face before turning away from you, fueling your unconscious need to step forward after him again, softly, like you were trying to catch a wild animal, fearing that he would turn and break away from you at any second. “But what I did — Merle woulda done the same damn thing! He woulda done it without a second fuckin’ thought!”

His hands raked through his hair, distressed and frantic, and you reached out to grasp his wrists and steady him, your hands comically small next to his, strong and secure and familiar. At first, he flinched; tugging away from you half-heartedly before giving up and allowing you to gingerly lower his hands down in front of him, in between you, where they remained trapped in your grip.

“That’s exactly what I mean, Daryl,” you said softly, choosing your words carefully as if any wrong one would scare him off and send him fleeing again. As firmly as you held his wrists before you, one foot remained turned as you anticipated him doing just that. And the fear of watching him run again had, at some point, outweighed the fleeting fear that Daryl might actually want to hurt you — and you felt disgusted in yourself when you realized it. “You aren’t like Merle. You’re so much better.”

It was almost worth celebrating when he didn’t reply, and instead remained still as a statue, towering over you in the blazing mid-afternoon sun. The same type of heat, you thought, that burned inside of his very being; one that he’d spent so many shadowed years trying to extinguish. Thinking it was wrong. Thinking it was weak to simply care about somebody. All because of one single person.

You hated Merle Dixon, and if you ever saw him again, you swore you’d make sure he’d hate you just as much.

“You said Merle would’ve done that without a second thought — but you? Look at yourself, Daryl. You obviously feel so bad, so... guilty. Otherwise you wouldn’t be standing here. Do you think Merle ever felt this way about anything he’d ever done before? Do you think he ever apologized to anyone?”

Once again, his silence was reassuring. He was listening, considering your words... you only hoped that you wouldn’t say the wrong thing this time.

“The fact that you have so much remorse just shows that you are nothing like your brother. You are so, so much better. You are worlds away from ever being anything like him, Daryl.”

You could almost hear the gears turning behind his ocean blue eyes as he took in your words, deep and powerful though they were short. You couldn’t deny you were just content that he had stopped his angry outburst although now it was clear he was far more mad at himself instead of you.

“And I... I’m so sorry for the things that I said. I hope you can forgive me. I was drunk and angry. But I want you to know that... you can trust me. And I’m here for you.”

Now, you could almost feel his stare boring through you, the intensity behind his eyes unable to be ignored as it rose the hairs on the back of your neck and sparked goosebumps that trickled down your spine with a shiver you tried to stifle.

Now what? Daryl was unpredictable. Especially when it came to raw emotions like this, you thought to yourself. Can you stop him from turning tail and running, should that be his next move? Did he believe anything you were saying?

With one swift motion, he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around you, warm and familiar, quick enough as to not be able to stop himself from doing so once he decided it was what he wanted to do, it seemed.

Though it was forceful, it was good. It was much more natural than the last time he’d moved that quickly toward you, you recalled. Much better actually, you realized, as you silently acknowledged that, this time, you sure as fuck didn’t flinch away and instead, hugged him back.

You looked down at the ground, sighing contently — oh. Despite your minimal clothing and every excuse to be totally naked in the cool water of your pond bath, your boots were still strapped on tight. You know... just in case.

#the walking dead #daryl dixon #daryl dixon fanfiction #the walking dead fanfiction #twd #daryl dixon drabble #the walking dead drabbles #twd imagine #twd drabble #the walking dead imagine

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daddy-kakashi-sensei · 5 years ago

Text

Life as a Shinobi

Story Notes: This story is a reader x character romance. It takes place during the Great Ninja War, however, the timeline of my novel is different. It is loosely following the anime storyline but here Kakashi’s generation are between 15 and 16 years old. Even though this is a reader point of view, I really didn’t want to use “Y/N” so I chose a name instead. The character’s name is Katsumi. I chose this name because in Japanese it means “victorious beauty” and I thought it was beautiful. Feel free to replace your name, though!

This is just part one of a multitude of parts. I’m excited to endure the adventure with you all!

SFW, Slight Gore.

6,629 words

My hair whipped my face as I ran, constantly blocking my view. I cursed under my breath for not putting it up in a ponytail when I had the opportunity. A cool trickle of blood trailed down from my bicep to where I held my kunai. My legs shook, desperately waiting for the numbing phase, as I jumped from tree branch to tree branch.

Where the hell is Obito?

I continued my search for about a good mile before witnessing a giant ball of fire engulfing a fraction of the forest.

I sprinted to the origin of the heat to see Obito panting on the ground, sweat dripping off the tip of his nose. Across from him was what remained of a shinobi of the Hidden Stone Village. The lifeless ninja’s skin was charcoaled, the raw smell of burnt flesh stinging my nose.

“Obito! Are you okay?” I panted, doubled over with my hands on my knees as I tried to catch my breath.

Obito looked up at me, his soft brown eyes gaining more of an orangish tint from his goggles.

“Yeah...” he smirked a bit, obviously proud of the accomplishment of his defensive attack.

His eyes trailed to my bleeding arm and his smirk vanished.

“Katsumi! Your arm! What happened?!” He rushed to stand and grabbed my arm to observe the lightly grazed flesh wound.

I shook him off.

“I’m fine. A shuriken just grazed my arm.” I straightened up and began to observe our surroundings. Obito was not pleased with my answer but he knew better than to test me.

“I took care of the two close to base, I see you got the one here... but shinobis always travel in parties of four. We’re missing one, don’t lose your guard.” I said, spinning the kunai in my hand and preparing it for the final enemy.

Obito nodded and turned to press his back up against mine while also readying a kunai.

It was eerily quiet. I closed my eyes to focus on my sense of hearing. The faint ruffle of leaves and the soft whistle of the breeze was all I heard.

Swiiiiiish

“Obito! Kunai! 4 o’ clock!” I yelled. We both looked in the direction and dodged out of the way.

The kunai struck the ground with a hard thud.

I was already sprinting towards the direction where it was thrown, making jutsu hand signs along the way.

Horse. Serpent. Tiger. Rat. Monkey.

My right hand glowed from the lightning that was infused with a sword made of ice. The sound of wood crackling from a fire expelled from the strong chakra in my hand. I dragged my hand down as I ran, leaving the grass sizzling behind me.

My speed picked up as I jumped into the air in order to lunge at the enemy. My war cry was nearly as loud as my special jutsu.

Fear overtook the man’s face as I plunged my electrified icy sword into his vital spot. Blood spouted from his mouth as his eyes became lifeless. His body hit the ground with a hard thud as I repelled my hand.

I caught my breath once more before turning around to see the same starstruck expression I always see on Obito’s face. He never fails to show me how much he admires my fighting skills.

“You know, it’s pretty unfair to lay claim to three of the four enemies. How about giving me the chance to go for it for once?” He says.

“Sorry Obito, but I heard where the direction of the kunai came from and was not about to risk our lives for you to just have an ego-boosting moment.” I tried to say it softly, but it came out harsher than intended.

“Tch. Just wait until my sharingan awakens. We won’t even have to wait for the enemy to attack as I’ll already see him and beat you to it!” Obito grinned largely and pushed his shoulder back into a prideful stance while aiming his thumb at his chest.

I smiled softly. “I don’t doubt it. C’mon, let’s head back to base. Minato-sensei and Kakashi should be on their way back from meeting with Choza-sensei’s team.”

—-

The sky was dark and the fire pit we extinguished the night before was glowing with life once again. Kakashi’s silver hair glistened in the soft light. His back was turned to us while he fed the fire. Obito and I just arrived back to base after a four mile trek.

“Obito’s tardiness is to be expected, but I’m surprised in you Kat.” Kakashi said expressionlessly. He didn’t even turn to look at us.

I walked around to grab a seat beside the fire. I exhaled as I took out my overly tight ponytail, my beachy blonde hair pooling around my face and down the length of my back. I ran my fingers through my scalp to ease the tension.

“Sorry, Kakashi. We got caught up in a good time with some of our Stone Village friends.” I said lazily. The heat of the fire pursuing my exhaustion.

Kakashi looked at me for a moment, then back to the fire. The tips of my ears burned slightly at his quick gaze.

Obito joined us at the fire, sitting directly between Kakashi and I. I was too entranced by the warmth of the flame to notice Kakashi’s annoyed expression.

“Yeah Kakashi, while you were playing messenger, Kat and I were kicking ass back here at base. Cut us some slack.” Obito relayed while side eyeing Kakashi.

Their feud will never end, I swear.

Kakashi scoffed. “I wasn’t just relaying a message; an important, lifesaving one not to mention; but Minato-sensei and I were also assisting team Choza in a battle against a fleet of Stone Village shinobi. And don’t ask me to cut you some slack. I’d be surprised if you even took down one enemy while Kat did the rest of the work!”

Obito was clearly getting worked up and was about to open his mouth to start defending himself.

“Where is Minato-sensei anyway?” I quickly asked before the feud could progress.

Kakashi looked over at me again, his dark gray eyes bore into mine. The butterflies I’ve always gotten around him since we were 4 years old returned to my stomach. My eyes shifted back to the fire.

“He wont be finishing the mission with us. He was called back by the hokage. I’m not sure what for, but he did leave me in charge as captain.”

Obito rolled his eyes. “Tch.” He muttered.

The silver-headed boy shifted his glare to Obito before finishing. “We will leave at first light to the Stone’s hideout. Our goal is to meet up with team Choza and rescue the three tailed jinchuriki and return promptly to the Hidden Leaf. We’ll work out our offenses tomorrow once we see the layout of the enemy territory. Let’s just get some rest for now. I’ll take first watch.”

At that, Kakashi stood up and walked over to the tallest tree to take post.

“Man, I hate when he gets all bossy. I know he hit jonin a long time ago and we may still be chunin, but c’mon. We’re the same age!” Obito said with frustration.

I looked over at him. I took in the sight I saw. His floppy brown hair that grazed over his forehand protector, his goggles hung around his neck granting me the view of the fire delicately flickering off his eyes, his full lips pulled into a frown. Puberty really blessed Obito. I smiled at him.

“C’mon Obito. Kakashi is a wonderful leader. He’s lead us through many successful missions. You respectfully accepted him as your captain years ago after learning about his father remember?”

We both sat in silence for a moment. Obito reflected on how his and Kakashi’s relationship changed that day. Kakashi softening up and realizing that the lives of his comrades are worth becoming rule breaking scum. Obito realizing that Kakashi has always cared for his team and always had the best intentions despite the trauma his father left him with. Even though they still bicker, their friendship became prominent that day when they both saved each other from death.

I reflected on how proud I was of them that day, but also how I decided from then on, I would not be useless. I would not be taken captive, I’d stay alert at all times, I’d defend myself and my team, and never be the damsel in distress. I’ve proven my worth since then. It was like a spark lit up inside of me. I developed my own new special jutsu by combining my natural ice kekkei genkai with the lightning nature. Kakashi lent me a hand there. I trained hard to the point that even Minato-sensei was impressed and used me more in the front lines. Unfortunately, he used me more than Obito as he is still awaiting the awakening of his sharingan... poor thing.

“Yeah, yeah. Just wait until I become hokage. Then we’ll see who’s throwing orders around!” Obito snickered.

I giggled. I always loved hearing Obito talking about his dreams of becoming hokage.

Obito blushed at my giggle. He looked at me with soft eyes. “Ya know, a hokage always needs someone by his side to help guide them in leadership.”

“I’d be honored to be your assistant, Obito.” I said with a playful bow.

Obito stuttered, “Well, I-I meant more as-“

“But you know, Kakashi would definitely make a better assistant with that incredible mind of his.” I unintentionally interrupted.

“Yeah haha..” Obito looked back at the fire.

“Alright, well I’m off to rest. I’ll take second watch, okay? G’night, Obito.” I stood up.

“Goodnight.” He kept his gaze on the fire.

I walked to my sleeping bag and tucked in tight, allowing sleep to overcome me the minute my head hit the makeshift pillow.

—

I opened my eyes and let out a yawn as I stretched my arms up. I looked at the fire pit that was now just glowing embers. It was definitely time to switch who was on look out.

I grabbed a water canteen and made my way to the branch where Kakashi was posted.

“Hey.” I said quietly. “Here, drink some water and head to bed, I’ll take over on watch.”

Kakashi looked over at me. His half-lidded eyes were soft. The butterflies returned yet again.

“Thanks.” He said and accepted the canteen. He didn’t drink from it in front of me, most likely because it would require him to remove his mask. I always wondered what he hid from the world under it. As curious as I was, I loved the mask. It made him appear even more enigmatic than his personality already let on.

I sat down beside him and stared out. It was silent between us for a few minutes before Kakashi was the one to break it.

“Tomorrow is going to be a very big day.”

“It sure seems like it. But we have each other’s backs. And our faith in you.” I said, turning my face away slightly to conceal a blush.

Kakashi looked down at the canteen in his hands. “You’ve always put so much faith in me. Even when I let you down.”

“We all make mistakes, Kashi. We wouldn’t be human if we didn’t. But I’ve always seen your potential and your intentions. I’d follow you ‘til the end.” I didn’t look up as I felt his gaze on me. My face turned a crimson shade as he continued staring.

With his silence to my response troubling me, I finally decided to look up and match his eye contact. The butterflies went silent as my heart decided to skip a few beats instead.

He looked at me with such soft eyes. His presence was so inviting. I just wanted to scooch closer to him and take in his scent.

My already crimson face turned into a deeper tomato red when I saw him break eye contact to look at my lips.

Does he want to kiss me? I won’t lie, I’ve harbored the thought of kissing Kakashi Hatake since the moment he saw a flower and put it in my hair, declaring me as the flower princess. Granted we were 4 years old playing around... but still.

Even with the mask on, I could see an outline of a grin as he finally looked away. “Thank you, Kat. Your kind and encouraging words always pushes me to be the best I can possibly be.”

I nodded, “Go get some rest. You’ll need your strength tomorrow.”

He shook his head in agreement and stood up to leave. Before jumping down, he gave my shoulder a thoughtful squeeze.

Life as a shinobi really prevents you from owning up to the feelings you have towards someone in fear of it being a distraction while on the battlefield. But then again, whether the feelings were spoken of or not, Kakashi will always be my distraction. Maybe one day I’ll tell him how I really feel.

—

A sliver of light brightened up the horizon as Kakashi, Obito, and I began our journey towards the Stone’s hideout. As we arrived, we were greeted by Team Choza. Might Guy ran up to Kakashi first.

“Kakashi! Good to see ya again. I thought about it all night and I believe another sushi eating contest would suffice as our next rivalry competition! So let’s take on our sides of youth and kick some Stone cold butts!” Guy’s eyes glistened from his speech.

I couldn’t help but giggle. Their rivalry was always so entertaining and I just absolutely adored Guy and everything he stands for. Even though Kakashi won’t admit it, he is grateful for his rival and his crazy antics.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s talk about it after we survive today and complete our mission.” Kakashi dismissed with the wave of his hand.

“H-hi Obito...” a soft voice spoke.

Obito shifted his glance and put on an award-winning smile. “Hey Rin!”

I was the only one to notice Rin’s blush as she tucked a strand of her short brown hair behind her ear.

“Ah team Kakashi, right on time. We did a quick scan of the cave. There’s about 15 Stone shinobi on guard surrounding the outside. We estimate only to be about 7 on the inside.” Choza spoke.

Kakashi nodded and put his leadership skills to work. “Alright. Choza-sensei, you and Genma take the south and western side of the outside of the cave and Guy and Obito will take the north and eastern. Kat and I will make towards the entrance of the cave to retrieve the jinchuriki. Rin, since you’re the one with the medical ninjustu, keep a safe distance surveying the attacks. But remain close enough where you can assist if someone is injured. Everyone got it?”

The majority of us nodded our heads in approval.

“There’s more guys on the outside, Kakashi. Wouldn’t your skills prove to be more effective out here? I’ll go with Kat to retrieve the jinchuriki.” Obito announced.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. Everyone else just silently stared as the tension began to build up.

“Obito-“ Rin began.

“I am your captain, Obito. This is the plan I see fit. I am more than confident that you and Guy can take out the enemy surrounding the north and eastern part of the cave. Don’t sell yourself short.”

Obito was shocked by Kakashi’s compliment. His jealousy subsided as he nodded along.

“Okay disperse!”

Everyone spread out to their commanded locations and began their fights. Kakashi and I crouched by the entrance of the cave.

“It’s too dark to analyze what we are dealing with, we’re going to have to just proceed with caution.” Kakashi said in a low voice.

I nodded. We slowly walked inside the cave, keeping our sounds to a near mute. I put my hand on Kakashi’s shoulder to allow him to guide me as I closed my eyes to listen to any sounds of the enemy.

The sound of rocks crumbling came from directly above us. I wielded my kunai tightly as I leapt off the ground to meet my foe halfway in the air. The enemy that kicked off the ceiling to attack us hit the ground lifeless as my kunai slid effortlessly through her throat.

I gracefully landed back by Kakashi as he gave me an approving nod. The entire cave suddenly lit up, our presence no longer being a surprise. Six figures stood before us, all with the same red forehead protector engraved with the Stone Village insignia.

My brows furrowed in confusion. Where was the jinchuriki? The cave didn’t stretch beyond what we saw. Kakashi surveyed the area and came up just as confused as I was.

There was no more time to think as our enemy lead the first attacks. Kakashi preformed flawless taijustu against three of the enemies. He took one out with the saber his father left behind. He backed up enough to provide himself a minuscule amount of time to weave hand signs and ignite his chidori. The mock sounds of birds chirping echoed throughout the cave.

Kakashi growled as he sprinted towards his target and plunged his chidori straight through the enemy’s vital spot. Blood pooled around the Stone shinobi has he dropped on the ground. Kakashi’s third target retreated to my location.

“Forget it! just do it now before it’s too late!” The enemy yelled.

The three I was against nodded. While battling them, I noticed they only fought defensively. Of course at the time I was naive to believe I had the upper hand, especially without having to exhaust through my chakra. But my thoughts alluded to a giant mental slap to the forehead as the Stone shinobis preformed their true intentions.

The fourth enemy that was originally against Kakashi swung a kunai at me, causing me to flip back to dodge. As I was flipping back, a different Stone Shinobi snuck up behind me and slapped my exposed forearm. A jutsu formula imprinted on my skin.

Kakashi quickly realizing what had happened screamed out. “No!!!”

I stood still, confused by the encounter. The jutsu formula began to glow and a pentagon of words formed at my feet. One of the enemies stepped in front of me with a sealed container in his hand. The man broke the seal and lifted the lid.

The entire cave lit up as if the sun was trapped within. Pain seared through the core of my stomach. It felt as though a savage animal were digging its claws and ripping through the flesh of my abdomen. A high pitch scream echoed throughout the cave, the source coming from my vocal chords.

The amount of pain coursing through my body left my mind hazed in unconsciousness. Once the cave returned to darkness, my body collapsed to the ground. The only glow left inside was the light emitting from Kakashi’s chidori as he assassinated the remaining enemies.

“Kat! Kat! Katsumi! Can you hear me?” Kakashi brushed his fingers along the side of my face, pushing the hair away. No response.

Kakashi knelt down and scooped me in his arms. He held me tight. His heart was beating rapidly in his chest.

He brought me into the bright light outside and was greeted by the two teams.

“Katsumi! Kakashi what the hell happened?! You’re supposed to protect her!” Obito screamed as he rushed towards me.

Kakashi dropped to his knees in defeat. “There was never a jinchuriki host. They planned to put it in one of us the entire time.”

Rin gasped and ran over to my body. She began preforming medical ninjutsu, but stopped quickly to realize I wasn’t injured.

‘C’mon, let’s regroup at our base.” Choza grunted.

—-

Growling. That’s what I was hearing right? Growling?

My skin was wet. Blood? No... water?

I open my eyes. Were they open? Everything was dark.

I sat up, water dripped down my face from my soaking hair.

I looked down at my hands. I was sitting in water.

The growling continued. I turned my head to see the direction it was coming from.

My eyes opened wide in fear. Was I in hell?

Staring back at me was the three-tailed beast. His one visible eye shooting menacing glares. His turtle-like physic stood in a defensive stance.

I was trying to understand what was happening. I remember last the scorching pain that shocked through my whole body. Then nothing.

I moved to stand, the water pooling at only my ankles now.

“H-hello...” I nervously let out.

The beast remained shrill.

“My- my name is Katsumi. I....I’m sorry you’re stuck here. Our original mission was to rescue you and the host you resided in. We had no idea this was the Stone’s plan.”

The beast scoffed at me. He didn’t believe me. Why would he. Whether if it were me he were stuck in, another host, or that sealed container, the beast was never free.

I always believed there were something more to the tailed beasts than let on. They are living beings as well. All we humans do is capture them and make them slaves to our military. No one ever understood how I thought.

I looked down at the water, guilt flooding through me.

“What is your desire?” I asked.

The beast froze for a moment, shocked by what I asked. Anger filled inside of him as he misunderstood the true intentions behind my question.

“I desire to eradicate humanity. All you foul monsters take pleasure in war and deception and have the audacity to call us beasts. It disgusts me.” He hissed.

I nodded my head in agreement. “You’re absolutely right. I’m so sorry for everything my species has done to yours. You all are living beings as well. You never deserved to be enslaved to our military.”

The beast studied me for a minute. No human has every expressed sympathy to him before. Was it all an act?

“Let me reword my question. If humanity wasn’t an issue, what would your desires be?” I asked again.

The beast sighed. Closing his one eye and envisioning everything he ever dreamed of.

“Peacefully swimming openly in the vast ocean. Exploring the endless bottom of the the salty water until I’ve seen everything I could.”

I smiled. I was right. These beasts- no - beings, have dreams. They have goals, emotions, and plenty of intelligence. Right from this moment, I knew that there was a new duty I must fulfill. I must fight for these creatures. Fight for their freedom, their feelings, their rights.

I slammed a fisted hand to my chest and made a vow to the creature. “I, Katsumi Saratobi, vow to you Mr. Three Tails, that I will do EVERYTHING in my power to fight for you and your species. I will fight for your freedom and rights.... for your dreams.”

Three Tails was utterly shocked. Of course he didn’t fully believe me, how could he after centuries of human torture. But he recognized the sincerity in my voice. No human has ever spoken to him in this manner before.

His face softened.

“Isobu.”

“Pardon?”

“You called me Mr. Three Tails; the name is Isobu.”

—-

Kakashi opened his eyes at the sound of me breathing a little heavier than I previously was. He stayed right by my side since the moment I became unconscious. His soft eyes looked at me in curiosity as a smile was plastered on my face.

His hand reached for mine. “Hey, I’m right here Kat. I will not leave your side under any circumstances.” He said softly.

Obito scowled at Kakashi from afar. Stupid Kakashi. You were the one that LET her get hurt. You shouldn’t be the one by her side. It should be me. I deserve to be her hero. Obito began to stand before an arm reached up and grabbed his, preventing him from moving.

He looked down to see Rin looking up at him with pleading eyes.

“Obito. It’s been a long day. Please don’t start anything with Kakashi right now.” She spoke with such sadness in her voice. She knew Obito loved you. He’s loved you since as long as she could remember. And as much as she wanted Obito to be extremely happy, she pitied herself for loving him.

Obito huffed and sat back down again. “It isn’t right, Rin. He let this happen to her. He’s only by her side now because he feels guilty as a leader. He doesn’t truly care about her.” His nose scrunched up in disgust every time he said “he.”

Rin looked over at the silver-haired teen. His eyes expressed so much sorrow as he stared down at me. He was hunched over, his hand over mine.

“I think you’re wrong, Obito.”

He looked at her with a puzzled expression.

“Look at the way he is looking at her. Look at his hand. Not only do I think Kakashi cares about Katsumi, but I think he loves her.” She knows the look all too well. She gives it to Obito every time he is injured. And Obito the same to me.

Obito scrunched his face in utter disgust. “Love, Rin? Really. I doubt Kakashi is even capable of such an emotion. And what would you know?!”

Ouch thought Rin. She was starting to get upset.

“What do I know? Please Obito, you make the same face at Kat.” Rin rolled her eyes.

“Wha-whaat?! No I don’t!” His face started turning a soft shade of red. “I mean yeah, I love her. But like a sister! We practically grew up together!”

Rin shook her head at Obito’s denial. “Well, Obito. I’d get your feelings and shit straight sooner rather than later. Because once you finally open your eyes to it, she’ll be out of your reach. And I have no doubt that Kakashi will be the reason.” She said harshly. She was pissed. Pissed at herself for trying to help the love of her life be with the love of his.

Before he could respond, she dismissed herself to search for more firewood.

Obito stared at the fire then looked up at Kakashi. Anger and jealousy flooded his chest. Kakashi capable of loving? Tch. Yeah right. He couldn’t stand the sight before him anymore and got up to trade look-out shifts with Genma.

—-

I slowly opened my eyes. Everything was bright and blurry at first. Kakashi leaning up against the tree right next to me was the first sight I saw. His head was tilted down and his arms crossed. His breathing was heavy and consistent, evident that he was still asleep.

I stared at him for an extra few seconds, enjoying how incredibly handsome he was. His hair looked so soft, I wanted to run my fingers through it. His toned arms revealed due to the sexy muscle tank he was wearing.

I finally sat up and looked away. I scanned the rest of the base to see Genma, Guy, and Choza also fast asleep. The sky was hardly awake itself.

My mouth felt extremely dry and my throat was scratchy. I stood up to go fetch some water. Before I had the chance to move, Kakashi’s hand wrapped around my wrist. Startled, I looked down to see him look at me with relief in his eyes. He then rose and pulled me into him. His embrace was strong, and his scent of pine cones, campfire, and a hint of aftershave filled my nostrils.

Home was all I could think. The butterflies returned yet again.

He pulled away from me to arms length, hands still on my shoulders.

“Kat.” He spoke softly. “I-I’m so sorry. I should have done more to protect you. You put your faith in my leadership and I failed you.”

I shook my head. “I don’t need protecting, Kakashi. You fought your own battle, I was clumsy and naive within my own. I will never doubt my faith in you.” My voice came out dry and raspy, causing me to end my spiel in a coughing fit.

Kakashi rushed to get me some water. After fixing my dehydration I looked over to him. “So... what is the plan now?”

“Well,” He scratched the back of his head. “Technically, our mission did not fail. We now have the jinchuriki of the three-tailed beast. Now we return home and report to the hokage.”

—-

Lord Third always carried a fierce, almost menacing glare. His eyes remained unwavering even after our report. The seven of us all stood in front of him, backs straight, legs together, and arms behind our backs. Kakashi, Choza-sensei, and I stood in the very front.

“Hmm.” He grunted. “Very well. The Stone Village must have a very specific plan of attack in mind if their intention was to seal the Three-Tailed Beast inside of one of our shinobi. Kat-“

“Isobu.” My mouth spoke without my permission.

The tension of the room built as everyone gasped at my sudden outburst. Kakashi even side-eyed me.

The Third raised a brow. “Pardon?”

“I apologize for my outburst, my Lord. However, you called him Three-Tailed Beast when his name is Isobu.”

I felt everyone stare at me as if I were spouting nonsense. Kakashi turned his head to fully look at me now, an inquisitive expression plastered on his face.

The Third didn’t question my correction. “Ah, I see. Well in that case, Katsumi; since you are harboring Isobu, you are most likely a target to the Stone Village. You’re assignment will be to remain in the village for now and to always be monitored. That being said, Kakashi Hatake, your assignment will be to monitor her.”

Kakashi nodded his head. Obito blew out air behind me.

“As for everyone else, thank you for completing your mission. Your orders are to take a two day rest. I will send an anbu to your location if needed otherwise.”

Everyone replied with a solid “Yes sir” and took their leave. As everyone walked out, I stayed behind.

“What is it Katsumi?” The Third asked in a disinterested tone, not taking his eyes off the paper he was looking at.

“Father..” The nerves in me began to grow. “There is something I need to discuss with you.”

He sighed. “Does this have to do with your outburst earlier?”

“Yes sir. I wanted to talk about Isobu and his species. There is so much more to these creatures that we haven’t even fathomed!” Excitement began to overtake my nerves. My passion for this topic runs deep beneath my veins. I’ve always had this hunch but my interaction with Isobu proved it all.

The Third put the paper in his hands down and pinched the bridge of his nose. Not this again, he thought.

“After Isobu was sealed inside me, I was awakened spiritually and got to interact with him! Father these creatures are not docile and it is wrong to enslave them to our military. These beings are intelligent, they harbor emotions, thoughts, dreams-“

“ENOUGH!” The Third slammed his palms onto his desk and stood up. He glared at me. “Enough, Katsumi. I’ve had enough of these crazy antics of yours. It is never ending. I don’t want to hear about this again. Ever. You are dismissed!”

He raised his pointer finger to the door. I stared back at him. My father would never understand. He never listens to me. Nor my brother. He has always taken more pride into the Legendary Sanin he so gracefully trained over his own children. If I am going to fight for these species, I will have to do it without him.

“Sir.” I mumbled and headed straight for the door.

Kakashi was leaning against the wall outside of the room, one leg kicked up against the wall and his arms crossed. He looked at me expressionless. I dismissed him and kept walking down the hall. Anger swelled inside of me.

“Kat.”

I continued walking, ignoring his calls.

“Kat, wait.”

Once I rounded the corner and entered an old study room I raised my leg and kicked a desk. It flew to the other side of the room, breaking in half after its impact against the wall. I stood there with my eyebrows knitted together and breath heavy.

Kakashi stood in the doorway with his arms crossed. “Finished?”

I took a few deep breaths and straightened up. “Yes.”

“Alright. Well, Obito, Rin, Guy, and Genma are down at the BBQ House waiting for us. We had an exhausting mission, we deserve a nice dinner out.”

I looked at him. If only it were just you and me going out for dinner.

“Yes, you are right. Let’s go.”

We were halfway through our twenty minute walk to the restaurant.

“So.” Kakashi began. His hands were tucked in his pockets and his eyes were trained downwards. “Do you want to talk about what went on between you and your father?”

“Knowing you, you’ll probably dismiss my thoughts as well.” I said thinking about the side-eye he gave me back in the office.

Kakashi was extremely offended by my honesty. He scoffed. “Try me.”

I thought about it for a second before I stopped walking and grabbed his wrist to guide him to sit down next to me on a bench. “During the time I was apparently unconscious I was actually awake spiritually. Internally where Isobu is sealed, I was there and interacting with him.”

Kakashi held his full attention to me. Neither of us realizing that my hand was still on his.

“I’ve always had a hunch that these “beasts” were much more than a weapon. They’re beings, just like us. And all we do is enslave and abuse them. My hunch became true once I talked with Isobu. At first he looked at me with such hatred. He talked about how he wanted to eradicate humanity. Why wouldn’t he after everything we put him through? But after digging deeper, he told me about his dreams. His dream to explore the vastness of the ocean. His dream of peace.” I smiled at the ground, Kakashi’s eyes still on me.

“I vowed to him, Kakashi. I vowed that I will do everything in my power to help him and his species.” I turned to him and grabbed both of his hands into mine and pulled them to my chest.

“We’ve always been at each other’s sides, Kashi. Will you stand by my side now and help me?” I looked deep into his dark gray eyes.

His eyes were soft. He heard the plea in my voice and saw the evidence in my eyes. He let out a breath and moved his right hand to tuck a tendril behind my ear. Then he cupped my cheek.

My heart was going into overdrive.

“Of course I’ll be by your side.” He spoke softly.

We continued looking into each other’s eyes. I didn’t want to look away. I wanted to pour my heart and soul into his eyes and hope that he would lay claim.

His left hand tightened around mine and I slowly leaned in. Could this actually be happening?!

“Ahem.” A light pitched voice called a few feet away from us.

I blinked and looked away, moving myself out of Kakashi’s grip. He stiffened and tried to maintain his grip on my hand even as I shrugged him off.

My face was blood red. Rin came to a halt in front of us. A huge smile was plastered on her face. “Hey guys! I thought I saw you walk by the restaurant so I wanted to be sure you knew to come join us! We just put our orders in, c’mon!”

“Right.” I said and stood up. Kakashi said nothing as he followed my lead.

Rin continued to smile brightly as she guided us to the restaurant. She witnessed everything that just happened. Seeing what nearly went down between Kakashi and I gave her high hopes that Obito would fall to her. She might have a chance.

—-

Lighthearted chatter filled the evening as we all enjoyed the savory BBQ meat. Kakashi barely spoke the whole night and I only spoke when addressed. All I could think about was what nearly occurred on the bench outside. He wouldn’t look at me, he only focused on his food, which he toyed with and didn’t eat.

No one noticed our awkwardness as they all drone on about our mission’s success. Rin would occasionally glance at the two of us and plaster on that smile she shone when she fetched us outside. Obito bragged about his successful fire ball, Guy ravaged on about his youth, and Genma talked about the new girl he was seeing.

At the end of the night we all paid our separate checks and said goodnight. Kakashi opted to walk me home as it was his mission to ensure my safety. Obito was displeased, but didn’t counter since Kakashi’s excuse was legitimate.

The walk to my house was silent. All I could think about was what we discussed on the bench. Was I hallucinating? Was Kakashi feeling what I was feeling? Even if he were, this was probably wrong. We shouldn’t progress past our friendship. We’ve been friends since we were little kids. I value that more than anything and wouldn’t want a broken heart to disrupt that. Who am I kidding. I am getting ahead of myself. Kakashi doesn’t feel that way. His duty as a shinobi is what he prioritizes most in his life. He wouldn’t allow anything or anyone to come in the way of that. It is decided. I will act as if nothing happened and value our friendship and his morals. Yes.

We walked up the stairs to the porch and stopped in front of the door. Kakashi’s eyes were downcast and his hands tucked into his pockets.

I took a deep breath then plastered on a smile. “Thanks for walking me home, Kashi. And thank you, so much, for what you said on the bench earlier. It means everything to me to have your support.” My voice came out a little higher pitched than usual.

I turned my head to look at him. He was already looking at me. His half-lidded eyes were soft.

Next thing I knew, Kakashi’s calloused right hand was pulling the back of my head towards his. His left hand pulled down his mask right before he crashed his lips into mine.

I was completely frozen.

So was Obito as he watched nearby.

End of Part 1, stay tuned!

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strangemagicked · 4 years ago

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Anon said: what are your favorite fun facts about each of your ocs?

I don’t think you understand how LONG of an answer this is gonna be but ,,,,

o k a y

Note: I have 53 Ocs attached to this blog SO this is going under a readmore lmao (yes this took me three days to answer, shhhhh)

Also, these aren’t all my ‘favorite’ fun facts; they’re just ....normal fun facts because wow i dont have favorites lmao

Alice ( Alice in Wonderland )

She drinks at least two cups of tea day.

Akemi ( Big Hero 6 )

No matter how good she is at computers, she still messes up long division

Alyssa ( Seuss )

She cuts her own hair, but never more than a trim.

Amber ( Trolls )

She has a scar on her feet from a bee sting.

Annella ( J&tcch )

She’s made her own glasses for her to wear in her cat form.

April ( Mia & Me )

Her main pet snake is named Sup

Ares ( Harry Potter )

She has a pencil on her no matter what her outfit or anything

Arlo ( Dt17 )

Has a scar on his left hand on his thumb’s knuckle. Doesn’t know how he got it.

Ash ( Dt17 )

Ash stole one of donald’s shirts and made it into a pillow case

Aspen ( Otgw )

Her outfit in the unknown does not match her outfit outside of it. No I will not explain further.

Aura ( Atla )

Always wears her hair up; but it goes almost to her knees when it is down.

Aurore ( Dt17 )

She normally wears chunky heels.

Ava ( Supernatural )

She has a card that says she is legally allowed to have her crossbow on her at all times. She keeps it in her shoe that way she always has it.

Bai ( Raya )

He has a necklace with Sisu on it; they’re more common than I think raya realized

Beck (Phineas and Ferb)

Has a butterfly clip she keeps in her pocket

Bianca ( Frozen )

She has a higher tolerance for the cold due to being frozen for so long

Bo ( Jwcc )

His spirit guide is a Compy; hence why Arrow took such a liking to him

Crevan ( Hunger Games )

Has a southern accent in modern verses, but lacks an accent in her default verse

Caelan ( Ever After High )

Has a small birthmark that sorta looks like an arrow if you squint.

Candy Hearts ( Mlp )

Is part deer and part pony. She tried to find her birth parents to no avail

Caramel Cosmos ( Mlp )

Instead of snapping to use her chaos powers, she taps her hoof

Caroline ( Strange Magic )

Her wings let off a gentle pink glitter. It’s similar to love potion in looks.

Cheshire ( Fandomless )

They have many tattoos; including all four suits somewhere on their body

Clarke Navada ( Arthur Christmas )

She replaces the mistletoe on her shirt every three days to keep it fresh

Constance ( Poto )

If ya can’t tell, her and Christine look a lot alike. However, they do not act the same at all, except for their passion and drive

Cyra ( Animaniacs )

Is she just a recolor of yakko? Maybe. But she was never meant to be. Her animator was just really tired of designing and under a lot of pressure by that point

Derek ( Fandomless )

His fiancé died and he blames himself :) Also he has a flask with their name on it

Elliot ( Animaniacs )

Really wants to fly. Has a slight fear of heights.

Eros ( Descendents)

They do have some wonderland magic to them, but their charm and ability to get people to do stuff for them is just their natural ability. It’s not magic.

Felix ( Camp Camp )

Carries a pocket knife on him at all times. Yes, even in his PJs

Gabby ( Treasure Planet )

Has an older brother & a younger sister. Neither of which realize that she is such a major criminal.

Gisel ( Ladybug )

Has a habit of omitting the truth in order to not lie. She will allow people to draw what should be obvious conclusions from what she says, although the obvious conclusion is never the right conclusion

Hatter ( Fandomless )

Tends to speak in riddles, but honestly, no one knows why. Not even he knows why he does.

Jacklyn ( Tim Burton/horror )

You can see her lungs through her ribs! Because while her skin and muscle has begun to dissipate, her organs have not!

Jordan ( Supernatural )

Always has a cloth tucked into her jeans pocket to use incase she needs it

Katie ( Penn Zero )

Does not have a tail like her father, but does have red eyes like him!

Killian Jr ( Tangled )

The streak of teal in his hair is natural, and he has his father’s freckles too

Kit ( Animaniacs )

Subtitles appear when they speak in a different language than English. ( Even then, sometimes subtitles will appear for that too)

Lore ( Seuss )

She sewed all of her own clothes !

Mica ( Steven Universe )

Has no scars or birthmarks!

Morty ( Rick and Morty Inspired )

Carries a full eyeshadow palette in his backpack

Nobody ( Seuss )

Anything relating to JoJo is my favorite. but also since i doubt anyone is reading this far; Nobody’s birthname was Mollie Noel Joy. Nobody doesn't know this.

Nia ( Supernatural )

She still has her wings, and her grace. Although, she never uses her angelic powers.

Petal ( Httyd )

Her full name is Petronilla !

Rita ( Gravity Falls )

like her father, she keeps a journal. However, hers is less scientific and more personal.

Sahar ( Fandomless )

The first ghost she communicated with was when she was three!

Seine ( Animal Crossing/nitw, Horror )

Keeps the door to their basement locked with two padlocks

Skyler ( Horror )

Keeps three backup chargers on them

Sunny ( Rotg )

She has a faint glow to her that will change tint from red to yellow to orange depending on her feelings

Tj ( Camp Camp )

It’s real candy in their hair that they glued in with a hot glue gun

Valerie ( Dt17 )

Doesn’t know that donald has that thing with his voice until season 2

Walker ( Horror )

His eyes are yellow, and they reflect like cat’s

Wild Princess ( Adventure Time )

If she were to ever be completely rid of the crown, she’d die from radiation poisoning

Willow (trolls)

Lost her sight in her one eye during the escape from the troll tree

Xia (White Snake)

She smokes human essence not actual smoke

#HEY I'M HOME? || MAX ANSWERS;#tw long post

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syeko · 4 years ago

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Taking Care of You Ch. 2

Find it on AO3 or down below the cut!

@marichatmay

The black leather clad superhero stuck out like a sore thumb amidst the sea of pinks and whites of Marinette’s room. From the walls and the bedding and the furniture down to the sweats and fluffy socks she was wearing, a swirl of pinks and whites that was just so very Marinette, and if he wasn’t feeling as cagey as he was, he would have commented something. Instead of a pun however, he busied himself by fidgeting with his tail, the leather a comfortable weight in his palms as he watched Marinette. The horrible itch from earlier had subsided somewhat, but it was still very much there, preventing him from standing still as he watched Marinette make her way around her room, hands grasping at various items. A closer look confirmed that the pile materials his classmate was in the middle of picking up seemed like assorted fabrics and discarded sheets with notes and designs scribbled onto them.

“Sorry about the mess, Chat,” Marinette broke the silence, a soft upturn of her lips accentuating the smattering of red across her cheeks. She fiddled with her fingers, the action so familiar to Chat from their shared time in the classroom. He’d always found it endearing, the movements bringing a small smile onto his own face.

“There’s nothing to apologize for, Princess,” he cocked his head to the side, green eyes sweeping over the fabrics and papers, and a small puddle of shame pooled in his stomach, “Were you in the middle of working on something?”

Marinette waved a hand, “Not really, nothing was coming together anyways,” she shrugged, “you just so happened to drop by at the perfect time, I could use a break.”

He blushed, an apology on the tip of his tongue, but the light huff of her laughter cut him off before he could say anything.

“Before you ask, no Ki-Chat, you aren’t bothering me, and no I’m not lying,” she crossed her arms loosely, “I really could use a break from designing, and what better way to do that than with the best cat in Paris?”

“Aww, Purrincess, do you really think I’m the best cat in Paris?” He grinned, the compliment, as silly as it was, making his heart swell, the butterflies in his stomach fluttering. Just as quickly had the feeling come however, it was dampened by a reminder of the mess he’d made outside and the time he was taking away from his friend. No doubt she had much better ways of spending her time than with a stray cat, but the promise of help with his…problem kept his curiosity peaked, and he would be lying to say that he wasn’t eager to feel normal again.

“Don’t let it get to your head,” Marinette grinned before moving to her chaise, legs curling up on the cushions before she patted the spot next to her, “Come.”

Chat couldn’t help but raise a masked eyebrow at the request, but he obliged after a moment’s hesitation and an encouraging smile from the girl clad in pink. The confidence and authority she radiated, even in worn sweats and a t-shirt was new, at least towards him. Well, Adrien him. He was well aware of Marinette’s leadership and quick thinking capabilities spurred on by her undying resolve for justice, but he was hardly on the receiving end of such confidence. In fact, in most cases, it seemed like the midnight haired girl wanted nothing more than to scurry away from him at every given opportunity.

Shaking his head minutely to dispel the sidetracked thoughts, he focused on making his way over to the (once again, pink) chaise, sinking slowly into the soft cushions below. The sunlight from her window spilled into the room, warming up the seat just so, the temperature soothing his nerves and his muscles as he wiggled on the spot. The itch was back, simmering and swirling underneath his skin, but this time, it was accompanied by the almost instant drooping of his eyelids.

Everything was so deliciously warm, and cozy. The cushion was just the right amount of bounce and firmness, and had he been alone, he wouldn’t hesitate to sprawl himself all over the chaise, relishing in the space and the comfort. But, as much as he wished to, he forced himself to stay upright, blinking the haze away harshly in order to focus on his friend so she could fix whatever was wrong with him.

“So, what’s the plan?” He turned to face Marinette, surprised to see her giggling softly. He frowned, not following the reason for her laughter. Not that he minded hearing it, and the realization made him blink with a start. Before he had time to dwell on the revelation however, she reached out to place a warm palm against his shoulder.

“You’re such a cat,” she snorted softly before her expression settled into something more serious, “I think that’s the problem actually.”

He felt his nose scrunch up, trying and failing to keep his mind off the tingling sensation from where her skin was making contact with his suit.

“I’m sorry, Princess, but I’m not sure I quite follow?”

Her lips pursed, the thumb and pointer finger of her free hand curling around her chin. The action sparked a vague feeling of familiarity, and he was reminded fondly of a similar pose his Lady would don as she was coming up with a plan or thinking over new information.

“Well, and I’m only speculating here again, of course, because you know Alya, my friend, I’m sure you and Ladybug have seen her around a lot, she runs the Ladyblog you know so we talk a lot about this stuff so it’s not weird or anything-“

Chat blinked as her palm slipped away from his shoulder, her rambling and the gestures so characteristic, borderline comical, that he couldn’t help but splutter out a chuckle.

“You’re rambling, Marinette,” he patted her knee, offering a quick smile to placate the blush that stole her cheeks, “I know you’re only trying to help, so don’t worry okay?”

After a second of staring at him, wide-eyed like a deer caught in the headlights, she nodded slowly, the pink receding from her face and once again replaced with firm determination.

With a steady breath, she continued.

“I think that there are some spillover effects from the Miraculous. We know that the Miraculous are in some way representative of certain animals, Ladybug being well…a ladybug and yours being the black cat. Your powers are reflective of certain qualities related to those animals- kind of like instincts or behaviours? So what’s to say that the effects of the Black Cat Miraculous don't just pertain to agility or night vision?” Marinette paused to shrug, “It could be very possible that you’re experiencing the less uh…pronounced behaviours that have just been building up over time?”

Chat was taken aback, feline eyes wide as he processed what his friend was saying. The fact that Marinette was able to figure out something so quickly, much quicker than he himself could, from so little information was both astounding and terrifying. Marinette was smart and resourceful, he knew that, but if she had managed to figure out this much, it made him wonder what other information was out there waiting to be analyzed and figured out.

Hawkmoth had to have internet access after all.

The thought made him twitch, tail settling between his clawed fingers once more as he worried his bottom lip. The original reason for his presence in Marinette’s room was forgotten for a moment, he couldn’t but worry about the implications of this revelation.

“Chat...?”

Marinette’s voice was quiet as she looked at him with worried eyes, and he mentally smacked himself for letting a civilian worry. He boxed away his worries, making a note to bring it up to Ladybug at some point; maybe the two heroes would have to have a talk with Alya and other news reporters on the dangers of speculation and posting information online where villains could no doubt use to their advantage.

“Ah, my a-paw-logies Purriness, I was just blown away by your deductions. Tell me, have you ever considered forensics or law, Mademoiselle Sherlock?”

He grinned when she rolled her eyes, reaching out to flick his bell. The sound sent a wonderful shiver down his spine.

“That depends. Are you willing to be my Dr. Watson?”

“Well if you’re paw-sitive you can handle the galaxies inside this brain,” he winked.

Marinette pressed a flattened palm to her chest with a drawn out gasp, “However will we all cope? Imagine the headlines!”

Chat swiped a hand through the air, “I can see it now, ‘Local Cat Discovered to Have Infinite Braincells’.”

Marinette copied the gesture, barely suppressing her smirk, “‘Scientists Discover that None of Them Are Actually Functional After Testing’.”

“Hey!”

“I’m teasing,” she laughed, reaching up to scratch a spot behind his ears in apology. The change was almost instantaneous, surprising Marinette with just how fast his body froze for a moment before his eyes fluttered close. He leaned into her hand, and from this close, the young designer could see the ripple of his muscles relaxing underneath his suit, slumping against her.

Not that she minded too much.

Her earlier deductions, while not explicitly sourced from the internet, seemed to be right as a familiar low rumble filled the room, causing her lips to twitch fondly. Chat Noir had begun to purr again, the vibrations echoing in her own chest. She thanked Lady Luck that her Kitty’s eyes were still closed, because at the moment she was absolutely certain her poor cheeks were burning.

But this wasn’t about her, she sighed internally, carding her fingers through silken gold. The sunlight reflected against his hair, highlighting the gold of his eyelashes against the deep black of the domino mask. She traced patterns through the stray strands atop his head, discovering with suppressed delight that the spots behind both Chat’s human and cat ears had the same effect, and the longer the scratching and rhythmic movements went on, the louder the rumbling got.

Her eyes softened at the innocence of it all, recalling how he had purred earlier when he was caught red-handed on her balcony, no doubt in an effort to self-soothe. The initial sound had been quiet, hesitant and tinged with low notes, giving away the boy’s embarrassment at what occurred and Marinette marveled at the reminder of how sensitive Chat Noir could be. Now however, the vibrations were loud and light, and with a uncontrollable flutter of her heart, she couldn’t help but be proud that she was the cause of such a blatant display of relief and trust from her partner (despite him not knowing that she was his beloved Lady, but she’ll count it nonetheless).

Gently guiding Chat’s head to her lap, she realized with another powerful thud of her heart that the poor kitty had fallen asleep, she relaxed back against the pillows on her chaise. She’d doubted for a moment if leading Chat to her room and exposing so much was a good idea, knowing that with every encounter with the black cat, she ran the risk of compromising their identities. The familiar twinge of anxiety made her frown, and she knew that she would no doubt be hearing from Tikki later on about the unexpected development between her civilian identity and Chat Noir, and Marinette couldn’t help but dread the coming conversation. However, with a glance down at the serene expression on her partner’s porcelain complexion, she pushed her worries aside, saving them to card over later. For now, her kitty needed her, and she wouldn’t let him down.

In or out of the mask.

#miraculous ladybug #marichat #chat noir #marinette dupain cheng #marichatmay2021 #sye writes

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ducktracy · 4 years ago

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189. my little buckaroo (1938)

release date: january 29th, 1938

series: merrie melodies

director: friz freleng

starring: mel blanc (the terror), tedd pierce (pig, narrator)

erroneously titled my little buckeroo upon the short’s blue ribbon re-release, this cartoon is the third last cartoon directed by friz freleng in his first stint at WB. he headed off to MGM in 1937 to reconnect with former colleagues hugh harman and rudolf ising, only to return to WB back in 1939.

here, the notorious terror has been tormenting the town of boiled beef, texas. it’s up to a shrill-voiced, wimpy, andy devine caricatured pig and his trusty steed to put a stop to the evildoers doings.

the cartoon begins with a montage: a monotone droll “calling all sheriffs, calling all sheriffs--be on the lookout for the terror. that is all” narrates the action as we spot said terror riding into town on his horse and mercilessly robbing a bank, shooting guns wildly as he exits. overlaid footage of the terror riding his trusty steed and leering into the camera attempt to elevate the theatrics of the sequence. the montage is short and lacks substance--while it does a fine job of exposing the plot, it’s not nearly as masterful nor careful than the montages present in frank tashlin’s cartoons.

(my little buckaroo, 1938, on the left, and gold diggers of ‘49, 1935, on the right.)

fade out and in to the town of boiled beef, texas, 1872. a keen eye will notice that the pan of the village, from trucking into the calendar hanging in a covered wagon to sweeping over the town itself, is directly ripped from tex avery’s gold diggers of ‘49 back in 1935, merely repainted and lacking the snarky commentary brought on by tex’s subtitles (”the time”, “the place”, etc.)

according to the narrator, the town has been terrorized by “a notorious desperado known as ‘the terror’”. focus on a wanted poster of said terror, not without its own witty commentary:

a crossfade and pan out reveal the terror himself perched against a cactus brandishing the wanted poster. mel blanc (of course) voices the terror in a thick, stereotypical accent: “that’s me--the great jose cuervo santa barbara la cucaracha smith.” he hardly breaks eye contact as he rolls himself a cigarette. “i put anybody on the spot for seven-fifty and a quarter a day.” he chuckles, then adds after a pause, “...mother in law, two-fifty.” the animation is hilariously nonchalant, full of character while almost feeling too natural at the same time.

once more, fade out and back in to the 4th national bank, protected by the keen eye of a guard dog... who’s fast asleep on the rickety wooden porch, a sash peddling him as the “burglar alarm” wrapped around his stomach. with the suddenness of a rattlesnake (narrator’s description, not mine), the terror gallops into town, firing his pistols and screeching to a halt in front of the gate. the guard dog awakens, all too happy to see some company. as the terror raids the bank of its good, the dog excitedly wags its tail, to which the burglar alarm (a cowbell) rings. definitely a clever bait-and-switch.

the terror rushes out of the bank with his goods, before heading back in again. he slides in to collect a spare coin sitting in the payphone, eyeballing it eagerly before darting off again on his horse. the inside of the bank is a refreshing change of scenery, if only for a bit--the layouts seldom change of the terror going to and fro.

finally, the citizens of boiled beef texas poke their heads out of the buildings and opt to take action, charging together to get their horses. suddenly, they screech to a halt--the horses glare on as they lounge inside their pen, all touting picket signs (”we’re on a sit down strike”, “we balk--you walk”, “we’re sitting because we can’t stand for it!”, “no feed--no steed!”, etc). stalling’s sardonic score of “the old gray mare” is a nice touch.

according to the narrator, the terror has now fled the border and seeks refuge in his hideout. his hideout is merely a gambling ring--the terror himself loads up one of the slot machines with his good. however, he halts. a close-up painting reveals a slug coin (a counterfeit coin), much to the outrage of the terror, who rants and raves, throwing his hat on the ground in defeat. yet another fade-out-- the pacing of the cartoon feels rather disjointed with all of the fade ins and outs.

friz’s artistic sensibilities start to eke their way out as we cut to nighttime, a lone rider silhouetted against the dark night sky and the moon. the terror pops out in front of the rider, snarling “STICK ‘EM UP!” a gorgeous head-on shot of the terror--the lit cigarette is a small but lovely detail, especially juxtaposed against the deep blue sky. the rider screeches to a halt, and all of his horses stack on top of each other, one by one, balancing on top of the rider’s wagon.

an iris wipe showcase the sheriff and his posse “close on the marauder’s trail”, a bunch of spherically designed cowboys riding on their horses (has the strike ended already?). nevertheless, the terror and his horse share snide grins as they take off into the night. a refreshing change of pace as the terror and his horse slide across the border line, a baseball umpire popping out of nowhere to declare “SAAAAFE!” with that, the terror sticks is tongue out to the sheriff’s posse, orlando martin trombone gobble sound effect and all.

while the cartoon has been largely unremarkable thus far, the introduction of a new character, a silhouette riding his horse against the sunrise, provides some much needed lightheartedness. tedd pierce switches from narrator to character as the silhouette screeches sings an obnoxious rendition of the title song.

a close-up reveals a pig caricature of andy devine, ‘30s western star often satirized time and time again for his shrill vocals. the blank expression on the pig’s face juxtaposed with the grimaces of disgust on his horse as the pig wails to his heart’s content is nothing short of priceless. the vocals are so shrill and obnoxious that it’s impossible NOT to laugh. one can only imagine what an uproar this would have brought to the movie theater in 1938, when devine was a much more well known figure.

thankfully for the audience’s ears, the pig’s shrill singing is interrupted by the telltale sound of gunfire--the terror is at it again. he darts right past the pig on his horse, cueing a hilarious gear-up run from the pig and his horse as they chase hot on his trail. each time the pig fires his gun, he’s sent flying backwards on his horse, stars and other grawlixes taking his place. even though the ricochet gag is a tired gag, the insertion of the grawlixes add a nice touch of two-dimensional design and cartooniness to the equation.

after having his hat shot off a few times, the terror retaliates. in another gag similar to one in tex’s gold diggers of ‘49, the terror’s gun is revealed to have a built-in slot machine, reflecting his love of gambling. the slots spin: two peaches, two shots. he eventually hits the jackpot, firing a (n admittedly underwhelming) barrage of bullets towards his foe. he repeats the “hat getting shot off” gag with the pig, who replaces his hat with a top hat, a boater hat, etc.

conveniently for the terror, he stumbles upon an escalator built into a nearby canyon, complete with WATCH YOUR STEP signs. he and his horse board the escalator no problem, followed by the pig and his own. a funny gag, but the lack of urgency does little to punch it up to its full potential. the chase sequence feels like a game of monkey see, monkey do: the terror rounds some sharp curves with his horse, momentarily defying gravity as he turns the bend on the canyon. the pig rider does the exact same thing with his own horse, the speed of both anticlimactic and slow.

nevertheless, a bright spot--the terror and his horse slide down a steep slope, followed by the pig and his horse. ken harris does some hilarious animation of the horse as he grins into the camera, trademark ken harris excitement marks decorating the scene as he jumps up and down, whinnying and clapping his hooves together in jubilation. he gallops up the slope to a jaunty, broken score of “the merry go round broke down”, turning around and sliding back down on his butt, hooves in the air in excitement.

the fun doesn’t stop there. the andy devine pig scolds the horse for wasting his time, prompting the horse to give a full on tantrum. “AWWW, GEE! I NEVER HAVE ANY FUN! OTHER HORSES HAVE FUN! I NEVER GET TO DO ANYTHING!”

finally, the pig gives in. “aww, ALL RIGHT!” with that, the horse runs off to repeat his exercises offscreen--and we never see him again.

in yet another reprisal of gold diggers of ‘49, the pig, horse-less, captures the terror by shooting a makeshift gun/fishing pole. a lasso shoots from the barrel of the rifle, tying around the abdomen of the confused marauder. the pig, with a few struggles, finally reels in his prey, who flops around on the ground like a fish. (friz would later perfect the absurdity of the fish flopping gag in his 1944 entry duck soup to nuts, with daffy in place of the terror.)

a happy resolution: the pig proudly whistles the eponymous song as he leans back in his chair in his office. pan along the wall to find a row of mounted animals: a boar, a moose, some fish... and the terror. the camera pans out to reveal the terror behind bars, his head wedged in a mount as he struggles to break free. fade out.

while not one of friz’s best efforts, this cartoon still has bits and pieces to appreciate. the pig’s introduction and the horse’s ecstasy at riding down the slope are the definite highlights to the cartoon. tedd pierce does a fine job as both the pig and the narrator, especially the former. ken harris’ animation is lovely, too.

however, this isn’t as indicative of friz’s talents as other shorts. while trying to feel like a tex avery cartoon (down to recycling gags and layouts), the short instead comes off as a disjointed segment of gags. the pacing is staggered and slow--the chase sequence during the second half of the cartoon lags and lacks any real sense of urgency. while there are bright spots, this feels more like a quota filler than anything. friz is a wonderfully talented director and criminally underrated in my opinion, but this isn’t a knockout from him.

so, with that said, i would skip this cartoon. the highlights i’ve already posted--there’s not really much else of interest. however, with that said, it wouldn’t be a total waste of time to watch it, either.

link!

#lt #looney tunes #my little buckaroo #freleng #reviews #long post #I DIDN'T FORGET ABOUT THESE I SWEAR #i'm gonna make a point to get better about doing them

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twothumbsandnostakeincanon · 5 years ago

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My brain apparently really likes the idea of wing!whump. How about: After the Nogitsune spits him out, Stiles' wings are wrong. He does his best to hide it, and them, but someone is going to notice sooner or later. Cue Peter being both more intrusive and more empathetic than expected (only one of those is actually a surprise).

Okay. Okay. Fuck, I love this. This is so good.

When the nogitsune split from Stiles, it took the original body and shoved Stiles into the new one. The new one was identical to the old one, down to the last mole, except for one thing: instead of dusty brown feathers, he had black. So black that they seem to suck in light, making it hard to distinguish individual feathers. The flat effect was so uncanny that some of the sillier students at the high school started a rumor that Stiles had his feather wings surgically replaced with bat wings.

That was ridiculous, of course, and most of the student body and townsfolk just assumed he was using powders or dyes. It’s his teenage right to have a goth phase, so no one looked twice after they’d taken in the new look. The pack looked even less, thinking that they already knew the secret of Stiles’ changed wings.

But Peter watched Stiles. He’s always watched Stiles, from the beginning, before he could even fully grasp why he was doing it. Because he watched, he’s the only one that noticed how Stiles’ wings do catch the light- but only sometimes. Only in spots, but never the same spot twice.

It happened at random times as well; after a day long research binge on the town’s latest irritant. During an argumentative pack meeting. Peter even saw it by happenstance at the grocery store. It tugged at Peter’s curiosity.

It couldn’t be a cosmetic product, or the effect would be more uniform. It might be magical in origin, but Stiles’s magic put off a specific scent since the nogitsune- not an unpleasant one, but consistently noticeable just the same.

He found the answer thanks to the manticore and his own violent streak.

Peter had been ready for a tussle- the unsolved mystery of Stiles’ wings left a simmering frustration on the back of his tongue, and he was fully prepared for a cathartic evening with his claws.

Scott, of course, had wanted to sedate the beast. Peter was even gracious enough to allow him to try all four vials of ketamine before flicking him out of the way and attacking. He deftly dodged the wings, spinning beneath the beasts claws before burying his own in its neck, ripping out its throat and sending arterial spray across the clearing.

A part of him reveled in the violence of the mess- the evidence of his abilities, the satisfaction of his base instincts.

The rest of him, however, had an aesthetic to maintain.

He took his handkerchief out and began to carefully wipe down his wings, ignoring the disgusted complaints of the rest of the pack. Well, the complaints of everyone but Stiles, who was too busy harvesting the spines from the manticore’s tail. Peter looked at him appraisingly, noticing that he hadn’t missed the spray of blood, but was simply more invested in taking advantage of the situation. He’d wiped his face clean, but still had blood spattered across his neck and shoulders, and presumably across his wings, although it was impossible to tell with how dark the feathers were.

Except.

Except, they caught the light. In exactly the way that baffled Peter so, in random spots. Spots briefly reflecting the moon.

Spots that were covered in blood.

Stiles finished gathering the spines, and did his part in calling up the earth to bury the animal. Everyone parted ways immediately afterward, eager to find the closest bath.

Peter, however, followed Stiles home.

He knew he was being allowed to; there was no way Stiles was unaware that he was being followed, and if he truly didn’t want Peter there then he had enough wards to keep him out.

Instead, Peter found himself easily allowed into Stiles’ room as he was putting away his new bounty.

“What do you want, Creeperwolf?” Stiles asked, looking up at Peter curiously. Peter shrugged casually.

“I made a bit of a mess back there-”

Stiles snorts, repeating “a bit” sarcastically under his breath.

“-so I thought it polite to help you groom your feathers.”

It was fascinating, to see the slight shifts in Stiles’ expression. The ones that mean nothing on his face was real. The ones that mean everyone else has been shut out.

“No thanks, Uncle Bad Touch-” Stiles said caustically, but Peter interrupted him.

“They’re quite a mess,” he said lightly, eyeing the wings critically. It’s not really true, the feathers he can see are mostly straight even after their busy night. But it does get the mask on Stiles’ face to drop slightly.

“My wings are fine. Did you honestly come here to act like a bitchier, cut-rate version of Jonathan Van Ness?”

“I’m not a bitchier cut-rate version of Jonathan Van Ness, Jonathan Van Ness is a less bitchy cut-rate version of me, and how would you even know if they’re a mess? You can’t see.”

Stiles opened his mouth to argue, but Peter was too fast. Too quick, and too determined.

He slid behind Stiles, ignoring the immediate buffeting of his wings, and peered closely at the coverts. More blood was obvious now that he was looking closely, but it was buried beneath the thick layers of matte black feathers, close to the skin. He carefully moved the top ones aside, stopping when Stiles let out a pained hiss and froze.

There was blood everywhere.

Broken pin feathers scattered his skin, the collection of calami much denser than normal. Bent rachis and torn vanes could be seen all over the place, once again hidden beneath the thick layer of top feathers.

A memory of burnt wings, and the pain that came from deformed feathers constantly breaking made him shudder.

“Christ,” he breathed out.

Stiles hunched a little, clearly bracing for more pain, babbling.

“I can’t- they just grow that way now. They’re so thick, there isn’t enough space for the new feathers to come in. They’re constantly breaking. Even if I had time to groom for hours every day-”

“This happened after the nogitsune?” Peter interrupted.

Stiles nodded, and then carefully pulled away, turning to look at Peter, who finally dropped his hands.

“Something about the- the way the nogitsune made this body… I heal faster now. I don’t need as much sleep.” He scoffed out a tiny laugh and looked away before turning his dry gaze back to Peter. “My hair is thicker too.” He sighed. “It’s not like it’s a real problem-”

“The blood on your feathers is evidence to the contrary,” Peter interrupted again, voice tight.

Stiles went silent.

“Let me help you with your wings,” Peter said. Insisted, really, even if Stiles’ didn’t know that yet.

“Peter-” Stiles sighed. “It’s not just that I don’t have time. It- it really fucking hurts, okay?” He grit his teeth. “The amount of time it would take to straighten everything out daily… I’d rather just bear the pain of some feathers breaking than spending hours trying not to scream.” He jut out his jaw, as if daring Peter to mock him for wanting to avoid the hurt.

As if there was anyone who understood the bearing and avoidance of pain more than Peter.

Instead, Peter lightly said, “If only you had someone offering to groom you who is also capable of taking away your pain.”

Stiles’ mouth fell open. He clearly hadn’t considered that.

“Lay down,” Peter demanded, only a little surprised when Stiles actually did so. He placed one hand on the small of Stiles’ back between his wings, rubbing his thumb back and forth as he began to drain the pain of the broken feathers.

It was difficult to stay calm in the face of evidence that Stiles had been bearing this much pain since the nogitsune without anyone in the pack noticing.

With his other hand, he began to clean and straighten feathers.

Stiles fell asleep almost immediately, as surprising as not beneath Peter’s hands, given the situation and their night. Peter continued to work for hours. He groomed as best he could under the onslaught of sharp quills and thick down, considering the various medical and magical options available that might help the problem.

By the time he finished, his own hands were beginning to ache. Stiles stirred just as he opened the window to leave.

“Peter?” he asked, voice rough, not quite fully awake.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” Peter assured him. “I’ll groom you again and we can talk about how to fix the problem.”

Stiles stared at him for a moment, sleep rumpled and more relaxed than Peter had seen in months. Then he collapsed back down to his pillow.

“You’re weird,” he muttered, and then-

“Thank you, Creeperwolf.”

Peter smirked, and shut the window behind him.

#shey-elizabeth #this blog needs a tag for my bullshit #steter #1.5k words #wingfic #I'm having vague ideas about Stiles with iridescent dragonfly wings next #maybe with a stetopher kick 👀#featheruary #teen wolf #tumblr fic and kinda fic

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shiredded · 5 years ago

Text

A white animation student’s take on Soul and POC cartoons

This got long but there’s lots of pretty pictures to go with it.

Hi, I’m Shire and I’m as white as a ripped-off Pegasus prancing on a stolen van. Feel free to add to my post, especially if you are poc. The next generation of animators needs your voice now more than ever.

My opinion doesn’t matter as much here because I’m not part of the people being represented.

But I am part of the people to whom this film is marketed, and as the market, I think I should be Very Aware of what media does to me.

And as the future of animation, I need to do something with what I know.

I am very white. I have blue eyes and long blond hair. I’ve seen countless protagonists, love interests, moms, and daughters that look like me. If I saw an animated character that looks like me turn into a creature for the majority of a movie, I would cheer. Bring it on! I have plenty of other representation that tells me I’m great just the way I am, and I don’t need to change to be likable.

The moment Soul’s premise was released, many people of color expressed mistrust and disappointment on social media. Let me catch you up on the plot according to the new (march 2020) trailer. (It’s one of those dumb modern trailers that tells you the entire plot of the movie including the climax; so I recommend only watching half of it)

Our protagonist, Joe Gardner, has a rich (not in the monetary sense) and beautiful life. He has dreams! He wants to join a jazz band! So far his life looks, to me, comforting, amazing, heartfelt, and real. I’m excited to learn about his family and his music.

Some Whoknowswhat happens, and he enters a dimension where everyone, himself included, is represented by glowing, blue, vaguely humanoid creatures. They’re adorable! But they sure as heck aren’t brown. The most common response seems to be dread at the idea of the brown human protagonist spending the majority of his screen time as a not-brown, not-human creature.

The latest trailer definitely makes that look pretty darn true. He does spend most of the narrative - chronologically - as a blob.

but

That isn’t the same as his screen time.

From the look of the trailer, Joe and his not-yet-born-but-already-tired-of-life soul companion tour Joe’s story in all of its brown-skinned, human-shaped, life-loving glory. The movie is about life, not about magic beans that sing and dance about burping (though I won’t be surprised if that happens too.)

Basically! My conclusion is “it’s not as bad as it looked at first, and it looks like a wonderful story.”

but

That doesn’t mean it’s ok.

Yes, Soul is probably going to be a really important and heartfelt story about life, the goods, the bads, the dreams, and the bonds. That story uses a fun medium to view that life; using bright, candy-bowl colors and a made-up world to draw kids in with their parents trailing behind.

It’s a great story and there’s no reason to not create a black man for the lead role. There’s no reason not to give this story to people of color. It’s not a white story. This is great!

Except...

we’ve kind of

done this

a lot

The Book of Life and Coco also trade in their brown-skinned cast for a no-skinned cast, but I don’t know enough about Mexican culture to say those are bad and I haven't picked up on much pushback to those. There’s more nuance there, I think.

I cut the above pics together to show how the entire ensemble changes along with the protagonist. We can lose entire casts of poc. Emperor's New Groove keeps its cast as mostly human so at least we have Pacha

And while the animals they interact with might be poc-coded, there’s nothing very special or affirming about “animals of color.”

So, Soul.

Are we looking at the same thing here?

It’s no secret by now that this is an emerging pattern in animation. But not all poc-starring animated films have this same problem. We have Moana! With deuteragonists (basically co-protagonists) of color, heck yeah.

Aladdin... Pocahontas... The respect those films have for their depicted culture is... an essay for another time. Mulan fits here too. the titular characters’ costars are either white, or blue, and/or straight up animals. But hey, they don’t turn into animals, and neither do the supporting cast/love interests.

Dreamworks’ Home (2015) is also worth mentioning as a poc-led film where the deuteragonist is kind of a purple blob. But the thing I like a lot about Home is that it’s A Nice Story, where there’s no reason for the protagonist to not be poc, so she is poc. Spiderverse has a black lead with a white (or masked, or animal) supporting cast. But, spiderverse also has Miles’ dad, mom, uncle, and Penny Parker.

I’d like to see more of that.

And less of this

if you’re still having trouble seeing why this is a big deal, let’s try a little what-if scenario.

This goes out to my fellow white girls (including LGBTA white girls, we are not immune to propaganda racism)

imagine for a second you live in a world where animation is dominated to the point of almost total saturation by protagonist after protagonist who are boys/men. You do get the occasional woman-led film, but maybe pretend that 30 to 40 percent of those films are like

(We’re pretending for a second that Queen Eleanor was the protagonist, because I couldn’t think of any animated movies where the white lady protagonist turns into and stays an animal for the majority of the film)

Or, white boys and men, how would you feel if your most popular and marketable representation was this?

Speaking of gender representation, binary trans and especially nonbinary trans people are hard pressed to find representation of who they are without the added twist of Lizard tails or horns and the hand-waving explanation of “this species doesn’t do gender” But again, that’s a different essay.

Let’s look at what we do have. In reality, we (white people) have so much representation that having a fun twist where we spend most of the movie seeing that person in glimpses between colorful, glittering felt characters that reflect our inner selves is ok.

Wait, that aesthetic sounds kind of familiar...

But I digress. Inside Out was a successful and honestly helpful and important movie. I have no doubt in my mind that Soul will meet and surpass it in quality and and in message.

There is nothing wrong with turning your protagonist of color into an animal or blob for most of their own movie.

But it’s part of a larger pattern, and that pattern tells people of color that their skin would be more fun if it was blue, or hairy, or slimy, or something. It’s fine to have films like that because heck yeah it would be fun to be a llama. But it’s also fun to not be a llama. It’s fun to be a human. It’s fun to be yourself. I don’t think children of color are told that enough.

At least, not by mainstream studios. (The Breadwinner, produced by Cartoon Saloon)

It’s not like all these mainstream poc movies are the result of racist white producers who want us to equate people of color with animals. In fact, most of those movies these days have people of color very high up, as directors, writers, or at the very least, a pool of consultants of color.

These movies aren’t evil. They aren’t even that intrinsically racist (Pocahontas can go take a hike and rethink its life, but we knew that.) It’s that we need more than just the shape-shifting narratives of our non-white protagonists.

It’s not like there isn’t an enormous pool of ideas, talent, visions and scripts already written and waiting to be produced. There is.

But they somehow don’t make it past the head executives, way above any creative team, who make the decisions, aiming not for top-of-the-line stories, but for the Bottom line of sales.

When Disney acquired Pixar, their main takeover was in the merchandising department. The main target for their merchandise are, honestly, white children.

So is it much of a surprise

that they are more often greenlighting things palatable for as many “discerning” mothers as possible?

I saw just as many Tiana dolls as frog toys on the front page of google, so don’t worry too much about The Princess And The Frog. Kids love her. But I didn’t find any human figures of Kenai from Brother Bear, except for dolls wearing a bear suit.

So. What do I think of Soul?

I think it’s going to be beautiful. I think it’s going to be a great movie.

But I also think people of color deserve more.

Let’s take one more look at the top people who went into making this movie.

Of the six people listed here, five are white. Kemp Powers, one of the screenplay writers, is black.

It’s cool to see women reaching power within the animation industry, but this post isn’t about us.

We need to replace the top execs and get more projects greenlit that send the message that african, asian, latinix, middle eastern, and every other non-white ethnicity is perfect and relatable as the humans they were meant to be.

Disney is big enough that they can - and therefore should - take risks and produce movies that aren’t as “marketable” simply because art needs to be made. People need to be loved.

Come on, millennials and Gen Z. We can do better.

We Will do better.

TLDR: A lot of mainstream animation turns its protagonists of color into animals or other creatures. I (white) don’t think that’s a bad thing, except for the fact that we don’t get enough poc movies that AREN’T weird. Support Soul; it’s not going to be as bad as you think. It’s probably gonna be really good. Let’s make more good movies about people of color that stay PEOPLE of color.

#soul #pixar #disney #poc #animation #long post #shire screams

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myforeverforlife · 5 years ago

Text

the sacrifice (part three).

Baekhyun sighed, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his robes as he stared up at the night sky. The moonlight seemed to be reflected in his one blue eye, the mark of his family's magic. If he could prevent the loss of another innocent life, he would do everything in his power to help.

He only hoped that what he had was enough.

Series Masterlist: ( 1 ) ( 2 )

Pairing: Baekhyun and Fem reader

Word Count: 5,894

Masterlist

Your legs were falling asleep from staying in one position for too long, but you didn't mind. Not when Tanie was lying contentedly in your lap, her fluffy tail lazily sweeping the floor below her.

"You're such a pretty cat, aren't you," you cooed. Tanie meowed as you ran a hand through her fur, marveling at how soft she was. Clearly, Minseok took good care of her.

"Don't go stealing my familiar from me," Minseok joked, looking up from where he sat reading through a thick book. His reading glasses threatened to slip down the bridge of his nose, and he quickly pushed them back up.

"What is a familiar, anyways? A pet?"

"It's a lot more than a pet," Jongdae said, sitting up in his armchair. "A familiar has their own magic. They're meant to help a witch get in touch with the craft, to support their power. Once a familiar chooses their partner, the bond lasts for a lifetime." He grinned as Dotori's bushy tail tickled at the nape of his neck, the chipmunk sitting perched on his shoulder. "It's a deep friendship that lasts for centuries."

"Centuries?" Your eyes widened in disbelief. "How old can witches be?"

"Very old," Minseok said quickly.

Jongdae smirked, leaning forward in his seat. "Grandpa over there gets sensitive when it comes to age. I'm the youngest, and I barely had my 100th birthday a few years ago."

"A hundred?" you exclaimed. Tanie flinched at the sound of your voice, pupils shrinking to tiny pinpoints before she lay back down again.

"But you look so young! You hardly look any older than I do." A soft chuckle from behind you caught your attention, head whirling around to see Baekhyun amused by your reaction.

"Something about practicing the craft prolongs our lifespans," he said. "It keeps ancient people like Minseok alive enough to be a hun — "

Minseok leaped at him, the heavy book falling out of his lap as he threw his hands over Baekhyun's mouth. "Say another word, I dare you," he grumbled.

Baekhyun's body shook with laughter, eyes turning to crescent moons as he weakly pushed the other man off of him. His cheer was infectious, and gladly welcome after the stressful couple of days you all had. The four of you had been poring over books, starting with the revered family grimoires and moving on to the rest of the books in the library in search of a remedy. So far, you hadn't found anything that would rid Sehun of his illness.

At least the witches were comfortable around you now.

The animals had been the first ones to completely warm up to you, Dotori taking a spot on your shoulder whenever she wasn't with Jongdae. Mongryong was always trying to drag you outside to play, while Tanie was content with sitting on you for hours as you pet her.

Seeing how attached their familiars were with you already, it was only a matter of time before you got close to the witches as well. Minseok had been the first one you felt comfortable around, which didn't come as a surprise since he had been taking care of you since your arrival. You had befriended Jongdae over your mutual love of teasing Dotori, which annoyed the chipmunk to no end.

Even Baekhyun, cold and closed-off, was beginning to warm up to you. He was still quiet and reserved around you more than the others, but he managed to start up small conversations here and there. No longer did you have sit in a room with him and feel stifled by the awkward silence. Plus, having Jongdae and Minseok around always helped to bring out his playful personality.

It came as a relief that the three witches were starting to trust you. It was strange to realize that if things had been different, if the king hadn't supported the persecution of thousands of witches, you might have befriended the coven years earlier.

Minseok finally gave up on attacking Baekhyun, confident that the clairvoyant wouldn't be disclosing his age any time soon. "I hate to say it, but I haven't found anything yet that I think would cure the prince — not even the slightest bit. Illnesses of this degree usually require cures in the form of stronger, riskier magic."

Jongdae hummed in agreement, full of regret as he eyed the stack of books lying at his feet. "Neither have I." Throughout your search, both men had taken the time to explain why certain spells or concoctions wouldn't work for Sehun, Minseok drawing from his knowledge of potion-making and Jongdae from his affinity for spell-casting.

"We have to keep looking," you replied, carefully reaching out for your family grimoire. Tanie climbed out of your lap as you replaced her empty spot with the thick tome, running a hand over the cover. You had pored over the pages day after day, unable to find anything that would serve as a remedy for Sehun's specific symptoms.

"The answers may not be in these books," Minseok continued slowly, sensing how your anxiety was starting to bubble up. "But there is still something that we haven't tried."

"What is it?"

Minseok glanced over at Baekhyun, raising an eyebrow. "The full moon is in a few days. Perhaps the scrying stone will show you something that will help us."

A small frown settled on your lips. "But it hasn't shown us anything that we can use."

Baekhyun had already tried, locked in his room with only Mongryong for company as the rest of you waited outside. The stone hadn't been very helpful, only predicting a few changes in weather patterns and pesky bugs and animals threatening to eat through Minseok's garden sometime soon. You weren't sure what Baekhyun did when he was scrying, but you were already able to tell how fickle the skill was. The scrying stone always varied in what it chose to show, a few seconds of the future at one time, a few minutes the next. The only thing Baekhyun could do was wait and watch.

"A witch's power is at its highest during the full moon," Baekhyun explained. “It's become tradition for us to hold a ritual on the night of the full moon, to get in touch with the full extent of our magic."

"Do you think it'll work? That the crystal will lead us to a cure?" you added, eyes widening hopefully.

Baekhyun paused, searching for the right words. "I don't know,” he replied truthfully. "But I have a good feeling about it."

"Don't worry, little witch," Jongdae piped up. "Baekhyun's too modest about his abilities. The full moon's never failed him before."

You nodded, even as Baekhyun glared at his friend. "Okay. I trust you — all of you."

Baekhyun's expression softened, the genuine honesty in your words stirring up an emotion he hadn't felt in a while. He hadn't felt hope like this in ages, a feeling so strong, it was all-consuming.

It was almost like magic.

With a determined glint to his eye, Baekhyun stood up to stare out the window at the darkening afternoon sky. It would only be a couple of days before the full moon was upon them, whether they were ready or not.

"We'd better start preparing as soon as possible," Baekhyun murmured. "Gather all of the materials that we need."

"Is there anything that I can do to help?" you offered. Magic wasn't your thing, but helping prepare for the full moon? Maybe something you would have better luck with.

Baekhyun met your gaze, a full moon of his own nestled in his left eye. It never failed to surprise you how strikingly beautiful both of his eyes were — the brown and blue complementing each other.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "You don't need to force yourself to participate in the ritual, much less help prepare for it."

You shook your head. "It's no bother to me," you admitted. "I want to learn about my family's craft. Plus, it'll help keep me from getting too tangled up in my worries."

Baekhyun quickly glanced over at the other two witches, all of them aware of the couple of times they had found you deep in thought, fighting internally with your own struggles and concerns. "Alright," he said.

"Let's get started."

It was amazing how much time was spent preparing for the ritual in the following days. You hadn't realized how much of practicing witchcraft actually consisted of gathering necessary materials. Minseok had taught you how to gather specific herbs to be burned during the ritual, venturing into the forest with you and Tanie. Some items needs to be picked at certain times, like a handful of yellow dandelions plucked early in the morning right as the sun began to rise. Others were less difficult to find, like a couple of bay leaves from the witches' garden.

Jongdae noticed how you took interest in the strange writing that you couldn't read, and offered to teach you how to read the language of the ancients. It was hard going at first, especially with getting used to a completely different set of written symbols in addition to an entirely new language. But soon enough, you were able to recognize certain letters of the alphabet here and there, much to Jongdae's delight.

While the other two witches taught you about specifics of the craft, Baekhyun took it upon himself to inform you about each step of the full moon's ritual. The four of you would set out late at night, setting everything up before starting the ritual at midnight. The full moon ritual was known for being extremely draining, but Baekhyun assured you that all of it was worth it for the results.

"Using magic on the night of the full moon, it's like nothing else. But it'll be a long night," he warned as both of you sat at the kitchen table. "We might not be back until dawn."

"I'll be fine," you told him, crushing some dried herbs that Minseok had brought up from the cellar. "Nothing like sitting in the cold, dark forest all night."

Baekhyun smiled to himself as you continued to crush the herbs with a mortar and pestle — a task that Minseok had assigned to you. "Make sure you don't fall asleep. It's important that all of us are awake and focused."

"Even if I don't have any magic?"

"Even so. Any break in concentration could interrupt the ritual, cut off access to our power."

You gulped in worry, the importance of the ritual creating cracks in your confidence. Tonight was the night, and it was only a few hours away before the four of you would be heading outside.

Baekhyun eyed you warily, noticing how quiet you had gotten. "It's not too late to back out, if you're afraid."

"I'm not afraid," you replied stiffly. "Just nervous."

"Isn't that the same thing?" The witch laughed when you glared at him, a sight that you still couldn't get used to. "I mean it, Princess. You don't have to participate if you don't feel like it."

You pouted at his choice in nickname for you. It had caught on with all three of the witches, even as you protested and explained that just because you were the crown prince’s cousin, you weren’t necessarily a princess. As much as you complained, you hated to admit that the nickname was already growing on you.

"If I'm not ready now, I don't know if I'll ever be." You returned to crushing the herbs in your bowl with renewed vigor, much to Baekhyun's amusement.

"What's bothering you?" he asked, watching lazily with his arms propped up against the wood of the table.

You worked away in silence for a bit, as if you hadn't even heard his question. "It's just that I have so many ideas about what I'm hoping will happen, and what if none of that turns out to be true? What if this is just another dead end?"

Baekhyun twiddled his fingers as he thought, the mole on his thumb disappearing and reappearing in between the movements of his hands. "It might be," he replied honestly. "I've learned that even with all of its power and potential, sometimes magic doesn't come to us in the ways that we want."

The sudden shift in the mood had you pause in the middle of your work, stopping the rhythmic beating of the pestle. "What do you mean?" you asked carefully.

Baekhyun raised his left eyebrow, the one curved over his blue eye. "Do you know what it means for someone in the Byun clan to have blue eyes?"

You shook your head. His mismatched eyes had intrigued you from the start, wondering what could cause such a unique contrast in colors, and yet you were too shy to ask.

"It's a sign of clairvoyance. My great-great-great-grandmother was the most skilled of our clan. I've heard that she had eyes so light, they almost looked white. She was powerful, not only able to see the future, but to change it as well. You can imagine my disappointment when I didn't even get the standard blue eyes of the Byun clairvoyants — just one." Baekhyun laughed dryly, sarcastically.

"But one is better than none," you argued weakly. "I mean, you have the ability."

"I do, but not as much as I wish I did. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with this other eye." He pointed at the pool of warm brown in his right eye, thinking of another person dear to him who once had eyes in the same brown color. "The same as my mother's," he added softly.

Baekhyun coughed suddenly, sitting up and running a hand through his hair. "It's just always lingering in the back of my mind, you know? The fact that no matter how hard I try, I don't have the same abilities that my grandmother had."

"It might also be a good thing," you ventured. "It's not fair to have to live up to someone else's fame." With a shrug, you reached down to wipe your palms on your apron. "Sehun may be ill, but he's still a prince — and the only heir, to top it off. All his life, he's been groomed to be the perfect prince, the one to carry on the legacy of his family. But Sehun's not his father, or his grandfather, or anyone else. It's unfair to expect him, and you, to live up to meet standards that were set by someone else. The most that we can hope for is to be the best that we allow ourselves to be."

Baekhyun sat stunned by your sage advice. He had decades of experience on you, and yet you seemed so much wiser. Perhaps you weren't as naive as he thought. "Thank you," he said softly.

"You're welcome." And there it was again, another side to Baekhyun that you hadn't seen before. It made you wonder how much he and the others were learning about you as well, if they were just as surprised by what they discovered.

You weren't the only one learning something new everyday. And yet, there was still so much to discover.

The witching hour was almost upon you, much to your anticipation. Baekhyun was upstairs carefully wrapping up the scrying stone for the short journey the four of you would be taking, while the rest of you waited downstairs. Mongryong waited patiently at your feet, short stump of a tail wagging back and forth.

Unluckily for poor Mongryong, your attention was on Jongdae. He stood beside you, black cape and pointed hat on as Dotori scurried up from his shoulder. She made her way onto his hat, perched on the edge even as it began to droop down. With a short squeak, she began running around over the fabric, much to Jongdae's dismay.

"Hey, quit it!" Jongdae exclaimed, his shouts turning to giggles as the chipmunk scrambled down from his head. In a flash, she disappeared down the back of Jongdae's robes, rendering him a mess or flailing limbs and laughter.

You and Minseok watched on fondly, laughing at the sight of the chipmunk's tickle attack. Dotori reappeared at the collar of Jongdae's robes, tiny nose twitching in glee as she snuggled against him.

"Yeah, yeah. You can try and be all cute with me, but it won't work." Despite his words, Jongdae scooped the tiny fluff of a chipmunk up and indulged her in a few berries. "What did I say about playing around on my hat? You could fall off and hurt yourself."

Dotori only gave a small squeak before turning her attention back to her snacks. "Are all familiars as fond of their owners as she is?" you inquired, meeting the animal's eyes.

"Most are. I've heard of a few that are indifferent, but even those are fiercely loyal to their bonded." Jongdae shrugged. "No pairing is the same."

"Which is a relief," Minseok added with a wide grin. "I don't think I'd be able to handle either Dotori or Mongryong's energy." He leaned down to kiss the top of Tanie's head, the feline resting easily in his arms.

"I leave for two minutes, and you take this opportunity to insult my familiar?" Baekhyun's voice carried down the staircase as he descended. A bag was slung over his shoulder, presumably with the crystal inside. A midnight-blue robe was draped over his body, the fabric rippling smoothly with every step.

Mongryong dashed over to Baekhyun with a cheerful bark, smothering the witch with love as he jumped up against Baekhyun's legs. It was endearing to see how close the witches were with their familiars — from Jongdae's playful relationship with Dotori, to Minseok's easy companionship with Tanie, and Baekhyun and Mongryong's intense loyalty to each other. Funnily enough, they reminded you of how close you and Sehun were.

"Everyone's ready, then?" Jongdae asked, drawing you out of your thoughts.

You nodded, even as you checked to make sure that all of the herbs and candles were tucked away neatly in your bag. The others would have things to carry as well, and you wouldn't hear of them shouldering heavy bags through the forest while you were left with nothing.

The four of you left the warmth and comfort of the house and went out into the frigid night air, goosebumps immediately rising on your skin. You turned to see Minseok putting his own pointed hat on to match Jongdae, while Baekhyun pulled the hood of his robe over his head.

"Why do you wear head coverings during the rituals?" you asked curiously, glancing from person to person. You had read about the tradition of wearing head coverings during the full moon rituals in one of the witches' books, but it had provided no explanation as to why.

The brothers shared a look, but Baekhyun simply shrugged. "No real reason. It's just fun."

Your brows jumped up in disbelief. "They're not important in affecting how the ritual goes? You don't wear them to help harness your magic?"

Baekhyun chuckled. "It's a hat, Princess. Or a cloak, in my case. It's not going to have any effect on our magic."

"Then why do you do it?" you spluttered out.

"Just for the fun of it." Noticing your flabbergasted expression, all three men burst into laughter.

"I don't see what's so funny," you grumbled in your embarrassment. "According to your reasoning, I could be out tonight wearing a handkerchief on my head, and it wouldn't make any difference." "You could, but that would be ridiculous." Baekhyun's lip curled into a smirk.

"No more than wearing a hat for no reason."

Minseok interrupted, wanting to settle the squabble and actually get some work done. "The ancient witches wore headcoverings to protect their identities as they snuck away to meet up in the middle of the night. Now, they're more of a fashion statement." He chuckled, tugging on Baekhyun's blue hood. "Now come on, before we lose our chance. We don't have time to wait for the next full moon."

That sobered everyone up quickly, your small group of witches heading even further into the forest. There were no paths, and most of the journey was spent walking carefully around obstacles with only the light of a lantern for help. Mongryong took on the task of scouting ahead, toddling off into the brush ahead as the rest of you followed. Jongdae even began singing to himself softly to keep himself awake, Baekhyun's voice weaving and blending in to harmonize with the other's. The night chirpings of insects hidden away in the forest added to their music, creating an unexpected melody.

You began to wonder if they were heading back to the stream where you first met Dotori. Mongryong let out a small yip of excitement as he wove back and forth between a cluster of bushes and trees. You followed after him, curious about what had gotten him so eager.

You ducked around a few low-hanging branches, pushing past the last of the greenery only to be rendered speechless in awe by what lay on the other side.

Where you had been expecting a slow moving river was instead a large body of still water, the moonlight reflected perfectly on its smooth surface. The sound of the insects was even louder out here, although you couldn't spot another living creature apart from your small group.

Mongryong walked to the water's edge, toeing the line but not going in. A sudden peal of laughter caught your attention, only to see Tanie mewling repeatedly as Minseok set her down on the pebbles that made up the lake's shore. The cat lifted up her paws gingerly, walking at an awkward angle as she scurried away back to the grass.

"We've been doing this for years, and she still hates walking on the rocks every time," Minseok explained to you with a grin. "If she could have things her way, I'd be carrying her all night."

Tanie finally relaxed as she reached the grass, settling down with her paws tucked underneath and her wise eyes watching over all of you.

Time was of the essence, and the witches wasted no time in setting up. Baekhyun and Minseok got started on making a small fire while Jongdae went to gather water. You watched as he pulled out a bowl from his knapsack, dipping it into the pond. As he lifted it back up, the excess water spilled out from the edges, so luminous that you could have sworn he was collecting liquid moonlight.

With steady, careful steps, Jongdae began to walk in large circles around the area where the rest of you were setting up, his pointed hat bobbing with each step. He was whispering to himself, casting a spell as he dipped his fingers into the bowl of water and letting the droplets fall to the ground every couple of steps. From what you had learned, the water was used to cleanse, to purify the area and to get it ready for the ritual. This was done to keep the magic contained, and to set up protection for the witches inside.

"Y/N, the herbs," Minseok said. You pulled out the small pouch of herbs that you had collected and ground up, proud of your contribution to the ritual. He opened the pouch up just as Baekhyun managed to get a flame going over the tiny pile of dry brush and twigs, a proud smile lighting up the clairvoyant's face.

"Perfect," Minseok breathed out, reaching inside the pouch and slowly letting the ground herbs fall into the fire, immediately producing a sharp fragrance that tickled your nose.

Baekhyun sat down on the bumpy, rock-blanketed ground and rummaged through his bag for his scrying stone. He pulled it out delicately, handling the rounded crystal with extreme care. Mongryong, finally done with playing at the edge of the lake, faithfully came over to lay down beside his owner. The corgi's eyes were fixed on the small crystal, waiting patiently.

You were just as entranced as Mongryong, not knowing what to expect. The crystal hadn't changed in appearance, even as Baekhyun ran his hands over it, eyes closed in concentration.

Jongdae shook out the last drops of water in his bowl before sitting down on your other side, four witches and a couple of familiars forming a ring around the small fire. "We're ready," he stated, adjusting the brim of his hat.

Minseok nodded, continuing to toss the ground-up herbs into the hot flame until none were left. Wordlessly, he reached out to Jongdae and Baekhyun, the other two immediately linking hands with him. You were startled to see them extend their hands towards you as well, waiting for you to complete the circle.

The queasiness in your stomach wasn't because you were scared of the witches — nothing could be farther from the truth. Instead, you were scared of the unknown. This could be your last real chance to find a way to save Sehun, to revive the brightness and vitality to his face that had slowly waned over time. If this didn't work, you weren't sure how you'd be able to deal with it.

But hope was all you had now. Hope, and magic.

You linked hands with the others, Jongdae's still slightly cold from the water while Baekhyun's was warm from sitting close to the fire.

Minseok closed his eyes and began to speak in the old language — the language of the ancient witches. A sudden chill ran down your spine, an unfamiliar tingling sensation prickling over your skin. The feeling almost made you let go, but Jongdae and Baekhyun held on tightly to your hands.

Was this what sorcery felt like?

The cold prickling sensation faded, leaving behind an unusual feeling that seemed to spread throughout your body. It was warmth and comfort all wrapped up in one, and yet left the hairs on your skin standing straight up.

You weren't sure how long the four of you sat there, hands clasped tightly while Minseok chanted under his breath. Baekhyun's earlier warning about staying away kept poking at you in the back of your mind, and you made an effort to keep your eyes open. You didn't dare to look at the others, staring down at your legs crossed beneath you for fear of getting distracted and losing focus.

After what felt like centuries later, Minseok opened his eyes. The after-effects of the ritual still lingered, the magical warmth keeping you cozy even as you sat outside in the cold.

The others finally let go, Baekhyun's hands immediately finding their way to the crystal resting in his lap. He cupped it with both hands, eyes fluttering closed as he inhaled deeply.

You let out a soft gasp as the crystal began to glow, swirling clouds appearing inside the tiny sphere. Even Mongryong was staring at it, his rounded eyes staring solemnly as everyone waited.

"It may take a while," Jongdae whispered to you. "Don't worry."

"What do we do?" you asked.

Jongdae stretched his arms up high above his head, letting out a long breath of air. "Now, we wait."

Honestly speaking, you were getting fed up with waiting. But you had learned by now that there was no rushing when it came to witchcraft. However, it didn't mean that you weren't bored.

Minseok had pulled out his reading glasses and taken another look through your family grimoire, even as you worried about him reading next to the fire. "I'll be fine," he waved you off easily, all too immersed in the book.

Jongdae had been content with giving Dotori small treats every so often, but eventually began to show signs of boredom as well. Both of you started up an impromptu game of seeing who could build the tallest pebble tower, stifling hushed giggles while Minseok rolled his eyes from across the fire. The game was quickly abandoned once a pebble fell over, clattering against the rocky floor as you and Jongdae both looked up to see Baekhyun's reaction.

The witch didn't move, although you could have sworn that there were wrinkles between his eyebrows that weren't there before.

It was absolute agony to wait for news — good or bad, but you supposed it was even worse for Baekhyun. Every so often, he would mumble to himself, the rest of you leaning in to hear what he had to say. Most of it was indecipherable, and the few words that you did catch didn't seem to make any sense.

All of a sudden, Baekhyun let out a loud gasp, eyes flying wide open. Mongryong immediately jumped up and began nosing at his hands.

"What? What is it?" Minseok demanded.

Baekhyun's hands were trembling, fingers tapping against the surface of the glass ball in an irregular rhythm. "A mountain," he said, voice so quiet you had to scoot closer to hear.

"A mountain, and an entrance. There's books lining the inside, covering all of the walls — almost like a library. The Cave of the Ancients." He stared at the crystal without blinking, hypnotized by what he saw inside.

Minseok's eyebrows jumped up in disbelief. "It's real?"

"What is the Cave of the Ancients?" you asked hesitantly, not wanting to distract Baekhyun.

"A children's tale," Minseok replied in a hushed whisper as Baekhyun continued to stare into the crystal. "They say that this is where the oldest, most powerful secrets are kept. But no one's ever been, and there's no proof that it exists."

"I see an open field," Baekhyun continued, "Beyond the kingdom's reaches, by the sea. It's covered in mist, and..." Baekhyun groaned, eyes closing shut. His breathing started to become irregular, chest heaving with each breath of air. Even Mongryong was starting to get agitated, whining loudly.

"Baekhyun, drop it," Jongdae exclaimed as Minseok reached forward to pry the clairvoyant's hands off of the crystal. You jumped in to help, Minseok finally managing to wrench Baekhyun's hands off of the sphere as you pulled it away.

The scrying stone lost its haziness, returning to its original glassy appearance in your palms.

Baekhyun was still panting, sweat beading on his pallid face as he pressed a hand to his chest. "I heard my mother," he gasped out. "She was in the field."

Jongdae's face turned white, mouth falling open in realization. "The Valley of Lost Souls."

With a low moan, Baekhyun nodded, head in his hands as Minseok tried to get him to drink from a canteen of water.

Your blood ran cold with fear. "What does that mean?" you asked Jongdae. For Baekhyun to react like this, it must have been something terrifying.

"In the myth about the Cave of the Ancients, it's said that to reach it, one must first pass through the Valley of Lost Souls. It's not supposed to be real." Jongdae ran a hand over his face, fingers stopping at his chin as he watched Baekhyun worriedly.

"Neither is the Cave of the Ancients," Minseok added. He used some of the drinking water to dampen a rag, pressing the cold cloth to Baekhyun's forehead. "You're sure of what you saw?"

"It's like I was right there. She was calling out to me." Baekhyun's voice broke at the end.

"But it wasn't her," Minseok reasoned calmly. "In all of the stories, the people in the Valley are only illusions, remember? They'll take your soul if you wander too far." He shook his head. "I don't like this. There has to be another way to find a cure."

"We have to go. It's what the stone showed me, and there's been no other answer." A healthy pink flush was slowly returning to Baekhyun's skin, chasing away the eerie, chalky pallor that had been there only minutes ago. "We made a pact to save not only the prince, but the rest of the witches that still remain. We're doing this so that we don't have to hide in fear anymore, Min. It's a risk that we have to take."

Minseok sighed. "I'm worried, especially after what happened now. And besides, it's not just the three of us anymore." He turned to you, Baekhyun following his gaze.

"I'm prepared for anything," you stated firmly. "But is it actually possible for us to find this place? You said it yourselves — this is a thing of myths and rumors."

"It was by the sea," said Baekhyun.

Mirumi was the only kingdom bordering the sea, but it would also mean at least a week's journey — and going outside of Elyxere. You hadn't been outside of the kingdom since you were a small child, and that had been with your parents. But you would travel to the ends of the Earth for your cousin. This was the closest you had gotten to finding an answer, and you wouldn't lose this chance.

Chin set in determination, you nodded. "I agree with Baekhyun, I think we should go. We all knew that this could be dangerous, but that shouldn't stop us. This is our only strong lead right now."

Baekhyun smiled in relief, satisfied with your decision. "Jongdae?"

The youngest witch sighed, glancing between his brother's face and Baekhyun's before nodding. "Sorry, Min. They've got a point."

Minseok's shoulders slumped in defeat. "Alright. But," his voice hardened. "Staying safe is the most important thing. I'm not losing the rest of my coven."

"Hey." Jongdae moved closer to his brother, resting an arm over his shoulders. "It's all going to be okay. We've got each other."

Tanie meowed in agreement from her patch of grass, far away from your circle around the fire. The rest of you had practically forgotten about her during the events of the ritual.

"Thanks, you silly cat," Minseok replied with a wry laugh. "You won't even come walk on the rocks to comfort me?"

The white cat laid her head back down, tail lazily swishing back and forth behind her, much to everyone's amusement.

"We're going to need a wagon," Baekhyun said aloud. "It'll be impossible to ride on horseback with all of these familiars." He reached up to pet Mongryong, visibly relaxing as the corgi snuggled closer to him.

"Then that'll be the first thing we do in the morning. But for now," Jongdae snuck a peek at you. "I think the princess might need a nap."

You blushed bright pink. Was it that obvious that you were barely awake right now?

The witches laughed at your surprise. "Don't worry, little witch," Jongdae told you. "The first full moon ritual is always the hardest. I'm surprised you managed to stay awake this long."

"I feel like I'm drop off to sleep any second now," you whined.

"Alright, let's head back. We'll set off around midday, once everyone's gotten some rest," Minseok announced.

As the fire was put out and all traces of the ritual cleared away, you still felt the lingering sensation of sorcery begin to fade away. Weariness began to set in — both from the long hours spent awake, and the thought of what lay ahead.

It was going to be a long, long journey, but it was one that you had to take.

Tag list: @shesdreaminginoverdose and @bbyunz A/N: it’s been a month since I updated, but i’m so relieved to finally finish this chapter. i’ve been spending time going over my fic outline trying to figure out if I still need certain parts that I originally planned, and adding in new things that I didn’t have before. i want to say that this is the halfway point in the entire fic? it might be about 6 chapters and an epilogue (but like most of my writing plans, all things are subject to change haha)

also, even though i’m not writing whole fics for jongdae anymore, i love getting to write for him as a side character in this fic 🤣 cbx as witches might be my favorite characters that i’ve written (aside from spiderman jongdae and 1920s detectives cbx)

#exo #baekhyun #baekhyun scenario #baekhyun fanfic #exo scenario #exo fanfic #writings

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