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carelisswriting · 2 years

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I wrote something based off a prompt by @epkot94 https://at.tumblr.com/epkot94/dp-x-dc-idea-time-so-eventually-danny-tells-jazz/8wbwdhtc71pm

I hope y’all like this, this is the first bit of my writing I’m posting on Tumblr! I also crossposted this on Ao3, which is https://archiveofourown.org/works/45308998

Btw, I adore @proshipper-on-ship and @kine-iende thinking of Dan calling Danny ‘Mom’, so that’s in here too!

EDIT: @lenacraft drew some amazing fan art of the Phantom royal family here! https://at.tumblr.com/lenacraft/im-still-trying-to-figure-out-how-i-wanna/u0n7lg2g8eo9

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Dan liked being one of the ‘good guys’, don’t get him wrong. He enjoyed saving people, and being seen as a superhero. What he didn’t like was being on a team.

Oh he could work with them just fine, but Ancients did they get on his nerves. Superman constantly checking in on him, Batman trying to figure out his identity (he didn’t have one in this universe anyway, take that asshole), Flash trying to befriend him. All in all, Dan was not a fan of his coworkers. (Ellie insisted that he secretly liked them, but she was wrong and also being very annoying about it.)

They were being particularly annoying today. Flash hadn’t stopped talking for the last 20 minutes. They were all in the main meeting room, for some sort of meeting. Honestly, Dan hadn’t been paying attention, so he had no clue why they were all here. Batman was droning on at the front of the room, something about a cult? Dan had no clue, and really didn’t care enough to listen.

He was idly tossing his thermos (which he still hadn’t told the Justice League the purpose of) back and forth when John Constantine burst into the room.

“We’ve got a problem.” He said, slightly out of breath.

Everyone had stopped talking when he burst in, turning to stare at the man. Batman sighed, before asking “What is it?”

Constantine came up to the table they were all sat around, setting down an ancient looking book across the table from Dan. He noticed that the title was in something similar to Ghostspeak. Interesting. He wasn’t gonna tell any of his coworkers about it, though. They all thought he was an alien, which technically he was, and it would be suspicious for him to know some random magical language, even vaguely.

“Someone is summoning powerful entities from a dimension parallel to ours, using this book.” Constantine said, gesturing to the book “I brought my copy, but I don’t know how to stop these beings.”

“Why?” Batman grunted out the question, already flipping through the old book.

Constantine sighed aggressively, pulling out a cigarette. He lit it, before answering sarcastically “I don’t know, maybe because they’re significantly more powerful than most beings from this dimension? Maybe because they have an insane set of abilities?”

Batman grunted in acknowledgement, turning back to the book.

A few moments passed, before everyone started talking, shouting questions over each other. Dan sighed. This was going to be a long day.

\(oo)/

A few hours passed, everyone still trying to figure out what the hell to do. Well, almost everyone. Dan had long since given up on planning, playing a game on his phone under the table. It wasn’t like anything could actually be a threat to him, and if it was? He’d just call Danny. He’d prefer if his coworkers figured something out, however, so he hadn’t bothered telling them about the fact that he could probably deal with whatever this was in a snap. If they still hadn’t figured anything out in the next hour, he’d deal with it.

Wonder Woman looked up from the book Constantine had summoned for her to read through, hoping it had answers.

“Where are these entities from? You didn’t say what dimension it was.” She asked.

Dan realized that no one had thought to ask that anytime in the last few hours. Seriously? He knew that most of his coworkers were stupid when it came to magic and stuff like it, but seriously? He slipped his phone back into his pocket, wanting to see where this was going.

Constantine glanced up from where he was studying a leatherbound tome. Dan couldn’t see what it was about from here, but he bet it was unhelpful, considering how much Constantine had been glaring at it over the last few minutes.

“The Infinite Realms. It’s an extremely dangerous dimension, home to the dead.” Constantine answered, his tone grim.

Dan couldn’t help it. He chuckled. His coworkers looked at him like he was insane, which only caused him to laugh harder. He bent over the table, laughing.

“Something funny, Phantom?” Batman asked, glaring at him.

(Dan had stolen Danny’s superhero name, it was his first anyway. And besides, everyone found it hilarious, including Danny.)

Dan theatrically wiped a tear from his eye before replying “Yeah, it’s so damn funny that he said that with a straight face. I mean, c’mon, ‘extremely dangerous’? Maybe if you’re an idiot.”

Superman raised an eyebrow at Dan, before exchanging a look with Batman.

“Have you been to these ‘Infinite Realms’?” Superman asked, voice calm.

Dan snorted “Yeah, of course. Ancients, if the problem’s just some guy summoning ghosts, I’m just gonna call my mom.” Dan could deal with it himself, but where was the fun in that?

He pulled out his phone again, dialing Danny’s number. The ‘mom’ thing had started as a joke, but honestly? It fit Danny so well, and Ellie already called him that, so why shouldn’t Dan?

“Why are you-“ Flash asked, before being cut off by Batman.

Batman glared at Dan “What are you doing.” He asked flatly.

Dan laughed, waiting for Danny to pick up.

“Calling my mom, duh.”

Batman gave an aggravated sigh, and went to speak.

Danny picked up, and Dan immediately started talking, cutting off whatever Batman was about to say.

“Hey, so, apparently some asshole is summoning ghosts and causing problems over here. Thought I’d have you deal with it.” Dan said, explaining quickly. The Justice League stared at him, shocked and very confused. Dan hadn’t told them anything about his family, so their reactions were pretty justified.

Danny sighed “Not even gonna say hello?”

Dan sarcastically cut him off “Hello!”

Danny sighed again, but Dan could tell he was amused. They shared a sense of humor, Ellie had the same one too. Perks of being a clone/evil future self and their original/past self (Their relationships were all kinds of funky, but it worked for them.)

“You said someone is summoning ghosts? I’ll be there in a sec.” Danny said, before hanging up.

Dan put his phone away, finally glancing at his coworkers. They all looked extremely confused, except Batman who was fuming, and Constantine who looked wary.

“Who was that?” Batman growled.

Dan looked at him, the picture of innocent confusion.

“I already told you, my mom. He’ll be here in a moment.”

Dan could see Flash mouthing ‘he?’ to himself a few seats away. Dan relished in the sense of confusion he was causing. It was extremely funny watching his coworkers flounder in the face of Dan’s sheer chaos.

Constantine took a moment to speak “I don’t think-“

He was cut off as a green portal opened up in the middle of the room, above the table. Everyone, excluding Dan, went still as it appeared.

“What the-“ Superman started to say, as Batman pulled out a weapon. They were both startled by a white and black blur flying out of the portal and attaching itself to Dan.

Dan was knocked out of his seat as Ellie bowled him over. He tumbled down to the floor, falling flat on his back. Ellie grinned at him, sitting on his chest.

“Got you!” she gleefully yelled out. Dan chuckled, gently shoving her off him. He sat up, and was greeted with his coworkers, who all looked ready for a fight. Their faces switched to confusion when Dan just blankly stared at them.

“What’s up?” He said, slightly sarcastically.

Ellie floated into the air, hanging upside down in front of Dan.

“Well, you were just tackled by someone they don’t know.” She pointed out, a grin on her face.

Dan sighed, gesturing to Ellie “Please meet my little sister, Ellie. She’s an annoyance.”

Ellie smacked him on the shoulder, before flipping around so that she was facing the Justice League, and also so that she was right side up.

“Hi! It’s nice to finally meet Dan’s friends!” She said, darting away when Dan attempted to hit her.

“They’re not my friends! We’re coworkers!” he shouted as she flew to the corner of the room, sticking her tongue out at him.

He sighed, before looking at his coworkers. Most of them were still stuck in a state of confusion, and Flash hesitantly asked “I thought your mom was coming?”

“Oh yeah.” Dan said, before yelling over to Ellie “Where the hell is Mom?”

Ellie floated closer “He was right behind me, so-“

The portal, which had slipped the Justice League’s minds when faced with the chaos that is Ellie, sparked as Danny stepped out, before it flickered out of existence.

Immediately, the aura of Danny’s power settled over the room. Being the King of the Infinite Realms afforded someone a lot of power, and death magic always affected people more than other magics. Also, the crown, ring, and cape made him look very intimidating. Combine that with his imposing stature (inherited from Jack) and he was downright terrifying. It was a comforting thing to Dan, who was used to Danny’s powerful presence. To the Justice League, however, it felt like the Grim Reaper himself had just come for the souls.

Danny looked around, spotting Ellie floating up above the table.

“Ellie, I told you not to scare them! We want to make a good impression.” He said, Ellie immediately darting down to stand next to him.

“Sorry Mom, I just wanted to say hi!” Ellie defended.

Danny sighed, ruffling her hair.

The Justice League looked so confused. Constantine looked like he was about to throw up.

“That’s… King Phantom.” Constantine said, shocked, before he scrambled to stand in front of the Justice League.

“We didn’t mean to offend, I swear-“ Constantine started, before Danny cut him off.

“Dude, it’s fine. I just came cause Dan asked.” Danny said with a chuckle, slightly uncomfortable. He had gotten better at the formalities that came with kingship, but he still wasn’t that comfortable when people begged for his mercy, understandably.

It seemed to hit everyone then. That this terrifying man, and king, was who Dan had been referring to when he said ‘Mom’.

While his coworkers processed his chaotic family, Dan floated over them to stand next to his mom.

Danny smiled, ruffling Dan’s hair. They were almost the same height now, so Danny didn’t even have to stretch to reach it.

“How have you been? I know we talk everyday, but it’s not the same as seeing you in person.” Danny said, a soft smile on his face.

“I’ve been fine, Mom. It’s nice, helping people.” Dan replied.

Danny beamed at him “I’m happy it’s working out!”

“Yeah, and you haven’t even tried to kill someone!” Ellie cut in, a smirk on her face.

Dan reached out automatically to swat at her, but she dodged.

The Justice League seemed to snap out of their shock.

They are started to talk at once, before Batman yelled “Quiet!” over top of the noise.

“I believe introductions are in order.” He said, before muttering under his breath “especially as they’re some sort of royalty.”

Dan hadn’t told them about his enhanced hearing, so Batman had no way of knowing that the three ghosts could hear him perfectly. Dan and Ellie shared a smirk at how done the man sounded with them.

Danny clapped his hands, startling some of Dan’s coworkers.

“Yes, you are correct! Danny Phantom, King of the Infinite Realms, at your service!” Danny said cheerily.

Ellie spoke next “Ellie Phantom, Princess of the Infinite Realms.”

They both looked expectantly at Dan, who sighed.

“Dan Phantom, Prince of the Infinite Realms.”

Technically, he was also sort of the king, but it had been a different Infinite Realms that he conquered, so this one had decided he was a prince. He was fine with it, honestly being King sounded annoying.

Predictably, that led to another outcry from his coworkers. Constantine looked like he was having a mental breakdown.

When they had settled down, Superman asked “You’re a prince?”

Flash chimed in “Also, your superhero name is just your last name?”

“You’re the prince of the Infinite Realms. The place the entities are from?” Wonder Woman added.

Dan rolled his eyes at the questions, before looking at Danny pleadingly. Danny sighed, but answered the questions for him.

“Yes, we are the royal family of the Infinite Realms. And the beings there are called ‘ghosts’, by the way. Also, Flash, it was a superhero name before it was a last name.”

If anything, that answer made Flash even more confused.

Ellie stuck out her tongue at Dan “If you just told them about us, you wouldn’t have to deal with all these questions!” she sang out.

Dan groaned “Can you stop it for two seconds?”

“Nope!”

“I swear to the Ancients, I’m gonna-“

“Settle down, you two.” Danny cut in, stopping the argument.

Dan and Ellie gave him matching pouts. They loved arguing with each other over nothing, it was fun.

Danny sighed, before turning back to the Justice League.

“So, Dan said that you’ve got a ghost problem?”

Batman stepped forward.

“Yes. Someone is summoning ‘ghosts’ into our world and causing havoc. Constantine doesn’t know who, but they need to be stopped.”

Danny closed his eyes for a moment.

“Okay, got it. Some asshole in Central City.”

Constantine startled “How do you know where he is? I couldn’t find him, even with my most powerful tracking spells!” He shouted, before a look of immediate regret came over his face. He probably just remembered that he was yelling at a death god, or close to one.

Danny dropped his smile, his eyes going blank. His presence seemed to double, a crushing sense of doom coming over the room. Constantine realized just how much he screwed up.

“The Realms is connected to all, especially those who are going to die shortly.” He said, flatly.

Dan chuckled slightly at Danny’s scary act, sharing an eyeroll with Ellie. Danny tried so hard to be intimidating, and it never really worked.

(Meanwhile, the entire Justice League is trying not to faint. Constantine really needs a drink.)

Superman shook it off first, asking “Going to die shortly? Are you going to kill him?” his voice pitched down at the end, trying to sound threatening.

Danny laughed, the crushing aura receding “No, of course not!”

Superman nodded, relieved.

“I’m just not gonna stop the others from doing it!” Danny continued.

Immediately, the mood of the room plummeted.

“What do you mean?” Batman asked.

Danny gave them a sharp smile, Ellie and Dan mirroring it on either side.

“He is enslaving my people, Batman. I’m sure they’ll want justice for that.”

Danny turned, opening another portal above the table.

“I’ll go deal with the asshole. Ellie, Dan, let’s go.” Danny said, smiling at them.

Ellie patted Dan on the head, before darting through the portal.

Dan looked out at the Justice League.

“I’ll be back in a bit, don’t wait up.” He said. He was definitely going to take advantage of his family coming to visit him, he wanted to hang out with them a bit. Maybe show them Gotham? He knew Danny and Ellie would get a kick out of it.

With that, Dan walked into the portal.

Danny surveyed the Justice League for a moment.

“Thank you for helping Dan. Don’t be too annoying to him over all this, okay?” His words were light, but his tone was anything but.

Batman nodded seriously.

Danny smiled, stepping through the portal to go keep his kids from getting into too much trouble.

(Constantine looked seriously at Batman “Don’t call me for the next week, I need to get drunk. To deal with all…that.”)

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Tag List!

@seraphinedemort @ever-changing-weirdo-3100 @thewondersoflebanon @botwadtict @akikkobara @sailor-goddess @dontfightmecauseillcry

#dc #dc x dp #my writing #fic #i hope y'all like this!#ellie phantom #danny phantom #dan phantom

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factual-fantasy · 6 months

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Heya Factual! Wanted to give ya a million pats on the back for the new art- obviously it looks great as always- but also I'm always excited for new Grimace lore! The monopoly gag was hilarious- I actually thought it was serious for a moment- and then I was ecstatic to see him finally evolve into a Gengar- now he looks even more like Grimace than ever before!

Seeing him evolve reminded me of an interesting fact that I wanted to tell you and Grimace- it's been recently confirmed that Gengar is actually the favorite Pokemon of Atsushi Nagashima, the game director of the entire Pokemon TCG! He said during a recent tour that that's the reason Gengar gets so many cards every year- is because he just likes him a whole lot! So anytime Grimace is feeling down, he can remember that he and his kin hold a special place in the heart of the man responsible for balancing their very existence- at least on the table top!

As for my usual Mario stuff- thanks again for answering my last batch of Asks- I think your implementation of Snifits especially will work quite well! And as for today- I just wanted to keep it simple, and ask for some clarifications regarding an already existing species in the AU, if that's okay, that being the spooky scary dry bones!

You've mentioned them a couple times I'm the past- I believe as creations of Kamek- but I don't think you've ever drawn them- any ideas what they'd look like in your style? Would they maintain any semblance of their former selves- or be mindless zombies like in the movie? What would be involved in creating one? And would the spell only work on normal koopas- or would it be used to raise other creatures- perhaps even deceased royal Koopas to create dry Bowsers!?

And also as a sort of side Ask- have you seen the Super Mario Bros Movie yet? If you have what did you think? I noticed you mention it in the last post regarding the Snifits- but I couldn't tell if you were talking about the trailer or the film itself...

(Oh, and as always, thanks for taking the time to answer all our Asks- hope you're finally over the hill and feeling a bit better!)

@neo-metalscottic (Monopoly gag post) (Gengar evolve post)

Thank you so much!! :DD I'm glad you had fun with those posts! XDD And that's so interesting! :0 I would have thought his favorite Pokémon was Pikachu XDD

Now for your dry bones questions...

As for the royal koopas thing.. When Kamek beings something to live/back to life. They are basically just a mindless zombie. They hold no memories of their old selves it seems.. so when a royal koopa dies, they just let them rest. Becuase bringing them back to life would just make them this mindless drone.. not only would it be disgusting and depressing, but its also probably seen as rather disrespectful. To bring someone of such high status back to life as a mindless slave is just.. not great. Hence why Bowsers wife was simply buried when she passed. There's nothing Kamek could do to bring the real her back..

As for the dry bones, I have a solid concept. Buuuut I'm not super sure how it fits into the AU quite yet..

I was thinking that however many years ago.. there was some kind of war or battle that the koopa kingdom was involved in. And they were losing. They were losing too many soldiers.. So out of desperation.. The current king and queen ordered Kamek to do the unthinkable. Bring their fallen soldiers back to life..

They won the battle. But at a cost. Now the majority of their army/citizens are these mindless zombies.. its hard to say how much of the original koopa remains in these dry bones.. since they don't seem to have any memories of their past life..

The remaining living koopas would eventually repopulate and grow in in numbers. They would also learn to live along side the dry bones.. But its always really disturbing to be a koopa and seeing your great grandfather's corpse mindlessly wandering the streets.. still wearing the same armor he was wearing when he died during the great war..

As for their appearance, I actually pictured them being rather large skeletons. A lot of them are missing limbs or have broken bones.. they are all wearing old timey armor that they had on during the war. They are rather mindless and unresponsive to most things.. Though I imagine when some kind of danger is spotted, they suddenly jump to life and become really animated. Rushing towards the threat and neutralizing it swiftly and violently. Just like the soldiers did back in the day..

Once the threat is neutralized, they slump their shoulders. And begin to slowly wander again…

There's a lot I would like to do with this. I wanna experiment with the koopas interacting with the dry bones. Perhaps covering them in flowers to pay respects but to also make them seem less scary to children..

Perhaps some koopa families find their relatives and guide them by the hand back home and have them participate in family gatherings. Maybe its their way of coping.. or they're just showing love. "No matter how far gone you seem or how long ago you died, I still love you. And you are still apart of this family." 🥺

Sometime I'd like to draw them on my pc. But as it stands I'm still rather unwell and cant sit at my desk for very long 😭💔

As a last note, I did finally watch the Mario movie! :D... IIIIt was about what I expected. <XD

Other than Mario and Luigi's relationship being spot on? I found myself rolling my eyes the whole movie. Its probably safe to say that I'm not the target audience and that most people had a lot of fun with it.

And hey! If I didn't like the movie, I can just make my own Mario universe. Which is what I did! XDD

#my response #super mario bros #thanks a ton for the ask!! :DD #dry bones

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supernovafics · 1 year

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series masterlist | last part — next part

pairing: modern!actor!steve harrington x fem!reader

word count: 4.1k words

warnings: asshole!steve, explicit language, alcohol use, drunk!steve, angst

summary: you still don’t like him and he doesn’t like you, but things are a bit more bearable. and when steve is drunk and needs your help, you actually decide to help him

CHAPTER THREE | ❝𝒂𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅❞

As minor as it was, that night at Steve’s apartment changed something over the next few weeks.

Of course, you still didn’t like him and he didn’t like you— that was something that you knew would take a lot to change— but it felt a bit different now. That hint of animosity you felt for each other was channeled into you matching his asshole nature with a quippy attitude of your own, and him not seeming to mind you doing so.

It made things feel a little more bearable, and you actually found yourself not hating every single moment of being his assistant. But you still ended each day feeling exhausted because of the fact that you were juggling doing two jobs and working yourself to death to make sure everything was right; there were barely any moments where you could actually get a breather.

You found yourself cherishing sleep more than you probably ever had before. The barely six hours you’d get pretty much became the highlight of your nights, as depressing as that probably sounded. Therefore, when you were abruptly woken up in the middle of the night by the loud sound of your phone ringing, you groaned.

You rolled on your side to grab it and saw that the call was coming from a random number.

Somehow your mind immediately went to your parents. You didn’t talk to them a lot, for reasons that you tried not to dwell on too often, but you couldn’t help but think that a call from a random number in the middle of the night usually never meant anything good and most of the time it was a family related not-good thing.

“Hello?”

“Hey.” It was Steve’s voice on the other side.

You let out a small sigh in relief and then quickly became a little annoyed. “It’s one in the morning on a Saturday. This better be good, Harrington.”

“So, I, uh, need a little help,” He said, and there was something about the sound of his voice right then that fully woke you up.

You sat up in your bed and a small laugh almost fell from your lips. “Oh, my God. Are you drunk right now?”

Steve being drunk was something you never thought you’d see, or in this case, hear. In fact, the possibility of that happening never once crossed your mind because he seemed way too serious for that. You could see him having the occasional drink here and there, but full-on drunk seemed like a stretch.

“I hate how happy you sound about this,” He said with a scoff. “But, anyway, I can’t drive right now and my phone is dead so the bartender is letting me use his to call someone to pick me up.”

Hearing that confused you, making your eyebrows furrow. “I’m the only number you know by heart?”

“I don’t have you saved in my phone so anytime I text or call you I see your number and I've accidentally remembered it at this point,” He explained.

“Of course that’s the reason,” You responded with a roll of your eyes that you wish he could’ve seen. “Do you even know my name?”

He sighed at that. “Of course I do, I swear I hear someone say it at least five times a day when they drone on and on about how helpful you were at solving some issue or whatever the fuck else on set.”

You smirked at how annoyed he sounded. “Aw, are you jealous that you’re not the star of the show?”

“Well, I am the lead of the movie, so maybe I am a little jealous.”

“I’m quite flattered.”

“Yeah, yeah whatever,” He said and somehow you could practically hear him rolling his eyes. It was both hilarious and satisfying to know just how much you got under his skin even when he was drunk. “Are you gonna come or what?”

You mock gasped. “Wow, that’s really not the way to talk to someone that you need help from. Especially when that someone is really only supposed to be available to you during filming hours. And last time I checked, a night shoot isn’t scheduled until this Wednesday.”

“Can you please help and come pick me up?” He asked in the most deadpan voice you probably ever heard.

“For an award winning actor, the delivery on that line was pretty shitty,” You said as you laughed a bit. “But, I’ll still come get you. What’s the name of the bar?”

“Uh, I actually don’t remember. Hold on a second.” You could hear the phone being placed down as Steve began talking to who you assumed was the bartender; you could barely hear whatever they were saying. “Okay, it’s called Ace of Spades.”

You put him on speaker and then went to look up the bar. “What the hell? It says it’s an hour away.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right.”

“Jesus Christ,” You said and shook your head as you shut your eyes because you desperately wanted to go back to sleep. “Why did you go there?”

“Wanted to lessen my chances of potentially getting recognized. The paparazzi would have a field day with this shit.”

That actually made a lot of sense, but you refused to tell him that.

You got out of bed and began rummaging around in your closet for a pair of sweatpants to slip on over your pajama shorts along with a jacket. “I’m coming now.”

“Thanks,” He said before you hung up.

That was the only completely serious “thank you” you’d ever gotten from him, and of course, you knew it was only because he was drunk.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

The bar was in what felt like the absolute middle of nowhere and it also felt like the sort of place a horror movie would start in.

The parking lot was practically empty aside from a few cars, one of which you knew was Steve’s, so when you walked in, it was unsurprising to see that the place was also empty. However, you were surprised, or more so creeped out, by the amount of “country” vibes the place emulated; cowboy hats littering the walls along with American flags. There was even a massive deer head hanging up that you inwardly cringed at before turning your attention to the bartender standing behind the counter.

“Hey, I’m looking for–” Before you could even finish your statement he nodded his head in the direction of the series of booths that were a few feet away, one of which Steve was sitting at with his head down in his folded arms. You gave the bartender a small, grateful smile. “Thanks.”

You sat down across from Steve and leaned back in the booth. You simply looked at him for a brief moment before nudging his leg with your foot underneath the table. “Steve.”

He only mumbled something that you couldn’t make out and burrowed his head further in his arms.

With a small sigh, you reached out and began poking his head until he finally sat up and looked at you. “Oh, hey.”

The way he said the two simple words made it sound as if he was surprised to see you sitting in front of him.

You furrowed your eyebrows at him. “Hi? Do you not remember calling me?”

“Vaguely, yeah,” He said and when you scoffed with a shake of your head, he only smiled at you. “I’m kidding, I remember it very clearly. Me needing your help, and you being pissed at me calling. I feel like that’s how most of our phone calls go, actually.”

You rolled your eyes at how he easily simplified all of your conversations. “The only reason I’m ever pissed when I talk to you is because you’re being a dick.”

He completely disregarded your statement. “Nice shirt, by the way.”

Confused at his words, you looked down at the shirt you had on. It was a white t-shirt that had the Pepsi logo on it, but it said “Sexsi” in the middle of it instead of “Pepsi.” You’d completely forgotten you were wearing it.

You crossed your arms over your shirt. “I still can just leave you here, y’know.”

“That would suck.”

You almost laughed at that response because he somehow seemed even more drunk than when you talked to him on the phone. And it had been an hour, so he should’ve been at least a little less drunk at this point.

“Did you drink more after we talked?”

“Ben wanted to cut me off, but I tipped him really big so I could get two final shots,” Steve answered with a smile. “I’m just realizing that his name is Ben the Bartender. That’s honestly pretty fucking cool.”

“Oh, my God. I can’t believe this is happening right now,” You mumbled. A part of you wanted to laugh while the other part of you just wanted to stare at him in disbelief. “If you puke in my car, I will leave you on the side of the highway.”

“Very, very harsh,” He responded as he leaned back and closed his eyes, but only for a moment because you gave him another nudge under the table.

“Come on, let’s go,” You said before slipping out of the booth. “You can walk okay, right?”

Steve rolled his eyes at you as if he was offended by your question and then stepped out of the booth, but he only made it a few steps before he stumbled a bit. You sighed as you moved closer to his side, draping one of his arms around your shoulders and wrapping one of yours around him. You started leading him toward the door.

“Wait, you paid your tab, right?” You asked, but before giving Steve a chance to answer you, you turned your attention toward Ben who was still standing behind the bar and was now cleaning up. “He paid his tab, right?”

“Yeah, he’s all good,” Ben responded and you nodded, glad that you didn’t have to worry about that. You kept heading toward the door and then he spoke again before you pushed it open. “You’re a good girlfriend.”

You knew that you’d never see this guy again so you didn’t care enough to correct the mistake. Instead, you gave him a weak smile and just continued leading Steve out of the bar and toward your car.

Steve laughed a bit as he settled in the passenger seat. “He thought you were my girlfriend?”

“Shut up,” You said and then handed him a water bottle that you had grabbed from your fridge because you knew that he’d probably need it. “Drink this.”

He nodded before taking a few sips and then placing the bottle in his lap. “Can I charge my phone?”

“Yeah, the cord’s right there.” You pointed to the center console.

You had been driving for no more than fifteen minutes before you got stuck in traffic that was nothing like what you experienced driving to the bar. There was a bunch of construction happening that, according to a sign, was going to go on for the next twenty miles.

“I truly deserve a fucking raise for doing this,” You said as you slumped back in your seat. Your car was barely moving above ten miles per hour.

“I’ll make it up to you,” Steve said in a tone that sounded completely unserious and sarcastic, and then he reached over to pat your head.

You glared harshly at him. “Don’t ever do that again.”

He only laughed a bit at your annoyance and then nodded his head. “Got it.”

From there, you both allowed silence, aside from the music softly playing on the radio, to take over the car, which you were fine with. In fact, you’d take complete silence over hearing whatever dumb drunk comments Steve would make.

But after only a few minutes of that, you were reminded of a question that had been on your mind probably since he called you. “What were you doing at a bar, anyway?”

Your question was met with nothing but more silence, and for a moment you actually felt bad asking that question because maybe it was a touchy subject for him. But when you looked over at Steve, you saw that he was fast asleep; eyes shut and leaning back against the headrest.

You let out a small sigh and continued driving, still barely moving anywhere over the next ten minutes. Conveniently, that was when Steve’s phone started vibrating in the cup holder where he placed it. You glanced down and saw that he was getting a call from someone named “Robin,” and you simply watched as it continued to ring and then went to voicemail.

You expected that to be it, but then his phone started ringing again from the same person. You hesitated for a brief moment before letting it go to voicemail that time as well. But, it was on the third call that you decided you needed to answer it because apparently Robin really wanted to talk to Steve and maybe them calling multiple times meant that it was important.

You placed the phone at your ear. “Hello?”

“Hi,” It was a girl’s voice on the other end. “Uh, who is this?”

You could understand her confusion so you quickly said, “I’m Steve’s assistant.”

“You don’t sound like Sheila.”

You were startled by the sudden sharpness of her words, and you quickly came to the conclusion that maybe you shouldn’t have answered the call. You took a breath before speaking again. “Sheila is pregnant and on bed rest, so I’m his assistant for the time being.”

“Oh, okay. Yeah, I forgot she was pregnant.” Robin said and then sighed. “Sorry for being kinda hostile. Steve’s my best friend, and it’s still so weird having a friend that’s famous. I’m never sure if I’m talking to a normal person or his stalker who’s kidnapping him. Glad to know you’re not a kidnapper.”

“I’m glad too? Sorry, I don’t really know how to respond to that, but I think I get what you mean,” You let out a small laugh and took a quick glance over at Steve and saw that he was, unsurprisingly, still sleeping. “But, Steve’s unavailable right now, so I can tell him to call you back, or I can give him a message if you want, I guess?”

“Yeah, um, just tell him that we missed him at Nancy and Jonanthan’s wedding, and we all wish he could’ve been here.”

Hearing that managed to both confuse and surprise you, but you still nodded your head even though she couldn’t see you. “Okay, got it. I’ll tell him.”

Somehow it was easy to hear the smile in her voice as she said, “Thanks.”

“Yeah, it’s no problem,” You responded and the call ended from there.

You took another glance at Steve as you put his phone down back in the cup holder, and it was then that you realized how little you actually knew about him. Yes, the news articles that were centered around him told you things and even the short conversations you’d had with him over the past few weeks of being his assistant told you some stuff too, but none of it really told you anything.

It didn't tell you about his life outside of the film industry and Hollywood, and it definitely didn’t tell you that he was missing out on important moments with friends and family because of filming and everything that came along with it.

Maybe that was what led him to the bar; feeling something that resembled homesickness because he was missing out on an important moment for people that were his friends— or maybe even family; you were unsure of who exactly Nancy and Jonathan were.

You knew how lonely of a job this whole acting thing could be, you’d been working in the film industry for so long that it was way too easy to see that; and sometimes it was even easier to feel it so harshly in your own way. You couldn’t even remember the last time you actually hung out with friends or accepted an invitation to do something fun with them. Instead, your mind was always on your job, focused fully on production and making sure everything was running smoothly.

There were little moments where you hated how much you let the job consume your life— surely there was a better way to balance it all— but seeing everything come together in the end made it all worth it in your mind. You wondered if Steve felt the same way too.

But, if that was the case, then he probably wouldn’t be drunk in your passenger seat on the same night that he was missing out on a wedding that his friends and family all wished he could’ve been at.

Or maybe that was exactly why he was drunk in your passenger seat. He’d rather drink to avoid the sadness, and maybe even that all too familiar feeling of loneliness, rather than face it or even dwell on it because he believed that all of this would be worth it in the end.

You were unsure of how right that assumption was— perhaps it was your sleep deprived brain making him seem more human than he actually was— but that potentially delusional thought still managed to change something for you.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

It was the sound of your front door opening that slightly woke you up. And then it was you realizing that you shouldn’t even hear your front door opening from your bedroom that fully woke you up and made you immediately remember that you had decided to sleep on the couch.

Many hours earlier, after enduring a near ninety minute drive back to LA, you decided to bring Steve back to your place; mainly because it seemed like it would’ve been too much work to lug him up to his own apartment, and also because, for some reason, it didn’t feel right to simply leave him and go. You let him take your bed and prayed to God that he wouldn't throw up in it before you settled yourself on your couch and immediately fell asleep.

Now, hours later, you were awake but still a bit bleary-eyed as your attention turned toward the door and you saw Steve shut it behind him.

He offered you a small smile as you took in the sight of him. Two drinks balancing in one of those cardboard cup holder things in one hand, and a bag with the words “Tommy’s Coffee” branded on the side of it in his other— it was the same place where you would get his coffee and breakfast sandwich from practically every morning.

Steve set everything on the dining room table. “I had it delivered.”

You nodded at that and walked over to him, the blanket that you pulled from your linen closet to sleep with last night still wrapped around you.

The exchange was silent. Steve handed you the slightly smaller drink and then a wrapped up breakfast sandwich, and you watched as he took a sip of his own coffee and sat down.

You took a long sip of yours and almost sighed in contentment at how perfect it was, and then you unwrapped the breakfast sandwich and saw that it was exactly what you would always get.

Things stayed quiet as you both started eating, and it was a silence that felt weird and awkward. Mainly because what was happening right then was completely unchartered territory. A part of you thought that you’d wake up and he’d just be gone; like the drunk incident never happened and neither of you would bring it up come Monday or any day after that. You definitely didn’t expect to be eating breakfast with him, and you couldn’t help but wonder if that meant you were supposed to discuss last night.

Finally, you decided to speak, but not about what would’ve probably made sense to talk about. “How did you know what to get me?”

“Whenever you give me my coffee and food, the receipt is on the bag, and it shows what you ordered for yourself,” He answered and that response actually surprised you, but you wouldn’t ever tell him that.

“Very observant,” You said and then took another sip from your coffee. You fully expected him to follow up with saying something about how he only remembered your order because it “sucked,” the opening was right there for him to make that sort of annoying comment, but he didn’t. “Um, thank you for this, though.”

Steve shook his head at you as if you shouldn’t have been thanking him. “Thanks for last night. I don’t remember a lot of it, but still,” His shoulders upturned in a small shrug. “You also really didn’t have to let me take your bed.”

“The couch sucks for tall people, and I didn’t want to subject you to that,” Your answer was only partially true, you mainly gave him your bed because, despite everything, you felt bad for him. If he was sad or lonely or whatever else, it would’ve sucked waking up on your old couch which you’ve had for years and probably should’ve gotten rid of at this point.

“Oh, also,” You started and then immediately stopped talking because you were unsure how to continue. You looked away from him for a brief moment; you were nervous and you hated that you were. “Uh, when you were asleep in my car last night your phone was ringing a lot, so I answered it because I thought maybe it was important. It was Robin, she said she was your friend. She also told me to tell you that you were missed at Nancy and Jonathan’s wedding and everyone wishes you could’ve gone. You should probably call her back when you get the chance.”

He only nodded before simply saying, “Okay,” and then took another bite of his sandwich.

You became even more nervous, and equally confused, at the fact that things were so normal right then. And it was far from the normal that you’d become so used to with him; he wasn’t mad or annoyed at you, and he was actually being somewhat nice to you and not at all an asshole.

That made you further think that what you assumed last night was the truth. And there was something about his demeanor right then that told you that maybe he was still a little sad about it all.

“You know if you had wanted to go to the wedding, I'm sure Jessie would’ve been okay with pushing filming back; she's really understanding of personal stuff. And plus, we’re actually a bit ahead on filming so it probably would’ve been okay having a break for a day or two.”

“It’s not…” He trailed off and shook his head. “It’s not that.”

It was easy to tell that he didn’t want to talk about it— the wedding, his friends, that part of his life that didn’t involve acting— so you didn’t push him further on any of it, although you were so fucking curious.

“Okay,” You said softly and then cleared your throat. “So, your car is still stranded at the bar. We should probably go get that.”

“You don’t have to come. I can figure out another way to get it.”

You shook your head. “No, it’s okay. But I refuse to make that drive three times in a row, so you can drive there and I’ll sleep in the passenger seat.”

He laughed a bit, it was a sound that was so foreign to your ears but you didn’t mind it. “Honestly, that’s a very fair deal.”

It felt weird to genuinely smile at him but you did so anyway.

You were unsure what was happening right then, and what things would be like Monday felt like a mystery to you. A part of you wanted it all to go back to how it had been— him being rude and you dealing with it— because this Steve in front of you wasn’t the one that you’d grown to know over the past few weeks.

But then you once again remembered that you actually didn’t really know him. And maybe now you were finally getting a glimpse into that.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

next chapter!

#steve harrington x reader #steve harrington fluff #steve harrington series #steve harrington fic #steve harrington smut #steve harrington x you #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington x fem!reader #stranger things fic #stranger things imagine #stranger things series #stranger things smut #stranger things fluff #steve harrington x y/n

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tmntxthings · 2 years

Note

Hey! idk if youre taking requests but i love your writing!

I was wondering how about some angst where the reader likes to make things like donnie does, she talks about it but donnie keeps talking about how he can make something better than that or add improvements and one day she comes in with something she made to show them but before she can show the whole group donnie just goes “thats it? i could make that in a hour, heck 2 hours to make it better than that” and it kinda just diminishes the reader and she leaves

you can add more! Ive just been thinking about this for a bit c: I hope you have a wonderful day!!

I Can Do It Better

author’s note: awww tysm c: i love this idea though i didn’t know whether to keep it just angsty or throw in the comfort at the end so I just went for it!! i hope you enjoy~~~~ <3

warnings: angst, slight cursing, fluff

————————————————————————

This time. This time for sure, you felt confident in your creation. “The bros are gonna loveee this,” you laughed to yourself as you fiddled with a controller. You had made tiny color coded racing drones. One for each turtle and then yours, they were small enough to all fit in your backpack as you carefully placed them inside, also stacking the controllers in as well.

Of course your miniature drones were nothing like Shelldon, and that was the first response you were expecting from Donnie, but maybe he’d be a little impressed by the mechanics and how mini sized everything was, you basically had to make everything yourself, propellers and engines not really coming in such a small size. But you thought it would be a fun way to hang out with the turtles, they all loved a good competition you had come to realize. Whether it was video games or DDR in the arcade, lately even pizza box stacking! The record being a total of 50 boxes on Mikey’s head.

As you locked your apartment door, sending a text to the group chat that you were heading to the lair. Raph had been the first to acknowledge so you deemed it fine to continue your journey. It took about 20 minutes by foot to get to the turtle’s manhole cover. Which left you with plenty of time to mull over how nervous you were becoming. It all stemmed back to when Donnie had first shown you his lab.

“Wow! This is incredible!” You said turning around in a circle taking in the entire place. Donnie held a smug expression on his face, “built entirely by yours truly,” he bowed dramatically and you continued to stroke his ego, gasping at that fact alone. “How long did it take you?” You asked curiously and Donnie waltzed over to his swivel chair, pushing a spare one towards you. The conversation had been you asking questions, him answering arrogantly and you praising his achievements. To someone like you, Donnie’s mind was just phenomenal, he was your very own genius you could badger with a billion questions trying to get a glimpse of his ingenuity. And Donnie didn’t mind all the questions he was used to his brothers not being interested so this was like a complete 180.

“I’m also interested in making tech,” you added shyly, it was your first non question. Donnie blinked, “well I doubt it’ll ever be better than anything I’ve ever created, but cool!” And then he turned to his work table and got busy, asking if you wanted to watch his skills at work. That had lessened the sting as you pushed your chair to roll closer, watching his steady hands.

That hadn’t been the last of Donnie knocking you down. The things you had brought to him, he’d recalibrate or completely dismantle saying, “Don’t worry I can fix this and it’ll be wayyy better,” Even though you hadn’t asked him to do it. At first you were just happy to have sort of collaborated but you soon fell out of the whole idolization.

“Don’t focus on Donnie just focus on Mikey, or Raph, maybe even Leo if it comes down to it!” You chanted to yourself as you descended into the sewers. You had started to visit Donnie less because you realized his words really hurt your feelings. You had yet to build up the courage to tell him that too. So you hadn’t seen him in a while, you doubted he even noticed, he was a busy turtle. “Knock knock,” you called out as you entered the abandoned subway that was transformed into a home. “Y/n!” Mikey hollered and ran over to pull you into a hug. Raph doing the same hugging the both of you, “It’s been a while!” Raph noted as he set the two of you down.

“Sorry about that! Nothing personal in fact, I was building something for you guys!” Raph and Mikey smiled at you,

“Ohhh really??” “What did you make??”

“I’ll show you!” And just as you were grabbing your backpack, opening up the zipper, Leo and Donnie walked in. “Lookie here! Just who we were-“ Leo had started but Donnie elbowed his brother in the plastron effectively making him double over. “OW!” Leo said after regaining his composure. You turned back to your backpack, shaking your head with a smile, they were always fooling around. With your back turned Donnie pointed at Leo, then dragged a finger across his neck. Meaning, ‘you’re dead if you keep talking.’

Leo rolled his eyes, “Guess what guys! Y/n made us something,” Mikey beamed and that had the twins coming to stand in front of you. “Well all of you,” you clarified and Leo rubbed his hands together excited to see what you would pull out. You decided to take yours out, along with the controller. “I made everyone tiny racing drones!” And you quickly went on, not looking at anyone’s face (for fear of seeing any disappointment). Placing the drone on the floor and flipping a switch on the controller, the drone powered to life and it raised slowly according to your controls.

“I thought it would be fun since you guys like to compete, and-“

“That’s it?” Your heart sank as you turned to Donnie, the turtle you had told yourself you would ignore. For some reason that was impossible for you to do. “It’s so tiny, you know Shelldon was a racing drone once, I could totally make-“

You sighed, “yeah never mind.” You surprised yourself and Donnie by cutting him off. Embarrassed you let the drone drop into your backpack, flinching at the clacking sound, but to prove your point you threw the controller in there as well. “I don’t know why I thought this would be a good idea,” you said grabbing your bag quickly and heading for the exit. “Y/n!” Mikey called out worriedly. Raph was glaring at Donnie who had his mouth open, watching you leave. “You might want to apologize for putting Y/n down like that, I mean really Don??” Raph reprimanded his purple brother.

Leo took out a sword, and started swirling, making a portal underneath Donnie’s feet. “Try speaking your actual mind,” his brother winked as Donnie fell through eyes wide with surprise since he had been looking at you and not at his feet. “wait!!” He hollered and reappeared in the alleyway, you stopped thinking that had been meant for you.

“Uh Y/n, what I meant to say was…” he fell short not knowing what to say at all. You turned your head, you hadn’t been expecting anyone to follow you, maybe Mikey if any of the turtles. But Donnie?! “You meant what you said.” You grumbled as you turned back to face the street. “Well yeah but not as bad as it sounded,” he said quickly and you decided to turn completely and face him. “How exactly am I supposed to take your criticism that comes with every single thing I show you, you never say anything positive and-“

You were so upset that you threw your backpack at him. He fumbled catching it as it hit him in the plastron. Then he noticed you rubbing your eyes, his own softened. “Y/n..”

“No!” You cried, hiccuping, “y-you hate all of my stuff, that’s fine but, I was just trying to show your brothers, not you.” Donnie chewed the inside of his cheek, “I don’t hate them,” he gently placed the bag on the ground. “I like that you’re into tech and building your own creations,” he was mumbling. “Sure, just throw it all away, it’s junk.” Donnie grabbed your arm before you turned away again, “I’m sorry, I’m not the best at apologizing and I know I messed up big time,” he sighed letting his grip loosen as his hand slipped to hold onto yours. You blinked and he continued, “I know you’ve been ignoring me, I don’t know why I keep putting you down, it’s like a very bad filter turning my real thoughts into egomaniac bullshit,”

He paused looking into your eyes, “What are your real thoughts?” you said softly. “Just how much I miss hanging out with you, because you’re really cool and actually like the same things I do,” Donnie squeezed your hand before letting go. “Come back, I wanna race with your drones,” he said and you blew out a breath, “fine but don’t cry when I beat your ass,” you said going for the bag. But he beat you to it, tugging it over one shoulder as he uncovered the manhole, “Scoff! We’ll see,” he said with a playful smirk and you stuck out your tongue going down the ladder again.

You won the first match, to which everyone called for a rematch saying they were getting used to the controller or mechanics. “AH HA!” Leo said as his tiny blue drone won the second race. Donnie groaned wondering how he could lose to Leo of all people in a drone race. Mikey had placed all kinds of cute orange stickers on his drone. You went over to him as Leo and Donnie bantered back and forth. “I’m glad you came back,” Mikey said smiling up to you from where he was sitting, the drone in his lap. “Me too.. sorry for the outburst,” you said as you sat next to him. “It’s okay, did he apologize properly?” You drew your knees up and rested the side of your head there as you talked to Mikey though you wondered if he was being Dr. Feelings right now. “Yeah, we’re good,” you smiled softly thinking of how he had grabbed your hand.

“Donnie has always had that kind of trouble, he doesn’t really say how he feels,” Mikey glanced over at his older brothers, Raph trying to break up the twin feud. You closed your eyes, “he kind of said that actually,” you spoke and you felt a hand pat your head. You peeked your eyes open and saw that Mikey had leaned in closer, “you know what I think?” He whispered, and you waited for him to continued, eyes confused. “I think Dee likes you more than he lets on,”

As if to prove his point you felt his hand suddenly leave your head. “Mikey keep your hands to yourself,” Donnie’s voice was suddenly close. Mikey gave you a wink as you turned your head to the other side to see Donnie was now sitting next to you. “I was just telling Y/n how much I appreciate my baby drone!” Mikey quipped as he got up to go ask Leo to race him.

“He’s so bad at lying,” Donnie shook his head as he looked ahead, “what was he really talking about?” He asked still not facing you. “You,” you said honestly and that made him look down, “what about me?” He seemed wary to even ask. “something along the lines of what you said in the alleyway,” it was the truth but you kept the other statement to yourself. “Oh!” Donnie nodded, relaxing as he took out his phone. You watched him, wondering how much more Mikey meant, like a really good friend… or?

You blushed and when you blinked clearing away your thoughts Donnie wasn’t looking at his phone anymore but at you. “What’re you pondering?” You shook your head giggling, “can’t say,” and that only piqued Donnie’s interest. “Oh c’mon we’re rekindling remember?” His phone all but forgotten as he tried to guess your thoughts. “Don I’ve always considered you a friend even though you were being a big meanie,” you teased trying to change the topic. “Not gonna work,” he smiled smugly knowing the tactic you were using very well. “Ugh,” you groaned turning your head straight into your knees as you closed your eyes. You felt him poke your cheek, “penny for your thoughts?”

“They’re worth more than that!” You sputtered keeping your eyes closed despite wanting to see him now. This was the second time he had touched you today. Then you felt his body move closer until he was brushing against your side. “How much are they gonna cost me?” He joked and you couldn’t resist turning your face back towards him eyes opened. He was still looking at you, eyes crinkled in a teasing smile. “A few compliments,” you replied and his eyes widened slightly before his facial expression went back to teasing, “that’s easy!” He said and you rolled your eyes thinking he had never done so the entire time the two of you knew each other. Other than today!

“You’re brain is above average,” he started and you snorted. “Wow thanks,” you said sarcastically, enjoying how he got flustered. “Mmm your style is next level,” he noted and that meant more to you as you let go of your knees, sitting normally, looking down at your outfit. “And you’re really pretty,” he said so quickly you almost did a double take. Your face heating up as he turned away and you could only see one side of his face turning a darker green. “I was pondering.. the idea of us being more than friends,” you said quietly, giving him the answer he ‘paid’ for.

“And that made you blush?” Donnie asked and you replied, “the same shade as you when you called me pretty,” both of you turned away too embarrassed to keep up the teasing. “I’d like that..” Donnie said his hand inched towards yours where it rested on the ground. “Me too,” your hand moving, meeting Donnie’s fingers shyly. Both of you whipped your heads back around, both blushing furiously. “Then it’s official?” Donnie whispered and you nodded. Mikey and Leo’s drones flew past the two of you and Mikey was jumping up and down in victory as Leo crumpled to the floor in defeat. Raph cheering his little brother on happily. But despite that you couldn’t seem to think of anything other than Donnie’s hand in yours, and the way his eyes were showing you so much emotion, how you affected him greatly and he utterly adored you.

#rise donnie x reader #rise donatello #rise tmnt oneshot #rottmnt oneshot #tmnt oneshot #oneshot #donatello hamato #donatello x reader #tmnt fandom #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #turtle bros #leonardo #mikey #raph #donnatello #donnie x y/n

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myddle · 1 year

Text

Aight, time to go off about Murder Drones

Okay so Episode 6 dropped a little bit ago so I'm just gonna share my thoughts on where the show might be going in some regards

Warning: Big Post, Spoilers, Opinions

Okay, first up: "Effective drones were cloned more."

While framed like a throwaway line, this has important implications. It's interesting that J doesn't seem disturbed by this fact; she's presumably the original J since she's with Tessa and remembers her. N and V (maybe?) didn't fully remember their past until "Home", and since they were with another J, they're probably not the originals. But does Tessa know this? Does she think they're the originals because they remember her? Or does she know they're clones, and is just using their memory of her to get what she wants? Either way, I don't see this little alliance lasting.

Second: Cyn/Solver's Voice

Was the GLaDOS-ass voice originally Cyn's, or the Solver's? Uzi talks in it when she's possessed, as does eldritch J in "Heartbeat", which implies it's the Solver's, but Past N acts like it's normal when he's talking to Cyn in "Home", which implies it's Cyn's. Did Cyn have a different voice before she turned, or did the Solver take her voice due to not having one of it's own? Are Cyn and the Solver one or two entities? I got nothing.

Thirdly: How Everything Is Fucked, Actually

If you thought V's sacrifice was tragic, ponder me this: How the hell is the gang even gonna get out of there? V just destroyed the elevator out, and even if she didn't, it's swarming with Walking Dinos/Dino Walk Cycles. Between being trapped in the Labs, down a fighter, N being traumatised, Uzi getting possessed, the black box of Tessa's motivations, Doll being totally fine with leaving their asses to die, and whatever the fuck else is down there, things look bleak. The only thing I can personally see being the key to survival is...

Finally: Uzi's Administrator Status

At the end of "Home", Uzi replaced Cyn as the administrator of N and V, seemingly purging their minds of the Solver's influence. This, to me, means two things.

The Solver can't control N and V anymore - I definitely think this will come up; Something like Solver Uzi beckoning N to obey, and getting hit with the "[ACCESS DENIED]", maybe with a funny Windows error sound or something.

Uzi can do Administrator ThingsTM - Uzi is smart, and knows her way around drone programming, enough to enter someone's memoryscape and POSSESS a motherfucker. Cyn was N and V's original Admin, and the Solver has done both of these things too.

Uzi has the potential to be Cyn's equal, and with whatever equipment there is in the Labs, I reckon she'll be able to brainhack her way into turning the tables on the Solver. Hell, as V's Administrator, she might even be able to recover her conciousness remotely, or something.

I don't know what's going to happen, but I hope I'm right, because the key to victory being Uzi's own hyperfixation, rather than the powers she inherited, would make for a great character arc.

Image source: Murder Drones Fandom Wiki

#murder drones #murder drones dead end #murder drones theory #local autistic teen fights god and wins

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silverskye13 · 2 years

Note

That xisuma fic was absolutely incredible! If you have any more specific headcanons about android!X I would love to hear them! The idea is amazing and you wrote it so well!

Hai-yo! I'm glad you liked the writing snippet! ^_^

Oh boy, headcanons. How dare you make me organize my thoughts! Let's see.

Android!X is a server that one day decided to stop running in the background. Where I think most of the hermits were "born" on a home world that they can return to, it's more like Xisuma goes into his own mind. Similarly, if someone were to plot a course in the universe to Xisuma's home world, they'd just end up standing in front of him. [I feel like this also means between seasons X just kinda floats like a spaceman in hyper sleep through the void, go you funky little robot go!]

His body is made of circuitry and nanobots? In a way that isn't in any way functional to real life. But it's like he's a beehive almost. He has a living, moving body, but it's built for finesse and life-like expression. That kind of detail needs constant maintenance, so he has a fleet of little drone nanobots constantly doing repairs.

On that note, I think metallic/cybernetic/redstone components don't respawn like organic matter does on death. If it takes damage, it has to be repaired. Hermits like Doc are only mildly hampered by this, since any time his mechanics break, only parts of him are out of commission. For X though, anything that doesn't kill him outright has to be repaired. His nanobots help this, especially with small bits of damage accrued throughout the day, but anything that does significant damage requires him to power down to focus on repair and rebuild, where his nanos can run rampant while he rests. [He's never not productive though. Normally he uses this time to catch up on writing memory transcripts and other general internal housekeeping.]

Android!X is functionally smart but because everything he's ever done has had to be coded, a lot of things slip between gaps in his logic. He's a very smart computer, but he's still a computer. Common sense things slip between the cracks because common sense on regular people is mostly pattern recognition and intuition. Xisuma's only intuition is something he's hand-written in a table in a file somewhere. If he's never had to write/code it, and it's unique enough to not show up in a basic dictionary/archive search, it's a blind spot for him. He can query and in a millisecond give you data facts about the deep dark and still forget that the clicking noise his thinking pattern makes would attract a Warden. This also means he sometimes has weird hang ups in social situations sometimes. Yeah sure, Etho and BDubs are having the same friendly debate from last week, but this time BDubs is 30% louder [possible difference in altercation severity?] and Etho is on hazardous ground [standing on scaffolding, increasing height, personal endangerment? Posturing? Intimidation technique?], which means this situation is actually totally different and he's never coded protocols for it. He's gotten pretty good at reading other people's reactions to gauge his own, but when he's alone, he sometimes has an error he's affectionately labeled a "social short circuit". Good thing they're all hermits and understand when he sometimes just... walks away from things.

Even X doesn't know where his emotions come from. He knows he can augment them [He has a database for complex feelings like "happy and also sad" and "lonely but content", as well as for tonally dissonant scenarios like "feel worried when Cleo says 'its fine'."] and he has on a handful of occasions been able to shut them down when he was too overwhelmed or in a tense situation. But he has no idea where the emotions originally came from, and his ability to control their intensity [and turning them off] is so non-existent it's nearly random.

Xisuma has been trying to code a way to feel pain for a long time. Most of the hermits think he's crazy when he talks about it, but he thinks it would cut back on a lot of his time spent on damage assessment. It's much easier to tell if something is broken if you can feel it break. Currently his only indication something is wrong is if a circuit is actively frying or something stops working -- or if his nanos sniff it out.

Xisuma doesn't eat, but he tells his friends he eats redstone. It cuts back on some of the unnecessary worry about his well-being. It also means when they think he's distressed, they leave him little gifts of redstone, and he finds that endearing.

Xisuma likes to dress up his cybernetics. It started out with trying new paint jobs and slowly escalated to building new body casings with fancy cosmetics. He's very proud of his bone mage cosplay. The little dragon helmet has glowy-eyes and smoke comes out of its nose and everything. Tango, Joe and Cleo like to help him design things, and he lets Doc and Grian go ham trying to stress test [ie ruthlessly destroy] the parts to make sure they're durable before he commits to a design.

And that's about all I've got for now I think!

#answering asks #the barking writer #xisuma #android!xisuma #robot!xisuma #savviathan #long post #longpost #woe! my headcanons be upon ye!

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dogaquarium · 4 days

Note

Hi!! I saw your post! Unfortunately I’m very sleepy rn and I don’t have any good ask ideas off the top of my head, but I was wondering what you were thinking of ultrakill so far? Like general vibe and thoughts, even concerns if you have any!

Hope you feel better soon! Here’s my kitty ^^ (she’s blue because sister accidentally spilled (animal safe) hair dye on her 😔)

Well, I winded up taking so long to answer these asks I got that I totally finished getting through ultrakill with my friends in the meantime! So I can give you some properly fleshed out thoughts now!

Each layer had so much character to it.... I believe the environment designs are what stick out to me most, honestly. It was really something to behold. Personal favorites had to be clair de lune, bridgeburner (from how awe inspiring the first look at the city below was), LITERALLY THE ENTIRE WRATH LAYER WOW BY FAR MY FAVE THING IN THE WHOLE GAME (specifically waves of the starless sea), and no sound no memory. Does the earthmover in itself count as environmental design considering it's whole body is a stage? I guess. Giant weapon dog horse thing. Love that guy. And the lore that went with it is crazy

Something Wicked is fucking AWESOME. I actually had a lot of difficulty seeing it on my screen when I was in call with my friends (the contrast on my computer is pretty bad, so it's always difficult for me to see anything that's even a little bit dark) but 1) the vibes were crazy anyway, 2) I watched it after the fact on my phone and could see it a lot better; it's the coolest thing ever to me that something which looks so unthreatening can fill you with sm genuine terror, and 3) me and my friends found a lethal company mod that added it as a monster and we've been using it ever since, it rocks. I generally loved all the bonus levels that deviated from the format like something wicked did, the fishing level and the puzzle level especially

Very brief rundown on enemies: I have the most beef with malicious face as do a majority of my friends fuck that guy (SIDE NOTE DID YOU KNOW IT HAS LEGS), I felt a little robbed that cerberus wasn't an actual dog, drones I don't like but I couldn't tell you why, mindflayers 🥰🥰🥰, V2 is one of my ultimate faves, and the design approach to the minotaur was super unique

Last main note I want gabriel Badly but I feel like this is something every ultrakill fan must experience so I don't feel special for it

I have more to say on the topic if you were to ask specifics, but this hits everything notable about my ultrakill experience atm I'd say. Can't wait for it to be fully finished!!!

I LOVE YOUR BLUE CAT!!!!!!! Thank you for asking star :^3

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thezombieprostitute · 1 year

Text

Alphas & Algorithms - Part 7 - Feelings

A/N: Continued from Part 6 . Reader is female and is described as "tall". No other descriptors.

Warnings: It is a Dystopian AU. Food scarcity, hunger, mentions of families being separated. Discussion of non-consensual relationships and unwanted pregnancy. Bullying. Please let me know if I missed any!

--Part 1-- --Part 8--

--Series Masterlist--

If there was one good thing Curtis could say about his work it’s that it gives him plenty of time and space to think. And there was much to think about. They’ve started working with the pups to get them used to the fact that he’s leaving. He knows he’s out of his depth in all of this, but he trusts his brother. His brother who still knew the hand signals from all those years ago. His brother who’s apparently been trying to hook him up with Omegas for years.

He was so lost in thought he didn’t notice Hobie until he was practically in front of him.

“Oi, Curtis! How you gettin’ on with that pet? Meetin’ some interesting people from what I’ve ‘eard.”

“What do you want, Hobie? I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

“Yeah, figured you would. Got until the security drone comes by. Ask me somefin’.”

“How much does she know?”

“Dunno,” Hobie shrugs his shoulders. “Jus’ know she knows more than she says.”

Curtis sighs at the unhelpful answer and decides to not waste time arguing. “What’s Stevie’s, Steve’s, role in all of this?”

“Couple o’ Betas on the inside are ‘elpin’ with access. Sometimes even sabotage of the Omegas. Dunno th’ specifics, don’t need to.”

“Access?”

Hobie grins, “that’s a bit much to explain for the time you got.”

Curtis nods in acquiescence, “is her Beta in on everything?”

“Yup. It’s how we know she’s not sayin’ everything she smells.” Hobie looks around, “one last question, bruv.”

“Are you sure this plan will work?”

Hobie looked Curtis in the eyes, “enough that I put my life on the line for it.”

“It isn’t just your life at risk, though.”

Hobie smiles, “th’ way we’ve got everythin’ set up, me an’ maybe two others take the fall. No one else. Definitely no one in your Pack.”

With that, Hobie runs off, giving Curtis a few seconds to get back to work before the security drone shows up.

“Jake,” Y/N yells from the kitchen. “How did the date with Hope go?”

“It went alright,” he shrugged. Y/N could smell disappointment, which for Jake smelled like rain on a summer day when you’re supposed to be outside. Then she picked up the other scent, curry and warm, strong beer. A distinctive combination that made her think of overly crowded, chaotic art fairs: everyone freely expressing whatever and however they wanted. It was a scent that made her uncomfortable just thinking about the overstimulation.

“Do you want some cookies or something to cheer you up?”

Jake chuckled, “can’t hide anything from you, huh?” Y/N smiled gently and shook her head. “Okay, the date didn’t go well. Turns out there were some serious differences of opinion but I’m hopeful they’re not deal-breakers, you know?”

Y/N hugs him, “I know.” The hug makes the scent of curry and warm beer stronger. It’s the same scent she’s smelled on people proven to be plotting against the AI. She worries for Jake, knows he’s lying about some things, but she trusts him. He’d never lie without reason and she’d be the last to speak up about the connecting scent. As her mother said, “just because you smell something doesn’t mean you have to say something.”

“How did your date go? Did he say “yes” yet? Do I get my death-by-chocolate cake?”

“Not yet,” she shook her head as she smiled. “Today’s date got a bit off track when I saw Mr. Castle in the gym.”

Jake’s face fell, “oh damn. I didn’t realize.”

“It’s okay. Steve came by and picked up her tea so I didn’t have to take Curtis on that delivery. Pretty sure his opinions on Omegas wasn’t helped by our encounter with Colin and Suzanne at the community center.” Jake gave an appreciative grimace while Y/N continued, “then again, I definitely felt Curtis’s drive to protect me through the temporary bond. It was really sweet.”

“Ooo! Intriguing! I’m definitely going to get my cake and eat it too!”

Y/N smiles, “he’s also asked to meet you.”

Jake stops and looks at her, “are you okay with that? You know both of us best. If you think it’ll be okay, I’m good to meet him.”

“He said that, since you’re the closest thing I have to a Pack, it would feel weird to not meet you. And, between the two of you, I really don’t think there’s any reason for animosity. He doesn’t seem the jealous type and you’re the supportive, not confrontational type, so I think it’ll be okay.”

“I promise to do whatever it takes to make everything super awkward!”

“You’re lucky I know you’re joking,” Y/N rolls her eyes. “I’m genuinely hoping, if you two do get along, and he does eventually agree to be my Alpha, that you’ll give him some…help? Guidance? With my in-heat care. Especially with the foods and scents.”

“Oh it’s definitely getting serious,” Jake smiles. “If you want me to share my secret family recipes, it’s gotta be a sealed deal.”

Y/N’s face heats up and she looks down, still smiling. Jake’s eyes go wide, “you really like him, don’t you?”

She nods, “he’s living up to the promise in his scent. He’s warm, smart, makes me feel safe and comfortable. I…I don’t think I’ve ever felt this kind of "want" for intimacy.”

Jake takes her hands, “I’m so happy for you! Can’t wait for you two to make it official.”

When Curtis gets home, the pups immediately rush him. Timmy and Andy grab his hands and lead him to the table while Yona gives him a serious face and says, “we need to talk.” They all sit at the table to eat but the pups are asking him questions between bites.

“Is it true that we’re moving?”

“Still ironing out the details,” Curtis says. “But I think Andrew, Tonya and I are agreed that everyone’s moving.” The adults nod.

“Why are we moving?”

Curtis sighs and thinks before answering, “because that’s how things go. Life requires us to make changes from time to time and that time for us is now.” Timmy and Yona seem okay with the answer but Andy looks to Andrew for confirmation first.

“Are you going to move with us?”

“Maybe for a little bit,” Curtis hesitates. “But, ultimately, I’ll be moving in with that Omega who’s been courting me.”

“Is it because we ate her cookies? Do we owe her for that?”

“No, not at all,” Curtis quickly asserts. “Not one bit of this is because of you. And those cookies were freely given.”

“Do you love her?”

Curtis pauses at that question. He’s been so busy thinking about his brother, his Pack, the pups, he hasn’t really thought about his actual feelings about her. The temporary bond is almost completely gone but it could still be coloring his feelings so he chooses his words carefully.

“I don’t know that it’s love, but I do know that I trust her. I feel comfortable around her. She’s honest, strong, caring, comforting, smart. She’s definitely changed my perspective on Omegas.” He stops when he hears the pups giggling and gives them a confused look.

“You were smiling,” Timmy giggled. “You do like her! You don’t smile for anyone you don’t like!”

“Thats…Okay, you’re right. I’m not much of a smiler.”

“Curtis is in love!” the kids chant for a bit while Tanya and Andrew are trying not to laugh. The teasing continues well into the night, well after they should all be asleep, but Curtis doesn’t push it. He wants to enjoy these moments while he can.

--Part 8--

Tagging @every-username-is-taken-damnit, per request.

#alpha!curtis everett #alpha!curtis everett x omega!reader #curtis everett x reader #curtis everett x tall!reader #tall reader #tall!reader #dystopia au #dystopian au

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celestialdusks · 2 years

Text

Tangled Web [a short story]

⇢ what starts off as a mission turns into something much more... oh, and there are cookies.

Happy birthday, L! The first birthday celebrations for the characters of this wip.

L is very much an interesting and complex character with a whole load of layers to uncover, here you'll get to see their sweet, worried, confident and selfless side. They just need a little bit of love every now and then—and in the end, it'll be worth it.

I hope you enjoy this. Please tell me what you think.

•

L huffs. “This feels like a stake out.”

“That’s because this is a stake out,” you murmur back, turning to L as your hand slips from the steering wheel.

Their lips purse together, a hand goes over their curls. They watch the rain droplets race each other on the car window before glancing back over at you.

“Is this a good time to mention that I find stake outs incredibly boring?” L drones when their eyes fixate to the large building complex in front of you.

You refrain from rolling your eyes. “Why? Did you think it’d be all guns, and tasers, and running for our lives?”

L goes serious for a moment. “We’re trying to take down the Order, we’re already doing the latter.” They’re right, you can’t deny it, and the fact that L’s admitted shows that this isn’t going to be an easy feat. “But I didn’t think we’d be hanging around a building all night waiting for…” L arches a brow. “What are we waiting for exactly?”

“Piper,” you answer.

“And we’ve been here how long?”

“A few hours.”

The sound of a seat belt unbuckling gets your attention. “Well, the stake out tactic clearly isn’t working.” L opens the car door after they say that.

“Wait! What are you doing?”

L slips out of the vehicle, places their hand on top of the car and crouches down a little to talk to you. “Being proactive,” they respond with ease.

You had known what you were getting with L, they’re confident, probably full of themselves, a bit of a nightmare at times — this being one of those nightmares — but them being proactive can also be seen as reckless. But it could be exactly what you need.

“We can’t just storm in there.”

L doesn’t even stop themselves rolling their eyes, they glance to the building before their eyes fall on you. “We’re the ones that found the Order’s second headquarters, and I’ll be damned if we have to spend another minute watching out for the people that are blackmailing us. I might as well just go in there and see what they’ve got on us, or what they’ve got to hide.”

They don’t bother closing the passenger door, they just leave and stride towards the back entrance. You groan, unbuckle your belt and open your own door.

“L, I’m not going in there just to save your ass.”

You hear them chuckle at that. They twist on their heels with ease and give you a nonchalant shrug. “I’m wounded, surely I’ll be the one saving you. I bet you’re glad I’m not your initiate anymore, huh?”

It’s not like L’s initiation was ever going to last long, a week tops just to show them the ropes. L’s an exceptional asset, there’s no denying that… but you also can’t leave them to wander in ‘enemy’ territory on their own — and considering they haven’t looked back once, you know that they have no thought than to head into a metaphorical burning building.

You leave the car and lock it behind you before jogging up to the entrance L went through. The building is far from being the headquarters you and the others first visited, this one is less grand, so much more industrial and silent, a little dimly lit too so when a flashlight immediately shines in your direction, you know there’s an issue.

Being skilled is one of the best attributes you have, but even so, you know you aren’t able to move your feet quickly enough to get out of the guard’s path. You’re sure he’s going to spot you, and you’re sure that you’ll either have to fight your way out or charm him into letting you go — neither will be easy.

As you try to plan your next move as the guard’s footsteps approach, you feel a hand grab yours and pull you in. You barely let out a gasp, and you’re ready to protect yourself until your eyes connect with L’s. Warmth and relief washes over you. Their hand stays over yours whilst their free one puts a finger to their lips to tell you to stay quiet.

You do.

The two of you are stuck in a tight, out of sight corner, listening for the guard’s footsteps to quieten before you proceed on.

All there is to look at is L. The most you can do is hold your breath, let your eyes flit over their features as you take in each one. The dust of freckles scattered over their face that they usually cover with make-up, if the situation you were in was any different, you’d probably question them on that insecurity. Their light brown eyes lock with yours, and knowing L, they’d usually come out with a fun remark — but the look on their face is as serious as ever.

Their eyes close for a brief moment as the guard’s footsteps get louder. They brace themselves for your hiding spot to be revealed, and L knows that if it was, they’d take the blame in an instant — but then the footsteps start to quieten. The guard is gone.

L opens their eyes, lets out a breath, and you watch as their gaze softens when they look at you. “Told you I’d be saving you,” they whisper teasingly.

•

You eventually find an office, and you know it’s the right one considering the plaque has Piper’s name written on it. You and L step in, you flick on the light switch and turn to them. “I guess we’ll see what we find.” L nods and approaches Piper’s desk first, you opt for the laptop on the side. You groan a little because of course it’s password protected, Piper’s not stupid enough to leave electronics hanging around with no protection.

You look around at the rest of the side table: the pen holder, a leather jacket on the hook above it, a picture of what looks like a young Piper and an older woman — from your first meeting with her, you’d think she didn’t have a heart, but from that picture alone, you could be swayed in a different direction.

“Hey,” L mutters out, “come look at this.”

You twist around and saunter over. “You find something?”

You notice that L has a stack of files in their hand, they place them on the desk and slide one over to you first. You lean your head down and see that it has your brother’s name written on the front. With pursed lips, you brush your index finger over it before glancing back up.

“What do you think is in it?” you ask, almost ready to flip the front cover.

“I’m not sure,” L answers, “but don’t open it here, it might trigger an alarm, an alert, anything. It’s better we take it with us.”

You give a nod and glance down at the other file that’s on the table. It reads L Corrales.

“Are you going to take yours too?”

L sniffs, drums their fingers on the file and shakes their head. There’s a small frown on their lips, as though they are deep in their own thoughts. “She’ll know we’ve been here if more than one is missing. Take your brother’s.”

It’s a selfless act from L. More than selfless. So much so that you almost reach out to them and ask them what’s wrong because the look on their face is far from their usual carefree attitude.

“It could be important, L.” You swallow hard glancing between them and the file. “Detrimental, even.”

L opens the drawer and drops their file back in there. They clear their throat. “I’ve buried my past a lot, the good parts, the bad ones, the really fucked up shit that I never want to remember. It’s all there, but buried.” They slide the draw closed. “I don’t tell people that. And I don’t know if I’m saying this because we’re friends, or we’re close, or because I trust you.”

L sucks in a breath before their ramble continues. “Or whether all of that is bullshit and I mean nothing to you, and it’s just because we’re deep in this situation. But whatever Piper thinks she has on me, she would’ve gone through a whole heap to get it. For now, I can live without knowing what she wants to blackmail me with.” They point to the file in my hand. “That’s your family, and family’s important.” The last of their words come out in a whisper, and they mask the pain in their voice with a soft smile. You’re almost unsure of what to say.

“That’s— I…” you begin, the words stuck in your throat.

L shakes their head. “It’s fine. Truly.” The witty remark, the sarcastic one, the confident one — it still hasn’t come from them. “We should get out of here.”

The two of you go towards the door, leave the office and close the door behind you.

“You two! Stop there!” a guard screams from across the corridor.

Your grip on the file tightens that bit more as you turn to L. “Run.”

•

You’re back at your apartment building, and to be specific, you’re at L’s place. They’re in the kitchen, you’re leaning on the kitchen island whilst they open the oven. “I’ve always been a fan of baked midnight snacks, well, early morning ones now considering the time.”

They transfer the fresh cookies onto a plate, it’s done with such grace that you realise tonight, you’ve discovered a whole other side of L. They place the plate of cookies in front of you.

“When they cool, I’ll be offended if you don’t try one,” they say.

You snort. “I can’t come to someone’s house and offend them.” Silence engulfs the two of you, the same way it did on the car ride home. L didn’t say a word, and you were too concentrated on getting out of there and making sure no one was following you. But you can feel something between you and L, something unsaid, something lingering in the air.

“L,” you murmur.

They swallow hard. “We don’t have to talk about what I said.”

“I feel like we should.” We’re friends, or we’re close, or because I trust you. Or whether all of that is bullshit and I mean nothing to you. “You don’t mean nothing to me.”

They scoff a little. “Anndd you don’t have to tell me that because you’re pitying me right now.”

“I’m not,” you whisper. “You’re—”

“I can’t do this tonight,” L interjects, “I can’t think about the fact that Piper has that heavy file on me, I can’t think about the past, I can’t think about letting people down.” They sigh. “And I can’t… wonder about how you feel about me, or how I feel about you because I don’t want to put you in a bad headspace, or ruin whatever small thing we’ve got.”

You swiftly move to stand across from them. “You’re not ruining anything.”

L instinctively goes to reach out for your hand, their fingers brush yours. “We’ve been through a lot. When we’ve eaten cookies, and slept, and all the adrenaline wears off we’ll… I don’t know, talk properly about whatever topic you want.”

“About us,” you whisper.

L smiles at that, one that dances over their lips and makes their face sparkle, makes their freckles look like sweet constellations. “Us.” They take a step back, as though they’re stopping themselves from indulging. “I mean it. I’m not going to kiss you and do something one of us might regret later on.”

“You’d regret kissing me?” you question with an arched brow.

L picks up one of the cookies and pops a piece in their mouth. “I’d regret kissing you if I knew it wasn’t going to lead to an us.” They slide the plate of cookies nearer to you before slipping past you to exit the kitchen. “So, like I said, sleep on it. There’s no pressure, or anything. I promise.”

L leaves after that. All you can do is sigh, pick up a cookie and take a bite of the delicious treat. All in the span of a few hours you’ve gotten another piece of information about your brother. And after all of that, you almost sorted out the tangled web of feelings between you and L.

Almost.

#drabble #l corrales #over 2k words asdfghjkl

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fierybimbo · 9 months

Text

Open Starter

Feel free to reblog with a reply, or send your own starter through my asks (:

🩷view pinned post for more context on Laviel🩷

i only have 4 rules

1. no overly op characters

2. BE ABLE to play more than a couple characters

3. be semi-literate ((:

4. i don’t do smut. maybe lewd, and insinuating sex but not actual smut.

Life hadn’t always been what Laviel had expected. It seemed every time she’d started to get a grasp on what she was doing with herself, she’d lose sight again. This was one of those times. It had been two years since she’d left her used-to-be home in Hell. Even now, she longed for her toxic goddess ex-girlfriend.

The red head released a weary sigh, and opened her eyes after lying in bed for several minutes when she awoke. She threw back her poofy white comforter and rubbed her face. Damn. She was really tired still. “Stephania!” she bellowed for her personal maid.

The vampire maid stepped into the room with boisterous smile. “Good morning, Ms. Moonglow.” Laviel had a soft spot for vampires. In fact, she loved them so much that she literally bought half of the vampire council just to be her staff. Never mind the fact that the goddess they worshipped was her ex. Laviel rubbed the grogginess out of her eyes some more. “Will you run me a bath? And have Bastion get breakfast ready. The person normally that normally does the hiring quit, so I’m stepping in to make sure the new hires are what we’re actually looking for.”

Laviel was the owner of a very large company. Most human governments were comfortable with having Laviel around, so long as she contributed to society like the rest of them, and, if it ever came down to it, helping them in cases of crisis. Many years ago when she established her place with the humans, she’d started the company with her first husband, who’d taken her last name. The company originally was in his name, and when he passed, no one bat an eye at the name transfer. Human officials that weren’t aware of Laviel’s nature just happened to be too stupid to figure her out from then. (i. e. she just used fake names)

Stephania smiled at her boss and without a word started complying. Once the bath was ready, Laviel stripped and got in while Stephania started scrubbing her. “Are you ready to visit the work-site again?” the vamp tried making small talk. Unfortunately, Laviel just wasn’t in the mood. “Mmm. Not really.” was all she said. The rest of the bath passed by in silence. When it was over, Stephania fetched Laviel’s food for her and the Amazon was on her way.

Laviel bit into the soft, homemade bagel spread with honey butter as she pulled her keys out of her purse and got in her car. Before she even knew it she was at the large building. It was as if she blinked. The dread of conducting boring interviews all afternoon hung over her. Reluctantly, she made her way into the building. A few workers saw her and immediately straightened upward. “Hello, Ms. Moonglow!” they chimed. She bid her greetings and entered the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor. Normally interviews were held at the 4th floor, but due to the circumstances, they were being held on the 7th floor today. Laviel sighed. Seven rings of Hell, Seven floors of it too. She thought to herself. Upon leaving the elevator she asked her assistant for a coffee and then entered her office and awaited the many beeps from Lexy—the assistant—signifying the next interviewee. There were eight interviews today. Laviel groaned and rested her head on the desk. This was going to be dreadfully boring.

Hours passed. Laviel went through seven long interviews of people droning on about how great of a worker they were. There was just one interview left, and she honestly was making herself do it because she so badly wanted to just go home. She could, too. What’s gonna happen? She gets fired? She’s the owner of the company. The Amazon sighed, knowing she needed to stay for the last interview even if she could leave.

#fantasy rp #literate rp #open rp #rp #supernatural rp #oc rp #new rp #discord rp #city rp #plz #i need rp partners i beg #i also don’t expect 7 paragraphs out of anyone lmao #but like #maybe at least 1-2 if not more yk #i put a lot of thought into my characters and replies so i expect the same yk ((:

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inkofamethyst · 1 year

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May 2, 2023

AYYYY I SOLVED THE MYSTERY BEFORE THEY DID :D First time, House s3e2 :))))) Medical mystery shows are a bit different from the typical whodunnit show because there’s a huge amount of knowledge that I simply do not possess and never intend to. I know some basic bio and a bit of anatomy with a few fun medical facts thrown in, but I can’t ever in the slightest expect myself to deduce the culprit in any episode, unlike in Midsomer Murders or something where fewer of the clues require extensive, broad-ranging knowledge of very specific topics. Regardless, I can’t stop myself from semi-actively thinking about solutions to medical mysteries, and it’s finally paid off (mostly thanks to my undergrad concentration in genetics).

I’m not very good at asserting myself. I am very afraid of being wrong, even when there are no actual consequences. This is.. not good. Not at all. I keep thinking back to when that expert dude was pestering engaging me when I was first presenting my research, and he asked me why I hadn’t included one particularly recent paper in my references. I thought for sure I had scoured publications and had the most recent articles that mentioned my topic even in passing. But I didn’t say that. I could have, but I waited for this white-haired old dude to look up the paper and search for my keyword only for it to not show up anywhere. Then I felt comfortable saying that I had only found xyz papers and that no one has touched this topic in years blah blah blah. Everyone can be wrong, everyone. But that doesn’t necessarily mean I should keep my mouth shut when I think I’m right. It does the body good, to get used to being wrong sometimes (I’m still reeling from when I confidently asked a question in my first math lecture freshman year and it turns out my assumptions were wrong and the question didn’t make any sense (I really need to let that go)).

Today I’m thankful for my ulta cozy grad uni sweatshirt (likely the first of... three, probably) :) I know that it’s going to be ~academically rigorous~ n all but I am looking forward to the aesthetic SO MUCH. I mean, I look so good in this color. The libraries, the cafes, the commanding a certain level of respect and admiration... UGH. Literally can’t wait.

Also thankful that while I am technically in my second to last week of school,,,, two of my profs have straight up cancelled class for the last week. Keep in mind, I only attend three actual classes twice a week, plus a discussion section. So next week is literally just ballet on two mornings and that’ll be it lol. No TAing, no more coursework for my major. My major will sort of just end after I take my last two midterms (and presumably do well on them) and submit my final project for cell bio.

Plan is to go for a night on the town next week after the last day of classes with my photo-, dancer-, and cello-friends. I’ve never been to a club before. I did buy a top for the occasion :) I’ve never even gone drinking before. I don’t know how much to budget. $50? $100??? I’m not trying to go crazy or anything, but transportation, cover, drinks... it’s not cheap.

Gotta force myself to go to bed. I managed to not take a nap today despite being wrecked by the sleepytired, and I’ve encountered a second wind which is screwing with me. And it’s uncharacteristically chilly outside, so I can’t go for a promenade about the mall to tire myself out. I need to be up at seven tomorrow oh my godddd. Maybe the baritone drone of Cecil Gershwin Palmer can knock me out [edit, next day: night vale did the trick!].

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bahamutgames · 5 months

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AFTERTHOUGHTS - ROUNDUP ROUND 12

April 2024

Hello again!

It's been a HECTIC year so far. I've been very busy and frankly, just burnt out. Even with playing video games. So I really wasn't playing much of anything during that huge move I had to do. BUT, last month, I got a new phone and it's SO much better at playing games than my old one was. So I've been giving mobile gaming a shot, and I think it's been really helping to slowly get me back into gaming again.

So! To finally get back into the groove of doing my little afterthoughts stuff, here's some mobile (and some not mobile) games I played last month!

And as always, these aren't reviews, just my thoughts, please play everything I talk about if it interests you.

Super R-Type (July 13, 1991) - SNES

Another day, another FANTASTIC shmup with a new gimmick I've never seen before. I know I constantly say it, but this is the genre that keeps on giving for me. Every time I think I've seen everything you can do with it, I play a new one that does something brand new with it. AND THEY'RE USUALLY OLD GAMES! They had this shit figured out ages ago.

SO, Super R-Type's main gimmick is your little mobile drone sidekick. It's a ball that shoots out additional bullets for you, as you'd expect. But you as the player can actually fully control its movement, shooting it out as a big blast, leaving it stationary on the map, or having it trail around you as it tries to follow you when you call it back. Even the direction it links up with you matters, as you can link it to your back and have bullets fire from behind you, which is very helpful! It's REALLY neat and basically makes it feel like you're controlling a puppet fighter! There's also your standard red, green, and blue bullets with upgrades. But these special bullets were particularly interesting to me because they REALLY interact with the level in a way I feel like I hadn't seen. Like red, which shoots fire pillars that snake across the top and bottom of the map. Or, the best one, blue, which shoots lasers that bounce off walls!

The sprites, music, game feel, designs, and everything in this game totally rule! In fact, it rules a little too much! This game is constantly being crushed under its own weight and was lagging like CRAZY! Combined with some pretty brutal amounts of enemies and narrow passages to fly through, having your speed change so much at random can make the game pretty difficult. I imagine, if the lag was there on the SNES, this game was a bit of a nightmare to play. Obviously way easier with rewind though. But other than that, cool game!

Molecano (December 8, 2023) - Mobile

Another wonderful game from the creator of Dadish! I wanted to try this game when it launched SO BADLY but my old phone just wasn't compatible with it. BUT MY NEW ONE IS! So I went OFF, unlocking every character and making it to level 400 before deciding to take a break lol. I think that's far enough to share my thoughts.

This game is SO cute! You play as a mole in a volcano and have to pick up food on the lava by building bridges by spelling words using 6 letters. The 6 letters always spell at least 1 word, which you can watch an ad to reveal, but of course you'll need to use many words of different lengths to beat each stage.

This game is a ton of fun! I actually really enjoyed trying to figure out all the anagrams and making them connect to each other properly. The graphics are cute and the music is so jazzy and nice. It's a really simple word game but I think the inclusion of scrabble-like mechanics and having to actually place the words down with purpose make it really interesting.

I do have some issues with it though. Mostly the fact that no level can be replayed, which is fine. But I'd LOVE to have some sort of catalogue for every word I've used, or my best/biggest words, my most impressive plays, most coins, ect ect. It feels like it's missing that to really make what I'm doing kinda matter? And also that some of the later levels get REALLY brutal. Requiring you to do the level exactly as intended to beat. Which kinda sucks. But outside of that, most of my complaints are nitpicks like the bosses just being the same as the levels or characters being too expensive (you can't spend real money on them though so it's okay)

Crazy Taxi (2013) - Mobile

HEY HEY!! I'm actually a HUGE Crazy Taxi fan. I play my 360 copy of it a lot, play it every year at various cons on the original cabinet. And, when I found out it had a phone port I could run, I of course gave that a shot too!

This phone port works SURPRISINGLY well, I was not expecting to go so smoothly. But even with touch screen controls it feels fairly good to play and runs nicely. Still has good music and even nice graphics. It feels like a pretty uncompromised port of the game, which is awesome! And even though it has ads, you just watch one really quick ad before each run. So they're really unintrusive which is awesome and really shocking for a phone game lol.

I also beat Crazy Box for the first time (I'm not sure what other ports have this I haven't really explored the menus for this game much it seems) and had a pretty good time with it although some missions were pretty brutal. But it helped me learn a lot of how to play this game better which is fun! Not really too much to say here, Crazy Taxi rules and this phone port is fun! That final mission (and the one before it where you have to find a bunch of guys) was TOUGH as fuck though

Handshakes (2022) - Mobile

Ah this one was so cute! After playing a couple things from the playstore, I thought it'd be fun to see what indie stuff I could find on itch for phones... There surprisingly isn't much that isn't nsfw (which believe me, I tried a lot of those too lol) but this one is absolutely a winner!

Handshakes is a really short puzzle game where you have 2 guys on either end of a puzzle room, and they can extend their hands REAAAAAALLY far. And you have to use this to push blocks and solve puzzles to get both hands to meet in the middle for a handshake. It's simple but SO much fun and really had me stumped a couple times! It can get really complex too as later levels require you to cut off your hands (they grow right back) and use the severed limb to hold down switches, it's neat! Cute and goofy visuals, calming music too, this one is a winner for sure! I'll be very excited awaiting the sequel!

Sex Advice Succubus (2023) - Mobile

One of those earlier mentioned NSFW games. Well... this one is probably sfw cause there's no nsfw visuals, it's all in the text. This is a cute little game where you play as a succubus who gives a sex advice service online. You coach 2 monsters (a ghost and an incubus) through their sexual problems and concerns. It's a simple visual novel but it's VERY cute! Having around 10 endings which is impressive for a game with only 2 short routes, a selection of calm and relaxing music to listen to, and even a comfort mechanic that determines the endings you get.

My only REAL complaint is that it might be too easy, like it's surprisingly difficult to get the bad endings and make clients really uncomfortable. Which is, maybe for a best? I guess I just feel like I wanted some more consequences, but I think I'm game-ifying it in my brain too much lol.

This game is VERY cute and I actually think a lot of people would really enjoy it! So I wanted to be sure to give it a shout out! Check it out if cute sex positive monster girl visual novels sound fun to you!

TOMATO CLINIC (April 13, 2020) - Mobile

Another VN! There's a lot of them available for phones I'm seeing. Not usually my cup of tea (I want something with a bit more action and hitting monsters) but I certainly don't mind a bit of reading. Some culture for you.

Tomato Clinic is a cute visual novel where you play as a human getting a tour of a blood clinic made to supply vampires with food! It's pretty cute with very charming visuals, premise, music, and a cute little lore for how vampires work and function in its world. You also get to play fun educational vampire related activities! Isn't that lovely?

I don't really have much more to say on this one, but it's cute and free and a good time if you're looking for something vampire related! I recommend it, it's a great thing to spend some time with.

WarioWare: Twisted! (October 14, 2004) - GBA

LET'S GOOOOOO!! I've wanted to play this game for AGES! But it's so unreasonably expensive. And for the longest time I couldn't find a GBA emulator that didn't require payment for gyro control. But don't worry, the new and improved Green has a bigger brain and can get anything I so require. SO! WarioWare Twisted! THIS GAME RULES!! Genuinely, this might be one of my new favorite entries in the series!

In addition to your general WarioWare compliments, great characters, fun cutscenes, addictive and frantic gameplay, surprisingly good music, this game has some really specific stuff it does really well! Mainly, the actual gyro gameplay. I don't know if it's just the emulator (which I don't think it is, I'll explain why in the next game) but this game feels GOOD! Like, REALLY good, the gyro just works PERFECTLY! So the minigames are incredibly fun and goofy and throwing my phone everywhere to try and figure out what to do for each game was a blast. I think I liked this and how it controlled even better than Gold's gyro minigames. Though, again, this could just be a compliment to the phone emulator I used.

Also, this game has a lot of firsts that I had no idea came from this. Like 18-volt, I think Mona's pets?, I'm pretty sure interactive cutscenes were new to this one, and most impressively: THIS GAMEBOY ADVANCE GAME HAS A FULLY ORIGINAL LYRICAL TRACK IN IT!? I could have SWORN Mona's Pizza was from Touched! But I was blown away when I heard it in this! That's awesome!! Wario really is always pushing the GBA so much lmao. I don't really know if I have anything rude to say about this one, I genuinely had a blast with it! PUT THIS ON NSO NINTENDO!!! DON'T THOSE JOYCONS GOT GYRO IN THEM!?

Also I think Game & Wario is the only Wario Game I've never beaten now??? Unless you count Wario's Woods... But we can all agree that's a Toad game, right? Right?

Yoshi Topsy-Turvy (December 9, 2004) - GBA

*sigh*

It's time... to talk about... Yoshi Topsy-Turvy...

So since I was able to play Twisted for the first time, a nagging voice in the back of my head kept telling me "Now you have to beat Topsy-Turvy!!" And sadly, I couldn't just say no. I have a bit of a history with this game. I got it when I was a kid for my GBA, it was a bit more expensive than the other games at my local used game store if I recall correctly, but it had the gyro stuff which looked cool. So I wanted to play it!

Surprise surprise, this game sucked! And I could never beat it. But nowadays, I have a deeper appreciation for Yoshi games. I think Yoshi games are really underrated. Stuff like Story and Crafted World are REALLY good in my opinion. And with a great phone emulator, I could at least cheat my way through it right?... Surprise Surprise, this game still sucks!

Okay, let me be a little fair. It has some... okay graphics (I think going 3D drags them down hard though, just doing 2D would've been SO much better and looked nicer). And it has... music... I mean, it's not out of tune kazoos or anything. And the spirits of the island are cute, right? Look, it's a neat concept, but in my opinion it fails to deliver on those concepts in almost every way. The challenges are just boring at best and downright infuriating at worst. The story is kinda nonexistent. And the gameplay feels SO bad.

So, the reason why I don't think my emulator made Twisted better than it actually was is because, this emulator makes YTT feel IDENTICAL to my physical copy (I checked). And Twisted gives the player full 360 rotation, like, it can tell down to an angle where I'm tilting. Some microgames fully requiring you to turn the console upside down! And I can't prove it, but I think YTT fails at this because it's gyro is kind of fake. It just tells when the GBA is Left/Center/Right and then just full tilts the screen to that. So there's no nuance in how things move and tilt. Which is rough because this platformer kinda wants you to have that nuance. Then you add on having to tilt in the right direction to walk on walls or jump properly. Which is all cool ideas! But I think they just fall flat because the gyro is so basic. So the game just feels, bad. At least in my opinion.

I could never properly explain why the gyro felt so bad, but playing Twisted really showed me how good GBA Gyro COULD be! And again, maybe I'm completely off base, but this is just how I feel about YTT's control. It makes some minigames a nightmare and overall the game just doesn't feel good to play. I'm happy to finally have it beaten, but this is kinda no questions asked still the worst Yoshi game.

Regardless, I think I've played every Yoshi game now? Yoshi NES, Safari, Touch & Go... Is this the end of my Yoshi ride? What a shame, I feel like I really do get more of a kick out of this fella's games than most people do.

Tong Jyun (February 26, 2021) - Mobile

And last, but not least, one more VN! This is from the same creator as Tomato Clinic, I was actually looking for a DIFFERENT VN they had made... But it cost money and this was free so I went with it lol.

In this game, you play as a Chinese girl living with her girlfriend while her mom teaches her how to make the titular Tong Jyun over the phone. It's another VN but this one is maybe my favorite of what I played this month because of how unique and cool the set up and format it. The game is inside a fake Phone OS, and you actually receive texts and respond to them (not really you just click but it's still cute) and have a full conversation with your girlfriend and your mom. It's just a really interesting set up for a VN!

But where this game REALLY shines is the minigames! They're super simple, I don't even know if you can lose them. But again the way they're presented is SO creative and cute. Your mom says she's gonna video call you (and I was in a crowded place atm so I was like "OH FUCK) but thankfully there's no talking. Instead, your character is livestreaming herself making the food to her mom. And these are the minigames, you actually have to make the food. Again it's simple but the framing of the phone os, and the video calls, it's so genius and fun to me. I was really impressed with this one. If you only check out one VN I talked about today, I think you should check out this one. Literally my only complaint is that the music section lasts too long and I thought I broke the game lmao

#roundup #2024 #thoughts

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waywardxrhea · 9 months

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Part Sixteen - The Past Catches Up

[slow burn romance between Steve Rogers and SHIELD agent Emma Baker]

Warnings: 18+, contains humor, fluff, mental health issues/crisis, family trauma, romance, angst, language, violence, (potentially smut later on).

installment list

Word count: 7.9k

This one is a tough read, so I am giving everyone a fair warning right now that in this chapter Emma faces an intense mental health crisis over her past that explodes in her face. There is a lot of hurt in this chapter, but also some comfort in the form of Clint Barton being an awesome father figure. Read on at your own risk.

The team gets to work, looking into databases and trying to locate anything that Ultron got into or any clues about where he could be. Emma stands up from her spot on the bench when her feet are finally mended and she thanks Helen for the aid. She debates on approaching Steve to talk things through, but decides against it and instead goes to Tony who is standing near his tech table.

Emma hands him the drive once she gets to him and says quietly, "If it makes you feel any better, not everything is lost. I still have the AI chip you were working on. I know it's no JARVIS, but it could be a start for now."

"It's not that, I have plenty of other AI to replace him with, plus yours is made especially for you. It's just the fact that it all happened. I just..." Tony sighs as he takes the drive from Emma. He changes the subject quickly and tells her, "I was actually done with the physical drone itself as of a few hours ago. I just didn't tell you that because I didn't want it destroyed with everything else in the fight. Now, all we have to do is add in the chip and you'll be good to go, you know assuming he didn't destroy the damn thing."

Tony leads Emma to the other side of the lab and shows her the new drone - sleek, shiny, and untouched by Ultron. "Oh it's amazing, Tony," Emma breathes with a small smile. After a second of thought, the smile falters and she says, "Although if...if the team doesn't want me on board anymore I would understand."

"Don't you listen to Rhodey, I'll talk to him about it. He just acts all high and mighty since he's a colonel. I think he sometimes forgets that I have done many, many illegal things on dares. He'll get over it." Tony touches the surface of the drone and a compartment opens up revealing a pair of glasses which he hands Emma and tells her to put on. "The AI and all of the drone's capabilities can be accessed with those glasses. They're pretty fashionable if I do say so myself. Sexy librarian is really in right now."

Emma smiles a little bit at the joke that earns a confused look from Bruce as he approaches to see what Tony had done with the drone. Tony brushes off the look and continues, saying, "You'll also have the mini control tablet that you will strap onto your arm which will grant access to your vitals for the purposes of that music feature we have set up for you." He pauses and looks to Bruce and ponders out loud, "I really should work on a version of that for Big Green shouldn't I, Banner?"

"I don't think it would make a difference, to be honest," Bruce replies.

"Ah, well, moving on! On the new and improved drone, there is a 360-degree camera so you can see all around you at all times so there will be no surprise attacks, I updated the stealth tech so nothing should be able to detect it, not even something powered by the scepter, and last but not least, I did add in some blasters in case you need them."

"Wow, I really don't know what to say...thank you, Tony. For believing in me," Emma says quietly.

"You're welcome. Now I've been working on a name and I think I settled on SAM which stands for Saving Asses Mundanely."

Emma smiles at the name and laughs, saying, "That's great, thank you again."

"Now, I know it's been a crazy night, but I need you to get yourself used to that drone as soon as possible because we need to go out and kick some robot ass and you're coming with."

Emma nods, grabbing her new tech and heading off. She stops by Maria and tells her, "I'm going to swing by my place real quick to change and head right back. Do you need anything?"

"Emma, I'm going with you, you're not going out by yourself," she replies, putting her jacket on and starting the walk down the halls with her. "You don't need to be alone right now anyway," she adds, having witnessed Emma's emotions while they were discussing things in the lab earlier.

Emma nods as she places the drone into an empty conference room before heading to the exit with Maria. She doesn't want to talk about it, but the problem isn't going away any time soon, so she asks, "How the hell did Ultron know about my past? You and Fury kept it off SHIELD books and files. And he said it himself, I was never caught! Now here it is coming back to bite me in the ass all these years later..."

"Emma, he swept everything which I'm sure included any sort of signature you may have accidentally left that led back to you. The cops may not have been able to find it, and I thought we erased it all back at SHIELD, but the past has a way of showing up when you least expect it."

"So much for..." Emma says with a sigh, "well forget it. It doesn't matter anymore anyway."

"What doesn't matter?"

"It's nothing," Emma replies with a bit of desperation in her voice, not wanting to think about it as they exit the building and enter the cool night air.

"Emma. You can be honest with me."

Emma sighs and says, "It's just...if there was even a small chance of things happening between me and Steve, that isn't going to happen anymore. Not after that bombshell." Maria laughs for a second in response and Emma shoots her a glare, her voice breaking a bit with emotion as she says, "It isn't funny, Maria."

"Emma, you have got to be kidding me, right?" When Emma doesn't respond, Maria continues, telling her, "Steve held your hand when Ultron first showed up. Do you not remember that?"

Suddenly, that moment floods back to her. Steve's warm hand in hers. She felt safe if only for a fleeting second. "I guess at the time, my mind didn't process it...but that was before Ultron told everyone about my past. You should have seen the look he gave me." Remembering the look of almost... betrayal and disappointment on Steve's face, Emma could feel her heart breaking yet again.

"Emma, it isn't like that," Maria tries to reassure her.

"But how can you know that? He hasn't spoken a word to me at all since it happened." Emma pauses for a second, letting her heart speak before her mind gets the time to process what she was saying. "To think I was actually going to say something to him tonight...this whole situation just proves that the universe is out to get me and it isn't meant to be."

"Oh come on now," Maria says as they get into the car to go to Emma's.

Emma sighs, saying, "Sorry, I sound like a whiny teen. In my defense though, I never got to have this experience as a teenager, so it's justified." Emma tries to laugh at her own joke, but can't even convince herself to laugh.

"I'm here to listen if that's what you need, but I can also give advice if you need that too. Whatever you need, okay?"

"Okay," Emma replies as they drive the city streets. "I just feel so overwhelmed the past few days and I can't shake the feeling that I'm just a hindrance to the team. I know Tony says they need me, but do they really? They would be just fine without me."

"The team would function just fine without you, yes, and I don't mean that in a harsh way, but the team operates even better with you there. They have someone watching their backs in the heat of battle. You keep them on their feet and keep them safe. You also provide a great source of information to the media. Favor for The Avengers goes up every time you do a story about them and what they do as a team for the greater good of the world. What I'm trying to say is that they need you as much as you need them. I know it can be hard to see sometimes, but maybe you just need to take a step back and evaluate yourself in terms of the team's dynamic."

Emma nods as she takes in the words. They drive in silence as Emma tries to process everything that happened that night. When they get to her apartment, Emma goes into her bedroom and changes into some comfier clothes. After she changes, she finally breaks her silence, saying, "I get what you're saying, yeah. Thank you, Maria. I can't promise I won't continue to be down in the dumps for a bit, but you've given me something to think about."

"Atta girl," Maria replies with a smile and a soft punch to Emma's arm as she reemerges into the living area. The two head back to Avengers Tower for the night, Maria heading off to try and track Ultron and Emma getting in tune with her new drone.

The next morning, Emma finishes up another round of shooting down target dummies with her drone's blasters in the training area. As the target hits the ground with a crash, the door opens revealing Barton. He takes in the room that is littered with the fallen objects and whistles before asking, "Wow, what happened in here, Baker?"

Emma lets out a small laugh and replies, "A lot actually." She pauses as she calls SAM back to her and takes off the control glasses. "I couldn't sleep, so I just...did this all night."

"I will say, I'm damn impressed. This is good progress for only a few hours of work." He picks up a target and examines it while casually asking, "Why no sleep?"

"I just-" Emma starts and falters, not sure what to say. "I was just...feeling a lot after what Ultron told everyone about...about my past. I just feel like everyone kinda hates me now..."

"Well I can't speak for the whole team, but I will say that I frankly don't think someone's past should be what we judge them on. If you're a good person now, which you are, I think that's what matters. You have a good heart, Emma, okay?"

"I just feel like not everyone on the team has that same point of view..." Emma replies and frowns while kicking some debris.

"Well then screw them. If you don't want to talk about it with me, that's fine, but if Fury and Hill thought that what you did was too bad, you wouldn't have been taken on as a SHIELD agent. Clearly, they thought that the skills you had were useful and helped you use them for good. Tony did too, you heard him yourself. Hell, Natasha knows first-hand about having a past to clear up, she isn't judging you either." Clint takes a few steps towards her and rubs her tense shoulder as he tells her, "See, that's a good chunk of us that are in your corner. Everything'll be okay."

"Thanks, Clint," Emma replies with a small smile. She's happy that she has some people on her side, but she still can't shake the feeling that Steve won't be able to see her side of things...

"But hey, what I came in here to tell you is that Hill got some intel on what Ultron's been up to since he left. We're heading out on a mission."

"Am I invited?"

"Don't be like that. Of course you are. Start getting your stuff together, jet's taking off soon," Clint tells her with a gentle pat on the shoulder.

Emma nods and activates the pack mode on the drone so she can wear it on her back while she heads out of the training area. She informs someone of the mess in the room and apologies for it before she starts gathering all of her reporting supplies for the mission.

She retrieves her laptop, notebook, headsets, and cameras for the mission from her little office before heading to the loading zone for the jet. Everyone is bustling around getting their equipment and themselves ready for the mission when she arrives. "I see you've figured out my hand dandy pack mode on the drone?" Tony asks, falling into step beside her.

"Yeah, I figured out a lot about it overnight," Emma replies as they walk into the jet. "The uh...the program we set up works well, by the way, thank you."

From where Steve is setting up on the ship, he hears Emma make this comment to Tony, and he gets curious about what had happened, but he quickly refocuses himself on the mission. He couldn't lose focus, not now. He was already distracted enough having the bombshell of Emma's supposed past being thrown at them. How could she not have told him something like that?

Meanwhile, the conversation with Tony and Emma continues. "I knew it would. Did you get yourself upset on purpose to see if it would work? You know, in the name of science."

Emma replies half-heartedly, "No need for faking that. All real, all...painful, but I didn't lose control." Not wanting to talk about it and relive what happened the night before, Emma parts ways from Tony, going to her little corner of the jet to set up her equipment. She activates her AI glasses while doing so so that they could get hooked up with her existing tech.

While Emma sets up, she can't help her mind flashing back to the hours before when she began her training with her drone. She remembers the pang of guilt she felt when she walked into the training area to see one of Steve's previously standing punching bags knocked to the ground. She felt in her heart that she was responsible for his anger because she hid her past from everyone. She remembers the hot tears pricking the back of her eyes when she saw this, and just like it had at that moment the night before, SAM begins playing soft violin music to calm her down. When the music softly plays in her ear, Emma is brought back to the present and continues her set up with assistance from SAM in connecting to Maria back home and making sure any footage will be sent right back to her at the tower.

Throughout the flight, Emma keeps to herself, occasionally receiving the company of Clint trying to make her smile with a joke which only works occasionally because her mind is so clouded. "Oh come on, that one usually kills at the bar!" Clint laughs after another joke.

Emma smiles a little bit and comes back with, "I have a feeling that may be because of the adult beverages being served at said bar."

From her seat nearby Romanoff laughs, saying, "Ooh she got you there, Clint." Emma looks over to her and she smiles before heading off to check on the mission details. Ironically, after the past two days' events, Emma thinks that maybe Romanoff was finally starting to accept her.

Later on, the team is getting close to the landing point in South Africa and everyone starts to suit up. All except Bruce. He walks up to Emma and sits across from her, asking, "Hey, I'm hoping we don't have to call a Code Green, but in case we do, did you bring the tea for after the mission?"

Emma curses and apologizes, starting to ramble by saying, "I'm so sorry, Bruce, I totally forgot...I didn't have time to go get more before we left and-"

"Hey, it's okay, I understand. It's been a busy morning. The lullaby will work perfectly fine if we need to use it," he tells her with a smile. "But hopefully we don't even have to break out the other guy."

"Here's to hoping," Emma replies as she gets up to set the team's suits up with their cameras. She puts off getting to Steve because she is trying to find the words to say about the night before's events: the hand holding, the bombshell, the punching bag in the training room. The music appears again in her ear as her mind races and she brings herself back to reality.

Emma gets to Steve and sets his camera up and is about to say something when Tony shouts, "Okay people, we don't have time to lose, let's get moving!"

"I think you're forgetting who's in charge here, Stark," Steve tells him, heading off right as Emma finishes with the camera.

Emma visibly deflates as the team rushes out of the jet. From behind her, Bruce sucks in air through his teeth and says, "Wow, you could cut the tension with a knife right there."

Emma takes a breath and shakes her head, telling him, "Not the time, Banner..."

"Okay, okay," Bruce says, putting his hands in the air.

Emma returns to her setup and Bruce follows, wanting to watch the action unfold and see if the Hulk would be needed if things got rough out there for the team. After ensuring that the team got inside, Emma puts SAM into stealth mode and maneuvers quietly into the ship that they had gone into.

From above, she sees the team split up and form flanks on all sides of Ultron and the Maximoff twins. The Maximoffs were the two enhanced kids that they had encountered in Sokovia and Ultron had moved quickly getting them on his side. From the intel the team gathered, it turns out they were HYDRA's secret weapon.

Keeping an eye on all the cameras on her monitor as well as on the footage being shown in front of her glasses, Emma takes up the flank opposite of Romanoff, careful to avoid any hanging chains so she would have the element of surprise on her side.

As she moves into the area though, suddenly, Ultron uses a sort of forcefield to grab and throw Tony into a wall which engages everyone into the battle immediately. Emma begins shooting at the incoming droids with her blasters, eliminating as many as she can so the team wouldn't be overwhelmed. From beside her, Bruce pipes up, "Try and stay away from any platforms because once that kid gets moving he's almost impossible to dodge. We can't lose this drone so soon."

A bit of frustration at the comment seeps into Emma's mind, but she ignores it and flies her drone into the upper ceiling level and keeps an eye on things from up there while still shooting at enemies, robot and human alike. Emma sees Steve knock down the male twin, Pietro, and she moves her drone to hover in front of him, revealing it to him and pointing a blaster his way. He sees this and in his stunned state stays in his place on the ground.

The gunfire in the ship gets louder and Bruce asks into the coms, "Guys, is this a code green?"

When no one responds due to their fighting, Emma tells him, "It looks like they're okay for now." Bruce nods, but wrings his hands together and lowers the ramp of the jet to see what he can of the fight outside.

Over the coms, Steve asks Thor what his status is and he replies, "The girl tried to warp my mind. Take special care, I doubt a human could keep her at bay. Fortunately I am mighty..."

Emma turns her camera around and sees that Pietro had finally gotten up from his position on the floor and she calls on the coms, "Watch out, we have a runner."

At the exact moment, Steve gets knocked to the ground by the speedster and he cracks off without thinking, "Little more warning next time would be great."

Emma takes a breath and piano music begins playing in her ear, calming her and bringing her back to her senses. She replies quietly, "Won't happen again," and begins shooting at enemies once more.

Emma had been paying more attention to her own fight than the others so when she stops and sees everyone in a state of almost being stunned she asks, "Guys, what the hell is going on? Is everyone okay?"

"Things are getting dicey, Baker." The reply comes from Clint which makes Emma turn her camera toward him.

Right after he sends a shockwave arrow into the ship, the female twin, Wanda, comes up behind Clint trying to use her powers on him. "Barton on your six!" Emma shouts and tries to find a shot at the girl where she wouldn't hit Clint in the process.

He ends up shocking her brain with one of his arrows and tells her, "I've done the whole mind control thing, not a huge fan."

Right after this encounter, Pietro runs into the area, knocking Clint over the railing and through some glass. "Are you okay, Barton? I can head after them," Emma informs him as she begins looking around to see which way they went.

"I'll be fine," Clint replies through his pain, "go give em hell, Baker."

She switches off her end of the coms for a second, telling SAM, "Find where they went and fast."

"On it, boss," SAM replies and scans the area, guiding Emma to where the pair ran off to. "They are outside the ship. She seems to have taken a hit from Mr. Barton's arrow. Go now so you can keep them down."

Emma nods and quickly navigates out. When she finds them, she sees they are positioned right in sight of the jet. When she sees Wanda say something to Pietro and nod at the ship, Emma's eyes go wide and she tells Bruce, "Banner, close the ramp right now."

"What for?" Bruce asks but it cut off by a streak of silver zooming into the ship.

Emma reacts quickly, mumbling a command to her AI, "SAM, whatever happens, keep the cameras on the fight. Forget about me if something goes wrong." She then turns her coms back on and informs Clint quietly, "They're in the jet I don't kno-"

Before she can finish her sentence though, there are a few wisps of red flying her way, and she is suddenly swept back to the Avengers Tower in New York. Emma looks around confused for a second and then sees the team sitting around the table that held Mjolnir the night before. Something overcomes her and she is thrust into the middle of the group, her body being forced to try and lift the hammer.

Rather than the playful banter of the previous night though, the words coming her way are harsh and unrelenting. The taunts start off with Tony saying, "You'll never live up to it. You've become so dependent on my tech to even operate normally in your daily life. Without me you wouldn't have a job. Without me you're rendered useless. You'll never be worthy."

Then comes Romanoff. "You're not one of us. You never will be. We're all trained in our craft, immaculate at our jobs, all you do is get in our way. You're just dead weight."

"I have half a mind to get you arrested right now," says Rhodes.

"You've got no skills with this tech, all you do is destroy it," Bruce calls from his spot on the couch.

Thor's laugh fills the room as Emma's body tugs at the hammer, desperate to make it move. "You'll never be worthy! You're just a puny mortal incapable of knowing what we're up against. You could never understand the fight we're in."

Tears begin to stream down Emma's face as she pulls with all her might, but it doesn't budge. Finally, from behind her comes Steve's voice. "Try as you might, there's not a single thing you do for this team. All you do is distract us and get in the way." Emma's limbs go numb as the words leave his mouth and she lets go of the hammer's handle. She turns to Steve who throws a look of hatred her way as he spits, "I can't believe you. You're a criminal and a liar. To think I loved you."

Emma's heart shatters into pieces at the last comment and she falls to her knees in the vision. As she falls, weeping, her senses back on the jet begin to come to. She hears music slowly emerging into her ears as she opens her eyes which are wet with tears. Emma quickly wipes her eyes with her sleeve and shakes her head trying to regain all of her senses.

In front of her, the team begins to shuffle into the jet, everyone distant and disoriented from the fight or their own visions given to them by Wanda. No one speaks. Emma slowly disengages her tech as Clint sits her drone on the table across from her. He pats her shoulder before heading off to begin flying the jet.

After shutting down all of her tech, Emma looks around at the team. Everyone seems to have taken a huge hit in that fight... Her eyes land on Steve last, and she feels her heart break again as those words flood into her mind liar, criminal, and the ones that hurt the most to think I loved you...

Emma lays her head down on the table and tears fall from her eyes again. The thoughts in her mind race, telling her that she is useless, incapable, dead weight, and going further back, a burden, waste of space, and a mistake. Even though she knows it would help, Emma doesn't bother putting in headphones or her glasses on to try and calm down because maybe all those thoughts were right... Maybe the vision was a manifestation of the truth of what the team thought of her...after all, Wanda had been in their minds before she got to Emma.

A few minutes later, Emma's tears stop briefly and she cues up the footage of the battle that she missed while she was out, the footage that SAM caught on her orders. As she watches the Hulk smash through numerous buildings and stalls in a market, she closes her eyes and shakes her head in disbelief. She not only saw the total destruction on the screen, but the broken man sitting on the floor of the jet, full of remorse.

When Emma finishes up watching the footage, Maria comes onto a screen to chat with Tony about the incident. From where she is in the back of the jet, Emma can't exactly make out what Maria was saying to Tony, but judging by their grim expressions, it can't be good. After Maria ends her call with Tony, Emma is tempted to call Maria up herself to see what the damage was, but she can't find it in herself to do so. More thoughts of her insignificance to the team fill her mind as Emma puts her head down once more, hoping to get some rest and try to escape her own thoughts.

A few hours of rest later, Emma feels a tap on her shoulder, waking her up from her slumber. She lifts her head and blinks a few times to orient herself. When she finally makes eye contact with him, Clint tells her, "Come on out, we're at a safe house."

Emma stands up and stretches before putting her drone into pack mode and hoisting it onto her back. She allows the rest of the team to clear out of the jet before she does, not wanting to get in the way. Once she emerges, her eyes are met with beautiful scenery of the countryside. There's a barn and a farm house and huge fields surrounding them, the beauty of it all almost making Emma forget the events of the last few days. Almost.

Although beautiful, Emma can't help but have her mind torn to a memory from her childhood. It's a brief memory, but it evokes a feeling of fear from Emma. What she remembers is flashes of the old farmhouse her parents had rented one time during their many years of moving. She remembers indistinct yelling and peeking around corners to see what was going on, curious but not wanting to get in the way. Emma shakes her head and follows the group into the house, trying not to think about the memory that had just resurfaced.

As they walk into the living area, Clint calls out, "Honey? I'm home." After he does, a very pregnant woman emerges into the space and Clint continues with, "Hi. I brought company, sorry I didn't call ahead."

As they kiss hello, Tony says, "This is an agent of some kind."

Clint turns to them all and says, "Gentlemen, Emma, this is Laura."

"I know all your names," Laura tells them with a laugh and a small wave.

There are suddenly stomping footsteps coming their way and a couple of kids run and give Clint a hug. At that moment, Emma's mind flashes to another memory. She sees her father coming towards her with a belt in his hand and anger in his eyes. Emma's limbs feel numb and her head begins to spin as her anxiety begins to spike again. Without even thinking she says quietly, "I'll be back," and walks into the fresh air outside.

In the living room, Thor stays a bit longer before heading outside himself. As he leaves, Steve notices that Emma has left too and sighs in frustration at the two of them. Clint senses the tension in the air and looks at Steve and says, "I'll go help her, you talk with Thor."

Outside, Emma makes her way to the barn and sits on the ground with her legs pulled to her chest. Her breathing is quick and ragged, feeling as if she couldn't get enough air in her lungs if she tried. Suddenly as if some sort of floodgates opened, dozens of repressed memories from her childhood fill her mind, unrelenting. She hears the word useless shouted many times as well as other derogatory terms thrown in the mix. One phrase that stands out the most in the chaos was her father yelling at her young teen self that she would never be worthy of love.

The tears flow freely as Emma tries to will herself out of existence. She just doesn't want to hear all those words anymore... At that moment, Emma feels afraid again. From the vision Wanda showed her plus this, she just feels worthless, like she was nothing, just a burden on her friends and on society.

What felt like hours later but was only merely moments, a presence approaches Emma. Irrational thoughts making Emma think it was her father, she pulls her legs closer to her body and whispers, "Please don't hurt me. Please no. I didn't do anything, Dad... I'll do whatever just please-"

Clint's heart breaks at the sight and he softly says, "Hey, hey, hey, it's just me. It's Clint. I'm not here to hurt you." At the sound of Clint's voice, Emma slightly loosens her grip on her legs, but keeps her head down. Seeing her relax the slightest bit, Clint asks, "Can I sit?"

Not capable of speaking through her crying, Emma simply nods and Clint takes a seat next to her on the grass. After a few more moments of relative silence, Clint gently puts a hand on Emma's back. She tenses up for a second before relaxing as he rubs gentle circles on her back. Clint smiles and that smile is evident in his voice as he tells Emma softly, "That always helps the kids calm down too."

A few more moments pass and Emma's breathing and crying finally stop enough for her to say quietly, "I can see why, it's really soothing." She thinks for a second and says, "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Just...for everything. How I'm always in the way, how I keep messing up, how I'm just a distraction and liability during missions, how I'm not trained and just stumble through missions like a complete amateur, how I'm just...useless."

Clint stops rubbing Emma's back and looks at her, saying, "Emma, you are not what that little witch showed you."

"Sure I am, Clint... everyone thinks it. I see the way the team looks at me."

"That's a load of sh-" Clint stops himself and thinks what he would say if it were his kids. "That isn't true Emma. You are strong and capable. The reporting you do is legendary, you may not know it, but it is. Everyone at SHIELD knew your name because of it. They all appreciated your work and now everyone who follows the Avengers knows your name too. Today during the mission you kicked some butt and saved me from getting my mind controlled. I just wish I could have done the same for you."

Emma lifts her head and nods, considering his words before saying, "I know you're just saying that, Clint... Besides, I'm not sure the whole team would share your point of view on my work on the mission today. Cap got hit on my watch because I wasn't paying attention for half a second. I captured the footage of Hulk in that city. I'm sure I'm not too popular right now..."

"You can't help what the Hulk did, Emma. All you did was capture the footage." Clint pauses for a beat and then asks, "What did she show you anyways?"

Emma sighs and a few tears escape from her eyes before she tells him, "Just...she showed me a vision and it was like we were back at the tower trying to lift Mjolnir. Everyone was telling me how useless and incapable I was...I couldn't handle it. It reinforced what I was already feeling about how you all think about me. It also reminded me of the past. Seeing you and your family was just the straw that broke the camel's back. I'm sorry I reacted the way I did."

Clint nods solemnly, asking, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Do I want to? No, but for some reason I feel like I should..."

"Then go right ahead, I'm all ears," Clint says and leans back against the barn.

"I'll spare you the details, but it's just...my father was a very angry man who hated the world and everything in it. My mom was absent most of the time, and when she was there all they did was fight. I never really had anyone to comfort me when I was upset or that I could go to when something bad happened. That's why I never told anyone who didn't need to know about my past... I grew up not being able to express my feelings or concerns without getting berated.

“Even after years of my grandparents helping me move past that, it's still really hard to do things like expressing my feelings or telling people things that may upset them or make them think less of me. You know, I honestly don't even know how I'm telling you all of this right now. My mind is completely fried and I just feel very vulnerable right now..."

Clint is silent for a moment as he takes in what Emma had to say. Panic fills Emma's mind again and she quickly says, "Oh no, I said too much didn't I? I'm sorry I didn't mean to-"

"No, no, it's okay, Emma. It's just a lot to process." He sits for a second more and then continues, saying, "I want you to know that you are loved. Whether you choose to believe it or not, you are loved. Knowing now what you've been through, I am that much more impressed with you and how you turned out. It sounds like your grandparents turned things around for you and they finished out raising a fine young lady."

"But what about my past with...you know," Emma tries to say.

"Emma," Clint says and looks her in the eyes. "It takes a lot of courage to forgive yourself, to put the past behind you and move on, but I believe that you can do it. I know that you are a capable young woman who can do whatever she sets her mind to, and that will take you far in life. Besides, there seems to be a lot of secrets being kept between all of us. I'm sure it'll all work out in the end."

Tears fall from Emma's eyes again and she leans over to give Clint a hug. She quickly pulls away and says, "I'm sorry, I just haven't had a father figure in years and it's nice to have again..."

"Hey, it's okay," Clint says and wraps his arm around her. "Whatever you need I'm here. Just try and keep your head up, okay? And if you need to take a step back, know that I'll back you 100%."

"That means the world, thank you," Emma says and sits back up. "Now you go be with that family of yours. They deserve to have their dad in there with them."

"You heading in too?" Clint asks, offering his hand out to her.

Emma shakes her head, telling him, "Not right now, I need some fresh air still. And I'm not sure I'm ready to face the team just yet."

"Take your time. There's a couple trails out there in the woods if you're up for it. There isn't usually anything too dangerous out there so it'd be safe if you wanna explore."

Emma smiles and nods, saying, "I think I'll do that. It'd be good to clear my head."

"If you aren't back in two hours I'll send a search party," he jokes as he walks off.

"Honestly, if I disappear just leave it be," Emma says, but Clint doesn't hear her.

After a few minutes of deep breathing and listening to the sounds of nature, Emma stands up and makes her way into the woods surrounding the Barton Ranch.

After a little while of clearing her head and listening to the peaceful sounds of nature, Emma is about to head back to the house when she hears the leaves on the trail behind her rustling. She stops and slowly turns her head to see what the source of the noise was only to see Romanoff on the trail.

Emma clutches her chest and lets out a breath, trying to make her heart rate slow back down to a normal speed after thinking she was about to be attacked by a bear or something. "You okay?" Romanoff asks. "Clint said you'd been out here for a while so he sent me to come looking for you."

"Okay is a relative term," Emma tells her quietly.

"What's on your mind?"

"It doesn't matter..." Emma says, not wanting to bother her with her problems, she already feels like she's been burdening everyone else with them.

"Yes it does, Emma," she says. She pauses and adds, "You can trust me."

"It's just a lot of family trauma resurfaced thanks to what that Wanda girl showed me, but I don't wanna bother you with it all and bring up bad family memories for you too," Emma replies.

"Oh that ship has already sailed, Baker," Romanoff tells her as they both walk back down the trail toward the house.

"Well I just didn't..." Emma pauses and contemplates her words for a second before saying, "You just always say that I remind you of your sister and you've never seemed to like me too much, so I just didn't wanna go there and all..."

Romanoff stops in her tracks and says, "Emma, I haven't gotten close with you because you remind me of my sister. I haven't seen her in years, hell I don't even know if she's still alive, but I miss her every day. I've just felt like if I got close with you it would just remind me of her and how much I haven't done to save her, of how much I've screwed up in my life..."

"Oh, I had no idea," Emma whispers, feeling awful now for assuming all these years that she hated her because she reminded her of her sister.

"It's okay. I don't tell many people because of the business we're in and the business I was in before I joined SHIELD." They resume their walk before the red head says, "Speaking of past business though, about what Ultron said back at Avengers Tower..."

Emma tenses up and says, "Natasha, there is a reason I did what I did and-"

Natasha quickly interrupts Emma and tells her, "If you think I'm about to judge you about what happened, I'm not. If there's anyone in the world who understands how it feels being called out about your past, it's me. If you don't want to talk about it though, I'll respect your decision."

"Maybe another time, there's just a lot going on in my head right now. It isn't a fun place to be."

"I understand," Natasha replies with a nod as they get back into the house.

Natasha parts ways with Emma as they enter and Emma runs right into Laura Barton saying, "Hey, I'm sorry for running out earlier. I've just been going through some stuff lately."

"You're okay, Clint told me you were pretty stressed out, I get it," she replies with a smile.

Emma smiles back and then tells her, "It is nice to meet you, though. Between you and me, I had the same type of setup for my grandparents when I was at SHIELD. I'm glad you guys get to stay off the books and off the radar. It's safe that way."

Laura nods, saying, "It is. It can be hard some days, but it's worth it." She pauses and then tells her, "If you want to go wash up, I think the shower is free. The water should be reheated by now. Go relax and destress, and if anyone asks, you're still out exploring." Emma nods and follows Laura's directions to the bathroom where she takes a little bit longer to relax.

When Emma reemerges from the bathroom, she follows the sound of voices to the kitchen and dining area to see Nick Fury talking with the group. He stops his chat with Natasha and says, "Now look who decided to show up. Having fun exploring?" He shoots Laura a look and she laughs with a shrug.

Emma is suddenly hyper aware of the eyes on her and she feels guilty for being caught in yet another lie. She tries to ignore the voices in her head and forces a smile as she replies, "I had a great time."

"Well now that everyone is present, it's time we talk about what I'm actually here for," Fury announces.

Emma quickly surveys the room and decides to take a seat near where Tony and Clint are playing darts. "Did you like the woods?" Clint asks as she sits. "Oh and grab some dinner, it's been a long day."

Emma nods, telling him, "The woods were very serene, I'm trying to mentally be there right now..." She pauses for a second before adding, "And I'm not too hungry right now, thank you though."

Off-handedly, Tony suggests, "If you're stressed, use the glasses." Although unintentional, the comment stings Emma because it was almost like he was referencing what Wanda made him tell her in the vision.

She tries to shake the thought from her mind as Fury begins speaking, telling the group, "Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time. All my contacts say he's building something, but with the amount of vibranium he made off with, I find it hard to believe it's just one thing."

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asks.

"Oh he's easy to track. He's everywhere, multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. That still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though."

While Fury is talking, Clint sneaks off and makes Emma a plate of food. He sits it in front of her and gives her a stern look that earns a half-hearted smile from Emma as she takes a small bite.

"Is he still going after launch codes?" Tony asks while throwing a dart.

"He is, but he isn't making any headway," Fury replies.

Tony stops what he is doing and says, "I cracked the Pentagon's firewalls in high school on a dare. How is he not making any headway?"

"It's almost like you expect him to be as good as you, Stark," Steve tells him, crossing his arms.

Fury gives both of them a look before continuing, "I contacted our friends at the Nexus about that." The statement hits Emma and she realizes that that was where Ultron had gotten the information on her, it had to be.

"So, what'd they say?" Clint asks, almost as if reading her mind. Emma is happy he asked because frankly, she doesn't want to speak up during a team meeting right now all things considered.

"Well that's the thing. He's after the missiles but he can't get to them because the codes are constantly being changed."

"By whom?" Tony asks as Clint throws a few darts, hitting a bullseye and barely missing Tony's face.

"Party unknown," Fury tells him.

"So we have an ally?" Natasha asks.

"Ultron has an enemy. Not the same thing. I'd pay money to see who it is though."

The gears in Tony's head begin to spin and he says, "I might have to visit Oslo." He then turns to Emma and says, "I can show you my little hacking tricks, Baker."

Steve turns his head slightly to see Emma's response. In a slight panic, Emma turns her head down and doesn't say anything, the conflict inside her mind starting up again. She could go with Tony and gain some knowledge that could be useful in the future, but she would be disappointing Steve and further driving a wedge in their relationship. The thought of not being able to salvage what she had with Steve kills her, so internally she tells herself that there is no way she would go with Tony.

When Emma tunes back into the conversation after arguing with herself, Fury is saying, "Ultron thinks that the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission. Now, whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction, all this laid in a grave. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard."

At the last comment, Natasha smirks and says, "Oh Steve doesn't like that kind of language."

Fury ignores the comment, sits down, and asks, "So what does he want?"

"To become better," Steve replies. "He keeps building bodies."

"Person bodies," Tony corrects. "The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking. He just keeps coming back to it though."

Natasha looks at Bruce and Tony and tells them, "When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed."

As Bruce looks at a painting one of the kids gave to Natasha, he mumbles, "They don't need to be protected. They need to evolve. Ultron is going to evolve."

Confusion is drawn on everyone's face and Fury asks what they are all thinking, "How?"

"Well has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?" Bruce asks. Of course...Helen had the tech to generate tissue, Ultron would be trying to make a body, but not out of metal this time.

a/n: this one was tough, y'all. If you are ever feeling the way Emma feels in this chapter, please don't hesitate to reach out to a professional or even just a hotline that can help you get through a crisis. Stay well my loves.

link to the next part

#fanfic #marvel #captain america #slow burn #steve rogers #writing #romance #fanfiction #friends to lovers #Spotify #marvel fanfic series #avengers fanfiction #steve rogers friends to lovers #steve rogers slow burn #steve rogers angst #captain america fic

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robynlilyblack · 2 years

Text

My baby sister?

Severus Snape x fem! reader

[Requested – see request here]

Summary: Sirius finds out an old nemesis is dating his baby sister

Warnings: swearing, hurt/comfort, Sirius being overprotective and going a bit too far

A/n: 2k words, reader is Regulus’ twin sister, oh and lil wolfstar moment, I don’t really write for snape but I know not many people do so I made a little exception x

Navigation

Y/n Walburga Black, merlin did you hate that middle name along with the women that gave you it, and Severus Snape, insert witty remark here, to say you were an odd pairing would be an understatement. You knew each other back at Hogwarts but being a couple years younger than him, one of his arch nemesis’ siblings and not a green-eyed redhead, you never interacted. It wasn’t until you got a job as one of Hogwarts healers during the year your brother escaped did you and Severus bond. He was apprehensive at first but you slowly grew fond of each other’s company, and after a dance paired with some magic mistletoe at the yule ball you started dating, in secret of course.

Much like your eldest brother you didn’t follow the teaching of your parents but unlike him you stayed with your twin and didn’t run away. Which meant when he moved back into your old family home with you he was very protective, the years of guilt not knowing if you survived or perished like Regulus killed him and you knew he regretted leaving you when he was 16. Sirius of course inherited the house but he made sure you were okay with holding orders meeting there and of course you were, plus it was an extra excuse to see your man

You sighed a little as you listened to Moody drone on, you did admire the man but boy could he talk, you glanced over at your brother to see him wearing a similar expression. As he caught your eye you tried your best not to giggle when he started to subtly mimicking the man, when you turned back you glanced discreetly at Severus. He looked bored as well, for many it was hard to tell due to the general lack of emotion but over time you picked up on the tiny micro expressions

“Well said Alastor” Dumbledore comments although even you had to wonder if he listened to a word “Now Severus any word on the great vine about where he could be setting his headquarters?”

“None as yet” he replies to which your brother scoffs “Anything you would like to add Black?” he turns to eye him

“Not a very good spy, are you? How do we know you won’t play the double agent?” he taunts

“Siri!” you scold “He’s trying his best” you defend your partner making the man’s heart warm but your brother shakes his head

“Y/n I’m just stating the facts, once a deatheater always a deatheater” he glares at Severus for the last bit

“That’s not true, Reggie was good” you argue back while the rest of the member sit in an awkward silence

“No he wasn’t Y/n, you just don’t want to…” he starts but you cut him off

“No Sirius” you stand up “You weren’t there, you didn’t have to watch him get that mark, you weren’t there to hold him as he cried that night, or the night you abandoned us, neither were you there when he…he tried to…” you glance at Dumbledore before changing your rant “…when he didn’t come back” you sit down again, you knew of horcruxes because of a note Regulus left you but the rest of the Order couldn’t as Dumbledore didn’t want him to find out he knew

“I think we will end it here today everyone, thank you for coming” Dumbledore nods his head, giving you a look somewhere between sympathy and gratitude before standing up

You do the same ignoring your brother and walking into the kitchen to grab a glass of water, as you do Severus comes over as well, grabbing a glass, you alright? you hear his thoughts as he turns the tap

I wish he would just realise people can change, you think back glancing up to see his warm eyes, I wish you could hold me

Me too, he smiles sadly for a mere second, you still coming for dinner on Friday?

You nod a little, Siri thinks I’m visiting a patient, you grimace you hated lying to your brother and you also hated not being able to tell him Regulus was good in the end

As he takes one last gulp, placing the glass in the sink and begins to walk away you quickly whisper “Bye Sevy-” you notice your brother “-us…Sevvverus” you laugh nervously a trait that your brother knew you did when you were hiding something “I’m going to my room” you announce walking away quickly, why did you have to say it out loud why couldn’t you have did it mentally?

“Y/n” Sirius catches up with you as you get to the stairs

Turn back around slowly you try to put on your best innocent look “What?”

“I’m sorry about…” he starts but his brain is inching with a different matter “Why did you call him Sevy” he mocks your voice clearly upset about it

“We are colleagues Siri I have nicknames for everyone” you defend but he sees through it

He shakes his head “No you only give nicknames to people you…you…know what, never mind I’m overreacting” he changes his mind but you can’t help but feel like he’s figured it out and you’re glad that your boyfriend had already left

The next order meeting you were upstairs, you weren’t feeling too great after catching a small cold. The meeting should have ended by now and you were feeling better so you headed out your bedroom and was about to start walking down the stairs when you hear voices

“Snape!” Sirius calls out, his face teeming with anger

You lean over the railing of the upper floor, getting a clear view of your brother and boyfriend

“Yes Black?” Severus sighs turning around to face him

“I’m only going to ask you this once and I’ll know if you’re lying” he says earing a curt nod from your man “Are you dating my baby sister?” he asks eyes boring into him

He says quiet for a second too long, confirming what Sirius already thought “She’s my baby sister!” he exclaims furious “How long?” he points at him clearly holding himself back from punching him, while you grip the banister tightly wincing at your brothers’ tone

“Since the yule ball last year” he admits

“So what was it? You want to get back at me for the willow, for bullying that took place over a decade ago what?” he muses while your heart breaks

“Sirius” Severus says warningly, the use of his friend name even surprising your brother for a second but his face hardens again “Don’t…” he starts but your brother keeps going

“No Snivellus” he revels in the old nickname “I will not let you make my baby sister some sick revenge scheme” he shakes his head

“Black that’s not what’s going on…unlike you I am not that shallow” he defends himself clearly growing upset himself

“Whatever your plan is you are never to see her again, she is way too good for you, she is an angel and deserves someone that will treat her right” Severus didn’t argue, he himself never thought he was good enough for you “You will ruin her and I won’t let her be a consolation prize because you couldn’t have Lily, we both know how similar they are don’t you dare deny…deny it” his words low down as he hears a sob, both his and Severus’ eyes drifting up to see your heartbroken face before you quickly retreat back into your room

“What the hell is going on out here?” Remus walks out confused after hearing the prolonged muffled shouting, only hearing the last part while the two men are staring up at the second floor sadly

“My precious daughter will not be with that half breed I forbid it!” Walburga screeches from down the hall, which fill in the rest of the pictures for Remus, oh Siri’s is going to kill him

Severus turns back to Remus like he heard him before moving to climb the stairs right away, Sirius notices after a few seconds going after him but Remus grabs his hand “Siri love calm down” he brings his other hand to his cheek

“No I won’t calm down Moons he’s using my baby sister!” he says angrily swatting his partners hand before his face softens “I’m sorry” he grabs the hand he hit sighing

“One, you don’t know that, two, whatever is happening between doesn’t matter because you’ve made her cry and three…that last comment was really low Siri” he shakes his head disappointed to which Sirius visibly winces nodding in agreement

“Can we at least listen in just in case?” he suggests to which Remus nods giving him a squeeze to his hand and a quick kiss to his cheek before they head up the stairs

Severus pushes the door open “Y/n?” he says sadly as he closes it behind him he sees you sitting on your bed crying as you held your head in your hands

You lift your head “Hi” you choke out through the tears

He moves towards the bed, looking for permission to sit and when you nod he does just that “Can I?” you don’t answer just burry your head into his chest, arms wrapping around his as his do the same to you, hand on the back of your head as he holds you close

“I’m sorry” you murmur into his chest, you knew the things your brother said weren’t really true but that didn’t mean they didn’t hurt or weren’t your biggest insecurities

“No” he pulls you back by your shoulders gently making you look at him “You have nothing to be sorry for” he shakes his head, hand running through your hair

“Sev?” you peer up at him with glassy eyes that make his heart ache “Am I just…am I just a…” you start but trail off not wanting to say but he hears you finish it in your head, consolation prize

“You aren’t” he replies “Y/n for almost a decade I mourned over Lily, but really I was mourning over the loss of my best friend, my first love and the regret of the things I said to her when my head was filled with stupid ideals that I’ll admit I still need to get by” he confesses “You made me see life was worth living again, you did that through…” he smiles a little “pestering me constantly, thinking the stupidest things and purposely trying to put them in my head just to make me crack a smile” you giggle “and…” he hesitates “I made that mistletoe grow as an excuse to kiss you last year”

Your eyes widen “You did?” your heart skips a beat

“Yeah” he takes your hands in yours “I love you” he says plainly “I was waiting for a better time to tell you, actually I was going to tell you at dinner last week but then you started sniffling” he elaborates tapping your nose endearingly

Your eyes start to water with tears of joy “I love you too” you reply basking in the way his eyes light up and that genuine smile only you got to see took over his face

He brushes some hair behind you face, moving in to kiss you when the door opens revealing your brother “Siri” you say as Severus pulls back bracing himself

“You really love her?” he eyes the man

“Yes” he says right away, no hesitation

He takes a second looking between the two of you “Well I still don’t like it, nor will I ever…and I mean ever give my blessing but if you love him then I’ll just have to deal with it…by the way we are going to talk about your questionable choice in men” he covers his mouth but still says it loudly mocking your boyfriend “And you” he turns to Severus pointing “If you hurt her, break her little heart in any way I will feed you my husband”

You gasp in shock but start giggling as Remus pops his head in like he wasn’t lingering outside and listening in “Pads!” he scolds before looking at Severus “But it’s true if you hurt her I’ll make an exception just for you, she’s like a little sister to me too”

#severus snape x reader #severus snape and reader #severus snape x y/n #severus snape x you #severus snape and you #snape x you #severus snape #snape x reader #sirius x reader #hurt/comfort

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