#ive never done one of those successfully yet but i really want to for this one

[onyxrosess]

Pain is My Hometown

vergil x reader [multi-chapter series]

Chapter IV: It's Too Late for Me Now

Chapter I | Chapter II | Chapter III | Chapter IV [you're here!] | Table of Contents

・warnings/tags: n/a

( cross-posted on ao3 )

Swinging the sheets off your body in an attempt to freeze yourself into waking up, mostly it worked. Dante’s bed was nicer than anticipated, likely due to him sleeping in his chair 90% of the time instead of the bed he owned. Regardless of how many times you’ve ‘accidentally’ spent the night at the shop, you never kept any clothes here, meaning you’d have to drive back to Fortuna to change clothes. Besides the heavy sigh that left your mouth, it was quiet and it wasn’t taken for granted, Kyrie’s and Nero’s house can get a little noisy unless it's 5 in the morning. Shuffling to the bathroom connected to Dante’s room, you addressed whatever was happening with your hair., scavenging for a brush to maybe tame the nest that was on your head.

After successfully making your hair look a little more presentable, you walked down the stairs, your eyes met with Dante leaning back in his chair, a magazine covering his eyes. You stepped around crunched up papers that littered the ground, standing next to Dante’s sleeping form. How does he not have back problems? Before you could give it much thought, you were reminded the man in front of you was not all man. Yet he acted with such ease that you wondered what happened to Vergil- why was he so…weird? You wished there was a nicer way to put it, but the things he’s done were of his own volition, no one else's. Your mind began to bubble up in anger once again, seething at your father. Heartless man. 

“Well good morning, didn’t take you for a stalker.”  The magazine that once covered Dante’s face was now slid down into his lap. His body remained motionless as he looked at you with a sly smile on his face. “I didn’t take you as a perv who stuffed his face in magazines all day.” Dante feigned hurt on his face, those puppy dog eyes don’t work. “Hey- you know I have bad luck with women.” “Is that what you tell yourself at night?” Dante playfully scoffs, shoving the paper back on the desk. His boots slid off the wooden surface, as you lifted yourself to sit on the desk. Silence took over the shop before it was quickly disrupted, “Y’know, I was thinking.” Oh god, Dante is thinking. You stifled a chuckle, trying to see what he was going to say before giving him shit. “Why didn’t you get into demon hunting with Nero?” 

The thought never crossed your mind really, when Nero was younger he was a little too cocky for his good. Your little exposure to demons before…whatever the hell happened in Fortuna, led you to just avoid them entirely. It’s not like hell gates of that magnitude would ever open again, hopefully anyway.  “That was Nero’s thing, plus I was recovering again.” You paused, letting out a breath before continuing, “And I’m just a regular human.” “Lady’s human and she does just fine.” Dante’s words became quieter, “Probably too well for her own good.” You couldn’t help but exhale a light laugh, Lady must have won their little bet the last time they were out. “Dante, you want me to believe Lady, who you’ve apparently known since you were 18 is the same age as you? She doesn’t look a day over 25- shit, I probably look older than her!” You did not want to point out your age, not that you were proud of the slowly appearing lines on your face, but at least you’ve lived. “Okay fine, I’m not sure if she’s fully human, her father was a nut job so I could only assume.” Dante crossed his arms over his chest, and for once he wasn’t wearing his red leather coat. The dark grey shirt rolled up at his elbows, the fabric fraying at the edges.

“Well, it seems like Lady and I have something in common.” Your attempt at a joke was met with a chuckle from Dante, he leaned forward in his seat, looking at a paper on his desk. He only skimmed over it before sighing, letting it fall back onto the desk.  “What's that?”  Dante looked at the paper again before closing his eyes in annoyance. “There’s a string of demon sightings, about 2 hours away from here. Likely a hell gate, which is beyond annoying.” You were puzzled, from what you knew, hell gates only appeared from human’s doings.  “I thought those only popped up due to humans.” Dante shook his head at your question, “Nope, but if it’s a demon opening it, that means there's a big guy guarding it.” Dante’s vocabulary switched like he was talking to a child, you suppose it’s easier for you to understand but it made you chuckle at his choice of words. So the ones in Fortuna when you met Dante must have been the synthetic ones. You tried to remember how Dante explained it to you in the moment but you were so shaken up you thought you were on something the way he was talking.

“A ‘ big guy ’- am I twelve Dante?” “Well you sometimes act-” “Don’t answer that.” You looked at him with a stern expression that could only be held up for so long before your face softened again. The two of you continued to reminisce on old times, frankly, they weren’t that long ago, but everything happened so quickly that it feels so long ago. It was close to seven years of knowing Dante, but a couple of those were taken from you due to some of the otherworldly events. You would never admit to Dante that you thought he was handsome when you first met, but now, things seem different. Whether he’s getting older or you both are- you can’t seem to bring yourself to walk that path anymore. Your friendship with Dante is one you hold close, and threatening to burn that bridge with a silly crush that you had years ago seemed illogical. 

You were reminded of Dante’s concern over his brother last night, and maybe you just wanted to add fuel to the fire that was hating Vergil’s guts, or you wanted to be right about him. Although you couldn’t help but ask, “Why did you ask about Vergil yesterday?”  You prepared yourself for a response that would make you feel justified in your hatred, “Well, he’s not the most… friendly , and I guess his attempts could be seen as off-putting.” Dante really knows how to not tell you exactly what was going on but sure, he’s not the most friendly. It left you just to reply with a small hum, you’ll find out more soon. Even if you had to beat it out of Vergil.

After some complaining about recent jobs being too boring, must he always find something to complain about? Even when they accidentally put an olive on his pizza he could easily pick off he has to complain, as if he was legally bound to complain about it, every time. Dante later departed with a grunt, saying how much of a pain in the ass going two hours out is, even though he can fly there, for free. You reminded him that he should be grateful he doesn’t have to deal with traffic. He responded with a nonchalant, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ You also left the shop back to Fortuna soon after, a change of clothes and a shower is in order.

Arriving back home, the van Nico and Nero took last night for the job was parked in front of the house, a loud clank came from the garage followed by Nico cursing. Thankfully they aren't dead, you sighed as you walked towards Nico. “Howdy.” She greeted you, but her attention was elsewhere tinkering on a new arm for Nero- like he still needed those.  “Hey, you staying out of trouble?” Nico playfully scoffed, “Never, you know me.” You smiled, “How did last night go?” Nico laughed before she could even give you an answer. “Nero got knocked around quite a bit, it made for the night's entertainment- he’s alright now he didn’t get hurt hurt, y’know?” Nico sputtered out her words after she told you Nero got injured, but her swift recovery followed. You brushed her off, Nero would be fine, he's an adult. No matter how many times you told yourself that you would always be worried when he got hurt. Nico continued on the mechanical arm as you excused yourself inside. Looking out the sliding door, the orphans splashed each other with water in an inflatable pool, you couldn’t help but smile. You had wished that was the life you had grown up with, but no jealousy filled you, just happiness that it was better for them.

Making your way to your room, you walked down the skinny hallway, about to pass Nero and Kyrie’s room when Nero appeared on the other side of the door. Nero looked as if he had the worst hangover and got beat to shit. Nero’s white hair was pointing in all different directions as scrapes and cuts littered his skin, but the gashes were already halfway healed from the looks of it.  “Nico told me it went well” Sarcasm leaked from your voice, as you held in a laugh, Nero did look a little miserable but you knew he would be fine. “Yeah, it went great .” Nero matched your voice, you could tell he didn’t want to admit that he had difficulty beating up a demon. He leaned against the door frame as he rubbed the exhaustion out of his eyes. “What happened? Just too strong for you?” You jabbed him in the side lightly with your elbow. He barely moved, just rolled his eyes at you. “The fucker had these little…” He paused, searching for the words in his head, “Bugs, I don’t know, and they were everywhere and the more I killed them they doubled, it was so annoying.” “So you got beat up by bugs” “I never said that.”  Nero gave you the look that he was trying to save his ego, you can only imagine Nico’s hysterics yesterday. “Well I’m glad you’re okay- you just look like you had a wild night.” A smile crept on your face as you watched Nero’s face heat up just the slightest bit. It left as quickly as it came as he shoved your shoulder, walking out of the doorway. 

The day went on without too much drama, you accompanied Nico in her attempts to fix the radio in the van. You couldn’t help but chuckle every time she let out a string of curse words, like ‘fucknuts’ or ‘you mother shitter!’ Maybe it helped her focus. Scrubbing your body clean from grease, and washing your hair vigorously, it's the only way it stays clean. You stood in front of the mirror, analyzing your face, restraining yourself from picking anything and everything off of your skin. Glancing at the clock, it was only three in the afternoon, you really should socialize- outside of bars. That was enough convincing for you to go out, after getting dressed and ready to leave you picked open your wallet, you were a little richer than usual, weird. You dismissed it, putting the key into your ignition as you sped off into the road. 

Fortuna was quite busy today, the sidewalks were a little busier than usual, some of the individuals carried bags with various shop logos on them, and others had street food in their hands before stuffing their faces. You cruised down a street with many varying restaurants and business fronts, one caught your eye, there were around 20 boxes full of records, and you desperately needed new music to listen to at work, Dante hadn’t gotten a new record for far too long. You stopped and parked your bike on the side of the street as you wandered into the store, the cashier greeted you as you reciprocated the gesture. Drawn to the records you flipped through them, seeing covers you recognized, and some you didn’t. You went through maybe two or three boxes before the roar of an engine brought your attention to the street, an old bike tore through the streets, and the red paint started to chip at the corners, which looked very similar to Dante’s bike he’s abandoned over the years. A short black-haired woman sat ontop of it- Lady. You quickly abandoned your post at the record boxes and went outside, Lady’s face did not wear her normal expression, she was far too focused than usual. She stopped the bike in its tracks once she recognized your face and your accompanying bike.

“What are you doing out here?” You questioned her as you walked closer to her. “There's another hell gate that popped up in Red Grave, I was out here doing work before I realized.” Lady’s skin carried a light sheen of sweat, and maybe a few stains from demon guts. You weren’t sure how to respond other than ‘Go get 'em’ tiger!’ but it worried you that Lady was even breaking a sweat over it. “They are so annoying!” Lady groaned, before starting her engine again, “It’ll be fine, (Name). Nothing I can’t handle, I’ll call you when I’m done.”  “Y’know, Dante said the same thing about the one he was taking care of-” “There's another one?” You paused, you assumed she and Dante were on the same page or at least she knew about it, but Dante often didn’t think about telling people about his jobs unless someone was accompanying him or he was asked. “I mean, I’m not sure- Dante just mentioned that he had a job a couple hours out for a hell gate.” Lady let out another annoyed groan, “Okay well, thank you, I really gotta go.” You could barely respond before she drove away, you stood on the sidewalk, it had been a long time since you’d seen Lady even remotely worried about anything demon-related, and to be honest, you weren’t sure if she was concerned or annoyed. Your mind quickly wandered to Dante, if another hell gate popped up does that mean he got rid of the other one? Trying to soothe your worries by using the excuse that you have no idea about any of it, your knowledge of demons and hell was slim to none. Deciding to go home early, empty-handed. You weren’t gone longer than 30 minutes, your attempt to socialize was exceptionally short today. You pulled into the driveway, Nico seemed to be inside as the garage housed no life. Lifting your helmet off of your head, a faint crackling sound came from behind you, you turned around to see little sparks of blue seeming to form in the air. A deep blue smoke? What the fuck is that? The screen of smoke enlarged as a figure stepped out from it, a figure you recognised. One you wished you didn’t recognise, Vergil. His expression was plain as ever as you still sat on your bike, a little confused- a bit more than confused. He can just pop up anywhere, wherever he wants? You knew Dante could fly, and you weren’t sure why this came as a surprise to you. The door to inside Nero’s home opened as you followed the sound, Nero stepped down the stairs, walking towards you and Vergil. 

“What’s going on? Nero, you should not be going out right now, you’re still-” “I’m fine, (Name).” Nero’s voice was laced with a string of seriousness, something you weren’t familiar with, at least directed towards you. Vergil stood where he had popped up from his portal, rather you’re assuming that’s what it was. “I’m requesting Nero come with me to take care of a hell gate, he should learn how to properly deal with them.” Vergil’s words teetered on the edge of a scolding, your brows furrowed together, he has no room to be scolding Nero. You held your tongue as Nero did the same. Your words did not come easily to you, this feeling you get when you’re around Vergil was not one you liked, you felt so little compared to him. Not just in stature but status, it was suffocating and you hated it. It felt all too close to the suffocating nature of your ex-boyfriends and their tactics to belittle you.

“...be careful, Nero.” Your voice came out just above a squeak, you despised it. As if it was not in your control to speak up. Nero nodded and Vergil unsheathed his sword, as the same crackling blue sparked from his sword. He slashed the air with the blade, his movements direct and controlled. An identical deep blue screen opened in front of him, he turned his head towards Nero, silently motioning to step into the portal with him. Nero did not say anything to you, but a glance. You could not get comfort from it, the whole interaction was ominous and frankly frustrating because you had no idea what just transpired. They were gone just like that, the portal closed right after Nero stepped in, with no evidence that neither of them was ever here. You pulled your bike into the garage, a little more aggressively than normal. You pulled the keys from their spot in your bike, rushing through the house to your room, luckily Kyrie and Nico were preoccupied and did not see you come in. You escaped to your room, shutting the door and flopping onto your mattress.

You had to remind yourself to breathe, as annoying and frustrating that you could do nothing or that you didn’t know the whole story is, nothing you could do at this moment could change anything. You exhaled, carding your fingers through your hair to get them out of your face. Ever since Dante planted the question of why you never picked up devil hunting, it made you ever so conscious of your helplessness, you were weak. If a demon tried to kill you, you could do nothing. The thought only made you more frustrated, but to bring yourself to do anything about that fact was something you could decide later. Your body laid still, as your eyes stared into the ceiling of the room, and your thoughts spiralled in your mind. If there was an award for overthinking, you would have first place.

As always, thank you for reading! Maybe a separate Dante fic coming sometime soon…? (I'm rubbing my hands together deviously) -onyxroses Previous Chapter | Next Chapter (coming soon!)

[sunsetskylane]

Some July recommendations from me to you, because I've been reading some absolute beauties:

*i was a king (under your control) by aaaaaibou

When Ivy looks up from his phone - he was trying to distract himself, looking at lip jewellery - he’s greeted by a man in a mask, his pale mouth the only thing Ivy is able to see of his face, and now he suddenly understands all those other comments. More importantly, he remembers one in particular: "vessel can come across as a lil weird, but he’s a chill guy! great piercer, wonderful tattoo artist, have no idea how he works through the mask, but he always does a great job. i highly recc going to his shop, the vibes are excellent. i go there to get all my stuff done, and his boyfriends really nice! you’ll get over the mask." Yeah, if the mask wasn’t doing something for Ivy, maybe.

i know how we got here (give in again) by deerie

“I know,” III says regretfully. “I understand it’s a big leap of faith, considering what just happened to you. But—” III pauses here, and he watches as III turns to stare at his friends outside— “but II and I have already done this for Ves. We could do it for you too, easily.” This could end so badly, he thinks, but the worst thing that could happen to him has already happened.

*open your heart by Anonymous

“Tell me what?” II asks, softly. “That I love you.” II blinks, and it takes him a second to realise that his eyelashes are wet. He reaches up to curl his fingers around Vessel’s wrists, gripping on tightly as though it’s the only thing holding him upright. “I love you, too,” he says, voice cracking, and then he’s pressing forwards again, crashing their lips together, “I never stopped loving you. Christ, we’re both so stupid. Come here.”

**& More by phantomxanthem

Vessel takes his job very seriously - most people, whether they recognize it outright or not, NEED Sleep, and who better to bring Sleep's power to those people than Vessel? Of course, Sleep is very literal. Vessel works for Sleep Token Mattresses & More. Or: Vessel and his coworkers in different departments are great at their jobs and great friends to each other, but a new hire could shake things up. For better or for worse is yet to be determined.

*in all my dreams i drown by by aaaaaibou

Vessel's just coasting through life, waiting for... something, to happen to him. For him. Then he finds Two, and then Three, and finally Ivy; his family, the ones he's going to protect forever, the people Sleep decided are his. And he's theirs, too. Or, the story of how Vessel meets the other members.

**when i open my eyes to the future by deerie

He peers down the street and sees a post office, a couple of small shops, and a pub. The difference between the city where he has an apartment and this village is stark. Sam comes out of the shop nearly ten minutes later with a cardboard travel container of drinks. He laughs at something someone inside says and IV wishes – gut-wrenchingly – that he had anything left in him that could feel the way Sam looks right now. He feels like a husk of a person, and he wants – he wants that. A man follows Sam to the threshold of the entrance and says something to Sam that IV can’t quite make out as he opens the car door. He keeps the shop door open with a cocked hip, and IV sits up to get a better look at him.

IV, burned out from his corporate job, visits his friends for the summer in the idyllic village where they live. He's expecting to get his head put on straight, not that he'll find love in the last place he expects it.

Maybe the real treasure was the crits we rolled on the way by unworthyhands (dickenstein)

On a short break from their 2023 concert tour, the boys finally gather at Vessel and II’s house and get into the next chapter of the lore-packed Dungeons & Dragons campaign they’d had to put on hold. Will they successfully navigate the ambitious quest to cut short the rampage of an unleashed deity, wake up Her worshippers, and restore order to the kingdom? Or will the evening be a Critical Fail?

gravity by ancientbygones, crackedmask

He is alone until he is not.

*part of a series/with a prologue that I also highly recommend! **unfinished

[musteladraconis]

alright thats it this is my rant about palworld because i need to just speak about it. if you disagree with anything i say or have an alternative perspective then ill be happy to read them but anyways.

this game makes me so incredibly upset and just. enraged. pure unbridled anger.

just want to clarify some things before i start:

1. im aware of just how dogshit nintendo treats pokemon fans like myself, giving us the worst framerates imaginable, pushing out shitty low quality games so that people stay interested or whatever their motive is and so on and so forth, you've heard it all before i dont need to go over all of it again.

2. im not against using ai for some things. it can even be really beneficial. however when you use ai to steal from other artists and use it to make creative work then its inexcusable and should never be used. no im not talking about animation programs that use ai for tweening or any ai that's used to help make an artists job a tiny bit easier or faster, im talking about generative ai that takes artists work without their knowledge and uses it to make money. so when i say ai in this post i am specifically talking about generative ai.

alright with that said lets get into why i absolutely hate this game.

feel free to correct me if im wrong throughout this post.

ive been looking into the company's background and as many people already know the founder promotes the use of ai and greatly enjoys it. but yknow what i also found out? its that he also hates new and creative ideas! and he promotes using ideas that already exist to make games.

(citing SomeOrdinaryGamers video on palworld)

oh yeah. yeah that's right. pocket pair is the company that made palworld! lemme show you what else they made

notice anything? no? alright let's try again.

how about now.

yeah. yeah this is breath of the wild and hollow knight!

and also. it's one thing to steal from nintendo, it's another to steal from indie game developers and FAKEMON ARTISTS.

YEAH. YEP! EVEN THE FAKEMON ARTISTS ARENT FREE!!

WEIRD 'COINCIDENCE' RIGHT???? THAT THEIR DESIGNS ARE 99% THE SAME???

SURELY THIS GUY MUST ENJOY HAVING SOME KIND OF ORIGINALITY RIGHT? RIGHT???

WRONG!

"IF THERE ARE GOOD IDEAS IN THE WORLD I PICK THEM UP AND I DONT NECESSARILY HAVE TO BE PARTICULAR ABOUT ORIGINALITY"

nintendo hasn't sued him yet. i dont know if its because they cant find a 1 to 1 rip off or some other reason like them not needing to worry about him but i hope some of you understand just how bad this is for artists jobs. while yes there would have had to be artists that modeled the models in game there is basically no creativity or originality here. 'but what about the idea of giving pokemon guns' you might say. sure, thats a cool idea i will say. i like the concepts but i despise the methods used to achieve this goal.

many other games that are similar in using monsters like pokemon have successfully made their own unique creatures and people have enjoyed those games.

shin megami tensei has its demons for example! including... including... sigh. the green dick on wheels. yeah you heard me. the green dick on wheels.

BUT wouldn't you rather that than a 1 to 1 ripoff of wooloo?

you could say that oh wooloos just a regular sheep which yeah i can accept that argument but there are so many more that you can look at where the similarities are just... Bad. the cobalion one for example (just look up cobalion palworld youll see what i mean).

and not just the megami tensei franchise either. mutahar also mentioned other games, like cassette beasts which looks really fun

and those are good designs! the game itself looks cool and fun to play. digimon also exists!

if nintendo ever does anything to the pokemon franchise that just absolutely ruins it more than anything else they've ever done then ill rethink my opinion about this game, but for now im mostly just upset about artists jobs being taken from them and artists original designs too. while nintendo can be so shitty to pokemon at times, there are artists behind pokemon designs that had their work and original ideas blatantly stolen.

i highly recommend checking this link out to support your favourite pokemons artists directly if theyre on the list.

to finish this rant off, i just want to say that originality is one of the most difficult things to achieve in video games. i get that, im an artist too and being original is extremely difficult because everythings been done at least once. but it doesn't excuse how closely these games are 'borrowing' incredible, iconic and ORIGINAL ideas from others and not just once but repeatedly.

[h-h-v-c-d]

checkered devil in progress...

[caws5749]

CH 13: Experimentations

A/N: I hope you enjoy, I’m very excited about where the series is going! 

Your Red-Headed Mentor Masterlist

Tony watched from the window as you descended the plane stairs, making your way towards the crowd of agents. He felt troubled and on edge, as if something was out of place, just slightly amiss.

A twinge of guilt ran through him as he took in your expression. You were frightened, though you tried to mask it. But mostly, you just looked like you’d tried to rectify something. You looked as though you were turning yourself  for your sins because it was the right thing to do, when you really hadn’t done anything besides fight your teammates and not add a signature to a piece of paper. He felt responsible.

When Tony saw you fall as a gunshot rang out, he was already halfway out the door, the Iron Man suit encasing his body. He should have known something wasn’t right.

Unfortunately, no matter how fast he flew, he wasn’t fast enough. You were taken away on one of the jets, and he hadn’t seen which one. He couldn’t get to you, so he did the next best thing, and got to one of the agents.

“Where the hell did you take her? What did you do?” he interrogated, pointing his hand at one of the leftover men.

“She will serve a greater purpose now,” the man smiled, before crushing something between his teeth and falling to the ground.

++++++++

“Hey, Tony,” Clint answered the phone.

“Hey, Clint. Listen, something bad happened.”

Tony explained what he’d seen while Clint silently panicked. After clearing his head, he promised Tony he’d start researching and reaching out to some old contacts about new groups that were in the business of kidnapping Avengers.

Within five hours, he’d found something, prompting him to give Tony a call back.

“Hey. I’ve got a location, and a purpose, but you’re not going to like it.”

+++++++

Your head was pounding, to put it lightly. A more accurate statement would be that it felt like someone was fiddling with a needle in your brain.

Were those voices? Was a mouse running all over your body or was someone jamming needles into your extremities?

You’d thought that your next session with the “Physical Specialist,” as the Red Room called him, was tomorrow, not today.

Forcing your eyes open, you immediately called out in fear. This man wasn’t familiar and neither was the room. You had no idea where you were, but you had a feeling it wasn’t good.

“Hello, pet,” the man snarled, his lips curling upwards in a way that sent horror through you.

You tried to gather your bearings as your eyes searched the room for anything that might give you a clue as to why you were here and where exactly ‘here’ was.

“You’ll find nothing,” the man pointed out airily. “You will not know where you are, nor will you know who we are. You will simply exist here, as my pet, until you are fit for duty.”

“And what might that be?” you asked.

“That is for me to know, and you to find out.”

You tried not to scream when he plunged a needle into your neck.

“That’s it, pet, that’s it,” he whispered, coming closer so that his lips were ghosting over your ear. You were starting to see black at the edges of your vision, and you knew it wouldn’t be long before unconsciousness reclaimed you.

“You may call me… Dr. Romanoff. That name means something to you, doesn’t it, pet. Does it make you feel alone? Sad that you cannot call upon her? It’s a shame, really. You’ll never see her again, until I make you kill her. Until I make you cut her open, slowly, and painfully, so that you have to watch and feel every cut of the knife as you tear your mentor apart.”

You couldn’t help it when tears flowed as the blackness consumed you.

++++++

“Wake up, my pet.”

You jolted awake, tugging at the shackles that bound you.

“I am afraid you are still trapped, sweetheart. But don’t worry, soon you will be able to exist in a special type of containment.” The man smiled sickeningly, and you felt nauseous.

Something else felt….wrong too, but you couldn’t quite place what it was. It felt like something was coursing through your veins and threatening to explode out of you at any moment.

“Do you feel it yet?” he asked. He didn’t wait for a response. “That power, flowing through your veins. The experiment has worked.”

Your heart stopped.

“What did you do to me?” you growled.

“You will soon see,” he grinned wickedly. “For now, I think it’s time for another nap. You may familiarize yourself with your newfound abilities when you wake.”

+++++++

“Come on, Nat,” Clint begged quietly as the phone rang for the fifth time.

“The subscriber you have dialed is no longer in service,” the automated voice finally said. He ran his fingers through his hair. She didn’t want to be found, and so she wouldn’t be. And normally that was fine, except for the fact that Clint needed her.

Natasha had no idea what was going on with you right now. She’d assumed the government had put you up in a cell in some high security prison, and that you’d either be broken out by Steve or released when - or if - things resolved. And she certainly couldn’t do anything about it, so she’d left.

Which would have been fine, if the government had actually been the one to take you. Unfortunately for everyone, you’d been taken by a unique side branch of HYDRA, formally known as EXIA. They were highly invested in human experimentation and artificial intelligence, and they weren’t going to let their major experiment be done on just anyone. Once they knew they could successfully perform an implantation of abilities on someone, they set their eyes on you. You were young, resilient, strong, and above all, a public figure. There was no better way to get EXIA on the map than by kidnapping an Avenger and performing a successful experiment on her.

On the other side of the world, Tony was preparing for your rescue mission. With intel from Clint that seemed legit, he’d asked Vision to accompany him to check out whether or not you were being hidden away in an underground base in Siberia.

“What if her mind’s been fiddled with?” Tony wondered aloud, tinkering with his suit.

“I would not be surprised if it had, Tony,” Vision answered, looking more somber than usual.

“We don’t know what we’re walking into.” It was Tony’s way of saying ‘be careful.’

“No, we do not. We will get her back, though.”

Tony nodded. He only hoped the modified robot was right.

++++++++

“Up!” a loud voice commanded as an alarm rang out loudly. You startled awake, your head fuzzy.

“Up, my pet!”

You were much too out of it to fight, so you opened your eyes, shakily standing. It was then that you took in your surroundings. The closest way to describe the room you were in was that it appeared to be similar to a giant shower.

The more you woke up, the more another feeling, a new one, took over.

“Do you feel that, sweetheart? It is your power. Let it out.”

You looked for where the voice was coming from, but apart from the speaker up in the corner, you couldn’t see him.

But the feeling was becoming overwhelming, and letting it out sounded like it would bring relief. The only issue was that you weren’t exactly sure what would happen if you did.

“If you do not, pet, I will force you.”

You took a second to consider your options, realizing you had none. You took a deep breath, before letting go. The second you stopped holding back, you couldn’t stop. You didn’t even have a minute to be surprised when water was the thing that came out of you. All you knew was that you needed to let it out, that it felt so good to relinquish control.

You even caught yourself with the barest hint of a smile, though suddenly a wave of dizziness came over you, and you collapsed onto the floor.

+++++++

“Got you,” Tony muttered to himself, swooping into the room and blasting all of the guards. He picked up your unconscious body, panicking slightly at the pale color of your skin. Shaking his head to clear all traces of anger towards the man who did this to you, he made sure you were secure before taking off.

Back on the jet, Vision tried to assess you while Tony piloted.

“She appears to be dehydrated. She will need an IV.”

“What the hell did they do to her?” Tony muttered, growing angrier by the second.

“I got a look into their laboratories, as well as a very unique room. I am inclined to believe she has hydrokinesis.”

“Water powers.”

“Yes, I believe so.”

“I’m guessing she’s not very good at controlling them yet,” Tony sighed. “What type of unique room?”

“It’s purpose was most likely a training space for her.”

“Did you get a good look at it? We’re going to need one of those.”

+++++++

“I know you’re out there.”

“I know you know I’m out here. So, are we going to talk like grownups?”

“Is that what we are?”

“Yelena,” Natasha breathed as she finally laid eyes on the woman she hadn’t seen in years.

“Natasha. What brings you home?”

[choco-mark]

A Marriage of Inconvenience (5)

overall pairing: mafia!jeno x mafia!oc

overall genre: angst | smut | fluff

warnings: language, mentions of drugs + drugs affecting health, mentions of a hospital-like setting, jeno being an ass, mentions of violence, oppression of women (kinda)

summary: when two mafia gangs decide to end their family feud after decades, your mother decides to give your hand away to marriage of their son, lee jeno. he seemed to hate you from the moment he laid his eyes on you, but could the resolution lead to something much more than a bride and groom?

words: 4k

masterlist

requested by 🤡 anon

19 April

You felt your eyelids heaving down on you as you forced your eyes open, bright light flooding to your pupils immediately making them dilate, and close your eyes again. There was numbness to your body, but you could feel the weakness of your heart as you opened your eyes once again, trying to sit up from where you were. 

A figure came into your view however, pushing you gently back down against the softness of the bed. “It’s good you’re awake,” you recognized the raspy voice as Mark’s, his face coming into your vision as your head hit in the pillow again. “Don’t try to get up, though, just stay there.” You glanced down at your hand, an IV was taped down against your skin, and your eyes moved past Mark, looking around at the hospital-like room. Yet, it didn’t quite looked like a hospital. “You’re in the hospital wing,” he said, gaining your attention as he read your mind. “You were—uh, I’m sure you know, but you were drugged. And—um, you kinda overdosed.”

You opened your mouth in a slight ‘o’ formation, the thoughts not fully going through your brain until they came rushing at you full speed, the memories of what had happened in that red room coming back to you in less than a second. You shot up, this time, your head whipping over to where Mark was now trying to convince you to lay down again. “Jisung! Where is he?! Where’s my Jisung?!”

You tried to move yourself off the bed, your body only meeting against the man’s hands as your mind didn’t think of anything other than your brother. Struggling against him, he caught your legs as you attempted to swing them off, pulling them back onto the bed. My brother who took a bullet for me. “Where is he?!” You screeched, your ears not registering anything that he was trying to tell you, your hands clawing at his shirt as you remembered it all: his side-step, the blood, his innocent face. “What’d you do with him?! What did you fucking do with him?!”

“Y/N! He’s fine! He’s fine!” Mark was screaming back at you, his heart slowing down as he saw tears welling up in your eyes at his words, your movements slowing down. “He’s fine. Jisung’s fine. He’s okay, he’s okay.” You took a few deep breaths, your hands removing themselves from the fabric of his shirt, allowing you to calm down.

“Where is he?”

“He’s in the room right next to this one, okay? He’s doing well, the doctors were able to get through the surgery successfully. He’s okay now, he’s not hurt anymore.” Mark’s voice was soothing, and he watched as you sobbed silently, not even caring that you were letting your emotions out in front of another. “Hey—he’s fine, he’s okay. He’s as jolly as an apple pie!” You weren’t really sure why he used such an analogy, but it seemed to reassure you a little as you nodded, sniffling and wiping away your tears messily.

“I want to see him,” you said, your voice coming out more broken than you expected it to. “Can I see him? Is it okay for me to see him?”

“Yeah, of course you can—if you think you can walk there. Or, I can go get a wheelchair, though that might take a while since the nurses are kinda annoying and they don’t really—” You swung your legs off the bed, your feet meeting the ground as you grabbed onto the mattress for support at first, your head dizzying for a brief moment as Mark looked at you incredulously: like you had just juggled with fire. “Or—not, I guess.” He added, rolling the IV tubing alongside you, allowing you to grab onto it.

“I’m fine,” you said, more to yourself than to him. You were still feeling like you were out of this world, and your body was probably still being highly affected by the drugs that were laced into your bloodstream. Though, you felt better now that you weren’t being coerced into getting more injected into your veins. “I’m fine. I just need to see him.”

Mark led you out of the room slowly, not helping you walk as you blatantly refused him, telling him over and over again that you were okay. He listened however, watching you as you took steps towards the room that Jisung was currently in. You didn’t even bother knocking, the door sliding open with a swipe as you opened it, the room being empty of everyone except your brother. There was a massive amount of equipment, much more than the amount that was in the room you were in as you walked to the side of the bed, your eyes falling on the large bandage across his chest. 

You took a shaky seat on the small stool beside the bed, not wanting to wake him up from his slumber but also wanting to hear his voice again. Sighing, you let a hand graze over the top of his head, giving an endearing stroke to his soft hair. “Oh Jisung,” you whispered, brushing his bangs away from his forehead, stopping momentarily as you felt him stir. “Sungie?”

The boy’s eyes fluttered open in slow intervals, blinking carefully as he turned his head to face you, his eyes falling on your devastated figure. “Y/N...” He let out a small whisper of a breath, one that he almost choked on as he tried to get a good look at himself. “I—I got shot, didn’t I?” He asked matter-of-factly, making you scrunch your face up as you tried not to let the tears out.

You remembered it, clear as day as he was in front of you in less than a flash, falling in the same fashion as you heart screamed out. As much as you wanted to kill the boy for being all brave, you were more than glad that he was able to survive, especially since it had been a fatal shoot to his heart. “Yeah, you dumbass,” you managed to get out, your voice cracking in the slight. “You just had to put on the brave act, didn’t you?”

Jisung laid back down against the pillow, offering you a soft smile that calmed your nerves. “It wasn’t an act, you know,” his voice was hoarse as he spoke, but his look was still the same, staring up at the blank ceiling. “It kinda hurt...and it still does. What about you though?” He tilted his head towards the drip beside you, standing tall as it was still connected to your hand. “Are you okay?”

“Er—well, I overdosed.”

Being immersed in the chat you were having with your recovering brother, the two of you didn’t seem to notice the door open slowly; it was Jeno, about to check on his...brother-in-law? To be honest, Jeno didn’t even know what to call Jisung, considering he wasn’t actually married to you and well—he didn’t even know if the wedding would be happening anymore. His thoughts clouded him for a brief second, just a second before he heard you let out a tumble of laughter. His eyes trained on you as you reached over Jisung’s bed, moving to ruffle his hair violently with a huge smile plastered to your face: a smile, a real smile. It looks good on her. He shook his head, what? 

“You know you can walk inside, right?” There was a voice in his ear, startling Jeno as he meant to take a step forward, silently cursing from the sudden sound. Mark leaned against the doorway, looking from the two siblings and then back to Jeno. “Why? You don’t wanna intrude? You’re already watching them from the doorway like some creep, might as well go inside while you’re at it.”

“Shut up,” his snapback was weak, eyes falling back on your figure as gave Jisung’s hand a squeeze, your smile never fading from your lips as you did so. Your head tilted towards the door in a natural motion, your curved lips retaining their normal line as your eyes fell on Jeno and Mark. Jeno went frozen at the sight of your smile disappearing as fast as it appeared, cursing to himself. “Fuck...”

He wasn’t sure why he liked it so much, but that was probably the most beautiful you had looked in front of him, away from the way you always had snarky remarks and scowls in your face in front of him. You didn’t have your usual disgusted look, but it went back to its tired complexion as you stood up from Jisung’s bed, loosening your hand from the now drifting boy.

“Don’t tell me you like her now,” Mark continued, his voice much lower in Jeno’s ear now. “Kind of a bad time, you know. Considering her brother just got—shot, you know. Shot by your brother.”

Jeno gave him a sharp look. “He’s your brother too.”

“Yeah sure, but I’m not the one marrying her,” he gestured to you, shrugging shortly before stepping back. “You might want to apologize before you try something, Jeno. Or it’ll just backfire.” And with those words, and a ‘it’s not my fault’ from Jeno, he walked down the hallway of the hospital wing, leaving the area.

Mark’s words held some truth—that being his chance with you would backfire before he even tried—but he couldn’t just try anymore, either. Trying was for first times, for the first meeting perhaps, first word or first glance. But what was this, first life-threatening experience?

But there was something different that he felt went he saw you smiling and laughing and talking like that, something that told him that maybe he shouldn’t have been so harsh on you from the moment he laid his eyes on you. Maybe he shouldn’t have declined you before he knew you. Maybe he shouldn’t have spoken back to you when you hadn’t even opened your mouth.

Jeno had seen the scars of punctures in your arm; there were way more than there should’ve been in a day. The doctor had said that you were somewhat tolerant, probably from training that you had done to become resistant to drugs, but the way your body was crumpled without life made him curl his fists for the brother that had given it to you in the first place. That was...brother number two, he thought. One out of the two that wanted his fiancee.

And then there was the other one, the one that had spat in his face and told him that you weren’t Jeno’s, but his. The one that had yanked the chain around your neck so hard that it left a dark scar on the back, and had dropped it on the floor with a sickening clang. There was no ugly jewelry around your neck any longer, and for some reason, it felt empty to him.

He hoped, as you walked out of the room without a second glance at him, that perhaps eventually, that ring could be replaced: replaced from hanging against your chest to fastened around your left ring finger. Maybe even sworn as his wife.

20 April

You had been released from the room in the hospital wing to go to your own room, even though you would’ve rather stayed beside your brother instead of on another floor of the palace. But you were sent back anyway, told that you could visit anytime that you wanted to. However, it didn’t occur to you that the palace was—massive, not until you had to navigate your way to Jisung’s room.

It was in the mid-afternoon when you had run into the same silver-haired man that had drugged you a day before. Except he didn’t look the same, his hair was a darkened shade of brown and his face was—apologetic. He introduced himself to you again, giving you a long bow and calling himself Donghyuck, before moving away from you, not sparing you a glance as you continued down your path. He didn’t give you much of an explanation, and for a second you wouldn’t thought he was a look alike if he hadn’t directly apologized for—well, injecting deadly substances in both you and Jisung. Only then you had realized that you were in the west wing.

Yet it didn’t seem to hit you until you stopped in front of a room that had a slightly open door, the bed looking identical to the one in your room. It smelled of a familiar scent, however, one that you couldn’t quite pinpoint as you moved to take a step inside. It was—oddly inviting, but thankfully you had hesitated, as the bathroom door opened shortly after that.

You took in a sharp breath as your eyes roamed over the emerging figure of the blond boy, a towel drying out the wetness in his hair as he walked out with only another towel laying low at his hips. There was still water dripping from his heavy toned body, making the skin glisten as he moved to the dresser on the other side of the bed. The movement made you realize what you were doing as you let out a small squeak to seeing his hand grasp the end of the towel, and he whipped his head over at the sound at the exact same time, his eyes falling on your huge ones.

You turned around as quickly as you could, pressing your back against the wall with your heart beating out of your chest. God, why did I stay? I should’ve just left. He saw me, didn’t he? Fuck, I better just run for it now. But you couldn’t move, your feet were planted on the ground without even a little ability to step forward and away, and worse of all was—his body was still on your mind. Jeno hadn’t shown off his body before, especially not those arms that you just saw being involuntarily flexed as he dried his hair. It did things to you—things that shouldn’t really be happening. You still hate him...right?

“Y/N?”

His voice was soft, a sort of bittersweet feeling as he peeked out from his room, his dark eyes resting upon your rising and falling chest. Your name spilling from his mouth was—nice, different than what the usual ‘Park’ sounded like a harsh, and usually reluctant call for you. You felt yourself heating up in embarrassment as you looked over at him, hoping that your face didn’t give away emotions. Well, considering from the way you looked like a child caught stealing from the cookie jar, he probably could sense how you were feeling.

“Um—hi,” you scratched at your head, your eyes flitting down to where the towel was still hanged at his hips and immediately bringing them back up, gulping as you focused on his face instead. “Yeah, um, I—am...lost. Yeah, lost. I was, uh, trying to get to the hospital wing.”

He blinked, as if you had said something that he didn’t expect you to say. Hopefully he hadn’t realized the way you were very affected by his body, but a small smile ghosted over his face, surprising you. “I can take you there, but I gotta get dressed first. Do you want to come inside?”

Fuck, fuck, fuck, why is he smiling like that?! “Um, yeah, okay. Sure, yeah.” You shut your mouth before you could allow yourself to stutter over your words any longer. He moved the door open a little more, his body lightly brushing past you as you made your way inside. 

The door shut with a quiet thud as you walked in further, trying to seem interested in the displays of jewelry on his bedside table. You could’ve sworn you heard him let out a chuckle as he moved back to his dresser, his back facing you as he opened one of them. Taking a quick glance, your eyes grazed across the ink on his back, making you gasp louder than you expected yourself to. Jeno turned his head, facing your shocked expression. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” you answered in a small voice, quick enough as you looked away, “I just—didn’t know you had a tattoo.”

“You like it?”

“Huh?”

“I mean,” he let his hand graze over his left side, touching the ends of the thorns lacing over his back. They were large, thick and filling over the entirety of his left back, leading to the side of his hip. It intrigued you to know how far it actually lead, if it decorated his thigh just in the same fashion. “Do you like the tattoo? It’s...a few days old. I got it right before you came here.” You weren’t sure why he was telling you that, was the tattoo meant for you?

“Y-Yeah, it’s nice,” was all you could get out, not being able to look away from his body now. To him, it seemed like all that confidence from literally just two, maybe one day ago had been thrown out the window to absolutely nothing, leaving you so flustered in front of him. For some reason, he wanted to coo at how innocent you looked. 

Wait, why would I do that? Your fingers were playing at the hem of your shirt, nervously picking at the threads that were adorning the edges, and he couldn’t seem to take his eyes away from the motion. But...she looks so cute right now. Her lips look so—

“So I met Donghyuck,” you blurted out, trying to ease away the silence as you watched his eyes train up to yours again, his eyebrows narrowing. “Oh, uh, I mean quite literally, he didn’t try to kill me this time. So, um, don’t worry about that.” Your voice faded near the end, wondering if he would even care about it anyway. “Yeah, um, I’ll just, turn around.”

Jeno knew that Donghyuck had been coerced into helping Taeyong, especially from the way he had begged for mercy when he got a hold of him later, confessing what truly happened. Mark had convinced him to let him go, telling him that locking up Taeyong in the dungeons for a bit should clear up the issue instead of doing so the young one, and he brought him back to the hospital wing in one piece. Well, he wasn’t completely ecstatic from the way he had decided to drug you so hard that you overdosed, but he couldn’t quite control himself. Taeyong had gotten him addicted as well, using it as a bait to help him in his plans.

But he didn’t expect to see what he saw when he looked back over at the surveillance footage, watching his younger brother take your chin into his own grasp and kiss you so hungrily with a type of fever that he hadn’t seen from him before. He seemed like another person when he taunted you with his teasing words, calling you pet names and rubbing your skin, but then injecting you with heroin and watching you take it all at once. And from all of that, all he could get from it was...possessiveness.

With a few steps he was standing in front of you, his gaze focusing on your wide eyes as you felt your heart jump again, probably higher than it had before. “Y/N,” he sounded out, clicking his tongue pointedly. “Do you...hate me?” 

You weren’t expecting that. “I,” you looked around hesitatingly, not sure what answer he wanted. Is this some kind of quiz? Pop quiz, I guess? Mind game? Right? He wants me to say yes, right? I don’t get it. “...Don’t hate you.” Maybe you disliked his earlier snarky remarks, but you couldn’t quite say that you hated him...right? He did come to save me, though...kinda.

“Do you want to marry me?” He asked with a hint of desperation, perhaps a hint that you didn’t quite notice. He took a step forward, making your heart now lurch into your throat. Wow, this man was really rendering you breathless right now. “Right now?”

“Now?!”

“No, no, I mean like—in this moment like right now. Not from the shitty way I treated you before, I mean like right now. Right here, in my bedroom. You didn’t want to marry me before, I...know that, and neither did I. But I want to know, do you want to marry me now?” He let out a breath after his short ramble, and you blinked, not sure how to respond.

There was something about the way he was looking at you that made you want to tell him yes a hundred times over, to wipe that look off his face and replace it with that same smile you saw a few minutes ago. But there was also the entire rest of your heart reminding you of how he viewed you earlier, as nothing but a rival, a girl, a competitor. 

“How am I supposed to answer that?” You asked shortly, tucking half your bottom lip under your teeth making a sucking sound. For some reason, you didn’t notice how it affected Jeno, however, because his eyes were now fixated on your lips. “What if I asked you whether you want to marry me? We were both forced into it—”

He cut you off expertly, holding the nape of your neck as his lips pressed down against yours, hard. You stumbled back from his sudden attack, your lower back hitting the edge of the mattress as you attempted to keep up with his pace. Hands went against his bare chest, pressed back against the warm skin as he leaned impossibly closer, sucking slowly on your lip.

His tongue explored into your mouth first, taking you aback as you tried not to stumble back any further, pushing him back as hard as you could. He was stronger, devouring your lips as if he was a man of pure hunger, one that had been deprived of food for so long. And that’s when it hit him, when he felt the skin of your palms graze over his chest, it was so...wrong.

“No,” he pulled back, his lips bruised from how hard he had crashed them against yours. He scanned you: your confused expression, your swollen lips, your messy hair. You took a step forward, reaching out to him, maybe with a certain hope but he moved back from your touch, shaking his head repeatedly. “No, I can’t do this. I can’t...this isn’t fucking right!”

“Jeno—”

“Y-You,” he gestured to you, a scoff adorning his once soft voice as he felt fire course through his veins. “You’re just a fucking Park. Another fucking useless girl—shit! I’m not supposed to like some bitch I’m forced to marry, what the fuck?!” He seemed like he was talking more to himself than to you, but it made your heart drop to your feet, lower that you thought was possible as his face scrunched in disgust.

You felt a lump forming in your throat, and you couldn’t help but feel so utterly stupid, what else could you have expected from someone like him? So careless, so judgemental; he was such a Lee. But why did it hurt? It shouldn’t hurt. It’s not supposed to hurt. I shouldn’t have let him in.

I can’t believe I let him kiss me. “I’ve never met someone so fucking selfish as you, Lee Jeno.” you wished you couldn’t sounded stronger, but it was just a tang of anger along with hurt, so much hurt. His bright eyes flashed over yours, softening so slightly when he saw the tears welling in them. “I hope you realize one day that maybe I don’t want to fucking be here, either. I don’t want to be somewhere I’m clearly not not wanted, especially not by the man that’s supposed to love me.”

“I—”

“Save it,” you turned away from his wiping the tears messily off your face, feeling stupid for letting them fall in the first place. “I’m leaving. Don’t worry. Don’t you fucking worry, Lee. I’m leaving, and hopefully not coming back.”

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hi..please don’t cry. i mean...i didn’t kill jisung?!?! hehe, love you guys ♡

[honeyandhondewberries]

H,, okay so after reading Dappled Grove and the chapters with Milo, I am, as they say, weak. So may I request some fluff of a flustered Milo working up the courage to give flowers that he grew himself to reader? Bonus points for reader who has never gotten flowers from anyone before and head over heels Milo/adorable flower language stuff. If possible I'd love a gender-neutral/slightly masc leaning reader, but really, just have fun with it - and thank you for doing god's work with this blog 😔🙏

ARG FINALLY A MILO ASK ive been waiting for this ty ty ty. Tbh i just wanna hug Milo all the time

~~ Easy as Pie (MiloxReader)

“Hoo, boy,” Milo mutters as he stares at your front door, bouquet in hand. “What on earth am I doing.”

He rocks back on the heel of his boots, then scuffs it into the dirt path leading up to your porch. He’s been planning this exact moment for months now, ever since he planted these flowers, and yet he can’t seem to get his rubbish feet to move. Although he cut these flowers this morning, he himself is unfortunately rooted in this spot, and has been for about ten minutes.

“Just go up, and knock on the door,” Milo whispers to himself. “Hand off the flowers, say thanks for being great, then head home. Easy as pie.”

Even with that simple five-step plan, if this plan actually was a pie, it would taste like garbage and like the sweat that is beading on his brow. Milo urges his legs to move, his knee twitches, but that’s about it. He exhales in defeat.

What if it’s weird? What if you think he’s strange for coming to visit out of the blue? Not even that, but getting flowers? From him? He knows you know he grows flowers, he runs the best flower shop in Turffield, but this will be the first time he’s deliberately grown and picked and arranged something for you.

Successfully, at least.

Every other attempt has been futile, and this spot on your front pathway is the farthest he’s ever gotten.

“You don’t even have to ask for a date,” Milo whispers to himself, though the word ‘date’ immediately ignites the anxiety in his chest. “Just offer the flowers, nice and platonically.”

He hopes you don’t know much about the language of flowers, because every bit of this bouquet screams ‘definitely not platonic.’ He doesn’t have any more time to build up the courage, because suddenly your front door opens, and out comes you. Milo lets out the breath he was holding, unable to hold back his smile when he sees you.

“Hey Milo,” you say. “You alright?”

“Huh? Oh, me?” Milo repeats dumbly. “Yeah, yeah I’m great.”

“You sure?” you ask. “You’ve been standing there for about ten minutes.”

Milo’s eyes widen. He’s been standing and talking to himself on your front pathway for ten minutes and you knew.

“I, uh,” he stutters. Milo doesn’t lie often, so he doesn’t think of anything particularly clever particularly quickly, but he needs to save face and make this less terrible than it already is. “Flowers grow better if you talk to ‘em.”

You blink, purse your lips, then nod.

“That’s interesting,” you say, and Milo immediately groans.

“I’m sorry, that’s not why. I was trying to build up the courage to come knock.”

You smile again and your eyebrows pull together, such a cute expression for such a cute person, but Milo needs to focus on what you’re saying so he doesn’t risk looking like a fool again.

“Why would that make you nervous?” you ask. “You come over all the time?”

“I know,” Milo says as he scuffs at the ground again. “But I’ve got something for you.”

Your eyes flit to the bouquet in his hands and you raise your eyebrows again. He finally takes the last few steps to meet you on your front porch and he hands you the bouquet.

“These are for me?” you ask.

“I, um, I grew them myself,” Milo admits bashfully. He bites back the disclaimers and rushed rationales he wants to make, and he risks looking foolish when he forces himself to be honest with you. “You’re… you’re a really special person. To me. A-and in general, so I wanted to say thanks.”

You’re blushing just as much as he is, and Milo wonders if you’re feeling that pull in your gut too. You breathe out a smile, one that’s soft and sweet, one that Milo has never seen on you before. He can’t help but smile too because of it.

“I’ve never gotten flowers before,” you say quietly. “This is… this is really nice, thank you Milo.”

“Would you like more?” he quickly asks, and the words are out before he can stop them. You raise your eyebrows, but Milo shuts his trap before anything else embarrassing slips out.

“Oh, I don’t want to burden you with that,” you say breathily, and when your smile grows, so does that pull in Milo’s stomach. “This has really made my day, week, maybe even my month, getting something so sweet from you.”

“It’s no trouble, really,” Milo says, and he waves a hand at you. “Here, I’ll go get some. What’s your favorite flower?”

You answer before you can think, and the second you finish your sentence, Milo turns and marches down your front path with renewed purpose.

“Milo, you really don’t have to!” you call, and he waves a hand at you again.

“No, no it’s nothing, I promise!” he calls in return. “I’ll be back soon!”

And off goes Milo, trying not to sprint back to his flower shop, and you lean against your doorjamb and delicately smell the aroma of the bouquet. The blush on your cheeks is warm, and you hide it by pulling the flowers up to your face. It doesn’t seem Milo will turn around, as he’s strangely determined to get you more flowers. He’s too sweet sometimes.

You gaze at the bouquet again. It is quite beautiful… and quite special. Aren’t flowers supposed to mean something? You wonder if that’s the case, or if Milo was just kindly offering you some leftover stock from his shop. You take a seat on your front steps and pull out your phone to do some research.

Let’s see, you can pick out the daisies at least. Apparently, those mean new beginnings. You’re not really beginning anything new, so your hypothesis of these just being leftover stock solidifies itself in your brain. There are some tulips, too. You type ‘tulip meaning’ into the search engine, and your eyebrows shoot high on your forehead.

True love…?

And hope! Phew, and hope. You read that second meaning and puff out the breath of air you were holding. Hope is good. Hope is great, actually, let’s go with the hope meaning for these tulips.

You’re not sure what the blue ones are, so after a bit of searching, you can pick out that they’re forget-me-nots, and they mean…

True love.

M…Maybe they have a second meaning like the tulips. Your eyes frantically scan your screen and you bite your lip when you find alternate meanings.

Deep compassion.

Okay… that’s…. better. Kind of. You and Milo are friends, pals, chums, and you certainly have some compassion for your chums. Milo has compassion for everything – people, Pokémon, nature, everything, and that’s one of the many qualities of his that you admire. That’s probably all that means, then. You gloss over forget-me-nots third meaning of ‘fidelity.’

And finally, this white speckly stuff. Looks like… garnish? Snowflakes? Ah, baby’s breath, that’s a strange name for a flower.

Unconditional love.

There’s a bit of a theme here, isn’t there.

You frantically search for other possible meanings for baby’s breath flowers, but that’s the only meaning that comes up.

Love.

Your face warms at the thought, at that single word repeating in your head love love love, and as if on cue, Milo is heading back up your front path, another bouquet in hand. You’re suddenly much more aware of his smile and his eyes and his hands and his arms and his chest and everything about him as he steps up to your porch.

“Sorry for the wait,” he says with a kind smile. You nod and your eyes shift to the ground. “I got you a couple more, I hope you don’t mind.”

He hands you a single Lily of the Valley (to put in your window, apparently), a few sunflowers for your kitchen table, and finally twelve red roses. You can barely hold all these flowers, and when you almost drop them, Milo quickly catches them, catches you, and his hands are clasped around yours. Your gazes meet, bashful and searching and a second too long.

“What do red roses mean,” you ask suddenly, and Milo’s eyes widen.

“P-pardon?”

“Flowers have meaning, don’t they?” you ask before you can stop yourself. “Almost all of the ones in your first bouquet meant love. What do red roses mean?”

Milo’s eyes flick around your face, and he desperately tries to gauge your expression. A bit of red tints your cheeks – it’s the perfect color in Milo’s mind – and he breathes out a sigh.

“Love.”

You stare into each other’s eyes for another moment, and another moment more.

“They all mean love,” Milo finishes weakly, and he finally lets go of your hands. “I didn’t mean to be so forward, and I promise I won’t bother you any-”

“Milo,” you interrupt. “This is probably the most subtle thing you could have done. If you wanted to be forward, you’d just straight up kiss me.”

Immediately Milo’s cheeks flare red and he nearly falls off your porch.

“No! Heavens, I-I won’t-“

“I know!” you say as you cut him off again. “I know, you won’t, or I mean… we won’t… u-um…”

You’re both fumbling and awkward and this is not going nearly as smoothly as Milo had hoped, but something in his chest warms when you gently take his hand again.

“But, if you want to get dinner sometime, I think that’d be nice,” you say. “Sort of like a…. date situation, I guess.”

“Yeah,” Milo says, and he nods vigorously. “Yeah, yeah that sounds nice. A date. With me. And you.”

“Yeah,” you repeat, and you’re both flaring as red as these roses. “How about Friday? You can come pick me up?”

Milo nods again, and his smile is spreading too quick to stop. He tries to hide it, but the corners of his mouth continuously perk back up.

“No more flowers though,” you say sternly as you try to adjust the masses in your arms. “I don’t think I have enough vases for any more.”

“I’ll bring you some vases then,” Milo says. “I’ll see you Friday?”

“See you Friday,” you say.

You both share another few-seconds gaze, both break out into embarrassed smiles, and Milo finally heads back down your porch with a renewed spring in his step. What flowers should he bring you next time? What kind of vase would you like? Perhaps he could bake you a pie.

Yep, his five-step plan was just that: easy as pie.                        

[thewakingcloak]

April 2021

Alright, so I’m a bit late here, haha. April had a good start but ended kinda crazy. Our two-year-old got sick for a few days (just a cold, not the ol’ COVID-19), which wiped us out, and then she had a lingering “mood” for the rest of the week, lol. General exhaustion made me more interested in playing games than making ‘em (currently playing Rune Factory 4, which is a good time!). So no fancy images and stuff this time. Hope y’all don’t mind a bit of text.

Anyway, here are the news.

When playing with a gamepad, I’ve noticed the eight-directional movement feels really clunky with the stick. This clunkiness happens in a lot of older games too, for both eight- and four-directional movement. For example, on NES Online and SNES Online on the Switch, I can’t use the joystick at all. I have to use the d-pad.

In the first two ProtoDungeon episodes, I mitigated some of the issue by tinkering with some of the thresholds, but when I started testing a gamepad for Episode III again, I realized this was still not ideal.

Juju, who wrote my old input system, is working on a new open source input system. I haven’t contributed code, but I did give my input (hehe) very early on. Now after coming back to look at it, it seems to be just what I need. So I spent the first week of April swapping out input systems (which isn’t as easy as you might expect if you’ve never done it before, BUT it was way easier than I expected). Then I modified the movement code to use the new input_direction(), which gives much finer control to the stick.

But that much fine control--fully omnidirectional--was actually fairly nauseating. It was difficult to walk in a straight line. I ended up rounding the input direction to the nearest 22.5 degrees, meaning we were now at 16-directional movement. It feels really good! And as I played more over the month, I tweaked it further to lend more weight towards the ordinal directions (north, south, east, and west), in addition to scaling the speed slightly based on how far you’re pushing the stick. In my opinion, it’s now preferable over the d-pad or arrow keys (though don’t worry, I do the majority of my work with the arrows, and they are very functional and fun.)

The new input system also gave me an easy way to set gamepad axis thresholds, which is something a few people have already asked for. This is a setting in the behind-the-scenes file, but probably not an option I’ll add in game yet since that requires some rework on menus.

Then on a whim, I threw in gamepad vibration! This wasn’t related to the input change... I just wanted to do it, lol. It was a small thing that took me about 30 minutes but adds a surprising amount to the game. I can choose the intensity of the vibration based on what’s going on, and I added a setting for players to control the overall intensity (or turn it off). There’s no menu option for this yet, either. Hopefully I’ll get time for that in Episode IV.

I created a free GMS2 extension out of my vibration system called Good Vibes! It can do all kinds of fancy stuff using animation curves, and it handles some of the weirdness of GMS2's vibration functionality too.

Next, I created a Linux virtual machine to allow me to export stuff to Linux! I tested this successfully with the current version of PD3. Tried to immediately export PD1 and PD2, but those projects don’t exactly work anymore--I’ll need to do it from the current project after I go through and apply engine changes to them (current project always contains all episodes, don’t worry, nothing is lost).

Finally, I ended this month’s changes on two separate things, neither of them finished: true borderless window toggling and proper depth sorting.

Borderless window toggling in Windows isn’t something possible with vanilla GameMaker. I got a small DLL from a friend, though, that can force the toggle. The only reason this isn’t finished is because the application surface gets stretched weirdly, and I haven’t figured out how to offset it properly yet. This one isn’t required to go live at all, so not sure when I’ll get back to it.

Depth sorting IS required, though, and that’s what I’ve been wrapping up. My z-height system is pretty complicated, and the old depth system didn’t always work--and when it didn’t, there wasn’t much that could be done about it. Occasionally you’d get weird overlaps where the player was under the ground tiles and so on. I did come up with a depth method that would’ve resolved it, but unfortunately it would’ve gone past the supported min and max depth that GameMaker can handle. So I switched to a simple grid sort system, where I can basically just chuck everything into a ds_grid, sort it, and then trigger each object’s draw event in order by iterating through the grid.

There are a few kinks to iron out. First, I need to fix cliff sprite generation. Cliffs create their own sprites based on the tiles beneath them--this way they can be properly sorted so the player can either walk on top of them or behind them. Currently there are some bugs with the generation so that the sprites are too tall and they don’t properly handle animated tiles.

Second, I need to get enemy sorting working too, which will be much easier when I’ve put enemies back in the game. :) The old way was to manually set their depth based on the player position, but that won’t work anymore. That said, with the new grid sorting method, this may not be an issue at all. We shall see.

[redrobinhoods]

Age of Heroes | Chapter 6, Recovery/Retaliation

AO3 Link | 3550 words (approx) | Prologue, Chapter 5, Chapter 7

Chapter Summary: Obi-Wan makes preparations to depart Mandalore as Plo Koon engages General Grievous. Meanwhile, Ahsoka and Rex prepare for the war to end.

It is such a quiet thing, to fall. But far more terrible is to admit it." – Kreia, KOTOR II

“I understand your mission was a success.”

“Yes, I have Maul in custody.” Obi-Wan answered Master Windu. “The 212th and I are escorting him to Coruscant. We will be there within the next few hours, the last of my troops are pulling out now.” He looked around at those present; Mace Windu, Ki-Adi Mundi, Aayla Secura, and Master Yoda. “I was hoping that I could speak with Anakin, is he there?”

“I sent him to inform the Chancellor that General Grievous has indeed been located on Utapau.” Responded Windu. “Commander Wolffe has just reported that they have engaged Grievous.”

“Then the war could be over soon.” Obi-Wan mused.

“That depends on the Chancellor.”

“Indeed. Well, like I said, I will be back in a matter of hours. I am sure that at that time the Council will be able to discuss the best way to go about the removal of the Chancellor from office, if that is necessary. He may yet surprise us.”

“I can only hope that is so. We shall see you soon.” 

Obi-Wan stayed still until all the holograms had faded. Surely the Chancellor would not prolong the war? Even in his bid for power, could he really ignore the pleas of his people? Obi-Wan didn’t want to know the answer to that question.

He stepped out of his room and found himself gravitating towards the medical bay. He was met at the door by one of the clone medics assisting them. Obi-Wan had only known him a short time, and yet the man always knew what, or who, he was there to talk to him about. “The commander will be fine, sir. Everything will heal, he just needs rest and fluids.”

“Did they torture him?” Obi-Wan looked back to the end of the medbay, where Cody was warily watching the medical droid attempt to insert an IV.

“I believe so, but nothing that would leave a physical mark. We found traces of ozone on his skin, which leads me to conclude that he was shocked. Despite that, he’s in fairly good spirits.”

Obi-Wan couldn’t help a wry smile as in-good-spirits-Cody began to tell off the medical droid for being unable to find a vein. ‘I’ll stick the bloody thing in myself if you don’t stop prodding! Try this one.’

“Oh, evidently.” Obi-Wan made his way over to his commander, careful not to bump the medical droid as it prepared the second of two bags of fluid.

“How goes the war, General?” Cody smiled painfully up at him.

“Master Plo and Commander Wolffe have just engaged Grievous on Utapau. And it’s my understanding that Captain Rex is dying to speak to you.”

Cody closed his eyes as the droid bent back down over his arm and attempted a laugh. “I’ll call him later. This di’kut won’t stop stabbing me.”

“If CC-2224 would cooperate this procedure would be done in twenty-nine minutes.” The medical droid snapped back.

Obi-Wan gave the medical droid a sorry smile as he reached down to push Cody’s hair back from his forehead. It was growing long after the past few weeks on the frontlines and only added to Cody’s disheveled appearance. “Did Maul hurt you?”

“Just an electroprod. I can take it.”

“Cody.” Obi-Wan continued to run his fingers through Cody’s hair when he saw how the commander leaned ever so slightly into the gesture, though he knew that the man would fervently deny it later.

Cody opened his eyes again, running them quickly over Obi-Wan’s face before returning to his eyes. “His master has a plan; he wouldn’t stop talking about this plan.”

“What plan? Cody, what plan?”

“He wouldn’t say. Just that we clones are part of it. Part of the plan.” Cody raised his free arm to his head. “I’m sorry, General, I-.”

“It’s okay, Cody. You’re safe here. We’ll be back on Coruscant soon and we can go over this with the Council.”

“Please do not bother my patient any further.” The medical droid requested, pushing Obi-Wan away with a mechanical arm. “He is in capable hands.” Obi-Wan looked down at Cody, who gave him a terse nod of permission. Obi-Wan untangled himself from the medical droid and started off to the bridge, taking one look back to see Cody scolding the droid once more.

---

Plo Koon rushed after Grievous’ wheel bike astride the giant varactyl given to him by the locals. At the sight of the descending 104th, Grievous had rushed off from their initial confrontation with one of his MagnaGuard’s staffs, leaving behind his own lightsabers. If this was all the military might that the Separatists had left, a coward who ran at the mere prospect of defeat, Plo had the feeling that Anakin Skywalker’s vision may have been correct. Grievous wouldn’t get away this time.

Despite having only had the varactyl for a few minutes, Plo was becoming quite fond of it. It wove through Pau City in pursuit of the wheel bike with a will that matched his own. In a way, it reminded him of the clones; chosen for a battle for which it had no personal stake but it’s life, and, perhaps, relative living conditions. Perhaps later he could introduce it to Commander Wolffe. Now that would be entertaining.

They were gaining on Grievous now. Plo slashed at the back of the wheel bike with his lightsaber but was too far away to produce a slash of the size necessary to stop Grievous’ descent. With a grateful pat on the neck of his varactyl, Plo threw himself at the occupant of the wheel bike. Grievous snarled, attempting to strike him with the electrostaff. Plo blocked the attack with ease, pushing the staff to the side and taking hold of its handle with his free hand. Having better leverage than the seated Grievous, he pushed the staff into the rapidly spinning wheel and leapt clear. When his tumbling had halted, he found himself face to face with Grievous on a suspended landing platform.

“Give up, General.” Plo cautioned as he rose to his feet. “You will not be able to escape our forces.”

“Jedi scum.” Grievous hacked, reclaiming the electrostaff from the ground. Well, he had tried to reason with him. Plo stepped forward to meet the advancing staff with his lightsaber, only to be surprised when Grievous pulled out a pistol. He hadn’t noticed that. He pulled his lightsaber back to block the shot, successfully knocking the pistol out of Grievous’ hand but losing his own lightsaber to a swipe from the electrostaff in the process. Face to face with Grievous and with no other weapon, he dove closer to the cyborg and tugged open the general’s chest cavity, revealing his organic organs.

Grievous dropped the electrostaff and grabbed Plo Koon instead, throwing him first into his ship, then grabbing him again and flinging him towards the edge of the platform. Plo fought for a grip as he slid, finally finding one in the platform’s edge. His body swung over the sinkhole for a moment before he brought it to a still. He looked up to find Grievous advancing upon him, Plo’s lightsaber held in one of his mechanical hands.

“Your forces are no match for me.” Grievous said as he raised the lightsaber above his head.

Plo prepared himself to swing back onto the platform, he’d only have one chance to stop Grievous now.

A shot rang out.

Grievous stumbled backwards, the lightsaber falling from his hands as his organic internals burst into flames. Plo looked up to where the shot had come from to see Wolffe slowly descending to the platform, aided by his jetpack.

“Need a hand, General?” Wolffe crouched in front of Plo, offering him his hand.

“Thank you, Wolffe.” Plo accepted the outstretched hand of his commander and was hoisted to his feet on the platform. Once away from the precarious edge, he walked over to the middle of the platform to look down on the charred metal that had been General Grievous. He knelt down by the remains, rising again moments later with his lightsaber. “Impeccable timing, as always.” He said as he turned back to Wolffe, who had taken his helmet off to take in the sight.

“Just doing my job, sir.”

“And you have never let me down.”

Wolffe didn’t even try to hide the smile spreading across his lips. For a moment, everything was right in the galaxy.

---

Ahsoka found Rex in the first place she looked, the barracks briefing room.

“General Grievous has been engaged on Utapau.” She announced as she walked in, giving them no time to react with formalities.

“Maul’s been captured.” Jesse gestured to the briefing that he and the captain had been looking over. “The 212th is preparing to depart Mandalore and bring him back to Coruscant.”

“Commander Cody?” Ahsoka looked to Rex.

“Still kicking.” Rex grinned. “If it weren’t for Obi-Wan, I think he’d be on Utapau with the 104th right now.”

“The poor bastard.” Jesse shook his head, though his lips were twitching to form a smile. “Can’t even give Grievous a parting punch into the afterlife.”

Ahsoka laughed, joining her men at the briefing table. Dooku, Grievous, Maul, now for Sidious. Sidious, who had orchestrated the Clone Wars if Count Dooku was to be believed. She wondered how much carnage would have never occurred if it weren’t for his influence. She wondered how much different her life could’ve been.

“Ahsoka.” She jolted up to the sound of her name. She must’ve been lost in thought because she hadn’t noticed Jesse leave the room. “Something on your mind?”

She bit her lip, then wondered why she would hide anything from Rex. “As a Jedi, we were trained to be keepers of the peace, not soldiers. But all I’ve been is a soldier. I don’t know if I can be anything else.”

She watched with a bemused smile as Rex’s expression faltered for a moment. “Well, I’ve known no other way. Gives us clones all a mixed feeling about the war. Many people wish it never happened. But without it, we clones wouldn’t exist.”

“Then perhaps some good has come from all of this. The Republic couldn’t have asked for better soldiers, nor I a better friend.” She stepped forward and placed her arm on Rex’s shoulder. She was nearly as tall as he was now, counting her montrals. A far cry from the times she had once only stood as tall his elbow. He placed his hand over hers for a few moments then they both let their hands fall away as they turned back to the briefing table, alerted by a new message running across the hologram.

“General Grievous has been destroyed. They did it.” Rex said incredulously.

“So, what do we do now?” Ahsoka asked after a few moments of stunned silence.

“Wait for General Skywalker to return, I suppose. Not much else we can do.”

“No.” She mused. Finally, Rex turned off the briefing table and she followed him into the hallway. “I guess this is it. I didn’t expect it to be so unclimactic.”

“I’m sure it was much more interesting on Utapau. We’re not going to see any action here on Coruscant.” Rex’s comm beeped and he looked down to read the message. “Cody’s going to comm me in a few minutes. You’re welcome to drop in if you like.”

“I was just about to shower.” She stopped by the doorway to her room. “Besides, I’m sure we’ll all be seeing a lot of each other in the next few days.”

“Of course. I’ll see you later, Ahsoka.”

She waved goodbye as she stepped into her quarters to grab a towel. When she came back out Rex was gone and the hallways were relatively empty as she made her way to the showers.

‘Hot water will dry your skin out, you know.’  She could hear Fives’ voice in her head. But he wasn’t here anymore, so she turned the tap to the extreme and stood with her face under the water. The heat was nearly intolerable, but she welcomed the sensation. It took her mind off the war as it eased the deep aches in her bones. She could hear some of the other shower heads running but paid them no mind. The hesitations she’d once had about sharing the barracks shower had been quelled when she remembered that these were the same men that she showered with for the past three years. Any embarrassment at sharing a shower with a member of the opposite sex was long gone from the moment she’d been asked to please pass the nice soap. If she’d reached into the Force right now, she would’ve found that they barely noticed her presence. In the GAR everyone got so little privacy that they had mastered finding it anywhere they could. That was why she was here in the first place, to give Rex and Cody some privacy. She knew that Cody may not want to discuss the events of the past few days with her present.

Over the next few minutes, the other taps shut off one by one until she was left alone. It must be nearly dinnertime. There were very few reasons that the clones would not take advantage of the unrationed water on Coruscant. She prodded out into the barracks with the Force. The energy coming from the men was cheerful and relaxed, but there was something stirring underneath that she focused in on. Sterling. Vaughn. Ridge. They had closed themselves off from their brothers, and she could feel their discomfort and anticipation. They weren’t the only ones. She could feel more faint signatures of anxiety in the barracks. If she’d continued to look out, she would have found it in many of the battalions on Coruscant. But instead she focused back into their hall, reaching out to Rex. The unease was there too. And growing. She needed to talk to him.

She’d just reached out to the shower controls when a burst of pain erupted in her head and she fell to her knees onto the tile floor.

“You must choose.” The Chancellor? Why would she hear the Chancellor? He sounded like he was in pain.

“Don’t listen to him, Anakin!” And Master Windu.

“It’s not the Jedi way. He must live.” Master Windu was attacking the Chancellor.

“He’s too dangerous to be left alive.”

                                                        “Please don’t.”

                                                                                 “I need him!”

And the screaming. Ahsoka pressed her hands into her forehead as if that would dampen the sound. The water that had been a comfort to her stung her skin as if it was electrified.

“What have I done?”

“Anakin.”

---

Rex lowered himself onto his bed with a sigh, leaning back against the cold wall. He ran his fingers over the ridges of the holocomm in his hand, waiting for it to chime. He’d never been more grateful for privacy than now. On deployment, he slept in the same room as his men; the Jedi officers were the only ones to have their own private quarters onboard the cruisers. Perhaps if he was on a ship, he’d be taking the call in the officer’s lounge, where he could request a few minutes of solitude. Of course, if he was on a ship the call would be interrupted three minutes in by an emergency. On Coruscant, if there was an emergency Commander Fox would take care of it long before any request for Rex’s help was made. Unless, of course, there was another attack.

The comm chimed, and he answered before the first tone had faded. “Cody.”

“Rex.” The small blue projection of Cody answered. He was propped up against two pillows and Rex could see what appeared to be a medical droid gathering up instruments flickering in and out of the edge of the frame. Rex took note of the series of bruises down Cody’s arm that he recognized from his own experience with the Republic medical droids. Kix would’ve never left so many marks, but Kix wasn’t here anymore.

“You look like hell. How are you feeling?”

“Like hell.” Cody scoffed.

“Did he hurt you?”

“Just an electroprod-”

“Cody.”

“-And the lightsaber wound, but that’s just a scratch. Didn’t even hit the bone.”

Rex took in a frustrated breath. “Cody, he tortured you?”

“I’m fine, Rex. We were made to withstand almost anything. I just need to drink more fluids for a few rotations. That’ll probably stop the headache.”

Rex thought back to Wolffe and his headache. And yet, nothing had happened. They had successfully taken down Grievous and presumably his army. Perhaps they were all becoming susceptible to the changes in weather in their ‘old age’. Besides, Cody had been held by Maul for nearly two days, a headache was squarely in the realm of possibility for aftereffects. “If you so much as sway getting off that ship, I will personally see to it that you are sedated.”

Cody smiled and shook his head. Rex realized how tired the commander looked. “Honestly, Rex. I don’t think I’m going to make it out of this one.”

Rex’s breath caught in his throat as he tried to think of a response.

“I know that everything is fine, and we’ll be back on Coruscanti duracrete in a matter of hours, but I can’t shake this feeling.”

“What feeling?” Rex prodded.

“Like, I’m standing on the edge of a void. And I know that if I fall, I will never be able to get back.”

“It’s just Maul.” Rex had heard of how the dark side of the Force could cause terror in a being. It had to be him. Wolffe was fine, the war was as good as over, everything was going to be okay.

“Maybe.” Cody didn’t sound convinced. “I just need to get back to work.”

“You need to rest, Cody.” As if the commander would ever sit back and let others do his job for him.

“I have rested. Can you imagine this legion without me? It would be chaos.”

Rex laughed. Not matter how bad things seemed, Cody could always bring a smile to his lips. And he had a point. “Remember- you sway, we sedate. I’d hate for you to miss out on the celebration. I know you love the dress greys.”

“Mhm. They really bring out the bags under my eyes. Maybe after the formal dinner we could go get absolutely pissed at Seventy-Nine’s. You, me, Wolffe, Echo, Ahsoka, whoever else wants to join us.”

“Commander Tano is seventeen, Cody. That’s underage.” Though she’d soon be eighteen and drinking age in most systems, Rex still thought of her as the same brash fourteen-year-old he had met on Christophsis when it came to anything but combat.

“Four years older than we are. You can’t protect her forever, Rex. If she can fight in a war and die for the Republic, she can have a drink. Though, with the amount you lot drink, she may swear alcohol off entirely.”

“I’ll make sure Jesse is there if that’s our goal.”

Cody grinned and looked around the medical bay before turning back to Rex conspiratorially. “Do you really think we’re going to win?”

“General Skywalker thinks so. Why not?” Rex couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. “Count Dooku is dead, General Grievous is dead, you’ve captured Maul. We may have just won the Clone Wars.” As soon as he had said it Rex knew that he was wrong. Fear roared up in his gut and he could’ve sworn he’d seen the flashing of lightsabers behind his eyelids when he blinked.

In that moment, Rex considered telling Cody what Fives had said about the inhibitor chips. He’d thought about it, he’d thought about him, every day. But Fives was killed, General Tiplee was slain by Count Dooku, and Kix had gone missing. Rex was sure that he was next on the list, and he could have never put Cody in that position. Then the moment was over, and the door to his quarters was sliding open to reveal a half-armored Jesse.

“Captain Rex, General Skywalker is on his way back. He wants to see you, sir.”

“I’ll be there.” Rex turned back to Cody, who was scanning over another message on the holocomm.

“I’m needed on the bridge, Rex.”

“Then I suppose duty calls for both of us.” As it always would; whatever it takes.

“I suppose so. I’ll see you on the other side of the war.”

Rex felt a hint of dread still creeping over his shoulder. Surely, the war was over. The Separatists couldn’t continue their onslaught without their military leadership and the man who arranged the war was close to capture. Yet, General Plo was right. There was something he was missing.

He tried to shove the feeling off, taking in his friend’s features; the scar that traced along Cody’s temple, the bags under his eyes that had been there since Christophsis, the unruly curls that were beginning to frame his face. He should’ve noticed them earlier. The time for teasing would come later. But the feeling was still there, and he began to understand how it must feel to stand at the edge of the inescapable void.

“See you on the other side of the war. Take care of yourself, Cody.”

[littlefeatherr]

Book Instances of Sansa Outwitting Tyrion

During her wedding day, she discovered that her rejection of him would play into his insecurities and that this allowed her a means to prevent consummating-and legitimizing- their marriage.

Sansa III, ASOS:

As he moved behind her, Sansa felt a sharp tug on her skirt. He wants me to kneel, she realized, blushing. (...) She felt another tug at her skirt, more insistent. I won't. Why should I spare his feelings, when no one cares about mine?

He is as frightened as I am, Sansa realized. Perhaps that should have made her feel more kindly toward him, but it did not.

On my honor as a Lannister," the Imp said, "I will not touch you until you want me to." It took all the courage that was in her to look in those mismatched eyes and say, "And if I never want you to, my lord?" His mouth jerked as if she had slapped him. "Never?" Her neck was so tight she could scarcely nod.

She never, ever, let her guard down with him even though Tyrion tried to get closer to her, especially regarding physical intimacy.

Tyrion IV:

Sansa's misery was deepening every day. Tyrion would gladly have broken through her courtesy to give her what solace he might, but it was no good. No words would ever make him fair in her eyes. Or any less a Lannister. This was the wife they had given him, for all the rest of his life, and she hated him.

And their nights together in the great bed were another source of torment. He could no longer bear to sleep naked, as had been his custom. His wife was too well trained ever to say an unkind word, but the revulsion in her eyes whenever she looked on his body was more than he could bear.

Tyrion VII

Even her tears she hoards to herself.

He had expected anguish and anger when he told her of her brother's death, but Sansa's face had remained so still that for a moment he feared she had not understood. It was only later, with a heavy oaken door between them, that he heard her sobbing.

Sansa simultaneously played up her role as the devoted wife and her innocence, keeping Tyrion from suspecting her wish to escape and inadvertently growing his affection for her. She prevented Tyrion from accompanying her to the godswood and discovering her meeting with Dontos.

Tyrion VI:

"No," Sansa said at once. "You . . . you are kind to offer, but . . . there are no devotions, my lord. No priests or songs or candles. Only trees, and silent prayer. You would be bored."

"No doubt you're right." She knows me better than I thought.

Even when he acknowledged that she knew more than she let on, it never occurred to him that this was deliberate on her part.

So successfully did she convince Tyrion of her devotion and innocence that only in hindsight did he realize that it was logical for her to fake compliance, bide her time, *kill* Joffrey (she didn't knowingly do so but that's not my point here) and escape - after his family had murdered her father, held her captive, forcibly wed her to take Winterfell, and orchestrated the slaughter of her mother, brother, Greywind and his men.

And despite Sansa leaving him on the hook for Joffrey, Tyrion was still conflicted about pursuing her.

Tyrion XI

One flesh, one heart, one soul. His mouth twisted. She wasted no time proving how much those vows meant to her, did she? Well, what did you expect, dwarf? And yet . . . where would Sansa have gotten poison? He could not believe the girl had acted alone in this. Do I really want to find her? 

Now, some of this was done intuitively on Sansa's part, but that certainly doesn't diminish her instincts, and success in deceiving Tyrion, the son of Tywin Lannister, at thirteen years old.

Interestingly, both Tywin and Cersei were aware of Sansa's rejection of Tyrion's advances and mindful of the potential consequences, and yet neither of them suspected that Tyrion's refusal/inability to consummate the marriage was the direct result of a deliberate act of rebellion on Sansa's part. So add the two of them to her list of people she played as well - no small feat to be sure.

Sansa certainly proved that she is indeed the daughter of Lady Catelyn in more than just appearance! And even though she lost her direwolf Lady, her wolf-like survival instincts continue to grow and sharpen with time.

[thewnchstrs]

Hold On

Pairing: DeanXreader

Summary: the life of a hunter becomes too much for Y/N to handle.

Disclaimers: really sad, suicide, arguing, death, mentions of severe depression, forced vomiting, overdose, angst

Word Count: 2.4K 

M A S T E R L I S T

Based on the song ‘Hold On’ by Chord Overstreet

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The first thing I noticed when I pulled open the motel door was the silence, my hand freezing on the doorknob as my eyes scanned the room for Y/N. 

I remembered calling her name, slowly shutting the door behind me when I called for her again. I let the duffel bag on my shoulder drop to the floor, my eyes scanning the room one last time when they landed on the bathroom door, a soft, glowing light pouring from under it. 

In three long strides I was in front of it, banging on it with a closed fist, “Y/N, open the door!” When she didn’t respond, I took a few steps back, bringing my foot up and rearing it toward the lock, the door successfully swinging open.

I nearly dropped to my knees when I saw her, curled up in the corner of the room between the bathtub and the toilet, her arms cradling herself, an empty bottle of pain medication on the floor. 

“Y/N!” I shouted, dropping in front of her, holding her head in my hands, slapping her cheeks, “Hey! Hey! C’mon, Y/N!” 

When she didn’t respond, I racked my brain for anything, anything I could think of when only one thing came to mind. I pulled her close, leaning her over the bathtub as I supported her at the chest, inserting two of my fingers deep into the back of her throat. Within seconds, Y/N began to gag, a quiet whimper escaping her lips as she vomited into the tub, but not nearly enough for it all to have gotten out of her system. 

“Atta girl,” I said as I scooped her up, racing out of the motel and to the car. I threw the passenger door open, setting her gently inside. I ran to the driver’s side, speeding out of the parking lot and down the highway, Baby’s tires squealing. I kept a hand on her as she leaned against the window.

“C’mon, baby, you’ve gotta stay with me,” I pleaded, my eyes flying from the road over to her where a soft noise seemed to come. I nearly slammed on the breaks as I turned to her.

“I’m s-sorry,” she whispered, her eyes still closed.

I pushed down on the pedal harder, the speedometer reaching just past seventy miles an hour. “Don’t say that, it’s going to be okay, you’ll be just fine.”

I shook her again, trying everything I could to keep her awake. “Hey, do you remember the first time we met?”

There was a beat of silence before she spoke, “I remember.”

“How you busted into that warehouse and saved me and Sam’s asses from those vampires?” I asked, looking over to her again, my heart pounding even faster than before as she grew more and more pale. “That’s when I fell in love with you, Y/N. I’m serious, I’d never believed in love at first sight, when I saw you- I knew I couldn’t live my life without you.”

“I…I love you, Dean,” she mumbled, just barely loud enough for me to hear it. I felt her weight grow heavier against my hand that was glued to her shoulder.

I gripped the wheel tighter, “Please don’t leave me, Y/N. Please…we’re almost there, stay with me!”

This time, she didn’t respond. I tried my hardest not to let my mind wander to that dark place, not to ask myself whether it was too late. I kept driving until I saw the large red sign on the side of the road. The car making tire tracks on the road as I swerved to the emergency entrance. I threw the door open, running to the other side where Y/N’s head laid limp against her chest. I pulled the door open, “It’s alright, baby, they’re gonna make you better. It’s gonna be alright.”

I ran into the hospital, her body so limp it made me sick to my stomach. I yelled for help, pleading as two nurses lead me into a room with a bed. I laid her gently on it, watching as they inserted an IV into her arm, talking loudly to each other. A doctor raced past me into the room, closing the curtain between me and Y/N.

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

I paced the length of the waiting room, ignoring the endless calls I was getting from Sam. I could hardly think straight, let alone explain what’d happened. Thoughts raced through my head, what I could’ve done better, how if maybe I’d gotten there sooner this wouldn’t have happened.

The voice of Y/N’s doctor filtered through the otherwise empty waiting room. I nearly ran to him. “Is she okay?”

The doctor sighed, trying to lead me to a chair to sit down but I pushed his hand away, watching him with wide eyes. “We did everything we could.”

“What…what’s that supposed to mean?” I asked in confusion. If they did everything they could, that meant she should be fine, right? She should be alive, right?

“The drugs Y/N took, she took so many that even after our procedure we couldn’t get them all out of her system. We’ve done everything we can, all we can do now is make her comfortable.”

I stepped back slightly, recoiling at his words, “So, that’s it? You’re just gonna let her…” I couldn’t even finish my sentence, not wanting to believe it. Anger began to bubble inside me. “She’s not gonna die. Not today, so you better turn around and go back in there until you’re one hundred percent certain she’s gonna walk out of here. Alive.”

The doctor looked slightly frightened, “We’ve worked for hours, we’ve gotten to a point where things are only getting worse.”

“Where is she?”

“Mr. Winchester-“

“Let me see her!” I roared, making the man step back slightly as he quickly led me through the swinging doors and up the two floors to her room where I stopped outside of her door, my hand on the doorknob. I closed my eyes, looking down at my hand that I had to keep from shaking as I pushed it open.

I tried not to focus on the machines around her, the only thing that was keeping her alive and anchored to her bed. I didn’t watch the way her chest unsteadily rose and fell, I didn’t pay any attention to the way she looked so small against that large bed.

I watched her, not daring to make a move toward her as if being near her made it final. I wasn’t going to let her die- I promised her that nothing bad would ever happen to her, not as long as I was around.

I found myself always telling people that. That nothing bad would ever happen to them as long as I was there, yet, time and time again I found myself sitting on the other side of death while everyone I loved seemed to cross that line much sooner than they had to.

I turned away from her, holding a hand over my mouth. There are only so many times a bad thing can happen before you start to wonder whether the bad thing started with you. This wasn’t supposed to happen, she was never supposed to go out like this.

“You told me you were getting better,” I said to her as if she could hear me. “You said you’d tell me if it got worse.” I turned back toward her now, really looking at her for the first time and it made my entire body feel like it was being held in a vice. “Now you’re gone and I…now I have to bury you?”

I clenched my jaw as I walked closer, anger and hatred toward the girl I’d loved for so many years filling me. I’d never felt this way toward her, never in a million years, no matter what she did or what she said could ever make me feel the way I felt toward her now. She said she was getting better. She told me, she promised me.

I gripped the end of the bed, my head hanging low between my shoulders as tears rolled down my nose and onto her blanket. “You said you would let me help carry some of the load,” my voice was softer now as my eyes trailed up to her. “That’s what I’m supposed to do, right? I can’t take away what was happening in you, Y/N but I could carry you. I would’ve carried you the whole damn way.”

I watched, willing her body to do something, anything. To pop up in that bed, trying and succeeding to scare the hell out of me. But she still laid motionless, her face pointed up toward the ceiling as if her body was watching her soul as it went away.

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I drove back to the bunker in silence, the clear bag of Y/N’s belongings sitting next to me. She didn’t have much on her. Twelve dollars in cash, the small switchblade she always kept in her back pocket, the gold bracelet I’d gotten her for her birthday.

I knew how bad she’d been hurting. She told me months ago what it was doing to her, and we got through it. We pushed and pushed and eventually we’d made it out the other side, or so I thought. I knew that nobody went through this life unscathed and I made her promise to me that if she ever felt that way again, she’d come straight to me. She promised, and I believed her.

Before I’d even realized it, I had pulled up to the bunker, sitting motionless in the car. I pulled the keys from the engine, looking at the clear bag next to me. The last pieces of her.

I threw the car door open, leaving the bag in the passenger seat.

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It took Sam exactly three days after we’d given her a hunter’s funeral when he came around asking questions. I’d found solace in the garage, tinkering with Baby the things that didn’t need tinkering with, breaking old parts in the other cars around the garage just to have an excuse to fix something.

I heard Sam before he said anything, his loud footsteps coming up from behind me as I worked under the hood of one of the long-forgotten cars in the Bunker. “You wanna talk about it?”

“Nope.” I said, not turning to him. I heard him sigh, his feet shifting on the ground before he spoke again.

Sam cleared his throat, “Alright, let me rephrase that. When are you gonna talk about it?”

I pulled a wrench from the toolbox next to me before retreating under the hood, “I’m not.”

“Dean-”

“No, Sam,” I said, throwing him a look just over my shoulder as I went back to the car. “I…I can’t.”

“You have to, Dean. You can’t just bury this crap!” Sam began to raise his voice. I started tightening a bolt in the car tighter. “It’s gonna come out sooner or later and it’s not gonna be pretty when it does!”

I slammed the wrench down onto the workbench next to me, turning to Sam who’d jumped in surprise. “What do you want me to do, huh? You want me to cry? Want me to lay my head on your shoulder and tell you about my feelings?”

“I just want you to do something. Cry, get angry, do what you need to. But not this,” he said, gesturing around me. “Not…burying yourself in this garage. You can’t do it, it’ll kill you.”

I shook my head, “Yeah, we’ll see about that.”

“Do you think this is what Y/N would’ve wanted?” Sam asked, calmer now. I picked up the wrench again, turning it in my hands.

“You think she was thinking about what I wanted when she killed herself, Sam!?” I nearly yelled. “You think, even for a second she thought about all the crap you and I would have to clean up after she was gone!? She wasn’t thinking, Sam. Not about you, not about me, not about anything! She wasn’t thinking about anybody other than herself.” My words surprised even me as I turned away from Sam, silence hanging in the air between us.

“How could you say that?”

“Yeah, well, it’s the truth.”

“Y/N was hurting, Dean. She was in pain. All the crap she’s been through- hell, who could blame her? And, I’m not saying what she did was right, but I know for a fact she loved you. She didn’t want to put whatever weight she was carrying on your shoulders.”

“Why? Why not let me help?”

“Because all you do is give to the point where there’s not enough let of you to carry yourself. She always told you that, remember? She always told you that giving what you didn’t have was what was going to get you killed one day. I think…I think from now on you need to take care of yourself, first-”

“Don’t make this about me.”

Sam sighed but nodded nonetheless, “I know you’re hurting. I know you miss her, I do too. But she wouldn’t want this for you.”

Sam turned, leaving me in the garage alone, my hand tightening on the wrench as I threw it across the room where it collided with a metal shelf, eliciting a loud clang throughout the room. I let Sam’s words hang in the air: you need to take care of yourself first. A thought so foreign to me it took me forever to process it. My whole life, I never looked after myself first, never even thought it.

“I’m sorry,” I said, wishing with everything I had that Y/N could hear me. “I’m sorry.”

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

Forever Tag List

@spnbaby-67​​ | @majicbamana​​ | @luciferslucille​​ | @anti-social-club​​ | @search-bar​​ | @mellorine-paprika​​ | @thepocketshoelace​​ | @jaremish​​ | @the-salty-asian​​ | @the-hufflepuff-hunter​​ | @robynannemackenzie-blog​​ | @mersuperwholocked-lowlife​​ | @lilreethi​​ | @find-sammys-shoe​​ | @caswinchester2000​​ | @damnedimpala​​ | @thelittlestwinchestersister​​ | @lauren-novak​​ | @adeanmon​​ | @tmiships4life​​ | @spnficgirl​​

Dean Tag List

@mccartneywinchester | @resanoona​​ | @blackglitteroldsoul​​

[bloodfcst-a]

given the revival of the vii fandom with all of the hullabaloo surrounding remake, i can think of no better time to do this meme. i also suggest you check out my updated nav page if you haven’t already! i worked really hard on it okay sobs.

things a new rp partner should know about me !

write 3-5 things a new rp partner (or those who want to be) should know about you and tag 3-5 people! it should be related to rp and not to other interests. 

tagged by: no one, but it’s a shame bc... i got thoughts. you were warned.

tagging: @angereve​ @enshijou​ @breselin​ @serophs​ @strfe​ @fractempyreal​ @extremepath​ @localmagicalboi​ @shimmerseas​ @duplikiss​ @verumking​ @asterites​ + if it strikes your fancy.

i. i am not your mother’s/father’s yu.ffie blog. while i do have a verse reserved for compilation content, that’s not the main premise of this blog. if you came here for oversexualized underage ninjas.... i’m going to have to direct you elsewhere. out here we’re primarily an adult modern interpretation... who does not daylight as a ninja constantly. she can, however, be a y.akuza or a sheltered member of high society who enjoys kicking ass for justice so if you’re interested in that, y’know. c’mon down.

ii. the typical ‘ yu.ffie is a kleptomaniac ’ / ‘ stop stealing my stuff ’ trope is like. one that grates my very existence. i have talked about this many times, but for those of you who are new: yufi has only stolen out of necessity to her cause. the only time i’ll refer to petty theft on this blog is if she like steals a fry or something. if we’re joking around, okay, but... please don’t consider that to be the sole core of her characterization. i’m begging. i’m on my knees. i’m warning you, i’ll cry and then i’ll probably ignore whatever post you’ve mentioned it in if you’re serious. just. don’t be that person if you’re following me.

if we’re going into it, the only times she’s stolen anything were: > in crisis core, as the ‘ treasure princess. ’  but this is arguable, as the treasure is truly up for grabs to start with & zack repeatedly goes after these locations she’s sent to him ( which, by the way, were sent to her from rufus to attempt to retaliate against + destroy shinra hq ). zack already knew what was up when: 1) she showed up in his spam folder; 2) she literally said she’s on the hunt for treasure; and 3) he knew at least after the second time that he was gon’ get goinked ( please see definition #2 ) so... can’t help him there. > in vanilla vii, when the party is foolish enough to meet her and not recruit her off the bat ( it be ya own self ). to be fair, 99% of her interactions with easterners / non-wutai prior to that moment had been people who either wanted to kill her or exploit her, so... it’s only self-preservation to use them before they use her or worse, leave her for dead. a sad reality for a 16 year old. > in vanilla vii, only after the party arrives to wutai & she thinks she can successfully finish her mission of “ getting all the strongest materia. ” after she’s captured, she does apologize, and then afterward makes cloud sign it in writing. so. y’know, she did learn from her mistake & said “ ugh, guess i gotta put that diplomacy training to use. ”

y’all could argue that she’s a thief class and that’s what they do, but note that it’s NOT one of her core skills-- it’s a MATERIA. which means everyone out there with a steal materia could be out here being a kleptomaniac. cloud? barret? tifa? red xiii? none of your favs are safe. her skills in the game, however, are shit called “ blood festival ” ( oh? see the username’s relevance all of a sudden? aha! ) and “ doom of the living. ”  she’s out here summoning ghosts and reigning otherworldly power on ur ass but... fandom wasn’t ready for that conversation !!  some folks were too BASIC and couldn’t handle her true strength... so i will gladly champion that for you.

iii. i like to emphasize that yufi is an emotionally strong yet traumatized figure, which stems from her origins and that i just put that in the forefront. we have a character who is haunted by her mother who died after childbirth, seemingly rejected from her father yet held to the highest of his standards, has attachment issues because she’s the “ black sheep ” and doesn’t just accept defeat or dejection even if it comes from her core community, survived multiple wars, has led in post-war rescue efforts on multiple occasions, was wrongfully imprisoned, was on the forefront of pandemic outbreaks as a first-responder, joins and rises to the top of an organization created to restore world order, is one of the two top operatives in said organization ( and the one out on the field longer--sorry vin.cent, but u only got involved at lu.cretia and when the actual gunshots disturbed your brooding and wine session filled isolation sessions. but like, mood tho ), pretends to be cheery despite clearly remembering all the hauntings and death and other bullshit she’s been facing since she was a toddler.... oh, and she disarmed bombs when her country was wrongfully targeted + used as political bait for terrorists...when she was a child. that’s canon, if we’re talking about  “ accuracy. ” even in vanilla vii, she had no outlets, no one to turn to, ‘cause everyone was cloud vc: “ not interested. ”  

so if you’re on this blog, it’s not like you won’t see happy  yufi... but realize that i recognize that she is multifaceted and has a lot of baggage. emotional issues which unfortunately i bring to every verse gfdohfofh but u know, it’s core to her character + y’all gon have to deal, or... idk, go find another yufi. i’m not forcing you to be here.

iv. in my opinion, the best plotting comes with ooc conversations/interactions. i’m not saying if we plot that we’re required to be friends, ‘cause i don’t wanna force anyone into friendship, but i truly believe that if you want super deep plots with frequent interactions, we should... probably talk more than once. pretty simple, imo !  sometimes people claim i play favorites, but i really don’t... if you never talk to me and you don’t respond to my attempts to interact, then how am i supposed to know you’re interested? 

as a general rule, i’ll put in as much effort as i receive. if i see you’re interested in me, if we’re really vibing when it comes to plotting, if you’re sending asks & liking posts, we’ve got some threads going, rad !  if i like starter calls and send you asks and message you and you never respond to me... ?  i’ll take that as a sign you don’t wanna talk + i should move on to someone else. if i’m wrong, well... do something to change my mind.

v. i know i went hard as fuck on this meme, but that’s bc I’M REALLY PASSIONATE ABOUT ABOUT THIS MUSE.  in reality i’m actually quite soft + a weenie babie. if you ask.......... most people, i think they’d say i try really hard to be approachable and adaptable. i think everyone who talks to me on discord laughs at me because i’m scared of the stupidest things + i love to make jokes and just be funny and relatable. so please be nice and love me and my sassy fighty extremely tough deprived child. we both need hugs. 

kthx i’m finally done.

[amigasaurus143]

I posted this on Reddit. Now here.

I've gotten the impression that a lot here either genuinely think Itachi killed his clan for fun or didnt care what he was doing or they just desperately want to believe there was a better option. And I see that as them being very hypocritical, because a lot of the same people sympathize with Obito. When Obito was not exactly forced, yeah he got "taken/found" by Madara and yeah Madara caused the death of Rin, but Obito had the choice to either go home or return to Madara, he chose Madara. Whereas Itachi was forced to make a descion. One that he should not have made and should not have ever been put in the position of making. Every option present would have terrible out comes.

Kill Danzo isn't really an option. This wouldn't work because Danzo had Izanagi and could use that to "come back", after which he would realize Itachi was against him and he'd have his men attack the Uchiha themselves including Sasuke. Which could either end in deaths of all Uchiha, or the Uchiha would be able to fight back and more people could get caught in the crossfire. Even if he had been able to use Kotoamatsukami on him, it's likely Danzo had planned for that and ordered his men to handle the situation if they suspect his views had changed all of a sudden.

The real options.

1. Kill all Uchiha sparing only Sasuke, and he himself is branded a traitor and criminal while the Uchiha name is protected and word of the Coup never gets out.

2. Kill only those directly involved and risk the rest becoming like Obito or Sasuke or Madara, and attacking the village to avenge their clan, which would lead to them being killed regardless.

3. Kill no one and let the Coup happen, the Uchiha & Konoha go to war with each other and multiple people on both sides - including innocent civilians - will be killed. Enemy nations would take advantage of what is going on and attack, causing more deaths. And the surviving Uchiha would all either be arrested, ostracized and/or exiled for the coup, whether they were apart of it or just had bad luck of being in the same clan.

4. Kill no one and instead let Danzo and the Root take care of it. Sasuke dies as well. And Itachi either dies too, or is framed for it anyways.

Every single option sucks. But option 1 cost the least amount of lives.

And some think he could have done it but not manipulate Sasuke into hating him, while I don't condone his methods it wasn't without reason. Danzo had no way of knowing that Itachi would use Tsukiyomi on Sasuke or that he'd tell him he had killed them all, yet as soon as it was done Danzo immediately threw him under the bus and acted like he did it solely of his own freewill because he hated them. Even if he had wanted to, the option to make it seem like an unknown outside force had attacked and Itachi and Sasuke were the sole survivors, Danzo would not have let that. He wanted Sasuke to only hate him for it because he didn't want his brother to ever think bad about their clan and ruin his memory of them, and he wanted him to have a place he could call home and knowing the Konoha part of that would ruin it. And I don't agree with Itachi saying that maybe Sasuke back then could have changed their father's mind. On one hand, Danzo wanted them dead at all cost and would kill them regardless. On the other, if a 12/13 year old is too young to be put in that position then surely a 7/8 year old would be as well. He also wanted Sasuke to be the one to kill him to make Sasuke a hero who avenged the fallen clan.

And as long as he was in the Akatsuki, they were not allowed to make any direct attacks to the village itself. Which may seem like it didn't make much difference because soon after he was gone, they attacked and the result was devastating. But if they had attacked the village sooner like a lot sooner, who's to say there would have been a Naruto who could successfully change Nagato.

There was zero option where the Uchiha would survive ,or survive and be safe/ok. No matter which choice, they would have paid dearly.

I don't agree with what he did. But despite popular opinion on this sub (from what ive seen and i havent been here long) he did not do it for fun and he did care and was traumatized, and more importantly he is not solely to blame. Fugaku, Obito and Danzo are all way more to blame than him.

[dailyaudiobible]

02/08/2020 DAB Transcript

Exodus 28:1-43, Matthew 25:31-26:13, Psalms 31:9-18, Proverbs 8:12-13

Today is the 8th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it's great to be here with you as we close down another one of our weeks together. I'm grateful that we have the opportunity to…yeah…to finish well. So, we’ve been reading from the Voice translation this week, which is what we will continue to do today. And we are still at Mount Sinai, the mountain of God with the children of Israel and God is upon the mountain explaining to Moses what He would like this new culture that is being built, His chosen people, what He would like this to look like. Today, Exodus chapter 28.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word, we thank You for bringing us through another week successfully. We are so grateful for all that You are speaking to…into our lives thus far this year. So, as we seal this week and close the door and it becomes a part of our past, a part of our history, we look forward to all that You have yet to speak to us in the coming days and in the coming weeks. So, we worship You and we give You our gratitude. We love You and we thank You and we pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it's the website, it’s…well…it's where you find out what’s going on around here. It's our virtual home for our Global Campfire community. And, so, yeah there are resources there in the Shop that are created just for the journey that we are on. And definitely links to different places to interact.

And it's to remind you that the Daily Audio Bible is a family of programs. Like, maybe if English isn’t your native language, there's Daily Audio Bible in Espanola or French or Japanese or any number of languages but there’s also other English programs like Daily Audio Bible Chronological. My daughter, China is just doing a fantastic job. She's been at this with me…I mean only a couple years less than me. Her whole life has been centered around reading the Bible. And, so, she's growing up and leading a community through to the Bible in chronological order.

There’s also Daily Audio Bible Psalm and Daily Audio Bible Proverbs. Those are like vitamins because like listening to the Daily Audio Bible we’re going through a section of Scripture each day, we’re talking about it, we’re applying it to our lives, we’re getting history, we’re getting context. But the Psalms and the Proverbs, it's like a chapter a day. So, you can go through the entire book of Proverbs in a month. It’ll take you like less than five minutes a day to do it, or the Psalms is just a couple of minutes. And, so, they’re like vitamins that we can have throughout the day. Just get the Scriptures speaking into our lives and transforming us. So, check all that out. It's a…it's a big roaring Global Campfire that warms us and there's…there’s plenty of warmth to go around. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. The link is right on the homepage. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or if you like the mail better, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can press the Hotline button in the app, the little red button that’s right next to the Give button in the upper right-hand corner and begin to share from there or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's all for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi my name is __ and I have been a DABber for about 10 years and this is the first time I’ve called in. Today I am asking for prayer for my son who is in his 40s and he’s morbidly obese and starting to develop the disease processes that occur with obesity. I have prayed for years and all things only become worse. I can see the road ahead will be difficult for him if things do not change. I’m asking all to flood the heavens with prayer and petition asking for God’s intervention. Please pray for diet change, exercise, healing, sleep, and stress relief all things needed to obtain the goal of healthy living. Thank you so very much.

Good morning it is February 1st this is Sheryl from southeastern Washington. I just got through listening to the Daily Audio Bible for February 1. I thank you Brian and Joe for this ministry. I just heard a prayer request from Charisse who’s 32 years old and was in an accident January 6th who lost her husband and has little ones at home. Charisse I just wanted to let you know I’m praying for you and I know there are many, many, many other DAB family members who are praying for you also. I have hardly…no words to say but just to let you know that we’re praying for you and we will be praying for you, keeping you in our thoughts and prayers. And just keep in touch with us to let us know how you’re doing. Thank you. Love you all DAB family. Love you Charisse. Bye.

Constantine my name is Leslie I live in Missouri and I’m praying for you. I am so very sorry that you lost your sweet husband and I am praying for you that you and your children will heal and recover and have peace in the middle of this awful, awful tragedy. I am so sorry sister. I love you and I’m praying for you.

Help me dear Lord as I go through this day to glorify you in every available way and not bring reproach by the things that I say to believe in your word and just trust and obey there’s darkness around me Lord please give me your light let me know father that everything is all right dispel all the shadows make everything clear and when I get lonely father please linger near strengthen my faith God and let me shine bright knowing that in all things I’m truly alright and when there’s sadness Lord help me to smile to believe and to hope with the faith of a child dependent in all ways just like life is to the sun not my will father but thy will be done

blindtony1016@gmail.com. I’d like to give a special shout out to Donny Vice. Thank you so much for your prayers, your love and continuous support. And once again Brian and the Hardin family thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep flowing y’all.

Hello family DAB this is Timothy Pitt from Edinburgh in Scotland in the UK. I have called in before but so rarely that by way of introduction I first started listening to DAB in 2010. I was just desperate to listen to the Bible. I wanted to do it every day. I wanted it to be Audio and I wanted it of course to be the Bible. So, believe it not the words I actually typed in in my search were Daily Audio Bible and there it was. And I listened since 2010 although I’ve got a back catalog from 2006 in the origins. I’ve done DAB kids with my boys. I’m a double DABber with China and Ben as well. The main point of calling is along with the God of Your Story book, just to encourage everyone to stick at it. It is such an amazing resource to be able to listen to the Bible, to see the story, God’s story for us, and set out throughout the whole year. And the God of Your Story book, yes it absolutely encapsulates everything over the whole history a of DAB. The prayer community is flourishing, is tremendous. The Prayer Wall, wow! But yeah, just a quick encouragement to everyone. Everyone who, like me, rarely or never calls in, just put up your silent prayers, your local prayers, just put up your prayers. God hears us all. God loves us all and through this wonderful community of DAB we can come together to God. So, blessings to everyone.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family my name is Michael Davis I am one of the sons of Diana Davis the one that’s going through stage IV brain cancer right now. And, so, I’m calling in because I heard to prayer 2 requests on behalf of my mom one on January 30th I think and then the first prayer request of the February 1st prayer line. And, so, thank you so much for that. Whoever did call in to request prayers for my mom, thank you whether it was my mom herself or one of her our family members because I tried sending my prayer request in on January 9th or 10th but I don’t think mine went through, either that or I was just like asleep during one of the Daily Audio Bible broadcasts and didn’t get to hear prayers or something like that. But anyway, the story about my mom right now to give an update, as of February 2nd 12:56 AM she’s going through some irregular breathing patterns and she is just really unconscious. She can’t eat or drink anything. And, so, she’s probably about to pass away soon. And, so, if you guys can just keep praying about my mom and keep praying over our family that would be greatly appreciated because if my mom passes away, I want to make sure that my brother and I don’t get separated. I don’t really consider myself autistic anymore because I feel like I’ve healed myself through just eating a lot of watery rich fruits. And, so, my brother he’s on the middle part of the spectrum of autism though and my mom and dad are separated. I can talk to my dad anytime I want to on FaceTime so could my mom if she is, you know, ends up being conscious and whatnot. But it’s just our family is separated. Anyway if you guys could pray over my brother and I and especially my mom just make sure we’re not separated I would heavily appreciate that because of my brother and I got separated that it be very, very devastating for me especially.

Hello Daily Audio Bible I’m calling for Charisse who recently lost her husband in a motor vehicle accident and she herself has had three surgeries and is still in the hospital. Charisse, I am so, so, so sorry for what you have walked through and I want to lift you up to the Lord and I want to remind you that when Mary lost her brother Lazarus that Jesus wept with her, that you not only have the Daily Audio Bible praying for you but you also have our Lord praying for you. And that is my prayer, that He not only brings you all the comfort and the healing and the compassion and the strength that you need to get through this but also that you would be reminded every time you hug your twins and you hug your six-year-old that He’s holding you too, through each and every moment of this journey that you are now on. This world is broken, and we suffer in ways that are unimaginable at times, but Jesus never changes. He’s always faithful and He always remains ready to walk us through absolutely everything. Again, I’m so, so sorry but I will continue to lift you up in prayer as will the rest of the DAB family. I pray God blesses you and comforts you today dear friend. This is All the Treasures from Wyoming.

[missjackil]

My 14x13 Opinion

Lebanon The 300th Episode

I am so proud of this episode and so blown away by how awesome these last 4 episodes have been! Might be an unpopular opinion guys but I really like this season! Sure its had some duds like Optimism and The Scar (Though The Scar had a great broment) but I thought we’d be getting Leader!Sam this season but we have emotionally wrecked!Sam instead, and Im here for that! Needless to say I LOVED this episode, I was so pleased with pretty much everything and I have no big complaints, so lets have at it! I enjoyed the lightness of the beginning, and getting a look at the town. Im so pleased they FINALLY noted that Lebanon KS is the geographical center of the country! So the boys can get anywhere in the country within a day and a half. Its kinda weird though that Lebanon seems to have 3 different post offices. The one from Something About Mary, the one from The Spear, and now this one. LOL thats no big deal so lets move along. 

It was funny that the dude in the pawn shop committed suicide by Winchester, which of course is trying to, or successfully killing one gets you killed by the other, and Dean acknowledges that they all talk too much LOL.

The kids talking about the rumors about the boys was fun but I really wasnt impressed by “cool chick” Max. I liked the boy in the hat though, he was great. Stealing Baby is also suicide by Winchester but Sam and Dean dont go around killing teenagers so, they got lucky. 

I was amuzed by the ghost of John Wayne Gacey clown, and Dean being all “You love serial killers but hate clowns!” and Sam being like “I get it Dean” but Im really glad they didnt make Sam act like he was scared like the other times before. It just wouldnt have fit well into this episode I dont think. Saving Dean is more urgent than a clown fear right? 

Moving on to the meat, and this was as meaty as an episode can get! Dad comes because Dean makes a wish. It seems Dean’s desire to have his family together is more of a desire than getting ole Mike out of his head, and thats really pretty sweet. Dad recognizes the boys right away, which is cool especially since Sam looks NOTHING like he did back in 05, let alone 03 but John says “What happened to you?” I reckon they aged 15+ yrs Pops!

The boys give Dad the nutshell version of their lives over shots of whiskey, because, how else could you do it? But man, John’s face when he hears Mary’s voice was amazing! And I dont even like Mary but, good lord if she didnt nail these scenes!  My hear crumbled, their reunion kiss was completely believable even though we never saw them kiss on the show before. I saw some of you whine that John didnt ask permission first... really? I could see if they were gonna have sex, but when does anyone on TV ever ask to kiss someone?? Not very often. It was by far the most romantic thing Ive ever seen on this show, 

Like typical Winchesters, Dean is sucked into whats right before him and Sam is worried about the big picture. But Sam doesnt lean too hard on Dean about it, lets all have the nice family dinner we’ve never had. 

While compiling a shopping list with Mom, Dean leaves Sam alone with Dad. This scene was .... WOW... so well written and brilliantly acted. I had been wondering how Sam and John would hash things out and this was so much better than I invisioned. Its so in character for the Sam we have watched grow over the last 14 years to get over the bad and focus on the good, because those you love can be taken away in a heartbeat and being left with hard feelings is the worst. All he can think of is seeing Dad dead on the floor and he never got to say goodbye. and he never got to smooth things over. Sams emotions were raw and real! Jared really let Sam feel it, all the regret and anger and loneliness, melts away and turns into “but you loved us.... and thats enough” It was so refreshing to get so much emotional POV from Sam. Something we;ve gotten more of this season than we ever have. It hurts like a mother... but its worth it. 

After the heart shattering talk, Sam composes himself and tells Dean hes right. This was a good thing even if its jut temporary. He asks Dean if he wants company for shopping, and this is like Sam wanting to hold on to his rock (Dean). This is precious.

The boys leave Mom and Dad alone, and go shopping. Now we discover that the timeline has shifted and they have alternate selves. Dean is a wanted criminal and Sam, omg lol Sam is flaming TED talking douchebag that wears turtlenecks, loves Kale, doesnt drink coffee, and doesnt see the need for hobbies or family. But, I gotta say hes lovely in glasses 😎

This inevitably means that not only will Mom disappear, but the boys wont have the relationship they do, and we know, thats a fate worse than the universe exploding. Meanwhile we get a guest appearance by Zachariah and Cas, and Cas is back to S4-ish Cas and possibly even more of a dick. Sam and Dean find them as theyre about to kill the teenagers from earlier and save them. Cas of course doesnt know them from Adam but Zach does. A fight ensues and I just have to state very clearly that Dean went after cas with the angel blade with no second thoughts. Zach attacks Sam and tries to kill him, but Sam kills him instead. Now thats poetic to have been killed by both Winchesters at different times! 

Now Cas is trying to kil Sam, which as we know, never goes over well with Dean, but Cas really nails Sam HARD in the face and Sam spews blood all over! That was pretty graphic and dramatic! Well full strength douchebag angel or not, Dean doesnt let you beat on Sam. so heattacks Cas, and Cas is about to kill Dean. There is no “Cas its me!! Fight this!! I love you!!” like all the hellers wanted and predicted LMAO instead Sam writes a sigil with his blood and zaps Cas away.

Back at home, yet another highly emotional scene as Sam tells Mom why they have to let Dad go... she would just fade away and they would become their “other” selves. Mary cries real tears. and Sam overflows again. God my heart!! Dean talks to Dad and Dad is more than willing to lay his life down for Mom. They all sit solomly at the dinner table. Oddly enough Sam is the only one eating, and Im sure theres meta in there somewhere.... all I can think of at the moment is that hes distracting himself from the painful slence, and hes the only one who never really had Winchester Surprise. John decides to lighten the mood and be grateful for this time, and they all follow suit. And it was glorious!! My boys laughing and eating and enjoying themselves with mom and dad, I just dont know what words to give this scene! 

Afterwards, Sam and Dean are washing dishes together #husbros and they briefly discuss keeping it the way it is. I mean really.... Mom may disappear and they wont be insanely co-dependent, but Michael wont be in Dean’s head anymore, because nothing leading up to it would have ever happened. Dean says hes good with who he is, and hes good with who Sam is, and hes just too old to want to change it. 

The farewell scene was nothing less than earth shattering painful. Dean was surprisingly calm and stoic, though he had many tears. It was as if on purpose, he let Sam and Mom have all the emotions. John hugs his sons one last time. and tells them he’s so proud of them, Poor Sam is gutted. He cant even pretend he isnt crying. Dad tells them he loves them. Dean says he loves him too. Sam cant get words out so he wipes his face and nods. In a beautiful paralell from the old days when John told Dean “Take care of Sammy” and Dean answers “I always do” John says “Take care of each other” and Sam answers “We always do”😭😭😭😭😭😭John takes Mary’s hand and Sam in obvious pain crushes the pearl and Dad fades away. He wakes up in Baby back in 2003 believing he had a good dream. 

Now we have to wait a freakin month for the next episode. But Ill be ok. I think I need a break from all the emotions of the last several episodes because the next couple will probably be less dramatic. This is ok, if every episode was this emotional, even that would get old fast. We only have 7 episodes left and I dont want to rush to the end of the season for a freakin 6 month hiatus!! AGGGHHHHH!! 

Overall I am in love with this episode. It may have moved itself into first place but it has at least tied. This episode definitely met and exceeded my expectations, and last week I thought it wouldnt be able to beat that one. Im so proud of SPN, the writers, and the cast of this episode Ill give them all a standing ovation 👏👏👏👏👍💖 I think its abundantly clear now that Dabb DOES care about the brother bond and doesnt give a rats ass about dean/cas in fact it looks as if the next few episodes might be Dean lite... but we never really know till we watch the episodes.

In conclusion. on a scale from Bloodlines to Who We Are, Lebanon is a 10. Well done show.... well done! Now onward to the 400th episode!!

[godaime-obito]

my fill for @kakaobiweek2019 day 8:time travel. Kushina takes care of things; on ao3 and under the cut!

Kushina isn’t particularly happy about dying. She imagines most people aren’t, but unlike them she’s not going to put up with it. The Shinigami can bite her, she wants back in. Honestly once she woke up she didn’t remember much of being dead, so she can’t really say how she got back to life again, just that she did.

She awakens spooned against Minato. It takes Kushina a long time to convince herself to move. The worst part of being pregnant was not being able to be big spoon properly anymore.

...Is she pregnant? She’s not sure how far back she is. Maybe she just isn’t showing yet? But, maybe, she got lucky and she’s farther back than that. If she gets up and runs through Konoha she might find Rin or even Obito. On second thought, the Shinigami better hope she’ll fin Rin and Obito.

“Pretty boy,” she shouts as she hops out of bed, “I demand an emergency ramen dinner for your team.”

“What? Kushina it’s the morning. It’s too early for dinner,” Minato says bewildered.

“It’s never too early for ramen,” she retorts and throws his usual uniform at him.

Kushina and team Minato arrive at Ichiraku’s as soon as it opens. The kids are exhausted from morning training and Minato is exhausted from delaying Kushina until the stand actually opened.

She decides to sit smack between Obito and Rim instead of her normal spot, but she’s still barely able to contain her enthusiasm at seeing them.

“How’s it going kiddos?” she cheers. Now to keep them from dying somehow.

“I’ve made a lot of progress on my mystic palm efficiency,” Rin volunteers, “Obito’s been working very hard on his kanton and we’re sure Kakashi’s going to be a jounin soon.”

“Wow,” Kushina says with a smirk, “a jounin already Kaka-chan? But you’re still so cute.” He puffs up in response and gets ready to go on one of his little rants, but Kushina can’t hear him over her own laughter. She missed these little rants, after Obito died, no matter how annoying they are.

“Good luck kid,” she says after her laughter dies out, “but don’t get so caught up on your rules that you forget your teammates. When you’re a jounin you’re a leader and you have to consider your subordinates.”

“They’re not my rules, they’re the ninja rules,” Kakashi retorts.

“Look here little punk,” Kushina growls, “I’ve been a jounin years and I think I know a bit more about how the rules work than you. If I hear you’ve been leaving your teammates in the dust I’ll make you regret it.”

“Kushina, darling, I’m sure he’ll give your words plenty of consideration,” Minato reassures her. Trying to diffuse her temper before she gets more worked up. She quiets with a huff and the rest of the meal passes by with the normal sound of Kakashi and Obito bickering, which cheers her up a bit. It feels good to be back.

Kushina tries to believe in Kakashi she really does. But… she knows what a stubborn brat he is. She may take some time off to us to stalk them around on the Kanabi Bridge mission. It isn’t easy to find the time or avoid being seen, but she’s able to help pick off the Iwa nin. Obito makes it home with his two sharingan eyes, and Rin and Kakashi come back intact too. Well, Kakashi still ends up losing his left eye, but you win some you lose some.

Naruto is going to be born soon, which brings her to her second goal: not dying. Things go wildly different. She thought there may be some ripple effect from the things she’s done differently or from Obito surviving, but this is a bit much. She really isn’t sure what she did to cause this. It’s October 10th and instead of the masked man with a sharingan there’s some kind of plant demon with what may be mokuton. They seem like opposite problems, but they must be connected. Thankfully Kushina was ready to be attacked and this fucker isn’t capable of teleportation and phasing the way the masked man was. The kyuubi is still safely sealed in her, and if she could just get it to stop regrowing when either Minato or she kill it they’ll be golden.

Just when she’s worried it might wear them down before they can kill it backup arrives. Mikoto arrives flanked by a few of her clansman. Kushina couldn’t have a better best friend. The literal fire power of their kanton turns out to be just what they need. Either they successfully burn away the plant demon or they at least manage to scare it off. Kushina can’t say what happens immediately after because she just gave birth and then fought a demon, so she very reasonably fell asleep as soon as it was over.

Kakashi and Obito are late to Naruto’s second birthday. Obito’s been rubbing off on Kakashi ever since Kanabi Bridge, when they finally learned to get a long, and it’s not that surprising they’re both late. She’s still annoyed though. She will find both of those brats and drag them here.

It turns out she doesn’t have to look very long, because they’re together. They’re lying on Obito’s couch, while Kakashi is, from what Kushina can see, attempting to discover how far down Obito’s throat he can get his tongue. Fucking Sixteen year olds.

“Boys!” she screams as she climbs through the window. “Stop being horny and celebrate my son’s birth!” she adds, smacking them both over the head, “Ingrates.”

“Kushina-neechan,” Obito stutters out, rapidly turning bright red. “It’s not what it looks like,” he insists.

Kakashi just looks smug. “It is what it looks like, if it looks like I was about to get lucky,” he says, “until you interrupted.”

“Kakashi!” Obito shrieks and reflexively sucker punches him in the gut.

“You can get as lucky as you want after the party,” she says, “Get moving.” She stalks out the front door and Obito pops up from the couch to run after her, grabbing their gifts off the table as he goes. Kakashi follows after them once he regains his breath.

Obito and Kakashi are both late to their commitments the next morning, but Kakashi is big spoon and really doesn’t want to move. Obito is still happily snoring and while they’ve slept in the same bed or on the same futon before it was never like this. Never in this context. He wants to stay a while and just watch Obito’s untroubled sleeping face. The last few years have gone unexpectedly well and strangely he for some reason feels like he owes Kushina. Maybe he should take her with them to get ramen later.