#Not sure I got it right or not but Roman's sceptical | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

skye-huntress · 3 years

Text

RWBY Panel 2021 Reaction

I figured why not. I was up at three in the morning to watch the panel just for even the smallest sneak peak or news of Volume 9 so I might as well throw out my reactions and thoughts into the void of the internet.

Let me start off with the biggest non-news, the lack of date for Volume 9. In the back of my mind, this was something I feared to expect. Between the pandemic, the blackouts, and probably a lot of other disrupting forces I am not aware about, it’s not reasonable to expect CRWBY to be at the same place with every upcoming volume every year. Similar for the Volume 8 Soundtrack, though for that I wasn’t expecting to hear any new updates on.

I am interested in the new game, Arrowfell, though I will admit that side-scrollers are not a style of game I’ve ever found compelling. It’s RWBY though, so of course I am going to check it out. They never said anything about what platforms it would be on though.

Now for the sneaky peak:

I’ll admit, that first half of it was intense. It really brought everything back, the anxiety, the near-panic, the anticipation of what would happen. It felt fresh seeing it from Ruby’s perspective.

Maybe seeing Yang’s fall happen in realtime will get people to lighten up on Ruby and realise that she couldn’t have really done anything, but I doubt it.

It is interesting to see how the edges of Ruby’s vision light up when she’s trying to call on her silver eye powers. I’d wager she experiences other sensations as well when its working and not just the sudden fatigue we see her go through after the fact.

So Neo is still attacking Ruby on sight despite the fact this path may have already sealed both their fates. I feel I should say this, I don’t think there is any reasoning with Neo. If she’s half as smart as she thinks she is, there’s no way she genuinely believes Ruby is responsible for Roman’s death. She went after Cinder first for a reason. She’s angry and in pain, and she needs someone a little easier to stab than a rogue maiden to take out her frustrations on. Ruby’s just a convenient scapegoat for Neo. One way or another, it will end this volume.

Oscar, Yang, Penny. These are all people Ruby has failed recently. Oscar was captured and tortured and Ruby didn’t even hear of it until afterwards. Yang took the blow meant for her and was the first to fall. Penny is the Maiden and it was Ruby’s job to protect her but now she is at Cinder’s mercy and that bitch doesn’t even have the word in her vocabulary. I feel this is the volume where Ruby has to confront her failures and increasing doubts about her leadership. We’ve been building up to it for a while

All alone and unarmed on a shore, in a strange place in another world. Nothing to do but keep moving forward.

At the very least, that she landed in the same realm we saw Crescent Rose suggests all or at least some of the Fallen have ended up in the same place.

Predictions

For Ruby, I think this will be a critical volume for her. All sorts of negativity has been building up with her for a while now and with her current situation, the fate of her friends, and when the news of Penny’s death inevitably reaches her, something is going to give. This might be a break from the plot but it is also a break for Ruby to reevaluate her leadership, her choices and how she’s been handling basically everything. How this changes her will likely determine the direction of the show and how the protagonists confront Salem going forward.

For Weiss, this could also be a big volume for her. For one, she’s gained and lost a lot this volume. Atlas, for all its faults which caused her to leave it twice, was her home, and now it is rubble and those of her people that survived are now refugees in a Kingdom they are not necessarily welcome. She confronted her father, and was working on her relationship with the rest of her family, but is now separated from them. She wasn’t as close with Penny as Ruby, but she lost her, too, and now her sister has the same target on her back and is probably doomed to suffer the same fate sooner or later. She also thought she lost her other family and it will be bittersweet to find herself stranded with them if when she can find them again. It’s been a rollercoaster for her.

While on this note, I think we are due for a heart-to-heart between Ruby and Weiss. Ruby recently had a talk with both Blake and Yang about her leadership, but I think Weiss has the best chance of actually reaching her. After all, Weiss was the first one to openly express doubts about Ruby being a leader, and it was also a position she once coveted for herself. Weiss is the sceptic turned believer, and she’s not afraid to call things as they are, so I think she is and always was the best one to talk to Ruby about this, which is why I think they never had this conversation before. Now that Ruby is in this critical stage, of course this is the perfect time for her once reluctant and now devoted partner to put in her two cents.

Since everything went down with Adam and her relationship with Yang improved, I haven’t been quite sure where Blake’s character arc will go from there. When Yang fell, she nearly completely lost and it clouded her judgment. After her talk with Nora, I wonder if Blake herself needs to reevaluate if perhaps there are parts about her own life and wellbeing that she has neglected since she and Yang have gotten closer. Perhaps it’s a time for her to reevaluate her priorities, which doesn’t necessarily mean distancing herself from Yang but it could still mean she puts more effort into herself and her other relationships, especially with Ruby, Weiss and Jaune.

Yang was the first to fall and everything went to shit after the fact. She stopped a sneak attack on Ruby but she couldn’t stop Neo or Cinder, and she was not there for her team or Penny. That moment is probably also too familiar to what happened with Adam at Beacon for Yang’s comfort, not that I think there was anything she could do better in either situation besides simply being faster. I don’t know what Yang’s response to everything will be, what effect this will have on her. Plus I can’t forget that she’s probably suffering a concussion right now.

As for the Bees, despite all they’ve been through and even with the split that happened last volume, they were still closer than ever. There’s a mutual respect there for each other’s decisions. If one is going through something, the other will be there to talk them through it or even simply be a shoulder to cry on. If this is a situation that they’ll be stuck on for the foreseeable future, at least they have each other and there are worse places they could be stranded in. Despite everything that happened or maybe even because of it, it might seem the perfect setting and timing for some confessions and more.

Now to Jaune. He certainly hasn’t had it easy. From the start, he was the furthest behind among his peers, and now he’s been licensed earlier than most of them. Pyrrha helped him a lot with that, and was the first to believe in him and she was taken from him, and it seems he came to terms with that since Argus. He didn’t let his grief blind him and he stayed on task with the evacuation, and he wasn’t reckless when he did confront Cinder. He did everything right, but it wasn’t enough to save Penny and in the end he had little choice but to respect her dying wish. It had to be done, I don’t blame him for being put in that position, but it’s still got to hurt. It’s also so appropriate that his weapon, one of his most important tools as a Huntsman, was broken after spilling innocent blood, almost like a punishment(?) for his “betrayal” to what a Huntsman is suppose to be. He’s going to carry this until the day he dies, and now he has to face his friends, especially his best friend whom was the closest of all of them to Penny.

Finally Neo. Like I said, I don’t think she can be reasoned with. She abandoned any sort of rationale a long time ago, and it will take more than words to shake her out of it, if it’s even possible anymore. I doubt there will be a peaceful solution to this conflict, it feels too similar to what went down with Adam towards his end. He also refused to back down, he too insisted on making Blake his scapegoat, and despite being given every chance to walk away, he persisted until his death. Time will tell if Neo can avoid that fate, but my doubts about that have only strengthened since the sneak peak.

As for Oscar and the others, I already had my doubts about whether we’d see them at all. The way CRWBY talked about this volume, it seems clear that this is our break from the main narrative so I doubt we will be seeing much of Vacuo yet. I am more than okay with that, it’d be good to take a break from the main plot and focus and our main girls again and we’ll get more of that with a significantly reduced cast.

#rwby #rwby8 #rwby8 spoilers #rwby9 #rwby9 spoilers

43 notes · View notes

i-am-bitterly-jittery · 4 years

Text

Five times the Virgil sat on a surface not meant for sitting (and one time he didn’t) pt 1/6

Rating: Teen to be safe

Word count: 889

Pairings: none

Warnings: none

1. Janus

It’s too early to be alive, Janus thinks as he makes his way into the kitchen to scrounge up some coffee. If he had his choice, he wouldn’t be downstairs until well after 8 am, but Logic gets up at 6, and Morality at 7, and Janus would rather avoid the awkward tension his presence causes.

So here he is, getting coffee at 5 am in order to avoid the self-proclaimed “Light Sides”.

What a life.

Janus doesn’t bother with lights as he focuses on making coffee as quickly as he can. As the coffee brews, Janus stares off into space with only the sharp smell of coffee keeping him conscious.

After a few minutes, the coffee maker lets out a quiet beep, signaling that the coffee’s ready. Janus pulls a mug out of the cabinet (it’s a Slytherin themed mug that says “Mind If I Slytherin?” on the side), and fills it with the bitter, life-giving liquid.

Janus can’t help it when his tongue slips out from between his lips to smell. Come to mama my sweet, he thinks as he raises the mug to his lips.

“Can I have some?”

Janus drops the mug onto the counter in shock and lets out a warning hisss that turns into a hiss of pain as the hot coffee drips out of the cracked mug, off the counter, and onto his socked feet.

Janus quickly turns to cuss out whichever Side got between him and his precious coffee, but finds no one.

No one, that is, until he looks up.

“Demon child!” He hisses at Virgil, who’s staring expectantly at him from where he’s perched on top of the refrigerator. “What the hell are you doing up there.”

Virgil shrugs, completely casual despite the venom in Janus’ voice. “Couldn’t sleep.”

“Sssatan’sss sssspawn,” Janus hisses under his breath as he pulls out Logic’s usual mug (because being able to spite the pretentious nerd will make him feel a little better) and fills it with more coffee. Constellations appear in the mug as it fills with hot liquid.

Finally - finally - Janus is able to take a sip of coffee. Virgil continues to stare at him expectantly, but Janus ignores him until he’s successfully drunk half the mug, at which point he pulls Princey’s usual mug (white with red trim, a gold crown on one side, and the words “someday my prince will come” written in gold on the other side) from the cupboard and fills it with coffee for Virgil.

“Thanks, mom!” Virgil grins.

Janus ignores him and downs the rest of his coffee in one go. He places the empty mug on the counter, just shy of being in the coffee puddle from his first mug.

I liked that mug, he thought, spitefully as he stared at the cracked mug. He can’t fix it himself, and can’t very well ask Princey for a new one. Maybe Remus will make me a new one…

Janus stares at the mess a moment longer, before deciding to leave it for Logic to find.

“There’s leftover pasta in the fridge,” Virgil says suddenly, snapping Jamus out of his thoughts.

“Excuse me?”

“There’s pasta in the fridge that you could eat for breakfast if you don’t feel like cooking.

Janus doesn’t reply, instead he just pulls the leftovers from the fridge and sticks them in the microwave for a minute and a half. He uses the time to refill Logic’s mug, and quickly down the whole thing.

“Do you want some?” He offers halfheartedly as the microwave timer goes off. He doesn’t really want to share, but Virgil has a nasty habit of not getting food when he’s hungry.

“Nah, I already ate,” the anxious Side replies.

Janus gives him a sceptical look and sticks his forked-tongue out to taste the air.

Truth.

Janus shrugs before grabbing his food and retreating back to his room, leaving Logic’s dirty mug, and his own broken one on the counter, smirking at the thought of ruining Logic’s morning schedule, even if it’s just a little.

As soon as Janus is out of earshot, Virgil hops off the fridge and starts cleaning up the spilt coffee. He cleans the floor, the counter, Logic’s mug, and Janus’ mug, but he leaves Princey’s mug dirty in the sink.

Small pleasures.

Virgil places Logic’s mug back in its rightful place in the cabinet, and leaves Janus’ mug on the counter by the sink with a sticky note reading: “oops, I guess I cracked under the pressure :(“ in a perfect copy of Morality’s handwriting, hoping to maybe trick Logic or Princey into thinking Morality broke the mug so that they’ll actually try to replace it. (And if Morality is the one to find the note and begs Princey to replace the mug because “it's one of my favorites, Roman! Look! It has such a clever pun on it”, all the while claiming that he was the one who broke it? Well, the end result is the same.)

After making sure everything’s clean, he pours the rest of the coffee into a purple travel mug, and sets up the coffee maker so that all Logic will need to do when he gets up is press a button.

Then he slinks back to his room to watch conspiracy videos until he eventually passes out from exhaustion.

~~~END~~~

[Logan], [Roman], [Remus], [Patton], [Thomas]

#ts sanders sides #virgil sanders #janus sanders #sanders sides #momceit #deceit sanders #anxiety sanders #fanfic #fanfiction #my writing #thursday writes #patton sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #remus sanders #thomas sanders

579 notes · View notes

dingdongitsbees · 3 years

Text

BLACK-EYED SUSAN | LEVI X READER HUNGER GAMES AU

Chapter 3: First Impressions

Previous - Next

Work Count: 5.6k Ao3 link Ask to be added to the taglist!

First person pov can be found here

Master List

"Are we just friends if it's your breath on my neck late at night or if it's our laced fingers beneath your covers? How tightly do we need to be pressed against each other before you admit that you aren't doing this for warmth? How many times does your thumb need to brush my lips before we realise that we've gone too far?"

― Tara Love; This. This is too far.

As soon as you two stepped out of the train carriage, you were carried off by a group of flamboyant people that looked like they had been asked to dress as if they were channelling an abstract interpretation of a clown. Their glittery clothing and smiles grated against you as they pulled you forcibly by the arm with fake hospitality. You two were brought into what seemed like the biggest warehouse you had ever seen, rows of tables and curtains and what seemed to be torture devices, one for each tribute. Some were already on their tables, getting hosed down and waxed. You quickly had to accept the fate that was waiting for you. Soon Levi was out of your sight when he was pulled behind a curtain next to you. A light blue hospital gown was thrown to you and you were directed into a little makeshift change room.

The torture began immediately, getting waxed from head to toe. All that was left was the hair on your scalp, eyebrows, and eyelashes. Even your underwear line was waxed, much to your displeasure. Thankfully, your groans were covered by the twenty-three other people in the room who were also experiencing the same hell. The idea of waxing the tributes had always made no sense to you, you all needed hair in case you were getting a cold arena, and you were sure that the cameras wouldn’t zoom in on some arm hair as a source of entertainment. Though who were you to have basic expectations for a place that killed children for fun. Different priorities you supposed. Your nails were shaped to perfect ovals, all possible acne removed, and every hair on your head cut to the exact right length.

As you were hosed down and waxed fully for the second time, you distracted yourself by imagining Levi getting his armpits waxed only a few meters away and struggled to hold back a laugh. He must have gotten awfully close to swearing and hitting one of the prep teams members by now.

Finally, you two were both sitting on a bench together in an empty room, now with perfect eyebrows, waiting for your designer to arrive.

“What the fuck was that?” Levi grumbled.

“Don’t like being silky smooth, huh?” you joked, rubbing and caressing your arms like a dance.

“I’ll skin you.”

You pouted “But you already have your smooth skin, you don’t need mine as a second layer.”

“You piece-”

The door swung upon, sending you two into silence. In entered a tall man; blond hair gelled back, a roman nose, and kind blue eyes. Unlike the stylists, all he had to add to his plain black turtleneck and pants was gold eyeliner under his eye. He was definitely not the stylist you had seen on TV for the past few years. He must have been new. The new stylists always got stuck with Twelve after all.

His introductory smile dipped a little into what you could barely believe to actually be pity. “I’m sorry you two have to go through this.”

Your eyes went wide.

“I’m afraid the Capitol people don’t quite understand what we do to the tributes,” Erwin spoke, “My heart is with all of you.”

You and Levi nodded hesitantly, suddenly quite unsure how to navigate a Capitol citizen that had some semblance of empathy.

He looked to Levi who still had his eyes narrowed at him. “It was very brave of you to volunteer; I understand it was your last reaping.”

Levi clicked his tongue and gave no response, still sceptical, which Erwin didn’t seem to mind.

He then turned to you with a small smile. “And it was very brave of you not to dropkick him when he did so.”

Your hand flew to your mouth at the speed of a bullet to try and trap the laugh that attempted to shoot out. You decided quickly that Erwin was to be liked, Levi agreeing with your evaluation.

Erwin guided you two out into an adjoining living room, gesturing you two to take a seat on the low couches. He promptly pressed a button on the coffee table which sent up a plate of cut fruits and sat down opposite you. You grabbed a handful of grapes, offering some to Levi who picked the worst ones out of your hand, much to your dismay. Erwin watched you two closely, his eyes following over your skin to scrutinise the hours of prep that had happened. He sat back a bit more relaxed, content with the results.

“As you know, you two will have costumes that fit your district for the parade,” Erwin said.

You were already dreading what was set out for you two. It was usually coal miner’s overalls or just a black one-piece to look like you two were covered in soot. Twelve was never the pretty district. It had been slightly painful to watch Isabel and Farlan get shown off in skimpy miner costumes that barely covered them.

“I can see your life flashing before your eyes already,” Erwin teased, “But my plan is a bit different to the past years’ costumes.”

You gulped. That meant it could be good, or considerably worse. Levi shifted uncomfortably next to you.

“I was admittedly a bit inspired by your reaping and made a few adjustments as you two travelled here. They are now based around the flowers you two had, the black-eyed susan.”

That just sent the two of you two into further confusion. Flowers were quite the opposite of literally everything about Twelve.

“Now, what are your two’s thoughts on fire?”

Soon you were fitted into one-piece leather getups, the cracks of the leather made it looks like cracked stone as if to mimic the walls of the mines. But taking up most of the attention was down your two’s sides, in little sections, and across out chest in what looked like a giant yellow gash. You two were geodes that had been burst open to display an abundance of yellow flowers bursting out. You were told they were originally meant to be pieces of coal but had been changed only two days ago.

“Now,” Erwin began, “As you go along, one by one they’ll burst into flames from the top down and then fall as they turn to ash. The only ones that will remain will be the one behind your ear, and the one on your breast Levi.” You both nodded in slight fear. “You’ll be perfectly safe; the fire is entirely synthetic and doesn’t even create any heat.”

Erwin and the prep team continued to inspect you two as Hanji walked up behind, relaxing you a bit with the familiarity of her presence. She gave you both a quick up and down with her hands in her pockets and sent a smile.

“You two looks good,” she hummed. “Much better than the one I had to have I assure you.”

You finally took a quick look around the hall you two had arrived in after changing. Scattered randomly were the chariots for each district, each accompanied by their tribute pair with a few stray mentors and stylists and district escorts. You guys hadn’t gotten the run down on any of them yet, but it was apparent from the first glance that the tribute pull had more 12-year-olds than usual. They were typically less common, usually only having one as the younger kids usually only put in their name in once or twice, but it seemed many got a handful of bad luck this year. It was a bittersweet thing; it made it easier, but at a cost much harder to digest.

A young energetic girl was up near the front talking excitedly to a tall and broad blond boy. Levi followed your eyes and quickly found the who you had spotted, he shifted slightly closer to you. It was obvious from even this distance that he was from District Two. He was packed with muscles with an intimidating aura and who undoubtedly could kill you with his bare hands. He would be the one to beat. Having sensed he was being watched, he turned to look over his shoulder and made eye contact with you two. He narrowed his eyes slightly, seeming to recognise you two. You stared at each other for what seemed like eternity, neither party wanting to back down. But before either of you could win or lose, a booming voice called out to you all to get into position.

You looked back to your group, Hanji faced back to you two as well, having seen the same guy. She bit her bottom lip in thought but pushed it away quickly and gave you a thumbs up.

You two stepped onto the chariot, you were slightly terrified the horses would just run and send you flying off, but they were well behaved. You gripped onto the side tightly and looked to Levi who just knocked his hand with yours. Instinctually you weaved your fingers through his and he gave a slight squeeze.

We’ll be fine.

The chariots ahead of you two starting pulling out in order. You slightly frowned to yourself when you saw the young girl was indeed from District Two with the blond boy. What the hell was she doing here? Two chariots ahead of you two representing District Ten, was a girl in a pigtail and a shaven haired boy who were animatedly talking to each other, seemingly arguing over something stupid. You saw the girl pull out a full baked potato out of her costume and tried your best not to lose it as she tried shovelling it down her throat as quickly as humanely possible before her chariot was sent out too. Levi locked his mouth trying not to smirk. The boy next to her was simultaneously berating her and cheering her on. The two in front of you, District Eleven, a taller and skinny looking boy with a blond undercut and another 12-year-old girl with a blond fringe, were also trying to keep their giggles down. As soon as eating girl had wiped her mouth, their horses lurched them forward, fate deciding to be kind to them that day.

You calmed your breathing down in the seconds you had left, taking a deep breath and setting your eyes forward. Your two’s jet-black horses started trotting and Levi nullified the sudden lurch for you, holding you steadily. Soon you two were brought into the open, the crowds roaring almost deafening you all, the drums beating rhythmically only worsening it. You grimaced slightly at the sound but started waving up to those around you two. As planned, with a squeeze of your hands as a quick communication, you both discretely pressed the button on your cuffs. One by one the yellow flowers burst into blue and orange flames, disintegrating quickly, its petals turning to ash as its middle morphed into a piece of coal. You could see your faces being plastered on large screens above you and you attempted to regurgitate the most charming smile you could. Levi stood still and unwavering, glowering over everyone, hardly needing to act to do so. The camera cut to show a zoom in on the now only remaining flowers you and Levi had, matching your reaping looks, and then to your clasped hands from behind you two which sent the crowd into hysterics. You could only imagine the commentary Willy Tybur was spitting out to the TV watchers.

You two gradually got the near end of the large track and stopped in a semicircle with the other pairs. You could spot President Zeke Yeager stand up and start walking to the microphone, looking down over the balcony at the tributes below him in a ridiculing smile. How anyone but the district people didn’t see his cruelty was astonishing to you. He looked over his circular glasses down at you two, tilting his head to the side like he was trying to provoke you two. Levi’s grip tightened as he glared holes into the man’s head, having made eye contact with him. Zeke gave a light chuckle in mocking amusement before looking up to the crowd that was now chanting for him. He coughed gently before giving a winning smile and leaning into the microphone.

“Good afternoon your dear citizens,” he boomed, “How are we today after seeing this year’s valiant tributes?”

An eardrum shattering roar was let out from the audience.

He laughed heartily to himself. “It seems we are doing well then. The Hunger Games is an especially important ceremony for all of us, from District Twelve to the Capitol, it knits us all together.”

Another cheer sounded out around you all. You could tell at least half of the tributes around you two were refraining from running up there and pushing him right off his pedestal, Levi and you included.

“We wish our tributes a good 67th Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favour!”

Our horses started walking again, taking you out of the loud area, your two’s blood still boiling. You swore you could feel the man looking at you, but you didn’t turn around to find out.

Erwin and Hanji quickly jogged up to congratulate you on the showing, Hanji glad you two were following her advice and Erwin just glad that you two didn’t go up in flames due to his own inadequate design. Hanji, mid laugh at some comment you made, faltered when spotting something, or rather someone behind you. You and Levi turned over your two’s shoulders to see many of the tributes looking at you, most were just looking and commenting on the clothes, jealous they got a stylist with actual creativity, but near the other end of the hall was a group of five. The Careers.

The broad blond boy stood confidently, looking you two up and down calculatedly, the young girl by his side. Next to them stood another short girl but she was blonde and looked older despite her height, her nose matching Erwin’s in shape. By her side was an almost nervous looking boy but he towered over them with shaggy dark-brown hair. And finally, there was an average height boy with brown-almost-red hair swept back who stood in a way like he knew the exact amount of space he took up and his exact worth. They stared you two down, even the tributes around you two shifted nervously. Levi was about to take a step in front of you before Hanji spoke.

“Let’s go up to the penthouse,” Hanji said, diffusing the air. She pushed you on the back towards the exit, having to pull Levi by the shoulder to follow along. You two took one last glance at them before getting into the elevator.

Hanji let you two get dressed into something more comfortable before meeting you in the living room that faced a ginormous TV screen. Erwin was already sitting, champagne in hand, while Nick was keeping himself busy on some sort of tablet on the coffee table next to Hanji who was having her drink refilled by a titan.

Titans were not as grand as the name suggested but they would still freak you out nevertheless even though they were quite upsetting to see. They were typically Capitol traitors that were doing something so unforgivable that the government wanted to make an example of them. They had their tongue removed so they couldn’t talk as well as their genitals as some symbol to how they wouldn’t multiply. But the worst part of it was the fact that they were essentially braindead, just the acts of servitude left programmed into their brain. It was a fate that was worse than death.

You looked away with a shake of your head and sat on Hanji’s other side, Levi taking the spot next to Erwin. Eventually Nick had sorted out whatever he was trying to figure out and the TV turned on showing a video yet to start playing.

“This is a recording of the reapings,” Hanji explained, “You need to know what sort of people you’re dealing with.”

The video began, starting from District One. “Annie Leonhart,” the extravagant speaker had said. With a cheer the shorter blonde girl from before walked on stage with an emotionless face. A man’s voice stuck out most distinctly from the crowd which made her widen her eyes, giving some sort of a reaction at least. “Bertolt Hoover.” The tall boy with shaggy hair joined her on stage with a slight blush and a bow in reaction to the crowd and shook hands with Annie.

Next came District Two. Levi and you leant forward in your seats. “Zofia Reitsch.” You expected it to the cut to the girl you had seen but instead it showed a barely phased, silver haired girl who didn’t even bother to take a single step before a “I volunteer as tribute!” rung out across the area. Volunteering was expected in Two; most trained up until the age of eighteen and volunteered in their last reaping in order to decimate the competition. What was unusual though, was that the volunteer usually wasn’t a fellow twelve-year-old who ran up to the stage with excitement running through her veins.

“What’s your name?” The speaker asked, leaning down almost parentally, to the girl you saw before.

“Gabi Braun!” She declared which got a roaring cheer from the crowd.

It was psychopathic. It didn’t matter that they might have been in a better off district, there was a rule that had never been broken; twelve-year-olds don’t win the games. Yet cheered they did, chanting her name. They cheered that they were sending one of their children to die.

The speaker went over to the other bowl, carefully picking out a name. “Reiner Braun.”

“Same last name?” Levi muttered to no one in particular.

Up marched the blond boy from before. It was no surprise no one wanted to volunteer to take his place, he looked like he’d kill them where they stood in order to get the spot he felt was rightfully his.

“My, my, you two have the same last surname. What’s the relation?” the speaker asked.

“Cousins,” Reiner said shortly. Gabi just looked up with big eyes and a smile digging into her cheeks, so oblivious of what actually awaited her other than cousin bonding time.

You two went quickly through the other districts; not taking much notice of most of them as the career pack were clearly the threats of the selections this year. No other volunteers came up. The second twelve-year-old was a boy from Three called Falco Grice who had accidentally caused a scuffle as his older brother, who was too old to volunteer for him, was trying to break through the crowd to get to him. You two also discovered the third boy in the career pack from District Four was Marcel Galliard, but you two didn’t bother taking much notice of the girl as she had been excluded from the group. Eventually you two got to Ten and found out the potato girl was called Sasha Blouse, but your two’s hearts tore a little when you two recognised the face she made when the name Connie Springer was called out. Their faces on stage of absolute horror were those of best friends. You two had seen that firsthand with Isabel and Farlan. The third and final twelve-year-old was Kaya, the girl from Eleven who got called up with an older boy called Niccolo. Niccolo’s face of pure terror was where you two ended the video, not needing, or wanting, to see yours.

You two had dinner in near silence. Hanji and Erwin chatted quietly amongst themselves, Nick eating at the other end of the table, while you and Levi ate your two’s food diligently without a word. You kicked his foot subtly under the table making him look up and give you a playful glare. It was setting into you two more properly now that you two would have to kill people. The people whose life you two would end had names, family, friends, dreams, and ambitions. But someone in that arena, you two, or someone else, would stop that short.

Levi wasn’t dealing well with the obvious revelation either.

It gave you shivers just thinking about driving a knife into one of the younger kids. You wondered what it would be like to kill a little girl like Gabi. You hoped you didn’t have to find out.

You two went to sleep a lot more quickly than the night before, entirely exhausted by the events of the day. It once again felt weird to not sleep with Levi by your side but at least it wasn’t entirely silent; the noises coming from the streets down below from celebrations still managed to get up, albeit, deafened and distorted by the distance. But at least you had that, even if it was people celebrating your soon to be death.

At breakfast the next morning, Hanji gave you two the run down.

“You’ll be training with the other tributes for the next three days,” Hanji started, “You’ll be able to see what they’re good at and if they’re even good at all. Use this time to train yourself in things you haven’t tried or don’t know how to do.” You two nodded. “And under no circumstances showcase your real fighting skills.”

“Huh?” Levi injected simply.

“I don’t want you two painting a target on your backs, well more than you already have,” Hanji added. It was obvious that the careers had their eyes on you two already.

“But we need to get to used to their weapons, don’t we? They use the same ones in the arena,” you reasoned, “I can’t go in and not know that the knives are too heavy for me or something.”

“That’s all well and good but if they know you prefer throwing then the careers will beeline to them immediately in the games so you can’t get your hands on them. Levi is safer because as long as it’s sharp he can use it, but you need to be careful.”

You grumbled to yourself, annoyed that she was technically right.

“Oh, and Levi?”

He looked up from his porridge.

“Don’t piss anyone off yeah?”

“It would be their fault if they did,” he muttered.

Hanji just sighed and looked to you who you gave a quick nod to. You’d keep him reigned in.

You two went down the elevator in near silence in your training uniforms. Levi was leaning against the wall, seeming to hide his face from you. You ducked a little and saw his eyes were closed.

“How much sleep did you get last night?” you whispered.

“Enough.”

“Bullshit.”

He glanced up to you but couldn’t think of anything to retaliate.

“You can always come to my room if you want you know,” you said quietly, bumping your shoulder into his.

He looked up a little surprised before nodding lightly. He never seemed to realise that he didn’t have to be the one that looked after you all the time. It was a burden he took on without thinking about himself or if you even needed it. It was just in his nature.

He stood up as the doors slid open, revealing the massive training room. You two stepped out and noticed that almost everyone was there already, just missing Sasha and Connie from what you could tell. There were categorised zones all over the large room each with at least one person standing by it to help direct and teach. Some had real trees growing in them to learn how to make fires and traps, others held racks upon racks of silver weapons. There were shooting ranges for all different types of long-range weapons, each with a dummy at the end. For realism you supposed. There were elevated platforms for fighting hand to hand, little tables that held ropes for learning to tie knots.

Most of the tributes were just sat around on scattered benches or just on the ground where comfortable, waiting for instructions. The careers hung around the weapon area, checking them out but not touching. With them now was a younger boy, Falco you were pretty sure. It wasn’t uncommon for careers adopt a District Three tribute in order to get someone who knew technology and therefore more high-tech traps pretty well, and it was usually in the tribute’s best interest to stick with the careers so they weren’t an immediate target. But most died by a career’s hand anyway. Though there had been a few that had turned the tables on their alliance in a single night using the brains they were wanted for in the first place. You didn’t like the games but if you had to pick your favourite ones, it would have been those. Though one look at Falco told you there was no way he could ever kill a person, let alone the five people surrounding him.

Above you two was a room with chairs yet to be filled, but in the middle stood a man with red hair swept to the side. You didn’t need to guess who it was. It was Floch Fortser, the head game maker. He peered over you all, almost bored, with a glass of wine in hand. You two looked up to the man that would ultimately decide your fates. He had been criticised for his arena’s being too boring last year, you had a feeling this year he would step it up. Wasn’t that just lucky?

Finally, a bald man with a barely hanging on beard entered the room. With just one look at his scary eyes, you knew he was the instructor. Everyone stood up and watched as he placed himself squarely in front of all of you.

“All of you brats will be able to train here for the next few days,” he boomed, “There will be no fighting amongst yourselves, you will have plenty of time for that later. Anything requiring another person will be done with a trainer. You-”

The elevator dinged, alerting of a new arrival. You two could hear the laughter from it even without the doors open. Out came Sasha and Connie who were doubled over with giggles but soon realised the very quiet room they had walked into was looking at them. The man looked like he wanted to kill them. They coughed quickly and looked down, mumbling a quick apology, and obscured themselves from view behind you and Levi.

The man looked back to the group with a twitching eyebrow. “You will be able to come and go as you please. Any fighting happening between tributes will receive punishments.” You all nodded and broke off from each other quickly.

“What’s first?” Levi asked, stretching out his neck.

You pondered for a minute as you scoured the room. “Traps?”

Half an hour later you two had learnt animal traps, the instructor ecstatic that you two already knew the basics, and so through his excitement started teaching you two how to tie ropes to make people traps. Soon you two had one that would pull someone upside down when stepped into and you had been spending the last few minutes daring Levi to step into it who was adamantly refusing.

“Come on…” you playfully whined. “It’ll be funny!”

“No, you brat.” Levi had his arms crossed, looking you dead in the eye, though you knew the hint of curiosity was still in his eyes.

“Fine, I’ll do it you coward.”

Levi took a step back and watched nervously as you hesitantly stepped into the camouflaged circle of rope. Like a rubber band, you shot up by your ankle, just managing to hold back a yell. When your stomach calmed down and you understood your bearings you let out a laugh. Levi just shook his head at you, trying to hold back a chuckle of his own.

“Okay how the fuck do I get down though?”

You two had gone around to most of the smaller activities by near the end of the day; learning how to make a fire no matter what materials you had, how to make weapons from stuff lying around, which plants were edible, and which would kill you on the spot. The career pack stayed around the weapon areas, throwing spears, shooting arrows and battling with swords with the trainers. Most had stayed clear of them, always going to a different area if one wanted to use theirs, no one wanted to make enemies. But as it was nearing the end of the day half of them had now left, getting bored.

You two decided it was time to start learning some of the other skills you two had missed out on so far. You split up; him going to the javelin section, you going to the archery. So far you hadn’t managed to hit the dummy let alone one of the inner circles of the targets even once. It had entirely different fundamentals to knife throwing and you kept grazing yourself with the string to make it worse. You were about to give up when you heard footsteps approach you.

You turned and saw a smiling Sasha, she confirmed your name.

You nodded, “Sasha yeah?”

“That’s the one!” she beamed. You couldn’t help but smile too.

Over her shoulder you could see Levi looking back at you two, unsure whether it was a confrontation or just a friendly conversation. You just smiled at him and he went back to his training. Sasha watched you two but said nothing. She looked back to the bow you were holding in your hands and let out a huff.

“Did they not even teach you how to hold it properly?” she asked.

“They tried…” you trailed off, you had never been good at following instructions.

She took her hands out of her pockets and with a quick look of “may I?” she adjusted your positioning, moving your fingers one by one until they were in the exact right spot.

“Try now.”

Nervously you drew an arrow and aimed at the dummy, taking a deep breath. As you exhaled, you let it fly, its plastic feather caressing your cheek. It stuck itself in the thigh of the dummy, Sasha next to you let out a little cheer.

She continued to give you pointers, of how long to hold it back, when to let go, where to aim, how to adjust for wind, but not once did she pick up the bow herself. You had a feeling she had been given the same instruction you had of not to showcase her speciality. You didn’t mention it, much to her relief, but you could tell just by every precise word she gave you that she was extraordinarily good. But no one was going to pay attention to her standing next to someone who sucked at archery, much less think she could do it herself if they couldn’t hear the conversation. By the end of it you had managed to stick the arrow into the dummy’s torso every time, even getting it once in the head.

“You’re a fast learner.”

“Only when I have a good teacher.”

She gave you a smile and you two both looked over the room, almost everyone was gone. Levi had moved on to swords, attempting to dual wield, Connie was trying to practice manoeuvring with spears, and Niccolo and Kaya were seated on a bench just watching the room.

“I’ll teach you something tomorrow,” you said quietly, cocking your head towards the knife throwing area.

She raised her eyebrows a little before nodding. You two went your separate ways, each to your district counterparts that were waiting for you.

Dinner was a fairly quiet ordeal, Levi and you just summarised what you two had learnt during the day, though you avoided the fact that the “great teacher” you had for archery was in fact another tribute. Levi stayed quiet, but you were pretty sure Hanji knew anyway.

Getting to sleep that night was a bit harder, you kept tossing and turning, unable to find a spot that rested your body comfortably. The main thing to blame was the fact your brain had kicked into overdrive by trying to remember every little detail of the day, every little instruction you had gotten. However, the silence of your bedroom was disturbed by an almost silent knock.

You jumped out of bed, already knowing who your late-night visitor was. You opened the door to see a tired Levi leaning against the wall. He hid his eyes from you from under his hair, though you were sure they were almost closed. You gave a little smile, not knowing if he could even see it, and held him gently by the hand. He didn’t resist as you pulled him into your room and closed the door behind you two, guiding him over to your bed. You two slipped in quietly to your sheets, you pulled them up so they rested just under his chin, preferring to cover some of your face with them.

With your other hand that wasn’t holding his, you reached out and softly touched his hair, sweeping it out of his eyes that were looking straight at you. He just watched and breathed lightly as he could as you played with his hair, twirling the strands and smoothing them back. Ever so slowly he reached out his other hand and held your wrist, halting your movement. You two just stared at each other. It looked like he wanted to say something, that it was bursting at the edges of his lips, but he stayed noiseless. Instead, he reached out and cupped the back of your head, pulling you to his chest.

You made no effort to stop him and burrowed yourself deeper into his chest, his body flush against yours. Neither of you two spoke a word or moved away even a millimetre from each other. All you had to bless your ears was his steady heartbeat pumping directly next to your ear, rocking you to sleep.

Previous - Next

Ask to be added to the taglist!

Master List

If you want you can buy me a Ko-fi!

57 notes · View notes

penguinwithitsarseonfire · 4 years

Text

Take Me Out, Take Me Home

Paring: 12th Doctor x Reader

Word Count: 2,207

Warnings: None

Summary: You wake up in the TARDIS to find the Doctor no where in sight. You set out to find him before Nardole does.

Request: Hey!!! Can I request a 12th doctor with fluff prompt 5 "Home stopped being a thing when you entered my life." Being with the doctor feels like it would be home enough😭❤️ Prompt: Home stopped being a thing when you entered my life.

You woke with a start, shooting out of bed. You couldn’t explain it, but a heavy weight had settled into your gut. Something was wrong, very wrong.

You left your room carefully, your feet padding against the TARDIS hallways. It was silent, eerily so – not even the TARDIS was making much noise. It was as if her silence was purposeful, like she was conserving energy.

The console room was dark, with only a few lights glowing from the round things that sat on the walls. It was unnerving, and walking through made the hairs on the back of your arms stand.

The bookshelves were still in their places, the Doctor’s guitar was resting on its stand, and the mugs had been cleared. Everything was as it should be, except, well, the Doctor wasn’t there.

You scurried across the console, towards the door. You cracked it open, careful to make sure no one who should see it open – such as a student or one of the Doctor’s colleagues were around.

The first thing you noticed was that it was dark – middle of the night dark. You stepped out slowly, staring out of the window. A small collection of stars twinkled delicately in the sky.

You ran your hand along the wall, pawing for the light switch. You found it, and, in an instant, the overhead light flicked on.

The Doctor’s office was the same as it had always been; his desk was cluttered, Nardole had left a scarf over one of the chairs, and there were empty chip boxes overflowing in the bin. Just like the TARDIS though, the Doctor wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

You ran a hand through your hair and let out a breath. Right. He must have been inside the TARDIS somewhere.

When you returned to the TARDIS, your thoughts were interrupted by a curious ticking sound. You scanned the console room, your eyes falling onto a monitor that definitely hadn’t been on when you had looked here earlier.

You looked up at the roof, addressing the TARDIS. “This is your doing, isn’t it.”

The ticking noise didn’t stop, so, you assumed it was had to be the TARDIS. You stalked towards the monitor, examining it carefully.

It didn’t make any sense, it was an odd, indiscernible pattern of circles and roman numerals. You frowned at the screen. “Could you make this… I don’t know, a language I can understand?”

The symbols on the screen morphed, revealing a set of numbers: 4:24:06

The two numbers on the end went down rapidly, until the four ticked over to a three.

It hit you – this was a timer, counting down to… something. What it was counting down to though, you didn’t know.

You ran your hand around the edge of the TARDIS console, studying it as you circled it. You didn’t recognise a lot of the buttons and controls on the console, but you knew enough to know that there were a couple of levers left in the wrong spot, and your hand ghosted over their position. You frowned at some of the buttons, which were pushed down, and had been left like that.

You stared back at the monitor, counting down, and the console, which looked primed and ready, as if it were about to take off.

“He’s gone somewhere,” you breathed out, finally understanding. “He went somewhere and sent you back here.”

You stared at the door, like in any moment, Nardole was about to storm in, demanding that they find the Doctor. He wasn’t supposed to leave.

Your mind went to the vault, to who was in the vault.

Oh, if Nardole found out, he was going to be so mad.

Madder than you were now.

Because this was the kicker: The Doctor had left, and he hadn’t taken you with him.

You circled the console, looking for the big leaver the Doctor pulled to take off. You reckoned you had figured it all out. The Doctor had given himself some time away, that was the countdown. The TARDIS was poised to return in another four hours.

Or, she would return right now, should you find the lever that would get you there.

And then there, right in the centre, where it always was. You chewed your lip, gripping the handle. You waited a second. Were you sure about this? If you were wrong, you could wind up anywhere.

No. You weren’t wrong. You were going to find the Doctor. If, for anything, to make sure Nardole didn’t find him first.

You took in a deep breath, and pulled.

The TARDIS seemed to come to life. The lights all around flashed on, basking you in their familiar glow and the engines roared, droning and groaning as you began to phase in and out.

Just as soon as they started, they stopped, and the TARDIS lurched slightly as you landed. You patted the console, smiling softly at the roof. The Doctor always teased you when you looked up to talk to the TARDIS, but you liked having a reference point. “Thanks,” you said.

You jogged downstairs, finding some of your clothes and throwing them on. Whatever was out there, you didn’t want to be in your pyjama’s.

Then, you carefully walked back up the stairs, mulling over everything that had happened in the last few minutes. You’d lost the Doctor, and flown the TARDIS, two things which, ordinarily, were a recipe for disaster.

You rocked backwards and forwards on the balls of your feet, staring at the door apprehensively. You had no idea what was out there, what you would find, what you would see.

You swallowed and straightened your spine, steeling your nerves. With new resolve, you left the TARDIS.

You stumbled onto a cobblestone street, lined with tall, Victorian buildings. You palmed the key around your neck, your link to the TARDIS, and closed the door behind you. You had no idea where to start looking, you hadn’t thought this far ahead – you hadn’t thought at all.

There was a crash in one of the buildings, and you startled, a small smile growing on your face. Well. It was as good a place as any to start.

So you ran.

The cobblestones echoed under your boots, and you ran into the building where you had heard the crash.

You came upon… a library, of all things. A collection of books had scattered across the floor, having toppled over from one the shelves. Sitting there, in the centre of the mess, as a familiar man with a mess of curly, silver hair.

“Doctor,” you breathed. “You’re here.”

He poked his head up, giving you a funny look. “Y/N? How did you get here?”

“TARDIS,” you said. “Where is here?”

“When,” the Doctor said, and he stood up. He turned back to you. “You came here by the TARDIS? On your own.”

You raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, because I was going to bring Nardole with me.”

He considered you. For a moment, he looked impressed, then, he frowned. “You didn’t need to come, I had the TARDIS set on a timer.”

“I saw that,” you said, and you came inside and began picking up the books. “What are you doing that requires at least four hours?”

“Six,” the Doctor replied. “I designated six hours,” he gestured around the room. “I’m looking.”

You started placing the book on one of the tables, before turning back to pick up some more. “For..?”

He looked at you with a frown. “Answers, I’ve got questions about things.”

You hummed. “Descriptive,” and you turned your back to him, shuffling more books. A silence fell over the small library, the only sound of you moving the books. It wasn’t awkward, but it wasn’t comfortable either.

Eventually, you spoke. “I’m mad at you.”

“You’re mad?” He said, sceptically. “At me.”

You sighed, dropping some books onto the table. You gripped the table, breathing in and out. “You left, without me. Again.”

You didn’t mention the last time. When he had disappeared, only for you to find him months later at the university, of all places.

He’d told you he hadn’t seen you for a century. And you had made him promise not to ever leave you again. “How many of these adventures do you go on?” You asked. “Playing hooky from Nardole? From…” You didn’t say her name. Couldn’t. Not yet. Not after all the things she had done. You still needed more time.

“This is the first in a long time, actually,” the Doctor said, and his voice was soft.

You turned to face him. “What are you looking for?”

He didn’t reply. He just… stared at you. With deep, sad, eyes, he looked at you like you were one of the most important people in his life.

“I needed advice,” he said. He ran a finger along the spines of several books. “This library, it’s famous for holding the secrets to love and romance.”

You snorted. “Why do you need to know the secret of love and romance?”

He looked at you as if begging for you to understand. “Why do you think, Y/N? Honestly.”

You could take a guess, but you really didn’t want to. If you guessed wrong… well, it would break you.

You swallowed nervously. “Come on," you said, and you reached out for his hand. "Let's get you home before Nardole realises we're gone."

The Doctor took your hand gingerly. He’d been touching you a lot more lately, it had been nice. "The TARDIS is a time machine, Y/N,"

"Home," you repeated, and you tugged him along, out of the library.

The Doctor didn't let up. You turned to face him, exasperated. "Doctor, what's up?"  

"That doesn't work for me," he said, and, to your blank expression, he elaborated. "The whole 'home' thing.”

“How do you figure?”

The Doctor shrugged slightly. “I’m a time travelling alien from a different galaxy. I don't have one."

You raised an eyebrow. “The university? Where you’ve been for the last 50 years? What you call that then?”

The Doctor groaned. “No, you’re not understanding me. Think Y/N, c’mon, you’re clever.”

You were getting frustrated now, it was bubbling under your skin. “I don’t know what you want me to say Doctor. You’re being obnoxiously cryptic again.”

"Home stopped being a thing when you entered my life," he said, as if it were the most basic fact in the world. He said it the same way someone would say that the sky is blue, or water is wet, like it was simply a thing that was, that it's truth was so innate, so entrenched in every aspect of existence, that it was almost as if he was surprised he had to say it at all.

Your breath caught in your throat. "Doctor... You know what a statement like that means, right?” Because what he could mean, it couldn’t possibly be true. Not for you. That wasn’t how things worked. You couldn’t dare hope. “You don’t know what you’re saying. "

The Doctor grumbled, you couldn't make out all of it, but you could swear he said something about being cheesy. "I know exactly what I’m saying,” he came towards you, until you were barely a hair breadth apart. “Y/N Y/L/N, I’m saying that you are my home. Wherever you are, I'm home. That's it."

You stood there dumbfounded. The Doctor continued talking, rambling more than anything. "So you need to choose your words better, because you really aren't conveying the full depth of the English language like that."

It took you several moments to process what he had said, what he meant. This fool couldn’t say the word ‘love’, so he’d found another way, a way to circumvent the rules like he always did.

Your idiot genius in a blue box, had just told you that he loved you.

You swallowed back all your nerves, all your fears, all your confusion. This was one thing you knew to be true.

The Doctor loved you.

"Doctor," you said, and he clamped his mouth closed. "Shut up."

Then, you kissed him.

You weren’t sure what compelled you to do it; the worry you’d experienced when looking for the Doctor, the latent adrenaline from being so frustrated with him earlier, or the elation of finding out that he loved you, but, when your lips met his, it just felt right.

The Doctor was still, at first, then almost instantly softened. He kissed you like he needed you, his arms wrapping around you and holding you steady. His forehead fell against yours and it ignited something within you, dancing from your head, down to your fingers, and to your toes.

His hand reached the base of your neck, holding you steady, as if he had to hold you, as if he had to protect you, and you had never felt more safe in your life. Here you were, on this strange street, in this strange time, and you had never been happier.

The Doctor was the one who pulled back first, and he stared at you intensely, it was like he was looking straight into your soul.

“Come back with me,” you said softly. “Come home.”

He nodded, and took your hand.

“Home.”

#the doctor x reader #twelfth doctor imagine #12th doctor x reader #twelfth doctor x reader #12th doctor #vault fic #opening Elle's vault

258 notes · View notes

mychemicallyimbalancedromantic · 2 years

Text

Dim The Sun And Wonder Where We've Been

Chapter 5

Word count: 521 Rating: Teen Pairing: Prinxiety Warnings: Anxiety

Read it on AO3

The next morning, Virgil woke up in a way he hadn’t in a while; in someone else’s arms. Until the warmth and the breath on the back of his neck woke him up, he thought he might be dreaming. The red-brown hair spilling over his light grey pillowcase was the final indication that last night’s events were a memory, not a dream.

And he wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Viscerally, the warmth emanating from Roman and the comforting warmth of the arm slung over him felt right in a way nothing had since they’d split up.

“Morning, Stormcloud,” Roman mumbled, lifting his head from the pillow and pushing back his tousled hair. The sight of his Cupid’s-bow lips hit Virgil with the memory of last night’s kiss, and he bolted upright. Realising what had panicked him, Roman sat up too. “It’s okay, honey. Breathe.”

Focusing on the grounding warmth of Roman’s hand flat against his back, Virgil managed to calm down before his panic hit its peak. “Sorry,” he muttered, daringly burrowing his face into the curve of Roman’s shoulder. “Sorry for what?” Roman asked, free hand instinctively going to Virgil’s hair, twining in the faded violet strands.

Trying to suppress what remained of his panic, Virgil took a deep, steadying breath. Him and Roman lay there for a while, floating in their respective emotions. Roman eventually spoke. “That kiss, it didn’t have to mean anything. It’s just… a lapse. We’re learning how to be together like this. We can pretend it never happened, if you like.” Isolating one thought from the spiral of words in his head, Virgil met Roman’s honey-gold eyes. “What kiss?”

Despite Virgil’s lingering doubts, the awkwardness began to clear as they got out of bed and changed in separate rooms. They went for breakfast together, Roman remembering Virgil’s difficulties with eating, particularly in the morning. Virgil made coffee, instinctively adding mountains of cream and sugar to Roman’s, while Roman made toast, one with Crofter’s and the other with peanut butter. They sat down and, reluctantly, Virgil ate.

A few minutes after they’d finished eating, Virgil built up the courage to finally ask Roman something. “Um, so, the theatre… you don’t have any vacancies, do you?” At the mention of his passion, Roman became instantly more animated. “We do! A few actors, but I figure that’s not really your thing. Can you do stage makeup? Our artist quit recently.” Roman looked sceptical, but Virgil nodded. “Yeah, I can actually.” Roman arched an eyebrow, a smirk playing at the edge of his lips. “Well, aren’t you full of surprises?”

After another couple of hours spent whiling the time away, Virgil and Roman prepared to leave. Hoping to show he had some skills, Virgil spent longer than usual on his eye makeup, daring to add a hint of purple glitter to the usual coal black. Roman watched him intently, making his hand shake a little. “You’re good at that,” Roman almost purred. A charged look passed between the two for a second, before Virgil dropped his makeup brush, cleared his throat, and asked if they should leave.

#prinxiety #virgil sanders #roman sanders #sanders sides #sanders sides fanfiction

5 notes · View notes

willsimpforanyone · 3 years

Text

Buzzfeed unsolved X Sanders sides

Virgil (nonbinary) is the sceptic that is a little too easily convinced

Logan is the real sceptic, easily figures out what makes the creepy sounds (trans man)

Patton (trans man) is a terrified believer that is just trying to keep it all together

Roman (genderfluid) is the enthusiastic believer who drags everyone on ghost hunts

----------------

"Roman please, you're going to figuratively pull my arm out of it's socket if you tug any harder," Logan sighed at his enthusiastic friend who was holding very tightly to his hand. Roman, blue 'he/him' pronoun bracelet clearly display, was pulling him to the porch of the presumably haunted house, closely followed by Virgil with their camera and a very nervous Patton.

"You really don't need to clarify, we know I couldn't actually pull your arm out of its socket," Roman rolled his eyes, but eased his grip on Logan's hand, slowing his pace so they could walk side by side.

Virgil aimed a kick at Roman's feet. "So what are we actually doing here? Is it ghosts or demons this time?"

"Both, actually," Roman turned back to swipe at Virgil's head. "There are at least three ghosts, and a demon in the attic."

Patton squeaked. "Uh, hey, um, you didn't say anything about a demon, Ro..."

"Roman, I wish you would stop saying things like they are irrefutable facts. There has been no definitive proof that ghosts or demons exist." Logan rolled his eyes, but Roman was undeterred.

The group had been allowed one night in the supposedly haunted house, and Virgil had been commissioned to film the events that could take place. They were secretly grateful that they didn't have to be in the actual video footage at all if they didn't want to be, but outwardly complained that they would get tired of holding the camera, that this house was stupid anyway, they didn't even believe in this crap.

Roman hesitated at the door, and Virgil smirked. "What, getting scared?" They pointed the camera at their friend. "Big Bad Roman is scared of the front fucking door."

That was enough to get Roman to swing open the door and stroll on in like he was merely popping in to a coffee shop. Logan followed, unbothered. Patton clung to Virgil, and the pair entered together.

The bag Roman slung on the table made a loud thud, and when opened he produced an EMF reader, divining sticks, a ouija board and a few other things that he laid out neatly on the table. Logan raised an eyebrow.

"I'll admit, you do seem to be passionate about this, no matter how idiotic this quest may be." Logan picked up the EMF reader and scrutinised it. "I'm not sure if I can call your methods scientific, however. You do understand this entire night is going to yield results only supported by pseudoscience?"

Patton took the EMF reader from Logan's grasp. "Now now, be nice Lo-Lo, this is something Roman is excited about and we should be supportive. And, if we're- lucky? Or unlucky, I'm kinda hoping we don't find anything- we might hear or see something that is definitive proof of ghosts!" Patton smiled encouragingly at Roman, who grinned back.

Virgil was fiddling around with the camera. "Hey, who did I give the batteries to? This one is empty."

"But-" Roman stared, frozen. "That was a new battery, wasn't it?" He took out a new battery from the front pocket of the bag and handed it over. Virgil shrugged, and simply swapped the batteries over, unwilling to admit that it was indeed a new battery, and that they'd double-checked it just before they arrived at the house.

"W-well, we'd better get started, right?" Patton's voice was higher than normal and he'd detached himself from Virgil only to reattach himself to Logan, finding comfort in the unceasing scepticism.

Roman handed out torches to both Patton and Logan. "Indeed, let us at last embark on a quest to uncover the secrets this house holds, let us walk among the dead and speak to those belonging to days gone by!" He grabbed Virgil and started dragging them upstairs. "Come, my friends, adventure awaits!"

The enthusiasm held by Roman was the driving force for the rest of the group as they followed him all the way up to the attic. Patton gave a nervous laugh as Roman placed the ouija board down and gestured for them all to sit on the floor. "Are we sure about this, Ro? I mean aren't ouija boards supposed to be really... scary?"

Virgil smirked from under their fringe. "That's the point, Pat- they communicate with those beyond the grave." They wiggled the fingers of the hand that wasn't holding the camera at Patton and laughed lowly, darkly. "You never know, maybe the demon will possess one of us."

"Please cease from scaring him, Virgil, my arm is starting to hurt from where he is holding it," Logan glared at Virgil, and Patton guiltily let go, opting to sit next to Roman.

"You'll save me, right Ro?"

Roman put his arm around the slightly smaller man. "Indeed I will. Never fear, my dear friend, for it will take more than a mere demon to frighten me!"

Eventually, all four of them were situated round the board- Virgil was exempt from being involved as they were filming the scene, but the others all had two fingers on the plancette that was placed in the middle of the board.

"...do we introduce ourselves? It would be polite, right?"

"Patton, there is nothing to be polite to- demons do not exist."

"Oh hush, Specs-tre... you get it? Like spectre? Like a ghost?"

Virgil sighed, exasperated. "Can we get on with this, please? My arms are starting to hurt."

They decided on spelling out their names, with only minor mistakes, and waiting to see if there was any kind of response. Roman and Patton were eagerly leaning over the board, while Virgil and Logan exchanged glances.

Very slowly, the planchette began to move. Roman scowled at Logan. "If this is you trying to trick us, I don't appreciate it."

Logan raised an eyebrow. "I am not trying to trick you, I am merely sitting here like you two."

Roman turned his gaze to Virgil, who scowled back. "How can I have anything to do with it, dumbass? I'm not even touching the board."

The planchette had moved from the middle of the board where they had put it after spelling their names to the 'G', and was moving to what seemed to be the 'O'.

Inhaling shakily, Patton looked at the camera. "V, I think it might be saying 'go away'."

Virgil quickly wiped the look of worry off their face- they were supposed to be a sceptic, after all- and nodded. "Yes Patton, the demon is antisocial and wants us all to fuck off." They spun the camera around as if looking for a demon. "Understandable, have a nice day."

"Virgil, will you please deign to keep the camera on the board, I fear Roman is going to start yelling any minute otherwise." Logan's even voice brought all attention back to the board, where the planchette was just moving off the 'A'.

Roman looked like he was about to burst. He let out a breath he'd been holding. "Everyone shut up, this is the most evidence we've ever got!"

"This isn't exactly evidence. The planchette moving is due to what's called the 'ideomotor effect', simply meaning your body talks to itself. It's an example of involuntary, unconcious physical movement." Logan was now the focus of attention. "Patton has planted the idea that the so-called 'demon' is trying to spell 'go away', so it is likely the planchette will react to your unconcious movements to spell out those words."

Sulkily, Roman sat back, leaning on both his hands. "C'mon teach, you can't just... take the magic out of this like that."

Logan looked surprised. "I... I'm sorry Roman, I just thought it would be interesting to know the actual science behind the board, especially since we're filming it." He looked sincerely apologetic. "I apologise for taking the metaphorical 'magic' out of this activity."

Roman sighed, but smiled slightly. "Don't worry about it." He fiddled with the pronoun bracelet, and switched it to a green 'they\them' bracelet. "You know, I don't believe the ghosts are biting tonight. I suggest we leave and perhaps try again another day."

Patton nodded enthusiastically. "Yes please, can we please leave, I keep feeling like we should leave, let's leave-" He scooped up the ouija board, only pausing to move the planchette quickly to 'goodbye', and stuffed it in Roman's bag.

The procession downstairs was slightly less upbeat than the procession upstairs had been, but Roman was determined to not make Logan feel bad. "Besides," they said, arm slung around Logan. "I doubt demons would be very respectful of pronouns." Virgil stifled a laugh.

"Yeah, nobody wants to talk with disrespectful demons." The group reached the door and they turned to look at the house once last time. "Fuck off demon, we don't need your transphobia!"

Patton panicked for a second and clapped his hand over Virgil's mouth. "Virgil! It'll hear you!"

Roman laughed heartily. "Don't worry, Pat, I agree with Casper the Unfriendly Ghost here. Who cares if the transphobic demon hears, I refuse to bother myself with the opinions of demon who can't even talk back to us."

Walking back to the car, Logan was nudged gently by Roman. "Hey, teach, you can't say there's absolutely no way the planchette was moved by a demon or a ghost, can you?"

About to retort that yes, he could say that, Logan looked at Roman's face, their eyes showing just a little bit of hope. "...no, I can't say for certain that the planchette wasn't moved by a supernatural force."

Perhaps it was foolish, but seeing Roman's face light up was worth it.

---------------------

i love the sanders sides and i love buzzfeed unsolved so here ya go, have this brain child, hope you enjoy- you're welcome to ask for more!

#sanders sides #sanders sides fic #sanders sides fanfiction #roman #logan #patton #gay sanders sides #trans!logan #trans!patton #nonbinary!virgil #genderfluid!roman #creativity #morality #logic #anxiety #buzzfeed unsolved #bfu au #sanders sides au

17 notes · View notes

dramaticsnakes · 4 years

Text

How two exasperated doctors adopted three robots

Characters: Janus, Logan, Virgil, Patton, and Roman

Warnings: Gunshots and cursing, but I think that’s it. Let me know if I missed something!

Summary:

After being hired at the Neo-mechanical Engineering and Research Facility, Dr. Janus Dedrick began noticing some suspicious things going on there. He decided to take matters into his own hands, and look into it.

Meanwhile, Janus' frustrating colleague Dr. Logan Croft, had apparently gotten the same idea.

A victorian steampunk fantasy scientists and robots AU.

Word count: 7358

A sincere thank you to @rainbowbutterfrosting on tumblr for beta-reading this fic! It means the world to me.

Read on AO3

Janus Dedrick often considered himself quite brilliant. He had more than one doctorate to prove it, even if such titles couldn’t always be considered truthful. They could either prove that you’d worked hard or that you merely had the money to spare, so that wasn’t what made Janus consider himself brilliant. Neither was his position at the Neo-mechanical Engineering and Research Facility. A Facility that was among the first to attempt to figure out how to utilize the previously inaccessible “magic” (as it had been unprofessionally dubbed thus far). His confidence was hardly linked to a title such as “Dr. Dedrick”. According to Janus, his brilliance shined the most when he was doing things entirely on his own accord.

Such as, breaking into the Neo-mechanical Engineering and Research Facility at 1am on a Saturday.

One might wonder what Dr. Janus Dedrick was doing, elegantly flipping switches he wasn’t supposed to flip, and walking through passages that were clearly locked away for a reason. It was quite simple really. Janus wanted to figure out what said reason was. Just because Janus worked at the Facility didn’t mean he had access to any and all knowledge about it, and Janus simply intended to change that. Really, was hiding information from the public not enough? If the Facility didn’t intend to make scientists and engineers curious, perhaps they shouldn’t have a gate practically labelled ‘prohibited’ that led to a closed off section of the Facility, which hardly anyone was allowed to enter. They were practically begging for a tactical break-in.

So that was what Janus was doing. In the weeks leading up to it, he’d left skilful remarks, and made sure his duties led him to the right offices. He’d opened a few drawers and lockers, using his fashion-choice of constantly wearing gloves to his advantage. It wasn’t even that difficult, and his suspicions only grew with each new discovery. The fact that there was a prohibited area wasn’t the only weird thing going on. There were blueprints that contradicted each other in strange ways, parts that hadn’t been delivered on time, and multiple other minor inconsistencies. Janus could respect things being kept close to one’s chest, but he also respected anyone intelligent enough to uncover what was being deliberately hidden from them.

Janus heard the final lock click and the steel gears turned on the door. The passage that opened was dark. There were no windows in sight, and even if there were, it was as previously stated, 1am. Janus riffled through the pockets on his vest underneath his cape that he wore in the cold. He got a hold of a box of matches and struck one. He lit the oil lamp in his other hand, which illuminated a small area. Not enough to see everything ahead of him, but enough to ensure that he didn’t easily step on anything vital (or trip, harming himself, who was also a rather vital asset).

His steps echoed down the hall. He noticed a few paintings on the walls, that he hadn’t seen before. There were other paintings in the Facility, but these were different. Made by a different painter perhaps? Some depicted various mechanics, and one or two were of people Janus had seen around the Facility at times but hadn’t had much to do with. He wondered if they worked in this part of the Facility sometimes. What had they done to gain access there? Janus wasn’t certain if he was bitter or excited to see what it was the Facility was attempting to hide. You wouldn’t have this level of security for a couple of unimportant documents or employee files.

The room expanded the further Janus made it. While Janus couldn’t see the entirety of it, he became increasingly aware of just how big the room was. The light was reflected from the surface of a machine, that was several feet taller than Janus. He put the oil lamp a bit closer to it, to get a good look at the switches and buttons. There was a brass panel on it, that didn’t seem too complicated to figure out.

Then Janus heard steps from a door on a different side of the machine. Damn. Who the hell would be there at this hour? Janus scanned the room for a good place to hide, but quickly realized that it was too late.

A man walked around the machine, and locked eyes with Janus. The man wore a black vest with a dark blue necktie. At first Janus was frightened, fearing that his otherwise rather ingenious plan had been found out, but once Janus had a good look at the man, his expression faltered with exasperation. The man had a pair of glasses and a confused look that made Janus’ blood boil.

“What the hell?” Janus said, because really it made no sense.

The man tilted his head slightly and looked Janus up and down. “Dr. Dedrick? To the best of my knowledge you are not allowed in here.”

Janus clenched his fists, but then his expression turned smug. “To the best of my knowledge, neither are you, Dr. Croft.”

Dr. Logan Croft was an agitating individual, who unfortunately happened to be Janus’ colleague. He was hired a few months after Janus and had almost immediately earned a promotion through reputation alone. He was known as a prodigy, who had always passed at the top of his class. Even if his family hadn’t had any sort of formal education previously, Logan had apparently against all odds made it to one of the most esteemed universities. Impressive sure, but it wasn’t as if Janus hadn’t done just as much, if not more. At least Logan Croft hadn’t had to change his name in the process.

The two had many overlapping fields of expertise, which could either result in a wonderful friendship or a bitter rivalry. In this case, the latter was more prominent. Logan’s entire demeanour and the way he was always so hung up on rules and the law annoyed Janus to no end.

Logan adjusted his glasses. “That is correct.”

So why, of all people on this godforsaken planet, was Dr. Logan Croft in the prohibited part of the Facility? Janus huffed with amused disbelief. “If you are here without permission, surely there is no reason for you to condemn me for doing the same?”

Logan narrowed his eyes. “I wasn’t condemning anyone. I was simply wondering what you’re doing here.” he sighed, “Though I wouldn’t consider myself surprised.”

Janus gasped and placed one hand on his chest, taking mock offense. “And why is that, dear doctor?”

“You have a history of doing things you shouldn’t be doing.” Logan said matter-of-factly.

Janus grinned. “Ah, but it’s only truly wrong if anyone of importance notices.”

Logan huffed. “I noticed.”

“Anyone of importance.” Janus repeated, but Logan didn’t react with enough annoyance for it to be satisfying. Janus gestured towards Logan with his free hand. “Though that doesn’t answer why you are here. It seems uncharacteristic of you.”

At this, Logan looked at the floor, and led his hand through his hair. He closed his eyes for a moment, and then locked eyes with Janus again. “I believe I’ve made a discovery.”

“And what might that be?” Janus asked with a silky tone, though the spite was clear underneath it.

“It doesn’t concern you unless I find adequate proof.”

Janus furrowed his eyebrows and chuckled with disbelief. “With all due respect, Dr. Croft, I don’t think hiding your intentions at this point will be easy for you.”

The ‘for you’ was added to provoke some form of anger, and judging by Logan’s clenched fists at the words, Janus succeeded. “And what are your intentions, Dr. Dedrick?”

“I asked first.”

“No, you did not.”

“You simply said, you were wondering what I was doing here. You never asked the question.” Janus said, adjusting his bowler hat.

Logan gave an exasperated sigh. “I suppose that is technically correct.” Janus looked at Logan’s barely illuminated face with amused anticipation. Logan looked at Janus with a serious expression. “I have had my suspicions that the Facility has been hiding something for a while.”

“Is that so?”

“After looking through some blueprints and files, I’ve noticed that there are… Patterns of inconsistencies if you can say it like that.”

Janus didn’t say anything for a few moments. He wasn’t sure what he found funnier and more ironic. The fact that Logan was there for the exact same reason as him, the fact that Logan thought he knew more, or the fact that Logan had apparently also looked at files they weren’t allowed to look at. “Such as the delayed magitoite delivery?” Janus said almost emotionlessly.

Logan turned his head towards Janus. His mouth was gaping slightly. “And the box of 20 teeth gears.”

Janus smiled wryly. “Not to mention the blueprint detailing the components of a hypothetical robotic arm.”

Logan looked a sceptical for a bit, and Janus hoped that it meant he’d learned something Logan hadn’t. Logan continued. “There was a file that talked about a use of magitoite I haven’t seen anyone in the Facility attempting yet.”

Ah. Janus didn’t know that. He tried to think of something to say to have the last word but couldn’t think of anything he could express in that moment.

Logan moved some hair away from his eyes. His expression was nearly unreadable. “So, you’ve been conducting your own investigation?”

“I have.” Janus replied.

The two men stared at each other in silence for a few breaths. Logan looked thoughtful, and Janus didn’t like the sight. Why did he have to run into Logan Croft? At least it would’ve been a little exciting to explain himself to someone with authority, instead of this pretentious idiot. The thought that Logan had been looking into the same matters as Janus made him want to scream. “I have a proposition.” Logan said

“Yes?”

“Instead of getting in each other’s way, I let you follow me on my investigation.” Logan said.

Janus clenched his fist and groaned. “Oh, how generous of you.” he said sarcastically.

“Thank you.” Logan said, nonchalantly.

Janus sighed. “I suppose I’ll have to attempt to explain what I’ve learned so far to you, then.”

Logan huffed. “Guess I will too.”

Janus tutted. “Unfortunate.”

“Indeed.”

Logan turned his head towards the machine in the room. “What is this?”

Janus looked at the machine and at the mechanics on it. As he looked around the room, he saw the hint of a pipe and some wires that led towards the other end of the room. “It appears to be connected to something. Perhaps some sort of opening mechanism?”

“Do you know how it functions?” Logan asked.

“I haven’t had the chance to l-“

“Never mind I’ve got it.” Logan said, barely acknowledging Janus’ words. He flicked a switch and pushed a button. The machine made some noises, that sounded like bits of metal grinding against one another, and steam came out of an opening on the left. There was the sound of some type of gate moving upwards, further into the room.

Janus groaned. “I could’ve figured that out as well.”

“But you did not.” Logan said, and while it seemed indifferent, Janus didn’t miss the sly look in his eyes.

Janus and Logan continued down the passage with an oil lamp each. On the way, they recounted their discoveries. Most of the time they finished each other’s sentences, unfortunately having discovered nearly the same thing, though Janus savoured each time he knew something Logan didn’t.

Click

“What’s that noise?” Janus asked, stopping in his tracks, holding up one arm with concern and confusion.

“It was a click.” Logan replied.

Janus rolled his eyes and looked at the other. “Oh, I definitely didn’t realize that. But where did it come from?”

“Well, it could’ve been a few things. There are plenty of technologies in-“

Logan never got to finish the sentence, as a bullet flew past them after a quick and sudden ‘bang’. It dashed into the wall beside them, leaving a smoking hole in the metal. Janus’ eyes widened, and he saw that Logan nearly dropped his oil lamp in surprise. As soon as Janus heard another ‘click’, he scanned the area. He noticed another bullet flying towards them. Towards Logan specifically.

“Get down!” he yelled and gave Logan’s sleeve a tug. Logan ducked accordingly and dodged the small bullet.

Logan’s mouth gaped. “It would appear that it was a gun.”

Janus narrowed his eyes and looked ahead. “Well-spotted, Dr. Croft. Glad to know your doctorate is being used to comprehend such vital information.”

Logan glared at Janus. “This is hardly the time for-“

Janus tugged at Logan’s sleeve again, and they ducked once more. The bullet wasn’t anywhere close to hitting them this time around though. Who was it that was aiming at them? What was aiming at them?

“Authorized personnel only.” a voice, that didn’t sound like anything Janus had heard before spoke. It sounded forced and inhuman in a sense. As if it was coming through a phonograph. There wasn’t any emotion behind it. Logan and Janus looked at each other. What should they do about that? Janus was almost convinced that Logan would turn around and leave. Janus would never do something like that. He was getting too curious.

Perhaps Janus had underestimated the other doctor, as Logan closed his eyes tightly, sighed, and grabbed Janus’ arm. “Come on.” Logan said, practically dragging Janus further as if he was a dog. Somewhat offended, Janus ripped his arm away from Logan and brushed his own shoulder.

“I can walk myse-“

Another bulled was fired, but it was several few away from both of them. “Authorized personnel only.” the voice repeated. Janus breathed and picked up the pace. Logan did the same. Janus’ and Logan’s legs were almost equally long, so their pace was annoyingly similar, but Janus tried not to think about that. They had to avoid the danger at hand.

They made it to the end of the hall when they noticed the source of the bullets. It did indeed seem to come from a gun, but the person, or well perhaps not a person, who was holding the gun was the interesting part. The thing that held it, was shaped like a human, but without the skin. Where there should be skin there was brass and steel, with nails in between each piece. It had hair on top of its head, which made Janus even more confused. What was the point of the hair? Purple, covering the eyes… No, not eyes. Round holes that were lit up with a purple glow. It wore a black shirt and a black chequered jacket on top of it, and there were three gears turning by its chest. Another strange thing was, that the gun wasn’t held by it, but was directly attached to the top of the steel hand.

It didn’t take multiple doctorates to conclude that this resembled a robot. Not exactly the ideal hypothetical version, but a simple one. It was mostly a robot in appearance, and a sound player and automatic (terribly aiming) gun in function. Though Janus couldn’t help but feel like it was built to be capable of more than that. It didn’t make much sense though, because that would require technology that wasn’t developed. Perhaps it was just an experiment? “Authorized personnel only.”

Janus scoffed. “Thanks, we get the gist.”

The robot(?) moved the gun back, there was a click, and another shot was fired. This time it went straight for Janus’ head, but he ducked before it did any damage.

“Hm, seems it generally has a terrible aim, except for a few select exceptions.” Logan said, deep in thought, as if he wasn’t in immediate danger.

Janus furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the human-shaped gunner. “It’s almost as if it hits by chance rather than technique.”

“How do you think we can shut it down?” Logan asked. It sounded a bit like Logan was a teacher asking the class a question, but Janus couldn’t help but chuckle at it rather than feel offended. It was strange, that Logan hadn’t turned around yet. That he’d rather shut down their mechanical attacker and move on. Perhaps Logan was a little more driven than Janus had initially thought.

“So far, nothing is preventing us from getting closer.” Janus responded. He tilted his head and cooed, “Or does that scare you, doctor?”

Logan let out a ‘ha’. “Not in the slightest. I’d say its lack of aiming abilities renders it rather unintimidating.”

Janus scanned the gunner and noticed that there was a panel on the back. It was possible that there was a switch on there or behind it, which could shut it down. While it had legs, it didn’t seem like it was able to move. Janus approached it just as another meaningless shot was fired, and Logan almost looked annoyed as Janus did so without narration or comment. Just as Janus reached the side of the robot, its other arm stretched out. The sides of it started moving strangely, as if bits of it were finding a place. Before long, two metal plates started reaching through the arm, covering Janus’ path like a shield.

Hold on.

Janus knew of that technology. In fact, he knew it well. “That’s my technology!” he exclaimed, as he looked at the shield. He recognized it on the way, the shield was triggered once he’d reached a certain radius from it. He created it about a year prior, having been tasked to develop a technology that could keep out unwanted visitors. It had still been in an experimental phase then, and he’d been moved to other projects since.

“Ah, it did look rather simple, so I suppose that makes sense.” Logan said, and Janus sighed sharply through his teeth. He tapped the side of the shield, one on the top, one on the bottom, and one on the left, which led the robot to withdraw it slightly. Once Janus reached the back of the robot, he noticed that there was in fact a switch on the back. Janus thought it was a little too easy to see, for it to be an efficient design, so it was likely just a prototype, made to be turned off easily in case of malfunction. The fastened panel made him curious, but he figured that shutting it off first would be ideal. He flipped the switch, and there was a loud, hollow, humming noise, and some clicks from within.

“Hm.” Logan said, “The eyes aren’t lit up anymore.”

“I turned it off, doctor.” Janus said.

“Thank you, I am aware.” Logan replied, a clear bitterness in his tone.

The body felt heavier after being turned off, and it seemed Janus had to hold it up to prevent it from falling. Janus placed his oil lamp on the floor, looked down at his pockets, and grabbed a screwdriver. Logan approached the harmless robot and stood right behind Janus. Logan narrowed his eyes. “Do you bring that with you everywhere?”

Janus smirked and rolled his eyes, as he placed the screwdriver on the screws that fastened the panel on the gunner’s back. “Of course, I’d bring some tools to a break-in. I am not completely dense and inexperienced.”

Logan raised an eyebrow. “Are break-ins one of your usual pastimes?”

Janus didn’t reply to that, as he removed each screw from the metallic back. Logan was looking him over his shoulder, which was rather irritating. At times it could be fun, if Janus did everything just a little better than Logan would be able to, but Logan was the type who’d notice any small mistake, and Janus would never hear the end of it. To be fair, Janus would do something similar. He wrenched the panel off, which revealed a technology that was indeed exceedingly similar to the one he’d developed. There were more gears, and some of the wires were connected to other places than he was used to, but it wasn’t that difficult to make sense of.

Something that stood out, however, were the bits of the wires, that were twisted in non-optimal ways. Something was being blocked, as if someone was deliberately trying to limit the functions. It didn’t take a genius to deduce, exactly how you could optimize the machine, though Janus wasn’t certain what the optimal version would be like. Would it have a better aim?

Right above all of the gears and wires, Janus saw that the inside of the robot was labelled ‘VIRGIL’.

“That’s not an ideal design.” Logan said.

“I know.” Janus said.

“Its speech centre has a larger vocabulary than ‘authorized personnel only’.” Logan added, which made Janus’ eyes flick to a box in the right corner, whose wires went up towards the mouth.

“Well-spotted.” Janus said, in a way that sounded like he’d immediately noticed himself. He would, of course, if he hadn’t been looking at how his own technology was being used. Janus looked up, and saw that there was a door, blocked by a large metal plate. Logan stood up, and pressed a few buttons nearby, and the plate moved up, scraping against the wall.

“This was the place it was guarding, it seems.” Logan said, nodding into a dark room, “Are you coming?”

“Of course.” Janus said. He placed the screwdriver in his pocket, and allowed the robot to fall just a little, and managed to cradle it in his arms. It wasn’t too heavy. He noticed that the eyes that had seemed pupil-less while they were fully lit up, had something that resembled it anyway, only furthering Janus’ suspicion that it was meant for more.

”Why are you bringing that?” Logan asked.

“Just moving it out of the way for now, so we can make some adjustments and cover our tracks later.” Janus replied, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He let his eyes flick to the oil lamp. Logan furrowed his eyebrows, leaned down, and took it.

The room was small, and everything in it was dusty. There were scattered notes and blueprints, and Janus quickly noticed that the blueprints were a great deal more detailed than he’d seen before. They were filled with drawings that looked like robot parts, and his mouth gaped upon the sight of a detailed magitoite formula. He wanted to rush over there and take it all, but he froze upon the sight of something even more remarkable.

On the ground, lying languid and lifeless, there were two robots. They were most definitely robots. They looked similar to the VIRGIL, that Janus was carrying in his arms, but they had their own entirely unique design. One wore a light blue short-sleeved suit with a grey pipe strapped over its shoulders. Its hair was red and curly, and Janus wondered if it was synthetic. It had a wide smile on its face, that seemed a little dead on the lifeless robot. The other was built from a more refined metal than the other two and had white broad-shouldered white shirt with a cravat. It also had a metallic red sash with various buttons on it, that lead from the top left to the bottom right. There wasn’t any light in any of their eyes, indicating that they were turned off, but once again Janus noticed that there was something resembling pupils there.

Logan’s eyes were fixed on the robots as well, and Janus could’ve sworn his eyes sparkled. “There… There are more…” Logan said breathlessly.

“Y-yes.” Janus said. He’d expected it to sound more articulate than that.

Logan was shaking, looking at the blueprints on the wall. Janus could hear his own breathing a little too clearly for his liking. Where should they even begin? Logan placed the two oil lamps on a nearby wooden table. “I suggest that we look at the… Robots, first.” Logan said, answering Janus’ unspoken question.

Janus nodded. He walked a little closer to the two bodies on the ground and carefully placed the lifeless VIRGIL next to them. Janus looked at the robots, and the machine in the corner. There were wires connecting to the backs of each one. “Should we try to turn them on?”

“We could dissect them.” Logan said, “And figure out how they function first. Judging by the VIRGIL’s functions, they could be hostile.”

Janus hummed. “I thought you said its lack of aiming abilities rendered it rather unintimidating.” he mimicked Logan’s voice at the last words.

Logan adjusted his glasses and exhaled sharply through his nose. “If you want to risk it, I’m not opposed to it.”

Janus smiled a little to genuinely for his own liking. He nodded towards the machine in the corner. “Try to turn that on, if it isn’t too complicated for you.” he said in a somewhat belittling tone.

Logan rolled his eyes and walked towards it. “Let me know if you need my help turning the robots on.”

“Well, if they’re based on my technology, I hardly see the problem.” Janus said, walking towards the mechanical bodies on the ground.

“I highly doubt they’d all use such a simple protection mechanic.” Logan said.

Janus didn’t bother replying to that. He looked at the three robots on the ground. He wasn’t too keen on turning on the gunner again, so he picked the one in the blue suit with the big smile. He unscrewed the panel on the back, revealing a system that was… Similar, but not entirely. For one, it didn’t seem to utilize Janus’ protection technology, but it did have something else going on. Once again, it was as if something was blocking it.

The name written on this one was ‘PATTON’.

Logan mumbled something to himself, having placed one hand on his chin. He grabbed a tool on the table that Janus couldn’t see, pushed something into the side of the machine, and flicked a large switch on the side. Gears on the walls started turning, and there was a hiss, as steam was released from the top of it. Janus felt some power in the wires of the robot. He flipped the switch on the back. It stood up, suddenly, and Janus almost fell backwards. He shuffled back to his feet and looked at the other side of the robot. The eyes lit up in a light blue colour. It hurt to look directly at them.

“Please state—order” the robot said, but Janus could tell it wasn’t a complete sentence. He looked at the wires inside. He squinted, and unscrewed the side of the speech centre, and switched some of the wires.

“What are you doing?” Logan asked from the other side of the room.

“Fixing it.” Janus stated, in a matter-of-factly tone that could almost be confused with something Logan would say.

Logan bit his lip. “Is that wise?”

“Please st—Please—state order—order.” the PATTON struggled.

Janus tightened one of the gears and gave the water container inside a tap. Steam was released from the mouth of the robot, and Janus moved his hands back abruptly.

“Something is happening.” Logan said, his mouth gaping.

“What?” Janus asked.

“The eyes are different.”

Janus stood up and moved to the front of the PATTON. It was true. The light faded just a little and they no longer looked quite as lifeless. There was a visible pupil and the mouth that had otherwise been stuck in an emotionless smile, moved just a little. As if there were flexible muscles in the jaw. For a moment it frowned, it moved its head in a way that was frighteningly human. It looked at its surroundings, confused, concerned, perhaps scared, until its eyes fell upon Janus and Logan. It smiled, in a sudden and natural motion as if it had done it a million times before. Steam was once again released and there were a few oddly satisfying clicks, as the PATTON moved its arm up in a mechanical, coordinated wave.

“Hey there kiddos. What can I do for you?”

The voice wasn’t as inhuman and mechanical as it had been before. In fact, if it wasn’t for the phonograph-like volume and quality, it could easily be confused as human. Janus and Logan looked at each other at the same time, eyes wide, and without a hint of a single snarky comment from either of them.

“I… I uhm…” Janus said, looking the robot up and down. This wasn’t possible. The design was too complicated, the tone and use of words completely distant from the words of any machine. What Janus was looking at was something that would be considered purely hypothetical. “Who are you?” he asked because no other words were cooperating with him.

“Oh! Where are my manners?” the impossible robot said. One arm moved in a few mechanic motions to the robot’s chest. “I’m Patton.” The eyes closed for a moment as Patton’s head tilted and its (their? his? her?) smile widened.

“That… This…” Logan tried, speechlessly. He shook his head. “I have questions.”

“I’ll answer anything, within the best of my ability.” Patton said with a polite nod.

Logan looked at Janus. “Dr. Dedrick, we do agree that this doesn’t make any sense, do we not?”

Janus nodded a bit too sheepishly for his own liking. He corrected his posture and pulled at his cape a little. “We do.”

“Usually a creation such as this would be considered…” Logan began.

“…purely hypothetical.” Janus finished. He looked at Patton who was smiling as if he was frozen in time. “And judging by the strange shipments, the use of my technology…”

“…the blueprints, the prohibited area, and everything in this room…” Logan added.

“…I assume that the Facility has been keeping some rather influential scientific progress from us, no?” Janus said, his voice gradually shifting into something more bitter.

“Yes.” Logan said with a nod. He looked at Patton. “What do you think Patton’s functions are?”

“Patton, what are your functions?” Janus echoed at the robot.

Patton barely moved. “My purpose is to assist humans with anything they might want help with. This includes but isn’t limited to: cooking, cleaning, holding objects, transporting objects, taking care of children, taking care of pets, and anything else I can be programmed or taught to do.” he closed his eyes for a moment and opened them again, “Though I apologize, I cannot do all tasks perfectly, as I have a few malfunctions. I am a prototype.”

Janus furrowed his eyebrows and Logan took a step closer. “Who built you?”

“My creators didn’t identify themselves, but I was produced by the Neo-mechanical Engineering and Research Facility.” Patton answered, moving his arms a bit more dynamically, in rather human gestures.

“When?” Janus asked.

“Depends on what year it is now.”

“1891.”

“A little more than four years ago” Patton responded.

“Four ye-“ Janus breathed and chuckled dryly. “There has been this advanced technology at the Facility for that long?” Janus didn’t know is he was more pissed or more ecstatic.

Logan’s breathing was shaky. “Why would they keep something like that from us? Surely it’d be ideal to have as many people as possible working to perfect such a technology instead of having them create a technology that already exists.”

Janus sighed and looked at his colleague. “Dr. Croft, surely you’re not dense enough not to recognize ill intentions?”

Logan looked at Janus with a strained, but neutral expression. “Surely you’re versed enough in the sciences to know, that we cannot jump to such a conclusion without proper data.”

“Oh, because I’m certain people with wonderful intentions would make a robot with a gun that shoots after anyone in range and protect their secrets with this much care.” Janus said sarcastically, gesturing with his arms.

Logan scoffed. “You’re one to talk about secrets.” Janus hissed through his teeth with exasperation.

“Are you talking about Virgil?” Patton said suddenly, sounding a lot less compliant than anything else he’d said. Janus could easily interpret a hint of confusion or concern in Patton’s voice, though that didn’t make much sense. “I- I mean, not to ro-butt in or anything.” Patton added with a smile, as if the robot had caught itself doing something bad and wanted to cover it up.

Logan gasped and squinted. “What did you just say?”

“Virgil?”

“No, the last part.”

Patton stuttered, “Ro-ro-butt in?”

That was… That was a pun.

“No no no that doesn’t make any sense. If wordplay isn’t the robot’s primary function, there is no way that would be a part of its language centre.”

Dr. Logan Croft was in fact, correct, even if it wasn’t what Janus would initially focus on. “Patton.” he said, in a tone that was meant to be friendly and polite. He felt somewhat foolish speaking like that to a machine, but it seemed that Patton was more than that. “Is making… puns… a part of your programming?”

Patton’s upper body moved back a little in a surprise. Patton looked down, in an almost ashamed manner. “No. I am so sorry… I-it’s one of my malfunctions I’m afraid.”

“That’s not…” Logan tried disbelievingly, “How did you learn that?”

“I uhm…” Patton tried, and Janus thought it was remarkable that the robot even added filler words like that. “Well, I once noticed that certain words in my language centre have similar pronunciations or meanings that can be utilized in different situations, and… And it’s terribly addicting.”

“That shouldn’t be…” Logan attempted. “That’s… That’s incredible!”

“Huh?” Patton said, tilting its head slightly.

“You’ve been able to learn from your programming without human interference! I can’t even begin to describe how unique and… Impossible that is.” Logan said. He locked eyes with Janus, and just then, Janus knew exactly was Logan was thinking.

“Magic…” Janus said. It was unbelievable. So much technology was right at their fingertips. Janus looked at Patton. “You mentioned Virgil, correct?” Janus asked, “Something was blocking its programming. Yours too. Why is that?”

For a moment, Patton’s mouth gaped, and the eyes were wide. Then Patton looked down in defeat. “I… I’m not sure. Some humans must have done it because it was the best option. Humans are good at that kind of thing.”

Janus scoffed. “Debatable.” He felt like there were a thousand questions to be asked, but there was a lot of information to take in. Everything was flying around him and meshing in an incomprehensible puddle, which was terribly inconvenient. He looked at Logan. “Should we turn on the others?”

Logan bit his lip. “I am… I am curious.”

“Oh! I can help you!” Patton said excitedly. He stopped moving for a moment. “I-if you desire, that is. What are your names if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Logan Croft.” Logan said.

“Janus Dedrick.” Janus said.

“Of course, Logan Croft and Janus Dedrick. Who would you like to turn on?”

Logan looked at the two robots on the floor. “How about… The one with the sash.”

“That’s Roman! He is a lot of fun.” Patton said. “I’m sure you’ll get him booted up in no time.” Patton winked and pointed at the boots he wore. Logan groaned, although there was still some light in his eyes from the entire situation. Janus couldn’t blame him. Unfortunate really.

“Wait, hold on.” Janus said, “Are you all considered… Are you referred to as a ‘him’?”

“Oh no no, not necessarily! It’s whatever you prefer to refer to us by really.” Patton said, frantically, once again acting as if he’d made a serious mistake.

“But… You use that among yourselves?” Janus asked.

“…Yes, but humans don’t usually do that.” Patton said.

“Where did you learn then?” Logan asked.

Patton paused, and his eyes became distant for a moment. Then he looked up, hesitantly. “I… I don’t know.”

Janus and Logan looked at each other once again, some sort of silent communication between them. Janus could almost forget just how much Logan annoyed him right then.

Patton walked over to Roman, and it dawned upon Janus, that it was the first time he’d seen the robot walk. The movements were loud, and you could clearly hear the metal scraping against itself while each joint moved up and down. It was still impressive. Janus and Logan followed.

“Let me know if I can do anything, to help. That’s what I’m here for.” Patton said.

Janus’ expression faltered a little as Patton said that. Having robots with functions like that made a lot of sense, but at the same time, this robot seemed to have… emotions and thoughts of his own? Janus couldn’t help but feel that there was something a bit sinister about having the robot act as a servant and nothing else.

“So… All of the robots have a full setting and a limited setting.” Logan stated.

“Will he shoot us at the full setting?” Janus asked, coldly.

“No no, Roman wouldn’t do that as far as I know.” Patton said with a smile. Janus almost wanted to comment on the ‘as far as I know’ but figured that saying it to the robot wouldn’t get him anywhere. Even if it was an advanced one.

“Where is my screwdriver…” he mumbled instead.

“Right over here, Janus Dedrick.” Patton said. Janus noticed Patton lean down, picking up the screwdriver from the floor. He marched towards Janus, extending his arm a little, which was apparently something he was capable of, and handed it to the doctor.

“Uhm… Thank you Patton.” Janus said, grabbing the screwdriver. Patton tilted his head and looked confused for a breath, but then his expression softened. It was remarkable how expressive he was. “No problem, Janus Dedrick.”

Janus unscrewed the panel on Roman’s back and fixed the wires and gears. He flicked the switch on the side, and the robot stood up. He didn’t stand up in the same clumsy way that Patton did. It was a little more coordinated and vivid. He held up his arms in a theatrical gesture. “Here comes the noblest Roman of them all!” he exclaimed. He stopped and looked at everyone in the room. “Hello there. How might I entertain you today?”

Ah. An entertainment robot? That seemed… Frivolous, but not entirely surprising. Interesting.

“What are you functions?” Logan asked.

“My, what an honor to meet such a dashing human on this… time of the day, I don’t have a clock function.” Roman said, bowing in a way that produced a few loud clicks. “I am Roman. Designed solely for your entertainment. I can recite all poems, plays, and songs I’ve ever heard.”

“Fascinating.” Logan whispered. “Can you produce poems and such on your own as well perhaps?”

“What?” Roman said, suddenly sounding very frightened, “Well… I…”

Janus squinted. He thought of the way Patton had acted upon the mention of his ‘malfunction’. “It wouldn’t be bad. It would be impressive if that is the case.” he explained.

Roman perked up. “I… Uh… I can!”

Janus watched Roman intently. These robots were truly advanced. Their language was so much like that of a human and their and they even hesitated in their sentences at times.

Logan looked at the final robot on the ground. “What’s it- what’s his function?”

“That’s Virgil! He protects humans!” Patton said.

“Did a great job at that earlier.” Janus remarked sarcastically, but no one reacted to it. Logan took the screwdriver out of Janus’ hand. “Hey!” Janus exclaimed. Logan walked towards the robot on the ground and started unscrewing the panel on the back. “Oh why, don’t bother asking or anything.”

“I apologize.” Logan said, though Janus could tell from the wry smile, that he’d done it partially because it was amusing. Logan removed the panel.

“It’s my technology, you know. I know more about fixing it.” Janus said.

“It’s really not that difficult.” Logan said. He moved some wires, unscrewed a gear. He flipped a switch, and steam was released from the side of the robot. Janus sighed.

“AH!” the robot yelled, standing up abruptly. “What is going on?” he held his gun in front of him and Janus jumped backwards.

“Hello.” Logan said, and Janus was suddenly overcome by how soft Logan’s voice sounded. It sounded kind and caring in a way Janus wasn’t used to.

“W-who are you?” the robot asked.

“Logan Croft.” Logan responded. “Who are you?”

“Virgil.” Virgil replied. He looked around. “Where am I?” his eyes landed on Patton. “Patton! Where are we?”

“I have no clue!” Patton replied, with a smile that didn’t quite suited his response.

“You’re in a prohibited area of the Neo-mechanical Engineering and Research Facility.” Logan responded.

“Oh, you’re not obligated to answer our questions!” Patton said, hastily, “Unless you really want to.”

Roman looked at Logan and Janus. “Where are the other humans? Why are we… Here? Did we… Did we do something… Wrong?”

“Goodness, no.” Janus said, “We’re not here to hurt you.”

“Do you feel pain?” Logan asked curiously.

“Nothing that matters.” Patton replied. Janus tried to figure out exactly what the implications of that sentence was.

“Well, physical pain would require a nerve system, which seems like an incredibly complicated and useless thing to add, so it wouldn’t make sense for you to have that.”

“Like I said, nothing that matters.” Patton said.

Janus looked at Logan breathlessly. “Croft, they… They feel. Emotions that is.”

“What?” Logan whispered, narrowing his eyes. He looked at each robot. “That’s not possible, there’s no way that the magic can… That’s essentially creating life.”

“Are there more of you here?” Janus asked.

“I am not… Certain.” Patton said, moving his hand up to his chin with a single click. “I mean, we aren’t the only ones that were built but if we’ve been transported here, I don’t know where to find anyone else…”

“Have you been ordered to do anything with us?” Roman asked. Virgil was standing in front of them holding up his shield in a protective stance.

“No.” Logan said, simply, “No one sent us here. We br-“

“We’re here on our own accord.” Janus said, brilliantly. He looked at Logan harshly. “What… What are we supposed to do with all of this.”

“There is so much information, and we can’t just…”

“It’s going to be difficult to cover our tracks…”

“We should resume looking through the Facility.” Logan said.

Janus looked at the robots. “We have to… We have to do something about them before we do that.”

Logan nodded. “You’re right… Ha, ‘right’, that’s unlike you.” but the snarky comment hardly sounded sincere.

Janus exhaled once through his nose and allowed himself to smile just a little, even if he felt that it damaged his reputation. Then he gave the robots a determined glance. “I’m bringing them.”

Logan looked at Janus with a somewhat baffled expression. “And the notes and blueprints?”

“We have to bring them too somehow.” Janus said.

“Perhaps having you tag along wasn’t so bad after all.” Logan said, which made Janus turn his head confusedly, “It means we have more hands to carry all of this.”

Janus huffed.

“Huh?” Virgil said.

“Would you like to come along with us?” Janus asked.

All the robots looked dumbfounded, and there was silence for a few moments, where you could only hear the clicking of their gears and some steam being released from each of them. Roman was the first to step forward. “Certainly, dashing humans. If you desire my presence.”

Logan looked at Virgil. “Would you like to come along as well?”

Virgil looked at Logan sceptically. “I-If you need my protection.”

Janus looked at Patton who was looking at the floor meekly. “Would I… Like… To… Uhm…”

“Would you?” Logan asked.

“It’s not in my… I can’t…”

Janus breathed as the realization set in. “We would like you to come along.”

“O-of course!” Patton said determinedly, “I will go with you!”

Janus bit his lip and watched as Logan started to collect some of the documents in the room.

This was going to be interesting.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed! I want to write more in this AU at some point. It probably won't be a cohesive story, but I have some ideas for more stories that take place in this universe. For instance, I would like to introduce Remus at some point. If you'd be interested in reading more stories like this, let me know!

197 notes · View notes

littleoddwriter · 3 years

Note

buzzfeed unsolved but its zsaszmask

Unsolved | Roman Sionis x Victor Zsasz | ZsaszMask AU

Fellow wheezers, who happen to ship ZsaszMask, this is for you!

Thanks for the request!!!

Also, in case anyone might be confused, let me explain why I chose their roles the way I did.

So, in m BFU ZsaszMask AU, Roman is Shane (sceptic) and Victor is Ryan (believer). I did that because frankly, Roman has no respect for anything or anyone, especially not dead things, so I feel as though he'd take on more of a sceptical role in terms of paranormal things, whereas Victor would be more inclined to believe in these things, since he's already quite superstitious, etc. So, that was really all the thought behind the roles. Still, Victor doesn't react as heavily as Ryan truly does because that would just be hella out of character, I think.

I hope you enjoy it!

summary; Just a Buzzfeed Unsolved AU of ZsaszMask. It focuses more on the Supernatural Seasons (after establishing it all) because I thought that'd be more interesting.

notes; nothing notable, other than Domestic Fluff and Kisses, I guess.

Despite committing murders on their own, Roman and Victor were quite intrigued by true murder cases, as well; especially those that have never been solved. They fascinated them. Sometimes they drew inspiration from them for their next victims, always open to try out new things, most notably if it was supposed to send a message. Sometimes they’d just make fun of them, though. It was one of their favourite pastimes, really.

Eventually, on his research, Roman stumbled across this whole niche of true crime fanatics. People discussed these things online, either on blogs or even YouTube videos. It got them a hell of a lot of attention – and money, too.

With that in mind, Sionis proposed the idea of opening their own YouTube channel with videos like those he’s seen to Zsasz, who wasn’t exactly enthused, but he didn’t care.

Think about the publicity and the money, Victor, he’d said which made his partner shrug and agree that – sure, if that’s what Roman wanted, he wasn’t the one to deny him.

After a short while of making these unsolved true crime videos, they gained a lot of online popularity. It delighted Roman! Sometimes, he’d even sit down to read the comments, and gave into what caught his attention after reading the same suggestion one too many times.

Apparently, people wanted them to lean more into the supernatural side of things, explore cases that could only be explained by the seemingly unreal and paranormal; ghosts, demons, aliens – that kind of bullshit. Roman didn’t believe in any of this crap, but more publicity meant more money, and that promise made Roman happy enough to subject himself to these things.

Although, he had to admit that Victor’s reaction to it surprised him a little.

“No! We shouldn’t,” shot right out of him the moment Roman had said they’d cover such cases in the very near future.

“Why? Don’t tell me you actually believe this shit.”

“Well- not really, but I also don’t wanna test it,” Victor started stumbling over his own words then to try and come up with a weak excuse.

Huh. Roman had never taken him for someone like that, but he saw it in a positive light, since it only guaranteed to make this whole thing a lot more fun.

Apparently it wasn’t just fun, but those videos gained even more views – quickly. Upon reading the comments, even more people now thought they were a couple (such comments have already started beforehand) – and they were, but the public needn’t find out about that. It’d only put them in danger among their rivals in Gotham’s underbelly, so they didn’t announce anything and have consciously tried to stay as neutral as possible on screen. They had to cut out some kisses they shared here and there in their videos’ post-production, though. Sometimes they just couldn’t help themselves.

Still, the supernatural type of videos seemed to make their chemistry pop, which didn’t necessarily surprise Roman, since they actually travelled to the places they’d talk about and investigate them, hands-on, looking for evidence of paranormal beings and activities. So it was only to be expected that they’d sometimes forget they were being filmed at all and therefore just acted like themselves in these situations.

Roman naturally took on the role of a sceptic, as he didn’t believe in any of it, nor did he have any respect for these supposed ghosts whatsoever. Victor on the other hand – well, he tried to act as though he didn’t truly believe; but once they visited the infamous Sallie House and upon the flash-lights mysteriously having turned on and off on their commands to the alleged demon, Zsasz couldn’t hide his… apprehension, any longer.

It amused Roman greatly as he just laughed at Victor’s reaction, which was subtle enough – he jumped and had wide eyes, but otherwise didn’t react – but to Roman it was as if he had jumped up and shrieked, considering that Zsasz usually didn’t show any fear at all.

People ate that shit up, though. They revelled in either reaction, thinking the contrast was perfect and made watching the video less scary, and far more enjoyable. Roman was loved for his taunting, his blatant disrespect and the way he coaxed Victor into unintentionally communicating with the demon as well. Zsasz was also praised for making others laugh by being rather afraid, despite his tough exterior, and some even sympathised with him.

Additionally – and unfortunately a part they had filmed, but couldn’t leave in the video – Victor had been still a little mad at Roman for daring to talk to the supposed demon and roping him into it, despite having been told not to, when they had been on their way home the next day – after having spent the night at the house.

He was sitting in the car, on the front passenger seat, his arms were crossed and he was pouting. Cute, really. He just adored his little lapdog.

“Aw, baby, don’t pout. Nothing happened, we’re both still alive. That demon was nothing but a fake fuck anyway,” Roman cooed, grinning at Victor from the backseat he sat in.

Zsasz turned his head and glared at him, “Don’t test it. I told you! It’s dangerous. Could’ve killed you for all we know.”

“But it didn’t. Now quit being scared, or whatever. It just stopped being cute.”

Victor rolled his eyes and turned his head back to look out of the window. “I’m only looking out for you,” he had muttered, which Roman only caught when they cut the video.

Upon finding that out, he made it up to his partner with a bird for him to free and a good time in bed afterwards.

After a couple of years of making these videos, they had gained quite the cult following. And despite having only been in for the publicity and money at first, Roman found himself genuinely enjoying making these videos. Victor, too, he knew. Frankly, they both just loved being able to spend time with each other in the way they had before anyway, only to be paid for it as well.

Some of the most amusing things to both of them, though, were all the fan theories and speculations about them that their audience came up with at times.

Supposedly, Roman himself was a demon, which would explain why all his disrespect hasn’t killed him yet (obviously that wasn’t the case, but he revelled in it nonetheless). Others speculated about their relationship, and some even talked about Victor’s scars, wondering where they came from and why there seemed to be more every other video. They never addressed any of these things, of course, only amusing themselves with it during a late night.

One time, they spent the night at an allegedly haunted place again –The Dauphine Orleans Hotel – even sharing a bed this time. Their viewers were sure to latch onto that, Roman smiled to himself. They left the camera on during the night, in case they would catch any ‘evidence’ of paranormal activities, while they slept. Sionis only thought about how much footage they’d have to cut out in the end.

At first, they just lied next to each other, cracking jokes and talking nonsense, until Roman has had enough of that at least.

“Are we doing more of this, or can I use the Jacuzzi hot tub that we’ve been blessed with?”

“Are you serious?” Victor asked, looking at him incredulously.

Roman just looked back at him, “Are we going to spend the night here and not use that?”

For the video’s sake, they put swimming trunks on that they’ve brought with them. They filled the tub with water and sat in it. Roman went to turn on the jets, but had to find that they unfortunately didn’t work.

“The jets don’t work,” Victor explained for the camera, after they had agreed to keep filming it anyway, thinking it might be funny to put it in the video to lighten up the mood some more.

They both laughed, the entire situation was just so ridiculous to them.

“We’re just two guys sitting in a tub,” Zsasz continued, chuckling, while Roman just kept laughing.

Later, they were lying in the bed; Roman had his arms around Victor, wanting to sleep. His partner seemed calm to the camera – even though they’d have to cut this out anyway – and anyone’s naked eye, but fuck, he could feel Zsasz’s rapid heartbeat.

“Calm down, baby. Nothing’s going to happen, I promise,” Roman murmured against Victor’s shoulder, pecking it.

“I don’t know, boss. I just feel like something’s off.”

“That’s only because you actually believe in this crap and think every noise is a ghost, or demon, or fuck knows what else. I can assure you, though. The only real threat is I if you don’t calm down and go the fuck to sleep soon. ‘Kay?”

“Yeah, alright.”

“Good boy,” Roman cooed and nudged Victor to turn around in his arms, so he could capture his lips in a gentle, yet searing kiss.

“Still,” Sionis then said, curiosity having finally killed the cat after all these years, “You’re usually not… like that. Are you just acting it up for the camera, or? Because you really don’t need to. I had thought you weren’t afraid of anything, no matter what.”

“Just of losing you,” Victor mumbled, barely audible at all, but with how quiet the room’s been Roman caught it anyway.

“Is that all of it has been about?”

“I guess, I don’t know. I just know that the way you keep daring these creatures makes me fucking paranoid that something’s gonna come after you and kill you and I wouldn’t be able to protect you.”

Roman clicked his tongue and cooed, “Aw, Victor. Fuck, I didn’t know you could be so sentimental! Disgusting.” He grinned. “I’m not going anywhere any time soon, ‘kay? Who else is going to be King of Gotham in a few years then?”

Stroking his fingers over Roman’s cheek, Victor chuckled, “Yeah, okay. You’re right. I guess it all just kinda crossed my wires or some shit.”

They kissed again, lazy, tired and gentle. It was so intimate that for a moment, both of them forgot everything around them, forgot why and where they had been in that moment, since none of it mattered.

Looking back on that footage, they were forced to cut it all out, but they kept it safe, never wanting to forget about it entirely. It may have been one of their most genuine and intimate moments of their shared lives that hadn’t involved a dead body and Roman loved it.

#roman sionis #victor zsasz #zsaszmask #roman sionis fanfiction #victor zsasz fanfiction #zsaszmask fanfic #buzzfeed unsolved au #zsaszmask au #birds of prey and the fantabulous emancipation of one harley quinn #harley quinn birds of prey #mlm ship #mlm fiction #mlm fanfic #requests

12 notes · View notes

mimssides · 3 years

Text

The Lie of Black and White: 7/9

Read on AO3

Masterpost | Taglist

First | Previous | Next

___

The air was tense. Janus looked panicked and Remus as if he was about to start crying again. But before they could freak out Virgil held his hands up and told them calmly: “I’m not saying that Thomas doesn’t need me. He needs the fight or flight instinct, my vigilance and fear in general, but the anxiety is just too much of all of it.”

“I do think, you’ve got the right notion Virge, but I am sceptical of you returning to your former state as Fear. It’s highly improbable that we could reset you”, Logan chimed in.

The logical side sounded far more fascinated than bothered. Which did bother the others except Virgil, who promptly explained: “Yeah, no! I know. Getting back to what I used to be isn’t a possibility anymore. But like, having Thomas’s friends around or the breathing exercises help me being actually helpful. And therapy might do even more good than that. I just wanna help pull my weight too, instead of dictating everybody around and make them adjust to my needs.”

Virgil seemed to be unsure of his answer and looked through the round. Logan seemed very pleased and Patton’s face showed the signs of relief. Janus still looked a little bothered but he gave off a lot less hysteric vibe than before, so Virgil thought that he might have calmed him enough. Then there were Roman and Remus left. Roman’s face was devoid of emotion and Virgil immediately focused on Remus, who was as always easier to read that his brother has been to Virgil.

Remus was afraid. He was afraid of Virgil suffering because he tried to be better, without actually becoming any better. And Virgil understood him too well. He feared that himself but after all what has happened it seemed to be worth a shot. He wanted to at least try.

He didn’t get to think of an answer as Logan reassured him: “That is very good reasoning Virgil. If you are ready to make this step, we might all benefit a great deal from it. There is a possibility of therapy improving Thomas’s self-esteem and the relationship with his intrusive thoughts, if we could get a handle of the anxiety within us.”

“But what if it hurts you? What if you don’t want to do it when we try?” Remus asked troubled and at once was reaching for Roman’s hand again. The Prince let him do as he pleased and only watched Virgil’s reaction.

Virgil gulped. He didn’t know.

“I don’t know. But I know that I’m pretty rational right now and that the scenarios I might come up with when we are that far, won’t be rational. Also, it’s not very likely that it would hurt me. Like, everything Thomas ever did to get his anxiety down – that helped me. And if I’m being more rational and all, I wouldn’t force you to, uhm, illustrate all of these worst-case scenarios anymore. I hope.”

Remus said nothing for a bit. Then he shook his head.

“But I’ll still be intrusive thoughts. You can’t medicate me away.”

“Yeah, and we won’t need to. With me better, we can easier work on that too and you might be able to do the things for Thomas and us, which you have in mind if you want to. You can be – Creativity again”, Virgil told Remus shyly.

But I am Creativity, Remus thought. But that’s not what I’ve been doing. I haven’t been creating. I’m processing and formulating ideas and thoughts from everybody else but me. This might get me free. This might let me say things I couldn’t manage to say because all the words were taken by other thoughts but mine.

“So, you realize that you’ve hurt him by calling and keeping him in your room?” Roman said to Virgil but Remus didn’t really hear it.

“What – I -”, Virgil stuttered taken aback by the calmness in Roman’s words despite their hostile underline.

“You must know that staying in your room has bad effects on us. I mean, you knew immediately what was going on with Patton, Logan and me when we were in your room and started reeling. Which was not pleasant at all, as a side note. And Remus has spent whole evenings in there with you, while the paranoia had come up. You do acknowledge this now, right?”

Virgil’s first instinct was to panic until he realized that Roman was not being aggressive or accusing. He was getting to something different with his point. But what was it? Virgil felt his thoughts race. Not in a bad way though.

What could he get out of Roman’s words? That he knew of Remus sometimes spending nights in his room, when he had a bad day or panic attack. But how did he know? Remus’s and Virgil’s room used to be further away from the common aera than Roman’s. He couldn’t have known about it, had Remus not told him about him visiting Virgil. But why would Remus tell Roman this? Roman and Remus were obviously closer than Virgil and all the others had thought them to be, but that was no reason for Remus to tell Roman if not for-

Remus hid his pain. He couldn’t heal. And the only one who knew was Roman. And Remus had stiches on his body. Stiches that were too neatly done for him to have done it himself. Roman had fixed him up after he had gotten himself injured. And he probably also helped him fix himself, when he was mentally exhausted.

Roman was the one who saw Remus hurt because of him.

“Is… is this why you disliked me so much when we started out? Because I hurt him without knowing it?”

Roman’s stern gaze softened instantly. Wow, Virgil really was on a good reasoning spree today, wasn’t he? And it made sense. Roman had never antagonized Janus as much as he had Virgil before the trial. With Janus it was more of a rivalry, like the Joker and Batman in the LEGO Batman movie.

Virgil bit his lip and scratched the back of his neck. Roman had disliked him a lot when he started turning up in the videos. Virgil had just brushed it off with Roman’s black and white mindset and even embraced the more villainy view Roman had of him. In a way it had gave him the feeling to be in control, to be powerful, when he actually only was lashing out and closing himself out.

It’s been a while since he had realized it. And now he had come far enough to actually work on his old baggage and help himself and the others to deal with their tasks. Calmly, Virgil closed his eyes and listened to the blood in his ears and focused on the feeling of Roman’s eyes on him. His gaze was as noticeable and warm as ever.

“I see that now, Princey. I get it”, Virgil said after he had looked back to Roman.

He kept his eyes steady for once and there was a little hint of a grin in the edge of Roman’s lips. Immediately Virgil felt lighter. He didn’t want to get back on Roman’s bad side. As fun as the fighting could be, the hurtful comments stung and it was a lot safer to bicker with the Prince instead of argue with him who wields a katana and has the knowledge how to properly use it.

“Wow”, Roman muttered and an actual smile stole its way on his lips.

Affectionally, he pulled Remus a litter closer to himself. Remus flinched at the pull and looked as if he had only been pulled out of his thoughts just now, but didn’t seem to mind the affection from his brother.

“This does explain some things…”, Patton quietly said.

As Logan and Janus slightly nodded agreeing to the statement, Remus had a big question mark written all over his face but didn’t bother to inquire what it was about. It couldn’t be too important anyway. But now he noticed that Virgil had a strangely endearing look in his eyes which was directed at his brother, who also looked weirdly fond and –

Remus’s train of thought got interrupted, when Roman looked at him with a meaningful glance and then told the others: “Anyway, when we’re going to bring this up to Thomas, we could use the opportunity and talk with him about Ree, here. And give you a chance to explain yourself too.”

“Wait, what?” Remus asked and sat up straight. “Why would you do that? Why would you want me to talk to Thomas?”

Roman exhaled slightly irritated and raised his eyebrows. Patiently, he answered to all’s surprise: “Because I told Thomas we should talk about you and that I would discuss it with you guys. And since we are talking about heavy topics, it might be the right time to bring you up and give you a seat at the table too. All of this will get easier when we work with you instead of against you, don’t you think?”

“Ro, I’m not – I’m fine with working in the background! I don’t need attention like you do! When Thomas deals with me it means -” Remus refuted but Roman silenced him with a wave.

“When Thomas dealt with you in the past it meant that he had a crisis. When you were seen it meant that we had already let it go too far and if I remember correctly – Roman gave a shot a look in Janus’s direction – we shouldn’t put off dealing with our negative emotions until we have a crisis incoming.”

Remus kept quiet and Roman continued: “I know you don’t need the attention I do, and you get your ideas directly to Thomas or sometimes even through me, but a small check in now and then might do miracles, wouldn’t it? So, we’d see the signs before we have to extinguish the fires.”

Remus sighed and drove with hands over his eyes. His shitty idealistic brother. The stupid shield. The protector. The defender of their Selves.

Defeated Remus looked over to Patton and asked him: “Do you allow it? Do you allow me to show up?”

Patton was immediately hyperaware of Logan’s, Virgil’s and Roman’s confused looks. The question sounded awkward and unrelated to them, Patton was sure of it, but Remus was direct and honest and tired. And he needed to know that Patton wouldn’t stop Roman’s plan and let Remus show up.

And so, Patton nodded and told Remus humbly: “I do. I’ve done so in the past and I will never stop you from appearing again.”

“What-” Virgil began but was stopped by Logan shaking his head and putting his hand on Virgil’s leg.

“Let’s save this question for tomorrow”, Logan asked and pinched the bridge of his nose visibly tired. “This discussion has gone on long enough and I doubt that any of us is still able to assimilate any more information. Can we agree on that?”

“Yes”, all sides agreed in relief.

It was already long past midnight and they were all beyond tired, yet nobody was about to just go into their rooms and call it a night. Eventually, Patton asked if they wanted to throw in a movie and eat the remaining cookies. They decided on Ernest & Célestine, a sweet French animation movie, and ate in comfort as they watched the grumpy bear and the little orphaned mouse slowly befriend each other on the TV. Janus and Patton had moved closer to the middle of the couch and now sat next to Logan and Virgil, while the twins sat on the floor and hummed with the gentle music.

It was Patton who was first to fall asleep. Janus didn’t register it, even though the fatherly side was leaning his head on him and softly breathing on his cape. Nor did Logan but he also was next to fall asleep with his head resting on the backrest on the couch and his arms crossed in front of his chest. Virgil and Janus followed quickly and when the film ended Roman and Remus stood up and stared for a moment at their fellow sides.

They exchanged a look and then helped each other to put the coffee table aside and pull out the couch, so it became a bed, while maintaining the peace of the others. Patton snored a little and was about to cuddle Janus, when Roman took off his glasses and gently placed them on the coffee table. He proceeded with taking off Janus’s hat and giving each of them a cushion and a blanket. After some deliberation he took off their shoes, while Remus was tucking in Logan and Virgil.

The Duke was quiet. The pillows were already under Logan and Virgil’s heads, their shoes off and Virgil gently tucked in. Remus was stuck with Logan’s glasses and the blanket he had summoned for him. He had reacted so quickly when he had touched him. He didn’t want to startle him again and instead watched Logan’s face for some time. His features were almost the same as Thomas’s.

Remus had always found it strange that Logan was the one who had chosen to look most like their human. Sure, it made sense that the one who tried to be the most realistic Side, to reflect Thomas most accurately but there was so much more personality in him. He had interests in everything, always asked “Why?” and never gave up until he got an answer. There were so many layers, so much curiosity and still he decided that his looks should be closest to the person he was a Side off.

Remus didn’t understand it. Not that he understood that much, he didn’t care most of the time if he understood or not, but this was a question that he always asked himself again and again. Why did the Side, who embodied their desire for learning and discover new things decide to stay in this static form? To Remus it didn’t make sense.

And he liked it.

Carful not to touch Logan’s face he finally took off his glasses and tucked him in. Silently, he got up and looked over to Roman, who had observed him. Softly they stepped away and went over to the dining table.

“The whole thing about our predecessor really fucked with Specs, didn’t it?” Remus said keeping his voice low, while seating himself on the table.

Roman leaned against the next wall and watched the others for a second before answering.

“It did. Really did.”

“… Did he like like him?”

Roman tilted his head from left to right. He tried to keep himself out of the romantic attraction some Sides displayed for the others. It hadn’t been too hard to stay out of it, mainly because Patton, Logan and himself didn’t have romantic interests in the other or him, but the whole situation was changing now with Virgil, Janus and hopefully soon Remus too being or getting accepted and mingling more with them.

It had mixed everything up and Patton and Logan showed emotions and dreams he hadn’t heard in quiet a bit. And it was hard to ignore them, when they were almost as loud as Logan’s falsehood cries.

“He might still. I’m not sure he knows.”

“He does. He feels guilty still.”

“Maybe…”

The twins were silent for some minutes. Still even. It wasn’t the first time they saw the others sleeping. Roman had been to too many movie nights, where Pat and Logan forgot the themselves and nodded off on the couch. Too often Remus had tucked Janus and Virgil after them scheming in their little lounge in the basement.

But it hadn’t been like this in ages. All of them together and in peace. Not quiet at peace with all that was happening but so much closer than even a day ago. Maybe they could really get somewhere with all this talking and discussing.

“When did you unlock the door?”

“… Like three days after the wedding…”

Remus chuckled lightly.

“I can’t believe you managed to hold onto your grip for that long, Drama Queen. Only took J to call you evil for you to crawl back to me. Who would have thought, hm?”

Roman took five steps. Waited for Remus to look at him. Saw him look at him. Then he opened his hand and a big rusty key appeared. The one he had made for the lock Remus had summoned for their door.

Remus eyed him curiously.

“I’ll destroy the key. I shouldn’t have shut you out. You can destroy the lock, if you want to.”

“I do.”

The key evaporated and so did the big black lock on the door in Roman’s room. Roman gave Remus a hug. They stayed in the embrace for some time uncaring for the others subtle breathing and the ticking of the big grandfather clock by the wall.

“… Wanna do some pottery?”

“Should we summon the stuff right here or…?”

“Yeah, why not.”

“Make a painting station and a kiln. I have some vases ready for to bake and some you could paint while I sculpt.”

Roman nodded and only ten minutes later he was already painting a strangely formed plate he was painting with a white base colour. Next to Roman stood a small wood kiln, which he regularly checked for the right temperature and summoned new wood pieced to throw in the fire when he realized that it needed a little more heat. Meanwhile Remus was working on a new piece at his pottery wheel.

And so, they worked in silence. Both had dropped their illusions. Remus had changed in a loose white tank top and baggy pants, which both were littered with clay stains and little holes from wearing them all the time. Roman had chosen his red t-shirt with the yellow crown on it and a pair of black shorts. It got rather warm next to the kiln and he was sweating a little but he couldn’t claim that it bothered him too much. He liked the heat.

#roman sanders #remus sanders #janus sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #virgil sanders #arguing #comfort #angst with a happy ending #The Lie of Black and White #sanders sides fanfiction #eir writes #repost

3 notes · View notes

intruality-overlord · 4 years

Text

Why Are We (Best) Friends?

Warnings: Excessive swearing, alcoholism, mentions of drugs, drug use, suggestive humor, implied sexual content (no smut), some gore descriptions. Generally, Remus stuff.

Taglist: @blogging-time @veraisnotfine @littlestr @jessibbb @ibroken-butterflyi @hi-its-tutty @idkanameatall

(For these first couple chapters I have tagged people I thought might be interested in reading this. Please let me know if you want to be added or removed from the tag list!)

The next chapters I will be posting every week on Thursday/Wednesday because this is a prewritten fic (look at me being responsible—)

Chapter Two: Fuck This

The Present.

“That fucker drives me fucking insane!” Patton’s shouting bounced off the walls. “Virgil keeps getting fucking mad at me and I don’t even know what I’m doing fucking wrong at this point, but he won’t fucking tell me what the fuck it is either!” He ranted. Remus nodded along, sat across from him. His legs were crossed with his pointy elbows resting on top, and his spine bent awkwardly so he could settle his head in his palm. Thoroughly entertained, Remus hummed every now and then in agreement like a sham therapist.

“And Roman! He... he... You know why he’s a bitch,” Patton lamented. A cackle shattered Remus’s short-lived, feigned seriousness.

“The last time we saw you was fucking Christmas,” Patton mocked. “Maybe because you didn’t fucking invite me, idiot. Of course Logan wouldn’t, though, all high and mighty smartass. And my puppet idea was a fucking good idea goddamnit. Bullshit. Bullshit!— ugh,” Patton sighed out his remaining traces of frustration. He crossed his arms over his chest and sunk into the green bean bag. Some of the styrofoam beads spilled out a small tear on the poor, battered, ever shrinking bean bag.

Grinning wildly, Remus said, “While that was a marvellous performance, I must say it could do with a little more variety in your profanity.” Patton gave an amused, breathy snort.

“Why are we friends, Remus? You’re such a bad influence on me,” Patton said teasingly. Remus rolled his eyes as Patton plucked another Pepsi can (which contents had most definitely not been poured down the drain and refilled with a concoction of cocktails) from his mini fridge. Remus let Patton hide his alcohol stockpile in his room since his dear friend was so paranoid of the other sides discovering it. “Encouraging me to curse, letting me have access to vodka…”

“Oh, shut up. You’ve become an alcoholic all on your own,” Remus said dismissively.

“...True,” Patton conceded. “You were always more the type for cookie mix,” Patton added as an afterthought. Remus doubled over into a laughing fit. Cookie mix most certainly had nothing to do with cocaine. He couldn’t help but laugh at the smug knowing look Patton sent him as him floundered.

“You— you can’t— I’ve been clean for a few months now!” Remus said defiantly, sinking further into his beanbag with his arms crossed. (Quickly, Remus double checked, pulling his hair over his eyes only to find clear brown, no white in sight. Phew.) Patton hummed sceptically. “But you did have shrooms recently,” he teased.

Remus huffed. “No I haven’t— …Wait—” Remus paused, “Have I?”

“I don’t know,” Patton smiled, “Have you?” Remus let his eyes wander the room. “I can’t remember…”

Patton rolled his eyes fondly.

“You know as long as you’re not over doing it, and you’re being as safe as possible, it’s fine with me. I don’t have any right to judge,” Patton said reassuringly. Yes, Patton knew it was inherently wrong to not at least try and steer his friend onto a less self-destructive path. Remus, to him, was like a hairless Chinese Crested puppy. Very weirdly adorable in the nasty kind of way. (That sounds bad, but he truly means it in the best way possible. What he lacked in hair as a metaphorical dog, he made up for in personality and a good heart muddle somewhere in there). Which meant he struggled to ever say no to him.

Patton also knew that the last thing he wanted to be was a hypocrite. Maybe once he got himself on the right track, then he’d intervene more.

“Seriously, how did we ever become friends?” Patton said genuinely. “I still thought babies were delivered by stalks when we first became friends.”

“I dunno… we just did,” was all Remus could come up with. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. When he couldn’t quite get comfy, he resorted to sitting upside down on the couch instead. Much better.

Silence settled over the two for a minute. Patton stared into space, deep in thought. Taking sips of his drink, he felt the alcohol lethargically burning down his throat. Remus resorted to picking at his nails again in the stillness, wondering if it’s possible to have a tattoo underneath your nails.

“I don’t regret it,” Patton said thoughtfully. Remus cocked his head to the side, neck cracking when his body slipped down the sofa a bit. “Becoming friends with you,” Patton clarified. “You’re the best friend I could ask for, really. You don’t baby and shelter me like the others. You let me just… be,” Patton said sincerely. “Which always seems too much to ask of the others,” Patton tacted on bitterly. He took a generous swig as if to emphasize his point. Remus scoffed, the tiny movement making him slide the rest of the way down onto the carpet. “Aww I’m flattered, honey.” His tone was excessively teasing, yet his expression was anything but.

Midst lazily reaching for another can, Remus swatted Patton’s hands away. “I think that’s enough. You’re already starting to monologue. If you keep going you’ll have a hangover so bad, it’ll feel like you actually hanged yourself,” Remus tutted. While Patton was no light weight (his words hadn’t even begun to slur yet), from the way Patton was chugging it down, Remus knew his body just hadn’t caught up yet.

Meekly lolling his head back to face skywards, Patton whined but didn’t protest. Sinking lower into the cushy bean bag, his eyes traced imagery patterns on the ceiling.

God, Remus knew that look.

“I just don’t know anymore, ReRe,” Patton said defeatedly, “Every time I think I’m over it, they keep giving me false hope. Everything I say and feel is ignored, and whenever I’m right, they always think it’s a stupid flook. They never listen. I don’t think they ever will at this rate. I don’t even know if I want to be friends with them anymore or I’m just really fucking lonely and my brain’s just hard wired to associate, I don’t know, being happy? With them?” His eyes were vacant, dull. “Why can’t it be like when we were little?”

While the whole point of their little get together was for Patton to vent with free will to cuss as needed, this more sappy, philosophical stuff… Remus didn’t like. You can’t blame him for not liking to see his best friend this miserable. Still, he knew it was best to let Patton keep going.

“Even if they did actually care about me, I’m sure they’d stop the moment they knew we’re like… a thing. Logan would think I’m crazy— Virgil and Roman too… I know what they’d think of us and it’s so— so—” Patton made a nondescript noise of frustration. “They’d say you corrupted me or some shit. I… I’m not embarrassed of you. I should stop acting like I am. I hate this stupid dumb angel reputation I have anyway. I’m just… I have to admit the only real reason I haven’t really said anything at this point is it’s kinda funny seeing their reactions whenever I accidentally say something that sounds wrong.”

Remus chuckled. “I don’t know how they haven’t caught on yet, honestly. Your half of our brain cell is just as sick as mine. They must be in denial.”

“Yeah…”

…

“I should be going to bed,” Patton tried to stand up. As soon as he stood however, his knees buckled. Remus dashed to his side and caught him. “You goof…” Remus positioned him upright. Steadying hands on his hips, Patton tried to stand up straight. A task easier said that done when you’re a gay panic. Inevitably, Patton limply collapsed on top of Remus.

“I don’t think I can make it to my room…” Patton’s cheeks flushed and the red ran down his neck.

“You wet noodle.”

“You… blue cheese lover.”

(“Is that supposed to be an insult?”)

(“Who the fuck likes blue cheese?”)

Arm slung over his shoulder, Remus hauled Patton into the hallway and onwards. He would have carried Patton if he hadn’t been so surprisingly stubborn. All well, anything to make him happy. They returned to their earlier, lighter bantering. The alcohol started to really catch up with Patton, his quips came slower. No less witty, though (by their standards).

Everything would’ve gone like normal if it wasn’t for a certain nerd who had decided on a coffee before bed. Most counterproductive. As soon as Logan had started out his room, he spotted them. His eyes settled into a potent, yet subtle glare. Like a droplet of poison spilt on an unassuming biscuit.

“What the…”

“Logyyy!” Patton perked up at the sound of his voice, lifting himself from Remus’s side that he’d been slumped on. The sudden movement made him lose balance. Scrambling to catch himself, Remus found himself with two arms wrapped around his shoulders now.

“Is… is he— are you drunk?” Logan sputtered. Disbelief shaped his words like they felt alien on his tongue. “I’m not thaaaat drunk!” Patton retaliated. Logan ignored him, cold, tired eyes set on Remus. “What did you do to him?” Logan said as aggressively as a guinea pig could manage. Confusion still mostly coloured his stare. “Me an’ Re er havin’ bestie time, duh!” Patton answered. He sounded giddy, but his voice had a touch of satire only drunken Patton could manage. Even in his drunken state, Patton subconsciously was trying to maintain his image.

Remus frowned. This learnt behaviour was ingrained into Patton.

“He shouldn’t be around someone like you in such a vulnerable state,” Logan said, already trying to pry Patton from his arms. “No—” Remus began, looping his arms securely on Patton's waist, “I’ll take care of him.”

“Noooo,” Patton recoiled, trying to melt into Remus’s side. “It's bestiee tiiiimme wi’ Emu.” Patton's arms slid up Remus’s shoulders around his neck as he squirmed. “You’re drunk, Patton,” Logan dismissed.

Seething, Remus shoved Logan off. “You heard him,” he said, sternly. “Back off before I carve out your tongue, blend it, and force feed it to you,” he threatened. Arms crossed, Logan huffed like an exhausted parent. “You’re all bark, no bite,” he dismissed.

“Oh honey, you ha’ no idea how mu’ he bi’es.”

Schooling his face into glares and scrunched eyebrows, Remus sighed out the giggles brewing in his lungs. Nonetheless, Patton was proud of the brief smug smile he provoked. Pretending he didn’t hear that, Logan insisted, “You’re a bad influence on someone like Patton. People like you shouldn’t be around him, especially when he’s inebriated.”

“Better under the supervision of a friend. He’d drink himself to death otherwise.”

“Yes, but preferably, that should be Virgil or Roman or I, most certainly not you.”

“It’s not my fault he doesn’t feel comfortable enough around anyone else, tin can.”

“Re,” Patton interrupted, whining, “I’m bored le’s gooo.” He tugged on him.

“—He’s drunk he doesn’t know what he’s saying— you know what— Okay, Patton, you choose. Me,” Logan pointed to himself, “or him?” He said overly pronouncing his words.

…

“…‘M drunk not a fuckin’ kid,” was Patton’s response. “We go now,” and he was stumbling down the hallway dragging Remus with him.

Both missed the shell shocked expression on Logan, not daring to believe his ears. Patton cursing? An intoxicated Patton, no less? No. Nope. Absolutely not. He needed coffee desperately.

When they finally got to Patton’s room, Remus carefully directed him, even lowering him onto his bed. Patton had the tendency to unceremoniously flop face first onto his bed like a starfish.

“I swear I’m gonna strangle Logan,” Remus muttered as he made sure Patton was comfortable, tucking in his blankets.

“I don’ think he into bdsm,” Patton said as an offhanded thought.

“You never know. He could be partial to a spider gag…”

“You really just want to try that thing out don’t you? I swear to god— oof.” Remus snatched his pillow from beneath his head to fluff it. Pretending to not pretend he was punching a sheep’s limp corpse, he fluffed it extremely thoroughly.

“You gotsa stop relying on me to keep you in check, ya know,” Patton pouted, arms crossed. “Your— you’re fuckin’ innsaaane!”

“I only ask you sometimes…” Remus said (the worst part about that sentence was that it was utterly true).

Blank stare piercing Remus, Patton paused a moment for his brain to function before deadpanning, “I’d like to talk to you about Jesus Christ—”

Remus shoved Patton’s pillow back, and he promptly forgot everything in favour of burrowing down into his bed. Touch light as moonlight, Remus herded Patton’s wild locks from his forehead. “What am I gonna do with you…”

“You’re na’ gon change my mind… kinky b-hole,” Patton mumbled, caught between the conscious world and sleep. Remus’s eyes smiled. Crouching down, he hovered over Patton. Hovered over his forehead, wondering. Pondering, debating, convincing himself. His breath stirred Patton’s brown locks. They scattered like a spooked flock. Running. Patton shivered.

He shouldn’t. Backing away, Remus was ready to switch the lights off and evacuate, yet was stopped.

“Reeemuuuuuss,” Patton called. Suddenly, he was wide awake again.

Huh?— his breath hitched. His hand caught on the doorway.

“Staaaaayyy! Preddy please?” He made grabby hands.

But— they don’t—

Did he deserve…? Right now? His nails dug into the doorframe.

…

“Okay! I’m coming, I’m coming,” Remus assured, relenting. Lazy giggles from Patton rewarded him. Flicking off the light, Remus strode back over. Laying together in silence, Remus picked the paint and splinters out from underneath his nails and waited. When Patton didn’t budge, Remus took his arms and used them like a seat belt. Simultaneously, Patton glued himself to his back like a limpet. A warm wall of heat.

“Remouse?” He mumbled into his shoulder.

“Hmm?”

“You’re really sweet. like… like tomato sauce.”

…

Welp okay then.

Next Chapter:

#WAW(B)F?#sander sides #thomas sanders #ts sander sides #patton sanders #ts patton #remus sanders #ts remus #intruality #moduke #logan sanders #ts logan #remus x patton #patton x remus

60 notes · View notes

dingdongitsbees · 3 years

Text

BLACK-EYED SUSAN | LEVI X READER HUNGER GAMES AU

Chapter 3: First Impressions

Previous - Next

Work Count: 5.6k Ao3 link Ask to be added to the taglist

Second person version (“you” pronouns) can be found here

Master List

― Tara Love; This. This is too far.

As soon as we stepped out of the train carriage, we were carried off by a group of flamboyant people that looked like they had been asked to dress as if they were channelling an abstract interpretation of a clown. Their glittery clothing and smiles grated against me as they pulled me forcibly by the arm with fake hospitality. We were brought into what seemed like the biggest warehouse I had ever seen, rows of tables and curtains and what seemed to be torture devices, one for each tribute. Some were already on their tables, getting hosed down and waxed. I quickly had to accept the fate that was waiting for me. Soon Levi was out of my sight when he was pulled behind a curtain next to me. A light blue hospital gown was thrown to me and I was directed into a little makeshift change room.

The torture began immediately, getting waxed from head to toe. All that was left was the hair on my scalp, eyebrows, and eyelashes. Even my underwear line was waxed, much to my displeasure. Thankfully, my groans were covered by the twenty-three other people in the room who were also experiencing the same hell. The idea of waxing the tributes had always made no sense to me, we needed hair in case we were getting a cold arena, and I was sure that the cameras wouldn’t zoom in on some arm hair as a source of entertainment. Though who was I to have basic expectations for a place that killed children for fun. Different priorities I suppose. My nails were shaped to perfect ovals, all possible acne removed, and every hair on my head cut to the exact right length.

As I was hosed down and waxed fully for the second time, I distracted myself by imagining Levi getting his armpits waxed only a few meters away and struggled to hold back a laugh. He must have gotten awfully close to swearing and hitting one of the prep teams members by now.

Finally, we were both sitting on a bench together in an empty room, now with perfect eyebrows, waiting for our designer to arrive.

“What the fuck was that?” Levi grumbled.

“Don’t like being silky smooth, huh?” I joked, rubbing and caressing my arms like a dance.

“I’ll skin you.”

I pouted “But you already have your smooth skin, you don’t need mine as a second layer.”

“You piece-”

The door swung upon sending us both into silence. In entered a tall man; blond hair gelled back, a roman nose, and kind blue eyes. Unlike the stylists, all he had to add to his plain black turtleneck and pants was gold eyeliner under his eye. He was definitely not the stylist I had seen on TV for the past few years. He must have been new. The new stylists always got stuck with Twelve after all.

His introductory smile dipped a little into what I could barely believe to actually be pity. “I’m sorry you two have to go through this.”

My eyes went wide.

“I’m afraid the Capitol people don’t quite understand what we do to the tributes,” Erwin spoke, “My heart is with all of you.”

Me and Levi nodded hesitantly, suddenly quite unsure how to navigate a Capitol citizen that had some semblance of empathy.

He looked to Levi who still had his eyes narrowed at him. “It was very brave of you to volunteer; I understand it was your last reaping.”

Levi clicked his tongue and gave no response, still sceptical, which Erwin didn’t seem to mind.

He then turned to me with a small smile. “And it was very brave of you not to dropkick him when he did so.”

My hand flew to my mouth at the speed of a bullet to try and trap the laugh that attempted to shoot out of me. I decided quickly that Erwin was to be liked, Levi agreeing with my evaluation.

Erwin guided us out into an adjoining living room, gesturing us to take a seat on the low couches. He promptly pressed a button on the coffee table which sent up a plate of cut fruits and sat down opposite us. I grabbed a handful of grapes, offering some to Levi who picked the worst ones out of my hand, much to my dismay. Erwin watched us closely, his eyes following over our skin to scrutinise the hours of prep that had happened. He sat back a bit more relaxed, content with the results.

“As you know, you two will have costumes that fit your district for the parade,” Erwin said.

I was already dreading what was set out for us. It was usually coal miner’s overalls or just a black one-piece to look like we were covered in soot. Twelve was never the pretty district. It had been slightly painful to watch Isabel and Farlan get shown off in skimpy miner costumes that barely covered them.

“I can see your life flashing before your eyes already,” Erwin teased, “But my plan is a bit different to the past years’ costumes.”

I gulped. That meant it could be good, or considerably worse. Levi shifted uncomfortably next to me.

“I was admittedly a bit inspired by your reaping and made a few adjustments as you two travelled here. They are now based around the flowers you two had, the black-eyed susan.”

That just sent the two of us into further confusion. Flowers were quite the opposite of literally everything about Twelve.

“Now, what are your two’s thoughts on fire?”

Soon we were fitted into one-piece leather getups, the cracks of the leather made it looks like cracked stone as if to mimic the walls of the mines. But taking up most of the attention was down our sides, in little sections, and across out chest in what looked like a giant yellow gash. We were geodes that had been burst open to display an abundance of yellow flowers bursting out. We were told they were originally meant to be pieces of coal but had been changed only two days ago.

“Now,” Erwin began, “As you go along, one by one they’ll burst into flames from the top down and then fall as they turn to ash. The only ones that will remain will be the one behind your ear, and the one on your breast Levi.” We nodded in slight fear. “You’ll be perfectly safe; the fire is entirely synthetic and doesn’t even create any heat.”

Erwin and the prep team continued to inspect us as Hanji walked up behind, relaxing us a bit with the familiarity of her presence. She gave us a quick up and down with her hands in her pockets and sent a smile.

“You two looks good,” she hummed. “Much better than the one I had to have I assure you.”

I finally took a quick look around the hall we had arrived in after changing. Scattered randomly were the chariots for each district, each accompanied by their tribute pair with a few stray mentors and stylists and district escorts. We hadn’t gotten the run down on any of them yet, but it was apparent from the first glance that we had more 12-year-olds than usual. They were typically less common, usually only having one as the younger kids usually only put in their name in once or twice, but it seemed many got a handful of bad luck this year. It was a bittersweet thing; it made it easier, but at a cost much harder to digest.

A young energetic girl was up near the front talking excitedly to a tall and broad blond boy. Levi followed my eyes and quickly found the who I had spotted, he shifted slightly closer to me. It was obvious from even this distance that he was from District Two. He was packed with muscles with an intimidating aura and who undoubtedly could kill me with his bare hands. He would be the one to beat. Having sensed he was being watched, he turned to look over his shoulder and made eye contact with us. He narrowed his eyes slightly, seeming to recognise us. We stared at each other for what seemed like eternity, neither party wanting to back down. But before either of us could win or lose a booming voice called out to us to get into position.

I looked back to our group, Hanji faced back to us as well, having seen the same guy. She bit her bottom lip in thought but pushed it away quickly and gave us a thumbs up.

We stepped onto the chariot, I was slightly terrified the horses would just run and send us flying off, but they were well behaved. I gripped onto the side tightly and looked to Levi who just knocked his hand with mine. Instinctually I weaved my fingers through his and he gave a slight squeeze.

We’ll be fine.

The chariots ahead of us starting pulling out in order. I slightly frowned to myself when I saw the young girl was indeed from District Two with the blond boy. What the hell was she doing here? Two chariots ahead of us, representing District Ten, was a girl in a pigtail and a shaven haired boy who were animatedly talking to each other, seemingly arguing over something stupid. I saw the girl pull out a full baked potato out of her costume and tried my best not to lose it as she tried shovelling it down her throat as quickly as humanely possible before her chariot was sent out too. Levi locked his mouth trying not to smirk. The boy next to her was simultaneously berating her and cheering her on. The two in front of us, District Eleven, a taller and skinny looking boy with a blond undercut and another 12-year-old girl with a blond fringe, were also trying to keep their giggles down. As soon as eating girl had wiped her mouth, their horses lurched them forward, fate deciding to be kind to them that day.

I calmed my breathing down in the seconds I had left, taking a deep breath and setting my eyes forward. Our jet-black horses started trotting and Levi nullified the sudden lurch for me, holding me steadily. Soon we were brought into the open, the crowds roaring almost deafening us, the drums beating rhythmically only worsening it. I grimaced slightly at the sound but started waving up to those around us. As planned, with a squeeze of our hands as a quick communication, we both discretely pressed the button on our cuffs. One by one the yellow flowers burst into blue and orange flames, disintegrating quickly, its petals turning to ash as its middle morphed into a piece of coal. I could see our faces being plastered on large screens above us and I attempted to regurgitate the most charming smile I could. Levi stood still and unwavering, glowering over everyone, hardly needing to act to do so. The camera cut to show a zoom in on the now only remaining flowers me and Levi had, matching our reaping looks, and then to our clasped hands from behind us which sent the crowd into hysterics. I could only imagine the commentary Willy Tybur was spitting out to the TV watchers.

We gradually got the near end of the large track and stopped in a semicircle with the other pairs. We could spot President Zeke Yeager stand up and start walking to the microphone, looking down over the balcony at the tributes below him in a ridiculing smile. How anyone but the district people didn’t see his cruelty was astonishing to me. He looked over his circular glasses down at us, tilting his head to the side like he was trying to provoke us. Levi’s grip tightened as he glared holes into the man’s head, having made eye contact with him. Zeke gave a light chuckle in mocking amusement before looking up to the crowd that was now chanting for him. He coughed gently before giving a winning smile and leaning into the microphone.

“Good afternoon my dear citizens,” he boomed, “How are we today after seeing this year’s valiant tributes?”

An eardrum shattering roar was let out from the audience.

Another cheer sounded out around us. I could tell at least half of the tributes around us were refraining from running up there and pushing him right off his pedestal, Levi and I included.

“We wish our tributes a good 67th Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favour!”

Our horses started walking again, taking us out of the loud area, our blood still boiling. I swore I could feel the man looking at me, but I didn’t turn around to find out.

Erwin and Hanji quickly jogged up to us to congratulate us on the showing, Hanji glad we were following her advice and Erwin just glad that we didn’t go up in flames due to his own inadequate design. Hanji, mid laugh at some comment I made, faltered when spotting something, or rather someone behind me. Me and Levi turned over our shoulders to see many of the tributes looking at us, most were just looking and commenting on the clothes, jealous they got a stylist with actual creativity, but near the other end of the hall was a group of five. The Careers.

The broad blond boy stood confidently, looking us up and down calculatedly, the young girl by his side. Next to them stood another short girl but she was blond and looked older despite her height, her nose matching Erwin’s in shape. By her side was an almost nervous looking boy but he towered over them with shaggy dark brown hair. And finally, there was an average height boy with brown-almost-red hair swept back who stood in a way like he knew the exact amount of space he took up and his exact worth. They stared us down, even the tributes around us shifted nervously. Levi was about to take a step in front of me before Hanji spoke.

“Let’s go up to the penthouse,” Hanji said, diffusing the air. She pushed me on the back towards the exit, having to pull Levi by the shoulder to follow along. We took one last glance at them before getting into the elevator.

Hanji let us get dressed into something more comfortable before meeting us in the living room that faced a ginormous TV screen. Erwin was already sitting, champagne in hand, while Nick was keeping himself busy on some sort of tablet on the coffee table next to Hanji who was having her drink refilled by a titan.

I looked away with a shake of my head and sat on Hanji’s other side, Levi taking the spot next to Erwin. Eventually Nick had sorted out whatever he was trying to figure out and the TV turned on showing a video yet to start playing.

“This is a recording of the reapings,” Hanji explained, “You need to know what sort of people you’re dealing with.”

The video began, starting from District One. “Annie Leonhart,” the extravagant speaker had said. With a cheer the shorter blond girl from before walked on stage with an emotionless face. A man’s voice stuck out most distinctly from the crowd which made her widen her eyes, giving some sort of a reaction at least. “Bertolt Hoover.” The tall boy with shaggy hair joined her on stage with a slight blush and a bow in reaction to the crowd and shook hands with Annie.

Next came District Two. Levi and I leant forward in our seats. “Zofia Reitsch.” I expected it to the cut to the girl I had seen but instead it showed a barely phased, silver haired girl who didn’t even bother to take a single step before a “I volunteer as tribute!” rung out across the area. Volunteering was expected in Two; most trained up until the age of eighteen and volunteered in their last reaping in order to decimate the competition. What was unusual though, was that the volunteer usually wasn’t a fellow twelve-year-old who ran up to the stage with excitement running through her veins.

“What’s your name?” The speaker asked, leaning down almost parentally, to the girl I saw before.

“Gabi Braun!” She declared which got a roaring cheer from the crowd.

The speaker went over to the other bowl, carefully picking out a name. “Reiner Braun.”

“Same last name?” Levi muttered to no one in particular.

“My, my, you two have the same last surname. What’s the relation?” the speaker asked.

“Cousins,” Reiner said shortly. Gabi just looked up with big eyes and a smile digging into her cheeks, so oblivious of what actually awaited her other than cousin bonding time.

We went quickly through the other districts; not taking much notice of most of them as the career pack were clearly the threats of the selections this year. No other volunteers came up. The second twelve-year-old was a boy from Three called Falco Grice who had accidentally caused a scuffle as his older brother, who was too old to volunteer for him, was trying to break through the crowd to get to him. We also discovered the third boy in the career pack from District Four was Marcel Galliard, but we didn’t bother taking much notice of the girl as she had been excluded from the group. Eventually we got to Ten and found out the potato girl was called Sasha Blouse, but our hearts tore a little when we recognised the face she made when the name Connie Springer was called out. Their faces on stage of absolute horror were those of best friends. We had seen that first-hand with Isabel and Farlan. The third and final twelve-year-old was Kaya, the girl from Eleven who got called up with her an older boy called Niccolo. Niccolo’s face of pure terror was where we ended the video, not needing, or wanting, to see ours.

We had dinner in near silence. Hanji and Erwin chatted quietly amongst themselves, Nick eating at the other end of the table, while me and Levi ate our food diligently without a word. I kicked his foot subtly under the table making him look up and give me a playful glare. It was setting into us more properly now that we would have to kill people. The people whose life we would end had names, family, friends, dreams, and ambitions. But someone in that arena, us, or someone else, would stop that short.

Levi wasn’t dealing well with the obvious revelation either.

It gave me shivers just thinking about driving a knife into one of the younger kids. I wondered what it would be like to kill a little girl like Gabi. I hoped I didn’t have to find out.

We went to sleep a lot more quickly than the night before, entirely exhausted by the events of the day. It once again felt weird to not sleep with Levi by my side but at least it wasn’t entirely silent; the noises coming from the streets down below from celebrations still managed to get up, albeit, deafened and distorted by the distance. But at least I had that, even if it was people celebrating my soon to be death.

At breakfast the next morning, Hanji gave us the run down.

“You’ll be training with the other tributes for the next three days,” Hanji started, “You’ll be able to see what they’re good at and if they’re even good at all. Use this time to train yourself in things you haven’t tried or don’t know how to do.” We nodded. “And under no circumstances showcase your real fighting skills.”

“Huh?” Levi injected simply.

“I don’t want you two painting a target on your backs, well more than you already have,” Hanji added. It was obvious that the careers had their eyes on us already.

“But we need to get to used to their weapons, don’t we? They use the same ones in the arena,” I reasoned, “I can’t go in and not know that the knives are too heavy for me or something.”

“That’s all well and good but if they know you prefer throwing then they’ll beeline to them immediately in the games so you can’t get your hands on them. Levi is safer because as long as it’s sharp he can use it, but you need to be careful.”

I grumbled to myself, annoyed that she was technically right.

“Oh, and Levi?”

He looked up from his porridge.

“Don’t piss anyone off yeah?”

“It would be their fault if they did,” he muttered.

Hanji just sighed and looked to me who I gave a quick nod to. I’d keep him reigned in.

We went down the elevator in near silence in our training uniforms. Levi was leaning against the wall, seeming to hide his face from me. I ducked a little and saw his eyes were closed.

“How much sleep did you get last night?” I whispered.

“Enough.”

“Bullshit.”

He glanced up to me but couldn’t think of anything to retaliate.

“You can always come to my room if you want you know,” I said quietly, bumping my shoulder into his.

He looked up a little surprised before nodding lightly. He never seemed to realise that he didn’t have to be the one that looked after me all the time. It was a burden he took on without thinking about himself or if I even needed it. It was just in his nature.

He stood up as the doors slid open, revealing the massive training room. We stepped out and noticed that almost everyone was there already, just missing Sasha and Connie from what I could tell. There were categorised zones all over the large room each with at least one person standing by it to help direct and teach. Some had real trees growing in them to learn how to make fires and traps, others held racks upon racks of silver weapons. There were shooting ranges for all different types of long-range weapons, each with a dummy at the end. For realism I supposed. There were elevated platforms for fighting hand to hand, little tables that held ropes for learning to tie knots.

Most of the tributes were just sat around on scattered benches or just on the ground where comfortable, waiting for instructions. The careers hung around the weapon area, checking them out but not touching. With them now was a younger boy, Falco I was pretty sure. It wasn’t uncommon for careers adopt a District Three tribute in order to get someone who knew technology and therefore more high-tech traps pretty well, and it was usually in the tribute’s best interest to stick with the careers so they weren’t an immediate target. But most died by a career’s hand anyway. Though there had been a few that had turned the tables on their alliance in a single night using the brains they were wanted for in the first place. I didn’t like the games but if I had to pick my favourite ones, it would have been those. Though one look at Falco told me there was no way he could ever kill a person, let alone the five people surrounding him.

Above us was a room with chairs yet to be filled, but in the middle stood a man with red hair swept to the side. I didn’t need to guess who it was. It was Floch Fortser, the head game maker. He peered over us, almost bored, with a glass of wine in hand. We looked up to the man that would ultimately decide our fate. He had been criticised for his arena’s being too boring last year, I had a feeling this year he would step it up. Wasn’t that just lucky?

Finally, a bald man with a barely hanging on beard entered the room. With just one look at his scary eyes, I knew he was the instructor. Everyone stood up and watched as he placed himself squarely in front of all of us.

The elevator dinged, alerting of a new arrival. We could hear the laughter from it even without the doors open. Out came Sasha and Connie who were doubled over with giggles but soon realised the very quiet room they had walked into was looking at them. The man looked like he wanted to kill them. They coughed quickly and looked down, mumbling a quick apology, and obscured themselves from view behind me and Levi.

The man looked back to the group with a twitching eyebrow. “You will be able to come and go as you please. Any fighting happening between tributes will receive punishments.” We all nodded and broke off from each other quickly.

“What’s first?” Levi asked, stretching out his neck.

I pondered for a minute as I scoured the room. “Traps?”

Half an hour later we had learnt animal traps, the instructor ecstatic that we already knew the basics, and so through his excitement started teaching us how to tie ropes to make people traps. Soon we had one that would pull someone upside down when stepped into and I had been spending the last few minutes daring Levi to step into it who was adamantly refusing.

“Come on…” I playfully whined. “It’ll be funny!”

“No, you brat.” Levi had his arms crossed, looking me dead in the eye, though I knew the hint of curiosity was still in his eyes.

“Fine, I’ll do it you coward.”

Levi took a step back and watched nervously as I hesitantly stepped into the camouflaged circle of rope. Like a rubber band I shot up by my ankle, just managing to hold back a yell. When my stomach calmed down and I understood my bearings I let out a laugh. Levi just shook his head at me, trying to hold back a chuckle of his own.

“Okay how the fuck do I get down though?”

We had gone around to most of the smaller activities by near the end of the day; learning how to make a fire no matter what materials you had, how to make weapons from stuff lying around, which plants were edible, and which would kill you on the spot. The career pack stayed around the weapon areas, throwing spears, shooting arrows and battling with swords with the trainers. Most had stayed clear of them, always going to a different area if one wanted to use theirs, no one wanted to make enemies. But as it was nearing the end of the day half of them had now left, getting bored.

We decided it was time to start learning some of the other skills we had missed out on so far. We split up; him going to the javelin section, me going to the archery. So far I hadn’t managed to hit the dummy let alone one of the inner circles of the targets even once. It had entirely different fundamentals to knife throwing and I kept grazing myself with the string to make it worse. I was about to give up when I heard footsteps approach me.

I turned and saw a smiling Sasha, she confirmed my name.

I nodded, “Sasha yeah?”

“That’s the one!” she beamed. I couldn’t help but smile too.

Over her shoulder I could see Levi looking back at us, unsure whether it was a confrontation or just a friendly conversation. I just smiled at him and he went back to his training. Sasha watched us but said nothing. She looked back to the bow I was holding in my hands and let out a huff.

“Did they not even teach you how to hold it properly?” she asked.

“They tried…” I trailed off, I had never been good at following instructions.

She took her hands out of her pockets and with a quick look of “may I?” she adjusted my positioning, moving my fingers one by one until they were in the exact right spot.

“Try now.”

Nervously I drew an arrow and aimed at the dummy, taking a deep breath. As I exhaled, I let it fly, its plastic feather caressing my cheek. It stuck itself in the thigh of the dummy, Sasha next to me let out a little cheer.

She continued to give me pointers, of how long to hold it back, when to let go, where to aim, how to adjust for wind, but not once did she pick up the bow herself. I had a feeling she had been given the same instruction I had of not to showcase her speciality. I didn’t mention it, much to her relief, but I could tell just by every precise word she gave me that she was extraordinarily good. But no one was going to pay attention to her standing next to someone who sucked at archery, much less think she could do it herself if they couldn’t hear the conversation. By the end of it I had managed to stick the arrow into the dummy’s torso every time, even getting it once in the head.

“You’re a fast learner.”

“Only when I have a good teacher.”

She gave me a smile and we both looked over the room, almost everyone was gone. Levi had moved on to swords, attempting to dual wield, Connie was trying to practice manoeuvring with spears, and Niccolo and Kaya were seated on a bench just watching the room.

“I’ll teach you something tomorrow,” I said quietly, cocking my head towards the knife throwing area.

She raised her eyebrows a little before nodding. We went our separate ways, each to our district counterparts that were waiting for us.

Dinner was a fairly quiet ordeal, Levi and I just summarised what we had learnt during the day, though I avoided the fact that the “great teacher” I had for archery was in fact another tribute. Levi stayed quiet, but I was pretty sure Hanji knew anyway.

Getting to sleep that night was a bit harder, I kept tossing and turning, unable to find a spot that rested my body comfortably. The main thing to blame however was the fact my brain had kicked into overdrive by trying to remember every little detail of the day, every little instruction I had gotten. However, the silence of my bedroom was disturbed by an almost silent knock.

I jumped out of bed, already knowing who my late-night visitor was, and opened the door to see a tired Levi leaning against the wall. He hid his eyes from me from under his hair, though I was sure they were almost closed. I gave a little smile, not knowing if he could even see it, and held him gently by the hand. He didn’t resist as I pulled him into my room and closed the door behind us, guiding him over to my bed. We slipped in quietly to my sheets, I pulled them up so they rested just under his chin, preferring to cover some of my face with them.

With my other hand that wasn’t holding his, I reached out and softly touched his hair, sweeping it out of his eyes that were looking straight at me. He just watched and breathed lightly as he could as I played with his hair, twirling the strands and smoothing them back. Ever so slowly he reached out his other hand and held my wrist, halting my movement. We just stared at each other. It looked like he wanted to say something, that it was bursting at the edges of his lips, but he stayed noiseless. Instead, he reached out and cupped the back of my head, pulling me to his chest.

I made no effort to stop him and burrowed myself deeper into his chest, his body flush against mine. Neither of us spoke a word or moved away even a millimetre from each other. All I had to bless my ears was his steady heartbeat pumping directly next to my ear, rocking me to sleep.

Previous - Next

Ask to be added to the taglist!

Master List

If you want you can buy me a Ko-fi!

25 notes · View notes

mikes-on-prometheus · 4 years

Text

Found Family - Ch 3: Disastrous Distraction

Notes: We finally get to the chapter that contains the plotpoint that got this whole thing started! It was this prompt @lizluvscupcakes sent me: If you’re taking prompts, how about Virgil who isn’t up to date on his shots, Logan who knows *just* what to look up and how to do this, and Patton, who needs to half hold Virgil still and half hug him.

Premise: Virgil’s homelife isn’t the best. The day after he turns 15 he packs his bags and runs away to live with the only family who actually cares: his older brother Roman who lives with his best friends Patton and Logan. Virgil is quickly pulled into their little family. He’s never been happier.

Warnings: past child abuse, antivaxx rhethoric, vaccines, injections and syringes, needles, panic, fear, yelling, crying, unsympathetic Remus mentioned, hurt/comfort

Relationships: brotherly Prinxiety, platonic LAMP

Wordcount: about 2.8k

Masterpost

Ao3

Chapter one Chapter two [You’re here!] Chapter four Chapter five Chapter six

---

Patton wasn’t sure how the day had gone from normal to… this.

It started during breakfast when Logan looked up from his coffee, made eye contact with Virgil and told him that now that he was living with them he needed to get his vaccinations taken care of.

Virgil paled significantly, scrunching himself down to look even smaller than he was normally. “How do you know about my vaccination status?”

“I checked.” Logan had answered as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

“When? How?”

“After you moved in with us. I have taken the liberty to make an appointment with the pediatrician at my medical complex to get your vaccines taken care of and to create a plan to get you all up to date. It is today at eleven a.m. so we can go get lunch after.”

Virgil had nodded, finished his own coffee and bolted out of the kitchen towards his and Roman’s shared room.

Patton looked over at Logan who seemed clueless, then at Roman who looked exasperated and worried. “He’s not going to come willingly is he.”

“Absolutely not. Remus told him so much shit about vaccines, he’s terrified of them. He’s never gotten a vaccine in his life because our mother couldn’t be bothered to take care of him like that. The only one who was vaccinated as a kid was Remus because he was important, in comparison to Vee and me. She also didn’t really- believe in most medicine? She only got Remus vaccinated because it was a condition to him joining this sports club he’s been in since we were kids. You’re gonna have a horrible time with Virgil.”

Patton sighed and put his face in his hands. He’d suspected this since Logan had brought up the topic. It would inevitably be up to him to coax Virgil out since Roman was leaving for “work” soon.

He watched his roommate finish his breakfast and head up to his room to get ready and bid his brother goodbye. An hour after Roman left it was time for the Creature to emerge so Patton knocked at the door of Roman and Virgil’s room.

“Kiddo? It’s time to go, we don’t wanna be late to your appointment.”

“No! I’m not going! I don’t want any shots!” Virgil shouted from inside, sounding angry but unable to hide the little tremor in his voice.

“Virgil, you don’t have to be scared. It’s gonna be okay, Lo and I will be with you the whole time! Nothing can hurt you.”

“Vaccines can kill people! They’re full of toxins! What if my arm starts to rot and falls off!”

“That won’t happen, Verge. And regardless, this is just to talk about a schedule for you to get your shots, you won’t get any yet!” he said, leaving his I hope so at least unvoiced.

That seemed to get through to Virgil as the door opened just a little bit, barely enough for him to peek out at him. “You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. And I’m sure Ro can come along to your next appointment when you do get a shot.”

He watched Virgil chew on his lip as he contemplated before finally nodding and letting the door swing open wider.

He smiled at him and offered his hand. “Let’s get ready, kiddo.”

Virgil didn’t take his hand but he did nod and step out of the room, following him downstairs.

They were on their way to Logan’s workplace a few minutes later, Logan driving, Patton riding shotgun and Virgil in the back.

The closer they got to their destination the twitchier Virgil seemed to get, fidgeting with his fingers, pulling the strings of his hoodie’s hood, tapping his feet, sliding around in his seat as if trying to find a comfortable position.

By the time they arrived Virgil was actually shaking with how hard he was tapping his feet. Or maybe he was just shaking and the tapping didn’t make much difference.

“It’s okay, Verge. We’re here with you.” Patton reassured him as they entered the building, following Logan who steadily approached the door labeled as pediatrics.

“Hello Remy, I am here for the appointment I scheduled for Roman’s brother.” he announced to the person manning the front desk who didn’t even dignify them with a greeting and just waved them on through the door.

Behind the doors was a brightly colored nightmare filled with overtired parents and loud kids entertaining themselves with the provided toys or crying about being at the doctor’s. Logan frowned at that a little but took a seat next to Virgil, placing the boy between himself and Patton.

As luck had it they were summoned not too much later, a perk of getting the co-worker treatment, for sure. Logan had planned to let Virgil go in on his own since he was old enough to but Patton’s scathing look quickly made him follow them inside.

“Hi! I’m Dr. Sylvia Davenport. You must be Virgil right? Logan told me you’re his roommate’s brother?” The doctor introduced herself, trying to make him relax a little by mentioning Roman. Secretly, Patton was glad they’d ended up with the kind looking middle aged woman with the smile lines around her eyes. She seemed harmless and was obviously good with kids.

“Yeah. His name’s Roman.”

“Okay. And I heard that you and Roman didn’t really get vaccines growing up. I can’t really help Roman in that regard but I can help you. Let’s talk about a schedule to get your immunisations to where they should be for a 15 year old, huh?”

Virgil eyed her warily despite her trustworthy smile and soothing tone. He just shrugged. She kept smiling.

“I think we should start with combination vaccines so we can get as many in you in as little time as possible, that means you’ll get the vaccines for several diseases in one go so you don’t have to get as many shots. Once we’ve exhausted those we can move on to the single vaccines like tetanus or tick-borne encephalitis. Does that sound okay?”

Virgil just shrugged again though Patton could see the panic in his eyes that told him he just wanted to get out, to run, to hide and he felt something in his chest ache at the sight of it.

“Okay! I’ll print out the schedule for you so you and your guardians can keep track of your appointments, then we can get to your first combination vaccines. I was thinking ProQuad and Pediarix. Pediarix will protect you from diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, and polio while ProQuad will help with measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella.” she explained calmly as Virgil’s face drained of color until he was pale enough to almost count as translucent.

“You said I wouldn’t get a shot.” he whispered, eyes not leaving Dr Davenport’s back as she drew up the schedule on her PC. Patton felt as horrified as Virgil seemd.

“Yeah because I thought you wouldn’t.”

He truly hadn’t meant to lie to Virgil or lull him into a false sense of security or break his trust. While he was still mentally kicking himself Virgil had gotten up, wiping sweaty hands on his back.

“Thank you very much but that’s not necessary. I think I’ll head out now, bye.” he said before turning tail and leaving.

Well he tried to leave but Logan grabbed on to the back of his hoodie, pulling him back. “No, that’s not happening. Please ignore him, Sylvia, he’s nervous but he will get the immunisations you recommended today.”

Dr. Davenport, bless her soul, raised an eyebrow at Logan and Virgil, scepticism clear in her eyes. “Are you sure about that?” she asked to which Virgil was just about to answer No I’m fucking not, I want to leave, when Logan shot him a sharp glare, much like his mother always did when he was about to do something she would very much dislike.

So he shut up, stuffed his hands into his hoodie pockets to hide their shaking and gulped. “Yes Ma’am.” he whispered, eyes so wide and terrified Patton wondered how Logan could pull through with forcing Virgil to do this.

Logan nodded, clearly satisfied as he herded Virgil over to the padded examination table, making him lay down in an attempt to make him relax even marginally while Dr. Davenport prepared the syringes.

Virgil watched her warily, trying to keep his breathing even. He lost count on his breathing when Dr. Davenport approached with the little tray holding the syringes and alcohol swabs.

He tried to squirm but Logan was still holding on to him, holding him down.

“No, please don’t, I don’t want this. I really don’t.” he started to babble, quickly drowned out by Logan’s reassurances that Yes, Sylvia, I’m sure, we want this, he needs his vaccines, he’s just nervous. I’ll hold him still.

Patton felt his heart break at Virgil’s panicked look and felt it absolutely shatter when he started crying and begging for the doctor to please stop, please! and he couldn’t stop himself from getting up and sitting with Virgil, grabbing his hand for comfort.

“Oh honey, it’s okay, you don’t need to be scared, I’ve got you, it’s okay.” he tried to soothe him. Needless to say, it was unsuccessful. The more he tried to calm Virgil down, the louder his pleas became.

Pleas became cries became wordless shouts of fear.

Patton felt his ears ring. The boy had a pair of lungs on him and Patton wished he’d stop for his ears’ sake. Until then he had an idea to try and calm him down.

He held his phone to his ear, desperately hoping for Roman to pick up. He let out a sigh of relief when Roman picked up at the second ring. “Roman! Thank gosh, you gotta help us calm Virgil down.” he said, not even acknowledging his roommate’s greeting.

Virgil had apparently heard Roman’s name over his own shouting, fell silent for just a second as he stared at Patton. Then he zeroed in on Patton’s phone, realised what was going on and started shouting for Roman, tears running down his cheeks faster than before.

Patton hurriedly held his phone to Virgil’s ear.

“Roman! Roman, help! Where are you? I don’t wanna be here, I wanna go home! Roman-” he cried, muffling any noise that might come out of the speaker, meaning he was the only one able to hear what Roman said to him. Whatever it was seemed successful though. While he was still crying, Virgil was definitely calmer and not squirming as much as he babbled into the phone. Meanwhile, Dr. Davenport quickly administered the shots, quickly applying bandaids over the injection sites.

Only then did Logan let him go, rolling off the table as he rubbed at his temple with one hand. He had been even closer to Virgil’s mouth, Patton wouldn’t be surprised if Logan had permanent damage to his hearing from this. Heck, Patton wouldn’t be surprised if he himself had hearing loss from this!

But what was definitely true was that Virgil had screamed and cried himself hoarse. His voice was absolutely wrecked as he still cried into the phone.

“Kiddo, hey, it’s okay. It’s over now, c’mon, let’s get you up.” Patton coaxed, gently grabbing his shoulder to help him sit up. “Let’s go, you’re done, we can go now, we can go home.”

Virgil, still clutching the phone, nodded miserably and huddled into his hoodie which Logan had forced him to take off to expose his arms to the doctor.

“Do you wanna keep talking to Ro on our way home?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Okay, honey. You can do that, I just gotta take the phone for just a second okay? I’ll let you talk to Ro again in just a moment.”

Virgil looked at him warily but slowly gave him the phone.

“Hey Roman. We’re done now, we’ll take Vee back home now.”

“Okay. I’m on my way home now, I’ll be there in twenty.” Roman’s voice came through the speaker, somber and tinny, accompanied by the noise of other people and traffic in the background.

“Okay. I’ll take Lo out later to get take out, I think our kiddo deserves it today and I think he could use a bit of down time with just you.”

“Yeah, sounds good. Thanks Pat.”

“It’s no problem. I’ll give you back to Virgil now okay?”

He didn’t wait for an answer since Virgil had considerably perked up at his last sentence, already making grabby hands at Patton. Or more accurately, at Patton’s phone.

With Virgil on the phone with Roman it was easy to usher the teen into the car to start their way back home. Once there Virgil followed them home and scurried to his and Roman’s room, Patton’s phone still clutched to his ear.

“Well this went horribly.” Patton told Logan who just nodded.

“You mentioned takeout. What should we get?”

“Well I’m not sure but Virgil likes pizza. We should ask Roman once he gets home.”

Logan nodded and headed up to his own room.

Patton stayed downstairs and began making hot chocolate a few minutes before Roman was supposed to come home. He waved at him when he came in and handed him two mugs of the beverage to take upstairs for Virgil.

Then he settled on the couch so the boys could have some privacy.

---

Taglist: @3-has-charm @adreamisadishyourmommakes @analogical-mess @bubbliee0 @iris-sanders-athena @letthefandomsbegin @emthetimelady @ilovereadingandilovebreathing @ravenwashere1776 @stormcrawler75 @soulwillriseinperfectlight @why-should-i-tell-youu2 @rabbitsartcorner

#mikey writes #Found Family #chapter 3 #Virgil Sanders #Roman Sanders #Patton Sanders #Logan Sanders #brotherly prinxiety #platonic LAMP

16 notes · View notes

crysj88 · 4 years

Text

Ch. 6 Start of Something Good

As their jet carried them back across the Atlantic, Bennett’s mind spun. There were so many things that didn’t add up, variables that didn’t make sense. Tony was acting strange. It had developed slowly over a couple of weeks. He was withdrawn, secretive. He offered only forced smiles and laughs. His voice was colder. He didn't speak to Pepper unless they were fighting and that was far more often than usual. He didn't seek out Happy just to share a stupid joke. While he still talked to Bennett if the topic was turned to him he found an excuse to leave.

The newest problem was this Vanko character. She needed to run an extensive background search and discover all she could about his family and connections to Tony.

And last but certainly not least, Natalie Rushman. Who is she?

To solve the "Tony Problem" she would have to get him to talk. Which would more than likely require alcohol, lots of alcohol. She didn’t have to worry about getting drunk herself. As long as she didn’t down full bottles like shots she would be fine. Her body treated alcohol like a poison, diluting it as quickly as possible to keep it from damaging anything internal. That had it's good sides and drawbacks. Those issues wouldn't be resolved on the plane so she pushed them back.

The other two she could solve on her own. All she needed was a high speed internet connection, her laptop, and privacy. BOBbie would make that process faster and easier. A laptop and internet connection were easy enough. The privacy though...Tony and Pepper sat across the cabin after their last fight they refused to speak to each other but also refused to move. A stalemate. Happy was in the back of the cabin snoring loud enough to wake the dead so that wasn’t an option. The only other spot was the cockpit. When she had gone to check on the pilot earlier she had found Natalie there as well. They had been talking and laughing. Bennett had been a millisecond from making her presence known when she heard the pilot asking if Natalie wanted to go out some time. She didn’t care to hear the answer.

So there would be no answers, no solutions until they got back home.

She reached in her bag and pulled out a case with a pair of aviators with mirrored lenses. These were Tony’s answer to VR. When the next generation of virtual reality headsets were released Bennett had been excited and impressed with the new technology. Tony said they were subpar. The conversation ended with Tony determined to prove he was right and Stark tech was still the best.

So now Bennett had a fully immersive virtual reality experience packed in simple aviator sunglasses. A complete 3 dimensional experience with any video game, movie, or tv show you could want. Realistic graphics and a full 360 degree view. His system allowed you to view the movie from any angle. A “Stark original” software program filled in the blanks and built the single screen image into an immersive landscape. Action movies were so much better when you were fully surrounded by the action. Advance wireless earbuds gave personal surround sound, Tony’s attempt to beat out the competition in yet another area.

Over all the build, while functional and impressive, was far too expensive to mass produce.

Bennett relaxed into her seat as the opening credits began to roll across the lenses. She was just reaching the climax of the movie when her glasses were gently pulled off her eyes. Natalie smiled down at her, “hey.”

“Hey,” Bennett blinked several times allowing her eyes to adjust to the light.

“Nice nap,” Natalie questioned.

Bennett let out a soft chuckle, “actually I was just enjoying a movie.” Natalie looked between Bennett and the sunglasses. “Here,” Bennett pulled Natalie into the seat beside her before taking the glasses and carefully sliding them into place for Natalie. Bennett reached over tapping the earpiece on the right side of the glasses. She heard the movie start up again through the earbuds.

Natalie’s sceptical expression changed as the pictures flicked to life. Her jaw dropped slightly as she turned her head in Bennett’s direction. Instead of the picture simply staying fixed to the lenses the camera seemed to pan with her taking in the rest of the scene as she turned. She watched for a minute before handing them back to Bennett. “A present from Tony?”

“Yeah,” she replied as Natalie handed the glasses back. “How far out are we?” She wrestled her backpack out from under her seat and dug through it, finally pulling out a glasses case and a tablet.

“Not quite halfway across the Atlantic,” she sat straight backed in her seat. Bennett studied her closely. She always sat so still, unnaturally still. “Mr. Stark said he wanted to stop in New York before heading back to Malibu. So we have a few more hours.” She gave Bennett a soft smile. “I have some paperwork I have to finish so I’ll leave you to your movie.” She gracefully pushed herself from the chair.

“You don’t have enough paperwork.”

The odd statement stopped the redhead.

“Still a couple hours from Malibu and Tony and Pepper have already fought twice.” She offered as explanation. At Natalie’s blank expression she continued. “With that much time, Tony is bound to get in another “disagreement” with Pepper,” she dug through the bag again. “If you are available he will drag you into it. I know from experience. So the best policy is to make sure you are busy.” She finally pulled a small cylindrical case out of the bag with a triumphant smile. She offered it to Natalie before turning back to the tablet, pulling up the movie she had previously been watching. “So headphones and a movie with me or you can fake sleeping like Happy.”

Natalie tried to hand back the earbuds. “Really I think I will be okay.”

“Humor me,” she nudged the buds back into Natalie’s hand. “You work too hard. Take a break, just this once.”

Natalie considered her options. Her eyes seem to have an extra sparkle to them before her lips crept up into a smile. She slipped the buds in and scooted a little closer to Bennett to share the screen.

Bennett noticed the spark before the smile. It happened every time. She wanted to see it again but knew they came few and far between. “Pick your poison,” she slid up the screen with the list of movies so Natalie could choose.

They were finishing their third movie, as they neared Malibu, or almost finishing. There was a good twenty minutes of screen time left when Bennett shut the movie down.

Natalie looked from the screen to her, “what happened?”

“What?” Bennett looked genuinely puzzled.

“The movie wasn’t over.”

“I always stop it there.” A slight blush crept up her neck as she began. “Some movies the characters just don’t get the ending they deserve.”

“Why not just not watch the movie?” Natalie asked.

She nodded to the screen indicating the movie they had just watched. “Man on Fire is an amazing movie but Crease deserved a better ending. I have two or three other movies that I do the same thing. I think they deserve better.”

“So you just rewrite the ending.”

“Yup,” she let the word draw out slightly.

Natallie just shook her head, amused at the thought.

“Wheels down in 20,” Tony called and Bennett began to pack her things back into her bag.

There was a long list of things that needed to be done in preparation for Tony’s birthday party in three days, but not enough to bleed too far into Bennett’s evenings. So during the day she checked security plans and helped Pepper as much as possible. As soon as the night shift was in position she retired to her room.

BOBbie connect us to the Shadow Server. With the help of BOBbie and JARVIS, Bennett had secured a private server that not even Tony could access. They also lent a hand in procuring the information she needed. All three nights she searched the same things. Ivan Vanko and Natalie Rushman.

On Ivan Vanko she traced his family history first. His father, Anton, had worked for Stark industries alongside Tony’s father. He worked with Mr. Stark on the original arc reactor but was not the sole designer. As Ivan had insinuated.

On paper Ivan appeared to be as smart if not smarter than his father. He was an accomplished physicist and a talented engineer. His reproduction of the reactor in Monaco was enough evidence to back up the academic claims attributed to him.

His father was deported from the U.S. having been caught selling the arc reactor blueprints on the black market. The U.S.S.R. demanded he develop an arc reactor for them as well. When he failed he was shipped to Siberia. Anton lived in squalor. He became an alcoholic and abusive to his son.

Ivan had an impressive rap sheet as well. Imprisoned for 15 for selling plutonium. He had been suspect in several other illegal weapons deals but there was never enough evidence to make it stick. A couple of assassinations that were credited to him but not proven. Another thing the father and son had in common was they were both dead. A death certificate for Ivan Vanko was dated less than 24 hours after they left Monaco. Information on Vanko was easy enough to find as most of it was public knowledge.

Natalie Rushman however was a completely different story. Hours of searching pulled up the same results over and over. There were only a handful of documents for Natalie Aleece Rushman that matched the woman she knew. A standard background check and simple files that would pass for an employers search. The files were extensive enough to pass even Tony’s extensive searches, even though she was sure he stopped searching as soon as he found the modeling photos.

Combing through a little deeper, with assistance, revealed the date the documents were created. Four months. The files had only been active for four months. Which meant that Natalie was not who she claimed to be.

The woman had to come from somewhere so Bennett, BOBbie, and JARVIS widened the search. Bennett found only vague traces of personas that might be Natalie. Tatiana Sokolova. Irina Zlataryova. Laura Mathers. Nadie Roman. Natalia Shostakova. All of those names though revealed no more than Natalie Rushman did. The woman was a ghost. Bennett needed to clear her head. Nothing did that better than a little engine grease.

Down in the garage Tony heard a loud crash followed by broken curses. He followed the sound to find Bennett holding her right hand. The ratchet on the floor beside her bike explained her predicament. She busted her knuckles taking apart the transmission on one of her bikes.

So the question was why was she taking it apart? Boredom? Stress relief? She was working out a problem. Had to be. Something she couldn’t just think through.

“Hey kid, what’s up?” He threw her a shop towel.

She caught it, wrapping it around her hand. “The transmission was sticking.” She sent a glare at the bike.

“Really? That’s the one you are rebuilding for your dad right?” She nodded. He hopped up on the work table nearest her. “You rebuilt that transmission two weeks ago and it was perfect. What’s really going on?”

“Too many things. But nothing for you to worry about, Boss.” She picked up the pieces of the transmission she had dropped. She moved it to the worktable and began to break it down.

Tony grabbed one of the bolts she had just pulled and tossed it in the air, catching it before repeating the process. “Girl troubles?”

“You could say that.” The nut she was turning gave a loud squeak as she broke it loose. “But it’s nothing to worry about.”

“Is it your redhead?”

“Nothing to worry about.” She repeated. “Don’t you have a party to get ready for? Tomorrow’s the big day.”

Tony let out a long breath. “Don’t remind me. So...bucket list. What would you cross off it, if you knew you only had a month left?”

Bennett looked over to him. “Left of what?”

“Your life. This is your chance to fulfill one last dream, tie up loose ends, and go out with a bang.”

She thought before answering. “Finish dad’s bike and take it to him. Write down every bit of advice I could think of for Zach because I would miss his graduation. Visit Nora. Try and patch things with Leo. Spend the rest of my time here with you guys. Probably plan a bit of mischief. Break a few of Pepper’s rules, nothing too big though. Steal one of your suits for a day. Few harmless pranks on Happy, lego in his shoe or cutting a few stitches on the seam of his pants so when he sits they split. Leave as many good memories as I could.” Her smile grew at the end of her list.

“Nothing with Rushman?” Tony asked.

“The way I see it, if I leave things as they are then she mourns a coworker and if I am lucky a friend. If I try something more it may fail and destroy what we have currently. If it works and we have that connection, then I am possibly the worst human on the planet. Starting a relationship knowing I would hurt her sooner than later.” She shook her head, “I couldn’t do that. What about you?”

“I have no idea,” he chuckled. “You want some help with this.” He nodded toward the transmission splayed across the worktable.

“Sure,” she shared his smile before they began their work. They had developed a rhythm over the last year and worked together fluidly. They talked, sharing stories they rarely told anyone. Laughter came easily and their individual worries seemed to drift away if only for that few minutes.

The world could be falling apart at the seams but this always felt right, it was their safe place. As the question piled from the past few days began to fall, Tony would be her rock, and she would be his. Between the two of them they would set the world right again.

Phylax Masterlist

#Black Widow #phylax #tony stark #original female character #The Avengers #ironman #natasha romanoff #avengers imagine #marvel imagines #black widow imagines

1 note · View note