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winterpower98 · 4 years

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Ok but what if the Traffic trio go back in time and meet the Jorney to the West crew?

This is the Time-traveling shenanigans I was waiting for LET’S GO! (I haven't finished the book yet, I'm just at chapter 14, so the JTTW crew might seem a bit OOC)

Ok, first of all, let’s say that the Traffic Light Trio meets the JTTW gang after they had to deal with Red Boy (I’ll call him that for now just so it’s easier to tell him apart from RedSon).

So our band of colorful kids finds themself pretty much lost in what looks like a forest with no idea of when they are. They opt to walk around for a bit in the hopes of finding something that might help them, and they do find someone.

Not too far away from where they appeared there’s a camp with a water demon and a pig demon bickering amongst themselves and a meditating monk.

Surely these aren’t the same monk and demons that traveled west with the Monkey, right? Aaaaaaaannndd MK is already gone talking to them. Great

The monk and the demons are startled by the new human but, thanks to MK’s charm, they quickly fall into a pleasant conversation.

“What bring you here in the middle of the woods young one?” “Oh, me and my friends, we ... we’re traveling to a nearby town! Yup, that’s it!” “And where are your companions?” “They’re ... looking for food”

So now Red and Mei are left hiding somewhere (there’s no way in hell Red is going anywhere near the monk, especially because he couldn’t see where the monkey was) while MK happily chats with the pilgrims.

Meanwhile, hidden by the tree’s fronds, the Monkey King silently observed everything happening. He saw the three younglings appear out of nowhere and he saw the demon and the girl hide not too far away from their camp. The only reason why he didn’t spring down and took care of the demon yet was because of the young boy that was chatting with his master.

There was something about the kid's aura that was so familiar. Almost like looking into a mirror, but not quite like a reflection.

So, now truly curious about this kid, the monkey jumped down from his hiding spot and in front of the boy.

Now, the first reaction that the monkey expected out of the kid was panic, but what he got instead was eyes full of admiration and his name pronounced without any fear.

So this kid not only knew who he is, he's not scared of him? Well, there's a first time for everything.

And the Monkey wasn't the only one surprised by the boy's odd behavior, his gleefulness did not go unnoticed by the other demons and the monk (who already knew this was going to bost the monkey's ego by several times and would probably cause some problems).

Wukong, now truly amused by the kid's antics, asked him to call for his friends and MK's happy-go-lucky attitude was quickly replaced by hidden panic.

He knows that Monkey King and his companions had to fight RedSon and would surely recognize him even if he's several centuries older now. The problem is that he doesn't know if the pilgrims had already fought Red or not, and now that he thinks about it he should have tried to gather that information while he was talking to the monk.

So now MK is trying his best to come up with an excuse as to why his friends couldn't come to meet them, and he was utterly failing!

Seeing that things were going downhill for her friend, Mei decided that they might as well be done with it, and went up to the camp dragging behind a complaining Red.

As soon as the green girl and the fire demon were in sight, the pig and the fish took a defensive stance while the monk became several shade paler. The monkey, on the other end, kept looking rather amused.

"What are you doing here? I thought Guanyin had looked you up somewhere. Don't tell me she let you out on good behavior?" And before Red could spat out some insult at the monkey, Mei slapped a hand over his mouth and answered for him. "Yup! Red here is been a really good demon! He's hanging out with us now!"

With everyone a tad bit calmer after Mei's lie, the two groups sat at the opposite sides of the camp and kept for themself.

Now, after the whole incident with the young version of the Traffic Light Trio, the two mortals and the demon find out that the artifact that allowed them to go back in time needs a whole day to recharge before it could be used again. Which meant that they had to wait till the next night before they could go back home.

Be in the past for a whole day wasn't a problem for MK, the change of seeing his idol in his glory days was too good to past, but Mei and Red were less thrilled about it. Zhu Bajie had been looking at Mei since she set foot out in the camp and, while she wasn't exactly new to this type of attention, she definitely wasn't a fan of it. Red was currently having a glaring contest with the Monkey King, Wukong's gaze clearly saying "try anything funny and I'll make you taste my iron rod" and Red responding with a "fuck you" look.

The air was dense between the two parties and it stayed that way up until everyone went to sleep.

The next day the JTTW gang set to travel again, followed by the two mortals and the demon, in silence.

But the silent peace was interrupted in the afternoon when demons decided to attack the traveling group with every intention of kidnapping the holy Tang priest.

Mei and Red had no problems defending themself, one with her jade sword and the other with fire, but MK was not doing so good.

Since they met the pilgrims MK did his best not to use any of Monkey King's powers, because he didn't know if it would mess up with the flow of time if his mentor find out he had a successor before he decided he wanted to retire.

So he was now fighting with his bare hands and he was getting quickly tired out.

Red: Noodle boy what are you doing! Use the staff! MK: But, Monkey King- Mei: We'll deal with him later!

And so, the Monkie Kid manifested the as-you-wish cudgel and set off to fight again.

Now, the appearance of a second golden staff did not go unnoticed. It distracted Sandy so much that a demon manages to get a lucky hit on him, but he was quickly killed by the fish.

After the fight was over, and the demons that weren't killed run away, the monkey approached the MK.

The soon-to-be mentor standing right in front of his successor, like a specular image, and asked him why he had an identical version of his golden cudgel.

Knowing full well that lying to Wukong would be futile (if not extremely stupid) the kids had no other choice but to tell them the truth.

And so they explained everything, from MK becoming the monkey's successor, to Red joining their side, and the artifact that led them here.

The monk and the pilgrims listen to them intently, but they didn't truly believe the story these kids were telling them.

When the Traffic Light Trio was done explaining their story, Wukong started to laugh. And not because he didn't believe them, on the contrary, he was sure that 99% of what they told them was true! No, the Monkey was laughing because "he wanted to retire". That had to be a joke right? Why the hell would he ever retire!?

After the monkey's laugh finally subsumed both parties started to happily chat, with the pilgrims asking questions about the future and the youngest three doing their best not to answer those questions.

But sadly, the time artifact was finally fully charged and it was time for the Traffic Light Trio to go back home.

So after some quick goodbyes and farewells (very quick on Wukong's part) the two mortals and the demon grab a hold of the artifact and get transported back home.

Several days after their little trip back in time, MK can't get Wukong's words out of his head. "Why would I ever retire?"

With time people can change and MK knows how much the Monkey King changed during his journey west, but there was a weird feeling that went along with the words the young monkey spoke, and he couldn't stop thinking about it.

#someone who can actually wirte #I beg #please turn this mess into a fic #lego monkie kid #monkie kid #monkie kid au #time artifact au #journey to the west #jttw #traffic light trio #winter answer #winterpower98

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zerorock41 · 3 years

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Twewy/Kingdom Hearts Idea

So here’s my new fanfic idea for a crossover between Kingdom Hearts and both World Ends with You games. Yes both. Hope you all enjoy.

-------

Across time and space, there are many worlds that share skies and destinies. Parallel Worlds are simply one such variation of the multiple ways Worlds and Dimensions can manifest. In this tale, there are two such worlds, so similar to one another that they followed the same destiny down to the letter, where this tale begins.

In both worlds there lived a boy named Neku Sakuraba, who had closed his heart to the World around him and shut out everyone with his oversized headphones. But then God knocked on his door, said "hello", and shot him in the face. Literally. The boy was dragged into the Reaper's Game, and young Neku learned to care about people, all while slowly working to save his city of Shibuya. Not that he knew that last bit until near the end, but details.

In the end, Neku won the day, saving his city, opening his heart and returned to life. A happy ending all around.

Yeeeaaah, unfortunately no.

In one World, Neku had scarcely been living anew for a year before he was dragged back into the Game, and forced to sift through the aftermath of a great tragedy, the Inversion of Shinjuku, for several years. It wasn't until years later that he once again earned his life back by saving Shibuya from devastation alongside a group known as the Wicked Twisters.

In another world however, (or Worldline for you nitpickers out there), Neku never had the chance to be dragged into Shinjuku, for his World was swallowed by a great Darkness. Funny, Darkness shouldn't be so strong in a world of Unreality, but that's a tangent for another day. Regardless, God liked Neku and his friends far more than he would honestly admit, and saved them from being consumed. But it wasn't the most graceful of saves. Poor Neku and his friends had been reduced to dreamlike whispers of themselves. Only in the Realm of Sleep, where God had found the haven of Traverse Town, could they manifest a semblence of a life. In this dream, Neku and his friends were trapped in a new Reaper's Game, one with no definite end until God could find a way to restore their existences. But as they were nothing more than dreams, Neku and his friends had no solid anchor to reality. Whatever were they to do?

Enter a pair of boys from some nowhere islands: Sora and Riku. By meeting Neku and his friends, by acknowledging their existence, the boys had finally given God the anchor he needed to truly restore the Shibuya children. And so, Neku and his friends returned to a restored Shibuya, right where they had left off, with only their memories of Traverse Town any reminder that there were worlds beyond their own.

Now all that? That's in the past. Or the future for me I guess.

Sora, who had many adventures and trials of his own, ended up sacrificing his life to save the girl most important to him. Awww. For some reason, however, the young island boy had ended up in Shibuya afterwards, outside of his own Reality. A surprising reunion with Neku and his friends, who were just about to start enjoying their Summer vacation, heralds the begining of a new journey for he and Neku both. A journey defined by three men arriving through Portals from other realities.

First, there's Riku, searching for Sora and hoping to bring him home.

Second, Yozora, a mysterious commander who is unsure of his identity, but is sure of two things: That he must save someone, and that he must find a Goddess named Etro.

Third, another, older version of Neku, called Sakuraba, who is at first confused, before becoming really worried about Shinjuku.

What is the story tying these four Realities together? Well, I'm sure I'll find out. One of my eyes is there, somehow, telling me all this, and I've got a trip through time and space to make. See you boys soon, Sora, Neku.

-Shibuya Report #0, Master of Masters.

#zero writes #kingdom hearts #world ends with you #twewy #versus xiii #verum rex #sora #twewy neku #neku sakuraba #Fanfic ideas #master of masters #neo twewy

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angelhummel · 4 years

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What do you think Wemma’s kids will end up doing as they grow up? (Apart from face all sorts of embarrassment by their father, if he’s not in prison).

Can you imagine them being in Glee club? Their mum is a self confessed diva.

I’d love to see them meet the Anderson-Hummel, the St Berry and Lopierce kids in future years . That could be huge.

Well I’ve never given them any thought before but now the ideas are flyinggg. First of all only Daniel has a confirmed name so I’m gonna name the rest. The little girl is 100% named Eliza and the twins are also something nerdy and related to old Hollywood movie musicals so. Gene and Fred (but he goes by Freddie)

Also I don’t want any of those pairings to have kids and especially not by age 25 but let’s pretend they all have kids sort of close together. Rachel can be Klaine’s surrogate but Mercedes or Tina donated the egg sorry Quinn bc those are the girls that were actually Kurt and Blaine’s best friends and also bc they white washed Blaine so much so i want them to have an obviously non white kid idk. I don’t know what I’d want their baby to be named but I don’t like Elizabeth and I don’t like Tracy lmao sorry again. I honestly don’t have names for anyone’s kids so we’ll just skip that

Maybe Brittana get pregnant next and I think Santana would carry the baby. Something about modifying and monitoring her body in harmful ways as a teen but now she’s letting her body change to accommodate the physical manifestation of hers and Brittany’s love and so she’s nurturing herself and her baby and it’s a good thing or something. Also I can’t see any of the glee boys being sperm donors. Maaaybe Kurt or Blaine. Anyway they also have a baby girl

St Berry is the last to have their own child but Rachel doesn’t get pregnant again. She decided that she only wants to put her body through that once, and she did it for Klaine, so instead they adopt a little girl. Bc she knows better than anyone that family isn’t about who you come from. So their girl is around Klaine’s girl’s age, and Brittana’s girl is about a year younger

I think they would definitely take a lot of family trips back home for the holidays. Probably flying, when the kids are little, but maybe taking longer road trips when they’re a little older. And every year Emma and Will host a Christmas Eve dinner with all their former students. And they have a little table set up just for the kids. But usually Brittany and Blaine and even Sam spend half the time at the kids’ table just making sure everyone is getting along and having fun and not making a mess. And Danny is the oldest so he feels like he should get to sit with the grown ups bc he’s like 12 and everyone else is like 7-10. But he also feels like the honorary big brother to the kids that aren’t even his siblings

And then Wemma and the NY bunch both have videos to share of the holiday pageants at their kids’ respective schools, bc of course all the kids participate in them. And everyone gathers around to watch them and everyone’s cooing over the cute kids and it just makes the kids so happy and proud of their stellar performances

And every summer, either right after school lets out or right before it starts back up, Will takes the family on a trip to NY. They go to museums with the Anderhummels, shopping with the Lopierces, sight seeing with the St Berrys. And they all get together to take the kids to as many shows as they can. Especially if it’s something Kurt, Blaine, Rachel, or Santana has a hand in. And if it’s appropriate for the kids, of course. They reserve a whole row of seats just for all their families. Then near the end of the trip they all take the kids out for ice cream and they talk about which shows they liked best

So hmm this isn’t about the Wemma kids on their own at all but all I could think of was them and the Klaine/Brittana/St Berry kids so I took that and ran with it. Not be being soft for anything Wemma related on main lmao

#glee #klaine #brittana #st berry #wemma #headcanons #my headcanons #asks #answered #my thoughts #i was thinking of more stuff for the trios' kids but thats even more off course #maybe i'll make another post #Anonymous

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aubergineanathema · 4 years

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Käsdorf and Wulvosburg

Part 1 - The ruin in the clearing: Preface Part 2 - Whispers in darkness ----- Part 3.

Life in the lowlands was rarely easy, but on this late summer evening, as the wind blew through the crops of grain and barley on either side of the road, one could almost imagine it was. There was already a chill in the air, as breezes from the north brought the smell of autumn to the village of Käsdorf. The women of the village would have to rouse their hearths tonight, but hopefully, there would be no frost. An unexpected frost so close to harvest would be a disaster, but as the men and boys returned from the fields to their homes for the evening, stowing the oxen into their stables as the women rounded up the chickens into their coops, they agreed it was unlikely, at least until a little later in the season.

Käsdorf was a small village. A collection of about a dozen homes of wattle and daub or wood and thatch were sprawled across the landscape, surrounded on all but one side by the nourishing fields. On the fourth side meandered the river. Near the center of these collection of modest buildings was a squat stone church, clearly much older than any of the other buildings. Candles burned at all times, and the small graveyard seemed a little crowded. It was in need, perhaps, of an expansion soon.

It was clear that at one time, although it seemed so long ago now, that the village had been more populous. The evidence of this manifested in the few houses still stood boarded up and empty, while the charred foundations of a few others were still recognizable, albeit overgrown. Pestilence had swept through the land, and so here, as in the forest, nature crept over the blackened wood and stone. But here, unlike in the forest, nature was doomed to failure. The men of the village were already in talks about what they might cultivate or establish there. They were ready to build again, recover, expand. But for now, nature would not be dissuaded, as weeds and wild plants grew up between the boards. Children yelled and trampled over this green space, careful not to trip on any foundational debris, balancing and jumping from old board to old board, trying to catch one and other, or tossing small sticks and small rocks to throw others off balance. One tumbled and fell. Another tackled their brother, and they rolled together in the dirt. Their laughter rang out, joyous and unburdened by the world or its past. The sound of laughter was carried far and wide upon the wind, and irreverently they dashed over nature’s wild growth. Their shadows grew long, and fireflies began to emerge, and so the game, then, became to catch them instead.

And as they played, from the west stretched the shadow of a looming castle, all of imported glass and polished stone. The keep stood proud and tall at its center, thick walls encircling its contents, as alder trees obscured the shore. It was surrounded on three sides by a fork of the river, a natural moat: well-defended. Stretching across this river was a finely-crafted drawbridge of the blackest wood, almost conspicuous in its beauty. The two places seemed vastly different, and yet this jet-black bridge connected them. For, of course, this was the castle Wulvosburg, on the estate of the Lord Alastair. The people of Käsdorf owed him part of their harvest, and his pick of servants, and loyalty in all things, and the castle would be their refuge should war come to the lowlands.

But war, like frost or pestilence, was not on the horizon this night. On this night there was peace, and even a reticent prosperity. But there was also always uncertainty. For instance, a messenger had come through just a few days prior who had had a scare in the nearby woods. He warned that he had been stalked through the woods, and that there might be bandits camping nearby. Only a month ago, word had reached them of a bandit attack a few villages over. And so it was an uneasy peace. A certainty of the present moment, but not of the future. The future was in God’s hands. As the light faded completely, the children were called in for the night. A full moon shone above. Time passed, and a solitary soul reemerged from one of the houses. A young woman skirted through the village, skittish but with purpose. Furtively to her chest she clutched a satchel, and crept out to the edges of the nearby field. Her brown hair was bound up with a tie, but hung down in strands, as though she had been laying upon it before her nighttime escapade. At each of the corners of the field, a lantern had been lit, to ward off evil spirits, and to keep the wolves and other beasts at bay. Carefully and quietly, she walked to each lantern and opened the latch, sprinkling upon it a white powder from her satchel. The flame within turned from orange to a brilliant purple for a brief moment. Her eyes widened and she gasped each time at the sheer novelty of it, and smiled at the power she felt in performing the action. In the distance--or perhaps not too far away--a wolf howled in the night. Fear gripped her at the familiar sound, and she retreated from the darkness of the fields, back towards the village and her home. She walked as silently as she could, hardly daring to breathe as she listened for the sound of a broken branches, or any sound that might indicate she was being pursued. The silence seemed almost deafening until the wind picked up, and suddenly amidst the sounds of whistling fields she also heard the flapping of wings. Then, from the side, a jolting blow sent her tumbling into the ground, and she heard the sound of a cawing crow.

Scrambling to to her feet, she broke into a run towards the center of the village. In her mind, there was no safe refuge here other than that of the church. Certainly, Wulvosburg was a place of protection in times of dire need, but it was much too far away, and the stone walls of the chapel were solid enough to keep most dangers out. She fell upon the door, pulling upon it and finding it locked. She turned and saw emerging from the darkness, a massive flying creature: larger than any crow, with red eyes gleaming. She screamed. Paralyzed, she cleaved to the church door, only able to watch as creature lunged straight at her. She felt the air hiss passed her head as it diverted its course at the last moment, vanishing into the night. A moment later, one of the wooden doors of the church creaked open, revealing a pale and wrinkled face. “Young miss Ottiline! What are you doing here so late at night?” It was the parish priest, bleary from sleep.

“I know not!” She lied, still breathless. “I must have been sleepwalking!” The old man looked at her with confusion and concern, but eventually nodded. He retreated to fetch his lantern from the wall, and then returned. “Well, best return you to your bed.” She nodded and allowed him to lead her back to the home of her father, glancing over her shoulder. Frightened eyes darted about the darkened edges of the village, searching every shadow for what she had seen, and for what had attacked her: not a wolf, nor a crow, nor a man. But a demon. -----

This has been Part 3. For more, see my Fiction Updates post.

----- If you like this or my other original work, please feel free to share with your friends (with credit of course). I would really like feedback, so don’t be shy to talk to me about it!

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artistrashofmine · 4 years

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If you’re into pain, specifically Bakugou going through pain, I got a new fic for you.

Pairing: TodoBaku

Rating: Mature c/w: child abuse

AO3Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25518559/chapters/61912828

Chapter 1

At the age of four, Bakugou Katsuki got his quirk, he also got his soulmark. They came together as they did with most four-year-olds, or hell, younger if they were lucky. He was worried, mostly because his parents were. Since he didn’t get it early, they were worried he wasn’t going to get one at all. Katsuki was first at everything, or so he was told, first to walk, first to talk. Therefore, he should have been first with this too, that was their reasoning. When he turned four they took him to a quirk specialist for peace of mind, colleges at work had suggested it too. The doctor took an x-ray of his foot and happily exclaimed that it’s very likely he’ll be getting a quirk within the year, if not, then to bring him back for another appointment. Katuski had trouble believing the doctor's bizarre reasoning, how was a picture of his foot suppose to determine that? She tried to explain it to him, he still didn't understand, there were so many different kinds of people out there, some that didn't even have feet, so why would a difference in his toes determine anything? His parents seemed to understand though, and that's what mattered. He didn't want to annoy them with his own confused state, so he decided to keep his mouth shut after the less-than-helpful explanation.

The doctor appeared happy with it too, happy to go on and explain that it was a sign his soulmate was younger than him, that soulmates’ quirks liked to manifest together when possible. That’s why babies sometimes would get their quirks before they could walk, or born with them, depending on the age difference. That’s why Katsuki had to wait until the very last minute to get his quirk… unless he didn’t have one or had a shitty one that did nothing. He didn’t know which would be worse, he’d imagine his mother would be disappointed at both. Though the doctor assured them that they would know if he got a quirk or if he didn’t, to return for another appointment later in the year if nothing happened, when his fifth birthday would near. Then they could conduct further quirk tests.

He thought his parents would be happy to hear that. To hear that he had a good chance of getting a quirk later, yet they had forced smiles. They were disappointed with the wait. That Katsuki would be one of the last kids in his year to get a quirk. He heard them arguing about it when he got home. How his father worried the other kids would pick on him if it didn’t appear soon, that the small blond’s future would be meaningless. His mom ranting about how embarrassing it was, that she was forced to listen to colleges at work gush about their kid’s quirk while she had to keep her mouth shut or admit to a currently quirkless kid.

It was the first time the blond remembered getting angry at his parents. They had no right to be upset, this was Katsuki’s quirk and he wasn’t upset with having to wait a little longer. Maybe he should be, but he didn’t see why. It was proof he had a soulmate right? And if his soulmate wanted to take their time, he didn’t mind. A younger soulmate, his mom was younger then his dad, that must have meant he had a late quirk so what was wrong if Katsuki did too? He didn’t see their logic.

Besides, Izuku didn’t have one yet either. He wasn’t the only one. A few others in his pre-school hadn’t, while others had just got them. Most of their quirks sucked too. Though, as months went by, as his parents' frowns deepened, as everyone got their marks and quirks, Katusuki didn’t. Soon it was December, the beginning of December, they were playing tag when it happened, Izuku stopped and started crying, falling back onto his butt.

Izuku was a crybaby so it wasn’t surprising, but what reason did he have to cry now? As far as Katsuki knew, he wasn’t hurt. He didn’t even trip and fall, he just decided to drop. The other kids had started questioning him, some mocked him when he only cried harder. Then Katsuki saw it, the reason he was crying, the greenish-pink design that bloomed around his right wrist that was covered in mud. He couldn’t make out the exact design, some stupid flower was his guess. Flowers weren’t uncommon for soulmarks, and Izuku was getting his soulmark.

In early December flowers bloomed along the inside of the crying boy’s wrist as Katsuki took it upon himself to solemnly drag the freckled kid home to kind, green eyes that filled with matching tears as she took in the mark, happy tears as she told Izuku that it was his soulmark, with such love that it took Katsuki’s breath away, something he shouldn’t be there to experience. So he left without a word.

Would his parents act like that when his mark and quirk appear? He had a hard time visualizing that expression on his mom’s face. Maybe his dad would cry, he could see the man with tears of relief, that finally, the small blond was like every other child. Every other child who now had their quirk and mark, either then him, Izuku was the last. Someone the blond could sympathize with, even if he was a crybaby. Even if the blond didn't care all that much for him as a person, it was nice to have someone who could understand. Someone to look at and remind yourself that it was okay because they were in the same situation. But now Izuku had his mark and his quirk.

He forgot to ask Izuku about his quirk. He could do that tomorrow. He wondered if it was like his moms, that would be a cool enough quirk. Katsuki hoped he wasn't like his mom's, hers was lame, he'd rather have his fathers.

Only, as it turns out, Izuku's quirk didn’t appear. The greenet said his mom called the doctor, who said to hang tight it may take a couple of weeks. Still, he said they had an appointment in two months. And two weeks later, when it still didn’t show, the other kids already started making fun of him, Izuku was half a man, a freak with a mark but no quirk. Some went as far as to say the mark was fake.

His mom had heard from Aunty Inko, listened to her concerns, they were friends after all, just like Izuku and him. She didn’t make fun of it, only frowned, though his dad quietly told him to stay away from Izuku, just until he got his quirk. Katsuki wondered why, it wasn’t like quirklessness was contagious, and Izuku would get his quirk soon anyway, just like Katsuki would. Afterall, Katsuki’s fifth birthday was in a few months, he had to get his quirk and mark soon, so he could become a hero like All Might, even better then All Might. And so he could make his parents happy and proud of him.

Even if his dad wouldn’t let him go to Izuku’s anymore, he still tried to play tag, play heroes with him at daycare, but the other kids didn’t want to. And they said if Katuski played with Izuku then they wouldn’t be friends anymore. Maybe his dad was right then, that he should stay away from the greenet, just for now. Just until he got his quirk. After all, you needed to be popular to be the number one hero. And his mom always told him to look good, to mind your surroundings, that one mistake could make you an outlier for the rest of your life. Katsuki didn’t want that.

He stayed away from Izuku, just for a few months he told himself.

At the end of January, he got his quirk, his quirk and his soulmark. It came during pre-school. He had been really sweaty recently, which was strange because it was winter and cold, but his hands were always sweaty, and warm, he had to go to the washroom a lot to rinse them under cool water, it makes the adults concerned enough to pull him over and ask why he went to the washroom so often.

Which made Katsuki bashful, so he kept his mouth shut. Then one day, small sparks danced in his palm. He thought someone threw a match at him, that he caught it, that it was going to set fire to him. But they were explosions, and they hardly hurt, they were bright and loud and drew the attention of the whole room. Everyone woahed at him as they grew, and Katsuki grinned.

He had gotten his quirk, a dangerous, flashy quirk. It had made everyone praise him. Perfect for being a hero, worth the wait. It didn’t matter how dangerous it was, that a four-year-old could kill you at any given moment, that didn’t matter here. His parents always told him to be careful. Since they lived near the sketchy area, flashy quirks weren’t common but danger was. Everyone was used to the thrill of a little danger, that paired with the beautiful orange, yellow and red hues that emitted from the palm of his overly sweaty hands made everyone so much more in awe. The adults praised him for it, excitedly calling his parents to tell them of the development, to come to get Katsuki. To come see.

His parents didn’t praise him, they had the same stressed smiles as when they went to visit the doctor all those months ago. He wondered why this time, his quirk appeared, and he could feel the fresh mark seared across his abdomen, under his navel, he wondered what it was. He wanted to get home soon to check. His parents didn’t care. His mom had asked why his timing was so bad, had said that they were busy today. His father explained that they didn’t have time to deal with a destructive quirk, that he was going to take classes to learn to control it. His mom told him no using it inside, and certainly no destroying anything with it, better if he didn’t use it at all. He didn’t expect to get lectured about his new power, it made him frown.

His parents shouldn’t be lecturing about it as if he broke a plate, they should be happy like when Aunty saw Izuku’s soulmark. Katsuki didn’t do anything wrong, why were they acting like this? What made that quirkless loser so special? Maybe… they hadn’t seen the quirk yet, maybe if he showed them… the blond set off pops, they were difficult to control and came out in a bright burst. It made his father swerve the vehicle. His mother turned in her seat and started yelling, at the top of her lungs, it made the small blond sink back into the leather, eyes widened and heart-pumping loudly. She was angry, she yelled about how they could have crashed and died, that Katuski could’ve killed them. She asked if he wanted them dead that much, if he wanted to be a homeless bum living among the trash, starving to death. She yelled until they were home, she yelled as they went into the house, Katsuki didn’t dare speak up against her.

He kicked off his shoes quietly with tearful eyes, unzipping the coat to hang up, and then he felt the hand to his cheek, a crack echoing through the house. And his mother spoke through clenched teeth and fury, “clean up your damned shoes.”

He didn’t waste a second, moving to place them properly on the rack with a tucked head. His dad explained that they were stressed out from work and having to end early to pick him up, that he should know better to clean up after himself now, or else what would his soulmate think? It was the first time his soulmate was brought up, they didn’t bother asking about the mark, they didn’t want to see it. They were stressed out. They were just making sure he would be good for his soulmate. Still, the small child couldn’t prevent the tears and from cascading down his face, over the warn, raw, handprint across his cheek, accompanied with poorly silenced sobs and hiccups.

It was the first piece of pain his soulmate would feel from him. Only an hour or so after they retrieved the mark. Katsuki promised that he’d try his best not to let it happen again, if he let it happen, the other would feel it and that would make Katsuki a bad soulmate.

Months later, Izuku still didn’t get his quirk. A quirkless loser everyone called him, and Katsuki had turned five, he was learning to read, and he could read Izuku’s name. It said Deku and Deku meant useless. Izuku couldn’t read yet, so he made sure to inform the greenet of his new name. Katsuki was proud to say that it was more creative than ‘quirkless loser’. And the rest of the students latched onto it, they’d latch onto anything the blond said, because the blond was awesome and everyone looked up to him, followed him.

Everyone except Izuku. Izuku sought him out as if they were still friends. And Katsuki hadn’t told him otherwise, because he wanted to be friends again, but they couldn’t. Because Izuku was still quirkless and Katsuki had a quirk now. He needed to be popular so he could be a hero, and all the kids would pick on him too if he were friends with Izuku. The older kids already started to, just because the blond had a strong quirk and they wanted to fight. It left him bruised and dirty, but the kids who watched praised him for his abilities. He felt bad for hurting his soulmate like this. Katsuki could keep the tears at bay until he was alone.

Though Izuku noticed, he was always concerned, as if the blond wasn’t strong enough to handle it. Katsuki pushed him away every time, it was for the best. He didn’t want to risk hurting his soulmate anymore then he already has. Therefore, he needed to be the best and he needed everyone to know so. He’d push people away, push them to the ground, push Deku to the ground to show everyone. Show that he was the strongest.

His parents didn’t think so, when they saw the grin on his face, the dirt and bruises. They asked if he got in a fight, of course, he said so, he said he won because he did. It didn’t feel like it, not when his mom’s hand came down against his cheek for the second time, the bruise that was already on his jaw, from the fight, screaming out its complaint in the form of a flinch worthy pain. The tears managed to return in seconds as his mother’s yelling echoed through the room. Katsuki hadn’t won.

It worsened throughout elementary school. He got into more fights, but those got easier, beating them up got easier, he welcomed the soreness in his fists. But the more fights he got into, the more powerful he got, the more his parents seemed to hate him, the more violent they got. And that wasn’t it. His soulmate. He could feel how tired the other got, the strain in their own muscles, the nausea in their stomach. Was it payback for how Katsuki treated them? Were they going through something similar? The blond wouldn’t be able to tell if the other got bruises, he had a hard enough time keeping track of his own bruises, at least they were visible.

Then one night he felt it, the worst pain he has yet to experience, he thought he was going to die. He wasn’t silently crying as he collapsed on the floor, the left side of his face cradled in his explosive palms. He was yelling, screaming from someone, anyone to help. For once he needed, wanted, his parents to help him. It hurt, hurt so much. He needed their help, their comfort.

His father looked down at him, his mother yelled a frantic “what did you do Katsuki?!”. He clenched his teeth, sobbing through them until it subsided, and looked up to see the worry on his parent’s faces, proof that they cared. But it didn’t last, Katsuki had no injuries, they came to the same conclusion that it must have been his soulmate and his mom looked at him with pity, his dad sighed. With that, they parted from him, back to their previous activities.

For the following weeks, he clung onto the throbbing injury on the left side of his face, the only proof that his soulmate was alive. He clung to it and hoped maybe the heat of his palms, his dangerous palms, would provide some sort of comfort against the chill that threatened to freeze his heart.

Middle school was shit. He was old enough to realize how fucking shitty the neighbourhood was, how underfunded the school was. How no one cared enough to maintain it, how no teachers cared to teach the students. There were cracks in the brick, old graffiti half-heartedly painted over. Weeds grew through old cement, paint chipped off the walls. The washrooms, which he didn’t dare to fucking use, always smelled of cigarettes and weed. You could find a collection of old stale gum under every single shitty, marked up desk, or hell, inside them if you were lucky. He bet that toxic shit was the only reason the school didn’t have rats. You could find old sandwiches from last fucking year in the corner of some poor losers locker, and you didn’t eat from the cafeteria unless you want food poisoning.

So physically, his middle school was shit. Just like the rest of the shitty neighbourhood and all the shitty people in it. You weren’t walking down the street at night unless you were looking for drugs or on them, that’s the kind of shitty place they were located. Katsuki was, as many people would say, lucky enough to live in the suburbs but fuck, the place was hell. His neighbour hated him, he’s pretty sure the whole area hated him, just cause he didn’t look like a fucking Ivey-league little prince and spoke his mind. Everyone hid behind that shitty smile and acted all friendly and reserved but would turn their backs and gossip about you for the rest of the night. You had to appear like the perfect family on the outside, with the perfect little house, it was some stupid unspoken competition. Perfect job, perfect house, perfect marriage, perfect family. That’s how it appeared, but it was total shit, and everybody knew it.

And Katsuki wasn’t about to turn into one of those kinds of fuckers like his parents would want, sure, he paid the price for it, but hell, at least he got to be himself. And like hell he’d show up all prim and proper in a school like his, no fucking way, he’d be target number one, worse then Deku. He’d be back to square one, it took years to climb to the top. If his parents didn’t want that they shouldn’t have sent him to the cheapest school they could fucking find, like what the hell? He’d have better luck in whatever hellish boarding school most parents in this fucking area sent their children to.

It pissed him off, but whatever, his parents always pissed him off. That was normal. They didn’t have the best relationship, obviously. But his parents were only making him tougher, he could deal. That’s what they were there for, to make him stronger. And it worked, he knew how to protect himself. How to hurt people so they couldn’t, wouldn’t, hurt him. He knew the limits he could go without getting in trouble while remaining in good grace with his followers. He knew just who to pick on. Most of the time that being Deku, Deku could take it. And it was his own damn fault for getting in Katsuki’s way.

The blond had a good system; it kept him on top, at least with his peers. There was always the price to pay at home. It traded the safety of home for good school life. He saw the bruises on Deku’s skin and compared to the ones on his own, it was worth it. Even if the bruises came from his parents, even if he ignored half of them, and he couldn’t see the ones on his back, he didn’t count the cuts from flying glass on partially back nights, it didn’t happen that often. He’d always sent out a silent apology to his soulmate.

He expected tonight to be one of those nights by the look on the hag’s face, the way his father left the room. She looked at him, his red eyes mirrored her hardened ones, “the principal called,”

That was how it always started, “you destroyed another desk. The kid who used the desk was sent to the nurse for burns. They didn’t admit it was you.”

No, they wouldn’t, no one would dare. They’d say it was an accident at most. No one would cross the blond.

“You fuking brat,” no one but his parents,” you fucking brat, you want to be a villain that bad, HAH?”

He flinched at that, gritting his teeth as her arms flailed around. He didn’t want to be a villain, he wasn’t trying to become a villain, she just didn’t understand. That was the way things worked there, that was how he was going to become number one. It was the only way. Fear drove people, she taught him that. It was the perfect way to keep them under you, to ensure your spot as number one.

“Your fucking quirk and shitty ass personality are going to get someone killed,” she was one to talk, “fuck, you’re better off killing yourself with it before you cause us any more trouble!”

Killing himself . He blinked. Her tongue was like a viper, ready to strike, to kill with her words. Still, it was the first time she said something like that. And that’s how she left, stomping down the hallway, leaving him alone in the kitchen. His thoughts drowned out the quiet room.

At least she didn’t hit him... his soulmate couldn’t feel words.

But Katsuki could, and Katsuki could learn from words, could use them.

That was the kind of thing he learned from his parents, how to use words to hurt others. It works. He explodes and throws Deku’s notebook out of the classroom window for good measure. It lands in the pond. Karma must have decided he went too far, he gets attacked by slime of all things. A shitty villain for a shitty neighbourhood. Still, he couldn’t do much to fight it, to protect his body from the onslaught of gross gunk that filled his lungs, swarmed down his throat, and in his nose, plugged it up real well so he couldn’t breathe. How it covered his ears, his body. Made sure to restrain him tightly, squeezing his center, holding his legs, his arms, his hands. Controlling them, trying to control them as Katsuki struggled to take the power back.

As shitty heroes and shitty civilians watched from the sidelines. No one did anything as he died, as he suffocated. It tasted gross like you could imagine this town tasting, vile and disgusting. Like the gum from the school desks or the year-old sandwich in the back of some uncaring extra’s locker. He was going to die like this, die a victim like this.

And his soulmate… god, his soulmate. He had to put his soulmate through this - his dad would remind him of that later. They’d hate him for this, hate him for sure. Katsuki would die never knowing his soulmate, only knowing how much they would hate him. Hate him for putting them through this, for causing so much pain, for dying on them.

And Deku, quirkless Deku who he told to die earlier, tried to save him. Was the only shitty person in the shitty crowd who came running over. Always Deku who came running after the blond. Not a hero, not someone with a quirk, not an adult, not his followers, just Deku. The one Katsuki relentlessly bullies was the only one who came to his aid. The only one either than his soulmate who recognized Katsuki’s pain. The only one who recognized his internal struggles.

No one else. Not when All Might pulled him from the sludge. He was praised, his flashy quirk praised by the shitty heroes even though he destroyed half the block. Technically it was the shitty sludge villain, but Katsuki did play a part. At least he was doing something, unlike those d-list heroes who praised him, who stood by and watched the whole thing happen. It was all the same, everyone was the same. His parents when he got home. They were the same, they were upset, they didn’t praise him as the others would. He only causes them trouble, that’s all he did.

No one asked if Katsuki was okay.

He couldn’t eat anything for supper, his throat was still raw. He brushed his teeth for an hour, he couldn’t get the taste out. The gross, ghost of a stench that had him dry heaving every so often if he thought too hard on it. He couldn’t sleep, still, he went to bed… and simply laid there.

Only Deku recognized he wasn’t okay. Only him.

But his body wasn’t in pain, so it was fine.

His soulmate didn’t know how fucked his mind was.

#my hero academia #bnha #bakugou katsuki #todobaku #soulmate au #midoriya izuku #bakugou mitsuki #bakugou masaru #bad parenting #mha #boku no hero academia #fanfic

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bangtanscenery · 4 years

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May Flowers Masterlist

As the showers settle, seeds bloom into flowers and love flows through the air. Come May, and the flowers colour the fields and the sun gives warm rays of joy.

Introducing the second part of our two-part collaborative project: April Showers Bring May Flowers.

Below the cut, you’ll find stories that’ll bloom warm feelings, written by an amazing group of artists. Be sure to also check out our April Showers Masterlist!

AEQUOREUS

After finishing college, you finally get the chance to fulfill your childhood dream of opening your own restaurant with your best friend. The only difference is that in this one, you’ll actually have real food, instead of imaginary. Everything was going smoothly until you meet Seokjin. He may be one of the best cookers of whose food you had the pleasure to try, but his attitude… Oh dear, his attitude is deal-breaker.

written by @httpangelicjimin ~ READ HERE

BOY WITH LUV

After you graduated from college, you forgot all about Seokjin. That is, until he shows up at your high-school reunion. Will you two mend past conflicts or will you stay enemies?

written by @heyitsmeee2 ~ READ HERE

SUFFERINGS

Growing up together, Seokjin had never thought that he'd end up falling for his best friend. He wasn't even sure if his friend was gay, all he knew was that he was madly in love with him. What happens when he finally musters up the courage to confess his feeling?

written by @bts-poetry ~ READ HERE

KNUCKLEHEADS

Sometimes you have to work a little harder to rebuild what was broken.

written by @randomkoalablog ~ READ HERE

STRAWBERRY AFTERNOONS

in yoongi’s eyes, you were the sweetest strawberry out of the bunch and no one could tell him otherwise.

written by @kitsutaes ~ READ HERE

AMARYLLIS: THE FUTURE

Everything always comes full circle. A soul falls into the ether, hoping to be reborn in the next cycle. If a desire is strong enough, it can manifest across space and time. Two souls reunite and are given a second chance, hoping that their love will be rekindled even stronger than it was before.

written by @thebiasrekkers (Admin E) ~ READ HERE

FLORAL

Reader has moved back with her parents in her small hometown; after her life hasn't turned out the way she had hoped, and dealing with bouts of depressive thoughts. When she runs into an old friend from school, can he help her through her low point to see the sunlight after the storm?

written by @boywivlove ~ READ HERE

LOVE BEGINS

After waking up and discovering that Hoseok is well and alive, the two of you have to figure out why the timer on your wrists says zero. In midst of it all, the two of you have to plan your upcoming weeding, dealing with family members and friends. You and Hoseok take on the challenge and grow stronger together.

written by @namluve ~ READ HERE

WRITTEN IN THE STARS

Hoseok had always been big on supporting his friends. Thus it came as no surprise that he ended up spending his free time at Namjoon's latest buiseness venture: a little dessert cafe. He didn't expect to fall for the cute barista who always worked when he was there though.

written by @moccahobi ~ READ HERE

AND THEY WERE ROOMMATES

You really want to leave a post-it behind saying something like: 'Going on a road trip with Namjoon, don't know when we'll be back.' But you're an adult, you're not petty. Except you totally are.

written by @joonsrack ~ READ HERE

SLEEP ALONE

Kim Namjoon, suspected leader of a drug ring and your recently discovered soulmate, has been arrested for the murder of two people. It’s up to you and three of his friends to prove his innocence and free him from his wrongful imprisonment.

written by @spicykoreantatertots ~ READ HERE

TEARS OF ANDROMEDA

Blind, but not broken - Namjoon has learned to live with his new ailment. He went on to continue working for the UK based firm. One day when meeting a new client - he is disturbed by the streams of light filtering in his vision. Then he hears a familiar voice.

written by @thebiasrekkers (Admin T) ~ READ HERE

BREATHE: FOR THE REUNION

Jimin’s curse is broken, allowing him to return to his own time. But there is a sense of emptiness that lingers inside of him as he readjusts to his former life. Just as things start to make sense again, he’s greeted by a face he’s longed to see once more.

written by @thebiasrekkers (Admin E) ~ READ HERE

SUNSET HEARTBEAT

The time had come for the seventh sun to rise. For the seventh and last color in line to have its cycle. As one indigo supernova signified the coming of a purple nebula, you and Taehyung spent the remaining of your last day together creating something of your own. If it comes into fruition can only be known years in the future. A decade after you found someone unlike anyone. Truly one of a kind. Someone with a destiny they couldn’t outrun. It has been 10 years since the birth of a purple sun.

written by @moonmintrails ~ READ HERE

AND MENDED HEARTS

the truth was out, there was no way for him to keep you away, he was your soulmate. as jungkook comes to terms with everything, he decides to help you recover your memories; taking you home and trying to recreate all of the most important events of your previous relationship.

written by @ddaenysus ~ READ HERE

PETAL TO THE METAL

every sunday, the farmers’ market took place in the center of town. vendors from near and far traveled to sell their crafts, their produce, their teas. as the local florist, you figured that running a booth each weekend would boost your business and bring in new clients. at least, those were your reasons in the beginning. but, now? now, you returned each and every sunday just for the handsome blacksmith who set up his handcrafted jewelry booth next to yours.

written by @luxekook ~ READ HERE

A FAIRYTALE’S EVER AFTER

Three months of adventure, three months of friendship, of romance, of love found and then lost. They aren't about to let it end like that, not when their happy ending was just in reach- and if the curtain falls too early? Then they're ready to push past any obstacle in place. or Dreams have a funny way of toeing the line between fantasy and reality. Three months before one of the happiest days of your life, your graduation, you find yourself into a mysterious bookstore called 'The Magic Shop', setting off events that lead you on a rollercoaster ride. Seven men arrive into your life- and they're determined to stay, for good this time.

written by @bangtan-dreamland ~ READ HERE

A ROLLERCOASTER (OF EMOTIONS)

As it turns out, a little will and a lot of love were all it took for (Y/N)'s bad day to become monumentally better. [Alternatively: The maknae line is very excited, the others just want to sleep, and there is an amusement park involved. Needless to say, chaos ensues.]

written by @2dreamcatcher8 ~ READ HERE

INFINITATEM VENATUS

After the first encounter with an Agent of Hell, the truth comes out about the world around her. Now Hobi strives to show her that, even if she is one of the chosen few, his love for her is real. Jimin also struggles to help Saoirse find the worth in her existence after losing her best friend to the darkness. While at Tenebrarum, Layla continues to confound the Devil - and he's not exactly sure how to deal with it.

written by @thebiasrekkers (Admin T) ~ READ HERE

#bangtanscenerycollab #masterlist #april showers bring may flowers #spring collab #collab event #network collab

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journal-of-an-outlaw · 5 years

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The Price to be Paid

Hey gang!

This is my very first Tumblr fanfiction. I used to write waaaay back but it’s been awhile. Just finished my first playthrough of Red Dead Redemption 2 and of course needed to write something about my story with it.

Feel free to message me with feedback or thoughts, like I said it’s been a few years so I’ll post this to Ao3 after awhile. Please like and reblog only, no reposting.

Chapter 1

“See that one? Easy. Go nick his watch.”

You laughed and smiled over your shoulder at Abigail as you walked over towards the cart that had stopped from one of the nearby farms selling apples in the middle of town, red and bursting to be eaten. A man who was picking out which ones looked best out of the pile didn’t seem flustered by your sudden appearance which was good. It made the next part easier.

“Oof! Excuse me sir, I didn’t see you there. Are you okay? Oh, let me help wipe that off your shirt.”

Coffee bled a dark brown down the man’s white shirt as he hastily moved to grab something to stop the spread, and you were ready with your handkerchief. While he snatched it out of your hands, you removed his pocket watch without him knowing, the pressure of your hands on his torso masking the motion. The cold coffee had been sitting on the edge of the cart as if someone had forgotten it in their haste to leave for the center of town. He huffed and hawed and made a bigger fuss than you could have hoped for, but the nearby prying eyes only saw a silly girl who managed to spill coffee onto the boy buying apples.

You smiled one last time at him and batted your eyes then flounced down the street and around the alley to meet Abigail. She laughed and grabbed your shoulder while you showed her the watch; no engraving or photo slipped inside which made you relax at the fact it wasn’t overly sentimental.

“Now see, this here is exactly what you can pawn off. A good 8 dollars for this, plus whatever else you can grab adds up fast. Then maybe...a way out?” her eyes were kind as her mouth twisted into a coy smile.

You smiled back at Abigail. The past few months while she and her gang were in town you had grown close. She hadn’t divulged too much about the people she ran with and that you could understand. The world was dangerous and full of opportunities and you couldn’t judge her for the choices she had made to keep her and those she cared about safe. You had never really left the town you were raised in and your family was your ‘gang’, but their secrets would never haunt others that you choose to surround yourself with. You knew she had a man, maybe not a husband but someone she loved. And a son that she loved more than anything in the world. Although she’s never told you outright about him, you’ve seen her buy (or steal) little trinkets and toys that no grown man would want. That’s when Abigail taught you the same tricks. How to divert the attention of shop owners so your hands could dart into your pockets with stolen food, or how to nab items to pawn to build up your own funds when you bump into folks and cause a scene. You had been eyeing the mountains outside of town a lot more lately, and thinking how great of an escape you could make.

“Where would I even pawn these? Do I walk in with everything at once?” you asked her. She contemplated for a moment. “You don’t want to walk in with arm loads of stolen things, but a few here and there should be okay...maybe clerks will let you trade them for goods! Like for food or clothes and such. There’s a good pawn shop in Rhodes, but that’s a long ways from here in Blackwater.”

Your hometown, or at least the place you had been raised in, was hot, dry, and desert like most of the year. The people were kind and you liked being situated by the river. On particularly hot nights you would sneak out and sit by the slow and lazy moving water, imagining it was carrying you someplace new and far away, where no one would know you and you could start over. But you knew that idea was just that and there was no escaping. Small fantasies were all you had. Some nights you yearned for your life that began in Boston, but Blackwater was the only home you had ever known.

Abigail brought you back to the present with her hand on your arm. “Y/N, I might have to leave soon. I don’t want to but there are things I can’t change that are set in motion by the people I’m with. You’re...well I guess my friend and I wanted to let you know.” You laughed at her hesitation to call you a friend. Knowing her it isn’t an insult. If anything, she means it as a way to say she doesn’t get close to many people and has somehow chosen you.

“Abigail I appreciate you telling me, but I’ll see you again! I am not worried.” Sometimes your blind optimism got the better of you. Damn those novels that you got lost in. Few things brought you pleasure like the chapters of a book.

The two of you clasped hands and parted for the day as the sun set behind you. Slowly but surely you were building a collection of items that had been lifted off the residents of Blackwater and were going towards your future pawn trips. As much as you loved the town and its dusty, dirty humbleness there was a darkness that lived there.

You neared your house and felt your heart drop to your stomach as the parlor light flickered on meaning your mother was not home, but your father was. Dad had a mean drinking problem, and as the man in charge of some government organization had power which mixed terribly with his vanity. He wanted everyone to know that he and he alone was in charge.

Climbing up the steps quietly you hoped to sneak by. That damn fourth step gave you away, and you silently swore as your father barked for you to come back down.

“Y/N! Get down here. How dare you walk by and not say hello to your father?” You mumble an apology and kissed him on the cheek, the smugness in him as strong as the whiskey on his breath. As you turned to head to the kitchen for dinner he grabbed your elbow hard enough to make you wince. “Were you in town today,” he asked, but it was more of a statement than a question. He must have seen you, or heard about Abigail somehow. “Y-yes father, I spent the day in town. At the market, there was a wagon from a nearby farm…” you drifted off and tried to walk to the other room. Your father stood abruptly, but was distracted by your mother opening the kitchen door. She was a force of pure good and the only thing that could tame your father’s wild ways. Her face beamed and invited you both for dinner.

“How was town today, Y/N? The apples look delicious.” You mother winked at you and motioned to the three red apples sitting on the counter waiting to be baked into a pie for dessert. While in town you didn’t even notice her so she must have moved quietly. The roast chicken and potatoes were delicious and you couldn't eat fast enough. After dinner, your father went out to the back porch to smoke while your mother sat and played cards with you.

“Mother, why don’t we just leave?” you whispered. This was a conversation you had had many times in the past. “If we packed and left at midnight he couldn’t track us. We could go to the mountains, move west or even north again! A new city with no one following us and we could make a new life. Work in an art gallery or a farm or...just some place nice and safe. Where no one could hurt us.” The darting of your eyes was not missed by your mother who had never known about your father and how his rage manifested late at night. He always did have a knack for hitting you in places that no one else would ever see.

Her hand was soft as it wrapped around your own. You knew this fantasy would never happen but you always hoped someday she would finally agree.

“My dear, we musnt run away from those things that we fear. Fear only increases when we turn our backs to escape rather than face it head on.”

********************************************************

The next day in town you met up with Abigail again. You knew the time was coming for her to leave from the way she clung to you a little tighter and laughed more forced and often. It made you sad to think that this bright light in your life lately would just be gone due to...whatever it was that would drag her away. Loyalty and family all meant something to you of course. But it was still upsetting to think that this exciting time would soon be over.

“The last thing I’ll teach you as a thief is this. In order to pull off a good heist, you have to believe. With everything you have. A poor orphan left to die on the side of the road? Believe. Someone who just got robbed and needs a ride to town? Believe. Someone who isn’t being abused by a man somewhere in town? Believe.”

She stared you down hard during this last line. You flinched and moved to cover the bruise that had been exposed when you rolled your sleeves up from the heat. A soft expression met you when you looked up to her blue eyes.

“I...It’s nothing I promise.”

“And that, hon, is exactly what I was talking about. You have to believe. Make it out of this town, safe. Please. If not for me, maybe just for you.” You watery eyes meet hers and you realized that it’s obvious to everyone but you that leaving may just be your last hope to being happy. The only issue you have is leaving your mother behind with the monster that hides behind the eyes of your father. His rage wasn’t always there. Mother said as a child you lived happily in Boston just the three of you. It was supposed to be four, and that’s where the trouble began. When your brother was lost a few days after his birth your father couldn't stand it. The whiskey was his crutch, and it soon became more of a constant burden. Every day it seemed he stumbled in from work already drowning in the vile stuff. Even the thought of its scent brought you gagging now. Your mother says that’s the reason you had to leave the northern city and move to the nowhere town of Blackwater and start all over again. That drink and the havoc it caused.

While you had the time the two of you decided to celebrate. Sitting in the saloon you clinked your drinks and cheersed to seeing each other soon someday. Abigail loved hometown whiskey and your poison of choice was gin. Many drinks later and the two of you stumbled out to the main road, needing fresh air after leading the whole bar in a great rendition of a popular song. You swayed in the heat that met you outside of the doors. A huge commotion down by the water caused half the town out to come bursting out to the roads behind you. Galloping horses, screaming, and gunshots were all you could make out. Damn those drinks and whatever was in them! You couldn't see more than four feet in front of you, and everything beyond that was a big old blur.

“Y/N! We need to move. Now!” Abigail somehow sobered up and was in charge of the whole situation. “Get behind that building and pretend you don’t know me-” but her words were cut short by a man grabbing her arm and yanking her down the road.

“Abigail!! Hey! Let her go!” You chased, well, more like stumbled after, the pair and beat his arm with your fists. He released Abigail and grabbed your hands, shoving them down by your sides and forcing you to stare into his eyes.

“Now what in the hell are you doing?” You stare dumbstruck into his face thinking that you might have landed yourself right into one of your novels. Beautiful blue eyes searched your drunken face and you couldn’t even speak. His eyebrows pulled together and crows feet showed around the edges of his eyes, years of the open sun and road changing the landscape of his face. Stringing coherent thoughts together was a struggle when Abigail shoved the man. “Arthur! Let her go she’s my...she’s my friend.”

Arthur raised his eyebrows, “Abigail I have to get you back to John-”

Three men raced around the street corner on horseback and shouted in your direction. “Those three! Stop them! They’re linked with them gangs from the riverboat!”

You swung around to face Arthur and Abigail. “What have you done. Your gang! What did you do!”

Arthur swore and grabbed you by your waist. “Abigail, get on that grey horse there. The bay is mine.” She nodded and took off down the road. You cursed and swung as hard as you could but it was no use, this man had you captive as he put you on the horse and followed Abigail. The lawmen were not too far behind and you heard the bullets they fired whisk by you and hit the buildings down the street. From the back of a horse you watched the faces of people you knew zip by faster and faster, and with them the memory of who you were confined to be quickly slipped away. What a strange turn of events in the past few months. Abigail had taught you how to pickpocket and thief your way hopefully to a new life, but instead of taking that route here one was riding you off on a horse. It scared you, but you couldn't look back.

A sharp and terrible pain grabbed you suddenly as a bullet met your left side below your ribs. Screaming, you almost fell off the horse but managed to clutch onto Arthur’s shirt with weak fingers. He turned around at the noise and seemed upset as his face filled with worry when looking at the blood spilling onto your shirt. The pain proved too much and the last thing you remember was landing on a hill of grass with dust swirling all around as the sound of pounding hooves raging your ears from all directions.

#red dead redemption 2 #rdr2 #fanfic #arthur morgan #abigail roberts #john marston #reader story #reader fanfic #the price to be paid #i don't know how to name anything #arthur x reader #arthur morgan x reader #female reader

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write-as-raine · 5 years

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12.30.19

Though this won’t be my final blog post, it is my first one written while being back in the United States. In recent months, the writer within me—who sits at a desk that is covered in post-it notes, half-empty coffees gone cold, and pages of unfinished thoughts—has only wanted to stare off into the distance. Ironically, that distance has been me. While many variables combined have created the perfect situation for some high-quality introspection, my instinct always has been to document the maelstrom of thoughts that run through my mind in large volumes. At first, this took place as fiction, then I turned to poetry, but as of late nothing else seems quite right to write except for my own life. I do value introspection highly, but never before have I felt inclined to share so much of my life with any other living soul, so count yourself among the lucky few, dear reader. It feels entirely wrong to do so, but at the same time, it seems like such an extraordinary waste to keep it to myself.

It is presumptuous to assume anyone is even reading this, which I think makes it easier to write when my audience is more of an apparition than actuality.

All of that to say, however, that part of my process is writing random bits here and there, and that ultimately these blog posts become Jess's monster, one big body (paragraph) built of many different parts. This will likely be a mixture of things because returning to the United States has, emotionally, been a mixture of things.

Written 12.26.19, in reflection on 11.28.19

I was pondering my trip to London today, particularly the day that Lindsay and I saw Phantom of the Opera. That day has such a glimmering quality in my memory. We were both giddy on anticipation for the theatre, and we were all dressed up as we walked arm in arm, our music split between us in our knockoff AirPods. It was one of those powerful days where nothing could really go wrong if it tried. As we sat in the theatre, drinking overpriced Prosecco and basking in the sophisticated and somehow imposter-ish feeling of being in an ornate theatre in London, I could feel a strange sort of shifting around me, like everything was changing and undoing and becoming all at once. I was realizing, I think, that nothing would ever be quite like this moment again. I would never be in London, with Lindsay, on the cusp of everything ever again.

Between the theatre and the DLR, as we trotted through the city at London speed, the crisp air and bustle of a populace that is always up to something, I kept getting hints of it. Catching my unquenchable joy in the reflections of the windows we passed, my full moon cheeks aglow with my smile. Our reflection showed Lindsay facing what was next resolutely, while I looked into the present and attempted to hold it there in my mind.

On the DLR, as we watched the city shift from old to new and back, black water glittering with nightlife, side by side as the present flew past us, I was filled with some inexplicable settling within my chest. It was a sudden and rapid, heavy but not in an unpleasant way. It was just a falling in love, or a re-falling in love, with my life, and with the present, and the past that had somehow led me right up to the brink of what was to come. Lindsay, on this evening, paid me one of the loveliest compliments I think I've ever received.

"You've taught me to see so much beauty in the world that I never saw before,", she told me as we looked out over the diamond cut cityscape.

Such a simple, perfect day.

I think I was settling into the knowing that the near and inevitable future would not be easy. That I would come home and feel the initial surge of excitement over what my heart had missed for these months, but that a hollow and aimless feeling I am so accustomed to would creep in around the edges. I would feel the siren call of the city in the soles of my feet. Knowing that feeling would come, I still pushed my heart into the hands of those I loved, even though trusting people who have the power to hurt me has gotten me before, and would again. Because others have taught me that there is no point in bottling yourself up and pretending to be someone you’re not. My soul, in all it's wild and whimsy, will always be spilling over, and why not free it.

12.14.19

I feel that my time abroad was a transformative experience, I just don't quite know how to sum up what changed. I feel different, not in the way that I expected. London, sleek, elegant, historic, magical London left its mark on me in a new way. I saw so many real aspects of it, the hidden places that aren’t the ‘London’ that we imagine.

It all began with me accepting that my depression was too much for me to carry alone, which didn't magically solve my depression, but when I say that it felt like a fifty-pound weight had been lifted from my shoulders, I am not even kidding. Dealing with the scope of my complex and often confusing chemical imbalances and how they manifest in my every day, well that was a whole other beast. I am still on that path, and will always be. Sometimes I don't feel like getting out of bed, sometimes I feel nothing at all, sometimes everything all at once.

I stepped through a looking glass and into Ireland, where I met a cute stranger, and things immediately fell into place and then promptly apart again. In London, I moved in and became very close with two very lovely and wise Norwegian ladies, and I found my feisty personality doppelganger from Iowa, and nothing ever really went according to plan, or exactly as I imagined, but it was right, and it was one of the best semesters I've ever had. The last week was one of the most bittersweet moments of my life. As we wandered around the flat, we all felt a bit lost. I don't think any of us were quite capable of figuring out how to transition to not seeing each other every day. We ate most of our meals together, sometimes in companionable silence, just to be near each other. Lindsay essentially just moved the rest of the way in. On our final evening together, we had the last supper, and then we had our own small Christmas. When all the gifts had been exchanged, and the dinner tidied up, we dragged their beds into my room and had a very large slumber party.

On the way to the airport in the morning, as the four of us struggled to carry two people's worth of luggage from flat to bus to tube, we laughed to push back tears. At the airport, tissues were passed out, goodbyes were attempted, final words were choked on, and then we parted. Just like that, it was over. I felt a bit numb as I moved through the airport, alone. A full heart is a heavy burden to bear. All I could think as I sat on the plane as we taxied was, 'I feel very lucky, to have met such amazing people'.

As every mile between myself and London increased, I took deep, calming breaths, feeling a bit lost and very found, and every glance out of the window reminded me that life is magical and that castles seen from the sky are magical and oceans of clouds are magical, I really couldn't seem to do much else aside from sit in awe of what I had experienced in the past three and a half months.

It sounds like an exaggeration, or too good to be true. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of mistakes, screw-ups, awkward times (did I tell you about how I fell down some castle steps, or completely forgot my ID the one time I tried to get into a club? Not me at my best, but me all the same).

But, those were all the pinches for the moments that often felt like dreams.

I learned a lot about my own mind, which I couldn't have done without the wildly intelligent, kind, and intriguing people that I met along the way. I learned a lot about the world too, and about how I interact with it. I learned a lot about kindness and the Universe. I learned valuable lessons about confrontation, which were stressful, and upsetting, and so very necessary. I learned a lot of Norwegian words, which I was not expecting. What I did not learn a lot about, was creative writing, at least not in the academic sense. Actively writing did teach me endlessly though.

Just a few nights ago, I saw a shooting star in a sea of other celestial bodies. I have gotten to play with my chickens on the farm, and with our baby cow, who is very hungry all the time because he is a growing boy, and with our baby goats, who are absurdly tiny and very vocal. Also, since I arrived at home, our cat, Tabitha, a proper aloof feline in all regards, has decided that she thoroughly enjoys my company, and will often stretch herself out on the floor next to me for rubs. This is a very large win because she is an adorable, fickle creature.

Now, as a new year looms before me, although 'looms' isn't the correct word, because looms sounds scary, and while change is nerve-wracking, I have so much to look forward to, as I keep reminding myself, and so much to look back on. So, as the future dawns before me, I feel apprehension, of course, but also great powerful hope and excitement, because there is so much unexpected goodness stored there. I know that it is not always sunshine and even if it were, that I cast my own shadows. Yet here I am, showing my shadows that if I dance, then so must they.

Until the next time, or perhaps, until next year,

jess

P.S. I’ve decided to grow my bangs out. If getting bangs signifies a mental break, does growing them out mean I’m starting to figure things out?

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mattness · 6 years

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Space Dementia

Sorry for the long wait! Another chapter of fanfic “Space Dementia” is here!

Chapter VIII.

Jennifer snorted, looking at his own reflection in the mirror: she wore to a meeting with Robert short white dress that perfectly emphasized her figure. Jen scolded herself for what she wanted to show herself in the best possible way. She thought many times what to wear and the options are constantly changing from the simple (jeans and tee) to the most sophisticated (the dress with some jewelry). In the end, Wright stopped at a light close-fitting dress with sleeves. The girl put make-up eyelashes and highlighted her lips with red lipstick, and her hair slightly curled.

Something inside suggested that Robert is unlikely to pay attention to her appearance. Still this meeting even a date really can't be called. Who makes dates in broad daylight? Jennifer put on black heels and several times twisted in front of the mirror. Now she was ready. Taking beige bag, Wright came out of the house. The weather was perfect. The sun shone high in the sky, and a pleasant warm wind refreshed thoughts. Birds sang loudly, lifting mood. Jen covered a short distance to the station, where another tram. The orange-and-white train slowed down, and she immediately sat down on an empty seat. Outside the window of the tram swept the streets of the city. Multi-colored cars replaced each other, people hurried about their business, despite the fact that today was a day off. The girl again began to compare the metropolis and Derry, where on Sunday, on the streets there was no one to meet, while going to the grocery store. Everyone's left Derry for other cities in Maine for the weekend. Finally the train stopped at the desired station, and from there to the restaurant was on the doorstep. The girl jumped out of the train and walked quickly to the restaurant, a sign which even in the light of day was shining brightly. Jen sighed and walked into the room, gaze searching for Grey. Noticing the familiar frown on your face, snub nose buried in the screen of the phone, she resolutely went to the table. "Hi", said Jen, and Robert immediately got distracted from the phone. He carefully examined her appearance, smiling and rising. Unlike her, Grey looked too simple. Long black jacket, under which was a white t-shirt, and blue jeans. Wright was surprised that he wasn't in the perfect expensive suit. Although she didn't doubt that the clothes on him certainly from well-known brands that not everyone can afford. "You look great, Jen", said the man, and politely helped her sit down, gallantly pushing out her chair. The girl smiled sheepishly. He put the phone in his jeans pocket and put his hands in the lock on the table, continuing to look at Jennifer. She felt like every second blushed all the more from studying the green eyes opposite. "When are you leaving?" first of all asked Wright, touching her hair. "Tomorrow. Flight at five in the morning", quietly said Robert, taking the menu and studying the list of dishes. "If you want and if you get up, you can come to the airport and walk me. I wouldn't mind." "I guess I can't", the girl confessed honestly. "Where are you going?" "To Pennsylvania. First to Philadelphia, and then to other cities by car." Jen smiled sadly, suddenly remembering how she lived in Philadelphia until fifteen years of age. Moving from his hometown to another very much influenced her future life. Robert carefully examined the face of Jennifer, which displayed all the emotions and feelings that she was experiencing at the moment. Blue eyes couldn't stay on one thing. Memories about Philadelphia he immediately saw, now knowing, as girl lived, as only came in this world. "In Philadelphia so beautiful", she said quietly, and too, took menu. "I know. I have a house there." "So you're coming home?" "Not really." They don't talked about Robert's trip again. At dinner she decided to tell him a little about yourself, and Grey listened with pleasure all that already knew. It was interesting because some of the details Jen didn't say. But he knew everything. All people did so to create a good impression of themselves, hiding their own flaws and shortcomings. And Robert never understood the meaning of this secrecy. Because no matter how much he watched people who began to spend more time together, and then also began to live together, all these shortcomings gradually surfaced. For some reason, they immediately found out the relationship, quarreled, thinking that they no longer trust each other. After the stories of Jen, followed by a logical question that Grey didn't know what to say. His story always had to invent. This time Robert Grey was a rich orphan with living parents who left him to fend for himself when he was seven years old. He left to live with his grandmother, which can be evaluated as "fabulously rich". A woman in her life earned a lot of money working in a large company, the name of which he didn't even bother to come up with. In general, it didn't really matter in the twenty-first century. It was worth someone to say that you are the owner of a large company and go to Aston Martin'e, as all around immediately became so sociable and friendly. It always has been. People for him were too hypocritical, and that's why he never wanted to make friends. The absence of these same friends, he explained to Jen that few trusts. So now he almost no one not spoke about his able. The girl smiled, remembering that as soon as they met, he immediately blabbed about it. "I only told you because you're different." Robert noticed how Jennifer's face changed, once again flushed, and her heart skipped a beat. She quickly understood what he meant. Grey found himself happier than ever. Everything followed his evil plan. True, at first the plan didn't include falling in love girl every time they met, and it was manifested more and more. To his same happiness, she was too modest and not come around until nor on that, except timid kissing. Now that he had to get out of New York as quickly as possible, Rob was sure that all the feelings that had been born in her would soon pass. She'll forget about him again, try to switch to work or her friends, because his departure will cause her only pain. Oh, yeah, and the pain she felt right now, though not so clearly. But Robert could smell it scent. Finally, they finished their meal, and Robert paid for the meal. He went to the exit of the restaurant with Jen, but suddenly on the TV screen, which was located under the ceiling of the bar, the news began. Grey frowned, hearing the announcer move from political to criminal news. Jennifer noticed that, too. "To the number of missing people added three more. Also recently, police found a corpse at the corner of Water and Pearl-street”, the announcer reported in a serious tone. "The identity is not yet established. We only know he's a man of 40-55 years without a certain residence." The girl frowned, remembering what the man who had attacked her looked like, and Robert, meanwhile, was well aware of how bad his affairs were. A little more — and the cops will still be able to find his carefully concealed trace, but Grey didn't want to be behind bars for the third time. In prison there was nothing useful and good, only vital time is wasted. "Okay, let's go", Robert hurried, holding out Jen's beige bag. "Don't listen bad news." Jen nodded and went outside with him. Robert offered to take his hand, and the brunette gently squeezed his palm. They headed along the road, deciding to go to the nearest Park. The weather is still held good that could not fail to please Jennifer. "By the way, you didn't say where you came from to the hotel in Orono", Robert suddenly remembered, when they were walking slowly along the green alley of the park. "From Derry. My father and I moved there as soon as I graduated from Columbia", the girl said with a sad sigh. "To be honest, I didn't want to go back there." "Why? Nice town", Grey smiled. "You been there?" surprised brunette. "I have, more than once." A couple sat on a free bench near the pond. Jen watched as the ducks swam away from the shore, away from the people. "You don't like it there, I take it", the man chuckled, placing his hand on the back of the bench behind the girl, who shook her head in response. "Why?" "In the ten years I spent in New York, I got used to the rhythm of the big city. I'm used to nobody knowing anybody here. Nobody cares about you and your problems, because they're just your problems. They don't touch anyone, and no one weaves about you stupid gossip", explained Jennifer, tired sigh and decided to arrange her head on the shoulder of Robert. "Derry's too small. Everyone knows each other. And the atmosphere there is very ... repulsive." Grey found himself chuckling again as he looked at her. "What? I'm only giving my opinion, and I don't mind if you like Derry. I'll just never understand it. I can't understand my father wanted to move there." "You bought a house in Derry?" "No. It belonged to my grandmother, whom I visited every summer." Suddenly Robert remembered one of the years he had spent there. Of course, he was there many times and not only in the form of an ordinary rich orphan boy, but also in the form of a clown. For a century, he posed as the dancing clown Pennywise and stole the foolish children, feeding on their fears and flesh. But then he got tired of this circus, it was worth once to get caught by police. The guards didn't manage to keep him locked up for long. He quickly ran away and continued to frighten the children. He couldn't get close to one little girl who was always hanging around with her grandmother. Only once he did get a chance. She was swinging on the swing and happened to notice where he was standing. He mentally began to call her, wanting her to come closer. But the little one wasn't a fool and ran to ask permission from her old woman before going to the clown. Then Pennywise was seriously angry and decided to attack someone else, leaving this ungrateful in peace. Only now, sitting next to Jennifer, Robert realized that this little girl was her. How couldn't he have guessed? Why didn't he go back to her childhood memories? After all, he had studied her too superficially, which now infuriated him a little. Grey tried to keep his emotions under control, just squeezing his fingers on the back of the bench harder. Now he seemed to be beginning to realize the reason why something inside him was drawn to her. It was just a long-forgotten hunger that he felt for Jen in her childhood. But Robert didn't realize how wrong he was. * * * The clock stopped at four in the evening, and Jennifer suggested to Grey walk to the waterfront, where there was a beautiful view of the city and the sunset. The man nodded silently in response, and they slowly headed in the right direction. Jen carefully walked on the pavement, afraid to stumble and break the delicate heels. The sun hate blinded eyes, and because of this had to squint. She looked at Grey walking beside her, who was already wearing sunglasses on the bridge of his nose. He was clearly better prepared for the walk than she was. "Where do you go after Pennsylvania?" Wright asked, picking up the bag, which was already heavy to carry on her shoulder. The embankment was only a few meters away, so the couple moved to a walking step. Jennifer breathed fresh air into her lungs. On the embankment lovers, families, dog breeders and athletes also walked. Through the crowns of green trees penetrated the sun's rays, the wind blew pleasantly in the face and relaxed. "I haven't decided yet", Robert shrugged back, glancing at her. "Do you want to meet again?" She smiled sheepishly, walking slowly to the railing. Jennifer leaned on them, peering into the distance. Of course, Wright wanted to see Grey again. She still felt indebted to him. Maybe something could come out of it. Jen hoped Robert felt the same way. The sun gradually began to sink below the horizon, painting the whole sky in red shades. Numerous skyscrapers of New York reflected the sunset rays, making the landscape more impressive. Jennifer watched the sun with fascination, as did Robert, who stopped beside her. He glanced briefly at her hand. Without thinking, the man confidently covered Wright's hand. The girl smiled, feeling like such a minor action on the body a wave of pleasant chills. "I'm going to miss you, Robert", Jennifer suddenly confessed after a few seconds of silence. "Me, too", wasn't very convincing, making Grey mentally cursed. "You'll not notice how time flies, and we'll meet again." The brunette sadly smiled, fully turning to him. Robert, still clutching her hand in his, leaned toward Jen's face. He covered her plump lips with a gentle kiss, and a pleasant cherry taste suddenly gave in his mouth. The girl responded to the kiss, feeling dizzy from blissful oblivion. Robert heard vulgar thoughts have already begun to visit drugged mind Jennifer. Her other hand touched his neck, and it's a fleeting touch of pleasure seared his skin. He didn't understand why the little kiss had caused a storm of emotions inside him. Why he didn't want to stop? He was beginning to dislike it. Robert seemed to lose control of his mind, so he reluctantly pulled away from Jen, who sighed in frustration. Grey was surprised to see the pupils of the blue eyes widen and the view become blurred. Her red lips parted in a pleased smile, and Robert smiled back. Jennifer suddenly burst out laughing, which caused gray's true bewilderment. "You imprinted my lipstick", continuing to laugh, she said, and immediately began to rummage through the bag in search of pack of wet wipes. Robert watched as the brunette fished out a napkin and began to wipe the red marks around his mouth. She did it with such care that for a moment the man felt uneasy. Somewhere deep within awake long-sleeping conscience, and begged to be left alive creature, standing across him. However, Robert quickly calmed it down, not wanting to obey a fleeting impulse. As soon as the sun finally disappeared behind the horizon, Grey decided to take Jennifer to the hotel. He took off his glasses from the bridge of his nose and put them in his pocket while the girl was on the phone with a friend who suddenly called. Jen tried to get off as quickly as possible, because that same friend was ruining the whole date. Robert burst out laughing when Wright finally put the phone in her bag and smiled guiltily. "Never give me peace", the girl snorted, taking his hand. "I thought you told them all about me, going for a walk with me and all", Grey grinned, noticing how she had blushed once again that evening. "Yes, of course... I'm pretty brief tall about everything, and it's very upsetting them. But since it's only my life, I don't have to answer to them for every action I take." He burst out laughing again, and for the next half hour they chose not to talk about Jen's friends. The girl was happy to tell stories from the University, told about something that suddenly came to mind that Robert was not bored. Grey listened carefully, sometimes noticing the strange glint in her blue eyes. The man looked with interest and thought that he was right: inside Jennifer Wright slept something bad and, in a sense, the devil. Robert didn't notice how quickly they approached the building where the hotel was located. Jennifer looked at the entrance and turned to the man. "Thank you for today's meeting", Wright smiled and thanked him. "I wouldn't mind repeating it", Robert said and took a step to her. "Only when you return", the girl said, looking down in embarrassment. Grey reached for her kiss again, but Jennifer put her hand to his lips at the last moment. The man raised his eyebrows in surprise, not understanding what was wrong. Did he do something wrong? After all, judging by the thoughts of little Jenni for the whole day, everything was going just like clockwork, and another kiss was to finally appease her. "I don't want to get you dirty", Wright explained, and Robert just snorted in discontent. She put her arms around his neck, pressing her whole body against him and inhaling the pleasant aroma of expensive cologne. Grey was taken aback, but then lowered the hands on fragile waist. The girl sighed, feeling like every minute was becoming increasingly difficult to break away from the person who so suddenly appeared in her life. She drew back reluctantly and smiled tightly, pursing her lips. "Bye", Jen said goodbye, letting go of his hand and starting to climb the steps to the hotel. "See you around, Jennifer", left behind Robert, watching as she had already disappeared behind the revolving glass doors. * * * The girl tried to immerse himself in work after Robert flew out from New York. He didn't promise to call or write her, so Jen didn't expect any continuation of their nascent feelings. On the other hand, it was better for her. Maybe for him, too. Now, already working for the second month in a women's magazine, Jennifer still tried to keep the bar high to get a promotion and a good recommendation. Mrs. Johnson praised and appreciated her dedication. The days passed one after another, and Jen looked with surprise at Katie, who brought a note from her boss. Unwrapping the crumpled piece of paper, she smiled: Mrs. Johnson strongly recommended that Wright take a two-week vacation. The brunette agreed with pleasure, because the desire to go to his father recently became huge. They hadn't seen each other long enough, and Jennifer missed them too much. As soon as the vacation began, the girl immediately Packed a small suitcase and warned her friends, took tickets for the first flight to Bangor. The plane cut through the broad wings of the veil of clouds, which hid the city States. The girl hoped that the good weather will continue until the end of the flight. She wanted to come to Derry and find the sun in the clouds or in the cloudless sky. Wright sighed and put in her earphones, closing her eyes and sinking into a light slumber. Sleep was not long in coming… * * * ...She was once again in the middle of the hospital corridor with many doors that were locked. This time there was a light everywhere, and there was a working noise: the footsteps of doctors, the squeak of hospital equipment and a lot of talk. A strange excitement with the experiences of the possessed girl, and eye was dimmed with tears. The feeling that Jen was losing touch with a loved one painfully squeezed everything inside to the smallest size. She's heart was bleeding. The headache made her grab hair and literally scream. Jennifer didn't understand. She didn't understand what was happening around her, where she was, and why she felt so terrible. The brunette squatted down in the middle of the corridor, wanting to fall through the ground so that no one could see her. Jen has to get out of here before it's too late. "Miss Wright, are you all right?"the doctor's stern voice was heard, and the girl rose to her feet. "How is he?" it came out of her mouth, though Jen had no idea who it was. "Will live. We support his condition", assured the doctor in round glasses, occasionally looking into his clipboard that he held in his hands. The girl nodded and sat down on a bench near the wall. She again grabbed his head, trying to figure out how to get out of this nightmare. Feelings overwhelmed her. Now wanted to run away from herself, but nothing can be done. The body during sleep didn't obey, and feet became wadded. Jennifer tried to catch her breath until she heard the sound of someone's measured steps. They were approaching her, and the man who had appeared in the corridor stopped in front of her. "Jennifer", a familiar voice called softly. That voice, thought the girl and looked up. In front of her on his haunches sat Robert Grey, who sadly smiled. He looked good as usual: black trousers and a dark blue shirt with a tie. It was as if he had come straight from the office of his own company at Jen's first call. "I don't understand anything", the brunette finally managed to voice her thoughts, immediately falling into a strong embrace. "What's going on here?" "I know this is hard for you to accept", Grey said, stroking her back. "Everything will be fine." Jennifer frowned, still not understanding what was happening at the moment. She stared in surprise at the man, whose eyes suddenly turned bright orange. Strange white spots began to appear on his face. Brown hair began to get red shade on the lips Robert had a wild smile. In the hospital corridor the lights suddenly went out and was replaced by red. That ominous red again! With one sharp jerk, Grey forced Jen to her feet. "I don't understand", the brunette repeated. "Should you? I just want to play with you, Jenni", the man said, and red stripes of stage makeup began to appear on his face. It made him look ten times crazier. "To play?!" Jennifer was puzzled, trying to escape, but Robert's hands, on the fingers of which appeared sharp long claws, plunged directly into her skin. An unbearable pain gripped her whole body, blood ran down her arms, and the girl only clenched her teeth, still desperately trying to give a logical explanation for what was happening. Grey pulled her to him and breathed in the smell of Jen's mixed feelings. That's not what he needs. She didn't feel fear. She was trying to explain. Damn girl! "My sweet", the man continued, leaning over the brunette's face, "I want to eat you so much." Instead of a fear, Jennifer was embarrassed. Cheeks reddened, and excitement pleasant waves began to disperse around her body. Robert felt it, and now he don't know what the hell he did wrong. Why did the admission of his true intentions cause her such a strange reaction? What's wrong with this crazy woman? Did the long absence of relationship with the opposite sex so affect her? Grey cursed and pulled her to him, biting her lips with a passionate kiss. The girl groaned under the pressure and only Robert dutifully replied. The feeling of being sucked out of her life force began to constrain every movement. Warm blood filled her mouth and a thin stream began to flow down the chin. She felt he was killing her. Ruthlessly tearing from the inside out, causing terrible pain. Jennifer wanted to push him away, but she didn't have the strength. The pain was mixed with excitement, giving the whole thing some masochistic effect. Never before had the girl experienced such. Something broke inside and a loud siren filled the corridor. "What did you just do to me?!" cried from the horror of Jen, looking at Robert, who was now for some reason, the image of a clown. "I showed you what will happen to you. Very soon." He laughed out loud in the hospital corridor. The girl watched in horror behind him until, until he disappeared. Wiping the blood from her chin, Jen ran to find a way out. But there was no way out. * * * Jennifer woke up from her own dream, screaming. Cold perspiration stood on her face, and her hands trembled treacherously. The flight attendant that was so close in time, had already stretched her a glass of water and a sedative pill. Without thinking, Jen drank the medicine, draining the glass completely. "You're all right, miss?" the stewardess asked anxiously. "Probably", the brunette answered, wiping the sweat from her forehead. "I was afraid you wouldn't wake up. But, fortunately, all went well", tried to encourage the employee of the aircraft. "We'll be landing in fifteen minutes, so fasten your seat belt and try to relax." The girl nodded and complied. Glancing out the window, Jen could see the outline of Bangor through the clouds. She frowned, trying not to attach any importance to the stupid dream. But it was so real that familiar taste left on the lips and in the mouth it was filled with blood. Jen licked her lips, instantly remembering kissing with Robert. God, did she miss him so much? No way! Obviously something is wrong with him, but the girl could not understand what. Why did this asshole continue to sit in her head even after almost a month since their last meeting? Jen couldn't explain it. Maybe a vacation in Derry and spending time with his father will help to forget him completely? Jennifer really hoped that talking to dad would help distract her.

#space dementia #fanfiction #fanfic #my fanfic #jennifer x robert #jenniwise #Jennifer Wright #Megan Fox #bill skarsgard #pennywise #pennywise x reader #romantic #love #My character

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truxblooded · 6 years

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Original Marvel/MCU Avenger:

Full Name: Joanna “JJ” Jane Reeves

Alter Ego: Titan || Captain Universe

Identity: Kept secret from the public

Species: Half-human / Half-Titan (Eternal)

Citizenship: American

Place of Birth: Bronx, New York

Known Relatives:

Ellen Reeves, mother (deceased, murdered)

Jimmy and Harriet Reeves, grandparents (deceased)

Eros (aka Starfox), father (alive)

Alars (aka Mentor), grandfather (alive)

Sui-San, grandmother (deceased, murdered)

Thanos, uncle (alive)

Thane, cousin (alive)

Gamora, adopted cousin (alive)

Nebula, adopted cousin (alive)

Physical Attributes:

Height - 5′9″

Weight 166lbs

Hair - Brunette

Eyes - Golden brown / burning cold blue

Face Claim: Missy Peregrym

Partnerships:

The Avengers

The Defenders

Spider-Man

The Nova Corps

Guardians of the Galaxy

Asgard

Powers/Abilities:

Superhuman strength, spedd, hearing, vision, durability, stamina, and longevity

Rapid Cellular Regeneration

Heat vision, X-Ray vision

(non-superhuman ability) Has a mastery level of freerunning/parkour

(non-superhuman ability) is well versed in several forms of hand to hand combat including Muy Thai, kickboxing, taijutsu, keys, and dirty street fighting

Is capable of picking up Mjolnir, but refuses to ever do it again

After returning from the dead…

is currently the acting avatar of cosmic entity known as the Uni-Power and is thus the currently acting Captain Universe, and thusly has acquired on top of her already there powers and abilities:

Uni-Vision: a sort of cosmic consciousness. Captain Universe can sense things on a subatomic level or at a great distance. This power can also force someone to tell the truth.

Matter/Energy Manipulation: Captain Universe can divert an energy flow in a different direction or convert it into a different type of energy. Diverting the flow of gravitons, for example, allows flight. Captain universe can also change matter on the atomic level, for instance, to transmute one substance into another or to change an object’s shape.

The costume (or the Uni-Power itself): Protects against extremes in temperature and even the vacuum of space.

Bio:

Born to a single mother, Dr. Ellen Reeves - a renowned professor of cosmology - and raised in the Bronx, JJ Reeves was kept completely unaware of who her biological father was, only being told that he’d had left them several months before she was born. While Ellen had done her best to paint a positive picture in JJ’s mind concerning her father’s absence by telling her that he was called away by duty, and only wanted to protect them from a very real danger his presence would bring; JJ only soon came to hate her absent father passionately when her mother fell terminally ill with ovarian cancer. JJ’s hatred for her father would only increase over the years until ultimately becoming a smoldering rage when her mother was murdered because of him.

Ellen Reeves was well aware of what her daughter would face as she grew up… grew into her genetic heritage as the man who was the biological father had explained it all to her. When Ellen was going into her fifth year teaching cosmology at ESU as apart of the Astrophysics department in 1980, she happened to come across an interesting bit of lost research in one of the old unused storage rooms that were going to be cleaned out and repurposed. The research revolved around possible findings of civilization on Saturn’s moon Titan. Her delving into this old research caught the eye of someone in particular rather quickly, and Ellen soon found herself meeting a man who introduced himself as Eron; a professor who was likewise minded in the field of cosmology and expressed interest in her uncovering of the old research that had been stored away and forgotten. For about six months the two worked side by side delving further into the research, expanding new branches out of the work, and grew closed in both their work relationship and friendship. Ellen soon found her friendship with Eron becoming far more flirtatious and moving towards something far more romantic and approached the subject hesitantly with him.

Where Ellen was cautious, Eron was ecstatic over the idea of them becoming more and soon after the two became heavily involved with each other. In 1985, Ellen found out she was pregnant and broke the news to Eron excitedly only to have his reaction be the exact opposite of what she was expecting. Where she expected celebration and happiness, Ellen found herself being seated and have revealed to her that Eron was in fact not Eron… and was not from the planet Eath. His name was Eros and he was from Saturn’s moon Titan, and was an Eternal (or as those who lived on Titan now called themselves Titans).

Eros explained everything to Ellen, going into detail where she asked and showed her everything he was capable of as a super powered being… divulging to her everything relating to his powers of empathy and emotion control. When these were explained, Ellen had begun to develop serious doubts and frustrations over whether or not their relationship, their romance, HIS love for her and her for him, had all even real or had been him manipulating her just to make sure she never discovered the truth about the civilization and settlement of the colony his father and mother had rebuilt and developed on Titan. When Eros explained that he had at first but then eventually fell in love with her on his own, Ellen was still enraged and heart broken to know that there was still a lie and that she had been manipulated despite Eros trying to explain that he had long stopped using his powers after those first six months that they had known each other. Angry and hurt, Ellen stormed out of their shared apartment and headed out for a walk to calm down and to be as far away from the man who had lied to her. By the time night had fallen. Ellen was still out and eventually made her way back home, only to be confronted by a small group of boys who were planning to not only mug her but rape her as well.

Before they could advance on her. Eros arrived and beat the entire group to within an inch of their lives for even daring to lay a finger on Ellen. While still angry with everything that had been revealed to her, Ellen returned home with Eros and while watching him fret over her and their baby, Ellen lost most of her anger but still felt a lingering sense of deceit. Over the months of Ellen’s pregnancy, Eros regained Ellen’s trust and the relationship slowly mended. Around the seventh month of Ellen’s pregnancy the pair had gone over all the possibilities of what would be their child’s future as essentially a child of two worlds. In secret Eros had built up a small facility far up north and nowhere near civilization, away from eyes and ears, where he could eventually take their child to train and learn how to use their Titan abilities when they came into them.

Unfortunately, Eros’s plans were disrupted and destroyed when he received a distress signal from Titan, his father begging him to come back as their home was being attacked by Thanos - A’lars other son and Eros’s brother - and his own personal army he had amassed. Distressed, Eros explained to Ellen what was going on, begging her forgiveness and pleading for her to understand him needing to leave. Promising to be back before their child was born, Eros still left Ellen with several things… just in case. Eros left Earth, the woman he loved and the mother of his child, and his unborn child… and never returned.

On April 1, 1983, Ellen Reeves gave birth to a daughter - Joanna Jane Reeves - at Metro-General Hospital and began raising her as a single mother in a small apartment in the Bronx. For the first few years of her life, JJ never exhibited any signs of being no different than any other human baby, save for the fact that she never seemed to express any signs of pain or had any visible signs of injury on herself despite the normal and occasional accidents all children tend to have as toddlers. It wasn’t until JJ was six that her abilities began to manifest more predominately. Whether she acquired a scratch or bled like any child would from tripping or falling, gain a bump after conking her head on a corner (in fact that corner would be a bit dented or cracked depending on the material), JJ would heal rapidly right before he mother’s eyes. No trace or sign of injury would remain on her. She was never sick and never expressed any discomfort to the weather temperatures. When she ten-years-old and coming home from school one day, JJ was a bawling mess of tears and almost inconsolable. After Ellen got her to clampdown, JJ told her mother through small hiccups and sniffles that she saved one of her friends from being hit by a car and that the car had hit her instead. The car had obviously done nothing to JJ, or so it seemed as JJ’s rapid healing had kicked in and every and all broken bones healed instantly. JJ explained that the car was still damaged badly in front from hitting her and that her friend who she had saved ran away terrified and screaming, calling her a freak and a monster.

Ellen didn’t know how this whole incident would be handled or responded to the next day and took JJ to school herself. When it seemed as though nothing was out of the ordinary at the elementary school the next day, Ellen left JJ to her school day. JJ came home again crying and upset, telling her mom that no one would play with her and everyone called her names and told her to stay away because she was “scary”. Ellen did her best to comfort her daughter and explain that she wasn’t “scary”, she was special like her father and that one day everyone would see that including her. For the rest of her elementary days, JJ was shunned and was soon bullied when she started junior high. It was in junior high her powers and abilities exploded when a group of boys had concerned her after school, shoving her into the lockers and harassing her. Begging for them to stop and leave her alone, it wasn’t until one of the boys had attempted to rip her shirt off that JJ acted out in self-defense and swing wildly at the boy. The blow that landed flung him across the hall into the other set of lockers denting them inwards from the impact of the force that threw him. Terrified of what she had just done and from the boys closing in on her to retaliate, JJ tried to run and when she did she was suddenly gone from the school hall and found herself throttling through the school back doors, snapping them clear off their hinges before careening straight into the side of a dumpster and buckling the metal container in half.

Scared out of her mind JJ ran for home and showed up there in less than ten seconds flat, hysterical and scared. Telling her mother everything that had happened, JJ told her mother how badly she had wanted to hurt those boys, to hurt everyone making her life a nightmare at school. While Ellen understood where her daughter was coming from and expressed her own fear over everything going on, Ellen explained to JJ that while she had the ability to obviously hurt others easily given her newfound abilities, that she now also had a responsibility to use these new abilities wisely. A responsibility that she couldn’t enforce on JJ but hoped that she would utilize. When it still seemed like JJ wouldn’t possibly listen, Ellen took her daughter over to her grandparents house and had her sit with her grandfather for a few hours and listen to him recount his war stories from serving during World War II and everything he and his fellow brothers in arms faced. Eventually he came around to telling her about Captain America, and everything that he had witnessed while fighting alongside the super soldier who had given his life to protect the world. How ultimately the war was won and the Nazis defeated, because people who could make a difference and wanted to see goodness prevail in the face of evil, fought for it; that the “bigger, stronger person stood up for the little guy who couldn’t protect themselves”.

While she struggled with not using her abilities to enact revenge on her tormentors and bullies at school, JJ began exploring just what sort of extents or limitations her abilities had and just what else they could entail. All through high school she tested her durability and found she was completely capable of taking a full force punch from a grown man without even flinching, any and all forms of standard street weapons were capable of harming her but her rapid cellular regeneration kicked in split seconds after the inflicted wounds. Every time she recovered from anything bigger - car impacts, being thrown out high story windows and hitting the ground or parked vehicles, even being caught in a gas station explosion - her body seemed to grow stronger, recover quicker. She tested her strength and she was strong. insanely and inhumanly strong (many an alarm clock was destroyed from unrestrained tired swats, a few even finding themselves backhanded across the room and imbedded in the wall of her bedroom), she could stop a speeding train with just her two are hands. lift a fully loaded SUV like it was an empty cardboard box, punch a hole through three feet of solid steel. And she was fast. She could run from the apartment she lived in in the Bronx with her mom, to the high school (Bronx Science) in ten seconds flat, run from the Bronx to Queens in fifteen seconds, her reflexes were split second reactions and too fast for the human eye to perceive. Around the end of the high school is when she discovered her hearing and vision were superhuman; she could hear her mother’s heartbeat when she focused and could hear the difference that made it her own next to someone’ else’s, she could see things from far distances with utter clarity as if they were no more than a foot from her when she focused… she could see through 99.9% of all materials no matter the thickness with an x-ray vision, finding it impossible though to see through lead (which made sense to her seeing as how x-rays cannot penetrate through lead).

JJ graduated high school and attended ESU much to her mother’s delight and expressed huge interest towards cosmology like her mother, gravitating towards the more thermonuclear physics aspect of it as well as the astrophysics. And it was in her first year at ESU that Sara first encountered Dr. Bruce Banner during a lecture he guest spoke at and her mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Prior to Captain America being discovered and uniced, JJ had started acting as a bit of a vigilante of sorts in he room borough of the Bronx. She acted mainly during the night and occasionally in broad daylight but always did so in some form of concealment. When her mother’s illness got to the point where she could no longer teach and the hospital bills were starting to pile up, JJ took up several part time jobs for a courier business, and then even picked up an overnight delivery position for another courier that dealt with warehouses. JJ struggled balancing her college education with her four jobs, taking care of he mother, and protecting the Bronx itself. One of JJ’s defining moments in her early years of vigilantism, JJ faced off against The Abominatrix and in the scuffle to protect the people in the surrounding area and defeat said baddie, half the West Village was turned into a war zone and JJ was on display in broad daylight for everyone to see. Thankfully she had been able to keep her identity hidden decently well and also managed to KO her first “super villain” after a drawn out battle she hadn’t been expecting to encounter on a courier delivery to a private medical office in lower Manhattan.

When the alien invasion incident occurred in New York that introduced the world to The Avengers, JJ happened to be just a few blocks outside of the main hot spot of the fighting that day. Instead of running like everyone else, JJ ran towards the danger. She helped keep the evacuating and fleeing citizens safe, catching falling rubble when alien speeders zipped by and opened fire, and even engaged many of the aliens when they came flying overhead on strafing runs. Her actions that day didn’t go unnoticed despite her attempt to remain ambiguous and disguised by pulling her jacket’s collar up over the lower half of her face, she was tracked down by S.H.I.E.L.D. a few months later.

Agent Coulson had been the first to approach her while she was working on deliveries for one of the courier operations, looking to recruit her to S.H.I.E.L.D., to The Avengers Initiative. JJ denied ever being anywhere near the incident and when Agent Coulson was distracted by a sudden disruption not far from them, JJ used her super speed to give the agent the slip. She was tracked down again later that night. JJ had just intervened to stop the robbery of the little bodega of a 24hr corner store she frequented every night and knew the old Indian man who ran it almost on a personal level of friendship, when Agent Coulson and three other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents confronted her just a block from the store. This time Agent Coulson brought up the subject of her mother and JJ snapped in immediate response to this. She had Agent Coulson by the throat and had him off the ground, daring the other two agents with him to shoot her and threatened to snap his neck then and there for bringing her mother into any of this. That was when HE stepped up from his place still in one of the SUV’s that Coulson and his partners had arrived in. Steve Rogers, Captain America himself, stepped up to calm her down and then asked Coulson and the agents to let them have a moment when he noticed how he had her complete and utter (wide-eyed) attention.

It would be Steve who ultimately recruited JJ into The Avengers and personally took her under his wing to help her train her abilities to refine them into something more controlled. She was introduced to Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, not long after recruitment along with Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye. JJ helped aid Steve during the events of the Winter Soldier and HYDRA’s attempt to completely take over S.H.I.E.L.D. and resurface, where in which she met and became friends with Sam Wilson. Prior to the events involving Ultron, JJ would slowly meet the other Avengers and immediately found herself a friend in one of the several individuals she looked up to in the field of science, Tony Stark, who was more than excited to help her test out and further examine the extent of her powers and abilities beyond what she had been able to push them herself. It was immediately following her introduction to Tony that JJ was introduced to Pepper Potts and found a profound friendship with the redhead. JJ also befriended her other long time idol Dr. Bruce Banner, after having a massive fangirl moment of blushing, stuttering, and just awed silent awkward staring. Right before JJ began helping Sam tracking down Bucky, Steve introduced JJ to the God of Thunder himself, Thor. During events involving Ultron, JJ worked with Sam to track down Bucky despite cold leads. When the fight erupted in Sokovia, JJ was ready to run in and help, but was ordered to stay back for now, only to come in with Fury and Rhodey to help evacuate the trapped Sokovians.

In recent events, the last few months had become increasingly difficult in JJ’s personal life as her mother’s fight with ovarian cancer escalated as the cancer had spread and become terminal. Thanks to Tony, Ellen Reeves was moved into Metro-General hospital and started receiving treatments to battle her cancer back and stave it off, but ultimately Ellen was given less than four months to live. JJ had returned to protecting the Bronx, and only being called in to act as an Avenger when it was absolutely necessary as she wanted to stay as close to her mother as possible. A few weeks after her mother’s admittance into Metro-General, JJ soon discovered another ability of hers - self-propelled flight - with the help of Tony, and also discovered her flight speed surpassed that of her land speed. During an incident with a super villain known as Nightmare, JJ was subjected to hallucinations that started to provoke the rise of another ability she had yet to discover - heat vision.

As Ellen’s condition started to deteriorate more and more, she decided it was time to reveal to her daughter everything concerning her father and who she was because of her heritage. Ellen recounted the entire story of how she first met and fell in love with her father when she first knew him as Eron, and the divulged that Eron was in fact an Eternal from Titan named Eros. And thus explained to JJ that she was in fact half-Titan… half-Eternal… half-alien, and this was why she was born into such powerful abilities. She told JJ the real reason behind why her father was absent from her life, about how her father’s brother, and thusly her uncle as well, Thanos had amassed an army and attacked their home on Titan and was called back by their father to help. She explained that her father had prepared a facility hidden from the world somewhere up far north for her to learn all about her Titan heritage, and be trained there by her father to control her abilities and powers… a plan that never saw it’s enactment. Ellen Reeves then handed over to JJ the necklace she had always worn, a simple chain and astrological like pendant, that wasn’t just some trinket. The pendent had been given to Ellen by Eros, it was the key to entry to the facility and also housed the coordinates to its location. Dumbfounded and understandably shaken by all of this, JJ refused to acknowledge any of it for a while and kept it a painful secret from everyone for a while.

Metro-General hospital was attacked by a force armored humanoids that were later to be discovered as elite chitauri soldiers, Ellen Reeves was murdered violently in front of JJ on direct orders from Thanos to do so. JJ had fallen into a moment of utter depression after that but soon snapped out of it a week later and activated the pendent her mother had given her to retrieve the facility coordinates. She needed to find the facility her father had built, learn about her father, and learn about the monster that had her mother murdered in order to chase him down and seek her revenge.

A few months after her mother’s death and finding out the truth of her parentage concerning her father, JJ received an off-world transmission via the facility her father ha built that she had begun to dub as the “Arctic Hell”. The transmission she received was from the planet Xandar, and it was being sent by The Nova Corp, asking for her to com rendezvous with them on the dark side of the moon for a very much needed discussion. After looking up that the archives in had on The Nova Corp, Sara agreed to meet them and travelled to the dark side of the moon where she not only met with The Nova Corp but also the Inhumans. The Nova Corp had sent one of their centurions - Richard Rider, also going by the codename of Nova, who was also of Earth as well - and after presenting the Corps offer in bringing her to Xandar to train her in ways that one on Earth would be able to help her with, JJ left with Nova to Xandar. On Xandar, Sara was reunited for the first time with her father Eros/Starfox, who she immediately attacked on sight and pumped repeatedly until Nova managed to somehow pry her off. During the extended period of time (six months) that JJ spent on Xandar, she trained specifically under and with Nova, and occasionally got into a few bristling spats with her father whenever he attempted to approach her and make peace. It was during her training period on Xandar that JJ was informed of exactly why The Nova Corp had come looking for her specifically: Her father had come to them bearing news that Thanos was on the move to being launching his campaign in full force to find the Infinity Stones, and had requested they somehow find a way to bring JJ to Xandar to be prepared in facing her estranged tyrannical uncle.

A sudden conflict with Thanos would bring JJ in contact with Guardians of the Galaxy, and have her facing off against her uncle The Mad Titan sooner than expected. While JJ was indeed strong enough and far more powerful than Thanos expected from the half-Titan child of a niece, he still gained the upper hand when he distracted her focus by bringing up her deceased mother he had had murdered to flush both Eros and her out. His distraction sent JJ into a blind rage where he caught her with a deadly now, driving his fist straight through her chest when she charged recklessly. Distraught and enraged, both Nova and Eros took over the fight alongside Star-Lord and the other Guardians. Amidst the battle, something prompted Rocket to leave with Groot, taking JJ’s body with them and head for the Nova Corp base where they kept the power stone that Thanos was there to take for his own. Breaking into the vault, Rocket and Groot managed to take the power stone out and on that prompt that Rocket was still unexplainably feeling, they shoved it into JJ’s chest. The stone revived JJ and violently brought her back to life and super charged her abilities to an overflow that when returned to the battle she was easily able to overwhelm and beat back Thanos to the point he pulled his forces entirely from Xandar and retreated. In one last show of power, JJ destroyed several of the transport ships that were leaving, obliterating them with her bare hands.

In a nearly difficult stand-off, the stone was removed from JJ’s chest and placed back in the vault. JJ’s body would remain on the mend even as she returned back to Earth with Nova to prepare for Thanos to soon show up after he licked his wound and recollected himself. During the time that JJ had returned to Earth, she had begun to suffer from severe bouts of PTSD that would push her in violent destructive outbursts whenever anything triggered the memories of her own death and even that of her mother’s. JJ began to spend more and more time in seclusion as she was too terrified of possibly hurting her loved ones, her body feeling as though it were no longer under finite control anymore when it came to her powers and abilities, feeling as if at any moment she was going to completely come undone and be unable to hold back whatever was trying to burn its way out of her. Whether it was in Tony’s personal garage rebuilding things after completely dismantling them, or off out pouring through the archives in Arctic Hell, JJ kept herself away from The Avengers and her friends while still performing her heroic duties of saving the world from itself and other threats it couldn’t handle alone.

During the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, JJ had gone down to release a baby albino alligator she had rescued on a whim from horrible living conditions in a scuzzy excuse of a zoo that she shut down with local authorities. She had originally taken the baby gator back to Avengers Tower, but after facing a massive backlash from EVERYONE about it being there to the point of feeling like she was being shunned all together, JJ took the gator to a piece of the Florida Everglades that was a protected wildlife reserve. Releasing the gator she had decidedly stuck around Florida to begin helping in the recovery efforts following the destruction of the hurricane. The hurricane’s destruction had done damage far greater than anyone realized right away; the army had been in the middle of transporting The Abomination to Cape Canaveral to have him detained and shot off into containment in a prototype prison facility attached adjacent to the International Space Station. The hurricane had blown its way through and in the destruction of Mother Nature, Abomination was able to break containment and began rampaging through the area towards Tampa.

JJ responded while in the middle of clearing out debris and as their fight ensued, Sara felt herself losing control of herself entirely. Terrified she would harm too many innocent people as they fled if she fought back, JJ allowed Abomination to pummel her for as long as it took for the area to be entirely evacuated. Once she heard the “all clear” from the military, as General Ross had rolled in almost immediately the second Abomination had broken free, JJ unleashed everything. The result - the residual build up of the power stone’s presence had fed and grown off JJ’s half-Titan heritage inducing powers and abilities to the point it was out of control, and thus when she used her heat vision in full force for the first time ever with no restraint, the power overwhelmed her. From the inside out, JJ was ripped apart and incinerated, and the Avenger known as Titan died in a literal blaze of glory while also taking Abomination with her.

While JJ physically died, her soul… her very essence of existence ended up in what she could only call as “the in-between” and found herself in the presence of Someone she didn’t know or recognize, but felt comforted by them just being there. That Someone and her spoke for a while, discussed various topics ranging all through her love of space and the worlds she had seen beyond Earth already, and even discussed more cosmic existences and things she had no clue of. And then, Joanna Reeves blinked… and she stood in the middle of the apartment she had lived in with her mother all her life in The Bronx… the apartment that Tony bought for her when her mother died… her home… and she was alive.

#original character #original marvel universe character #original avenger character #original character history and stats

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akaaka04 · 6 years

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To Unknowingly Get to You

Did y’all know today’s a national holiday? It’s someone’s birthday. owob

HAPPY BIRTHDAY @hidewari!!!! AS OF TODAY, YOU ARE NO LONGER A CURSED BOY! You are... an omen man™. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

In the bustling center of downtown Tokyo, a young man in a hand-me-down, yellow hoodie dashes across a parked car to evade the police officer chasing after him. The police officer's shouts of “Stop, thief!” fall on deaf ears as the more agile, much faster, man zooms past gasping citizens with a victorious smile on his face. The police officer trips on a crack in the sidewalk and loses his balance, his arms flailing every which way as he desperately reaches for something to grab onto to prevent from smacking face first onto hard concrete. A nasty THUD sounds behind the criminal’s earshot and he uses this gained opportunity to pick up the pace and turn into an alleyway.

He yelps in surprise when he almost collides into someone coming out of the alleyway and quickly spins on his heel to maneuver around them, but not gracefully enough to not stumble. The criminal lands on his butt, and several bread rolls fall from his pockets. Some aren’t salvageable, having landed in puddles of either rain water from the day before or mystery liquids that seep out from dirty dumpster bins along the walls. The man curses and snaps his head around to glare at the person who ruined his clean get-away only to be met with piercingly blue eyes.

He’s taken aback by the intensity of those eyes, wondering if the person attached to them is staring into his soul or seeing right through him. He blinks and realizes after several seconds that he's locked eyes with a tall, tan skinned woman— a rather pretty one at that. She clutches onto a brown, paper bag full of groceries, having almost dropped it from their near collision. She glances from him to the soggy bread rolls crumbling away at her feet, then back to him. His stomach grumbles loud enough for her to hear, and a frown crosses her features. The police officer that had been chasing him blows a whistle, alerting the criminal that he’s wasted too much time staring at a pretty girl— his one of two weaknesses.

The woman puts two and two together, and to the thief’s surprise, the woman nods her head to the back of a dumpster. Was she… suggesting for him to hide…? He listens for the sound of the police officer’s approaching footsteps to gauge whether or not he should book it or take the woman’s advice, but unfortunately, she makes the decision for him. She drags him by the collar and plops him behind some black garbage bags, raising a finger to her lips to silence him as she stages the crime scene.

She quickly drops some carrots and a leek on the ground just as the police officer rounds the corner in a huff. His nose is heavily bruised and slightly twisted from his fall. He eyes the woman suspiciously when he notices the same bread rolls the thief was carrying by her feet.

“Did you see a man in a yellow sweater come running through here, ma’am? He’s well known around these parts for stealing from food markets and convenience stores.”

The woman’s eyes widen in feigned disbelief. She shakes her head to answer the officer’s question. “What does he steal, if I may ask?” The woman’s voice is calm and collected and… warm, the thief notes. It leaves him feeling… strange, and he’s not sure what to make of that.

“Food of all kinds," the officer replies. "He has an affinity for baked goods from a pastry shop a few blocks away. Much like the ones you see here.”

The woman shifts her weight from one foot to the other and shakes her head again. “Must’ve been after I got here, then. Because if I’d seen him, he’d have stolen my groceries after dropping all of his goodies. Don’t you think?”

The officer considers her hypothetical and nods in agreement. He warns her to stay vigilant and to report the repeat offender should she cross paths with him in the future. She agrees with a friendly smile, and the officer calls for his buddies to keep a lookout for the thief as he turns to leave. She breathes a sigh of relief and whispers that it’s safe to come out now, but when she looks behind the dumpster, the thief is gone. She hopes he didn’t drop all of his dinner and wonders if she’ll see him again. She walks home thinking about him and how she can’t shake the feeling she’s met him somewhere before. She finds that odd.

*****

It’s raining the next time he sees her again. He’s chosen to sleep in a slide at a park unknowingly near where she works, looking for unwanted scraps tossed aside precariously when he finds a half-eaten sandwich in a trash can. He snatches it up and rushes for cover under a gazebo just as it starts to pour, and who does he bump into? Her, having clocked out of work and also running for cover from the rain. The newspaper she used to shield her head from the rain is thinning and ripping apart, so they're stranded together until the rain lets up again. She thinks it’s a small world to have found him again; he thinks it’s shameful to have her see him at two of his lowest points.

He stands as far away from her as possible, only now remembering how badly he must smell to her. His hair is greasy, his hoodie and long-sleeved undershirt are both drenched with sweat and rain water, and his pants are baggy and ripped in several places. And yet, she shows not the slightest sign of discomfort. Either she's not repulsed by the sight of him, or she's a convincing actress. She’s wearing a long, black coat today that shows off her petite figure and if he were in better spirits, he’d be charming her to the moon and back. He fidgets anxiously and considers making a run for the nearest tree to avoid her, but she quickly digs into her purse and fishes out a granola bar and an uneaten banana she couldn’t finish from her lunch.

She places both on a wooden bench at the center of the gazebo and smiles apologetically for not having much else. As if she owed him something more. He wonders if she's being generous to him out of pity or actual kindness. He's never been one to deny free food, however, and doesn't hesitate to snatch her offerings and bolt back to the slide he's made home for the night without another word. She whispers a "you're welcome" under her breath and sits under the gazebo to listen to the heavy fall of the rain on the wooden roof above her head. She's always loved it when it rains, but tonight's shower storm feels bittersweet. She wonders why.

*****

He's starting to get uncomfortable with how many times she pops into his head, whether by his own doing or not. He's dreamt of her twice since their last encounter, making it four times total that he's dreamt of her since first meeting her. The first time she appeared in his dreams, she had manifested as... a black dog or wolf with those same, blue, piercing eyes of hers and he had no idea how or why he knew it was her. He'd wracked his brain over and over again with what little memories he had left and couldn't come up with anything logical.

The second time she appeared in his dreams, she was still in her dog/wolf form but was accompanied by an old man. The old man kept her tied to a leash with a studded collar, and god was that infuriating to see. She was so loyal and kind to the geezer that it felt... wrong. She didn't deserve to be kept as a pet. She deserved to be free to live a life she wanted. The thief remembered trying to convince her to ditch her "owner" in his dream, but she stubbornly refused, claiming he was all she'd ever known and that he was family. The thief woke up from this dream feeling determined he'd try and change her mind another night.

The third dream started off well, with him and her standing on a bridge together overlooking the sun set. The air was warm, and they were mostly silent and enjoying each other's company. He turned to look at her, to tell her she was a wild animal and that all animals belonged in nature, but he got distracted by the way she longingly smiled into the distance. A mix of sadness and possible homesickness was etched into her features, and he was captivated by her to the point that he forgot about what he'd wanted to say. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but no words came out. The thief only realized a second later that it wasn't her who was the problem-- it was him.

He couldn't hear suddenly, and panic bubbled up in his chest as he watched the image of her fade and warp away from him. His surroundings turned to black and disintegrated into ash before him; incomprehensible images of people he didn't know flashed before him far too quickly for him to understand what was going on, and when he tried to scream, he couldn't. He could feel his throat burn as if he was screaming, which only helped in making him freak out even more. When he woke up, it was almost dawn and he was either sweating buckets from fear or had been sobbing. Or both.

He couldn't remember what the last dream of her had been about-- only that he'd been startled from sleep feeling hollow inside and heartbroken...

*****

He makes it a habit to duck his face while out searching for another meal or a place to rest his head for the night just in case he bumps into her again. Things would be awkward now that she's infiltrated his head space. He'd seen her in passing on one too many occasions and was ravaged by the onslaught of emotions he'd been given from what he now called nightmares. Every time he was-- for lack of a better word-- triggered, he was overcome with grief and an aching head so much so that he'd stagger and feel like the wind was knocked out of him.

On one occasion, he'd fainted from how overwhelmed he'd gotten over her and only came to when a stray dog came over to challenge him for his bed. It would take him several moments to regain his composure and even longer for his head to stop throbbing, so he gave in to the dog's demands and scampered away without complaint.

On particularly rough days, he'd completely ignore his hunger pains and couldn't even bring himself to sit up. It was on one particularly rough day after weeks of having successfully avoided her that she ended up finding him. She'd stumbled upon him per chance while out on a run around a small park. She looked so relieved to see him again until she noticed he was scrunched up into a ball, panting heavily and red-faced. His mousey-brown hair stuck to his face as sweat visibly poured down his forehead and neck.

Her relieved mood changed in an instant as she sprinted across the street-- almost getting hit by a car in the process-- and immediately knelt beside him to press her hand to his forehead. He was burning up with a high fever, his eyes half-lidded and unfocused as she gently cradled his head in her arms. She called for an ambulance to take him to the hospital and rode along with him, her worried gaze never leaving his face. She wasn't allowed to go with him into the ER once the paramedics had wheeled him inside, but she'd be damned if her help for him would only go this far.

She frequently asked the nurses on call what his status was until one of them got fed up with her and shooed her away. She came back an hour later, having called off from work and gone to a flower shop to pick up balloons and flowers in retaliation. One of the nurses, after much convincing, took pity on the blue-eyed woman and let her through to the thief's room. He had accidentally eaten a poisoned snack meant to kill the rats in desperation to have something, anything, to eat and had almost died.

The blue-eyed woman almost burst into tears once the nurse finally left them alone together, taking in the scene of him being hooked up to machines somewhat poorly. The blue-eyed woman tip-toed to his bedside and reached out to tuck him snuggly under the covers after setting his gifts aside, needing a distraction to prevent herself from sobbing on the spot. Perhaps it had been a while, but she didn't remember him being this handsome up close. She was about to sit in the chair provided for her when he weakly began to mumble "Blue... Blue..."

She froze, her body stopping an inch above her seat as she held her breath in anticipation. When he went silent again, she pondered why, of all things, he'd subconsciously chosen to say that.

*****

She went to visit him every day for as long as she could for weeks after that, putting up a great fight with the nurses to let her through each and every time. He'd been starving himself for days before ingesting the rat poison, she'd found out, and couldn't begin to imagine what he'd gone through to do that to himself. She chose to talk to him about her day while he slept, to help him forget about his hardships even if only for a little while. She figured she could've read a book to him instead or let him listen to some calming music, but sharing bits of her life with him felt... right. Like she was talking with a friend. She knew how dangerous this must’ve sounded to anyone rational, and she’d agree with them.

She wasn’t sure how she knew he could be trusted-- she just did.

*****

The one time she’s late to go see him, he’s not in his assigned place. She asks a nurse if he’s been discharged, and when the nurse says “no,” her fear rises. Had he left the hospital still feeling sick? Was he just well enough to survive on the streets again? She immediately regretted taking him here, thinking he’d probably run away for fear of being unable to pay the medical costs. She curses in frustration and hops from nurse to nurse, begging them to help her find him. The nurses do the best they can, but with no name registered on his records, the search proves unsuccessful. The blue-eyed woman is just about to lose hope when a doctor comes down the hallway and recognizes her.

“You’re here for that homeless kid, right? Brown hair, brown eyes? Yellow hoodie?”

“Yes! Yes, I am! Where is he? No one seemed to know where he’d been transferred to.” She replies, a sigh of relief escaping her lips.

“He’s over in the B wing, down this hall and to your right. He seems to call for you in his sleep.” The doctor smirks playfully when she stutters out a “me?”

“It’s good that he’s finally made a friend. Poor kid’s been wandering the streets for years and doesn’t even know who he is.”

She feels her heart sink to the soles of her feet and bites her lip in an effort not to cry. The doctor waves for her to follow him towards the receptionist’s desk.

“You come here so often that I’m gonna certify you as his official visitor. Does that sound ok?”

She nods and thanks him graciously, writing ANA where she’s instructed on the sign-in sheet and on a name tag. Ana follows the doctor’s instructions to his room and hesitates at the door when she hears a flush from the toilet inside.

He’s awake. She hadn’t prepared herself for this part. She inhales deeply and listens for the sound of the bathroom door opening and closing and the sound of his bare feet padding against the linoleum floor as he gets back into bed. Ana counts to three and knocks quietly on the door twice, jumping slightly when she hears him say, “Come in.” His voice still sounds a little tired, but it also sounds... calm. Ana slides his door open and shut behind her, waiting to see how he’ll react now that he knows it’s her. She hears him gasp before she picks up her head to see him, and the room suddenly grows silent.

He’s sitting upright in bed with his hands folded in his lap, staring at her owlishly. She can tell from here that he’s regained some color to his cheeks. He’s showered for probably the first time in months, his hair combed and spiked up instead of its usual flat state. He pushes an empty tray of hospital food to the side and pats the bed, gesturing for her to approach him. Ana doesn’t dare breathe as she hesitantly walks over to him, which makes him smile softly at her. Ana blushes under his warm gaze and lowers herself onto a chair by his side, never once tearing her eyes away from him.

They remain quiet for a few more minutes as they take in each other before them.He’s the first to break the silence for once when he thanks her for all that she’s done. Ana waves a hand to let him know it’s no problem.

“I...” Her voice comes out in a squeak, and she coughs to clear her throat of her nerves. He chuckles at that, and she blushes harder.

“What I wanted to say was... that you don’t have to worry about anything. I’ll pay for it. Your hospital bills, I mean...” She says as she plays with the strap of her purse. He hums and leans back into his pillow.

“You know I’ll never be able to repay you for that.” He comments, frowning. Ana shakes her head and carefully takes one of his hands into hers. She feels a rush of familiarity in doing so and looks up to see he’s wide eyed as well. Ana licks her lips and squeezes his hand.

“You don’t owe me anything. I want to help you. You deserve it.”

He feels tears prick at the corners of his eyes and tries to blink them away rapidly. He’s at a loss for words, but squeezes her hand back reassuringly. Ana saddens at the forlorn smile tugging at his lips.

“...You don’t even know me.” He whispers, voice breaking the slightest bit. “I don’t even know me...”

“I know.” Ana answers. She shifts in her seat and thinks carefully about what she’s about to say next. “I know we’ve never met before, and this... might sound crazy, but I... I feel like I have to do this.” He shifts his gaze from their hands to her face just as Ana leans in closer. “I don’t know why... but I feel like I’m drawn to you.” She admits, a look of honesty in her eyes.

He perks up at that, his nose wrinkling. “Do you mean that?” Ana nods, and he exhales shakily. He scoots closer to her and bites his lip in thought. “Would you... believe me if I said I knew you once?” Ana’s eyebrows raise in confusion. She shakes her head and shrugs, but waits for him to continue on the matter.

“Ever since I first met you,” he clarifies, “I’ve dreamt about you, in another life. Sorry if that sounds creepy...” He smiles apologetically. “I know that doesn’t make any sense, and they could just be weird dreams, but they feel too real.”

Ana nods and takes what he says all in. It doesn’t sound too far-fetched of an idea, all things considered. She’s never been one to scoff at fate or coincidences, and it would explain why she feels the need to be with him despite knowing absolutely nothing about him. But she also can’t prove what he’s said is true because she’s had none of the experiences he’s described to her for herself; it’s almost heartbreaking to her. Ana remembers something important and feels her heart begin to race as the clogs in her brain begin to click into place.

“Hey... Can I ask you something?” She starts, hoping her hunch is on the right track. “Your doctor told me you were talking in your sleep. Did he ever mention that to you?”

The thief nodded, eyes lowered in confusion. Ana felt herself shake in anticipation for her next question.

“Did you know that, back in high school, my friends used to call me ‘Blue?’”

*****

Ana is there for him once he’s finally released from the hospital with a stuffed dog and a home-cooked meal. Ana had bought him a change of clothes after the ones he was brought in were discarded. She thought he looked good in yellow and had gotten him another sweater in the same color as his old one; he was sporting it proudly today.

He’s over joyed to see her once he steps outside and comes bounding over to scoop her up into a bear hug and spins her around, the two of them giggling like children. He sets her down and eagerly waits for her to hand him his presents. She does so with a smile as he brings the boxed lunch up to his nose to sniff it, and his mouth begins salivating.

“You ready to go?” Ana points her thumb over her shoulder.

He nods and then cocks an eyebrow, searching behind her to see what she’s talking about. She laughs and shakes her head.

“I hope you know I’m not letting you go back to fend for yourself.”

“Where else am I supposed to go?”

“With me! Duh.” She boops his nose and is pleased to see the tips of his ears turn red.

“Is... that allowed?”

Ana’s face is smug as she loops her arm around his and begins walking towards the parking lot without answering his question. "So,” she bumps her hip against his as they wait for the light to turn green. “You picked out a name for yourself yet?”

He hums in thought, tapping his chin.

“Yeah. I’ve narrowed it down to two choices.”

“Oh good! Let’s hear them.”

“Satoshi.”

“You don’t... look like a Satoshi. No offense.”

“Really? Aw, man...” He huffs and walks step by step alongside her when she starts moving again. She makes them turn a corner to catch a bus back to her apartment.

“What’s the other name you liked?” She stops them under the shade of a tree right by the bus stop.

“Higemaru.”

Ana’s ears perk up at that, and she whips her head around to cup his face in her hands. “Hige. Please let me call you Hige, and I’ll let you call me Blue.”

Her eyes are sparkling as she says this, and he feels his chest swell with affection. He tries to control the blush threatening to color the bridge of his nose and fails.

“Deal.” He responds with a small grin. Ana squeals in delight and kisses his cheek. Hige almost faints.

#i hope you like your present bb #wolf's rain #hige #blue #hige x blue #red's art #i love one (1) man #and that smol man is Ribbon 💖#special thanks to Alyee for being my beta!

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bittlebarnes · 6 years

Text

The Path of Least Resistance 4/?

Read on Ao3

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 |

Summary:

“How old are you?” Percival heard himself ask absently.

“19, Mr. Graves.” Was Newt’s tight-lipped answer. He sat down on one of the ornate couches and thanked the house elf who had appeared with a tea set.

“You don't have to call me ‘Mr. Graves’. If we're to be married, I imagine you’ll be using my given name quite a bit.”

“And are we? To be married I mean?” -- After his expulsion from Hogwarts, Newt tries to regain his family's favor by entering an arranged marriage.

“Mr. Graves is liking you to know he won't be home tonight,” Wendi appears at Newt's side, a consternated look on her little face.

“Thank you, Wendi,” Newt smiles at her before going back to his book. It's been two weeks since Percival returned to work and he's been diligent about keeping Newt in the loop. If he's going to be late he either sends Wendi or a note to let Newt know not to worry and an apology for missing dinner.

It's different. It’s...nice. He lets his mind wander to a future where he and Percival could be something. Something more than what they are now.

Newt wonders, however, if this goodwill between them can last. Percival is, more than most, a creature of habit, Newt thinks. This recent behavior is anomalous due to stress and changes in his environment but creatures always return to their true natures once they’ve settled. He twists the ring on his finger and tries to remind himself where he stands in their relationship.

No matter how much Newt wants things to stay just the way they are.

"You know I don't want to burden you, Newt, but really. You simply must snap out of this funk you’re in.” Theseus had come to America to visit. A show of goodwill, he’d said, that the Ministry and MACUSA are getting along just fine. The war is over. He was staying with Newt and Percival in their home in the city. Newt tried to welcome his brother but the man spent most of his free time with Percival in meetings. Any time alone with Newt was filled with unwanted advice and pitying looks.

“I’m not in a funk.” Newt pulled his feet up onto the chaise and sighed knowingly. This was a conversation they’d had many times. “I’ve told you, Percival and I aren’t there yet. I’m only 21, Theseus. There’s plenty of time for children. When would Percival even see them anyway? He’s as busy as you are.”

“Newt, you know it’s not the same.”

Newt did know. Plenty of Omegas his age are already on their second or third pregnancies. Many of Percival’s contemporaries already had large families. Theseus’ new wife was expecting and they’d only been married six months. Suddenly, Newt’s empty nest was starting to look a certain way.

“What do you want from me? I didn't ask to come here, Theseus. This wasn’t my decision. You can’t foist me off on a strange Alpha on the other side of the world and just expect me to lay up and bear his children. You know this isn’t the life I wanted.” Newt tries to keep his voice even but he wobbles near the end, still a frightened boy at heart.

“No,” Theseus agreed. There was a sympathy in his voice that Newt hadn’t expected. Not many were sympathetic towards him, simply disdainful. “But Newt, you must understand and accept that it’s the life you have. You can make the best of it. Now, has Percival been unkind to you.”

“Define unkind.”

“Newt.” Theseus groaned. “I just want what’s best for you. You’re still young and handsome and that’s gotten you this far.” Theseus sat down at the foot of the chaise and held Newt’s gaze. “It’s gotten you and Alpha who’s wealthy and who’s willing to let you work but you must understand that there’s a cost, Newt. And I don’t want the worst to happen.”

“Of course. We shan’t embarrass the family again, right?” Newt snorted, “father would see me institutionalized before he allowed a divorce. Perhaps that's what he’s wanted all along.”

Theseus groaned at the accusation. “Don’t say that. Father loves you very much. He was very concerned about you moving so far away from us but allowed it because of Percival’s character. And a divorce isn’t the worst thing that could happen to you. If you aren't careful, you could wind up with another Omega living here.”

Something vile and poisonous curled in Newt’s stomach at the thought. It was vicious and instinctual and set his teeth on edge.

“Percival would never,” He snapped.

“It’s more common than you think. He’s got the status,” Theseus warned. Newt knew it wasn’t unheard of at all for alphas of a certain prestige to marry a second omega to help carry on their lines.

“He wouldn't do that to me,” He asserted still, certain, “I have every intention of delivering him an heir so it won’t be a problem.”

Theseus didn’t look convinced but nodded all the same.

“I just worry about you, little brother. I know this has been hard on you but you’re so strong, Newt.” Theseus took his hand then and squeezed. It was a rare show of affection, one that almost startled Newt. “You must guard yourself. Don’t give Percival a reason to make your life more difficult.”

For a moment, Newt wondered if Percival had divulged something to Theseus. Something that would worry Theseus about his future.

But Percival had made promises and, if anything, Newt trusted him to keep his word. He was safe with Percival. He always would be.

Newt makes the decision on a whim. If he wants this thing between he and Percival, this peace, between them to last, he may have to leave his comfort zone. It’s frightening but cowardice would leave them back where they started.

Or worse.

It’s this sudden spike of bravery that has him packing up the meal Wendi made and apparating to the Woolworth building. Percival’s thrown himself back into his work with a fervor but his health still worries Newt.

He knows his way to Percival’s office this time and bypasses Auror Goldstein’s office despite her double take.

When he finds himself outside of Percival’s door, the dread returns. This was a terrible idea.

“He’s in there.” He hears a voice behind him say. It’s a witch, pretty and blonde. “He’s been in there all day so I’m sure he’ll be happy to see a friendly face. You don’t have to worry.” She tosses him a wink and pats him on the shoulder before leaving.

It’s weird but it does make him feel better. Even if Percival is angry, he’ll just go home and eat alone like normal.

He knocks.

The door swings open on its own, Percival not even looking up from his desk.

“Yes?” He sounds irritated.

"Percival?” Percival’s head snaps up, a shocked look on his face.

“Newt? What are you doing here? Surely not another class trip.”

“No. I actually bro-brought you dinner. Wendi cooked so you don't have to worry.” Newt says in a rush. Percival’s eyes finally hone in on the basket in Newt’s grasp.

“Oh, Newt,” He says, his voice soft, “thank you.” He stashes his pen before getting up from his desk. He gestures for Newt to sit down on the couch before joining him.

“I'm sorry if I interrupted.” Newt sets the basket between them and begins fishing things out.

“No. I needed the distraction." Percival accepts an offered napkin.

Newt doesn't know what to say. He and Percival rarely shared conversations over meals when they were at home let alone in the man’s office. Percival was rarely home early enough to attend meals and if he did, Newt usually ignored him in favor of grading papers. If they did speak, the topics proved to be mostly surface level in nature.

“Things are going well? With you being back in the office?” He ventures. It’s a poor opening but he hopes Percival appreciates the effort.

“Hm? I wouldn't say well but they're going. It’s been more frustrating than anything.” He stops to chew and silence laps over them again.

Finally, Percival looks up at him, his brows furrowed. It looks almost as if he’s seeing Newt for the first time.

“Newt, you’re a magizoologist.”

“Um, yes. I am.” Where in the world could this go?

“Do you know what an Obscurus is?”

That’s...not what Newt expected.

“Of course. I teach a section on them in my class. It’s the manifestation of the repressed energy within all magical children. For one to be created, the child would have to endure extreme abuse. They’re quite fascinating. I’ve never encountered one in real life but the man who previously held my position told some very intense stories.”

Percival looks more enraptured than Newt’s ever seen him in a conversation about creatures. Something’s wrong.

“Why are you interested in Obscurials? You’re not, you’re not pursuing one are you, Percival?” While Newt has always believed in field experience, he always cautioned his students. The textbooks weren’t always right and caution needed to be exercised.

“It’s an open case, Newt. I’m afraid I can’t divulge the details. Just...I might have more questions.”

That’s concerning.

They finish their meal and Newt tries to put the anxiety from his him.

He is not successful.

Newt decides to spend his day off catching up on some reading. There’s an article on mooncalves he’s been dying to dive into but student work has really been taking its toll. Percival's supposed to stop in for lunch and Newt is surprised at himself: he’s actually excited. Thirty minutes before Percival is set to arrive, he gets cleaned up. He fixes his hair and picks out one of his better shirts to wear.

Wendi sets out a nice lunch tray for them and actually smiles at Newt. It's just a day of surprises. He grins when he hears the front door open and goes to greet his husband.

“Newt! Good, you're home.” Percival's smile is exhausted but there nonetheless. It’s who’s with him that drowns out Newt's sudden goodwill. “This is Credence. He's going to be staying with us for the foreseeable future.” future.” Percival's smile still hasn't faltered even though Newt swears the room is suddenly 20 degrees cooler.

Underneath the sour smell of unrealized magic is an unmistakable sweetness. Percival's brought another Omega into their home. Newt wants to shred him.

He never thought Percival would take it this far, that Theseus could possibly be right. The humiliation.

His recent kindness? The ground they’d gained in their marriage? Had it all been for show? For this boy?

Something must show on his face because Percival clears his throat and calls, “Wendi? Will you please take Credence upstairs to help him get settled? I think I need to speak with Newt alone.”

“Of course, Mr. Graves. You is following Wendi now?” the boy looks mystified at the little elf but follows her dutifully. He quietly shuffles past Newt without meeting his eyes.

As well he shouldn't, Newt thinks venomously.

“I'm sorry I didn't let you know I'd be late. Dealing with Credence’s situation has been tricky, to say the least. It took a lot to get clearance for him to stay with us.” He hangs up his coat and loosens his tie. “Hopefully things won't be this way for long.”

“And how do you expect them to be?” Newt asks thickly. Does he still have a place here? Or will Percival want him foisted off somewhere else? That's not uncommon either. Divorce is embarrassing for all involved. Better to ship him off to the country or worse, back to his parents.

“Easier?”

“‘Easier.’” The word doesn’t even feel right echoed on Newt’s tongue, “if you think I'm going to just-just allow this, you are mistaken.”

Percival looks taken aback.

“Newt, Credence needs-”

“I don’t really care what he needs. I won’t have a second in this house. You don't need one. I haven't asked you for much but I won’t entertain a harem.”

“A harem?” Percival's voice is reaching an uncomfortable pitch. “Wait, a second. You think-Credence is not going to be a second omega.”

“Then why is he here?”

“Because needs my help! He's part of the case I'm working! Mercy Lewis, Newt!” Percival looks more taken aback then Newt’s ever seen him. You think so little of me? That I would just parade another Omega into our home? Your home? Newt-"

“I heard your mother talking. She's been looking for a new omega for you for months. Ever since you told her you didn't want me anymore."

The silence between them is deafening. Newt feels his chest heave and wonders where the sudden burst of anger came from. Percival goes pale but doesn't deny the accusation. He can't.

“That wasn't a conversation you were supposed to hear.” He says finally, his voice quiet.

“But I did. And now you've kept your word.” The anguish Newt feels is unexpected. It sits like acid at the base of his spine. Newt feels awful, like an absolute failure. “I think I'm going to vomit,” he says.

Percival takes him by the arm and guides him to the kitchen. Newt takes a seat while Perical gets him a glass of water.

He tries not to cry.

Percival sets the glass on the table next to him.

Newt wipes his eyes tiredly.

“If you want me to move Credence-”

“It’s fine. You said he’s a guest, then that’s that.” Newt tries to keep his voice even but it comes out harsh nonetheless. “This is your home.”

Percival doesn’t flinch per say but his composure slips, just for a second. There’s a crack in his carefully cultivated facade that Newt hasn’t seen before.

“It’s-it’s your home too, Newt,” He says quietly, “It’s our home.”

Newt fights the sudden urge to snort. “I’ve been derelict in my marital duties. Theseus warned me this would happen.”

“Warned you of what? That I’d bring a second omega into our home?”

“Because I haven’t given you an heir. You want someone you desire.” It’s a crushing admission, one Newt has always feared. He had gone to Percival once at the beginning of their marriage, ready to do his duty, only to be summarily rejected. He’d never tried again.

Percival’s sigh is heavy as he sits down next to Newt.

“Newt...I don’t think I’ve done any of this right,” he tucks a loose curl behind Newt’s ear before cupping his cheek, “but understand this, it is never my intention to disrespect you or your position in our home. I swore you a life of contentment and it would appear I’ve broken my promise.”

“Percival…”

“But maybe this is where we get the chance to start over. When I was with Grindelwald,” he shudders and Newt wants so much to comfort him, “I knew I was going to die. I wanted to at some points. I knew you would never come for me."

“You thought I would abandon you?”

“No, I just didn't think I'd given you reason enough to care.” Percival huffs another sigh, “but you came anyway. You came and you saved my life.”

The urge to cry is suddenly back. Newt doesn't like to think about how close Percival came to death. “I knew something was wrong. I should have come for you so much sooner, Percival.”

“There was nothing more you could have done and I don’t blame you for staying away. I know that you care. I just hope you know that I care for you as well.” Percival’s voice is so gentle that Newt has to fight the urge to curl into him.

It's not love.

But, then again, Newt didn’t marry Percival for love.

“I will never intentionally hurt you,” Percival says and Newt knows it’s a promise, “regardless of whether we have children. I’ll never have a need for a second.” He presses a the softest of kisses to the crown of Newt’s head and Newt breaks. He curls into Percival’s shoulder and finally exhales.

#lynn speaks #gramander #percival graves #newt scamander #lynn writes #tpolr #graves x newt #original percival graves #percival x newt #fantastic beasts and where to find them #fantastic beasts

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pidgelings · 7 years

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How about a list of headcanons for Lance? Just anything that comes to mind. What he does when home alone, is he scared of bees, what's his cooking style (strictly by the book or does he get creative), do birds like him, favourite colour, etc. Anything. Have fun!! And congrats on 100 :D

Interesting! I haven’t really thought about sharing my thoughts on a character and my take on them before outside of AUs –

Of course, I do have a few headcanons that range from obvious to a bit more random and weird, so, let’s jump into them! Oh, and thanks for the congratulations !!

Lance Headcanons

Base Ideas

Boy is an extrovert through and through

We know he’s the youngest so I do see him as being a little spoiled

But, like, it’s the kind of spoiled when he expects to get things and then fight to keep said things

He’s so used to being surrounded by people that he kinda gets thrown off when he’s alone

He can’t sit still and needs to either be doing something or be around others

He’s kinda the guy that’ll call up random friends on Skype or something like that because he doesn’t know what to do and he’s bored

Theater Kid before the Garrison. No doubt

Can be taught anything with the right amount of patience

Wants to send out Good Vibes as much as possible

Gets really thrown off when things don’t go as he expects

[More Under the Cut]

Past Affecting Future

I see his beauty routine coming from having one or two older sisters that had a strict beauty routine themselves and they taught it to him when he was young

His family went to the movies a lot which causes him to remember and recite a lot of movie quotes and taglines

Having a bunch of love and support as a kid caused him to start questioning himself once he got older as that love and support just didn’t exist in the new people he was around a lot (take Iverson from the Garrison)

The speech he gave to Allura in Season 4 is very similar to things his parents and siblings would tell him when he felt doubtful

I want to believe he didn’t have his own room in his house so when we see him sleeping with headphones and a blindfold in Episode 2 of Season 1, that was based on habit from his home life

He was conditioned to be a morning person. There’s no way his family would tolerate him grumpy in the morning

His family took him on many adventures when he was a kid, which kinda made him seek new ones as he got older (which causes him to get into trouble a lot (think him trying to sneak into town with Hunk and Pidge))

He loved growing up in a big family so he wants to have his own big family someday

Self-Doubt

This developed later in life, around the time he got into the Garrison

His Self-Doubt doesn’t cripple him though as much as it causes him to step back and think

He jumps back rather quickly with someone else’s support

He can get knocked down just as quickly as he can get picked back up

He’s the kinda guy who does things because he says he wants to prove himself and the world what he’s capable of but it’s more to the former than anything else

He actually wants to prove his Self-Doubt wrong most of the time(Example: Pidge made him question if he even had a thing at all back in Beta Traz and near the end of the episode he proved to himself and the others that he was worthy of the title “Sharpshooter”)

He knows what it’s like to have Self-Doubt so he hates seeing it when other people have it themselves

Sadly, this can manifest in different ways and some ways are less friendly than others(Think back to Episode 1 when he launches Hunk out of the Blue Lion to get the Yellow Lion after Hunk expressed his worries. Lance was super stressed and seeing Hunk doubt himself at a time like that freaked Lance out so he had to cut the sob show short (even if it made him seem like a bit of a dick))

He uses his knowledge of the feeling to help others with it in short and he always tries to push himself past his feelings

Wacky/Random Headcanons

Star Wars fan rather than Star Trek (he does like Captain Kirk though)

Probably into ASMR and doesn’t tell anyone

Actually really into storytelling and creating (probably loves Roleplaying)

Gives really good relationship advice but promptly forgets all of it the second he meets someone he likes

Absolutely hates being around flowers and trashcans during the Summer because bees just love to crawl into his clothes and sting him (has a huge level of avoidance to bees)

Seagulls and Pelicans have always targeted him for food snatching at the beach so he doesn’t get along with them

He’s a surfer wannabe and can’t surf to save his life (a fished jump onto his board the one time he was doing a good job and he wiped out instantly after he jumped and screamed)

He’s much better at Boogie Boarding and prefers it

He wanted to become a Scuba Diver but his parents made him choose between that or the Garrison. I think you can guess what he picked

He absolutely has to be chewing something when taking off on a plane. Gummy Candy, Gum, or just anything he can chew on until the plane reaches it main altitude (if he couldn’t get something, he swallows his spit A LOT to try to get the same effect). He doesn’t know why but the one time he didn’t, his ears made him suffer for an entire trip (it’s all about equalization (he would’ve learned it if he chose Scuba over the Garrison)) (Bonus: Pidge is the exact same way)

Has probably watched a bunch of videos about the correct way to kiss someone because he does not want to fail his first kiss (he still hasn’t had one)

Does not handle spooky shit well at all -- Please don’t scare this boy --

Talks about his dreams a lot to whoever will listen

They’re, like, weird dreams too that he doesn’t really fully understand when he wakes up“Was it a dream, was it a nightmare? I have no clue --”

Despite being a social creature, family gatherings throw him off

He’s hella awkward during them and it’s really weird because it’s just, like, that’s not the Lance everyone knows and loves

Sings in the shower all the fucking time(He also sings just while getting ready in the morning.)

MIRROR PEP TALKS !! HE DOES THOSE TOO !!

His neck, armpits, and feet are extremely ticklish. In fact, when he was a kid and his mom would try to put sunscreen on his neck, he’d giggle, scrunch up, and run away from her. Only he can touch his neck like that and not giggle.

He doesn’t know if neck kisses will have the same effect on him as the sunscreen, but he’s a little afraid to try because he wouldn’t want to hurt his partner(The sides of the neck are fine for kisses but the throat will cause him to bang his chin on his partner’s head because he’s so ticklish there)

Loves the idea of snow but hates snow itself because he’s so used to things not dropping below 70°F (about 21°C) and he can get cold rather easily (or what he thinks it cold)

Is actually a walking heater and is a great cuddle partner for cold days if you wanna stay warm

He’ll be more than willing to break gender norms if it’ll make someone he cares about happy (like wear dresses for his nieces n’ stuff like that)

Romance Headcanons

Boy is a hopeless romantic, through and through

He’s a softie for whoever he ends up with --

Like, a BIG softie --

The boy will praise his s/o any chance he gets and gush about them to anyone and everyone

The people who have to deal with this might get annoyed very easily

He’s also the one who stresses that communication is important in a relationship and will always tell his partner to tell him if there’s anything wrong

Yeah, he’ll try to hide his own stress from time to time but he’ll always eventually bring it up because hiding it forever won’t fix anything

He’s also really good at reading people so he can tell when something is bothering his partner

He wants to not just be his partner’s boyfriend but also their best friend

If you ask for him to be your friend and not your lover for a conversation, he’ll gladly set his loving bias aside to be that friend that tells you what you need to hear and not the lover who tells you what you want to hear

The boy is emotionally smart (rather than educationally smart) and anyone can see that when they talk to him

Boy is willing to do almost anything for his partner if he’s sure that they’d do the same for him (he wants to be in a mutually beneficial relationship)

Seriously, he can be what you need him to be for a while as long as he knows that when he needs you to be something for a while, you’ll return the favor

If he’s getting married to a girl and she doesn’t want a bunch of eyes on her as she walks down the wedding aisle in a gorgeous wedding dress, he will step up to the plate, wear that dress, and enjoy being in the spotlight

He’ll love someone regardless of where they came from in life

Big on cuddling so cuddles are a must if you’re gonna date him

Loves waking his partner up in the morning with a bunch of loving kisses and snuggles

The hair around the nape of his neck is hella sensitive and stroking/playing with it while relaxing with him will turn him into putty in your hands (Thanks, Tama, for that headcanon~)

Boy is going to try to be one of those fairytale princes for his partner anytime he can but he’ll mess things up a lot more often than you’d expect

When he messes up, though, he tries to play it off like the dork he is --

Will steal kisses from his partner any chance he gets (he loves giving smooches)

Would probably be one of the best dads that spoils his kids because he loves them so much (his partner better be more strict than him if they want their kids to have some discipline)

These are just some of the ideas I have for Lance Headcanons right now. I do have some NSFW headcanons too but I’ll only go into those if people are interested. XD Anyways, thanks for tossing this in and I hoped you enjoyed my ramblings on our favorite Cuban boi --

#Pidgey Chatter #Pidgey Answers #Pidgey Works #Character Headcanons #Lance #Lance McClain #Voltron #Voltron: Legendary Defender #Follower Milestone: 100

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rebuildhq · 6 years

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Ben Barnes || Kurt Wagner || Nightcrawler || X-Men || Identity: Not Common Knowledge || 32 || Cis Male || Bavaria, Germany || X-Men / Teacher & Recruiter at Xavier’s || Unregistered || Unlisted || PLAYED BY BO

biography:

How do you know where you belong, if you don’t even know where you began? Kurt Wagner’s done a lot of thinking on that subject. He’s had to.

The start of his story is a mystery to him; all he knows for certain is that somehow, a baby wound up abandoned in the Bavarian woods. A baby who looked like the devil himself, just, bluer. But a baby nonetheless, helpless and alone. He was found by Margali Szardos, a fortuneteller with a traveling circus, a mother of two. She couldn’t simply leave him; and better yet, Margali could see a place for him in the show. She was right. In a sense. While Margali might have meant well, Herr Getmann, the ringleader, simply had a business to run and money to make. For a time, the demon-child was an excellent investment. A natural acrobat, he soon became the star of the aerial show; his bizarre looks only helped to draw the crowds. Getmann raked in the cash, while his Nightcrawler grew up under Margali’s watch, alongside her children Jimaine and Stephan. They weren’t the kindest siblings, tweaking his elfish ears, pulling his tail, teasing. But he had nothing to measure them against, and they were a kind of family. The whole cast was, misfits all. Still, Kurt, as Margali called him, was soon longing to see beyond the tents and ticket lines. His foster mother warned him that the outside would be much, much different. There’d be no cheering. Only terror, and hate. Kurt listened, crushed. But he had to wonder. Had to hope. People couldn’t be so terrible. He’d get out there, some day. He needed to. There was so much more to know.

Unfortunately, by the time Kurt was eleven, the awe of Getmann’s demon boy on the high wires had become old news. Just some kid in a costume. More tacky carnival nonsense. From Madrid to Moscow, the seats stood emptier and emptier. One night, after an especially disappointing turnout, Getmann summoned Kurt to his tent. A decision had been made. He’d been sold; Arnos Jardine would be adding the Nightcrawler to his act. Not as an acrobatic star, but a prize monster in the freakshow.

Kurt had no choice in the matter. Wrangled and drugged, he woke up chained, in a cage. Like one of those old toothless tigers, the miserable elephants. Like a thing, not a person. Soon, he was shown just how brutal humanity could be: the curtain would go up, day after day, to a burst of gasps and shrieks. Cameras flashed. Jardine would boom away about the creature behind the bars, a demon, a cannibal, a work of dark sorcery. Whatever the story was, that day. Then he’d gather up the euros and leave Kurt in the dark again. As for his “family,” well. There’d been no goodbyes. Maybe they’d known, maybe they hadn’t. He never saw them, there in the freakshow. And Kurt was glad of that.

It all came to an end when his secondary mutation manifested. Drunk and raging over his menagerie’s floundering success, Jardine had decided to take it on his star attraction. Then, as the bullwhip came down, the Nightcrawler was simply… gone. A ripple of smoke, and nothing more. Kurt stumbled into the rocky hills outside camp, not sure how he’d got there, dark smoke curling on the breeze. Suddenly, he was down at the riverbank ahead, up in the treeline, further still. He just wanted to get away, far away. Where didn’t matter, how it was happening didn’t matter. His staggered journey ended in a cool, quiet courtyard. Bloodied and bruised, absolutely exhausted, Kurt curled up in a dusty storeroom corner. Out of the circus, at last. And terrified of what would come next.

That’s how Father Wagner found him the next morning, as he readied for Mass. Shocking as his guest was, the Father was a kind soul. His gentleness earned Kurt’s trust, slowly but surely, over the months that followed. The old man tended his injuries, made him at home. All without prying; the Father asked few questions, demanded no answers. Simply accepted. And Kurt was wholly grateful. It was a peaceful time, the first like it in all his life; hiding in the rafters, he’d listen to the psalms, breathe in the smell of candles. Even if he struggled with the sermons, unable to see a place for himself in the huddled, faithful pews below, the ritual of it all was comforting. But it couldn’t cure his restlessness, and wouldn’t protect him for long.

Kurt tried to stay hidden. He truly did. It was a tiny church, though, in a small village. He wasn’t chained down anymore, and couldn’t help a little exploring. Always by dark, into the woods, the mountains. Where nobody should see. A few stories of a yellow-eyed shadow bounding across the rooftops, those could be brushed off. Children, seeing goblins. Oma squinting at stray cats. That was all. Until he stayed out a little too late, one night, roaming the forest until the dawn - and a couple early morning hunters - caught him. Kurt didn’t even know he’d been seen until a shot struck his side. Terrified and badly hurt, he teleported toward home. Unfortunately, shocked by the pain, Kurt wound up in the village streets instead. Over, and over again, panicking, he tried to find his way. Those hunters weren’t the only ones awake, though. Kurt was seen, screamed at. By the time he collapsed in the nave he was a desperate, shaking mess. And there was a trail. Blood, sightings, shouts. Soon, the townspeople were hammering at the door, calling for the old Father to come out, demanding he explain why some kind of creature was denning in their church.

Father Wagner was about to do just that - trusting in the grace of God and the goodness of humankind, against Kurt’s pleas to stay inside, not get hurt for his sake - when it all stopped. There was one knock more. A single voice. English, American. Slowly, Kurt opened the door. On the other side were people, strange people, and behind them, a growing mob that had simply frozen in place. One of the strangers introduced himself as Professor Charles Xavier. He had an offer: come with him, to the United States. To a safe place. Everyone here would forget what had happened, go home peacefully. The Father would be safe. And Kurt would have a future, at a school for people like him, with the X-men. If he wanted to. Fearing for Father Wagner, knowing the danger if he stayed, Kurt could only say yes.

Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters has been Kurt’s home ever since. For much of that, the campus truly was his everything; the grounds, the manor, that was his whole world. It wasn’t like he could join his fellow students on their field trips, their joyrides into New York City. They could be out there. Pretend to be normal, for a while. Not him. If he was seen, then - it would go like it always went. This family he’d found would be in danger, because of him. That was a risk he couldn’t accept. So he stayed hidden. Studied, read. Tried not to scare the new students. The first time he crossed the fence was as a proper X-man, suited up and on mission. But Kurt didn’t complain. How could he? His dreams always seemed so small, compared to the cost of chasing them. It would be selfish. Ungrateful.

And he was grateful. Only more and more as time went on, and, slowly but surely, that crippling shyness began to fall away. Never completely; but like when he was first making his way in the high wires, Kurt learned to fake all the confidence he needed. Soon, he was making his first true friends. By the time he graduated, he was known as much for his odd looks as his compassion, dedicated optimism, and mischievous sense of humor. That warm intelligence made him a wonderful tutor, then, after several years of coaxing, a great teacher. Kurt was happy, genuinely. Still thought about everything else out there, beyond the manor. But he had such faith in what he served: the school, the X-men. They were doing good work. Important work. All those children who came through their doors, he could see such beautiful futures for them. If that’s what his life came down to - helping others better theirs - he could be satisfied. Despite all he’d miss, for himself.

Then, a couple years ago, along it came: the gift that changed everything.* It wasn’t much to look at, perhaps, but. This little trinket was his greatest wish come true. With its help, he could just… stop being Nightcrawler for a while. Simply be Kurt Wagner. No blue fur, no tail, no fangs. Ten fingers, ten toes. Human, all of him. Until you got near enough to touch, but - for a few hours, so long as nobody came too close, he could look like everyone else. Live like everyone else. Be part of the world, like he’d always wanted. The freedom of it was incredible. Every second is precious, every moment a first of some kind, an experience he’s never known before. Yet, as attached as he’s become to his other face, he won’t wear it on campus. What would that say to the students? He can bear a few stares around the mansion, the jokes and nicknames. Even the odd scream, out of a fresh recruit. Not that it doesn’t hurt, more than he lets on. But if even the Nightcrawler can find a place in things, and walk tall, those kids can too. They just need to believe in that. Like he believes in them.

So, how do you know where you belong, according to Kurt Wagner? You choose. And you stand by it. He’s done just that, through the Accords, a Skrull Invasion, now, some kind of mysterious relocation to a twisted hellscape. Just another adventure. They’ll make it through, the X-men. Together. Like they always do.

#ben barnes #kurt wagner #nightcrawler #rebuildunregistered #rebuildbio

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