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cvntyworld · 27 days

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I literally adored your Lucy Maclean fic. Would you ever consider writing for her again but maybe with a sort of sunshine / sunshine protector trope going on.

sugar and spice ( lucy maclean )

summary: you didn't know what it was about the vaultie that had you keeping a closer eye on her, maybe it was a protective instinct, how naive she was up on the surface compared to how she is in her vault. you'd known about peoples hatred towards the vaults and she stuck out like a sore thumb, and usually you would ignore it, let them be eaten alive by the harsh truth of the surface, so why you were protective of her was a mystery even to lucy maclean herself.

contents: usual fallout shenanigans, sunshine lucy with a sunshine protector reader, violence, grumpy and unsure reader and happy and confident lucy, reader has to keep lucy out of dangerous situations a lot of the time, lucy is determined to see the good in people, mainly platonic as of now but can be seen as romantic, ect...

It amazed you how clever Lucy Maclean was, but how in certain moments, she seemed so naive.

Most vault dwellers were naive, not that you'd met many of them, you'd seen one in passing when you were seven years old and that was a long time ago. You always have thought the blue and yellow suits were rather strange to see, everyone else didn't have the opportunity to wear a lot of colours, most improvising with stitched clothes or worn down fabrics. So, when you saw her, walking with her hands clutching her backpack straps and smiling at anyone who looked at her, you immediately knew that a sense of trouble would be occurring soon. People on the surface hated vault dwellers, fuck the vaults, that's what most spat out at the mention of them, you knew that as soon as she had said good morning to Jonah Junior, an unsettling young man with yellowing teeth, that she was expecting a greeting back, but when he continued to be his usual self and sharpen his blade with a glare, she had faltered cautiously and backtracked.

That's how she met you, her determination to have some sort of conversation with Jonah Junior had you walking a little faster, somewhat worried for her. Jonah Junior was at least scared of you and scuttered off when he had seen you approaching, his fear of you even having him utter a goodbye to the vault dweller who smiled when he left, as if she had won at something for once up here. You didn't know why you felt the need to give her a few warnings of what people were actually like on the surface, but it was needed, you could tell by her smile that she thought that everything up here would be easy peasy when it was not, that was a lesson she'd need to learn and fast.

You had taken a hold of her arm and began to walk with a look of annoyance at her protests, how she claims that if you didn't unhand her that she would make you but you'd only scoffed out a laugh in response, shoving her inside a somewhat home you had and turning to her with a raised brow. "Have you got a death wish, honey?" Her eyes were wide with confusion, staring at you innocently, "What are you talking about? I was just making conversation." With a sigh, you sit down across from her and gesture over to the door, "Jonah Junior was probably planning on killing you and then eating you, his daddy is Jonah Senior, he's known around these parts for selling human limbs." With horrified eyes, she swallows down the lump of fear then meets your gaze, "Why are you telling me this?" She asks cautiously and you roll your eyes, "I'm telling you cause I have a conscience unlike most folks round here, all them people out there would've let you talk away to Jonah Jr, newcomers don't last in this town, they're either passing through or butchered and made into rations."

Lucy seems to shrink in her seat, slightly worried when it caught her attention that you had a pack of rations right beside you on the table, "So you're saying these people... Everyone here is a cannibal!?" Her voice raised and you're quick to shush her, "Keep your voice down, vaultie!" She's horrified, you can tell by the look on her face, "You didn't answer my question!" You sigh, "Yeah, most folks here are cannibals but they prefer the term fleshatarians, makes it sound more humane, sick fuckers!"

"So you aren't a cannibal?" She asks doubtfully and your scoff basically answers her, "God no, I'm not a monster!" Lucy sighs in relief at your confirmation and stands up, a smile on her face as she holds out her hand, "My name's Lucy, Lucy Maclean!" You nod and shake her hand, "Well then Lucy, you best scedaddle before the town starts to work up an appetite for vault dweller." Lucy frowns and is immediately disappointed when you start to open up the door for her to leave, "The next towns about ten minutes or so from here, you can get there before dark, there's an old house with a red door, ask for Lorna, she'll give you a room for the night." Lucy glances at you unsurely, "Which way am I going?" Your eyes glance up at the sun to gain a sense of direction and nod at her, "Head south, you'll find it." She smiles, "Thank you for your hospitality, I'll be sure to repay you if I ever see you again..." The vault dweller is soon trailing off, a hint that she didn't know your name as of so far and so you utter it out and nod at her that you're done with the conversation and for once she understood your hint and waved as she exited your home.

When you glance out the window, you see the wavers of blue and yellow passing and heading the wrong way, for a vault dweller, she had a terrible sense of direction, you were sure those pip boys had built in maps. "You've gotta be kidding..." You mutter in disbelief, watching as she was growing further and further away, confident steps as if it was all sunshine and rainbows out here. You shrugged on your jacket, and opened the door, sighing in annoyance, a complete out of character move on your behalf as you're figure heads for the sandy road.

"Hey, vaultie, you're going the wrong way!"

"What the fudge!"

You had been travelling with Lucy Maclean for a week, a long week. You had walked her over to the town next to your own and unfortunately your old pal Lorna was dead so there was no room at the inn for you or poor Lucy. It's shitty luck, being stuck with a vault dweller who is not as discreet as she thinks. You don't know why you chose her as a travelling companion, it was an odd choice, and you didn't even like her all that much. You'd be rid of her once she found her dad, that's why she was up here.

Another thing you'd grown used to was her odd sayings, things you'd hear in the olden times, words like golly or a cheerful okey dokey, it was like whiplash to hear, but you also found it quite humourous. So when she mentioned a fudge like she usually did, that was code for either shock or amazement or even horror, three emotions that you're aware of through that sentence. You paused, coming to a stop when you noticed her staring at something with her big doe eyes. "What's got you so excited?" You ask with a tired tone and she turns to you with a soft smile, making a gesture for you to come closer, and so you did, staring in the direction she faced with a look of confusion. "Wow, a lake, how exciting." You say dryly, but Lucy was way too excited to care for your sarcasm, "Isn't this great, we can fill our canteens, maybe even wash up!" She approached the water quickly, not noticing the ripples developing by the surface. Fortunately, you had spotted it quickly and hurried after her before she could even step foot in that water, your hand gripped her backpack and yanked her backwards, the two of you falling back just as one of the giant mutated fish lunged for her, missing by inches.

"Holy Moly!" She uttered out, shocked at the sight, you'd merely sighed out a laugh at her words, "Another rule for you, don't go near water unless it's dirty." She nodded at you, still startled as you helped her to her feet.

"I can't wait to go home."

"You and me both."

Lucy Maclean was a pretty face so she was bound to get some disgusting unwanted attention. Whether it be while passing through towns and having people whistle at her, usually being shut down by you glaring at them or by her whistling back at them thinking nothing of it and making them uncomfortable, people were curious creeps and in your honest opinion should've been shot dead but Lucy was insistent on that not being an option, because of the golden rule, whatever the fuck that meant.

You had been gone for all of five minutes when some old creep of a man had decided to take his chance and start some sleazy conversation with the vault dweller and you knew immediately what his intentions were, but you saw how Lucy smiled at him and conversed politely, she even went as far as to show him a photo of her dad and ask if he'd seen him and when the man started spinning a load of bullshit, you approached with a glare and made your presence known by standing next to Lucy. "It's time for us to go now, Lucy." You warn and she shakes her head, gesturing to the man in front of you, "Can it wait, he has information about my dad." You scoff at this, how naive she could be when it came to her father, "Lucy, this man doesn't know shit, he's just saying he knows because he thinks he'll get something out of it."

"I am right here, you know?" The man says and you give him a once over, disgusted, "Do you know who Moldaver is?" You ask him and he nods, "Everyone knows who she is, even the fiends." You stare at him with annoyance and clear your throat, "Right, and do you know where she is?" The sleazy man shakes his head and so you turn back to Lucy with a shrug, "Told you, he doesn't know shit, now lets get the fuck out of this place."

You turn Lucy around and she gives a smile to the man, a wave as you pull her away from him, "It was nice to meet you, Sir!" You sigh at her words and she turns to you with a frown when she notices your disappointment, "He was being nice!" You keep walking and she hurries to stay at the same pace as you, "What is your problem? Sure, we ran into some unfriendly people while travelling, but not everyone is a bad person!" She defends and you turn to her with a pointed finger, "You don't know shit, Lucy!" A wave of silence overcame the two of you as you stared at her unsure gaze, "You don't know shit." You mutter once more before turning around to walk, not even caring this time to see if she followed or not.

When you first opened up to her, it was in the middle of the night, neither of you could sleep and she was talking about some movie she used to watch with her dad down in the vault. The way she described it, how her eyes were sparkling with excitement when she told you about how the main character had a dog, how her dad was always a big fan of the actor in those movies. She wanted to get to know you, learn a few things, you were a closed book and she was desperate to open it up and read it carefully.

So you started with something small, she had spoken of movies and television and so you smiled sadly at her, she was waiting patiently for you to speak. "I've never actually watched a movie before..." Lucy frowned at this, "Oh, I'm sorry, now I feel insensitive for bringing it up." She uttered out and you shook your head, "Don't apologise, we have televisions up here but my daddy didn't give a shit about movies, said it was old world crap." You scratched at your head tiredly, "He didn't like the actor anyway, said that he played the same characters every time." Lucy gasps, her eyes widening in disbelief, "My dad was the opposite, he always went on some rant or rave about the guys range." You shrug, taking a sip of your water, "Doesn't matter all that much, the guy probably died 200 years ago." Lucy's smile fades and she turns to you curiously, "Isn't it wrong to insult dead people?" You're quiet for a moment before shrugging, "I insult people who are alive, don't think that makes much of a difference if they're alive or dead."

Lucy laughs at your words and then turns to you, "How about once I find my dad, you come and live with us? I can invite you to my house for movie nights, I have this feeling you'll love the movie a man and his dog, my dad told me they used the actors real dog for the movie, it's honestly kinda sweet."

You think for a moment, life on the surface full of shitty people or a life of luxury in some vault with Lucy, the girl you had surprisingly grown fond of over time. You meet her hopeful gaze and shrug.

"Why the fuck not, let's do it."

#fallout #fallout tv show #fallout tv series #lucy maclean fanfic #lucy maclean x reader #lucy maclean

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topmechaniic · 4 months

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𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐀𝐅 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬...

Has three ( in her end game, four ) tattoos :: A cluster of sunflowers along her right shoulder starting in the front and wrapping around to the top/mid of her shoulder blade. Gears cascading from nape of neck to mid back. in somewhat of an ‘s’ pattern ( cause ‘sophiar’ reasons ofc ) A moogle on the outside of her left ankle. at some point ( when Cid gives her full ownership of the garage or after his passing ) she’ll probably get a hammerhead along the outside of right calf. Naturally, NO ONE has seen these tattoos unless they catch her out of uniform in one way or another i.e off-duty outfits... and still, considering she wears boots most of the time and she digs her light flannel, it’s really seldom to none anyone other than close friends or s/o would see them.

Plays guitar and sings :: The guitar is something on her father’s side as he used to be part of a somewhat blue grassy kind of band with Cindy’s mom as lead singer ( that’s how the pair met and fell in louuuurve ) at one point I had her singing voice to fall along the sounds of Cary Ann Hearst but I'm leaning more to Sara Watkins as I re-listen to some of her voice lines... idk maybe a mix of the two x3 she has also dabbled in violin/fiddle playing as well!

Is smart AF :: even tho it’s not completely stated in game ( cause square doesn’t care for fleshing out their own creations sometimes oop ) it’s very clear with all the upgrades to the Regalia that not only is Cindy a remarkably amazing mechanic but a mechanical engineer as well, probably border-lining into advanced engineering with all the innovative shit she can come up with. Yeah, she’s a southern belle bundled up in fanservice, but she’s also a fuking genius! I mean she turned a luxury car into an ATV, BACK into a luxury car and then a MF JET like??!?! Stop devaluing her based on her appearance pls and ty.

Has a coeurl :: Okokok this was something that started in Wire shenanigans but I kinda latched on to it for all her verses. So one day coming back from one of her hikes, Cindy noticed a coeurl cub following her back home. Thinking there’s probably a parent nearby, and wanting none of that smoke, she hightailed it back to the garage and waited..... and waited, then looked out one of the windows to see the cub still very much outside and whining with no angry parental figure around. after considering the options Cindy made a little bed inside the trunk of a junker car on the lot and left out a bowl of discarded meat bits from Takka prepping in the diner. Long story less long; Cindy has a 4-5 month old coeurl named Lexus or Lex for short. He is Cindy’s entire world and as he grows, will be hella protective of his mama. ;u; Adding for continuity sake :: By this time it's safe to say that Lex is around a year and a half to two years old at this point

Random bits and bobs :: Likes spicy foods ( especially curries and ramen ), whiskey, bourbon, sweet tea, reading, ice cream sundaes, mango & strawberry sherbet, rollercoasters, can cook a bomb ass steak, is actually a pretty good cook in general, goes roller skating or paints on her downtime.

#don't mind me just scooting things over from the archive uwu #⚙ ; 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬 :: Just lil ol’ me.

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gtanddragons · 3 years

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Caught

A companion piece to @hopemakesstuff‘s works “Protecting Assets” and “Role Reversal”, this one is tied into our friend group’s Shifter!Makoto AU! In which everyone’s favorite lucky boy can (somewhat) control his ability to change his size, and all the shenanigans that ensue as a result.

Warnings: Contains spoilers for chapter two of DR1.

(Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid—!)

He’s practically mumbling those words to himself in a feverish mantra as he forces himself to hurry down the tiled hallway of Hope’s Peak Academy.

(Need to find somewhere to hide—!)

Makoto is trembling, panting from the effort of making his way through the school— although it would normally be a simple task, it was certainly anything but now that he was stuck at a meager three inches tall. Despair hung heavy over his head as what would ordinarily be a few minutes’ walk to the first floor classrooms had already taken him… what, twenty minutes at this brisk pace? Thirty? It felt like an eternity had passed, and yet he still had a ways to go.

The dining hall was closer, certainly, but it was also almost certain that everyone would be gathered there for the breakfast meeting.

He feels guilty for missing it. Just one more reason to scold himself— he should’ve eaten last night. Should have gotten some rest. Shouldn’t have worn himself ragged, because now he’s stuck at his most vulnerable in a school full of other students who could (and maybe even would) kill him without a second thought. Maybe even by accident, and that’s somehow an even more repulsive thought.

The only other student who even remotely knows about his… condition… is Kyoko Kirigiri. Not of his own volition, of course, but she’d figured it out a lot quicker than he’d expected.

…No, there was yet another person who knew. Had known, since they had gone to school together since they were children.

But there isn’t any point in making himself even more depressed by thinking about her. Not right now. Either way, she can’t help him now— and he can’t rely on finding Kyoko to help him, not when she’s likely still with the others in the dining hall. He can’t risk exposing himself to everyone else like this.

For a brief moment, his thoughts go quiet, having finally exhausted themselves.

(It’s okay. I’m almost to the classroom. I can just… hide in there under the teacher’s desk or something, wait to be able to shift back up to normal. And it wouldn’t be a lie to say that my stomach was hurting this morning—)

“Puhuhu~! And wheeeere do you think you’re going, little mister lucky student?”

Makoto yelps as an all-too-familiar figure pops out from seemingly nowhere— but this time, Monokuma towers over him, making the already-terrifying headmaster seem even more like a horrible monster than a cute little bear plushie.

Monokuma leans down and crosses his stubby arms as best as he’s able, still chuckling all the while. “I’ll admit, it’s kiiiiinda cute watchin’ you scurry around like that.~”

Makoto winces and takes an involuntary step back, gulping as the headmaster’s sharp teeth come closer into view. “I— I, um. I’m… going to the classroom…”

The bear pats his cheek thoughtfully, that unsettling grin still a mere foot away. “Ahhh, don’t wanna go to the dining hall, huuuuh? Smart move! Don’t wanna accidentally make one of your classmates a murderer, ‘cause. Yooou know.~ It would be such a shame if someone were to step on ya, or— ohhhh, how horrid! If you wound up as someone’s lunch. How cruel! Gahahaha!”

A chill runs up Makoto’s spine, and it takes all of his willpower to not fall back in fear at that obnoxiously-loud laughter. Thankfully, though, Monokuma gets out of his face as he straightens up.

“Ahhh… I should proooobably let you go. After all, wellllll… just try not to get caught, eh? Puhuhu!”

And once again, the bear is taking off fast enough for Makoto’s head to spin, still left confused over what Monokuma had meant— until the sound of footsteps in the distance catches his attention. Coming from further down the hallway…

Makoto suddenly tenses, his face blanching. He recognizes the sound of the voices drawing ever closer, and even at this distance, it’s easy to see just who’s coming his way.

Byakuya… and, trailing behind him… Toko.

...No. Judging from the obnoxious laughter resounding through the school hallway… that would be Genocide Jack. Great.

(Gghk--! How did I not hear them getting closer--?!)

Makoto furiously shakes his head-- he could take more time to curse Monokuma, and his awful luck, later. For now, he needs to find a place to hide, but staying out in the open hallway is practically a death wish.

He desperately glances in the direction of classroom 1-A-- he’ll have to run towards Byakuya and Jill’s general direction, but if he hurries…!

(I-I’m already worn out, but just a little more--!)

Makoto takes off at a full-blown sprint to the classroom, all too aware of the potential consequences of getting caught. His heart hammers in his chest as the footsteps draw closer, his two classmates coming into view like towering buildings on the horizon.

“Ugh… if this turns out to be some kind of goose chase, I swear…” Byakuya complains, his nose crinkling in disgust. He’d been attempting to enjoy picking apart case files in the archive over a cup of coffee this morning, but apparently even that was too much to ask. First he’d been besieged by Genocide Jack-- his new apparent fangirl, even pushier than Toko-- and then that accursed bear had shown up and caused a ruckus, insisting on showing them something interesting. But as of yet, Byakuya had yet to see anything even remotely worthy of his attention, and he was starting to get even more frustrated.

“Kyahaha! Ohh, Master, you know I can’t resist that stormy, sullen face! This whole ‘goose chase’ is worth every step~!”

Byakuya lets out a world-weary sigh, gritting his teeth as he pinches the bridge of his nose.

(Just keep tuning her out or you’ll get an even worse headache, Byakuya. Why couldn’t she have been the guilty party in this most recent--)

A sudden yelp from Jill drags him out of his thoughts, the serial killer’s arm snapping up to point down the hall in front of them.

“Oh look at that!”

Byakuya’s gaze shifts to where she’s pointing fast enough to get the faintest glimpse of… something. Something small-- a blur of movement in the doorway of the classroom at the end of the hall.

“Oooh, what was that?! A mooouuusee? And it thinks it can run from meeee?”

Byakuya isn’t surprised when Jill suddenly tears off down the hallway towards the classroom, shrieking with laughter. But as he follows after her, he can’t resist the slight increase of speed in his steps-- had that thing really been a mouse? He’d only seen it for a split second, but the color and shape had seemed… off. Some kind of robot like Monokuma, perhaps? A new clue…?

Either way, perhaps this tedious distraction would prove to be fruitful in the end…

Jill is on her hands and knees the moment after she rushes into the room, prowling the classroom and sniffing the air like some kind of wild animal.

“Awww, think you can hide? From me? Cuuuuuute. Now…”

Jill grins madly even as she pokes her head under a nearby desk.

“Come out, come out, whereeeever you aaaaare~!”

—

It doesn’t take long for Byakuya to follow after Jill and reach the doorway to the classroom, but even then… by the time he gets there, he’s met with the sound of desks clattering to the floor in one chaotic sweep, a triumphant yell (“Gotcha!”), and… the sight of Jill huddled up with something clutched in her hands.

Something squirming and… crying out.

Byakuya’s brows dart sharply upwards. Although he can’t quite see, and the sound is so small… he recognizes that terrified squawking.

“Aw, boo,” Jill grumbles. “Tch, not even big enough for one of my scissors…”

Byakuya hardly has any time to react before Jill turns around and—

His hands instinctively snap outwards as something is tossed in his direction. Whatever it is hits squarely in the palms of his hands and his fingers curl tightly around it, a flailing, warm weight that could only belong to a living creature— the thought alone nearly makes him drop the thing in revulsion.

(Did she just throw a filthy mouse at—?!)

“Soooorry Master~!” Jill croons, before pouting and tapping the blade of her scissors against her cheek. “Hmph… here I was hoping for some real meat, or a full-size cute boy… not a bite-sized happy meal with a little Mac.”

(What on Earth is she prattling on about now—?)

Byakuya looks down to his hands, wincing at the feeling of the little creature in his hands struggling in his grip… but as soon as he looks down, he can hardly tear his eyes away.

Caught haphazardly in his fingers, struggling and whimpering… is none other than Makoto Naegi. For once, Byakuya is at a loss for words, blinking disbelievingly at the ridiculous sight.

“Speaaaaking of meat,” Jill interrupts, her sullen mood ending with a quick snip of her scissors. “Let’s keep looking around, Master! I’m sure that goose must be somewhere around here.~”

With an obnoxiously loud cackle, she’s already out the door again— momentarily leaving Byakuya alone with his ‘catch’.

His grip loosens considerably at not feeling any more resistance; for a second, he feels a sudden twinge of grim resignation, thinking that perhaps the tiny boy sprawled out in his hands had died from the impact… though that theory is quickly disproven as he leans his head in closer, noting the subtle rise and fall of Makoto’s chest.

Just unconscious, then. Though, just to make sure (and to satiate some of his burning curiosity), Byakuya cautiously runs his fingertips over Makoto’s limbs.

Nothing broken, and… after using the tip of his nail to lift up Makoto’s hoodie and shirt, he can safely say that his little classmate managed to escape the ordeal with minimal bruising.

“‘Ultimate Lucky Student’ indeed,” Byakuya mutters. He lifts his hands even higher, squinting to get a better look at Makoto’s face.

The boy seems peaceful, at least, although…

…He shakes his head and rolls his eyes. The dark circles under Makoto’s eyes are none of his concern. What is his concern, however…

Byakuya gives the classroom one last, cursory glance before carefully slipping Makoto’s limp form into his blazer pocket. A smirk tugs at the corner of his lips, even as he exits the classroom.

Finally, something interesting.

Very, very interesting.

#gtronpa #alt title: makoto regrets his life choices (part 1 of several)#shifter!makoto au #giant/tiny #astral makes stuff #the writing corner #fandom g/t

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stahp-right-there-peasant · 3 years

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‘Kay, so

I really, really, REALLY want Oxventurer ghosts to show up in Blades in the Dark. And I have ideas for how it could happen.

All the Oxventurers’ ghosts would be tethered to different objects important to them and the reason they are still holding on to the mortal plane is because they are all separated from each other. Due to ghosts being unable to leave the mortal plane in the time that Blades in the Dark takes place, even if reunited, they would still be trapped on the mortal plane.

They would be some of the oldest ghosts in G’eth, as they were either A) some of the first souls to be kept from the astral plane or B) were already staying as ghosts before the thing that’s stopping ghosts from leaving happened. These are dependent on whether they cause the thing/during their lifetime the thing was caused or if that happened later in history.

Corazón would be tethered to the super-strength bracelets (so when the two are brought together, his ghost will form) or, personal favourite, he’d be tethered to the Joyful Damnation. He’d be a literal ghost ship! And like, it would show up in the harbour one day, and the BITD crew (probably Lilith and Edvard) would have to go aboard, and it would be a whole ‘exploring the spooky ghost ship’ episode where they’d have to try to figure out what’s going on and also avoid traps and ghost attacks. And the whole time, they’re trying to get to, like, the captains quarters or something. And once they finally do, everything turns into a ghostly tornado of stuff flying around them. Then Lilith would basically yell/ask the ghost what it wanted or say that they were here to help or something, and then everything would stop and drop to the floor as Corazón’s spirit appears and it would be super cool! I feel like Andy would love that.

Dob would, obviously, be tethered to his lute. And! It’d be at the very bottom of a super deep lake in/near Volesport. Like, a mythically deep lake. They’d have to use a submarine to dive down to the bottom to retrieve it and could encounter some… interesting creatures along the way, wink wink. Edvard would most definitely be involved with this one, cuz submarine, duh. There could be a little tunnel leading to a cave with a pocket of air, and the lute would be in a ghost-proof box (to keep Dob in), on a pedestal there.

Merilwen would be tethered to her bow, or to a forest. If she was tethered to the bow, the bow would be considered an expensive and beautiful antique, so some noble or rich dude would probably own it and have it on display in their house. But then there’d be strange occurrences surrounding the bow and it’d get passed off to someone else. The BITD crew would be asked to help, either because they’re an antiques store or because someone would ask for ghost help from Lilith, or maybe both. Either way, Lilith and, maybe, Barnaby would go to check it out. The noble would give them a tour of the house and then finally show them the room where everything’s been happening. They’d say that they suspect that the bow was the issue/that the strange things had been happening since they got the bow then leave the crew to fix it. Ghost shenanigans ensue, including chasing a ghost cat (aka Merilwen in cat form) around. Lilith eventually coaxes Merilwen’s ghost out into view and talks to her and asks her to stop. Merilwen wouldn’t like that and would basically say that she wouldn’t stop until she got what she wanted. Lilith would ask what she wanted and Merilwen would 1) ask to stop being bought/passed around by nobles and just hung on a wall and 2) say she wanted to be reunited with her friends. Lilith would ask the noble if they could take the bow, and the noble would either be willing to just give it away to get the thing out of their house or the crew/the crew’s ally would have to buy it.

If Merilwen was haunting a forest or a specific tree/treehouse (her childhood home?). The people who were supposed to be cutting down that chunk of trees would report strange occurrences, like seeing a ghost cat walking through the trees, glaring at them, before disappearing, or tools going missing, or machines breaking mysteriously overnight. The company would only call on the ghost department of the university when a worker was nearly killed by one of these strange occurrences (and also an expensive piece of machinery was exploded). Lilith would be asked to check it out, etc. etc.

Prudence would probably be tethered to a Grimoire or a Cthulian artifact of some kind. Either way, spooky, old, cursed thing. It’d probably be found somewhere spooky by an archeologist and sent to a museum or got collected by some noble, where she would almost immediately begin to wreak havoc/terrify all of the people around. The crew would either have to steal the thing (cuz valuable) or the ghost uni would send Lilith to deal with it. It’d probably be a Lilith and Zillah mission.

Egbert would be tethered to the True Polymorph mace, which would no longer be magical, but would be super haunted. Eleanor would ask the crew to get it, cuz it used to be magic, without knowing/telling them that the mace was also super haunted. It would probably be a Barnaby and Lilith mission. I think they’d have to steal it from somewhere or something, maybe a super rich dude who also has the right stuff to contain ghosts and likes old relics. Maybe he’s having a party at his house and/or is showing off a new relic he received recently.

Anyways, I’ve had that in my head for a while. Sorry that it’s so long ^^; I got really into it •v• Enjoy the ramblings lol

( @outsidexboxofficial )

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llogllady99 · 3 years

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INTERMISSION

CHARACTERS | Levi, Erwin, Hange, Petra, Nanaba, Mike, Eld, Gunther, Oluo, Moblit

RELATIONSHIPS | Erwin x Levi

Genre | Reincarnation, Afterlife

IV | Afterlife, Hurt/Comfort, Reincarnation, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence. Alternate Universe - Modern Setting/ Reincarnation, Fluff, Reunions, Introspection.

SUMMARY | Levi dies and reunites with Erwin and the others in the Afterlife.

WORD COUNT | 2.5k

It was one of those sunny days that Levi passed away. The kind of days that occurred in the middle of summer, sun shining proudly in the centre of the sky, beaming with light in all directions; its yellow rays placing gentle kisses and giving shape to everything around them. A breeze blew gently, ruffling the blades of overgrown grass, flowers, and other plants that were blooming by a pristine and crystalline river. A river so clean and fresh that even the tiniest of rocks could be visible. Southern Magnolias, Flowering Dogwoods, birch, and oak trees lined the river and gardens of the people resided in the area. On such particular days, Levi could be found gardening away his late adulthood; his garden was the most clean and organised with freshly mowed lawn and colourful flowers, trees, and bushes placed meticulously around the alleyway that lead to the entrance of the house, the backyard, by his windows and entrances, and inside the house. Therefore, it should have been no surprise when Levi spent his last day doing exactly that: cleaning, organising, and arranging things.

It came unexpectedly, like death often does. It should have upset Levi, he was still considered too young to die by the rest of the world, but he himself couldn’t have been more happier, more relieved, and at peace. It had started with a soft breeze, blowing through his now white strands of hair that were still arranged in the same familiar undercut and under his white cotton dress shirt that was a bit oversized. Then came a wave of unfamiliar fatigue, causing Levi to lie on his back on the grass, his eyes now on the sapphire sky, watching the different sized clouds move along in slow motion. Somehow he knew his time had come, he always had great intuition. With black now cornering his vision, the man closed his eyes, letting the sun rest gently on his face, warming him one last time. He smelled the sweet aroma of his flowers, he listened to the almost silent buzz of a bee in the distance, appreciating the things he had become so used to. Finally ready, Levi inhaled deeply, and with a contented smile spreading on his tired and wrinkled face, exhaled slowly as everything went black, sounds and sensations ebbing away gradually.

However, the world didn’t stop, the sun still shone, the birds still sang their relaxing songs, their high pitched chirps sounding through the valleys, the wind still blew, and the clouds in the sky still travelled their never ending journey; a perfect day for humanity’s strongest soldier to pass away.

Levi was now engulfed in deep darkness, thick and relentless. Silence reigning over the infinite void. It wasn’t a heavy silence or an uncomfortable one but rather comforting and warm, making him feel at peace in god knows how long. He looked down at his hands, they weren’t wrinkly anymore but soft and smooth again. He was back in his original form, his old inky black hair hanging daintily on his forehead, his cheekbones once again high and sharp, his eyes now a strong grey steel, and his lips rosy red. His body was also young again. Now that he was in this purgatory of sorts, a giant screen appeared in front of him, displaying moments from his life in chronological order. He saw himself as a baby, his mother cutting for the first time his hair in an undercut, his mother telling him stories, embracing him, loving him. Then came her death, her horrible death, leaving Levi alone. His uncle Kenny made his appearance on the screen, taking him under his care, teaching him how to fight and defend himself after walking away never to be seen again. It showed how he met Isabell and Furlan, the days they spent together in the underground. The blonde boy reading to them by the fire, Isabell snoring in Levi’s lap, his hands in her hair, twisting the ginger strands, Levi defending the redhead in a fight, and Isabell telling them jokes one night whilst playing cards. All of the precious moments now unfolding before his eyes. It made Levi’s heart swell with happiness at seeing their faces again. He had forgotten their faces after so much time but seeing them now reminded him of their bond, their brother like bond. Then he joined the survey corps and shit hit the fan.

Next came memories of joining the survey corps, of seeing Erwin for the first time, their first kiss, first time making love, moving in the same room together, going out with his comrades, Hange, Nanaba, Mike, Moblit, everyone made an appearance on the screen. Then came the brats, their round baby faces and bright eyes full of determination. Retaking wall Maria. Erwin’s death…

It displayed the four years in between their battles. The years when he moved in with Hange and having tea with them every other afternoon before making the plans for the attack on Liberio. The shit show started, the whole fucking rumbling, Eren going batshit crazy, Mikasa killing him, and them staying behind in Marley. His friendship blossoming with the other two brats and finally tasting true freedom, a world with no walls where the sky was the limit. Other sequences also played, like how he returned to Paradis, Gabi and Falco’s visits, who were now married and living happily in some exotic country, and then the day he died. He would have argued he lived a beautiful life, one which he certainly didn’t regret, but after Erwin’s and Hange’s death his only purpose was to survive the day, get through it and ignore the sinking feeling in his gut.

If this was the after life, why wasn’t anyone here? Did he do something wrong? Where was Erwin? Didn’t he promise he’ll be waiting for him? For the first time in the darkness, Levi felt suffocated, he couldn’t breathe, the overwhelming feeling he did something wrong washed over him, imbuing his every cell and tissue. Luckily, before he could finish that destructive train of thought, a glimmer of white appeared in the distance. As the small dot got bigger and bigger, Levi realised it was some kind of vortex that was sucking everything in it, including him. It sucked in his feet first then his hips, stomach, arms and finally his head. Everything went white around him, his spirit was travelling with so much speed that he felt he was inside an airplane engine, the turbines spinning faster and faster, the noise getting louder and louder, and finally the plane took off. As the noise reached its apex, Levi’s surroundings became silent until he was pushed out of the vortex and into the afterlife, the one in which his comrades also seemed to be.

Levi landed bottom first and with a thud, his backside coursing with pain. He flinched and got up. He scanned his surrounding and noticed that in the far off distance there was a group of people. Relief washed over his entire being as the feelings of panic and loneliness left him entirely. One by one he willed his feet to move, each step becoming more hurried, until he broke out in a run. The shape of the group was getting bigger and bigger as Levi closed the distance between them. The closer he got, the more he could make out their faces. Wait! Was that blonde and messy brown? Hange and Erwin? Happiness started blossoming in his chest, like a bush of Camelias in spring, the flowers opening up more and more, becoming bigger and bigger covering the whole green bush with their beautiful pure white and milky pink. A smile grazed his features and tears started falling down his face, each droplet streaming down his jawline then falling on the ground behind him.

“Erwin!” Levi shouted, finally getting his lover’s attention. Erwin turned, wide eyed as he recognised his voice and broke into one of his famous full mouth grins. He extending his arms, inviting the raven in. Levi gladly took that invitation, jumping on Erwin and sending both of them tumbling down, wrapping his arms tightly around the blonde, sniffling that familiar cent of cologne and tobacco. “You waited for me! I can’t believe you waited.”

“Of course I did, in fact all of us did. Look around Levi, we’re all here.” Levi lifted his face and looked around, his eyes landing on Hange grinning maniacally at him, Nanaba and Mike close to each other, Moblit, and his squad.

“Heya guys! Long time no see I guess.” Levi stood up from Erwin and made his way in between the group, taking everyone’s faces in. They were all here. He looked in Hange’s direction, they now looked truly happy without a care in the world. He approached them and wrapped them in a tight embrace, one which he so seldom offered when they were alive.

“Hey short stuff. Gotta admit watching over ya from up here got kinda boring. You were never up to any shenanigans, you just sat there all day reading your damn newspaper and drinking that awful tea.” Hange playfully reprimanded him. Levi snorted then play kicked their feet. Petra came up and hugged him from behind, burying her soft ginger hair between his shoulder blades. She inhaled shakily and choked out:

“Missed you so much, Levi Heichou.” Levi turned around and tucked some of her hair behind her year, setting his hand on her cheek, rubbing with one thumb a tear that spilled from her left eye. The raven then wrapped her tightly in the same hug he’d given Hange, burying her small head in his shoulder. “Missed you too.”

Mike came up and sniffed his hair, his nose scrunching up taking up as much of the sent as possible and his eyebrows furrowed in concentration, trying to pin point the smells. He then patted Levi on the shoulder and told him:

“You still smell the same, maybe except with a hint of a flowery touch to it.”

“Always so romantic.” Levi replied, shaking his hand like brothers do. Nanaba came up behind Mike and offered him one of her beautiful smiles. “Great seeing you Levi, but Mike,” she then grabbed the tall man’s hand pulling him towards her, “it’s time for us to go.”

“Go where?” Levi asked frantically, he just got here why were they going already?

“We will get reincarnated, me, Mike, and Erwin.” Nanaba replied casually as if it was the most natural thing. Levi started hyperventilating.

“Why?” He croaked. “I just got here, you can’t go! Not yet! Erwin please don’t go!” He looked around and found the blonde standing next to Mike, he grabbed his hand tightly, urging him not to go, however it was for nothing as his lover wouldn’t budge.

“I can’t Levi, my time has come.” Erwin grabbed both of his hand and kissed his knuckles and fingers, rubbing them against his cheek. “I need you to watch over me and when your time comes too, join me. We’ll meet again, in a world with no titans and infinite time on our hands. We will truly be happy there.”

“Fine, but promise me you won’t do anything stupid Erwin. Wait for me.” Levi demanded, raising himself on his tip toes and pulling Erwin down for a passionate kiss. After they parted, Erwin stepped next to Nanaba and Mike again and waved his big hand at the others before all three of them vanished from sight.

Over time, the same exact thing happened to the others. Eld and Gunther went, shortly followed by Auruo, the other people also gradually disappearing to god knows where. After some time, only him, Hange, Petra, and Moblit were left. Now it seemed that Moblit’s time had come too, if the bear hug he gave Hange was anything to go by. Offering them one last kind smile, Moblit vanished, leaving now only the three of them. Hange cried that day, harder than he ever saw them do it and Petra rested her head on Levi’s shoulder, sorrow and longing also emanating from her being. For a few years, all they could do was watch. Watch Erwin’s seventh birthday party, Mike and Nanaba chewing on their toys, Eld being adopted, guess he didn’t have much luck in this life either, Gunther ride his bike, Auruo playing his first song on the piano and so on. On a not so special day, when they resumed their seats and watched over the others, Hange stood up and with a kind smile and wave their hand they vanished too. Levi cried and so did Petra, they missed their friend dearly but it was bound to happen. A few short months after Petra also left, leaving Levi alone, drowning in the familiar feeling of loneliness.

A month after, Levi got visitors in the after life, they were Armin, Mikasa, and Annie. They greeted their captain and took their seats next to him, joining him in watching over his friends.

“I guess now I have you brats to watch over me when I’ll go down there.” He joked, getting a pat on the back from Armin.

“Hopefully, in the next life I won’t be a midget anymore, You guys don’t know how fucking hard that has been for me.” That earned him a laugh from all of them. Over the next two months all of them got closer together, Armin and Mikasa telling him about how his death impacted everyone. Apparently it has been a national funeral, all the nobles and even queen gathering around his coffin. How ironic.

One day, Levi woke up groggier than usual and much more heavy. It felt as if the ground was pulling him towards it. It was no doubt: his time had come. Armin was the only one that was watching the world down below, Mikasa and Annie sleeping soundly a few feet away. Levi sat next to him and cleared his throat, redirecting the blonde’s attention to him.

“This reincarnation thing is so beautiful, getting a second chance in a world not as cruel as ours.” Armin began. “I’m glad we aren’t stuck here forever, it gets more boring every day.”

“Try doing that shit for seven years.”

“That’s really long. I can’t stand this place anymore and I’ve only been here for what? Two months? If you don’t mind me asking, who was the first to go?” Armin asked, a little bit shy in case he was prying too much.

“Erwin.” Armin’s eyes widened. “Yeah, I just got here and he was already gone. But now is my time and I’ll finally be reunited with him.” Levi stood up and grabbed Armin’s hand also pulling him to his feet. “See ya Armin, you were always my favourite cadet.”

Bringing his fists and arms to his chest, delivering his last salute to the 15th Commander of the Survey Corps, he vanished, white clouding his vision. Everything went black afterwards.

The next time Levi opened his eyes, he was crying his eyes out and shouting like a mad man, his little legs and arms kicking and moving in all directions. He had been born into the new world.

Notes:

A song I would recommand while reading the fic is It's been a long, long time. Anyways, thank you for taking the time to read it and notes and comments are welcomed, Obviously, I do not own Attack on titan or any of the characters that take part in it. They are inspiration for my works and I love them to the core. Thank you again lovelies for taking the time to read it! <333

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pumpkinpaix · 4 years

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I don’t know how into NieYao you are but I can really see NieYao working with the hand job at the Renaissance Faire one. Alternatively, Wangxian.

prompted by @three–rings get ready for more shenanigans

(crossposted to ao3)

—

“Speed dating?” Nie Mingjue repeats dubiously. “At a Ren Faire?”

“It’s for a good cause,” Lan Xichen says with a laugh. “The Chinese Cultural Association is running it as a way to raise funds and awareness for local Asian diaspora resources and projects.”

“Mm,” Nie Mingjue says, unconvinced. “This is an awfully convenient scenario for you, the head of the CCA.”

Lan Xichen tips his head, all wide-eyed innocence. “And whatever do you mean by that, Mingjue?”

“This is just an elaborate con to get Wangji and that Wei kid to fuck,” he accuses.

“Mingjue!” Lan Xichen admonishes, but his eyebrow twitches, and the corner of his mouth is quirked, the way that Nie Mingjue has known since childhood belies something just a little devious.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, fine.” He rolls his eyes. “Is any of the money going towards improving the Chinese School curriculum?”

Lan Xichen winces. Nie Mingjue grimaces back.

“I’m afraid… well, I think the Chinese School needs more than just its curriculum overhauled,” Lan Xichen says delicately. “And it’s not exactly something money is going to fix.”

“It’s been bad since we were kids, and it’s going to be bad for all of our kids as well at this rate,” Nie Mingjue says with a sigh of resignation. “Rite of passage, I guess.”

“Isn’t it a rite of passage for all ABC kids?” Lan Xichen points out.

“It wouldn’t be if it were run properly, by people who understood what we actually needed!” It’s an old conversation, and a familiar one. They run along the grooves of it with a comforting, cantankerous grumbling, Lan Xichen disappointed, but placating; Nie Mingjue frustrated and heated. It’s nice, in its way.

“Whatever, fine, I’ll do it,” Nie Mingjue says. “Good cause, etc. Did you rope your new boyfriend into it as well?”

Lan Xichen positively lights up at that, and Nie Mingjue can’t help the smile that creeps onto his face. What a precious man. “Yes, I did, actually! I thought—well, I thought this might be fun way for the two of you to meet,” Lan Xichen says with another little laugh. “Low stakes, and if it turns out you hate each other, you only need to spend three minutes in each other’s company.”

“That’s true,” Nie Mingjue says. Lan Xichen—precious, but practical, as always. “All right, fine. I’ll be there, I’ll meet your new man, and I’ll even promise not to take his head off if you take me out to dinner after.”

Lan Xichen rolls his eyes fondly. “You say that like we haven’t been planning that dinner for weeks.”

“Yes, well, I’m being generous,” Nie Mingjue says with a shrug. “Don’t make me regret it.”

Nie Mingjue regrets it.

Like, not totally. Lan Xichen has gathered a rather impressive number of participants, and maybe if he were in a better mood, Nie Mingjue might actually be kind of interested in a few of them. As it is though, he’s barely had a chance to see Xichen the entire day, and he was roped into a horrible conversation with Jin Guangshan for nearly an hour when all he really wanted to do was hang out at the smithy tent and ask questions about their demonstration on Damascus steel. So it’s fine that he’s now stuck at this speed dating gimmick that is definitely, no matter what Xichen says, a very transparent setup for the most disastrous couple of their generation, but. Well. He’d have felt better about it if he knew how to forge Damascus steel. At least the weather is nice.

Lan Xichen taps a small gong on the table. “Hello, everyone,” he calls out with a smile. “Welcome to our speed dating event. As you know, all proceeds will be going to various projects supporting local Asian diaspora interests, so I’d like to start by thanking you all for your generosity.”

Nie Mingjue tunes out the rest of his speech because he’s heard it before in various iterations. Lan Xichen is good at what he does, speaks with clear, eloquent diction and a gentle demeanor. Just the sound of his voice is enough for Nie Mingjue, who spends the time eyeing the participants and trying to guess which one is Xichen’s new boyfriend. There are a few potential candidates he picks out, but Xichen has never really had a type, so to speak, so it’s actually rather challenging.

The first few people are pleasant enough conversation partners, but not much more. Nie Mingjue keeps himself at a polite distance from them, and he expects he won’t be seeing them again. He sits through five minutes of mutually agreed-upon silence across from Wangji. They saw each other yesterday, and neither of them are particularly good at forced small talk. He sits through a distinctly more chatty five minutes across from Wei Wuxian, who spends the whole time shooting distracted glances at Lan Wangji a few tables over, speaking softly to a young woman who seems obviously very taken with his manners.

“Hey, Wei,” Nie Mingjue says, interrupting his stream of consciousness rambling with about a minute left on the clock.

“Huh? Yeah?”

“Just fucking take Wangji and leave.” Nie Mingjue jerks his head at the exit.

“Seriously. This is painful to watch.”

Wei Wuxian looks caught out, a deer in the headlights. “What do you mean?”

Nie Mingjue leans forward, putting on his most intense expression—the one he reserves for special occasions and threatening his brother’s bullies. “I mean that Xichen might believe in gentle nudges, but I, for one, am sick of you two making sad cow eyes at each other at every fucking family event. It’s unbearable. Either tell him how you feel or get over yourself. Please. For the love of god.”

Wei Wuxian gapes at him like a fish a few times before leaning in and hissing, “Mingjue-ge!! You can’t just say shit like that!”

Nie Mingjue raises an eyebrow, unimpressed. “Don’t you want to?”

“I—!”

The gong rings.

“I’m serious, Wei,” Nie Mingjue says, standing up with a scrape of his chair. “I know neither of you want to be here. Take him before someone else pressures him into a date he doesn’t want to go on.”

“Lan Zhan would never—”

“Snag him before the change finishes,” Nie Mingjue interrupts, then whisks himself away before Wei Wuxian can protest again.

The next man he sits before is dressed in a delicate costume of pale gold and a plain black hat. “Hello,” he says, voice soft-spoken and musical.

“Hello,” Nie Mingjue says.

“Your saber is very fine,” the man says without preamble, tilting his head to get a better look. “I’ve been eyeing it since you arrived.”

Nie Mingjue opens his mouth automatically to thank him, but then notices the mischievous arch to his eyebrow, the slant to his smile. He frowns instead.

“If that was supposed to be an innuendo, it wasn’t a very good one.”

“Oh no,” the man deflects with just the right pitch of mild scandal and innocence. “Not at all! I was merely admiring the… craftsmanship. It’s hard to get a blade that large of such high quality.”

Nie Mingjue leans back, crossing his arms. He doesn’t have patience for word games. “You’re just fucking with me now.”

The man laughs. “Well, I’ve only got three minutes to make an impression.”

“And you chose ‘talk about his sword like it’s his penis’ as a tactic?”

The man hums, but doesn’t stop smiling. “Put like that, it does sound rather crass.”

“Is this what you do with all your dates?” Nie Mingjue asks.

“Oh, of course not. What sort of date would I be if I didn’t tailor my approaches?” He widens his eyes just slightly, leans in.

“What’s your name?” Nie Mingjue asks, because it’s only polite.

“What’s yours?” the man counters.

“Nie Mingjue,” he replies bluntly and without hesitation. “I’m not interested in playing.”

The man throws his head back with an elegant laugh. “I see that. Jin Guangyao, at your disposal.”

Nie Mingjjue squints. “Jin?”

“Indeed,” Jin Guangyao says with a tragic, self-deprecating little sigh. “Son of Jin Guangshan.”

“Oh god,” Nie Mingjue says before he can help himself. “Another one?”

“I know, we’re all crawling out of the woodwork, clamoring for the inheritance,” Jin Guangyao says without shame. “Zixuan has been a very good sport about it all.”

Nie Mingjue huffs out a disbelieving breath. Jin Guangshan’s bastards have all been asserting themselves in recent years, much to the chagrin of his wife. Nie Mingjue can’t really blame the woman. She’s put up with a lot.

He doesn’t keep up with the gossip and is only vaguely familiar with the situation. As far as he knows, this man is maybe the third? fourth? of Jin Guangshan’s illegitimate children to make their appearance. Nie Mingjue wracks his brains, not very hard. There was that Mo kid maybe last year, and the entire scandal involving the Qin girl a year or two before that, but he can’t place any others.

“You’ve got his name,” Nie Mingjue remarks.

“Oh yes, he decided to grace me with recognition,” Jin Guangyao says. “Much good that it’ll do me. He’s currently trying to bribe me off with an allowance, hoping I won’t make any more trouble for him. My birth name is Meng.”

“Is that how you paid for that costume of yours?” Nie Mingjue asks, not without humor. This bastard’s got balls, he’ll admit. The cloth has a lovely weft to it and a flattering cut. He can smell how much it costs.

Jin Guangyao laughs again, ducking his head and averting his eyes, and then quite suddenly, Nie Mingjue recognizes him.

“Oh fuck, it’s you,” he curses. He’s seen those eyelashes before, those eyes glancing up through them, glinting with a dangerous, daring edge.

“Excuse me?” Jin Guangyao asks, blinking.

“It’s—it’s you, the—last year,” Nie Mingjue splutters, very articulately. “Behind the—the smithy tent. On the last night. After—”

The memory is a bit of a blur for Nie Mingjue—he’d been drunk on several glasses of wine, shared swigs of baijiu with his brother, and a singular horn of mead that someone had passed him halfway through the after-hours revelry, but he remembers an unfamiliar young man in Nie colors stumbling against him, face obscured by the chiaroscuro of night and firelight, remembers the slender frame of him in his arms, and the wet heat of his lips around his cock in the cool darkness.

Nie Mingjue remembers the elegance with which he sunk to his knees, the way his moans vibrated against him, and his expression when he glanced up—there had been quite a bit of kissing too, Nie Mingjue thinks. Before and after. And then the young man had pulled away and vanished with a cutting smile, leaving Nie Mingjue breathless and a little stunned in his wake.

“Ah,” Jin Guangyao says, and everything about him is familiar now that Nie Mingjue knows what to look for—that smile, for one. Jin Guangyao props his head up on his elbow and gives him that smile, the one that cuts. “Now, which one were you?”

“Which one?” Nie Mingjue demands. “How many people did you go down on at the Ren Faire last year?”

Jin Guangyao shrugs. “I admit I’m not sure. The party was long, and there was quite a lot of alcohol, if memory serves. And the space behind the smithy tent is very convenient.” His eyes crinkle sweetly. “Why, do you think you were prodigious enough for me to remember? I might, if we go for round two this year. I admit I wasn’t ah, exactly looking at faces. You understand.”

Nie Mingjue feels his face color. “That’s not—” He doesn’t like feeling off-balance, doesn’t like conversations that aren’t forthright, doesn’t like any of this, but he does, heavens help him, very much like the idea of fucking Jin Guangyao’s mouth again.

“Not… what? Not what you want?” Jin Guangyao asks smoothly before Nie Mingjue can continue to flounder. “Was my performance not to your liking?” His voice is embellished with a hint of wounded disappointment, which Nie Mingjue finds extremely suspect.

“No, it was—” Nie Mingjue can feel his flush darkening as his tongue slips. —excellent, he stops himself from saying. It would appear the man’s tongue is talented in more ways than one.

Nie Minjue wants to hit him, he’s so infuriated.

The gong rings.

Jin Guangyao stands, all smiles once more, and reaches over to stroke Nie Mingjue’s cheek. “It was very nice to meet you properly this time, Mingjue. Perhaps you’ll give me another chance to prove myself later.” He winks, so quickly Nie Mingjue isn’t sure he saw it at all, and then sweeps himself to a new partner.

Nie Mingjue is distracted and irritable for the rest of the event, which is hardly fair to his remaining dates, but he’s agitated and angry and it’s not like he really cared about making connections—he barely remembers to try and figure out who Xichen’s mystery boyfriend is—there’s a nice man with a pleasant personality and a lovely smile that he vaguely wonders about, but the whole time he’s conversing and making nice, he’s thinking about how much he wants to throttle Jin Guangyao. And maybe other things.

It’s very difficult to focus.

When the gong rings out for the last time, Nie Mingjue can’t throw himself out the seat fast enough. Lan Xichen collects everyone’s scorecards (Nie Mingjue’s had a total of one number on it, unsurprisingly), and gives another small speech thanking everyone for their participation and encouraging them to enjoy the rest of what the Faire has to offer. Matchlists are expected to be sent out tomorrow evening at the latest. There’s polite clapping before general dispersal. It doesn’t escape Nie Mingjue’s attention that neither Wei Wuxian nor Lan Wangji are among the crowd. He hopes they’re not sharing blowjobs behind the smithy tent.

Nie Mingjue stalks towards Lan Xichen as the final dregs of the participants trickle out, fully intent on venting his frustration to Lan Xichen’s willing ear, only to see that the subject of his ire is, in fact, already standing beside Lan Xichen. Standing very close beside Lan Xichen.

Nie Mingjue stops dead.

“Mingjue!” Lan Xichen calls, waving him over.

“Him?” Nie Mingjue accuses. The temptation to draw Baxia and point it for extra effect is unreal. He restrains himself, but only just.

Lan Xichen laughs. “I see A’Yao made an impression.”

Jin Guangyao smiles at Lan Xichen, and—the fuck, it’s totally different than the way he smiles at Nie Mingjue! It’s soft and genuine and smitten and overwhelmed all at once, like he can’t believe he’s lucky enough to have this—and it’s not like Nie Mingjue doesn’t agree, because that is, in fact, the only acceptable way to think about Lan Xichen, but then Jin Guangyao turns that smile towards him and it goes all sharp and clever around the edges, and it sets his blood boiling.

“So you’re Mingjue,” Jin Guangyao says. “I thought you must be.”

“I introduced myself,” Nie Mingjue snaps. “It doesn’t take a genius.”

“Oh dear, I really riled you up, didn’t I?” Jin Guangyao laughs. “Forgive me. I couldn’t help it. You just seemed like you’d be a fun tease, and I was right.”

“Your new boyfriend is this little snake?” Nie Mingjue demands.

“Snake?” Lan Xichen repeats, surprised. “A’Yao, what did you do?”

“It was my fault,” Jin Guangyao says with sheepish contrition. “He seemed like such an honorable man, so I pushed a little.”

It isn’t actually Jin Guangyao’s fault—not really. Nie Mingjue was the one caught out unawares by a memory, but Jin Guangyao is really selling this performance to Xichen—to what end, Nie Mingjue couldn’t say. Nie Mingjue wants to drag him away and shove him up against a wall, bite at his lips. He wants him away from Xichen, but not for jealousy. It’s something else.

“I see you still matched with me, though,” Jin Guangyao says, leaning over Lan Xichen’s shoulder to peer at the scorecards.

“A’Yao,” Lan Xichen chastises, moving his arm to cover them. “Don’t pry.”

“Sorry,” Jin Guangyao says, stepping back immediately, and Nie Mingjue can almost believe him. “Old habits.”

“Well, the secret’s already out,” Lan Xichen says with a small huff of chuckle. “I still have to put the rest of these into spreadsheets and crossreference them, so why don’t the two of you go participate in the Faire for a little while? Since you matched and all.”

“I think that would be lovely,” Jin Guangyao says before Nie Mingjue can protest. He smiles beatifically. “We could get… something to eat.” His tongue darts out between his lips.

“I’m having dinner with Xichen,” Nie Mingjue growls.

Jin Guangyao’s smile only grows more wicked. “Just a quickie, then.”

—

* jgy is 100% lying about not remembering nmj because he’s a little shit. he DID give more than one blowjob behind the smithy tent, but just one, and it was lxc :D

* didn’t get around to this, but jgs is definitely the chair of the chinese school and also the reason why it’s so terrible bc it’s hating jgs hours all the time in this house

* all of these characters are part of some larger xianxia RP group that have a presence at the ren faire, and the sects exist kind of nominally as like…. factions?? or something??? vaguely split along the original families that decided to start participating—so meng yao was wearing nie colors, but nmj didn’t recognize him bc he was a new recruit or whatever. don’t ask me. I don’t know what goes on at a ren faire. i’ve been to woefully few in my life :(

(prompt list || other ficlets || ko-fi)

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kaiju-z · 3 years

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Seon Adventures, Episode 36: The King, The Guard, The Blade

Last on Seon Adventures! The Cultbusters had gone and traversed through the treacherous traps of the Fallen King’s Tomb; confronted mirror creatures and bested them in riddle combat; snuck through metalic guards and browsed through the dedicated libraries...

Now, they stand before the spirit of the King, himself. A Purple Tiefling man in humble clothing as each party in this conversation genuinely wants to know truths...

He shifts his weight on his back leg and looks to each of the adventurers, expectantly, certainly hoping for no unnecessary bloodshed. And welcomes the party. Friends or foes.

Luctan, who up until now hadn’t seen any ghosts (and had his mind wiped of the memory of the time travel shenanigans) states the obvious.

“So. You’re a ghost.”

That certainly breaks the tension and the party ask the king of what had occured. Desperately wanting to know answers to questions he himself may not have reached the full legway to.

The fall happened after his passing. His temple wasn’t finished until the end of the war, or so he heard. He’s heard things around him, the builders talking about it. Kobolds. So sadly, even the king was in ignorance of the situation.

But question for question, his highness questions them on what they, themselves knew of the events. And they would recite Arryn’s story, as best as that was told and remembered. And the King would try to fill in the gaps:

The place, where he transitioned into unlife, very unpleasant to remember that event, but dragons were sent to them. A pair of black ones, large and fierce. He took one of them down with the help of some brave warriors. They took that one down and his wings have been buit into the wall.

The other was shot down and taken away to question and interrogate away by the Kingdom’s allies in Guan. After his passing, he has heard fairly one sided stuff. He doesn’t want to believe that what happened happened. It seems impossible to him, even if he doesn’t understand much of magic.

Belli tries to recall if something like that would have been possible… All of them try, but none think we can figure it out. However Malak believes spells can be amplified by multiple people. Multiples... the council, maybe?!

When prodded on why this happened. This... war. The King would bemoan the events.

The battle started with a failed negotiation. It was his mother that started it. She wanted to negotiate some Southern Lands, fertile lands. Just that, leave it at that. He thought they could do better. Then? Empty threats that turned to words spoken and words into actions. And then actions taken turning into Rot.

When the queary of who commissioned them would be brought up, the truth was that they didn’t know much. Beyond the face that they were approached by for the job, there was nothing certain. Though... Putting things together on a certain perspective? Technically the council commissioned could have been the commissioners, but probably those, who argued with the king’s mother. Over land. And money.

The King’s Blade was and is a weapon with magical abilities. A sentient one too. Passed down the generations from one ruler to the next. He would confirm that it was still in the vault.

The King would mention that he was connected to the Iron Guardians that the party had snuck past in the smoke and that he would be able to turn them off for an easier exit. But the stone construct that was protecting the vault? That would be a daunting task only the party could deal with.

Malak, who has totally seen ghosts before (All of the ghosts) offers the king a chance to transition. Like. Right now. No money required.

And the King’d accept.

But as Malak casts his Channel Divinity feature, the king would grip at his head, panic and start running in a circle, screaming in fear and terror. Because. Well. His CR is too high for that?!!

Essentially, Malak gave the king Existential Dread.The poor ghost man.

“Dick move.” - the king would state, once the CD would wear off. And Malak in turn would claim, in a huff, that the King wasn’t quite as committed to carrying on as he initially said.

A few minutes of this goes on, before Malak gives it a second go, this time with a Banishment spell onto the King, who was beginning to regret even telling the party of the Construct.

As he accepts the banishment, he clearly gives Malak the stink eye for the trouble and is sent away to the afterlife.

With the party never getting his name.

Fuck.

With the task done, the party consider resting in the tomb, before advancing to the treasury. But comedy ensues as Malak refuses to sleep in a place of the dead. And the party go back and forth on whether they should sleep here or not.

And ultimately agree on just going to the vault.

Also Jun takes some time to sit on the throne and more specifically the statue of the king’s lap. Because she deserves this. Congratulations, Queen.

Leading the way afterwards is Mournimar, who mentions along the way that he and Belli had seen the construct before, while it was keeping it’s vision on Jun, Luck and Malak in the library. Something that he had forgotten to mention to them previously to this moment.

With this knowledge on their minds, the party elect to split and take a seperate route. Jun and Luck taking the upper coridor, while Malak, Mournimar and Belli (and Morgan) go for the Library entrance.

As Mournimar turns around, he sees an Orange light looking directly at him and it comes from some kind of glowing gem. It glows, the orange deepends to an orangy-red.

Roll for initiative and Luck is the first to make his move.

He elects to try and distract the construct and steps forward, clapping and “complimenting” it. Asking it to let them pass. And holding an action.

While this goes on, Mournimar Hunter’s Marks, swears under his breath that the party doesn’t have a choice and fires. One miss. One hit. And backs away. 11 damage.

- On Belli’s turn, she uses her Animating Performance. And animates one of the shields, causing it to end up thrusting itself away from the grip of the designed defender.

AND FOR HER BONUS ACTION!

She mocks it. Ooh, not as strong as you used to be. Bit of rust setting in. Maybe you should retire and give it a rest?” Aaand that doesn’t quite work out, sadly as psychic attacks don’t effect a machine.

On Jun’s turn... She runs over to the construct and Hexes it, taking away it’s advantage with Strength attacks..

Using her Mystic Frenzy, she casts Booming Blade. And cuts into it! Thanks to Belli, both of Jun’s attacks hit the being and she stabs in and between the plates for a lot of damage. 36 DAMAGE O _ O

And the retaliation comes quick as she gets slammed by it’s remaining shield in turn. The requirements for Luck’s attack spring up and he tries to shrink the creature to a much smaller size, but it resists his magical influence as steam starts to billow from it’s body. White-ish, magical steam, which causes Jun and Luck to lose some of their energy, Slow-ing them down.

On Malak’s turn... he casts Spiritual Weapon right next to the Floating Shield. So it’s a nAnimated Team Up! Smack for +8 Force Damage. Toll the Dead afterwards!

With his movement halved, Luctan can only pull his Greatsword out and swing the Evenchord, slashing it across the body of the bionic enemy.

It’s the Ranger’s turn again. Bonus action, Mournimar casts Ensnaring Strike on the Guardian. At Level 2, which turns off the Mark. With the creature restrained, Mournimar fires and hits it twice with his arrows.

Bonus action, Belli tells the shield to protect Luck and Jun. And as an Action she tries to Dispell the Stone Construct’s control over the Slow Fog?!

With a tremendous grip on her confidence, she succeeds in this endeavor. Now free to attack, Jun cuts into herself for her Crimson Rite. For a collective 38 damage. Oil starts to leak out from it’s back.

And a brief flicker emits from it’s gem as a reaction to the damage dealt. And the smoke pops out once more. Causing Luck and Jun to be slowed yet again.

The construct crashes into Jun again, but before it can hit again, she manages to roll out of it’s way, avoiding further damage.

On Malak’s turn, he sends the spiritual weapon to make an attack, which connects for 6 Force Damage. And after that attempts to wound it with a Chill Touch, which sadly doesn’t work as intended... With that thought, the cleric would move behind Luck and Jun, ready to heal them if they lose their balance.

On Luck’s turn, he shiftshis sword to his left hand and channels a different kind of magic than what he normally uses, before smashing his fist into the body of the construct, in defense of Jun, citing “Now that’s no way to treat a lady.”, but like, slow like. Inflict Wounds. 9 Necrotic.

On Mournimar’s turn, the arrow sniper gets a sudden sense of inspiration as he aims for the crystal, while the thing focuses on Jun. 26! 1 damage to the crystal, a vulnerable area! An arrow sticks out of the crystal and it’s like it’s blinking eratically at random patterns! Second shot hits again! 24 damage ON THE GEM!!! HE SPLITS THE ARROW!

Yeah, by this point it doesn’t look great at all.

On Belli’s turn... Belli casts mage hand and carries the acid bomb to drop it onto the crystal! It drops perfectly on the crystal. But the acid damage has little effect!

As a Bonus Action she inspires Jun. “You got this, Queen!”

“Aw, shucks, lil’ ol’ me?!” she jokes and now full of inspiration and Bloodhunter Badassdom, Jun does the deed. 25 Damage!

HOW DO YOU WANT TO DO THIS?!

Jun takes out the Gollem’s knee, slices through it, causing it to drop to a knee. And then slowly pushes her sword through the crystal, pulling a decapitation move.

It’s fallen. Dead.

With a key in the back of it’s head.

A key.

And there’s another big metal door.

Which is big. And made of metal. But are there hinges on it?!

One can not quite tell.

Mournimar and Jun take turns trying to lockpick the vault’s door, With Jun receiving a Greater Healing Potion from Luck for her troubles in the fight, before her turn with the picks.

But neither quite gets the job done, while Malak calmly grabs the key out of their view and waits for his chance.

(Also, btw. The shield’s name is now “Simon”. And Belli wants to keep it.)

And once it arrives, he walks up to the door.

Then he touches it and mutters something, like a prayer of sorts, being a little shit as he unlocks the door with the key.

Inside are all the treasures of the King. The floor is littered with coins. And in the back of the room, on a cushion lays the King’s Blade. Behind the blade is a large skull of a dragon that was killed with it. Black Dragon Scales everywhere, forming a collage of the King.

With Mournimar vibing with Morgan and Belli finding interest in a box of animal figurines, Malak steps up to the sword, before Jun and Luck can do anything more than just watch it intently.

He asks them to wait a moment, so he can check the weapon for any curses. The cleric then pokes it gently, casting Remove Curse. Whether that succeeds or not is unknown.

Browsing the vault, the party find multiple items, some, which clearly emit magic, once Detect Magic is cast. A ring mail armor is among them, but no one finds the want to pick it up. Belli’s distracted by a box with 8 turquoise animal figurines. 8 different kinds. Dog, cat, deer, bear, gorilla, raven, owl and a gecko, while Malak gets a party’s worth of Greater Healing Potions from a box.

With a keen analytical eye, the cleric takes note that Enchantment and Evocation magic emits from the sword. There’s also slight abjuration on the Dragon Scale Collage, but as a preservative.

And then?

Luck picks up the sword.

And speaks to it.

Asking it if it has a name? Gender? Anything like that?!

And it does speak. And she introduces herself as Ena. A very eloquent lady of a long sword, who hasn’t been held in a long while.

With a voice that makes it sound like he is almost flirting with her, Luck catches up Enaon what has and might have been going on in the time of her last use.

She is perfectly fine traveling with the party and even feels comfortable in Luck’s grasp as there seems t obe some kind of “Royalty” feeling to him. Curious of the possibilities, the party also bring along the dragon skull, placing it in the bag of holding, after Luck shrinks it down with his last remaining 2nd level slot of Enlarge/Reduce.

Before they leave, the party discuss what to do with the gold here. All this fortune could be used to help the neighboring settlements and the party agree to return one day and gather it, or send someone to gather it, who’d be careful enough to avoid the traps.

For a moment Luctan considers taking a bunch of gems, a thought crossing his mind. But Jun talks him out, bewhildered after the talk the group just had on the use of the coin.

On the way out, once the six of them make it back to the 1st level, Malak stands in the center of the open room and casts Destroy Undead to eliminate the Kobolds and the creature in the sarchophagus.

He destroys the Kobolds’ bodies, but the Mummy rises. Angry.

And a quick fight begins.

- On Luck’s turn, he casts Guiding Bolt, then charges in as he Action Surges and slices twice with Ena for some immense damage.

Then? The darndest thing happens once the Bard comes up.

Belli casts Polymorph and tries to turn the mummy into a baby. And insults it. “You’re just a stupid little baby.”

And-

And-and-

And it works?!

Jun is horrified by all of Belli’s anti-babyness and just leaves the room. The mummy baby tries to hurt Malak, but fails, as it teeths. The cleric isn’t even perturbed by the litteral ankle biter as he notes: “Hey Belli, remember that talk we had about traumatizing people?”

And Belli immensely apologizes for the situation at hand. It was a spur of the moment thing.

Not wanting to hurt a baby, even if the mummy wasn’t a real one, Mournimar looks to see if he has any intoxicants to just pass the time. But alas. He does not. He does not have the good kush.

Malak’s next. He slaps the baby, ending the toddler shenanigans and swings with the Fated Potential, damaging the creature for 5 slashing.

Luctan Mercifully finishes things off with a Quickened Guiding Bolt and a Nat 20 Slash of the King’s Blade and the Mummy’s dead.

It’s dead.

O. V. A. Ovah.

With no mention being made along the way, the party hotfoot it out of the tomb and walk over to Arryn, who was preparing dinner.

“Hot Diggity Dog”- Arryn, quoting the Dragonborn Tribes. As Luck presents the blade. When discussing what had transpired inside the home of the dead, the party ponder on the remaining dragon. Chances are the other black dragon was taken to the Capitol of Guan, which is where the party elects heading. To Necesills.

With that said, Arryn offers his stew to the party and the lot of them sit together and finally eat. During the meal, Belli receives a message in her head from Nel.

“Good evening, darlings! Just had a thought, I should probably let you know! Amelia and I will be relocating temporarily. Take care!” Belli asks her what’s up. And then sends that in the form of a Sending spell so she can reply and not waste any spellslots on her turn.

Nel ran out of slots for it. Thanks to a work thing, Nel had to move. Amelia would have told the lot of them, when they returned, but Nel figured with her Sending it’d be a much more convenient messaging.

Belli learns that the two of them are relocating to a town called Havik. It’s the northern most town. It’s the last piece of civilization, while in Aetorumia.

With that said and done, the party prepare to get their shut eye, with watches and everything. But before they can get to that, someone clears their voice in the viscinity of the seven (+2 horses and Fey cat).

They look and-

It’s him again.

“Did you miss me?!” asks Ark’Niel with a smug expression on his face as he leans against a pillar in the sand.

Previous Episode / Next episode

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artificialqueens · 4 years

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Blue Neighborhood Series: COOL (Rock-centric) - Mac

AN: Thanks as always to Meggie! Who is an angel on earth for betaing. I love her to death. And thanks to everyone leaving such amazing comments! It means so much!

Summary: In the aftermath of their night of revenge, Rock struggles to find where she fits in.

Monday morning brought the news: vandalism, several thousand dollars worth of property damage, a ruined reputation, and speculation.

The most obvious suspect, Heidi, had an alibi. The photos Widow had taken were time-stamped and location tagged. There was no trail for anyone to follow.

They had gotten away with it.

That should have made Rock feel better.

It didn’t.

And besides a few more names and faces in the hall, the night didn’t do much for Rock socially. She had thought, maybe foolishly, that some good old fashioned illegal activity might finally be the push she needed to make some friends. As it was, she was still eating her lunch alone in the old prop room above the theatre.

But she had her anime and her videogames and her ability to tune out the world around her.

She propped her phone up and clicked on the next episode of My Hero Academia. It was her third time watching it through, and she knew the episodes by heart now. But the familiarity offered her comfort in an otherwise hectic day.

Rock was so absorbed in the show that she almost missed the crash on the stage below her. Almost.

She clambered up on unsteady feet, heart pumping in her ears as she walked out of the stuffy prop room and onto the platform directly above the stage. She looked down and was shocked to see two familiar faces strolling through the prop trees that made up the set, giggling like children.

“Don’t break that!” Jan scolded, though her words lacked bite.

“I didn’t see it!” Jaida said, crossing her arms defensively.

“You’re so tall you can’t see anything below your knees, huh?” Jan teased. “Well, I guess we can’t all be future D-1 athletes.”

Jaida started to grab at Jan, who narrowly avoided her grasp. The two girls fell into another round of giggles. This time they both ducked their heads away, unable to keep eye contact.

Rock observed them warily, hair prickling on the back of her neck at how familiar this scene seemed. She should go, should leave the two alone, and allow them to get up to whatever they came here for, but something kept her rooted in her spot. Morbid curiosity.

When they settled down and color was high on both of their cheeks, Jan motioned to the audience widely. “Are you gonna shut up and let me do my thing or what?”

Jaida held her hands up in mock surrender, shit-eating grin still etched into her features, as she made her way into the first row of seats, spreading out her long limbs goofily, flopping around in an effort to make Jan smile.

Jan held back, but the joy still shone in her eyes.

She tried to steady herself, inhaling deeply, before beginning to sing.

Rock didn’t recognize the song, but she found that it didn’t really matter, the tone of Jan’s voice conveyed everything she needed to know. The notes drifted up into the rafters, settling high above the singer and melding to the ceiling. The emotion hung in the air. Sadness, self-reflection, loss. It plucked at Rock’s heartstrings more than she cared to admit.

She wasn’t the only one.

Jaida sat in the audience, previous sloppy posture made up now, back ramrod straight, eyes wide.

As the song came to an end, Jan gave a silly bow. Jadia smiled so bright Rock could make it out from where she was standing. The loud clapping echoed in the empty auditorium and Jan giggled as Jaida approached the stage, eyes still wide in amazement.

“I can’t believe you didn’t get the lead.” Jaida shook her head.

Jan sat down on the edge of the stage, her legs hanging off the side. “It just wasn’t meant to be, I guess.” She shrugged.

“Well, you’re amazing.” Jaida grinned. “But I agree,” she paused, “you sound much better on stage than in your backyard.”

Jan laughed, throwing her head back in abject joy, long strawberry blonde hair tumbling down her back and shaking along with her shoulders. Rock hadn’t seen her this happy in what felt like forever. She seemed lighter somehow. Freer.

When the two locked eyes again, something different passed between them, Rock had only a second to process before Jan leaned in to close the distance between her and Jaida.

The kiss lasted only a second before Jan pulled back. She was clearly shocked by her own actions, Rock could tell, because a split second later she was standing up on wobbly legs and running toward the exit of the auditorium.

Jadia was left to stare at the empty space she left.

Rock planned to leave. To exit quiet and daintily and pretend like she saw nothing. God clearly had other plans because as she began to tiptoe back the way she had come, her hand missed the railing, causing her to stumble and cry out before catching herself.

“Fuck!” Jaida yelled in shock, jumping about six feet in the air.

She shielded her eyes as she looked up into the bright stage lights. “Jesus, Rock,” Jaida exhaled. “The fuck are you doing up there?”

Rock blushed head to toe. “Oh, ya know, eating lunch.”

Jaida put her hands on her hips. “So… You saw that, huh?” She motioned to the space where Jan had stood.

Rock nodded hesitantly, unsure of what the correct answer was. Jaida pursed her lips and ran a hand through her dark hair.

“Can we, uh, keep this between us?”

Rock didn’t need prompting. She nodded once, firmly. Jaida offered her a weak smile in return before heading the way in which Jan had run off.

Rock’s head was spinning. She didn’t keep up much with school gossip, finding it confusing at best and defamatory at worst, but you didn’t need to be nosy to know about the infamous red truck photo. The school had gone wild a few weeks back, speculation circling in every social circle. The conclusion had been that Eastview’s ‘it’ girl, Jan, had been getting it on with the varsity basketball captain. Everyone had accepted it as fact, and, not feeling the need to question it, Rock had believed it too.

But based on the scared, and quite frankly, disgusted reaction Jan just had… Rock suddenly felt the need to sit down as realization dawned on her: Jan wasn’t the one in the picture.

And that opened a whole other can of worms.

Rock sighed. She really needed to find a new place to eat lunch.

…

Rock coughed out a cloud of smoke.

She heard murmurs from her companions, some judgmental, others bored. She did her best to ignore them as she raised the contraption to her lips again, and someone leaned over with a lighter.

The weed burned her. Throat and nose alight with a smell that felt like it was filling the space between her brain and her skull. She didn’t cough this time, which she counted as a victory, and she passed the bong to her right.

Widow encouraged her. “That was good! Usually newbies cough for like an hour.”

Rock just nodded, if she opened her mouth to speak she knew she would cough. She held it in, content for now to hold her breath and wait the feeling out. She took the time to admire her new position, even if it was just for the day.

After not so subtly mentioning her social predicament in the group chat, Widow had been among the first to offer her an alternative.

Rock found that she actually used the group chat that was formed after their night of shenanigans a lot more than she thought; every now and then she shared funny videos she found or had a sidebar conversation with Jackie about their statistics class. Some of the other girls used it frequently too, with Crystal and Heidi being the most vocal. The cheerleaders mostly kept to themselves, but would react to conversations with an emoji or two. Even Widow chimed in every now and then with a biting comment or a response to someone’s question.

Rock felt lucky her self-deprecating joke was answered at all, let alone by three separate people.

For now though, she just thanked the stars that she got to spend more time with Widow. After their night of illegal activity, Rock had been itching to learn more about the mysterious older girl. She couldn’t explain it, but she felt drawn to her presence.

Rock tried to relax as Widow’s friends settled into easy conversation.

The outside air was welcome on her heated skin; the fall breeze dancing up and down her legs, feet against the brick of the shed. They were still on school property, which caused a bit of underlying panic in Rock’s gut, but her companions seemed unbothered and had clearly been doing this often enough to not be nervous.

They were far from the school, Rock reasoned, the long-abandoned athletic shed being located just a stone’s throw away from the already distant baseball field. There was virtually no way they would get caught. Still.

The bong made the rounds again and Rock hit it twice more, only coughing a bit on the second exhale.

She didn’t start to feel the effects until a bit later. At first, she couldn’t even tell, her mind already thrumming with nerves, but as her heartbeat slowed in her chest and her thoughts began to calm she felt an unfamiliar wave of weight fall off her. Before long her head felt hazy and light and she was smiling widely, giggling at the blades of grass jumping, dipping, and turning in the wind.

Widow smiled encouragingly at her and said something that Rock didn’t hear. The older girl waited patiently until Rock made eye contact before repeating herself.

“We gotta get back,” she said. “Class starts soon.”

Rock nodded, but it made her head dizzy so she stopped. Widow extended a hand, and Rock took it gratefully, doing her best to appear unfazed by the sudden movement upward. She must have failed because Widow’s eyes suddenly looked concerned.

“You okay, Roxy?” she asked genuinely.

Rock nodded. “Yeah, I just…” She trailed off.

She just what? What? Wat? Water. She needed water.

She let Widow lead her to the school, all the while doing her best to fight the heaviness of her eyes. They made it inside with a few minutes to spare, minutes Rock gratefully took to guzzle water from the fountain.

Widow rubbed her back in slow circles, reminding her to breathe and to take it slow. As the bell chimed above them, Rock felt her stomach flip unpleasantly. The echo of the noise bounced around in her head, and she suddenly didn’t feel so good.

She lied through her teeth when Widow asked her again if she was okay. Rock didn’t want to be a bother. She had already been enough of a burden by smoking Widow and her friend’s good weed and now she was keeping Widow from class. Rock shook her head and did her best to assure her that she would be fine. Widow only left after getting Rock to pinky promise she would text her if anything went wrong.

Rock practically sunk into her seat in her next class. Her head felt light but her eyes felt heavy and the weird combination of sensations was doing a number on her thoughts. As their teacher began to pass out test grades Widow’s words echoed in her head, “don’t freak yourself out or your trip can get real bad.”

Easier said than done.

It felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped on her head, as Rock saw yet another bright red D on her test.

Fuck.

Her parents were gonna kill her.

Not because they really cared a lot about her grades, but because it meant they’d have to come into the school and have another useless talk with her teachers about her performance.

Rock’s parents were… busy. From the time she could comprehend the word, that’s what her parents had been. Busy with work, busy with social engagements, busy with things that a silly little girl would never understand. Busy. And that had been fine. It meant that Rock didn’t have a bedtime, could order from her favorite pizza place every night, could not do her homework for weeks at a time. But Rock quickly learned that she’d really rather have parents than the freedom to fall into a sugar coma every night.

Her parents were busy. They didn’t have time to cook dinner or clean the house or, well, parent. Rock had taken on that responsibility, helping her little sisters to bed, making sure they got their homework done on time, packing their lunches for them. She did her best, learned to cook, how to drive, and how to head a house, but she still fell short a lot of the time.

Especially when it came to her own needs.

And because she never really had a strong family structure, Rock had become self-sufficient to the point of isolation. Maybe that’s why it was so hard for her to make friends, not that she had much time to dedicate to outside relationships anyway. Still. It would be nice to not have to go it alone all the time.

All of a sudden the room started spinning, as opposed to the calm relaxing way it had been moments ago. This time it was a violent thrashing instead of a gentle rocking, and Rock felt herself gripping her desk in an attempt to slow it down. The people around her started staring, she could hear their whispers without straining her ear.

But what really got to Rock was when the person behind her tapped her lightly on the shoulder. She nearly jumped out of her seat, banging her knee forcefully on the desk instead.

“Woah, sorry!” The guy apologized, but his words felt like they were delayed with his mouth and she could practically feel them hitting her skin, and Rock needed to get out of here now.

She stood up to the best of her abilities and sprinted out into the empty hallway. The whipping motion of her head as she desperately searched for the nearest bathroom only made her dizzier. The nearest women’s restroom was blissfully empty, and Rock wasted no time before dousing her face in water, her makeup be damned. She scrubbed and scrubbed at her skin, the only action that made her feel like her body was her own.

When Rock felt steady enough, she made the brave decision to sit on the grimy bathroom floor near the window unit until she felt better. She pulled her knees to her chest and rested her head against them for an immeasurable amount of time. Girls entered and exited the bathroom, but Rock paid them no mind.

After a while, when the world stopped spinning, and she felt more like herself, she stood up. She glanced down at her phone to see three notifications from Widow.

W: you still feeling ok?

W: you should have lunch with us again

W: everybody really liked having you

Rock declined politely.

…

Lunch with Brita, Gigi, and Jan didn’t go much better.

Gigi had thrown out the offer after Crystal and Widow. It was half-baked at best, Rock knew. She still went, willing to give the whole experience a chance. The night of the revenge plot the cheerleaders hadn’t seemed so bad. Maybe a little stuck up, but ultimately harmless.

Rock quickly found that her assessment had been correct. They were harmless. Harmless and boring.

Jan spent the whole period practically mute, picking at her lunch with a fork. Rock couldn’t help but wonder if Jaida had mentioned her presence that day in the theatre. By the way Jan was refusing to make eye contact with her, not even deigning to smile, Rock was pretty sure it had come up.

Brita was too involved in texting whoever and ignoring the puppy dog eyes from her boyfriend to notice Rock’s appearance. Gigi was sulking, but attempting to make light conversation with Rock.

“So… uh, you going to Homecoming?” Gigi asked.

Rock shook her head. “Nah, gotta babysit my little sisters.”

“Oh.”

It was mostly true. She always had to look after her little sisters. But mainly she wasn’t going because she had no one to go with. And as much as Rock was perfectly fine on her own, she had no desire to be reminded of it for an entire night.

“Well, Jackie and I are going together,” Gigi said. “As friends,” she quickly corrected.

Gigi glanced over at a still quiet Jan, something strange passing behind her eyes and sneaking into her tone. “And we aren’t sure yet if Jan is taking anybody, but she’s riding with us.”

Jan glanced up at her name and offered Gigi a weak smile.

“So if you change your mind and need a ride, we got you.” Gigi smiled. “I mean, we all live next to each other.” Gigi gave a weak laugh at a joke she didn’t make.

This had been a mistake.

Rock didn’t consider herself to be incredibly exciting, but the sheer lack of personality coming from the table made her feel sucked dry of any creativity and will to live. Rock mentally patted herself on the back. She had given it a go with the popular kids, young Rock would be proud to see her sitting with a bunch of cheerleaders. Finally socially important.

She could tell Gigi meant well, and no offense to her, but Rock would literally rather get hit by whatever insufferable party bus the girls had no doubt rented than go to Homecoming with their group.

But Rock just smiled and nodded politely. “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.”

…

When she attempted to eat with Crystal, Heidi, Aiden, Jackie, and Nicky things went a little better.

Crystal welcomed her with a warm smile and even walked with her arm in arm to the art room where they ate. She sat on the tabletop and the two went through and traded food like they were in grade school again. Crystal gawked at how good Rock’s fried monkfish and coriander sauce tasted, and Rock hid a blush at the compliment to her cooking.

As Aiden and Heidi filtered in they each gave Rock a smile and a polite wave, before delving into another one of their nonsensical arguments. Rock tried to follow their logic but got lost halfway through and just settled for looking at Crystal with raised eyebrows.

“They always do that.” Crystal rolled her eyes at the two.

Jackie entered a few minutes later and joined in on the argument. Crystal and Rock just sat back and enjoyed the added layer of entertainment.

“Jacks always uses big words that neither of them knows and then they fight about that too,” Crystal whispered, eyes alight with mischief.

Rock giggled at the statement as she saw it play out before her very eyes.

All of a sudden Crystal’s posture changed, her previous relaxed shoulders suddenly upright and attentive. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why.

Rock wasn’t immune to the charms of women, having chosen not to label her sexuality just yet, but knowing a good looking woman when she saw one.

And Nicky was good looking. Her beauty only rivaled by her impeccable fashion sense. It was kind of unfair, really.

Crystal coughed awkwardly as Nicky made her way over to the two.

“Hello, Roxanne,” Nicky greeted as she sat next to her.

The extra beat of silence as Nicky didn’t greet Crystal rang out pointedly.

“How have you been?” Nicky directed her question to Rock, who stumbled out some form of an answer.

“Fine. Good. Fine. I’ve been… good.”

Nicky smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Good.”

After another ten or so minutes of pointed silence, Rock excused herself, the art room suddenly feeling less freeing and more restrictive with the added tension. She let herself out the big metal doors that lead directly from the art room to the outside, let herself breathe in and out once before completely breaking down.

Four years of buildup released itself in gasping breaths and a stream of tears.

She was a senior in high school—a damn senior—and she had no friends, no life, and no plans for the future. She had missed out on football games and sleepovers and trips to the mall and parties and all the things that high school movies drill into you from the time you can talk that make the whole four years worth living.

Rock had missed it all. She had been too exhausted or too bored or too… busy.

Fuck.

She was just like her parents.

And wasn’t that just a kick to her already wounded pride.

Rock heard footsteps approaching the door so she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and plastered on a fake smile for who she assumed to be Crystal.

She was shocked to find Nicky looking at her concerned, a carton of cigarettes half out of her back pocket.

“Hey.”

The two stared at each other for a moment.

“Sorry, did you want to be alone?” Nicky asked genuinely.

“No, no,” Rock shook her head. “It’s totally fine.”

Nicky looked awkwardly at her feet and then awkwardly at the cigarette box in her hand. “You want one?” She offered.

Rock looked at the package doubtfully and shook her head. “Thanks though.”

Nicky nodded and pulled out a bright red lighter, flicking it open and holding the cigarette to her parted lips. Rock watched her, fascinated by the way she effortlessly held the smoke in her lungs, then exhaled just as gracefully.

“So… You are a fan of Death Note?” Nicky asked, blowing out a small cloud of smoke.

Rock looked up at her words.

“You have a Ryuk sticker on your laptop,” Nicky explained. “He is Ryuk here, yes?”

Rock nodded, shock still evident on her features. “Oh, y-yeah,” she stammered out. “It’s one of my favorites.”

Nicky smiled, easy and effortless. “Me too.”

“You…”

Nicky rolled her eyes. “Yes, I like anime. Why is that so hard for people to understand?”

Rock ran a hand nervously at her neck. “Well, you look like that.” She motioned to Nicky’s frankly editorial outfit of a black turtleneck tucked into copper pants, nude platforms, and minimal gold jewelry accentuating her model-like posture.

Nicky quirked an eyebrow up as she exhaled another cloud of smoke. “And you look like that. I do not see a difference.”

“Yeah, okay.” Rock scoffed and rolled her eyes. “You watched anything good recently?”

Nicky didn’t hide the way her eyes lit up, and Rock felt her stomach twist in anticipation.

“Okay, I know it’s taboo,” Nicky worried her lip between her teeth, nervous energy suddenly rolling off her in waves, “but RWBY is really good,” Nicky rushed out.

“You did NOT just say that to me!” Rock exclaimed, doing her best to hide a smile at Nicky’s defensive expression. “The animation—”

Nicky cut her off, free hand expressively gesturing. “—it’s shit, I know, but it gets better!”

Rock shook her head disapprovingly, barely biting back a laugh at this point.

“And there are lesbians!” Nicky added animatedly. “Well, they aren’t confirmed yet,” she conceded, “but they will be!”

Rock continued to shake her head. “How dare you say you like anime!”

Nicky looked at her hard, but the underlying tone of abject joy still rang out clearly. “Listen, bitch, I watched all of Attack on Titan and read the manga. I paid my dues, let me enjoy this.”

Rock couldn’t help the raucous laughter that escaped her. Nicky joined her moments later, the two smiling all the while.

“Okay, okay, fine.” Rock held her hands up in surrender.

Nicky smiled widely.

It was a good look on her.

Rock winced as she put out the cigarette with her expensive-looking heel.

When the two made eye contact again, something different swam in Nicky’s cool blue orbs. “Crystal will kill me if she knows I’ve been smoking.”

Rock nodded, a sudden understanding of the situation dawning. “Your secret is safe with me,” she promised.

Nicky offered her a weak smile, before allowing her face to reform into the pristine, confident force of nature she always was. She nodded her head to the art room door and Rock smiled in response.

And Rock allowed the brief thought to cross her mind.

Maybe she hadn’t entirely missed out.

#rpdr fanfiction #rock m sakura #jaida essence hall #jan sport #widow von du #gigi goode #crystal methyd #nicky doll #jaida x jan #friendship fic #blue neighborhood series #cool #mac #s12 #tw marijuana

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one-twisted-sister · 4 years

Text

Purple shenanigans

Canndi was hunched over her book reading it was one from back in the day when she would go to church every chance she got, hey didn't hurt to brush up in some religion from time to time, she was so caught into it that she didn't hear the quiet snickers just beyond the church benches or the little whispers. The purpleblood finally did pause her reading to sit up a bit looking around, everything seemed as is the windows shaking a little front the wind that blew by though couldn't help feeling like she wasn't the only troll there.

Canndi closed the book she had, had her nose buried in before standing getting a blade from her specibus thumb pressing on on a small button that was on the handle making the sharp blade pop free from the handle. The candlelight danced on the face of the weapon as the clown inched from her seated spot. "Okay who's there?!." The clown yelled her knife held out. " I got a blade and I'm not afraid to use it!". Canndi looked left then right however the problem was that she was to focused on what was in front of her that she didn't see the figure sneaking up behind her until it was to late, arms wrapped around her middle lifting the clown from the floor. Canndi gave a squeal swinging her arms.

"Candy girl!!." Came the excited voice of Astrid, a fellow clown and followed by that was the laughter of Domini the youngest clown holding her middle. YOUR FUCKING FACE!!!." Domini yelled through her laughter having fallen back into one of the churches benches jer hand resting upon her forehead. Canndi huffed as she closed the knife and tucked it in her pocket, the other behind her was laughing as well all that dyed hair bouncing swaying the smaller girl back and forth. " Damn it you guys that could have ended badly!". Canndi yelled at bother of them, Domini sat forward sticking the tip of her tongue out at Canndi as Astrid set her down running to take a seat beside Domini on the bench leaning back. " Could have yes bit it didn't." Astrid spoke holding up her index finger to which Canndi only huffed at before pausing. "Oh-oh wait I think- I think i hear the messiahs they're saying." Paused for a moment acting as if she were trying really hard to hear. " They're saying that you both are-.

Are..., Are dicks!." The clown laughed watching the girls faces Astrid being the second to start laughing as she moved to sit cross legged on 5he bench. "What are you guys doing here anyway?".

Canndi asked moving to take a seat pulling a bag of fruit gummies from her pocket taking one out popping it into her mouth before the bag was tilted towards her big haired firend who gave a gleeful squee taking a couple of the chewy sugary treats popping une into her own maw. "Just cause." Domini answered getting up to grab a couple of those chewy sugar balls Canndi squinted at her. "Just cause?." The purpleblood echoed in question. " Okay, okay fine we're here to check up on you and how your recovery is going." Canndi face relaxed into a small smile.

"It's going good."

"Have you eaten correctly in the past week?." Astrid asked to that Canndi was silent to as the two other purples sighed Astrid being the first to speak.

"Canndi girl you need to start eating more that just these." The singer tapped at the bag. "It's not only unhealthy you don't get all the vitamins and shit you need."

"I don't eat that many sweets Ast."

"Then that tells me you're not eating at all." Canndi sighed and stood from the bench. "Just- leave me alone okay guys?, I'm doing fine I haven made anymore pops, haven't touched the slime or the pixie dust I'm f I n e."

Astrid and Domini looked at their friend in worry then at each other they knew she wasn't fine, not as fine as she thought she was bit they knew they couldn't just force her well if things got to bad again Domini would definately grab that funnel again she didn't want to loose her friend, perhaps a softer approach. "Hey Canndi girl." Astrid spoke up.

"We know ya doin' fine and you really are not asking to much but maybe at least another meal or two even if it's just little bits and pieces hey the leaning monolith wasn't built in a day, stuff like this takes time and is part of the recovery process since your doing really good on this part let's climb the next step okay?." Astrid spoke softly, kindly and sweetly to the other whom looked at her friend before giving a small snort. "The next step huh?." There were still so many to climb and she was still at the bottom well maybe not the bottom, bottom. Camndi's thought were interrupted but a hand on her arm looking down she was met with Domini's purple hues.

"Yeah- hey you know what we were about to head out for lunch come with us Cancan." Domini spoke giving the girls arm a gentle shake Astrid doing the same to her opposite arm making the female laugh louder. "Resistance is futile." Astrid snickered out making Canndi laugh a little harder. "Alright, alright I'll come with you guys just lemme put the book back I don't need Misccu on my ass again about leaving the books out."

"That guy is a creepy fuck." Domini spoke stopping to look around expecting the male to pop from the shadows or something she didn't trust him even if he was a man of the church... then again did she trust any Western purples besides Astrid and Canndi?.

"Oh come on now he's not that bad". Canndi chuckled in the males defense as she gathered the book up from where she had left it. "I'll be out in a minute you two go a head."

"Alright we'll see ya outside." Astrid got up from her spot tugging at her shorts a bit before heading to the huge set of doors Domini standing to follow. " Hold it." The younger purple spoke as she walked over to Canndi moving to pluck the bag of gummies from the older purple. "I'm stealing these." Domini announced as she turned on a heel to head out leaving Canndi chuckling. "And you say I'm the sweets junky." Domini stuffed some of them gummies into her mouth before giving the other the one finger salute on the way out.

A few minutes passed as the two females waited for their friend .

"Where the hell is she?."

"Maybe she ran into Mis and he hypnotized her and drained her of her blood." Domini spoke before stuffing another gummie into her maw, Astrid arching a brow.

"Dom, I highly doubt that Mis is a fucking rainbowdrinker ."

"He looks like one ."

"How do you know what a rainbowdrinker looks like?."

".....Movies." Astrid rolled her eyes how did she not see an answer like that coming.

"Hey brat give me one of those."

"No way these are mine"

"Damn it Dom". Before long the two were playing a half assed game of keep away Doming throwing one of the treats at Astrid only for her to throw it back both laughing.

"You're gonna get fat if you eat them all!."

"I'm already fat!."

"Oh my lord no you're not child." Being called a child made Domini stop long enough for Astrid to nab the bag from her.

Finally Canndi came out of the church to join up with the two. "Hey sorry I took so long Mis wanted to go over a few things about next weeks meeting with me, Saelcu and Macacu."

"Did he also ask you to strip and bite your neck?." Domini spoke in monotone making Astrid choke on of the treats the woman smacking her chest to help dislodge the thing.

"DOM!."

"AST."

"You both are weird no he didn't, c'mon let's go." Canndi laughed the three heading off to the nearby cafe. "After this you guys wanna come over and watch a movie or something?." Domini asked walking in between the two.

"Yea I'm game."

"Me to." Both agreeing. "But what to watch?." Canndi tapped at her bottom lip trying to think of a movie or something she had in her movie box.

"Maybe something Eastern they'er entertaining". Domini suggested only to hear Astrid laugh. "Dom we all know the only reason you'd want to watch an Eastern movie is so you can eye fuck the actors". Dominis entire face went almost as dark as her blood color. "ASTRID!!." The young purple damn near hissed while the others were laughing up a storm. "And your one to talk! I see how you stare at the music and concert videos!." Domini spoke pointing at her Astrid giving a fake offended look and gasp. " I am only doing research on stage performance."

"Does that also include trying to guess which one has the biggest d-mmphh!?." Domini was cut off by a hand that was rested over her mouth.

"Alrighty!, since the perigee of spirits is close how about a horror movie! Like Spiritsnight? Everyone loves Martell Mayers or Dusk of the Dead?." Canndi pulled her hand from Dominis face finally giving her the 'be good' look which she made a face at bit decided to do so handed off what was left of the gummy bag back to Canndi whom stuck it into her pocket.

As they walked to the cafe the bell above the door jingling as they walked in the male behind the counter waving to them.

"Hey girls!."

"Hey Sidney!."

"Yo Sid!."

"Sup!."

Domini bumped fists with the fellow purpleblood as the three took a seat on the stools at the front table. "Hey Sid, have you heard from Yoshio?." Domini asked while playing with a few packets of jam, plucking one sending it flying only to be caught by the troll behind the counter and placed back down onto the rack. “Nah I haven’t yet should soon though you how the service is in these parts.”

“Yeah true it sucks more than Canndi -.” Said troll choked while she was in mid conversation with another troll whom turned bright blue. “Astrid Sabiha!.” “I was gonna say ‘does on lollipops you perv!.” “Me the perv?!.” Domini watched the two looking back and forth between them. “You would swear they were really related.” For once she wasn’t being the crazy one as she turned around placing an order for tea. “Make that three Din and Gus will want some I’m sure.”

#Canndi #Astrid #Domini #randomness filler #mytrolls #mywriting #girls night

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cryxmercy · 4 years

Text

‘Tis But a Flesh Wound || Mercy & Erin (Flashback)

Beer and knives and immortal secrets, oh my.

When: A Saturday night in the recent past, before the Season One Finale Where: Mercy’s apartment Who: Mercy and Erin @corpse--diem

TW: violence, blood (non-medical), stabbing, mentions of stabbing, alcohol, drunken shenanigans, mentions of hypothetical murder, mentions of manipulation

Mercy couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this drunk. Hell, Mercy couldn’t remember what she’d done that morning. Not after nearly a dozen beers. Which was honestly more than she usually drank. But when someone else was drinking with her - Erin had finally had time to come by and do some basic self-defense training - it was easy for Mercy to get ‘into her cups.’ Which is exactly where she was now. Metaphorically speaking.

Physically, she was standing in her living room, what furniture she had pushed to the side (beer bottles stacked neatly in a tower on the coffee table) trying to teach Erin how to do a proper choke hold. “See…. you gotta… you gotta compress both arteries…” Mercy - who was the one in the chokehold - adjusted Erins arm so that it wrapped around her neck properly. Or as proper as possible when the two of them were drunk off their asses. Which wasn’t very proper at all. “Make sure aaaaalll the blood’s gettin’ cut off to their brain. Just make sure when they pass out you let go or well… I guess it’s win/win for you since…” Mercy snorted a laugh. “You’d get another customer if you kill a guy…”

There was no question that this was a bad idea. Of all the bad ideas that Erin had lately, this one was the best. She didn’t expect to learn a whole hell of a lot, especially after she watched Mercy knock back her eighth (or ninth?) bottle of beer. Honestly, she’d lost track. But that had been about the time Erin was finishing up her fifth when the blonde storm yanked her up and started moving furniture around. Oh. Right. She’d almost forgotten this part.

Yep. Bad idea confirmed the very second she tried to stand straight. “Listen, I know arteries,” she argued, a teasing laugh in her voice. But she did her best to reel herself back in while Mercy maneuvered her arms. Every ounce of her concentration went into following her directions very carefully. “Let’s see about this before I go propping up my own business, yeah?” She laughed, her arms firm but not squeezing yet. “I can’t decide if you’re brave or stupid for letting me do this right now,” she paused, a grin taking over her face. “Ready and--GO!” In the next beat, she was squeezing exactly how Mercy had shown her. “Am I doing it?!” She asked, trying to peak over Mercy’s shoulder.

Bad ideas could be good ideas. It was all a matter of perspective. And Mercy’s perspective was that this was a very good idea. Mercy had no idea how many beers she’d put back. She just… drank them. A thousand years of drinking plus a Fury metabolism made her tolerance… pretty high. But not so high that she wasn’t drunk off her ass at this point.

Mercy snorted a laugh at Erin’s assurances about her anatomical knowledge, but took her word for it (as much as one could while piss drunk). “Why not… why not both?” she laughed in between maneuvering Erin’s arms. “I’ve never been… a coward… not a day in my life…” That wasn’t exactly true. But Mercy wasn’t thinking all that clearly. Which explained why when Erin applied pressure to Mercy’s neck again she still continued to giggle. Or tried to… since Erin was apparently a quick study. So the laughter sounded a bit choked off… because it was. Though Mercy gave her an excited thumbs up in answer to her question. She tapped her arm to signal her to let up a bit. “I can show you… how to get outta this… or I can show you how to stab somebody... and not kill ‘em?” Because sharp objects were perfectly safe in their current state.

There was a gleam in Erin’s eye as Mercy’s voice and laughter started to sputter out in short chunks. She was doing it! Oh shit--she was really doing it. She let go as soon as she recognized that the hand smacking her arm meant can’t breathe, please stop. “Oh fuck, sorry,” she responded quickly, though the bellowing laugh that followed didn’t hold as much regret as it should have. And why should it? She’d gotten it right on her first try--she was allowed to be proud of that, right? She stepped back, a little pep in her step as she snagged a fresh beer, bringing out another one for the blonde while she was at it.

“Here--for your throat,” Erin teased and took a long sip of the cool beverage. This was nice. She was actually having fun, which was a far cry from most of her stress-filled days lately. She’d enjoy it as long as she could--probably until one of them actually got hurt or the alcohol got the better of them. It was her turn to sputter, nearly choking on her beer. “You want to show me how to stab someone?” Right now? In her state? She’d seen a thousand fatal stab wounds but a nonfatal one was new. Given her general anatomical knowledge, she could probably figure it out once she was a little more sober. But this way sounded way more fun and she decided to let the chaos that came with her sixth beer take over. “Oh, hell yeah,” she quickly moved, jabbing her in the side with her finger. “And the other thing too. But I’ve gotta know the stabbing thing first.”

Mercy laughed as Erin released her. “It’s good… it’s all… good…” She rubbed her neck, showing Erin no harm done. “You’re a quick study… you’ll be chokin’ dudes out for real in no time…” Mercy took the offered beer with a grin of thanks and turned it back, draining half the bottle in one go. It wasn’t often she did… this. This being… just hanging out with someone she considered a friend. No overhanging dread, no threat of imminent death or dismemberment. Just two women being drunk and silly for a little while.

She set the bottle aside with the other dozen and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. “Uh, yeah… I do… ‘cause sometimes you just… gotta stab a guy. But you might not wanna… kill a guy. Though sometimes you gotta do that too.” Mercy waved a hand. “But ‘s’fine…. ‘s’alright… ‘s’a little knife…” She pulled said ‘little knife’ from her pocket. And it was just a short, fat pocket knife. Probably couldn’t do much damage unless you… stuck it in someone’s neck. Or their eye… or… the base of the skull…

But anyway. They were talking about nonfatal. So. Mercy waved Erin closer. “You gotta… stick it somewhere an’ then… twist it-” She made the motion - sort of - with her hand. “- so the wound won’t close good. They’ll bleed…” Mercy giggled. “And it’ll fuckin’hurt… but it won’t… it won’t murder nobody. Probably.” After showing Erin - as much as one drunk person could show another drunk person anything - how to properly hold the little knife, as well as where to strike non-lethally, Mercy backed up a bit. “Now… come at me…” She motioned with both hands as she took up a mostly defensive position. “Try to stab me… it’ll be fine…”

Because this was a good idea. It really, really was…

Oh, this was a bad idea. Erin knew that already, and from the look in Mercy’s eyes she could tell that she knew it too. Especially when she brought out the fucking knife. “Oh, this is dumb,” was her immediate answer, wagging her finger over at her friend. She said the words and knew in her bones that this was very dumb. Didn’t stop the logical part of her that she killed two beers ago from taking the knife anyway. “Right. No murder,” Erin echoed Mercy’s words, practicing the manuever and gestures she’d just seen her do. “Alright, alright. I got this,” she nodded, maybe a little too confidently. But she wasn’t that stupid. Drunk, sure, but not--

Her entire body froze. One jab. It had taken one fucking jab for the blade to sink effortlessly into the skin of Mercy’s arm. “Oh, fuck. Oh fuck,” she hollered, wide eyes bouncing between the knife in her arm and Mercy’s face. Yet still, her hand still on the hilt, did she move. “What do I do?” She stared intensely at the other woman, panic setting in where her good sense should’ve been to begin with. “This was dumb,” she suddenly added, breaking her stillness to point a finger at the blonde.

“‘S’fine,” Mercy said, gesturing vaguely. It was dumb. Considering their states. It was also a bad idea. But as bad ideas went, it wasn’t that bad. Mercy had had way worse ideas when under the influence of alcohol or other things. RIP the City of London that one time, amiright? Besides, Erin had this. She was practical. Smart. Knew her limits. It’s not like she would really be able to-OH. Oh.

Mercy froze at the same time Erin did. Well that was unexpected. “Okay… okay… just…” Mercy did her best not to giggle under breath at the situation, knowing Erin was probably Not Okay right now. So she held up her own finger at her friend. “Okay. One: don’t freak out, m’kay? ‘S’fine. Two-” Mercy blinked slowly. “-OW. Three: imma show you somethin’, hm?” She waved Erin’s finger away. This wasn’t dumb. Mercy had been stabbed before. The wound wasn’t deep, and it hadn’t hit anything important, even though it was bleeding down her arm. What happened next was dumb. And in hindsight, it could’ve been very, very dangerous. But Mercy trusted Erin.

“Watch…” Without much preamble, other than to make sure Erin was paying attention, Mercy pulled the knife out of her arm and wiped the blood away with her hand. “Look…” She pointed at the stab wound. “Don’t freak out…” As they both watched, the bleeding slowly stopped, and the edges started to mend back together until there was only a thin, pink scar on Mercy’s arm. That too would likely fade with time. “‘S’cool, right?”

Staring at the knife in Mercy’s arm sobered Erin up faster than a pot of coffee through an IV. Felt like it anyway, the longer she looked. Was--was Mercy laughing? Did she not feel the whole ass knife sticking out of her? Maybe it was a good thing she was as drunk as she was--maybe she didn’t even feel it at all. A small miracle in the midst of this idiocy? “I’m not freaking out.” A lie, clearly, and she backtracked. “Okay, I am. And you’re not. Which is weird. Really weird. If you stabbed me I’d definitely--” Mercy was shooing Erin away and she watched the blood trickle down her arm.

Oh no. “I don’t think you’re supposed to--” But before she could protest, Mercy yanked it out and Erin couldn’t hold back the horrified gasp that overcame her. “Jesus, you just--” She cut herself off again. Between the panic and the alcohol, forming full fledged sentences felt impossible. But her brain started catching up with her common sense. She was bleeding. Just when Erin was about to turn and run into the bathroom for anything to clean her up with, something changed.

The wound was healing. It was quiet for a good few minutes as she watched. Blinked a few times to make damn sure she hadn’t actually just passed out. But this was happening. It was healing. Slowly, but it was happening. When Mercy spoke again, Erin’s eyes jumped back up to meet hers and all the urgency rushed out of her. “Cool, cool, cool,” she repeated incredulously. It was pretty cool, actually, but she was still playing mental catch-up. So--Mercy wasn’t human. Seemed to be a common thread between most of her friends. Just not any she’d known as long as the one in front of her. Her head tilted to the side, hands resting on her hip. “We’re… gonna talk about this, right?” She glanced back down to her arm, then back up.

“Nahh…” Mercy waved off the ‘not freaking out.’ “I’ve been stabbed… doze- no. Hundreds of times. Maybe thousands.” Mercy proceeded to yank the blade out of her arm - it really was fairly shallow, and had missed anything important - and wipe the blood off on her pants. If she had been sober, Erin’s own panic would’ve been far more concerning, but since neither of them was anywhere near clear-headed, Mercy just reached out and patted her friend on the arm.

“‘S’fine… see?” She pointed to the slowly healing wound. “All better.” The knife was folded shut and tossed onto the couch, where it bounced and disappeared into the cushions. Mercy laughed to herself before turning back to Erin. The other woman was looking at her with an expression that for some reason caught Mercy’s attention much easier than any of the previous ones had. Mercy’s eyes followed Erin’s, down to her arm and back. Her own head tilted to match her friends. “Waaaiiiitt a minute… are you…” Mercy narrowed her eyes. “You know about… things. Dontcha?” Her expression turned to an excited grin. “Holy shit! Why didn’t you tell me?! This is… fantastic! What d’you know about? Like… vampires and fae and shit? Tell me.”

For someone who’d just been stabbed, Mercy had been incredibly nonchalant about the whole thing. Even the way she brushed the blood off and tossed the knife away like it was some toy had been handled with little care. “Didn’t that even hurt?” Erin had to ask, narrowing her eyes, which were still glued to the small pink scar that had formed.

Erin straightened her back at the woman’s question. “Yeah, I uh--I know things,” she nodded with the authority of a woman who knew more than what Erin actually knew. This whole… supernatural thing was an ocean she was still just belly deep in. She could still see the beach but there was a big blue vastness far ahead of her. “Vampires, fae, the whole shebang,” she confirmed. Alcohol. Oh, she just remembered alcohol existed. She turned for the first time since they’d started practicing back to her beer. Eyed Mercy the whole time she took a sip, gesturing towards her with her other hand. “So, what does that make… you?” She winced as soon as the question left her mouth. “Wait, sorry. Is that rude? Can I just... ask that?”

“Sure it hurt… it’s a fuckin’ knife in my arm,” Mercy snorted. “No point cryin’ over it though.” Mercy was used to pain, and to pushing through it. Pain meant you were still alive. That whatever had caused it hadn’t killed you yet. Not to mention the slight numbness that came with consuming as much alcohol as Mercy had.

So Erin only received a slightly narrowed gaze from Mercy instead of the full-on look of skepticism she might have received had Mercy been sober. But after a moment, Mercy’s expression turned to a grin. “That’s awesome.” It was always an interesting thing, meeting someone who already knew about the supernatural. And for it to be Erin, someone that Mercy considered an actual friend… a good friend at that… was even better. Though Mercy was still forever cautious. And she never revealed the identity of others like herself, no matter how drunk or impaired she was.

Mercy snagged her own beer and flopped down on the couch, blinking heavily. “‘S’not rude. I wish more people would just… fuckin’ ask. Instead of…” She waved a hand vaguely. “Beatin’ around the bush. Course not a lotta people know about… things. So… there’s that. But, we’re friends, right? You’re like… my only real friend. ‘Cept Arthur. Who may or may not lament that title - among others - at this point in our…” Mercy huffed, “relationship. But… since you asked, and I know you’re not a hunter… since… you know… the whole stabby-stab freakin’ you out bit...” A long sip of her beer followed, the coming revelation hanging heavily in the air. “I… am a Valkyrie.”

Erin shifted uncomfortably under Mercy’s gaze, until at last she got that look of approval. She wasn’t about to forget that whatever Mercy was, she’d been able to heal herself in a matter of minutes. Could vampires do that? No, no--she was definitely alive. She’d been warm to the touch during their brief training session. Fae? She didn’t know what the hell constituted a fae exactly but… maybe? She wasn’t afraid, though. If Mercy had any ill-intent towards her, they wouldn’t have been friends for as long as they had been.

“You’re right, I am your friend,” Erin lamented, slipping into the spot beside her, giving her arm a gentle squeeze.She was her friend though, even if Erin hadn’t been the best one lately, she could admit that. Her world had turned on its head and taken her for a ride, so she had some making up to do. “I don’t think your boyfriend likes me much though,” she smirked, recalling the way he’d very quickly skedaddled away from her. But if Mercy was supernatural, and considering how he’d run away from her at the mention of his identical-looking family members, maybe there was something else going on there. That was quickly forgotten when she got lost in Mercy’s dramatic pause, leading into a confession. Valkyrie. Erin sat there for a moment, eyes wide, searching her friend’s face for more clues. “Okay,” she nodded slowly, still staring, realizing she was about to expose herself on how little she actually knew. But she had to ask. “What’s… uh, what’s that?”

One of the advantages of Mercy’s species was that she looked absolutely human. No one would ever know the difference in everyday life. She had been human once, after all. So Mercy watched as the cogs in Erin’s head started to turn. She was processing, thinking over things, and so on. Mercy half-expected her to leave. But she didn’t. Instead, she plopped down beside Mercy on the couch.

Mercy was… surprised. Pleasantly, for once. And despite her inebriation, her expression said as much, and that she appreciated it more than Erin could know. “Thanks…” Mercy told her, giving her own arm a bump. Mercy gave Erin’s smirk a small, confused frown. “Boyfriend? Wh- OHhhh. You mean Arthur.” Mercy snorted and shook her head. “Nooo… no, he’s… he’s not my boyfriend… he’s… mmm… he’s my…” Her brow furrowed, as it suddenly became very hard to classify her oldest friend at that moment. So Mercy’s brain took the easiest route. “Ex-hus- No. Fiance. Ex-fiance? … since ya know. We almost got married…” Mercy held up a single finger. “...once. ‘S’like… 200 years ago now? It... didn’t work out.” Mercy fiddled with her sleeve, the fact that she’d just told Erin that both she and Arthur were at least two centuries old not even phasing her. “But… I still love him, ya know? It’s… pretty pathetic I guess. Since… I don’t think he even… notices me like that anymore. He was… pretty mad at me for a long time.” Mercy gave Erin a tight smile. “So… yeah. Not my boyfriend.” Her rambling had completely lost the plot on why Arthur didn’t like Erin, so she didn’t ask about it at the moment.

Besides, Mercy had just revealed what she was to Erin. There were certain to be questions, raised eyebrows, maybe even an exclamation or two. Mercy waited for it… watched Erin’s expression as it started to sink in… and then… nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Mercy visibly deflated. “Valkyries?“ she asked, raising her own eyebrows. “Female warrior figure from Norse legends? Choosers of who lives and who dies in battle? Transporting worthy souls to Valhalla? Big fucking wings? Unkillable?” Mercy sighed. Of course not. “I don’t… do the soul thing. Or… the wing bit - not really - ... because no one read me the fine fucking print, but I-” Mercy touched her fingers to her chest. “- am older than I look. And virtually unkillable. Chaos and discord make me strong, and I can… exert certain influence over people… if I want.” There was more, of course, but Mercy paused there, needing another drink.

The cold beer in her hand was more grounding and necessary than Erin realized as Mercy continued to pour her secrets out between them. And maybe it wasn’t fair of her to think this, but she couldn’t help but feel some type of way about being left out of so much of her friend’s life. But then again--there was a whole side to Erin’s life she wasn’t about to spill to anyone right now. So she cinched those feelings and tossed them away, absorbing and going into listening mode.

“Did you just say two hundred years ago?” Her eyes scanned her friend’s features, as if something would give her true age away. Things were falling into place though. Why Arthur’s face kept popping up in his family’s old photos, why he had bolted like he had out of the coffee shop that day. She’d touched on something he didn’t want anyone to find out. What was he though? “Wait, how old are you?” She asked as delicately as she could muster. She turned further, resting her elbow on the back of the couch. Her mouth opened to say something, one of the thousand questions bouncing through her brain, but all she could do was stare (not impolitely) as she pictured her friend as the ancient female warrior figure she’d just described. “Huh,” was all she could manage for a few moments. “What do you mean? What, uh--what kind of influence?” She tensed a little as that descriptor, certain fae-related memories in the form of water-logged promises and pheromone eggplant parm dinners rushing back to her.

It was rare that Mercy shared certain things about herself. Not because she didn’t trust most people (she didn’t) but because it was dangerous. Both for her and the people that knew. Arthur was one thing. He was OG immortal like her. Among other things. But Mercy hadn’t told anyone else in… years. Something about Erin made her want to tell the other woman. Maybe it was because they were friends. Erin never judged her too harshly for her choices. She might tell her they were stupid or fucked up or absolutely insane, but Mercy genuinely trusted her. Had she been sober, it might’ve been different. But it had been a long few weeks, and Mercy needed to tell someone about it. About herself. About Arthur. About… everything. Maybe it wasn’t fair to Erin (it wasn’t… not one tiny bit), but Mercy was hardly in a state to think that deeply.

“Yep.” Mercy made a popping sound on the ‘p.’ “Two hundred years.” She watched Erin watch her, watched as her friend’s beer-soaked braincogs started turning… processing it all. She didn’t know Erin was researching Arthur’s family just yet, and that so much of what Mercy was saying was connecting those particular cogs. But even as drunk as she was, Mercy wouldn’t let out Arthur’s secret. She never had. So she waited, and when the inevitable question about herself followed, Mercy sobered ever so slightly. Something about answering this particular thing always seemed… well, sobering.

She mirrored Erin’s posture, propping her arm on the back of the sofa. “This year... will be my 1200th summer since I was born. I was human then. My parents were human. My brothers and sisters too. But… when I was…” Mercy shook her head slightly. It was hard to remember exactly. “... thirty-five… thirty-six? I became what I am now. I chose it, so… it wasn’t a bad thing.” The trepidation that settled on Erin’s face wasn’t lost on Mercy, who sighed. “We have the ability to influence certain emotions. To… push… people to do things. But that emotion has to exist inside them already. Things like… hate, fear, outrage… love... can’t be created from nothing. But if there’s a spark… if we’re strong enough, we can fan that spark into an inferno. But even then… on some people… it doesn’t work.” She took a long drink. “I prefer helping people help themselves. To fight back… to… be stronger than the things that wanna hurt them…” She looked at her friend. “And before you ask… no. I haven’t used it on you. Not that you would know if I had, but… no. I haven’t.” Mercy grinned. “You stabbed me all on your own, lady.”

Two hundred suddenly seemed incredible tame in comparison to what Mercy revealed to be her actual age. 1200. It didn’t feel real and Erin had a feeling it was going to take some time for that number to be tangible. Wasn’t gonna happen now, she knew that much. She listened, quiet but intently, anxious hands drawing the bottle to her lips until it was nearly empty. Her friend didn’t seem super thrilled to have to explain her ability, or that she hadn’t used it on Erin, and she understood that. She’d seen that look before on the faces of her other supernatural friends, which at this point seemed like practically all of them at this point. All of those discussions had readied her for this one, as much as they could at least.

“That sounds kind of… cool, honestly?” she finally spoke, stumbling a little, the sincerity was there. “You don’t like--do it against their will though, do you?” Erin narrowed her eyes curiously, lifting the bottle to top off the last of the beer. Cringed when she brought up the stabbing. Considering the jaw-dropping information dump she’d just received, she’d nearly forgotten that crucial turning point in the evening. Her hand covered her forehead, sliding down slowly along her cheek. “I’m going to be sorry about that forever, I hope you know.” The corner of her mouth lifted into an innocent smile and she shrugged warily. “Thank God you’re unkillable, right?”

Erin was quiet for a few moments more, sitting up slowly, pondering over the empty bottle in her hand. “Alright,” she nodded firmly, trying to push past the initial shock of this and into a clearer train of thought. She set her hand on Mercy’s knee, giving it a gentle squeeze. “This is what we’re going to do. I’m going to get us more drinks and then we’re going to sit here, and you’re going to tell me more about this fucking millenium-old lifetime you’ve been hiding from me all these years.” She smiled, trying to show her support here the best she could. Her friends were supernatural. That was just how this worked for her now. And she’d do her damndest to roll with this punch like she had with the others. It wasn’t like she didn’t have some of her own secrets anyway. “Sound good?”

The problem with revealing what she was to others wasn’t always how dangerous it could be. It also meant Mercy risked losing a friend. More often than not, people revealed their true nature when faced with something that they didn’t understand. Or that scared them. Or both. And Mercy understood. She really did. But even after a thousand years it never got easier to see someone that you’d trusted enough to tell your biggest secret to look at you with either revulsion, fear, anger, or an entire list of other very complicated emotions. And nine times out of ten, Mercy lost. And for someone that didn’t trust or make friends easily, each time one of those relationships crumbled, Mercy felt a bit of her faith in humanity fall away.

So she answered Erin’s questions and waited for the inevitable, even though the other woman said she already knew about certain parts of the supernatural world. When it didn’t come, and Erin asked more questions instead of exiting the premises as fast as humanly possible, Mercy knew a look of earnest surprise crossed her face. And despite her reticence and her total inebriation, Mercy was grateful to Erin in that moment. “No… not really… it’s-” Mercy found it hard to explain. “More like the power of suggestion? The want to is there, already inside someone… however small… I’m that little voice - a muse, if you like… - that says ‘you know you want to,’ or… ‘you can do this.’ I can’t make people do things… that’s more like vampire compulsion… but I can heavily influence their decisions.” And even that wasn’t a good explanation in Mercy’s mind.

But again, Erin took it all in, and Mercy was still a bit unsure where they stood. So when Erin nodded and made a decision, Mercy let out a relieved breath and smiled. “Sounds perfect.”

They would drink, and they would talk. Like normal people on a normal Saturday night.

And for the first time in a long, long while, Mercy felt exactly that: normal.

#wickedswriting #chatzy #p: erin #flashback #//this was funn!!#p: tis but a flesh wound

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puppetmaster55 · 4 years

Text

A Fix-It to Canon

At the interest of @ieshavevo here is my extensive fix-it to vld!

So, uh, wouldn’t change much about seasons 1 and 2, those are actually pretty solid seasons. At best, I would adjust season 1 to be a bit longer, including an episode where they travel to an old colony planet of Alteans to really set in that Allura and Coran are the last of the Alteans. In season 2 I would add an episode later on, mostly revolving around the adjustment of Voltron working with the Blade, to get a sense of the two having a rough start working together.

Also, I’d have a slight change in focus, with more knowledge that Voltron is a myth and nobody really believes in it or has hope in season 1, leading up to the initial assault on the empire’s central command. From there, season 2 is the universe taking notice, word spreading that Voltron is back and is fighting against the empire and Zarkon, and winning.

Then, there would be a little more to season 3, with a slower start that’s time without Shiro and time with only four of the lions. There’d be more people starting to fight back, more planets and systems rebelling against the empire, and word spreading that Zarkon faced off against Voltron and lost. There’d be, as well, time for adjustment after the lion swap. A “Some Assembly Required 2.0” episode.

Speaking of, the Lion Swap wouldn’t be Keith into Black or Lance into Red. I’d put Lance in Black, and Allura in Blue. Honestly there would be discussion about Allura taking up the role, and a little about Keith being Shiro’s pick, but ultimately it would be Lance. Allura taking on the title of Black Paladin would be something permanent instead of temporary, and Keith doesn’t want it and isn’t a good fit.

There would be a name-drop of an Empress Merla in the alternate Altean Empire reality, for later on. Lotor, too, would have more of a plan in motion, and would be the source of the Zaiforge Cannons as a show of his progression of the empire in his rule. There would be more buildup toward Naxzela, as well, with Voltron coming across a planetary particle barrier and an Altean terraforming device. Haggar’s entire plan toward Naxzela would be made more clear when it happens, that this is her revenge for the plan that took down Zarkon. She will take down every single rebel faction, Voltron included, in a massive show of force to ensure that there is no more opposition.

Lotor’s plans will be more about establishing his own foothold as a progressive leader and shift toward a more peaceful rule over the universe. He’ll buy into the Galra Empire’s superiority, but only so far that he can change it into being more sustainable and infinitely less likely to end up consuming itself as more and more planets are killed for their quinessence.

Voltron finds the rebels, learning that former smugglers Rolo, Nyma, and Beezer joined their ranks. Matt is discovered among their numbers, having had to fake his death in a massive battle to avoid having a bounty on his head collected.

As for Operation Kuron… the Shiro that returns to Voltron is the real, original Shiro. He’s got programming in his arm, something that wasn’t there before, that makes me more willing to gather every single rebel in on one huge attack on Naxzela and the surrounding systems.

Something that his clone, Ryou, very nearly succeeded in doing just before the Blue Lion was found. Ryou will be Shiro’s clone, sent into the rebels when they were gathering and a mighty force, with no initial clue that he’s a clone. The “trash nebula” that Pidge crashes into ends up being revealed as the remains of the rebel fleets when Kuron brought Zarkon down upon them. Ryou, in the battle, took damage to the head and to the robot arm, which disabled the mind control and left him realizing everything.

The rebels are scattered, but they’re coming back together, and under Voltron they can do so much more than they could before.

Anyway, Naxzela happens, and Lotor in the process of avoiding Haggar gets pushed into going on the run and negotiating his surrender to Voltron. There’s big blowback on Voltron’s side, with the Coalition not wanting to be so into bargaining with Lotor, the rebels wanting to dispose of him, and Voltron wanting to keep him prisoner. Time passes, and with it Haggar brings back Zarkon to right all the failures of Lotor’s rule.

Lotor and the Generals split, the Generals with Narti (who is comatose following the attempt by Haggar to mind control her), untle the Generals realize that they need Voltron and to return to Lotor. So they pick up a human prisoner that some value to trade for their safety: Keith’s Dad.

What they don’t know, is that Keith’s Dad is also Acxa’s Dad, and it’s revealed that their shared mother is Lotor’s dead sister, Marmora.

Keith, angry at his father for abandoning him, avoids the man.

Lotor gets closer to the Paladins, and with it he reveals more about his life: his time ruling over a planet that Zarkon destroyed, and even that he’s got Sam Holt working for him in a special work camp full of scientists working for Lotor. He’s one of the scientists who worked toward reverse engineering the teludav and that it can reopen the rift on Daibazaal. Sam helps to convince the Paladins that Lotor isn’t all bad and that he can be trusted. Acxa reveals that she had the bounty placed on Matt to return him to the Empire so he could be reunited with his father. Both Sam and Keith’s Dad are sent back to Earth.

Lotor manages to gain their favor in time to call upon a Kral Zera: an honor battle for the throne of the empire. He fights against Zarkon, almost gaining the win until Haggar intervenes, nearly taking full control over Shiro. Somewhere in the time Lotor’s under Voltron’s care, Sendak comes back, and is as honorable Galra as ever. He begins having doubts about Zarkon’s leadership when Haggar intervenes to “force” a win. Haggar, meanwhile, takes Sendak to act as her protector.

Allura looks into her powers, looking and training with Lotor’s aid, to the point that they all go to Oriande. There, they find the Protector of the White Lion, Queen Melenor. Allura learns of the true origin of Voltron, and is given the opportunity to learn the secrets of Alchemy. However, Haggar uses her control over Shiro to learn about Oriande and attacks it, causing Lotor to become suspicious of the Paladins. Melenor is lost in the attack, but passes on her role of Guardian to Allura. Allura trains with her powers, managing to capture a druid and interrogate it about their origins and powers. There, they learn that the druids are actually the research team Honerva led.

The Coalition and rebels are furious about Voltron’s gamble, straining Voltron’s allies into breaking from their alliance. One of the rebels, Romelle, makes an attempt on Lotor, revealing herself as Altean and pushing Lotor into revealing that the planet he was in control over was an Altean colony. She claims that he is behind the death of the planet and all the Alteans on it, with herself as the only surviver, forcing Voltron to follow Allura’s lead and attack Lotor.

Lotor flees with the Generals, all of them going toward the rift gate as the last safe place to lay low and hide until everyone fights each other and then they can emerge from the ashes and rebuild everything better. Unfortunately, Haggar used her connections to Narti and Shiro to learn the location of the rift gate and continued working on it. Haggar begins to activate the rift gate, and to distract Voltron takes full control over Shiro. Shiro comes along to Sendak’s side, and they manage to keep the Paladins distracted. Ultimately, Shiro, with the help of the Paladins, is broken free of Haggar’s control and fights Sendak to a standstill.

Sincline and Voltron fight, with the Paladins thinking that all of this is Lotor’s fault. The two battle, until they both are hit and the Sincline caught in a tractor beam. Through the rift comes a number of ships, all Altean in design.

Empress Merla has arrived, intent on bringing the Altean Peace to this and every other universe. Haggar goes to her side, claiming her old self as Honerva, while Lotor and the Sincline is captured. Merla created her own prototype gate using a teludav built by the Sincline Comet of her own reality, as found on her Oriande. Being obsessed with Honerva’s studies, Merla accepts Haggar to her side. The Generals manage to escape, Sendak flees back to Zarkon’s side to report about the arrival of the Alteans, and Voltron flees.

With no allies and their name sullied by their siding with Lotor, Voltron flies to Earth to hide and recouperate. There, the Paladins nearly separate, returning to their families and reconsidering their duties and resolve. Meanwhile, Merla has taken up the trust and leadership of the Coalition, although there is a deal of mistrust within the rebels. She expands her presence, using the Hoktril to control and silence anyone who would dare dissent. Lotor, in his prison, looks upon Merla and sees everything that he was working toward.

Shiro gets a new arm built. Keith gets quiet reconciliation with his father. Hunk discovers that he’s become so much braver than before. Lance reconnects with his family, and finds he misses space. Allura and Coran get into some lighthearted Earth shenanigans with each of the Paladins, maybe visit a zoo while they’re at it. Lance reaches out to Shiro, and speaks about his time leading Voltron, and also that he has more about his sexuality than he thought. There’s a small confession of feelings, and they decide to enjoy their time together, going on a date.

They all find they miss traveling through space and realize that it is their love of the universe that brought them to fight for it, and that their failures do not define them. Also, they decide, when this is all over and done with they’ll go on a road trip across the universe.

The Galaxy Garrison does their best to run the Paladins around any actual duties, until it’s revealed that the GG is reaching out toward Merla, and building their own Voltron out of fifteen vehicles. The Paladins gather together, fleeing Earth after a brief clash with Vehicle Voltron. The clash leaves doubt in the pilots and various members of the GG about the alliance with Merla.

Voltron is on the run now, reaching out to old allies, finding the Hoktril in place on those planets.

The rebels build their own Gladiator Voltron to protect against Merla after discovering the existence of the Hoktril. They take their team and Gladiator Voltron and flee, going to help others and join back up with Voltron. The Coalition shows unease at Merla’s rule.

Merla clashes with Haggar, who takes the prototype teludav made of the Sincline Comet and is working on something. Haggar takes the upper hand, sending Merla on the defensive and fleeing back to Zarkon, revealing that she’s been playing both sides and that despite her past as Honerva, Haggar is her true self and her ends are her own to achieve.

Lotor escapes, broken out of his prison by his own engenuity and with the help of his Generals. Narti, now awake, joins in as the five flee in the Sincline to find Voltron and warn them.

Zarkon’s own rule over the Empire is crumbling, more and more of his subordinates showing a lack of faith and trust and obedience in him. Haggar proposes her new rift gate, and that they use the rift creatures within to cement Zarkon’s rule.

Everyone is on the move, the forces gathering and reaching out to Voltron. Merla begins sending out combat mechas, ones originally prototyped under Merla and improved by Haggar, to sow fear and attempt to regain control. Sendak defects from Zarkon, finding Voltron and Sincline and fighting Shiro, this time to Shiro’s win. Sendak’s sense of honor is such that Zarkon’s win at the Kral Zera was dishonerable and while he does still hate Voltron, he would rather see someone with true Galra Honor like Lotor seated upon the throne of the Empire instead of Zarkon.

Lotor reaches out to Voltron, and in the process finally tells Acxa, Keith, and the rest of the various allies about Marmora and the circumstances of her death. Marmora had gone to Earth, then returned, and with it Haggar had placed a same kind of mind control as Shiro and Narti were victims to. Through her, Zarkon had learned of the true method Lotor was using to rule over the Altean planet Pollux. Romelle had managed to escape, but what she saw was Lotor watching Pollux burn. In his panic, Lotor had killed his sister, and since then has regretted his actions and worked toward the peace that she had wanted for the Empire.

Lotor has decided that while he will stand up as the new leader of the Galra, the Empire reduced and dismantled down into a small number of systems capable of safely being the new home of the Galra. He will not see the Galra as conquerors, and will not see the Empire continue to exist. Sendak shared what he learned about Zarkon’s plans, while Lotor and the Generals share what knowledge they’ve gained about Merla and, more importantly, Haggar’s plans.

The prep for the final battle begins, with Voltron’s return to the stage by battling Merla’s mechas, and even joining in with the Gladiator Voltron. Vehicle Voltron turns up, Earth and the rest of the Coalition having defected away from Merla. Together, Allura and Lotor discover a means of breaking the Hoktril, and dig deeper into Voltron’s past.

They learn about the rift creatures, beings of Chaos and Void, and of the Defenders that fought against it: the Lions, the Sincline, and the Oriande. Oriande is discovered to be what the White Lion is named, and is the Paladin of Light. Sincline is similar, and its Paladin of Dark. They, along with Voltron, are the Seven Paladins of Creation, the Defenders of the Universe. They learn that the Cosmic Abyss is where the Ancients come from, who began the universe and where Voltron called home. The great calamity that turned it into the Cosmic Abyss is from when the rift creatures touched it, and Voltron and Sincline battled it and ended up as the comets scattered around the universe.

Allura is established as the leader of the Coalition.

Lotor becomes the true Emperor of the Galra Empire.

The Blade makes contact, having managed to gain knowledge of where the final battle will happen.

Haggar enacts her rift gate, letting loose the Void Creatures from the rift. Zarkon takes one of the creatures within himself, transforming into a robeast that battles off Merla’s own attack.

THe heroes arrive, fighting the Void Creatures. Voltron is joined by Sincline, Vehicle Voltron, Gladiator Voltron, the rebels, the Blade, and the Coalition. Allura directs them all from the Castle, until she brings the Castle into the battle. Merla and her remaining mechas join as well, realizing that she’s failed and when this is over she will have to stand for her crimes in both this universe and her own. From inside the rift, more realities join in: the Guns of Gamara, and even other version of Voltron from different realities.

The Castle transforms, Allura realizing that she has passed on the White Lion spirit into the Castle of Lions itself. They join the battle, and gain the upper hand. Voltron fights Zarkon, striking him down as he leads the Void Creatures. Allura and Lotor both fight Haggar, ultimately leading to her defeat. The Void Creatures are defeated, and the rift gate, now the void gate, is destroyed.

The universe is saved.

The various other Voltrons are returned to their universes, and Merla is taken into custody by the Guns of Gamara. With the universe moving toward peace, the Paladins go and kidnap Allura and Coran, promising to return the president of the Coalition once their road trip across the universe is done. In the meantime, Vehicle Voltron prepares to go out and ensure that there continues to be peace within the Coalition and no pirates or factions of the Empire try to rise up. Gladiator Voltron prepares for a long journey around the universe, fighting for justice wherever it is needed.

And the Paladins? They finally get that road trip.

#voltron #shance #MY FIX-IT #BC THERE'S A LIL BIT OF IT IN THERE I'M TAGGING THE SHIP #my word this got longer than intended. over 2.7K #puppet writes

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morgana-ren · 5 years

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Yoooo! If you’re still taking requests, can I get a Short where maybe a “mom friend” member of the league takes care of them, and it’s super fluffy and cute? Shiggy or Dabi would be great!

Oh man, while I’m super happy to get a request for some fluff, I’m SUPER bad at it, so I apologize in advance for that. Also, the timeline here is SUPER fucked up. I’m not caught up on the manga, but for my idea to work, Kurogiri is gone and they’re living in an abandoned building together. Magne is there, because I love her. I don’t know if all 3 of those go together, but they do here. I tried my best! I hope it’s okay! I went with the shigman cause I’m still learning Dabi.

“Oh, I’m so hungry! How much longeruntil it’s done?” Magne whined, clutching her stomach. A deep frownsettled on her face, eyebrows hiked up high on her face as she eyeddown the stew pot that was currently settled over a large fire. “Iswear I could eat a horse!”

“It smells so good too!” Togamused, twirling a small blade between her deft fingers. She satcasually on a dusty sofa with a pleasant expression, but it wasevident with the way she kept running her tongue over her fangs andstaring longingly at the pot just how starved she really was.

You gave them both a small smile,lightly tapping a small vial of spice into the mixture as you stirredit. “It’s almost done. The meat is nearly cooked, and I promiseit’ll be worth the wait when you taste the vegetables. They were alittle stale, so it’s better to let them absorb all the flavor.”

“You two should be more gracious. Their cooking is farbetter than anything we’ve scavenged or stolen in weeks.” Mr.Compress chided them, gesturing at the pile of discarded wrappers inthe garbage can. “There is nothing quite like a home cooked meal,and I, for one, am eternally thankful.” He bowed deeply at you,ever theatrical. A small flush washed over your cheeks, andyou raised a hand and scratched the back of your head in slightembarrassment. “It’s nothing really. I wish I could make somethingbetter for everyone, but I was only able to acquire a few packs ofmeat, and I had to throw out a lot of the vegetables we stole. A lotof them had already gone bad, but I was able to salvage enough thatthis should feed everyone, at least for today. I’ll figure somethingout for the rest of the week, though. Don’t worry.”

“I miss Kurogiri.” Spinner sighed,head cradled in his hands as he sat in the corner. “There wasalways food at the bar.”

Your spirit fell a little at hiscomment. You’d tried to take up the role of caretaker to the Leaguein Kurogiri’s absence. You knew you weren’t him, and you didn’t havethe connections or the experience he had, but you were trying. Thingshad been a nightmare for them lately, and it was taking a toll.They’d been reduced to raiding garbage cans or stealing to feedthemselves, and the makeshift hideout definitely didn’t have the samecomfort level that the bar had.

You had done your best to make itsomewhat homey, putting together a team effort to scavenge for bedsand basic comfort items. With a little help, you had even managed torig up some plumbing and electricity so that everyone could stayclean and have light. It wasn’t great, but it was the best you coulddo under the circumstances.

“You all sure complain a lot forvillains.” Dabi had stretched out on a ratty sofa with multicoloredcushions, arms crossed behind his head. “You act like you’ve neverbeen homeless before.”

He seemed the most indifferent to thesituation. Going with the flow, sleeping on beds, sofas, or mustyfloors with little to no complaint. He ate when there was food, andslept when there wasn’t. You assumed that living like this wasnothing new to him. Sometimes he disappeared for hours on end,returning at absurd hours of the night with his clothing singed andashy and smelling of death. You never asked what he did.

“It’s pathetic.” He continued. “Ifyou fall apart every time things get a little rough, you’ll nevermake it, and you might as well leave.”

The room fell quiet, contemplating hiswords. Was the pain of hunger, discomfort, and dirt enough to breakthe spirit of the League?

“Dabi is right!” Toga broke thesilence. “Things aren’t so bad! Let’s quit being such downers!”She jumped up from her spot, smiling as she began spinning excitedlyaround the room. Twice winced, pushing himself further into the wallto avoid her blade which was slicing the air as she made her wayaround the immediate area. After a few seconds, she slowed to a stop,staring at you with a loving yet deranged expression as she tappedthe hilt of her weapon with her finger. “I still wish you wouldhave let me cut up the meat though!”

“Himiko, that blade killed a manyesterday, and I’m fairly certain you haven’t cleaned it.” Youshook your head, stirring the pot some more, prodding at the meat.

Pouting, her shoulders shrugged downand her arms dropped to her sides. “It would have given it moreflavor.” A few people around the room gave a disgusted sound, andshe scowled at them in turn.

You chuckled, tapping the spoon on therim a final time. “It’s ready, grab a bowl and come and get some!”

The League lined up excitedly,snatching whatever dishware they could find and hungrily grabbing atthe pot. Everyone with the exception of Dabi, who sauntered overslowly, maintaining his facade of nonchalance. He slowly grabbed thelast bowl and lazily filled it with the stew, taking a few moments tolet it simmer before dipping his fork in.

For a few moments, the room was filledwith the sound of people eating, devouring the meat and vegetablesand slurping down the juices left over. It brought a smile to yourface to see your companions so content, and the atmosphere wasnoticeably lighter as they ate. The cacophony of growling stomachsslowly died down, and everyone settled into a temporary state ofcontentment.

“Oh! It’s so good!” Toga yelled,gulping down the remainder of her bowl. “I’’m so happy you’re mybest friend!” She chucked her bowl into the sink and skipped overto you, giving you an overwhelming bear hug. You hugged her backtentatively, careful to avoid the extremely sharp blades that adornedher outfit. “You’re so cute!” Her face started to turn red,grinning wildly as she clung to you. “We could be as close assisters!”

“Careful Toga, you’re getting workedup. Why don’t you come relax?” Twice noted. “Yeah, relax,girl! Calm down or you might explode!”

Reluctantly, Himiko let you go, huffingwhile she returned to her spot on the sofa and began to sharpen oneof her various knives while everyone else finished up the remainderof their meal. Magne was humming happily as she chewed a bit of meat,toying with a vegetable on her fork. Mr. Compress dabbed politely athis mouth with a napkin. Everyone seemed relaxed, even happy, and itfilled you with a sense of warmth.

Spinner his bowl down beside him,swallowing the last bits. “It was really good, thank you. I feel alot better with a full stomach.”

Everyone nodded in agreement withSpinner, giving small words of praise about your cooking. Dabi saidnothing, but turned his head in your direction and nodded, which inDabi language was as good as a hug. An involuntary smile lifted yourlips and you nodded back.

Some time passed, and everyone settledinto their nightly shenanigans. Toga practiced with her knives,yelling incoherently about her various obsessions every now andagain. Mr. Compress performed various magic tricks for Spinner andTwice, who occasionally tried to guess how he did it, to no avail.Dabi slept on the sofa, snoring quietly with his head buried in hisarms. It was like almost every night they had free when they weren’ttraining or plotting, but something felt wrong.

Your head turned upward, toward thestaircase and the room at the top. It was an average door, but thesense of foreboding was palpable. Everyone knew to keep away. Herarely ever left his room, and it was even rarer that you actuallysaw him these days. He had taken the recent events rather hard, andit made him even more volatile and reclusive than ever. He onlyinteracted when absolutely necessary, and it was almost alwayscombative.

“Hey, has anyone seen Shigarakilately?” You asked apprehensively. It took a few seconds for anyoneto answer, no one wanting to voluntarily participate.

“Hasn’t left his room in days. He’sstill sulking.” Dabi muttered, his words muffled slightly by hissleeve.

“Do you know if he’s eaten orshowered or is even alive?” Chewing your lip, you glanced at thedoor again, and then down at the stew pot. There was still food left,and it technically belonged to him.

“There hasn’t been any dishes in thesink, or any new food in our storage, so I would have to assume not.”Mr. Compress crossed his arms, leaning against the wall. A hush hadfallen over the room at the mention of their temperamental leader.Things had always been tense between the League and Shigarki, withhis fits and horrible temper, but he had gathered their respectenough that they followed him. Things had been getting better, andeveryone had almost been getting along, at least until Kurogiri wastaken. Then his mood had plummeted.

You sighed, pressing your fingersacross your nose. You weighed your options, pretending you didn’talready know what you were going to do. Anxiety welled in your gut,and you took a deep breath. There was a million ways this could go,and frankly, none of them looked particularly positive for you.Still, the League was your family, and if you had to take care of itsdysfunctional leader every now and again, so be it.

You quietly picked up a bowl, fillingit with the stew, grabbing some silverware and a napkin while youwere at it. Slowly, you walked towards the stairs, taking a deepbreath before ascending. A few of the League members looked at eachother with worried expressions, questioning your sanity.

“I don’t know if I would do that,dear.” Magne reached out slightly towards you, lip twisted in ananxious grimace “It’s probably best we leave him alone and let himdeal with this on his own time.”

“He needs to eat.” You persisted.“If he won’t take care of himself on his own, then I’ll make him.”It had been meant to come out much more confidently than you had saidit.

Magne exhaled, looking up at younervously, but retracted her hand. You heard Dabi scoff from hisplace on the sofa, no doubt thinking it would be the last time heever saw you due to your own foolishness. Everyone else just glancedaround uneasily. They didn’t think this was a good idea, not at all,but they knew better than to try and stop you.

You crept up the stairs, carefullybalancing the bowl and dishware in your hands. Trying to make aslittle noise as possible, you gently padded toward the door,gathering all your courage to prepare yourself to knock. If youlistened carefully, you could hear him typing away furiously on acomputer and clicking a little harder than you thought was necessary.There was also the muffled sound of a television, but you doubted hewas paying attention to it. Whatever he was doing, he was incrediblyfocused.

You sucked in a breath, swallowing yourfear and bringing your hand down on his door several times. You heardthe knock echo though his room, but his typing never faltered. Afterseveral moments, you tried again, rapping gently on his door. Still,he ignored you, typing manically. You groaned under your breath,re-situating the bowl in your arms. You understood he was technicallyyour boss, but you didn’t appreciate being ignored.

You knocked again, louder and longerthis time. Panic wormed its way down your limbs, taking a hold ofyour gut as you heard the typing stop. You heard an exasperated sighas he angrily pushed away from his makeshift computer station,footsteps approaching. Each one was loud and deliberate, aforewarning that you had irritated him.

His door opened, only just enough thatyou could see a beady crimson eye zero in on you, narrowed inannoyance. He looked even more tired than usual, deep purple bagslining underneath his eyes with a droopy expression and cheekssunken. He made it clear he wasn’t open to conversation, lip curleddownward in a deep scowl, placing his full body in front of the doorso you couldn’t even see inside.

“What?” His tone was agitated anddrawn out, purposely said in such a way that you felt small andinsignificant. You gulped, despite the fact that you were just tryingto help. You were in uncharted waters here, and it was a very realpossibility that this encounter could end with your death.

“I made food.” You managed to say,although it came out meeker than you would have liked. You lifted upthe bowl to show him, and hopefully tempt him into calming. “Ithought you might like some,”

He eyed it suspiciously for a fewmoments before bringing his eye back up to yours. “Did I say I washungry?”

A feral strike of anger burned throughyou. You knew that Shigaraki could be a spiteful little man-child,but you were just trying to help.

“You haven’t eaten in days, boss.”Keeping your tone even was a bit of a chore. “You need to keep yourstrength up.”

He glowered down at you, chapped lipspursing. “Are you implying I’m weak?”

His three fingered grip on his door waswavering, pinky trembling slightly. Whether it was in anger or lowblood sugar, you weren’t entirely sure. “No. That wasn’t what I wassaying at all. I just think you need to eat is all. I promise it’snot horrible.” You held the dish up for him to grab again, hopinghe’d settle down and just take it.

Staring at it for a moment, you noticedhe was swallowing hard. You were hopeful, until in an instant, hiseyes were burning into yours, face sneering. “Leave. You’re pissingme off.”

He slammed the door in your face,almost causing you to fall backward and spill the contents of thebowl. White hot anger simmered in your stomach, crawling up in yourthroat, and your free hand clenched. He might be the leader of theLeague of Villains, but that gave him no right to treat people likethis. For a moment, your common sense was replaced entirely by yourstubbornness.

You could hear him typing again, andthat only made you more angry. Raising your fist to the door, youknocked even harder, practically pounding on the already decrepitwood. He had obviously resounded to ignore you again, because heshowed no signs of answering. After a few more tries, you decided totry a new approach.

“I’ll sit outside this goddamn doorall night if I have to!” You yelled through the cheap wood, knowingfully that if you could hear him, he could likely hear you. “AndI’ll let you know now that I’m a loud sleeper!”

The typing stopped again, and yourbravado fell with it. You heard him push away from his desk, quietlythis time, and approach the door. He opened it more fully this time,leaning on the frame as he stared at you with a look you couldn’tquite place. He was wearing his typical black on black jeans and top,but his shoes were missing. His hair was messy and tousled, as wellas slightly greasy, like he hadn’t brushed it in several days.

“Why do you insist on annoying me?”Surprisingly, there was no trace of anger in his voice, only seemingcuriosity.

“Because…” You tripped on yourown words. Why were you soset on doing this? “You need to take care of yourself. We all do.And if I can make that a little easier, than I will. Even if it meansannoying you.” A blush blossomed on your face. “I’d rather seeyou healthy and annoyed than unhealthy. And if that means you hateme, then fine.”

For amoment so brief that you could hardly justify believing it at all,you swore you saw his face soften. He eyed you, and then the soup inyour hands, letting his gaze fall on it for too long to not betempted. “If I take the damn food, will you leave?”

You nodded, holding it toward him withthe dishware carefully balanced between you pinky and index finger.You kept your vision on your hands as he took it from you gingerly,four fingers wrapped around the rim with his pinky hoveringcautiously. When you brought your face up, you realized he wasstaring at you, red eyes studying you with a practiced detachment.Your cheeks flushed so hard it was almost painful, and you quicklylooked down at your feet, praying he hadn’t seen. What was thatabout?

“I’llbe back in about an hour for the bowl.” You stammered, trying tocompose yourself. “I hope it’s empty.”

Hedidn’t acknowledge you, just shut the door as you turned and walkedback downstairs. Your comrades were surprised to see you unharmed,let alone alive after impeding on Shigaraki’s private time. Dabi hadlaughed, ruffling his hair with his hand as he said “I guess helikes you better than the rest of us.” You weren’t sure if he wasright, but a small part of you had beamed when he said it.

Youbusied yourself the rest of the night taking care of the dishes,making sure everyone had clean towels and leftover clothing that theycould wear if they chose to shower, and cleaning up the debris anddust that littered the hideout. Little by little, it was coming tolook more like an actual homeand less like an abandoned building. Slowly, the group in the frontroom began to dwindle as they went off to bed, the hour growing laterand later. By the time you realized just how sleepy you were, themoon was high in the sky, darkness encompassing the entire horizon.

Youlooked up toward Shigaraki’s room. He had taken the food, there’s noreason he wouldn’t have eaten it. But still, he still had the dish inhis room, and Shigaraki could be very unpredictable. He’d beexpecting you, right? You told him you’d be back. Might as well gograb the dish so that you could wash it and retire for the night.

Youtiptoed up the stairs, trying to move as quietly as you could, butyou weren’t entirely sure why. Stopping in front of his door, youpaused for a moment. Did you just ask for the bowl and leave? Did youtry and make passing conversation? Apologize for trying to strong armhim? How exactly did you handle this? A part of you hoped he wouldjust do what he did earlier and would ignore you knocking.

Younoticed the typing had stopped, so may be he was asleep? Would it berude to knock? It was quite a bit later than you told him you wouldbe by. The sound of the TV was still going, but it was quiet as ithad been earlier. Somehow, absurdly, you felt a lot more anxious thanyou had the first time you knocked.

Youresolved to knock lightly, and if he didn’t answer on the firstround, you’d leave. You could ask him for the dish another time. Yousucked in a breath, and tenderly tapped your fingers on the door. Itwas so soft that even you barely heard it. Chewing on your nail, youwaited for a few seconds before you “decided” that he had likelyfinally settled in and was sleeping. Either that, or he was ignoringyou. You just had hoped that he had eaten first. Either way, youshould probably leave.

As youturned to do just that, you heard a raspy voice from the other sideof the door.

“Comein.”

Okay,now this was unprecedented. What did you do? What was acceptable? Didyou poke your head in? Did you just talk from the doorway? What wasthe appropriate etiquette here?

Clutchingthe knob, you turned it sluggishly, pushing open the weak door andcreeping inside the room as silently as you could. You stoodawkwardly for a few moments, unable to see with only the light fromhis computer shining dimly from the monitor.

“Isaid come in.” Hesounded agitated now. You could hear his voice from a corner of theroom, but you couldn’t see him quite yet. You stumbled over your feetwalking further into his domain, standing with one hand on thealternate elbow, doing your best not to look nervous.

“Shutmy door. I don’t need the idiots looking in.”

Hisrequest took you by surprise, but your body wasted no time complying,pushing it shut with your palm. You stood in the dark, looking aroundrestlessly. Your eyes slowly adjusted to the dreary nature of hisroom, but it wasn’t much help. You could see his room was messy,smelling of must and dusty construction. The windows had been tapedover, and there were piles of black clothes and garbage sitting inpiles across the floor.

“Shigaraki?I came for the bowl, so I can finish the dishes.” You hated lookingso clueless in front of your boss, but a part of you knew he did iton purpose. There was no winning with someone like that. It wasbetter to just play his stupid game. “Could you turn a light on, soI can see?”

He sighed, muttering something underhis breath. He let you stumble around in the darkness for a few moreminutes before you heard a heavy click, and a small light clicked onfrom the corner of the room.

His room was a disaster. Discardedwrappers and energy drink cans were all over his small desk and nightstand, with debris and small pieces of plaster littered across thefloor. Piles of ash were everywhere, things he had disintegrated infits of anger and rage while everyone else had pretended not to hear.He had a large cot he had pushed into the corner that had a smallbundle of dark blankets he was sitting on, head down with his handsin his lap. If he hadn’t been the leader of a villain organization,he would look exceptionally like a young man in the middle of a deepdepression or perhaps a grieving session.

You surveyed the room and tried todecide the best course of action. You couldn’t let him continueliving like this. He was going to get sick. There were entire piecesof wood with rusted nails sticking out just hanging around, and itwas apparent he was living on granola bars and energy drinks.

“The bowl is on the table.” Athin, spindly finger pointed at his desk, just beside his computer.You glanced at him, wanting an official okay before venturing furtherinto his room. He only looked up at you through his thick hair,vermilion eyes emotionless. You nodded at him, making your way towardhis desk and brushing aside the empty wrappers to find the bowl.

When you found it, you picked it up,tipping it from side to side curiously. The contents of the bowl wereentirely gone. Peering around as inconspicuously as you could, youmonitored your surroundings. No wet spots on the floor, no garbagebag he could hide it in. His window was taped shut, so he couldn’tdump it out. You supposed he could have ashed the vegetables and meatbut you weren’t entirely sure how his quirk worked on waterysubstances. From the looks of it, he had actually eaten it. It wasthe only real meal of yours that you had seen Shigaraki eaten sinceyou’d known him.

It surprised you that he hadactually eaten it, though you weren’t sure what you had expected,honestly. Maybe for him to leave it full out of pure spite or to justdump it on the floor. He didn’t seem to have a problem with a mess.You peered back at him, curiosity overwhelming your better senses.You found that his gaze was focused on you still, eyes droopingsleepily, but still alert somehow. He kept his vision steady as youturned to face him. His attention felt so invasive somehow.

“You actually ate it.” Younoted, holding the bowl in your hands and lightly gesturing to it.

Scowling, he huffed a harsh breathof air and crossed his hands over his chest. “You thought I’d wastemy time making some scheme to rid of soup?”

“I just wasn’t sure you wouldactually eat it. I know it’s not Kurogiri’s, but-” You cut yourselfwhen you noticed his eyes yank from yours, flashing dangerously atthe mention of Kurogiri. “I hope it was at least wasn’t awful.”

He stared down the wall, arms pulledtightly to across his midsection as if he was chilly. You knew hewanted you to leave, to be left alone, but something in youpersisted.

“Hey, I just got a fresh load oflaundry back from the laundromat and everyone is asleep.” Yousqueaked out, unsure how he would react. You saw him cock an eyebrowunderneath his bangs. He probably wondered what the fuck you werebabbling about. You knew you should leave, it was safer that way, butyou kept going. “If you wanted to, you could shower in peace. Iknow you probably don’t want to be bothered.”

Every self preservation instinct inyour body was screaming at you to go.You were really digging now, inviting yourself into a territory whereyou had no business. Still, your feet stayed planted to their spot,facing him, unable to leave until you knew you had done everythingyou could.

He moved his head back to face you,bringing his palm to his eye and rubbing harshly as the other honedin on you. He seemed like he had no idea what the hell you weretrying to do, and truth be told, you didn’t either. He seemeddistrustful, like he thought you had an ulterior motive or maybe youwere trying to trick him somehow. The skin around his eyes tightened,the small cracks of flesh doubling over themselves as he glared youdown.

“It’s just an offer, I thought-”You paused, trying to compose your words in your head. Nothing wasforming in your head, not as his bloodshot eyes bore into you and youfelt a deep swell in your stomach, the feeling of which you couldn’tquite name. Something in your chest ached as you looked despondentlyback at him. “I thought you might want to bathe in privacy. If youwant, you could-” You stammered again. “I know you’re busy andit’s hard and-”

You took a deep breath. You weren’tsure how you wanted this to go, but you knew this wasn’t it.Embarrassment made your cheeks tingle, and you wanted to run. He wasstill staring at you passively, equally as confused as you. You hadto say something.

“If you wanted to shower orsomething, you could. When you’re gone, I could pick up some of thestuff in here. I know you probably don’t have time, being the leaderand all. Anything I can do to help. I just want to make things easieron you. If you’d let me do that for you, I’d feel a lot better.”

You gulped down, preparing for whatwas about to come. He was going to start yelling, asking you if youthought he was incompetent or unable to take care of it himself.Stomp towards you and demand why you thought you knew better than hedid at how he should live. Maybe even kick you out of the League, andat worst, turn you to ash. You closed your eyes, preparing.

It never came.

You felt his shoulder brush past youas he left the room, stalking down the hall. He had left you alone inhere. Was he that angry? Did you drive him out of his own sanctum?Had he gone for a walk and when he got back he would turn you to dustand keep you in a plastic bag to warn everyone else of the dangers oftrying to boss him around?

Your thoughts halted when you heardthe pipes creak and the shower turn on from the other room. Had heactually taken your offer? You two were the only ones awake at themoment, so it must have been him. Panic struck you, and you realizedyou were alone and completely unsupervised in Shigaraki’s room. Hisroom. His room that you’dpromised you’d clean.

You quickly put down the bowl andwent and snatched a garbage bag from downstairs, picking up all thewrappers and cans placed around the room. Breaking down the decrepitplanks and placing them in as well, alongside the random debris andplaster that littered the floor. You didn’t feel comfortable enoughtouching his computer, but you lightly organized all of the randomknickknacks around it that he’d taken from various places, as well asthe piles of video games and movies he’d stolen that were tossed onthe floor. All of his laundry was scooped up in your arms and placedinto bags which you would take to the laundromat tomorrow, and youmade a mental note to steal some hangers for all the sweatshirts andlong sleeved shirts he had. You opted to not touch Father or any ofhis ‘family’. That was too daring, even for you.

You weren’t entirely sure when itcame to his bed. It was such an intimate place, somewhere you knew hefound sacred. Even standing close to it, you could smell his naturalscent, and that unsure feeling came back again. You resolved to makeit as best as you could without disrupting his nest, just in casethat’s how he slept. However, the season was turning cold, and thethin, ratty blankets he had probably wouldn’t be enough to keep himwarm.

You’d managed to keep a stash ofblankets you’d 'acquired’ for the League for colder days hidden away,and you grabbed a small, dark, fuzzy one for Shigaraki. He wasprobably cold but too damn proud to ask for a something. Bringing itinto the room, you placed it among his heap, in hopes he wouldn’tnotice. You ruffled it in an attempt to make it look natural. Withany luck, by the time he noticed it, he wouldn’t care to mention it.

You were just placing the finishingtouches on his room when you heard the pipes silence and the watershut off. He’d be back soon. You scurried around, picking up anyspare garbage and organizing in a flurry, looking for anything youforgot. Your heart was racing, pumping blood into your ears andspiking your adrenaline, but you weren’t sure why. Were you really soafraid of him? Or was it something else? You tried to shake thethought.

You heard his door squeak, and youturned to greet him. However, the wind was knocked from your lungsand almost dropped you clean to the floor. Shigaraki was standing inthe doorway in nothing but a towel, held up by four of his fingersaround his bony hips. His shaggy periwinkle hair fell down around hisface, small droplets of water falling off onto his chest. His palebody was covered in scattered scars, ranging from long and jagged tosmall and round, placed variously around his lean torso and arms. Youimmediately turned from him, feeling as if you violated himsomehow.“Sir-Boss-I-” You stammered, unable to get asentence out. “I-just-finished-I’m-sorry-I-didn’t-mean-to-” wasall you could really manage.

“I didn’t have any clean clothes.”He whispered, almost sheepishly. He pulled the towel up a littlefurther along his torso, likely feeling exposed.

“Oh!” You slapped your handagainst your forehead, feeling foolish. “I think I have some fromthe last load. Let me check really fast!”

You scurried past him and down thestairs, quickly tearing through the laundry and searching foranything he could wear. You pulled aside a shirt and pair ofsweatpants of his, carefully gathering the rest of his clothing inyour alternating arm and sweeping it together as you tried to stand.You maneuvered it up the stairs, thankful you hadn’t dropped anythingbut unsure exactly what to do when you reached his door. It was stillpartially open, but just barging in felt wrong.

“Um. Boss? I have-”

“Get in here.” His annoyed voicewas back. He didn’t sound happy. You braced yourself.

You entered, kicking the door shutbehind you without prompting. You noticed he was sitting on the bedand the light had been turned off. Unsure of exactly what to do, youheld out the arm with his pants and shirt to him, turning your headaway out of respect. “Here, boss.” Without thinking, you startedwaving the clothing around like a toy for a pet. “I hope thesework. I have all your other clothes here too. I promise I’ll get therest done tomorrow.”

He yanked them from your grip, andshortly after, you heard his towel drop. Another involuntary blushbloomed on your cheeks. The sound of the fabric rustling as hedressed himself filled the room, but all you could hear was theheartbeat in your ears. It seemed like an eternity until he wasdressed.

After enough time had passed, youfinally brought yourself to speak. “Where would you like the restof your clothes?”

“Just throw them in the corner.”

You slowly turned around, notingthat he was fully dressed now and sitting on his bed, controller inhis hand and booting up a game. You shuffled over to a corner of theroom, dropping his clothes unceremoniously on the floor. He saidnothing as you did so, ignoring you in favor of his game. You smiledsoftly, watching his still wet hair cling to his face. He stillneeded to sleep, but you felt much better about his state now.

Before you turned to leave, youtried to memorize the scene. He was clean, well fed, and at least alittle more content, you hoped. His room wasn’t awful, and maybe he’dsleep a little better if it felt a little more like home. Yeah, youweren’t Kurogiri, but you could look after them as best you coulduntil he returned. You opened your mouth to say goodnight.

“Stay.”

Your brows furrowed. Were youhearing things?

“What?”

“Can’t you hear? I said stay.”He wasn’t looking at you, but you were absolutely sure you’d heardthat. You stayed, feeling petrified and looking at him as if he hadgone crazy. His eyes met yours again, then turned down briefly to thespot beside his on the bed before returning his attentions toward theTV.

You were frozen. Had he really askedyou to stay? Did you imagine that? You stayed in your position infront of the door. You didn’t dare move.

“Boss, did you want meto-”

“Don’t make me ask again.” His gaze didn’t turnfrom the TV this time. He was asking you to stay. You hadn’t imaginedthat.

You slowly walked toward his bed,pausing for a moment. Did he want you to sit next to him? Did he wantyou to sit on the floor? What was he asking? Why were youoverthinking this?

He turned and gave you an irateglare, large hand removing itself from the controller to point to thespot next to him. You immediately sat beside him this time, adjustingyourself accordingly as the bed groaned and creased your weight andbrought the two of you closer than you originally intended. Your skinfelt hot as it rubbed against him. You’d never been this close to himbefore. The wetness from his hair dripped onto your shoulder, and youcould smell him now, his natural scent mixed with the soaps from theshower.

His eyes were on you again, sendinga shiver down your spine as his cold hand passed you the controller,fingertips purposely brushing against yours.

“Do you play any video games?”

#Shigaraki x reader #shigaraki #boku no hero academia #bnha #this ended up much longer than I intended...#I'm still learning the other league member's personality types but I tried #gender neutral #I tried to make a proper mom friend but I'm the goblin friend so I don't know how I did

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wheremytwinwatches · 4 years

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[Where My Twin Watches]: Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 39

Last time: The Blondes finally met back up with the Brunettes, Yoki was an idiot who tried to burgle the Leto-damned ARMSTRONGS, and Scar either kidnapped or “kidnapped” Winry. Onwards!

New Intro! We’ve got the two young brothers separated by wind, then the title drawn in sand before it’s white text with a glowing red TC and the brothers running in opposite directions. Are we going to have a Party Split? Nevermind, they just slowed down to the middle of the screen. Bright light, Ed should have brought a hat to this sunny bunch of rocks. Then he looks off all dramatic like as camera goes to Al trudging through a desert before he too does the Dramatic Protagonist Stare. Both brothers back to back against the Xerxes mural ok seriously betting on a Party Split here with all the opposite directions going on. Now the Elric Brothers are running at each other and yep just phased through to become Red (Ed) and Blue (Al). Looking around for each other? Whatever happens I guess Al is with May since he has Shao on his shoulder and her gripping his hand, Ed’s got Winry in unzippered gear on his side. Camera pans out to show Al with May, Scar, and Marcoh to the left, Al, Winry, and Granny Rockbell to the right. Then a bunch more people start popping up? Can’t tell who is on which team anymore. Short image of Al’s Body in the whitespace, becomes a Stone which shatters to show a smug-looking Pride. Now Ed’s running about striking shadow blades in a forest (Ed vs Pride fight?), Al’s in the rocky desert fighting more toothy Pride blades. Wrath in what looks like a basic longsleeve shirt and vest (no uniform?) fighting LING YES TURN AGAINST THE GOTHS MY GREEDY LITTLE PRINCE Envy’s in Titan form getting sliced up by YES BRING BACK BADASS NINJA BODYGUARDS. Now it’s Armstrong The Great looking serious, Sloth burst out from snow to be used as target practice by Sideburns and a bunch of tanks but Kimblee swoops in and blows the shells up. Beard’s walking along with his briefcase frowning towards Central in the distance. Ed and Al stand back to back in a TC in the desert (not as rocky as the one Ed was in, but not as sandy as the one Al was in), shot of the Door of Truth opening and shattering, ends on the Alchemist Watch covered by the title and silhouettes of the Elric Brothers. Back where we left off: It’s a cloudy and windy day in Baschool, where Scar is carrying Winry’s limp form and glaring down at Kimblee. The Ishvalan comments on how they’ve changed positions from the last time they met, the Alchemist says he shouldn’t be so confident. Episode 39 - “Daydream” Oh no Winry’s in trouble so Ed is grabbing Kimblee’s coat and yelling at him for letting his mechanic get captured, Kimblee tells him to move aside while pulling off his gloves (hey, he’s kinda Roy’s opposite in that regard), Ed blocks his arms so that he won’t hurt Winry by attacking Scar. The Ishvalan then shatters the building, creating a nice big dust cloud to walk away in. Kimblee’s about to chase after him but a mustached soldier says that it’s too dangerous to go close to the damaged building, they need to fall back. Oh, and there’s a snowstorm incoming so they have to find shelter! Man, it has just not been Kimblee’s day, has it? Ed, Sideburns, Al and some soldiers are walking along, Miles compliments Ed on his performance aha, called it! Ross Deception! Ed’s not happy about having to play along with the “stupid charade”, though. Flashback! Scar isn’t apologizing for the death of Winry’s parents. She has every right to pass judgement on him. Winry… walks away, reaches into a box, and pulls out some cloth. Oh, wow. It it wasn’t already clear, Winry is Best Girl. Bandaging an injury on her parent’s killer? Ed and Scar are equally shocked at her compassion and what. What is that face. I’m sorry, this is a sweet and touching moment and all, but Scar? What is going on with your face here?

That is quite possibly the best Does Not Compute face I’ve ever seen. Just, Scar has no idea how to process this. Winry’s saying that if her parents saved his life before, then there must have been a reason. But like Leto does this mean that she’s forgiven him for his murders. She’s not gonna cry though, she promised… wait, I thought it was Ed who promised that the next time she cried it would be tears of joy? Ah whatever. Ok, you’ve got Scar bound up. Angry boyfriend proclamations aside, time to make him decipher the book NO DON’T CALL HEADQUARTERS YOU IDIOTS. Aaaargh. Wait Scar’s asking Sideburns what he meant by “one of your people”, can’t understand how an Ishvalan could stomach being part of the Amestrian military. Sideburns responds that he’s working on the inside to change Amestrian views of Ishvalans, Scar is shocked at such an idea, and that it was an Amestrian that set Sideburns on the path. Scar can only look down. [Scar]: “Look at me. I am a festering wound of hatred born of the Ishvalan War. I am thankful that there is someone like you out there.” Aaargh but just as Scar is realizing that maybe wanton murder isn’t the way to go about things the call goes through, and Kimblee is on his way to “deal” with Scar. This drives Marcoh and May to reveal themselves. Finally! Oh, and now May can patch up Scar’s arm! Outside the Mustached Mook is noting the stormy clouds, Kimblee tells them to hurry up (gee, I wonder if he’ll get there in time?). Marcoh and May are yes thank you for Leto’s sake it took long enough they’re saying that they’ve got groundbreaking Alchemy/Alkahestry research but the only one who can read it is Scar. Sideburns notes that May is the Alkahestry girl they’ve been searching for as well, says that she needs to come back with them to Fort Briggs. Add in that Scar’s needed to read the notes and it’d be just as bad for Marcoh to be recaptured, looks like all three need to go back to the Fort. Ed’s just a mite unhappy with needing Scar’s help, Sideburns knocks him upside the head with the fact that the Goths are pulling some sort of giant TC shenanigans, they need all the info and help they can get right now. Ed stands down after the suggestion that with Scar’s help they can disgrace Kimblee and get Winry away from his clutches. One Ishvalan Oath later Scar’s judgement is postponed… and the Chimeras are waking up, uh oh. The kids balk at Sideburns’ orders to kill them, the Chimeras sadly agree with Sideburns, saying that they can never go back to their old lives. Al tries reasoning with them, appealing to their families but they’ve been told they’re dead. And it’s not like they can go back like this, we’d just be imitating the 2005 Fantastic Four, and nobody wants that.

But Al does get them to yell that “of course they want their old bodies back”, when they quite reasonably say that it can never happen Al does the helmet remove to show his Soul Armor state. [Al]: “Well I’m going back. No matter how long it takes. I’m not giving up.” Ooh, is Al getting some followers? Watch him form an army out of Chimeras tossed aside by the Goths, take them down with their own creations. Unfortunately the snowstorm’s coming in, meaning that they can’t reach the Fort until it passes. And Kimblee’s on his way, so they need a plan- [Yoki]: “This is a mining town, isn’t it? Why don’t we just go into the underground tunnels?” [Everyone]: *turns in surprise to the secret tactical genius in their midst* [Yoki]: “W-what’s wrong? I mean, this is a pretty large mine, right? So surely there’s a tunnel that can take us beyond the mountains, uh… I think?” [Everyone]: “That’s it!” [Yoki, Tactical Genius]: “H-hey, give me some credit; this is what I did for a living!” Ha! Way to finally pull your weight, you C-tier flashback antagonist! Confirming that the tunnels go past the mountains- wait. Wait wait wait. Isn’t the whole point of the mountains that they are between Amestris and Drachma? Ooh, do we finally get to see another country?! Please let my dream of missionary Drachma’s with Leto pamphlets be a reality! Sideburns gives Marcoh notes for any Briggs soldiers the meet after the tunnel (watch them run into Drachmans first and cause all sorts of problems: “These people have notes written in Amestrian! They must be spies from Fort Briggs!”). But what about Winry? If she just up and vanishes with them then Kimblee will suspect the Elrics of foul play! [Winry]: “Um, I hate to be the one to suggest this, but, uh… What do you think Kimblee would do if I was suddenly taken hostage by Scar?” Whoa, so kidnapped!Winry was Winry’s idea? Props to you, mechanic! Mid-ep pictures of Winry Rockbell and human Jerso/Toad and Zampano/Boar. Ed and Al are understandably uneasy with the plan, but Winry shouts them down about being able to at least choose her captor if she’s a hostage either way. Come on Protagonists, learn that you don’t have to or can do everything by yourselves! Scar again promises to protect Winry before Ed lets him loose, when the Chimeras as to be taken along as well. They’ve failed which means Kimblee’s going to kill them either way… [Boar]: “Besides, we don’t want to give up either.” Look at you go Alphonse, already with your two inhuman followers! Also, they’re just a little confused and upset about all this talk of this band of misfits trying to stop some catastrophe that threatens their families along with all of Amestris. Y’know, just a minor detail. Kimblee’s inbound, better hurry. Sideburns asks wait what they’re back to human? Uh ok, with all the talk about being monsters I was kinda assuming that their beast forms were permanent, not something that they could consciously deactivate. Kinda undercuts the whole “we want our human bodies back” if they can shapeshift back like this. The groups are splitting up (to my surprise it’s not the Elric Brothers who are going different ways, at least for now), a soldier remarks that Winry needs to remove her earrings ok what. Seriously, what? This just totally broke my immersion, you cannot tell me that now is the moment when having metal earrings in the frozen north would cause discomfort and haven’t been an issue yet, especially when she came up north specifically because her boyfriend’s metal arm was seizing up. But whatever, she gives them to Ed for safekeeping before promising to see him back at the Fort. Ed gazes up after her, clenching his fist and probably crushing those precious earrings that he was just trusted with. Nice going, kiddo. Explosion! Acting! Snowstorm! Those left in Baschool are sheltering in a building, alternately looking at girlfriend’s jewelry, wondering where their fellow Chimeras have gone, and arguing for planning the next leg of the search. Then Sideburns gets a call from the Fort? Ooooooooh, right. There was that whole “forces from Central showing up to look for Raven” thing going on last time. And our guys are walking right into that mess. Whoops. Down in the tunnel Marcoh’s going on and on about how the Rockbell Doctors were widely respected during the Ishvalan War, how they helped all without regard for themselves. Meanwhile Scar’s walking in the back having flashbacks to Winry’s “I don’t forgive your wanton murdering”, an Ishvalan Elder telling Scar that while he should never forgive the Military’s “wanton murder” that he must abide it-

-to break the chain of hatred, and his brother saying he studies Alchemy to replace hatred with understanding. And here is Scar, following the orders of an Ishvalan who willingly works in the Military to change it, representing the ideals of Scar’s brother and Elders. So what does that make him? Yoki’s having the group stop in an underground office, to pick up a more detailed map of the tunnels. Man, who’d have thought that freaking Yoki would be the most useful party member at this point. Or ever? Inspired by Al, Toad and Boar are pestering Marcoh about any clues in the journal (that he can’t read), they banter with each other about their families. Aw, they’re actually friends! Nice to show that even the Central forces have loved ones, hopefully for real this time after that infuriating Bradley & Selim fakeout. May? What’s wrong? Oh. Oh yeah. Her whole mission was to learn the secret of the Philosopher’s Stone, only to find out it’s based on suffering and the obtaining of immortality for one at the expense of so, so many others. And His Imperial Highness, aka her father, apparently would make one without a moment’s hesitation using any number of his people. So apparently he leans more towards Wrath’s philosophy of leadership than Ling’s. But if she doesn’t bring back the secret of immortality, her clan is in danger from all the others. Marcoh says that the notes might have the humane secret to immortality, they just need to hurry up get to the Fort so Scar can get a-translating. [Ed]: “What do you mean, ‘the Fort is no longer safe’?!” Welp. Just when we get Armstrong The Great as an ally, she’s been summoned back to Central and a Military Officer’s getting put in her place, along with a bunch of other Central forces. So now the Tunnel Team is walking into a hostile environment without knowing. They have to be warned, but how? Ed wants to go but he’ll freeze before he gets anywhere close… [Al]: “There is a way! Listen: send someone who doesn’t have a body. That storm won’t freeze me to death!” Uh, Al? Sure I guess you wouldn’t catch hypothermia, but you’re still a giant suit of steel armor. Remember how there was that whole “Ed’s arm freezing up” problem that was fixed by replacing his entire arm? You don’t have body heat like a living person, your limbs are just gonna ice up. Actually, how the Leto hasn’t that happened yet? Huh. I guess Souls act as armor heaters too, Al’s having more trouble just seeing where he’s walking in the blizzard than actually moving. He sees the path but the winds picks up and the screen whites out from the snow GAH ZOMBIE AL! Oh shit how did Al end up in the Whitespace? Uh, well you’ve found your body? Quick, grab it and let’s get wait no it was an illusion. What, you getting snow madness buddy? Oh. Oh shit. We’ve got a flashback to Barry musing that foreign bodies can’t hold souls for too long, Al’s freaking out about his body trapped in Whitespace, pulling on his soul as it’s rejected by his armor… he can’t think about that right now, he has to hurry. Without the map now, since he dropped it after that vision. Oh hell it’s this asshole. [Uncle]: “Alphonse Elric. Edward Elric. And also… there’s… Van Hohenheim. Izumi Curtis, she’s a possibility-” Aside from all the awfulness of listing off Potential Sacrifices, which is looking a lot more like ‘killing all of these people, not just one or the other’, did you just purposefully knock over Izumi’s piece? Rude, and I can’t wait to see her punch you. “That leaves one more.” New end credits! Rapid guitar music as we race through a 3D hallway/tunnel, outside looks like Ed’s standing in the ruins of the Elric house, Al’s somewhere else standing among some tall square rocks. Flashes of red-eyed Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, Pride, and Uncle (what, no Lust, Greed or Sloth?) A look at Riza’s scarred back with that strange symbol before she turns and I am very sorry for walking in while you were changing ma’am, I’ll be going now. Roy’s still in his eveningwear outfit probably trying to get someone to take all those flowers off his hands, Beard is oh Leto what is happening with your face, are you actually smiling. That looks so weird, stoppit. Oh hey it’s Mama Elric, so sad that we lost you before we could fully appreciate your snark. Ah there’s the scowling Beard that we know, go kick Uncle’s ass. We’ve got Ed jumping and Al and LING YES BRING HIM BACK and a lion and monkey oh my Leto is Al actually going to build a Chimera Army this is the best thing of all time yeah there’s Toad and Boar we are totally getting Rebel General Al. Also there’s Alchemist-Slayer Scar on their side now but who cares CHIMERA ARMY ok fine we also get May and oh Marcoh’s getting in on the action looks like he lost a few teeth wait Yoki no we need you as the secret tactical genius get off the front lines. Selim’s there looking all cute and innocent in his little schoolkid guise until his shadow gets teethy and attacks Ed. Winry’s power walking through a hallway (can’t see if she got her earrings back). Then a bunch of hands reaching up, one larger one grasping a smaller one (which ship will sail?!) before we’re back in the tunnel, shots of Ed and Al and Beard before a final map of the country-sized TC.

#wmtw #where my twin watches #full metal alchemist #full metal alchemist brotherhood #fmab #fmab 39

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johnnymundano · 5 years

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Paganini Horror (1989)

Directed by Luigi Cozzi

Screenplay by Luigi Cozzi and Daria Nicolodi

Music by Vince Tempera

Country: Italy

Running time: 82 minutes

CAST

Daria Nicolodi as Sylvia Hackett

Jasmine Maimone as Kate

Pascal Persiano as Daniel

Maria Cristina Mastrangeli as Lavinia

Michel Klippstein as Elena

Pietro Genuardi as Mark Singer

Luana Ravegnini as Rita

Giada Cozzi as Sylvia (child)

Elena Pompei as Sylvia's mother

Donald Pleasence as Mr. Pickett

Paganini Horror is a terrible 1989 Italian horror movie set in a decrepit Venetian villa where a terrible (mostly) girl pop group film a terrible video for a terrible song based on the terrible idea of using cursed music by Paganini. The aural nonsense these tinsel wits conjure summons the cranky spirit of the deceased composer to dispatch them one by one in imaginative, but seriously underfunded ways. And probably to stop them screaming, because, hoo boy, do these ladies scream. If you are a massive fan of women screaming Paganini Horror is the movie for you, my unusual friend. Much of the running time of Paganini Horror involves neither Paganini nor horror but rather women running around what seems like one corridor and three rooms screaming. Occasionally they all meet up and scream at each other in the same room, or that one bloody corridor. I swear at some points they bounce up and down and flap their hands while screaming like overwrought teenagers at a pop concert.

Which is ironic since they are a pop group themselves. They are the kind of fantastically talented (mostly) girl band who do the female cause no favours at all; the kind who play their guitars by keeping their fingers immobile and flat on the strings while provocatively moving their hips about while pulling faces which suggest they are experiencing a sexy form of menstrual cramp. The singer, Kate (Jasmine Maimone), doesn’t have an instrument because she is too busy prancing about, trying to see which she can open wider, her eyes or her mouth. The token bloke, Daniel (Pascal Persiano), is stuck behind the drums because no one wants to see his exposed belly button. I think they sing Bon Jovi’s terrible “You Give Love a Bad Name” but it’s kind of hard to tell. Anyway, they are so bad the movie doesn’t give the band a name (I think; I don’t really care), so we’ll call them The Chilblains. Whatever song The Chilblains are excreting, it isn’t good enough for their producer Lavinia (Maria Cristina Mastrangeli) whose ears apparently work, so Kate and Lavinia shout at each other, and things get so heated that Kate almost pushes a stool over but Lavinia arrests its fall just in time. Rock and roll Babylon! The Chilblains need new material to get them another million seller, and fast!

Daniel, the male drummer, sources some groovy material which will get the band back on track by, apropos of nothing, meeting a twitchy Donald Pleasence in a disused warehouse and purchasing a lost Paganini composition. Apparently, actually writing some decent music fails to occur to Daniel. The girls go wild for the fab synthed up sounds of groovy Paganini, and Lavinia books them into a spooky old house Paganini once passed water in, now owned by Daria Nicolodi’s Sylvia Hackett. The idea is to get top horror director Mark Singer (Pietro Genuardi) to make a smashing pop vid and get The Chilblains back shifting millions again. Unfortunately the video is shit. Even more unfortunately the restless spirit of Paganini is so upset by his music being co-opted by talentless chancers that it starts knocking them off in unintentionally amusing ways. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a woman burned alive in a poorly constructed giant violin case, baby.

Niccolò Paganini (b.1782) was a real person who probably didn’t live to see a woman burned alive in a poorly constructed giant violin case, but he was a legendarily amazeballs Genoan violinist. While Paganini Horror is hardly a fit cinematic tribute, he is a good choice for a spooky killer. Much like Cher, he is purported to have consorted with the devil, selling his soul in return for prodigious talent. Back then, see, there were no video games or movies for unimaginative reactionaries to blame everything on, so in desperation bits of wood that could make sounds such as the violin were considered the “devil’s instrument”, indicative of poor moral character and likely to cause an excess of excitement. And so extravagant was Paganini’s talent that it was thought only a satanic source could explain it. Or, y’know, he was talented and practiced a lot. Your call. Paganini died in 1840, possibly from mercury poisoning from being treated for syphilis. Maybe from tuberculosis. I don’t know, what am I, a historian? Paganini’s spookiness survived after his death to the extent that he wasn’t laid to rest until 1876, when priests finished debating what they should do with him. Priests apparently had a lot of time on their hands back then. None of that matters since all Paganini Horror is bothered about is Paganini was very musical and a little bit eerie.

Unfortunately looking up Niccolò Paganini on The Internet turns out to be a lot more exciting than watching Paganini Horror. Particularly finding out that all his teeth fell out from his syphilis treatment. But if you are inclined towards terrible Italian horror movies Paganini Horror has the odd slender wisp of a delight. There’s the ever twinkly Donald Pleasence, being all sinister and stuff; and you get quite a bit more of him than I was expecting, which is nice. Unsatisfactory Italian horror movies form a magical late stage in Pleasence’s career, where he basically rocks up acting in a movie which exists only in his head, and ends up being the most interesting thing in the movie outside of his head. Although genre legend (and co-scripter) Daria Nicolodi is intermittently to be seen acting, mostly she just goes with the whole screaming thing. Michel Klippstein as Elena is the best thing in the movie, but not for her acting. Unfortunately it’s because for the bulk of the movie she wears a nasty green lycra jump suit studded with a nonsensical pattern of holes. It’s kind of fascinating in a wholly abysmal way. Paganini Horror isn’t always terribly interesting so you may often find your mind wandering, wondering just how sweaty Michel Klippstein’s get-up got. I bet they had to burn that outfit once the filming stopped. Ew! In the interests of decorum I shall draw a discreet veil of “mostly adequate” over the other performances.

About on a par with the less than impressive acting is Luigi Cozzi’s relentlessly apathetic direction which exacerbates rather than disguises the clearly near lethal budgetary constraints. But would any more money have helped a horror movie helmed by someone so determined to so cluelessley fart away every death scene? Probably not. Make no mistake, Paganini Horror is not only terrible but, worse, it is often quite boring. This is quite a feat since the killer wears a gold mask and looks like a low budget musketeer prancing about and, as comically awesome as it is regrettably underutilised, there is also a gold violin with a spring loaded blade in the base. It’s like Cozzi has accepted a bet to make everything as tedious as humanly possible. In theory Paganini Horror has some clever ideas and creative slaughter, in practice however it is a drearily slow crawl punctuated by tedious screaming and hilariously cheap-shit SFX shenanigans. The best (i.e. worst) example is “The Invisible Barrier” which elicits some fantastic (i.e. rubbish) mime action as our cast pretend to be pushing against something that isn’t there, it also has a car crash into it but…off-screen! and a character is crushed to death by it, which just means the crew press a sheet of glass onto her face to distort it. Eyerolling never had it so good.

Be warned, sensation seekers of all ages, sure, Paganini Horror all sounds very camp and cheesetastic, but it is neither campy nor cheesy enough. It takes some weird anti-talent to render dull a movie which has a record producer who can identify a fungus by sight as being one used in the 18th century to give Stradivarius violins their unique sound. (I believe Kanye West has the same ability.) Don’t be fooled if any of that sounds fun; Paganini Horror is fun, but not fun enough by far. This Italian mis-fire is fit only for masochistic die-hards like myself rather than your average horror punter up for a good time. Ultimately then, not so much a case of Paganini Horror, but rather Paganini Torpor.

#Paganini Horror #Movies #Horror #Italy #The 1980s #1989 #Luigi Cozzi #Donald Pleasence #Daria Nicolodi

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tallulahchanel · 5 years

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Grief (AU)

Notes: I’ve wanted to explore this idea since I wrote Worries, so here it is. This is an AU, so it doesn’t affect the outcome of the actual series.

Warnings: Angst. Mentions of character death

Characters: Kya Shauku (OC), Nakia, T’Challa, Naomi Udaku (OC), Shuri, Ramonda, Sizwe (River Tribe Elder), and JoAnna (OC)

Words: 1.8k

Tags: @lady-olive-oil @marvelheaux @oceanscorazon

This was the worse blow imaginable for Kya.

Imagine getting stabbed and, instead of removing the knife, the assailant decided to twist it, adding to the assailed's agony. Even if that were to occur multiple times, it wouldn’t equal the pain that Kya felt.

As tradition, when a War Dog dies, they're honored in the Hall of the Fallen with a picture of them and their name engraved on a vibranium nameplate. Kya would often go there to talk to Unathi's photo, seeking guidance in troubled times, or to inform her of the shenanigans she's caused. As odd as it seemed, it was like Kya was actually talking to her.

This time, however, when she entered the hall, her umama wasn’t the one she came to see.

Kya reached a hand out to trace the name on the plate next to her mom’s, each letter feeling like a stab to the heart. 'Nakia Shauku,' the nameplate read, sitting under a picture of the fallen war dog holding her ring blades.

Kya’s bottom lip trembled and a tear leaked from her eyes.

It shouldn't be like this. Mother and daughter side-by-side. They should be there, guiding her and teaching her the ways of life.

Losing her umama was hard enough on her, especially for a nine-year-old, but losing her sister--her best friend, her confidant, her second mother-- was like a hammer swing to the gut.

Her last memory of Nakia was in Jabariland before the war dog boarded the Talon with T'Challa, Shuri, and Agent Ross. She begged Nakia to let her go back to Wakanda and help overthrow the outsider--maybe if she had gone her usisi omkhulu would still be alive--but Nakia was adamant about Kya staying there with Queen Ramonda and Queen Naomi. She couldn't let Kya get hurt again, not after what happened in Greece all those years ago. After watching T'Challa get thrown from the falls, Nakia wasn't sure of what this Erik Killmonger was capable of. She wouldn't forgive herself if harm or worse came to her omncinci, knowing she had the power to prevent it.

"Promise me you'll come back," Kya pleaded with false hope, but, to her dismay, Nakia shook her head. She knew her sister couldn't promise that, but she wanted something to reassure her that Nakia would return, and everything would go back to normal.

"I can't promise you that, but I can promise you that no matter what happens, I'll always be with you." Nakia held her pinky out with a faint smile, and Kya knew what that meant. "Kia and Kya forever?"

Fighting back her tears, Kya linked her pinky with Nakia's. "Forever," she repeated as part of the pact they made as children.

They unlocked pinkies, and Nakia pulled her into a warm hug, placing a sisterly kiss on her forehead. "I love you, my omncinci."

"I love you too."

Too soon for Kya's liking, Nakia pulled away to board the jet, making sure to give Kya one last smile and wave before the ramp closed.

The last hug. The last "I love you." The last smile. The last time she heard Nakia call her omncinci. If Kya knew that was going to be the last moment she would ever have with her usisi omkhulu, she would've savored it, cherished it, did everything in her power to make it last longer.

Three agonizing hours passed before the Talon landed in Jabariland, and Kya, along with Lord M'baku and his wife JoAnna, watched with a smile as the Udaku family reunited--Queen Naomi welcoming her husband with a passionate kiss before Queen Ramonda took both of her children in her arms, grateful that they were still alive and well. Kya watched the jet carefully, waiting for her sister to come out. She thought Nakia lagged behind the others because of injury or needing a moment to compose herself from the battle, but after ten minutes, the young Wakandan began to worry.

"Kumkani?" She looked at him for answers. "Where's Nakia?"

Her heart began to pound when T'Challa's facial expression morphed from a victorious smile to one of solemn.

"Did she choose to stay behind? Is she waiting for me to come back?"

"Kya," T'Challa addressed, his voice full of sympathy as he began walking towards her.

She stepped back. "Did she get hurt? Is she getting treatment as we speak?"

"Kya," he tried again, but to no avail.

"She's fine!" Kya reasoned, trying to stall the inevitable as much as possible. "She has to be. Nakia could always hold her own in a battle."

"Kya-"

"JUST TELL ME THAT MY SISTER IS ALRIGHT!" She snapped, tears of frustration brimming at her eyes. She didn't mean to yell, but T'Challa was taking too long to tell her that Nakia was at home, safe and well, and was looking forward to holding her omncinci in her arms again.

She waited, but T’Challa didn’t say anything. His silence told her everything.

Her bottom lip quivered, and a sob escaped her lips. She soon felt a comforting hand on her right shoulder, and she turned to see Lady JoAnna giving her a sympathetic look. She sought comfort in the Jabari Queen by burying her face in JoAnna's shoulder and releasing a heartbroken wail.

Hearing her sister had died was hard, but moving on was harder.

After the burial and Nakia's placement in the Hall of the Fallen, everyone seemed to go on with their lives as if nothing happened--as if she didn't lose the one person that meant the world to her.

Kya didn’t bother to leave her room. She would stay in bed all day and cry, skipping classes and refusing meals and calls. At one point, Sizwe feared that she would try something. Truthfully, she would’ve if she didn’t know that Nakia would be disappointed in her.

When Naomi came to visit her one day, Kya tried playing off that she was sick--which wasn't far from the truth--so the young queen would leave her alone, but Naomi didn't budge. Fortunately for the African-American woman, Kya wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone, so it allowed Naomi to do all the talking. Nothing special. Just to let Kya know about King T'Challa's plans to open the Wakandan borders for refugee programs and aide--all the things Nakia would've liked to have in place.

“I just told T’Challa that I think you should help with one of the programs,” Naomi finally gained Kya’s full attention. “After all, you like helping people. Isn't that why you’re studying pre-med?”

Kya didn't give her an answer, but Naomi could see an inkling of interest in her eyes.

The young queen, who knew first-hand about losing an older sibling, figured that Kya could use a distraction. Of course, it was only a temporary fix, but anything was better than staying in bed and dying a slow death. Not to mention, it would be a great honor to Nakia.

"Just think about it."

Kya gave her a nod and watched her leave.

The young Wakandan wasn't sure how she was able to do it, but she somehow found the strength to go to Shuri's lab to see what King T'Challa had in mind and learn the ways she could help. Shuri welcomed her with a comforting hug and held her for as long as Kya would permit before they started diving into the plans.

Once Kya began focusing on her part, which involved social media influencing and volunteer work on the weekends and school breaks, it gave her a sense of purpose again. She even managed to return to her classes and catch up on her school work--with Shuri’s assistance of course. It seemed like things were working out for her………….and then she found out that Erik Killmonger was healed and awake.

That was the day she lost all control.

Kya saw red as she made her way towards the Council Room, a scowl on her face while her feet moved with determination. Not even the Dora Milaje could stop her from barging into the room and charging towards the king with a glare. "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR EVERLASTING MIND?!"

The council members fell into stunned silence, and Ayo went to apprehend her, but T'Challa waved the second-in-command back.

“What is the meaning of this?”

“My sister is dead because of that monster, and you have the audacity to BRING HIM BACK!”

Confused murmurs went around the room while T’Challa’s eyes widen. He had planned on informing the council about his decision regarding his cousin, but not like this.

“Do you not have enough respect for my sister’s memory?!” Kya continued. “Nakia may have been just another woman to warm your bed, but she was everything to me! Now, she's gone because of what he has done! WHY would you do this?!”

“That’s enough!” Sizwe interjected, trying to get control of his youngest daughter.

Meanwhile, T'Challa was trying his best to hide how Kya's words affected him, but Naomi could tell that her husband was hurt. Nakia wasn't just some warm body in his bed. She was his best and dearest friend. Losing her that day hurt him deeply.

"Now," Sizwe began, "you will bite your tongue-"

“YOU BITE YOUR TONGUE!” Kya retorted, receiving incredulous looks from everyone, including the Dora.

This wasn't like Kya. She usually had a sunny disposition and could light up a room with her smile and presence. But the Kya in front of them was consumed by darkness, sadness, and a burning anger that everyone could feel...an anger that Sizwe was about to become the next victim to.

“YOU DON’T GET TO TELL ME HOW TO BEHAVE!” Kya fired at her father, tears of frustration flowing down her cheeks. “You didn’t shed a tear for umama, and you didn’t shed any for Nakia--your daughter--so YOU don’t get the right to tell me to bite my TONGUE!”

Holding back her own tears, Queen Ramonda could no longer watch Kya’s display of emotions. Her heart broke for the young girl she thought of as a daughter, but the council room wasn’t the place for this to happen. She stood out of her seat and gently grabbed Kya’s arm.

“Don’t touch me!” Kya tried to push Ramonda off her, but the queen--who was stronger than Kya thanks to years of training--tightened her grip and began pulling the young Wakandan towards the door. “LET ME GO!”

Kya started struggling, but to no avail. She even took to swinging her fists to get Queen Mother to let her go, one her punches hitting Ramonda so hard that a bruise formed on the queen's arm.

Despite this, Ramonda held her ground and got Kya out of the throne room, leaving everyone else in an awkward silence while they tried to process what just occurred.

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