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helixtheman · 3 months ago

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Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V Synchro Dimension Retrospective: What Went Wrong with the Writing

Before we start this review, let’s make something clear: I don’t support Yu-Gi-Oh! shows past 5D’s. I critique them with a straightforward bias. I don’t care about this whole idea of “unity” in the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom, nor do I have respect for anyone’s opinion on the matter—I’m here for my own goals. So, feel free to cancel me if you want. I only play the TCG/OCG for fun and don’t participate in tournaments much since I’m more of a collector. So, if you make even one mistake or disagree with me about Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V being wrong, I’ll block you. I can’t stand the production dilemma and some claims that were never confirmed or were simply false, like it’s 5D's all over again for this brain-dead fandom that keeps making it harder to accept the years that go by.

StardustReaper delves into the origins of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s most memetically powerful series and its mixed reception. The review also discusses the role and consequences of a show where half its staff couldn’t competently fulfill their roles and how this impacted its production, back when the only way to produce a decent show was through competent teamwork. The review explains why the show’s entire production was more problematic than the so-called Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s effect—something that still grinds my gears to this day. Yeah, I have a lot to talk about, so production started on December 30th, 2024, and lasted until...

I’m just going to make this clear to everyone: I will not listen to anyone in the Yu-Gi-Oh! community, forums, or Yugitubers, because most of them are just clickbaiters. Even the so-called "honest content creators" have personal biases and problems, while the rest of the community is just dogshit. Seriously, Yu-Gi-Oh! fans have one of the worst communities I’ve ever seen. People who are afraid to be vocal about it always get shamed, but I don’t care—I’m standing out!

If Yu-Gi-Oh! wants purity and silence over freedom, then we’re living in a clown society.

Before I get to the topic, here are a few notes:

I will not blame 4Kids or any Western localized versions, as I am not hostile toward Yu-Gi-Oh! Western adaptations, nor do I hate them.

I will mention some associations with the real-life game, but as of this post, some of the cards used by characters in the Synchro Dimension have been printed while others haven’t. I might explain why printing certain cards can make the show more watchable, but I won’t focus on this all the time.

I won’t explain why I dislike Yuto here, as that character deserves a separate post.

I’ll use English or sub names (or a mix of both) to avoid starting unnecessary arguments, as I’m not hostile toward name choices.

I won’t bring up the fandom, as I have personal issues with them—especially since 2015 wasn’t a great year for me or for them, given it was the peak of cancel culture.

Finally, I have more experience with the anime than the real-life game. I find the game to be terrible, and I prefer to play casually for fun rather than act like a jerk at locals or nationals.

Can we actually explain why Yu-Gi-Oh! has a bad reputation nowadays? Most of the writing for recent Yu-Gi-Oh! anime wasn’t what people wanted but rather what they got. Back in the day, the writing was better—or at least that’s how it felt. This might explain why the previous Yu-Gi-Oh! series had some influence on Arc-V's downfall.

Let’s start with Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal. After the failure of this series, many fans grew frustrated with Shin Yoshida, blaming his ego and reliance on stereotypes. The show felt like a satire of Yu-Gi-Oh!—almost as if it was trying to deconstruct the franchise but ended up looking like a joke instead. The real issue with Zexal wasn’t just its content but how poorly it performed. It failed in Japan, and in America, it was canceled twice on television.

For those wondering why Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal wasn’t fully dubbed or broadcast in America, the answer lies in its troubled history. While Zexal was fully dubbed, it wasn’t fully aired, and this had a lot to do with circumstances at the time, such as the decline of cable TV and limited internet access for some viewers.

Let’s break it down. Zexal was canceled twice in America. In 2011, after airing only eight episodes, it was put on hiatus due to the 4Kids lawsuit over illegal DVD distribution. Then in 2014, it was canceled again when the Vortexx programming block—its main platform—was replaced by generic content, marking the end of Saturday morning cartoons in the U.S.

Why did this happen? It wasn’t supposed to, but there was a shift in the American broadcasting landscape. Random cartoons airing weekly started to lose favor, and some shows were simply targeted for removal. Western broadcasting at the time faced bias and inconsistency, making it difficult for series like Yu-Gi-Oh! to thrive.

As someone who grew up watching cartoons regularly before transitioning to online platforms, I can tell you it was a challenge to even discuss Yu-Gi-Oh! during this period. The Western adaptation tried to appeal to an international audience but ultimately backfired in certain ways. After Zexal was removed from the Vortexx, its final 33 episodes were made available on Hulu. To this day, Konami hasn’t re-released them on TV, and it’s unclear why they haven’t reconsidered.

One theory is that Zexal became too much of a cringe-inducing show over time, especially during its original broadcast run. It struggled to find its footing and didn’t resonate with many fans. While I don’t want to delve into political debates, I think Zexal was doomed in America from the start.

The show’s writing staff didn’t do it any favors. Zexal tried to do too much and too little at the same time. It over-focused on Xyz summoning and the villains while leaving the rest of the characters underdeveloped or outright forgettable. People hated the show because it came off as lazy and incompetent. Its number-based plotline and dimension war were dull, and the overarching story lacked direction. The "Number vs. Number" battles, which should have been the series’ centerpiece, became repetitive and uninspired.

Yoshida’s involvement didn’t help either. While co-writing the manga, he seemed to burn out, which might explain the anime’s lackluster quality. Fans eventually glossed over Zexal's flaws, claiming it was a masterpiece because of its animation or comedic elements—or even because of fan-driven "shipping" narratives. But for most viewers, it was a mess, riddled with generic shounen tropes and a lack of respect for a cohesive, standalone story.

The protagonist, Yuma, was cringeworthy to the point that his design made people dread each episode. The pacing was sluggish, thanks to the director’s mismanagement, and the reliance on gimmicky cards in real life added to the confusion. Ratings weren’t good in the U.S. or internationally, and while Japan’s reception was never fully confirmed, it wasn’t enough to salvage the show’s reputation.

Despite all this, Zexal became a polarizing topic. Some fans gatekeep the series, calling it underrated without acknowledging its flaws. Unfortunately, this kind of blind defense has led to biased discussions about its quality—especially in spaces like Yu-Gi-Oh! Reddit, which often feels like an echo chamber.

When Arc-V arrived, much of the lingering hate from Zexal seemed to carry over. While Arc-V had its own problems, it’s clear that the damage done by Zexal influenced fans’ expectations and reactions to the series that followed.

The Western broadcasting of Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V was a complete mess. It took forever for the show to finish airing in America, and this likely stemmed from a combination of factors. At that time, America seemed less invested in Yu-Gi-Oh! dubs, partly because of the toxic nature of the fandom and their lack of self-awareness.

Another reason might have been the overly vocal Yu-Gi-Oh! fans on social media, who often created unnecessary drama and contributed to the negativity surrounding the franchise. However, my experience with the show is more personal. To me, it’s less about what the fans or broadcasters did and more about deconstructing the production itself.

Arc-V had many production issues that can be analyzed from multiple angles, and those issues ultimately hurt its reception in the West.

The Real Problem with Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V

When Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V was first announced, fans had high hopes. Some even claimed it would become the next gold standard of the franchise, potentially standing alongside 5D’s or Duel Monsters. But as the series progressed, it became clear that Arc-V was falling far short of those expectations. By the end of its run, it was regarded by many as one of the franchise’s biggest disappointments. Let’s dive into the key reasons why Arc-V failed so miserably.

But here is the real problem that people refuse to accept. Some claimed that Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V would be known as the next gold standard, comparable to Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's or even Duel Monsters. However, it failed in every sense, and I can explain why.

Part of the reason why Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V failed was because the second arc of the show dragged on for far too long. This caused character arcs to stagnate, restart, or never reach proper resolutions. Some characters were relegated to dorms, while others were completely forgotten. The reintroduction of legacy characters only made things worse, as they stole valuable screen time from the main cast.

The third season of the show was so poorly handled that it caused animators to leave production unfinished, creating a toxic environment in the studio. The primary writer of Arc-V—who I’ll address in a moment—was a total jackass who ruined 100% of the production. He was lazy and incapable of writing cohesive episodes, which ultimately led to the series' downfall.

The main writer of Arc-V, Kamishiro Tsunomi, is a total mess. He clearly hated working on the show because he struggled with original content. He had a tough time with the early episodes and later episodes in Season 2, which earned him the nickname "the lazy man." He can’t handle creating original works—his strength lies in adapting existing ones. For example, he adapted Hunter x Hunter and D.Gray-man without issues, but when I watched him write Casshern Sins back in 2008 (around the time I got into anime), he wasn’t as much of a disaster. That work had more collaboration with Yasohoko Kobayashi, a Toei writer, and they worked together well.

However, in Arc-V and even in Zexal, Tsunomi just couldn’t make it work. His writing is confusing, and it’s no surprise that Konami eventually blacklisted him. He’s not great at writing original content and often contradicts himself, which made the story fall apart. The fandom even called for a boycott of him after he stereotyped the last arc with terrible writing. Unfortunately, things got worse.

Early episodes and the information surrounding them were a mess. When new episodes aired, we didn’t get much information, just titles and rumors. One rumor that stuck was that Tsunomi was using his ego to control the staff. Apparently, he wanted to make the staff revolt because he couldn’t stand anime fans demanding to know every detail ahead of time. It was clear why someone like Yoshida took a break during the series.

I haven’t even mentioned Dark Side of Dimensions, which took away both animation and production budget. Why does Studio Gallop struggle with animation funding so much in the 2010s after 5D’s? It’s baffling, especially when Zexal had a higher budget than Arc-V.

But I haven’t yet mentioned the major reason why Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V’s production was more of a disaster than any of the previous series. Around 2016, one animator vented her frustration on Twitter, which caused a lot of people to wonder what she meant. When translated, it turned out she was upset because Kamishiro Tsunomi was lazy about guiding the production or planning what to do next. She also couldn’t get the animation sheets on time, which understandably made her angry. Back in the 2010s, you could get canceled for being negative or openly critical, but this person managed to send a message to future generations to ensure that such a situation doesn’t repeat itself.

Arc-V’s production was so chaotic that it made Yu-Gi-Oh! GX look like it had a much cleaner production process. I haven’t even mentioned the ratings, which, though just numbers, were still important back then. Ratings—good or bad—meant a lot to those involved, as they had to cope with the impact on the show. Arc-V was so toxic that it negatively affected the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom, especially since many fans of Arc-V hate 5D’s due to how Ono was more biased toward his nostalgic work rather than focusing on the story.

Arc-V ended up being a shallow Yu-Gi-Oh! anime with no clear direction for its endgame. So, what’s next?

The reason Yu-Gi-Oh! is so popular is that it’s been good from day one. However, people refused to accept it because it was so good that they blamed its advertising instead of appreciating its quality. Over the years, this led to a lot of people avoiding the game and spin-offs altogether. Frankly, Yu-Gi-Oh! has some of the worst fans—I loathe them sometimes.

The real problem with Yu-Gi-Oh! is that many fans are blinded by those who hate its success. They unfairly place all the blame on 4Kids, even though 4Kids was just a localization company. Ironically, Yu-Gi-Oh!’s own success created a toxic environment in the 2010s, making it impossible to talk about without getting dragged into negativity. Nowadays, the most toxic thing is Master Duel. That game turned the Yu-Gi-Oh! hype into trash. I honestly wonder when Konami will realize that Yu-Gi-Oh! fans are just so stubborn, blinded by biased hate or mindless hot takes.

People talk about the game now, but back in the 2000s and 2010s, the anime was all the hype. It’s no wonder newcomers get confused. I’ve even met people who can’t stand Yu-Gi-Oh!’s marketing because they can’t afford the cards or learn the game due to the fandom's toxicity. I remember years ago when that YouTuber Forneverworld��a grifter and cringe-baiter back then—said he never watched 5D’s and hated Arc-V before it even aired. My memory of that is crystal clear. These days, he’s irrelevant, but it still bugs me.

Here’s another issue: Yu-Gi-Oh! communities, particularly online, feel like a poor man’s version of Bulgaria. No offense to Bulgaria, but the fandom mirrors its struggles—chaotic, poorly organized, and rife with misinformation.

Take Reddit, for example. It’s a hellhole where people spread lies, like the rumor that 5D’s failed in Japan. Why is this even a topic? Because certain fans bring left-wing politics into it, twisting everything. 5D’s was created with themes that aligned more with traditional values, emphasizing community and perseverance. Most people don’t get that. The Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom has become a space for hyperactive manchildren who can’t process information properly.

On top of that, a lot of the so-called “news” about Yu-Gi-Oh! production—especially around 5D’s—is clickbait nonsense. It’s exhausting to see baseless theories being shared as facts, often with fake links and sources that don’t check out.

I forgot to mention that Arc-V started showing signs of weakness in 2015, which really upset people on Tumblr and Twitter, causing them to spill hate that I’ve seen firsthand. Heck, 2015 was also the year Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima left Konami because he wasn’t buying into any of its nonsense. That’s why 2015 sucked so much!

Okay, now onto the next topic.

What’s even bad about talking about the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime instead of the card game?

When discussing the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, it’s clear that Yu-Gi-Oh! fans are 100% clueless—more than someone with Trump Derangement Syndrome. It’s just like how John Cena turned heel and admitted to having a toxic relationship with his fandom in the Netflix era of WWE. Yu-Gi-Oh! fans are like John Cena fans when they abuse the meme “You can’t see me” or the annoying “What is even Yu-Gi-Oh!” meme. Because of this, it creates stereotypes that I absolutely hate and loathe to death.

Most of the American Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom doesn’t even understand what the anime does or how it plays out. They rely on bad jokes, get mad when their headcanons aren’t validated, and just act like assholes. For example, I don’t have screenshots, but in my early days in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V fandom, people acted like spoiled elites and mocked others' hard work. These people were mostly part of the former Arc-V fringe group led by ReijiAkabutt and her cronies—Chomsai, BlueEyesWhiteGarden, Cypsman2, Pxiao, and ColorfulWatcher. If you go through their archives, you’ll see that they were some of the worst Yu-Gi-Oh! fans I ever had to deal with, as they are all woke Americans.

America is just spoiled with too much money, culture, and whatever else they have. Their healthcare system is terrible, with insanely high medical bills. They don’t know much about other countries, often act ignorant or even racist, and get overly sensitive when someone makes a joke—whether good or bad. They also become nasty whenever Trump tweets something and constantly demand that America is the only country that should be catered to.

Since 2013, most Americans have had awful takes on the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime because they’re mostly Gen 1 purists who refuse to accept anything beyond the original series.

And don’t even get me started on this person named Sephirex. I used to respect him, but now he’s a joke in the modern Yu-Gi-Oh! world.

Yu-Gi-Oh! fans, in general, care more about the card game than the actual people involved in the fandom.

But then there are people even worse than the far-left Yu-Gi-Oh! fans—just outright bad people. Here’s a list of Yu-Gi-Oh! fans I actually consider to be woke.

I’m not going to include SliferTheSkydragon, DemonAtemu, Xthedarkone, or anyone else who wasn’t as bad. This is only about people who had a real negative impact.

Also, Azenzone, who does Precure reviews, is mostly a Precure/Tokusatsu fan, and I want to avoid him at all costs because he can’t make good content.

Now, onto the worst fans I’ve ever met.

Sephirex, who I just mentioned, is a Canadian-American Yu-Gi-Oh! fan who is 100% woke because he constantly blames white people. He made bad satire videos about Yu-Gi-Oh! GX in the past, but after his YouTube channel got terminated in 2019, he shifted his focus to hating Donald Trump on Twitter—before eventually leaving for BlueSky. He also never understood that 5D’s is the only Yu-Gi-Oh! series that tackles prejudice and bigotry. But since he’s so far left, I doubt he’ll ever wake up from that mindset.

VoiceOfChaos, who streamed Yu-Gi-Oh! anime back in the mid-to-late 2010s, is another example of how much people have changed. They turned woke, either because they’re stupid or just unwilling to be real. That dude was worried about Arc-V getting canceled when Zexal was the one that actually got backlash for its bad writing.

Mangakamen is another example of a woke American who, in my opinion, is more of a douchebag than a real fan. Mainstream culture influences Americans faster than a cheeseburger hits their stomachs.

DarkXyzDuelist from Tumblr (Anna) is one Yu-Gi-Oh! fan I remember who hated 5D’s and praised Zexal, but they were really just in it for the fanart and had little actual interest in the show.

Mizael Mizanity is one fan I didn’t want to bring up, but now that she’s gone, I can just say: Good riddance to that woke, abusive bitch.

YGOEverything is just as woke, and everything about him is built to make himself look good. By now, he’s more irrelevant than he was in the late 2010s. He’s been a dick to my friends, and he cares more about clickbait than making real content.

These people alone are examples of how bad the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom has become due to their influence and inflated egos. I could name even more, like TCG ANIME (YGO) or Linkara when it comes to Yu-Gi-Oh!, but I’m on a mission here.

So, let’s get back on point.

Now, let’s talk about the duels.

In my opinion, ARC-V has the worst duels I’ve ever watched—far worse than anything from the Rush or VRAINS era. The duels feel lazy, poorly scripted, and just brick after brick. The duel choreography is a mess, and I feel like Kamishiro completely failed at whatever he was trying to do.

Even Masahiro Hokubo seemed to struggle to make the duels relevant in any way. The issue isn’t just about the real-life meta—it’s about how this anime fundamentally mishandled its mechanics.

Pendulum Summoning, in particular, is too problematic because it relies too much on placing cards in the Pendulum Zones and sending them to the Extra Deck when tributed or destroyed. This makes duels feel repetitive and unbalanced.

Besides that, ARC-V did have one of the most impactful duels in Yu-Gi-Oh! history, with a script that had many key moments. However, as the duels progressed, they became more problematic, and I can see why the fandom hates them.

While I have problems with ZEXAL and its duels, no Yu-Gi-Oh! series has a worse duel script than ARC-V. The issue is that ARC-V had very little impact on the duels and focused too much on making them feel overly complex instead of well-structured.

ZEXAL, despite having repetitive duels, at least kept most of them polished up until Episode 135. After that, they became garbage, and I felt like I could write better duels myself.

The biggest problem with ARC-V is that its duels lack impact, constantly reuse old cards, and introduce fewer and fewer new ones. This, combined with poor writing choices, made the duels feel uninspired and frustrating to watch.

Characters like Yuri, Barrett, Kaito Tenjo, Aster Phoenix, Serena, and Ruri in ARC-V relied on the same combos constantly instead of progressing their strategies to make duels more interesting. Their playstyles felt repetitive due to poor writing limitations and plot constraints, making the duels stale instead of engaging.

For example, Barrett from the Fusion Dimension used the exact same strategy every time—summoning two monsters to bring out a Fusion Monster that never even got printed in the real-life card game because Konami was too lazy to release it.

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mercurial-thrills · 9 months ago

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What The Social Dilemma Taught Me About Social Media Habits

Reposting this despite being a writing blog because I think it's still so important. Written before X changed its name.

I have never been one to use social media to a huge extent.

Maybe I played online games when I was younger, to an obsessive point. Maybe I looked on the computer often and obsessively watched videos of my interests on Youtube. I went on Wattpad often and other sites people would not consider "typical" social media. It's how I got my daily dose of social interaction and joy from my interests.

In general, I have never been one to use social media in an intense way. It started at the same time as the pandemic, when the world brought more free time to the population of non-essential workers and students working from home.

I became more obsessed with it, not in the typical way of the amount of likes my tweets received. In a way where I would constantly look at what was being said about my favourite creators. I would watch people who criticized them as well as those who insulted them. I excessively checked certain Twitter accounts as well as forums criticizing people, which brought me temporary joy in the months of November and December. I wanted to get my happiness fix somehow.

Then, I watched The Social Dilemma in class. This documentary, probably put on by the teacher to convince us to use our phones less, changed my entire thoughts on social media and the role it should play in my life.

I remember talking to the teacher about my thoughts on the documentary, and the specifics of what my social media knows about me. As well, I explained how when I installed Pinterest onto my phone, it gave me recommendations for pins relating to blonde hair, blue eyes, brown hair, and green eyes. I

First and foremost, I learned I no longer wanted to socialize with others through social media. I already had ways to communicate with other people. Talking on the phone, texting, and using instant messaging platforms like Discord are some ways to stay connected to others without social media. In fact, they are preferable if a user does not want to reap the harmful effects of social media.

Another aspect is how it made me recognize my role in this generation as being part of a statistic. The documentary, near the beginning, stated students were getting their driver's licenses at later dates. I take this with a grain of salt, as many avid social media users are getting their driver's license as soon as they can. I have reasons as to why I have not received a driver’s license, especially in this time of pandemic. However, it reminds me of the different milestones I may not meet as a teenager if I let my social media habits consume me.

In the end, the documentary reminded me of how I needed to spend my time on social media sparingly. I saw the impacts it had on my life. I saw how it impacted my procrastination. Though any kind of blockages towards doing non-Internet activities do not end at the end of social media, it removes most distractions and I can manage the rest.

The most important aspect of social media is to acknowledge what you require in life. As a student who has been taught how to interact with future employers on social media, I know it can be used for productive purposes. I know as a writer, it may be necessary to create a personal brand and promote your novel as a self-published author.

It may be the sole place a young student can interact with their friends. They could use Twitter to find relevant information about certain topics. They could use Instagram to help support one of their friends who wants to gain a following on their Youtube channel. The documentary has specifically outlined ways to fight against the harm of social media.

Overall, the best decision is to listen to different perspectives on social media. Some people may have statements to refute what I’ve said in this blog post. I believe social media can do more harm than good, but it has opened countless opportunities for people to promote their work and create a following for jobs and hobbies.

#non-writing #social media #social media habits #the social dilemma #twitter #tumblr #instagram #youtube #this is the reason i left tumblr for the first time #but now i'm back #mostly for blogging purposes #documentary #blog post #introspective

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centrally-unplanned · 3 years ago

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I feel like making a “Top 5 Media of the Year” post is like extremely redundant if you follow me, its going to be really obvious what is on there. Still, ranking things is fun and is good to reflect on them, in particular why they ‘stuck’ with me and what makes them last as opposed to fun-at-the-time so here goes:

Perfect Tides

Definitely the most well-crafted ‘narrative’ of the year for me. As a game its eh, but you essentially ignore that and its very easy to do so. I been ruminating a lot on temporality this year; the sort of stripping-away of the idea of one having a future that ones grows to as opposed to a sequential present. The idea of ‘growth’ being more of a story we write for ourselves. And additionally I have always had a passion for stories about contingency and specificity, the ways technology, locale and circumstances shape people in not-so-obvious ways.

Perfect Tides is never settled on one thing but those two themes permeate every part of its narrative. Mara is obsessed with changing herself, getting out of the ‘rut’ of her life, but has almost no agency in that regard. She changes, massively so, but never due to her plans coming to fruition. There are these moments where she introspects, and she is smart so it seems right, but - while never confirmed to be so explicitly - are just wrong on reflection, in the battle between her identity & and her outside reality, reality proves stronger.

And the ways she tries to fight against her circumstances are so adorably 2000′s. Writing on fanfic webforums, ‘dating’ someone via IM (and it falling apart from it being transposed outside of that medium), living on an outskirt suburbia island to the metropole of the rest of your social circle, there is so much in there. In the end the bildungsroman story of a teen growing up is dime a dozen, these stories can’t survive on the universality. Perfect Tides marries the universality to a specificity that changes it enough to make it new.

Bocchi the Rock

I have said a lot about Bocchi and why it works so I won’t repeat myself on that front. Instead to situate its lasting impact on me I think I can instead focus on the kind of anime I have been watching. I have picked up a lot (by no means all) of the older ‘classics’ over the past 5 or so years, and I was absolutely soul-sniped by the 90′s ~mindfuck~ era of anime. I am always secretly hunting for more of that, but you really aren’t going to find any of that in modern shows; Sonny Boy is the closest I have seen and its a forced comparion for sure (still a great show, would recommend). The Evangelion era is so over not even an Evangelion remake could recapture it.

The modern era instead has other strengths that you need to see on its own terms - new themes, new styles, new approaches. Slice of life is one of them, K-On! was the first ‘great’ entry into the genre that utilizes the modern lexicon, and there have been more and more hits along that front over time. Anime - and the people who watch it - has a more comfortable relationship with its otaku identity, replacing existential dilemma with celebratory depiction. 90′s animation experimentalism was immense but also limited by the tools of the day; modern animation technology allows an easy integration of styles and techniques that was out or reach 20 years ago.

Bocchi for me is the crest of a wave of modern trendlines in anime’s capabilities and thematics. It perfects so much of what slice of life does while shedding its tired tropes; ruthlessly depicts a real-if-exaggerated otaku struggle but through the modern comedic, happy lens; and puts animation-as-a-tool to work communicating those feelings in the most inventive ways posible. Hell, the design process itself is radically accessible! I follow the creative team on twitter who were live-posting production photos, scene reactions, everything you could imagine. The media mix was intense. It is, in a certain sense, the most modern anime I have seen. It crystalized its own ‘genre’ that I want to see more of.

Sing Yesterday For Me

This year was a big year for manga for me, a journey I am hoping to deepen going forward. Sing Yesterday For Me was on my list for a while due to the anime adaptation from 2020, which I...hated? But due to all the really polished balls it kept dropping, I could see the potential, moody characters struggling with love & life in period-piece 2000′s Tokyo, lots of my boxes checked there.

The manga drops many of these same balls (less for sure), this is not a ‘great’ work. Instead why it has stuck with me is that is a showcase in the strengths of aesthetics & realism. Kei Toume’s art is just so absolutely my jam; the way she draws eyes with enhanced roundness and detail; the way the hair is all messy textures and sharp lines; the fact that in the middle of this serious manga will be splash images of little fashion showcases or photobooth printouts or something. She does this in all of her works too, she has types - I have been reading two of her other manga, Rocky Princess and Karakida-ke no Koshogurashi, and her aesthetic archetypes absolutely show up again in both.

I enjoyed Sing Yesterday for Me’s story but what I remember most are these individual panels that are just Art to me, and its something that manga does on its own terms that I have been growing to appreciate more and more as I read more and more (Chainsaw Man stands out in this regard as well). Its a reason to read manga specifically as its own genre. Maybe the story won’t be amazing, but it can be in service of those panels, a necessary component to making them shine, and its worth it for that.

Astrophyics - Hope Left Me+

Astroyphics is a synthwave/darkwave composer who got their start doing remixes, lots of anime & 80′s stuff, which all rocks and I highly recommend. This is the year they started branching out into their own original compositions in a way that I think succeeded - it was a rougher journey, some of their early works lack life, but the later stuff - Hope Left Me, Cute Tragedies - are some of my favourite of the genre in how they blend being ‘noisescape’ with having melodic elements or motiffs that still stand out.

And they are a media mix pioneer in how much work they put into video elements for the songs, album covers, and other things - Hope Left Me has a visual novel it is attached to! Which you can play as a standalone game (this worked ~fine) or partly experience as a visual album for listening to the music (which is amazing). I love that someone who started out making Serial Experiments Lain covers is working so well in the medium of “music as its permitted to be by the internet”. Its something I want more and more over time, music that exists beyond the notes and instead is in conversation with the rest of the media apparatus it is so inexorably embedded in, and Astrophysics owns that reality. They are 50% of the reason I am a Hatsune Miku stan nowadays (first t-shirt recently acquired!) - the other 50% of the reason being...

Hazel - Why Did We Like Elfen Lied?

Hazel’s Why Did We Like Elfen Lied? lives rent-free in my mind. Its the perfect question for me, not about ‘anime as anime’ but ‘anime as societal product’, about how watchers viewed it, cared about it, repackaged it, communicated it, the works. “What does this piece of media being loved say about those who love it” is the root question over which every other media discussion I ever have rests, the Unified Field Theorem of media analysis. And Elfen Lied is the *perfect* target for this question - it fucking sucks! It is an awful show, and in Japan no one cared. But in 2004 everyone in the west loved it. It was a show begging for an explanation.

Hazel nails it, and she does so through her subjectivity. She was the patient zero for the Elfen Lied experience as an emo goth edgy teen girl for its release; the way she jumps back and forth between the anime’s actual content, the way what it offered was passed around anime & goth subcultures, and the wider concerns those communities had in 2000′s America, is completely realized due to its combination of analysis and autobiography. And Hazel excels as a filmmaker along this same lens - her editing style is a tower of niche references to iconography, media, and music from the era, she composes her own songs which she uses for key moments, its a “by kids for kids by scene nerds for scene nerds” approach that epotimizes the strength of YouTube as a medium.

Hazel will not continue to be my favourite YouTuber - I will absolutely still be a fan, but she has her own questions she cares about that don’t align with mine, and the way she is evolving as a creator is not my own path. She has many other good videos and I highly recommend looking through all her works. But Why Did We Like Elfen Lied will last beyond that for me as an influence of the kind of thing I myself want to make (and probably never will, oh well!).

#2022 media retrospective #bocchi the rock!#perfect tides #sing yesterday for me #astrophysics #hazel

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yinyunnsworld · 3 years ago

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HI YIN!!!!! WE HAVE THE SAME NAME twinzies??? 🤔🤔🤔 i absolutely love with your rinne fanfic IT HAD ME ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT!

can i please pleaasee request a scenario where fem!reader is very upset because she feels like shes not up to her own expectations n rinne comes in makes stupid rinne comment, reader snaps thinkifn rinne could never understand since he was born smart n it ends in rinne comforting her YEA THE REST ILL LEAVE IT UP TO YOU!

im so excited to see how u write this if u decide too HAPPYY WRITING!!!!! 🫶🫶🫶🫶

Doesn’t Always Mean You’re Dumb

character: Rinne

Reader: female

Genre: angst, comfort.

Words: 1944

Warning: OOC, broken grammar, not read proofed

A/N: WAH THANK YOU? And OMGG we have the same name!! You can call me with a second name if you want! And thank you very much for requesting also liking my Rinne fics!😭💕 I’m sorry for the late post, I’ve been busy and only just got my freedom around three or four days ago and created 4 attempts on this to choose which one I want to present to you.

Come by often as a reader or as someone you want to talk with!! Hope you’ll enjoy this and have a nice day💕

Everyone around her age achieved so much, only she couldn’t or didn’t have anything to accomplish. The only thing she was capable of was smiling, entertain the elders of her family and coat her words with sweet nothing. (Name) could only watch her siblings reach higher than her, achieving outstanding results whilst (Name) sat by the chair confiding in the gossip of the elders.

And only of that, she’s considered—dumb. After all, what’s the point in being smart and a high achiever if in the end, she’d only stand behind the kitchen counter and serve her husband?—her elders spoke the same to her ears everywhere she went.

That alone wasn’t enough.

——

Walking into the apartment, the girl’s mask tore off—she inhaled sharply, feeling like sharp arrows aimed at her chest whenever she exhaled. She placed away her shoes then walked straight to her bedroom, finding the mess of her bed covered in dirty laundries she hadn’t done.

Though work was still stacking on the other side of her room, the computer calling her to work for another hour, she was left in dilemma whether or not she should choose to finish the undone chores or the work stacking on her desk.

Today was stressful, wasn't it?

The second she placed her bag, a ding from her phone echoed in her ears. (Name) searched through her bag full of documents she planned to get done tonight, her hands scurried through to find the device.

As she finally had her phone, the stoic e/c eyes paid no mind towards the name and just placed the item next to her head. A raspy dried voice that hadn’t drunk anything, spoke, “(Name) speaking. Who’s this?”

“Take a guess,” a familiar voice said, a smile audible to her ears playing along with the words. The h/c haired girl took a second to look at her phone, then back to continue her call.

To be honest, she didn’t need to look at the caller, just his voice alone was enough for her to guess who it may be. Her cheeks itched to be lifted up, to add just a tiny bit to her e/c irises, and so she obeyed her body’s will and came to smile even if the caller couldn’t possibly paint her face.

“Hey, Rinne.”

“Hm, your voice becomes softer than before! Kyahahaha, did you miss me?”

Ah, there he went, his signature laugh. Albeit having her pissed, it relieved her to know by his laugh—the tensed body soothed out on its own with a gentle smile to caress her face. “And if I tell you I don’t?”

“Too bad I won’t believe you,” Rinne spoke, from the other side of the phone, causing her to let out a tender chuckle, finally one after the whole day spending her time contemplating on things she never needed to.

“Hey, (Name). How was your day?”

How was her day?

She spent a few hours trying to hold back cursing at her elders, smiling and sat on the chair humbly whilst the elders boasted of their descendants’ achievements. Everyone always spoke as if (Name) wouldn’t understand, when in fact she heard everything but could only smile and nodded.

To think that the word, “it’s great” no longer felt like deceiving someone else just for their sake was the best choice—added with the exhaustion to even keep herself composed as she tried to prove her words—(Name) couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“It… wasn’t the best. It’s okay though, don’t worry. How about yours?” She quickly switched. “Not bad actually. Just feeling like I’m missing something.”

“What that might be? Your gambling habit?”

“Nah, that’s not it. After all, I have her with me right now.”

An exhausted yet hearty laugh broke out of her lips, a bit louder than she intended but to the others, the laugh was just a whisper from a child not being able to speak for the whole day. “So that’s why you came and called me?”

“Hahahahah! Aren’t you supposed to be glad you have me? Anyways, let’s hear from you. What’s up today?”

“What do you mean, what’s up?”

Rinne let out a laugh, just short—nothing exaggerated, “You said your day wasn’t the best. What happened?”

(Name)’s e/c irises gazed down to the floor, her back slid to the ground as she ran her hand through her hair. An attempt to smile tried to paint her face, only for her to feel the heaviness weighing her down. “I’m an idiot,” she stated, though she was sure it was as if the wind entered in her room and brought her remaining courage to speak, away.

“What?”

“I’m an idiot,” she spoke again, hoping it was audible enough to the other side whilst she was there—playing the hem of her clothes, trying to keep herself distracted from the heaviness weighing her chest.

The warm sensation swarming her eyes fought its war. “Every time I look around me, people are smiling at me but they always treat me like I’m a fool. It’s not about my day. I don’t think you would want to hear it.”

She expected nothing out of him, she didn’t expect for him to laugh, shake it off, nor gave her comfort—a daughter and a woman like her wouldn’t need any of that. If she was indeed useless as how people said her to be, then what’s the point in comforting her?

Instead, the least expected for the words she hated to hear: “Hahaha! Yeah, so?”

That.

Couldn't that be the reason she considered hanging up the phone call right?

So? What did he mean, so?

“…” her voice lost its words—she was far too exhausted to think about it. “I’m… busy and tired—“ (Name) stopped her trails of words, slowly realizing the venom stirring her words unconsciously, though she didn’t mean to.

“(Name)? What I was trying to say was—for what must you think about those? It’s not like they mean a thing to you—“

“What do you know anyway what means to me and what doesn’t?”

As soon as she said those words, silence filled them in. None dared to speak—though words were swirling in her head, begging her to let it out, she couldn’t bring herself to utter another. The heaviness of her phone weighed itself more.

She was expected of a daughter, if could not be the one everyone desired her to be, the least she could do was to smile and sit down. He was much of a contrast to her—the striking ocean eyes would always glaze themselves on the world without having to look down, his chest raised up like his dignity where no one could step on him, his words always match with his ways that she would believe every word he spoke.

He was born that way—a perfect human being.

“(Name), I didn’t mean it like tha—“

“I have to go now. My superior is calling me.” And just like that, she turned off her phone and threw it to her bed, leaving her frame alone in the corner of her room, to leave her mull over the words she said.

Ah, even in the brink of heat, she couldn’t be any more smart.

———

An hour had passed, she gazed at the analog next to her hands as she scrolled on her computer. The sound of keyboards clicking was enough to be audible, the weight on her shoulder increased more as time passed by.

“Eleven o’clock,” her lips drew out, unconsciously breathing out.

Ding!

Her phone rang. Wanted or not her attention turned over to the phone showing the caller’s name written clear on the screen. A sigh ran through her lips again, the desire to hang up and go back to her work was as strong as the urge to pick up.

However, the words still left her annoyed. Maybe it was actually her fault, that she should’ve apologized first, and that he didn’t actually mean a thing and she was the one who just took things too seriously—

“Hey. Why are you calling this late, Rinne?”

“Come out. I’m waiting at the playground in your apartment. And no buts.”

Waiting for her outside? She turned to look at the window, seeing the sky painted itself with a deep void of black adorned with the least amount of stars. As she reached for the window, a fog formed by the slightest touch.

(Name) checked on her phone, seeing the temperature outside. “It’s late. Go home or you’ll catch a cold.”

“Well I guess you have to come for me to go home. Be quick, it’s hella freezing outside.”

“Wha—hey!”

The dial tone echoed in her ears instead of his further affirmation voice, signaling he’d ended the call and left her with no choice but to obey his command. Had he lost his mind?

***

Walking down the cold playground, a fog formed whenever she let out a sigh upon casting her eyes onto the waiting red haired male. Heaviness lingered her heart either way, not knowing nor caring what brought him here to her. What did he want to say?

An extra jacket on her hand lingered there, stopping her from leaving and returning to her room. She knew he would come, with nothing to keep him warm other than his casual clothing—it had become a habit to bring in a jacket for his every visit.

The red haired man peeked from the side of his eyes, having the moonlight bathe his own ocean ones. “Hey, so you’re finally here! I thought you wouldn’t come downstairs for a sec there,” he exclaimed, ending it with a laughter.

(Name), however, only walked closer to him and threw the jacket. “You’ll catch a cold. Stop running here without anything to keep you warm at night,” she scolded, only to earn a grin from him as he replied, “Cause I know you’ll keep me warm.”

Unfazed, she let out a sigh for another time whilst making her way towards the smiling Rinne. “Why did you call me here? It’s late and I have to sleep early.”

“I just want to see you, can’t I do that?” He asked, sounding more to be a demand as if what the world has is what he’s owed with. The usual mischief adorned the same eyes that tonight, (Name) couldn’t bear to admire.

She pursed her lips, refused to say another word. “I’m… sorry,” he spoke out of the blue, attaining her attention. For instance, no one had ever apologized to her for the words and things they did, since she “wasn’t” capable of understanding the ways of their actions.

The girl could only stay silent. “What I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t mind their words and start learning how to be yourself. If anything, they’re dumb since they don’t get you at all. They’re too ‘normal’ to the point that seeing something new and fresh tears them down.”

Ah, she wondered what had she done to deserve this.

Seeing the silence from her, no words uttered out from her lips, Rinne could only sigh. He raised his hand, a little bit reluctant, but still did—gently, hoping it might convey the things he wished to say, and brought her to him.

That alone brought her to surprise, but she couldn’t dare to go against his will. And just like that, she could only bask in deeper for his warmth during the cold night—enough to resemble the coldness that was borne by the daughter herself. “You don’t have to change to meet their standards. Let the elders be as they’d always been, they’ll never change so just focus on yourself.”

Ah, how much she yearned to hear those.

A stupidity was never a stupidity. It was just a way of a human living that others deemed to be not normal to their understanding.

“You’re awesome as you are, so don’t let those words eat you.”

#x reader #ensemble stars #ensemble #ensemble stars imagines #ensemble stars x reader #enstars imagines #enstars x reader #enstars #rinne amagi #rinne amagi x reader

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awakeshedreams · 4 years ago

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sugar and spice ( 1 )

pairing : resident bad boy!jjk x model student!reader

setting : highschool!au x stepbrother!au

summary :

a messy highschool!au x stepbrother!au where model student reader who has quite a few dirty little secrets sees her world take an unexpected turn when her mother comes home one day with an engagement announcement, to the father of none other than the school's resident bad boy.... Jeon Jungkook.

genre : smut, for laughs, kinda pornish, slow burn with collosaly overwhelming sexual tension

rating: soft m ( for now ) due to adult content

warnings : unconventional relationship of sexual nature, tropes and clichès, teenagers partaking in porn-esque activities, made up things with made up people happening in a made up world, don't like don't read XD

wordcount : 2.3K

a/n : i've been fighting in a long standing war and I have lost. the man known as jeon jungkook had his foot on my neck for years and today, I have finally submitted to my fate and surrendered to his reign.

yes. after a hundred years, i'm writing again. specifically, writing for bts. particularly, writing for jungkook. its been a long time coming.

life just took over and I transitioned into an adult and kind of grew out of the state of mind I was in before. but. sigh. jeon jungkook has been tormenting me the whole time. it was only a matter of time before i relapsed honestly.

so here I am again. in mind, body and spirit, a different person from who I was before but still the same in the sense that with the way bts have my whole heart, jk will always be the demon in the corner of my room that I invite to bed for a cuddle even though it's (probably really) not good for me.

do not misconstrue. I love him more than I can say. but. sigh. he has me in a chokehold, loves. please try to understand where I'm coming from.

anyways, enough with this ranting. you all came here for the nitty gritty so let me not hold you hostage with my dilemma rambling any longer. here's to the first bts fic i've posted in literal years. introducing- sugar and spice.

1 2

Unless they told someone, no one would have been able to guess it.

At school they were complete strangers.

She was the nice head girl with a clean record, all smiles and straight A’s. He was the mysterious bad boy with a track record, all tatted up with bruised knuckles.

She wore plaid skirts with neat pleads in them and pastel sweaters with bows at the collar. He wore jeans with rips in them and leather jackets with studs.

They couldn't have been any more different.

As far as anyone was concerned, they existed on two extreme ends of a vast spectrum.

What they didn't know was that they shared a dirty little secret.

You were a girl with many dirty secrets.

For instance, you used to sell nudes online. It was a side hustle you did.

Not because you needed money.

Your mom was a renowned doctor so there was more than enough of that in your life.

Not because you needed validation from people online either.

Even without the constant compliments and the praises you knew you were visually blessed with a pretty face and a nice body too.

All things considered, you simply thought you had a nice pair of tits and you took pictures of them sometimes.

Posting the shots you snapped online came much later when you heard about this website where people were getting paid crazy money for posting racy things.

‘It’s just so degrading…’ It was one of your friends, June, who sneered, pretty nose scrunched up. She fixed her long ponytail and rolled her brown eyes while looking in the mirror at her locker. ‘Who would do such a thing, am I right?’

She said this, but June was the girl who has slept with more boys than she could count on her two hands. And those were the ones she told you about.

Like every other time, you said nothing. Even when it carried on to lunch with the rest.

‘Pretty desperate if you ask me.’ Mei the stellar track runner shrugged casually as she stretched her limbs like routine.

‘Where are their parents?’ Nina the library nerd shook her head in disapproval as she fixed her glasses so it sat right on the bridge of her nose.

‘Um… I don’t think it’s … appropriate… to talk about ….’ Kiko the one who always carried a cross and bible around mumbled into her sleeve.

All your friends spoke of it in derision and repulsion of course. This was a school for proper children so they were proper girls. At least they were supposed to be.

Regardless the conversation sparked a curiosity in you.

So you made an account and uploaded your first picture. Nothing bizarre. Just your tits in a pretty lace bra.

You made sure to keep your face out of the frame because that was the smart thing to do and you were nothing if not the smartest student in school.

In all honesty, you weren’t expecting anything out of it. In fact, in between work with student council and tutoring your juniors with finals right around the corner, you even forgot about it for an entire month.

It was by a complete whim that you decided to open the app while you’d been unwinding at your desk following a tedious day at school.

To say you were amused by the response you found waiting for you would have be a grave understatement.

You were staring at the four figure digit that now sat in your bank account.

Reading through the comment section was even more interesting.

There were all sorts of people there who had all sorts of things to say. Ranging from honestly sweet to downright dirty.

You had never been brought to tears laughing in her life before until then.

It was just so funny to see people misbehave and lose their minds over a pair of tits.

From then on it just sort of became a thing.

But that wasn't the worse of your secrets.

You were making a name for yourself on the crude web months later.

The next step was naturally to move from making taking pictures to making videos. Since you was already in too deep you didn’t see why not.

So you upgraded and opened another account. An amateur one where your touched yourself for an audience.

You were no prude.

You might have never been touched by a boy before but you had touched yourself plenty times. Stress and frustration came hand in hand with being head girl. Since you couldn’t quite vent it out at the annoying troublemakers at school, this was your second best option.

Third was watching porn, but that was mostly when you were extremely bored.

But that wasn’t where that little endeavor ended.

Later on it became a lot more risqué.

It all started when your mom hit you with a marriage announcement.

She met a guy on her business trip who she really liked and she was convinced he was the one.

Your mom had a tragic history of being a bad judge of character.

You’ve had this conversation at least five times since you became old enough to understand that boys and girls who were just friends didn’t kiss and sleep with each other.

Most times, it felt like she was doing it because she thought you needed a dad around.

You might have once, when you were younger and your mom was too busy with work to be there. But she worked from home these days and you were soo busy with school to worry about things like that.

This time it was like she was doing it for her. You were glad.

Your mom looked genuinely happy when she spoke about this guy.

Who were you to get in the way?

She spent almost the whole weekend in the kitchen. It was the longest you’ve seen her in there in your entire life.

She was excited for the dinner on Sunday.

Mr Jeon was the name of the chosen man.

He was coming over with his kid. A son, his only family. His wife passed away years ago.

You wore the dress your mom picked out for you, something cream in color and off the shoulders that brushed your knees. She looked pretty in her champagne dress. It was different from the office slacks and loose blouses you were used to seeing her in.

You stood by her at the door while the guests came through.

Lifting your head from a polite bow, you found herself staring straight into an achingly familiar pair of glinting dark eyes and went completely still.

‘Sweetie,' Your mother said sounding delighted, a soft hand on your stiff shoulder. 'This is Mr Jeon and his son Jungkook.’

Ah. Fuck.

‘Jeon dear, this is my daughter. Isn’t she lovely?’

Dinner was a mild affair, with small talk and the occasional clinking of cutlery on fine china.

From the outside looking in, you probably looked the picture perfect family already.

Only if no-one looked close enough.

Arms crossed, tongue in cheek. Your discomfort could be detected from miles away.

The two adults were oblivious.

The dark eyed boy with the slightest wave to his nape touching, brow grazing, ear covering onyx hair sat across you though; he took note of this with a passing glance and wordlessly returned to his food.

Jeon Jungkook had a countenance that betrayed his reputation.

Even though you’ve never talked, you knew plenty about him and you were sure he knew a lot about you too.

You went to the same school.

Dressed as he was in a crisp white dress shirt buttoned at the wrist and dark tailored pants with a fine belt on, it might have been hard to tell what kind of person he really was.

You lifted her gaze from your plate to look study him wordlessly, idly twisting the noodles with your fork.

People either called him the black sheep or the dark cloud but for you, Jeon Jungkook was the school’s resident lone wolf.

He smoked in the secluded areas on campus, sometimes playing his guitar. Beat up people who got on his nerves, sometimes using his guitar. Slept in class the rare times he was there, many times on his guitar.

Being his senior, you had never seen any of any of that for yourself. But you received plenty reports weekly to come to a sound conclusion.

There was no way people hated him enough to join hands in solidarity and make this all up.

It was quite the contrary actually. He had an alarming number of fans.

On the surface level you couldn’t see why. Most times you saw him, he looked bored out his mind and honestly, intimidating.

Maybe it was the tattoos. Or the ripped skinny jeans. Or the leather jackets with studs.

Maybe it was the domineering height and fit frame and structured face.

Maybe it was the intense dark eyes or the silky ruffled hair.

Even then, you failed to see the irresistible appeal in him. All those things that made him up only added to his unapproachable aura.

Bottom line was, he was bad news.

You didn’t want to be a spoil sport.

But how much of a thug your mom’s boyfriend’s son was shouldn’t be something that would make her like him less.

They were both their own people. Right ?

It was just that you just didn’t want her to be shocked and devastated if something happened later. When it happened.

Yet it seemed the serious conversation would have to wait.

After dinner your mom suggested you head to the living room to chat over wine and cheese.

You stayed back to do take out the dishes.

Earlier, your mom had stood to do it instead at first.

‘Don’t bother with that, dear.’ She reached for the plates in your hands. ‘Let me do it.’

‘It’s okay, mom.’ You smiled a little. ‘This is your night. I’ll meet you in the living room.’

'Sweetie...' Your mom looked close to tears. ‘But there’s so much of it…’

‘Jungkook,’ his father's voice had cut through the moment. He was a serious man in a crisp suit with a stoic countenance. His voice was just naturally authoritarian without him trying ‘Give her a hand.’

Jungkook stood, almost robotically.

‘It’s fine.’ You said. Politely. Nicely. Tightly. ‘I can handle this much.’

You left without another word.

That had been moments ago and now you were done with cleaning.

You stood at living room entrance for a while, taking in the scene.

The two adults were exchanging moon eyes and whispering in each other’s ears at the love seat.

Jungkook was sitting on a solo seat, but he was on his phone, completely unbothered by what was happening.

Your mom seemed to think it was the perfect time to pull out the photo album right then and there upon seeing you.

It was embarrassing but at least you knew you didn’t have to worry about the pictures spreading at school.

Jungkook was looking, picking up a picture occasionally to rove over, but he wasn’t the type to do that.

He also wasn’t the type to stare but you felt his glance shifting to you and lingering multiple times.

Once, you caught his eyes and he just stared at you across the coffee table wordlessly with a curious tilt to his head, idly flipping a picture of you dressed as a knight in glitter shining armor for Halloween at eight in his hands.

Honestly, it was starting to get annoying.

But you endured. For your mom’s sake.

Your alarm went off at exactly ten.

As subtly as you could, you excused yourself with an apology to the guests, saying you weren't really feeling well.

In hindsight you probably should have used a better excuse.

Your mom was notorious when it came to worrying, especially when it comes to your health.

Also, you probably should’ve locked the door before undressing just for good measure since people were over.

But in the moment, you were too busy setting your camera up where you were kneeling on the floor at the foot of the bed to be concerned about that.

That day you were testing out a new toy.

Distractedly, you took note of a couple of people asking you if that was your boyfriend’s shirt you had lifted over your tits.

You ignored them.

Couldn’t a girl own an oversized tee without getting any flack?

Trivial comments like that aside, a good majority of the audience are fawning over how wet you were and how perfect you bouncing tits look being played with.

Your head fell back and your eyes fluttered shut.

You were sitting there, knees raised to your chest and legs splayed, your gushing pussy in full display where the toy was stuffed deep into her tightness, vibrating pleasantly.

‘I’m close…’ you mumbled throatily, squeezing your tits and pinching your stiff nipples in between your moving fingers. You moved your hips move faster, feeling the toy buzz against fluttering walls. You took a hand off one of your tits to rub at your engorged clit. ‘Fuckfuckfuck…’

Deep in your high, you didn’t hear the door open and close with a foreboding click.

You only heard your name being called by a deep, smooth voice through the heady haze.

Instantly you stilled.

When you snapped your head to look over her shoulder Jungkook was there, hands in his pockets, leaning against your doorframe with his sleeves drawn up to his elbows, muscle roped, inked skin on full display.

When he tilted his head to the side a little, appraisively, you dared to say as a quaking chill ran down your spine and your entire body felt like it was about to burst into flames, a bit of his hair fell over his face.

His eyes were like two black in the dark as he took you in, dragging his gaze up and down your exposed body languidly.

In the back of your mind, you wished the ground would part and swallow you whole.

‘Your mom,' he starts, capturing your attention wholly, dark gaze finally flickering to your face, his voice suddenly lower, hoarser. ‘She sent me over to check on you.’

It took you a moment to realize where you were, who you were, who he was.

It was like a bucket of cold water had been dropped over your head.

Jeon Jungkook, the school's resident trouble maker, soon to be your step brother, just walked in on you fingering yourself in in front of a recording camera.

Well. Yeah.

You gulped.

You were royally fucked.

depending on the response I get I might ( most probably will ) delete this. not because I'm ashamed of my work. because I'm embarrassed of myself. I really swore to never write again and here I am. sigh. yes, I have seen my previous works and noticed just how terrible they were and this is a big reason why. so sorry for putting you through that. a million apologies.

also, that's right. I have adopted a new style which might not be to everyone's liking. another reason why.

anyways, if you liked this filth ( i know it seems mild but I can tell you it's very likely gonna get worse ) please idk uh... fuck this isn't ao3. hm.

like and drop by in the ask box if you liked it and want to see more. it makes me happy. its like serotonin fuel to me.

have a nice day. see you next time ( maybe ). stay fresh. yeah. 💜💜.

#bangtan #bts #bts angst #bts fluff #bts imagine #bts scenario #bts smut #bts au #jeon jungkook #jungkook scenario #jungkook imagine #jungkook smut #bts x reader #jungkook x reader #bts high school au #jungkook high school au

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hockeyisit · 4 years ago

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Twin Bond

Summary: Kai talks to Noah.

A.N. Hey its been a min, I have missed writing for the twins so I decided to do one where I focused on Kai. I know it’s missing a lot of Auston and Amelia but I felt like this was an important piece to write. I also have another piece that I almost finished and I hope to have that posted soon!

Word Count:1,768

Masterlist

Heavily Relates to It’ll be Okay

“You know you're going to have to invite him over for dinner at some point. You might as well just bite the bullet and do it now,” Mom said as she took the potatoes out of the oven to spread some extra seasoning.

I took a deep breath as I stood at the counter chopping up the chicken.

“He hasn’t even come out to his parents,” I told her carefully as I moved the chicken to a bowl.

“Alright, well are you at least going to come out to Noah and the rest of your siblings?” she questioned starting to season the chicken.

“I didn’t agree to help make dinner so you could ask me twenty questions,” I muttered. She let out a sigh of her own nodding her head.

“I just think it’s important for you to tell the rest of the family. Especially Noah, it’s not like you guys to have secrets,” she pointed out. It was the truth, Noah and I never had secrets but this was something I had been debating on telling him for awhile.

“I know,” I mumbled, not having anything else to say.

“How’s it going?” Noah said, walking into the kitchen and over to the fridge to fill his cup with water. Mom shot me a look causing me to quickly look down to the cutting board.

“Sorry, am I interrupting? He asked after a moment of silence.

“No of course not sweetie we were just talking,” mom answered when I didn’t offer an answer. Noah looked between us weirdly before obnoxiously shrugging his shoulders and making his way over to the stairs.

Ever since I had come out to my parents things had gotten pretty weird between Noah and I. I hadn't expected to get caught sneaking out when I went to visit my boyfriend so of course after my talk with my parents he had a million different questions. I refused to answer any of them and he got really mad with me. Since then nothing has been normal.

“I’m just saying he'll understand, you should tell him. Now go while I finish dinner,” she said, walking over to me and gently pushing me away from the cutting board.

-----

“I’m serious,” I wined leaning into his chest and wrapping my arms around him.

“I know babe,” he said laughing. His arms reached up to pull my body more onto his.

“I just feel like if I don’t tell Noah then he’s going to keep noticing that I’m keeping things from him and then he's never going to forgive me when I tell him the truth.”

“So then just tell him the truth.”

“Babe,” I whined again wishing he would just understand my dilemma. He let out a laugh as he rubbed his hand up and down my back reassuringly.

“You know I can’t because then he'll want to know who and he's a hockey player, what if he’s a total dick,” I said, coming up with different excuses as to why I couldn’t tell my brother the truth about us.

“Aren’t you a hockey player?” he questioned. I huffed annoyed burying my face deeper into his chest.

“Only sometimes.”

“Seriously Kai. Just tell Noah if he asks questions, answer them however you want to. You don’t owe him any more than that.”

“But what if I want to tell him more,” I admitted, pulling back to look into his deep blue eyes. A soft smile crossed his lips as he leaned towards me so he could place a kiss on my cheek.

“Then tell him more,” he paused letting out a soft sigh, “I’ve been thinking about coming out to my parents,” he admitted. I let out a surprised sound escape my lips as I stared at my boyfriend.

“What? Since when?” I questioned. I was honestly shocked by this. When I had told him I was going to come out he had been against the idea.

“Since I saw how well it worked out for you. Seeing your dad’s reaction,” he admitted bashfully. I leaned forward so I could press a deep kiss to his lips.

“We can do it together.”

“No, I want to do this on my own. You come out to your brother though,” he replied before pulling me into another kiss.

------

I let out a deep breath as I shook my limbs out. Okay Kai you got this. I reached up and knocked on the door twice.

“Noah,” I called, “Can I come in?”

“Yeah.”

I pushed the door open to see Noah laying in his bed watching tv. I walked over and debated sitting in the bed before glancing at the desk chair.

“C’mere,” he said, scooting over in his bed and creating a free space next to him. I did as told and climbed in next to him. He had gotten home from hockey about an hour ago and I could tell that he was feeling pretty tired.

“How was practice?” I questioned as I leaned back against the headboard.

“Fine, but Charlie was late to practice and all of us had to do suicides,” he said, stretching his legs out. I winiched in sympathy knowing how terrible suicides were on the ice and also knowing it was my fault that Charlie was late.

“That sucks man.”

I bit my lip as I thought about what to say next.

“Remember when I snuck out?”

“What like a month ago?” he questioned. I nodded my head.

“What about it?”

“I snuck out to hang out with my boyfriend,” I said before snapping my mouth shut. I felt the air around us grow tense as I awaited for my brother's response. After a moment of silence I finally braved it and turned to face him. He was staring at me already.

“Your boyfriend?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. I felt myself wanting to crawl away and hide but I knew I couldn't do that so instead I took a deep breath as I nodded my head.

“Yeah. I told mom and dad that night which is why my punishment wasn’t that harsh,” I told him as I looked down at my fiddling hands in my lap. Noah had been pretty livid when he heard about how light my punishment was compared to his normal punishment. When he didn’t go to say anything he finally got the hint.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, sounding hurt. I looked away from my hands to see the frown on his face. I let out a soft sigh.

“I wasn’t sure how you’d react,” I admitted out loud. It wasn’t something that I had wanted to say but I knew I needed to get it off my chest.

“You’re the most typical hockey dude I’ve ever met.”

Noah let out an offended noise as he turned to face me.

“That’s so rude. I'm not a robot dude and you're like my favorite person in the world. How could you ever think I would react badly?”

“I didn’t think you would. I just wasn’t sure how you would react. Plus my boyfriend didn’t want to come out so there was no reason to even come out.”

“But now he wants to come out?”

“What?” I was confused as to why he was asking me that.

“You just said my boyfriend didn’t want to come out. Does he want to now?” he questioned. I glanced at my phone to see my last message.

Baby:

U got this! Call me when ur done.

Followed with a ton of emojis.

“Sort of.” I said. “When I told Ma and Papi he didn’t want to but after seeing and hearing their reactions he was a little more on board,” I admitted as I ran my hand through my hair.

“I wish you had told me before them,” he said softly.

“It wasn’t even relevant until lately,” I told him truthfully.

“So who is it?” he questioned.

“What?” I asked.

“Who’s your boyfriend?” he teased softly. I blushed as I looked away.

“Uh,”

“What he say you can’t tell me?” he questioned, raising his eyebrow.

“Sounds like you're the girl in the relationship, '' he joked , letting out a soft laugh. I reached out and smacked his head, shaking my own.

“The whole point of the boy and boy relationship is so that there is no girl in the relationship,” I pointed out matter of factually.

“Oh shut up!” he laughed loudly, “seriously who is it?”

“Charlie.”

“What?” he questioned loudly.

“Marner?” he asked, the shock seeping into his voice.

“Do you know any other Chairlie?” I asked, dead panned. Noah punched my arm before leaning back in shock.

“Wow. Does Pa know?”

I shook my head no as I closed my eyes.

“Your the only person who knows and you can’t say more until Charlie comes out to his parents,” I told him seriously. Noah mimed locking his lips and throwing the key away.

“Seriously Noah he hasn’t come out to anyone. He’s scared so just please don’t do anything to ruin it,” I said softly.

“I promise I wont say anything,” Noah said, reaching his pinky out towards me. My phone buzzed loudly in my lap causing me to look down.

“Ohh is that the boyfriend now?” he asked, elbowing me in the stomach. I blushed bright red as I picked up my phone to look at the three messages Charlie had sent me.

Baby:

My dad just came running into my room saying we need to get a new dog??

Is everything going well w/t Noah?

Do you need reinforcement?

He’s probably pissed about the suicides.

I let out a laugh as I looked up from my phone.

“Yeah he just wants me to call when we're done talking,” I said locking my phone and setting it back on my lap.

Just as I went to respond Ma popped her head in the door.

“Hey boys, your father and I are going to head to bed. Need anything before we go to bed?” she questioned.

“No, we're good,” I answered for us, sending her a smile. She nodded before making her way out and to her room.

“Alright I’m going to go and call him,” I said, pushing myself out of his bed.

“Oh my god!” Noah said once I was standing by the door. I turned around to face him confused.

“You're the reason we had to do suicides today!” he exclaimed, annoyed hopping up from the bed. I let out a loud laugh throwing my head back.

“My bad bro,” I said walking out of his room.

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assassins-and-hidden-blades · 4 years ago

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Trust Me -- Part 2

02/06/2021: Wow, uh, wow. This one got me. Almost started crying at the cheesy ending. I will cringe at it in precisely two months from now. Thank you guys SO much for all the positive feedback of PART 1, it really helped me finish this part. Without you guys, this would have been still sitting in my drafts. There's lowkey a bit of pressure in this actually being GOOD, so I'm sitting here with a bit of Imposter SyndromeTM and crossing everything I can cross that you guys like it. I can't tell whether I went overboard or not, though... I guess that's for you guys to tell me lmao.

Also, these commas can be pried from my very cold, extremely dead, fingers.

As always, feedback is greatly appreciated! For the first time in almost ever, I'm a bit very nervous to post this -- I hope you enjoy it!!

Tagging: @marshmallow--3 // @yourlocalfrenchie // @rahdaleigh // @sofiewithat /// @iceboundstar // @mythandmagik // @itseivwhore // @pink-polarfox // @missbenzayb // @ct-5445 // @timbreavery // @dacian-assassin // @thepalaceofmelanie // @asilverraven // @huntheimpossible // @eclectic--assassin // @thehistorynut19 // @ta-ka-shi-ma // @roki3chocoa // @fandomsfanman // @le-nottibianche // @bandit-brunsmeier // @starmoji1 // @spocktheestallion // @salty-thembo // @missingfrye // @xdeimos // If you want to be tagged, let me know!!

Warnings: Lots of swearing, a bit of graphic violence, implicit mention of sexual assault (I hope it's not a spoiler to say that this does not actually happen, but the idea is used as manipulation. It's not done well, but I'm blaming that on the character being a horrible liar, instead of me sucking at write arseholes), implied character death.

Pairing: Edward Kenway x F!Reader

Assassin's Creed Mobile Masterlist

Red Dead Redemption 2 Mobile Masterlist

The neighbouring ship was chaotic. The opponents were drunk on victory, so slipping through unnoticed was easy. The hard part was going to be staying undercover until you could free Edward and the rest of the crew without anyone falling casualty. “Strip them of their weapons and take them to the brig!” You heard the Quartermaster yell. Thinking quickly, you moved to Edward; if you knew where his weapons were, escaping could be much easier. People were already pulling out his pistols and cutlasses, fortunately dumping them in your arms. Looking around, you pulled away to hide them in an inconspicuous barrel for later.

You weren’t planning on staying long.

Quickly rejoining the group, you took hold of one of your crew members -- you recognised him as one named Jonah -- at the back of the crowd, keeping your face covered lest they accidentally reveal your identity. You kept your eye on Edward’s tense shoulders the entire time, heading below deck and to the rows of cells at the end of the ship.

As you gently pushed Jonah into the cell, someone slammed the door shut, chucking the ring of keys your way. “Lock ‘em up.” Swallowing, you nodded, feeling uncomfortable under their gaze while turning the key in the lock. Taking them out of your hands, a mop and bucket was shoved in its place. “You’re on cleaning duty, starting upstairs; let’s go.” With one last glance, your eyes scoured for Edward before they all disappeared from view.

----------

Edward

There was this crushing anxiety he just couldn’t shake. It rendered him almost motionless, crouched in the corner of the cell, picking at his sleeves. There was a commotion heading towards them; he was in for company he was not in the mood for.

Heavy footsteps gave away the visitor. “We searched your boat.” His crew parted to clear a view as Charles Marlowe relaxed against the cell bars. “We found your woman.”

Edward’s eyes snapped to Marlowe’s as he clenched his jaw, almost daring him to say more.

With a chuckle and a disgusting grin, he brought out a small knife to clean. “Don’t you want to know where she is?”

“I expect you’d would tell me regardless.”

“I would advise against winding me up, Kenway. I could always take my anger out on her instead.”

It took a second for Edward’s arms to fly through the bars, constricting around Marlowe’s throat. “What have you done with her?”

Although cold metal pressed against his jaw, he didn’t ease up.

“She’s waiting for me very nicely... in my cabin.”

Edward didn’t have to think very hard to infer his meaning.

“I’ll kill you if you touch her. I’ll kill you.” Growling, he held impossibly tighter, for if he was here, he wasn’t there.

“With your actions come consequences, Kenway. And you might not be the one paying for them.”

A dilemma came to mind: delay him to keep him away from you, or risk the consequences of his revenge?

Somewhat luckily, he didn’t need to choose.

Before Edward could comprehend that he loosened his grip, Marlowe slipped out of his grasp. The distraught Captain pressed himself against the bars, anger drenching his expression as he heaved out breaths. His captor laughed. “You’re very good at empty threats, Kenway.”

“It’s not a threat. It’s a promise.” His cold tone streaked through the crew, setting hairs on end. They had never heard their Captain like this before; so angry, so dangerous.

It terrified them.

“That remains to be seen. In the meantime…” With a mocking whistling tune, Marlowe spun on his heels and began to walk away.

“Come back here, bilge rat!” He pulled harshly against the cell door. “Don’t you dare touch her!”

“Then you better stay in line.”

As he disappeared from view, Edward’s emotions overwhelmed him, frustrated tears coming to his eyes. He turned to a solid wall, slamming the side of his fist against it and yelled.

Fear, anger, guilt, and grief echoed around the brig.

Collapsing against the wood, he hid his face in his hands, aiming to either calm himself or hide his inevitable breakdown.

----------

Y/N

“Finish up downstairs.” Nodding affirmatively, you picked up the mop bucket and eagerly headed beneath deck, having to consciously slow down to avoid suspicion. You were glad you were disguised in the uniform of Marlowe’s crew instead of the rags of the common sailors aboard; it would’ve made the job much harder than it had to be.

Keeping a level head, you walked past the cell holding your family and placed the mop bucket against the wall, scanning the deck.

Empty.

Sighing in relief, you realised that you were alone with your crew at last. As you pulled the covering off of your face, you shushed frantically, the cell almost erupting into cheers. You gestured for them to part, eyeing Edward, almost balled up in the corner of the cell. “Hey, Ed,” you whispered, watching as his head snapped up to you, eyes widening.

Scrambling up, he strode to the bars in a second, reaching through the gaps to hold you. “Thank Christ…” he exhaled in relief, bringing your forehead to his lips between the bars. You pulled away after a few moments, sharing relieved glances. “Are you hurt? Did they do anything to you?” he asked, eyes scanning you for any sign of injuries.

“No, no, I’m okay. Are you alright? Did we lose anyone?”

“I’m... fine; I haven’t done a head count yet.”

You didn’t reply, watching as Jonah came up to tap Edward on the shoulder. “Capt’n?”

He turned around, withdrawing his hands as Ryan came into view. “I can’t find my da’.” His voice was barely stable, cheeks stained with tear tracks. For a second, you both exchanged sorrowful glances.

Edward crouched down, ruffling his hair. “He’ll be around, lad. We just have to find him. Maybe he’s escaped and is planning his own rescue mission for us.”

Ryan nodded, wanting to believe him. Meanwhile, Edward stood and brought Jonah close, leaning to whisper in his ear. He withdrew, a willing but uncertain look on his face. Both retreated back into the small crowd.

“What did you tell him?” you asked.

“...That he has to look after Ryan now.”

You squeezed your eyes shut to stave off tears. “Shit.”

His fingers gently grazed your cheek. “Are you sure you’re alright? Does Marlowe know you’re here?”

Frowning, you shook your head. “I wouldn’t have thought so; if he did, I’d be stuck in there with you.”

His expression was nearly unreadable, but you could sense his anxiety. “I saw him come from here a few moments ago. What was he saying?”

“He…” Pausing for a moment, Edward swallowed. “Just Templar bullshit.”

You scoffed at the notion. “Of course he did. Look, I know how to get out of this.”

“I’ll take anything at this point.” Although his tone was sarcastic, you could tell that for the first time, he didn’t know what to do.

“He needs to die.”

Edward froze, brows narrowing, realising your intention. “No, Y/N, no.”

“‘No’ was an option in Nassau, but we don’t have that choice--”

“No, there must be another way -- “

“There is no other way! This is our only chance--”

“Are you hearing me?! He--”

“Do you understand the situation we’re in?!”

“No, Y/N, please--”

“All it takes is--”

“Just LISTEN to me!” He hissed through gritted teeth, grasping your arm to give it a sharp shake to stop you talking over him. The shock threw you into silence. Lowering his voice, he continued. “If you make so much as one mistake, he won’t just kill you; he’ll make you wish you were dead. Please, please, don’t do this.”

You were stunned. You’ve never seen him so adamant about staying your blade. The desperation in his tone threw you off; you’ve never heard him this serious -- this frantic -- before.

Edward grabbed one of your hands in both of his, bringing your knuckles to rest against his lips. “I love you… with everything I have; I can’t lose you. Not if I can help it,” he murmured, closing his eyes. Your heart broke as you watched a tear escape, trailing down his skin.

“Okay, okay.” You rarely saw Edward cry, and when you did, it was usually due to either drinking or laughing. He took a small, shuddering breath, trying to compose himself.

“We wait for Adé. Then we’ll think about Marlowe.”

“Alright, okay. Hey...” you caressed his jaw. “I’m okay. We’ll be okay. Trust me.”

You heard ruckus above the deck. “Someone’s coming.” Both of you broke away like shrapnel, Edward sitting himself on the floor while you mopped, facing the wall.

And that was how things were.

----------

A couple of weeks had passed since the crew was abducted from the Jackdaw. Everyone had been forced to labour on the deck, doing various jobs, from scrubbing floors to adjusting sails to everything in between. Adé was nowhere to be seen; whether he was hidden on deck and still strategising, or God forbid, something worse, you didn’t know.

A few didn’t make it.

Keeping your identity hidden was becoming increasingly difficult as time went on, of both being a woman and lover of the imprisoned Captain. You had, however, been able to gather intel of Marlowe from the crew that despised him. Each day further validated your belief that this man would be much better off dead; the crew have no loyalty except out of fear, and you could work with that.

You understood Edward’s fear, but it would be selfish of you to stand back and not do anything, watching as almost everyone on the ship suffered; if you did nothing, you would regret it for the rest of your days.

One particular morning was extremely hot, extremely dry, and extremely labour intensive. You were almost halfway through your journey, and you knew you were running out of time. Something had to happen, and soon, or you would never make it to the end of the year.

----------

Edward

After the first week, the crew joined the common sailors around the ship, performing average labour over hours. There was barely time to rest, eat, or drink; he could tell that this was wearing him down more than any form of torture.

The sun’s rays beat down on the nape of his neck as midday approached. Orders were to scrub the floor. He had a brush in his hand the size of a polishing brush, sharing a bucket with four other members of his crew. Each time he made eye contact with one of them, he’d give them a reassuring look; they’d all get out of this, he just needed a plan.

Doors were haphazardly flung open, Marlowe revealing himself from his cabin, followed by an entourage of his closest crew. They clumsily made their way across the ship, bumping into those scrubbing the deck, only to send them a look as if it was their fault in the first place.

One of them knocked over a bucket of water, spilling the liquid across the wood. Edward looked up to observe the situation. It belonged to his crew, including Jonah and Ryan. Marlowe stopped, his stare set on the ones kneeling, completely ignoring the real culprit. “You.” He crooked his finger towards Ryan. “Get up.”

With a petrified look on his face, Ryan stumbled to his feet, shaking like a leaf. “It wasn’t--”

Marlowe put his hand up, a warning to shut up. “It was your bucket, was it not?”

“Y-Yes, but--”

“So it was your responsibility, correct?”

“W-Well--”

“It’s a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question, boy.”

“... Yes, sir.”

Marlowe turned to call to his second in command. “Get the cat.”

Edward’s heart stopped. By now, the ship had dropped to complete silence. They wouldn’t… he was only a boy. Marlowe was sadistic, but he wouldn’t be that evil, would he?

Before he could stop himself, Edward found himself standing protectively in front of Ryan. The child gripped onto his sleeve as he was pushed behind his Captain by the arm. “Why don’t you give a punishment to someone who deserves it?”

Marlowe held a neutral expression. “You’re right…” With a wave of his hand, arms snaked themselves around Edward’s, pulling him away from the others, restraining his movements.

Edward’s eyes flitted to Ryan for a split second; he was pulled to sit beside Jonah before he gained any more unwanted attention. Marlowe came to stand in front of him, unpinning his cape from around his shoulders. It fell into someone’s arms, who carried it away. Although his limbs were pulled harshly behind him, he held his head high, a hard expression in his eyes.

Undoing his cuffs, Marlowe smirked. “I believe you deserve twenty, in place of that boy…” Without warning, a fist came into contact with Edward’s sternum. If it weren’t for the arms holding him upright, the force would have sent his knees buckling. As he regained his breath, he glared at Marlowe. “Another twenty is in order for disobedience…” Another strike winded him again, this one seemingly worse than before. Keeled over, hair blocking his vision, he almost didn’t notice Marlowe leaning into his ear. “Then, about as many as I deem fit…”

Standing up straight, he shook out his hand. “Get him ready.”

Edward stumbled as he was half-dragged across the deck to the main mast. His chest and face collided with the post, the wood almost burning his skin. His arms were pulled taut above his head, rope quickly entwining itself around his wrists. He gave them an experimental tug, his heart skipping a beat when he found not even an inch of give.

Oh, fuck.

Hands gripped the back of his shirt, swiftly tearing it open. His muscles tensed as the sunlight hit his skin. Closing his eyes, he steeled himself with a breath.

The first strike licked his skin, the force shoving him against the post, ripping open stripes of flesh. Pain shot across his back. Biting a back a groan, Edward clenched his jaw. Sweat trailed down his temples, arms straining against the ropes.

Resting his forehead against the post, he prepared for the next lash.

But the strike never came.

----------

Y/N

Ooh, boy.

You were shocked at yourself for a moment, your hand firmly wrapped around Marlowe’s extended wrist, the cat of nine tails trickling Edward’s blood onto the back of your hand.

“I demand satisfaction.”

Gasps and muttering littered the crowd, and you kept to yourself the true realisation of what you’ve done.

You’ve challenged Marlowe to a duel.

“Don’t…” Edward looked over his shoulder, voice loud enough for only you to hear.

You spared him a side glance, urging him to quiet down.

Instead of the expected anger, Marlowe chuckled. “Alright; who demands it?”

You pulled off your face covering and hat, the sun hitting the skin on your face fully for the first time in two weeks. “Naturally, me.”

He hummed darkly, eyes narrowing with recognition. “Naturally.” He began to unsheathe his sword.

“I thought you were a man of tradition; are pistols not your forte?” You raised an eyebrow, challenging him.

After a prolonged glance, metal clicked back into its leather hold. “You really don’t know what you’re getting into, my dear.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“... Let’s get this over with.”

Your heart pounded. This was such a stupid move.

But it was also your only move.

Hiding your own fear, you held eye contact with Marlowe. With trembling fingers, you drew your own pistol, gifted to you by Edward from your last birthday. It was very much your lucky charm, and you hoped it wouldn’t fail you now.

“Ten paces, on my count.” You had no idea who the voice belonged to, nor did you have the current emotional capacity to care. Pulling the hammer down on your pistol, you turned your back to Marlowe. A blank was fired, the echoing shot a signal to start moving.

1…

2…

3...

It was almost deadly quiet.

4…

5…

6…

This was stupid, this was a bad idea. You won’t make it.

7…

8--

An unexpected shot rang out. You dropped to the floor, a pain beginning to blossom in your side.

“NO!”

Marlowe had cheated. Internally, you scoffed. Of course he did.

Although it stung, you were surprised at how bearable the pain was, given you just got shot.

Or did you?

You lay still, partly in shock and partly to plan what to do next.

“What are you all looking at? Get back to work!”

“Y/N? Y/N/N!” You heard Edward’s voice crack. “You cheating bastard!”

“Now, now, Kenway. Don’t forget the position you’re in.”

Floorboards creaked as someone approached. Pistol miraculously still in hand, you waited for as long as possible. Just a little longer....

A shadow shaded your face from the sun. Without thinking, you turned, aimed, and shot.

Marlowe stared back, glassy eyed, blood trickling down his nose.

A moment later, he collapsed.

No one dared to move, choosing to stare at the body in front of them, not quite believing that he was dead.

The monster of a man was dead.

After the adrenaline ebbed away, you sighed heavily. “Glad that’s over.” A hand came into view, offering assistance to stand up. You locked eyes with someone who should have made himself known a long time ago. “Adé!” Accepting the help, you smirked. “Great timing.”

You quickly moved to Edward to begin untying the knots around his wrists. “What the fuck were you thinking?!” he exclaimed, exertion clear in his eyes.

“I’m sorry for worrying you--”

“Worrying me?” One wrist freed, he deftly moved to the other. “When I saw you lying there, I felt as if I had died!”

You sighed. “I needed to do something, lest you became more bone than back.”

“That was the most stupid plan I’ve ever seen in my life.” His hands free, he paid no heed to his own wounds and immediately tried to inspect yours. “You were so irresponsible--”

Bringing his face to yours, you stopped him talking with a kiss.

He diffused immediately, finally processing that you were in front of him, alive, and Marlowe was the one dead on the floor. Melting into you, the tension in his muscles dissipated, replaced only with relief. He broke apart from you, burying his face in your neck, his arms wrapped around you tightly.

“If the plan worked, it couldn’t have been that stupid,” you remarked.

“I’m so sorry.” His words were mumbled into your shoulder.

“You were looking out for me; I would have done the same if the roles were reversed.” You hugged him back, recoiling when he suddenly flinched in pain. “Oh, God, I’m sorry.”

“Shall we just accept each other’s apologies and call it a day?”

You laughed. “That would be good.”

Turning to the hands on deck, you raised your pistol in the air. “It’s over, lads! We can go home!”

You held your side, the pain greatly subsided under the amount of other emotions you were feeling; joy, relief, but also grief. Not for Marlowe, but for the ones that didn’t see this day.

You made a vow there and then; a vow to live your life the way they would have lived.

With joyful, carefree fun.

With the ability to live in the moment.

With gratitude for what you still have that they lost: For some, love, and for others, life.

#assassin's creed #assassin's creed x reader #assassin's creed x f!reader #edward kenway x reader #edward kenway x f!reader #assassin's creed imagine #assassin's creed oneshot #edward kenway imagine #edward kenway oneshot

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boys-from-santacarla · 4 years ago

Note

can I request a David X Michael smut? if you're not comfortable then I totally understand :)

Notes: Ok, so first off: thank you so much for your request🤍. Second: this is my very first time writing a one shot about these boys, so I came up with this because I'm sure David's kink is to watch Michael hunt, so I tried my best. I don't know if this is what you were expecting, but I really really hope you like it 🤞🏻❤️. I accept feedback, writing advices, constructive criticism 😂, and more comments you want to let me know! I'm sorry you had to wait so much, btw, but I'm new on editing long posts on Tumblr.

Word Count: 1461

Warnings: NSFW, cursing, mentions of murder, mentions of blood, blowjob, handjobs, and basically just gay vampires.

Fast Learner (David x Michael)

They were on their way back to the cave. It had been four months since his turning, so by now the things coming with being a vampire were already accepted by Michael. But the midnight killings were still hard to get used to.

"You were good tonight, Michael." David commented interrupting his moral dilemma and sliding his arm over his shoulders. He tried to smile kindly and accepted the embrace.

"He says that 'cause he wants to get in your pants!" Paul joked from behind.

Everyone laughed and David gave him the finger, only increasing the laughs from the others.

"But he's right, Mike." Dwayne's deep voice added "You were better this time." Michael only nodded.

They quickly walked down the stairs and everyone went separate ways to get ready to catch some rest. Mike had some plans to get clean and prepare to get back home, but before he could totally get away from David's grasp, the blonde applied more force to keep him in place.

"Where you think you're going?" He asked amused.

"The sun's getting out and I still need to go home." He reminded him in an obvious tone. It was hard to maintain his normal life and keep up with his nocturnal schedule.

David's eyebrows raised up "Don't you think you'll need to look more... Normal?" He said grinning referring to his blood-soaked clothes. "Mom Emerson never told you to get clean after going out to play?" He laughed a little.

Mike decided to play clown too "So that's the only reason I'll need to delay my fly back? Get decent to go out?" He snapped back and bit his lip watching the other's mouth. David's eyes sparkled in delight. Straight to the point was his thing. So It didn't took more than three seconds to place Michael between his cold body and the wall with his hungry lips ravishing him.

He kept his fists on Michael's shirt, grinding his hips against the other boy to give his cock some needed friction.

"You really did good out there tonight. Making those pricks scream..." He whispered, lightly brushing the other's lips with his words. He stucked his tongue out and marked a wet path from jaw to cheekbone, then made a trail to the lobe and bit it. "Gave me a memorable show". He would never admit it out loud, but seeing Michael participate so vividly in their huntings always turned him on.

"I think I've learned from the best." Whispered the brunette while sliding his hands from David's waist to his ass. Then he took possession of the exposed neck with his teeth and tried to place a mark. David moaned and took hold of Michael's clothed cock to control his body and switch places. Now with him in between the wall and Mike, their kissing got rapidly messy, with both nibbling and sucking any exposed area. And Michael swore if he wasn't his new self, he would now be hot all over.

"But still you make a mess of yourself" David separated his mouth from the collarboone in mid attack and yanked the blood stained shirt. Michael knew he was right; it was normal to get back from their hunting with some blood on them, but not this much. So he put some inches of separation between them to lift his shirt and tossed it aside.

"Better this way?" He asked smirking.

"Yeah." David breathed taking in sight the defined pecs and strong abdomen. Wasting no more time he took hold of Michael's right hand and pulled it to his bulge. "Your technique at sucking still needs improvement tho."

"And you're volunteering to let me practice?" Mike replied almost in awe.

"Always"

Michael have him one last hot kiss, roughly biting his mate's lower lip at the end, and began his way down. His cold hands roamed David's belly underneath his shirt, sensually caressing his abdomen. The only thing the newly turned vampire hated about giving David head was the struggle with so many layers of clothes.

"Why don't you ever take this fucking coat off anyway? You're too cold?" Michael grumbled half joking, never taking his hands off.

"You're testing your luck, you know that?" If he was someone else, he would definitely be far gone by now, David thought.

But at least he was doing a great job.

Settling on his knees, he got to his target. He pressed his face to the already fat bulge and wetly kissed the thick layer of fabric. Then he slowly unzipped it and took it out of its confines, earning a low moan and two hands starting to stroke his soft curls.

Before going any further he looked up and saw David's head leaned on the wall with his eyes half closed. He grinned in contentment, feeling a mix of amusement, excitement and happiness realizing the power he had over this creature in vulnerable moments like this.

He took in one hand the cock before him and David inahled a sharp breath when it was softly squeezed at the base. This was followed by a leisure lick from the bottom to the top. As if savouring it for the first time, Michael gave it a couple of more tastes to then take the crown in his mouth, smacking his lips when he pull it out.

"Fuck, Michael" David breathed.

"That can come later" Mike answered and resumed his work putting the crown in his mouth again, this time giving it shelter a few more seconds before taking it deeper in his mouth. To cover the part left behind he moved his hand to massage it in rhythm with his mouth, and with the other hand he fondle his balls to gently roll and weigh them.

David kept moaning in appreciation, putting some pressure on Mike's skull and tugging at some strands to keep control of the pace, bobbing the head at his pleasure.

Without any more control in himself, David cradled the head with his palms pressing both cheeks and began to frantically fuck Michael's mouth.

"Shit. I love you can handle this" he praised while moving his thump to open more the wet cavity. His panting went wild as well as his movements, causing Michael to give up and just relax his throat to take as much as David gave him.

"Michael you keep it like that and I'm coming soon." David said and then stopped his fucking. He whined and pulled out dripping cock. "Get up" he ordered. Michael obligued and tried to gain some balance putting his hands on David's waist.

"You got big hands, babe." David mentioned "Why don't you work them on us." He commanded unbuckling Michael's jeans while Mike himself spitted on his palm to add slickness. When Michael's dick sprung free, he brought their hardnesses together. The touch made them both gasp, but in search for more Mike took both cocks more firmly in his right hand and changed his angle a bit to fit them correctly in the grasp.

Both moaned feeling their swelled dicks move together, and David said, controlling his tone to not sound pleading "Move."

And Michael began the strokes. At first he struggled to keep both cocks in his hand, so he adjusted his fingers to handle them better and began to catch velocity.

Michael started to feel dizzy with pleasure. With the adrenaline from the hunting still flowing through his veins, the sexual act felt even more powerful. So he put his head on David shoulders and moaned louder. "Damnit." He squeezed harder on their cocks.

"Yes. Yes. Just like that, babe." David panted in his ear. He then took hold of his neck with one hand and licked the other to lubricate it before moving it down to help make a better hold on themselves. They both began trusting in matched tempo, seeking their mutual release. They keep thrusting as brutally as they could.

Moments past before Michael whined, signaling his closeness "Oh, god. God, Im gonna come! I'm gonna-" he groaned and lost control of himself, spurting his load, getting both their hands and bellies sticky. The excitement making his body loose made his fangs come out, biting David's shoulder while spasming.

With Michael's hand reflexing involuntarily, and David's hand milking the last of him with hard strokes, David came too, sighing satisfied with relief. After a few recovering moments he noticed Michael's hand had fallen, breaking the contact on the now resting organs, but still felt the fangs cutting through his rough skin. Albeit not hurt, he protested the injury trying to catch his lover's attention clearing his throat. When Michael didn't respond, he tried again taking a deep breath and speaking "I still need to teach you to control those." He then smiled

Michael chuckled.

#the lost boys oneshot #the lost boys imagine #the lost boys michael x david #michael emerson #michael the lost boys #david the lost boys #gays being vamps #my writings

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chongoblog · 5 years ago

Text

Zero Time Dilemma Review/Ramble

Okay, so if you’ve been following me, you know that I’ve gotten into the Zero Escape series, famous for 999 and Virtue’s Last Reward, streaming both games. I recently took the time to experience the last game, Zero Time Dilemma by watching cutscenes rather than playing it proper mostly because A) I heard it was REALLY dark and didnt want to risk it on Twitch and B) I wanted to experience it more freely like while I’m at work.

After experiencing it. I have......feelings about it. And because there’s MASSIVE spoilers involved, I’m making it its own post under the ReadMore below.

tl;dr LOADS of bullshit, flawed execution, and stupid decisions, but still REALLY enjoyed it

Okay so a LOT of this is going to be complaining, and like I said in the tl;dr I still legit enjoyed this game, so I’m gonna make this a compliment sandwich by saying something nice now, loading up on complaints, then ending with more compliments. Carlos is good. So is Sean. Sigma being voiced by Matthew Mercer actually makes him more interesting imo. I REALLY like Phi’s new design and the way they build on the initial concepts brought up in VLR more accurately portray the ideas that started all the way back in 999, that being the idea of taking thoughts across timelines, just like the player. From the beginning, the theme/gimmick was always “what if your character remembered information when you savescummed?” In 999 that began as flashes of information, and in VLR the characters’ consciousness actually time traveled at the very end. ZTD now uses the idea of the consciousness traveling across time and space and RUNS with it. I also think that Delta has a cool design.

I’ll be nice again later, but now for the things I Did Not Like.

Emo Moody Junpei makes sense from a writing standpoint, but that doesn’t mean I have to like him. Maybe I just got spoiled since Evan Wilson did a spectacular job with his deliveries in 999 and in ZTD it seems like his soul got sucked out. Not the fault of the delivery as much as it is the writing. Eric is bad, and I feel like that statement isn’t controversial. I don’t think anyone likes Eric, and if you do, then sorry for shitting on him so much, but god I just don’t like him. And the abusive childhood thing doesn’t give me a drop of sympathy, but then again I’ve always hated the writing trick that “this person is shitty and pathetic but it’s because abuse!” (see also Mikan). Diane is boring (sorry).

But I fuuuuuckin HATE Mira. I hate Mira so much. Like, at first I thought she’d be alright, yeah she’s definitely The Boob Character™, but I liked Lotus well enough and Alice grew on me significantly, so I don’t see why Mira won’t. Then she’s like “surprise I’m a serial killer”. Now if they just made her a serial killer, it would be kinda boring so I’m glad they TRIED something new. I just think the result was bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad. Like....”hmm I never felt any emotions so when my mom told me they were kept in hearts I just ripped em out of people :)” is some garbage I’d write in middle school when I felt especially edgy. Also yeah seems p ableist. I won’t go too deeper into Mira, since she’s a sociopath and I don’t know enough about the actual disorder to put a candle to the real thing, but....bleh.

I won’t touch on THIS aspect for too long because I’m aware that it had barely any budget and it wouldn’t have happened without a kickstarter (don’t know the details), but the animation is just....so stiff. It really takes away from the dramatic impact some scenes are meant to have. But even IF the animation wasn’t stiff, I still am not a big fan of the darker and moodier direction it went. Although that’s moreso down to personal preference. Final note about the presentation (which is by far the game’s weakest aspect) is that I noticed multiple points in the sound mixing got to nearly Sonic Adventure 2 levels of being unable to understand what people were saying.

Alright. Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Let’s talk about Delta. This is going to make up a MAJORITY of this post so strap in.

Delta is a meme. There’s no other way to say it briefly. He’s just such a huge fucking meme. Almost everything about him, from his plan to his “complex” motives to his backstory to his powers. I mentioned liking his design, but fuck it. That’s a meme now too. Delta is the stupidest part of the game, and as much as I kind of love it, I also need to complain about it.

First let’s talk about Delta’s plan (because it starts with the nicest part of this segment). His motives are “complex” which is actually greek for “he’s probably either a liar, an idiot, or both”. I said there was nice things, so I’ll start with those. The very ending’s “ah ah ah. I never killed any of you in this timeline. If you arrested someone for crimes of another history, there would be criminals everywhere” was something I actually legitimately enjoyed. Yeah, intent was still there and he’s still a bastard (plus there was kidnapping and non-consensual drugging involved so kind of a stupid take), but I still thought it was a fun attempt. And also the “I had to make sure I was born” thing is a mindfuck, and I love those. Basically the first retort is “well I’m alive, right? So I don’t need to make sure I was born with powers because I WAS born with powers, which means it happened in another universe. So I don’t have to.” Only to then realize that we’re just in the universe where he DID do that but then the only justification is “someone had to” right? Wrong. Let’s talk about the rest of his “complex” motives

So I give a pass to “I had to make sure I was born”, but now we see why he had to do this whole deal and what he declares at the end of the game. That there’s some religious fanatic who intends to blow up the world and completely end humanity. And he released Radical-6 in the VLR timeline hoping that it would kill the terroris only killing 4 billion people instead of 6 billion people. In the timeline at the end of ZTD, he says that they had used this experience to hone the skills of the Shifters that way they could use their newly honed take down the religious fanatic WITHOUT Radical-6 and save the world.

What?

Now......before I tear into this.....I have ONE nice thing to say. The “unleash radical 6 and kill 4 billion vs let a terrorist end humanity” gambit IS cleverly foreshadowed with the radical 6 decision game with Q Team. But also wouldn’t that have made, like 1800 times more narrative sense to give that decision game to team D who KNOWS the impact of radical 6, or team C who he explains this plan to later on? Damn, even my nice thing was backhanded. Alright let’s REALLY tear into it.

FIRST of all, this is the exact same plot of Virtue’s Last Reward. Only difference is that somehow Akane and Junpei are just as skilled at this technique as Sigma and Phi despite the latter going to do Moon Training (granted the moon training was also to give them enough of a jump to go back 45 years). Speaking of Virtue’s Last Reward, this game also reveals that Delta is Brother, the leader of Free the Soul. A group of religious fanatics. So I wouldn’t be especially shocked if the religious fanatic is working with Free the Soul. But for the sake of this argument, let’s just say they aren’t with FtS. How in the Flavor-Blasted FUCK does he know this? Did somebody Shift back from that timeline and then just get Mind hacked (and we’ll fUCKING talk about Mind Hacking dont you worry)? How would that be the only piece of information known about the end of the god damn world? And if there IS more, then why the fuck wouldn’t you tell them the information? How does he know that it’s inevitable when apparently a god damn snail can unleash Radical-6?

I call bullshit on the “religious fanatic” thing. Wanna know why? Because at this point, Delta had already founded Free The Soul. He started this shit in 1938. At this point in time, he and the rest of the Free the Soul had already kidnapped Alice’s dad to create clones of his dead brother. He was pushing for a new world order and then in the VLR timeline, tried to PREVENT this whole thing from happening by sending Dio to the Moon. So if he actually gave a shit about “honing their abilities” then why would he do everything in his power to stop it? There is ONE out that there can be, but it’s something not even HINTED at (and I’ll talk about this later), but I think that "religious fanatic” is a big ol’ lie that he made up to try and save face when he was faced with a consequence, but even that explanation makes no sense since he’s like “lol shoot me if u wanna I wont mind hack you”

And let’s talk about mind hacking. Let’s fucking talk about Mind Hacking. Adding Mind Hacking was stupid, completely pointless, out of left field, and actively makes Delta a worse character. For those that don’t know, Mind Hacking is an ability that only Delta has (and I guess the player character technically but that’s a whole meta thing from VLR that doesn’t get followed up on) where you can read people’s minds and also fuckin control them. Why? Why was this necessary, ZTD? You wanna know what I thought was really neat? When I saw that different timelines produced different X-Codes. I thought “oh shit, I know this is Game Stuff, but the sheer foresight of the villain to do that? That’s some Moriarty shit.” It would require some insane explanations, but we’ve had enough sci-fi that we could imagine with enough advanced tech, you could set up systems that could use conditionals to give certain responses based on certain outcomes. Like if someone dies after the decontamination room button is pressed, then the central computer outputs a different X-Code than if it’s after the initial vote. Just make up a new tech that accounts for Shifting (plus the QUANTUM COMPUTER you have RIGHT THERE) and you could make a villain with so much calculated foresight that he’s just a god damn genius. But no. Mind hacking. None of that interesting stuff, just “lol I read ur mind idiot”. No outwitting anyone, just “lol get mindhacked eric u scrub bang bang”.

Honest to god, honest to FUCKING god, do you want to know how cool the final cutscene would have made Delta look if he walked out and just KNEW what happened in another timeline because of his plans. Like everyone recognizes him as Delta and he just goes “ohoho I see you had a fun time in my other timeline” using that deduction alone. But nah, he’s just like “yo I just mindhacked y’all, nice experience y’all had” I hate mind hacking so much. There’s no part of his plan where he NEEDED to mind hack in order to succeed that could have been written without mind hacking.

Now there’s a bit of a missed opportunity here that could both make mind hacking relevant, made his motive not shit, and also maybe even developed him into a SUPER interesting character! I know this is a bit fanfic-y, but hear me out. Make Delta a VICTIM of the stable time loop/bootstrap paradox. For those who don’t know, the bootstrap paradox is when time travel makes certain events happen seemingly out of thin air since they are their own cause. Basically it’s this clip from Milo Murphy. This is something that seems like it’s KINDA there in the subtext, but if they actually dove into it, they could have a GOLD mine.

What if we keep the mindhacking, and before he even MAKES Free the Soul, he mindhacks someone who experienced the events of the “religious fanatic”. But not just anyone. An experienced SHIFTer who made it their goal to stop this religious fanatic. After hundreds of attempts, they still fail. Delta sees this and determines it to be inevitable. So he’s having fun, cursed by the knowledge of an inevitable apocalypse. Then he meets Akane, Phi, Sigma, or Junpei after they had undergone the events of VLR and ZTD. He learns that particular timeline. A bleak future, yes, but one single future where humanity is alive. He sees two futures, one in which all of humanity dies, and one where he is the leader of a religious cult that wipes out 4 Billion People with a deadly pandemic. And the idea of being that person disgusts him. He despises it. But he’s completely resigned to fate. He knows that things must go precisely as he’s seen at the price of humanity, too frightened by such a burden to even take a toe off of the predetermined pathway. His motive is that he’s so tightly bound to fate and so afraid to let it slip that he has no choice but to commit the atrocities, despising himself for it every step of the way, but considering it better than the inevitable alternative. It would give a purpose for the mindhacking powers, it would give him a solid motive, and it would make the ending SO much stronger, showing the contrast between a group of SHIFTers confident that they can change fate and the man who is completely resigned to his own. Fuck, I might steal this character concept because I REALLY think this idea would work to make an interesting villain!

Like I mentioned, this is KINDA there in subtext (with him quite frequently saying “life truly is unfair”) and this could be an interpretation of the character, but if ZTD had explored that theme, then holy hell what an interesting character Delta would be.

But even WITH this fix, holy hell, this plan is stupid. Because guess what, dingus. You just created like 30 new timelines that all end in annihilation.

He coulda said ONE line about “even if there is only one history that ends nicely, that is solace enough”, that might have been dark, but still powerful. You know, add some depth. But instead, he’s just like “hmm hmm shoot me”

And the Q Twist? I’m honestly not as mad at it as I should be. On one hand, it does that cute thing where there are little bits of foreshadowing so when you rewatch it, you notice little bits like shadows and stuff, but on the other hand, there are PLENTY of points where either the camera just straight up lies to you and doesn’t show him when he should be there or Delta’s just been fuckin SHMOOVIN on his wheelchair around the room constantly to stay out of the camera and everyone’s just been kinda chill with it. Maybe if they had been more careful with the camera it could have delivered a TOUCH better. Like, even if the shots are a bit off, that’s noticeable enough to be part of the hint, no? I don’t have as much to say about this, mostly because this post is getting long as fuck so I’m gonna wrap it up so I can move on with my life for a bit.

So even with ALL OF THAT, I still enjoyed playing the game. That’s right, compliment sandwich time. The three wards all being one ward was a really neat reveal. The fact that you can shoot Delta in one scene is creative with its replay value. I’m glad they touched on the philosophical idea of what happens to the people who made it out from the coin flip only to get SHIFTed into the exploding lab, and exploring that idea was fun. I absolutely lost my mind at the idea of the gun to sigmas head had a random chance of firing and then seeing it elaborated on in the dice scene directly after it. Gab is a good boy.

Cant wait to play AI

#long post #zero escape #ztd #ze spoilers

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dontbesoweirdkira · 6 years ago

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Can you do a list of Mic being pure w/ his favorite student, (y/n) (like, he’s not afraid to show it), but she’s living with her friend and their family since she’s alone in Japan, and trying to keep it a secret. But when he finds out he’s just “ASDFGHJKLWHAT”, and he’s trying to help her with so many things, which soon evolves to “custody of child—”.

https://dontbesoweirdkira.tumblr.com/post/189518600672/hey-its-me-again-i-hope-you-are-still-open-for

A/N: I first would like to say I ALSO HAVE EATEN A NUCLEAR REACTOR...it tasted like radiation and strawberries yummy! Here’s your soft present mic X student. I hope you enjoy.

(I kind of made it where you aren’t fully living with your friend. Just bouncing from the streets to her house every so often if that makes sense??)Requests open

-So at first Mic didn’t notice anything was up...well no he did but he kind of brushed it off since he didn’t want to cross any boundaries.

-Like when he asked for your parents signature but they were always somehow “out of town” or “working overtime”

-Or when he was going to offer you a ride home since it was pretty late but you just insisted to walk by yourself. And how you didn’t bother to call them and let them know you were going to be home a bit later than usual.

-He was always curious but like i said he didn’t want to cross a boundary and make you feel uncomfortable about something so personal. Besides how would he bring it up?

-”Hey Y/N, Why do you always conveniently “forget” to fill out your home address on forms?”

-Yeah see his dilemma?^ And like what if it was nothing and it really was just a convenience. It seemed better to leave it alone and not worry. You’d tell him if something was going on, right?

-Maybe one day you’re talking to your friend and He’s just around the corner so he overhears the conversation.

-”Hey Y/N, my family is going out of town for a few weeks. I- i would ask if you could come with so you’ll have some place to stay but we are going out of the county and you know how that is..”

-”Oh..um..Don’t worry, I'll figure something out.”

-”Are you sure? I- i can always leave the house key so you can have somewhere safe to go? But uhm, My cousin might come over every so often to watch a game or to check the house so be alert and make sure he doesn’t see you.”

-”N-No it’s okay, seriously. I’ll find somewhere to go, thank you though. ”

-”Well, I'll leave the key under the doormat if you change your mind, we’re leaving in the afternoon tomorrow so after then the place will be yours for a bit.I’ll text you later, ‘kay?”

-He’s shocked?? Like he thought maybe your at home life wasn’t good or maybe you were embarrassed about living in a low income place, but you were homeless?? And you’ve been staying with your friends every so often?? Why didn’t you tell him? Did you not feel comfortable? He’s in this weird state of shock and acknowledgement.

-For the rest of the school day hE Is cOnTemPlaTiNg oN WhaT tO Do. He’s not sure how he should bring it up or even if he should bring it up.

- *is casually being torn apart internally as he’s trying to teach english*

-*dEeP sPaCe STarE while he is standing at the board pointing to the sentence structures*

-”Sensei, are you oka-”

-”IMTHINKINGASHARDASICANTOFIGUREOUTASOLUTIONDONTPRESSUREMEoKaY.”

-lolol but once classes are over he taps you on the shoulder and asks if he could walk with you home for a bit. You visibly nervous, you reject and say “Umm It’s all right Mr.Hizashi, you’re busy and I don't want you to take up any of your time plus it’s late and I'm tired and i have to go and-”

-”Y/n...You don’t have to make up excuses, I know you don’t have anywhere to stay.”

-stopping in your tracks, your eyes went wide and you faced him

-”I heard you talking to that friend this morning.”

-M-mr.Hizashi I can explain-”

-cutting you off once again he begins “Hey, you don’t have to do any of that. It’s your business. But I don’t want you to just roaming around or staying anywhere alone anymore, okay? If you would like, I have an extra bedroom at my house, you can stay there until we get everything sorted.”

-”No..Mr.Hizashi...It’s okay..I’ll be okay, I’ve always have. Plus you have been such a great teacher and already went out of your way more than what I could have asked...staying with you would be too much.”

-”Y/n, it’s okay to ask for help. I seriously don’t mind. At least stay for the night so you can eat and have a roof over your head, then in the morning we’ll figure something out.”

-You hesitantly accepted but you told him that you’d be out of his hair as soon as the next morning hit.

-That night going to his house was...nice to say the least. The guest bedroom that he had was bigger than your friend’s kitchen and nicer than any place that you’ve stayed at. It really was heaven. So warm and cosy. There was a nice sense of nostalgia and security, something you’ve haven’t felt in years. His home was somewhere anyone would want to live in their whole lives.

-”Once you’ve settled down, you can come to the dining room. I ordered some take out, I figured you’d be hungry.”

-For a moment you sat on the fluffy bed and just took in everything. God was so good to you right now and honestly you thanked him. Although it frustrates you to think that this would only last for a second and you’d be back on the streets, roaming around. Yeah yeah, Hizashi wants to help you but you knew soon he’d get tired of your presence in his house…..they all did.

-Taking a deep breath, you went to go meet hizashi in the dining room.

-He welcomed you then motioned you to sit down at any of the seats at the table. “Oh hey, there’s miss america. You may sit anywhere you’d like. And help yourself to the food here.”

-You sat down across from him, only not to look at him just to have your eyes on the empty plate in front of you. You didn’t really touch any of the food actually or even make a sound. You weren’t trying to be rude or anything, you just..there was a lot on your mind and facing hizashi seemed difficult.

-”Are you okay Y/N? I hope sushi is okay. I- i meant to um ask what you would like to eat first. I’m sorry.”

-”No I’m sorry for-,” twiddling your thumbs for a moment you then looked towards the blonde fellow “Mr.Hizashi..My parents left when I was around three but they left me with my aunt. She was a very good person and took good care of me but she got very ill...and um you know. At first I was living in her apartment but i couldn’t pay for it when it was time for rent so..I stayed with my friend for a couple of months. But her parents kind of got tired of me staying there and it was this thing, so I lied and told them I found a family member to stay with. And um up until now I've been staying on the streets. Sometimes having a sleepover once every so often.”

-”Y/n…”

-”I didn’t tell you because I was so scared… I didn't know what to do and I really really don’t want to go in foster care or anything so I just thought I was better off keeping it from you. But I guess it backfired anyways because you still found out haha….I’m sorry Hizashi. I hope you don’t think of me any less. I- it was a tough situation and all and you know how that is...”

-He immeadately stood up, walked over to you and hugged you. It was with So mUcH compassion and genuine love. You really was his favorite student no scratch that HIS FAVORITE HUMAN i swear he would end the world for you.

-He gave you a little cheek kiss and was like “I’m not letting anyone put you in foster care and I'm sure as hell am not kicking you out even if i have to take custody of you.”

-”w-wait what? wAiT wHaT???”

-”KID IM fucking keeping you here safe with me even if i’m in court all year. We are going to make this work somehow, you aren’t doing this alone anymore. Do you understand?”

-YeAh hEs cRyInG iM cRyinG yOuRe CryInG wE aLl CryinG

-BRO YOU ARE UGLY CRYING NOT NO SOFT CUTE CRY LIKE HAHA YOU SOUND LIKE A WALRUS TRYING TO SAY ‘t-tH-Th-HaNKy-yyy-YoUUU-UOi mR hIzZaShIiIi”

-He whipes the tears of your cheeks and ruffles your hair

-”it’ll be okay Y/N, I promise.”

-I swear he’s like rushing to the computer and trying to figure out how to adopt you.

-”HoW tO aDoPt a ChILD wHen You aRe a hEro.”

-There's an actual wiki-how about it???????

-No but he’s really doing his research and is visiting lawyers trying to find the right one. He has them immediately looking into everything and making sure that his chances of getting you is as high as possible.

-He’s up late at night on the phone, emailing, and writing

-He has pounds and pounds of evidence that he is the most fit person to take care of you. He is not playing whatsoever

-He already let’s you decorate and he even gives you an office so you can do work or whatever. He most definitely brought you clothes and stuff for your room.

-When the courts and everything finally approves it after a long year of fighting, he picked you up and spun you around.

-”What did I tell you?!? I was not going to lose you and i made sure of that. And starting today and the rest of forever you’ll never have to be alone.”

-BonUs

-100% takes you out somewhere super fun and nice.

-”Wait we must take a selfie, The first day we are legally Father-daughter!”

-The most chaotic duo now, Everyone at school knows he adopted you and like he won't let anyone forget it.

-MISSSSSS AMERICAAAAAAA, is now, MISSSSSSS HIZAAAAASSSHHHHHIIIIIIII.

-”WHEEEEERRREEEE ISSS MYYYY LITTLE MUSHROOM???”

-”YYYYYY/NNNNN YOU LEFT YOUR BAG IN MY MINIVAN.”

-He has a minivan now. It also has a ‘Yeah I’m a soccer dad and i’m proud’ sticker on it.

-He joined the PTA

-HE IS SOOO BIASED I SWEAR NO ONE IS ABOVE YOU IN HIS CLASS AND NO ONE BETTER SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT

-Always hugging you and giving you little cheek kisses when he sees you in the halls

-Made a titled track called “Now a dad”

-he most definitely wears ‘Best Dad’ shirts now. He also is in a ‘Single dad’s in Japan’ group now

-”I think we look just alike, Don’t we Y/N?” you both smiled and posed at the same time

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sylvie-writes · 5 years ago

Note

Hi lovely! I was wondering if you could write headcannons for Andy, Ransom, Steve, and Chris? Nothing too long or anything just little snippets of how they would help plan your wedding? I started my period today and need all the fluff I can get and I can’t help but think about how each guy would help plan it differently.

Four Weddings

a/n: thank you for the request babe! It was such a cute idea! sorry I meant to post it last night, but I fell asleep haha! And best of luck, periods are the worse 🥺

Andy

The day Andy had proposed to you was one of the happiest days of your life.

A part of you couldn't believe it had finally happened and you may have pinched yourself just to make sure it wasn’t a dream.

Both you and Andy enjoyed the beach, so you decided to plan your wedding for early June.

This was your wedding, and you wanted to do it without the help of a wedding planner.

And that’s exactly what you did.

For about two weeks, you’d stay up with Andy, curled in bed, while scrolling through different venues and such on your phone.

“Honey, it’s midnight, I hate to be an old man, but shouldn’t we get some sleep?”

Andy quietly yawned against your hair, his beard lightly tickling the side of your face as he did so.

Gently, you patted his chest and set the phone on the nightstand, going back to snuggle into his side.

“I’m just excited to become Mrs. Barber, that's all.”

You smiled at the thought, kissing Andy’s collarbone in a goodnight fashion as you were too comfortable to sit back up.

Your fiance just pulled you closer to him, smiling down on you although you couldn't see.

“I know, sweetheart, and believe me, I’m very excited too. Maybe even a bit more than you.”

With a quiet chuckle from the both of you, you and Andy drifted off to sleep, preparing for the next few weeks of wedding planning.

The next day, you were both up bright and early since Andy had offered to take you around to every venue.

He liked making his girl happy, that was a known fact.

Needless to say, Andy held your hand throughout the whole experience.

And when it came time to hold your hand once more and slip on a ring, the man was more than eager to do so.

“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

The ordained pastor smiled at you both when Andy tenderly leaned you down to the ground, vail brushing the sand, and firm hand on your back as he kissed you. Making it the very first kiss between Mr. and Mrs. Barber.

Ransom

Weddings are quite the expense, but to Ransom, money was nothing. Especially when it came to your happiness.

That man spoiled you to death and even hired a wedding planner.

Your wedding was planned for sometime around the Christmas holiday, maybe not the best idea as your relatives had to fly out to Boston.

Unfortunately, you mother called, almost in tears, and that woman never cried.

“Honey, we can’t get tickets!”

You were devastated, but there was no way your parents could drive that far, and you absolutely wouldn’t let them.

So once off the phone, you went into your bedroom and let out a good cry.

Tears fell onto your pillow as you clutched your knees and said pillow to your chest, wishing Ransom was there to comfort you.

It was upsetting, and you had to have no heart to not cry.

Weddings only happened once (hopefully) and you wanted your parents to be there.

At the moment, it seemed as if it would never happen, but suddenly your fiance came into the room, hearing your cries from down the stairs.

His eyes softened and he crawled onto the bed with you, holding your shaking form close to his chest.

“Precious, what’s wrong?”

Ransom rocked you back and forth, as you cried into his neck.

Muffled response, “My parents can’t fly out to the wedding.”

For a moment, your fiance didn’t respond, and you had inferred that he thought you were being ridiculous.

That was until he whispered against your hair, “Well sweetheart, I can just fly them out, why didn’t you say so?”

Problem solved, Ransom even flew your parents out so early, that your mother was able to help you plan, something you hadn’t imagined in years.

Your wedding was more gorgeous in person, way more amazing than you had dreamed of as a young girl.

The prince to your happy ending stood at the end of the aisle, smiling at you like there was no tomorrow.

Steve

Your wedding with Steve had been a breeze to plan as you had the help of the Avengers.

The thought of Earth’s mightiest heroes planning your wedding made you giggle at its irony.

In half the time, the wedding plans were complete, venue and all.

Tony had been kind enough to pay for a majority as he wouldn't take no for an answer. That man was like a father to you.

With wedding plans out of the way, it allowed for more time between you and Steve.

Steve, ever the romantic, had surprised you with the best gift possible.

Unbeknownst to you, you had even helped him get the gift!

The breeze outside was blowing softly, tussling a few of Steve’s blonde locks.

Currently, the two of you were laying out in a nice grass field, having traveled up North for some downtime.

A little picnic basket rested beside you as your fiance’s head rested in your lap. You absent-mindedly ran your hand through his hair as he sketched away.

Too caught up in nature, you paid no mind to Steve’s very specific questions.

“So doll, hypothetically speaking, how would your dream wedding ring look?”

You were so dazed with this moment of peace, that you spoke without realizing your own words.

With a chuckle, you continued, “Oh, now any ring would be an honor to wear, and of course I’d love it, but if this were a hallmark movie, I’d love…”

You listed the specs of your fantasized ring, a smile on your face as you day-dreamt of the accessory.

Lost in your dream, you hadn’t noticed as Steve sketched the exact replica of your words, smiling to himself when you didn’t say a word about the drawing.

He knew very well that you were caught up in your mind, making his plan work perfectly.

Now, here you were, standing in a jeweler's shop, choking on a few happy sobs.

You thought back to that day and slowly put the pieces together.

“Hopefully you like it,” Steve scratched at the back of his neck, “I tried my best to envision it as you spoke.”

With a dropped-jaw you turned to him and immediately threw your arms around his neck.

“This is absolutely gorgeous, Steven. It’s everything I could have imagined, and a bit more.”

You pulled away from his neck with a smile, pressing a kiss to his lips.

The day of your wedding was quite the memory as the many guests listened to the sweet story with smiles, happy tears, and rounds of applause.

Chris

“(y/n)...”

Chris lightly shook your shoulder, eliciting a groan from you.

“Guess what day it is, gorgeous?”

Groaning once more, you turned on your back, looking up at the hovering man over you.

“There’s those pretty eyes of yours!”

He kissed your temple with a big smile on his face.

“What is so important that you had to wake me up, Christopher?”

A small pout wiggled on his lips, “It’s cake tasting day!”

Then your eyes went wide with excitement. The two of you were like adult-children when it came to cake.

About an hour later, you and Chris were both in the car, ready to try some cakes.

The shop owner greeted you both with a bright smile and motioned for you to come into the shop.

It was so Iovely to have the shop to yourself, especially upon seeing an endless variety of cakes lining the counter.

Playfully, Chris rubbed his hands together, ready for some cake.

The two of you walked towards the counter, the only sound being your shoes clacking against the bakery floor.

A few minutes before you had gone over to the counter, the baker cut the slices of cake, and then walked out to give you both some privacy.

First up was a beautifully decorated lemon cake, a lace frosting lining its top layer.

You brought the fork to your lips, taking a small bite when your fiancé stole the fork and tried some cake for himself.

For another five cakes, you and Chris repeated the process, many giggles in between.

When tasting the red velvet cake, your little regime got interrupted.

You sampled the cake, taking a bigger chomp than usual.

As you did so, the frosting stuck to your lip and you struggled to lick it away with your tongue, for there was no napkin in sight.

Chris laughed at you, but then you pointed to his lips, where some frosting also stuck to his own lips.

“Pot calling the kettle black.”

Goofily, you grinned at Chris who was in the same dilemma.

Chris waved at you to come close, sealing the distance between you.

You both kissed, frosting covered lips pressed together.

“I must say Ms. (Y/n), red velvet is quite the flavor on you.”

The man quirked an eyebrow in surprise and you laughed, turning back to taste the cakes that were left on the island.

And yes, you and Chris decided on red velvet for the wedding.

#chris evans x reader #Steve rogers x reader #andy barber x reader #ransom drysdale x reader

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lake-arrius-caverns · 4 years ago

Text

Nerevarine Rising

Chapter 13: Three’s A Crowd

hey just a PSA that since i’ve fallen behind (this chapter is ridiculously late) i’m going to take a short break from posting for a while to work on building up a buffer! (join our discord and bug me to write pls)

summary Fahjoth is hopeful that tensions between Julan and Ribyna will settle, but their animosity risks a guild assignment going pear-shaped.

content warnings violence, blood, minor character death

read under the cut or on AO3, cheers 👍

:: First :: || << Previous << || >> Next >> || :: Masterpost ::

————————————————————————

He stood quietly awaiting a response after rapping his knuckles on the door, but only a heavy silence greeted him. Frowning, Fahjoth tried again, a little more forcefully this time. This was the right room, wasn’t it?

The third knock finally yielded a result. From within the room came a low, long groan, and Fahjoth took that as his cue to open the door a sliver and peer inside.

“Rise and shine,” he called, trying to hold back a grin at the state his friend was in. Julan was slouched on the bed, fully clothed and burying his face in his hands. “How are you feeling?”

“Ugh… fantastic,” came Julan’s gruff response. “Why did you let me drink so much?”

“You’re the one who kept asking for more! Want me to stop you next time?”

“Yes.” Julan paused. “Maybe. I don’t know. Sheogorath, it feels like my head’s about to explode…”

Fahjoth chuckled, pushing the door open a little more to step inside. “Are you up for training today? Or d’you need some time to, uh… recover?”

“No, no, I’ll be fine,” Julan insisted, hauling himself to his feet and staggering slightly on the spot as he fought to balance himself. “So how come you’re looking so fresh this early?”

“Early?” Fahjoth repeated. “Mate, it’s gone midday.”

“It has?” Julan squinted at Fahjoth as he rubbed his head. “Gods… alright, there’s no time to waste then. What’s the plan?”

“Well, I thought maybe we could do something a bit more practical today,” Fahjoth started. “How d’you fancy taking out a bandit leader?”

“Bandits? Sure.”

With no sign of Cosades to be seen that morning, Fahjoth had stopped by the Fighters Guild to find something, anything to keep him busy and to keep the gold coming in. While the prospect of facing an entire gang of bandits by himself was daunting, he was a little more confident that he and Julan would be able to deal with it together. And having Ribyna tag along couldn’t hurt, although he hoped that she and Julan would be able to put their differences aside for the time being.

Julan continued to chatter as he sat back down again to pull on his boots. “D’you do this sort of thing regularly?”

“Sort of.” Fahjoth leaned against the doorframe, waiting and watching idly. “I’ve done a few jobs for the Fighters Guild to earn a bit more gold. Nothing this big before, mind.”

“The Fighters Guild? You’ve never mentioned that. Fighters… they’re alright, I guess.” Julan suddenly looked up, eyes wide. “Hey, have you ever seen a Nord hit himself in the face with his own hammer?”

“No?”

Julan sighed, a grin growing on his face. “Well, me neither, but I live in hope.” He stood up and approached the doorway, patting Fahjoth on the shoulder as he reached him. “After you.”

Fahjoth laughed as he headed out of the cornerclub, feeling an odd excitement begin to quiver somewhere in his gut. Or was that nervousness? Whatever it was, the feeling intensified as he stepped outside and came face-to-face with his twin, who was leaning against the wall and looking bored stiff as she waited for them.

“About fucking time,” Ribyna muttered, and as Julan stepped out after him, Fahjoth heard him falter. His good mood instantly took a nosedive; he had been hopeful for a few more moments of peace at least before the hostilities began again.

“Are you still up for coming with us to Suran, Beebs?” Fahjoth asked, in an attempt to ease the tension.

“Why the fuck else d’you think I’d be stood here like a lemon waiting for you?” She jerked her head towards Julan. “The question is whether drunk tank here can cope with it.”

Julan frowned. “I’ll be fine.”

“You sure about that? You got pretty hammered last night.” Ribyna’s voice was casual, but the glare she fixed Julan with was hard and cold. “You almost drank a hole in Fahji’s coin purse.”

“What does that even—”

“Guys!” Fahjoth said abruptly, rubbing his temple as he spoke. Better to nip this in the bud before it became blown out of proportion. “Let’s get going, shall we? It’s a fair way to Suran. It’d be nice to get there before it gets dark.”

Neither Ribyna nor Julan continued to bicker, but the scathing looks they shot at each other instead left Fahjoth’s nerves shot. Julan’s eyes eventually met Fahjoth’s own and he began to look quite guilty.

“Sorry, Fahjoth,” Julan said. “Go ahead.”

Fahjoth flashed Julan a small smile of appreciation before setting off out of town. The balmy afternoon sun warming the top of his head offered little comfort as he dreaded having to break up fight after fight between his two companions, an outcome that was looking more likely by the minute.

——————————————

The journey to Suran passed mostly in a very strained silence. Fahjoth would make conversation with Julan or with Ribyna, but never both at the same time, as they seemed to be doing their best to ignore each other. Fahjoth wasn’t sure whether he preferred that over the snide comments and defensive retorts.

His contact in Suran, Serjo Avon Oran, resided in what was possibly the grandest house Fahjoth had ever set foot in. Delicate steps and care to avoid breaking or dirtying anything led the three to Oran; on speaking to him, Fahjoth learned that the bandits were occupying a cave among the hills to the northeast.

“Be careful,” Oran had cautioned. “Nasty piece of work, those bandits. But take out their leader, Daldur Sarys, and the rest should scatter. Good luck.”

With this advice in mind, Fahjoth was thoughtful as they exited Oran Manor and stepped out into the cool Suran evening.

“I felt so weird being in a house like that,” Julan remarked. “I was expecting someone to yell at me for trailing muck all over their floor…”

“You know, you were trailing a lot more than muck in there,” Ribyna replied. She sniffed, looking down at Julan’s boots. “Is that guar shit?”

A momentary flash of alarm crossed Julan’s face and he hastily lifted up his foot to check the underside of his shoe, only to scowl as Ribyna in turn cackled like a hyena.

“Don’t listen to her, she’s winding you up,” Fahjoth said with a sigh. “Right, well, if you’re done, shall we get going? We’re losing daylight. Unless we got a room for the night and headed out first thing.”

“Oh no, I’m not hanging around any longer than I need to!” Ribyna insisted, already turning on her heel and strolling out under the town’s entrance archway. “We’re going. What are you? Men or scribs?”

“You know that shit doesn’t work on me!” Fahjoth called, but nonetheless he followed suit, glancing back to ensure that Julan was following.

“Well, come on then! You and Guar-Boy better get a move on, or those bandits will have died of old age by the time we get there.”

Fahjoth said nothing, merely trotted along in Ribyna’s wake with an exasperated roll of his eyes. Likewise, Julan was quiet, but when Fahjoth risked a peek back at him, he caught him furiously mouthing “Guar-Boy?!” under his breath.

The road to Saturan was pleasantly empty. With the shadows cast by the sun growing as it sank behind the hills, plunging them into the bitterly chilly shade, Fahjoth was grateful that they encountered no trouble along the way.

By the time they located Saturan, dusk had come and gone, leaving only clear dark skies glittering with distant stars overhead. Fahjoth shivered as he stared at the cave entrance, the dilapidated wooden door concealing the unknown that lay within. He took a few cautious steps closer and gently pushed the door open, wincing as the hinges emitted a slight, shrill creak. The inside of the cave stretched further in than Fahjoth could see, its earthy tunnels lit by bracketed torches propped up on long iron poles jutting up from the ground.

The entrance cave meandered on for a short distance, descending deeper into the hill until opening up into a much larger cavern. The path was supplemented by a rough wooden boardwalk, its far end strewn with crates and candles and a ladder leading down to the lower levels. Fahjoth scuttled along, taking care not to hit his head on the low-hanging stalactites until he reached the crates, and beckoned Julan and Ribyna along behind him as he tucked himself behind one. Here, they looked down upon the lower boardwalk, where a few others paced back and forth, carrying boxes and sacks of loot back and forth. Fahjoth’s gaze was fixed down below, but he heard Ribyna and Julan settling down and crouching on either side.

“So, these must be the bandits,” Julan whispered. “Have you got a plan?”

“Sort of,” Fahjoth answered. “We need to get to the leader, somehow. Daldur Sarys. If we can take him out with a sneak attack, the rest should scatter like Oran said.”

“Right! So… how do we get to Sarys? Which one is Sarys, anyway?”

Fahjoth paused, frowning as he stared down at the bandit activity below. Truthfully, it was impossible to know exactly who their target was; all they could do was hope to hear his name brought up in conversation and go from there. But how long could they stay put, before someone discovered them and raised the alarm?

As Fahjoth pondered this rather pressing dilemma, he became aware of a soft rustling and clinking coming from his left. He glanced over, his heart beginning to hammer as he watched Ribyna idly rummaging through one of the crates.

“Oh hey, look!” She held up what seemed to be a bottle of sujamma, admiring it in the soft orange light of a nearby candle. “There’s loads of this shit in here! We won’t have to buy drinks for like, a week with this lot.”

Like Fahjoth, Julan’s agitation was evident.

“Put that down, they’ll hear you!” he hissed, lunging for the bottle. Though he made contact, Ribyna refused to relinquish it, keeping a firm grip on it herself.

“Piss off, Guar-Boy, get your own!”

“I’m not trying to steal it, you s’wit!”

“Oh yeah, right-o! I bet you’d be happy to guzzle this whole crate by yourself, you fucking alchie!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?! Let go—!”

With one sharp tug from Julan, the bottle was wrenched from Ribyna’s grip. But Julan, not expecting Ribyna to let go, toppled back and hit the boardwalk with a dull thud. His elbow struck the wood and the bottle was flung from his grasp, sailing over the side of the boardwalk and crashing against the wooden deck below, shattering on impact and splattering its sweet, frothy innards in a graceful explosion of liquor.

“Shit—!”

Fahjoth ducked back behind the crates, keeping himself as low to the ground as possible as he reached out towards Julan and hauled him back to safety as soon as he felt their hands meet. As the three huddled together, their breathing laboured with the effort of remaining as silent as possible, Fahjoth strained his ears to listen.

It was quiet. Far too quiet. The sounds of activity below ceased entirely as all bandits froze in their tracks.

“What the hell?”

Over the sound of Fahjoth’s own rapid heartbeat reverberating in his head, he listened to the soft creaking of the wooden planks beneath the bandits’ cautious feet becoming louder as the seconds ticked by. They couldn’t remain there for much longer.

“Fahjoth,” Julan whispered, “we have to do something.” He paused to listen for a moment before continuing with the same hushed urgency, “If we all rush out at the same time, maybe we can catch them off-guard.”

“Yeah. It’s our best chance,” Fahjoth agreed. “Alright... ready? One... two... three!”

Julan led the assault. He vaulted down the steps and engaged with the first bandit, an Orc who was unlucky enough to be standing closest. As Fahjoth followed suit, from his periphery he saw Ribyna leap over the crates and land on the lower boardwalk where she lunged at the closest bandit. The force from her collision knocked them both clean off the edge, causing a loud squelch as they landed in the muck beneath.

Fahjoth drew his weapon as he charged forward and the Redguard bandit in front of him scrambled back for distance, reaching for his own axe. But Fahjoth was faster, and the Redguard hollered as his hand was struck with Fahjoth’s sword, leaving an angry, weeping welt across his knuckles. With the blade sailing ever closer, the Redguard threw up both hands in an act of surrender.

“I yield!” he cried, and Fahjoth ceased his attack. There was no way he could kill a surrendering man... But his sword hand did not waver, and after a second he spoke the first thing that came to mind.

“I’ll give you one chance,” he said, his voice heavy with threat. “Your group’s done. Get out.”

The Redguard needed no encouragement. Edging around Fahjoth’s sword, he broke into a sprint up the steps and fled, his footsteps echoing down the cavern until the creaking of the door in the distance announced his departure.

As he caught his breath, Fahjoth glanced around to see how his companions were faring. His eyes fell on Julan; his sword was slick with blood and his opponent had dropped twitching to the ground, and a surge of admiration welled up in Fahjoth’s chest. He opened his mouth to call over to him, but the air froze in his chest as a shadow caught his eye.

A hunched figure crept closer to Julan, the glint of a blade flashing in the candlelight as it was drawn from its sheath.

“Julan!” Fahjoth yelled, kicking off into a mad dash back up the boardwalk to his friend. The figure, a Dunmer, recognising that his cover had been blown, fully brandished his weapon and rushed towards Julan as well. As Julan raised his own sword, Fahjoth caught up with the bandit and threw himself legs-first at the bandit’s ankles.

A burning pain radiated out from his shin as the bandit’s foot collided with it. Fahjoth skidded to the ground, but his effort had been enough. The Dunmer, tripped up by Fahjoth’s sliding tackle, stumbled forward — and directly into range of Julan’s shortsword. Julan lunged, impaling the bandit clean through the neck. With blood dribbling from his gurgling mouth, the bandit crumpled to his knees, and after a hard kick to the chest from Julan, he dropped to the ground and fell still.

With his leg throbbing, Fahjoth struggled to get his feet, but Julan was quick to approach and offer a hand which he gladly accepted. But before he could say his thanks, footsteps at the end of the cavern alerted them to the arrival of two more Dunmer.

One of them, donning thick chitin armour, stared at the scene in shock before his angular features twisted with rage.

“You’ll regret killing my people, you n’wah!” he hissed, drawing a glimmering sword as he stepped closer. Behind him, the second Dunmer — donning the elegant robes of a mage — raised his hands as he prepared a blistering fiery spell. Julan prepared his own spell in retaliation, but before the mage could attack, a dark figure on the ground beneath the boardwalk suddenly lunged at his legs.

The mage howled as Ribyna plunged her dagger into his knee, and as he was rendered lame and unbalanced, she grabbed his robes and dragged him down to the ground with her. The head bandit — Daldur Sarys — snapped his head around in alarm, and Fahjoth took his opportunity.

He struck at Sarys with his sword, but Sarys faced him in time to block it with his own, the hilt vibrating in Fahjoth’s hand and the blades screeching as they clashed. As Fahjoth jumped back to avoid Sarys’ retaliation, Julan’s voice rang out from behind.

“Fahjoth, get down!”

Without hesitation, Fahjoth ducked.

The hairs on the back of his neck prickled as a crackling energy sailed overhead. He risked peering up in time to witness a bolt of electricity crashing down on Sarys. As the magic jolted through his body, he gave a choked gasp and stumbled back, and Fahjoth took his chance. He whacked at Sarys’ sword arm, and — as he drew a deep breath and steeled himself — slashed his blade across the bandit’s throat.

With a deep laceration in his neck now gushing blood, Sarys began to stagger on the spot. A weak glow illuminated his hand as he tried desperately to heal himself, but the damage had already been done. Unable to breathe, and with his own blood generously painting both himself and the wooden planks beneath his feet, Sarys could only remain standing for a few seconds more before his legs gave way beneath him and, like the rest of his comrades, he collapsed.

With the silence in the cavern now punctuated only by the sound of their ragged panting, Fahjoth turned to face Julan, taking deep breaths in an attempt to force his heart rate back to normal. The pain in his leg now pulsed much more noticeably than before.

“I think that’s all of them,” he said, limping to meet Julan and weakly wiggling his sword to shake off the blood. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Julan answered. “What about you? Is your leg okay? That fall looked nasty.”

“It will be,” Fahjoth replied, but before he could continue, a noise behind them caused them both to whirl around in alarm. Fahjoth’s heart hammered again, but it calmed as soon as he realised it was just Ribyna, wearily clambering back up onto the boardwalk from the muddy cave floor beneath, splattered from head to foot with a grim combination of muck and blood. Fahjoth started towards her and offered a hand to help her up — which she ignored entirely.

“Beebs! Are you alright—“

“No thanks to you.”

Fahjoth paused. “What d’you mean?“ She had since got to her feet, but as Fahjoth tried to reach out to her again, he faltered as she smacked his hand away. “Ribyna, what’s the matter?”

Ribyna didn’t answer. Instead she gave a derisive scoff, turning away from Fahjoth and making a half-hearted attempt to clean the grime off her leathers. Confusion gave way to a prickling anger as Fahjoth’s blood began to boil.

Before he could stop himself, he had snapped back.

“What exactly is your problem? I mean if it wasn’t for you fighting with Julan, none of this would have happened in the first place! What the hell were you thinking?!”

Ribyna let out a humourless laugh. “Oh yeah, that’s right! Go on, blame me instead of your new best mate who can do no wrong!”

“What?” Fahjoth’s mouth dropped open as he stumbled over his words. “W— where’s this coming from?”

“As if you need to ask! It’s like he’s the only one who matters now!”

From beside him, Fahjoth noticed Julan bristle and take a breath as he prepared his retort. Fahjoth held up a hand and shot him a pleading glance — a silent request to let him handle this situation, which Julan thankfully obliged.

“Beebs, you’re being ridiculous—”

“Am I, though?! Ever since he joined us, you’ve been siding with him and defending him all the time!”

Fahjoth frowned, his frustration from Ribyna’s behaviour over the past few days finally bubbling over and spilling out. “Because you’ve been treating him like shit!”

“He treated us like shit, Fahjoth! Or have you forgotten already?!”

“I apologised for that,” Julan interjected with a frown.

Glancing between Julan and Ribyna, Fahjoth nodded. “He did apologise for that, Beebs.”

Ribyna cackled again, a rough, unpleasant sound devoid of any mirth. “There, you’re doing it again! Well, d’you know what, I’m done. I’m fed up of you picking this random guar-fucker over your own fucking family.”

Fahjoth stepped back, Ribyna’s words hitting him like a punch to the face as a wave of unease washed over him. “But... I’m not—”

“Save it!”

She turned away, and Fahjoth’s stomach churned as he noticed an unmistakable dark red stain oozing from her hairline, just before her temple.

“Ribyna? Did you— are you hurt?”

He stepped closer again and cautiously touched her shoulder, but another hard strike from Ribyna sent him recoiling instantly.

“Ribyna—!”

“Fuck you both. See you ‘round.”

Ignoring Fahjoth’s cries, Ribyna wheeled around and stormed off with a distinct unsteadiness in her steps. His gut twisting and a cold sweat settling on his skin, Fahjoth continued to shout after his twin long after her angry footsteps had receded into silence.

“Ribyna!”

With nothing answering him but the gentle dripping of water from the cave roof, Fahjoth dropped his head into his hand and sighed. Things had been tense with Ribyna lately, but he hadn’t anticipated such a blow-out. He hadn’t realised she still held such a grudge for Julan’s attitude on their first encounter. Why couldn’t she have just talked to him about this? He was used to her stubborn reticence, but it was still incredibly frustrating.

“I’m sorry.”

Fahjoth turned around. Julan was standing there, looking almost as wretched as Fahjoth felt.

“What are you apologising for, mate?”

Julan wrung his hands, dropping his gaze. “I just… I feel like this is all my fault.”

“Hey, don’t be daft!” Fahjoth took a few hasty steps forward until he was close enough to rest his hands on Julan’s shoulders. “It’s not your fault. Ribyna is just…” He grimaced, shrugging as he wondered how best to explain. “She isn’t the easiest person in the world to get on with. She doesn’t really… make friends very easily.”

“But my point still stands!” Julan protested. “Me being here is just causing you problems. You wouldn’t be fighting with your twin if it wasn’t for me.”

Fahjoth scoffed. “I wouldn’t be so sure. We always squabble over… pretty much everything. But— look…” He gave Julan’s shoulders a squeeze and crouched the few inches necessary until they were at eye-level with each other, trying to convey his sincerity with a small smile. “I promised I’d help you train, and I’m sticking to that. Whether that’s with or without Ribyna. Okay?”

Julan managed a weak smile in return. “Okay.”

“Anyway, you’re not just causing me problems!” Fahjoth continued. “Look at what we did today! I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you, mate.”

“You probably would have. But thanks.” Julan’s smile gradually became a grin. “We do make a pretty good team, don’t we?”

Fahjoth’s smile widened. “Damn right we do!” Without thinking, he pulled Julan into an enthusiastic one-armed hug — only to panic as he realised what he’d done. Had he crossed a line? He didn’t know what Julan’s stance on physical contact was; what if he was offended?

“Sorry, I just—” he began babbling as he backed off, but Julan simply laughed and patted Fahjoth on the shoulder in return.

“It’s fine,” he said. “So… shall we get going? I could kill for a mazte right now!”

Fahjoth raised a brow, glancing around at the bloodied heaps of bodies dotted around the cave. “I think we already did, mate.” He flashed Julan another grin and set off, limping out of the cave while frequently looking back to ensure that Julan was following. “I think we’ve more than earned that mazte.”

“Hah, you’re right.” He glanced down at Fahjoth’s leg, noticing his awkward gait. “Are you sure your leg’s alright?”

“Oh, it’ll be fine, don’t worry,” Fahjoth replied, waving Julan’s concern aside with an airy flick of his wrist. “It’s just a bit bruised, I think.”

“As long as you’re sure. You know, that was an impressive tackle.” Julan paused, a thoughtful look on his face as he trotted along beside Fahjoth. “I heard you letting one of them go.”

Fahjoth faltered, his grin slipping away to a wry smile. “Yeah… he was yielding. I couldn’t bring myself to kill someone after they’d surrendered.”

“You’ve got better morals than half of Morrowind then. At least.” For a moment, Fahjoth wasn’t sure whether that was meant to be taken as a compliment or an insult, but Julan continued, “Oh, I’m not criticising! I think it’s nice. Just… be careful, okay? I’d hate to see anything happen to you.”

A curious feeling settled in Fahjoth’s stomach. He glanced at Julan, the earnesty on his face clear to see even in the low light of the nearby torch flames, and instantly Fahjoth felt a rush of gratitude and affection for his new friend. The idea that another person cared that much about him warmed him from the inside out, even as they stepped out into the chilly night air.

“Cheers, mate,” he said, clapping Julan on the shoulder as another smile lifted his cheeks. “Let’s go tell Oran the good news, then go get those drinks.”

Julan grinned back, lightly bumping Fahjoth’s shoulder with his own.

“Sounds good to me.”

#oc: fahjoth #oc: ribyna #julan kaushibael #Morrowind #dunmer #nerevarine #dunmer oc #elder scrolls #elder scrolls fanfic #tes iii: morrowind

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choices-love-affair · 5 years ago

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Fever Pitch - Part 1.

Eek! So I’m back! This WIP has been sitting in my files for so long and I finally found the groove to finish and post it! I hope you guys enjoy it!

I anticipate this to be a two-part story, set between the ethics hearing and Ethan returning from the Amazon, it’s your much-loved angst fest that we all know I love writing!

Shoutout to the absolute wonderful @drethanramslay, who helped me get this over the line with her contributions, I’d so lost without you and everyone else who is always so wonderful and supportive.

(also, if you want to be taken off my taglist, just holla)

Anyway! Please be kind (heh) and I hope you enjoy!

WARNING! One swear word, plenty of angst.

This is a Ethan x F!MC story (Lorelei Stannaway).

The scuffing of Lorelei’s slippers bounced off the walls of the eerily quiet hallways of Edenbrook; at 2am, the graveyard shift had well and truly taken a hold of the otherwise bustling precinct. The nurses had dimmed the hallway lights and quietened the machines in an attempt to keep their patients asleep, the on-call doctors all retired to their offices, many closed doors accompanied with the glow of light illuminating the bottoms of them as she walked past.

Whilst the hospital was quiet at this time of night Lorelei’s mind was racing, and her dilemma so loud inside her head, it was almost debilitating. Before she realised, she was face first with the office door labelled: Dr Ethan Ramsey, and after taking a steadying breath of air, she entered the room. She glanced up to see Ethan with his back to her, leant over his desk taking a phone call, yet her vision quickly blurred his form out, as she noticed the bookcase behind his desk, usually filled with journals, accolades and framed certificates was now bare, the grained wood now a stark and confronting brown that took her very much by surprise.

“Wow…okay. You sure don’t waste anytime” Lorelei scoffed, the words sounding much more immature than she had initially anticipated, spilling from her mouth before she could even register that it had happened. She couldn’t back down now, she had initiated the battle and she was determined not to lose it.

Ethan sighed loudly, “Naveen, can I call you back? … Yes, I know. I already know. Naveen! I get it. I will. Why you’re even here at the hospital when you should be home resting is beyond me, go home.” He chastised the older man before ending the phone call and glancing across defeatedly at the woman before him.

“Really, Lorelei? We’re still here?” he bit back “please don’t make this any harder than it needs to be, Rori. They need me, I want to be there and help. Surely you can understand that?” he reasoned, turning his back on her once more to continue packing, a silent indication that it was no longer up for discussion.

Lorelei’s blood boiled at his silent gesture.

“Ethan…” her voice was calm, controlled and laced with promised absolute as she stared at the back of his head, although her eyes resembled that of a tumultuous storm, her heart was racing and her breathing erratic – she was petrified of what could possibly eventuate tonight. Lorelei knew she had his undivided attention now; she could tell by the increased heaving of Ethan’s shoulders with each breath he took that he was waiting for what was about to follow.

“Ethan, if you leave here and get on that plane. If you leave this country, this hospital… Ethan, in a time that I really need you the most, if you leave me…” she paused, preparing herself to say the next words and willing herself strong enough to follow through on them “I won’t be here when you get back”.

That was it, her last-ditch effort to persuade him to stay. She was out of options and yet felt so very ashamed of how disreputable she had become through sheer desperation. She knew her attempts were feeble however, nor did they serve any purpose, for Ethan had checked out long before she could have convinced him otherwise, and that was what destroyed her the most.

Ethan visibly bristled as he registered her words, and slowly, he could feel himself becoming indignant at her ultimatum. He stood and weighed the reality of her words with his back to her for what felt like a lifetime before he eventually spoke, his voice barely above a whisper “you don’t mean that… “ he replied, though he was doubtful, and he knew the waver in his voice betrayed him.

“Then why are you so eager to test its credibility?” she whispered back, too afraid to speak louder in fear of her voice breaking, tears threatened at her eyes, warm and prickly, as she tried to blink them back. Instead they cascaded down her cheeks in silence as she wiped angrily at her face.

Ethan leant heavily against his desk and hung his head, as though it was the only thing capable of withstanding the weight currently crushing him “what do you want me to say?” he sighed exasperatedly “that I’m sorry? That it isn’t beneficial for my career and I should just stay in order to keep you happy? Lorelei, this isn’t going to be some happy ending for us, I’ve already told you how I feel…” he broke off, carefully measuring the next words in his mind, acutely aware of the damage they will do, but knowing that they’re very much mutual “…you’re getting too attached. If I don’t leave now, Lorelei, you’ll only suffer, longing for something I’ll never be able to give you. At the end of the day, I’m doing this for you.”

“I’m sorry what?!” Lorelei raised her voice incredulously, her eyebrow cocked as she felt the confusion and anger bubble in the pit of her stomach, seeping into every crevice of her being and consuming her, removing all rational thought from her mind “Jesus Christ, Ethan! Could you be a man and at least turn around and look me in the eyes if you’re going to break my heart?!”.

Ethan’s fear got the better of him as he exploded at her provoking and accusatory tone, implying that breaking her heart was his main priority, without realising, his sub conscious projected him into panic mode as he became reactive and emotional “I said I’m doing this for you!!” his voice quickly reaching the same volume as hers as he whipped his body around to look at her, his eyes glowed with a burning intensity, a silent warning for her to back down.

“Oh for fuck sake, E! That’s bullshit and you know it!” she rebutted, fresh hot tears spilling down her face yet her voice not betraying her this time “you don’t get to make those decisions for me!”

“I am not doing this right no-“

“Then when, Ethan? In six hours when you’re on the way to the airport? In nine when you’re on the plane? When will we do this because I don’t know about you, but I don’t think there’s much time left to do anything!”

Ethan looked at her in desperation, eyes filled with so much pain and angst, his ocean blues were now stormy greys, as he pushed himself off the desk and toward the door.

Desperation reaching fever pitch as she followed him out the doors and into the hallway “Ethan! Where are you going?!” her legs struggling to keep up with his strides as she followed him to the elevators, he stared forward, not once wavering or hazarding a glance at her in fear of his resolve crumbling.

The loud ping of the elevator doors opening reverberated throughout the otherwise silent hallway, Ethan stepped inside and turned around, not quite managing to meet her eyes “please… don’t follow me. It isn’t forever, Rori. I’ll be back soon and by the time that happens, you would have gotten over your ridiculous crush and we can both move on and do our jobs” his heart shattering as the words left his mouth, as he finally looked up and locked eyes with her as she stood there, bewildered, speechless and rooted to the ground. A sob choked in the back of her throat as she noticed the tears welling in Ethan’s eyes, reflecting her own.

“stay” she quietly pleaded “because if you don’t, I won’t. If you leave, I can assure you I won’t be here when you get back.” her final warning hung heavy in the air between them as Ethan assessed her face for any sign of relent.

“You’re being unreasonable”.

“the feeling is mutual”.

The pair stood either side of the elevator doors, not once breaking eye contact as they each waited for the other to surrender, yet neither having any intention of doing so. As the doors slid shut on Ethan’s broken-hearted face and carried him away, Lorelei was left staring at the harsh metal, a stark reminder of the metaphorical wall that Ethan had so meticulously placed between them, and continued to leave up.

She stayed rooted to the spot, bowing her head as the warm tears began falling hard and fast down her face again, and the sob she had been keeping in finally escaped.

“Lorelei…” a warm, gentle voice cooed down the hallway, as she turned to see Naveen approaching her “my sweet girl, come. Let’s go sit down” he shushed as he collected her in his arms and rubbed her shoulder empathetically “it isn’t forever” he reassured.

“he just... he just left Naveen? What if he never comes back? What if he stays there and we never see him again?” she spoke aloud, her mind racing.

“He’ll be back, Dear. If I’m positive of nothing else, it’s that he won’t be able to stay away for too long, not from you anyway” he smiled a warm and knowing smile at the young doctor, as he gently led her back towards his office.

Taglist: @ethandaddyramsey @trappedinfandoms @openheart12 @mvalentine @beloved-ode @kaavyaethanramsey @newcolonies @missmiimiie @nooruleman @drethanramslay @agent-breakdance @angela8756 @utterlyinevitable @maurine07 @professorkingslay

#ethan ramsey #ethan ramsey x mc #OpenHeart

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rhyswhitethorn · 5 years ago

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Steel and Fire [3]

lmao I WAS SO TEMPTED TO POST THIS 5 DAYS AGO. thank God I didn’t or else I’d have to speed write the rest of the chapters (?) as usual, any ideas to this would be very much appreciated! and should i start a taglist for any of these chapters/upcoming stories?

AO3 version: Steel and Fire [3]

Chapter 1 // Chapter 2

Nesta was lying on her bed, reading, when a knock sounded on the door.

She placed the book down after marking the page and walked towards the door. Unlocking it, she swung it open and her mate stood there. Cassian held up a half drank coconut shake in one hand, and a mango shake in the other.

“I didn’t know what you liked, so I got you two shakes that I like.”

Typical.

Nesta held the door open for him and he walked in, smelling of the streets below. Did he walk here?

“In case you were wondering, sweetheart, I decided to take a stroll on the streets you usually take. Quite a scene, I would say. So unlike the mortal Nesta Archeron I had known earlier on.” She tried not to dwell on the thought that he was learning her routine. It was actually nice to know that. Nesta just nodded and grabbed the mango shake from his hand, which she had to admit, she absolutely adored. Nesta was already a regular for the vendor who sold this particular shake.

He smiled as she said thank you, and took a seat on one of the chairs at the small dining table. She took the one on his left. Genuine surprise coloured his face for a short second before he made it neutral again.

“I met Amren. More like caught her on the dining table. She mentioned you. . barged into her.” Cassian looked at Nesta, waiting for her to continue. Did he know about her dilemma? It would make so much sense to him if she told him. About why she couldn’t accept the bond yet.

Nesta wouldn’t burden Cassian with the pain her heart had felt. Feyre and Rhysand were both broken, but they climbed out that abyss together. As far as she was concerned, Cassian didn’t have any emotional baggage with him.

“I have unfinished business,” Nesta said. That was all she would allow him to know.

Cassian took her by surprise, however. “With that mortal.”

She blinked at Cassian, who looked worried. “Look, Nesta, I know you won’t accept the bond yet. I know why you won’t accept it. And I’ll damn well keep my promise about him, if that’s what you want. Hell, I’ll be glad to do it. But as your mate, I’m giving you the choice. We can go to the Mortal Lands together, and you can get closure, or, you know, skinning him alive would be fun,” he smirked at that. Trust Cassian to get a joke out of everything, even if it annoyed her at first. Now, that’s exactly what she needed. “That aside, you need to confront him. Your acceptance for the bond is not a priority now.”

This winged Fae was putting her needs first. The Cauldron must have been pranking her, because no way in her forced immortal life did she ever deserve this. She got up, prompting Cassian to get up as well.

“I’m sorry, I think I overstepped with what I said.” Cassian was rumbling now, his face red. The Illyrian Commander was embarrassed. “I think it’s better if I—”

He cut short as Nesta pulled him into a hug, taking care not to touch his wings. Her time at the camps has taught her to never touch an Illyrian’s wings without permission. He wrapped his arms around her, his wings stretching to cover the both of them. She breathed in his scent, the scent that reminded her of the times her father had come home from his business travels. She never realized it until now.

“Thank you,” she whispered, and Cassian’s only reply was to hold her tighter.

“If you want, we can go tomorrow. I’m not trying to rush the bond, but I don’t want you to suffer any longer.” She nodded. The bond was calling to her now, especially when she’s with Cassian. The longer she held out, the stronger its call. Nesta looked up to Cassian and planted a soft kiss on his cheek. He stiffened and smirked.

“What?”

“Can I have another one?”

Fucking prick.

“Are you serious?” Nesta felt her temper rising, and it didn’t help that he was still smirking at her.

Cassian just leaned down and kissed her nose softly, before letting her go. Her temper died down at the softness of his kiss, his lips and his face. A year ago, she would’ve slapped him.

Things were different now.

Nesta turned away and headed to the front door, hiding her blush. She opened it, motioning for Cassian to leave. She needed the time to compose herself for tomorrow.

Cassian walked towards where she stood and winked at her. “See you, sweetheart,” he said, leaving. She half wondered if he’d fly back or take to the roads.

Closing the door, she walked to her bed, placing the mango shake on her bedside table and picking up where she left off. Cassian was a prick, but maybe having him as her mate wouldn’t be so bad. It’d definitely spice up her long life, and she wouldn’t have a dull day of burying herself in novels anymore. And if Feyre was right about the wingspan. . then her nights wouldn’t be boring either.

She smiled at that.

Nesta woke slightly before dawn to get ready. Confronting Tomas Mandray meant that she would finally end whatever ties she had to her mortal life.

With Cassian at her side.

Cassian had always been there for her—when the King of Hybern, who had taken her innocence and mortality away, was about to tear her world apart. When she needed help getting into the bathtub at the Illyrian Camps, still struggling after being forced into the Cauldron. And now, with confronting the man she was supposed to marry.

The Cauldron had truly planned all these.

Nesta picked up a deep blue gown, much like Azriel's siphons, before she did a double take. She had always donned dresses and gowns, and it was one of her favourite gowns that was ripped under Tomas' hands when he had attempted to rape her. She had worn that gown and met Tomas in hopes that he would propose, even after Feyre had warned her not to. She thought that she could keep him in check, but clearly not. Nesta placed the gown back down, and picked up something else she had been accustomed to wear.

She hoped the Illyrian leathers she began to strap up made a statement, not only to Tomas, but also to Cassian.

Cassian was staring at Nesta at the doorway.

Nesta was lounging around, waiting for him to pick her up when he knocked. The look on his face?

Fucking priceless.

She took the mango shake from his hand before asking, "What?"

He kept gaping at her, coconut shake forgotten in his other hand. She had to hold his arm before he snapped out of it, the easy smile coming back. "You look hot," Cassian said.

"Is that all you could come up with? Five hundred fucking years of living and the only adjective that's swimming in your head is hot?"

Cassian laughed before saying, "Sweetheart, I can tell you how I think you look with my tongue, if you'd prefer. Or I can fuck you well enough so you'd get my point." Nesta stumbled at that. She had fallen right into his bait. "Wearing that is going to make the mortals talk, you know. We're twinning now," he continued and added a wink.

Nesta surveyed his outfit. Illyrian leathers as well.

"Let them talk," she crooned, closing the door behind her and walking down the street towards the townhouse.

Cassian grinned. She could tell he liked that idea very much. "Feyre's going to winnow us to the Mortal Lands," he said, taking a step behind her. Thank the Cauldron. Nesta had learnt to winnow between short distances only, and there was no way she was taking flight across Prythian. Not with Cassian pressed against her. Nesta nodded, continuing the rest of her journey keeping quiet. Cassian had caught up to her and the citizens of Velaris kept looking at them.

Scratch that, they were staring at them in awe.

Cassian smiled at everyone once in a while, greeting some he personally knew. Nesta plastered a smile, but soon it became genuine. Anyone who walked by Cassian and Nesta waved or said hello. Nesta knew the city loved their High Lord and High Lady, but it never occurred to her their love extended to the Inner Circle. To the Illyrian Commander standing beside her.

Her Illyrian leathers weren't the only statement. Walking beside him in the City of Starlight was a whole other statement on its own, both for Nesta and Cassian. And he was proud to wear this one. The war Cassian had fought in for this city, the stakes he would go against for his court, he truly deserved this.

She could see the townhouse now. There were less faeries in the residential area. Nesta walked silently, Cassian still at her side when he placed a hand on her lower back. She turned to look up at him.

"Nesta, before we go, I want you to know that when we meet Tomas, I'll be by your side. If you need help, just say it. No questions asked. Alright?" Cassian said softly. She continued looking at him, his hazel eyes shining with understanding and determination. Deep down, Nesta knew that Cassian would do anything she asked for. If she decided not to go on with this confrontation moments before, he'd listen. He'd bring her back here. Home.

Home? Was Velaris her new home?

She never felt that way. Her old house in the Mortal Lands didn't feel that way either.

Standing underneath Cassian, however. . she felt more at home than she ever did. She unconsciously placed a hand on his cheek, feeling the rough start of a stubble underneath.

"Thank you," she whispered. He brought his hand up to hold the hand on his cheek, pulling it away slightly to kiss her palm. She shivered a little, feeling the bond shine faintly. She could tell he felt the same by the way he was staring at her, his lips still brushing her palm. Maybe she should accept the bond now. Confront Tomas as a mated couple. She could just turn back to buy him a kebab, or she could ask if there was a more Illyrian tradition he'd prefer to—

“Ready to leave?” Feyre called from outside the townhouse. Cassian whipped his head towards his High Lady, slowly dropping Nesta’s hand. Nesta gradually turned her head, unable to get her eyes off Cassian.

Rhysand walked behind Feyre and sighed. “Look what you've done, Feyre, darling. You've ruined their moment.” Feyre looked up sheepishly to Rhysand, muttering a sorry to the both of them. Cassian just smiled and sauntered towards them, unaware of the choice Nesta almost made.

Rhysand, however, knew. He gave her an apologetic look before she heard his voice in her mind. Feyre has told me never to tell you things in your head, but Cass would have more pride in accepting the bond after your confrontation. Don't feel obligated to accept the bond now. Nesta’s only reply was a slight dip in her head. She and Rhys had a tough relationship at the beginning, but she soon grew to like the High Lord. Trust was what the foundations of his court was built on, and she had no reason not to believe him.

Feyre gave a knowing look to Nesta, which resulted in Cassian demanding a “What the hell are you two saying?”

“Do you really want to know, Cass? I could show you what Rhysand plans to do —,” Feyre started, only to have Cassian waving his arms in the air to not know, Rhysand chuckling behind. Nesta was grateful for that save.

She walked towards her youngest sister and looked at her. “I’m ready.”

Feyre nodded, kissing Rhysand on the cheek before holding Nesta and Cassian’s hand. “I’ll winnow both of you to Lucien and Jurian’s house. It’s near enough to Tomas,” she said, eliciting a grunt from Cassian. Approval in his language of grunts.

“Don’t kill him, Cass. Let Nesta do it,” Rhysand said, winking at Nesta. Shadows consumed them before she could answer.

The house Lucien and Jurian lived in was cosy.

Warm colours bedecked the house, curtains and rugs of varying oranges and browns painting the home.

This was where the so-called “Band of Exiles” lived at. Nesta knew it was more of an official home, but the atmosphere in this house was lively. She let go of Feyre’s hand, who was unfazed with winnowing them this far, and turned to admire the house, finally setting her eyes on a waiting Lucien by the chimney.

“Hello, Feyre. Nesta. Cassian.” Lucien nodded at each name he listed out, striding over. Feyre merely looked at him before enveloping him in a hug.

“Lucien! Cauldron, I missed you. Why don’t you ever visit?”

Lucien just laughed while Cassian and Nesta awkwardly stood beside each other. “I have other matters to worry about, Feyre. I’ll visit soon, I promise,” he said, glancing towards Cassian towering behind his High Lady. “Um, I’ll let the both of you get on with the things you need to do. I’ll keep Feyre safe.”

Cassian grinned at that, holding Nesta’s shoulders to turn around, pushing her towards the door. Feyre and Lucien broke into laughter at the fact that Cassian had accomplished doing that to Nesta without her snapping at him. But with Cassian, Nesta didn’t seem to mind. She let him lead her out, opening the front door.

It was the middle of spring, and there were flowers blooming everywhere. She recognized most of the flowers that grew here, but with her Fae eyesight, the colours were more extravagant, making her appreciate them even more. Was this what Elain saw in flowers since the beginning? What beauty could she see now? Nesta breathed in, savouring the floral smell. Elain’s garden in Velaris was better, no doubt, but the flowers here reminded her of her mortal life. When all she knew was how to be human.

Twigs crunched under Cassian’s feet, pulling Nesta out of her thoughts. She realized he was waiting for her.

“This way,” Nesta said, turning west and trudging on. Cassian followed silently.

Throughout the walk, she thought about all those times she had walked to Tomas’ house, excited to meet him. She’d take an hour to get ready, putting effort into what she wore and how she did her hair. All that went to shit the moment he crossed the line.

Now it's her turn to give him shit.

It was a fifteen minute walk to his house. Did she really take the time to come to him last time? It felt like forever, but each step she took towards his house only fueled her need to look him in the eye and square up to Tomas.

Nesta reached a familiar brick home, spotting a woodpile on the lawn. She walked up the pathway to the front door and stopped, turning to Cassian. It was then she realized he did not bother glamouring his wings away. He grinned at her acknowledgement.

She grinned back at him and knocked on the front door.

Moments passed before a woman opened it. Tomas' mother. There were faint bruises on her face and arm, hastily covered up with powder. It may fool the mortal eye, but Nesta and Cassian could see it as clear as stars in the night sky. His mother looked at Nesta, recognizing her yet not in her otherworldly Fae beauty, fear striking in her eyes at Nesta's pointed ears and Cassian's wings.

A small smile tugged at Nesta's mouth before she said, "I'd like to see Tomas, please." His mother nodded before closing the door. Through the brick walls, Nesta heard his mother say, Tomas, Nesta's here. Nothing else. Good. A great day to get someone shitting their pants.

Nesta turned to Cassian and motioned him to stand beside the pillar, obscuring him from the view at the front door. Let Tomas think she came alone.

Two minutes went by and the door opened. Out walked Tomas.

"Nesta Archeron. What pleasure do I owe—" Tomas started, cutting short when he took note of her pointed ears. Her predatory stillness. The promise in her eyes.

"It's true then," he whispered, running an eye over Nesta and noting the warrior clothes she had chosen to wear in place of her usual dresses.

Nesta didn't care what was true and what wasn't as she smiled at him. The feline smile she had seen Amren use, one that would get someone running in the opposite direction.

"Tomas Mandray," Nesta just said, side stepping and forcing Tomas to turn, right into Cassian's view. Tomas had paled at the sight of Nesta, but he blanched as he beheld Cassian's towering height and massive wings. Cassian took a step closer but Tomas held his ground, either from his ego or because he wasn't in the right mind to step back.

"What do you want?" Tomas spat out, his heart racing fast.

Oh, she was going to enjoy this.

"Remember that night you came after me in the barn? When you tore my favourite dress and tried to rape me?"

Anger flashed in his face. "I didn't try to rape you. You wanted it as much as I did."

Men and their ever changing stories.

"You know I didn't want it. I said no, yet you still came after me."

"What do you want?" he repeated.

"I want you dead." His eyes were filled with terror now, but she had to give him credit for attempting to keep a neutral face. If it weren't for his eyes, his scent definitely gave it off. "But I'm not that kind of person, so an apology would do." Nesta had settled on that. No good would come if she were to kill him, and attempted rape had no closure. So yes, an apology.

Tomas laughed darkly. “What makes you think you deserve that? You were meant to marry me. I was allowed to take whatever I wanted from you.”

Nesta had to stare at him coolly and take a few seconds before answering, only so she wouldn’t explode. She could feel the waves of rage coming off from Cassian, yet he remained still, unspeaking, out of the respect he had for Nesta’s wishes.

Only when she asked for help would he interfere.

“As far as I’m concerned, a woman is not yours if she has not been legally married to you. I was still under my father’s care, and I remember our laws as clearly as you do.”

Tomas smirked as he said, “I may not have gotten what I wanted from you, but I’m certain half of Prythian had.”

Before she could register the sentence, Tomas slapped her. Pain sparked through her cheek, shock keeping her in place.

And that was when Cassian striked.

Tomas was pinned against the brick wall in seconds, both their faces red with rage. He clawed at Cassian's hand around his throat, but Cassian was far stronger than him. The Commander was snarling at his face as he gritted out, "Apologize."

Nesta sighed. "He can't apologize if you're blocking out his airway."

Cassian realized the science behind that and loosened his grip ever so slightly. Tomas turned his head towards Nesta, still trying to claw his way out, and spat at her feet.

No apology then, not when there’s no remorse. She had suspected as much and had kept a back up plan. Time to do this her way. With threats. Just like what she did to the King of Hybern.

She walked to Cassian's side and pulled out an Illyrian dagger from its sheath on his thigh, angling it right between Tomas' legs. He began to struggle against Cassian's hold to no avail.

"If I hear you attempt to rape some other poor girl, I'll cut your piss poor favourite part and feed it to the crows. If I hear you raped someone, I'll skin you alive with this very blade, and feed you to the many, horrifying creatures we have in Prythian. Understood?" Tomas only stared at her, so she pressed the blade harder against him. "Understood?"

Tomas nodded, keeping his body rigid underneath the sharp dagger. She released the hold she had on him, prompting Cassian to do the same.

Tomas held his throat, red from Cassian's iron grip. He quickly opened the door and ran in, but not without whispering, "Cunt," at Nesta. The door was shut quickly and she was sure Cassian would burn down the house with the entire Mandray family in it, seeing that he was about to grip the handle. She reached out and grabbed his arm.

"Cassian. It's fine. It's settled." As good as it can get. Some people will never change, she's learnt, but she truly hoped her threats had scared Tomas enough so no one else would fall victim to his flirtatious smiles. Nesta walked down the patio, Cassian falling in step. She fingered the blade before declaring, "I'm keeping this."

He stopped and watched her strap it to her thigh, just like he had done before. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. Why wouldn't I be?" Cassian nodded and walked towards Lucien's house, Nesta following closely.

They had dinner at Lucien's, Jurian nowhere to be seen.

He's at the continent, checking up on Vassa's curse, Lucien had claimed.

After a good laugh about Nesta's threats, and many promises between Lucien and Feyre about visiting each other, Feyre winnowed the both of them and herself back to Velaris. Cassian had only bade them goodbye and flew off to the House of Wind, mumbling something about seeing Azriel regarding his reports.

Nesta stood in the sitting room, dumb founded at Cassian's abrupt leaving.

"What's that all about?" Feyre asked Nesta, and she shrugged. Nesta felt like the trip to Tomas had been eventful, and she felt more at peace than she ever did. She had enjoyed Cassian's overprotectiveness, but never had the chance to thank him. Not when dinner had circulated around Feyre and Lucien’s antics.

She smelled the faint scent of rain and citrusy salt before she saw Rhysand come through the doorway.

"How was the trip, ladies?" Rhysand said, walking over to kiss Feyre on the top of her head. He surveyed her from the top to bottom, and then moved on to do the same to Nesta.

His eyes stopped at the Illyrian dagger strapped to her thigh.

"Did he give you that."

Feyre turned to look at the blade, then back to her mate. "Why? What's wrong?" Rhysand stayed quiet, until Nesta quietly said, "I took it from him."

"He let you do that?" She nodded and his breath hitched.

Feyre's face whitened as Nesta knew Rhysand was explaining everything to her through the bond. "Well, spit it out," Nesta said, patience running thin.

They glanced at each other before Rhysand said, "In Illyrian traditions. . mating bonds are accepted when the female takes an Illyrian weapon from a male." Nesta understood before he finished. "And he let you take his."

Fuck.

She had accepted the bond without knowing.

“Didn’t Azriel lend his blade to Elain last year?”

Rhysand knew what she meant. “There’s no bond between them and she gave it back.”

Nesta unsheathed the dagger and looked at it. The rare steel, the craftsmanship and design, and most importantly, the intricate words of a forgotten language written into it. She wondered what it said.

"And what is supposed to come next?" she dared ask.

It was Feyre, this time, who answered.

"The actual mating."

Trailing her fingers along the sharp end, Nesta knew. She knew from the bottom of her heart, she wanted Cassian. The confrontation with Tomas only gave her more reason to want Cassian by her side. To face their fears together.

The faces of the High Lord and High Lady lit up when Nesta said, “Take me to the House of Wind. I want to see my mate.”

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