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zaptrapp · 3 years

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Vin’s Bad Batch Rant -ep 1

Welcome to this part of Tumblr where, after I watch each BB episode, I’ll give you my detailed (yeah lmao as if) analysis and emotional ramble. SPOILERS AHEAD!! Let’s gooo (this is gonna be a long one, 70 minutes of ep!!):

First of all HOW DARE THEY. Filoniiiiii.

I was NOT expecting to start with a mission right before Order 66 are you fucking kidding me? I immediately went “Nope, not doing this.”

Look at the initial flashback of the clone wars. I was shaking, too many memories.

I haven’t watched Rebels but I know some things and I know who Caleb is. So HI Padawan Caleb, good to see you. But... wasn’t Kanan’s skin complex a bit darker?

It’s going nicely, some comedy thrown in, The Bad Batch being wholesome and just destroying clankas! Tech is growing on me.

Master Billaba why are you so disappointed omg ahah thank them immediately!?!?

Yo I fucking swear, I swear to god that when tbb was leaving and the Captain turned to receive Order 66 I jumped from the seat so fast. Like I yeeted myself so fucking far you cannot understand. Literally, fuck fuck fuck this. My anxiety and ptsd from the clone wars went 📈📈📈📈📈📈

Rip Jedi Master Billaba.

Run Caleb, just run.

(I’m so fucking glad to see The Bad Batch is immune to Order 66. Like so glad.)

Ok Crosshair and Hunter go rescue Mr Padawan there.

CROSSHAIR WHAT THE FUCK CHIILLLLL

nope nope nope this is not going well. I was wrong, I fucked up, I spoke too soon.

“Good soldiers follow orders” noooooooo

Hunter being wholesome omg, what a dad energy he has. I already love him.

Omg Hunter’s scream when Kanan jumps.

Crosshair literally chill dude, let’s all vibe together.

Also uhm... it hurts to see them all so pale. Please for the love of god fix that, it’s unsettling.

The way they return to Kamino so oblivious of what’s going on. It hurts

“Coruscant guard is here” YES SHOW ME FOX YOU COWARDS

Uhm.... Filoni can we talk for a second? Yeah I would like to ask you WHY? Y’know, was it really necessary to show the corpse of a dead Jedi and the hand with the lightsaber falling off? This scene is gonna be stuck in my mind forever. I’m crying.

Can we also talk about the music? Haunting, a masterpiece throughout the whole episode.

This is not a kid’s show.

Love that they have their own personal barrack filled with their stuff, so precious. Plus the Tooka doll, omg😩

The amount of times I’ve said “Crosshair chill” by now is over 9000. Spoiler: it gets worse.

Absolutely love the tension between Hunter and Crosshair. Live for these moments.

Tech listing the characteristics of his mates and then “my exceptional mind” LMAO brag about it.

“The attempt on my life has left me scarred and deformed”. “You can say that again” Wrecker OMG I wheezed. Echo’s like “bruh”. That’s what I need. Right here. God I love this.

“Still don’t think the regs are programmed?” This part made me shiver. It literally terrifies me. Also Tech is growing so much on me...

Hello Omega, nice to meet you.

“adolescent human female” Tech what the fuck it’s just a girl.😂 I love her accent and her smile! And she’s a medical assistant, love that too!!!!!!

Omega really said 😃😃👋🏼👋🏼

Here comes Tarkin ugh

Why does it hurt to see regular clones without helmet? Probably cause they all look like Fives, Kix, and the others. My heart is crying

Also, why is no one bald anymore? Guess that’s old fashioned uh... (yeah I know it’s because they want them to have no characterization whatsoever, but what’s wrong in being bald?) I miss my bald-with-crazy-tattooes- regs❤️

“Hello again” 😁😁👋🏼👋🏼 the way they look at her LMAO 😶😐😑🤔😕

Food fight, yay! (Crosshair was just trying to chill but ooop guess it’s time to fight)

EXCUSE ME?!?!?

No seriously. They really threw AZ in curing Echo’s injury??? You don’t know how much I was crying. I thought they were gonna throw a “Fives” in and I wasn’t ready at all, not now. Glad they didn’t but still... fuck me Filoni

Look at Echo’s reaction. Fuck. He’s scared as hell, probably though he was back on Skako Minor being a lab rat.

Yeah what a shocking revelation for them AZ.

Headcanon: Tarkin hates his life. He’s so bitter.

The fact that they’re being tested against real threats and guns while they have stupid toy guns it’s so fucking wrong and ridiculous.

“Five are all that remain” but Echo’s not genetically enhanced. That means... (i was putting 2 and 2 together)

Here we go with a mission... this stinks from miles away just telling you

Omega and Hunter talks, ughh the feelings

The way Omega calls softly Hunter’s name ugh I’m sold. They already have a bond “something about her I can’t figure out.” 😩😩

“I guess kids aren’t your area of expertise” Crosshair what a subtle shade😂

Crosshair was not really going to shoot at kids and elder people. Right?

Oh hello Saw, good to see ya. Always a pleasure.

GENERAL SKYWALKER AND CAPTAIN REX mention here we goooo🤪🤪🤪

This is chilling and unsettling....

Great a snitch droid or whatever the fuck that is.

*dramatic stare between Crosshair and Hunter* plus toothpick action going on

Crosshair literally stfu

And here’s Tech dropping facts. Omega’s an enhanced clone. I wonder how they made it possible for her to be a female taking Jango’s DNA but whatever, this is Star Wars.

I am legitimately pissed that Crosshair threw away the toothpick. Justice for toothpick.

Omg she found a picture of the squad😭😭😭😭😭 flashback to Rex’s picture with Echo, Fives and Cody I’m crying

Look at them walking right into the trap.

Hunter looks totally offended but c’mon, you know what you were going against.

Yo, I’m really here trying not to SIMP and they fucking throw TBB in their blacks on my face. I don’t have to look at them, I don’t have to— HELLO HUNTER, how’s you booty doing?

Crosshair CHILL amigo ok io quando mi incazzo devo passare all’italiano quindi o ti calmi o ti calmi, capito brooo??!! Le bestemmie che mi fai tirare.

Ok he’s struggling, I see that. No need to be an ass tho 😶

“I know it’s not your fault. You can’t help it.” Yes I’m crying why aren’t you. The way he looks at her... I’m dead.

CT-9904. Okay... also why did they have to kick Hunter. He’s so precious, trying to defend him regardless of him being under the effect of the chip.

Oh shit oh fuck oh shit here we go. (I didn’t want to watch this part.)

Ehm, Hunter why did you have to lay down like that, you sexy beast. I’m waiting for a gifset of him like that. I’m waiting.

Not Omega copying his moves😂😂😂😂😂

“Abnormal individual” lmao the look on Tech and Hunter’s faces. So done.

Ugh the anxiety is spiraling in me. Also how did they suit up so fast lmao.

Oh no. Oh no. NO NO NO

oh shit.

He looks good tho ngl🥴 (toothpick’s back.)

Oh the look on Hunter’s face, the music... breaks my heart.

Oh I was kinda ready for this part but still..... 😭😩

Yo can you not throw the toothpick away in every damn scene please? That’s my emotional support character object.

Yo jumpscare I lost 10 years of my life what the fuck

The amount of times Wrecker got hurt just in this episode is concerning.

Your move. AHHHHHH

Yoooo Omega with that blaster rifle saved the day😃✨

BYE Crosshair see ya later 💔

Kaminoans hiding to the Empire that BB escaped? This is gonna be no good I’m telling you

Omega is precious. Must be protected.

Dad Hunter DAD HUNTER DAD HUNTER IM SOBBING

Short list of friends. One is on coordinates J-19. Saleucami sector system. CUT LAWQUANE confirmed. Fuck yes. I’m happy. Now I can rest.

Sike I will never rest. Strap in and let’s gooo

Well well well. I LOVED IT. FILONI THANKS FOR THE UNWANTED FEELINGS that made me remind I’m a human capable of emotions❤️ I owe you one but I’m also hurt and also in love. Yes, there are things that did not sit really nicely with me: the obvious whitewashing, Omega being a clone of Jango (yes I was kinda expecting it but as I think through about it... makes less sense. Literally how?), but overall I enjoyed it.

Also if you wanna chat about TBB and feelings dm me or send in an ask! See ya bad bitches💕💕

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aimeelouart · 3 years

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So I see you produce a lot of stuff (fics and art and ideas). Do you consume as well? Can you tell us some of your favourite fics or link to favourite fanarts etc?

That I do! I actually have something of an encyclopedic knowledge of the current body of FF7 fics on Ao3 because that’s...pretty much all I read over the summer (that’s a lie--FF7 fics were the ONLY thing I read over the summer). I’ll focus on FF7 here because it’s my current obsession but feel free to ask about other fandoms I post/write/have bookmarks for.

Top Fics that I would die for

1) The Best Laid Plans by Loralei_Dawson I cannot stress this enough. I would die for this fic. Cloud goes back in time but the process kind of scrambles his brain like an egg. He’s semi-aware of how absolutely insane he is, but also thinks he’s being perfectly rational while all the outside POVs are like “good god what the hell is going on with this child” as he unceremoniously installs himself in the Tower and repeatedly attempts to assassinate a baffled and concerned Sephiroth. Features Genesis the certified Cloud wrangler. I love it so much that I even made art for it

2) Terrorism and Anarchy by VarianN Cloud Strife is a badass motherfucker and this fic exemplifies that. He goes back in time to his cadet days and promptly yeets himself into the slums, much to Zack’s concern. He then proceeds to play a very amusing game of cat-and-mouse with the Turks and SOLDIERs by keeping them guessing about whether or not he’s the mysterious “CS Delivery” who’s exploding reactors left and right.

3) The Fifth Act by Sinnatious Cloud goes back in time (are you noticing a theme here?) and heals Genesis, but is unable to heal anyone else. He gets cornered into joining SOLDIER and kind of...wanders around in a vague haze completing missions and being forcibly befriended by the SOLDIERs? This poor boy needs a serious nap.

4) Angel in the Rafters by skadren (finally, an author who exists on Tumblr! ...that I can’t tag. Well then.) This one is in my bookmarks as “the one where Sephiroth is a possessive dumbass.” Cloud is also a dumbass. Everyone else is just along for the ride. Anyway, Cloud goes back, has wings, is around bby!Seph for a little while before getting slam-dunked back into his corporeal bby!Cloud body. A whole lot of shenanigans goes on as Cloud runs around avoiding Shinra and exploding reactors. Gen content is typically where my heart lives, but this one is Seph/Cloud (after they stop being MASSIVE DUMBASSES ABOUT IT >:I)

5) Son by @sheseesinthedark Am I biased toward this because she-sees is one of my co-authors on Saving Subject C? Surprisingly, no. She-sees is just massively talented at spinning up complexly interwoven narratives. Vincent goes back to rescue bby!Seph from the labs and raise him and OOF it is BEAUTIFUL. Things just keep escalating as what seems on the surface to be a relatively straightforward and simple narrative slowly becomes as complex and beautiful as a tapestry, all building toward a suspenseful zenith.

6) just be still with me by @rainbowcarousels

Excuse me how does this not have like 3,000 kudos??? ASGZC which started out as a cute and funny sort of get-together fic and then MORPHED into a masterful plot-driven fic. The characterization is just so delicious! I even made art for it.

7) N7 SOLDIER by @screamingvikings Actually you know what just go read literally everything by ScreamingVikings. She writes like (and is, iirc) a published author. N7 SOLDIER is, you guessed it, a crossover of Mass Effect and FF7 where Shepard ends up on Gaia post-ME3. Her Shep is delightful and I very much enjoyed watching that lady get really fucking offended at how Shinra runs its military.

8) Cadet Strife’s Adventures in the Big City by Munchkin47 Seph/Cloud soulmate AU that made me laugh so hard I literally injured myself. Cloud tries very hard to ignore Sephiroth after the revelation of their matching soul marks, but Sephiroth refuses to be ignored and recruits his friends into helping him seduce his hilariously avoidant soulmate.

9) The World that Never Will Be by @tocasia Kingdom Hearts/FF7 crossover (does that even count as a crossover considering Nomura’s fuckery? Whatever) that totally makes me ship Aqua/Sephiroth. They meet in the Realm of Darkness and everyone makes questionable decisions all over the place, honestly. But it’s so ridiculously well written and deserves WAY more love than it’s gotten so far.

10) Draw With Me by XpaperplaneX Cloud is in the labs with Seph and they basically adopt each other and become inseparable to the point that Cloud is with Seph in the OG plot while Zack is the protagonist. It’s really fucking cute okay. And also sad. But I love me some gen content.

11) Stick ‘em with the pointy end by @tyrantchimera All of AVALANCHE goes back in time...as tonberries. I think that’s all I really need to say to get you to go give this the amount of love it DESERVES. Prepare to laugh until you throw up.

12) Another Day, a New Dawn by MollyPollyKinz Zack is the one to go back in time here and he’s trying SO HARD but Angeal and the others cotton on pretty much immediately and are like “??? is he okay???” Spoilers: no. He’s not okay. I especially love Angeal in this one.

Ok I’ll stop myself at 12 recs. If you want more recs look at my bookmarks list! On Ao3! Most of them use my own tag system and have short summaries/commentary in the descriptions (except the ones I need to catch up on, oops!)

#ask #written reply #fic rec #FF7 fic recs

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let-it-raines · 4 years

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your wonder under summer skies (13/18)

Summer in Storybrooke, Maine means one thing for its residents: tourist season. This year, for Emma Swan and Killian Jones, it means relationships ending and friendships changing all the while they attempt to figure out just what their relationship is. It’s somewhere straddling the line between friends and lovers, and there’s no guarantee of a soft landing if they fall into new territory.

rating: mature

ao3: beginning | current

Tumblr: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |

-/-

“Okay, so I would recommend doing a buffet. I know a lot of people stupidly think that’s tacky, but it’s not. That way you have a constant flow of food and people aren’t sitting down waiting. The one thing you don’t want is people tapping their foot waiting for you two to be done with pictures so they can eat.”

“Do pictures take that long?” Liam asks.

“Oh my God, Liam,” Anna sighs through the phone, “we have been over this. Yes, pictures do take that long. This is a special day, and you’re going to want to remember it from every possible angle. Plus, you have to have pictures with family and friends, and it’s not a simple thing with a one, two click. Don’t you ever listen? I feel like you have to listen. You better be listening when my sister is trying to talk to you. She deserves a man who listens.”

“Anna, take a breath,” Elsa sighs.

“I don’t know how you’re planning a wedding with this man. I feel like I have to keep repeating myself.”

“You know,” Emma murmurs, rolling her eyes at Elsa, “there is also the option to have all of the pictures done before the actual ceremony. A lot of couples are doing that now. You can have private time with each other so that Liam isn’t seeing Elsa for the first time in front of all of these people, and it can also streamline the time between the ceremony and the reception.”

“But that first look during the ceremony is so special!” Anna whines. “You don’t want to miss out on that!”

Elsa looks up from her phone to look at Liam, and they seem to have some kind of silent conversation. Emma meets with different couples several times a week, sometimes several times a day, and while she’s used to there being questions and disagreements, she’s not used to have the bride’s professional event planner sister asking a million and two questions over FaceTime.

It’s fine, really. Anna is lovely, but she’s a lot to deal with. Emma is so used to spending time with Elsa and it being calm and soothing, so this is throwing her for a bit of a loop.

At least Liam is being nice. He’s been…kinder lately. Emma should question it when he usually likes to be a bit of an ass to her, but she’s not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Why did she just think that phrase?

Why is that even a phrase to begin with? Who is look a horse in the mouth? Why is it a gift?

“I think taking pictures before the actual ceremony sounds nice,” Elsa finally says, “and so does the buffet. Do you have servers or is it self-serve?”

“We have servers so people aren’t sticking their hands in the food.”

“Perfect. Can you remind me again of the contingency plan for if it rains?”

Elsa and Liam spend another forty-five minutes talking about different options and scenarios with Emma, most of that time spent talking with Anna and listening to plans, but eventually, they’ve covered everything they can and are ready to leave. Emma’s got an appointment with another couple in fifteen minutes, so when Elsa and Liam walk out of her office, she expects them to walk away and go back to work.

She decidedly does not expect Liam to linger around.

“Did you forget something?” Emma laughs, leaning against her doorframe.

“Oh, nothing big. Elsa simply forgot to ask if you were going to bring a date. Anna’s got her obsessing over making sure the envelopes are all addressed correctly, and for some reason she was tripping up over yours.”

“I promise you that I will not be weirdly offended if you guys give me an envelope that says Emma Swan instead of Emma Swan and guest. And tell her not to stress about that stuff. If someone gets offended over how an envelope is addressed, you probably don’t want them at your wedding to begin with.”

Liam chuckles and leans down against the arm of the chair that sits outside she and Mary Margaret’s office. “So, no date?”

“Eh, I don’t know. I’ve still got a month. Maybe I’ll magically fall in love again. Or at least meet a cute guy who would look good on my arm. Or, hey, maybe I can take Killian. He’s a good dancer, would be a hell of a wedding date. I feel like we should probably be each other’s default wedding dates at this point, you know?”

Liam’s smile falters, but it’s just for a second. If she wasn’t used to having to try to read him, she wouldn’t have noticed because just as quickly as it falters, the smile reappears. “He’s seeing someone, you know, so who knows? He might take her.”

“The same someone?” Emma asks before she can stop herself.

“I think so. You still don’t know who she is? I mean – you know, never mind. I told Killian I would stop interfering with his personal life, and I meant it. I can’t keep going behind his back and trying to get information from his friends.”

Emma arches a brow, and she takes a deep breath. Her heart is racing all of the sudden, and she desperately needs it to calm down.

Is this why Liam is being nicer? Because he and Killian had some kind of talk about Liam being too much into Killian’s business? She knew they got into an argument, but how does that translate to her?

Fuck.

Did Killian tell Liam that she was the one he was sleeping with?

No, no, that wouldn’t make sense. Then Liam wouldn’t be asking her if she knew who it was. He can be invasive, but he’s not about to go all FBI or something on her. And Killian wouldn’t do that. It’s against their rules.

“I think that’s probably a good idea on your part,” Emma sighs, pushing off the doorframe. “I don’t know if I’m bringing a date or not yet. Tell Elsa to stop freaking out over the little things, and if Anna gets to be too much, I’m always here to talk about the practical side of things.”

“Thank you for all of this, by the way.”

“It’s my job, but I’m happy to do it. Now go, Elsa is waiting on you, and I’m sure Killian is tired of manning the office by himself.”

“Please,” Liam laughs, “he and Skipper are probably enjoying the silence.”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t going to say that. I’m technically supposed to keep my clients happy. Once I’m off the clock, though, all bets are off.”

“I understand. Goodbye, Emma.”

“Bye.”

Emma waves him away, and as soon as he turns the corner down the hall, she sees her next couple. They’re early. They almost always are, and she thinks they might have the same enthusiasm as Anna does…if not more since they ask for yet another tour of the entire grounds because they’re just not sure of what exactly it is that they want yet.

It takes some kind of herculean strength not to scream since this is the fifth tour she’s given them, and their wedding isn’t until next July.

That’s a year that she has to deal with them.

A year.

Why does she do this again?

Oh, yeah, because most days it’s not that bad, and she usually doesn’t go down the wormhole that is thinking the entire wedding industry is a sham and wondering why people get married in the first place.

Is it for the wedding or the actual marriage?

For at least half of her clients, it’s only for the wedding. She’s obviously not some kind of expert on healthy relationships and only does this because she isn’t qualified to do much else that will pay her this well, but at least she knows that it’s fucked up.

When she finally gets the Taylors out of the club, Emma sighs in relief.

And her stomach growls.

It’s the middle of the afternoon, but she hasn’t eaten all day. Damn, she could go for whatever it is they served for lunch in the dining halls today, even if it’s probably cold right now. Emma checks her phone to make sure she doesn’t have any emails or last-minute appointments, and then she heads down the hallways and through the nearly empty main dining room to get to the kitchen.

Her phone dings in her hand, and she stops walking to look at it.

Killian: Why is my brother asking you if you’re bringing a date to his wedding?

Emma: He said something about Elsa being worried about how to address the envelope.

Emma: Wait. How do you know about that?

Emma: Did he tell you that I said I was bringing you? Because I was joking? Kind of. I don’t actually have a date or plan on having one, but you would technically be the most fun date of anyone in the city.

Killian: Why, Swan, are you asking me out?

Emma: Shut up.

Killian: I would love to go with you, for what it’s worth. I promise I’ll be a better wedding date than your last one.

Emma: That’s not much of a bar you have to leap over.

Emma: Do you want to get dinner tonight? I get off at seven.

She waits for the little bubbles to pop up immediately like they have been, but they don’t. Emma doesn’t think anything of it and stuffs her phone in the back pocket of her jeans and starts walking toward the kitchen again only to see Neal and his dad sitting at the table closest the kitchen entrance.

Dammit.

She should have gone through the back doors, but this way was closer.

What the hell is he doing here?

This is where she works.

Yeah, it’s a public place (if you pay a ridiculous member’s fee, which they unfortunately pay), but something being a public place doesn’t mean he can show up whenever he wants to.

This is her space, not his. They broke up, and there’s got to be some kind of unwritten rule that he simply doesn’t show up to her place of work.

He’s already always at Granny’s, which is bad enough, and then there was the fair and the one time she saw him when she had to go to Target for some new pillows.

But this? This is different?

They could have lunch at fifty different places, and the asshole knows it.

He also knows that she’s just spotted him because he’s staring right at her.

Shit.

Does she turn around and walk away or does she walk straight toward them, ignore them, and then head into the kitchen where she hopes Neal has the decency not to follow her in?

Emma doesn’t really get to make the choice, though, because Neal is standing from his chair and walking right toward her, the smile she used to love plastered on his face.

Was it always that disturbing? Did it always look so much like his dad’s?

“Emma,” he calls out. She bites her tongue. She cannot say anything dumb here. It could get her fired. His family are members here, and she doesn’t think Regina is going to give her a pass because of her personal business with them. In fact, she knows that she won’t. “Hey, how are you doing?”

“Wonderful,” Emma says. It’s not a lie. She’s not doing wonderful at this particular moment, but in general, she’s a lot better than she was the last time she was this physically close to him. “Are you enjoying your lunch? Is there anything that I can get you?”

His head tilts to the side, and his smile widens. “Oh, come on, Ems, you don’t have to be in work mode with me. We’re friends.”

Emma grits her teeth and takes another deep breath. She’s sure everyone in Storybrooke can hear them. Her dentist is going to be thrilled. “We are not friends, Neal. You ended any chance of that when you started sleeping with someone else and started working with your dad again. We’ve been over this, and I really don’t feel like repeating myself again.”

“You’re not still mad about that, are you?”

Seriously.

How is this the same man that she fell in love with? Was she blind to all of this? To how absolutely inconsiderate he is about so much?

“I don’t let you take up that much space in my head anymore, but you can’t honestly believe that I’m just going to forgive you for all that you did.”

His eyes roll. They actually roll.

He’s the one who fucked up, and he’s the one who is trying to act like they’re friends. Yet he’s also the one who’s exasperated by her pushback.

What an asshole.

“It’s not like you waited around long after you ended things before you started fucking Jones? And come on, you always told me there was nothing going on between the two of you, but that’s obviously bullshit.”

What the hell?

How does he…no, there’s no way that Neal could know. No one knows, and there’s no way Neal, who never paid any attention to the little things in her life, could know.

“I’m not sleeping with Killian,” she lies, “and even if I was, it would be none of your business since it would have happened after I left you.”

“I saw you two walking around at the fair, and he got fucking defensive over it when I suggested it to him. He didn’t say it, but come on, it’s pretty damn obvious.”

Emma swallows the lump in her throat so she can focus on her breathing. It’s the only thing she can focus on right now so she doesn’t punch Neal and knock all of his teeth out.

What an asshole.

How dare he confront Killian like that? Why did Killian not tell her?

You know what? It doesn’t matter why Killian didn’t tell her. What matters is that Neal is the worst.

“Neal,” she says slowly, her teeth grinding, “you lost any right to know who I am or am not sleeping with the moment you fucked someone else, so please, unless you need something from the club that only I can give to you, leave me the hell alone.”

He blinks, almost like he’s taken aback by her, and his smile falls.

Good.

“You don’t have to be a bitch about it.”

She opens her mouth, a curse at the tip of her tongue, but there’s a voice in the back of her mind that’s telling her this isn’t worth it. He’s not worth it. She’s got to stop letting him take up so much space in her head like she said she’s not. He doesn’t deserve it.

So, not for the first time, she walks away from Neal.

She walks away, knowing there’s only a half of a chance that he’ll bother to follow him, and she heads toward the kitchen. It means that she has to pass Neal’s dad, and she can feel his eyes on her.

The thing is, she doesn’t care.

That part of her life is over, and she’s not going to lie to herself and say that a part of her doesn’t still hurt and won’t hurt when she has to see Neal and Tamara, but she can’t keep dwelling on it.

This summer has been strangely good, and maybe it’s not all that strange since she’s cut Neal out of her life.

“Emma,” Harry, their head chef, exclaims when she walks into the kitchen, her heartbeat racing, “I’m just about to start dinner. Do you want something in particular?”

“What did we have for lunch? I can’t remember the schedule.”

“Pasta salad.”

“Do we have any of that left?”

“In the fridge. Feel free to help yourself.”

Emma picks up a cookie from the half-empty platter next to her. “You know that I will.”

“A cookie before dinner? Are we celebrating something?”

Emma laughs and takes another bite. “Just having a good day is all.” “Well, kid, I hope that continues for you.”

-/-

“Hello?” Emma calls out as she pushes open the front door of Jones Brothers’ Boating. The obnoxious as hell bell goes off, so everyone downstairs should be able to hear that someone has come inside, but no one comes out of any of the offices, not even Skipper.

Huh.

“Killian,” she says as she starts walking down the hallway. “KJ! Are you around?”

There’s still no answer, and when Emma checks the back offices, there’s no one in any of them. She decides to walk up the stairs to the apartment, but when she tries to turn the knob, she realizes that it’s locked.

She’s got a key, could easily let herself in, but if the apartment is locked, that means no one is home.

Where the hell are they?

Emma pulls her phone out of her back pocket and hits Killian’s name. It rings once, twice, several more times, and then his voicemail message comes up.

Well, damn.

This is probably why she should have called first, but Killian never texted her back about the two of them getting dinner. He’s almost always free, and if he isn’t, they’re usually plans she can join in on, but he’s obviously MIA tonight.

Emma swipes through her phone again and calls Elsa.

“Hello?” Elsa questions.

“Hey, Elsa. Have you heard from Killian today?”

“He’s in the back of the ice cream shop. Do you need him?”

“Why is he in the back?”

Elsa groans, and then Emma hears some kind of curse that definitely didn’t come from Elsa. “One of my machines broke today, and when Leroy couldn’t fix it, Killian said he’d give it a go. I don’t think it’s working out for him. Hold on. Let me get him for you.”

“Oh, you don’t have – ”

“Killian,” Elsa yells, her voice booming through the speakers, “Emma is looking for you.”

“Fuck,” he mumbles.

Well, that sounds pleasant.

“I’m pretty sure she could hear that,” Elsa laughs.

“Aye, I know. I didn’t text her back about dinner. Give me the phone.” There are a few hushed murmurings, and then Killian’s voice comes in clearer. “Sorry, love. I’m afraid I can’t get dinner tonight.”

“Oh, well, that’s okay. I’ll pick something up and bring it to Elsa’s.”

She hears him click his tongue, and she’s probably imagining things, but she swears that he’s silent for a few seconds too long. “You don’t have to do that. We can do it another night.” “It’s really not a problem. I’m at your place right now, anyways. I can get us salads from Zoey’s. Does that sound good to you?”

“Uh, yeah. That’s fine. I’m not really sure when I’ll have time to eat.”

“Well, maybe my brain power will help us figure out how to fix the machine.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“You okay?” Emma asks, suddenly worried she’s overstepping here.

Does he not want her to come over?

No, that would be ridiculous.

“I’m perfect, love,” Killian sighs, his voice audibly more upbeat now. “I’ll see you when you get here, aye?”

“Yeah, see you when I get there.”

-/-

Elsa’s store is a mess.

Well, the front is still perfect. All of the round tables are clean and perfectly in their spots, the black and white as classic as it always is, and Elsa is still serving customers and doing custom orders for cakes and birthdays. She’s on the phone when Emma walks in, but she smiles and nods to the door that leads to the back of the store.

It is decidedly not perfect.

Mostly because it looks like Killian has taken one of Elsa’s machines apart piece by piece and he has no idea how to put it back together.

His hair is pushed off his forehead, sticking in at least thirty-seven different directions, and his t-shirt is sticking to his skin from his sweat.

He might be the only person to ever sweat here since it’s usually the coldest place in town.

Elsa’s air-conditioning bill must be insane.

“Hey,” Emma greets, putting their salads down on the table and walking up to Killian, pressing up on her toes to kiss him. He doesn’t kiss back at first, but then he’s there, his lips softly sliding over hers while his hand settles on her hip, squeezing her. “I’ve come to your rescue with food and another set of hands.”

“You’re my savior, love.”

“I know.” She kisses him again, this time much briefer, before sitting down on one of the chairs Elsa keeps back here. “Where’s Liam? Why is he not helping?”

“I’m better with fixing things. He’s manning the shop.”

“No one was there when I stopped by.” “What time was that?”

“A little after seven.”

Killian nods and pulls his salad out of the bag. “He was taking Skipper out. Thanks for this, by the way.”

“Not a problem. You think you’re going to be able to fix this?”

“I think I’m nearly there. I’ve tested it out a few times, but it’s all been for naught. Elsa is going to bloody kill me if I keep giving her hope and then take it away.”

Emma pulls their salads out of the bag, taking the lid off hers and pouring some dressing on before putting the lid back so she can shake it. “She’s got the other machines, though. Can’t she still make flavors?”

“Aye,” Killian sighs as he starts tinkering with the machine, “and she’s got a pretty good stock of all of the flavors. It’s not an emergency, but she wanted me to look at it before she called someone to come fix it. It apparently does not come cheap.”

“Look at you coming to the rescue. Getting those brownie points.”

“And access to the freezer.”

“That will balance well with our salads.” Emma stabs some lettuce with her fork. “You will never guess who was dining at the club today.”

“Cindy Crawford.”

“What?” Emma laughs as she takes a bite. “Why would Cindy Crawford be there? Also, that is the most random guess.”

Killian pokes his head out from behind the machine. “You said to guess. You didn’t say it had to be reasonable.”

“Okay, a reasonable guess then.”

“August Booth.”

“No, but that would be interesting. Is he back in town?”

“I have heard the rumor. So, who was dining at the club today?”

“Neal.”

Killian drops whatever tool he’s using, and it bangs against ice cream maker before clattering against the floor and landing near her foot. “Fuck.”

“Exactly my thoughts,” Emma laughs, kicking the screwdriver back to him. “But, you know, it wasn’t that bad. He was an asshole, of course, but it felt kind of good telling him to fuck off. He told me he thought we were sleeping together, which he apparently told you at the fair.”

“Uh, yeah, he did mention that. I denied it, of course.”

“He was always jealous of you. I don’t know why, but he hated when we spent time together.”

“Well, love, I am devilishly handsome. That’s bound to make any man jealous.” Emma rolls her eyes. She can’t see Killian’s face, but she just knows he’s smirking. “None of our actual friends have picked up on it, so there’s no way in hell Neal actually would. He doesn’t pay enough attention to me, never has.” Emma takes another bite and slams her hand down on the table. “But you know what? I don’t care. He can do whatever he wants, because I’m moving on. I’m happy and busy and life is pretty damn good even if I do have to take you as my date to your brother’s wedding.”

She keeps eating, waiting for Killian to say something, to tease her really, but she just hears him muttering to himself as he keeps working.

“You’re still cool with that, right? I know you said you’d love to, but you know, if you start dating someone else, go with her. I don’t mind going by myself.”

Killian pops out from behind the machine and walks toward her, leaning over the table and placing a soft, lingering kiss on her forehead. “There is no one I’d rather go with than you, love.”

“You don’t have to. Seriously. You know our deal.”

His beard scratches over her forehead, and he pulls away. “I know. I’d still be honored to go with you.” He sits down across from her as he opens up his salad. She gets distracted watching him. The lighting in here is all fluorescents, and it shouldn’t be flattering, but Killian’s tan still shows up, his eyes are still ridiculously blue, and there’s still something so charming about his smile. She watches it as it falls into a flat line, almost curving down into a frown, but then she sees the curve tick upward. “I’m glad you’re happy, Emma. I’ve always wanted that for you.”

She nods, unsure of what to say. “You too, KJ. You know what would make me extra happy?”

“What?” “If you could steal me some of Elsa’s birthday cake ice cream later.”

“Your heart’s desire, love. That’s all I want you to have.”

-/-

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#your wonder under summer skies #cs fic #cs ff #cs fanfic #captain swan fic #captain swan ff #captain swan fanfic #captain swan

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ollieofthebeholder · 3 years

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leaves too high to touch (roots too strong to fall): a TMA fanfic

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Chapter 29: Sasha

Nobody in the Archives says anything, but a subtle change starts coming over the team after Michael’s unexpected visit. Jon starts spending more and more of his time in his office and seems tense and fidgety whenever they go in to talk to him, or he comes out to talk to them. Tim’s body language becomes more and more closed-off and his jokes become rarer and with an edge to them that’s never been there before. Martin seems mostly himself, but there’s a desperate, almost frantic eagerness to please about him that hasn’t been there since the first few months they were all in the Archives when he was trying desperately to earn Jon’s tolerance, if not approval.

Sasha makes it three weeks before she cracks.

It’s Tim that’s the final straw, Tim and the look he puts on Martin’s face. They’re winding down for the evening, tidying up their desks and the statements they’ve been dealing with—mostly false, to be honest—and Martin ducks into Jon’s office to remind him of the time, then comes back and informs Tim that Jon is “finishing something up” and won’t be ready to leave for a bit.

Tim shoves a drawer shut. “Fine. He knows the way home then.” He snatches up his files and stomps off to put them back on the shelf.

For just a second, Martin lets his emotions loose from behind the placid look he’s had plastered there lately, and Sasha sees the genuine shock and devastation in his eyes. Tim’s only left Jon behind once in the almost six months since the infestation of the Archives, and she still remembers Martin’s mock-stern look, Tim’s teasing smirk, and Jon’s sheepish grin as they told her about having to literally talk him out of the building. Hell, he barely lets—or let, anyway—Sasha walk out of the Archives alone after she stopped living with them; his protective-slash-herding instincts have been in overdrive. And both he and Martin worry about Jon’s health and safety, a lot. Bad enough that Tim is—seemingly—willing to leave Jon behind. Worse that he’s essentially making Martin choose between them. Sasha actually can’t guess which way he’ll go.

“Right, that does it,” she says abruptly. She looks at Martin and waves at Jon’s office. “Go get Jon out of his office.”

“He’s in the middle of—”

“He’ll come if you ask him,” Sasha says certainly. “But you’ll have to ask him.”

Martin frowns. “Why?”

“Because you’re the one he trusts most right now.” For a second, Sasha feels a little…not lightheaded, exactly, but the same sensation she gets when she drinks a glass of champagne too fast. It’s a feeling that’s been increasingly common lately, so as usual, she ignores it and keeps talking. “The only recording he has of Tim from before that table was delivered is the one we did the night after Jane Prentiss attacked, and he can’t bring himself to relisten to it, so he’s got no real proof Tim hasn’t been taken over by that thing the Primes mentioned. And even though he knows you and I are still ourselves, he’s a little on edge around me because I’ve been more distant than the two of you have been. So while he doesn’t really think any of us are out to get him, you’re definitely the only one who’s going to be able to pry him out of his shell like the stubborn mollusk he is.”

Martin stares at her for a moment, then nods. “Yeah, okay,” he says quietly.

He gets up from his desk and goes over to Jon’s office. Sasha gets up, too, puts on her jacket, and then goes over to the trapdoor and unearths the handle, but doesn’t open it yet. Instead, she heads back to their cluster of desks, grabs a torch out her drawer, and waits.

Martin, accompanied by Jon, comes towards her just as Tim comes back out of the shelves. Sasha doesn’t hesitate. She grabs Tim’s arm in an iron grip and jerks her head at Martin. “Come on. This way.”

“Sasha, what the hell—” Tim begins, but Sasha doesn’t give him a chance to argue further. She drags Tim over to the trapdoor, yanks it open, and half-shoves him down ahead of her.

“Come on,” she repeats over her shoulder, then starts down the steps herself. Behind her, she can hear Martin coaxing Jon into heading down under the floor, and then the door shuts behind them, leaving them in darkness for a split second before Sasha clicks on her torch.

She doesn’t bother knocking on the first door they come to, just turns the knob and opens it. The Primes start up from a nest of blankets, blinking sleep out of their eyes, which, okay, she should have expected. They aren’t exactly nocturnal, but they also don’t have cell phones anymore—not that there’s service in the tunnels anyway—so they tend to sleep when they feel like and get up when they want, and since they can’t come out into the Archives safely during business hours, they ordinarily don’t wake up until close to the time the team is usually packing up to leave. All of which is something they’ve certainly told her at some point and she’s filed away for later use and just never thought about until now. They both look slightly panicked, likely because neither one of them has the slightest clue who just barged in.

“This,” Sasha announces, releasing Tim’s arm and pulling the door shut behind Jon and Martin, “is an intervention.”

“Sasha, Christ, you scared the piss out of us.” Martin Prime sighs.

“Sorry,” Sasha says, even though she isn’t particularly. “I just thought we ought to do this somewhere the Ceaseless Watcher…couldn’t.”

Jon Prime feels about and locates two pairs of glasses. He slides one of them onto his face, then hands the other to Martin Prime before getting to his feet. “An intervention for what?” he asks, sounding weary.

“Yeah, an intervention for what?” Tim echoes. He sounds pissed. Tough.

Sasha folds her arms over her chest and glares at him. “That’s part of it. You’re acting like the world has personally offended you and you’re taking it out on the three of us. And you”—she turns her glare on Jon and waves a finger at him, which he flinches back from like she’s flung a knife at him—“are twitchier than the most neurotic statement-givers we’ve ever had down here. It’s getting ridiculous and it stops now.”

“Oh, does it?” Tim snarls. “What makes you think it works like that?”

“It’s going to work like that if I have to knock your fool heads together,” Sasha snaps back. “You can’t keep going on like this. We don’t deserve your attitude—”

“My attitude?”

“—and you don’t need to be so suspicious—”

“I beg your pardon?” Jon bristles at her.

“—so enough is enough—”

“You expect me to believe—” Jon’s voice is rising with every word.

“—anything to worry about—” Tim is waving a finger at her.

“Guys, come on,” Martin says pleadingly, but it gets lost under the flurry of words from the others.

“I’ve got one of those, too.” Sasha brandishes her own finger at Tim. “You can’t—”

“—what you’re hiding—”

“—all calm down and—”

“—don’t even care—”

“—trying to work while you—”

“—never see what you’re—”

“—lack of oversight—”

“Everybody shut up!” Martin Prime shouts.

The silence is almost deafening as all four of them turn to look at Martin Prime. His eyes are closed and he’s massaging his temples. “Look, if you’re in here having this talk, it’s because you want us to be involved in it, and I cannot follow the conversation if you’re all talking at once. Frankly, I doubt any of you can either, but I can’t focus on who’s saying what and it all blends together. If you don’t want us involved, fine, go find another room to argue in, but if you’re going to do this in here, knock it off. You are going to have to take turns.”

Sasha’s never actually heard Martin—either Martin—raise his voice, which definitely serves to make her pause. They all stand in silence for a long moment before Tim speaks. “Fine. I’ll start. You want to talk about my attitude? Let’s talk about my attitude. Or better yet, let’s talk about your attitudes, towards this whole…situation.”

“What?” Martin and Jon speak at the same time, Martin sounding confused and worried and Jon deadly calm.

“We are working for the evil embodiment of knowledge,” Tim grates out. “You know that. You know the more we learn about this shit, the deeper we go! And none of you are even hesitating—”

“Tim, it’s our job,” Martin tries. “We—”

“You’re not even trying to resist it!” Tim shouts, wheeling around to face Martin as he clenches his hands into tight fists.

Martin flinches. No, that’s too mild a word for it. Martin recoils, cringing back away from Tim and curling inward on himself, shoulders hunched, arms wrapped protectively around his midsection, head turned sharply to one side, eyes screwed shut, lips pressed tightly together. He looks up just as quickly as he looked away, eyes wide and wet. His pupils are so blown out they almost swallow his irises whole, and his skin is paper white, throwing every freckle into relief so stark they look almost three-dimensional. It obviously costs him a great deal to make eye contact with Tim, but he manages it, and something about his posture…

It hits Sasha in the same moment it hits Tim, judging by the sudden shift in Tim’s expression. Martin has braced himself to take a blow. He actually expects Tim—Tim—to lay a hand on him. Since Sasha knows it’s not anything Tim has ever done in the past that makes Martin think that, it must be something from further back, and she’s struck with a sudden, powerful desire to take a trip up to Devon and find out if all the true crime stuff she reads in her spare time will make it easier for her to commit a homicide and not get caught.

The anger drains out of Tim’s face, replaced with shock and remorse. “Oh, God,” he chokes out. “Martin, I—I didn’t—” He starts to reach out, then evidently realizes that won’t help and runs his hands through his hair. “I’m sorry. It’s just…I’ve been watching all three of you. I-I told you the other day, I see your face—all your faces—when you’re looking into some of this stuff, and…I’m scared. I’ve already lost one person I care about to this. I don’t want to lose anyone else.” He takes a deep breath. “And—I feel like I’m watching you all die right in front of me.”

“Oh, Tim,” Jon Prime murmurs. He sounds—and looks—heartbroken, and Sasha remembers the careful way the Primes picked around talking about Tim that first day. She wonders if Tim Prime felt the same way, and if they ever got this conversation. From the pinched look on Martin Prime’s face as he wraps his arm around Jon Prime’s waist, she somehow doubts it.

Martin’s lip trembles, and he swallows twice before he manages to speak in a small, shaking voice. “It’s not—i-it’s hard, Tim. I’m t-trying, but…I think it’s too late for me. Even before…even before we knew, I was…” He closes his eyes and turns his head away for a moment, evidently fighting back the tears. “I thought it was just wanting to prove myself. Now I don’t know. But i-if I don’t dig into things deep enough, it hurts. And I don’t know how to stop it.” He looks up and turns to Martin Prime, but without, Sasha notices, relaxing his protective posture. “Was it…was it like that for you?”

Martin Prime hesitates, then nods. “I think so. It’s hard to be sure, since, you know, I didn’t know what we were up against for longer, but by the time I started thinking maybe this wasn’t a great idea and I should stop…I couldn’t.”

“My God,” Jon Prime breathes. “I-I didn’t realize…was it like that for the others?”

“Maybe? It’s not like we sat around and compared notes. And I was definitely in it deeper than everyone else, even before things got bad.”

“Jesus.” Tim tugs at his hair for a moment, then lets his hands drop to his sides. “I am sorry, Martin. A-and you, too,” he adds, looking at Jon, then at Sasha. “You’re right, you don’t deserve…I just, it’s always been an issue with me. I get scared and it comes out as anger. I’m not angry at you. Not really. I mean…maybe I was, a little, but mostly it’s the whole…situation. I feel so damned helpless. I didn’t know anything about what Danny was involved in, so I couldn’t do anything to save him, and I lost him. Now I do know what’s going on, and I still can’t do anything to stop it.” He takes a deep breath. “I—I’ll try to talk it out before it gets this bad again.”

“Thank you,” Martin says softly.

“That helps,” Jon mutters. “A bit.”

“Right, your turn,” Sasha says, turning to face him. “What’s got you so on edge?”

Jon stiffens. “I beg your pardon?”

“Come on, Jon. You’re as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a rocking chair factory. I half expect to go into your office and see you with a map covered in pins and string. And I don’t get it.” Sasha ticks off points on her fingers. “You know who killed Gertrude Robinson, so it isn’t like you suspect one of us, let alone suspect us of trying to kill you. You’ve been obsessively playing every tape you can find from before that table got delivered that has one of us on it, over and over, so you know our voices by heart and know we haven’t been taken over, except for Tim because you can’t bring yourself to re-listen to the tape you made after Jane Prentiss attacked, but you’ve got that Polaroid we took on your birthday last year stuck in the bottom drawer with your backup recorder, so—”

“How do you know that?” Jon interrupts, a slight edge to his voice and his eyes widening.

Sasha stops, runs through what she just said, and covers her mouth with one hand. “Oh, shit.”

“You say things like this and I’m supposed to, what, not be suspicious? Not worry that I’m just…hearing what I want to hear on the tapes and you’re not—” Jon waves a hand at her.

“No, I’m—I haven’t been snooping through your office or anything. I just—” Sasha winces and glances at Tim. “I guess I’m…in too deep, too.”

A despairing look flits through Tim’s eyes. “I was afraid of that.”

“Jon, I swear to you, nobody in this room has it out for you,” Sasha says, turning back to her boss. “And I think the evidence is on the side of ‘I would know’. You know that, too. I told Martin earlier you don’t really suspect any of us, I know you don’t. I’d even go so far as to say I capital-K Know it. The Not-Them isn’t in the Archives. We don’t even have any real evidence that it’s anywhere, that it’s taken over anyone, and if it has it isn’t bothering us—”

“But we don’t know that!” Jon bursts out, gesturing in a way that has Martin taking a half-step back to avoid his flailing hands. “There’s no—it could be anyone in the Institute, it’s not like any of us went around gathering tape recordings or taking Polaroids or anything, so how would we know? How could any of us know? I-it could be anywhere, it could—and it’s not just that thing. Michael just appeared in my office, and even if he was after Helen Richardson, he could come in at any time. Jane Prentiss was living in the walls, my God, she—she was right here all that time, for all those weeks, a-and she could have come in at any time and we never would have known. Breekon and Hope just appeared—Rosie said she had no idea how they got in to deliver the table, and then they came down here and—they could have done anything and I wasn’t even here—” He draws in a sharp breath. “You think you can’t—I-I’m supposed to be in charge. If, if these things can just waltz in whenever they please and I can’t even detect them before it’s too late…it’s bad enough when they come after me, I-I almost want them to come after me, because that means they aren’t going after you. I don’t know what else to do. I can’t keep any of you safe.”

Jon Prime closes his eyes and turns his head towards Martin Prime’s shoulder. The tears brim up in Martin’s eyes, but he blinks them back fiercely. Tim lets out a hiss between his teeth. “And you think we’re going to be okay if you get hurt?”

“No! No, but—God.” Jon closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “I’m scared, too. A-and I’ve never—I’ve always had to deal with this sort of thing alone. So I—I suppose I went too far that way. I was trying to handle it all myself, and…” He looks up and looks at the other three. “I am sorry. I never meant—I thought I was doing the right thing. I didn’t realize I was—”

“Shutting us out?” Sasha supplies.

“Folding in on myself. Scared of things getting down into the Archives, and it started translating into being scared of what was already here. I-it all…compounded.” Jon gives a small, bitter laugh. “I was so desperate to protect you all that I didn’t realize I was making things worse. I-I’ll try to open up a bit more, too.”

Martin’s shoulders sag slightly in evident relief. Tim manages a smile. “Tell you what, boss. I’ll let you know if you’re being an asshole if you’ll do the same for me, deal?”

Jon actually smiles back, a little. “Deal.” The smile fades, though, as he turns to Sasha. “I—while we’re being honest, Sasha…I’m not sure how much I trust you these days. It’s—it’s not that I think you’re…I know you’re still you. You’re right. I know that. But…you’re keeping secrets. I-I’m not saying you’re not allowed to, but…the way you avoid us, it makes me worry about why. What you’re up to.”

A stab of panic hits Sasha, for no real reason. It’s not like it’s a dangerous secret or anything, it’s just…she doesn’t tell her secrets. “It’s not about the job, Jon. I promise.”

“I believe you, but…that doesn’t mean it can’t hurt us. Or you, for that matter. I worry that you’re involved in something that might be…” Jon gestures vaguely at the universe.

“You’re the one with the ability to just know things about people,” Tim points out. “Which means our ability to keep secrets from you has just gone down drastically, not that you weren’t the type to dig them out anyway. Hardly seems fair that you’re the only one who gets to have secrets.”

“Wow, okay.” Sasha frowns at him.

“Sorry, I don’t—” Tim closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “That wasn’t nice. I’m sorry.” He pauses. “Or at least, I’m sorry for how I said it. I think I meant it. Maybe not that harshly, but…”

“Sasha,” Jon Prime says quietly. “Take it from someone who’s been there. It will be a lot easier on you—on all of you—if you trust them with…whatever it is now.”

Sasha is about to say that he doesn’t have to be cagey when she realizes that he doesn’t know either. Her counterpart never told them, and then she was dead and it didn’t matter. Which means their Sasha took her secret to the grave. Something else occurs to her about that, and she can’t hold back a gasp at the sudden lance of pain, covering her mouth with her hand. Oh, God, that means…

“My uncle,” she half-whispers through her fingers. She closes her eyes for a minute, takes a shaky breath, then lowers her hand and tries to speak in a more normal tone. “My mother’s baby brother—he’s only about ten years older than I am. My parents died when I was six and he…he raised me. He taught me everything I know—especially about computers and, well, hacking and all that.” She takes a deep breath. “He’s in prison. Something to do with something he unearthed that he wasn’t supposed to. I don’t know all the details, he won’t tell me and I haven’t wanted to risk digging for them, but he’s been there since 2010. It’s why I came to London in the first place, and it’s why I live where I do—so I can be closer to him.”

“Sash.” Tim sounds shocked and sad. “Why didn’t you ever tell us?”

“I—I don’t know. I’ve always been like that, I suppose. Uncle Wade used to tease me about the way I would dig up secrets, he’d say I should have been named Harriet instead of Sasha. I never did anything with them, I just…liked having them, I guess. But I’ve also always been big on keeping them. It’s like…like it wasn’t a good secret if anyone but me knew it.” Sasha lets out a blow of frustration. “I can’t explain it, Tim. The only answer I can come up with is that I didn’t tell you because then it wouldn’t be a secret. And it’s stupid, and I know that. I should have told you all a long time ago and I’m sorry.” She bites her lip and looks over at the Primes, who both look stricken. “I…I’m guessing, um, Sasha Prime never told you that.”

“No,” Martin Prime says softly. “She never talked about her family. We never knew…” He trails off.

Which means Uncle Wade, in their time, probably never knew what happened to her, Sasha thinks miserably. She suspected as much before, but to have it confirmed…it’s painful. She presses her lips together for a moment, then looks at the others. “If anything happens to me—”

“Nothing’s going to happen,” Jon says sharply, a flash of panic in his eyes.

“But if it does—you’ll make sure he knows?” Sasha swallows. “Wade Copper. HMP Pentonville. Just…promise me that if something happens to me, one of you will tell him. Please.”

Tim swallows, but nods. “Cross my heart.”

Sasha relaxes. “Thank you.” She looks back to the Primes. “I’m sorry. I know I’m technically not the one who didn’t tell you, but…I kind of am? So I’m sorry I never told you, either. I—I don’t know if that would have made things better or worse.”

“Worse, probably,” Jon Prime says, a little distantly. “The Not-Them never went to visit him, or at least not on days when I was…well, stalking it, instead of Tim or Martin. But if I’d known…if I’d thought for a minute about…” He sighs. “There was a lot going on, and I’m afraid I didn’t give a lot of thought to who might need to be notified of our Sasha’s death.”

“Think Elias would have told him?” Tim asks. Sasha can’t tell if he’s joking or not.

“I doubt it,” Jon Prime answers. He sounds bitter. “He probably got more delight out of the uncertainty and fear and anguish your uncle felt, not knowing why you’d suddenly stopped coming to visit, not understanding why no one would talk to him about—”

“Jon,” Martin Prime warns.

Jon Prime pulls up short. “Sorry.”

Sasha shakes her head, not sure what she’s denying. Maybe that he needs to apologize at all. She thinks she’s starting to get it. It’s probably not going to be uncommon for any of them to suddenly blurt out a truth that has the potential to hurt at least one other person in the room, because that’s what the Eye thrives on, is the fear of knowledge. The fear of secrets exposed.

“Is that why I’ve got that aspect of it?” she asks aloud, surprised by the direction her thoughts are trending.

“What?” Jon Prime frowns at her.

“The—you told us that you’ve got all sorts of…weird Archivist powers. You can compel people to tell you things and sense when people have statements for you and sometimes you just Know things without knowing how you know them, right?” Jon Prime nods cautiously, and Sasha continues. “I haven’t noticed me being able to compel anyone, I don’t think I can force people to tell me things or anything like that, but I-I think I’m developing the ability to just…Know things. Like about that Polaroid. I get this weird…fizzy feeling in my mind? Like it’s full of bubbles, or—”

“Or static?” Jon Prime supplies.

Sasha closes her eyes briefly. “God, how did I not think of that?”

“Probably because it never would have occurred to either of us that you might…that that might happen.” Jon Prime glances up at Martin Prime, then back at Sasha. “You’re right. If you’ve all been sharing the recording duties as well as the research duties…well, Jon is still the Archivist and still going to get the lion’s share, but I suspect the rest of you will at least develop something. Possibly not you, Tim, if you stop now.”

“Yeah, not happening,” Tim says, sounding reluctant. “I might not like it, but now that I know…I’m not going to leave my family to do this alone. I’ll help. Damn the consequences.”

Jon manages a small smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “That’s the spirit.”

Sasha smiles, too, then turns to Martin. “What about you?”

Martin blinks, evidently surprised. “Me?”

Sasha gestures around them. “We’ve all been…acting like this. You’ve been acting like yourself, or more accurately like you did when we all started out in the Archives, when none of us knew you yet and you thought you had to prove you belonged here. I don’t need freaky Eye powers to know that you’re trying too hard. We put the burden of…everything on you, and none of us thought about how the way we were behaving might have affected you. So, it’s your turn. What do you need from us?”

Martin stares at her, then at the other two. Tim’s face is still ashen, Jon’s eyes still wide, but they’re both looking at Martin intently—like they can see something about him that Sasha can’t. Which they quite possibly can. Sasha may have been given the gift, or curse, of being able to ferret out secrets and hidden knowledge, but the friendship these three have developed, especially living in such close proximity to one another, has probably given them an understanding of one another that is beyond anything an entity of fear can see. His shoulders slump slightly, his protective posture eases back, and he actually smiles—it’s small, but it’s genuine.

“Actually,” he says, and while his voice shakes, it’s not as bad, “just you having asked means a lot.” He takes a shuddering, steadying breath. “I-it’s just, well, I don’t…do so well alone anymore? I-I mean, I’m trying, but…I don’t think I can actually…” He trails off and doesn’t finish.

“You’re not alone, Martin,” Jon says, his voice cracking slightly. “Not anymore. Not ever again.”

All the tension seems to seep out of Martin in one rush, and his arms drop to his sides as he straightens, like a burden has just dropped off his back. Sasha isn’t sure who moves first, Tim or Jon, but they both reach Martin in almost the same instant and wrap him tightly in a hug. Martin hugs them back, his eyes squeezing shut, but Sasha sees the tear force its way out of the corner and the relief in his face. She realizes he’s been suffering these last few weeks and wonders—have any of them touched him, even briefly? Have any of them touched one another, or have they all been keeping separate and distant?

Whatever the case, Sasha decides that, just this once, she wants to be a part of it. She lets the torch fall heedlessly to the ground and crosses the floor to join the group hug. Someone’s hand curls around her arm, she’s not sure who, but she feels the warmth of her friends—her boys—soak into her body and wonders why she’s gone so long without this.

She raises her head briefly and looks in the direction of the Primes. She can just see them in the torch light glowing up from below; Jon Prime is watching them with a look of mingled warmth and longing. Giving in to impulse, she jerks her head to indicate that they should come closer.

And, for a wonder, he does. They both do, and suddenly there are more arms joining the pile and six people instead of four. Six broken, lonely pieces slotting together to make a single picture. Not quite complete. It may never be complete. But at least there aren’t any holes. Not anymore.

#ollie writes fanfic #leaves too high to touch (roots too strong to fall)#tma #the magnus archives #paranoia cw #anger cw #arguments cw #implied past abuse and all that entails #prison mention

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iwachans-beefyarms · 4 years

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Hey everyone! Ok so first off, I’m really sorry for being hella inactive, it’s been a rough few months with exams and stress and seasonal depression HAHA but i’m better now! Unfortunately tumblr decided to delete a lot of my requests so I’m opening requests up again, so please feel free to drop by!!! This was a fun story to write, and I personally really love Sakusa’s character. I was heavily motivated by @sachiwrites‘s take on his character so hope I did u proud >.< I was also gong through a really stressful time while writing this so I thought it would be interesting to see how the reader’s own stress and depression would affect her relationship with Sakusa, someone who already had his own setoff problems. Anyway, hope y’all enjoy!

Original request: Hiiii ! lately, sakusa stole my heart >< so iy would be nice of you to write something about him !! Like something angtsy but with a fluffy end please, love me some emotional rollercoaster ride ^^

Truthfully, Sakusa Kiyoomi was indebted to you. He was acutely aware of how difficult he could be to handle. In fact, he had fully prepared himself for a life of solitude by the time he graduated from middle school. Who would want to spend the rest of their life with a person as complicated and fastidious as him? More so than that, Sakusa could not fathom having to care for another person so intimately. While he would like to pretend that his reasons for never taking interest in the pursuit for a lover were entirely born out of his insecurities about himself, the truth was that he was honestly just entirely too selfish to bother with a committed, loving relationship. He was not prepared to nurse any potential lover if they ever fell sick, or to have to go on spontaneous and wild dates just to please them. There were too many compromises that made a healthy relationship and Sakusa was not interested in making any of them. Life was too much of a burden as it already was; there was no need to worsen the weight of it.

Which is why he was so surprised when you whisked into his life, dancing up a storm in his heart. When he had first met you, he was utterly and completely blown away. He had been alone at the back of his school’s building trying distressingly hard to slow his breathing. He was panting-- no, hyperventilating. It was a panic attack of course, something he had gone through many times in his life, and something he thought he should be used to. However, the frequent occurrences of this attack on his lungs did not prevent him from feeling like he was on the edge of death everytime they came. This is it, this is really it. He heard himself think, his inner voice booming against the walls of his skull. In his crouched position, he saw the movement of feet through his peripheral vision. Too preoccupied to care, he ignored the actions of this unknown person and continued to focus on getting his breathing back on track. He noticed them, a girl maybe, reaching into her bag and pulling out a small bottle. It looked like… sanitiser maybe?

“Hey, eyes on me okay?” She spoke, her voice coming out muffled and soft against the loudness of his own heartbeat. Stressed and confused, he looked up at her as she carefully applied the liquid on her hands. Her thorough and smooth movements somehow helped him as he realised his vision had started becoming a lot less blurry. She came down to his level, and gently took his hands into hers.

“Breathe, 1, 2, 3. Exhale, 1, 2, 3. Come on, I’ll do it with you,” She spoke again, her voice confident and commanding, as she rubbed small and firm circles around his hands with the bud of her thumb. They stayed that way for nearly twenty minutes before Sakusa’s breathing finally came down from being erratic to somewhat normal. He was still panting, but he could think clearly now and he no longer heard his own heart beating in his head. She had stopped holding him by then, thank God. When he finally mustered up the effort to speak, all he could say was, “Who?”

With a small smile you replied, “Y/n! I’m in the class next to yours and we’ve never really met but I remember seeing you around quite often, Saskusa.” He was quite surprised when he realised you remembered his name. In all honesty, he had never seen you before. Maybe he had but he normally couldn't care less about other people. He didn’t even remember the names of some of his own classmates so why would he bother with a stranger next door? Still, she had been kind enough to help him. Not only that, she seemed to be aware of his phobia and had accommodated to it, which was incredibly moving for him. In that moment he felt the rare feeling of gratitude grow in his chest.

“Thank you, you must be really attentive to have known to be so careful,” he whispered, voice still raspy.

“Not really, it’s kind of obvious,” she laughed nervously, as if she was trying not to offend. He wasn’t offended.

“Anyway, see you around!” She said cheerfully, after a couple of awkward minutes. “Don’t be a stranger,” she added while walking away. He didn’t bother gracing that with a response.

Your persistent personality was a catalyst for your friendship. The daily greetings and small-talk had forced him to get to know you better and, interestingly enough, he was not repulsed. He found out about that new book you were reading, and actually enjoyed it when he decided to give it a read. Also, it was a pleasant surprise when you told him that you used to play volleyball. So, your conversations grew longer and meetings became more frequent. Soon, he was meeting you after school on days he didn’t have practice and even spending his lunch breaks with you. You started to inch closer to him and began leaving soft, subtle touches on his skin. You were obviously trying to be discreet, but he was a person who was so painfully aware of everyone around him that of course he noticed. The surprising thing was that he didn’t mind. He knew you were hygienic enough for him to be comfortable so he began to let himself enjoy your affections.

When you confessed your feelings for him, he was not surprised. He knew from the beginning that you had a little crush on him and he even found it quite adorable. Had you asked him out a few weeks earlier, his answer would have been a hard no. However, getting to know you over the past few weeks had really changed his entire mindset about relationships. For the first time in his life, Sakusa felt like he could open himself up to someone. You had been kind enough to cater to his obsessive and exhausting personality. You were also completely comfortable with taking things slow. Above all that, you had an absolutely endearing personality. It was as if fate had intentionally sent you his way after torturing him for the past years, and he wasn’t one to let blessings like this slip away. So, when you confessed your feelings for him, he was not surprised. But you were, when he said yes.

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Dating Sakusa was going to be hard and you knew that from the very start. You weren’t naive, despite what your boyfriend might have thought. You paid him a lot of attention during the earlier stages of your friendship. You knew what he liked, what ticked him off, his pet peeves and at that point you could even tell his emotional state just by looking at the way his eyebrows moved when the rest of his face was covered by a mask. You also knew that the effort Sakusa put into your relationship was unparalleled to everything you had done for him. But, that was what you had signed up for. He had enough problems on his own trying to deal with the world with his own personal struggles so you strived to make life just a little bit easier for him.

However, after a certain point, you had to come to terms with the fact that you were your own person too. You were human too. It was easy to forget about yourself when you had been so invested in another person. The most difficult part of it all was being unable to see the fruition of all your efforts. You knew deep in your heart that Sakusa loved you. He let you kiss him, touch him and even let you sleep in the same bed as him at times. Despite that, you felt incredibly lonely in your relationship. Interacting with Sakusa started feeling almost burdensome. While your relationship had been quite a ride, built by reckless passions with bursts of feelings like joy, anger and love, you couldn’t help but feel a sense of staleness develop after a while.

It started very slowly. School had been getting ridiculously hard and Sakusa’s practices had been getting more frequent. Engulfed by the stresses of school, the two of you had gone nearly two weeks without properly speaking to each other. While Sakusa had seemingly remained unbothered, the realisation of that had completely shocked you. How could you go two weeks without any interaction with the person you loved, and not even notice it? The thing you felt most guilty about was actually the sense of peace you had experienced over those two weeks. Blindsided by your adoration for Sakusa, you hadn’t realised how draining it was being around him. When the two of you would spend time, you rarely ever took care of yourself. You’d clean the table for him when eating lunch at school because he absolutely refused to eat at those disgusting cafeteria tables, and would rather die than clean it himself. Hell, you’d even do a thorough cleaning of your own house just so Sakusa could come over and spend time with you. That, coupled with the natural angst that grows in you as a hormonal teenager, had caused you to grow more and more irritated with him.

Things you had previously found endearing about Sakusa now made your skin crawl. Even as your interactions grew less, you found yourself wanting to cry out in anger everytime he asked you to wash your hands before touching him. It was incredibly frustrating because all you wanted was some affection, and your boyfriend, of all people, couldn’t give that to you. It hurt because you had foolishly believed that if you could convince him that he was capable of being loved, he’d grow to be able to reciprocate those affections. But you were starting to feel scammed.

“Sakusa, do you want to go to that cafe I’ve been talking about?” You had asked one day, hoping to salvage your sinking relationship. He had to have noticed the drift, right? He’d want to fix it too, right?

“Huh? I don’t really feel like it…” He shuts you down just like that. Your hands are intertwined, as they usually were when you went home together, but for the first time, you untangle your fingers from his.

In hindsight, you realised that not all your feelings had been caused by your dysfunctional relationship. You had suspected that you were depressed months ago, but the problem had never been serious enough to warrant any major action so you ignored it. At least, that was what you told yourself. As time went by, it became nearly impossible to ignore. You couldn’t do your homework, you couldn’t sleep and eventually your appetite began to vanish. The rejection you felt from Sakusa had further sent you down a spiral of self-doubt. You hated yourself for being so selfish and you figured that maybe the reason Sakusa was drifting away from you was because it was you who wasn’t enough, not him.

It didn’t take long for your guilt to morph into anger once again. You had made no mention of your fractured state of mind to Sakusa, but it would not have taken a genius to figure out that you were not okay. Friends and teachers had approached you to check on you but the man you loved with every fibre of your being had never once mentioned anything to you. The two of you went about your days as you normally would. Little kisses hello and goodbye had become almost mechanical, and you cried yourself to sleep every night. You knew you should seek help soon, before it became even worse but you couldn’t bring yourself to overlook Sakusa’s indifference towards you.

You couldn’t brush your teeth. You stood in front of your bathroom mirror and furrowed your eyebrows at your reflection, toothbrush in hand. Why…? It’s just… move your hand…? It had been two days since you last showered. It physically hurt you to move and all you wanted to do was go back to bed. Still, being the responsible student you were, you went to school. You were late, none of your homework had been done but hey, at least you showed up. You knew your boyfriend was disgusted by your appearance because he had been avoiding you like a plague. You didn’t blame him, you looked as hideous as you felt. It felt like the end of your relationship was nearing and you shocked yourself with how relieving that felt. Maybe if you stopped seeing each other you could start feeling at least a little less miserable. Again, at least that was what you told yourself when you messaged him about wanting to talk.

When the two of you met at the rooftop where you had so often shared meals, the atmosphere was tense. It didn’t help that the afternoon sun was unforgiving and the air was humid. Your disheveled state in the heat made you want to claw your own skin out but you settled for subtly digging your nails into the palms of your hands. You had planned the conversation out thoroughly; first ask him how his day was, then let him down easy. The last thing you wanted to do was hurt him. You knew how difficult getting into a relationship was for him and you didn’t want to completely turn him off from ever dating again.

Yet, when you saw the unreadable expression on his face with his fingers impatiently tapping the sides of his legs, your anger triumphed any semblance of civility you had planned.

“Where the fuck have you been?” Your words come out much softer than you anticipated but your voice shook. You could tell he was surprised by the way his eyebrows shot up.

“What do you mean I --”

“Shut up and listen, where have you been? I needed you, do you even care?” You were obviously crying at this point but Sakusa remained stunned to silence. “Screw you, Sakusa. Seriously, screw you,” you interrupt, your emotions clearly messing with your vocabulary.

“I’m your girlfriend, not your maid. I’m not just there to clean up shit for you! I have a life, I have feelings and I have been so miserable and you haven’t said anything,” You’re rambling but it was hard to stop once it started. You felt your vision blut from the tears and felt the snot running down your chin but you didn’t care. If Sakusa couldn't handle you at your worst then he sure as hell didn’t deserve you at your best. You continued your rant and poured your heart out to him. Unwittingly, you express your grievances about your own state of mind to him. You had wanted to keep your condition to him a secret for so long but there was no turning back now. He deserved to feel guilty, to hate himself for being such a terrible friend.

“I warned you about setting expectations. I told you that I’m not that guy. Why are you surprised now?”

His words seemed sarcastic but the genuinity in his voice as he responded triggered you. He wasn’t even trying to be hurtful, you knew that much. It was the fact that he hadn’t even tried to change for you that really broke your heart. Even though you had told yourself that you didn’t feel anything anymore, that the break up would be a relief, nothing in your nearly two decades of living could have ever prepared you for the heartbreak you felt in that moment. Seriously, it felt like your heart was about to fall from your chest, and you had to physically clench your fist against your chest to keep yourself from falling apart. You weren’t crying anymore, and there was nothing left to say. So, you walked away, and Sakusa didn’t bother stopping you.

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Sakusa Kiyoomi was indebted to you, this he knew for a fact. You had forced him out of his shell and had inspired him to be better. He never knew he was capable of doing something even as trivial as kissing, but with you he had been able to open himself up to so much more. Hell, he had had sex for the first time with you, something he had previously been unable to even fathom. It wasn’t just his comfort zone that you had expanded, you changed him for better. He was less cold towards others and he learned to appreciate the little things.

He remembered going to the beach once while you were on a date. He hated the sand in his shoes and he didn’t even want to think about stepping into the ocean. But, you had begged and begged for weeks and he eventually had to give in to you because, although he would never admit to it, seeing you smile made his heart flutter. You had forced him to take his shoes off and stand in the sand with you. With your eyes closed and hands raised, he watched you smile radiantly at the sky. He was transfixed, staring at you because how could someone be so beautiful and full of life?

“I love the feeling of the sun on my skin, it’s like being kissed by the sky don’t you think?” You had turned to face him, hands still in the air. Your words took him by surprise because Sakusa had never really seen the sun as anything but a source of humidity and a catalyst for disease. But the way you looked at him, the way your eyes sparkled; he couldn’t help but love the sun a little more from that day.

He really did love you, even if he wasn’t the best at showing it. So when you started getting dull, he noticed it immediately. He probably noticed it even before you had. The problem lay in the fact that he had no idea what to do. He figured, if you really needed help you would ask. But he knew that was just a pathetic excuse to avoid any kind of confrontation. Sakusa, for all his self-confidence, was incredibly insecure about his relationship with you. He never expected to cultivate such intense devotion towards you, but he did. And his biggest fear was that one day, you’d realise you were worth so much more than Sakusa could have ever hoped to offer. You were perfect and ethereal. Everybody loved you and it was almost like the sky became brighter when you were around. As the days went by, he found himself becoming more and more blinded by you. You had inspired him to get help, but he held himself back because of the fear that if you ever did grow wiser and left him, all his efforts would have been for naught. Truly, Sakusa believed that he would never love anyone the way he loved you, ever. The fear of losing you frightened him more than anything and he was too afraid to change any aspect of your relationship in case it ever disrupted the balance the two of you had created.

Things had started to change when you grew darker over time. He saw you deteriorate with his own eyes, but he couldn’t do anything. He didn’t want to do anything. He told himself it was because he was afraid of hurting you even more, but Sakusa felt deep down that it was his selfishness once again preventing him from ever going out of his way to care for someone. He reasoned that you were smart enough to have no expectation for him, that you knew he was a self-centred prick. But seeing you cry in front of him had really sobered him up. He hadn’t expected it to hurt so much when he saw you clutch your shirt as you fought back tears. When you walked away, he tried so hard to move towards you, to stop you, touch you-- anything, really. But his feet were grounded and all he could do was watch. Sakusa was nothing if not proactive, and he knew he had to do something quick, before the damage done was irreversible. With a quiet sigh muffled by his mask, he leaned his head back, face tilted toward the sky and let himself get lost in his thoughts.

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It had been two weeks since you spoke to Sakusa. You knew it was over but there had been a small part of you that had hoped he would approach you and you would both talk things out until everything went back to normal. Of course, that did not happen, and you were not surprised either. As much as you would like to believe in the romance of life that the media often tried to feed you, you were a realistic person who knew better than to have faith in some fantasy that only existed in your mind. At the same time, you were also, unfortunately, just a teenage girl whose heart refused to listen to her brain. Which was why, when your doorbell rang at 10pm that night, your heart skipped a beat in hopes that perhaps Sakusa had finally come to his senses and came to sweep you away.

What was more surprising than the fact that even after two weeks you still held some lingering hope that your ex-lover would come back to you was the fact that, indeed, it was him who stood at your front door. For a solid few seconds you could not move or say anything, as you took time to process the vision that was presented before you. Sakusa was wearing casual clothes and he sported his usual mask. However, it had been pushed down to collect at his neck, and you were gifted with the image of his whole face. His dark curls fell gracefully over his forehead and you noticed a slight sheen of sweat. Had he run here? What could he possibly want from you that was so urgent?

“Hello? Anyone home?” He asked. It took you a moment to realise he had just cracked a joke. Regaining your composure, you retort, “What the fuck do you want?” If he was hurt by your outburst, it certainly didn’t show.

“Look, before you say anything, please hear me out, okay?” He asked softly, taking a step towards you. Instinctively, you backed away. There was something different about him but you couldn’t place a finger on what it was exactly. His gaze on you felt stronger than ever, and he had a determined glint in his eyes that you had never seen before. You also noticed his posture. His shoulders were rolled back and he stood tall and proud, like he was so sure of himself. Whatever the source of his newfound confidence was, it made your heart hurt a little bit. You had been an absolute mess after the break up, while he had clearly been thriving.

“Sure. Whatever. Spit it out.”

“I love you, and I’m sorry for being such a jerk. I know I should have said this much earlier but I didn’t want you to think I was being insincere. I had to do something to prove to you how serious I was being,” He started, a small smile creeping on his face. You stared at him blankly, not understanding where this was going.

“Are you proposing…? Because I will say no!” You blurt out, panicking slightly. He blinked at you a couple times, obviously puzzled by your outburst. Then, he laughed. A full blown chortle. It was a rare Sakusa laugh that you had only witnessed a couple times before. With a big, bright smile, he shook his head and responded, “No, dumbass. I’ve been seeing a therapist.” The revelation was shocking, to say the least. But, before you could interrupt, he continued.

“When you left after our argument I realised how much I had been taking you for granted. I’m not good with expressing myself but I knew enough to realise that you’re the best damn thing that could have ever happened to me. You see, I knew this for a long time, I just don't know how to tell you. I don’t like people and I find relationships exhausting but with you, for the first time in my life, I want to try harder. I didn’t want to lose you. I spoke to my mother and she offered to take me to see a therapist. She had asked me before but I never felt the need to see one. But after our fight, I realised I had to grow up. I still generally hate people and I still don’t know how to say what I’m feeling. And I sure as hell still hate germs but, I’m willing to work towards getting better. For you. You deserve at least that. If you’re willing to take me back, I’d be lucky to have you with me while I do this.”

He ends his speech with his eyes still looking into yours, as if he was analysing your reaction. He had clearly rehearsed this, you could just tell. It was honestly quite cute and heartwarming because you couldn’t think of any other time Sakusa had tried this hard with you. Your chest swells with affection you had been repressing for the past couple of weeks as you grabbed his shirt and yanked him down to your lips. The kiss was sweet, and a little salty from the tears that escaped your eyes after his little speech. Sakusa wasted no time wrapping his arms around you as he pressed your body closer to him. You had become an expert at reading him since the start of your relationship and you could feel just how much he had missed you from the way he held you during that kiss. Pulling away, he let his hands slide up your arms and cup your face.

“Does this mean you forgive me?” He asks, breathless.

You weren’t an idiot. You knew things were going to be far from peachy. But for him, you were willing to risk the sun and the moon. You tell him this by taking his hands into yours and leaning up for another kiss.

#haikyuu x reader #sakusa kiyoomi #sakusa x reader #female reader #angst #fluff #haiku angst

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oingo233 · 4 years

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By The Lake*Chapter Seven

Summary: A family friend offers you a place to stay to get away from an abusive past. Her home is a place that you are familiar with, an old town with a large lake you spent many days in. You went there years ago for one full summer, where you became close friends with a very young Daryl Dixon. You two were inseparable until you had to leave. But now you’re back, escaping from a past much like his. You will need to weave your way through the town’s problematic people, your own problems, and above all the confusing Dixon. Will you two find your way back to each other again? Or will he push you further away? And above all, will your past cease to haunt you?

MasterList

Pairing: Young Daryl Dixon X Reader

Warnings: Mentions of abuse and violence(potential triggers), cussing, more mature themes(not smut or anything tho), slow burn romance, described wounds and injuries

Authors note: I don’t own the character Daryl Dixon, he belongs to the creators of The Walking Dead. This fic talks about abuse, and the terrible reality involved to spread awareness about the matter, not to romanticize it. Also, I was writing the last couple of paragraphs with a horrible sense of deja vu because I could have sworn I wrote it already, and then I realized that I have but tumblr didn’t save it, so I wrote the end with immense caution and fear in case my wifi cut out again. But it’s okay because both endings have sticky sweet fluff!

Word Count: 2.2k

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It was the dreaded dinner of the century. Cherry’s words lingered in the back of my mind like an all consuming fog. “We have to talk...dinner?”. And her face, god, her face was so sad. Was I disappointing her? Do the kids not like me? I glance to Daryl who looks just as nervous beside me. Does she know? Daryl catches me looking, and he glances over my expression, his own frown forming.

“Don’t stress ya’self out too bad, huh? We’ve gotten in trouble a plenty times before.” He adds with a wink, I roll my eyes, grateful for the smile he brought out of me. He shifts the angel cake to one hand and knocks on the door with the other. Cherry answers with an uneasy smile, that turns into a slack jaw as she sees Daryl.

“Daryl?” I think she meant it as an excited hello, but it came out more as a threatening question to me. That is probably because I forced him to come with me as a buddy for the night. If Cherry’s going to tell me off for Daryl, then he should be here too. Or if Cherry wants to kick me out, I’m going to need emotional support in the form of a redneck, tough love friend. Daryl’s the best option.

“Daryl, are ya alright?” She goes to touch his face, not knowing it’s the best of his wounds. His long sleeve shirt and jeans covered everything else. He flinches back slightly but she didn’t back off. Daryls breathing picked up as she traced the bruises and cuts. I restrain myself from pushing her hand back as Daryl takes a slight shift back and gives her a stiff nod of his head, mumbling something about roughhousing with friends.

“M’sorry for just showin’ up. Thought Mark would’ve liked to talk about our day tomorrow. Cars almost done.” He offers a small smile which she returns, though she gave me the stink eye. God bless his soul for covering for me like that, but everyone knows he’s here cause I asked him. At the mention of his name, and apparent super hearing, Mark pops up behind Cherry. His smile the widest out of all of ours.

“Daryl! What a good surprise! That cars almost done ya know. Come in, come in.” He ushers everyone inside and Daryl hands over the angel cake. Cherry sets in on the table further inside, glancing behind her shoulder to make sure I was following. Which I was, I was following her like a dog with it’s tail between it’s legs.

“(Y/N)! What the hell? Daryl comes around looking like he got bulldozed. Is everything alright? Did he really come here to talk about cars?” She looked stressed out, bags under her lightly mascaraed eyes, deep enough that no amount of coverage could hide it. Her hair was fizzy, and for the first time I’ve seen it, unkept. Does this have to do with her news? Could I really lie to her in her state?

“I’m sorry Cherry, I just-it’s just that-” My voice came out more strained than I meant, a familiar burn in my eyes start to work up. “I can’t tell you all of it alright? But things are bad, I just don’t know what else to do.” She steps forward and raises her hand, I nearly jump out of my shoes, but she just rests her palm on my cheek and wipes away a tear. I don’t tell her about Daryl’s truth, it isn’t mine to tell. I don’t tell her about him staying with me, although she should probably know. I don’t tell her about the crushing weight of it all, or that I feel like I’m betraying her. But I don’t have to. She saw it, and now she is the one comforting me. She rest her forehead against mine and nods softly.

“Lets just breath darling. I’m not going to punish you for anything. I just want to know if you’re doing what you think is right? That’s enough for me.” I take a few breaths in until they run steady.

“I am doing what I think is best. Whats right.” I whisper out, drained from the past couple days.

“You always do, doll.” She kisses my forehead. “Now, lets eat!” She cheers, pulling back and quickly wiping her own tears.

“Wait-” I pull her back to me, quietly over the sounds of the family and Daryl rushing into the kitchen to eat I ask her. “What was the news you wanted to tell me about?” She doesn’t say anything, only gives me a small smile.

“Later.” she says with a shrug, masking her true emotions. Mark was near and pulled her aside when he heard this. I meant to give them privacy but it was too late, my curiosity got the better of me.

“Cherry, are you sure we should wait to tell her?” I’ve never heard him so serious in my life.

“I’m sure, they’re just kids. We should let them be that for a while-” The rest of her sentence was forgotten because Daryl scared the shit out of me.

“Curiosity killed the cat ya know?” He scoffs out behind me, obviously not proud of my behavior. I give him a sheepish smile.

“But satisfaction brought it back.” I point my finger at him making him roll his eyes. He guided me away from snooping on the married grown ups, and to the dinner table. When walking to his seat, Daryl casually snatched Rosie’s napkin, and dropped it on her lap for her. This made Rosie giggle, so when Daryl sat down she took his napkin and put it on his lap. We all laughed at Daryl’s surprised expression, it held a softness I haven’t seen before. He laughs with us and says a quite thank you to her.

Cherry and Mark came and sat down minutes later, both giving each other mean looks. They obviously had a heated conversation. But as dinner went on everyone was happy. Daryl and Rosie were talking about this Magic Tree house series she was reading, and at one point Rosie wiped food off from Daryl's cheek. “So messy.” She mumbled exhausted under her breath. Everyone nearly died laughing at this, Daryl included. Monty told him all about his favorite dinosaur and Daryl even mentioned a few he liked, which surprised me. The kids loved him, and dinner was a blast.

Although dinner was fun, cleaning was not. Cherry assigned Daryl, Rosie, Monty and I on cleaning duty.

“Ow. Heavy.” Rosie complained, she came walking in with a grumpy expression nearly hidden by the stack of dinner plates she was bringing into the kitchen. Before I could warn him, Daryl fell right into her trap.

“I’ll take those for ya!” Daryl all but hummed, as he lifted the “weight” from Rosie. She beamed up at him.

“Thank you Dare Bear,” Daryl blushed and gave me a sheepish look when the nickname came. “I’m just so tired, it’s past my bedtime.” Before she could fake a yawn I spoke up.

“It is not, you liar.” Rosie gave me an offended look, I was going to ruin her plan. But she was smart, smarter than me apparently. Her lips curled up and her eyes, as if she was a talented working actress, teared up. Daryl was at her side in an instant, giving me a shocked look. I didn’t miss the amusement in his eyes though. I gave up right then and there, her plan was going to work. She had Daryl wrapped around her finger all night.

“Don’t ya call her that. She’s sensitive.” He whispered the last part to me as he picked her up. “Lets get ya to bed.” I nearly melted at the sight, as Rosie wrapped her small arms around his neck, and he rubbed her back soothingly as he carried her off to bed. She gave me a bratty smug look, pulling a smile from me. “C’mon Monty.” Monty, who didn’t feel as hopeful on getting out of cleaning duty until now, ran towards the two, beaming.

Then there was one. I walked to the hallway to get a rag from the laundry closet, it was next to Rosie’s room. I heard her giggle before her little voice echoed in the silence. I was holding my breath. I didn’t dare to ruin the moment.

“Here Dare Bear, you can ‘ave it when doing the dishes for me.” There was a few moments of silence before I heard Daryl chuckle, almost in defeat.

“Alright. Thanks.” He chuckled again. “Sleep well, Rosie.” I rushed back to the kitchen when I heard his light footsteps approaching.

Minutes later and I turn around as he enters the room.

“Oh. My. God.” I try so hard to keep it in, I really do, but I laugh the hardest I have in years at the sight before me. I nearly hit my head on the wall from leaning back and cackling so hard. I can’t form the question I want to between trying to breath and laugh.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Say what ya will, but I look good.” He tries to joke about it, but his blushing face said he knew he looked ridiculous. Tied around his waist and neck, was a pink daisy apron, made for a 5 year old. It didn’t even cover his whole torso. Wordlessly, I pointed my finger in the air and spun it. Daryl stared at me exasperated before he did a little twirl for me. A giggle escaped me and I sent him a wink. He laughs now too, taking the rag from my hands quickly and swatting me with it.

“Shut it and get to work.” We do as he says for a while but I just could not focus. It was starting to annoy Daryl by the way his fingers would twitch every time he saw me drying the same plate for five minutes.

“Play music.” He scoffed out after I nearly dropped the cup in my hands, he was giving me a pointed look.

“Fine, if you want it so bad.” I mumble as I make my way to the radio. It turns on with a familiar tune, Daryl and I share a smile with one another.

“Ain’t for me.” He whispers, noticing how I get back into the easy rhythm of cleaning. I blush as I realize how well he knew me. Some things never change. I move my hips to the song and notice him doing the same. It nearly makes me laugh but I hold it in so he won’t get shy. The song was “I see it, I like it, I want.” by Shirley Ellis. We knew the song well. Whenever Daryl and I would hang out in town, my mom would give us money for groceries and a little extra for ice cream. The ice cream shop played that song religiously. So often in fact, Daryl and I could never decide if we loved it, or hated it. But by the way our bodies moved to the beat like old times, it was clear we did not hate it.

“You look damn good in an apron.” I giggle out, I would have been shocked at my boldness if it was any other song. But this song makes a girl get what she wants.

“Ya think so?” Daryl asks, turning around with a soapy sponge in one hand and a dripping plate in the other. I nod and he sets the two things down, his eyes playful as he engulfs at me.

Soap was everywhere. Slipping wet through my hair, and dripping down my arms as he grabbed my hands and swung me in a dance. When I was pulled back into his chest his lips were by my ear, the song playing from his lips sounded much better.

“From the moment I laid eyes on ya,

This is what I said, I said a beautiful sight to see

Because everything that makes ya, you, means so much to me!” He spun me around once more before letting go and circling around me with bad dance moves. I pushed him to a stop before singing the rest of the song to him.

When that song was over one played that we haven’t heard before. But it was slow and beautiful. Daryl fit his soapy hand in mine and leaned down close to my ear. His lips danced shyly against my cheek as he spoke.

“Ya know, I don’t just dance for anybody,” He pulled away and looked at me with those beautiful eyes of his. An easy smile was on his soft lips, but only a fool would miss the anxiety ridden twitch they would have every couple seconds. He was nervous. I lend him courage with a squeeze of my hand and the words spilled out of him like butter. Like he was never more sure of anything. “Go on a date with me?”

We stopped our dancing as I gaped up at him. A date with Daryl? The thought of it made my heart swell.

“Nothing sounds more perfect.” A large smile breaks his intense stare as he gives me a kiss on the cheek, whispering in my ear he says.

“Keep ya eyes off the lake tomorrow, sunshine.” Words proceed me, as I just nod up at him like a love sick puppy. Nothing witty comes to me so we get back to work after he twirls me once more. We finished cleaning the kitchen with laughter, our horrible dance moves, and shy intimate looks at one another over our shoulders. He winked at me when he took the rag from my hand and finished the last dish. Oh I just can not wait for tomorrow.

TagList:

@courtnytrash04

@pansexualgrapes

@fanfictionsilove

(If I forgot or you would like to be added to the taglist just let me know)

#DarylDixon #daryl dixon fanfic #daryl dixon #daryl dixon fanfiction #daryl fanfiction #twd #twd fanfiction #TWD fandom #The Walking Dead #young daryl dixon #Young Norman Reedus #angst #fluff #Teen Romance

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deerfests · 3 years

Note

( 001. the young pope/the new pope || 002. lenny/brannox || 003. sir john brannox ) && ( 001. space force || 002. malloraird || 003. dr adrian mallory ) && ( 004. the new pope/space force )

just for the heck of it, and because i’m greedy ☺️

fandom ask

man wth that's a lot... 😂😂😂

Okay, off we go~

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my: + The Young Pope/The New Pope

Favorite character:

Sir John Brannox, because I love the emo pope. He's got so many issues, and he's lovable for it.

Least Favorite character:

Um... I guess I don't know. I don't want to offend anyone.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon):

I only have 2-- Sofia Dubois/Sir John Brannox and Lenny Belardo/Sir John Brannox. Judge me if you must *shrugs*

Character I find most attractive:

Lenny and Brannox gotta fight over that one. I like how both of them look.

Character I would marry:

My hand in marriage is saved for Trench, exclusively, and he's not even a character in the show. Sorry. 🤠

Character I would be best friends with:

Gutiérrez but that's cuz he's a nice man and stuff. The dude would be swept away by me doing bs and just end up enduring it, not because he likes me. Let's be real. Nobody in the show would like me enough to befriend me! Unless I somehow weasel my way to Brannox, and we bond over being sad bastards but I don't think I have the energy to deal with his moping...

a random thought:

I feel like Adam's grave fucked up the timeline, nothing adds up. I'm sorry, but how old is Brannox supposed to be?? I am confused.

An unpopular opinion:

I don't obsess with some characters the rest of the fandom seems to, so I guess that's my unpopular opinion.

my canon OTP:

Sofia Dubois/Sir John Brannox

Non-canon OTP:

Lenny Belardo/Sir John Brannox, because imagine how fun that'd be!

most badass character:

Fck, I feel it's Lenny in The Young Pope. He's just out there destroying things.

pairing I am not a fan of:

I don't desire to put a bullseye on my back.

character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another):

Hmm, I feel like Adam is an easy pick cuz for real, they did fuck up the timeline with him.

favourite friendship:

Lenny and Gutiérrez

character I want to adopt or be adopted by:

Nobody!! AH, that would screw me up big time.

002 | send me a ship and I will tell you: + Lenny/Brannox

when of if I started shipping it.

Like love at first sight, I fell for that shit since I saw them doing the world's most awkward prom picture. I mean, look at it:

And then I was pissed off... I watched the whole season and while I enjoyed it, I didn't get nearly enough interactions! But what I got, I treasure... Even if it probably tricks you into thinking this ship's dynamic is different than what I actually headcanon for them.

my thoughts:

Lenny would fuck up Brannox so badly. Then probably feel guilty about it to some extent, and try to do something about his incredibly low self-esteem. :) This is the only sfw thought I have.

What makes me happy about them:

:)) wouldn't you like to know.

I love, love, love the energy they would have, ok!? Imagine, the constant contrast of Lenny and Brannox! Just...imagine.

What makes me sad about them:

Lenny's dead. :((

Also, Brannox has no self-esteem. :(

things done in fanfic that annoys me:

IF there was fanfic of them, which there is none of, I checked-- I would be annoyed if somebody thought Brannox had any power to hold over Lenny. Also, IF there was fanfic, I would not hesitate to read it even if it was garbage, but there's none.

things I look for in fanfic:

Actually existing fanfic. There's none. I gotta write that shit myself, and I'm trying, but it's hard!

My kinks:

:)) I can't. I'll get shadowbanned. Lenny fucks him up, let's just say.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

Sofia with Brannox, death with Lenny, I guess?? I'm quite happy how the show ended, but I've never been one to want my ships to be canon, most of the time.

My happily ever after for them:

They quit the clergy, I guess, and Lenny lives with Brannox in the estate and they slip into an awkward but working relationship? Brannox gets over his problems and so does Lenny.

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you + Sir John Brannox.

How I feel about this character:

I feel I got into it before, but I love him.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Ah, this is a repeat. Sofia and Lenny, both in their own verses, never together at the same time.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

....Happiness/Brannox.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

Not in the mood to put a bullseye on myself~

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

We got to see him interact more with ghost!Lenny. Like the scene at Adam's grave, just replay it 100x more.

my het ship:

Sofia and him.

my fem/slash ship:

Lenny and him.

my OTP:

Lenny/Brannox. But that might be cuz I love suffering and pissing people off.

my OT3:

None~

my cross over ship:

None???

my kink:

He has a praise kink.Probably cries during it, too.

a head cannon fact:

*gently puts a hand on Brannox's head* This bastard can fit so many obsessive thoughts in himself!

Also, sorry tumblr user sirjohnbrannox, I am stealing all your headcanons about him.

His parents probably mainly hated him cuz he was a non-straight punk, then started drugs to deal with his problems, and genuinely I feel like he's a little bit...how do I put this, not stable cuz of that. Adam was a perfect son, John meanwhile ended up traumatized and soft and scared. He has no self-esteem cuz his parents fucking sucked and played favorites!! And also probably blamed him for Adam’s death, I guess. Fuck Brannox's parents!! I don't want to see them!!

my gender bend:

I don't have one, cuz I don't like them~

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my: + Space Force

Favorite character:

Dr. Adrian Mallory, duh.

Least Favorite character:

RIP in PEPPERONI, KICK !! I HOPE YOU DIE.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon):

I literally only have one ship, Adrian/Mark.

Character I find most attractive:

In this episode of Dickie sets up ridiculous fights: Adrian Mallory vs Mark Naird. For whoever of the two, I actually find most attractive. Because I don't know, but boys are good.

Character I would marry:

HHHHH no

Character I would be best friends with:

Adrian, but only because we're both could be judgemental af... together!

a random thought:

Man, I hope they didn't make Malk shave for season 2. I'd hate that.

An unpopular opinion:

I don't care that much for Fuck Tony, I'm sorry. He's fine, I just-- don't really see the appeal of him. Maybe, just maybe, I'm too much into old men.

my canon OTP:

I...no? IDK!? Ali/Chan is cute, I guess and they're canon.

Non-canon OTP:

Adrian/Mark, which probably will never be actually canon and we'll keep getting ship baited.RIP. Good that I don't care about my ships being canon all that much.

most badass character:

???? IN SPACE FORCE????

pairing I am not a fan of:

I do not care for Ch*ntony. RIP. Not a NOTP but I just don't see it.

character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another):

Erin Naird. I understand where's she's coming from, but my god.... they really wrote it poorly.

favourite friendship:

Mark and Adrian in the canon lense I guess.

character I want to adopt or be adopted by:

Nope.

002 | send me a ship and I will tell you: + Malloraird

when of if I started shipping it.

When tumblr user sirjohnbrannox didn't shut up about it.

my thoughts:

It's cute, but my kinky hands will continue rubbing off on it.

What makes me happy about them:

Adrian being head over heels for a dense fool.

What makes me sad about them:

Nothing, cuz there's nothing sad in the show? Or at least nothing I am emotionally invested into enough to actually be upset about?

things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Y'all really think Adrian is vanilla? Y'all really think Adrian is anything but a brat?

things I look for in fanfic:

I am interested in a plot, that has a build-up for these two. So...my fic, In Need, which I am still working on. Cuz I literally stopped after my life fell apart and I couldn't handle the daunting comments. Anyways as I was saying. In Need-- except make it good.

My kinks:

:)) I don't want to get shadowbanned but Adrian is not vanilla, let's just say.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

Just keep Mark with his wife, I don't care. Adrian, anyone but Jerome. It was painful to witness Jerome. I'm sorry, but how do you write Adrian-- a fairly not too stereotypical gay man? And then write him to be with somebody like Jerome, which just comes off as "oh shit we need a character for this and we didn't establish anyone!"

Also-- Jerome/Adrian is, unfortunately, canon-- why does the wiki make it creepy and one-sided?!!?

My happily ever after for them:

Maggie gets out of prison, runs off with her guard lover (which I'm actually fairly certain will happen), and Mark slowly enters a relationship with Adrian which actually results in both of them widening their views on things and getting along.

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you + Dr Adrian Mallory

How I feel about this character:

He's pretty cool. Fun.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

I literally only ship him with Mark, cuz Jerome gives me the worst vibes that make me actively partake in Jerome erasure.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

404 BrOTP not found.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

The man's a brat.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

I wish he would have sung that song about Mark, and it would have actually been one side and nobody would have figured it out (so no photo kissing at the end) lmao cuz that'd -- now that'd be cursed and fun. >:3c

my het ship:

He's canonically gay so none. Unless season 2 decides to make him bisexual, this will continue.

my fem/slash ship:

Him with Mark.

my OTP:

Him and Mark. God, doing these memes is getting repetitve.

my OT3:

None.

my cross over ship:

Lmao none. I mean, c'mon I don't even like crossovers 99% of the time.

my kink:

:DD are you trying to get me shadowbanned, bud.

a head cannon fact:

I have none that I can share here, or at least none springing to mind... but can we all agree that people saying Adrian is a spy or he has intentions for Space Force's downfall, is so funny, because it's literally not that deep. He's just gay and in love with Mark, how much do the r*dditors gotta overthink the damn show? It's not even that good to overthink!

my gender bend:

NO, I don't like them.

004 | send me 2 fandoms and I will give yo my crossover OTP + The New Pope/Space Force

None of these, I am not answering this, cuz this is the worst crossover ever conceived by man and I don't even like crossovers enough to begin with and my laptop is dying from heat--

....;

no? ok.

Imagine poor ol' Brannox meeting Adrian. Goodbye.

#sirjohnbrannox #ask #aks meme answered #extremely long post under cut #long post cw

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otogetranslations · 5 years

Text

Announcing of Dropping DIABOLIK LOVERS MORE;BLOOD

To sum things up:

Someone leaked the Diabolik Lovers Limited V Edition patch, posting it publicly despite all our warnings and requests. Thus we are following through with our original policy.

We’re stopping every projects related to Diabolik Lovers, including further support for Limited V Edition, and there won’t be a patch for More;Blood.

Collar x Malice Unlimited will still be released, but privately. After all, you guys will get the English version of it from Aksys for the switch next year!

I (the leader of otogetranslations) will still be helping other translators with their projects: Brothers Conflict, Hakuoki SSL. How the patch is gonna be distributed is up to their respective leaders (coquettishcat for Hakuoki SSL, and PassionandBrilliance for Brothers Conflict).

No more Black Wolves Saga. This project I (Reishiki) started by asking permission to use existing translation from orlandoblue @tumblr, Siberia (twitter.com/bakemeatz). The patch of Black Wolves Saga Bloody Nightmare is to be completed soon. But it’s no more.

Read on if you wanted to know what really happened:

As you all know, we released DIABOLIK LOVERS LIMITED V EDITION fan translation patch this August 16th, 2019 for homebrew enabled/hacked Playstation vita, and only for people that have proof or purchasing the game.

There are over 50 people who showed us the proof of purchasing the game and they received the patch for free. All we asked was for you to actually buy the game before you can play it with a hacked playstation vita.

Our 30-people team worked on the patch for 10 months. We only used outsource translation for 8/277 total scripts. Our in-house hacker did the romhacking process, our in-house proofreaders proofed the translation, our recruited translators worked on the translation. Everything was done by us and it’s our team effort. So we have the right to decide how we’re gonna distribute it.

However, on August 20th, 2019. Rojaaalice on reddit r/vitapiracy posted a thread, asking the patch to be given to them for free (without purchasing the game). A lot of people who frequent this subreddit accused us of being Gatekeepers, while all we’re doing is asking for proof of purchasing the game (not the patch, the patch is 100% free). Is buying the game you play wrong? Is asking for a proof of purchasing something you play gatekeeping, when we could have chosen to not share the patch at all in the first place?

I don’t think so.

But, this person, SilicaAndPina (https://twitter.com/SiliCart) is not happy with how we distribute our patch. He said that we should keep the vita hacking scene free, we can’t ask for people to buy anything to be able to get the PATCH that we worked on. He doesn’t play otome games in general, and he doesn’t even know what otome games is.

He started to trick me into giving the patch to him, by making a fake proof of purchase with a cloned gmail account. I noticed the proof was fake and didn’t give it to him. Then he got mad and sent this (WARNING: GORE IMAGE) to me. He stated that he will leak the patch eventually.

He attempted to acquire the patch once again with a different fake proof this time. I also noticed this and we trolled him by sending him a FAKE patch. We left the prologue in English and put ridiculous/crack fanfiction in other parts. He thought it was real and distributed it, declared he has won over us.

He thought he tricked us but no, we weren’t being tricked by his half-assed effort.

Today, August 22nd, there is someone from the DiaLover Fandom that received the real patch sent it over to him. I’m sorry to say that the patch would be leaked eventually, one way or another, because if someone really wants to leak it, they could buy the physical copy, take a photo with it and send it to us. Then they can sell the game to get the money back.

So, we lost.

But to the one that sent the patch to him, lost to the malice of this world, and not to him.

I had envisioned this would happen when I first started the project. So I’m not surprised. I had a small ray of hope this wouldn’t happen so soon, but I was wrong.

As we’ve stated before, we will cease every project translation related to DIABOLIK LOVERS.

No more patches of DIABOLIK LOVERS will be made from us, at least when I’m the leader of that project (as well as the leader of otogetranslations): Reishiki.

I’m proud to say our patch was enjoyed and praised by people that bought the game and received the patch.

I (Reishiki) will still be supporting other translators if they need it, but I won’t start any new project from now on (in which could be AMNESIA LATER/CROWD/WORLD, VARIABLE BARRICADE - these games I completed extracting the texts with our inhouse hacker’s help, and I planned to announce we would start one of these projects soon. But… I’m sorry to say that it’s no more. At least it won’t be made available to the public.)

Thank you everyone for your support.

These are our team members opinions:

JokerTrap-Ran: I think I just lost faith in the community as a whole again, coming back after 4 years. I hope you’re happy! This was really demoralising and I hope ya’ll had fun putting us down like that. I’m not one for drama and honestly I’d very much like to stay out of it considering the bad medicine bashing that happened on otome reddit about 3 years ago. I’ll continue releasing translations for blog’s followers but that’s it. I’m whimsical, and most of my followers know it. I pick things and I drop it all the same.

Khikari: For those who thinks that what we have committed is blasphemy and should be shut down for this, great, please take the time to learn Japanese yourself. Or learn to care about other people with emotions for once in you life. Demoralising people who were willing to work endless hours for free with just one condition sure is satisfying, isn’t it? It really hurt all of us. For those who genuinely cared and are saddened by this post, I am sorry and I wish the best for you all. I know that the few doesn’t represent all but this is a massive motivation killer, and I don’t need this drama in my life. From now on, private translations all the way! Also, Silica, attacking an idea is fine, but attacking people with malicious intent is stepping out of line. Enjoy being a rock specimen.

LoliChan195: I hope you are happy with what you have done! We only wanted to bring this out for people that had difficulties playing the game, and also help support Rejet by having more people buy their games. Its people like you that cause all these game companies to go bankrupt! (Also SiliCar, you sick fuck. Who sends pictures like that!? XD you’re probably just some edgy 12yr old XD Besides, who says WE WILL NOT FORGIVE XD what a dumbass! And is it that hard to search on google about the game? Why would we make it so it specifically needs to be the limited edition?!?! ) Seriously, the people who attacked us for putting the rule out are just as bad, like can’t you just wait and buy the game? Or even if u just pirate it, read online translations. Its not that hard!

Hermy: Nothing much to say, except, ya’ll could have totes pirated the game and played it along the translations available on the net. Welp, I hope you don’t dislike that idea too much because that’s what ya’ll gonna need to do if ya’ll wanna play the sequels.

PS: the MB translations available on the net are riddled with errors, but by all means have fun with them :)

Anon: Oh yes, silica? Perhaps you should just lead on with your true intentions next time instead of trying to honey your words and do some "re-con" for dots, yeah?

Marzi: I'm a bit numb to this situation at this point, but it is disheartening to know Silica was so intent on distributing our translations that he didn't stop even when we threatened to cease all translations. It wasn't like he was ever going to play the game - he just felt so personally offended by the fact that we were "gatekeeping" for some reason - which, in my opinion, is a bit of an immature reason to ruin a translation group. You can't argue that we're "unrightfully holding something when we don't have the intellectual rights," when you're bypassing all copyright laws as well in wanting to post it PUBLICALLY. But what's done is done - whoever manages to get a copy of this, I hope you enjoy it. Please know so much effort and passion went into these translations, and that we loved working on this project every bit of the way. If the game leaves you antsy for More Blood well LOL you know who prevented that from happening.

Sonic-nancy-fan: I never knew someone could have such an illogical mindset. Silica/PSSDude made the original base repatch program, and we used one that someone had edited and added to (which Silica was fine with). But, because he made the original one, that means he feels like HE can getekeep all uses of variations of it. This would be like saying people can’t use paper to make a paper airplane because the original creator of paper said no, or you can’t print manga because Gutenberg said no. Also, who in the world thinks they can take a moral high-ground by telling us to promote piracy? Patches are already a sort of grey area, so we were trying to take the most legal method available while still making a patch. I know in modern society, piracy is very common, but I can’t imagine your average person would call us in the wrong for trying to hinder piracy. God forbid we try to get people to buy Diabolik Lovers. I can’t say I’m shocked as I expected it to get leaked sometime. I’m just saddened at certain people’s general hate and unyielding desire to leak it. So, I don’t blame the community as a whole, nor do I feel any malice toward the community (we had a lot of people buy the game and get excited). I’m just mad at very specific spiteful people. Also, if I ever hear someone say “the scene” as much as Silica, I’m going to go nuts. It sounds like something the “cool guy” in an 80’s show would say.

#diabolik lovers #otogetranslations #announcement

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jingabitch · 4 years

Text

An Arrangement for Convenience ch.5

Summary: It's ridiculous that girl groups aren't allowed to date, and are kept under such strict lock and key that they can't satisfy their desires. Enter Ha-eun, YG's solution to the problem.

Pairings: ot4 x oc

A/N: Wrote this a while back and posted on ao3; reposting here because I want to be more active on this platform. While I currently have 8 chapters written which I will be releasing on Tumblr gradually, I am currently on hiatus due to school and work commitments and will not be actively writing and posting new stuff until the semester ends in December.

Series index

The next morning, Ha-eun woke up as the first rays of sunshine were starting to peek in through the drawn curtains. She yawned as she stretched and rolled over, pushing herself up into a sitting position with her hands.

There was excited huffing, barking and a furry mass suddenly pressed against her belly, and Ha-eun blinked down at Kuma. “Good morning,” she greeted the dog, stroking his soft fur. He panted and hopped up to lick her face excitedly, and she laughed as she let him.

Jennie wasn’t in bed, and Ha-eun shrugged mentally. She’d probably just gone to use the restroom, she thought, untangling herself from the covers to do the same. Realizing that she was still nude and it was kind of chilly in the apartment, she went to Jennie’s closet and helped herself to a t-shirt and pajama shorts before leaving the room.

On her way to the restroom, however, she was waylaid by the sound of laughter and cooking, and an amazing smell that tempted her to detour from the path to the bathroom to the kitchen.

“Shit,” she breathed in awe, watching Jennie and Chaeyoung moving around the kitchen easily. “What is that smell?”

Chaeyoung turned to grin at her. “Oh, you’re up, good morning,” she greeted casually. “We’re making bacon waffles.”

As if on cue, Ha-eun’s stomach growled and she flushed. Jennie, closing the waffle iron around a scoop of batter, looked up with a teasing grin that fell off her face when she took in Ha-eun’s current ensemble. The younger girl looked really nice in her clothes.

“Oh, my God, bacon waffles sounds like heaven,” Ha-eun groaned, “but I have to pee and brush my teeth really quick, then I swear I’ll be right back,” she promised, running off to the bathroom.

“She’s so cute,” Chaeyoung sighed, as the bathroom door swung shut.

Jennie flipped the waffle iron, and hummed noncommittally even though she couldn’t help but agree. Still, she wouldn’t be her if she didn’t make a snarky remark, so it was almost out of obligation that she said, “You just think she’s cute because she’s happy to get on her knees for you.”

Chaeyoung scoffed as she went to get the syrup and butter for the waffles. “That is not true at all. I think you guys are cute and none of you would do that for me.”

Jennie shrugged; she was right, after all. She continued cooking the waffles as Chaeyoung started washing and cutting the strawberries they had in the fridge.

When Ha-eun re-emerged from the bathroom, newly freshened up, she came straight back to the kitchen. “Is there anything I can help with?” she asked with wide eyes, watching the two girls move around the kitchen in tandem, the ease with which they worked together in the small space clearly showing their familiarity with each other.

“No, just stay there,” Chaeyoung giggled. “This is your reward for doing well on your test!”

Ha-eun, surprised, just gaped. She’d thought they’d forgotten about it, which was fine, it wasn’t like she’d been expecting them to actually remember, but even when the idea had been floating around she’d expected it to be something sexual, not this.

She couldn’t help that her heart fluttered just a little, or that she suddenly felt soft and mushy on the inside. None of her previous clients had ever really bothered to do something like this for her; it had always been clear that it was about them. Which was only right, after all, since they did pay good money for her to make them feel a certain way.

“Thank you,” she said softly, as Jennie finished preparing the third plate. Ha-eun jumped to help her then, taking one plate from her and helping Chaeyoung bring the other stuff to the table.

“Should I wake Lisa-unnie and Jisoo-unnie?” she asked, standing behind her seat with her hand on the back of the chair.

Jennie shrugged. “They don’t usually wake up that early, especially Jisoo-unnie. I left more batter for them when they get up.”

“Oh… all right then,” Ha-eun said, sitting down and scooping a generous amount of butter onto her waffles, then drowning it all in syrup. She dug into the mess with gusto, moaning sinfully around the first mouthful of waffles.

“Oh, my God, bacon is definitely the best thing that ever came out of the West,” Ha-eun groaned with her mouth full.

Chaeyoung laughed. “Should I be offended?” she asked lightly.

“Okay, democracy is pretty good too,” Ha-eun amended after swallowing, cutting another section of the waffle and stuffing it into her mouth.

Jennie looked at her indulgently, eating her own waffle. She really was a pretty good cook, she thought as she chewed and swallowed. It was nice that Ha-eun seemed to think so too.

Chaeyoung huffed, though, having clearly been angling for a personal compliment. Ha-eun laughed at her. “Fine, if you insist, it’s you,” she said, rolling her eyes playfully.

Chaeyoung narrowed her eyes at her. “You’ll pay for that,” she said threateningly, but Ha-eun wasn’t intimidated, instead saying “promise?” flirtatiously and winking at her.

The girl really was insatiable, Jennie thought, stifling a laugh at the scandalized expression on Chaeyoung’s face, and she had a sassy streak a mile wide given the way she escalated all the time.

They settled into a regular conversation soon after, Ha-eun asking what they had planned for the day. It really was fascinating listening to them discuss dance practice and Jennie’s photo shoot for Chanel like they were just everyday things, which they were to them, she supposed. Still, since her plans for the day mostly involved going home and mopping the floor before going for her afternoon class, their lives in comparison were way more interesting than hers.

“Unnie, you didn’t wait for me for breakfast?” Lisa interrupted their conversation by whining loudly as she opened the door to her bedroom and stepped out, dressed in a t-shirt and pajama pants.

“Go make your own waffles,” Jennie pointed at the kitchen, not even deigning to reply Lisa’s protest. Muttering to herself in annoyance, Lisa padded over to the kitchen, turning the waffle iron back on again and then going to grab a carton of juice from the refrigerator.

“Good morning, Lisa-unnie,” Ha-eun greeted, giggling at the older girl’s antics.

“Oh, good morning Ha-eun-ah,” Lisa greeted as she poured the juice into a glass. “Did you sleep well? Did Jennie-unnie treat you properly?” she asked, grinning mischievously.

Ha-eun giggled. “I have no complaints,” she said, sending a wink Jennie’s way.

“Yeah, we could all hear you not complaining, ” Lisa shot back, but Ha-eun just shrugged. “Jennie-unnie is very talented at many things,” she responded, turning back to her food to eat another bite of her waffle.

“I just bet she is,” Lisa chortled. “Too bad she refuses to share her talents with the rest of the girls.”

Jennie rolled her eyes. “How long are you going to complain about that? I did offer, you know.”

Lisa scowled. “That was only if I let you tie me up!”

Jennie shrugged. “Ha-eun let me tie her up last night.”

Ha-eun nodded. “It was fun. You should have let her do it.”

Sighing as the waffle iron beeped, indicating that the waffle was done, Lisa used the tongs to pry it out of the mold and plopped it down on her plate. “I’ll overlook that, but only if you promise to let me tie you up too.”

“Sure,” Ha-eun agreed nonchalantly. It wasn’t like she was going to say no to Lisa, since there was a contract and this was her job and all. It was nice that she still flirted with her like that. It was all a part of the experience she wanted, she supposed.

“Great!” Lisa chirped. “Are you doing anything tonight?”

“Uh, I have to go to class in the afternoon, but I’m free after that, why?”

“Come visit us at the studio if you have time,” Lisa invited.

Ha-eun accepted eagerly, excited to see whatever new choreography they were working on.

Soon enough, though, it was time for her to leave, and she sighed as she went to put on her clothes from yesterday, not really enjoying the thought of wearing her dirty clothes again. If she’d known she was staying over, she would have packed a spare set of clothes, having gotten a nice routine down that prevented her from the walk of shame.

“Oh, you can borrow some of my clothes if you want,” Chaeyoung offered, and Ha-eun smiled at her. “Thanks, but there’s no way I could fit into your clothes,” she said. “You’re so thin, it’s not fair,” she sighed with envy.

Chaeyoung laughed. “Love, I spend more time working out than normal people dream of having. You look gorgeous,” she reassured the younger girl, popping a kiss on her forehead.

“Okay, if you say so,” Ha-eun said, accepting the compliment with grace as she hugged her. “I’ll see you guys later,” she called as she slipped her sneakers back on and walked out the door, going to the subway station to take the train back home.

As she was letting herself into her apartment, calling to her brother to let him know that she was home, she looked out the window of the living room and couldn’t help but laugh. There was a giant billboard on the building across the road from hers, and an ad for - you guessed it - Blackpink’s upcoming comeback, with a blown up photo of all four girls staring coolly at the camera had gone up yesterday during the time that she’d been out yesterday.

Taking a picture of the billboard, she sent it to the group with exclamation marks, laughing when Lisa immediately replied.

We can’t get enough of you, sweetie. Xx

Shaking her head, she laughed and put her phone in her pocket as she went to see what her brother was up to.

By the time Ha-eun got to the studio, it was almost nine, and she was frantic. Her class had ended more than two hours ago, and she’d been planning to go straight to the YG building, but had been waylaid by her project groupmates who’d wanted to have an impromptu discussion.

“Fucking idiots, always calling meetings to talk about useless things we could settle easily over text,” she seethed as she ran down the hall to the studio. She’d texted them to let them know that she would be late and to let her know if they were leaving so she could meet them elsewhere, but they hadn’t replied and she took that to mean that they’d been practicing all this while and hadn’t seen her messages.

Reaching the door to the room they’d told her to come to, she took a second, standing outside the entrance, to straighten herself out, running her hands through her hair, smoothing out her blouse and adjusting her skirt, which had somehow rotated almost 180 degrees around her waist. Consciously evening her breathing so it would look less like she’d just been sprinting down the hallways of the YG building like a lunatic, she opened the door gently and stepped into the room.

To her surprise and dismay, it was dark, although the air in the room was still cool, and when she looked up at the ceiling, she could see that the air conditioner was still on. Had they left and forgotten to turn off the air conditioner?

She groped for the light switch, sure that it couldn’t be too far from where she was standing, when a voice cut through the silence, sharp and authoritative.

“Stop.”

It was Jennie, and she sounded furious.

Ha-eun’s heart pounded. What was this?

“Jennie-unnie? What’s going on?”

“You’ve been a very bad girl, Ha-eun-ah.”

“Unnie?” Ha-eun’s head whipped around to try and locate the source of the voice, to no avail, because the room was completely dark now that the door had shut behind her.

Suddenly, the lights were on, but it was the spotlights that had been installed for choreography videos and the room was still mostly dark. Ha-eun blinked as she looked around, seeing the four of them standing in different spots around the room. Jennie was standing almost right in front of her, her arms folded across her chest.

Ha-eun gulped as Jennie stepped closer to her. She was dressed in a sports bra and leggings, drenched in sweat, the hair that had escaped from her ponytail sticking to her forehead and neck, but she still looked gorgeous. Her thought process was cut off abruptly when Jennie’s hand shot out, grabbing her face, her fingers digging into the soft flesh of her cheeks.

“I thought we agreed that you would be here at seven, hmm?” Jennie said quietly, the words slicing through the air like knives. They found their target easily as Ha-eun’s shoulders slumped. There were reasons, she wanted to explain, but they seemed like weak, pathetic excuses when she was faced with Jennie’s angry gaze boring into her.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, and Jennie smirked as she squeezed Ha-eun’s face tighter, pushing down and forcing the younger girl onto her knees.

“Open,” she demanded and Ha-eun immediately obliged, her mouth falling open as she knelt before Jennie, who was bent over her, her face hovering over Ha-eun’s.

Her lips curved into a sinister grin right before she spat into Ha-eun’s open mouth, watching with satisfaction as the wad slid down her tongue and disappeared.

“Swallow,” she commanded and Ha-eun immediately obeyed, feeling herself drench her panties.

“Looks like you can do some things right, after all,” she sneered, before lifting her hand from Ha-eun’s face and using it to backhand her instead, so hard that her head turned, her cheek burning.

“You’re such a useless whore, you know that?” Jennie purred, fisting her hand in Ha-eun’s hair and pulling so that she was facing her again. “Coming two hours late, wasting our time… do you know how much our time is worth? Of course not… a poor little nobody like you can’t even imagine it.”

Ha-eun’s eyes filled with tears, but she knew that Jennie was right. “I’m sorry,” she whimpered. “Let me make it up to you, please, mistress,” she begged.

Hearing that caused a thrill to shoot through Jennie, but she controlled her expression so that not a trace of her arousal showed as she continued to stare impassively down at the other girl. She scoffed. “And just how do you propose to do that, whore? You aren’t even good enough to fuck.”

Ha-eun’s lip trembled, tears spilling from her eyes now. She knew Jennie was right, she was nobody compared to them, they could easily replace her with someone who was more obedient, who turned up on time, who didn’t force them to wait for her…

“Please, please, I’ll do anything,” Ha-eun cried, pitching forward as she folded herself into a bow, her forehead hitting the floor with a loud knock that she barely even felt, so focused on earning forgiveness.

“Anything?” Jennie’s voice was silky and dangerous, but Ha-eun was too far gone by this point to notice the change in tone as she shuffled forward, her forehead now resting on top of Jennie’s bare feet as she continued pleading for forgiveness.

“Did you hear that, girls? She said anything ,” Jennie called. That caught Ha-eun’s attention, and she looked up, sniffling, as the other three girls glided out of the shadows, coming to stand next to Jennie.

Chaeyoung laughed, a sweet, delicate sound that seemed completely at odds with the atmosphere in the room. “Anything? My, that’s a broad statement to make, sweetie. Are you sure?”

Ha-eun looked up at them with wide eyes, in awe as they stared down at her as dispassionately as they had from the billboard outside her home. “I’m sure, Chaeyoung-unnie,” she breathed. Should she be more concerned about the fact that the way they looked at her, as if she were something dirty they’d found on the bottom of their shoes, made her drip? She was sure there was a puddle beneath where she was kneeling now, and her panties were definitely ruined.

Lisa made a doubtful noise. “It seems like you like Jennie-unnie more than the rest of us, though,” she commented, and Ha-eun almost sprained her neck with how quickly she wrenched her head around to stare at her in disbelief.

“N-no!” she denied, in a panic. Why would they even think that?

Jisoo hummed. “You let her do things to you that the rest of us can’t, though.”

“No, you can do anything you like to me, please, please,” Ha-eun begged. What could they be referring to?

Then it hit her. Of course. Still looking up at Jisoo, she let her mouth fall open slightly.

Jisoo feigned ignorance, though. “Oh? What do you want, baby? Use your words,” she coaxed, running her fingers through Ha-eun’s hair. It looked like a tender motion, but she was doing it roughly enough, pulling on the silky strands, that it hovered on the brink of being painful.

Ha-eun bit her lip in embarrassment. Was Jisoo serious? She was going to make her beg for that?

When no words were forthcoming, Jisoo frowned. “I’m not a mind reader, sweetheart. You need to tell mommy what you want,” she said, her voice harder now.

Left with no choice, Ha-eun had to say, “Please spit in my mouth,” her cheeks on fire. How humiliating, actually being forced to say the words, to beg to have something so degrading done to her. And yet she couldn’t deny that her pussy felt like it was on fire.

“Aww, anything for my baby,” Jisoo cooed, leaning forward so her face hovered over Ha-eun’s. “Don’t swallow yet,” she ordered before she spat into the younger girl’s open mouth, her eyes never leaving Ha-eun’s.

To her credit, Ha-eun didn’t flinch or otherwise move at all as the warm, sticky liquid dripped into her mouth, pooling on her tongue. Chaeyoung and Lisa then took their turns, before Jennie, once again, bent down, holding Ha-eun’s mouth open with her hand pressing on her cheeks, as she spat loudly.

“Good girl,” she cooed when she straightened up, the praise obviously affecting Ha-eun as her eyes sparkled with joy, even if she couldn’t smile at the moment.

“Swallow.”

At that, Ha-eun obediently closed her mouth, swirling the unholy mixture around before she swallowed it down.

“Aww, such a cute little girl,” Chaeyoung praised, petting Ha-eun on her head. “You’re our sweet little pet, aren’t you?” she asked, and Ha-eun, basking in the affection, just nodded, barely aware of what she was agreeing to.

“That’s good, because we got our pretty pet a present,” she continued, and Ha-eun looked up with half-lidded eyes to see that Lisa now had something in her hands. Blinking, she looked more carefully and saw that it was a black collar with rose gold hardware and a cute pink bell on the front of it.

“Whoa, where’d you get that?” Ha-eun blurted, surprised.

Jennie shrugged. “We ordered it online and had manager-oppa pick it up for us today.”

Ha-eun had to press her lips together to stifle a giggle at the thought of the quiet man having to pick up fetish gear for his charges.

Lisa bent down and buckled it around Ha-eun’s neck while Chaeyoung held Ha-eun’s hair out of the way. “You’re such a pretty girl with our collar on you,” Jisoo cooed, and Ha-eun couldn’t help but smile shyly. She definitely had a praise kink, they noticed.

“Come on, kitten, let’s go home,” Jennie said, clipping a leash to the little ring behind the bell, and Ha-eun blinked. Surely she didn’t mean…

Hesitantly, Ha-eun started to get up, but all four of them frowned immediately. “Did anyone tell you to stand, whore?” Jennie asked in a glacial tone, and Ha-eun immediately fell back to the ground, confused.

“But you…”

“Yes?” Jennie prompted when Ha-eun trailed off, raising a brow at the younger girl.

“All the way to the van?”

“Of course, pet, how else are we going to go home?” Chaeyoung replied with a little laugh, as if Ha-eun was stating the obvious.

“But what if there are people…?”

“Are you ashamed of people knowing you belong to us?” Jisoo asked, her brows coming together in a deep frown.

“No, mommy,” Ha-eun immediately mumbled, chastised.

Then they walked out of the studio like they did most nights, laughing and chatting casually. The only difference was that tonight, Lisa was holding on to a bag that wasn’t her own, and Ha-eun was crawling behind them, a leash attached to her collar that Jennie was holding, biting her lip while hoping fervently that no one saw her.

#blackpink smut #bpsmut #blackpink #kim jennie #kim jisoo #lisa manoban #park chaeyoung #ot4 x oc #jennie x oc #jisoo x oc #lisa x oc #rose x oc #an arrangement for convenience #aafc

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ancientwastedlores · 4 years

Text

The Support System (Ch: 6)

SUMMARY: The Avengers have managed to collect all the infinity stones across the universe, and are currently keeping them in far corners of the world, only for research and to see if they can improve the planet and its people. Reader is a researcher with Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, as well as a field agent. Loki is currently serving time for his actions in New York City in 2012.

A/N: Find this chapter on AO3 here. This chapter is mostly soft Loki and some badass Y/N.

AO3: The Support System Tumblr: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5

Warnings: N/A Audience: general.

______________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 6:

It’s very obvious to the rest of the Avengers that Loki only started watching Doctor Who with you so he’d get to spend the night in your bed. You know it too, but understand that he would spend it in anybody else’s room but his, because being alone at night haunts him. If someone else wanted to something about it, they would, and if they don’t, they don’t get to give their opinion about it.

And they know you aren’t about to listen either, so they keep shut.

The rest of the week passes like usual, with Loki sleeping in your bed and Tony playing concerned father and quippy teen at the same time. Then arrives the morning when you have to leave.

You wake up and don’t find Loki next to you as usual. You take advantage of the space and stretch, moaning loudly. You feel like you’ve cracked every single joint in your body, and sit up. You keep sitting, making a mental list of the things you need to prepare before leaving.

The dealers were expected at the secret venue at 7 in the evening, but Tony, being Tony, insisted the team get there a full 12 hours earlier. Natasha rolled her eyes and tried to convince Tony that two hours would be enough, but he wouldn’t budge.

The cars would leave at 6 AM. You look at clock and see you have a full hour before leaving.

The door opens, and Loki enters with a tray.

‘What! Aww, Loki’ you laugh. ‘I thought you could use a breakfast in bed before heading out’ he grins as he walks to your bed, ‘I made it myself’ he exclaims proudly, placing the tray on your lap.

Well, there was no doubt about that. It was a plate full of fruits, a bowl of cornflakes, and some toasted bread. You were looking forward to digging into some pancakes and bacon before heading out to a gruelling mission, but the excitement in his eyes makes you abandon the thought completely.

You smile and ask him to sit and share the food. He obliges.

‘So you’re coming round to the idea of me going’ you tease. ‘What’s the matter, find another Doctor Who fan?’

He looks severely offended and you immediately regret saying it. ‘I was only joking. Thank you for doing this, it’s lovely’.

His expression softens, and then he reaches into his pocket.

‘I know you’ll be fine, but I did take the liberty of an extra precaution’ he produces a small rectangular object, no larger than a fingernail. It’s silver, and has odd markings on it that glow green, and attached to a chain.

You start to protest because amulets are absolutely the kind of thing you’re against, when he clutches your arm. ‘Please’ he pleads. ‘It makes no difference to you, since you don’t believe in it, but for my peace of mind?’

‘Loki, if I wear that, and something does happen, you’ll blame yourself for the amulet not working properly’. ‘No, I promise, quite the opposite…’ he unclasps the chain, ‘I’ll know I did everything I could, and you died because you did something stupid’.

You laugh. ‘Fair enough. You promise you won’t start beating yourself up?’

‘I swear on my honour’ he says, putting the chain around your neck. You tuck the amulet under your shirt, knowing if Natasha and Clint ever saw it, they would never let you live it down. You talk for a while longer while finishing up your breakfast, and then Loki leaves so you can change.

‘Good luck, kiddo’ Tony slaps your arm. ‘Give ‘em hell’. ‘Thank you’ you give Tony a small salute before getting into the car with Maria Hill, Clint, Natasha, and Sam Wilson.

T-3 hours to the expected time of arrival of the dealers. You’re leading a group of ten agents, and everyone is already in position. You’re sitting, leaning against the wall with your group, circling a finger over your bullet proof vest which hides the amulet Loki gave you.

Ridiculous, you think. But nice. You smile.

‘What is it?’ an agent asks, seeing your smile. ‘What? Nothing. Shush’ you say.

Natasha’s voice comes on the earpiece: ‘If anyone tells Tony this, they’re fired, but the convoy is here’.

You smile, knowing Tony would gloat for ages if anyone told him the convoy reached earlier than expected.

‘Alright gang, up up’ you stand up, and help a few up since they’re carrying heavy guns. ‘Look sharp, and if you find something weird, for god’s sake, don’t touch it. We got Thor for that’.

You put your helmet on and take a deep breath, waiting for instructions.

You hear the dealers come in, boxes being dragged across the floor, clicks of guns and clanging of metals.

‘Where’s the Vibranium?’ a voice comes. Someone mumbles something in another language.

‘He’s saying there’s another truck coming’ Natasha’s voice comes. ‘Nobody move until every single one of them is in the room and the door is shut’.

You nod at the rest of your team to ask if they understand. They nod back.

You return your eyes to the group that has just entered. You look up, just to scope the room, and spot a figure move.

‘Yo’ you whisper as low as you can, ‘did anyone see that?’ ‘What the hell is that’ Clint’s voice comes over the ear piece. ‘Oh, if that is who I think it is…’ Sam’s voice comes. ‘Ssshh’ you hiss. ‘Wait’. ‘Did you just shush me, don’t ever…’ ‘Ssshhh!!' you, Clint, and Nat say in unison.

It’s a grave situation, but you can’t stop yourself smiling before returning your attention to the back of the room. The tall figure is still moving, shooting something that makes no noise.

‘For god’s sake’ you hear Sam’s disgusted voice. ‘It’s the spider kid’.

You inwardly groan. You thought Tony would have told him to stay away.

‘Tell me he isn’t our responsibility, please’ Sam says. ‘If you want to die at Tony’s hands, sure’ you say. ‘Stark put a comms system in his suit, someone tell Stark to get him out’. ‘We aren’t carrying cell phones. And we don’t know how he got in in the first place’ Nat says. ‘Let it just play out’.

You sigh.

You wait a while longer, and the ‘other’ truck arrives. After all the contents are loaded in the room, there’s a spat about payment, and then the truck guys clear off. The one you assume is the leader shuts the doors and walks over to one of the crates with a crowbar.

‘Hold it…’ Nat says.

You stretch an arm out to inform your team to stay as well.

You quickly glance back up, the figure is no longer on the roof. You dread that he’ll announce his presence at the wrong time.

And he does.

‘Anything here for me?’ you hear Peter shout. The dealers all cock their guns and turn around to point it at him. ‘NOW’ Nat shouts over the comms.

You put your arm down and your team moves out, guns pointed at the dealers. From the right, Clint’s team enters. From the left, Natasha’s. Thor is on the balcony-like structure upstairs, looking over the whole congregation. Maria and Sam come from the North side. You have them surrounded.

‘Whoa, no way, you guys came!’ Peter exclaims. ‘Get outta here, kid’ you yell. ‘No way, let me help, I can help’.

You roll your eyes.

‘Ay, what the hell is going on’ one of the men say. ‘Put your weapons down’ Nat shouts. ‘Turn over everything you have’. ‘Yeah, that’s not happening’ the man laughs, removing a cylindrical object and throwing it on the ground, creating a force field around his own group, also trapping Peter.

You look up at Thor. He’s already swinging his hammer and aiming it at the force field; it hits its mark and the shield breaks so your team can move in.

A fight ensues, with you managing to dodge most of the attacks, while also grabbing onto some of the new tech the dealers have left lying around to use it.

‘This is so cool!’ Peter yells, swinging from wall to wall, pinning dealers to the walls with his webs. Okay, maybe he is helping a little.

You manage to get every single one of them, either knocked out or pinned to the wall. Sam celebrates by slyly putting some of the new guns in his holster. You laugh and yell that you can see him, and he yells back ‘You see NOTHING’.

Peter is just gushing over what just happened. ‘I didn’t know you guys were coming, this is so cool, I’ve always wanted to be part of a strike team!’ ‘Peter…’ you start. ‘And, and look at this gear, wow can I try that gun, I swear I’ll be careful…’

You take off your helmet. ‘PETER’.

‘Oh’

He sees your face. ‘Oh h-hey I didn’t know it was you, hi’.

You sigh, remembering his crush on you. ‘You’re in way over your head’. ‘Mr. Stark says the same thing, you know, I’m much more capable…’ ‘Thank you for your help’ you say sternly. ‘I’ll inform Mr. Stark you did a great job today. But you have to go now’.

His eyes twinkle. ‘You’ll tell him I did good? Will you tell me what he says? Do you have my number? You can just text me what he says…’

‘Peter, honey, Tony has your number’. ‘RIGHT. Yes, he does. Okay. Bye!’ he shoots a web to the ceiling and goes out of the broken skylight you hadn’t noticed before.

Everyone else is putting weapons back in crates, while the Avengers are talking at the middle of the room. You walk over to them. ‘Hey’.

‘How’d you get him to leave’ Sam asks. ‘I just said he did good’ you shrug. ‘We’re sure these guys haven’t made any calls?’

Clint holds up a little device. ‘Blocks out any outgoing and incoming calls within a 2km radius’ he grins.

Stark’s trucks arrive and the men get out to help load the crates in. Natasha and Hill oversee the operation, while Sam and Thor are in some conversation, and Clint helps you aid the wounded S.H.I.E.L.D agents.

While you bandage a woman’s arm, Clint walks over to borrow a pair of scissors. You hand it to him, and kneels down next to you.

‘Blink twice if you need help’ he says. ‘Excuse me?’ ‘You and Loki’. You sigh, frustrated. ‘We’re friends’. ‘I’ve been under his control. It’s easy to not understand the difference’. ‘Clint, he doesn’t have any way of controlling me, okay?’ ‘You just look badly beat up’.

You finish bandaging the woman and she thanks you. You smile at her and stand up. ‘I appreciate your concern, I really do. And thank you for asking. But there really is nothing to worry about. I decided to give him a chance, and I think all of you should too’ you pat him on the back and walk towards where the trucks are.

‘Hey, the last of the crates are loaded, I’m just calling Stark’ Hill informs you. You nod and she leaves, her phone in hand. ‘Off to Dubai, then. It’s a long ass flight’ Nat says. ‘When are we leaving? I hope we land at night, it’s beautiful’ you say, remembering your time there ‘I think we can manage that’ she grins.

After the driver calls something out to her in Russian, she responds and hits the side of the truck next to her twice. The engines start and the line of trucks head out to the Avengers Tower.

‘We follow through; can you get the team into the cars?’

You nod and rush back in, ‘Ya’ll got five minutes, get your asses in those cars’ you call out. ‘Anyone who needs medical attention, yell’.

One person from the corner of the room yells.

You turn to Natasha. ‘I’ll take him to the Tower and drop him off, get a new guy, and meet you at the jet’. ‘You sure?’ ‘Yeah. Save me a good window seat’. ‘You got it’ she smiles and sits in the car.

The rest of the group files in, and you’re left with a large black BMW. You haven’t driven in a while, but the car has sirens, so you hope people will just get out of your way. ‘Okay mate, what’s your name’ you ask, as you pick him up. ‘Paul’ he chokes out. ‘Paul. Well, Paul, have you ever been inside the Avengers Tower?’

He shakes his head.

‘You’re in for the pampering of your life, if you manage to stay with me till the ride there, Paul’ you help him into the backseat of the car, and buckle him in. You run to the drivers’ side, get in, and flip the sirens on, driving at top speed to the Avengers Tower.

You make a call while rushing through the streets of New York. Over the bluetooth - ‘Hello?’ ‘Tony! Okay, I’m bringing over Paul, he was hurt badly in the fight…’ ‘Yup, Nat told me, med crew is already at reception’. ‘Excellent, I also need you to keep a S.H.I.E.L.D agent ready for me to take as a replacement’. ‘Also downstairs waiting, with full gear’. You just love this man. ‘You’re awesome, Stark’. ‘I know, kid. See you soon’ he hangs up.

You pull up to the entrance of the tower and the med crew rushes to help Paul out of your backseat, which is covered in blood.

Fortunately, Tony also has another car waiting for you.

This man is on another level, you think, chuckling.

‘Take care Paul!’ you yell. He gives you a thumbs up.

The new recruit comes up to you. ‘Hi, I’m Sean’ ‘Hello, Sean. Get in, we’ll talk’

He gets into the new car and you’re about to get in as well when you hear your name called out and turn around. It’s Loki.

‘Hi! I have to leave…’ He comes up to you and gives you a hug. ‘I forgot to give you a hug before you leave’ he holds you tight. ‘Oh’… you smile against his chest and hug him back. You’ve removed your bullet proof vest now, so it’s just a shirt. Loki can feel the amulet through it, that’s how tight he’s hugging you. ‘Take care’ he says, and lets go.

You grin and turn to get into the passenger side, then shut the door. Off to Dubai, then.

______________________________________________________________

Feedback and requests welcome :) <3 Thanks for reading!

#loki #loki marvel #loki x you #loki x reader #tom hiddleston x you #marvel avengers #avengers fanfiction #loki fandom #reader insert #fan fiction series #the support system

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keyofjetwolf · 4 years

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GIFTENING Bonus Rounds

For each category, I included a “bonus round” question. YOU GUYS KILLED IT. I loved all the answers, but listed below are some of my particular favourites.

Haruka Tenoh is trapped in the wrong anime! Which would you have her visit next?

I want her to earth shake Kyubey out of existence, please and thank you

My bride is a mermaid. She can relate. :P

i think she would THRIVE in bodacious space pirates. gay teenage space pirates whose job is to dress up, be Dramatic, and rob the wealthy??? that shit is RIGHT up her alley

Hamtaro

Princess Tutu - where the world is finally as dramatic as her

PGSM (and Michiru is trapped with her, for REASONS)

Pokemon because everyone deserves to be happy

Any moe-style series so hijinks can ensue at her being baffled by everyone's ages

1960's Speed Racer

is is this a captcha or something i missed oh god

Free! so she can be indifferent to all the hot men and slightly uncomfortable because she still can't swim.

Stick Haruka in a Gundam!

Dump her in Pretear or one of the Precures! It would be hilarious! She's never in the genre she wants to be!

Revolutionary Girl Utena, so she can be offended by misuse of roses.

Initial D, she will out-drive and out-drift all those guys and steal all their girls.

Evangelion. I would feel bad to watch her suffer, but it would be so, so funny for her to be the comparatively most normal person around.

Yakitake Japan! SO SHE CAN HAVE A SNACK OF DELICIOUS RIDICULOUS BREAD BEFORE THE NEXT INTERDIMENSIONAL ANIME STORM WHISKS HER AWAY.

The Holograms or the Misfits? DISCUSS

Holograms

both? both. BOTH IS GOOD

misfits bc Evil Ladies Hot

Steven and the stevens

Misfits. How dare you make us try to think about anything in our lives.

Both, you mad fool. Those combined songs were the best.

The Misfits, their songs are better

The Misgrams: A group of girls who form a singing telegram start up company, but constantly deliver the telegrams to the wrong people.

kimber & stormer

Neither. Limp Lizards all the way. BROKEN GLASS.

I do not know what these things are

Misfits because guitar motorcycle

The Isle of Misfit Holograms

Holograms is just arguably better

I mean, I’m told the Misfits’ songs are better, but my true answer is the band Kimber and Stormer made in that big gay episode you liveblogged (checks) almost four years ago.

I've no idea what these words mean and I hope this does not make me TOO uncool.

this is about jem, right? right?? im hip i swear

Misfits, because Jasper is a member apparently

I don't know from Jem, but I mean...I certainly prefer holographic material to Glenn Danzig? So I guess there's your answer ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Stingers

LIMP LIZARDS FOREVER

Senshi Band

You can make me liveblog a full series of any show you want! You also hate me. What do you have me watch?

Pick a GoT rip-off, any GoT rip-off

The Bachelor?

The Bachelor :(

depends on how much i hate you, but....probably the bachelor. quantity AND lack of quality

Critical role, it would take forever

If I were a horrible person who sought only malice? Big Bang Theory. Entire series.

Toddlers and Tiaras

The Mandalorian - Disney would come after you and kill keyofjetwolf just as dead as keyofnik. We would all be very sad, you would have to go through a second round of restoring things to a new tumblr account, and your organizational heart would weep over adding yet another hosting site out of chronological order.

You are liveblogging Eva, and must discuss in full detail Shinji's emotional state at all times.

Hannity & Colmes

The Kardashians. And all of their spin offs. *kisses*

The price is right

the bachelor

Probably something with lots of romance and no friendships. Soap operas are like that, right? My college roommate used to watch General Young Light Restless Hospital of Our Lives (which one had Like and Laura?) And it was torture.

One Piece, because it's over 900 episodes so you could maybe do 10% before you die, also you will hate how the women are treated most of the time.

Fushigi Yuugi. Not only do you hate it but it also comes with you squirming when you admit to watching the whole thing. ;)

Plus belle la vie. It's an ongoing French soap opera that has been airing five days a week since 2004, they're nearing their 4000th episode and there's no end in sight. Imagine all those hours upon hours submerged in French drama, mwahahaha!!

The Bachelor. Or the Bachelorette, maybe - more straight dudes in that.

The Young and the Restless - IT IS THE LIVEBLOG THAT NEVER ENDS. IT WOULD OUTLAST THE INTERNET.

The entirety of the Bachelor franchise.

You can only play one game for the rest of your life. Which game would it be and why?

Kingdom Hearts Complete Collection. A) I love them. B) I beat the system and get like 10 games instead of one.

Gemcraft. This game actually takes a lifetime to finish.

Hatoful Boyfriend. It is the best game ever created. Feel it in your heart.

that's a mean question and you can't make me answer it

Pathfinder, which you could play for the rest of your life and still never finish.

Civ VI , so I can rule the world without leaving my house.

I am legitimately perturbed by this question and refuse to answer it.

Pokemon Go. I would have nothing else, but I would catch them all.

The Elder Scrolls Skyrim: I'll never run out of side-quests.

Mass Effect--it's the only way I'll get full completion.

The dinosaur game on Chrome when the internet doesn't connect because my life is monotonous and it's a welcome relief.

Stardew Valley. Peaceful farmer life and turning my children into doves when I'm bored with them.

Crabs Adjust Humidity

Oh my! A number of things come to mind, not one of them fit for print. Just, you know...*gestures vaguely* sex shit.

I can't even stick to the ones I play now.

This is the worst of all possible things and I refuse to answer.

Monopoly, I hate myself :(

Probably Minecraft! I haven't gotten into it because I know if I start I will NEVER STOP. Who would do things like build a hundred foot tall statue of Mako-chan? A-THAT'D BE ME.

the game. Of LIFE! *shrug emoji*

I don't believe I'll tell you, because I AM a salty little fish and it was HARD to cut that 11th choice off my vote.

Holligay and I are going to be the leads in a new buddy film. What's the premise? How does it end?

Be gay do crimes. Thelma and Louise. Duh. :P

I have no idea but only just surviving disaster is how it ends.

You break down in a small town during a roadtrip- your stay is full of hijinks and ends with you teaching the townsfolk the true meaning of friendship.

Doctor Holligay, Esquire, PhD, renowned Jewish femme of many talents, is assigned one Operative Jet Wolf as her bodyguard on a foreign diplomatic mission/vacation/culinary tour of the world ("same difference, shut up, narrator"). One problem: Operative Wolf needs a bodyguard herself, as the good doctor discovers when in one night her toilet is destroyed ("IT WAS A SECURITY THREAT") and Operative Wolf nearly breaks a leg falling down a small set of stairs ("THEY PUT A CLIFF OUTSIDE THE DOOR"). Worldwide shenanigans ensue as Holligay and Operative Wolf learn the true meaning of friendship, and also how to take care of themselves... by taking care of each other.

I’m not sure about the premise, but DEFINITELY it ends in murder.

Someone posted a major spoiler during one of your liveblogs. The two of you track them down seeking revenge. It turns out it was the original creator of the series trying to stop you. For some reason Holligay is a CGI badger.

It's clearly a buddy cop movie, and like all good buddy cop movies, it ends with Doc almost dying, and you saving her, and slapping her wound in the hospital as the credits roll.

It ends as it began: with Holligay roasting you.

A straight detective and her lesbian partner have to solve the case of the missing cinnamon buns. It ends with nobody getting the guy OR the girl and you drive off into the sunset together, perps behind bars sans cinnamon buns.

I don't know what it's about but I know it will be the only movie that ever existed.

Holligay is the lesbian chief of staff to you somehow being elected President and she's basically running the country while you're the charming face of the administration

Nerd and cowgirl meet at a bar, justifyingly murder some gross dude, go on the run from the law and have a life-changing road trip, on the way Nazis are punched

carrying a delicate object through a forest after your helicopter goes down

Thelma and Louise, but instead of dying, your deaths are clearly faked and you live on a ranch in Montana with your respective spouses and animals. One time a cop comes by the restaurant/bar you joint own with Doc and says, "You look familiar." Doc, in perfect lesbian, answers, "Jet's just got that criminal look, on account of how much she'd love to steal my cheesecake recipe. More pie?"

Queer Eye with a Straight Goy. The two of you do the show but in your own special ways.

Doc Holligay is the wild-west no-nonsense sheriff. Jet Wolf is the all-fun cyberpunk cop from the future. They punch nazis and argue about food. It ends as a tv series ala B99.

Your lives are already a buddy film, don’t get greedy.

Hands and socks. You know how it ends.

See Grumpy Old Men for details. How does it end? Badly.

I can't imagine the premise, but I'm pretty sure the planet explodes.

A Coen Bros film. It ends poorly.

Wait? You're not already living this now?

REI HINO

Sure. Why not?

HINO REI

<3<3<3<3

REI HINO!

Rei who? ;)

REI HINOOOOOOOOO

Plush Is being hugged by Zoisite in your banner.

MINAKO AINO

MAKOTO KINO

The best

SOCKS

MICHIRU KAIOH

It's time tooo.... REI! THAT! HINO!