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darthfrodophantom · 3 years

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Ectoberhaunt Day 5: Ouija Board

Summary: To get into the spooky season spirit, Tucker and Sam convince Danny to play a video game late at night, and Danny isn’t pleased about the subject of the video game.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/34303123

Too Close to Home

“Let me get this straight,” Danny interrupted. “I fight ghosts - real ghosts - on a nightly basis. And now that I actually have a free night you want to take up the time that I should be sleeping to fight fake ghosts?”

He shook his head as he looked at his computer screen, the only light in his entire bedroom aside from the digital clock that showed the hour: 11:45. From the first-person view of the computer game on his screen, he watched the avatars of both of his friends attempt to throw basketballs into a hoop.

“But this is way more fun,” Tucker’s voice said over Danny’s headset. “And it hurts a lot less! Ah! Dang it Sam - you messed up my throw!”

Sam cackled triumphantly. “Better pay more attention to your timing then.”

Tucker groaned as his avatar abandoned the basketball for spray paint cans, which he chucked at Sam. “Besides Danny, we’re not fighting ghosts: we’re hunting them.”

“Fine, fight, hunt, whatever. I still do both of them,” Danny argued.

“Not like this you don’t,” Tucker grinned. “God he’s gonna get creamed.”

“You know Danny, maybe we should let you go to bed. You’re gonna ruin my perfect streak,” Sam teased.

Danny rolled his eyes. “Or maybe you’ll actually do better because you have a true ghost hunting professional on the team,” he defended. He had no idea why he was bragging - he’d just been given an out and given the late hour he should take it, but now it felt like he needed to defend his pride as a ghost hunter. …That thought sounded a little too similar to something his parents would say and he quickly dismissed it. “Besides, I played the tutorial, I know what I’m doing. I’m just trying to figure out why we’re doing this.”

“Because it’s spooky season,” Tucker replied with a hint of sarcasm.

“We are only five days into October, Tucker, and if you’re gonna keep doing this all month I am going to hit you with the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick,” Sam threatened.

“I dunno, it might be worth it,” Tucker teased. “What do you think Danny?”

Danny shook his head, even though none of them could see it. “As the only person in this group who has actually been hit by the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick, I would back off,” he advised.

“Listen to Danny Tucker,” Sam chuckled as her avatar walked over to the white board to set up the hunt. “He’s actually speaking wisdom for once. Now come over here and pick out your gear.”

The playful teasing between best friends stopped as they actually got serious and picked out the gear they would need for their mission. Since Danny had no money, he couldn’t really participate in the conversation, but it seemed like Tucker and Sam had played this enough to know what they needed to bring. Sam started the mission, and their avatars found themselves inside the trailer looking at another whiteboard.

“Alright, looks like our ghost is named Thomas Clark and he responds to all of us,” Sam informed the group while Tucker’s avatar walked over to the shelves to equip supplies.

“Well that’s a dumb name for a ghost,” Danny complained as he looked at the bulletin board next to the computer. He had to squint at his screen to read them, but the articles were fairly legible and contained ghost stories he remembered hearing his parents talk about. It also had a recent article that he actually remembered running in USA Today proclaiming Amity Park as the most haunted city in the world - he didn’t know whether to feel proud or annoyed.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Sam agreed, though her voice was laced with sarcasm. “He should have gone with Thomas Phantom instead.”

Danny rolled his eyes as Tucker burst out laughing. “Oh yeah, now that sounds like a proper ghost,” Tucker added between laughs.

“I knew I was going to hate this,” Danny groaned under his breath. “Can we just get this over with?”

Sam’s avatar turned to face the new whiteboard. “Alright, fine. Objective one: find out what kind of ghost we’re dealing with - standard. Objective two: witness a ghost event.”

“I am a ghost event,” Danny smirked, causing Tucker to burst out laughing again.

“Objective three,” Sam snapped, “capture a photo of the ghost.”

Tucker’s avatar grabbed a camera and snapped a picture of Danny’s avatar. “Got one!” he proclaimed, which drove both boys into laughter.

“Objective four,” Sam said louder, “get a ghost to walk through salt.”

“What? That’s dumb. Everyone knows that’s an old wive’s tale,” Danny complained as he shook his head. Did the creators of this game actually do any real research before they made this game?

“Are you regretting this yet Sam?” Tucker asked as he finally stopped laughing.

“Let’s just get in the house,” she groaned. Danny smirked in triumph, and he could tell Tucker was sharing a similar smirk on his end.

They divided up equipment between the three of them, but not before Danny could comment on the inaccuracies of each of the pieces of equipment and how useless they’d be in an actual ghost fight. From faulty science to just being plain incorrect, Danny made sure to have pithy comments about all the equipment. He didn’t know why it bothered him so much that it had to be accurate - he was not his parents - but as a ghost and a ghost hunter, it just felt a little more personal than he wanted to admit.

Because he was the newest one, Danny got stuck with the Spirit Book (“What? Are they trying to imply all ghosts can’t write? That’s alivist!”) and the EMF Reader (“...Okay that one’s actually accurate”) because they were apparently the easiest to use. Laden down with their gear they walked up to the small house. Sam’s avatar unlocked the door and they headed inside. Danny noticed the tonal shift immediately. Outside he could hear wind and crickets chirping, but once he stepped inside the doorway, an oppressive silence covered his headphones. It reminded him of the sensation on a pressurised airplane and it unnerved and unsettled him...a lot more than he planned to admit to his friends.

“Alright, spread out,” Sam instructed. “See if you can find the ghost room.”

Ghost room, right. He remembered that from the tutorial. It had been the garage in the tutorial, so he figured he should start there. He walked back through the dark house, turning lights on as he went. It wasn’t because he was scared - absolutely not, he was a real ghost hunter! - it was just much easier to see. He pulled out the EMF reader and walked into the garage. It had an eerie quality to it, and he couldn’t tell if it was because he remembered seeing the ghost there last time (a mean looking (and inaccurate) ghost covered in blood and holding an axe) or if it was because he was alone and the room was so large, but he did not like being in here.

“You know, in the tutorial, the ghost was a bloody axe-man,” Danny remarked over the walkie talkie.

“Yeah, I think he’s standard in the tutorial,” Sam remarked offhand. He did not want to admit how good it felt to hear her voice in the oppressive silence of the house. They were clearly focused on their tasks, and that was a good thing, but it felt a lot better hearing their voices.

“Red blood,” he continued, simply to trigger more conversation. He didn’t get any EMF readings, so he gratefully left the garage. “Not ectoplasm. It’s like they didn’t even try.”

“Ugh, Danny, they’re going for a horror aesthetic, not something real,” Sam sighed.

“What? Ectoplasm-stains are horrifying,” he countered as he walked through the rest of the first story. Still no EMF readings.

“Only when it’s yours,” Sam said, and the weight of those words echoed in the silence of the house that made him stop moving for a moment. “No cold spots upstairs,” Sam informed them to break the silence.

“Yeah, no EMF downstairs,” Danny added. “I’m gonna check out the basement.” That’s where they loved to hang out in the real world, so it seemed the next best choice.

“Oh hang on, if you’re going down there I’ll go with you,” Tucker spoke up.

Danny stopped halfway down the stairs. “It’s fine, I’m pretty used to basements,” he joked weaky.

“Yeah, well the last time you went into a basement alone with untested ghost equipment you died.” Tucker said it light-heartedly as a joke, and it was one they’d said a bunch of times before, but somehow it just didn’t feel the same in this tense environment. It felt too...personal.

He waited for Tucker’s avatar to appear before they walked down the stairs together into the basement. Unlike Sam’s basement or his own, this basement had a much creepier feel to it, with the foreboding worn brick walls and discolored cement flooring. Honestly he was glad Tucker went down there with him because it just felt better having another person there.

“Sam, maybe you should get down here with the thermometer,” Tucker mentioned as they both walked through the basement. “Because we’re not--”

Danny whirled around as he heard something thud hard against the ground behind him while he jumped in his chair. The EMF reader in his hand jumped up to three dots and blared at them while he stared at a box of tools now on the ground. The ghost was clearly in the room. Danny half-expected his ghost sense to go off, but he had to remind himself it was just a video game. There wasn’t actually a ghost here.

“What happened?” Sam’s urgent voice said over the walkies.

“Ghost knocked something off the shelf down here,” Tucker said as his avatar walked over to the toolbox. “Ooh! We’ve got fingerprints!” he cheered as his avatar shined a light on a glowing handprint.

“Oh that’s so not how that works,” Danny complained, just to help lighten the mood. Honestly he felt a bit jumpy knowing that the ghost was in the room...and he couldn’t sense him. He’d dealt with invisible ghosts before, but his ghost sense always gave him a vague idea of where they were...except for now. He turned in his chair to check the room behind him. No ghosts, no ghost sense. It’s just in the computer game.

“Figures that the ghost would be in the basement,” Sam remarked as her avatar walked down the stairs and opened her journal. Right! Journal. Danny opened his and placed their one piece of evidence inside. The sooner they got all of those the sooner they could leave, and he really liked that idea.

“I’m not seeing freezing temperatures, but it is a little cooler than the rest of the house,” she continued. “So let’s start setting stuff up in here. Tucker get the DOTS up and I’ll place the camera. Danny place the spirit book.”

Okay, this wasn’t so bad with the three of them in the room. He could hear them moving around and he could see them, so it made him feel a bit better. And there was still no sign of the ghost. He put the spirit book down near the toolbox and looked away from it. Maybe the ghost wouldn’t write in it while he was watching? He didn’t know.

“Ooh!” Tucker cried excitedly.

“Did you see it in the DOTS?” Sam asked.

“No - Ouija board! Oh yeah!” Tucker cheered. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

“Oh I love these,” Sam agreed. Danny’s brow furrowed as he looked at the screen. Why were they acting so happy - didn’t they forget there was a ghost in this room with them?

“Hang on, let Danny try the Ouija board,” Tucker suggested. “You know, because he’s never seen it before.”

“Ooh good idea,” Sam agreed. Danny walked over to where they were and saw Sam’s avatar set down a light brown board.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sus about your motives right now,” Danny said. He had a bad feeling about this...

“No Danny, it’s fine. These are actually pretty cool in this game,” Sam assured him. She quickly explained how the Ouija boards worked in the game and what questions to ask, and against his better judgment, he walked over and activated the board. The numbers and letters glowed orange against the light color of the wood.

He decided to start with something easy, so he swallowed and forced his voice to come out clear. “How old are you?” He jumped in his chair and his avatar backed up quickly as the planchette moved across the letters.

“Y - O - U - N - G,” Tucker read. “A young ghost.”

“Oh God, I hope that doesn’t mean it’s the crawling baby ghost,” Sam sighed. “I really hate that one.”

“Ask it something else,” Tucker encouraged.

“I don’t know,” Danny hedged. For some reason the Ouija board set him on edge. Something deep in his gut did not like this. Even if it wasn’t real and he kept telling himself it wasn’t real, he didn’t like it.

“No dude, it’s okay,” he assured him. “You can ask two questions before a significant sanity drop. Just ask it one more and you can go back to the truck.”

He very much wanted to go back to the truck. He just needed a chance to regroup. He was a ghost and fought ghosts for a living and he could not understand why this game unnerved him so much. But Danny Phantom wasn’t scared of ghosts, any kind of ghosts, and he wasn’t about to show it on a video game. “Fine,” he groaned as he picked up the board again. “Who died?”

This time he knew what to expect, and didn’t jump as much as the planchette started moving. First to the D, then to the A. Over to the N, then looping back to the N. It ended on a Y.

All three of them stopped moving. The silence became even more deafening around them. Danny dropped the Ouija board and backed up as far as the game would let him. He felt a cold sweat drip down his back. Danny. It spelled Danny. How did it know his name?

“...That has got to be a coincidence,” Sam finally said after the silence that seemed to stretch on forever.

“The ghost’s name must be Danny,” Tucker suggested, voice full of forced bravado.

“...No it’s Thomas,” Sam said slowly. “It must just be reading your username to scare you,” she decided.

“No my...my username is GhostBoy,” Danny reminded them, finally feeling like he could speak.

“Is this game actually haunted? Danny, what did you do?” Tucker accused, voice bordering on hysterics.

“What? I didn’t do anything!” Danny yelled back. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He put a hand up to feel his breath - still normal temperature. He looked around his room. There wasn’t a ghost here. But how did it know his name? And that he did almost die in a basement? “You’re the one that told me to use it!”

“Okay, let’s just calm down,” Sam interrupted. “It’s gotta be a coincidence. Let me try it and see if it says the same thing or gives me my name. It could be a new update that checks the name on the Steam account or something.”

Sam moved closer to the board, but before she could touch it all their flashlights flickered.

“Shit!” Tucker yelled.

“Run!” Sam cried in a panic.

Danny followed them up the stairs to the main level. The idea of running from a ghost, not fighting it, was so foreign to him, but he had no choice. He was powerless here. No ghost powers, no weapons, no thermos. He was completely helpless against this ghost.

He bolted for the garage, the one other room he knew how to get to. Sam’s avatar was running next to him. He could hear footsteps behind him and he swore as he ran towards the garage. Sam diverted into another room, but he continued into the garage. He found a locker he’d opened before and rushed into it. He barely remembered to turn off his flashlight and he waited. Seconds passed and he realized he was holding his breath. No...not holding his breath. Not breathing. He looked down at his hands and saw the glowing white gloves. When...when did he change into his ghost form?

Sam’s voice over the walkie startled him. “What the--? Oh my G--” The walkie feed cut to static and then nothing.

“I...I think it got Sam,” Tucker’s voice said over the walkie. Danny turned on his flashlight and saw that it was no longer blinking. He threw his head back in relief. The hunt was over. He climbed back out of his locker, keeping the door open again just in case.

“Dude, she was running right next to me. It must have followed her instead of me,” Danny told him. “Ugh, well what are we going to do now? She’s the only one who knew what she was doing!”

“Wait, I thought you would be a pro because you’re a ‘professional ghost hunter’ - isn’t that what you kept saying?” Tucker teased.

“Yeah, well I lied! This is nothing like ghost hunting!” he argued as he walked out of the garage. He was going back to the trailer. “Real ghost hunters would bring some kind of weapon and wouldn’t just run around helpless! We should just call it.”

“What? No! We’ve got two more pieces of evidence to collect. And we haven’t done any of the objectives! Tucker retorted.

“Fine!” he snapped as he walked down the main hallway. “if you want to keep looking for clues you can, but I’m going back to the trailer to check--”

The front door slammed shut. His flashlight blinked again.

“Shit!” Tucker cried.

Danny could hear the footsteps behind him. He could feel a heart thumping in his headset. He started running off to a room but stopped. No, he was not running again. He was going to stare this ghost down and prove that Danny Phantom was not scared of some ghost. His image struck fear in the hearts of ghosts and his name carried respect in the Ghost Zone. He was not going to let some video game ghost get the better of him and spook him with some Ouija board trick.

He turned around to face it, camera at the ready. If he was going down, he was getting a picture of it. The ghost blinked in the hallway and Danny saw the cause of his anxiety for the first time. The ghost floated down the hallway, with white hair and a black and white jumpsuit. It...it was him. The ghost was Phantom.

He completely forgot to take a picture as his own image rushed at him. He saw two gloved hands cover over the screen and then everything went dark. He heard the crash of breaking glass, saw a strange underground cavern for a second, and then he was back in a foggy blue version of the house.

The ghost of Sam’s avatar approached him, and he heard her laughing over the headset. It sounded like she’d been laughing for awhile. “Oh my god Danny, did you see the ghost?” she asked between laughs.

“It...that was...oh my God,” he groaned. It all made sense. Spelling Danny was likely an Easter egg, a cute nod to his name of Danny Phantom. The fact that it happened in the basement was just a coincidence, because it’s a creepy spot and a commonly haunted area. He hadn’t summoned anything. He wasn’t being targeted by some ghost in the computer. It was just an Easter egg paying homage to him.

Suddenly all the stress left him and he laughed. God, it felt so good to laugh after all that panic. This game had gotten him so worked up and over what? Over a ghost that looked like himself? Suddenly it all seemed so silly that it scared him that much. He had felt actual dread and fear, enough to trigger an unconscious transformation out of a need to protect himself, but there weren’t actually any real consequences. Now he just got to walk around unhindered in this ghostly version of the house, but nothing else actually happened.

Sam laughed along with Danny. “So you did see it then?”

“It was...oh my god Sam it was me! It looked just like me!”

“I know!” she exclaimed. “As soon as I saw it I forgot to keep running and stared. So of course it killed me. I did get a picture though,” she bragged.

“Oh man. I meant to, but I was just too stunned.” Now that he felt much better, he decided to wander around the house following Tucker who, for some reason, was still trying to finish the level on his own.

Sam suspiciously stopped her laughing. “Wait...Danny, your voice sounds weird. Are you...are you in your ghost form?”

Danny bit his lip as a slight blush graced his cheeks. “I don’t want to hear it.” But the telltale whoosh of the glowing rings turning him back to his human form seemed to be all the confirmation she needed. Except, he didn’t hear her laugh.

“...Danny, I wanted to apologize,” she said, and that made Danny stop moving and look quizzically at the screen.

“What? Apologize for what?” he asked.

“For goading you into playing this game,” she clarified, her voice surprisingly serious. “While I’ve been hanging out here in the spirit world, I realized why this game set you off so much.”

“What do you mean? I never said it set me off,” Danny defended. How could she possibly know that? He thought he was playing it pretty cool.

“Oh please,” she scoffed. “You’re in your ghost form and you were panicking after the Ouija board thing.”

“Hey you would panic too if--”

“Danny I’m trying to say that I get it,” she interrupted. “Being near a ghost without your powers? Without any weapons? Being powerless? It’s one of your biggest nightmares, that your powers will fail when you need them. And this game, it’s too close to home.”

Danny stopped moving and stared at the screen, because she was absolutely right. This was too close to home. How many times did he have to check to make sure his ghost sense wasn’t actually going off? How many times did he keep thinking about how similar everything felt to his own experiences? How unnerved he was about a ghost in the basement? It was too similar to his real life...except he had the tools he needed in his real life. Not a flashlight and some dumb spirit book, but actual real tools and powers and weapons, but here they were all taken away from him. Everything he relied on to fight ghosts had been stripped from him in the game and trapped him helpless in a house with his friends. Of course that bothered him. It was, as Sam said, one of his more recurring nightmares.

“...Yeah I think I’m good never playing this game again,” Danny admitted, the closest he planned to get to acknowledging everything she said was true.

“Honestly? I don’t blame you,” Sam agreed softly. “I think it’s easier for us because we’re used to this role: when there’s a ghost in the area, we help figure out what’s going on and support you. It’s not all that different from this game,” she explained. Her ghostly avatar followed Tucker out of the house and he followed after them. “But when you’re used to doing the fighting and defending and can’t...I guess it’s probably harder to separate yourself from the game.”

He reached behind him and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah,” he sighed. As much as he hated to admit it, she was right. It was too similar to his daily life, and as he tried to argue at the beginning, he didn’t need to hunt fake ghosts poorly when he knew how to fight real ghosts well. “You know you sound like Jazz,” he pointed out, trying to lighten the mood and change the subject.

“Wow, you’re going to insult me after I tried to help you?” Sam scoffed. “See if I ever help you again!”

Danny smiled at the screen, glad to be back to the teasing. He definitely felt more relaxed and more like himself. “Oh look, Tucker’s finally calling it quits,” Danny observed as Tucker closed the door to the trailer.

“God, I can’t wait to find out if he saw you.” He could hear her grinning through the headset and honestly he felt the same. Out of all of them, Tucker would be the most excited about this addition.

The screen changed over to the menu screen, showing all their accomplished objectives. It also meant that all three party members could talk to each other again. “I can’t believe you left me!” Tucker complained. “It’s even worse when you’re in there on your own! Do you know how much more evidence we needed to collect? Um, a ton!”

Sam laughed, and Danny had to join in. “Okay so we are sorry about that, but Tucker did you ever see the ghost?”

“No, which is probably why I’m the only one that survived!” he complained.

“Oh my god Sam, he didn’t see it,” Danny groaned.

“Oh my god.”

“No wait, didn’t see what?” Tucker asked. His voice had calmed down a bit and was colored with curiosity.

“Tucker...the ghost was Danny,” Sam told him.

“Uh no, we clarified his name was Thomas,” Tucker corrected.

Sam and Danny both groaned. “No Tucker, the ghost was Danny Phantom. It was skinned to look like Phantom,” she clarified.

Tucker’s line sat silent for a long time before he finally exploded in a shower of shock, excitement, and regret. “NO WAY! No! That is so cool! I mean I knew the developers were fans, but this is so cool! Like literally the best tribute ever. Oh my god I can’t believe I missed it! No!” he cried. He was so loud into the microphone that Danny had a hard time believing Tucker didn’t wake his parents.

“It’s why both of us died,” Danny explained. “We were just too shocked seeing it.”

“We’re going back in. I need to see this,” Tucker demanded.

Danny bit his lip. He was not going back in. He meant it when he said he was done. He almost had his explanation on his lips before Sam spoke up first. “I doubt it’ll show up two times in a row. I Googled it and the skin will be here for the whole month of Halloween as a random draw, so you’ve got time to see it. But if you want to try again tonight, I’ll keep playing if you want. Danny...he needs to get some sleep.”

“What? No, it's so much easier with three people. Come on Danny,” Tucker pleaded.

“Nah, Sam’s right, I should go to bed. Gotta be rested for those real ghosts tomorrow,” Danny chuckled. “Besides, being killed by my own image was a little weird.” And also a little too close to home, considering some of his memories of Dan.

“Yeah, this game isn’t Danny’s jam,” Sam explained simply. He had a feeling Sam would talk to Tucker more about what they discussed while their avatars were dead, and honestly he didn’t mind. He didn’t want to keep secrets from Tucker, he just really didn’t want to talk about it any more tonight.

Tucker sighed. “Alright, fine, you’re off the hook. At least you gave it a try though.”

“I did, and you’re both gonna owe me one for doing it too,” Danny reminded them.

“Dude, pretty sure you’re in the negatives when it comes to IOUs from us,” Tucker pointed out with a good-natured laugh. “Testing out inventions, excuses at school, doing your homework, remembering the thermos when you forget it, distracting your parents…”

“Okay okay, I get it,” Danny groaned as he left the screen and exited out of the game. “Well fine, then I’m less in the negative now. And on that happy subject, I’m going to bed. Good night guys.”

“Good night Danny,” Sam replied. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

Danny almost hung up on their private Discord server when he heard Tucker speak up. “Hey Danny, wait.”

“What?” he asked curiously, his mouse still hovering over the disconnect sign.

“The type of ghost...was a Phantom.”

I’ve never cross-posted on tumblr before, so this will be a first! I hope you enjoy!

#ectober month 2021 #ectoberhaunt trick #ouija board #Danny Phantom #phasmophobia #light angst #2k21 prompt ouija board #2k21 day 5

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dizzydennis · 3 years

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Sonic x Rouge Cover Story (Part 2)

Translator note: Thank you for checking out Part 2 of Rouge’s cover story. I have no idea why it was separated like this, but it’s fine in the end. I am not fluent in Japanese and I am still learning how to be a better translator. Please note that there will likely be mistakes in my work here, but I hope you enjoy the story. Also, I am busy with work and didn’t have the luxury of working on my laptop for this one. While riding a Shinkansen, I typed this out on my phone. If there are any mistakes, please forgive me.

Within the center of Eggman Land, there is a deep vertical hole deep in the ground that goes over 100 meters down.

This was the site of the “Gaia Temple.”

The temple, which once stood for the "healing" of this planet, was tucked into the underground of Eggman Land, but emerged during a big battle and is now sleeping deep in the depths of the planet.

At the bottom of this hole was a figure that landed silently. After looking around carefully, this person said in an overly satisfied tone:

"Huh. It seems that all those robots that gathered together to get Sonic. All for little ol’ me! ♪"

This person was Rouge the Bat. When she looked at the radar she was carrying she could see Sonic was a ways off; just as planned.

"Everybody should get a friendly little hedgehog friend!~"

It seemed certain that she pushed the enemy towards Sonic and to drive them as far away as possible. Then, on the contrary, Sonic was heading for this very spot.

Soon after reaching the deepest part of the tall rock spires of the temple, Rouge found a stone that was dimly shining through the darkness, picked it up, and gracefully pressed it against her cheek.

“I finally found you! And you’re just such a cutie!”

"... Who are you talking to and what are you saying?"

When asked from behind, Rouge looked blankly forward with the stone still on her cheek.

"Oh ...? Did you abandon your work? That’s pretty naughty, Sonic."

Rouge's expression, as she slowly looked back and asked, returned to her usual graceful smile.

“Well, I know you’re the worst kind of lady and I couldn't help it," Sonic answered with an obnoxious grin.

Knowing the location of the Chaos Emerald with the energy detector, Sonic noticed Rouge's plan to use him to allow her a chance to take the gem and so… he quickly showed up here.

The communicator that was informing her of his position would still be spinning on rotation.

"So, what are ya going to do with that Chaos Emerald?"

Rouge smiled and returned without any fear.

"Well, I was thinking that I’d bring it home … What do you say to that?"

Rouge continued, shifting her gaze from the ring on Sonic’s left hand to the Chaos Emerald.

“You’ll soon realize the value of a better gem when one comes around.”

With that said, she slammed a smoke bomb, that she took out from in-between her breasts, on the ground.

<< BANG! >> >>

The area was covered with white smoke.

"Hey! What about our deal earlier!?"

When Sonic shook off the smoke, Rouge had already grabbed on to a large escape balloon and was rising into the sky.

"... Well that takes care of that! My investigation has already ended ♪ You were very useful for the time being, so I will share my intel as promised. Eggman Land’s power restarted because of that seven-colored shooting star ... and the Chaos Emerald accidentally fell here. "

The setup was a little crazy, but Rouge got the Chaos Emerald anyway. She began talking to earn time to escape.

“Well look at that, the Gaia Temple that was previously here was also a power spot for the Chaos Emeralds, right? Perhaps because of that, it seems the underground temple responded to all that Chaos Energy and began to spread energy around the area.”

Sonic didn’t seem to move at all.

"Well, I gave it some thought... If I were to come down here then I might happen upon a Chaos Emerald myself.”

So that was it. Sonic began to speak back.

"OK, but the Chaos Emeralds don’t really belong to anyone. They’ve just been used by some of us when the world was really in a pinch.”

It didn’t matter to Rouge as she let out a soft, “But…"

"But what?"

“But… isn’t it just great to be able to dig in and steal it?”

The next moment Sonic grinned as he dashed towards Rouge.

"!?"

Sonic used the slopes of the rock pillars to spin dash into the sky. As he crossed by Rouge, he grabbed the Chaos Emerald right from her hand.”

"Oh! You thief!"

With a wink, Sonic fell to the bottom of the vertical hole with a huge smile across his face. Rouge was at a loss for words and swooped down to catch up to him!

<< RUMBLE ...! >> >>

Suddenly, all the lights in Eggman Land shut off and the planet shook violently.

A plethora of dazzling streaks of light rose from the very bottom of the vertical hole. The lights shot out in countless directions, and the entire place was engulfed with light once Sonic landed.

The five Chaos Emeralds that Sonic had in his possession started to shine brightly as if they were responding to the lights below.

"What is this......!?"

A glow returned to the darkened and drained Chaos Emeralds.

Maybe it's because five Chaos Emeralds were gathered in the same place where the Gaia Temple used to be. Perhaps it was because Sonic has a deep connection with the temple. Either way, some slumbering power had “found” the Chaos Emerald.

Rouge, who was watching this from the sky, was completely awestruck at such a beautiful scene.

Moreover, the darkness that has spread across the entire temple was washed out as huge particles of light seemed to cut out through the engravings along the side of the large hole. They became even more gorgeous as they shined in seven bright colors.

It looked like a fancy jewel placed on top of high quality black velvet fabric.

"...!"

Rouge glanced at its beauty with longing eyes as she let out a sigh.

For the realist that Rouge was: gems that are unobtainable are truly worthless. However, the hint of "better jewels" still being out there made Rouge happy.

... She could hear Sonic calling from far below her feet.

"Hey! Are you going to come back for it?”

Sonic was shouting with the Chaos Emerald in his hand. It was if he wasn’t going to put up a fight at all.

Of course, she wasn’t going to give up on this real jewel. Right now, no matter what went down in Eggman Land, people’s hearts don’t change. Rouge squinted her eyes and made a confident smile. She pretended to give up and assessed her chances for a surprise attack.

“Well… I lost. I don’t need a sneaky hedgehog’s emerald anyway! Besides—”

<< Crack ...! >> >>

As Rouge flew, the circumference of the hole began cracking apart as the planet shook again.

<< RUMBLE ...! >> >>

"What!? What’s happening this time!?”

A vertical hole that was originally struck in an unnatural shape ... I couldn't stand the torrent of light. The vertical hole couldn’t withstand the barrage of light. The buildings and attractions of Eggman Land fell as if they were caught in an avalanche. The whole thin collapsed.

...... Now’s the time to strike!

If Rouge could get off a surprise move now, she could possibly get all five of Sonic’s emeralds! However, Sonic was able to avoid a giant Eggman statue that had collapsed and fallen in. Sonic slipped back and fell into the smoke.

Sonic would be fine in a situation like this. Rouge, however, concentrated all of her cunning towards an overhead surprise attack once the smoke settled.

But then ...

"I'm sorry to have kept a lady waiting, but I can’t give much more of an apology, right? By the way, what were you trying to tell me earlier?"

Rouge was hearing Sonic's cocky voice from the communicator.

Rouge dropped her head in sadness. Sonic had already escaped. Also, his communicator must was very far away from where he was ... Rouge realized that it was impossible to catch up with him.

Really, this guy does every single thing he wants to, doesn’t he?

"It's so annoying. I now have nothing!"

Saying that, Rouge got rid of her communicator and let her escape balloon go too. She then angrily flew into the sky.

Sonic, on the other hand, almost instantly returned to his usual demeanor with a cheeky expression. Before running off, he left a last message on his communicator despite the fact that nobody would hear it.

"Well, Rouge. Did you enjoy yourself today?"

The night was soon erased by a wave of light. Morning had come to Eggman Land, the place for hopes and desire.

The amusement park, which welcomed two guests during its bustling night of resurrection had collapsed and fallen completely silent. Now, it seemed nothing more than a set of ruins. Casting a dark shadow onto the new morning.

With that in mind, Rouge, who ended up going home empty-handed, was flying in the sky with horrid thoughts in her mind. However, she suddenly went silent when she thought about the jewel of light she saw.

Even so, it was overwhelming. That unrealistic beauty it had... What if Rouge could just know how valuable it was?

"... Well, you’ll just have to find it for yourself then!"

"Motivation" is the "ideal jewel". Maybe there was some value in this, depending on how you think about it.

Let's leave things as they are. Rouge was in a good mood as these thoughts raced through her mind. She then flew off into the sunrise.

“I'll definitely get all the jewels I want anyway! All jewels in the world are my mine to keep! ♪”

#sonic the hedgehog #rouge the bat #sonic unleashed #sonic adventure 2 #dr eggman #sega

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serialreblogger · 4 years

Note

Hey! I'm thinking of reading Dracula, and knowing that's your eternal hyperfixation, I wanted to ask your thoughts, if you had any comments, suggestions, ect.

HEY WHY DIDN’T I SEE THIS SOONER I’M SO SORRY FRIEND

okay okay okay okay (...several people are typing...) SO

the first thing you should be aware of when reading Dracula is that it’s quite Victorian, so you might find it easier, especially on a first read, to get an annotated version (the Norton Critical Edition version is quite good) that puts footnotes in to explain all the outdated references to like, London penny-meat merchants and stuff. I would say it’s significantly easier to read than Lord of the Rings, but because it was written 200 years ago the difference in language means it’s not a simple read. (However, if you have absolutely any attraction to the Gothic aesthetic, Dracula is so very much worth the brainpower to slog through the rougher sentences. Like. “...the courtyard of a vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of light, and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the moonlit sky.” The whole book is like that. A bit stilted to contemporary readers, but also breathtakingly spot-on in its Spooky Factor.)

the second thing you should be aware of is that Dracula is extremely gay, but in a Tormented Victorian Closeted way. There’s a part where Jonathan climbs out a window that just. It’s uh. The descriptions are very,, metaphorical-sounding. Again, the whole book is like that, and sometimes it’s very fun and sometimes (lookin at Lucy’s whole thing) it’s significantly more unsettling if you pay attention to the weirdly sexy descriptions of how the protagonists interact with the vampires, but I think that’s part of what I find so fascinating about Dracula--it’s unsettling and strange and the pieces don’t fit together clearly, and I still don’t know quite what to make of it, but all the same the feeling of what Stoker’s saying comes through quite clearly. There’s a reason why so many Dracula adaptations have this narrative of a protagonist falling in forbidden love with the tormented Vampyre, yknow? There’s something so unmistakeably sympathetic about the character of Dracula, even when the narrative of the story goes out of its way to establish that he has no redeeming qualities or even proper personhood, that he’s just a monster. Because there’s something about the story (even without getting into the whole “Mina and Jon murked their boss” thing) that makes a reader wonder if that’s really the whole truth. If there isn’t something tragic about Dracula. If there isn’t something in him, if not of goodness, then at least of sorrow, instead of only fear.

Anyway I digress but I think we all knew that was gonna happen; point is: Jonathan and Dracula definitely had sex, Mina and Lucy were definitely in love, Seward’s got something weird goin on with the old professor (and also he’s just very weird, full stop. sir. sir please stop experimenting on your asylum inmates. sir i know this is victorian england but please Do Not), and Quincey, well, Quincey is an American cowboy with a bowie knife, and I think that’s all we really need to know.

ok and! the third thing you should be aware of is The Racism. Imperialist Britain, yo. Bram Stoker was Irish so like, it isn’t half as bad as some other authors of his time period (Rudyard Kipling anyone), but the racism is real and I don’t wanna gloss over that. The g**sy slur is used with abandon for a huge assortment of people groups, there’s a tacit as well as overt acceptance of the idea that West is superior to East, and because the educational system where I grew up is a joke and I can only learn things if I accidentally fall down the wikipedia hole of researching the insect genus hemiptera, i genuinely still don’t know how accurate the extensive history of Romania recounted in the first third of the book actually is. Oh also casual and blatant anti-blackness is verbalized by a character at least once. I’m pretty sure the racism has a metaphorical place in the framework of Dracula’s storytelling, but I couldn’t tell you what it is because I am not going to bother putting myself in the mindset of a racist white Victorian man. This is the mindset I am trying to unlearn. So: read with caution, critical thinking, and the double knowledge that even as the narrators are meant to be unreliable, so too is the author himself.

Finally, regarding interpretation: so personally I’m running with the opinion that Dracula is, at least partly, a metaphor for Stoker’s own queerness and internal conflict re: being queer, being closeted, and watching the torture his friend Wilde went through when the wealthy father of Wilde’s lover set out to ruin his life for daring to love his son. Whether this is true or not (I think it’s true, but hey, that’s analysis, baby), you can’t understand Dracula without knowing the social context for it (as with all literature--the author isn’t dead, not if you want to know what they were saying), and the social context for it is:

- Stoker was friends with Wilde, growing only closer after Wilde was outed

- Wilde was outed, as I said, because the father of his lover was wealthy and powerful and full of the most virulent kind of hatred. This is especially interesting because of how many rich, powerful parents just straight up die in Dracula and leave the main characters with no legal issues and a ridiculous amount of money, which is the diametrical opposite of what happened to Wilde

- Stoker idolized his mentor Henry Irving. Irving was a paradigm of unconventional relationships and self-built family, in a world where divorcees and children born out of wedlock were things to be whispered about in scandalized tones, not people to love and embrace. Irving was also famous for thriving off of manipulating those close to him and pitting friends against each other. Given the painstakingly vivid description Stoker provides for his titular vampire and how closely it matches Irving’s own appearance and demeanor, Irving was widely understood even at the time of writing to be the chief inspiration for the character of Dracula

- the book is dedicated to Stoker’s close friend, Hall Caine, a fellow writer whose stories centered around love triangles and accumulation of sins which threaten to ruin everything, only to be redeemed by the simple act of human goodness

- Stoker was Irish, but not Catholic (he was a Protestant of the Church of Ireland, a division of the Anglican Church). This may come as a surprise when you read the book and see All The Catholicism, Just Everywhere. Religion is actually a key theme in Dracula--most of the main characters start out your typical Good Victorian Anglican Skeptics, and need to learn through a trial-by-fire to trust in the rituals and relics of the Catholic Church to save them from Dracula’s evilness. Which is interesting. Because not only do these characters start off as dismissive towards these “superstitions” (in the same way they dismiss the “superstitions” of the peasant class on the outskirts of Dracula’s domain), but the narrative telling us “these superstitions are actually true!” cannot be trusted, when you know the author’s own beliefs.

(Bram Stoker is not saying what his characters are saying. This is the first and most important rule to remember, if you want to figure out Dracula.)

- The second-most famous character in the novel, after Dracula himself, is Van Helsing, whose first name is Abraham. Note that “Bram” is a declension of Abraham. What does this mean? I legitimately have no idea. But it’d be a weird coincidence, right? Like what even is the thought process there? “Oh, yeah, what should I name this character that comes in, makes overtly homoerotic statements willy nilly, and encourages everyone to throw rationality out the window and stake some vampires using the Eucharist? hmmmm how about ‘Me’”

ok wait FINAL final note: you legitimately do not have to care about any of this. I love Dracula because it has gay vibes and I love trying to figure it out, like an archaeologist sifting through sentence structure to find fragments that match the patterns I already know from historical research; but that’s not why you should love Dracula. The book itself is just straight up fun to read. Like I said, Stoker absolutely nails the exact vibe of spookiness that I love, the eerieness and elegance and vague but vivid fear of a full moon crossed by clouds at midnight. The characters are intriguing, especially Quincey gosh I love Quincey Morris but they’re very,, sweet? if i can say that about people i, personally, suspect of murder? They come together and protect each other against the terrible threat that is Dracula, and you don’t get that half as often as I’d like in horror media. I don’t even know if Dracula could qualify as “horror” proper, because it’s not about the squeamish creeping discomfort that “horror” is meant to evoke, it’s not the appeal of staring at a train wreck--it’s not horrifying. It’s eerie. It’s Gothic. It has spires and vampires and found family and cowboys, and to be honest, I don’t know what could be better than that.

#dracula #linden writes an essay #linden's originals #THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK FRIEND I WILL ALWAYS WANT TO INFODUMP ABOUT DRACULA #ask linden

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perryshmirtz-shipper713 · 4 years

Text

Movie Night

[Finally finished my last entry for Perryshmirtz Week this year. It took a while but I promised myself I would finish this year.]

[Hope everyone has a Happy New Year]

One More Day

Another day.

Another day with Heinz Doofenshmirtz.

Perry could barely keep back his happiness.

It’s been a while since Heinz became Perry’s nemesis. He always loved recalling all the memories they had shared together. Learning more about Heinz, spending time with him, and even getting more and more closer to him, even though it was mostly thanks to their fights.

There were times the two got to hang out, just the two of them, without the need of their good versus evil routines. Perry admitted he loved those moments the most. He wondered if there would be more moments like that even with Heinz declaring he was renouncing evil completely.

He hoped so. Very deeply.

Perhaps tonight was a good sign that there would be more. Heinz had invited Perry to a private movie night. It was private due to only a few villains knowing about it. That sounded suspicious to Perry but Heinz assured him it was perfectly safe for them to go. He claimed he has seen other nemesis there with their partnered villains a few times and nothing bad every came from it.

“It’s open only once a month and tickets are cheap as well as the snacks!” Heinz explained excitingly. “There’s good movies playing too, though they are pirated so the quality isn’t that great.”

Perry raised an eyebrow to that fact.

Heinz shrugged his shoulders. “We’re villains. What’d you expect?”

Perry tugged at Heinz’s lab coat and gave a worried look.

“Oh!” Heinz realized. “I mean, they are villains. I’m definitely quitting all that, Perry. It’s just...” Heinz paused to find the right words. “this is kind of my last day as a villain, since tomorrow I’m officially turning in all my villain registration papers and license, so what better way to end it than with my own wonderful nemesis?”

Perry felt himself blush from that compliment.

“And...”Heinz continued a bit nervously. “There is the fact that if you bring your nemesis, you get free entry.”

Perry crossed his arms. Ruining the moment again. He huffed disappointedly.

Heinz suddenly picked up Perry and held him up. “But, you know...” he said with joy in his eyes. “Even if I had to pay or even if there was no private villain theater, I would love to spend this last night as a villain with my wonderful and unforgettable nemesis.”

Perry blushed again. Okay, at least he knows how to bring back the moment.

.....

Perry waited by the spot that Heinz told him would be the best and, especially, the safest. It wasn’t too far from the theater but not too close either. Heinz assured there had never been bad occurrences before but he still felt it would be safer if he shows up with Perry than have an OWCA agent just show up at an all villain event.

Perry checked and fixed up his fur for the fourth time this night. He had made sure his fur was looking even shinier than usual and feeling extra smooth. He couldn’t help but feel high hopes for tonight(like extra pets or something like that). He wasn’t sure if tonight he would finally confess to Heinz how much he loves him but he always liked to be prepared for any situation. Even if there would be no confessions tonight, if they could have fun like always, it will still be consider a win to Perry.

Perry was thinking of every situation that could happen tonight until Heinz had pulled up in a taxi.

“Perry the Platypus!” Heinz called out quickly.

Perry noticed that Heinz wasn’t wearing his usual lab coat, he just had his usual pants and black turtleneck shirt. He looked...good, Perry thought. He also wondered if it was a symbolic way for Heinz to show that he was really leaving his evil ways behind. Or maybe he just thought he would look good. Perry had no complaints.

Heinz sent off the taxi and told him to charge it on his tab. He turned to Perry and smiled happily. “I’m so glad you’re here Perry, safe and sound. To be honest, I was a bit worried since there is still a lot of villains near by and, well, maybe... you know, you might have changed your mind?”

Perry noticed the look of relief on Heinz’s face. He started to realize that maybe Heinz had the same worry he had, if they would still want to be around each other even with their nemesiship coming to an end?

Perry grabbed onto Heinz’s hand and smiled at him. It was his usual gentle smile that he would show Heinz to comfort him and simply say he is here for him. He wanted to assure his long-time nemesis (and hopefully soon-to-be lover) that he would always want to be around him. Even just being close by him makes him the happiest platypus ever.

Heinz gently squeezed Perry’s hand. It was always his way of showing that he loved when they held hands like this. It was never clear to Perry if it was cause Heinz found the agent’s strong hands to also be remarkably cute and soft feeling or because Heinz loved the way that Perry showed support to him especially in ways like this. Perry hoped it was most likely the latter but both reasons would be fine too (though he would prefer the words strong and skilled than cute and soft).

Heinz kept holding onto to Perry’s hand until they made it to the supposedly secret villain theater. To Perry, it just looked like an old and abandon building. It definitely gave “keep out” vibes. No wonder the tickets and food were cheap here.

“Oh, don’t look like that, Perry,” Heinz scoffed as he opened the creaky door and jester to Perry to come inside. “I know that it doesn’t look grand but it can’t grab too much attention since it is suppose to be a secret villain hideout. Though I did offer some ideas to make it look more evil than dirty,” Heinz mumbled the last part in a disappointed tone. “It’s much better inside.”

Perry went inside and examined himself. It was definitely looking more clean and a bit more fixed up but there were definitely parts that still gave off an unwelcoming tone.

“And by that I actually mean a bit better, Heinz confessed.

Suddenly a bright light flashed unto the two, blinding them from their front view. Perry could tell it was shining from a high ground and he quickly stood in front of Heinz, ready to protect him.

A deep voice emerged from the direction where Perry was sure the light was coming from. “Who goes there?”

“Hi, it’s me, Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz,” Heinz announced quickly and a bit nervously as if he was aware of possible danger from this person. “Oh and I brought my nemesis, Agent Perry the Platypus.”

“Ah, yes, for the free movie night with your nemesis,” the mysterious person answered back. “Alright, you know the rules. Give space to each villain as to not start any fights, whether it be verbal or physical.”

“It’s mostly verbal,” Heinz whispered to Perry.

“And, most importantly,” they continued. “No trickery or traps or anything suspicious like that. Or there will be consequences.”

The bright light turned off. Perry’s eyes adjusted a bit to see a silhouette of a figure standing on a balcony that was ahead of them.

“Dire Consequences,” the figure said in a more deeper and sinister tone. Heinz nodded quickly seeming a bit shaken by that warning (or really a threat). Even Perry got a bit shaken but he stood his ground. He wanted Heinz and this suspicious stranger to know that he was ready to protect Heinz from anything and anyone.

The figure stepped back and started to disappear into the darkness. “Oh,” they called out before disappearing completely. “And no outside food or drinks please.”

Heinz nodded again and started to walk to another entrance ahead of them. He signaled Perry to follow along. Perry looked up at where mysterious figure had been standing. He was a bit worried if they really should continue since he didn’t know anything about this theater or the person running it. He looked at Heinz again and saw him smiling. Well, he shouldn’t let his guard down all completely but maybe this time he could lower it just a bit to relax. He wanted to enjoy this night with Heinz no matter what.

The two entered through. Perry looked around. It actually looked like a decent looking theater. The movie screen was big and bright, the chairs looked in good conditions and actually comfortable to sit on, and it was spacious enough to allow distance between each villain.

“This way to our seats, Perry the Platypus,” Heinz whispered. “I think I got us some pretty good seats.”

While Perry followed Heinz down the aisle , he looked around to observe the other villains who were here tonight. To his surprise, there were indeed other OWCA agents here too. It was still pretty dark with just the light from the movie screen illuminating the room a bit, but he was sure he could see Professor Poofenplotz and Agent Pinky sitting next to each other and even sharing a large popcorn. He than noticed Agent Silent G with his nemesis Dr. Diminutive and they actually looked like they were...cuddling?

Heinz did say that villains have brought their nemesis here before but it still surprised him to see his own coworkers around here and even being close and friendly with their assigned villains. Rumors spread a lot in the OWCA offices but Perry never heard even so much as a whisper of this place or what goes on here. He didn’t even know his other coworkers were this close with their own assigned villains.

He was still a bit surprised by what he was seeing but it slowly started to make sense to him. He didn’t exactly go ranting on about his close relationship with his nemesis to OWCA or anyone really. It wasn’t that he was embarrassed by it, it’s just he was an agent so keeping things secret is just what he does. He kept most things precious to him a secret from others. His closeness with Heinz was no exception. Plus, the OWCA office can be filled with such gossip and he didn’t want to hear any negativity about his relationship with his Heinz Doofenshmirtz (or any negativity towards his Heinz).

As the two approached close to their seats, Perry caught a glimpse of Peter the Panda with his own nemesis, Professor Mystery. So they did patch things up, Perry thought as he remembered all the drama that happened between them and their nemesis.

Peter the Panda caught a glimpse of Perry, too. When he saw Heinz just ahead of him, he looked at Perry again and gave him a thumbs up.

Perry smirked at him as he moved closer to Heinz. He admitted that he still felt some remorse from the whole incident the three of them went through but Perry tried to be understanding. During that time, Peter had felt distant from his nemesis and Heinz was actually good company when you got use to him. Anyways, the three had settled their feelings and managed to fix their nemesiships.

Perry looked around one more time. Maybe what he felt for Heinz wasn’t anything bad or unethical. Maybe it was just what it really was. Love.

The two made it to their seats and sat next to each other. Perry started to unwind and relax into his seat. He was still going to be alert of his surroundings, but everything seemed safe, especially with other agents here, too. This will be enjoyable night after all.

Perry started to remember everything Heinz and him have been through together. The first rememberable day they met, the crazy fights and adventures they had, the moments they got closer and friendlier with each other (Perry secretly wished they would have gotten even more friendlier) and, especially, the moment when he realized he was actually in love with Heinz. The moment that happened, his life seemed to have gotten a bit more brighter and even happier.

It wasn’t like his life before wasn’t nice. He got to be a great agent (though he would admit OWCA sure needed some improvements) and he got a great family to go home to (though he admitted he would appreciate it if Cadence’s attitude would improve towards him). It was just Heinz was like an added piece to his happiness. He completed him. He liked that. He wanted Heinz in his life forever and he felt Heinz wanted that, too.

Heinz looked at Perry. He smiled at him as he reached over and grabbed his nemesis’ hand. “Thank you again for coming here. I can’t imagine a better way to end my life of evil than with the one who completely changed my life.”

Perry started to notice a blush emerge on Heinz’s face. Heinz always commented on how cute and adorable Perry was, but, at this moment, Perry thought Heinz was the most cutest, hands down. Perry placed his own hand on top of Heinz and gave a gentle squeeze.

Heinz looked away for a bit, looking like his face was getting even more redder. “Um, the movie is about to start. Why don’t I go get some snacks for us?”

As Heinz was getting up, Perry held onto Heinz’s hand and pulled him back to his seat. He then moved over and sat on top of Heinz’s lap. He cuddled happily against his soon-to-be ex-nemesis (and, with any luck, his soon-to-be lover) and smiled at Heinz with a loving look. He wanted to show Heinz that all he needed was him close by him. Just like this. Always.

Heinz looked loving back at Perry. “I guess we could get something to eat later. Right now, this is nice.”

The movie started to play. The two leaned back and watched happily together with the other villains and agents. And the night went on better than the two imagined. No traps or fights. Just the company of each other and the closeness the two always wanted.

Perry couldn’t wait for another day like this with his Heinz Doofenshmirtz.

#perryshmirtz #perryshmirtz events #perryshmirtz week 2020 #day six #movie night #fanart

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lilfunkers-fnf · 3 years

Text

Just an untitled fic featuring characters from @friday-night-demonic

It was late afternoon. Sen was finally able to take a worn out Kasumi “home” from the park. And by home it was “sneaking” into the back door of the daycare that he knew Matt or Garcello left open for her, Tabi or Whitty incase their home lives got too rough. Then, he felt the grasp of her hand in his let go. Probably wanted to pet a stray cat.

“Come on Kas, you know we don’t touch stray kitties.” She turned around to show him a plush that was the exact same height as him in plush form and looked very similar. There was no pink streaks in it, replaced with brown edges and it’s eyes were covered by roses. It’s dark purple sweater was dirty and the dark purple capelet with pale gold trimming and orange star shaped button was even more dirty and a bit torn in a few places. The shoes and pants were just as dirty.

“Can we take him with us? He’s dirty and abandoned and we can add him to our family!” Her eyes pleaded just as much as her tiny voice did.

“Alright, but no walking away from me ok?” She nodded excitedly and held the new plush in one hand and took Sen’s hand with the other.

Back at home, Sen immediately threw the ruined clothes in the washer while Kasumi raided the dress up clothes to find something for it to wear. How did she know the dress up clothes would fit? It involved a nap, Lucy, and an anxiety attack.

“Would this one work Bee?” She held up a prince’s outfit. No response. “It’s just until your clothes are clean it’s not permanent!” Sen peeked his head out from the laundry room.

“Everything ok there?”

“Yep! Just helping Bee pick an outfit so he isn’t running around naked.”

“Bee?”

“That’s just a name he had in his head while I was trying to pick out one since he didn’t remember his.”

“Alright then.” Sen turned back to the laundry while Kasumi dressed him.

“All done!” She reached out to pat Bee on the head only for a split second to see him flinch. “Hey, I’m not going to hurt you.” Her tone was gentle and soft. “I was just going to pat you.” She slowly reaches out and pats him. “See, like that.” Silence. “Roses hurting if I pull them? I won’t at all, I think they make you look handsome.” She clearly has no idea what handsome means since she’s only 4. Then a light turned on in her head. “I know what would make you feel better!” She rushes off only to return with a table, a tea set, some animal crackers and an already opened bottle of apple juice. “How about a little tea party, just you and me? Ok not exactly a party but we can just have tea and chat.” Silence. “Hey Sen! Would you like to join us?”

“I’d love to, but I’m busy with the laundry and then I’m going to grab us dinner.” Sen replied from the other room.

“Ok!” She turned back to Bee. “He won’t be, sorry. I can introduce you to someone else!” She leaves for a few minutes again, returning with a chair and a white haired plush doll. “This is Haru. My friend Tommy gave him to me.” She places Haru in the chair before setting up the tea set in front of the three of them and starts to pour apple juice into the cups. Once the apple juice was poured, she opened the 3 packs of animal crackers, putting one in front of each of the participants.

“Let us begin.”

Even though he really didn’t want to feed her fast food, it was the only warm thing he could really get for her because they couldn’t afford or risk buying a portable burner. Slowly creaking the door open, he noticed how animated Kasumi was talking to this new doll. She looked happy for once.

“Pardon my interruption, but dinner’s arrived.” He said as he knocked on the door frame.

“Thanks Sen.” She smiled. “Come and join us. I’m telling Bee about the time Keith got stuck to the ceiling fan in the art room!”

“Bedtime kiddo.”

“Really?”

“Kiddo, it’s almost 9 o clock.”

“Ok… Can I get Bee his other clothes?”

“Of course. They should still be fresh in the dryer.” The quartet went into the laundry room where Sen pulled out the outfit from the dryer, still nice and warm.

“See, nice and clean.” Kasumi told Bee. “I’ll help you get changed.”

Once the plush was changed into his former outfit, and the previous outfit was neatly hung back into its place, Sen escorted his human into the “bed” which was really several of the nap time mats stacked ontop of each other with many blankets and pillows.

“Can I have a story?” She asked.

“Already have one.” He held up a book of fairy tales. “Which one do you want?”

“You pick!”

“Hey Bee, even if you don’t know where you came from or who you are or even your inability to really talk, we'll be here for you. We’ll make new memories for you to have. I promise.” Kasumi whispered before falling asleep.

Where was he? Why was he under this girl’s arm? Why was it this dark? It all dawned on him. The magic anon, this girl finding him, oh no. They’ll be after him. He couldn’t put this girl at risk. Slowly getting out from under her, he ruffled her hair before stumbling around the dark halls and to the office to write a note for her to explain it all.

Kas,

I’m sorry I have to go so quickly and this being the only explanation I can give. I’m not actually a doll. I’m actually a demon who was trapped in a video game. When I escaped, it ruined me so that’s where the roses and an inability to speak came from. A magic anon turned me into a doll. And I have to go so I don’t get you two hurt. They’ll be after me. Thank you for washing my clothes and for the apple juice and animal crackers

I hope to be in contact with you again someday. I’ll keep our memories in mind for the rest of my days

~ Best wishes, from Bee. :)

It wasn’t much but it would have to do. He then looked at the daycare one last time before vanishing, leaving the note in the same room as the duo.

“So he left?” The tears in her eyes were just ready to pounce. “I did something wrong didn’t I?”

“No sweetie.” Sen pulled her in closer. “He wanted to stay with us, he really liked you, he just wanted to keep us safe, that's all.” He’d hunt the bastard down and ask why but, it was almost time for the adults to arrive and he didn’t want to risk it. “Bee wouldn’t do it to hurt you. I promise.”

“Lem, I have a favor to ask.”

“It’s weird to see you here [Redacted].”

“I know, it’s just this girl I met during the magic anon…”

“Oh! Is someone interested?”

“No, I’m not interested! Let me finish speaking first! She’s a human child! Why would I be attracted to a child, let alone a human child!?” His mouth snarled as he signed. “I had to abandon her when the effect wore off but I feel really bad since she absolutely adored me in that form. Is there any way you could make a plush clone of myself I can send to her?”

“Of course. I just can’t make one of your current height.”

“That’s fine. I was thinking about 3’5 anyways. Just like how she found me.”

“Why is there a package for Kasumi? I didn’t even know she gets mail.” Garcello said as he brought in the mail.

“Knowing our luck it’s a dead rat.” Annie continued.

“Please don’t.” Lila shuddered at the idea of a rat, let alone a dead rat.

“Hey kiddo, you have a package.” Garcello handed Kasumi the decently sized box.

“Thank you.” Once Garcello was out of earshot, Kasumi started to talk to Sen. “Did you order something?”

“No…. It’s only read as Kas. Maybe it’s Bee?” The orange haired “doll” replied.

She opens the box to find several boxes of the high quality cookies she yearned for, a small bottle of fruit punch, and a plush with a note.

“Hey kiddo! I might not be able to be there for real, but I figured this plush could take my place for a bit! Enjoy the treats as well!

-Your friend Bee.”

The plush looked exactly like he did that night, and was the exact same height as Bee was that night. She squeezed him tight and smelled the faint smell of lemons.

“Sen, he’s back.” Sen softly smiled and joined the embrace as well.

“Hey! Are you going to share the snacks?” Whitty called out.

“My snacks Whitty! Not sharing!”

3 notes · View notes

shitfics · 4 years

Text

Up in the Air; onjongtae; nc-17

Taemin’s friendship with Jinki has been strained for months. When Jinki ditches their evening plans once again without explanation, Taemin follows him to see what Jinki had abandoned him for. He finds Jinki in the arms of a charming air pirate named Jonghyun—and after a few rounds of drinks, finds their relationship even more intriguing than it had first appeared.

AO3 LINK

I started this a few months back when I started replaying Skies of Arcadia. Consider it part of my ‘revisiting the setting of old unrated JRPGs with the Digital Devil Saga inspired fic. ^^ This has always been one of my favorite RPG settings. Though it can be a bit cheesy, it’s wholesome and fun.

I want to apologize/prewarn that this may be pretty low-quality, but hopefully isn’t confusing or riddled with too many errors. I didn’t really have anyone to beta it so I did the proofreading myself, even though I’m terrible at that. Whether or not hammocks can actually be used the way they are in this fic, I have no idea, but I prioritized horniness over physics here.

There is a bit of a hanging ending because I have a semi-complete plot for this verse, though I don’t know if I’ll revisit it since I’m busy with original things. So the open/kinda sad ending here is definitely not the ‘real’ one. Since this is a oneshot, I’ve gone ahead and put the full fic below the cut.

Taemin ran a thumb along the cork of the wine bottle in his lap.

Jinki should’ve shown up by now. This afternoon, Taemin had been late for his daily briefing from the Valuan Armada because he’d slipped away to remind Jinki of their plans. There was no chance Jinki could have forgotten, and it wasn’t as if their plans required any preparations. They were going to meet for drinks and cards after dinner. That was all Taemin had asked for.

And yet, despite all Taemin’s reminders, the plan had fallen through. Taemin set the bottle down on the table hard enough to rattle the still-empty glasses. When was the last time they’d gotten to spend time alone? Months ago?

With every day his mother got older, the court circled closer to him, desperate for some sort of connection before the Empress died and his ass was permanently cemented on the throne. Nobles that had ignored him for years, thinking their efforts at winning favor were better spent on his mother, now acted like his best friend. Taemin pretended not to notice and dismissed them as smoothly as he could. He didn’t want sycophants. If he was ever going to take advice, he wanted it to be from someone that had always been there for him.

Only he didn’t have someone like that anymore. That was becoming more and more apparent.

Tonight wasn’t the first time Jinki had snubbed him. For the past year, Jinki had withdrawn. They no longer shared tables at parties, no longer met in the Armada training yards to hone their swordplay or marksmanship, no longer sent each other suffering looks when an admiral decided to ruin an evening with inflated tales of the latest land they had conquered or air pirate they had apprehended.

Well. Taemin still sent Jinki looks—they just weren’t returned.

Taemin had tried to broach the distance between them. Surely, something had gone wrong to make their friendship to change so drastically. But every time he asked, Jinki would give him that damned glowing smile and insist things were the same—he was just tired, or busy, or distracted. Taemin would feel stupid for worrying and drop it, then feel stupid again once the evening was done and he returned to the royal wing with a knot in his chest.

He gave Jinki another quarter hour. The rapid-fire thwacks as Taemin shuffled his cards drowned out the unrelenting ticks of the grandfather clock, but his eyes never left it.

The quarter hour passed. Five more minutes, he told himself. Then one last shuffle, as if that were a unit of time.

His hands shook—with rage, hurt, or shame, he didn’t know—and when the two stacks of cards interlocked and bent, he misjudged their placement. The edges caught, sending the deck flying out the two neat stacks and across the table.

Taemin swore and stood, leaving the cards scattered.

The door of the lounge slammed behind him. He stomped towards the wing of the palace where Jinki spent most of his nights. Though his family had a mansion a short walk away in Upper City, they kept a suite at the palace, too. His mother and father were heavy enough drinkers that a closer place to crash after parties was prudent.

Taemin rapped a gloved hand against the door. The head servant of their palace staff answered, eyes widening when he recognized Taemin. The poor man wasn’t at fault for Jinki’s failure to appear, so Taemin tried to manage a smile.

“Good evening,” Taemin said. “I’m looking for Jinki. He was supposed to meet me in the Silver Moon lounge for drinks. Is he in there? Is it possible he’s gone to the wrong room for our meeting?”

“I’m sorry, your highness. I wasn’t aware he had a meeting with you. He’s left for the night.”

Taemin froze. “Left?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“And he didn’t tell you what for?”

The man shook his head. “I’m sure it must have been urgent, if he abandoned your appointment without speaking to you first.”

“I’m sure it was.” Taemin crossed his arms and scowled. If Jinki didn’t want to be friends with him any longer, the least he could do was say it. “Thanks for letting me know, at least.”

“Of course, your highness. I apologize again for his absence.”

The servant gave a hasty bow and shut the door with a too-loud click, no doubt eager to escape a pissed-off prince.

Taemin stared at the lacquered oak, then snapped out of his daze and paced the hall as he tried to decide what to do with another night alone. He stopped at one of the palace’s dozen balconies that looked over the grounds and squinted through the fog. Under the yellow moon and its constant storms, even wealth and magic weren’t enough to create the sort of lush and well-tended gardens royalty possessed in books. Instead, their status was displayed through fountains, statues, intricate marble pathways, and electric lamps to make up for the lack of natural color.

Though the rainfall was no more than a drizzle—a rarity—only a few figures strolled the grounds. Taemin propped an elbow against the window ledge and watched. The lights cast everything in a faint, murky yellow, but he could make out the black piping of a familiar coat at a distance.

His jaw flexed in anger. He’d recognize that stupid out of fashion garment anywhere.

Dashing down the stairs, he ran towards an exit that would put him closest to where he’d spotted Jinki.

He needed to see what was so damn important to make Jinki skip out on him.

The way out sent him past one of the palace’s dozen laundry rooms. He grabbed a plain outfit and rain cloak as he passed through, figuring a change of clothes would help him escape notice if he had to tail Jinki further out of the palace grounds.

Jinki’s pace was leisurely, and Taemin’s rush allowed him to catch up with Jinki just as he reached one of the lesser-used and lazily-guarded gates between the palace and the Upper City.

They both passed through without questions. When they reached a crowded strip of brightly-lit theatres, shops, and pubs, Taemin almost lost interest in his pursuit—what could be found in one opulent drinking place that wasn’t found in the palace?—but he continued to follow until Jinki ducked into an alleyway.

The alley was empty when Taemin rounded the corner. He swore, convinced that he’d lost Jinki, then spotted an open manhole cover. He approached the entrance slowly, nose wrinkling at the stink that emitted from inside. After waiting a minute to give Jinki a better lead, he climbed down the ladder.

Grabbing clothes turned out to be a brilliant idea. Taemin changed out of his dinner clothes as he walked along the dark tunnel, heart racing. Judging by its direction and slope, the tunnel led to the Lower City. The new clothes wouldn’t allow him to blend in perfectly, but at least they weren’t silk, and the cloak would cover most of it. He’d only have to worry about his boots.

Finally, he reached an end and another open manhole. Taemin climbed up, worried if he waited too long he’d lose Jinki in the unfamiliar streets above. When he emerged into another alley, all he had to do was step out onto the street to find Jinki again.

Taemin closed the distance between them. The constant rumble of thunder drowned out his heaviest footsteps, and even if Jinki turned, only half of the street lamps worked. The few that did flickered, switching the appearance of those passing beneath them from pallid to jaundiced on a whim. Only the periodic flash of lightning might give away his face, but Jinki never looked back.

They wound their way through the dirty streets of Lower City, until finally, Jinki approached one of the battered buildings that lined the stone-and-cement paths.

A pub.

Taemin let him enter alone. Why would Jinki come here? And why would he refuse to tell anyone about it? If he simply wanted to avoid Taemin or the other nobility and drink alone, it’d make sense, but the visit was hardly illicit. Plenty of nobles enjoyed visiting the Lower City for their less-than-legal affairs or an unrestrained night on the town. If Jinki enjoyed slumming it, Taemin couldn’t imagine why he’d keep it so secret.

One of the pub’s walls was half open, separated from an outside porch by a single counter. A tin veranda protected the crowd and tables that spilled outside from the steady rain. Most of the drinkers appeared to be workers, judging by the soot and ash that covered their arms and breeches. There were others—a few low-ranking soldiers and off-duty servants as well—but one table stood out amongst the rest.

The men and women seated there wore mismatched clothes, some in dresses, vests, scarves, and shirts. All were armed, visibly or otherwise. And each outfit had one thing in common: a touch of blue.

Blue Rogues. Pirates.

Taemin shifted his attention to the entry and exit of the pub and waited. If Jinki stayed inside, Taemin would have to go in to observe him and risk being noticed. Outside, he might have a chance.

After what felt like hours, Jinki reappeared under the veranda with an overflowing mug in hand. He moved through the crowd with ease and a clear destination: the table of Blue Rogues.

Taemin’s eyes widened. Surely, Jinki was meeting with someone Taemin didn’t see—someone behind the pirates and out of view, or some friend that had somehow gotten roped into their lively game of cards—but when Jinki arrived, the entire table of Blue Rogues cheered.

Jinki returned the greetings with half-hugs and laughter as he made his way around the table. Taemin watched, lips parted in shock, when Jinki finally stopped—and climbed into the lap of the eyepatched man at the head of it.

Heat raced to Taemin’s face. Oh, moons.

The man stole a kiss, then steered Jinki around by his hips to face the table and pressed a drink into his hand. The chatter and card games at the table resumed, though a few gazes lingered on the pair.

To Jinki, the whole event was plainly routine. He sipped from his mug, unbothered as the man— pirate— beneath him ran a hand along his ribs.

Taemin weighed his next action. This certainly wasn’t what he expected to find after following Jinki. But if he went back to the palace, what was he going to do? Sleep like normal, as if Jinki hadn’t ditched him and snuck out that very night to fuck a Blue Rogue?

He’d never cared before who Jinki slept with. It wasn’t his business. But Jinki had made this particular man his business by abandoning their plans for this.

Taemin tightened his cloak around himself and marched into the pub.

Immediately, he felt out of place. No primly uniformed server came to greet him at the door and escort him to an exclusive table sectioned off from the others with velvet curtains. The ordering system here was cut-throat. Shouts for drinks and meals rose over the din, with the returned yell from staff shielded from the overflowing drinks and food scraps by only a dirtied apron.

Content to be ignored, Taemin wove through the crowded pub until he reached the door to the patio. He hovered at the threshold, hesitant—this might be his last chance to go unnoticed—and jumped when a man shoved past him.

“Watch it, kid,” the man grumbled. “You’re blocking the whole fucking door.”

Taemin righted himself just before he fell. His heart pounded. He was completely out of his element. But he wasn’t turning back now. Jinki would never expect him to appear here, and maybe that would be the shock the man needed to realize what an ass he’d been for the past few months.

He kept his chin high as he approached the Blue Rogues. If there was one thing he knew about that sort of pirate, it was that they respected confidence. He stopped beside Jinki and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Good evening, Jinki.”

Instantly, he regretted his choice of greeting. Half the table turned to him, some with snickers, some with only a raised brow or puckered lips in mockery of his Upper City accent.

He flushed, but refused to step back. Jinki took his time turning—the pirate under him had been lifting another drink to his lips, and he couldn’t move without spilling the ale all down his front. When Jinki finally managed to look at him, his eyes went wide, but any words remained stuck in his throat.

The eyepatched man took in Jinki’s shock and scanned Taemin, gaze lingering on Taemin’s unworn and well-made boots, before tightening a protective arm around Jinki’s waist. “A friend of yours?”

“Yes,” Jinki said, clipped. “What are you doing here?”

“I think I should be asking what you’re doing here. Or who.”

The pirate snorted. He set his drink aside and leaned around Jinki to extend a hand. “I’m Jonghyun. Captain. Good to meet you.”

“Jonghyun,” Taemin repeated, shocked out of his attention on Jinki. He shook Jonghyun’s hand out of instinct before thinking to refuse. “The son of Eunkyung The Legend?”

“That’s my mom.” Jonghyun gave a mocking salute. “I see you’re up to date on bounties.”

“Yes. Valua sets most of those bounties, and it’s exciting gossip for the nobility.”

“Which you’re one of, I assume—like Jinki. You have a name?”

“Taemin,” he said, and left it at that. Even if he didn’t want to hide who he was, titles felt inappropriate here.

“Taemin,” Jonghyun repeated. “As in...”

“As in the prince,” Jinki finished for him.

“Oh.” Jonghyun inspected Taemin for a moment, as if deciding whether or not to be bothered, before finally shrugging. “Do I still have to pay for your drinks, if you’re joining us as a guest?”

“I think there’s bigger things to worry about,” Jinki muttered, glancing back. He leaned towards Taemin, but Jonghyun’s arm snaked around his waist to stop him from leaving earshot. After a small sigh, Jinki continued anyway, voice low and pleading. “Please don’t tell anyone of this. I don’t care about my reputation, but I don’t want the armada or anyone else finding out that Jonghyun comes here. He could get hurt.”

“I won’t.” Taemin’s eyes kept flicking to where Jonghyun’s hand rested on Jinki’s thigh, keeping him balanced. “I’m not a snitch.”

Jinki’s lips remained a thin line. Jonghyun patted his leg in reassurance.

“I could handle myself even if he did tell the armada, Jinki. I’ve been doing this my whole life. Hell, half the ships we rob are Valuan armada airships. That’s how Blue Rogues work.”

“I know, but...”

“I’m not going to tell anyone,” Taemin emphasized. “I only wanted to see what you’re doing that’s so important. We had plans tonight. Or did you forget?”

Jinki flushed. “Jonghyun doesn’t get to visit often, so when I heard he was in town...”

“You ditched him?” Jonghyun interjected. “I’m flattered you wanted to see me so badly, but that’s awfully rude of you.”

Jinki buried his face in his hands. “Years of etiquette lessons, and I’m getting lectured on manners by a pirate...”

“You could have at least told me something came up, so I didn’t have to hear some vague excuse from your servant,” Taemin said.

“I was worried you’d see through any lie I came up with.”

“Well, that backfired,” Jonghyun added.

“Clearly,” Taemin said, arms crossed. “I know everything now.”

“I’m sorry,” Jinki said. “I won’t do it again.”

Taemin bit his lip. He was hurt that Jinki had abandoned him. But he was intrigued enough by the reason to ignore the sting. It’d be foolish to come out all this way and not see what sort of romance Jinki had with a pirate.

“It’s fine,” Taemin sighed. “Though you’re definitely going to owe me something after this. Maybe a proper fencing match. Or a dinner from your family’s chef.”

Jinki smiled. “I think I can do that.”

Jonghyun’s hand soothed over Jinki’s knee. “Glad you two were able to kiss and make up.” When Jinki frowned and turned back, Jonghyun tucked Jinki against his neck to muffle his protest. “Since you’re already here, your highness, do you want to join us tonight? I’m not sure what sort of plans you had with Jinki.”

“We were going to play cards. And drink, probably.”

“Conveniently, we can do both of those here,” Jonghyun said. “Take a seat.” He swiped an abandoned deck from a few of his crew that had decided an arm wrestling match was more enticing, then passed it to Jinki.

“Mind shuffling this for us, handsome?”

Jinki sent Taemin an apologetic look before cutting the deck in half. The flutter of cards as he shuffled kept Taemin’s attention, though he felt Jonghyun’s gaze on him. When he finally found the nerve to meet Jonghyun’s eye, the pirate gave him a toothy smile.

“Are we playing for anything? I imagine you have quite deep pockets.”

Taemin licked his lips. He usually made friendly bets with Jinki when they played, so he had brought a small coin purse—and he’d already expected it to be empty by the end of the night. Jinki trounced everyone at court in cards.

“I have some money on me, though it’s probably not as much as you’re hoping for.” Taemin watched Jonghyun warily when Jinki started to hand cards back to Jonghyun, but made no move to leave his lap. “If you can see Jinki’s cards, I’m not sure it’ll be a fair game. You two could gang up on me.”

“Not if he keeps them on his right side.” Jonghyun tapped his eye patch. “This is real. Can’t see shit through it. Or without it, really. Lost it in a ship battle a few years ago with one of your armada vessels.” He held up his drink. “Don’t worry, I won’t hold it against you.”

Jinki pursed his lips. “Maybe he just wants me out of your lap, Jonghyun. People are never this flagrant about their relationships at the palace.”

“Too bad. I only get to see you twice a month at most. If he’s not going to complain about you being in my lap, you’re staying.”

Jinki rolled his eyes, but there was a smile on his lips that stuck as he finished dealing their cards.

“I don’t mind it,” Taemin said, which was true. He’d never seen this side of Jinki before. Maybe it was strange to observe his old friend so closely, but he was fascinated.

He pulled his first hand of cards up to his nose and fought back a scowl. Already, he was off to a bad start.

Their first pot of coins went to Jonghyun. Then the next. After Taemin took a few losses to Jonghyun without complaint, the tension in Jinki’s shoulders eased—probably convinced that Taemin wasn’t about to run and turn Jonghyun over to the armada. As they drank, they talked, and Jinki and Jonghuyn relaxed back into the behavior Taemin assumed was their usual in the dingy pub.

And Taemin watched.

Jonghyun would nose aside the longer hair against the back of Jinki’s neck, exposing his nape for a kiss that made his mouth twitch with a noiseless gasp. Jonghyun’s left hand switched between lifting a tankard to his lips, running along Jinki’s side, and roaming over his stomach. His right stayed on Jinki’s thigh, low towards the knee, but sometimes it moved up. Only then would Jinki push Jonghyun’s hand away—but it was always with a grin and a quiet glance that promised a later.

The thought made Taemin’s blood burn. Jonghyun couldn’t be that posssive. Jinki slept with people at the palace. But all of those affairs happened out of Taemin’s view—he only heard rumors or short mentions—so his image of Jinki had stayed the same through the years, even as Taemin absently noted his attractiveness. They were friends.

Now, though—he wondered at their dynamic, at what Jinki might be like. What was it like when they stole a moment alone? Was it like now, both of Jonghyun’s hands on him, gripping and guiding? Or was that just how the pirate captain acted in public to stake his claim, while in bed he’d lie back and let someone else order him around?

Taemin swallowed back every image with a mouthful of ale. Occasionally, Jonghyun would send what felt like a knowing glance from his single eye, and heat would race through him.

The dozenth time their gazes caught—while Jonghyun’s hand slipped inside Jinki’s pocket—was enough to push Taemin over the edge.

He licked his lips and leaned towards them. He needed to be close if he wanted to be heard over the din that had grown with each glass served.

“I have a question,” he said.

Jinki leaned in to hear him better. Jonghyun shifted Jinki aside until he was only inches behind him. Taemin’s attention flicked between their faces. This close, he could lean forward and kiss either of them if he wanted to.

Taemin inhaled sharply, suddenly needing air. “Do you both sleep around? You’re not exclusive to each other?”

Jinki’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “You know the answer to that.”

Jonghyun’s smile widened and grew crooked. “Why, are you interested?”

“Yes,” Taemin said. There was no point in hiding it, and he was tipsy enough to be direct.

Jinki’s eyes widened. “Taemin—“

“I’ve been watching you two grab at each other for hours now,” Taemin interrupted. “Is that not supposed to stoke something in me?”

Jinki froze. Jonghyun’s hand rubbed up his side, along his ribs, before he kissed Jinki’s neck.

“If you’re jealous or uninterested, I’ll stop this now,” Jonghyun whispered to Jinki. If Taemin wasn’t staring to read his lips, he wouldn’t have caught a word. “You always come first.”

“You know I don’t get jealous.”

Jonghyun leaned back to look at him. “Then why are you pouting? Is it different, because he’s a friend?”

“It’s different because he’s the prince ,” Jinki hissed.

Jonghyun grinned. “Is that supposed to make it less exciting?”

“I’m cutting you off,” Jinki said, sliding Jonghyun’s mug away from him. “You’re drunk.”

“As you always do, when I have my best ideas.”

Jinki sent Jonghyun a final, reproaching look before returning his attention to Taemin. “You’ve never said anything about wanting to sleep together.”

“It’s not like you’ve ever made a display of yourself at the palace,” Taemin said. “I never gave it much thought. We’ve been friends all our lives, and we only see each other at parties and ceremonies anymore.”

“I didn’t realize how much that bothered you.”

“Of course it bothered me. I missed you. You’re the only damn person I trust in the palace.”

Jinki’s brow furrowed, though a flush crawled across his cheeks, and his lips remained pursed. In the silence, Jonghyun’s attention bounced between them before he reached out and tugged Taemin towards them by his shirt.

“Why don’t we do something to make up for lost time? I’ll be happy to help you two bond,” Jonghyun offered.

“I don’t want things to get complicated,” Jinki said.

“It’s not complicated,” Taemin protested. “You’re my friend. Anything else, well...” he shrugged. He didn’t care what they did—cards or drinking or simply talking. But it was hard for fucking not to be the first thing on his mind when Jonghyun and Jinki were doing everything but that right in front of him. “I don’t need to spend time with you like that, but I’d enjoy it. And I’m guessing you two planned to spend your night fucking, anyway.”

Jinki licked his lips. He watched intently as Jonghyun balled more of Taemin’s shirt into his hand, forcing him closer, until Jonghyun leaned forward and kissed the corner of his mouth. Though Taemin should have seen it coming, he nearly jolted back at the contact. He’d never been kissed in front of anyone, let alone someone’s lover. His eyes flew up to Jinki, uncertain of what he’d find, then widened. There was no jealousy in his stare. Only heat.

Jonghyun tilted his head back towards Jinki. “I can see your gears turning. You’re thinking about it.”

“Maybe,” Jinki murmured.

“You need more images? Or some ideas?”

“No.” Jinki took the half-empty mug he’d stolen from Jonghyun and downed in a single, long swallow. “I’ve thought about it before, honestly.”

Taemin inhaled. “Me joining you with Jonghyun?”

“Just you. The thinking was...a while ago. Years.”

“Then you should’ve fucked him earlier, because I always love your stories,” Jonghyun said. He patted the side of Jinki’s thigh. “You want to get going? Because I’d like to get going.”

“Where to?” Taemin asked. The pub looked like it had rooms upstairs, but he didn’t know how either of them felt about using them.

“My ship’s best. You’ll get to see it, too. It’s gorgeous,” Jonghyun gloated. He snuck in a squeeze to Jinki’s ass when they stood. “Just got a new cannon.”

Taemin pulled his cloak back on and followed them towards the airship docks. By the time they reached the metal walkways that stuck out over the clouds, they were nearly on the opposite side of Valua from the palace. He’d never been this deep into the Lower City.

Most of the docked airships were decommissioned from the armada, made of steel in typical Valuan style. A few other styles, more likely belonging to traders than pirates, were interspersed throughout, but the ship Jonghyun pointed out—a large, wooden ship with three towering masts that stood proudly against the black clouds—was striking enough that Taemin couldn’t help but gape.

Despite its height, the ship was narrow, slimmer even than the smallest armada ships. They climbed up the gangplank and onto the deck. Jonghyun came up last and leapt onto the deck with his arms spread wide.

“Stylish, yeah? And faster than any hunk of metal.”

Jinki rolled his eyes as Taemin examined the ship. Any ptools for fighting or boarding ships were hidden in the crates or below deck, but rolled up against the main mast was a blue flag, barely concealed. Taemin had to wonder how that ever got past the massive gate and patrols that protected the Valua‘s airspace, but Jonghyun seemed capable of charming his way out of anything, and his mother specialized in robbing people right under their noses.

“It’s gorgeous,” Taemin said.

“The inside is a bit less glamorous, but you better not point that out to my face,” Jonghyun teased. He turned towards a set of stairs that appeared to lead down into the cabin and gestured for Taemin to follow. “Come on. I’ll show you to my space.”

The room Jonghyun led them to was long and wide. A dozen hammocks hung from the ceiling, likely enough for the whole crew, and the one at the back that Jonghyun showed him looked no different than any other.

Taemin blinked at it, caught off guard by its plainness. “I thought you were the captain. Don’t you have a room?”

“I am, and I do. But I prefer to sleep in a hammock sometimes. The bed folds away, and that makes room for more loot.”

Jinki raised a brow. “Uh-huh. And you refuse to have sex in the same place twice in a row.”

Jonghyun grinned. “That too. Used my bed a few days ago, so it’s time to fuck somewhere else.”

Jinki hummed, as if recalling the experience himself, and stepped closer to Jonghyun. As soon as he was within reach, Jonghyun grabbed a fistful of Jinki’s hair, tugging him down to an easier height to kiss.

Taemin froze, fists clenching in the fabric of his cloak when he caught a glimpse of Jinki’s tongue. Watching was new enough that he didn’t know what to do with himself. Jinki’s eyes fluttered open as he glanced back at Taemin. A wave of heat rolled through him when their gazes locked, then again when Jinki’s attention returned to Jonghyun, as if it was perfectly normal for them to have a witness to their kiss.

For all Taemin knew, it could be.

The side of Jonghyun’s grin was just visible as he shifted his mouth to Jinki’s neck and nipped along the vein. With a soft swear, Jinki clutched at Jonghyun’s back, but shoved him away when Jonghyun began to unfasten his shirt.

“You aren’t getting me out of my clothes before we give Taemin some attention.”

Jonghyun tsked, but let his fingers fall from Jinki’s buttons. Taemin swallowed under the weight of their stares . Jinki held out a hand, inviting him to where they stood, but Jonghyun closed the distance between them and kissed him—the same way he’d kissed Jinki, hands buried in his hair—before Taemin could take a single step.

He shivered and gripped back. His thumbs caught in the straps of Jonghyun’s eye patch, earning a laugh that gave him an opportunity to slip his tongue past Jonghyun’s lips. Jonghyun hummed, pleasantly surprised, and relaxed to let Taemin lead.

Taemin was too eager not to take advantage of the chance. He leaned in and kissed Jonghyun harder until he had no choice but to bend back and hold onto Taemin’s shirt for balance. The instant he eased off to breathe, Jonghuyn reached for his belt. The open air of the cabin brought goosebumps to his thighs when Jonghyun shoved down his breeches. Taemin helped him the rest of the way and stepped out of them, refusing to break the kiss a second time until Jonghyun smirked and turned his cheek.

“You think I wouldn’t be surprised by Valuan nobles being decent lovers after Jinki, and yet...”

Taemin scowled. “Why would you assume that makes me bad in bed?”

“Most of you don’t do much. But I suppose that leaves you plenty of time to get good at this.”

“If you thought I would be bad, why invite me?”

“Jinki likes you. You’re pretty.” Jonghyun shrugged. “And that sort of thing can always be taught.”

“I think the only thing I haven’t done is fuck two people at once,” Taemin said. When Jinki gave a skeptical snort beside them, Taemin sent a glare.

“I doubt you’re that worldly, your highness,” Jonghyun said. He squared his shoulders and worked Taemin’s shirt open button-by-button, as if mimicking a personal butler. “You’ve only slept with other Valuans, no? Technically your subjects?”

Taemin bit his lip. “Well...”

“I’m not judging.” Jonghyun shoved his shirt open. “Just doubt they’re willing to get too dirty with you. Rank can come with too much respect. When I was on my mother’s ship, it took ages for me to convince the crew I wasn’t too fragile to be bent over a barrel.”

Taemin’s ears burned. But the words rang true.

Every person he’d slept with had come onto him slowly, with flowery praise or teasing to test the waters, then treated him like he was breakable between the sheets once they were finally there. No matter how hard he gripped at their back in return or egged them on. They concentrated too much on pleasing him. And then after everything was done, there was the pillow talk which inevitably turned into requests for favors.

Once he realized that was how it always ended, Taemin had stopped letting anyone in his bed.

He could already tell Jonghyun would be different. Jinki would, too.

Taemin licked his lips and looked between them. “Well, what’re you planning to do to me?”

Jonghyun grinned and shoved him into the hammock. Taemin swung back. He tried to adjust to keep from barreling feet-first into Jonghyun as his weight returned him forward, but Jinki caught the fabric at the end of his arc and held him still.

Jonghyun’s fingers wrapped slowly over Jinki’s knuckles. He whispered something against Jinki’s cheek that made his eyes cloud with lust.

Their attention shifted down to where Taemin was suspended beneath them. Like this, there was no simple way for them to kiss him. Reaching his mouth or his hips with more than a hand or a cock would require kneeling, hunching over, or some other sort of contortion they had no reason to bother with.

Taemin had an idea of what they wanted.

He licked his lips and let his head hang back. The hammock swung slightly, then slowed into a smaller arc when Jinki grasped the rope tighter. Upside down like this, Taemin imagined he looked ridiculous, but there was no amusement in Jinki’s exhale—only anticipation.

Hands ran up his thighs. He lifted his head to see whose they were—Jonghyun’s—then followed with his eyes as Jinki circled around to the opposite side of the hammock, leaving only Jonghyun between his legs.

When he raised his head, he saw Jonghyun reach into his shirt and pulled free a small vial of oil. He pulled out the cork with his teeth and spat it away, then grinned down at Taemin as he coated his fingers.

“I have another if we need more. I always bring a few when we dock somewhere. You never know what might happen.”

Jonghyun’s hand returned to him, this time going straight for the innermost crease of his thighs. As Jonghyun circled towards his rim, he threw an arm over his mouth to muffle a moan. There was the simple pleasure of it, and the realization: the oil Jonghyun was using had been meant for Jinki that night, or vice versa. And now it was being used on him .

“You can make noise, you know,” Jonghyun teased and pressed in. “That’s half the fun.”

Jinki drew Taemin’s arm away, fingers trailing along the vein of his wrist before shifting to card through his hair. Taemin leaned into the contact and reached up, pressing a palm around the outline of Jinki’s cock in his breeches just as Jonghyun added another finger. His motions were clumsy and distracted, but Jinki didn’t seem to mind—he cupped his hand over Taemin’s to guide it, before finally settling on holding it in place and thrusting against Taemin’s palm.

“You seem ready enough,” Jonghyun said. He spread his fingers, as if to prove how open Taemin was, and drew out a gasp. “Do you need more time?”

‘No,” Taemin’s eyes fluttered shut as Jonghyun brought his fingers back together and curved them. A patch of precome had leaked through Jinki’s breeches and dampened the heel of Taemin’s hand, adding to his desperation. “Please, I want this.”

Jonghyun grinned and gave him an encouraging smack to the thighs that sounded twice as loud as it stung. Taemin bit his lip, pulse pounding in his ears.

“Stay open for me.” Jonghyun slicked himself up, then hitched Taemin’s thighs up around his hips. When he shifted forward, his cock pushed between Taemin’s cheeks, missing his hole but lighting his nerves with anticipation. Jonghyun’s tongue stuck out from the corner of his mouth as he concentrated, realigning them until Taemin felt pressure against his rim.

“There we go,” Jonghyun murmured and pushed forward, slow and unyielding.

Taemin’s nails scratched at the canvas of the hammock. Already, the stretch felt too good. He rocked forward, trying to bring Jonghyun deeper, but the motion hardly moved him at all—Jonghyun had bracketed his hips to keep him steady, and Jinki’s hold on the hammock’s rope was too firm. All Taemin could think of was how exposed he was and how little he could move.

By the time Jonghyun pulled back, Taemin was panting, overheated despite the lack of a body pressed against him. Without any ability to aid the motion, he felt the force of each thrust that much harder.

His cock throbbed, desperate for something, anything, but he held off from touching himself, too caught up in the idea of seeing how Jonghuyn and Jinki might use him to want to satisfy himself. Jinki maneuvered his own laces open with a single hand and kept the other on the knot of the hammock, steadying it as Jonghyun’s pace quickened.

Taemin turned his head and reached for the base of Jinki’s cock. At the awkward angle, the underside ran along his cheek, then bumped against his chin, leaving wetness behind until Jinki steered it directly into his mouth.

Jonghyun’s movements turned lazy, a tease that made Taemin whine even as he closed his lips around the head of Jinki’s cock and glanced back. Jonghyun’s complete attention was on them—on the stretch it took for Taemin’s mouth to fit around Jinki’s girth—distracting him more from his task.

“You sure you two can handle all this happening at once?” Jinki muttered, stroking himself to take over the motion Taemin hadn’t yet managed. “If it’s too much, we can take turns.”

Jonghyun huffed. “I’m not going to apologize for taking my time and enjoying the show.”

With an apologetic hum, Taemin tugged on Jinki’s hips to beckon him deeper. Their eyes met only briefly before Jinki ran a thumb along the edge of Taemin’s tipped-back jaw and tilted his head back further, creating an easy path for his cock to slide over Taemin’s tongue into the start of his throat.

Taemin blinked hard, eyes wet as he fought back a gag, but curled his fingers in the loosened waist of Jinki’s breeches and took him further the next time Jinki fucked into his mouth. Suspended between them as he was, it was easier to let Jinki drive the pace than try and guide it himself.

Encouraged, Jinki shifted one hand into his hair and kept another on his chin, holding Taemin steady through every thrust to better complete his own. Jonghyun’s fingernails dug into Taemin’s thighs as he lost rhythm, alternating between slow and fast before finally halting.

He pressed against Taemin with a small curse, keeping him close through every throb, before finally jerking back. Taemin whimpered as Jonghyun’s cock slipped free, then again when he heard the rustle and clink of Jonghyun tugging up his breeches and refastening his belt. He kept his legs open—he didn’t know how to close them, with such a mess of come and oil between them—and he was hopeful Jonghyun would give him something more.

Jonghyun shifted Taemin’s knees to stand beside him. Taemin watched from the corner of his eye as Jonghyun reached down and ran a single finger along the underside of Taemin’s cock. He gasped at the contact, hips jolting up as he snapped out of the daze he’d fallen into from taking both of them. All he wanted to do was give himself over until they’d had their fill of pleasure, but if Jonghyun granting him pleasure was part of that, he would take it gladly.

Jonghyun traced up his cock again, this time with two fingers. “I can’t believe you’re this hard—I don’t think we’ve even touched you here once. What if we keep you like this until you make Jinki come?”

Unable to speak with Jinki in his mouth, a moan and a full swallow around JInki’s cock was the only way to beg for his own release. Jinki cursed and tightened his fingers against Taemin’s scalp.

“He really wants to come,” Jinki said. “You’re making him work harder.”

Taemin hummed an agreement. Jonghyun took hold of his cock in response, lifting it from where it hovered hard and ignored over his stomach to stroke him smoothly. The short motion was barely anything, but it was enough to bring Taemin close. He shifted his hips, uncertain of whether to pull away before his release or simply let it happen, but Jonghyun didn’t allow either. He stopped just before Taemin’s pleasure reached its crest, producing a groan that made Jinki’s hips stutter. Jinki continued to fuck into his mouth, and again and again, Jonghyun stopped before he could come. Each time he neared his release, Jonghyun’s hand would loosen, and Taemin’s need would grow.

When Jinki finally cursed out a warning, Jonghyun’s grip on Taemin tightened and quickened. Taemin’s muscles tensed, back rising into an arch, but his mouth slackened just enough to let Jinks cock fall free. Come streaked across his lips and cheeks, then into his open mouth. Jinki stroked himself to the end, every movement loud and wet, and nudged his cockhead past Taemin’s lips to shoot the last of his release onto his tongue.

The cabin was silent, save Jinki and Taemin’s rough breathing.

He closed his eyes with a small sigh, letting his head hang upside down as the pleasant warmth of his aftermath rolled through him. When he felt the mess on his chin start to drip down his cheeks, he raised a hand and clenched his fingers in the universal gesture for something to clean with. Jinki passed him a handkerchief and helped him wipe down his face, then balled the cloth into his fist and tossed it aside.

With Jinki’s help, he sat up in the hammock. Jonghyun pulled another rag from somewhere and cleaned his stomach, grinning through the task.

“I assume this means we’re done for the night.”

Taemin nodded. He was tired, and his throat and thighs were sore to a level he was certain he’d feel in the morning.

“I was hoping Jinki wouldn’t clean you up so quickly. It would’ve been nice to take a mental image of what you look like with him on you.”

Taemin gave a breathless laugh. “I wasn’t sure how to get myself up, and I didn’t want anything to get into my eyes.”

“Fair. If you want protection, a blindfold would help next time.”

“How is it you always want to talk more about sex right after we’re done? Haven’t you had your fill?” Jinki complained, though his expression was fond.

“If something’s fun one way, I want to do it again and find other ways of making it fun. Don’t you?”

Jinki grumbled an agreement and leaned around Taemin to kiss Jonghyun. Taemin watched them linger, then pull apart, heart tight in his chest. As brief as their kiss had been, Jinki’s eyes were warm from it, and something about the sight sobered Taemin.

Taemin wasn’t jealous. Or at least the word seemed too simple and petty to fit. He didn’t want to take Jinki’s place. He didn’t want to take Jonghyun’s place. He was happy they had each other. The ache in his chest was because he’d never had anything like they shared, and with where his life was headed, he couldn’t imagine he ever would.

He startled when Jinki dropped a blanket over him. Jinki helped fit it over his shoulders. “If you’re not going to get dressed, you should put this on. It’s colder out here on the airships.”

“Thanks.” Taemin wrapped the blanket tighter around himself. He didn’t want to get dressed yet, if only because the clothes he’d stolen would remind him of the palace.

Jonghyun looked between them with a small smile before fixing his gaze on Taemin. “You’re welcome to linger for a while. You want some more to drink?”

“Sure,” Taemin agreed. Jonghyun patted Taemin’s knee and spun on his heel, then disappeared down a set of stairs that led deeper into the airship.

Jinki and Taemin watched him go. Once his footsteps faded, Jinki crouched beside him.

“This is why I started pulling away, you know,” he whispered. “I worried what would happen if you found out about Jonghyun. You’re getting closer and closer to the throne, and I...haven’t known how to deal with that. Never letting either of you meet seemed like the best way to keep him safe.” His eyes crinkled, the old tell Taemin remembered that came with any confession that made him feel guilty. ”If it’s worth anything, I’ve missed you too.”

“It’s worth a lot,” Taemin said. He reached for Jinki’s hand and squeezed it, then looked to where Jonghyun had disappeared. “What is he to you?”

”Everything, anymore,” Jinki said without hesitation. “I’m going to leave Valua with him someday.”

Taemin’s stomach dropped. “And do what? When?”

“Pirate stuff, I suppose,” Jinki teased. “There’s so much of the sky that hasn’t been charted. He wants to discover as much as he can, once his ships outfitted for stronger currents. I want to be with him for every one.”

Taemin inhaled. “What about your family? And Valua?”

“You know how I feel about our country.”

Taemin’s stomach panted. “And you don’t think I’ll change anything when I’m in charge.”

Jinki winced. “It’s not that I think you have the wrong ideals. But I’m sure you know the problems you’ll bump up against. How much say does your mother have, compared to the armada? She gets to decide how things are run here , but it’s not like we stay in our borders, or like they wouldn’t challenge her if she did something they were opposed to.”

“I know, but...” Taemin reached for a counterpoint, but found nothing. There was no argument to refute Jinki’s words when he’d noticed the same thing.

He hung his head. Was that why he’d been so mad at Jinki? Selfish as it was, it was easier to think of the personal problems that came with the throne—losing friendships, not knowing who to trust—than the responsibilities he’d bear just sitting on it.

“ Please tell me you’re not talking politics, Jinki,” Jonghyun whined, loud enough to be heard up the stairs. He sauntered between them and passed Jinki a handle of rum, then threw himself into the hammock beside Taemin. “I can’t imagine a poorer time for it. It was our first time with a third, too. You should be a little sentimental.”

“I was only explaining why I’m going to leave with you, since Taemin asked,” Jinki said. He took a swig, then held it out to Taemin. “It’s not as if I’m getting philosophical.”

Jonghyun quirked a brow. “I think after how I fucked him tonight, he knows why you’re leaving.”

“It’s alright, really.” Taemin managed to smile for them, but it faltered when he brought the bottle to his lips. He tipped it back, squeezing his eyes against the burn, and swallowed back as much as he could take.

His mother was alive, and Jinki was still here. As prince, he was only an ear until fate decided to shove the empire into his lap. He had time to enjoy himself before he had to worry. And damned if he wasn’t going to soak up every second of it.

When he went for a second drink, Jonghyun pried the bottle from him. “Slow down, your highness. I can’t let you stay here tonight. As nice as it’d be to beat my mother’s record for bounties, I’d rather do it the old fashion way than be accused of kidnapping the prince.”

Taemin laughed. “And you’re not worried that’ll happen when you take Jinki?”

“Not at all. We’ve had a plan for a while.”

“Oh,” Taemin said. “Well, good luck to you both.”

Jonghyun raised the bottle to him in thanks. Jinki cast his eyes down and reached to take the rum, but Jonghyun refused to hand it over until Jinki gave him a kiss. Taemin watched, stomach in knots, as the guilt that twisted Jinki’s mouth melted into an unfettered smile.

Taemin didn’t want to ask if Jinki would have left without saying anything. Judging by the distance Jinki had forced between them, he imagined that had been the plan. And judging by the warmth that seeped into Jinki’s eyes every time he looked Jonghyun’s way, nothing would come between Jinki and leaving Valua.

The knowledge made the future that much darker. But Taemin supposed he’d rather know.

#onjongtae #jongyu #jongtae #ontae #shinee fic #skies of arcadia au #feat inappropriate use of hammocks

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barnesandco · 5 years

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Seafarer

Loosely based on the following prompt by @drink-it-write-it :

“You said that I’d get to have you all weekend. Why can’t you just tell them you can’t go?”-“Because it’s my job, and it’s important.”-“And I’m not?”

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Warnings: Angst, talk of groping.

A/N: I personally think this to be an embarrassing piece of work. Nothing more than an exercise in writing internal monologue, particularly of the sad variety. Sad both in terms of content, and quality. You have been warned.

“Sweetheart, open the door.” Bucky mutters, resting his forehead on the solid oak. He got back from his mission half an hour ago, and has spent that time standing at her doorstep, knocking, begging her to let him in. She’s pissed. Has every right to be, Bucky thinks to himself. He made her cry, after all. Left her crying.

“Go. Just go. Back to your apartment, the Compound, I don’t care. Why don’t you just go on another goddamn mission? You seem to love those.” She says, bitterness edging into her tone at his betrayal. Bucky swallows nervously, the lump in his throat becoming more prominent. He opens his mouth to answer, but his voice fails, leaving him gaping like a fish. He tries again.

“Darling, angel, doll-”

“Don’t call me that. You don’t get to call me any of that after abandoning me when I needed you. Go away.” Comes the watery reply, her voice breaking off at the end, like she’s holding back more tears. Of course she is. Any girl stuck with a heartless jerk like him is bound to cry. He knows he can’t leave her like this. Not again.

“I’m not going anywhere until we talk about this.”

“Well then, you’ll be waiting a while.”

“Baby, I-”

“I told you to quit it with the pet names. I won’t tell you again. Fuck off, Bucky.” She orders, voice trembling, heart in her throat and hand clenching the doorknob, as if she’s seconds away from opening it and saying it to his face. Not that she’s in any condition to - tears staining a tale of sorrow down her cheeks, bottom lip shaking and bitten red with the effort of containing her rage.

“I don’t-”

“Please.” She pleads, desperate now. She isn’t sure if she can resist his attempts to speak with her for much longer. Bucky sighs, defeated by the tormented request. It’s no use pushing further. They’re both too emotionally wound up to resolve their conflict reasonably. Why does he have to be the voice of reason? Screw reason.

Still, he turns and leaves, thundering down the stairs. All twelve flights of them. The elevator’s in perfect working condition, but he hates the damn things. There’s no escape route. Unhealthy for his neurotic claustrophobia, catastrophic for emergencies. Disaster waiting to happen.

Much like him and her, he supposes woefully. Their relationship has always been a stormy one. A hurricane. One that she is both the centre of, and a sanctuary from, which, now that he thinks about it, are one and the same thing. It’s calmest in the eye of the storm, right? Suddenly, Bucky isn’t so sure anymore. Doesn’t have to be, really, he’s a soldier, not a sailor. He wants to be a lover, though. A good one. That’s all he was trying to do, when shit hit the fan that day.

“Bucky? What are you doing here?” She says, putting her bag down slowly, in awe of the sight before her. He’s standing in the tiny kitchen of her tiny apartment, next to a dinner-table set for two. A candle-lit dinner table.

“Hi, sweetheart. Thought I’d surprise you.” He smiles sheepishly, coming closer to help her out of her coat. He bends down, unbuckles her shoes. She lets him, but his kindnesses don’t distract from the nightmarish nature of her time at work.

“You've… succeeded.” Her lip wobbles dangerously, like a child on the verge of a tantrum. Bucky picks up on it immediately. It’s only been six months, but he knows her like he knows every fire exit in the building - it’s imprinted into his mind.

“What’s wrong? You look upset.” He asks, rubbing her arms gently. She shakes her head.

“It’ll ruin the mood. I shouldn’t talk about it right now. Let’s just enjoy dinner. Which looks delicious, by the way.” She gestures towards the table, where he’s laid out a lasagna she would’ve inhaled by now if she weren’t so upset.

“Baby, I can see something’s off. Come on, just tell me.” Bucky persists, hand at the small of her back guiding her to the sofa in the adjacent room instead. There are more candles here, lights turned down low, roses in as many vases as they own between the two of them. Looking at all the effort he’s put into tonight’s the drop that makes the bucket run over. The first tears, glimmering in the firelight, roll down her cheeks, as she begins talking.

He should have listened to her, he thinks as he steps out into the September night, bracing himself against the chill that’s already starting to settle in. His every misery begins and ends with this sentiment - he should’ve listened to her. Not pressed the matter. She would have talked when she was ready to. But he didn’t, and as a consequence, is now on the streets of Queens without any idea what to do with himself.

It’s late. Not too late, of course, Bucky would never want to disturb her while she’s sleeping. Would have waited till morning anyway if he wasn’t so anxious about the fragile state of their relationship after the fight they had before he left. But he didn’t. He came here, as soon as formalities like debriefing and cleaning himself up were settled at a break-neck speed. The sun was setting, then. It’s gone now, leaving only darkness punctuated by lampposts, shop signs, and the headlights of oncoming cars. So really, not much darkness at all. It’s only ten, still early, especially for New York, the city that never sleeps. He knows he won’t be able to sleep either, not tonight. The sound of her sobs from that night will haunt him. He recalls the three simple words that started the spectacle that’s driven him out at this hour.

“I got fired.” She says finally, wiping her eyes with the tissue he hands her. New tears immediately replace those she just erased, and from then onwards, it’s a hopeless cause.

“What? Why?” He exclaims, shocked. More than shock, the vibrations of worry shake his system. For her, and on her behalf. She needs this job. Claims she does, anyhow. Bucky’s happy to provide her with anything she could ever ask for, he’s told her as much, but after much arguing, he has been made aware that that’s not how things work. At least not for her. She needs to stand on her own two feet, and if that means working herself to the bone, in addition to her post-graduate studies, then so be it.

“I slapped a patron. He came around the bar - it was a busy night - squeezed my ass and made some lewd comments. Nothing I haven’t heard before, been catcalled more than I can remember, but this was up close. And he touched me, which hasn’t happened before.” She explains, eyes downcast. His blood pressure skyrockets, and he sees red.

“I’m gonna kill him.” He snarls, immediately softening when her gaze turns to him, frightened. He thinks she’s afraid of him, although she would reassure him of the contrary, as she always does, if she was in any state of mind to do so. “I’m so sorry that happened to you.” He tries, gentle this time. She buries her face in his sweater, sobs into his chest. He can feel her chest shaking with the effort of her heaving cries. Bucky wraps his arms around her, heart in his throat at the pain he can physically feel through their points of contact. “Hey, hey, easy there. Calm down, sugar.” This was the wrong thing to say. She straightens up and faces him.

“Calm down? You know what the manager said?” She asks fiercely. Resumes her furious rant when he doesn’t say anything. “He lectured me about the whole the-customer-is-always-right spiel, and how we have to put up with this stuff - as if he’s ever been groped - and then yelled at me for scaring clients. Then he called me a- a dramatic bitch and said I shouldn’t bother to show up to work tomorrow.“ She counts off the three points on her fingers, voice cracking at the end, and closes her eyes and breathes. She turns back to him. "So you see, Bucky, I can’t calm down.”

He grimaces internally at the reminder of the hurt she had exhibited. All the hurt he ignored. No, he most definitely will not be sleeping tonight. There’s no point in going back to his place in Brooklyn, or the Compound, like she suggested. Everything comes back to her. It has to. She’s the moon, and he is the voyager dependent on her for the tides that guide him to shore. She is also the shore itself - a safe place, somewhere to call home and build a life. Not for long, if they can’t resolve this argument. Their latest one. At the moment, he has only the dirty, echoing subway station, and the trains within.

The platform emits the perennial scents of urine and alcohol, and the drunk stragglers responsible for both having taken up their regular spots in the provided area. Lighthouses that repel those who surround them instead of attract them. A strand of hair comes loose from behind Bucky’s ear as a train rushes out from the tunnel to his right; he tucks it in its place impatiently, ice-blue eyes scanning the platform. The brakes screech as the doors open and the soft, robotic voice inside announces the station to its passengers. He throws caution to the wind and enters the train. He doesn’t know where it’s going, but then, he doesn’t know where he’s going either. Doesn’t need to, as long as it takes him away from everything. He’s good at that. Running away. He ran away from Steve at the Triskelion and in Bucharest. He ran away from her when she needed him, because he thought she didn’t.

“What is it, Sam?” He answers the phone, worrying his lower lip between his teeth. Closes his eyes as his teammate delivers the blow. The Avengers are needed, somewhere in the world. Urgently so. “Do I have to? I’m in the middle of something.” He tells Sam, glancing over at her. She’s already figured it out. “Fine, fine. Yeah, I’m ready, give me a call when you get here.” Putting the phone down, he nervously runs his hands through his hair. “I- I have to go.” He says.

“Where?”

“Argentina. One week, tops. I’m sorry.” Bucky apologizes. It’s not enough to quell her concerns. Her pain. The torment he sees in her eyes. He wishes he could stay. Perhaps she’s better off without him, he considers.

“Stay. Please.” Clearly, she disagrees.

“I want to, doll, I really do. But they need me.”

“So do I.”

“Don’t do this to me.” He begs of her, because he can’t bear to see her like this. He’d give her the world if she asked, but at the moment, he can’t even give her the consolation she needs after a traumatic ordeal.

“Bucky, I don’t want to be the damsel in distress here, but I am in distress. I can’t cope with all the shit that went down today. That man- and ugh. Please, Bucky.” She’s pacing now, in front of the coffee table, and the tears are back in full force. Bucky averts his eyes.

“I wish I could, but Sam says-”

“Just tell him you can’t go. This one time.”

“I can’t do that. It’s my job, and it’s important.”

“And I’m not?”

Bucky thumps his head heavily against the window behind him. Closes his eyes against the onslaught of guilt and shame. He shouldn’t have left. Not then, with Sam, and not now, alone. He could have waited in the hallway. Instead he’s gotten on a train bound for nowhere, with nothing on his mind but the one person he can’t live without. Besides Steve, naturally. That punk is the bane of his existence, and Bucky wouldn’t want it any other way. They’re his people. The ones he needs to keep safe at all costs. Sam, too, occasionally, not that Bucky would ever tell him that. Evidently, he failed. He hurt her when he swore that he would be the one defending her from any such thing.

Now here he is, in a train under the city he calls home, but feeling more homesick than he ever has. He never thought he’d fall in love this quickly. Six months is all it took for him to hand his heart over to a woman who seems hell bent on throwing it back in his face. He doesn’t blame her for rejecting his soul, broken and bruised as it is. He does blame himself for thinking that any balm that soothes those scars would last forever. Their courtship was too good to be true. He ponders this, and her tear-streaked face, as the train carries him deeper into a direction he does not care to go. He does not care to go anywhere she isn’t, however, the more he tries to return to her, the further he seems to drift away. Lost at sea, never to be found.

Taglist: @buckyreaderrecs @mermaidxatxheart @corneliabarnes

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky x reader #bucky x reader angst #bucky barnes x reader angst #bucky x y/n #bucky x you #ayesha writes

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those70scomics · 4 years

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T7S Fics Inspired by or Based on Movies, Other TV Shows, or Novels

These are not crossover stories, although a character or two from the other property might show up because the plot necessitates it.

Stories I’ve Read and Enjoyed

1. Christmas with the Formans by nannygirl

Inspired by: Christmas with the Kranks (movie)

Summary: Tired of the hustle and bustle of the holidays and now that all of the kids are grown and doing their own thing for the holidays, Red Forman convinces his wife, Kitty, that they should book a cruise to beat the yuletide blues and just skip Christmas. However, the idea doesn't go over well with their friends, neighbors, and the misfits that populate their basement.

Rated: K+

Note: In progress.

2. Heart Like Yours by PoetDameron

Inspired by: If I Stay, a novel by Gayle Forman

Summary: Jackie goes home to Point Place for Donna and Eric's wedding, but an accident and an unexpected experience may show her a reality she never thought was happening around her.

Rated: T

3. Drops of Jupiter by twentysevenseconds

Inspired by: October Road (TV show)

Summary: The year is 1984. Eric never returned from Africa. Instead, he wrote a bestselling novel about the friends and family he left behind. When he finally returns to Point Place, he finds that things are very different from how he left them.

Rated: T

Note: Unfinished

4. Life As A House by kezztip

Inspired by: Life as a House (movie)

Summary: Jackie's uncle George invites her to spend the summer with him to help with a “special project”. She agees, but she will get more than she bargained for when she finds out the real reason behind her uncle's invitation.

Rated: T

Note: Unfinished

5. Sixteen Candles by Zenkindoflove

Inspired by: Sixteen Candles (movie)

Summary: Jackie Burkhart is having the worst day of her life when everyone forgets her birthday. And to add to that, the guy of her dreams doesn't even notice her and some foreign kid just won't seem to leave her alone.

Rated: T

Stories I Wrote ( MistyMountainHop )

1. Reflections Through the Glass [FFnet / AO3]

Inspired by: The 10th Kingdom (TV mini-series)

Summary: Six months after Chicago, Hyde no longer believes in love — or in Jackie. Donna's not speaking to Eric. Kelso's confused about his whole life, and Fez has gone missing. The only way back may be to leave it all behind.

Rated: M

2. Hyde’s Long Way Home [FFnet / AO3]

Inspired by: Groundhog Day

Summary: Hyde goes on a self-destructive bender after finding Jackie with a towel-wrapped Kelso. The day after that, he wakes up ... and it's the same day as before. He's doomed to live the same day over and over — unless he can figure out a way to live it right.

Rated: M

Stories I Haven’t Read (So I Can’t Vouch for Their Quality)

1. 10 things I hate about you by LD1232

Inspired by: 10 Things I Hate About You (movie)

Summary: A That '70s Show fanfic loosely based on 10 Things I Hate about You. Donna/Eric Jackie/Hyde

Rated: T

Note: Very short and unfinished

2. Session 9 by allienicole16

Inspired by: Session 9 (movie)

Summary: The gang goes up to an old abandoned mental institution for Halloween, and things start to get weird.

Rated: M (for graphic violence)

3. How Much Do You Love Me? by shattered-princ3ss

Inspired by: Three Days (movie)

Summary: After Jackie's death,an angel steps in, giving Hyde five days to prove to Jackie that he loves her. Will he fix things before he loses her again?

Rated: K+

4. How to Lose a Zen-Guy in 10 Days by MusicBliss2116

Inspired by: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (movie)

Summary: A spoiled cheerleader princess makes a bet to lose a guy in ten days or less while the same rebel makes a bet to get a girl to fall in love with him in ten days. Neither of them knows about the other's bet -- or what they’re getting themselves into.

Rated: T

Note: Unfinished

5. Disconnected by xEnchanted

Inspired by: Landline (a novel by Rainbow Rowell)

Summary: In December of 1980, Jackie and Hyde get back together for good. But after sixteen years, they hit a rough patch. In 1996, Jackie discovers that her old landline can make direct calls to 1980-Hyde. Will her phone calls fix their relationship or run it further into the ground? Or , worse, completely ruin the lives they've already built?

Rated: T

6. Pretty In Wisconsin by BelleBee

Inspired by: Pretty in Pink (movie)

Summary: Jackie Burkhart has a lot to deal with. Her dad is in prison; her mum can't get it together, and one of her best friends is in love with her. Will she be able to sort everything out by Prom?

Rated: T

7. Yeah, Most Probably by LITERALLYLEN

Inspired by: Definitely, Maybe (movie)

Summary: On the cusp of his divorce, Hyde's baby girl asks him to tell her the stories of all the girls he's ever loved -- so she can try to figure out which was her ma. As he recalls the past, feelings churn to the forefront, and true love always prevails.

Rated: M

#That 70s Show #That '70s Show #Jackie x Hyde #Donna Pinciotti #Eric Forman #Fanfic Rec

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pi-creates · 4 years

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So I’ve been happily watching @stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale stream through games recently, and she has decided to try one of my favourite Telltale games - Tales From the Borderlands. But since CJ isn’t familiar with the Borderlands games (and from the sounds of things, neither are some people in the chat) I’ve put together a very basic bit of background information from what I know (I also haven’t played everything from after TFTB’s release).

It isn’t necessary to know any of this to enjoy TFTB as it gives a brief, ‘bare-bones’ introduction, but I figured it might help some people who like having that extra bit of depth going in without having to play through the other games.

There won’t be spoilers for the TFTB plot, obviously, but the bottom section under the ‘read more’ will list characters from the main series who are mentioned/appear in the game and relevant information that someone familiar with the series should already know about them. But if you are familiar with the series and don’t want to know who may or may not show up (or would just rather go in blind to who is a ‘returning’ character) - stop reading at the Notable characters segment.

[Spoilers for the Borderlands series below here]

For starters, Borderlands is set in the distant future – there are ways to ‘digistruct’ weapons and vehicles at the press of a button, you can walk up to a vending machine and instantly change your appearance, there are advanced cybernetics, robots are normal, you can have personal shields, teleportation is technically possible for both weaponry (notably grenades) and people, and there are guns that shoot electricity/fire/corrosive ammunition.

The goal of every Borderlands game revolves around the idea of opening a Vault – an ancient archway of Eridian origins (just think of long-extinct aliens) that is filled with treasures, hostile guardian entities, and also a very big, pissed off vault monster who will attempt to destroy anyone/anything that tries to get inside. The people who take the risk of searching for a vault and the treasures inside are labelled as Vault Hunters. In the core games, this would be you.

The problem is that finding a vault is hard since they are hidden, and they are often locked with artefact keys that trigger them to unlock. This means that the location of a vault, a vault key, or any signs of Eridian tech is VERY highly valued. Most of the games therefore revolve around the planet of Pandora since it has a high concentration of Eridian ruins which leads prospecting vault hunters to assume there must be more vaults to find on the planet.

Pandora, though, is more than a little inhospitable. The environment is mostly barren or wildly extreme, the wildlife is often very aggressive and deadly, and the people tend to be very rough since they have to deal with all of that. The planet itself doesn’t offer many prospects beyond weapon manufacturing, research, resource mining, and banditry. It has, however, previously been home to large corporations who tried to exploit said resources and attempted to ‘civilise’ the locals who would rather tell those corporations to piss off with the booming end of a shotgun. There is also a significant portion of the population who teeter really close to insanity on a daily basis. That is normal for them.

All of the attempts to settle and gather resources from Pandora has led to literal rubbish heaps, abandoned colonisation attempts, manufacturing/research zones that are often not friendly, bandit shanty towns, toxic chemical zones (from corporations running unethical experimentation) and SO many roaming bandits. Naturally, the locals don’t take kindly to anyone who works for the bigger corporations as they expect to be screwed over or exploited in some way.

For people familiar with the series, the timeline for Tales from the Borderlands is set after Borderlands 2 and before the Fight For Sanctuary DLC.

For people unfamiliar, you need to know that Pandora has recently dealt with the Handsome Jack problem. Basically, the handsome Hyperion CEO was set on wiping out all bandits and dangerous wildlife from Pandora. The problem was that Jack had a very low opinion of vault hunters, bandits, and pretty much everyone on Pandora as he believed they all fell in to those categories.

The player’s introduction to Jack literally comes from him inviting vault hunters to Pandora, only for him to then blow up the transport in transit. You are lucky enough to survive where most others died. Jack himself then contacts you to say that you aren’t following his plan to kill all the vault hunters and “if you could just do me a favour and off yourself, that’d be great. Thanks, pumpkin.“

At the start of Borderlands 2 you will hear of Jack’s rather unethical and violent methods of dealing with people who aren’t on board with his plan – all while having a rather cheerful manner of speaking, almost as if he was enjoying playing the game with you as his opponent. He actually keeps in contact with the vault hunters throughout the game to casually chat with them, and occasionally yell at them if they aren’t playing along with him.

He plotted to open a vault on Pandora that held a very powerful monster called the Warrior. He was going to harness the Warrior’s powers to enact his wide-scale extermination plans. On the journey to stop his plans the vault hunters end up killing Jack’s daughter, Angel, as she was being used to ‘charge’ the vault key. Angel herself led the vault hunters to her location in the hopes that they would stop her father’s plans, much to Jack’s disapproval. He stops being cheerful at this point and doubles-down on wanting to raze all of Pandora to the ground.

He does successfully open the vault and the vault hunters have to defeat the Warrior before Jack can use it. The vault hunters win and Jack is killed for his crimes against Pandora. His final speech before dying in Borderlands 2 was very cool – including it here as it sums up his thought process really well. It has also lead to some interesting interpretations of Jack’s overall character.

"No, no, no... I can't die like this... Not when I'm so close... And not at the hands of a filthy bandit! I could have saved this planet! I could have actually restored order! And I wasn't supposed to die by the hands... of a CHILD KILLING PSYCHOPATH!! You're a savage! You're a maniac, you are a bandit, AND I AM THE GODDAMN HERO!!

"The Warrior was practically a god! How- How in the HELL have you killed my Warrior?!

"You idiots! The Warrior could have brought peace to this planet! No more dangerous creatures, no more bandits, Pandora-it would have been a PARADISE!!"

Naturally, since all of this drama happened not long ago, the citizens of Pandora are very much still on edge in regards to anyone who works for the bigger corporations – Hyperion especially.

Definitions to some things you are likely to see/hear about in TFTB –

Eridium – An ore-like resource associated with the vaults. It glows purple and is supposedly exceptionally rare in most of the universe – but not Pandora. This is what most of the manufacturing companies want since it can be harnessed to create highly effective tech/weapons.

Catch-A-Ride – The service that Scooter (a mechanic on Pandora) uses to digistruct vehicles out of Catch-A-Ride stations.

ECHOs / ECHOnet – Essentially your mobile phone with internet and an app that lets you check everything in your backpack with a holographic display.

The Crimson Raiders – More or less the resistance fighters of Pandora who kept the citizens protected during the fighting of the main games. Run by the original vault hunters and still active in keeping Pandora free of outside threats.

Atlas – A technology and weapon corporation that was the first to make an earnest attempt to colonise Pandora after they suspected it would hold a vault. Was known as one of the best in terms of quality. They have since gone out of business.

Hyperion – The main corporation you will be dealing with. Has a particularly bad reputation on Pandora due to their former CEO, Handsome Jack, attempting to wipe out every bandit community on Pandora. Under Jack’s rule a lot of experiments were also run testing Eridium and Eridium by-products on people and animals – resulting in death, mutation, and insanity to most subjects.

Helios – Hyperion’s orbital station that can constantly be seen orbiting between Pandora and its moon. The station itself is shaped like a giant ‘H’ and houses a concentrated weapon that can shoot massive ammunition at targeted areas on Pandora. The weapon can also be used to shoot transport containers from the orbital station down to Pandora’s surface.

Elpis – Pandora’s moon. Visibly cracked open due to excessive mining. Everyone from here is VERY Aussie and it’s a little weird...

Notable characters you may meet/need to know about –

Marcus – Your narrator – he also narrated the intros and endings to the other games. You won’t see him, but it’s a nice tie in to the format of the main series.

Sirens – Essentially these ladies are magic. They are all born normal, but they will suddenly change and inherit their siren powers when another siren dies. They stand out by their glowing, tattoo-like markings that mysteriously appear on them when they awaken their siren abilities. Not much is known about them other than they can interact with Eridian based materials, and that they are excessively powerful since they have magic abilities.

Claptrap (CL4P-TP) – A class of unicycle robot that is very annoying. Doesn’t shut up, but is technically a vault hunter. You may or may not run in to him.

Angel / (Guardian Angel) – A siren who had the ability to interface with technology. She is the daughter of Handsome Jack and spent most of her life hidden in a secured bunker that only her father could enter via a DNA lock and voice password (her father saying “I love you”). This is due to Jack becoming extremely protective after bandits tried to abduct Angel upon realising she was a siren, and after Angel unintentionally killed her own mother with her powers. Due to her siren powers, she had the ability to stay in constant communication with anyone outside of the bunker, and to help her father with any tasks he required. Was killed by the vault hunters in Borderlands 2.

Handsome Jack – Antagonist from Borderlands 2 and previously the CEO of Hyperion. Has a mask of his face fastened over his actual face which was scarred by an Eridian artefact on Elpis. Starting out as a programmer, he worked his way up the ladder in Hyperion with Angel’s help through a mix of (initially) well intentioned plans to help the people of Elpis, and a growing obsession with power and hatred for Pandora and its bandits. He eventually strangled his boss and named himself President and CEO of the company.

Professor Nakayama – Had a massive crush on Handsome Jack in Borderlands 2. Smart guy who was devastated by Handsome Jack’s death and was working on a way to find the best successor to Jack to run Hyperion. He was attempting to clone Jack from old medical data (taken somewhere before the start of Borderlands 2′s plot) before the vault hunter’s confronted him and he literally dies from falling down a flight of stairs. Easiest boss battle ever.

Shade – DEFINITELY NOT INSANE. Somehow lived alone in a town in the middle of a desert with no water - and this definitely didn’t effect him mentally at all. He just wants a friend.

Scooter – Pandora’s best mechanic. Nice guy and actually a little more normal than a lot of other Pandorans. Has girl troubles, not that he’d ever admit it.

Ellie – Scooter’s sister. Also a mechanic, much to her mother’s displeasure.

Moxxi – Mother of Scooter and Ellie – runs a bar, slot machines, and previously a battle arena (The Underdome). Pretty much seen as Pandora’s Pin-Up, which she seems happy about since it has garnered her significant influence and power on Pandora. She speaks in pure innuendo.

Janey – Elpis’ best mechanic, focusing more on vehicles that work in low (or no) gravity. Runs an equivalent of Catch-A-Ride on Elpis. Girlfriend of Athena.

Athena – Vault hunter who was hired by Jack to help with the Vault on Elpis. Had a falling out with Jack after dealing with the Elpis situation, as this is where Jack was clearly starting to lose his stability. She notably fights with a shield that she can throw and return to her hand. Previously an Atlas employed assassin who turned against the company after Atlas tricked her into assassinating a target that was very important to her. Girlfriend of Janey.

Zer0 – Vault hunter who found a Pandoran vault and was involved in killing Handsome Jack. Another assassin who fights with a sword and is capable of making hologram decoys of himself. He likes to display holograms in front of his helmet to communicate since you cannot see his facial expressions. He’s an alien / who always speaks in haiku / with some exceptions.

Brick – Vault hunter from the first game. He is a berserker who punches VERY hard, but is a softy at heart.

Mordecai – Vault hunter from the first game. Sniper and sharpshooter, doesn’t need a scope to get a good headshot.

Lilith – Vault hunter from the first game. Siren who leads The Crimson raiders along with Brick and Mordecai.

Loader Bots – Hyperion made bots that are used for security and manual labour. They are big, they can speak, and they are very sturdy. Weirdly enough, they have the capacity to become self-aware (though self-aware models are often destroyed by Hyperion if discovered).

Psychos – A particular class of bandit that is always shirtless, dressed in orange pants, masked, and they all speak complete gibberish. They have some consistencies to their gibberish including an obsession with meat and salt.

Butt Stallion – Handsome Jack’s diamond Pony – Jack lovingly named her after the vault hunters at the start of Borderlands 2. She eats Eridium and poops guns... I wish I was kidding.

#stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale #tales from the borderlands #tftb

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theartofdreaming1 · 5 years

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Advent Calendar Fic Rec 2019, Day 21

This time, it’s not a Batfam-based one-shot... But I finally finished the next chapter of my DickBabs Fanfic, “Partners”, a police officer AU! :) You can also check this chapter out on Ao3.

Partners - Part 7: Revelations

Pairing: DickBabs

Rating: T

Summary: Barbara finally tells Dick what that mysterious letter contained.

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The Revelation

“Huh?” Dick stared at Barbara, a look of utter confusion on his face.

Barbara took a deep breath, steeling herself for what she was about to do. She then repeated: “There is something I’ve got to tell you.”

At this point, Dick had recovered from his initial reaction and the expression of bewilderment that had been displayed on his face before was now replaced by a more serious one, wordlessly urging Barbara on to continue.

Before she could begin, there was another gust of wind of the chilly night air and while Barbara tried to hide the shiver it caused her, it didn’t escape Dick’s notice.

“Let’s get back inside,” he proposed, gently ushering Barbara into the pleasantly warm bedroom.

Once inside, Barbara sat down on Dick’s bed with a sigh, ready to begin and get this pesky, not-so-little something off her chest.

“I hadn’t meant to bring this up tonight because I didn’t want to ruin the evening,” Barbara began nervously, feeling a little defensive.

But when she caught a glimpse of the expression on her partner’s face, Barbara was relieved to find that there was nothing judgemental in the way he looked at her, only honest curiosity. With her heavy heart feeling a little lighter now, Barbara continued:

“There is something I’ve been neglecting to tell you - something I’ve been trying to ignore for my own sake as well, if I’m being honest…”

The redhead halted, not sure how to go on.

Since she was being honest about this ugly little thing that was bothering her, Barbara figured that she might as well be honest about the nicer things, too. It only felt fair.

“Dick, you inviting me to this party as your plus one really meant a lot to me and I was really looking forward to tonight,” a shy smile appeared on her face before she resumed more gravely, “which is why I haven’t told you about this before. But I just realized that it’s not fair of me to keep this to myself - not when you have been so open with me this entire time, and here I am, keeping secrets from you-”

“Secrets?” Dick knitted his eyebrows.

“Well, one secret,” Barbara clarified, nervously picking at the bedspread, “but a big one. I should have told you sooner, but I just… I just wanted us to have good time tonight, not being weighed down by my stupid mistake-”

Dick still looked confused.

“I have no idea what this is about,” he admitted haltingly, before assuring her, “but you can tell me. No matter what it is.”

The earnest expression on Dick’s face was all the encouragement Barbara needed to lay bare the source of her distress:

“The day you invited me to this ball, I found an envelope from anonymous in my locker, addressed to me personally, telling me in big black letters to “open in private”.

Dick’s eyes widened, but he didn’t say anything.

Barbara then went on:

“Inside the envelope there was a letter - more of a message, actually: Telling me that the author of this note had been watching me closely and in light of recent events wanted to give me a chance to prove my loyalty to my badge. If I was seriously dedicated, I am to come to Saint Dennis church this coming Wednesday evening, where it will be decided if I am to join their ranks.”

Dick stared at Barbara.

“‘ Their ranks’ ?” he repeated carefully.

Barbara nodded.

Her partner quirked an eyebrow.

“That seems to imply that there are multiple people involved.”

“Yeah,” Barbara agreed, “it certainly sounds like it.”

Dick took another moment to mull over what he had learned so far.

The expression on his face was most serious when he addressed Barbara again: “You think that ‘in light of recent events’ refers to-” “My entanglement with Richter’s ‘early retirement ’? Yeah, I think so.”

Deep in thought, Dick only nodded wordlessly, still processing, before asking Barbara: “Do you think that the sergeant from the 1-9 has something to do with this?”

“Rohrbach? I think it’s not unlikely.”

Intense concentration was etched on Dick’s face. Then, he looked at Barbara, his dark blue eyes razor-sharp:

“This could be a trap. To get you to admit to what you have pulled on Richter… To get rid of you.”

Barbara returned Dick’s stare calmly: “Yes.”

“And you’re going to go?” Dick asked, his eyes never wavering from hers.

Barbara already knew that Dick wasn’t going to like her answer.

“Yes.”

Dick closed his eyes, turning slightly away. He hunched over and let out a long and deep groan, his hands dragging over his face.

“Goddammit,” Barbara could hear Dick mumble under his breath.

She gnawed nervously on her lower lip, dreading what had to come next:

“There’s more,” she said haltingly.

Dick gazed up at her, incredulous: “More?”

“The message also said… it said that I could bring my partner - mentioned you by name - if I chose to; but nobody else was to know about and come to this meeting.”

Dick just kept on looking at Barbara as if he was still waiting for the other shoe to drop: “And?”

“Didn’t you hear me?”

But Dick remained unperturbed.

“Yeah, it means that I can come with you if you let me - that’s the least distressing thing you have told me so far…”

Barbara couldn’t believe how Dick could be so oblivious to the distressing implications of what she had just told him: “They mentioned you… By name!!! Whoever they are, they know all about you!”

Feeling responsible for getting her partner involved into this mess, Barbara hung her head in shame, a stray strand of hair falling in her face.

Her voice sounded small, even to her own ears:

“I’m sorry, Dick, I didn’t mean to drag you into this. Richter was my mistake, not yours!”

“Babs,” Dick said softly, gently cupping her face, “you didn’t drag me into anything - I was the one who didn’t listen to you and went into that abandoned building without any backup in the first place... I was the one who got caught in the line of fire… You were the one who stopped me from saying something stupid to Richter that could have made everything way worse… I’m in this as much as you are.”

“You don’t have to-”

“Sure I do - we are partners. You have my back and I’ve got yours.”

He’d said all of this completely matter-of-factly, his voice now adopting a more pleading quality: “And as your partner, I’m asking you to please let me come with you to that meeting - I’d rather stand by your side than have you face this alone - if you’re okay with that.”

A wave of relief washed over Barbara. Despite her fierce resolve to go to that meeting and deal with whatever consequences that it would bring with it, she hadn’t realized how much she had hoped to have Dick’s support through all of this. Still, it was important to her to make one thing clear:

“You really, really don’t have to come with me,” she insisted forcefully.

She could see Dick getting ready to protest against her assertion most fervently, making it impossible for her to suppress the fond smile forming on her lips as she reached for his hand, “But I’m more than okay with you coming with me - there’s nobody I would rather want by my side.”

The indignation in Dick’s eyes turned into something softer, warmer: “Good.”

For a short moment, the two of them just looked at each other, tender smiles on both their faces.

Soon, Dick’s smile turned back into that goofy, endearing smile Barbara had come to love over the months of their partnership.

“Now, since we still have plenty of time for you to let me in on that great battle plan I’m sure you’ve already formulated over the course of these past few days-”

Barbara couldn’t help but chuckle: “You know me so well.”

“- and the entire point of today’s evening was to enjoy ourselves and forget about your mysterious message for a moment-”

“Very true.”

“I’ll venture to ask: Could I interest you in some more kissing before we resume our tour of Wayne Manor’s best sock surfable hallways?”

Despite the bravado of his words, Barbara could see the shy nervousness in Dick’s eyes.

A bright grin stretched across her lips.

“You can.”

***

The Circle *²

It was early Wednesday evening, mere minutes before the mysterious meeting was about to take place - Dick and Barbara were sitting in her car, right across Saint Dennis church, eyes fixed on the imposing architectural structure in nervous anticipation.

“You’re sure you want to do this?” Dick asked gently. “If you want to call it off, that’s fine, too.”

Barbara’s eyes were still glued to the neo-gothic building.

“No, I’m sure… I want to know, I need to know where this is all gonna lead to,” she found herself saying, her voice carrying far more conviction in it than she currently felt.

She finally tore her gaze away from the church, looking over at her partner instead:

“How about you? I meant it when I said that you don’t have to come with me.”

Dick smiled.

“Well, and I meant it when I said that I’d rather stand by your side than have you face this alone.”

And with that, he reached over the console and took her hand in his. Barbara gave Dick a nervous smile. She glanced once more at the church, then looked back at her partner, when she felt a gentle, reassuring squeeze around her fingers. Her fraying nerves calmed a bit at the gesture. No matter what awaited her behind the church doors, it was nice to know she didn’t have to face it on her own.

She squeezed Dick’s hand in return, earning her an unwavering, warm smile from her partner.

Go time.

Entering the church, they found it to be empty except for the two people talking quietly to each other in the chancel, the area around the altar. Their quiet conversation came to an immediate stop when the heavy door thunked shut, announcing Barbara and Dick’s presence. Barbara could feel her heart beating faster. Nevertheless, she kept on walking towards the two individuals, the sound of her and Dick’s footsteps on the stone floor echoing eerily. Upon their approach, Barbara recognized that one of the people they were heading for was Sergeant Amy Rohrbach, causing the tension in her muscles to lessen.

Suspecting that Rohrbach might be involved with the mysterious message she had received, Barbara had put in the time and effort to find out more about the sergeant from the 1-9. After digging through a plethora of files and reports, she hadn’t found anything that would even remotely suggest that Rohrbach was not an exemplary police officer. Indeed, only one incident in the track record detailing the sergeant’s career had caught Barbara’s eye - and interestingly enough, it had involved officers Hicks and Richter.

The most peculiar thing about said report was that there was nothing concrete to be gained from studying it: The case had involved busting Juan Ricardo Banez, a known drug dealer, at his girlfriend’s home. Simple enough - but the exact circumstances of said bust were shrouded in mystery. All that Barbara had been able to find out was that some shots had been fired from both Rohrbach’s and Richter’s guns, the perp had wound up dead and Richter had taken a medical leave subsequently. It was the bag with half a million dollars that had been filed as evidence, her thorough knowledge of Richter’s history of taking bribes and collecting money for the mob, as well as her and Dick’s own run-in with Richter and Hicks just a few weeks ago, that allowed Barbara to piece together a pretty plausible scenario of what must have gone down that day… And if she was right, Barbara had no reason to think that Amy Rohrbach was setting her and Dick up right now…

“Gordon! I knew that you wouldn’t pass up on this opportunity,” the sergeant greeted Barbara friendly, her keen brown eyes soon flickering over to Dick - “and as I can see, you’ve decided to bring your partner along.”

Dick took this statement as a cue to introduce himself, shaking hands with Amy. On the outside, he was all friendly smiles and easy-going charm, but Barbara knew her partner was actually on high alert, making note of the smallest detail that could be helpful in unravelling the enigma their current situation proved to be.

After shaking Dick’s hand, Amy went on to introduce the elderly man next to her as Father Mike, who greeted Dick and Barbara warmly.

“He was kind enough to offer the back room of his church as our base of operations,” the sergeant explained, unfortunately neglecting to mention what this “base of operations” was actually for.

“Well, now that you’re both here, we might as well get started,” Amy said energetically, making a parting gesture toward Father Mike before motioning for Dick and Barbara to come along with her: “Follow me, the others are already here.”

Dick and Barbara exchanged a meaningful look behind Amy’s back.

When it came to Rohrbach herself, Barbara felt she had a good understanding of the sergeant’s character - the company that police woman kept, however, was still a different story.

Rohrbach lead the two partners to an unassuming door to the side of the room. The sergeant opened it, revealing a small, dimly lit room, with four indistinct figures already inside. The four shadows were seated along the long side of a medium-sized table that had been squeezed inside the small space, making Barbara feel like she was at a really bizarre film noir job interview.

The trio’s arrival was met with unintelligible mumbling, that soon was replaced by complete silence.

Dick was the first to speak, breaking the uncomfortable silence that was hanging in the air like cold cigarette smoke: “Soo… what is this, exactly?”

One of the silhouette-like figures stirred, a rough, deep voice rasping: “It’s an initiation, son.”

“And if you don’t pass, it’ll go hard on you,” another voice was quick to add.

A third voice practically growled: “We don’t like taking chances.”

“But Amy vouches for you,” chimed in the last person of this mysterious quartet, the voice suggesting a female.

Barbara strained her eyes, trying to recognize any of the people they were facing – why was it so damn dark in here? And why, for the love of god, could nobody get to the effing point?!

Fortunately, Amy seemed to have taken pity on Barbara's thinly-worn patience:

“We’re like a police force inside the police force, you see,” the sergeant said, sending a wry smile in Dick and Barbara's direction,”as I'm sure you have noticed, there are a lot of cops in this town that appear to be under the impression that they can do as they please – as long as the price is right. But our little group here,” Amy gestured towards her fellow conspirators, “we have made it our goal to remind those who abuse their position and privilege that they are not above the law.”

Barbara felt relief rushing over her - she had been right in trusting her gut; Amy Rohrbach was one of the few good cops in Blüdhaven. And even better - there were more! Certainly, they weren’t legion, but even a small group had a better chance at cleaning up the corrupt police force than she and Dick on their own.

“It's a risky business, though,” Amy was quick to remind them, continuing in a warning tone, “should our plans come to light before they are seen through, anyone involved with them would be dead meat.”

The sergeant looked sternly at the potential new recruits for her cause.

“Just, keep that in mind… Now, are you guys in?”

Barbara's eyes darted over to Dick's, the two partners sharing a single, determinant look that left no room for doubt that they were on the same page-

“Yes,” was their unison reply.

Amy smiled triumphantly: “I thought so.”

“Welcome aboard,” the raspy voice from before piped up, now sounding a lot friendlier than it had before.

With the flick of a switch, Amy turned on the bare light bulb of the tiny back room, finally revealing the four other members of this little circle.

“Please, let me introduce you to Blüdhaven’s few proud and, most importantly, honest cops.”

And just like that, Dick and Barbara made acquaintance with tall and gangly Officer Zircher from the 15th precinct, Sergeant Dixon from the 2-3 (his kind eyes and friendly smile a stark contrast to his hulking physique and gravelly voice), tough-as-nails Lieutenant McDaniel from the 1-8 and young, but fiery Officer Leonardi from Amy’s precinct (the young Italian American woman had started her stint at the BPD only three months before Dick had joined Barbara’s precinct).

Dick and Barbara were readily welcomed by their more seasoned teammates.

“The more cops we bring into the circle, the stronger a case we can bring to the feds,” Zircher pointed out eagerly, his slim face adorned with a lopsided grin.

“You guys have joined us at a very opportune time,” Amy informed Dick and Barbara energetically, ”we finally have found a DA who is willing to pursue this, as long as there is enough evidence to build a solid case-”

“A case Chief Redhorn won’t be able to slip out of,” McDaniel grumbled darkly.

Amy nodded.

“Exactly. Since the problem of corruption reaches up to the very top of the chain, Flores won’t make his move until we have an airtight case that will allow him not only to go after small fry such as Hannity and Hicks, but also make it possible for him to indict Redhorn for his crimes.”

Amy paused for a moment, then turned to Dick and Barbara, fixing them with one of her piercing stares:

“And this is where you two come in.”

***

Teaching Moment *³

Even with their secret mission going on, Dick and Barbara still had to deal with the usual day-to-day of their job.

Today, they had the pleasure of sorting out a reported noise complaint. What should have been a simple affair, was dragged out unnecessarily once the neighbors of the offender had felt compelled to weigh in on the whole ordeal, leading to a heated dispute on the stairs - which, ironically, ended up being way louder than the music blasting from inside the respective apartment.

Once the situation had calmed down and all the inhabitants had returned to their apartments, Dick and Barbara finally left the building, ready to get back to their cruiser.

On their way back to the car, Dick and Barbara could see that a group of four boys had gathered around it - or rather: three of the approximately eleven-year-old kids were standing around the car, while the fourth one was standing atop the hood.

Seeing the two police officers coming their way caused a certain amount of commotion among the kids.

“Kenny, get down! Here they come,” a boy in a red hoodie warned his friend.

But Kenny appeared to be unfazed.

“I ain’t doing nuthin’ wrong!”the kid insisted, his balled up fists raised as if to fight.

Barbara suppressed a sigh; she really didn’t feel like quarelling with an eleven-year-old today.

Dick, apparently, didn’t seem to mind:

“Actually, you are,” he argued with Kenny, gesturing towards the kid’s hands, “if you take a swing at me like that, you’re gonna break your thumbs.”

Surprised, the boy looked down at his hands, inspecting the way his other fingers curled around the thumbs of each hand.

Meanwhile, Dick approached Kenny calmly and Barbara couldn’t help but be impressed by the way her partner had managed to defuse the tense situation with a simple remark.

By the time Dick had gotten to Kenny and his friends, the kids gathered around the cruiser only stared at him curiously, their resentment from before - gone.

“Keep ‘em out, like this,” Dick explained, gently adjusting the position of Kenny’s fingers, making sure that the thumbs were outside the balled fist.

He then put his palms up, facing the boy: “Okay, now try”

Excitedly, Kenny punched against Dick’s palms.

Dick grinned approvingly: “There you go! Good job!”

He then lifted Kenny off the car hood. The boy smiled widely.

“Thanks.”

The boys scampered off soon after, although Barbara could still hear their delighted chattering until they rounded the corner down the street: “my turn!”, “hit me, Kenny, hit me!”

Barbara quirked an eyebrow at her partner while they were both getting back into the car, a teasing smirk on her lips: “Making the world safe for disciplined violence everywhere?”

Dick just shrugged his shoulders.

“I prefer to think of it as teaching finesse and self-respect.”

Barbara smiled and started the engine to resume their patrol.

“You were really good with those kids,” she acknowledged in a more earnest manner.

Again, Dick simply shrugged, making a dismissive gesture with his hands, “Practice - when I was still bartending at Hogan’s, waiting and hoping to get into the BPD, I spent some afternoons at the gym in zee mores, teaching kids some basic self-defense lessons.”

Barbara only shook her head, smiling fondly at her partner.

“How do you manage to fit your halo under that hat, Grayson?”

Dick grinned flirtatiously: “Same way you fit all that brain power under yours, I presume.”

“Flatterer.”

Dick gave her a playful wink, then went on to look out of the window to keep an eye on the street.

“So, what are the plans for the evening?,” he asked casually.

Barbara’s eyes flitted over to her partner.

“Well, I kinda planned on spending it checking out some stuff for Amy - why, did you have any different ideas?”

Dick grinned.

“Well, actually... I thought we could spend a nice evening in, something along dinner and a movie - but how about we combine those two?,” Dick proposed, continuing quickly before Barbara could disagree,”You could focus on working on the thing for Amy while I’m fixing us up some dinner, then, during dinner, you can fill me in on what you’ve found out and, depending how late it’ll be by then, we can check out something on Netflix or something along those lines-”

“Something like the new Brooklyn Nine-Nine episodes?,” Barbara suggested teasingly.

Dick ducked his head sheepishly.

“That could be an option... if you insist on it.”

Barbara let out a laugh: “Sure, because I’m the one usually insisting on it.”

She was met with a goofy smile.

“But you know what,” Barbara said, after carefully considering his suggestion,”I think that’s a really good idea.”

“Don’t know why you sound so surprised,” Dick said with a fake pout,”I’m full of good ideas.”

Barbara nodded knowingly,“You’re full of something, all right.”

“Hey!”

They spend the rest of their shift bickering back and forth.

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to be continued... here

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Notes

*² Nightwing #60: The "initiation" at Saint Dennis Church happens in this issue (although Dick thinks that he gets a chance at infiltrating the corrupt cops after acting like taking a bribe wouldn't be too bad - Amy immediately sees through Dick's tough-guy-act, seeing him for the goody-two-shoes he is and instead introduced him to the circle) Nightwing #69: The "incident" between Amy and Richter is from said issue (meanwhile, Dick is in Gotham, helping out Alfred and Tim in the "Bruce Wayne - Murderer?" story arc); Amy is part of the raid out to get Banez, but once Richter suggests taking the money for themselves, hinting that killing Banez and his girlfriend would rid them of any potential witnesses, the situation escalates into a shoot-out between Amy and Richter, during which Banez dies and Richter and Amy get slightly hurt; DA Flores: Mateo Flores, the DA working together with Amy and the gang. He's also the brother of Catalina Flores, the new Tarantula... who is not going to make an appearance in this fic because... no. Just no. (I did not like that storyline at all.)

Zircher, Dixon, McDaniel & Leonardi: I don't think the police officers in the circle are ever mentioned by name, so I just chose the names of some of the most important Nightwing writers and artists from the Pre-New 52 run (and I made Leonardi into a woman, because... well, there are just too few women in those stories and that just won't do ;)

*³ Nightwing #71: Dick interacting with Kenny and his friends is a cute scene from that issue, I just had to include that here; Dick giving a self-defense class in zee mores is also from that issue, although that one is aimed at adults and where we meet Catalina Flores and... well, I decided to change it up Nightwing #142: We see Dick teaching kids how to fly on the trapeze during his time in New York, so I combined both of these instances of Dick teaching into him teaching self-defense to kids

#dickbabs #dickbabs fic #dick grayson #barbara gordon #advent calendar 2019 #advent calendar fanfic 2019 #advent calendar 2019: day 21 #i write sometimes #my fics: partners

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blueboxesandtrafficcones · 4 years

Text

The Nuptial Necessity - Chapter 30

A 12xRose Human AU

Despite an unglamorous job description, Rose loves the work she does with The Thistle Foundation, a charity founded by her best friend’s great-uncle. It doesn’t hurt that her boss, her friend’s father, is easy on the eyes. With a great job, wonderful friends and a loving family, life couldn’t be better – except for having someone to share it with.

All of that is threatened, though, when the great-uncle dies – and sets a strange condition for his nephew to inherit, jeopardizing the Foundation and Rose’s future, sparking a chain of events that might just get her everything she dreamed of and more.

Chapters will be posted on Saturdays and Tuesdays. Many thanks to my beta, @stupidsatsuma

Rated: Explicit, for smut

@doctorroseprompts

AO3 | Masterlist

—

Thursday (very, very late)

“I have something for you,” Malcolm murmured, kissing her ear.

“Huh?”

He’d cleaned up the worst of the mess they’d made, and now that the sweat had cooled and dried, they were snuggled together under the blankets, her back to his front, their arms entangled and folded together beneath her breasts. Thoroughly sated, warm, comfortable, and happy, she was almost asleep when he spoke.

He rolled away from her, and by the time he came back she had turned to face him, pillowing her head on her arm as she watched him. His hands appeared, one clenched around something, and her breath caught. “What-”

“Rose,” he cut her off, not unkindly, “you… you are a breath of fresh air. You-”

Unable to help it she yawned, face scrunching with the size of it- it seemed to go on forever, and by the time it was over, he was biting his lip, watching her with a raised eyebrow.

“I don’t want to bore you.”

“Mhmm, you’re not,” she promised, snuggling closer, “but I’m exhausted. My husband had me up ridiculously early to watch the sunrise this morning, then he shagged my brains out.”

“Sounds like quite the catch.”

“He is.” She grinned up at him. “And I’m going to return the favor and blow his mind- well, something- as soon as I’ve gotten a kip.”

Malcolm hummed. “Well, I’ll let you get to it, but first- I’ll save the drawn-out romantic speech for when you’re more awake, but…” Holding out his clenched hand in front of him, he turned it over and opened it to reveal a ring, with a decent sapphire stone set in gold. It was beautiful, and delicate, and she loved it.

“Oh, babe,” Rose gasped softly. “That’s wonderful.”

“Do you really think so?” Surprisingly shy, he held it out to her. “If so, I want you to have it. If not, there’s plenty more in the family vault, but- I wanted you to have this one. I’ve wanted you to have it for… a while.”

“Are you sure?” She took in carefully, holding it up to her eye to examine it better. “It looks old. Not in a bad way, just in a valuable way.”

Her husband slid his hand over her waist, pulling her closer. “Yes. I didn’t give you an engagement ring, because… but now that our feelings have been resolved, that it’s all out in the open, I want you to have a pretty ring to show off.”

Rose looked down at the simple gold band she’d been wearing for the last week, and felt her heart melt. “I’m very happy with the ring I already have,” she told him softly, “because you gave it to me. I think this will be a perfect addition.” Then she handed it back.

“Wait, what?”

Rolling her eyes, she held out her left hand to him, grinning. “Go ahead, put it on me. ‘S only right.”

He did, carefully guiding it up her finger and over her knuckles, settling it at the base of her wedding band before bringing her hand to his lips and kissing both rings gently. “Perfect.”

“I agree.” Bringing her hand to her face, she admired how they looked together – like they belonged next to each other. “That wasn’t necessary, but… thank you.”

“You deserve the world,” he shrugged one shoulder. “A ring- a family heirloom at that- is nothing.”

Smiling, she leaned forward, kissing him sweetly. “Let’s get some sleep,” she sighed against his lips. “Then when we wake up, I’ll thank you properly.”

He kissed her back. “No thanks necessary.”

“Oh, I think it’s very necessary.”

Friday (very, very early)

Yawning, Rose padded back to bed from the loo, on her way eyeing the clothing strewn across the floor, abandoned where it had fallen. At first glance it would be impossible to mistake what had happened, and she felt awkward at the idea of the maid finding them like that. Sending a longing glance towards the bed, she quickly gathered up the items and piled them on the chair so they didn’t look quite so much like victims of torrential passion – as they had been.

Climbing back into bed, she snuggled down next to Malcolm in the hopes of falling back asleep, but it was soon clear that that wasn’t going to happen. Her mind was wide awake, and a heat low in her belly begged for relief. Grunting in frustration she opened her eyes, taking in Malcolm’s profile in the moonlight. In his sleep he’d rolled onto his back, one arm bent above his head, the other across his chest. The sheet had slipped down to his hips, and she licked her lips at the slight tenting occurring there.

Glancing back up at his face she found him sleeping soundly, and debated whether or not to wake him up. On the one hand, she saw no reason they should both be awake just because she couldn’t sleep. On the other, if they were awake anyway…

Malcolm drifted towards consciousness, hazily aware of a wet warmth on his stomach. Stretching his arm out beside him, his eyes shot open at realizing he was alone in bed, Rose’s side cool and empty. He didn’t have to wonder long, though, before solving both mysteries at once – his wife was stretched out on her side perpendicular to his waist, drawing shapes on his stomach with her tongue as she propped herself up on her forearms.

“Good morning,” he rasped, threading his fingers through her hair, eyes following the tip of her tongue. “Having fun?”

“Technically, it’s not morning,” she replied with a grin, pressing an open-mouthed kiss to his navel. “But, I figured you wouldn’t mind. Tit for tat, and such.”

He raised an eyebrow, feigning disinterest with a mere, “Oh?”

Her grin morphed into a smirk, and she tugged at the sheet covering his hips; it didn’t move, just pressed down against him, accentuating the tenting happening there. “I mean, if you’re up for it.”

“I could probably be persuaded to be a team player,” he drawled. “For the right price.” Anticipation had heat pooling low in his belly, but he was enjoying the game- he loved how playful she could be, how she brought that same quality out in him. Sex with Rose was fun, in a way it had rarely been throughout his life.

“Is that so?” Freeing one hand, she trailed her fingertips along his length over the sheet, making his obscured erection bob and his stomach clench. “I’ve been known to broker a fair deal or two in my day.”

He stole her abandoned pillow, using it to prop himself up to better see what she was doing- and what he desperately hoped she would be soon. “Rose.”

Rose snickered, and he flushed at his inadvertently-whiney tone. “Yes, dear?”

She drew the sheet away from him, and he helped kick it down to the end of the bed, far out of the way. The cooler air of their bedroom felt wonderful on his heated flesh, and he watched with pleading eyes as she examined his length, abruptly realizing that though they’d been intimate a handful of times now, she’d never really seen him- not like this, and he eyed his sometimes-errant member with suspicion. Don’t ruin this for us, he warned it- no need to remind her that he was officially closing in on ‘middle age’.

Apparently, though, he didn’t need to worry.

“You’re beautiful,” she murmured, making him twitch in response. “Lovely. Really.” Leaning forward she flicked her tongue against the head, drawing a sigh from him. “And big. Who knew you were hiding this in your trousers all those years?” Her tongue darted out again, and he sagged back against the pillows, hand returning to her hair and combing through the loose strands, gently untangling them.

He let her tease him for far longer than he would have liked, her soft kisses and licks doing nothing but making him ache for her, despite the sensual beauty of the visual. She was on her hands and knees next to him, breasts hanging freely. His eyes lingered along her smooth side, taking in the pert bum wagging slightly in the air with her movements. She was the epitome of art, and were it not so personal and he so possessive, he would insist that her likeness should hang in any of the great art museums in the world, so anyone and everyone could marvel at her sheer, erotic beauty. Eventually, though, the tension became unbearable, and he shifted restlessly on the mattress, his focus narrowing to the imminent pleasure.

“I’m starting to think you’re all talk.”

His beautiful bride looked up the length of his chest to meet his eye, gaze taking its time to peruse the view on the way. “Is that all men think about?” she asked, biting her lip, unable to hide her smirk. “Getting their cock sucked?”

“It is when a beautiful woman promises to do so then doesn’t.” He arched his eyebrows. “You’ve made your husband a promise, Mrs. Tucker, and I expect you to see it through.”

She laughed. “Mrs. Tucker. I like that.” Her fingers wrapped around him, starting a lazy glide along his skin. “You know, this is only fair, after how you tortured me last night.”

“Tortured you?” he said indignantly. “I didn’t know orgasms were considered torture. I won’t make that mistake again.”

Arching one eyebrow up at him, she dipped her head and finally, finally, slid her lips over the head of him, sucking lightly as her tongue explored him.

“Guh.”

Her chuckle was almost silent, but the vibrations from it were amazing over his aching flesh, and he grunted, fingers tightening in her hair. It had been a long time since his last relationship (if one could call it that), and to be here, with the woman he’d quietly loved from afar for so long, still felt dreamlike. He hoped he never lost that feeling.

Rose pulled her hand and mouth off of him then, grinning at his involuntary protest. “I’m just making myself comfortable,” she soothed, shifting around to settle herself between his thighs, kneeling over him. “I suggest you hold on.”

This time, when she lowered her mouth to him, it was without any of the languidness of before- taking half his length in on the first pass, she began a seemingly-complicated rhythm of bobbing and sucking, her hand pumping the parts her mouth couldn’t reach, all of which worked to short-circuit his brain and send him spiraling towards the abyss.

“Oh, Rose,” he groaned, fisting the pillows next to his head, trying to keep himself from spending too quickly. “So good. Too good.” The suction she was able to generate was incredible, his eyes rolling back into his head in delight.

In response she just took him deeper, his tip bumping the back of her throat twice before she pulled off, coughing. “Okay, can’t do that,” she giggled, breathing deeply. “How do you want to…”

He had to fight to open his eyes, especially once she returned to sucking at his head. “Ngh.” Thought was difficult, all his senses focused on the pleasures of her mouth, but he decided he didn’t want to come alone. “Fuck me.”

“You sure? I can-”

Malcolm reached for her, catching her hand and using it to pull her up his body. “Please.”

Straddling his hips, she rose up for a moment to line him up before sinking down onto him, taking all of him in one go. “Mhmm.”

“Yes,” he grunted, gripping her hips and starting to thrust up. “C’mon.” She started slow, her movements more of a rock then a thrust, before she leaned forward, bracing her hands above his shoulders and dipping her head to kiss him. “I love you,” he whispered against her lips, drowning in pleasure. “So much.”

“I love you too.”

She wormed her tongue into his mouth, flicking it against his own as her hips began to pick up speed, rolling over him in a delicious counterpoint to his own thrusting. Letting go of her hips he wrapped one arm around her waist, holding her against him, as his right hand slipped between them, finding her clit and rubbing it desperately.

“Ah, ah, ah,” Rose keened softly, head bowing as she rode him harder. “Mhmm, yeah.”

“Come, Rose,” he pleaded, rhythm stuttering as he fought to hold on, waiting for her to catch up. “Please.”

“Hang on.”

He stopped instantly, and panting for breath, she shifted over him, straightening up and setting her hands on his chest as she got her feet under her. His limbs trembled, unsure how much more he could take, but she tossed her head, hair flying behind her, and opened her eyes.

“Okay.”

And then she was riding him, all finesse lost in favor of chasing release. For a moment he forgot to start moving himself, captivated by her beauty- her sweat-slick skin shining in the moonlight, the building pleasure on her face, her breasts bouncing with the force of her movements.

“Malcolm,” she whimpered, and he sprang to life, one hand returning between them to pleasure her, the other reaching up to pinch and twist a nipple just the way she liked.

She broke with a sob, freezing above him, head thrown back, body shaking with the strength of her release, before collapsing down onto him. Rolling her onto her back and settling above her, he hooked one knee in the crook of his elbow and began to move. It only took another half-dozen or so thrusts before it was his turn, gasping her name as he finally found sweet release, sagging down to cover her body with his own.

“I love you,” she whispered, face buried in his shoulder.

“I love you too,” he sighed, enjoying the looseness in his muscles and peace in his heart. Nothing in the world felt better against his skin than hers, wrapped up in each other as they were, and he couldn’t have left her in that moment for anything.

She pressed a kiss to his clavicle, one arm weakly wrapping around his waist. “We’re gonna have a brilliant life.”

“Fucking right we are.”

#bbatcfic #ficandchips #Doctor Who #doctorroseprompts #Human!12xRose #Human!Twelfth Doctor #Rose Tyler #Human AU #AU #The Nuptial Necessity

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inheritedfang · 5 years

Text

Some of my Thoughts About Dark Souls 1

Considering how I’ve heard people talk about this game for years and years, and I both finished my first playthrough and got more than halfway through a new playthrough in one night (it’s 7:30 a.m. and I haven’t slept at all, help), I have a few things I want to talk about.

I’m going to start off with my biggest point: is it just me or does the game drop in quality after Ornstein and Smough? Up until then the game is incredibly atmospheric, with fantastic level design and that whole “difficult but fair” thing everyone tells you about when you first find out about the game. However after I beat Ornstein and Smough and was told to go after the four Lord souls, the game stopped feeling fair and just became irritating. Tomb of the Giants? Admittedly not the worst at first, but once you get to the second bonfire it just becomes a mad sprint past the massive beast skeletons that’ll tear you apart if you stop to fight them. Not to mention the fact that unless you found the Skull Lantern in the Catacombs, you have to navigate the Tomb of the Giants in the pitch black, barely able to see two feet in front of you until Patches shoves you off a cliff just after the first bonfire. This area is capped off by Gravelord Nito, who is somehow frustrating and easy at the same time. I, a big mistake on my part, went in without a divine weapon as getting one to a decent level would have taken far too long. I could detail every bad thing that happened, but one example sums it up perfectly; I dodged one of Nito’s attacks, only for him to immediately follow up with a grab. I messed up the dodge and he grabbed me, doing a bunch of damage before gently laying me down on the floor. In the corner. Right in between the three skeletons. I couldn’t roll away, I couldn’t kill them quick enough, I couldn’t heal. I promptly died.

The Duke’s Archives was even worse, with the majority of my experience being boiled down to running around in circles trying to figure out where to go while being spammed to death by projectiles being fired from God knows where. After escaping my cell and returning to the Library I got lost for an unbearable amount of time, running back and forth trying to figure out where I was supposed to go when everything looked exactly the same. The enemies are irritating as well; the worst being the archers and the big sorcerer enemies (can’t remember their names), who just spam soul arrows at you then teleport away when you get close. I may be slightly biased because I just started a Sorcerer playthrough which was complete and utter hell in the Archives, getting nearly two shot by literally everything, but regardless. I don’t have much to say about the Crystal Caves. It looks nice, the invisible floor mechanic was odd and seemed pointless to me but it was easy to figure out where to go anyway and it was harmless all things considered. Seath the Scaleless, the boss of this area, was a complete joke. Trying to sever the tail for the Moonlight Greatsword was a pain at first, sure, but just going for the kill was pathetic. I beat him by running at one of the two front tentacles and just sprint attacking over and over. Seath barely even attacked me while I did this, it was a massive disappointment. Also special mention to that one garden area between the Duke’s Archives and the Crystal Caves, it looks unforgivably bad. I don’t have a good image of it unfortunately, but it looks genuinely unfinished. Especially with the Crystal Golems that look like they’ve just been randomly thrown about the garden with no thought put in whatsoever. I felt like I was playing a developer test level.

The Demon Ruins were very fun, fighting through the ruins gave me the same feeling as first carving my way through Undead Burg, seeing everything ruined around me, taking in the various details of the environment as I slowly overcome the various enemies blocking my path. The very copy and paste feeling of some of the enemy placements was strange, however. Seeing five or six weaker Capra Demons dumped in a hallway and seeing seven or so Minor Taurus Demons off in the distance, all standing together in the lava lake made me think that they could have been leftover placeholders that were kept in due to time constraints. But overall, without going into too much detail, the Demon Ruins was a refreshingly enjoyable area, especially after just trudging through Tomb of the Giants, so after killing the Centipede Demon I was excited to see what would be next. And then Lost Izalith ruined everything. My time in Lost Izalith was spent taking off my clothes and running through boiling hot lava and it was about as fun as it sounds. The sprint to the boss was stupidly long and had you taking an incredibly linear winding path through the lava lake to avoid attracting the attention of massive Tyrannosaur-looking Demons that just stand around completely still like until you accidentally step too close and get squashed. But despite the painful area leading up to it, maybe the boss would redeem it? Maybe the boss would be good enough to make all the suffering I’d endured worth it? Haha.

No.

The Bed of Chaos is easily the worst, most infuriating boss in the game and one of the worst I’ve played in a long time. It’s not fun having to run through the entirety of Lost Izalith, only to spend about five seconds in the boss fight before being swept into a bottomless pit and sent right back to the bonfire at the start of the area. Finally killing the boss isn’t even satisfying because once you’ve gotten past the asinine jump and managed to avoid being knocked into the death hole by the almighty hand of God himself, you find that the boss is just a pathetic little bug that goes down in one hit and doesn’t even fight back.

The last of the four Lords, the Four Kings and the area leading up to them, New Londo Ruins are my favourites of the Lords and their areas. New Londo Ruins had a brilliant aesthetic and atmosphere, the Dark Wraiths were threatening as all hell (although surprisingly easy to kill) and the idea of fighting the literal ghosts of those who had died when New Londo fell is incredibly cool. The atmosphere especially ramps up when you drain the ruins and head down, only to be greeted with piles and piles of endless corpses that you have to step over to carry onward. It’s intense. It only took me two tries to beat the Four Kings, but it was one of the most tense fights in the game for me (I’m not counting the time where I dropped into the arena then took off the Artorias ring and was consumed by the Abyss shhhh that doesn’t count). The first time round was me testing the waters then quickly calling the fight cheap because I was swarmed by three Kings at once that I’d obliviously allowed to spawn, but then the second time round I realised that I could reliably tank their attacks without needing to heal and kill each one before the next one spawned, so it quickly became “neck a green blossom and just rush them there’s no time for second thoughts”. It was easy, but damn was it fun.

And so came the final boss, Gwyn. The Kiln of the First Flame was a brilliant area that did everything it needed to, being an atmospheric and foreboding lead up to the final fight. The few black knights along the way were good parrying practice and they dropped tons of upgrade materials that’ll no doubt be useful in New Game Plus. But before long, I finally arrived at the fog gate. Weapon at the ready, I stepped through, prepared to meet the final battle this fantastic game has for me.

Remember how I said that “The few black knights along the way were good parrying practice”? Well, that was some subtle foreshadowing because parrying completely and utterly trivialises the final boss. Parrying isn’t something you can usually do in the boss fights, however for whatever reason Gwyn is able to be parried. So despite what the game’s story has been leading to and the beautiful, melancholy music backing your fight would have you believe, it’s much less an epic duel between Chosen Undead and forsaken Lord, and more just the Chosen Undead slapping Gwyn’s sword away and stabbing him in the chest every ten seconds. Good build up and once again good atmosphere, but a pretty underwhelming fight overall.

That sums up my thoughts on the second half of Dark Souls 1 pretty well; underwhelming. The first half is exactly as it should be: you fight your way up from nothing, constantly facing overwhelming odds as you prove your worth as the Chosen Undead through sheer determination and strength. The second half lost that same feeling for me, and I think it’s due to the levels relying more on gimmicks like the darkness of the Tomb of the Giants or the entirety of Lost Izalith. The game is still fantastic, but I do wish it managed to keep up the same level of quality that it held at the beginning.

Because I started writing that at about 7:30 a.m. and it’s now 9:21 a.m., I’m going to just summarise my last point and then go the bloody hell to sleep.

I feel that Anor Londo is somewhat overhyped. I’m not a big fan of the design and while I understand that it’s entirely by design and intentional, the big and abandoned feel of the city doesn’t work for me at times. I still love exploring it, but I don’t understand the tons and tons of love people give it. As well as this, the Anor Londo archers really aren’t that hard. I’ve heard people rant about their difficulty numerous times before, but once I’d finally encountered them, I just walked up to the one on the right, baited him into pulling out his sword and attacking me, parried the attack and one shot him. The pillar blocks the other archer’s view of you so they can’t do anything about it. It really isn’t that hard. Same with Ornstein and Smough, they’re definitely difficult, but not quite as difficult as I’ve heard people say.

Anyway I’m off to sleep for fifteen years, have a good one lads

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duhragonball · 5 years

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Dragon Ball GT Retrospective (1/7)

[Note: This was originally written on January 10, 2013. My leg was broken, and I decided to kill some time watching GT all the way through.]

My leg is still broken. On the bright side, this gives me time to catch up on crappy anime. My Tenchi in Tokyo DVD arrived in the mail a while back, and I had already resolved to use my convalescance to watch every episode of Dragon Ball GT. So now I can have what I like to call a Marathon of Crap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LyNFxnv78w

I've written about the problems with DBGT before, but now that I've sat through the first fourteen episodes, I feel better informed about them. I think the experience of GT for any fan basically goes like this: STAGE ONE: You finish watching Dragon Ball Z, and you're hopeful that GT will just be 64 more episodes of awesome, even if everyone else who saw it thinks it sucks. STAGE TWO: You start watching it, and quickly recognize why everyone hates it. Nevertheless, you remain hopeful that you'll find some hidden quality that redeems the series in some way. STAGE THREE: You get to the part where Goku is thwarted by a metal grate in a sewer, even though he's spent the entire series performing superhuman feats of strength. You wearily accept that this show refuses to adhere to even the simplest level of continuity. STAGE FOUR: Cool! Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta! They can't possibly screw this u--ohhhhh shit they just did. STAGE FIVE: You refuse to recognize GT as anything remotely resembling canon. STAGE SIX: You buy the DVD box set anyway, because you're a completist and it was on sale. STAGE SEVEN: You watch the series again, now properly aware that it was never going to be a worthy continuation of DBZ, but it's probably got some decent camp value. And that's where I am today. When they rolled out GT for American audiences, Funimation didn't even bother releasing the first twenty or so episodes, because even they knew how lame they were as a followup to DBZ. Instead, they edited together a single episode which recapped them, then later released the uncut editions as "The Lost Episodes". So these are the worst of the worst. Later on, the series evolves into a watered down parody of what Dragon Ball Z had been, and I think that's what most American fans are complaining about when they talk about the show. But these early episodes are the real crap. The original premise was that a secret set of "Black Star" Dragon Balls is discovered and accidentally used to de-age Goku into a child. At first, the goal seems to be getting Goku back to normal, except the Black Star Dragon Balls have an added side effect of blowing up the world one year after they're used to make a wish. Worse, they scatter all over the universe with each use, so the only hope is a space mission to find them and return to Earth within one year.

Frankly, this is the stupidest thing ever. The Dragon Balls are artifacts created by Namekian craftsmen, and they were introduced to Earth when a Namekian skilled in the art came to this planet. Why would he construct Dragon Balls that blow up the Earth, where he is? Why would he fashion them so that they scatter into space, when he is essentially stuck on his adopted world with no practical means of searching for them? One could argue that this was a faulty job, an essay in the craft, abandoned when the Red Star Dragon Balls turned out to be much safer and more convenient to use. But no one ever says this. Also, no one ever explains why they can't use one of the other sets of Dragon Balls to retrieve the more volatile Black Star set. Anyway, the space expedition goes haywire when Goku's granddaughter Pan sneaks aboard and carelessly launches the ship before it's ready. This leaves only herself, Goku, and Trunks on board to carry out the mission. For the first leg of the series, these are the main cast of the show. I'm not sure how they picked that lineup, except that they were clearly trying to echo the dynamic of Goku, Krillin, and Bulma back in the old Dragon Ball series. The idea was to go back to the adventure concept of the original series, as opposed to the heavy action focus of Dragon Ball Z. This doesn't work, mainly because the characters are simply too powerful to function as adventure heroes doing Indiana Jones style stories. Back in the old days Goku and Krillin were superhuman fighters, but they were still inexperienced, and there was room in the world for stronger enemies to menace them. By DBGT, Goku has repeatedly proven himself to be the most powerful mortal being in his universe, and most of the other characters are right behind him on the Top Twenty. GT keeps doing episodes where the trio land on a planet, explore the situation a little, then stage a lopsided confrontation with the bad guy. There's no suspense to it because Goku can blow up the whole planet if he wants to, and the bad guy is usually some tin-dictator who doesn't realize what he's up against. To compensate, the writers keep employing what fans call "GT logic". For instance, this one episode had a bad guy called Lord Luud, who's a giant robot shaped like a kewpie doll or something. Goku and Trunks fight it, but the robot is pretty durable. Despite the difficulty, they never bother turning into Super Sayians, even though they can both totally do that at any time and it would even the odds. Luud then steps on the heroes, and then they finally transform, mostly for the big dramatic moment where they have their Superman comeback and toss Luud on his ass. Then they change back and start beating up on Luud as if he suddenly got easy. Luud's handler gets desperate, so he adds Pan's to Luud's power supply, giving him a boost. Pan's weaker than Goku or Trunks, but for some reason Pan+Luud is way, way stronger than Goku and Trunks put together. Well, whatever, but the situation is now looking pretty grim, and Goku and Trunks still keep fighting in their base forms. They never explain this either. It really doesn't make sense, because the Super Saiyan transformations were one of the most popular elements of the franchise. I think they wanted to hearken back to the days before the Super Saiyan concept was introduced, but they never bothered to rationalize it. So they compromised and made the transformations really really brief and infrequent for no reason. Pan never transforms, although it's not clear if she just doesn't know how, or she just refuses to for the same mysterious reason as everyone else. I could sort of buy that Goku's younger body is too weak to handle the transformation, or that Trunks is out of practice, but they still do it, just not very much. It'd be like a whole episode of He-Man where Prince Adam fights Skeletor and has a really hard time, but he only uses his sword when he needs to lift heavy boulders. The bad guys suck ass. The first real villain is Lord Don Key. Get it? Do you? Because it's a pun. He's a plutocratic fop, so he hires thugs that know how to use hand energy. Goku beats them all in like two minutes, but for some reason his team farts around for like four episodes gathering information. That's really what's wrong with the show. It wasn't a mortal sin to go for a sillier tone or back off the fighting, but the pacing ruins whatever they were going for. A lot of these GT plots resemble early episodes of Dragon Ball, except they get stretched out to two or three episodes of GT. Gags that might have been cute in two minutes get stretched out to six or seven. The next major bad guy is Master Dolltaki, who turns Pan into a doll while he tries to get Lord Luud operational. Dolltaki's gimmick is that he's a total perv with toy dolls, and he spends something like three episodes talking or thinking about what a cute doll Pan is and how he can't wait to dress her up in all sorts of adorable little doll clothes. Remember that scene from Spaceballs where Rick Moranis plays with action figures in his quarters? It was what? Two minutes of the movie? If Toei had made Spaceballs, they would have dragged that out to half an hour, and added a heapin' helpin' of pedophilia just in case it was too subtle. Admittedly, there wasn't a whole lot of places left to go as far as Dragon Ball villains. Majin Buu was an indestructible shape-shifter, and how do you top that? The first credible GT villain was Dr. Myuu, who was basically an outer space version of DBZ's Dr. Gero. Baby had some potential, but his main advantage was his power to possess Goku's friends. So he wasn't really a challening bad guy so much as he was a plot device to force the good guys to fight each other. After that, they just decided to bring back all the old villains by having them stage a mass escape from hell. Cute, but not very innovative. The series ends by having the Dragon Balls themselves become the final boss of the franchise. That was a smart idea, but it was pretty poorly executed. Ultimately, Goku beats the Evil Dragon using the same move he used to beat Majin Buu at the end of DBZ, so it really forces you to ask if this trip was really necessary. But by then, I think everyone in Japan had recognized the obvious: Dragon Ball could only be stretched so far. The franchise still has life in it, but the specials and videogames and other merchandise generally sidestep GT. I think everyone at Toei understands now that GT was a failed experiment at best. Of course, the recent Bardock special feels a lot like the same sort of watered down crap that GT was, but at least they were applying the formula to good ol' DBZ lore, instead of going in directions no one wanted to see.

#dragon ball gt #really sucks #2013gt

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