#i was trying to figure out how neo would look but nothing was working so ya got these

[qubelord]

IDK

[z-m1nerva]

彡NEO CATWOMAN

⪩ summary- your boyfriend is batman and you’re the new catwoman

you encountered catwoman when you stole something, you were a great thief and you only stole every now and then but you just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

“well well what do we have here?” she says as she circles around you “you have guts. stupid ones but you have time. from now on you’re working for me i like your attitude.”

ever since terry started working for bruce wayne the two of you seemed to have less time together and ever since you started working for catwoman you barely had time for dates

“hey baby,” he said as he kissed your cheek and slid down into the seat next to you “sorry for not being able to make the date up to you i’ll make it up i promise” you smiled “it’s fine besides i had an emergency call in for work”

when it comes to him as batman the two of you had witty and flirty banter. for some reason, the two of you just clicked it felt like you knew him for ages

“those jewels don’t go with your complexion there sweetheart. it’s a shame you have to steal them” he leaned against the wall of the jewelry store as you grabbed something that caught your eye “too bad” you turn around with a catlike grin on your face “are you offering to buy me something nicer?”

bruce groaning every time he has to hear terry flirting with you he’s always like “keep your eyes on the prize terry.” and terry says “oh i am” while staring at you

the first time bruce heard “catwoman” his draw dropped he knew it wasn’t selina because he hadn’t heard of her in ages but yet catwoman was back, every time he encounters you he has terry give him a recap so they’re closer to uncovering who you are

we all know what catwoman’s suit looks like so when he sees your curves and how you fill it out he can’t take his eyes off you. there would be times when the two of you are so close that you’re damn near kissing

when the two of you are at school and batman and catwoman are suddenly brought up it gets strange

“did you guys see the news last night? batman helped the city again.” a classmate commented. you shrugged “from a thief though.” terry nudged you with a playful grin “what don’t tell me you’re team catwoman” you laugh a little “why shouldn’t i be she’s the only one who can give batman a run for his money” “hmmm i don’t know about that one baby.”

he would tell max about the dilemma he has with catwoman and knowing her she offers to help him out and find out catwoman’s identity. max heard how he talked to you on the comms once and she never went on while he was chasing you around again

eventually, your identities slowly fell apart. both of you let something slip and your “bosses” were able to figure out the rest and it was a strange conversation for the two of you.

the two of you were secretly talking in the batcave to make sure no one could hear you “so let me get this straight. you’re catwoman? this whole time it was you?” you shrugged “i could say the same the whole time instead of working for mr. wayne you were being batman??”

the flirty banter between y’all only gets worse

he snuck up behind you putting his hands on your waist “aw come on baby you don’t need to take that i can buy you something better.” you lean back and press a quick kiss to his masked cheek “mmm i don’t think you can but thanks for trying.”

he places one arm on the side of your head as you leaned your back on your locker “so where were you last night?” you smiled knowing he knew exactly where you were and what you were doing “oh here and there. nothing much to worry about” you pressed a kiss to his lips and hummed when you felt his tongue swipe your bottom lip.

history repeating itself with the two of you except the two of you work out and remain together

[outro-jo]

tired

pairing: nakamoto yuta x reader

type: imagine/blurb (it’s kinda short so idk)

warning: workplace au, boss/assistant, inappropriate power dynamics, curse word, nothing else rly

a/n: i saw this pic of yuta and listened to chase atlantic so here we are. please read info before requesting 🩵

masterlist | info

part 2

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all the lights in the office building were off with the exception of your one desk lamp. they should be considering how late it was. late nights weren’t outside of the norm for you and haven’t been since you were moved to be the assistant to the COO of neo technologies. you’ve always been dedicated to your work no matter the task. while they were a company dedicated to bettering the lives of the citizens of neo city, neo technologies gave so much back to the community. their giving saved your life once, so you performed you job with pride and excellence. also working for nakamoto yuta was such an honor and you certainly wanted to prove yourself. 

the company was working on an expansion which meant more work for your boss and you. it was no surprise to you that when you looked over to the big office door, you could see a dim light haloing the edge of the door jambs. your heart ached a bit thinking of how tired your boss must be especially since he was here well before you came in this morning, and you arrived earlier than your shift was supposed to start. all of the neos running this company were incredibly devoted to their work. some maintained better work/life balance than others, yuta was one who had yet to figure that out yet. 

a long sigh left your lips as you looked over at the clock on your laptop reading 3:28am. you decided that your work was done enough for the day and it was time to go home to get some rest. 

once your progress was saved, computer shut, and bag thrown over your shoulder, you decided to go check on your boss before heading out. on the other side of the door you saw mr. nakamoto behind his laptop but not in the way you expected. rather than hunched over the screen typing away, he was asleep, laying on his arm draped over the keyboard. he seemed so peaceful and as much as you regretted to disturb him, you didn’t want him waking up with neck pain in the morning. 

“mr. nakamoto?” you rubbed his surprisingly toned bicep. “mr. nakamoto?”

he inhaled deeply as he drowsily began to sit up and look around. “yes? sorry, mx. y/n. you can go home now.” 

“yes, sir. did you want me to fix up your sofa for you to rest?” you offered.”

“no, no, thank you. i’ll just rest for a little bit”. he got up.

the world seemed to suddenly move in slow motion as mr. nakamoto got up, still half asleep, pulling you in by the back of your neck for a quick but lazy kiss to your lips before walking over to the sofa in the middle of the large office and promptly falling asleep. you stood by the desk, staring at the wall trying to process what had just transpired. after a few blinks to bring you back to reality, you looked over at your boss sleeping soundly like nothing just happened. your brain started tricking you to rationalize. 

maybe it didn’t happen. you are very tired. maybe it didn’t even happen at all.

successfully gaslighting yourself, you finally were able to bring your body into motion. you went to the cupboard in the corner of the room, grabbing one of the blankets and draping it over the young man before taking your leave. the entire walk home, you did your best to push the incident from your mind. 

of course your boss was a stunning man. all the neo tech bosses were and everyone in the office talked about it. you weren’t immune to his charms just like the rest of the workers but you did your best to maintain professional and not pay attention to the way his suits fit his bum or the intense looks he’d get when deep in thought. there were also times when you’d see in mirrors, screens, and glass when his gaze on you would linger too long before he caught himself. his lips felt heavenly with the faintly tasting of the tea he had sipped on while working. the scent of his cologne still strong enough even after a day of work and the grip on the back of your neck.

“no!” you snapped out of your thoughts and continued brushing your teeth to go to bed.

mr. nakamoto was your boss. you couldn’t possibly think of him in that way. it was disrespectful and inappropriate, you mentally scolded yourself. unfortunately you couldn’t stop your dreams, replaying the moment more intensely. you woke up and knew you were fucked.

you had a crush on your boss.

[densesindealer]

Neo World: Pacification Project, Chapter Three

Dense and @thelewdpokemanik back again with the third chapter of our story. It can still be found up on AO3 here. We hope to keep it going strong, so please enjoy!

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Chapter Three: Panic, Persuasion, Pacification

His entire body felt numb, that was the only possible way to describe the state he was in. His stomach was twisting itself in knots and he couldn’t stop his hands from shaking. He must have gone pale, or at the very least it must have been evident that his thoughts were a mess. If it wasn’t for the soft squeeze of the hand on his shoulder he would have believed this was merely a dream.

What had he done?

What had he done?

He did his best to resist the urge to retch, to avoid the disgust creeping its way up his throat. Another gentle squeeze, grounding him and carefully guiding his swaying body to a seat. His vision was hazy, it was hard to focus on anything other than the reality of what had occurred.

“Makoto.” Another squeeze, this time on his thigh, and he tried his best to focus his vision.

Slowly the figure in front of him came into proper view, Celeste, possibly his closest friend staring at him in deep concern. Always the calming force to his anxiety.

“Makoto, breathe.” He didn’t debate the command, and sucked in a deep breath. Such a simple action but upon releasing it he felt his tension ease, or at the least, the trembling in his hands cease.

“Wh-What did I-”

Celeste cut him off sternly, though not unkindly. “No, you will not go blaming yourself for this.”

Makoto barely heard her. “I did this…I made hi-”

“Look at me.” His eyes carefully rose to peer into the rubies that made up her own.

“You didn’t do anything wrong. Do you understand me?” Celeste enunciated carefully, and Makoto felt frustrated with the sincerity he saw in her eyes.

“I chose to use that program! How could you say I didn’t do anything wrong when I caused this?”

“You did what was right! You stopped Nagito from committing a murder! You did nothing wrong.” The words felt heavy upon his ears, unnatural.

Wrong.

She stared at him, scrutinizing every twitch of his body, carefully calculating her next move, before finally letting out a soft sigh. She sank down to her knees to match his eye level.

“I understand how you feel, but look at this matter from a different perspective.” Celeste began, making Makoto blink.

“I don’t-”

“What would have been the preferred outcome?”

“What?”

“Should we have left Nagito to plot a murder? Should we simply have done nothing and let him start another killing game?” Celeste proposed.

Makoto’s stomach churned. “Of course not! None of them deserve to die!”

Celeste nodded, a slight smile on her lips. “On that we agree. Staying out of it was simply out of the question. So…what should we have done?”

Makoto’s mouth worked soundlessly for a moment, though only just the one. “We should have found a way to stop him… Helped him realize that he didn’t need to do something so drastic.”

“Is that not what we did?”

Makoto’s eyes flashed in irritation. “It’s not the same, and you know it.”

Celeste didn’t try to defend herself, though her expression was still perfectly at ease. “Is it pretty? Is it perfect? Of course not, but was it necessary?”

“No! It wasn’t! We should’ve tried to find another way to change his mind!”

“What other way? We’re functionally locked out of there, and you used the only way you had to save someone’s life. Probably saved Nagito’s life too.”

Makoto’s head fell in his hands. “I ruined his life.”

Celeste scoffed. “Please. She doesn’t have a life to ruin anymore. You’ve already gone against the Future Foundation to save them, and now, you saved her life again.”

“His.”

“You saved her life, and probably the life of many others by stopping Monokuma’s Killing Game! Are you really going to stand there and say you regret doing that!?” Celeste said, her eyes almost physically drilling into the top of Makoto’s skull, even though he couldn’t meet them.

Because he knew. He knew he didn’t regret it. He couldn’t.

He couldn’t allow the Killing Game to start again.

And if he knew then what he did now- If he had to go back, and decide…

Makoto would use the Pacification Program to stop Nagito. Every time.

If he had to choose between using the Pacification Program and allowing someone to start the Killing Game, he would choose the former.

Every. Time.

Makoto’s shoulders slumped. Well, there wasn’t anything to do about it now, was there?

“God, what are we going to tell Kyoko?” He wondered aloud, already feeling the dread pooling in his stomach.

“You will tell her nothing.” Celeste hissed, making him look up at her venomous expression.

“Celeste-”

“No! I will not hear it!” Celeste said, her arms crossing angrily. “I am not giving her the opportunity to stab us in the back again!”

Makoto winced. “She’s not like that anymore…”

Celeste clicked her tongue. “If you truly believe that, then you are a fool. Kyoko will only give you enough trust to hang yourself with.”

“Which I did…”

“You did not! But Kyoko is stupid enough to believe you did, I have no doubt.” Celeste bit out, her voice a cold hiss.

“I mean…” Makoto’s eyes drifted to the pod where Nagito’s body rested. His changed body, let’s be clear.

He was still wearing his old clothes, and they fit her- him, pretty badly. Makoto was almost worried he might suffocate in them or something, the chest was so tight, her breasts almost looking ready to pop out of them, no, his breasts- His breasts?

Makoto stared at the sleeping- Nagito for a moment longer, ignoring the little voice in the back of his head telling him the shirt should be removed- for health reasons only, of course!

“How do you expect us to explain that?” He asked Celeste instead, who smiled demurely.

“We won’t have to, of course. Kyoko’s too busy in the field to bother coming by, and as long as we don’t bring her attention to it, why would she even ask about Nagito’s gender?”

Makoto grimaced, but he could hardly fight the point. “And once the program runs its course? What are we going to say then?”

Celeste shrugged. “I think we have more important things to worry about. We don’t even know if they’ll make it to the end. Maybe our problem will solve itself.” Celeste said pleasantly, and Makoto couldn’t help the uncomfortable chuckle that escaped him.

“Please don’t joke about that…”

Celeste’s smile softened a touch, growing a bit more sincere. “Don’t worry, Makoto. We’ve already proven that the Pacification Program can be used to stop the Killing Game, right? If things turn dire again, we’ll just have to use it again.”

Makoto paused, his eyes growing wide. “Again? Celeste, please remember what just happened!”

“I do. You stopped Nagito from starting the Killing Game. Did anything else more important than that happen that I missed?” Celeste asked kindly, though…

Makoto recognized that tone of voice. He played with Celeste often enough to do so.

She wouldn’t ask the question if she didn’t already know the answer.

And- Makoto knew it too.

Every. Time. He would choose the Program over the Killing Game every time.

He sighed, his shoulders slumping, before blinking as he felt Celeste’s hands clasp his in his lap.

“Makoto. You did good. You stopped Nagito, and probably saved her life.” Celeste said softly, her accent nowhere to be heard.

“You did good, Makoto. You did the right thing.” She repeated, and Makoto felt himself nodding after a moment.

“Y-Yeah…” He had to believe he had. No, he did believe he had. 

As for Nagito…

Makoto would have to make sure he apologized to her properly once she woke up. 

But, until then… Well, he was still quite busy.

Makoto turned back toward the monitors depicting the Neo World Program’s camera feeds.

It was- strange, watching who he intellectually knew was the Ultimate Impostor, even though his eyes wouldn’t allow him to think of him as anyone other than Byakuya Togami.

Though, Byakuya had never been so keen to claim responsibility for the whole group. Especially not their safety, so in that manner, Makoto could see through the Impostor’s disguise.

“Finally.” His tinny voice came through the speaker as Nagito entered the hotel. “Please make sure to not waste my time thusly in the future.”

Makoto couldn’t help but blush a little bit as he watched Nagito through the monitor. The- girl, he supposed, still had hints of a blush on her face, and though her makeup was impeccable, well-

It did little to chase out the memory Makoto had of her ecstasy-filled expression as she fingered herself desperately in her own room.

Both he and Celeste had been simply stunned by the scene, and neither of them had moved for several minutes as they stared at the new girl, begging for her master’s touch…

Celeste’s blush had been so bright it had actually brought color to her pale cheeks, and her eyes had seemed almost like crosshairs as she stared at him when he finally got enough of a hold of himself to toggle the main monitor away from that camera, switching it for another, which thankfully got rid of the audio. Thankfully, it seemed like she didn’t resent him making her witness that at least.

And, well. It was hard to think of Nagito as a guy after watching her cum her brains out, a brainless smile on her lips as she soaked her bedsheets.

Makoto blushed, shifting in his seat as he tried to focus on the screen in front of him, and not on the tightness of his pants.

Nagito only rolled her eyes before taking a seat, her legs crossing as she shot Hajime a glare, for some reason.

“I was busy with actually important stuff. So, say your piece so I can go back to actually doing that~” Nagito smiled as she finished, her eyes seeming to go a bit hazy as she, presumably, focused on, uh, what she would rather be doing.

Celeste giggled in her seat beside her. “She probably can’t be trusted to do anything other than cum her brains out, honestly. Good for her~” She purred, and Makoto winced.

Yeesh. Did Celeste have something against the lucky student?

The Impostor sighed, before crossing his arms. “Well, now that everyone is here, I suppose it is time for me to say my piece.”

Makoto couldn’t deny his nervosity here. They’d stopped Nagito, but would the Impostor… No, no, no, Makoto refused to believe it! He’d been such a good leader for the others thus far- but what if Nagito’s notes made him do something, thoughtlessly?

Makoto’s eyes drifted toward his second monitor, before he shook his head.

No, he wouldn’t have to use the Pacification Program. Everything would be fine. Right?

“Rejoice! I have decided that we will have a party tonight!”

“Huh?” Makoto said, surprised, echoed by multiple students on the monitor.

“I see,” Celeste said, attracting his attention. “He is trying to counteract Nagito’s note by keeping an eye on everyone.”

“Ah! This party’s just an excuse then, right?” Makoto had been surprised to hear the Impostor do something so frivolous, but that made more sense. “He’s trying to hide the note from the others, so there won’t be a panic, while still trying to stop the killing from happening, huh?”

“He almost reminds me of you.”

“Of me?”

“Yes, trying his best to protect others and draw them together. If he had half of your charisma, he would make for a compelling leader to the other students.”

Makoto chuckled. “He seems to be doing a fine enough job as far as I can see.” And indeed he was. Under his strict supervision, roles were assigned to students as they prepared for the party that would be happening tonight, in the abandoned building next door.

Sonia eagerly volunteered to clean, though several other students saw reason and decided to go with her, since the princess clearly had more enthusiasm than know-how.

Teruteru was eager to put his talent to work in the kitchen, and Peko went off to find Fuyuhiko and keep him abreast of the happenings.

Nagito wasn’t even considered for any role. Instead, the rest of the group seemed to know exactly what to expect of her. That is, that she would simply ignore their instructions and return to her cabin as soon as possible for, obvious reasons.

Makoto hummed for a moment. “Nobody’s said anything yet. They all seem to think Nagito was always as she is now. He is.” Makoto corrected himself, though judging from Celeste’s giggle, he hadn’t been very convincing.

“Nagito herself seems completely unperturbed by this change, as do Monokuma and Monomi. Is that a feature of the Pacification Program?” She asked instead, putting a finger to her chin.

“It might be. Wouldn’t do much Pacifying if it sent everyone into a panic, would it?”

Celeste nodded her head silently, watching as the group dispersed. The Impostor himself busily began making additional preparations for the party, mostly security concerns.

He really seemed like a good leader…

“Speaking of the Pacification Program,” Celeste said, making Makoto blink. “Why did it turn Nagito into a girl?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, you didn’t make it do so?”

“Of course not!” Makoto replied, a blush reddening his cheeks, making Celeste smirk.

“I didn’t think so. But clearly, something must’ve.”

Makoto nodded slowly, thinking. He opened up the .txt file attached to the program to read through it again, carefully. He blinked when Celeste’s hand landed on his left shoulder, and blushed when she rested her head on his right, her pale face appearing in the corner of his vision, her drill twintail pressing against his back.

For a moment, Makoto froze as the strong scent of roses filled his nose, backed by the bittersweet aroma of tea, making his heart pound in his chest. His body felt hyper aware of her presence as she read over his shoulder, and he found that the words were bleeding into one another in front of his eyes as he failed to focus on them.

Instead, all of his attention was stolen by the soft breathing he could hear in his ear, by the light pressure of her delicate fingers on his shoulder, by the heat he could feel just an inch away from his back-

“Here.” Celeste said, a perfectly manicured nail tapping on the screen and making Makoto jump. 

“Wh-What?”

“This part here.” Celeste repeated, before reading out loud. “‘From there it will attempt to alter the base coding of the target into something more useful for the system moderator.’”

Makoto blinked. “Yeah? How does that explain what happened to Nagito? Are you saying changing him into a girl made him- more useful?”

Celeste’s head turned for a moment, and suddenly, Makoto realized just how close her face was to him, as she hadn’t backed a single inch from her perch.

Her eyes seemed like incredibly large rubies as she spoke, her breath gliding across Makoto’s skin.

“This Program probably does consider girls more useful to you, Makoto. After all, you are a man.” She said, and somehow, impossibly, seemed to inch even closer to him, until her lips brushed his as she spoke.

“I’m sure you can imagine many uses for a female body…” She whispered, and Makoto could only stare, wide-eyed, back into Celeste’s heated gaze, where he could see a spark of- something dancing within them.

Not humor, or satisfaction. Something more- primal, perhaps.

Numbly, Makoto nodded, and Celeste smirked for a moment.

“Good~” She said, before standing back up and stretching, leaving Makoto to stare shell-shocked into her chest as she arched in front of him. “I need a moment. I’ll be back once I’ve fetched myself something to drink.”

Thusly, Celeste walked away from the operations room, toward her personal lodgings, leaving Makoto to stare after her for a moment, a singular word bouncing around in his mind as he did.

“Good?” He repeated to himself, stunned, and torn between disbelief, confusion- and- well, something he thought should remain unnamed. 

Instead, he turned back toward the monitors, only to blush when his eyes immediately landed on a masturbating Nagito once more.

“Gonna have to look out for that…” Makoto said, pretending that the new spectacle was actually responsible for his present arousal.

He quickly shifted his vision to another camera, jumping around from each monitor until he found two unoccupied students. Akane and Nekomaru, and he switched their feed over to the main monitor, letting the audio from that feed come through.

Just in time for the sound of wood cracking to make him jump, his finger slipping off the key as he watched Akane fly into a tree, breaking it in half as she cried out in pain.

Makoto’s jaw fell open for a moment, and he almost jumped to his second monitor, only to notice how Akane was smiling.

“You going soft on me, Coach?” She called, completely ignoring the way blood was dribbling down her forehead from a cut, making Makoto wince.

“Soft?” Nekomaru’s booming voice said. “Of course! I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again- You lack discipline! You are wasting your potential! Even a mere Team Manager like me can easily take you down!”

Akane’s face twisted in irritation, and immediately charged again at speed Makoto might've called superhuman before he met Sakura.

Now, he could only agree with Nekomaru.

Akane was all instinct and violence, without even a hint of technique, unlike Nekomaru’s practiced form as he manhandled her and threw her to the ground once more in a great cloud of sand.

The girl coughed as she tried to stand up again, only for her limbs to fail her. “D-Damnit…”

Nekomaru laughed uproariously. “What did I tell you!? You charge in, again and again, without a single thought! Of course you’re going to stay weak!”

Makoto stared at Nekomaru’s tall silhouette, a whisper of something in his gut.

The team manager- was lying, he was pretty sure… But why?

Akane growled something incomprehensible, before finally making it up to her feet, though she was swaying in place.

“Next time-”

“You’ll lose again, until you learn how to properly use that body of yours. Now, go see Mikan, she’ll patch you up.” Nekomaru said, ignoring the way Akane stomped her way past him.

Makoto didn’t follow her, instead watching Nekomaru as he stood still, staring out into the sea.

Until he collapsed to one knee, groaning, a hand against his chest.

Makoto almost jumped out of his seat at the sight, only to freeze again as Nekomaru laughed lightly, weakly.

“Damn. My weak body really isn’t fit to be an athlete, huh?” He said softly, before rising back up to his feet carefully, as if a single gust of wind could knock him back down.

“But I would be a failure of a Team Manager if I didn’t pound some sense into that girl before she goes and gets herself killed fighting a Monobeast, or Monokuma himself.”

Nekomaru’s words floated on the wind for a moment, the moment almost fragile as the team manager panted heavily, before he straightened his back again with gusto.

“I!” He screamed, almost blowing the speakers off the monitor Makoto was using. “AM NEKOMARU NIDAI! ULTIMATE TEAM MANAGER!” He yelled, his whole body tense, as if he was using every muscle in his body to scream the words. 

“AND NOTHING WILL STOP ME FROM TRAINING MY ATHLETES! NOT EVEN DEATH!” 

For a few moments, silence reigned in the operations room as Makoto stared at the heavily breathing Nekomaru for a few moments longer, before the team manager began leaving the beach, his declaration having apparently helped him recover.

Makoto was still staring into the empty monitor, his mind running a mile a minute.

He- hadn’t been expecting that at all. He’d gotten used to incredible level of hand-to-hand combat, though he was patently not a fighter at all, especially compared to the likes of Sakura or the Great Gozu, the former Ultimate Wrestler.

But still, there was a level of- not professionalism in their fights, but…

Celeste’s voice drifted in his ear. ‘Savoir-faire’, yes. 

Those two knew what they were doing, and were able to fight seriously without risking either of their lives.

Nothing like Nekomaru and Akane.

No, even though Nekomaru had a better handle on fighting, he was also weaker than Akane, and couldn’t afford to hold back at all, no matter what he told her.

Akane, on the other hand, was like a wild animal. Dangerous.

Both to herself, and others.

Akane had already said several times that she would fight Monokuma given the opportunity, but Makoto hadn’t realized how real the possibility was until he saw her fight.

Thankfully, Nekomaru seemed to have a handle on her, and was able to direct her energy toward safer outlets, but…

Makoto couldn’t help but wonder, for how long?

How long until Nekomaru was simply no longer able to keep up? Be it because of Akane improving or his own body failing him?

And even if he could manage to keep up, maybe with Mikan’s help- How long until Akane ran into Monokuma in the middle of the night, and let herself be goaded into a fight.

The thought sent a shiver down Makoto’s spine.

He’d seen Sakura and Monokuma fight, and that had been a robot constrained by physics. Not a nigh-omnipotent virus.

If the two fought, not only would Akane lose, but…

She would be executed.

Makoto could almost feel the crash of the compactor through his bones as he clutched the desk in front of him.

He- He couldn’t let that happen to someone else.

But he also couldn’t stop it.

Not unless he used the Pacification Program again, but…

The thought of it made his stomach twist with guilt. He- no, he hadn’t made a mistake with Nagito, but- He hadn’t known what the Pacification Program would do.

Now he did. 

It might save Akane’s life, in exchange for- everything else.

And it was a ‘might’. Akane might grow under Nekomaru’s tutelage, or change her mind, or maybe whatever Usami did to Monokuma would stop the Killing Game before it ever started.

Maybe. But was Makoto willing to bet on a ‘maybe’? He couldn’t watch everything that happened on the island- Not realistically. Akane just might slip through his fingers and get herself hurt, or even killed without him ever knowing. Or maybe he would notice too late- The Pacification Program did seem to take a bit to work, if what it had done to Nagito was any indication.

It was not a quick thing, to Pacify someone. And if Makoto waited, he might miss his chance to target Akane altogether.

Makoto worried his lip as he thought. What would he regret more? Pacifying Akane uselessly, or letting her die?

Just the thought made his blood run cold.

No, he could never live with himself if he let Akane die. But could he live with Pacifying her, even if it didn’t end up saving her life? Was he fine changing her like he did Nagito, on the off-chance that it would save her?

Makoto’s head fell in his hands as he sighed. His thoughts were going around in circles uselessly.

“Makoto? Is everything alright?” Celeste said as she reentered the room, making him jump.

His mouth opened, a reassurance behind his tongue, only for his body to sag.

“I- think I need your help, Celeste.” He said instead, and the gambler’s smile at his words helped soothe his heart, if only a little.

“Well, I suppose I could lend a helping hand if you’re so desperate~” Celeste teased, making Makoto chuckle weakly at her joke, though his mood quickly turned.

Celeste seemed to realize it as well, and took her seat back, an eyebrow raised. “I only stepped out for a few minutes. What happened?” She asked seriously, making Makoto grimace.

Had it really only been such a short time? Makoto felt like he’d been struggling for a solution for an hour.

He looked at the monitor in front of him, still showing the empty beach and the broken tree, staring for a moment, chewing on his next words. Thankfully, Celeste let him do so, waiting for him to speak up again.

“I’m- thinking about using the Pacification Program again.” Makoto said, and it was like he’d opened the floodgates. His words almost fell out of him faster than he could speak them as he told Celeste about the fight, Nekomaru’s struggle, Akane’s wildness. His thoughts, his fears, his worries. 

By the time the flow dried, Celeste’s cup of tea had gone cold between her hands, and Makoto almost felt deflated.

The gambler hummed for a moment, hiding her mouth behind her cup, though she grimaced ever-so-slightly at the beverage’s lost prime.

“I believe you’re overthinking it. Your hesitation stems from what happened with Nagito, correct?”

Makoto nodded hesitantly. “Well, yeah, but… I just don’t know if the risks are worth-”

Celeste cut him off, her voice somehow both soft and as steel. “Once more, overthinking it. We agreed that what happened with Nagito was better than the alternative, did we not?”

Makoto licked his dry lips. “Yeah, I…I guess we did?”

“Then why does that same logic not follow now? It’s merely the same situation but from the perspective of the victim.”

“I don’t really think what Nagito was planning and this-”

“Both would end in the same outcome, albeit one less loss of life. You know as well as I that picking a fight with Monokuma would lead to death.”

Makoto didn’t bother answering. They’d both had front row seats to Mondo nearly losing his arm in that explosion.

“So if you are so worried that Akane will act the fool and put herself at risk, what makes that so different from the risk of Nagito’s life?” Celeste’s words had a way of pulling the rug out from under Makoto’s feet. What seemed like incredibly complex situations were being calmly broken down and divided, ordered and presented.

But still, “I didn’t know what the Program did then.”

“Would you still use it now, even knowing the outcome? Would you still save his life?”

“Of course.” His response came without hesitation. 

“So then, I believe we can agree Akane needs someone to save hers, lest she get herself killed and start the game anyways.”

“I don’t even know if she’d really do something like that!” Makoto protested, though Celeste didn’t waver.

“Is it worth the risk? Should we have blind faith that someone will always be able to talk her down from her ideas of grandeur?”

“I just don’t want to-”

“Makoto,” Celeste cut him off once more, and again, Makoto’s protests were brushed past skillfully. “You know I’m correct. You agree with me on every point I’ve raised. Clearly, none of what was raised thus far is your real issue. Tell me why you are against this, and if you do not know, reflect on it.”

Makoto paused for a moment, his train of thought cut off unexpectedly at the change of track.

She was right. This situation, saving Akane… It was the same choice he’d made before. So why? Why was he struggling to find a reason to save her? Why was he holding back when the opportunity was right in front of him?

No matter how much he twisted the situation around in his mind, he agreed with Celeste, and more importantly, with himself. This was the right thing to do.

But- Was it for the right reasons?

Unbidden, his eyes turned toward the monitors, tracking the various students as they went about their day.

The Impostor was scouting the outside of the abandoned building, carefully testing every point of entry.

Sonia and the others were cleaning as best they could with Teruteru flitting in and about to set up the kitchen for the night.

And Nagito was ruining her bed, screaming her orgasm silently, though Makoto could easily read the words on her lips.

‘Master’.

He gulped, staring at the picture. The words Celeste had pointed out in the instructions were still clear in his mind.

‘Alter the base coding into something more useful to the user.’

In other words, the Pacification Program must’ve made him Nagito’s master.

The thought made something pool in his stomach.

It was guilt. At least, in part.

He wished it was in its entirety. He wished he could look at that screen, and only feel guilt for his terrible mistake, and none of the anticipation, excitement, and arousal he felt at the sight.

But he didn’t. He really didn’t.

“I-” Makoto started, only for his words to flee him immediately.

His lack of a response must have truly gained her attention, as her eyes which at first had been watching him, traced his line of sight to the monitor he’d been unable to look away from.

“Oh?” It was a simple word, phrased as a question before she pressed on, “It frightens you to admit that the consequences don’t feel quite as wrong as you’d like.”

Makoto’s eyes widened, before he raised his hands in front of his chest, trying to deny the accusation. “No…that’s not-”

“Isn’t it? You may not want to admit it, but some part of you is more than just alright with what happened. Somewhere inside you’ve realized that you aren’t put off by what Nagito became.” Celeste pushed, her red eyes drilling into Makoto.

“I…I don’t enjoy this, you’re-”

Celeste raised her tea cup to her lips again, though she didn’t drink from it this time, only using it to hide her smile. “You shouldn’t lie to yourself dear, you and I share a mind that Nagito is much better like this~”

“Why are you so okay with this?” Makoto finally pushed back, feeling something akin to panic running up his back.

“Let’s weigh the options, shall we? The Nagito before, one with a rather demented view of hope, willing to take a life? Or the Nagito we have now, one who’s only focus is bringing herself to climax and is only willing to follow her master’s orders?”

Makoto found his words struggling to come out more and more as Celeste spoke. “I-”

“I don’t see much of a contest, and judging by the way your eyes are acting, this is a sight some part of you is willing to admit it prefers.” Makoto’s eyes snapped back to Celeste from where they had begun drifting toward a particular monitor, wide brown meeting amused red.

“It’s wrong.” It was a weak argument, and both of them knew it, a feeble attempt to convince either of them he wasn’t seriously considering her words.

“It’s not wrong to enjoy this, you just wish it to be. You’re focusing so much on your own rigid set of rules that you aren’t basking in the full outcome.” Celeste calmly said, making Makoto hesitate.

And when he didn’t answer, she answered for him. “Yes, it may not be the original expectation, but it’s not a crime to enjoy yourself. You’ve saved a life, you can save another, this is a gift for your efforts.”

“I just…” Makoto’s own words sounded weak to his ears as he tried to justify himself for- for what exactly?

“Let go, just this once, let yourself enjoy this, it’s only to save her.” Celeste said, smiling reassuringly, and Makoto felt himself wilt.

“But…” He tried, he really did, to come up with a reason she was wrong. His mind kept coming up blank, and even when anything started to form, his eyes caught Nagito’s monitor and immediately they would return to silence.

Was Celeste right? Was it really okay to not worry so much? Nagito did seem to be much happier like this, and she was safe from Monokuma. 

Was it fine if he let go and enjoyed this? If he took pleasure in the act, did that make the act wrong, somehow? Did it negate the good it did in saving their lives, to enjoy the side effects that came with it?

Makoto’s eyes drifted to Nagito’s monitor once more, watching her.

It was impossible to deny the truth, some part of him had already found enjoyment in this outcome. Both in saving a life, and Nagito’s newfound devotion. If it was to save a life, he’d do it a thousand times over, and nothing in his head nor in his heart could find an argument against that. 

So then why? Why was he still so unsure if he was doing this for the right reasons? His earlier conversations with Celeste played on loop in his mind. Was there truly harm being done, enjoying this when it meant saving a life too?

One last time his eyes flicked back to Nagito, screaming silently in bliss, and his resolve hardened. She was different now, that much was true, but there was more to it than that. She was safe, free from her possible fate, and she was enjoying every moment of it. 

So why couldn’t he? He’d done what was right, stopped a murder. It wasn’t harming anyone to enjoy the outcome, was it?

No, it wasn’t. Like Celeste had said before, he’d acted the savior, he’d done that for so long. It wasn’t wrong to enjoy himself too, not when it meant saving others, especially not then.

Makoto nodded to himself, slowly, and then more solidly.

“Yeah. You’re right, Celeste. Thanks.” He said, smiling at the gambler, who returned it with one of her own.

“You are quite welcome, dear,” She said, her eyes almost shining. “It’s always a pleasure to talk these things through with you. Especially when it allows you to realize you truly can help the Remnants better themselves.”

Something is the way she spoke, and the way her eyes bore into his made him shift uncomfortably in his seat, though it did nothing to get rid of his relieved smile. It also didn’t change the fact she was correct. He could help them, it was his responsibility. He pushed the lingering concern from earlier to the side, and opened the program once more. 

It would never be wrong to save a life. He had to believe that. He did believe that. And if any backlash like with Nagito did arise? He would be responsible for that too. 

For better or for worse.

[invisiblegarters]

Only Friends Character Ramblings and Relationship Rankings - Ep 9

Last week, Ray was out there doing the most (to piss both me and Sand off), Mew thought the best way to get over Top was to live out Tove Lo's "Habits (Stay High)" and it wasn't working out for anyone, Nick was trying to get back into Boston's good graces and Boston was having absolutely NONE of it despite the fact that he very definitely misses him, and Cheum got lines for once and boy howdy, did people have a lot to say about it.

I had a really hard time with this one, because for the first time - whether because I am just so happy the stupid RayMew thing is finally over or because they gave me a break from my angst and anxiety, or because I just chilled out finally - I am liking everyone in this bar. So instead of ranking them from most to least favorite, I'm just gonna ramble on about them as I think of things to say.

Character Ramblings:

Boston. Look, Boston did nothing wrong at all this ep, he was just out living his life. It's not his fault his dick is apparently magic. He made zero fucking promises to anyone at all, and I'm getting kind of sick of everyone out here slut shaming him. Fuck that, and fuck them. There is nothing wrong with living your best promiscuous life, okay, so long as you're up front about it and use protection. And while we can't know if Boston does the latter since it's never brought up, he is the only character who has so much as mentioned it so I'm going to assume so unless told otherwise.

Also I was really impressed with Neo's acting this ep. I'm impressed all the time, but I really liked the subtle changes that came over his face the more Nick talked in that this is my final goodbye scene. Like the way he fights so much of it and tries to act so aloof and done with the whole thing but then every time his eyes find Nick's face...it was so good. And okay, I know it wasn't supposed to be funny but him just being like "peace" to his hookup was hilarious to me. I really don't want some tragic backstory for Boston and I don't want him to do a 180 on his entire life, but I think it's been clear for a while that he needed to hear a lot of what Nick said.

I just love this dude, okay? No apologies, no justifications. Just 💖

Rock on, Boston.

Sand. Yeah, I know what people think of him. Whatever. I am just gonna respectfully disagree with the lot of you. I don't necessarily agree with his choices, but I can't say that he's not making them with his eyes wide open. And honestly I don't read him as being unable to walk away from Ray. I read him as simply not wanting to. That's his decision. It's an active choice he's making. I wish people would fucking let him have it.

I also find it kind of hilarious that he's so okay with helping Ray cheat on Mew, even if he makes a whole point about how fucked up it is. Sand, you hypocritical little shit. Finally you get to be messy again - I've been waiting for it to pop up since episode six. And yeah, that's about as far as it goes. Let me be utterly frank here: this man could go out and start kicking puppies and I would love him regardless. I can see where he goes wrong, but if you expect me to vilify him for it you might want to settle down with some food and drink, because you're gonna be hanging out a while.

Still think he really needs someone comforting him for once. Do not think that will happen. Am sad about it.

Mew. I'm so glad to see rational Mew return. I hope that he's a little less quick to judge now, but I missed the direct guy we saw in that last conversation with Ray. I liked that guy, and I was happy to get him back. I think that we'll see some changes in him, and that's okay - it's good even. Being young is all about figuring out who you are and what you're into, shaping yourself towards the kind of person you want to be. I can't tell you how many different personas I stuck on at Mew's age. But one of his core traits did always seem to be a frankness that has been missing - or worse, not missing but deliberately aimed to try and hurt. I appreciated the reflection he clearly had this episode. I always knew he'd boomerang back though. Whatever people say, I knew he was too steady at heart not to.

I'm eager to see what this hybrid Mew will be like. I don't want to say that it was good for him to have what happened happen, because no one deserves it, but I do think that we're going to see a looser, less rigid version of Mew, and that part is good, actually.

Top. I've liked him for a while, and the trend continues. He got a little pushy this ep, but nowhere near as pushy as certain others I could name, and if I am not planning on acting like they are beyond the pale for it (and for the record I'm not) then I won't do it to him ether. I'm also not buying that he's been fucking his ex, either. Not until the show tells me. I made that mistake last week with thinking Ray and Mew were gonna bone down this episode and then I was wrong, and anyway I want to believe in Top. So I am going to continue to do that.

Atom, Daddy (I keep wanting to say Dapper here and that's not it, guys) Dan, and Boeing. Welp. Was wrong about Daddy Dan but not about Atom - I knew that boy was gonna get clingy. I have a feeling he's going to be a real problem. I am both nervous and excited to see what he does next, and how it will ripple outward. As for Dan, we'll see. I just foresee bad things coming of sleeping with the boss, even if he is as cute as Papang. And Boeing...I am so ready for him to come in and mess things up. I want Jojo to make good on his promise and for that man to be kissing errbody. I especially want a flashback to a threesome with him, Sand, and Top if he is indeed the ex (and I have no reason to believe otherwise, it makes the most sense to have Boeing pulling double duty rather than have him be only there to mess with Mew and Top). l almost wonder if he isn't really there to mess with the Mew and Top dynamic quite as much as we think since they're putting such an emphasis on him doing so and I have well-earned Trailer Trust Issues.

Nick. Oh, Nick. Nicholas. Nikeroni. The love junkie. I swear I was so mad at him when he kept encouraging Sand in his pursuit of all things Ray at the beginning of the ep, but I guess one stalker recognizes another, because literally nothing he said about Ray was wrong. And I have to admit that his little speech to Boston was actually really sweet, even if he had to be himself and literally follow Boston and a hookup to the toilet to give it. I was also amused that he was the one who introduced "Daddy" into his dynamic with Bossman Dan, and yet Sand had to explain to him what masochism was. I am proud of him for trying to move on but question the wisdom of doing so with his literal boss. He did say he'd be willing to lick his ass, I guess.

Cheum. She's back to being Miss Barely Appearing in the Show, but I enjoyed her relief to get Mew acting like himself again. I actually believe that she really cares about Mew and has his best interests at heart, and that she was worried about him. Did she handle it the best way? Not at all, but I understand the impulse. I don't think that Mew had to apologize to her but I like that she at least seems resolved now to let him make his own damn choices.

Yo. The woman's love life might be a mess, but she speaks sense and apparently she was also happy to fill Mew's ear with exactly just how far gone his totally real and not a farce boyfriend he swears was for someone else. Not that Mew wasn't picking up on it anyway, but it gives me a kick to think about the two of them talking about it. Why? Because I imagine she basically told him that the fact he didn't give two shits proved her point about his own damn feelings.

Ray. I know I said I wasn't doing this in order but I did leave him for last deliberately, because I think I'm gonna have the most to say about him. It feels like he's been in the back of my head nonstop for the last two weeks, in fact, so prepare yourself for a long fucking essay of me trying to work out my own feelings about him. Also I'm gonna stick in a keep reading cut here because I am going to touch on self harm and possibly suicide. Also not all my thoughts about Ray are pretty or entirely sympathetic and are very probably also incoherent. I'm not apologizing for that but if it's not something you want to read it might be a good idea to stop now.

It should be no surprise that I have had a hard time with this dude. I have talked about it. I find him largely unlikeable, and I will maintain until I'm blue in the face that I am supposed to find him unlikable, and I think that it's only because of Khaotung that I never really crossed over into loathing. Before you start, no I don't mean because Khaotung is pretty (although he is) or because I have a bias (although I do), but because he's an excellent actor, and ninety percent of the time you can see beneath whatever selfish shit Ray's pulling to the desperation that drives most of his actions - the clawing need to be loved, to be wanted, and the constant compulsion to keep moving, to live in the here and now, right now, and not think either beyond or before the very second he's in at the very time he's in it, because to think of the past hurts too much and the future is unfathomable.

The other ten percent is pure twenty two year old rich asshole though. Which is - well, not fine exactly, but understandable. All these guys are twenty some year old assholes. That's normal.

The hard part is reconciling these two things, I think. Both because of my personal experiences with people like Ray (both the asshole and the addict, joy), and because there is a temptation to either ignore the addiction to vilify him or use it as an excuse for literally every shitty stunt he pulls. Does his addiction exacerbate the other issues he has in his life? Yes. Does it explain a lot of his more volatile behavior? Also yes. Does it give him free license to do and say whatever he wants with zero repercussions, or give a good reason to shift the blame onto the people he regularly mistreats because he can't help himself and they should help him more? That'll be a hearty fucking no from me.

Addiction is very, very hard to deal with, both for the people experiencing it and for the people around them who can see a person they care for destroying themselves and generally can't do much about it, because ultimately the addict is the one who has to decide to make a change. And one thing I respect about this show is that it isn't shying away from the difficulties and realities of Ray's situation, both for him and for his friends. I know that people are very frustrated with his friends for not helping him and for basically being checked out, but to me it just hurts because I've seen that. I've seen that from people decades older than these guys. I'm not trying to excuse them, either - honestly, I fully agree with @thewayuarent in their post where they say that if they can't deal, stepping away fully is in fact the best answer (and that there is no shame in having to do so) - but I do understand it. It's not pretty to watch when we all know that Ray is suffering and pretty much aiming not to reach his next birthday, but I have definitely seen this sort of thing go down in reality, and everyone's threshold is different. I think it's very possible we're going to see even Sand, with his apparently unlimited well of patience for Ray, struggle and possibly break in the coming episodes.

If Ray does intend to take this rehab thing seriously - personally, I do not think he will (at least at first), mostly because he is not (yet) doing it for himself, he's doing it for Sand and possibly for Mew even though he very obviously still does not think he needs it or has a problem (or, to be a little more accurate, he might suspect he has a problem but he's refusing to acknowledge it. Also, just as an aside, I am very curious about his bargaining chip to Sand regarding rehab - Ray's asked repeatedly about Sand's dad and I am very curious as to why he's so invested in this. My guess is it has to do with his own issues around his parents but I do hope the show gives us some insight because there's something about it that isn't sitting right with me)) - I do hope that we see his friends take steps to help him. Because while it is ultimately on him to get better, there are things that they can do to help. They won't know these things instinctively, but I'd like to see them take this as seriously as they want him to (my personal belief is that Mew and Sand will, but I can't be entirely sure. Mew cares about Ray, okay, you'll never convince me otherwise, he's just...up until recently he reminded me of one of those people in my life who does not struggle with depression asking me why I can't just stop being sad. Yeah. That's Mew. It just doesn't compute in his head because it's not a problem he personally faces and he doesn't necessarily mean to be dismissive but he is dismissive because again, it's not a struggle he is familiar with. In his brain, it's as simple as putting the bottle/drugs down. I'm really hoping his spiral makes him more understanding of Ray's issues but there is also a real danger that he will be worse about them because he stopped so easily. I am leaning more towards him being kind and making more of an effort to understand rather than condemn. Not to mention Sand makes and sells illegal hooch and that's uh, gonna be a problem. You can feel it, right? Because I can feel it).

I got a little sidetracked, but all this was to say that I've been really hard on Ray, harder than a lot of people. So much so that I've been accused of being a Ray hater, lol. And I do find it kind of hilarious that these last two episodes have been what have induced me to be kinder to him, when a lot of others are increasingly losing their patience with his whole deal. For the record, I don't see a problem with disliking or even hating Ray (or any character) any more than I see a problem with adoring him - people have their own reasons for it and I can hardly throw stones when at least a quarter of my ire at him was because he is such an epic SHIT to Sand, who is MY ride or die just leave him be unless you're offering him the hug he so desperately needs baby blorbo. He's going to continue to be an ass to him I'm sure, I just now have reasonable hope Sand's gonna give it back in spades (more on this later) so I've calmed down on that a bit, lol.

I feel like a weird person, because the worse Ray gets the more I see the self-destruction in it. It's his casual dismissal of other people's feelings and lack of care that gets to me and makes me want to throttle him, not his big rants (except the whore comments which I still haven't forgiven although Sand apparently has because he's a better person than me). His big rants, however, have the air of someone who is trying to get himself hurt. He wants Mew to tell him that Top is a thousand percent better than he is and that Ray can never measure up, wants Sand so mad that he knocks him to the floor, wants them to lash out and return cruelty for cruelty, because it will prove what Ray has always suspected (known) deep down: he is unlovable. Eventually, he will become too much and people will become tired of his shit and bail. And if they won't? If they stay over and over and over again? He'll find a way to make them. I still maintain that part of his whole deal with Mew was that Mew gave him what he wanted, the kind of love he thought he deserved: you can come this close and no farther, because you are Too Much and you are Not Good Enough. The fact that Mew didn't intend to do that hardly mattered - it was a way for Ray to reinforce his own beliefs about himself and as much as it hurt there's a sort of satisfaction in it, too.

Like, I am not smart enough to explain this right but it's self-harm. It's not done in the way people associate with self-harm but that's what it is. Ray self-sabotages because there's a sort of vicious, sick satisfaction in confirming that this thing that he's always believed about himself is true - he is an unlovable burden who will eventually drive any and everyone who has the bad luck of caring about him away. And it also lets him continue along his path of addiction because 1 - it's fine if he destroys himself because he's such a pain that no one cares anyway and they might even be better off if he does and 2 - alcohol makes it not matter as much.

Ray wants to be loved. Ray will also make sure that it is near impossible to do so because in a strange way it makes him feel better and because if he admits that if he can be then he has to change his whole way of thinking about himself - and about why his mom treated him the way she did.

So yeah. Episode 8 did the thing. It finally made me recognize patterns I've seen before and I was just like yeowch.

And it's hard for me to articulate about episode 9, because there was still that element in some of Ray's interactions, but I think it also showed us the opposite side, too - a Ray who is actually capable of communicating beyond simply reacting in the moment. We've seen this before with both Mew and Sand, but never quite to the extent we saw in this ep. I am not one who believes that we've ever seen an entirely sober Ray, but I do think the show has done a good job of giving us shades of what that man might look like.

Unfortunately, I think it's gonna take us until episode 12 to get there, if we do. Because while I do think that we might see a sober Ray before then, I also think he's gonna be a lot nastier than even the Ray we were given in episode 8 (disclaimer that I am not saying that I believe that sober Ray is nasty, I am saying that the Ray who will be dealing with stuff he has been burying beneath booze and drugs for a long time on top of withdrawal is very likely to lash out - if he even gets that far. It's entirely possible the whole thing falls apart before it even starts). I could be wrong. I'd like to be wrong, because I am also very worried that the person who is gonna bear the brunt of it is Sand and as we've established I adore Sand beyond all reason (and I'm not saying Sand might not earn a measure of it - I'd like it if he did actually earn it, as opposed to Ray just attacking him disproportionately to whatever crime he thinks he's committed, you know?).

I don't think he's hit that proverbial rock bottom. I've said before that Ray also frustrates me because he somehow manages to skirt any real consequences for his actions. Even his car accident was pretty papered over, and his near arrest was taken care of by Top and literally all Ray could do was sneer that his dad would have taken care of it. It gets to me, but here's the thing: I can also feel something coming for him. I could be wrong, but right now I can hear that train whistle in the distance, can feel the vibrations as it draws closer, and I worry that it's going to be really bad. I don't think it'll be death - I actually believe Jojo that no one is dying although I could have egg on my face by the end - but not dying doesn't mean that someone (my biggest fear is Sand but it could be anyone up to and including Ray himself) isn't going to get seriously hurt.

I hope I'm wrong. We've only got three episodes left and I really want an upward trajectory from Ray especially out of this show - I know Jojo is capable of realistic bleakness (3 Will Be Free), but I really hope we're not going there with this show. I don't think we are. But there's still that niggling fear that we might be. Second season or not (ugh, sorry but ugh), I really really want ep 12 to end on a decent note for him. I'm not asking for him to be a new man, I'm only asking for a little hope that he's on his way to healing.

If you've actually gotten this far without bailing, we're returning to our regularly scheduled programming now. Promise.

Relationships (Most to Least Fave atm)

Nick & Sand. I just love these two. They are my favorite relationship in the show and I want more scenes with them. Everything from them bonding over their love for men who don't love them back to their attempted hookup and then giggle was just pitch perfect this ep. I would honestly watch an entire episode of the Sand and Nick show, if not more. I love how they support each other but I am so curious what Nick has been telling Sand about Boston because wow, does Sand hate his guts. I mean it could just boil down to the fight in the apartment but he also likes to bring up how shitty Boston treats Nick so who the hell knows. But yeah, they click and I love it.

Mew & Ray. What? They were good this ep, and I really hope that we see more of a genuine, loving friendship spring between them now that Ray's not constantly trying for more and Mew doesn't have to watch everything he says or does with him lest Ray decide it means Mew is interested in a romantic relationship. I also liked the fight between them (even if I wasn't a fan of some of the Nice Guyish things coming out of Ray's mouth) because it marks the first time we've seen Ray do that with him. Look. I am not saying that I like watching Ray go off on Mew for the supreme sin of not wanting his dick. What I am saying is that the fact that he could go off on him at all is a marked change from how he has been treating him since episode 1. Mew is not the idol Ray wants him to be, and I really hope we see him treating him less like some savior who's going to reach down and pluck Ray out of the depths of his despair and more like a real friend. And I'm hoping that Ray doing that will let Mew be able to care for him the way he clearly does without worrying that his love will be taken the wrong way. Basically I'm just really here for their friendship era without all the extra. Also would like to say that Book and Khaotung's acting in that last scene with them really struck me - both of them are more relaxed, the stars are completely out of Ray's eyes and you can visibly see the moment when it clicks for Mew that the "I love you" Ray is giving him now is finally the kind he can reciprocate freely and fully. I just love it.

TopMew. My endgame prediction, and I ship it a lot. I think we all knew that we'd get to where this episode left us eventually - Mew was hurt and humiliated but at some point I just realized he was gonna try again. Whether it works out, I dunno (although I said they are my endgame prediction), but in the same way that Ray owed it to himself to try with Mew and Sand owes it to himself to try with Ray, Mew owes it to himself to see if he can move past what happened with Boston. I think it'll be interesting to watch - we'll see what Boeing throws into the mix but even without him it would be interesting, because Mew's gonna be twice as guarded and extremely gun shy. I can't pretend I'm not looking forward to where this is going, whether it winds up being back together, something open-ended, or a book firmly closed.

BostonNIck. My favorite disaster couple. I have shipped this from the very start because I'm like that you can't stop me, and I continue to ship it even though more and more I think it will go nowhere. That's okay I don't need it to, and in fact I think that their fundamental differences on love and sex would doom them even if they did try. I just want to see how they're going to navigate whatever is going on with them now. Are we gonna see Boston being flat footed and trying to get Nick's attention (like it's hard, lol)? Will they just sort of wind up talking and both pretend that everything else never happened? Will they form an actual friendship? I think I'd like to see that.

SandRay. Welp I said that their dynamic was close to what I like but not enough, and this episode tipped the scales. I'm never gonna be a die hard shipper and frankly I believe these two are doomed to break (although I am back on my hope that they will manage to salvage a friendship out of it train, so that's nice), but that music room scene not only hit a very specific button for me, it smashed the damn thing down hard. Also the cheek kiss. That whole scene actually was shot a very very specific way to convey a very very specific mood and I'm kind of in love with it and how very different it is when you compare it to the scene in ep 2. I am very curious to see how Ray acts with Sand now. Very curious. Also, I just used very so many times that it no longer feels like a word.

I also think that this might be Sand's relationship to break. I kinda hope so. It would at least get us out of the cycle of Ray screwing things up constantly and then running back to Sand to patch things up. Also, admittedly a tiny part of me just wants to see Ray in shambles over Sand for once. The heart wants what it wants, and all that.

I am also very curious to see if Boeing is going to wind up screwing with their dynamic in some way. I know he's busy causing friction with Mew and Top according to next episode's preview, but I don't trust those things and there's also no reason the man can't pull double duty. Maybe even triple duty. I believe in him.

NickDaddyDan. Never getting over Nick being the one to introduce that dynamic. And while I approve of his trying to move on from Boston, I do not necessarily think doing so with the boss is the best overall move. See, here's my thing. I will put up with a lot, but the second you screw with my money you've lost me. Not only no but hell no, and fucking the boss is a one way ticket to making that happen. Because chances are good that as soon as that relationship goes sour, so then does the job. Just a whole world of nope for me. And this feels like it will inevitably happen. How does this reconcile with my love of shows like Jun & Jun, The Director Who Buys Me Dinner, The New Employee, etc? Simple. In all of those the genre I was watching basically guaranteed that wouldn't be part of the equation. Although in The New Employee it sort of was, since Seung Hyun was absolutely not hired to get at Jong Chan. It's one of the things that I praised Step By Step for actually - the fact that it was Pat who suffered for what both he and Jeng were doing. Because in real life, the boss rarely gets it in the teeth when this kind of thing is found out. Not to mention what can happen if you break up with a boss prone to retaliation. And Only Friends definitely leans more towards reality than most. So I expect to wince a few times here.

I don't know if I think that Dan is prone to petty retaliation. He seems sweet, if awkward. But the worry is there. We'll see how it goes.

[bridgyrose]

Heres a fallen Petals prompt for you:

V9 but, only Ruby fell, taking Cinder with her, into the Ever After. And for added longevity, Cinder's maiden powers dont seem to work in Ever After.

Have fun~

Ruby coughed as she pulled herself out of the water and onto the sandy beach, still a bit disoriented from her fall. Last she had remembered was grabbing onto Cinder and pulling her down with her in hopes that her teammates and her friends would be able to survive and help get others to safety, and yet, she still felt like all she had done was fail. Failed to keep Atlas safe, failed to keep Salem away from the lamp. 

She finally rolled over to look up at the sky, taking a deep breath to try to relax. It wasnt the first, nor would it be the last, time that she had been separated from everyone, but it was certainly the first time that she had no idea where she was or even if her teammates were okay. She pulled out her scroll on instinct to check her teammates’ aura, only to groan when she saw the “No Signal” message. 

Without further delay, Ruby picked herself up and started to make her way deeper into the forest by the beach, almost dragging with each step. Nothing had gone to plan, but at least no one got hurt because of her. At least, not that she was aware of. Neo was still left up there with her teammates and while she knew they could handle her, it was still a worry in the back of her mind. 

“Stupid vines!” 

Ruby paused as she heard Cinder’s voice, looking around to find her. She heard her call out again and followed the sounds of her grunting as she tried to free herself from a mass of vines that seemed to curl around her. 

“Get off of me!” Cinder tried to cut through the vines using her grimm claws, only to watch the vines start to grow back and wrap around her wrists. “I’ll tear through you if I have to!” 

Ruby sighed and shook her head as she made her way to the vines. “You might as well quit struggling, you only seem to be making it worse.” 

Cinder glared, but stopped trying to move. “And what do you know? You’re the reason we’re here in the first place!” 

Ruby winced and took a breath to try to push that thought out of her mind. “And if we want to get back, we’ll have to work together to figure out where we are and how to get home.”

“And why should I trust you?” 

“Because you dont have a choice.” 

“I could kill you here and be done with you.” 

“And if you do that, then you’ll have to traverse this place on your own.” Ruby looked around for a sharp stick to help cut Cinder out of the vines. “And if you kill me now, then you’ll be alone. And you’ll never make it back to Remnant.” 

Cinder frowned. “And what makes you think I cant get to Remnant without you?” 

Ruby picked up a branch from the ground and snapped it to give it a point. “For one, you’re still struggling to get yourself out of those vines, which means you cant use your maiden powers to help. And two-” she stabbed at one of the vines and paused as it recoiled and then wrapped around the stick. “-I think this might be a trap.” 

“You think?” 

Ruby took a step back as the vines started to make their way to her and wrapped around her legs, pulling her into the tangled mess with Cinder. She struggled to free herself until she heard shouting coming closer. She tried to ready herself as best she could, only to pause when she saw a few mice come out from the brush. 

“Our trap worked!” one of the mice called out. “We can finally fight back against our predators!” 

“Your predators?” Cinder let out a growl as she asked. “So let me get this straight: we fell into a trap that was set up to protect mice?!” 

“Hunter mice!”

“Hunter mice…” 

Ruby sighed and started to struggle a bit. “Can you let us out? We didnt realize this was your trap and we uh… we’re not actually here to hurt you.”

The hunter mice looked the two over before finally relenting to cut the girls out of the vines. 

Cinder rubbed her wrists and glared at Ruby, then started to walk off. “I’ll find my way back.” 

“We dont even know where we are!” Ruby looked between the hunter mice and Cinder before finally groaning and following after Cinder. “Where are you going?” 

“To the tree,” Cinder said as she pointed to the tree that seemed to loom over everything. “Its at least tall enough to give me an idea on how to get out of here.” 

“And you’re planning on going alone? What if there’s something out there that tries to kill you?”

“Why do you care?” 

“I…” Ruby paused as she tried to find an answer, but couldnt. Why did she care if Cinder ended up killed wherever this place was? Without Cinder, she and her team could finally stand a chance to stop Salem since she’d never be able to get the Beacon relic without her. Though, that did mean if she died… She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Because… of the maiden powers.” 

Cinder frowned. “That’s why you care?” 

“Yes… no…” Ruby lightly punched a nearby tree. “Why does this have to be so complicated?” 

“The only thing that’s going to be complicated is getting back home-” Cinder paused and sighed when she pushed away a bit of grass and found herself overlooking what she could only describe as a child’s imagination. “-because we’re dead, arent we?” 

Ruby walked over next to her and looked over what she could find. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore as she started to recount everything. “The hunter mice, the tree…” she paused and started to look for anything else familiar. “We’re in the Ever After.” 

“The Ever After?” 

“Yeah. This is all like the story from the *Girl Who Fell Through the World*. All we have to do is follow the story-” 

“Follow the story?” Cinder scoffed. “And how do you know that’ll work?” 

“I dont, but Alyx made it out through the tree and its our best shot on getting out of here together. I… I dont have Crescent Rose, and you dont seem to have your maiden powers. So either we work together and get out of here, or we run into the Jabberwalker and run into further trouble because neither of us can fight it.” 

“I’ll take my chances.” 

Ruby hesitated. “And where are you going?” 

“To find my way to the tree. Alone.” 

Ruby sighed and dropped to the ground, starting to feel lost. She still had no idea how to get to the tree and even if she could, she still didnt even know how to get home from it. She wiped a tear from her eyes and paused as rain started to fall around her. 

“Dont cry,” a small voice called out to her. “I can help you get to the tree.” 

“You… can?” Ruby asked as she watched a small mouse make its way to her. “What’s your name?” 

“Name?” The mouse paused and sat down. “I… dont actually have a name. I’m still looking for my purpose.” 

“Then would it be alright if I give you one?” 

The mouse nodded. 

“What about… Little?” Ruby asked as she held her palm out. “Do you like that?” 

“I do,” Little said as they made their way onto Ruby’s hand. “And what do I call you?” 

“Ruby.” Ruby sighed and put Little on her shoulder. “And you’re sure you’re okay with taking me to the tree? It looks like its a long way.” 

“I dont mind at all. And maybe I’ll be able to find my purpose along the way.”

[spahhzy]

Jaune smiled tenderly at the heartwarming scene of Ruby getting hugged to death by the rest of her teammates, happy that everything had worked out in the end.

Almost everything.

He turned around, and his eyes caught sight of the sitting Neo, who looked defeated and lost after being freed from the bastard cat. She was clutching her side as it bled from Ruby's final attack.

Jaune sighed, knowing he was probably going to make a big mistake.

It's over, I have nothing left

Was the current thoughts of Neo as she just gripped the wound, trying to get her aura to start back up so she could heal.

Why bother?

Came an intrusive thought as Neo crestfallen look deepend.

What more is their to go on? Roman's gone, and revenge did nothing.

Maybe it would be better for here to just let the blood flow and sink away into death?

Neo just continued to let those negative thoughts invade her mind, not hearing the sound of boots walk up right next to her.

A shadow casted over her, and Neo looked up behind her to see that blonde man staring back at her.

Neo just glared at him as if saying,'What do you want?'

But Jaune said nothing he just looked at her with those blue eyes as if searching for something.

Neo turned away from him and just used her other hand to try and shoo him off to little success.

Suddenly, she heard him move, and part of her wondered if he was going to strike her down a thought that she sort of relished, she would finally be free of this torment.

...but that not what happened as she felt a hand on her shoulder before a warm feeling started spreading over her body.

Wha-

Soon, she felt her aura surge back up within her as the large wound was quickly beginning to heal.

She looked at the man behind her as he concentrated his on healing her. It wasn't long before Neo' s wound had closed leaving a slight scar.

Baffled Neo just tilted her head to Jaune, whomst stood back up.

"I won't say you didn't deserve everything you got," he told her as he walked in front of her. "You've done some pretty terrible things to my friend, things I'm not sure she could forgive you for," Jaune said to her as Neo looked back to Ruby, whomst was still being dotted on by her team.

" So now the next question is what will you do next?" He asked her."Will you still keep on this sad quest for vengeance?" Neo shook her head, remembering the feeling of emptiness she got when she succeeded.

Neo just shrugged her shoulders as she grabbed the sides of Roman's hat on her head and just thumbs the outer rim.

" That belonged to your partner, didn't it?" Jaune asked, observing Neo actions.

She narrowed her eyes at him but nodded.

" I'm not judging you or anything, I too have a momento of my partner," Jaune said as he reached behind his head and undid his partners sash that tied his hair up before showing it to Neo who looked at him with an eyebrow raised.

" She passed too," he told her, and Neo stared still at the red sash.

"But... I think now I've come to grips with it, finally ready to move on from it " he told Neo as he squeezed the red sash.

"This is not me trying to pity you, I think you don't deserve pity from any of us," Jaune said to her as Neo just shifted her gaze elsewhere.

" But I won't lie and say I don't sympathize with you," he told her, earning a raised eyebrow from Neo before it turned into a glare.

" Yeah, you don't want my sympathy well, unfortunately. That's what you're getting." To that, Neo just gave him the finger.

"Look, I know you think you have nothing left to go back home too, but maybe you can figure that out and not let this be the last chapter in your story," Jaune said as Neo let out a silent sigh.

"This depressing chapter of yours is over, but I'd like to think the story of Neopolitan is just getting started," He told her as he looked at the sash In his hand before finally letting it go as it flew away into the wind.

"Just like how that chapter of mine is done," he said to her before looking back to the mute.

"How you start this next one is on you; either you sit here be stuck and maybe ascend and become something totally new or..." Jaune said to her as he then extended his hand, the one that had his partners red sash in .

Neo looked at the hand, and then back to blonde haired man, it was almost like a feeling of Deja-vu for Neo, in a way, as just like how she met Roman at her lowest and he offered her something, here was this blonde haired...Knight?

Offering her something too, what it was she wasn't so sure but something inside her said to take a leap.

" You can come along and see where your story really takes you?"

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2023-08-14

Accidentally did the Pride Parade.

Listening: I finally finished the Haitian Revolution in Revolutions. I have to actually pay some attention to Revolutions so I can't just put it on idly at work, so it goes slow. The Haitian Revolution is absolutely buckwild, there's so many different actors at play and it doesn't help that simultaneously to all of this is the French revolution, with a several week to month delay in communications between Haiti and France.

Reading: A load of 3D printing docs, the Kobra Neo that I just got is only kind of half-assedly supported by the slicers. You can use the older Kobra profiles but you'd have to forgo some important features, so I'm now learning about how to write profiles for Prusa Slicer. There are some community profiles but for something like this I like to know what the hell I'm doing so that I can debug problems.

Watching: Nothing.

Playing: At the behest of noted tuesdayposter @girlfriendsofthegalaxy I played through Abzu, the astoundingly gorgeous underwater game.

It's a very beautiful game, very Journey (same composer) and it controls well (like Journey) and that's what to go there for. It reminds me a little of Terra Nil, which was on the Mondaypost a few weeks back, as "a game with ecological trappings but little actual concern for ecology." I don't dislike that genre but I do dislike when people try to claim that things like this are ecologically minded, which I've seen in some coverage of both Terra Nil and Abzu when I look them up.

Terra Nil is often called an "Anti-Citybuilder" but that's pure set dressing, it's a city builder with one major caveat, which is that you also have to clean up the infrastructure behind you, but it's still a citybuilder at heart. An anti-citybuilder would be, I guess, about disrupting an existing complex interlinked system as efficiently as possible, causing it to collapse. Or something like that.

Anyways I did like Abzu, I got actively loudly excited when I found that you could ride on a sunfish and even more excited when it let me ride a giant squid.

Making: The 3D printer is here and I am setting it up. Printed the test-owl that came with the system but I'm still working on getting the slicer set up satisfactorily so that I can print some handy parts for around the house. Stated CAD'ing up some parts, though, which is making me get back into FreeCAD. FreeCAD is good but it is decidedly Open Sourcey.

Also out doing photography during Prague Pride, which was this weekend. I wandered into the middle of the parade while out in town and figured "hey, I have little else to do today" and then ran into a friend and hung out. Good day. Those photos will be along as soon as I get to them.

Tools and Equipment: A secret they don't tell you about extremely heavily patterned shirts is that it's much, much harder to tell if you forgot to iron it and just went out in an unironed shirt. There are many reasons why I wear extremely loud ridiculous shirts and this is one of them.

[milkawashere-andunused]

Just an idea-

So Leo gets into the ‘Samurai Rabbit: the Usagi chronicles’-universe somehow and Usagi’s Sensei finds him and brings him to Neo Edo where our two idiots first meet! Usagi immediately falls in love with this mysterious ninja turtle while Leo just thinks that this guy is overly nice and doesn’t think much of it; oblivious. Usagi is all like: “This guy is super cute and a really good fighter and a ninja but good like Chizu and he laughs at all my jokes and—” His friends end up helping Usagi with his crush while Leo is just focused on getting home, but then Usagi ends up saving Leo in a battle against the Neko Clan or something and Leo’s like: “Is this my knight in shining armor?!” And then he ends up telling them that he’s not from their universe (it took him a long time figuring that out himself) and they help him find a way home, but Lady Fuwa or whatever her name is want Leo to join their Clan so she can use his powers to help her take over the City, so she tries first to manipulate him but when that doesn’t work, she makes a deal with a Yokai to take control of Leo to kidnap and use him- Or something like that… (Leo doesn’t reveal his powers till much later in some really epic fight, where he has no other choice to do so)

I apologize for any mistakes or if I get the timelines or Names wrong!

Hakumei: “white death.”

Kiyoshi: pure

____________________

Leo felt oddly light and yet his limbs felt like they were made out of cement. His thoughts were muddled and his vision blurred.

How did he end up in this state?

Oh yeah….

He was in the battle Nexus, fighting a particular nasty opponent. A witch? How was the male version of that called again?

How did he get into the battle Nexus in the fist place?

Well, it went something like the lines of:

Leo yawned, stretching his arms out, before letting them drop to his sides like wet noodles.

A month had gone by since The Shredder and Splinter making him the leader of the Mad Dogz, never making sure if his sons were okay with this. Never explaining why.

Truly the worst month of his life.

Mikey wouldn’t talk to him. Scoffing, before turning away to preform another task in another room or just simply continuing his conversation like he wasn’t even there.

Donnie would glare at him, harsh comments and snarky remarks, for no reason at all. It hurt. Donnie, Donatello, his twin, the one that knew him best, hurt him like he’d just brought uranium, only to gift it to another person in front of his very eyes.

And then there was Raph. His big brother, that looked at him with fearful eyes like Leo would rip apart his favorite plushies if he did even more that breath wrong, that shook more the closer Leo would come, before scurrying away like Leo had dumped hot water onto his scales.

It hurt… It hurt so much, that the slider rather spent his days away from the lair, already given up on trying to get the others to talk to him.

It was a shitty day, nothing new, but today in particular was one of the worst.

Raph had whimpered in fear today, making both Donnie and Mikey snap at him. It was horrible how they had yelled at him and how close he had been to just break down crying, asking for forgiveness even though he did not know for what he should be forgiven for. Instead he had ran. Like a coward.

So now he was in the hidden city, looking for something at least remotely interesting, but not really succeeding.

And then he saw her.

Big Mama sitting in all of her glory in a booth in a fancy looking restaurant, looking like she hadn’t just lost her Nexus or her hotel or anything of that matter.

He gladly would have stomped in there and thrown her around like a rag doll, cussing her out until he couldn’t find anymore insults only to beat her into the ground for hurting his family, his friends and loose his brothers trust and- and-

Leo did none of those things. Instead he only walked past the fancy restaurant and to a more quiet area.

It was his favorite café. Quiet, the staff was nice and he could just relax and let himself not think about all the shit he’s been going through the past months.

He had asked for a tea and a simple raspberry cake. He was allergic to strawberries just like Raph was to peanuts. So raspberries it was.

Leo had pulled out a couple of medical books to study, stolen from a human library, like they always were.

He loved medicine. It was interesting and he always loved to learn how to take care of his family better.

Before he was leader he was just the Faceman. Who needed someone like that anyway? So he learned to tread wound, heal illnesses and repair broken bones.

It felt good, gave him something to focus on and not make him feel like a total failure.

He was completely absorbed into his book about the different body parts and organs of humans, that he didn’t notice someone settling in front of him until they cleared their throat.

Leo looked of, slightly irritated by the disturbance, before his face twisted into anger, quickly smothering it by a natural expression.

Leo set his book aside.

„Big Mama, please come and sit with me“, he mocked, rolling his eyes, before leaning back into his chair.

Big Mama only lifted an unimpressed brow at his manners, a small yet sly smirks on her lips.

She was in human form, just like he earlier had been in the fancy restaurant.

„What’s brings you into this area?“, he asked, putting his books back into his bag, never taking his eyes off her.

Big Mama’s smirk widened.

“You, of course, turlely-boo!”, she coed, leaning forward.

Leo lifted a nonexistent brow.

“Ah, yes, that makes perfectly sense, since you always have the intention to kill me”, he retorted, picking up his mug to sip on his tea, it tasted bitter.

Big Mama rolled her eyes, smile never wavering. Was that fondness in her eyes?!

“You’re so silly, turtlely-boo! I’m here to catch up with you!”

Leo narrowed his eyes. Two guards of Big Mamas two tables over, watching them intently.

“I refuse to make a deal with you, Big Mama”, he hissed, unable to mask his anger completely.

Big Mama only grinned at him brightly. “That’s why you’re my favorite, turtlely-boo! Always straight to the point!”

Leo huffed, pulling the sleeves of his sea blue hoodie with the cat emoji back down, before standing up.

“Goodbye, Big Mama”, he said stiffly, trying his best not to claw her eyes out like an feral animal.

Her face fell. “Wait!”

She had grabbed his wrist as he had turned away from her.

“Please, Leonardo! I need your help. No trickst! No changing-the-deal-in-the-last-second! I promise!”

Leo blinked. A promise? From Big Mama? That was… unheard of…

Leo pursed his lips. Trying not to think to hard about the name he’d just been called.

(Leonardo always meant failure and mistake… The only times his family used it, was when he had done something wrong, so it surely had to mean something bad!)

“Fine… I’ll listen. If you let me add or change something, when I don’t like it and of course, I want something in return of helping you“

Big Mama nodded eagerly, before they sat back down (just like the guards two tables from them).

Big Mama, placed her hands on the white table, with the glass surface, in front of her.

“The deal is quite simple! You participate in my Battle Nexus and help me get my status back, being my champion!”

The disguised spider grinned widely.

“And what do I get in return?”, Leo ask with narrowed eyes.

“You get favors!”

“Favors?”

“Yes, favors. You are able to wish for anything. Be it just simple prize money or something else entirely”

Leo chewed his lower lip, pondering.

If he accepted her deal, he would be famous (more that he already was). He would stand under Big Mamas protection and he would get whatever he wanted…

Being famous to fight in an crime bosses Battle Nexus After he’d just saved New York, would also mean that his status would be ruined. His brothers would find out and hate him even more than they already do and they wouldn’t trust him any more than they already do (they don’t trust him at all!).

Leo sighed. “Okay, I accept your deal”, Big Mamas grin was now toothy and joy sparkled in her eyes,“But!“, Leo held up a finger to stop her.

“I have some conditions of my own!”

Leo watched her settle and slip on a natural expression. Leo really hoped he won’t regret this.

“One: You have to absolutely promise me, that you won’t stab me in the back at any given moment. So no changing-the-deal-in-the-last-second or anything! And we can only cancel the deal with both parties agree on this!“

Big Mama nodded. „Of course!“

Leo nodded, before lifting a second finger.

“Two: I want cloaking brooches for me and my family. And I want a disguise for the battles! No I-throw-a-cloak- over-my-shoulders-and-that’s-that—disguise, a real one, where no one can see it’s me, when I loose my hood”

Big Mama thought for a while, before her face lit up again. “I know a couple people who know spells to do so! They will teach you! Don’t worry about the payment, it’s all on me!”

Leo’s eyes widened. He was going to learn magic?! How cool is that?!

Leo cleared his voice, trying very hard not to show how the mere thought of learning magic would excite him.

“And last, but not least: I don’t want any fights that would cost my life or anyone else’s! I want my wounds to be treated by a professional and always be able to check in my favors, got it?“

“Count on me, turtelt-boo! Your first fight will begin today in two weeks! Your illusion-magic lessons will start tomorrow! Any time and any place you want!”

Leo nodded. “Sounds good to me. Tomorrow same place and an hour earlier” And then he had disappeared in the crowd, leaving his new Boss behind…



So~, that’s that… It was… what? Two and a half years ago? After Shredder, before the invasion? Before the Prison Dimension? …

Anywizzle— Turns out, they held a huge grudge against him, the wizard, I mean. (So that’s what it’s called!) What for? He has no clue. But what he did know, was that they wanted him dead. 

So they made a barrier over the battle area, so no one could come in to help him and he couldn’t get out to recover.

The good thing was, that he still could teleport around the area, just not out of it. It made this a little bit easer, but not much.

As far as he understood, they wanted to put him under a sleeping spell to kill him without him running away.

Clever, but such an asshole move, that it sickend him to his core. Dishonorable bastard!

Leo managed to dance around the first few spells, able to locate the real enemy from his copies and get some good hits on them.

But then he got caught of guard.

He wasn’t sure what let to this, his mind was too fuzzy, but he did remember being struck by a paralyzing spell, making his arms and legs go limp and his vision swim.

Leo’s long fluffy tail swished behind him in an frustrated manner and his pointy ears twitched.

(Yes. Leo had decided to be a cat as the Nexus champion.

So what? They were cute, fuzzy furballs of pure terror. Leo was a cat person and he simply adored the little gremlins! Leave him alone.)

“And now, you will die, Hakumei”, the wizard rumbled, standing above the crouched champion. “The Angel of death”

Hakumei blinked. Were they-… Were they taking his name literally?! Who does that?! He just thought the name was cool and had an epic ring to it! Nothing else! How could he have known that people would really think of him as the Angel of death?! He hadn’t killed anyone in the Nexus yet!

Hakumei shuddered, straining his muscles to to move, to get away! He gritted his teeth.

Great, just made full recovery from being beaten into a puddle by the Kraang and now dying in an shady fight ring from the one person nobody ever thought he’d associated with. Just great.

“Ani! Ani!”, a young voice suddenly called, making Hakumei whip around with wide eyes.

“Get away from my big brother!”, the young bunny yelled loudly, making the wizard pause.

“Kiyoshi?! How did you get in here?!”

Panic welled up in his chest. Not Kiyoshi! Not the kid! He was only eight! How did he get in?!

Hakumei growled at the wizard, inching towards the little orphan who claimed him to be his big brother.

Hakumei managed to pull Kiyoshi into a firm hug, shielding him with his mechanical arm, while holding his balance with the other. (The illusion-magic couldn’t hide a lost limp, it was simply impossible)

“There’s a child here! You can’t possibly kill someone in front of a child!”

(Not like Kiyoshi hadn’t seen death before…)

The wizard only scoffed. “I don’t care if there’s children present! I have to kill you, before you kill anyone else! I won’t let the Armageddon happen!”

Hakumei blinked, dumbfounded. Were they even mentally stable?! Oh shit-!

“Listen, buddy! I’m not the Angel of death! I’m merely a guy with a fake name, fighting other guys with fake names until someone wins! I haven’t killed anyone!”

(Liar…)

“Please! Just let me and my brother go!”

The wizard roared. “LIAR! LIAR! YOU WON’T WIN, ANGEL OF DEATH!”

They fell into a tantrum, stomping on the ground in furry, letting sparks fly and they earth shake.

Hakumei looked over to where Big Mama usually was.

She stared at them with wide, fearful eyes. Next to her, were two Yokai, arms raised and shooting a weird white-ish blue beam onto the barrier.

Hakumei sent her a pleading look. Hurry! Please, hurry! I don’t know how long we have!

The wizard grabbed Hakumei by the neck.

“You’re the white death! You’ve already decided to take this child! I can’t save it! But I can save everyone else!”

Kiyoshi whimpered, clinging onto his black attire desperately. Hakumei gave him an reassuring squeeze. He won’t let this psycho kill him, just after he’d survived hell! He won’t let him kill Kiyoshi!

He snapped, sinking his teeth deep into the wizards hand.

“My weapons, Kiyoshi! My weapons!”, Hakumei gasped, after the wizard had yanked his hand out of his mouth.

Kiyoshi bolted, not questioning Hakumei’s orders once.

The disguised turtle stood up, slowly, never taking his eyes off of the enemy.

Hakumei rolled his shoulder, ignoring his exhaustion. “Let’s dance, hijo de puta”

And then they both charged forward.

The wizard shot spell after spell at him while Hakumei dodged every one of them.

The cat dropped to his knees, kicking the wizards feet out under him, before jumping back up, delivering a powerful kick to his stomach.

The wizard groaned loudly, but Hakumei paid him no mind, instead he turned away, searching for Kiyoshi.

The small bunny had picked up his two twin sickles, running up to him.

“Ani! I’ve got them!”

Hakumei nodded, whipping around to block a kick from the psycho and responding with his own punch.

Hakumei quickly spun back around, running towards Kiyoshi.

“Thank you, Otouto”, Hakumei whispered, patting the young bunny’s head, before taking his weapons.

He gazed over his shoulder.

“Here”, he said softly, taking Kiyoshi’s hand into his and placing an beautiful tantō knife on their palm.

“Keep this. It’ll keep you save and makes sure I always find you”

Kiyoshi nodded eagerly.

“Now hide! I’ll call you once this is over!”

Then the kid was gone and Hakumei stood face to face with the wizard.

The wizard pulled a weapon of his own; a Geom.

“Prepare to die, white death!”

Slowly he pulled his hood up. “¡Me cago en la madre que te parió!”

They clash weapons, Hakumei locking the Korean sword in place, while pushing forward, but the wizard turns out to be more skilled in close combat than expected, because not seconds later he manages to twist the sword out of the lock and almost chop his head of if Hakumei hadn’t moved.

“Que te den”, the disguised slider muttered, changing his footing for better defence.

He had to wait for Big Mama.

Their weapons clash again, screeching loudly as metal slides against metal in an unnatural way.

Hakumei growled, dropping down to dodge another attempt to get his head off his shoulders.

“Ve a la mierda bastardo”

The wizard huffed. “You do know that I have no clue to what you’re saying, right?”

Hakumei grinned. “Should I translate or should I keep cussing you out in spanish?”

He narrowed his eyes at him as they locked blades again.

“You’re insulting me?!”

Hakumei rolled his eyes playfully.

“Obviously”

The wizard roared, pushing him back, before his hand flew upwards to shoot another spell at him.

Hakumei jumped over the blast, twisting in the air and landing next to another one. He could feel the heat on his skin and alarm bells going off in his head.

He listened, jumping over the wizard and kicking him into his back to cut the spell off.

And then—

. . .

. . .

. . .

What happened?

Leo groaned, trying to push himself upwards.

„Ani?“, a small voice asked and Leo’s head snapped towards the sound.

Bad decision. Leo pressed his fingers against his temple, trying to keep the forming headache at bay.

“Kiyoshi?”, he mumbled, tearing an eye open (when had he closed them?) to look at the young bunny next to him.

Kiyoshis grass green shirt with the silly emoji was ripped slightly and there was a gaping hole in the black pants on his right knee, so he could see the dirty fur underneath. Kiyoshi was grey with black spots and stripes, but now his fur was brown and muddy.

“Are you okay, Ani?”

Leo looked down at himself.

His beautiful one piece had burned marks all over his chest and was slightly ripped and Leo was missing his cloak. The one peace had purple spirals that slowly changed to red, orange, yellow, green and blue; on his shoulders they formed subtly his clan symbol. The most pouches on his belt were left unharmed and he was incredibly grateful that his medical supplies were one of them (he was going to miss his throwing stars though).

Leo also noted that his spell dropped. He now was a slither again and not the cat with the grey fur and the dark splotches that formed his marks; the ones on his eyes were a lot lighter that the rest, making them stick out either way.

“I have a slight headache”, he muttered truthfully and carefully examined his chest.

“Aaaand some slight burns… First degree”

Leo pulled out his medical supplies to treat his wounds.

“What about you? Are you hurt anywhere?”

Kiyoshi pointed to his knee, elbow and temple.

Leo nodded, carefully whipping away the dirt to look at the injuries.

“Are you dizzy? Nausea?”

Kiyoshi played with a loose string on his pants’ hole. “Bit dizzy”, he mumbled.

Leo nodded, tilting the youngers chin to look him better in the eyes.

“I’ll shine some light into your eyes now, okay?”

Kiyoshi nodded and Leo clicked on his little flashlight.

“No concussion, but this will still hurt a bit”, he concluded, before looking at the other injuries.

None of them needed stitches, that was good, but he still had to make sure there was no dirt in them so they won’t get infected.

The process didn’t take long and Leo gave Kiyoshi a candy that he always carries with him. They were mostly for Raph and Mikey, but Donnie often needed something on patrols as well to keep him from blacking out when the guy refused to eat.

But they were also for children.

Like Jr and Kiyoshi.

Leo carefully pulled his one piece down to his waist, cleaning the wound and applying cream to it, before wrapping it in bandages with Kiyoshis help.

They were in a forest. That’s all that Leo knew. That and that he had no idea to where they were.

“Do you know where we are, pequeñin?”

Kiyoshi shook his head, rubbing his eyes with a yawn.

Leo chuckled, picking him up and setting him down on his waist, so he had one arm free (just in case someone came by to pick a fight).

Leo had found his cloak not too far away, burned at the edges.

Leo had to shift it around a bit, so it would hide his good arm and his chest.

His prosthetic was hidden behind another illusion, so make it look like it was a part of him.

It was a petty illusion; Leo was too exhausted to make a bigger one.

Kiyoshi had long fallen asleep when Leo finally found a uneven dirt road.

Leo looks left then right as if it would give him any clue on wich way to go.

He huffed, repositioning Kiyoshi before going left.

Hopefully they would find a city soon, so he could find out where they were. But even after half an hour they still seem to be no where close to one and Leo is starting to get dizzy.

He looked up and a full moon greeted him, bright and all the stars gathered around him.

They would built a camp and get some rest. There’s no way Leo’ll continue walking in his state; he might as well just pass out.

Leo managed to make a fire, surrounded by stones.

Kiyoshi laid in his lap, wrapped in Leo’s cloak; mumbling softly under his breath.

Leo chuckled, massaging the bunny’s ears carefully and letting himself lean against the tree behind him.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find a way back home”, he whispered softly as his own eyes began dropping and the world fading into blackness.

[duelistkingdom]

are there still beautiful things?

Summary: kiryu shows up on yusei's doorstep and who he sees isn't who he expected to see. not that he's complaining. and she knows just a bit more about what he's after than he thought she ever could.

Rating: T

Ships: Kyosuke Kiryu/Aki Izayoi

Author’s note: this took some time to do. it’s fairly canon compliant, as in it doesn’t directly contradict canon. take it as a missing scene, a missing duel, what have you. also consider that kiryu/aki hits and hits pretty hard.

read on ao3 / consider supporting me on ko-fi / join my discord (18+)

Kiryu had never planned on actually going to the address that Yusei had given him. He wasn’t sure what changed; what made him decide to take the risk and go back to Neo Domino. He just figured that maybe he should at least try to see Yusei at least once, lest Yusei head back to Crashtown to pester him about “healing from trauma” and “you can’t let guilt rule you.” He considered bolting the minute he knocked on the door. Let Yusei think it was some pranksters. He wasn’t expecting the door to swing open and reveal a busty redhead. Not that he intended to notice her chest as the first thing about her - it was just an impressive chest. “Kiryu-san,” she said, bouncing on her heels. Her smile was brilliant, like a rainbow at the end of a storm. “Come on in!”

“Er, no thanks,” Kiryu started to say before her hand gripped around his wrist, far tighter than he could have imagined possible from such a slight being. It prevented him from heading back to his D-Wheel, and she dragged him in. “You’re… Izayoi, right?”

“That’s right,” she said, and Kiryu couldn't fathom how she could smile at him like this. Shouldn’t she be angry with him? His actions as a Dark Signer would have gotten her killed; would have gotten everyone she’d known killed… and yet she was still smiling at him like he’d done nothing wrong. Why? It put him on edge. “I guess Yusei must’ve told you about me, then?”

It made no sense how casual she was being. He glanced at the walls of the entryway she’d tugged him into. There was a photo of her and Yusei together at some restaurant, his arm around her shoulders in a relaxed manner, beaming at the camera. Another of a pair of twins, both of them tugging Yusei down what appeared to be a boardwalk of sorts with a ferris wheel in the distance with Izayoi laughing next to them. One of Jack with… was that Carly? Kiryu frowned, pointing towards the photo. “I recognize her.”

Izayoi looked at the photo he pointed to and nodded. “I suppose you would, wouldn’t you? Carly and Jack are dating now,” she remarked. She was still smiling. Surely it was coming, wasn’t it? At some point, she’d get angry with him for what he’d done. “It was tough for Jack when she didn’t remember his confession while she was a Dark Signer, but they worked it out.”

The casual mention of it made Kiryu’s stomach churn a little bit. Again, he wondered how she could just be so casual about this. Rage would be better. Rage he could understand. He didn’t understand her serenity. “Look, Izayoi, I’m -”

She shook her head, cutting him off with a quick, “Don’t worry about it.” His confusion must have been etched on his face, because she sighed. Her smile was gone now, and he regretted opening his mouth. No, keep smiling, he wanted to say. He wanted to cram back the words in his mouth. He glanced back at the photos on the wall, a group shot of her beaming with Crow, Jack, and Yusei sticking out like a sore thumb to him. “I.. I know what it’s like to be filled with anger. I… I wanted to hurt people because they’d hurt me. I know you did too. I’ve been there, but… it’s all gone now.”

This took him aback as he glanced back towards her, noting the framed drawing behind her that seemed to depict her and Yusei holding hands with the two twins from the photos on the wall with them. Right below it was a table covered in delivery slips, with a tacky looking paperweight on top of half of them. “But you didn’t try to bring about the end of the world, Izayoi.”

“No, but I did try to kill a lot of people,” she said, a wry smile appearing on her face. “I also tried to kill Yusei when I first met him, you know. I’m not sure if he told you that.”

This was, indeed, news to him. The way Yusei had talked about Izayoi made it seem like Izayoi had never done anything wrong in her life. He supposed that was just like Yusei, however. And then it occurred to Kiryu that perhaps the reason why Izayoi could be so at ease around him was because her perception of him was filtered through Yusei. Yusei, who never had a bad word to say about any of his friends. “He tends to leave that sort of thing out,” Kiryu finally said, followed after Izayoi as she continued further into the house. The hallway was lined with photos, and a new man was in them.

Kiryu noted the tall, blue haired man and wanted to ask Izayoi who he was before deciding it didn’t matter who he was. No, what seemed to matter more was the fact that not one of these photos hinted towards their Team Satisfaction days. This apartment was a far cry from the broken down hovels that they had used to live in. At least Yusei was doing better. He wasn’t sure why that brought him some sense of comfort. Perhaps it was merely the fact that it meant that he hadn’t held Yusei back. Yusei managed to make something of himself despite Kiryu’s shortcomings.

“Coffee?”

Izayoi’s voice broke his thoughts. She’d lead him into an open garage area. A new D-Wheel was in the garage, a red one that looked different from Yusei’s. It was the only one in the room, confirming Kiryu’s suspicions: Yusei must not be home. “No, thank you,” he said, staring directly at the new D-Wheel and trying to figure out who it could belong to. The garage also had a few action figures laying about, in addition to even more childish drawings on the table. Probably both belonged to the kids that Kiryu had seen in the photos.

And yet Izayoi already had two cups in hand, setting them on the table. “Tough, I made you some anyway,” she said, motioning for him to join her. She had a smile on her face like they were sharing a secret. Kiryu had the strangest feeling that he would keep any secret she whispered at him as long as she smiled like that. She winked at him, and Kiryu immediately took the chair opposite from him as she said, “Jack keeps this stupid expensive coffee laying around, and it annoys him when I use it. So I use it at every chance I get.”

She held a finger up to her lips, and Kiryu couldn’t help the soft smile forming on his face. The cup was warm and inviting and so Kiryu took a sip of the coffee. It was warm and soothing, like a long hug. “Who does the new D-Wheel belong to,” Kiryu finally blurted out, unable to hold the question in any longer.

To his surprise, Izayoi turned bright red, and rubbed the back of her neck. “Er, it’s mine,” she said. Kiryu didn’t take Izayoi for someone who was into riding duels, but he supposed it wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility. “I recently got my license and Yusei, Crow, and Jack surprised me with it. They built it for me, which was nice.” She moved a delivery slip aside, allowing Kiryu to get a better glance of the name of the company - Blackbird Delivery Service. “Are you still doing riding duels? Perhaps we can have one later! I need all the practice I can get for the WRGP.”

“I thought the WRGP was for teams of three,” Kiryu remarked. He would have thought that Yusei, Crow, and Jack would be on a team together. Unless… was Izayoi on a different team herself? “Yusei didn’t tell me much about what was going on here.”

Izayoi frowned at this, shaking her head. “I would think he would have, considering,” she said, getting up and retrieving something from the desk and bringing over a framed photo. She passed it to him, and Kiryu was surprised to see it was of him, with Crow, Jack, and Yusei. The good old days, the days that he’d wished he thought to savor. “He never shuts up about those days. I hope… I hope you two can properly repair things.”

“I don’t think that’s possible, Izayoi,” he said, placing the photo face down on the table. As nice as the memories were, it also reminded him of exactly how he’d screwed everything up. How he’d blamed Yusei for something he hadn’t done, how it’d nearly killed Yusei. And yet Izayoi still looked at him with such kind eyes, despite the fact it was obvious she cared deeply for Yusei. He almost wanted to hate her for it, but he had no one to blame but himself for Yusei leaving. “It ended for a reason.”

Kiryu expected Izayoi to have a counter argument, but instead she shrugged. “Everything happens for a reason,” she said, taking a long sip of her coffee. She didn’t seem to care about reassuring Kiryu that he was a good person, actually, and it made Kiryu like her just a bit more. If Izayoi had nothing but sickly sweet comments on his goodness, Kiryu might’ve just gotten angry at her. “The past is as it happened. We can only choose how we react to it, and move forward with hope. I made mistakes, you made mistakes, I’m sure even Yusei made mistakes he’d rather not admit to. But Yusei helped me to see that my past doesn’t define my future, and that the future is in our hands to shape.” She looked at Kiryu for a long time, and Kiryu felt as if those eyes were piercing into his very soul. “You also think that you don’t deserve a happy future, do you?”

His eyes went wide at the question. As much as he wanted to deny it, he found himself saying, “After everything I’ve done? No.” He flicked his hair out of his eyes, settling back on Izayoi’s D-Wheeler. Kiryu wondered if Izayoi served as a replacement for him, before deciding that was a mean line of thought. The most obvious difference was that Izayoi hadn’t actually killed anyone, as far as he could tell. “However… you’re a duelist in the WRGP? When did this happen?”

“Crow recently broke his arm,” she said simply, and Kiryu understood now. “I’m temporarily taking his place until he gets better… and thus I try to get in practice every chance I get. I need to be good enough to keep up with Jack and Yusei.”

“In that case,” Kiryu said, setting his coffee down. “Let’s duel.”

Izayoi’s eyes went wide. “Now? Really?”

“Yes,” Kiryu said, heading towards the door. “You want to keep up with Jack and Yusei. Who better to help you with that than me?”

He didn’t bother to look back to see what Izayoi was doing. If she was serious, then he’d meet her outside on their runners. If she wasn’t, then she’d still be at that table. Either way, Kiryu couldn’t stay in that garage, full of Yusei’s new life. He was unsurprised when he saw Izayoi already outside, in a new all leather outfit that Kiryu did his best to ignore. There was a look of apprehension on her face. “Yusei told me what kind of deck you use,” she blurted out, and then she looked away. “It just feels like I should at least tell you what -”

“No,” Kiryu said, cutting her off and shaking his head. “If you know something about your opponent and they don’t know something about you, that is an advantage. Don’t give it up because of misplaced honor.”

Izayoi tilted her head, looking almost like a lost puppy. He found himself torn between being angry at her for having such an adorable look and being charmed by it. He settled for ignoring her instead, settling in on his bike. Instead of pushing further, she instead asked, “Do you already know what kind of deck I use?”

“The most I know is the Signer dragon Black Rose Dragon is in your deck,” Kiryu admitted, figuring it would be pointless to hide his prior knowledge from being a Dark Signer. He kicked the kickstand, revving the engine. Behind him, he heard Izayoi do the same. “While we get to the highway, why don’t you tell me why you were picked to replace Crow on the team.”

Without the ability to see Izayoi’s voice, he was forced to rely on her tone. And worse, Izayoi’s voice directly in his ear from the comm link was doing strange things to him. “It was Yusei’s idea,” Izayoi said, and the fondness in her voice spurred a spike of jealousy that Kiryu couldn’t tell who it was for. “Er, I was second place in the Fortune Cup. Yusei thinks that if I could get that far into a tournament on my first go, I could do just fine in the WRGP.”

“But riding duels take a different skill set than a standing duel,” Kiryu remarked as Izayoi set Speed World 2. A brief glance over its effects told Kiryu this was going to be different from previous riding duels he’d been part of. Izayoi might actually have a leg up by being more familiar with its effects than he was. Heading onto the dueling lanes for a duel felt strange to Kiryu. Something that had once been out of reach to him was now utterly legal for him to do, with no fear of retaliation. He wished he could say it felt freeing but instead it felt like nothing. “Do you feel you can handle it?”

Izayoi sped past him almost recklessly, and Kiryu’s first notice was that she handled her bike the same way Yusei did. As a result, Izayoi took the first corner and the chance to go first. “I summon Evil Thorn in defense position,” Izayoi said, and Kiryu then realized what Izayoi must’ve been ready to warn him about. “I can release this monster to deal 300 points of damage to you.” Instantly, he took a hit. Not enough to make him lose control, but certainly surprising. “When I do, I can summon two Evil Thorns from my deck, but their effects are negated. I set a card, and I end my turn.”

Kiryu was surprised by the quick aggression Izayoi showed. He reassessed her, wondering just exactly how dangerous she was. A thrill ran down his spine at the mere thought of an intense battle, one where she could deal just as much damage to him as he could to her. He drew a card, and glanced at her two monsters and set card. He had no way to ditch his hand to truly make any use of what he had, so instead… “I set a monster and a card,” Kiryu said, glancing at the Speed World 2 effects. A grab bag of useful effects, but he’d need to gain speed to use any of them. “I end my turn.”

He could see Yusei’s impact on Izayoi in the way she was handling herself, but there was a stark difference. Izayoi was much more manic in her dueling and riding, almost like she was afraid. In fact, she glanced backwards at him, as if assessing him. As if assessing the danger. “My turn, I draw,” she said, and she took a moment before she finally moved. “I set a monster face down in defense and end my turn.”

Disappointing, he thought, examining the field in front of him and then the cards in his hand. If he drew a way to ditch his hand, then he could start dealing damage of his own to Izayoi. And he had an idea of just how to do it, if he could draw that key card. And the minute he drew, he knew that he had a shot at victory despite Izayoi’s unpredictability. He couldn’t be sure how Izayoi would react, and he was already at a disadvantage because Izayoi probably knew his deck as well as her own thanks to Yusei. “You hesitated in attacking my set monster,” Kiryu criticized, his eyes narrowing as he tried to figure out her motives for such a move. Three monsters on her field, and a set card and yet she did nothing. “I summon Infernity Beast,” he said. “And I attack one of your Evil Thorns!”

It did no damage, but Izayoi was clearly somewhat rattled. She glanced backwards at him, and there was a look in her eyes that let him know she didn’t have a counter. She turned away, saying, “Is that all? I expected more out of you.”

“If it’s more you’d like, Izayoi, I can gladly deliver,” Kiryu responded on gut instinct, and almost felt a spark of pride when it caused Izayoi to teeter. She was still new at driving her bike, that much was certain. Determination was good, but how far would it get her? “The real question is if you can satisfy me, Izayoi. I set two cards and end my turn.” That left him with one card in hand, and he just needed to ditch it to make full use of his deck. Izayoi would surely know this too.

“Okay then,” she said, and Kiryu noted that Izayoi seemed rattled now. “My turn, I draw!” Again, Izayoi hesitated. It was almost amusing. Part of him wondered if those powers she had were why she was holding back. Was she scared of hurting him? “I use Evil Thorn to advance summon Rose Tentacles,” she said. “And now I activate Ivy Shackles! With this, your monsters become plant type during my turn!And for each plant type monster on the field, Rose Tentacles gains an additional attack! I attack Infernity Beast! Thorn Whip!”

“I activate Depth Amulet,” Kiryu said. “By discarding a card, I can negate your attack.”

“But that only stops one attack since you only had one card left in hand,” Izayoi stated, seeming to find her confidence. “And Rose Tentacles has one more attack! Thorn Whip 2!” Not bad, he thought as his monster was destroyed. “That’s not all, Kiryu. When Rose Tentacles destroys a monster in battle, you take an additional 300 points of damage.”

Izayoi’s monster struck him, and Kiryu was amazed instantly by the sheer power. A small smirk formed on his face, and before he could help himself, he blurted out, “I see you like whips, Izayoi. I wouldn’t mind getting hit by that again.”

“You just might,” Izayoi said, though it was with a strange inflection he couldn’t quite pin down. “I end my turn!”

Kiryu drew, and he had a feeling it was going to be over. She’d done well to keep up with him, he supposed. “I use my face down to advance summon Infernity Destroyer,” he said, and with that, he had no cards left in hand. “Infernity Destroyer deals 800 points of damage whenever it destroys a monster. And it’s more than enough to take out your Rose Tentacles.”

“I activate Doppleganger,” she said, just before Rose Tentacles was destroyed. “I may take 800 points of damage, but so will you!”

Izayoi had 3100, and such a move would leave him with . “Well done, Izayoi,” he said, “However, I activate my trap card, Damage Translation. With it, I can halve effect damage thrown my way. The chain resolves.” Izayoi seemed annoyed. “I end my turn.”

She spun around, the same way Yusei might, specifically to glare at him. It struck Kiryu that Izayoi must’ve learned directly from Yusei based upon the way she was maneuvering her bike. Her dueling was different, but the handling was all Yusei. “My turn, then,” she said, spinning back to look forward. “I draw! I summon Twilight Rose Knight. Next, I use Twilight Rose Knight’s ability to special summon Dark Verger! Finally, I flip up Phoenixian Seed!” Three monsters, all adding up to level seven… a thrill ran down Kiryu’s back as he realized what was going to happen next. “A cold flame envelopes the entire world, black flower, bloom! Synchro Summon! Appear, Black Rose Dragon!”

“Black Rose Dragon,” he repeated, staring up at the Signer dragon in almost awe. Would she use its devastating board nuke? He had a way of dodging that. “I see you’re pulling all the stops, Izayoi.”

“That’s not all,” she said, pulling out a card. “I activate the Speed Spell - Rose Malice. With it, my Black Rose Dragon gains 600 attack and the ability to deal piercing damage for this turn! When it attacks a monster, it won’t be destroyed in battle but the monster permanently loses 600 attack! Black Rose Dragon, attack Kiryu’s Infernity Destroyer!”

Now there was a move he wasn’t expecting. An additional 700 points of damage his way, and his monster was now down to 1700 attack, same as his life points.  It didn’t matter, though. Because she hadn’t destroyed his monster, and that was enough if he drew it. Izayoi was almost purring as she ended her turn. Clearly, she thought she might win. “You’ve done extremely well, Izayoi,” Kiryu said as he drew his next card, and smirked. “Unfortunately, it all ends here. I summon Infernity Mirage. I can release Infernity Mirage to special summon from my graveyard two monsters. I chose Infernity Beetle and Infernity Dwarf. Now I tune Infernity Beetle and Infernity Destroyer together. The dead and the living...The moment they meet at zero, the demonic dragon will be released from the cage of eternity. Synchro Summon! Come forth, Infernity Death Dragon.”

It was now Izayoi’s turn to be impressed. “That can destroy my monster without attacking.”

“Yes, it can,” he said, surprised Yusei had mentioned that to Izayoi. “While I may take 1500 in effect damage by destroying it, so will you. And that leaves your field clear for me to attack directly for game. Would you like to call it here, or are you going to see it to the end?”

“I’ll see it to the end,” Izayoi said, sounding almost brave as her Black Rose Dragon disappeared in a burst of vibrant petals. “I’m not one to chicken out.”

“In that case,” Kiryu said, “Infernity Death Dragon, take out the rest of Izayoi’s life points!”

Izayoi came to a stop, staring at her D Wheeler. “Be brutally honest,” she said, sounding a little nervous. “I’m not cut out for the WRGP, am I?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Kiryu said, yanking his helmet off. “You held your own, and if I hadn’t drawn Infernity Mirage when I had, you might’ve actually managed to win. The problem is that you start strong then start hesitating. When you hesitate, you give the opponent time to attack. You can’t give the opponent that gap. Have you ever seen Yusei hesitate?”

Izayoi glanced up from her D Wheeler, a look of surprise at the mention of Yusei’s name. “No,” she admitted. “Jack doesn’t either… nor Crow. And I suppose you didn’t either…”

“Exactly,” he said. “Let’s go again, and see if you can do any better this time.”

 With each Duel, Kiryu watched a steady improvement over Izayoi’s skill level. She was a quick learner, and when they took a break, Izayoi had invited him to a cafe across the street from where Yusei lived. She’d insisted on paying, despite his objections. It was how he was now sitting across from a table in a cafe with Izayoi smiling at him from across the table. “I’m sort of top in my class at Duel Academy,” she said, shrugging off his mention that she learned quickly. “You don’t stay on top without being able to pick up new tricks quick.”

“A student,” he remarked, an eyebrow raised. “You know, I never really went to school, and yet I still beat you. I suppose that means that fancy school of yours can’t teach you everything.”

“Instinct isn’t a skill you can teach,” Izayoi said after taking a long sip of her coffee. “Hey… How long are you going to be in town for? I’m sure Yusei would -”

“I know,” Kiryu said, cutting her off. He didn’t need to hear from Izayoi of all people that Yusei would be happy to see him again. “But I got a good look at the life he’s got now. There’s not really room for me in it.” He forced himself to make eye contact with her. “I wouldn’t want to get in your way.”

Izayoi tilted her head, before reaching out to cover his hand with hers. “You wouldn’t be getting in the way, Kiryu,” she said, and it felt like a tidal wave had crashed over him. He was sinking, and he didn’t know which was to the surface. “Seriously, Kiryu. Just stay a few days.”

Her gaze was pulling him in, and he was certain that if he allowed it, she could shatter his walls entirely. There was just something in her that seemed to know him better than he knew himself. As if she saw the potential within him, and was determined to draw it out. It seemed fanciful, however. “I have responsibilities to get back to, you know,” he said, hedging his options. While he might have won on the Riding Duels, Izayoi seemed better equipped for this. “A few days is asking for trouble.”

“Really,” she remarked, a sly smile on her face. “I thought trouble was exactly what you’re looking for.”

There was a dare in her eyes, a challenge that she was putting on the table. And well, Kiryu never backed down from a challenge. “You have a point, Izayoi,” he said, sighing. “Fine. I’ll stay. Just a few days, though.”

“Right, right,” she said, and she looked just a little too happy that he was going to stay. Just what was she playing at? Honestly, he’d like to know. And when she winked at him, he had an idea. Game on, Izayoi.

[thedragonchilde]

G Gundam meta notes part three, eps 21-24:

"The Final Battle Approaches! Only 3 Days Away" / "Breakthrough! Warriors Strong Ties" / "Destined Battle! Domon vs. Devil Gundam" / "Bright New Star! The Birth of the God Gundam"

-the Shuffle Alliance links!! More of this please!

-the reveal of all of them skulking around waiting for Domon is hysterical

-okay George, you're here to protect Rain from beasts, that's,,, almost convincing coming from you

-Chibodee, on the other hand, who the hell are you trying to convince? You were just openly talking about why you were there, and now you're shooting off some crap about how you should just leave, okay. And followed with the defeated mumble "nothing but time on my hands", good job

-magical girl Schwarz Bruder Mark II, appearing out of the water

-"what is this feeling?" No offense, Domon, but you're historically not good at knowing your feelings anyway, why is this one a surprise

-why was Rain sleeping in the cockpit??

-Argo and Nastasha know exactly where to hit each other, damn

-Domon being so concerned with keeping the others out of "his" problem is sweet

-"there's one more important person waiting" wait a minute. He can't be talking about Rain, because she's right there. Did he mean… did Domon tell them about his dad?

-”not doing this for you or anything” OH MY GOD CHIBODEE YOU FUCKING TSUNDERE WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO CONVINCE

-"I'll help too"/"I know you will" something about this tweaks my heart a little, but y'know, big surprise that I take to an A/N moment

-I fucking love Nastasha calling the shots in the group

-Schwarz too

-Domon is actually quite empathetic when he's paying attention. Pity he doesn't do that much

-if D/R had more scenes like this, I,,, would still probably prefer to explore the friendship, but I'd understand the romance more

-you fucking tell that guy, Nastasha! Make getting out of there sound cowardly instead of the cutthroat crap Neo Russia would normally love!

-"who's the guy in the stupid mask anyway" Sai saying the quiet part out loud

-both Argo having tactical expertise from his pirating and George admiring it is super interesting

-oh, announcing yourself with a throwing weapon to save the hero, you're Tuxedo Schwarz this time

-oh my God seriously let me just get feral about Nastasha backing up her nobility with clear-headed logic, both in general as part of her character arc and in contrast to a cast full of Honor Before Reason

-ayyyy foreshadowing

-"I DON'T DESERVE TO HAVE YOU LAUGHING AT ME" I mean,,, you're right, Domon, and that's partly why I've got such a soft spot for you, you don't deserve half the crap you go through

-Schwarz is kinda hot when he's bloody

-SUPER SAIYAN DOMON

-i love that it gives the audience just enough that even if we do figure out the identity we have the new mystery of why and how

-Nastasha keeps up on Gundam engineers/is familiar with Mikamura's work? That's pretty cool

-oooh, all right, Domon has given lip service to the whole "you're no longer my master" thing before, but seeing him actually talk back is cathartic

-Argo being the optimist, damn!

-okay, experimental brain wave transmitter, very cool, needs more use in fic maybe, but also like,,, scifi contrast to Shuffle magic

-"I've never thought so dearly of you as I do now" you mean not until you found out he thought fondly of you? Hmmm. Food for thought.

-now George is optimistic, and interestingly Chibodee is consistently struggling to stay positive. (Though I guess that tendency goes all the way back to his first appearance, the whole "might as well finish me now" thing - looks like being a "star of hope" actually takes some effort for him! Hope is a choice, and not always an easy one! This is so interesting!)

-hee, the gals helping Rain through her post-reunion overwhelm <3

-the Shuffle Alliance being so shrouded in mystery is interesting given that EVERYONE IN UNIVERSE SEEMS TO KNOW THEM or at least that the crests mark top fighters

[elenyafinwe]

Hi there! 💜💜

I hope I'm not bothering you with this ask, I actually wanted to ask you this for like...several months now, but I had no idea how to word it properly, because I feel very uneducated on the subject.

I have a little problem I can't figure out and I thought that maybe you might have an answer. Now, I'll try to get to the point:

I was trying to figure out how non-binary people (or should I say persons?) who in English identify as they/them would be able to express themselves in languages that are gendered.

To give an example: My mother language is Czech and in Czech, the vast majority of substantives have a "gender", and it's either male or female. And of course, people also only have either female or male gender too. And I feel like this has to be really limiting to non-binary people...

And since i read your posts on gender, I was trying to think of some ways non-binary people could express themselves freely in "gendered" languages such as mine, but...I just can't figure anything out.

If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!

I hope my question makes some sense. If I accidently worded myself in a rude way, please trust me it wasn't meant that way at all. 💜💜💜

Not rude at all! It’s cool that you put so much thought in that <3 So, yeah, to answer your question: German lesson incoming.

Some people have different pronoun sets for different languages and they use different pronouns for themselves depending on the language used. For examples sier for German convos and they for English. There are several neo-pronouns in German, for example sier, a combination of sie (she) and er (he), or dey, derived from English they. I’m probably ok with people calling me dey simply because it sounds quite like how most Germans pronounce they anyway, because they are incapable of the th sound (me included, ahem).

Others, like me, simply stick with originally English pronouns or other neo-pronouns mainly used in English speaking corners. That would look like this: “Gestern sah ich Robin. They war auf dem Weg zur Uni. Their Dozent wollte etwas mit them besprechen.” (Yesterday I saw Robin. They were on the way to university. Their teacher wanted to talk to them.”) As you see, they is then simply used the same way as in English.

German also is highly gendered. For example: der Lehrer (maskulinum), die Lehrerin (femininum) is both the teacher in English.You see, the -in morpheme at the end of the words carries the gender marker (Lehrer simply has a zero morpheme in that place aka nothing). One way to say this more inclusive is to use a glotal stop between the -er- morpheme and the -in morpheme. The most inclusive aka screen reader friendly way to do this is to use a * which looks like Lehrer*in.

Another way to do this is to find alternative phrasings like Lehrperson (teaching person) or Lehrende (someone who teaches). The first version puts a -person at the stem Lehr-, the second one uses a nominalized gerund coming from lehren (to teach).

You can of course always use “Person”: “Die Person an der Kasse sah nett aus.” (The person at the checkout looked nice.) My partner calls me his “Partnerperson” (partner person, it’s actually the same in both German and English). Simply “Partner” doesn’t quite work, because the lexem “Partner” is maskulinum and therefore implies a male person, although it can technically also be used for female persons. This is the trouble with a highly gendered languages.

Not everything works as smooth in all contexts and with all words, but these are the most comon ways of de-gendering this cursed language (affectionate, ahem, after all I study this shit xP)

I don’t know how much of this is appliable to other languages, especially because German is a Germanic language and Czech a Slavic language. But hopefully that answeres your question at least somewhat.

[candycatstuffs]

Alright. Let’s see if this’ll send. This is a short writing, so sorry if it’s not good :3 wow the indenting really sucks on Tumblr Mobile huh

This idea was thanks to Candycatstuffs!

This story starts how every Sonic adventure does. Sonic comes in, stops evil Eggman from blowing up and conquering the world, with a tiny bit of help from his friends. Though, this time, things didn’t go as planned. Sonic didn’t get to go home and hear the praises and cheers from his friends, he didn’t get to save Cream or Cheese, and now he was stuck in the middle of a street. With buildings and lights flashing down at him, loud noises blaring in his ear, and thousands of eyes.

Yeah, definitely not how your typical Sonic adventure goes. But hey, he’s flexible.

Helen sighs as she comes home to an empty house, wheeling her way to the kitchen. “Mom? Dad?” She sees a note on the fridge and goes over, reading it with a frown. “Late night at the work place, won’t be back until late. Leftovers in I the fridge.” Helen sighs, grabbing the left overs and warming them up. She looks out at the moon and stars, a friend still stuck on her face. “I wish something exciting would happen. It’s so boring here.” She mumbles to herself.

Well, Sonic wouldn’t say he hated this place. He actually rather liked it. The competition was lousy, but still faster than anyone’s raced him before. Except Metal Sonic. Wait, he doesn’t exist yet, whoops, let’s try Neo Metal.. no wait that’s just.. that’s just Metal Sonic. What about that other Metal.. no? Okay, well, continuing on… Sonic look behinds himself at the red racing cars, smirking. “This is fun!! You’re much faster than Eggman could do!” He taunts, deciding to play some jokes on them, and running backwards. He couldn’t hear their reactions, but boy could he see the look in their eyes, priceless!

Helen takes one last look out the window and goes to clear her place, deciding against television and just rolling her way to bed. Sitting down, she looks out at the garden through her window, remembering when her and her parents would spend the whole day planting and getting dirty. Now all they did was work. She wasn’t ungrateful, she definitely wasn’t. She knew why they had to work. She really did. Though, it didn’t stop the hurting. She puts her hands together and sighs. “I need a friend… maybe send an angel! The nicest Angel you have.”

Sonic takes a sharp turn off the freeway and cackles as the cars struggle to slow down. Then, he takes a second to slow down, looking up at the sky. “I should probably figure out where I am. Where my friends are.” He shrugs, starting to run again. “Nothing a run can’t fix.” He smiles at the breeze and night air in his face, until he hears the sirens again. “Uuugh, do these weirdos ever stop?” He turns back to see flashing lights and sticks out his tongue, turning back to see a garden and an open window. He yelps, diving so he didn’t trample anything, though he did land right in someone’s bedroom. That someone was staring at him with bug eyes. They sat in silence for a second or two until Helen grabs the bat by her bed, hitting him on top the head. “I asked for a Angel! Not an oversized pin cushion!”

“Pin cushion??”

YOOOOOO OK I LOVE THIS ACTUALLY

THE ENDING I-

[sage-nebula]

Major Neo: The World Ends With You spoilers:

[[MORE]]

I was thinking about the fact that Neku has been dead for three years as of Neo while driving into work today, and I just—

Neku has been dead for three years.

I know the Secret Reports in the original game tried to solve the “how do they just return to life like nothing ever happened” issue by saying that Players in the UG weren’t actually dead, but rather their frequencies were just tuned into the UG while they played the Game, but given that everything else in the game states that the Players are dead (and that the “you died and are dead, dummies” comes up again in Neo), I’m going to go ahead and say that the Players are (usually) dead, that they died, that they’re not just in comas, that they are dead and that the memories of those left behind (who didn’t have prior experience with the UG) are just altered to forget that the death ever happened (along with funeral markers and such being erased, etc). The fact that the Reapers’ Game usually only lasts one week would make this a lot easier to do, I think, for those who were given the chance to come back to life at the end of their Game.

With all of that said . . . Neku has been dead for three years.

I’m thinking, mainly, about how Shiki and Beat (and Rhyme, to a lesser extent) handled this. Like, okay, Neku gets shot (again). Beat is there to witness it, he sees it happen. Neku is rushed to the hospital, he doesn’t make it. Of course this is horrible, but for Beat, Shiki, and Rhyme, they figure, okay. This is horrible, but it’ll be okay. Neku died, but he’ll be able to play the Game again, and he’ll win, and he’ll come back. They’ll just have to wait a week, but then he’ll be back.

A week passes. Then two weeks. Then a month. Then three months, and he’s still not back.

There would be a funeral service. We know nothing about Neku’s family, but assuming that his parents know his friends, they would have been invited to the funeral. And they’re not going to look like they don’t care that he died, but they go even though they know that Neku has to be playing the Game and that he’ll have to be able to make it back. Right? Because he’s Neku. He’s the strongest psych user there is. He won the Game three times in a row, there’s no way that he wouldn’t be able to win it again. The Reapers wouldn’t be able to erase him. Joshua wouldn’t deny him the chance to come back. And Neku wouldn’t choose to become a Reaper instead, would he? Why would he choose that? He wouldn’t. Would he?

Neku’s family would mourn him, because he was shot in the middle of the street (and his murderer never found), and they wouldn’t know about the Game so they would just assume that he was dead and never coming back, because the dead generally don’t do that. But Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme, who know about the Game, would have their certainty about Neku’s return shaken and broken down with each passing week that there’s no sign of him. They wouldn’t know that Joshua had locked Neku in Shinjuku with Coco, that he wasn’t able to play the Game again to get another chance at life. They wouldn’t know that he was okay, that he was working on a way back. They spent three entire years not knowing if Neku had been erased or not, or if he’d somehow been turned into a Reaper or not. And what that means is that while Neku’s family had a chance to mourn him and move on, Shiki and Beat were stuck in limbo, missing him so badly it felt like they had bleeding wounds in their chest that just couldn’t heal. 

And I think we see this in the ways both of them handled the situation.

Shiki had the benefit of working on Gatto Nero with Eri. Since I’m pretty sure they started it up as soon as she returned from the Game, we can assume that they already had its preliminary stages going when Neku was killed again. That would have helped her keep her mind off things, at least a little, but we know still that she continued waiting for three years until he came back. Given what she says in the end, about how she kept waiting by Hachiko for him day after day even though each day passed without him coming back, I think we can deduce that she spent at least a few hours each day standing by Hachiko, hoping that he would come back. Obviously she didn’t put her life entirely on hold—Gatto Nero wouldn’t be where it is if she had—but she still did what she felt she could do, which was hang onto faith that he would find his way back to them somehow, no matter how long it took, and her standing by Hachiko with Mr Mew was her way of doing that. But while she managed to keep the faith, I think that doesn’t change the emotional toll that it must have taken on her . . . or how it must have worried Eri, who wouldn’t know about the Game and thus wouldn’t exactly understand why Shiki was waiting for Neku to come back when Eri probably attended the funeral service with her, to lend moral support. Shiki might have tried to explain, but how can you explain the Reapers’ Game? How could she explain that she was killed and came back to life when Eri never remembered that happening? She would sound insane. Eri was probably fine with just letting Shiki do her own thing for a while, but overtime she probably grew more and more worried. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Shiki was gone away on a business trip partly because Eri encouraged her to go, all but pushed her out the door, to get her away from Shibuya in hopes that she could help Shiki move on from her apparent grief. And Shiki probably agreed to go not just because it was her job, but because the emotional weight of not knowing what was going on with Neku, when (or if, but she didn’t want to think if) he was coming back, was taking a toll on her that, at times, felt unbearable.

And then there’s Beat. Beat, who flat out tells Neku that he has looked literally everywhere for him. Beat, who has taken to wearing headphones everywhere just like Neku used to, and who has styled his hair similarly to how Neku used to wear it. Beat isn’t one who can stand idly by and hold onto faith that things will work out. He’s calmed down a lot over the past three years, but he is still very much a man of action, especially when it comes to people he loves. He misses Neku, he sees that Shiki is hurting, he’s not going to just sit around twiddling his thumbs waiting to find out what’s going on. He’s going to see for himself. In Neo, Beat says that he figured Neku would be in the UG, if anywhere, but he makes it sound as if going to the UG was a last ditch attempt at finding him. I think that it might’ve been, if only because Beat was in denial that it really was taking Neku that long to win the Game / he didn’t want to see that Neku had chosen to become a Reaper instead, had Neku chosen that. (And again, obviously he wouldn’t, but three years is such a long time to still be playing the Game.) Beat looked everywhere for Neku, flat out refused to believe that Neku could have been erased, and went so far as to get himself involved in the Game again because he couldn’t rest until he knew what happened to his best friend. And that’s heart-wrenching enough, but when you remember that he had been waiting and searching for three years . . . man.

Of course, Neku comes back. He finally gets returned to the RG. Records of his death are likely erased and those who haven’t had any experience with the UG (such as his parents / family) probably have no recollection of him ever dying. But Shiki and Beat remember. They were without him for three years and they remember every second. And while my heart aches for them (and for Neku, too, who was locked in the ruins of Shinjuku with Coco for those three years), I can only imagine that if anyone dares try to take him from them again, they honestly might just rip the UG apart with their bare hands themselves.

[palaceofpassion]

Popping Poppy

A commissioned work featuring Poppy from Lol, cause Yordles are love.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/36363928

Shortstacks are love.

The first thing that came to mind when he woke up was a simple, “I shouldn’t be alive.”  Those words, tinted in blood and rust, held several meanings to them.  However, Jaune didn’t know if he meant it as a wish, or as a statement.  Either way, to his surprise, he had lived through falling into the abyss.  He’d survived having to deal with Cinder again, he’d… he’d lost another friend or friends, all because he just wasn’t enough. 

And then he started to remember, started to sit there and think about what had happened, about what he’d done.  His hands began to tremble, his eyes watered, and his body slowly fell into a numbness of uncomfortability.  He remembered his own scream, the last look she gave him, the way her blood seeped against this blade and onto the floor.  The trembling got worse as he fell to his knees, remembering how he couldn’t keep anyone safe.  How now that he was wherever he was, Nora and Ren were by themselves.  How they thought he was missing or worse dead.  

The feelings only got worse when he tried to calm himself, the guilt he’d gotten rid of, tried for so very long to improve on just kept on coming back.  Now, not only was he responsible for Pyrrha’s death, he was responsible for Penny’s too.  And there was nothing anyone could do to argue against it this time, he was there but he didn’t help, it wasn’t that he was taken out of the action before he could try.  He was there and he brought his blade to her gut and slit it, that he drove the edge of his family's heirloom, besmirched and everything, into one of his own friends' bodies.  He knew, deep down that if he hadn’t, Cinder would have killed Weiss.  That there wasn’t nearly enough time to heal Penny, especially with how low his aura had been at the time.  He knew it, he really did, but it didn’t make the ache any less painful.  

He wanted to fall into further pity, wondering why he was still alive.  However, before things could sink in, before he could truly fall into a pit of dismay.  He heard something, CLANG, the clashing of metal caught his attention.  The roar of combat, the sound of someone calling for help, “No no no!”  He didn’t even give himself time to think before he’d struggled onto his feet.  His boots kicked off the ground dirt blistering behind him as he ran with all his might.  

His body swiftly took him before his mind could catch up, which caused everything to crash and halt as he reached the sound of combat.  In front of him was the strangest sight, creatures that… They weren’t Grimm, at least none he’d ever seen, that were made of a purplish hue with smooth features surrounded and lept at another figure.  This one was truly perplexing.  It looked humanoid, but it was smaller than any human he’d seen, and he’d seen Neo before.  She looked as if she was only about 3 feet tall, at absolute most, and even stranger was her purple skin and sharp pointed ears.  What’s more she was wielding a hammer, a hammer that was quite a bit bigger than her.  Not even Nora had accomplished that feat.

He knew right away she was female though, because even with the armor her body’s curves were… very apparent.  He nearly found himself staring for too long, but the danger of battle brought him back to reality.  His hand reached for his blade but recent memories stilled his motions.  His fist clenched together as his teeth began to grind into one another.  He needed to help, but what use could he be if he had a broken weapon?

“Come on!  You want a taste of my hammer, well have at it!”  Though she looked as if she was doing well, her blunted weapon… he was having Nora flashbacks. It slammed down in a devastating overhead strike, crushing and dissolving one of the foul beasts before her.  “You wouldn’t like my hammer when it’s angry!”  

She jumped away again, evading another one of those things, and with swift retribution she planted the hammer on its underside, flipping it further into the air.  He could tell she had things handled, at least by base appearance.  But even he knew she was getting exhausted.  Her movement had become sluggish and she’d started to lean forward, her grip on her shield loosened.  

That was it, he couldn’t stand by any longer.  Kicking off the small hilly outskirt he found himself falling into battle more than entering it.  

One of the things lunged at her, her mind elsewhere at the moment as she defended from the front.  Before it could strike her down A male figure landed upon it, his shield pushing it into the floor as the gravity dust canister erupted, releasing a powerful force that not only threw him back up but also crushed the bug-like creature beneath him.  

Poppy hadn’t expected to receive any help, not this far into the forest as she was.  Especially not when she was attacked by voidlings, but suddenly as if out of a fairy tale a hero arrived to grant her aid.  Her jaw hung awestruck for a moment as she took in his sights.  Though his legs buckled, and he held himself in a way that showed emotional worry, physical exhaustion, and a tinge of that familiar fear of death all lethal battles brought on, he still came to assist her.  “Is this the hero I was looking for?”  

Even in her musings she was able to vanquish another foe, the blunted pole of her hammer jamming itself into the beastie as it tried to lunge at her once more.  She could tell as they fought that he was used to combat, impressively so considering he was only using a shield.  A shield that had a weird repulsive system to it, something that caught her eye for blacksmithing.  “Thank you!”  She shouted in his direction.

“N-no uh problem!”  He seemed unsure of himself, but he still held to it.  

Thankfully the battle didn’t last much longer.  Their bodies tired and fatigued, sweat dripping from every pore.  

It was only after they were able to catch their breaths, did they introduce themselves.  

Jaune learned that her name was Poppy, and she was a Yordle(?), which at the time didn’t mean anything to him.  

As time went on however, he would end up learning more and more about the strange place called Runeterra. One thing was for sure very quickly; it wasn’t Remnant.  

Without a cause, and nowhere to go, he found himself tagging along with Poppy, something she had been oddly excited for.  

A few weeks into their adventure, he would learn why, “So you’re not the hero I’m looking for?”

“Sorry Poppy, I don’t really think I’m qualified for it.”  He hadn’t told her much about what had happened, or why he’d found himself here and lost.  He’d glossed over that perhaps he wasn’t from Runeterra, something she’d taken in strides apparently.  But he didn’t feel as if he could rightfully be called a Hero.

“I don’t know… as far as I’m concerned, you’re my hero.”  

When she’d told him that with such a straight face, he’d found it impossible not to blush from ear to ear.  “I mean, you saved me when we first met, and you didn’t even know who I was!  Heck, you’re not even from here, I bet those voidlings were terrifying to see.”  

Poppy knew he wasn’t going to respond, he barely did when it came to giving him positive reinforcement.  He always seemed to lock up, and it just never sat well with her.  She knew he was the hero, she just knew it.  If only she could drag it out of him.  

Weeks turned to months, and eventually Jaune would spill the beans after quite a bit of prodding.  

When Poppy found out, she’d reacted in a way Jaune could have never expected or imagined.  She’d simply moved up to him and hugged him.  Though the size difference made it a bit awkward when she began to nuzzle into his crotch, he'd be damned if he let his hormones get the better of him in such a sweet moment.  

Eventually, he started opening up more, though he was still convinced he wasn’t the hero.  In fact he was certain that Poppy was the hero she was searching for to begin with.  

Something she’d quickly deny, she never believed herself capable enough.  He found it oddly ironic to be hearing that from someone else, especially someone who was quite capable.  

He never broached the topic often though, instead just enjoying her company… something he’d found he’d been doing a lot more.  She was an odd girl, a lot like Nora with her hammer fetish.  But she was more refined than that, she had a good head on her shoulders and was able to analyze dangerous situations fairly well. 

In credit to his old friend, Nora did that too, she was far from stupid. She just ignored most actual tactics and decided 'Nora Smash' was the best option possible the vast majority of the time.  

Still, it was no surprise that with her welcoming and warm demeanor that he’d found himself falling for the little 3'2 yordle.  And the attraction wasn’t just on an emotional level.  He’d fought off LOTS of urges as they’d traveled, having little room to separate he’d gotten a glimpse or two at what she’d been packing beneath her armor.  Her body was… well it was simply outrageous.  He’d never seen a woman with proportions like hers.  Breasts as big as her head, voluminous and full.  He’d had dreams about stuffing himself between them, her hips were wide, perfect for grabbing and thrusting into.  Her ass could take the beating too he was sure, big and round, rounder than even Nora, which at this point he wasn’t sure had been a possibility.  She was an all in one package, a figure akin to a goddess of fertility more than a mortal woman, and it had driven him mad.  

These emotions came to a full on burst once they’d reached a small city-state.  The two of them, lacking the proper funds, had chosen to room together in an inn.  Unfortunately there had only been a single bed.  

“I can… sleep on the floor.”  Jaune offered.

Poppy was going to have none of that, “No need, I’m small enough, we can share the bed without any real problem.”  

Her size wasn’t the issue, though she wasn’t seeing it that way.  

Poppy had no issues with sharing the bed with Jaune, in fact she was hoping to share it with him.  Ever since they’d met, she’d felt a strange affinity with the young boy.  Her body ached in need whenever the two were close together.  And that feeling was starting to really ramp up as they settled into their little room.  

She’d often watch him carefully, no more than now.  Her eyes found themselves glued to him as he made his way into the bathroom.  “Jaune!”  This was her chance.

“Ye-?”  

She smiled as he turned around, his entire body stiffening, his mind rebooting as he came to a realization that she’d gone completely naked.  She stood before him, her purple skin dripping with sweat, glistening in what little light came from the outside window.  

She’d never muster the courage to tell him how she felt but, “I want to show you, how much of a hero you really are to me.  And to thank you… for travelling with me.”  

“Poppy…”  She watched the way his fingers clenched together, “Are you sure?”  

“Yes.”  

That was all he needed apparently.  She blinked once and he was already upon her, his clothes clanging to the side, armor and weapons scattered.  Her mouth opened, shock and awe overcoming her as something SPLATTERED against her face.  

She’d never realized how perfect their heights were, or how amazingly close she’d been towards her ‘goal’ up till now.  But the thick raunchy scent infiltrated her nose before even her sight caught up with her.  Her nostrils burned as she inhaled the unclean fumes, days of not showering showed its mark as the sweaty salty smell of the big fat human cock pulsing atop of her face reached her brain.  She couldn’t think as it twitched atop of her.  Her eyes crossed together as she focused upon the throbbing cock, dollops of cum dripped upon her forehead as he rubbed the tip against her.  She inhaled again, as a thick trail of precum slid between her nose forcing her to really take in the powerful pungent aroma of his unwashed dick.

It was utterly intoxicating, and she was instantly so glad she'd chosen to act before he got into the bath, instead of after.

She couldn’t contain herself, her tongue lulled out of her mouth as her lips parted, pressing against the burning hot tip.  She turned her eyes up to him, those gorgeous blues shimmering like night stars as he stared down upon her.  

She felt a jolt run through every bit of her body, her fingers tingled while she put her hands upon his fleshy cock.  She couldn’t even grasp around the entirety of it, instead doing her best to give it nice long strokes, her hands running over each and every pulsing vein.  When he gave her a throaty moan she knew she was doing a good job.  But… this wasn’t what she wanted.

She pulled back, her tongue slowly gliding along the dripping slit.  “Jaune~”  

Her voice sent sparks through his mind, his heart raced while he looked down upon her.  “Please… I need you to rough me up, to do… do things to me.”  

It was unlike her to be so shy but… with her hands sliding against his length, reaching outwards and cupping his balls massaging them with need.  He knew that he would do as she wanted.  The question was… he eyed the top of her head.  What did he grab onto?  

Split decision making was what he was best at, and… it was her ears that he ultimately grasped upon.  “Ah~♥”  She gasped as he pulled her down.  Just like she wanted, apparently, so he decided to show no mercy.  

Her throat was tight, hot, and wet.  It squeezed around the tip of his cock as he forced himself to push her down to his base with a rapid fire series of about a dozen thrusts into her oral cavity.  Her nose tickled against his pubic fuzz.  Soft moans and gasps reverberated against his dick, his member twitching in response.  For an entire minute he simply held her there, refusing to pull her back out as he made sure she choked on his dick.

Just like she’d wanted he pulled her roughly down, her ears burned as he squeezed his fingers, digging into her cartilage.  She nearly screamed in pain, her eyes watering on first impact, but he didn’t let her make a noise.  Her mouth forced apart by the offending cock, pushing itself along the bottom of her mouth she tasted each and every tangy and salty unwashed flavor she could as he stuffed her all the way down.  

Her eyes started to roll back as she choked on his dick, her nose inhaled as much as it could for precious air but she found it lack as he pushed her against his pelvis in harsh, brutal lunges of his hips.  She buckled, to her surprise as her large, jutting breasts pushed into his legs.

Her body twitched and trembled, her mind slowly going black as her eyes started to roll to the back of her head.  She couldn’t last long, but the trail of clear liquid running down her leg showed how much she WANTED this.  Her desires getting the better of her, she didn’t bother pushing away, instead she held herself against him.  Her hands now dangling against her sides as she slowly lost consciousness. 

Before everything turned black he pulled her away, and quick gasps wracked her as air filled her lungs.  She closed her eyes as the stinging tears burned against them.  He didn’t let her have room to really breathe though, once more he pushed down against her, his cock pounding and scraping against the back of her throat.  

Unlike last time he chose not to give her the chance to get used to it.  The moment he pulled her in was the same he pulled back out.  His hips bucked as she tightened again, thick trails of snot, cum and saliva dripped from the tip of his needy dick.  He smiled, not because of the abuse he was putting her through, but as a easily of the way that she was smiling. It encouraged him to go harder, to go faster, more than any verbal cue could have.

Eventually her head was all but a blur to him as he abused her throat.  His cock pounding in and out of her tight little lips.  Thick wet sloppy sounds of flesh meeting flesh plopped from her mouth, her eyes rolled onto the back of her head as he just went at her.  She inhaled every now and again to show she was still alive.  

Her throat was burning as his vigor increased.  The motion of his cock rubbing against the soft pink insides of her throat only tore through her more and more.  She let herself be taken, her entire body giving way to the unexpectedly pleasant sensation of being used~  It was too much for her to handle, her hands drooped once more to her side as she felt him pull back.  

“Open up.” 

His voice was demanding, telling of their situation.  She parted her lips and her tongue held out as she was suddenly splattered in the face with a wash of thick white.  The heat radiated off her skin as every little bit tingled.  The soft tufts of fur throughout her body hung on end.  Though it wasn’t as purely obvious, female yordles were just as fuzzy as the men, their hairs merely smaller and finer.  

She was plastered from head to toe, her large heavy breasts painted in his color as she tried to devour as much of the tasty seed that fell upon her tongue.  She couldn’t think anymore, her body wavering back and forth. Every sensation, enhanced by her aforementioned sensitive fur, drove her into a cross eyed euphoria.

Her entire form burned, from her head to her toes, to her very core which was at its edge.  She felt her body kick, tremors slowly started to go through her entire form, her muscles spasming as she had an orgasm; an orgasm from being face fucked and face fucked alone.  “Aaahnn~~~♥”  She didn’t fight it, instead letting herself be overtaken, further allowing herself to submit to events unfolding.

Poppy’s brain started to spurt as she just loosely hung there.  In the words of a close friend of hers, “Wowie~”  

Her head tumbled back and forth, her body teetering on the verge of falling.  However, before she could, she felt something behind her.  As the haze vanished, her sense of vertigo increased, before she knew it she was lifted in the air from behind.  “Wha?”  

She didn’t get the chance to comprehend what was going on until she felt strong arms pull on the wedge behind her knees causing her legs to fold as she was pulled up.  Her body felt compacted as her thick thighs squished into her breasts.  Her head hung forward as she felt herself lose pace.  

Before she knew it though, she was violently impaled with no warning.  “Aaayyeeee!♥”  

It was unlike her to scream, but with her hymen ripped apart and her virginity snatched away, she had no choice.  Though she’d taken it in the throat moments ago she found herself victim to his large human cock spreading apart her tiny yordle passage.  The size difference became even more apparent now as he bounced her up and down his length.  

With her virginity taken away her tight hole screamed in burning pain as he pushed himself with ease against her cervix, the soft wall could hardly handle the rough handling that he was giving her. He reached the very back of her effortlessly; he was large by human standards, and her Yordle pussy was instantly conquered by his cock.

His forceful bounces caused her mind to nearly shatter again.  FFFT~ Her insides opened as juices ran down his length, her bodily fluids from her virginity and sexual desires mixed with the remaining semen still spurting from his tip.  

A soft pink color sputtered onto the floor, “Jaune Jaune Jaune~♥”   She called his name, the only word she could form as he pushed into her without relent.  Their pounding flesh made SPLaTT SPLAT SPlaTT noises together as he bounced her big round ass against his hips.

Jaune hadn’t meant for things to go this far, but watching her dazed expressions was too much for him.  His body had moved before he knew it and he’d reached behind her and pulled her up from her legs.  She’d been surprisingly heavy. Filled with muscle and thick soft fat in the perfect places, it meant that she had more mass than she let on.  That didn’t matter though, he refused to let her down as he pulled her into a full nelson.  He probably should have waited for her to come to but when his cock had pried against her entrance he’d lost himself and dove in without hesitation.

She split apart with ease, though the tightness of her hole had been incomparable to anything he’d EVER experienced up until then.  Feeling her tightly squeeze onto him, those tight ridges forming around his cock perfectly shaping themselves to match him.  It had been a dream come true.  She had also been the perfect size to bounce against his hips, though his legs grew tired quickly he continued anyways.  

Eyeing the bed though he came up with an idea, quickly he threw himself atop it, bouncing up and down, “Aaaahn~♥”  

She squirmed atop of him in response.  His legs arched as he fell upon his back, she was still atop of him and still in the same position.  Making it easy enough for him to buck upwards, pounding away at her core, threatening to tear past her cervix.  He wasn’t sure he’d be able to, nor was he sure how compatible humans and yordles were.  But there was nothing stopping him from dropping the biggest load of his life inside of her.  

He knew he should stop before it was too late, but as she spasmed atop of him her legs muscles squeezing down as she bent them upon his hands.  He knew there was no escape.

She couldn’t take it anymore, it was far too much for her now, her tongue hung out as sweat built upon her purple form, glistening skin shimmered against the light as she practically lost her mind.  This wasn’t sex, nothing that she’d heard about before from friends or hearsay.  This was a fucking, a mssive dick in pussy fucking. And she LOVED it! Her thrill for battle must have passed over to this; big fat cock inside of her tiny little yordle hole love that she was experiencing.  

This was what she’d yearned for, she was SURE he was the hero now, as sure as she was when she felt him twitch.  “Oh oh no no!”  She began to panic, even in her lust frenzied state.  But… but it wasn’t a bad idea. No, she could really get used to being a mother.  Her pupils shifted as her tongue hung loosely, little hearts formed in her eyes as he suddenly pulled them both back up, keeping her seated upon him until he turned her over and pushed her into the bed.  

Still he didn’t let her go, his fingers sinking into her flesh leaving dark bruises on them.  Her ass reddened as he brutally pounded away at her, thick globs of juices spat out of her hole everytime he pulled away.

This was it!  This what she was waiting for.  Her womb became all the more inviting as she could feel him growing inside of her, his cock pulsed, trembled, shook!  His heavy balls which slapped against her underside were practically vibrating with their eagerness and readiness to release.  She knew it was going to come, and come it did!  

“Yyyyeeesssssss♥!” 

In a very unPoppy like manner she squealed in pure and utter ecstasy.  Her body gave in as she pushed her back against him.  Her toes curled as he held her down, pushing her further into the bed so that he could lock her into place.  Her knees buried into the sheets as thick globs of seed filled her womb.  Like a balloon she felt it inflate inside of her.  Her ovaries practically spurting with sexuality as she felt herself ready to produce offspring.  

She knew it was rare, but very possible, for humans and yordles to breed.  Most humans however found the idea disgusting, the idea was shared with various Yordles.  But as she started to phase out of her thoughts, everything turning black, she didn’t really mind the idea of giving birth to her beloved hero's children.  In fact it excited her.  Her muscles started to loosen as exhaustion got the better of her.

Jaune, for what it was worth, felt it too.  As Poppy started to sprawl out beneath him, her legs now spread outwards, he simply let himself drop atop of her, the two too exhausted for much else.  “That was… amazing~”  

“Ye…yeah~”  

With that little conversation over, both of them simply fell into slumber. Future fun was sure to be had, they had a whole room at their disposal to trash, not to mention a bathing room, but for now they needed sleep.

[professorspork]

superhell fic prompt: JAUNE RUNS INTO PYRRHA

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5]

It doesn’t occur to that she’s allowed to talk to them until Torchwick reveals himself to Neo. And even then, well-- Roman Torchwick isn’t exactly a shining paragon when it comes to setting a good example of what’s allowed.

But the idea refuses to stop hounding her footsteps, once it’s come. Once she’s seen it’s possible, without consequences. Still, she waits, and keeps her distance. There’s no sunset, here on the island, no night, but there are shady places beneath the towering roots of the Tree; eventually, they all bed down, and Jaune-- as she’d known he would-- volunteers to take first watch. It’s a heartening display: Yang and Blake twined together like ivy on a wrought iron gate, but each clinging to the hands of their teammates, chained together by grasping fingers. Otters in a stream, unwilling to be separated.

She doesn’t know why she’s surprised to hear her own voice when she approaches.

...I know this can be frustrating, and it can feel like so much effort to progress such a small amount, but I want you to know that I'm proud of you. I've never met someone so determined to better themselves...

“You’ll drain your battery,” she cautions, reaching out with her mind to press the off button on his scroll. His head whips up, expression aghast, and she smiles at him softly. “I’d have thought you’d have it memorized by now anyhow; you haven’t seemed to need it in some time.”

She expects disbelief, perhaps, or shock. Joy would have been nice, but she’d have understood anger. So she’s surprised and---bizarrely proud, actually-- when instead his eyes narrow in suspicion and the first thing he says is, “Your Semblance works.”

“Well, yes.”

“Why does your Semblance work?”

“Because I’m where I’m supposed to be. A soul knows when it’s in the right place. Or the wrong one, as the case may be.”

“Or I’m dreaming.”

“Or you’re dreaming,” she agrees, keeping her voice mild, but feeling it like a punch to the stomach when his shoulders relax at the idea. Does he... not want her here? Goodness, but she’s out of practice. She’d forgotten it was like this; how talking to him had been both the easiest and the hardest thing in the world. “Would you-- prefer that? If I weren’t really here?”

“The real Pyrrha would know better than to ask me that.”

Despite herself, she laughs. “Oh, I wish that were true. I asked myself that every day. Every class, every glance, every study session on the roof. I’m afraid I was never as confident as I should have been.” It’s an embarrassing admission, but an effective one; the walled-up caution behind his eyes dissipates... only for tears to well up in its stead.

“Are you-- can I touch you?”

“I hope so.” (She’d left Torchwick and Neo behind before they’d gotten that far, for obvious reasons.)

“I--” He scrambles to his feet and crosses the distance between them, enveloping her in a crushing hug. It doesn’t feel like she remembers, but then, that’s no surprise-- he’s taller than he used to be, and her body isn’t exactly a body, per se. She’s grateful, even so. Happy just to have the chance to hold him up. She keeps quiet at first, letting him get it all out as he sobs incoherent apologies into her shoulder--

(IloveyouImissyouIloveyouImissyouI’msorryI’msorryI’msorry)

--and contents herself with playing with the short hair at the nape of his neck. Eventually, he calms.

“I like the haircut,” she says, when he pulls away. “It’s handsome. You look so grown up.”

“You look so young,” he croaks in response, and-- she supposes she must, to his eyes. It’s strange to think that she’s the same age as Ruby now; that they’ve kept going on without her, and they’ll continue to do so, once she’s led them out. “Are you--? Have you--?” He wipes at his eyes, laughing at himself a little. “I don’t know what to say. I don’t know where to start. I just-- I can't believe you're here with me.”

“I'm always with you,” she assures him, unable to suppress the urge to thumb away a tear he’s missed. She keeps her hand there, at his cheek, as she she speaks: “Even when you can’t sense me, I... oh, Jaune. I’m so proud of you. You’ve come so far.”

He sighs and steps out of the circle of her arms, hanging his head to stare at Crocea Mors where it rests in its sheath. You’d never know it to be broken, just by looking. The scabbard hides the damage-- giving him the appearance of being armed and ready though all he carries is a shattered hilt. “Yeah, maybe. I-- I thought I had, but...” He swallows, face filled with shame.

She starts to reach for him again, unwilling to waste even a moment of their time not touching him, but forces herself to relax and drop her hands to her sides. It has to be his choice, doesn’t it? “Tell me. You can tell me anything; you know that.”

His voice falters terribly when he finally speaks: 

“I mean, I feel like you already know. For the longest time, I wanted to be this... I dunno. This warrior, or whatever. And it never fit, no matter what I did, or how hard I worked, and I just-- I resented it so much. Being...” He shakes his head. “I just felt useless. But when I unlocked my Semblance, I had to let that go. And it was hard at first, it took time, but for a second there it finally started to feel like... like I knew my place. Where I belonged; what everyone needed from me. I was good at it. But then Penny needed--” He chokes on a sob, and has to stop and take several deep breaths before he can continue. “Nothing’s changed. I’m still useless. The idiot stuck on the wrong side of the glass, out of his league and forced to watch because someone else has to be the Maiden now and there’s nothing he can do about it. Only this time it’s worse, because this time I actually-- I--”

Unable to hold herself back anymore, she reaches for his hands; he squeezes her fingers tight, like a lifeline. “I understand,” she soothes, voice heavy like a vow. “Did you think I wouldn’t? I don’t think I have to remind you that I’m the only other person who knows what that feels like. To have been the one who killed her.”

He lets out an awful, cynical noise; a parody of a laugh. “Depends on who you ask,” he says in explanation, looking askance towards Ruby. Pyrrha sadly follows his gaze. Ruby’s shifted in her sleep, curled under her cape to be as small as possible with her head nestled in the crooks of Yang’s bent knees. Her arms are wrapped around Yang’s shins in a death grip, as though she fears her sister might fly away at any moment. Pyrrha’s heart aches for her; for the responsibility she carries. Weight Pyrrha could have helped shoulder... if only she’d been a little faster, a little more clever.

She shakes off the feeling; now’s not the time for regret. “But things have changed,” she says, bringing Jaune’s hands up to her mouth and kissing the knuckles. It will be a long time, she knows, before he believes there isn’t blood on them; maybe this small act can help. And if it doesn’t... she has other options. Maybe even a little levity, for once. “You’re not useless. You’re amazing. You’re a licensed Huntsman now; you’re accomplishing things you’d only dreamed of. All the mothers of Mantle adore you. You even got to go on a date with Weiss!”

He boggles at her, wrenching his hands away. “What?! That wasn’t a date, we were just hanging out with Oscar, we--” His jaw falls open, suddenly, and his eyes narrow once more. “Wait a minute. Are you teasing me?”

She grins, sheepish and caught. “I figured it was now or never to give it a go; I didn’t want to waste my last chance to try it. Nora always said it would be good for me.”

“To make fun of me?” he squawks, indignant.

She laughs. “To remind myself it’s okay to be a novice sometimes; that there are things I won’t instantly be good at.” She bites her lip, unable to stop her grin. “...And also to make fun of you, yes.”

He surges forward, then-- wrapping a hand around the back of her neck and pulling her closer, pressing a fierce, grateful kiss to her forehead. Then he does it again; then once more, at the bridge of her nose. And then a final time, against her lips. Quick; intense. Filled with meaning.

She’s got not breath in her, and still she’s breathless.

“I miss you so much,” he says, squeezing his eyes shut and resting his forehead against hers. His fingers thread themselves into the hair at the back of her skull, tangled into the base of her ponytail. “So much. I think about you all the time. Every day. Wondering how different things would be, if only...”

“I know,” she says, because she does. There’s more that she should say, probably-- that it’s good that he’s started to move on; that none of them can hold onto her forever. But she can’t quite bring herself to voice the words.

“It’s not fair,” he mutters, then sighs at the sound of it. “I mean, none of it is fair, but-- I feel like a jerk, I guess. That I’m the one who gets to see you, of all of us.”

“You’ll tell them I love them, won’t you? Ren and Nora. They...” They’re doing things she never did, is the thing. Maturing in ways she’ll never have the chance to. Learning that responsibility doesn’t mean putting it all on your own shoulders; that love doesn’t mean giving all of yourself away. It’s overwhelming, how proud she is of them for that. “They were on the right path, in Atlas. Don’t let them convince themselves otherwise.”

He nods, the movement of it levering her own head in shared agreement. “Anything else? Anyone else you’d like me to...?”

So many; too many. But one rises above the rest. “Tell my mother to stop leaving flowers,” she murmurs, wishing she had more to offer than that. “Tell her they belong in the garden; that I like to watch them grow. That’s-- the way it should be.”

“Okay,” he says, and relief rushes through her. “Okay. I will.”

Slowly, they both become aware once more of the gaggle of Huntresses sleeping just a few yards off. Pyrrha could leave dozens of messages with Jaune, if she wanted, but the people she most needs to speak to are right here, within arm’s reach. They need her guidance; it’s selfish not to provide it. She’s taken so long already. And yet...

Jaune beats her to voicing the thought: “I know we should probably wake them, but-- can it be just the two of us, for just a little longer? Please?”

She smiles, and brings a hand up to caress his cheek. “I thought you’d never ask.”