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czenzo · 6 months

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Missed Call

[ao3] Skullyle Internet Friends Series: [1 – Pretty Boy] [2 – Missed Call]

summary:

[00:13] Missed call from Skull Lucy frowned at her phone for the hundredth time that morning. “Has he said something horribly controversial again?” Holly said over her shoulder. “No, nothing like that," she said. "He, er— he called me. Or, tried to. It was just gone midnight, I was asleep.” “And this is bothering you because…?” Lucy finally looked up from her phone. “We’ve never spoken over the phone before.” One missed call sends Lucy spiralling. She begins to question her feelings towards her strange, snarky online friend.

words: 3,440 rating: T

notes: to all the lovely people in the comments for Pretty Boy who said they’d read more, this is for you!

edit: @vryfmi made some absolutely STUNNING artwork of a few scenes from this fic, and @edmeom's art of barista lucy and holly is GORGEOUS – please go check them out and give them loads of love!! vry and galri I owe you my LIFE you're amazing

[00:13] Missed call from Skull

Lucy frowned at her phone for the hundredth time that morning.

“Has he said something horribly controversial again?” Holly said over her shoulder. Lucy jumped so intensely she almost pulled a muscle; it was easy to forget how quiet her coworker could be when she wanted to.

“No, nothing like that,” she replied after her heart rate steadied. “He, er— he called me. Or, tried to. It was just gone midnight, I was asleep.”

“And this is bothering you because…?”

Lucy finally looked up from her phone. “We’ve never spoken over the phone before.”

“Ever? You’ve known each other a while though, right?”

“About half a year.”

“And you talk every day?”

“Near enough.”

Now it was Holly’s turn to frown. “And you’ve… never called? Never heard each other’s voices?”

“No.”

“Not even sent a silly voice note here and there?”

Lucy shrugged. “I’m not a voice note kind of person.”

A long, slow nod was her only response, which was more unnerving than Lucy would’ve liked to admit. “Is it weird? That we only ever text?”

Holly made a vague gesture. “If I were in your shoes, I’d think it a little odd, but—”

“Can I get some service, or is this establishment closed for gossip hour?”

Lucy’s head whipped around to find a customer waiting at the till, red irritation blooming high on his cheeks. She bit back an instinctive snarky response.

Luckily Holly had a knack for dealing with difficult customers, and rushed over to serve him with a beaming smile. “Of course! I can’t apologise enough for being distracted. What can I get for you?”

Lucy decided she was in dire need of a break. She set a timer, threw together a cup of tea and drifted off into the break room, finding comfort in the battered settee with with so many cracks and tears the original leather was barely visible.

She drew her phone out of her apron pocket. The missed call notification still sat there, taunting her for not knowing how to reply. Skull himself hadn’t said anything, either, which was incredibly unusual for him. It was bobbing on three p.m.; normally by now he would have sent at least two obscure memes, three colourful insults, and one post from their shared paranormal forum with added commentary on how stupid OP was. Instead, she hadn’t heard a peep from him.

‘Unusual’ was a massive understatement.

Her teeth worried the skin of her lips. What if something serious had happened, and she was too hung up on a silly missed call to check up on him? What if she’d done something to severely piss him off, and the missed call was his last attempt to hash it out?

Or—the most likely scenario—what if he clicked the call button without realising, and she was making a huge deal over something hilariously insignificant?

She took a swig of her scalding tea, let her head fall back to stare at the ceiling for a long, excruciating moment of contemplation, then eventually opened their chat.

The cursor blinked. Lucy steeled her nerves and reminded herself that she was being a complete tit.

[Joan] did you mean to call me?

There! Message sent; she was officially no longer a cowardly over-thinker. She relaxed and sunk further into the chair, but stiffened as soon as she saw that Skull was typing. Okay, scratch that—she was definitely still a cowardly over-thinker.

[Skull] yea we need 2 talk

Shit.

It took an embarrassing amount of time to type her response.

[Joan] shit, is everything alright? [Skull] no its p serious [Skull] thought it wldv been easier 2 talk abt it over the phone [Skull] but ur probs at work rn so ill just text it [Skull] hold on

Lucy straightened and waited with bated breath, tea all but forgotten about. In the time Skull took to type, Lucy involuntarily went through all of her worst-case scenarios one more time, and suddenly felt the need for a drink much stronger than tea. Christ—why was this bothering her so much?

[Skull] ive been diagnosed with [Skull] huge dick syndrome [Skull] its fatal. im so sorry

Lucy slowly placed her phone on the settee, counteracting the urge to lob it directly at the nearest wall. She gave herself a moment to breathe—in through the nose, out through the mouth, just like Holly taught her to do when a customer really got on her nerves—before cautiously picking it back up again.

[Joan] you’re a fucking menace [Joan] don’t pull that kind of thing again. [Skull] HAHAHAHAHAHA [Skull] dont lie joanie. i got you GOOD [Joan] I knew you could be a proper knob sometimes but I didn’t think it was this bad [Skull] clearly u gotta get 2 know me better [Skull] in all honesty tho i didnt mean to call u [Skull] the call button is right next 2 the block button [Skull] an idiotic design choice if i ever saw one [Joan] you ought to send the developers a strongly worded email [Skull] who the fuck says ought in a casual conversation [Joan] it’s a perfectly normal thing to say?? [Skull] yea if ur from the middle ages [Joan] ok shut up we’re not changing the topic [Joan] if you didn’t mean to call me, why did you go radio silent? [Joan] surely the normal thing to do would’ve been to say “Oops, my bad, didn’t mean to call you” [Skull] Oops, my bad, didn’t mean to call you [Joan] dick [Skull] huge one, yeah [Skull] its a serious condition [Joan] 🖕 [Skull] i didnt even realise id butt dialed you lmao [Skull] fell asleep right after. woke up like 10 mins ago [Skull] im a different creature past midnight [Skull] unaware of and unliable for my actions [Joan] good luck getting that to hold up in court [Skull] id charm my way into acquittal [Skull] all the lady judges would love me [Skull] actually so wld the non lady judges [Skull] im just that irresistible [Joan] more like irritating :/ [Joan] they’d declare you guilty so they never have to see your ugly mug again [Skull] u have no proof i have an ugly mug [Skull] for all u know i cld b on magazine covers [Skull] flexing. smouldering. [Skull] rock hard jawline [Skull] rock hard abs [Skull] rock hard thighs [Joan] I’m stopping that list right there [Skull] buzzkill. [Skull] i bet your manager keeps u in the back so ur face doesnt scare off the poor customers [Joan] I’m practically the face of the company [Joan] everyone loves me [Skull] this is some next level delusion [Skull] does ‘everyone’ include Pretty Boy [Joan] this is some next level obsession [Skull] im not obsessed with him [Skull] im far superior than him anyway [Skull] if he saw me in the street hed drop dead [Skull] out of pure shock [Skull] from seeing my rock hard jawline, [Skull] rock hard abs, [Joan] STOP [Skull] my sexy voice alone could crush his ego [Joan] I wasn’t aware voice cracks and nervous trembling could do that [Skull] kiss my arse joan [Skull] you have no idea what i sound like [Joan] and same vice versa

Lucy’s eyes narrowed. She had an opening here—should she take it? She took a sip of her tea, now disgustingly lukewarm, and decided to go for it.

[Joan] is it weird, that we talk so regularly but only ever over text? [Skull] cant say its ever crossed my mind [Skull] why wld that b weird [Joan] I don’t know [Joan] it’s just something a coworker mentioned [Skull] so THAT’S why the missed call got under ur skin [Skull] ur so painfully transparent [Joan] no I’m not? [Skull] denial is not a good look on u [Skull] if it bothers u so much we can just call [Skull] like any normal fucking ppl wld do [Joan] I suppose [Skull] its not a big deal [Skull] unless u swoon so hard at my voice u get a concussion or smth [Skull] which is highly likely [Skull] considering ur delicate disposition [Joan] wtf is that supposed to mean [Skull] last time Pretty Boy called u by ur name u almost dropped ur phone in coffee [Joan] in hindsight [Joan] mentioning that to you was a mistake [Skull] it wasnt [Skull] its a great addition to my joan blackmail bank [Joan] har bloody har [Joan] you’re a comedic genius [Skull] oh em gee its so nice 2 see my talent finally b acknowledged

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Her break was up. Startled that the time had flown by so quickly, she checked the clock on the wall, only to find she was indeed due back on the shop floor.

On the bright side, she no longer had to worry about the possibility of Skull being a) dead, or b) eternally pissed off at her. Instead, her mind focused on the very real chance that she’d be talking to him on the phone in the near future.

Lucy was by no means completely inept; she could handle a phone call when it was necessary. However, phoning her old insurance provider to get them to remove her from their annoying mailing list and calling a close (could she consider them close when she knew so little about him?) friend acquaintance for the first time were very, very different things.

A hot burst of air greeted her as she emerged from the back and settled behind the counter. She’d been a barista at this cafe for so long everything was muscle memory. It was a mostly handy skill, until someone once switched the syrups around and she almost handed a hazelnut latte to someone with a severe nut allergy. Besides that, and… her tendency to text on the job… she swore she was a virtue to the company.

“Got a clearer head now?” Holly said over the sound of milk being steamed.

“Yeah. I brought it up, and now we might actually end up calling.”

“Ooh, how exciting!” Holly beamed, then added quietly, “Unless he turns out to be a creep, that is.”

Lucy took moment too long to reply. “I’m sure he isn’t.”

“…Yeah!” Was Holly’s response, full of fake optimism that was far from convincing.

A third voice—one Lucy was becoming more familiar with these days—came from the other side of the counter. “Who might turn out to be a creep?”

Lucy rushed to meet Lockwood at the till. Even on a Saturday, he was still dressed smartly. “Oh, no one. Just— er, a friend of mine.”

“They only ever text! He could be anyone,” Holly stage-whispered to him.

Lucy gently batted her out of the way. “You don’t need to spill my private life to customers, thank you.”

“But he’s our best regular.”

Lockwood beamed. “Glad to hear it.”

She playfully rolled her eyes and tapped the till screen out of standby. “Your usual?”

“No, actually,” he said, sounding ridiculously pleased with himself over something so trivial. “I’d like to try that new gingerbread latte, please.”

“A sucker for a Christmas special, are we?”

He shrugged. “Who can’t resist a bit of seasonal marketing? I’ll also have a slice of lemon drizzle too, if you’ll allow it.”

A huff of laughter escaped her. “Wow, you’re really branching out today.”

He gave her another one of his toothy grins. As he paid, he quirked a curious eyebrow. “What’s this about a maybe-creep you only ever text, then?”

“Oh, I can’t believe Holly told you about that.” Actually, she could—over the past month or so, Lockwood’s visits had become less by-the-script, and the two of them had learnt more about him than they ever expected to. Of course, it was a two way street, and as a result Lockwood gained a firm grasp on Lucy’s sarcasm, weakness for confident smiles, and now her friendship with a random guy on the internet.

She’d managed to avoid mentioning Skull to him, up until now. She was surprised the secrecy had lasted this long, though she was unsure why she’d been so keen to keep quiet about him.

“We met online,” she said slowly. Thankfully, putting Lockwood’s order together kept her hands busy and her brain occupied, which meant she had less energy to overthink how she’d explain her situation. “Met through a shared interest. We were— er, well, honestly we argued a lot, at first. I’m not sure how it turned into a friendship, but it did, and now we talk pretty regularly.”

“Every day,” Holly added.

“For…?”

Lucy shrunk in on herself slightly. “…Six months? Ish?”

Lockwood whistled, long and slow. “That’s quite a bit of time.”

“Exactly!”

“Holly, shut up,” Lucy said with very little venom. “We’re going to call. We’re going to talk. It’s not an issue.”

He leaned on the counter, watching her dust ginger onto his drink. “Right now?”

“What? No, not right now. That’d be mad.”

“Could be interesting.”

She slid the drink and plate over to him. “Don’t be nosey.”

“It’s in my nature, Luce.” He winked, taking a sip of his drink. “Gossip at heart.”

Lucy’s stomach did a funny flip. She playfully waved him off under the pretence she was in a rush to serve the next waiting customer, and was harshly reminded she forgot to put her phone on silent when her pocket was met with a barrage of vibrations.

As the atmosphere lulled once all customers had been served and seated, she returned to her chat with Skull. Most of it was pure gibberish, a poor attempt at grabbing her attention again by way of spam.

[Skull] did u fucking die??? [Joan] when will you get it into your thick skull that I have timed breaks [Joan] and once said timed breaks are over [Joan] I go back to work [Skull] yet here u r, still txting on the job [Skull] what a rebel u are, joanie [Skull] its cute u spend ur entire allocated free time talking 2 me [Skull] clearly u have ur priorities straight [Joan] if that were true I’d have blocked you ages ago [Skull] oh no, my ego [Skull] has PB swung round yet today [Joan] he just did [Skull] and? [Skull] come on. give me the details [Skull] don’t deprive me of the gossip [Joan] nothing really happened [Joan] he changed his order up [Joan] asked about you [Skull] he fucking what [Joan] my chatty coworker told him :/ [Joan] and he got curious [Skull] did u tell him abt my rock hard jawline, [Skull] rock hard abs, [Joan] stfu that wasn’t even funny the first time [Skull] lies + slander [Skull] what did u tell him [Joan] I didn’t expect you to care so much about what he thinks [Skull] i dont. [Skull] im looking for openings to bully him [Joan] I just told him how we ‘met’ [Skull] is that it?? [Skull] thats so fucking boring [Joan] I mean [Joan] we also briefly spoke about the whole Only Texting situation [Skull] christ. what did he say to that [Joan] he thought I was going to call you right there and then [Joan] on the shop floor [Skull] is he stupid [Joan] hypocrite [Skull] my intellect is vast and varied tyvm [Skull] y is everyone obsessed with the calling thing [Skull] whys it such a big deal

Lucy glanced at her phone sidelong as she wiped down the counters. Why was it such a big deal?

She dwelled on it for a moment or two, but was cut short at the sight of the whole screen lighting up with Incoming call: Skull.

At first, she simply stared. Pressing the red decline button would mean everything stayed as it was—no awkward first phone call, no pressure to make their casual, stupid online friendship something more meaningful, no caving to the expectations of the more socially well-adjusted people around her. But pressing the green pick up button would mean… well, it would mean talking to Skull. Like actual friends. What would they even talk about?

Curiosity gnawed away at her.

Lucy pressed the green button.

“You were staring at your phone wondering if you should pick up, weren’t you?”

She wasn’t sure what she expected Skull to sound like, but it wasn’t quite this. He didn’t sound significantly older or younger, though his voice had a slight rasp to it, and she could hear his smile—knowing him, it was more likely to be a smirk—through his words. It was unfamiliar, yet so undeniably Skull that she couldn’t help but smile a bit herself.

“No. I told you, I’m at work. Busy day.”

“Busy enough that you picked up the phone in the middle of your shift?”

She rolled her eyes fondly and signalled to Holly she’d be back in five minutes—emergency, she mouthed, gesturing to the phone at her ear—and Holly gave her a knowing look in return.

London’s wintery chill nipped at her skin as soon as she stepped outside, but the fresh air was nothing short of lovely.

She squinted up at the sky; grey clouds loomed overhead. “Why now? Why not call later?”

“Got sick of you awkwardly bringing it up over text,” he said, then added: “Wanted to see if you’d pick up.”

“Well, here I am. I picked up. Now what?”

A short pause. “You were the one that was so bothered by it all.”

“I wasn’t that bothered.”

“Er, yeah you fucking were. So, my voice: what’s the verdict? Are you swooning?”

She gave a harsh huff of laughter. “You bloody wish.”

“I can hear you moved outside. Needed some fresh air to cool your blush?”

“Shut up? You’re not funny. Besides, my voice is miles better. I bet you almost tripped over your own feet when I first spoke.”

“I’m nothing but elegant and graceful,” he said, playfully indignant, “even when faced with a really annoying, nasally voice.”

“Charming.”

A beat, then: “I didn’t know you were northern.”

A small, ugly snort escaped her as she contemplated this. At the beginning of their acquaintanceship they’d stuck to an unspoken rule of avoiding delving into their personal lives, but as time passed and they became more comfortable with brutally bullying each other under the guise of friendship, details had come out here and there. They were both English. She worked at a cafe. His go-to drink order was an espresso martini (I’d had you down as a guinness kind of guy, Lucy had said, to which he responded thats the worst fucking insult). The drops of info were random and sporadic, and ended up so Lucy knew Skull had a really stupid tattoo on his left arse cheek, but he didn’t know she was northern—and this, in her opinion, was downright hilarious.

“You do now,” she said. “Look, I really can’t talk for long. I already spend way too much of my shift on my phone.”

“This was an emergency,” Skull said dryly, “you had to succumb to social pressures and modern friendship conventions.”

Lucy huffed in disbelief. “Friendship?”

“Slip of the tongue. I meant rivalry.”

“Of course you did. Denial is not a good look— er, sound, on you.”

He scoffed playfully. “Don’t throw my own words back at me. It’s not my fault you’re desperate for my attention and companionship.”

“And it isn’t my fault you’re projecting.”

“Ooh, you’re pushing it,” he said, and Lucy really could hear his smile. “I could just hang up right now and never contact you again.”

She sighed wistfully. “That would truly be the dream.”

“A nightmare for you, more like. You couldn’t survive without m—”

Lucy took great satisfaction in hanging up on him, and waltzed back into the shop with a lazy smile on her face. To her surprise, it wasn’t Holly whose eye she caught first upon her return, but Lockwood’s. He narrowed his eyes for a moment before flashing a grin—it was his split-second of hesitation that made Lucy wonder if he’d been watching her call Skull through the window.

“So,” Holly drawled, leaning in close as Lucy returned behind the counter, “how was the emergency?”

“Awful. Three wounded, one fatality.”

Holly’s teasing smile froze; it was clear she still hadn’t fully accustomed to Lucy’s sense of humour.

“It was fine. It’s nice to just have that over and done with. Now I can stop thinking about it.”

“What was he like?”

“Exactly how he is over text— no, wait, his ego was actually more inflated. He’s a bit insufferable.”

“The smile on your face counteracts your words, Luce.” Holly playfully nudged her before diverting her attention to a waiting customer, and together they fell back into their routine. After the line had gone back down, she stole a glance at her phone, and held back a snort at the notifications waiting for her.

[Skull] how DARE you. how fucking dare you [Skull] next time we call I’m getting my revenge

#lockwood and co #lockwood & co fic #lucy carlyle #the skull #skullyle #czenzo.fic #skullyle internet friends

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marauderundercover · 3 years

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Taking Chances Chapter Five: Paris Revealed (Stories/Memories)

AO3

Marinette flinches back as the room erupts in shouting. The younger boy, who was definitely younger than her and yet almost (if not definitely) taller than her, was fiercely glaring while he screamed at Mr. Wayne in….was that Arabic? The man that walked in with him was waving around the knife in his hand while Dick yelled at Mr. Wayne, his face filled with confusion instead of fury. Glancing around for a way out, Marinette makes eye contact with Alfred who nods behind him. Sneaking away from the group of angry men, Marinette follows Alfred into the kitchen and instantly feels at home. And much calmer.

“I’m sorry.” She mumbles, breathing deeply to avoid spiraling again. Alfred simply hands her a cookie before turning around and putting water in a kettle.

“There is no need to apologize, Miss Marinette. It seems Master Bruce has forgotten all sense today and is instead insistent on acting like a fool. It was wrong of him to announce you like that, without preparing you or the boys beforehand. I do hope that his atrocious display of proper manners doesn’t make you want to leave.” Alfred says, and Marinette’s eyebrows shoot upwards. Was he? Was Alfred actually blaming this situation on Mr. Wayne? Was it Mr. Wayne’s fault? Did he not actually hate her? Did he just make a mistake?

“I- what?” Marinette says, unsure of herself.

“You, my dear, are not at fault. Your father didn’t tell any of his sons that you were coming to the manor today, or that you existed in general. And judging by your face, you weren’t prepared for the boys to be here either.” Alfred clarifies.

“Oh. No, I wasn’t. Mr. Wayne just said that he wanted to get to know me, and he knew I wanted to get to know him. I- my birth mother passed away. But my Maman knew her, so I can find out from her how I’m similar to Bridgette. But neither of my parents knew Mr. Wayne, and I just wanted to know if I was like him, I guess. I didn’t even know who he was until two days ago.” Marinette admits.

“As in you found out Bruce Wayne was your birth father two days ago or-” Alfred trails off, waiting for her to clarify.

“Oh no. I found out the name of my birth father awhile ago. It’s just- I really don’t pay attention to celebrities. The only ones I really know are designers. So I didn’t put two and two together, and I didn’t even know about Bruce Wayne and Wayne Enterprises until a few days ago. My friend Adrien made me google him and that’s when I found out about...the boys.” She says, stopping herself from saying her brothers as she was still unsure if Mr. Wayne actually wanted her like he wanted the others.

“Well I’m certain that things will start to calm down shortly. In the meantime, would you care for some tea?” Alfred asks, holding up the kettle. Marinette nods gratefully, trying hard to stop her inner spiral from drowning her.

---

“What do you mean daughter?” Damian snarls, finally switching to English. Bruce blinks at the boy before sighing.

“I mean, you have a biological sister.” He says, tired and wishing he had been able to convince Marinette to go somewhere else. Not that he didn’t want her to meet her siblings. But it definitely wasn’t the laid back first meeting that he wanted.

“You mean half-sister.” Damian spits out, crossing his arms and sticking his nose into the air.

“Shut up, Demon Spawn. She’s our sister, get over it. Where’d the kid come from? Her mom drop her off?” Jason asks, obviously trying to actually understand the situation.

“No. I first met her at the Museum and had my suspicions. She’s in Gotham on a class trip, and before you ask, yes. We had a DNA test done and yes, I am her father.” Bruce says, frowning when he sees Dick’s hurt expression morph into one of excitement.

“Wait, wait, wait! Was she the girl who was sassing the Joker?” He asks quietly, practically buzzing with excitement. When Bruce nods, Dick cheers and runs from the room. Okay then.

“Wait, she met the Joker?” Jason asks, his expression turning dark. Bruce watches his son’s face morph into one of disgust when he puts it together. “She’s the French kid he had at gunpoint, isn’t she?”

“Yes. Which is one of the reasons why we both thought the manor would be a more appropriate meeting place rather than somewhere public.” Bruce says, sighing as Damian once again starts screaming. This was not what he had planned.

---

After just a few minutes with Alfred, Marinette already felt calmer. Calm enough to giggle at another story about something that one of the boys- one of her brothers- did. Calm enough to let her guard down. And mess up.

“If you wanna see something ridiculous, you should look up the 26th time Monsieur Ramier was akumatized into Monsieur Pigeon. He made all the buildings turn into bird cages and all the food turned into bird seed. Luckily it didn’t last long, but seeing the Mayor of Paris stuck inside a giant bird cage was kind of hilarious.” Marinette rambles, giggling at the memory. It was definitely a needed akuma, situated right between two super destructive akumas. Monsieur Pigeon was, while a nuisance, always a breath of fresh air. His akumatized form was brought on by his fierce protectiveness of the pigeons, which luckily never led to death for civilians.

“Pardon me, Miss Marinette, but could I ask what you mean by ‘akumatized’?” Alfred asks, his posture suddenly stiff. Marinette’s eyes widen as she realizes what she just did. She told someone outside of Paris about the situation happening in Paris. Well crap. Normal Parisians didn’t know about the media block that she had set up with the help of the Mayor and Max. But after her calls to the Justice League were ignored, and she realized how disastrous it would be for a member of the League to be akumatized, the media block was the best choice. Time to act clueless.

“Akumatized, as in, a person is possessed by an akuma? Surely you’ve heard of it. It’s been happening in Paris for almost two years.” She says, hoping he doesn’t ask to see any evidence. This isn’t good, this is awful, this-

“And what is an akuma?” Alfred asks. Okay, this isn’t too bad.

“It’s an evil butterfly sent out by the villain, Hawkmoth.” Marinette says, giving out more information than she’s really comfortable with. Okay, time to change the subject, no more questions about heroes or villains or-

“Marinette!” A new voice calls, sliding into the kitchen, almost immediately falling over.

“Master Dick, have you forgotten about your ban on the kitchen?” Alfred asks, his lips quirking up in amusement.

“Awww, Alfred, I just wanted to talk to Marinette. I feel bad for all of us overwhelming her back there.” Dick says with a pout that somehow doesn’t look ridiculous on him. Despite obviously being at least ten years older than her.

“Don’t feel bad. It was just...a lot all at once.” Marinette says with a small smile.

“So I have to ask, are you the one who sassed the Joker at the Museum the other day?” He asks, a wide grin on his face as he sits on one of the stools. Marinette’s eyes widen and she blinks. How?

“Oh, uh, yeah, I guess. It wasn’t a big deal though. He thought I was a Wayne- well, I guess he figured it out before I did- but I think he just wanted to scare my class.” She says, waving her hand to brush off the topic. She really didn’t want to talk about the Joker. Because she was sure it would turn into-

“I apologize for asking, but have you been caught up in the villain attacks in Paris before?” Alfred asks, Marinette instantly panicking. Sure, she’d been caught up in almost every single akuma battle as Ladybug. But there were a few on record where she was targeted as Marinette, and even a few battles that she assisted as Marinette. And then there was Kwami Buster…

“Well, a few. But basically everyone in Paris has dealt with it at some point. That’s just what happens when there’s an attack so often, you know? And my school seems to be a hotspot but that makes sense because teenagers are full of negative emotions and-” Marinette cuts off her rambling, cursing herself on the inside. Great job, Mari. Now they’re going to be worried or they’re going to think you’re a freak or-

“What do you mean negative emotions? Why would that matter?” Dick asks, his previous cheerful smile replaced with a look that clearly meant business.

“That’s how the villain chooses his targets. Negative emotion. If someone is having a bad enough day, he can take control of them and give them powers and basically destroy the city trying to get to Ladybug and Chat Noir, who are our heroes. I only know what’s been posted on official sites like the Ladyblog or miraculousparis.org.” Marinette says, smiling apologetically and hoping that this conversation can be over.

“Have you ever been akumatized?” Dick asks, tension suddenly filling the room.

“No, thankfully. I’ve found ways to manage my negative emotions so that they can’t take me over. I don’t blame anyone who has been akumatized, it’s hard not to be. But, I also don’t think I’d be able to forgive myself if I was akumatized.” Because then her family would be a target. Because Hawkmoth would know her identity. And if Hawkmoth’s insistence on her being akumatized was anything to go on, she’d be a devastating akuma. And if Ladybug wasn’t fighting in the battle….would the cure even work?

“That is a lot of pressure, Miss Marinette.” Alfred says softly after a moment of tense silence. Marinette grins brightly.

“I can handle it, don’t worry!” She says, hoping no one can tell how hard it actually is. How hard it is constantly being strong. Never truly feeling a negative emotion.

---

Bruce winces at the faux cheerfulness in his daughter’s voice. He had only found out about the Paris situation a few days ago, but he was determined to fix it. Find a solution. Do something to help the city and by extension, his daughter. She’d be going back there soon. Back to a city that was being held hostage by an emotional terrorist. Bruce would fix this. He had to.

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softomi · 4 years

Text

Catfish

prompt: mother says to be wary of people you meet on the internet, especially since you never know who’s on the other side of the screen.

pairing: atsumu x reader

the unpaid extras: osamu, suna

general taglist: @graykageyama

Osamu liked to mess with his brother and lately he’s been planning the largest prank. It originally wasn’t supposed become a huge thing, but then Suna just kept edging him on; adding more things one by one and it just spiraled. Osamu was catfishing Atsumu with your pictures.

Now, Osamu knows that it sounds bad but technically you were in on the prank. You had never met nor even knew Atsumu, heck, you didn’t even know who Osamu was. You had been part of the prank merely through text messages and the occasional meet up with Suna.

To put it simply, Suna met you through one of his teammates; coincidentally you ended up in one of his classes and the two of you built a tiny friendship. Which was why, when Suna was thinking of the perfect person to catfish Atsumu with; your face lit up in his head.

You were the perfect candidate, exactly Atsumu’s type literally to a tee. When Suna pulled up your contact, the first thing he did was offer to pay you. Every picture you sent used for the prank, he’ll send you cash through an app and as a broke college student who needed cash fast, you agreed as long as the photos weren’t used for anything weird or sexual. He made sure to send you proof of each photo in use.

This brings it all back to dear Osamu catfishing his brother. He had created an entirely new Instagram for you, complete using your name and a cute description that him and Suna had spent two hours thinking of. They decided to even spend a few days perfecting it, posting pictures a few days apart with captions, following random groups, liking posts, essentially creating a whole new personality using your photos. Osamu had even developed a fake occupation for you; a foodie blogger to which some posts were dedicated to food reviews for restaurants Osamu deemed worthy of a post.

And when Osamu says that the prank spiraled; it fucking spiraled. Originally it started with Suna and Osamu following the account, suddenly Suna’s teammates began following the account. Osamu made the mistake of tagging Onigirl Miya in one of your photos, ultimately adding a few random people to follow the account. Suddenly after two weeks of having the account, you gained over two thousand follows.

It was no worries though, because Osamu can quickly catfish Atsumu, take down the account, and call it all good.

Safe to say, Atsumu accepted the friend request rather quickly. Osamu and Suna snicker to themselves, it took Atsumu less than five minutes to accept and he was already liking all of your photos. Not even ten minutes pass and he’s sliding into the DM’s.

The two men looking at the phone and burst into laughter. They spend five minutes cackling at Atsumu’s random ‘hey’ message that followed with a smiling emoji.

Osamu was absolutely entertained, it was hilarious that his own brother had fallen for his catfish and honestly, Osamu was ready to give up the act after three days but then Atsumu said something that just really pissed him off. He doesn’t remember what it was, he just suddenly ended up two more weeks later still having the fake Instagram account and still having Atsumu believe that he was falling in love with some girl.

Somehow the account ended up with over five thousand followers, Atsumu messages the account religiously, and Osamu for some godly reason is still managing the account three months later. It’s spiraled.

“I have a girlfriend!” Atsumu doesn’t know why his friend and brother are laughing. He’s scrolling through your Instagram, the catfish Instagram.

Osamu almost chokes on his food, “So what, have you guys gone on a date? Have you even seen her in real life?” Suna snorts into his drink, he coughs when he accidentally inhales the water sharply.

Atsumu slumps in his seat, his voice small, “No, but we talk every day and she likes me!”

Suna is coughing even harder now, tears threatening to leave his eyes to the point that he excuses himself to the bathroom. Osamu has a shit eating grin on his face, “How do you know she’s actually not some old dude catfishing you?”

“She’s not!” Atsumu stutters, “She’s real!”

“Prove it.”

Osamu was about to learn a harsh lesson about the world; the world loves to bite you in the ass when you least expect it.

Atsumu leans forward, an eerie grin on his lips, “Happily.” Atsumu whips out his phone, quickly presses a number and holds the phone to his ear. He holds a finger up to his brother, even gesturing for the returning Suna to remain quiet. The phone picks up, “Hey babe, you wanna meet me here at Onigiri Miya?” Atsumu looks at the watch on his wrist, “Twenty minutes? Perfect.”

Osamu’s believing his brother is bluffing. There was no way in hell he’d be able to somehow magically bring the catfish to life, heck, Atsumu would be a god if suddenly he could. Thirty minutes pass, Osamu is exchanging looks with Suna. It’s absolutely silent between the three.

Osamu is suddenly feeling guilty, Suna is uncomfortable to the point that he’s even texting you to make sure you weren’t actually coming, and you confirmed with him that you weren’t.

“Should we tell him?” Osamu whispers when another five minutes pass.

Suna is deadpanned, “I don’t know, we’re kind of reaching a sad territory now. Let’s just break up with him and ghost him.”

Osamu groans, “But do we want to deal with a sad Atsumu, I’ll take getting my ass kicked over him crying in my apartment.”

The door chimes and their jaws smack the floor. You walked through the door, eyes roaming the place before landing on the three huddled into the corner. Is he a fucking god? Atsumu stands from his seat, he meets you halfway, pulling you into a heartfelt kiss that has you swooning.

The closer you approach with Atsumu’s arm around your shoulder, the more they truly begin to believe that Atsumu is a god.

“Guys, this is my girlfriend.” This time it’s Atsumu who has a shit-eating grin, “Ain’t she a beauty, the pictures don’t do her justice.”

It takes everything in Osamu to not scream, “But, you said you’d never even met her before.”

Atsumu gazes into your eyes, hearts practically floating above his head, “I mean I guess technically this is our first-time meeting, right?”

You nod, a puppy like expression on your face, “I’m sorry, I haven’t introduced myself yet. You must be Osamu.” You point to him then your fingers drag to the other male, “Suna.”

“Oh.” Suna sits straight up, “Oh!” He catches the glint in your eyes, the conniving little minx of a look. Suna was no longer calm, “We’ve been double crossed!”

There’s screaming, fingers are being pointed at each other, Atsumu is gripping Osamu by the neck of his shirt, Suna is literally calling your phone to make sure that it’s actually you, Osamu is pulling his brother’s hair. The customers of the restaurant stare with their jaws dropped at the scene.

Everyone is squished into Osamu’s small office. Suna is sitting on the desktop, Osamu in his chair, Atsumu in the spare seat, and you lean on the arm of Atsumu’s chair. His arm dangles around your waist, pulling you to lean on him with a cheery grin.

Atsumu leans forward, taking in the expressions of the two bewildered boys, “I guess let’s start at the beginning.”

While the story technically began three months ago with Suna asking for your cooperation, the story of you and Atsumu began two months ago.

The extra cash from all the pictures you sent Suna was giving you enough to be able to go out and live a little on the weekends. Originally the bar was dead, you and your friends were tucked into the corner in a booth when a rowdy bunch of men came in. Your friends gasped having recognize them as members of a sports team and with their excitement, they must have won a game.

It didn’t affect your group that much until it came to split ways; being in your last year of university, you excused yourself, insisting that you needed to go home to finish a project. As you stood at the register, card tapping against the counter, that was when he showed up.

At this point, Atsumu had spent the past hour believing the gods were on his side. He practically walked by your table ten times just to make sure the face matched the one in his instagram’s DM. After forty minutes of the constant back and forth, your quick gazes at him walking by the table seem to do nothing. Were you unable to recognize him?

He took his shot watching you stand alone at the counter. He finishes off his drink and smoothly strides to you.

“Hey!” Atsumu leans on the counter, flashing a smile despite alcohol dripping from the side of his mouth, “Wouldn’t you consider this fate?” He gestures between the both of you.

You’re confused, shooting him a puzzled gaze, “Sorry, you must have me mistaken for someone else.” You hand the card to the worker, anxiously eyeing the male who’s increasingly invading your space.

Atsumu places a hand on the small of your back, it was something Instagram you had mentioned you liked, instead it triggered a fight or flight. Your hand makes harsh contact with his cheek, he retracts his hand immediately.

“Don’t touch me!” You bark at him, “Perv.” You’re aggressively signing the receipt, storming out of the door while other men seem to ooh at Atsumu’s situation.

“Hey!” Atsumu catches your figure outside of the bar, you’re waving a hand to catch a cab, “I think we got off on the wrong foot there.”

You don’t give him a second glance, “Look, I don’t know who you think you are.”

“Atsumu.” He stands right in front of you, blocking your sights for a cab. He’s got the widest smile on his face as he holds out a hand, “Miya Atsumu. Volleyball player. Setter for the Black Jackals.”

“Okay.” You run a hand through your hair, oddly taking his hand into a shake while eyeing him, “Miya Atsumu, volleyball player, setter for the Black Jackals.”

You step to the side, arm out still trying to catch a taxi but he blocks your way once more and he looks at you with such wonder. His eyes practically having stars coming out and his smile warm and inviting. He was wondering if you were a twin, maybe he had actually gotten the wrong person.

“You are?”

The wind is causing your hair to blow in your face, he wants to so bad to brush the strands behind your ears but the way you gave him a slap earlier makes him think that’s a bad idea. Your fingers pull your hair back, “Y/n. I don’t have a fancy title like yours but, I guess I don’t know, senior to be graduating at the university.” You sidestep him once more, “I’m just trying to catch a cab home.”

Once more he blocks your way and you look at him with defeat. He was persistent. He laughs, ��Sorry, last time, but do you not know me?”

You’re still as confused as ever, “Look if you’re going to pull some cheesy line about seeing me before, it’s not going to work.”

“Wait, just hold on a second.” Atsumu pulls out his phone, his fingers are shaking as he presses onto the app. He pulls up your profile, handing you his cell phone, “This is you isn’t it?!”

Your eyes scan the social media page, your mouth falling open, there’s a hidden laugh itching in your throat. These were all the picture you had taken for Suna and somehow, you’re being shown by a stranger your fake profile.

“We’ve been messaging for like a month, I can’t believe you don’t recognize me.”

I don’t recognize you because I’m not the one talking to you.

You’re perplexed, you weren’t sure what you were supposed to do, if you told him he’s being catfished you’d lose the flow of side cash you’ve developed but if you didn’t, isn’t that just wrong. And the more you look at him from under the stars, he’s rather cute; you suddenly feel bad for slapping his face earlier.

“Do you want to get some coffee?”

Your offer sends him over the moon, he’s walking alongside you to the nearest convenience; Atsumu is rather talkative, bringing up topics of everything and anything that comes to his mind. As the two of you look over drink options in the cooler, his hands pull two cans of black coffee.

“You’re favorite right?” He holds one out to you.

Your actively smiling, biting your lower lip and wondering if you needed to play along with the role but as he stares at you with such adoring eyes, it makes your heart skip a beat just taking in the fact that he would remember something trivial over text.

“Actually.” You place the drink back, opting for a sweeter caramel macchiato, “I would say that this is my favorite.”

Atsumu quirks a brow, “Are you saying you were lying to me?” He places a hand over his heart, “And here I thought we were soulmates.”

Your hand smacks against his arm, “Shut up.”

“So what are you studying for?” Atsumu sips his drink, the two of you leaning against the windows of the convenience store. There’s a slight sway in his body and you’ve unknowingly followed his movements.

“Literature. Once I graduate, an internship is probably where I’ll start but I’m hoping I can get hired into a publishing company.” He’s comfortable to be with and you aren’t sure if it’s because he thinks he knows you or because his presence is just like that; comfortable.

Atsumu finishes off his canned beverage, “And you do that, all on top of running a foodie Instagram.”

From what you gathered on a quick skim of the account; they have your occupation as a lower level food blog; it’s rather funny. You can only nod to him, “It’s just a side hobby really.”

“Well maybe I could join you on one of your little adventures.”

You try to suppress the immense grin that wants to grow on your lips, there’s an internal battle happening of whether you should tell him or not but once again, the way he looks at you, the cute doe eyed look; it puts butterflies in your stomach.

“How about tomorrow?” He lets out a small gasp, your hands pull out your cell phone and offer it to him, “Your number?”

“I’m free for lunch, just text me when and where.”

You press the number he’s inserted into his contact; in a second his cell rings and he’s showing off his screen, “Don’t message me on Instagram though, I’m detoxing from social media for a bit. Just, text my number.”

He walks you to the curb, helping you flag down a cab, and you give him one last gleeful glance before getting into the car. As you sit, you’re quick to dial Suna’s number. You know he’s probably sleeping but the light feeling in your heart overrides his sleep schedule.

“What?” He’s groaning.

“Suna listen to me carefully. The prank that you guys are doing.” You hear a small snore, “Suna!” He jolts awake and you groan, “You know what, go back to sleep.”

“Thanks.” He hangs up immediately.

Your phone dings, Atsumu’s name pops up. Can’t wait for our date. You bite on your thumb, a smile on you before you respond.

Although having just seen him forty minutes ago, you two text back and forth. First he wondered if you arrived home safe, next he sent pictures of himself insisting it’s for you to choose for his icon, then he proceeds to narrate his way home. You wonder if you’re responding like catfish you but the more he brings up random topics, the more you forget about that stupid prank.

Wait let me call you.

Your heart beats faster, your phone lighting up with his name. You press the answer button slowly, “Hello?” You giggle.

“You’re telling me that you like spikers more than setters.” His voice is nearly screaming and you lean back on your chair laughing into the phone.

The quick research you did on his team had you watching short videos, and while you had to admit it was amazing to watch, your eyes drifted more to one of his teammates than him, “What’s his name?” You lean to look at your computer screen, “Bokuto Koutarou?”

“No!” He’s whining out into the air, “If I had known you were a spiker girl I would have changed positions.”

Your eyes catch the time on your laptop, “Woah. It’s three in the morning.” That meant you had spent over four hours total texting him and now you were on the phone with him, “What are you doing awake?”

He blows out a breath of air, “I could ask you the same thing.”

“Well.” You draw out the word, dragging your self to your bed, “I’m going to go to sleep now.” There’s a pause on the line, “Atsumu?” He hums tiredly, “Good night.”

There’s a small snore from him before he shifts around, “Good night.”

The morning light urges you awake, for a second you peak at your phone’s time and it nears ten in the morning. You’re about to throw your phone back onto the bedside table until Atsumu’s name catches your eye. For having gone to bed at three a.m. he shot you a text at seven.

Morning beautiful.

It was sweet, simple, and it made you smile; giving you the extra push to get out of bed. You stalked your own catfish page, there hadn’t seemed to be any updates so there was still time. A quick search of the internet has you picking out a random restaurant nearby and you send off a text to Atsumu about a meeting time.

You were late, pushing through the doors of the restaurant, your eyes scan the place to see him raise a hand for you. He’s dashingly handsome despite being in casual wear, you wonder if he spent time like you did just trying to pick out an outfit or if he spent forever gelling his hair as long as you tried to get your strands into the perfect waves.

“Sorry, did you wait long?” You pull into the seat in front of him.

He’s smiling and you hope to god that when you break the news to him, he’ll still smile for you, “I just got here not too long ago too.” He looks over the menu quickly, “What do you think you’ll get?”

You inspect each dish, a light hum on you as you dance around the option, “The spaghetti sounds nice.”

Atsumu tilts his head, “It has red meat in it.” You stare blankly at him, “Aren’t you allergic to red meat?”

“Oh.” You set the menu down, “Actually.” He follows your actions, you’ve become nervous at what you’re suddenly about to do, “There’s something you should know.”

“Fuck this!” Atsumu throws the napkin on the table, you jump as he harshly stands, throwing the chair back.

“Atsumu.” You stand.

“No! Don’t. Were you just messing with me then? Did Osamu tell you I was going to be at the bar last night?” Atsumu’s fist ball, “You know what, whatever.”

“Wait.” You follow him behind, “Atsumu. I’m sorry.”

He harshly turns to you, god, even in sunlight you were beautiful to him. He wants to laugh, the month he spent talking to the fake you; yeah that was all bullshit to him but honestly when he saw you last night, when he spent over four hours actually talking to you; he actually felt that maybe this could be something deeper.

“I’m really sorry, I know I should have said something right away.” You have a soft pout on you and it makes him outwardly groan.

He runs a hand through his hair, “Okay, it’s fine. I probably deserved this prank too anyways; must have pissed him off somehow.” He waves a hand, “You can just go back to doing whatever.”

Your hand pulls on his wrist, “I owe you a meal.” You bat your eyes with a cheeky grin, “If you take pictures of me, we can send them to Suna and use the money for our food.”

“Oh.” He begins to smile, “I like that idea.”

Back into Osamu’s office, Atsumu has now pulled you onto his lap, your head resting on his shoulder with arms hanging around his shoulders. The two bachelors stare at the sickly loving sight.

A lightbulb goes off in Suna’s head, “Wait! My money!”

You snort a laugh into Atsumu’s shoulder, “Hey, I earned that fair and square. You paid for goods.”

Osamu is having a staring contest with his brother, “So you two have been actually dating for two months? Why would you still message the catfish account then, why not just kick my ass when you found out?”

Atsumu taps a finger on his chin, “Well, I was just originally going to ghost you guys but then babe here and I discovered that we could fund all of our dates with Suna’s money. We even started setting aside leftover cash from our dates to plan a trip.”

You giggle, “We’re going to Disney next weekend.”

“All the pictures.” Suna whispers.

There’s an amused hum in your throat, “Honestly I’m surprised you guys didn’t figure it out. We were dropping hints in the photos.”

Indeed, the two males looked at the pictures you sent them. If they backtracked to two months ago, there wouldn’t be any hints but the closer they get to the present; it was painfully obvious. They were just too caught up in their excitement to even notice. In one photo, part of Atsumu’s shoulder and hair was just barely in the picture; another had his reflection vividly displayed in the window of the restaurant, and somehow Osamu and Suna missed the obvious Black Jackals jacket sitting on the back of the chair next to you.

The two boys were having a mental breakdown.

You shifted on Atsumu’s lap, leaning forward to tap against the top of Osamu’s phone, “Now, if you’d please deactivate the account since this whole charade is over.”

Osamu ended up not deleting the account. He set the account to private because seeing how his brother was so deeply entranced by you, Osamu had a feeling this one was going to last and he was right; on Atsumu’s wedding day, his little best-man speech had him whipping out the catfish Instagram to display on the monitor for everyone to see.

#haikyuu #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu x reader #atsumu x reader #atsumu scenarios #osamu #suna #atsumu

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iaintyourbro · 4 years

Note

I noticed something that sort of ticks me off in Case of Tifa. After Cloud does a delivery for Elmyra to take a bouquet to Aerith's grave he starts staying away from Tifa and Marlene. But then after he finds Denzel and says that Aerith brought Denzel to him and decides to let him live with them and save him from geostigma, Cloud starts being back at home more often again. Did Cloud really start spending more time at home again just b/c of Aerith, and decided to save Denzel just b/c of her?

Hey anon.

The AC/CoT stuff seems to be a popular topic recently. I think it’s good that people are watching ACC and reading the novels since I think it’ll be important to understand both as Remake moves along. They’re pulling all pieces of the compilation into Remake, and the novels are no exception, since Leslie, Marle, and Kyrie have already made appearances.

The delivery to the Forgotten City caused a old wound to be ripped open. The point of ACC is to show Cloud’s guilt for letting (in his mind) Aerith die. They also tie in Zack since he also feels immense guilt and sadness over that. In CoT they only really say that Cloud does feel guilty because he feels like he couldn’t protect Aerith and prevent her from dying. I don’t think that’s romantic - he was supposed to be her bodyguard and we know from Cloud’s history that he takes these things very seriously. He failed at preventing her from being killed, so he lives with that guilt.

Tifa also has a lot of guilt surrounding Aerith’s death and the Sector 7 plate collapse. They mention her guilt a ton of times, and I find it interesting that it’s not something that’s talked about often online. It’s always about Cloud’s guilt.

Here’s something an anon wrote in that I think is a great summary:

Anon Ask/Statement on Cloud’s Guilt

Tifa’s first time at the Forgotten City, which is shortly after the first defeat of Sephiroth, causes her to break down. The one thing that’s interesting in CoT is Tifa’s guilt slams her almost immediately, while Cloud is the one who seems to be holding it together to support her.

We see that he’s willing to try and help her be strong. At this point, I’m not sure if he’s fully aware of the amount of guilt that’s settling within him. The point where it really seems to slam him is after he does the delivery for Elmyra. He has PTSD associated with the Forgotten City. I would assume anybody would. I would whether I knew a person closely or not if I saw them murdered in front of me. Especially if I attempted to kill them myself right before.

Cloud also just generally has PTSD from everything else that’s happened to him. He lost his mother violently, his hometown was burned down, he watched the girl he’s in love with almost die, he was experimented on for four years and then ultimately watched his best friend die in front of him. He’s got a lot of shit going on and now add a reminder of ANOTHER incident in his life, he’s going to spiral.

Cloud also has a tendency to close in on himself. He doesn’t want to be a burden and he’s scared of hurting those he loves. It’s very possible that during this point, he didn’t want to worry Tifa anymore than she already was. So he begins to avoid them. Tifa also is non-confrontational at this point so isn’t going to push him.

For the Denzel piece: Cloud sees Denzel as a way to repent for his sins of letting Aerith and Zack die. He says Aerith sent Denzel to him not in a romantic sense, but (in his mind) as a way to be forgiven.

Now, we know Aerith doesn’t blame Cloud for her death. She tells us that in AC. This is all in Cloud’s mind that he’s a failure and he causes all these issues. He’s very selfless, but ends up seeming selfish because he really does pretty much self implode.

It’s not the first time he does this, either. When Tifa falls from Mt. Nibel - he blames himself. He goes through this time when he just becomes and asshole and beats people up. This is the event that causes him to decide to become a SOLDIER. He wants to win Tifa over.

He never tells anybody why he wanted to join SOLDIER. They show that during the Lifestream when Tifa asks him why. It was a sudden decision to everyone around him. Most likely not to Cloud - because Cloud was in his head coming up with all of this stuff. Ultimately, he wanted Tifa to notice him. He wanted to win her over and prove he could protect her. That was his driving force behind joining SOLDIER.

So now we’ve covered this is just the way Cloud is. In Tifa’s case, he already had a crush on her, so that just grew from there into this deep desire to win her over. In Aerith’s case he didn’t have as strong of a connection to her - he didn’t know her as long - and he was “contracted” to be her bodyguard. He takes these things seriously.

Cloud and Tifa take Denzel in and Cloud becomes obsessed with finding a cure for Geostigma. We see the books and papers on his desk in Advent Children - so we know this is something he was really looking in to. I relate - I did the same thing when my dad had cancer. You can get into these moods and forget about everything else. Usually somebody has to try and slam you out of it, but it’s hard.

Tifa also sees Denzel as a way to retribution. She has a lot of guilt over what she did with Avalanche and the Sector 7 plate collapse. Denzel lost his parents in the Sector 7 plate collapse.

Here is the conversation the two of them have that I think people take out of context. Cloud didn’t say Aerith brought Denzel to him for romantic reasons. He sees it as another chance to save a life. He tells us this - directly. Tifa feels the same was, as we see in the earlier excerpt. If anything, Aerith knew both Tifa and Cloud needed some help here with their inner turmoil.

On top of it, Tifa feels that Denzel’s arrival strengthened their family. I would think if this was an old flame thing happening, she may feel a bit differently. Cloud decided to cut back to spend more time with the children. This has nothing to do with Aerith. It is also mentioned on a previous page that the bar was starting to lose business because people started realizing a kid with Geostigma lived there. Cloud, Tifa, and Marlene never mention this to Denzel, and instead, they continue to embrace him as part of their family.

Honestly it’s pretty warm and fuzzy - even though all the darkness in this chapter - Tifa and Cloud are pretty good parents, especially since they’re young and it was kind of thrown on them. Also, it wouldn’t really be nice if Cloud was like “hey I’m dropping another kid off for you to deal with while you’re working the bar and all.”

As for the very last paragraph: We find out later that Cloud ends up with Geostigma and that’s why he left. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back sort of thing. Not only was he failing at saving Denzel, but he also now had what he knew to be a terminal illness in many cases. He now feels he can’t do anything and he runs. He tells us this in AC.

I don’t think Tifa imagined the promise - because things ultimately end up being okay. Cloud just really thought he was going to die and was going to fail her - being dead means he can’t fulfill his promise to her.

Here’s an excerpt from Case of Denzel. He mentions Tifa, Cloud, and Marlene. Not just Cloud. He sees them all as his family. He also mentions all of the folks along the way. The bulk of Case of Denzel is him getting to the point of being found at the church. It’s not just about his time with Cloud and Tifa - it’s Denzel��s journey. Johnny is in this one a lot.

Ultimately, I do have issues with the way Advent Children was handled outside of Japan. Without the novels, it does seem like Cloud is just a depressed mess. You don’t really know why he’s a mess. You know he has Geostigma and you know he feels guilty. Some people took it as him pining for Aerith. Watching ACC and reading the novels, I didn’t get that at all. Many people became Cloti fans because of Advent Children. They were acting like a married couple going through a rough patch.

They really do only mention his guilt in the novels and his issues with not being able to protect her. We do not have an official “Case of Cloud” so really can only go based on what the other characters are seeing with him and what he’s told them. As I’ve said in previous posts, there’s not canon evidence that his feelings were romantic - especially post Lifestream.

The novels were released AFTER Advent Children in the US and I don’t think it was very well known. Most of the people I’ve talked to that are casual fans never saw Advent Children as romantic for him and Aerith. Especially since Zack was around. The ending alone makes people laugh when they find out they think Cloud and Aerith had any romance - he calls her “Mom” - her boyfriend is there with her and they’re acting like foster parents.

I think with Remake, they’ll make things a bit more clear. I think ACC does a good job of making the guilt feel a bit more broad between Aerith and Zack. I wish it would have covered a bit more about Tifa’s guilt like Case of Tifa does, and maybe it would seem less romantic, since they seem to be having the same inner turmoil.

I think if people fully played OG, played Crisis Core, read the novels, and then watched ACC, they’d realize this all comes together pretty clearly. Dirge of Cerberus doesn’t show too much of he full original gang, but you do get to see a much happier Cloud and Tifa in it. The phone conversation is cute and hilarious - especially since since Barret is being ridiculous and Tifa yells at him.

Aerith and Zack are a thing. Cloud and Tifa are a thing. Cloud and Tifa have some serious problems with dealing with what goes on in their heads and it’s resolved by the end of Advent Children. Zack and Aerith give him that look at the end like “Alright, everything should be good now. Don’t disappoint us!”

I also really do not think Cloud is going to pine after his best friend’s girl. Cloud isn’t a douchebag. He’s a nice guy. He respects people. Zack was his one and only best friend. Zack saved his life. I really think if people would remember to pull Zack into these conversations, they’d realize that it’s ridiculous to think that Cloud was after his dead best friend’s dead girlfriend.

Additional Reading:

Advent Children Anon Ask (About Romance)

Cloud and Tifa Ask - Advent Children

Why Zack is Important to Cloud

The Future of the LTD (This has a links to other blogs as well - so there is a variety of opinions here, including from a CA multishipper)

Case of Tifa and the Kids are Alright

#cloti #cloud x tifa #ff7 #ff7r #ff7 advent children #ff7 crisis core #ff7 advent children spoilers #ff7 spoilers #zerith #zack x aerith #ff7 on the way to a smile #ff7 case of tifa #ff7 case of denzel

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olliepig · 4 years

Text

Waiting in the Wings chapter 5

Thanks as always to the wonderful (and ever patient) @willow-salix for all her help in getting this beast out.

As always, the whole thing is available on AO3 here

********************************

The cheers of the crowd bathing her in a glow of satisfaction that she’d never managed to find elsewhere, Cat stood on the stage of the Opera House after her performance of Swan Lake, savouring the moment. It was a marathon of a ballet that took every ounce of energy she had, and the appreciation shown by the audience at the end made the hard work and downright pain of her chosen career totally worth it.

She knew as well as everyone else on the stage that the post performance glow could be short lived and, with her long day nearly over, she was relieved that all she had left to do was receive her flowers, get changed and head home. Sensing a shift in focus from those around her, she looked over to the wings in time to see one of the Opera House staff staggering onto the stage with quite possibly the largest bouquet she had ever seen and heading straight for her.

Since her first performance of Giselle, larger and larger arrangements of flowers had started arriving at the Opera House to be presented onstage at the end of each show. There was never a name or message on the card hidden inside, just the initial S and two kisses. It was a fact that didn’t go unnoticed and became a source of debate and amusement within the company whenever she performed to see how many flowers she would receive and whether the mysterious sender would make themselves known.

Outwardly, Cat pretended to be exasperated by the constant influx of flowers but secretly she loved it and always thanked Scott profusely for his thoughtfulness. She had never expressly told him what her performance schedule was, so she supposed that he had looked it up and made arrangements accordingly. It had never been discussed aside from her giving her thanks but it was something that made her heart flutter dangerously every time and she cherished it.

With the curtain calls over, and with everyone having somehow managed to avoid tripping over the flowers as they laid on the stage, Cat headed back to her dressing room, barely able to see over the top of them. It wasn’t the only bouquet she had received that night and as she walked she thought that it was lucky that it was a route she had followed so often as she was relying almost entirely on memory to find her way.

As soon as she was safely in the dressing room, she carefully placed her flowers in the sink and pulled out her phone.

How the hell am I supposed to get these home on the tube?! They barely fit in the bloody dressing room! (Thank you very much for them btw. They’re beautiful!)

Smiling, she put her phone down and started to get on with the business of getting her costume undone when, almost instantly, her phone buzzed with a reply.

Good job I'm here tonight then, isn’t it? I’ll have the car at the front when you’re ready.

Cat smiled as her heart lurched with the unexpected excitement of seeing Scott again. It wasn’t the first time they had met up since their night at Penny’s and their friendship felt like it was blossoming. Multiple messages were exchanged daily and the more they learned about the others lives, the more comfortable they became.

What?! Why didn’t you tell me you were coming? Why don’t you come round to stage door and I’ll come down to meet you there? I need to grab a shower before I leave and I’ll be a while so you can wait in my dressing room.

Text sent, Cat raced through getting her tutu off and threw a tracksuit on. Checking her phone, she smiled again as she saw the reply,

I wanted to surprise you and yeah, that sounds much better than sitting out here by myself. See you soon!

Keen not to keep Scott waiting, she flew down the stairs, shoving down the nagging thought that she shouldn’t be this excited to see someone who was supposed to be just a friend. It was a decision that they had made together and she was determined to stick to it, regardless of the little voice in her head that kept pointing out that it had been her idea and that he had merely agreed to it.

Scott was already waiting for her when she arrived and her breath caught slightly as she took him in before he spotted her. He really was almost impossibly beautiful, she thought; the very epitome of tall, dark and handsome. His impeccably cut suit looked to be the same colour as his dress blues from his airforce days, a memory that stirred another flutter in her stomach.

“C’mon then you,” she greeted him fondly, enjoying the look of surprise on his face when he registered her next to him as she grabbed his hand and led him into the maze of corridors backstage.

“Well hello to you too,” he smiled, following behind and enjoying the touch of her hand much more than he thought he should.

Having never discussed the identity of her flower sender with anyone but her closest friends, bumping into two members of the corps de ballet on the stairs while escorting Scott Tracy back up to her dressing room was definitely not part of Cat’s plan to keep it a secret, especially as, she realised with a start, she was still holding his hand.

A hot flash of something akin to jealousy flared through her as she saw the appreciative glances they threw his way as they passed by and she mentally kicked herself for it as she hurried an oblivious Scott up to the relative privacy of her room. It wasn’t that she was trying to keep their friendship a secret; she just really didn’t want to be pressured into publicly defining something that was so far totally undefinable to her.

“You did great tonight,” Scott started with a smile that made Cat’s heart rate increase as the door closed behind them.

“Thank you very much,” she grinned, turning away quickly so he couldn’t see the effect he’d had on her. She watched in the mirror as he headed over and made himself comfortable on her window seat before starting the job of unpinning her headdress and letting her hair out of its tight bun. “When you said you were here I wondered if you’d seen it.”

“Wouldn’t have missed it, even if it did mean a ridiculously early start this morning. Sorry about the flowers by the way,” he added as he caught sight of them, the small sink making the arrangement look even bigger than it was. “I didn’t realise you’d have other bouquets as well and I genuinely didn’t expect mine to be quite that big.”

“That’s OK,” laughed Cat, moving on to removing the worst of her makeup. “It was hilarious watching them try to get them all onstage. I’m just glad you’re here to help me get them all home.”

“So, um, what would you like to do once you’re ready? I’d be very happy to take you for dinner if you'd like?” Scott knew full well that she wouldn’t have eaten since late afternoon and would likely be hungry after all the energy she had used in her performance. He had many happy memories of late meals after her shows and was keen to recapture those moments, even if they didn’t lead to the same end to the night as they used to.

“Not sure I really fancy dinner,” came the reply, throwing a bucket of ice water over the daydream he had somehow slipped into. “It’s been a long day and my feet really hurt. I was just planning on making some pasta and chilling out tonight if you’d like to join me?”

“That sounds wonderful,” smiled Scott, his initial disappointment at her rebuttal turning to enthusiasm for her counter offer, visions of cosying up on the sofa appearing in his head.

“Right, I’m going to jump in the shower, keep making yourself at home and I’ll be as quick as I can,” she finished, grabbing her clothes and disappearing without a backward glance, leaving Scott to his thoughts.

Scott looked around and wondered what to do. He'd been in the dressing room once before after Giselle but with Penny and Gordon there too he hadn’t paid much attention to it at the time. He was acutely aware that this was her private space in the theatre and he didn’t want to pry. Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. He found her fascinating and wanted to find out everything he could about her life but he wasn’t prepared to violate her privacy, so he contented himself with settling down on the chair at her dressing table and looking at the pictures that she had stuck around her mirror.

He’d looked at nearly all of them when, to his surprise, he spotted a picture he had taken of Cat and some friends of hers whose names he had once known. Seeing it again transported him back to that day: waking up with her beside him before going for a lazy brunch, then heading out on a trail walk along the James River where they bumped into a group of her friends, joining them for a while on their walk and laughing with them as they took the pictures.

He wondered, with a pang of regret, if she still had the picture of the two of them that had been taken moments later, cuddled up to each other and smiling, cheeks rosy from the slight chill in the air. He’d not thought of that picture since the day it had been taken. At the time it hadn’t seemed like it was of any real importance, just a snapshot of another day together with the promise of countless more like it in their future, but now… Well, now it mattered somehow.

His musing was interrupted by Cat breezing out of the showerroom, now dressed and ready to go. As they chatted amicably while she gathered her belongings, to his delight he noticed with a start that she was wearing the same outfit that she had at Pennys, sending his thoughts spiralling back to the events of that night and making him wonder if there was a significance there that he was not yet aware of. He was very relieved when she thrust a couple of her bouquets into his arms and led him out of the room, unwittingly breaking that particular train of thought before it could affect him too much.

Down at the stage door, Scott found himself hanging back while Cat signed autographs for the second time in as many months. Unlike the last time, however, he was now playing the role of a glorified vase and within the first 10 minutes he started to quite seriously regret his choice of bouquet as the foliage tickled his nose for what felt like the 100th time.

The number of people who turned out, and were prepared to wait in the unseasonably cool London night to speak to their favourite dancers, amazed him. When he thought about it properly, he wasn’t sure why; they were stars in their own right and their fans wanting to meet them made perfect sense. It was a world away from his experiences of waiting alone for Cat after her early performances in Richmond and his heart swelled with pride at her accomplishments since then as he watched her work her way through the crowd.

As he waited, he became uncomfortably aware of people watching him too and once he had realised that, he became sure he could hear his name being whispered in conversation, making him quickly duck behind the flowers, using them as a shield. He was well aware of the attention his presence could attract and also very keen not to let the focus be taken away from those who deserved it so he started to maneuver himself away from the crowd.

On their way down from the dressing room, Scott had promised Cat that he would have the car waiting for her once she was finished and when he became certain that he had been spotted, he gratefully snuck away to fetch it, rifling through his pocket for the keys and trying not to drop the damn flowers that were quickly becoming the bane of his life.

Safely settled in the driver's seat, Scott allowed himself to slump for a moment and prepare for the evening ahead of him. He cherished his friendship with Cat but there was no doubt of how he still felt about her. As soon as they’d started talking again it was clear to him that they still had a connection and the night they’d spent at Penny’s had cemented that. Or at least he’d thought it had.

He understood why she had made the decision to be friends and nothing more, but that didn’t mean it hurt him any less. He had pushed that hurt down in order to keep her in his life and he’d been pleasantly surprised at how natural it had felt when they had met up a few weeks later. Where he’d expected awkwardness and long silences, he’d found laughter and flowing conversation which encouraged him to persevere further, truly hoping that one day his feelings would fade and he could be the friend she desired.

When they were apart, he almost managed to convince himself that friendship between them would be entirely possible, but as soon as they were together, he longed to reach out and bridge the gap between them. Being so close to her but unable to act on his feelings was like some kind of delicious torture that he hated and loved in equal measure. He was hopelessly addicted to her, and he had no idea what to do about it.

*****

Feeling unnaturally clumsy under Scott’s gaze, Cat muddled around her flat, finding light switches and vases while simultaneously urging him to make himself at home and apologising for the non existent mess. She hadn’t been expecting a visitor when she had left that morning and she reddened as she spotted the underwear that she’d left over a radiator to dry, grabbing and stuffing them down the side of a cupboard, most likely never to be seen again.

If Scott saw her, he didn’t mention it and for that she thought she would be forever grateful. He followed her around, helping as much as he could as he looked around in interest at the place she called home.

“Hey,” she commented with a smile, finally coming to rest and surveying the veritable florists that had appeared in her kitchen, “remember when you used to just get me a single rose after a show?”

“What, like this one?” Scott grinned, holding out a blood red flower that he had produced from lord knows where.

Cat smiled slowly as she met his eyes, making his heart race. He kissed the flower and presented it to her with a deep bow, as he had seen her doing to her partner on stage earlier that night and was delighted when she received it with a curtsey.

“I…. Thank you,” Cat smiled, genuinely pleased with what she hoped would be her final floral gift for the night. The rose brought back so many memories of their time together and for that alone it meant more than all the other flowers combined.

“Right, shall we get dinner on, then? We're still making pasta?” Scott broke the moment and took charge. Seeing a kettle, he filled it and set it to boil before looking around the kitchen for any hints of where utensils and food might be kept.

“Bottom drawer, next to the fridge,” Cat instructed, following his line of thinking and directing him towards the saucepans. The pair of them bumped companionably around the kitchen as they made the simple meal for themselves, falling easily back into old habits and divisions of labour.

“Ooh, wine,” Scott exclaimed, emerging from the fridge and holding a bottle triumphantly above his head. “Would you like a glass?”

“Yes, I think I would,” came the reply from somewhere deep within a cupboard as Cat rummaged through for the sauce she was looking for. “It always takes me ages to unwind properly after a show and I do like a nice glass or two now and again.”

“I remember,” Scott replied softly as he put the bottle down. Something in his tone caused Cat to stop what she was doing and turn to look at him, finding his eyes mesmerising as they caught hers.

Cat was pinned by them, her breath quickened as she drowned in their depths and she fought the sudden urge to take the few steps needed to close the gap between them. His lips looked so soft and inviting and she found herself wondering if they tasted the same as when she had last kissed them.

“Shit!” Cat’s attention was distracted by the unmistakable sound of a pan boiling over. She rushed to mop up the worst of the water, the moment lost.

By the time she looked back up, Scott had moved too and had busied himself by pouring two glasses of wine and getting the plates ready for when it was time to dish up their dinner.

It was probably for the best, she told herself. They were just friends. They’d both agreed. And friends didn’t look at each other like that, right?

Settling down after dinner, they flopped into well practised positions on the sofa, facing each other with their legs comfortably tangled together in the middle and her feet in his lap.

As he listened to Cat talking about her plans for her summer break and the ballets she had coming up in the new season, Scott had found his mind drifting back to the moment that they had shared in the kitchen, feeling once again the way his breath had seemed to catch every time her eyes met his.

Lost in her, he absentmindedly rubbed her feet, feeling the tense muscles slowly loosen under pressure from his thumbs, the action soothing him and allowing him time to let his racing thoughts settle.

Ultimately, he had no idea what was going on. If they were to be friends, he’d make his peace with that and would continue to hide his true feelings for her until they faded, but they continued to have moments that were charged with such intensity that they were impossible to ignore or write off as something else.

He realised that she had stopped talking and was watching him with an almost unreadable expression but for the little smile creeping onto the corners of her mouth.

“Sorry,’ he apologised, feeling the heat creeping up his cheeks and snatched his hands away as if her feet were on fire.

“No, it’s OK. It felt good,” she reassured him. “You were always really good at that. It just brought back a lot of memories, that's all.”

Scott smiled gratefully and went back to working on getting the knots out of her feet, a comfortable silence coming over them. Listening to her talking had planted the seed of an idea, one which he was unaccountably nervous about broaching lest she think he was overstepping any boundaries. As he worked, the idea grew and coalesced into something more tangible, something that he thought might actually help cement their friendship.

“I’ve got something to ask you…” he started hesitantly, “You can absolutely say no but I wanted to ask anyway.”

“OK, fire away.” Cat fixed him with a look that excited and scared him in equal measure as she fiddled with her wine glass.

“I know you were saying you have some plans for your summer break, but if you have a bit of time would you like to come out to the island for a visit? Spend a bit of time in the sun?”

“Wow! That’s quite the suggestion,” she paused, taking a moment to consider the offer and nearly causing Scott’s heart to stop. “Yeah, that sounds lovely,” she decided, giving him a small nod and a beaming smile that lit up her face.

Scott let out the breath he realised he’d been holding since he’d let the question into the open and his smile matched hers, relief washing over him. “Really? You don’t have to agree to it if you’re not completely sure.”

“No, I really want to, it was just a surprise that’s all.” As the idea took hold, Cat could feel herself getting more excited. She’d not had a proper chance to relax since the previous summer, and even that had been marred by the tail end of her previous relationship, so the thought of a week on a tropical island with Scott was definitely something she could get on board with.

“Amazing! You’re going to love it,” Scott smiled, beyond delighted at the thought of being able to show her his home and introduce her to everyone who was important to him. “We can sort out the details another time though. You look exhausted and don’t think I’ve not seen you stifling yawns for the last 10 minutes.”

Cat couldn’t do anything but laugh. “Yeah, you got me, I think it might be my bedtime. It’s awkward question time now, though. Where were you planning on staying tonight?”

“Selene said I could use her place so I was just going to go there,” Scott responded at once, his answer taking her by surprise. “Um, who’s Selene?” Cat tried very hard to maintain an even tone and a neutral expression despite the flash of jealousy that surged through her for the second time that night, somehow catching her by surprise again.

“John’s fiancee and my best friend. Remember, I did tell you about her?” replied Scott, trying very hard not to grin at her obvious discomfort.

“Ah yeah, I just, um... forgot her name, that’s all…” Cat tried to explain, fooling nobody, least of all herself.

“You weren’t jealous there were you, Miss George?” Scott pressed, a glint appearing in his eyes and a wicked grin on his lips.

“Not at all,” Cat insisted, suddenly becoming very interested in her wine glass and trying to ignore the flush that had appeared on her cheeks. “Well, it’s very late, we've had a drink and I have a spare room so you’re welcome to stay here if that would be easier?”

“That does sound tempting. I’ll not be sleeping much though,” he couldn’t help but pause for effect and was gratified with the response when Cat’s eyes shot back up to meet his as she cocked an eyebrow at him. “It’s 2 in the afternoon my time so I’m pretty wide awake I’m afraid. If you don’t mind me watching TV and having a quick nap so I’m good to fly back tomorrow, then I’d love to stay.”

“You’re a terrible tease, Mr Tracy,” Cat shook her head but her smile betrayed her true feelings. “Of course that’s OK.”

Having set Scott up with everything he could ever possibly need for the coming hours, Cat finally retired to bed but despite her exhaustion, sleep didn’t come easily for her. No matter how hard she tried, her thoughts kept returning to the man in her living room and how torn she felt about him. From the moment they had met again, something had been constantly there, telling her that she couldn’t let him go but to her it wasn’t as simple as that.

At an early age she had learned the pain of rejection by those who should have loved her and it had scarred her deeply. In Scott, she had found someone to whom she had given both her trust and her heart, and his sudden departure from her life had hurt her tremendously.

Once broken, trust wasn’t something she gave out again that easily and she had thought very carefully before letting him back into her life. Yet, despite everything, she wanted to give him her trust. She wasn’t prepared to risk loving him for a second time but friendship seemed to be a good compromise to make in order to be in his life but not stray too close.

When they were apart it seemed perfectly easy. The messages and calls flowed constantly and there was no end to the things they could talk about. The problem arose when they were together. He seemed to have a magnetic pull on her that was getting increasingly difficult to deny. She had slipped up once and even though her body might be crying out for a repeat performance, her mind was made up.

Groaning quietly, she rolled over and buried her head in the pillow. It was going to be a long night.

*****

Whatever Scott had planned for their Sunday morning together, it was not the little cafe that he found himself sitting in a few blocks away from Cat’s flat. At the very least, he had imagined going someplace where there were proper tablecloths covering tables that didn’t wobble when you leaned on them, risking spilling drinks with every move. However, the food was excellent, the coffee plentiful and the company the best he could imagine so, all things considered, he was very happy with his situation.

Full of food and starting to feel tired from a day that had started almost 19 hours earlier on Tracy Island, he stretched back in his chair, inadvertently catching the attention of the waitress and flashing her a smile in response to her enquiring look.

Across from him, Cat felt a rush of annoyance fire through her as she sipped her coffee and tried to maintain a neutral expression. She’d been feeling on edge all morning, the fight between what she was prepared to give and what she really wanted, wearing her down and making her feel vulnerable and irritable.

An idea sparked at that moment though, one that would both prove to herself that she was fine with their friendship being nothing more than that and take away any temptation to push things further.

“You should get her number,” she suggested, instantly surprised by how much that simple little sentence hurt.

“What? Why?” Scott stuttered, completely blindsided. He couldn’t think of anything in his behaviour that had suggested that he might have wanted a date and had no idea where this suggestion could possibly have come from.

“You were flirting with her. All those jokes and looks while we were ordering, and that smile right there? Don’t say you weren’t,” she continued, hating herself for every word but doubling down and pushing ahead anyway. The thought of Scott dating anyone hurt her more than she was willing to admit, but she had started down this path and she was committed now.

Scott sat back, running his hands through his perfectly styled hair, not quite believing what was happening. “I wasn’t flirting, I was being polite and friendly. There is a difference, you know.” He knew he was being defensive, but at that moment he just didn't care.

“You’ve got to admit it though, you are a flirt. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you not hit on someone, given half a chance.” Cat felt like she was watching herself from afar, not quite believing what she was saying. As soon as the words were out of her mouth she felt the cold rush of dread spread over her and picked up her coffee cup again in a bid to disguise her shaking hands.

“Listen, this conversation is starting to make me really uncomfortable. I don’t want to date the waitress and I’m not really sure where all of this has come from. Can we just drop it now please?”

“Sorry,” Cat looked down at the empty cup in her hands, desperately wishing that she could go back in time to before she’d ever thought of her wonderful ‘idea’. In retrospect, she wasn’t sure what she had expected to happen, but it certainly wasn’t the reaction that she had gotten. She couldn’t remember a time that he’d ever spoken to her as sharply as that before and it had shaken her.

Scott nodded curtly and went back to his coffee, looking outwardly calm but his mind was whirling. He always flirted. It was part of who he was and he’d always thought she liked that, or at the very least accepted it about him. It had never been an issue when they had dated before so he couldn’t understand why him behaving totally normally to a waitress was now cause for comment.

Fine, he thought petulantly, if flirting means that I want to sleep with someone and we’re just going to be friends then I’d better stop flirting with her too. Don’t want her getting the wrong idea now, do we?

A pang of loss hit him as soon as he made the decision; he had come to crave the excitement that her looks and touches gave him and it would be hard to give that up. Not that he’d been the only one doing the flirting, he thought in annoyance. Not responding was going to be a tough but perhaps necessary evil given the circumstances.

“Wanna get out of here?” he asked with the barest hint of a smile.

Cat nodded miserably. She knew he was angry, she could see it in the set of his jaw. The sparkle had gone from his eyes and he was avoiding looking at her but really she couldn’t blame him. She’d messed up and called him out on something that came to him as naturally as breathing, so he was perfectly entitled to be annoyed and she hated herself for being the cause of it.

Walking around the local park afterward, Cat did her best to act as if nothing had happened but she wasn’t getting anywhere. She knew from experience that Scott needed a bit of time to cool down when he was angry, but they had limited time together and she didn't want to waste it, even if he was clearly in a bad mood with her.

Slowly, the frosty atmosphere between them thawed slightly but there were still long, awkward silences that had never been there before and Cat had to work hard to initiate any conversation. The animosity that had radiated from Scott since they left the cafe abated but Cat found she still couldn’t relax as she started to notice a marked change in Scott’s behaviour towards her.

Since their argument, he hadn’t been cold exactly, but there was a reservation in his actions that hadn’t been there before. Where he had been open and playful, often touching her hand or holding a smile for fractionally longer than necessary, now he was barely making any contact at all and she felt the loss keenly.

Despite trying to act relaxed, Scott was trying desperately to squash down his natural urge to fix everything. He knew that a quick smile and a cheeky comment would make everything OKagain but he hadn't liked being called out for flirting so he was damned if he was going to use it to get back into her good books.

Her comment about asking out the waitress had confused him and nothing more but, when she started challenging him about flirting constantly, that had angered him. The more he thought about it the more angry he had become and the more he doubled down on his resolution not to flirt with her again.

Deep down, he knew he was being petty and probably overreacting but he’d gone to a lot of effort to pull together his trip to London He’d been so excited to see Cat and spend some quality time with her and it felt like her actions at brunch had thrown all his efforts back in his face and ruined it. He stewed silently as they walked, his growing anger mixing with regret, knowing that he would need to apologise at some point but not willing to back down and fix everything quite yet.

The longer it went on, the more her attempts to apologise and lighten the mood were rebuffed, the angrier Cat became. She knew she’d messed up but his treatment towards her was completely disproportionate. She’d apologised and in her experience of adult relationships that was the point at which people would talk about it and move on. Scott treating her like she was barely even an acquaintance when she was giving him a chance to regain her trust was going too far and she wasn’t going to stand for it.

She’d had enough and took them on a shortcut back to her flat, keen to get the walk over so she could talk to him more privately. Her anger at his childish behavior was growing by the minute and by the time they reached her flat she was seriously considering whether it was worth even continuing their friendship at all.

Closing the door behind her, Cat was surprised to find that Scott had already grabbed his bag and was standing ready to go.

“I need to get back...” he tailed off, glancing down at his bag as he shifted uncomfortably.

Cat had always known he was going to need to leave after brunch. She would much rather have had a chance to sit down and talk properly but time was against them and she wasn’t going to let him run away on her when the going got tough again. “OK, but I’m going to ask you something before you go.”

“Of course,” Scott replied warily, not expecting the sharp tone of her voice or the way she straightened as if preparing herself for battle.

“Is everything OK with you today? You’ve seemed pretty distant since we went for brunch,” she challenged with a lot more confidence than she felt. It was not a question that she wanted the answer to, but she couldn’t let him go without asking him, she had to know.

“Yeah, I’ve told you I’m fine,” he answered shortly, keen not to get drawn into a discussion right now when emotions were clearly still running high for both of them.

“I just… I wasn’t sure if you still wanted to be friends or not?” she met his eyes, finding her strength and challenging him to be honest with her now that the question, and her deepest fear, was in the open.

“Of course I do. What gave you that impression?” Scott was growing frustrated by her questions, baffled as to how they could possibly even be having this discussion.

“Yesterday you surprised me for the night, bought me the biggest bunch of flowers I’ve ever seen and invited me to spend a week with you on your family's island, and this afternoon you’ve hardly even looked at me,” she argued, feeling more confident about making her point but not wholly convinced by his answer given his actions that day. “I get it, I messed up earlier and I’m sorry, but I feel like I have whiplash from how fast everything has changed. So I’ll ask you again, and I want you to be honest with me - do you want to be friends or not?”

“No, I don’t,” Scott snapped, as anger surged through him, shocking her with his ferocity.

Everything he’d been doing to ensure he didn’t cross the line from friends to something more had been taking its toll on him, and that, combined with whatever the hell it was that had happened at brunch, had finally pushed him to his limit.

“I flew 13,000 miles to see you. I rearranged my time off so it fitted in with your performance and your schedule. And today you tell me I should be dating some waitress I’ve never spoken to before? You want to know what I want? You”

Cat was speechless. All she could do was stare at him, her mouth slightly agape, as he bared his soul.

“I want to date you, Cat, no one else. I was to kiss you and take care of you and love you like I used to.”

Suddenly realising what he’d said, Scott pushed past her without waiting for a reply and walked through the door, slamming it on his way out and leaving a bewildered Cat to wonder how on earth she was going to salvage this one.

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #Scott Tracy

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purpleheatherdream · 5 years

Text

A Happy Halloween Outlander Fan-Fiction Reading List

Trick or Treat! Here’s a Halloween reading list for your enjoyment!

Witches

Draco (chapter 12 of the Constellations Series) by @kalendraashtar

“Witches all to burn at the stake.”

The Evanora @bonniebird17

The full moon hung over me, giving me the strength to keep me going and I was heading east, leading the witch hunter further away from my home and my sisters.

Part 1

Part 2

An Leabhar Dìlseachd by @thetranquilteal

Claire Fraser had always known she was a witch. Her affinity for healing hinted at it and her ability to time travel confirmed it. What she didn’t know was that she would come into her full power the day she became a mother. Concerned with how her pregnancy is progressing, she's seeks the help of apothecary Master Raymond in the hope that he will be able to teach her how to utilise her newfound power and protect her family from disaster. A canon-divergent AU told through the pages of the Fraser Grimoire ‘The Book of Faith’.

Bewitched by @julesbeauchamp

Jamie and Claire Fraser are like any other young married couple, except for some tiny detail: he's a mortal human being and she's a witch, something which she does not divulge to him until after their wedding.

Jamie just wants them to live a simple, mortal life, to which Claire agrees, meaning no witchcraft and no telling any of their mortal friends and relatives of her being a witch. However, that no witchcraft vow is more difficult to maintain than Claire had expected.

Brujerìa by @julesbeauchamp

Being a witch was a detail Claire Beauchamp omitted to tell people. She was determined to live her life as normally as possible and she was doing a pretty good job of it. At least until her meeting with a stranger sent her life into a spiral and revealed secrets about her past she never suspected.

The Witch and the Red Man by @lady-o-ren

He was a man meant for a life of loneliness but was relentlessly hunted for the darkness lurking within.

To Kill a Witch by @owlish-peacock36

Jamie doesn’t know much about women. Even less about the strange Miss Beauchamp. Outlander AU. One-shot.

Three Witches by @westerhos

An AU where Claire, Jenny, and Geillis are three modern-day witches. A big ole house, a "No Men Allowed Policy", rituals in the woods - the usual witchy norm. When Jamie shows up, things go to hell in a hand basket.

Three Witches Stories by @westerhos

Little ficlets set in the Three Witches universe, where Claire, Jenny, and Geillis are modern day witch friends with hilarious love lives.

The Thief, the Whore, the Witch, and the Strange Woman by @westerhos

An Outlander AU in which a 22 year old Claire Beauchamp Randall travels back in time on August 1st (Lughnasadh), 1941/1739. Ellen and Brian Fraser, both alive, offer her shelter in exchange for help in aiding Ellen's recovery. The growing attraction between Claire and Jamie leaves Claire torn, while suspicions arise regarding her past...Soon, it becomes clear that the Frasers know more than they let on.

The White Witch's Gift by @sapphiresassenach

A Christmas gift is given to Jamie and Claire during their twenty-year separation. The gift of each other.

I am a Witch by wongirl

What if after the witch trial when Jamie asks Claire if she is a witch she says yes?

P.S. Don't take it too seriously it's just a bit of fun

This is a Harry Potter/Outlander crossover story.

Witches by @whiskynottea at @otheroutlandertales

1739 -Fort William has a new garrison commander - one who is decided to break the Scots’ spirit. Will Jenny and Claire be able to save the tenants of Lallybroch with their magical powers, while staying safe?

Red Jamie and the White Lady by @takemeawaytocamelot

Claire Beauchamp is dragged by her best friend and flatmate, Geillis Duncan, to go visit a powerful psychic to prove once and for all that true love exists. Claire is a practical woman and finds the idea of true love pointless. Jamie Fraser is a powerful psychic who can glimpse the future. When he meets Claire, something changes. Like they were destined to find each other.

Legend of the Faerie Wife by DiverseMediums

A legend from the written history of Clan Fraser.

While this is a stand alone story, it is intended to be a companion piece for takemeawayocamelot's Red Jamie and the White Lady. There are no spoilers, but it adds a bit of depth to the brilliance she's creating over there :)

The White Witch by BlackStarNYC

The Scottish matriarchal family—known as the "Thomson Witches"—have a long and forlorn history... As the youngest of the clan, Claire’s life turns to chaos at a young age due to the power she has inherited. Pulled into the 18th century, she becomes bound by love that is threatened to be torn apart by castle intrigue, a 100 year old clan feud, war and a man possessed by a spirit that has haunted her family for centuries.... what could go wrong?

This Life by @calliopemoonbeam

Claire is a healer from a very young age. She trains in the mystical arts around the world, as well as the traditional medical field. She finds herself in London as a surgical resident in the late 1980s and early 90s. She starts having dreams of a past life. Where will they lead her?

Philomene by @ianmuyrray

Jenny -- thought dead by the rest of the world -- has lived in quiet exile since her king brother betrayed their family by allying with Black Jack Randall, who is on a mission to weed out any and all women who possess magic. Execution now waits for any woman who shows herself to know and use magical powers, or any woman merely suspected of being magical - no matter her rank, her family, her influence, her children, or her own desire to live.

Jenny was supposed to be the first in the rising storm of murdered women, but, by some miracle, she survived. And has lived in hiding. But now she has been found.

Vampires

Exsanguinate by @owlish-peacock36

Exsanguinate: to drain of blood

No one ever asked for his name anymore. They gave him a wide berth, avoiding him at all costs. Whispers of rumors filled his ears, closer to the truth than they realized.

Monster. Incubus. Strigoi. Upyr.

No. His name was Jamie.

Step Into the Night by LadyRevolution

An Outlander AU where Claire didn't fall through the stones, she was on the run from the vampire coven that has been trying to enlist her for centuries. In her reprieve at Castle Leoch, it has been a challenge to both hide her vampirism and stay away from Jamie. He smells good, too good, and for a thousand year old vampire with steel control, that's worrying.

"Ye need blood, Claire, I can tell ye do," Jamie whispered, backing her into a wall, a hand on either side of her head. Breathing heavily, he leaned forward and exposed his neck, "so take it from me." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the moment Claire gave into her desires, her almost black eyes zeroing in on his neck.

Scottish Vampire in Boston by sunshineduckies

After Culloden, Jamie is turned by a vampire with a political agenda. Now he must find his way through his new life without Claire and his new burden, vampirism.

Post-Apocalyptic

Scalamandre by @futurelounging

An outbreak of a contagion causing violent psychoses across the globe sends the world into chaos and destruction. A scientist and a mountaineer meet in the wilds and join together to try to stop the men behind the madness.

Dawning in Dust by DiverseMediums

The Last War has ended. Civilization is no more. For Claire, solitary wandering is the only way of survival. What if it didn't have to be?

Ghosts

But I love you until the end of time. by @maybeimdoingsomethingright

With her husband constantly away not long after their marriage, Claire lives mostly alone in their house at the Scottish Highlands. However, she is not exactly alone and there is quite more to this house and her future -or is it her past?- than meets the eye.

Endless-loop theory and ghost!Jamie with a wee spin.

Reaching Through the Veil by @westerhos

Prompt: Imagine that Jamie somehow travels to Claire's time when Bree is still a baby and drops in on Claire randomly like she does in Voyager.

The Far and Distant Places by @westerhos

After fighting with Frank, Claire goes to a nearby church for a moment of peace. On her way home, she runs into a certain red-haired Scotsman...

The Haunting at Mrs. Baird's by @frasersridgeforever

The kindly hostess of a bed and breakfast notices some ghostly activity in her establishment, as the culprit sees his wife for the first and last time. A Halloween tale of Mrs. Baird and Jamie’s ghost as the Randalls arrive in Inverness for their second honeymoon.

Through the Magic Lantern by dielle

He didn't know how it worked, how he could float across the flow of the time and be there. - Ghost!Jamie, as seen in the first episode.

Purgatory by suspiciousteapot

Anonymous asked: what if because Claire's in the future Jamie as a ghost got to see her grow up or see bits and pieces of her life

Ghosts in the Daylight by @owlish-peacock36

"It's easier to dismiss ghosts in the daylight..." All Jamie wanted was quiet loneliness to work on his novel. But, are we ever truly alone? Ghost AU

Through the Door by @ianmuyrray

Proper Highland protocol held that the door must be opened at once after a death, to allow the soul to leave. - An Echo in the Bone, Chapter 2, "And Sometimes They Aren't"

Ghost!Jamie AU by Mod Eloise @imagineclaireandjamie

Story 1

Story 2

Other Magical/Fantastical/Horror Stories

Scotia by @kalendraashtar

An AU based in Myths and Legends. Written for the Tumblr 2017 Secret Santa challenge.

There Is More Beneath The Surface (Than We Can See) by @maybeimdoingsomethingright

When she was young, Claire saved a boy from drowning. Meeting again eleven years later, their worlds are forever changed. (Mermaid)

Thrush by @ianmuyrray

Roger goes sailing to meet mermaid Bree. (Mermaid)

A Fairy's Stone by @sapphiresassenach

Prompt: I was thinking if you could come up with a fanfic where what if Claire actually was Fae and revealed it to Jamie but stated that since she was bound to Jamie because they were soul mates and whatnot and thus she became fairly human when the deal was sealed and whatnot. If you get inspired maybe by this it would be cool to see what you come up with. (Fairy)

An Infinite Variety by orphan_account

Challenge on Infinite Earths, Outlander style

The Shape We Take by @westerhos

An AU inspired by Black Mirror's slightly dystopian "Hang the DJ," in which a dating app pairs you up until it finds your perfect match.

Just Happen During Halloween

A Costume Party by @sassenachpetals

Jamie and Claire ring in the Halloween holiday by attending a costume party. Claire has surprised Jamie with their couple costume idea and it's one that they'll never forget: Gomez and Morticia Addams…

Across The Hall by @thetranquilteal

Growing up in Scotland, one of Jamie Fraser’s all time favourite things to do was carve turnips on All Hallows Eve. Having recently relocated to the United States of America, Jamie assumes carving pumpkins on Halloween is no different and finds himself in a situation that he never expected.

The Doctor’s Companion by @theministerskat

After coming back through the stones, Roger and Bree get ready for a Halloween party.

Back To You Ficlet - Halloween by @balfeheughlywed

Set in the Back To You world, Jamie and Claire spend their first Halloween together at a costume party; smut ensues.

Halloween At the Ridge by @abbydebeaupreposts

Four Part Halloween Fluff set after MOBY imagining what traditions Jem and Mandy bring with them to Fraser’s Ridge

Halloween Through the Years by @takemeawaytocamelot

Claire and Jamie participate in a costume contest every Halloween.

Year One

Year Two

Year Three

Year Four

Year Six

Halloween, 1955 by @westerhos

Prompt: After [episode 305] with the making the 'batsuit' scene you should totally do a story about the first time Claire made some sort of costume for Bree.

****If an author whose work is listed is actually on Tumblr but is not tagged, please let me know.

#outlander #outlander fanfiction #halloween #fic rec list

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taetaespeaches · 5 years

Text

“That’s too bad because I really want to dance with somebody”

Jimin x Reader (or oc)

Word count: 1.7K

a/n: Wow, long time now see guys... I’m back and this piece was written as a birthday gift to my love @poesychim. I love you, Mads. So much. Happy birthday! xo

I hope you all enjoy this. I apologize for not posting in a while. Like I’ve said, my headspace hasn’t been the greatest BUT ya girl is feeling better, and I’m super happy to be back to writing. I missed writing for these seven idiots we all adore, and I missed you guys (even though I’ve been shit posting on this blog like a goddamn fool) so A BITCH IS HAPPY TO BE BACK! As always, thank you for reading :))

And again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADS!

Unlocking your door in a hurry, Jimin pushed it open, stepping inside, completely ignoring his shoes which he would normally kick off upon entering.

“Hey, you here?” He called out, scanning the kitchen and living area quickly, already knowing you were probably in your bedroom. Walking into silence was strange. Your apartment was never quiet, music always echoing through the rooms from wherever you were stationed, the sounds booming through your phone speaker. However, that night it was silent.

Knocking lightly on your bedroom door, he was met with silence. Sighing sadly, he opened the door slowly, peeking his head inside, his eyes easily finding you laying on the floor, the only light coming from the small lamp that sat on your bedside table. “Hi, my love,” Jimin spoke softly.

“How did you know?” You asked him, your voice low and rough, refusing to look in the direction of your worried boyfriend.

Jimin quietly made his way to your bed, taking a seat at the edge of it, sitting just a few feet away from you. Avoiding his gaze, you turned your face towards the opposite direction. “You give yourself away when you don’t talk,” he told you, rubbing his hands together as he rested his elbows on his thighs. “But, Dear,” he sighed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Biting the inside of your cheek, you tried to even your breathing as your emotions bubbled up. “Hey,” Jimin’s voice called out to you, his tone gentle. “I love you.” The way he spoke the words told you it wasn’t just a confession. It was a reminder. Those words meant that he was there for you, during the good times and the not so good, he was a source of strength, someone to be vulnerable with. The person you could trust. The one person you never had to hide from.

Squeezing your eyes shut, you sat up, hugging your knees to your chest. Jimin’s eyes were focused on you, full of concern, but he was patient, allowing you to open up at your own pace. “Don’t you ever get sick of dealing with this?” Your voice sounded broken, an ache settling into Jimin’s heart.

“With what?” He asked quietly, his sad eyes staring at your defeated form.

“Me,” you barely whispered out.

“Never,” he said immediately. Standing up from his spot on the bed, he approached you quickly, crouching down next to you, placing a hand at the back of your head, digging his fingers into your hair as he massaged your scalp. “I don’t deal with you,” he told you. “I love you. All of you. That’s all there really is to it.”

A sob racked through your frame at his words, Jimin quickly cradling your head in his arms, holding your face to his chest. “My baby,” he cooed into your hair, pressing small pecks to the top of your head. Leaning into his body, you allowed yourself to cry in your boyfriend’s arms.

As you found comfort in Jimin’s warmth, you couldn’t help but think he deserved someone more than you. Someone who had more to offer, more to give, more of their life together. Jimin’s words from a previous night, much like this one, played through your head, reminding you of how Jimin saw you, despite you not seeing yourself in that same way. You are more. I can see it, you just need to see it.

“What’s on your mind, Dear?” Jimin whispered, looking down at you.

Pulling away from him a bit to look at his face, your eyes scanned his features, taking in the sight of your handsome boyfriend. “Do you still see more in me?”

Jimin flashed you a soft smile, bringing his hands to the sides of your face, holding you in place as he pressed his lips to yours in a short sweet kiss. “Of course, I do,” he told you as he pressed his forehead against yours. “I see the most in you,” he told you sincerely, his intense but warm gaze locked on yours.

“I’m so sick of burdening you with my shit,” you whispered, tears forming in your eyes.

“Hey, hey,” he shushed you as he wiped under your eyes, ridding your cheeks of tears. “You know I’m always in your corner.” Jimin’s eyes were intense as he stared into your sad orbs. “You’re never a burden. I choose to be here, you know that right?” He assured you. “I’m here because I want to be. We’re partners.”

You knew exactly what he meant with his emphasis on the word partners. Jimin had his own issues, his own insecurities, and he found his strength in you when he couldn’t find it in himself.

And though you didn’t always understand just why he chose you day after day, you knew he did. He was always choosing, always pulling for you.

“I’m sorry—”

“Never apologize for this,” he interrupted you. “Just don’t fade away from me,” he pleaded. “Don’t act like a stranger. Not with me, ok?” You nodded, making him give you a small, soft smile. “Do you want to talk about it?” Patience and understanding were displayed in his tone and features, entirely leaving the decision up to you, not pressuring you to talk before you were ready, but giving you the option to if you wanted.

“I don’t even know what to say, Jimin,” you admitted sadly. “It’s the same old shit that’s always sitting in the back of my mind. It just got the better of me today.” Jimin nodded at your explanation, pulling you towards him to place a kiss to your forehead.

“We don’t have to talk,” he assured you, noticing how you struggled to figure your thoughts out. “Here, let’s get up.”

Reluctantly, you allowed him to pull you up so you stood in front of him, holding onto his supportive hand. Jimin dug in his back pocket, finding his phone, quickly typing in the passcode before he started pressing buttons and scrolling over the screen. When Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” began blasting through your Bluetooth speakers, you audibly groaned while Jimin smiled. “We don’t have to talk about it, but we do have to dance it away,” he smiled a stunning toothy grin at you. “Even if just for a little while.”

“Jimin, I don’t want to dance,” you whined stubbornly.

“Well, that’s too bad because I really want to dance with somebody,” he grinned, amused by his own play on words. “You’re somebody, by the way,” he teased.

“Jimin,” you whined again. This wasn’t the first time Jimin used 70s and 80s bops to pull you out of your darker thoughts. In fact, it was your own method, something you forced yourself to do when you felt yourself slipping into a downward spiral. You revealed it to Jimin when he was feeling insecure one night while on tour. You couldn’t be there to hold him, so you sent him a list of songs to choose from, demanding that he turn it up full volume and just dance. He was resistant at first, but nonetheless relented, promising you that he was indeed dancing around his hotel room to “September” by Earth, Wind, and Fire. From that day forward, if one of you was feeling down and didn’t want to talk about it or couldn’t really form the thoughts to talk about it quite yet, you turned on a playlist that you both had on your phones, full of 70s and 80s dance anthems, as well as a few more modern songs.

As Jimin started to wiggle his shoulders around, you couldn’t help the slight upturn of your lips. As soon as Jimin saw the small change in your expression, he grabbed your other hand, pulling you into him, making you dance with him. In a mixture of spinning you around in circles, swaying you both around the room, and pulling out the stupidest of moves, you felt yourself begin to relax and lose yourself in the music. With Jimin’s expression of happiness, his eyes turned into crescents as he sported the most beautifully infectious smile, giggles leaving his plump lips as he threw his weight around in accordance with his laughter, you couldn’t help but feel lighter and less burdened by your own mind. The thoughts and feelings were still there, but their intensity was dulled, Jimin instead taking center stage.

When “Jump (For My Love)” by The Pointer Sisters started playing, Jimin stepped onto the bed, tugging on your hand to have you follow him. “Jimin, what the hell, your shoes,” you complained through a giggle. Jimin quickly apologized before pulling the shoes off, throwing them across the room. “What are you, some kind of animal?” You teased, making him giggle.

“I’m sorry,” he dragged the vowels out as he giggled at your feigned anger. Holding his hand out for you, you rolled your eyes as you allowed him to pull you on top of the bed. As the song blasted throughout the room, you and Jimin jumped on the bed like kids, letting go of your worries momentarily as you flailed around chaotically.

Jimin thought he was hilarious for “jumping” on the bed during a song called “Jump For My Love” and you laughed at him as if it was hilarious, because to you, it was.

Halfway through the song, you both doubled over in laughter, crashing onto the mattress, Jimin wrapping his arm around your shoulder, pulling you into his frame. You curled into his body, throwing your arm over his middle as you both continued to giggle.

“You are the one, you are the one,” Jimin quietly sang along with the song before placing a sweet kiss to shell of your ear. You giggled, pressing a kiss to his clothed chest.

You weren’t magically healed, but you weren’t on the floor feeling like shit anymore. You were in bed, absolutely spent from chaotic dancing with your handsome and caring boyfriend, and your mind was slightly relieved. As you both stayed there, listening to the music as “Come On Eileen” by Dexys Midnight Runners started playing, you started to drift off.

“I love this song,” you noted, Jimin humming sleepily in agreement. “Hey Jimin,” you started, waiting for another sleepy hum before continuing. “Thank you,” you said genuinely. He hummed in question, his arm squeezing around your shoulder, holding you closer to him. “For seeing the most in me.”

“Always, my dear,” he whispered into your hair. “I’ll always see the most in you.”

407 notes · View notes

choupichoups · 5 years

Photo

Press F (Instagram/College AU) Ch.13

Lucas swears he’s the absolute master of undetected stalking. Or: Eliott is instagram famous and Lucas is the disaster gay who accidentally likes his post.

“If I lose this lighting and ambiance, I swear to god,” Abe calls out from his perch on the staircase behind Eliott, camera casually hanging in his hand by the lens. “You guys will literally see each other in a few hours, this is ridiculous.”

His ranting goes ignored and Lucas tries his hardest not to spare him a glance, keeping his eyes locked with Eliott’s while they both act as if Abe’s voice is a mere gust of wind. He nibbles on the inside of his lip to keep from bursting out laughing.

“He’s got a point.” Lucas smirks up at Eliott, who still looks a tiny bit dazed in the early hour.

“I don’t care,” Eliott says softly, hands lifting to run his thumbs across Lucas’ cheeks. “I’ll miss you either way.”

So they’re really becoming that kind of couple. Ah well, Lucas can’t find it in himself to care. “Me too.”

Eliott leans down, knocking their foreheads together. “I’ll most likely get back before you but do you have the spare key just in case?”

Lucas nods, eyes closed. Their noses brush together sweetly and the warmth of Eliott’s breath is a comfort in the midst of the chilly morning air.

“Okay, I’ll see you in a bit then,” Eliott says, but he still doesn’t make a move to leave.

Lucas’ pleased smile turns into a fit of giggles when Abe exclaims profanities in the distance.

“Jesus,” Eliott whispers between them and then, “I’m coming, quit fucking whining already!” is shouted over his shoulder. It does nothing to taper Lucas’ laughter.

“The setting, Eliott, the setting!” Abe shouts back quite desperately. Lucas takes pity on him even if Eliott doesn’t, and steps back from Eliott’s arms. The latter pouts at this, making Lucas coo and pinch his cheeks adoringly until his hands gets pulled away.

“I’ll come straight home from mass,” Lucas promises, sliding his hands out of Eliott’s tight grip.

“No, don’t do that.” Eliott shakes his head, reaching over to fix the jacket on Lucas so that the right side is no longer drooping off his shoulder. “Take her out for lunch or something, you guys deserve some bonding time, I’ll try to survive by myself,” he finishes off with a dramatic sniff.

Lucas laughs, arms climbing up to pull Eliott into another hug. He can hear Abe’s disgruntled ‘oh for god’s sake’ and it only prompts Lucas to lengthen their embrace. “Okay, have fun with your demanding photographer.”

Eliott rolls his eyes as they pull back. “This is free labour, do you know how much other people would pay to take pictures of this face?”

It’s Lucas’ turn to roll his eyes. “Careful with the ego there, Mr. Instagram Famous, you might hit your head on the way out.”

“I might hit you myself if we don’t get going,” Abe says from beside them, having apparently come closer to physically break them apart seeing as his words just aren’t cutting it. “Say hi to your mom for us, Lucas. Also ask her to pray for this guy right here, he needs it.”

Eliott decks Abe on the shoulder, turning to quickly drop a kiss on top of Lucas’ head. “See you back home, baby.”

Lucas flushes, watching Eliott and Abe bicker as they walk away. The thing is, Eliott probably doesn’t even realize what he’s just said but here Lucas stands, all sorts of dizzy as the words see you back home repeat over and over in his head— a broken record he doesn’t want to fix.

Either way, slip of the tongue or not, it feels good to have Eliott imply that Lucas has a home with him.

Eliott looks over his shoulder to where Lucas is rooted right where they left him. He shakes himself out of the dumb expression he’s most likely wearing, only for a big, dumb smile to split across his face when Eliott sneakily gives him a dumb little wave. Lucas waves back, just as dumbly.

Not many people attend the morning mass, and his mama explains that it’s because nobody wants to get up early on a Sunday, which, yeah relatable. Apparently neither does she, but the afternoon mass coincides with her book club meeting and she absolutely does not want to miss out on that.

Lucas sips on his iced coffee, wondering how he’s managed to surround himself with a bunch of nerds.

“It’s really a pity you don’t read,” she says, making Lucas choke on the ice cube he’d been rolling in his mouth. “You’re really missing out on an experience.”

“I read!” he huffs, indignant in the face of his mother’s amused smile.

“Okay, honey,” she says, placating.

“I do!”

“The textbooks your professor make you read don’t count.”

“Don’t be such a snob,” he scoffs, pretending to scowl at the laughter slipping light and airy out of her lips. He hasn’t had the chance to visit her since that last disastrous time, so caught up with his own issues as he’d been. It’s a relief to see her doing so well, though. There’d be hell to pay if his father had sent her back on a downwards spiral.

“Has your dad reached out to you regarding the transfer?”

Lucas’ head whips up and he thinks he hears something snap actually but that doesn’t matter. “You’re going through with the transfer?!”

“No, dear.” She reaches out and brushes the hair away from his outraged face. “But I wouldn’t sign the papers so I figured he’d try to go to you.”

“He did,” Lucas grumbles, chewing at the edge of his straw. “I threw them back at his face.”

“Lucas.”

“What? He deserves it.” He’s glad they’re sitting on the outside benches of the cafe so he doesn’t have to watch the volume of his voice too closely. “He was an asshole about it too, so.”

They lapse into a brief silence and Lucas slurps at the remainder of his drink while his mama picks at her sandwich.

“Don’t carry that anger in your heart, Lucas,” she says eventually, “you can’t do that forever.”

Lucas stares down at his own hands. “How can I not? How can you not?”

“All we can do is live our own lives to the best of our abilities, God will handle the rest.”

“Yeah, well, God is taking too long to handle anything.” There should be a special place in hell for people like his father. For people like Raphael. So how come they’re still out there walking around living better lives than the people they’ve hurt? Lucas doesn’t get it— especially doesn’t get how his mama can seemingly forgive his father in a blink of an eye.

“Do you know what happens if you let those kinds of thoughts fester?” She sets her fork down on the side of her plate, the salad that comes with the sandwich left untouched. She’d always hated her vegetables, a fact that he’d found hilarious back when he was a child being forced to eat his vegetables. “You’d only hurt yourself in the long run.”

Lucas lifts his eyes to where she’s already looking back at him, gaze soft. “So?”

She shakes her head. “Not so, Lucas. If you’re angry about something like this for a long time, you start thinking of ways you could have avoided the experience. You start blaming yourself for making the decisions that lead up to it.”

“Mama, it’s not your—”

“Yes, yes, it’s not my fault that your father turns out the way he is, but I can’t help thinking that way sometimes. Your thoughts are your own worst enemy.” Small hands gently lay on top of his on the table and Lucas hasn’t realized that he’s clenched them into tight fists. “Because it’s the only thing you can’t ever escape from. That is what happens when you hold onto hatred, onto anger. It’s never gonna get better that way.”

“What, I’m supposed to just forgive them?” He doesn’t even realize his slip until her eyes turn sharp, and she’s silent for a beat too long as Lucas swallows. It’d be too suspicious to correct himself now so he leaves it be.

“No,” she speaks low and careful. “You can start by forgiving yourself.”

“And what if you can’t do that either?”

Her thumbs brush soothing strokes over the back of his hand. “Then you work on it,” she says, “it might be a slow process, but you work on it, honey.” Her smile is radiant despite the obvious worry in her eyes. “Day by day.”

Day by day, he repeats in his head, letting out a huge exhale.

“Tell me one thing, Lucas.” The hardened tone in her voice has him looking up immediately. “Those clothes you’re wearing aren’t yours.” He sputters, mind racing to form half-assed excuses. “Don’t try to deny it, young man. You’re swimming in them.”

“It’s… a fashion statement!”

“Don’t lie to me.”

His mouth zips shut.

“So this boy.” Her eyes run up and down the length of his jacket as if she has some kind of special motherly x-ray vision that would allow her to see Eliott through them. “Is he the one to make you cry?” The look in her eye is nothing short of murderous.

Lucas shakes his head quite violently. “No!” He’s hoped the evidence of his tears from the past two days have disappeared by now but he guesses he can’t really hide anything under the watchful eyes of his mama.

“Okay.” She doesn’t press, which he’s eternally grateful for.

“Yeah.”

“So when am I gonna meet him then?”

“Mama.”

Lucas heads back to Eliott’s place when his mother leaves for her book club meeting. He’d pretended to huff and puff about her ditching him for her nerdy sci-fi loving friends but in the end, he’s just glad she’s found something to occupy her time— a lot of somethings actually. There’s nothing more important to him than seeing the light in her eyes as she talks, and laughs, and lives her life.

Well, maybe there’s something just as important.

There’s music playing from the speakers in the kitchen, too soft for him to hear from the doorway, but he does hear the clinking of utensils together which, in other circumstances, would bring forth a feeling of comfort. However, considering who exactly is in the kitchen right now, it bodes more ominous than anything else.

“What are you doing there?” Lucas hangs Eliott’s spare keys by the door, chucking his jacket off as Eliott guiltily turns around. He’s hiding a pot of something behind him and now that Lucas is paying attention, he notices a strange metallic smell emanating from it. “Oh no, you are leaving this kitchen right now, sir.”

“It’s my kitchen,” Eliott retorts indignantly and Lucas can’t believe this guy is a whole two years older than him. He bunches his sleeves up to his elbows, prepared to bodily shove Eliott out of the general vicinity if that’s what it takes.

“Yes, it’s your kitchen and you’re going to burn it down with your little experiments so please,” Lucas explains patiently, “step away from the stove and I’ll figure out what we can eat, hm?”

“I don’t want cheese bread.”

Lucas laughs, head thrown back as he swats at Eliott blindly. “You’re never letting that go, are you?”

“Nope.” There are hands slowly sneaking up his sides but Lucas twists away from them, cheekily biting his lip as he dances around Eliott to switch the stove off. “No, don’t!” Eliott protests, easily intercepting when Lucas tries to peek into the mysterious pot of gurgling liquid.

“I just wanna see!” But Lucas’ attempts are useless, even more so when a laughing Eliott grabs him by the waist and deposits him, pouting and arms crossed, on the kitchen counter.

“You don’t wanna see it, trust me.” Eliott finally admits, pinching Lucas’ nose fondly when he continues to pout. “We’ll just order some take out, okay?”

Lucas hums, stretching up to place his arms around Eliott’s neck, intending to pull him closer, but he’s forgotten to unroll the sleeves of his hoodie and Eliott’s eyes lock onto the exposed skin of his wrists. Bruises on him always look their worst two days into forming and these ones are no different— the mottled blues and purples are admittedly distracting and even Lucas winces at the sight of them.

The mirth in Eliott’s eyes are quick to dull and Lucas can’t begin to guess what’s going through his mind.

“Hey.” He pulls Eliott’s chin up, smiling in hopes of relieving the displeased furrow between Eliott’s brows. The expression pinches at his heart. “It doesn’t even hurt anymore.”

“Okay,” Eliott whispers, and Lucas thinks he only says it for Lucas’ benefit. Eliott brings his wrists up and gently places his lips over the bruising, tiny little pecks that send warm speckles straight to his chest. “How’s your mom?”

“She’s good.” Lucas loosely curls one leg around Eliott’s waist to tug him in, shaking out his arms so that the sleeves fall loosely down to the tips of his fingers. It’s easier to lift his hands and run them through Eliott’s hair this way, when all he can see is the dark fabric of Eliott’s hoodie rather than unwelcome reminders of what’s passed. “Still busy with her book club, I don’t know how they manage to read that many books in such a short time,” he snorts. “Oh, and she attends culinary lessons now.”

“Really?” Eliott says, raising an eyebrow when Lucas looks up at him with a teasing grin.

“Yup, maybe you should join her, it’d be for the greater good.”

Eliott’s eyes form adorable curves as he laughs. “But I don’t cook for the greater good.”

“Hm, okay, for my good then.” Lucas scratches along the back of Eliott’s head, smiling when his boyfriend leans into the touch, emitting a pleased groan.

Boyfriend. He can use that term again, right?

It’s a stupid thing to be thinking about, propped up on the counter with Eliott’s hands anchored around his thighs, standing so close as if a single inch between them would cause physical pain.

Eliott’s phone buzzes near where Lucas is seated and the latter reaches over, laughing when he sees Idris’ name multiple times on the notification banner. Eliott reacts similarly and then confusingly ends it in a groan— Lucas shoots him a quizzical glance but Eliott just shakes his head and thunks his forehead on Lucas’ shoulder.

“Forgot I said I’d go shopping with him for his sister’s birthday,” Eliott mumbles, turning to bury his face into Lucas’ neck. “Can you cancel on him for me?” he continues, teeth tickling at the skin there, causing Lucas to shiver. He can feel Eliott starting to smile, breath warm as he kisses the spot he’d nipped and, okay, this needs to stop now before his boyfriend-slash-not-boyfriend gets any more ideas.

“That’s rude,” Lucas says a little too loudly, flailing as he tries his best to open up Eliott’s phone without dislodging him. Eliott’s full on chuckling by now and Lucas doesn’t appreciate this being at his expense, thank you very much. “You should go if you promised.”

“I didn’t promise—”

Lucas gives him a look.

Eliott sighs, “I just wanna be with you.”

How dare this man child be so adorable? “I can go with you guys if it’s okay with him.”

Eliott lights up at the suggestion. “Yeah! He’ll be fine with it, he really likes you. It’s a little worrying, honestly.”

Lucas laughs, meaning to fire back with a teasing, better watch out then, but when he unlocks Eliott’s phone, the screen it opens up to isn’t the chat with Idris and Eliott— it’s to Lucas and Eliott’s chat, where the messages from Friday remain to be the last thing that’s been sent. Lucas remembers seeing Eliott frequently looking down at his phone yesterday and this morning whenever he thinks Lucas isn’t paying attention. He’d assumed that Eliott had been reading up on his classes online or something and definitely not, well, whatever’s going on here.

“Eliott.” He taps on Eliott’s shoulder, making him look up from where he’s breathing softly against the side of Lucas’ neck. The loss of Eliott’s warmth isn’t exactly ideal but there are more pressing issues at hand. “Why do you keep looking at these?” He turns the phone around, watching Eliott’s expression morph from its content daze to a quick curtain of vacancy. “Hey, don’t do that,” Lucas says, running his thumb under Eliott’s downturned eyes.

“I don’t know,” Eliott mutters, moving to grab his phone from Lucas’ hold but Lucas pulls away, hiding it behind him. “I can’t stop thinking about it. Fucking… Eliott 3259 probably had his phone switched on and— and Eliott 9867 would already be there waiting to walk home with his Lucas before closing. Number 5437 would have, I don’t fucking know, convinced his Lucas out of working that shift. I can’t stop thinking of everything I could have done differently. Of everything that would have happened differently if I were a better version of myself—”

Lucas uses his free hand to grab the back of Eliott’s head, arching up into him to bring their faces close together as he wordlessly shakes his head, their eyes locked on each other. It works to slow Eliott down and Lucas can feel him exhaling through his nose.

“What if something like this happens again, Lucas? What if 2 weeks, 2 months, 2 years from now, you need me and I’m not there? What if I can’t be there? What if next time, I’m too late?” Eliott says, quiet words pouring out in the small space between them. “I just can’t stop thinking about it.”

Lucas holds them in that position for a second longer, closing his eyes as he thinks of what Eliott’s just told him. He gets it, really, if he allows himself to plunge into the darkest part of his mind, he’d also be spiralling into similar trains of thought— of not being strong enough for Eliott, of not being good enough for someone so fucking special, because truth be told, if they’re pointing fingers here, none of this would have happened if Lucas had just watched his mouth during that time at the clinic with Eliott.

But no, as a wise lady once told him, they can’t keep dwelling on those things. They have got to stop doing that to themselves.

He leans back slightly, just far enough so that he’s able to bring Eliott’s phone in front of him. He opens it back up to their messages, hits the back button, and promptly deletes their entire chat history. Eliott practically shrieks at that, almost making Lucas laugh despite the heaviness still hanging above their heads.

“Why did you do that?” Eliott whispers, wide eyed as he stares helplessly down at the phone in Lucas’ hand. Lucas knows the sentimental idiot is mourning the loss of their first exchange, the sweet good night messages, the shameless flirting. None of that matters, though, because Lucas has a better plan in motion.

“Because we’re going to start over,” he says, plopping the phone into Eliott’s slack hands. Eliott fiddles with it, still in shock from what Lucas has just done. “We’re going to start over,” he repeats, more firmly this time as he nudges Eliott’s chin upward. “And we’re not gonna think of what we could have done differently. We fucked up, yeah, but we’re here aren’t we?”

He waits patiently for Eliott to nod, which he does soon enough, if a little begrudgingly. Lucas allows a chuckle to pass through his lips. “And we’re also not going to think of what’s going to happen because there’s literally no point in that, we’d be stressing over nothing. We don’t know shit about the future.”

Eliott huffs, “Okay, so what can we do then?” There’s a hint of that lovely little smile tugging at the corner of his lips and Lucas brushes a finger to it.

“What we can do… is live it day by day,” he says, echoing his mother’s words from earlier, but then he thinks of how an entire day can get overwhelming at times, hours upon hours of the unknown, and shakes his head. “No, wait.”

“No?” Eliott’s smiling face greets him when Lucas looks up.

“No,” he says, “We’ll do it minute by minute.”

Eliott steps into his space and Lucas hears the soft thud of his phone dropping on the counter. “So what are we doing for the next minute?”

“I don’t know,” he responds, coy smirk at the ready. “You pick.”

When Eliott kisses him, Lucas inhales, deep and audible, only to feel the breath he’s taken leave his lungs a mere second after. Eliott has a hand gently cupping one side of his face while the other wraps big and warm over his thigh. That hand climbs up, up, up until it’s secured around Lucas’ waist and he feels himself being dragged closer, now only seated by the edge of the counter.

It dawns on him, startlingly, that this is the first kiss they’ve shared since that mess of a Saturday too long ago and, well, now he wants more of it.

Lips parting easily, he throws his arms around Eliott’s shoulders, tightening like a vice grip when Eliott goes to pull away too quickly for his liking. It makes Eliott chuckle, which prompts Lucas to punch him lightly on the chest, which then forces a bigger laugh out of Eliott, and it just becomes a vicious cycle of push and pull until they’re both laughing into each other’s mouths, unable to stop long enough for a proper kiss.

“You’re so dumb,” Lucas breathes out, half heartedly shoving Eliott away. Eliott anchors his hands on the corners of the counter and bounces back into Lucas’ space with ease.

“You started it,” Eliott says, dropping a tiny kiss on the tip of Lucas’ nose. It scrunches up in retaliation.

“And how exactly did I—”

But Eliott doesn’t let him finish, dipping down to connect their lips softly, pressing harder as they open up in synch. Eliott pulls and pulls until slipping completely off the counter becomes a legitimate worry for Lucas and he tries to put all his weight backwards, one hand around Eliott’s neck just in case he does lose balance while his free hand feels around for something sturdy to hold onto.

His hand accidentally hits the speakers at the other end of the counter and the volume ratchets up, blasting the kitchen with, what the fuck, booming dubstep music that have no business entering Lucas’ ears. The sudden noise scares the living shit out of Lucas while Eliott… looks worryingly delighted.

“This is a sick one,” Eliott says, carefully fixing up Lucas’ perch on the counter so that he’s no long in danger of falling off before pulling away, completely, like an inconsiderate bastard, just so he can—

Lucas looks on in wonder, flabbergasted as Eliott starts jumping and rolling his arms and dancing (can he even call it that?) to the atrocity coming from the speakers.

“Fuck,” Lucas mumbles, biting his bottom lip against the laughter bubbling up his throat. “Are you for real?”

Eliott gives him an offended look, as if he’s the one who has the right to be offended in this scenario. “Yeah?”

“God, it’s like… I’m in the twilight zone or something.” He’s not sure what Eliott sees in his face but whatever it is gets a giggle out of him. Lucas shakes his head. “When you think you’ve found the man of your dreams but it turns out he listens to fucking dubstep.”

Eliott’s entire body freezes one second and then he’s rushing back into Lucas’ space the next, megawatt smile perfectly in place to blind a surprised Lucas. “Say that again.”

“What?” Lucas asks, still blinking from the sheer joy displayed over Eliott’s face.

“I’m your what?”

“My…”

“Come on, you said it!”

Lucas slowly figures out what he means but he refuses to repeat himself— he can already feel the fierce blush rising up his cheeks just from Eliott looking at him the way he’s doing right now. Lucas would actually drop dead if he has to say those words again. “I didn’t say anything.”

“Yes, you did.”

“Nope,” he denies, turning away when the heat in his face feels too much to handle.

“I heard you say it.” Eliott nudges at him with his nose, reminding Lucas of a giant puppy.

“If you heard me then you don’t need me to repeat it.” Lucas makes to hop off the counter, hopefully to escape Eliott’s grasp in the process, but of course it doesn’t go the way he wants it to— Eliott grips him by the waist and digs his fingers in until Lucas yelps, squirming away from the ticklish sensation. “Stop that!”

“Not until you say it.”

“Eliott!”

Running away is fruitless, Eliott only places him right back where he started for every time Lucas manages to slip halfway into a standing position. His laughter is louder than his protests and Eliott’s chuckling right along with him, only slowing down when Lucas hangs onto his shoulders weakly, breathless as he whispers the words right into Eliott’s ear.

“What?”

“Well now you’re just being a dick.”

“No, sorry, please just one more time, baby,” Eliott implores.

“You’re…” He stalls, enjoying the childlike anticipation in Eliott’s clear blue eyes. “The dude of my life.”

A pause. “That’s not it.”

“Beggars can’t be choosers.”

“Lucas!”

“The weirdo of my dreams.”

“Fuck’s sake.”

“You’re so fucking demanding.”

“Lucas,” Eliott’s straight up whining.

Lucas huffs, squishing his boyfriend’s — because yes, that’s what they are again — cheeks together while Eliott resumes his sulking. Lucas kisses the pout off his face, hands sliding down to Eliott’s neck as he places another innocent little kiss on his lips. “You’re the man of my dreams.”

He doesn’t get a warning before Eliott scoops him right into his arms and squashes him into possibly the tightest, warmest, most enthusiastic embrace he’s ever been subjected to.

Breathing is going to be a challenge soon enough but Lucas doesn’t say a thing.

“Did you hear that?” Eliott suddenly crouches down and Lucas realizes that Champ has woken from her nap and has toddled over to check out the commotion in the kitchen. “You heard that right? He said I’m the man of his dreams,” Eliott says, looking at Champ expectantly. She stares back at him with blank, beady eyes.

Lucas laughs at the pair until a different dubstep song comes on and Eliott gasps, looking excited all over.

“Jesus,” Lucas groans out, wiping a hand over his face as Eliott starts dancing again, this time with Champ running circles around his ankles. Eliott’s eyes are focused on the little dog, careful not to step on her while at the same time engaging as if they’re supposed to be dancing together.

It’s ridiculous. Eliott’s ridiculous.

Lucas is ridiculously in love.

“Eli monkey?”

Eliott groans, taking his phone from Lucas. “It’s from when we were kids.”

“That’s cute.” Lucas laughs, untangling his limbs from Eliott so he can get up from the couch.

“Where are you going?” Eliott asks, winding his arms around Lucas to prevent him from leaving.

“I’m gonna change into my clothes.”

“Why?”

“Mama made fun of me for wearing yours.”

Eliott’s head perks up, smile giddy as his arms tighten— Lucas doesn’t even attempt to struggle out of it. “So she knows about me?”

“No, not really…” His eyes slide sideways, gauging Eliott’s reaction. “Do you… want her to?”

“If you want to.”

“So you want to.”

“Do you?”

“Oh my god,” Lucas sighs, exasperated. Eliott’s laughing into his shoulders by now, likely aware of the difficult time he’s giving Lucas. “You’re so annoying.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“She asked when she can meet you,” Lucas mumbles, tracing the veins running up Eliott’s arms to occupy his eyes. He’s too nervous to have this conversation otherwise.

“Anytime,” Eliott answers a little too fast. Lucas tucks a smile behind his own hand, stupidly pleased with that response. He’s been dying to replace the memories of Eliott and his mother being in the same vicinity with more pleasant ones and he can’t wait for it to finally happen.

“Okay.”

“I’m still changing clothes though, so get off of me, you giant octopus.”

#skam france #elu fic #elu #elu insta au #fictag #@ universe @ skamfr team @ david baguette this is me begging #post it pls #also known as the chapter where i test tumblr's photo limit

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stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale · 5 years

Text

Anons wanted an explanation for the placements I had on my previous tier list, but upon going back and looking it over, I realized that I wanted to move a few characters around, so I ended up getting a new template and remaking it.

I wrote little bits about each character [yes, each one] below the cut, but be warned, it’s long.

“I love you so much that I would sell my soul to make sure you’re happy”

Lee Everett: Lee is a goddamn legend. He deserves to be at the very top. He’s one of the best protagonists I’ve ever played as in a game, his backstory is incredibly interesting, and his relationship with and dedication to protecting Clementine never felt forced and is one of the highlights of S1. Even now, having replayed S1 a million times, seeing him get bit and slowly become weaker and weaker as he refuses to give up on Clementine still breaks my salt encased heart. Watching him die in the end never fails to put that lump in my throat. I love him.

AJ: I love this kid. I was so worried that they wouldn’t do him justice when the game was announced and I saw the trailer, but I was floored by just how much I grew to love him. He feels like my kid, my responsibility and I want him to grow up strong and smart, but also human. His voice acting is terrific, and I think he’s one of the best child characters we’ve ever been given in video games. His relationship with Clementine rivals Lee and Clem’s relationship and that’s what I wanted. This kid earned his place at the top.

S4 Clementine: This Clementine is my absolute favorite. While I love all the Clementine’s across the four seasons, I feel like she truly hit her peak in S4. I fucking love her, I’m proud of who she grew up to be, and seeing her journey to this point only solidifies that she’s my favorite. She’s strong and stern, but she has her softer moments with AJ and Louis/Violet, and what else is there really to say? She’s Clementine.

Louis: ....Do I really need to explain this? I mean, c’mon. If you’ve been following me for a long time- shit, if you’ve only been following me for a few minutes, then y’all know how much I love Louis. I can say with 100% certainty that Louis is my favorite non-playable character across all four games. I’ve made numerous posts, answered over a hundred asks, written thousands of words about him. Everything about him from his character design, his personality, his traumas, his voice acting, his expressions, his relationship with Clementine and AJ and Violet and Marlon and everyone- He’s the best. I love him.

Rosie: Rosie is the bestest girl in the world. ‘nuff said.

“I fucking love everything about you.”

S1 Clementine: Alright, before y’all come at me with the whole “Why isn’t little baby Clem SS tier you monster??” let me explain: I adore S1 Clementine. She’s still in S tier, after all. However, after playing through these games several times over again, I realize that this really is just the beginning of Clementine’s character and her growth. She’s lovable, she’s cute, and I want to protect her, but she’s not... a compelling character? She doesn’t fully come into herself and develop a stronger personality until S2. Like I said, I still love her and I can’t deny the impact that she had on the characters and us players, but she’s not my favorite Clementine of the bunch.

S2 Clementine: I fucking love S2 Clementine. I’d actually say that she’s my 2nd favorite Clementine. I give S2 a lot of well-deserved shit, but she is the high point of it all. Something about her character is compelling to me, like how she’s stuck with a bunch of adults who underestimate her yet want her to do everything for them and she just... is so done with it hahaha. But her growth is what it really does it for me. We went from little baby Clementine who whimpered at a small cut on her finger to a Clementine who fucking sews her own arm up, covers herself in walker guts with barely a flinch, can shoot a gun with great accuracy and take down walkers like they ain’t shit, and can survive and make her own decisions. Also, her instant connection with AJ is great. Love it. Love her.

Javier Garcia: Yo, I love this beautiful man. This man is honestly the best part of ANF, and without him it would’ve been such a shitty game. I found his backstory as an ex-professional baseball player booted from the league for gambling a cool concept. He’s hilarious and charming, too. Honestly, he deserved a better game with better, y’know? The only reason he’s not SS tier is because of the writing and his nonsense with Kate when you don’t want to romance her. It makes it seem like he led her on and then was like “Wait nevermind lol” which is annoying, but other than that, he’s great. Love his relationships with most of the characters, and the ending he got was pretty good.

James: I don’t talk about him as much as I should because I find James fucking fascinating. If they ever made a DLC or a mini-game for twdg, I want it to be about James and his journey in finding and joining the whisperers, his relationship with Charlie, and how he escaped them. His views on walkers, his survival and killing skills, his past traumas haunting his every moment for fear that he’ll revert back to what he was, his extreme pacifism that ironically turns violent- just what a cool fucking character. And while he has his wild moments [cave scene, anyone? “Oh ouch!” hahahahahaa] he’s still one of my favorites.

Violet: Oh, Violet. She’s amazing. I love her so damn much. If there’s ever been a character that I see a lot of myself in, it’s her.... which is why I tend to be a little harsh with her sometimes, but I can’t deny that she’s one of the most well-written characters across the whole series. She’s not perfect [both she and Louis do have their tiny inconsistencies that I blame the writing for] but that’s a good thing. And while I don’t ship her and Clementine, I 100% get why a lot of people do. Their relationship is adorable and way more compelling than her previous relationship with Minerva.

“I love you <3″

Carley: My beautiful girlfriend... you were taken away far too soon. Carley’s one of my favorite characters from S1. I wish we could’ve had more time to explore a relationship between her and Lee, but what we did get is enjoyable. She’s a badass, and I will always love the moment she tells Lilly off for being a little bitch, even though it results in her death. Not a day goes by where I’m not salty about that one.

Molly: Molly’s a goddamn badass. She scales buildings like it’s nothing, she named her weapon Helga, and her backstory with Crawford and her sister is terrific. Also, she’s funny and I love her. That’s that.

Omid: This dude was literally a light in S1. He brought us some humor when we needed it [ “...You broke that dude’s face.” ] and his relationship with Christa was so sweet. Also, him and Lee bonding over being history nerds? Yes, please. It’s bullshit that he was killed off two seconds into S2 but hey... S2 had a lot of bullshit in it so... Justice for Omid 2k19.

Luke: *deeeeeeeep inhale* Big Brother Luke did not deserve that bullshit. Literally one of the best characters in S2 and y’all just.... did him dirty like that. And for what? To make room for Kenny and Jane? Bull. Shit. Luke was so damn good, and the only reason he’s not higher is because of what they did to him after ep3. He starts out so kind and supportive and seriously like a big brother character then SUDDENLY he’s stupid and “makes it” with Jane while walkers are trying to eat us and then he gets himself shot and then fucking dies and akjsjdlkjasdkjaslkjasdklerwedascasads-

S3 Clementine: ...So, here’s where y’all will probably get pissed. S3 Clementine is my least favorite of the bunch. Don’t get me wrong, I still love her and she is still in A tier, but... how do I explain it? She’s in her 13-year-old, emo/angsty phase and it’s hilarious when it shouldn’t be. There are moments where I do become emotional for her, like when David takes AJ away and Javi hugs her, or when Gabe dies and she’s saying goodbye, or when she gets her first period, y’know moments like that! BUT... then we have moments where Javi goes to talk to her and she’s all “HAVING PEOPLE IS GREAT AT FIRST BUT EVENTUALLY EVERYONE DIES” or when she straight up shoots that guy who gave her faulty bullets OR WHEN SHE’S LIKE “IMMA KILL ME A LINGARD” AND.......... it’s too much for me! I can’t take her seriously when she’s this angsty, even when I understand why she is the way she is. Again, to reiterate, I still love her but in ranking all four Clementines, she comes in last for me.... and I can already hear the shit that’s gonna be thrown my way haha

Conrad: The most underappreciated character in S3 and it’s nonsense. Don’t come for me, but this dude is my favorite npc in S3. I love Conrad, and I wish we got more of him. He does have his own little arch if you keep him alive through the end. His grief over Francine is heartbreaking and his downward spiral that leads him to act out and threaten Javi, Clem, and Gabe so that he can get his revenge is wonderful. And btw, he does apologize for pulling the gun on them and makes up for it in the future. And y’know what moves him up into A tier? The moment you let him kill Badger. One of the best kills of the game. I prefer it over beating the shit out of Badger myself.

Aasim: This boy is my son, and I’m sorry, but he’s really fucking cool. You’ve got this kid who was sent to Ericson for being a pyromaniac [according to Kent, it’s not actually mentioned in game] and grew into this guy who documents everything so that they’ll have a form of history to look back on and help not repeat mistakes. His banter with Louis is funny, and even though he gets fed up with Louis for not taking anything seriously, he still cares deeply about him given how he reacts when Louis loses his tongue. His crush on Ruby is adorable, too. I just love him, he’s great.

Marlon: Now, originally I put Marlon in a lower tier [the “I like your role in the story” type of tier] but upon reflection I actually find Marlon to be a compelling character. He’s high on the list because of how well he’s portrayed. Marlon has some of the best voice acting across all the games. There isn’t a single moment where I don’t believe what he’s saying, which says something. There are moments where Clementine will say something and I go, “Really? That’s the take they went with? Okay...” but not with Marlon. For only being in ep1, he played his part really fucking well. I won’t defend any of the shit he pulled because it’s awful, but I understand everything he did. He is a coward, a sheep hiding in a wolf’s coat, pretending that he’s got everything under control and putting all the pressure of a leader onto himself and it eventually breaks him. I know they killed him off to further the plot and show how ruthless AJ can be as a child growing up in the world, but I wish he survived past ep1 so that we could really get into the meat of his character. I’ll say it: I love him as fake-friend-to-full-on-antagonistic-character and his role within the story.

Mitch: I fucking love Mitch and the only reason he isn’t in SS tier is because of how goddamn dirty the writers did him. You give me this boy- this butterknife wielding, foul-mouthed, angry, hilarious, bomb-making boy and make me fall in love with him and THEN YOU KILL HIM OFF IN THE STUPIDEST WAY POSSIBLE. “Oh, lemme just run at the crazy lady with a knife and- OOF! It appears I’ve been throat stabbed bleh-” I’ve complained about this since ep2, but lemme say it again: Mitch had so much potential to be an amazing character but never got the chance to because we had to add to the death count and make us more afraid of Lilly even though it didn’t do shit because it was a reaction kill rather than one made out of malice.

Tenn: Tenn is such a tragic character for me. In my personal canon ending, he dies because he was “messing up again” and AJ shot him. This poor kid was so full of hope that the walkers would go away one day, he’s so genuine and never wants to hurt anyone, even if they’re trying to hurt him, and he’s so fucked up from seeing Minerva that he stops thinking and tries to go to her even as she’s being devoured right in front of him. Tenn is like this game’s Sarah, but done right. He deserved better, but he was a well-written character and I love him. His friendship with AJ was so sweet which makes it even more heartbreaking when he dies. Yet another terrific child character.

“I like you and/or your role within the story”

S1 Kenny: This dude is such a chaotic topic. I feel like 90% of the fandom has an incredibly strong opinion on him, and of that 90%, 45% of people absolutely love him and if you say anything negative you’ll get a boat to the head while the other 45% loathe him. Then you’ve got the 10% who don’t have such strong opinions, and that’s where I fall. I like Kenny, and I like S1 Kenny more than his S2 counterpart. He has a great arch throughout the season regardless if you’re his best pal or not. He has some funny lines, some emotional scenes. I’ll never forget the first time I played the scene where Kenny’s crying over Katjaa’s dead body while Duck is laying against the tree on the brink of death. And I definitely will never forget the part where he finds the boy in the attic. Overall, I like him and what he brought to S1.

Katjaa: She was really sweet and her death broke my heart. I don’t have too much to say about her, but I liked her a lot. She loved her family and met a tragic end.

Ben: Fucking Ben, man. This poor kid. Another character with wasted potential. I’ve mentioned this plenty of times before, but I wish we could get an alternative ending where Ben was the only one who survived and became Clementine’s new caretaker. There was so much room for growth. He just wanted to help out but kept screwing up and it’s just.... sad.

Christa: I’ll be honest, the first time I ever played S1, I didn’t like Christa. Something about her rubbed me the wrong way and I didn’t care about her as much as I did Omid. However, the more times I replayed it, the more I grew to love her. She’s strong but sweet, and you can’t deny how much she loves Omid. And while I wish we did get to know what happened to her in S2, I can live with it remaining unknown.

Chuck: As much as I like our guitar playing hobo friend who deserved so much more, I would probably put him a tier lower if it weren’t for the advice that he gives Lee on the train. Because of him, Lee stopped treating Clementine entirely like a little girl in need of protection and cut her hair, taught her to use a gun, and furthered their communication by building a plan together. Without Chuck and his wise hobo words, Lee might’ve fucked both of them over. Also, Chuck’s pretty badass with that shovel, he got a lot of chuckles out of me, but his death was off screen and disappointing.

Andy St John: Okay. Okay okay okay. Andy. He is so high here [and so much higher than his mom and brother] because to me, he’s the scariest of the St John’s. Why? Because he’s the most normal-appearing of the three. He acts and talks like any normal guy would. He’s someone that I could see myself running into in real life. He’s so good at hiding how fucked up he is from everyone, unlike his brother who you can just look at and go “hahahahaha no thanks” and his mother who’s character design is just awful. I find him to be the strongest of the three, the smartest and the most dangerous. And the final fight between him and Lee is amazing. I love how you can be so furious with him that you keep punching him even after the prompt goes away and then his face goes all purple and swollen. Easily the greatest antagonist in S1.

Eddie: This dude is the best character to come out of the 400 Days dlc. End of story.

Alvin: He gave me a juice box and that automatically puts him here. Real great guy but we didn’t get too into his character. Wish we could’ve, though.

Rebecca: She grew on me tbh. Didn’t like her in ep1 when she was being all pissy and all, but for the most part, she’s pretty good.

Mike: I will forever wish the writers went through with the concept of Mike being one of the guys who attacked Christa because then he could’ve had a better character backstory. Regardless, I still like him. He’s pretty funny.

Nick: Nick? Oh, you mean PURE WASTED POTENTIAL. I mean, they really did give us this super flawed but sympathetic and interesting character and kill him off-screen. They really did that. Honestly, S2 really pisses me off sometimes for the way they treated these characters. It all goes downhill once everyone escapes. Yeah, yeah, blah blah not everyone gets a meaningful death blah blah but y’know what? You can do better than that. I loved Nick and I was so excited to see what they’d do with him in the end but NOPE! Justice 4 Nick 2k19

Pete: What a good dude. He stuck by Clementine’s side even when everyone thought she was bit. Love him. Wish we saw more of him.

Sarah: Ha. Ha. PURE WASTED POTENTIAL 2.0. What else needs to be said? This girl had the foundation for a great character but again, NOPE! I really liked Sarah! I wanted to teach her to use a gun to protect herself! The loss of her father fucking broke her and it was hard to watch but I wanted more and just ahaklsdjlaskjdlkakjaskjsaadkljas ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh-

Ava: Yo. Ava’s a fucking gorgeous badass. Really liked her and how she was sweet on Clementine. Also, it’s interesting that she stuck by David’s side like that.

David: I have a lot of mixed feelings about David. On one hand, the complicated relationship between him and Javier is good, even if it’s a little bullshit at times. On the other hand, David’s an asshole. But he’s a great antagonistic character. I do love that about him. The shit with him and Kate was a little annoying, but only because they didn’t ever elaborate on anything. On what level was the marriage fucked? Was it straight-up abusive? What happened to David’s first wife? Why did Kate and David get married in the first place? I got questions! But, like Javier, I think David deserved a better game with better writing.

Jesus: This dude parkour kills walkers. Pretty fucking badass.

Tripp: I feel like I don’t like Tripp as much as some people. I like him fine, but I know a lot of folks gush about him. I think he’s a good dude, a little pushy with Eleanor, but he’s loyal and strong.

S2 Lilly: I fucking hate Lilly. I hate her so goddamn much. She pushes every wrong button with her bullshit “Where's our new recruits?? Lee would be so disappointed knowing he taught you all the wrong things! You’re one of my people now, Clementine” AND THE GODDAMN “Yes, Ma’am” SHIT. Nothing irks me more than every time someone from the delta acts like Lilly’s the baddest bitch and call her “Ma’am” I HATE IT AND I HATE HER. SHE KILLED MITCH. SHE KIDNAPPED MY CHILDREN. SHE DARES TO TRY AND HURT LOUIS LIKE HE’S NOTHING. AND I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT HER....... That being said, y’all are probably thinking “wtf if you hate her so much why isn’t she in F tier???” and that’s because no other antagonist in these games has ever gotten this strong of a reaction out of me. Lilly is a damn good antagonist. She’s not perfect, and there are definitely things I would change or add, but she does her job and makes me absolutely livid [yeah yeah I know ha ha ha ha] every time she’s on screen doing her bullshit. I hate her and that counts for something. She’s easily the best “villain” in the entire series.

Ruby: I love my funny little hot-headed medic. Ruby’s amazing and I love her.

Willy: This kid really grew on me. I thought he was weird and creepy at the beginning but I adore him now. His brotherly relationship with Mitch should’ve been explored more, and at times his voice acting is kind of jarring, but I still love him.

“You’re fine, I guess...”

Duck: He’s fine. I like Duck. I like the “what if” scenarios we’ve come up with surrounding his character, and his death always puts a lump in my throat, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to say I love him, y’know?

Doug: Again, he’s fine. He has some funny moments when you save him, and he’s got a cool little panda bear on his sweater but... yeah. He’s okay.

Mark: Oh hai Mark. He’s cool, and the reason he’s not lower is because the iconic moment of finding him in the hidden room with his legs chopped off choking out the words “Don’t... eat... dinner” forever haunts my nightmares.

Russell: I’m not a big fan of most of the playable 400 Days characters, but I think if I had to pick a favorite, it’s Russell. His backstory of being with the group that believed in the power of 7′s [I think it was 7 I dunno going off of memory here] was cool and his weird thing with Nate was fun and disturbing. He’s a pretty cool character.

Carlos: I’ve made posts about Carlos before and how I think he had a lot of potential, but looking strictly at his role in the game and I’m left underwhelmed. I did get a lot of shit for where I placed him in my previous tier because he was [and still is] above S2 Kenny but I’m not going to lie and say I like Kenny more than him because... I don’t. I just think Carlos should’ve been given more development.

Carver: A cool antagonist who was defeated waaaaaay too early in the game. They were doing a fantastic job at making me hate him with his treatment of Clementine, beating the shit out of Kenny, murdering Alvin and pulling all that shit with Rebecca, but killing him off so quickly didn’t make it feel as satisfying. Again, underwhelming.

Sam: This pup betrayed me and he ain’t no Rosie, but we played frisbee so he gets a C I guess

Gabe: Y’know, Gabe could’ve been so good. But every time I play through ANF, he ends up annoying me more than Ben. What does that tell you? He’s fine, but he could’ve been a lot better.

Mariana: I’m not so much “meh” on Mari because I think she’s sweet and likable! The problem is I don’t want to put her any higher because really? What did she do? She died horribly because Badger’s a piece of shit.

Abel: Meh this guy’s garbage. I only put him up a little higher because the scene with him in the basement is really good.

Brody: Brody is like the Mariana of S4 for me, just a bit better. I do like her. She had some development but her whole purpose was to die by Marlon’s hand and get the plot going. Would’ve loved to learn more about her, but I couldn’t give her anything higher than a C.

Minerva: Controversial opinion but........ I don’t like Minerva as much as a lot of people do. If I could be brutally honest, if I were ranking these characters solely on how I feel about them without looking at their roles in the games and character development, Minerva would be in E tier at the highest. However, I can’t deny how tragic and complex her character and backstory is. It’s similar to how I feel about Lilly, but different. I think she’s just so fucked up from the delta that she’s become a husk of who she was and it results in her constantly pissing me off with all her shit. Also, the bridge scene alone bumps her up. That shit was crazy in a good yet tragic way.

Omar: At one point, I forgot Omar existed until he got shot in the leg...... but he’s also God so y’know. I like him but I also had to make up my own little backstory for him so...

“Meh”

S1 Lilly: I don’t care about S1 Lilly in the slightest, she’s awful. They made her way more compelling in S4. And she killed my girlfriend which is bullshit on it’s own.

Jolene: If I could rewrite S1, I would’ve thrown out the Stranger and had Jolene be the kidnapper. As Danny said, “What a waste.”

Bonnie: She’s pretty disappointing, tbh. I didn’t like how the game help pushing her onto Clem and overall she’s pretty forgettable.

Vince: He’s okay, I guess. He killed a dude one time. And shot a guy’s foot off.

Wyatt: “Meh” hahaha Eddie was a cooler character than he was

Jane: I wish Jane had been the Molly of S2 and stayed gone after she left the first time. I like that she taught Clementine some useful survival tactics and that’s what puts her on this tier, but I think we all know how I feel about the whole Jane vs. Kenny thing by now so...

S2 Kenny: This Kenny actually moved up a tier because I fully took in everything he’s been through thus far and.... “Meh.” I don’t think he’s good for Clementine, I think she and AJ need a group like Wellington. I recognize that he’s a lot of people’s favorite, but like I said above in his S1 counterpart, I’m the 10% that doesn’t have that strong of an opinion on him. I’d much rather discuss other characters over him.

Sarita: Forgettable, really. Except for when you get the chance to cut her hand off. That fucking scream of hers is anything but forgettable, yeesh.

Walter: Again, mostly forgettable. His death was sad, and I do think he’s a good example of what happens when you’re too trusting in this world, but overall he doesn’t stand out to me.

Kate: I probably would’ve liked Kate more if her romance wasn’t so damn forced. She has some funny lines, but she’s also pretty selfish and fickle when it comes to a lot of things. And I will forever be annoyed at her inability to keep her mouth shut about her and Javi’s relationship [or lack of] in front of David.

“I don’t like you but you’re not the absolute worst, I guess...”

Danny St John and Brenda St John: I put these two together because they have the same issue: They’re fucking creepy. Where Andy was normal and deceiving, these two look like they want to cut my legs off and eat them. I think they’re much weaker in character than Andy was, even with Danny’s weird sexual fixation of his gun and Brenda talking about her husband.

Vernon: He’s not the absolute worst because I do feel a little sympathy for him losing his daughter, but everything else just makes me not like him.

Shel and Becca: Easily my two least favorite characters in 400 Days. I had no real interest in either of them.

Arvo: This guy. I didn’t put him in as the absolute worst because of all the unnecessary shit Kenny put him through. No wonder he wanted to get the hell outta there.

Clint: I literally couldn’t give a single shit about this dude or what happens to him.

Eleanor: I don’t like Eleanor. I found her annoying. Her one good quality is her want to help people, but that want didn’t do much to help Tripp now did it, Eleanor.

“The absolute worst”

Larry: Did you expect anything else? Fuck this guy.

Stranger: Worst final antagonist ever. You’re telling me I have to fight this Mister Roger’s tootsie pop? I’ll bet you $1 I can do it with one hand. Fuck this guy.

Troy: Fuck Troy. All he does is smack Clementine around and then get shot in the dick.

Joan: This lady is a laughably bad antagonist. The worst fucking “villian” jfc...

---

There ya have it. Do you agree, disagree? Maybe a character I found boring you really liked! Maybe you want to tell me why Kenny is the best/worst again! We can discuss it.

I’m always open to talking about these characters!

70 notes · View notes

agentunwin · 5 years

Note

What do you think of infiteshawn?

ok by very popular demand dsjks i will finally explain myself regarding this

so the other day i called her weird and annoying and i still feel the same; for a few reasons.

one; when i first got here she and flickershawn were some of the first ppl i followed and she would always answer anons like “boring” i guess when the anon wasnt interesting enough so i was like ok thats :/ but ok whatever. after like a month or 2 we actually were friends for a while and it was cool o whateva but ill never forget this one text she sent me where she was basically telling me i had to read rm bc people were “losing their shit” over a certain part and it just felt rly weird bc it felt like self-advertisement but thats just how i interpreted that so i was like okay whatever again.

then the weirdness rly started when she started posting about her boytoys. i even enabled it for a little bit asking her q’s about him bc at that point we were still friends but then it spiraled tf out of control and i took a step back and was like what the fuck. sis was straight up posting his pics, saying his name and the area they live in, sharing all their private conversations.. all without him knowing. like yo selfies and all your personal convos are just OUT THERE for THOUSANDS of people and you don’t even know. that’s fucking creepy. after that i said

hm whats next. i guess ill dabble in a lil sumn sumn here; she’s obsessed w being the prettiest and only redhead on shawnblr and its super weird. like ignoring-people-until-you-think-they-threaten-your-beauty weird. thats all ill say about that

uhh i hate those holier-than-thou posts she always makes. (SHORT VERSION OF THIS STORY) someone told me of the time she went off and practically had her followers attack a writer over a stalker/creepy(?)!shawn story they wrote, saying its not appropriate (To each their own opinion) and that they needed to take it down and she highlighted all the parts she found disgusting but the person was asleep at that time so u can imagine how that went. but i just thought that was funny considering she then later voted on Nextdoor, my stalker!shawn story so what was all that attacking of that (way smaller blog) really all about.

you know what was also genuinely HILARIOUS to me? when her and fs would get into yet another argument and sarah would send april asks but april had the blog tracker on (which i also have- hi sarah) and she could see that sarah was the one sending her the anons but she still denied it like that shit really SENT ME and then she tried to play the victim tuh NOT IN MY HOUSE!

there is SO much im leaving out bruh but ive been typing this for so long lmaoo ill say this one final (not rly) thing;

Why the fuck has roommates been going on so long bro. Like honestly, why. What for. I get its cute o whateva but that series has literally been going on since before i joined shawnblr in September. That’s over 8 months. I thought it ended like 3 months ago and I would never have to see anything about it again but then the extra blurbs and shit like HO, MY GOD. I’ve never seen anything that dragged out in my fucking LIFE PLEASEEE. I blacklisted it and it still shows up on my dash all the time I cant escape.

some extras:

-the blurb she wrote that was just actually a detailed account of sex she had w some dude? wack

-the “queen of shawnblr” shit? like literally entering a gc saying “the queen has arrived” even IRONICALLY? even if its supposed to be funny? wack

-lying on shawns friend o whateva that bullshit was? wack

-the overly woke attitude she puts on sometimes?? wack

-the fact that so many people on shawnblr agree w me? great, amazing, lol. im not pulling this shit all out of my ass, yall. im not the only one.

as some closing remarks id just like to say:

i admit wholeheartedly to being a fake bitch towards the end of our friendship. in fact ill expose myself here:

I was lying my ass off in these so YES i was fucking fake i own that shit. but now we both have each other blocked and its a mutual dislike soooooo…. happy ending!

SEE YA!

edit: im not arguing with anyones son NOR daughter over this its my last day on shawnblr think i care!!!

#asks #whew. this took a lot out of me #and with that.... i think that marks the end of my time here on shawnblr #Anonymous

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osakaso5 · 6 years

Photo

Yuki Re:vale Police Rabbit Chat Part 5: Relaxing With Re:vale And TRIGGER!?

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Tsumugi: Yuki-san, good work! You were great at today's shoot!

Yuki: I made up with Momo ^^

Tsumugi: Wow!! Really!? I'm glad to hear that!! ><

Tsumugi:

Yuki:

Yuki: Thank you for everything, Tsumugi-chan

Tsumugi: I did nothing! I didn't get to meet you at Re:vale and TRIGGER's review meeting, so I was really worried... ><

Yuki: We were still fighting that day, which wasn't very nice to the others

Choices/outcomes:

1. How would you sum up that incident?

Yuki: It was an incident where an unusual number of people pushed their way into my home, and laid unusual waste to it. Though I did have fun.

2. Who do you think was the key player of that incident?

Yuki: I think Momo's the primary culprit? He's the one who got everyone to drink so much.

3. Which one of your homemade dishes would you recommend?

Yuki: The tofu skewers. They're unpopular because they're simple, despite it being so difficult to determine the proper amount of water drainage.

Tsumugi: Above all, I'm happy that you made up!

Yuki: Me too.

Yuki: I even lifted my rabbit chat ban.

Tsumugi: Ah! You mean the one about him not discussing you with other people...

Yuki: That's the one

Yuki: He promised to hold back on rabbit chatting so he could mind his health and sleep properly.

Tsumugi: That's good! Your bodies are your most valuable asset, so you should be careful too, Yuki-san.

Tsumugi: I've collected the notes detailing the truth of what happened, so I'll share them with you!

Yuki: I bet that'll be long... Some of my memories did end up returning, so I do want to know, but keep it short.

Tsumugi: A-alright! I'll just give you the cliffnotes version, then!

Yuki: Please do

Tsumugi: A dinner party begins at Yuki-san's house. At the urging of Momo-san, Tsunashi-san drinks glass after another, until he is is blackout drunk. He becomes unable to speak anything but Okinawan.

Tsumugi: This is where Tsunashi-san’s recollection of the events stops.

Tsumugi: Tsunashi-san’s comment: “I had the feeling Momo-san wanted me to keep drinking, so I didn’t refuse his offers.”

Yuki: Even if this is the cliffnotes version, I can only laugh at how quickly Ryunosuke-kun got taken out, lol

Yuki: Momo was acting weird that night, that's for sure.

Tsumugi: Drunk and unable to keep up a conversation with him, Momo-san calls in Nagi-san to translate.

Tsumugi: This is where Momo-san and Gaku-san's recollection of the events stops.

Tsumugi: Momo-san’s comment: “Things were awkward between me and Yuki, so I kept clinging to other people. I couldn’t stop drinking. Ryunosuke turned into an alcohol beast.”

Yuki: I figured as much, Momo. But you were cute, so I left you be.

Tsumugi: Gaku-san's comment: "I had fun."

Yuki: I remember that he seemed to be having fun. Gaku-kun was so drunk that he kept repeating the same three conversation topics over and over. I let him keep at it, because it was funny, and it was easy to reply to him.

Tsumugi: Nagi-san tries to decline the invitation, but is forced into a taxi by Yamato-san and Mitsuki-san, who tell him to spend more time with other groups.

Tsumugi: Even after he gets to the party, Nagi-san is unable to interpret the Okinawan conversation. Unable to keep up with the drunkards, he tries to leave altogether.

Tsumugi: Hearing that Sogo-san and Iori-san are good at quizzes, Yuki-san starts testing them over rabbit chats.

Tsumugi: Whenever they get something right, he toasts them on his end, and that is where his recollection of the events stops.

Yuki: I think I was so drunk that I blacked out the moment I got the satisfaction of getting them to name Douglas Rootbank's 4th album title and hum the riff from the hook of its 7th track.

Tsumugi: Noticing Nagi-san’s displeasure, Gaku-san and Yuki-san style their hair to look like Cocona's, of which Momo-san posts a picture on the internet, and Okazaki-san rushes to delete. He gives up on trying to control the situation, and drowns his sorrows in alcohol.

Tsumugi: This is where Okazaki-san's recollection of the events stops.

Tsumugi: Okazaki-san’s comment: “We’re a small agency, so I thought I’d let Yaotome Productions would do something about it!”

Yuki: As expected of Okarin. That's the capability of a man who's looked after me and Momo for 5 years now.

Tsumugi: Around this time, an imitation contest begins.

Tsumugi: Team Hure Hure: Kujo-san, Gaku-san, and Yuki-san. Team MATSURI: Gaku-san, Tsunashi-san, Momo-san, and Okazaki-san. Team L&G: Tsunashi-san, Nagi-san, and Anesagi-san.

Tsumugi: This is where Anesagi-san's recollection of the events stops.

Tsumugi: Anesagi-san’s comment: “I regret nothing.”>

Yuki: I saw pictures of all that, and Tenn-kun's gaze could not have been colder. I have to respect the oldest one of us for that do-or-die baring of her midriff.

Tsumugi: The topic shifts to the fact that Re:vale used to live together. Gaku-san, Tsunashi-san, and Okazaki-san keep casually suggesting that they move back in together, and they keep bashfully rejecting the idea. This goes on for the next 30 minutes.

Tsumugi: Then suddenly, Momo-san erupts with a “Do you hate being with me that much!?”, and Re:vale begins arguing.

Yuki: Ah! I thought Momo might've been the one who sent us into that downward spiral first.

Tsumugi: What happened?

Yuki: At the meeting, he kept insisting "I'd never blow up at Yuki-san!!", until I found myself agreeing with him.

Yuki: He really is awful. Though it's pretty hilarious.

Tsumugi: Momo-san declares that he will move into the IDOLiSH7 dorm, and begins gathering the things he keeps at Yuki-san’s apartment.

Tsumugi: Yuki-san responds with “I’ve always thought I should rescue him from the Kujo family, so I’ll start living with Tenn-kun.”

Tsumugi: Thinking that he’s going too far by bringing up Kujo-san’s delicate family situation, TRIGGER begins booing loudly.

Yuki: I thought Gaku-kun was on my side, I wonder what happened?

Tsumugi: Momo-san decides that “Yuki, Tenn, and Sogo’s uncle seem like the types of people Kujo will go after”, and discusses forming an “Anti-Kujo Front” with Riku-san and Tamaki-san. Tamaki-san agrees.

Yuki: Momo was worried about me, even though we were fighting. That must've been confusing. He's so cute.

Tsumugi: As he’s being asked about possible vacancies in the dorm, Riku-san finds out about Kujo-san’s potential move.

Tsumugi: At this point, Kujo-san finally loses his composure. He makes everyone except Nagi-san kneel on the floor and think of what they’ve done.

Yuki: I did a good job, reflecting on my actions. Though I don't remember it.

Tsumugi: Final report. Nagi-san slept in Yuki-san’s bed, while Tsunashi-san slept on the floor next to it. Yuki-san fell asleep while still kneeling on the floor. Anesagi-san took pictures of Nagi-san’s sleeping face. Momo-san fell asleep while gathering his things into a cardboard box. Gaku-san and Okazaki-san fell asleep mid-drink.

Tsumugi: Kujo-san’s final comment: “I guess I could compare this to being a zookeeper for a day?”

Yuki: Nice.

Yuki: What a mess.

Tsumugi: It really was...

Yuki: I did enjoy the party itself, but when I woke up, my place was in shambles, my mood was so low it was practically underground, and because the aftertaste of our fight remained, I was vaguely annoyed at Momo. That's when I found the box with his things, and got into another fight with him.

Tsumugi: I'm glad neither one of you got hurt in that fight!

Yuki: If it had gotten physical, I would've lost.

Tsumugi: Which one of you apologized first?

Yuki: Momo. He's always the one to give in when I'm feeling lonely.

Yuki: TRIGGER contacted us out of worry, too. Even though I'm their senior.

Tsumugi: Yuki-san...

Yuki: I tried to leave my mess of an apartment alone, but then I got depressed, thinking that I didn't want to clean up alone... So I went to go get Momo after his shoot ended. I need Momo, after all.

Tsumugi: Yuki-san..?

Yuki: Is something wrong?

Yuki: We cleaned up together. I was relieved when he put his things back where they belonged. He got a good night's sleep on my sofa.

Yuki: Re:vale's finally back to normal. Thank you.

Tsumugi: I'm very happy if I was of any help to you two! And I'm sure IDOLiSH7 and TRIGGER think so, too!

Yuki: It's really nice to be filming a drama with this group. I'll see you again at the shoot.

Tsumugi: Yes! Until then!

Translator’s notes..?

next up: momo’s re:vale police rabbit chats!

#idolish7 #yuki #re:vale police #translation #re:vale #rabbit chat

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fearfilledvirgil · 6 years

Text

Ivity and Anx: part thirteen

Summary: Patton has an internal struggle. Since he is bent on not remidying it himself, Roman gives him a way to solve the problem.

Warnings: abandonment issues, crying, self-depreciating thoughts, lowkey guilt tripping, pondering on thoughts, song writing

Word Count: 2708

Paring: Slowburn Prinxiety

A/N: I love how vauge I can make my summarys, okay? But. This is it. This is where things get interesting. Sort of. Sorry for the long wait again! I now have chapters written and planned out, so there won’t be a long wait again. Enjoy! (Taglist under the cut)

masterlist

Taglist: @rileyfirstname @verymuchanidiot @definentlynotjustanotherlemon @silversmith-91 @kanejandkruge @sander-fander-sides @lovecrazyjennybear @the-incedible-sulk @hexdream18243 @crows-with-hats @monikastec @definenormalifyoucan @i-am-absolute-fandom-trash @applecannibal @cats-with-blogs @bubblycricket @gay-girls-do-it-better @bunnyartie @quietlypondering @elusivefalsehoods @hghrules @royallyanxious @quietwords-loudthoughts @squishynonbinarytwink @sortablue @illogical-anxieties @savingshae @a-fander-named-skittles @thelowlysatsuma @ughthatsprettygay @im-so-infinitesimal @certifiedtrashxx @karmels-stuff @littlelogicstillcounts

The most practical next step of action was simple. Patton understood that. It was very easy to understand, but for the most idiotic reason, he couldn't. It wasn’t logical at all, but then again, logic was never his department. It was always Logan’s, and Logan was the problem. Not him himself, but he was heavily involved. The real culprit was time and education, although it was bad to blame anyone for the current situation. Patton liked to place blame, whether it be on himself or something else, because then who was right and who was wrong could be clear. In this situation, though, no one was at fault, so maybe that was the very problem.

Another sinking feeling in Patton’s chest made him open his mouth ajar, almost gasping for a breath. The sensation twisted itself into his gut, prompting Patton to screw his eyes shut, clench his jaw, and shake his hand. No, the problem wasn’t that simple. It wasn’t cut and dry. It was Patton, sitting criss cross on the floor of his bedroom in the dark with his phone in his hands, lit up, with his thumb hovering over Logan’s contact.

Patton felt a prick of pressure begin to build behind his eyes, the pressure traveling into his sinuses and making his nostrils flare. He didn’t want to cry, but here he was with his phone screen blurring. It was silly, really. Logan had only been gone for a few months or so, but the contact that the younger had with him tapered off into something nonexistent. The sinking feeling reared its ugly head once again, this time traveling farther into his throat instead of his stomach.

He really needed to get a grip on himself, considering that as he had this thought, his sleeved hand moved to his mouth to cover a sob. Patton was not good with change, nor was he good with people leaving him. The therapists called this “abandonment issues,” but Patton’s negative thoughts just told him he was insufferably clingy. That’s why he had let his and Logan’s texting routine die. He didn’t want to be a bother. Like Patton had thought before the waterworks started, this all could be stopped by sending a simple text. It was currently early morning where Logan was living in his dream collage, so it wouldn’t be a problem. Logan was such an early bird, always sending “Good morning, Patton. Was your sleeping satisfactory?” texts at 8:30 a.m. on the dot. The thought of those texts and the conversations sprung from them made a smile come to Patton’s face.

They would talk about how they slept after that: how many hours, if it was deep sleep or not, and if either had any dreams. Logan never had dreams, but he loved to hear about what crazy dreams Patton had during the night. The younger always loved those conversations, mostly because he loved to baffle the older. Patton thrived off of the confusion, having laugh attacks frequently. When he tried, Logan was absolutely hilarious. That wasn’t even mentioning how endering his fun facts were, nor was that statement saying how adorable Logan got when he was passionate about something. Patton let himself give a bittersweet smile between the heavy breathing that came with crying.

Patton didn’t know why he was reacting in such an extreme way. It wasn’t like he was dead, or like he didn’t have the power to text him at any moment. The problem, though, that was still very present was the fact that it was extremely hard for Patton to reach out first. He felt too clingy when he did that. It was the actual, real problem here. Not Logan, not time and education, not no one being at fault, and not even Patton fully. No, the problem was not talking to Logan anymore, and it was ripping a hole in Patton’s chest. It hurt the younger more than he could imagine because in the end, he knew Logan would leave eventually along with everyone else. Except Roman, apparently.

An incoming text shook Patton out of his mind spiraling down into the deepest, needist part of his mind. He blinked a few times, trying to get the remaining tears to get out of his eyes. At the same time, he furiously wiped the tears away with his sleeve. He sniffed, pulling down the notification window on his Android phone. He and Logan always had that in common, while their friends had iPhones.

Prince Roman: Padre? You good? You didn’t respond and I know how you worry

Pappy Padre Patton: I’m diddly darn dandy!!!!!

Prince Roman: You know I know that 5 exclamation points means a cry for help What is wrong, mi hermano más cercano?

Pappy Padre Patton: Logan and I haven’t talked in a few days

Patton was already feeling a bit lighter, now that he was starting to talk about his issue. Roman knew full well his “abandonment issues” that sprouted from being in the foster system, so he was probably going to pick up on his current conundrum fairly quickly. A small smile presented itself again on Patton’s lips when he did a quick translation of what Roman said in his head. My closest brother. His friend was such a sap, but the younger absolutely loved it.

Prince Roman: Text him!! If you don’t, I’ll give you a reason to text him

At that comment, Patton got very confused very quickly. What was Roman going to do, kick him out of his life? Do something so stupid that even Patton needed help on how to tell him he was wrong? There was so many possibilities and ways that the sentence Roman just sent could go, so Patton decided in about 0.001 seconds that it would be best to ask.

Pappy Padre Patton: What do you mean??

Prince Roman: I’ll write an angsty song and post it Without asking the label

Pappy Padre Patton: Roman!! That could get you into serious trouble! Think about the contract! You already follow it to a T. They are already waiting for a chance to reprimand you so no! Do not!

Prince Roman: I won’t if you talk to Logan

Roman was a dirty, dirty negotiator. He never tried to compromise with people he didn't know, just for the reason that he didn’t have leverage on them yet. He would find what his friend is most worried for him about, then use it to his advantage to get something he wanted. Luckily, the usually chivalrous boy did not use these powers for evil, but only used them to motivate people into doing something that they should be doing. Most of the time, that is.

Pappy Padre Patton: Fiiiiiiiiine You are a dirty negotiator

Prince Roman: You know you love me

Pappy Padre Patton: Te amo hermano always!

Patton smiled softly to himself, silently hoping that he didn’t mess up the translation of saying ‘i love you, brother.’

Prince Roman: That makes me happy Now make me happier by texting your Logan?

Pappy Padre Patton: Ok ok I def will!

And then he didn’t. Roman knew for a fact that his friend didn’t talk to Logan after their conversation, because there was a very specific series of events that happened after the two talk. It would start with Patton sended Roman many exclamation marks, then would turn into an explanation of the punctuation. Usually it would be something cute that Logan said, but sometimes it would be because Patton said something odd himself. Then the younger would go into the conversation in more detail, highlighting the cutest moments and becoming very flustered when Roman would ask questions about his feelings. It was routine, and Patton was not one to stray from routine since he started talking to Logan.

That was why as the sun started to get low in the sky, Roman got his guitar from it’s holder and his writing notebook from his desk. He splayed them out on the floor, sat down, thanked whatever was out there that his moms weren’t home, and began to brainstorm for a song. Brainstorm meant a very specific thing for Roman, as he was finding out. He was sit criss cross on the floor, his elbows on his knees and head in his hands. He would string his hands through his hair, rarely pulling on it when he got upset enough with this odd part of his creative process. He would collect his thoughts, focus on what he was feeling, and then go and do one of two things. The first would be to go through his notebook and see if there was any one liners or small sections of lyrics that he could expand on. If none of these felt correct to do in the moment, then he would ponder some more and write something completely from scratch. Latter options rarely happened.

Roman was feeling frustrated, to say the least. He wanted to talk to someone about anything, but he knew that Patton was off the grid for the moment. Anytime that boy faced a problem with texting someone, he turned off his phone and hid it under his many pillows. Patton was the soul person that he could talk to about these kinds of emotions anymore, considering that Anxiety had completely shut him out. Anxiety was honestly the main reasons for most of these emotions. Roman was sad that he was gone, mad at himself for all that he said to Virgil, and just generally frustrated with the whole situation. It would have been so much easier if he never signed up for the Sarrahs Project, but then he would have missed out on the amazing late night conversations that he and Anxiety had. Now that those were over, there was a empty spot in his chest that was waiting to be filled by confiding in Anx again.

It wasn’t fair that Roman had been lead astray to ridicule Virgil and make him feel like he had to be someone he wasn’t. Then again, Roman felt that way a lot of the time too. That’s why Anx and Ivity worked so well together, but it’s also why it hurt so much to not have each other around anymore. Roman wished that he could tell Virgil all of this, and just unload all of the truth onto him, but he understood that the other wanted distance. It was hard to put the pride that Roman always wore as Princey aside and let Virgil see that Ivity wasn’t a lie. That none of it ever was any kind of fabrication.

Roman breathed deeply, taking his hands out of his hair and looking down at his notebook. With all his feelings and emotions inside sorted, he could now try and sort through the one liners he already had written in his book. Rough, calloused fingers reached out for the leather notebook, ready to search to his heart’s content. He unbound the elastic holding the large and old book together, beginning to search through its yellowing pages for the lyric to make the next Princey single. Most of what he passed used too many masculine pronouns, but he passed those for a reason. Some name-dropped Virgil, and Anxiety, so those were also a line to stay away from. After pages upon pages of searching, Roman finally came to a halt.

“Can you be psychic for me? Please? That would make this easier on both of us.”

As soon as he saw the lyric, a million different words and emotions flooded through his head. Roman stared at the words for several more seconds, trying to process the sudden influx of ideas. It was rare that he had this many ideas at once, and even rarer so that they were all about mostly the same thing. Roman grabbed a water bottle that was sitting nearby, chugging half of the available liquid before grabbing his pencil. Upon further inspection on the page, there was also a few gems like “If you were in my mind, some scary things you would find (yes that rhymes score)” and “If only 2x or 4x (or something x).”

After Roman got all of the lyrics squared away, he put the book down flat in front of him. It was always easier to start out with lyrics, then add a chord progression, then work out the melody. At least, it was to Roman. Some would disagree, but they weren’t the ones writing songs all by themself getting into the Top 20 Hits. Momentary peddiness aside, Roman now had his ‘67 C-O-Classic Gibson guitar resting on his leg. He took a moment to run his left hand up and down the neck, then his right over the face of the body of the guitar. It was his grandfather’s guitar, the one he learned to play on by the same man before he died. The label tried to get him to play a different guitar, a newer one with “better sound,” but he couldn’t give up the sentimental value of this one. Especially with the emotion fueled lyrics of this one, Roman needed a guitar that he knew better than the back of his hand. Roman knew and understood this guitar better than he understood himself, and playing it brought emotions he harbored to the surface for him to handle. This guitar had gotten him through a lot, and it would get him through this night as well.

Roman started out with strumming a few simple chords, changing the order of three different ones, adding a fourth, removing two, and just generally playing around with chords until he found a good sound. Eventually, after he started fiddling with a good picking pattern, he narrowed it down to three combinations. While playing the different options, he sang the “If only” bridge that he wrote into the song. He tested the waters with a few different tunes and combinations for a while. Before he could comprehend it, the sun was set and he had a solid picking pattern and chord progression. He could hear his grandfather saying that technically the chords weren’t actually chords because he wasn’t playing all of the strings. A sentimental smile tugged on Roman’s expression of concentration, but he shook it away quickly in favor of attempting to sing over the song.

Surprisingly, Roman was able to get through the song he just wrote with few complications. He stumbled a few times, and stuttered on the lyrics occasionally, but it was overall a good first try. After, he tried again, making the wobbly parts in singing more and more stable. He was proud of himself for that, as sometimes there could be parts where he couldn’t get down until the fifth or sixth try. Luckily for Roman as of right now, the song which he was mentally calling Physic was an easy one to play and sing. Roman never said that the song he would be posting was a difficult one, but then again, he didn’t realise that it would be this emotionally powered.

As Roman placed his guitar steadily on the ground again, he pondered what the lyrics actually meant. While he attempted to balance himself on numb jelly legs, he went line by line and evaluated what he meant by each. It was clear to him as he grabbed his camera equipment that this song was obviously about Virgil. It was so clear that it was painful. There wasn’t any cleverly masked words or heavy emotions only hinted at in a word or two. This song was putting himself out in the open, bare and stripped of all the fancy editing that the studio does. This song would be a plea for help, a cry for someone to come and tell him that everything will be alright. It was a question, a desperate ask for Virgil to let him explain. If the dark and lovely one didn’t let him after this, then maybe all that time with Anx actually was a waste. And Roman desperately didn’t want it to be.

The Prince set up the camera and it’s microphone quickly and experienced, ready to make the worst–or best–decision of his lifetime.

next part

#fail’s writing #patton sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders #virgil sanders #sanders sides #ivity and anx #patton angst #i guess?#uhhhh anything else?#logan is at collage now my dudes #its the summer #i did that time jump #i think it was pretty smooth #so yeah thats a thing

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iaintyourbro · 4 years

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Hi! So I read the "Why I think Clerith doesn't work" post. It's a behemoth of an exchange but I'm glad I went through it! So much sense, insight and lovely politeness everywhere! It's a bit off on tangent but my takeaway is that FF7 would stay the same whether Clerith was romantic or platonic, but if Cloti wasn't romantic, the plot suffers big time. Like to the point that it would lose sense. Cloud not loving Tifa the way he does doesn't flow with the tapestry. 1/

That's not to say that Clerith relationship is unimportant but I guess to me it just drives the point further that it could only be Tifa for Cloud. OG Soldier!Cloud may or may not have had romantic feelings for Aerith and if he did, it indeed won't diminish his love for Tifa in any way. But those feelings are fake; Remake Aerith herself says this, OG Cloud himself comes to realize this. Those possible romantic feelings don't hold much substance (if any at all) post-Lifestream sequence. 2/7

It would be almost impossible for Cloud to think of Aerith romantically once he regains his true self because of Tifa and Zack. This development directly negates every moment he may have previously thought of as romantic. This development overwrites Soldier!Cloud's possible romantic interpretations as nothing more than being a decent person and a good friend. All of this tells me that to take Clerith romantically as a plot point would require some extra elbow grease 3/7

that you won't naturally find in the tapestry. To do so soundly, we would need something else that the devs didn't give us. That's not to say that Clerith being romantic is twisting canon to be what it's not, but rather it doesn't matter in the big picture. The story stands on solid ground as it does if they're platonic, and because Cloud's true love already exists in Tifa and they are ultimately endgame, then there's no need for Clerith to be romantic. 4/7

This is what I mean when I say Clerith romance would need something else, some extra elbow grease; it COULD be there but it's ultimately needless. Which in turn leads me to believe that the romantic possibility between them in OG was indeed put there purely for drama's sake and shock value. Some fans ran with that possibility mindlessly but that’s a different discussion. Bottom line is I think Clerith could either be romantic or platonic and it won't affect the plot all that much, 5/7

because the feeling that Cloud is left with as regards to Aerith is crushing guilt (which he thankfully works through in ACC and we can only assume he remembers her fondly as time goes on) while the feeling Cloud has for Tifa is abiding love, which drives his actions in the plot throughout the whole Compilation. /end LOL sorry this take is way too long but I so loved the whole exchange and it really tickled my last 2 brain cells. Thank you for that!! Stay safe and well ❤ 6/7

Uh, “why clerith doesn’t work” with the long ass ask here lol I’m so sorry to do this to you. But correcting/clarifyingone of stuff I said: Cloud and Tifa being “ultimately endgame”, I meant that they are endgame by the devs’ design. Them ending up together was intentional and not just because Aerith happened to die (just as her death was also intentional and by design). 😬 7/7 (?) lol

Hello Anon! You sent me in quite a thing, so let’s get to it! First, I’m glad you got to read through all of that. I think those types of discussions are really amazing especially when people do stay polite and do actually take other opinions into consideration.

I agree with you - Clerith being romantic or not doesn’t really matter overall to the plot. I think the problem that comes up is how extremist CAs deal with the whole thing. Some are okay with Cloud dying to be with Aerith. Some are okay with trashing Tifa - who is like the most important person in the world to Cloud, you find out - to diminish her character. They twist, erase, and lie about canon and story. That’s where shit gets nasty. But no, it wouldn’t matter plot wise either way.

Also I’m putting pictures in this post because they’re pretty. (The one below cracks me up.)

The relationship of those two is important. I think Aerith’s resolution is poorly interpreted because all of her lines aren’t taken in to consideration. The line “Don’t fall in love with me.” It’s bold. It insinuates something. It makes an assumption. It’s the follow up that’s more important to me... “Even if you think you have... it’s not real.” Boom. That is where it is - if you stop listening at the “L” word, this will be lost on you. This is used to foreshadow Cloud’s persona problem AND to say - the point of Aerith being seen as a romantic interest in OG was to show even more of the illusion that Cloud was under. Do I think they needed to make it romantic - no. I really don’t see it as very romantic in OG, but a lot of people disagree with me and that’s okay. Replaying it as an adult, I saw nothing substantial between those two. Early in OG, though, there’s nothing early on between him and Tifa either. Remake, uh... clearly changed that with Tifa.

Regarding Zack and Real!Cloud’s feelings for Tifa: I cannot think that Cloud would be like “well he’s dead so...” No. True!Cloud also has been pining over Tifa for years. His entire subconscious is filled with Tifa, Tifa, Tifa. They’ve translated this underlying feeling in Remake for SOLDIER!Cloud and how he acts around and reacts to Tifa. It’s like Real!Cloud isn’t gonna let him screw up too bad...

Most of the posts you see saying that Clerith is canon or Clerith was heavy in Remake ignore a lot of other scenes. I’ve seen all three resolution scenes. Multiple times. They’re all important. A lot of extreme shippers will not watch the scene with “the other chick” in them because it’s easier to sit in denial of it. Tifa’s resolution is the most intimate. She hugs him and he hugs her back. This is a huge development thing for Cloud. It also was confirmed that real Cloud was like “my turn” when she did that...

Barret’s resolution scene even has a Cloti moment in it regarding Al and his flowers, which is one of the most unexpected and hilarious reactions I saw out of Cloud. Barret’s resolution also covers some history on Avalanche and he gets to talk about the crew. You hear names that you can go back and see on the darts leaderboard on your next playthrough.

Aerith references the Highwind scene (above). The Highwind scene is the one everybody talks about when it comes to Cloud and Tifa. That and the Lifestream (I prefer the Lifestream, but Remake may... uh... make me change my mind... cuz horny jail and all that).

The one thing they did that was, to me, a huge difference from OG was push the romance envelope. So you get scenes like the train tunnel roll, that’s dripping with sexual tension. You get the scene in Tifa’s apartment if you do all of the quests (everybody should be doing ALL of the quests for ALL Chapters), you get another Cloti scene that’s tense. They have a lot of tense, slam in your face moments that I don’t know how people ignore.

If you look at some of these moments and have no clue what this scene is or what this game is about, you’re gonna have thoughts on what’s going on here. I have thoughts and I know what happens. This is one of those “pheewwww” scenes.

None of this was in OG - they kept the romance between Cloud and Tifa pretty much so subtle you’d have to squint to see the few times it happens before the end of Disc 2. The first time Cloud really comes out and says anything, it’s this:

If you ignore Tifa and think Aerith is all there is to see, this line will come out of left field. It still somewhat feels like its out of left field considering how light Cloti is before this point, but it’s like “I don’t care what anybody else thinks of me except you.” I do remember this slamming me in the face like “where’d this come from” and that’s when the illusion starts to spiral out of control. This works perfectly on your first playthrough and then enhances your second playthrough so you can see how many weird things you can point out to foreshadow what’s going on.

Also... Cloud’s illusionary world in the first half of the game is a major plot point that can’t be ignored. Ignoring it means you stopped playing the game before you get to this point. The player starts to feel anxious like something is wrong. You start to question everything, and then you do get resolution to this later on, and I love the way they did it.

But if you want to say Tifa isn’t a love interest, you need to throw the above scene out. Why would he care so much?

Or this. You would need to ignore the Lifestream. All of it. 90% of it is about Tifa. The other parts are about Zack and Sephiroth. But Tifa’s in that section of his mind too, because she almost dies.

FFVII is not a romance game. Especially not the OG. However love or romance is what drove Cloud to try to join SOLDIER, what drove Cloud to completely go ballistic when his mom is killed, his town burned down, and then he comes across an almost lifeless Tifa.

And then... Sephiroth somehow survives this. A Buster Sword going through his skinny ass... walks out and Cloud goes after him again.

Personally, my favorite rendition of the Cloud stabbing Sephiroth scene is Crisis Core because of the music, the way he walks in the room, and then boom.

If they do a mashup of the two: Have him walk in the room, just showing his legs, (and it feels so fucking arrogant the way he does it ughhh) have dramatic music playing, BUT have Sephiroth turn just at the last second like he does in OG so he sees it’s a grunt right away, and then have Cloud say the above line, which they removed from CC for some reason.

You should watch this scene and feel feelings like I do about the way he walks in there

Okay, anyway...

If Sephiroth had walked out of the reactor, he most likely would have run in to Zangan and killed him. My guess is, he would have found a way to recover from his massive would. Zangan wouldn’t have been able to get to Tifa and them, but you could say Cloud could have taken Tifa... but would he have left Zack? So many what ifs... but the point is, he legit goes nuts when he thinks Tifa is dead.

And so Sephiroth tries this again in Remake:

And Cloud also starts to go ballistic until he sees Barret and freezes. So Sephiroth is like “alright I just need him to break not start trying to murder me yet.”

Cloud is upset when Aerith dies. He blames himself. Hell, he almost killed her himself twice in OG. Of course he feels like shit. Of course he feels guilty. He feels she went to confront Sephiroth on her own because of what he did. But he doesn’t really do much after this. They resolve to go after Sephiroth, but he’s able to get through the Jenova fight, “bury” Aerith and go back to get some sleep at one of the abandoned homes.

When he thinks Tifa dies in Nibelheim, he gets stabbed through the fucking chest and somehow, this grunt kid, picks a 6′1″ dude up by just using sheer rage and willpower and throws him into the depths of the reactor. Like holy shit, what kind of feeling do you need to do that? And Cloud ultimately probably saved a lot of people early on doing that.

Cloti was endgame from the moment OG starts. You really don’t know it, though, for a long time. You also don’t fully grasp it the first time you play the game. If you replay it, you’ll see some subtle references to this, such as Cloud getting jealous in Costa del Sol if Tifa is talking to Johnny, Tifa holding Cloud when he sees Jenova in the Shinra building, the flashback he has of her during the second bombing mission, but that’s not enough to say “it’s obvious from the beginning.”

The story’s intent was to have them be endgame. The point of Aerith was to show more of the illusion (for Cloud). Aerith overall is the most important character plot wise. However, it doesn’t matter either way if people did or didn’t see romance between the Cloud and Aerith. The story plays out the same. What you can’t deny is Tifa’s importance to Cloud overall and how the story plays out...

In closing, though, there is NOTHING saying a person can’t like Clerith. Absolutely nothing. They just can’t claim it’s endgame or canon. It never was. The illusion was supposed to be broken. You were supposed to move on from her death. That was that - whether he romantically had feelings for her or not.

But Canon doesn’t mean best. If you don’t like a canon couple, nothing wrong with a fanon couple. People write some good shit for fanon. You just can’t attack, butcher, twist, lie, and bully to push your rhetoric as canon.

Thanks for sending the ask/comments in. I think it’s a great addition to the discussion!

#cloti #cloud x tifa #tifa lockhart #cloud strife #ff7r #ffviir spoilers #ff7r spoilers #final fantasy 7 remake

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noonmutter · 5 years

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Tell how you first met each of the wives and girlfriends and when you knew you were in love with them and when you actually said it. And the same for any boyfriends/male lovers you might have - how did you meet them. Are you in love with them? Inquiring minds want to know.

Oh jeez so quick disclaimer, Leon remembers all of these and while he can’t recite the calendar dates, he knows when they happened and it’s part of why he’s so damned loved. I, however, have a brain wholly reliant on logs and written records, and the logs for both of his wives were devoured in a WoWscribe glitch a few years ago. I roughly remember the sequence of events, but not when exactly these things happened; I can’t even remember the year reliably! Because of that, I/he approximate the story kind of a lot…

AND HOLY SHIT THIS IS LONG WOW

HAVE A CUT

Leon first meets Kaewynn at a get-together he stumbled across in Stranglethorn. It’s one of his earliest interactions in RP, actually; he still introduces himself as Cambor, and is still trapped in worgen form. He’s still homeless, still wanders a lot, and isn’t yet much of a cook. He chats with her a while, and the evening ends with her smooching him. He is mightily pleased with himself. (Fun fact, in Leon’s early months, he got a smooch–or more–from someone every single time I sent him out to RP even though he never once actively sought it, this is why I shake my fist at him for being so GOD DAMN charming)

Leon and Kaewynn just keep on running into each other off and on, mostly because he keeps attending the Meddler-run event, Inkwell, and Kaewynn (a member of the Silver Dragoons) shows up frequently. Eventually they slip away to have some fun together, because they’re both fine with flings and no-strings sex, and they’re both pretty keen on one another. Their first time (I believe) is in a mineshaft at the Dragoon garrison in alternate Draenor.

Time passes, he and Kaewynn get more and more affectionate and more and more time is spent walking off on their own to either talk or fuck or both. After one particularly interesting conversation in which Leon told her his real name and was able to shift out of worgen for for a few seconds, and she told him the meaning of hers, he baffledly admitted to the only witness, “I’m in real trouble, I think I’m in love.”

They went on their first proper Actually a Date in Ulduar, because he’d never been there and Kaewynn wanted to show it to him, having some pretty intimate knowledge of the place (spoiler alert she’s a robot that got hit with the curse of flesh no seriously she actually is).

Leon, despite being warned by a few people who knew Kaewynn that she didn’t really know what to do with the concept of love (long story, but it’s kinda literal–think “Data” here and you’ve got the gist of the problem), eventually confesses that he’s in love with her. This doesn’t go so hot, but she gives him a variation on the “just friends” speech and they both lie to themselves and each other and say that’s fine, and the rest of the night goes as originally intended, ending with Copious Amounts Of Fucking.

They are both emotionally underdeveloped idiots so of course they spend a while feeling more and more awkward and eventually Kaewynn breaks things off with him because she feels like she’s using him and …stuff. Like I said, they’re idiots.

And now we switch focus, and rewind a little because I’m pretty sure this is the part where the timing was both hilarious and infuriating.

Enter Pinapple.

A while back, Leon had seen a gnome woman throwing a bit of a tantrum at one of the Inkwell gatherings, though he hadn’t known why at the time. He eventually found out that it was because she’d been exposed to a shitload of radiation and was in a serious depressive spiral for some pretty good reasons (I don’t think it was actually cancer but it was basically cancer).

Being Leon, and being that he’d been given access to a kitchen and the opportunity to learn to cook, he sent this complete stranger a box of treats because hospital food sucks.

Months down the line, we come to the Silver Dragoons’ Halloween party. Pin has recovered after some risky surgeries n’stuff and is trottin’ about the place, shmoozin’ like y’do, and eventually comes across Leon. They got to talking, he got the chance to introduce himself properly, they eventually sat down to have drinks together. In probably the biggest spike of bravery she’d had for a long time before or since, she hit him with the equivalent of “Nice shoes, wanna fuck?” and they did.

He and Pin have a lot of fun together, and they romp along at a pretty good clip for about a month. Eventually during a bit of pillow talk, Pin accidentally says “I love you, you goofball” and they have a Serious Conversation in which he admits he’s not really at that same place, but it didn’t make things wierd at all. Pin being significantly more emotionally mature than Kaewynn, this works out better, and their friendship does not fall apart.

A bit later on, The Voice Of Reason happens and after he nearly dies and is recovering in the Dragoon garrison infirmary, Leon tells Pin he loves her, too.

LITERALLY THE NEXT DAY Kaewynn tells him she wants to reconcile and asks him to take her back. This was not planned, none of us knew it was going to happen, Kae’s mun didn’t know Leon and Pin had swapped L-words, I nearly threw up laughing. That same night, Leon and Pin and Kaewynn have the single most awkward relationship conversation they could possibly have, because oh by the way did I mention Kaewynn and Pin had been in a relationship once long before Leon ever showed up, and it’d ended because Kaewynn couldn’t do love? Because that’s a thing that happened.

Leon somehow managed not to go bald during all this.

Also he asked them to marry him the following February. Though they both said yes, the ceremony never did happen, and the events of Legion saw Pin dead and both Leon and Kaewynn horribly broken. The two of them sorta gently bullied their mutual friend, Rhiswyn, into performing the marriage between them, because one of the group dying made them worried they’d never get the chance.

Leon and Pin still haven’t formally wed, because after she came back, they were both quietly terrified that if they made it official, something else would rip it apart. They call each other husband and wife, but Pin’s the only one that isn’t actually married out of the trio.

It gets a bit harder for me after this, because I was terrible at tagging things for a while on tumblr and I cannot for the LIFE of me remember how I first encountered @safrona-shadowsun. The earliest posts I actually tagged under her tag, “fizzy,” were confessionals between him and the red courier at the Ledgermaine in Dalaran. Theirs is a very, very complex relationship, but it’s very easy to (over)simplify it:

Leon is a nurturer and he saw a lot of himself in Safrona, which is a terrible thing because he is incredibly depressed and prone to fits of self-loathing. He worried about her a lot when they first started hanging out, and he devoted a lot of energy to trying to draw her out of the incredibly thick shell she’d built around herself. As things progressed over ages and ages and ages, they became business partners, and she directed an acquaintance of hers his way.

Leon’s tradition up to that point had been to put the initials of serious lovers into his collar. Committed but unmarried is engraved (that’s P, for Pin), married is branded (that’s K, for Kaewynn).

Vandrysse… is hard for me to talk about. I only knew her mun for a little over a year before I received word that she had suddenly died.

Vandy is the reason I mention that Leon’s collar still has a nearly-faded “V” on it. She was the third woman he confessed he loved. That conversation was the last time I got to RP with her. I consider it a form of memorial to never let that V actually disappear no matter how long it’s been.

anyway moving on

I cannot actually remember which one happened first, meeting Murkey or confessing his attraction to Safrona, and tracking down the posts for the latter is not easy because Tumblr’s search engine is a JOKE. Regardless, Leon did confess to the courier after some years that he was in love with her, though I’m sure by that time she wasn’t really all that surprised beyond the way he presented it. It was downright artful, the boy was trying. But this is Safrona we’re talking about, and she gently but firmly shut him down, and that was the end of it. Though it made their friendship more than a little tense for a while, they’ve gotten over it by now. He still pines, but wouldn’t you? And he keeps that shit to himself, because not only did he get his answer, she’s now taken and quite happily so.

Murkey snoot-booped her way into Leon’s life one day and never quite left. I actually don’t remember if they met for the first time when she did that, or if he met her at a brothel first. They were both open and poly people, and they still are; he was perfectly okay with her disappearing for weeks or months at a time, as long as she sent word she was all right on occasion, and she was always delighted to find that he was still waiting for her whenever she came back. She’s a romantically skittish thing, so he was actually the first one to confess he had deeper feelings quite a ways into their relationship.

He’d hesitated to do so at all, in part because Safrona had commented that she thought he fell in love too easily and gave it too freely, implying that it wasn’t really that meaningful. Eventually he kicked that feeling in the dick and told her anyway, and though it took a long time, Murkey did eventually tell him she loved him back. She, like him, had realized it far sooner than she’d been willing to admit, for fear of ruining a good thing.

Amber is actually the most recent in the game–I am trying very hard not to call it a harem–and much like Safrona, developed first as a chance meeting that evolved into a business partnership and friendship. She helped design the logos and packaging for the Cookbook, and he sent her plenty of free food and ongoing orders for more boxes. She was a very reserved person, which he thought was kind of refreshing–after a while you sort of want to have some people who are just friends, no matter how fun fuckbuddies are–and she was quite wrapped up with her lover and eventual husband, an elf named Vaerinis.

Amber confessed to him first, and though he wasn’t quite in love with her, he was certainly open to exploring possibilities. These days, he loves her to pieces and though she’s Vae’s first, he is happy to be part of it.

Vaerinis is a happy bonus, too, though he hasn’t had much time to really develop feelings for the man as yet.

Leon doesn’t have a whole lot of male acquaintances in general, actually, and has not yet fallen in love with any or had any fall for him, that he knows about.

my hands hurt, I know I fucked up the timing a few times and I’m tired so I hope i didn’t forget anybody wooph

( @pinpep @shckaewynn @murkeyglglgl @safrona-shadowsun @theengraver @vaerinis )

#prompty things #leon #buhhhhhhhhhh #Anonymous

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