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xoxiu · 2 years ago

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my house of stone, your ivy grows - yoongi x reader

chapter fourteen table of contents masterlist join the taglist discord

summary: yoongi carried himself with a sense of pride within himself and his belongings. he worked hard to get to where he was- ethically or not, it made him the man he is today. his latest toy, a young college girl from america, will become his magnum opus. he just needs to work out the kinks.

tags/warnings: mafia au, kidnapping, daddy dom!yoongi, smut, autistic!reader, spanking, stockholm syndrome, little!jimin, vminhope, drug mention, namjin, fluff, domestic discipline

taglist: @allamericanuniverse @llallaaa, @frieschan

“I don’t know what to do, hyung,” Yoongi sighed. It felt like a losing battle with Kiwo. Everything would be going so good in Yoongi’s eyes and then Kiwo would break down and throw away all progress they had made.

Just today, Yoongi requested fried rice for lunch for him and Kiwo. He knew Kiwo loved fried rice, but he added edamame and kimchi to diversify Kiwo’s palate. The additions weren’t even noticeable, but Kiwo immediately sensed that something was off with her food and refused to eat. When Yoongi suggested to just eat around what she didn’t like, she just grew angry and knocked her plate to the ground.

“Well, you can’t send her back,” Seokjin pointed out.

“I know, I know,” Yoongi brushed off Seokjin’s comment, “It’s just she’s unbelievably autistic. Like at first it was cute, but now it’s just annoying.”

Seokjin hummed in acknowledgment. “Oh, yeah. She’s autistic.” The elder looked over into the living room where Namjoon and Kiwo were working on a Lego set together. It looked like Kiwo was just building her part silently while ignoring Namjoon.

Yeah, it was kind of obvious.

“You need to just look into it more. Get her on a solid schedule and learn what she likes and dislikes.”

”But she dislikes me-“

”Yoogie !” A small voice from the living room called out. Seokjin gave Yoongi a smile, while the younger simply ignored the call for him in order to continue his sulking.

“I don’t think she dislikes you.”

”But she acts so much differently now than a month ago, hyung. It’s like she’s gotten more irritable.” Yoongi cringed as he became aware of how whiny he sounded. However, he saw no other way to get his point across.

Seokjin thought for a minute, looking back towards Namjoon and Kiwo. They were quietly arguing, with Kiwo scolding Namjoon for placing the wrong color Lego in a certain spot. He chuckled at how his boyfriend was handling the situation- Seokjin thought he was getting more riled up than Kiwo. Then it hit him.

Hard.

“Yoongi-ah, you know how Jimin is a little, right? Taehyung and Hoseok’s little.”

“Yeah.”

”I think she might be little, too.”

While Yoongi wouldn’t want to admit it, it did make sense. He was aware that her emotions rivaled that of a preteen, but her mannerisms and behavior wasn’t that of an 18 year old’s. There would be some times where it felt like he was dealing with an adult, but most times she acted like a spoiled child.

Small feet could be heard stomping through the living room into the kitchen where Yoongi and Seokjin sat. A red-faced Kiwo who looked very displeased crossed her arms in front of the two elders. She let out a huff before speaking.

“Yoogie, Namjoon won’t stop talking to me in Korean. It’s not fair.”

“Let’s come up with a plan together. My younger cousin is autistic, so I have a general idea of what would be best.” Seokjin brought out a small notebook that was left unused. On the front cover, he wrote ‘Kiwo & Yoongi’ in thick, black Sharpie.

They decided on rules first. Yoongi had rules previously in place, but rarely followed through with reprimands for breaking them. Mainly because he himself couldn’t remember them, so it would be rude to assume Kiwo would remember as well.

The first rule was to be respectful to others and their things. Kiwo had a habit of just forgetting honorifics and manners or treating others like they were beneath her, which Yoongi immediately wanted to nip in the bud. Throwing food on the floor, constantly trying to steal Yoongi’s phone, and physically fighting with others were all bad habits Kiwo had picked up.

Next was sleep. Both Yoongi and Kiwo struggled with good sleep schedules, so establishing one now would be beneficial. Bedtime was 11pm, and they would be out of bed before 10am.

The last big rule was about food. Ultimately, Yoongi and the rest of the members of Bangtan had superiority over Kiwo, and she needed to listen and understand that she wasn’t in control. She needed to learn to eat what she was given as none of the men believed in starving anyone, and that she couldn’t survive off such ill nutritious foods.

If Kiwo broke a rule, she would be immediately punished. Yoongi had a habit of delaying a punishment until after he finished whatever it was he was doing, or stepping away for nearly an hour to let himself calm down. If he continued this, Seokjin pointed out, Kiwo wouldn’t associate the punishment with the crime. The main punishments were a spanking or grounding her by taking away her fun toys and such, but Yoongi had to use his own discretion for what was best. Whether that be a spanking or corner time or washing her mouth out with soap, it was up to him.

And finally, he needed to get Kiwo on somewhat of a schedule. Knowing what was going on everyday and having a predictable schedule was super beneficial to autistic individuals, and Kiwo was no exception. Yoongi made sure the schedule fit in all three meals, one-on-one Korean study time, and a visit to Seokjin and Namjoon’s apartment, usually before or just after dinner.

“This looks really good, Yoongi-yah.” Seokjin praised, giving Yoongi a pat on the back. The younger smiled slightly as he closed the notebook and put it in his pocket.

The sound of the door opening drew their attention to the entryway. Taehyung, Hoseok, Jimin, and Jungkook all walked inside, dressed in puffy coats from the coolness outside.

“Jinnie hyung, we brought chicken!” Hoseok shouted, and ran straight to the kitchen after removing his shoes. He placed the boxes of fried chicken down on the table before his eyes came across Yoongi.

”Yoongi hyung is here? Is Kiwo here?” Excitement leaked from Hoseok’s voice as his brain slowly made the connections between Yoongi being here and Kiwo being here.

“You ran straight past her!” Seokjin said, throwing his hands in the air. Wordlessly but with a smile, Hoseok ran back into the living room where everyone else sat.

Jungkook sat on the recliner with Taehyung on his lap. Both of them were watching Demon Slayer on the television. Hoseok and Namjoon sat on the couch watching Jimin and Kiwo play with the Legos. Kiwo had just finished up her portion of the set, and was waiting for Jimin to finish up what Namjoon had started.

Yoongi and Seokjin walked in and took up the rest of the couch next to Namjoon. Yoongi looked down at Kiwo and saw blood pooling up around her lips. He sighed- it seemed impossible to break that habit of hers. He shuffled through her backpack that lay next to him until he found a pink pacifier. He walked over to the two littles and popped the pacifier into Kiwo’s mouth.

Kiwo paid no mind to Yoongi, continuing on playing with the extra spare Legos Namjoon had laying around. Or, well, stacking them into a tower, if you consider that playing.

“You’re just a big baby,” Jimin said in Korean. Kiwo just stared at him, not understanding anything that he was saying.

“I don’t use a pacifier but you do.”

”Jimin-ah, it’s fine that she uses a pacifier.” Taehyung said, never taking his eyes off the TV screen. “Besides, you sometimes take one at nap time-“

”No I don’t!” Jimin whined and slammed his hand against the carpeting. Taehyung simply shot him a hard look to put an end to the tantrum before it began. Jimin huffed and placed his attention back on his Legos.

Yoongi was surprised by how well Kiwo did during dinner. She ate a lot of spicy chicken when Yoongi expected her to not eat any due to the spice.

After dinner, all of them laid around the living room watching some romance movie. Yoongi was barely paying attention, more focused on his phone and watching Kiwo’s sleepy face.

“Uh, Yoongi hyung…” Jungkook spoke up, getting up to walk over to Yoongi’s place on the couch. The younger held his phone out to reveal texts between him and his father.

‘Father: American police are getting involved with Kiwo’s disappearance. Police here are getting strong armed and are going to start an investigation soon. Get Kiwo out now before the police have no choice.’

Yoongi had to read the text message over and over again just to ensure he read it right.

“Shit!” Yoongi screamed, hitting the arm rest next to him with a closed fist. Kiwo startled awake and fell off Yoongi’s lap with a thud. All eyes were on him as he stood up and began pacing the room.

“What’s up, Yoongi hyung?” Jimin asked, standing up alongside Taehyung to check on the elder.

“They’re fucking after her!” Yoongi exclaimed, grasping the back of the couch hard enough for this knuckles to turn red. “American police are catching onto us and are investigating her disappearance.”

The room filled with a silent fear and concerned looks. No one knew what to say.

Except Kiwo.

“For real?” She asked, her demeanor cheerful and giddy. “I get to go home?”

Seokjin looked over at the youngest with pity. He shook his head as he stood up to console Yoongi.

“Not exactly,” Namjoon was the first one to break the silence. He didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but as no one else was speaking up, he saw no other choice.

“We’ll have to relocate for the time being.” Jungkook clarified, his heart breaking when he looked down at Kiwo’s now distraught face. “All of us, since we’re all involved.”

”No!” Kiwo said, standing up defensively, “I get to go home to my parents and friends. I get to go back to school away from you freaks!”

”Freaks?” Jimin asked to himself, looking over at Hoseok for confirmation. Hoseok only continued to silently converse with Seokjin and Yoongi.

There was a moment of silence where they all just looked at each other, not sure what to say. Seokjin cleared his voice, and all eyes were on him.

“My parents own a villa outside Busan. We could all stay there for the time being- there’s more than enough room.”

“Thank you, hyung.” Yoongi sighed, his heart rate slowing down ever so slightly at having a plan of action.

“We’ll leave tonight so there won’t be many police out and make it there early in the morning.” Seokjin said, placing a hand on Yoongi’s shoulder. “Let’s all pack up and meet back here.”

So much for creating a routine for Kiwo.

#bts fanfic #yoongi x reader #min yoongi #mafia au #bts little space #kim namjoon #kim seokjin #jung hoseok #park jimin #kim taehyung #jeon jungkook #bts #vminhope #namjin #my house of stone your ivy grows

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broodwoof · 11 hours ago

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advice from a fandom old

yes i've made similar posts before. what can i say, i am boring and repetitive 💖 and proud of it 💖

you are responsible for your online experiences

you cannot force the internet to cater to you, and trying is a losing battle and a frustrating one - for everyone! curate your experience, make use of blocking, muting, whatever functions are on whatever you're using. if you don't like long posts, there's a function that shortens posts. yes, it isn't perfect, but you can't change how everyone else blogs, only the actions you take on your end

making suggestions v. making demands

it is natural that ppl will have ideas for changes to behaviors, norms, and practices within any shared space - sharing these ideas is fine, but demanding them tends to backfire

minors: many blogs will ask you not to follow

please listen to this. we are stating clearly that our blogs are not appropriate spaces for you, which is a good thing to do on this kind of mixed-use site, and it is a way people try to protect themselves

dni/do not interact and dnf/do not follow are pretty useless

ik it's ironic to say right after my last point, but seriously, these do nothing other than advertise the kinds of people you don't want to interact with, inviting harassment from those exact people

tag appropriately

if you're creating something with a certain kind of content, it's important to list that somewhere. allow people to choose what to engage with (exception listed below)

ao3: "author chooses not to use archive warnings"

this IS a warning! treat it as such! they are telling you that what happens won't be laid out in the warning system or tags. it is their right to make that choice, and they are not deceiving you by using the proper archive warning

"dead dove: do not eat"

this is meant as an ADDITION to warnings/tags/etc., not a stand-alone statement. DDDNE is not a blanket label, but a way of emphasizing the existing warnings/tags

don't like? don't read

don't read stuff that you know will distress you. and if you do, it is not the author's responsibility, it is yours. the exception: if they did not tag for it and did not use "chooses not to use archive warnings" or in some other way tell you that there will be no warnings, it is fair to suggest they add the content warnings or say they will not be adding them

ykinmkato | your kink is not my kink and that's okay

don't pathologize or moralize about someone's kink/the kink they're creating. don't tell them about your disgust, aversion, or personal trauma. just keep scrolling/use the back button

deleting fic/art

authors and artists are allowed to do this and it should not be condemned for it. you are not owed someone else's creativity

no, that person most likely didn't steal your idea

fandom by its nature is very cyclical and repetitive. we are all playing in the same sandbox, and it is only natural that many of us will come up with the same ideas/interpretations/views. someone not @'ing you/listing you as having inspired them/etc. should be taken to mean that you did not inspire their creation, not that they are stealing from you

fandom/character tags receive all kinds of content

love, hate, fic, art, long posts, short posts, x reader, angst, smut, gore... having a solid list of filtered tags will help to mitigate this issue, but ultimately if it disturbs you, the best option by far is to stop searching tags. follow people instead and create a dashboard that is an enjoyable experience

hate posting

while tags will always have hate posts in them, it is also considered common courtesy to not tag your hate with the main tag(s)

tagging for reach

another thing that definitely happens, but is generally considered bad form. if you are writing something with x and y characters, don't also tag a-w and z to boot

make your own post

see something you disagree with? feel the need or desire to state your view? generally, it's best to just make your own post about it. don't make it targeted, just talk about the thing

don't tag someone else's oc or their art with your oc

i'm sure there are artists who don't care, but generally speaking a lot do not want you to do this. they are not creating free art for your oc, they are making art for their own reasons and willingly sharing it

#long post #a post that most ppl probably know everything on #but sometimes i'm reminded that the things ppl take for granted and assume are general info #are in fact not #and also ik there are ppl new to the da fandom here #and possibly new to fandom in general

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ao3feed-undertale1 · 4 months ago

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P[ASS]IFISM

read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/63267334 by Anonymous "What'll happen when you meet… a relentless killer? Someone who takes your little trash talk as another excuse to double down? Or maybe, gosh," he laughs. "Someone from one of those minorities you hate sooo much that's actually strong enough to put up a fight? Someone cold? Someone spiteful? Someone with just the right amount of power you meet at just the wrong time?" He winks at you, before twisting his face into a vortex. "So many ways you can get yourself killed," he says. "I wonder which one will happen first. Hee hee!" But that's not the end. "And once you die, what will you do? Cry? Struggle? Or…" "K I L L?" * The flower has made two good points in a row. This is a record. But you, alpha gamer that you are, just shrug it off. "Heh," you say. "Like that'll ever happen." Some timelines are happy. Some timelines are cesspits of misery. And some, like the one where the eighth fallen human is an edgy child who is just generally unlikeable and thinks being racist is peak comedy, are very, very odd. Words: 10308, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Undertale (Video Game) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen Characters: Toriel (Undertale), Flowey (Undertale), Chara (Undertale), Frisk (Undertale), Sans (Undertale), W. D. Gaster Relationships: Flowey & Frisk (Undertale), Chara & Frisk (Undertale) Additional Tags: Crack Treated Seriously, Unreliable Narrator, Fluff and Angst, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reader-Interactive, Kinda, Minor Sans/Toriel (Undertale), Sexism, Ableism, Fantasy and Fictional Setting Racism read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/63267334

#ao3feed #ao3undertalefeed #fanfic #undertale #undertale-fanfic

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ao3feed-macgyver2016 · 1 year ago

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#MacGyver #MacGyver 2016 #fan fiction

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evilvarric666-archive · 4 years ago

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This is gonna be long, so sorry in advance, but as someone who enjoys long fics here are my two cents:

I get why some ppl may not want 75 tags in fics, but this is gonna hurt long fic writers. On a long fic there are probably gonna be more relationships that are central to the plot that aren't the main ship. And side pairings that may be a squick to some ppl. Not to mention trigger warnings and tone tags.

For example: a long fic with the pairing Y x Z. Z had an abusive relationship, and that's gonna be explored. So the author tags abusive relationship, bc that's a trigger, but an explanation next tag saying "not current ship" or smth.

Then Y has very important friendships with some of the cast. These are central to the plot so they're tagged too.

Turns out, character W is controversial in the fandom, but they're central to the fic too. The author is gonna tag after the character tag W positive/negative; so ppl who don't wanna see positive/negative things about W can skip this.

And guess what? Ship A x B appears in this fic too. Maybe it's not that central, but this ship is also disliked by some people, so the author will tag it, so ppl can filter through.

Another problem is with media that has different mediums, like, the media Y, Z, etc are from has movies, and books, and games and a tv show. All these things actually have different stories, different enough at least that ppl may only want to see fics written for the movies! But the author wants to take plot from the movies and the books. So instead of just tagging the all media tag for that media, they also tag media (movies) and media (books)

These tags end up accumulating. And especially in long fics. The author could make the first chapter a list of tws and stuff that they keep updating, but that destroys the purpose of ao3 tags: you can't filter content like that, you can only filter tags.

I honestly think they should just find a way to delete the fics with the trolling tags, or make a readmore thing so it doesn't hurt the browsing. At the very least make the tag limit longer.

sorry in advance that this is going to be rambly and weird. I have a lot of thoughts.

I get where you're coming from but I also still disagree. Like it's definitely going to change the way longfic writers tag, but I really don't think it's going to hurt them. I think it's going to encourage more effective tagging and that that's going to be better for everybody in the long run. If anything, I think that overtagging is what's hurting longfic writers, it makes their works look unappealing, and actually important information gets buried in a wall of text.

i will admit though that I do understand better now why less room for trigger tagging is going to be an issue. My preferred tagging style is "General/umbrella warnings in the tags, with whatever elaboration/specifics the author deems necessary in an author's note/author's notes at the beginning of each chapter" (example: "animal death" in the tags, so that the filters catch it + people who can't handle the subject At All know to keep scrolling, and then the author's note specifying that its in the context of game hunting & not a pet death, so that people who were uncertain and needed more info could click in and get the specifics.) and I thought that preference was pretty universal? But apparently a lot of people use the tags as an exhaustive list of warnings, which I didn't know because when I see a work with more than, well with more than 75 tags, I just start scrolling until it's gone.

(this is a tangent and I get that my experiences are not universal. but I genuinely dislike full warning lists in the tags because, for me at least, it makes it harder for me to figure out if the story is something I can/want to read. The things I Really Do Not Want To Read about are rare, and rarely tagged the same way twice, so the exclusion filter isn't really helpful for me. I have to actually read the full list of warnings and if the things I'm looking for are sandwiched inbetween a bunch of trope/character tags in a big wall o text I am going to miss it. This has happened to me multiple times.)

I think that that's an ineffective tagging style, basically. Lots of tags is kind of the opposite of useful tags, imo. Short, to the point and consistently worded warnings are better and I think having less space will encourage people to do that. I understand why people do this other style, though, and also why it would frustrate them that they can no longer do that. I think it really sucks that ao3 let everyone wild west their website for so long that it managed to spawn like three distinct groups of people who all use the website in completely incompatible ways, and now it's at the point where any new rule implemented is going to screw a lot of people over no matter what. But I digress.

Anyways, as long as someone isn't putting Revolutionary Girl Utena levels of warnings in their tags (and if your fic needs that much... maybe you should just put yur top 10 biggest warnings on there and slap a Dead Dove Do Not Eat on the end there, yknow?), I think that 75 tags will fully accommodate them. I get that tags start adding up, but also I think a lot of people are underestimating how many tags 75 tags is.

Like to just add up how many tags are used in your example: three / pairing tags, lets go crazy and say three more & pairing tags, tag every character tag in those pairings that's twelve, #abusive relationship + #not main pairing tags, three fandom tags bc multiple source mediums, a #[controversial character] positive tag... that's 24 tags. Like all the necessary character & pairing tags are handled in less than a third of the space given (and personally I consider this slightly over tagged. I think the only character tags you should put on a fic are the very mainest/pov characters, but yknow) and honestly if you can't then figure out a way to communicate the rest of the necessary information about your fic in 51 tags and a 1250 character summary then I really don't know how to help you. I personally would have to really push myself to figure out how to put more than 75 tags on one fic, regardless of the length of the fic. And I can't help but notice that a lot of the fics I could find with over 75 tags while searching last night had a lot of... unnecessary duplicate tags, often for information that could've been easily otherwise intuited (tagging #mandolorian #mandolore #mandolorian character and #mandolorian culture on a Jango Fett pre-series fic, for example)

I do have some criticisms about the current change though. I think it would've been better to have individual tag number limits for each individual field (x number of fandom tags, x number of character tags, etc.) instead of a 75 tags over all limit (or make a "warning tags" field that's separate from "additional tags" but that's a separate essay and would... probably mean overhauling the whole site. so not very practical.) A readmore option would be good too, and I'm not sure why they didn't go for that? I also think that this change will be most effective if done in combination with other changes. Like posting very loosely or not at all enforced official tagging/style guides for the site. I really think that even a tepid attempt at standardization will increase the site's usability like, A Lot.

I'm not sure how cohesive that was. TL;DR I appreciate hearing your thoughts, mine are that I still think this is a step in the right direction. And that cutting back on overtagging will lead to more concise, effective tagging which will make browsing and filtering easier in the long run.

#ao3 tag

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invisibleinorange · 4 years ago

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Swelter Weather, 2/?

Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Bridgerton Rating: M Warnings: None at this point. Relationships: Colin Bridgerton/Penelope Featherington, Eloise Bridgerton/Penelope Featherington(besties), Bridgerton Family Dynamics, Eloise Bridgerton/Phillip Crane Characters: Colin Bridgerton, Penelope Featherington, Eloise Bridgerton, Anthony Featherington, Benedict Bridgerton, Portia Featherington, Violet Bridgerton, Genevieve Delacroix Additional Tags: Bridgerton, Polin

Summary: Colin Bridgerton is weary from travel and decides to spend the summer at the Aubrey Hall. While his initial plans were to avoid his perfect family, he ends up sharing the house with Eloise and Penelope. This is a Modern AU!

Eloise thanked every star in the sky when Colin ventured out to go riding because that meant that she didn’t have to stomach another minute of him flirting with her best friend. It wasn’t that she didn’t know that they were friendly with each other nor was it that she didn’t want them to be friendly. It was just that the two of them alone was a bit overwhelming.

She usually only caught moments of banter between them though and with a million family members around someone was always getting pulled in the other direction. She didn’t have anyone to help break it up if this pattern of behavior continued and with the rest of the family busy back in London, she wouldn’t be able to call for reinforcements not that she could have. What was she supposed to tell them that wouldn’t earn an eyeroll.

After an eventful day of showing Penelope the lay of the land, including the gardens, they’d decided to have a movie night. There had been some discussion on whether to go with a serious documentary or a comedy. In the end, they ended up deciding to go the classic horror route and watch Hitchcock movies.

They were half-way through Psycho, completely absorbed into the story and awaiting a suspenseful moment when Colin came into the door frame. He watched them for a moment, completely unaware of his presence before he maneuvered over plopping into the space between them, forcing both Eloise and Penelope to move a bit to make way for him. He put his arm around both of their shoulder, grinning sheepishly.

“Hitchcock night without me? I think not,” he said.

Eloise pushed his arm away from her.

“If you have to stay, be quiet,” she said rolling her eyes at the fact he couldn’t go entertain himself.

Penelope offered him an apologetic smile on behalf of his sister. She didn’t force him to move his arm so he just let his hand give her shoulder a squeeze and left it there. Colin’s other hand maneuvered to grab a handful of their popcorn popping some into his mouth.

To his credit he did remain quiet through the end of the movie. It helped that the couch was small and with the three of them there, it was pretty cozy. Eloise fell asleep after a bit, veering into the arm rest. Penelope didn’t fall asleep but she did rest her head on Colin’s shoulder which he had no complaints about.

“Should we wake her up or drag her to her room?” Penelope finally asked breaking the silence once the movie was over, though she wasn’t exactly move. She was enjoying the proximity and the scent of Colin’s soap and cologne.

“She sleeps like the dead. I’m pretty sure we’re better off just leaving her be,” Colin told her quietly, careful to not speak too loudly and actually disturb the sleeping Eloise.

“We should at least get her a blanket,” Penelope suggested quietly.

Colin reached back with his free hand and grabbed on afghan from the back of the chair and put it over his sister.

“Does that meet your expectations?” he asked turning his focus back on the girl that was now absent from his shoulder.

“Definitely,” she told him with a smile.

He let a hand absently reach to play with a red curl that was looping extra haphazard, looping it around his finger.

“Are you tired?” he asked after a long moment of comfortable silence between them.

“Not particularly,” she told him.

“Take the party elsewhere? I have scrabble and some gin,” he offered after a long moment.

“You had me at scrabble,” she told him with a nod.

He forced himself up before offering her his hand so that she could climb to her feet as well. He wasn’t sure whether he kept his hand in hers longer than he should have or it was the other way around. He’d forgotten how soft and warm her hands were.

He gave sleeping Eloise another passing glance just to make sure she was actually good and asleep before leading the way out toward another room that housed the stacks upon stacks of well-used board games.

He flicked on the light once there, moving into motion to grab pillows and set them on opposing sides of an oversized coffee table. He then went and dug through the stacks until he found the scrabble board putting it on the coffee table.

“Make yourself comfortable,” he told her, smiling when Penelope sat down. She was honestly adorable between the pajamas bottoms and tank top she’d put on for the movie night with Eloise. He hadn’t quite paid attention before but he definitely was cognizant of the fact she wasn’t wearing a bra. He wasn’t going to let himself stare though.

He was grateful for the fact she started unboxing the game and setting down the tiles which provided him time to grab the promised gin and two glasses. He set that down on the table before plopping himself down on the opposing side of the table.

“I’m not going to take it easy on you just because we’re friends,” Penelope said after a long moment, as he poured their glasses. He couldn’t help but laugh at that as he watched her shake the bag of tiles.

“I was going to say the same thing,” he teased before taking a swig of his drink. “I will, however, let you go first. Ladies first and all.”

Penelope gazed at the letters she’d down for a couple of moments. There were a couple basic words she could play but four letters stood out to her. She reached for her glass, downing it before placing the W,A,N,K down to spell ‘Wank’.

Colin couldn’t remotely hide way hid body practically shook with laughter at the fact Penelope had played that word.

“Oh hush. You play what you draw,” she said shaking her head. “Besides, I knew you wouldn’t need a dictionary to know the definition of that one.”

“Touché,” he said shaking the bag and grabbing his own letters. He smirked as he formulates his own word in retort. He played off the K. Adding a S,U,C. “Simple but gets across the point.”

She drew her replacement letters.

Her options were limited but she could pull off a word by adding I,N to his S. She was pretty sure SIN worked just as good as any other out there though.

“Not my best work but it fits,” she announced.

“You wouldn’t know the meaning of that one since you’re an angel and everything,” he teased as replenished his tiles and started to debate his next word.

He added R, E,A,M to his earlier C to spell CREAM.

“An angel would think you were talking about ice cream there,” she said raising an eyebrow.

“I could be but I’m not,” he said. “Even Lucifer was an angel though. Maybe I’m not the sex demon, you are.”

“I’m pretty sure that in order to be a sex demon, you have to actually be having sex,” she countered, looking particularly interested in her times before playing off the E and adding a D,E,P to form DEEP.

“So, you’re not seeing anyone right now?” Colin said after a minute in response to that. It somehow felt a little less creepy than telling her than any of the other thoughts that came to mind.

He played O,O, and N against the P to spell POON.

“No,” she said in response to his question before forming DILDO off one of his O’s. Penelope decided that this was one of those now or never moments and while she didn’t come right out and say it. This was as close as she’d ever been to straight up telling how she felt. “It’s kind of hard when you’re hung up on someone.”

Their eyes met and Colin’s jaw tightened.

“Maybe they’re into you too,” he said after a minute.

He wasn’t quite sure how he managed to form LIPS off the L she’d played but he did. He was certainly far more interested in her lips at this moment than the game. Maybe now was a good time to test out his little theory and see what she’d do if he made a move.

“In fact, I’d-“ he started to say but it was short lived. He was half-way to leaning across the board when the door opened with he jumped back on instinct. The scrabble tiles and whatever was left of his drink went flying.

“I woke up and no one was there,” Eloise said as she made her way in, examining the situation with suspicion. Her gaze moved from her brother to Penelope who looked remarkably guilty. “I was worried that you had gotten lost on the way to your room.”

“Of course not, I was just keeping Colin company,” Penelope said as she tried to help clean up the mess that was their former game that was clearly not getting finished. “It’s getting late though and we probably should get some sleep.”

“Colin can finish cleaning up the mess,” Eloise said, reaching for Penelope’s arm and practically dragging her up and away toward the door. Penelope turned her head to offer an apologetic gaze in his general direction as she was tugged away.

Colin was going to have to do something about all of this; especially the fact Eloise didn’t know how to read a room and get lost. For now, he boxed up the game, cleaned up the spill and went grab a cold shower before bed.

That was his only hope.

#polin #⚜ writings — polin #penelope featherington #colin bridgerton #eloise bridgerton

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freddiesaysalright · 5 years ago

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Journey to the Past - Chapter 1

Joe!Dimitri x Anastasia!Reader

Summary: The royal family is overthrown in a violent revolution. However, rumor grows that one daughter survived. Could the last of the line be found? Will a con man and a princess put a twist on what it means to live a fairy tale?

Word Count: 3.4K

Tag List: @psychosupernatural, @someone-get-a-medic, @bensrhapsody, @deakyclicks, @crazylittlethingcalledobsession, @minigranger, @crazyweirdocalledfriday, @the-moving-finger-writes, @assembledherethevolunteers, @rose-writes-prose, @queenlover05, @26-7-49, @drowsebaby, @im-an-adult-ish, @queen-paladin, @rogerina-owns-me, @mirkwoodshewolf, @whitequeen-ofwillowgreen If you’d like to be added, let me know!

A/N: Thanks for keeping up, everyone! Hope you enjoy the first chapter!

Warning(s): None

Moodboard

Prologue

Chapter 1 here we go!!!

That same face swam before you. The kind looking little boy, just a year or two older than you, with soft brown eyes and auburn hair. His face stuck out, but there were glimpses of other things around you. A parade. Dancers. And then chaos. He was always in a crowd. At least until the last hazy memory. The clearest sight of him as you focused on his features instead of the searing pain in your shoulder and abdomen.

You sat up, pushing the image to the back of your mind. He had to be a dream. You had never been to a ball or a parade, anyway. At least, not as far as you could remember. And you couldn’t remember much before the day you came here, to the orphanage.

Now that you were an adult, you worked there, but you’d been a resident from the time you were eight or so. Having no memory of who you were before then meant you had no idea when your exact birthday was. A doctor examined you and diagnosed you with amnesia due to a traumatic head injury, and guessed your age based on your development. The women at the orphanage had chosen the day you arrived to be your birthday - not that it meant any celebrations, but so that they had something for the record.

You tried to remember your past. Especially as a child. You were visited by doctors and specialists, but no one could trigger anything that brought something significant back. All you knew was that you had been wounded, a kind boy brought you to the hospital, and from there you went to the orphanage. You couldn’t even remember what your parents looked like.

There was only one clue as to who you were that was found among your belongings. A necklace. It was a fine, gold chain, at the end of which was a pendant, with jewels creating the shape of a flower. On the back was an inscription that read “Together in Ramimont.”

You found out that Ramimont was the capital city of a country to the south. Why you would have family there was beyond you. But someone had given it to you, and whoever that person was must have loved you. Who else would give such a sentimental trinket?

With a sigh, you stretched and got out of bed. You padded over to the chair in the corner of your room and stepped into the dress you wore every day. There was an almost exact copy of it hanging in the wardrobe next to your coat. The choices at the orphanage were limited - so you’d taken whatever fabric you could to make your dresses. Old curtains mostly. And while they weren’t fashionable, they certainly kept you warm.

Stuffing your feet into your boots, you left your room and headed downstairs. Sophie, the headmistress of the orphanage was waiting for you. Your brow furrowed. That was unusual.

“Is everything alright, Sophie?” you asked her, coming to a stop.

She wrung her hands and looked desperately at you.

“Come with me, Y/N,” she said. “I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news.”

Heart rate quickening, you followed her into her office on the main floor. Upstairs, you heard the children beginning to rise and dress. You hoped whatever this was wouldn’t hurt them too much.

Sophie closed the door behind you and gestured to the old dining chair that faced her desk. You took a seat right on the edge. She moved the newspaper out of the way and you caught a glimpse of the headline: RUMORS OF THE PRINCESS… but you couldn’t see the second half. It didn’t concern you anyway. This country had no royalty. Not since the Revolution.

“Y/N, I’m terribly sorry about this, but we’re going to have to let you go,” she said.

Your stomach dropped. You were...sacked?

“I…” you trailed off, searching for the right words. “What? Did I do something wrong?”

She shook her head. “No, dear. It’s just that the city has cut funds for this place, and now I can only afford to pay myself and George.”

George was in charge of the boys at the orphanage. He answered to Sophie at the end of the day, though.

You took in a shaky breath. Fear made your blood feel cold as ice.

“W-what am I going to do?” you wondered.

It was half to yourself, half to her. This place was the only life you had ever known.

“I’ve arranged for you to get a job as a street sweeper for one of the hotels nearby,” she said. “I’m afraid they can’t pay you as much as we did, but you’ll have a roof over your head.”

You swallowed even though your mouth felt dry. You barely made enough to live with your current salary. How could you survive on less?

“There is something else you could do,” she said, lowering her voice.

You scooted closer to hear, eager. “What?”

“Go to Ramimont,” she whispered.

The government was very strict about travel, so you understood her secretive actions. To discuss leaving could be considered treason, so not even George could overhear.

“What?” you gasped softly. “You really think I should?”

“It’s up to you,” she replied. “But if you’ve got some money saved, I think it would be the perfect opportunity.”

“But I don’t even know who I’m looking for,” you said. “How can I -”

“Whoever gave you that necklace is probably missing you just as much as you’re longing for them,” she said. “But going is your only chance of finding them.”

You sat back, considering the idea. You had always wanted to go. And you did have a bit of money saved. Only, you had no idea what was required of you. If you had to get some sort of papers, what could you provide? You had no evidence of your identity.

“I wouldn’t even know where to start,” you said aloud.

“I don’t really know, either,” Sophie admitted. “But the knowledge is not behind the walls of this building. You’ll have to move on first.”

Tears welled up in your eyes. “I’m going to miss you.”

Her eyes were equally watery. “Oh, dear. I’m going to miss you too.”

You jumped to your feet, crossed around her desk, and hugged her. She sniffled and patted your back. And before you knew it, it was time to pack your bags.

***

Joe read over the words again. RUMORS OF THE PRINCESS ANASTASIA ALIVE. Beneath the headline was a photo of the princess - the rest of her family cropped out so it was just her proud face. He could never forget that girl. And the horror he witnessed that day. There was no way she was alive.

He re-focused and started to read the article. It mentioned that there was a reward offered by the girl’s grandmother, the Dowager Empress Marie Malek Lee. His eyes widened at the number. That much money meant the kind of freedom he had longed for all his life!

The wheels in his head began turning. If anyone had a chance at that money it was him. He had worked in the kitchen, he had met the family. And then there was the music box. He had more proof than any other person could hope to provide. Plus, he had Roman.

As if summoned by the mere thought of him, Roman came through the door. He shook some snow off his jacket and hung it on the rack. Joe looked up and smiled.

“Morning,” he said. “How was town?”

“Ugh,” Roman groaned. “Everyone’s all aflutter about this rumor regarding the princess. It’s clearly a distraction!”

Joe raised an eyebrow. “A distraction? From what?”

“They closed another border today,” Roman said gravely. “They’re shutting us in, Joe. We need to get out if we’re going to do it.”

Joe paused. Another border closure was definitely concerning. And it meant difficulty in their plan. But Joe’s new plan meant getting out with the addition of money. He would have no qualms splitting any earnings with Roman, who had become his closest friend.

Roman was only about ten years old than Joe, but with a whole different experience. Being the scandalous love child of an earl, most would have thought his life difficult. It was in some respects, but astonishingly, Roman’s father welcomed his son with open arms, and tried to make him part of society. The mother being a prostitute made some members of the nobility scoff, but when King Nicholas himself accepted Roman, the rest of that class had to suck it up.

That is, until the Revolution came. The earl packed up his family, and had to pay for each of their exit visas. In their rush, Roman was left behind. He was the forgotten son, after all.

Roman got his revenge. He went to his father’s mansion and completely ransacked it. He took all the valuables left behind - jewels, furs, antiques, etc. - and sold them. He kept one thing, a diamond ring that belonged to his father’s wife, and he gave it to his mother. She didn’t live much longer, but Roman still had it.

“I was thinking about this whole Princess Anastasia thing,” Joe said.

Roman rolled his eyes. “Not you too! I thought you had some sense!”

“Hear me out,” Joe insisted. “Between the two of us, we could train any girl to be that princess. We just gotta find someone who looks enough like her.”

“Are you serious?” Roman returned. “You want to con the Dowager Empress?”

“What’s she ever done for either of us?” Joe pointed out. “Why shouldn’t we get something out of our knowledge?”

Roman paused, mulling it over.

“What woman would agree to this?” he said. “We’d have to split the reward money three ways.”

“Believe me, the amount is more than enough to split three ways,” Joe said.

He tossed the paper to Roman, who began reading it over. Concern crossed his handsome, angular features as he read.

“Let’s say we do this,” he said. “How will we find the girl? We can’t exactly put out an ad for people to audition. We’d be shot where we stand.”

“I know some people, I’ll get the word out,” Joe insisted. “Come on, Ro, this is our chance.”

“I think we should just consider ourselves lucky to be able to get out of the country,” Roman replied warily. “Is money really worth all this risk?”

“Money is the most important thing in the world, Roman,” Joe said seriously. “And I don’t intend on being without it anymore.”

“Money has never been the most important thing in the world,” Roman said. “The Lee family had more money they knew what to do with, and they still ended up dead.”

Joe didn’t answer that. He was all too familiar with that story, though he’d never shared it with his friend.

“Ro, I’m doing this,” he said. “Whether you’re with me or not.”

A beat passed as Roman eyed him, a bit worried. Then he smirked. “You couldn’t pull it off without me anyway.”

Joe beamed. “So you’re in?”

“I’m in,” Roman said.

They shook on it.

“Who knows? Maybe we will find her,” he continued. “If the Dowager is offering a reward, there must be some substance to the rumor.”

A fleeting image passed in the front of Joe’s mind. Bloody snow, a weak girl in his arms, her eyes falling shut as he called to her. He shook his head to clear it away.

“I doubt it,” he said.

With that, he took to the streets, telling his most trusted contacts that he was looking for the lost princess.

***

The snow crunched under your boots as you trudged up to the hotel. You didn’t imagine there were many tourists in the country. What was there to see? The capital was only government workers and poor people. There was the old palace, but it was boarded up. As far as anything else, you had no idea what might draw people here. You noticed that most of the people coming to the hotel were in uniforms of some sort. They must be visitors from around the country. Or even other countries.

You set your bag down and stood across the street from the hotel that was to be your new home. If you took the job. There was also Sophie’s suggestion to consider. The latter was definitely the more frightening option, but if the reward was finding your true family, then it should be worth it...right?

You glanced down at the necklace, thinking it over some more. If you went into that hotel now, you may never get another opportunity to leave. You picked up your bag, determined, and walked away toward the train station. You had to take your chance.

The train station was toward the edge of the city, near the old palace. You could see the towers looming over the land around it. The area was rather deserted, which you found surprising. As you looked at the abandoned fortress, you felt a sort of pull from it. Like you had been there before.

You ignored this feeling and pressed on to the station. You couldn’t be worried about some crumbling castle. You had to get out as soon as possible.

The line for tickets was excruciatingly long. You waited for nearly two hours before you were face to face with the attendant at the booth. He looked impatiently at you.

“Where to?” he asked gruffly.

“One ticket to Ramimont, please,” you said.

“Exit visa and passport?”

“I - uh - well -” you stammered. “I have some money.”

“You can’t purchase a ticket without an exit visa and a passport,” he explained, rolling his eyes. “You may get those documents at the parliament building downtown.”

“How long does that take?” you asked.

“Depends on how much money you have,” he said. “And who you know. But until you have those, get out of my line.”

You started at the harshness of his address, but did as you were told. You felt a tap on your shoulder and turned to face it. It was a woman. She was not really dressed for the cold weather, with her chest that exposed and skirt just under her knee. She also had a heavy rogue on her cheeks.

“If you’re looking to go to Ramimont, you should see Joe Mazzello,” she said quietly.

You stepped closer to her. “Who?”

“Joe Mazzello,” she repeated. “He’s at the old palace. I hear he’s got a ticket, but there is a catch.”

“What’s the catch?” you wondered.

She shrugged. “Dunno. Heard it from a friend. But you might have a better shot with him than with the government.”

“I see,” you said. “Thank you, Miss…”

“You don’t need to know my name,” she said. “You didn’t hear this from me.”

You nodded. After thanking her again, you left the train station. This time, heading for the one place you were avoiding earlier. Perhaps it was fate calling you in. Hopefully, you were meant to meet this Joe person and he would deliver you to your family.

You stopped yourself. You didn’t want to get carried away in a hope.

The castle was a sorry sight. With wooden planks in the windows where glass used to be, dustings of snow being blown in by the wind, and a fully collapsed tower, it looked a bit haunted. And of course, the lack of people added to the eerie feeling. You peered in between the boards and into the darkness. You couldn’t see anything, really.

You picked this window because it was far enough away from the main entrance that you might be able to sneak in without startling anyone. You tested the plank in front of your chest. It was fairly loose - whoever had done this did it quickly and carelessly. You supposed the New Order didn’t want anyone to see the symbol of the old ways as up for grabs.

You tugged on the board. It groaned beneath the force until finally you pried it enough and it came clean off. You stumbled back as the pressure released, but collected yourself and tossed it away. There was enough room for you to get in. You stepped through first and then reached back for your bags. You set them down against the wall, and then looked up and gaped at the high, grand ceilings and plush carpet. Everything was so...regal. And even stranger, it felt familiar to you.

Across the corridor from the window, you saw a dusty, faded painting. It was enormous, and a portrait of a man and his family. He was tall, with soft brown hair and bright blue eyes. Unlike the portraits of men before him, he was smiling. The lady beside him looked equally happy with a wide grin. A silly detail you noticed on her was that the artist had depicted her shoes to be made of glass.

She had a baby on her lap, and three other children surrounded their feet. A gold plate on the frame appeared to have some information etched into it, so you stepped closer to read it. It said, “King Gwilym, his wife, and children.”

You were struck with a pang of sadness. You looked up at King Gwilym’s smiling face and felt such pity that his line was ended. That his descendants had met a tragic end and his legacy was disappearing into time. You had no idea why it broke your heart like this. You didn’t know the man or his relations, and yet, you felt this hurt for him. The only comfort was that wherever they were, they were all together now.

To the left, were more paintings. You guessed, more generations of royals. You walked on and observed them, heartstrings still pulling at their fate. Three paintings over from Gwilym was the final royal family. King Nicholas greatly resembled his great-grandfather Gwilym. He had a wider face, and a thick beard which added to it, but the eyes were exactly the same. Round, blue, and kind.

His wife, Alexandra, was stunning. She wasn’t as warm as her husband, but she had the grace and elegance of a queen, for sure. Similar to King Gwilym’s queen, she had the youngest child in her lap for the portrait. The only boy. On the floor, four girls sat together, holding hands and smiling.

You blinked and a tear slid down your cheek. Hastily, you wiped it away. Why on Earth were you crying? Sure, you knew the royal family’s story was unfortunate, but why was this feeling so personal?

You shook your head and continued on, re-focusing. You needed to find this Joe person, and quickly. This place was overwhelming.

Every part of the palace felt like something you had dreamed and were trying to recall after waking up. It felt fuzzy, but certain things were coming through with perfect clarity. Then you came upon a ballroom.

For a fleeting moment, it was dazzling with light and glittering jewels. Important people waltzed around it, and you spotted King Nicholas amongst the crowd. He spun his daughter around, lifting her high in the air, and you giggled along with her.

As quickly as the vision came, it went. Once again, the room was dull, faded, covered in cobwebs and other debris. You stepped and a plume of dust formed around your boot. You scanned the ballroom and spotted a long table against the wall with serving platters and the like spread out. The silver was tarnished and pieces were missing. Even so, you picked up a tray. You examined it, and wiped the dust away. When it was clear, you looked at your reflection. What you saw startled you.

It was you, but as a little girl, looking remarkably like the youngest of the four in the painting, in a pink silk gown and a tiara sparkling on the crown of your head. You gasped at the sight and dropped the platter. It clanged to the floor and you winced.

“Hey!” cried a voice from the other side of the ballroom.

You whirled around to face him. It was a young man, probably about your age, with auburn hair. His face was familiar to you the same way this palace was, and it frightened you.

“Who are you?” he demanded. “What are you doing here?”

“What’s going on?” another man questioned as he jogged to join the first. You felt as if you’d met him before too.

You didn’t answer either of them. Instead, you took off running back the way you came.

“Hey, wait!” the redhead called, and he pursued you.

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ao3feed-undertale1 · 4 months ago

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P[ASS]IFISM

#ao3feed #ao3undertalefeed #fanfic #undertale #undertale-fanfic

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maximumsnow · 5 years ago

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Chapters: 6/? Fandom: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware, HLVRAI - Fandom Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Gordon Freeman, Tommy Coolatta, Dr. Coomer (Half-Life), Bubby (Half-Life), Benrey (Half-Life) Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-typical swearing, Basically an au exploring what if HLVRAI followed Half Life a little more closely, Au where there isn't a betrayal in that one spot, Mainly was wondering what would happen to the others if they hadn't been in on it., Some things change some don't, Oh also this is sort of intended as a not a game au

Summary: Anyone who knows original Half-Life knows that the ambush happens in that spot no matter what. What would have happened if the ambush was as rough for the others?

It felt like time itself froze when Gordon walked in, arm raised in greeting. Seeing Coomer try to kill a clone was… honestly still unsettling even if he had a vague reason for it. However, something about this image was wrong.

Coomer looked directly at him and cheerfully said, “Oh, hello there!”

And that’s when his heart dropped.

This couldn’t be his Dr. Coomer.

His eyes dropped to the limbless Coomer lying on the table, but before he could look any closer, the presumed clone started speaking again. “My clone!” The exclamation was a perfect copy of Coomer’s usual speaking pattern, and the unnerving similarity sent a shudder down Gordon’s spine.

In lieu of any explanation, the clone tensed his arms in preparation to swing, and Gordon found himself quickly moving towards him. He tripped over his words as he tried to distract the man with the sledgehammer. “Hey, uh, wait. Isn’t this a bit much?”

The previously still Coomer on the table jerked at the sound of Gordon’s voice, and the head turned towards him. Whatever was said became a muffled grunt due to the cloth.

Confusion overtook the other Coomer’s face as he tried to figure out what Gordon meant, and it allowed Gordon enough time to get next to him. “No, this is the perfect amount of force to take out a clone!” He exclaimed as he prepared to swing again.

The clone found the sledgehammer unmoving when he tried to move it. Gordon gripped the handle halfway down the weapon with both hands. The grip was difficult to maintain since he had kept the crowbar in hand, but he refused to let it budge even as the clone tried to pull it over his head.

Gordon could never beat Dr. Coomer in a strength contest.

The clone struggled against him, but the awkward angle and the added weight made it a losing battle. “It’s just a clone. Let me finish-”

Cutting through the bullshit, Gordon argued, “You’re not Dr. Coomer.”

That snapped the clone out of the persona he had been putting on. He let go of the sledgehammer to properly face Gordon. “… Yes I am. We’re all Dr. Coomer.” The flat tone dared Gordon to keep arguing.

Suddenly losing the tension of the impromptu tug-of-war on the sledgehammer nearly caused Gordon to tip over, but he caught himself in time to glance at the clone. The expressionless look on the clone’s face made Gordon drop the heavy sledgehammer and clutch the crowbar in front of him.

He didn’t even get to swing it before the clone charged into him. Despite Gordon’s height advantage and this clone’s apparent lack of cybernetics, it didn’t take much for Gordon to lose his balance as he struggled against the Coomer clone’s assault.

He saw stars as the back of his head connected with the hard floor, and it was a miracle he didn’t pass out again immediately.

It hurt.

He screamed in pain. “FUCK!”

The clone tried to cover Gordon’s mouth to stifle the sound, and in the ensuing scuffle, Gordon’s glasses got knocked askew. Even as he fought for his life, he could hear the clone mutter, “You won’t get in my way. As long as 13 doesn’t suspect me-”

The blurry figure of his assailant suddenly sat stock still as they heard the automatic door open.

Gordon could only see the white of a scientist’s uniform, and while that could be one of his friends, he didn’t know for sure.

Until the intruder spoke. “What the hell are you...” The snappy tone trailed off as Bubby presumably took in the scene.

“Get off.” The sharp order was emphasized by the pump of a shotgun, and Gordon felt the weight of the clone lift. Without someone trying to suffocate him, Gordon was able to readjust his glasses so he could see what was going on, but when he tried moving too much, his head started pounding.

Bubby had the shotgun trained on the clone, and with the look Bubby was giving him, Gordon was surprised that the clone hadn’t caught on fire yet. Once the clone was no longer too close to Gordon or the Coomer on the table, Bubby pulled the trigger.

Click.

No gunshot. Bubby looked down at the useless weapon.

“What? I just loaded-” Bubby was cut off as the clone lunged at him. The shotgun was dropped as Bubby was caught off guard in the sudden hand to hand struggle. Despite the surprise, Bubby was able to grab the hands reaching for his neck and held them away. At first, Bubby looked like he would overpower the clone. He was stronger than he looked, and it was easy to forget that fact.

Until the clone stomped on his bad foot, causing Bubby to let go and stagger backwards. The clone was quick to pounce on the opening and managed to shove the unbalanced scientist to the ground.

At this point, Gordon struggled to sit up as he fought his aching head and body, but the sudden action made the room spin. Shutting his eyes so that he could get his bearings, he patted the floor frantically as he tried to relocate the crowbar. His hand finally landed on something, and when he pulled it close, a familiar metallic grating sound as he it dragged across the floor told him that he managed to find it.

After a few seconds, the smell of smoke assaulted his nose, and it caused his eyes to snap open again. The clone had apparently tried to run back towards Gordon and the sledgehammer, but Bubby had managed to latch onto his leg with his hands. Fire was licking Bubby’s sleeves as it climbed down his arms and onto the clone’s leg.

The clone furiously tried to pull his leg away, but Bubby’s grip did not falter even as he was jerked around the floor. Fire climbed as he did up the clone’s body. More flames joined the existing ones even where Bubby wasn’t touching him, and soon the clone’s entire body was aflame.

That was when Gordon finally noticed the screaming over the ringing in his ears. It was so similar to Coomer’s screams of pain that it made it watching the scene unbearable. Despite knowing this wasn’t his friend, it still made a quiet voice in the back of his head question whether this was actually a clone or not.

Even though the clone himself admitted the deception, he couldn’t ignore the almost instinctive fear for his friends that kicked in. He managed to stagger to a standing position, and despite the obvious distraction in the room, he finally got a good look at the Dr. Coomer on the table.

Despite the head being turned towards the fight, Gordon could see the eyes were wide with terror, and there was a large red mark on the side of his head that was partially hidden by the curly white hair. A slashed hospital gown had been the only thing he had been deemed worthy to wear.

He was also trying his damnedest to move his limbless body towards the fight, even if he couldn’t really help.

This had to be his Dr. Coomer.

With a shaking hand, Gordon reached for the cloth that was covering the poor scientist’s mouth, and when he made contact with the back of Coomer’s head, he suddenly twitched and fixed Gordon with a fearful look.

It quickly melted to relief.

Until burning hands snatched him off the table.

“NO!”

Gordon wasn’t sure who yelled that. Or if it had been his and Bubby’s voices melding together.

The clone desperately held onto Coomer’s torso like a koala, clearly determined to either use him as a living shield or to take him down with him.

The fire was quickly spreading to Coomer’s clothing.

Gordon was so fixated on that sight that he missed seeing what Bubby was doing. Until he saw the bald scientist lunge towards the clone in a way that brought back a primal fear in Gordon. It reminded him way too much of how the feral prototypes had tried to bite his face off.

Well, Gordon could at least say Bubby didn’t aim for the face.

He sure bit the hell out of the clone’s shoulder as he tried to yank Coomer away, though.

With the clone distracted, Gordon quickly stumbled his way over to the fight and took the easy opportunity Bubby had provided. All he knew next was that he was swinging his crowbar at the clone’s head in fury.

A loud THUD sounded as the blow connected.

As the clone dropped to the ground like a burning rock, Bubby was finally able to yank Coomer away from his embrace and immediately worked on putting out the few flames that had managed to take hold.

Gordon just stood there in shock. He hadn’t expected him to go down so easily, but the clone wasn’t breathing or reacting to the fire still engulfing him.

Maybe he should put that out before they started smelling it...

The automatic doors opened again.

Gordon already had his crowbar up for another swing, and Bubby pulled Coomer closer to him.

“Mr.-Mr. Freeman? Dr. Bubby? What-What happened?”

Tommy was standing in the door carrying a much bigger gun than a pistol, and it was easy to see the extra ammunition poking out of his pockets.

The tension immediately eased, and Bubby took the opportunity to finally get the cloth removed from Coomer’s mouth.

“Oh thank God, it’s you, Tommy.” Gordon sighed in relief. “We uh-”

“Hello, Gordon!” Coomer’s voice still possessed its usual volume, startling the hell out of everyone in the room. In the silence that followed, he simply said, “My clone!”

“Yeah, uh, the Dr. Coomer we found wasn’t our Coomer,” Gordon tried to explain. “I found him trying to kill Coomer and things went south.”

“That’s vague as hell.”

“He was trying to collapse my head in like a rotten watermelon! And then tried to strangle Gordon!”

Gordon rolled his eyes, but there wasn’t much bite in the action. “… Yeah, and then Bubby came in-” He stopped as a question hit him, “Wait, how did you get here so quickly? I wasn’t gone for that long.”

“… I have my reasons.” Bubby was pointedly looking away from him. With Coomer no longer in danger of burning and able to speak, Bubby didn’t have an easy distraction for his hands, so he wandered over to the observation area to snoop around.

“Did you suspect something already?”

Bubby didn’t have a chance to deny the answer when Coomer spoke up, “Probably! The project was supposed to make a hive mind between me and my clones, but, well, things didn’t quite work out. In other words, no clone can perfectly impersonate me. Even if they try.” Despite starting in his typical chipper voice, the last few words were spoken softly.

Gordon didn’t like the realization that it had taken him so long to figure out something was wrong. There had been a few things that seemed off, but with how things had gone ever since the Resonance Cascade, it had faded into the background.

“Damn, you must know each other pretty well, if Bubby caught on so quickly.” The observation posed a question if they wanted to answer it, but it also left them an out if they chose not to elaborate.

Which they didn’t. Bubby was digging into a box he found, and Coomer had seemingly turned his attention back to Tommy.

Tommy hadn’t moved since the conversation started.

“Tommy?” Gordon went in his direction, and with the adrenaline wearing off, his body started its loud protesting of the treatment he had just given it. A few more bruises to join the already existing ones. He staggered, and that seemed to snap Tommy out of the daze he was in.

“Mr. Freeman?” The response came out so quietly that Gordon almost didn’t hear it. Tommy closed the gap between them and offered an arm to help Gordon stabilize before gently guiding him to the ground to sit. “Take-Take it easy.”

While appreciative of the concern directed towards himself, he was worried about Tommy. The guy had only gotten quieter as the day had progressed, and it seemed like he wasn’t entirely there. Before he could ask, Tommy had already left his side and went over to the very dead clone.

And fired a full clip into the corpse. Which was suddenly no longer burning.

Once again, everyone jumped at the loud, sudden noise, and Gordon called out, “Hey, he’s dead! He can’t hurt us anymore! Don’t waste the ammo.”

Tommy didn’t respond until the gun clicked to signify that the clip was empty. “Had to-had to make sure. They always say to uh, double-double tap, right?”

“That’s- That’s a bit more than just a double tap, man.” Despite the words, his voice didn’t have any reproach. He ended up patting the ground next to him, “Why don’t you rest a minute? You’ve been going non-stop for a while now.”

“I’m fine, Mr. Freeman. I gotta-I gotta make sure Dr. Coomer is okay.” Tommy temporarily dropped the gun to his side for a moment as he went to get a better look at Dr. Coomer.

Gordon thought about joining them, but his eyes started to flutter shut as their voices blurred into a background hum. Maybe just a few minutes…

“Are you alright?” The sudden question and the identity of the person asking surprised Gordon so much that he forgot to answer. Eyes snapping back open, he looked up at Bubby, who was cradling the shotgun from earlier again.

Instead of answering the question, he asked, “Isn’t that broken?”

“No, it’s just jammed, but I’m getting the shells out of it to use in a different one.” Bubby pointed the gun away from him as he started pulling out the ammo. “You probably shouldn’t throw guns like that anymore.” Once he finished, he nudged a green army supply box towards him. “Anyway, you shouldn’t be sleeping, so help me look through this.”

Despite the phrasing, as soon as Gordon opened the lid, Bubby walked away. Oh well. There wasn’t much else he could do, so he started to dig through the various supplies to see if there was anything they could take.

Which got boring really quickly when most of it was junk. To help keep his mind moving, he asked Coomer the first thing that came to mind, “Hey your, uh, clone mentioned something earlier and we overheard some soldiers talking about it. Did you see a monster alien thing running through?”

“Why of course, Gordon! You can clearly see the blood on the ceiling and walls from the soldiers it killed and from damage it took!”

Now that Gordon wasn’t preoccupied with saving Coomer, he finally took in the rest of the room. And Coomer wasn’t lying.

There was a blackened blood spray dried onto the ceiling which looked like it came from the monster, and there were a few splotches on the wall intermixed with a dark red from at least one injured or dead human.

Interestingly, the smear on the floor went around the table. Given some of the damage earlier, he didn’t think it would have cared about slamming into another piece of furniture, but apparently it had cared about this one. Or it was chasing someone who decided to go around.

He shuddered.

“It didn’t bother you at all?”

“Nope! When I heard the soldiers radio in that it was coming this way, I laid very still and kept very quiet!”

“And it just. Ignored you? And did you see what it looked like?”

“I had to keep my eyes closed, Gordon. Otherwise it might have guessed I was still alive thanks to my sparkling eyes!” The unexpected moment of pure self confidence drew a short laugh from Gordon, and Coomer continued. “I heard it stop and sniff, but given my current state, it must have assumed I was already dead!”

Current state.

Wait.

“Shit! Where the fuck are your arms and legs?!” Sure he noticed that they were missing when he first walked in, but given what he walked into, figuring out the hows and whys of the situation had fallen to the wayside.

“Are you fucking blind?” Bubby shouted from the observation room. “He’s been missing them this whole time!”

“I NOTICED THAT, MAN, BUT WHERE DID THEY GO?”

“Oh the military took them! They’re top of the line cybernetics, and I would be too difficult to contain if they didn’t remove them.” If this had been anyone else, Gordon would have interpreted this as overconfident bragging, but he knew Coomer well enough that he was stating a fact. “And it would increase the chances of at least something from me getting out.”

“Oh hell yes!” Bubby’s triumphant voice echoed through the chamber, drawing all present to look towards him. After a minute, he exited the observation room with some clothes and something metal.

“Good job, Bubby, you found my Power Legs! And clothes! I can’t wait to wear something other than this cold hospital gown.” The genuine warmth that seeped into Coomer’s voice eased something in Gordon’s chest. Sure Coomer had kept his chipper attitude throughout the conversation, but it had been teetering the line of being forced.

Not that Gordon could blame him.

Bubby thankfully seemed to know what he was doing when it came to helping Coomer get his legs reattached, so Gordon went back to focusing on Tommy. At some point during the conversation, Tommy had reloaded his gun and was standing near the far exit. Gordon called out, “What’s going on, man? We’ve taken out most of the soldiers by now, right?”

“There-there has to be at least one soldier ahead of us, Mr. Freeman. Whoever took out the mon-The monster. And the aliens have been just- They keep teleporting around.”

Yeah, Gordon felt dumb after that. Tommy was right, and he should have connected those dots on his own. “Sorry. Gordon’s head kinda hurts still.” He gingerly leaned his head forward and closed his eyes in hopes that the ache would stop.

He would have stayed like that if Tommy hadn’t crossed the room at record speed and knelt by him. “You-You okay? Don’t-You-You can’t fall asleep.”

Gordon opened his eyes to see Tommy’s frightened visage hovering nearby, and the closeness made a faint trembling in the other man’s frame much more obvious.

“I’m-I’m fine, Tommy, I wasn’t dozing off.” Right then, anyway. “I’m just...” He quickly debated lying, but he didn’t think he could make it believable. “It hurts a lot. The clone slammed me against the floor.” He raised an arm as if to rub the back of his head, but caught himself halfway and lowered it. “Just. Don’t worry about me, right now. You can keep guarding the door.”

After a moment of almost uncomfortable staring, Tommy nodded before retaking his spot.

They’d be so fucked without him.

Before anymore musing could happen, Gordon was distracted by watching Bubby help Coomer sit upright. He still had the hospital gown on covering his torso, and it was left on while Bubby buttoned up the shirt he threw on him. It wasn’t until there were a few buttons left that Bubby pulled the gown out through the hole.

Gordon had no idea why they went through such a complicated method of taking the gown off, but it felt like it was ringing a bell. Unfortunately, said bell made his head ache more, so he mentally shook that line of thinking for now.

Bubby must have somehow figured out the pants while getting the legs on, because once they had settled the shirt on, Coomer twisted himself around so that his lower legs hung off the table. The position allowed Bubby to shove on some socks and shoes with ease, and with that, Coomer scooted off the table.

Bubby was close enough for Coomer to lean against as he tested the legs, and soon he was standing upright with few troubles. His balance seemed to be off, but that could easily be attributed to his lack of arms and readjusting to having legs.

As an afterthought, Bubby tied the labcoat around Coomer’s waist. “Alright, that should do it.”

“Thank you, Professor!” Coomer was beaming at Bubby with a mischievous glint.

“Doctor.”

“Professor!”

Gordon couldn’t help but laugh as they continued the old argument. It was such a ridiculous thing, and he had heard it several times by this point, but it was familiar. He was laughing so much that he didn’t notice when Coomer had come over.

“Hello, Gordon! We should get moving! We still have to find a scientist who can let us out of this building.” The announcement was enough to jolt him out of his laughing fit, and he wiped his eyes before standing up and giving Coomer a wide, genuine smile.

The now familiar aches of his body were still there, but it was easier to ignore them with a lighter heart.

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s go.”

#My Writing #Hlvrai #Half Life VR but the AI is Self Aware #Gordon Hlvrai #Tommy Coolatta #Bubby #Dr. Coomer

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multishipperlove · 5 years ago

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Critical Role (Web Series), Cinderbrush (Web Video) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jamie Wrenly/Cameron Solomon/Aff Flowers/Sasha Murasaki Characters: Jamie Wrenly, Cameron Solomon, Aff Flowers, Sasha Murasaki, Samuel Flowers Additional Tags: Polyamory, Kissing, switching POVs, just general teenage fluff Summary:

Sometimes you defeat some evil cultists who killed the only friend you had, and then your life... just kinda goes on. But at least you get a relationship out of it.

It was Wednesday, Aff's favorite day of the week. Well, besides the weekend maybe, because that meant no school and no people to judge them and their friends for crimes they'd never committed (had even been proven innocent in court for, but apparently a lot of high schoolers didn't care what the court had to say). But Wednesdays were special.

Right after school, Aff would get to collect Cameron from his English class and drive them both back to Diamond's Liquor. Then they'd spend the afternoon working and, because Wednesday was usually the slowest day of the week and their Dad had allowed it, do their homework with Cam as long as there wasn't anything else to do.

So between sweeping the floors and restocking some shelves, the two would sit together behind the counter, doing their best to understand the math problem of the week or to get through a Spanish text neither of them actually knew all the vocabs for. But it helped a great deal with catching up (who knew court dates could force you to miss so many school days) and even Cameron's grades were slowly starting to get better again.

And in the evening, once the shop was locked up for the night, they'd wait for Sasha and Jamie to show up and have a proper date night. Or, as much of a proper date night that four more or less broke teenagers could have. Aff's Dad didn't didn't mind if they took some snacks and drinks from the store, as long as it was all in a reasonable range, and Jamie always brought the weirdest movies to watch.

Most nights, Aff would pile them all up in their truck afterwards and drive them home, but on rarer occasions the others got to stay the night, and that was even better. If they were all a bit tired the next morning because they'd stayed up all night talking, well... the teachers didn't pay a lot of attention to them anymore, so it was fine.

Today was such a sleepover day, and Aff had been looking forward to it since the agreement had been made in their group chat. Granted, Jamie still pretended to have better things to do at times, but they all knew they'd just show up twenty minutes late with a a small collection of DVDs and maybe some liquor, and claim that their plans had been cancelled last minute. So it was all good.

Either way, right now, Aff was still standing outside Cameron's English class, waiting for the teacher to finally end the lesson. They were anxiously tapping their foot on the floor and checking the time on their phone again, when the bell finally rang and the sound of chairs scrapping back and desks being closed erupted from inside, and the door finally opened to the first students pouring out.

Aff stood to the side, letting everyone pass. Cameron had some extra work he'd been meaning to turn in, so they knew he'd take a minute or two longer. But when he finally came out, the smile lighting up his face when seeing Aff definitely made the wait worth it.

“Hey there,” he greeted them, as if they weren't waiting in the same spot every Wednesday.

“Hey! Are you like, ready to head out? Did you get it all settled?” Aff asked, feeling himself immediately mirroring Cam's expression. That smile was infectious.

Cameron rubbed the back of his neck, almost self-consciously, and gave a half-hearted shrug. “Sure, I guess? I'm not sure if it's going to do much for my grade, but at least she let me try, you know?”

“Yeah, I mean, that's good,” they agreed, as they both started to walk towards the parking lot. “I'm sure it's gonna be really good though. Sasha helped you, right?”

“Yeah, I had no idea she was such an English nerd before,” Cam chuckled. “But anyway, enough about that. I don't want to talk about homework for, like, at least another hour.”

“Oh yeah, no, sure, that's cool,” Aff agreed quickly, and then fell quiet for a few minutes, before Cameron struck up a conversation about the football game the coming Friday, and whether or not they were all going to come see him play.

The conversation kept going for a while, jumping from one topic to the next until they actually made it home to the shop. Aff was still feeling giddy, jumping out the truck with a grin and quickly heading inside, knowing that Cameron would be right behind.

“Hey Dad, I'm home!” they called out, dropping their backpack behind the counter and instead picking up the apron they wore for work. A second later, Samuel came out of the storage room in the back, smiling as well as the saw them both.

He pulled Aff into a brief hug, one hand staying on their shoulder even as he pulled back again to greet Cam with a brief nod. “Good to see you two, how was school?” he asked. “Got a lot of homework?”

“Nah, it's fine,” Aff told him quickly. “We totally got the shop covered for the rest of the day, dad, don't worry. We'll be super fine, one hundred percent.”

“True,” Cam added, already pulling his math homework out of his backpack. “No worries Mr. Flowers, same procedure like every Wednesday.”

“I know, I know,” the man sighed, finally taking his own apron off, before focusing on Aff again. “You know I got this appointment in the city today, so I won't be back until later tonight. I worry, 's all.”

Aff faltered a bit at that. They hated how much that lie about the party, all those weeks ago, was still affecting their relationship. But with what had happened, they really couldn't blame their father. It was partly the reason they were taking so many shifts lately, not only as a way to make up for being a horrible child that night, but also for building trust again.

“No, that's fine, I get it,” they replied, with a little less intensity in their voice. “But we're gonna be okay, I swear. We'll just be here all afternoon, and then the others are gonna come by, and by the time you get back we'll all probably be asleep anyway. That's okay, right?”

Their dad was more gentle when he answered, patting Aff's shoulder with an affectionate look. “Of course, you kids have fun. I'll worry regardless, but that's just my job.”

“Sure thing, dad. Love you,” Aff muttered, watching as he went to get his jacket and finally made his way to the door.

“Love you too! Now, Cameron, you take care of he- I mean, them, you hear me?”

“You got it, Mr. Flowers. We'll take care of each other,” Cam called after the man, as he walked out with another smile and a wave. As soon as Samuel was gone, he turned back to Aff, gently nudging their shoulder. “Hey, you okay? You got kinda quiet there.”

“Hmm?” Aff jumped slightly at the contact, but seemed to refocus quickly enough. “Yeah, sure. Anyway, how about you start on math homework, and I will restock a bit before I join you.”

Cameron chuckled, knowing very well where this was going. “Nah, how about I help you first and then we start maths together, because there's no way I'm letting you copy.”

“But you're not even going to get paid for this.”

“I get to spend time with you, don't I.”

As expected, the shop stayed rather quiet that day. A few customers came in, but they all knew what they wanted and no one spend more than a few minutes in the shop (people didn't tend to stay and browse anymore, at least not when Aff was on shift. But at least they came at all. At least the middle schoolers hadn't thrown eggs at the store front in three weeks).

At point seven, with the store clean and stocked up and all their homework done, Aff locked up, and the two of them headed upstairs to the small apartment instead. Sometimes Sasha was early, and spend the last half an hour or so in the shop with them, but today they were still on their own, which gave them the privilege to choose snacks for the group.

“Okay, whatcha got?” Cameron asked, waiting for Aff to raid the kitchen cabinets.

“Uh, okay, so,” they started to mutter again, looking through some cupboards and shelves as they talked. “We got, like, two bags of doritos, and there's probably some salsa in the fridge from last week... I also know that my dad bought like a bunch of frozen pizzas because they were on sale, so we got those.”

Cam grimaced a bit, but made sure Aff couldn't see his reaction. Sometimes he really wished they could do this at his house instead. He wasn't actually complaining, just being here with the others was the most important thing anyway, but it could have been even better if his parents didn't suck as much. Or Sasha's, for that matter.

He didn't know too much about Jamie's parents. They seemed to have a good enough relationship with their mom, but still didn't like bringing people over when she was home. So they always ended up at Aff's place, which was small and a little bit crammed, and there were still some boxes they and their father had never bothered to unpack, but it was homely. A save haven, really, especially since he and Sasha tried to spend as little time with their parents as they possibly could anyway.

So instead of wishing for something that wouldn't come true anyway, Cam took the doritos that Aff was holding out, picked up some drinks, and dutifully carried it all into the living room. Just as he was setting stuff down again he heard the doorbell ring, Aff sliding down the corridor and hurrying down the stairs again a second later... and then downstairs, he could make out Sasha's and Jamie's voice after the door opened. Instead of running down as well he waited upstairs though, claiming the best spot on the couch while he still could.

Sasha was the first to join him again, rolling her eyes at first when she saw him spread out in front of the TV already. “Should have known I would find you like this,” she muttered, but walked over to kiss him anyway when he opened his arms for her with a smile. Cam didn't even try to reply anything, seeing as he was quickly getting lost in their little make out session. His hand was just starting to wander up her shirt when he heard someone clear their throat behind them though, and only then did he break apart from her again and turned his head with a sheepish grin. “What?”

“How rude of you to start without us,” Jamie told him, managing to hold the disgruntled facade for all of three seconds before simply coming to join them on the sofa. They both got an uncharacteristically chaste kiss before the witch started to unpack the bag they had with them, placing a few different movies on the coffee table in front of them.

“So what's it gonna be today? I got the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Lesbian Vampire Killers, or the first Final Destination movie.”

Aff came back just as Jamie was listing their choices, and wrapped their arms around them from behind before getting a better look at the covers. To all of their endless delight, Aff was a total noob when it came to movies, and even the classics were able to draw entirely new reactions out of them.

But before Cam could suggest Final Destination, Sasha made a disapproving noise, a slight scowl on her face. “I don't know about you, but I'm not in the mood to watch teenagers die due to paranormal circumstances. I think I've had enough of that for the next few years.”

“That's fair,” Jamie admitted, looking down again as well. “It's all I brought with me, though.”

“We could log into my parent's Netflix, I'm pretty sure they're both busy tonight,” Cam offered, pulling Sasha a bit closer as he did so. She leaned into him easily, and he slowly felt her body relax again.

“Yeah, Netflix sounds good,” Aff agreed, climbing over the back of the couch now to worm his way between Jamie and Cam. It worked somehow, despite how freakishly tall they were getting, but after about a minute of shifting around and some complaining here and there, they found a position that was comfortable for all of them. “Are you sure your parents won't notice? You know, it would suck if you'd get in trouble again, so, only do it if you're like absolutely sure.”

“Yeah, sure, it's gonna be fine,” Cam assured them, sounding maybe a little bit more confident than he really felt. But his father was supposed to work late, and his mom had told him she'd be out with friends herself, so he just hoped none of them would change their plans last minute.

Everyone else seemed convinced, so within a few minutes they had Aff's old ass laptop up and running, and connected to the TV. After that it only took a minimal amount of more bickering before they finally settled on a movie, a mindless horror comedy that they could make fun of along the way. It was exactly what all of them needed at the moment.

Aff ended up being right, too.

When Samuel came home eventually, close to one am, he found all four of them fast asleep in the living room. Still in their day clothes, all of their accessories, hats, and glasses carelessly piled on the coffee table, along with some empty dorito bags and soda cans. And the situation on the couch wasn't any better, it was hard to tell where one body ended and another begun.

Deciding that he would leave them to regret those sleeping positions in the morning, the man just did his best to cover everyone with a blanket and then headed to bed himself. If there was anything he was thankful for, in these last few trying months, it was the three strange children currently sleeping in his apartment, and whatever it was that Aff saw in them.

They were happy, after all, and that was all that mattered.

#critical role #cinderbrush #cinderbrush oneshot #cameron solomon #jamie wrenly #aff flowers #sasha murasaki #samuel flowers #writing #fanfic #cr fanfiction #mine #polyamory

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thekidkelly · 5 years ago

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Chapters: 6/? Fandom: Community (TV) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes & Abed Nadir, Annie Edison & Abed Nadir, Abed Nadir & Jeff Winger Characters: Troy Barnes, Abed Nadir, Jeff Winger, Annie Edison, Britta Perry, Abed's father Additional Tags: Reunions, troy and abed, Pining, added the explicit tags bc nsfw content Summary:

Previously titled "Troy and Abed in a Fanfic!"

Classic Troy and Abed reunion fic to fix the whole left in your heart Dan Harmon created.

i just want to say doing this makes me super uncomfortable bc i don’t want to like...flaunt? or like, promote? idk what the word i’m looking for is, but that’s beside the point. lately i’ve been grappling w security in my writing bc i feel like i can always do better, but some people i’ve gotten close w here have been encouraging me to share more, soooo i just updated my fic today, if anybody wanted to spend a few minutes reading :) and like if y’all had feedback i am desperate to hear it pls i need it

#sorry omg this makes me feel so nferneifni #idk but if you like trobed reunion fics!!#here is one!!#anyways omg im sorry #trobed

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space-------kid · 5 years ago

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can’t keep my hands (off you).

Anime/Manga: One Punch Man Pairing: Garou/fem!Reader Additional pairing/characters: platonic Metal Bat/fem!Reader, Zenko, mentions of other heroes such as Saitama, Watchdog Man, etc. Genre: Romance, comedy Warning: Absolute silliness. Language – Garou and reader both ate rainbows for breakfast. Dumbassery. Teeth-rotting fluff, maybe? Reader is hella strong like Saitama. Half-assed spice because you’re good at cockblocking Garou despite being low-key thirsty for him. And LOTS of dumbassery from the reader, most probably. Additional tag: Dream-based fic, canon-divergent, Garou is horny af A/N: This is supposed to be a lengthy one-shot, but I’m a dumbass who can’t keep my word so the supposedly one-shot isn’t a one shot anymore. Now I have to worry how I should properly divide all those parts (I mean, they’re already divided, but–) 😅

Garou thinks your thighs are great.

Summary:

Your life had its general ups and downs, pros and cons, the good and the bad.

You were admittedly a coward and afraid of being targeted by people for it. Following the advice of your (best) friend you trained hard, like, FUCKING hard, and now you’re blessedly, utterly strong you can take down enemies with just one hit. A good thing, really. Can’t let any bad guy harass you or something.

But-

You were probably cursed with the biggest, baddest of luck. Not only were monsters chasing you, suddenly there was this fucking hot bastard weirdo who kept on calling himself the Hero Hunter. “I’m not a hero, goddamn it!”

i. and ii. | iii. and iv. | [more to be added]

“i can’t keep my

hands

off…!”

- can’t keep my hands off you/simple plan

You spend the following days feeding a stray wolf in your modest home.

In all honesty, you had no idea when Garou began coming in and out of your home as if he shared ownership of the place with you. It’s not like you invited him or anything when you brought his unconscious ass home the first time. You were just scared of leaving a possibly dead body back in K-City Nature Park that fateful day. Lucky for you he survived getting hit by you in your fight instinct two times in a row, yeah?

Maybe that was how far your luck would push itself, however, because every time the (admittedly) hot yet weird bastard stepped inside your quiet abode, he never failed to turn it – as well as yourself – upside down.

You were currently eating cold soba in the living room when you heard the tell-tale sound of your backdoor creaking. The house you’re living in – given to you by your parents when you turned seventeen – was located on the border of K-City, the next house closest to yours was almost 700 meters away from yours. This should’ve been a problem for any average coward, but you were a weird, introverted one since neighbors and the idea of them coming by to visit creeped the hell out of you.

The only downside you could think of when you moved out of your childhood home when you turned seventeen was that you were now living away from your parents and your best friend Badd and his little sister Zenko. Good thing public transportations were awesome, huh? And Badd was a pro-hero, an S-Class to boot, and so he’s got some privileges here and there which he never refused to share with you and your parents alongside Zenko.

Your heart beat began to increase in tempo when you recognized Garou’s footsteps padding somewhere in your kitchen. Sure enough, you heard the fridge door opened and slammed shut. Seconds later, the guy himself slid down the couch next to you, nursing a cold bottle of Coke.

Please don’t make me hit this dumbass again, you prayed to whoever might be listening. Please.

“Yo.”

Eyes narrowed, you simply shrugged in reply to his greeting and continued to aggressively eat your snack.

You could feel Garou shift beside you, throwing an arm behind you on the couch. His fingers were grazing your shoulder, and you could practically feel his gaze on you.

“You’re always staying home, [Name],” he commented and pulled the bottle cap off with his teeth – the absolute mad lad! “Don’t you go to school or something?”

You tilted your head to look at him, an eyebrow raised. “Well, you seem to always be wandering about, so… pot,” you replied then nudged your elbow on his side, “kettle.”

“Fair point,” said Garou, shrugging. “But to answer the question: I don’t need school. I already know everything I have to. You?”

“I graduated already when I was fifteen,” was your nonchalant reply. Garou choked on his drink and looked at you with what seemed to be admiration.

“Really? You’re strong, and you’re a nerd on top of that?” he exclaimed, grinning.

You could tell that he didn’t mean to use the term as an insult, and you bashfully averted your gaze in embarrassment.

“Badd also calls me that,” you mumbled unconsciously.

Garou blinked and looked at you curiously. “Eh? Who’s that?”

Somehow, you got the feeling that you didn’t need to tell him that your best friend was a hero. Well, Garou tried to beat you up when he mistook you for one, hadn’t he? Maybe you should just trust your gut feeling and forgo mentioning Badd’s title.

“Ah, he’s my best friend.”

There. Short and simple.

Garou stared at you for a solid five seconds, as if judging you for keeping him in the dark about Badd’s identity. Then he grinned again.

Fuck you and your paranoid ass.

“I thought you were gonna say boyfriend for a second,” he commented, leaning down at you. “Glad there’s no one stopping me from having my way with ya.”

Oh, god. And so it begins.

Eyes narrowed at the other teen, you quickly got up and repositioned yourself on the armchair beside the couch. You clutched your bowl of soba, your knees on your chest.

“Don’t you start again, Garou, I’m warning you,” you scolded him, trying and failing to sound stern. How could you when your heart was practically in your throat at the moment?

He pulled himself off the couch to follow you, bracing himself on the armrests of your seat and effectively caging you. Garou leaned down, eyes sparkling with mischief when he looked at you with mock innocence.

“I ain’t startin’ nothing, little lady,” he purred, smiling devilishly down at you. “And why did you move here? It’s much cosier on the couch with me on it.”

You pressed yourself further against the back of your seat when Garou fully invaded your personal space by lowering his face to yours. You could only watch as he took the chopsticks from your stiff fingers and began eating your snack, all the while keeping eye contact with you. You watched, entranced, as the noodles slipped between his lips.

“This is good,” said Garou through a mouthful of noodles. He took some and offered it to you, gazing at you expectantly. “Say ‘ah’.”

You sat there, forcing yourself to tear your gaze off his mouth and looked up at him dumbfounded. You could practically feel your face heating up in nervousness, your heart beating triple time as Garou waited for you to respond.

Mind on the brink of blanking out, you timidly opened your mouth and let him feed you. Your heart pounded in your ears and you could only hope that Garou wouldn’t hear. You tried hard not to squirm under his intense gaze when he pressed the tips of your chopsticks on his bottom lip.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

From attacking you twice because he mistook you for a hero, you suddenly ended up with him raiding your house every now and again to grab some grub and some bandages to patch himself up from whatever the hell he was doing. And now he seemed to be hell-bent on teasing you and making you flustered.

Did he have nothing better to do than to mess with you like this?

“Say, [Name]…” he said, voice low and gaze smoldering.

“W-What?” you stammered, eyes hurting from how wide they were while you looked back up at him.

Garou dipped his head lower, nose touching yours. You couldn’t close your eyes, afraid that he would take advantage and do something weird.

Like what? Kiss you?

If he could read your thoughts, he would be cringing by now with your incoherent mental screaming.

“Do you mind if I…”

Golden eyes left yours as they turned downwards to gaze at your trembling lips. Garou moved-

You closed your eyes.

“Do you mind if I get some of this for myself? I’m starvin’.”

Wait. Why did his voice sound far away now-?

You opened your eyes to see Garou standing up straight before you, one hand resting on his hip. He was looking at you eagerly, head cocked to the side and a tell-tale grin on his lips.

Thoroughly mortified for falling for this jerk’s teasing, your leg shot up to kick him where the sun didn’t shine, annoyance rising in your chest as Garou cackled at you and easily moved out of your range.

“Hey now, what’s with that red face?” he laughed at you. “Where you hoping for something?”

Afraid that you might say something stupid if you thoughtlessly took the bait, you carefully and thoroughly thought of a reply as you rose to your feet and shoved your bowl at him.

“Yeah, I was!” you replied, sarcasm dripping in your voice. “I was waiting for a monster to crash on my doorstep and kick your stupid ass!”

Maaaybe you shouldn’t have kid about that last part because true to your word, your house was shaken by a loud explosion, followed by a booming roar. You – albeit apprehensively – and Garou rushed out to look where it came from, and the two of you saw a fifteen-foot tall frog-like monster with disgusting tentacles coming out of its mouth.

You and your dumb bad luck.

The frightening creature turned its gaze at you to your house, its tentacles wriggling lecherously.

The bowl you were holding fell on the wooden porch but you didn’t even notice.

Disgust and terror swamped your entire being and you had blacked out before you knew it, Garou letting out a surprised noise as he caught you before you hit the ground.

F̖̜̳̼̏͛͐̈̚͢Ḭ̵̛̦̣͓̣̾̎̎̑̋̊͊͘G̷̛̛͇̮͍̰̒͗̾̌̚͟Ḩ̷̢͚͇̅̇͊̅̆̓̉̎̋͘͟T̸̨̛̗̩͎̞̟̾̿̾̍̾̃̈̓͟

To Garou, monsters and the thought of them winning were the only fascinating things worth spending his time on.

He aspired to be one, the kind that would plunge the world in utter terror. The absolute evil that would be the world’s greatest enemy. The world itself was unfair, so why not become the most unfair being there was if only it could mean that humanity would unite under a single flag and create the ultimate hero to beat the God-level calamity he aspired to be?

In order to achieve his dream, he had to establish a routine that he must follow single-mindedly: beat the admirable heroes and let each victory be his step into reaching his goal of becoming a true monster.

Fate must’ve been smiling at him lately, to Garou’s absolute glee. Not only had he single-handedly took down a room full of ruffians and three A-Class heroes back at the Hero Association HQ, he had also beaten some other heroes the following days with the addition of an S-Class to boot!

Yeah, Fate had been kind to him, but Lady Luck had thrown him a huge curveball in the form of dainty little you.

Garou was a prodigy, a martial arts genius that even the old geezer Bang praised back then (before he was expelled from the master and creator of the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist style’s dojo). He was a force to be reckoned with during a fight, his tremendous strength backed by his astounding reflexes and ingenuity.

They were nothing against your unpredictability and shockingly overwhelming strength, however.

“Oi, [Name], you scaredy cat,” Garou called you, shaking you awake ever so slightly as the monster’s rampage took it nearer to your house. “Is this really the time you should be fainting?”

Losing to you twice had been a huge bruise-inducing slap to his ego, something he would never admit. He even learned jack shit during those encounters other than the fact that he seemingly can’t find nor predict ways on how to counter your moves – I mean, how could you hypothesise an attack from someone who showed no interest in fighting, someone whose body language only seemed to scream “don’t fight me, please”? He ought to beat you to a pulp for all of that, but-

You opened your eyes to reveal the same dull look they had when you beat Garou, your face devoid of any emotion. The hairs on the back of Garou’s neck stood on end, a chill creeping down his spine when you idly removed yourself from his arms.

He watched as you took a step forward and leaped towards the monster in the blink of an eye. Garou’s golden gaze widened as you lifted one of your legs and brought it down on the monster’s head with unparalleled force, crushing its huge head and body on the process. You then somersaulted away as what recognizable remains of the beast crashed, the mysterious being dead before it could hit the ground.

Garou remained where he stood on your porch as you turned around and marched back to your house, still wearing that expressionless look. What surprised him the most when you reached him was the minute quirk that appeared on your lips when you turned your dull gaze on him.

The self-proclaimed Hero Hunter’s only reason for taking interest on the strong was because of their – well – strength and fighting capabilities. You have them, you definitely do when you were in this state where something (your fighting instincts, maybe?) seemed to take a hold of you to fight and defend yourself on the process. But there was something hot arousing appealing on seeing a small and delicate cowardly woman go “instant kill” mode and thrash monsters regardless of their size and strength with just one hit.

Now this was the reason why Garou kept on coming to your humble abode unannounced and incessantly teased the hell out of you. He wanted to see more of this side of yours, and maybe gear up a mock fight or two?

But, nah. There’s no appeal in losing to you a third time if that was possible.

His rational side agreed with that kind of reasoning.

Teenage hormones, the one he successfully kept locked for the whole duration of his puberty, thought otherwise.

Garou grinned widely at the warring sides of his brain as you snapped out of your trance and squealed pathetically at the green blood of the monster that had splattered on you.

Maybe losing to you again wouldn’t be so bad as long as he got his head crushed between those killer thighs of yours.

---

to be continued

#garou x reader #platonic metal bat x reader #garou #garou the hero hunter #garou the human monster #metal bat #badd #opm x reader #one punch man #one punch man season 2

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ladysunamireads · 5 years ago

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Detroit: Becoming Heroes

Detroit: Becoming Heroes by tsubisho

Deku is an android, sent out for various missions. He's always successful, in defeating the deviants with errors in their code. That is, until he's paired up with a rather cold Lieutenant.

Lieutenant Todoroki.

In spite of their differences and the hatred Todoroki feels for Deku, he hopes they'll be able to learn to get along.

To succeed in their mission. - "Please, please, you've gotta save my little girl--!" Inko does a double take, noticing his jacket, and the blue ring on the side of his temple. Her expression drops, and she steps away, voice low and meddled with shakes. "W-wait... you're... you're sending an android--?"

The guard is quick to grab her back again, telling her that they need to go, but she huffs out an empty laugh, Guard re-restraining her with a tight hold. "Y-you can't--you can't do that--You wh--!" As she gets dragged away, her hand points accusingly to Deku, gaze scornful. "Why aren't you sending a real person?!" -

Words: 2388, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia, Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: M/M, Multi

Characters: Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki, Midoriya Inko, Midoriya Hisashi, (he's dead), Todoroki Shouto, Iida Tenya, Uraraka Ochako, Shigaraki Tomura | Shimura Tenko, Shigaraki Tomura l Shimura Tenko's Father, Soga whatever his last name was

Relationships: Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto, Iida Tenya/Uraraka Ochako

Additional Tags: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Strangers to Lovers, Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Deku is Connor, Fluff and Angst, Some Humor, momojirou robot lesbians, youll see - Freeform, Androids, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - No Quirks, (this more so follows the DBH storyline p closely), Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, dont let the title fool you, theres no real heroes, its a metaphor, hank & connor are father and son, but here i tweak it, so my otp can rise

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23582419

#AO3 Feed #FanFiction #AO3 Tododeku #♥#Tododeku #Iidaocha #BNHA #🐰❄️🔥#R:T #No Quirks AU #Crossover #A:Tsubisho

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hornedbooty · 6 years ago

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https://archiveofourown.org/works/20642462

got inspired! wrote some wuhluhwuhs. you can read it on ao3 or here under the read more!

Keyleth was the worst choice for a lookout.

She was perfectly fine to come on a shopping trip, with Vex. She was totally set to hang out, with Vex. In fact, when she had been hanging out in the garden and trying to save a wilted rosemary bush in the measly collection she had there in Greyskull Keep and Vex had walked up with a glint in her eyes, she was totally on board. She would always be on board for Vex.

But usually it was Vax or Scanlan pulling off some heist or gathering information. Not to say that people couldn’t branch out, she’s seen Scanlan lift some heavy shit. And Vax can be charming. Very charming! Super charming.

Keyleth had just been expecting a really nice day out with Vex. She had been picturing roaming through shops, watching Vex card through the fancy clothes while she banters with the shopkeep, pretending she was busy with the first glittery thing she saw so she didn’t watch her friend any longer than the usual few seconds. Keyleth had a routine, she had a semi-plan set up! She was a woman with a mission!

Nothing ever went to plan for them, though, Which she should’ve expected.

Instead, Vex had taken her by the hand, said some very important things that she definitely did not hear clear enough, and now they were totally doing something illegal. Keyleth had been standing outside the opening to the office for a good few minutes now, only hearing a faint click or a small whir from inside occasionally. A footstep echoed, and she jumped, peering in the direction she thought it came from. Waiting a few seconds, she sighed in relief when no one came up.

“Keyleth, darling?” said Vex from deep inside the darkened room, and the druid poked her head inside.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Nothing, I’m doing well. Just wanted to hear your pretty voice.”

Keyleth felt her cheeks immediately flare red and she awkwardly scooted back out of the doorway, pressing herself flat against the rocky stone wall. “Okay! Neat! Cool.” she squeaked back, hearing a laugh from Vex inside. Keyleth tried to frown against the smile growing on her face before adding on, “Just call if you need me!”

“Will do.” Vex replied, and Keyleth wiped at her cheeks with the palm of her hand. Stupid face, she got red so quickly.

A clatter in the darkened corridor right outside the door, and close to her, which sent Keyleth into a panic. She fumbled with her staff before veering to the direction of the sound, squinting to make out a shape. A small black shape moved just a bit, and she braced herself to call for Vex.

Instead of a big angry human person, out of the shadows came a small, young cat. It mewed, swishing its calico tail and watching her with big orange eyes. Keyleth blinked, then smiled as she relaxed against the stone. Just a tiny cat.

She went back to watching both sides of the corridor, one hand on her staff and the other playing with the fringe of a cloak she borrowed from Vex.

The hood had enough room to encompass her antlers, and it made her whole visage way more mysterious than the usual very recognizable clothes she wore on missions. It also made it seem like she had horns! Which was kind of neat.

Maybe she should get one for herself. They were really useful. Or she could just ask Vex for this one. Smiling to herself, Keyleth brought the fabric up to her cheek, thumb running against the thread.

She glanced back over to where the cat had been, now gone and probably stalking around a different alleyway. Watching the end of the alley, which led to the street, Keyleth continued to survey the space around her.

A barely audible yowl pricked her ears, and her head swiveled to the end of the alley again. A few beats passed, and she saw the same cat from earlier streaking past, a flash of orange and black accompanied by the sound of jeering from farther down.

Keyleth didn’t even hesitate to bolt through the open door. She narrowly missed an askew table, and hip checked the other doorway deeper in. She found Vex fiddling with a safe, the floorboards removed and placed to the side in an even pile. If she wasn’t in such a hurry, Keyleth would spend a few minutes being absolutely charmed by the messy braided bun Vex had put her hair into.

“Someone’s coming.” Keyleth hissed quietly. Vex cursed under her breath and hastily grabbed a few bundles of paper. She helped her put the floorboards back in place, which only looked a little loose. Considering the hurry they were in, it was a wonderful job.

The papers in the bag at Vex’s side, Keyleth stood from the floor. The voices could now be barely heard from how deep they were into the room. Quickly, she helped Vex stand up and pulled her along into a corner she’d noticed when running through.

“Fuck. Shit. They’re right outside, aren’t they? How are we going to do this?” Vex muttered under her breath, eyes darting across the room. Keyleth gulped, and fumbled for Vex’s hand. If it wasn’t for the situation, she could’ve mistaken the sudden flush across the ranger’s face for something else, but she wasn’t focused on that.

“Wait right by the door. I’ll dart out, lead them deeper into the alley, then wildshape into something and catch up with you. Okay?” Keyleth glared into Vex’s gaze, holding it. Vex opened her mouth to protest, she could see it in her eyes, but Keyleth felt a sudden burst of resolve in her chest.

“No.” Her fingers tightened around Vex’s, and the other’s eyes widened, stunned. The retort died on her lips. Keyleth mustered up a smile, her heart thundering and aware her fingers were probably very clammy. Oh dear. “We’re doing this. It’s happening. Come on.”

Keeping the grip, Keyleth pulled her along and towards the door. The lack of resistance made her feel a little more confident about this, because holy fuck this was crazy, what was she doing, she couldn’t sneak for anything, w-

They had reached the door, and she was shocked back to the present by Vex pulling on her hand. She turned back to look at her, about to argue her point again even if she was really not sure she could pull this off. Keyleth only saw the look of unsure steeliness in Vex’s eyes for a moment before she felt her gloved hand on her jaw, turning her face so Vex could plant a kiss on her cheek. It was hasty, hurried, and the corner of her lips pressed just barely against Keyleth’s, and the druid very quickly short-circuited.

“Be careful, Keyleth. I won’t be able to live with myself if I have to watch you get dragged away in chains or something. Really, it’s my fault I brought you with me.”

Keyleth had to blink a few times to regain any ability to say anything that wasn’t packed with stuttering. “I-I will. Yeah. Don’t worry. I’ll meet you back at Greyskull, okay? Just keep running when you get the cue. And the cue is when they’re coming after me. You be. You be careful too.” She offered another weak smile, which Vex returned. She let go of Vex’s hand, and they shared one last long look before Keyleth gripped the door handle.

She threw it open, and wasted no time. In a flash, she was out of the door. With a sharp right and her hood thrown up over her head and antlers, Keyleth was taking off as fast as she could. She’d felt her arm brush with someone else’s and, on the way out, heard a loud gruff shout of orders. Through the roaring of adrenaline in her ears, she could barely make out maybe three or four sets of heavy footsteps. Ahead, the alley ended in an almost complete stop. There were small gaps that were the spaces between the assorted buildings. If she wanted, a mouse could easily run between those. Or an air escape, with a hawk or robin that could fly right above their heads.

A sharp, familiar thwip flew by her ear, followed by a prick of pain. Keyleth’s hand moved up, and she felt a small trickle of blood as she watched an unfamiliar arrow embed itself in the wall ahead. Well. A mouse was totally out of the question then. She would be stuck in a gap if hit with one of those . But with a bird, she risked the chance of going down in midair.

By now Vex should be out of sight and at least on the way to Greyskull. So this was up to her. With a deep breath, she risked a glance behind her. Like she thought, there were three men, weapons drawn and a single bow at the ready.

The end of the alley was coming fast, and in quick impulsiveness, Keyleth threw her hand behind her, aimed at the archer. A sunbeam shot out of her palm, and hit the man’s bow spot on. He cried out in half-pain, half-surprise as the simple wood disintegrated in his palm. The other men almost skidded to a stop too, as a look of realization crept onto their faces. Their heads whipped back to Keyleth, but in that split second her form had collapsed into a simple golden hawk. She had used her momentum and the rest of the space between herself and the wall to soar upwards. With a few flaps of her wings, she was high above the buildings and looking down.

Her plan was to fly back to Greyskull Keep, like they had planned. A glance down, however, changed her plans. She could see a Vex-like figure still lingering at the mouth of the alley. Quickly she descended, the soldiers still clustered at the end of the alley trying to figure out where she had gone. Apparently they hadn’t seen the giant hawk.

She flew down low, gliding on the wind. Vex was still peering down the alley, and she glanced towards Keyleth, then did a double take. With a laugh, Keyleth shifted back mid-flight, hand outstretched where her wing had been and grabbing onto Vex’s free hand. There was a shout from the soldiers, but it didn’t matter. Keyleth was pulling Vex again again, the two of them twisting and ducking into whatever streets and alleys had an entrance and exit. Her heart was thundering in her chest, an uncontrollable grin stretching across her face.

“I thought we agreed on Greyskull!” Keyleth shot a look back at Vex, who was visibly dumbfounded and ecstatic. There was a warm, intense look in her eyes that sent a shiver down Keyleth’s spine, and she quickly looked ahead again.

“I know, but there was a lot more guards than I expected and I didn’t want to leave you in case something did go wrong, darling. It looks like you didn’t need any help at all after all.” Vex said back.

Keyleth quickly pulled the two of them into another alley, this one shadowed and allowing them to huddle in the darkness. Panting, she grinned.

“Yeah! That went way better than I was expecting, honestly! Did you-did you see the sunbeam? I hit him square on!” she said giddily, nerves buzzing still. Vex nodded, laughing.

“I did, that was.. amazing, Keyleth, really.”

There wasn’t much room in the alley she had pulled her into, so Keyleth could feel Vex’s breathing shakily fall back down. She couldn’t stop grinning, or laughing. Vex held a finger to her lips, shushing her. The laughter died down a little, but only because Keyleth had found something else to focus on.

Vex was disheveled, from the running and ducking and the wind that had been billowing around them. Her braided bun had fallen into disarray, and wisps of hair framed the corners of her sharp jawline. Her eyes were drawn to Vex’s lip, crested with slight callouses from the rough travels but still soft. Keyleth glanced back up at Vex, quiet now. Her heart was still thumping, like a stick against the drum playing in her head.

Vex was gazing back at her, and her hand slowly fell from her mouth. Keyleth’s face was burning again, but she didn’t raise a hand to hide it.

“You know,” Keyleth said, voice soft. The air felt sharp, and quiet. “We definitely lost them back there. We could leave.”

They could just pull away and walk back to Greyskull, and let the moment pass by. They could. But a part of Keyleth didn’t want them to.

Vex seemed to consider that, gaze moving down just the slightest bit, her smooth skin flushed. “We could.” she said simply, looking back up at Keyleth.

“We could.” she repeated back, their gazes locked again. Her breath stuttered as Vex’s sleeve brushed against her arm.

Vex moved to pull Keyleth’s hood down, untangling it from her antlers and adjusting it around her neck. Her fingers lingered at the crest of her neck, and Keyleth could feel the pads of her fingers just barely press against her skin. She let out a long, shuddering breath, and moved a hand to grasp at Vex’s wrist.

Vex looked back up at her again, eyes shining. Her face was so close, and she could feel her breath against her lips. Her palm pushed against Keyleth’s cheek. Vex’s nose was just against the tip of Keyleth’s, and she didn’t move any further. For the first time, Vex’s eyes shone with uncertainty. She had never seen the half-elf so nervous before.

Vex’s mouth opened to say something, but Keyleth never got to hear it. She moved forward just a bit and captured Vex’s lips in her own, a soft chaste press before she pulled back.

Vex stared up at her with an intensity that certainly wasn’t there a few seconds ago. Keyleth laughed, and Vex grinned before taking Keyleth’s face in her hands to kiss her harder.

It took them a while to get back to Greyskull Keep.

#vexleth #vex'ahlia #keyleth #critical role #critical role spoilers #vex'ahlia vessar #my writing #critical role fan fiction #long post

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gqazngaming · 5 years ago

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The Musou Mashup! Warriors All-Stars Review

Warriors All-Stars is a celebration of Koei Tecmo characters in one a new musou game.

The Roots

I still remember my first taste of musou. The Dynasty Warriors series has been around since the launch of the Playstation 2 era. Released on August 3, 2000 Dynasty Warriors changed the beat em up formula from the 2D platform on to the 3D platform. Just in case you don't know what Dynasty Warriors is, it is based off the Romance of the Three Kingdoms franchise. ROTK is famously known as a strategy game and Dynasty Warriors is to be the action genre of ROTK. This was my first memorable jump from 2D to 3D on the beat em up genre.

The Mechanics

Much like my Dungeon Fighter Online review, beat em ups are often labelled as repetitive. But much like Dungeon Fighter it's all about "how you fight, which means characters play a big role in creating variety in a game with repetitive gameplay. It's no secret. You have to like this type of game to enjoy it. If you enjoy the characters of Koei Tecmo games and the Dynasty Warriors formula this game was created for that desire.

Every musou iteration will have it's own special game, combat, and system mechanics. From Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, Orochi Warriors, and more each game has it's own type of combat system. As the games developed over time W-Force (DW's developer) has added and removed certain things to keep the game fresh. Some changes are welcome and some changes seemed unnecessary. Personally, being able to add more into a game is more important than taking away. The player can also choose to use certain combat mechanics and options. Having that option will always add value to the game.

New(ish) but familiar combat

If you've played a musou game, picking up this game will be natural to you. Typical Dynasty Warriors fanfare. There's an main attack and a heavy attack, a jump button, and a musou (special) button. Reach character will have it their own combat tree but not every character is unique. The characters fall under specific combat molds and skill trees. There isn't really much new to the combat with a few exceptions of a few addition "tag features". Pressing a direction on the d-pad will enable you to temporarily tag in one of the 4 members of your squad. After a few minutes you will return to your main character. It's a strange addition but I applaud them for trying to keep it fresh.

The Look

Warriors All-Stars is not going to break any boundaries in it's graphics department. Character models carry specific rigs that are will be shared with the roster. You'll find many of the character models share the same neutral pose and moving animations. I will say that Warriors All-Stars does do a great job with "keeping it together". Very seldom I encountered frame drops especially with all the spark effects and the amount character models on the screen. I still remember in older Dynasty Warriors titles where character models would disappear during combat so compensate for frame rate. The power of the older system could not sustain the vision of what musou games were trying to achieve.

The Story/Plot

Koei Tecmo characters are summoned to a new world where three members of the royal family are fighting for each sacred treasure they hold to save their world from impending doom. The goal is to combine the three sacred treasures to save a spring that brings life to the world. Each member of the royal family summons their own set of Koei Tecmo characters and as you progress you will meet and acquire more heroes to add to your roster. The plot unravels the more you play. And as you play you find out that there is more to the story than meets the eye.

SPOILERS Once you unlock specific heroes and achieve certain criteria different story paths will unlock that will lead to one of the many endings. This game offers multiple playthroughs depending on which characters you have unlocked and which faction you decided to fight for. Personally, I unlocked about seven to eight endings on my blind run. I later returned to the game to pursue the true ending. There are also hero endings that are more focused on the relationships of some heroes. These are what I call optional endings.

The Sound

In my opinion, EVERY music of a musou game sounds the game. It doesn't matter if you've played Dynasty, Samurai, Arlsan, Berserk, One Piece, musou music is very noticeable. Instrumental J-Rock riffs with some remixed themes from certain stages of each franchises games do show up. Another good thing is you can pick the background music before a stage loads. Having control of the music does give it more variety but personally, I did not pay much attention to the music.

The Feel

It feels.. well.. like a Dynasty Warriors game. LOL. There are some characters that offer more impact with some of their move sets but it will ultimately break down to which characters move set you prefer to beat the level as quick as possible to move the story along and grind out those levels. It always feels good to play a musou game when you want to feel like strong bad ass. Video games are suppose to be fun right?

The Why

Why should you play this? Check some off this list:

Do you like Dynasty Warriors? Do you like the Musou series in general? Do you like any of the playable characters in the game? Have you ever wished there was a Musou game of the character you picked? Do you want to feel like a super powered warrior in a battlefield?

If you said yes to 90% of these things you should play it. I'd like to confess that I DID NOT buy this game at launch nor did I buy it a full price. As a long time gamer I KNOW what musou games are and what they have to offer. Personally, I don't like to play full price for games that I want to play and not NEED to play. I already knew what this game had to offer and I picked it up at a $19.99 price point new. With so many games release and my ever increasing backlog, I can afford to wait. And unless they release another musou game that blows me out of the water I won't be picking up any of them at launch anytime soon.

Last Thoughts

Referencing on "The Why" if you are a fan of the series, just add this to the many other iterations of the musou series. If you are collecting, it's a must have to add to your collection. I enjoy mash-ups and collaborations and Warriors All-Stars did a decent job placing characters in cel-shaded JRPGS into an action brawler title. If you are a fan of any of the playable characters, you will either enjoy this game or think this game is weird. I don't blame you. Remember when they made Hyrule Warriors? They put Link in turned him into a musou character. Many people thought it was a weird Zelda game, but what they really needed to know was it was a musou game with Link as the main character.

If you can pick up this title at around $20-30 dollars it will be worth your time. There is over 20-30 hours of gameplay in there. Fair warning as I repeat my statement from earlier, if you aren't a fan of musou games this game may not change your mind. But if you have an open mind and a wallet, it wouldn't hurt to try and play this decent average action game.

If you are looking to pick up this game check out my affiliate link below: https://amzn.to/31NweGo

GQAzndood

Headmaster of GQAzndood Gaming Check out my social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/GQAznGaming Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/gqazndood YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/gqazndood Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GQAznGaming/

#videogames #gaming #gamereviews #musou #dynastywarriors #koei #tecmo #samuraiwarriors #orochiwarriors #wforce #nerd #geek #koeitecmo

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