#i think its a tragic fate and hes fully aware of it

[intynidad]

Would you mind writing about a yandere emperor who falls in love with a royal mage/sage who works for the empire?

I really enjoyed working on this request! I think it was a little longer than i was planning but i would love to continue exploring a more fantazy style world for my characters!!

Anyway here is what you asked!!

Yandere emperor x mage/sage reader

As you trailed behind your master, the esteemed sage of the kingdom, you couldn't help but feel dwarfed by the towering walls of the palace. Each step you took seemed small in comparison to the grandeur that surrounded you.

Your master had been summoned to attend a crucial meeting with the young emperor, who had recently ascended to the throne after the tragic loss of their mother, the late empress. The country was gripped by the ravages of a merciless plague, and the weight of responsibility rested heavily on the shoulders of the young ruler.

With each passing moment, the air seemed to grow heavier, carrying the weight of grief and uncertainty that plagued the nation. The palace, once a symbol of opulence and power, now held an air of somberness as it grappled with the aftermath of loss.

As you quickened your steps to keep up with your master's hurried pace, you couldn't help but wonder what role you would play in this meeting.

Your steps came to a halt as you stood before a towering door, its majestic presence adorned with glistening jewels and shimmering gold. The heavy doors slowly swung open, revealing a grand chamber bathed in soft light. As you stepped inside, your eyes fell upon a young man seated upon the magnificent throne, his regal demeanor exuding a mix of authority and youthfulness.

Your master, radiating confidence and wisdom, advanced with a steady stride towards the young emperor. Their years of knowledge and experience seemed to lend an air of respectability to the room, commanding attention and reverence. You, on the other hand, found yourself waddling nervously behind, feeling small and insignificant in the presence of such power.

The young emperor's gaze shifted from your master to you, curiosity flickering in his eyes. A momentary silence hung in the air, as if the weight of the world rested upon this encounter.

One thing you appreciated was the rule that the sages were the only people that didn't have to kneel when meeting a ruler, because you were sure that you would trip with your own feet if you tried to.

"Your majesty," your master began, their voice filled with a gentle yet commanding tone. "We have come in response to your personal summons, fully aware of the significance behind this audience."

The young emperor nodded solemnly, acknowledging the unspoken understanding between you all. The weight of the plague that ravaged the kingdom hung heavy in the air, an unspoken truth that reverberated within the depths of your being. Your mind brimmed with questions, thoughts swirling like a tempest, but caution held your tongue.

In that moment, as your master conversed with the emperor, your gaze met his fiery ruby eyes. It felt as if time stood still. The intensity in his gaze hinted at hidden depths, a soul burdened by the weight of responsibility and loss. There was something captivating about the way he held himself, an aura of strength and vulnerability intermingled.

“You may be wondering why i asked both of you to come here” the emperor said

“Me and my royal alchemist been working on an elixir to eliminate the plague once and for all, but we both lack the magic you sages poses to actually start producing it” the emperor looked at you “it should all work on theory, but without magic to start the process we are hand tied”

The emperor slowly started to descend the stairs, their eyes lock on you

“I know that i'm asking for a lot but please i implore that your apprentice stays in my kingdom as my royal mage and help me save my people”

Before you could speak your master put a hand on your back

“My apprentice will do their best”

With that your fate was seal, it was an honor to be able to work as a royal mage but being the royal mage of THE emperor was another level

Well this would be interesting…

————

Your magical abilities were no joke, the young emperor was more than impressed and with a few magic tricks and the alchemist abilities the plague was no longer around

But as the plague started to disappear something new was blossoming in the kingdom

The seed of love and the seeds of obsession…

The emperor started to notice small things about you, the way you said the magic word or how cute your focused face was when you studied your ancient book.

The emperor was walking towards your chambers with a fragrant rose in hand, his feelings were too much to bear and he needed to confess.

“Now that the plague is gone, what do you plan to do?” The emperor heard a voice coming from your chambers

“I don’t know…probably get back at my studies in the sage tower or something like that” the heart of the emperor sunk in realization.now that the plague was gone you had no other reason to stay in his kingdom.

“Maybe we could go together?, i mean only if you want too”

his despair quickly turned to anger as he recognized the voice of his alchemist responding in a flirtatious manner. The audacity of his own trusted alchemist making advances on you ignited a seething rage within the emperor. How dare they cross that line and attempt to pursue you?

He will not stand for it.

Quickly he went back to his own workshop, and there it was sitting on a small box…a virus

He never intendente to create it, it was an accident when he had tried to find a cure. Now it served a new propuse.

——

The relentless return of the plague had consumed your every waking moment, leaving you exhausted and desperate for a breakthrough.

A knock on your door shattered the silence, momentarily diverting your attention. Wearily, you called out, granting permission for the visitor to enter. The door creaked open, revealing a figure standing in the doorway.the emperor

“How are you doing my dear mage?”

“As good as one can do with this predicament your majesty”even though you two had grown close you still wouldn’t call him by his name

“I see” he looked at you with heart eyes, even though you looked exhausted “i brought you a cup of tea, i thought you needed a little rest”

“Thanks your majesty, but i shall not rest, not when the people of your kingdom are suffering”

Oh you will be an amazing ruler, so preoccupied for your future subjects. He can’t wait for when he finally has you.

“Since you send your royal alchemist away its been more difficult to advance”

A-yes that, to the rest of the kingdom the alchemist was send away to investigate new cures but he knew the true, he send them a way to keep them away from you

“Don’t worry my dear,as long as we had each other we will be okay”

How he wishes that you would look at him the same way he looked at you, but he needed to be cautious of his actions, after all he was powerless against you if you ever decided to reveal yourself against him. But it was okay, when he managed to have you whining under him he will be sure that you wouldn’t think about that kind of things

[legogender]

okay i have to say i am actually a strong defender of Snake That Makes You Evil. it sounds stupid on paper but thats only if u take it at face value? i do actually think the concept is crazy good what with the venom slowly corrupting how garmadon thinks about things and him being fully aware but unable to stop it.

its also not Just the venom that makes him evil. in the spinjitzu brothers books you can actively watch the fsm and wu and… really EVERYONE around garmadon become more and more wary of him despite not much really changing. it becomes a permanent blight on him that he is repeatedly told he needs to cure. but he hasnt really even changed in his own eyes

i personally prefer it to have been a pure fateful accident but the involvement of the overlord in the bite makes it arguably even more tragic. it becomes more than a childish mistake. garmadon was doomed from the moment he was born.

[verytallfox]

Okay, first ever Tumblr post! Not sure if anyone will see this, but this is about the podcast The Sounds of Nightmares, set in the world of Little Nightmares. Specifically I’m looking at Chapter 3.

BIG SHIT

So to those of you who’ve listened or heard what happens, holy fuck right?! There’s some pretty big revelations (stuff theorized for a while certainly but never outright confirmed) in the episode. For one, it knocks the whole “it’s just a dream world” thing out of the park. Noone physically vanished from her world for a moment. I am certain that the Ferryman’s riddle is responsible for that.

Otto’s disgraced mentor published a paper in which he posited the existence of other worlds and other centers of reality. This professor suggests that their own world might be “secondary” in the cosmic hierarchy of existence. This is outright transdimensional or multiverse shit right here and I love it so much! It makes sense to me in that these children who are so alien to this world would end up there, though I also believe that there were regular people there too (and kids), at least formerly.

SMALL SHIT

Additionally, this is one of the first times we’ve heard the monsters of this other place speak, or at the very least coherently. Not just the Ferryman, who is called the Candleman predominantly, but also the shopping mall.

The shopping mall is the third location that we know if that’s suggested to be alive. The Maw is only indicated through reading Word of God stuff from Tarsier and the imagery that it must “feed” or must not perish. With the Signal Tower or Transmission or Flesh Walls or Black Tower, what have you, we see this evidence explicitly.

Back to the abandoned shopping mall, which is what they’ve named it on the wikia for Little Nightmares! It’s not clear if it feeds on anything at all or how. I will also say that I’m a sucker for a tragic beastie, which is the vibes that I’m getting from this being. However, I don’t think it would be good for Noone to have stayed there with it, even if it always treated her well.

The shopping mall appears to be suffering from serious mental health issues and is horribly lonely. It is desperate to have someone else stay with it, and also appears to be aware of the common fate that befalls children outside its walls.

So you know what, I’m gonna choose to believe that while it’s certainly dangerous the mall doesn’t mean children harm. It’s both incredibly lonely and entirely powerless to stop anyone who’d willingly stay with it (or be forced to stay) from being taken.

I’ve wondered if anyone else was somewhat hoping for least one friendly giant to appear in the Nowhere. Alas, this “friendly” giant is miserable, a little unstable, and totally powerless to save the company it desperately craves.

It actually reminds me of Six being trapped and warped within the Tower. There seemed to be no real benefit to that place in keeping her there other than maybe controlling Mono more easily. Maybe the Tower wanted her to stay too. Who knows!

The last thing I wanna cover is (drumroll) THE FERRYMAN! God I love this character. What’s so interesting to me about him is that he doesn’t appear to be running on a single base desire like most of the other adults. That suggests to me that he may never have been human in the first place and that he’s also directly working for the otherworldly entities of the Nowhere.

He’s definitely trying to draw Noone further in and I believe the riddle he told her is part of a ritual or incantation to lure her further in. Either she will continue out of curiosity, a desire to get better (not realizing it’s a trap), or if she resists she won’t a choice once it’s fully taken hold in her. The route I think this is going is that Noone will be pulled over physically for longer and longer, with the world becoming more and more clear, until she can no longer return. Her home reality may now be but a dream that she’s no longer on the same wavelength of to be able to return to.

Anyway, that was a lot of writing lol! Props to anyone who makes it to the end. Please feel to share your own ideas in here and thanks for listening!

[kaleidoscopic-quiddity]

as someone who's personally never been a big dad for one fan, why don't you like it? 👀

obligatory disclaimer that ppl can headcanon/theorise whatever they want, im fully aware that AUs are just ppl having fun and dont necessarily reflect what they want to/think will happen in canon, etc etc

okay so, to me dad for one is fundamentally antithetical to who midoriya is as a character and his position within the narrative. midoriya is not a chosen one. yes he was literally chosen by all might to inheret ofa, but midoriya is different from a lot if shounen protagonists in that there was nothing inherently special about him other than his heroic spirit. he doesnt have a demon inside him like naruto, or saiyan abilities like goku, or even a hyper genuius intellect like senkuu. midoriya is literally Just Some Guy who happened to get noticed by all might. which is actually what makes his story all that more powerful. yes, midoriya being quirkless ends up working to his advantage with ofa and the whole 'last holder' thing does kinda feel like destiny but ultimately, all might chosing midoriya wasnt predetermined. there wasn't some grand prophecy or legend, there was no fates whispering in all might's ear, its just that in that moment with the sludge villain, all might saw midoriya be a hero and knew that he was the right person to inheret ofa.

objectively i get the appeal of 'ofa, a quirk born out of defiance to afo, is passed onto his hero son who takes him down' as like this cool narrative parallel but to me it undermines the whole basis of midoriya's character. he didnt get involved with ofa and afo and all might because of some hidden deeper connection between them all linking their destinies or whatever. midoriya is involed with everything that hes involved in because regardless of the circumstances of his birth, regardless of whether or not he got a quirk or met all might or got into UA, he was always going to be a hero no matter what.

with shigaraki, the whole sereniputous narrative thing of 'the grandson of one of the ofa users is groomed by afo to be the 'next him' and is the super villian nemisis of the current ofa user' works because shigaraki's defining character trait, his core theme, his 'origin' if you will, of hatered, is literally a product of the relationship between ofa and afo. shigaraki would literally not be the character that he is without his life, before it even began, being shaped by ofa and afo. but midoriya's origin is completely seperate from that, his origin is that of being a hero, no matter what, before he even knows a single thing about ofa and afo, before his life is shaped by them in any meaningful way.

i think there are two moments in bnha that make it blatantly obvious to me that dad for one was never going to happen.

first is back during the sports festival when, after hearing todoroki's backstory, midoriya kinda breaks the 4th wall a bit and thinks 'if we were in a comic book, he'd be the main character'. and the thing is? thats totally true!! yes 'kid with no powers in a world where everyone has powers' is a quintessential shounen manga story set up, but its not a super-hero story set up, as far as western hero comics (which horikoshi obviously takes massive inspiration from) go, todoroki with his tragic backstory and special dual-power would be the main character, which is what makes it all the more poignant that midoriya is instead. yes he inherets this great legendary power from the greatest hero ever and gets embroiled in this centuries long battle between good and evil, but prior to that, theres nothing about midoriya, other than his overwhelming heroism that made all might choose him, which is a choice wholly made by all might rather than some predetermined destiny thing, that makes him a main character.

the second is during the paranormal liberation war when afo tries to steal ofa and critises all might and the other vestiges for allowing the quirk to fall into the 'wrong hands' by ending up with midoriya, who he deems as weak, only for yoichi to defend all might's choice in selecting him as successor and his + the other vestiges' choice to remain within him. that has nothing to do with midoriya being some perfect, narratively appropriate, parallel inspired chosen one, hell its even before the 'you'll probably be the last user because your quirklessness makes you perfect for ofa in a way that quirked people arent' reveal. yoichi and the other vestiges' support and defence of midoriya, just like all might's chosing of him to be his successor, comes from nothing other than the understanding that midoriya is a true hero through and through.

'but leo! doesnt the fact that midoriya is a true hero mean it would be even more poignant if he were the son of the greatest villain ever' i hear you all cry, and the answer is no.

because if midoriya is all for one's son then it makes too much sense that he inhereted ofa. he goes from being this true hero who embodies the will of everything ofa and its users stand for, who is ready to carry on their legacy and offer the world hope in a time of despair, to being the ~perfect~ narrative choice to inheret ofa to fulfil a circle of fate and break a generational curse.

in the canon universe, if all for one is midoriya's dad, midoriya goes from being this character who's sheer conviction to win and save, to be a hero, despite his non-suited circumstances, and nothing else about him, makes all might, who had already planned to go to UA and select a student to be his successor, pick him, out of all possible people, to inheret ofa, to suddenly being the only possible successor. if dfo is true then it doesnt matter that in another life mirio or bakugou or someone else couldve been the 9th user, because by being all for one's son midoriya is put in such a narratively perfect position to inheret ofa that its obvious it was literally never going to be anyone else. which to me, wholly and completely undermines all the poignancy and narrative weight in midoriya, who had absolutely nothing to do with ofa and afo but who was such a genuine hero that all might and the ofa vestiges chose him regardless, being the one to inherent ofa.

so yeah, i dont like dad for one, (and villain deku AUs for pretty much the same reasons), and thats why im convinced it'll never happen. because for all his many flaws horikoshi definitely knows how to craft a narrative, and i think hes both too smart and too good a writer to undermine his own protagonist's origin like that.

[animebw]

Thinking some more about Attack on Titan, I find the concept of Paths so fucking fascinating as it relates to the role of fate in classic tragedy. Because that’s what Attack on Titan is: a tragedy. At least it is for Eren, who’s followed the path of so many tragic protagonists before him (IMPORTANT NOTICE I AM ANIME ONLY IF YOU SPOIL ANYTHING FROM THE MANGA I WILL END YOU). Hamlet’s indecision, Oedipus’ arrogance, Othello’s wrath, all their fatal flaws led them down increasingly dark paths until they were finally swallowed up by them. And Eren is no different, made a slave to his rage by his mother’s death and pursuing that rage against his perceived enemy until the only way he could be at peace was by destroying the entire world.

But what would happen if, say, Othello was suddenly handed the script of the play that bears his name? What if he was granted the ability to see how his tragic tale would play out while he was still in the middle of living it? Would he try to reject his lines, change his story, re-write the play that dooms him to a tragic end? Or would he accept his fate and follow the path laid before him, knowing everything that’s coming but unable- or unwilling- to stop it?

Because that’s where Eren is right now. He’s a character on a stage that was just handed a copy of the script of his life, a script that shows him how his rage will eventually doom the world and everyone in it. The power of Paths shows him, in no uncertain terms, that his destiny is to become so consumed by hate that nothing less than global genocide will quell the heat. And instead of trying to fix himself and find a better way... he accepts it. Because deep down, I think he knows it’s too late. He’s been so poisoned by the darkness of this world that even if he tried to give up his anger now, its roots have already pushed too deep inside him to ever be pulled free. Even as he cries and apologizes to the children he will one day crush under foot, he knows he doesn’t have the strength of character to find a better way. The script is already written. The performance is well under way. And no matter how hard he might try, he’s already given too much of himself to this role to change this play’s bitter trajectory toward one last curtain call.

Attack on Titan is a story about many things. It’s about war. It’s about generational sins. It’s about lies and propaganda. It’s about the sins of nations falling on their civilians and how those civilians are affected by them. It’s about the compounding failures of humanity that may one day lead us to ultimate destruction. It’s about the need to break free of cycles of violence and fight for a world ruled by kindness. And here, at the end of all things, it’s about how hatred is as powerful a force as fate, driving those consumed by it toward their inevitable end no matter how desperately they thrash against the current. Hate, AOT argues, will eventually be the end of us. It will set us on a course we can never correct, no matter how many of us can see its bloody terminus. And unless we’re able to change before it’s too late, we’ll end up just like Eren: fully aware of the abyss we’re falling into, but too far gone to stop ourselves from plummeting to our doom far, far below.

Unless, of course, there are still people who haven’t taken the plunge, trying their hardest to pull us out before we take the world with us.

[clockworkcheetah]

thinking about how the universe only protects dirk from fatal injury- like straight up dead on the spot (hence why the bullets avoided him in 1x06- bart shoots to kill obvs) but it does nothing to prevent any other injury like harpooned twice in the shoulder? if he can get the job done it doesnt matter

[anghraine]

While I’m thinking of dream adaptations, some details about my ideal adaptation of Pride and Prejudice:

The tone is lighthearted, with an undercurrent of seriousness.

The 20-something characters are all played by 20-something actors, the teen characters by mid-to-late-teen actors, and Mrs Gardiner by a 30-something actress; the others should be in their 40s or 50s, depending.

Jane is noticeably heavier and more beautiful than Elizabeth, who in turn is mildly pretty; Wickham is staggeringly pretty, and Darcy is very classically handsome and tall.

It’s set in the mid- to late-1790s. Some concessions to modern sensibilities are fine, but that’s the general aesthetic.

Elizabeth’s demeanour is usually lively and courteous, with a slight sweetness that makes it easy to see why she’s so generally liked.

LET. DARCY. SMILE.

(not tight polite little smiles, either; Elizabeth identifies the smile in his painting, done when his beloved father was alive, as the same one he used to direct at her—we should be able to tell that he likes being around her)

coffee scene coffee scene coffee scene

Georgiana a) is not small and delicate, b) is deeply shy and anxious, and c) is aware that Darcy likes Elizabeth, but no more than that. Her manner towards Darcy is both deferential and affectionate, while he’s both protective and encouraging towards her.

Mrs Bennet is neither the lone voice of reason nor a shrieking caricature.

Lady Catherine is also not a caricature (there might be a touch of sympathize-able bitterness to her saying that daughters never matter much to their fathers), though very funny at points.

We feel Mr Bennet’s quirky charm, but it also doesn’t shy away from his essential failures.

Pemberley should be grand and idyllic but not ornate—a very clear step up from Longbourn and Netherfield, but not a palace by any means. We see that Darcy has Georgiana’s crayon drawings stuck with his art collections.

We’d get some of the moments when Darcy talks affectionately of Georgiana, as Elizabeth remembers later.

It would focus on Elizabeth’s character arc above all else, with the central turning point being her response to Darcy’s proposal and then to his letter. We rarely if ever see Darcy where he doesn’t appear in the novel, though Darcy/Elizabeth remains the core dynamic of the story.

Bingley isn’t an intellectual giant, but he’s not stupid or vacuous, and has a lot of personal charm.

The Bingley sisters can be catty, but when they have their good manners on, they seem pleasant enough—not saccharine.

Jane is very sweetly and graciously stubborn.

Justice for Elizabeth’s parasol and watch!!

It’s my dream adaptation, so we actually get some of the engagement scenes (with Elizabeth writing her ‘Jane only smiles, I laugh’ letter) and conclude with the Darcys and Gardiners at Pemberley.

Consequently, the Gardiners would need to be fairly important characters—we’d build up to them actually appearing.

tbh it would be hilarious if we got whatever random people went on to Mrs Gardiner about how hot Darcy is.

It’s not necessary, but I would be really entertained by inclusion of Darcy’s smug gardener + Darcy and Mr Gardiner geeking out over a plant.

Darcy is fully dressed at all times. He is neither shy nor brooding.

Mary’s obnoxiousness isn’t dialed down—she’s not just a tragically underappreciated geek.

We wouldn’t soft-coat Lydia’s personality (she’s still grating, short-sighted, and selfish), but we’d definitely feel how screwed-up her fate is.

Charlotte’s is appalling in its own way, but not a grand tragedy, and Charlotte herself is clearly intelligent and perceptive.

[neutron-stars-collision]

The Art of Inversion

Neil x Reader

Chapter 12 - A Little Death

Masterlist; Chapter 11

Summary: You have to help Neil get back onto his feet after the tragic news. The lack of control and overwhelming grief lead to a few revelations...

Warnings: This is quite angsty still despite mentions of comfort; excessive drinking; self-harm (only implied); swearing

Author’s Notes: Okay so the length of this is beyond me and I’m sorry. This takes place just before Neil’s departure to Mumbai, film-wise. I really hope you’ll enjoy and please let me know what you think!

P.S. The referenced song is ‘A Little Death’ by The Neighbourhood 

You did not check how long you were sat like that on the floor, cradling Neil and letting him cry and shake as though those were the only things he was capable of. Later you realised it was probably close to two hours as by the time you got up, it was nearly evening. But for those two hours, you just let him take his time. He did not speak, and you only occasionally whispered words of reassurance into his ear. You kept on drawing soothing circles into the skin of his back. After the first half-hour, you found a much-needed package of tissues and placed them in his lap. Despite his silence, you knew that your presence meant everything. And so you stayed, ignoring the rumbling in your stomach and tiredness. For the most part, you also ignored your own tears, fully aware that this was not about you, nor it should be.

Neil’s heart-wrenching sobs stopped after those two hours and were replaced with small gasps as though he was struggling for air. That is when you knew that the breakdown was past its culmination point. Slowly, you shifted so that you could look at him and gently tipped his chin. His eyes were puffy and red. The heart-breaking look he gave you was enough to nearly tip you off the edge. But you had to be strong. So you just took a deep breath and broke the silence:

“Don’t say you’re sorry for this because that’s the least I could have done for you” he nodded hesitantly upon seeing your determined gaze “I’m here for you, and I won’t make you talk about anything but sometimes it helps” you kissed him on the forehead.

When you met his gaze afterwards, you were struck by the admiration you saw there. He smiled at you slightly as though trying to convey something difficult to be expressed otherwise. You smiled back and took his hand in yours, giving it a comforting squeeze. After another beat, you got up and filled a glass of water for him. You knew well enough how something so simple is needed after crying for so long. You watched as he emptied the whole glass, placed it on the side, and took a deep breath. Then he spoke for the first time in two hours.

“I… I know that this isn’t what you’re used to from me” he shrugged helplessly.

“It doesn’t matter. You’re still someone I care about deeply” for a second you wondered why you felt like you wanted to say more.

But now was definitely not the time. So, instead, you added:

“Tell me what happened? If you’re ready, of course” you took his hand back and smiled when he entwined your fingers on reflex.

“When we arrived, he…” Neil swallowed hard “TP called us to his office and started explaining the next steps in the operation. He mentioned the bloody Mumbai and how I’m needed there tomorrow” he clenched his jaw, and you felt the tension rise.

You placed your free hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. Then you let your hand linger on the side of his neck. He sighed at your touch before resuming the story:

“Then he asked Ives to leave, and we talked a bit about everything… It was like the old days, you know” his brow furrowed “He mentioned how I’m probably his greatest friend in the whole world… How I helped him make Tenet into what it is now and how that wouldn’t be possible without my contribution” he exhaled shakily “We even talked about you” he glanced up and met your surprised look “Just about how it was seemingly fate that brought us together and how you fit in so well here, just taking everything in your stride” you smiled at the words shyly.

Even though it hurt you to know that he was not allowed the truth about your hiring. But maybe that was for the better, you mused.

“We talked like that for over an hour before he started acting strange… The things he said…” he seemed to gather words “It didn’t make much sense, but now I think I should’ve realised that he was…” he shuddered slightly “That it was supposed to be a goodbye” you saw the tears in his eyes again and shifted so that he could rest his forehead on your shoulder.

“Don’t blame yourself for not predicting what will happen. There’s no point in that” you leaned against the foot of the bed behind to be more comfortable.

“Maybe… But I felt something was wrong, so an hour after I left his quarters, I went back in” you tightened the hold on his hand, feeling the moment approach “The door was unlocked and he… he was just sat there” Neil brought his head up to look at you with teary eyes “I thought that he was fine but then… there was no pulse, and he wasn’t breathing” you felt him become breathless and gently urged him to slow down.

When he stopped hyperventilating, you let him lean on your shoulder again.

“He died alone… and I couldn’t do anything about it” you were not sure if you preferred the dejected tone or the former sobs “I was supposed to be his best friend, his partner”

“I think that he didn’t want to hurt you even more by making you watch it happen” you suggested, trying to make sense of the situation.

After the earlier text and what Neil told you begun to understand that TP intended to do it. To end his life. You just had to find a reason why.

“But I don’t understand why he did it” Neil’s voice broke through your contemplation “There was no reason to… He said himself that the plan is going well” you could hear anger creeping into his voice.

“I know… But maybe there was a reason…” you trailed off.

Neil watched you sharply, and you felt like if you said something wrong, you could risk losing him again. You had to tread softly.

“You once said that he never did things without reasons” you stumbled over the tense and frowned “And that’s the same feeling I got when I talked with him… Maybe he had to do that to avoid clashing with his former self in any way” you glanced at Neil to gauge his expression.

He was staring ahead into space with a serious look in his eyes, considering what you said.

“Is like… they mentioned during training that it would be bad if we ever came in contact with our other selves, inverted and so on” you kept on rambling, hoping it was helping somehow “So maybe he was afraid that his existence now would coincide with his younger self out there”

“There must have been better ways of dealing with that” you could tell that he was angry.

At himself. At TP. At the universe. And there was nothing you could do.

“Maybe that was all that he could think of”

You watched helplessly as he turned away from you, suddenly overcome with the emotions. You urged yourself to calm down. Maybe now was a good moment to mention the text…?

“I… I got a text message from him actually… as I was getting here in the cab” you took out your phone and gingerly offered it to him.

Neil took it without question and read over the recent message. Then you saw his eyes dart to other text conversations. But you did not mind. There was nothing to hide. He handed you back the phone without a further word. Then he got up and wandered over to one of the side cabinets.

Now that was concerning.

“Neil?” you scrambled after him and watched in horror as he hastily threw the cabinet contents onto the floor.

Finally, he found a whisky bottle hidden in the back and took a triumphant swing out of it. That sight made you shake off any paralysis you fell into. You crossed the room and snatched the bottle from him. The dark look he gave you was somewhat terrifying. He took a step closer as you took one back. Then he met your gaze challengingly as though doubting your ability to deny him anything. But this time, you were not going to give in. You shook your head and extended the gap.

“It helps with the pain” Neil shrugged helplessly.

“I know, but I think you’ve had enough for today” you gestured towards the empty bottles on the floor.

Thinking fast, you decided to act. You took out your phone and summoned Ives, asking him to come by Neil’s room in a moment. He responded instantly, evidently waiting on the news. Once that was dealt with, you went on to pick up the reminders of Neil’s state. When he saw you do that, you heard him speak:

“If you’re going to take away all the alcohol, then at least leave me the empty bottles” you turned to see an unfamiliar cynical smile “The glass might come handy” the emptiness in his eyes made the delivery worse.

You could only stare, processing the words. Suddenly everything felt too overwhelming.

“Neil…”

You stared at him pleadingly, hoping that maybe the look of panic in your eyes will help him realise what he said. You did not dare breathe until he somehow denied your worst anxieties about the situation. You watched as his face fell, then he covered it with his hands and breathed out a long exhale.

“Fuck. I’m sorry…” he stared at the floor “I didn’t mean it” he looked up at you remorsefully “I don’t know why I said that…”

“It’s okay. Just don’t ever scare me like that again” you gave him a weary smile.

Before you could say anything more, a knock on the door interrupted you. At Neil’s quizzical stare, you answered:

“Ives. I’ve asked him to come” you moved to the door, clutching all the bottles in your arms “Give me a second. And please don’t do anything stupid” you gave him a final warning look before you exited into the corridor.

Ives waited there with a worried expression on his face that seemed fixed at this point.

“Is he alright?” he asked, glancing at the door you closed.

You shuddered, thinking about the situation you just dealt with. But he need not know all that.

“He will be. For now, though…” you placed all the bottles of alcohol in his arms “Take these please and maybe get us a little something to eat from the kitchen… and tea” you tried to gather your thoughts.

“Okay” he nodded “If you need anything else, let me know”

“Thanks” you sighed, feeling the tiredness slowly descent upon your whole body.

But there was no time for that. Not yet.

“I’ll stay with him tonight” for once, Ives did not tease you about it, and you were grateful.

“His plane is at 3 pm tomorrow. Do you think that’s manageable?” he looked sceptical.

“It has to be” you smiled as Ives squeezed your shoulder reassuringly “I better go back to him. Just leave the food outside and knock on the door, please. Think it’s best if he doesn’t see anyone else tonight”

“Of course”

Without further word, you entered the room again and locked the door behind you. Neil was sat on the bed, anxiously picking at the skin around his fingernails. His hair was falling in his eyes, and he was staring at his lap, looking incredibly lost. It hurt you to see him like this. Ignoring the growing ache in your chest, you approached him slowly.

“I asked Ives to get us some food and tea because I think we both could do with that” you attempted a smile when he looked up “But before it arrives, you could shower and get changed… that could help a little”

You stood near enough to reach out and brush your fingers over his cheek tenderly. He seemed to consider your words for a moment before he leaned into your palm.

“Okay, I’ll try” you saw him hesitate before adding, “Thank you for putting up with this”

“Of course, that’s what friends are for” for some reason, the word felt wrong. And he noticed that too as you saw a small frown appear before he smiled at you and left for the bathroom.

When you heard him put the shower on, you started cleaning the room. You put away the pages that landed on the floor and made the bed. While you were smoothing the covers, your brain came up with a rather intrusive thought about how there you were, alone with Neil in his room. Again. And how that really did not fit in with the friendship story you desperately clung to. Because it was rather obvious that you would end up sharing the bed again. That was not something friends did this frequently. You did your best to shut that voice, but you could not deny the facts. So you just sighed and waited patiently for Neil to remerge.

Food arrived before he showed up, so you just set the coffee table. Once you were done, you heard the bathroom door creak. You turned to look at him and were taken aback by the casualness of his get-up. For the first time since you have met, he was not wearing suit trousers and a shirt, and instead had loose joggers and a t-shirt on. Despite the reality of the situation you found yourself in, you could not help but stare. He caught your look with a rather sheepish expression that you did not expect.

Interesting… But there was no time to dwell on it, so you just invited him to the table and encouraged him to have something from the selection Ives got you. Sometimes you would anxiously glance at him to see whether his mood has not changed for worse again. But he seemed fine; quiet and sombre but there with you, physically and mentally. And that was what mattered for the moment. So after you ate, you suggested settling in bed to rest. Neil agreed to that without any objections, giving you hope that maybe he was past his worst point.

After the initial awkwardness of the situation wore off, and you both relaxed onto the pillows, you asked:

“Should we put the tv on? Just have some music on or something…” you searched his eyes, trying not to get too conscious of the moment.

While this was certainly not the first time for you to casually share a bed, this time it somehow felt different. But you blamed that on the rollercoaster of emotions you both went through in the recent days.

“Yeah sure” Neil nodded and sent you a small smile.

This silent version of him was strange to get used to. It felt like he was holding back from you, and you were not sure whether you liked that. But there was nothing you could do apart from giving him unlimited space and time for expression should he need it. So, to provide a distraction, you put on the tv and quickly found a suitable music channel that was not blasting annoying pop songs. Silence fell on you again, as you let the music help you relax. You were not even paying attention to the exact songs played.

‘Make me feel like I am breathing Feel like I am human’

That is until you felt Neil shift, and you glanced in his direction only to meet his intense stare. The blue eyes were fixed on you with a hazy tint on the pupils. Before you could ask him anything, he moved closer. You were struck by the look of intoxication on his face. Somehow you knew that it was not due to alcohol. You felt slightly paralysed by the multitude of feelings that came then. Neil ended his scrutiny of your face to ask:

“Can I kiss you?” his voice was huskier than usual.

‘Touch me, yeah I want you to touch me there’

“Neil...” his name usually came quite handy in those speechless moments.

There were millions of reasons why you should not let him, but the look on his face and what he said next started breaking down the resolve.

“I know” he was looking at you with something close to pleading “I know this won’t fix anything, but if for at least a few seconds I can forget about this mess... then please give me that”

‘She sought death on a queen-sized bed And he had said, "Darling, your looks can kill, So now you're dead.’

He was close now. So close that all you had to do was lean in and kiss him softly. He sighed at the contact, and you brushed away the damp hair from his eyes. Then he deepened the kiss, pulling you closer with his hands on your waist. You were too lost in the moment to stop him when he urged you to lie down on the covers. Feeling your heart pound in your chest, you continued the kiss as he hovered over your body. His hands wandered until you felt him slide them underneath the fabric of your shirt. The warm, sudden touch on your bare skin acted as a warning. You gasped and broke the kiss, but not before he managed to bite on your lower lip, drawing blood. The desperate whine he let out made you open your eyes in a flash. The darkness of his eyes made you realise how close it got to the point of no return. That was enough to help you shake off the daze.

“Please, not like this” you pushed him away gently.

Your cheeks were burning as you came to realise what nearly happened. But once you met Neil’s gaze again, you could tell that he was still not quite aware of the reality. The passionate look in his eyes was replaced with something akin to begging.

“I just want to get lost in you” he murmured, still keeping his hands on the bare skin of your waist.

He ran his fingers along your sides, and you shivered. Inhaling slowly, you tried to calm down. Normally his words would have made you throw caution to the wind. But something like that could be disastrous right now.

“I don’t want it to happen like that” you pushed him off you completely and sat up, suddenly unable to look him in the eye.

“But you want it?” the hopeful tone made your insides flutter with thousands of anxious butterflies.

Fuck… Of course, he wouldn’t let it go easily.

“Ask me again when we’re both better” you hoped that you sounded surer than you felt.

You touched the split lip and wiped away the blood droplet with your thumb. That moment must have awakened something in Neil, as suddenly you heard him inhale sharply before he blurted:

“God, I’m so sorry” you looked up to see him staring at you in terror “I don’t know what overcame me… It’s not that I didn’t want to…” he was clearly struggling with whatever he wanted to say.

“It’s okay. I won’t hold you accountable for whatever happened… or almost happened” you gave him your most convincing smile despite feeling more confused than ever.

“But I… I want you to know I didn’t do that only because I’ve lost control” that was enough for you.

“Neil, it’s fine” you interrupted him “You don’t have to explain. It doesn’t matter” you forced another smile onto your face, praying he will drop the topic.

You could not even explain why it hurt so much. Maybe because you worried it was just him losing control? And that if there was someone else with him in your place, it would have happened anyway? But it felt selfish to have those thoughts after everything that happened, so you just tried to rake your brain for some other distraction. Somehow, this moment felt right to breach a topic that has been on your mind for the past few hours. Slowly, you turned to face Neil, who was evidently still pondering the situation while staring at the tv screen unseeingly. 

“Neil…” he turned to you the instant you said his name “Before I came here, Ives told me about Alex…”

The moment you mentioned the name, you could see a plethora of emotions flash in Neil’s eyes. There was shock, sadness, and worry, among others. He visibly tensed and tried to school his features before responding.

“I- I would’ve told you” he was desperately searching for the right words “There just wasn’t a good moment, and I didn’t know if you…”

“No, no. Stop right there” you interrupted him, worried by the rambling “I didn’t mention that because I want an explanation or because it hurt me in any way” you met his gaze steadily “I only wanted you to know that I’ve been told. And that if you ever wanted to talk about it, I’m here” you tried your best to convey the support and love (?) into the long look you gave him.

“But… is-is this okay? Are you okay with that?” the doubt and genuine worry in his eyes made your heart clench painfully.

You wanted to hurt whoever made him question things like that.

“Of course it’s okay. You loved and lost him, and that’s the only thing I care about” tentatively, you reached out to take his hand again “It’s a vital part of your story, and I want to know you better” you smiled, seeing him relax slightly.

“Thank you… I’ll tell you one day, I promise” he brushed his thumb along your knuckles “But I think he’d like you”

You were not expecting that.

“Yeah?” you blushed slightly, suddenly flustered.

“He used to call me out on my bullshit too… and never fell for my charm too easily” he smiled fondly.

You liked the way pleasant memories seemed to light up his whole face.

“I can see some similarities then” you grinned shyly “To be fair, you need someone to keep you from getting too cocky” experimentally, you reached out to ruffle his hair.

If his blissful smile and the way he leaned into your touch were anything to go by, he did enjoy the gesture.

“I’m not sure I deserve you” he opened his eyes and looked at you with some kind of new emotion.

But before you could find any ways of answering that, he yawned. Once, then twice. The tiredness was finally catching up with him.

“Think you should try to get some sleep” upon his silent question, you added, “I’ll stay in case you need me”

For a second you wanted to offer that you will take the sofa, but somehow you knew that was not what he would have wanted. And neither did you if you were to be honest with yourself. So you just watched as he hesitantly started shifting on the bed, trying to find the most comfortable position. You switched off the forgotten tv and the lights and slowly laid down on the pillow. In the quiet, you could hear his shallow breaths. One look in his direction was enough to help you decide. You moved closer, closing the safety gap, and carefully placed your arm on his waist. After a beat, you curled up around him, with your head resting on his shoulder.

“Is this okay?” you asked, following the tense silence.

“Yeah… It’s just that I really don’t think I deserve any of this” you could hear the apprehension creeping back into his voice.

“You deserve much more” you pressed a small kiss to his neck “But let’s start with this. Good night, Neil”

“Good night…” he hesitated but then just exhaled, letting you hug him closer to your body.

*** The peace lasted only for the first two hours. After that, you were awoken by Neil tossing nervously. Before you could properly come to your senses, he let out a few soft whimpers. Shit. You shifted so that you were hovering over him and took a long look. His brow was furrowed, jaw clenched, and he was incredibly tense. Whatever nightmare he was having, it was escalating quickly. The next thing you knew, tears were falling down his cheeks, and he was mumbling something, sounding distressed. That was enough. You cupped his cheek, as softly as you could, and leaned in close:

“It’s just a dream” you kissed him on the forehead “Wake up love” you were not sure where the endearment came from.

You leaned back to see his eyes open in a blink. His gaze was unfocused, evidently still lost in the nightmarish world. Using the hand that was cupping his face, you brushed the stray hair away from his eyes. His breaths were fast yet shallow. Knowing the experience well, you immediately kicked into action.

“Neil, listen to me” you waited until his eyes locked with yours “It was just a dream. It’s all okay now” you placed your hand on his chest over the heart “You need to calm down”

“I can’t breathe” he choked out and sat up suddenly, nearly knocking you in the head.

“You’re panicking” you shifted so you could be sat in front of him.

The fact that you nearly climbed into his lap in the process had to be ignored for the time being. You took his hand in yours and placed it in the middle of your chest so he could feel the rising and falling with every breath you took. With your other hand, you tilted his chin so that he was forced to meet your gaze. His pupils were darkened by panic and adrenaline.

“Follow my breath” you made him match your breathing for a few cycles.

Once you heard his inhales and exhales elongate and level off, you let go of the hand you kept pressed to your chest. He kept it there for a moment longer, as though making sure you were really in front of him.

“I’m sorry” the heartbroken and tired look he gave you was enough to make your heart ache “You really shouldn’t have to deal with this mess”

“It was my conscious choice, and I would never leave you alone after something like this” you leaned in closer and pressed a small kiss to the corner of his mouth “Now, let’s try going back to sleep, shall we?”

This time he was holding on to you as though you were the only constant thing. With his arms around you and the warmth of his body, you could almost forget about the mess you both had to face in the morning. Before drifting off to sleep, you pondered his words again. More and more, you were sure that he got it the wrong way around. It was you who did not deserve someone like him. And you were afraid he would soon realise as much once the initial crush (or whatever it was) passed. But for now, you allowed yourself peace as you relaxed into his embrace and buried your face in his chest. If by some accident, the universe decided to be on your side, you would not complain.

*** In the morning, you were both awakened by Ives calling to make sure both of you were alive and awake. You had to blame the awkwardness that followed it on that very phone call. You only managed to shake it off when you sat down to the breakfast you brought from the canteen. You passed Neil coffee in silence, cursing your inability to hold a conversation after everything. But this time, he had some solutions. As your fingers brushed, he set down the coffee cup on the table and turned to you:

“I’m sorry about everything that I did and said yesterday” he glanced at your split lip “I wasn’t in control... and I don’t want you to be scared. I’d never do anything like that normally” he shifted nervously.

You knew an apology was coming, especially after seeing the way he looked at you ever since waking up. And while, admittedly, his behaviour worried you, you did not dare to think about how your ‘almost’ made you feel.

“I know, and I won’t judge you on how you acted last night” you put on your best smile, hoping to end the topic as quickly as possible.

But it was not meant to be as he clearly thought hard on what to say next. All you could do was wait and listen.

“I know that I crossed some lines” finally, he found the right words “And while I can’t deny that I was acting on my genuine desires…” he searched your eyes to make sure you understood “I won’t do that again because I respect your wishes to keep this strictly friendly”

Was this your imagination, or did he sound like he did not want to say that? If you were honest with yourself, that was not something you wanted to hear either. But now was most definitely not the time, so you just reached out to squeeze his knee reassuringly.

“Thank you, and don’t worry about it. We’re all good” he covered your hand with his and mirrored your smile.

Maybe all this confusion was worth it? After a short beat, you took your hand away and went back to breakfast. The silence was still there, but at least it was less awkward now. When you noticed him frown at the headache that was undoubtedly bothering him, you passed a painkiller. He smiled gratefully.

“So… when is my plane?” he asked after you both cleared the plates.

You could tell that he was dreading the trip. And it hurt to know that there was no way for you to help him.

“3 o’clock” you glanced at the watch “Which gives us about five hours to get you ready” you took in his sombre expression.

“I really don’t want to go” he met your gaze with emotionless eyes “It’s so fucking cruel to have me assist whoever the fuck that guy is when my best friend just killed himself. And I don’t even know why” the anger and hurt in his voice were somehow worse today.

Maybe it was because you could not blame it on his intoxication anymore.

“I know… And wish I had any answers, but I don’t know more than you do” you could only give him an apologetic half-smile “But I know that you have to be there to help… him”

Calling the younger version TP seemed somehow wrong. And you could only imagine how it must feel for Neil, on the eve of meeting that different version of his partner. 

“He won’t even know who I am” there was a broken edge to his voice “How am I supposed to meet him and act as though he’s a stranger?”

“Alright, walk me through what you’ve been told, and I’ll try to help as best as I can”

“Sure you wouldn’t rather go back to sleep?” he eyed you sceptically “You must be tired, and it’s all my fault”

“Neil, stop” you have had enough of the self-depreciation “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’m here for you” you took his hand in yours “And I wouldn’t rest anyway without knowing you’re well. So let’s go through the plan and then I’ll help you pack”

He only gaped at you with a dazed expression on his face. You wondered how someone so incredible could ever doubt their importance so much.

*** Surprisingly you managed to get Neil ready in time for the taxi departure. Together you planned the mission, made sure he had all the necessary information and contacts and was as mentally well as he could be after everything. When the time was near, Ives knocked on his door. This time, Neil let him in. You watched as the two men embraced tightly, sharing the trauma and sadness. Ives then took a step back and eyed Neil coolly.

“You did a good job” he flashed you a smile “He looks much better than I expected”

“Would you mind?” Neil looked at you nervously, and you laughed at the brief moment of lightness.

“Must say it wasn’t easy, but I did my best” to prove a point, you wandered over to Neil and smoothed his suit jacket.

After disagreeing over the wardrobe choices you managed to convince him to take a few linen suits and shirts for the warm weather in India. Now you were proud you succeeded. To be fair he looked good in anything, but there was something more intimate in the fact that you chose his outfits. But once again, you were brought to the present moment by Ives clearing his throat:

“The taxi is leaving in half-hour. I’ll leave you two now” he gave you a knowing smile and exited the room before you could roll your eyes at him.

Realising you still had your hand on Neil’s shoulder, you took a step back. He was watching you attentively with a small smile on his face. That probably explained Ives’ allusions…

“I won’t ask if you’re ready but… are you okay?” you met his gaze.

“As much as I can be, I suppose” he shrugged dejectedly “I really wish I could stay with you instead”

You saw his hand twitch at his side and decided to choose for him by taking it into yours, naturally entwining your fingers.

“Unfortunately, this time we can’t decide for ourselves. But remember that you can call me if you need help or just to talk. Don’t worry about the time zones, I’ll always pick up” you tried your best to show how you felt through the expression in your eyes.

But that was a dangerous game as soon enough you got lost in the blue of his eyes. As always.

“Thank you” he breathed out, looking at you with such tenderness that almost made you feel faint “Still don’t think I deserve you though” he grinned shyly.

“Oh you do, and I’ll keep on saying that till you believe it” you raised your joined hands to your lips and kissed his knuckles “While I enjoy this slightly subdued version of you…”

“What?” his affronted face made you laugh.

“You know very well what I meant” you smirked and let go of his hand, only to pull him in for an embrace.

It took him only a second to hug you back, with his arms wound tightly around your waist.

“You said we should hug more often so” you whispered into his ear and enjoyed the laugh it prompted “Hope this is good enough for you” you ran a hand down his back.

Then, upon a sudden thought, you pushed your hands underneath his suit jacket and splayed them on his back, relishing the feel of his skin through the shirt fabric. The only indication that he felt the difference was a sharp gasp he let out as he drew you even closer.

“More than that” he kissed the top of your head.

After at least two minutes more, you took a step back but still kept your hands on his waist.

“Please be safe out there. Don’t do anything stupid. And…” you shut his mouth with a hand upon seeing him protest “And don’t get too drunk before the meeting. I know that it will be hard, but that could only make you more likely to fuck up”

Before you could take your palm away, he placed a peck on your wrist, near the pulse point. The voice in the back of your head kept screaming about how this definitely was not something friends do. But you told it to kindly fuck off. At least for now.

“I can’t promise anything, but I’ll try” he flashed you a signature smile as though you could ever forget it “After all, I’m not the one to behave” proving the point, he brushed the pad of his thumb along your lower lip.

You inhaled sharply at the sensation. Looking questioningly into his eyes, you wondered whether he remembered about the earlier promise. But there was no time to find that out as sharp knocks interrupted you. It was time.

[scribe-of-elysium]

Hey just wanna say that I really enjoyed reading quietus. You did wonderful. Its the first story that made me feel so many emotion. Really loved the way you portrayed some characters. Thanatos is my absolute favourite and I can't stop thinking about him . Just wanna ask was Thanatos ever involved with someone? Or like did he even harboured a minor crush on someone? Like in original we know he had a girlfriend izumi. Did he die a virgin? Oh my boy ;)

Hi Anon. My answer contains spoilers if you aren't up to date, so read with caution.

_____________

If you are up to date with Quietus, then you'll be aware that Thanatos was marked by The Fates from childhood, and so knew from a young age that he was bound to serve them and couldn't live freely as Hades did. For that reason, along with his function as True Death, he grew up solemn, serious and burdened.

Carrying that secret and responsibility forced him to mature sooner than his peers, so he wouldn't have started any romance or allowed anyone close in that way, knowing what his tragic fate would be and that his time would eventually be cut short. Yes, he was greatly admired in both the Underworld and on Olympus when he visited, but it would have been OOC, in my opinion, for him to start any kind of romance unless he was sure he could fully commit to it without endangering his SO. And just like in canon, he had absolutely no time for romance, which is why I never mentioned one. He's not one for casual flings and places responsibility and personal discipline above all else. He will kill his emotions to do whatever needs to be done. So he sacrificed any chance of personal happiness for the greater good, to protect his brother and ensure he had the future Thanatos himself was denied.

I'm glad you enjoy his characterisation. He's a lot harder and more complex than Sasuke is to write, so it makes me happy to read that people approve of his portrayal, especially given it's almost all presented in past flashback form. I wanted his and Shisui's plights to resonate with my readers and I'm satisfied that I have achieved that. Being my favourite character, I'm pleased if I've done him justice.

Thank you for your message.

[intelligent-trash]

Jo, Kate, and their parallels with the Orpheus/Eurydice myth

Okay, so I know this may seem totally out there, but bear with me on this - I promise, I have a point, and I am really interested to hear your thoughts on these parallels.

So I just wrote this all out once only for tumblr to delete it as I was about to post, so like, yay for that. Also I’m on 4 hours sleep and very brain frazzled from recently submitting my dissertation, so apologies if there’s any nonsensical aspects. I will preface this with a note that I am by no means a Greek mythology expert, I just really love Hadestown and subsequently the Orpheus/Eurydice myth, and noticed there were some significant parallels between it and the Kate/Jo story which I wanted to draw.

For those not particularly familiar with the Orpheus/Eurydice myth, I’d give it a quick google, but I’ll be drawing comparisons between that story and Kate/Jo’s here.

Orpheus is a talented musician, whose musical gift was said to entrance even nature itself. In a slightly less mythical but no less impressive fashion, we have Kate, whose known proficiencies and dedication to the anticorruption cause, even after she leaves AC-12, make her stand out as an exceptional detective. Orpheus meets Eurydice and is instantly drawn to her beauty – she is drawn to his voice, and they soon fall in love. It is not Kate’s voice that draws in Jo, but the promise of freedom she offers with her anticorruption background that initially draws her in – we know from 6x06 that that is why Jo initially hired her. With Jo, I think Kate finds a kindred spirit (plus, who are we kidding, Kelly is bloody beautiful) to whom she connects with and is drawn to. Much like Orpheus and Eurydice, who seem almost magnetised in how they are drawn to one another, I think there are definitely some parallels in how Kate and Jo are drawn to one another and the chemistry they share, despite coming from very opposing backgrounds (Jo as the coerced daughter of an OCG boss, forced to do their bidding in secret VS one of the most dedicated (ex-)anticorruption officers)

Orpheus and Eurydice decide to marry, and have a brief moment of wedded bliss before everything goes downhill. Whilst I’d love a flemson wedding, I can’t see that in the near future, nor is it relevant for the parallels being drawn – I would instead draw attention to their Frederico’s date, the intimacy shared there, and the proposed weekend date, where they existed in a bit of a honeymoon state of excitement surrounding this somewhat illicit close connection.

Of course, this can’t last. Aristaeus’ love for Eurydice, and jealousy of Orpheus, drives him to chase the pair down, intending to kill Orpheus and take Eurydice for his own. Aristaeus is more of a metaphor for the OCG controlling Jo, rather than any one individual – by Jo getting close to Kate, it threatens the OCG’s concealment, and thus Kate must be eliminated so they can regain control over Jo. As Eurydice and Orpheus run to escape the OCG, a clear parallel could be drawn with the man-hunt of 6x06.

Eurydice stumbles and falls, and as Orpheus turns he sees she has been bitten by a deadly viper, and has died. Whilst Jo does not literally die at this point in the story, her imprisonment could represent a metaphorical death – she is no longer able to act freely alongside Kate, her relationship with Kate is irrevocably changed after the whole murder attempt fiasco, and Kate will struggle to get through to Jo even more than before now she is in jail – and, as the viewers are well aware, in the jail with the two dodgy prison officers who pose a clear threat to her.

At this point, Orpheus, driven by grief, appeals to his father, the God Apollo, to permit him to go to the underworld and seek his wife from Hades, in a somewhat hair-brained but brilliant scheme. We are yet to see this play out in 6x07, but the trailer appears to suggest some kind of attempt to get Jo out of prison, for which AC-12 become involved – specifically, Kate. I anticipate that, despite the murder attempt, Kate will be deeply affected by Jo’s imprisonment, and likely will be part of the driving force to prove she isn’t bent – like she has been, all series, in spite of all the proof staring her in the face. I imagine Kate will be prepared to put herself in a dangerous position within this, fully aware of the Lakewell incident, to help save Jo – and I wouldn’t be surprised if she is the one to suggest or somehow initiate this operation. The crazy part of it comes from the fact they are well aware of what happened to Lakewell, and are likely having to develop some sort of crazy plan to try and get around that – quite possibly, intentionally drawing out the OCG in the process.

Orpheus approaches Hades, asking for entry into the underworld, for which he receives no challenges. When he approaches Hades and Persephone, he sings to them of his desire for Eurydice to be returned to them, and convinces Hades to return Eurydice. However, there is a condition – he must walk back towards the world of the living, and she must follow him, and he cannot look back, or else she will be trapped in the underworld forever and he will be unable to reach her. Essentially, Orpheus must trust that Eurydice will be following behind him, will have chosen to return with him to the land of the living. Eurydice is demonstrating her faith in him by allowing him to lead her out of the underworld. This aspect of the story is highly speculative, as 6x07 is currently yet to air – but Kate has to place some trust in Jo, that she will follow through with their plan, that she won’t betray her again. Jo had demonstrated some basis for being trusted, with placing her prints on Kate’s gun and taking the fall for her in. 6x06, but now it is imperative that Kate trusts Jo to follow through – likely on providing information – so Kate can free her from her past OCG ties, hopefully in some kind of witness protection as opposed to jail.

But the story of Orpheus and Eurydice is a tragic love story. Orpheus, having reached the light himself, turns to look upon his wife. In doing so, he seals her fate – she is trapped in the underworld forever. How this translates to the story of Kate/Jo is unclear, but my speculation is that there is some incident where Kate’s trust in Jo briefly falters, which ultimately proves fatal to Jo – and it will turn out, Jo WAS trustworthy all along, but Kate’s hesitancy to believe in Jo (understandably so) was the tragic flaw in their relationship, particularly as up to that point they had implicitly trusted one another. Orpheus has a brief moment where he sees Eurydice before she is returned to the underworld – for Kate and Jo, I imagine this will be a moment of “I was never pretending” style confessions before Jo’s tragic end.

Orpheus is heart-broken by the incident, losing the joy that had previously characterised his music. Kate’s music, in this case, is her faith within the anticorruption cause. Whilst I don’t think she will lose it entirely, I think she will become a lot more cynical and unconvinced regarding its success, particularly as they were so close to saving Jo before they lost her, to what in Kate’s eyes was her own struggles with trusting Jo would follow her into the light (ie. freedom from the OCG). But Jo was following her the whole time.

The comparison between Jo/Kate and Orpheus/Eurydice highlight how Jo/Kate’s story, at its heart, is a tragic love story – obviously, dependent on the outcome of 6x07, which could render this completely obsolete. But I just thought the parallels were really interesting, and I would love to hear others thoughts on this. (I will say, my initial post of this was much more in depth, but tumblr decided to delete it, so I rewrote it from memory as best I could). Obviously, it is entirely possible this is all coincidental, and that I am just simply drawing from my love for Hadestown and projecting it upon one of my other favourite shows. However, if Jed DID intend to have some loose parallels, that is really interesting and very telling to how Jo/Kate’s relationship was intended to be perceived. Plus, it’s pretty fucking poetic too.

Anyway, I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this, so please let me know! I apologise if this reads as rushed or messy or anything, it was just an idea bouncing in my head this morning, and I really wanted to see what people thought!

[seriouslyblacklikemysoul]

Until Forever - Sirius Black

Hey you beautiful people! Last chapter of Part I. 

MASTERLIST I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X |XI | XII | XIII

Chapter 14. 1978.

           Darkness was infinite and pain would linger on forever. There was no hope; hope was the biggest illusion human kind had manufactured in order to keep going when there was absolutely no fucking point. A black void was everything that ever was; nothing more that the absolute nothing. She felt weightless, as if the waves of the raging black sea could tear her to pieces, throw her to the rocks. Then, she felt as heavy as the universe – drowning in the mere thought of water. Her body felt tired, her mind was restless; not in a good way. She though that life went on but to her, that was the saddest part of it all.            It could end two ways, both equally tragic. Either she would die amongst the rest or she would live. She didn’t know what worse. Truly, never having the chance to see her family again or staying behind? Her entire body got goosebumps and her hands were trembling. She had tried to drink her problems away, just for a few hours, but it only made her sadder, lonelier.                Until she left. She wasn’t celebrating – she couldn’t celebrate the new year. Each passing second, fate was approaching them, faster than she had ever realized. Usually, it was the past that made people sad; well, she was the exception to that as well. She really wanted to go home, for this to be over, to give up Hogwarts and magic and the people. She just wanted her home back, her life, her choices – the ability to choose.                          She was making a run for it. After half an hour of pretending, she said her goodnight, only to few people – well, to the Potters. She couldn’t deal with questions and avoided them like bullets. Once the doors closed behind her, all the silence of the world crushed upon her; and it was louder than the loudest sound. It was suffocatingly loud. Refusing to go back inside, she climbed to her room, kicking her heels off, before even closing the door. A soft tune was stuck in her mind and the Greek poem that accompanied it – the moonlight sonata.              

Let me come with you.

This house can’t bear me anymore.

I cannot endure to bear it on my back.

You must always be careful, be careful,

to hold up the wall with the large buffet

to hold up the table with the chairs

to hold up the chairs with your hands

to place your shoulder under the hanging beam.

And the piano, like a closed black coffin. You do not dare to open it.

You have to be so careful, so careful, lest they fall, lest you fall. I cannot bear it.

Let me come with you.

This house, despite all its dead, has no intention of dying.

It insists on living with its dead

on living off its dead

on living off of the certainty of its death

and on still keeping house for its dead, the rotting beds and shelves.

Let me come with you.

Oh, are you going? Goodnight. No, I won’t come. Goodnight.

I’ll be going myself in a little. Thank you.

              She softly spoke the words to the still air as she was looking outside of her window, a wave of nostalgia crushing to her like a tsunami. She was deep into her thoughts, into her world of roses, poems, stardust and a serene chaos. She felt at peace in the midst of a hurricane, within dramatic lines, written by poets with elegant noses and strong beliefs. The music kept repeating memories, stirring them up as it went on. She didn’t want a happy ending, she sadly realized; she wanted tragedy, passion and catastrophe; she wanted everything and nothing. She wanted absolution. Just like every heroine in the ancient tragedies; it was in her nature.                      He didn’t dare to speak, to make a sound; he held his breath in fear of waking up from the tender dream he was having; a vision right before his eyes. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea, but he felt pulled towards her as if he had no other place to be; as if he was meant to be in her room. She knew that someone was watching her, and she already guessed who but took her time to face with him, with an all-knowing smile.               He was caught of guard, trying to retain his posture and temper or he would just turn around and run away for good. Feeling rather ashamed that he got caught, not that he was invading her privacy, he looked at the floor, blushing ever so slightly. She really didn’t mind. How could she?                    “Do you like it?” she airily asked him, as she remained by the window. He gulped. He knew she was talking about the poem he heard her recite but he couldn’t shake her image, entering the ballroom. Yes, he loved it.                        “I didn’t know that one” he admitted quite subtly. She wasn’t surprised; it was by a Greek poet and it was an intense portrayal of the subject of loneliness and alienation of the uncommitted individual. The lady in the poem represented that part of the old world, which the poet thought it was condemned to perish with its aristocratic past because of its aversion to adapt and participate in the process of change. She thought that if anyone understood that feeling, was him.              “I know” she melodiously informed him. She was enticing and it was hard for him to stay away. Not that he wanted to, in any case. No, he didn’t know which magical poem had stolen her heart but he did know that she was standing under the moonlight, her essence becoming ethereal. How evident it became? She didn’t believe in happiness and that scared him; he could feel for her but even he believed that there has to be a better way, it has to get better. She seemed to contradict him by simply suggesting that there was no point in … well, anything.              Such a hopeless wanderer’s soul, she had. She was made from a different material, a nihilist and an idealist, a desperate romantic and a catastrophic pragmatist. How wonderfully vague her outlines were. Maybe it was because she was wearing a gold waterfall for a dress, but he knew better – he just couldn’t stop gawking.; to be fair he was an 18-year-old boy.            “Why did you leave so soon?” he asked her without hesitation, as if al the barriers had collapsed under the moonlight. She solely focused on his eyes and he could not avert his gaze.                   “Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques - I believe it is” she quoted Verlaine and that, he did know. Sad beneath fantastic disguises. Why would she ever feel that way? He was only fooling himself. He was lying, pretending not to feel the way he did, pretending that there was nothing between them, pretending he was happy torturing Marlene, pretending everything was fine and the way they were supposed to be.         “Votre âme est un paysage choisi” he quoted back, letting her know that his French was so much better than hers and that he paid attention to the details. He truly did. It was almost inappropriate for her to like him or even to think about how his eyes shined liked spilled mercury under the moonlight. However, the biggest problem was that it was unrequited.                             He took one step towards her direction, fully aware of the fragile moment they shared. She saw the shift in his eyes and her entire mind was screaming to her to shut up. Everyone else was probably celebrating in the midst of an upcoming war but she was fighting another one all on her own. Keeping secrets from the people whom their fates were sealed and she could not do a thing was becoming heavier by the second and that broke her.        

           “What – what is really happening here, love?” he questioned her with a slight anger lingering on in his voice – anger that he didn’t know he was experiencing. She was surprised by the very thought of him being angry. He wasn’t angry at her per se, he was really shaken off about not being in the known, having blanks that he had to fill by himself when it should have been her answers instead of his imagination.              She wanted to tell him everything and then her mind went to the time he spent in prison for no reason at all, and she swallowed hard. How would she ever be able to come clean about that. Remus was a bit easier – yes, he was still very hurt and shocked and everything in the middle but Sirius… it was always different with him. It was always different when it came to him – she was …                  “I want to tell you but it’s too much. Please don’t ask me to be honest with you. Not on that level. Anything else, I will answer. Not that” she finally told him. At least, she was acknowledging all the hypocrisy and all the lying, he thought. He wasn’t looking for that answer though, he wanted the real reason behind her entire existence in his life, and so he closed the gap between them. His tall frame was towering over her, her back was pressed to the wall next to the window and his eyes were piercing her face for clues.                    “No. You don’t get to do that. I have been nothing but honest with you about everything. You don’t get to hide now” he pushed further, making her arch her eyebrow. As he realized that he had overstepped the boundaries, he tried to take a step back but her finger was already poking his chest through his unbuttoned shirt and undone tie.                  “You? Honest? Really? Is that what you tell yourself before you go to sleep? That you are honest with me? Or that you’re honest with yourself? Because neither -                        “Fine, what do you want me to say?” he cut her off, revealing his hot temper with a flush that appeared in his face – something she had never seen before and she had to remind herself that this Sirius was not the one from the books. He wasn’t a character anymore; he was a real person – breathing down on her.                            She closed her eyes, not wanting to create any more tension that what had already been created but he was not having it. He wanted answers, now more than ever, even if he knew that he, himself, had been lying all that time – this was not the same. He was lying about his feelings; she was lying about everything.                        “Who are you? Who could you possibly be to come here through the fucking sky? To come here and turn everything upside down. To make me question things that I thought I had figured out long ago. To make me jealous of my own best friend and to make me want to destroy every sound thing. Who are you?” he bombarded her with accusations that he wanted figured out now. And all it took was one hot second before she screamed the answers back to him, each hitting like a bullet to his heart, each being louder and louder only to finish off with a dead silence.                        “You think you are the one suffering? I have been trapped here for too long, I miss my home, my family, my life. I want out. I am done playing a stupid part in this scenario. I know everything. I know how are you going to end up, when, where, who dies, who lives, who fucking betrays – because I came from the sky. The fucking sky. I don’t know how or even who I am anymore. I thought you were a book character and every single thing was only real in my imagination and the pages of seven books. But no. I fucking live in the damn past – not mine. NO. A past from a different possibility. Twenty years before my birth date. And of course, out of every mistake I could possibly make, every choice gone mad, I had to - ”.

           Usually, there were two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When people were afraid, they tend to pull back from life, when in love, the open up to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement and acceptance. And while fear was easier, almost natural to them, they knew that they had to step outside their comfort zone.                  Not finishing off her sentence, leaving it there hanging in the middle of the thick air between them, was her way of giving him space to decide and her a breather. Her mind was yelling at her to stop and think about all those things that actually mattered but not every act was a result of sensibility. Her accusing finger was still on his chest; as a matter of fact, her entire palm was being pressed against his skin – not his shirt anymore. The information was not new to him; he knew, deep down he did.              Each night before he would fall asleep, he was trying to decode and figure her out, even just a bit. He was repeating the things she had said during the day, realizing just how much of an insight she had and wondering if it was just that or… It started of small, a few words of more than wisdom were spoken, a few things were said that she could not possibly know about… and the ever-present aura of secrecy. Her tattoos were one thing, her words were another. It wasn’t news to him and she noticed that. Her anger calmed down to a side smile.                “But you already knew” she concluded and her touch became gentler against his chest. Gentle as a fire. He looked at her with a desperate look, as if he wanted to do so much, to say so much but couldn’t. Sirius was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a cheater.             Instead of pushing her against the wall and kissing her like he had already pictured in his head about a million times, he stepped back and he sat on the bed, eyes always glued to her.              “I think I did” he agreed, more to his own mind than to her words. She took a deep breath and used the chair in front of the boudoir, to the left of the big window, facing him while at the same time keeping her distance.                          “I still don’t think I can tell you everything, Sirius” she softly apologized but he shook his head.                    “It’s okay. It’s okay if I am the one dying, love, or the one going mad. You will tell when or if you’re ready. I’m sorry for… this” he said, indicating the space between them but she brushed it off. How much longer would she able to keep it hidden from James and Peter, she didn’t know.                  “Sirius… it’s not that simple. I know what I know from the books. So, basically, from I come from, the dimension and the time period, you, the boys, Hogwarts… magic, everything is fiction and contained within seven books that are not even about you. While these books go on, you are older and have gone through a lot. I know that part. I don’t know if it will happen the way it was supposed to, since I am here and I wasn’t supposed to, I think, but I also can’t change much in this plot. Or even if I can, I don’t know if I should. Messing with time and history is not something I am looking forward to do. Although, if I could change some things, I would without blinking” she admitted, staying as close to the truth as she could, without revealing too much. How could she face him and tell him what was about to happen to him in a few years? He wouldn’t even get to turn her age before Azkaban… and that hit her differently.                        “I know that there is something dark in the things you are not saying. And I know that I am neither the one who dies nor the one who lives from the way your eyes never met mine when I said it. Maybe the one who goes crazy but not exactly. That’s okay. It would happen either you were here or not. It’s better that you are. I don’t know if it is for you… I cannot imagine the weight of all those things. I am sorry” he told her sincerely. They shared so many things; intuition, depth, passion. And a five-year gap.            “So you see, celebrating didn’t feel appropriate” she concluded airily. But he looked at her in a perplexed expression.                  “On the contrary. We should. Now more than ever. Because after all, we only have this moment, isn’t that so?” he proposed and she was astonished because he was right. He didn’t want to talk about it more, knowing that something bad happened to all of them, and that she didn’t want to say what. He understood her – it was cruel, such disastrous things being delivered by her. She held answers to questions they hadn’t even thought about yet. He could never blame her for not coming forward. Even though he wanted to be her confidant, the one she would spill her heart out he knew that she wouldn’t. Some things were better left unsaid… but…not forever.                      “You should go back to your friends” she suggested, as she felt worn out, wanting nothing more than to get out of the dress and makeup.                                  “I thought we were friends” he chuckled darkly, earing a fixed glance from her piercing eyes.            “Oh Sirius. You and I…we could never be friends” she admitted and there was not a single shy cell in her body. Her entire mind had shut up and every word coming out of her mouth was a sharp slap across his face, hitting him with the truest statement she could have said. He licked his lips and tamed his tongue not to respond the only way he truly wanted to as he got up and buttoned up again, to rejoin the party.                      “Remus knows?” he asked but it came out as a bold statement. He was jealous he wasn’t the first one to know this, or how her lips felt against his. He shook the image out of his head and focused his eyes one her. She was radiant but she wasn’t fooling anyone – she might have worn a gold dress but she was the moon, dark, secret and almost untouchable. Almost.                    “He does” she confirmed, realizing just how jealous he could get. She didn’t like possessiveness, mainly because she was the one being possessive in her previous relationships, but with Sirius…she could, perhaps, turn a blind eye. He was unexpected in every way, to her. He was biting his lip, deep in thought. It was tragically doomed and yet he found beauty among the disaster. It was fragile and soft, so tender but raw, catastrophe pouring down at everything. It was problematic – making homes out of people. But he had never felt more at home than with people; his best mates, his school, her.  His house never felt like a home and yet he was surrounded by it. And now, a strange feeling washed over his heart. What was he doing, letting her go?                He waned to kiss her, without a warning, with permission, without even deciding to do so but simply because he couldn’t think of anything else. He needed that breath she was holding. It belonged to him and he wanted it back. But there was that small voice, so ever faint, that told him it was not the time nor the place to do so. He had to physically stop from heading towards her rather than the door. And he didn’t know why he stopped.             “Love, I…” he started but she gave him a sharp look.                        “Don’t” she whispered and he left with a heartbreaking look on his delicate features.       

           She found an excuse not to return to the party. She would find an excuse to return to Hogwarts as soon as possible, otherwise her entire being would implode and no one would even notice. She would just collapse under the pressure of knowledge and no one would even understand how hard her life had suddenly become. She was the girl who wanted to know everything, who went looking for knowledge every place she visited and she had become the girl who wished she didn’t know the future, who was oblivious and blissful, who stayed silent and didn’t challenge the world.                It was too early. Too late maybe. No one was partying, no one was in the living room, no one was making any sound. She tiptoed around a bit. The fireplace was livid, calming and consuming at the same time as if it was calling to her. Everything will end up in flames. Not ice, but hellfire. It was the saddest thing she could have thought of. Protecting a breakable heart. What if she got the chance to leave?              “Would I?” she whispered to herself. No. And that feeling of knowing that she wouldn’t be able to leave even if she did find a way, that she wouldn’t go back to her own family and her own life, that very feeling made her realize that this was indeed her home, that the people in this reality were her family and that this was her now. And she had to fight for her home and her family. She had to at least try.              “We missed you at the party” a soft voice caught her off guard. She took a deep breath. This was it. This hide and seek had to end. Once she turned around, he saw how serious she was and immediately understood that something was off. His eyes were tired but alert, his whole body language was signaling that he was able to grasp the severity of whatever she had to say to him.                        “There is something I need to tell you but you’ll need to sit down, James”.

__ Taglist: @must-be-a-weasley-92​ @megalificent​ @fific7​ @maraudersangel​ @tb-ctn 

[itstimetotheorize]

Pennys future, The fate of the maiden powers

When Penny first revealed herself to be a robot it was clear to us she felt conflicted about her identity, the reason being of course because she was aware of the fact that she was created for the sole purpose of being used as a weapon. However, after Penny befriended Ruby, Ruby gave penny the comfort she needed by letting her know how despite her physical robot body, Penny was in fact alive as she carried with her a soul and a heart just like any other human being.

Naturally, just as any other character in the RWBY series, Penny's inspiration came from a fairy tale story, Pinocchio . Once we knew this, many of us felt at some point in the series Penny would have the chance to fulfill her dream of becoming a real girl, just as Pinocchio did in the story. However, near the end of the beacon arc, when penny met her tragic fate at the hands of her own weapon in her fight with Pyrrha, that dream felt like it was just that , a dream. 

However ! , many years later and at the start of the atlas arc in volume 7, we all got the news of our lives, penny was alive!

Now, many of us had originally theorized because Penny was a robot, it could have been very possible for her to rebuilt. After all, her father/creator Pietro was clearly shown to still be alive and would most likely have made the effort to recover penny from beacon in order to piece her back together. When ruby and the other met Pietro for the first time, Pietro reveals to ruby and the others how  he had in fact made the effort to recover pennys body after the city had become over run with grim. .

However, even after revealing to us penny was alive  there was still one major problem.... penny was still being used as a weapon and was seen as nothing more than a tool to help protect Mantle and Atlas. Despite the friendships she made in her time at Beacon, penny was still stuck with the title of “war weapon” in Atlas rather than being recognized as the young girl so many people close to her knew to be. 

Regardless of the situation, we knew something was being planned for penny in the RWBY series, we just didn't know what... until the volume 7 finale. In V7C13,  cinder made an attempt to steal the winter maiden powers from the current winter maiden Fria, However, unbeknownst to cinder, Fria still had some fight left in her despite her elderly age. As Fria fought back, she created an icy vortex around herself in order to prevent any living thing from coming near her, including Winter who was the very person ironwood chose to wield the winter maiden powers after Frias death.

Knowing fully well the threat at hand and seeing how not even Winter herself could enter Frias icy vortex, penny had made the quick decision to use her robotic body to her advantage and leaped straight into Frias icy vortex in an effort to snap Frias fragile mind back into reality. Despite Fria having already been set up to transfer the maiden powers to Winter, Fria confuses penny as the next holder of the winter maiden powers!. Now, we had originally theorized penny could be a candidate for the winter maiden powers. However, knowing the maiden powers could only latch onto the auras of young girls, we weren't to sure if penny could even receive the power, after all, pennys soul/aura was a piece of Pietros. Knowing pennys aura was a part of Pietro, many of us continued to struggle with the idea on whether or not penny could obtain the winter maiden powers, then again...Qrow did say the maiden transfer was based on a “series of stupid and convoluted rules”, meaning they had a very small idea on how the transfer worked, meaning ozpin and the others didn't fully understand the nature of the maiden powers ...so then, could there have been something to the maiden powers we hadn’t yet thought of?...well....as a matter of fact....there was...

  Despite penny having been given orders to protect Fria as winter acquired the maiden powers, penny ultimately makes the quick decision to accept the winter maiden powers from Fria before cinder got a second chance at killing both Fria and Winter. This was big news as it confirmed to us how the maiden powers could be transferred to those who were not just biologically born girls!

As penny received the winter maiden powers, many of us began to discover that perhaps Fria was symbolized as the “Blue Fairy” who used her powers to make penny a “real girl”.  After all, the winter maiden powers could only be transferred to another living human girl with a soul, so in the end it was through this transfer of the winter maiden powers that finally made penny, as well as those around her, realize she truly was a real girl.

Unfortunately, Penny soon began to regret her quick decision of accepting the winter maiden powers. Before, penny was the protector of Mantle, but now she was so much more than that, she was the winter maiden and despite her desire to help the people around her, penny did not like the fact that she was still being viewed as as an item with a power that everyone wanted. The winter maiden powers had forced penny to realize how this power she possessed was capable of turning friends and allies into bitter enemies. As penny expresses her distress to ruby, we fans began to realize something, something  we hadn't thought about since V7C8... despite penny having realized she really was a real girl...penny... never had the chance to live her own life as a real girl! Penny has always had her life planned, it has always been watched, SHE has always been watched!

As a result, Penny has had little to no experience in what it truly meant to live as her own person and learn about the things everyone else has had the chance to do, such as understanding complicated emotions and the emotions of others. In V7C8, when winter expresses her conflicting emotions towards her father, penny has difficulty understanding why she would feel conflicted about speaking from the heart.

 Winter tries to express to penny the environment they are in brings back very unhappy and conflicting emotions she has towards Jacques, her sudden burst of emotions allowed Jacques to take advantage of his meeting with the council members and make himself look like he was the one in the right as he criticizes ironwood and his teams lack of results to protect the people. Despite it being made clear to us that Winter is restricting a lot about herself in favor of Ironwoods opinions and her duty as a soldier, penny does not understand why she would do such things and feel such things. As a result, penny does not know what to say to Winter because she has never had experience with those kinds of emotions herself, in the end, penny simply says to Winter, “your right...I don't understand...”. In V8C5, Penny finally explains to Pietro her frustration, how she IS trying to live her life, but there are just so many people and so many things  preventing her from doing so, because of this, penny is now trying her best to do what little she can that counts as living, such as making her own choice to help save Mantle and Atlas rather than abide by ironwoods commands. 

Knowing this, many of us felt pennys moment had yet to be completed, something else needed to happen to penny in order to fully cement her identity as a “real girl”, or at the very least, give her the chance to feel like she could start it for real. Well, one volume later, it seems as though our suspicions were correct...something did happen to penny...something which completed her tale as the “Pinocchio” of the RWBY series...as ruby and the others got a hold of the staff of creation, they used its power to finally help free penny of her robotic body, in other words.... penny...had become a genuine real REAL girl!!

 In the mid season of volume 8, many of us had begun to believe if penny was doomed to succumb to Watts virus, then maybe Ruby and the others could take the risk of removing the staff from the vault and use it to rebuild penny... and they did!. What’s even more interesting and comedic about this whole situation, once it did unfold, was how many of us had begun to realize Ambrosius, the spirit of the staff, could very well have been revealed to be the real “blue fairy” who used its magic to give penny a new body while her old body was left to face the doom of the virus. After all, in the story of Pinocchio, Pinocchio was also given a new body while his old empty puppet body was left behind.

Now, we are still unsure about whether or not pennys new body is flesh and blood, but what we do know is how penny is no longer a robot, what's more is that penny appears to have all the bodily functions of any normal human body. When penny hugs ruby in happiness she asks ruby if hugs always felt  so warm, meaning that penny can feel touch!

Unfortunately... there is one thing that we hadn't realized about pennys miracle...something important....something we might not have wanted to think about in the midst of her joyous moment ...penny...is now in more danger than she has ever been before! what do I mean by this? well,  if penny is now capable of feeling and doing all the things any other person with a human body can do, then this also means penny now has all the weaknesses of a human body! meaning penny can now take on physical damage and feel pain!. Whats even worse is how this means penny is now fully capable of dying by another persons hands if she is not careful! And of all the things to happen and see after penny is turned into a real girl, what do we see?

We see Cinder in the crowd of people preparing to enter the portals created by Ambrosius where she will not only find ruby....but non-robot penny!

Granted, penny still has all the knowledge she was programmed with for battle, but now that she is likely to feel the affects of human pain during combat, well, lets just hope penny will have the will to fight through any injuries she will experience for the first time.

Knowing all of this, Penny is by no means in the clear just yet, due to the maiden powers, penny will continue to be a target for cinder, however, considering the RWBY series has already made us witness penny die twice, once at Beacon and again when her robot body was left to self distrust at the hands of Watts virus, its possible? they will not try to kill penny again now that she has finally become a real girl? But considering CRWBYS track record in twist endings, its more than likely that something surprising will happen to penny. So then, what will happen?...well, in order to save Penny, something needs to happen to not just cinder, but the maiden powers as well, but what? . Will cinder take pennys maiden power without killing her?... perhaps, I mean cinder did try to take pennys power before by just touching her.

Then again, it is a grimm arm created by salem, so it is likely that it will aim to kill the previous maiden once cinder latches onto them. Cinder is also the type of person who is easily willing to kill others and considering penny had already brutally beaten her in battle,...well... cinder will most likely aim to kill her.

However, given the circumstances, there is also the chance the maiden powers will be transferred to someone else, but can the power go to someone else? or will penny make a sudden decision which will not only save everyone but deny cinder the satisfaction of winning?! maybe...

Then again, perhaps there is an additional factor we hadn’t thought about, or rather an additional person who we hadn't realized had been suspiciously missing for quite a while now, where am I going with this? well.........where is salem?! 

Salem should’ve revived herself from the blast Oscar set off inside Montstra, and yet, salem has still not reappeared, but why, what is she planning? what is she doing? and most importantly, what will she do to cinder and penny if she finds them? up to now we have only suspected what will happen between cinder and penny, but will salem intervene at the last minute and do something horrifying that will leave everyone  in complete and utter shock?! or will her presence cause cinder to reevaluate her plans?...maybe... but hey thats just a theory, a RWBY theory!!

[neoyi]

I don’t think I’ll ever get to humorously commentate on KH2 piece-by-piece as I tried to do for the first two games (and god knows if I’ll wrap up Re:chain of Memories with the writing method I was doing, but I digress.) I like talking about this endearingly dumb series and replaying this game is a nice opportunity to revisit how I feel now versus how I felt back when I was a fresh-out-of-high-school Neo playing this game for the first time back in 2005.

So I’m going to surmise my current play session (this collects my thoughts up to the Hercules world) with easily containable bullet points.

*I kind of want to make a separate post about the infamous prologue and discuss how people felt Back in the Days (an understatement, let me tell ya), and ultimately what I feel it does for the game and whether I personally liked it, so I'm going to leave that in the back burner for the time.

I will say Twilight Town sounds like a nice, quiet place to live. I love the concept of a city that's always perpetually sunset. It's a beautiful place and like Traverse Town, sports an amazingly cozy soundtrack.

*I'm sure there's some bullshit reason why, but I don't get why Sora's one year absence meant some of the people he's met just....forgot him. Like why? What purpose does this serve? This especially affected Kairi, but it’s ultimately negligible because she regains her memories of him during the beginning portions of the game.

Was this Namine's doing? Was it to protect Sora from the bad guys or something? Why hasn't Riku forgotten him? Was Namine just selective on who she erased Sora's existence from? Did Kairi forget just because she’s connected to Namine? Or Sora? What purpose does this narrative serve? What was the point?

*Speaking of, I forgot, did they ever explain why Riku disguised himself as Ansem? I don’t remember if they ever explained it when I played through this game, but also I haven’t touched KHII in six thousand years, so I don’t remember a lot of the more convoluted parts of the plot.

*It is comical to see Setzer of Final Fantasy VI fame turn from a risky, gambling sky pirate who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the empire, only cares for the freedom of the skies, and enduring survival’s guilt over a tragic loss of someone dear to him into a...

Whiffle Bat Champion.

*My sheer excitement and obsession when they first announced Vivi as one of the FF cameo was astronomical. I remember keeping a DeviantArt journal detailing any news and screencaps of the little guy pre-release. Still my favorite character from the whole franchise.

Even if he suffers the same fate as Donald and has a zipper on his mage hat for absolutely no reason other than this game existing during Nomura’s Belt-and-Zippers phase.

*Someone’s going to get sued one day because these damn kids keeps sitting atop the clock tower that has yet to be grafted with bars to prevent their inevitable deaths when one of them slips and falls.

*I swear I could play a six degrees of Kingdom Hearts with all the voice actors in this game. Or at least a "Whozit" and "Whatzit" they've done in other media (like Yuffie who is voiced by Mae "Katara" Whitman here. Pre-Avatar, even.)

Also I’m sorry, Will Friedle, you’re a fine voice actor, but you’re...Terry McGinnis. Batman told me he “totally owned all you lamers.”

*I love the Nobody enemy designs. The sheer creepiness and uncanny valley of them all lends credit to their existence as, well, non-existences. The Dusk enemy design alone is inspired with its unsettling belts wrapped around its fingers, or terrifyingly sharp teeth subtly hidden inside of its mouth. I can imagine the creature unzipping its mouth to reveal a set of flesh-eating teeth and the fear is real.

I love the way it flies and circles around its victim, almost like it’s trying to wrap itself around you, but I’m especially fond of that one attack where it essentially kicks you as while it sashays over to you upside down.

The Samurai Dusk also has my favorite reaction command. It’s just unspeakably badass.

*I never liked Squall in FF8 back then (don't know how I'd feel now if I ever replay FF8) and he was just okay in the first Kingdom Hearts, but I remember I really endeared myself to his reappearance in KHII. Squall in this game is what happens when he grew up, found good friends and family, and got some therapy for his issues. He’s stoic, but always a team player, and supportive of Sora and the people around him. KHII Squall is what FF8 Squall has the potential to be once he reaches adulthood and it’s nice to see that here.

*I really love the little changes the developers inputted for Sora, Kairi, and Riku's models to accommodate for their physical growth. Riku's is the most obvious (boy clearly ate his vegetables), but I like that you can tell Sora grew not just through story observations (Yen Sid points out how he outgrew his old garbs) but by comparing his height in relation to Goofy. Sora was shorter than him in the first game, but has since outgrown him in KH2.

Along with his better skill set during combat, this is a really nice way to visually shown how far Sora has come and how much time has passed.

This also goes in the opposite direction with Namine whom I think had to redo her mod when they remastered Chain of Memories for 3D. I notice she looks younger in that game than in KHII which would make sense at the time since it takes place a full year ago.

...Well, maybe. Can Nobodies age???

*Damn it, game, don’t give me a pouch containing 5,000 munny and treat it as an in-game key item that I can’t use even though munny is literally the currency I use to buy things.

*The retooling and emphasis on battle mechanics means the platforming element of the first really suffers and that’s a damn shame. I wasn’t particularly in love with exploring the Disney Worlds in the first KH, but I appreciate the effort put into so Sora could not easily get from Point A to Point B.

Even finding treasure chests is comical and if not for sake of posterity for anyone going for 100%, I wonder why Jiminy bothers to keep track of how many you find. There were literally like three out in plain view the minute I entered the Mulan world.

*Speaking of level designs, yeesh, the layout is not optimal for the skateboarding minigame.

*Trying to design a gummi ship in this game requires a masters degree in gummiology and metaphysical engineering, as well as the ability to tap into the 4th dimensional. The 45,000 page instructional manual they give you, the odd grid map used to piece together your ship (fair, the latter was also in the first game), and finicky button controller layout means it took me a while to fully grasp what I was suppose to do and I’m still not sure I got a full handle of it just yet.

*I don’t understand why Sora had to use a physical object as a conduit in each world to open up a metaphysical gate to the next world. He never had to use an in-between to close it. What’s the exception outside of unnecessary symbolic tie-in to the individual worlds he’s in?

*Props to the developers for recreating the ballroom. It’s actually kind of majestic to look at the beautiful ceiling and chandelier design from Sora’s perspective.

*There are a couple of random gameplay elements I forgot completely existed and seemingly there for arbitrary purposes. I just find it unusual that Mulan’s world forces you to collect literal manifestation of morale. It’s like the developers decided they wanted to reuse the Struggle minigames’ balls into a repurposed Morale Ball because well shit, someone programmed these things they’re damn well going to put it to good use.

I guess if Sora and pals don’t literally collect morale, all the soldiers will be, I don’t know, sad and die in battle or something.

*I’m aware Disney villains using the Heartless as their personal army is the norm, but it’s tonally weird when it’s Shan-Yu of all characters doing it. The infamous Charge-In-The-Snowy-Mountain scene doesn’t quite have the leg up in terms of threat when his army consist of adorable Heartless bumblebees.

*You know what pointless shit I am obsessed with? The stupid puzzle pieces scattered throughout the game. This is the first time I’m playing the Final Mix game and I’m just seething at the lack of abilities I currently do not have that prevents me from reaching certain pieces.

*Auron was instantaneously my favorite character when I first played FFX twenty years ago, and his return in KH2 sent me in fangirlish squeals. How could I not? Look at this handsome bastard. He’s calm, collected, badass with a cool sword, has rugged good looks (he doesn’t have it here, but he rocks some killer shades), and a good dad. That’s prime DILF quality right there. Of course I can’t get enough of him.

Square Enix knows we can’t get enough of him; dude be all “fuck off hades” and gives the god the middle fingers and fucks off elsewhere. Auron is King Shit.

*Oh man, do I still have my old Sora figurine? I think I got him in Katsucon way back in 2009.

*So who’s done a drinking game every time the game introduces Sora, Donald, and Goofy individually to every character they meet?

*Hey, so I noticed Square Enix is finally moving their asses and bringing the Ultimania books to the US. I doubt they’re going to bring the older KH Ultimanias overseas (my kingdom for an officially translated FFIX one), but ya know. I kinda think that yeah, I might want the KHIII Ultimania.

...Just saying.

*GET UP ON THE HYDRA’S BACK! GET UP ON THE HYDRA’S BACK! GET UP ON THE HYDRA’S BACK! GET UP ON THE HYDRA’S BACK!

GET UP ON THE HYDRA’S BACK!

[ownworldresident]

We Are Our Own Heroes. Chapter 9: Faith

Book: The Royal Romance, seven years post-TRR

Premise: Six years after a tragic loss, Liam and his adopted daughter meet Cassandra, an artist with her own troubled past, and the three find in each other the friend they never knew they needed.

Disclaimer: Setting and some characters belong to Pixelberry. I am just borrowing them and will return them when they feel better.

Themes: found family, (power of) friendship, healing

Content Warning: death mention

The Master Masterlist (link)|  Our Own Heroes Masterlist (link)

Cassandra

Cassandra woke well before her alarm and was out of bed before she realised the time. She didn’t need that to realise the day. The cold ache in her heart was enough.

Cordonia itself felt devoid of life in the cool autumn morning. The weather was reminiscent to the point of the worst type of nostalgia, without the misplaced excitement or fateful future plans.

Dark thoughts followed her through a zombie-like routine and out the door to the predawn world. A sweet relief of no busy minds was the clearest feeling. She was fully awake. Then the feeling faded, and she was fully aware.

No one was on the road save a few unfortunate shift workers, but she remained as diligent as if it were peak traffic. A short, humourless laugh escaped her behind the wheel. What a cruel twist of irony to repeat the event. She hadn’t delayed this time.

At the junction taking her from the city she opted a familiar route, and the false dawn breached where sky met sea as she pulled up beside the shore. The only one here. She escaped her car, planted her feet on the rocks before it, and stared at the overcast sky.

“If you’re there,” she said, “I’m sorry.”

But no matter how many times she said it, the words were not enough. Cassie’s eyes drew back to the drivers side of her Golf for a moment before she squeezed them shut, her fists with them, and looked out to the dawn following its friend.

The first regret was there was no friend now. A second later she realised there was.

----

At the first reasonable hour she drove up, and the staff directed Cassie to the breakfast room on the upper level, far from Liam’s apartments and somewhere Cassie had only been once, when Emily showed her around. She pulled the cuff of her sleeves over her palms and pressed them against her damp eyes, hoping to at least appear composed when she found him.

Clearing her throat as softly as she could, Cassie stared at the door, which stood slightly ajar. It was bright inside, the room faced west, and she hoped the sun was now high enough that he wouldn’t see exactly how hard it was for her to breathe.

“Liam?” she asked as she entered the room, spotting him after a moment as he paced before the windows. He interrupted the sunlight whenever he moved across them, but stopped in shadow.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded. Cassie flinched and resisted the urge to step back.

“I came to see you.” Her voice was the soft opposite to his. She could make out his features as her eyes adjusted. Liam’s expression was tight, his body so tense he stood statuesque, and his eyes were just as hard.

“To rub in your success?” he asked, then frowned deeper. “How much did they offer you? Enough to buy your studio? Move overseas? Pay whatever debt you have?”

“What are you talking about?” Cassie’s concern became confusion in her voice. She sidelined her reason for coming. There were no events she could think of that would cause such a reaction.

“Don’t be daft.” Liam grabbed a newspaper from the table between them and thrust it toward her. He paced again as she took it up.

An intentionally dark picture took half the cover; a bare, neglected room with a cradle at the far corner, a huge, oddly shaped blotch on old carpet, and what looked like a gun beside it. And superimposed was a head shot: a smiling young woman with striking blonde hair, a thin round face, and familiar pale eyes. She didn’t need to ask, because below the image and in the description, was her name: Anna. The stain was blood.

Cassie cupped a hand over her mouth, nearly dropping the paper as bile rolled up her throat. She swallowed the acidic taste, coughed, then read the title again. ‘How She Really Died’, with the subtitle: ‘A Horror Behind Red Tape’.

The news had apparently gone to print this morning. She had been nowhere but her home or her car since before dawn.

“Why did you do it?”

Cassie looked up and flinched to find Liam much closer, just out of her space. The anger in his eyes was a thin mask for the suffering that wound deep. She knew that pain was in his very soul because it lived in her as well.

“Why would you think I would do this?” she breathed, croaked rather, and cleared her throat again. Her mind shifted. “Does Emily know?”

“I’ve called her school, they’ll contact me if she wishes to come back.”

“Good. God, I hope she’s… are you okay?” She wanted to help him, comfort him, and pressed a hand over her heart to stem her own heavy ache. Liam shook his head.

“Cassie stop. Stop pretending. You got behind my defences, I should have known better than to let you, and you told them the first chance you had.” Liam’s words held so much certainty. Cassie wondered how long he’d been firm in the belief that she was capable of such a betrayal. Her other hand tightened around the newspaper.

“You don’t actually think I would tell anyone?”

“Honestly? I have no idea what to think. I know you are the second person I have ever told and two days later—this.” He pointed to the paper in her grip.

“And so you took the first possible explanation and stopped there.” Cassie’s voice cooled as she comprehended his narrow thought process. “With no consideration for how I’ve acted in the past. I have a lot of regrets, but betraying a friend will never be one of them.”

Liam searched her eyes, then closed his and looked away. “There is no other logical option.”

“Really? You’ve never had anything happen to you that you couldn’t explain in minutes? What a glorious life that must be.” Cassie threw the newspaper down.

“You have no idea what this is like.” He shook his head dismissively. Heat rushed through Cassie’s body at the callous words. There was so much hurt in his voice, but it didn’t touch her now.

“Yes, I do.” She blinked back tears. “I lost my best friend a year ago today. I had hoped to find one here, but apparently that faith was misplaced.”

Liam’s eyes widened a fraction. His mouth opened as if to speak, but nothing came. The silence settled and stretched, then Cassie released a breath, and the ache in her chest sunk deeper. Maybe this had always been inevitable. Maybe Liam wasn’t prepared or yet able to work through his past. When it was clear she would get no reply, she left.

Liam

Liam heard her footsteps retreat down the hall as he stared through the open door. A choked sound travelled back to him and tightened around his heart. He barely drew breath, willing himself to move. ‘You have no idea what this is like’ He was ashamed of the words, and they would ring in her mind. He followed her out.

“Cassie, stop,” he called, hurrying after her. She reached the landing and paused. Liam stopped a few strides away. His heart pounded as he waited for her to turn around, and hoped there was something, anything, that could undo his words.

Cassandra corrected her posture and turned stiffly to face him again.

“What?”

“I—” he cleared his throat. “I didn’t know about your friend.”

Cassie stared at him, her brow pulling tight, then said quietly, “That shouldn’t matter.”

Liam’s mind spun with thoughts he couldn’t grasp, and he struggled to find one that wouldn’t dig a deeper pit. The heat in the back of his ears didn’t help. He exhaled and tried to see the conversation from her perspective.

“No, it shouldn’t,” he conceded. “It was a stupid thing to say. I don’t…”

“Don’t what, Liam? Don’t have a conclusion already? You didn’t discover the ‘logical option’? What a fresh world this must be for you.” Cassie grit her teeth and took a deliberate step toward him, her face streaked with tears. “You are so busy trying to judge people’s intentions you never stopped to ask, and this is why you’re alone here, why you’ll always be alone. It’s not so damn frightening to consider someone other than yourself. I thought of all people you would know that.

“All I wanted was friendship,” she continued, “all I asked for was trust, but you couldn’t even give me that.” Cassie looked away from him for just a moment, but when he tried to answer she held up a hand and stepped backward. “I’m sorry that this happened to you, Liam, but I can’t do this one sided anymore, so this is goodbye. Give my love to Emily, and you make damn sure to remember how lucky you are to have her.”

There was nothing Liam could say to stop her walking away again. The back of his throat ached along with the rest of him, and he ran a hand over his mouth as he stared at the point where she had vanished around the corner. He wanted to collapse there, in the middle of the hall, or maybe scream. Of his own failure he compounded one pain with another. And now she was gone. He didn’t love Cassie like he had loved Anna, but the loss added to what he had felt every day for six years.

After some indeterminate time, he pulled himself up and exhaled. There were things he needed to do, tasks he could distract himself with. Liam swung round to return to the room he had come from and discovered he was not alone.

“That uh… looked rough,” said Drake, scratching the back of his head and glancing up the hall where Cassie had disappeared, then back to Liam.

He sighed, breath shaking, and cleared his throat. It did nothing to release the ache. Not that anything ever did. “How much did you see?”

“See? Not much. Heard?” Drake winced and folded his arms, appearing a little guilty. “Voices carry. Everything since you came into the hall.”

Liam’s ears burned again, and he glanced over his shoulder at the memory of Cassie’s anger. It wasn’t something he wanted everyone to know, but Drake wasn’t the worst person to overhear.

“Are you um… are you okay?” Drake asked.

“I just…” Liam drew in a choking breath and released an audible sigh. “Need some space.” Need a friend. “I’ll be fine.”

He didn’t need to look at this friend to know Drake’s expression was a mix of doubt and guilt and pity. It was one of the reasons they didn’t talk about Anna, and why he wasn’t the friend Liam needed right now. The one he needed was gone.

His mobile buzzed in his pocket a minute later on his way down the hall, and he pulled back all of the heaviness to the back of his mind, and focused on the external again. It was the school.

Emily needed him.

——–

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[1-lightofjustice]

Choice and Fate

Preview :   

("I made it in time to be with you at your final moment and share your destiny. I am satisfied with that.") -July, 1999

("It may come to be that you'll share my destiny and have to die with me." "Then so be it.") -December, 2013

Two Kings, two knights, and their shared destiny.

Pairing : Fushimi and Munakata, Habari and Zenjou. No romance but a very deep bond

Tags : Metafiction, Angst with Happy Ending, Zenjou Gouki P.O.V

Notes : I was re-watching Side Blue Seven Stories, and boy do I fangirling hard when Zenjou talked about "shared destiny" (It's the same word, unmei!). Especially since Munakata and Fushimi's secret plan is my favorite thing on K : ROK. Then when I read about previous Blue clan's tale, it occurred to me that Habari/Zenjou/Shiotsu really has some similar dynamic with Munakata/Fushimi/Awashima. Responsible and doting beautiful King, serious and disciplined Lieutenant and second in command, and the wild card "can't wear their uniform properly" private force of the King. Their situation is also somewhat familiar, but of course in Munakata/Fushimi/Awashima's case, they ended with happy ending *pats Zenjou and Shiotsu*

Link of this fic on ao3 : https://archiveofourown.org/works/31751149

Throughout the surprisingly long life of a Zenjou Gouki, he has encountered many crazy situations. Hell, he managed to see the Kagutsu Crater incident right in front of him and stayed alive. But what happened last night can be included in one crazy thing that happened in front of his eyes after a long time.

It started with him following his current superior (not King, Munakata Reisi is never his King) to a small plain room. It was furnished exceedingly modestly, having only a desk and a bed. Zenjou thought that this boring place must be the perfect place to discuss something like a secret plan. Munakata seemed to notice his thought, informed him with a light tone.

"This is my private room. Not many people know about this room, so it will be convenient for our secret meeting.[1]"

"So you really have a place to rest. I've heard rumors about you are some kind of creature who doesn't need sleep." surprised Zenjou. Zenjou has heard many rumors regarding what a bizarre creature the current Blue King. From he has an infinite set of glasses to he lives inside network and doesn't need rest, because no single person ever see him in any condition except straight and sturdy. Although, he also never saw Habari slept either.

He wondered if that was Blue Kings' stubborn trait, to never let people see their crumbled form even on the brink of their death. Yes, he already knew the state of Munakata's Damocles Sword, but the current Blue King's eyes never waver in fear of his own fate.

Just like Habari on that damned day...

A disapproving tongue click voiced his thought, also turned his attention toward its source. Entered a lanky boy with a scowly face that maybe can rival Shiotsu. Of course, he knew immediately the identity of the boy. Fushimi Saruhiko, the number 3 of current Scepter 4. The wild card of the King, Munakata's favorite [2], who has given authority to act freely as his liking [3], much to the discipline Lieutenant Awashima's frustration.

("Zenjou, don't just face the enemy head out! I ordered you to wait, didn't I?!"

"So what? Habari said it's okay, didn't he? You're too stuck up, Shiotsu..."

"Sigh... Habari, you're too sweet with Zenjou.."

"It's fine, isn't it? This guy does a better job when he runs freely.") [4]

"As weird as he looks like, Captain is a human too. Obviously, he does things like resting and sleeping like the rest of us. He just works all the time like a moron and spouting nonsense like King doesn't get tired or something like that." Fushimi's sarcastic quip brought him back to the present. Zenjou has to tell Shiotsu that as delinquent as his past self, this boy is way way worse than him.

At least he never called Habari a moron.

Captain didn't look offended at the insult, though. He greeted the boy with his usual amused tone.

"Ah, Fushimi-kun, you finally came. Have you finished your work?"

The boy shrugged and sat on the only chair in the room, facing Munakata who was seated on his bed. Zenjou himself was content to stand leaning on the wall, away from any of them as possible.

"Tsk, after the alliance agreed on Silver King's plan, I have so many things that have to be prepared. You are the one who asked me to come to your room after today's work is over without getting noticed by other people. Do you realize how wrong it sounds?"

Munakata only smiled at Fushimi's insolent words.  

"I'm sorry, but there's something important that I have to discuss with you in secret. It's related to Silver King's plan that we've heard this noon. After listening to that, I am planning to make a backup plan in case his plan is failed."

Backup plan...quite a natural move for the current Scepter 4's Captain. For a Blue King, he had a quite pessimistic mindset. Once again, Zenjou ascertained that Munakata is not the same as his bright and optimistic Habari.

But, a doubtful thought entered his mind. Was Habari indeed always optimistic?  Suddenly he recalled his conversation with Habari about birds dropping, and Zenjou mulled, maybe Habari knew about his upcoming tragic fate earlier than he thought. [5]    

Fushimi looked at Munakata with a curious gaze, devoid of worry or mistrust upon Captain's words.

"You think his plan will be failed?"

"I can't say that his plan will surely fail, but for a King who runs in shadow all this time, it's weird for Green King to make such an open attack. I have a feeling that Green King has something on his sleeve and it potentially can mess up Silver King's plan."

"Why didn't you say something at the alliance meeting earlier?" asked Fushimi, fully aware that the usual Munakata Reisi should not hesitate to say anything on his mind at the earlier alliance meeting. Munakata pushed his glasses in a somewhat weirdly embarrassed gesture.

"Because I'm still not sure what is Green King's hidden trick so so that my suspicions can seem like paranoia for no reason. I also don't want to discourage other Kings before the battle. Anna-kun is still a child and Isana-shi seems to...have quite a weak mental strength. Besides, the fewer people who know about my backup plan, the better."

Fushimi scanned around the room, seemed to have just realized the absence of Lieutenant Awashima and other Scepter 4 members.

"Lieutenant and the rest of Scepter 4 members are not included in your plan?"

"Yes, I just need you, Fushimi-kun, and you, Zenjou-san. I don't plan to include other clans either but I can't control their action. Is there any more question?"

Looks like finally the curious youth ran out of his questions. Zenjou himself refused to say anything unless he was asked directly.

"Alright then, will the two of you hear what I have to say?"

Zenjou felt a sudden deja vu. Three of them, a king and two wild cards, this situation mirrored their meeting before Kusuhara's avenge mission.[6]

"Fine, let's hear about your plan."

"If our defense on Mihashira tower is defeated and the Slate gets stolen by Green clan, I need you to enter Green clan, Fushimi-kun."

Zenjou froze upon hearing the sentence. He threw his full attention toward Munakata, to see what kind of face he made after uttered such a crazy task. But Munakata didn't seem going to take his words. The current Blue King switched his gaze at the boy Fushimi, who had an unnaturally speechless look on his young face.

"Infiltrate Green Clan, get as close as possible to their secret quarters and the Slate, then give us chance to attack them."

Fushimi's shocked face lasted for a few minutes. Then he finally found his voice to spoke up.

"Let me get this straight. You want me to be Green King's clansman. That means betray Scepter 4. Betray  you ."

Munakata maintained his unshakable serenity.

"Yes, we will have a fake quarrel in front of everyone and you are supposed to leave me in anger."

The youth gradually lost his shocked face. In exchange, his mouth morphed into a twisted grin, and he let out a quite long crazed laugh. Captain just stared at him in silence with no intention to stop his subordinate's bizarre action. In the end, the boy regained his composure and threw Munakata a bitter smile.

"I see, it's such a fitting job for a traitor like me."

Munakata lowered his gaze, but his voice remained steady.

"Indeed you are the only one who can do this task, not only because you have switched clan before, but also I have complete faith in your ability to fulfill this mission."

"Faith, huh..."

Hearing his favorite subordinate's mocking tone, the Scepter 4 captain stood up and walked to the table near the boy. He gently put his hand on the table and spoke softly.

"But I understand that it's not an easy task to accept so you have all night to consider this. In the morning, please give-"

"I'll do it."

"Fushimi-kun?" Munakata's composure shook a little, jolted at Fushimi's resolute words. The person in question stared his Captain head-on with a determined expression.

"I accept this mission. Truly annoying, but I understand the importance of the backup plan, and your plan seems logical enough."

"Fushimi-kun, I advise you to think about this matter carefully. This is a mission with no guarantee that you would return alive. You can refuse it."

"Tsk, don't you say that you have faith in my ability?"

"I have absolute confidence that you can perform this task successfully. But after Green clan is aware of your espionage, you will be trapped in the middle of enemy's territory alone, especially since this mission is kept as a secret from everyone except me, you and Zenjou-san."

Fushimi took his eyes off Munakata and looked at Zenjou, as if just noticing the veteran's presence in the room. He looked at the scarred man slightly annoyed, probably because he didn't like other people to see his last (maybe) mental breakdown.

I don't want to see it either, kid. I don't even know why I am here.

"I understand to keep it from Lieutenant and others to make my betrayal will look real, but why does Zenjou-san is included in this plan?" protested Fushimi, not caring a little bit about Zenjou's demonic popularity. Then again, that kid once (maybe) deliberately passed him and taunted him with his own Captain's condition [7].

Truly no wonder that he's Munakata's favorite.

"After you give a chance to attack, I plan to confront Green clan and Zenjou-san, I need you to be my only companion."

If before Zenjou froze, now he felt like he was being doused by cold water. No one in the room didn't understand the hidden meaning of the Blue King's sentence. Munakata walked toward Zenjou and stared at him sternly, signified how serious the situation that Zenjou was getting into.

"I do not plan to include other Scepter 4 members since Awashima-kun and the rest should handle clan's matters in my absence. Zenjou-san, I will rely on your ability to give me the best possible protection while facing Green clan."

So he refused to say outright about the elephant in the room, huh. How hilarious. Voicing his thought, the youth snorted sarcastically.

"Pft, best possible protection, isn't he your executioner? Or what do you call him? Your Sword of Damocles, part of your destiny."

Wow, ain't that familiar words. So the boy overheard his conversation with the current Blue King on Kusuhara's avenge mission. Munakata didn't mind his subordinate's provocative words at all and firmly addressed the elder man.

"Zenjou-san, are you willing to accompany me and obliterate any threat that can harm humanity?"

Zenjou-san was well aware that the said humanity's threats meant by Munakata are not only about Green Clan and their grand plan. Munakata planned to push his Weismann's level past its limit to face Green clan, and when his Damocles Sword is at the risk of getting down, his life will be the obstacle that must be removed to prevent massive destruction.

(”Zenjou, you will always do the right thing. You will cut what needs to be cut.”)

"I will cut anything that needs to be cut."

"That's good then" nodded Munakata, who seemed satisfied at the confirmation of his own execution.

Silence engulfed the small room. Neither of them intended to open break the ice, probably busy with thoughts of each great burden on their shoulders. After a few minutes, the boy spoke up with an amused yet depressed tone.

"Lieutenant will not be happy about this."

"I bet she won't," chuckled Munakata softly.

"If somehow we can survive in the end, she will choke us with massive ankos."

The boy suppressed his giggle. He was aware of his impending fate, the high possibility of his death with his King...

And he laughed.

On  that day , didn't he also laughed at the possibility of his death alongside Habari? Wait, no, he laughed about how angry Shiotsu to be left alone and has to handle all the mess after their death. And in the end, Shiotsu still had to take care of all Scepter 4 matters because Zenjou after he cut his own king is truly dead in everything but breaths.

Glad that Shiotsu isn't obsessed with anko. Not that he dislikes anko, though.

Captain's chuckle disappeared, seemed that he didn't enjoy Fushimi's newest humor.

"Fushimi-kun, are you sure-"

Fushimi stood up to silence Munakata's mouth, fixed his eyes to his Captain steadily.

"Shut up, I said that I will do it, didn't I. Just like you said, I am the only one who can do it. Instead of nagging me, you should think about yourself."

Fushimi turned around, refusing to face his Captain. The boy muttered petulantly.

"....I am not the one who will walk toward a practically suicide plan."

Munakata sat back on his bed, staring at the room ceiling.

"Your mission has a very high risk, it can be considered a suicide plan, though. It may come to be that you'll share my destiny and have to die with me."

"Then so be it."

Seeing the despairing scene unfolding before his eyes, Zenjou looked away, hard. He didn't like it. The scene he saw right now, is too similar like on that day.

("I made it in time to be with you at your final moment, and share your destiny. I am satisfied with that.")

"Well, there's nothing left to discuss, right? Then I'll go, there are so many things that need to be prepared for tomorrow's plan, also for this new backup plan."The boy hurriedly walked toward the door, still refuse to turn back and saw his Captain.

"Fushimi-kun?"

"Yes?"

The current Blue King took his eyes off the ceiling, focused his attention at his subordinate's back.

"If there's a time when you can choose your fate, please choose the best option for your safety."

The boy was silent for a few moments. Then, still with his back to his Captain, he grabbed the doorknob

"I'll keep that in mind."

The door was opened, and Fushimi was ready to walk out of that room. But, he turned back facing Munakata and stated with a soft yet clear voice.

"When the time comes, I have a feeling that my body will do what I think it's right to do, reason doesn't matter. Just like that night when I stepped to your side. So, I can't promise you anything that I myself can't understand."

"I see... Then, whatever your choice later, do not hesitate."

("Do not hesitate, Zenjou.")

"Yeah, I will not regret it."

I don't understand. Why did I must kill you that time, Habari?

The former right-hand of late Blue King silently watched as the youth's figure completely disappeared from the room. The current Blue King rose from his bed and also walked to the door.

"The meeting is over. Looks like we have so many things to be prepared, aren't we, Zenjou-san? Or do you have any questions?"

Questions? He has so many of them. He felt like he didn't understand anything at all. Blue Kings. Munakata.

Habari.

But there's one thing he had to make sure of.

"You will not let the boy share your fate, aren't you?"

Munakata just smiled softly and walked out of the room, as if his smile is enough for an answer. But the right-hand man of the late Blue King understood the meaning of that damned familiar smile.

The answer is as clear as the blue sky.

King, Zenjou thought, is truly the cruelest being.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

As Munakata predicted, Mihashira's plan was failed and Green clan succeed in stealing the Slate. As per Munakata's plan, he had a nasty verbal fight with Fushimi and the boy left in anger (he wondered how much it was acting and how much it was their scream to each other for the last time). Then, just like Munakata's prediction, the boy managed to be Jungle J-ranker, the current Blue King was fired from his job, and the rest of Scepter 4 were not allowed to leave home base.

The final stage had been prepared.

"I wish I knew what they were thinking, both Captain and Fushimi-san!"

A young energetic blue clansman's voice of frustration echoed in his ears, while he accompanied the Captain walked toward Green clan's base. Funnily, he wondered the same. He glanced at the current Blue King, hoped to catch a glimpse of emotion regarding his impending death. But the current Blue King walked straight as usual, there is no hesitation in his steps and his regal posture.

Habari, when you stood straight facing my sword, surrounded by destruction, what were you thinking?

Did he think about his duty as King to preserve society?

Did he think about his fate to die for everyone's sake?

Did he think about the benefit of his disappearance?

Is it... Is it so wrong for Zenjou to think the opposite?

To think that the world can crash and burn as long as he can be on his King's side?

("The country would be destroyed."

"I see... None of my concern. I fight with you, I die with you. That's all I need to do. Let Shiotsu take care of the rest.")

Losing on his thought, and let his body automatically slashed anything that came across their path, he halted when Munakata suddenly stopped in the middle of the road.

"Now we wait."

Wait, for what?  

Zenjou got his answer quickly after. The road in front of him trembled and shifted. Green clan members around them yelled in panic, confused why and how the gate of their secret base was opened.

But the former right-hand of late Blue King understood. The boy did it. He chose to stay on his King's side and fight for his sake, disregarding his own life.

This means that for the boy, opened the gate for his King is the right thing to do.

Again, he hurriedly took a glance at the King beside him. The Blue King smiled softly, relief in his eyes tingled with immeasurable fondness.

"Fushimi-kun. You have done it."[8]

("That's right, Zenjou. That's fine.")

As if his mind wasn't already filled with painful nostalgia, a familiar person appeared from the gate. Ootori Seigo, the Gray King, another person who lost his everything because of Kagutsu Crater.

"Good grief, the gate really did open. Nagare's foresight is quite accurate."

Of course, the Gray King acknowledged Zenjou as Habari Jin's right-hand man. It's been 14 years ago, but no one will ever forget everything that happened in the middle of Kagutsu Crater. Not that he had any business with Ootori Seigo, now.

He was Munakata's problem.

As the Gray King summoned Damocles Sword, Munakata also summoned his. The broken Blue Damocles Sword clashed with the solid Gray Sword.

The Blue King unleashed his sanctum, pushing his Weissman level.

Green clan had been aware of the boy's infiltration.

The countdown of their death has begun.

So far, everything has gone according to Munakata's plan. But then many unexpected things happened. The first was the arrival of the red and white clansmen who entered the entrance that had been opened by Fushimi. Indeed, the Blue King had said that he cannot control the movements of other clans, but what happened after that certainly completely deviated from Captain's prediction.

Scepter 4 members, who were supposed to be confined in their home base, disregarded the orders from above and came to assist their King. For a supposed genius, Munakata is truly stupid to think that he stopped being their leader after he was fired. As if any clansman will accept that a single piece of paper dictates them to abandon their King.

("Tokyo Legal Affairs Bureau, Civil Registry Department, Annex 4 is just a facade. Our true identity is the proud Scepter 4 clansmen of Blue King, Munakata Reisi").

Supported by his clansmen's sanctuary, the Blue King rose from adversity and managed to turn the tide. In the end, he succeeded to land a fatal blow on Ootori Seigo and made his Damocles Sword disappeared. Every blue clansman rejoiced for it before suddenly Munakata's whole body crackled with uncontrolled Blue power.

Scepter 4 Lieutenant suddenly rushed to his side and prevented other people to come closer to her King.

"Everyone, stand back. You too, Zenjou-san."

Not too long ago, he challenged Lieutenant Awashima to kill her King. He didn't really think that it had to be her job to slay her King and stop her King's Damocles Sword. Maybe he was testing her. Maybe he was just annoyed because she nagged him about his role in killing King in the past (not that she was worse than Munakata about that). Maybe he was a little resentful because people like her remembered him best as the person who was credited with stopping Habari's Damocles Down by killing his own King.

No matter what reason, it was clear that Awashima took his words seriously. She immediately went to Munakata's side and kept everyone away from him.

"I am his lieutenant. If necessary, I will..." declared Awashima firmly, But her hands were shaking, indicating the heavy feeling raging in her heart.

("Zenjou, as always, you never do wrong things. You will cut what needs to be cut.")

The current Blue King just kept calm with his crackling body. Maybe he already gave up on controlling everything that happened around him and allowed himself to go with the inevitable flow of fate. What did he say before? 'There are times when you want to throw out reason and let fate take its course'.

"Awashima-kun, when the time comes, do not hesitate."

("Do not hesitate, Zenjou.")

Too focused on what was happening, no one noticed the gray king's departure from his previous place. Zenjou just noticed it for a while, and let him be. With the old man's battered body, Ootori couldn't do anything except mustered his last strength and limped toward his purpose of life.

"At least, he can die where he wants."

Which is certainly couldn't be said for Zenjou. All he can do is to live and observe the next tale of Blue. Blue that did not belong to him.

Wild power in Munakata' body was intensified. Crack in the huge blue sword grew exponentially. Lieutenant Awashima strengthened her grip on her sword, gritted her teeth.

Will history repeated itself?

Will the right hand of the King, the most devoted clansman of Blue, killed her own King?

Suddenly, crackles that enveloped the Blue King stopped. The broken Sword of Damocles disintegrated into blue sparkles, diluted in the clear blue sky. Lieutenant Awashima drastically relieved her tense posture, utterly grateful painted her pretty face.

Munakata himself didn't show any sharp change of expression. With the same serene and peaceful smile, the former Blue King whispered softly.

"It seems my life has been spared."

"Captain!"

Munakata turned his back facing his Lieutenant. He noticed the strong woman's refreshed face, as if she was just relieved from a huge burden and all is well. That's exactly what happened, indeed.  

"I must admit that I was a bit curious to see if Awashima-kun would be able to slay me. However, I appreciate your efforts. Thank you."

Asshole. Even just after be free from the brink of certain death, the young captain is as cynical as ever. The Lieutenant's emotion didn't change much, but if someone looked closely, a spark of anger flashed her eyes.

"With all due respect, Captain. Your gratitude alone will not be enough."

"Huh?"

"Excuse me!"

A loud, well-deserved punch, streaked Munakata's baffled face. Zenjou snorted, silently cheered.

Serves him right.

He was truly satisfied to accompany Munakata today.

A huge earthquake shook underneath them. The Scepter 4 Captain in everything but an official title (not for long) quickly ordered his clansmen to evacuate. He himself stayed in the place he stood, stared forlornly at the remnant of Green Clan base below him. Come to think about it, Munakata had been staring at the Jungle entrance ever since he defeated Gray King.

As if he dropped something precious in there.

Do you regret hoping that he doesn't share the same fate as you, now that you survived?

Suddenly, a green light appeared behind him, carrying the bruised but clearly alive Blue's youngest clansman. The newly former King turned around, and finally met his private soldier's eyes for a long time since their hurtful (fake) quarrel. There are so many things that happened to them, so many things that should be discussed, but the youth casually spoke up, as if they're in a normal day of normal daily Scepter 4 life.

"Mission accomplished, sir.."

"Well done."

Seeing the serene scene in front of him, Zenjou suppressed the bitter envy in his heart.

If only he and Habari's situation ended up like them...

Kagutsu bastard... if he wanted to destroy everything so much, he should destroy the damned Slate when he was at it.

0000000000000000000000000

"So, have you found your answer on the last incident?" asked a man with a scary face beside Zenjou. His name is Shiotsu, the former Lieutenant of Habari's Scepter 4 and Zenjou's closest comrade after Habari. They were on a drink together in the same oden store as the last time [7].

"What answer? I was simply watching the current Blue King." replied Zenjou while sipping his drink. Shiotsu scowled.

"You certainly watched him because of  that time . You said that you want to understand Habari after all.[9]"

Smoothing his frown, Shiotsu raised his glass and pondered.

"To be honest, I am curious too. How did he feel when he stood between his own life and massive destruction? How did he feel when he asked you to kill him?"

"Habari didn't ask me to kill him. I chose to do it."

The bespectacled man suddenly stated, put his glass down slowly.

"That's my answer I guess."

"What?" perplexed Shiotsu. Zenjou Gouki is the absolute loyal dog of Habari Jin. For him to admit that he chose to kill his King... the former Acting Captain of Scepter 4 couldn't believe his ears.

"On the recent incident with Munakata, The Blue-I mean former Blue King didn't ask Awashima to kill him. Still, she rushed to his side, just like I did in the past. She's prepared to do what needs to be done, for Scepter 4 and society's sake. On the other hand, that boy Fushimi chose to risk his life for Munakata, opened the gate that became the entrance for Silver King and his alliance to enter Jungle, and indirectly caused Munakata's Damocles to disappear. Both of them didn't move because of command. They just did what they think is the right thing to do, without hesitation."

Zenjou took a dejected breath, and continued calmly.

"At that time,  maybe it happened to me as well. All Habari did was to let me do my choice and accepted his fate."

Shiotsu was silent, stared at Zenjou's contemplative look. The former guard dog of Blue King's face was melancholic just like how he always is while thinking about their King, but he could feel that finally, his closest comrade found peace in himself.

"I see... Then, did you regret your choice?"

Zenjou smiled wistfully.

"Part of me still wants to die alongside him on that day, but I will try not to regret what's already happened."

Shiotsu still remembered the days after the Kagutsu incident. Zenjou's blank hopeless look, as if his soul went with his king to the afterlife. Zenjou who left Scepter 4 right after Habari's death, and withdrew from everyone. Zenjou who refused to come out, and chose to grieve in silence.

Looking that his friend's sorrowful yet serene smile, Shiotsu felt very grateful that his friend was still alive and sat in his side.

"Good for you, Zenjou."

Looking at his comrade's unusual fond smile, Zenjou chuckled.

"So you can make a smile with that scowly face, Shiotsu."

"Shut up. I was born with this face, but you and Habari's recklessness certainly didn't help me to hold back my scowl."

Zenjou let out a crisp hearty laugh. Then, as if he had just remembered something, he grinned.

"Speaking about recklessness, Lieutenant Awashima is also not happy with both the current Blue King and his boy's recklessness. She's so angry when knowing that they literally walked toward suicide plans without her knowledge, intended to leave her alone to stay in Scepter 4 HQ and handle Clan's matters after their death. The discipline Lieutenant punched his superior and tried to break the boy's back with her hug."

Hearing that, Shiotsu couldn't help but snicker. Oh, he knew the feeling of that Lieutenant's frustration and exasperation very damn well.

"Of course she is, and they deserved it."

"On  that day,  Habari left your side to face Kagutsu alone. I also followed him and tried to die with him. To think about it, perhaps we both could be that reckless because we know that you can survive and take care of the rest of matters after our death. Like Awashima, do you ever feel angry-"

*BUGH*

A hard-boiled punch followed by a back-breaking hug answered Zenjou's question.

Reference :

[1] Case Files of Blue volume 2 chapter 3

[2] Fushimi Saruhiko side story

[3] Days of Blue Chapter 4

[4] Side Blue Oneshot- A Dog Reminiscence

[5] Zenjou Gouki ~ Dog Droppings, Bird Droppings

[6] K Seven Stories Side Blue

[7] K Countdown Chapter 6 : Damaged Blue

[8] K Return of King Manga Chapter 12

[9] K ~ Seven Stories ~ Piece 7: Habari Jin

[amazedforjjk]

Escape 5- Ot7

The gif is not mine!

Characters: Lion!Namjoon, Jaguar!Jin, Black panther!Yoongi, Cheetah!Hoseok, Snow Leopard!Jimin, Tiger!Taehyung, cougar!Jungkook, Serval!Reader

Summary: In a world where Hybrid protection laws are gradually strengthening, many organisations are still advocating for the complete extermination of your species. What happens when you find yourself and 7 other predatory hybrids in a truck en route to a hybrid slaughter facility?

Genre: Angst, fluff

Warning: Mentions of sexual abuse, sexual assault, mentions of violence, mention of death. Also, tragic backstories™️ 

A.N: Here is chapter 5! There are some serious issues talked about in this chapter, but they are important. I don’t know when I’ll be able to write the next chapters, I’ll try to keep you updated. I hope you’ll like it!

Word count: 4.2K (the biggest yet hehe)

<Previous//Next>

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It is not yet morning when you wake up in cold sweat. As soon as you fell asleep you were engulfed in a nightmare, one where you were unable to escape the torture of your captor. You pant as the image of his knife covering your body of deep bloody lines is still fresh in your mind. You take deep breaths, trying to calm your heart pounding in your chest. Next to you, Jin and Jimin are still peacefully slumbering, and you find yourself relaxing at the sound of the blond hybrid’s steady breathing.

Unable to go back to sleep just yet, you carefully rise to your feet, disentangling your tail from Jimin’s in the process. You smile to yourself when the grey bushy article wraps itself around Taehyung’s instead, the tiger hybrid currently sprawled onto the youngest hybrid. You only take a few steps from the sleeping men to find Yoongi seated on the ground, facing the direction of the abandoned farm. The tilt of his ears in your direction is the only indication that he has noticed your presence, and you take it as an invitation to sit next to him.

���Nightmare?”, he says simply, though his eyes convey the worry he feels. You hum in response, hands rubbing your eyes. You turn your head to meet his eyes.

“What about you?”

“I think someone should keep watch..”, he responds, and you can tell by the way he looks away from you that it’s not the complete truth. You stare quizzically at him, making him understand that you don’t fully believe his explanation. He sighs and a dry chuckle escapes his lips.

“Fine, I couldn’t sleep because I was scared”. Your eyebrows furrow at the unexpected revelation but you let him continue. “What if they come after us again? We didn’t kill most of them, of course, we just left them there. What’s going to happen when they wake up?”

If you were honest, you hardly believe that the men left would be in any shape to chase after you, given the pools of blood on the floor of the room, if they were ever to wake up. But at the worry in his tone, you take his hand in yours, squeezing ever so slightly. If he is surprised at the sudden contact, he doesn’t let it show and simply squeezes your hand in return.

“I’m scared too”, you say simply, looking in the distance. The moon is full and brightly illuminates the miles of fields surrounding you. You make a point not to look at the barn, the sight of it still too painful right now, especially in light of your recent nightmare. “I want to reach the center fast”

Even staying in the city too long is going to be painful, you think, and it’s as if the black panther hybrid next to you can smell your apprehension, because he glances at you, eyes filled with questions.

“Why were you taken?”, you ask suddenly before he can voice his concern, and confusion is plastered on his face.

“I- I escaped from my owner” he says, his tail swishing behind him fervently. Anxiety is radiating from him and you suddenly feel regretful for asking so thoughtlessly, and you are about to stop him when he resumes talking. “She would … She would rent me, for other humans..” he trails off and you are left confused, not quite able to grasp the meaning of his words.

“For other humans to use me” he says after a beat, and you feel your stomach drop. His eyes are dropped to the floor and he gently removes his hand from yours to wrap it around his knees. He rests his chin on his knees and he can’t seem to look at you, ears drooping and eyes sad, making him look so small. You are left speechless, emotions swirling inside you, hatred for the humans taking advantage of him, sorrow for what he had to endure, and you just take him in your arms. This time, he is taken aback by the affection and doesn’t move a finger. You think he is going to pull away from your grasp but he leans into it, burying his face in the crook of your neck, releasing his knees to wrap his arms around you instead.

You don’t know how long you stay there, enjoying each other’s comforting hold before he lets go after squeezing you one last time.

“Thank you”, he utters simply, and you smile at him, cheeks flushed.

“What about you?” he starts, and you tilt your head in confusion. He chuckles lightly at the confusion written on your face. “Why were you taken?”

Your smile falters as you remember why you brung up the subject.

“I was taken in the city we are traveling to”, you state abruptly, making his eyes widen. “My parents were used by humans to breed serval hybrids and sell them. They didn’t know each other, only met the nights when my mother was in heat. One day, they managed to escape together. She was pregnant with me and my siblings.” At their mention, you grimace, eyes falling to the ground. Yoongi must be aware of their fate because he simply grabs your hand, rubbing your knuckles without a word.

“We lived on the streets of the city we are headed to, begging for food and sometimes stealing. My mother was hit by a car when she was trying to run away from humans who were harassing her. My dad disappeared not long after that and we never heard from him again. And then fuckface over there,” you point your chin in the direction of the barn, “well he simply had to pick us up after that”, you finish, a snarl on your lips as you talk about the man.

“That’s why I want to reach the center as soon as possible” you conclude. “This town does not hold good memories for me”, you add with a small smile.

“Then we won’t stay long”, Yoongi replies, lifting his free hand and presenting his pinkie. “Promise”, he adds with a cute grin, and you chuckle as you intertwine your pinkie with his. He then props his arm on your shoulder, prompting you closer to lay your head on his shoulder. You comply without a word, a warm feeling filling your chest.

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

The both of you stay like this wordlessly until the sun starts to rise, and it’s with the rays of the sun caressing your face that you turn to wake the other hybrids up. The sooner you reach the city the better, you answer a grumpy Jungkook when he asks you why so early, his ruffled black hair falling in front of his eyes. You don’t exactly know how long you’ll have to walk today given that your course has been disrupted, so you decide to study the map along with Yoongi, the others far too drowsy to be of any help.

Namjoon is the first to settle alongside you, gold eyes heavy in sleepiness, and he glances absently at the map while munching down on some leftover apple slices. One by one, the other men take place around the map, all more or less ready to listen to the rest of the journey left to accomplish.

“It looks like we’ll only have two hours of walking to do today tops, we’re not as far as we feared”, he announces, looking at Jin who nods at him while trying to tame his chestnut hair.

“Good”, replies Hoseok, yawning as he stretches his limbs. Once the announcement is finished, the meeting is dismissed and you start to pack your bag when Jimin makes his way toward you, backpack in hand. He eyes your side warily before talking.

“Are you feeling better? If it starts to hurt I’ll carry you”, he says, his light sincere eyes catching yours. You smile at him gratefully.

“Thank you Jimin”, you answer before the two of you meet the rest of the boys waiting in a circle.

This time, the walk to the city goes without a hitch. The eight of you follow the road from inside the fields, eager not to repeat the mistakes of the past. As you start to encounter more houses and pedestrians you move to walk on the sidewalk. The houses slowly get closer together and then start shifting in buildings. You walk by shops and restaurants, the smell of food waking the hunger inside you, the food Granny had provided not nearly enough for two days.

It doesn’t take much longer for you to reach the center of the city, and you find yourself now surrounded by tall buildings of steel and glass. The town is cold and grey in its center, swarmed with working people walking fast and holding steaming hot coffees.

 Had you never lived in this overcrowded city, you would find yourself in over your head, completely taken aback by the surge of smells, noises and flashes of light ambushing your senses. It seems that some of the hybrids accompanying you are having difficulties handling the situation, and you step up, taking Jimin and Hoseok’s hands in yours and leading the rest of the group towards a map of downtown.

You take a while trying to figure out exactly where the bus station is located, and another to actually find the place, but you manage to lead the eight of you there safely. The place is crowded, buzzing with people waiting around for their busses. Between the acrid smell of cigarettes and the loud noise of people talking on the phone, you still succeed to spot the ticket booth. 

You sigh in relief, and the tension in your shoulders start to lift off and you let go of the hands of the two hybrids. The snow panther whines at the loss of contact and you turn to look at him, confused. Jimin looks terrified, wide eyes scanning the crowd, ears pressed flat against his skull. He is breathing fast, and you can tell by the frantic swaying of his tail that he is not used to such places. You worriedly look at Hoseok and beckon him to take care of the shaking boy.

“The booth is here”, you shout at Jin, hoping he can hear over the noise of the crowd. He nods in response and the both of you walk towards it, leaving the other men to wait in the corner of the station. You can feel stares falling on you, and anxiety starts to rise within you. To be fair, your group of hybrids doesn't exactly blend in with the well-suited crowd, your clothes disheveled and your hair messed up. You can feel some people around you warily eyeing your ears and tail. Even if the city is more progressive in terms of hybrid acceptation, the region isn’t known for its love towards genetically engineered individuals.

The woman at the counter seems too interested in her magazine at first to notice Jin and you waiting patiently before her. You glance at each other, not quite sure what to do. It’s only after her manager clears his throat behind her that she scurries to help you. She comes to a halt when her eyes fall on Jin.

“We need eight tickets to the capital, please,” Jin asks, a polite smile tugging at his lips. No response.

The woman is still eyeing the hybrid next to you, mouth slightly ajar, and you have to conceal a chuckle at the sight before you.

“Eight tickets to the capital as soon as possible… Please?” Jin reiterates, bewildered. The woman only responds with an idiotic smile. He casts a glance your way, unsure and you only smirk at his distress. She finally notices your presence and her smile is long gone. She scowls at you and types on her computer grumpily. Beside you, Jin is all the more perplexed by the sudden change of behaviour, making you chuckle again, feeling very amused by the situation.

“40 dollars” she announces with a deadpan look and Jin hands her the money. She prints the tickets and hands them to Jin, then casts you the darkest glare you’ve ever seen. You chuckle once more and wave her goodbye sweetly, rejoicing on the furious look you earn in return.

You then make your way back to the others, Jin trailing after you after having uttered a hesitant thank you to the cashier. He reads the tickets and then glances at the suspended clock in the middle of the room.

“The bus should leave in 35 minutes”, he announces, and he looks around the crowded room. No seat available in sight. “Maybe the bus is already boarding? We should go check”, he adds looking back at you. You hum in agreement, taking the time to scour the station. Hunger is gnawing at your stomach and you don’t think you’ll bear the bur ride on an empty stomach. You light up when you finally spot a snack machine. You grab Jin by the sleeve before he can walk away.

“I’m going to grab snacks for everybody, can you give me some money?”, you ask the jaguar. He looks at the snack machine and you can see his ears twitch in excitement at the prospect of food. He hands you the pouch in which is stashed the rest of the money and you make your way towards the machine, leaving the boys to go check on the bus.

The machine is filled with goodies and you feel your mouth water at the choices. You start to buy some chips and sugary snacks when you suddenly feel someone tugging on your tail. You immediately bring it back around you and you turn nervously. You can already tell the man who grabbed your tail is bad news by the smirk on his lips. He seems older, maybe mid-fifties and he is not wearing a suit like the other passengers around you, but rather a dirty grey raincoat. He looks you up and down and licks his lips and you can’t repress the grimace of disgust plastered on your face.

“Please leave me alone”, you tentatively say, hoping the man will stop at once, but that only seems to spur him on and he starts coming closer to you. You didn’t buy nearly enough food for all of you but this will have to do, you think as you hastily squat down to retrieve the snacks from the machine and stash them in your bag. You stand up quickly, eager to go back to your boys but he presses into you from behind and your whole body is shoved into the machine. You feel color drain from your face as something hard pokes at you. You suddenly feel nauseated, this is disgusting. You want to scream but it’s as if your voice has disappeared. You grit your teeth, hoping the people around will have noticed to help you, but no one moves. In fact, it’s as if no one wants to look at you. You try to push the man to get out of his reach but to no avail, and panic settles into your bones.

The pressure behind you is removed abruptly, and you turn around to find Namjoon staring down at the man who was assaulting you held onto the floor. You don’t think you’ve ever seen him so angry, the veins of his neck prominent and his jaw is clenched as he maintains the man on the ground with his foot. If looks could kill, the man would have died ten times already, the gold eyes of the lion hybrid shining fiercely. His fists are clenched, his knuckles almost turning white. You finally shake the shock from your mind and look around you. The humans are staring, scared, at the predatory hybrid. You can tell that some are calling the police so you grab Namjoon’s arm, shifting his attention on you.

“Let him go, Namjoon”, you plead, panic in your eyes. “This is not the time to bring the police’s attention on us”, you add through gritted teeth, looking at the woman protecting her child. You want to scream, shout that she better protect her daughter from the man on the ground rather than from Namjoon, that she should be thankful that men like him still exist. But you can’t, you have to get him out of here, or the one in danger is going to be him, as unfair as it seems.

“But-” he starts, looking back at the man in anger.

“Namjoon, please!”

The lion hybrid looks at you one last time, then around him. He must feel the weight of the accusatory gazes on him because his ears fall. He lifts his leg and the man scurries away, like a worm under Namjoon’s harsh glare. You hastily buy the rest of the snacks you had planned to take and quickly lead the lion out by the hand. Before you can reach the other boys waiting by the bus, Namjoon stops dead in his tracks and you turn to him.

“That’s not fair”, he says, his intense gold eyes trained on you.

“No, it’s really not”, you reply sadly.

“I should have beaten him up for doing that to you”, he adds, and you look at the ground.

“It would only have ended badly for you”, you say, a resigned look on your face.

“No, I fought… Before.” You glance up to meet his gaze, confused before you grasp the meaning of his words and your eyes widen in realisation. He was in a hybrid fighting ring.

“The injuries on the first night- it’s because of that?”, you ask, stepping closer to him.

“That night, I lost my first fight”, he begins and you hold your breath, sorrow filling you. “They left me for dead on the streets. When I woke up, I tried to find shelter but then I got picked up anyway. I was too weak to fight back” he adds, turning his head from you, pausing. “But I could’ve beaten that man’s ass” he finishes, his gold eyes finally finding yours.

“I’m sorry Namjoon” is all you can say, and you wrap your arms around him. You pause to gather your thoughts before continuing. “I know you would’ve won, and easily, but they would have called the police on you. They would have you put down. And that would be worse than that man walking away unscathed”

He sighs before wrapping his arms around your shoulders and pressing his forehead to yours. He pulls back after a beat and wipes a tear from your cheek with his thumb. You didn’t notice that you were crying, and you blush, embarrassed at your display of emotions.

“We should go”, he says after a little while and the both of you make your way towards the boys gathered next to the bus. They are waiting by the open door, the bus almost ready to leave. At the sight of your reddened cheeks, they exchange worried looks but you don’t leave them the time to ask questions before you hand each of them a snack.

“Come on, let's get our seats”, Namjoon says, placing his hand on the small of your back to guide you towards the doors.

Jimin and Jungkook are the first to board the bus, taking their seats at the back of the vehicule. Taehyung and Yoongi sit on the aisle opposite to them, Yoongi against the window, leaning his head, already in position to sleep. You settle next to Hoseok in front of them, leaving Namjoon to sit next to the eldest at your left.

When you sit, Hoseok is seemingly very excited about the departure, smiling broadly at you. His smile is contagious and you return his smile in earnest. He can barely contain his trepidation, his tail swishing from side to side at your feet and his ears flicking at every sound. You chuckle at his adorableness, making him blush, before getting your snacks and starting to munch on the chips. You notice the cheetah hybrid next to you eyeing your food so you hand him the bag. He smiles warmly in thanks and you happily share the salty treat.

Maybe five minutes after you boarded, the bus closes its doors and starts moving. You hear a quick screeching noise and the driver starts talking, his voice barely covering the sound of engines even with a microphone.

“Ladies and gents, welcome aboard this bus in direction to-”

“Y/n, do you have something else to eat?”, the tiger behind you asks, face close to your headrest. You nod and go through into your bag, handing Taehyung a bag of sweets. He squeals in delight when you give him the snack, pecking your cheek quickly before sitting back, sharing the snack with the blond haired boy across him.

“We should arrive in two hours and twenty-five minutes, please do not walk in the aisle when the bus is-”

You turn back to Hoseok, who is staring out the window, giddy, hands clutching the ledge. You take a moment to examine him before breaking the silence. From his coal colored hair falling delicately on his forehead to his caramel skin complimenting his warm eyes, he looks completely breathtaking. Your eyes trace his sharp features, following the angle of his jaw before falling on his pink lips turned up in a awestruck smile. You can feel the blush creeping on your cheeks as you continue to ogle the man next to you, and you take a deep breath to calm your beating heart before talking.

“You seem excited to take the bus, Hoseok”, you state simply and he beams at you.

“We are the closest we’ve ever been to have a home!” he replies, thrill clear in his voice. His gold eyes are gleaming, and you find yourself lost in them, smiling softly in return. “And this is the first time I take the bus! It’s so big!” he adds animatedly, eyes scouring the insides of the vehicule.

Outside the window, the city landscape slowly shifts to miles of fields, stretching to the horizon, and you can feel sleep starting to overcome you. Much like the already sleeping panther seated in the row behind you, you didn’t sleep much the night before, and the lack of rest is starting to take its toll on you. The voice of the cheetah hybrid next to you lulls you into sleep and a yawn escapes your lips.

Hoseok abruptly stops talking and his smile falls, eyes resembling those of a kicked puppy. Confused by the sudden change of behaviour, you open your mouth to ask him what’s wrong but he beats you to it.

“I’m sorry, I talk too much. You are tired of me, I should shut up”, he says dejectedly, his ears falling flat against his hair. Where is this coming from, you internally inquire, eyes wide in remorse that you pained him.

“What do you mean Hoseok, I love when you talk to me”, you add instantly, taking his hand in yours. His gaze meets yours, his ears slowly rising from where they were pressed against his head.

“Really?” he asks tentatively, hope swimming in his eyes.

“Of course I do! Why wouldn’t I?”

“No one ever adopted me in the shelter because I talk too much and I am too excited. Shelters often kicked me out after a while. They would say that I am un-adoptable, that I’m a pain to look after”, he explains with a small smile. At each of his sentences you feel more and more angry and sorry for him, grasping his hand more tightly in yours. “Eventually I stopped going at shelters altogether, but then I got caught”

“They don’t deserve you Hoseok”, you declare, and at your words a small smile appears on his face. “Your very presence is soothing, you inspire me hope. Thank you for being you Hoseok”, you add, earnest. “I am feeling tired because I couldn’t sleep last night because of a nightmare, but your voice appeases me”

This time, he looks at a total loss of words, not accustomed to be praised. His eyes fill with emotion and he looks at your hand. He intertwines your fingers together, and looks at you again, gold eyes filled with tears.

“Please don’t leave me”, he utters so softly you have to strain your ears to hear it, his deep voice cracking under the weight of his heartache. You feel tears prickle at the corners of your eyes but you keep them from falling. Instead, you lean your head on his shoulder and gently close your eyes.

“I won’t”, you murmur simply and you feel his muscles relax. He lays his head on top of yours, and he begins to speak again, softly this time, and you slowly slip out of consciousness, lulled to sleep by his sweet voice.

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Thank you for reading! I hope you liked it! Tell me what you thought of this chapter!

💜

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