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#killing stalking chapter 24
trulyumai · 16 days
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Oh, Mr mosses (Series!) V
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Synopsis: You were fine with the job, the steps were easy enough but the secret  of the D.D.D was getting harder and harder to contain. Each night a new entity would enter the building, each with its own horrific look and intentions. Just as you debate on leaving, a new resident has entered the premises; Francis Mosses who is absolutely entranced by your being. Now, his Mimic has taken a liking to you too.
Will you be as smitten of them as they are of you? Only time will tell.
Author Note: Hello everyone, a bit longer of a chapter but thats okay! After Thursday I will be final free! Which means I'll have more time for writing and answering requests, thank you for your patience! <3
Warnings: Blood, Obsessive/Possessive behavior, Stalking, Talk about Death, Mutilation.
Also available on AO3!
Taglist: @tfamidoingwithmylife @mariaflor873 @fandomfeind @greycloudsy @skully-skeleton-bone0106 @im-here-for-the-fun-of-it @the-tiger-lover78 @itoshilvr @wilddreamer98 (Let me know if you want to be added!)
God, even the way she laid there, limp against the office wall was everything to him. 
Biting down on 28 only crunches and squelches echoed through the room, the said man laid in pieces by his feet. 
He casually sat there in her squeaky chair, munching on a limb like it was normal; an everyday hobby. 
Humming a familiar tune he threw the rest of the arm past him, somewhere towards the cabinets, he had to guess. 
With his feet on the desk he sighed. 
Soon the D.D.D would learn of his presence, his safety would be at risk and his little toy would be in even more danger than she already was. 
Maybe he would take her, hide her away to be his little wife. That is what they’re called, aren’t they?
First things first; he had to dispose of the replica. 
Clicking his teeth he scratched his nails on the wood beside him. 
That fucking fool. A useless mirror image he copied. 
He had to learn everything about the man before taking his face; starting with his job, his hobbies, his routes, down to the fucking shampoo he preferred. Until it got to his favorite area, the most recent addition in his life; the pretty receptionist. 
He knew it would be so easy to manipulate the woman. Her mind was so weak compared to him, with just a tad bit of bending (Mentally and a bit physically), he molded her perfectly for him. 
Enough to not only get access to the building, but to her as well. 
She groaned as she laid there, she must be having a nightmare. He hoped it involved him, with some image of the mimic biting chunks out or flesh, kissing them as he went on.  Holding back a grin he decided to move her, before someone else were to poke their nose in the already bloodied business of theirs. He pulled her up until she reached his chest and eyed the old corroded clipboard by the door. 
Going down the list of names he got to her; room 24 Level 2.
Stepping through the red he rubbed his feet on 28’s corpse, letting the leftover blood dry on his once white, button up. We wouldn’t want a little trail now would we? 
Clicking the green button he passed 28 once more, whistling lowly as the elevator pushed its doors open with a groan. 
Stepping in his clawed finger pressed the second button on the wall, watched as the doors came together with a satisfying thunk. 
Belly satiated and full, he looked down at the woman in his arms, her head was lolled to the side, leaning firmly on his chest. Grinning wide he bent towards her, pressing a sloppy, bloody kiss to her forehead, cheek and nose. 
The box dinged once again, the doors slid open loudly to indicate their arrival to her floor. 
Walking through the corridor, he read the numbers idly 
10, 12, 14, 
A turn left 
16, 18, 20- 
A creek escaped, some neighbor had opened their door, just up ahead.
It was that rich suited prick. 
“Ah! Francis, lovely to- is that the receptionist?” His grin was hesitant, eying the girl with bloody marks on her face. 
He could kill him now, but it would be more of a mess to deal with, he doubted he could hide another body from the D.D.D.
Mustering up a smile, his sharp teeth gritted together.
“She’s ah, not feeling well,” attempting to move past the pompous man and walk towards her door just steps away, the man stopped them once more and put a hand out for extra measure. 
Growling he slowly turned, met the eyes of the man once more. 
“Do we have a problem,” he gritted, claws digging into the poor girl below him. 
“Well- ah, tell her to visit me when she feels up to it,” 
He put his hand back at his side, rubbing his fingers idly. 
“I have a job opportunity for her, you see!” 
Not bothering to waste anymore time, he pressed on to her room. Ignoring the suited man's stares as he clicked her key into place, shoving them both inside before slamming the door. 
“Fucking prick.” He muttered. 
But now he was all alone, could touch and prod at the girl with no interruptions. 
Looking around he noticed the apartment was tidy; everything had a place, plants sat by the darkened windowsill and beside them, a full bookcase was laid about. Her kitchen was spotless, only a few decorative items littered the counters while the sink was, of course, empty. 
Holding her up with one hand he scratched at his gums, pieces of bone were starting to prod against his teeth, becoming more annoying than painful. 
Looking for her bedroom he propped open a door with his shoulder, and with a thump, dumped her unceremoniously on the mattress. 
It was then, he realized. 
“Oh fuck.” 
Bolting angrily back towards the door, the hallway and elevator as fast as he could, he bit down on his annoyingly human cheek; hard. 
He left the elevator unlocked. 
Any other mimic could come through freely and he really couldn’t have that. 
Another competition for his food? Yeah no, fuck that. He hated how territorial his kind was, made everything a pain in the ass to retrieve and made survival even more strenuous. 
It’s why he found himself here; In this little rundown apartment, with surprisingly good security. 
Being denied and caught over and over made everything so much more satisfying, because he knew that if he waited- stuck around for the right moment, he’d get in. 
Watched plenty of his kind die too, before deciding to take a shape of his own, and finally, making his way to the pretty and gullible receptionist. 
Mashing the first floor button he clawed at his face, light red marks dented down with each press of his fingers. 
Ironically enough, he’s the one that has to distinguish between what’s real and fake now.
Waiting for the elevator he growled.
“What a pain in the ass.” 
——
The milkman was tired. Getting in, absolutely no one was there to check his ID, and he wondered if the receptionist was okay (Yet again). It seemed that lately, that’s all he could think about. Her health, the way she smiled, her pretty hands.
 Not once had she missed any of her shifts, and although he had only been there for a short time, he would always hear from the neighbors how dutiful she was. 
Come sickness, fatigue, anything, she would be there. 
Walking past the office, his fingers shook cautiously by his sides. 
Enough was enough, he would talk to her, he couldn’t avoid her forever and his little, “crush,” wasn’t going away anytime soon. 
So with a long intake of air. He pressed her floor number. 
It was now or never. 
The doors closed, and the travel up began. 
Floor1
Ding!
Floor 2
Ding!
With his head pointed downwards he heard the doors sliding open before walking forward, passing a quick figure to his left. Not bothering to greet them he kept his head down.
The anxiety was getting to him and wait- he didn’t even know what room she was in! 
Head up, he turned back toward the figure that passed him. 
They obviously resided on this floor, maybe he could attempt to ask them about her room without completely looking like a creep. 
But what he saw he just couldn’t explain- rationally describe. 
His face stared back at him, it was set in a scowl while he noticed vast amounts of blood adorned his usually crisp white shirt. The doors were on their way to closing, and this version of him reached out to stop it.
He was too late, the metal doors crashed together and Francis could feel his heart jumping out of his chest. 
What the actual fuck was going on.
Was he that tired? 
Grabbing his face he turned back, mumbling incessant comforts to stop the beats of his heart from getting any faster. 
He needed to find her room, and fast.
-
The first thing she noticed was her head. It boomed with an unfathomable amount of pressure, and she was hesitant to open her eyes. 
She felt around, immediately recognizing the comfort of her own duvet, the silkiness of her pillows,  the faint wafts of the candle she lit the night prior. It calmed the tenseness found between her shoulders, instantly relaxing against the cushioned material. 
With a muffled groan she allowed her eyelids to slink up, her messy room greeted her vision. 
Not remembering the trip up, she laid there, stretched out and confused. 
Craning her head just off the side of the bed, the receptionist glanced towards the hallway; to her front door that was wide open. 
Jerking up, her feet collided with one another, and looking more like a newborn calf than human she attempted her way to the front of the room. 
Never before had a fatigue caused this much confusion; chaos to her mind. 
Something had to be wrong. 
She remembered clocking in, idly sitting by as the clock ticked and ticked. After that it was all blank- it startled her to no end. 
With a hand on the door frame her figure leaned on the wall, just outside her abode. 
Biting her lip she held back a whimper, the bright lights of the hall burned her eyes, she tried to go off of memory, closing her eyes as she felt for every familiar bump and groove of the space.
Turning to where she remembered the elevator was, someone bumped into her- hard. 
“My goodness!” That voice… could it really be? 
“Francis?” Squinting her eyes she blinked repeatedly, trying to get the figure to focus in her vision. 
“H-Hey,” the deep voice answered back, smiling, as she knew it was the tired mailman. Only he could have such a serious yet flustered sounding voice.  
“I've been looking for you,”
The man gripped the girl's shoulders, light yet firm and bent down just to meet her gaze.
“Some… things have been happening, I wanted to see if you were okay.” Flustered, the girl forced out a laugh, taking a hand off her shoulder she gripped it softly. 
“I'm okay, you look more disheveled than me, big guy, what's up?” Kneading the flesh around his knuckles the man couldn't help but relax. 
She smelled so good- of lilac and vanilla, it invaded his senses and corrupted his mind. He couldn't even remember the duplicate until it was shoved back by his consciousness. 
Letting out a low moan he shook his head. ‘Focus Francis, god-’ 
“I have to talk to you,” he blurted out, face getting warmer as she paused her movement, and looked right at him. 
Letting out a giggle she rested her arm, just so it leaned comfortably in the crook of his elbow. 
“Okay? My rooms around the corner, if you wanna talk there?”
Not relying on his words he nodded his head, letting the girl lightly pull his arm to her apartment. 
Now, he just had to figure out how to explain his bloody twin. 
Should be easy!
And if she calls him crazy, and ultimately pushes him out of the apartment- possibly building, at least he got to get this close to her. 
Smelling her, touching her, it was better than living alone with his thoughts- tormenting him every hour of the week that he lazily spent thinking about her anyway.
Inhaling her flowery scent once more he shuddered, he hoped the pretty girl would believe him, so he could once more bask in her presence and ignore every little thing around.
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ladykailitha · 6 months
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Royal Pain Part 25
I make two promises about the end of this chapter. It's not what it looks likes, and that it WILL be fixed in the next chapter.
Pt 1 Pt 2 Pt 3 Pt 4 Pt 5 Pt 6 Pt 7 Pt 8 Pt 9 Pt 10 Pt 11 Pt 12 Pt 13 Pt 14 Pt 15 Pt 16 Pt 17 Pt 18 Pt 19 Pt 20 Pt 21 Meta Pt 22 Pt 23 Pt 24
****
Steve was keeping busy. He was! Running a shop full time and his apprentices were only half way through their training, he didn’t have time to moon over Eddie.
But as much as he wanted to lie to himself he knew that there were too many times that he spent checking his phone for text messages, voicemails, and IG DMs. It was lame. And worse?
He had to watch this.
Vickie walked up to Robin. “Hey, babe. Can you show me how to do the multiple scheduling again? The time I tried, I accidentally scheduled all the way out to the year 3025. Which really, really shouldn’t be possible.”
Robin giggled. “I think they had to put in an end date and went as obscene as possible thinking that they wouldn’t have to update it in their life time.”
Vickie blushed and ran her hand up and down Robin’s arm. “Thanks for showing me again.”
Robin nearly fell out of the chair. Vickie quickly grabbed her and barely managed to prevent her from taking a nosedive.
“Right,” Robin said, ducking her head to hide her flush of embarrassment, she showed Vickie how to do the scheduling again.
He turned to Chrissy. “Please save me from this disaster, Duchess. It’s killing me.”
“You wish is my command, my liege,” she purred and stalked toward the reception desk.
Her outfit was barely this side of professional, but considering what other artist wore in their shops, he couldn’t call her out on it. It was pretty much the preppy pastel version of those other shops. Tight, light blue, skinny jeans with a baby blue tank top and white suede jacket, draped artfully on her elbows to show off her tattoos.
She leaned over the desk giving Robin and Vickie an eyeful of her perky breasts. She reached over and curled one of Robin’s loose strands of hair around her finger. Robin turned absolutely red.
‘You coming to Club Rainbow tonight?” Chrissy simpered, using the easier to say nickname for the Rainbow High Club.
“I wasn’t planning on it,” she said, glancing over at Steve and then back to her. “With E–with it being so quiet lately, I figured we weren’t going.”
Chrissy smiled. “I’m always down for bright lights, pumping music, free flowing booze, and...” she leaned closer, “pretty girls.”
If Robin had been red before she positively scarlet now.
Chrissy twisted so she was leaning back on the desk. She flicked a long nailed finger under Vickie’s chin. “How about you, green-eyed girl? You coming, too?”
Everyone’s jaws dropped.
But it worked.
Suddenly Robin was tripping over her feet to say that of course she was going clubbing tonight, that of course she was. And that she was clearly out of her head to even think to stay home.
“Good,” she said, tilting her head back to look at Robin upside down. “Now convince your boy over there to join us.”
Steve gasped. “Traitor!”
Chrissy laughed. “Come on, Steve, you need to get out and feel the earth move under your feet for a night!”
His phone rang and suddenly his was on his feet in an instant.
“Hey, Eds...”
“Baby,” Eddie breathed into the phone. “You sound tired, you okay?”
“No, I’m good.”
“That’s good to hear, sweetheart,” Eddie said softly. “You doing anything fun this weekend?”
“We were thinking of going to the club tonight,” he murmured. “It won’t be the same without you.”
“Go, have fun, babe,” Eddie said. “You deserve it.”
“I guess.”
“Hey, while I’m thinking about it,” Eddie said nervously. “Did you find someone to fill my tattoo slot?”
“Oh, no. I didn’t,” Steve replied, pained. “I wouldn’t just have someone come in and fill your spot, Eds. That’s your three hour block of time, because you’re coming back, right?”
“Of course, I am, Stevie,” Eddie said gently. “I just worry about you losing money you could be making.”
“I know it’s twelve hours I could be making more money, I know that. It’s just–”
“Hey, babe,” Eddie said. “I’m being rushed out the door. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“No, of course. Miss you lots.”
“Miss you more.”
He hung up feeling worse than before he got the call. It had only been three days, but he felt his heart had been ripped out of his chest.
He walked back to the reception area, rubbing the end of his nose. He cleared his throat. “You guys go on ahead without me tonight. I don’t feel so good.”
The three girls shared glances but nodded.
Argyle took a deep breath. “Why don’t Jonathan and I come over with pizza while the girls go to the club?”
Erica came out her room with a grin. “Did someone say club?”
Chrissy cheered. “Hell yeah, girlie. We are going to have so much fun.”
Steve thought about the offer while the girls made plans, then nodded. It was better than being alone and he was really starting to like Jonathan now that he had broken it off with Nancy.
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
The entire shop breathed a sigh of relief.
The club would have been better with its loud music, lots of people, and free flowing beer, but pizza night with the guys was good, too.
“Wait!” Steve said, his brain catching up through his fog of misery. “Erica is only eighteen!”
“Buzzkill.”
*
Sunday was awful. Dustin and Suzy kept gushing about how cool it was that they knew someone who was playing with Metallica.
He was thankful when his phone rang. He walked out to the front porch to answer it.
“Hello?”
“Hey, kid,” came the warm voice on the other end of the line.
“Wayne?” Steve looked at the time on his phone. It was a little after seven.
“I figured since we were both missing our boy, I’d give you a call.”
“I didn’t really think about it,” Steve murmured, pinching the bridge of his nose, “but yeah I guess he can’t call you if he’s on stage.”
“This is alright, yeah?”
“No, course it’s okay, I appreciate you thinking about me.”
“How have you been holding up?”
“It’s only been four fucking days and it’s liking I’m missing a limb. I can’t imagine what you felt when he moved to Indy.”
“That’s different,” Wayne murmured, “I knew it was coming. This was sprung on ya, it was bound to feel like shit. What’s eating ya?”
“God, I don’t even know. It’s just when we were finding our feet, the rug got pulled out from under us and I feel like I’m the only one that fell on my ass. And I know that’s not fair to Eddie. I get to live my dream, but he’s not allowed to live his? What kind of shit boyfriend would I be?”
“A hurt one,” Wayne muttered. “I always tell Ed when he gets like this he has two choices with me. You do all the talking and I listen. Or I do all the talking and you let my voice wash over you like a warm, comforting blanket.”
Tears slipped down his cheeks and he hurried to scrub them away.
“You talk, I just need a kind voice on the end of the line.”
Steve listened to him talk about the book club and a used car he bought recently when his truck finally gave up the ghost. He let the warm slow Southern drawl just wash over him and soothe his soul.
Finally Wayne ran out of things to talk about, but by then Steve was feeling better and they said their goodbyes.
And somewhere in Hawkins Wayne stood his kitchen with tears of his own streaming down his face, missing both of his boys.
*
Steve’s heart leapt every time he got a call, a text, a voicemail. He tried not to sound disappointed when it wasn’t Eddie. He made doubly sure he didn’t sound like that when Wayne called. They were both missing Eddie and he wasn’t about to take it out on him.
Robin was getting more and more concerned. She knew that he wasn’t sleeping, that he was barely eating enough to function and was pretty much living off Monsters and coffees too large to be sane.
She really got concerned when he ordered a six shot espresso and downed it in one gulp.
“Steve...” she said warningly.
“I took it slow like everyone wanted,” he spat out bitterly. “I respected his space and his pace. I rescued him from his evil ex. I dotted all the Is and crossed all the Ts and I’m stuck here wondering if he’s going to find someone better than me. Someone who likes metal, not just go to his concert because he’s the playing. That he’ll find another tattoo artist. A better one. One that will really let him fly. That he’ll pack up and move to LA and I’ll be here with a broken heart and shop I will learn to resent.”
“Oh.” Because what else could she even say to that. Because sure, he could do what Max did and just follow Eddie to LA, but he couldn’t do it immediately. He still had at least four months mentoring Chrissy and Argyle. Eight months on the outside. And by then what would be the point of moving out there.
If Steve was like this after a week, six months would kill him.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen,” Robin said. “You just have to trust him to talk to you and do what’s best for both you. How has he sounded when he calls?”
Steve frowned for a moment. “I guess like me, happy to hear my voice, sad that we’re apart. But there is this tiredness underneath and a hint of anger.”
“At you?” she asked, putting her arm around him.
He shrugged. “I don’t think so, but he won’t talk to me about it.”
“He probably doesn’t know how to say it,” she said wisely. “Just give him time.”
Steve nodded.
*
Steve made the first impulsive decision he’d made since deciding to be Hop’s apprentice.
He was going to get a tattoo. He made the appointment with Hop and calmly explained what he wanted and where.
Hop leveled him with a glare. “You sure you want this? You’re an artist yourself, Steve. You know how hard it is cover up a mistake. If I do this there is no going back.”
Steve nodded. “I want it because even if it doesn’t work out, even if we go our separate ways, I want something to remember him by.”
Hop took a deep breath and started his work. It didn’t take long. It was a small tattoo, simple enough in its design. He would have done it himself if Robin hadn’t stopped him.
Soon it was done and Hop scooted back on his chair. He cleaned Steve up, bandaged it, and wrapped it in plastic wrap.
“There you go, kid,” Hop said. “I hope it’s what you wanted.”
Steve nodded. “It is. I promise I won’t regret getting it.”
Hop sighed and got to his feet. “You’re smart man, Steve. A good tattoo artist, too. You’ve been through so much in such a short time. I think you need to take a break and just think. About the shop, your apprentices, your employees, friends, Eddie. Decide what you want and then go for it okay?”
Steve nodded. “Yeah. It’s just I’m the only full artist at my shop, I can’t take time off without closing it.”
Hop nodded back. “I’ve been there. I just worry about you.”
Steve sighed. “I worry about me too.”
*
Steve was vibrating out of his skin. The band was coming home today. He was going to see Eddie today.
But when the bus pulled up to the depot and they all filed out, there were only three of them.
Miranda and Jeff were hugging and kissing, Brian and Cecil were hugging. Even Gareth was getting swamped with hugs from his twin and mom.
But–
“Where’s Eddie?” Robin asked first. And Steve was grateful that she was there.
The other three members of the band looked at the ground, around them, anywhere but at Steve.
“He made us stop in Hawkins,” Jeff murmured and even Miranda was starting to look concerned.
“He wanted to spend a couple days with his Uncle Wayne,” Gareth said.
Steve heart plummeted to his stomach. “He’s not coming home?”
“It’s just for a couple of days,” Brian hurried to explain. “The tour just gave him a lot of things to think about.”
“Oh.”
Steve turned on his heel and ran out of the depot, shouts of his name following him out.
****
Part 26 Part 27 Part 28 Epilogue
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Steady Heart
Chapter 31: Hunting Grounds
* Pairing: Slow-burn Kayce Dutton x OFC Stella Daniels
* Rating: M
* Warnings: language, stalking with intent to maim or kill, death, violence
* Word count: 3,958ish
I would love to give credits to @dameronscopilot and @deanscroissant for being sounding boards for me during this whole process, giving outsider insight, being cheerleaders, and allowing me to screech at them about things that have happened during the writing process. I seriously couldn't have gotten this far without y'all!
Author's note: Things are ramping up y’all! Hold on to your hats. We’re coming towards the finale. I hope everyone is enjoying so far! I hope you love this chapter as much as I do!
Another fun fact, wait do you guys like these?
But fun fact this was the second chapter I wrote lol.
Stella finished washing her hands in the big sink Olivia had in the wash bay. She watched as the slight gore from the difficult birth slid away. At least her hands and arms were clean now. Her hoodie on the other hand needed some serious tlc. She couldn’t throw it away because it was the first hard birth she had experienced, just Olivia and she at the helm, without the help of parents or anyone there. Olivia’s parents had gone away on a short vacation, and no one else was around. They called the vet, and he walked them through as much as he could. The point was to keep mama and baby stable long enough for him to get there and handle the rest.
There were muffled voices from off to the side of the wash bay. The foaling stalls were the first three along this wall, along with the wash pad. It was Olivia finishing up with the vet. They wanted to be sure they marked everything off the foaling list, and the extras that came along with the tough delivery. Trinity and the tiny colt were going to be just fine. They had been in some deep water, but with the help of the vet and their own knowledge paired together, they made it through to the other side.
“You ladies did a fine job. Both of them will be just fine. We’ll keep an eye on his front legs to see if they straighten out over the next few 24 to 48 hours.”
Stella nodded and the vet finished giving them instructions, “If they don’t stretch out on their own, then we’ll reconvene about wrapping or antibiotics.”
Stella was the cheerleader for the little colt. “Once he gets to moving a bit more, those tendons should relax and not contract as hard anymore. I have faith in the little guy.” She looked at Olivia, “So do you need me anymore this evening,” she looked at her phone for the time, “just kidding. This morning.” She laughed.
“No babe, I think we’re all good here. I’ll see you in a couple days to check up on him. Thank you for coming as fast as you did.”
“Always, lovely. I’ll see you later on.”
She walked out to her car and opened the door to toss in her bag onto the passenger seat. Before she got in, she heard footsteps approaching her from the barn. Stella looked at the person and found that it was Olivia. She smiled at her and she sat sideways in the driver’s seat.
“Are you sure you’re okay to drive home this late Stellar?” She looked unsure at Stella’s condition.
“Yeah girl, I should be fine. Ryan will also birth a bull calf if he doesn’t see me in a bunk before he leaves for the day.” They shared a chuckle.
“Okay, but you turn around if you feel like you can’t make it. I’ll fight your brother in the morning for you.” Stella turned and shut the door. Olivia gave it a tap and she was on her way. If only she had taken her up on the offer.
It was extremely dark in the wilderness of Montana. Stella knew this, but she needed to head home to the ranch. Ryan hadn’t been thrilled with the idea of her running out that late, but ranch emergencies didn’t wait. It was part of her job. She helped at Grand Springs occasionally. She helped with mostly all of the horses, but specialized with the broodmares. That was Stella and Olivia’s favorite part. The two points were about an hour away from each other. That’s why she had specifically bought a house that was the halfway point between the two ranches.
She squinted as headlights behind her blasted brightly in her rearview. Yes, it was advanced darkness out here in the middle of the forest, but the high beams were a bit dramatic in her opinion. She rolled her eyes, but kept moving forward at the set speed limit. The larger SUV behind her inched closer.
“There’s plenty of room to go around me, my guy.” She gripped the wheel and tried to ignore the sinking feeling in her gut the closer the big SUV got. She hoped she had service as she asked Siri to call her brother. She must have had at least a bar of service because her speakers started to ring out to her. It rang one time and went to voicemail. She looked in the rearview again, gauging just how close the Suburban looking vehicle had gotten.
She cursed, and asked Siri to call her brother again. ‘There is no actual way this shit is happening.’ She hadn’t been to her own house since everyone had made her come back to the ranch. Stella couldn’t even think of where they would have picked up her trail, if these were even the same people. If they were even following her. Maybe they were just in a hurry. She grimaced thinking about the Beck brothers and sped up to 70. She really had to stop being naively optimistic.
Stella reached across the front of the car to her glove box. Feeling the leather holster, she said a prayer as she brought it to her lap. She thought she was being jumpy, but she would rather have it on standby and not need it, than it being out of reach if the need arose. The words her brother and Rip had said to her the day they told her she was coming back to the ranch still ran through her head. ‘You brushing it off this way? Will get you kidnapped or killed. Or both.’
She looked at the clock and realized it was nearly four in the morning. There was one other person she knew that would pick up immediately at this hour. Kayce. She really didn’t want to bother him, but her brother wasn’t picking up. She would call Rip next if she needed to. The big vehicle kept a steady pace of being closer almost every time she looked at it.
She had no idea that a ring could be so loud. It rang two times, then four, and she felt more and more desperate with each ring.
“Oh come on. Pick up, Kayce John. Pick up.” She bounced in her seat. About the sixth time she bounced he picked up. “Oh thank god.”
“Stella? What’s wrong?” She could hear the gravel of confusion in his voice. He was only asking what was wrong because in no normal situation would she call this late. Especially since they had been at a distance from each other. He’d just finished taking care of leaving a message to Malcolm on his porch and was headed home when the call came through.
“Kayce I’m sorry, but someone is following me and Ryan won’t answer the phone.” She could hear him rustling around.
“Where are you?” He demanded.
“Somewhere off of 89 and 191, between Grand Springs and my house. I’m like 45 minutes out from your dad’s.”
“Shit! I’ll meet you at your house. Just hold on. I’m coming. Stay on the phone with me.” She could hear more rustling.
Stella looked around to find an escape option. ‘There should be a farm road,’ the voice in her head continued out loud, “here!” She tapped her brakes briefly and cranked her wheel to the left. She watched in the mirror as the big SUV flew by the road.
“Here what Stella?! What’s going on? Talk to me!”
She stomped on the gas because it was only a matter of time before they stopped and turned around. This road led back behind her three acres. The last acre, acre and a half, of her property remained wooded. She just needed to get there before that SUV came back.
“Kace, I’m going in through the back. I hit the farm road, but they’re not far behind me.”
“Keep going, don’t stop moving.”
She saw the little unmarked spot she had cleared out for the little tractor she had and jumped for joy. She checked her mirrors and could just barely make out their headlights. They definitely saw she had turned. They just had to figure out where. That would work in her favor. She cranked her wheel again and bounced around the turn into her property. She pulled off to the side behind the one dilapidated shed she had never bothered with.
Stella turned off her car. Everything went dark, “Kayce,” she whispered, “I’m about to get out of the car. They haven’t pulled in. Yet.”
“I’m almost there. 10 minutes out.” He sounded like he was praying under his breath, “Stella?”
“Yeah?”
“Get. Them. Lost.”
She swallowed hard as realization hit her. She heard her brother’s voice, ‘Stop, don’t think, just move. Hesitation gets you dead.’ She shook her head to bring herself back to the very serious reality at hand. She hopped out of the car and placed her phone in her bra wanting it close so Kayce could hear her. Popping the button on her holster, she flicked the safety off and heard the distinct snip of the deadly change. She peeked around the old shed. The Suburban was just passing by, but this time it had a partner. The silver car from before, which had stopped at the entrance she had turned in.
“Shit, that silver car is with them! It’s the same fucking people.” Stella looked around for something to get their attention with. She wanted to lure them into the wooded area to make herself harder to find, but also have it be like fishing in a barrel. She remembered that she had a flashlight in the pocket of her driver side door.
“ETA?” She opened the car door as quietly as she could.
“I’m almost to your driveway.”
“Okay cool. I’ll be somewhere near that trashy shed. I’m about to do something stupid.” Stella ended the call and put her phone in her back pocket.
“Stella?! Stella?!!” Kayce punched the steering wheel and screamed, “Fuck,” and floored it.
His tires crunched and threw gravel all the way up the driveway and back to the wooded part. The truck was barely in park before he hopped out. He heard the distinct pops of gun fire and started running. He broke through the line of trees and stopped behind a large tree. There were all sorts of sounds coming from every direction. He heard a lot of heavy footsteps to his front and right, but there off to his left there was a clear pattern of lighter foot falls weaving and bobbing. He breathed a sigh of relief because that meant Stella was still upright. Ducking down he headed to the left to get the drop on the men from behind.
Giving a wide berth, he wrapped around the back where the guy bringing up the rear looked for the woman of the hour. Kayce rushed up on him while he was still distracted and gripped his neck tightly. The man dropped to the ground with an unceremonious thud and he moved forward.
He quickly gained traction with one more of them. After the second man hit the ground, he heard Stella scream and his heart stopped. His feet started to move before he had realized it. Gunshots rang out followed by another scream that got cut off abruptly.
“Stella!” Kayce screamed out as he found the small clearing where she had gotten pinned. He hoped to see her there standing, or at least conscious because he couldn’t even fathom not having her around. She leaned against a tree, huffing wildly. She had scooted herself back against the trunk in the scramble for her life. She looked like she wanted to pass out. The men that screamed were down on the ground. They laid in an odd position and Kayce could tell they was dead. He ran over to Stella and took her gun in the process.
“I got ‘em, Kayce,” she tried to catch her breath, “before they got me.” He grabbed her hand and started to lead her away toward his truck.
“Yes you did sweetheart.” He winced at the thought of how she was going to come to terms with taking a life. If she even realized she killed someone.
“Holy shit. I think I’m —,” she stumbled and bent at the waist away from him. She stabilized herself on a tree, and retched until her voice went hoarse.
“Let it out baby. Let it out.” He rubbed her back in between her shoulder blades to give any sort of comfort he could. She started to shake with the effort. Kayce placed an arm around her waist to keep her from falling.
“I’ve gotcha Stell.” Her body relaxed as the heaving stopped. She groaned and wiped her mouth off. Her phone started to ring in her back pocket as she made herself upright. Immediately, she handed it to Kayce, not wanting to deal with whoever it was.
“Ryan,” he greeted quietly.
“Uh, excuse me? Kayce?”
“Ask me all the questions you want later. Get yourself and Lloyd out to Stella’s. Now.”
“What the fuck, is she okay?”
“Yes, just get here now.”
Colby looked over at Ryan when he heard his confusion at calling his sister, but having someone else pick up. That someone else being their current foreman. His eyebrows raised at that thought. He would have to talk to Stella about that when he saw her next.
“Colby, you and Jake are in charge for the day! I need Lloyd to go to Stella’s!” He ran as if the devil himself was on his heels and left a confused Colby in the bunkhouse.
He ran in and immediately ran into Lloyd. “Jesus Christ Ryan watch where you’re goin’.”
“Lloyd.” He gulped air. “Kayce said there was an emergency at Stella’s and we need to get there now.” He ran off to find any truck keys he could.
“Oh hell!”
The two men saw the slight destruction Kayce’s truck had caused to the driveway. They each let out their own expletives, not sure what they had just pulled into. Ryan threw the truck in park and looked for Kayce. The man in question got up from the porch steps next to Stella. Ryan hopped out and ran for his little sister.
She looked like she was trying to make herself small and disappear. Her normal tan from being in the sun was pallid. Her eyes had dark half circles around the bottom. There were minor scrapes and bruises that lined her arms.
“Stella!” She looked up at him and slowly stood. He grabbed her in a bear hug.
“Oh Stella, I'm so sorry I didn’t pick up. I’m so sorry.” He put his hand on the back of her head and held her as close as possible. She hadn’t known he was busy making sure Rip didn’t die. She sniffled. Stella knew it wasn’t his fault.
In a small, scratchy voice, Stella reassured her brother, “it’s okay. Kayce got me.” Ryan nodded and scoffed quickly. Even in her time of trouble, she was still worried about everyone else. He squeezed her tightly. He knew he shouldn’t have let her go by herself. He was grateful for Kayce being protective of his sister and his fast action. He had come in where Ryan had failed.
“Don’t blame yourself, Ry.”
“Don’t worry about me right now. What the hell happened?”
“I was on my way home from Olivia’s. A big ass SUV started following me. I tried to call you, then I called Kayce. He said he would meet me here. He was pulling in and I got their attention and brought them into the woods.”
“I’m almost to your driveway.”
“Okay cool. I’ll be somewhere near that trashy shed. I’m about to do something stupid.” Stella ended the call and put her phone in her back pocket. She slammed her car door and ran around the shed. She could still see the silver car. Now out in the open, she waved the flashlight wildly in the air.
“Hey fuck face! You want me so bad, come and get me!” She took off running to the right. She ducked and dodged around trees and stumps. She saw the one big fir she loved and ran for cover there. At least to catch her breath for a second.
She could hear the men as they yelled through the trees. It sounded like some came closer to her, and some went further. It didn’t sound like a lot of people. She heard the underbrush crackling to her left. She listened to her right and took off back toward the little rundown shed. One of them must have heard her.
“She's over here!”
She looked off in the wrong direction and yelled in a singsong voice, “No I’m not asshat,” she hoped her voice would bounce back and keep them confused. She continued to run and thread herself through the trees. She thought she heard the rumble of a truck and prayed to god or anyone who would listen that it was Kayce.
“You did what??”
Stella shook her head. She didn’t want to remember what happened after she heard Kayce’s engine.
“I needed to buy time until Kayce got to me. So I got them lost in the trees.” She shrugged and knew she wasn’t going to hear the end of it but she needed to sit. Stella directed him wearily. “You should go talk to him. I’m gonna sit down.” Ryan helped make sure she actually sat and didn’t fall.
“Ryan,” Kayce called him over. “You said you wanted to be all in, right?”
“Now's not the time, Kayce.” Lloyd scolded.
Ryan defended himself to the man he considered a father. “I'm already in this place so deep.”
“He wants you clean. You carry a badge.”
“The badge hasn't kept me clean.”
“If you want in, it's all the way in.” Kayce didn’t want him to think there was a way to half ass it.
“I know.”
“He doesn't wear the brand.” Lloyd argued.
“He will. There’s four bodies in the wooded area of her property we’ve gotta take care of.” Kayce explained.
“I’m, what?” Ryan was confused. From the story Stella had told him, to the announcement that there were four dead bodies that needed dealing with, he felt like he had whiplash.
Kayce hushed his voice so Stella wouldn’t hear, “She also,” he didn’t want to finish the sentence, “killed two of them. I don’t know if she’s realized it yet.”
“No.” His shoulders dropped, devastated. “Tell me you’re lying, Kayce.” Ryan felt like he was going to be sick. He never wanted something like that for his sister to bear on her conscience.
“I wish I could, Ryan.”
“Fuck!” He exclaimed quietly. He peered over at his baby sister and now registered why she looked the way she did.
“Oh, she knows.” Lloyd told them. He knew that look well. He had seen it on himself.
“She can also hear you.” She fixed her gaze on the three men. She moved her glasses back up her nose. Her face hardened.
“It was them or me and they didn’t stop coming. So I protected myself.” Stella stood on shaky legs and tried to fight off nausea, “Now, what are we gonna do to fix the problem?”
She walked over, stood in front of the three men she knew wore the brand, and made herself vulnerable. “I’m all in gentleman.” She put her hands out to the side then her eyes finally landed on Kayce’s, and she let her hands drop against her thighs. He knew exactly the role she’d just accepted for not only herself, but for him.
Lloyd sighed and glanced at the ground to hide his face as he felt his heart bleed for her. He never imagined something like this playing out, or her having backed herself into a corner like she did.
“No Stella. You don’t know what you’re asking.” Lloyd left no room for argument. There were several noises of agreement. Lloyd was like a father to Ryan and her, but after the bullshit that she just went through, she didn’t care if he was the Pope. Stella decided now was the perfect time to place a disagreement on the table.
“Are you sure I don’t know, Lloyd?” She paused to look each man in the eye, daring them to object. “I've lived on that ranch 365 days of every year from the time I was 14 years old until I was 24 when I bought this house.” She pointed aggressively at the building. “And those of you who are in the shit, didn’t exactly have quiet mouths when you thought no one was around.“
“I’m neither blind, nor deaf, gentleman.” She placed her hands on her hips. “Like, for example, what happened to Fred?” She fixed her glasses and paused for them to answer. When they failed to do so, she kept going. “Did he just get “bored” and “move on” like you told everyone else? Or did you just so happen to take him to a “train station” that somehow magically exists just beyond the welcome sign for Wyoming?” Stella knew her luck was pushed to the max, but she was tired of caring today.
“I’ve seen and heard what goes on behind the scenes at that ranch, guys. I know exactly what I’m saying.”
“Let’s have this little heart to heart later after this is dealt with, yeah?” Kayce tried to get everyone to get moving because the sun was close to coming up. No, Stella didn’t have close neighbors, but today would be the one time someone chose to stop by.
Stella groaned to herself as she got out of the car. They were finally back at the Yellowstone. She was going to keep it that way for a few days. At least until she had to go back to Olivia’s and check on that little colt. That was a conversation with Ryan for later when she had more energy. She had been up way past 24 hours at this point. She was starting to see double. She was just happy she had made the drive back to the ranch.
She decided everything in the car could be left. She just wanted to go fall on a bunk and pass out for several hours, if not for a full day. After the hell of this morning, she deserved that and dared anyone to try and tell her differently. If they tried, she would most likely sock them square in the jaw.
She went toward the bunkhouse, hearing the bed call her name. She was so close to the freedom she could taste it. At least she would have been if a heavy hand hadn’t grabbed her around the arm. She turned in a swinging motion with the momentum from being stopped.
“What could you possibly want that can’t wait until later?” Kayce stared back at her. He looked unamused. She had thought it was her brother.
“Sorry, I thought you were Ryan.”
“The bunkhouse is gonna be loud. Go to the foreman’s cabin.”
“But that’s your place.”
“And?”
“And I don’t want to put you out of your own place just because I need a fat nap, Kayce.”
“I told you to go there. It’s got a couch that works just fine.”
Stella rolled her eyes in true Stella fashion. “Okay, Kayce. I’m too tired to argue. I’m taking the bed though.” She walked away before he could argue back. She had laid on that couch many times before, and it was trash on the back. He had made that proverbial bed, so he could lie in it.
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latinapoetbts · 4 days
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The First Ones: The Pact {The Healer} KTH & Y/N (Latina Reader)
Summary: Y/N is a 24-year-old woman living alone in the countryside while her brothers fight in a war between two kingdoms and her father is away serving as the lead doctor to the royal family with a sick prince. She is independent and intelligent. She comes across a strange and suspiciously the most attractive man she has ever seen in her life in need of help, wounded and possibly dying. Against her judgment, she takes him in to tend to his wounds. Unaware of the supernatural world she is about to be thrown into and as a key player in saving an entire species from extinction. Tae Hyung needs her more than ever. Labels:
Smut, romance, angst, blood and violence, guns, werewolves, AU- Supernatural World, slow burn, some non-con touching. Chapter 1
I was terrified and could feel my body trembling as I neared the door. My heart was beating so fiercely I thought it would burst in my chest. I could feel the bumps on my arms and the hairs rising. Every cell in my body screamed for me not to take one step closer, my feet dragging feeling as if they were tied to boulders. Yet even among all the terror and fear building inside me, I raised my hand to open the door as if I was driven by some unknown force, forcing me to walk into an unknown danger. What’s wrong with me, I thought as I gulped, pulling the busted door open painfully slow. It was dim in the room as I opened the door wider and wider, inch by inch until it was fully open and the light of dusk poured in leaving the far back corner untouched and still dark. I descend the stairs slowly stepping to the bottom. 
And there in the dark corner, I saw the unknown danger, crouching; its faint silhouette, a familiar shape. I gasped at the unusual sound of a hiss and snarl, my body jerking in startlement, fear nearly taking over all my senses. My body and brain were a cluster fuck of fear, curiosity, and bewilderment caught between two choices; advancing low and slow towards the familiar shaped silhouette or bolting out of the root cellar as fast as possible, hoping and praying I was the one that could run faster. Another oddly sounding aggressive snarl ripping through the brief silence, it was a sound I had never heard before but could resemble snarling and hissing. I imagined we both calculated our next moves during that silence. Decisions made, I advance slowly with my eyes never leaving the shadowed corner desperately wanting to see more until I fall backward landing hard onto the stone floor, my lungs heaving in my chest. The figure stalked over top of me within seconds. His face inches from mine, teeth-baring, strange growls, and deeper snarls. His eyes lock with mine, filled with what I can only assume is rage. His arms cage me at shoulder level.  Him, His, He, the familiar shape, a man. An angry, dangerous man, my thoughts flooding my mind. I was paralyzed by fear and emboldened by an irrational curiosity. So many questions. How did he even get in here? Why is he making nearly inhuman animalistic sounds? Why is he in my root cellar? Is he going to kill me? Why is he….oh..naked?
My eyes flicker to his chest and then his waist darting back up to lock with his threatening gaze. Yup definitely naked. And covered in mud and something else that I couldn’t make out. He continues to bare his teeth growling at me, my instincts kick in or what I believe to be my instincts and I turn my head to the side providing him with the most vulnerable access to my neck. I try my best to steady my breath, slowing it down in order to regulate my pulse to manifest a sense of peace and calm or some version of calm. I tried to imagine a babbling creek in the woods with the sun peeking through. I tensed as I felt the heat of his nose and mouth at my throat, alternating between sniffing and deep inhales as he nuzzled into my neck. Breath just breathe nice and slow, I tell myself trying to fight against my body’s natural fight, flight, freeze response. I squeeze my eyes shut tightly clenching my fits together as his hot wet tongue licks a strip from the base of my neck to just below my ear lobe, terrifyingly slow. 
Is he going to eat me or fuck me, or fuck me then eat me? I fight my body’s attempt to shudder at the vulgar painfully valid questions racing through my mind. I feel something wet drip over my arm that's trapped under his body. And then again more wet drops on my chest followed by a constant drip rhythm. He is bleeding. It’s blood that I saw on his body mixed with mud. He’s injured, I think to myself as he continues smelling me and licking me moving down my collarbone. Maybe he’ll bleed to death before he gets to fucking kill me, I wonder with hope just as his body collapses on top of mine. His head falling between my neck and chest I let out a sigh of relief as I rolled his body off of mine to take a real look at him for the first time. I could not help but gasp as my hand covered my mouth in surprise. Here at my side laid the most fucking  beautiful, naked, mudded, injured, odd man, I’d ever seen in my life. He was a stunning mess. I finally tore my eyes from his face and raked them down the rest of his body attempting not to gawk at his lower region.  I guess I should have some type of decency, towards this beautiful man who tried to attack me or lick me, or whatever it was, I shuddered thinking about what had happened just moments ago.  I flinched seeing the deep gash on his shoulder. Is that a gunshot wound, I wondered to myself. What did he do? Who did this to him? Maybe a lover's affair? Or did he take something that was not his?  
My curiosity is in overdrive as I stand and start rummaging through the cellar until I find some cloths. I place the cloth over his wound and spring up the stairs doing what I do best, finding solutions to problems. After collecting everything I needed to harness the door pulley to a makeshift stretcher, I put my plan into action. I covered the strange handsome, naked, wounded man who licked me like a predator with a bed cover. I had to repeat everything I experienced like a mantra hoping it would snap some fucking basic self-preservation common sense into my body. But nope. I grunted as I pulled and shoved his body on the stretcher, for having such a lean and lithe body he was fucking heavy, he felt like a ton of rocks, no more like boulders. I used all my strength and body weight to pull him up the stairs using the pulley and out of the root cellar. I then dragged him inch by inch to my front door and into my living room. What the fuck am I actually doing right now, I asked myself after I collapsed onto my living room chair. I know nothing about this strange man, who did nothing to indicate to me that he was no threat. In reality, all his actions indicated he was dangerous. How reckless can I be? I live alone in the middle of the woods with no neighbor in sight for 3 to 4 miles and at least a 30-minute walk and maybe 15 on horseback. As for protection, I had my father's shotgun with about 20 shots, my brother's pistol with another 10 bullets, a hunting arrow I was barely learning how to use, cooking and shaving knives, and a mean right hook. I guess as long as I wasn’t caught off guard like I was in the root cellar, I guess I’d be ok. Wait, as important as my safety was, I had a gunshot victim on my living room floor who may not have done anything wrong, just maybe at the wrong place at the wrong time and I planned to save him and ask questions later. It was my duty as a Healer in training. It was the helper in me taking the lead. 
Over the next few hours, I busied myself tending to this strange, wounded, animalistic man. I quickly cleaned the area around the wound and used my healer herbs paste on the wound on both sides wrapping him as best I could as he slept, he was out cold. I was certain he needed stitches but was fearful he would wake up while I was stitching him. The bandage and herbs would help for now and should help with any pain or infection. He was even more striking as I gently cleaned the rest of his body with a sponge careful not to wake him up as there was definitely a lingering ever-present rational fear of what he might do to me or rather what he would do to me when he wakes. I cleaned as much of him as I could ensuring to leave the blanket on his private parts. He can do those if he wants when he wakes up. I am absolutely no saint and couldn't help observing every inch of his exposed skin as I washed him. His shoulders, chest, arms, and thighs taunt, and well-defined, his skin a tan sun-kissed wheat color likened to the wheat grown in my neighbor's fields. His stomach is firm but soft, different from the rest of his body. His face is what leaves me nearly breathless as I wipe away the soot and dried blood. His lips were pink, pillowy, shapely, and slightly downturned at the edges almost as if it was a faint frown or pout, very charming, very attractive, very kissable. For fuck sake, why does my mind work as that of a hormone-raging sex obsessed 16 year old just at the sight of this strange man's face rather than the 24-year-old that I am? His eyes were almond-shaped like the people I had only heard about from the Asian regions, how did he get so far north I wondered, not that it was unheard of; hell how did my family get so far north as we were from the far warm southern west regions of the world. His hair although messy and in need of washing I could tell it was a jet black color. Why the fuck was he as breathtaking as he was terrifying. It truly was a mind fuck for me. Over the next several hours, I watched over him as I prepared both a quick meal of bread and soup. We were well into fall and the harshness of winter was near so the nights were cold but not freezing yet.
I startled at the sound of his grunts and growls, my rolling pin gripped at my side as I neared his jerking body just in case I needed to defend myself. I just wanted protection and did not want to kill him. Oh, he was having a nightmare, I pitied him. I carefully patted his forehead with a damp cloth to wipe away the sweat that had accumulated. I hoped the sweat was from his nightmare and not the beginning signs of a fever even though his skin seemed to have a normal temperature. I reached to press the cloth against his neck when I felt my back slam against the floor, my legs sprawled out, hand with the cloth painfully pinned to the floor at the wrist next to my head. My spare hand is pinned by a tight grip on my wrist and down against my waist to the floor. Here we go again, I just might die today, I think to myself.
Fuck me, I didn’t even have a chance to react it happen so fast. My breath was caught in my throat by a mixture of fear and curiosity. My eyes locked with his deep brown orbs that swirled with hints of yellowish amber color that flashed as if it were ocean waves rippling with color. His eyes were as memorizing as they were terrifying. His chest was heaving, I forced my body to go limp and did what seemed to work before, I turned away from him again offering my throat coaxing myself to calm my breathing. I focused on my breath, feeling my heartbeat slowing down only to quicken at the feel once again of his nose and hot mouth pressed against my neck rubbing and sniffing against me. Again and again, as if he was scenting me like a dog would another dog. As if he was trying to figure me out. Once again fighting my body's natural response as his tongue licks a slow fat wet strip against my neck. I could feel his breathing steady and feel his mouth pull away from my neck, his hands releasing my wrist as he sat upright still straddling my hips just gazing down at me, my eye's turning to lock with his once more. 
Now what. What do I do now?
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I'm obsessed with KTH werewolf and strong female leads! Hope you enjoy! Would so appreciate reblogs and feedback keeps me motivated to keep going! Thanks so much!
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cheemscakecat · 3 months
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Missing in Action 2
Chapter 2: Missing
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Spy promised he was going to come back, but he’s nowhere to be seen. Scout’s mental health deteriorates further.
TW: Angst
It took 3 to 4 days to get to Harvest Base and back. Spy had been gone for 5. Jeremy tried to ignore that stupid gut feeling and not care. He stayed busy.
Five days turned into a week. Medic called Pauling and asked her to use Spy’s comm-link. She didn’t get an answer. The feeling festered and grew each day, especially after that. A week and a half in, they sent out a search party. Scout couldn’t seem to sleep at all anymore. The bags under his eyes were ugly and he hated them.
Two weeks and they were fighting other teams again. Only 24 days and they were back to it. Without Spy.
Demoman and Sniper were super close friends with Jeremy. They were rowdy like his brothers, but a whole lot nicer. They kept trying to check up on him. Scout didn’t know how to hide how tired he was, but he wanted to. He was trying not to think about Spy at all. He didn’t deserve the attention.
Scout took his aggression out on the battlefield. Hopped up on BONK and furiously beating BLU mercs with a baseball bat. He was pleased with how well he was able to fight, even with no sleep. The others were surprised too. He was racking up kills.
But then two weeks became three.
Scout could stay up way longer than he thought, but anybody on earth has a freakin limit. And to his dismay, he was runnin out of work to do as a distraction. They’d moved everything but Spy’s crap, which he didn’t want to touch. He also didn’t feel like joining the search parties. There were no more boring phone calls, or letters, shipping, liftin, nothing!
Training up and fighting BLU began to fail him too. He was getting sluggish. And tired.. and weak. The urge to cry and that freakin gut feeling he had were almost enough to overwhelm him.
But Jeremy didn’t come from crybabies; his brothers always saw tears as a weakness. They murdered people to join the gangs in Boston, and “hardness” was something they prized. The brothers did not offer comfort, only mockery. And mosta them already knew who their dads were or had stopped caring. But he couldn’t. He was still the weakling of the family.
Ma was kinder, but her advice was always to keep moving forward. His whole life, when he cried those stupid runt tears, she told him that. He was trying to follow her advice, he really was.
Four weeks. It had been 38 days since he’d confronted Spy in the airship. 28 since he promised he’d be back. Four weeks was the point where Jeremy could no longer ignore the truth. Spy had run away again to avoid dealing with him. He’d disconnected from the others and Pauling to disappear, and he was never going to come back. Either he lied because he was a coward, or because he liked hurting his son. Filthy, backstabbing ***.
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That night, Scout wandered over to his bed, eyes all dark and heavy. There was nothing left to do; he’d organized his room like 7 times. He was too tired to train, he didn’t have chores to do, and he had no appetite left. His bed felt almost alien to him, that’s how long he’d been awake. He lay there feelin worn out and weak until he eventually fell asleep.
He was in the front yard at Ma’s house. But.. he was too short. Looking down, Jeremy realized he was just a tiny baby, and his mother was holdin him. The sky was grey and nasty like cigarette smoke. Someone stalked past them without saying anything to Ma. It was Spy, carrying a pre-tent-chos looking suitcase and ignoring every word she said.
Scout heard himself making confused baby noises. The further away Spy got, the more uneasy and upset he sounded. But of course, that didn’t matter to his deadbeat dad, who was packing his stuff in his stupid fancy car anyway. The noises turned into crying, but Spy still ignored him, not botherin to look at him. Baby Jeremy’s voice got frantic in a terrible way; there was something chilling about a baby screaming -really screaming- while crying. But all Spy did was flip them off as he drove away into the smoke.
Scout woke up with a startled cry and found himself shiverin violently. Fat stupid tears started pouring down his face before he could try to stop them. And then he started full on crying.
Cryin hard like when he was a kid, not that any of his brothers gave a ****. He hated to cry, it made him think of getting laughed at or ignored. Two things Spy’d probably done over the past few weeks, at his expense.
He let out a teary scream of rage and jostled a box on his bedside table. Out tumbled his spy voodoo doll. He chucked it across the room and curled up on the bed.
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Around base, mercenaries could hear muffled weeping. Weeping from the soul. Engineer carefully laid down what he was tinkering with and paused to listen. Sniper could hear it from his van, and he opened a window just to make sure he heard right. Demoman happened to be sober enough to pay attention. Even Soldier and Medic paused, as insane and unpredictable as they were. Pyro had to be the only teammate who didn’t hear it, on account of his strange condition.
But Heavy heard it, and he laid down the book he was reading.
This had been a long time coming. Scout had not allowed himself to cry for all these weeks, and he had reached the point where the tears overflowed. Like a sink left running. Heavy knew what it felt like to deny yourself the right to cry. After escaping the gulag, there was a period where he held it all in. But he had a good and observant mother who pulled him aside and talked to him about it.
Loosely translated, she told him that tears are like a mild poison; the body’s way of getting rid of the toxins from bad memories. A few tears when those memories are fresh will not hurt you, and it is good to get them out when you feel the need. But if you bottle up those tears, the toxins cannot get out. They fester, and that mild poison gets more and more potent. That is why they eventually have to overflow, to save you from that bottled up poison inside and the growing pain.
Heavy did not suspect that Scout had ever been taught such a lesson. And he also did not know the best way to translate it into English and present it to him.
———————-
When Jeremy had finally cried himself dry and breathed a little, he glanced over at the wall where he threw the toy. It sent a shiver down his spine. Pyro’s axe!
Sometime during the unpacking Pyro walked in with a heavily sharpened axe, stared at him for a real long time, and then wedged it into the wall. Scout had decided not to move it, since he still had no idea what that was about. Guess where the spy doll landed?
He stumbled over and pulled the little toy free of the back blade on the axe, which had also been sharpened. Jeremy stared at the doll.
His first birthday at base, no one showed up to celebrate. It was his own fault, he tried to play it cool mentioning the day and didn’t tell ‘em he wanted a party at base. So he just had a backup party a week late, and everybody came. Including Spy. They were at Harvest Base then; Engineer made a teleporter to the closest chicken place since the drive was so far. Heavy got him a nice looking pistol…
Spy gave him a voodoo doll of himself. A little red spy plush with Bobby pins included. Usually it was just engineers that carried them. Spy said some crap about beating him up for missing the first party…
It couldn’t be a real voodoo doll… right? Not the ones from freakin horror movies and cartoons. There was a massive gash from the neck to the.. pants-line? maybe? Jeremy’s very annoying gut feeling got ten times worse. He anxiously felt around his table and touched a stapler. He stapled the thing up and down the big gash.
Somehow, that didn’t make him feel better. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he had to fix the toy. Yeah, it was stupid, but if there was a chance… He imagined Spy was on a beach somewhere living it up, with a bunch of normal people around. They didn’t need to see a big cut go down his middle and all the guts that would spill out. It was embarrassing, but Scout awkwardly hurried down to MedBay to see if the doctor was in.
Doc happened to be there doing a weird experiment on a liver, or something. He hurried in, stuffing falling out of the doll. Medic came over to him, lookin way less crazy than usual. “Are you alright? Need some medicine?” “I need… I need.. You got regular thread? That such-are stuff’s probably expensive.” He held up the stapled, torn up spy doll. This was so freakin dumb.
“I can sew this up for you, if you’d like.” Jeremy nodded. “Do ya.. wanna trade a surgery on me for it or-“
“No. Not this time.” Medic paused for a second. “You are not well rested enough for zhat.” And with that, the mad doctor took all the clunky staples out and sewed the gash shut.
————-
Back in his room, Scout stared at the toy. So dumb, Spy’d never give him the real thing. He’d probably get dust and crap spawning on his suit and hair… if he had any.
Just a normal doll. Besides, Spy’d abandoned him and the team, he was probably off at a beach house drinking wine instead of the fancy tropical stuff normal people liked.
But Jeremy still put the doll in a shoebox and hid it under the bed, far away from kicking distance. And while he was there, he dug out another box. Inside was a burlap bag, and inside the bag was a Bugs Bunny in a jester costume. Faded, but soft.
Since he’d already lived up to his crybaby reputation, Scout decided to go ahead and sleep with his old toy. All that crying made him tired enough to go into a dreamless sleep for the rest of the night.
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xtinaangelicax · 8 months
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J Being on the Chapter 2 Title Card?? Theorizing (sorta... I'm clueless ;-;)
Can we talk about the fact that J is on the chapter 2 title card rn?? Like... I see ALMOST NO ONE so far in the fandom theorizing about what this could mean. We know that her secret about Mariabella being her mom was revealed during this chapter, but... I don't really feel like that's big enough to warrant her being on the title card yet so far? I think? It's an important secret, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't rly rival the importance of the actual murders going on imo.
I mean-- Teruko and Xander were on the first chapter title card. That is a big deal. Xander died after trying to kill Teruko, and got killed by Min instead: Teruko's our protagonist. Being on the title card is obviously the most indicative clue of a character being insanely important to the narrative for that chapter, possibly even a culprit or victim, but we all just been sleepin on that clue lately and ignoring it lol wut--
Like... I mean, J tries enlisting Teruko's help getting away from Arturo for a minute in this chapter- the dressing room scene- and has a frigging knife pulled on her. She got her secret she desperately wanted to cover up, probably for a large portion of her life, exposed by some jerk in the very same, what, 24 hour period? And she's constantly now being stalked by said jerk, too. Poor gal.
I don't know if J maybe snapped from it all, and murdered Arei. I'm not sure how she WOULD have, given Arturo stalking her. So... maybe it's... something else? But like? SOMETHING is being set up with J here, and if anyone has any ideas feel free to suggest, cuz I can't figure out what it is yet. I'm thinking randomly off the top of my head of stuff we know... like...
J was the first to go to Arei's room to check for her body, after they realized she was missing? Also, J was the first to complain about Teruko possibly being in cahoots with the culprit and choosing who guards the body based on that. After which, J was then promptly chosen to guard the body as well. Important? Possibly. Maybe. Idk...
She goes on a whole spiel about how serious murder is that gains a lot of spotlight for a few minutes, when she was talking to Nico... also, she has this new sadistic grin sprite after revealing Arturo's secret. UH is that sprite gonna be used again for something?
I think there's literally no way J isn't gonna have some sort of big reveal of significance to the plot during the rest of the chapter 2 trial.
There's a bit of evidence that could point to her being the killer, but I don't wanna say I believe that for sure. Just that... SOMETHING'S up.
J being on the chapter 2 title card is definitely important.
ALSO FINALLY: J's hidden quote is "Please don't call me your daughter ever again."
????????how the frick is J going to say this quote?? So far, all the hidden quotes have been said a little while before the character dies, before/during a pivotal moment in the plot and their development... therefore, J is gonna say this line at some point. That's indisputable.
But??? How?? Will it be said during a flashback where she said it to Mariabella in the past? Or... are we gonna see J get in contact with her mom somehow? Is J the culprit, and MonoTV calls in a 'special guest viewer video call' right before her execution just to rub it in her face, and it's her mom, and... J says her hidden quote there?
Is one of the future motives gonna involve being able to communicate something with your family, maybe, and then J says it?
I'm probably gonna look back more and see if there's any other sort of hints or foreshadowing going on with J, but... I just wanted to point all this out and possibly open up discussion/theorizing about this :)
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sunflowersoldat · 1 year
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All is Fair ~ In Disasters and Deceit
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Chapter 24: Disasters and Deceit
Main Master List
Series Master List
Series Summary: Family is important, but so is the Family business. Everyone has secrets, some are deadly. Your the best in the business, but no one knows who you are. Tensions are high, will you raise the stakes or fold under the pressure?
Series Warning: 18+! Mentions of blood and violence, bad language words, smut, manipulation, gaslighting, death, trauma, please follow the warnings for each chapter.
Chapter warnings: 18+ Only! Violence, Bad language words, mentions of torture, death.
Pairing: Mob!Steve x Assassin!Stark!reader
Word count: 1.6K
A/N: Only a couple of chapters left!!! I am sooooo excited! Anyway hope y’all enjoy! 💕
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The sky is dark by the time you and Wade make it to the area your target was last seen. He has gone a few blocks ahead to circle around in case it was a setup. You stuck to the shadows, keeping your eyes on the building the target was in.
There is a light chill in the air as spring pushes to make its appearance, to chase the winter away, your uniform keeping most of the bite of the air at a minimum and keeping you disguised in the shadows. You watch as the target exits the dilapidated building, you push off the wall following hot on his heels. 
He has his jacket collar flipped up against the bite of the wind, his dark hair pulled back into a low bun, and his appearance matches that of the fourth horseman. He’s pale, the light of the moon dancing across him, making the shadows around him dance.
You smirk, you can’t help but wonder if he is as terrifying as the underground whispers give him credit for.
Your comm beeps in your ear, ‘There is an imposter among us Death my friend. He wears a false crown, it’s time we show him who truly sits upon that throne.’
A dark smile curls your lips, “May the best Reaper win.” 
Wade boxes him into an alley, approaching him cautiously, “Oh pale horseman, I have a question for you…”
The male-only stares at him, his head tilting.
“If you kill death, where do they go?” Though his face is covered, he can’t help but smile to himself, this was going to be too easy—
Another voice booms down the alley, “Little Ace, you flatter yourself,” a shadow emerges from one of the alcoves, “Did you really believe one horseman would travel without the other?”
Wade’s smile fades, but quickly grows wider, “You know, I was really hoping for a challenge.”
The other shadow grows closer, the dim lighting of the alley lamp casting shadows across the large man’s face, a full beard adorned his jaw, and he carries himself with the confidence of a god. 
Good. Wade would be thrilled to knock him down from his mighty throne.
“I knew you Aces were good, but I didn’t think you were dumb enough to take on two horsemen alone.” The pale one retorts.
Wade unsheathes his weapon, the thrill and adrenaline roaring in his veins, he almost bounces in excitement. 
Your velvet voice drifts down the alley, causing a shiver to lick down his spine, “What makes you think he’s alone?”                                                                                                                                       
The feminine voice is smoother than silk when it reaches his ears, he spins to face its owner at the other end of the alley. Sure enough, his suspicions were confirmed. You stalk towards him with lethal grace, your blades already drawn.
Though his partner had been bestowed the moniker of Death, he looked as though he were a cheap imposter compared to you. Your hair and mask were so pale they glowed an eerie shade of blue in the moonlight.
In all his battles, he never once believed there was a chance he wouldn’t make it out alive, but now as your eyes locked on his, he knew his fate.
It's almost laughable how quickly you take the two of them down, Death and Famine were not as formidable as they would have liked to think. Famine was of no use to you, he was left in the alley as a message to the rest, as for Death, you and Wade captured the pale rider.
Now he sits strapped tightly to the metal chair in the warehouse, the moonlight filtering in, bathing him in white light. His lips were stained crimson, his head tilted back against the chair, and a whine left his lips. You grasp the back of his head, yanking it backward, “Name.” you hiss.
“Hogun.”
A wicked smile splits your lips under your mask, “Very good Hogun. You know who we are?”
He eyes your uniform, the blank white cards sparkling on your waist, then looks to Wade, “You are the dead Ace that walks amongst the living, the underground has been whispering about you, Wraith” he takes a moment to collect himself, trying to open both of his eyes, to no avail, one is already swollen shut.
You raise a brow, “Very good–”
“And he,” Hogun nods towards Wade, “is another of the Aces, by the look of him and the description the underground has, he is the Ace of hearts.” he breathes deeply, his breath shaky at best, “You know I won't talk.”
You give him a look of mock pity, “Oh, we have ways of making you talk, don't worry.” you nod to Wade giving him the go-ahead.
“With pleasure Death.”
Hours have passed, and Hogun has spilled little tidbits of information, but you and Wade can both tell he doesn't have much fight left in him. The two of you are surprised he has lasted even this long.
“Come now Hogun, your friends can’t help you, one of them is already fish food, and your employer will be dead soon as well. You might as well just give it up.” Wade's voice sings-songs through the warehouse. You lean back in your chair, watching as he circles Hogun like a hungry shark.
“Wade, you might as well just finish him, he no longer has any useful information for us. We can just find one of the others and make them squeal.”
“What’s the rush? I didn’t get to take my time with your parents, the least I can do is enjoy toying with you… Ms. Carbonell.”
Your eyes narrow on him, your vision turning red, “What the fuck did you just say?”
“I mean I can’t take all the credit, it was a group effort really. Our boss really is the mastermind behind it all.” he laughs again. “But he didn’t account for you being the Ace of Spades.”
The realization felt like a punch to the gut, the dark hair, the stature, all he would need is a face covering and a bike. With the shitty city cameras, he could pass as Barnes easily. Your vision floods red, and you feel the impact against your knuckles, the crunch of the bones, then Wade pulls you off of him. 
He flashes you a broken grin, tossing his head trying to remove his dark hair from his face. “You know, I had my suspicions about you. None of the others believed me, not even the boss. We couldn’t understand why Rogers was still alive,” he chuckles again, “It all makes sense now, it’s sad though you know, you just had to fall in love with your target.”
You rip out of Wade's grip, yanking Hogun by his throat, “You listen very carefully, I am giving you one chance. You tell us everything and we will make it quick, otherwise…” you glance at Wade, “well, I guess we can show you…”
“Fuck you.” he snarls.
A wicked laugh falls from your lips, “God, I was hoping you’d say that.”
Dawn marks the end for Hogun. You and Wade no longer have the patience it requires to rip the information from him. You and Wade had taken shifts trying to extract information from Hogun, but in the end, he hadn’t given you too much, to your dismay. 
By the end of it, Hogun is breathing his last breaths, they’re shallow and ragged, and you can hear the rattling in his lungs. You kneel in front of him, “Your death will mean nothing. Even without your help, we will find your friends, and your employer too. You died for nothing—” 
You are cut off by your phone ringing in your pocket, pulling it out you check the screen, a picture of you and Steve lights up the screen with his name. You hold up your finger to Wade as you answer it. 
“Steve?”
‘Hey, Angel. Any luck?’
You sigh heavily, behind you, Wade and Hogun are exchanging words, but you can hardly make out what is being said. “None yet, but don’t worry, I’ll get the information.”
‘You might not need to, I'm about to head to your brother’s tower.’
You can hear Hogun begin laughing behind you, it starts throwing him into coughing fits. Steve continues talking, but you are only half listening as you draw closer to Hogun and Wade.
“What the fuck is so funny?!” Wade snaps, gripping Hogun by his collar, “You might want to save those breaths, you will need them.”
A malicious smile splits Hogun’s face his lips and teeth are a bright crimson, “I was never meant to survive, they knew you’d come for me.”
Your head snaps towards Wade, but something Steve says pulls your attention back, ‘Yeah, they called a meeting. All the family heads are gonna be there.’
“What?! Who called the meeting?!” You are torn, trying to listen to Steve, and Hogun simultaneously.
“Loki always was a squealer.”
Panic starts to ripple through you, “Steve?! Where are you?! Stay where you are! Do not go anywhere!”
‘Calm down Angel, Thor called it, says he caught Loki in the act.’
“No, Steve, do not go—”
‘Don’t worry— got Bucky–me. Even got — admit he —’
“Steve, wait!”  
‘–behind everything, even —your parents. —bringing him— for judgment—’ 
You strain your ears, trying to understand Steve, but the connection keeps interrupting, then the line finally dies.
You turn to look at Wade and on Hogun’s final breath, his eyes meet yours, “You can’t save them now.”
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@dontbescaredtosingalong @texan-tazzy @tianamontag @daiseychaindisaster @silently-killing-you @buckyfan12 @leyannrae @justlovelifeblog @austynparksandpizza @capson-of-coul @betareader7 @vicmc624 @bigphattygyal @calwitch @buckysteveloki-me @curlyladylazarus111 @talesofadragon @trudy-shams
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Note
Abbey bae your killing me 😩😭😭
Was that the end of virginal cause I’ve been (stalking) passing by your page like 1 time a day (24/7) just to see if you updated like that’s how much I love you and your story babe - flower anon 💋
Awww anon
Virginal is not over! Unfortunately my laptop charger passed away before I could finish chapter 20, but my new one is arriving today so hopefully I should be able to upload this week if I'm lucky 😁
I love you so much 😘😘😘
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slashyrogue · 8 months
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My Patreon in August 2023
Patreon Exclusives
Hannigram AU: For Your Eyes Only - Chapter Ten - 8/1
Hannigram AU: For Your Eyes Only - Chapter Eleven - 8/3
Basic Chickens A/B/O AU: I Hate You So Much - Chapter One - 8/6
Hannigram A/B/O AU: The Unexpected Donor - Chapter Four - 8/9
Hannigram AU: I See You - Chapter Thirty - 8/10
Stories I Forgot I Wrote - Spacedogs: Birthday Boys - 8/12
Hannigram AU: For Your Eyes Only - Chapter Twelve - 8/14
Hannigram AU: For Your Eyes Only - Chapter Thirteen - 8/14
Hannigram AU: For Your Eyes Only - Chapter Fourteen - 8/16
Hannigram AU: For Your Eyes Only - Chapter Fifteen - 8/16
Original Omegaverse Fiction - After All - Chapter One - 8/17
Original Omegaverse Fiction - After All - Chapter Two - 8/19
Hannigram AU: For Your Eyes Only - Chapter Sixteen - 8/21
Spacedogs: For Your Arms Only - Chapter Seven - 8/22
Hannigram AU: For Your Eyes Only - Chapter Seventeen - 8/24
Hannigram: Untitled Fantastic Creatures - Chapter Three - 8/29
Ao3 later
Hannigram AU: The Rise and Fall of Wehem and Hanbal - Chapter Ten - 8/1
Hannigram AU: Captive Heat - Chapter Twenty Three - 8/1
Hannigram AU: Chomp - Chapter Four - 8/2
Hannigram AU: Captive Heat - Chapter Twenty Four - 8/3
AU-gust Day 6: Domestic - Chapter Two - 8/7
AU-gust Day 6: Domestic - Chapter Three - 8/7
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Hannigram AU: Moonlight Becomes You - Chapter Eleven - 8/10
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Hannigram AU: Chomp - THE END - 8/16
Au-Gust Day 6: Domestic - Chapter Five - 8/21
Hannigram AU: Captive Heat - Chapter Twenty Six - 8/23
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Failed Twitter Attempts - Spacedogs AU: Prisoner of My Desire - 8/18
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Writing Update May 3rd, 2023
Progress made: 11.9k words drafted [and 600-ish words of scripting/planning] WIPs worked on: Whispers [total wc: 139.4k] Writing streak: 618 days Current chapter + POV: i'm just starting chapter 24, Lorelei POV today!!
Favorite line(s) [Marika POV; Content warning: stalking, implied violence]:
I trace her for three bridges, deeper and deeper into the district of abandoned, rotting buildings, before I recognize that she isn’t even bothering to look back. Before I let myself close in, until I’m hardly five paces behind her.
And then she stops.
“Kim, dear, it’s rude to leave the boy running circles.”
A flash of satisfaction, of pride, as I close in with a growl.
“You’ll wish I was Kim.”
What I'm looking forward to next:
LORELEIS CHAPTER. IS GONNA HAVE SO MUCH SHIT. AND IF THERES ANY POINT WHERE I WANT PEOPLE TO FIGURE OUT ONE OF THE BIG TWISTS AHEAD OF TIME ITS DURING THIS CHAPTER. so uh. yeah. i am Very Excited to get this one written <3
Notes/Thoughts:
ok i am absolutely killing it in general but ALSO thanks to the heads up 7 up tennis with ren @vacantgodling yesterday <3 my writing time would have been a lot less fun if i hadnt been doing that, so thank you!!! hopefully today will be just as fun >:D
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snowdice · 1 year
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Big Bang Editing Story [Day 109]
I started writing this fic while editing my Big Bang story years ago, but am going to continue doing it for other things now that Kill Dear is out. I will write and publish 100 words of the story every time I finish doing whatever task I’m doing. If you’d like to block these proceedings, please feel free to block the tag ‘proofread stories.’ I will reblog this post with the parts of the story I do today. Edited chapters are linked; everything else I’ve done so far is under the cut.
My Master Post Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24 Part 25 Part 26 Part 27 Part 28 Part 29 Part 30 Part 31 Part 32 Part 33 Part 34 Part 35 Part 36 Part 37 Part 38 Part 39 Part 40 Part 41 Part 42 Part 43 Part 44 Part 45 Part 46 Part 47 Part 48 Part 49 Part 50 Part 51
Not going to do this for much today, but I want to finish the chapter.
Chapter 52 (Mr. Deknis)
It was Jeffers Deknis’s second busiest time of year right after the fall harvest. However, unlike the fall harvest, not all of his workers were yet at the castle. The winter had been harsh and while the last snowfall had been a month ago, many of his workers whose families lived far from the castle had sent word they would be late arriving for various reasons. A few were dealing with sick relatives and others had to help fix things broken by storms for their families before making the trek. One who lived in the mountains up north was still snowed in.
So, he was dealing with only about 70% of his usual staff, meaning he was even busier than he usually was in the spring.
However, despite how busy he was, he didn’t mind taking a bit of time out of his schedule to help plant a little plot of land he’d reserved for a special selection of plants.
Virgil has spent a lot of time deciding on what plant he wanted to grow in the plot Jerffers had given him. He’d combed through multiple books even though it quickly became clear he couldn’t read well and talked to Jeffers about his options extensively before finally coming to a decision.
He’d decided on a flower called Zygopetalum maculatum which was a type of orchid. It wouldn’t be an easy flower to grow considering they didn’t naturally have the right climate for it, but with a bit of magical fertilizer and ruins in the ground near them, it was feasible.
Since Virgil had chosen his flower, Jeffers had dedicated a bit of his time each day to explaining what they needed to do for it to grow and had set him up with the correct materials. Virgil had spent a good chunk of the last two weeks outside on his marked off plot of land doing as instructed to get the soil in the right condition.
Sometimes Logan and Patton joined him and sometimes he was alone, but he was clearly dedicated to his task. Jeffers had stopped by and tested the soil the day before and found it was adequately prepared for planting Virgil’s flowers and had told the boy as much.
Despite being already very busy, Jeffers had allowed for an hour out of his schedule to help Virgil plant his flowers this afternoon.
Even though Jeffers had told him exactly where in his schedule he’d made time for it, Virgil had come early.
Very early.
He’d stalked Jeffers’ footsteps all day. If the boy were a cat, Jeffers would have assumed he’d accidentally left a slice of meat in his back pocket after breakfast.
Jeffers ended up letting him help with a few other things in the morning which he seemed to enjoy. He seemed to appreciate planting things even if they weren’t his flowers. He was also good at it if a bit slower than necessary in his caution to make sure he didn’t mess anything up.
Jeffers ended up sending Patton to get an extra packed lunch from Helen for Virgil (as people didn’t like when the gardeners tracked mud into the dinning hall) and they ended up eating while sitting on the base of the fountain by the plot of land Virgil had been tending to.
The water in the fountain was now flowing, having recently been cleaned and turned on and birds were chirping in the distance. It was a nice, calming environment. This was why Jeffers liked to spend so much time outside. Or at least, it was one of the reasons.
There was a soft meow from beside them that drew Jeffers’ attention. Jeffers looked down to see one of the castle’s many cats standing on its hind legs with one of its paws on the fountain’s base. It was staring at them expectantly. Jeffers recognized the yellow stripped cat as one of the friendlier ones that Patton had tamed as a kitten. It meowed again when it saw him looking.
��What?” Jeffers asked it, raising one eyebrow. “I know you’re not starving.”
It meowed again in complaint. Then it turned to Virgil. Virgil was instantly tearing off a bit of his chicken sandwich to feed to the cat.
“You don’t need to feed him,” Jeffers said. “Patton takes care of that plenty well.”
Despite what Jeffers had said, the cat gobbled up the piece of chicken Virgil had fed him like he was starving.
“It’s Buttercup,” Virgil informed Jeffers. The name vaguely rang a bell.
“You remember all of Patton’s names for them?” Jeffers asked, honestly impressed. There were so many cats.
Virgil nodded and ripped off another piece of chicken. The cat went flying at it with gusto.
“Keep some for yourself too,” Jeffers said. “You look less fed than the cats.” Thankfully he was looking more fed than he had at the beginning of winter.
“But he’s hungry,” Virgil replied with a frown.
“He’s a glutton is what he is,” Jeffers said. “He’s already had his lunch by now I’d imagine and is more than free to hunt down rodents in the barn if he needs a snack.”
Virgil frowned and gave the cat another piece of chicken.
“You’re too good of a kid,” Jeffers said with an eyeroll.
Virgil just frowned at him and took a bite of his sandwich for himself this time.
“Make sure to eat extra dinner if you’re going to feed the cats your lunch,” Jeffers said. “Though I’m sure Helen will be feeding you extra by default when she hears you’ve been helping me in the garden all day.”
“I’m fine,” Virgil said, stubbornly. He took another bite of his sandwich and fed another to the cat.
Jeffers considered him. ‘Fine,’ was a very vague word and his powers didn’t ping on it as a lie because it could mean a variety of things. He had a feeling Virgil knew that.
Jeffers wasn’t a fool. The kids had been talking around his powers about something all summer, though he couldn’t figure out what exactly it was about. Virgil was almost as good at it as Logan. Maybe he was even better.
“Not hungry enough to eat the entire sandwich by yourself then?” Jeffers asked.
Instead of replying verbally, Virgil just shrugged. Clever little bastard.
Jeffers sighed. Helen had packed some of the canned peaches in their lunches, so Jeffers pulled his out and set the container next to the boy. Virgil looked at the offering in surprise.
“Cats don’t eat peaches,” he cautioned. “It’s bad for their digestion.”
“I don’t need to take your food,” Virgil said with a frown.
“Yeah, you do,” said Jeffers. “I’m and old man, not a growing boy. You should eat them.”
Virgil frowned and looked like he was about to argue.
“Eat your lunch so we can plant your flowers kid,” Jeffers huffed.
Virgil hesitated, but the idea of getting to plant his flowers seemed to trump his desire to argue with Jeffers about lunch and he picked up the dish of peaches.
Jeffers went about finishing what was left of his lunch as Virgil continued to eat his own. The cat ran off when it noticed there was no more meat available.
Jeffers rolled his eyes. The thing was probably running off to go scam more people out of their lunch. Patton had spoiled them far too much and they were too good at making cute starving expressions.
“Alright,” Jeffers said once they were done. “Are you ready to plant your orchids.”
Virgil nodded eagerly and Jeffers packed away their trash before getting up.
“Good,” Jeffers said. “You have all of the supplies I told you we needed gathered?”
Virgil nodded and started to list off everything that Jeffers had said.
“Then, we can get started planting,” Jeffers said with a smile.
  Chapter 53 (Virgil)
Virgil and Mr. Deknis took their time planting the orchids. Virgil had done everything Mr. Deknis had instructed him to do with the plot of land prior to planting. He’d had Mr. Deknis write it all down, so Logan could read him the instructions each morning, and had dutifully followed each step. The sheet of paper was in Virgil’s pocket even now. He knew the words so well at this point that he could have recited each list item even if it had words he still couldn’t read.
It had been hard work getting the soil just right for the flowers he wanted to plant, but it was fun hard work. Working hard was different when he didn’t have to do something but wanted to do something. He’d also noticed it was easier to do physical labor when he wasn’t hungry, something he hadn’t been all winter in the castle.
He’d thought since he hadn’t been training as much as usual over the winter months that he’d be weaker when Spring came, but he actually felt stronger and had much more energy.
He’d also grown taller without realizing it thanks to Logan’s nutrition potion. He’d noticed when he’d been in the shed earlier. When he’d first hid in the shed upon arriving at the castle the previous fall, he’d been able to walk under all of the hanging tools in the back. Today, he’d hit his head on some of the them.
His body had changed a lot in the past few months. It made planting with Mr. Deknis much easier.
Virgil had already helped Mr. Deknis with planting some vegetables this Spring, but he still was careful to pay attention as the gardener showed him how to plant the first few orchid bulbs.
Then, Virgil was handed the container of bulbs for himself to try planting. Mr. Deknis watched him plant the first few orchids and Virgil glanced up for approval before moving on each time. He always got a nod and small smile.
Eventually, Mr. Deknis took a few bulbs himself to the opposite end of the patch of soil and started planting some himself, trusting Virgil to plant his portion of the flowers right without supervision. Virgil couldn’t help but be happy about the show of trust given to him.
“Good job,” Mr. Deknis said after the two of them had planted two rows of orchids. “You’ve got an eye for planting things.”
“Thanks,” Virgil said bashfully.
“How old are you again?”
“I’m 14,” Virgil said, unsure why he was asking.
Mr. Deknis nodded. “Maybe in a few years you’ll want to get a job as one of the gardeners here,” he said. “I could always use one who knows how to respect plants like you and with how much you’ve been volunteering to help already, you’ll know a good amount by then.”
“Really?” Virgil asked.
Mr. Deknis nodded.
“Why not now?”
“You’re only 14,” Mr. Deknis said. “You don’t need to worry about working. I’m happy to let you tag along and watch or even help a bit with planting when you want, but you should just be a kid.”
That confused Virgil. He’d been considered out of training to be an assassin as soon as he’d turned 14-years-old last fall. Now he was being told he needed to wait a few years to help plant seeds?
“I could do it,” Virgil said.
“I know you could,” Mr. Deknis said, “but you don’t need to. Have a little fun this summer.”
“But I want to,” Virgil said.
Mr. Deknis huffed out a laugh. “I know,” he said, “and you can feel free to care for your orchids and help me out all you want, but no jobs until you’re at least 16.”
“It’s better than any other jobs I’ve had,” Virgil muttered, honestly annoyed he couldn’t become a gardener right now because of his age.
Mr. Deknis raised an eyebrow. “And what other jobs have you had?”
Virgil froze. That was not a good line of questioning. “Uh…” Virgil said and Mr. Deknis’s expression was changing in an alarming way. “Different things. I’ve carried things for people and, uh, cleaned.”
“Carried things and cleaned, huh?” Mr. Desknis said. It felt like he wasn’t only testing Virgil’s words for lies but observing his face and posture too.
Virgil should be good at lying. He should. That was a major part of being an assassin, but Virgil had started to slip after spending so long around people who were not a danger to him.
At least not a danger to him as long as he didn’t get caught in a lie.
He’d been sloppy with the way he’d frozen when asked a question and with the stuttering. He should have been prepared; he was prepared for the next question.
“You only had to carry things and clean some things up?” Mr. Deknis asked, his eyebrows still raised.
Virgil carefully smoothed out his face, forcing his shoulder to relax as he shrugged. “And some other things,” he said easily. Not a lie. He could feel his heart race anyway.
Mr. Deknis’s eyes bored into him for a long moment and then he titled his head to the side and squinted at him.
Virgil just shot him a small smile. “Can we finish planting the flowers, please?” he asked politely. “I was very excited about it and would like to finish it today.”
Mr. Deknis did not reply for a long moment, and Virgil was careful to keep his expression blank.
Finally, the gardener relented, breaking his stare. If this was because he believed Virgil or not was unclear.
“Yeah, kid,” he said slowly. “Let’s finish planting your flowers.”
Virgil nodded, and he didn’t have to lie as much now as cautious eagerness returned to him. He really did want to finish planting his flowers in addition to stopping Mr. Deknis from asking uncomfortable questions about where Virgil had come from.
Mr. Deknis nodded to the bag of bulbs. They went back to work planting the flowers, but Virgil could feel Mr. Deknis’s eyes on him almost constantly. He had a feeling that this time, he wasn’t watching for how well Virgil was planting the bulbs, but something else.
Virgil was careful to not let his mask slip at all the entire time.
When they were finished planting Virgil’s entire plot of land, they cleaned up the equipment and stored it back away in the garden shed.
Another day Virgil might have stayed and helped Mr. Deknis with other things. Today he was still trying to cover for his bad lying earlier, however, so, Virgil decided to just go back to the castle and shower.
To his surprise Mr. Deknis also started walking off in the direction of the castle.
“Don’t you have more planting to do?” Virgil asked when they got to the door. He knew the man was very busy and his workday was only a bit more than half over.
“I do,” Mr. Deknis confirmed, “but I needed to talk to the king about something first.”
“Oh,” Virgil said. “Okay. I’m going to go shower.”
Mr. Deknis nodded. “I’ll see you sometime later then,” he said.
“Thank you for helping me plant the orchids.”
Mr. Deknis smiled slightly at that. “Anytime, kid.”
  Chapter 54 (Patton)
“I still can’t believe he’s allowing this,” King Thomas said from next to Patton. The two of them were standing at the edge of the arena outside the horse stable, watching from a safe distance.
“If he hadn’t tried to bite me earlier, I’d think he was a different horse,” Patton agreed.
“He doesn’t even let Logan ride him,” the king said. “At least not ride him and give him directions.”
Patton was very aware of that. Logan did on occasion choose to get up onto Mr. Apple’s saddle. However, Mr. Apples was always the once who got to decide where they went after that. Logan had no say.
 With that in mind, Patton, Logan, and every stable hand who’d heard about the prospective riding lessons had tried to convince Virgil to learn to ride on a different horse. Virgil was just as stubborn as Mr. Apples however and had insisted. Logan, being the only one who could be around Mr. Apples without risk had become his defacto tutor.
Not even Logan could have expected that within a week, Virgil would be able to control Mr. Apples. Though perhaps ‘control’ was the wrong word. Nothing could control Mr. Apples, but for some reason, Mr. Apples seemed willing to do as Virgil asked.
 Even right now Mr. Apples was trotting around the training arena like he was a well-trained trick horse warming up with its rider.
“Logan told him we could go on an actual ride today if the lesson went well,” Patton told the king. The lesson seemed to be just getting over because Logan said something to Virgil and Virgil started to climb off. Mr. Apples was patient and still as he dismounted.
“Do you think he’d mind if I went with you?” King Thomas asked.
Patton shrugged. “Mr. Apples might.”
“Mr. Apples definitely will,” the king replied. “I’ll come anyway.”
 Logan had walked over to where Patton and the king were standing while Virgil fed Mr. Apples some apple pieces as a reward.
“I hear you are going to go riding today,” king Thomas said.
Logan nodded. “Mr. Apples seems to listen to him well enough,” he said.
“I might join you if that’s alright. Where are you kids going?” the king asked.
“I was thinking the main forest path,” Logan replied. “It’s not a particularly difficult route, but it’s also a part of the castle grounds Virgil hasn’t been able to see yet. Loraine told me it has been recently cleared after the winter.”
 “That sounds like a good idea,” the king said. “Are you going now?”
“Once Patton and I saddle up our horses,” Logan said. “You can come.”
“Great,” the king said with a smile. “I’ll ask for Bella’s saddle to be brought out. I haven’t gone on a ride yet this week.”
He turned then to walk towards the stables leaving Patton and Logan alone.
“Do you think he’s been acting weird?” Logan asked, turning towards Patton.
Patton frowned. “No,” he said. “Not really.”
“I’m just wondering why he wants to go horseback riding with us.”
“He likes spending time with you?” Patton guessed.
 “Yes,” Logan said, “but typically in a setting that doesn’t involve Mr. Apples.”
Well, that was fair.
“I mean, it’s not too weird,” Patton said, thinking back through the last couple of days. King Thomas had been a bit… clingy.
“He’s been hanging around a lot,” Logan said, echoing Patton’s thoughts with narrowed eyes. He glanced back at Virgil. “You don’t think Virgil let something slip, do you?”
“He didn’t say anything,” Patton said. “I think your dad would say something if he let slip he was an assassin somehow.”
“Unless he let slip something that didn’t quite implicate himself but invited suspicion.”
 “Your dad doesn’t seem suspicious,” Patton said. At least, Patton didn’t think he did. He hadn’t been acting mean in any way. In fact, he might have even been acting nicer.
Logan frowned. “We should keep an eye on him, especially around Virgil.”
Patton bit his lip.
“What?” Logan asked.
“Are we ever going to tell your dad about Virgil?” he asked.
Logan hesitated. “I don’t…” he trailed. “I’m not sure.”
“It just feels weird lying for so long,” Patton said. Patton didn’t lie a lot. Sure, maybe he’d pretend to not know what Mama was talking about when sweets went missing from the kitchens or he’d pretend to not know what Logan’s birthday gift was, but he’d never lied about anything serious before now.
 “I know, but,” Logan glanced back at Virgil once again, “even if we did decide to tell, we’d have to convince Virgil everything would be alright beforehand. I don’t think we’re at that point yet. He was terrified of Father until a few months ago, and he’s still cautious around him sometimes.”
Logan was right, of course. Virgil was getting more and more comfortable around the king, but he figured any of the progress made would go down the drain as soon as they brought up telling King Thomas about where exactly Virgil had come from. Patton didn’t know if Virgil would ever be comfortable enough.
 “We should go get our own horses,” Logan suggested, and Patton nodded.
Patton and Logan’s horses had already been saddled by the stable hands in anticipation of their ride and it didn’t take long for the king to saddle his own horse, Bella.
The forest path at this time of year was very pretty, Patton thought. The tree branches now had small green leaves on them after having been barren for the entire winter and flowers were starting to grow. In a few weeks’ time it would be even prettier, but it would also be harder for the groundskeeper to maintain as well as it was right now.
 Virgil really did seem less anxious around King Thomas now. The path was only wide enough for two horses to go at once, and he didn’t seem to mind that he and the king ended up next to each other while Patton and Logan lagged behind. In fact, he and the king seemed to be having a nice conversation about the local wildlife.
However, if Patton looked close enough, he did sort of see what Logan meant. Virgil may not be anxious talking to the king now, but the king himself seemed just a little bit nervous at least at the beginning of the ride.
 He seemed to relax a bit as they rode (even laughing when Mr. Apples tried to bite him when he got too close).
Logan had been teaching Virgil the basics about things like animals, but there was still a pretty big gap in his education when it came to anything that wasn’t about training to fight and kill. King Thomas seemed more than willing to answer any of his questions when it came to the animals and plants around them even if they were sometimes a bit silly.
He’d seen a bird that looked like a dove. (It may have even been a dove, but Patton hadn’t seen it.) This had been a source of endless confusion for him.
 “But shouldn’t it live in the dovecote?” Virgil asked.
“Not all birds live in a dovecote,” the king explained again.
“But it’s a dove,” Virgil said with a frown.
“Not all doves live in a dovecote,” the king replied.
“But it’s a dovecote,” Virgil argued. “It’s for the doves.”
“Yes, but there are also wild doves,” the king said.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Virgil replied.
“What about it doesn’t make sense?” the king asked with a laugh in his tone.
“Doves go in the dovecote,” Virgil said.
Patton was starting to have trouble following this argument.
“Dovecotes are made for doves,” the king said, “but not all doves go in dovecotes.”
“Why?”
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inkribbon796 · 2 years
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Egotober 2022 Day 20: Red Flags
Summary: Anti finds himself in a bit of trouble, and somehow gets himself even bigger trouble.
Prompt: Alarm
Characters: Anti, Wilford, Dark
Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31
Alarms were shrieking and blaring as Anti rushed from socket to socket. Whatever electrical currents were closer he jumped to immediately. He could feel it stalking him. Because he didn’t have the time to think about where he was going. He needed out, he needed to escape and fast.
Anti  was trying to find a way out of the hellhole he’d currently found himself in. Henrik was safe. As “safe” as he could be. But Anti had to escape and think about a plan of revenge.
He just had to—
Anti jumped into some random circuit when suddenly he heard another ringing going on. Someone was getting a call and he was in the circuit. So he instantly let it take him away from the situation.
The glitch demon would be back for blood. He would be back for Henrik. And he would never forget what had happened.
“Hello? Hell~o?” A familiar voice drawled out just as Anti flew out of the phone and right into Wilford, knocking them both to the ground. Anti was on top of Wilford and so elated he almost decked the guy on pure adrenaline alone.
“You fucker, you’re the best,” Anti told him.
Wilford smiled. “I always try my best.”
“Wil, who called?” Dark called out from outside the room and Anti realized that he was with Wilford in Dark’s home office. Alone . . . with Wilford underneath him.
Before Anti could jump off Wilford or even just turn into pixels, Dark walked in and froze when he saw them.
Dark’s ringing became shrill, reminding him of the alarm he’d just escaped from.
Anti violently turned into a staticky cloud of pixels before reforming next to Dark. “Make my tinnitus I got from Jackie worse, why don’t you?”
Dark glared at him, glancing between him and Wil. Anti braced to get hit, anger had caused him to get too close to Dark. The demon was known to strike quickly and violently. He was well known to be jealous and foul tempered and Anti could see the rage in his eyes.
“Have I interrupted something?” Dark asked, clearly a bait as Anti moved past him and into the living room. Through the window he spotted Chase Brody who was smoking out back and immediately looked right at Anti.
“Nah, you didn’t interrupt shit, was fucking busy escaping from the feds,” Anti said as he began looking for a way out. He needed to get back to his little hideout and lay low and then think of something.
Dark’s ringing was shrill and even if Dark was in any kind of mood to help him, he’d botched it with Wil in the office.
“Can’t Anti stay, ol’ boy?” Wilford leaned against the door frame of the office with a huge smile on his face. “He’s so much fun.” 
Which immediately made Anti want to kill Wilford.
Dark took in a rather angry breath, loudly taking in air through his nose and Anti felt Dark’s aura angrily coil around one of his ankles. A clear threat.
Anti knew Dark absolutely detested him. Sometimes he put up with Anti stabbing him. Sometimes Dark put up with the shit he pulled. But never when the guy was clearly in a bad mood. And when Dark discorporated him he lost entire weeks.
Weeks that Anti didn’t have right now. So for once, even though Anti wanted to punch him in the face, he needed to get out.
Then Chase walked into the room, one of his guns in hand.
“I’m gone, I got better things to do,” Anti said, turning into pixels and shooting through the lightswitch and onto the porch.
Dark followed after him, teleporting in. “Why the rush, glitch?”
“Like I said, got shit to do, people to kill,” Anti said, trying to get away from memories of the alarm sound. “I just got in through your landline, you old fuck.”
“Why the rush?” Dark said with contempt in his voice. “You were clearly enjoying yourself.”
“I wasn’t enjoying shit, just your electric bill,” Anti said angrily, he was trying to make it down the steps of the porch but his feet seemed to be moving in some cycle. Meaning he was stuck in the Manor’s grasp and he might not be able to easily slip out.
And Chase was following them out to the porch.
“You two are never very subtle, why become so evasive now?” Dark said, taking a step forward. And the stone steps refused to let Anti go. The ringing shrill and setting off all kinds of alarms in Anti’s brain.
“I ain’t being anything, you might be comfortable fucking that piece of sentient cotton candy, but I don’t wanna catch whatever weird STDs that fucker has.” Anti said.
“How dare you!” That seemed to get Dark angrier. “Shut up, you can fuck him, but not insult.”
“I ain’t fucking your man,” Anti said. “I’m fucking Henrik.”
“Then you’re doing both,” Dark said dismissively. “Right where his children can see you.”
“Fuck you,” Anti said. “If I wanted to fuck Wil I’d do it in front of you, because pissing you off would be the only reason I’d do it.”
The first one to strike first was actually Chase. The marksman shot at Anti, hitting him in the leg. Anti struck at Dark, their aura crashing before Anti was able to slip out of whatever hold that the Manor had over him.
Anti jumped into a nearby powerline under the ground and moved deeper into the city. He was away from Dark and could get back to Henrik’s apartment. He crashed there for a bit.
The glitch demon would lick his wounds and have his revenge. Tonight he needed to sleep, and he didn’t do it in the apartment. He did it in the apartment complex’s power grid.
Tomorrow, maybe the alarm sound wouldn’t be echoing in his ears as fiercely.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Post A/N: After so long of trying to get Dark to even hint about his problems, and it’s to Anti of all people. He might be getting therapy in the next arc.
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eolewyn1010 · 11 months
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Dragging Frankenstein - Chapter 17
Finally, the De Lacey exposition is done with, and we're down to brass tacks. Let's greet our next plot point, the Distressing Damsel! Or at least the hypothesis of her.
“with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being” – what a convoluted way to describe The Horny™. And yes, that is exactly what he’s after. For all he talks about human company and whatnots, there’s no way to read this without a sexual connotation.
“one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me” – worse yet, it is about sexual entitlement. The Creature is a fucking incel, his argument being “if she’s ugly as well, she has to put up with me.” I can’t begin to count the ways in which I hate him. Oh, wait, I already have.
“but you shall never make me base in my own eyes” – pfffft. Victor? You’re still not base in your own eyes? Alright then. DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR: 13
“instead of threatening, I am content to reason with you” -.- just like his dad, the Creature wants a price for basic decency. “Hey, I’m not threatening to kill you rn! Cookie pls!”
“the human senses are insurmountable barriers for our union” – huh, this reads like DAS GAY: 24
And seeing as it’s still Victor he’s talking to, it also gets INCEST VIBES: 11
(And if you think this point is invalid, consider that he asks the man he calls his father to make him a bride, in the same way he was made – that would be his sister.)
“What I ask of you is reasonable and moderate; I demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself; the gratification is small, but it is all I can receive, and it shall content me.” So, not only would he curse another to the same wretched life he lives, he also has the nerve to preemptively look down on her for not being as beautiful as human women. Can he get any worse of an incel?
LOL, of course there are no people in South America. None.
How would the two of them even cross the ocean?
“How inconstant are your feelings!” LMAO. The Creature of all people complaining about this…
Interesting how he has gone from craving sympathy simply as normal human interaction to being owed sympathy in form of The Horny™. And by interesting, I mean fuck this.
“quit Europe forever” = “depart from the company of men” Because only Europeans are actual people. *nods* Sounds about right.
“by the fire of love that burns my heart” – what, you mean the constant assumption of purely transactional relationships, the blackmailing, the entitlement? That is love now? Or is it The Horny™ and you looking forward to the relief of it?
“And also, I’mma stalk you while you work on this.” Heh, there’s a habit formed.
Pretty pretty landscapes to give a background to Victor’s self-pity. IT’S ALL ABOUT ME: 16
If you want out of the deal, just kill yourself already. Yeesh.
And then he, once again, can’t be arsed to talk to his family about shit. IT’S ALL ABOUT ME: 17
At least reassure them that you didn’t get robbed and raped in the mountains??
“Yet even thus I loved them to adoration” but not enough to tell them wtf is going on, of course.
Wondering if anyone ever set up a psychological profile of Victor Frankenstein. Like, ADHD, narcissist personality disorder, and so on. Therapy whomst? Dunno her.
Honestly? I don't think the Creature's reasons for wanting to make the Distressing Damsel are one iota better than Victor's reasons for creating him. Yeah, the queer interpretation of Victor making him as a sexual partner is half-joking on my part since I cannot fully verify it on the text, but the point stands: The Creature values his desire for company and actually someone he holds power over more than the well-being of this hypothetical new creature, cursing her into existence when his own life of the same sort is fucking miserable.
That isn't better or more sympathetic than Victor creating him for the sake of his own glory - or to have someone he holds power over, because he was thrilled by the thought of someone being subservient to him due to owing their existence to him, just as the Creature is thrilled by the thought of a helpless, confused and incredibly miserable woman being at his beck and call. If the point of Frankenstein is that the Creature is a tragic character I'm supposed to feel for - too bad; I hate this guy. He's exactly the same kind of asshole that Victor is.
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honeyedirene · 2 years
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jongwoo's yandere harem??
okay so we know that moonjo is gaga for jongwoo but have we ever considered anybody else?? also this is an idea for a fic i have on AO3. the link is : https://archiveofourown.org/works/38691447/chapters/96738597
Ji-Eun
Manipulative
Gaslighting him to believe that nothing is wrong with his neighbors
Doesn’t support Jongwoo’s love for writing
Thinks she will marry him
Wants him to stay sweet and naive
Doesn’t trust Moonjo
Uses Jaeho as an advantage but doesn’t trust him completely.
Uses her sweet persona to fool everyone
Can’t keep a grip on Jongwoo because of distance and her job
Can’t get him to move in because of his pride and she has traditional parents
Compares him to the younger version of himself
Tries to isolate Jongwoo but can’t because of her disadvantages. She can’t comfort him.
Ji-Eun fails at keeping him sweet because he loses his shit and breaks it off with her.
Fate is undecided because I want her to cheat on him with Jaeho but she’s just trying to make a deal with Jaeho to keep him obedient. 
Jaeho
Condescending
Uses his age as an advantage
Keeps Jongwoo in his sight via job
Is an asshole
Isolates him from the workspace in order to get Jongwoo to depend on him
Is a closeted Bi man
Wants Ji-Eun and Jongwoo but is confusing his feelings.
Bro is mad annoying
He is most definitely dead because I hate that mf 
Downtalks Jongwoo’s writing as a “hobby”
Is the last person Jongwoo would ever date in this bunch
Kihyuk
At first he doesn’t understand Moonjo’s obsession with Jongwoo
He stalks him daily to understand Moonjo’s fascination
Becomes fascinated himself
He’s distant though
Understands that he doesn’t have the advantages like Ji-Eun or Jaeho and can’t approach Jongwoo like Moonjo has
Is also in love with Moonjo
Wants a poly relationship with Jongwoo and Moonjo
Jongwoo isn’t aware of Kihyuk’s existence
Kihyuk thinks that Jongwoo was a lot like him pre-Moonjo which is why he likes him
He dies lol
Seokyoon
He’s not as possessive or obsessive like the others
He’s just protective over his hyung
Age is his advantage because he gets to call Jongwoo affectionate names
Jongwoo thinks it's because he’s young but it’s only a three year age gap
Kinda annoying
Out of everyone, he spends the most free time with Jongwoo
He feigns ignorance and innocence to get Jongwoo to help him
Since Jongwoo is paranoid about their neighbors, he uses that as an excuse to get Jongwoo to come home
It works almost all the time
But it is rare that he does that since Seokyoon knows that Moonjo is looming over him.
Poor baby just wants to become a rich and famous rapper so he can sweep Jongwoo away from this place
Moonjo
Ultimate stalker
Shows up at the worst times possible to manipulate and gaslight Jongwoo into killing everyone who’s ever wronged him
Can’t kill anyone that Jongwoo personally knows because Jongwoo WILL know
He wants Jongwoo to do it himself
Does abnormal things to scare Jongwoo and then makes it seem normal
Likes to talk about murder but Jongwoo thinks he’s just talking about fiction
Moonjo recommends good books.
Has a teeth kink
Watches Jongwoo sleep from his pervert peephole
Takes showers with Jongwoo on purpose but Jongwoo thinks it is a coincidence
Doesn’t sleep with a blanket
He is cold, not literally his skin is cold af.
I think he may have anemia
Likes to touch Jongwoo but not weirdly. Just small touches on the shoulder or brushing his bangs (?) back
Jongwoo
He’s not oblivious but he’s not the brightest crayon in the box
He thinks that Ji-Eun is just stressed from work, Jaeho is just an asshole, Kihyuk (who?) is his weirdo neighbor, Seokyoon is his slightly annoying younger friend, and Moonjo the gayest mf in the world.
He isn’t the one with internalized homophobia. That’s Jaeho.
He likes dudes but none of these dudes qualify.
Jongwoo is so close to snapping
Tired of being nice? Go apeshit bby
Goes to the rooftops where either Moonjo or Seokyoon is there waiting for him
This mf gets no breaks but all the bitches
Is harassed 24/7
Who he ends up with is undecided because none of them deserve this man
He needs therapy
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t06y · 2 years
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Reading Infamous Cursed Shit
So bbasically I’m rreading ccursed shit oonline that got rreally well kknown. I kkinda need more iideas for what to read hhowever
This is the list so far:
-Monster Ultra (finished)
-Yarichin Bitch Club (finished)
-Homestuck (finished)
-Killing, Stalking (chapter 24/67)
I don’t know why I do this to mmyself, but I have nnothing bbetter to do and ssomeone had to do it. Pplease give iideas (ask or rreblogs)
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ao3feed-lokiangst · 2 years
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Yandere Obsessed Avengers react
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/XOb93Gq
by LokiDrysdale
Yandere OG Avengers are obsessed with reader. Peter Parker, Loki, Wanda, Bucky, Yelena and Kate are also all obsessed with reader. Everyone is a yandere for her.
Words: 24, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English
Fandoms: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Categories: F/F, F/M, Multi
Characters: Reader, Loki (Marvel), Kate Bishop, Yelena Belova, Clint Barton, James "Bucky" Barnes, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Peter Parker, Wanda Maximoff, Bruce Banner, Thor (Marvel)
Relationships: Loki (Marvel)/Reader, Kate Bishop/Reader, Yelena Belova/Reader, Clint Barton/Reader, James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader, Natasha Romanov (Marvel)/Reader, Steve Rogers/Reader, Tony Stark/Reader, Peter Parker/Reader, Wanda Maximoff/Reader, Bruce Banner/Reader, Thor (Marvel)/Reader
Additional Tags: Yandere, Stalking, Kidnapping, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Crazy, Creepy, Obsessive Behavior, Isolation, Killing, Murder
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/XOb93Gq
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