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miraculouscontent · 3 years

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Didn’t Need Burrow (April 24th-May 3rd)

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Marinette is exposed to the world as Ladybug by the end of the series. This is largely so Adrien gets to bask in everyone knowing that HE ended up with Paris' protector on his arm, emphasizing her status as a trophy that he won.

This feels too likely, I hate it.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: After being badgered into trusting her with the Fox, Marinette tries to convince Alya that she can't expose herself as Rena Rouge any further, and should take advantage of the Fox's long-range capabilities to stay hidden. Alya dismisses the danger; if she tries hiding at all, it doesn't take long to reveal herself, claiming it's unheroic to hide. Shadowmoth then targets her personally, with Marinette taking the blame.

I WOULD EXCUSE THE FOX THING IF IT STAYED LONG RANGE BUT I’M WAITING FOR THEM TO RUIN IT

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Rather than outing Ladybug, Alya reveals *herself* as Rena Rouge. She claims that this is fine since Hawkmoth already knows her secret identity... and besides, it gives the LadyBlog more cred!

Because why not I guess, the bar for her is already so low.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Marinette will be forced to give up Guardianship/go through the memory wipe... but continue as Ladybug. This is mined for Sadrien AND resets LadyNoir; she no longer recalls all the annoying shit he's pulled, offering a fresh start. May lead into Reversed Rectangular Romance with Chat Noir pining after the old Ladybug while she develops a crush on her brooding partner. He's so ~dark~ and ~mysterious~ and gives her such ~wistful looks~!

Marinette gets to give up guardianship but at what cost. (also, that last line about Chat being dark and brooding)

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: In a Shocking Twist, Emilie is revealed to have been evil and manipulative like Chloe/Lila, and presented as solely responsible for her husband's jerkassery. This sets up GabNath as endgame with Gabriel absolved for all his misdeeds. (Any similarities between Emilie and her son's behavior are summarily ignored.)

Because Adrien is male, obviously. He gets a pass.

Anonymous said:

Didn't need the Burrow: A lot of Adrien's supposed childhood friendship with Chloe was actually with Zoe. Which is supposed to give the new character some instant connections and serves as another proof of Chloe being irredeemable. Bonus: Marinette finds out and whether or not she spills the beans, it will be something she'll get called out for.

So, either a retcon or Adrien comes off as even more of a liar in “Origins.”

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Su-Han will tell Marinette outright that her responsibilities mean she's not allowed to be happy. This is used to garner sympathy for HIM - Isn't it sad how his duties have completely consumed his life? Clearly he needs help learning how to unwind and relax! Meanwhile Mari's drowning in the background, but this isn't about HER, now is it?

I’M SO SAD

WHYYY

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Adrien discovers Gabriel's secret and hides the truth, forbidding Plagg from telling anyone. Not just to protect his father/family, but because he's not ready to stop being Chat Noir. No villains means no reason for heroes, and he doesn't even know his lady's secret identity yet--! Naturally, his reasoning is treated as totally understandable and sympathetic, even as he enables the conflict to continue indefinitely.

“CHAT BLANC” VERSION 2.0 I HATE IT DX

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Hawk/Shadowmoth starts aiming to *kill* the exposed/temp heroes in order to prevent them from potentially joining battles. This only happens during akuma fights (so that it falls upon Ladybug to 'set things right' with her powers). Chat Noir makes minimal (if any) effort to protect them, relying upon his 'partner' to carry the day instead and bring them back.

Ladybug: *trying to save everyone*

Chat Noir: *filing his claws in the background*

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Marinette will be pressured to make others permanent heroes and let them have their Miraculi full-time. This sets up for Hawkmoth to eventually get his hands on the Miracle Box, meaning any Miraculi that haven't been distributed are now in the villains' clutches. Not only does this dramatically cut down her pool of allies, Marinette gets to be guilt-stricken over failing all her duties and not listening to their demands while she had the chance.

Marinette, you’re such a fAilUrE as guardian!!

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Zoe will turn out to be another love interest for Adrien - only it's as the New-Bee with *Chat Noir*, enabling the dreaded Reversed Romo-Rhombus dynamic with Ladybug becoming jealous of their chemistry.

girls are such jealous types, haven’t you guys heard? :)

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Ladybug gets a new default look (for the sake of selling more ML merch in Real Life), trading the spotted onesie for another form-fitting spandex suit that 'highlights her feminine charms' even more. This is treated as a sign of her 'growing up'.

wow i hate it

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Alya shipping Marinette with both Adrien and Chat Noir after finding out her identity.

I am 100% not here for shipping shenanigans.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Alya will be responsible for leading Lila to suspect that Marinette and Ladybug are connected. Though Alya may actually *realize* that she slipped up, she won't warn Marinette about the potential security breach, not wanting her to get upset/any more paranoid than she already is.

And of course, this will be used to make people “sympathize” with her. See, she cAreS about Marinette’s feelings, how can you be mad at her for this??

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: There will be more plots where Marinette's 'lesson of the week' is that she must learn how to better control and suppress her emotions, and that she is literally not ALLOWED to be upset because Hawk/Shadowmoth will win if she does. At the same time, Adrien is encouraged to marinate in his own unhappiness over Ladybug not giving in to his advances. If the danger involved ever comes up, it's presented as purely Ladybug/Marinette's fault for rejecting him.

I’m starting to think some of you are ZAG insiders because wow that sounds likely. DX

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: A recurring theme in episodes featuring the 'girl squad' will be Marinette meddling too much, as her efforts to help them cross boundaries THEY aren't comfortable with. If she dares to bring up their past insistence that friends don't keep secrets, they'll call her out as a hypocrite while refusing to acknowledge their own hypocrisies.

“Marinette’s boundaries? Who??? No, Marinette, what about THEIR boundaries???” - the writers

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Adrien will feel sorry for Chloe and regret the role he played in her losing her Miraculous. This is mainly a vehicle to help explain why everything that went wrong with her/Queen Bee is totally, 100% Marinette/Ladybug's fault, along with showing how forgiving Adrien is and how he 'sees the best in everyone', and is clearly right to do so. Bonus: this is combined with him distrusting the NewBee for not being Chloe/making her jealous.

*sigh*

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Chloe will get akumatized out of anger over the New Bee, and Ladybug is blamed for her insensitivity/forced to apologize to her.

I’m still stunned at the mental gymnastics they go through to make Marinette/Ladybug apologize to people.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Su-Han will confirm the popular fan claim that Ladybug and Black Cat bearers are, in fact, soulmates/bound together by destiny. Chat Noir gleefully rubs this in Ladybug's face; her disbelief and horror is played entirely for laughs at her expense. Adrien's behavior escalates further afterwards, bolstered by the knowledge that it doesn't matter how shitty he gets, as she belongs to him regardless.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: In addition to confirming the notion that Ladybugs and Black Cats are 'meant to be', it's revealed that other Miracli are destined soulmates, like Foxes and Turtles or Butterflies and Peacocks, and other random Miraculi pairings that 'coincidentally' align with various official ships.

brb, need to step away to scream on my porch

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: At least one episode will have Marinette mess up a potion, preventing her and the other heroes from enjoying its benefits during a big fight. This is blamed either on her anxiety causing her to overthink it or on her being a poor student, lamenting the fact that she didn't have more time with Master Fu. (Bonus if Su-Han takes advantage of this to slam Fu; extra bonus points if Mari defends him by insisting *she* was the one who screwed up, not her master.)

It’s like a main course of Marinette blame, oh my god.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Su-Han will make various sexist comments about Marinette and the other heroines, implying that they were all poor choices Because Girl. Since nothing says 'Girl Power' like insisting they must prove themselves to doubtful men who will never fully accept them. After all, Marinette is the only one who ever learns lessons; therefore, Su-Han will never grow out of his 'old-fashioned views'.

And when the writers are called out, they’ll go, “bUt hE’s jUst oLd fAshiOned”

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Adrien gets his Ring revoked by Su-Han for misbehavior. This is depicted as a terrible miscarriage of justice, and Marinette must convince Su-Han to return the Ring without learning who Chat Noir is. The more terrible the inciting act, the bigger the bonus points; did he skip another battle like Glaciator? Pull another Syren-level stunt? Cataclysm another innocent? Who cares? Sadrien is Sad, and that's the biggest crisis of all...

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Adrien pulls another Syren-level stunt (or worse); rather than holding him responsible, Su-Han berates Marinette for her poor leadership and failure to keep him in line. Bonus if she confides/vents to Alya afterwards only for Alya to AGREE with Su-Han that she's failed at being a good partner to Chat Noir. Fever Mode activates if Alya implies Marinette's failure is due to her inability to admit her feelings for Chat Noir and/or confess to Adrien.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Alya will pull an Adrien re: Lila, refusing to openly support Marinette against her. She'll claim that they need to 'gather evidence' first before exposing her to everyone. In practice, this means that Alya is willing to continue feigning ignorance, pretending that she's taken in by Lila's lies, while Marinette continues to suffer since she won't play along. Any evidence-gathering we see Alya engaging in is minimal, if she's shown doing it at all.

This is 150% one of the most accurate Alya-Lila confrontations I’ve seen from these predictions.

I hate it.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: When confronting Lila, Alya will insist that 'Ladybug told me herself' that they aren't friends. Lila attempts to convince her that Ladybug is lying to try and protect her; this either works or spurs Alya to declare that LB 'hates liars', making her suspicious of Marinette's potential connections to the superheroine.

Alya

Alya why

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Alya will only treat Marinette with anything approaching a veneer of respect while she's Ladybug. (As in 'Transformed/wearing the spotted suit/actively superheroing'.) Her behavior towards her 'regular BFF', meanwhile, will continue to degrade.

and, as a alternative:

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Having learned that Marinette = Ladybug, Alya shows less and less respect towards the superheroine. (Not that she displayed much in the first place, but you know what they say: familiarity breeds contempt. And Alya's convinced that she knows her SO WELL, despite all signs to the contrary...)

Thanks. Hate them both. T_T

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Alya will end up outing Ladybug in a moment of anger. Though this is treated as impulsive and spur-of-the-moment, the act itself hints otherwise. (For example, she posts it on the LadyBlog; that post had to be *written up* first, and she likely had to think about what evidence she'd use to back up her claim... Not to mention if she includes pictures or video. Showing that Alya thought about it well before her 'tipping point', no matter how she claims otherwise.)

okay but you missed the part where Marinette is blamed for it--

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Tikki's comments about kwamis not understanding love are foreshadowing that they will later claim that Ladybug and Chat Noir's relationship has shown them what true love is. Because none of the other relationships they've ever seen or experienced in their long, looooooong history compare to the Four-Cornered F**kery.

Tikki sure knew a lot about love when she commented on all of Marinette’s love issues.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Kagami will come to regret 'impulsively' breaking up with Adrien for being a lying jerkface, while Luka moves on and finds happiness with somebody else with relative ease. Because guys are allowed to move on with their lives while girls have to wallow in the miserable mires of wish-you-were-(still)-mine. Woes--!

no but see Adrien is “worthy” of love while Marinette isn’t

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Marinette is either responsible for the secret Juleka's keeping (such as trusting her with a Miraculous) or inadvertently sets Rose on its scent in the first place, making her *supposedly* responsible for the strife which follows.

We already know that it’s not Juleka’s secret at least but Marinette could absolutely still set Rose off.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Marinette will be taught techniques/given a power-up that shuts off her emotions completely, or simply reaches the point where she figures out how to do so on her own. This is ultimately shown to be a bad thing/another mistake not because of the toll it takes on her psyche, but because the fully repressed Marinette/Ladybug no longer has any interest whatsoever in Adrien, and *we can't have THAT!*

Us getting to see Marinette not crushing on Adrien... but at what cost?

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Alya posts more embarrassing content on the LadyBlog, making it look like Ladybug keeps screwing up/making mistakes. Marinette asks her to stop, worried that she's undermining people's faith in her; Alya blows off her concerns and accuses her of getting a swelled head/becoming a 'control freak' about her image, insisting it's no big deal if people see she's human while refusing to treat her as such. (Meanwhile none of Chat Noir's mistakes/misbehavior make it onto the blog.)

“Bonus” if Alya gets particularly huffy because it’s jOunrAliSm and she’d be bIAsEd if she took down something that made her fRiEnD uNComOFTablE.

elflynns-horde-of-stuff said:

Don't need a burrow: The upcoming episode "Guiltrip" is gonna be 50% Sadrien. And we won't even get any new developments on his character for it.

so the usual

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: It's revealed that Ladybug holders are 'natural good luck charms' for everybody around them, but are punished by karmic backlash for even the *slightest* hint of selfishness (or self-consideration). Hence Marinette's whole plight, which is still presented as her fault for not being able to reach an impossibly perfect ideal. (Anything we learn about Black Cat holders, meanwhile, is purely for Agrestangst and has no bearing on anything observable within the show itself.)

Honestly, with the bad luck Marinette had in “Origins,” you’d think she’d be meant for the cat and been taught about the values of destruction and just being able to Go Off on people, or how to spin her bad luck into something good (or the black cat miraculous in general helps her channel her bad luck, such as making her Cataclysm stronger or being able to give her bad luck to others).

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: The show ends with Marinette and Adrien getting together, with Marinette declaring that everything she went through was worth it and that she's 'incredibly lucky' -- that the fact fate brought them together is 'nothing short of Miraculous!'

The sheer level at which I just cringed in immeasurable.

Anonymous said:

Didn't need the Burrow: A S5 episode will drop before S4 is finished.

Oh! Ahaha, we’ve got a wavelength, anon! I actually already added that one at some point.

Anonymous said:

Didn't need the Burrow: The series will not really make Rose/Juleka canon. They will imply it but the official language used in the episode will be "best friends". Yet on Twitter the creators will pat themselves on the back repeatedly for it

I mean, this already partially happened in “Reflekdoll” so--

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: It'll be confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt that Adrien 100% knows about Marinette's crush when he uses it to manipulate her. Plagg comments on it, and Adrien affirms that he knows, but her feelings don't compare to his own for Ladybug. ('And aren't worth sparing' goes unsaid, but is naturally implied.) Naturally, his manipulation of her is treated as 'clever', and any pain or mortification she feels as a result is just gravy.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Adrien reveals to Plagg (and the audience) that he's fully aware of Marinette's crush, but refuses to acknowledge it because he doesn't want to 'crush her dreams', comparing it to how Ladybug keeps rejecting him. Making the situation entirely about HIM and how HE feels, even showing some resentment towards her for HAVING that crush for HIM to deal with. Marinette and her feelings are painted as just an ANNOYANCE that he's ignoring, heedless of the impact upon her.

wow i hate them both

thank you, both of you

</3

#category: salt #Didn't Need Burrow

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toujoursmiraculous · 3 years

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Thoughts and Reaction to SENTIBUBBLER

For the past month, every day my sister greeted me with "Sentibubbler!" Sometimes multiple times a day. So this episode was a very anticipated one. The trailer spoiled that the opening scene was a dream, so I wasn't expecting to be surprised or anything like that. HAHA BOY WAS I WRONG But first, this dream points out several things she's worried about and she's going to have to address because they're seriously stressing her out. Likely in the order of occurrence in the episode is how we'll see it addressed. (In chronological order because let's be real, broadcasting companies don't seem to care much about what episodes we get when, so we'll likely see them happen out of this order) - Alya and Trixx being able to keep the secret and be trustworthy. (Which seems to be taken care of in this episode) - Nino finding out she's Ladybug. Nino's close with Alya, so tbh it's probably just a matter of time before he finds out on his own, or they break down and decide to tell him. - Chloe's issue with the Miraculous and Ladybug's rule that has only applied to Chloe so far. - And Chat Blanc. It seems Chat Blanc becoming akumatized again is a bigger fear to her than all the rest, based on her reaction, being horrified and backing up to the point she knocks stuff off the table. It also shows that she's thinking about how her and Chat Noir in this other timeline were in fact together and thinking about what the reason for it is. She believed that it was them being together knowing their secret identities, and their love did it. So here in this dream, well everyone knows right, so what's keeping them from being together now? Interesting thought to have for someone who claims she doesn't love him. ;) Tikki squeaks when bounced. Good to know lol But poor thing was asleep. LOL the Lochness Monster is Trixx's doing, huh? It's like every major event in history happened because of a Kwami. What else are we going to learn xD Marinette being freaked out by the tarantula. The biggest spider I've ever seen in my house is a Giant Crab Spider. Freaked me out so much too. Poor thing was terrified though so I let it go outside. xD Are Alya's parents going to be like Marinette's parents and just shrug when their daughter says things they don't understand and let it go. Because in their situation, those are the best parents to have. Except Adrien's, who isn't around....oof moving on. And here is the start of Nino feeling left out... DX Anyone that knows me knows I adore him, so this is going to begin to get really painful for me. ;-; TRIXX IS JUST SO STINKING CUTE And then suddenly with the phone ringing and empty room with a villain on the other line threatening the lives of her friends and family, did I feel like I entered one of my Taiwanese dramas instead of Miraculous Ladybug. And I love it! I had no idea how Alya was going to deal with Shadow Moth's call, instructions, and Sentibubbler in the room, I was at the edge of my seat. Older seasons it was so much easier to have a good general idea anyway of what was going to happen, but now you get caught by surprise much more. Alya is so brilliant, there's honestly nobody better for Marinette to have told first. I love Chat Noir so much and for emotional reasons, I wanted him to know first. But it's so easy for one or both to be unable to transform or do their job, they need at least one other on the outside they can trust. Alya is certainly that someone. I do think Nino knowing and Adrien finding out will make them the strongest though. But of course, not without its consequences. There is no perfect solution. I also want to point out too. When Marinette was trying to decide what to do, she thought of ways that would cause significant trouble, or worse. Transforming in front of everyone and going back in time to erase that. Nothing she thought of to get herself out of the situation was a good idea. Chat Noir didn't want to listen to Rena Rouge and was going to blow her plan up. Her wording wasn't great, and she should've said it differently so he'd be more likely to listen. But

both Ladybug and Chat Noir were going to do things that would cause serious damage and consequences. Rena Rouge was the one that helped make things go smoothly. But also yikes the fact that Chat Noir got so angry and hurt about being left out (it didn't even have anything to do with Ladybug, so that's going to be a misunderstanding that adds up and comes back later ooof) that he destroyed a chimney with his baton. o.o But his "Oh well Miraculous Ladybug will fix it anyway so I can't feel too bad" xD Everything lately about these episodes just screams "Chat Noir and Nino are going to have to know, at least some details, and soon." either that or both of them walk away because they can't put up with it anymore. And I'm pretty sure we're not getting the latter! Chat Noir being told by Marinette to stay where he is. Chat: BUT WHYYYY x.x Marinette: Rena Rouge created a Ladybug illusion to trick Sentibubbler, who is a Sentimonster. If you go there, you might ruin her entire plan! Chat: ... and you know this how? That's really sus, Marinette... Marinette just goes all casual Chat-like as she explains and he just doesn't even question anything anymore lololol Alya being super smart and getting Shadow Moth away from her while she still keeps the Miraculous. Hahahaha what if all the rest do that too, that'll be so great. x3 Chat, explains what's going on and what he has to do. Marinette: Good idea! :D Chat: Relax. The real Ladybug will save her and together we will save you. Marinette: We're already saving them, Kitty. We already are... Me: AHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA MY HEART ;-; The only real physical damage done to Paris that day was when the Agreste's decided to vent their anger out on innocent buildings. Marinette being as Ladybug to Chat Noir as she can be while Marinette's the one with him trapped in a bubble. x33 I love how he uses Cataclysm, gets trapped in the bubble again, and Marinette just blinks at him like "Oh Kitty...:c" In S1, Marinette would've rolled her eyes and shook her head lol Ladybug transforming in a bubble right next to Chat Noir and he knows absolutely nothing :D I'd be so nervous even with that illusion if it were me. Chat Noir: NOBODY CAN MUTE ME Shadow Moth: Wanna bet? THAT ACTION SHOT OF PEGABUG TAKING THE COFFEE CUP FROM HAWK MOTHS IS ONE OF MY ALL-TIME FAVORITES Her hair is so pretty and her smug look is just so perfect!! Chat Noir saving Nino <3 Ladybug and Rena Rouge's hug <3 Seriously loving these friend moments. But they make me nervous about what's to come. "Hey, I thought today would be the end of Chat Noir." Oh dear. Please don't have him thinking like this still. What's it going to take for this poor boy to understand he's irreplaceable and she cares so much about him? At this point I think him knowing her feelings for him and some of the truth, but not all of it, would be what it'd take. Okay, the scenes after the end card now are tripping me up. Such creepy, dramatic music with a getting angrier all the time Gabriel. Scary. Thanks to spoilers from TFOU, this scene here, hints at the finale episode for sure. And that was the episode! I really enjoyed this one, I love how it's really getting the ball rolling on some problems that later on will need to be fixed, to then have them come back happier and stronger than before. We just need to live through it first lol.

#ml #miraculous ladybug #ml season 4 spoilers #ml spoilers season 4 #ml spoilers #sentibubbler spoilers #toujoursmiraculous thoughts and reaction #chat noir #chat blanc #marinette dupain-cheng #alya cesaire #rena rouge #nino lahiffe #miraculous tales of ladybug and cat noir #sentibubbler

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refinedbuffoonery · 4 years

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Flawless (6)

masterlist.

Content Warning: swearing, violence, sex, PTSD

Not gonna lie, this is a bit of a filler chapter. But the NEXT chapter...that’s the one you’ve all been waiting for. Also, I’ve had “bad guy” by Billie Eilish stuck in my head for DAYS, so that’s the song playing during the runway show.

*****

A week after the job at the director’s house, Riley sank into her first-class airplane seat and immediately opened her laptop, the tan pleather chair squeaking slightly as she crossed her legs beneath her. Dimming the brightness, Riley angled her laptop so no one could see it but her. She’d been profiled plenty of times in the past while writing perfectly benevolent code. Riley certainly didn’t need anyone catching her working on something more nefarious.

If she did this right, then she’d be able to just connect her phone to whatever Louvre computer that controlled security and be free to do whatever she wanted.

If she didn’t...she’d need to brush up on her French.

Nikki dozed in the seat beside her. She’d been bouncing off the walls all morning in anticipation of getting to see Fashion Week in person after Riley had promised to go with her to as many fashion shows as they could sneak into. Nikki’s excitement was infectious. While the priority was to see the runway show of the designer whose Louvre afterparty they were crashing, before they boarded the flight, Riley found herself sifting through fashion blogs to determine which other shows she wanted to see. All couture, of course.

Across the aisle, Jill had her nose buried in an incredibly thick book Riley couldn’t see the cover of, and behind her, Cage and Desi curled together like a human pretzel as they watched a movie. They were disgustingly happy, and that made Riley happy too.

When they were somewhere over the middle of the Atlantic, Nikki awoke, grumbling, “You’re going to ruin your eyes if you stare at that screen any longer.” She was right. Riley’s vision had started to blur at the edges hours ago, and she knew she’d have a hard time focusing on things in the distance when she finally looked up. Riley saved her work and shut her laptop.

Nikki still hadn’t budged from her awkward curled position, but her eyes were open. Riley figured now was as good of a time as any to make Nikki answer her last lingering question. “So you still haven’t told me why you and your boyfriend broke up,” she probed. “You know, the one who hacks everything else.”

Nikki sighed, rolling her head to glare at Riley. “Do I have to tell you?”

“Yes.”

“Fine.” Nikki sat up. “When we met, he told me he worked for a government think tank. Really nerdy stuff, does a lot of consulting. I figured he was smart but harmless.”

“I remember.”

“That was a lie. He’s a government agent, all right. But not the nerd kind. The double-O-seven kind.”

Riley nearly choked. “A spy?” she hissed. “You dated a fucking spy?”

“Surprise.”

“How did you find out?”

“The same way he found out about me. I originally told him I was a freelance art appraiser”—not far from the truth, actually— “and the IT job was to help make ends meet. We both bought each others’ lies at first, but over time we both struggled to keep our stories straight. And then one day it all just...fell into place, I guess. We had a massive fight, and by the time the dust settled, I think we both knew there was no going back to how things were before we knew the truth.”

Riley laced her fingers through Nikki’s, conveying her empathy through touch rather than words. “What agency does he work for?”

“The Phoenix Foundation.”

“What the fuck is that?”

“It’s DXS. The name changed while you were gone.” At least Nikki couldn’t still say the P-word either. But DXS...DXS could move Christmas. If Nikki’s boyfriend told anyone about her real job, they were all in trouble. Big trouble.

“Think he’s going to come after you? Come after us?”

“I don’t know.”

Trying to lighten the mood, Riley said, “Ignoring the part where he knows you’re a criminal, it must’ve been pretty cool to date a real-life black-ops spy. I bet he knew all kinds of tricks.” The innuendo easily rolled off Riley’s tongue.

Nikki smacked her shoulder. “We were having a nice moment and you had to go and ruin it by being gross. What the fuck, dude?”

Riley rolled her eyes. “Love you too.” And she did. Despite the grudge she may or may not be holding, Riley loved her. She never stopped.

*****

They landed in Paris at night, and the Five Eyes crashed the moment they made it to their swanky, overpriced hotel room. The next day, they bounced around the city attending as many runway shows as traffic allowed. Riley didn’t understand the hubbub and overdone romanticism; Paris was just like any other major city—loud and overcrowded. And snobby. So very snobby.

On their second day in Paris, the women chose to divide and conquer. Desi, Cage, and Jill teamed up to scope out the Louvre. Riley and Nikki attended the runway show of the designer whose masterpiece they intended to steal.

As she and Nikki found their seats along the runway, Riley made a mental note of all the exits. Their seats were in the back, against a wall. Nikki hoped for a better view, but Riley liked it better this way. Sitting by a wall, she had something solid behind her and could see everyone come and go without having to turn around. Riley had always kept meticulous tabs on her surroundings—that’s what made her so good at her job—but the fear of not being able to see what’s coming was new.

She didn’t tell Nikki about it.

The blonde blended right in with the highly fashionable crowd, wearing a floor-length, gray plaid coat with hot pink lining. Nikki was completely in her element here, and sometimes Riley thought her friend would’ve been better off legitimately pursuing a career in fashion rather than letting Riley drag her into the world of shadows, secrets, and cons.

While they waited, Riley fidgeted with a button on her black blazer. Her whole outfit was the same shade of her signature color—blouse, blazer, leather leggings. But her boots were the real showstopper—thigh-high black suede with intricate gold embroidery down the entire front. Riley saw them in a window yesterday and had immediately gone inside to purchase them. The boots were outrageously expensive, but it didn’t matter. Riley Davis was already a filthy rich woman, and after this job, she’d have more money than she would ever know what to do with.

The house music quieted, and the designer—older man, favored his left leg, voice thin and raspy like a smoker—strutted down the runway, microphone in hand, welcoming the audience and beginning the show. He rambled on, ruminating over his inspiration for this collection. Nikki hung on every word. Riley tuned him out.

So this was the man who was renting out the Louvre. Riley couldn’t even imagine the amount of money and favors it took to secure such an ostentatious party venue.

What she could imagine, however, was that she’d surely be subjected to yet another one of these long-winded speeches at the afterparty tonight. On the bright side, that would buy her and her team extra time, making the job that much easier.

The show began with a sweep of the lights as the music dropped to a low, pulsing beat Riley could feel just as much as she could hear. The crowd murmured respectfully as the first model appeared wearing a shiny black gown that looked like a trash bag had been melted to her body with the excess pooling on the floor. She told Nikki as much, earning an eye roll.

The next gown was better—sheer fabric with countless thin, metallic gold vertical stripes. The skirt had pretty lines, giving the model the illusion of curves she didn’t have. After that was a strapless canary yellow ball gown with a full, pillowy train.

“I don’t understand why designers keep making yellow clothes,” Riley hissed. “No one looks good in yellow.”

“That model does.”

“No one looks good in yellow.”

Nikki twisted in her seat and glared, which Riley ignored. “Are you going to say anything nice?”

“You’d miss my commentary if I stopped.” Riley’s snide comment earned her an elbow to the ribs, but she caught Nikki’s smile all the same.

The next gown was cherry red satin, with huge ruffles on one shoulder and the opposite hip. The extra fabric was a lot, but there was something elegant about the gown nonetheless.

Leanna would look good in that one, Riley stopped herself from saying aloud. Nikki—nor anyone else, for that matter—hadn’t said another word about Leanna since Riley first asked weeks ago. Suddenly their longtime friend was taboo, and Riley didn’t want to disrupt the tentative peace she had with Nikki just to push for answers she probably wouldn’t get.

Another ugly gown, this one feathery pink with a sort of netting over top.

But the last one...the last one caught the eye of every single person in the audience.

Including Riley.

The sheer dress was covered in intricate silver beading that accentuated its long sleeves and mermaid silhouette and left little to the imagination. It was the kind of show-stopping gown one wore when they wanted to be the center of attention.

Despite the audience’s rising hum of approval, Riley still heard Nikki murmur, “That one is all you.” And it was. Riley would wear that gown in a heartbeat if she had the opportunity—too bad most jobs required her to blend in, not stand out.

She was too busy lusting after the gown to respond.

From her seat, Riley could just see into the wings, and she spotted who could only be the designer’s assistant, running the show behind the scenes. Even from a distance, Riley had a feeling the young woman’s hawk-like gaze missed absolutely nothing. The designer would be easy enough to bamboozle during the heist, but this woman could very likely become a problem.

Riley committed the assistant’s appearance to memory and set the thought aside for later.

*****

Later that afternoon, the Five Eyes reconvened in their hotel suite. They still had a couple hours until they needed to get ready for the afterparty. Since only Cage and Nikki had been there before, Desi, Cage, and Jill had spent the day scouting the Louvre. It was good for Jill to work with Desi for a change; because of her military background, Desi’s way of thinking through a job diverged greatly from everyone else’s.

Team meetings like this were one of Riley’s favorite parts of the job—swapping intel and strategizing the best way to pull off the job. Or the most fun way, which was usually also the riskiest. But tonight, the team was in unspoken agreement that they would play it safe, both because of Jill and the importance of this long-awaited job.

Piled onto one plush, king-sized bed, the five women sat tangled together as they tore through the box of pastries Riley purchased on the way back to the hotel. For the first time in forever, Riley was hungry. She avoided dwelling on that fact as she licked her fingers and picked up stray crumbs that fell on the off-white comforter.

“So, what did you learn?” Nikki quizzed Jill.

Jill pushed up her glasses with her middle finger, speaking with her mouth full. “The room the party will be in is super fancy and at the far corner of the building.” She swallowed. “First floor.”

“Good. What else?” Riley prompted. “How do Nikki or I get to security and the building’s system control?”

“There’s an employee door in the hallway…” Jill trailed off. “Wait. This is a test, isn’t it? You already know.”

Riley smirked. “I do.”

Disbelief etched Jill’s face. “How? You told me yourself that you’ve never been there!”

“I have my ways.” Riley would tell her eventually, but for now, it was more fun to lure trade secrets over Jill’s head. She reached for another buttery pastry, selecting one topped with slivered almonds.

But before Riley could continue her taunting, Desi spoke up. “There’s something you should know.” The mood plummeted into seriousness.

Riley and Nikki both raised their eyebrows. Go on.

“Nikki’s ex was at the museum.”

“Which one?” Nikki asked cautiously. Riley could hear the dread in her tone, the same dread that churned in her own stomach.

“You know which one.”

Riley swore. Nikki’s ex, the spy, was at the Louvre. “Did he see you?”

Cage answered, “We have to assume he did. And we also have to assume he recognized Desi and me as Nikki’s friends.” Riley set her pastry down, no longer hungry as the heist of her dreams started to crumble before her eyes. She refused to let that happen.

“He was with a middle-aged man who definitely had a gun tucked into his belt,” Desi said. “Based on that and his haircut, I’d say he’s probably ex-military.”

“Mac is too.” Tucking her knees to her chest, Nikki’s voice was uncharacteristically small as she spoke. Defeat wormed its way across her features. Nikki thought they couldn’t pull off the job now, Riley realized.

No way. She wouldn’t let one stupid ex-boyfriend get in the way of her dream job. And her grossly large payday.

“It’ll be fine,” Riley reassured. “He knows you’re into fashion, right?” Nikki nodded. “Then he has to assume you’re there for innocent, legitimate reasons. Innocent until proven guilty, remember? All we have to do is avoid looking suspicious, which we already do anyway. He won’t have any evidence to pin it on us besides a hunch, and even if he shares that hunch, he’ll get in trouble for not disclosing information about you and your relationship sooner.”

Jill said, “That seems overly optimistic.”

“Which one of us is the expert?” Riley snapped. Jill flinched, and the other three watched Riley warily. “Sorry,” she grumbled.

The tension only somewhat dissipated.

“Anyway,” Riley redirected. “We picked up the replicas.” She gestured to Nikki’s Balenciaga bag sitting open on a nearby chair.

“Replicas?” Riley fought the urge to sigh at Jill and her constant questions.

“What did you think we were going to do? Just take the jewelry and run like hell?”

Jill’s silence was a resounding yes.

“Pickpocketing 101. What did I tell you?”

Understanding dawned in Jill’s wide, blue eyes. “When you steal something heavy, put something else in its place.” A pause. “We’re going to replace the jewelry with fakes so no one even realizes the real set is missing.”

It was Cage’s turn to smirk. “She’s catching on.” The blonde leaned in. “So, can we see them?”

Nikki was off the bed in an instant, retrieving a package wrapped in plain brown paper from her purse. She let Cage have the honor of unwrapping it and revealing the masterfully crafted jewels.

The faux-sapphire and diamond necklace and earrings were stunning. And exact replicas of the real set. The only difference was a tiny, insignificant bump Nikki’s jeweler added to the back of each piece so they could quickly tell the difference between the replicas and the real deal.

Desi whistled. “Damn. Those are stunning.” Beside her, Cage nodded appreciatively. “You would look so hot wearing those,” Desi murmured to her girlfriend. “Wearing only those.”

Blushing furiously, Cage shoved her girlfriend off the bed.

Riley knew that if she let them, her friends would spend hours examining the jewels. Clearing her throat to get everyone’s attention, she asked, “Everyone clear on the plan?”

The four other women nodded in turn, first Desi, then Nikki, then Cage, and finally Jill.

“Good.”

“That’s it?” Jill questioned. “No team pep talk?” The other women chuckled, but Riley just rolled her eyes.

“That one,” Desi pointed at Riley, “is the wrong person to ask for a pep talk.”

Riley’s jaw dropped in mock outrage. “Hey! Speak for yourself.” Desi shrugged. Directing her attention back to Jill, “You really want a pep talk?”

Jill blinked.

“Don’t fuck this up.”

~ Tag List ~ Want to be added? Send me an ask.

@macrileyedits / @hellishrose / @incorret-macgyver-quotes / @mylifequotesshowallofthem / @thecarrieonokay

#beth writes #flawless au #macgyver #riley davis #nikki carpenter #desiree nguyen #samantha cage #jill morgan #macgyver fanfiction

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anakinisvaderisanakin · 3 years

Text

Mask of Death - Ashes and Embers

I’m reworking and retooling some of the older installments of tMoD with better grammar, and presentation, and this is still one of my favourite chapters of the series I have penned so far. Thus, I’m sharing it with you again, it might even be completely fresh to some of you. Link to full series is in the bottom notes!

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

Captain TL-440 - often called Teel for short - had never seen the man quite like this. It was an awe inducing sight, a sobering reminder of the fact that despite his Force powers; Vader was just as mortal as the rest of them.

Some people would believe Vader was nothing but an expertly crafted droid; that he was unbreakable and unstoppable. That he had no heart, no humanity, no soul. Teel knew better. Especially now, as the dust settled on the carnage of the battlefield. The air was polluted by thick black smoke, fire scorching what was left of blown up AT-AT:s, shuttles and speeder bikes. Bodies were everywhere. Some familiar squad members perished in the brutal fight. Some rebels with their uncovered faces locked in perpetual terror.

Teel himself had come out fairly unscathed. He’d been assigned to a defensive position at the back, rather than the usual offensive front. Thinking about it now, he couldn’t see any traces of the commander who had executed the order to advance. Sure, Teel was very aware of the fact somebody had figured it’d be a good idea to stab a vibro-blade into his side. It stung like a bitch, but it wouldn’t kill him.

Unlike several of his fellow troopers, who laid strewn about all around him in bits and pieces, Teel would heal. The gaping holes in his comrades chests were disheartening; their missing limbs impossible to relocate. He could hear someone coughing in the distance; the hacking gulps of dying man suffocating on his own blood.

In the beginning, the aftermath of battle had made Teel sick. Overwhelmed by nausea, cold sweat had wet his forehead. Sometimes he’d found himself throwing up, wondering how he was ever going to get used to the sight of his friends torn to shreds. These days, after all carnage he had witnessed, Teel felt little more than pity for his fallen peers. Pity for the poor bastards who weren’t lucky enough to get a swift shot to the head.

How many survivors were there, even?

Teel had counted ten plus two so far.

Was that it?

They had been a thousand men strong when they left the cruiser for the DX transport shuttle. The officers and admirals paid them little attention at any given time, thinking them to be disposable and easily replaced. Teel despised the stuck up, spoilt Imperial overheads; despised them and how little regard they had for their subordinates. Vader was different. Vader had always been different.

Vader was on their side, Teel had realized early on. Vader fought alongside them, got down in the trenches and trudged without complaint through the warzone. He was often up ahead, leading the troops on by inspiring them. Vader seemed fearless, pressing on and never faltering. Never wavering. It was no secret that Vader shared the same contempt towards the Moffs who preferred to sit in their pampered palaces and beach houses as Teel and his men did. The high society would be sipping wine as their slaves saw to their needs while their troops were mowed down by enemy Rebellion forces. Vader, for all that he was, seemed to accept the soldiers as self serving individuals. Vader seemed to recognize that they were people, and even seemed to respect some of them.

Teel himself had done battle alongside Vader enough times, that he knew that they both appreciated the other’s efforts. That’s what made him dare to approach Vader in this moment. While the rest of the surviving squad members withdrew in retreat, keeping their distance out of fear, Teel persisted. He knew as well as his comrades that in this state, Vader may be lethal even to his own men.

Still, the captain had faith in the only man of the Imperial army who would dare gamble with his own life alongside theirs. The man who was - despite what governor Tarkin and his fellowship might think - second only to the Emperor in power. Highest command; and yet here he was, on the bottom of the ladder fighting beside the ground forces.

Vader’s majestic cape was in tatters. Not much remained of it; gaping still sizzling holes left by blaster shots and vibro-blade slices lining the ruined fabric. Vader's boots were caked with mud and drying blood, shrapnel digging into the shin guards. Wires hung exposed from his chest monitor; electrical bolts sparking on and off in uneven intervals. His hands were curled into tight fists, one of which still clutching the hilt of his crimson light saber - he other exposed for what it was; cybernetics and metallic prosthetics. The man's chest armour was cracked; his robes in ragged shambles.

But there was one thing that Teel noted above all as unusual. Among the embers of charred bodies, and fizzling equipment; he noted the tear in the side of Vader’s bodysuit. But above, he spotted blood. Deep red, humanoid blood soaking through Vader’s clothing; through the left side of his upper torso.

What more, beneath the mass of torn fabric and red smudges there was skin. Deathly pale skin, injured human flesh. Teel didn’t comment on it, but simply watched in amazed silence. He listened to the still rhythmical, still steady breathing mechanism of Vader's. It was a small wonder that that seemed to have taken miniscule damage.

“Are you ready to retreat, Lord Vader?” Teal finally allowed himself to ask.

“In a moment.”

Vader’s booming vocals were as imposing as ever, an undercurrent of suspicion and wariness seeping through the deep bark. Teel relied on his judgment, he knew Vader’s powers as a Force wielder granted him almost superhuman senses and prowess. It had helped save their lives when traditional tactics failed several times in the past.

Still, Teel let his dark eyes hidden behind the visor of his own helmet linger on the oozing, dark blood. Vader was merely a mortal man. Mighty, unstoppable like a hurricane. But then more than ever, the thought that Vader could die crept up on Teel. Vader could be bested and defeated. He didn’t want to dwell on that scenario. Instead, the captain waited patiently beside the dark, towering figure.

Vader appeared focused on something far off in the distance, standing perfectly still as if he hadn’t even noticed he’d been injured. As if he was unaware of the fact that he was bleeding rather heavily. As if he had no clue that he was wounded,and battered, and bruised, and probably needed a pretty good repair job done on both his suit and his body. The deep gashes in his chest piece just above the wound bore telltale scratches created by vibro blades. And direct blaster fire hits. Smudges of ashes, and dust, and mud linger along the indentations. Meanwhile, dark blood lazily making its way down towards the exposed cybernetic arm in a steady stream; the crimson fluid clinging to mechanic silver making for a jarring contrast.

“Whatever survivors there are have departed. They have lost more men than we have,” said Vader finally; tone meticulous.

Now that was a good omen.

Vader never seemed to care for his own safety, always seemed to want to get the job done no matter the cost. Still, Teel figured that even Vader must be feeling the exhaustion, the fatigue, and the pain of his injuries as soon as the adrenaline rush of combat wore off. He didn’t doubt that Vader could have gone on for far longer, had another wave of rebels attacked; but Teel still released a heavy sigh of relief. There was always a possible what if scenario, and he didn’t particularly enjoy the idea of trudging on without Vader at the helm.

Slowly, Vader began to turn his back on the setting sun ahead; as the crackling flames little by little became the only light in the dark of early nightfall. Switching off his light saber to clip it to his belt he stood tall, not as much as a limp to his step. Perhaps Vader's movements somewhat sluggish when compared to his usual gait, but otherwise he came across as resolute as ever.

Teel watched Vader pause and bring his gloved fingers up towards the thoroughly soaked side of what remained of his robes and chest piece. The captain watched him withdraw his hand, the stench tang of iron and scorched flesh thick in the air. Its sickly aroma was coming from everywhere around them; from the tattered and dismembered corpses. Vader’s hand came back drenched in blood as it withdrew; and the man appeared to contemplate something as he studied it.

“It appears you will be sleeping in your own bunk tonight.”

It was then that Vader finally turned to face Teel head on, and the stormtrooper had to fight back a gasp of shock, biting back the startled noise that wanted to slip out.

The entire left side of Vader’s face plate was mangled, misshapen and cracked. What lay beneath was now exposed as the lense of the same side had shattered and fallen out. The deathly pale, twisted and scarred flesh Vader's torso had displayed carried over to his face. The features were grim and distorted, little more than shadows in the dark of night; but the fires all around cast just enough light to reveal an eye.

One single, deep set ember eye.

The eye was bloodshot, its socket hollowed, and dark rimmed, and sunken. Light reflected off of it like a predator stalking its unwitting prey in the early morning hours. Teel almost believed the eye was generating its own light, and glowing all on its own.

“Yes, milord,” he finally managed to choke out, giving a curt nod of acknowledgement and obedience.

The single burning golden eye fixed his gaze, even through the visor Teel felt it bore pry itself deep into his conscious mind. He couldn’t look away even if he wanted to. He was suddenly freezing, despite the heat of the furnace the battle field had turned into, and the many flames in the close proximity. He felt the hairs at the back of his neck stand on end; his fingertips going inexplicably numb. How many men had seen Vader unmasked and lived to tell the tale? Teel feared he may have brought ruin onto himself by simple exposure.

Then, the glowing eye broke the stare and with it, the stalemate. Its attention shifted to cast one final glance behind them.

“How many survivors have you accounted for?”

“Twelve, milord,” Teel responded, mostly on autopilot.

“Very well. Round them up and bring them back to the hangar bay.”

“Yes, Lord Vader.”

For a brief tense moment; their eyes met once more and the piercing golden iris made Teel’s stomach sink with dread seemed to convey an unspoken warning. Feeling a freezing cold chill pass through his very bones, the soldier nodded and complied with its demand. He was never to speak of what he had seen.

"I expect you to handle your promotion better than your predecessor, commander."

Then, Vader simply turned on his heel and began to make his way back towards the landing site. Perhaps, there was a tiny wobble to his steps? Teel squinted but couldn’t say for sure, and it took him longer than it should to realize Vader had just made him the new commander. The responsibility was more than he had grown accustomed to, but he would never refuse or question Vader's decisions.

Perhaps his concern was unfounded, but he deliberately remained a few paces behind Vader as they walked. Just in case.

Then again Teel thought, as he the look in that one exposed eye remained superimposed onto his inner vision; that one eye only added to the mystery of Vader. The sense of dread it had inspired within seconds, that was not human.

Vader may bleed, but he had the eyes of a beast.

---------

The Mask of Death chapter index:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24049894/navigate

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theartoflovingthomashunt · 4 years

Photo

dx: a Ticking Clock [AU]

Masterlists: [Thomas Hunt x Alex Spencer] [Ethan Ramsey x Ellie Shepherd] [Love & Scotch Crossover]

– – – Characters: Alex, Thomas Hunt, Ethan Ramsey, Ellie Shephard (OH: MC), Naveen Banerji, Baz Mirani, Zaid + other OH characters mentioned Prompt: fear @choicesoctoberchallenge2020 Word Count: +/- 1,400

TW: character death mentioned (same warnings as would apply to OH2 CH11)

Series Background: This takes place in my Hollywood U AU. Alex and Thomas are engaged. Ethan is an old friend whom the couple reconnected with recently. Alex is the biggest shipper of Ethan and Ellie(MC), and is thrilled Ethan finally took her advice to do something about his feelings

Chapter Background: This takes place after Two Words (Thomas and Alex come to Boston to offer assistance during the crisis and support their friends) and at the same time as Never Let Go (Ethan spends the night with Ellie in quarantine)

Catch up on Love and Scotch

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The hallway hummed with the murmur of the doctors collaborating with only one goal in mind—saving Ellie and Rafael. The diagnostic’s office had become overrun with the number of hands that offered assistance. The conversations quickly became a cacophonous ruckus rather than a productive dialogue of possible solutions. They decided to split into groups, in the hope of exploring more ideas in less time by allowing greater opportunities for everyone’s ideas to be shared and tested. Naveen headed the team that remained in Ethan’s office. Tobias led the team stationed in the conference room. Both groups worked diligently, knowing that time was of the essence and a wasted minute could be all that stood in the way of saving their friends’ lives.

It hadn’t taken Alex long to discover Ethan’s hidden stash of coffee and his secret espresso machine. She caught a whiff of the rich, but subtle notes of the premium blend tucked in the bottom drawer of a cabinet while tidying papers on his desk.

“We don’t touch that,” Baz noted, leaning against the bookshelf behind her. “Ethan doesn’t let anyone touch it. He will tell you he is a connoisseur and no one quite grasps the delicacies needed. He’ll trust us with patients but not his espresso machine.”

A smile played on her lips, the machine buzzed to life under her skilled touch. “Ethan may think he knows coffee, but it’s kind of my thing.”

“On your head be it.” Baz breathed out a soft, skeptical laugh. “When this is over, I’d quite like to see his reaction to you informing him he is not as wise to his coffee as he believes.”

Alex worked her magic setting the machine up and readying it for her first request. “Something like ‘you know nothing, Ethan Ramsey’.”

His hearty laugh overtook the somber tone of the room, even if just for the two of them. "Except, he really would know nothing because that reference would go over his head.”

“True! Anyway, I’m sure he won’t mind. After all, it’s for Ellie—” The words slipped out of her lips in a tone she worried said too much. “What I meant is, I’m sure he’d want his team to be well cared for and fueled to assist any member of the team that could find themselves in mortal peril. For the EMT too. And anyone, not just Ellie,” she rambled trying to cover up for any slip that may have occurred.

“It’s okay, I know.”

“You know?” The last part of the word lingered as Alex dragged it out questioningly.

“I know.” He nodded, quirking a brow at her.

“You know, as in you know?” Her chocolate brown eyes narrowed on him knowingly.

“I know,” he reasserted, grinning proudly.

“Do they know?”

“Ellie might. Ethan doesn’t.”

“How?”

A low laugh rumbled in his chest. “How can you not notice? They haven’t exactly mastered the subtleties of being in a secret relationship.”

“By they, you mean Ethan?” Alex grinned to herself. The first round of espresso shots began to drip, filling the office with a warm, inviting scent.

“It’s like you’ve met him!” He teased, the two of them giggled in the corner like schoolgirls sharing a juicy secret.

“I like you, Baz,” Alex decided. “So if Ethan throws a tantrum about me using his coffee machine, I won’t even blame you,” she teased. “Maybe your brother though.”

“As long as I’m there when you tell him.”

“Deal. Now, what can I make you?”

Ethan’s precious supply of premium beans dwindled as the hours passed, Alex kept everyone caffeinated and alert, while Hunt brought food and water to the weary doctors. With each glance to the ticking clock, the lines of worry etched on their tired faces grew deeper.

***

Hunt’s hand clasped on the older doctor’s shoulders, jerking him to attention and pulling him from his thoughts. “You need rest, Naveen.”

“I will when we’ve solved this puzzle.” His weary eyes fell once more to the research and medical charts scattered on the table in front of him.

“At least take a walk to clear your head,” Hunt suggested.

He shook his head side to side in contemplation. “I can’t. Not until I have an answer. Not until they’re safe.”

“Naveen, no one will fault you for taking a break. Everyone else has.”

“I will,” he insisted. “But not yet. If something were to happen while I was gone or if we were ten minutes too late because I took a break…” His voice quivered, unable to finish the thought as dread twisted in his gut. The color drained from his face at the possibility of them being too late.

Hunt nodded in understanding, knowing there was nothing he could do to comfort the man before him.

“Not just because Ellie saved my life last year,” he lowered his voice, keeping the next part between them. “I don’t have any children, I have Ethan. He may yet think that love is a weakness, but it’s not. Whether he’s ready to admit to it or not, he needs her. I don’t know if he could survive losing her.”

“I know what you mean.” Hunt’s gaze fell to Alex busy across the room. “There are some people we’ll go to any length to save, no matter the cost.” His hand found Naveen’s shoulder again, offering a consoling gesture. “If there’s anything I can do.”

***

Ethan’s gloved hand glossed over her tousled, sweat-coated hair, being careful not to wake her. She had finally let sleep overtake her not too long ago, though he didn’t dare join her. Fighting his own exhaustion, he kept a steady gaze on the monitors ensuring no sudden decline in her vitals.

Alex watched for a few moments, giving him time with her. Her eyes misted over; she’d never seen him so tender before. She recognized that look on his face, if only Ellie could see him now. Luckily for him, the entirety of the hospital was too busy determining a cure that they would be oblivious to the obvious connection between the two doctors in the room before her.

Her finger lingered on the intercom button for what felt like an eternity. She spoke softly, “Can I get you anything?”

Ethan’s blue eyes shimmered like the glassy surface of the cool ocean. “Anything yet?”

She shook her head side to side. “Sorry.”

He gently rested the plastic shield of his protective suit against the top of her head. His lips pressed against the clear surface. “Hold on just a little bit longer, Ellie.”

Alex sniffled, the pads of her fingers collecting the tears before they could fall. She needed to be brave for him.

Ethan shifted, inching away from her. “Will you stay with her? I can’t ask you to come in even with protection, but just stay there and let me know the minute she wakes or if any of her vitals change. I know a nurse can do it, but I’d rather it be you.”

“Of course, Ethan. Whatever you need. What will you be doing?”

His fingers hovered once more over her, tracing the length of her arm. “Finding a way to save her.”

“I’m proud of you,” she whispered, as he began the procedure to leave quarantine without spreading the contaminant.

“What for?”

“You took a chance.”

His tone was harsher, “look how that turned out.”

“This is just a chapter, I can’t believe it’s the end,” she offered, glancing back to Ellie sleeping soundly. “Take the advice you gave her. ‘Just hold on a little bit longer’, you’ll save her. I have to believe it.”

Ethan offered a curt nod, leaving in silence, pausing only for a moment to glance back to Ellie lying helplessly in the small hospital bed.

Alex focused on the steady pulse of the monitors, watching and listening for even the slightest shift in the information. Her hand rested over her phone in her pocket ready to call Ethan within seconds if needed.

Hunt’s arms snaked around her from behind, causing her body to shake at the unexpected contact. “Hi.”

“Hi, yourself.” Alex leaned into her fiancé, letting the warmth of his embrace calm her racing mind.

“How are you holding up?” His beard tingled against her skin as he brushed a kiss on her cheek.

She spun quickly, wrapping her arms around him. She leaned up on her tiptoes to bury her face in the crook of his neck.

“I know.” His fingers combed through her dark hair. She didn’t need to say what was on her mind, he knew the weight of what was troubling her. “Just have faith in them. He’ll find a way, I know he will.”

“How can you be so sure?” Alex sniffled into his shirt collar.

“Because he loves her.”

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

(tags in a reblog, trying that again to see if it makes any difference in my posts staying in search/tags)

#thomas hunt #thomas hunt x mc #ethan ramsey #ethan ramsey x mc #open heart #red carpet diaries #hollywood u #hunt x mc #professor hunt #thomas orson hunt #dr. ramsey #hunt x alex #alex hunt #fan fiction #love and scotch #choices fan fiction #ethan x ellie #thomas hunt x ethan ramsey #ethan ramsey x thomas hunt

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ramblings-of-a-mad-cat · 3 years

Note

You say the story of Rescue Team frustrates you? How come?

Rant ahead. Rant ahead about a game I unironically love, but I spend far too much time overthinking the plot of, hence my grievances.

Maybe I just held it to unfair standards on account of playing it for the first time after Explorers of Sky. Which is easily the greatest pokemon game ever made, accept no substitutes. Nah, Rescue Team DX is addicting, the music is incredible as always in these games, and the gameplay has been massively overhauled and made far superior to the original, which while fun, was pretty buggy. And the game does have some pretty cool characters, too. Like...whatever I may yell to the heavens about Albus Dumbledore from HP, make no mistake that he’s an exceptional and three-dimensional character. Same goes for Snape. And that applies to this game as well.

The main reason this game’s story irritates me comes down to Gengar and Alakazam. Again, they’re very well written characters...but I hate them. I despise both of them. I don’t know what it is, but Alakazam rubbed me the wrong way right from the start. Him and his whole team are so self-important, so arrogant. They condescend the MC and act like they’re the ruling body of the town square. Alakazam goes around telling people that he knows everything. That’s a god complex if you ask me. At several points, the characters make decisions based on the assumption that he is stronger than the MC, which you as a player never get to challenge. (Think of Leon from Sword/Shield, but a million times worse.) The Partner character is so in awe of them, so enamored by them. Yet behind MC’s back, Alakazam knows (or suspects) them to be the human of legend and doesn’t tell them “for their sake.” Which gives me strong Nozomi (SMT IV: Apocalypse) vibes, since later on he ignores all responsibility for having been "complicit" with the MC's secret.

The Fugitive Arc doesn't make any damn sense. First of all, Xatu claims that the disasters, all of the trouble, are being caused by the Human from the Ninetales Legend. Ninetales later debunks this. When I first played this game, I legitimately thought Xatu would wind up being some kind of secret villain, that he had lied, and that the Fugitive Arc was all started by him. This doesn't wind up being true, and we never get an answer for why he thought the Human of Legend was responsible for the state of affairs, nor did anyone question his being wrong or acknowledge his role in all this. But the one who really started everything was Gengar. He doesn't really annoy me until the Post-Game (I'll get to that) but everyone else's reactions to Gengar's story bother me. He is a known liar, a known trouble-maker who no one likes. It's well known that he has a vendetta against the MC. He has no proof whatsoever of his allegations. And everyone just buys it, despite MC now having a great reputation, because...I guess MC didn't actively deny it? Which the player was given no agency in? And it doesn't stop the accusation from being ridiculous?

Enter Alakazam. Apparently, everyone held a town meeting that must have taken all of ten seconds, to decide what to do about MC. They held this meeting without MC or the Partner present, because having them there would make too much sense I guess. Team A.C.T. prepares to...I guess kill MC? As well as the Partner, even though they're completely innocent. Before Alakazam hesitates and decides to give the MC a day to run away. Hold on, if he is so convinced that MC has to die to save the world, how do he justify letting them go? I guess the same way he justifies how he "knew" MC was the human of legend this whole time and said nothing about it? He bids MC to run, and throughout the entire Fugitive Arc, his team is the looming threat. Which was quite frustrating for me, already a Diamond Rank and probably higher leveled than Team A.C.T, because I would have been happy to settle things with Alakazam right then and there. It is beyond frustrating that the story denies me this chance. Not to mention, half of the town shows up to say goodbye when MC and the Partner take off. Like...okay, at least half of the town believes in MC. How in the hell is this even happening? Why do we have to flee when so many characters are on our side? When there's no proof? Why is Alakazam's word just considered law? If he “knows everything” how come he doesn’t know that Gengar is human as well, if he could sense MC’s humanity?

You don't know how badly I wish there was a fight with Team A.C.T. when all was said and done. And the game could have done it, too! Just have it take place at the top of the Mt. Freeze, before Ninetales shows up. They have a skirmish that takes place in a cutscene, but even in the remake - there's no boss battle. Why not? It's not like this dungeon has a boss battle otherwise. Wouldn't it have been a fitting conclusion to this arc? Maybe I'm biased, maybe I just think it would have been cathartic to kick Alakazam's ass, to make him put his money where his mouth is...because again, the arrogance. He demands Ninetales tell him what happened, and that "depending on your answer, I may be forced to eliminate MC" Ah, slow your roll there, buddy. Ninetales already broke up the fight and made it clear that it's not going to happen. You're a guest in their domain. On top of that, Team A.C.T. basically forbids you from going to Magma Cavern to challenge Groudon. As if you haven't just proven yourself capable of braving dangerous dungeons. As if, after they chased you halfway around the world and were proven completely wrong, they have any right to talk down to you or tell you what to do. Again, I so, so wish we could have fought them and taught them a lesson.

In general, this is a consistent thing with the other characters, following the Fugitive Arc. Everyone focuses on how happy MC and the Partner must be to have their names cleared, (Again, the Partner was accused of nothing. Like, literally nothing.) and no one stops to address that everyone in the Town Square should be falling to their knees and begging our forgiveness for what they put us through. Several of them tried to kill us. Upon returning to the Town Square, Gengar acts like MC is turning them-self in because they don't have any proof, even though he never had any proof to begin with, and it's only after MC is "cleared" by Team A.C.T. that everyone remembers that Gengar is untrustworthy. Reading the words "under the watchful eye of Alakazam" has always made me extremely salty. I don't have much to say about the Mankey brothers but they irritated me as well. Maybe I was just out of patience after the Fugitive Arc but I found myself wondering why we appeased them at all. Initially, we give them the chestnuts because they attack us if we don't. No matter how many times we beat them, they keep attacking if they're told no. I realize it's a staple in Pokemon games to have false yes/no choices, but those are especially noticeable in the games that focus on story. And sometimes the excuses are just pathetic. Meanwhile, the other pokemon continue to treat you as rookies, as kids. You are once again "forbidden" by...um, the other townsfolk, from going on the Rescue Mission until you talk them into it. It's like...guys. You put us through hell. We could have died a dozen times over, because you bought into the mob mentality for no good reason. How does everything just go back to normal after that?

I don't mind Gengar at first. He's a villain, and a well-written one. He's got a clear personality and there's hidden depth in there as well. He's one of my favorite characters in the game, easily. And all of the stuff he does in the main story? Stealing the mail, manipulating Caterpie, and the stuff during the Fugitive Arc? That weird psychedelic sequence where he's dragging MC down to hell at the end? (Or whatever that was?) All fine by me. He's a villain. He's doing bad things. But sweet Arceus is Gengar annoying in the Post-Game. I wonder if this must be how Merula Snyde Antis feel, over in the HPHM Fandom. Because the MC has absolutely no motivation or reason to help him out. He just demands that they act as his bodyguard, offers nothing in return, and won't leave you alone until you say yes. Buddy, my team has like thirty pokemon at this point and they're all hanging out in the Friend Areas a few feet away. You think you can intimidate me? The only reason I'm helping is to progress the storyline. And throughout this entire storyline, you have to help Gengar even though he hasn't earned it.

He does not deserve forgiveness, or a reconciliation with Gardevoir. What if I don't want to help him because I don't think Gardevoir would want to see him? What if I think that it would do her no good to see him? He's unrepentant and awful, the story does the bare minimum to suggest that he's changed. Now I will admit one thing: I love the moment that Ninetales first appears, sees Gengar, and simply goes "...What do you want." Like. Like that was the moment that I put it together, before he went on to tell the rest of the story. I love simple moments that make the big reveal crystal clear without needing to directly tell or show the audience. I've always dug that. But everything that happens after that is frustrating. Gengar demands the curse be lifted, despite having no justification to offer Ninetales. He threatens to attack them, but then clarifies that MC will be the one doing the fighting. Excuse me? Why would I ever do that? MC just found out the truth about Gengar, what he did to Gardevoir, and then how he pinned it all on them during the fugitive arc. Gengar, why would I attack Ninetales after this, instead of attacking you? Tell me I don't initiate battle against you right now? Thankfully MC doesn't have to actually fight Ninetales, but they are still forced to testify at Gengar's "trial" and it's a forgone conclusion because no matter what answers you give, it's treated as MC acknowledging his growth and he is forgiven at the end.

Oh, I’ve just thought of something else. MC isn’t given a reason for why they have to leave the Pokemon world, or why they were able to return. Explorers gave a reason. Gates to Infinity and Super Mystery Dungeon made a whole post-game story out of their reasons. Here? We get nothing. MC’s “role” has finished and so they have to return to the human world. Never mind what they want. Not until after the dramatic moment where they have to leave has passed, anyway. That voice at the end who suggests that we may be able to see our partner again just by “wishing.” Who the hell was that? What did they mean? Look, by Pokemon standards, the Rescue Team story is quite substantial. By Pokemon Mystery Dungeon standards? It’s...probably the weakest story. I mean, to be fair, Super Mystery Dungeon had the endless schoolhouse arc that added up to nothing in the second act. But hell, that was still fun. And I suppose the Fugitive Arc and Gengar’s “redemption” were fun too. Just frustrating as well.

#Pokemon #Pokemon Mystery Dungeon #Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX #pokemon mystery dungeon rescu #Team A.C.T.#Pokemon Team A.C.T.#Pokemon Games

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greasers-stole-my-social-life · 4 years

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The Gang’s Superpowers - HCs

I had a lot of fun with these and hope y’all enjoy!!

Darry

Power: Hyper-Awareness/Spidey Senses

Ok so his nickname is literally Superman, so I feel like he’d have it all - x-ray vision, flight, super strength, etc. - but, if he could only have one power, it would be ultra-awareness(aka spidey senses(also, i know that this isn’t one of Superman’s powers, but I still imagined it’s a power he would have 😊)).

He became aware of his senses when he prevented a young Ponyboy from burning his hands on the stove while trying to climb to the top of the cabinets for a cookie

He would be aware of everything going on around him, and he knows exactly when danger approaches.

If someone dropped a glass, he would be there to catch it before it hits the ground and shatters

the gang would be rough housing before a rumble and Darry would run into the living room to catch Sodapop before he hits his head on the coffee table

He goes out of his way to make sure the gang stays out of trouble, and he only uses his powers for good!

One time, he sensed danger while on a break from work, and saved a child from getting hit by a car. If it weren’t for him, the child would’ve died chasing after his balloon.

when strangers ask abt the incident, he always lies and says that it was a fluke, but we know the truth!

Weakness: Ponyboy. Just like Superman, having heightened senses can be atrocious and make it difficult to carry out normally simple tasks. He struggled a lot with his powers as a child and couldn’t calm down easily, but luckily Soda was able to help him out a lot by teaching him how to focus(which is kinda funny since Soda can’t concentrate for shit lol).

BONUS: Darry would most certainly have super strength, and it would actually be hilarious bc he wouldn’t want to draw attention to his superhuman strength so he would hold himself back all of the time and act like some things were far too heavy for him! Even when he would set down a glass, he had to focus a lot to make sure he didn’t smash it by mistake

Sodapop

Power: The ability to heal others/take pain away

I feel like Soda’s really empathetic and would be a strong healer.

When someone close to him gets hurt, he can’t help but heal them bc he cares so much about them

Once he learned about his powers and how it could be dangerous if someone found out that he could miraculously heal people with serious injuries, he decided to take pain away from people instead

If an injury is too severe or he doesn’t get to someone in time, the only thing he can do is remove the pain the person is feeling

when Pony was playing hide and seek with Curly when he was little, he climbed a tree to hide but ended up falling out of it instead, ultimately breaking his arm. Soda ran over and healed his arm before he could even cry. It was their little secret

He felt tremendous guilt when his parents died bc he felt as though he could’ve saved them if he had been there

he tried his best to heal his brothers’ pains after their parent’s deaths, but he was too hurt himself to be able to help others

The reason why Darry loves Soda’s massages so much is bc Soda secretly removes Darry’s pain

Darry doesn’t like Soda using his powers all willy nilly, so Soda just pretends that he’s good at giving massages naturally when in reality, he’s using his powers lol

Eventually, Darry catches on, but doesn’t say anything...the man deserves to be healed after a long day of roofing!

Weakness: When he’s hurt, emotionally or physically, he can’t help anyone. He can actually cause them more pain and inflict the pain that he feels onto others. He doesn’t mean to, but he simply can’t help it!

Ponyboy

Power: Mimic other’s powers

unlike the rest of the gang, who automatically knew exactly what their powers were and how to use them, Pony had trouble deciphering what his ability was

it wasn’t until Soda healed his broken arm that he realized his unique ability

he copied Soda’s exact actions and ended up healing a butterfly’s torn wing

everyone thought he was a healer like Soda, but then, when Steve was able to fix a car without having to look at the manual, Pony fixed his stereo that he thought was long gone without any knowledge of radios, and his power was revealed

He often times fails to see how his powers could help others, and never aids other people unless prompted to

this also stems from the fact that he gets overwhelmed easily and has trouble creating a plan on the spot

he’s still in the process of learning how to be an effective hero, but luckily he has the rest of the gang to help him harness his craft

his favorite power changes day to day, but when he mimics someone’s power and really loves it, he goes on a streak using that power for weeks!

the main reason that he doesn’t use his powers much is bc hes low key disappointed that he doesn’t have his own specific power, and feels like he steals them from everyone else

little does he know that he is probably one of the most powerful superheroes out there!!

Weakness: Just like how he can take other people’s powers, he also adopts their weaknesses. So, if he’s using Soda’s power to heal someone else, he can’t do it if he’s hurt as well.

Steve

Power: Understanding the inner-workings of machines and technology

While it may seem like a boring power, Steve actually has one of the most useful powers there is

His mom thought he was just really smart at first, but when their TV broke, he was able to fix it within minutes at age 4 and they knew it was more than just being insanely smart!

suddenly, he was able to fix everything, from toasters to radios to motorcycles

Soda cheered him on and Steve kept improving his repair times

part of the reason Steve got a job with Soda at the DX was bc he wanted someone to keep track of how fast he was able to complete jobs...and bc he loves Soda

he has to be careful that he doesn’t repair a car too quickly too often bc he’s worried that people may discover his power and try to take advantage of him

He always tries to help his friends when he can, and has fixed Darry’s truck on multiple occasions

sometimes he worries that people use him just for repairs, but he knows that he can always count on the gang to make sure that he knows his power is valued

he’s relieved that he has friends to lean on that know the struggle of having superpowers and having to be so secretive

When technology started advancing more, he couldn’t help but take the new tech apart and piece it back together again for fun

he keeps this to himself bc he thinks that it’s a bit nerdy to do something like that, but he thoroughly enjoys it

Weakness: He can’t explain the inner workings of things to other people. This seems fine on the surface, but in crises, the pressure is all on him. This also means that when he repairs something, he has trouble discussing what the problem was, which can rub customers at the DX the wrong way.

Two-Bit

Power: Hallucinations

He found out he could cause people to hallucinate when he was in preschool

his teacher was bothering him bc she kept telling him to “stop distracting his classmates” so he imagined that a snake, his teacher’s biggest fear, was in the room, and sure enough, his teacher and classmates jumped out of their seats screaming

when the custodian came in to put the snake outside, it was just gone

he mainly uses his powers for pranking purposes

BUT he still uses his powers to help others when possible!!

He uses it in school when teachers confront him about not turning in assignments

“Mr. Mathews, where is your homework?” “Uh, it’s right in front of you?” and he would have a smug smile while they fumbled and apologized profusely. Ofc, when he would leave, so would the homework, but teachers were embarrassed to ask him about it again

If a soc was about to jump a greaser, Two would make them hallucinate that the rest of the gang was with him and could outnumber the socs

he’s not very subtle about who sees his powers, and anytime a stranger points it out, her tries to make them believe that they’re wrong or that they’ve hit their head

Darry tries to make him better about hiding/disguising his power, but Two often times gets flustered and gives himself away.

he’s the only one in the gang, besides Dallas, that has to wear a disguise if he wants to use his power bc otherwise he exposes himself

Weakness: His hallucinations are only temporary and require focus, so he has to be careful when and where he causes hallucinations. When fighting a villain, his power is good for distractions, but the hallucinations can’t do anything physical to anyone. ex, If he caused a hallucination of a snake, the snake can not actually cause harm to others.

Johnny

Power: Siren/Compulsion

Johnny found out about his power when he was little by begging his dad to “stop” when he was yelling at his mom and him

his dad just stopped. No movement, it was just a halt in his movements. He realized that he had the power to command people around

He dislikes his power because he doesn’t like being able to have that much control over anyone, even people as terrible as his parents

the reason he’s so quiet is because he never wants to accidentally boss someone around or cause them to do something bad

he’s overly cautious with his word choice so that he doesn’t mistakenly tell someone to do something

when he sings/hums to himself without thinking, no matter how quiet he is, he accidentally draws people to him

most of the time it’s Dally or Pony lol

he kinda resents his power because it’s harder to have control over than the rest of the gangs’ powers

the gang always tries to lift him up about his power tho!

they know that he has no ill will and they know that he’s capable of controlling his power

He feels best when he can use his power for good, and always tries to be as helpful as possible while causing the least damage possible

this boy doesn’t have a bad bone in his body, so there’s really no reason for him to worry about abusing his power

Weakness: Much like the sirens in most fairy tales, he can not control people that are hard of hearing or deaf, or if they are covering/blocking their ears with headphones or earbuds. In a way, he is also his own weakness because he sometimes thinks he’s not capable of using his power! But he is!! He’s the most responsible with his power!

Dallas

Power: Teleportation

He first discovered his power when he was about 8

he was in the process of stealing candy with his NY gang, but he was cornered by the store owner

he panicked and closed his eyes, then poof! He was outside the store behind his friends, running away with all of the stolen candy in his hands

He uses his powers all of the time for crimes...and to show off

Darry warns him all of the time not to abuse his power, but as much as Dally respects Darry, he still uses his power far too often and carelessly

one of the reasons he had to leave NY is bc people began to catch on to the fact that something about him was superhuman

if he doesn’t want to deal with someone, he just vanishes and goes to anywhere else.

one time he accidentally ended up in Russia, but that’s a story for another time lol

he doesn’t wear a disguise even tho he really should with how much he uses his power

he’s used his power to get away from girls that he lost interest in instead of actually confronting his feelings

when no one’s paying attention, he does actually use his power for good

one time a guy kept pursuing a woman outside of Buck’s after she said no multiple times, so Dallas teleported in between them and knocked him out cold

he hates when people thank him for saving them so he usually gtfo’s before they get the chance to say anything to him

his heroism is discrete in his mind, but everyone knows that he’s a hero in the dark

Weakness: If he doesn’t have enough time to plan where he’s going to teleport to, drinks too much, or doesn’t focus enough on the destination, he can end up somewhere completely random. One time he accidentally teleported himself into a holding cell at the police station after drinking too much at one of Buck’s parties and was too tired to teleport out until the morning.

I hope you enjoyed reading my hcs as much as I enjoyed writing them!! Let me know if there’s anything else you’d like for me to write about!! Stay safe!

#the outsiders #the outsiders hcs #dallas winston #darry curtis #sodapop curtis #ponyboy curtis #johnny cade #Two-Bit Mathews #steve randle #darrel curtis #dally

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writingpaperghost · 3 years

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There is a Me Who Can Become Strong (Chapter 13)

Chapter 13: Defined Destiny

In the wake of Christmas, the Riders are forced to get used to a new normal. Emu deals with losing his friend and the secret he is once again forced to keep alone. Then, he finds himself in the possession of a new, strange, blank, Gashat.

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32857183/chapters/83270452

When Nico next sees Yuko after Christmas, it’s once the new year’s come around, when Yuko pops into Taiga’s clinic, one evening. Her hair’s no longer dyed blue, instead now being a bright green and she’s leaning over Taiga’s shoulder, watching him. One would think that Taiga would be annoyed by this, but if he is, he doesn’t say anything.

The moment Taiga notices Nico, he turns in his chair and tells her, “Get your friend out, now,”

Yuko pipes in, “Not like he could make me leave,”

Taiga grumbles, “Says the one who looks like a low-effort Snipe cosplayer.”

Gasping, Yuko dramatically put a hand on her chest, “How dare! If I was cosplaying – which I’m not – I would not be a low-effortcosplayer.”

At that comment, Nico cackles, then looks at Yuko, “Come on, Yuko, we can go talk,” She gestures at Taiga, “Taiga’s just being a grouchy old man.”

Once Nico’s brought Yuko back to her room, Nico sets about reorganizing the theory board. After a few moments, Yuko speaks, “Hanaya told me about what happened to your friend, since I already knew about the Kamen Rider thing and everything.” There’s a pause, before Yuko continues, “I really think, that if you’ve already gotten your rematch, you should really quit while you’re a head.”

Nico stops what she’s doing, frowns, and turns to face Yuko, “Why would I do that?”

“Because this is dangerous,” Yuko answers, “Because your friend died and you could too.”

“I can’t,” Nico insists, “I know what I’m doing, but Yuko… I need to know what’s going on.”

Frowning, Yuko shoves her hands into her coat pockets and makes her way over towards the door, “I’m really regretting telling you about this.”

---

The new year’s come, and Emu’s started a new internship, a surgery internship, with Saki supervising. He’s sure he could have gotten a worse supervisor, but it’s definitely odd for him. Not that he’s exactly had an easy time focusing recently. Even when he was doing something that he could normally focus on so easily, like playing a game, he would eventually lose focus.

All he could find himself thinking about was Kiriya – the way his body was glitching and the pixels… It would only lead him to thinking about that day six years ago, the bodies of the Next Genome Institute scientists on the floor, glitching and pixelating just like Kiriya. It was horrifying and while he knew he wasn’t responsible for what happened to Kiriya, not like with the scientist, it wouldn’t stop coming to his mind.

“Emu?” Saki’s voice snaps him out of his mind. He blinks, remember what he’d been doing. Right, he’d been practicing a surgical procedure. And then he lost focus again.

“Sorry,” He apologized, “I… don’t know what happened.”

Saki watches him for a moment, purses her lips and responds, “I know you’re still bothered by what happened to Kujo,” That was one way of putting it, “But you can’t let your emotions interfere with treating a patient.”

He knew she was right, but it was hard not to think about it, not to get distracted. He was at least eighty percent sure he and Kiriya counted as friends, and it hurt to see him die. After six years ago, he’d thought he wouldn’t have to deal with that feeling again, but Christmas had brought it all back.

Not that he was able to think all that much about it, given they were quickly alerted to a new patient in the CR, which needed their attention. Their newest patient was a famous surgeon, a man named Kazuki Shirakawa. Emu had never heard of him, but judging by the way Saki’s eyes had widened, she did.

So you know, no pressure or anything. Emu wasn’t too worried, between him and Saki, they could probably handle whatever Bugster appeared. That was their job, after all. Yet as they entered the patient room, they realized it wasn’t going to be quite so easy.

“I had suspected I had the game illness,” Shirakawa said, “Though there is no need to operate on me.”

“You’ve been infected,” Saki reminds him, pulling out her Gamer Driver, “It’s our duty to help you.”

Like a lever had been pulled, Shirakawa gasped and a Bugster began to appear. This time, it was Alhambra, who quickly declared, “This time, I’m Level 5!” Being a higher level than Salty had been, this might be a bit harder than they initially expected.

Grabbing their Gashats, Emu and Saki transformed.

Mighty Action X!

Taddle Quest!

Level up! Mighty jump! Mighty kick! Mighty-Mighty Action X!

Level Up! Taddle meguru! Taddle meguru! Taddle Quest!

Behind them, Saki catches the director on the other side of the window, gesturing to them to take the fight out of the patient room. So Saki using the stage select to send them to a quarry.

Axe in hand, Emu wastes no time in slashing at Alhambra, followed by Saki slashing with her sword. Despite their attempts, Alhambra dodges their attacks, countering with an ice spell. He hadn’t known that before – meaning that when a Bugster reaches a higher level it can learn new skills.

As the two tried to break and pry themselves free of the ice, they hear what sounds like Kuroto laughing. Looking up, they see a new Rider they’ve never seen before, white and black colored with red and blue eyes. On his waist was the device they’d seen Kuroto use. At his side was a Rider using a Gamer Driver and the Proto Mighty Action X Gashat.

“Para-DX, Brave,” Kuroto says, “I’m afraid the Beta is over, and we no longer are in need of our test players.”

“What does that mean?” Saki grunts, managing to melt through some of the ice with her Gashacon Sword’s flame mode.

It was the other Rider who spoke, “It means we’re taking back your Gashats,” It sounded like the other voice that had once come from Gemn.

Nodding, Kuroto agrees, “Yes, Ex-Aid is right. You’re Gashats will be returned to me at once.” With that statement, Gemn summons the Gashacon Sparrow in his hand.

At the sight of Kiriya’s weapon, Emu freezes. Then, like a switch in his mind flipped, he finds himself pulling out the Drago Knight Hunter Z Gashat. How dare Kuroto use Kiriya’s weapons, after he killed him?

Drago Knight Hunter Z!

Do-Do-Drago Kni-Kni-Kni-Knight! Dra! Dra! Drago Knight Hunter! Z! Para-DX!

Breaking what remained of the ice, Emu rushes towards Gemn, sending a powerful attack at him. Ex-Aid had the foresight to step away while Emu was transforming, so the only one caught in the attack was Gemn.

A cloud of purple smoke erupts from Gemn and then he gets right back up. Cackling, Kuroto declares, “I’ve surpassed even death!” His health bar, it was empty. It had been empty the whole fight. Ex-Aid seems surprised at Gemn’s declaration.

But Emu ignores it. He attacks Gemn again. While in the midst of their fight, Kuroto calls out to Ex-Aid, “Ex-Aid, go help Alhambra with Brave,”

Ex-Aid doesn’t immediately respond, almost seeming like it took him a moment to register what Kuroto had said. He nods and runs towards where Saki and Alhambra were fighting. Then, Emu hears a familiar Gashat.

Giri Giri Chambara!

It only served to make him more angry.

Gemn presses a button on the Buggle Driver, a tone ringing out.

Critical Dead!

A large amount of humanoid, shadowy creatures, almost like a horde of zombies, appears. They begin to grab at Emu and for a moment, he’s a little scared. This was new and Gemn was already bringing surprises from the moment they started this fight.

Then, Saki tackles him out of the attack, right before the shadowy horde exploded. As she reaches to deactivate both their transformation, he can hear Ex-Aid cheer, “Wow, Kuroto! That was so cool!”

Then, they’re back in the CR.

Saki’s staring at him crossly, “Intern,” And Emu knows he’s in trouble, “What were you thinking, trying to fight Gemn like that?”

Normally, getting lectured by Saki was scary. Or at least, it should be scary to Emu, but right now he isn’t really Emu, is he? Would Emu have gotten so upset like that? It’s hard to say as Emu never had any friends, so he couldn’t have lost any but… If nothing else, he was upset, whether or not that was in character for Emu.

“He killed Kiriya,” He answers, coldly.

“I told you earlier,” She reminded him, “You can’t let your emotions interfere with your patient’s treatment.”

Rolling his eyes, Emu counters, “The treatment he doesn’t want?” Then he scoffs, “Besides, you did the same thing with Graphite. Only focused on fighting him no matter what trouble it caused everyone else. Who are you to talk?”

She takes a deep breath, before holding her hand out and looking him in the eye, “Intern.” She speaks just above a growl, “Give me your Gashats.”

Emu meets her eyes, “Why should I?” At the glare she gives him, he scoffs and digs them out of his pockets, “Fine, whatever.” It’s not like he hasn’t managed things without Gashats before.

---

“You’re already working on a new Gashat?” Mu sounded amazed when he peered over at Kuroto’s desk, seeing a strange blank Gashat. It looked like two Gashats fused into one, with some kind of knob on the back. To be fair, there were three Gashats on Kuroto’s desk, another like the one he was working on currently, and one that looked like two fused together, but without the knob. But Kuroto was only actively working on the one.

Kuroto nods, “Yes, when it’s finished it’ll allow the user to switch between two Gashats, as well as being a higher level than anything we have now.” He holds the Gashat for a moment, before sighing slightly and setting it down, “But it needs data, so it may not be ready for a while.”

Mu doesn’t ask why Kuroto decided to make a strongerGashat, right after finishing Dangerous Zombie. Instead, he just watches Kuroto, while seated on the couch. After a while, Kuroto got up and left the room, stretching in the process.

Then, Graphite teleports in, quickly noting the Gashat on Kuroto’s desk. “Another one already?”

Nodding, Mu explains to Graphite what Kuroto had told him. For a while, Graphite’s gaze would always fall back to the Gashat, for some reason or other. Mu wasn’t sure, nor was he really sure he wanted to know. Still, he was a bit worried about Graphite’s odd behavior, “Is everything alright?”

Blinking, Graphite looks back at Mu, then at the Gashat. Finally, he responds, “I… You said the Gashat needs data? Bugster data?”

“Yes?”

Graphite picks up the Gashat, “I have an idea.”

Pursing his lips, Mu nods, “I won’t tell Kuroto,”

With a small smile, Graphite nods and teleports away.

---

“Mr. Shirakawa,” Saki begins, “Why do you refuse our help?”

Sighing, Shirakawa explained, “While I may be infected with this ‘Game Disease’ I also have an inoperable pancreatic cancer.” He seemed terribly resigned about the entire thing, “Even if you were to cure me of this disease, I would die anyway.”

Saki’s not sure what to say to that.

---

Emu’s outside of the hospital, sitting on a bench. He’s not really sure what to think right now. Maybe… maybe Saki was right. After all, during that fight, he’d only been focused on Gemn. He couldn’t even say what had happened with Saki in her fight against Alhambra and Ex-Aid.

Nor did Saki really deserve what he’d said, no matter how accurate it was.

It was times like these where Emu wondered why he was so insistent on achieving someone else’s dreams. Because where Emu had always been so good at being kind and caring to other people, he could barely keep from wanting to strangle people, some days. And today… his anger at Gemn for killing Kiriya, and then taking that anger out on Saki…

Maybe he was no good at this doctor thing. Sure, everyone in Pediatrics thought he was great, but that didn’t really mean much. After all, it hadn’t been his dream until achieving Emu’s dream had become his own dream. At least, if he wasn’t a doctor, he wouldn’t have to worry about his emotions interfering with treatment. Or at least have no obligation not to let them.

“You’re moping,” Emu shoots off the bench, spinning around to face the startlingly familiar voice. Standing by the bench was Graphite, in his human form.

“You’re dead,” Emu counters, wishing that he had even one Gashat to work with. “We killed you.”

Graphite rolled his eyes, “You’re fighting Alhambra again right now, aren’t you? And on Christmas you fought Salty.” He walks to Emu’s side, “We Bugsters get better easily. You should know that.”

Turning to better face Graphite, Emu narrows his eyes, “What do you mean?”

Shaking his head, Graphite pulls something out of his coat. It was a blank grey Gashat, two fused together with a knob on it. He holds it out to Emu, though Emu only eyes it warily. Sighing, Graphite shakes it a little at Emu, “Take it,”

Still, Emu’s not entirely convinced, “What’s this?”

“A Gashat,”

“It’s blank.”

“Yes,” Graphite says, a tone almost like what one might use when explaining something to a child, “It needs Bugster data.”

That didn’t really answer all that much, “Then why are you giving it to me?”

“You’re a Bugster, aren’t you?” Graphite eyes him with a calculating look.

Emu gasped, “How did you know?” The look Graphite gives him tells him he won’t get an answer, so he shakes his head, but takes the Gashat anyway. He examines it for a moment, turning it around in his hands, before saying, “I don’t have a game, you know.” Yet when he looks up, Graphite’s already gone.

---

The bright side about how the Stage Select function of their Gamer Drivers worked, meant that it was really easy to figure out when one of the stages was in use. Nico noticed that the forest stage was activated, figuring that Emu and Saki were fighting whatever Bugster they’d briefly fought earlier. She wasn’t so much interested in the Bugster, though, as she was Gemn. She needed to figure out what Kiriya had found out that had gotten him killed.

As she enters the stage, she can see that Saki has already transformed to Level 3, fighting Alhambra. She saw a black and white Rider and then the purple and black Rider that was using Proto Mighty Action X. Notably, he was using Giri Giri Chambara for a Level 3.

“Gemn!” She calls out, catching the attention of the white and black Rider. That meant that this new form was probably the product of Gemn’s new Gashat.

Gemn looks over at the other Rider, “Ex-Aid,” He said, “Go help Alhambra again, I’ll deal with Snipe.”

As the other Rider, Ex-Aid, joins Alhambra in fighting Saki, Nico doesn’t let it distract her much. She pulls out her two Gashats. “Alright, what was it that Kiriya figured out?”

Bang Bang Shooting!

Jet Combat!

Jet! Jet! In the sky! Jet! Jet! Jet Combat!

“Now why should I tell you that?”

This new form of Gemn’s is strong, way stronger than her Level 3. Not to mention, how he used Kiriya’s Gashacon Sparrow. Nico wanted to know what Kiriya learned and now she also wanted Gemn gone. It’s hard to block his attacks when they’re close up and she can’t get away to get an advantage.

Out of nowhere, Alhambra freezes her and Saki, following the attack with a blast of fire. Gemn attack Nico, knocking her out of her transformation, while Ex-Aid attacks Saki, doing the same. As Gemn towers in front of them, ready to use the Gashacon Sparrow to attack them, it’s clear they needed help.

Nico didn’t know why Emu wasn’t here, but she hoped he showed up fast.

“Stop!” Both Gemn and Ex-Aid turned to the voice, Emu running towards them.

“Emu!” Saki gasps, “Why are you here?”

Emu’s holding a strange grey Gashat in his hand, a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by Gemn. “How did you get that?”

Instead of answering, Emu just grabs the knob on the Gashat, twisting it back and forth hesitantly. When he rotates it the first time, nothing happens. When he rotates it to the other side, though, there’s a flash. A red, blue, and purple cloud erupts from Emu as he clutched the Gashat.

“Kuroto, what’s happening?” Ex-Aid gasped, glancing over at Gemn.

“It’s a blank Gashat,” Gemn explained. The cloud that emerged from Emu soon was absorbed by the Gashat. Now in Emu’s hands was a blue Gashat, with a yellow knob. On one side was a game called Perfect Puzzle, on the other side a game called Knockout Fighter. Gemn finishes his explanation, “Although, it seems to have found it’s data.”

Emu rotates the knob to the side labeled Perfect Puzzle.

Perfect Puzzle!

Dual Up! Get the glory in the chain, Perfect Puzzle!

A picture appears behind him, depicting a blue Rider, unlike Emu’s previous forms. It moves closer to him, merging with him and giving him the armor. Around him, all sorts of power ups spawned.

Once more, Ex-Aid gasps, “What the hell? He can do that?”

Gemn growls, “A bootleg game,”

Dodging out of the way of Gemn’s incoming slash, Emu pulls up a sort of grouping of items. He arranges them, combining strength items with speed items. Taking the power up he just created, somehow merging the items together, Emu kicks Gemn, sending him backwards. He dodges out of the way of Gemn’s next attack, speeding to behind him and landing several punches.

Taking a step back, Emu grabs the Gashat out of its holster and rotates the knob to the other side.

Knockout Fighter!

Dual Up! Explosion hit! Knockout Fighter!

Like before, a picture of his rider form, this time red with large fists, appears. It replaces the blue armor. Emu quickly punches at Gemn, who barely manages to dodge out of the way.

Ex-Aid slashes at him with his Gashacon Breaker in sword mode, though Emu blocks it. He knocks the weapon away and punches Ex-Aid sending him backwards and causing his Gashat to eject.

“Kuroto!” Ex-Aid quickly scrambles to stand up and get farther from Emu, almost hiding behind Gemn, though a distance behind. “Why is he so strong?”

“Because he’s Level 20,” Kuroto growls, “How dare he-“

Running up and tugging at Gemn’s arm, Ex-Aid says, “We can’t stay right now…”

Grumbling, Kuroto nods and the two, plus Alhambra escape.

Emu removes his Gashat and drops his transformation. He feels… tired, that’s for certain, but he thinks it’s more from giving the Gashat data. That definitely was the draining part. Not that he could tell Saki or Nico that.

He examined the Gashat for a moment. He’d never… well he’d never thought he’d even had a connection to a game. The idea that his data could contribute to the creation of a Gashat had never crossed his mind. But here they were, not one, but two games, though in one Gashat.

Then Nico breaks him out of his thoughts, “Where the hell did you get that Gashat?”

“Uh…” Emu squeaks, “Well… I think Graphite may still be alive and gave it to me.”

Neither of the two looked impressed, Nico crossed her arms while Saki unamused responded, “You realize that we killed him?”

“Well yeah,” He agrees, “But we killed Salty and Alhambra too.”

Nico huffs, “Whatever, I’m going home.”

#kamen rider ex aid #kamen rider exaid #kamen rider #my writing #there is a me who can become strong

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lynneshobbydomain · 5 years

Note

50 for Kamukoma if you want! If not then Oumasai would be fine as well!

(Anon I’m so sorry for the late response, but you should know your request made me happy! I don’t know much about Izuru besides what I know of him from the game, so I hope that I got everything down. This was a fun write. Also, I’m going to do the same prompt with Oumasai because I feel bad for making you wait so long. AHHH I’M SO HORRIBLE WITH LENGTH I’M SORRY DX)

Comfortable Predictability

Rated: G

Summary: Sometimes, secrets are impulsive.

It starts off as predictable as a romance novel. Komaeda isn’t looking where he’s going as he turns the corner and if this was a romance story, Izuru would have crashed into him or at the very least would have caught him as he nearly falls to the ground. However, their luck cancels out and it’s a mere stumble and Izuru has to make the split decision if he’s going to block the rest of Komaeda’s way or if he’s going to let him walk by with the many apologies of how blind he was.

“Kamukura-kun?” Of course the Lucky Student was going to sound a little surprised. Izuru didn’t exactly try to come out all that often, preferring to stay in the dark and in the sidelines. Junko promised entertainment and so far it was getting to be more of a hassle. “Boring” just didn’t cut it anymore. “This must be my lucky day! Seeing the ever elusive Ulti-”

Izuru covered Komaeda’s mouth with his hand as he forced the boy to back up and round the corner again. He could just shove him against the wall and walk away, he could just let him go and continue on, he could do a thousand of different things. They’d all leave Komaeda stunned, a hand to his mouth as he thought about how the “Ultimate Hope” just touched him and how that would fuel his self-hatred and his self-worth in equal amounts. It would give Komaeda something to think about for the next four hours before a wave of bad luck crashed into him.

He let Komaeda go and was just about to do that. He was just about to leave. This was boring, all of this was boring. Komaeda grabbed onto Izuru’s sleeve and both boys paused. It wasn’t like Komaeda to do that. He usually restrained himself better. Izuru raised an eyebrow upwards, wondering if this was going to be something not boring.

“O-oh.” Komaeda let him go quickly. “I’m sorry Kamukura-kun, I know you don’t like being touched by filth. Especially by the likes of someone like me. Ah, I’m also distracting you from your hard work. Forgive me for that. I have no right to keep you from your job. I’ll be on my way now.”

Normally, Izuru would tell him to not be so impulsive. Normally, Izuru would say something just to see what type of reaction he could get from the boy. As predictable and boring as he was, as everyone was, he couldn’t deny the minor amount of entertainment he got from it. However, he stayed exactly where he was and Komaeda frowned at the fact that he wasn’t moving.

“Kamukura-kun? Is...some-”

Impulsive behavior wasn’t like him. There was really no reason behind it either. He already knew what kind of reaction this was going to cause, but he wanted to do it anyway. He placed his hand against the wall and pressed a soft kiss against Komaeda’s lips before letting him go and stepping away. Just as he did so, he could hear footsteps coming towards them and he decided that he was just going to leave.

Boring and predictable. Izuru touched his fingers to his own lips. He didn’t predict the softness of them. How they yielded against him without a care or a thought in the world. Maybe he should be more impulsive, if it got a reaction just like that. It was clear to him that Komaeda wasn’t the type to go around kissing and telling…

“Hey what’s the matter with you?” He could hear behind him and he could hear Komaeda’s loud laugh.

“I just had the luckiest day of my life.”

So a secret couldn’t hurt.

#kamukoma #kissing prompt #kissing #danganronpa fanfic #danganronpa #dr2 #izuru kamukura #nagito komaeda #lynne's self indulgence #prompts #Anonymous

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mirkwoodshewolf · 5 years

Text

Time for us to take care of you; Queen x teen reader (platonic)

*Author’s note*

This was a request from my Wattpad and this is also a cute little platonic fic in honor of Brian’s birthday (since in this fic I kinda lean towards Brian here in favorite band member) now this one’s a little different because here and as warning we’ve got you being the assistant for Paul Prenter (UGGGGHHHH!!! DX) but have no fear, the crazy queenies will save you from his tyranny! And you shall find out soon.

So besides the warning for Prenter, there’s fluff, swearing, situation regarding migraines.

Queen taglist:

@geek-and-proud

@plethora-of-things

@psychosupernatural

@ixchel-9275

@waddles03

@coolcxt

@queendeakyy

__________________________________________________

I was going through some files trying to get everything that Paul told me to organize properly and have ready for Mr. Reid while they all went over to meet with Ray Foster, the record producer for the band. God even though he’s my ‘boss’ I wish that he would do his own work instead of handing it down to me, especially when I hear Mr. Reid telling him to do this certain task but the second he goes away, he just places the work right on my desk just before I would clock out sometimes.

I paused my work and rubbed my face as I groaned tiredly before placing my chin on top of my hands as my elbows were leaned up against my desk. Suddenly I felt hands cover my eyes and I let out a small squeak but before I could fight back, a voice said in my ear.

“No, no, no darling no peeking you cheeky thing.”

“Freddie what are you doing?”

“You ask so many questions darling.” I waited for a moment before saying,

“Can I look now?”

“Hold on, not yet.”

“Now can I look?”

“Ever the impatient teenager, thinks work is better than being spoiled. Especially by us, wouldn’t you agree Deacy?” I heard Roger’s voice say.

“Yes indeed. She works much too hard.”

“Alright Fred uncover her eyes, it’s ready.” Brian’s voice spoke up and the second Freddie’s hands uncovered my eyes, I saw before me a tray of food and a cup of my favorite flavor of tea.

“Aww you guys.” I said as I twirled around in my chair and turned to face them.

“You just work so hard love and we know you probably didn’t have time for lunch. So after the meeting with Foster, we slipped past Reid and Prenter and got you your favorite.” Brian explained.

“Ohhh you guys do too much for me. I should be doing stuff like this for you.”

“You do too much of that already. Time we did something for you for a change. Get your mind off of work for once.” Roger said as he playfully ruffled my hair. I shoved his hand away from my head and tried to readjust my hair before I reached for the fried rice first and asked them.

“So, how did the meeting go?” I know I shouldn’t be asking questions like these but throughout these past 8 months since I got this second job to get some extra money for—personal reasons (please don’t ask), the boys of Queen had really become like a second family to me.

Even though they’re bigshot rockstars who most people would believe wouldn’t care much about people who help them behind the scenes, the lads had been nothing but supportive of me. As a young 15 year old assistant, this whole lifestyle can be intimidating but thanks to John Deacon or as I had the privilege of referring him by his nickname “Deacy”, he’s helped me out by pulling me aside whenever the scene got too hectic especially for someone my age.

If you had to ask me who I’d pick as a favorite it’s really hard to choose but if I really had to and I hope and pray the guys never hear about this but I would have to say it’d be Brian May. Not because of his rockstar abilities or just due to the fact that he’s the guitarist of this famed group. No I’m talking about the Brian May fascinator of the stars and the rights of animals.

See once I get to University I’ve always had an interest in becoming a veterinarian but not just for domestic pets, but exotic animals as well. When I was just 9 years old I saw a family of hedgehogs nesting in my mum’s garden and for weeks on end I helped fed them and made sure the family dog Yaz never went near the nest as to not harm or scare the mama hedgehog and her babies away. And when Brian first heard about my dream, he was so proud of me that he even gave me an offer.

He vowed that one day if he ever got the chance to run his own little ‘animal safe house’ I would be his personal veterinarian for all sick, injured or orphaned animals he would take in. We began to bond over our love for the animals and we both shared that the laws of Britain should change on animal rights. It’s cruel and inhumane that badger baiting is still performed here in the UK even though its illegal. One day Bri and I hope to change that, to make sure that all people that still do stuff like that is truly put to justice no matter what animal they harm.

Now I won’t say that I either do or do not like it; but in secret when it’s just us two, he sometimes likes to call me his little ‘fox kit’ because he always compared my cuteness to a baby fox kit.

And of course there’s Roger and Freddie. The two famed troublemakers as I like to call them. But even with their high energy and true rock and roll spirits, they like to have their quiet moments. Like I’ve cat-sit for Freddie before and got to go over to his flat to meet them (all of them) as well as his lovely lady Mary Austin. While Roger and I like to have some talks about cars and boats.

I knew a thing or two about cars thanks to my uncle who owns a mechanic shop in downtown London. He’s taught me a thing or two about fixing engines, changing a tire so I’m not like most women who just seem to want to sit there in the middle of nowhere in their short jean pants that barely cover their buts and crop-tops waiting for someone to come to their rescue. Hell I even once got to change one of the tour buses tires when Deacy or any other of the roadies couldn’t seem to get it.

And of course when it comes to fashion, these two try to take me with them when it came to their shopping trips and try to get me in the most outlandish and insane clothes that even I thought were ridiculous. But I enjoyed spending time with them, plus seeing them make fools of themselves is always a good way for some juicy blackmail should the time ever arise.

“Well we’ve got the approval for the new record.” Deacy said.

“Really? That’s amazing. Congrats guys!”

“Yes. However there is a catch.” Brian added.

“What is it?” I asked worriedly.

“Unlike any other album, they’re sending us out of London. Actually far from any distractions. We’re going to a recording studio called what—Stone farm?” Roger said.

“Rockfield farm studio Roger dear.” Freddie pipped in. Oh wow.

Now that is a long away from here, actually it’s out of England far. I’m told that studio is located in the intense farm country of Wales. Pure agriculture and not rural location.

“You guys have any idea how long you’ll be gone for?” I asked.

“Foster’s giving us a nine week deadline.” Brian answered.

“Oh.”

“Well there’s no need to be sad darling. You’ll be coming with us.” Freddie said as he lightly patted my shoulder.

“What?”

“Oh come on (y/n). Did you really think we’d leave you behind for nine weeks. We’d go mad without you around.” Roger said.

“Honestly I think we’ll try to murder each other without you there to keep us in check.” Deacy answered bluntly.

“But—but I….guys I’m honored you’d think I should go with you to this recording studio but unfortunately Paul’s my boss and I don’t go anywhere unless he tells me it’s okay.”

“Oh no need for that darling. I gave him a full rundown on why you should come along with us and he gladly accepted the reasons.” Freddie said.

Honestly Fred I know why he said he’d take me and it wasn’t because of your reasons. Yes I am well aware of how my boss looks at the frontman of Queen and let me tell you I’m not saying this as ‘unnatural’ for a man to love another man. I just worry for Freddie’s safety.

I knew Paul was no good, I don’t even see why he would even advert for an assistant when he hardly gives me the time of day and belittles me every day.

“Okay well there’s also my mum. You….you know how conservative I’ve told you all she is. I doubt she’d let someone my age who with a bunch of guys twice my age to Wales all on her own.”

“We can assure her that no harm shall come to her beloved daughter. Even if we have to chain ourselves to her car in order to prove our point.” Roger said.

“Please say you’ll come with us darling. Please?” Freddie said as he placed his hand on top of my shoulder, looking at me with pleading eyes even through his shades. I set my rice down and said.

“I don’t know guys……”

“Well we know there’s one surefire way to get you to say yes darling.” Oh bugger not again.

I felt both John and Roger’s hands grip both my wrists pulling me out of my seat and I was soon sandwiches between them. Their arms imprisoning me between them making sure that I wouldn’t get out.

“Still don’t want to change your mind darling? You’ve already gotten the approval might as well take it.” Said Fred.

“I—I—”

“Still not wanting to go I see? Well Roger, Deacy time to step it up my darlings.”

“Awww no not the bunny nose! Deacy please it’s—oh not the double bunny nose!” The famed Queen sandwich plus bunny nose tactic. Whenever the boys really wanted me to join in on something but I’d try to get out of it, no matter which combo they did.

Two members would sandwich me in their arms while on either cheek I would feel their noses twitch like a bunny giving me bunny kisses, but if I still refused then I would get passed on to the next combo of whomever was left.

“Ohh please I can’t take it! It’s too cute when I get you both doing it!”

“Then say you’ll come or you’ll get it from Brian and I.”

“Okay! Okay I’ll come, I’ll come.” They all cheered and of course Roger and Deacy began kissing me all over my face and head as Brian and Freddie now came in to complete a royal Queen group hug as they liked to call it with me at the center. “When do we leave?”

“First thing tomorrow morning.” Well hopefully I can convince my mum to let me go.

With the help of Brian and Deacy (since they were the most responsible of the band, and at this point Deacy was about to become a father at this point since his wife and soulmate Veronica was pregnant so hearing a future parent talk with a current parent seemed a bit easier to understand. Instead of four adult rockstars asking a teen girl to come along with them for her job) my mum allowed me to go.

I spent the next few hours packing and ended up getting about 5 hours of sleep since the cab I would be taking was coming around 6am to pick me up. My mum kissed me goodbye the next morning and made me promise to call her every single day and night when I got up and before I went to bed.

Finally after a long 3hr. drive we finally arrived. And let me tell you Rockfield farm definitely lived up to its name. As I was helping with the unpacking of the band’s stuff Roger was the first one out of the car wearing his fur coat and shades as he said.

“Recording studio?”

“Well the idea was to get away from all distractions.” Paul answered as he held two suitcases in hand. I grabbed one of the suitcases but as I walked around the car, I slipped on some mud and nearly fell to the ground had it not been for Freddie managing to catch me in time.

“Thanks Fred.”

“No need for thank yous darling. Need any help?”

“No, no I’ve got it.”

“(Y/n) I ain’t paying you to stand around and sell yourself out. Take that suitcase into the studio over there while I show the lads their rooms.” Paul snapped. Dude you hardly pay me at all.

“Yes Mr. Prenter.” I said as I headed in the opposite direction and set the heavy suitcase down. For the next couple of hours I was helping unload the guys’ guitars, amps, and drumkit into the recording building.

And of course Paul insisted that since I would figure out cars and talk about stuff that no other girls talk about then I’d have no problem unloading everything, so I was left alone unloading everything without the guys’ knowledge. Paul also had me set up Roger’s kit and have Brian’s guitars all set up and ready for him when it came time to record tomorrow.

By the time everything was set up and I was finally able to leave the studio I turned to see that the sun was just setting. I walked in to see everyone gathered at the dinner table just finishing up their supper.

“Oh there you are love, we were wondering what was keeping you.” Paul made sure to keep his eyes locked right at me. Because he had threatened me once that if I ever told the guys of how ‘overworked’ he was giving me, he’d fire me and make sure that I would never be admitted into another Queen concert again.

“Just—thought I’d look outside at the marvelous view we’ve got. I know you guys are gonna have a lot of time to write here.” I said.

“I will admit it defiantly provides no distractions.” Brian said.

“Well I’m gonna give Veronica a call and then probably head to bed.”

“Yeah I think I’ll hit the sack myself.” Roger agreed.

“True my darlings, we’ll take an early start tomorrow.” Freddie said. With that the guys all decided to turn in for the night.

“(Y/n).” I turned to see Brian still at the table with a plate of fresh food. “Managed to save you a plate.”

“Brian you are my angel, thank you.” I said as I sat down.

“Next time don’t get too lost staring out into the fields, okay. Even you must eat my little fox kit.” I groaned at the nickname and playfully slapped his arm as he laughed softly. “Now eat and don’t stay up too late. Goodnight love.”

“Night Bri.” I said as he kissed the top of my head before heading towards his room. “Oh hang on, we weren’t clearly told. Where’s your room going to be at?” Actually I have no idea. Paul never mentioned a room for me.

“I’ll—I’ll talk to Paul after I talk to my mum. Don’t worry Bri I’m sure my room’s here somewhere.” He looked at me skeptically and said.

“Well just so you know in case he has you sleeping on that dirty old couch, you can always come up to my room. It’s the first door on the right. It doesn’t matter what time you come in, just wake me up and I’ll make room for you, okay?”

“Okay. Thanks Bri. Goodnight.”

“G’night love. Sweet dreams.”

“Sweet dreams.” He then proceeded up the stairs. After I finished up my dinner, Paul soon came in from the bathroom and I asked him.

“Excuse me, Mr. Prenter.” God I hated calling him that. “Where will I be sleeping at while I’m here?”

“Oh sorry (y/n), but I’m afraid all the rooms have been reserved by the band, Rory and myself.”

“So there’s—no more rooms?”

“Afraid not. But there’s always the couch. Unless you don’t think you can handle staying here, you can always go back to your mum’s place and I’ll tell the lads you were homesick and couldn’t handle being away from your sick mum for too long.” God I really hated it when he used my mum against me.

“The couch will be fine. Goodnight Mr. Prenter.”

“Goodnight lass, and be sure to have breakfast up and cooked by the time we all wake up. As part of the agreement you’ll be making all the meals from now on during our stay here.”

“Very well sir.” I stated. Paul sneered a grin before heading upstairs to his room. I put my dish away and headed to the living room to see my suitcase there on the old, soiled (probably mold or cat piss), torn apart, dusty red couch. It hardly looked like it would fit me and as I lay down on it, it already felt lumpy and I swore something was poking me in the back.

Heading into the bathroom I changed into my pajamas but as I stepped out, it was freezing cold. God I guess summers out here in Wales just get cold. I raced towards the couch and tried my best to cover myself up with the blanket but it was so think layered and holes that I was barely able to keep warm.

This was gonna be a long night.

By the time it was morning, I was shivering and my neck and back were in pure agony.

“I thought I said to have breakfast ready before I awoke?” I groaned and peered an eye open to see Paul standing over me.

“You said—to have it by the time the guys woke up.”

“And by that I meant Roy and myself. There are two hungry men waiting for their breakfast. Now get off your arse and movie it lassie.” I slowly stood up and felt my head pounding as I tried to ease up the tension in my muscles.

“Can I at least call my mum? I forgot to do that last night.”

“I’m not paying you to gossip band secrets to your mum. Now go and get breakfast ready or I’ll have a cab come and get you for being so incompetent.” He threatened me. I looked at him and he glared down at me with those icy, soulless eyes of his.

“Very well Mr. Prenter. What would you all like to have for breakfast?” He grinned down at me knowing that he had won the battle.

When the guys came down, I was just getting the last bit of breakfast ready and when Deacy saw me he asked me.

“Poppet, are you alright? You look exhausted.” Tell me about it. I just kept tossing and turning on the couch since it was so uncomfortable. The cold wind seeping through the old wood texture of the house made it almost impossible for me to sleep since I feared of getting pneumonia.

“Just…..just kept worrying about my mum. That’s all.”

“I’m sure she’s fine darling. You can give her a call later after breakfast. So my beautiful chief what have we got cooking this morning?” Freddie asked as he wrapped his arm around me.

Which I knew Paul would give me hell about it later.

For the next week and a half it was the same routine. I hardly got any sleep, Paul would drag me about all day making sure everything in the studio was set up and he was smart to keep me away from the guys or forced me to put on more makeup so that my eyes wouldn’t appear as dark and baggy as they were.

But one morning, my head was pounding so hard and my vision was blurry. At first I thought it was just because I was still sleepy and had unshed tears but when Paul’s voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard and that chalkboard was plugged to an amp increasing the sound and the piercing light from the sun as well as the lights in the house just made it painful to even look up, I knew it had to be a migraine.

Of course Paul didn’t care and had me immediately go out into the studio building and try to get everything set up for the boys to record. But since the sun was out today it gave the room an intense brightness than usual. I could barely keep my eyes open and my head was pounding like how Roger bangs his drums, maybe even harder than that.

As I was setting up, I just felt this bolt of agonizing pain strike my head and I tried to keep my balance but I ended up falling against the wall. My ears ringing and tears falling down my face.

“Slacking off once again I see.”

“Please Mr. Prenter can you not talk so loud? My head really, really hurts.”

“It’s just an excuse of yours to getting out of work. I’m tired of all these excuses you’ve been giving out. Just like every woman crying out for attention. Now do your job less you want to be fired!” I groaned and held my hands to my ears to try and block out any sound as my head kept pounding and my ears were ringing.

Through my blurred vision I saw three figures standing in front of me while I felt a fourth figure wrap their arms around me.

“Shhh, it’s okay love. It’s okay. Just lean back into me.” Oh Rog. “That’s it. You can fall into me love, I’ve got you. I’ve got you.” I whimpered in agony as I fell against him after feeling a stronger and more painful pounding in my head. Even with putting all my weight against him, he didn’t flinch once. “That’s it, that’s it just fall into me lovie, I’ve got you.” He whispered.

Oh if there’s one good thing about Roger that I also love it’s his soft voice. No one would know unless they talk with Roger Taylor that his voice is actually really soft spoken, which is shocking because when people hear him sing, it’s either his high falsetto or this gravely, raspy growl.

“Okay love, I’m going to slowly pick you up, okay? I promise I’ll be as gentle as I can.” I whimpered telling him I understood what he was saying. “Alright love, ready? One….two….three. Oh I know, I know love I’m sorry shhh shshshsh.” I then felt something cover my head. It felt like an overcoat and I heard Deacy’s voice whisper.

“Let’s get her to my room. Hardly any sunlight gets in and it’s probably the quietest bed in that house probably.” Together the two of them took me out of the recording studio. Roger kept me close to him, telling me to close my eyes before we stepped a foot outside while Deacy handled every door that came in our path to make sure that when they closed, they wouldn’t slam behind Roger and cause my migraine suffering to get any worse. “Shoes off though, there’s not any carpet for these stairs.”

Deacy took his off first and he then said.

“Here, let me take her down so that we can get her on a more comfortable surface and out of this light.” I felt Roger gently try to transition me into Deacy’s arms now and I couldn’t help but whimper as I felt myself being jostled once more. “Shhh, I know poppet, I know I’m sorry. Just hold out for a bit longer. You’re almost there.” Deacy whispered to me as I felt myself being taken down the stairs.

I groaned with every wood creak but Deacy apologized with every step until finally the nightmare was over and I was gently being set down on the bed.

“There we are love, you can open your eyes now. Slowly.” Slowly I opened my eyes and I saw the blurry figures of both Roger and Deacy.

“There she is. Is it helping at all?” asked Roger.

“I still hurts.” I whimpered out.

“Aww we know love.” I felt his calloused fingers brush away the strands of hair from my face.

“Do you need anything poppet? Medicine? Water?”

“All of the above.” I groaned.

“Okay, Rog you stay with her. Make sure she doesn’t move around too much. I’ll go get the stuff.” I felt Deacy kiss my forehead and I saw him go up the stairs.

The hair stroking and gentle scalp massage was now Roger’s job and I groaned out as I tried to adjust myself.

“No, no, no don’t move love. And try to relax your face. Facial tension only causes the migraines to get worse.”

“I thought you were a dentist?” I couldn’t help but tease.

“I was never a dentist love. I switched my major to biology. Got bored with dentistry.” He said as he bopped my nose. Soon enough we heard the sound of footsteps coming down as quietly as possible but along with whom we suspected to be Deacy, we also saw Brian and Freddie coming down the stairs.

“Hey there’s our girl. How are you feeling now love?” Freddie asked softly.

“My head still hurts but at least the light’s gone.” I said.

“Well lucky for you I’ve found some pills to help with that.” Deacy answered as he came up to me and handed me the pills first. I popped them into my mouth as I was now being given my glass of water and I took a sip before finally swallowing the pills as well as the water.

“Ohh god my head feels like it’s gonna explode.”

“Just give it some time my dear.” Freddie soothed as he sat down beside my feet. All was silent for a moment till Roger soon spoke up.

“(Y/n), why didn’t you tell us Prenter was treating you to that degree?” I looked down shamefully but before I could answer Brian spoke up.

“I think that’s something that can be spoken about later. Right now she shouldn’t talk or even be thinking right now. Let’s leave her to recover for the rest of the day.”

“But—what about…..”

“A but-but-but. No buts about it love.” He insisted softly as he lay close beside me stroking my hair softly. “You lads go on ahead, I’ll take the first watch for our girl.”

“Get well soon darling.” Freddie said gently with a pat to my knee. Both Rog and Deacy patted my shoulder or hand and the three of them quietly walked up the stairs as best as they could. Once they were gone, I closed my eyes and moaned tiredly.

“Are the pills helping at all?” he asked me softly as I felt him still stroking my head.

“A bit. I just feel bad about stealing Deacy’s bed.”

“He understands. He wouldn’t have offered for you to take his room if he didn’t.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, now no more talking little fox kit. Time to sleep. That’s what you need.” I moaned tiredly and shut my eyes and for the first time in over a week I was able to sleep peacefully.

When I woke up, I smelt eggs and bacon all the way from downstairs. I opened my eyes to feel that my migraine was finally gone but I did feel a bit dizzy and woozy. I slowly got up and wobbled for a moment before getting the strength and mobility to walk up the stairs.

Once I reached the top and saw the sun shining through the house, my head wasn’t pounding as much as it was before and the light didn’t hurt as much. I headed towards the kitchen and that’s where I saw the guys sitting down eating breakfast. Deacy was the first to spot me.

“Well look whose finally up.” The other three members turned toward me and they all greeted me with a soft and warm good morning.

“Mornin guys.” I said as I walked toward them.

“How you feeling love?” asked Roger.

“Better than what I was.”

“Here, drink some water. We need to keep you hydrated.” Said Brian as he held out a glass filled with water. I softly gave him a thanks and took a sip.

“How long was I out?” I questioned.

“Ohh darling, you were out for three days.” Freddie stated. My heart dropped, I felt lightheaded and I swore if this were a cartoon, my eyes would be popping out of my sockets right now probably inflating bigger than my body.

“What?” oh my god I feel like I’m about to pass out, puke and scream all at the same time. “What? Three—three days. Tell me your joking someone please tell me Fred’s joking.”

“As much as I love a good joke I’m afraid he isn’t love. You’ve really been asleep for three days.” Roger said.

“Here darling, come sit and eat first. Then we’ll explain everything. Plus we’ve got some questions that need to be answered on your part.” Fred added to Roger’s statement. I walked over toward them and Deacy scooted a chair out and had me sit there which lay between where he and Brian were sitting. Bri set down my breakfast and my stomach let out a loud growl.

And of course the guys took every advantage to softly laugh at me and I simply flipped them off before digging into my meal. Oh lord this tasted like heaven! As I ate, Deacy spoke up first.

“Love, why didn’t you ever tell us how hard Paul was making you work?” I paused eating my sausage and swallowed it down before I said.

“You guys don’t understand how men treat women in the music business. Especially if they’re just assistants. I—I wanted to prove to Paul that whatever he gave me I could do it. He’s….he’s always belittled me and had my mum as an excuse to fire me telling me that if I couldn’t handle it, then I could forget the extra money for her.”

“You could’ve come to us. We’d would’ve helped you.” Said Roger as he rubbed my back with his hand.

“But I don’t want to take you guys hard-earned money.”

“No not that. I mean we would’ve helped you out with your work, especially here. We could’ve set up our own equipment, you didn’t have to do all that.”

“He was working you too hard. Barely giving you a break. You know if you had told us the extent he was forcing on you, we would’ve helped you, right?” Brian said as he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. I looked down shamefully fiddling with the remaining bits of my eggs and said shamefully.

“I’m sorry guys. I just—thought I could handle it.”

“You’re a hard worker poppet, but you also need to realize you’re still a kid. You don’t need to work till you drop, no one your age should experience things like migraines until you reach college.” Deacy said.

“I’m not a kid Deacy.”

“Ohh come off it, you may be a teenager but you’ll always be a kid to us.” Roger teased as he playfully poked my cheek making me whine out and slap away his hand. It was then I finally noticed that Paul had yet to show his face.

“Uhh guys, where is Paul?”

“He’s out darling. I fired him.” Freddie spoke.

“What? But—but then that means….Fred if he’s fired then I’m fired! Why would you—”

“Darling relax. Everything’s going to be okay.” He tried to assure me but I was frantic as I yelled back.

“How!? You do realize he was my boss! Sure I never liked him hell I hated the bastard but if he’s fired then I have no job!”

“Love, relax. If you’d let us explain you’d know that you’re no longer a manager’s assistant.” Brian spoke up as he cupped my face in his hands.

“What now?”

“We made some called to Reid and after explaining the grueling amount of work and harm Paul was causing you, while he’s fired. You’re now moving up the ranks.”

“Huh?”

“From now on darling you will be our day to day manager. Keeping an eye on us and making sure we don’t kill each other. Hell you’ll be remembered as the youngest manager in history.” Deacy said as he gently nudged his shoulder against mine.

I looked at them all and they were all looking at me with a unanimous look that they all agreed to this and had no objections to me being their new day to day manager.

“But….but guys you do realize I have school in the autumn and in the spring, right. How can I possible be your manager when I’m not even out of high school yet?”

“That’s where we’ve bent the rule with Reid.” Roger explained.

“Until your graduation we’ve agreed to settle for summer tours so that you can be there for us day to day to check in on us, while when you have school we’ll perform at concert venues and do recordings for our albums. Also when the school year starts back up, you’ll come to the studio every day after school for 5 hours a day just to make sure we’re on schedule.”

“And since we’ve also figured out that Paul had screwed around with your payment contract, Miami is in charge of your payroll. But since you are still a minor about to take on such a task, he’s currently trying to convince your mum and nana to let you have this better job offer. So that way they will also be safely financed and better informed on your performance as a manager.” Deacy stated.

“He’ll make them see reason darling. This is a better opportunity for you to get a better understanding of management. Especially if you wish to one day open up that animal rehab that you’ve been dreaming of so much.” I looked at each of them and just couldn’t believe the extent they were all going to help me out.

“Ohh you guys. This—I can’t believe you would do this for me.”

“You deserve it love, you’re just as much a part of this family as the four of us are. You’ve looked after us long enough, time for us to look after you, my little fox kit.” Brian said as he gently stroke his thumbs across my cheeks gingerly.

“Thanks you guys, I love you.”

“We love you too (y/n) dear. Now I decree there is one remedy we have yet to give you and now it is the proper time for you to receive.” Freddie proclaimed as he got me up out of my chair.

“And what would that be?” I asked. It was then I saw all of them looking at each other with sparks of mischief in their eyes. The air grew tense as they all grinned at each other and either nodded or winked at one another before looking down at me.

“OTTER QUEEN CUDDLE!!”

“Wha? AHH Hey! Oh c’mon you guys. Ahh Rog, Deacy don’t tickle me!” I exclaimed as I was now put in the middle of a Queen group hug. But ever since telling them and letting them know how I wanted to help animals, they dubbed this group hug specifically an ‘otter queen cuddle’ since I had shared with them that otters love to stay in groups and hold each other close so that they won’t separate from their families or mates.

Along with being in the middle of the otter cuddle, I felt their noses nuzzle all over my face and even one by one each of them would give me an Eskimo kiss, as well as quick pecks. Each of them talking about how much they loved me, how they would always be there to take care of me, even calling me animal nicknames since they clearly must’ve heard Brian call me his ‘fox kit’. So now according to the Freddie I am his ‘little kitten’, Deacy refers to me as ‘chipmunk’ and Roger calls me his ‘hummingbird’.

“You guys are impossible, you know that?” I teased.

“But you love us, don’t you hummingbird?” Roger said as he pecked my nose.

“Yeah, and I wouldn’t have you guys any other way.” I admitted as I cuddled deeper into their embrace and they all squeezed around me tighter like four little otters.

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chuffyfan87 · 5 years

Text

Hiding. Part 50a (NSFW)

Cowritten with @disastrousintention.

-x-

With Charlie signed off work and Duffy rushing around trying to get everything ready most of December passed by in a flash and suddenly it was Christmas Eve.

“I really wish you’d slow down.” Charlie told her, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her neck.

"I will after today. I've got two whole days at home." She smiled.

“That’s good. I can give you your Christmas present tomorrow night when the children are in bed.”

"Now that is something to look forward to!" She giggled.

He continued to kiss her neck, “It’s been too long...”

"Mmm..." She sighed.

“Since we spent proper time together, just talking.”

"Or anything else for that matter!"

“That’s true.” He smiled sadly, “Maybe we can do both tomorrow?”

She turned in his arms and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I'm all..." She began but was interrupted when her phone rang.

“You were saying?” He smiled and kissed her lips.

"Hold that thought!" She giggled as she wriggled free and checked her phone, keeping it turned away from him. "I've got to go out." She added.

“Go out? Where?”

"I... Um... Left something important at work. I won't be long!"

“Alright gorgeous. Be safe. Love you.” He kissed her cheek.

"I'll be fine. You checked the fog lights yesterday remember."

“Still be careful though.” He replied.

"I promise!" She smiled.

In the end she was out for almost three hours. She'd sent Charlie a message after an hour or so explaining 'Stuck in traffic on the ring road! Dx'

“Alright hunny xx’

Finally Duffy crept through the front door. Spotting Emily she whispered "Where's your dad?"

“In the kitchen.” She whispered back.

"OK, keep him in there whilst I take this upstairs." Duffy smiled, holding a suitcase.

“Why you got a suitcase?” Emily asked quietly.

"You'll see!" Her mum replied, disappearing upstairs.

Emily frowned, sucked her thumb and returned to the tv.

After taking the suitcase upstairs Duffy returned once more to her car before coming back inside. "Charlie? Can you come help me with something in the hallway?" She called out.

“Of course I can.” He replied and entered the hall.

"Hi dad!"

“Louis?”

"Merry Christmas!" He smiled as he ran towards his dad.

Charlie smiled brightly as he picked up Louis and held him tightly. “Merry Christmas son!” His eyes became watery.

"Its amazing who you bump into in the fog!" Duffy chuckled.

He caught Duffy’s gaze and mouthed “Thank you” before kissing the top of Louis’ head.

"We owe Josh several pints!" She giggled.

“Josh?” He smiled.

"Who do you think took two transatlantic flights in the space of a day?"

“I will buy him pints for the next three years!”

"I thought you might notice if I went."

“Of course I would.”

"So I had to enlist help. It was only after I sent you a message saying I was on the ring road that I realised I might have given myself away."

“I didn’t even notice.” He laughed gently.

"Because the ring road is nowhere near the hospital. But I didn't want you worrying where I was."

“It’s ok. I try not to worry so much.” He smiled.

"I know you can't help it though." She smiled.

“No I can’t.” He kissed Louis and put him back on the floor. “I think your siblings have missed you and want to play with you.”

Louis grinned and ran into the lounge where he could hear the TV.

He stood up and looked at Duffy, “Thank you.”

"Sorry I kept secrets and lied. I just wasn't sure I'd be able to pull it off."

“It’s fine.” He smiled and touched her cheek, “I don’t mind.”

"Just don't ask me what I had to do in order to make it happen."

“What did you have to do?” He asked.

"I told you not to ask." She chided him playfully.

“If you tell me not to ask, I’ll ask.” He replied with a giggle.

"I had to admit defeat." She whispered.

“Admit defeat?”

"To Baz."

“She can win this. But you said it yourself, the truth will come out in the end.”

"It wasn't just about Louis..."

“Go on?” He frowned.

"Do I have to say it all again?" She sighed.

“Tell me everything? Please?” He gestured her into the kitchen.

She sighed as she followed him.

He closed the door slightly, “What happened?”

"We had an interesting conversation."

“About?” He stroked her cheek.

"Us."

“Let me guess, she’s still throwing her toys out the pram about us.”

"Sort of." Duffy sighed as she sat down at the table.

He sat beside her, “Go on?” He encouraged gently.

"She said that the only way that we could have Louis for Christmas was if I admitted that I was a cheap, filthy, bastard, lying whore." She admitted quietly, her gaze focused on the surface of the table.

He moved to crouch in front of her. “But you’re not ANY of those things.” He placed his hands either side of her cheeks, “You’re not! You hear me?”

"I did what I had to do." She sighed.

“Look at me?”

She lifted her gaze to meet his.

“You are not a dirty, cheap, lying whore.” He smiled sadly, “You are my beautiful wife, my best friend and you are gorgeous inside and out.”

"I gave her what she wanted so you could have what you needed. That's all that matters."

“You did that for me? For us?” He kissed her tenderly.

"It was worth it to see you smile."

“I love you.” He placed his hand on her stomach.

"Enough now about how Louis got here, let's just enjoy him while he's with us."

“Thank you.” He smiled.

"I'm not sure what I'm going to pull out the bag for next Christmas..!" She giggled.

“Maybe another baby?” He said with a grin.

"I can't entirely tell if you're joking or not..!" She remarked, her eyebrow raised.

“What would you say if I wasn’t joking?”

She blinked, a look of utter bewilderment on her face.

“Can we discuss it? In a few months?”

"OK." She shook her head with a smile. "There's never a dull moment with you is there?"

“Erm, no.” He replied with a chuckle.

"Do we still have much more wrapping left to do for tomorrow?"

“No all done. Finished it whilst you were out.”

"How did you manage that?" She asked impressed.

“Easy.” He smiled.

"So long as you didn't go snooping for your present!"

Charlie grinned, “Of course not!”

"Good boy!" She giggled playfully, tapping the tip of his nose.

“I’m always a good boy. Especially in the bedroom department.”

"Might I be able to convince you to give me that Christmas treat you promised me a little earlier than planned?"

“Hmm, if you’re a good girl?”

"I thought you preferred me when I'm naughty?" She pouted playfully.

“Oh, oh I do.” He groaned softly.

Duffy stood up from the table and wrapped her arms around Charlie's neck. She lent forward to kiss him when the door burst open.

“Dad? Mum?” It was Tilly.

"You ok princess?" Duffy asked, stepping out of Charlie's embrace.

“Hug?” She asked holding her arms above her head.

Duffy crouched down to give her daughter a hug.

“Bath? Bed?” Tilly asked and yawned, “Santa ere tomorrow?”

"Of course. And the birthday fairy!" Duffy smiled as she grasped the table edge to stand back up with Tilly in her arms.

“I forgot.” She giggled softly and rested her head against her mum’s shoulder.

"You're going to be a big five year old!" Duffy smiled, kissing her daughter's forehead after twisting the little girl onto her hip.

“Five! Big girl.” She whispered sleepily.

Duffy walked through to the lounge where Lottie spotted her sister. "Me up too!"

“How about daddy take you upstairs, Lottie?” Charlie suggested.

"No mummy!" She stamped her foot.

“Mummy can’t carry you, she’s got a baby in her belly.” He crouched down in front of Lottie.

"She's carrying Tilly!"

“Because Tilly asked first. How about we stay down here and after mummy has taken Tilly to bed, she’ll come down and take you up to bed too?”

Lottie nodded.

"And me too?" Emily piped up from the sofa.

“And you too, Em, ok?” He smiled and kissed Lottie’s forehead and Emily’s. He sat down on the floor beside Louis.

Duffy left to head upstairs with Tilly who was practically asleep on her shoulder.

“Are you excited for tomorrow?” He asked all four children.

#chuffy #charlie and duffy #charlie fairhead #lisa duffin

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deltadisparity · 7 years

Quote

it probably went something like this: i was sitting ten feet from the whiteboard in calculus bc, my legs splayed, hand under my chin, mind lost in a corn maze of thoughts, because what on earth is a l’hôpital derivative? this was our third class period of that december week learning different methods of calculating the slopes of equations, and i had understood, at a maximum, the first ten minutes of the total one-hundred-and-eighty. my eyes skated to the clock for the sixteenth time since twelve o’clock had arrived. it was still only twelve eighteen. seven more minutes. i risked a glance to the whiteboard. numbers were splayed left and right, with strange half-squiggles and “dx” surrounding each line. that would be the derivative part, i knew that. but a plain derivative was about all i knew (which, to be frank, was not much at all). i sighed, feeling frustration edging into my bones, the dampness of my inabilities making my skin crawl inside of this pit of minute quicksand. seven more minutes trapped between an integrand and a constant. it couldn’t be that hard, could it? so why did i not understand it? or maybe it happened like this: my phone was growing sweaty against my left ear, his tinny voice fading out of my mind even while he was still speaking. faintly, i heard him ask if i was still listening. of course, i replied, keep talking. he continued on, further down his winding staircase of thoughts that only he could traverse. i didn’t have the key to the padlock on his mind, no matter how much he tried to tell me about the color and size of the stairs, no matter how much i pickpocketed his brain to find the secret entrance to the ground floor. where was he hiding in there? he told me he’d call again after he was done with his shift around nine thirty that night. i agreed that it would be good, and the call ended. i didn’t feel like i knew any more about him after a thirty-thousand-word conversation than i knew before. so many things had been shared, words that simply evaporated up through the stairwell. nearly all of them escaped me, never to be seen or heard exactly the same way ever again. why were his thoughts so encrypted? how could it be so hard to know a person? why could i not understand him? it likely occurred like this: the cold crept up and wrapped its long fingers around my neck, making my skin inch outward. it was mid-september, and although the day had been warm enough to bake a cookie on the sidewalk, it was frigid now. i chattered under the blanket she brought outside, illuminated by a single frozen streetlight. the trees rustled behind us. one twenty-one. she continued to tap away at her texts, her forehead crinkled with sad lines – because she was not worried, no, they were not lines caused by worry – that aged her twenty, thirty, even forty years. i resisted the urge to see what was on the screen. her head landed on my shoulder and i put my left arm around her back as if a single appendage could mend whatever pieces inside her had shattered. her mind-fog made the night exactly twelve times colder than it already was. my spine tingled with her every move, glad she was here. the goal, of course, was to keep that statement true. glad she was here. she was here. here. the weight of that four-letter word was immense considering she did not necessarily always want to carry it. that’s the problem with mind-fog, though: even when she knew she should be carrying it, there was a part of her that resisted, fought against the pressure of life. that part was usually quite weak, i reminded myself as the clock moved to one twenty-two. it had just grown stronger than usual for the night. there was no way to predict it, stop it from growing. the mind-fog could not be understood. i was starting to believe that meant there was no way for me to truly help her but was it true? i didn’t want to believe that. why could i not discern and understand the best way to help her? if i couldn’t understand this basic need, this dire concept of relations from one human to another, then i truly knew nothing. i couldn’t pull her out, i couldn’t relate to her past, i couldn’t lessen the weight of her mind-fog. my whole life had culminated to this single point, lead to this solitary point that i could be absolutely sure about: you can learn so much in school about how to know things, and so much in life about how to live things, but you can never know enough about both to help people completely. and comparing this to the wealth of knowledge in the world, and beyond that the things that humans don’t know – we are so unintelligent, beyond insignificant, compared to the depth of the universe. i assume that i know so much, but really … it’s nothing.

a reflection on learning and significance

#spilled ink #10 17

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elliotthezubat · 7 years

Text

Tanabata Special BSD Ver

me and @soul-dwelling did a tanabata RP. enjoy

rain: *humming* Mori: "Oh, Rain..." rain: GYEH! s-sir! please don't startle me like that! Mori: "My apologies, but I have a request~" rain: I have legitimate reasons to feel highly concerned. Mori: "I swear, this request is on the level." rain: ... *sigh* I don't have much choice in the matter, do I? oh well, what is it? ~meanwhile~ naoya: tanabata festival, eh? sounds like a pretty fun time, haha! Gin: "What will you wear?" higuchi: well, kouyou did mention something about outfits being supplied. Gin: "...Supplied by _whom_?" higuchi:..........*Excalibur face* naoya: ah hell. Gin: "...Nope." higuchi: kouyou said she'd supply as well! Gin: *sighs* "Very well." -elsewhere- Lucy: "So what goes on at this thing?" atsushi: well, you take these slips of paper and write down your wish, then you tie it onto the tree. Lucy: "Huh. Any food?" atsushi: I think there should be food stands on the festival grounds. Kyouka: *pops up* "Let's do this." -meanwhile- Kunikida: "He refuses to join us." aya: aw. *pouts* boo. Katai: T~T "I don't want to leave my futon..." aya:... hey katai, didn't you say that lady with the long hair was gonna be there too? Katai: .\\\\. "...Wh-Who do you mean?" aya: miss yamato somethin'? Katai: "...I mean, yes, I guess..." aya: success! -elsewhere- Fitzgerald: “Amazing! I can feel the breeze against my nethers!” eckleburg: sir please. -elsewhere- Steinbeck: *holds up a small potted plant* "Maybe I can bring this." mark: sounds good! I'm gonna do all the shooting games and win a shit ton of prizes! Oscar: ufufu, so energetic ^^ Steinbeck: "And I heard Lovecraft will stop by--" lovecraft: hello. ebie: hiya! -elsewhere- Dazai: "...Too shallow." kenji: were you going to go swimming in the canal? hehe, silly dazai, it's shin deep! Dazai: "I wanted to see whether drowning was possible." Kunikida: "GET OUT OF THAT WATER, BEFORE I KILL YOU!" Dazai: OWO "You promise?" ranpo: ...oi! hey poe family! yosano: nice outfits, very retro. Rowena: thank you. miss ao picked them out for us. Poe: *holding Karl--who is also in an outfit* -elsewhere- rain: sir, I just have one thing to ask... Mori: "And what's that?" rain: *in a rather skimpy kimono* WHY IS MINE THE MOST REVEALING?!?! Mori: "Because it was in your size and had a super design~" rain: I can barely cover myself! >~< Mori: "...I fail to see the problem." rain: YOU WOULD! DX< Akutagawa: "Could you stop yelling? It's hurting my head." Chuuya: .\\\\\\. hirotsu: so uncouth. Mori: D: "Why do you have to be so mean?" elise: it's cause you're a pervert, rintarou. Mori: TT~TT "So mean..." *curls up into a ball* elise: ...rintarooou, I want to play carnival games! Mori: *bounces back up* "Of course, Elise!" ^_^ naoya + hirotsu: he cheered up fast. higuchi:...wait, where are kajii and ayako- *FIREWORKS BOOM* higuchi: found them. Motojiro: *giggling* "Fire the next one!" ayako: FIRE IN THE HOLE! *BOOOM* -she accidently blew up a choco covered banana stand........................and one fell between rain's.....assets.- rain: WHY?! higuchi: ok that was on purpose! Chuuya: "..." *nosebleed, falls back* koyuou: D8> chuuya! rain: wah! mr nakahara I'm sorry! D8> -elsewhere- Lucy: *looking around* atsushi: see anything you want to do first? Lucy: "Want to do the goldfish game?" atsushi: sounds good! -on the hill- yana: remember, the boss told us to have fun. leo: just three of us? yana: lessens suspicion. Ivan: "Maybe the Master would like a souvenir~" yana: sure, knock yourselves out. leo: pushkin and katya aren't joining us then? yana: they said something about it being kupala night, so they were gonna have a bonfire. leo: I see. *sweatdrop* Ivan: "...Them. With fire?" yana: relax, Chekov's watching them. Lydia's watching them too. leo: that's....somewhat more comforting... Ivan: "Hm. Might as well start with food." yana: <sounds good> -elsewhere- Katai: ,~, Naomi: *hugging her stuffed elephant* hehe~ Tanizaki: ^^; kirako: ^^ Dazai: "Want one?" *holds up takoyaki* kirako: oh, thanks. *nom* Dazai: *smiles* "Pretty good outing..." kirako: ^^ atsushi: yeah. have you decided on what you want to write on your papers? Dazai: "Maybe...How many 'x's' in asphix--'" Kunikida: "No." Naomi: It should be obvious~ Tanizaki: "???" naomi: 7w7 atsushi: naomi no. naomi: TnT Lucy: *eyeroll, as she writes down her note* -elsewhere- Chuuya: "Feel better?" rain: y-yeah. thank you, mr nakahara. Chuuya: ^\\\^ "Happy to help..." *looks at her* rain: it looks nice. pretty fancy, though. Chuuya: "Then it suits you." rain: eh? really? I-I don't normally wear really fancy things like this. .///.' Chuuya: *small smile* "You should. You take to them well." rain: ./////. -elsewhere- Akutagawa: *holding a sparkler* "...Yay." naoya: see? look at you, having fun! ^^ Akutagawa: "..." *small smile* "I'm just staring at fire, that's all." naoya: ....but you're still enjoying yourself, right? Akutagawa: "...Yes." naoya: see? ^^ *pats his back* Akutagawa: -\\\- "St-Stop..." -elsewhere- leo: *looking up at the moon* ... Ivan: "Nice view." leo: y-yes. Ivan: "Never get out much..." leo: .........*leans against his shoulder slightly* Ivan: "...??? ..." *pat pat* leo: .... .///////. Ivan: "Cold?" leo: um... w-well.... 7//////7;; Ivan: "How about some tea?" leo: is there a stand for that here? Hyde: "Fresh tea! We got it at our stand!" leo: ._.; that's....rather convenient. Hyde: "That's our motto, ma'am: 'Convenient!' So, what you want?" -elsewhere- rain: hmmm... *putting her paper up on the tree* [please let me have a little more confidence this year - Rain] Chuuya: *attaches his note* [Make my progress move more swiftly - Chuuya] rain: ^^ Chuuya: *smiles at her* Dazai: "My turn!" rain: O_O w-when did he- Dazai: *ties his* [Give me a beautiful end (with a gorgeous woman). -- Dazai] naoya: ..............who the fuck invited him here? Dazai: "I'M. EVERY. WHERE." atsushi: dazai please! you've had too much sake! Dazai: *giggles* "Maybe you haven't had enough--" atsushi: dazai no. Dazai: *pulls a bottle out of his kimono* "Drink-y's all around! Who's got the bowl..." *CHOP* Dazai: *collapsed on the floor* Chuuya: *holding his fist* "And stay down..." rain: ^^; atsushi: ._.; yosano: we'll take him from here. Dazai: X_X rain: ._.; -elsewhere- higuchi: there we go [please keep my sister safe - I.H.] [Protect Ryu. ~ gin] [please let rintarou stop being a creepy perv, also please bring Q home - elise <3] [Make Elise happy--maybe with a new dress~ - Mori] elise: ... Mori: *smiles* elise: *pouts* (thinking: rintarou you dummy, you don't get it at all!) Mori: "??? ...Are you hungry?" -elsewhere [I wish to be free from this curse - Leo] [May every one of Master's wishes be granted~ Ivan] yana: .... Ivan: "...You're going to get your wish?" yana:....heh, I dunno. what can someone like me even wish for? Ivan: "Maybe something small? Just not as small as Kat--" leo: please do not. Ivan: ^^; "In any case, just make dreams become reality. All you can do, right?" yana: I guess so. Ivan: "..." *slight nudge* "That's the spirit." yana: *small chuckle* well, in that case....*smirks* it's a secret~ Ivan: *nods, smiles* -elsewhere- Lucy: *nom nom nom* atsushi: how is it? Lucy: "Not too bad..." *picks off some of the cotton candy, offers it* atsushi: thanks. ^^ *nom* Lucy: ^^ "What else is there to try here? We could walk along the water..." atsushi: sounds great. kenji: kyouka, want to play some of the games? Kyouka: "Okay. What prizes are there?" -elsewhere- Kunikida: *lights a sparkler* aya: hehe ^^ Katai: Q~Q *hides under kimono* ???: well well, aint this just a shocking scene. -it's the number's bomber- Katai: "Eep!" Kunikida: "!!!!" boy: relax, I'm not here to cause trouble. I'm still on parole, remember? *points to the tracker bracelet* Kunikida: "...Better safe than sorry, as I'm sure you'd understand..." *holding his book* boy: yeah yeah, I hear....who's the munchkin?? aya: my name is aya! boy: cool. 'name's suuji. Kunikida: *stands in front of Aya* suuji: jeez, hostile much?....crap you're taller than I thought. .-.; Kunikida: *looks down* "Harm one hair on their heads, and I'll break you in two." suuji: alright, alright! I hear you, sheesh! i'm on parole, even if I use my ability once, the tracker will alert the cops and i'll get thrown back in jail. I don't want to go back, there, ok?! Kunikida: "..." Katai: Q_Q "...You like games, Suuji?" -elsewhere- Dazai: *collapsed* ranpo: should we take him home? Poe: "I don't know?" *pokes him with a stick* ???: *sigh* allow me. -a wild ango appears- Poe: ._. "..." *offers the stick* Dazai: "Zzz..." ango: he's just asleep.... *sigh* i'll drive him home then. Dazai: =w= *pats Ango's back* ango: =_.=; Dazai: *muttering* "Take me home..." ango: I'm doing that now. -elsewhere- Tanizaki: *blows bubbles* Naomi: hehe ^^ kirako: ^^ Tachihara: "Yo, pretty ladies! And weird guy." Naomi: oh god, this creep again. kirako: 7-7; Tachihara: "What you been up to? Enjoying the sights?" Tanizaki: "..." *rolling up a sleeve* Naomi: ....*grin* Tachihara: "See? That's the smile I'd like to see, pretty girl--" Tanizaki: *elbow dive* Tachihara: "-EEEEEE!" Naomi: rekt. Tachihara: "GET OFF OF ME--" Tanizaki: *slams his head face-first into the dirt* naomi:....*stares* ..... ouo Tachihara: *smacking his hand around, trying to push him off* Tanizaki: *sits on his back* naomi: O///u///O -elsewhere- Chuuya: *looking up at the stars* rain: .....*small smile* Chuuya: *his hand bumps into hers* rain: !! o///o Chuuya: "!!!!" *pulls his hand back* >\\\\> rain: ... ./////. *squirms a bit* Chuuya: "...I'm sorry." rain: I-I-it's fine, really. Chuuya: "I'm just, not sure when to, you know..." rain: ?? Chuuya: "...Am I too forward?" rain: eh? I-I don't think so. w-with you, I feel a bit more at ease. Chuuya: "...Would you like to hold hands?" rain:...*holding his hand, lightly* *blushing* Chuuya: .\\\\. *slight squeeze* rain:...*tiny smile* ....*leans in closer* Chuuya: *gulps* *leans in* *The bushes rustle* rain: !!! *falls over* -squish~- Chuuya: O\\\\\\O Gin: "Oh, sorry. I was looking--" *sees* "..." rain: *she's right on top of chuuya* ./////////////////////////. higuchi:....*ahem* Gin: "..." *covers Higuchi's eyes* Chuuya: *muffled voice* rain: *sitting up......* o////////////////////////////////////////////o Chuuya: *holding his breath* .\\\\\\\. rain: .////////////////////////////////////////////////. um.... higuchi: weeee'll just leave you two be Gin: *pulls Higuchi away* "We're so sorry." Chuuya: "..." *soul escaping out of his mouth* rain:... >//////////////< I'm so sorry! Chuuya: "It-It's my fault, probably..." rain: y-you didn't do anything wrong, really! Chuuya: "I-I should've, I don't know, pulled back before I embarrassed you." >\\\\< rain: .....I just wish it could have been more private... Chuuya: "...Me, too." rain:.....*smooch* Chuuya: .\\\\. "..." =\\\\= *smooch* -elsewhere- ango: *driving dazai back to his place*......*sigh* -scarlet sky plays on the car's radio- ango: .....brings back memories, huh? you getting black out drunk, and we'd have to drive you back home. Dazai: *holding his head* "...I don't want to remember." T~T ango: ......odasaku would always give you a piggy back ride. I told him he was babying you, but he insisted... Dazai: *sniff* "He was attentive..." ango: yeah....he sure was. Dazai: "Oh, please--you know he was..." ango:....say, what did you make your wish for? Dazai: "..." *goofy smile* "A speedy end~" ango: *sigh* of course you did Dazai: "...and maybe for a good year for others..." ango: perhaps. Dazai: "What'd you wish for? New glasses?" ango: ...not really. I figured it'd be in my best interest not to wish for the impossible... Dazai: "...Then wish for the possible." ango:....perhaps. Dazai: "Like a new haircut..." ango: *small chuckle* -elsewhere- Steinbeck: ._. "...Quiet." twain: hmmn? whats up? Steinbeck: "I thought we'd find larger crowds..." Oscar: hmm? why is that, johnny boy? Steinbeck: "Festival. Fireworks. Food. Games. Just...Do we have the right address?" ebie: yeppers! Oscar: well it is getting later in the evening now. twain: yeah. *has a backpack full of prizes* Steinbeck: "Hmm...Someone cleaned up at the games." twain: heck yeah I did! sawyer: heck yeah we did! huck: -_-; Steinbeck: "What're you gonna do with it all?" twain: might keep some of it, might auction the rest on ebay. Steinbeck: "Well, do something good with the dollars." twain: got it! Steinbeck: "And where is Lovecraft?" lovecraft: *swimming along the canal* *monotone* wheeeee..... Steinbeck: "...Well, as long as he is happy." ^^ -elsewhere- Akutagawa: "...Something is missing." naoya: eh? Akutagawa: "...Rashomon." *hands his wish to it* naoya: is it the weretiger? rashomon: ^u^ *tying the paper on* Akutagawa: "...I asked to get stronger. I leave it to the universe to determine how it wishes to define 'strength.'" naoya: ah. that makes sense. strength of body, strength of mind, strength of heart. Akutagawa: "Sound soul and all that..." naoya: yep. Akutagawa: "..." *sniff* naoya:....hey, you go find your little buddy, ok? Akutagawa: "...'Little buddy'?" naoya: the weretiger. what did you think I meant? Akutagawa: "..." .\\\\. "R-Right...Thanks." *walks* naoya: hey, got to get all the gag bases covered for these things, right? haha! Akutagawa: *fast walking--turns a corner* -bump- Akutagawa: "!!!" Alcott: eep! Akutagawa: "Oh. Sorry." alcott: um.... *mumble mumble* Fitzgerald: "And just what are you doing to my assistant, there...?" *evil smiling aura* Akutagawa: .________. Fitzgerald: *pulls out $200* "This should be enough..." *tightens his fist* Akutagawa: "Nope." *Rashomon bounce* bram: what..was that...? Fitzgerald: "Comedy relief? I think I read that is common at these festivals." bram:.....I....see. *sweatdrop* alcott: best not to overthink it. you'll just hurt yourself. -elsewhere- Poe: *holds up Karl* Rowena: *snaps a pic* hehe, cute. ^^ lana: ^^ Poe: ^^ "Just a fun time..." -elsewhere- Lucy: *yawns* atsushi: the fireworks are about to start soon. Lucy: "Yeah, yeah, I'm up, I'm up..." *lean* atsushi: o////////////o *stiff tiger tail* Lucy: =w= "Should be some good fireworks tonight..." *pats his knee* atsushi: O///////////////////////////////////////////////O y-y-y-y-yeah. Lucy: *yawns* "What did you wish for...?" atsushi: its a secret. Lucy: *pouts* "Aw, don't you want to share?" atsushi: well...im not sure what I want to wish for. I could have some ideas, but I don't think they'd be very original. ^^; Lucy: "Like maybe world peace, finding your true love...?" atsushi: ... .///////. *gulp* Lucy: "No pressure, of course." *small smooch* atsushi: o////////////o *smoooooch* >///////////< Lucy: o\\\\o "..." *holds his hand* atsushi: ^////^ -elsewhere- Gin: "You okay?" higuchi: yeah, why wouldn't I be? Gin: "You just seem a little distracted." higuchi: do I? Gin: "Yes. Did you want to have somewhere less crowded?" higuchi: sure. -elsewhere- Mori: ^^ "So cute..." elise: *has a big ol stuffed bear* I will call him sir tibbers. Tachihara: "Yeah, real cute..." *has a black eye and a torn kimono* hirotsu: I'm not even shocked Tachihara: *spits* "Real funny, old man..." *adjusts his kimono* -elsewhere- Kunikida: -_-# suuji: not a bad shot, kiddo. aya: ^u^ Katai: "Quite good..." *aims* -elsewhere- Chuuya: *sighs* rain: this is nice. Chuuya: *nods* "Yes..." *cradles her* rain: .... u/////u Chuuya: *smooch* rain: u//////u -elsewhere- Dazai: "Zzz..." ango:....*tucks him in*.....good night. *glances at the photo on his dresser. The one with them and oda* ........................... *exits* Dazai: "Zzzz..." =w= ango:.....*back in his car* .....I shouldn't wish for the impossible.... *looks at his paper and tears it up* [I wish things could go back to they way they were] Dazai: *turns...sniffs...* T_T -elsewhere, at the fireworks show- Akutagawa: *still walking* atsushi: =w=...... !!! Lucy: =w= *cuddles* Akutagawa: "... ... .... ..." *stare* atsushi: *sweats* Lucy: *spots him--* O____O Akutagawa: "..." *approaches--and lies down between them* "..." atsushi:.....um.....hi? Akutagawa: *intense stare* "Hello." atsushi: OuO;;;; Lucy: "...The heck are you doing?" Akutagawa: "You looked comfortable." *takes Atsushi's hand* atsushi: *sweats* Lucy: *fuming--reaches over Akutagawa to grab Atsushi's hand* Akutagawa: "..." .\\\\. atsushi: o///o; erm.... Lucy: "Keep your hands off my boyfriend..." *growls* Akutagawa: -_-; *pushes Lucy away, cuddles next to Atsushi* atsushi: um...*gulps and double hug* IPANICKEDOKAY?! Lucy: o\\\\\o Akutagawa: "..." .\\\\. "...What is this?" atsushi: I-I don't know, I just got nervous and panicked! >///~///<;;; Lucy: -\\\\-# "....So frustrating." Akutagawa: "..." *shifts so that each of them is on each side of Atsushi...cuddles* =\\\= atsushi: Y///w///Y; Lucy: *sighs* *hugs Atsushi* >\\\\\< Akutagawa: =\\\w\\\= -elsewhere- Steinbeck: "I think that's the last sparkler..." Oscar: *sigh* so fleeting... Steinbeck: "Could be worst. At least our group doesn't have some lunatic who brings a thousand rockets with him--" *BOOM* Steinbeck: o_o;;;; ebie: oooooh. was that a rocket? Motojiro: "A ROCKET?! Ha! That is merely a term the uneducated use for our glorious baby!" ayako: MEHEHEHEHEHEHE! Steinbeck: "...Don't stare at the crazies, Ebie..." ebie: ok. Oscar: oh dear. ^^; Motojiro: "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" -elsewhere- Mori: *yawns* kouyou: my my, exhausted already? Mori: "Just overwhelmed by the cuteness~" kouyou: is. that. so? ^^# Mori: *nods* "Elise looks so precious in her outfit with that new dollie..." elise:... =___=; we are not amused. Mori: "Cutey cutey cute..." kouyou: ugh. -elsewhere- Chuuya: =\\\w\\\= "...I think we should re-join the others?" rain: I-if you want...but you may have to clean off a bit... 7///7; Chuuya: "...!!!" *covers his chest with the kimono, wipes his face* "Is-Is it almost off?" rain: y-yeah. Chuuya: *rubs a bit more--stares at her* "..." .\\\. rain: .////. Chuuya: "..." *reaches for her kimono, adjusting it* rain: t-thanks... Chuuya: ^\\\^ "Can't have you showing off more than you need to...At least, not to anyone but me..." *smooch* rain: r-right... ^///////^; Chuuya: *holds her hand* rain: ^////^ Chuuya: "I...love you." rain: *blushing* I-I love you too. Chuuya: *smiles, walking with her* -elsewhere- Tanizaki: "Maybe we should be heading home?" Naomi: yeah. *yawns* kenji: zzzzzzzzzz Kyouka: *carrying Kenji* suuji: night. Katai: "Good night..." ^^; Kunikida: *growl* suuji:.....*walking back over to his parole officer* Katai: "..." *nudges* "I think you've been mean to him. Right, Aya?" aya: yeah, he looks kind of sad. Kunikida: "What would you have me do--invite him to tea?" aya: I dunno. Katai: ^^; "Maybe just...wish him a good night?" Kunikida: "..." *sighs* *calls to Suuji* "Good night." suuji:...t-thanks. Kunikida: "..." *nods* "And keep your nose clean." suuji:...*chuckle* will do. Kunikida: "..." *abruptly turns around* suuji:....if this is about her, I wouldn't blame you for being mad at me... Kunikida: "...'Mad' is an understatement." suuji: .....*sigh* I'm trying man. I really am... Kunikida: "...Let me know how that goes." suuji:....thanks. Kunikida: *nods* "You know where I am." suuji:.... -elsewhere- Akutagawa: "Zzz..." higuchi: *carrying him on her back* phew... hirotsu: *carrying naoya on his back* naoya: *passed out drunk* Gin: "Some celebration..." -elsewhere- Lucy: -_-# atsushi: Q_Q did I mess up? I'm really sorry. Q___Q Lucy: "...Why? What did you think that was going to do?" atsushi: I don't know. am I an idiot? Lucy: *sighs* "I don't think that at all...I think you want to please a lot of people..." *hug* atsushi: *sniffles* I-I guess.... Lucy: *strokes his back* "...You made me feel really good for a lot of tonight." atsushi: 7////7 Lucy: "...Could you...let me have you to myself? For a bit?" atsushi: sounds fair. Lucy: "Good." *pats his bottom* atsushi: .///. -elsewhere- Mori: "But I insist on giving you a ride--" rain: it's fine, really! Mori: "But how will I know you'll get home safel--" Chuuya: "Fine, if someone has to make sure she gets home, I'll escort her. Okay? Is that sufficient?" rain: *smiles* Mori: "..." *sighs* "Very well. Good night, Rain." rain: ... Mori: "Good night, Chuuya." Chuuya: *nods* "Sir." *opens his car's door for Rain* rain: *getting in* Chuuya: *once she is seated, closes the door for her* rain: thank you, mr nakahara. Chuuya: *smiles* "Of course." *walks to the driver's side, gets in* rain: *she seems calmer now* Chuuya: *starts the car, smiles at her*

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