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bolbianddolanhouse · 4 years

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BNHA self insert AU [Book 3]

New? Read here! Then here!

Chapter 4: It’s Funny, Because It’s True

*deep breath in* hold for 5 seconds...release “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“What the fuck was that for?!” Tensei yelled from his bed “It’s too early for this screaming shit!”

“But it’s Wednesday my dude” I justified as I levitated from my bed “Big things are happening today!”

“Whatever Iwa” Tensei rolled his eyes as he laid back down on his side “I’m going back to sleep because I don’t want to face my day at 5am like a maniac!”

I hummed as I took my time to get ready, taking up all of the counter space in the bathroom. Today I get to know where I land on the intel class ranking and hero class ranking! I really want to know where I’m at because my parents and Lili were up there in the top 10. So who knows where I’ll be!

To recap some lost time...it’s almost 2 months in this bitch and I’ve been worked to the bone with the training. That one classmate still hates me, Gon-kun and I are friends (I guess, if you count screaming my name in passing or when I’m in the bathroom as friendship) and Beizu is still working on the device. Speaking of that device, I’ve been thinking of some dates to peek into to better understand how my mom was as a student. To be quite honest, she doesn’t like talking about the UA days and I want to know why. Also it was kinda adorable that my dad made my mom lunch as a teen, now I wanna know how things were in the beginning for their love story.

“You seem to be very excited to be early for school” commented my dad as he drove “What’s the occasion?”

I get a little flustered “Well uhhh, there’s just a lot things to tackle today” I managed to say.

“You can tell me! Are you going to meet up with a classmate?” asked Dad as they stop at a traffic light “I’d rush to school to meet up with your mom before class.”

“Why?” I asked, furrowing my brow.

“I liked your mom and I wanted to spend as much time as possible with her. I didn’t know it was love until somebody pointed it out” he confessed “She thought I was annoying but I was just trying to get all her attention to get into her heart...if you find someone that you want to be around with always, don’t let go of them like how I did.”

That last part confused me “But you still ended up with mom?”

“Yes, she’s my one and only! But I was stupid when I was teenager” he turned into the main street that passes UA “She slipped right through my fingers and somebody else dated her that seemed like their dream boy. So I didn’t get my turn until I was 23 but I live with the regret that I didn’t tell her sooner. If I did, who knows?! We’d probably have more children or have older children at this point.”

I didn’t say anything the rest of the way to school. I was too busy thinking about the time gap between when they graduated UA to when he started dating mom. That’s like 4 years! Now I’m even more curious on why didn’t he say anything.

“I did the thing!” exclaimed Beizu as he took out the device “want to test it?”

“Sure! We have like, an hour to kill” I got excited “I want to see something.”

I lead them to the hero wing, where the 1-A classroom is. “The hero area?” questioned Beizu.

“Yup, I want to see the day my parents met” I looked around to see if anyone was around to hear “I want to know how it went and who’s story is the most accurate.”

Beizu hands me the device “Here, you can punch in the date on this keypad.”

I look at the keypad “Bei...this is a just a flip phone wired and wielded onto the cube.”

“You try making a keyboard small enough to fit on this!” huffed Beizu “It works just fine, go ahead and try to say I was wrong.”

“Fine, I’m punching it in” I rolled my eyes as I typed in the date “..And- YEET!” I hit the button and the hologram popped up so vividly. I saw young mom walking down the hall, stressfully drinking her coffee.

“Wow, with that hair style, you look just like her!” commented Beizu “She looks so adorable with her little loafers and pink backpack. And that pink coffee cup barely fits in her hand! I just wanna hug her!”

I watch her take a deep breath before opening the door “Dang, I do act like her too.” I keep watching, following her into the classroom “WOAH! Look at those young faces?! There’s Deku! Mr Bakugo and Mr Kirishima! Mr Tokoyami looks pretty much the same...eww I don’t like how Mr Mineta is looking at my mom” I looked at the rest of the class and saw my dad “He’s not reacting to her...then when did he-” my attention shifted to how my mom gave everyone cookies “So the cookies ARE important! Thats so cool!”

“I always thought they were just your mom’s favorite cookies and that’s why your dad made them” Beizu said wide eyed “Your dad is such a romantic!”

We kept watching and then came the after class part “Oop! Look he’s walking up to her!” I watched and followed them to the hallway, where my dad grabs her by the wrist “What the- STOP YOU DUMBASS!”

“What was he thinking?! That had to be so scary for your mom” gasped Beizu “I wanna beat your dad up for this!”

When my mom started crying, that shit HURTED! “Oh no! Don’t cry mom” I felt sorry for her, like she was right here in the present “What a jerk! No wonder mom thought your were annoying, you hurt her!”

“Lets follow him!” Beizu pointed at my dad walking down the hall, toward the stairs “I want to know what he did after!”

We followed him down to the old garden, and that shit looked neglected back then!

“What is he doing?” I said as I saw him take out a little notebook and pen from his inner uniform pocket “writing something?”

We watched him write a list of things but the top of the list was ‘ask Tensei how he made friends’. And the other things were ‘ask for her number’, ‘ask what’s her favorite food’, ‘don’t talk about her quirk’, ‘oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips?’. But what puzzled us was the last part he wrote ‘I want to be friends with Palma-san, she seems really nice but she looks lonely and tired. Maybe I’m too scary looking? Too rough? She’s so small compared to me, perhaps I should be more gentle.’

Beizu and I looked at each other “What in the actual fuck?” I broke the silence.

“So like, did your parents not want to admit they didn’t have a good start?” Beizu questioned “I just assumed it was love at first sight.”

“No, my dad told me he didn’t date my mom until his twenties” the image paused, then fizzled away “Now I want to know why! We know the start and at some point they had lunch together at the tree.”

“Ooh! What if your mom had a harem!” Beizu gasped as we walked to homeroom.

“Nah, she doesn’t have the heart to have a group of lovers that serve her” I scoffed “she hates it when my dad reaches something for her without asking! It was probably a long term boyfriend that got in the way.”

Now that I really think about it, I never heard my parent’s love story! Or if my parents dated other people before they eventually did. I wanna ask somebody for the answers, but who?

“...Take a look at your ranking class!” the sound of Hansai sensei’s voice broke me out of thought.

“Look! I’m in the rank below you!” Beizu pointed out to me.

I look, I’m 6th in the class ranking! Better than I thought!

“You may take all of the rest of homeroom and weaponry to work on your projects” Hansai announced “Master Oleshin had agent work to attend to of high priority.”

“Oh dang, we only have her for 2 times a week” Beizu pondered “hope everything is okay.”

“My mom had to leave very early this morning too, not surprised aunty Mimi isn’t here either” I responded as I flipped to the class packet “If we do our things right, we’ll be done 3 weeks before this is due.”

“That sounds about right” Beizu palmed the device in his hand “wanna look into a different time?”

“Yuh! Lets go to that one creepy hallway” I suggested. We briskly walked to the area, mainly because that’s near where the 3rd year intel students hang out and they’re scary. We stood there and Beizu handed me the device. Without saying anything, I punched in a date.

“What year is this?” asked Beizu as the image showed us a plain looking hallway.

“It’s still our mom’s first year, I just put a date where it would be after the sports festival but before my mom’s practice exam” I say as I watched all the students from the past, pass by like normal. Then something caught my attention “Wait, that’s my mom.” She was...smiling? She just looked happier here and excited to be somewhere? We followed her to the outside patio “Wha- who’s that?”

We watched my mom run up to this tall boy with yellow hair. And they held hands as they walked toward the front gates.

“The scandal! Hand holding with that boy?!” Beizu said to stir the pot.

“Shut up! I wanna hear what they’re saying” I shushed him as I strained to hear.

“...you don’t have to walk me to the dorms!”

“I want to! I’m your boyfriend now...”

“You’re too sweet!”

“Not as sweet as you”

The gasps Beizu and I made when we saw them kiss were unholy and something out of a novela.

“I wish I knew who that dude is!” I growled to myself “he looks familiar!”

“Yo, speaking of familiar” Beizu said as he pointed my head to the far right.

“Oh no” I said in pity, looking at my dad looking from behind a tree “Poor thing, he probably waited for her to walk together.” I watched as my dad sat on the ground and started crying like he was heartbroken. It was kind of hard to look at but at the same time, I know what happens at the end! “I don’t know why my dad didn’t take the chance?! If I found somebody like that, I’d tell them that I like them so they don’t go around like that with other boys.”

Beizu looked at me “I mean...do you have feelings for somebody?”

“What? No, er- At least, not right now” I stammered, taken off guard “Who has time for love when you get mountains of homework like me?!”

The hologram fizzled away “Come on, you can tell me! I’ll tell you who I like.”

“I’m telling you I don’t have a crush on anybody!” I fumed, trying to keep my voice down “serio, and it’s not because I find everyone around me not attractive! It’s because I’m kind of scared to have a crush now that we’re in hero school. Like, what if I’m making a big mistake and repeat what my mom did? Or what my dad did? You saw that they’ve slow burned for YEARS! I want to be sure I’m in love before I jump in. So I just decided to just start dating after high school.”

“But what if you meet them here?” meekly asked Beizu.

“Doubt, but all I can say is that I hope they’re direct” I start walking back to the building “I’m not down for that tsundere shit.”

“True that” Beizu chuckled, following after me.

When I had my hero courses, I saw that I was number 15 in the ranking....ouchies. Guess I have a hell of a lot of training to do if I’m going to be above average. Who knew that I can’t rely on my family history?

“Yo! Iida-kun!” shouted Gon, chasing me after school “I have to ask you something!”

“Okay sure?” I was confused on why it was so pressing to where he had to chase me.

“Lets train together! This weekend?” Gon practically begged “I know it’s Wednesday and we see each other everyday BUT I wanted to ask so you wouldn’t make weekend plans.”

“Oh geez...I guess!” I threw my hands up, giving up the protest before I could start “I know if I said no, you’d just pester me until I said yes. And to be quite honest, I need the extra training” I sighed “I wanna move up to the top 10 in the ranking.”

Gon’s face lit up “Oh my gosh you said yes?! I’D BE HONORED TO HELP YOU MOVE UP IN THE RANKS!” he exclaimed as he held my hands “I won’t disappoint Iida-kun!”

Now mind you, there’s people watching as they pass. And a group of girls from general ed fawned over the display.

“It- its NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!” I panicked “N-no need for this whole display! Gon-kun, please...you’re embarrassing me!”

“Oh right! Sorry” he let go of my hands “it’s just that, nobody has said yes to training with me. I’m kind of a spaz and I don’t have friends here. Everyone in my circle in middle school didn’t want to go to hero school” he said sadly “But you and that pink haired dude look like close friends, it makes me a little jealous that you have a friend in the same program as you.”

My big brother senses kicked in...damn it! I feel bad for him and I GUESS it won’t kill me to have him as my friend in this class.

“Oh me and Beizu? We go way back!” I confirmed his theory “Our mom’s are friends too! I see him as my brother and he’d think you’re a cool dude.”

“Really?!” his face looking like he was about to cry “I’d love to meet him sometime...OH and tell me tomorrow what day and time you wanna train on the weekend!” He turned the opposite way “See you tomorrow!”

I waved him off and went to the intel wing to meet with Beizu. Man did not expect hero school to be like some shit out of a manga.

-The next day, Homeroom-

“...everyone’s here, time to announce the next assignment!” Hansai sensei announced “We’re going to do incognito training!”

To spare you of the fuckery Hansei sensei just explained to us...we doin’ drag for TWO WEEKS starting Monday, just so we get the feel of going undercover out in the field. Beizu and I aren’t as excited, it’s bad enough we get confused for our moms, now we have to look MORE like our moms?! Wonder what my mom is gonna do when I tell her?

“I LOVED THAT TRAINING!” squealed my mom when I told her at home “I had a blast being a dude and I kept my male persona after graduation because it was THAT good.”

“I don’t remember you doing that” my dad spoke up “did you do it when you were at the other school?”

The face my mom made went from confusion to big confusion, to ‘are you serious?’ to stifling a laugh.

“Tenya? Are you for real?!” uttered mom “You didn’t catch on to what was going on that week?”

“No...was I supposed to?” dad asked, completely oblivious to what my mom was saying.

“Oh my- well I’m not surprised, seeing how you straight up showed up at my place and begged me to come back” Mom smirked, with a twinkle in her eye “maybe this will trigger your memory” she slid her finger over her molar implants to switch on her voice changer. She cleared her throat before speaking “YO! It’s ya boi, Takeshi T’boone, American bastard! Come here and gimme some sugar!”

I was trying not to laugh at her impersonation but then I looked at dad’s face and he looked like he shit his pants.

“YOU WERE T’BOONE?!” He hollered as he did his fast chops “Why didn’t you reveal yourself to me?! I literally talked poorly about you when we went to the cafe!”

“I thought it was obvious” she responded with the T’boone voice “did you not get it the moment you saw the other two?”

“That one girl and that scary looking male?” asked dad, things still not clicking.

“Yea...that was Jin and Mimi”

“But, the quirk-”

“Copied somebody else’s quirk before going to our class” mom giggled, still in the male voice “Guess I was just that good! You have a lot to work to put in Iwata!”

“Hehehe, it’s like having two dads” I giggled “Okay then, I think I got my story straight! Thanks...Mr T’boone.”

“That’s Mr American Bastard to you!” joked mom before watching me run off to my room “As for you! Do you feel tricked?”

“It’s like you’ve lied to me! Your best friend and love interest!”

She playfully pushed him “Oh shut up! I thought you were annoying.”

“I know, I guess it was obvious when you mentioned the other two” dad chuckled, then turned red “umm, you don’t so happen to remember-”

“The texts? The arcade? Oh hell yea” she finished his sentence “I was touched, kinda made me wanna kiss you.”

Dad turned even deeper red “I had a chance?”

“You’ve had a chance since I told you the secret” she hopped a bit to kiss him “is it not enough we’re married with children? Or that I love you so much?”

“It’s more than I could ever imagine” he kissed her more passionately “...can you change back to your normal voice now?”

“No, you married me, Takeshi T’boone! American bastard and Husband!” she flexed her arms “We’re just two dudes, in a domestic partnership! GAY RIGHTS! I love my power bottom husband!”

“Can y’all not be discostang!” yelled Hanaka “I’m right here!”

I got to work on my story and my name, trying not to be too on the nose. New name is Tati Masarati and my daddy owns Masarati Luxury Vehicles, making me an heiress! I’m at UA to scope out a husband/next up and coming hero to promote the next line of vehicles. My quirk is something to do with my voice...yea, I haven’t figured that one out but heres to winging it! My mom allowed me JUST THIS ONCE to use her luxury and designer clothes. I was so obsessed with my mom’s Gucci collection as a child that I’d throw a fit over not getting a Gucci item in my closet. So the only things Gucci I have are the iconic slides and frosted frame glasses. I got all of the pretty dresses that fit my engine arms and two other outfits. Uncle Jin let me borrow his auburn hair wigs...which at first surprised me to see so many wigs in his walk in closet BUT then I remembered that he’s also an agent. Of course he has a bunch of wigs and women’s clothing. I did some shopping with Beizu after school on Friday to find other things like make up, color contacts and (believable) boobs. I could hardly contain myself to show myself at school, got Uncle Jin to drive me in his luxury car at a certain time on Monday.

“Wow who did your make up?” asked Beizu.

“I did” I flipped my hair “Took a while to nail the eyeliner BUT check out the nails~”

“Sparkly!” fawned Beizu “Oh! Can you check if I put my wig on right, and my lashes...and my boobs.”

“I got you homie!” I started to fix his boobs and wig.

The whole class got their voice changers and the level one earpieces, which mom warned that my ears will get blackheads with them no matter what I do. It was so hard to find a voice to stick with! But I settled for that husky, dangerous woman voice...because why not? Mr Hansai notified Mr Mineta ahead of time of my drag and they confirmed that they won’t give away that it’s me. I’m literally itching to test out my persona! At around lunch, Beizu and I were just minding our business when we got the attention of a few boys. Not gonna lie chief...that felt kinda good to get their attention, rather than a bunch of girls at us.

“Class, meet your temporary classmate” sensei introduced me “She’s just going to observe for the next 2 weeks.”

“Ciao everyone, don’t mind me” I gave my best Jessica Rabbit impersonation “I don’t do all that training stuff, I’m just scoping out for the next up and coming hero.” I turn to sensei “Do I sit there?”

“Yes, go on ahead and take a seat.”

“But that’s Iida-kun’s seat?” protested Kage-san.

“Iida won’t be here for two weeks” sensei fixed his papers “He’s at off-campus intelligence training. He’ll be back, don’t worry.”

“I got some dirt on him” I said as I sat down “heard he’s a rich boy too! In line for the family assets and he’s got two quirks! If only I could see that in action.”

Everything went well...until the end of the day.

“Excuse me! Miss!” called out Gon, chasing me down the hall.

“Yes?” I turned around, hiding my panic because I didn’t think he’d approach me.

“Umm, oh this is embarrassing, I forgot what I was going to say” he said nervously “I didn’t get your name!”

“Tati Masarati, heiress of the Masarati company” I held my hand out “and you are?”

“I’m Ryuusuke Gon!” he bowed fast “I’ve never met an heiress before, must be interesting.”

“Yup- I MEAN” I caught myself slipping character “It’s a drag, I can’t go anywhere without a chaperone! You’re so lucky to be strong enough to just go off on your own like that.” I had to quickly pull something out of my ass because I was not breaking character NOT OVER THIS!

“Then, may I escort you to the front gates?” he said extending his arm “Can’t have you going by yourself! I’ll protect you until you get picked up!”

“Thank you doll” I cooed and internally cringed.

Before turning into the main hall, Gon said “You smell pretty.”

“Oh thank you! It’s Gucci” it’s not but he won’t tell the difference. I spot Beizu and I call out to them “Babylonia! Yoohoo!”

Beizu turned around and tried not to laugh “Oh hey Tati! Who’s your slam piece there?”

“Oh him? He’s my classmate” I said with so much restraint “Isn’t he just a doll? He’s walking me to my chauffeur” my eyes were screaming at Beizu to help me “How was your day girl!”

“GIRL! My BAMBINA! It’s boring” Beizu played along “I just want to leave and go get my nails done.”

“Hi, I’m Ryuusuke Gon” nervously uttered “Ummm are you friends with her?”

“I just met her but we’re both heiresses” he for sure pulled this out of his ass because that’s not part of his story “charmed to meet you! And may I say what a specimen!” he reached out to touch his bicep “Manners AND strength?! You struck gold Tati.”

“BACK OFF HE’S MINE!” I jerked Gon away “I mean- he’s not something to oogle at!” I watched our ride drive into the pick up area from the corner of my eye “Oh look! Our ride Babylonia!” turn to Gon “Thanks for the company doll” I caressed his chin with my hand “see you tomorrow~”

He didn’t say anything as we fast walked to the car.

“What happened to you two?” asked my mom with concern.

“I HATE being a girl!” I huffed as I struggled to take off my bra “It’s a little fun tricking the boys but why do guys just do shit for the pretty ones?!”

“Welcome to my world” laughed my mom “it’s only day one, hope you last.”

“We started drama” chirped Beizu.

“Oooh spill the tea Babylonia!”

Kinda wish it stayed as a one time slip up BUT then came the next day...

“Ooh, look at you Tati!” teased one of my intel classmates “a boy with black hair and gray eyes asked me to give you this.” they hand me a note with my fake name misspelled on it “He asked if I was in your homeroom and got all flustered when I said yeah. Wish I was as passing as you!”

I get the note and start to nervous sweat “Oof this is bad Beizu” I groaned “like what am I supposed to do?!”

“Maybe read the note?” he said before reapplying his lip gloss.

I open it and read:

Mazeratea-sama,

Meet me in the old garden, near the hero wing. At lunch. I want to spend more time with you and be friends.

-Gon

“Bei I think he fell in love with me”

“GOOD! It’ll look like you have a seduction quirk” he said as he checked his face in a pocket mirror “Isn’t that the one thing you don’t have figured out?”

“You know what, you right” I gasped “You can have the brain cell today.”

“I’ll even feed you lines through the earpiece” he added “just because I know you’ll croak under the pressure.”

“You’re my savior Bei!”

I think of ways to steer the conversation as I walk to the old garden. It looks very lush and lively nowadays than it did when my parents came here. Heard it was leftover of the high school that was here before they turned it into UA.

“Over here!” called Gon, waving me down.

I walked over to him “I got your note~ did you miss me doll?”

“I wanted to spend time with you” he gestured to the stone slab bench “allow me to make you a clean seat” I watch him put a handkerchief on the bench “there, so your skirt won’t get dirty!”

I sat down and set my bag next to me “Thank you doll~ why are you being so good to me?”

“Well, I don’t know why but I’m drawn to you” he admitted “I’ve never felt like this before, almost like it’s your quirk.”

Beizu speaks into the earpiece “Say the line bitch!”

I clear my throat “Well that’s because it is!” I give him my best innocent face “my quirk is Seduction, I can make anyone do my bidding or convince them into anything with my voice. Upside, I don’t have to ever lift a finger to do anything! Downside, I don’t know my limits and many accidentally fall in love with me.”

“Oh...” he blushed hard and looked away “does that me I’m-”

“Sorry, I really am” I cringed “I didn’t mean for you to get sucked in and you fell in love with me. I just didn’t expect you to chase me after school yesterday.”

“...What’s going to happen now?” Gon asked me after a long silence.

Beizu whispered “Tell him it’ll take 4 days to wear off completely.”

“Give it four days and those feelings will fade away” I smiled when he looked at me again.

He perked up “And if they don’t?”

“Then those were your own feelings all along” I took out my food “But enough about all that mess, lets eat!”

“I brought you something” he took out a small Tupperware from his bag “I didn’t know what you liked but I figured maybe you’d like some fruit.”

He set it on my lap “Oh? You didn’t have too-”

“I wanted to, because I have feelings for you” he choked on that last part of his sentence, like he didn’t want me to hear them “but I guess if it’s an after-affect of your quirk then I guess it’s not as meaningful.”

Beizu snickered in the earpiece “Oops you made him fall in love, F in the chat! But open the thing, I wanna see!”

I carefully open the lid and it was lined neatly with chocolate dipped strawberries “Oh wow! These look professionally made!”

“My parents have a small sweets shop in Taito and I got the nicest looking berries from this morning just for you” he smiled but then looked down at the ground “You don’t have to accept it or eat them if you-”

“They’re so good!” I exclaimed out of character “erm, I MEAN- ummm” I got red “please don’t tell anyone but I really try to put up the rich girl front to match my status, I’m just a spaz. And I love dark chocolate, thank you doll~”

Beizu cut in again “Save me one! I wanna taste of this drama!”

Gon just turned red like a strawberry “You like it?! I’ll bring you more!”

“No please! I’ll pay for them from now on!”

“This is getting out of hand!” cried out Beizu in my ear.

What in the actual fuck did I get myself into? So much for getting by and being chill. Everyday is some new fuckery that I didn’t ask for.

-Chapter 4, End-

#bnha #mha #self insert au #book 3 chapter 4 #not canon #will update regularly #ask me anything #//Palma-sama Speaks #Yes...Iwata is a break the fourth wall type character and I love him!#Here he starts to peel back to reveal the past in a few important glimpses #and you know I had to bring back the incognito training back! It's important to character development on both Iwata and Beizu #So many callbacks! Basically Book 1 chapters 1-5.#Wheres the fun if I don't add the 'accidentally falls in love with your genderbent self' trope?!#The amount of bad bitch vibes they give in this drag personal is *chefs kiss* like it should be #More to come! Stay tuned to find out about Gon and Iwa!

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neokad · 3 years

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Phantasy Star II - The 1989 JRPG that could

(This post is dedicated to @kuukigajan, my best friend, whom motivated me to post here again, so... I hope you'll enjoy this!)

This game. This freaking game.

I'm gonna say it right now: this post will contain massive spoilers about pretty much everything in Phantasy Star 2's story, so if you do plan on experiencing this game fresh, I strongly advise you to not read this post at all beyond the first paragraph, but... here's the gist of it: Phantasy Star II is one of the most important and groundbreaking JRPGs of its time, and I just did not believe this game was from 1989, at ALL. For that and a few other reasons, it has become one of my new favourite games of all time <3

In fact, I do want to start with the one big flaw of this adventure so that I can just gush about everything else that's brilliant about PSII. I have to be honest: the dungeon design in this game is horrible. Now to be fair, it does make the many places you visit more memorable, but well... there's a rumor floating around that an actual trainee made the layouts for the dungeons - and since this game was a bit rushed for the Genesis's launch, the devs just didn't have time to replace the... stuff he submitted. And let me tell you, this rumor makes sense: PSII's dungeons are too big, too maze-like, too confusing and also FILLED with strong enemies. And in a game where you don't get a way to save anywhere until the midway point, it can make your adventure very frustrating and potentially grindy because of that... Now I wouldn't say that PSII's nearly as bad in this area as say, the original version of Dragon Warrior or ironically the first Phantasy Star, but the dungeons can totally make you feel like the game's harder than it actually is, at least without a map.

Thankfully, you should never feel bad for using any maps or guides with this game! The execs at SEGA at the time made the very smart decision to include a walkthrough with each copy of the game, including maps, tips, secrets and more! Said guide does encourage youto not look at it as much as possible but... it's totally fair to just use this, without any shame!

And that is a great thing, because... with you armed with this piece of paper, Phantasy Star II can finally show you its actual brilliance.

The game's plot starts off a thousand years after the events of the first Phantasy Star game. Since Alis and her party defeated Dark Force, the inhabitants of the Algol solar system - and its three planets of Palma, Motavia and Dezolis - have enjoyed relative peace. However, at a (to my knowledge) unknown point in time, a computer entity known as Mother Brain has started imposing itself onto mostly Motavia. This, over time, has actually given many benefits to the region: the once deserted wasteland was given rain, water and crops, so that it could finally host viable, comfortable civilizations. The citizens that lived here could finally ditch their (arguably) nomadic, harsh lives in favor of comfort, pleasant weather and more. And most importantly, Mother Brain allowed its citizens, save for a few, to ditch their current jobs and live a life of laziness, without any obligations or pressure to do anything other than well, existence. This is reflected many times during the game through NPC dialogue, too!

It is on such a setting that our protagonist, Rolf, wakes up from a strange nightmare. In it, we see Alis batting Dark Force and struggling in doing so, but as soon as he realizes this, Rolf wakes up in cold sweat. He then proceeds to calm his nerves, realizing that no such dramatic events could possible happen to him - after all, he and many others have been under the universal protection and care of Mother Brain, whom at this point, has provided all of their needs for centuries. He then gets out of bed and goes to the central tower, where we works as an agent in case some things do go wrong.

And gone wrong things have! His superior informs him that biological monsters, which had been created and bred in the Mota biosystems laboratory, have gone rogue and infected the regions of Motavia at a rapid rate. Because of this, Rolf is asked to investigate the cause of this phenomenon. Once he gets home to prepare for his journey, he is ambushed by best girl Nei, who has been rescued by him many months ago from the clutches of a serial killer. She does not want to be left alone anymore, and since she is also worried for Rolf's sefety, asks him to accompany him on the mission. Naturally, Rolf accepts.

Here, I do want to bring up Nei in more detail! She's in fact, the first of PSII's brilliant story-gameplay interactions, and here's why! Nei is in fact, a crossbreed experiment between a human and an unknown animal with cat-like features, but here's the thing: this said experiment was a failure. Because of this, Nei is only one years old, and yet her physical and mental age are progressing way more rapidly than they should. And you can feel this effect on the game itself: she needs way less EXP than any other party member in the game to level up, and because of this she will skyrocket in levels way beyond the rest of your crew... with a catch. Because of the nature of the experiment, the genetic code inside of her is slowly being messed up and corrupted, which not only causes her level ups to be less valuable than anyone else's, but it also becomes an important plot point later... Unfortunately, despite her absolute cuteness, her status as a half-half made her a victim of bullying, racism and so much more, which is... pretty messed up to bring up at the time not gonna lie o_o

Starting up the journey, the party discovers that rogues have destroyed a neighboring city, and it just so happens that their base is situed at Shure, the first dungeon of the game . One assumption I like to make from this scene is that life has become so easy and careless on Motavia that people just went and did crime out of pure boredom, because life just wasn't thrilling enough anymore with Mother Brain doing everything it could for its inhabitants...

However, upon climbing said tower, Rolf and Nei find out multiple dead rogue bodies, whom have been presumably murdered by the many biomonsters roaming the place. They do, however, manage to find some dynamite and most importantly, a letter. This piece of paper informs our heroes that the daughter of a Darum, the very same person that tried to murder Nei months ago, is held captive in another tower, which explains why he turned to crime in the first place. They then decide to do the obvious, which is to rescue daughter Teim in her captivity location. Once they meet up with her, she explains her desire to talk to her father to set things straight and sway him from the life he's been getting into, as well as hide her from the surviving rogue members with the help of a veil. Our group manages to meet up with Darum, but... her daughter asks the party to stay put, as she does not want them to interfere with her as she explains things to her father. However, in the heat of the moment, she forgets to remove her veil, which causes Darum to not recognize her. In his confusion, he murders her own flesh and blood and sits there, stunned, as he watches the reason he caused many untold atrocities... wither away below him. Shocked and going insane by this situation, he sees no other way out... but to commit suicide with the help of a bomb.

It gets worse.

While this scene was tragic and brutal to say the least, it does allow Rolf to cross the previously guarded bridge where Darum was always located, which allows him to investigate his mission further.

I do want to make a sidenote here actually! Phantasy Star II does include eight playable characters, but unlike Rolf and Nei they do not join you at fixed intervals - instead, they will become available in your home town of Paseo once conditions are met. Sadly while they do have a recruitment quote, a few lines and a backstory, they do not have an impact on the main story in any way. This does blow as this means PSII does not have much in character development and interaction, but I did want to mention that there’s more to this game than just Rolf and Nei :P

Upon exploring the regions of Motavia, the party manages to make its way to the Biosystems lab, and what they find here is horrifying to say the least. The lab is in horrible shape, with cracked floors everywhere. On top of that, there is no one inside the lab anymore, it being completely deserted, save for some horrible-looking creatures being kept insides tubes, decorating the now sinister looking building... Because of this, Rolf deems it safe to pick up the recorder inside the lab, to analyze it and try to find out just what exactly went wrong - if anything at all - to hopefully figure out why the world has been sacked by biomonsters. And sure enough, the gang make its way back to Paseo. After handing over the recorder to the library located in Paseo’s Central Tower, it is now made clear: the biomonsters were caused by a large amount of energy used in a very short amount of time in those labs, causing them to mutate extremely rapidly. This had the predictable but unfortunate effect of ruining the natural order of the ecosystem, which is why these species are wrecking havoc without control. The librarian giving this information also makes the following connection: this outpour of energy must have come from Climatrol - another lab which regulates the weather of the terraformed planet so that it can sustain its new shape. Following this, Rolf and co. take a few steps to reach Climatrol - and I want to highlight a specific one!

The story somewhat pauses until then, but one of the dungeons you’ll go through is a garbage dump... and one of the treasures is a jet scooter you can use! Sounds cool, right? Well it is, but even such a cool object has been abandoned by the lazy society, since teleportation is much more convenient to them. I just thought it was a really neat detail, that’s all ^_^

Once making their way through the relatively normal Climatrol, something does wait for them at the top of the building... something... unsettling...

This is Neifirst. She was another failed experiment just like Nei, sharing the same biological data as her. However, unlike her sister, her creators tried to kill her on the spot due to her status. This made her enraged against the species that gave her life, and as an act of revenge, decided to unleash this bio catastrophy to slowly wipe us out. This is where another truth is revealed: Nei did not come with Rolf just to protect him, she actually wanted to put a stop to her sister, because while she did dislike being treated like a freak or a monster, she never wanted to hate her species as a whole... It remains that she still wants to stop her sister’s plans, and despite Rolf’s protests, the two engages in a fight. However, due to Neifirst being much stronger, Nei sustains heavy damage and is incapacitated. But, this is where the rest of the party comes in, and thus they finish the job and kill off Neifirst dead in her tracks, Rolf then quickly rushes in to his dear friend’s side, but as he does... it’s too late... Nei is dead.

This is yet another reason why Phantasy Star II is such an important game: it is, to my knowledge, the very first JRPG in which a major playable character dies permanently. Heck, Rolf even tries to bring her back through the local Clone Lab - because yes, citizens have access to eternal life by cloning their bodies until the end of time - but... since Nei’s genetic code was degenerating rapidly, they could not clone her body anymore. And, since Neifirst was also defeated, it is also impossible to get a fresh code back from anywhere in the world. Nei is dead. And you cannot do anything about it.

But don’t worry! It still gets worse!

But just as you’re about to find a way to fix this, it turns out that Climatrol has collapsed, which caused an immense flood all over the world. Since the government - and by extension, Mother Brain - isn’t happy about this, you are now considered a fugitive, a criminal. You are now the bad guy, and you are wanted for treason. 1989, anyone??

This is where the second brilliant story-gameplay integration of Phantasy Star II happens. Where until now you’ve only fought mutated monsters due to the outbreak, the government has now sent thousands of carious cyborgs and robots against you - and lo and behold, this is now the only thing you are fighting in both the overworld and dungeons, and the previous creatures are now nowhere to be seen. THAT’S REALLY SMART. Now sure, even if you are considered evil to many, you still task yourself with the task of unflooding the planet, and to do so you simply reactivate all four colored dams in the continent. However, upon reactivating the fourth one, your party is suddenly ambushed by a trio of robots sent by the cops, and this time? They succeed in capturing you. Your party is now sent in chains on a hovering satellite, as you are sentenced to slowly wither away and die in there without any trial of any sort, simply because you went against Mother Brain’s dear wishes...

But, something goes amiss. The sattelite starts to malfunction, and is now set to crash on one of the three planets of the Algol system. And despite you all trying to alter its course, it is too late. The satellite crashes onto Palma - the planet of the first Phantasy Star game - and it is gone.

That’s right! The planet in which many players took the time to save with Alis’s gang, to have a huge dungeon crawling adventure, the planet where you defeated Lassic in a glorious fashion. GONE. In only a few seconds. But... what about yourself? Well, you actually died! But a space pirate wandering close to the crash site pulled out your remains and cloned everyone’s body back to life... which makes you technically not yourself, and also dead, for the remainder of the game! ...May I remind you this game was developed in 1989?

Tyler the space pirate then escorts the zombie party back to Paseo, but not for long - you see, your commander, who hasn’t truly approved of Mother Brain’s actions against your group, allows you access to a spaceship. This is a big deal, because space travel as a whole has been banned ten years ago due to a major accident in which Rolf had lost his parents, and thus, the one stationed in Paseo is the last one remaining on the planet. But sure enough, Rolf takes the opportunity and travels to the ice planet of Dezolis, or Dezo.

And honestly? Even though this next part has nothing to do with the main story, it’s probably one of my favourites in the entire game. In this section, you simply must make your way through an abandoned space station, which has not seen use in years. At first, you’d think it was somewhat related to the spaceship incident, but as you explore this space station, you find a bunch of animals and newspapers lying around. You not only find some irrelevant ads about various products, but also news flash about a horrible gas spreading throughout the station, begging every inhabitant to evacuate immediately, which... definitively implies a very bleak fate to the place and its inhabitants o_o

And on top of this unsettling setting, this is the first time you get to hear “Silent Zone”, my favourite track in the game. While the rest of the soundtrack is very upbeat, catchy and all around excellent, this track in particular is very... sad, desolate, lonely, in spite of it being just as catchy! It all combines for a brilliant example of “show, don’t tell” that really sets the mood perfectly to me <3

Either way, upon exploring more of Dezo - a frigid wasteland with few inhabitants - the party gets to meet up with Noah, a party member from Phantasy Star I! After reawakening from a cryogenic sleep, he then reveals that unlike Paseo and Motavia, Dezo basically never submitted with Mother Brain’s control and benefits simply because they did not want to live a life without any struggles. Unfortunately, this is also where you learn that Paseo came to terms with this *after* being to MB’s whims and as such, you can connect the dots and realize that the satellite crash was no accident after all... it was all planned.

Noah, however, knows about how deeply MB has ruined everything for the inhabitants of Motavia and thus tasks Rolf with collecting eight legendary ancient weapons all throughout Dezo, located within some ruinous, empty, cold dungeons which make for stunning atmosphere and presence, believe me!

Once that’s done, he then entrusts Rolf with the ultimate Sword and, thanks to kinetic abilities, sends him and his troupe to the space station housing Mother Brain. And once there, for the first time in centuries, a human being has met with Mother Brain.

And of course, the computer scoffs at those rebelling against her. She laughs at how they think they’d want a life with struggles, wtihout comfort, without anyone providing their needs, when work and hardship seems so uninviting on a desert wasteland like Motavia, or a frigid hell like Dezo. And yet, after a (pretty difficult!) battle, you emerge victorious! Or do you?

After the victorious outcome, Noah senses some additional presences beyond Mother Brain’s spot, and urges the party to investigate. And then... I don’t think I’ll even explain it in words. Please watch what happens. It is disturbing.

youtube

Yeah. We, the humans, were destroying our planet, Earth. Thus, we escaped through this spaceship to avoid extinction, and found the Algo system. It then, to our species, only seemed logical with so few numbers, to instead slowly weaken the population of all three planets with Mother Brain, making it then easy (although a very long process) to get rid of the population and start anew, even if it meant genocide. What I love about this twist ending is not only how it’s presented: the creepy music, the way you did *not* expect it at all, the number of humans on the screen at once, and so on... but also, how you don’t even know for sure how it ends. You don’t know if Rolf, Rudo, Amy, Kain, Hugh, Shir, Anna... if any of them survived. But it looks grim. It looks like we lost. And it looks like everyone we fought and tried to save... will rot until the final days anyway... Phantasy Star II... is important. Sure, I could talk about how the game is challenging due to how both your party members AND the enemies are very capable in battle or the stellar, catchy, memorable soundtrack... but its story... is stunning. In 1989, we were still used to princesses being saved by armored heroes from dark dragons. We were used to things going all well in the end. But in 1989, Phantasy Star II taught us many things that would become staples in the future of JRPGs: Yes, your cherished ones may die with you not being able to do anything about it No, you may not be able to save everyone you’d like to. Yes, your actions might make things worse for yourself and everyone else. No, things aren’t quite as black or white as they seem. And no, you might not always win. Phantasy Star II is a masterpiece. It’s a bit hard to approach this game today, but with a guide, this game is a must play. It’s unique. It’s ambitious. It’s chilling. And I adore this game to pieces. Thank you for reading, somehow <3

#long post #phantasy star ii #phantasy star #jrpg #sega genesis

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rexcaliburechoes · 2 years

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misc thoughts on encanto and lyrics // literally, no one asked

so, i watched encanto.

these songs will not leave my brain, help me.

i have a lot of thoughts on how lmm uses his lyrics in his music, thoughts under cut (this was directly lifted from a discord conversation and unedited, so this is my in my purest form screaming about encanto)

so i thought abt the use of hurricane in encanto: while that specific word is only used thrice, pepa mentions she was married in a hurricane- she's the one who controls the weather, so that's already a call to her being super stressed out that her wedding is less than perfect. this is pretty straightforward, but in "what else can i do" isabela says "hurricane of jacarandas", another symbol of letting herself be imperfect, against abuela's wishes, much like pepa's wedding, which should have been nothing less than perfect

you can even tie this into "eye of a hurricane" from hamilton, if you really wanted to

"eye of the hurricane" on a surface level refers, well, the calm in the middle of a storm of nonsense on both sides

it relates to hamilton's own internal struggle as his life falls apart around him

exactly how in both occasions of encanto when a hurricane is brought up, the perfection of pepa's wedding and isabela's perfect exterior starts to unravel and fall apart

however, the loss of "perfection" in "what else can i do" is framed in a good way because of the symbolism of pairing it with flowers. you could have made the same argument in "married in a hurricane", however, felix mentions a little earlier that "not a cloud was allowed in the sky", thus, it was the perfection of good weather (and fortune) that was sought after

"eye of the hurricane", similarly, brings up how hamilton "couldn't seem to die"- against all odds of his life, he survived, but at what cost when he's losing his career, he did some morally dubious shit, and he's about to cement his fate with the reynold's pamplet. he's trying to keep his legacy alive- another motif that's brought up in the play: "what is a legacy?"- but at the cost of the greater legacy of his family... or his own reputation

however, because of the tonal shift of the use of "hurricane", pairing it with flowers and the question "what else can i do? i want something new? how can i grow beyond my confines?" becomes positive- a rush of adrenaline, of freedom, of breaking barriers that a hurricane does.

a break of perfection.

you don't even need to bring in "eye of the hurricane" from hamilton- even the internal use of hurricane is enough inside the movie itself

another thing to note is the use of alliteration: “i grow rows and rows of roses, fleur de mayo by the mayo; i make perfect practised poses, so much hides behind my smile”... she’s internally rhyming with herself in an effort to be “perfect”...

but the refrain, she sings, “a hurricane of jacarandas, strangling figs, hanging vines! palma de cera fills the air as i climb and i push through, what else can i do?”

Through the first refrain, mirabel is trying to “force” isabela to rhyme with her, putting her back in the “perfect” rhyme scheme she percieves her to be a part of. it’s not until mirabel sees how isabela is being affected by abuela alma’s pressure that mirabel starts to rhyme with herself and lets isabela rhyme on her own. they do rhyme together at the end, but it’s more of mirabel commenting on isabela’s growth outside of “perfection” instead of forcing her to behave the way she percieves her to behave for all of her life.

i might make a better analysis on this by actively mapping out all of the syllables and how they rhyme with each other, but that’s for one day in the future.

which, also, to that end, "miracle" and "burn" are also used, though their connotations are flipped compared to hamilton

"waiting on a miracle" is a negative connotation compared to eliza's "the fact that you're alive is a miracle- take a break!"

while "burn" is eliza's rejection of hamilton after the reynold's pamphlets, mirabel uses "burn" in a way that the miracle burns brightly as a beacon of hope- of light

though, you can also make the argument, if we remove hamilton from this again, the family was burning out, like a fire that's never been tended to- the familial love was lost under layers of trauma and hurt and pain- it was burning, but it was burning itself for fuel

then, the context changes when mirabel, and later abuela, starts to look at the fire at see that it's unsustainable and tends to it, feeding it with familial love and starting to process the pain that's rooted itself in the family

which, also, because there are so many nice motifs here, roots.

first thought: family tree, right?

second thought: weeds of unprocessed trauma and grief sucking the life out of the family

third: when mirabel grabs on the root to save herself and bruno, she's both a) getting to the root of the problem and b) seeking her family's roots in the tree

and isabela also asks "how far do these roots go?" in "what else can i do", which you can make the argument of the problems in the family, which is correct, especially if you look at it from a plant/weed perspective, but also when you transfer a plant to a new pot, you have to take care to not hurt the roots so that it can flourish

which, also to relate to "burn", you could say that the family was burning the family tree for fuel to keep the fire of the miracle alive- a dangerous proposition, because that will directly affect the family, destroying it

and instead of causing irreparable harm to everyone after mirabel confronts abuela, the miracle sputters out and dies, because it is at this moment that the family is at its most broken

there are just neat motifs that lmm tosses in that on second, third, fourth rewatches you slowly pick up on

which, also, cracks kinda look like roots if you squint, sothat's something to examine, too

much like hamilton, encanto is a wonderful exercise in the use of motifs in order to unconsciously guide the listener/watcher into a mindset befitting of the scene

also, if you read delores' lyrics in "we don't talk about bruno" she says, "it's a heavy lift with a gift so humbling; always left abuela and the family fumbling grappling with prophecies they couldn't understand"

although his contradicts her beginning line "hey, grew to live in fear of Bruno stuttering or stumbling"... a "gift so humbling the family didn't understand"? that sounds more like a hint that bruno isn't actually the antagonist here

it seems that delores was more sympathetic to bruno's plight... as she was able to hear both side of the conflict, no matter how quiet bruno was in asserting his side

also, i want to make a comment about circles and arcs being used with mirabel

much like hamilton, the camera has moments when it revolves around her, instead of just straight panning to her. hamilton is known to walk in arcs, to show how he's constantly changing, constantly moving, writing like he's running out of time because he needs it to survive, because what is he without his words?

mirabel, when she's thinking of the truth, the camera circles around her, first if i'm thinking of it correctly, in "we don't talk about bruno", where when she walks out of the tunnel, the camera circles around to her front. usually walking into the light is a symbol of "walking into the truth", and yet she's thinking- is this really truth?

i'm trying to think of a second time, but i'd need to watch it and not skim it to fully be sure

you can also make the same argument that the reason she has glasses, when no one else of the cast has glasses, is to emphasise this fact: that's she's always moving

actually, also in "we don't talk about bruno", other characters circle around her as she's piecing together the vision- the "truth" in a way, and it's reflected in her green glasses, turning them gold

i don't know enough about colour motifs, but i know yellow is usually the "lightbulb!" colour. it's the colour when a revelation finally hits a character

which, also, more about isabela: "he told me that the life of my dreams would someday be mine... he told me that my power would grow..." and grow it does, there is nothing in bruno's prophecy that alludes to isabela getting married, just that she'll one day have the life she wants and that her power would grow

weird line, right?

well, compared to the other assumptions the other characters make of bruno's prophecies, hers is actually pretty positive... but she's seeing it through how abuela wishes for her life to pan out: not the life of her dreams

though her power does grow in spite of it being hampered by abuela's wishes

i think she's the most powerful of all of the family- gift-wise. hear me out: she's been forced to grow only tiny plants and flowers, which given how much power she seems to wield, and how easy she can change everything to her whim, and create statues of herself of flowers... that requires immense control

she's been forced to so tightly control her magic, that it's a little bit of a boon to her, but "her power growing" doesn't just mean the limiter, but her raw talent in being able to bloom plants that don't look native to the region she lives in

#encanto #isabela madrigal #mirabel madrigal #rex rambles #literally no one asked #i need to do work but instead here i am writing analysis #oh well

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robert-de-niro-only-fans · 3 years

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Just Friends

The Deer Hunter!Robert De Niro x Reader

I’m so sorry this took so long. Hope you like pining!

TW: age gap, mention of illness, idk high word count?

Word Count: 8.8k

"Why don't you let (Y/N) come with me? It would be a great opportunity for her to see what's it's like to film in some open locations instead of the sets here in New York. Plus she'll get to meet a great cast of actors, you know how hard we had to push to get John Cazale in the movie. She could learn so much from him." "I don't know, Robert. All the arrangements have been made for the crew's travel and lodging; I wouldn't want to make production any more difficult just so my daughter can watch you guys make a movie." "Ah, it shouldn't be a big deal. It's not too hard to buy an extra plane ticket, and she can just crash with me. Plus we could probably use the extra hands on set at some point." You can't help but feel completely giddy as you overhear Robert urging your father to let you go with him as he films his next movie. You're the daughter of a New York-based movie producer, who had gotten somewhat popular and had enough connections to know some really great actors and actresses. Your dad met Robert De Niro when he was acting in Brian De Palma's early films, and they had been planning on working together for a long time. However, Robert and your dad both stayed busy, and now Robert is a pretty big star since Taxi Driver released just last year. You got to know Robert when you were just a teenager. He would come over to your home for small get-togethers your dad liked to throw. You always liked being around him, so it was lucky for you that your dad and him became good friends. Robert is good about visiting when he has the chance to, but his visits have been less frequent lately as his career is really taking off. And that's what he was doing here today: a quick visit with you and your dad before he has to run off and make another film. The conversation turned, however, when you started discussing how you were becoming interested in working on films, particularly acting. Although most actors started younger than you, and being in your early twenties is already considered old for an actress, you decided it wasn't too late to start. Robert had a soft spot for learning and teaching acting, although his teaching came as little tidbits of advice. That's why you are shocked to hear Robert ask about you going with him for filming, while you're in the kitchen fixing everyone drinks. You walk in, carrying three glasses on a small tray and set them down on the table, then handing each of the men a glass. They both thank you as you take your seat across from them. "Sooo..." you raise your eyebrows and give your dad a hopeful smile. "Yes, (Y/N)?" "Can I go with Robert? I overheard what you two were saying." Your dad sits back and exhales a little loudly. He was trying to be stern but you could tell he was hiding a smile. He could never be an actor; he couldn't hide his real feelings very well. He turns to Robert asking, "Are you sure it's okay if she goes with you?" "Of course. I'll take good care of her," he says sweetly. You always thought he was very sweet. "Okay, sweetheart, you can go, not that I could stop you anyway, but I appreciate that you ask," your father says as a smile spreads across his face. "Dad!! Thank you so much!" He was right; you were an adult, but you had always lived with him, so you felt you needed to ask before going across the country. You jump up and give your dad a big hug. "You better start packing," Robert says with a chuckle, "we leave for Ohio tomorrow." "What kind of clothes should I bring?" you ask Robert. "What you would normally wear. Bring a few nice outfits for dinners. And we'll stop back in New York before going to Washington, because it'll be pretty cold and we'll all need warmer clothes." The smile on his face tells you he's excited about you going with him. You ask sit and talk a little longer, with Robert telling you and your dad about the general schedule about how you'll spend a several weeks in Ohio where most of the film takes place, a few days here and there in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, take a break for a few weeks, then go to Washington State for all of the hunting scenes. After that, a smaller portion of the cast and crew will go to Thailand to film the war scenes. This is also when you find out that the beard he is sporting is for the movie and not just some new fashion choice. You quite like the beard as well as his haircut, it suits him unexpectedly well. As it starts getting late, you make the move to go up to your room to pack. So you say goodnight to Robert and your dad, giving them both big hugs as a thank you for letting you go for filming, and you head upstairs to squeeze all of your clothes and toiletries into a suitcase. Downstairs, Robert stays to talk with your dad a little while longer before heading home. "Now, Robert, you said (Y/N) would be staying with you, right?" "Yes. Is that okay?" "Well..." your dad starts but he certainly doesn't want to offend Robert, "you won't, umm, do anything... with her, will you?" "Hmm? Oh. Oh! Um, no, I won't do anything like that with her. I hadn't even thought about it. I just uuhh- I just thought it would be better if she stayed with me instead sticking her in a random hotel room away from the rest of us... Most of the hotel rooms have two beds anyways." Robert tries desperately to get rid of the blush that came to his cheeks as he stumbles through what he's saying. He had never thought of you that way before, and it caught him off guard and kind of gave him butterflies in his stomach. "Yeah, you're probably right about her staying with you. She's probably safer with you than taking her chances somewhere else," your dad says with look of relief. "Yeah, well, I'm sorry I brought up the idea so last minute, but she'll be okay with me." "No, it's okay. It's a good opportunity for her. I think you guys will have a great time! Now, how do you think Michael is gonna film this thing?" Your dad and Robert discuss the production and direction of the movie for a short while before Robert really has to leave to go home and sleep. When you hear that he's about to leave, you quickly make your way down the stairs to tell him goodnight and thank him again for taking you with him. He pulls you into a gentle hug, placing one of his hands on the back of your head. "You're very welcome, (Y/N). Now, I'll be here at 7 in the morning to pick you up; I wanna take you to breakfast before we head to the airport. That'll also give us some time for someone to get on the phone and get you a plane ticket!" You had no doubt Robert would be able to get you on the plane. And with that, he left, and you went upstairs to pack the last few things you would need before trying to get some sleep, although that didn't come so easy due to the excitement you're feeling. • • • The next day goes just the way Robert said it would: he picks you up right at 7, loads your bags in the car, and takes you to breakfast at his favorite place. It's an upscale place but in a subdued way. You enjoy each other's company over biscuits, eggs, pancakes, coffee, bacon, whatever your heart desires as Robert put it. On the way to the airport, he admits that he got your plane ticket sorted out before he arrived for breakfast, and there was a seat in first class with the rest of the cast. Right next to him. But it's really no issue. He swears he didn't have to buy someone out of their seat. After checking your bags and boarding the plane, Robert introduces everyone to you: Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep, her husband John Cazale, George Dzundza, and John Savage, who everyone opted to call Savage. Meryl and John immediately took a liking to you, which you were honored. The flight was pretty packed, so the cast was all split up across first class, so everyone agreed that you should have dinner tonight to celebrate the beginning of filming. During takeoff you feel Robert put his hand on top of yours, and you quickly turn your head to face him. "You comfortable?" He asks softly. "Oh... Yeah, are you?" "Yep." You look down at his hand on yours. He strokes his thumb over your hand for a moment before pulling it away and looking out the window. You'd be lying if you said that didn't make you feel something. • • • The rest of your flight is uneventful, aside from a few people asking for autographs from the cast as you're leaving the airport. Outside, you are all met with a giant black van, and the director of the movie, Michael Cimino hops out to greet everyone and help put bags in the undercarriage. Everyone climbs inside the van, you sticking close to Robert, simply because you don't know anyone else yet. It's very comfortable and spacious inside, certainly the nicest van you'd ever seen. You and Robert end up all the way in the back, with everyone else doubling up on the seats in front of you. You've got a little bit of a drive to your hotel. Only a few minutes into your trip, everyone is chatting away, and you're finally getting to meet everyone properly, although you're getting to know Meryl and John the best because they're on the seat right in front of you. You instantly notice that John has a fantastic sense of humor; it's no wonder Meryl is so in love with him. Robert has his arm around your shoulders, but you can't tell if it's because he just wants to stretch out across the seat or if it's something else. Either way, he's only there like that for a few moments before he goes to the front of the van to talk to the director. "Guess I got stranded back here," you say with a chuckle to Meryl and John. "Oh, yeah, he's been so involved with Michael in getting this film made," Meryl throws over her shoulder to you. She turns on her seat to face you a little better, "Can I ask you a rather personal question?" "Oh, um, sure." You were certainly nervous to hear what she had to say. "Are you and Robert dating one another?" A breath of relief leaves you in the form of a small laugh, "Oh God, no! He's a friend of my dad's, so we've known each other a long time. He wanted to bring me along so I could learn more about filmmaking." "Oh, that's sweet of him. I apologize for assuming. I guess it's just, uh--oh nevermind," she gives a small smile and looks down at her lap. "No, it's okay! What is it?" "You two are just close, which I suppose that makes sense if you've been friends for so long! I just misinterpreted your relationship." A big smile stretches across her face as John chimes in. "Well if she didn't ask, I was going to, so it's probably good we cleared the air now, right?" "Right!" you respond. "Besides, I'm sure the other guys will all badger him about you, whether it's about him being a cradle robber or them trying to get with you." The three of you laugh, knowing that what John said is probably going to be true. "What are y'all laughing about back there?" Savage pipes up, breaking his attention away from the conversation going on between him, Chris, and George. "My receding hairline." John deadpans to the group in front of them. There's a long pause before everyone busts out in laughter, which then catches the attention of Michael and Robert at the front of the van. They both turn around to see what's going on, and Robert gives you a smile, scrunching his nose cutely. They decide not to get involved, and go back to their conversation. The rest of you talk in a big group the rest of the way to the hotel. • • • At the hotel, production rented out a whole floor for all of the cast and crew to stay on, with the cast kind of grouped near each other on one end. As for this first hotel you'll be at, and it is the main hotel you'll stay at while in Ohio, there are two beds in each room. A lot of the film crew picked partners and doubled up, but of course the director, executive producers, and main cast get their own rooms, with the exception of Meryl and John, and now Robert because he offered to have you with him. When you get in the hotel room, you drop your bags at the door and run to one of the beds, flopping on it and sinking into the comfort. Robert chuckles at you as you grab a pillow to cuddle up with. He drops your bags at the foot of the bed before asking, "I'm assuming you want this bed?" You look up at him lazily, "I don't really care. Do you have a preference?" "Not really; I'll take the other bed," he laughs at you again as he drops his bags near the other bed. "What are you laughing at?" You squint your eyes, questioning him playfully, still hugging your pillow. "You. And your pillow." "Mmmm... I think you're just jealous." "Jealous?! My bed has pillows too. See?" He picks up a pillow and hugs it just like you. "No no no. You're jealous of the pillow. You wish I was squeezing you like this!" "Oh you think so, huh?" He throws his pillow at you. You block it with your arms and it hits the ground. "I'm keeping that," you say sassily. "Fine with me," he says, too calmly. That's quickly broken when he charges towards you, ripping the pillow out of your arms as you burst into laughter. He picks you up around your waist, spins you around a few times and slams you both down on his bed, his arms still firmly around you. "Now I don't have to be jealous," he jokes. You wrap your arms around his head and neck, hugging him into your chest, just like you had done with the pillow. "No, you don't have to be jealous anymore." He gives you one final squeeze and then stands up. "We have a little while before we have to get ready for dinner. Any idea what you wanna do?" You groan a little, "Sleep." You smile up at him. "Well then you better get in your bed instead of hogging mine." "Excuse me! You put me here, so you'll have to move me back!" "Needy," he grumbles jokingly, picking you up and tossing you down on your bed. "You ever heard of letting someone down easy, Robert? Cuz you keep throwing me." He chuckles lowly, moving towards his luggage, "Go to sleep." You grab the extra pillow from the floor and get comfy. One pillow under your head, cuddled up to a second one, a third under one of your legs, and the duvet pulled up to your head. Pure bliss. "You look like a little princess with all those pillows," Robert's voice echoes across the hotel room. "Good. Then let me get me beauty sleep." While he's unpacking some of his clothes and stuff, he finds himself thinking about how you really don't need sleep to look any more beautiful than you already are. • • • That night at dinner, it didn't take long for John's predictions to come true. Just a few minutes after ordering food, Chris caught everyone's attention when he asked, "Bobby, you and this gorgeous young lady... What's going on with you two?" "Whaddaya mean, what's going on with us?" Robert repeats with a laugh. "Well, she's your girlfriend isn't she? I gotta say I'm a little jealous Bobby gets to bring his girlfriend, but I don't get to bring my lovely wife." "Chris, we're not dating. She's just a friend; I've known her dad for a long time." Savage butts in, practically yelling, "Of course she wouldn't date him! He's old enough to be her dad! Unless you're into that kinda stuff, baby." You turn to John and you both start laughing about how Savage managed, not only to joke about Robert being significantly older than you, but also use it to hit on you. "This again? What's so funny?!" John yells. "You had to be there," you cut back to Savage, trying not to smile, but failing. Robert cuts in, "Ya know, I just wanna say: I'm not old enough to be her dad." It kind of surprised you that he would even bother defending himself; it was clearly just a joke, but everyone laughed nonetheless. "You're only, like, 15 years older than her right?" George jokes. A little bit of a blush creeps up Robert's neck, and he bites his lip, "...yeah." This only makes everyone laugh more. Under the table, you place your hand on top of Robert's and you both give each other a small look while laughing. It's a short moment, broken by Michael walking up to the table. Everyone knew he would be late, but you still invited him anyway. Michael slides in next to Robert and asks, "What's so funny?" "Eh, you don't wanna know," Robert shoots back. You and John are trying very hard not to have another laughing fit. Luckily things are fairly calm while everyone is eating, but it doesn't last long after everyone is done. You catch John whispering in Meryl's ear before he turns to the table and says, "Alright, let Meryl and I slide out, my lady wants to dance." Pretty much everyone stands up to let them out of the booth, and Chris, noticing that Robert is once again deep in conversation with Michael, invites you to dance to "keep those other dogs off of you." George and Savage sneak off to find some nice Ohio locals to dance with. Robert and Michael slide back into the booth, chatting like they do. Meryl and John are being beyond cute dancing with one another and nuzzling noses. Chris is a real gentleman while dancing with you. He holds you close, and you maintain some casual conversation getting to know each other better. George finds sweet girl to try and romance, but Savage is having some trouble, so he simply steals you away from Chris, asking if he could dance with you instead. Chris thanks you for your time and returns to the table joining in the talk with Michael and Robert. Dancing with Savage is a little bit intense, as he lays it on thick hitting on you. At one point, he leans his head down and starts placing kisses on your cheek and even a few on your neck. This is when you catch Robert basically staring a hole in you. He stands up and makes his way over to you and Savage. Robert places a hand on Savage's shoulder, lowly speaking, "You mind if I borrow your dance partner?" "Mm... But we were having fun," Savage whines sarcastically, but gives in and leaves you with Robert. "What, you didn't like him kissing on me? I knew you were the jealous type," you snark at him. "Nooo. I told your dad I would take care of you, and a guy like him is no good for a girl your age." He wraps an arm around you, figuring that he should probably dance with you. "My knight in shining armor!" Another joke. "Oh shut up," he chuckles. • • • The next day, you all wake up bright and early to head to the tailors on location so that everyone can get their makeup done and costumes on. You had to admit Robert looked pretty funny in his flannel, puffy vest, and trucker cap. It was nothing like what he would normally wear. The first few scenes that are gonna be filmed during this first week are the first few scenes of the film, where all of the characters are seen at the steel mill and they prepare for the wedding and being drafted. The dynamic of the cast actually worked pretty well for these scenes. Everyone got along quite well, so it wasn't hard for them to act like they had been friends their whole lives. You noticed that filming goes a bit slower when it's shot on location like this, and it was made even slower by Michael Cimino. Michael was very particular about the way he wanted things, and there were lots of noises to work around as they filmed at an actual steel mill. You also spent more time in the makeup trailor than you had expected to; you found it fascinating how they made the men look like they weren't wearing any makeup at all. You and Meryl also spent a good amount of time together when she wasn't in a scene. She said that it was nice having another girl around on a predominantly male set. Of course, you weren't the only girl, but you were one of few. There isn't really a scene that Robert isn't in, so unfortunately, you don't see him much unless everyone is taking a break, or if you hang out with him while he's in makeup. But you make the most of it by getting to know everyone else. • • •

On nights after filming, the cast hangs out really often, normally in someone's hotel room, usually Meryl and John's. Sometimes you would go to a bar or a restaurant, as drinking and dancing became some of the groups' favorite activities. Hanging out in Meryl and John's hotel room usually includes wine, snacks, playing cards, and Robert's arm casually around your waist whenever you get near him. Savage still shoots his shot with you every once in a while, but if he isn't shut down by you, he will be shut down by Robert. He's just watching out for you like he promised your dad; really, it's flattering how protective he can be. • • • The second week of filming is dedicated to filming the wedding scenes. Everyone looks great in their tuxedos and dresses, and the church you'll be filming in is a beautiful Russian Orthodox Church here in Cleveland. "How do I look?" Robert asks you while he's getting his hair gelled and combed into place. "Very handsome. I really like you in that tuxedo." "Maybe he can borrow it when you two finally get married," Michael says coming into the makeup trailor. You and Robert both look at him a little shocked; Michael's never made jokes about you two before. "Oh, c'mon, I'm not allowed to make jokes too?" You both laugh a little awkwardly trying to cut any tension in the room. "I'm gonna go outside and help with all the extras," you say, swiftly leaving the makeup trailor. Outside, there are like a hundred people who showed up to be extras in the wedding scene, and you're sure Michael will probably use most of them. The people are all dressed up in their finest wedding attire, some of them getting a little makeup done or getting some items from costume to make the scene fit Michael's vision. They were told to bring empty presents as well, so that the table full of wedding presents would look realistic; however, many of them actually brought real presents for the cast and crew to keep. Filming the wedding scene was really chaotic to say the least. It felt like a party that went on for way too long, and most everyone was pretty exhausted by the end of filming with the extras that day. But you had to say, Meryl and Robert really stole the show. Their on-screen chemistry was astounding; you would've thought they were really in love or something! You loved watching the way Robert's character pined for Meryl's; his eyes always said so much. And of course, filming wouldn't have felt complete without John adding in his funny little quirks in various scenes, such as tapping his foot while waiting for the bride to walk down the aisle, and carrying Robert across the room for the group photo. Althought most of the filming with the extras had to be done in one day, the other scenes filmed that week included a couple of the bar scenes of the guys playing pool and drinking, and the scene where Robert streaks through town, which certainly had you blushing. Thank God you were filming at night. • • • Your last two weeks of filming in Ohio are spent filming anything that wasn't a hunting scene or a war scene. Production had to make a point of scheduling all of John's scenes early in the filming process, because it is no secret how sick he is. One night after filming, you all decide it would be fun to go out to one of the bars, as everyone had been pretty busy, and there hadn't been much time to. Everyone wants to go dancing again! You've had a hard time getting Robert to dance with you since your first night in Ohio. He really doesn't like to since he's so shy, even though he's very good at slow dances. That night, you dance with Chris again, and Meryl dances with Savage, while Robert hangs back at the table with John. John really isn't feeling well; it's one of his bad days, but he never lets it ruin the mood. Savage and Meryl makes their way over to you on the dance floor, and Savage asks, "Hey, can I cut in? I'd love to have a dance partner that pretty!" "Uh, sure, man," Chris answers. Savage practically shoves himself between you and Chris, quickly taking Chris by the hand and putting an arm around him before spinning him around. "Beautiful!" Savage yells, dipping Chris back, getting a round of laughs and even some applause from everyone around. You and Meryl take this as a chance to slip over to the bar, to get a break from your heels. You sit with your backs leaning up against the bar so you can keep an eye on all your friends. "Have you had fun filming with us all this time?" Meryl asks kindly, as she always does. "Oh yeah, it's been really great, and I've been learning so much about the filming process, and you're all wonderful actors to look up to!" "That's so sweet of you. The guys here have all done a wonderful job with their parts so far. Especially Robert. He's been in nearly every scene, and he's so involved with Michael and production. I don't know where he gets his energy!" "Yeah, he stays busy. I sleep in the same room as him and sometimes it seems like I don't even see him," you giggle. "Oh, but when he does get to be around you, it certainly seems you have his attention," Meryl points out, "I know you've said you two are just close, but I really think he likes you." "You think he likes me? Why do you think he likes me?" "Well, he's quite watchful of you, making sure you never get into trouble, especially around Savage. He always has an arm around you when we're hanging out at the hotel. And the way he looks at you. He looks at you... Well, he looks at you the way he looks at me when we're filming." You both look over at Robert and John. John smiles at Meryl and gives her a funny little wink. Robert turns to look when he realizes John isn't looking at him anymore, raising his eyebrows when he sees you and Meryl staring back at him. Him and John turn back to their conversation, shaking off whatever trouble you and Meryl are getting into. "You know the tension between you two is almost unbearable, right?" John says in a casual tone, knowing that this question is anything but casual. "I'm sorry, what?" Robert sputters. "You and (Y/N). It's so obvious to everyone that you have feelings for one another. Well, obvious to everyone but you and her, apparently." He gives Robert a side eye and raised eyebrows. "I mean... I care about (Y/N), but I- I don't have feelings for her. Her dad would kill me." "You don't have feelings for her, or you feel like you shouldn't have feelings for her?" There's a long silence between them. Robert looks up at John in a way that lets John know he's right. "Take it from me, Bobby. Life's too short." With that, Robert stands up, and walks over to you and Meryl, still at the bar. "Excuse me," he starts, always a gentleman, "Meryl, would you mind if I borrowed (Y/N) from you?" "Oh! No, go ahead," she says with a small laugh. "(Y/N)," there's a bit of a nervous tone in his voice, "would you like to dance with me? I know I've been avoiding it for weeks now." "I'd love to," you smile at him. He puts his hands on your hips, lifting you off of the tall bar stool and helping you to the ground. On the dancefloor, he pulls you into his chest with an arm around your waist and a hand tangled in the back of your hair. Your hands rest on his hips, and you slowly sway back and forth together, even when the song playing wasn't slow. It wasn't really proper slow dancing, but you weren't going to complain; you both enjoyed the closeness. That night at the hotel, you decide to watch a movie together before going to bed; you didn't have to be up super early for once. So you both hop into your pajamas, and Robert finds something on the TV and pats the spot on the bed next to him. "I have my own bed, you know?" you joke. "I know, but it's no fun watching a movie that far apart. Would you sit on a different couch if we were in a living room?" "I guess you have a point." You climb onto his bed, and he puts his arm around your shoulders, watching the movie which was already started, but it is close enough to the beginning. Part of the way through the movie, Robert's eyes linger down to your hand resting on your lap, although you don't notice this. In fact, you're quite sleepy. You feel his fingers gently grace over the back of your hand, and you react by turning your hand over for him. He softly traces little shapes into the palm of your hand, and he teases at your finger tips like he wants to lace his fingers with yours. You decide to bite the bullet and go for it. The next time his fingertips grace yours, you slide your fingers in between his, holding his hand. You're both way to nervous to look at each other, so you both just go back to watching the movie while he strokes his thumb over yours. • • • The next morning, you wake up surrounded by the Robert's scent, which is always very nice, but no Robert nearby. You quickly realize that you're still in his bed; you must have fallen asleep during the movie last night. You sit up looking around for your roommate, and you find him in your bed, looking up at you as if he was waiting for you to find him. The sun spilling in through the window and across his face accentuated his dimples and the smile lines around his eyes. He, too, looked like a sunbeam as he grinned up at you. "Good morning, sleepy head. You fell asleep during our movie, and I didn't have the heart to move you, so I figured we could just trade beds for the night," he says lightly laughing. It seemed like he was in a very good mood this morning. "Oh, well thank you for giving me your bed all to myself. It probably would've been way too hot if you stayed over here." "Mmm, I knew you thought I was hot," he has a smug look on his face. "No! I meant like body temperature. You're probably like a human heater when you sleep!" you argue with him. "Well, wouldn't you like to know?" he jokes, getting up out of bed to get ready to go to set. "I don't ever wanna know!" you yell as he closes the bathroom door. Just a little while later, as everyone is heading out of the hotel to get in the big black van and go to the filming location, John looks at you and asks, "So what is it that you don't wanna know?" "Huh?" you reply to John. "We heard you yell at Robert 'I don't ever wanna know!' through the walls a little while ago." You had no idea the walls were that thin, and you wonder what else they had heard. Robert butts in, "Oh, that was just (Y/N) trying to deny that she thinks I'm hot and wants to sleep with me," with a devilish look on his face. "ROBERT!" you yell, hitting him on the shoulder. "That is totally taken out of context, and you know it!" Everyone is roaring with laughter, while you blush a deep shade of pink. Robert puts all of the jokes to rest by telling everyone what really happened, but conveniently leaving out the part about you two holding hands for a while last night. • • • The next few days are pretty normal, although bittersweet, as it is the last few days of filming in Ohio. The cast spends a lot of time hanging out in Meryl and John's hotel room, and everyone goes out to the bar to celebrate on the last night on location. You go back to New York with Robert and most of the cast the day after filming wraps in Ohio. You would have a break for a few weeks before flying out to Washington for filming the hunting scenes. Everyone says their goodbyes at the airport, with John throwing in one final joke, "Invite us to the wedding if you two decide to elope before Washington!" You and Robert were used to it at that point; it was an every day thing that someone made a joke about you two getting together, but it really didn't bother either of you too much. Hell, even you made jokes about yourselves sometimes. Of course, Robert makes sure to take you home himself, or have his driver take you both to your house. You were so excited to see your dad again! You had called him several times while you were gone, but that doesn't mean you didn't miss him. You and your dad share a long embrace as he invites Robert in for a drink before he goes home. Robert kindly accepts coming in to relax for a while. Immediately, your dad notices how much closer you and Robert are, but he figures that spending a month together will probably do that to any two people. He's just glad you've made some important connections in the film industry. The two men listened intently as you spoke cheerfully of all of your experiences and the things you learned during the first leg of filming, Robert adding in some bits here or there. You both decided to leave out the jokes everyone made about you two getting together, assuming it would be an awkward conversation to have. Robert doesn't stay as long as he normally would've, because he has to be up early in the morning to go meet with other producers and directors. He stays so busy; you know you won't see him again until it's time to film. When he goes to leave, Robert pulls you up into a big hug telling you how fun it's been having you around, and that he can't wait to take you to Washington. • • • A couple of weeks go by, and everything is as it was at home with your dad. Except now you miss Robert a lot of the time, because you had been so close. You missed all of the cast; you had all become such good friends. Either way, you tried to keep busy by going to work with your dad a lot and looking into new roles to audition for, although you found yourself more interested in other aspects of film production since going to Ohio. One night, your dad calls you downstairs, because there's a call for you on the home phone. Your dad tells you that it's Robert, and he's asking to talk to you. You weren't expecting to hear from him at all, so you can't help but worry that something is wrong, especially with John being sick. "Hello?" you say into the phone. "Hey, there," Robert's tone is unreadable. "You rang?" "Yeah, I did. Um... I know this is last minute, but I wanted to know if you would come over for dinner tomorrow? My schedule opened up tomorrow night, and I gotta admit I miss you more than I thought I would." "Oh..." you silently thank God your dad had walked off, "just you and me?" "Yeah, I was thinking I could order room service for dinner, and we could watch a movie like we did at the hotel. Plus I think everyone else is probably busy, unless you want me to invite your other boyfriend," he giggles. He was referring to Savage and how he relentlessly tried to hit on you. "Oh, no. I don't think I could deal with both of you," you reply with a laugh. "That's what I thought. So, I'll see you tomorrow at seven?" "Yep. See you then!" The next night arrives quickly, and now the dilemma you're facing is that you have no idea what to where. Is this casual? Does he want you to dress up? You aren't sure, and it's too late to call him; he's probably almost here. You decide to go casual, but not sweatpants casual. Why would Robert want you to dress up to go to his apartment? Seems like Robert went for the same kind of attire, you see when he shows up. You throw a quick goodbye and a kiss on the cheek to your dad before Robert leads you out to the car with a hand on the small of your back. It's not too long of a car ride to his place, because you both live in the city; however, somewhere in the middle of the trip, Robert abruptly asks his driver to stop at a bakery up ahead. You give the man next to you a confused look, and he smiles saying, "Look, I have to start doing some pretty intense training for another movie, so this might be one of the last times I get to eat cake for a while! I was thinking we could pick something up to have after dinner." There's a brief pause between you two, then Robert quickly adds on, "You can pick out whatever you want! I'll buy it!" You can't help but laugh at his excitement, and you take his hand as he basically rips you out of the car and into the bakery. The smell in the air was incredible; it makes you want to buy everything in the shop. So you and Robert go crazy picking out anything and everything that looks good, all the while giggling like school girls with one another! You arrive at Robert's apartment with bags of desserts in tow, and almost immediately, you're placing an order with room service for dinner. Stopping by the bakery had made you both very hungry. The desserts were left in the kitchen as the two of you make your way to the couch, in an effort to avoid eating all the sweets that smelled so heavenly. Robert quickly found something on the TV, although he didn't turn it up very loud; you both knew you'd be talking anyway. He leans back into the couch, putting an arm comfortably around you. At this point, it wasn't a big deal for you two to be hanging all over one another. "I didn't think I would miss you this much," Robert blurts out, "uhh, I mean, we just spent so much time together, more than I would normally spend with anyone from set." "Yeah? You miss spending the night with me?" you joke. Robert rolls his eyes. You continue, "Miss waking up to my beautiful face every day? Or waiting for me to get out the shower?" "Oh, stop! You know it wasn't like that," Robert said with a grin, but his face quickly drops into a serious look. He reaches up and gently pushes your hair behind your ear. His eyes looked over your whole face, appreciating all of your features, before locking eyes with you. He tangles his fingers in your hair at the nape of your neck and pulls you close, placing his forehead against yours. You weren't completely sure what he was doing, but you weren't mad about it. Almost instinctively, you close your eyes and begin nuzzling your nose against his. At first just bumping the end of your nose against his, and then you feel his nose next to yours as he moves closer to you. Everything feels like it's happening in slow motion. His hand still firmly grasping your hair, a tiny giggle leaves your lips for whatever reason. You feel the hair from his beard tickle your chin, and the butterflies in your stomach go crazy as you realize he's about to kiss you. His bottom lip barely graces yours, and the doorbell rings. Room service with the dinner you ordered. Your eyes fly open, seeing Robert pull back from you and take a deep breath, washing the intense expression off of his face. "I'm sorry," he says standing up and straightening out his shirt, "I don't know what I was thinking." Before you could say anything, he was opening the door, and dinner was brought in by one of the apartment staff. You took a moment to get it together and put whatever just happened behind you. You assume Robert decided to do the same, because the rest of the evening goes by relatively normal. You both enjoy dinner and of course all the desserts you picked up earlier! Not without lots of laughs anyway, as Robert keep poking fun at you for how you lit up like a child at the bakery. "Oh, like you didn't pick out just as many, if not MORE things than me!" You shout at him, which earns you a laugh from the man next to you. "In fact, it was YOUR idea to go in, Mr. I-have-to-get-in-shape-for-a-new-movie!" He cuts his eyes at you as if to say something, but instead shoves a pastry in your mouth, smearing icing across your lips and chin. You both double over in a fit of laughter, reaching for napkins to clean your face with. Thank goodness that was the highlight of the evening, so you had something other than "oh yeah, Robert almost kissed me" to tell your dad when you got home. • • •

As you would've guessed, you didn't see Robert again until you were headed to Washington. You sit with him on the plane again, but this time, a lot of the cast had different flights, traveling in from other parts of the world. The flight takes most of your day, as it's definitely the evening by the time you are picked up at the airport. Up in the mountains, it is freezing, first of all. Luckily you're from New York, and Washington isn't much further North, so you know how to handle the cold. Second, they have the whole cast and crew staying in cabins that are scattered along the mountain side. It is already pretty dark, but from what you could see, it's beautiful up on the mountain range. You don't have much to do that night, and all of the cast is arriving at different times, and production setup is running behind (the norm with Michael Cimino), so the cast all agrees to have lunch together the next day before shooting kicks off this week. Robert takes you into the visitor's center that presides over the cabins to pick up keys, and the staff even gives you some warm bowls of soup to take up to the cabin with you. Up in the cabin, you quickly cut the heater on, shivering while you wait on the room to warm up a bit. Robert sets down his bags and the soup, and walks up behind you, putting his hands on your arms and rubbing them vigorously. It warms you up pretty well, especially when he puts his warm hands on your neck. "Mm, thank you," you let out in a moan. "It's no problem, honey," Robert says lowly, almost in a whisper. "You okay?" you ask him. "Mhmm... Just sleepy and thinking about that soup," he says wrapping his arms around you and nuzzling into your neck, "Feel any warmer?" "Well, I stopped shaking," you sink back into him, and place your cold hands on his warm ones. He moves to put your hands under his, stroking the back of your hands with his thumbs. You stay like that for a few minutes before you break the silence, "You wanna eat that soup? Seemed like you were hungry." "Hmm, yeah." He pulls away from you, rubbing your arms a little like he did before, and walks into the little kitchen to get his soup. The room is a few degrees warmer, but this cabin must have horrible insulation or something, because it's still freezing even with the heater on. By the time you head over to the kitchen, Robert is bringing your soup over to the table. You both quickly dig in; Robert because he was hungry, and you because you're so cold. The soup warmed you up pretty well. The rest of the evening, there wasn't too much to do. Robert watched some TV, you went through your clothes making sure you had enough warm stuff before changing into pajamas and climbing into bed. You figured you should go ahead and try to warm your bed up sooner rather than later. A while later, you're still sitting in bed shivering a bit; Robert stands up and chuckles at you before heading out of the room to change clothes. He comes back in sweatpants and a t-shirt and climbs into his bed. "How are you wearing that to bed?" you ask him bewildered. "Um, just like this," he pulls the blankets up over his shoulders. "It's literally freezing in here. You're not cold?" "Nope, are you?" he has that devilish look on his face, knowing the answer to that question. You shoot him a deadpan look and turn over, ignoring him and trying to get warm. "Goodnight, then," Robert laughs. "Goodnight." You both lie there in silence for a while. Robert watches you tossing and turning, bunching the covers up on top of yourself, and still shivering the whole time. "(Y/N)." "What?" You turn to look at him under your huge pile of blankets. "Come here." "What do you mean, come here?" "Come get in bed with me," he says sternly. "Ooooh, no! You're not gonna get to joke about me sleeping with you all week." "(Y/N), you're freezing, and you're not gonna get any sleep like that. Just... Let me keep you warm." The look on his face was one of concern and sincerity. "You won't make fun of me?" you ask sheepishly. "I won't make fun of you." There was a small pause. "You promise?" "Oh my gosh, yes! I promise," he says with a big smile and an eye roll, "Will you get your ass over here already?" You stand up, and he holds the blankets up for you. You sit down and scoot in close to him. Robert drops the blankets on you, before grabbing you and pulling you into his chest. You make a move to protest, until you realize how warm he is. You resign to stay cuddled up to him and tangle your legs with his. You start to drift off to sleep feeling his breath gently on your forehead and his fingers tracing shapes in your back. "I knew it. You are like a human heater," you joke quietly. Without opening his eyes, Robert groans then whispers, "I knew you thought I was hot." • • • The next morning, you both wake up to the sound of the alarm clock. Robert quickly rolls you onto your back and reaches across you to turn off the alarm. You look up at him as he lingers above you for a moment. He gives you a sweet smile before leaning in and pressing his lips to yours. It catches you completely off guard, and it's over before you even realize what he has done. He looks into your eyes, and you place a hand on his cheek. It was like a dam broke. You both smash your lips into one another's kissing passionately, hands exploring each other. Robert catches your hand in his, lacing his fingers with yours and pushing your hand up above your head on the pillow. His other hand finds your hair as he continues to move his lips against yours. Your free hand roams his back, while your feet gently rub against his legs underneath the sheets. He pulls away from you slightly, breaking your kiss, both of you breathing heavily. He flashes a toothy smile at you, knowing he looks good, and breathes out, "Good morning!" You giggle and tell him, "Good morning," too. "Hmmm," Robert hums, nuzzling into the crook of your neck leaving little kisses there, "it *is* a good morning..." "I guess everyone was right about us, huh?" you point out. "Oh, who cares what they think?" "I think you do, cradle robber." You both try to look at each other seriously, but that always ends in laughter. Luckily it was a slow morning so you could spend some time together, kissing and figuring out whether or not you wanted to tell everyone at lunch. Just before time to leave, Michael came by to check on both of you and tell you that the van was ready. "Alright, we'll be out in a few minutes," Robert told Michael. "See you at the van!" Michael called out as he closed the door to your cabin. Robert turned to you and snuck his hands up the sides of your jacket, just enough for his fingertips to make contact with your skin. You placed one hand on the back of his neck and the other in his hair, while he leaned into you for one last little makeout session before heading out. You felt your back hit the wall lightly, as the door bursts open and John yells, "What's up, lovebirds--OH!" You and Robert turn to see Meryl and John at the front of your cabin giggling, the rest of the group rushing up to see why John shouted so loudly. You quickly push Robert off of you and blush a deep shade of red. Everyone starts laughing, and John looks at the two of you with a huge grin on his face, and says, "Oooh, you two are never gonna hear the end of this."

#Robert De Niro #robert de niro x reader #The Deer Hunter #1977 #we respect John Cazale on this blog 😤😤#John Cazale #meryl streep #michael cimino #robert de niro imagine #de niro

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Scarface: Where Tony Montana Went Wrong

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“All I have in this world is my balls and my word, and I don’t break them for no one,” Tony Montana declares in the 1983 gangster classic, Scarface. Yet Al Pacino’s antihero breaks both in his quest for money, power, and women. And just as he is on the brink of winning the trifecta, he is blown away like so much dust up a nose.

Did he lose because the Cuban mobster didn’t heed the advice of his first crime boss? Or is it because he just couldn’t stand to see his sister and his best friend wearing his-and-her pajamas? In truth, Montana’s fall can probably be traced back to when he learned to speak English by “watching guys like Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney.”

Directed by Brian De Palma, and written by Oliver Stone, Scarface is a remake of Howard Hawks’ vastly influential 1932 mob movie, so Montana’s explosive descent was preordained. Tony Montana continued Pacino’s run of criminal icons, which included Sonny in Dog Day Afternoon and the ultimate crime family head, Michael Corleone in The Godfather films. The actor supplanted Paul Muni’s Tony Carmonte as the recognizably scarred face of the title role. Pacino would go on to play Carlito in Carlito’s Way and Lefty in Donnie Brasco, but while each hoodlum brings a new facet to his rogues gallery, none of his gangsters ever achieve their ultimate desires. They almost all reach dizzying heights, and everyone of them sees the dream slip through their fingers. Still, Montana experiences perhaps the greatest fall of all.

The original 1932 film took place during Prohibition when crime was a viable means of survival. De Palma’s adaptation happens in the Reagan era, a time when lucky opportunists could get their lips around the spigots of cash before it got a chance to trickle down. Tony’s economic theory is much more succinct: “You know what capitalism is? Getting fucked.”

Scarface is a rags-to-riches-to-self-destructive fireball story, and nothing succeeds like excess. Montana’s first crime boss in America, Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia), has weathered the climate change from President Carter to the Gipper, and warns Tony to never “underestimate the other guy’s greed.”

In the original Howard Hughes production, Tony was an immigrant from Italy. In the Cold War era film, Montana is a refugee from Cuba. Their shared first mistake is to believe in the American Dream.

The World Is Yours

These words are flashed in both films and hit each of the two criminal aspirants as hard as the “give me your tired, poor, and hungry” promises carved under the Statue of Liberty. Scarface opens shortly after the Mariel boatlift, the 1980 exodus which followed Cuba’s economic crash. Montana seeks asylum, telling immigration officers he is a political prisoner who doesn’t agree with his country’s politics and owns nothing under communism. He says even American prison is better than his life on the Caribbean island. The officers note his criminal past, the telltale tattoo on his arm, and the scar on his face, which despite their insults was obviously not caused by oral sex.

In exchange for a Green Card, Montana and his friend Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer) assassinate Gen. Emilio Rebenga, who tortured the brother of the crime boss Lopez. Tony settles in sunny Miami. And when he gets out of the kitchen and into the heat of crime, he hits the ground running. “The World Is Yours,” after all. All you have to do is take it, and Montana has both hands out.

Frank warns his protégé, “The guys who last in this business are the guys who fly straight – lowkey, quiet; and the guys who want it all – chicas, champagne, flash – they don’t last.” But Montana is a meteor, bound to burn up in the atmosphere. He gets caught on the orbit of Alejandro Sosa (Paul Shenar), agreeing to supply cocaine from Bolivia independent of the other drug lords. Within a few years, Montana is doing so well, the feds target him for tax evasion.

Tony’s Betrayal of Frank Lopez

Montana’s betrayal of Frank Lopez is crucial to his downfall. Frank is the father figure who initially took a chance on Tony. He let him rise through the ranks, even as he tried to bite off more than he could chew. Frank’s biggest mistake is not making sure his underlings follow his sage advice. He also ignores one of his own commandments. Lopez underestimates Montana’s greed. He trusts Tony to accompany his trusted second-gun Omar Suarez (F. Murray Abraham) to Bolivia to meet with Sosa, and continues to let Tony operate after the druglord hangs Suarez from a helicopter.

The deal Montana makes behind Frank’s back is a major step toward the fall. The vow Tony takes never to betray Sosa ultimately leads to the last splash. Montana breaks his word to both of these men, and they bust his balls as a result. When Tony returns to Miami, Frank is suspicious over Omar’s death and his returning soldier’s independence. As Montana begins to build his own cocaine empire, Frank orders a professional hit.

For gangsters, the only good cop is a bad cop, and it is advisable to grease the wheels which move crime. Mel Bernstein (Harris Yulin) demands his take early in the film at the Babylon Club, which has the perfect cocktail napkins for bribery notes. Bernstein was willing to overlook the murders of Rebenga, “Hector the Toad,” and “that bloodbath at the Sun Ray Hotel.” Tony should have taken him at his word when the cop said he could clean up Tony’s Lopez mess.

Before Tony eliminates Frank, he is hungry. The money and drugs are not a distraction. After he begins to accumulate power, he lets his public profile rise and indulges in conspicuous consumption. Montana keeps a chained-up tiger in front of his compound just to let everyone know how powerful he is. There are real life precedents for this. Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar imported hippos for his private zoo. Brooklyn mobster “Crazy” Joe Gallo kept a pet lion named Cleo in the basement of his headquarters. The scenario was also probably inspired by Miami’s most notorious drug lord, Mario Tabraue, whose predilection for wild cats was featured in the Netflix documentary Tiger King. But the most conspicuous acquisition Montana leveraged cut Frank the deepest.

It’s always a mistake to go after the boss’ girl. James Cagney’s Tommy Powers knew this in The Public Enemy (1931). James Woods’ Maximillian “Max” Bercovicz skirts this in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Montana sets out to steal Frank’s trophy wife, Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer), from the moment he lays eyes on her, though he waits for the height of his reign to claim her. He does it as much to emasculate his former boss as he does it out of desire. It’s a betrayal equal to having Manny whack Frank while he pleads for his life.

The new couple is married by 1983, but with a marriage always on the rock.

Don’t Get High on Your Own Supply

Montana’s downfall is aided, abetted, but most of all mirrored in his descent into addiction. He probably took his first sniff from Elvira’s stash, but even as Montana bemoans, “I got a junkie for a wife,” he doesn’t get wind of his own problem. “Another Quaalude, and she’ll be mine again,” he reasons as the trophy wife climbs off the pedestal and up on a shelf.

Montana is in deep drug denial when Elvira leaves him after he openly complains she can’t have children because she is polluted with the yaya he’s been peddling. He should at least entertain the notion when she openly wonders if he would even be alive to raise their child.

In American Gangster, Denzel Washington’s Frank Lucas knows enough not to dip his nose into the supply. And while Pacino’s slide into the junkie aspects of his character is physically more subtle than Ray Liotta’s bug-eyed Henry Hill in Goodfellas, the results are just as devastating. When Montana was crushing the competition and bagging the Sandman, he had discipline. His mind gets muddled as his drug use spirals out of control. He makes rash decisions, dips into schizoid delusions, and succumbs to white powder paranoia. He can’t see his way through the haze to find alternatives. He walks right into the undercover cop’s money laundering bust.

The drugs dull his instincts. If Tony wasn’t high at the security command center, he would have seen Sosa’s soldiers encroaching his compound over the cameras. He had 10 bodyguards on the property, he could have positioned them defensively. The only thing his ultimate hit man is hiding behind is a pair of killer shades. He never should have been able to sneak behind Montana’s back. Tony also wouldn’t have gotten rid of his most trusted weapon.

Over and Underestimating Little Friends

Tony Montana’s right-hand man would have been the best, first defense against the Sosa attack. What Tony does to Manny Ribera is his worst action. The two are virtually brothers. Their bond goes beyond being partners in crime, it tightened in the “Freedomtown” concentration camp, and solidified in the Miami chainsaw massacre. It is because Manny is Tony’s most trusted soldier that he will never be good enough for Tony’s sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). Tony’s saving grace is he believes he is doing all this to ensure a better life for his sister. Gina is supposed to represent the innocence he sacrificed, but she is also an unattainable sin.Tony’s mother doesn’t try to separate her children merely because her daughter might be swallowed in the criminal life; she is curbing what she sees as Tony’s unnatural urges.

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Even if Tony doesn’t see Manny as a rival for his sister’s affections, he still sees him through the eyes of a fellow criminal, and a womanizing one at that. Tony is just like his mother, who rejects him. Tony brands his friend, and ultimately seals his fate with it.

The problem is Ribera wasn’t made to be a gangster. He is a loyal and efficient consigliere and soldier for Tony’s crew, but he would have been happier slapping his name on knockoff designer jeans. Besides the bubbling incestuous tension exacerbated by the coke haze, Tony doesn’t want to see his best friend happier than him, and denies Gina a real chance at the happiness he wants for her.

It’s the one thing Tony can’t buy for her. Gina and Manny fully expect Tony to be thrilled by their marriage. They were going to surprise him with the news. Tony’s incestuous protectiveness speeds his downfall. He murders Manny as a punishment. Gina is shot by Sosa’s men. Montana loses the two most important people in his life, and his inability to control his lusts destroy them all.

“Say Goodnight to the Bad Guy”

The biggest contributory factor in Tony’s downfall is his humanity. In The Godfather, Sonny Corleone advises his brother Michael not to take things too personally in business. When Lopez gives Montana the mission of delivering a bundle of cocaine to Columbian dealers, the rising mobster takes things very personally. The deal goes bad when Montana’s friend Angel Fernandez is murdered with a chainsaw in a scene so aurally graphic (watch it again, there’s no violence shown, only heard), it almost got the film an X rating.

It was allowed in the film in the name of education, Stone pointed to a DEA report which detailed the exact scenario. Tony teaches the Colombians a lesson in humanity. Not content with leaving with the cash and the coke, he kills every single gang member who had anything to do with Angel’s death.

Tony also lets his conscience be his guide when he’s working the GPI on a hit. Faced with serious jail time for his tax evasion arrest, he makes a deal with Sosa, who is also under fire. Montana agrees to fly to New York and assassinate a journalist before he can give a speech on Sosa’s organization. A bomb has been planted in the journalist’s car, and Tony is in charge of tailing until the perfect detonation point. But when Tony arrives on the scene to assassinate the journalist, he notices the man’s wife and children are with him. Montana not only breaks his word, the promise to protect his powerful partner, but he murders Sosa’s right hand man, Alberto, rather than kill the children playing in the back seat.

“I Always Tell The Truth. Even When I Lie.”

Tony Montana may have been the ballsiest and most charismatic of his machismo mob, but he wasn’t the brightest. He acknowledges his intellectual shortcomings, “I come from the gutter,” he admits. “I know that. I got no education, but that’s okay. I know the street.” But he doesn’t read signs. He can’t tell a freeway from a dead end. Frank Lopez may be a blowhard, but his words of wisdom could have been carved in the cement.

All the concrete Tony brags about has gone to his head, making his skull thicker than Pacino’s accent. Montana is brash and unbending, narcissistically adherent to only his own advice, and his own worst counsel. His anger blinds him, the battery is running low on his foresight, and he’s so flashy his enemies can see him coming from miles away. And he can’t see them when they’re standing close enough to breathe on the back of his neck.

Final Massacre

Of course the most obvious reason Tony ends up the way does is because he fights off an army by himself. He’s got quite an arsenal, and the coke probably makes it seem like a good idea at the time, but the decision to stay and fight is vastly miscalculated. Even if Tony had survived the last assassination attempt, Sosa’s men would always be hunting for him. It would have been a short hunt. Tony Montana would have died of a heart attack from all that coke he snorted.

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one-leaf-grimoire · 4 years

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Three Leafed Chaos

Chapter 4/4

Masterlist coming soon. This isn't the ending I was initially going for but it just kind of... happened lol.

"Vanessaaaa~! Chaaaaarmyyy~! Happy Three Leaf day!"

Finral held out two presents for his squadmates, vibrating with anticipation. "Oh, thank you so much, Finral!" Vanessa said.

"Hehe, so," Finral batted his eyelashes. "What are you two girls giving me in return? Hmm?"

"Hope," Charmy said. "I hope you get a life one of these days."

Vanessa smiled. "I have faith that you'll be able to get a girlfriend one day, Finral."

"D'OH!" It hurt, but Finral shook it off. "Very well, I have 30 more girls to visit, so I'll see you later!" With that, he jumped through a portal, which closed just as Yami stormed into the room. "FINRAL!!! Did you use up all the wrapping paper?" It was too late, Finral was long gone.

"Captain, you need wrapping paper?" Charmy asked. "Finral wrapped 30 presents, so I'm pretty sure he used it all."

Yami sighed. "Great. I guess I'll have to go buy more." Without another word, he grabbed the small package he had prepared, now stuffed in a brown bag, and headed off to find his broom and go to town. He was hoping to avoid the stores today, since they were always packed with people on Three-Leaf day. Just as he feared, he had to push through a large, excited crowd in Kikka. Well, at least I can just go straight to the castle after this, he thought to himself. I can get it over with...

Since that day at the beach, he managed to go on one "date" with that girl, glad to have her all to himself. Unfortunately, before he could ask anything about her romantic interests, she got a call from HQ and had to leave. "I'm very sorry, Yami!" she had told him while scarfing down the rest of her food. It was kind of impressive how quickly she ate. "But duty calls! We can meet up again some other time, alright?" With that, she was gone. Yes, the "chase" was thrilling, but come on! Yami needed a big break... but today could very well provide that.

"Hmm..." He examined some of the wrapping paper that was on sale, not willing to splurge on something trivial like this. She was a simple girl, after all, so she would probably appreciate something simple. She wore a blue bathing suit, so her favorite color is probably blue. Yami picked out a light blue roll of paper, paid for it, then headed out to find a place to sit down. With some difficulty, he started to wrap his box, but then heard a pair of frighteningly familiar voices.

"Oh? So what shabby gift did you pick out, Fuegoleon?"

"That's none of your business, Nozel."

"Well, I'm sure she'll like mine better."

"Perhaps. But I think she'll choose whoever gets there first."

Yami turned to see the two men standing in the middle of the street. A small crowd had formed around them, watching the royals with baited breath. Nozel grit his teeth, his hand clutching a gift bag. "Well, I'll just have to get to her before you, right?"

"Ka, ka! Fuegoleon's not the one you have to worry about, Nozel." They turned to see Jack run past them at full speed, clutching a similar package. They followed his trajectory and realized all at once who he was running at. "No way! She's here right now?!" Nozel exclaimed, pointing at the familiar female, who was walking away from them down the street with a group of her friends.

Yami jumped to his feet, his heart pounding. Of course, all of them had to be in the same place, and of course she had to come out here right into their grasps. But Yami wasn't going to let them pounce... he would get to her first, he was sure of that. Using his magic to reinforce his legs, he took off, blowing past Nozel and Fuegoleon in pursuit of Jack. It wasn't long before they were neck and neck. "Yami! Finally, you showed up!" Jack yelled, scowling. "I'm the faster one, give up!"

"Tch, no way! Not when we're neck and neck!" Yami looked forward at the girl, completely unaware of what was about to happen. Now... I need to get her alone. I'll have to scoop her up and take her somewhere private. Both he and Jack jumped towards her, ready to take their prize.

She blinked, feeling a presence, then turned around and gasped when she saw the two men rocketing towards her. "Yami? Jack? What on earth-"

Just as they were about to grab her, something shot out of an alley and wrapped around her body. She screamed as the briars lifted her out of the way, causing Jack and Yami to tumble right into the ground. "Huh?" Yami looked up to see Charlotte on top of a nearby building, reeling their objective in like a fisherman reels in a prize catch. "Sorry, Yami, and Jack," Charlotte said, smiling a little to herself. "I won't let you men touch her."

"What about us?!"

Charlotte looked around to see a giant, silver eagle and a flaming lion jumping towards her, ridden by Nozel and Fuegoleon. "You two, as well? Fine." She prepared to cast another spell, but a voice cut her off.

"Dehydration magic: Vanishing Vapor!"

Charlotte looked to see the briars wilting around her "prisoner's" body, and the girl dropped back down to the ground. "I don't know what's gotten into you guys, but I'm out of here!" she yelled, turning and taking off towards the castle.

Determination flashed through all five of their eyes.

"Not if I can help it!"

Charlotte started to pursue, but was suddenly stuck in place. "What?!" she looked down to see dark bindings around her. "Yami!!!"

"Sorry, prickly Queen, but five's a crowd," Yami told her before running off after the others.

Fuegoleon was the fastest, quickly catching up. "Leo Palma!" A pair of flaming claws instantly clamped around the girl, halting her movements. He smiled to himself. "There! Your dehydration magic can't do anything against fire, can it?"

"Silver Rain!" Mercury suddenly shot down, driving away the fire and wrapping around her body instead. "Keep her hands off of her, Fuegoleon!" Nozel challenged, running towards her and brandishing his bag.

"Ah! What the Hell is going on!?" she yelled, completely confused.

"Take that!" Jack sliced away the mercury and grabbed her hand before running away. She was barely able to keep up, just going with the flow at this point. "Can you stand here for a moment?" he asked her before letting go and turning to face the others. "If you want to go any further, fight me, ka ka!"

"Bring it on!" Fuegoleon and Nozel readied their Grimoires.

The poor, confused girl stood there, frozen, as the chaos erupted around her. Is this all because of me?! Jeez... She sighed and looked down at the box she was carrying in her hand. At least I didn't drop this... although part of me wishes I did. I don't think I have the courage to give it to them, anyway...

Yami managed to sneak around the fight, running towards her and easily scooping her up with one arm. "Yami! Can you explain what's going on?" she asked as he started to run, unnoticed by the others.

"I'm rescuing you," he told her. "Hold on!"

It wasn't long before they reached the gates of the castle, not stopping until they were safe on the steps. They both sat down to catch their breaths. "Wow... Three Leaf day is pretty exciting, isn't it!" Despite everything that happened, she was laughing, something that amazed Yami. "I wonder what that was all about... I wish they had just told me what was going on instead of fighting!"

Yami cleared his throat. "Yeah... about that..." He gulped and turned towards her, holding out his box. "I... made something for you. Happy Three Leaf day."

Her eyes widened at the sight of the present. "Oh... Yami... you didn't have to."

She stripped off the wrapping to reveal a carefully carved wooden box. She opened it, gasping slightly. "Oh, Yami, these are beautiful!" The box was filled with hand-made fishing lures. "You made these yourself?"

He nodded, averting his eyes. "Yeah... it's an apology for that fishing fiasco last week."

"Fiasco? It was fun, Yami!" He tensed up when he felt her hand come and rest on his arm. Slowly, he looked down into her eyes, his heart clenching painfully once again. Those bright, optimistic eyes.

I don't want her... I need her...

"I was thinking... we should go fishing again sometime. I know a lot of good spots. I mean, only if you want..." He gulped. "And also... what are you going to give me in return?"

They stood there for a moment in tense silence, her eyes flickering slightly. She glanced down at the present she had prepared, resting at her feet.

... what should I do?

A light blush appeared on her cheeks as she looked back up at Yami. "I... I'll give you-"

Suddenly, there was a loud noise from behind them. They whirled around to see a very angry Nozel, Fuegoleon, and Jack running towards them. "Yami! You sneaky bastard! Step away!"

Yami groaned. "Really, right now?!" He pulled away and unsheathed his katana. "Over my dead body!"

He ran forward, charging up a powerful spell. The others were doing the same. A voice was yelling at him to stop, but he couldn't hear it.

All I have to do is surpass my limits... and then she's mine!

Just as he jumped towards the attackers, everything froze. ...huh? He couldn't move, he couldn't see, it was as if time was frozen...

A moment later, he was released, as were the others. They all collapsed into a big pile. "What on earth?!" They sat up, blinking and trying to get their bearings.

"Honestly... when they say pursue a woman, they don't mean you should literally pursue her."

The familiar voice came from the top of the stairs. The four men looked up to see none other than Julius walking down towards them, an annoyed look on his face. Uh oh... we're in trouble, aren't we? they thought all at once. Julius stopped, looking down at his scared advisor. "Are you alright?" His voice was softened a bit.

She nodded quickly. "I-I don't really know what's going on, but I'm terribly sorry, I think this might be my fault-"

"No, it isn't." Julius smiled before looking back down at his captains. "You four... I expected better. It seems to me that you all stopped thinking about her as as a person as soon as you learned that the others were after her as well... at that point, it just became a game, right? And she was the prize?"

Yami and the others glanced at each other sheepishly. It was true... they were all competitive people by nature, and they turned something wholesome into a raging battle. In the process, they reduced the girl into just an objective. Something to win... not something to love.

"...we're sorry," Fuegoleon said, bowing his head.

Julius chuckled. "Don't apologize to me!" He gestured at the girl next to him. "Go on."

The four of them bowed their heads. "Please forgive us."

She blinked slowly, everything finally making sense. "Oh... don't worry. I forgive you." She gave them a comforting smile. "Thank you all for being so nice to me... I hope we can become better friends in the future."

Hope. Friends. The words stung, but they deserved it.

"Now, I'm glad that's settled," Julius said. Yami frowned a little, picking up something strange from the older man's Ki. Wait... no... you have to be joking...

He looked back up to see Julius smiling, satisfied with himself. "I was willing to give you guys a chance, once I learned about your little competition. But it's obvious now that none of you are ready to be in that kind of relationship... the kind she deserves." Yami and the others watched with horror as he turned to look down at the girl, who looked confused again. "That present... that's for me, isn't it?"

Her eyes widened. "Huh? H-How did you know?! Uh, but yeah..." She quickly looked at her feet. "I wasn't sure if I was actually going to give it to you... I didn't know if it was right for me to ask for anything in return."

The sound of Julius's warm laugh made her look up again. "Oh, that's quite alright. You see... it didn't matter if you got me a gift or not. I was planning to give youlove either way."

...Is Julius really doing this in front of ALL OF US?! Yami thought to himself. It was actually kind of hilarious, and they probably should have seen this coming a mile away. After all, the person she spent the most time with, the person who gave her this life in the first place, was Julius. He had cast his line long before any of them even knew about her. How were they supposed to catch a fish that was already hooked?

"...Sir, are y-you sure?" She looked completely shocked at the revelation, yet a smile was starting to grow back on her face.

"Of course." She looked down and realized that they were holding hands. "It was hard for me to sit still, knowing that those guys were fighting hard, but something told me that it would end up with way." Julius's eyes twinkled a bit. "We should probably discuss this more in private. I- uh-" Even Julius was blushing a little now. "On the off-chance that you said yes... I prepared some food and wine in my room. So, would you like to-"

"Yes!"

Julius laughed a little at her eager response before looking back at the others. "Now, you four better go find something else to do for the night. Those presents are for her as well, right?"

Begrudgingly, still in disbelief that this was happening, Jack, Fuegoleon, and Nozel handed her their presents. She beamed down at them, obviously on the top of the world right now. "Thank you guys very much! As always... you have my undying faith and hope!"

"...thank you."

"Now, let's leave them, they need to think long and hard about what they've done." Julius started to pull her away, but a booming voice halted the pair. "Hold on, Julius!"

"Uh oh."

Marx was stomping his way over, looking furious. "You've been slacking off all day! This may be a heartwarming moment that everyone expected," Marx looks pointedly into the camera. "But what do you think you're doing here? You're going to go eat, get drunk, and then bump uglies, right?"

Julius winced a little. "Now, Marx, that doesn't sound too good when you put it like that-"

"Well, you're not doing any of that until that stack of paperwork is done!" Marx started to usher the two of them away. "And you..." he pointed at his coworker. "For distracting him... you're going to help him, alright?"

"What?! Actually, that doesn't sound so bad-"

"With me chaperoning."

"Awww."

Yami, Jack, Fuegoleon, and Nozel watched as the trio disappeared inside. "Well... I don't envy them." Time for a cigarette.

Fuegoleon sighed heavily. "I suppose... he's right, though. We didn't deserve her."

"...I hate to admit it, but even I messed this up," Nozel added.

"Ka ka... this was more trouble than it was worth," Jack snidely said.

"Wait! What-" They looked around to see Charlotte running up. She skidded to a stop at the sight of their faces. "Where is she?"

Yami let out a long breath. "None of us had a chance. Let's leave it at that."

Charlotte looked disappointed, glancing down at her present. "Well... if I can't give this to her..." She suddenly flushed pink, squeezing her eyes shut. "Here, Yami! I would rather give it to you than have it go to waste!" She held the present out to him.

Yami raised an eyebrow. "Hmm? I thought you hated me?"

"NO! I mean- er... you're a loyal comrade. I have no reason to not give you a gift."

"If you say so." Yami took the present. "What do ya want in return?"

Charlotte agonized over the decision for a few seconds. "...faith."

"Fine. I have faith in you as my comrade."

"Ka ka, Yami, you're the dumbest guy I know," Jack smirked, turning to walk away with the other two. "Come on... let's go get drunk and forget about this."

Yami nodded, quickly following. Charlotte was close behind.

And so ended another Three-Leaf day, more eventful than most years ended up being. Who knew that one person could cause so much trouble among the prestigious Magic Knight's captains? If nothing else, Yami had been taught a valuable lesson, even if Julius had to come cuck them all in order to teach them. Well, it didn't matter, anyway. Romance was the last thing on his mind now. Yami had a feeling he would have his hands full in a month... the Magic Knights Exam was coming up soon, after all.

As you can see, I have no self control. Oh well. We need more Julius content anyway lol

#black clover #writing #three leafed chaos #fuegoleon vermillion x reader #nozel silva x reader #yami sukehiro x reader #jack the ripper x reader #julius novachrono x reader #charlotte roselei x reader

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warmau · 5 years

Text

Professor!AU Johnny

shout out to the person who asked me to continue this on kofi! tw: mentions of heartbreak, general angst but it’s still a warmau au so you know it’ll end up ok

“just forget me like im trying to forget you!”

the first thing people realize about their new professor is that he’s tall

and that for such a handsome, young looking guy

he dresses like a grandpa

we’re talking knitted sweater vests and corduroy pants

wood brimmed glasses and shiny oxfords

but none of that matters, because by the end of the first class most people know that it’s going to be a fun semester

because professor suh ,,,,,,,,,,,, is a goofball

prof. suh teaches introduction to film studies, it’s a core class that all film majors have to take

and if anyone is passionate about films ,,,, well you haven’t met johnny

he especially likes to rave about likes of brian de palma, john carpenter and william friedkin

the 70s horror wave is kinda his jam,,,,,,

also love documentaries and if you were to pluck his headphones (never in his life will he spend money on airpods) off his head you’d probably hear a fleetwood mac album resounding through them

even though,,,,,,this guy is barely even thirty,,,,,,

but anyway back to the fact:

johnny is the funniest and cornball-est professor there is

in the sweetest kind of way

he’ll go out of his way to organize movie viewings on the quad

ask students to come up to the front of the class and act out a favorite scene of their’s

even bring in his black lab puppy to class and be like

“if you handed in your essay on time - you can give jordan a pet”

totally got called in with the dean to discuss smuggling animals onto campus and johnny was just like hey,,,,,it worked. no one submitted their essay in late

you can tell he really loves teaching and he really loves film, he just gets so animated when he talks

pointing at his slideshows, rocking excitedly back and forth on his heels when a student gives a deep and insightful comment on a directors work

the absolute look of pride on his face when students present their final projects

and he can tell they enjoyed their time working on it

got featured in the university newspaper because he wore one of those newsboy caps

and the caption was: film department fashionista professor ~

johnny got a good laugh out of it

but drama professor ten INSISTED the newspaper do a cover on him too

because johnny? fashion? no,,,,,,,if you wanted fashion, looks, serves then you had to come to him

ten’s assistant professor hendery: all you do is wear black

ten: shuttup i have a masters degree

johnny is friends with all the other professors, no matter the department or the area of interest

he’s on great terms with the engineering departments heartthrob taeyong, the studious physics department head kun, and even the coach for the uni football team jaehyun

he’s basically irresistible - he’s a positivity magnet

and everyone wants to befriend him

or date him

(several times he’s had to politely refuse advances from students and faculty alike - though the one time a love letter found its way onto his desk he really just,,,,couldn’t find it in his heart to throw it out)

basically the entire campus has a crush, platonic or not

and everyone just cannot fathom how professor suh is single

“he is suuuuuuch a catch”

you overhear, while pouring yourself some coffee and trying to remember if you sent out the right links for the homework yesterday

“i know, i heard he’s finally interested in dating again.”

“he wasn’t before?”

one of the teachers shrugs

“he just keep rejecting everyone - but there was a rumor of him going around with someone last week-”

you don’t really care for the rest of the conversation

because you know it’s blatantly untrue

you were the person who had been with johnny last week

all you’d done is meet up to discuss a possible group project between your students

nothing more, nothing less

you’d only recently gotten a job at the university teaching in the history department

and johnny had been kind to you since day one

talking to you on campus when you’d bumped into each other, giving you a little rundown of where to find what and who professors could go to in case of emergencies

he’d been bright and welcoming and just like anyone else

you liked him, not in a romantic way or anything - you just could tell he was a good person right off the bat

after a couple of days you’d run into him after a mandatory meeting for professors

and you had brought up the fact that you were going to be doing a class on the 70s and johnny had excitedly offered that your class join his for a viewing of the ‘79 film version of ‘mad max’

you’d talked about it over coffee at the campus cafeteria, and to your surprise it had gotten blown out of the water

several people, including students, had asked you about it

‘are you into him?’

‘you know faculty aren’t allowed to date right?’

‘didn’t you just get here - you should probably slow down...’

more than anything, you were surprised at how everyone thought they had the right to pry into his business

and it had made you wonder

maybe johnny is too nice for his own good

but either way - you didn’t want to get stuck in any of this drama

keeping this job was your priority, falling in love? you hadn’t thought about it since college

the work day dwindles down, you teach your last class and barely have a chance to let them know about their projects as they all rush out of the door when the period ends

you take a little time putting your things together when you hear the door open

thinking it’s a student, you get ready to see if they have any questions

but instead you see johnny in the doorway

a beige cardigan thrown over his button up shirt and dad fitting jeans

“ah! looks like my students were right - this is your classroom.”

you give a little smile, but ask why he’s ultimately here

johnny doesn’t answer for a second, he looks like he’s collecting himself

“i just wanted to make sure you’re ok, there have been some rumors floating around and -”

you’re reminded of the dozen or so comments you’ve gotten and the whispering of the other professors and ta’s in the lounge this morning

“oh, i’m ok. i keep telling everyone they’ve taken it the wrong way.”

johnny’s smile softens

“im sorry to cause you so much trouble when this is your first semester teaching here.”

you put a hand up and shake your head, not noticing the way johnny ‘s eyes dull just a bit

“don’t worry. everyone will know it was simply school stuff when we have the shared class.”

he agrees with a small nod and you think that’s the end of it

when suddenly he walks over and helps collect some of the heavy books on your desk

“let me carry these.”

“oh you don-”

“please?”

his smile curls up at the corners, the gentle plead leaves you incapable of saying no

and so you watch him gather up the books in his arms and you walk out behind him

yeah, i think he is too kind for his own good.

you and johnny plan to merge your classes on thursday

instead of meeting up, you simply email each other about the arrangements

and everyone seems to forget about the momentary rumor that you and him are anything more than co-workers

but still, even through emails, johnny is charming and sweet

you start to question it too

hovering over his profile picture on the email, the empty ring finger and the way you hear stories everyday about confessions turned down by the film professor

thursday finally rolls around and all the students are beyond happy to be watching a movie rather than doing classwork

johnny cracks jokes about the film while you set up the projector, you get a little jealous seeing how engaging your students are with him

when sometimes you can’t even get them to say a word

he’s a great person and a great teacher, it’s like he was made for this profession

you muse, before catching yourself mid thought, embarrassed to be thinking about johnny when you’re in the middle of a class

when everything is good to go, johnny gives you a thumbs up and all the student inch forward in their seats as the opening scene plays

you and johnny move toward the back of the room

where he leans up against the wall and you switch the lights off before catching his side profile in the corner of your eye

he’s handsome, it’s undeniable

but looks are only surface deep, so you wonder if someone so beautiful could also be so kind and caring

johnny turns and you want to pretend you weren’t looking, but it’s too late

the sides of his lips curl up into a smile and he tilts his head, black hair parted perfectly around the frame of his handsome face

“have you seen this movie before?”

he asks in a low voice

“n-no”

“ah, well if you look at the setting the director makes sure to-”

the buzzing of his phone stops him and he excuses him from the room

you think it must be a call from a friend, maybe an appointment reminder

but when johnny doesn’t come back for almost an hour - you start to worry

half of the class is trying to pretend they’re not on their phones while the other half is engrossed in the film

so you make a quick decision to leave the room for a second and find where he’s gone off too

“no, i don’t want to see you again.”

the voice makes you stop in your tracks

that,,,,,,,,sounds like johnny,,,,,,but,,,,,,,harsher?

“i don’t think you understand what you did to me. do you think i can forgive you? do you really think -”

he’s talking faster, but the pitch is higher

“stop, i don’t want to hear it. you chose him, you chose him when you slept with him in our bed!”

you freeze, feeling your blood go cold

this isn’t a conversation i should be hearing ,,,,,

you swallow and want to start backing away, but for some reason your feet are planted

refusing to let you leave

“no, no - just forget me like im trying to forget you!”

at just the right moment, your senses kick in and you manage to turn yourself around and back toward the classroom door

when you step inside, you get spared some glances but the action scene on the screen awards you a clean entrance

you go back to your spot, arms crossed over your chest

was he talking to his ex? it sounded like it,,,,,,but his voice,,,,,

he sounded so broken

johnny doesn’t come back for another couple of minutes

when he does, he enters the room and gives a little smile to students who giggle his way

he sees you and the smile widens

but you can’t smile back

his voice, the pain you felt in every syllable - they make this happy johnny in front of you feel fake

thankfully the ending credits save you from having to make awkward conversation

you and johnny move toward the front of the room and as you shut down the projector you hear him talking with the students

the same pep, cheer, and happiness that’s always there

seems duller

or maybe it’s only you who hears the small change

the rest of the students are reacting and chatting with him as they normally would

and when johnny turns and asks if you want to say anything

you let your students know about their projects, a wave of groans passing through the sea of bodies

you and johnny let the class out a little early, you sort of panic because you think being alone with him will somehow be weird

so you make up an excuse about having coffee with professor ten

you dash through the door, leaving a confused johnny behind and make way for cover in your office

im an adult, why am i acting like some kid who just almost got caught with a secret?!

you reprimand yourself, but still you don’t feel like it would have been a great idea to stay around and chat

like what would you say to him? especially after hearing him ,,,,,, like that

you take cover in your office, closing the door and setting yourself behind your desk

you distract yourself grading some in-class work when your phone lights up with a notification

you think it’s a faculty email so you open it up without another thought

when you see johnny’s names

‘thanks for letting me show the movie to your class! i hope everything is ok, you seemed a little distressed. did professor ten do something to you - let me know~’

the signature on the email is the same one all teachers use in their school emails

you want to answer because you feel bad knowing he’s worried

but at the same time you feel awkward now

am i the only one who knows about his ex? no one has ever brought it up before.......

you pick up your phone and hit reply, but instead of typing anything you just stare at it

whatever, it’s not my business. let’s just forget what i heard and move on.

you lock the screen and go back to grading

the time passes and a couple of days later you find yourself so busy with your classes projects that nothing else manages to cross your mind

you’re rushing down campus with a couple of large display boards when you almost crash head first into someone

“oh sorry - i can’t see over these-”

“here, let me help.”

johnny’s voice reaches you first and then you feel the boards being lifted from your hands

with his tall stature, they look smaller than before

he pouts when you make eye contact and goes

“you never answered my email! are you ok?”

it takes you a second to remember what he’s talking about, but when you do you just make up another excuse

“oh i sent it, maybe it didn’t go through?”

“maybe, you know all the students use up the school wifi.”

you laugh with him and for that split moment it feels like everything is normal

you’re just two coworkers, two friends

but then

“no, no - just forget me like im trying to forget you!”

the words close in on and you abruptly feel the calmness of your situation turn into dread

“i can carry those-”

you start, trying to get away from johnny again, but he simply refuses to let them go

“what room are you in, let me help you.”

you want to insist that you can do it yourself, but panicking you just blurt the number out

you both start your way toward the building and johnny makes casual conversation

but the words you’d overheard nearly overshadow everything he says

why do i care so much? why is it bothering me?

you groan and johnny suddenly asks what’s wrong

you can’t take the feeling and you grab the board back

“sorry - just forgot i need um markers, i have to go!”

your excuse is utter bullshit, you’re sure johnny doesn’t believe you

but you don’t like the sinking feeling you get around him and so you disappear again and johnny almost calls out

but even if he did, you wouldn’t hear him over the pained memory of that phone call

at some point you start avoiding him

or at least avoid any contact with him

you don’t want to seem rude, so you just go out of your way to be in any place that he’s not

so he can’t ask you about it and so you don’t have to be faced with knowing that the happy character he plays

isn’t all that happy

you think that’s what bothers you most - the fact that everyone else sees him as this

positive light, cutely dressed in sweaters over button downs and oxfords

adjusting the glasses on his nose as he flips through a script submitted in one of his classes

but now you just see the pain - the cracking voice - just the visualization of johnny walking into a room

and being faced with something so heartbreakingly cruel that to this day he’s shunned away affection

no wonder he rejects just about anyone - maybe he just can’t trust someone like that again?

“excuse me, can you tell me where the film department is?”

you startle, looking up to see an unfamiliar face

the individual smiles, apologizing politely for scaring you before explaining that they need to see one of the film professors

you have a couple of minutes to spare and even though you don’t want to go to that building

because of the off chance of bumping into professor suh

you still feel like you can’t just give this person vague directions

so you take the chance and tell them you’ll walk them over

they don’t say much, so you assume they’re either a transfer student or maybe a visiting professor

you swipe your id card to get through the entrance of the building and hold the door open for them to step through behind you

they’re rather plain, you’re not struck by anything about them - just that they’re neat and very mannered

so you don’t expect that once you get off the elevator and lead them into the professor’s lounge

that their demeanor to change as drastically as it does

because the moment they set eyes on johnny

who you didn’t even notice in the corner

they lose their posed attitude and run at him with open arms

your confusion is apparent, is this his relative? they don’t look at all like him-

but then it dawns on you

because johnny’s eyes turn cold and his lips thin out into a straight line

“what are you doing here?”

he asks and the tone of voice sets a tension in the room that’s nearly suffocating

“john - don’t be like this! you were so mean on the phone and i thought in person you’d be -”

“you need to leave.”

he’s merciless, motioning to the door with his head

and catching a glimpse of you, frozen in the corner with shock

the pit of your stomach churns

is that,,,,,,,,,,are they,,,,,,,,,,,,,,his ex?

“oh c’mon, you won’t even talk to me now? after everything we’ve been through? johnny love you know-”

even though his anger is nearly blazing off of him like an open flame

johnny touches them gently - his hands barely grazing their upper-arm as he starts to walk them over to the door

you want to escape, that or just plain disappear

but you can’t move a muscle

johnny is nearly two feet away when his ex jerks themselves away

“john - listen to me! you can’t just leave me like this! look - look at this - it’s the ring you got me, we’re still engaged! you can’t just -”

johnny seems to snap, the kindness and the happiness he exudes almost daily is no where to be found

he turns, broad shouldered and standing tall

if you had never known any other side of him you would have found yourself frightened

“that ring means one thing, it means you’re a cheater. im sick and fucking tired of you thinking i will ever take you back - get out of my life for good.”

the cursing sounds unnatural in your ears, everything about this johnny is off

he’s harsh and sharp and his energy is just pitch black

but at the same time you can’t blame him

this person has some kind of chip on their shoulder about hurting him and thinking they’ll get off scottfree

it even stirs up an anger in you as well

johnny turns and with one glance you can tell that the rough, pissed off expression on his face is going to turn into devastation

you don’t want him to breakdown in front of this person so you decide to do something you know you’ll probably come to regret

you intervene, stepping in front of johnny and giving him the fakest smile you can

“oh professor suh did you remember we have papers to grade together, come with me!”

you reach out and touch his wrist, his skin is hot and you tug him out of the room

his ex makes a move toward the door, but you nudge johnny forward and then take the chance to slam the door shut in their face

the sound echoing through the halls and earning you questionable looks on all sides

but you don’t care

you know johnny needs to go somewhere and be alone and you find that place in the fire escape staircase

dingy and old, but free of students and pesky exes

when you find yourself in the small, dark area you realize you should excuse yourself

and let him maul over the many emotions he must be feeling right now

but when you turn to go, you hear his deep voice softly ask you to stay

he sits down on the steps, large hands cradling his head

“why can’t they leave me alone?”

“im sorry, i don’t know why.”

you say the only thing you can say even though it makes you feel terrible

johnny shakes his head, his dark hair falling over his eyes and making it hard to read the expression on his face

although it’s not hard to assume that it’s pained

“you know, i was going to marry that person. i was going to walk down the aisle with someone who - who -”

johnny loses his words

“who would betray you?”

you finish and he looks up, his eyes ringed red and bristling with haziness

“yes.”

he chokes back a sound

“someone who doesn’t really love me.”

he shrinks, large shoulders closing in on themselves

you want to comfort him, but you’re not sure

after all it isn’t as if you and him are particularly close

so you give a small bow as you mutter that you’ll leave him be for now, that he needs his space and you don’t want to invade it

but before you can turn around, johnny rises up off the steps and stops you

for a moment he’s just got a hand on your wrist, holding you in place - maybe he just needs someone to hear him out

maybe he wants to thank you for getting rid of the person who hurt him so bad

but something twists in the pit of your stomach as he tugs you toward him

and you feel weightless, falling into his arms easily and fitting into the plane of his chest perfectly

“im sorry”

he apologizes, deep voice cracking

“im sorry - i just want to hold -”

you give a weak nod, knowing you should be the bigger person and step away from this

he’s vulnerable, you’re the only one around, there isn’t any other reason for his actions

but a little voice in your head prods it says

maybe johnny actually trusts you! maybe you’ve made him feel like being open with someone is possible again!

but you refuse to fall into that trap

johnny is handsome, kind, and didn’t deserve to be cheated on and scarred

and so it’s impossible that he’d ever find healing in you

“can you close your eyes for a second?”

you freeze at the request - wanting to ask why, but somehow all you end up doing is letting your lashes flutter closed

“im sorry, im so sorr-”

johnny doesn’t even finish his sentence, he presses his lips to yours and you let out a sound of confusion

that he interprets as protest so he pulls away just as fast as he started and tries to stumble over another apology

when you just reach out with your hands and pull him back into you

i don’t care if im just a coping mechanism for him right now, just feeling his lips on mine for that moment - it’s obvious he’s missed affection. he needs this. im just being a good person.

no matter how you reason in your mind, your thoughts melt away when johnny’s hands wrap around your waist and his large body nearly envelops you whole

one hand finds the hem of your shirt - but hesitates and stays on your hip as you tilt your head and johnny groans when your teeth pull at his lip

he’s burning up, his skin gets hotter and hotter as the kiss gets deeper and deeper

and you feel your back against the wall - johnny placing his hands on the surface beside your head as he keeps himself from doing anything you might not want him to

but you’re at a point where you’re willing to take his own hand in yours and move it back onto your body

because johnny suh deserves to be loved and he deserves to have someone that’ll give themselves to him and only him

and in this moment it’s you - and you want him to know that

“did you hear about the physics quiz for professor qian?”

two voices from below shatter the bubble around you and johnny

disconnecting from each other - you take in a breath and react faster than he can

you open the door to the stairs, scurrying out

just in time for it to shut behind you as two students round the top stair and find professor suh alone

staring at the door

they giggle, greeting him and he just nods, speechless and touching the curve of his lips

“what the hell did i just do?”

you say to yourself, trying to fix your hair as you pass through the campus and back to the parking lot

you thankfully don’t have any classes to teach today so you just book it home and ignore the notifications that litter the screen of your phone

you feel like you’re in high school again - being a giant child about this sticky situation

but you just don’t know what to do now

why did you let yourselves get carried away like that? you work together for gods sake you’re going to have to see each other TOMORROW

you groan into your pillow

you try to carefully deleting notifications from your work email that have johnny’s name in them

and only feeling worse when they pop up again

you accidentally press on one and it opens

it’s the same profile photo on the email icon, smiling, happy johnny

the same .edu email

everything is the same but the message

‘please don’t hate me’

you take in a breath, tap reply

‘i don’t, but - what did that all mean?’

‘this isn’t something we should talk about over......’

‘yeah, let’s do it in person.’

you gather up a bit of your courage and tell yourself it’s ok. mistakes happen, the air will clear up when you face each other

your students don’t notice that you’re jittery

when you drop the pen you’re holding, they just keep typing away on their laptops

and for the first time as a professor, you’re happy to have no one paying attention to you

when the bell rings and you start walking toward the campus cafe where you’ll be meeting johnny

you feel a mixture of butterflies and sickening poison invade the inside of your stomach

he’s already there, sipping a coffee, wearing a ridiculously long sleeved cardigan and rounded glasses

a student greets him and he gives her the smile you’re so used to seeing

that the image of him curled up with tears on the brink of his eyes just doesn’t seem real anymore

but you saw it. you know you did.

you approach slowly and johnny seems to hesitate between getting up and staying in his seat

“do you want me to get you a coffee?”

he propositions, but you shake your head

“johnny - i mean, professor suh - i hope you know you don’t owe me anything.”

he had been drumming his fingers on his thigh, but he stops

“you don’t owe me any explanations about ,,,,,,,,,,,, that person or about the situation or about,,,,,,,,,,,, why what happened - happened. i just want us to be good colleagues,,,”

your voice trails off when the smile on his face isn’t showing up

it’s just a blank - long stare

“professor suh,,,,,,?”

“did you think i did what i did just because i feel lonely?”

you sit back and look around

“i-”

“you’ve got it wrong.”

he slips out of the chair and you think he’s about to just leave - but he’s thinking what you’re thinking

which is that you can’t talk about making out with each other when there are about one hundred students within earshot range

so you end up again in the stairwell, not the same one - but it’s the only private place on campus

and the second you’re alone, johnny chucks the cup over his shoulder and wraps his arms around you

your body is pressed, perfectly again, into the shape of his chest

“you’re not a rebound, or a coping mechanism, or any of those things.”

he mumbles, deep voice against the skin of your ear

“you’re the first person ive had an interest in in a long time - i just chose the wrong time to act on it.”

you think you’re making the words up in your head, but they’re really coming out of johnny’s mouth

“i know you said you want to be good colleagues, and i want that too. but outside of work i want-”

you shift a little, arms coming up to embrace him back

really you’re not even thinking about it - your body just feels safe and comfortable

and it speaks for you as he pulls back

to look at you with those almost amber like eyes

“i want something more - if you’re ok with it?”

you nod, lips parting a little as he leans in to kiss you again

there isn’t the same desperate, driven by pain feeling as there was yesterday

but it’s still loving and passionate

“but prof - johnny,,,”

you start against the skin of his cheek

and he slows down a little to hear you out

“if i see your ex on campus again, i wont be nice about it now.”

he chuckles

“don’t worry, you have my permission to do your worst.”

you both laugh over it - before kissing again and again and again

until his phone goes off and he picks it up and the head of the film department is frantically asking if he meant to be late to his class or if he got into another accident on his bike

“you bike to work?”

“yes - and ill be picking you up on my bike on our first date.”

#nct scenarios #nct imagines #nct au #johnny scenarios #johnny imagines #yungho scenarios #yungho au #member: johnny #nct 127 imagines #nct 127 au #nct 127 scenarios #nct 127 #johnny #uhhhhhhhhh htgrfhdskjl

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silenthillmutual · 4 years

Text

horror/thriller movie recommendations based on your fave Danganronpa 1/2 character

the series in general: Saw (2004, dir. James Wan) - i can’t give much of a reasoning for this as i haven’t seen it but the “punishment fits the victim” trope appears to be a thing in Saw?

Makoto Naegi: It (2017, dir. Andres Muschietti) - as much about the power of friendship as it is about a fear beyond all others. the premise is probably relatively well known by now for the fact that there’s a big clown in it. content warnings: clowns, unsanitary, implied incest and csa.

Sayaka Maizono: Psycho (1960, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) - this suggestion is an incredibly cheap shot, please forgive me. famous film, not sure if i can talk too much about the plotline without giving away the most important part.

Mukuro Ikusaba: Us (2019, dir. Jordan Peele) - doppelgangers show up to wreak havoc on an american family. themes of identity theft. much bloodier than Get Out.

Leon Kuwata: Scream (1996, dir. Wes Craven) - admittedly haven’t seen this either yet. i know, i know, i’m a fake horror fan. but i know that it was made as a sort of tongue-in-cheek homage to the tropeyness of horror films, and i didn’t want to put any movie too blatantly humorous here. i thought this would fit Leon.

Chihiro Fujisaki: A Quiet Place (2018, dir. John Krasinski) - monsters that attack based on noise terrorize a family. most dialogue is delivered through sign language. also has a really touching family dynamic, especially between the father and his children.

Mondo Oowada: Pet Sematary (1989, dir. Mary Lambert) - haven’t seen this one either, whoops. all i know is it’s about, like, bringing people back from the dead or something, and that it’s based on a Stephen King book.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru: The Stand (1994, dir. Mick Garris) - technically a miniseries, but i wasn’t really sure what other horror story fit him. it’s the world at the end in a final battle between good and evil, and nothing says Ultimate Moral Compass more than that to me.

Hifumi Yamada: Strangers on a Train (1951, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) - the whole “i’ll do your murder if you do mine” kinda hits for chapter 3 i think. i also remember his hostage being his sister, so he’d probably like the relationship between Anne and Barbara.

Celes Ludenberg: Crimson Peak (2015, dir. Guillermo del Toro) - there’s a line the main character says that’s something to the effect of how she’d rather be like Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley because she died a widow? that’s Celescore. content warning: incest.

Sakura Oogami: Hereditary (2018, dir. Ari Aster) - both in the way that her dojo is a family business and in the themes of being afraid of hurting your loved ones. content warnings: child death, car accident, decapitation, possession, drug usage.

Toko Fukawa: Rebecca (1940, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) - again haven’t watched or read the book on which it is based but the fact alone that it is based on a book? and it’s not directed by stanley kubrick’s book-ruining ass?

Byakuya Togami: Rope (1948, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) - based on a play which itself was probably based loosely on the Leopold & Loeb case, it’s famous in part for its protagonists being gay. also they have superiority complexes and think that the privileged few should be allowed to murder inferior people because they’re above morality.

Yasuhiro Hagakure: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984, dir. Wes Craven) - i feel like this is closer to what his brand of horror would be, but also people not really believing that what’s happening is actually happening is kind of his m.o. too. content warning: i don’t remember if this is explicit in the original or not, but Freddy Krueger was a pedophile.

Aoi Asahina: Friday the 13th (1980, dir. Sean S. Cunningham) - again i just think this is closer to what Hina’s brand of horror would be, but also i feel like the summer camp aesthetic would be for her.

Kyouko Kirigiri: The Secret in Their Eyes (2009, dir. Juan Jose Campanella) - i don’t totally remember it but detective going off the rails trying to solve a rape & murder case. Very intense, but very good.

Junko Enoshima: Midsommar (2019, dir. Ari Aster) - gaslighting people into joining a death cult? yeah, that screams junko. content warnings: graphic suicide, drug usage, gaslighting, people on fire, nudity, sex.

Monokuma: Child’s Play (1988, dir. Tom Holland) - creepy toy carrying the soul of a murderer. still need to finish watching this one, other than “creepy doll” i don’t have anything to offer in the way of content warnings.

Hajime Hinata: Get Out (2017, dir. Jordan Peele) - reluctant to go too much into details because i wouldn’t want to spoil the film for those who haven’t seen it, but the experiment done on Hajime vibes w this movie. content warning in that this film is about racism.

Twogami: Vertigo (1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) - too many details would give away spoilers but the identity theft theme of the film fits for a guy whose talent is in identity theft.

Teruteru Hanamura: Halloween (1978, dir. John Carpenter) - had a hard time thinking of a horror movie for Teruteru, but Halloween (and 80′s slashers in general) have a tendency to punish the horny.

Mahiru Koizumi: I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997, dir. Jim Gillespie) - would it be too much of a spoiler to say there’s similarities between this film & what gets Mahiru killed in-game?

Peko Pekoyama: The Purge (2013, dir. James DeMonaco) - people using masks to enact what they feel is justified revenge on the one day of the year when all crime is legal.

Hiyoko Saionji: The VVitch (2015, dir. Robert Eggers) - based on colonial-era folk tales about witches. very atmospheric, features the same kind of abusive slut-shaming verbal assaults Hiyoko hurls at others. content warning for briefly implied incest, some nudity, and parents being shitty.

Ibuki Mioda: Green Room (2015, dir. Jeremy Saulnier) - still need to see this one; punk band tries to survive to the end of the night after witnessing neo-nazis commit a murder.

Mikan Tsumiki: Carrie (1976, dir. Brian De Palma) - another film based on a stephen king novella, and also a pretty famous story. a longtime bullying & abuse victim starts to lose her shit after she begins developing telepathy. content warning for some nudity, fire, and an abusive mother.

Nekomaru Nidai: Les Yeux Sans Visage (1960, dir. Georges Franju) - wasn’t really sure where to go with him either, at first, and settled on body horror considering what happens to him later in-game. a doctor attempts to find a new face for his daughter after she is left disfigured from an accident.

Gundham Tanaka: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1921, dir. Robert Wiene) - a mad scientist claims his hypnotized ‘somnambulist’ can see into the future, including the deaths of carnival-goers. highly influential silent film, german expressionist so peak aesthetic.

Nagito Komaeda: The Silence of the Lambs (1991, dir. Jonathan Demme) - it’s probably well enough known for Hannibal the Cannibal being in it, but it’s worth noting he’s not the primary antagonist of the film. he is the most memorable part of it, and his psychoanalysis is what made me think of Komaeda. content warnings for gore, sexual harassment, referenced cannibalism, period-typical transphobia (period is the late 80s/early 90s).

Chiaki Nanami: V/H/S (2012, various directors) - a horror anthology film of found-footage type shorts, not shown in chronological order of events. i don’t really remember the contents enough for warnings, check at your own risk.

Akane Owari: The Blair Witch Project (1999, dirs. Eduardo Sanchez & Daniel Myrick) - don’t really have a good reason for this one other than “they all go feral, which Akane is seconds from doing at any given moment.” i think she’d dig it. no real content warnings to be had, the original found footage film.

Kazuichi Souda: Jaws (1975, dir. Stephen Spielberg) - i’m not even entirely sure i know what would make him like it, maybe just the mechanical shark? i think we all know this as the movie that made people double down on their hatred of sharks. i don’t particularly care for it, but it’s popular.

Sonia Nevermind: Perfume: Story of a Murderer (2006, dir. Tom Tykwer) - follows a would-be perfumer as he murders women in an attempt to create the perfect scent. in retrospect i probably should have picked something based on a real crime, but i still think she’d like this one.

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu: M (1931, dir. Fritz Lang) - when the police fail to catch a serial child murderer, the criminal underworld steps up to take action into their own hands. fitting, no?

Usami: Trick ‘r Treat (2007, dir. Michael Doughtery) - another sort of anthology film that follows what happens to townsfolk when they don’t abide by Halloween traditions. i put it for Usami because i thought it was actually kind of cute, as far as horror films go.

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let-it-raines · 4 years

Text

Catch Me If You Can (36/40)

298 days. That’s how long Killian Jones was away from a baseball field. It’s less than a year, only part of a season for him, but it might as well have lasted a decade as he alternated between physical therapy and spending an excessive amount of time sitting on his couch.

But then he came back and won the World Series.

It’s something no one saw coming, and it’s certainly not something anyone who knows about his arm would predict. Now it’s a new season with new possibilities, and anything could happen. On-field reporter Emma Swan will be there to cover it all even if she is not his biggest fan right now.

Asking her out live on-air will do that.

Rating: Mature

a/n: Whaaaat? Two chapters in two days? What kind of alternate universe are we living in?? 😉 This is totally to make up for the last few chapters taking forever even though they’re literally just sitting on my computer!

Thanks to @imagnifika for her awesome art, @resident-of-storybrooke for reading these words and so many other words of mine (it’s a lot), and to @wellhellotragic who prompted me with the idea that inspired this whole thing all the way back in June!

AO3: Beginning | Current

Tumblr: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35| 36 |

-/-

Killian fucking hates Boston.

It’s a great city full of good food, and in another lifetime, he’d mostly likely enjoy living here. Right now, the air is crisp with the scent of fall, and trees are in the middle of losing their leaves, the ones remaining a myriad of oranges and reds that remind Killian of sitting in a park in Cincinnati with his mother raking up leaves and then jumping into the piles before cleaning them up for the city. He had to have been four or five then, but that’s one of the first memories that he has. Looking out the window of his hotel room to a park that looks almost identical reminds him of that.

He should be happy, more than happy really, but when you’re trying to get to the World Series next week and are currently tied 2-2 in the AL Championship Series against the Red Sox on the way to getting there, happiness isn’t exactly the most common feeling.

And they’re playing in Boston tonight, and despite the fact that they won last night, beating both the team and the deafening roar of the crowd, Killian is not entirely convinced that they’re going to win again tonight. They could still come back from it by winning the next two games at home, but he’d really rather win here and then win the sixth game at home when he’s pitching and not have to deal with the nastiness of going to a seventh and deciding game.

Who in the hell wants to play sports for a living? It’s too damn stressful.

Losing won’t kill him, not at all. The fact that he’s having the season he’s having, especially with all of the ups and downs and lay-offs, is incredible and a full-credit to his team. But he got the taste of being the last team standing last year, and he wants it back.

Some players never get their hands on the trophy, and Killian is greedy enough to want it twice both for himself, his teammates, and his family.

And Emma. He wants it for Emma.

So, Killian really hates Boston and the fact that they keep putting them in close situations like this. Close games are often the best ones, the ones that have everyone on the edge of their seat, but Killian would kill for an easy night.

“The city isn’t going to implode just because you’re staring out at it with evil in your eyes.”

“One can hope though.”

“That’s entirely sadistic.”

He huffs and turns from the window to look at where Emma is sitting in bed (they’ve stopped bothering to get different hotel rooms now) with her knees pulled up so that she can rest her laptop there. He woke up this morning to her typing away. Apparently, she didn’t finish her work last night, so she had to wake up early this morning to send in a report before the deadline. Walsh’s firing has ended up having Emma needing to write more on top of her regular work, and even though she says she doesn’t mind – “I like writing,” she keeps saying – he knows that it’s kind of a kick in the teeth for her to have to do some of Walsh’s work.

The man is never fully going to go away, obviously. He and Brennan are like a bug that won’t die no matter how much you squash it.

“Are you almost finished with your report, love?”

“Yep,” she says. “I’m finished with it and have moved onto doing my prep work for today’s game as well as a little bit of online shopping because there are these boots that I really want but can’t decide if I’m going to buy.”

“That’s the hardest decision you’ve ever made.”

“Says the man who spends hours trying to decide which identical blue button-down shirt he wants to buy to ‘update’ his wardrobe.”

Killian scoffs and walks forward to flop down on the bed next to her, shaking the mattress with his movement, until he’s flipping over on his back and spreading out so that he takes up most of the space. Emma always hates when he does that.

“My clothes may not be as varied as yours, my darling, but it does take effort to look as good as I do on a regular basis.”

He turns his head to the side to look at her, a smile on his face, and she simply rakes her eyes up and down his body, very obviously perusing him. “You are currently wearing a pair of sweatpants that have a hole in the ass and a hoodie that I’m pretty sure has a permanent stain from some kind of baking accident. Your fashion sense is amazing.”

“You are literally in a pair of pajama pants with Snoopy’s face on them.”

“You wear the same two uniforms all the time.”

“Sometimes we wear the black ones.”

Emma hums. “Those are my favorite. I’ll stop making fun of you for things if you can convince the owners to let you guys wear the all black uniforms more often.”

“You were particularly fond of those on Players’ Weekend.”

“I’m a fan of a man in all black.”

Killian shifts on the mattress, propping himself up on the pillows until he’s mostly resting against the headboard. He can see Emma’s computer screen now, half of it covered with statistics and the other covered with Nordstrom’s website and a pair of boots. If there’s one thing Emma will splurge on, it’s boots.

“Buy the boots, Swan. Live a little bit.”

Emma arches a brow. “Am I made of money?”

“No,” he sighs, leaning over to kiss her shoulder. “That would be very convenient if you were. I’d never work again.”

“If you’re living off of my salary, you’re screwed because I’m definitely going to buy these super expensive boots. I think they would look really cute with the black suede skirt.”

“Ah, yes, I know the one,” he says sarcastically.

“Shut up,” Emma laughs, half-heartedly reaching over to slap his shoulder. “You do! I wore it when we went to dinner last week, and your eyes practically fell out of your head.”

Killian tries to think of what Emma wore last week, his mind blanking on everything at the moment, but then he’s brought back to a memory of the two of them going to eat at Palma on Cornelia Street last week. She’d looked gorgeous that night, her legs going on for miles aided by the heels, and they’d been late for their reservation because the street one block over was Jones Street and Emma insisted that he take a picture underneath the sign for her to send to Liam and Elsa.

He had not been amused, but in his defense, he really wanted to eat.

“Hmm, I think I do recall that one now that I think about it. You should definitely get those boots to wear with that.”

“I didn’t need your permission, but thank you for the approval. Do we need to be getting ready to go have breakfast with everyone?”

“I’m pretty sure breakfast is over down in the lobby.”

“No,” Emma sighs, clicking a few buttons on her laptop until he sees that she did indeed buy the boots. “We’re meeting everyone for breakfast at the café at the end of the block at ten.”

Killian groans and throws his arm over his eyes like the dramatic ass that he is. “That means I have to get dressed.”

“Well, I would prefer it that way. Your pants show off what you’ve got going on in both the front and the back, and I think you might get arrested for public indecency. That’d put a damper in the whole trying to get to the World Series thing.”

“Would you bail me out?”

Emma shrugs her shoulders and closes her laptop. “Eh, maybe. I might not have the money with the boots I just bought.”

-/-

They win that night.

It’s close, far closer than Killian would like watching from the sidelines, and he chews more gum than he thinks he’s ever chewed during a game. Rum would be preferable, but that’s not exactly the best solution when he’s got two nights until he’s got to pitch in the game that could bring them to the World Series.

Al really has far too much confidence in Killian for putting him in position in the line-up.

-/-

Killian fucking loves New York.

Sure, it’s hot and crowded and sometimes smells absolutely horrendous, but he loves it. He’s lived here for seven years, had his family live here for more than that, and he can’t imagine having to ever live anywhere else.

This is his home.

For awhile, he didn’t have one, not really. Everything changed when his mom died, the house feeling far emptier than any lived-in house should feel, and it only continued to empty as the years went on and Brennan became more and more of a distant figure. And as much as Killian loved Vanderbilt, that was simply a temporary home.

Manhattan? This is home.

One day he may like to move a little outside of the city to a place with a big yard and less traffic, but right now, everything he loves is here.

Everyone.

“Uncle Killian,” Lucy whispers, tugging on the hem of his shirt, “is it time to eat dinner yet?”

“Not quite yet, Luce. We can go ask Anna about it, though, yeah?”

He bends down and picks Lucy up, resting her on his hip while she wraps her arms around his neck so that she doesn’t fall. He’s picked her up thousands of times, had her little head nestled onto his shoulder twice that many times, but there’s something peaceful about it now as they stand in one of the sitting rooms at Liam’s house looking out onto the street in front of them as cars occasionally pass by and the leaves keep falling from the few trees that line the street.

They got in from Boston this morning, immediately went to practice, and then most everyone came to Liam and Elsa’s house for dinner as some kind of pre-game Friday night dinner to get everyone’s minds off of things.

There are more people in this townhome than it has seen in years, and he doesn’t think anyone is complaining.

Killian is a little bit, if only because his mind is very much focused on tomorrow and not screwing up to let everyone he loves down, and that’s why he’d walked away from the crowd in the kitchen and living room and wandered upstairs to the sitting room that no one ever wanders into.

Except for Lucy apparently.

Kids seem to foil all kinds of plans, and Lucy is not going to be having a fun day tomorrow since she’s most definitely up far past her bedtime.

He is officially an old man.

“What are we eating?”

“I think it’s lasagna. You know, like big spaghetti all moved together.”

“I know what lasagogona is.”

Wow, that was a butchering of the word lasagna if he’s ever heard it.

“You certainly don’t know how to pronounce it.”

Lucy scoffs, like she has never been so offended in her very short life, but she doesn’t say anything else as he walks down the staircase with the wood boards groaning beneath him. Immediately, he’s bombarded by people. Will, Belle, and Elsa are sitting on the ground with diagrams of seating charts spread out between them. Killian would have at least twenty-five questions about why they’re doing seating chart arrangements for the wedding tonight, but he already knows that it’s because they’re using Elsa to help figure out where to sit some of the more difficult people.

(He assumes he and Emma don’t count as those difficult people, but it really depends on how Will feels about him that day.)

Robin, Kris, Liam, Roland, and Addison are sitting on the couch in the living watching what Killian knows is Trolls because he’s been forced to watch it exactly seventeen times, and Eric and Ariel are standing in the kitchen with Anna cooking.

And, well, apparently Emma too.

“Are we sure we trust the blonde to cook for us?” Killian teases, putting Lucy down on the barstool. “Because I’ve had her cooking before, and I’m not sure we should allow her to feed so many people at once.”

“I’m blonde,” Lucy interjects.

“Yes, yes you are. Can you cook, little love?”

“Mommy doesn’t let me.”

“Funny,” Emma huffs, her eyes pointedly staring him down, “your uncle doesn’t seem to think I can cook either even though I’m only tossing the salad and am perfectly capable of that.”

“SoSo, we’re just going to forget the entire cucumber you dropped on the ground earlier?” Anna asks as she lays rolls out on a pan.

“What about the nearly slicing your finger open?” Ariel adds.

“What happens in the kitchen is supposed to stay in the kitchen.”

“Technically,” Eric sighs, “it hasn’t left the kitchen.”

“You guys are fu – fun,” Emma stops herself and changes the word, her eyes blowing wide when she remembers Lucy is in the room. “Luce, sweetie, do you want me to get you some carrots so you can take them in the other room to watch the movie with Addy and Roland?”

“Yes please.”

Emma turns around and opens the fridge, quickly grabbing a bag of sliced carrots, and hands them over to him for him to hand to Lucy. She takes them, mumbles a “thank you,” and then is sprinting to the adjoining living room to watch the movie.

“So you’re just bribing children now, Swan?”

“Yeah,” she shrugs, “but with carrots so it’s healthy. Babe, can you check my phone and see where everyone else is? Ruby said they would be here by now, but I haven’t heard anything from them. Or David and Mary Margaret. I guess they’re all in traffic or something, but it’s radio silence on their end.”

Killian bites the inside of his cheek to keep from giving anything away, hoping that his tan keeps his cheeks from flaming red. “Where’s your phone?”

“In my purse on the table.”

He nods his head and turns around, thankful that it’s a little bit out of sight of Emma, before he’s shuffling through her small purse to find her phone hidden behind every small object known to men. There is a string of texts from Ruby about Graham taking forever to get home and her almost leaving without him, and Killian sincerely hopes that Ruby didn’t actually leave without Graham. That would go against the plan.

Mary Margaret and David, though, are legitimately stuck in Friday night traffic, so at least he doesn’t have to lie about that.

“They’re on their way, love,” he tells Emma, putting her phone back in her purse and walking back to the island so that he can prop his forearms against the cool countertop. “Anna, you realize a few of us have to play a game tomorrow, right? I don’t think we can eat all of this.”

She waves a wooden spoon in the air, little bits of sauce splattering on the ground. “It’s called portion control. I’m sure you’ve heard of it.”

“Killian has. I haven’t,” Eric laughs. “Though, I’m more of a seafood man myself.”

“There’s only so much seafood that you can eat, though, before you become a fish.”

“You only say that because you don’t like it as much as I do.”

Ariel pats her husband’s chest. “Exactly.”

“Oh my God,” Will groans out, and everyone in the kitchen turns to look at him laying out on the floor. “This is impossible. Why do people get married?”

“I think you mean why do people have weddings,” Belle corrects him.

“I’m kind of questioning both at this point.”

Belle flicks a little name card at Will, and Elsa immediately snatches it back and puts it at the little diagrammed table where it’s supposed to be sitting.

“Why have a seating chart in the first place?” Emma asks. “Why not just let people sit where they want to sit?”

“My mother,” Belle sighs, this discussion obviously a frequent one, “is very traditional and specific about how things should be. She grew up in high society, cotillions and things like that, and even though Will and I mostly want this to be one big party, she has opinions. This is a compromise to make her back off until there’s something else she sets her sights on.”

“Huh,” Emma huffs. “Well, as long as I don’t have to sit next to Killian the entire time, I think it’ll be fine.”

“Shit,” Elsa mumbles under her breath even though the words echo throughout the room. “We don’t have cards for Emma and Killian.”

Laughter rumbles through Killian’s stomach as he walks back over to Emma to place his hand on the small of her back over her sweater before taking the strawberries and putting them on the cutting board to slice up. “Swan, it looks like you won’t have to sit with me because we’re apparently been uninvited from the wedding.”

“Damn. I guess we’ll just have to be wedding crashers.”

“I was thinking we could stay home and not wear uncomfortable clothes but still eat incredible food. We could probably dance a little too.”

“He means the horizontal tango, if you know what I mean.”

“We all know what you mean, Will,” Ariel sighs with a shake of her head but laughter on her lips. “But there are people here related to Killian who probably aren’t too inclined to hear about his sex life.”

“I’m not particularly inclined to hear about Emma’s,” David says, and Killian whips his head around to see he, Mary Margaret, and Leo walking thoughthrough the open garage door. “Or Killian’s. Though I hope they’re one and the same.”

“Okay,” Emma hums, dragging out the word, “we need a change in conversation, something like everyone greeting my brother and nixing this conversation entirely.”

“I mean, I’m kind of curious, but Leo is right here.”

“Mary Margaret,” Emma gasps, and Killian misses what has to be an absolutely priceless look on her face in favor of putting his knife down and walking over to Leo so that they can do their secret handshake that seems to change every time they see each other.

“I like you hat, bud,” Killian compliments. He tugs on the bill, and Leo blushes underneath it. “I think there are some other guys here tonight who would sign it for you if you want.”

Leo’s brows furrow together and the smile on his face completely goes away. Shit. What did Killian do wrong?

“Maybe another hat. I don’t want this one to get messed up.”

“Why not?”

“You signed this one,” he whispers, even if it’s not quiet at all, “and you’re my favorite player.”

“I thought it was your favorite because I gave it to you, kid,” Emma protests as she steps around him and leans down to wrap Leo up in a hug, squeezing him too tightly out of some kind of silent protest.

“I only asked for it because Killian is my favorite player.”

“You’re my favorite nephew.”

Leo rolls his eyes, and while he and Emma may not be related, Killian knows that he got that from her. “I’m your only nephew.”

“Which makes me your favorite.” She kisses his cheek, which makes Leo’s cheeks turn as red as the strawberries. “All the other kids are in that room right over there if you want to go hang out with them until dinner is ready.”

Leo runs off, and David and Mary Margaret take his place by stepping in and greeting everyone with a wave or a hug. It’s so many people, all of them from different social circles, and yet it’s amazing how well they’ve all managed to blend together. Killian knows that he started off with more people than Emma simply by the nature of his job, that most of the people in this house would technically be considered “his,” but he likes to think that they’re Emma’s too.

His phone buzzes in his back pocket, and he pulls it out to see a message from Graham just as Emma sits down and picks up a glass of wine.

Graham Humbert: We just pulled up outside. Can you send Emma out? Say something about needing help with the dessert. I think Ruby would like to tell her before she tells everyone inside.

Killian: Yeah, I’ll send her out. Congrats, mate! I’m happy for the two of you!

“Love?”

“Yeah?”

“I think Ruby and Graham just got here. Do you want to go out and see if they need any help?”

“Why don’t you do it?”

Of course she’s going to be stubborn about.

“I’m finishing this salad,” he lies, even though he really should finish the salad since he took it over from Emma. Will lets out another curse having to do with the seating chart, and there’s a reassurance from Mary Margaret that it will all be okay. “Just go help them. They have the dessert. You love dessert.”

Emma’s brows bunch together and her lips snarl, but she puts the glass of wine that she’s drinking down and stands from the barstool she’s sitting on to go walk out of the garage door and down the stairs. She’s going to be pissed at him for the entire walk out there, but he knows that it won’t be long. And curious as Killian is, he leaves the kitchen to walk over to the bay window so that he can look down at the street where Ruby and Graham are getting out of Graham’s squad car with boxes of pies in their hands. Emma quickly appears, her hands moving as she talks, and then Ruby puts her set of boxes on the hood of the car.

And while Killian can’t hear any screaming or squealing – Emma isn’t really the type – he knows that some kind of inhuman noise just came out of her before she launched herself forward to hug Ruby, squeezing so tightly that he imagined Ruby can’t breathe. And then Graham nearly drops all of the pies when Emma hugs him too. Killian chuckles to himself, a smile stretching across his lips, and then David comes up behind him.

“What’s all that about?”

“You’ll find out in a minute, I’m sure.”

“Secrets don’t make friends.”

“Yeah, yeah they do,” Killian laughs, smiling at David. “And I love how casually you’re referring to me as your friend. It really touches a man’s heart, Dave.”

“Watch it, or I’ll take it back.”

By the time Killian looks back out the window, Graham is gone, leaving Emma and Ruby out to talk. Killian is sure that they’ll be out there for awhile, probably far later than they intend to, and he knows he’ll have to go with them when the food gets here. The door opens then to Graham walking inside with the boxes. Ariel immediately rushes to help him, mostly likely because she likes to talk his ear off about all of the cases he can talk about (she’s very into True Crimes oddly enough), but Killian walks over to save him, grabbing Graham’s hand in greeting before pulling him into a hug and patting his back.

“Congratulations, mate.”

“Thank you,” Graham beams, his smile infectious. “I still can’t believe it.” “What can’t you believe?” Ariel asks as she swipes a finger through the whipped cream on a pie only for Eric to slap her hand away.

Killian looks over at Graham, silently asking if he wants to say something, and he nods, that smile still on his face. “I’ve asked Ruby to marry me today, and she said yes.”

“Congratulations!”

“You did what now?”

“How could you not tell me this?”

“This is so exciting!”

“Whatever you do, don’t do a fucking seating chart for the reception.”

It’s this big, loud chorus of voices and conversations, and it pulls in everyone from the living room too so that it gets so loud that Killian is sure the neighbors can hear. Killian isn’t even entirely sure which legs belong to who for how much movement there is, hugs being exchanged between people who didn’t even get engaged tonight, and it all starts to calm down a bit only for Ruby and Emma walk in the door.

Obviously, things never calm down again.

Ruby and Graham don’t even get to spend much time with this group of people, especially Graham since his schedule never seems to match up with any of theirs, so it’s nice to see the overwhelming joy that’s there for the two of them.

“Congratulations, lass,” he sighs into Ruby’s ear when she finally makes her way to him at the edge of the room, her arms wrapped around her shoulders. “Were you surprised?”

“Yes,” she sighs, her laughter moving through him. “I can’t believe you knew about it.”

Killian rubs his hand up and down her back. “I had to make sure Emma was out of the apartment when it happened because Graham just knew that she would somehow find a way to show up if left to her own devices.”

“I think I could kiss you for doing that.”

“I don’t think that’s very becoming of a newly engaged woman.”

Ruby pulls back and winks at him before leaning forward and kissing his cheek. “You know that I don’t like following the rules.”

“What is this I hear about you knowing about this before it happened?” Emma questions as she saunters up to him, a soft smile on her face and the slightest bit of mascara smudged under her eyes. “I thought we had an agreement about lying to each other, twenty-nine.”

Killian hums and wraps his arms around her back, pulling her closer to him while her arms lazily hang over his neck. “Yeah, well, I was under strict instructions that you weren’t to know because Graham didn’t want you to tell Ruby.”

“I can keep a secret.”

“It wasn’t my secret to tell.”

Her lip quirks to the side before she presses up on her toes and gently guides her mouth over his. “I’m glad you didn’t tell me. I like that Ruby was the one who got to tell me.”

“Me too, love.”

“All of our friends have to stop getting married. This is getting expensive.”

“Well, you shouldn’t have blown all your money on those damn boots.”

Emma slaps the back of his head even as she kisses him, and he wonders exactly where along the way did he do something right to get to have this be his life.

“Okay,” Anna yells over all of the noise, and Killian looks to see her standing on a barstool as if she needs any help commanding attention, “I know everyone is super excited right now, but let’s all be super excited over dinner. It’s time to eat.”

“Thank goodness,” Lucy breathes out. “I thought I was going to perish.”

“Where’d she learn that word?” Emma wonders as everyone starts laughing.

“I don’t even know.”

The conversation and laughter never diesdie down, not when there’s that many people around, and Killian’s stomach hurts from it all, his face a little too. His nerves about the game tomorrow and all that’s on the line haven’t disappeared, but they’re not at the forefront of his mind either. He has other things to focus on even if his mind is getting a little dizzy at the thought of keeping track of it all, but it becomes easier as the night passes, the light outside fading away into darkness, and as children move off to go to sleep, Addy and Lucy to their rooms and Leo and Roland stretched out in a guest room until their parents are ready to go home, everyone else settles into the living room with a replay of last night’s game in Boston on so that they can all watch some more footage in preparation.

He’s sitting on the floor in between Emma’s legs, and her hands are lulling him to sleep from the way that she keeps playing with his hair.

It’s like magic, her touch, and he’s utterly under her spell.

“I’m freaking the hell out about tomorrow,” Will whispers quietly as they watch him stumble over a catch in yesterday’s game.

“Me too,” Robin adds in. “Honestly, the only thing that’s keeping me calm, especially since I’m not playing, is knowing that not only did we make it to the Series last year, we won the whole damn thing.”

“Here’s the thing, though,” Killian starts as he leans her head further into Emma’s lap so that she can scratch his scalp. Damn, that might be the best feeling in the world. “No one gives a fuck about what happened last year. That trophy on our shelf from last year? It’s old news. All anyone cares about is what’s happening this year. All we should care about is what’s happening this year. Everyone always complains about those guys who can only seem to live in the glory days when the glory days are long since gone, and we’re not going to be those men. We’re not resting on our laurels. We’re going to win tomorrow, and then we’re going to win the next four games to win the whole damn thing.”

“What if we don’t?” Will questions, and for once, Killian can tell that Will is legitimately nervous.

“We’re going to, Scarlet. I won’t take another option.”

“Look at my little brother being all motivating,” Liam teases.

Killian does raise his hand and his middle finger at that. “Younger, you ass.”

“You’ll always be my little brother. I’ll stop calling you that when you’ve got three World Series championships to your name, yeah?”

“Oi, I know that I’m good, but I don’t know if I can rely on these guys to not only win this year’s but also another one after that?” Emma slaps the back of his head, and he leans back to look up at her. “I’m obviously kidding, my love.”

“Yeah, but that’s not a great way to motivate the guys for tomorrow when you had a pretty good speech going there.”

Robin coughs, something exaggerated and totally on purpose. “Killian saves his best speeches for right before a the game starts. Probably because he doesn’t have his brother and his girlfriend distracting him by making fun of him. Not that I’m complaining or anything. I’m all for taking that piss out of Killian.”

“Someone hand me a pillow,” Killian demands, looking around. “I want to knock the smirk off of Rob’s face.”

“That’s an impossible task,” Ariel starts, a bright, happy smile on her face. “Let’s go back to loving each other and watching game footage. I don’t know about you guys, but I want that trophy back. I get a bonus from both Eric and Killian’s contract for it.”

“I always knew that I liked you,” Ruby adds in, and everyone starts laughing, the long day and late night probably getting to everyone a little bit. “Do you share the bonus with your husband since he earned it? I’m asking the important questions here as someone who is about to get married?”

“Rubes.” Emma curls her fingers in his hair and shakes her head. “Are you about to be one of those people who works in that you’re engaged all the time?”

“For the next two weeks, you bet your ass I am. It would normally only be a week, but since I think all we’re about to talk about now is baseball, I’m asking for two.”

“I would expect nothing less than you.”

Everyone leaves eventually with sleepy smiles on their faces and leftovers in hand, and as nervous as Killian still is, he finds yet again that it’s not at all like last year when he was going through this all. He’s got Emma curled up next to him in bed and a happy life outside of work, and at the end of the day, his life won’t be over if they lose.

He simply doesn’t like losing.

-/-

Killian’s arm feels fine.

Good. Great even. It’s the best it’s felt in months, even if he’s still a little timid with how much he’s using it and the fear of it screwing up again since there is such a risk for that, but he feels good standing out here under the heat of the sun with thousands of people milling in the stands and thousands more sitting at home watching on their television just wondering if today is going to be the day that the Yankees officially cement their spot in the World Series with the Dodgers already waiting there.

It could be a repeat of last year, just like everyone thought it would be, and Killian damn well intends to make those thoughts come true. They’re not resting on the laurelsrelying on what happened of last year. They’re doing it for themselves once more like it’s all brand new and they don’t know the high of being at the top of the world.

Sweat trickles down Killian’s forehead past his cap, and he reaches up to remove his hat for a second while he wipes the sweat away with his forehead. It’s not hot out today, only around sixty degrees, but Killian’s skin is on fire with the rapid beating of his heart that hasn’t calmed down since this morning.

One. Two. Three.

Strike.

One. Two. Three.

Ball.

One. Two. Three.

Strike.

One. Two. Three.

Strike, he’s out.

Travis is out, the top of the fourth inning is over, Killian has thrown some damn good pitches in tight situations to keep the Sox from scoring, and the Yankees are up 4-0.

There’s still a long game to go, though.

Not for Killian, though. He’s out for the day. He knew going in that Al wouldn’t keep him in for longer than this. Honestly, he’s surprised that he allowed it for this long, but this is all so they’ll stay in the correct pitching order if they make it to the Series.

When.

Not if.

Killian wants to stay in the dugout and watch from out here, but he knows that he has to go inside and get massaged and do his cool-down exercises. He can watch from one of the televisions with everyone else who’s inside and make his way back out toward the end of the game.

It’s like all at once these games are five minutes and then suddenlysuddenly, they’re five hours.

But the time does pass as Killian goes through his routines to make sure that he’s healthy and that his arm is healthy, and by the time that he’s back out in the dugout changed into a pair of clean joggers and a pullover, his hat from earlier long gone, it’s the top of the ninth with two outs, only one man on base, and the score highly in their favor.

If they blow a 9-2 lead, they deserve to have to play it all out in a deciding game tomorrow.

“Come on, Lance,” Killian shouts out, banging his hands against the railing. “Just one more throw. One more strike, and you’re done.”

“He’s going to mess up if you keep yelling at him like that,” Al spits out as he chews on the gum he’s always chewing.

“No, no he’s not. He’s got this. We’ve got this.”

“You have far more optimism than any sideline coach should have.”

Killian turns his head to look at Al, a smile stretching across his lips. “It’s a damn good thing I’m not a coach then.”

And then there’s the sound of Lance’s ball hitting Will’s glove, the yell of the word “strike,” and the roar of the New York crowd as the game finishes.

They’re going to the World Series.

Killian’s heart pounds in his chest, emotion welling up in his throat, and all of the sounds become muted. Every single one of them except for his heart and the blood running through his veins. People yell and shout and scream, but he can’t hear any of it as he rushes out into the field to join his teammates where they’re jumping up and down, arms wrapped around each other as they become a mesh of one instead of twenty different men, those who played today and those who didn’t.

Someone pats his back, and the noises come back, cheers of celebration and curses and familiar voices of the people who he spends his life with.

They’re not resting on their laurels of last year, he thinks to himself once more. They’re achieving new things.

“Jones,” Lance calls out as the pile disperses and everyone starts moving around the field, “your girlfriend wants an interview with us.”

Killian arches a brow, spinning on his heel to try to find Emma, and he sees her standing with a microphone in her hand and Jeff standing with the camera behind her. She’s wearing the damn boots, the ones she just ordered, and if there wasn’t already a smile on his face, that would cause his lips to reach his ears.

He has no idea why Emma wants to interview him when there were five innings played without him, when Lance and Eric and Will are the guys who deserve the attention and the praise, but he knows that a lot of the time Emma isn’t in charge of who she interviews. That’s left up to the people behind the scenes.

Killian wants to kiss Emma and the smile on her face, wants to wrap her up in a hug, but he holds back, stepping up to her with Lance next to him as Frank Sinatra begins to play over the speakers. He’d think that he’d get tired of this song, but it never gets old.

“Congratulations,” Emma starts, her hand reaching up to adjust her earpiece. “That was just an incredible game. How does it feel to be going to the World Series for the second year in a row?”

She holds the microphone out to Lance. “No, no. Let Jones answer first. He usually takes the words right out of my mouth.”

“You sure?”

He nods his head, and Emma moves the microphone over to him. “Well, what do you say twenty-nine? How does it feel?”

Killian reaches up to scratch behind his ear. “I can’t curse, can I?”

“Only if you want to pay a fine.”

“Right then,” he laughs, smiling down at Emma and completely ignoring the camera. “It feels good. Better than good. This season has obviously had its ups and downs, especially for me, and I’m happy that I didn’t let this team down when they deserve so much. I’m – ”

Killian stops talking when all of the sudden Emma starts darting in the other direction, and by the time that he realizes what’s going on, the cool feel of Gatorade is being poured down on top of him so that chill bumps rise on his arms and his clothes cling to his skin. Killian sees Lance first and sees him shaking out the sticky liquid from his uniform, and then he sees Will and Eric running away with the orange container where the Gatorade once was. But then he sees Emma a few feet away absolutely laughing her ass off, and even if it goes against their agreement about how they’re going to act when working, he can’t stop himself from running toward her and immediately wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her to him as her hands push at his chest and laughter passes through her lips.

“You’re covered in Gatorade,” she laughs, still pushing at him even if he knows it’s not a true effort. “It’s sticky.” “And you ran way and let it happen.”

“Which was obviously useless considering I’m going to be covered in it now.”

“Exactly the point,” he chuckles while Emma stops squirming against him and casually wraps her arms around his neck, obviously having accepted that she’s going to be covered in Gatorade too. “We’re going to the World Series, Swan.”

“I know.” And then she kisses him.

-/-

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#catch me if you can #cs fic #cs fanfic #cs ff #captain swan fic #captain swan ff #captain swan fanfic

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agentnico · 4 years

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Capone (2020) Review

“Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Plot: Chronicling the final days of notorious gangster Al Capone as he succumbs to dementia and relives his past through tormenting memories.

Capone (previously titled as Fonzo) comes to us from director Josh Trank, who has not been in Hollywood’s or the audience’s best eye ever since he directed the 2015 superhero flick Fantastic Four (or as I call it Fantfourstic, since the posters showed the film’s title as FANT4STIC in an attempt to boost the marketing with a witty pun that was not so witty). He’s also known for his directorial debut Chronicle, that was critically well-received, however I haven’t seen it, so my entire opinion on Trank is based around his Fantastic Four escapade, so yes, not a positive opinion. But I’m always rooting for directors to have a come-back, so I decided to give Capone a go. It’s a gangster movie, and to be honest, besides probably Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma and Francis Ford Coppola, not many have succeeded in creating a memorable entry in that genre. The more cheers for Josh Trank then if he manages to succeed! Does he though?

For those seeking an Al Capone movie where we see the gangster run about guns-a-blazing should look elsewhere, as Capone is not that gangstery for a gangster film. It’s yet again the idea of how the mighty have fallen, as we see Capone suffer through his last year of his life from neurosyphilis. We see him deteriorate and his legend slowly rotting away along with his body. And its strange, it feels like the film wants to tackle some very serious and interesting themes, however instead turns towards showing Hardy’s Capone poop and pee in his pants non-stop like a trombone, and generally analysing his lack of control for his bladder and bowel movement throughout the film’s duration. There’s also a lot of sub-plots mixed into this film that don’t really go anywhere. There Capone getting nightmares of his past, or the FBI monitoring him to get any possible left-over information, or there’s a mystery of a supposed $10 million that Capone buried somewhere and is trying to remember where it is, or let alone if this is a real memory. All these stories end up anti-climactic, and you end up sitting there as the credits roll thinking, what was the point of it all? What was Josh Trank trying to achieve with this movie? The answer I do not have for you, nor do I think anyone who watches this film will do, as the movie is a mess. Nothing really goes anywhere, there are many ideas without any substance and to be honest, it all results in a boring and unrewarding viewing experience.

Tom Hardy is a talented actor, and many dislike him for the fact that he mumbles a lot in his roles, however for me personally that was never a distraction. Heck, Marlon Brandon mumbled his way through The Godfather and that got him an Academy Award! Now I don’t think Tom Hardy will be winning any Oscars for this role, even though it seems the Bronson actor gives it his all. He does a decent job in presenting a man who was once something great, but has now been diminished to pile of rubble. That element of a bigone era is visible in his expression, but at the same time if one could ever complain about Tom Hardy simply mumbling his way through lines, its in this movie. Honestly, what was he trying to achieve with his voice in this movie? He sounded like an even groggier Nick Nolte! Linda Cardellini plays Capone’s wife, and thus ends up doing a lot of the emotional heavy-lifting, since Capone by the end of the film completely loses all kind of ability to move or express himself due to his illness, so its up to Cardellini to carry the dramatic heft, and she does well with what she is given. It’s a shame really, Linda Cardellini is a very talented actress, however she is constantly diminished to these uninspiring roles, leaving her to be typecast as the-wife character. The last few films she’s been in, she is always portraying that kind of character, whether its Green Room, Daddy’s Home, Daddy’s Home 2, The Founder...I can go on. Agent Dale Cooper himself (Kyle MacLachlan) makes an appearance as Capone’s doctor, and MacLachlan is always a likeable presence, however besides an amusing cigar & carrot joke, doesn’t bring much.

Capone never really knows what it wants to be, and for such a fascinating figure in American crime history, this film is everything but fascinating. If you are looking for a decent gangster film with Tom Hardy, I can recommend Legend where Hardy duo-roles playing both of the Kray twins, and that is much more of an interesting watch. As for Josh Trank, he definitely seems to not be helping himself.

Overall score: 3/10

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chocolatechubby · 4 years

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Encourager in a Blue Dress (part 3)

Thaddeus Jones was the product of a growing black middle class in New Orleans. At the height of the slave trade, many owners trained their slaves for skilled labor. A good deal used these skills later to become blacksmiths, masons, and artisans of many kinds during Reconstruction. Many parts of the city and the surrounding area became strongholds for this class.

Thaddeus Jones' grandfather had been a mason of great renown. Men like him had created a good deal of the statuary in New Orleans' above-ground cemeteries. His family had been wealthy for two generations. Nowadays, his father was on top of the pile in the new booming Black business: Insurance.

Thad had been sent to the best schools and found his way to Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. In a few years, Morehouse would be known as the starting place for a freshman that Thad would copy notes from. Marty King Jr. would put the college in the history books. But right now, it was known as the place for a young Negro to get a first-class education. And party. That's how Thaddeus Jones met Delilah Devereux.

"She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen." Thad had stopped chewing long enough to take off his coat and get comfortable. As he talked about Delilah, I couldn't help but think, "You ain't so bad yourself kiddo." His hair would've waved naturally without all the processing, and his cocoa skin made his light brown eyes even more penetrating. But it was his body that set my imagination, among other things, in motion. He was gettin' big. Whatever this girl had done to him, she had done it right. He couldn't stop eating. Every time he'd finish one thing, he'd reach in a pocket, and pull out something else. His belly was starting to sag just the way I like: sitting on his thighs and curving towards his crotch. Every time he let out a breath, the buttons on his shirt and vest would strain with the pressure of keeping fastened. Before this thing was all over, this bubba was going to be whale-sized.

"It was at a house party in Baton Rouge. Zeke Howard and me had borrowed one of the caretaker trucks and picked up four other boys on the way. We never had trouble finding girls. Morehouse men were very popular-even the skinny ones like me...well...like I used to be.

Anyway, I saw her as soon as I walked in. She was standing in a corner with ten guys around her, but it was like she was the only white sheep in a field full of black ones. She was shining. I should have known something was wrong when they put Cab Calloway's "Minnie The Moocher" on the phonograph, but I was hooked. I found myself pushing through all the guys in the front of the room to get over to her. When I got there, I couldn't breathe. She was even more beautiful the closer you got! Her perfume was like a garden of flowers, and all us guys were the bees attracted to her.

She had brown hair that fell to her shoulders and touched a little cross that she wore around her neck. Her skin was as smooth as the blue silk dress she was wearing that clung to her breasts, stomach, and hips like skin. She had the longest eyelashes I have ever seen, and she was looking through them like a veil. When I came up to the edge of the guys around her, she was playing with the coat of this husky college boy in front of her. He was blushing. 'I like a cat with a little meat on his bones.' Her voice was like a little kitten. She poked his stomach, and he let out a giggle like a schoolgirl. 'I especially like to see a man fill out.' And she turned right to me.

I felt my heart skip a beat as she politely excused herself from the crowd and stepped forward. The college boys around her parted like the Red Sea.

'What's your name, honey?' She said. For a moment I forgot. Then I said-well I really kind of stuttered, 'Thaddeus. Thaddeus Jones. Most people call me Thad.' 'Well Thaddie' she said. Nobody had called me 'Thaddie' since I was 5. It sounded good coming from her. 'My name is Delilah. And I could sure use a drink of something, I'm powerfully parched.' Behind me, I was kind of aware of the boys scattering in all directions to get Miss Delilah a drink, but she slipped her arm between mine and sashayed her way towards the hooch. Her dress was covered in flowers too, and when she swayed it was like watching the warm wind of the Bayou move through the magnolias.

'So Thaddie...' she said as she stirred her whiskey with her finger. We had found a place to talk outside. The flies out there were less bothersome than all the men inside trying to get her attention.

'...Are you one of the college boys down from Morehouse?' 'Yes ma'am,' I said. I knew we were around the same age, but somehow it just seemed right to call her 'ma'am'. 'Mmm, must be nice to have money to drive all the way to N'awlins whenever you want.'

'Naw, we just borrowed the caretaker’s truck. No big deal.'

'So you tellin' me you ain't one of these rich college boys?' she said. 'I love a man who can wine me and dine me, and who I can feed.'

She put her hand on my stomach and traced her fingers up my chest. 'You are practically skin and bones! You need a mama to fill you out. You telling me you can't take me out proper Mr. Thaddeus Jones?' 'No ma'am!" I said. "We can go wherever you want!' She brought her face real close to mine. Her breath was like orange blossoms and her lips were like plump red cherries. 'And you'll do whatever Delilah tells you to do-won't you honey?' 'Yes, ma'am.'

My first meal was her lips. She plunged her tongue into my mouth and swirled it around my teeth. The taste of whiskey and orange near knocked me off my feet. It was the sweetest thing I had ever tasted. She sucked my mouth like she was trying to suck out my soul. And she touched me all over. She moved her fingers across every inch of my body. When I look back on it, I think she was measuring me-trying to decide how she was going to turn me into this!" He slapped his belly and the little Arty in my pants nearly tore through the crotch. Madame La Palma and her five sisters were going to have a good time under the sheets tonight.

"My next meal with Delilah wasn't as sweet. The next day she took me to Big Mama's, a juke joint on the outskirts of Elysian Fields. It was crowded and smelled like crawfish. You knew it was good eats: everybody there was fat as a hog. Delilah called to the owner, who was over in the corner talking to the musicians. Big Mama lived up to her name. She was at least a head taller than me, and definitely sampled her cooking. There was no need for bouncers because Big Mama could easily toss out any troublemaker who was stupid enough to keep messin' after Mama had told him to hush.

Delilah waved to her and she came over-taking out two tables on the way. Delilah gave Mama a big hug and kiss and told her to bring the 'usual.' Big Mama smiled and said 'You got your work cut out for you with this one, child.'

The first two plates were fine. Mama made the best seafood gumbo I had ever tasted, and the shrimp étouffée had me in heaven. But when they brought the next course, I put up my hand to stop. 'I can't do no more Delilah. I'm stuffed.' That was the first time I saw the fire. Her hazel eyes lit up and I got scared. She looked like one of the statues in St. Louis' Cemetery that my grandpa had made: hard and cold. But then, just as quickly as the storm clouds grew, they left. She leaned over to me and picked up a big fork full of fish courtbouillion and rice.

With one hand she eased the fork in my mouth, and with the other, she began kneading my crotch like dough. 'Remember what you promised last night Thaddie.' she said-sounding more like a lady lion than a kitten now. 'Whatever Delilah asked you to do—you would do.' I chewed and swallowed, but my stomach was not happy. I ate and ate with her hand down my pants. That night, I had the worst stomachache of my life. I thought I was going to die. But I kept seeing her face and feeling her hand on my Johnson. I endured the pain.

To be continued...

#ccstories

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star-birthmark · 4 years

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Uncertainties (4taro x Deb) (Gods!AU)

Sorry it’s been a couple days since the event started (I’ve been busy with college work), but here’s my entry for @lostinthe-jojos god AU event.

CWs: blood, injury, somewhat nsfw because I have no self control.

Also I realize that my name is Deborah, but Devorah seems holier idk.

Anyway, without further ado: Uncertainties (4taro x Deb) 3.4k words

When man first began to walk the earth, there were very few certainties. There were so many variables unable to be grasped by mankind. But one thing that humans remained able to expect each day was the magnificent changes in the sky. The sky would lighten in the dawn and darken in the dusk. And born from the darkness of dusk and the light of dawn, the winds and planets arose, toppling over man and establishing dominance within the stars. Eos of the dawn and Astraeus of the dusk led their children in controlling the skies. Helios god of the sun flew across the sky during the day, Selene goddess of the moon danced across the sky at night.

Such a system produced a calming presence looming over their inferiors, making man docile, making man pure. She was entirely unknown to her fellow gods in the heavens. From such purity was born its personification, Astraea. The embodiment of peace, justice, and calm. Astraea walked among the people, a goddess among the mortal, content to guard their innocence and prevent war. But Earth comes with such uncertainty, such unrest. Mankind couldn’t rely on her for much longer.

“Who is that father?”

One day, the youngest of Eos and Astraeus’ children, Mercury, glanced down at the surface of the Earth, finding Astraea sitting withing a town square, mankind taking no notice of her, walking past and through her form.

“She’s a goddess, she would have to be.”

An observation from Mars caused young Helios to take notice. The deities watched from their high place in the clouds as Astraea kept on moving, slipping past those in her way, a peaceful calm radiating from her glowing form. She was almost ghostly… her long blond hair spilled down to her back, her unfocused green eyes failing to look ahead of her.

“It looks as if she’s doesn’t know where she’s going…”

Eos muttered worriedly, clinging to her husband’s arm. Helios watched closely, his gaze fixated on her, a large weight being placed upon his shoulders. What incredible responsibility she must have. As long as she remains on Earth, mankind will not know war or injustice. Helios soon discovered her secret.

“She walks aimlessly for peace and justice are blind to bias. She was born from man’s peace and justice, so she must be blind as well. She can’t see because she must not be persuaded. She can’t allow Man to be persuaded either.” He explained solemnly. Venus huffed.

“Pity. If she’s blind she can’t see how beautiful she is.”

The planets and winds looked amongst each other, their hearts aching for their companion’s pain and handicap. The southern wind was the first to turn her gaze back to the surface, her audible gasp causing a sharp breeze to sweep over the land.

“Look there!” She exclaimed.

Born from the initial uncertainty of the universe, a young god named Pallas arose from the Earth and began to roam. Unlike Astraea, who wandered aimlessly, Pallas moved in sharp turns, direct at his targets. His blinding complexion, his sharp teeth and the bright glint of his weapons all shown brilliantly as he made quick work of mankind, his blades unmeant to cause harm, but to instill fear and hatred into their hearts.

Helios watched closely as the mental wounds Palmas attempted to give had no effect. Mercury climbed upon his father Astraeus' shoulders.

"She won't let him do anything…"

They all watched the giant glow radiating from Astraea as she walked away from the crowd, her haze filling the ears and eyes of mankind around her, leaving them docile and kind. Helios began to panic as Pallas noticed the goddess’s presence, his very opposite. In a split second, Pallas charged his blade forward, the planets and winds crying out for him to stop. Without warning, the war god plunged his blade into Astraea's chest, knocking the blind personification of good forward and leaving her bleeding. The golden hue quickly faded and without much thought given, man soon turned on himself. Violence, unlike the Earth had ever seen sprung forth as Astraea was left in the dirt, her defective eyes scattering to find anything to cling to in the eternal darkness. She collapsed forward, Eos above her clung to her husband.

"Astraeus, we must do something!" Helios scoffed at the group's inaction.

Running to his chariot, his purple robes waving in the wind, Helios was soon ready to save the fallen.

Venus called out to him. “Helios, you can’t go! Selene has already brought in the night sky!”

“Well none of you are coming to save her are you?”

For a brief moment on Earth, the Sun shown in the dark evening sky, blinding all those that saw it. Helios dropped down near Astraea, frantically looking around for Pallas, not seeing him, Deciding to not invite trouble, he soon fled with the wounded goddess in his arms. Astraea tried desperately to cling to the Earth, fearing she would never return to her home again.

• • • • • • • •

“Come Helios, you must get ready for the daybreak.”

“Just a moment!”

It had been several hours since the wounded goddess was last awake. She laid in bed, slowly healing. At first, the planets and winds took their turns watching over her. When it was finally Helios’ turn, he found himself entranced by their guest. It was a shame she had no idea what she looked like. How badly Helios wished for her to see her own beautiful blonde waves, her vacant hazel eyes, her porcelain complexion, and delicate form. She seemed so… peaceful, in stark comparison to the Earth after her disappearance. On the surface, Pallas reigned, allowing humans to weed themselves out of the planet’s ecosystem.

“Helios! You must begin your flight this instant! Selene has returned!”

But the young titan barely heard the other’s words. He felt his heart soar as he stared down at her resting body. Such purity was rarely seen in their world. But still, it was his job to uphold his share of the world. Day had to follow after night. As he stood up from the bed, Helios felt a gentle hand grip unto his wrist.

“You’re going back to Earth aren’t you?”

He turned around, shocked at Astraea’s sudden awakening. He was sure she had been asleep only a moment ago.

“Yes, I’ll send someone to come and watch over you. Don’t worry.”

“I want to come with you Helios.”

He eyed her curiously. “How do you know my given name?”

“I’ve always known it. That’s what the humans call you, Helios, god of the sun. I always knew you were this beautiful as well.”

The god’s breath quickened. “But you can’t see me…”

“I don’t need to. I could picture you every day as you rode across the sky to bring in the dawn. I feel the warm rays of the sun on my skin and I can picture the golden chariot that you wield, as well as the golden tone of your skin. I feel the ways the sunflowers grow upwards in your direction and I picture you’re a god of tall stature. I feel the way you enrich the soil with your power and know that you have deep black hair. You reflect off the water so I know you have these deep blue eyes as well. And to hear your voice for the first time, it sounds exactly like the booming rush of energy and emotion that mankind experiences every day with the rising of the sun. Please, tell me your real name, not your given one.”

Helios listened to her intently, watching as she fidgeted with her fragile hands as if trying to feel what she used to feel when still on Earth. He turned back to her.

“It’s Jotaro…”

“Please take me back Jotaro. The people need me.”

Helios leaned in, his eyes steeling as he considered his options. He wanted so badly to do the right thing, to have her return to her place so that she may bring life where Pallas had brought death. But life has so many uncertainties, so many variables. The only reason that she wished to remain on Earth was that she didn’t have anything else. If she could only see herself as he saw her, she would stay with her kind. She should stay with him, the young god who’s quickly fallen in love with her.

“Helios you must go now!”

He was warned a third time, by the other gods. Night’s effects were soon fading. Jotaro nudged his wrist out of Astraea’s grip running quickly at the room. The blind goddess felt around for calling out.

“Jotaro wait! You don’t know my real name, only my given one!”

Helios turned around, looking at her with a softness uncharacteristic of his kind.

“Yes? What is it?”

“It’s Devorah. Named after a prophetic judge from the East.”

“Well… I’ll be back shortly Devorah. I’ll see you at nightfall.”

As Helios raced across the sky that day to bring in the dawn that Eos had left behind, he saw the horrors of the Earth before him. Mankind had lost his justice, its members killing one another in conquest and bigotry. Touching down to the ground, he walked around before spotting Pallas. Quickly concealing himself, he stared blazingly at the war god. His wine-colored robe looked as it had been stained heavily in the blood of his victims. His blond hair was nothing like Devorah’s. Instead, it was spikey, almost white, and fell to his shoulders in messy, unkempt knots. His sharp teeth shown hanging from his mouth, the chilling bone a brilliant white. Jotaro rushed to make his escape before Pallas saw him, knowing what the other is capable of. He was much stronger than the god of the sun. Soon, nighttime fell and Helios rushed back to Devorah’s side.

Weeks would pass. It wasn’t long until Astraea was fully healed. Her simple peasant robes had been destroyed in Pallas’ attack, so Eos, along with Venus and Selene, dressed her in their finest materials. Donned in a flowing gown of serene olive and gold, Devorah only managed to capture the god of sight’s attention further.

During the night, when Jotaro was free to roam the skies without responsibility, the two of them rested together in each other’s company. Shyly, Helios would coax Astraea to identify him further. Her hands would trace over his cheekbones and jaw. Over his broad neck and through his black curls. Over his arms and legs, feeling the different definitions in his fit form. Over his chest and back, her fingers finding his cape and the platinum buttons of his robe. Once, Devorah burned her fingertips on his aureole of sunshine, the rays extending out from his head like a crown. She flinched back, the stinging pain unfamiliar to her. Jotaro quickly grasped her hands in his and kissed along the burns, Devorah feeling her cheeks heat up at the contact.

“I’m sorry Jotaro. I haven’t lived amongst gods for very long. There are still so many things I need to feel and experience.”

She whispered anxiously, her hands rushing to adjust the sleeves of her gown as they fell to reveal her soft shoulders. Helios tried his best to steady himself, his whole body ready to throw itself at hers. But he mustn’t scare her.

“...May I offer one more thing for you to experience?”

Astraea nodded slowly, blushing as Helios tucked a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear, his face inching closer to hers. The straps of her dress fell once more off her shoulders, Devorah now realizing how sensitive her skin had become under Helios’ rays. Jotaro moved in closer, his hand placing down on her leg, gently nudging the fabric closer. He leaned in the last stretch, his lips crashing upon hers. Devorah’s blinded vision scattered to make sense of what was happening. Her burnt hands came up to cradle Jotaro’s head, bringing him in closer. When they broke for air, Helios lovingly began to scale his kisses down Astraea’s graceful neck, her head turned to gaze out into the sky. The young god had become entirely lost in her. Her breath quickened, her whole body trembled from the foreign feelings the god of sight was corrupting her with. Then it suddenly dawned her. This love she was feeling… it wasn’t right. The goddess began to panic. This isn’t right. Justice is meant to wander aimlessly, without bias.

Devorah began to feel the cold of night fade away and the warmth of dawn begin, her hand reaching up to grab Jotaro’s robe tightly as he had placed a kiss right at her jaw, leaving it marked as his. His hand inched higher up her leg.

“Helios… dawn is breaking.” She breathed out.

Jotaro looked up at her, confused, his eyes still hazy from her dreamy penumbra and heady perfume. She never calls him by his given name anymore, usually only Jotaro. He stared into her vacant eyes, forgetting at that moment there was no sight behind them. He then turned to the sky, huffing a little.

“Nonsense… there’s still time until I must depart, Devorah.”

He reassured her, his lips returning to hers, lowering down to kiss her shoulders as well. Astraea shuddered before stiffening. She had lost sight of what was truly important. He would be around forever, but at this rate, Man wouldn’t be around for another year. Her hand rushed to pull her lover off of her. She flinched slightly under his touch, fighting herself to not sink into his advances.

“Jotaro you must get ready I-”

“Helios. Selene just returned from her post. Go.”

Both gods looked at the doorway to Devorah’s bedroom, seeing Eos, the elder goddess having just brought in the dawn.

“We won’t have you be late again.”

Helios stood up from Astraea's bed and combed his fingers through his black hair, straightening himself out. Devorah stayed behind, readjusting her gown. Watching him leave, the young deity's plan took its final form.

Fully healed from Pallas' wound, Astraea reached the gates to the heavens and carefully descended down, her feet touching down on Earth, her peaceful energy filling the land once more. Humans across the world dropped their weapons, a distinct calm took over. Astraea felt truly at home once more. Feeling the grass she walked on, she began to wander aimlessly as she had before. A smile came to her face, soon interrupted by a sharp blade touching her throat. Devorah gulped back, stiffening herself. Pallas leaned in to whisper into her ear.

"So you've come back? The moment you step down you immediately threaten all the hard work I've done."

Devorah clenched her fist. "Dio… you can kill me, but you won't make it out alive after that. Helios has gotten stronger, and he will surely kill you if you end my life here. Especially under the gaze of the noon sun."

Pallas considered her words, soon letting her go.

"Doesn't mean I can't harm you though!"

With a diabolical laugh, Dio swung once more, slashing Devorah's arm. Man returned to violence in that split second, then back to leave as Astraea got back on her feet. Retreating, Devorah extended back up to the sky, healing herself before the evening came and Helios returned to her. She sighed in relief as Jotaro didn't notice any sort of wound on her.

A deadly cycle ensued. While Helios was busy during the day, Astraea would travel to the Earth every day, undoing the damage that Pallas had done. Mankind became a deeply troubled species; there was no longer any black or white. They had come to appreciate the blonde goddess' efforts, lusting for her freedom from useless bloodshed, but still, every noon, Pallas would leave her with another scar and she would be forced to retreat and heal herself before Helios had to return for the night.

One such night, Deborah laid lazily in Jotaro's chest, feeling the magnificent heartbeat as he calmly slept. It was during that moment that she made her decision. Slipping on her gown, she stood from the bed, giving Helios one last kiss before descending down to the sleeping Earth.

When dawn broke that morning, Jotaro awoke to find himself alone. Looking around for his love, he found her gown gone as well. A knock came to the door.

"Helios! Selene has returned to her post! Go!"

Jotaro rushed out of bed, slipping his purple robes on. On his way out, he spotted the planets and winds conversing in the garden.

“Where’s Astraea? Have you seen her?” They all looked amongst each other.

“No I haven’t,” said Venus.

“I haven’t,” said the north wind.

“Neither have I,” said Mars.

“Not a sight of her,” said the eastern wind.

“Why do you ask?” asked Saturn.

Helios gulped down his worries and rushed to his chariot to fly over Earth. Over the past few nights, he noticed the scars dawning his lover’s body, wondering if she was returning to Earth. He feared finally that she had decided to do so. Floating over the land, Jotaro finally spotted his beloved Devorah. His eyes wept at the sight before him. Kneeling in the dirt, Astraea cradled a fallen man’s head in her hands, her blind eyes sensing no life from him. Pallas had sent out his minions to corrupt the very last people that followed her and her peaceful ways, and with all of his attacks, she had only grown weaker. But Justice must remain selfless and unbiased. How badly she wanted to escape to the skies, ignore the carnage before her. But Justice is blind and she unable to ignore her duties. Or so she thought. Devorah felt a familiar hand place down on her shoulder. She let out a heavy sigh, her tears landing on the dead man’s cheek.

“Mankind isn’t worth saving, Devorah…”

Jotaro muttered, understanding her concern, but they both knew he was right. Devorah calmly stood, a wound from Pallas’ men still visible on her arm.

“You’re right. But there’s still good in them Jotaro. I can feel it. I can’t abandon them.”

“I beg you to! Please, be selfish. You’ll end up dead if you keep coming down here.”

After deep consideration, Astraea finally nodded. Taking Helios’ hand, she stood up on his chariot, about to take off. Suddenly a hand grabbed unto hers. The goddess turned, sensing a man was holding pulling her down. Another human, a woman was pressing down with all her might to keep the chariot from leaving. A third human groveled on his knees before them, D evorah could hear his whimpering.

“Please don’t go! You must be the one bringing peace to this dark world! We beg you! Don’t leave us!”

“You’re the last one left on Earth to guard us!”

“Please… we’ll die…”

Astraea felt an incredible ache in her heart, preparing herself for her harsh words. She couldn’t help them anymore, but they could help themselves.

“You don’t need me anymore. From all this violence, you now know the true meaning of peace. Now, live through it. Bring others to your side, fight against the evil of this world. Honor me and I will never be far from you.”

Letting go of the man’s hand, Astraea and Helios rose into the sky, painting it in daylight.

And mankind honored her words. She became the model of serenity she had always been. They honored her in their lust for peace. They honored her in their humanly courts. Sculptors placed statues of the young goddess near Man’s places of legal worship, a blindfold draped over the eyes of the marble figures, a scale in hand. For Justice is truly blind. And every morning, those that recalled the day Justice flew into the sky with the god of the sun, honor her for being the last deity to see the potential in mankind. The last deity to embrace mortal life, even with all its variables and uncertainties. During the nights, Helios and Astraea would hold each other, and Helios would be her eyes until the end of time.

And Justice would wander aimlessly no longer.

Anyway time for the questions.

What type of god would your f/o be? Why?

Jotaro takes the form of Helios, god of the Sun. I figured it would be a cool reference to the fact that he’s related to hamon users.

Would they become a god one day or have they always been one?

He’s always been a god.

Which part do you play in this narrative?

I play the part of Astraea, the goddess of justice, innocence, purity and precision. The last part of the fic is inspired by this painting, as she is notably the last goddess to remain on Earth, still believing in the human race. She is also blind to hark back to those statues of Lady Justice, blindfolded near court houses.

If you and your f/o were gods would you be part of the same pantheon or different ones?

We are gods from the same pantheon, different groups. Helios is born to be a god of the sky, while Astraea is born as the personification of man’s good, born on Earth.

What type of myth would you be the protagonists of?

We are the protagonists of how mankind became a morally grey species, and why they place such an important on justice and purity in their legal systems.

#jjba #jjba writing #jjba hc #lostinthe-jojos #itzel's gods!au event #4taro x deb #someone help me come up with a name for this ship lmao

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