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ganymede-princess · 6 months

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The Crimson King | Rhaegar Targaryen

ship: rhaegar targeryen x fem!oc

warnings: I really don't think there is any? jaime is a little scary i guess. OH and cannon divergence. Big ol' TW for that.

summary: a young crannogman girl meets the crowned prince on a very special occasion.

word count: 3298

a/n: phew! this was a long time coming. I hope you like it! (and if you don't fuck with the romance, there's a more interesting scene at the end!) There will be a part 2, just by the way ;)

written by @ganymede-princess

The thick, hot air in the royal ballroom carried the scent of a thousand perfumed bodies. Long tables lined the room, piled high with foods from across the Seven Kingdoms. Among the dishes Frida spied fat frogs legs and water lily syrup from her home in the Neck, next to crabs and succulent fried fish from Lannisport, sweet pastries made from the honey of Highgarden, and bowls of flakey pink rock salt from Dragonstone. Despite the sight of countless exotic delicacies, her stomach churned.

Hundreds of highborn folk all milled around, laughing, dancing, talking, each one dressed more lavishly than the last. Frida had never seen so much silk in one place. Bewitched as she was with the nightlife of King's Landing, she found herself growing into the wall like an unsightly mushroom. She was acutely aware that she did not blend in with the royal aesthetics. Her unruly hair could only be half tamed and her mauve linen gown looked miserly next to the lavish satins and velvets that garbed the ruling class. Frida could feel a hundred sets of eyes boring into her, though when she glanced around, there were none there to meet. She thought there must be hearths burning somewhere. If there were no hearths, why did the air feel so heavy?

Frida searched the room for the face of her brother to no avail. Ewyn had no struggles with making friends in spite of his Crannogman roots and noticeable limp. Frida guessed he would be engaged by the end of the night. With no respite in sight and her breath coming shallower by the second, she made a hasty escape. She slipped around the edge of the ballroom, narrowly avoiding several dancing couples, at least three stray cats, and a drunken septon, before emerging onto a small rampart with stairs at either end. Frida thought it wise to take a quick turn around the rose garden below to calm herself, but once she reached a shadowed corner she could contain her exhaustion no longer and fell to her knees between two sweet smelling bushes. She did not cry, just breathed deeply, content in the knowledge that she was far away from prying eyes. Until she heard a sniffle from behind the rosebush to her left.

"Hello?" Frida's voice caught in her throat. There came no answer, just another quieter sniffle. "Who's there?"

"Nobody." Said the invisible man in a voice thick with sorrow. "Leave me."

"What's the matter?" The leaves rustled gently as Frida shifted awkwardly, trying her best to see through the thick bushes.

"Worry not."

"But you're crying."

"No." His voice cracked. "I am the- I am a man."

"What's that got to do with it?" Frida corrected. "My brother cries all the time, and he's already one and twenty."

There was a brief rustling in the bush and the clearing of a throat.

"What brings him to cry?" The voice seemed to settle a little.

"Oh everything!" Frida murmured. "Books, flowers, pretty sunsets. He cries almost every time he rides a horse. He has an injury to one of his legs, you see. A lizard-lion took his knee in its jaws and damn near tore his leg off! He used to love running, so riding is a real joy for him."

"A lizard-lion? You are from the Neck?"

Fuck. Frida thought. The voice carried the accent of King's Landing and she knew very well that folk from the capital were the most prejudiced against Crannogmen out of anywhere in the Seven Kingdoms. He was sure to send her away now, or worse.

"Yes."

"Tell me, what is it like there?"

"Oh- um. Wet." She babbled. "Very wet and slippery."

"I hear that beautiful flowers grow there." The man mused, his mild voice easing Frida's apprehension slightly.

"Yes. Ghost orchids, swamp arums, blue-eyed Bessies that grow on the trunks of trees; all of them beautiful." In a hushed voice she added, "But, do you know which is the most beautiful flower of all?"

"No, tell me."

"Black water lilies. My house has bred them to perfection."

"Your house?"

"I belong to House Fenn, Ser."

"Ah." There was a moment of surprisingly comfortable silence between them. "What brings you to the garden, my lady?"

"You take me for a lady?" Frida giggled.

"Are you not?" She could hear the smile return to his voice. "You take me for a Knight."

"Are you not?"

"I am, yes, but there is more to me than a knighthood."

"Such as?"

The man paused for a moment.

"You didn't answer my question."

Frida hesitated, searching for a way to put it lightly.

"The feast is full of beautiful people. I worried that my being there would ruin things."

"Why?"

"Well... I am ugly, Ser."

"Ugly?" His voice was curt with indignation. "Who led you to believe this?"

"My mother always told me that other folks look down on Crannogmen and that they find us ugly." In the anonymity of darkness, words tumbled out of her. "Though she also said I am ugly for a Crannogman."

A thick silence stood between them.

"How could a mother say such a thing to her child?"

"She's very sick, she doesn't think-"

"She's well enough that you believe her." The truth silenced Frida. "Come here so that I might see you for myself."

"You won't like it." She warned him and prepared herself to move, though she was unsure in which direction.

Frida heard the tink tink of flint against flint, then a warm glow began to shine through the rose bush. Her ears roared with the pounding of her heart, but she knew she had to show herself. She had to see the face of the man with the handsome voice, and more so she had to know what he thought of her. Trembling, she revealed herself. A black hood shrouded his face in shadow, but Frida could see his deep blue eyes widen, almost purple in the firelight.

"My lady-" His voice came in an urgent, breathy whisper.

"Don't."

She turned away from him, already humiliated, until she felt a hand gently guide her face back to him. She resisted, gripping his forearm.

"Please, look at me." Though his voice cracked in desperation, it was commanding enough that she turned to him again. The light caught his arrow-straight nose, and the soft pillow of his lips. Frida's breath hitched.

"I must take your mother for a liar, my lady."

"She said... people like you would think I look like a toad."

"No." He smiled. "But if you did, you would be a very beautiful toad indeed."

"Thank you." She blushed, somewhat sceptical. "Let me see you too."

"I can't, my-"

"Your Grace!" A tall, golden-haired man wearing a glittering white cloak and armour came careening around the corner of the hedge. "Gods, I thought I'd lost you. Avast, wench! Rise in the name of your king!"

The kingsguard drew his ornate longsword and pointed the sharp tip at Frida's face. Aghast, she cringed away from him and crawled a few paces back with him keeping pace.

"Enough, Jaime!" The shadowed man leapt to his feet and lunged forward to push the blade away, toppling over the lantern. "Can't you see she's harmless?"

"Kingslayer." The word was out of her mouth before Frida knew what she was saying. Jaime Lannister swung the sword back around to her.

"It's treason to disrespect a Kingsguard." The young man's eyes glittered with rage. "Say it once more and I'll cut the head from your shoulders, girl."

"Enough!" The shadowed man commanded, and grimacing, the Whitecloak stayed his blade. "Leave us."

"But, Your Grace-"

"Leave us. Alert Ser Barriston that the ceremony will take place as we discussed."

"Your Grace, I cannot leave you undefended."

"I have a sword on my hip and the skill to wield it. Leave us. You will not defy me again."

"Your Grace." Ser Jaime stalked off in a huff, his white cloak billowing behind him.

"Please," The shadowed man looked down at Frida, face creased with embarrassment. "Ser Jaime prefers the title The White Lion."

Frida gaped, wide eyed; knowing the truth but not believing it. As he picked up the lantern with his ungloved hand, Frida thought he would burn his fingers to the bone, but he simply dusted them on his coat, stamped out the fire in the grass with a black leather boot, and shed his hood to reveal a mop of hair that glimmered like spun silver. His eyes were wide and glassy, and Frida saw then that they truly were as purple as morning glory. He held out his hand, and for a moment all Frida could do was stare at it.

"My king." Frida could not keep the astonishment from her voice. "I'm sorry."

"For what reason?"

"I've spoken ill and disrespected you." She looked away. "I'm sure I have."

"I have heard no disrespect from you, lady, I am not so easily wounded. Please, take my hand." He pressed closer, a smile taking over his tear-streaked face when she let him pull her to her feet. "I appreciate your honest words, please do not dull your voice for the sake of my title. Besides, I ought to apologise for the behaviour of my protector. Please forgive him, he is young and still has much to learn."

"My king." Frida found herself without words.

"Go back to the feast, lady." The young dragon sighed and pressed a kiss against her palm. "I must prepare in my chambers. Thank you... for your kindness."

Without the wit to respond, Frida curtseyed clumsily and hurried back to the hall. Her head and heart were reeling with the urge to tell The Bloodmaid, her favourite weirwood from home, and she felt suddenly and starkly alone without the comfort of her red timber eyes. As she tumbled back into the ballroom, her gaze fell on her brother who leaned on a giant stone pillar, surrounded with a number of laughing Riverlander knights. Heart sinking, Frida took a steadying breath and marched up to the group.

"Ewyn, brother," Frida took him by the upper arm, silence falling on the group. "May I have a word, just for a moment?"

"Frida," Ewyn stumbled over his words. "Don't you see I'm busy?"

"Come, have a word with us, fair lady." Grinned a young man with red hair and a speckled face. "There is wine enough for another."

"Ed," Ewyn turned on him, scowling viciously. "Mind you don't drown in it, will you? Come on, Frida, let's talk."

He took her by the hand and limped away with impressive speed. When the pair were out of earshot, he frowned down at her.

"What is it?" Frida could smell the beer on his breath as he spoke.

"You're not going to believe me." She scratched her wrist, the sleeves on her dress suddenly feeling too close to her skin.

"I always believe you." Ewyn cocked an eyebrow, leaning against his mangrove cane.

"Well..." Frida chewed her fingers.

"You've been in the grass." He tutted derisively, green eyes alight with amusement.

She noticed that green stains marred her hem, along with her knees, and she assumed her buttocks too.

"Shit!" She muttered.

"Tsk tsk tsk, is that any way for a lady of the court to be speaking?"

"Oh, sod off." She aimed a half-hearted smack at his arm. "I'll have you know, it wasn't my fault. A Kingsguard knocked me over."

"A Kingsguard? Well, I suppose this is the place for it."

"Well... he was guarding the king."

Ewyn narrowed his eyes.

"What did you do? Spit on him?"

"No!" Frida pressed a hand against her cheek, trying to stave off the heat. "I just spoke to him, is all."

"You- you spoke to him?" His eyes were round as lily pads. "The king?"

"I didn't know it was him to start with. He was behind a bush with a cloak on, he could have been anybody."

"Yes, but-" He squinted, baffled. "He really spoke to you?"

"Yes-"

The trill of a lone trumpeter silenced them, and they turned to see a herald on the mezzanine above the ballroom.

"Make way to the Throne Room!" Though the herald was tall enough to be a man, his voice rang out high and clear as a child's. "The ceremony will begin presently!"

As the Goldcloaks pulled open the huge doors at the far end of the ballroom, Frida and Ewyn exchanged a glance, silently agreeing to discuss things later. They followed the snaking crowd down the long hallway until it opened into the cavernous throne room which was already teeming with smallfolk. A pair of enormous candelabras were suspended over the crowd, washing the blood red walls in firelight. Frida wondered how they kept the wax from dripping down on the folk below.

As they passed by the jostling throng of peasants and workers to take their places in front of the ornate barrier, she felt ashamed to be separated from them. Since childhood she had felt the earth on bare feet and worked hard to sustain her House; to be dressed in any kind of finery and placed above the common people felt farcical. Goldcloaks lined the edges of the passageway through the crowd, and Frida noticed they stood two abreast in the peasants' section at the back, and single file from the vassal and cadet houses, all the way to the lords and ladies of the great houses at the very front.

"What was he like?" Ewyn whispered.

"Sad." Frida sighed.

"Sad?" He raised an eyebrow, then nodded wisely. "It's the only way to feel in his position."

"Very lovely, though." She admitted. "He'll be a good king."

Her brother's eyes crinkled in amusement, then he jumped as the heralds rang out a triumphant cry from the back of the room. Silence fell over the crowd as every man, woman, and child turned at once. Frida peered through the crowd, barely able to see a thing. She could see a Targaryen flag bobbing over the crowd, sending an odd lump into her throat as it came closer, and closer. The entire room was silent except for the footsteps growing ever closer. No cheering or jeering, no coughing. Then, through the gap between the two Goldcloaks by her side she saw Ser Barristan Selmy stride through, holding a long staff with a red dragon flag of black silk, glorious in his white armour. Next was the crown prince himself, dressed in mournful black velvet finery and a heavy black cloak that dragged along the ground behind him. The sadness on his face seemed carved into stone, but he held his back straight and walked with the grace and strength of a king. Behind him, his remaining two Kingsguard marched beside each other, their heads held high in pride. Ser Jaime supported the tawny Dornishman Lewyn Martell, who limped along with one leg in a splint, their arms around each other in solidarity. Once the tiny party climbed all the way up the steps to the Iron Throne, Frida caught a glimpse of four men in white who stood a little ways down the steps, new blood waiting to be sworn into the Kingsguard: three fresh faced young warriors, and a grizzled man of middle age with deep auburn hair streaked with grey.

Selmy, Lannister, and Martell took their places beside their soon-to-be brothers, while Rhaegar stood before the Iron Throne, its silver blades forming rippling shadows on the massive horned dragon skull behind them. Frida imagined hundreds of fallen soldiers watching down on the man they had died for, using Balerion's great hollow eyes to see. If their loss weighed him down, he did not show it, standing strong as a giant on the steps where his father's blood once formed a crimson tide. The High Septon stood beside him, hands clasped in solemnity beneath dagged sleeves, heavy with jewels; and beside him stood the little prince Viserys, milk white curls almost to his waist, dutifully clutching a red lacquer box. Rhaegar's eyes swept across the crowd, burning with pride, grief... perhaps even fear; then he knelt, his black velvet cloak folding around his frame like a pair of wings.

"By the light of the Seven, we gather this night to welcome a new king. Let us pray." Every faithful soul in the crowd placed hand over heart at the septon's words. Even for Frida, who's gods were cold and wild, it was hard not to be moved. "May the Warrior lend him the courage of his ancestors, that he might lead us with a bold heart through the harshest of winters; and may the Smith guide him to mend the divisions of our realm. May the Maiden warm his bed with a fitting bride and many sons; and the Crone bless him with wisdom to pass on to his heirs. May the Father Above guide him to justice, and the Mother protect him from harm. And the Stranger- when he must come- may he take him kindly."

The Septon turned, and Little Viserys fumbled to open the box. Frida heart swelled when she spotted an encouraging smile on Rhaegar's face, which seemed to grant the toddler enough strength to get the lid off. He tottered forward and held it up above his head, and the Septon took out a plain gold circlet and nestled it into the King's pale curls.

"Under seven sets of watchful eyes, I name King Rhaegar of House Targaryen, the first of his name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm. Long may he reign."

"Long may he reign." The crowd echoed as one.

Rhaegar rose to face them, and as he did, Frida saw that his crown was adorned with a single glimmering ruby that sat just above his eyes on a fine gold chain. He thrust his fist to the sky, and the room filled with the thunder of cheers and feet drumming on the stone floor. He seemed to drink in the praise, determination steeling his gaze. He dropped his fist to his side, silencing the crowd.

"From childhood, I knew the day my reign began would be marred with grief, but I could never have dreamt of the loss the realm has suffered for my coronation. I know that every soul in the Seven Kingdoms grieves for someone lost to this bloody rebellion, or my father's madness. King Aerys saw enemies in every shadow, and would have razed this city to the ground just to flood it with light and annihilate his mummer's adversaries. I saw smallfolk treated worse than dogs; children whipped by Goldcloaks in the street. How could a man see such tyranny and not rebel? Robert Baratheon's courage was admirable, and in another life I might have fought beside him and called him 'brother;' but his war was not the answer, and now we are left with the consequence. As I stand here now with you as my witnesses, I promise to usher in a new age of the Targaryen dynasty. An age of peace and unity, of prosperity and change. The House of the Dragon will reforge, and the realm along with it."

He stood in silence a moment, eyes ablaze. Then as the crowd erupted once more, he turned, his cloak billowing a red dragon on black, and stepped up to the Iron Throne on a stair forged from a giant warhammer. The heralds blared, Frida applauded until her hands burned with the effort and her heart hammered in her chest, and when she was done she felt her face wet with tears.

#asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #game of thrones #house of the dragon #rhaegar targaryen #rhaegar targaryen x reader #toby regbo #francis valois #francis de valois #reign

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hugmekenobi · 11 months

Text

S2: The Bad Batch (1)

Chapter One: Spoils of War

Gif by @sergeantbandana

Hunter x femaleJedi!reader

Series Summary: Some time has passed since everything that happened at Kamino and you and the Batch are trying to figure out your place in the rapidly changing Imperial galaxy. And you’re having to do all this whilst figuring out where your relationship with Hunter fits into it.

Chapter Summary: Still tied and working with Cid, you and the Batch undertake a risky heist.

Masterlist for S1

Genre: Friends (idiots) to Lovers (we’re in the lovers stage now)

Chapter Warnings: Use of (Y/N) (will limit as much as I can), canon-deviation (with regards to certain dialogue aspects, timelines and who does what etc), the Force and Force communication working how I say it can, canon-typical violence, light angst and fluff

Word Count: 4.2K

Author’s notes: And now we’re onto S2! Please see this post for more details on it :) Very excited to be sharing this with you all and I don’t think I will ever be able to fully put into words just how much the support has meant! Warnings in italics are warnings that are going to be consistent in every chapter and so won’t be included from now on, only chapter specific warnings will be. Any new readers, please let me know if you want to be tagged! Enjoy!

When Cid had sent you all on this mission and you had seen that it involved a tropical beach location, you rather foolishly thought it would be a relatively simple task. Now, as the four of you ran from the screeching pod of crab-like creatures, you realised you had to stop thinking any mission from Cid would be straightforward. You came out onto the beach clearing and helped Echo up as he stumbled headfirst into the water’s edge before you kept sprinting.

“We went over the plan five times.” Echo said irritably to Wrecker.

“I got the package, didn’t I?” Wrecker replied indignantly.

“Just keep moving.” Hunter ordered.

You glanced behind you and saw more creatures emerging from the beach trees and they were closing in fast. You fired some shots behind you, but the impact was minimal, it merely forced them to go in their shells for a couple of seconds.

“Tech, we’ve got the cargo, but we could use some firepower.” Hunter called into his comm.

“Wrecker woke the pod, didn’t he?” Tech replied as he powered up the ship.

“Yeah, and they’re not happy. We need a pick-up.” Hunter requested as he too fired behind him.

“Copy that. We’re on our way.” Omega chimed in as she and Tech entered the ship. It was then that the tug on the fishing line grabbed her attention. “Tech, we caught something. And I think it’s big.”

“Release the line. We do not have time to reel-” He broke off as more of the creatures climbed on the ship’s windshield and the alarm started blaring. He tried to get the ship off the rock but one of the crabs had grabbed the line and wasn’t letting it go. The ship shuddered and he heard Omega cry out from outside. “Omega!”

Omega managed to grab hold of the line and stop herself from falling further. “I’m okay.” She called up.

“Hang on.” Tech said as he attempted to get the Marauder air bound. However, the presence of these animals was making it a very difficult task.

“They’re wrecking the ship!”

“I cannot shake them.”

Omega slid down further and the creature below her pulled on the line once more. She studied the scene below her and she knew Tech couldn’t get the ones on the ship off if she didn’t help so, instead of trying to climb back up, she slid down and used the momentum to jump over the creatures, tucking and rolling as she landed. She drew her bow quickly and fired on the animals destroying the ship, allowing Tech to get away.

The victory was short-lived as she heard more rustling and shrilling behind her and she saw that more were coming her way. She ran across the beach in parallel to where the ship was.

“Grab the line.” Tech said through comms.

As more creatures came to cut her path off, she fired onto one and used the way it huddled back into its shell as a means to jump and reach the line before the others could grab her. Clipping the line onto her belt, she continued to fire down on the creatures as Tech flew the ship to where the rest of you were.

“Tech, where are you?” You asked as you all stopped running upon seeing your path being quickly shut off by even more of the crabs. However, that swiftly became the least important question as the Marauder rounded the corner but with a distinct addition hanging below it.

“Why is Omega hanging off the ship?” Hunter asked, a hint of horror behind the question as he watched.

“It is an unscheduled study break.” Tech responded.

Omega had been pulled back up to the entry way of the ship and sent it back down whilst she continued to shoot at the rapidly encroaching creatures.

You all ran over to where the ship had stopped and let Wrecker secure the package before you all stepped on it and let it take you up to the safety of the ship.

Hunter sat down and took of his helmet whilst you stood beside him and removed your hood and mask. All of you were breathing heavily.

“I thought the beach was going to be relaxing.” Wrecker grunted as he collapsed over the container.

“Appreciate the backup, but try staying inside the ship next time.” Hunter said to Omega.

“I’ll try.” Omega took her hat off. “But it was still pretty fun.” She added with a smile on her face.

Ord Mantell.

“Greetings. It is I, AZ-345211-”

“Yeah, yeah, we know.” Wrecker interrupted as he made his way past.

“You are all quite late. Mistress Cid has been extremely vocal about her displeasure.”

“Well, there’s a surprise.” You and Echo muttered to each other as you followed the others to her office.

“Well, well, well. The space lugs decided to finally show up.” Cid said drily upon seeing you all walk through the door.

“Better late than dead, I always say.”

You didn’t recognise the woman sitting rather comfortably in Cid’s chair, drink in hand, with her legs up and feet on the table. “And who are you?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” She replied with a smirk before she got up moved around the desk. “So, this is the top team you’ve been talking about? The rogue squad on the run from the Empire, huh? How juicy.”

“You told her?” Hunter said to Cid, his guard automatically going up.

“Don’t get twitchy.” Cid said dismissively. “Phee’s a friend. She’s the most trustworthy pirate I know.”

“Two things that don’t belong in the same sentence.” You grumbled, keeping your gaze on Phee.

Phee met your eye contact. “You’re exactly as Cid described you.” She said with a smirk.

You glared at her but said nothing.

“Aren’t clones supposed to look alike? So much for quality control.” She turned her eyes to each of them. “This one’s too big. This one’s too small. This one’s got a face tattoo.” She let out a short laugh. “Yeah, real subtle.” Then her eyes caught the one with the data pad standing at the end. “Oh. Hey now. Got a name, brown eyes?” She flirted.

Your jaw dropped and you eagerly awaited to see how Tech was going to respond.

Tech merely adjusted his goggles. “Tech. However, the phenotypic eye colour for all clones is brown. Iris pigmentation was not affected by our muta-”

Yeah, that feels about right. You thought to yourself.

“Well, as fascinating as this has been. I have places to be.” Phee interrupted before she handed Cid her drink. “You, let’s see those muscles in action. Grab that and follow me.”

Wrecker looked at Hunter for direction and when he nodded, he bent down and picked up the package. “Uh, y-yes ma’am.”

“And, Cid, that intel is not free. I expect a cut if your ‘top team’ comes through.” Phee said before she left the room.

“What is she talking about?” Hunter asked.

“And how much does she actually know?” You asked.

“Relax, she doesn’t know about your ‘situation’.” Cid replied. “Now, can we get into this? It’s your next mission. You lot are heading to the Outer Rim.” Cid pulled up a hologram of the exact place she was sending you.

You looked upon the image with utter disgust.

“That is Castle Serenno, the former home of Count Dooku.” Tech provided.

“Who’s that?” Omega asked.

“A Jedi who betrayed the Republic and led the Separatists in a war.” You spat. “You can’t seriously be expecting-”

“Leave whatever personal issue you have out of it and look at the facts. With him being dead, Dooku’s entire war chest is up for grabs. The Empire has already started pillaging his palace, but there is still time to strike before it’s all gone.”

You shook your head at her.

“Too much of a risk.” Hunter said. “You want that war chest? You go after it.” With that, he left the room and the rest of you followed.

You, Hunter, and Omega were by the bar counter and Omega was studying the data pad in front of her.

“What class of shuttle? Lambda or Delta?” Hunter quizzed.

“Lambda-class.” Omega answered instantly.

“Very good.” Hunter said proudly.

You watched them both with a fond smile. In the time since Kamino, Hunter had really embraced the role he had in Omega’s life, in fact you all had. The relationship you each had with her was slightly different but that was what made it work. Despite everything that had happened, the bonds between all of you had only grown stronger. Same went with Omega too. You had watched her grow from a young girl who didn’t know what dirt was to someone that was memorising every Imperial ship and who was more than capable of taking care of herself.

Wrecker’s voice grabbed both of your attention. “I’m in too.” The two of you looked over to see the others in a huddle with Cid.

“Good. Then we’re all in agreement. Now, all we gotta do is the other two.”

“Convince us about what?” Hunter asked as you both approached the group.

“Uh, well, we took a vote, and we wanna go after the war chest.” Wrecker said awkwardly.

“It’s unanimous. Even killjoy over here agreed.” Cid revealed, gesturing towards Echo.

Despite the situation, the edges of your mouth lifted slightly as you saw the affronted expression on Echo’s face.

“Serenno is Imperial occupied. We’ve stayed off the Empire’s radar since Kamino. Why chance it now?” Hunter said.

“You can’t let your little girlfriend’s social standing stop you from going anywhere with an Imperial presence.” Cid said bluntly.

“We’ve talked about that before and that’s not why, Cid.” You snapped. It’s not, right? You glanced at him, relieved that he shook his head. “There’s a bigger picture.”

“Exactly. Just cause you don’t like the guy that this stuff used to belong to shouldn’t mean you don’t go. If anything, that’s more reason to go. But more than that, the contents of just one of those containers would be worth more than all the jobs you pulled for me combined. You can buy your freedom.”

“We’re already free.” Hunter argued.

“It’s cute you think that.” Cid replied. “Clearly, you’re not paying attention to what’s happening out there, but I am. It’s only a matter of time before the Empire comes here. And then my little operation is over which means no more jobs for you.”

“She… does have a valid point.” Tech agreed.

“You wanna really be free? Then pull off this heist and you’ll have the means to disappear. No more risky missions. No more living hand to mouth. You can have a future. Isn’t that what you’re after?” Cid asked, her eyes shifting to you.

You want (y/n) to be craving a life you can’t give her? Crosshair’s words about you from Kamino still haunted his mind and he looked at you beside him, but you weren’t looking at him. You were looking over at Omega and then he too looked at the young girl. Living amongst fugitives where she’s constant danger? Again, the words of his brother came flooding back.

You sighed and turned to face him. For her?

And you, he mentally added before he nodded and addressed the group. “Okay, let’s go.”

The ship flew through hyperspace. Things on the ship were peaceful. Omega was in her room; Wrecker was napping in the co-pilots chair, and Hunter was watching the navigation console, with you in your bunk just behind it grabbing some rest too.

Echo approached Hunter from the cockpit and glanced up at Omega’s room and he looked over at you. The curtain in the gun turret was closed and your back was turned, and your shoulders moved in steady rise and fall so he figured it was safe. “I know why you agreed to this mission. But we can do better things with Dooku’s fortune than hide, Hunter. With what we’re up against, we have to be prepared to fight. That means numbers and weapons.”

“That’s not the kind of life this kid deserves.” Hunter replied.

“And you’re just thinking about the kid?”

Hunter shot him a look of warning.

Not to be dissuaded, Echo pushed forward. “Look, our lives are like this because of both of them.”

Hunter got up swiftly and pushed Echo back towards the hallway by the cockpit, his head turning back to see if either you or Omega had made any indication that you had heard that.

“Taking Omega off Kamino and sticking with her.” Echo indicated back over to you. “Was the right thing to do. But there are others out there who need our help. We’ve seen what the Empire is doing throughout the galaxy. We should be doing more.” Echo walked back to the cockpit.

Hunter sat back down by the console, unaware of the young girl peeking from behind the curtain and the fact that your eyes were wide open.

Serreno.

You departed the ship and donned your hood and masked before checking that your vibroblade and blaster were secure. You were trying to shake the guilt you were feeling but with little success. Now, you just felt a bit awkward.

Hunter sensed something off in your demeanour and he squeezed your hand. “Everything okay?”

“Yup.” You replied quickly. “Just want to get this over and done with.”

“So, where is this palace?” Wrecker asked.

Tech studied his datapad. “The city is on the opposite side of this mountain range.”

Hunter noticed Omega hanging back as you all began the walk. “Are you coming?” He put on his helmet as she started walking too but he couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something was off with both of you, and he found himself hoping neither of you had heard what Echo had said.

You all peered over the edge of the mountain path to see the city completed decimated.

“That’s the city? What happened to it?” Omega asked.

“Imperial orbital bombardment. Same as on Kamino.” Echo answered.

You continued to walk for a short time before you came upon the castle.

Tech pulled out his macrobinoculars and studied the scenes below. “It appears that they are beginning to transport the war chest off-world. Our window of opportunity is quickly closing.” He passed the binoculars over to Echo.

“There’s over 40 troopers down there.” Echo said after he stopped looking and stood up.

Wrecker merely grunted and pounded his fists together. “That’s nothing.”

“Stealth, Wrecker. Remember?” Omega reminded him.

The sound of engine’s powering up grabbed your attention, and you groaned as you saw the ships that served as a painful reminder of the incident on Daro. “I hate those ships.” You mumbled as you watched a couple take off and fly alongside the cargo freighter. The light weight of Hunter’s hand on your back provided you some reassurance.

“Imperial escort ships.” Tech stated. “The standard protocol for when high-level cargo is being transported.”

“Get to the nearest container and grab what you can.” Hunter directed. “We’ll be the eyes on the ground.” Hunter said, nodding towards you. “If things go sideways, we’ll divert their forces and buy you some time.”

You split up into your two groups and made your way down the mountainside.

You were uncharacteristically quiet as the two of you walked.

“Are you sure everything is alright?” Hunter broached carefully.

“Yeah. Just don’t want to be here any longer than we have to.” You deflected. “Come on, we should focus. We’re nearly at the shipyard.” You added, nodding ahead before you sped up.

Hunter paused for a moment and just watched you go. He really hoped you hadn’t heard Echo, but he knew you were right. There would be time afterwards to talk about whatever was going on. He got his head back in the game and matched your pace.

“In position. And the second transport’s launching.” Echo commed through as he watched with the others from the treeline.

You studied the group of soldiers ahead of you from behind the trees.

“We’ve got roving patrols. Stay alert.” Hunter advised back.

You waited a few moments to allow more ships to depart before you both covertly made your way down. You followed Hunter’s signal and the two of you split to sabotage as many of the ships as you could.

Running at a crouch, and keeping a look out as you did so, you planted your first explosive before moving onto the next ship.

The others had managed to successfully infiltrate the final transport, but they were needing to hustle since Wrecker’s action of stunning an Imperial soldier meant they were on more of a time crunch.

You attached your last explosive and got ready to leave but your eyes caught sight of a trooper checking out the ship you knew Hunter was just at, but you huffed out a relieved sigh when you saw that he was able to get clear before they spotted him. You used their distraction to swiftly leave and hop over the small wall and join Hunter back behind the trees. Now, you just had to wait for word from the others.

“CT-8808 report.”

The order chiming through the unconscious soldier’s helmet was the moment Echo knew their time was running out. “Hunter, I think we’re about to have some company.”

“Are you clear?” Hunter asked.

“Negative. We could use that diversion about now.”

“On it.” Hunter nodded at you, and you brought out the detonator and activated the charges, sending a series of ships up on flames and thankfully it worked like Hunter had intended. A rush of soldiers headed over to the sight of the destruction.

The two of you began to run back in the direction of the rest of your squad.

“We’re heading your way. Be ready.” Hunter said.

“Where are the others?” You asked urgently as you saw Wrecker was the only one to have appeared.

“Still in the container.” He replied, angling back to look.

The sight of the locked doors and smoke leaving the transport got your heart beating faster. You activated your comm. “Tech, the ship’s taking off. Get out of there.” You pressed urgently.

“Hurry, Echo.” Omega said anxiously as he struggled with the door mechanism.

“It’s externally sealed. I can’t open it.” Echo replied.

“Hunter, we’re trapped in the container.” Omega said fretfully. “We can’t get out.”

Those words had both you and Hunter turn to each other, and you were sure the panic behind your eyes would be in his own behind his helmet.

“On our way.” Hunter replied quickly.

“Uh, Boss? I think they know something’s up.” Wrecker stated.

The two of you followed his line of sight and saw that a series of troopers had now surrounded the container.

Hunter sighed. This wasn’t at all how things were supposed to go. He drew his blaster and set it to stun. “We’re done hiding anyway.”

You followed his actions and the three of you ran towards the cargo ship, firing a series of blasts as you did so.

The three of you climbed the ladder on the side of the ship as it took off, with you going first, then Hunter, then Wrecker. The troopers didn’t let that put them off and you flattened yourself against the railings as much as you could to avoid their fire whilst still sending back shots of your own.

You took a moment to see how the others were and panic clawed at your throat as you saw a round of shots being fired in Hunter’s direction, their aim focused on where his grip on the ladder was. One particular shot had him losing his hold and all that went through your mind was the terror you had felt on Daro as you once again had to watch him fall. “Hunter!” You cried out.

You dropped your head in relief when you saw he was able to grab hold of the last rung and hang over the edge. It wasn’t ideal but the alternative was far worse.

You were soon high enough to be out of blaster fire range, something Wrecker wasn’t overly fond of as he peered down. “Oh, I’m starting to regret this.” He said uneasily.

“We gotta go.” You said as you saw the ship getting closer to leaving the atmosphere.

“Go where?” Wrecker argued.

Hunter saw the castle approaching beneath him. “She’s right. Jump!”

The three of you let go of the ladder and slid down the cylindrical structure of Dooku’s castle. You and Hunter used your vibroblades to slow your descent and Hunter helped Wrecker as he held on to the edge of the platform you had landed on.

“This isn’t any better.” Wrecker groaned as he stood up.

Hunter watched the ship continue to fly away as he sheathed his blade. Already his anxieties were coming to life before his eyes. Something only made worse when he heard Omega’s voice through the comms.

“Hunter, where are you?”

“Sorry, kid. We got a little sidetracked. You need to get off that ship before it jumps to hyperspace.”

“If we gain access to the ship’s main hold, we could commandeer an escape pod.” Tech theorised.

“Do it.” Hunter ordered. “We’ll get to the Marauder and recover you.”

“It’s going to take a while.” You pointed out as you stared at the crowd of clones heading towards the castle as the fired up at you.

“Quick! Inside.” Hunter directed.

The three of you made your way inside the castle.

You all entered the decrepit and run-down main room of Dooku’s castle through a side door, and a shudder ran down your spine. His absence clearly didn’t equal the absence of the dark forces that surrounded the room. It was affecting you more than you anticipated. It wasn’t just discomfort you felt, you were physically cold too.

“This place gives me the creeps.” Wrecker said uneasily as he walked in further.

Hunter noticed the way you paused before fully entering the room and the way the hand on your blaster shook slightly. He signalled to Wrecker to move on ahead and he hung back. “You with us?” He asked gently as he allowed himself a moment to just be your Hunter and not your sergeant.

You exhaled deeply and rolled your neck. “Yeah. Sorry, I’m good.”

Hunter nodded at you before you both continued down the stairs further into the room.

The quiet was short lived, it wasn’t long before the main door opened, and the troopers began to fire on you once more.

The three of you fired back with stun blasts of your own and took cover behind the desk. The floor buckled slightly as you all landed on it, but you couldn’t pay it much thought, your focus was making sure those troopers couldn’t get closer to you.

“Any idea how we’re getting out of here?” You asked over the din of blaster fire.

Hunter looked around and noticed the cracked window and looked down at the floor and stroked along the edges. “We’re not going out. We’re going down. There’s a lift below us. Cover me.” He began to get to work on the console.

You and Wrecker focused your fire, giving Hunter as much time as he needed but they had reinforcements, and that time was rapidly running out.

“What is taking you so long?” Wrecker complained.

“I’m trying. Tech usually does this.” Hunter answered as he started multitasking between firing on the soldiers and activating the lift. He was finally able to get it moving but one blast meant the panel short circuited, halting the lift in in tracks. “It’s jammed.” He said irritably before he gave up and helped out with thinning out Imperial numbers.

“They won’t see me…” You said hesitantly as you stunned a couple more troopers before you took cover.

“No.” Hunter said firmly as he continued to fire.

“I can fix it.” Wrecker offered instead.

The two of you took a step back as he threw a smoke bomb which gave you and Hunter the opening you needed to gain the upper hand and it gave Wrecker the chance to begin jumping.

Realising what his plan was, your stomach dropped to the level you sure you all would be free falling to very shortly. “Wait! Don’t!” Your plea was short lived since the three of you tumbled down the lift shaft, Wrecker’s screams echoing around you.

With Plan A of the rest of you coming to their aid failing, and Plan B of commandeering an escape pod also failing, Echo, Tech and Omega found themselves back in a cargo container, hoping that by releasing all the containers, the re-entry boosters would slow their landing. The main flaw in this plan being not being able to control where they land.

“When are the re-entry boosters supposed to fire?” Echo asked as he let Omega through the netting of one of the containers before he followed suit.

“I think they should have by now.” Omega replied, nervous that they hadn’t activated yet.

“That is going to be a problem.” Tech stated as he struggled to keep hold of the netting on the outside of the container as it continued to plummet towards the ground.

Next Chapter>

Tagging: @noeasyisnoisy, @tpwkcalli, @fuckoffthanos, @arctrooper69, @graciexmarvel, @flyingkangaroo, @nightmonkeysstuff, @brujaporfavor, @a-streakofazure, @ladytano420, @dragonrider9905, @keep-calm-and-drink-caf, @yyourmotherr, @xxeiraxx

#the bad batch #the bad batch s2 #the bad batch season 2 #hunter x reader #hunter x fem!reader #hunter x femaleJedi!reader #hunter x female!reader #sergeant hunter x reader #sergeant hunter #hunter tbb #hunter the bad batch #the bad batch hunter x you #hunter x y/n #tbb hunter x reader #the bad batch fanfiction #star wars #friends to lovers #fluff #angst

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faeryarchives · 2 years

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holding hands (gender neutral reader!)

the most benevolent dorm leader, azul ashengrotto had dealt various types of problem before - but now he is facing a big problem after realizing, not once he held hands with the prefect even though they are in a relationship for 6 months already

from his previous experience of handling with different kinds of problem and written contracts, others can say that azul can always solve his own issues without any difficulty. right?

wrong! that is why the leech twins watched their octopus friend paced back and forth in the lounge with a troubled look on his face.

"azuuuul, i thought you called us for an emergency meeting~ why are you pacing back and fort like a crab?"

"is it about the sales? i didn't see anything wrong with it." as if finally coming back to twisted wonderland, azul stopped walking and sat down in front of the tweels with a very serious face.

"... this is very crucial. you two know that i am in a relationship with the prefect for a while now right?"

the prefect of the ramshackle dorm, someone that the twins deemed as a very bright and pure person that helped not only when azul overblotted but also helped the octopus build his confidence more and making the dorm leader feel loved.

"oh koebi-chan? yeah it's been 6 months right?"

"so what is the problem with it?" the two expected that their troubled friend got into a fight with the prefect or there is a problem in their relationship but what azul said next made floyd let out a very loud laugh.

"... how can i ask them to like hold hands?"

"..."

"... hahahah!"

"floyd don't laugh!"

"hahahahaha! i can't believe it! you guys are typically okay with hugs and cuddling but i never would've thought the two of you haven't held hands yet!" floyd let out a merry sigh before leaning on the swivel chair and looked at the now blushing azul with a big teasing grin on his face. "why don't you just grab their hand out of nowhere i am sure they are fine with that."

"w-what if they find it weird or think that i am acting strange?"

"oh my - azul you are literally their boyfriend why would they find it weird, right jade?"

the other eel looked at his brother who seemed to be occupied with his phone. jade let out a hum before putting his device back in his pocket and nodded. "i agree, i am sure (name) wouldn't mind it at all and might even feel glad."

"you two don't get me! it's making me embarrassed after realizing we never even hold hands how can i asked them to hold my hand at this point!" the eels looked at each other, matching grins on their face - thinking of one word to describe azul at this moment.

'simp. he is such a simp.'

brushing off the imaginary dust off of his pants, jade stood up and gave the octopus a knowing glance.

"if you really want to know, why not asked them directly? right (name)?"

"i didn't know that you were thinking of that love, you are so cute."

the three looked at the lounge entrance where the prefect could be seen, trying to hold their giggle. if anything, it made floyd once again let out the laugh of his life seeing azul turn as red as riddle's hair.

"w-what are you doing here (nickname)?! i thought you were busy teaching grim, ace and deuce?" almost tripping out of air, they rushed in to catch azul before he fall down the floor. letting out a laugh, the prefect shook their head and azul could feel his heart beat faster than ever after seeing their smile up close.

"mmmm i did but they are grown up they can take care of themselves. how can i say when jade told me you were troubled by something?" feeling very giddy inside, he couldn't help but to bury his head in their shoulder letting out a hum. "i didn't want you to know about it though."

as sneaky as a fox, azul could feel their hand slowly reaching out for his and slowly entangle their fingers together - feeling the prefect's thumb rubbing his hand, oh great sevens azul could just melt at that moment.

"you can just ask me anytime, does that answer your question?"

"... you knew all the time didn't you?"

"i suddenly can't hear anything, anyways do you want to go out today? my treat for this week."

"don't you avoid the question!"

"so did they like forget that we were still in the lounge?" floyd and jade stood at the side watching the two catch up with each other holding hands and sitting together on the couch, disbelief written all over the eels' faces especially floyd's.

"well at least they finally held hands."

"i swear they are the couple that simps for each other. i am going out to play basketball, my mood is ruined~"

"might as well go out for mushroom hunting and leave them here."

YES HELLO I AM BACK DVFJCJDV SORRY I WAS TAKING CARE OF PERSONAL PROBLEMS AND COLLEGE APPLICATIONS i hope u enjoy the small scenario ^^

I was just washing the dishes and then my mind goes 'what if there is someone in twst who would be shy to hold the prefect's hand in their relationship' and it turned out cute 😭 and the way prefect knew that azul wants to hold hands but ends up teasing him

#twisted wonderland headcanons #twisted wonderland scenarios #twisted wonderland x reader #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland imagines #twst x reader #twst reader insert #twst headcanons #twst imagines #twst scenarios #azul ashengrotto #azul ashengrotto x reader

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wellthebardsdead · 1 year

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Lucien: so, Bass, do you have any hobbies you enjoy? Like, I know you only just emerged from oblivion a couple months ago and it’s more or less just been, go! Go! Go! Since then but. Is there anything you enjoy doing?

Bass: My wife used to bring me small shelled creatures. Snails and mudcrabs usually. Sometimes hermit crabs. All of them injured and in need of help. So I’d repair their shells or make entirely new ones while I fed them treats. It was a delightful pass time between my duties. She’d get very upset over fluffy creatures being hurt though, rabbits, foxes, deer and the like and would beg me to help them. I hated seeing my wife cry so I created prosthetics for them. It’s actually how I rose in rank from a lowly baritone tonal architect to an innovator and tonal architect under the study of Kagrenac’s teachings. I believe Yagrum Bagarn actually used my schematics to create his prosthetics after losing his lower half. I told him he shouldn’t be indulging in so much drink and moon sugar but he didn’t listen… it breaks my heart seeing what’s become of him.

Lucien: I- wait- hold on a moment you met Kagrenac?! What was he like?! And- YAGRUM IS STILL ALIVE?!

Bass: alive… but… not living… *tears up* My old friend became infected with the disease spewed out by Ur Dagoth… I saw him only through glass walls in the chamber he was being held. Divayth Fyr created a vaccine to protect everyone who’d come into contact with him, and it was one I gladly took. But still, Yagrum was too violent for me to enter… He recognised me for only a moment, and wept. He’d spent so long looking for us even in his madness, and I can only hope I brought him some peace before his end…

Lucien: His? End?…

Bass: With me alive, there was no reason to desperately try to keep him alive as the last dwemer… he was in agony, lost to madness, barely eating, a diseased, husk of the person I once new… I begged Divayth Fyr to end him, it broke my heart seeing him suffer the way he was… and as cruel as it sounds, I’m glad he did… I burned his body so he wouldn’t raise as a thrall… and now. I truely am alone…

Lucien: …

*a few hours later*

Lucien: Bass!! I need your help! It’s urgent!

Bass: What is it?? What happened??

Lucien: *holds up a snail with a cracked shell* I stood on him walking back from the hags cure! Can you fix him? Please?

Bass: *gently pats the snail making it retreat into its shell so it won’t get hurt when he picks it up* of course I will Lucien… would you like to help me and take notes?

Lucien: I- yes! Absolutely!

Bass: wonderful, I should make you my apprentice at this point!

#bass dragonborn #dwemer dragonborn #ocs #Lucien flavius #Lucien skyrim #Skyrim

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writer-in-theory · 1 year

Text

Swiping Right

Summary: When Steve helps set Robin up on a date from Tinder, he never expected to find a love of his own in her date's roommate. Prompt: “That’s how you do it, Hawkins, that’s how you do it!” // “You can stay at my place.” Pairing: Steve Harrington/Billy Hargrove, Robin Buckley/Heather Holloway Rating: Mature (for sexual humor) Word Count: 9.3k Content Warnings: Mild language, Mentions of Homophobia Read On AO3: HereA/N: This is my sixth fill for @harringroveson-bingo and my first fill for @billyhargrovebingo !! Huge thanks once again to @serenity-lattes and @lcvingprentjss for beta-ing and hyping me up the whole way.

When Steve got the SOS text from Robin, he was sure the worst had happened. Someone had broken into the apartment in the first year of it being theirs, an earthquake had somehow rocked the apartment but not the preschool building Steve worked at, Robin had somehow forgotten she was allergic to shellfish and indulged in some crab.

Instead of finding any of that, Steve walked into their small apartment in San Diego to find Robin face down on the living room floor, arm outstretched above her head and phone resting in it, the screen on to show some app. Both relief and frustration bubbled up in him at the sight of his perfectly okay, if overly-dramatic, roommate.

“Fallen and you can’t get up?” Steve recited dramatically, “You need LifeAlert!”

“You won’t be laughing when your best friend dies of literal embarrassment,” Robin groaned. “I can feel it coming, mortification, the likes of which my Sims have never even dreamed of.”

Steve gently nudged his friend’s side with his shoe, laughing when she let out a cracked groan and haphazardly tried to swat at his ankle. “You’re lucky I was already on my way home. What’s happening?”

He walked the few steps into the connected kitchen, separated only by a little breakfast bar they used solely for coffee. He grabbed a water bottle from the fridge before flopping to the ground by Robin’s head, plucking the phone right out of her hand before she could stop him.

“Hey! No that’s—”

“Tinder? Robs, you did not call an SOS for a Tinder emergency,” Steve cackled, “I know we said we were hopeless, but this is a little much.”

If someone would have told high school Steve that by twenty-three he would be living in San Diego with Robin Buckley, he would have never believed them. Yet here he was, clicking through the multiple failed attempts at conversations with the women Robin had matched with. Most of them were only a few replies long, barely scraping past the awkward pickup lines and ‘how are you?’s to really get anywhere.

“Robin,” Steve sighed, sending her a pointed look when she finally lifted her head off her crossed arms just enough to look at him. “This is tragic.”

“I know that, dingus! I wouldn’t have called an emergency if I didn’t!” Robin shouted, her body springing into action and scrambling to sit cross-legged beside Steve so she could look over his shoulder at her phone. “You have to help me.”

“Me?” Steve laughed, “I’ve struck out more time than I’ve succeeded lately.”

“Yeah, because you suck at second dates.”

“Hey!”

“It’s true and you know it,” Robin countered, and well, Steve couldn’t exactly deny it. He could get the first date with no problem and had plenty of experience doing so. But considering his only long-term relationship had been with Nancy Wheeler during his Senior year of high school, he didn’t have too much experience keeping someone around. “You’ve had more first dates here than I ever thought possible, you have to help me. It’s the Gay Code.”

“Gay Code,” Steve repeated, trying not to laugh but unable to stop a few noises from slipping out. “Sure, Robs, I’ll help. But you owe me, there’s a reason I deleted Tinder.”

And honestly, Steve thought Robin’s profile looked good. He recognized a few of the pictures he’d taken on one of their adventures when she’d unceremoniously tossed her phone at him and demanded a photo. He even made an appearance in one, necessitating a small aside in her bio that they were ‘platonic with a capital P.’ It was the conversations that fell hard, and Steve understood for the most part. Talking to random people on a dating app could get really awkward really quickly, even for someone who enjoyed flirting as much as he did. Then factor that into the fact that Robin was someone who needed to warm up to people—exemplified clearly in the way she had given him only one-word replies for the first two weeks of their ice cream shop job in high school—and it was clear why Robin struggled to find easy conversation with these women.

Steve also knew that, if one of them would just give her a chance, it’d be impossible not to fall for her immediately. It had happened to him directly: going from thinking of her only as his weird band geek coworker to one of the best friends he’d ever had in just a few short months.

“Oooh, Heather Holloway just matched with you,” Steve spoke up in a sing-song voice once the alert flashed up on the screen. “Oh, she’s cute. Careful, Robs, I might steal her.”

“Hey, my Tinder profile is not a way for you to meet pretty bi women, hands off if you’re gonna do that,” Robin countered, leaning forward as Steve began scrolling through Heather’s page. It was clear why Robin had swiped right in the first place—Heather was stunning and carried herself with the kind of confidence that couldn’t be learned. Her bio says she’s a model and she spends her free time volunteering at a youth gym for victims of violence.

“Okay, Operation: Get Robin a Date is a go.”

“God, you’ve been talking to Dustin too much,” Robin groaned, flopping onto her back dramatically and covering her eyes with her arm. “Just tell me the damage when you’re done.”

“You don’t want to know what I’m saying to her?” Steve asked, poking his roommate’s arm when she didn’t budge. “What if it comes up later when you get a date?”

“What makes you think I’ll get a date? She’s a fucking model, Steve.”

“Yeah? And you’re a badass grad student who’s already working on movie sets. Not to mention you have a really, and I mean really, great-looking best friend, and that’s always important in a good relationship,” Steve teased, knowing a lot of this came from some deeper place Robin likely wouldn’t want to examine closely at the moment, not sitting over model Heather Holloway’s gorgeous profile. “I’ll get you a date, leave it all to Stevie.”

“Do me a favor and hit me over the head next time you plan on saying anything like that.”

“Ouch, Robs,” Steve laughed, moving his free hand to clutch his chest while the other hand typed away another message to Heather. “Careful how you talk to the person holding your phone.”

The floor wasn’t comfortable in the least, but Steve stayed there the entire time he spoke to Heather as Robin. He was already sore from spending so much time wrangling the kids at work and the additional floor time would do him no favors, but it was all worth it for his best friend. Robin had been there through everything—shitty mall jobs, even shittier strip mall jobs, bisexual awakenings, and subsequent bi crises, Robin Buckley was there for it all. There was no way he would have made it out of Hawkins without her, so the least he could do was prove that she would find the right person now that they’d both escaped.

“Aha!” Steve screamed the second the message came in, shoving the phone close enough to Robin’s face to make her go cross-eyed. “Give me a crown and call me King Steve, because I just got you a damn coffee date!”

“You didn’t,” Robin exclaimed, yanking the phone out of his hand so she could read it better herself. “Holy shit, Harrington, you got me a date!”

“I know, I know, I’m just that good.”

“Wait, wait,” Robin began as another set of ‘pings’ came in, eyebrows drawing together as she read the new messages. “You got us a date.”

“Robs, what the hell are you talking about?”

“I mean, it’s Tinder. It makes sense, I wouldn’t want to meet up with an axe murderer either.” Robin laughed, typing something back to Heather Holloway from San Diego. “She wants it to be a double date with her roommate and mine. She says he’s cute, you’ll like him.”

“I’m not dating,” Steve said, already climbing to his feet. His bedroom wasn’t far, he could make it before Robin caught up if he sprinted. It had been years since he’d played sports at the level he did in high school, but some of that athleticism must have been preserved somewhere. After all, while he’d had plenty of first dates and flings in the months since they’d moved to San Diego, he hadn’t exactly had anything serious yet. Steve wasn’t sure he was ready, not when he was finally figuring out who he was outside of Hawkins, away from his parents’ influence.

“Please, Steve? C’mon, you can’t drop the ball now. It’s one date, and hey! What if he’s the one and you’re just walking away from him right now?”

Steve sent her a deadpan look, rolling his eyes at the thought that some random roommate of the girl she’d met on Tinder could be his perfect match. “If he was the one, we’ll find each other again later.”

“Steve Harrington, you are not blowing this for me. Do you know the last time I’ve gotten any kind of action? What I would do to get my fingers in so—”

“Lalala nope no no!” Steve screeched, hands flying up to cover his ears in case Robin decided to continue speaking over his shouts, cheeks reddening at the image of his best friend and roommate getting any kind of ‘action’. “Keep it rated PG-13 before I have a heart attack.”

“The point is, I need this,” Robin pressed. “Please? It’s just coffee. What’s the worst that could happen?”

She had a point. Even then Steve knew he wouldn’t refuse her, not when she was making that pleading expression. “Fine. One date, but that’s it, no matter how hot this guy is.”

Steve was going to kill Robin. It would be easy to do considering how much she trusted him. He had no idea how poison worked but he could figure it out before the next time he made their morning coffees, or he could push her down the stairs like some jealous dance student in a dramatic teen movie. Either way, she was a goner because cute did not even begin to cover how attractive this guy was.

Though she’d been a panicked mess the entire walk to the coffee shop, Robin had immediately walked up to Heather the second they got there, leaving Steve to practically gawk at the man standing next to them. He couldn’t be real, like he’d stepped off the cover of some magazine Steve would never have read two years ago because all the guys were too gorgeous to look at without blushing. His shorts were just short enough to make Steve take quick looks at the hem in hopes the guy wouldn’t notice, and the way he’d left the top several buttons of his shirt undone was absolutely sinful. His dark blond hair was styled with just the right amount of messiness, one curl laid perfectly over his forehead in a way that screamed Superman, blue eyes shining bright as he took notice of Steve.

“I guess you’re the roommate,” the man said once Steve dared get close enough. He reached out his hand to shake and Steve thought he might keel over from that singular touch alone, blushing like he was back in high school when his crush noticed him for the first time. “I’m Billy Hargrove, Heather’s friend.”

“Oh, yeah, I am. The roommate, that is. Also the best friend,” Steve managed to get out, tugging his hand through his hair the second the handshake was over. “Steve Harrington.”

Never before had Steve felt so nervous, but he told himself as they were ordering and finding a table nearby the two women that it was all for good reason. This was California, and Heather was a model, and it would only make sense that she would have attractive friends. This was just one date, set up simply to protect their two friends during a Tinder meetup. After coffee, Steve would never have to see this guy again so it really didn’t matter how big of a fool he made himself out to be.

“I gotta say, I’m glad you’re real, man,” Billy let out once they were sitting down with their coffees in hand. Billy had gotten something iced that looked about as sweet as Robin usually ordered while Steve sat with his hands warming around a cup of hot coffee.

“What, you thought this was a catfish situation?” Steve teased, knowing the thought had crossed his mind more than once in the week since Robin and Heather first matched on Tinder.

“Hell yeah I did,” Billy chuckled, fingers gripping a little tighter around his cup. “Robin seemed too good to be true. Fuck, if I didn’t like guys I’d have fought Heather for the date.”

Yeah, Robin was a goner the second they got back to the apartment. Steve nearly spluttered around his coffee at the words, knowing that it had been him behind the entire conversation that Heather had shown Billy. Steve forced out a laugh, hoping it didn’t sound too nervous as he answered, “Yep, yeah that’s Robin. Total catch.”

“Where are you and Total Catch from?”

“Why assume we’re not from around here?” Steve shot back instantly as if he had any sort of problem sharing about his life. He didn’t, not really, though the American Midwest wasn’t exactly the stunning or exciting answer Billy was likely looking for.

“Because,” Billy began, leaning forward and smirking like he had some great secret to share. Steve found himself leaning in too, practically drawn to the other man. “I would’ve noticed a pretty boy like you years ago if you’d been here all along.”

Maybe Steve was the dead one. Maybe he’d keeled over the second he and Billy Hargrove made eye contact, and this was all some dream his mind was drawing up at the end. It was cheesy as hell and there had to have been something else that actually gave him away, and yet the statement was enough to nearly send Steve sprawling on the floor.

“Hawkins,” Steve blurted out before his mind completely blue screened and rebooted. “I’m from Hawkins. It’s this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, Indiana. The most notable thing about it is the old mall that was built in the 80s. Its theme never changed so it’s like this relic from old times or whatever they’re calling it nowadays.”

“Hawkins,” Billy spoke like he was testing the word out in his mouth. “Well, welcome to California, Harrington.”

“What about you? Are you from here?”

“Born ‘n raised.” Billy flashed a bright smile, all white teeth and the hint of a dimple on one cheek. “I could take you sightseeing like a true welcome, show you everywhere we try to keep hidden from the tourists.”

“We’ve been in San Diego for nine months now,” Steve pointed out, though the image of him spending the day walking around with Billy under the summer sun wouldn’t leave his mind. “I think I know the city.”

“That’s your first mistake.” Billy reached out to rest his elbow on the table, pointing one finger in Steve’s direction. “You don’t know San Diego ‘til you have an expert to show you the real scene.”

“Yeah? You calling yourself an expert now?”

“I know a few things,” Billy returned with just enough mystery that Steve wondered if he wasn’t bullshitting the whole thing.

“Well, then I might have to take you up on that tour.”

“We’ll call it our second date.”

Steve raised an eyebrow, finally beginning to relax into the conversation now that it was clear he could get along with Billy. “Who says you’re getting a second date, Malibu?”

“You do know Malibu isn’t anywhere near San Diego, right?”

He didn’t, but hotshot Billy Hargrove didn’t need to know that. “Maybe not, but I could mistake you for Malibu Barbie.”

“That so?” Billy leaned forward on his forearms then, tongue flashing through his lips for long enough that Steve had to avert his eyes lest his thoughts turn down a very different path.

Steve leaned forward to match him, close enough that with a little more effort he could find out how those lips tasted. “You bet, Malibu.”

Billy’s laugh was unlike anything else Steve had ever heard. It came out in a punch of sound, a little sharp around the edges like he wasn’t quite used to making the noise or like he tried to stop it in the first place. It was a deep rumble Steve was sure he’d feel in the man’s chest if he had the occasion to lay on it—not that he wanted to.

“You’re somethin’ else,” Billy laughed, and Steve couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment.

It was still early but Steve found himself wanting this to go somewhere, despite everything saying that this was too much, too soon. He wasn’t ready to date and yet he couldn’t imagine letting Billy slip away after the ease with which they talked over coffee. Steve hadn’t even noticed how much time had passed until Robin and Heather walked over to their table across the coffee shop, hand-in-hand. The sun was just beginning to dip beneath the horizon, painting the sky with brilliant golds and pinks that always made Steve wonder how the world could exist in such beauty every day.

It only took one look from Robin to tell how well the women’s date went. She was practically beaming, eyes alight in a way Steve was sure he hadn’t seen before. She’d dated a couple of times since he’d met her—even daring a relationship with a girl from back home even when Steve feared even saying the word out loud. She hardly took her eyes off of Heather, only doing so long enough to send Steve a bright smile, the reassurance that she was okay.

“Don’t wait up for me, asshole,” Heather told Billy, knocking his upper arm lightly with her knuckles. They seemed to have their own silent language, sharing expressions with one another that betrayed how long they’d known each other.

“Speaking of,” Robin began, focusing her attention again on her roommate. “Do you have somewhere to stay for tonight?”

He didn’t, not really, but he would be damned if he took away this chance Robin had. Steve could see the look in Heather’s eyes, could see the pleading way Robin looked at him that told him exactly what their plan was for an empty apartment.

“Yeah, don’t worry about me. I’ve got it figured out,” Steve told her, “Have fun tonight. But, hey, don’t have fun in the kitchen! I eat there.”

“Maybe I wanna eat there too, Stevie,” Robin shot back just as quickly, pulling an actual shriek out of Steve.

Billy cackled at the noise, tossing his head back and slapping his hand against his chest like that might force more breaths out of his lungs. “Oh, I like her,” he laughed, “see you later, Heather.”

Steve could feel his stomach swirling with butterflies, like he could feel Robin’s nervousness and joy for her. Maybe he could. Maybe that was the job of a best friend, to feel everything all at once so he’d know how to help her later. It certainly wasn’t because of the man sitting across from him who was now staring at his profile, Steve still turned in his chair to face where Robin had been standing.

“Where are you gonna stay tonight?” Billy asked once Steve finally turned right in his chair, setting his empty cup at the edge of the table as a visual sign he was finished with his drink.

“I don’t know yet,” Steve admitted now that Robin wasn’t around to overhear, “but Robin was excited for today, I didn’t want her night to end yet.”

“You could stay at my place,” Billy offered, immediately causing Steve’s heart to start racing. If getting coffee was too soon, then staying the night certainly was crossing some kind of line Steve didn’t know existed. He’d been with guys before, he’d even had weekend-long escapades that kept him out of the apartment for days until Robin finally called and demanded his ass back home. But Steve didn’t want Billy to be a one-night stand, some fling that he’d reminisce about fondly but without any real follow-through in the end. He wanted more coffee, he wanted to find out more about Billy’s younger sister Max and what it was like growing up ten minutes from the beach, and how he and Heather had met in high school after she moved from the Midwest.

“Not like that,” Billy quickly corrected, apparently able to see some sliver of Steve’s inward panic. “Heather won’t be there, we have a futon in the office if you really hate the idea of sharing a bed, and it wouldn’t be terrible if this date didn’t end.”

Steve scoffed out a laugh, shaking his head at the wording. “It wouldn’t be terrible, huh? That’s no way to win a second date.”

“I haven’t even started trying to win that second date. You’ll have no idea what hit you, Hawkins,” Billy returned, seemingly making the decision for Steve as he grabbed both cups to toss. “C’mon, I even have a bag of Doritos we can share if you’re hungry.”

Steve was helpless to resist, following Billy out of the coffee shop and down the street. The other man told him it wasn’t a far walk, which meant that they’d lived within walking distance of each other for months and had never met. Part of him found relief in that idea, knowing that Billy had never had the misfortune of meeting the nervous, awkward version of him that came straight from Hawkins, Indiana freshly out of the closet with no idea how to act once he could stop hiding.

Another, deeper, part of him ached at the idea that Billy would eventually see that version of him and would have no warning, no clue that it ever even existed. All he’d seen now was cool Steve, the guy who could walk into a coffee shop in muted green pants that Robin said screamed bisexual energy and immediately flirt with the hot guy he’d been set up to go on a date with. Would Billy be disappointed, once that other, far less sure Steve reared his head?

“This is us,” Billy spoke, thankfully stopping the spiral that Steve was nearly sent down.

“You live above a boxing gym?” Steve asked curiously, taking note of the sign that had turned on in the dimming sunlight. ‘Safe Harbor’ was written in blue writing above the first floor of the building, where Steve could make out some boxing equipment just inside though it had clearly already closed for the day.

“I own a boxing gym, really,” Billy answered, hand rubbing the back of his neck like he was sheepish about it. “That one. I own that boxing gym.”

“Oh, that’s cool,” Steve returned, dutifully following Billy around to the side alley where they climbed some stairs to the second-floor apartment. “What made you want to start a gym?”

“It’s a long story,” Billy began, fidgeting with his keys as he fought to find the right one, glancing up at Steve once before letting them both into the apartment. “But Heather came into extra money with her modeling thing, helped me get it started. It’s a place for victims of violence to go, somewhere they can train if they want, and learn some self-defense. Or just a place where they can be around people who give a shit, people who understand.”

The passion laced into every word made Steve think Billy understood those people, too, that maybe a ‘long story’ meant rather that it was a story too dark to tell someone he’d just met. Steve held onto that information, tucking it away to examine later when he could worry over the details on his own time.

The apartment was nice, much nicer than the one he and Robin rented with their spare earnings saved from countless hours in the one movie rental store left open in Indiana. It was decorated cohesively, like the two people living there actually cared about the aesthetics of the place rather than the odd posters and various color themes that decorated Steve’s own place.

“Want a drink?” Billy asked as he crossed to the kitchen, tossing his keys on the counter and immediately grabbing a beer for himself.

“Sure, why not?” Steve returned, taking the bottle Billy offered. They ended up on the couch, Steve sitting close enough to Billy that if he shifted just a little their thighs would press against each other. Already he could feel the heat radiating off of Billy’s leg, like the man himself was a furnace generating heat like that one guy who could catch himself on fire in Dustin’s old comics.

“Did you and Robin meet in high school?” Billy asked when Steve checked his phone for any sign that Robin might not be as okay as she’d been when they left the coffee shop.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, kind of,” Steve laughed, tugging through the front portion of his hair at the memories beginning to resurface. “We knew each other, but I was kind of a dick back then.”

“Stop giving yourself such a hard time, ‘m sure you weren’t that bad.”

“Nah, I was a fucking prick,” Steve answered, “but I figured it out eventually. We had the same summer job once I graduated. We worked in the mall I told you about, scooping ice cream in these godawful sailor uniforms. You have to be best friends after that.”

“Now that I wanna see,” Billy laughed predictably, causing Steve’s cheeks to flush red at the image of standing in front of Billy in those shorts.

“I bet you do,” Steve returned, “lucky for me I burned that thing the second the mall closed for remodeling. Robin and I decided we wanted to keep working together after that, seeing as we were the only queer people we knew of in town.”

“That why you moved out here?”

“Kind of. It was a big part of it,” Steve tried to explain, focusing his eyes on the lip of the bottle in his hand rather than on the intense look from Billy. “I guess it’d be a little too cliche to admit I wanted to get away from my parents, start over out here.”

“It’s super fuckin’ cliche, but cliches exist for a reason.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Steve shrugged, mind already beginning to think of new topics than that of his parents. They hadn’t exactly been proud of him there at the end, from admitting he wouldn’t be attending law school with intention of taking over his father’s business someday to screaming his coming out at a company holiday party when his mother was pissing him off. “What about you? Any cliches I should know about?”

“What, other than being the rugged bad boy with a shitty dad and a charming attitude?” Billy joked, flashing another toothy smile that made Steve feel like he might melt into the floorboards.

“Who said anything about charming?” Steve cackled at the little throw pillow that knocked into the side of his head, sending him careening over onto the rest of the couch. “Fine, fine! Might as well call you Flynn fucking Rider with all the charm you have.”

“That’s fucking right, pretty boy,” Billy laughed.

It was easy to talk to Billy, the pair of them staying up late into the night talking about anything and everything. When it finally came time to go to bed, Steve found he had no trouble shedding his pants and climbing into the empty space Billy left for him in the bedroom.

“I’m glad you made Heather and Robin set up a double date, even if it was to be a protection detail,” Steve admitted.

“I am too,” Billy returned. “I’m glad you’re not a catfish, Steve, and you really are just good.” Steve winced, thankful that his back was to Billy by that point. They weren’t technically catfishes, though the feeling that he’d messed up by agreeing to that point sunk deep in his chest.

“Would it really be so bad if we were?” Steve laughed lightly, as if maybe joking about it might make everything better.

“I can’t stand liars. It’s the worst thing someone could do. How could anyone expect a relationship to last when it’s started off with a lie?”

“Good thing we didn’t then,” Steve wheezed out, lips feeling numb even as he said the words. “I want this to last.”

“Does that mean I get that second date, Hawkins?”

“Hm,” Steve pretended to think about it, body feeling lighter as they strayed away from the previous topic. It would be okay because no one would ever have to know that he’d been Robin for a full week. It was fine, because Billy was everything Steve used to wish for in the middle of the night in a town he thought he’d wither away in, and that meant everything had to work out. “I think you’ve done more than winning a second date, Malibu. I want to keep you around.”

They didn’t say anything else, or dare cuddle, but Steve did find the bravery to press a sweet kiss to Billy’s cheek, falling asleep with the promise of something special growing between them.

“I’m not wearing that.”

“Yes, you are, Steve! Get in it!” Robin shouted, tossing the piece of cloth that could hardly be counted as a shirt at him. “It’s Pride, the one day a year you get to wear whatever the fuck you want.”

“Technically, I could wear whatever I want anytime.”

“Fine, then wear that shirt out to our next double date,” Robin pushed, smirking as Steve’s face blushed pink at the thought of going to dinner in that thing. “C’mon, it’s so cute and I really think th—Billy! Tell Steve to put that shirt on!”

Steve groaned as Billy and Heather walked through the door of their apartment, both decked out to the nines for the parade they all were going to. Heather looked absolutely gorgeous dressed in varying shades of pink and orange, with makeup and a splash of face paint topping off the look in a way that screamed she was a model for a living. Billy looked good too, not even bothering with a shirt and instead rocking just a pair of shorts and rainbow streaks painted artfully over his tattooed skin. Even Robin looked good, dressing more loudly than he’d ever seen her. Steve was certain the little shirt she wore was Heather’s, though considering how close the four of them had been in the past month there really was no telling who actually owned what clothes anymore.

“You should definitely wear the shirt, Stevie,” Billy answered, grabbing Steve’s shoulders and practically shoving him in the direction of his bedroom. “Get on it. You gotta go all out for your first Pride.”

Robin had tried to get him to go that last summer they spent in Hawkins. There was a parade in Indianapolis, and Robin nearly got him to go under the idea that no one from their little town would even be there to recognize him. Still, the morning of as he painted the blue, purple, and pink colors of the bi flag on his cheek he found himself calling Robin, telling her to go without him because he just couldn’t. That was then though, before California and before their own apartment away from all those things they’d left behind. It was before Billy, who pushed Steve in ways no one else had before and made him feel things he didn’t even know could be felt so intensely by one person.

So Steve sighed and put the shirt on. It was tight and practically sheer, ending just under his chest and shining in the bi-flag colors when he moved under the light. It was loud, gorgeous, and perfect. Of course, it was, considering Heather had dragged him out shopping for the thing a few weeks before and didn’t stop until they’d found the perfect outfit for him.

Billy clearly thought so too, blue eyes widening as Steve finally came out of his bedroom wearing his completed outfit. “Damn, pretty boy, you clean up nice.”

“You’re a bit biased, Bee,” Steve laughed, pressing a kiss to a spot on Billy’s cheek that wasn’t swathed in paint.

“Just callin’ it like it is,” Billy called after him, leaving Steve able to perfectly imagine the look he was making behind him. All bright eyes and devilish smirks, maybe even that damn tongue hanging out of his mouth that made Steve way too bothered whenever he dared do it.

“Are we ready then?” Heather asked, pulling her phone away from where she’d taken a picture of her and Robin kissing. She’d already told the group that there would be dozens of pictures taken that day, saying she’d find some people to take pictures of all four of them for their Instagram pages. At this point, Steve might as well hire her as his social media manager for all the work she contributed to his page.

“Let’s go!” Robin shrieked, grabbing Steve’s hand and taking off out of the apartment like they weren’t the ones who’d have to lock up behind the others.

She didn’t let go of his hand for the entire walk downtown, as if she knew he’d take off running given the chance. It wasn’t that he wanted to go—on the contrary, Steve could feel the same excited buzzing in his chest that he’d felt when Robin had found them tickets to his favorite band’s concert last summer. No, he’d been picturing this day for years and now that it was here, today had to be perfect.

Steve could still hear his dad if he focused hard enough like if he blinked he’d find himself back in his childhood living room listening while his dad laid into him about the disrespect and humiliation he’d brought to the family. He’d be sitting there with tears in his eyes, looking to his mother for the support she always gave him but instead only finding cool deference to his father, the same way she’d always done when it came to major decisions for their family.

“Hey,” Robin spoke up, squeezing his hand once like she knew where his mind had wandered off to. “It’s gonna be a good day.”

“I know,” Steve returned, smiling so she wouldn’t worry so much about him, “I know that. I just...”

“They’re not here. Even if anyone from home does see this, we’ll still be okay because we’re having the time of our lives out here.” Sometimes Steve wondered how he ever came to deserve Robin. She was the best friend he could ever imagine, staying right by his side despite all the shit he’d done in the years they’d grown up together. She easily could have made that summer job hell, making fun of how far he’d fallen from the king he’d once been. Instead, she gripped his hand tight and promised everything was okay, that maybe the world did not begin and end with towns like Hawkins, Indiana.

“My turn,” Billy said as he caught up to Steve’s other side, wrapping an arm around Steve’s waist like he was guiding him down the sidewalk. Steve squeezed Robin’s hand one more time before she fell back to walk with her girlfriend, letting her know that he was okay. “You ready, Stevie?”

“Hell yeah I am,” Steve answered having begun to hear the pounding music of the party going on downtown.

Whatever Steve was expecting, the San Diego Pride event was twelve times bigger than that. There had to be hundreds upon hundreds of people in the streets, all dressed in rainbows and bright colors. Someone had handed Steve a flag that Billy tied around his neck like a cape and made Steve feel like some kind of fruity superhero that would make Captain America shake in his boots.

Never before had Steve seen so many happy people all gathered in one space before. Some were dancing, others were marching along in the street in time with the parade. Some were old with little kids running around them, and some looked like they were fresh out of high school and already more sure of themselves than the Steve of that age could ever have hoped to be. It felt a little like a dream, being there surrounded by people who understood, who belonged to each other for this one magical day.

Steve eventually had the courage to whoop and shout with the rest of them, raising his arms and cheering when the parade came by them. Someone waved him over, a drag queen who had one of the kindest faces Steve had ever seen. He barely glanced back at Billy before he was walking over to them, allowing himself to be pulled up onto one of the floats. He laughed and danced along, even tilting his head into the mic to scream out a song about living forever. At this moment, it felt a little like he could.

“That’s how you do it, Hawkins, that’s how you do it!” Billy whooped from the sides, beaming up at Steve like he were the stars blanketing the skies.

“Is that one yours?” someone shouted about the music straight into his left ear. Steve could only grin and nod, captivated by the bright lights, the music, the crowd, Billy.

Billy was in his element too, getting plenty of pictures from strangers who apparently recognized him. He’d explained once that his gym had a lot of queer youth come in, suffering from bad homes or violence from strangers who didn’t understand. He used to run a booth at Pride and had become some recognizable figure in San Diego which made Steve fall in love with him that much more.

Because it was love, as it turned out. It was the kind of love that snuck up on Steve before jumping onto his back and latching on so tightly he had no hope of shaking it off. Billy wasn’t like anyone he’d ever met before. He was tough, full of sharp edges and sharp words, but he was also sweet, caring for people only in the way that hurt people could. Billy made Steve laugh and remembered the little things about him that other partners had never bothered to even ask about. He made Steve feel alive.

He could feel it now, that same electric energy that had first shown in the coffee shop now raging between them. The second the last stranger walked away from Billy, he turned to look at Steve. A brilliant smile washed over him, his entire expression softening as he looked at Steve. It was this alone that made Steve close the distance between them, wrapping his arms around Billy and pressing a kiss to his lips. Billy returned in kind, melting into the embrace like there was nothing else in the world but him and Steve, standing there in the middle of the street while Pride continued on around them.

“That’s a good one, Babe,” Heather cooed over Robin’s shoulder, peering at her phone just a handful of steps away from him and Billy.

“Send that to me?” Billy asked, not daring to remove his large hands from Steve’s waist.

“Of course,” Robin answered. “You both look so cute, you have to post that, Steve.”

“I will, I will,” Steve chuckled, ducking his head enough that some of his unruly hair fell into his eyes. He’d gotten better about accepting shows of affection in public, though the near-constant praise from the others sent him furiously blushing, hardly able to think through the waves pounding in his head. “Heather, do you and Billy want a picture?”

“Actually, I want a pic with you,” Heather answered instead, handing her phone off to Robin. “You are the one who got us all together.”

“I didn’t do anything, you two got together on your own,” Steve returned politely, pulling out of Billy’s grasp just so he could pose with Heather how she wanted.

“Cut it out, Steve, I already told her how you were the one talking to her for the first week because I was too chickenshit,” Robin laughed behind the camera.

“What?” Billy was standing just behind Robin, but he wasn’t laughing like she was. In fact, Steve is sure he’d never seen the man more closed off in the entire month they’d been together. He could practically watch Billy shutter his expression, closing himself off from everyone around them.

And then it hit like a rogue baseball to the chest. He could feel the moment that everything began to crumble around him, helpless to do anything but stare in horror at Billy’s hurt expression. ‘I already told her how you were the one talking to her for the first week.’

“Billy, wait!” Steve called out as Billy began to walk away from him. It wasn’t hard to catch up to the man, weaving through the crowd well enough that he could grab onto his arm to stop him in his tracks.

“Let go of me, Steve.”

Billy didn’t turn around, didn’t face him. His words were harsh, practically gritted out from behind clenched teeth.

“Billy, please. I know it sounds bad but it really wasn’t anyt—”

“I need to be alone right now, Steve. Go back to Robin and Heather, have fun at Pride.”

“What? No, you can’t be alone, not today. Let me just explain and then you’ll understand everything,” Steve pushed, not letting go of Billy’s arm until the man yanked it harshly out of his grip. It was then Billy whirled around to face him, eyes nearly on fire with the rage carried within them.

“What part of leave me the fuck alone can’t you get through your thick fuckin’ skull?” Billy shouted, drawing the attention of a handful of people in the crowd. “I don’t want to see your face right now.”

“Billy, c’mon. It’s not that bad,” Steve groaned, his heart hammering away in his chest as Billy didn’t even dare to look at him. He was staring over Steve’s shoulder, finding some point in the distance to distract himself with.

“You fucking lied to me!” Billy shouted, cheeks turning red from the effort. “You know how I feel about catfishing, and you fucking hid that from me. You did it to my best friend and you hid it for a month because you knew it would hurt me. Did I get everything?”

“I didn’t! We weren’t catfishing, Billy, please!” Steve continued, not daring to walk away now. Something in Billy’s eyes told him that if he walked away now, he might never see Billy again. “Robin was scared, that’s it. She just needed help getting started, we weren’t going to keep doing it. And I didn’t even think it would matter at first! You weren’t supposed to be important.”

“So what, you thought because we had one date you could go lying about something like that? I told you, I told you how serious it was to me and you fucking—” Billy let out a frustrated shout, practically growling as he tugged at his hair. “Are you really stupid enough to think I wouldn’t figure it out?”

“I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry, but you can’t stand here and act like I could’ve known then!” Steve shouted back, feeling his own anger bubbling up to the surface. There was no way for Billy to know how deeply those words cut into him, how badly they reworked old scars that Steve had tried to put past hime, marks from another life. ‘Stupid’ bounced around in Steve’s brain until he found his breath coming in shorter intervals, wondering how he’d fucked up so badly that Billy had figured it out so quickly. He felt bad, he did. He’d considered telling Billy about it for weeks but every time he tried, something in him stopped the words from coming out. He’d hoped the other man would never find out and they could go on like usual, but he should have seen this coming. He should have known.

Of fucking course Steve would ruin the best thing to ever happen to him.

“I didn’t know I’d love you,” he admitted, feeling the words warm up the iciness freezing his chest. “I love you, Billy.”

“I can’t fucking look at you,” Billy muttered, turning away and walking off into the crowd.

Steve vaguely noticed Heather running off in the same direction, and could distantly feel Robin’s hand on his shoulder. There were people giving him sympathetic looks, others coming up to them to ask Robin if he was okay, if he needed anything.

He couldn’t tell any of them that he needed Billy, that he needed to redo this entire day so none of it could go wrong again.

He couldn’t tell them that, even standing amongst a crowd of happy people full of more love than he’d thought existed in the whole world, he felt endlessly, irreparably alone.

It was a week before anything changed.

Steve found a rhythm in his new heartbreak: wake up, shower, go to work, and paint on a smile for the kids who were too innocent to be exposed to such negative emotions. He’d come home and have dinner with Robin and sometimes Heather, never daring to ask after her roommate despite how desperate he wanted to know how the other man was doing. He’d lay in bed for hours, not able to sleep alone after growing so used to having Billy’s strong arms around him.

Then, one night after even the pure exhaustion taking over his body wasn’t enough to force him to sleep, Steve found himself wandering the city. Even at 2 am, the city was still decently alive with people wandering the streets between bars and restaurants open late. Sometimes Steve missed the quiet stillness of nights in Hawkins, where he could walk in the woods with only the stars for company.

Before he even knew what was happening, Steve found himself standing outside of a familiar boxing gym. It should have been closed for the night, but there was a light on revealing a figure standing before one of the bags, light on his feet as he snapped out with punch after punch against the thing.

A little bell dinged as Steve opened the door, letting loud rock music blast against his ears from the stereo system in the building.

“Hey, we’re closed h—” the sentence cut off abruptly as Billy noticed who had walked into the room. He sighed, dropping out of his practiced stance and wiping at the sweat gathered on his brow. “What?”

He didn’t know why he was here. There were a million places Steve could have gone tonight and he’d ended up here, standing in front of the man he loved, loves. There had to be a reason for it, some kind of hope left that the universe was reminding him of.

“I fucked up,” Steve admitted quickly before he could change his mind and run out the door again. “I know I did, and I’m sorry. I should’ve told you sooner.”

“You should’ve,” Billy snapped, busying himself with wiping off with a towel and taking a messy drink of water, some of it slipping down his chin and wetting his shirt.

“I know,” Steve continued, wincing at the still-closed-off look Billy was giving him. The other man was hurting, he reminded himself. This was a man who had experienced the kind of horrors Steve could never imagine, had pulled himself up and out of literal Hell with nothing but his own hands and the distant promise of a better life. This was a man who had continuously been hurt throughout life and still chose to hand over his trust for Steve to watch over.

He couldn’t mess this up now.

“I know I lied to you, but Billy, please, you have to believe me. I didn’t mean to hurt you, it was something silly between Robin and me. If I thought for a second that it would hurt you, I would have told you,” Steve began to explain, allowing the smallest roots of hope to dig deep in his chest when the words made Billy pause his motions. “I love you, Billy. I know I lied and that was really really shitty, but it won’t happen again. It can’t happen again, because knowing I hurt you is destroying me.”

“I just, I’m learning, okay?” Steve could barely breathe, panting a little around his words as he fought to get them out. “I have no idea what I’m doing or even who the hell I am sometimes and I think everything is gonna be a little messy for a while until I can figure that out. But I will, I will figure it out and I want you there with me when I do. You make me so happy, Billy, happier than I could ever imagine being before. I love you, I love you.”

The words seemed to echo around the gym, smacking against every corner and wall until they knocked right back against Steve’s head. Billy still wasn’t talking, wasn’t even moving from where he froze by his water bottle stool. It felt like hours that they stood there, neither saying anything but neither daring to walk away either. Steve wanted to give him time to process, time to think about what was said and what Steve was promising, but eventually, he found himself pleading, “Say something? Anything?”

Billy sighed, which wasn’t perfect but it was progress. He dropped the small hand towel back down on the stool with his water bottle and walked over to where Steve was still standing by the front door. He still wasn’t saying anything, but the moment those blue eyes met Steve’s he gasped, overcome with the relief that Billy could finally look at him again.

“I can’t handle lying,” Billy told him, giving no clues as to where this was going. Steve was along for the ride anyway, blindly running wherever Billy was intending to take him. “Too many people have done it, I can’t.”

Steve could only nod, watching as Billy’s expression morphed into something he couldn’t read. It was too much, too intense to be anything Steve had seen before.

“When I say I need space, I mean it, Steve. There’s...I don’t want to hurt you. When I’m mad, I need to walk away and come here. It helps me clear my head when everything is too much.”

“Okay, yeah,” Steve agreed, feeling the hope beginning to plant itself deep and blossom as further boundaries were laid out. Boundaries wouldn’t be formed if Billy intended to tear the whole structure down, right? This meant they could stay, could work on everything together? “Space. I can do space.”

“Good,” Billy responded, finally a smile lighting up those features Steve found to be so captivating. “Because I really love you too, Stevie.”

It was like Billy had bottled up that feeling Steve felt at Pride and sprinkled it over them now. Every ounce of belonging, and comfort, of joy and love and pride filled him up now ten times stronger than it had then, threatening to swallow him up in the wave if he didn’t learn to float. He couldn’t help the bright smile that pulled on his lips as Billy asked him to stay.

The kiss was messy, teeth clacking together awkwardly through their smiles but Steve didn’t care because he had Billy back, stronger than ever now that they’d worked through the worst of it. There would be more fights in the future but Steve was confident he’d know how to handle them now, that both of them would do better than they had before now that they knew they had each other through it all.

“Come on, you ridiculous hoe!” Robin shouted, cackling at Steve’s shocked expression.

“You’re calling me a hoe now?” Steve laughed at his friend, setting down the next box by the front door. “That’s it, I’m not even gonna miss you.”

“Sure, you’ll be calling me from the car,” Robin returned, and sure, that was probably true. Stebe held out his arms, allowing Robin to cross the room and hug him tightly. “You better call from the car.”

“I will, you know I will,” Steve reassured his friend, blinking away the tears beginning to gather in his eyes. They’d only spent a year and a half in this apartment, but he would miss it dearly despite getting the occasion to visit whenever he wanted. He’d miss making coffee for Robin in the morning and yelling at her for hogging all the hot water in the shower. He’d miss her making dinner on rough work days and her banging her hand on the wall between their bedrooms when his personal dance parties became too loud in the middle of the night.

He’d miss living with his best friend, even though he couldn’t wait for what came next.

“You’re so dramatic,” Heather laughed from where she was packing up the few cups and utensils Steve had contributed. “You’ll see each other at dinner on Friday.”

“But that’s two whole days away!” Steve whined dramatically while Robin pretended to faint from the woe of it all.

“You’ll be so busy unpacking you won’t even notice,” Billy answered when he came through the front door with another one of Heather’s boxes. “Damn, Heather, how’d you get so much shit?”

“Would it be cocky to say the fame and money?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then the fame. Oh, and the money,” Heather grinned, the two of them hugging each other in the process. “I guess I’ll miss you too. Be good, have fun.”

“Miss you too,” Billy told her, ruffling his friend’s hair just to make her screech. “Don’t have too much fun here, we can’t cook dinner here if you’ve torn the place up.”

“Gross,” Robin and Steve both groaned, the smiles never leaving their faces despite it.

“Are you ready?” Steve asked Billy once all of Heather’s things were brought in. It would be weird to come over on Friday and see Heather living in the space he had once occupied, but it was time. He’s sure the two women would have moved in with each other far sooner had they not been waiting for Steve and Billy to be ready too. At least now they could have as much time spent together as they wanted without having to text either Steve or Billy about a sleepover.

“Ready as ever, Hawkins,” Billy answered, picking up one of Steve’s boxes to move it into his own apartment above the boxing gym—their apartment, Steve supposed.

“Then let’s get moving, Malibu. I wanna hit the beach after,” Steve spoke up, pressing a kiss to Billy’s cheek as he passed.

And Billy followed to the tune of Robin and Heather cheering them on all the way out the door of the apartment.

join my taglist here

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#harringrove #billy hargrove #stranger things #steve harrington #robin buckley #heather holloway #buckleway #harringrove fanfiction #jay writes in theory

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viatrixtravels-a · 3 months

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!! WARNING: this post contains dark content including mentions of blood and character death !!

Everything written italics and indented was sent to me by an Anon. I enjoyed reading through it so much, I wanted to make a proper post out of it. This also allows me to insert a read more because it is incredibly long.

Everything went well for you. Thanks to Cloud Retainer, you were able to meet Aether. Well... for a moment at least... So you decide to go to sleep.

"Goodnight, Paimon."

"Mmh, goodnight, Traveler! Sweet dreams!"

Closing her eyes, the blonde drifted off into a deep slumber...However, her dream would end up being anything but sweet.

***

You awaken in a strange place. You look around and you see people. A crowd of people. Possibly in the thousands. All looking at you. Among the people was a familiar face. Standing guard alongside his comrades adorned in clear white ornate armour. The mask that once covered half his face absent. The stars he had for irises flickering alongside the rest of his people. You then hear "The Descender has come" The voice coming from an important looking person wearing a crown. A king perhaps.

(Descender...? What do they mean by that? Are they talking about me...?)

With her brows furrowed, Lumine took a step forward.

You wander around the place. It's unlike any place you've seen before. Horseless carriages are driven by engines of fire. Buildings that made those in Fontiane look primitive. The sky... Well, there is no sky but rather a rocky 'ceiling' with light bursting through. A huge mechanical worm -like creature burrowing around. You see... Ruin Gu- No Field Tillers playing with children and giving them flowers and even a mechanical crab that is being operated on. All around the people were enjoying their day to day lives. The feeling of freedom from the gaze of the heavens is a bliss that is unlike any other It seems that the serenity will last forever.

(What a strange place...It is unlike anything I have seen in Teyvat, or any of the other Worlds my brother and I visited prior to our encounter with the Unknown God...)

*Doom has come...* All of a sudden... the same place you emerged from. A rift had formed, bursting through reality and what came forth were Abyssal Hounds. Countless numbers of them bringing forth the dark power from beyond this world. Turning once noble warriors into shadowy husks. Imprisoning them in their own armour and corrupting their minds to become mindless slaves of the Abyss. There was no mercy... people were felled by the very warriors that swore to protect them and were being slaughtered or were devoured by the hounds. Such a grizzly sight as you see a young woman get ripped apart by some hounds. And yet there are those who resisted. That familiar blonde haired Knight with his most loyal men, fought fiercely as they slew both their own former comrades and any Hounds that came their way. The Field Tillers now turned war machines, unleash their firepower on their Abyssal Foes but in turn leaving a wake of destruction on the people and the city. As you look around the great cataclysm, you could only feel sorrow, pity, and sadness as you see the familiar blonde haired knight grasping a dying comrade. Did these people really deserve all of this? Did they deserve to be destroyed for unleashing great evils on this world by accident?

It all happened so fast, the blonde barely had any time to react. Of course - being the seasoned warrior she is - Lumine had immediately pulled her own sword to help fend off those Rifthounds, but it was to no avail. It was as if her attacks could not even land and instead the silhouette of her sword simply went right through them without dealing any damage.

(No...No, no, no...!! This can't be...! What is happening!? Why is this happening...!?)

*FLASH!* A bright light. You look into its direction and you can just make it out. Seven figures. Seven Dieties standing firm on the now helpless city and nation as more and more Abyssal Creatures pour from the rift. You can also make out one particular figure. The one that took your brother away. She conjures familiar looking cubes down as she commands the other dieties to bring an end to this madness. The archs of lightning that slice anything in it's Path. The Tidal Wave that washes and drowns away the sins. The Fire that purifies and destroys all its path. The Malestrom that blows away mountains. And the rock that brings order and judgement on all evil. Perhaps to save this world, this nation must be sacrificed. Perhaps that is why God has abandoned its people to a terrible fate. For Teyvat to survive, this nation will have to fall. And now you see the aftermath. All that's left of the wonderful city... a river of magma and fire... the ground caved in. Those familiar cubes... going into the center of the destruction. You can only cry and go down on your knees. You feel weak...

(Please...Make it stop...This is just too muchー!)

A voice. "Lumine" It's coming from behind. You turn around to see... Aether. You blink and now you find yourself in an empty plain with the moon shining in the sky. You walk towards Aether. "You still have time" Aether says "You can still save this world, Lumine. For me and for everyone you hold dear" He then walks to you and holds your hand. "Only you... can stop him..."

She shook her head in disbelief, squeezing her brother's hand. "No, Aether. Don't say that. We've always fought together, haven't we? In that case, why not this time? I don't know who this 'he' is you are referring to, but I'm sure that if we work togeーー"

Before Lumine could finish her sentence, she was once again blinded by a bright light. *FLASH!* Aether is gone. In fact you got transported to... Liyue? Yeah this is Liyue harbor. But there's something wrong. The buildings are all ruined and on fire. The streets are filled with rubble and are cracked. There are bodies. Bodies of both Millileth Soldiers and Liyue Citizens alike. All of them are horribly mutilated with their own blood spilling into the streets. Among the fallen are familiar faces. You see Chef Mao carrying a lifeless Xiangling in his arms. Crying all the way through. Gaming had been crushed by fallen debris while you see Qiqi telling a deceased Baizhu to "wake up". Yelan's body was found next. Pierced by multiple arrows from her own bow and shortly after you see Yun Jin, Chongyun, Xinqiu and Xinyan. All of which were killed in certain ways.

The blonde felt her heart drop and stomach turn as she clapsed one hand on top of her mouth just to prevent herself from throwing up on the spot.

"Lu...mine" You look down to see a dying Hu Tao grab at your ankle. "We... failed. We couldn't... stop him..." You try to help her out but her breaths become weaker until... her heart stops... and she goes limp.

(Him? Who is 'him'...? Who could be so cruel to do all of this?)

Why is this happening? Why first Khaenri'ah and now Liyue? What was going on?! Who was 'him'?! You want to find out but not before seeing more people you recognize fallen. Keqing had her throat slit. Her dead eyes staring ahead into nothing. Beidou had went down with the Alcor but Kazuha was now hanging on a rope. Ningguang was left alive however, although she's been tied on top of the Jade Chamber while being tortured into seeing Liyue fall. Xianyun was kneeling in sorrow and pain as she held the bodies of Ganyu and Shenhe.

Lumine was on the brink of having a full panic attack, her breathing increased as she clutched her chest while praying that all of this would soon end.

"Everyone...They're..."

No.

Not everyone. There was stillーー

You hear fighting! And you hear a familiar voice. It's Xiao! It has to be! You run around to see where he was and finally found him at the docks fighting some Abyss Heralds. He manages to slay a few of them but gets injured in the process. He kills one more but then... his lance was shattered and he got stabbed in the abdomen.

"Xiao...!!"

There is no way. Xiao was strong. He would never fall to that scum of the Abyss. He falls to the ground as you run towards him. "I am... sorry Lumine" You try to make sense of what he's saying but he then grabs your hand. "We couldn't save this world... from destruction" He goes limp... At first you feel sadness but then anger as you want to kill the Abyss Heralds but then your attention is drawn upward to the sky. There are multiple rifts and like before, rifthounds are pouring through and there you can see... Zhongli.

(Zhongli...!?)

"Zhongli...! How did this happen!? How could you let this happen!? The people of Liyue, they've all been...!!"

It was then that she realized that something was off. He was not moving nor reacting to her words. No, this was not the Zhongli she knew. He too had fallen victim to this mysterious entity which had turned Liyue into a sea of blood. He was floating but almost by force and he appeared to be paralysed as he couldn't move. In front of him was a dark cloud coming from one of the holes. Zhongli was trying everything he can to move but he can't, and then suddenly. Something comes out of his chest. Was that the Geo Gnosis? It had to be. Cause nothing else looked like that. The Gnosis went into the cloud and Zhongli then disappeared into golden mist which was absorbed by the cloud. Dark eyes from the cloud now look to you. "What was taken from me... Will be mine once more..." A voice came from the cloud. It was pure evil. You are dragged forward towards the cloud by an invisible force. You try to break free but you can't.

"Ugh...! Let me...go...Ah!"

As you are forced forward, you see not only the Geo Gnosis but all the other Gnosises. Lined up next to each other. "My power will be mine once more..." "The Usurper... will... pay..."

It was then that Lumine jolted awake, her body drenched in sweat and breathing heavy. She was in her room at Wangshu Inn - where she would always stay during the Lantern Rite. Everything was back to normal, but those horrid images were still very vivid inside her mind.

"Haah, haah..."

"Nn...Lumine...? What's wroー"

In an instant, she threw her blanket aside and dashed out of the room - not even bothering to put on her boots or get properly dressed despite the temperature being quite cold at night during this time of year.

"Lumine!? Hey...!! Where are you going!?"

She just ran and ran and ran, not even knowing where she was headed. Little pebbles and branches dug into the skin of her bare feet, scratching them up. However, she could not even feel the physical pain over the aching over her heart.

"...Ah!"

Suddenly she tripped, falling face first against the ground before remaining completely unmoving for a while.

"..."

After curling up into a small ball, she cried into the night sky, letting all of it out.

"Aaah...Aaaaah....!!"

#;; ic #;; ask #;; open #character death tw #blood tw #gore tw #// man this hurt #// but it is so good too #// now nobody will ever be able to say that I never post serious content on my blog #// if anyone wants to like jump on this go ahead #// I'm not sure how Lumi is gonna make it back to the inn like this #// she's a traumatized mess #// the area around the inn is pretty muddy too #// so she's just lying there in the dirt crying #// probably only wear her tank top & shorts because I imagine that's what she sleeps in

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hewkii · 2 months

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if you're having trouble with the last palette here's the strats that worked for me

turn off all hacks except three or so lives (i also had continues but i didn't wind up needing it)

prioritize power, range, and luck, especially piercing and lucky bombs

get one drone weapon, then avoid wasting any more slots on drone chips

check every vending machine for crab tank. kraken is also acceptable

on the first ten floors skip whenever there's no good chips, afterwards save it for emergencies

always make sure you have enough membux to bail, especially on rigorous or danger floors

kind of a weird one but. do some wrist and breathing exercises before every boss. maybe walk around a bit to get blood moving. it helps more than you'd think

and some advice for bosses:

asynchronous rondo: the sting rays can't hit you if you're beneath the boss, plus it's harder for the splat bombs to hit you down there, so don't be afraid to duck underneath it if it seems like the easier option. also the only layers you actually need to destroy are the glowing ones, and you don't have to hit the faces to do damage

parallel canon: when you hear a new inkling dropping in pull away (in case they use splashdown) and chuck a bomb at their landing spot. if you lose track of one look for the laser from their drone

pinging marciale: once again you don't actually have to hit the faces to damage it. other than that I've got nothing you don't already know by this point. sorry. just do what's worked before

overlorder: pay attention to the dialogue so you don't get blindsided by its attacks. if it uses sting ray or reefslider drop what you're doing and book it. don't get impatient.

#side order #splatoon #splatoon 3 #hewk babbles

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ruckis-vandalizes · 9 months

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Me making a Mario species/oc based on the question "what if Belly Blech Worms were larva or caterpillars"? It's more likely than you think!

more information about the Belly Blech Moths and Hanky beneath the cut 👇:

Belly Blech Moths are rare to come by, as requirements for a Belly Blech Worm to actually pupate are absurdly hard to meet especially in today's era. They are considered pests in Beanish culture because of the mass amounts of produce they infest with spawn, the barbaric nature anyone infested with one resorts too, and the potential health problems that come with it. The only saving grace that prevents them from going completely extinct through the thorough combing of mass produced bean fruits and natural pesticides is that they can produce eggs asexually and in very large quantities.

A host is required for a Belly Blech Worm to pupate they need a host of suitable size. This is one reasons it is hard for them to pupate, as most Beanish have gotten smaller and smaller over the years, and bigger built Beanish have gotten scarcer. Should they try to use a common garden variety Beanish they will usually evacuate the host themselves, as it becomes too cramped for them as well as their instinctual drive not to bring harm to the one that is housing them. They will search for a better host like a hermit crab trying to find a bigger shell, usually wandering and reproducing until they cease.

However, to those that ARE a suitable host and don't immediately find a way to discard of them, they produce a chemical that acts as a steroid for their host to act as a protective guard. The wild behaviors usually come from the wild mindset and lack of understanding from the worm, as they gain some control over the body. It is there that they spend much time learning how to be a Beanish, scouring through the memories of their host while keeping them protected and safe. The Beanish may eat more and act unusually aggressive for some period of time since the worm eats their share of food until they're ready to cocoon themselves in the lining of their stomach.

When they're ready to emerge a beautiful moth they will usually try to escape through the mouth or the other end, but if neither options are available they will have to use the last resort of breaking free from the host. Once they emerge they have full coherence on how to speak, walk, and the like. They will tend to pick up the personality of the Beanish they were residing in and in some cases pick up on certain physical traits too such as tufts of hair or markings on the body. It's from there that they will try to blend in as much as possible to benefit from being able to live in a society with intelligence that isn't as low as a worm's, using clothes and whatnot to do so. They may just look strange for Beanish standards. They do, however, come to about the average Beanish height of 3ft.

It's quite easy for them to do having learned from their host, but one wrong slip could land them in trouble. Being distant cousins to fighter flies, they can be quite jittery and excitable, showing intense emotions through high jumps and frantic fluttering of the wings.

While Beanish hosts are preferred other methods are available, such as taking up residency withing a Dragohoho, Clumph, or Bean Piranha with the latter being a much more difficult option. Should they survive any of these methods their appearance tends to be drastically different from the norm, having more vibrant colors and bigger wingspans. They also tend to be more wild in nature. The Bean Moth species stems from ancient times, which is why they need much bigger host. They have evolved over the years to sacrifice survivability for quantity.

Because of where they typically reside and grow in their youth, Belly Blech Moths have the ability to secrete oil from their wings if they feel threatened. The smell causes anyone nearby to tear up and start laughing uncontrollably. Should they be eaten and digested it will result in the one that consumed them potentially dying of laughter.

They are not male or female, rather they are what they choose given they have reproductive organs that apply to both. A side note that doesn't necessarily have to do with anything, but they were inspired by both Mexican jumping beans and bean leafrollers.

Hanky: Comic Sick

In the events of Comic Sick Hanky is spared by Clawdy ( @6clawdy6 ) and housed with the group after attacking from within a very discomforted Pest Nut. initially being watched over by Cackletta (aka the one who sicced Hanky on Queen Bean during the events of the game and hand raised Hanky before then). It was then that Gera took on the responsibility of acting as a host, shifting into his Beanish look to do so. Although he was small he was plenty durable enough for the job. Hanky's altered appearance stems from Geragera's odd magic energies and the rowdier living environment. He's also very chaotic in nature, and somewhat aggressive still. He later gets his signature handkerchief from Popple, who had a run in with the very same Piranha Bean that swallowed Peasley. He initially kept it in hopes of lying about being in cahoots with the prince and gaining access to pvp areas, but having no use for it being off planet and seeking new opportunities.

Hanky: Hooniversity Crew Verse

Turns out after he was spat out by Queen Bean he started relentlessly hunting the prince instead, only to be swallowed up by the Piranha Bean that had attacked Prince Peasley beforehand. He ended up finding a handkerchief that had been lost within the belly of the beast and using it to protect himself against the acids within the Piranha Bean's stomach, as it is slow acting and the handkerchief would absorb it and dry before it had the chance to dissolve. He managed to survive by sticking to the stomach lining and away from the acids that consume until he was ready to pupate. He took the handkerchief as a trophy and made his grand escape. His hosting situation is the reason why he may seem a bit more eccentric in nature and have a general lack of understanding as to why or how things work, still doing his best to learn every day. His alternative appearance also has to do with his harsher living environment and characteristics of the Piranha Bean.

#ruckis vandalizes #art #artists on tumblr #artist of tumblr #mario and luigi rpg #m&l rpg #belly blech worm #speculative biology #oc #original character #smb #super mario bros #infodump #hc #head canon #belly blech moth

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randomwriteronline · 6 months

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Vakama's hands were warm, awfully so. He moved them carefully across the Ice warrior's new face, with a gentle feathery touch, flexing his fingers ever so slightly so that the other would shift it in the direction the Turaga wanted without having to press too hard and risk ripping the skin apart as he intently picked up every detail with his scrutinizing gaze.

Had he still been a Toa, Kopaka would have responded to his careful movements with harsh ones, to show he did not need to be treated as though he was made of fine glass.

But now (for some time now) he was a something, and he had just watched as the bandages where Pohatu had pierced himself by simply hugging Onua too tight were changed, the not at all shallow cuts already struggling to scar, and how their Earth brother had been horrified at what a simple contact between such different bodies could cause; so, wary of the frailty of the form he had been forced into and for the sake of the Turaga's peace of mind, he tolerated the cautious approach with which he was treated.

It did not mean he had to like it. Especially not that look.

What was the former mask maker trying to find? A piece of his self? He knew he did not look like himself, he knew he was unrecognizable. He knew he was a disgusting, soft, malleable mound of abhorrent flesh, filled with nauseating sacks and tubes and hairline conducts and shapeless things pulsing erratically every second, covered in veins and fat and muscle, with no way to defend himself, no way to be helpful, no way to do anything. He had made the mistake of looking at himself, back when his Akaku still fit on his face (before his new one had grown in, agonizingly, and he had had to rip the mask off of himself before it killed him because the organic matter could not close around the joints and nubs with which his body used to hold it still) and he still had nightmares about it. Not even Tren Krom's remains had looked so horrible, so parasitic and alien - they hadn't been lodged inside him.

He knew whatever he was could no longer be called Kopaka, the Toa Mata Nuva of Ice. He knew it from the second he'd changed. Was the Turaga hoping the cold warrior was still there, somewhere beneath the malleable matter? Was he looking to be disappointed? Was he going to desert him, appaled, when his search inevitably turned vain?

Vakama's palm cupped his cheek gently.

It was warm, and kind, and his glowing eyes held nothing but care.

Kopaka leaned into it despite himself, bitter expression softening, turning saddened, in need of comfort. The metal thumb brushed against him as though to clear away a few tears. He wasn't crying, of course; he wouldn't have dared being caught dead doing so, especially before a Turaga.

But the motion brought him solace nonetheless.

Onewa came in second, much more loudly than his Fire brother: he clamored to know where his Toa was, shoving aside anybody in his way with the good manners of a Manas crab on a warpath.

Pohatu would have all but leaped directly at him and likely trampled him in his excitement if the Agori had not forcibly bound him to the beds he and Kopaka had been stationed in since they'd been brought to New Atero. He still tried their patience, crawling hurriedly across the cots and laying on them so that his torso could extend as far towards the door as possible: as soon as the Turaga emerged he gave a joyful strangled sound, arms outstretched to be caught in a gruff, delicate embrace attempting to keep some distance between the two beings so that the former Toa could not fall into the temptation of squeezing new wounds open on himself again.

The carver's hands were smooth despite it all, like pebbles of a river, and carried the comfortable heat of sunny days. He looked over the creature, once the warrior he had welcomed into his Koro, with the apprehension of a father whose child has scraped their knees and elbows; then, as a bout of frustrated helplessness burst from within him and demanded release, he jerked his head away from the being still holding him sweetly to shoot a glare at his silent peer.

"Well then! Look at this!" he barked, harsh, rough, vitriolic. "Such a good job of protecting him you did, didn't you!"

His interlocutor tightened his fists and looked away, biting his lip.

"Is the shame keeping your from talking, now?"

"Onewa," Vakama began sternly.

His brother glared at him, screaming to shut his mouth and stay out of this without a single word - but before he could continue lashing out accusations and vitriol, his tongue was stopped by a weakened punch to the top of his shoulder, not hard enough for the skin to break upon it yet still so intense that it made him wobble.

He searched for the face that had delivered it, but it was gone already: Pohatu had pressed it against his peer's hair, hiding it from view, and was wrapping his arms tight around him, as tight as he wanted, without fear of a pain that a softer body could not deliver.

He swayed his brother a tad and kept adjusting his grip. Maybe, if he kept pressing, the guilt would ooze out of him like liquid from a blister, like pus from an infection. Maybe, if he kept pressing, he would manage to squeeze out of him the stupid belief that this had been his fault, and that he was responsible for their misery.

Did his brother think he didn't know? Did he think that just because they had changed so drastically he could not tell what he was thinking, what he was feeling? No, not at all, not at all - if anything it had made it so, so painfully easy.

Pohatu had learned to read him, of course he had; he had learned every inflection and minute tic, every silent little word the other refused to voice, because he had stuck to him like a Makuta fish biting its terrible teeth into a larger prey and refusing to let go even as the mightier Rahi convulses to get rid of the little stubborn pest with minimal success. And now - now that they had no armor, no still masks, now that their faces moved with such frightening fluidity, so strange and different and unfamiliar but screaming their thoughts so loud it hurt his ears (that was what his audio receptors had become, and they felt so much, so much, to the point where evereything he saw made a sound even if it didn't) it had taken him nothing to learn that language by just looking, and now he could read everything in his mind with the ease of a Suletu, of a Toa of Psyonics, and it was strange and terrible and it hurt, it hurt, it hurt, and all he could do was hold tight.

Onewa called for him. Pohatu refused to turn to look at him.

They'd been through so much. It had hurt, horribly, terribly, to grow these bodies against their will. He had insisted on coming along; he hadn't managed to dissuade him; it was nobody's fault but his own if they were both like this.

He should have protected him.

The Turaga's hand laid warm and gentle on his back.

Pohatu shuddered it away, tucking himself tighter around his brother. Kopaka's spine was cold against his chest, but he did not mind.

He'd failed him once.

He'd make up for it now.

Nuju did not visit.

Nokama did not mention it as she tried in vain to translate what sounds Pohatu was least uncomfortable making (he could feel the air in his throat hit a block, he could feel it opening and closing with each vowel, and it felt so wrong that he would hold his neck to try and still the movement), surrendering at last. Her kind touch felt fresh, and humid, like dew on a leaf.

Whenua did not mention it, maybe too caught up in trying to pretend he wasn't taking notes on them, studying them, like they were a pair of very rare Rahi he wouldn't have dreamed of ever managing to get his hands on. His fingers, like Onua's, were rough and scratchy as he prodded their limbs, studied their joints, tested the texture of their hair between his digits.

Matau did not mention it, and that was it. He was unnaturally quiet, observing his Turaga siblings try to find something, anything to give them some sort of answer to what had happened to the former Toa, trying to understand them in the ways they were most familiar with. He grazed them curiously, and they barely noticed - he was light even when applying pressure, as if he were a spirit.

"Keetongu could sparelend us a helphand," he offered at last.

"If this were the work of a venom, certainly," replied Whenua: "But I see no bites or punctures like the ones left by Visorak."

Pohatu shook his head to convey an agreement with the Turaga's statement: no, it had not been a poison. That would have been merciful, and maybe they would have even had a better chance of going back to normal.

"It might still be a good idea to seek his guidance." Nokama noted. Her hand lingered on the once-Toa of Stone; the watery feeling did not disturb him as much as it could have.

She turned to the two of them, her eyes gentle, her mask immoble. Something about the stillness of its features bothered them for a single second, made them nervous - they'd gotten too used to looking at each other, at the Agori's expressive visages. The realization worsened their unease.

"Hopefully he will be allowed here," the Turaga told them so sweetly. "If you'd like that, of course."

He faced Kopaka. His brother merely shrugged.

If Nuju's absence was bothering him (and the other was not going to divulge that information to anybody), he did not care to point it out.

Pohatu resolved to nodding for the both of them.

He'd never seen Tahu look scared.

He had, by all means, even though his Fire brother refused to admit it and did everything in his power to dissimulate how he was feeling. Truly, in that regard, he was the same as his Ice brother - and like him, he would have hated that fact if it were ever voiced to him.

He'd never seen this specific type of scared on him, though.

A cautious type of scared.

It would have almost been funny: since when was Tahu cautious?, they could have joked, and if he tried to argue they would have reminded him of his awful plan against the Rahi Nui, or the first course of action that came to him before the Bohrok nests, and he would have gotten so mad that his armor would have turned scalding hot enough to glow, and he would have tried to swat at them with his boiling hand in revenge, because he was still hot-tempered Tahu despite it all.

It wasn't as funny when he flinched at the sound of a voice calling for him with a shining gaze and a strained noise struggling to leave a throat.

Onua didn't flinch, but the bed-bound patient could read in his eyes the same apprehension.

"Hello, brother," the Toa of Earth greeted him sweetly. He held up his hand in a fist for the fraction of a second before closing his other palm around it. He couldn't ask him for a Toa salute, not in the way they'd grown accustomed to anymore: they would have clanged knuckles as hard as they could have been able to, and the fragile organic mixture that was the hand of meat would have turned to a limp mass of shredded flesh and broken bone. "Hope we're not intruding. You don't seem to be doing too bad, eh?"

The other smiled, much more confidently than he had at first. He'd been practicing. Getting the hang of this 'lips' thing.

The Toa of Fire remained silent, staring at him. A kind nudge from Onua reminded him that, unlike their brother, he could not feel somewhere around a good dozen organs shifting with each word in a manner so wrong and nauseating that he couldn't stand to articulate a single syllable.

"Hello," he only said, lamely.

A ghastly sound responded. An attempt at a 'hi'.

The two Toa approached the cot.

"Where is...?" Onua braved to ask.

The answer came in the turning of a head to a corner of the room, one that opened into a smaller nook of sorts. His peer could walk just fine, unlike him, as both his legs were healthy enough; being nothing but perfectly coherent with himself, he had begun using that advantage to hide away from any visitors that tried to get a hold of him. Including if it was their siblings, of course.

Especially if it was their siblings.

The Toa of Earth followed his former brother's gaze for a moment and gave up on it immediately. Better not to bother a sleeping Kane Ra.

Beside him, Tahu looked at the hair.

It started where his brain should have been and went down, down, all the way to his shoulders, all the way past them. In smaller bouts it grew from his arms, his legs, his chest, his pelvis, like grass or moss of sorts. At times it curled tighter, into springs, at times in a more relaxed way, into waves or strands of kelp. In some cases it grew straight, like softened pine needles or something like that.

It looked unnatural.

Like some sick joke.

This was not his brother. This was something else. Something that responded to his brother's name, that tried to sound like his brother's voice, that existed in an approximation of his brother's shape.

He felt his hands tremble.

Another step, and before he knew it something soft and frail and too tender was wrapped around him so hard he could feel his joints seep into it with the ease of a burning blade into a pane of ice. His fingers wrapped around it as well, stumbling as it found bumps and sunken lines upon an otherwise flat surface, getting caught and tangled in the somewhat matted mass of minuscule keratin wires, pulling a few in the hurry of trying not to do just that. The squeezing continued, and he could feel the skin giving in against metal the more pressure was applied; he hastily patted the bumpy spine and reached up to the shoulders, managing to convince the grappling hug to loosen just in time before the flesh was torn.

His heartlight pulsed erratically as he slowly forced his breathing down once more. He held back with all the careful worry in the world.

Muffled words reached him, a few gentle knocks against what sounded like a force field. He looked up: Onua looked back from behind the softly shimmering spherical shield summoned by his glowing Hau.

Oh.

Sorry, he did not say.

Don't apologize, his brother did not reply as he was allowed to step in before the barrier returned to divide the three of them from the rest of the world again.

He sat next to him on the cot, leaning a little closer to place a hand of his own on the bundle of meat and skin essentially sitting on the Toa of Fire's lap. It was warm like a desert rock; it seemed to perfectly soak in the heat Tahu gave off.

An arm reached out, wrapped around Onua's neck, pulled him closer. The soft face laid against their joined shoulders.

Pohatu shook a little.

His brothers closed around him.

He could feel Akamai through their hold: he could feel it, steady, warm, strong, coursing through the veins overtaking his body.

He listened to its breathing, their breathing, the familiar comfort of their dangerous forms.

He felt his skin's fear of being pierced.

Pohatu tried to hold tighter, to let the metal sink all the way into him, to feel no pain against them like he would have had so little time ago.

Tahu and Onua pried him off gently just enough so that he wouldn't hurt himself.

The Hau's shield shimmered brighter.

Their hands were rough and warm on his back.

It was nice to know he was loved.

Despite it all.

From the moment the green Miru made its appearance, he dreaded the words that were bound to reach him eventually.

Because of course, he would have said something.

How could he not? They hadn't seen each other in so long, with all the concerned thoughts that came with that, and now that they were all back together he was treated to an unsightly creature that he should have somehow recognized. A single glance and he would have realized the gravity of the situation. It would have sunk in quickly, unstopped and unstoppable, like a blade into muscle; he would have shouted something like Mata Nui!, and stumbled back as he bristled visibly, appalled, and would have asked him what in the world had happened to mess him like that.

Instead, Lewa surprised him.

He just looked.

In perfect silence, he just looked.

The object of his attention retreated into himself, into his gross form sitting angrily on the barren floor now unbound by bandages as his cuts had healed all but completely, scowling at the Toa of Air while the glowing green eyes simply took him in.

Had his brother ever been so quiet? Was he really that ghastly?

No; he would have jumped back if he'd been so disgusted, would have floated right up to the ceiling and rushed away. Lewa wasn't a fan of retreats, but he knew how to make one quite well.

Instead, the familiar mass of thin tendons and metal armor lowered itself slowly, carefully, until it was more or less at the same level as the thing he was staring so intently at. Behaving like he would before a frightened Rahi which hisses and growls terribly as it is cornered, for it fears its wounded leg will turn it into a larger beast's meal, he took care to slide closer in the least threatening way possible, all gentle movements and steady gaze.

He considered it a success, since the other did not react.

Lewa held his hand out expectantly with his palm pointing upwards.

After a moment or two, very carefully, a frailer one laid on it.

The Toa's touch was strangely soft, strangely rough. It was barely there, thin and ethereal, yet felt almost like a fern's caress as one passes through them, too. His fingers traced the scars running thin regular rings around the fingers, lightening the skin where the new patches had finally healed above the cuts.

He reached along the back, along the bones hidden beneath muscle; he stopped at the wrist. He looked.

A sudden gentle 'thunk' by his side made the other jump.

"Sorry," Gali whispered in a lulling tone.

He had been so absorbed by the tactile feeling that he hadn't even noticed her arrival. She sat on her knees next to him, not reaching out, not trying to touch him, not trying to impose comfort on him until his shoulders lowered again.

She, too, only looked.

The former wounds might have seemed to trace nonsensical patterns to most - shapes without meaning, mirrored carvings hetched without rhyme or reason.

Gali winced.

Their armor, the very thing designed to shield them - all that was left of it, aside from the scraps in the wreck, were the signs of its damage on the beings it needed to protect. Painful trenches dug into flesh, born of good intentions.

Her fingertips, caked in brine and jagged with wet salt, laid on the arm so lightly she wasn't even sure she was touching it.

She wasn't shrugged off.

Their sister ventured towards the back, meeting the scapula, tracing its shape as carefully as she could; her Air brother inched along the remains of a cut across a forearm.

Can I still call you brother?, they all thought without saying a single thing. Now that I am so profoundly different from you, will you still let me use such a word? Will you still let me recognize you as my sibling, my friend, my kin? Are you still mine? Am I still yours? Do I still feel to you like you used to know me as, or have I become a total stranger? Can you still call me brother?

"Am I hurting you?" Lewa asked quietly.

The former Toa shook his head.

Gali exhaled a sigh of relief; her palm rubbed long swathes across his peeking ribs.

Kopaka shut his eyes and breathed.

Deep. In. Out.

He could feel Wairuha's presence wash over him - its ever-shifting, ever-soothing, ever-cooling form passing through his limbs as it rose and fell, rose and fell, rose and fell within him, following his siblings' careful exploration, their kindness given motion, submitting a pace for his shivering inhales to walk after, step after step after step.

He could feel them mapping out the body he'd grown, so careful in fear he'd break, so curious and uneasy yet sparing him a disgust they couldn't bring themselves to feel about him.

He could feel their affection seep into him, as if to try healing an invincible ache.

He could feel himself wanting to cry.

I love you, he wanted to say.

I love you, truly, he wanted to say.

I love you, truly, really, he wanted to say.

I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're still here. I'm glad you didn't abandon me. I'm glad. I'm really glad. I'm so very, very, very glad.

Lewa was humming.

Gali brushed his hair.

I'm really glad, he wanted to say.

I'm so very, very, very glad, he wanted to say.

I love you so very, truly, really much, he wanted to say.

Deep. In. Out.

Kopaka fell asleep on his sister's shoulder, unplagued by nightmares of seeing horrid bloodied snakes make a nest in his gut.

Gali held his other hand.

Lewa kept humming.

He'd planned to whistle him awake with a midday birdsong. No ward of his wouldn't have recognized how out of place that was, in the middle of the night; the strangeness of such an mistimed call would have certainly caused some wariness in him, but it would have been the quickest way to stir him back to consciousness. He'd hoped the sleepiness would have made things easier.

Kopaka, sitting on his cot since another horrid dream had forced his eyes open again about an hour ago, squinted towards the little lights near the doorway. Pohatu slept curled around his hand, still injured leg outstretched.

Nuju chirped a greeting again.

No response.

The Turaga tried his luck, and stepped forward.

No response.

Only a dark silent stare, immoble, freezing cold, sizing him up as he approached, closer and closer, until he too was sitting on the somewhat stiff mattress.

Kopaka made no sound nor movement.

Silence hung between them.

Nuju waited before meeting his gaze, so exhausted, a little ashamed. He wondered if the former Toa could have understood.

If he could have forgiven his weakness.

They were too similar for the Turaga's liking, sometimes. So quick at jumping to conclusions, so hasty in scurrying into isolation as soon as something threatened to overwhelm them, so insistent in hiding away into themselves instead of seeking comfort, convinced they knew how to handle their own pain best. It was quite incredible how despite their influence Matoro had turned out so sweet, so kind - although more than once he'd regretted dooming him to abide to their shared painful silence.

His hands balled into fists, his heartlight stuttered. He struggled to calm his shaking form.

They hadn't even had the time to mourn him.

Everything had been so hectic.

So dangerous and chaotic.

It had been like being a Toa all over again, but worse.

Somehow so, so, so much worse.

They hadn't had a moment to breathe, to let themselves feel in a time when what they needed was to keep their sense sharp and alert, to think of anything other than surviving and resisting and planning and escaping and, and, and...

And so they'd never mourned him.

And so he'd only had time to do that now.

And then...

And then, now...

He breathed in, deeply. He turned.

Such dark eyes, his Toa had. Nuju's glowing ones reflected in them, creating specks of light on the humid surface like sunshine on water.

Kopaka did not speak in stars, bright riddles to be decoded, hints and suggestions leading to undisputable if at times nebulous answers; he spoke in snowflakes, small details, carefully constructed structures of meaning compressed into minuscule pieces.

The Turaga watched his neck contract and shift as he swallowed. He was certain the action felt as foreign and disturbing to the poor creature as it looked.

Pohatu shifted in distress when the soft hand slipped away from his grip; his alarmed whines waned as fingers combed through his hair, slowly, sweetly, until he was calm once more. The former Toa pulled himself into a kneel, facing his guide, tension bubbling and twitching beneath his skin: he leaned forward, forward, forward, until his face laid against the metal chest, and wrapped his arms around the smaller frame so tenderly cold.

The iron fingertips grazed his back and cheek, cupped the alien body within them. It shuddered under the kind grasp.

Then came heaving breaths, heavy, hissing through dull teeth, struggling against themselves; and finally, with a horrible whimper, came the water, rivulets from melting icicles, cold, so cold, seizing the flesh with horrible shivers as strangled sobs tore his throat apart, as useless nails tried to sink deeper into the Turaga's armor, searching for something familiar, known, loved to grab onto.

Kopaka cried, as hard as he could.

Robotic hands held him a little closer and brushed away his tears.

One ward lost forever; one changed so drastically he was convinced his true self was just as gone.

Destiny hated what he loved, it seemed.

Nuju tightened his embrace around his Toa, brushing through the long hair he allowed his mask to sink into, swaying him gently as he listened to his anguish.

#bionicle #kopaka #pohatu #vakama #onewa #nokama #whenua #matau #tahu #onua #lewa #gali #nuju #random writing #hellooooooo its my au of 'pohatu and kopaka got turned more organic due to being on the red star'#now with: more of their loved ones reacting to that #and kopaka discovering incredible layers of self hatred #i hope i wrote them all in characterrrrrr aaaaaaa #onewa doesnt hate kopaka btw. hes just unable to do anything abt the situation and so he takes it out on him instead #the turaga are the mata nuva's legal guardians to me. these are their collective very large kids whom they love #blame it on the hordika insticts if you want but by god these six bastards will take care of small and large creatures that resemble them #also tahu WILL activate his hau on instinct to protect his loved ones without even realizing and you KNOW i am RIGHT

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cult-of-dollbabies · 9 months

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some GG duo headcanons cause i haven't done something like this in awhile

Glen was a dinosaur and bug kid while Glenda was more into space and oceanlife.

Glenda as I've mentioned before is also a bone connoisseur and fossils were the coolest

They're both prehistoric nerds in that sense and they own a shared book on fossils from all kinds of eras

Glenda keeps a corked bottle of shark teeth they've both gathered over years, whenever they find one Glen hands it over to Glenda and they'll ALWAYS infodump about what shark it came from and how old it must be

On that beach note they preferred to play in the sand and walk along the water looking for shells and other things

Glen seems accident prone there. They were once stung by a beached jellyfish and they never questioned Glendas ocean knowledge again, another time a crab pinched their toe so hard it started bleeding, and earlier that afternoon they fell from the drop off in the water, they were fine but their soul left their body

They did witness the one rather cartoonish accident Glenda had in that one area you're not allowed in, with the big ass rocks. A flock of seagulls gathered to steal their chips when they so foolishly fed a couple and they went to the rocks as a joke, but they slipped and broke their wrist

Glenda has no regrets to this day

They shared a bunkbed (as legally required for twins) and when one couldn't sleep or had a bad dream they'd read to eachother and told stories with shadow puppets and the glowing sticky stars on the ceiling

Glens bunk, the bottom one, was the designated sheet tent area, it was for emergencies when things were bad or if they were up late. All they needed was eachothers company, whether they were reading or playing on their 3DS or just having conversation. They don't know this but Tiffany has pictures of times she'd find them snoozing in eachothers beds

#their relationship is everything to me #glen valentine #glenda valentine #chucky

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jones-friend · 8 months

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I PLAYED SOME MORE GAMES TODAY

Im beginning to rouse from my month of COVID fatigue and got 4 new games in today! 3/4 are from Pandasaurus games, which I’ll have some thoughts on later. They’re varying degrees of good!

One trend I’ve noticed is modern games like to saw two proven games in half and glue them together. Clank! is a dungeon crawler/deck builder. Arnak is a worker placement/deckbuilder. Eschaton is a deckbuilder/risklike. Emerge is if you played Yahtzee to play Carcassone.

In Emerge we are scientists exploring islands for wildlife for points. The goal is to make multi-tiered islands with lots of wildlife meeples on them. You do so by rolling dice and assigning them to actions on your player mat. There are also 4 goals to keep up with and research tokens you can find by making islands or spending unused dice. After 8 rounds the game is scored and the most VP’s wins. One aspect I enjoyed was the modifier tiles. Once per round you can remove/add/swap tiles around your board, this causes numbers to collect for different resources. Numbers are placed on your mat and can be spent together for different meeples or island tiles. So I could put a crab tile on 4 (as pictured) and spend dice from 2 and 4 to place crab meeples on my island. Islands score for the number of tiers times number of meeples.

Emerge is a bit tougher to recommend than most of my games here. I like it, it has some things I like, but it has some I don’t. I don’t think the tile abilities do enough to negate the variation and luck in rolls. You only get one roll, and granted I probably should have taken on at least one or two more tiles, but I didn’t feel they did enough compared to something like One Deck Dungeon. I feel for an optimization game, optimization enjoyers might get annoyed with bad rolls they get stuck with. There’s also a lack of meaningful player to player interaction. There’s racing for objectives first, obtaining research tokens first, and the four bird tokens that can be moved and stolen. I liked the idea of it, but I wanted more. I also felt the objectives asked a lot of you without offering enough reward for chasing them, I focused objectives while my bud islands, and while I scored all four objectives he still won by some 10+ points.

If you want a laid back dice game and you enjoy the presentation of Emerge I would say pick it up. It looks great and at times feels great to make decisions on your player mat for what goes where. If there’s an invite to a game its worth a play. Im not sure if I’d recommend picking it up unless its something you click with.

Apes together strong. After Us takes place in the post apocalypse where Apes rule the world and are racing to reach evolved intelligence. After Us is a puzzle-y deck builder. Players drsw four cards from their deck and organize them in any way they wish. You must combine costs with benefits, collects with collects, and solve the “puzzle” of what works best with what to gather resources and score victory points. The game ends when a player reaches 80 points.

Similar to Emerge theres a lot of bits I like and a few I don’t. There is a lot of simultaneous play that keeps turns from being bogged down and I appreciate that. We all assemble our monkeys together and resolve them at once. Its a brisk game that doesn’t overstay its welcome and the presentation/art is fabulous.

Where I have a bone to pick with After Us is in its RNG and player interaction. When you recruit new apes you draw from a facedown deck. You know vaguely what that ape is good at. The four types focus victory points, batteries, exile/trash, and repeat actions. You’re blind drawing from cards that don’t have specific abilities, just costs and benefits that are slightly randomized across the deck. But I ended up drawing lots of battery costs while my opponent did not, the apes I drew had a harder time with resources than my opponent’s draws, who provided and consumed similar resources. And there wasn’t an easy way out since all cards were blind draws.

The game also lacks any meaningful player interaction, its just a race. Theres a mechanic where when buying an ape you get a benefit of that clan and can pay 2 to copy a neighbor’s benefit, but it feels very stapled on last minute. Because its the only non simultaneous moment the only player interaction slows the game down.

After Us is another harder recommend. If you enjoyed Earth you will enjoy After Us. Earth similarly had low player interaction, youre all tuning engines till one pops. If you’re comfortable with that more solitaire play the puzzle of four apes in a line is enjoyable.

In Aurum players take the role of alchemists making formulas for gold. Aurum is a trick taking game with some higher level mechanics to it that will be hit or miss. There’s 5 “base metal” suits and a gold “trump” suit. Players start with a hand of base metals and one 0 gold. The leading player plays a card. The other players must follow, playing DIFFERENT suits than each other. The highest card wins the trick BUT the lowest card gains a gold card in their “collection” worth victory points. This card may also be used in tricks. At the beginning of the game players choose a number and put down a card from their hand of that number. That is their bid, they want to win exactly that many tricks. Go under and you get nothing. Go over and you score the bid in points. Match the bid and gain double the number in points.

So sometimes you wanna win the trick. Sometimes you want to force someone else to win. Sometimes you want to spend a 6-7 to lose the trick but gain a gold card of that value for points.

For a trick taking game there’s a number of things to consider. Do you want to waste a card that could take a trick on getting gold? Do you want to spend that 1-2 VP gold to ensure you reach your bid?

We played the 3 player variant and I found it to be this interesting standoff. Otherwise it plays 1v1 and 2v2.

If you’re into trick taking games and want something new. In the world of $30 medium pizzas and $10 1lb ground beef Aurum is $15. I recommend picking it up and giving it a try. It won’t work for everyone, but having a 3 player variant was fascinating. Like the other two games fantastic art direction and great quality, great presentation.

Four Humours is a prisoner’s dilemma game. Players place potions in scenes and once two scenes are full all are resolved in this order of operations how the four humors can “win” in priority order. Winning potions are placed on the board to satisfy objective cards. Whoever satisfies the most wins.

To explain the prisoner’s dilemma if you’re unfamiliar, there’s one scene in Four Humours with only two potion slots. Each can hold Choleric or Sanguine. Choleric wins if there is only one in the scene. 2+ choleric means nobody wins. Sanguine is next in priority. If Choleric doesn’t win, Sanguines all win if there are 2+ in a scene, regardless if they are owned by different players. Your opponent claims they played a Sanguine. Do you trust them? If you play your Sanguine and they played Choleric you lose. If you both played Choleric you both lose. If you both played Sanguine you both win. If you decide to screw your friend over and play Choleric to their Sanguine only you win.

And decisions like that are the core of the game. The 4-5 scene cards and 6 party tiles are all logic puzzles and bluffing/diplomacy minigames. With the mechanics behind the four humours you can goad people into making bad moves or win without actually winning the scene. You can be sneaky and crafty, treacherous or trustworthy.

Truly its mechanics are light, the game is placed between you and your buds rather than on your own playmats. With the nature of this game I wouldn’t recommend playing with less than four people, and it can hold up to six at a time. Its a great game that works off a great dilemma, trying to work around possibilities and promises of different players claiming to place different humours where feels great. Great replay value too, our game went thru about 1/2 the scenes and theres an alt game mode to explore.

I heartily recommend this one, easy pick.

One last bit before I snooze. Pandasaurus is a game company I own many games for: Brew, Dinosaur World, Wild Space, now Emerge and Aurum. Every game I’ve played from them is 80% of a really fantastic game. Its just missing a little something. The presentation is stellar, the effort is there, the creativity is apparent. I’m not trying to slam their games by any means.

Most end up relying on their theme harder than their mechanics. Games are carried at the thought of what you’re doing than the nuts and bolts behind it. Emerge, without set dressing, is a game of assembling tokens on tiles and adding base tiles to their tiles, rolling dice to do so. Wild Space is a game of playing cards to play more cards. What makes them tick is their stellar theming and A+ presentation with materials and art.

If you see this logo understand this might not be the most mechanically sound game. It also might not have the most player interaction, if any. But its going to look great at the table and each game has something that will make your brain go brrrr like the board game equivalent of a fidget spinner.

#Tabletop #board games #aurum #after us #Emerge #four humours

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jadeee · 7 months

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Vendetta Ch. 12, Part 1: Cloudy Days

📰 read chapters 1 - 11 here!

Warnings: angst, slight swearing & mentions of murder

Word Count: 3.9k

"Oh my God!" You squealed as you hovered over Nicky's shoulder. He spent the last five minutes reading MJ's published piece about the two of you:

While the world gawks at the Valentinos and their upcoming case, the pair find safety and shelter in each other. Most importantly, love which is the greatest comfort of all. They continue to curate a happy home and lovely life in which they celebrate the good, the bad, and the ugly.

"We should frame this."

He set the paper aside "You wanna hang it up in the hall?"

"Why not?!"

"Okay, I've got an idea. How about we get out of this house?"

"Hm.."

"Oh c'mon," he got up from the couch and took your hands in his "we've been hermit crabs until last night."

You chuckled as he pulled you off the couch and into his arms.

"Don't you want to come out of your shell?"

"Okay," you said with a hint of defeat "where do you want to go today?"

"How about the tennis court? I haven't exercised in ages."

"You went for a swim in the pool a few days ago!"

"It's not the same!" He pouted playfully "C'mon, I'll get the rackets and everything else. Just get ready."

He kissed your forehead again before disappearing up the stairs.

Agnes stood outside of Martin's office, "Sir?"

"What?" He asked with an underlying annoyance.

"Your wife is on the line. I told her you were busy but she knows I'm lying."

"Of course she does." He took a deep breath as if bracing himself for a punch from a heavy hitter "Put her on."

"... yes, sir."

His hand rested on the phone in his office and immediately picked it up when it rang. The speaker rested near his lips but he was quiet, timid, and scared all at once.

"Martin? Martin, I know you're there." The woman said on the other end "How are you?"

He licked his lips to wet them since they were suddenly dry, "How do you think?"

She sighed "You can't keep doing this. Why don't you just come home?"

"Why haven't you signed the divorce papers?" He spat back then wiped his lips regretfully.

The line was suddenly silent except for the soft breathing of the woman on the other end.

"Teddy, sign the damn papers."

"You haven't called me that in months."

A crimson red blossomed on his cheeks, "I-- I know."

"I'm surprised you still remember my name."

"Oh Theodora, don't get smart with me!"

"I'm just saying!"

"Just stop it, alright."

"Okay..."

They enjoyed a comfortable silence until she broke it "So--"

"No." he found himself picking at a chip on his wooden desk.

"Sweetheart..."

Tears stung in his eyes as he continued to pick at the spot and held the phone to his ear. He didn't want to hang up but he couldn't bear another second. "Teddy, please."

"What happened.. it's not your fault. We can still be a family. I can turn the nursery into a room for a dog." She chuckled half-heartedly and sniffled.

Martin wiped a fallen tear from his eye "A dog isn't gonna fix this."

"I know but it's not your fault."

"Then how do you explain it? If I didn't take that case, you wouldn't have lost the baby," He shrunk back at his outburst. Hearing the words bounce off the walls made it real again and he felt himself start to crack.

"Martin," she sniffled again and went silent "the doctor said it was only a matter of time."

"Ted-- Theodora, I can't do this. I don't want to put you in danger and you can't be in a stressful environment. That's all this job is and as much as I love you, I can't leave it."

"I don't want you to."

"... just sign the papers, please."

He moved his hand an inch away from his face then brought the phone back to his lips. "I love you. Truly, I do." As his lips stringed together more to say, the sentence fell apart so he hung up the phone. Whatever he felt for his soon-to-be ex-wife, he pushed it deep down to focus on his work.

"Agnes, I don't want to hear from her unless it's an emergency! You got it?"

"I understand."

He fished something out of his shirt pocket then looked at the golden ring before putting it in his desk drawer.

Flo led MJ towards her surprise with his hands over her eyes.

"Flo, what is this?" She laughed with each slow step forward "Why does it smell like..."

"Surprise!" He lifted his hands and she saw the dinner that was spread out on the table.

"I remember one day you said 'when I make it big I want a big boss dinner with lobster and potatoes' so..."

He laughed at his poor impression of her as he gestured to the exquisite dinner he made for her and gauged her reaction. She was silent and unmoving until finally, she turned around and hugged him tightly. The impact nearly threw him off his balance. He grabbed onto a nearby chair to steady himself then hugged her back and smiled.

"Thank you," she muttered against him.

"You deserve it."

She let go of him and recomposed herself "Now, let's eat!"

The two had already shared more than a few laughs as time went by.

"So now that you're a big shot, are you going to forget about me?" Flo teased as he ate a bread roll.

"No!" Bea shook her head "You're one of the few people who believed in me. Besides, who else is going to visit my office."

"Is it still bring your own box to sit on?"

"Actually, I have two chairs now." She grinned and Flo's brows jumped up.

"Did they give you an office?!"

She nodded as she ate some more of her lobster.

"Holy-- that's amazing!" Flo smiled "Does it have those big glass windows?!"

She laughed as she went on to explain her recent promotion at work and what her new life was starting to look like.

As the night progressed, you were playing a game of cards with Nicky and losing horribly.

"Ah, damn!" You threw down your hand after seeing Nicky's winning one.

"Let me give you some tips or something. I'm starting to feel bad."

"Be honest, you're actually loving this right now."

He threw his hands up while you continued your banter. It would've carried on but the phone rang and Nicky offered to get it.

"Yeah, give me a chance to prepare for a rematch."

"You do that!" He teased.

The smile he had lingered on his face as he picked up the phone, "Hello? Who's this?"

"It's Martin."

Nicky's smile started to drop "What's going on?"

"They found a body in New York. It might be Maurizio. They're doing the testing now. I just thought I should let you know."

He nodded, unsure of what to say next.

"If this is it, then we got Floyd. I talked to some people and Maurizio may not be the only one."

"What?"

"You ever heard of Umberto Gavassi?"

A sudden pit had formed in Nicky's stomach "Yeah, I know who he is."

"Y'know if he's still alive?"

"I have no idea. I tried to forget about New York and everything with it. We see how that turned out."

"Hm.. my work's just getting started over here but things are looking up for us."

"Did you get in touch with his mother?"

Martin went quiet for a moment "I'm waiting until it's confirmed. I don't want to waste her time if it's not him."

"Right..." Nicky glanced at the floor then back to the distant room you were in.

"I'll call you when I know the results."

"Okay."

Martin and Nicky hung up at the same time. Both were thankful for the end of the conversation but unwilling to know the truth. He walked back into the room with a solemn step. You rearranged the cards in your hand "Alright, I'm ready this time. I laid everything out."

You glanced up at him and the light in your eyes dimmed. "What happened?"

"That was Martin." Nicky sat on the couch near where you sat on the floor. Where you two were happily playing cards moments ago.

"They found a body in New York and it may be Maurizio's. They're testing it now to see." He looked right past you.

"Hey," you scooted over in front of him and rested your hands on his legs. "Nicky?" you crossed your arms over his thighs and rested your head there. "We'll wait then, okay?"

He focused on you, as if he were coming back from some dark place he was visiting in his mind. He nodded and caressed your cheek. You took his hand in yours and joined him on the couch. Stella traipsed down the stairs and sat at your feet. He bent down to pet her and relished in the comfort he had between you both.

The phone rang for a milisecond and Martin picked it up "Hello."

"Martin Alonso?"

"Yes."

"It's been confirmed. It's Maurizio Botticelli."

Martin hung his head as his heart dropped to his stomach.

"You still there?"

"Yes, I'm still here." Martin said with his eyes still shut as if he were silently praying.

"We'll fax the papers and everything over to you. One of our staff is on a plane now for the court case. We're also contacting the family."

"Okay, thank you. I-" he cleared his throat "I may have another location for you to dig. I'm getting a lead now."

The person on the other end sighed "Okay, we'll be here."

Martin hung up. He was unmoving, like some creature frozen in ice. After a moment, he found the words although he'd rather not speak. "It was him, Maurizio."

Agnes solemnly nodded while her boss rubbed at his face.

"Let's give the family some time to process. I can take care of the rest of this, just go home for today."

"But sir--"

Martin waved his hand. His tall frame walked around the desk "Get a good night's rest. Forget about this case for a few hours, if you can."

Agnes stared at him for a moment then decided to follow instruction. She stood by the door "You do the same."

Martin found himself frowning and locked eyes with her. His mouth tried to form a response but he nodded instead.

You jumped up at the sound of the phone ringing yet Nicky beat you to it. Despite how close you were, you couldn't make out the words. It wasn't until you saw the color drain from his face that you knew. It was Maurizio, the teenager. The boy who's peach fuzz had barely grown in before his life was snatched from him.

Your husband's eyes were cast down at your floors. His words were low, a mere whisper "It's him."

Without thinking, your hand found itself rubbing his shoulder. Before you could speak to offer any comfort, he spoke again.

"I should tell Chris and Rocky." He picked up the phone and dialed the number.

"Nicky, do you need a minute--"

"For what?" He glanced back at you while holding the phone to his ear.

You blinked at the obvious answer "To process this."

He only shook his head "There's nothing to process."

The corners of your mouth turned down at how he slightly mocked you, whether he knew it or not. Your hand shrunk back to your side. There was nothing else to talk about. He was already talking to the other person on the line. His voice grew more concerned by the second.

"What do you mean he's not there? Where is he?!"

Your fingers reached for him and he brushed his own hand against them but didn't fully take them in his. He spoke another word then hung up and picked up the phone again to make another call.

You were a shadow standing next to him. The hallway seemed to shrink with each second he spent with his back slightly faced to you. Every now and then he'd turn to his side, allowing you to see his pinched brow and bitten lip.

"Do you need anything?" Your voice was barely audible but he heard you nonetheless.

"No, I just need to make this call."

The half hearted smile he gave you provided little comfort. You returned a sympathetic one then walked off, unsure of what to do while you waited for him.

A few minutes later, he joined you in the living room but he stood nearby rather than sit beside you on the couch. All it took was a glance. The way his hand sat in his pocket, the small twist in his lip, his pinched brow and the far off look in his eye.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I'm fine."

Your lips tucked in on themself to prevent you from saying anything else. Those two words made you retreat into the farthest corner of yourself. You, his heart of hearts, could not fix this. You could not do anything and furthermore, he didn't want you to. It felt like you could choke on your heart in that moment but you simply said "Okay."

The silence crept in and made itself at home in your company. Every time you sought to challenge it, it felt.. wrong. You went back and forth in your mind on what to say, how to say it, if you should say it. It wasn't until you felt the heat on your skin, that you realized you'd been turning your wedding ring round and round on your finger. Nicky noticed it, then approached you.

"Don't worry about it," he kissed the top of your head then disappeared into the kitchen.

That small gesture made tears gather in the corners of your eyes.

Nicky busied his hands with whatever he could find in the kitchen. He was cooking. What? He couldn't say since his body was on autopilot. Funnily enough, he remembers when his mom would do the same thing. After her umpteenth spat with his father, she'd often find refuge in the kitchen. Mumbling incoherently to herself in her mother tongue, only to be humming a happy tone moments later.

"Why do you do that?"

"To remember the good times."

He rubbed the seasoning over the meat he'd been working on. Images of Maurizio seeped into his mind. As he continued to work with the meat, he tried not to cringe at the sight of the blood. It was a soft pink like a cherry blossom or a bow on a baby's head. Maurizio's had to be red. An unforgiving crimson splattered across concrete or marble like a nosebleed or busted berry. His hands caressed the meat once last time, unlike Maurizio's mom who didn't get the chance to hold her son one last time. Tears filled Nicky's eyes as he put the meat into the oven.

The doorbell rang and he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. He heard you shout something but he wasn't entirely sure what it was since he was miles away. "What'd you say?" He shouted back as he walked to the sink to wash his hands. Bits of meat fell off his hands and down the drain. Soft pink, crimson red, death and decay.

His hands were still wet when he shouted "I'll be right there!"

He ran up the stairs to the bathroom where he shut the door behind him and suppressed a silent sob for Maurizio and his own lost youth.

The doorbell rang and you were oddly thankful for the unexpected guests. "I'll get it!"

You were glad that Nicky was busy cooking but also wished he would talk to you. Yet, you knew not to push no matter how loud everything in you was screaming.

A smile spread across your face as you opened the door to see Chris and Rocky. "Hey, you two. Come on in!"

Chris gave you a small smile then tipped his hat before taking it off. Rocky kissed your cheek as he enetered your home. Stella greeted them both and they gave her customary scratches.

"Sorry Stella, I'm afraid I came to see your parents and not you this time." Rocky patted her head.

Chris looked around the house "Where's Nicky?"

"Upstairs, I think." You shut the door behind you and asked the obvious question "So you heard?"

They both nodded solemnly.

"Damn shame," Chris said.

"I was hoping it wasn't true." Rocky added.

"I just hope this gets Floyd for good and we can all rest now."

"Especially his family... poor kid." Rocky shook his head.

The room went silent as you all stood around.

"I'm gonna go look for Nicky. I'll be right back." Chris headed up the stairs leaving you and Rocky.

Rocky noticed the savory aroma filling the air "Oh, what are you cooking?"

You waved your hands "Oh, that's Nicky's doing. Not mine."

Rocky nodded and followed the smell to answer his own question. You trailed behind him.

"Actually, can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure thing." He poked his head in the oven to see what Nicky had been up to.

"Nicky kind of shut down after he got the call, and understandably so, but what do I do? I asked him if I could do anything but he said he was fine. He's clearly not but I don't want to push him."

Rocky closed the oven and looked at you with wise, tired eyes "So don't push him."

"But he's not okay."

"Obviously not but he doesn't want to talk about it." Rocky leaned against the counter "Just give him time. This is heavy stuff, kid and all he wants is to be with you, but it seems like everything in the world is pulling him back."

Your brows pinched as you marinated on his words of wisdom "Thanks. I didn't think of it that way."

"When he's ready, he'll talk to you." He patted your shoulder "Okay?"

You nodded and Rocky looked past you at the two men descending the stairs.

"I'm looking forward to this meal, Nicky. It's hard to find a taste of the motherland in this place."

Nicky gave him a half-hearted smile "I hope it tastes as good as you make it sound."

There was soft talk of this and that while the news of Maurizio's confirmed death hung over everyone's head like a cloud. Every now and then, your eyes darted to your husband and you noticed how his food looked untouched. His glass was half full and the only time he sipped from it was when someone started to talk to him. As if the wine would silence him forever so he wouldn't have to utter a word.

His hazel eyes were currently fixated on the oak table. Chris had just asked him a question.

"No, no new projects now. There's just too much going on."

"I know that. I asked if you had any ideas for an upcoming project."

"Oh," Nicky wiped his brow and smiled softly "no, I'm afraid not."

"I'm sure we'll have plenty of ideas after everything settles down." You chimed in.

Chris nodded his head "Y'know, I wouldn't blame you two if you took a break from the business."

"You deserve it." Rocky added before polishing off his glass.

The corner of your lip turned up in a suppressed smile. A knot had formed in your stomach. It didn't feel right to talk of vacations when you'd found out hours ago a teenager was murdered. "We'll see," is all you said.

The rest of the dinner was quiet which was unusual. Chris and Rocky took their leave but not before giving you and Nicky tight hugs. Then just like that, you were left alone with Nicky who said he was fine but obviously wasn't. Your hands were drying off the plate he'd just passed to you when he said "I'm going to bed early."

Your throat tensed and you tried to say "Okay," like you normally would but it sounded forced. It sounded candied with a sour center. He dried off his hands and kissed your temple then walked upstairs to your shared bedroom. When you were alone, you sighed and studied your reflection in the window.

About ten minutes later, you walked upstairs. When you made it into your bedroom, it looked like Nicky had already fell fast asleep. The room was a dark, icy blue. His mishapen figured was buried under the comforter with Stella at his side. You didn't feel steam from the bathroom nearby so he must've changed straight into his pajamas and climbed into bed.

The knot traveled from your stomach to your throat. It only multiplied with each step forward and it felt like a six ton weight when you sank into bed.

"Nicky, are you sleeping?"

"No."

You turned to face his back and tried to find your words but it didn't matter because he spoke for you.

"I really don't want to do this. Not right now."

You took a deep breath and exhaled softly. You patted the space between you then got up to get ready for bed.

It seemed like you were fighting sleep that night. Meanwhile, that was all Martin could think about. He and Agnes caught a red-eye to New York for several reasons. The first being to speak to the family of the bereaved. Seeing the mother's face twist when she heard the news was something he'd never forget. He remembered the sister being still as stone, a single tear falling from her eye. They interviewed them and thought they wouldn't get much except they were wrong. The sister had a small booklet of notes she gathered on Floyd's crew before he brother's untimely death. It was that small stack of yellowed, tattered pages that got them where they were now, looking into the trunk of Umberto Gavazzi's car. If you tore away the fabric, you saw a stash of keepsakes. The most noticeable being Maurizio's string bracelet which matched his sister's. Martin only saw it moments ago so when he noticed the red string, he felt sick.

"Sir," Agnes tapped Martin's arm.

"What?" He snapped back to the present.

"It's Cliff's baseball card." She pointed to the faded card peeking out behind Maurizio's bracelet among other keepsakes.

Martin and his assistant had made the most of their time in New York by interviewing Cliff Wallace's family as well. His father told a brief anectdote about how his son carried a baseball card with him everywhere. He got it for his eighth birthday and claimed it was good luck.

Martin dropped the fabric so the items were covered again. He approached one of the officers standing nearby. He locked eyes with Umberto himself who only stood a few feet away with an officer watching him like a guard dog.

"This man is under arrest for the murder of two children and God knows who else. Test everything in the trunk and send me the results as soon as you get them."

The officer nodded and looked back at his coworker and simply nodded. The man read Umberto Gavazzi his rights and clasped the metal bracelets around his wrists.

Author's Note: Martin may be my new favorite character. How do we feel about him? Fun fact, 'Death & Decay' was actually a perfume sold at my old job - not my favorite though lol.

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