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chop-zulyzulyyy · 2 years

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Throne and Sickle Ch.1

Chapter 1: Tell Me You Caught That

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Turtle bros x fem!parkour!reader

Summary: In which the turtles record their training one fateful night, and find the rooftops hold stories with a beginning....and an end.

Author Note: Helloo Hii! This is my very first fanfic that I’ve chosen to post publicly! I’ve written before, long ago in the time of dinosaurs 🦖 lol and over time I felt I lost my touch. I sincerely hope you enjoy this, and I’m welcome to constructive criticism! Please be as honest as you can, within reason of course. Thanks for being here on the start of my journey to becoming a better writer and fellow fan :)

Disclaimer: I don’t own ROTTMNT, sigh.

Genre(s): A bunch of stuff, really. You'll figure it out ;)

WARNINGS: Heavy topics NOT for the lighthearted; like seriously it’ll get dark in some parts. Mentions of s*xual assault, bl**d, sh*rp objects, and more. I will do my best to organize in a way that readers can identify the warning sign!

City lights, when viewed with naked eyes, seem to get a new life.. -Aishini.

Ah, New York. What a town. If its combination of musty gas, hot dogs, and mutants were on Us Weekly the headline would be ‘Mama Just Killed a Man’ with the sub-headline of the possibility of contracting an identity crisis being free.99. But alas, who knows. The fine art of bullshit was such a wide range that it left room for all kinds of adventures. For a group of four turtle brothers, this one was for the books.

The night was bustling with pedestrians, and the twinkling lights left little to the imagination of what Christmas was like even though it was February. Faint honking horns of angry Boomers could be heard, paired with the occasional loud radio stations blasting from stereo speakers. It seemed like everyone was outside of their homes tonight, and thus would be one of the riskiest patrol slash training sessions they’ve ever done.

“Aaaaand there! Hold still hold still~.” Donnie muttered. Nimble reptilian fingers only scientists and artists could applaud set up the inner workings of wiring miniature video cameras to multiple buildings, and somewhere in the back of his head was a small whispering voice claiming this was a dangerous idea as he reached up to the small device. It was, but the four of them agreed it would probably help in seeing their training mistakes via camera footage. Shiny, purple cubes were discretely attached to all buildings that were on their designated path tonight, and everything in between had been so easily hacked. He couldn’t be more positive that there was nothing short of a fruitful night out.

Sharpie eyebrows rose in smug satisfaction.

His dear brother on the other hand, wasn’t convinced. Donnie could tell by the way his hands continuously cradled his chin or crossed over each other in contemplation. Behind Leo were his other two brothers: Raph sitting down Mikey for a brief pep talk. As expected, really, for their youngest would attempt to showcase a new fighting move tonight. Each of them had one training session to present which was a pretty decent piece of advice given by Splinter. He mentioned along the lines of adapting to any kind of situation thrown at them- the need to be creative in order to defeat crime. (Or about pineapples and lime- couldn’t really understand with the disgusting mush that was ratatouille in their dad’s mouth). Anyway, at least one special move would suffice for now. They can regroup and share pointers but moving forward it would be commonplace to improve because staying at their current level of skill was just utterly unacceptable.

Raph was the first to come up with something and wasn’t afraid to show it off last month. Leo followed shortly after, but the blue-clad turtle scheduled his move during a rainstorm. Most would say it’s brave, others would say it’s stupid. But in the spirit of enlightenment; a kind elderly civilian had forgotten their laundry hanging outside in between an alley. Leo had plenty of time to rectify his maneuvering, the twat, there’s no way he did not have it coming. Donnie himself wouldn’t do his yet, but tonight was Mikey’s night.

Leo huffed, “I seriously doubt these little rubix cubes are going to help us stay on the downlow. If none of you remembered, we just had Meat Sweats get spotted by the cops-like have you seen the theories people are coming up with on the internet? Aliens. Cosmetic surgery gone wrong. Gwyneth Paltrow! I can’t afford being thrown outta town before basking in their praise. Donnie-bro-Donnie look at me does this look like a face that needs to be blacklisted?”

“Are you saying my tech isn’t enough as security, you little shit?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

A vein popped on Donnie’s forehead, fist trembling, “Well if you ran like your mouth, you’d be safe from being spotted.”

Leo’s eyes blew open, “Swing hermano-!”

Raph stumbled in between the brothers, “Don’t make me send your spiffy little butts on home! Let’s do what we came here to do, fellas. Leo, you’re right to be worried but Donnie wouldn’t give the green light if there was too much risk for us tonight. We’re here to help Mikey. Capiche?”

Leo sighed and waved a hand. Mikey turned to Donnie, “How are your cameras going to help us?”

“I’m so glad you asked, little Angelo!” Donnie posed, flowers and stars flowing behind him as he stuck a tongue out at Leo, “These babies have been modified to detect thermal energy- heat emitted by humans and mutants would be caught on surveillance. If their trajectory path interferes with ours, S.H.E.L.D.O.N will capture it live and send me the real time feed. All of the other cameras I’ve hacked have been wired to follow along and save to file- there isn’t anything that we won’t see. Not to worry.” He placated as he quickly typed into his arm brace.

“And we are…set up to begin. Ready on your mark, Angelo.” Donnie perked, finger guns out.

A pat on the shoulder from Raph, and a thumbs up from Leo did nothing for Mikey’s nerves as his three brothers readied themselves on the building ledge in camera view. The orange clad box turtle took the biggest breath possible. They’re right, he thought. Things would be a-okay if they said so. Time to blow them all away!

Within a snap of a finger, four wisps of rising dust were left to be seen.

•.*.•

Things were not okay! He nearly killed three innocent pigeons- aww what kind of monster hurts little birdies they ain’t hurt nobody! Mikey panicked, dodging cable antennas as he sprinted across rooftops. It was only ten minutes since they started, and he’s tripped over cable cords and trash bins. Raph had a short two-minute melee with a gang of pigeon miscreants. How was he supposed to pull this off with things bumbling and tumbling like this?

“Mikey! Take a deep breath buddy you can do it!” Leo’s voice echoed on a building beside him.

“O-okay!” He called back. Cold sweat made him clammy all over now. What if the sweat made him slip on something?

Raph crouched down on the building before him, causing all brothers to halt in their place on different buildings. With a worried frown, his eyes bore into Mikey’s.

“It’s alright if you need to restart, little man. Take a second to get yourself together and then we can focus on simply getting from Point A to Point B.”

“Technically we’ll be facing inevitable discrepancies of the plan if we stop for even 5 minut- shutting up now.”

Mikey stood upright so stiff his muscles began to clench painfully. He didn’t understand what was getting to him. Maybe it’s because he didn’t get enough rest, or maybe it’s because he misplaced his favorite can of spray paint. He shook his head. No, that wasn’t it. Glancing to each of his brothers he noticed urgency growing in their voices. Their looks. Their postures. It’s been frustrating nearly losing most of their battles now that the Foot was searching for the armor. But no, it wasn’t that either, as much as it made sense.

Well…there is that one thing; Mikey thought back to yesterday when April texted them an article. A group of civilian ruffians skilled in parkour were making quite a bit of unrest on the police scanners. People talk, and if their kids are around, those chatterboxes would catch the entire human population’s attention. Rumor had it this group was the modern Robin Hood- stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, and as fast as they appeared, those guys were gone in seconds. Some pretty powerful organizations have been outed in result of these ‘Robin Hoods’ meddling into their affairs and a few riots too many have taken place. Ironically, authorities have been ordered by higher-ups to stop these Robin Hoods. Mikey could see the problem when their numbers coincide with the brothers. What’s worse, him and the others could easily be mistaken as those criminals if they were caught… but training was a time-sensitive priority now.

Add to the fact that the problem did not only affect the brothers but all mutants; villains and allies alike. The cards dealt were:

On one hand, remain in the sewers and halt training- leading to repeated losses in their war at their level of strength. But. They would be safe from risk of arrest and human police authorities can do their job without spotting them. On the other hand, get ahead in their skills while the enemies remain low- but play with the high chance of being mistaken as the Robin Hoods and take the fall.

Glancing down at his hands, Mikey studied his mystic chain whip in hand and thought back to when they first got the weapons. Mystic mumbo jumbo didn’t play a critical role in their upbringing, but it felt like destiny called the four brothers to come across Mayhem nearly a year ago for important reasons: to be the greatest ninjas out there. To be heroes. To keep the city of New York safe.

Mikey sighed; he wasn’t making things better by standing here. The orange terrapin tightened his grip. He had to do his best. Mikey was in no position to downplay his skill just because he was nervous that he won’t do it right before even trying. No matter what his family and him could handle anything. He could do this.

He took a deep breath once more, eyes welled up in renewed confidence as Mikey whirled to Raph, “Nothing to it! I’m ready to get this party started!”

A large grin spread across Leo’s face, pleased. “Alright, there ya go!”

As Raph sighed in relief Donnie huffed, unable to fight the lift of his lips. He tapped away at his brace.

“Alright, restarting the session in 3…2..1!”

Mikey took the lead once more, darting rooftop to rooftop as they were marked with cameras as feather-like footsteps followed him immediately. A flick of his wrist resulted in the chain whip unfolding, length exponentially increasing in its glowing glory until the chains made a large circle around him. Lights of buildings and lamp posts all around became blurs, and ahead was the infamous Grand Central Station: his chosen starting marker. It was time to get down to business.

“Donnie! I need you to send multiple shots at me from every direction while we run, think you can help me out?”

Battle shell expanded; Donnie bowed in mock politeness “But of course! Any range in particular?”

“Stick with mid to long range, thanks!”

“As you wish.” Donnie flew a few meters ahead and hid from view while Mikey turned to Leo, who perked up in attention with a smirk as they ran.

“I’m ready for a speed-off, Leo. How about you?”

“Oooooh count me in. What do you need?”

Mikey bounced off a passing apartment balcony and gave a toothy grin, “While Donnie sends attacks at me, focus on attacking my chains. I wanna try to use tempo and defense for my ultimate move.”

His brother gave a wink and disappeared into a portal to who knew where, but he’d be waiting for Mikey. Last but definitely not least, Mikey faced Raph. The red clad brother excitedly beaming down at him from the higher buildings he was jumping over.

“Big Red, I need you to do something really important. From here to the end, do your best to catch me or get me off balance.”

“You got it!”

Raph nodded and pulled back, positioning himself a few meters behind Mikey. Said turtle nodded to himself, apprehension causing sweat to roll down his scaly green cheek as he neared Central Station. About 300 meters left. The second he got there would mean his best chance of accomplishing his special move was to use his senses and by no means slow down.

200 meters. If he failed this, it wouldn’t really be failing. His brothers were crazy smart to understand his motive and still work together to come up with a similar battle strategy. Either way this was gonna be epic.

100 meters.

50.

10.

All at once purple, blue and red streams of mystic energy swarmed him much like a colony of bees. Donnie weaved around all brothers, neon laser beams whizzing out and Mikey wasn’t going to lie, those things hurt. A few stung his arms as Mikey maneuvered his hands waving high, swooping low, faking left, reversing right, gyrating around- all motion available to bend the chains to his will. Most of the beams were caught by his chain, the neon light merging into the golden glow before disappearing. Mikey wished he could see the flabbergasted look on Donnie’s face. Then he remembered this was all being recorded.

Okay, maybe he shouldn’t have laughed out loud at that because Donnie’s expression morphed from shock to annoyance in a snap. The purple turtles’ jet pack with guns grew even more guns- bro whAT-!

Now that Donnie kicked it up a notch, Mikey felt the rising energy in his chains orbiting around him begin to resonate a whirring sound when a blue crescent light sliced centimeters from his face.

“Eye focused, Mikey!” Leo’s shout echoed somewhere from the side, dashing into multiple open portals for his convenience. Uh-oh. Mike forgot about those. Swinging in between cellular towers, Mikey feigned directions just out of Raph’s mystic hands as he was too big to fit into those spaces like Mikey could. But it was working. His chains were intact around him at the speed of light but now he had to move them fluidly to his advantage. Donnie furrowed his brows in the distance, dodging laundry lines mid flight and began using the power of everything in his arsenal at his baby brother- only for the chains to keep absorbing his shots. Leo, Mikey could tell, was running out of options in keeping up with the chains. Instead of Leo’s attacks disrupting the circular movement as before, every time he tried slashing them from any direction the speed of the chains was knocking him in momentum of the weapon. Leo and Donnie were growing restless, dedicating further to their task and thus quadrupling their efforts. Not to say Mikey wasn’t breaking a sweat, everything was burning, but he couldn’t tell them that this was his plan.

However.

The chains gave a loud clang when Raph swat at the weapon in order to duck under and grab him.

“G-ah!” Mikey gasped, immediately dropping down along the length of a building and allowing gravity to swoop him through an alley. This was dangerously getting too low for them where civilians can see them. On the other side of the alley, luckily, was a drop off to a construction zone, miles wide where no lamp posts reached. Mikey could use that space for his move, though Raph would also have a better means to catch him without anything in his path. Passing the last of laundry lines and apartment bricks, the group dashed into the open in pursuit of the orange terrapin now basically floating with bright orange chains as his wings when he felt a large hand grip onto his ankle. Caught in a panic Mikey sent energy to coat his leg and swung it down to slice through Raph’s red mystic energy. Hearing a hiss of pain he dashed away, but his chains wobbled off balance. Leo took this second to strike slashing waves of blue energy to dent into the chains range of motion as Donnie shot more lasers from above. Gritting his teeth Mikey gulped.

He had to get this back in control.

Mikey stopped atop a dirt hill and swirled around to face them, catching them off guard for a moment before closing his hands into fists and slowly moving them towards the center of his chest. The chain orbit spun faster, and faster, and faster until all they could see was a white halo shrinking into layers that enveloped Mikey in a cocoon-like state. But it burned. It burned so much so close to his skin that it felt like he was being roasted alive. Sweat stung his eyes: he shut them too tight he began to see stars behind his eyelids.

“Mikey, what are you doing?! If it’s hurting you then stop!” He could hear Raph and the others shout at him.

Just a bit more.

“Mikey!”

Bringing his fisted hands together, Mikey felt the trembling of the chains coiled so impossibly tight that the energy soaked in them was beginning to overwhelm them. Like a tire being pumped with too much air.

Like the stars colliding to create-

“SUPERNOVA!”

Leaping up sky high with his limbs spread wide, Mikey grinned in the millisecond it took for the chain to explode into tiny little beams of light, flickering between blue, orange, and purple variations of energy. Metal once welded together became individual sources of his mystic weapon shooting out all around. To them, Mikey resembled a firework. Bright, striking in his display of light. They watched in awe as Mikey let out a breathless exhilarated laugh, an “it worked!” reaching their ears. Raph, Leo, and Donnie noticed the disbanded chain remained still in the air around him until Mikey slowly shifted a hand, a dozen pieces of metal shifting in tandem and each straightening out into miniature needle points.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Leo cheered, followed by Donnie's whistles. The three turtles joyously cheered, celebrating this display of talent and execution Mikey put in so much effort on his own to showcase.

“O-okay, somebody please catch me!” Mikey sputtered, causing Leo to dart over and up as Mikey fell from the sky in exhaustion. Landing in Leo’s arms, the group of brothers circled around him, gasps of breath being the only thing he was capable of mustering. Donnie typed a million codes per second as Leo and Raph both spoke over each other- but Mikey barely registered most of it. He shakily lifted a thumbs-up. His mystic chain, now devoid of mystic power, swiftly returned to its original form, jingling to a drop on the dirt hill with a thump.

“I-I need a lot more kinks to work out *gasp* but this is good for us, r-right? It’s good?”

Raph gently shook Mikey’s shoulder, “It’s more than good. You did amazing tonight, big man. We can do a lot with this! But right now, we’re gonna get you to tip-top shape to be able to handle this strain on your energy. That’s first. Did you get all that, Donnie?”

Typing met his ears, “Yeperoos. Cameras remain functional, no damages, no alerts” Donnie mused, lifting his eyes from his screen with a smirk, “I say this was an exceptional showcase. Brava, Angelo. A well-thought-out plan of action.”

“Those baddies won’t know what hit ‘em.” Leo praised, then he grimaced, “But seriously, those chains sting like a mother-man my arms are gonna be sore for weeks.”

Mikey’s cheeks were beginning to hurt from his constant smiling and rested his head on Leo’s plastron.

“That’s great, guys. I’m just gonna…*yawn*I-Ima just… take a break...” He mumbled off, exhaustion quietly sending him off to dreamland.

“Poor champ’s all tuckered out.” Leo snickered.

Raph opened his arms to Leo, “Give him here, you open us a portal home.”

Gently handing Mikey over to Raph’s arms, Leo whipped out his odachi when Donnie’s wrist beeped. Donnie scowled, the light of his screen illuminating the tense frown lines on his face and causing Leo and Raph share a serious look. The camera cubes Donnie constructed were labeled along the path by numbers beginning with 0-1 and spaced out gradually by quarter mile, then to half-mile, and quickly to full mile on the account of the increasing speed they rallied throughout the path. The last camera cube designated to follow them was 5-0; about sixty meters from their position on the hill.

Camera 4-9 pinged.

“Get down.” Donnie muttered. In sync the three brothers crouch down and slowly, ever so quiet, shifted to the other side of the hill for cover. Donnie cupped a hand over his brace, dimming most of the light as Leo discreetly peered over the field in the direction of the apartment building they passed right before reaching the construction zone. Leo’s gaze hardened; with their mutated bodies, enhanced senses were part of the package. Although, it was easier to find the camera with no light sources obstructing his view. Immediately Leo spotted the smallest circle of red light from a camera lens on the roof, where a figure was still but… he couldn’t tell what they were doing. This wasn’t good. He crouched down beside Raph and leaned over him to meet Donnie’s eyes.

“We got a bogey on the roof.” The blue terrapin whispered. Donnie furrowed his brows in concentration, flickering between Leo’s eyes and the camera feed on his brace. A frame popped up, switching from thermal imaging to night vision. Raph, Leo, and Donnie found the figure to be female; petit in stature, and maybe around their age give or take a few years. Her figure was donned in simple athletic gear. Form what they could tell no weapons could be seen, no knives. No guns. She was angled to where they couldn’t see her face clearly, and from the way one leg was on the roof and the other on the ledge it appeared as though she had no qualms being on such a high altitude.

And how many times have they heard about humans being ‘comfortable’ around on rooftops? Thousands. On police scanners.

“…She’s gotta be one of them.” Raph whispered. Questions whirred up a mile a minute within each of them. What did she want? How long has she been watching them? Was this an ambush? The turtle brothers watched with bated breath when she slowly, not a sound made, turned her head over her shoulder straight at the camera cube.

Her face was concealed, a cloth type of material covering the lower half of the face and the breeze of the night shifted her hair over her eyes. But they felt her eyes stare into the camera. Into them. If they hadn’t gotten enough surprises, the next moment stunned them all into stillness.

A card was shown.

S.O.S

...

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🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎

Aaaaand that's a wrap! Please let me know what you think! Stay tuned for Chapter 2! Thanks for reading :)

Fun fact: An appendage on the alligator snapping turtle's tongue resembles a worm, helping this ambush predator lure prey 👀

🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎

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towritecomicsonherarms · 2 years

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Hack/Slash - Hot Shorts

#hackslash #hack/slash #cassie hack #vlad #comics #image comics

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rxttenfish · 2 years

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Mmmm you've mentioned miravi beginning with them growing to trust each other through like, actual fights before they really knew each other, maybe writing up one of these, and Aaravi going home and decompressing afterwards?

oops this took me too long to write and i'm not happy with it but i don't want to look at it any further

The sneer is the worst part.

It sits on the far end of the spectrum, opposite of Aaravi's own hack-slash grimace, twitching lip where the impulse to bear her teeth is almost too much — a fact which belies the whole problem.

No, the princess doesn't have the decency to be too-ragged at the edges, too-messy, too-unthinking. It is schooled. Perfect. It wicks up and over the curve of her jaw like the warm blanket of shallow waters over a sunken sandbank, hinting at the structure beneath but never fully diving down long enough to reveal the bones of it. Even though Aaravi has never so openly spoken to royals before, she knows the gesture all the same, burned into her mind through association until the smile makes her molars clench down as though she might shatter them.

It's all the same. All the same holier-than-thou smile, a caricature even before it graced anyone's lips. It's an oil portrait hung up and over a fireplace that says that Aaravi should be grateful for even being allowed this meeting, that no one else like her has even come in here before, and yet all the same she's stared at as though she is out of place, something that just missed the rim of the trash can and might yet be sweeped out without any further fuss.

In short, Miranda’s grin, the expression that creeps up and over her mouth while her eyes gleam and half-lid above, is perfect. Beautiful, even. It’s the kind of smile that makes people drip with want, that makes hearts beat faster and the edges blur and sends the world into a cascade of pink and ivory and velvet tinged around the edges and the kind of tipsy that makes people pliant. It is a smile that knows this too, that is designed for this want, this decorum. Never once does anyone look at that smile and not know Miranda’s title, never once do they not want to fling themselves off of that cliff for her.

As if that wasn’t enough, even Aaravi’s not immune to it, an insult even greater than just how much the princess looks down on her with humor. It makes her grow hot at her temples and wrists, collects over the back of her neck with the prickling of hair, clenches her fists together as she stares down into the maw that shows only the barest hint of fangs.

It’s insulting. Demeaning. Every part of it throws Aaravi back into the fray with a fury, mind halfway behind her head as she flings herself forward, all biting words and flashes of her own teeth, lips pulled back to destroy the lovely image of lace and seafoam. It might have been easier if Miranda were not so obviously, blatantly pretty, a fact that Aaravi can’t ignore, only put aside. Of course she flushes hot at those smiles, imagining lips or teeth wrapping around her neck, and of course the very animal nature of it burns harder and deeper than anything else, a fact of her being that haunts her like a spectre.

Everything occurs as it should.

It’s a comfortable sort of back-and-forth, at least. The first time Miranda spoke to Aaravi, she had grinned that lovely grin and asked her why she was so jumpy, that if she wanted her laid out, then neither of them would be standing there. This fact was plain, practiced, and it took nothing for Aaravi to conjure up images of that long body pinning her down somewhere in the dark, wet and slick like the pale slabs of meat at the butcher’s counter, cold and clammy like the underside of something vile, an ambush predator and no one to hear Aaravi scream.

Aaravi, in turn, had countered that she would never, ever be caught off guard by something like Miranda, and had dared her to try, thinking of all the private hideaways for knives she had stitched into her clothes. The way it made Miranda’s fins flick made Aaravi’s blood run hot and cold at the same time and a ringing start up in her ears, a ringing that almost obscured Miranda’s promise that they would both see about that.

She had kept it up, pressing in here and there, finding private gasps of breath to steal away from Aaravi’s relief. It’s an invasion, though a strangely scheduled one. There’s an art to this, an art to darting in where she does not expect and yet still providing entrance in a way that suggests this was always fated, that Aaravi should have expected this. She jumps, cusses, shoots crossbow bolts into the ceiling. Miranda always sidesteps them as though they could have never touched her, and presses idle little questions in through the ignorance of her own mortality.

Never before has Aaravi dealt with someone so unconcerned with her own life and death.

It feels like every time Miranda appears, Aaravi’s body tenses, muscles flexing against her skin too-taut, as though she might rip through herself like a poorly made suit, her skin not created with her in mind. Blood sings in her ears as they fold back against the crescent of her skull and she focuses down on the breath that flutters in Miranda’s throat. She clenches teeth and knives both, swords held in her white-knuckled grip, eyes searching desperately for the trap entrance that Miranda keeps crawling out of.

The princess doesn’t care. She thinks it’s funny, even, laughs and freely abides by Aaravi’s questioning. More than once Aaravi’s pointed the wrong end of a blade at Miranda’s throat. Every time she laughs and flutters her eyes like they had lashes to beat, an uncomfortably familiar gesture on a body so beyond Aaravi’s own.

Once she had rested her chin on the very end, right against the soft crease in her throat, and asked Aaravi, “Do you want to kill me, then?”

Aaravi had given some answer, some comeback that stumbled on the tip of her tongue and against too-long canines, some threat that had made Miranda laugh, and went home that day and showered and scrubbed her skin until it burned red and angry.

Aaravi had always cared far too much about her own life, always gripped it blindly and with total convinction, that everything else might crumble in around her if she ever loosened her hold on her will to live. Survival consumed her, kept her going with a mad dash that was too terrified to ever look behind her, that if she ever were to stop then her heart would have stopped too. Both built a strange rabbit-existence, panting and staring with open eyes behind cage wiring and thinking only of the moment someone opened the door.

It was inconceivable then, that she might want to stop. That anyone might want to stop. There wasn’t a place in the world that had held her without her full intention to escape, to claw her way out the windows or to break down the door, and to stare at someone now who did not run was madness.

It did make her hot and heady, like how anyone would, high on her own fumes that she had learned the truth of the world where Miranda hadn’t, and the thoughts came quicksilver and tempting.

But Aaravi also wasn’t stupid either.

It was, in its private manner, terrifying. The name of the fear eluded her, changing its shape every time she looked at it, but all the same, it was there, stalking in the shadows. Sure, she could blame Miranda’s own stupidity for that, but what good would that have done?

Reason told her that if someone wasn’t running then it was for good purpose, and that Aaravi should be very, very careful with the complete and utter confidence Miranda held in Aaravi’s inability to hurt her. When someone helps you angle a gun at their heart and dares you to shoot, you cannot assume they don’t know what they’re doing.

Something was being held under the table, and that drew out obsession better than anything else. Aaravi did have a bad habit of chasing secrets, and she knew this, but the completionist streak in her was stronger than her fear.

Even moreso, she couldn’t bear Miranda having something she didn’t have, knowing something she shouldn’t have. There was something there, and it wasn’t just a matter of pride to know what it was. She had to check. She HAD to know.

Unknown things were dangerous, unknown things WERE going to hurt her, and she was a slayer. It was her duty to run into the darkness, and that was the only way to ensure that they were on equal footing.

And if there was something deeper in her mind, something that tugged at her and offered upset at Miranda just blinking at her and waiting for her to give the killing blow?

Well, that didn’t matter. It didn’t matter because Aaravi said it didn’t matter, and she would make sure it didn’t matter.

Monsters always pretended to be your friends first, after all.

#all the care guide says is 'biomass'#asks #apocritast #aughghghhh i don't feel like i did the prompt justice but also #just. staring in ''how more specific can i go without planning out Way Too Much Shit''#Monster Prom #miravi.txt

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catrinauthor · 21 days

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The Face of Desire, Chapter 17

“Is it dead?”

“If it was dead it would have disintegrated.”

The body of the boy lay motionless in the clearing, its shoulder jutted out above the wild grass. It was very much not disintegrating.

“It could be paralyzed, that was one of my strongest bullets. It’ll take a while to heal from that.” The sorcerer who fired the shot reloaded the sniper rifle. The shell flew up in the air as he put the new bullet in the chamber.

They approached the body carefully, stepping through the tall grass that formed gentle waves in the breeze. The sun was punishingly hot and the humidity was as thick as glue. Each one of them drew their weapons and readied their cursed energy, the short ranged fighters came to the front and longer range to the back.

“It looks so…normal.” A sorcerer said. The boy had crumpled to his side, thick black liquid trickled from a bullet sized hole in the center of his forehead. His eyes were open and glassy.

Haruto still had his bow drawn. He knew it was a curse but his heart still clenched at the sight of the boy on the ground. It looked just like him, down to the smallest detail. Even the little scar on his hairline…

“Who is that?” The sorcerer in front of him asked. His name was Isamu. His technique allowed him to create walls, three being his maximum, which paired well with the cursed mace he held in his right hand.

Haruto's gaze remained glued to the black ooze coming from the wound on the boy's forehead. It was the only thing keeping him from insanity.

“Its my son.” Haruto said.

“Jesus Christ…”

Even the greenest sorcerers of the group knew the story about Harutos son who died 10 years ago. How the curse looked anything like him when they were only able to find pieces, it was mind boggling.

Ema watched as Harutos face changed through a thousand expressions in just a few moments. Pain, anger, fear, sadness. Everyone was keeping a 15 foot distance from the body. Ema put her cursed energy into her sword and stormed toward it. This thing had to die.

“Stop!” Kamo ordered. Right when she was within striking range, its eyes moved.

One second Ema was raising her sword, the next she was flying into the treeline.

The curse began to stand. Immediately Kamo rained a shower of hardened blood spikes over it but every one that stuck into its body was pulled like it was nothing more than a splinter. As it ripped the last one from its thigh it tilted back its head and the hole in its forehead closed shut.

“Attack it! Now!” Kamo screamed. The broken pieces of bloody spikes on the ground became a solid mass that latched onto the curses feet, chaining it down. Isamu immediately formed two walls which fell from the air behind it with an earth shaking thud. Guns fired and arrows flew as it stood pinned against the corner. The assault was relentless, the curse turned into a pin cushion for projectiles of all kinds. Isamu fueled his mace with cursed energy and slammed it into the curses head which whipped to the side with a sickening crack. Black blood splattered the walls behind it.

He hit it again and again and again until the dry thuds became squishy. Others with hardened blood weapons joined in on the attack. Stabbing, slashing, hacking, pounding. Kamo kept chaining it down, sinking the curse to the ground inch by inch with every hit until it was flat against the earth. Every weapon they had on hand was used until the walls were painted black and its face and body was an unrecognizable pile of mush.

One by one the sorcerers stood back gasping for air with sweat and black dripping down their faces.

Kamo continued to keep it secured down even as the other sorcerers backed away. The walls behind the lump of flesh broke down into a pile of bricks and faded into obscurity.

Kamo couldn’t feel it move under his chains. Even more concerning, it didn’t even struggle as they tore into it. Not even a flinch. Something wasn’t right.

“Everyone stay alert.” He said. “This isn't over yet.” He wrapped his blood around it in the shape of a coffin, hardening layer after layer. “Someone go check on Ema!” Haruto nodded and ran into the trees.

“It's not dead yet?!”

“No” Kamo said.

The coffin walls were almost a meter thick. He had never used this skill on a special grade curse before but in his experience not even a first grade curse could scratch it. It was Kamo’s ultimate skill: Iron Lady. He hardened his blood until the pressure became so intense it could create diamonds. It was unbreakable. Even the corrosive curse from the beach couldn't destroy it no matter how hard it tried. It took a lot of cursed energy to create, a lot of stamina, and a lot of blood. Sweat trickled down his temples and back. If he could keep it in place long enough for backup to arrive they may have a chance of killing it, or maybe they could transport it…

He looked to the mountain range to the west. The others in pursuit of the girl should be catching up with her soon. They had strict orders: kill on sight.

“Are you sure? It looked like ground meat to me.” A young sorcerer with a pistol in his hand walked up to the coffin and examined it. It sparkled like rubies in the sun.

“Stay back!” Kamo snapped, the sorcerer jumped. He put up his hands and walked towards Kamo.

“Sorry, do you want me to-t” The sorcerer stopped dead in his tracks as the rest of his words turned to sputtering nonsense. Something wiggled on his chest, right under his shirt. The man spat out a mouthful of blood as the tip of a jet black tail ripped through bone, skin and fabric. Ribs jutted out as the tip tore through and wiggled, almost like it was waving.

The sorcerer looked down and put his hands around the hole in shock as dark blood began turning his white shirt red. Still skewered by the pitch black appendage, it picked him up and whipped him to the side like a paper doll before slowly sliding back into the coffin. A large hole gaped from the top. All of the sorcerer's faces went pale.

The curse broke through his skill so cleanly Kamo didn’t even feel it.

Everyone scrambled. A large clawed hand burst from the ruby coffin shattering it like glass. First one hand, then the other until a monster straight from hell pulled itself into the light. No scratch showed on its inky skin as it emerged from the cocoon. Half-exposed It watched the remaining sorcerers before making eye contact with Kamo. As he sank into the pits of its eyes, Kamo realized how badly he underestimated it. This wasn’t a battle anymore, the sorcerers weren’t on the defensive, they never even crossed the line into the offensive.

A gun fired and hit the curse in the shoulder breaking the tension. The sorcerer with the sniper rifle suppressed his shaking as he reloaded. Before the shell of the bullet hit the ground his world went dark. In a second the curse was behind him and in a spray of red his head and shoulders separated from his body.

Isamu and the other sorcerer around him watched in fearful silence as the curse spat the top of him out while his bottom half folded. Only nine remained, they all looked at Kamo for instruction but Kamo could only watch with his mouth agape as blood mixed with spit dripped from its teeth.

The cursed lifted its head and bellowed out a sound that wasn’t natural to the world. Everyone covered their ears as the screeching roar echoed through the valley. Birds swarmed from the trees and ran for their lives. The silence that followed was deafening.

Kamo knew their only chance of remaining alive until backup arrived; they needed to get closer to the backup.

“Run!!” Kamo screamed. “To the ridge!”

Isamu put three more walls down in front of the curse as they ran for the trees back the way they came. As they went back into the forest the crumbling of the walls resonated behind them followed by heavy footsteps.

A sorcerer holding a blood dagger changed it to a machete as he ran through the bushes at lighting speed, cutting down the vegetation in his path. Others with similar abilities did the same. One condensed the blood around his feet to propel him even faster forward. The sorcerers without the ability to use blood manipulation relied on their own strength to get them through. One chose to jump along the treetops using their chain linked daggers to move from branch to branch.

As they got closer to the ridge, gasps and gags erupted as they came across the ones that didn't make it to the clearing. Limbs and torsos hung from the trees and littered the ground like leaves. Kamos yukata became stained with red as the blood covered leaves and branches left their marks as he passed.

The curse tore through the forest like a train behind them. Not 30 seconds later the screams began again.

Hunting them down was easy, their stench of their desire lingered in the air, and the desire to live was always the most potent. It slid through the trees using nothing more than its body to fuel its shattering speed. It was a body that was millenia in the making. Muscles and bones were tuned to perfection by time and with Its heavenly restriction fully in place, nothing they could do would come close to killing it. The world could be destroyed into chunks of rocks floating in space before it could be killed.

It caught up to the first sorcerer quickly, he had two pistols on his hips and a long curved sword strapped across his back. Its claws slid through him like butter.

The next one had a bow across his back, he turned around and screamed as it approached but the screaming stopped as his body wrapped around a tree.

The Curse of Desire had never killed so many sorcerers before. At least not at once. It never was one to enjoy violence and even as blood flowed like wine and covered its skin in a slippery lotion it felt nothing. The curse has witnessed centuries of violence, saw humans kill each other in ways that became increasingly more horrid and destructive than the last. Violence was, and had always been, such a dirty, disgusting, pointless thing. But in that moment it was a necessity and would continue to be as long as their desire to kill Akemi filled its nose.

After the Curse of Desire took two more sorcerers to their end before it stopped and sniffed the air. The ones that remained had adopted a stealthy approach rather than running for their lives like frightened deer. Some decided to hide. Very well. The curse slowed its pace and moved silently through the brush.

Kamo kept his head low and he moved from tree to tree, the others did the same keeping a wide distance between each other. They were close to the ridge and if his timing was right backup should be arriving any minute. They just needed to kill the girl, that was the most important aspect of the mission. Then they could run for it.

He slid behind a boulder covered in moss before tripping over a leg. Only this body part was moving and very much not severed.

From behind a wall of bushes and rocks, one of the younger sorcerers jumped and looked up at him with a tear and blood stained face. He was one of the sorcerers that didn't make it to the clearing, Kamo thought he was dead. A twinge of relief spread across his chest. The young sorcerer was Kamos nephew twice removed. He had the Kamo clan's hereditary technique and showed promise as a sorcerer and potential clan head. At least that was the case before, now he was a sniffling mess in the dirt.

“Please! Clan Leader! I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die” the young man held his hand in his head and rocked back and forth.

“You need to stay quiet!” Kamo whispered.

“It killed them..it killed them all…I can’t feel it. Why can't I feel it?” The young man asked, grabbing onto the bottom of Kamos yukata. He must be referring to the abnormal absence of cursed energy.

“We need to go, backup will be coming.” Kamo whispered. The young man shook his head but Kamo pulled him up and began to drag him behind.

Minutes felt like hours. Just when the rockslide at the bottom of the ridge came into view a branch snapped behind them. Kamo turned and a red ball of blood formed over his hand ready to strike. The young man pressed his hands together and readied himself to do the same.

But there was no monster behind him. Instead, just two meters away, a woman in a yellow dress stood with a shocked look.

“Mom?” The man asked, he lowered his hands and walked forward as the woman approached him. In a couple steps she was in front of him and gently put her hand on his cheek with a smile.

“Stop!” Kamo yelled, the young man was in the way. If he just moved a foot to the side Kamo could have a clear shot. “You fool that’s not your mother it-”

CRUNCH

The man fell to his knees before hitting the ground with a thud, his neck bent at an impossible angle. His body twitched and gurgled as blood spurted from his mouth. The woman looked back at Kamo and in a couple blinks her eyes turned black.

“You fucking bitch!” Kamo screamed, he launched a razor sharp beam of blood at the woman. Like a laser It cut through the air at the speed of sound, blasting right through the woman's chest. Black blood splattered across the trees behind her. Kamo saw the green leaves drip with black rain through a baseball sized hole in her chest.

But she didn't fall, she didn't even flinch.

“You cannot kill me.” The curse said. Just as fast as the hole appeared it closed.

Kamo grit his teeth. “What the fuck are you?” he growled. The ball of red hung beside him in the air but his hands shook as his stamina began to fail him.

It tilted its head to the side as its face shifted slightly, like a reflection in a pool of water being disturbed. “Haven’t you figured it out already? Or do I think too highly of Jujutsu Sorcerers?”

“I know who you are, Acai.”

“Acai?” The curses brow furrowed but soon realization spread across its face. “It's been a while since I heard that name. Is that all you had in your records?” It wiped the black blood from its chest and flicked its hands. “Then again, I would find it surprising if you had any other history on hand. I imagine most sorcerers wouldn’t put on parchment that their greatest achievements were assisted by what they are sworn to kill.”

Kamo swallowed dryly. As a monster it was scary, but when it spoke so calmly and intricately it was more terrifying than words could describe. This wasn’t like any curse he had seen or heard about. It was smart, articulate, and old. Dangerously old. There was over 5,000 years of strength of knowledge engrained in its being. It wasn’t a special grade, it was in a league of its own. “We do not owe shit to you.” he growled.

“If that helps you sleep at night, then you are free to believe that.”

He needed to stall. Backup would be arriving at any moment. He glanced up at the ridge and began to move towards it slowly.

“What kind of a curse doesn’t use cursed energy?” He asked.

“I don’t need cursed energy to kill you.” It moved towards him and with every step its form changed. First its face, body, arma then down to the tips of its fingers until it was the shadowy monster from before. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a familiar head moving in the bushes behind it.

“What, you save your cursed energy for party tricks? Is granting other people's wishes that fun? I didn’t take you for the charitable type.”

As the curse got closer he continued to back away. He could smell blood on its breath.

“Or maybe that's all you can do with it? Ha! That would suck, your entire existence being a glorified genie.”

It still did not respond. They were still getting into position behind it. If it noticed them it was over. Goddamit, what could get under its skin?

“But what about the kid? Since when do curses want to be parents? You even gave her a name, that's rich. Where did you get the name Akemi anyways, from a baby name book?”

The curse's pace slowed, hope flickered in Kamos chest.

“I can’t figure out for the life of me why you raised a kid. Did you know that was a Gojo clan bastard? Were you planning on using her to get revenge on them or something?”

“Don’t assume I am the same as you.” The Curse of Desire wasn’t planning on answering any more of the sorcerer's questions but the words slipped from its teeth.

“But the kid is, isn't she?”

The curse bared its teeth and growled, the sound was so low and strong it reverberated through Kamos body. Suddenly the cursed jerked forward.

Haruto fired an arrow into its back which exploded into a burst of spikes. Right as the curse turned towards him, Ema slid underneath its belly and unleashed a simple domain. The air swirled around her in a circle and in that moment she released all her cursed energy in a single attack that her domain ensured would find its target. She slashed it from its chest to its groin like a fish being gutted, black blood and guts rained on her as she quickly slid out from underneath it.

The Curse stumbled and held its stomach. Kamo turned the red ball into a razor sharp whip, cutting into the curse again and again, Haurto let loose every arrow he could create. He prayed that the attacks from before may have weakened its ability to heal. Suddenly the whip burst like a water balloon as Kamos stamina gave way and the arrows ceased as Harutos cursed energy waned. The curse lay on its stomach with gashes cut deep into its flesh and chunks missing from its body. It still wasn’t disintegrating.

Kamo’s face was pale and his body unstable, his heart palpitated erratically in his chest and he fell to his knees. Ema ran to his side, other than the dried blood which caked the back of her hair she looked ok.

“Sir, we need to get you to a hospital.” She said and looked around, “What about the others?”

Kamo shook his head, her lips tightened.

“We need to go before it heals.” Kamo said. He put his arm around Ema shoulder as she picked him up.

“Get down!” Haruto screamed. Kamo pushed Ema to the side as the grip of death came for him. Kamo made a shabby shield of his blood which shattered in an instant under the Curse's claws. Chips of red crystals flew through the air.

He thought he had more time.

“No!” Haruto screamed as he tried to make another arrow but with a whip of its tail Harutos body fell to the ground and his head beside it.

In silent terror, tears slipped out Emas eyes as Kamo tried to shield her with his body. His chest and left arm hurt beyond imagination and his vision began to blur. The Curse of Desire was upon them. Death was upon them.

He led them all to their deaths. Emas tears fell on his arm as her life flashed before her eyes.

From the corner of his mind his mentor's words whispered in his ears, “All Jujutsu Sorcerers die with regrets…” He hated how that son of a bitch was right.

Just as Kamo closed his eyes in acceptance a whistle sang across the valley followed by a sharp explosion. A flare. The curse looked up as a trial of red smoke stained the sky to the west.

With shaky breaths, Kamo wiped the blood from his forehead and laughed.

“Got her.”

**Want more? Check out The Face of Desire on A03 by Catrin.**

#jjk fanfic #original story #jujustsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu sorcerer #a03 writer #creative writing #jujutsu gojo #jjk x reader #jjk #jjk original character #horror #horror fiction #jjk horror #fiction #a03 fic #a03 fanfic #read on a03 #fanfic authors

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fatexbound · 9 months

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@kaeruninja said: In all honesty, Chie didn’t seem to be the type who cared about staying warm during winter, especially if she went outside in shorts while snow was piling up. Still, Yosuke ended up with a pair of earmuffs, a St. Bernard looking dog on both of the ends. It kinda looked like her huge dog, too. It was a little on the kiddie side, but he figured it could be something she’d just wear indoors, or it was just some weird decoration she could put on her dog’s head. Perhaps a little too on the nose, he left it in a box and wrapped it in a shade of medium light green, not unlike the color of that (probably) sweaty green jacket she wore almost everyday. Having done his Christmas shopping early, there was nothing to do but wait and keep Teddie from bombarding him with billions of questions. With a backpack carrying his smaller gifts and the rest in his arms, Yosuke hiked his way through the snow to the Dojima household, where the party was. It was hard to knock on the door or ring the doorbell with his miniature leaning Tower of Pisa, but he was able to make it inside and neatly place his gifts along with the dozens of others. There were no rules to this party besides having a good time, cake and hot chocolate, so when he spotted Chie, he immediately scooped up his present and handed it over. “And a Merry Christmas to you too. It’s a normal present, I promise.”

Christmas asks | Accepting

Yu's uncle was a saint for letting him host a party at his house after last year. Nothing bad happened, but they all showed up unannounced and he wasn't too pleased, but let it go. Now that they had his permission, they went all out with this one. Naturally, she brought presents for everyone with a big smile on her face. Frankly, she was mostly looking forward to the delicious cake and free food.

Everything went through her enormous stomach.

Almost everyone had got there on time and while she was making small talk with Yukiko, who wanted to watch a Christmas horror movie instead of a classic wholesome one, her attention turned to the door being knocked-- or was it getting hit by an elbow? Yu was quick enough to open it and she smiled at Yosuke, waving him over to the couch. Her present for him was sitting on it nicely and comfortably.

But he beat her to the punch first. "Ooooh, what'd you get me?!" Without even waiting for a response, she tore open the classic green wrapping paper, and gasped in delight. "Aww, these are adorable!" She picked up the earmuffs to inspect them from the side. "And they got Muku's face too?! Wow, who knew you were so... sweet, Yosuke?" She sure didn't. Now it was her turn to sweep him off his feet.

"Here, Merry Christmas!" She presented him with a nicely yellow-colored wrapped box with a red bow on top. "Since you like video games... I got you this new hack-n-slash one a day before its official release online! It cost... a lot, but it doesn't matter! Hope you like it, and invite me over to play with you sometime, 'kay?"

#kaeruninja #Chie answers;#Don't Stop Running | Post!P4 Chie #long post #it's DMC 1 frfr #it came from your HC tag don't look at me #look at them instead

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amberfaber40 · 2 years

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CAMPING FOR BEGINNERS

FREE Camping Checklist - The Blonde Nomads

There's nothing better than heading outdoors for a camping adventure and we have created this FREE printable Camping Packing Checklist for you

Our Backpacking Camping Gear: What We Use and Why

A complete breakdown of our backpacking camping gear, including when, why, and how we use each item, and how it's performed over the years.

9 Basic Camping Gear Essentials from Amazon | Slashed Beauty

Camping beginner? Check out these camping gear essentials from Amazon that will make the experience easier and comfortable!

What to Pack for Your Next Camping Trip

It's never fun when you arrive to your campsite and realize you forgot something. Here's an infographic to help you pack for your next camping trip.

10 Tips for Camping With Kids and Babies

Taking a kid camping? Intimidating, yes—but if you equip yourself with a bit of know-how, mitigate risk, and practice overall good judgement, a night in the woods with a tot in tow is not only possible but also actually rollicking good fun.

Campfire Breakfasts - The Londoner

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Genius camping hacks using Dollar Tree items I found. Here are 25 items to consider buying for your next camping trip! Affordable gear!

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Ultimate Backpacking Checklist for Beginners

Ready for your outdoor activity? Run through this backpacking checklist before your trip to make sure everything is all set!

THE 10 ESSENTIALS

Essentials for Camping in the woods – Urvis Travel Journal

This Essentials for camping in the woods will make sure you don't forget anything for camping trip. Keep this list of camping essentials handy

Things You'll Need For Your Next Camping Trip - On Penny Road

Here are 22 things you will need for your next camping trip.

It's a Camping Life for Me

from my tumblr blog

Checklist: Essentials for a Family Camping Trip | Our Next Adventure

It's camping season! What essential gear do you need for a success family camping trip? Get a free camping essentials checklist now!

Never did I ever think that I would actually be writing a post about going camping. I grew up camping every single summer and remember absolutely loving it. But as an adult, it hasn’t ever really appealed in the least. So much dirt. So many bugs. I like my comfort and 100 step skin care routine. With Covid-19 throwing a huge wrench in our summer travel plans, our daily life, and giving us the need to feel a little bit of an escape, camping suddenly seemed appealing!This post is going to be a long one, so grab a cup of tea and snuggle up. I am by no means a pro at this, but I sure did learn a lot about what I would and wouldn’t do next time, and what I wish I would have known beforehand.The biggest thing that was confirmed by the end of our trip is how much work camping is. The amount of effort that goes into a quick camping trip is astronomical and always put me off from doing it. We were one day short from feeling like it was truly worth all the effort. Three or four days would be the perfect trip length for me! Especially when there are showers….This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our Disclosure Policy for details.There are a ton of places to camp within just a few hours of NYC or even just an hour. We really wanted to have access to a lake or stream and be in the “real” mountains. We ended up choosing North-South Lake Campground. It had running water, hot showers, and a gorgeous lake that didn’t disappoint. There were lots of hiking trails in the area, a beautiful waterfall you could visit, and it felt really quiet and relaxing. The campground took about two hours to get to from our downtown apartment.The campground was well maintained and the bathrooms were surprisingly clean! Each site had a fire pit with a grate which made cooking meals much easier. Unfortunately, there wasn’t an actual grill available at each campsite (though there were grills at the lake). I don’t know if this is something that would normally be expected, but cooking every single meal over the fire is HOT and my eyes were streaming from the smoke at one point. It would be something we would look to have on our next venture!PACKING LISTI put together a packing list that you can easily check off as you go. These are things we actually brought or had seriously wished we had. I made a few mistakes on a couple things, but now know better! I’ve also linked the exact items we purchased at the bottom of the post. This is just a list of gear, and doesn’t include any food items.Here are a couple of notes on some fails and wins. We had initially just bought an outlet adapter for our car to use to blow up air mattresses. We made sure it was a high voltage converter, but when we went to blow up the beds, it wouldn’t give enough power. I went over to our neighbor’s site (they looked like legit campers) and asked what they use. They let us borrow their air pump that just has a car jack. It plugs right into the cigarette lighter and worked like a charm. This is the exact one they had, and what we bought for our next trip.In New York, you can’t bring in firewood from outside a 50 mile radius of your campground. As newbie campers, we just assumed we would be able to find ALL the things we needed, Make sure you have a lot fire starters. We figured we would be able to buy these, but they were in short supply. There are lots of DIY’s available on Pinterest. I’m currently saving up my dryer lint!When thinking about your bedding situation, you really don’t NEED to have sleeping bags. I knew this was something I didn’t want to deal with storing, so we just brought warm blankets. I wish we had brought one more, as it was pretty chilly at night, despite being in the mid 80’s during the day. Lay a fleece blanket down on top of your air mattress instead of a sheet to keep the cold out.I really wish we had brought a rope or something to hang our lantern up outside. We foolishly only brought one lantern, and definitely will have at least two going forward. It was SO dark. These New Yorker’s were not prepared for it!I really thought that Mr G was a little ridiculous getting this giant tent. There were so many more compact ones available at lower price points. But the man likes to do his research, and it paid off. The Coleman WeatherMaster 6-Person Tent with Screen Room is a mid-price tent with so many bells and whistles. It is really roomy inside and has a divider that can create two separate rooms if you want privacy.It has an added screen room in the front that we had our tarp under. It makes for the perfect spot to remove shoes and apply sunscreen/bug spray before heading out into the world. If you had a little one, it would be great to pop a travel cot in this area while they nap, but still allow you to have eyes on them.The tent has a fancy hinged door that was so nice to have during the day when kids kept wanting to go in and out. There are lots of windows, and the top is entirely mesh with a rain layer spaced on top which made it really well ventilated. I usually feel like I am suffocating a bit inside a tent with all that vinyl, but this was so breezy.MEALSWe way overpacked in the food department. We camped with my in-laws, and I had no idea how much food eleven people would eat in three days. It is always better to have too much (in my opinion) than not enough. I would simplify things even a bit more next time we go, but these turned out to be super easy meals!BREAKFASTEGGS AND BACON BAGELS AND CREAM CHEESE FRUIT (WASHED AND CUT AT HOME) LUNCHBBQ CHICKEN THIGHS (MARINATED AND PREPPED AT HOME) HOAGIE SANDWICHES CHIPS & DIP FRUIT DINNERSHOT DOG ROAST BBQ HAMBURGERS STEAKS CHIPS & DIP FRUIT If I had the room and knew I was going to camp more frequently, I would probably invest in a gas cook top. Cooking the bacon over the fire was truly brutal. By the end of cooking two pounds of bacon for eleven people, my eyes were pouring with tears from the smoke created by the grease. Other than that, all of these meals were so easy to whip together and made for easy clean up.I don’t ever use paper plates or cups, but I made an exception for our first camping trip with so many people. I have reusable picnic plates and forks that I will bring for when it is just the three of us! I also bought roasting sticks which were awesome and much more useful than I imagined. They are super long, which made it so the little kids could easily roast their own hot dogs and smores.I will probably do more pre prepped meals next time – pre-made breakfast burritos and foil dinners to heat on the fire, that sort of thing.Overall, I think it was a huge success. I didn’t realize until we were up there that I was the only one out of all eleven people that had been camping before! It was such a fun experience, despite being so much work. We all can’t wait until we go again! SHOPTurn on your JavaScript to view content

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edactually · 2 years

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Stede POV 2.3

‘As soon as we can’ apparently meant an hour later with Starbucks. Stede thanked god he’d invested in a video doorbell even as the sound of it ringing made him jump out of his skin.

He’d been able to do nothing else but pace up and down, getting rid of every new notification that popped up on his phone. He’d texted the people who mattered to let them know that he was physically fine and was just waiting for the whole mess to blow over.

Against Lucius’ advice, he did check some of his social media notifications but the violent vitriol against him made him wince and he quickly changed all his accounts to private. It was a temporary band-aid over the wound, but it was better than nothing.

He armed himself with a frying pan when the doorbell went, but a quick check of the video showed it was just Lucius and Frenchie, and he quickly opened the door and swept the pair of them inside before slamming it.

Maybe a bit of an overreaction, but he wasn’t taking chances. “I am fighting off a virtual mob that threatens to become a real one, and the two of you stopped for Starbucks?”

“We used the drive through!” Frenchie protested as he walked into the living room to set up his gear.

“Deliberately stopped to get you a little cheer up treat.” Lucius sipped his iced coffee as he handed a takeaway cup over. “A nice, calming iced tea. Decaf, because the last thing you need is caffeine jitters right now.”

He took the cup and raised an eyebrow at the scrawl of black sharpie on the side. “Bede Stonnet?”

“Well I couldn’t use your real name!” Lucius huffed as he sauntered over to the couch to join Frenchie.

“Could have used any fake name, and you went for pig latin.” Stede grumbled as he retrieved his laptop and powered it up. “Could have picked Sam, or Thomas.”

Or Ed.

“Yes, well, next time I’ll confirm your fake name before ordering and purchasing a treat for you out of my own pocket and the kindness of my heart.”

The sarcasm was not lost on him. Lucius was hardly subtle.

“Can you make it stop, Frenchie?” He asked as he logged into all his socials and handed the laptop over. He didn’t know the man well, but he knew that despite being half his age, Frenchie had had more careers than he’d had hot dinners.

In the short time he’d known him, Stede was aware of his past as a waiter, a butler, an artist, a novelist and now an IT specialist slash musician. The music was more of a hobby since he made good money from companies paying him to try and hack into their systems to test their security and advise how to improve it.

“Can I make people stop threatening someone on the internet for something that’s not their fault? I wish.”

Frenchie was tapping away at the keyboard, the screen just a mess of code that Stede couldn’t decipher but was apparently plain English to Frenchie.

“But I can give you the best security possible to stop people getting hold of your personal information. Unfortunately, your name is already out there so angry people with time on their hands can still do the research and find things out.”

Fuck.

The kids. Mary.

“Is my family safe, Frenchie?” His fingernails dug into the back of the couch.

“Depends on what information about them is public, but I’d advise doing a security review of their online presence as well, just to be safe. I can do that as well if you invite them over here.”

Stede left Frenchie to his work and Lucius to prop his feet up on the coffee table and scroll through his phone while he went into the kitchen to call his ex-wife.

She answered on the first ring.

“Stede, what the FUCK?”

“I know, Mary, I know—”

“I’m getting more attention on my twitter because of you than I did for my last art showing, which is pretty insulting.”

“I’m so sorry, we’re doing damage control now. Can you come over with the kids? I’ve got a friend who’s a tech wizard, he’s working on strengthening my security now.”

“Do you think I’m an idiot? I took care of all that when I first became verified on all my socials. My information is locked behind one of those bank vault doors as far as I’m concerned.”

“Oh thank God.” He sank down against the kitchen wall, phone still clutched to his ear in a death grip even as he hunched up on the cold marble tiles.

But Mary was still irritated. “That doesn’t stop the online trolls or the journalists asking for quotes, does it? We’ve been divorced for six months and I wasn’t even at the concert, yet I’m a target just for my association with you!”

He thumped his head back against the wall hard enough that it started to throb. “I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

There was a deep, exasperated sigh, and when Mary’s voice returned in his ear it was softer. “I know you didn’t, Stede. You fainted at a concert; it could happen to anyone. How were you to know that Blackbeard would cancel the entire show?”

He could hear the break in his voice as he choked back the sob that was coming. “It was still my fault.”

“Stede, no.” Her voice was firm. “You did nothing wrong. Honestly, I don’t think Blackbeard did anything wrong either. I think it’s pretty fucking noble that he would cancel an entire show and piss off a lot of people just because a fan got hurt. People are just angry and sounding off online, once there’s an official statement about refunds or a rescheduled show, then I’m sure this will all blow over.”

Mary had such a way about her that calmed him. Perhaps it was because they had known each other for so long, always spending their time together while their families worked on various business arrangements.

Their marriage had been just another business arrangement, really, and had done nothing but damage their relationship. It was why he had cried over the divorce rather than the affair. The last thing he wanted was to lose Mary from his life, but if anything the divorce had gone a long way in repairing their fractured bond.

“You always know what to say.”

He could hear the smile in her voice. “That’s because I’m smarter than you.”

He chuckled. “You certainly are. I really am sorry for all this mayhem; I’ll find a way to make it up to you.”

“I’ve already thought of how you can do that.”

The tea was cold in his hand, condensation trickling into his palm. He would have preferred a steaming cup of earl grey in a proper teacup over an iced drink that Lucius had a penchant for. “You have?”

He took a swig, the blend that Lucius had chosen was sweeter than he would usually go for, but it was still pleasantly soothing as it slid down his throat.

“Get Blackbeard to come to my next art show.”

He promptly choked on the sip he’d taken, and was hacking and spluttering down the line even as Mary continued talking and making all the plans for him.

“The way I see it, the man owes you for all this hate coming your way from a decision thathe made. He definitely owes you a favour, and that favour is going to be him coming to my next showing. A few selfies and promotional posts will do wonders.”

“Why does everyone suddenly think I have some kind of special relationship with the man?” He cut her off as she started to interrupt. “Yes, he cancelled a show to check I was ok, but he was just being nice! We don’t have some sort of special bond where I can call him up for a favour, I wouldn’t even know how to get in touch!”

Well, that wasn’t strictly true. Anne had given him her number before putting him in the car to send him home. She’d told him to call if he had any worries, and she’d certainly seemed friendly with Ed. But she’d also seemed very protective of him, maybe she wouldn’t take kindly to Stede calling her up and asking if she could put Blackbeard on the phone.

He didn’t want her to think he was using her for her connections, that was hardly gentlemanly behaviour. Maybe he could offer to take her out to dinner as a thank you? And if the subject of Blackbeard came up then it came up.

He hadn’t spoken for a while and he couldhear the smug smirk on the other end of the line. “You’re figuring out how you can do it, aren’t you?”

“Damn it, Mary!” He tried to sound indignant, but couldn’t hold back the laughter. “I make no promises other than promising to try.”

“Because you’ll do anything for me?”

“Because I’ll do anything for you.”

“You’re a good ex-husband, Stede. And an ok guy, just generally.”

He huffed out a laugh. “Shut up. Love you.”

“Love you too, Stedey B.”

First Post

#edactuallysmau

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cybercitycomix · 2 years

Text

Top New Misc Comic Releases for the Week of October 12th, 2022.

Approach #1,

Chicken Devils #1,

Chilling Adventures of Salem #1,

Far Cry Esperanzas Tears #1,

Godzilla Monsters & Protectors: All Hail the King #1,

Hack Slash: Hot Shorts #1,

Hitomi #1,

Legacy of Violence #1,

Scarlet Sisters #1 + Year Zero Volume 0 #1.

#comic book #comics #comic books #new releases

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ultrameganicolaokay · 2 years

Photo

Hack/Slash: Hot Shorts by Tim Seeley, Jim Terry and Daniel Leister. Cover by Seeley and Matt Herms. Variant cover by Suzi ‘Suspiria’ Vilchez. Out in October.

“Slasher hunters Cassie Hack and Vlad are back with a one-shot collecting the all-new short stories from the HACK/SLASH DELUXE EDITION HARDCOVERS. Our heroes battle bloodstains in ‘Slice of Life,’ written and drawn by SEELEY, while a new kind of monster slayer stalks the backroads of America in ‘Highwayman to Heaven’ and Cassie meets up with the baddest bad girl in the multiverse in ‘I Will Destroy You All.’ Also contains all-new pin-ups! The perfect celebration of the slasher season!”

#hack/slash: hot shorts #hack/slash #cassie hack #image comics #tim seeley #jim terry #daniel leister #matt herms #suzi vilchez #variant cover #one-shot #horror #comics

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grinbrothers · 5 years

Video

youtube

Code Vein Part Final - Souldin Short Start!

Souldin finishes his first impressions of Code Vein. Nanka jiggles, fights an evil Lillymon and ends her adventure relaxing in the hot springs.

18+ Warning Art by STARteam2017: https://starteam2017.deviantart.com/art/Full-color-Com-R18-Warning-Sign-for-Sould1n-722348987 Souldin Short Start Art by RinnieKuu: https://rinniekuu.deviantart.com/art/COMM-Nanka-736009883 Evil Lillymon by Pedrovin: https://www.deviantart.com/pedrovin/art/Evil-Lillymon-793473385 Code Vein is available on Xbox One, PS4 and Windows.

Date Made: 7/10/2019 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXCFgLZmjBeMCt-QbSoDhVA Tumblr: http://grinbrothers.tumblr.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrinBrothers

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cordria · 4 years

Text

Fixing Mistakes - DP

Danny groaned and curled up in a ball, very suddenly awake. His head hurt, his leg sparkled sharp and painful, and he felt oddly sticky. “Ow, ow, ow, ow,” he hissed, a few swear words working their way through his teeth as he kicked his brain into trying to think through what was going on.

His eyes crept open, studying his surroundings. Dark. Quiet. Bars.

Bars?

His eyes opened just a touch more, turning his head. Bars on all sides. He was in a cage.

Memory flooded back into his brain - of the school bell ringing, of walking through the park with Sam, of cold rushing down his back, of an unfortunately successful ambush by the ghost world’s most annoying hunter. “Damn it, Skulker,” he whispered.

Having determined himself to be alone in the room full of cages, Danny sat up and slowly pushed fingers through his hair, searching for the source of the pain. It was from right over his left ear, a dull throbbing that was definitely sore, but no blood. Head trauma. Something that would heal with time, nothing to be done about it for now.

He turned his attention to his leg, noting with a frown all the glowing blood smeared across the bottom of the cage. He poked and prodded at his leg, locating the worst of the damage: a huge slash down the side of his right leg. Almost as long as his fingers could spread, it was already mostly sealed over - thank Clockwork for not being knocked out until he was in ghost form. In human form, the blood loss would have killed him.

The fact that a slash that big was almost sealed over made him wrinkle his nose. That had to have taken hours and hours. Perhaps overnight. He’d been out a long time.

He sighed. “I was having such a good day, too.”

Although the cage wasn’t big enough to stand up in, he tried putting his foot on the ground and putting weight on his leg. Would he be able to stand once he’d gotten out of the cage? The pain sharpened, making him gasp and collapse. “Nope, nope, nope,” he whispered. “Ow, ow, ow, ow, don’t do that again.”

Blood started to ooze from the gash again. He’d broken open the scab.

With a scowl, he pushed and pulled himself, maneuvering until he was leaning up against the door. From the fizzy feeling against his skin, knew they wouldn’t be something he could phase through. He’d have to find a different way out. He reached a hand out through the bars to pull at the padlock, studying it. It was the same type of padlock Skulker always used for locking his cages closed. The tiniest of smiles curled the corner of Danny’s lips.

It wasn’t quite true that ghosts couldn’t learn. Skulker had learned new hunting techniques over the last eighteen months. Skulker had learned to keep Danny in human-proof cages. But ghosts learned so very slowly, and struggled with putting together facts they couldn’t see. Skulker knew Danny could get out of his cages - but, never having witnessed Danny perform the feat, couldn’t figure out how. And so he kept doing the same thing over and over.

Danny squirmed and moved around, digging a little box out of one of his pockets. Sam had gotten it for him for Christmas last year, along with lessons as to how to use it. Lock-picking was a skill Danny had assumed would be difficult, but it turned out to be hilariously easy, if a bit time consuming. Danny made sure he kept the kit with him.

It took longer than he’d hoped to open the lock. The pain from his leg kept distracting him and the hit he’d taken to his head was making it hard to focus. But he eventually placed all four of the tumblers, gave them a twist, and the lock fell open.

He grinned, short and sharp, and worked the lock back through the rings on the cage, catching it before it could hit the ground. “Screw you, Skulker,” he whispered, pushing open the cage door and floating himself out, putting the lock into his pocket. He was careful to keep his leg from hitting the ground - even the smallest movements sent sharp shards into his mind. “I’m keeping this as a souvenir.”

Just before he was going to leave, Danny heard a sound from the corner. He tensed, instantly assuming Skulker had been hiding. The glow around Danny kicked up a notch with his anxiety, and he twisted around.

Nothing?

His hands came back down, letting the tenseness fade away. He floated forwards a few steps, noticing a cage far into the darkest corner of the room. There was the faintest glow coming from inside - it was almost like the afterglow of looking at a bright light for a moment too long. Too faint to be a ghost in any reasonable shape. “Hello?” he whispered.

“Mind if I borrow your lock pick set? I lost mine.”

Danny hesitated. The voice was very… human? And didn’t sound at all in pain or sick. The scratchy voice was also not bothering to whisper. “Who are you?” Danny asked, floating closer.

“I’m me, obviously.”

“Helpful,” Danny muttered, drawing up just close enough that if something were to lunge and reach through the cage, it wouldn’t be able to grab him. An odd scent tinged the air, making Danny’s nose wrinkle. He held up a hand, palm towards the thing in the cage, and upped the power flowing through his hand. The glow kicked up and, like a flashlight, illuminated the contents of the cage.

It was a human male, raising a hand to block his eyes from the glow. Red-orange hair raggedly pulled back into a ponytail and a beard that looked hacked short with a knife. Perhaps in his twenties, skinny and tall, and dressed in layers of rags. He had a cloak-looking blanket wrapped around him, and calloused feet wrapped in cloth that left his toes hanging out. Dried, reddish-colored flowers dangled everywhere from his clothes. Danny blinked at the man, startled. “You’re human.”

Teeth glittered as the man smiled - an easy, pleasant smile. At least two of the teeth were missing. “Mostly, anyways.” The scar-covered hand lowered. Eyes that were too bright and green to belong to a human peered at him, blinking against the light. “Lock picks? I’d like to get out of here before the hunter comes back.”

“Skulker’s annoying with his cages,” Danny agreed, lowering his hand and the light. His brain wasn’t working quite right. This… human?... was something like him? ...How? “What happened?”

“I was just a tad too slow. Lock?”

Danny glanced over his shoulder, noted the still-quiet room, and settled his body gently back down at the ground. It took a moment for the world to stop spinning from the pain. Then he opened up the little box of picks and started to work on the lock. It was easier from this side, where he could see what he was doing.

“How did it come to be that a ghost knows how to pick a lock?” the human asked.

“This ghost gets hunted a lot. Not the first time I’ve seen the inside of Skulker’s cages,” Danny muttered. “Friend got me the lock pick set.”

“A human lock pit set.”

Danny hummed. “And how did it come to be a human in the ghost zone?” There was a soft click. He twisted and yanked the lock off.Danny floated back up in the air, fighting a wince of pain, and nodded.

“Very long story. Too long for telling inside this lair.” The human pulled himself out of the cage, unwinding his long limbs and stretching upright. From this close, Danny could see the young man was incredibly lean and tall. Too thin. Too tall. Even though Danny was floating, the man’s head was on level with his. Something was off with this human, and it made the hairs on the back of Danny’s neck raise.

This close, Danny could see the dried flowers hanging around his neck were blood blossoms. Before Danny could float backwards and out of the way, the man reached out and clapped Danny on the shoulder, still with that same easy grin. “Thank you for the rescue.”

“Do you…” Danny hesitated, thinking about the fact that the man was a human and they were on a floating island haunted by a hunting ghost, “need a lift? Like, to get somewhere?”

“Away from here would be nice.” The human’s smile faded just a bit. He was studying Danny. “I’m not a flyer. I’d appreciate a lift to… anywhere, really, that’s not right here.”

Danny held out his hand. “You got a name, human?”

The man grabbed his wrist, his fingers burning hot against Danny’s cold skin. “Flynn.”

The feel of the blood blossoms tingled down his arm, an interesting counterpoint to the drums beating against his brain and the stabbing pain in his leg. Danny lifted the human off the ground and took the shortcut through the window, back out into the glowing green of the ghost zone. “Nice to meet you, Flynn. I’m Danny.”

#Danny Phantom #fixing mistakes #I woke up this morning wanting to write #for once #I've had an incredibly sucky fall.#Very much sucks.#Quick writing.

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towritecomicsonherarms · 1 year

Photo

Hack/Slash: Hot Shorts

#hack/slash #hack slash #cassie hack #vlad #comics #image comics

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soggy-platee · 3 years

Text

It Goes Both Ways

Rating: M (Somewhat graphic talk of injury)

Pairing: Din x GN!Reader

Summary: You take a hit for Din, feelings and angst ensue.

Note: Hello sorry this is literally all angst, a tiny bit of fluff. I can't stop myself, I just love the whole "feelings being revealed through injury" trope. If anyone wants, I was thinking about a smutty part two to this one! Let me know. Also, y'all were so kind with Doubt, so thank you!

...

The fight went bad from the second it started.

Well, before that, if you were being completely honest. Everyone in the cantina had been too still, too tense when you and Mando entered. It was so clearly unnatural for the usually boisterous atmosphere of a Nevarro night.

Yet somehow, you both missed it.

The kid was really to blame. He had been a ball of energy all night, practically bouncing off the walls of the hull while you and his father did everything in your power to get him to calm down. You were both annoyed and tired as your set out to meet the contact, should have known there was no hope of success. When the eight men in the cantina converged on you both, you were immediately thrust into the defensive. Exactly where you knew Mando hated to be. You had taken down several attackers, using your blade to slash and hack until it broke off in the chest cavity of some blue creature. You had lost just a moment as you attempted to wrench the hopeless blade from the now lifeless corpse, but it was enough time for a rough tug to pull you to the ground and a heavy weight to climb on top of you. You remembered the previous night almost fondly as opposed to the impossibly tight grip on your throat now.

Your fingers dug into the hand around your throat to no avail as the man- a Twi’lek, you now realized- bared his teeth down at you. Hot breath brushed over your face and you grimaced even further. Eyes rolling, you managed to steal a glance at Mando who was engaged in his own battle. There were two on him, one managing to get Mando’s arms behind his back in a tight hold while the other approached with a raised blade as you looked on. Fear shot through you at his vulnerable position and you doubled your efforts.

Your fingernails finally caught purchase on the arm that held you down at the same moment you bucked your hips with everything you had. A hiss came from above as you managed to pull one leg above the hips holding you down. Twisting hard, you flipped the man into the floor at full speed, his cheek cracking against the hard dirt. On your hands and knees now, you whipped your head up to see the armed man raise his blade and prepare to strike at Mando’s exposed neck. The fabric of his cowl would do nothing to stop the glowing, razor-sharp weapon that was mear inches from him now.

You shot up, your boots digging into the dirt as you righted yourself directly into a sprint. It happened in a split second. You reached Mando just as the blade completed its arc, half-throwing, and half-pressing yourself in front of his armored chest in a protective stance. You followed your first instinct, forearm coming up to block the blow.

White-hot pain bloomed along your arm, reaching all the way to the bone, as the blade cut through you like butter. Gasping at the initial shock, you managed to get a gut punch into the man in front of you before dropping to one knee. You clutched your forearm, trying your hardest to not collapse and curl up right then and there. You dimly registered fighting directly behind you through closed eyes, hoping to God it was Mando dealing with the last guy.

No offense to him, but you felt like you had done enough.

A wave of nausea came over you as you dared to open your eyes, taking in the bloody mess that was now your arm. The cut wasn’t overly long, but it was deep. You knew you had felt it hit bone, but jeez, you didn’t think you would be able to see it.

A blaster shot from behind you gave your enough adrenaline to rise on unsteady feet, turning to see Mando with his arm still raised, blaster smoke rising from the body of the final hostile in the room.

He turned to you with an immediacy that made you sway, the speed of the movement causing another wave of nausea to rise up. You doubled over as he approached, pressing your good hand to the back of your mouth. He was mumbling something as he approached you, Mando’a you would realize later. His hands found your hunched shoulders as you finally heard a word you recognized well,

“Cyare-hey, hey, look at me-”

With your hand still planted firmly over your mouth, you glanced up at him. You were taken aback by just how shook up he looked, even underneath the armor. His hands were tight around your shoulders, almost bruising you with their intensity. His chest was heaving, but it couldn’t be from the fight now. His voice nearly shook.

The pain almost blinding you was nothing compared to the icing feeling that crept down your spine at the sheet panic he was radiating. It wasn’t right, you had never seen him simply break like this.

You had seen him trembling underneath you, above you as he came, but he was still always in control when you were together. This was different.

This was frightening.

His hand pulled up to cup your jaw as you faced him, tilting it back and forth, frantically searing you even though the source of your pain was obvious. You wanted to say something, anything, to get him to calm down. But when you managed to pull your hand from your mouth, all that escaped was a low groan of pain.

Well that didn’t work, you thought faintly before your face collided with Mando’s chestplate, blackness overtaking you a second after.

…

The swaying was what woke you. A constant, fast motion shook you all over. Most pertinently, it was shaking the hell out of your arm. Something was wrapped around you, holding you close to a hard metal surface.

Why did it hurt again?

Ah yes, the cut.

The cut. The fight.

Mando.

You forced your eyes open, instinctually pulling away from whatever was retraining you. A gruff voice spoke to you as you turned your eyes to face the dark fabric of Mando’s chin.

“Stop.”

His faceplate didn’t even turn to you, just one word directed outward to the now-dark street ahead of you. He was carrying you through the town bridal style, your damaged arm tucked up into your chest as your calves swung with each footfall.

The memories of the night flooded back to your in greater detail, mainly your injury. An injury, you now noticed, hurt a lot less than it had...a few minutes ago? An hour?

Your confusion formed a question. Fighting the dryness in your voice, you huffed out, “How long was I out?”

“Not long.”

Another short answer, again not facing you.

A frown tugged on your lips, brows furrowing. Had something happened you didn’t remember? Why was he suddenly pissed at you? Finally, you glanced down at your arm. Wrapped in several bacta patches, secured with more bandages.

When the hell did that happen?

“Cantina had supplies”

Sometimes his ability to read you pissed you off.

You finished the trip in silence, doing your best to let off a pissed-off vibe. It was childish. You knew how to communicate, you knew Mando hardly ever did. But you were tired, hurt, and you didn’t know why that was such a huge problem to him. You had saved his ass, anyway.

You should be the pissed one if anything.

You approached the Crest’s ramp and you prepared to be set down, tensing your legs and starting to push off his chest with your good arm.

His grip simply remained firm, however, showing no indication he would be letting you down. You twisted your head in an attempt to look him in the visor, confused as all hell. His face remained stubbornly to front, much to your continued irritation.

You pushed off him a few more futile times, wiggling your hips in an attempt to loosen his hand around your knees.

Nothing.

You just slumped in his arms then, waiting for what seemed like the world’s slowest ramp to hit the ground.

He stomped into the ship and didn’t set you down until the ramp started to raise. His demeanor still remained stony, but he set you down with a gentleness only reserved for you and the child. He steadied you as your feet hit the ground, but his hands pulled away as soon as he confirmed you could stand alone.

Before you could even speak, he was gone, heading to the ladder of the cockpit.

That was it, you had absolutely had enough.

You threw your good hand in the air before shouting across the silent hull.

“Yeah, thanks for the ride, I’ll just go fuck off then.”

It wasn’t your best line, but you were pissed. And confused.

And hurt more than anything.

To your credit, the words were enough to stop him, hand on the first rung of the ladder. You stood expectantly, breathing heavily from your words and your injury.

Silence.

You made an incredulous sound, turning around and folding your arms to the best of your ability.

“Leave it to me to fuck up and save your ass, my bad, it won’t happen again.”

You winced as the words left your mouth, it was mean. It was terrible. You didn’t mean it. You would lay down your life for him at any moment and he knew it. Well, you thought he knew it. You thought he would do the same for you, too. But here he was, acting like you were a liability. Like he didn’t care about you at all. It made you defensive. Maybe you misread things between you too. Maybe you were just sex to him. Maybe you didn’t go any further.

That was fine, you could handle that. You just needed him to tell you, and not do whatever this was.

Leather creaked as his hand tightened on the metal with your words, but silence persisted. The fight in your was waning as your thoughts continued to run wild.

Your next words came out more defeated than aggressive, “If I’m an issue, just tell me. I’m gone.”

That sparked something in him, hand flying off the ladder as he whirled to face you. The movement caught you off guard, combined with the weakened state it made you stumble back a step Then another, then more as the suddenly fervent Mandaoliran stalked toward you across the hull. Your back hit the wall before he finally stopped a foot away from you, helmet tilted down at you as his shoulders rose and fell with deep, ragged breaths.

His helmet searched you, looking you up and down while his hands came to hover near your shoulder. He didn’t touch you, however, simply grasping at air several times in contemplation before fisting them once more at his side.

“Of course you’re an issue, you are the issue -my issue.”

His tone was unreadable, half-angry, half-desperate.

You gaped like a fish in his face, trying to make sense of what the hell was going on. Where was this coming from?

Your silence rushed him forward. Pushing a finger into your chest, he rambled, “You did fuck up- saving me. I didn’t want you- you shouldn’t have- I didn’t need it.” He spat the final words, but there was something underneath it, far too similar to his tone earlier, his panic.

Still, his words reignited your anger and confusion. “What do you mean you “didn’t need it”. That knife was going for your neck!”

He threw his head back, hands coming up to grip the sides of his helmet.

“Exactly! A knife which you jumped in front of, with no plan, no defense. What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking I didn’t want you to die, idiot! What the hell did you think I was thinking?”

He stumbled, whatever retort he had dying soundlessly on his tongue. Then, he spun from you, crossing his arms over his chest as he did. His next words were quiet, dismissive but firm.

“I didn’t ask for that. Never do that again.”

You literally could not comprehend his train of thought. Did he want you to just let him die? You grabbed his shoulder with your good hand, trying to force him to face you to no avail.

“You don’t get a say, you don’t have to ask. Don’t you get it? If I want to take a hit for you, that’s on me.”

He rounded on you once more, helmet coming so close that it nearly made contact with your forehead. “You don’t get to make that choice”, he growled, low and urgent.

Oh, now that was fucking golden.

“What? I don’t get to make my own choices with my own life? Is that what it’s come to now? Clearly, you don’t trust me, but I at least thought you could afford me my own autonomy.”

Finally, his hands came up and grabbed your shoulders, shaking you with intensity as he shouted in your face.

“Would you just listen to me? I won’t- cannot lose you. Not for me. Not ever.”

Your shoulders tensed in his grip and your eyes shot wide. His words startled you, the meaning washing over you in steps. They first relived you, convinced you that you felt the same way about each other, regardless of the fact this was the first time you were both voicing such outright feelings. But they also struck that same anger in you.

“So you get to protect me but I can’t do that same for you?”. Your voice was calmer now, eyes searching his visor for some sign he understood how unfair- if touching- his words were.

His hands loosened on your arms, shoulders dropping from their tense state. His helmet dropped from your gaze, swinging loosely before he sighed, “...Yes.”

His voice upturned at the end, almost in question of his own words. Of course. He knew how stupid it sounded.

Anger left you at his defeated look, head hanging between his shoulders. You raised your good arm, slowly placing your fingertips on the bottom of his helmet. He tensed for a moment at the touch, but you pushed gently enough on the metal that he simply followed your guidance. His visor came to face you once more, the blackness reflecting the look of concern in your eyes. You could only imagine that his held the same look.

Gloved fingers found your bad arm, still drawn tightly to your chest. They brushed over the patches gingerly, making their way to your hand and intertwining with your own digits. Your eyes fluttered at the touch, the familiar feeling melting away the residual pain like water down a stream.

He sighed heavily, before speaking with a subdued sincerity.

“You make me so fucking scared, pretty. I’ve never-I didn’t know that feeling until you and the kid. I can’t focus on anything else. I can’t lose you- can’t live without you.”

His fingers tightened around yours as he spoke, and your soft smile was reflected in silver back at you.

“Do you not think I feel the same thing, feel the same way about you?”

He gave your hand a squeeze before breathing, “...I do.”

Your smile faltered at his admission, worry coloring your next words.

“Then why do you think I could live without you?”

It was times like these you cursed his helmet, his creed. You wanted- needed to know that your words were getting across to him, that he understands just how fucking much he meant to you. While his face was unreadable, a short breath through the modulator and another sharp squeeze of your hand told you that you had hit the mark.

You took a deep breath before saying, “Listen. We protect each other. Equally. That’s how this works. You can’t stop me. So if you want to keep me out of harm’s way, then you have to keep your own metal-ass safe, yeah?”

You swore you heard a chuckle from underneath your helmet at your comment, and you broke into a grin. You pulled your good hand from his and placed it behind his helmet, tugging it toward you and resting the cool metal on your forehead. His hand mimicked your position, coming up to intertwine with the hair at the base of your neck.

You let your eyes slip shut before saying, “Do you understand now, dummy?”

His hand gripped your hair tighter, pressing your closer. His words were thick when he spoke, “I do.”

You released your grip on him, righting yourself, but his hand simply slid down your back. He still held you close when he said, “And I’m sorry… for the way I acted. It wasn’t my intention to hurt you. I was just…”

He faded off, but you knew where he was headed. You chuckled and flashed another smile, “It’s alright, make it up to me by taking the next knife, huh?”

The usual huff of laughter at your stupid comments didn’t come however, his helmet simply tipped down to take you in, hand tightening on your lower back.

“Actually…” he started, voice growing lower, softer, “I had another idea about how to make it up to you”

#the mandalorian x you #the mandalorian #fanfic #ao3 fanfic #ao3 #din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #mando x you #pedro pascal #din djarin

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