#I think they originally went into the bad timeline seeing this as a fight they could win | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

yuri-is-online · 2 months

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The TWST cast from the original Fyuuture Kid timeline is so Cleopatra by Lumineers coded. They just get their (pregnant) joyfriend ripped away from them, cursed, and then sent back to earth, where they can't follow all in one day. That's gotta be a fucking nightmare. They just lose everything at the same time. Bro. Imagine Jamil or Azul, they had to fight for everything and just when they finally, FINALLY, think they have something that will never leave, it's taken away. Imagine malleus or cater or silver; they've already lost so much, silver just lost his dad and now, when he's going to make his own family, they're taken from him too.

TW FOR SUICIDE.

You wrote one time that of Yuu ever died, Floyd would be quick to follow, so. Did Jade and Azul have to put him on suicide watch? My mind is reeling there were NO WINNERS in this timeline Goddamn.

Sorry for the angst dude I just think about this AU a lot

i am so sorry for making you all live with this many thoughts and just waltzing on off to do fuck all

So there weren't any winners in the original timeline no, but the way things went down sort of prevented the type of outcome you are describing with Floyd due to the potential for hope, that most dangerous of falsehoods. In a way that sort of makes it worse though... so lets talk about what went down shall we?

(I'm going to keep this post to more general information, but I did write some specific ship thoughts I'll probably use for another post later on, I just need to think on some of them more...)

notes: they/them used for Yuu, this is part of my fyuuture kid au which can be found under the series section of my masterlist. This post will not contain discussions of suicidal ideation, but will contain major character death and descriptions of violence. If you are curious about what happened to Yuu and Fyuuture kid, look at this post here.

General Original Timeline Facts

To give a brief re-cap of what happens to Yuu, they were arrested by the Magical Marshall's office and sent back to their world, while pregnant, and cursed to forget everything that had happened to them in Twisted Wonderland. Something I didn't mention in that first post, mostly because I intended to imply it in the answer about Riddle's relationship with Yutu but ended up cutting, is that none of the characters actually know that this is what happened at first. They know that Yuu disappeared, but they don't know that the Marshalls were involved or that Yuu went back to their world, which causes a real sense of panic in all of them because holy shit their spouse and unborn child just went missing and they can't seem to get anyone to take this seriously. How the Marshalls went about hiding this information, and what the general public believed happened to Yuu depends on who their husband was, as did the fallout of their disappearance.

For anyone who might be a bit confused, the Magical Marshall's Office is an elite squad of police officers who investigate magical crime, and occasionally deal with overblots. They are the organization that Deuce wants to join one day, which does mean that the people who made the decision to see Yuu as a threat to public safety and send Yuu home were Deuce's own co-workers and friends.

Deuce is the first to suspect that the Marshall's might have had something to do with Yuu's disappearance, but he isn't able to really do much with that. He tries, but he is stonewalled and eventually fired- though by the time that happened monster attacks started getting really bad in the Queendom and Deuce had a whole other set of questions.

Speaking of those monster attacks, the instant Yuu is removed from Twisted Wonderland Grim overblots I have an idea as to why, but it isn't super set in stone. This "Chimera" begins hunting and stirring up monsters, inciting them to attack civilization while it focuses on trying to "wake up" the Phantoms of the Great 7. These phantoms want to re-join with their respective overblot boy, which is an easier task for some of them than others.

The first phantom to re-appear was the Thorn Fairy's. Malleus chose to seal himself and his phantom in an eternal sleep inside the Briar Valley capital after ordering Sebek and Silver to evacuate everyone who lived there, leaving his people truly leaderless and in shambles. He technically also ordered Lilia to go with them, but he refused. He wasn't able to abandon another Draconia to die alone. A lot of nocturnal fae died to the Phantom before Malleus's sacrifice, but because the problem was more or less contained to Briar Valley not all of the other nations saw the monster problem as a threat. They should have.

The second phantom to re-appear was The Queen of Hearts'. Riddle, having been approached by Deuce with his suspicions regarding Yuu's disappearance and outraged by what he saw as a clear violation of the law (if nothing else) was easy prey and re-assimilated into the monster. The phantom then began hunting down each of Riddle's previous dorm mates to corrupt them into card soldiers for its army, eventually fashioning four lieutenants that were a touch more sentient that the others out of Trey, Cater, Deuce, and Ace.

Certain members of the Al-Asim family saw that happen and quietly, without Kalim's knowledge, arrange to have Jamil killed. This doesn't prevent the Sorcerer of the Sands' phantom from reuniting with him, it just means the monster is puppeteering a corpse. And dragging around a second once it gets its hands on Kalim...

Obviously at this point something of a pattern has been established, meaning S.T.Y.X. is expected to do something. Idia does not actually overblot for a second time thank you very much, Phantom Ortho has a mind of his own and he promised to stay in the Underworld until it was Idy's time. His first order of business is to check in on Vil, Azul, and Leona to make sure they're ok. He manages to make contact with Vil, but the Coral Sea proves impossible to get a message through to and Leona is M.I.A. Literally, he and Ruggie have both disappeared while investigating monster attacks around the slums. Idia has a decision to make, and it's not one he really likes, but S.T.Y.X. has a better relationship with the Sunset Savannah than it does the Coral Sea, so it's off to the Elephant Graveyard while Vil agrees to stay behind on the Isle of Woe under observation for his own safety.

It's a decision Idia regrets later. He gets to Leona in time to help him fight and kill the King of Beasts's phantom, but it costs Leona and Ruggie their lives, and while he's there, the Sea Witch's phantom finds Azul and begins using his magic to drain the merfolk dry. Floyd manages to use his unique magic to distract Azul long enough to allow Jade to escape, who only flees because he thought his brother was behind him the whole time. The oceans become polluted with blot, forcing the surviving merfolk to the surface. Many go to NRC and take refuge in the Octavinelle dorm pocket dimension, resulting in the Mostro Lounge being closed to make more room. Somehow that feels more like a killing blow to Azul for Jade than what the phantom did.

Schools like NRC, RSA, and Nobel Bell become sort of centers for survivors due to the large amounts of mages, magical wards, and artifacts that such schools typically have made them safer than most towns. NRC specifically has seen a large influx of magicless people who run a lot of the things the ghosts used to and runs a lot of normal school classes in additional to the magic program, which shifts over time to be more focused on fighting due to the increased monster attacks.

Also Crewel is now Headmage. It would have been Trein but I don't think he needs the stress. I haven't decided if he is still alive or not, but Vargas and Sam are still kicking.

So to give a run down of where everyone stands in the original timeline in order: Malleus and his phantom are trapped in an eternal sleep, Lilia is dead, Silver and Sebek are alive (at least at first) and trying to help the fae refuges displaced by the Thorn Fairy's Phantom. All of Heartslabyul are overblot phantoms, and actively making the Queendom of Roses unlivable. Jamil was assassinated and the Sorcerer of the Sands's phantom went on to kill Kalim and most of his family. To be clear that wasn't because of Jamil's lingering emotions, but good luck explaining that to most people. Vil and Idia are overblot free, Vil because he is being detained on the Isle of Woe and Idia because of his promise with Phantom Ortho. Leona and Ruggie died fighting the King of Beast's phantom. Azul and Floyd are blot phantoms, while Jade is alive and tending bar at what remains of the lounge at NRC.

Now Epel, Rook, and Jack aren't named in that list. No one really knows what happened to them, but they are assumed dead (or at least Jack and Epel are.) Since this is my AU and I get to give out the information, I'll let you know that Rook is a phantom under control of the Fairest Queen's phantom, Jack is dead, and Epel is alive, but cut off from the rest of Twisted Wonderland by the monsters under the Fairest Queen's control. He's right teed off about that, hey Yutu go get him that ladder he's gonna give Rook a piece of his mind-

I do have some ship specific thoughts but I want to cook with them a bit more... but to maaaybe tease some of them?

Yutu and his friends had to fight the Heartslabyul boys multiple times. Yes this hurt their Yutus a lot, and is one of the main reasons Riddle! Yutu hates his dad so much.

Vil can hear the Fairest Queen talking to him and it's not great for his mental stability. Neither is being cooped up in the Isle of Woe, his Yutu did meet him and remembers it being a terrifying experience.

Jade has a good relationship with Floyd! Yutu, Jade and Floyd are their own people but losing Floyd killed a part of him that was slightly healed by getting his nephew back. He likes to tease Azul! Yutu and told him a great deal about his dad. As for his own Yutu... their relationship is a tad strained by how protective Jade is over his son. He is terrified of losing him and what is left of his pearl...

Not all Yutus are in the same dorm as their father. I haven't decided on where all of them are yet, but I did mention once in my replies that Azul! Yutu is in Savanaclaw. I did not mention that he did intend to transfer but couldn't when he accidentally became the Dorm Leader because he got tired of being mouthed off to and knocked someone out. I have an ask about Cater! Yutu I'm working on but I'll add him here as having been put into Octavinelle, and I think I want to put Kalim! Yutu into Pomefiore but I need to cook more...

#<3 asks #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #future kid au #tw character death #ngl i cried when i was writing about jade #so no one yell at me i am already yelling at myself ok

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the-batcomputer-project · 9 months

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Batfamily (and other) Headcanons that will be canon in my DC timeline:

-Dick is Pansexual. Show me this man in romantic relationships with more than just woman. I also feel like he has potential to be a sex positive icon which I feel is important. Sex portrayed as something that can be fun and casual, not explicitly reserved for romantic partners and situations.

(edited to rephrase and remove offensive language towards the pan community)

-Jason is Asexual. Get some ace representation but also give him some healthy romantic relationships where sex is not the center or a necessity. (I’m partial to Jason/Roy but to each their own)

-Jon Kent is dyslexic. Insert Percy Jackson reference about his brain being wired for kryptonian, but no, the dyslexia comes from Lois.

-Jason was absolutely theater kid before his death who managed to get the lead role almost every time, and somehow maintained a healthy schedule of theater rehearsals, good grades, and patrols.

-building off of the last one, Jason is Bruce’s favorite allowing him to get away with pretty much anything, but no one notices this because Jason is convinced Bruce hates him, and everyone else (understandably) believes Cass is the favorite.

-Cass took up gardening after watching Alfred tend to the rose bushes out front, and is now responsible for the very impressive garden on the Wayne Estate. She loves being to create and nurture life instead of kill, like the was born and raised to. Jason also taught her the language of flowers and she has little flowerbeds for each member of the family. Only Jason knows what they mean (also Alfred but he knows everything)

-Tim isn’t a caffeine addict, but he does have severe insomnia and ADHD. Because of that, caffeine typically has the opposite effect on him, hence why he always seems to be drinking a cup. Either for the placebo effect to stay up and finish a case, or to make him tired enough to fall asleep.

-Damian struggles to connect with people and express gratitude, appreciation, and love. He asked Cass about her garden one day and very intently sat and listened while she taught him about the language of flowers. Each family member woke up the next morning to a drawing of a bouquet of flowers pinned to the door with a knife (Jason has his framed in a safehouse he is fairly sure none of his family knows about)

-The batcave has a secret vault of “bad ideas” which was started by Dick as a child with the original Robin suit Bruce designed (it had pants) along with videos of Dick wearing said costume and falling off of gymnastics bars. (Think of the video explaining why strippers don’t wear clothes with the person falling off the pole over and over)

-Bruce is autistic. He gives off tism vibes (you’re trying to tell me that a man who dresses up as a bat and fights crime as a trauma response to watching his parents be murdered in front of him is neurotypical?) and I also want to see more a positive autism representation in main characters in media.

-Dick’s use of made up words such as “aster” and “whelmed” come from the fact that he spoke very little English when he was first adopted by Bruce, and decided that using obviously made up words made his slip ups less noticeable, or people would assume he did it on purpose. Even after he mastered English, he continued using his made up words because they just made sense (the batcomputer and jl database have a hidden file called the “DICKtionary” unlinking all his words and their meanings)

-Jason can’t drive. He died when he was 15 (you have to be 16 in Jersey to get your permit), was revived in Nanda Parbat so there was no need to drive, and was too embarrassed to mention it by the time he returned to Gotham and the Batfamily. This is his deepest, darkest, secret.

-As a child, Dick was convinced Batman was a vampire (and still isn’t entirely convinced otherwise)

-Tim collects little trinkets. Dick noticed this early on, and made sure to get a little souvenir trinket for Tim every time he went on a trip. Bruce noticed and started doing the same thing, and so did his friends after a while. Tim proudly displays his collection, because to him, each trinket is a reminder that people are thinking about him and care about him. (Most of his possessions in Drake Manor were necessities like clothes, or things he had bought for himself. Barely anything was a gift)

-Jason has OCPD, and needs things to be an exact certain way, and struggles when they aren’t. It’s one of the biggest reasons why he is often so frustrated with Bruce, who tends to do things in a different, certain way.

-Cass is actually the most neurotypical in the family, though because she has learned how to be a person through observing, she has picked up on many neurodivergent traits, specifically stimming.

-Steph’s aesthetic is retro pastel pop, mixed with maximalism. She loves bright colors and loud designs (though purple is still her favorite by far)

-Alfred keeps guns stashed all over the house in case of emergencies. Bruce hates this and has tried to remove them, but has given up as he can never seem to find them all. Alfred also brought up the good point of “I am not a vigilante like you, Master Bruce, and I am not quite as young as I used to be. If there is ever an invasion of the manor, I would quite enjoy the security of being able to protect myself.”

-There is a list of who is banned from the kitchen. Bruce is at the top of the list, Tim isn’t allowed to make anything more complex than instant food, Cass and Damian aren’t very good, but at least make an effort to learn so are therefore allowed with supervision. Dick has a partial ban. He is an absolute disaster in the kitchen, except for soups, and sarma (his mother’s recipe was one of the few things he brought with him from the circus and was obsessed with perfecting it as a kid, leading it to be one of the only things he can actually make) Steph isn’t allowed to cook, but she is a proficient baker. Duke isn’t a horrible cook, but mainly avoids the kitchen, preferring to stay out of Alfred’s way. Jason is the only batfamily member who is not banned from the kitchen under any circumstances. He has a tendency to stress cook, and likes trying new fancy recipes, because on the streets he only ate what he could find. This gives him a sense of control.

-Superman wasn’t a great dad to Connor at first, opting to send him to the farm to stay with Ma and Pa, but after a stern talking to from Bruce, came around started making an effort. Connor is an excellent big brother to Jon.

#dc comics #dc universe #batman #batfamily #headcanon #batfam #batfam headcanons #dick grayson #jason todd #tim drake #damian wayne #duke thomas #stephanie brown #cassandra cain

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cheesecakeluvrs · 2 months

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Rogue and Gambit in X-men 97’

This is neither One Piece nor Sanami but I’m obsessed with X-men 97’ currently and I need to talk about this somewhere

I keep seeing people say that Rogue is cheating on Gambit in X-men 97’ but that is absolutely not the truth. This is understandable because the general knowledge is that Rogue and Gambit are together because they are in the comics and I’m sure some people who watched the original X-men animated series as a child look back and remember them being together. While they were awfully flirting with one another they never got together officially

This is also probably because Rogue and Gambit were a pretty fresh couple in the early nineties so I’m sure the writers just went with the same flirty approach that they had before they got together in the comics

While it’s clear they have feelings for each other as they kiss 2 times and almost another (although one of those kisses was not consensual) and Rogue also calls herself “Mrs. Lebeau” when she needed a name (which I’m sure there was also confusion on Rogues name due to it also being fresh) they are definitely NOT together

Gambit is literally my favorite character so it’s hard bashing him so much like this but he has no right to get jealous of Rogue. Everyone on the internet keeps saying “poor Gambit” and such and I just wish they would watch the original

Gambit in the original is just not a great guy a lot of the time to Rogue. First, one time Morph flirted with Gambit as Rogue and told him that she had been lying about not being able to touch people (LIKE HOW DO YOU FALL FOR THAT HOW DOWN BAD ARE YOU) so his reaction to that is to go up to her while she’s sleeping and kissing her resulting in his passing out. Like I get you want this woman but leave her to her sleep

Second, he makes kinda creepy comments too. Like one time he tells her “you need to lay off the fried chicken” and one time she was just out of her usual fighting clothes and he said “you should dress up for me sometime” (but she did flirt back in that situation so I’ll give him that one)

Lastly, saying Rogue cheated on him is crazy because Gambit flirts and hits on so many people (even though they’re not serious he still can’t get jealous of someone else’s relationship if he’s doing that) then has the audacity to get all angsty when Rogue and Cody go on a date or when Rogue and Archangel touch and share a sentimental moment due to Rogue absorbing some of his memories one time

Okay okay and DESPITE all this I am still Rogue and Gambits biggest shipper and cheering for them in 97’ so what is going on with Magneto. People who did a single google search keep coming up with the “well Rogue and Magneto were canon in the comics”, yeah they got married in “Age of Apocalypse” but referencing couples outside of 616 is crazy. You know who else has been together when we are counting EVERY timeline? LITERALLY EVERYONE. This is Marvel comics, this is not new, everyone has hooked up and everyone will continue to hook up. Just look up a list of all the people Wolverine alone has been with

Sure they COULD go with Rogue and Magneto for X-men 97’ and I’m just a stupid dum dum for believing otherwise but I see no reason to with all the buildup of the original and that sad face Rogue made in episode 4 was a little hm….

I think this is all for a little drama, a little development, a little spice because if Marvel hates anything it’s happy couples with no problems. I am praying that this is just to improve their relationship and at the end of this stupid love triangle they will finally be together but who knows

There is also a little theory that Magneto and Rogue actually aren’t doing something too crazy. I just find it weird that they haven’t actually shown us anything (I know they can’t show us them doing something devious but maybe at least kissing) only heavily suggesting it with the training room and Gambits nightmare thing. It’s just because a lot of times shows and movies will heavily force something like someone cheating then they later find out that they were actually just spending so much time together because they were planning their birthday party or something

I sound as desperate and delusional as Gambit but I’m doing all I can. I probably should’ve just waited for tomorrow then posted this after watching the new episode but I couldn’t wait so maybe all of my thoughts and opinions will change in a few hours

#x men 97 #xmen #x men #gambit #gambit x rogue #rogue x gambit #rogue #x men the animated series #genuinely tweaking

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williamrikers · 11 months

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okay. fuck. i need to talk about be my favorite. because jesus christ, this might be THE smartest show currently airing, which is a miracle at a time when la pluie is also airing.

so, this episode we learned more about kawi's and pisaeng's family backgrounds, and oh boy, is there a lot to unpack there... and it all works to explain why the original timeline was the way it was, why everything turned out so fucked up for both of them in the beginning.

(very rambly thoughts under the cut)

first of all, it's important to note how much of an impact kawi's father's death had. it was always clear that this was a traumatizing event in kawi's life, literally the first thing he did when he went back in time was to ditch the (supposed) girl of his dreams so he could be with his father, tearfully hug him and tell him "i love you, dad".

now, we're learning that after his father's death, kawi completely gave up on himself. he literally didn't see any reason to pursue a better life or his dreams because his father would never get to see it and be proud of him. i think this also explains to some extent why kawi has so much trouble accepting help from others: he has internalized the idea that he somehow has to do everything on his own, so his father (and others) can be proud of him. it's interesting that kawi obviously loves his father a lot but they're not really close: they don't see each other very often and in the first episode, it's established that they don't usually talk to each other about their feelings, either.

so. everything else that happened to kawi in the og timeline (knot making fun of his singing, pisaeng "stealing" his spot as pear's secret buddy, his falling out with max, kawi being too much of an introvert to make any new friends at uni) was compounded by the fact that after his father's death, kawi saw no hope for himself any more, and he ended up alone, isolated, friendless, depressed and deeply unhappy.

and now that we're learning more about pisaeng as well, it's becoming clear that something similar happened to pisaeng in the og timeline as well, only for him it was not a single event but more the reality of him being gay and having a crush on kawi (come on. nobody can tell me he DIDN'T crush on that cute awkward nerd as soon as kawi dropped his lil notebook in front of the seniors on the first day of uni), but kawi never even speaking to him and completely ignoring his existence... while pisaeng's own mother was adamant about pisaeng staying as deep in the closet as possible because it's bad for her political ambitions to have an out gay son. she basically tells him "you can feel whatever you want to feel but telling people about it is something that you should only do with my permission".

so, pisaeng has been getting told by his mother to stay in the closet since he was 15 years old (JESUS!!!), and since his crush is obviously unrequited and hopeless, why should he risk anything by being honest about it? his family is rich, pear's family too, their marriage is one of convenience for pisaeng, who gets to keep living his good life while placating his mother and spending his life with a person he's friends with, even if he can never love her romantically. from his mother's perspective, pear and pisaeng must be a good match, and pisaeng has no real reason to fight any of it. because coming out as gay would do nothing but cause him trouble and make him unhappy.

but in the new timeline, kawi is there as pisaeng's friend. and pisaeng falls for him so much deeper than he ever could have done in the og timeline. and now he HAS to figure himself out, HAS to confront his own queerness, not for kawi or even with kawi (utterly brilliant choice in the last episode to have pisaeng go on this journey alone!) but for himself, because it is becoming clear that he is living a lie and that he can't go on like this. having kawi in his life changes everything for pisaeng -- even if they weren't in a bl and were simply friends, this storyline would still be incredibly compelling because even while they're not in a relationship, kawi and pisaeng keep challenging each other, keep changing each other, keep making each other better, more honest people.

when they're in bed together and kawi asks why pisaeng likes him, he says much of the same stuff he's said before: that pisaeng is better, richer, more handsome than him, that he can't understand what pisaeng sees in him. but he says it differently this time, not with anger or defiance like in the beginning of their friendship, but so honestly, he's able to open up to pisaeng in a way he never could before just because he has had pisaeng in his life and they have had an impact on each other.

i keep coming back to this because it's something i rarely see in stories and bmf is doing it AMAZINGLY. both of the protagonists go on a journey of growth and self-improvement through knowing each other, they literally make each other better. and even though kawi is not at a point where he can see them as equals, he can honestly talk about this now, can voice his feelings of insecurity in a way he was never able to before -- and so, pisaeng can say, well, i think you're cute, does there have to be anything more to it than that? he doesn't try to talk kawi out of his self-perception, merely states his own perception of him in a way kawi can't argue away. i think this is a smart writing choice because kawi has to accept that pisaeng finds him cute, he can't say "no you don't" without accusing him of lying.

and oh, my baby kawi being so incredibly deep in denial is tugging at my heartstrings. there's a very interesting parallel happening with kawi's singing, something he was obviously dreaming of as a career when he was a child but completely gave up on -- until pisaeng and pear helped him gain confidence to put himself out there once again. i think something very similar is happening with his sexuality: he has shoved the truth of himself so far back in his own mind that it takes a long time and the knowledge that pisaeng is into him for kawi to even entertain the thought of maybe also being into him maybe. there's a certain safety in that, just like there's safety in having pear there while he reads his song lyrics to a room full of people. and that's not a bad thing! this show has consistently shown (and outright told) us that people need to help each other, that literally no one is capable of making it on their own, that everyone deserves love and support. and kawi needs a lot of love and support to be able to even let himself think of pisaeng in romantic terms. i am seriously excited to see what happens next, now that kawi has crossed the line between them, now that he got a taste of what he could have if only he let himself.

there are probably a million things i haven't said that i can't think of right now. but every single episode leaves me more impressed than the last, the story is written SO well and presented in such a smart way, later revelations recontextualizing things we already know, and with every week, everything makes more and more sense. and learning more about their families really explains a lot about all three of them (god, i haven't even mentioned pear's rich upper-class alcoholic father, a lot to unpack there as well!), and how they got where they were in the og timeline as well as in the current timeline.

thanks for reading 😘

#be my favorite #be my favorite the series #*mine

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bluelotuswrites · 17 days

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hey blue <3 so i’ve been thinking about this for a while and i don’t know if it’s been asked before, but how do you come up with the titles for your fics?? they all have this air of catholic guilt and poetic power that just hits every time and i would love to know your process for coming up with them?

Honestly, it really depends.

Some of them have ties to real phrases ex. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil -> See No Evil, Speak No Evil Family Doesn't End in Blood

Some of them are vagueish connections to the story's content ex. Laying Down the Sword is kinda a connection to Jason's never-ending fight against crime until he decided to walk away (Also a very, very loose nod to Joan of Arc, who also carried a sword and fought in a battle until killed young) Like a Barbed Wire Noose -> pain from throat bad enough to feel like a barbed wire noose (if you've ever had strep throat, you'll know what I'm talking about.)

Some were courtesy of friends ex. My Soul Follows My Decay @speaching Hellblazer's Apprentice @duskyashe The Devil's Eyes and His Voice Behind was someone in a fandom server I'm in but I can't remember for the life of me who it was right now.

Some are more just because I loved how they were comedic/ironic ex. Two Rounds of Shots (But One's Alcohol and One's a Bullet) Hamlet Has Nothing on Me! Evil is Subjective and All I Wanted Was Some Fucking Sliced Bread

Others were more as pointed towards DC elements ex. Burn His Kingdom and Salt the Ashes -> Bruce is "Gotham's Prince" so Talia and Jason knock him off his pedestal Crumbling Pillars, Failing Foundations -> The security and tight-knitted dynamics of batfamily are falling apart. Bruce's rule and reputation that were placed on pillars are crumbling as the family sees the truth; and the foundation of trust is failing because of this.

There are (yet to be seen) titles that come from song lyrics, so go listen to the playlists I have if you want to try and get a hint ;)

I explained a bit of the origins of Red is the Color of Sinners series' name in this post. But also, I chose that name because both characters have a strong connection to the color red and considering Jason is a priest in one DC timeline, I kinda imagined he has some ties to religion and just went ham on it. Since Matt says he has the Devil in him and Jason does commit murder, they're both sinners (Hurrayyyy good ol' fashioned Catholic guilt) :D

On another note, in terms as to how I come up with them, I worked a very boring job at a grocery store and used to daydream the hell out of stuff for my stories to help kill time. Either that or they just kinda come to me when I'm sleeping or doing something like taking a shower or doing dishes, and then it's a mad scramble to write it down before I forget lol. Occasionally they'll go through name changes but for the most part, they stay the same.

#jason todd #batman #red is the color of sinners #dc #red hood #dc comics #my fanfic #daredevil #matt murdock #netflix daredevil #jason peter todd #robin ii #robin #hellblazer's apprentice #hellblazer comic #hellblazer #john constantine #asks

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izu · 6 days

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What is this twitter drama about Liu Kang?

i guess ill give context but it really is so fucking stupid it honestly doesn't even feel worth explaining.

basically i made a post that implied liu kang had more control over the timeline than he originally says he does, and that his emotions lead him to intentionally keep the timeline as close to the last one as possible, with few and obvious changes. this included "making sure" johnny's homelife was bad, and that his brother and father were still going to be abusive and serve as a hard lesson for cage.

people didn't like that i was talking about this, or more importantly that i was implying liu had direct control over individual champion lives. which is not at all what i was saying. my intent was to highlight the questionable ethics towards liu kang's intent to keep the new timeline as similar as possible. and how johnny specifically, if he ever found out about this, would be fuckin pissed. that's all. i wasn't even saying "this is how it is!" i was merely making a theoretical based on the little information we have about titan kang and his powers. and how little autonomy people like smoke, syzoth, sindel, kenshi, johnny etc would actually have in this situation.

we have a single game that tells us basically nothing about what he did/how he ensured everyone would be ready and willing for his tournament when it was finally time aside from showing up and recruiting them. at convenient and premeditated times, might i add.

it is undeniably true he had SOME insight to how things would play out. i think mindlessly accepting his "trust me bro" mindset is just boring, and i was theorizing that its intentional.

people got. UPSET. im talking like, calling me a dumbass, putting me publicly on blast bc they didn't agree and telling me i didnt play the game. 😭 like?? idk. it was never that serious but twitter does what twitter does and turned it into "lets laugh at him for daring to go against canon" kind of thing. i went to bed expecting no one to see it. i even debated with a really kind person who was willing to be respectful and be like "hey so he probably doesn't actually have any control over these factors at all". i wasn't expecting people to agree.

just so im not getting too long winded here, this is just how mk twitter is. there's a LOT of unnecessary fighting and vitriol, and basically every day there's a new thing the community is pissed and attacking others about. quite literally over the stupidest of shit that everyone involved is more than capable of scrolling away from.

#asks #anonymous #answered #i think playing with canon and coming up with new ideas that further explore the depth of characters you like is fun.#thats all.#we already know how liu kang feels about kitana. and how hes being respectful but still clearly has a thing for her.#idk it was blown way out of proportion #mktwt is miserable and they like fighting over nothing.#thats all #people even went as far to um ackshually about johnny not having a brother in older games? like yeah. he has a little sister instead.#whats your fuckin point lol

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cpn86457 · 8 days

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Mob distraught by milk after Mogami arc

/brain rot : Post Mogami arc, alternative timeline, OC included

Reading Mogami arc changed my brain. What if it actually changed Mob's psyche in the wrong ways?? What if Ekubo came in too late and he's already went ape shit, snapping and killing a student, leaving him mentally scarred. Ekubo gets him out of there with "you're in a dream, boy. This isn't real. Remember your real life, everyone loves you and you're working hard to become strong!" The usual thing and they manage to defeat Mogami. But the thought is there. If Mob managed to actually murder someone out of anger in that dream, what is he capable of in real life? What if he snaps? Mob becomes scared of himself. Milk becomes disgusting giving him nausea and he's more discreet than usual, shutting himself down. In the end, he manages to confess to Tsubomi, avoiding the truck accident but, what's the point He handles rejection extremely bad, self doubt and hate invading him. Both of his sides fighting each other and harming others around him. This is much worse than the original route. I was thinking about all of this as an alternative route of the canon story, including Mirai. I would love her to witness Mom's moral downfall while she's slowly healing in the wrong ways. Reigen in the middle of it is destined to die by Mob's hand, failing to bring him back. Mirai's presence in Asagiri's mansion somehow changed everything and triggered a snowball effect to the worst ending but the whole lore is to make her realize that even if she can see all the endings, she has to learn to stop avoiding confrontation, accept her past as a part of herself and not a mistake and open up to people to fix "bad endings" (She has a avoiding personality and runs away and shuts down the moment things go south). Reigen having to manage a depressed kid, an explosive grown woman and his mom harassing him to get married and have kids:

+++ Now I'm thinking harder: yes Mob will be afraid to hurt people and go insane. Wait until he remembers he already did it. This could either happen while Ritsu talks too much Or Mirai reveals it by reading his past (clairvoyance) "Wait, I thought you already knew it?" Imagine not being able to remember something that happened to you and proof is shown in front of you. Diabolical. The fear of harming leads to an easier loss of control.

#mp100 #mob psycho 100 #reigen arataka #mob shigeo #mp100 oc #mogami keiji #ritsu kageyama #mogami arc #alternative timeline #mp100 au #milk

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randomfandoms234 · 9 months

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Transformers au- I had this idea a bit ago of a bumblebee au it’s essentially all the bumblebees are the same bumblebee it starts with g1 bumblebee dying and waking up in cybertron recently coming from the allspark (either idw or bay verse first ) I thought about making in Optimus….but I feel like having g1 bumblebee slowly relive his life in different universes leaves more room for character growth. As bumblebee is more childish and kind….while the way this would go Optimus would already went through a lot of character growth. by the war for cybertron trilogy he’s just done and wants to stay as far away from the war as possible…what makes this funny is that after idw ,idw star screams ghost follows him between universes and now there’s two starscreams… I just love their dynamic and couldn’t keep it to just idw series and starscream will often make snarky comments about his other selves….mostly prime starscream in season three. He also talks smack about alot of the other Autobots particularly animated Sentinal whom is paying for bayverse Sentinal and idw Sentinal’s actions in the form of a ghost and a mini bot bullying him.

G1 goes pretty much the same , idw is bumblebee trying to figure out what the heck happened while slowly becoming wary of humans (why are these ones so mean?! The ones from my original timeline were nice ) becoming a ghost and being seen by only starscream will be explored more as I feel like in this he will be the first to find out. And unfortunately will still become a ghost :(.

Bayverse is bumblebee waking up in the middle of a war with starscream screaming at him to figure what the heck happened to which when bumblebee learns how to talk as he was just found as a sparkling in some rubble (I love the idea of bayverse Optimus finding Bumblebee in some rubble and adopting him really adorable) just looks at him like “yes I can see you and two this isn’t the first time this happened which just has ghostscream shouting “what do you mean?!” They still friends and the autobots just think bumblebee made an imaginary friend this arc is pretty much just Starscream or now dubbed ghostscream adjusting to being dragged along on bumblebees adventures….even though his best friend is now a sparkling heck he’s in the body of a sparkling. Yeah…the whole voice box either getting ripped out or damaged beyond repair trend has got him screaming out in fear but always to late to warn bumblebee. Magic changes to this is bumblebee being absolutely done.in the second movie he be thinking when Sam tries to convince him to go back to Optimus is ‘no please I don’t want to be dragged back into that shit again.’ He and ghostscream do eventually learn to use sign language in this. Ghostscream be seeing these decepticons just being evil for no reason and is like “atleast we had a reason what the heck?!” Ghostscream also hates the humans and will absolutely shout “Finally! We can show them a thing or to for constantly picking fight with autobots who knew if you pushed hard enough they’d fight back-oh wait I did!”

Animated has the most changes just from bumblebees personality alone. Bumblebee in this would be quiet calm, kind and diplomatic….but also an absolute menace when it comes to Sari. He would be more adept in the boot camp (which I feel in he would be dragged into) and would leave with Bulkhead when he was kicked out of the boot camp. He wouldn’t suspect Wasp for being a Decepticon spy because in IDW he was a part of spec ops. Leaving because he wanted a break from all the drama (which ghostscream wholeheartedly agrees with after the whole Bayverse drama ) only to be screaming in his head when he finds out he’s apart of Optimus’s team he now knows things will end up going to sh*t soon but he decides to enjoy a break while he can. Him being more calm despite his young age changes most of the character dynamics. (I feel like the older bot’s would think something bad happened in his sparklinghood that made him the way he is ) This would also have a heavy hit on the plot as one of the Allspark shards makes ghost scream semi-visible and able to be heard but still not able to be touched. Yea…that will be alot of explaining to do. You know that black stuff that shows Bumblebee didn’t leave his prison dimension fine and dandy that most likely killed Omega Suprime yea that shows up when he’s angry and longarm/shockwave notices that won't be good…

Primverse has ghostscream hating on Megatron even more (he followed his other self to the nemesis only to see Megatron jab a Chrystal into his spark chamber with no care on how it would effect him he is screeching his head off at how unsafe that was to bumblebee later whom started using sign language again. Cue more bullying and Unicon stating something about bumblebees weird death touch thing. I also feel during out of his head Meagtron finds out about Ghost scream. Due to Ghostscream telling him to get out of bee’s f*king head. He then reveals the other being that resides around bumblebee which then in turn allows the rest of the team to figure it out.. The kids end up asking ghostscream a lot of questions and bumblebee would translate for star scream and Raf will translate for bee. Will also cover robt and the games when I come up for ideas for this

The war for cybertron trilogy is just a bunch of misadventurss of bee and ghost scream avoiding the factions and attempting to stay neutral (then the alpha trion protocol happens and bee has another voice in his head telling him to go be Optimus’s friend which is another time of Ghostscream screaming in the background )

Cyber verse is a trip because bee losing his voice but also because wind blade is there. And bumblebee loses his memorys which the first arc of this would be ghostscream desperately trying to find out how to help him. I think it would be funny if Starscream got dragged into bees he's as well during those sections, just for the giggles of wind blades reaction. Starscream would also find out about ghost him hilarity ensues. Bumblebee probably tried a lot for the revolution to still happen but not the war. Cheetor also knows cause he can weirdly sense ghost screams spark

The new movie verse also is. a trip because bumblebees Coma Sector 7 is horrible to Bee and ghost scream knowing his ‘friend’ is alive but in a coma….he likes Charlie because they were kind and weren't like…most of the other humans. Bee has to get used to the name change till he can find a valid way to change it with weird looks on what the heck a bumblebee is. Rotb is a trip due to Mirage ( they aren't used to middle-child Mirage) and Bumblebee dying..again. This universe is going to give Ghostscream a panic attack

Earth spark is just. Bumblebee doesn't care anymore eye just wants to live with his new family in peace so whenever a Decepticon shows up around him it's more of a “you can stay at my place but if you do anything to harm my kids I will end you” :) He’s…… just indifferent at this point There's probably going to be a bit which is just Bee and the kids (and ghoatscream) hiding the Decepticons from Megs and Optimus when asked why he's doing this he just says “I agreed with a lot of the stuff the Decepticons said at the start of the war but a lot of stuff happened and I ended up siding with the Autobots and being on earth has taught me the difference between nice organisations and shady and most likely are evil ones and Ghost isas shady as they come”. He seen how most organizations treat their kind and he sees the signs in ghost. Surprisingly this makes him a lot of new friends and the kids just look at bee and find themselves agreeing with him. They eventually meet ghostscream via science experiments and ghostscream is like “you kids are cool” because he is also indifferent at this point

Might make this story to help get rid of my writers block :)

#transformers #transformers bumblebee #bumblebee #starscream #transformers earthspark #transformers prime #transformers bayverse #transformers cyberverse #*more #This thought has entered my head and refuses to leave #temporary au name is bee of the multiverse but I don't really like it so does anyone have any suggestions?#Bee of the multiverse au

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wystericwoes · 9 months

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Doomed, Sukuna x reader Pt. 2

Masterlist

Warnings: Cursing, violence, gore, descriptions of blood/death, anxiety, it’s JJK so death and fighting are inevitable. Season 1 and Movie 0 spoilers

Adding a whole new character to a pre-established story means some things in the canon are going to be changed. I try my best to stay on the same line and remain honorable to the original characters personalities/timelines so keep that in mind if something doesn't make sense. Or give me some feedback! I'd love to hear it.

“He was her dark fairytale and she was his twisted fantasy. Together they made magic.”

His state was laughable.

To say Sukuna felt a storm of emotions was the understatement of the fucking century.

He’s going crazy. That’s it. He’s been away from his own soul and was in his own domain for so long he’s hallucinating.

“Yuuji is currently harboring a special grade curse. I told you he never ceases to impress me!”

Gojo said with confidence, Yuuji smiled from the compliment.

You locked eyes back to where the second pair was, but when you went to look back all that was there were two eye shaped scars.

“A special grade curse? Like the thing I saw?”

“Oh no. That was just a grade 3. A special grade is the highest level, almost in the same league as I am.”

You didn’t know the extent of Gojo's power, so whenever he would say shit like that you didn’t really have a frame of reference. So, you took most of what he said with a grain of salt, because assuming there was a reason for all his confidence and it wasn't all just talk- that he was actually as strong as he said he was, made you feel abnormally peeved.

That brief second you had seen those eyes you felt a sense of Deja vu. But not a nostalgic one, one that stuck with you like a glue trap.

Life moved on. You met the other students and teachers, slowly sinking into this new and flawed reality that has become your life. Gojo never leaves your side the whole day.

Your attempts at channeling cursed energy were a total bust. And quite frankly- very embarrassing.

You tried everything that your very annoying mentor told you.

“Focus”

“Breathe.”

“Think of something negative.”

"Try thinking about things that stress you out."

"Try a reallyyy bad memory!"

"What's something that gets you angry?"

“Close your eyes and count to five, then start again.”

“Have you tried breathing?”

You couldn’t conjure anything. It’s like you didn’t even have powers at all.

You felt like both a disappointment and like giving up. Gojo kept on fucking insisting that you keep trying for some reason. He would just not let it go.

“Maybe you’re just a slow learner. That’s fine- “

You groaned in frustration.

“Maybe I don’t have any ‘magic powers’ and I’m just really unlucky and can only see them.”

At first you were excited, you had superpowers. What could you do??

But that opinion slowly changed as the sun began to set. It had felt like hours that you were out here trying all these moves and techniques. After so many times hitting the air and straining your muscles you began to feel ridiculous.

You had barely even seen it in action, so you didn’t even have anything to go off of

You were about to give up when Gojo stood behind you and put a hand on your shoulder, fanning his breath against your ear.

“Come on. Just one more try, hm?”

He snaked his hand down from your shoulder to your waist, and with the other one he held your arm out.

Heat rose to your cheeks as you tried to hide the increasing tension that he had created.

“Think of something that makes you feel strong emotion.”

The first thing that came to mind was what it would feel like to fuck the man behind you. Was he doing this on purpose?

What he was into, all the positions. If he’s really as strong as you think he is what could he do to you?

Images flashed through your mind of the not holiest of things, your body heated up as he rested his chin on your shoulder, and you struggled to keep your hand held out as goosebumps were sent down your spine from how close he was to you. Each breath sent a shock through your body as you grew increasingly more sensitive.

He was definitely doing this on purpose.

“Satoru…” you had whispered out.

His hand on your waist moved down to your hips as he began to squeeze harder, that made you feel something carnal. A warmth spread through your body, and you suddenly felt electric as the tips of your fingers lightly pulsed.

You were facing him, faces so close you thought he would kiss you.

He went to nibble on your earlobe which elicited a small moan from the sudden sensation.

His chin rested back on your shoulder.

“Look.” He whispered softly in your ear.

You looked forward for the first time in a moment and noticed a white light was emitting itself from your hand.

“WOAH!”

You were shocked out of it, and it quickly flickered out and died as you jumped back further into Gojo's arms.

“Easy now…” he supported your weight as you leaned against him for support.

“That… did that happen?”

Your heart was racing.

“Mhm.”

He spun you around by your waist as you looked at where his eyes are through the blindfold. You didn’t know if he could see you, but you pretended he could.

“I did that.”

“You sure did.”

He was smiling warmly as if he had just accomplished something.

“You’re not fucking with me?”

“Nope”

“You didn’t do that.”

“Correct!”

“I did that.”

You awkwardly laughed.

“How?”

“I knew you could.”

That praise he had given you along with his smile drove you mad. You both wanted to kiss him and pounce on him and hug him. All at once maybe.

"Go rest. You deserve it."

You felt accomplished and proud of yourself. although a bit disappointed he didn't want to come with you, you took a win as a win, and happily walked away.

The second you turned the corner, his smile dropped.

Gojo returned to his home, deep in thought.

he took his blindfold off and took in his surroundings.

It didn't make any sense. You didn't make any sense.

His whole worldview had been shifted within the span of two days. There's never been many points where the great Gojo Satoru had been completely stumped. Well, he had his theories. But those were just theories. had to figure out how to test them.

He paced around his house as he contemplated whether or not to ask for help. His pride was inflated, but he could admit when he was unable to do something.

Gojo: NANAMIIINN~ I have a question.

Nanami: Do you need to ask me?

Gojo: You're the only one who knows how to keep a secret- everyone else blabs :(

Nanami: That entirely depends on your question, Gojo.

Gojo: Has any sorcerer you ever know ever used reversed curse magic on accident?

Nanami: Why would I know that any better than you?

Gojo: I really need help.

Nanami: How serious is it?

Gojo: If I'm asking you for help...

Nanami: I have a mission tomorrow and will be at the academy for a brief period. If you catch me before then and keep it quick, we can talk.

Gojo: Ok!!! what time is your mission?

Gojo: Nanami?

Gojo: NANNAAAMMMIIIIIIIII >:0

Gojo tossed his phone aside. He had a blank expression on his face.

Every time he would find an answer there’s be more questions. One step toward two steps back

"What are you hiding, Y/n..."

The next day Gojo had left early before you’d be awake when Nanami always gets up (how he is always at work at 5:30 precisely is beyond him)

He sat impatiently tapping his finger at Nanami's desk reading “5:28”

Just before Gojo was tempted to start digging through his stuff Nanami walked in.

“Now, what’s the issue?”

Nanami sat with his elbow on the desk fist clenched against his mouth.

“I see.”

“When I tell you to keep this a secret, I mean it.”

Nanami understood when Gojo was being serious, which was exceptionally rare- and respected that.

“I have no interest in sharing this information.”

He sat deep in thought eyebrows furrowed and eyes closed.

“And I’ve never heard of anything like that, no.”

“I figured.” He sat with the chair facing backwards and his legs on either side.

“You should go to Shoko about this. I’m afraid this isn’t something I know much about.”

“It’s not just that, there’s more to it.”

Nanami listened respectfully as he began dutifully typing away on his computer and started working.

“I can’t see them, Nanami.”

At that he stopped typing, eyes slightly widening.

“I don’t know much, but I know three things. They have a subliminal cursed technique protecting them from six eyes, they naturally used reversed cursed energy, and- “

He took a deep breath.

“Sukuna has been awfully quiet since they arrived.”

Gojo wasn’t proud of seeking help. But Nanami was one of the closest things he had to a friend, and he was the only person he knew at the academy that had no incentive to tell anyone like Mei Mei for money, or power.

The thing about him was that he was loved by everyone but also- no one could fucking stand him. He knows that most his fellow faculty was not above snitching him out to the higher ups or using his emotions against him. Finding a weakness for him was rare after all.

But also, he was consistently lying to everyone around him about you. So, if they had found out about this, there would’ve been too many questions. And being entirely honest with people was sometimes so tiring.

Gojo's desperation was a new look on him. He managed to keep most of it under wraps around you and his peers, but he was losing it.

He had one option left wherein he could get answers.

Hidden to only a select few is a sacred library of sorcerer archives. There it contains every recorded detail of jujutsu history, every student, every crime and name.

It was buried deep within the thousand doors by Tengen, alongside the special grade curses.

It was dusty, and papers with engravings on them were sprawled in every corner.

He shifted through books trying to find what he was looking for, or anything relating to his situation.

There were thousands of years of history, documents, death dates, curses, and the works. He went over all of those without a second glance.

“Reverse cursed energy”

Was the first title to grab his attention.

He flipped through the pages at an ungodly speed, until he reached the page of all known documented users who have used mastered reverse cursed energy.

Present time: (2000- )

-Shoko Ieiri

status- active duty

A very skilled woman who serves as the school's doctor. Has a full understanding and mastery of the technique.

-Geto Suguru

status- deceased

A special-grade sorcerer whose activity was hard to monitor after he went rogue. Not much is known about all he’s capable of except that he can access the technique with the skill of at least a Grade 1 sorcerer. During his time at the academy, he was incredibly skilled, and most likely had control over the technique.

-Kinji Hakari

status- student

A third-year student of immense potential currently suspended for clashing with authority. He has demonstrated immense control over the technique and has a promising future outside his behavioral conflicts.

-Gojo Satoru

status- active duty

A current teacher at Jujutsu high, along with many other mastered techniques he also demonstrates a full control over this technique.

-Okkotsu Yuta

status- student

One of the youngest special-grade sorcerers, Yuta's powers are still not fully understood. A prodigy-born sorcerer who without any extensive training can use it at a skilled level. With no prior knowledge of reverse cursed energy, he successfully healed his peers using the technique in the battle of Geto's invasion.

A person having natural control over reversed cursed energy or knowing it without being taught wasn’t completely unheard of.

What stumped Gojo was that it was the first ever cursed technique you used, and just how enigmatic you were overall. All while being seemingly unaware.

This had proved to be almost entirely useless. He flipped through the pages again scanning to see if anything else would be helpful, he almost skipped past the historical section in the old archives, but decided looking at it wouldn’t hurt.

He browsed through alphabetically of all known sorcerers to have used the technique at a profound mastery or skilled level.

When he got to R something stood out.

Ryomen Sukuna

And just like that, the first red string had been drawn across the cork board tying a correlation.

He closed the book. Somehow a little more satisfied and more frustrated than when he first went in.

Sukuna. Sukuna. Sukuna.

You said his name over and over again in your mind like a prayer.

When Gojo mentioned that name you couldn’t get over that odd feeling that came over you

You wanted to be near him again. But also felt a gut-wrenching nervousness overcome you. Drawn to him like an addictive substance, something you can tell will be bad for you, but you just can't get enough.

Deep deep down something told you to run.

But you suppressed that carnal urge and instead let your brain guide you to your innate desire to know more about him.

You assumed because of curiosity. People can actually get possessed? Well, Yuuji didn’t look very possessed. I mean, all you had to base was on movies, so your judgment wasn’t exactly valid. You didn't know what to look for, blood from the nose, head spinning backward, ominous floating?

You speculated on that until you heard footsteps approaching your door. You were excited because you wanted to see Gojo.

You jumped up to open your door and instead of being met with him, you were met by Yuuji.

“Um hey, I’m supposed to bring you down so we can be briefed on a mission.”

He seemed hesitant; you assumed it was just because he didn’t know you that well.

“Mission...?”

You were so mad at Gojo. His pretty ass face didn’t make it up to you this time.

The day after you managed to conjure up the smallest amount of energy, he lets you be thrown headfirst into the actual field.

“This is going to be a way to test your range of abilities and get some hands-on experience!” That is what he told you before he left to go far away for something. He said that he was gonna be gone away for a while and was gonna be far.

So, then it was you, a man with glasses and dark hair, and three high school students.

The man with the glasses barely spoke a word on the drive there. You were going in almost completely blind, in this scenario you wondered if ignorance was truly bliss.

The remains of a long abandoned middle school. The sky was cloudy, the air was stale. You already didn’t like the feeling of this place.

The man in black addressed the four of you.

“The curse inside is most likely above your grades.”

Megumi was the only one who didn’t appear to be phased by that. What does he mean above? He could see the concern on all of your faces.

“Then why are we here?”

“Unfortunately, in this field, the availability of sorcerers is spread thin.”

His brows were furrowed, and he seemed concerned for you all.

“I only have one piece of advice for you going in… If this curse ends up being a special grade your two options are to run or die.”

If you weren’t scared before, you were now. You could feel your heartbeat inside you, did you have a choice? I mean you weren’t supposed to fight… they just wanted you to watch or so they said.

“I wish you luck.”

He muttered words under his breath, and above you a dark cloud engulfed around the building in a dome shape, effectively trapping you.

“What the hell?!”

Seeing your shock Megumi explained it to you.

“The veil is a way to make sure no passerby’s see, because of the stress it inflicts it could cause problems for us.”

Megumi was quieter between the two of the eccentric characters, he was a bit of the odd one out between them. But his seriousness was a good balance to the playful nature of his comrades. Tactile and good at making decisions in stressful situations.

Yuuji- well you didn’t know much about him other than what Gojo told you. But he seemed nice. Nervous, but a sweet kid. And also, incredibly passionate about finding any survivors or at least their bodies. You admired him and also feared of that.

The mission was simple- destroy the cursed womb, or retreat and take minimal casualties.

Your brain went back to the sight of the woman who had been murdered in front of you. Was this another curse like that? Some gangrenous mutant of absolute evil?

You had to calm yourself and trust that Gojo wouldn’t have let you be put into danger.

And so, you approached the abandoned building.

You wanted to prove something. You weren’t sure what or to who, but you felt the burden of expectations laid onto you.

Megumi quickly briefed you all on what he was instructed to do, and what role everyone was to play. An underlying tone of irritation laced his words, probably because he was stuck with three people who barely knew what they were doing.

Yuuji was supposed to stay with you at all times, and ensure you were never left alone. Yuuji specifically.

Nobara was there to add extra power, and of course give her some in the field experience.

You were told to just “stay in the sidelines” which felt a little degrading considering you were their senior.

Megumi was to make sure everyone followed their roles and keep everyone safe. His cursed ability allowed him to scout areas and cover more ground.

That was a lot of responsibility for one person, but if Gojo trusted him, you did too.

Megumi was essentially the group leader, and as much as you were embarrassed by having to follow orders from someone younger than you- you knew your safety was on the line.

From the shadows underneath Megumi's hand emerged a monster- no. A dog. Megumi explained that he was there to help you all keep track of your surroundings and smell out the threat. When you saw Nobara and Yuuji petting him you couldn’t help but join in. You felt a bit more at ease.

Yuuji was in a mission the second you all walked in. You admired the passion in his eyes as he made a promise out loud that these families would be getting their kids back, or at the very least closure.

When you walked in you were overwhelmed by the sight above you. A series of intricate pipes and structure that went on for seemingly dozens of stories above you.

“Wasn’t this a two-story building?”

Nobara asked concerned.

Megumi was focused, deep in thought as he took in the surroundings around him. Then his eyes widened as he turned around, a moment of realization hitting him like a harsh slap.

“The door…”

You all turned around much to your dismay to see that the door you had come in was gone.

You were fully in the lion's den now. And all that anxiety you had was intensified as you realized there was no turning back.

That all too familiar feeling of shallow breaths and adrenaline shot through you as you did what you could to keep it together. It would be really embarrassing if you had a panic attack in front of these three strangers.

Megumi continued forward supernaturally calm, which made you feel slightly better. He was treating this like it was entirely normal, Yuuji and Nobara followed behind making you feel left out by how unnerving this situation made you feel. Like a sheep, you followed the herd on instinct.

Walking through the halls of this building was an absolute fever dream. You felt disoriented as you wondered this new territory.

Megumi sent one of his demon dogs out as you and the group continued on until you entered a big empty room- something grabbed you and Yuuji's attention.

A dead body, severed in half.

His eyes were bloodshot from fear, mouth agape and surrounded in a pool of dark liquid.

You had become frozen in shock, feeling bile rise up in your throat that you had to hesitantly swallow.

“Is… is that…”

You had your hand against your mouth.

Yuuji approached the body without a second thought, crouched in front of it he read the name tag.

“This is that lady’s son.”

The entire mood shifted. Megumi was unfazed, Yuuji looked angry.

He picked the remains of the body up and sling the torso over his shoulder.

“What’s re you doing?”

Megumi furrowed his brows at him.

“We need to bring the body back to her. we couldn’t save him, but she at least deserves closure.”

“Our job isn’t to save people Itadori, it’s to eliminate curses.”

“How can you say that? No one deserves to not know what happened to their own kid!”

The argument became heated quickly. The air was tense, you and Nobara awkwardly standing next to each other.

“We have to prioritize ourselves first. Don’t go around thinking that saving someone is always worth it, this guy here? He’s responsible for the death of a girl.”

Yuuji's eyes widened, he was still angry, but he was stunned quiet.

Just before he opened his mouth, Nobara fell into a dark hole right next to you.

You gasped from shock and jumped back.

“Can you two stop arguing, I think there’s something more important to fucking focus on right now!”

When your anxiety was full swing you didn’t have that much of a filter. Which was justified, considering that as these two boys were having their pissing contest and someone next to you just fucking sank into the ground.

They turned their heads over to you, but before they could say anything they both froze into place from absolute primal fear.

Something was standing next to them.

You watched wide eyed and terrified as a white humanoid creature with four eyes stood between them. Appearing out of nowhere. The most sickening and visceral smile on its face.

Before they even had the time to process it Yuuji went to punch it, his pure reaction time was incredible. And his ability to not be scared in the face of danger.

Megumi wasted no time.

“RUN!”

The one who was supposed to be the strongest and in charge just instructed you to fucking flee, so you weren’t gonna question it.

The last thing you remember was absolute chaos ensuing. Yuuji was missing a hand, blood spraying from random directions upon where the impact had happened.

Megumi sent one of his cursed techniques after it, but it immediately vanished as it was eviscerated into a pile of black goo and sunk into the ground evaporating into nothingness.

That thing had killed it as quick as it had appeared.

Run. Run. RUN

“Go!”

Megumi and Yuuji still persisted as they blocked a path for you to retreat to safety.

You had turned around to book it, the purest of instincts was absolutely encompassing you in stress. It pushed past your anxiety; you had no time to overthink the situation as your feet carried you.

The hallway closed itself off in front of your face to solid wall. You had just barely stopped yourself from slamming into it, bracing your hands against the hard material, palms stinging.

A deer in headlights, a mouse on a landslide, a baby bird to a snake.

You wanted to help. You realized there was no sure way of escape, and that these two boys were fighting themselves to death so the curse wouldn’t reach you.

Guilt, dread, fear, anger, and above all else frustration. You had just lost your whole life, been dragged to some high school and your only explanation to how they were dealing with it was “we’re taking care of it”

You could’ve lost your job by now, your house could’ve been robbed in your absence, your life had just been turned around and with no fucking reasonable explanation.

You took a step back, the environment around you was fucking warping itself- you weren’t in the same building.

Buried in your basest instincts and fear deep down resided a feeling you had never felt before.

Watching Yuuji lose his arm served as a catalyst for something awakening itself inside of you. A rage that you had suppressed, a protective instinct.

Something that had been dormant for years- buried beneath every stress and inhibitor of your life. You were just so tired of being weaker, of not knowing anything.

There were no thoughts about what happened next. There was no reasoning or technique or explanation. Which seemed to be the new theme of your life.

You ran towards the curse. Megumi was knocked down, and Yuuji was losing so much blood it was almost surreal.

You raised your arms up before the hit landed, and when its fist went to meet you, it hit nothing. Or, more specifically, it stopped inches from you, an invisible barrier had manifested over the spot it tried to reach its impact.

Its sick smile dropped.

“Yuuji!” You shouted at him.

Wasting no time to seize the opportunity of this invisible barrier, you took action.

He was dazed from his blood loss; he blinked up at you.

“What will it take you to get Sukuna out?!”

His eyes widened.

“I-I can’t while I’m not alone. He could hurt you and Megumi!”

“Can’t you choose when he comes out?”

“Yeah, but I can’t see what he does while he is…”

He was in pain, albeit keeping his composure well considering his circumstances. Megumi was still standing but a hand clutched his side and breathing heavily.

You realized that you were the adult. You were the only one capable of making decisions. You didn’t allow yourself the privilege of thinking, you just acted.

“Do it! I’ll get us out of here!”

Yuuji looked at you with uncertainty.

You turned your head over to Megumi.

“Can you escape??”

He nodded. Whatever was the reason he trusted you, he did without second thought unlike Yuuji.

From the shadows emerged a giant bird-like creature, Megumi hopped on as he looked at you with a fleeting worried look.

“Go without me, look for Nobara!”

The curse had attempted to launch itself at Megumi, but before it could Yuuji intercepted it bloodied and beaten, a look of concentration etched into his face as he punched it right in the face.

You felt a sliver of hope inch its way back into you. Yuji seemingly making his own self-discovery and making a breakthrough.

You watched Megumi fly upwards out of sight.

He didn’t know why he trusted you, it could’ve been stress, or maybe he was just that out of it and shocked.

But what he did know was that the cursed energy he felt off of you was the strongest in the room.

“Do it now!!”

“What about- “

“JUST FUCKING DO IT!”

You felt a little bad for yelling at him, especially with the shocked face he gave you. But considering the circumstances, and the fact that hesitance could lead to death- you couldn't feel bad right now.

A small part of you was worried, worried about what Sukuna was like, and if he would hurt you. But you also knew that as long as he did come out, the curse would be dead and everyone else would be safe.

You were heaving and had never felt more adrenaline in your life.

A chemically induced high was pumping through your very veins each second as the stress of the environment around you increased.

You were in a zone of intense focus past any feeling anything had ever given you before. Sports, drugs, sex, anything.

You didn’t know if you had the raw power to take it head-on, but a newfound power and recklessness had overcome you in that moment.

You braced yourself to be hit again, knees bent and stance strong. Nothing in your life had ever been as clear to you as the sight in front of you.

you were so in tune with your environment that when you watched the curse lunge at you it was as if it was in slow motion, the things you only ever saw in movies were happening in front of you.

You could feel and hear each individual beat of your own heart, each pump of blood was felt throughout every end of your body.

Then, like lightning, the curse stepped away from you terrified.

You were confused. Why did this keep happening to you. Were you seriously that badass? Or maybe even curses couldn’t stand you.

“How annoying. Stupid fucking brat.”

A low gravelly voice behind you resounded through your brain and settled in like water to an open flame.

A man stepped between you and the curse, and in what was no more than a fraction of a second the curse's head twisted like a soda can, and it collapsed with a crude thud.

You stood there unmoving. Now you were really a deer in headlights. Staring at Yuuji… or at least Yuuji's body- completely and indubitably in shock.

One hand in his pocket, other sticking out

There was no primal instinct. There was no more fear. There was only a feeling of blankness every second you stared at him.

He turned around slowly to face you.

He had Yuuji's clothes, hair, and his face…

But it wasn't Yuji.

When his eyes met yours, you had just experienced a feeling you hadn’t felt before.

A solar flare, a word about to be spoken, the brief moment before the wick of a candle lights up as the match is held to it.

His eyes… those infinite Irises that looked straight through you as if there was nothing that could ever be secret. You were glass, completely transparent and vulnerable to him- So easy to break.

You two stood in silence for a moment. His face was unreadable, unlike yours which was lit up like you had been struck by lightning.

It was something inside of you metaphysically that was magnetized to him. Even though you knew you shouldn’t. Instinct fighting emotion.

He eyed you up and down putting his other hand in a pocket. You were so stunned you hadn’t even realized that he had hands again.

You opened your mouth to speak but nothing came out.

He turned around from you and just began walking away.

“Wait...”

You began to become dizzy before you could finish, you almost fell over from the feeling of vertigo spreading across your body faster than you had time to think.

Your knees buckled under you and your vision faltered. You saw double as you tried catching yourself but ultimately fell down to one knee.

“Your body isn’t used to cursed energy.”

You looked up at the voice to see him facing you again.

You tried to pull yourself up but failed, a sudden pain in your chest and limbs growing heavy as your fighters high left.

“You overexerted yourself. Don’t try to get up.”

“Aren’t you supposed to... to hurt me?”

You said between ragged breaths.

You closed your eyes for a split second, and he was on his feet crouched over, looking into your eyes.

“Does it look like I want to hurt you?”

Still his expression was entirely blank. He was completely unreadable.

“I don’t know… that's what… what everyone says.”

You tried again to get up, but your body collapsed onto itself, and you barely held yourself up with your knees and hands.

“What did I tell you moron? I try to do something nice, and no one listens.”

“Sorry…”

You didn’t know why you were apologizing to him. He sighed and stared right into you.

“You’re more useful to me if you stay alive this time.”

He said sounding frustrated.

Before you had the chance to think about that, he pressed a finger to your head, and you collapsed unconscious.

Your mouth was dry, body was sore, and on top of that, you woke up in a bed that wasn’t yours.

You felt exhausted in every way and did not have it in you deal with being in a stranger's home.

Y’know that feeling of being hungover on whiskey? Yeah, that. But also add a triathlon marathon, a forming migraine, and seven bar fights.

You sat up barely, able to get your bearings and take in your surroundings.

White bed and silk sheets, modern furniture, abstract art…

Expensive lights, hardwood floors.

A rack of expensive black sunglasses.

Wait.

There’s no way. What the hell happened between the fight and now??

With very slow and careful motions, you managed to get up from under the sheets and sit on the outside of the bed. Your back was slouched, and hands gripped the comforter as you struggled to fight against what felt like seventeen dumbbells sitting on top of you.

You managed to finally stand up and move around, albeit slowly and sluglike.

Rubbing one hand to your forearm you looked down to notice a half healed yellow bruise several inches in length.

“What the hell...?”

Maybe you were actually in seven bar fights.

As you took each step your migraine blossomed further into discomfort.

You let out an audible groan as you moved around feeling like seven bags of horse shit left out in the sun too long- and smelled like it too.

Limping your way out of the room you squinted your eyes at the sudden invasion of light. Huge windows covered what you could assume was the living room.

It was daytime, how long had it been though?

You were in more pain than self-conscientious and began shamelessly rummaging through cabinets absentmindedly looking for anything.

Advil, ibuprofen, some fucking weed even?

You had a sharp pain to you ribs which made you almost fall but you managed to catch yourself with one hand on the expensive marble countertops of an absolutely stunning modernized kitchen.

“Don’t hurt yourself even more while you’re here, I’ll feel bad!”

A voice shocked you out of your painful daze.

You whipped your head around which made your migraine peak into a spike of pain, causing you let out a sharp hiss.

“Satoru.”

You said angrily, but honestly you were somewhat relieved. A familiar face after all the shit that you had been through the past few days was nice.

“You probably have a lot of questions huh?”

Your eyes were closed shut as you rubbed your hand in circles against your temple trying to alleviate the pain. To sore to even make a “no shit” remark

“Well first of all sit down.”

He pointed to a stool against his kitchen island

You immediately went to do it. Not having the energy to protest.

He began opening up drawers and pulling things out as he spoke.

“I’ll just go ahead and start from the beginning. You were assigned to go fight a special grade curse with a few first years including Sukunas vessel- Yuuji.”

He popped open a bottle of pain killers and filled a glass of water

“Because of you everyone made it out alive.”

Everyone? So Megumi and Nobara made it out safe. You relaxed a little feeling slightly less stressed. At least your state of shittiness was worth something. He slid the glass and pills over to you from across the counter

The first thing you noticed was his shirt. He was wearing a loose long sleeve that barely hung over his shoulders, showing his perfect fucking collarbones and neck off to you.

“You look slutty.”

You said before you popped the pills and downed the glass of water like you had never drank any before.

Choosing to ignore your remark, he continued speaking.

“Everyone is safe. And that’s because of you.”

“I think you’re giving me too much credit. Megumi and Yuuji did all the fighting.”

“That’s not exactly true, but even then you told everyone what to do and led them all out safely, without even having done this before. I was pretty impressed when I heard.”

You weren’t gonna admit that you liked his praise, but you turned your head away from him so you didn’t make eye contact to hide your flushed face.

“They found you unconscious on the side of the building. Do you remember anything?”

You recalled the events to him the best you could, but it was all a blur. You remembered going in, Nobara vanishing beneath you, Yuuji losing a hand… all the traumatizing and gory details.

“So you don’t remember what you did?”

“A little… I think I got in the way of one of its hits and that’s why I’m so sore now.”

He smiled and chuckled at you smugly

“Oh no. If you were actually hit by it you would totally be dead by now,”

“You’re fucking with me.”

“Not this time!”

He leaned himself on the opposite side of the counter to you with his elbows and one hand under his chin.

“You used cursed energy. A lot.”

“How?!”

“You tell me babe! All I know is what Megumi and Yuuji told me.”

You didn’t remember seeing any cursed energy…

“You seriously don’t remember what happened?”

You shook your head at him annoyed

“You took several hits from it. But you managed to concentrate cursed energy to the places just before it hit it, so the brunt of the force was blocked but some of the energy still hit you because your technique is still very underdeveloped."

You stared at him half with curiosity and half with confusion, he took your silence as a way to keep talking.

“Your body isn’t used to manifesting or controlling cursed energy like most sorcerers do, and the raw power output you were emitting was more than you could take. It’s probably why you passed out.”

You were lost in thought. There’s something missing. You don’t know what…

“Also, you got really lucky. You got out just before Sukuna did, and so the curse was successfully exorcised, you did good work!”

The more you tried to look back on memories of what happened the more your migraine increased. You wanted to ask questions, but you didn’t know what to ask. There were too many blank spaces and fragments missing from it, he was hiding something.

“Why am I here?”

Gojo perked up and stuck a pointed finger up

“Because my superiors want you dead.” He said so as if it was nothing like the weather report.

“WHAT?!”

You were nearly shocked out of your migraine.

“Relax, they’re not gonna do anything about it.”

“Why do they want me dead?!”

“Because you’ve got something that they haven’t seen in a while, and they’re all conservative old goats who are scared of change.”

Your mouth was agape, staring at Gojo and how nonchalant he was about this.

“You’re acting really calm about this.”

“Well that’s because they’re not gonna do anything about it. Not as long as you stay close to me.”

“Wow I’m honored.”

“You should be! Now, go get ready.”

“Ready for what?”

“We’re going out!”

Even though this wasn’t the first time, it was still a surprise being spoiled like this.

Part of you felt bad but also part of you started getting used to it.

Gojo had thrown on a loose button down shirt, and a pair of his signature specs.

At first you were worried that he wouldn’t have anything for you, but as if he couldn’t have gotten more stalkery before by kidnapping you from a hospital bed and putting you in his- he had also broken into your house and taken some of your clothes.

“You didn’t do anything to these did you?”

“Not this time. Next time maybe”

He teased and you rolled your eyes

He had taken you that night to a semi nice restaurant. You thought it was super fancy but Gojo insisted it was just “okay” which absolutely infuriated you.

You could tell he was breaking you in when you accepted the expensive champagne.

From an outsiders perspective, you two looked incredibly romantic. Combined with his flirtatiousness and touchiness and your bluntness, you got those stares of jealousy from so many random people being seen with him. He loved the attention, the stares and the sparkle in everyone’s eyes when he smiled at them, you on the other hand, had never felt more out of place.

He kept getting numbers from left and right, and he accepted them all. Which was just a crude reminder that you weren’t special, and that this treatment hes been giving you probably was given to someone else before too.

You managed to keep your bearing and nod along as you started walking through the streets at night and admiring the stars. Still a little tipsy from the champagne.

“You’re being awfully quiet.”

You looked over at him and he had slightly pink cheeks from being buzzed himself

“Just nothing to talk about”

You lied

“Wanna head back home then?”

Home. When he said it like that it almost sounded like you two were a couple. You closed your eyes and fought the urge to fantasize about domestic bliss. That this was just a normal date out with a guy who liked you and not him being forced to take care of someone.

You nodded your head slowly. Anxiety creeping it’s way back into your veins as you felt like a burden to him

“You’re sad.”

“Am not.”

“I’m not an idiot.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

He sighed and put his hands in his pockets

“That’s how I know you’re sad. Because if you weren’t you would’ve disagreed with me.”

You didn’t know if it was hormones, the alcohol, or the fact that your life has been ripped from you in the past few days but you were getting emotional.

“I’m not!”

You looked away from him and your lip quivered. You couldn’t cry now, you would’ve just proven him right

“Okay then what’s wrong.”

“Nothing wrong.”

You were starting to get annoyed that he kept persisting but also deep down didn’t want him to stop caring.

You sniffled up some snot and exhaled deeply

“I just don’t want to be a burden on you. You’ve done so much for me recently a-and…”

Your eyes watered and you looked up to try and prevent them from falling

“Aw. Come here, you big baby.”

He pulled you into a hug and that just absolutely sent you into a downhill spiral. You leaned your weight against him and quietly cried into his shirt. Thinking that since he couldn’t see you he wouldn’t know.

You might’ve been a little more than tipsy…

He rubbed your head in circles as your body jerked with each sob. You managed to remain totally quiet which caught his attention but he wasn’t gonna mention anything about it

“This field is selfish y’know.”

You opened your eyes and loosened your grip around his torso a little, listening.

“Being a sorcerer doesn’t give you anything. Objectively speaking, some people like the money or the power. But all you get in return for that is the burden of knowing you have to be the one to save them.”

He was opening himself up to you, which made you feel a little better

You wanted to look up at him but knew that you looked like absolute hell.

“It takes and it takes. And it’s never gonna show you mercy. You were taken from your life and thrown into this one, and you didn’t want that.”

You still were sniffling, but the tears stopped flowing

“I’m sorry…”

“For what babe?”

“I don’t know…”

He had a gentle smile looking down at you. Your face was pressed against his chest giving you a natural pouty face. He thought you were cute

“Do you want to be here?”

“No…”

“Close your eyes.”

You didn’t know what he was about to do but you obliged anyway.

You felt that feeling in your stomach like being in an elevator when it’s going down. A very subtle but still there drop in your stomach.

The second thing you felt was soft sheets instead of a hard metal bench.

You looked up from him to see that you were in his room

“You can fucking teleport?!”

“Mhm.”

“Of course you can.”

You said so annoyed but you were smiling

You stifled a laugh as he made a dramatic pose showing off with a kissy gesture and a hand under his chin

“One of my many talents!”

You chose not to dwell on it for your own peace.

You sat in silence for a moment, just enjoying his warmth.

“Why are you being so nice to me?”

Even though you stopped crying, you were still emotional. The strong facade cracking under the building pressure of all the recent events.

He moved his hand to you chin and lifted it up

“You have a lot more to offer than you think.”

He had a sincere smile on his face

You giggled quietly between sniffles. But you were quickly humbled when you looked back down and noticed the huge grey spot of snot and tears from where your face was

“Oh my god!”

You wanted to die. Right then and right fucking there.

How expensive was that shirt? How grossed out is he? Why would you let yourself cry on him? Does he hate you now?!

“I’m so s-…”

Your rushing thoughts went to sudden stop when he began unbuttoning his shirt and slid it off, tossing it at the foot of the bed

“-orry….”

Your eyes widened and for the first time in a minute he had completely flustered you again. You weren’t one to be left speechless but goddamn was he even finer than you imagined.

“You’re staring.” He had a shit eating grin.

You had pulled yourself back by now and you didn’t know if it was the alcohol talking or if he was just that hot, but somehow you two ended up kissing.

What’s a recipe for disaster?

1 Night alone,

2 lonely people,

3 too many drinks.

And 4 days of building sexual tension.

Pt3

118 notes · View notes

reds-skull · 30 days

Text

Post script on BLOOD||HUNGER

OOOkay, like I said in the ask I got earlier, this post is gonna be LONG. I’ll be covering the poems at the start (and sometimes end) of each chapter, the source of inspiration for them, the timeline of the fic compared to canon, deleted scenes and maybe most importantly the true identity of the Hunter.

I’d like to say before I start rambling that I appreciate each and every one of you that commented, liked and gave kudos! It really means a lot to me, that you’re here reading my silly little stories haha.

I’m gonna start with the beginning - how I started thinking about the main plot of BLOOD||HUNGER.

So, I kept thinking about the Alone mission in mw2 (as we all do), but thinking about “what if Soap was a civilian in Las Almas when it happened?”

(This is slightly inspired by this fic by TRaena, which I read months earlier and kept thinking about its setup because it was so damn good. I highly suggest reading it!)

So originally, I imagined a whole plot where Soap is a football player, having a vacation in Las Almas when Graves suddenly attacks. Ghost is in the 141 like in canon, but he’s the one that gets shot in the shoulder. The two of them meet, and because Ghost is injured, and Soap is stranded alone in a foreign country, they decide to fight together to get out.

In that original plot, Soap continues sticking by Ghost throughout the campaign, creating distractions for Rudy and Ghost while they rescue the vaqueros, and getting kidnapped by Hassan where he gets dangled over a window in Chicago and Ghost saves him. As you can tell I thought about that version quite a bit, but I made one change that moved it in the direction of the actual story I ended up writing.

What if Soap was dishonorably discharged instead?

That trait changed his entire character, from a guy that got dropped into a war where he has no experience fighting, to someone that is bitterly familiar with it, yet he was exiled from participating. And yet it followed him.

Ghost’s character is actually inspired by who I originally thought he was, when I first saw the mw2 campaign.

See, I first watched my friend play it, and he’s been playing cod since the original mw. He built Ghost up for my like he’s this op guy (which he is), and when he said that he’s been doing guerilla warfare for years in Alone, I thought to myself ‘was this guy just running around fighting with scarp, when the British Military just… decide to pick him up and make him a soldier since he was so good at it??’

I didn’t know about any previous campaigns, and obviously not about ‘09 Ghost’s backstory. Straight up thought he was just some weirdo the SAS recruited because they went ‘why the hell not’.

Now, let’s get to the timeline differences between B||H and canon.

So, like mentioned in chapter 5, the reason Soap got dishonorably discharged was because he killed Makarov on the helo when they were exfiling with him, as seen in a mission on mw3. Soap shot him, by the way, because Price and Ghost weren’t on that mission. He didn’t respect his COs enough to not succumb to his gut reactions, so he ignored them. Because mw3 takes place in 2023 (if I remember correctly, since mw2 took place in 2022), that happened in 2019, and I specifically put it before the formation of the 141. When Soap and Gaz meet for the first time, as Ghost reveals his true identity, Soap mentions he didn’t know Gaz was in the 141, and that was the reason.

Price did want Soap on the 141, even with his track of insubordination. It was another reason he felt bad about his discharge.

I put Ghost’s capture by Roba and torture in 2009. He managed to run away and kill Roba in 2010. B||H takes place one year after Soap killed Makarov, meaning it’s 2020, so Ghost has been a mercenary for about a decade (as is mentioned in one line).

Ghost tried initially, like I wrote, to avoid fighting. He didn’t want to return to the military. After discovering his family was killed, however, he realized he has nothing. And so, he became a merc.

Which brings us to the last difference between canon and the fic (and the biggest one) - the Hunter. And to explain the Hunter, I have to first talk about the poems.

I’ll say it straight up, I have no clue what made me come up with the idea of the poems. One day, right before I was going to sleep, I shot up in bed and wrote down one poem. I put my phone down and instantly fell asleep. No idea what was rattling in my brain that night, but in the days afterwards I wrote down a few more poems, establishing the story of the Blind Man and the Beast.

Those poems I wrote in my notes app weren’t written in the same format as the ones in the fic, instead they are more… modern. I didn’t like that, I wanted them to emulate the format of a classic fairy tale or folk tale, but I didn’t really know how to write that. So I started doing research, and I decided to focus specifically on Medieval English poetry.

That is where I found the Exeter Book. And that find shaped the entirety of the fic.

Small history lesson on the Exeter, it is a codex of Middle English poems and riddles from the 10th century. Most of the poems are older than that, but the first (sometimes only) appearance of them written in text was in the 10th century.

The first poem I found a translation for and read was “The Wanderer”. The name just jumped out for me, so I chose it first.

The Wanderer is a poem that is basically a monologue of an exiled knight. His lord and companions have died in a past battle, and he now roams the land, with no goal, pondering the nature of men and war. He starts the poem as a melancholic, frankly depressed man, with pessimistic views on the world, and by the end he is referred to as the wise man, learning the values a man must keep close to his heart in order to be a good man.

Soap, as he is a sort of exiled fighter, fitted right in with that poem. Honestly, I was shocked at how much it fit. And so, he is based on that poem, the first word in the fic “often”, is the first word of “The Wanderer”.

Often, in The Wanderer, means “always”, according to the translation I was going off of. The first line of The Wanderer is “Often the solitary one”. In truth, The Wanderer is always the solitary one. The first line of the first chapter (not in the poem), is “Often was Soap told, “stop trying to be the hero, MacTavish.””. Often here, also meant to be “always”. The first line of the first poem, “Often were the stars, the only witness to me”, is in the same vein.

After reading a few poems, I moved on to the riddles. A lot of them are quite odd, some having innuendos on purpose, and some having such a weird answer I honestly have no idea how anyone found the actual solution. One riddle jumped out for me, though. It’s one I refer to as “the sword riddle”, as the answer is sword. Or at least, so it seems so, at first.

See, this riddle has possibly a different solution, but it is unfinished in the Exeter, as some pages seemed to be missing. The sword riddle starts out as follows: “I’m a wonderful thing shaped for fighting/beautifully dressed, dear to my master.” (sidenote: many riddles were in first person). The first half of the riddle continues similarly, as is a sword was explaining its victories in battle, and how it protracted its master. Except, the poem suddenly shifts, when the sword says:“I have often hurt another/at the hands of his friend. I am far and wide hated, /accursed among weapons.” as the riddle progresses, it becomes clear that this is not a sword talking, but a knight.

This riddle was the basis for Ghost, his struggles with his failure as a Lieutenant, and the resulting dehumanization he did to himself to distance himself from those emotions, as Ghost. The first lines of his introduction chapter, chapter 2, are inspired directly from the sword riddle: “It was an extraordinary thing - shaped for fighting, a strong, solid body, adorned with black…”

You can actually at some chapters find my direct inspiration for that chapter’s poem/s, if you look at the names. Every chapter name in B||H is taken from a poem or riddle in the Exeter, and I’ll list them here:

1 - Wræclast (Path of Exile): The Wanderer, line 6a.

2 - The Death-way: The Seafarer, one specific possible interpretation of a word in line 63, onwælweg.

3 - The Ruin: The Ruin, the poem is in reference to the church Soap and Ghost fight their way out of.

4 - Vainglory: Vainglory.

5 - Hell Rising: a line from “The Descent into Hell”, from a translation I don’t really like, but it’s the only complete one I found.

6 - Droops and Decays: The Wanderer, line 63a.

7 - Wont of Devils: The Whale, towards the end.

8 - Accursed Among Weapons: the sword riddle, line 16.

9 - The Downfall of Kinsmen: The Wanderer, line 7a.

10 - A Secret Disease: The Rhyming Poem, from a specific translation I chose.

11 - The Battle-Sick: Wulf and Eadwacer, again specific translation, this website has a weird format that might be broken, but it kinda makes the poem feel different, and I liked it. [Here's the Wiki for it]

12 - The Bearer of Gold: this one is from a fragmented riddle, one where the answer can’t be determined.

13 - The Song of Us: Wulf and Eadwacer, same translation.

14 - Famous Fate: The Wanderer, 100a. The translation notes this means “turn of events”.

15 - Where All Permanence Rests: The Wanderer, 119a, the last line in the poem.

To properly see all the little tidbits I took from each poem, I’ll have to explain each one, and probably also paste it here so you can read. I would if that hadn't taken five years to do, and I want to talk about other stuff haha. But I just wanted to list the ones I did reference.

So, now that I’ve explained how the poems are referenced in the main fic… what about the poems I wrote?

Obviously, the first poem references The Wanderer, just as the first lines in the fic do. But what is the story of the poems?

Blooede Starvatfōre-dēde, a fictional codex I made for the fic, is a book similar to the Exeter, collecting stories from the 10th century. Except, unlike the Exeter, all the poems in the book tell the story of the same characters: the Blind Man, the Beast, and the hunter (not to be confused with the Hunter, capital H, which refers to the character in the main plot). Blooede Starvatfōre-dēde, by the way, meaning “Blood Starvation” in Middle English. Or, Blood Hunger.

Blooede Starvatfōre-dēde does exist in the world of B||H, Soap, Ghost and the others are simply not familiar with it. I had a plot for the story in the poems I wrote, which is in direct parallel to the main story in the fic. In fact, some poems spoil some plot points, if you go back to read them after you finish the chapter they were in.

Like I mentioned in the ask I got today, I’m not sure how much, if anyone, really understood what’s going on with the poems. I honestly don’t know if it was clear, I never have anyone beta my writing, unfortunately. So, I’m going to explain the story told in the poems, and how it connects to the main plot.

I’ll be explaining the poems in the order they appear (not always the order of the book itself, as noted by the page numbers on each poem).

The Blind Man is a fallen knight (sidenote: the Beast never refers to the Blind Man with that name, and he usually calls him Fallen Knight), who lost his mates and Lord in battle, the same battle that took his eyesight. He roams the earth with no destination, simply mourning what he used to have.

The Beast starts out as a terror on a road leading to a village. The trader that first meets him decides to go to a different road, and the young girl is so afraid of him, she turns back. All the village people fear the Beast, for they know how it terrorized others in the past. The Beast at present, however, is mostly docile.

The Blind Man bumps into the Beast, while he walks on his road. The Blind Man apologizes, explains how he lost his sight in battle, and asks the Beast kindly to move. The Beast does, but he also asks the Blind Man (the Fallen Knight), if he could let him follow, as the Beast too doesn’t have a goal or destination. The Blind Man agrees.

The Trader sees the Blind Man walk with the Beast, and he worries about him, as he thinks the Blind Man didn’t realize he’s walking alongside a Beast. The Blind Man asks the Beast if he plans on hurting him - to which the Beast answers, if the Blind Man finds that the Beast pushes him on a path of death, he asks the Blind Man to kill him.

The Beast, at a later point, asks the Blind Man why isn’t he afraid of him. The Blind Man answers, that he doesn’t believe in monsters, he believes in mankind, to be kind, and cruel. For him, there is not such thing as monsters.

A knight, who once fought besides the Blind Man, spots him alongside the Beast, and he stops them both, threatening the Beast to leave the Blind Man alone. The Blind Man assures the knight, that the Beast is calm, it doesn’t hurt him. The knight asks, how come the blind lead the sinner, and the Blind Man replies, that when all other paths are unavailable, sometimes only the blind can truly lead.

The Blind Man asks the Beast what is his true name. The Beast answers, that Beast is the only name they know. The Blind Man insists that it is only the name the village people call him, and the Beast repeats his answers. It is then that the Blind Man decides he will name the Beast himself, with deeds this time, and not words. He is telling the Beast he can be defined by more than his past, than his looks. The Beast asks how, and the Blind Man answers, with ferocious will to mark yourself with actions yet to come.

At this junction, they meet a man called “the hunter”, who announces that this land is infested with many Beasts, and if one wished to do good in the world, they must kill them. It is why he, the hunter, slays such creatures. He asks how could the Blind Man protect such evil, to which the Blind Man answers, that the Beast is no more different than a man than he is. The hunter accepts the answer, but comes to the conclusion that they’re both Beasts.

One day, the Blind Man asks to see the Beast’s face. The Beast answers, confused, that he thought the Blind Man was, well, blind. The Blind Man says he’s correct, but that his hands have yet to fail him. So the Beast lets the Blind Man feel his face, his hands. The Blind Man then realizes, that the Beast isn’t actually a beast, but a man like him. He tells the Beast as much, but the Beast says that perhaps the Blind Man is also a Beast, if he thinks the Beast is like him.

The Beast asks the Blind Man how could he care for a monster like himself. The Blind Man smiles and says, how could I not?

They come across a village the Beast terrorized in the past, and the villagers come out to curse at him, telling of how the Beast took their children and ruined their crops. The villagers ask how could the Blind Man stand to not kill the Beast. The Blind Man first asks if what the villagers are saying is true, and when the beast confirms, that he was a terrible thing before anyone saw him as more than a monster, the Blind Man understands. He, too, felt like nothing more than a blind man, an injured knight, before the Beast joined his travels, and treated him as more than just his bloody past.

In the next poem, it is revealed that the Beast was once a knight himself, one that slayed friends and foes, as his masters ruled. He was cursed to be seen as a Beast by everyone that casts their eyes upon him, and that he’s damned to be starved of blood and flesh. It is here that the reason the Blind Man recognizes the Beast to be a man becomes clear - because he is blind, he doesn’t cast his eyes on the Beast.

The following poem is a riddle that its answer is “the hunter”. The hunter used to hunt for consumption, but now hunts sinners. He says, only those that know justice will know his name.

The Blind Man asks the Beast, one night right before the sun rises, what he thinks will be his fate, once he dies. The Beast replies that death comes to all equally, knowing the Blind Man’s past. The answer comforts the Blind Man, that his death will be the same death as his fellow knights, and as his companion, the Beast.

The knight returns to warn the Blind Man and the Beast, that he learned what makes someone a Beast. He tells them of knights who were tortured many years, that were labeled “Beast”. Of the young girl, that instead of cursing the Beast blocking her path, only prayed for her safety. Of a man, that fell in battle, and was abandoned by all but death, that he was also labeled “Beast”. This man is implied to be the Beast travelling with the Blind Man. The knight goes on to say that the hunter, who says he’s versed in justice, calls himself a hero. The knight disagrees, says he’s no better than any of them, and that a man like the hunter, who thinks he’s above God, must be sent to the only equalizer, to death itself.

The knight leaves his sword with the Blind Man.

The hunter approaches, and he swings towards the Blind Man, but the Beast slashes his face, blinding the hunter. The Beast tells the Blind Man, that they will fight as equals. The Blind Man, with the Beast’s aid, manages to kill the Hunter.

The village people hear of the hunter’s death, and they come out to investigate. They find the blind Man and the Beast, but now instead of a monster, they see the man that he truly is. Killing the hunter lifted the curse. The Beast, the Cursed Man, however, isn’t extremely happy, because the Blind Man has always seen him as a man, when the rest saw a monster, and that is what he cares about most.

The Blind Man asks the Cursed Man, where would he go now that he is not viewed as a Beast. The Cursed Man answers, that he has no place he belongs to, but by the Blind Man’s side. The Blind Man replies, that then they will travel together, until their death, and perhaps, if God gives them mercy, they will always be together, no matter which path they belong.

Now that I explained the story of the poems, I can start explaining how it connects to B||H.

Each main character in B||H has a direct parallel in the poems, with a few exceptions.

Soap is the Blind Man, a man who is defined by his failure. He is the first one to see the Beast for what he truly is, and consistently compares himself to the Beast. He is the one that kills the hunter.

Ghost is the Beast, later on the Cursed Man. Everyone sees a monster when they look at him, and he himself ended up convinced he is one, after years of being called a Beast. He admires the Blind Man greatly.

Price is the trader (I chose that profession because of his surname), he meets the Beast before the Blind Man. Unlike Price, the trader does not know the Beast before he became a monster.

Gaz is the Knight (because of his relation to Soap and his VA’s surname is literally knight). He threatens the Beast, thinking he means bad for the Blind Man. He also ends up being on the Blind Man and the Beast’s side, giving him his sword so he could kill the hunter.

The village people are the city people in the story. Alma actually accuses Ghost of being the reason their children are dying, just like the village people do in the poems.

Other characters like Laswell and the communicator do not have a parallel character in the poems.

And the last one… The Hunter. He is the hunter, obviously.

Except, he’s literally the hunter. The only character that is exactly the same, and I mean, the same person, is the hunter. The only one whose name is identical to the one in the poems.

And this is the plot twist I was keeping hidden in the poems all along - BLOOD||HUNGER is a fantasy story, only not from Soap or Ghost’s perspective.

There is a third story, beside the main one and the one in the poems. The story of the hunter.

The hunter, after being killed by the Blind Man, finds himself in the future. He doesn’t know how, doesn’t know where, but he knows one thing:

The Beast is alive, he walks with the Blind Man, and he must be killed.

The hunter finds them. And again, he fails.

It’s not known how many times the hunter fails. But each time he’s killed, he wakes up decades into the future, with an innate knowledge that the Beast and the Blind Man are alive, and he has to kill them.

The hunter wakes up again in 2019. He knows the Beast and the Blind Man are alive, and this time, he tries something new. He gathers an army, he hides his face, and he waits for the right moment to strike.

He thought, perhaps if someone else kills the Beast, he could be free from the curse placed upon him centuries ago, by death itself, as punishment for his hubris.

And the events that follow, are the plot of BLOOD||HUNGER. And as you know, the hunter fails yet again. He will wake up again, but Ghost and Soap will be long gone by then.

This is why the Hunter seemingly didn’t exist on paper, a year before B||H. Why he knew so much about Simon, despite the fact it shouldn’t be possible. And this is why he says to Soap what he said to the Blind Man the first time he died. Because, in the Hunter’s eyes, Soap IS the Blind Man. Soap mentions that when the Hunter’s face is uncovered, he seems familiar, and after he dies, he feels like it happened before. Because it did.

The claw marks on the Hunter’s face are the biggest clue that he is the hunter, as the hunter’s face was slashed by the Beast in the poem.

And the Blind Man’s wish, to always walk alongside the Cursed Man, is the reason both Soap and Ghost feel like they belong with each other. They’re destined to meet, no matter what form they take. Whether as enemies, friends or lovers, they will walk the same path eventually.

See, I don’t write stories like BLOOD||HUNGER usually. I write fantasy, sci-fi, supernatural stuff like every other work I posted. But this, the poems, the Hunter, are the reason I wrote BLOOD||HUNGER.

Because it’s not fully set in the real world. Still, this fic was quite a challenge for me, with no magic, enemies-to-lovers (which I never use, I don’t know why I decided to here, but that’s how it ended up), and limited characters.

A little tidbit about the city - it isn’t named on purpose, I wanted it to have more of a vague vibe that fairy tales (and the poems in the Exeter) have. I was also initially considering having the entire fic set at night, one night, but with the amount of things that happen it felt a little ridiculous. Most of it is at night, though, as Soap and Ghost sleep through days more than they do nights.

Also fun fact, the names of the civilians are all names of family members of mine, with the exception of Mihail. The name he’s based on is Mircea, and it’s a little too Romanian for my purposes, so I changed it so something more vaguely Eastern European, which is where the city is.

Now, onto the last section of the post script, the deleted scenes! (Are they really deleted if I keep them, though?)

Like with Not Alive, Nor Dead’s PS, I’ll try to give each of them context and the reason they were cut:

[Context: the entirety of the scene where Ghost gets betrayed and poisoned by the Hunter in chapter 2.]

He didn’t get a potential location for intel, so he started methodically searching all drawers and cabinets, lightly passing over surfaces to search for abnormalities. The longer he goes on finding nothing, the more an icy chill spreads through his gut.

Every cell in his body is screaming something is wrong here.

Footsteps on the lower floor catch his attention. Multiple, heavy, hurried. Ghost snarls.

The soldiers climb the stairs quickly, Ghost melting into the shadows, watching them pass by him. The soldiers are the Hunter’s, their blood-red insignia staining their black gear.

He’s being betrayed again. He needs to get out. He has to get out.

“We know you’re here, Ghost. Change of plan, we need you on another location.” The soldier communicating for the Hunter calls.

No, no, no. They’re lying.

“Commander”, another soldier says, “he might be gone.”

The Hunter doesn’t answer, but frantically, Ghost hears the floorboards creak closer and closer to his location, until a red glove reaches out and pulls him out of the shadows.

He instantly shakes it off, “the fuck are you doing here?!” he growls. The Hunter looks to his communicator, “this target was a ruse, Ghost. We have a new one for you.”

They’re lying. They’re lying. Ghost can feel the barrels of rifles at his back, lifting slowly to strike him down. He can smell the gunpowder and the bite of metal-

Ghost glances behind him. The soldiers are busy searching the house. He nods.

It feels so wrong, but… could he be wrong? Is he just getting paranoid over nothing?

“Give me the location.” he grunts, his back constantly tingling with the weight of phantom gazes.

The soldier walks over to the balcony, pulling out a spotter scope, “your target will be in the central city, the high rise building next to the church.” the building is lit by neon lights, red and foreboding in the darkness of night.

Ghost carefully walks to the balcony, taking the scope from the soldier. He doesn’t put it up to his face, not when there are phantom breaths on his nape.

They’re waiting. They’re watching. They’re going to-

A hand wraps around his neck, roughly pulling his mask up to reveal the pale skin underneath. Ghost grabs it, pushes it away, when a sickly cold sting bites the side of his neck, followed by a disgusting chill that seeps into his bloodstream.

Poison.

Ghost shoves the soldier off, swiftly sliding a knife to his palm and slicing his neck. The man doesn’t have time to react, before Ghost drops down to avoid another attacker. The world explodes with hands reaching for him, weapons slung with purpose to strike.

Not kill. They want him alive.

He has to GET. OUT.

A hostile rushes to tackle him, and Ghost uses the momentum to grab him and jump off the balcony. Glass surrounds them both for a moment, before they all fall down.

The body beneath him crashes with a sickening crunch, and Ghost takes the pistol in his hand to swing around and shoot at his attackers. A few of them fall over the railing, and the resulting confusion is enough for Ghost to take off and run.

Ghost feels the poison corrupt his blood, physically sense the way it travels down his neck, the chill spreading to his fingertips. He mutters a few curses.

He should’ve listened to himself. Never trust anything but himself.

[Reason to cut: I didn’t want Ghost to suspect anything before the Hunter attacks, I thought it would be scarier than if he anticipated it.]

[Context: the last lines of chapter 2 (can you tell I struggled with that one lol)]

Ghost internally sighs. This whole ordeal drudges up too many old memories, things he rather would’ve stayed buried in an unmarked grave. But he just has to put up with Soap until they leave the city.

And after that? He can leave him to the wolves.

[Reason to cut: Ghost sounds here like he wants something bad to happen to Soap when he leaves him. I wanted him to just not care about what happens to him.]

[Context: the talk Ghost and Soap have in chapter 6, when Soap reveals he killed Makarov.]

The Sergeant laughs bitterly, “he was already captured. I slit his fuckin’ throat when his hands were cuffed.”

“Really?” Ghost drawls, “as if bars would’ve stopped Makarov.”

Soap bristles, “so what, yer saying I was right?”

“You were the only one with half a brain there, it seems.”

Soap is visibly stunned at that, quieting down and averting his gaze. Did he really believe that he shouldn’t have done that? Shouldn’t have killed the worst man in modern times?

Really thought those restraints were made for the betterment of humanity, rather the benefit of the powerful few?

They continue walking in silence, the only sound accompanying their steps is the bristling of crops.

[Reason to cut: didn’t like how the dialogue sounded, wanted the conversation to be longer.]

[Context: the first time Ghost called Soap “Johnny”, chapter 7.]

Soap has a feeling the nickname just slipped, and he didn’t mean to call him ‘Johnny’. His mind, as it often does, starts mulling that small detail over.

If it was a slip of the tongue, it means this wasn’t the first time Ghost thought to call him that. How long have he thought of him as “Johnny”? Does that mean, under that bleached bone, he

[Reason to cut: didn’t like where Soap’s thoughts were going. Didn’t know what to do with them.]

[context: beginning of chapter 8, when Ghost’s real identity is revealed.]

(From the grave rises someone else, someone wrong-)

Soap takes a step back, the sound echoing through his mind and returning him to the surface-

(They know. The communicator. The Hunter.)

Johnny knows.

[Reason to cut: I liked the first line, but I wanted it to be memories of Simon’s rather than introspection of Ghost.]

[Context: start of chapter 8 again. It’s always the Ghost POV ones I struggle with huh?]

“Didn’t you,

Simon Riley?”

Ghost ceases his attempts to move. Thoughts slipping away from him, sinking down to the dark sea, drowning him.

(Don’t cry like a pansy, son. Just like your mother, you’ve always been weak-)

(You always had a bleeding heart, Riley. Time you wake up, see how the world really works-)

(The rotten flesh, the maggots borrowing into his ears, the dirt and grit between his teeth-)

(Lieutenant Riley was his most caring soldier-)

(What’s wrong, son?-)

(LT-)

(SIMON-)

Ghost feels him claw out, from the fortified casket he buried him in. Memories as his weapon, he rips through his chest, uncaring of the trails of broken bone and blood he leaves behind, splattering on the floor.

From the grave, a dead man rises. A man who always found the world too cruel, too loud, too unforgiving.

And with him, emotions Ghost long buried; Hurt, sadness, confusion. Fear.

Rage.

The knife in his sleeve slides easily to his palm, cool metal doing nothing to soothe Simon. He winds his hand back, and throws.

The blade shines almost blindingly across the room, missing Johnny by less than an inch and hitting the gleeful communicator in his eye. The man slumps over, smile melting away with the last of his life.

Simon heaves a breath, arm still forward, eyes snapping from the corpse to Johnny.

Johnny, who turns around, shock in his bright blue eyes, mumbling, “What… the fuck… did you do?”

He can’t look at those eyes again, can’t see the betrayal cloud them over, the pain he caused, always causes, spread through him. And so Simon, the coward he is, looks away.

“What the fuck did you do?!” Johnny repeats, stomping forward to haul Simon up by his vest. “LOOK AT ME! YOU JUST KILLED OUR ONLY WAY TO THE HUNTER!”

Johnny’s hands are trembling, Simon notes, when they take hold of his face to force him to make eye contact. Simon watches Soap’s expression falter.

What do you see, he wants to ask.

Do you see the man he was, Or the monster he became?

The clanking of the metal staircase behind them makes Soap sharply turn. Simon can’t see, doesn’t care to when Johnny is in front of him.

Tell me, he wants to scream, tell me I’m irredeemable. Tell me you hate me. Bury me, please.

I can’t be Simon again.

But Johnny ignores his silent pleas, grabbing his forgotten rifle and throwing it to Simon. With a dirty glance, he growls, “don’t think I’m lettin’ it slide. Get up, we need to fight.”

And Simon would’ve stayed in the tower, waiting death to take him for the final time, if he could stomach the idea of taking Johnny down with him. Simon, stupid, foolish Simon, wants the Sergeant to do what he couldn’t. To be better than him.

He takes the rifle, military instilled instincts helping him push up and take aim. Johnny is already ahead, fighting his way down the stairs.

The world outside is loud, gunshots and screams, bullets dinging off metal, blood dripping down to the earth below. Soap shoots them as the come up, but he’s quickly getting overrun. Simon spots a pile of crates right at the edge, where Johnny is currently taking cover.

He runs at it at full speed, shouldering it and pushing it down. Johnny curses at him, before he watches how the heavy crates clear them a path down. The soldiers groan, struggling to get up. They run down, barely avoiding the hands grasping at their feet. Below, soldiers attempt to shoot them, but they make an almost impossible target on the spiraling steps.

Simon jumps the last few, firing at the group around their truck to cover Johnny. The Sergeant shouts at him something, but he’s too focused on the enemies aiming at them.

A few bullets hit him square in the chest, knocking the breath out of Simon.

He doesn’t get time to recover when another bullet pierces through his shoulder.

It hurts more, oddly enough, after Simon clawed his way out. Everything feels… more.

Johnny takes out the shooter, and drags Simon to the truck. Throwing him to the passenger sit, he starts up the engine and shifts it to reverse to run down a few hostiles.

“Yer not gonna die on me, are ye?” He grunts, examining the blood sluggishly flowing down his gear.

Simon opens his mouth to answer, as he sees from his peripheral a wounded soldier shakily lifting his gun to aim at Johnny.

He pulls out a knife to throw at him before Soap can even clock the danger, the soldier crumpling back down in a blink. “...Thanks.” Soap’s eyes narrow. His eyes are no less bright for it, Simon reckons.

He returns to his sit, applying pressure to his gunshot wound, “drive.”

In the silence, Simon’s mind drifts. He’s finding it harder and harder to focus on anything besides Johnny.

[Reason to cut: a few things here are the same as the final version, but I specifically didn’t like how Soap acted here, and the fight Ghost soloed.]

[Context: chapter 10, after Soap bit a guy, and Ghost lost control of his limbs because of the poison again.]

The pain doesn’t even register in Ghost’s mind anymore. Nothing does, except Johnny’s form, sure-footed as he rushes back to battle, mouth still red.

Johnny is a disaster. An omen of ruin. A harbinger of death.

Simon wants to be destroyed by him.

If only to feel that searing touch once more.

[Reason to cut: Ghost is a little too in love with Soap with the way he’s talking here. Didn’t want that yet.]

[Context: chapter 11, the very end of it, where they realize who could find the Hunter.]

Soap inhales sharply. That’s it!

“Simon.” Dark eyes look up at his urgent tone, “I know how we can get to the Hunter.”

Gone is the softness in his eyes, Ghost turns to face him fully

[Reason to cut: wanted Ghost to come to that conclusion, not Soap. Thought it would be more impactful, if Simon chooses that fate on himself.]

[context: chapter 12, when Ghost and Soap explain to Price and Gaz that the Hunter is responsible for everything that happened in the city, not Ghost.]

“The Hunter?” the name makes Gaz falter, “who-”

Ghost cuts him off, “who do you think is in charge of this militia, Lieutenant?” he says the rank mockingly.

The Lieutenant fires back, “according to our intel, you!”

Soap shakes his head in disbelief, he and Ghost sharing a baffled look, “yer tellin’ me ye never heard of the Hunter?!”

This complicates everything. Ghost himself knew of the Hunter because of his line of work, and he was aware their existence was a closely guarded secret, but for the 141 to not even know of them…

It’s like they popped out of nowhere, a special hell designed for Ghost.

It does clear out one thing. The reason they wanted to pin the massacre of the city on him, leave him poisoned to rot until the 141 catches him. If the SAS believes they took down the militia, the Hunter would be free to do anything they wanted, under the radar.

Cut the head off the snake, it dies. Unless you cut the wrong head.

“You’re telling me”, Price starts, “that we’re after the wrong person?”

Soap sighs, “Ghost may not be a bleedin’ saint, but he’s not the leader of the fuckers shootin’ everyone out there.”

Gaz scoffs, “John, you know I’ll fucking take a bullet for you, but I won’t be able to believe that without some solid proof.”

Price joins him, “even if there is another individual… “The Hunter”, you called him?” he realigns his gun with Ghost, “we still need to take Ghost into custody.”

Soap bodily pushes Ghost behind him, again, “if you want ever want to catch the Hunter, you’ll need him! We’re not gonna-!”

[Reason to cut: Okay, I did a little mistake and completely forgot that Gaz and Price brought up the Hunter by name before, therefore they know of their existence. Had to cut a few pages because of that, as you can see…]

[Context: chapter 12, after Ghost falls because of the poison, still discussing the Hunter.]

Price holds it still, “Laswell said local police reported of a skull-masked man.”

“I haven’t seen a single police officer in the entire city.” Soap says slowly, “fuck- how did we miss that?”

“This city…” Gaz’s brows lift in shock.

Simon grunts, “the Hunter’s soldiers took over before I ever stepped foot here.”

[Reason to cut: didn’t like this explanation, didn’t feel like it made sense to me. The final version uses the informant instead, which ties in with the man Ghost kills for the Hunter in chapter 2, and I like that way better.]

[Context: chapter 13, when Soap and Gaz talk while he’s smoking.]

“John, mate. C’mon.” Kyle places a hand on his shoulder, leaning in to whisper, “tell me, what are you going to do after?”

“After what?”

“After you kill the Hunter. Are you going to leave back for Scotland, never see Ghost again, go back to your civilian life? Or…” Gaz nods towards Simon, “you’re going to stick with him?”

Oh… He didn’t even think about that. ‘After’... Soap swallows around the excitement the second option rises within him, “yer jokin’, right? I don’t- that’s not even a choice. What am I gonna do with Ghost?”

[Reason to cut: didn’t like how I phrased things here, felt like I could do it better.]

[Context: chapter 14, right before the operation to kill the Hunter begins]

It strikes him then, how much he wished they could’ve met on different circumstances. Perhaps if they knew each other before, they could’ve been more.

Perhaps he wouldn’t feel as doomed.

[Reason to cut: just didn’t really like it, it kinda introduces new feelings that I didn’t have time to explore in the last chapter before the epilogue.]

EDIT: I FORGOT TO PUT THE POEM AAA SHIT

Page ?? of the “Blooede Starvatfōre-dēde”, parable ?:

What drives a monster from the woods, the merchant questions,

As evil often lies within the dark, feasting on sin and vice,

What drives a man from his home, the Beast replies,

As he is nothing, when his steps sound alone,

What drives a knight from his kin, the Blind man finishes,

As a vow cannot be fulfilled, when it is voiced to the dead.

[The only reason I didn't put it in is because there wasn't a good point to, sicne I wrote it when the fic was already ending]

And that’s it! Another fic done!!! I had a lot of fun, I think you can tell haha. I also feel like I improved a lot compared to Not Alive, Nor Dead, I love seeing the progress. Thank you, if you read this monster of a post script, and for reading BLOOD||HUNGER.

As a little thanks… I will probably talk about it more later, but I am planning on beginning work on Revenant AU part 2 after I finish my semester. It will involve new villains, new Revenants, new Reapers… I’m excited to be able to return to that universe again!

#BLOOD||HUNGER #not tagging everything bc this is a post script #fellas Ill be honest its like 2 am #if there are any mistakes pls tell me Im very tired and I dont think i got all braincells working rn lmao #edit i did forget. I forgot to put the cut poem. its here now

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