#otherwise everything he's done up to this point is just null

[ecclectricity]

Which Hogwarts house are you?

    You're a Burned Slytherin Primary and a Ravenclaw Secondary.

    A burned Slytherin can understand the value of having people to care for, or even desire those types of connections, but has learned that the costs of such close loyalties is too high to pay. Loving people means they can hurt, betray, or leave you. Loving people means you bleed yourself dry for them, and burned Slytherins have taken a step back in order to preserve and safekeep their own selves.

Ravenclaw Secondaries collect-- hobbies, skillsets, knowledge.     Ravenclaws are collectors. Dedicated to knowledge, to facts, systems, tools, or skills, the things they have already learned are what they call on when things get tough. They can collect useful skills, build complex clever systems, invent vitally useful things, or just learn everything there is to know about the birds of South America.     Ravenclaws’ efficacy often relies on what situation they are in: what the problem is they have to solve and whether or not they’ve prepared the proper tools for that problem. While Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors can apply their skills at stockpiling trust or inspiring passion to attack various situations, Ravenclaws’ tools are necessarily task specific. Do they know how to ride horses? Speak Greek? Do they have contingency plans for earthquakes, zombie apocalypses, or a surprise visit from the in-laws?     If they’ve already built themselves a tool set for a situation, they’re likely to excel at it. If they have not, they’re likely to blink a few times while they try to either invent something new for themselves or to cobble up something approximate from their existing resources.      Ravenclaw Secondaries are at their best when they can prepare before the problems show up, not improvise or invent in the moment.  Ravenclaws invest in tools. These tools can vary from detailed knowledge of modern Romance languages, Mesopotamian history, Gothic architecture, and US civil court legal procedures; or mastering the skills of carjacking, gourmet vegan cooking, juggling, and staying level-headed in crisis; or keeping internal (or external) databases on their friends’, allies’, and enemies’ likes, dislikes, connections, obligations, fears, weaknesses, strengths, and goals. Some of these are more useful than others. Ravenclaws can collect their tools with the aim of eventual usefulness, but are likely to also collect knowledge just for the sake of knowledge.

You also may have a Gryffindor Primary Model.     Gryffindor House is the house of justice and bravery. If you model Gryffindor Primary, you also value these things and like to live by them-- but you wouldn't feel guilty for dropping those goals in the service of your own priorities ( whether that's sticking by your chosen family or stopping your emotional biases from sending you down the wrong path ). But you'd like to value these things. They're good, solid, and satisfying. If the phrase "some things are just wrong" appeals to you, you might be a Gryffindor or have Gryffindor model.

tagged by: I stole it! tagging: really anybody, I love this sort of thing

[hyperactivewhore]

I can't believe the topic of what happened between Damon and Caroline is still being debated, as if it should've ever been debated in the first place. Damon 100% raped and abused Caroline, and Elena 100% knew about it and still chose to be with him anyway, because she gave no shits about anyone else but herself and was a shit friend and a piece of shit in general. And you wonder why people hated Elena so much? For that exact reason right there and deservedly so. Stop being so stupid and in denial. And Caroline being the one to actively pursue Damon first and consenting to sex one time only doesn't make what Damon did null and void. The dude is still a fucking rapist and abuser. I get you hate Caroline, but come one now.

Jesus. Take a pill and calm down lmao, no one is attacking you.

There is no evidence of Elena being aware of the rape because the writers decided to act as if Damon never touched Caroline: I'm aware he did, he forced himself on her and the show never addressed or even recognized the trauma she endured. Just as they decided to act as if he didn't also rape Andy and as if Katherine hadn't raped Stefan and as if Klaus hadn't made out with Care in Tyler's body, which is no matter what sexual abuse all the same, especially because Caroline was gonna have sex with him - I don't think he would have went further with her, though.

I do agree however with the fact that Damon 100% raped Caroline, Stefan probably knew (as it's implied) and people pretending otherwise is just stupid and awful. This conversation says everything we need to know:

[Stefan: They are people, Damon. She's not a puppet. She doesn't just exist for your amusement, for you to feed on whenever you want to.

Damon: Sure she does. They all do. They're whatever I want them to be. They're mine for the taking.

Stefan: All right, you've had your fun. You used Caroline, you got to me and Elena, good for you. Now it's time for you to go.

Damon: That's not a problem. Because... I've been invited in... and I'll come back tomorrow night, and the following night, and I'll do...with your little cheerleader whatever I want... to do, because that is what is normal... for me.]

But blaming Elena for it is straight up disgusting. As far as I know, the only time she brought up her "relationship" with Damon was in season four, some comment about how Caroline jumped in bed with him. She would have never said that if she knew he had raped her, and it's left ambiguous for a reason.

Liz was the best friend of the man who raped her daughter, Caroline got along well with the woman who raped her husband and Caroline herself was forced to get along with Damon, the man who abused her and traumatized her. Deciding if x person knew what had happened has always been our choice, the writers would never dare to address the sexual abuse this characters did simply because they were fan favorite.

Being honest it's quite stupid of your part to act as if Caroline herself wasn't also a bad friend. Everyone in the Mystic Falls gang was at one point. Hating Elena - and Matt - was literally a trend that started in social media and got out of hand because people got caught up in it, everyone was crying when Nina left and everyone hates season seven just because she wasn't on it, the character people despise so badly. And the fact that you're implying I've ever defended a rapist is fucking disgusting, I've never done that and I've never will, stop being stupid and grow the fuck up, the way toxic stans lose their shit because people don't like Caroline is ridiculous.

[gemapples]

Rant away my friend

apparently a few people wanted me to vent about the kirby novels so head in hands ig i'm gonna go for it LMAO (this is inspired directly from @desultory-novice 's posts about it)

ALSO IM SORRY IF THIS IS SO DISORGANIZED gonna be honest i forgot a good half of what i wanted to talk about. But Anyways. please note that all of this is entirely My opinion you ofc dont need to agree and despite everything i actually really love and enjoy the kirby novels a lot !!

so okay after hearing her talk about the reason we're likely not getting a magolor epilogue novel and knowing takase's erm.... Infamous reputation regarding how she handles magolor's character that had me thinking a lot and. Wow i'm kind of Really nervous for how this magoland novel will turn out actually because a lot is kind of at stake here when you think about it

takase will either be forced to actually develop magolor's character, or she will just completely scrap everything that happened earlier, remove any mentions of the epilogue and go straight back to square 1 where magolor is -- once again -- the villain of the story. Don't get me wrong i like evil magolor a lot lol i think if done right it can be a very enjoyable portrayal of his character. but there's only So many times you can make a character the antagonist before it just gets straight up exhausting y'know

i think it's ESPECIALLY different in terms of magoland. This might be a cold take idk lmao but merry magoland isn't just some wacky little theme park magolor created out of the blue for no reason. It's something that signifies and sets in stone how he's a changed character. Merry magoland is magolor's dream he's had for a really long time by his own words and truly shows that all he's wanted to do is make people have fun and be happy. if you make him the antagonist in that, that completely just fucks up Everything relating to his character and renders that entire development null and also invalidates all the hardships he's gone through to make that happen

i do think takase's portrayal of magolor is fun! i do enjoy it and i do appreciate how he has a hard time communicating his desires and showing true friendship. i think that's important. one of magolor's most significant flaws is how he has a hard time understanding how friendship is supposed to work and what to do when you have friends. but maybe instead of making him the villain. Over and over and over again you could idk... have him Learn?? and actually Develop from his issues??? i know waddle dee is a completely separate character but for the sake of comparing to another person who has gone through a huge amount of development in the novels -- why can't magolor do the same? why is it constantly so insistent that he be the one causing all the problems for no reason other than haha it's funny (in most cases at least. i know dreamy gear was different and i will give it a giant shoutout for that)

i'm so sorry if i sound too harsh here i literally don't know how to word it otherwise lol i think it's important to emphasize that despite everything i do like seeing magolor's character in the novels. but it just gets to a point where it's Grating to me at times and depending on the scenario is just completely inaccurate. that's why i think magoland is such a huge point for us here with a lot on the line -- if she chooses to not make magolor the antagonist and make it accurate to the game's actions and desires, that will be an essential key for his development and showcase that we're actually making progress with his character. but if she chooses to make him the antagonist again, the potential for him being something more than a villain -- which is RIGHT there -- is completely wiped

afaik magolor and kirby's friendship was also mentioned and i just want to throw out there. merry magoland happened because of kirby. merry magoland happened because of magolor's friends. kirby, meta knight, dedede and bandee are the reason merry magoland exists. so if takase chooses to not acknowledge any mention of that and make magolor go against them all, that also erases the potential of magolor's relationship with other characters as well yknow... the characters he's gone against for this whole time? it also makes no sense whatsoever??

so yeah this is a bit long but there's just a lot to either look forward to or dread about this novel -- or even both lmao -- the more i thought about it. i want to have a decent amount of hope that i could be wrong here, maybe takase will take advantage of what she has to work with game wise and create something truly special. but throughout all of magolor's appearances in the novels... *hand on mirror* it seems like all of his character is constantly scrapped in favor of treating him like some apathetic irredeemable character with no regard for others or understanding friendship. so that's kind of a hard pill to swallow

[writingsofwesteros]

alright believe it or not but im once again at work (saturday night shift) and imma try my hand at the secretary thing. first person POV bc we're experimenting.

Just when has my life become so lame? It's saturday night, I should be out, checking out that newly opened club with my girlfriends. Instead I'm at work. Yep! Me! Blood of the Lannisters! At work. I know.

Last chance to do something with your life, my father said, as he pulled the strings to land me this position. You might know him as Robert Baratheon, the founder of Storm Industries.

You better be choking on his dick by the end of this month or else we're all screwed, my mother helpfully instructed me as to the extent of my duties. You may know her as Cersei, the self-appointed Queen Bee of Upper East.

The Queen suffers no competition, which is how I ended up as a secretary for Mr Stark, a.k.a. the Ice Wolf - the C.E.O. of Storm Industries and the hottest DILF of Wall Street, fuck him very much. My mother hates his wife with passion and having me seduce him is her idea of revenge.

I mean, I've done worse things.

It is saturday night, but if he's still working then that means I'm still working too. From my vantage point behind my desk I can see him clearly, as he's strolling around his office and tossing papers around. His form fitting suit is slightly disheveled at this hour, the white collar popped open. H's wearing designer glasses - he says they prevent his eyes from tiring when he's working late and I have no idea what the glasses actually do but they make him look sexy as hell. I mean he is that. Sexy as hell. I've been staring at him for the past hour, all secretary work long forgotten.

Unfortunately none of my seduction tactics seem to work on him. Three entire months of sky-high heels, skirts that would barely cover my underwear if I had any, and cleveages that ends somewhere around my navel. Excellent dress code, I know. I aim to please. Guess what?

He hasn't even looked once.

But yesterday I think my mother has finally outdone herself. We've all been to dinner at the Arryns'. A rich old politician who is meant to help father with something, no idea what they're about, but that's beside the point. The Starks were there: the Ice Wolf, his wife the Ice Queen, as we call her, and their two hot sons.

And get this: mother had me give him a footsie under the table. In front of his wife and sons and my own father and everything. Yeah. I wish I was joking.

The second my foot touched his thigh under the table, his eyes immediately shot to me, but... he said nothing. He's done nothing. He only watched me, as I massaged his crotch with my foot. Maybe his ears went a little red, but otherwise - nothing, nada. Null. His gaze was intense, and it was kinda hot, not gonna lie. But I couldn't tell what he was thinking or if he was even enjoying it. I mean, I could tell he was hard but who wouldn't be? Eventually I had to stop because the Arryn guy wanted to show everyone his new private jet and we had to move from the table.

Thanks for nothing, mom.

I feared I made an idiot of myself and I was sure Mr Stark would fire me the second I crossed the doorstep of our office today, but... nothing of the sort. He was all cool politeness, and his DILFy sexiness, as always. And he made me stay overtime.

I actually think I might go mad with blue balls. Blue vag? Is that a thing?

Uh-oh. He wants something. He's rang the bell. Nobody's around this late and it makes me a little jittery, but I gather my courage, stand up, push my boobs forward and march into his corner office with all the dignity that's left to me.

"I want to show you something," he says and he points to a pile of papers on his desk. I see thay are some kind of screenshots, but the lights are dimmed and I can't read the details.

I lean down over the desk to have a closer lookand my heart freezes several times over. Suddenly it's hard to breathe. On his desk lay printed screenshots of my conversations with my mother. Conversations regarding him and how best to seduce him.

I panic and immediately start planning my evacuation, but suddenly I feel his strong hand on my back, pressing me to the desk.

"And you thought you were so smart," he says, standing behind me. On this lucky cursed night I'm actually wearing underwear, but it's all lace and so thin it's practically not there. I feel the broad knuckles of his other hand brush over my snatch. You know, because my skirt does nothing to cover my privates.

"Smart girls should always remember to log out," Mr Stark informs me.

I am not a smart girl. Never have been.

HOT HOT HOT

Oh i love how involved Cersei is in this; just adds another layer !!

[eldritch-spouse]

Pinnie Pinnie Pinnie i must first say i love you and several smooches upon your face and wonderful brain, you help me live honestly mwamwamwamwa

Secondly, I am like no brain cell head empty in love with Santi, something about a doting cumbrain with absolutely huge knockers scratches the itch just perfectly.

I have a question about something you mentioned in a post about Santi's mark (the design is BEAUTY btw), that the obsession could TRY to leave but that they'd be in so much pain or something that they'd just end up crawling back to him. Is it like a physical pain, an emotional pain? Is it intentionally inflicted by Santi or does it innately happen when they try to stay away for too long?

Here's a little angsty type ask/scenario though, the only thing that like gets under my skin (but in like the reluctant hot way you know?) is the aspect of the total control, to the point of your own body betraying you. Maybe its the trauma but it would make me wary of the otherwise perfect arrangement.

So say Santi's one perfect match realizes that his mark is in fact not just a cute little claim, but used innately for control, and this doesn't sit well with them. There's no chance he'd just remove it from them even if they begged and promised to stay with him even without it, right? What if it started to weigh on them, tainting everything Santi does or everything they even FEEL with the worry that its not even real, its just them being controlled.

How would Santi react if it even drove them to try something like cutting the mark off of themselves? IS there even a way to remove it without Santi doing it himself, magically, physically or otherwise?

[T-Thank ye, I'm very happy you feel that way! /////]

TW: Self-harm.

The mark's effects work autonomously, for the most part. Some time after you're a good distance away from Santi, the anxiety effect will begin, and though you may not immediately recognize what's happening, you'll eventually start obsessively thinking about the incubus in a way that leaves no room for confusion. What Santi has done, since you're presumably in a fairly standard relationship, is null this effect, so that you don't have a panic attack over him being gone for an hour.

The mark's effects are specifically psychological, on the basis of panic, sadness and anguish. See, it works a bit like a Pavlov mechanism. Disobey and you'll get punished with insupportable mental distress, please Santi and you'll get a buzz of pleasure to affirm this correct behavior.

The only things that can be physically noted are it might glow when activated, and your body temperature rises slightly the more it exerts influence over you. While these effects can be triggered by Santi, they are left untouched until the day he absolutely deems it necessary to use them. Such as the day you might try to leave him, in which a firm "Stay still." will most likely have you kneel obediently on the floor before him.

Santi obviously doesn't explain the sour parts of the mark to you, and your disgust upon finding out how nefariously this claim can be are entirely justified, which makes the incubus fumble for some sort of excuse. Truth be told, he did it because he doesn't want to risk losing you, because you're the first thing he loves, because Santi goes manic just thinking that some day you might catch eyes for someone else- That something could happen to you while he's away and the demon would have no way of knowing where you are. However, there's something here he can lean onto to deviate your anger- And that's the fact that this mark will make you live longer. The claim is the very start of your journey into becoming a concubus. Santi can say that he's doing this purely because he can't bare the thought of you dying due to your lackluster human lifespan! You should accompany him for endless years more, as a demon yourself. Don't be scared, don't fear this mark, he's not being controlling (yes he is), the incubus is just thinking ahead for the two of you! It had to be done.

The sight of you using a blade to cut the mark off will hurt Santi in unimaginable ways. You loathe him that much? You're so viscerally disgusted by the demon that you will mutilate your perfect form just so you can be rid of any trace of Santi? No, no you won't. Not on his watch. It's clear he overestimated your sanity. You're clearly not well. This is meant to be, you have to love him, you don't get to just remove yourself from the situation while Santi is essentially doomed to be infatuated with you for the rest of his days. That's not fair. You're not being fair. You're insane! And Santi won't be letting your cognitive lapse impair your relationship any longer.

I hope you can be fast enough to remove or otherwise heavily slash it before he comes barreling your way, because the mark sends off signals to the demon when it's actively being damaged. If you can do it in time, Santi will lose track of your location and you'll have much bigger chances of freedom.

[mando-of-esverr]

Prologue Drabble || Preventative Medicine

“I’m sorry sir,” the Phydolon said softly, her large dark eyes gleaming against her pale, salmon skin. “But precautions must be taken. An outbreak in cranial parasites has been discovered in the bacta supply in the Chaldae system. Preventative and quarantine measures have been enacted for yours and others safety.”

Darius was fit to be tied. The job was already half-paid for and he was running on a time limit. But somehow this little bit of news about some parasite pandemic hadn’t reached company dispatch until he’d run into it. Heaving a frustrated sigh, the Mandalorian looked up at the tall, slender alien.

“Alright,” he’d said, folding his arms impatiently. “But I have work to be done down there. If it’s just in the bacta supply, why is everything else quarantined?”

The slim Phylodon swayed slightly, her white pupils watching him closely. “The parasites are transmitted through liquid entering the body,” she explained. “If you must go down to the system, you must be vaccinated.”

Darius squinted behind his helmet. He didn’t like the sound of this. “And how do you vaccinate for these parasites?”

A transparent eyelid flicked across the Phylodon’s large, dark eyes as she reached into a small pouch on her hip. “This,” she said and held up a vial of clear cerulean liquid.

Darius looked at the vial and then up at the Phylodon. “That’s it?” he asked skeptically. “Is it ingestible or an injection?”

“Neither,” she replied. “It must be applied to the inner ear, both of them at once, and re-administered every five days. Four days preferable to maintain efficacy.”

“So… it’s an ear wash,” Darius said slowly.

The tall, willowy alien nodded. “Essentially.”

“What, are you expecting me to go swimming and parasites to just swim into my ears?” he asked, appalled at how ridiculous all this sounded.

The Phydolon tilted her head slightly, her white pupils fixed on him. “It cannot be injected, as it does not interact well in the blood stream. It cannot be digested otherwise it is rendered null. It may be inhaled, but then its efficacy is in the lungs, not the brain. The ear is the most direct and painless route aside from injection into the spinal column fluid, which is most painful.”

Darius stared at the Phylodon. “So.. this is supposed to go into my cerebral fluid—The fluid around my brain.”

The Phylodon nodded slowly. “That is how the preventative is administered.”

Darius didn’t like this. He didn’t like it and he didn’t want it. It sounded like a load of bantha dung but he unless he wanted to issue a refund the already hefty sum paid and forfeit that much honor for his services, he’d have to do it.

“I don’t like this,” he said with a low growl, “but if it’s what needs to be done to enter the Chaldae system… Then it’s what needs to be done.”

He shook his head and looked up at the Phydolon. “Alright, how does this work?”

“Follow me,” the Phydolon said with a smile. “It will start by putting on a helmet, then the serum will be introduced and will soak in your ear canals. Once it has well soaked, it will drain and you will be fit to enter Chaldae for the next four days. After that, you must repeat the process every four days to maintain efficacy.”

She stepped over to a seat and gestured to a strange helmet on it. At first glance he thought it was an old rebel snub-fighter’s helmet, but then he saw a singular transparent tube curve around the back of the helmet, meet a one end of a square-ish box that stretched along the crown of the helmet, and then out toward the other “ear” of the helmet.

Darius stopped and stared at it. “I am not putting that on,” he said, pointing to the helmet.

“Then you will not be immunized ,” the Phydolon said simply.

Darius frowned and shifted his weight. “… Is there any way to do it myself?”

The lithe alien looked at him quizzically. “Are you ashamed of your appearance?”

Darius blinked. “What? No-I-it’s my creed. I’m not to take off my helmet in the presence of a living person. Its… a Mandalorian thing.”

The Phydolon thought for a moment before nodding. “Hmm. If that is so, we have administration helmets with full face shields. Would that be preferrable?”

The Mandalorian considered the offer and nodded. “Yes.”

“Then let us proceed,” she said and led him to a chair and a helmet with a full facial cover. “Tap the chair when you are ready, I will be waiting.”

After she left, the Mandalorian sighed, looked around to make sure the room was clear, before reluctantly removing his bronze colored bucket. “alright… It’s just a medicine drop. Just get it done and over with.” He huffed and sat down in the chair, setting his helmet beside his seat before slipping the weird not-fighter helmet on. He pulled the face shield down, completely obscuring his face, before tapping his helmet against the arm of the seat. It chimed loudly, and soon he heard the muffled sound of the Phydolon’s footsteps.

“Are you comfortable?” she asked, a little more loudly so as to be heard.

“As much as I can be,” Darius replied. He heard her walk around behind him.

“Are your ears comfortably pressed against the helmet’s sides?” she asked, adjusting the helmet until the cushions were both secured around his ears.

“Yes,” he answered again, feeling more nervous about this whole thing all the time.

“Alright. Initiating the procedure. The serum will be introduced in a moment. Please remain still until the end of the process.”

He heard something in the ear-parts of the helmet shift and suddenly felt the cushions shift, pressing against his head like suction cups. He gripped the chair as liquid filled the ear cushions and suddenly everything sounded like he was underwater.

“How long with this take?” he asked, running his thumb against the seam of the chair’s arm.

“One hour,” came the reply, though he could hardly hear it through the serum now filling his ears.

‘Dank ferric,’ he thought, leaning back in the seat. ‘Well, better make myself comfortable. It’s going to be a bit.’

To his surprise, it was an easy doze. Outside of a slight discomfort in one ear and a strange numbing feeling, it was incredibly peaceful. He sank into the doze and let himself catch a brief nap as the process continued. He gave a soft grunt when he felt someone tapping his hand gently. His first instinct was to lift the helmet mask, but the light just beneath his chin and the water in his ears reminded him of where he was.

“Your immunization is complete,” he heard the Phydolon say, “Give the helmet a moment to drain, and you can return to your work.”

Darius gave a thumbs up, but didn’t answer. He felt a little blurry after that doze, though he supposed it was a side-effect of the serum. He took a deep breath and worked on pushing the drowsiness away as the ear-cups drained and dried before retracting back into helmet cushions.

“Are you still here?” he asked through the helmet face shield. No answer. Taking that as an affirmative, Darius lifted the face shield, checked the area, and took off the helmet. He rubbed his right ear and winced before grabbing his helmet and slipping it on again. Carefully, he put the bizarre ear-soaking helmet back on the seat and knocked on the chair arm. “I’m finished,” he called. He was still a bit drowsy, but certainly not nearly as impatient as he was earlier.

The Phydolon stepped out from behind a door and stepped over to his seat. “The immunization was successful,” she said with a nod and held out a box for him to take. “This is your administration device. Directions are inside. Use it every four days to maintain efficacy and protection from parasites.”

Darius looked down at the box and took uncertainly. “Alright,” he said and gave the willowy alien a nod. “Thank you.”

The Phydolon nodded back and gently clasped her arms in font of her. “You’re welcome. Good luck with your work.”

With that, Darius turned away and headed out toward his ship, hopeful that this job would be worth all the trouble...

[enchantmentable]

so. dream mentioned red herrings. and that there are a lot of them. 

he also mentioned that there’s going to be an event that brings the server together “soon,” and it’s not what we expect

for the most part, we expect either dream’s escape or wilbur’s revival

when talking about red herrings, dream said something along the lines of “we expect one thing and it looks like it’s set up to be that thing, but the set up also leads to this other thing”

so. that begs the questions: what sets up dream’s escape, what sets up wilbur’s revival, and what could those factors also point to? 

dream’s escape sets up:

tommy is worried about his potential escape

sapnap said he’d kill him if he ever escaped

dream himself says that he will escape eventually

techno’s favor to dream

wilbur’s escape sets up:

the whole arc ghostbur had of wanting to be revived by philza

the revive book 

tommy asking dream not to revive wilbur

dream saying he will revive wilbur

now, we have to work backwards. the main points that i believe we should focus on are bolded, and they are the focus because they are vague enough that they could apply to more than one specific event while still being of utmost importance to the two events mentioned

techno’s favor to dream:

whatever this is, at this point i highly doubt it will be the prison break

logistically, it wouldn’t work. how would dream?? communicate with techno????

character wise, i don’t think techno would do that. there’s no point in fulfilling his end of the deal when dream is locked away forever and techno has found relative peace with the syndicate. why would he risk that?

character wise, i feel like dream wants to do this more himself anyway for Pride Reasons. forcing techno to help him isn’t the same as, say, manipulating someone who you know hates you into helping get the both of you out 

meta wise, i’m not sure how much of a say dream has in techno’s lore, but there’s not an impossible chance that this favor is that trigger that brings everyone together, depending on what it is 

but what could it be?

something to do with death, dying, or revival is likely since death is a major theme at the moment (and what does techno’s syndicate namesake being the first to die in the trojan war have to do with anything? what is it foreshadowing? could it be this?)

something to do with tommy or wilbur is also likely since dream doesn’t have as much control over them as he does everyone else who would likely be related to this plotline

quackity’s lore is a huge unknown for me rn. how much involvement will his future arc have with techno? bc if there’s any at all, quackity could be added to that list very easily too

maybe something to do with the prison, but imo it’s unlikely now

techno himself is also a bit of an unknown from a meta standpoint, since idk how much he’s going to be involved with the tommy/dream/wilbur lore that dream seems to be focused on when he talks about this trigger

the revive book

there are so many possibilities here that it’s painful 

reviving wilbur, obviously 

reviving someone else (schlatt, mexican dream)

unlikely to be an event that triggers lots of lore

the consequences of using it (there’ve got to be consequences for using it, right? death can’t be played with like that with no consequence guys please) 

dream killing and reviving more people as a show of power (how would he do this? would he have to have escaped first? does he kill all of his visitors? could he kill sam?) 

dream dying and the revive book not being able to be used 

(unless the information has been given to someone else in some way and they were given instructions to revive dream should he ever die)

i’m sure there are more i just can’t think of them

side notes:

let me reiterate that quackity’s lore is such an unknown from a meta standpoint bc i think he’s been working on it on his own for the most part? so i don’t think it’s likely that dream was talking about an event relating to him, but it’s certainly possible

when dream was talking about a triggering event, i assume that it’s something he’s personally been working on or has considerable control over, hence my focus on tommy and dream related lore (otherwise this “trigger” would not be able to be narrowed down At All)

i went off the assumption that everything we need has already been introduced. if something new happens that makes all of this null and void i will pass away.

conclusions/leading theories:

the event first and foremost has to bring the server together, so it has to affect a vast majority of the people on it

(for this reason i still think wilbur’s revival is a strong possibility, since it would impact just. so many people. but for it to fit dream’s description, it would have to be done in a way that’s unexpected or cause something unexpected, so much so that it could be called an event that none of us suspect)

the consequences of reviving someone could have server wide implications, but i’m not sure what they would be. however, i do like the idea that said implications could be that trigger 

techno’s favor in relation to death is also promising, but whether or not it’s viable depends entirely on whether or not techno will be involved in this side of the lore

having said that, my favorite techno favor theories atm are either him being given the revive book info by dream before his capture and being asked to revive him if it should come to that or techno somehow having to sacrifice his life/lives as a result of the consequences of reviving someone

where am i going with all of this? idk. i was possessed by the need to get down my thoughts on what dream said as soon as ranboo ended stream but it is currently past 4:30 am so i’m not sure how much use this is. it’s barely coherent. i’m sure there are dots that could be connected that i haven’t, and i’m sure there’s someone out there who can see those connections so please feel free to add to this if you have any revelations while reading this <3 

enjoy i’m going to sleep now

[the-awful-falafel]

Oh gosh yeah, there was a really unpleasant vile reset of Morty’s character which felt slimy to see because of how much Morty was developing as his own person and how it was setting up for a split from Rick but then they had to make it rick and morty 100 years I guess. It felt extremely uncomfortable for Morty to feel so dependent and that he needed rick to survive despite how much he had clearly grown. It makes all character development null which I feel is weak writing

"Slimy" is a good way of putting it. Like, we spent literally the whole series up to this point showing how Morty's growing a spine, no longer putting up with Rick's abuse, and trying to be his own person in a way Rick actively punished him for, and this was their best idea of resolving a series-long conflict?

The moment Rick leaves with the two crows along with a vague "what we had was toxic and unhealthy" (which is such an understatement and shouldn't even have been Rick's line to deliver), not only does Rick completely dodge any consequences for his treatment of Morty, Morty has a complete codependency-fueled breakdown and practically crawls after Rick in a way that allows Rick to put in zero work to earn his grandson's forgiveness once he returns, in a way that was so utterly, painfully regressive and clearly the writers just backpedaling the entire conflict to keep to the status quo. (And with the revelation/handwavey justification that Mortys are engineered to be like this, the fact the show still tries to frame this as heartwarming and a fresh start between the two of them becomes utterly horrifying.)

Yeah, sure, I can buy that Morty is a forgiving kid by nature. I can even buy that Ricks (not our Rick, but most Ricks) specifically clone/engineer Mortys to be like that, because it's an easier personality type for them to exploit and makes a horrific amount of sense considering what we've seen of the Citadel so far. But the existence of Mortys like Evil Morty shows that that trait is not some unshakeable instinct that they're doomed to regress to, nor an easy reset button that can be hit at any time-- it's a personality trait that can be worn down over time through character growth and sheer jadedness, which is what seemed to be happening to our Morty during the past several seasons. He was becoming confident, more distant from Rick, more resentful of the shit he puts up with from everyone around him, even as he was still trapped within the cycle of abuse and still acquiescent enough to enjoy Rick's company. Most of the time he came off as bottling up his trauma rather than being forgiving, to be honest. He's definitely tried being forgiving and empathetic towards Rick before, and Rick, rather than be redeemed through it, nearly always manipulated and took advantage that quality to punish Morty or get a free pass for his shitty behavior.

So while I could buy our Morty being saddened by Rick leaving, even missing him to some degree because of how abuse can leave you with complex feelings, especially if you had many "good times" with your abuser... the fact he completely fell apart and started chasing after Rick, as well as immediately forgiving him for everything once he saw his tragic backstory, felt so disturbing and inconsistent based on what we've seen of Morty so far. It basically made their entire fallout with each other, as well as Morty's development throughout the series (to not see Rick as a hero, to see past Rick's excuses for his behavior, to prioritize his family's well-being over Rick's, to resist Rick's controlling clingy bullshit, to not need Rick to find happiness and to in fact find relief in his absence) completely and utterly pointless. Like, what's even the message here? What was the purpose of any of it?

It's very weak and shitty writing to render such a large chunk of a protagonist's characterization null and void, and just feels like they didn't want to confront the sheer extent of what Rick has done to Morty in favor of making ~trust~ and ~forgiveness~ the answer, even though that was barely the tip of the iceberg as to what was wrong with their relationship. Our Rick being slightly nicer to Morty is him passing a very low bar and getting praised for it as far as I'm concerned, since it really seems like they slipped straight back into their old dynamic otherwise, just in a "honeymoon phase" for lack of a better word. Like, it's not like Rick caring about Morty has stopped him from abusing him before. Morty was so happy that Rick was back that he couldn't even get himself to set proper boundaries like Beth tried to get him to do, for fuck's sake (and yes, I know the joke is that it was a side effect of the aging serum, but it was treated way too casually for comfort). This romanticized and exaggerated codependence, the character regression of Morty to avoid addressing what Rick has actually done to him, and the harmful "abused child fixing/healing their abuser through selfless love/forgiveness" narrative, even after they established that Morty forgiving Rick can't even be trusted to be of his own free will and is exactly what Ricks want, is just... really, really disgusting to me.

[clonecumber]

Hi! ☺️ Can you do the ask game for Prudii then?

Thank you! I probably should not have attempted this after my bedtime. I'm sleepy as hecks. But I got the motivation, so here it is!

First impression : So this guy was my absolute favorite Null when I was kid? Even though my copy of True Colors didn't even have the short story for some reason? I can't actually tell you what tripped the lever for me; I just thought he was neat, I guess.

Impression now : Okay. Of them all, I have the weakest grasp on Prudii, I think. Unlike Jaing, where I have a fairly consistent characterization and am just feeling out why I think he's that way, Prudii still waivers like a heat mirage sometimes. So, feeling it out: He's patient for a Null, which mostly seems to mean that even though he gets annoyed quickly, he'd rather just take a couple deep breaths and try again rather than just punch out the source. Probably why he gets tapped for training purposes, even if he struggles to handle certain personality types, and even though he can get flustered/frustrated when someone can’t or refuses to keep up with him when he’s trying to talk to them or explain something, r/ Atin not following the conversation he was trying to have in Odds and Prudii promptly clamming up. He seems like he’d overall be a pretty good teacher when things are going well or the speedbumps are small, but a trainee being difficult or struggling to learn would probably trip Prudii up pretty bad - as in, I feel like he would probably take both kind of personally and it’d stress him out disproportionately. New teacher blues. He’d try really hard, though.

Comparing him to A'den is kind of interesting, especially how they react to Atin. Prudii's more high-strung, and his patience is a conscious decision that requires effort and practice. Atin is pushing his buttons through most of Odds, but all he does is get quieter and more exasperated (and maybe a little neurotic, like when he keeps prodding Atin for the reaction he wants, but the point is he’s trying), and even when he's obviously annoyed, he's usually trying to pretend he's not and approach the situation calmly. A'den just seems to have fewer buttons in general, making him more naturally chill in comparison, but when his buttons do get pushed, he lashes out (sorry, Niner).

He seems pretty boisterous by nature when he’s happy or safe, but seems a little self-conscious about it, like - again with Atin, because Atin’s brand of Judging You seems to really get to him - when he immediately assumed Atin was annoyed with him directly after pulling the escape stunt and swung from proud of himself and a little excited to weirdly insistent about explaining why he did the reckless thing, so Atin shouldn't be mad at him. I sort of get social anxiety vibes from him, honestly. He tries to be confident, and can get caught up easily in the moment, especially when around his brothers, but he's also the one stumbling to a verbal halt and pulling back in on himself, or getting defensive at anyone nearby like he feels like he has to explain why he's being loud or happy or reckless or taking up space in any way. This goes back to what I said earlier, where Prudii is very insistent, even when it's visibly frustrating him, that someone agree with him or otherwise understands and validates everything he does, even if it's just a random RC Private tapped for a random mission who he may as well never have to interact with again. I see this as an insecurity thing?

He also seems like the one least likely to interact closely with someone outside his immediate family by choice, which is probably why we see so little of him. Seems like he might prefer standard social scripts or other roles he can learn to perform when he has to engage with other people (the way he talks to the pilot and even offers Atin use of his name is a little stilted/scripted and not as natural or effortless as we’ve seen done before, and even Atin notes discrepancies in the act. To me it seems like he might be copying Kal or Mereel’s charm but doesn’t quite get it to the same extent, or at least that he fumbles it when he’s uncomfortable, and “trainer” is a role he can learn to fulfill, but if he has to meet up with any of his trainees outside of that context I can see him hitting a bit of a wall...okay, this parenthesis is too long, I’d need a whole other post for this, lol). I also feel this may, in part, be why I automatically think of him as the one most kneejerk defensive of Kal, behind Ordo. It’s twofold: He knows how to be the Dutiful Son and knows what’s expected of him in his relationship with Kal, while his family also is his safe space, so to have that status quo shaken up or threatened is probably deeply, deeply alarming for him.

Absolutely unbeatable at hide and seek.

Favorite moment : The fact Prudii called up A'den to warn him about Atin, lol. Or called up A'den to complain about Atin after their mission together in Odds. It's just funny to me. Atin, you scarred him.

Idea for a story : I'm gonna be honest. I have no idea. How about they're all playing Among Us and - even though this is a game about assassination and sabotage - Prudii actually being kind of bad at it because the game mechanics nerf the crap out of him. This absolutely offends his entire shit. He hates this game, but also refuses to stop playing it.

Unpopular opinion : Not super applicable, but okay, let's see: Prudii's tween phase was legendary. (You be developmentally 12 and be literally named Shadow and not have a Phase.)

Favorite relationship : Who does he even talk to? Uh. A'den, I guess? Since apparently he calls A'den up to complain about RCs being mean.

I did ship him and Niner for some reason when I was a kid, though. My multishipping ways started young.

Favorite headcanon : uhhhHHHHHH. All right, sure. Favorite is pushing it since I just came up with this on the spot, but: Probably one of the grumpiest of the Nulls right up there with Jaing, he just tries not to be. Is very suggestible, though. Leave him and Jaing alone in a room together, and the amount of salt you'll come back to could easily explode the hearts of thousands.

[softyoongiionly]

Portraits of a Tiger || 02

Legends of a great and equally terrifying warrior nicknamed the Tiger have been emerging from your fellow villagers for quite sometime. Stories of his skill, his stealth and his supposed wickedness have been passed around to the point where he is more prophecy than person. You have lived your life with a strong sense of conviction, rarely letting gossip influence your opinion. However, you would be lying if you said that his legacy didn’t intrigue you. When the Tiger and his infamous army arrive in your village to refuel, you come face to face with the man behind the myth.

And no amount of marketplace gossip would ever be enough to capture the true complexity of his nature.

Pairing: Merchant! Reader x Warrior! Yoongi

Genre: Adventure, Romance, Smut (later), Fluff, Angst

Word Count: 7.1k

Warnings: language, depictions of violence both verbal and physical however they are fairly mild, mentions of war and power dynamics, there will be smut in future parts so, (18+ only please).

Current Tag List (let me know if you want to be tagged!): @gldnrecs​ @naajix​ @bluewhale52​ @nikkikenji​ @lustedkisses​ @loveyoongles​ @hear-me-growl​ 

A/N: oh hiiii. I’m a little obsessed with this universe so, I hope you guys are enjoying all the Warrior! Yoongi content. Love you!

Once again, I want to shout out @bulletproofbirdy​ for everything she has done to make this fic possible. I love you so much! 

“I’m just saying, some of the women in this village should at least attempt it. Wedding a solider is an honor, not to mention the fact that it sets you up for life.”  

Jane’s voice sounds beside you and it causes you to smile to yourself; she’s always coming up with plans for other people, attempting to live vicariously through them.  

“Like Y/N- you’re young-” She tilts her head, her frizzy red hair almost twirling above her scalp, “-ish. You would probably be able to convince one of them to take you for a bride.”  

You scoff, “Thank you for having so much faith in me Jane, I’ll keep that in mind.”  

Jane quickly moves on to another girl in the market, throwing the same amount of enthusiasm her way.  

You know she means well, even if she is a little brash at times.  

It’s been two days since the market place was riddled with thieves and soldiers. Things have mostly gone back to normal apart from the same armored men loitering about your village.  

Over the time that’s past, you’ve been able to meet or at least learn more about Yoongi’s fleet.  

Seven men, each of them possessing an incredible amount of skill, made up the group behind the gossip.  

Seokjin was indeed in charge of community outreach (and the cooking) but, he was also an incredible marksmen; his aim was unlike anything you’ve ever witnessed. Whilst you were cleaning up yesterday evening, you saw a few of them practicing and Seokjin through a dagger from nearly 200 feet away only for it to land directly in the center of the target.  

Namjoon, you met in the library whilst you were reading more about a new remedy you were planning to try. He was extremely brawny but very mild mannered. He introduced himself and thanked you for the bread you had delivered and upon speaking to him, you learned of his position in the fleet; psychological warfare. According to Namjoon, he was in charge of depleting the moral of their enemies by various means that he didn’t specify.  His gentle demeanor made it very difficult for you to believe that he was apart of such a dangerous team but you realized that, that was the very reason he was so successful.  

Jungkook, according to Seokjin, was the fleet’s first responder: The first man on the ground during a battle and usually the last one to leave. He had two things on his side: speed and strength. The fleet calls him the Terror Cub which is supposed to be a play on Yoongi’s nickname. You’ve also learned that Jungkook is Yoongi’s younger brother and upon minimal observation, you can tell they have a very close bond.  

Jimin, you met at the tavern during an evening out with Rachel. He was incredibly kind and his beauty was nothing short of offensive. His position in the army made sense; he was known as a Red Herring or in civilian terms: the distraction. Jimin’s beauty and charm was the fleet’s secret weapon and after spending a bit of time with him that night, you could definitely see why. Without a uniform, Jimin looks like a soft and unassuming man. A target would never suspect his true intentions.

Taehyung and you had a lot in common as he too was an Apothecary only- he didn’t specialize in the same type of medicine you did. Taehyung was the fleet’s resident poison expert. You met him at the tavern as well as he was the man Jimin hung off of the entire night. You learned of their romance throughout the evening and, couldn’t help but admire the sheer power between them. The Herring and the Poison Expert, what a duo.

Hoseok was still a bit of a mystery to you as he rarely ventured into the village. According to Seokjin, Yoongi placed him charge of training the new recruits specifically in the art Hoseok was most familiar with: archery. Upon the introduction of his position, you quickly recalled a story regarding the legendary archer.  Hoseok’s expertise had made it into the discourse in your village roughly a year ago when the Royal Army took down invaders in the snowy mountains just west of your home. In accordance with the story, Hoseok defeated their front line from the treetops before they were able to reach the rest of his fleet. You hadn’t had a chance to speak with him much but, he did introduce himself when you brought a second basket of bread to the camp.  

Aside from being their general, their leader and, the most expert swordsman in all of the land, Yoongi was also the fleet’s strategist. He mapped their every move, their every course, their objectives and several precautionary measures should things go sour. He was essentially the brains behind everything but of course, you didn’t learn this from him. The rest of his men had revealed bits and pieces about him throughout your interactions with each of them.  

In addition, you also learned that Yoongi’s army was a defensive force. They were established as a means of protection by the Queens which would mean that the stories of them ruthlessly invading territories around the region were null and void. The seven of them preceded over a much larger fleet; 22,000 men who follow closely behind them but never fight unless Yoongi calls in for backup.

The Tiger’s fleet was the frontline, the brain, heart and soul of the royal army.  

You feel a bit of sadness for them. They have done so much to protect this land and although they are revered and admired, they are also unnecessarily feared.  

The morning passes easily and it’s one of those days where you actually enjoy being out in the plaza.

The weather was nice, temperate and cool just as you like it.  

Clouds encase the otherwise sunny sky which keeps it from growing too warm in the marketplace and, with the slight breeze wafting throughout the atmosphere, you feel content.

A minimal afternoon crowd makes it easy for you to provide accurate and lengthy consultations to your patrons.

“Yes- just apply this three times a day and you should notice a significant reduction in the inflammation.” You smile sweetly, passing a lot the salve to your customer before you notice a familiar color making its way through the crowd.

It’s platinum and the curve of the ponytail its attached to belongs to someone you hadn’t anticipated on seeing.

It causes your heartrate to go a little wonky whilst you attempt to look away.

The salve Yoongi purchased from you days earlier prove to be very popular amongst his crew and now his tin that was supposed to last him three months is nearly gone.  

He may have other reasons for returning to the market as well but, his story was air-tight and would need no further explanation.

He would know, he checked.

“Good morning,” You smile at him and Jane’s train of thought is derailed the moment she sees your next customer. “How can I help you?”

He raises his hand, a large metal tin between his fingers, “Do you have any more of this? I woke up this morning to find that my men have ransacked it. If you have the stock, I’d like to buy 7 more tins so I can have one of my own.”  

You can’t help it but allow your eyes to widen at his request; the profits from 7 more tins would be enough to feed your family for the next month.

But you compose yourself quickly and nod, “I have more than enough- you said 7 right? Did you want the big tins again?”

He lowers his hand and sighs, his eyes flitting back towards his tent, “Please. I don’t trust the younger ones to use it as you instructed so, I want to make sure it lasts as long as it can.”

Snickering, you bend down and grab the requested amount of tins for him and nod in understanding, “Makes total sense. I’m guessing one of the main culprits was Jungkook? I saw him rubbing his hands together for a really long time and, now everything makes sense.”  

Yoongi smirks, his teeth peeking out between his lips, “Aish that kid- he's gonna give me a heart attack one of these days.”

“He’s younger brother right? I can see the resemblance...” You tease, wrapping the tins in paper,  spending a little too much time on each one and, no it’s totally not because you’re trying to prolong your interaction with Yoongi.

“Adopted brother yes- my parents took him in when he was 7. It’s interesting you think we look alike though, you’re not the first person to say that.” Yoongi’s hands have found their way to his uniform, smoothing it out subconsciously.

“Oh really? Yeah I wouldn’t have suspected that, you guys have the same mouth-” His brows raise at your comment and the glint in his eye makes you backtrack, “his lips are a little bigger I guess though so- uh not that I’m looking closely at your mouth or anything but-”

Yoongi starts chuckling then, the shakiness in your tone amusing him “I understand what you mean don’t worry. What’s my total?” He nods to the tins, which you’ve finally finished wrapping.

“Oh! Right, I’m sorry- your total is 24.50...” You slide the tins towards him carefully before Jane’s shrill voice sounds from beside you.

“Give the man a discount Y/N, he’s practically buying out your entire stock!” She urges, gesturing wildly towards your cart.

Your mouth opens as your eyes move quickly between her and Yoongi “O-”

Yoongi raises his hand, “Nonsense. Ms. Y/L/N’s products are some of the finest I’ve come across and are certainly worth the full price-  24.50 you said?” His brows raise again, looking directly into your eyes, not even bothering to turn to Jane’s direction.

The direct way in which he addresses her sends a bit of heat to your cheeks. Jane is someone you have mutual respect for but, her attitude isn’t your favorite nor is her incessant need to put her nose in everyone’s business.  

“Yes, thank you.” You smile sheepishly, bending down once more to grab a paper bag from beneath your counter, “I’ll put in a few bags of rose hip and peppermint tea free of charge; they help with inflammation. I know you all will be training over the next few weeks so, you should get some use out of it.”

He offers a small smile and bows his head, “Thank you. Uh-” Yoongi turns once again back towards his camp, “Seokjin hasn’t stopped talking about your bread, has he arranged for you to bring more?”

Giggling, you accept his payment, tucking it away beneath the counter and nodding, “Yes. I’ll be by this evening with a new batch.”

“Has he offered any payment? We appreciate the hospitality of course but, I do hope he plans on compensating you for your trouble.”

Waving him off, you shake your head and slide the bag his way, “It’s no trouble at all honestly, I’ve been wanting to hone my baking skills for quite some time so, this just gives me an excuse to do so.”  

He grimaces, “Still, you should be-”

“I really don’t mind Yoongi, I promise. This transaction is going to take care of my family and I for quite some time. Not to mention the fact that you all saved my village A LOT of trouble. Take the free bread.” You insist, smirking slightly and if you aren’t mistaken, you notice a light blush come across his cheeks.

Clearing his throat, he steps back away from your cart, moving the smile off of his lips as best as he can.

He likes the sound of his name on your lips a little more than he cares to admit.  

He needs to get out of this plaza before he smiles at you one more time.  

It’s getting a little out of hand.

“Appreciate it.” He mutters before bowing his head once more, “I suppose I’ll see you this evening then?”

Something flutters around in your stomach, “You will. Thank you again for coming by.”

His mouth fixes over a tight smile as he fashions the bag around his wrist, which is quite delicate for a man of his nature.  

When Yoongi is fully out of earshot, you take a deep breath and begin straightening up your cart, trying to distract your mind from his presence

Jane however, has been foaming at the mouth ever since he shot down her suggestion of a discount and quickly rushes over to you, smacking her hand across your arm.

“Ow! Ok- listen we have got to find another way to greet each other because, you’re going to leave some permanent damage on me one of these days.” You admonish, your brow furrowing as you rub your arm.

She ignores you and leans down, her eyes wide with curiosity, “You ARE going to pursue him aren’t you? He’s clearly interested, did you see the way he smiled?! He was quite literally hanging on every word you said!” She whisper yells, her eyes darting around  

This conversation is giving you deja vu and given your flustered state you don’t necessarily have the capacity to argue with her.

“Maybe he’s just kinder than you all gave him credit for.” You answer coolly, giggling as she tugs frantically at your dress.

“He’s kinder to YOU. He barely gave me a second look.” She insists, sound slightly bitter

You quickly move on, waving over another customer, a smile still on your lips, “Aren’t you happily married Jane? I’m sure your husband looks at you plenty...”

She kisses her teeth and rolls her eyes, “Happily is a loaded word dear. Regardless, my point stays the same. You said you were bringing bread over to him didn’t you? Are you planning on using that chance to further this little bond you two have?”

Its your turn to roll your eyes now, “I plan on using that chance to deliver bread.”

With a grumble, Jane reluctantly returns to her cart as she too has a customer heading her way.

The rest of the day passes easily, which you are quite thankful for given that you’re evening plans are a little out of the ordinary.  

It’s hard to get Yoongi out of your mind but, you really do try, he is just a man after all.

Just an interesting, intelligent, handsome-

“Y/N...” Rachel’s voice drags you out of your train of thought and causes you to quickly shift on the stool towards her.

You went to her house after you day had ended because:

She’s the absolute best

and

She has the better oven

“What? Sorry I was-”

She smirks knowingly, sprinkling flour over the dough on the cutting board, “Just thinking about how you plan on charming the Tiger tonight?”

You’d like to deny it but, she isn’t entirely wrong.

Instead, you just go back to wrapping the current loaf of fresh bread in the same paper you use to wrap you wares back at the market.

The cheese in this batch makes the outside of the bread a little greasy so, you always gift it with some wrapping; it also keeps the bugs away.

“You know- you should come with me. It's your one-way ticket to Jungkook, you only have a few weeks to gain his hand in marriage.” You point out, smirking.

Rachel blushes profusely, “I- well- you know?!?! He really is something.” She stutters, swallowing back a bit of her nerves before continuing, “I don’t know if I can do that. You've seen me in social settings...”

You snort and point in her direction, “I have. You’re great in social settings. We panic- in private- together remember? That’s how we bond.” Clenching your fist to your chest dramatically, you continue with the rest of her concern, “Honestly he’s not that intimidating face to face. He was practically hiding behind in his friend when I was there...”

Jungkook had stood out to you for that specific reason; his demeanor at the plaza would have never lead you to suspect his shy and rather docile nature.  

He certainly was perplexing.

Rachel smiles whimsically, staring off at nothing while she half-heartedly kneads the dough. She then lets out a sigh before giggling at the end of your sentence, “I suppose you’re right. He seems gentle underneath that brawny exterior. He’s so handsome too- and such a high rank for being so young. I’m just a village teacher...”

You smirk again, “Gentle is one way of putting it.” Then you scoff, feeling actual offense at her comment regarding herself. To express your distaste, you throw a piece of dough her way, “Stop that. You are literally the most eligible woman in this entire village. You are an artist, an educator and-” You take a bite out of a spare loaf of bread and shove it in your mouth, relishing in it’s doughy, cheesy texture. “- a damn good baker. Don’t sell yourself short.”

She rolls her eyes playfully, “Oh alright...you’re quite eligible yourself you know! How does it feel to have caught the eye of the Tiger himself, hm????”  

“So you’re coming?” You ask excitedly, bouncing on your stool before promptly looking away in denial, “I have done no such thing. He’s just being friendly to me because I cured his dry skin. Soft hands will change a man let me tell you...”  

“Ohhhh I suppose I will.” She sighs with a shrug to her shoulders, “My curiosity will always get the best of me, for better or worse.” She leans closer to her friend, conspiratorially “we can’t have that Tigers paws TOO soft—don’t do your job TOO well, oh esteemed herbalist.”

“In sickness and in health til death do you part...” You finish with raised brows, before giggling “esteemed and eligible? Now you’re just flattering me. I don’t think he’ll need to come back to my cart at least, I gave him enough salve to last the winter.”

Rachel shoves rounds the counter suddenly, heat blooming on her cheeks as she tries to shove you off the stool, “Oh YOUUUUU!!” She rolls her eyes again, looking at you pointedly, “Regardless of salve, you don’t give yourself enough credit. All jokes aside, Y/N, from what you have told me about your run ins with the general, he seems to appreciate your conversation. I don’t imagine people treat him with such frankness.”

Your laughter increases as you hold onto the counter for dear life, “Hey easy!” Biting your lip, you try to think of the right words to say without giving yourself away, “He’s very interesting. I am- you know, very intrigued by him that’s for sure.”

She lets you off the hook, her own laughter dying down as she returns to her place, “He is fascinating...I am a bit surprised at how different he seems to be from the stories...it raises so many questions like- how did he end up where he is?”

“I don’t know honestly. I kind of feel bad that so many people had him wrong- Seokjin said they don’t get a lot of hospitality due to the rumors about Yoongi.”

Rachel pouts before turning to pull one of the last batches of bread out of the oven. As she tugs the tray out of it’s warm resting place her lips tug up into a smirk “Oh it’s Yoongi now? On a first name basis with the nation’s greatest general I see- that was quick.”  

It’s your eyes that roll this time, heat rushing to the tip of your nose, “That IS his name... I can’t keep calling him Tiger now can I? That would be weird...”

She continues smirking but, her eyes hold a bit of sympathy as she addresses the rest of your sentence, “Seriously though, that breaks my heart for them...he handled that raider with more kindness than he deserved. It makes me wonder how many other rumors are unfounded.”

“Yeah it really surprised me- I was expecting there to be bloodshed...I still can’t believe he just let most of them go. I’ve seen soldiers administer worse punishments for lesser offenses.  

“I suppose you are right. Yoongi seems to be shrouded in mystery, but perhaps you will have a chance to learn more about the man behind the myth?” She suggests, brows rising with her inquiry.

“Typical teacher- rooting for me and all my hopes and dreams.” You tease as the two of you load up the bread into the basket, “Perhaps YOU will have a chance to learn more about the man behind the chest plate hm? Are you all ready to go?”

She smiles, “I will ALWAYS root for you!” And as the two of you begin packing everything up she huffs, blushing once again, “You really won’t stop teasing me, will you?”

“Nope.” You smile cheekily, dodging as she tries to wack you, “I can see it now- you, educating the youth and him- protecting the innocent. It’s a match made in heaven.”  

Rachel offers a shy grin as the two of you head out the door, “A girl can daydream...”

The walk to the camp doesn’t take long but within the short period of time you spend walking, your stomach manages to work itself up into a frenzy.

“Ok- the main tent is the one with the flag on the-” You begin, pointing it out to Rachel but your voice is quickly swallowed as you spot him:

The Tiger aka Yoongi, strolls through the courtyard of their camp towards a group of awaiting recruits in the distance.

He’s wearing crème colored linen pants and a matching peasant blouse, his long white tendrils wrapped up into a bun atop his head. He strides through the grass with confidence, his dark eyes observing his surroundings.

“You were saying?” Rachel eyes you curiously before following your line of sight.

Before she can say anything, you rush to return to your explanation, “Seokjin is the one that I made the arrangements with so, we can deliver these in there.” You gesture to the main tent, swallowing back a bit of nerves.

You don’t see many of Yoongi’s men out in the yard with the exception of Namjoon. He’s sitting on a bench, dressed entirely in red, sketching on a piece of parchment.  

As you ring the bell of the tent, Rachel subconsciously shifts behind you.

“Is that my bread?!” Seokjin yells from inside the tent and after a bit of shuffling, he pushes aside the entrance, a bright smile on his face, “Ugh it is. You are a godsent Y/N...” His head cocks as he sees Rachel standing beside you, “Oh hello, you must be Y/N’s friend. Kim Seokjin, did you assist with this delivery?”

He extends a hand to her warmly and Rachel graciously takes it, smiling softly.

“I did. It’s very nice to meet you. You can call me Rachel...”

He returns her smile, bowing his head, “Rachel- that’s a beautiful name. Thank you for doing this, I haven’t seen these men so energized in quite some time.” Seokjin smirks fondly before his teeth tug at his bottom lip, “Would you two mind joining me in here for a moment? I have a question I’d like to ask you.”

You nod despite your confusion, still in disbelief that you’ve made contact with the nation’s most infamous men.

“Of course.”

Rachel nods politely, following behind you as Seokjin holds the entrance open.  

Your hit with the smell of wood as you enter their tent along with a hint of musk. It’s genuinely surprising that the odor isn’t stronger given that multiple men likely share these quarters. There’s several cots on the floor and mini lanterns adorning the ropes holding the tent together. Supplies, personal belongings and various weapons litter the floor and tabletops and, in one of the cots you spot Jungkook, laying down, shirtless.  

In front of his face sits a book that needs no introduction; a famous military strategy guide written by an ancient legend. Befitting, you think, of course they would have their men brushing up on military technique.  

Your brain also hones in on the man holding the book:

Jungkook is truly beautiful. His chocolate locks reach the base of his neck, disheveled but luxurious whilst his tan and soft features are screwed up in concentration. He doesn’t notice your presence at first but, Rachel certainly notices him.

You can hear her swallow beside you, her face turning bright red as her body subconsciously shifts closer to you.  

Her lips part silently and she tries her best to tear her eyes away from his body. The broadness of his chest and the smooth curves of his stomach is enough to capture your attention as well despite the fact that muscle doesn’t normally warrant a reaction from you.

As you the two of you grow closer to him, his eyes finally flit in your direction and, they grow wide like saucers. Hastily, he throws his book to the side before ripping his blanket off the end of his cot and wrapping it around himself.

“Jungkook-ah, make yourself decent. We have guests. I believe you’ve met Y/N already but, this is her friend Rachel...” Seokjin gestures elegantly to both of you, unbothered and unaware of the lingering tension in the air.

“Yes Hyung-” He mutters and grabs his brown linen shirt off the floor and tugs it over his head. He stands, almost robotically and extends his hand towards her, “Nice to meet you.”

Rachel moves in a similar way, her eyes still widened slightly whilst she takes his hand.

“Hi.” She responds, her voice smaller than usual and it causes Seokjin to quirk his brow at the two of them.

Jungkook visibly swallows, his prominent Adams apple bouncing in his throat as his hand sort of lingers against hers.

“I like your- “ His eyes flit to the top of her head, “ribbon. It’s blue.”

Seokjin smirks knowingly at the two of them now and he opens his mouth to break the tension before Rachel speaks up.

“Thanks!” She says a bit too loudly before swallowing the volume a bit, “I like your shirt. It’s very brown- a nice brown.”

Jungkook offers a tiny smile, dropping her hand reluctantly and before their encounter can continue, Seokjin speaks up.

“Uh ok, hooray for first meetings hm?” He nods to the exit of the tent, “Jungkook, I believe Yoongi was looking for you. He needs an assistant for today’s training session.”

Jungkook immediately perks up, nodding in excitement, “Yes hyung.” He pivots towards his cot to collect his armor but turns around once more to glance at Rachel, “Nice meeting you.”

“You too.” She practically squeaks, raising a hand in farewell.

Jungkook’s teeth peek out as he grins before he grabs his armor and practically sprints out of the tent.

Seokjin chuckles warmly and shakes his head before gesturing to the wooden table towards the back of the tent, “You are welcome to have a seat here, this should only take a moment.”

You each take your places at the table, illuminated by the lantern hanging above you.

Seokjin rounds the corner to sit across from you, his prince-like features tightening with a bit seriousness.

“As I said- this will be quick.” He assures you, licking his lips and lowering his voice a bit, “I was speaking with Yoongi earlier today and, he mentioned something that made me quite curious. He relayed a bit of your conversation with him-” He looks at you, “-he said that you told him that raiders were a common occurrence in your region, is that correct?”

You take his lead and lower your voice as well, glancing at Rachel before answering, “Yes. The number of raids has been increasing recently over the last few months actually.”

“I see. Do you have any idea as to why that may be?”

“I mean- our village is known for negotiating with raider clans.” You offer,” Our leaders feel as though it prevents violence.”

His brows quirk, hands clasping on the top of the table, “Has that method been effective so far?”

You look to Rachel for her insight and she tilts her head, considering the question, before she nods in approval which causes you to follow suit.

“I guess so. We have a specific strategy but, we are equipped with defenses as well.”  

Seokjin nods, his brows knitting together in thought. His plush lips part for a moment as he contemplates his next response, uncertainty written all over his face.

“Have either of you noticed any similarities between the clans? Anything at all- clothing, weaponry, language?”  

Your immediate response is to shake your head.

When a raid is occurring, you don’t necessarily have time to observe your intruders; safety is the only thing on your mind.

Rachel however, has noticed a similarity.

“There is one thing I’ve started to notice actually-” She begins, “They all seem to have a similar strategy. When they arrive, they encircle the town first before working their way inwards. It takes them a very long time to reach the center of the village, which is where we wait for them. It’s very strange actually, the center plaza contains most of our valuables- it's almost as if they are trying to take over in a way. However, they always end up leaving after negotiations and, I’ve never seen the same faces twice.”

Now that she mentions it, you recall that similarity as well.  

They do deploy the same tactic but, you just assumed that it’s the most effective way to get the most out of their raid.

Perhaps that isn’t their only intention.

Your stomach shrinks at the thought as you try to push it out of your head.

Seokjin’s features twitch with a bit of unease but, he composes himself quickly and smiles.

“Thank you. I’ll pass that along to Yoongi and see what he thinks of it.” He takes a deep breath, “We really appreciate your cooperation. As I mentioned to you the other day, it’s not very often that we are able to communicate with civilians and it makes our job a lot easier if we have insight from people who actually live in the territories we try to protect.” He eyes you both with a bit of hesitation then, as if he’s contemplating something, “If you wouldn't mind spreading the word that we aren’t a group of vicious demi-gods that would be great. As fun as the legends are, they can be a hinderance to our work...”  

You and Rachel nod in understanding, chuckling lightly at his word usage as the three of you stand.

“I’ll pass along the information. Thank you for having us.” You smile, bowing your head.

Rachel follows suit and, subconsciously her eyes drift to Jungkook’s cot, something that doesn’t go unnoticed by Seokjin.

“We appreciate having you very much.” He smirks as his eyes flit to Rachel, “Both of you. I think you should come along with Y/N for future deliveries Rachel, I’m sure Jungkook would enjoy that.”

Comically, Rachel’s eyes widen a bit as she aggressively clears her throat, frantically looking away from Jungkook’s cot.

“What? Why would he? Wh-What do you mean?” She stutters which causes you to giggle fondly at your friend.

Taking her hand, you squeeze it gently and address Seokjin’s request, “Oh she’ll be back, don’t you worry.”

He chuckles and gestures to the door, “I look forward to it. I’ll walk you two out, I hope you have a good rest of your day.”

Rachel mutters something inaudible by your side, towing behind you reluctantly.

After your departure from the tent and a bit of friendly verbal sparring between you and Rachel, you separate to finish the remainder of your day.

That evening, you decide to go against your parent’s judgements and journey to the river once again.

As beautiful as it is in the daylight, the moon provides a rendition unlike any other. She casts her glow on the water like the mother of all spotlights, dancing across the surface with ease.  

The truth is, you often sneak out after your parent’s have fallen asleep to find solace in the atmosphere of there. It’s almost magical and you feel as though you can think clearly here.  

You always bring your wicker basket along as well so you can collect any herbs or ingredients you may need.

It’s a necessity to switch off between plants though and ensure that you aren’t depleting the rivers natural resources too much; a practice you are continuously getting better at.  

The river carries it’s usual orchestra of sounds along with a bit more whistling in the trees.

It’s mating season for the birds here and they are singing to one another in hopes of finding a lover.

You giggle to yourself and think of what the world would be like if humans implied a similar method of finding a partner.

“Should I be concerned that you’re out here alone, laughing to yourself?”

The voice instantly sends energy up your back and you whip your head around to find Yoongi standing a few yards behind you.

He looks a bit worn out, likely from all the work he’s been doing with the new recruits but, his beauty overwhelms you regardless.

The moonlight casts shadows on his face, his mouth pulled up in a smirk, his hair tied back once again into a ponytail.

He’s wearing a set of clean clothes, a white linen top with brown pants, his sword strapped loyally to his hip.

You imagine he never travels without it.

“Should I be concerned that you’re stalking me?” You retort trying to control the smile that crosses over your face.

He smirks, his hand coming up to rub behind his neck, “I’m not stalking you. I’m patrolling the perimeter, common military practice. You just so happen to be along the perimeter.”

“The perimeter is one the other side of the river, there is a path just through those trees over there-” You point to a group of trees to the left of you, “So technically, you’re not walking the ENTIRE perimeter.”

Yoongi smirks broadens enough for his teeth to peak out as he nods, impressed by your knowledge, “Fair enough.” He nods to the river behind you, “I like walking through here, it’s peaceful.”

You can’t help but return a smile of your own as you nod, “It is. I don’t blame you for taking a detour, even if it was to scare the lights out of me again.”

He chuckles, “Are you out here often?”

“Very.” You nod, “This place serves multiple purposes.”

“Oh does it? What purposes are those?”

“Well, I get most of my ingredients from the river or the surrounding forest so, it’s vital to my work and,” You gesture to the space around your head, “It’s the perfect location to contemplate my existence, the meaning of life, the secrets of the universe- you know, stuff like that.”

Yoongi’s expression grows very amused then, his tongue poking out between his lips before he laughs again, “Ah yes- that stuff. Has the river provided you with any answers?”

“Oh yeah- plenty but you know, the answers only lead to more questions. It’s a vicious cycle.” You quip, giggling a bit and feeling very comfortable in his presence.

There is magnetism between the two of you.

It’s something you’ve never felt before.

And deep down within your heart, you hope he feels it too.

He steps towards you subconsciously, glancing towards the moon and then back at you, “I know that cycle very well. Have you found anything worth sharing? My job doesn’t exactly allow me to indulge in philosophy very often, I’d welcome any of your insight.”

It’s perplexing that a famous General would care to know your thoughts regarding the best eateries in your village let alone, for him to care about your philosophy.

It’s incredibly odd.  

You've always been a fan of oddities though so, you don’t think as much of it as you should.

“You’d have to be a little more specific, I don’t think you’d want to sit here whilst I prattle on about the complexities of the universe.” You laugh

He bites his lip in contemplation, his gaze on you softening significantly, “I wouldn’t be so sure...” Yoongi murmurs and the way he looks at you sends your heart on a marathon, “But I see your point; what do you think of the war?”

Taking a deep breath, you attempt to compose yourself and your thoughts in order to accurately address his question.

“I understand it to a certain extent. Historically speaking, humans have consistently risen in opposition of one another for whatever reason. Peace seems impossible at times. With so many selfish people rising to power, it almost incentivizes that kind of behavior. It’s rewarded. Peace is only possible when you restrict the empowerment of those who act within their own self-interest. The cycle always continues though so, war is inevitable.” You speak softly, taking your eyes off of Yoongi for a moment to focus on your choice of words.  

His dark eyes seem to glimmer with fascination as he nods along to your response, the two of you shifting closer to one another.

Unintentionally, of course.

“How should we restrict the empowerment of those individuals?” He licks his lips as his eyes narrow in curiosity, “Do you think there is a way to do that?”

Chewing on your cheek, you consider his question before letting out a sigh, “The power would have to return to the masses. I think the idea that humanity needs finite leadership isn’t completely accurate. Snuffing out corruption is difficult though, especially since it’s already been let loose. I guess there isn’t a linear path but, I’d like to believe it’s possible.”

He smiles, “So would I. My profession wouldn’t really imply that though would it?”

Your hands play with the fabric of your dress to distract from how close the two of you are as you swallow back the instability of your breath.

“I think it does actually. You aren’t tasked with the corrupt objectives; your job is to defend against it.”  

A grimace comes over his face, “I still engage in violence.”

“You do.” You agree, your hands lowering to clasp in front of you, “There is a difference between you and your enemy though isn’t there?”

Yoongi is truly hanging on every word you say, eager to hear the soft twinkle of your voice, eager to understand your mind.

“There is.” He answers tightly, glancing down your hands, “Violence isn’t our objective.”

You notice his gaze on your hands and it causes you to look at his own; they look softer than you remember, which you hope you can take partial credit for.

Amused, you watch as he clasps and unclasps them unknowingly, his nerves starting to creep up inside his head.

“What is your objective?” You ask, smiling softly at him

He bites his bottom lip, nodding as he understands where you’re headed, “Defending the innocent.”

“In times of war, peace also requires an army...” You conclude, hoping to comfort him in some way.

He smiles again but, he doesn’t look up at you, his gaze transfixed upon your fingers, “You should consider becoming an advisor of some sort.”

Your head tilts, your heart rate going crazy in your chest but, your curiosity and it’s need to be sated override your need to be proper.

“Why do you keep looking at my hands?”

He still doesn’t look up but he does blush, nervous laughter emanating from his lips, “Because I want to hold them...”

At his confession, he looks up at you longing, his throat bobbing as he swallows and tries to discern your reaction.

Without thinking you unfurl your fingers and turn your palms so they are facing towards the sky, slightly embarrassed by the way that they shake.

“Then hold them.”

Yoongi’s eyes widen momentarily, shooting down at your upturned palms before he slowly, almost agonizingly places his own shaking hands atop yours.

Simultaneously, the two of you intertwine your fingers, feeling the erratic pulse of one another.

“It’s good to know that my heart isn't the only one that’s pounding.”

Nervously, you giggle and nod rapidly, “Definitely. I thought I was the only one...”

He chuckles in response, stepping towards you a little more so you can feel the heat coming off of his body.

The two of you stand there in silence, enjoying the feeling of one another and the simplicity of the act you’re performing.

Words fall short on your tongue because, you are truly in awe of the way you feel and, part of you worries that you’re actually dreaming.  

A shout nearby, coming from one of your fellow villagers rips the two of you out of your moment as Yoongi suddenly remembers why he came this way in the first place.  

He drops your hands and steps back, feeling slightly regretful that he let go of you so abruptly.

“I’m sorry.” He clears his throat, looking back towards the voice before gesturing to the forest, “I should go- my men will come looking for me if I’m gone too long.”

Quickly, you nod in understanding, stepping a few inches back, “Of course. Thank you for the talk- it was-”

“I’d like to come by the river more often while I’m here- if that’s alright with you.” He interrupts you, his voice a little shaky as he clears his throat again.

Knowingly, you grin, “I don’t own the river Yoongi...”

Your quip breaks the bit of tension between you and he chuckles, his hands adjusting his clothes unnecessarily.

“I’m aware, Ms. Apothecary. I was just implying that-”

You interrupt him now with a smirk rushing to your lips, “You were implying that we should cross paths again.”

Yoongi bites his lip, cheeks the color of summer roses, “Yes.”

“I think we should too.”

This makes him smile and for a moment, he looks like a young man, completely rid of any burdens.

It’s a good look.

“Are you ok to walk back on your own?”  

You want to tell him no but, the light from the main street is yards away and after that, your home is only 5 minutes by foot.

“Yes.” You nod to the forest behind him, “Are you ok to walk on your own?”

He rolls his eyes before chuckling, patting the sword at his hip, “I’ll manage.”

With one last parting smile, the two of you begin to go your separate ways.

Tonight, each of your minds would be filled thoughts of one another and if you were lucky, you’d cross each others path while you sleep.

One could only hope.

“Goodnight Y/N.”

“Goodnight General Min.”

[british-bombs]

( TO BEAT THE DEVIL ) An introduction.

FORMAT: teleplay / novel

GENRE: horror, coming of age

LOGLINE: An interning demon drives a pair of twins cursed with obedience and honesty to kill their cult leader.

THEMES: Trauma, sexual abuse, domestic violence, victim blaming (particularly self blame), peer pressure, redemption, internalized homophobia, and religion.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Sexual abuse, violence, domestic and otherwise, manipulation, and death

EXTENDED SUMMARY, CHARACTERS, EXCERPT AND NOTES:

Carmine can taste it. They're hiding something. Humans have such a silly smell about them, turns an overwhelming shade of sweet when they've made a demonic deal. All four of these children have. He just can't figure out what, and more importantly: why.

It keeps him on the surface longer than he should be. Long enough that Lilith sees it fit to send him a fucking trainee? And if that wasn't insult enough, the trainees one of the eternal teenage know-it-alls.

He's already got four annoying toddlers to trail, and now there's one tugging his hand in the new generation's approach to soul-catching like Carmine isn't one of the best employees they've had since the turn of the century.

And somehow, to make it all worse, the trainee is good at it. And if Carmine wants to keep his spot at the top of the food chain, he's going to have to get the soul of that dumb bitch who's running the joint.

But, of course, the kid gets him murdered??? And then has the nerve to figure out how what those toddlers managed to stick their syrupy, grubby little hands in. What gives?

But two can play at that game. If he can't get the dead guy's, then he can have the next best thing.

Jesse has lived just under seventeen years, but he's ready to check out. Or he was. But of course, some selfish bastard had to come along and say you can't ever act on those thoughts again! Don't think like that!

And then the hole kept getting deeper.

Six feet deep, to be exact. He's got blood on his hands and no matter how fucking good it felt to cut off the air supply to the God who stole his innocence, it's probably not going to feel very good to watch his mom suffer through a highly publicized trial with headlines like CHILD MURDERS HIGH PROFILE BENEFACTOR!!!

Oh. Well. Billy did say if he really got in that deep, he could always strike up a deal. His soul, everything wrapped up in a nice little bow, sweet as Easter Sunday. But until then? Yeah, he's content to live in a stupid fucking Sherlock Holmes novel.

CHARACTERS:

JESSE NIX: A soon-to-be seventeen-year-old saddled with the curse of obedience. Unlike miss-lucky-Ella-Enchanted, he wasn't told to give away his mommy's locket. No-siree. He was told to give away his virginity. In his opinion, the only appropriate payback is a life. Maybe, one day, if he really snaps, he'll dig up Pastor Dallin's corpse and chop his dick off. Really stick it to the man. If he doesn't go to prison first, anyway. (spotify playlist)

NANCY NIX: Also a soon-to-be-seventeen-year-old, though saddled with the curse of honesty. It's really not so bad. That is, until she stumbles across the sight of her dearest little brother covered in blood for no reason he can push through his metal braces. She refuses to believe he did it on purpose. If only she could convince the cops without sounding like a nutjob. (spotify playlist)

BEVERLY PINES: A seventeen-year-old cursed to feel the pain of those around her. It makes for some fun family dinners with a sadistic mom and a missing dad. Distance nulls pain, but she can't ever seem to make it past state lines before her mom gets wise and breaks one of her ribs. Oh, well. She's got a bone to pick with psychos like her mom. Apparently, Pastor Dallin was one of them. She doesn't think she could stomach the pain of killing someone, so next best thing, right? (spotify playlist)

CLARICE ANDERMANN: Also a seventeen-year-old cursed to be constantly in motion. It's honestly not that bad. She's Yale bound! Perks of having endless energy for everything to cheerleading to debate contests, though she can't imagine her heart's going to keep up like this. It's already hanging on by a thread. That thread is named Beverly Pines and like hell she's letting it go to prison for nothing. (spotify playlist)

BILLY: An annoying fuck trapped in a seventeen-year-old's body. No curses. The opposite, in fact - blessed with a silver tongue and a keen sense of deduction. It takes him all of two hours to put together (almost) everything about Jesse Nix. He just didn't think he could push the repressed little fuck to murder that quick. (All the more power to him, though. Prison always makes people desperate and paranoid, AKA: an easy mark.) (spotify playlist)

MAVIS EVANGELISTA: Former housewife turned grieving widow turned revered prophet. If she got a little help from someone downstairs, then who's to know? They love her all the same. Now, she really, really wants to see how far she can push them all. (spotify playlist)

CARMINE: Just a helpful guy, passing through. Really doesn't need anything, just a little pledge, is all! And then? Then, you can have everything you want, fame, money, power, love. The sky is your limit. The water's fine! (Ignore the piranhas, they'll wait till you're dead to eat your face, just a little bit.) (spotify playlist)

NOTES:

- all of these characters have equal importance within the story.

- personal tag system for story stuff is '#tbtd' and character tags are just first name (ex: '#jesse')

- this is kind of really fucked up. the only reason i wrote it was cause i was thinking damn ella enchanted really is NOT fucked up enough. like i don't think the author of ella enchanted went dark enough. a locket? that's it? a bitch move. i'm taking it to straight murder and sexual abuse

- jesse transgender, no character straight except evil people

- i'm not entirely sure how tag lists work but i think i get the gist of them?? idk if you want rb or ask or something </3

EXCERPT:

There were moments, where she was reminded just how different this voice was, how violent.

She had found Lynette, making off with her makeup that she’d spent her own allowance on. Mavis doted on her and, from what she’d seen of other families, everyone else looked upon their little siblings with contempt, despising the burden they dragged along with their existence.

But Mavis adored Lyn. When she'd been born, her mother had come home with a tiny thing bundled in pink fleece. Mavis had taken to Lyn on sight, thinking Lynette’s headband adorned with a baby blue bow was the universe’s way of telling her happy birthday! as reparations for the ones her mother had missed while she was enduring her week long stay at the hospital.

But that mindset was a disease, one that had finally caught up with her. Had Lynette not become her burden? She was nineteen, busting her back day and night so Lynette wouldn’t have to, that she might avoid the life that Mavis had lived in those blissful six years where it was her and her alone.

Had her mother not tampered down her birthday celebrations since Lynette’s was so very close and they couldn’t afford double anyway? Had Lynette not deprived her of the teenage experiences she heard her classmates speak of, going out and tasting alcohol for the first time while Mavis followed a ten year old Lynette house to house so she could complain of a stomach ache after she’d devoured all the candy on the walk back home?

And now this! Stealing her few precious items, the few things she bothered to save up for, few things she bothered to keep hidden. For what? It wasn’t as though she was ever going to have the courage to ask a peer of her’s out. She was a thief.

One Mavis had made the mistake of taking care of. She should’ve embraced those stirrings of resentment, should’ve left Lynette to her own devices since Lynette didn’t appreciate anything, or even half of what Mavis afforded her. She should’ve left her out in the cold that Christmas. How could anyone have known? It wasn’t as though corpses could talk--

She had let Lyn take off with the whole case, as if to remind herself when she woke up the next morning what she had considered, how vile the thought was.

Lyn had never done anything unforgivable to Mavis. Mavis didn’t suppose she ever could. It was no fault of Lyn’s she didn’t understand what it was like to live with their father. How could she? It was a topic off limits to Lyn by both Mavis and their mother. After all, a child born blind doesn’t know until it’s pointed out to them.

And yet, she found guilt hard to summon. She did, but the speed at which it came, the strength, made her uneasy. What had happened to the girl she was? Lyn had been her world. What had changed?

Then, dully, that other voice, entirely of its own volition, said You did.

[jamestrmtx]

Fairytale Complex - [Undertale | Sans x Reader]

[Gender Neutral, Frisk's Parent Reader | Slow Burn]

Chapter Eight | Dating Start! (Part 2 of 3)

[First] | [Previous] | [Next]

"Can I see your hand for a moment?"

The question's immediate, guilt pushing you to blurt it out the second you step foot out of Snowdin. Even so, he doesn't rush in giving you an answer and, rather, looks at you like you've asked the most absurd question of the century. "C'mon, pal," he says, sneering. "Don't tell me you're still worked up about this?"

Beyond pissed he's brushed it off so easily while you're still stressing your years out over it, you huff and hold back the urge to glare at him. "Yes, I am. Now can you show it to me, please?"

"Alright."

Sans gives in with a grin and takes off his gloves. Then, he shows you the hand you'd hit to reveal there's a reddish mark visible on it despite him being made out of bones. "See what I mean? Your hand's got a bruise on it!" You frown at the sight and take his hand, using your thumb to rub at the injury. "Does it hurt? I figured you could still bruise… But just, not like this."

"I'll be fine," he says, pulling his hand back. "That's probably just frostbite or somethin'." He walks with you to the nearby river and sits down next to it, letting his legs drape over the edge and shoes barely graze the surface of the water. "It'll fade after a while."

"At least let me try to do something," you say, persistent. You sit next to him and look at his hand again, now resting on one of the many puddles surrounding the floor. True to his word, the mark starts to fade with the help of the lukewarm water, though only slightly and -- when compared to his other hand -- it's clear as day the mark that's left is a result of you swatting his hand away earlier. "Give me your hand."

"In marriage?"

You bite back a smile, caught off guard more than you would like to admit. "Are you that set on teasing me like this from now on?" you retort, maintaining a stern look throughout. "I thought you said you weren't interested in this kind of stuff?"

"Yeah, but flirting's different."

"So now you admit you're flirting with me?"

"You're not gonna give this a rest, aren't ya?"

"Not unless you show me your hand again."

"Fine." He chuckles, offering his hand out to you. "Go ahead."

You take his hand -- left bare now that he's not wearing gloves anymore -- and place it over your thigh as a makeshift table. Then, you take a first aid kit from your backpack and retrieve a few items from it. "Stay still," you say, facing his hand. "I'm not sure if human-made medicine works the same with monsters, but…" You disinfect the wound, rub some cooling gel over the burn mark, and stick a waterproof bandage on it after, all while ignoring how tense his hand gets until you're finished with the process. 

"Nervous?" you ask, grinning. "Your hand's all stiff now."

"I thought you said you would give your own teasin' a rest?"

"It's not teasing if it's the truth."

The conversation's ended on that when his phone starts to ring.

He stands up, reaches out for it and -- though he tries his best not to let it show -- it's made more than obvious he doesn't want you to see who the caller is by how awkward his body language gets. His irises jump from the phone and a nearby spot for him to possibly answer the call without any interruptions, to your face and the hand you healed up. A conflict seems to settle itself out in his mind when he decides to take the call right where he is, though still without revealing who the person is.

"Hello?"

The voice on the other side booms with a "Have you done it yet?", impatience present in their voice. It's a familiar sounding one, though you don't want to jump to conclusions yet with how bizarre the possibility is. 

"Tell them everything in detail, or I'll do it myself in front of a whole damn crowd," is another line you can hear from the person, how quiet Waterfall is allowing you to listen to them even as Sans tries to lower the volume some.

"I will," he mutters, a neutral tone masking the subtle, annoyed look on his face, completed with him rolling his irises. "Just gimme a sec, will ya? I'm kinda in the middle of somethin' right now."

The skeleton hangs up after that and lets out a quiet sigh. He seems troubled in more ways than one, something that increments when he makes eye contact with you. "You, uh... probably heard that with how loud he was, huh?" he asks, hangdog. "It's about time I told you more about myself, though. So it's only fair."

"What do you mean?" You frown, stand up, and take a step closer to his side; fighting back the urge to push any further is almost impossible to do, yet you try it either way. "And... Who was that?"

"You probably won't like the answer to that last question, but, well…" He scratches the back of his neck as he takes a breath. "He basically gave me a deadline for me to tell you all about who I am, and who I used to be."

"Who is he, then?"

"Your ex."

An instinct to retreat from the conversation arrives at the mention of that man, though you push through it. Running away from the subject wouldn't do you good anymore, especially now, taking into consideration how Jerry's apparently given up on trying to communicate with you through text, and instead chosen to place the burden on others rather than by approaching you directly. "Block him," you blurt out, anger nulling your subtlety and tact. "And if he's blackmailing you into this, I'll deal with him. Even if he wants you to confess about everything, he still needs to be way more upfront about it. Hiding behind threats and text messages won't do him any favours on my part or anyone else's."

He sits down with you again. The rippling and bubbling sounds of the waterfall clashing with the river help soothe the tension between you, aiding you both in finding the will to carry on with the conversation. It's likely a busy place like a city on a Monday or the shop back at Snowdin wouldn't've been adequate places for you to discuss this with him, so you bask under the calm and silence of Waterfall as you wait for him to decide on what to do. "I mean it," you say, facing him. "If he's threatening you, I'll talk with him. It's no use for you to tell me everything by force than through honesty -- like you've done so far. It… It feels more genuine, and I like it better that way."

You break your gaze away and carry it over to the river, casting it down to look at your reflection in the water. Your fingers brush with the surface as you continue to wait for him to speak up, and a ghostly warmth stays on your fingertips despite the anticipation of the water being cold, a brief sensation that fades when you pull your hand back. Your skin glows with the help of the echo flowers spread all around the area, and the near translucent water serves as natural lighting for the mellow darkness of your surroundings. Of all the places you'd been given a tour of since arriving at the Underground, Waterfall was by far the most breathtaking of them all.

"It's fine," he says, casual self returning. "I was gonna tell you along the way to Hotland, either way."

"Pinky promise you're not being forced by him?" you ask, looking at him once more and offering him your pinky.

His nose cavity flares as he lets out a laugh, though he still extends his pinky out and locks it with yours. "Pinky promise I'm not."

• • •

The mood leftover after the promise begins to vanish when Sans starts to talk about what Jerry called him for, and it takes a turn for the worse when the monster reaches the topic of Toriel and her relationship with Frisk.

"So she really let them go all alone?"

"Yeah, but after she tested to see if they were strong enough to. The kid wanted to explore beyond the Ruins, and so she let them go after that."

He's explained everything the man at the bus yelled at you for, though -- of course -- in a much calmer, detailed manner than him.

"She cared so much for them, that at the end of it all, she even asked them if they wanted to live with her at the Surface."

"Y- You mean as her child?" you ask, voice breaking with your shock. "Why would she even ask that? Did... Did Frisk never tell her they ran away?"

"Not until the Barrier broke," he replies, kicking a stray rock into the water. It makes the surface ripple further and -- once it reaches the bottom -- it starts to glow, resembling the rocks visible in the Underground's makeshift, starry sky. "They said they had somewhere else to be, and that's when they told her all about you and how they wanted to go back home."

"So if they were angry at me, I… I might've never seen them again?"

Anger mixes with your lament, troubling you to the point where you can't judge the situation rationally anymore -- or without being influenced by your emotions so heavily, at least.

"Are you… Are you really telling me she would have replaced me as a parent? I… I-"

"Whoa there," he intervenes, letting out a nervous laugh. "That's not what I meant by that. She didn't know until after she asked them that, so what I'm sayin' is-"

"She wanted to keep Frisk as her child, Serif. That's enough of a reason for me to feel angry about this." Your voice raises and a glare shows up on your face. He stands up in response to your change in mood and tries to ease you out of your anger by offering a hand out to you. "I… I'm more than relieved she looked after them for so long, but… But couldn't she ask them over why they fell down here? Why didn't she ask them if they had someone to look after them way before that, and why did she try to keep them in the Ruins rather than help them journey through the Underground safely?"

"Now that's a bit complicated for me to explain, but…" He sighs and looks up at you when you take his hand and let him help you stand up again. "At the end of the day, it's better if she tells you all about that herself. She understands why she did that better than I ever will, and she can tell you stuff I otherwise won't be able to tell you without her prior knowledge." Although he doesn't have a throat, he almost seems to gulp with the next pause he takes. "But, well… If you need more context as to why she was so attached to Frisk as a parent, she lost both her biological son and adoptive kid way back when."

Your eyes falter in their glare when he says that, though your own emotions still keep you from softening up in response to such a reveal. Respecting Toriel's privacy by not forcing Sans to tell you all about her seems like the most humane thing to do even more now, so you let your glare fade away and ease in with a smile, fueled by sympathy. "...Alright," you say, letting out a breath as you allow your body to free itself from tension. "I understand, and I'm… I'm sorry for prying into this. I didn't know."

Expecting more words from him, you're contradicted when he only chooses to smile back at you and nod. "Anythin' else ya wanna ask me about myself, though? Take a breather, and tell me when you're ready to talk some more."

"Thank you."

You take up his advice and take a moment to compose yourself. You start by looking for your medicine and taking the one you need to for the hour it is; then, you drink some water and take a look at yourself through the river's reflection to see your eyes are already on the verge of watering up again. Continuously feeling sad over the past is almost a trademark of yours now, so you want to shatter that custom by mustering up as much emotional strength as you possibly can.

When you're more confident with yourself, you put the medicine back and drink the rest of the water, storing the empty bottle away after. 

"You were a sentry for the Underground, weren't you?"

The skeleton either didn't hear you, or your question's caught him off guard, the latter you try to discard when you see he's busy helping a small bird cross the waterfall, it's wings too weak for it to battle against the wind caused by the strength of the rushing water. He walks back to the river after that, though once he makes it back with you, it's noticeable how he's chosen not to answer your question yet, judging by the way his irises divert from yours the second he tries to look at you in the eye. "...Yeah," he says, finally managing a reply. "I know we've talked about this before, but… Could you still promise me you won't freak out too much? Or at least, well... Not at the same level as that guy back at the bus? Not that I don't want you to feel upset, but I just don't want you to end up in the hospital again because of somethin' like this."

"Believe me, I won't," you say, voice and gaze both stern, albeit softened by his words. "That's the last thing I want. But… Could you still tell me more about you in that sense? I want to know more about what your job as a sentry implied -- to more detail, I mean."

"Go ahead," he says, nodding. "I'll try to answer with as much depth as I can."

[First] | [Previous] | [Next]

• • •

That moment when you have to cut the chapter into 1 more part because you hadn't checked the word count, and part 2 was 5k words long. 👀

Also, quick fun fact: I almost wrote 'promise by the tiny claw' rather than 'pinky promise', because where I'm from we say 'lo prometo por la garrita', and my brain just failed to come up with the proper translation for pinky finger in English for a whole solid minute, lol. 

• • •

Tag List (Comment or message me if you want to be added to [or removed from] it!)

@the-simp-express

@nektotersh

@disastrous-l0vebug

@therealchickenjoe

@mintyflakes025

@pandaquick

[quicksilversquared]

Scandal Scandal

Adrien is willing to put up with a lot if it means not making unnecessary waves. But everyone has their breaking point, and after Lila pushes a bit too far....

Well, she'll find that even the most tolerate cats have claws.

links in the reblog

Two months after the start of their agreement, Adrien was getting really, really tired of Lila.

At first, it hadn't been awful. Sure, she was clingy and annoying and manipulative and attention-seeking, but Adrien could tolerate her presence at his photoshoots. His photographer seemed to pick up on the fact that Adrien didn't like Lila hanging over him, and so he always made sure to pose them in positions that weren't touching, not giving Lila any ground when she tried to cajole him into putting them in closer positions. Adrien was used to putting up with unwanted attention, too, so that was hardly new.

But Lila wasn't so easily deterred. She would cling before and after photoshoots, pushing at Adrien's boundaries almost all the time. The constant suggestions that they should work on their homework together afterwards at his house- always approved by his father, if he happened to drop in on the photoshoot and overhear Lila's suggestion- were irritating, and Lila was always far more of a hindrance than anything else during their study sessions. On top of that, he had finally had to refuse to let her in his room, because she didn't seem to understand the concept of no snooping.

(Thank goodness for the Gorilla being firmly on Adrien's side, or else Lila probably still would have tried to drag Adrien up to his room to do their homework.)

Adrien always ended up having to stay up late those days to actually finish his homework and do his studying. As one of the city's superheroes, he shouldn't be doing that. He needed his sleep, and he needed to be able to get his homework done in a reasonable amount of time in case of an akuma attack.

But they were at an impasse. If Adrien didn't keep publically acting as though Lila were his friend, then she would start targeting Marinette at school again, and he couldn't let that happen. Adrien was worried that if he pushed back too hard when Lila pushed at his boundaries, she would consider their "agreement"- that she wouldn't try to get Marinette in trouble and that he would (at least publically) pretend to be her friend- null and void and go after Marinette again.

It was a frustrating place to be in, and Adrien's patience was fast wearing thin. His tolerance for Lila- for acting like they were friends of any sort, for ignoring it when she snagged him close for the sole purpose of pressing a lip gloss-sticky kiss to his cheek for a picture to post online, for even being near her- had gotten worn down to the point where Adrien was starting to wonder about looking into other solutions to the Lila problem.

And then Lila went too far.

There had been rumors about them before, of course. Lila's sudden constant presence at Adrien's photoshoots hadn't gone at all unnoticed, and the fact that they sometimes left photoshoots together- when Lila and Mr. Agreste forced study sessions on him- had only added to the rumor mill. The rumors had never been addressed, though.

Until now. Lila had apparently been approached, and she had decided to confirm to a reporter that she and Adrien were a couple. The news had zinged across the city, and Adrien had found out on social media that he was apparently one-half of a couple that he had never agreed to being part of.

And he. Was. Fuming. His patience was gone, snapped, the last strands so far gone that he couldn't even see them anymore.

"If she thinks that I'm going to keep playing along, she's wrong," Adrien told Plagg, pacing back and forth in his room. "She probably thinks that I'll just lie down and agree to play along, but this is too much. It's too far. I'm not- the very idea of being in a relationship with her makes me sick, after what she tried to do to Marinette."

"Some of your fans want you to have a photoshoot where you kiss," Plagg said unhelpfully, scrolling through Adrien's phone. "Or an announcement photo, because they think it would be cute."

Adrien tried not to gag at the thought and snarled instead. "Not happening. Not. Happening." He sighed. "At least Marinette knows why I've been letting Lila come to my photoshoots. Otherwise, I bet she would be feeling pretty betrayed and I don't- I don't want her to feel like that."

Plagg zipped around his head. "Are you going to just ignore the news, then? If your actual girlfriend knows the truth, it doesn't matter what the rest of Paris believes?"

"No way. If I don't stop Lila now, she's going to expect that I play the role of a boyfriend all the time, even if it's not true." Adrien scowled into the air, then the second part of Plagg's words sunk in. "And Marinette is my friend, Plagg, not my girlfriend."

Plagg only sniggered. "So you always say."

Adrien rolled his eyes at his kwami. This was not the time, really. He had too many other things to worry about-or, well, only one thing, really, and that was Lila's lie.

If Adrien didn't want to be forced into playing along, he would have to act. He hadn't wanted to before- confrontation normally wasn't his thing- but now...

Determined, Adrien headed for the door, a plan already starting to take shape in his mind. He was at least a bit famous, and the news about him dating was fresh and apparently exciting. That meant that if he could get outside, he would no doubt be approached by someone- a fan or a reporter, it probably wouldn't matter in the end. They would no doubt ask him for a statement and he could refute the news then, and it probably wouldn't be long before that news spread and got some attention.

Hopefully.

Partway across the atrium, Adrien paused when he heard his name come from his father's office. Curious, Adrien crept closer, crouching down behind a column and listening.

"-not what I anticipated her doing," his father was saying. "But I can't say I entirely disapprove. We'll have to give Adrien instructions to go along with it, anything else will just end up with a lot of backlash and bad press. A couple months of dating minimum, I'd say, depending on how reliable Miss Rossi is."

Adrien's stomach dropped. No, no, no, this wasn't what he wanted happening! He- he couldn't stomach fake-dating Lila, he really couldn't. Surely his father had picked up on how uncomfortable she made Adrien. Or if his father hadn't, Nathalie-

"Shall I tell him now?" Nathalie asked, cutting that thought off mid-sentence. Adrien could hear her take a step towards the office doors. "I can run up before the meeting."

"No, it can wait," Mr. Agreste decided after a heart-stopping pause. "We've neglected preparation for this meeting, so we need every minute. Adrien isn't going anywhere, and if he's doing homework as he's meant to, he won't find out about what Miss Rossi said until later anyway."

"Understood, sir."

Adrien had heard enough. As soon as the conversation had turned away from him and towards their upcoming meeting, Adrien made a break for it as silently as he could. Across the atrium, out the door, catch it before it could slam, close it carefully and then run down the steps and out the gate. Adrien glanced back for a second, hoping that he hadn't been seen and wasn't being followed, and then dashed for the park near the school.

If he was seen before he could talk to anyone, it would all be over. Adrien would be forced into dating Lila and wouldn't be able to do anything about it. If he tried, his father would know that Adrien had directly disobeyed orders and would be absolutely furious.

Thankfully, Adrien didn't have long to wait. Within minutes of him arriving in the park, Madam Chamack materialized practically out of thin air and approached him with an eager smile. Behind her, her cameraman and sound person were trotting along, trying to keep up. She made a beeline towards Adrien, no doubt very interested in getting the scoop on his formerly-secret relationship before anyone else did.

She was going to get a scoop, all right. Adrien was still too furious at Lila's manipulation and his father's plans to dictate his life even more to have any sense of filter anymore, and he was going to absolutely rip apart all of her lies and firmly slam the door on any chance of him being forced into a relationship with Lila.

"Adrien! We just heard this morning that you and Lila Rossi are dating!" Madam Chamack started, beaming at him in a way that was probably meant to look friendly but came off as more feverishly over-eager. "Congratulations! We would love to hear more about how you met, how you got together... I was wondering if you had a minute to spare to chat a bit?"

"Certainly," Adrien said politely, flashing his own smile. It was a little dangerous, a little too full of teeth. "And actually, Madam Chamack, that news was a surprise to me, too. I never asked Lila out, and even if she asked me, I would never agree. Lila is a selfish, intolerable, manipulative serial liar, and I only tolerated her to protect my friends."

This time, Adrien wasn't going to hold back. Lila had pushed him to a breaking point that he hadn't even known he had, and the kid gloves were coming off, and coming off hard.

Lila had wanted to be famous, and over the past couple months, she had gotten her wish. Now she was going to learn the hard way that sometimes, there were downsides to that fame.

  Ten minutes later and no small amount of questions and explanations later, Madam Chamack had thanked Adrien and went on her way with her cameraman. To the best of Adrien's knowledge, the interview had been live, and Lila would no doubt be feeling the effects of her empire crumbling around her ears shortly. Adrien had torn her apart to the point that, unless Mrs. Rossi lived under a rock, there was no way that she wouldn't hear about Lila's lies shortly.

Everything had come out. All of Lila's lies that she had told about her life, all of the disabilities she had claimed to have, the incident where she stole his father's book from him and then threw it in the trash (which he had learned about several weeks earlier after finally asking Marinette how she had learned about Lila's lies), all of her attempts to manipulate students and teachers alike to get what she wanted, the months of "traveling" that she had supposedly done during the school year, the charities that she had supposedly founded, her blatant disregard for his personal boundaries and insistence on hanging off of him and forcing unwanted kisses on him, the attempt to get Marinette expelled and how that led to Adrien cooperating with her in order to get his friend's name cleared.

Madam Chamack had looked torn between absolutely shocked and absolutely delighted to get all of the information. It was a real scoop, and it was bound to get her a lot of viewers.

Which was exactly what Adrien had wanted. More people knowing the truth meant that there was less chance of Lila getting away with anything like she had been pulling before.

In one final fit of lingering anger, Adrien had called out the adults who had fallen for Lila's lies- the teachers and principal, mostly, but part of it was aimed at his own father. All of them were supposed to be protecting him and Marinette (and their other classmates, too), and they hadn't. They had sat by and not followed procedure for expulsion (which Adrien had looked up after that incident, in case Lila decided to try again) and not checked out Lila's claims at all or stopped Lila from hanging all over him or- or anything.

Adrien was pretty sure that he would regret at least part of what he said later, but he was just so angry about- well, everything about the whole situation- and he had just remembered Marinette's frustration and all of the comments Plagg had made about Lila, and everything had come out in a rush.

Still stewing, Adrien glanced around the park. There was no Gorilla in sight yet, which meant that his father and Nathalie were probably too busy with their meeting to notice Adrien's absence or what was bound to be a sudden and even larger spike of activity in his hashtag. That was likely to not last for long, though, which meant that Adrien should probably consider leaving the park.

Where he should go, though, Adrien wasn't sure. The school was closed for the weekend, and he didn't really want to deal with Chloe's clinginess, either, and the library was a little too far for him to be able to go without getting caught.

Before he had too much time to think about it, Adrien spotted Marinette across the park, hurrying towards him. He headed towards her, eager for some decent company, and then let out a surprised yelp when Marinette didn't even slow down, positively barreling into him to wrap him up in a hug.

"I saw the broadcast!" Marinette told him at once, beaming up at him. "And so did everyone else in our class, I think- my phone is positively blowing up with notifications, and- Adrien, you're shaking!"

Was he? Adrien refocused on himself, and- yep, Marinette was right. Now that the adrenaline high was wearing off, the full impact of what he had just done was setting in. There were going to be so many people hurt and confused and angry and his father was going to be furious, Adrien knew it already, and-

"Okay, let's move inside," Marinette decided, linking her arm through his and gently tugging Adrien towards the bakery. "Then there won't be anyone approaching you, and I'll make a cup of tea and Maman can bring up some croissants or a baguette or cookies."

Adrien let himself be led, more than willing to follow Marinette. They headed across the park, into the warmth of the bakery, and up to the Dupain-Cheng living room, Marinette leading the way.

Her arm through his didn't feel constricting or possessive like it did when Lila or Chloe did it, Adrien noted absently as Marinette led him to the couch and released him, letting Adrien seat himself while she went to put the teapot on. She didn't hold on as tight or drag him around or towards her. If Adrien had stopped or decided that he wanted to let go, he would have been able to.

There were a lot of things that he liked a lot better when Marinette did them, really. Her hugs were the warmest he had gotten in ages, her arms wrapped around his chest to give the most full-bodied hug she would instead of hanging off of his neck like- well, like both Chloe and Lila and the occasional fangirl who decided to ignore his personal space, and the occasional cheek kiss that he got from Marinette felt like it was for him, not self-serving and for show like the cheek kisses Lila forced on him always were.

Marinette was more genuine, that was for sure. When she did things for him, it was because she truly wanted to help, not because she wanted to be seen with him and get famous.

"Oh, I forgot to switch off the TV before I headed out," Marinette commented as she came back over to rejoin Adrien on the sofa. She tucked her phone into her pocket as she settled down on the couch next to Adrien, and Adrien caught the flash of her text messages inbox on her screen. It looked like Marinette had a lot of unread messages. "I just saw the news about Lila online, and then spotted you on the TV, and headed straight out."

"It's okay," Adrien managed, catching Marinette's wrist before she could grab the remote to turn the TV off. "I kind of want to see what's going on. I might as well be prepared, at least, and see what people are saying."

Marinette nodded, sitting back as Adrien released her wrist. "I guess it's good to know what's going on. Not that we can really change much at this point, I guess."

"Yeah, I might as well have started an avalanche," Adrien admitted, keeping one eye on the TV. A muted commercial was playing right now, but he was sure that the news would return soon enough. "But I just got so ticked off at Lila for trying to pressure me into a relationship by announcing that we were dating, and then I overheard my father talking to Nathalie and he, well..."

Marinette looked absolutely horrified, clearly anticipating his next words. "Was he going to go along with Lila's lie? Oh, Adrien-!"

"Yeah," Adrien confirmed, unable to help but feel validated at Marinette's response. "And with both of those together..."

"You'd want to slam the door on that possibility as fast and as hard as possible," Marinette finished, as though she was reading his mind. She reached over, squeezing Adrien's hand. "Don't doubt yourself, Adrien. Whatever comes next, Lila deserves all the bad press and publicity that comes her way. She's the one who put herself in that position, what with all of her lies and manipulation."

Adrien flashed a grateful look at Marinette, unable to be anything but grateful that she had pulled him inside. If he had been by himself right now, his guilt and second-guessing himself would be eating him up from the inside.

As it was... well, Adrien was anxious about what the fallout was going to be, that was for sure. Lila probably wasn't going to be the only one to get in trouble, and Adrien hadn't even checked his phone since getting inside, too nervous about finding a message from his father, furious at him for doing an interview that definitely wasn't approved.

At least everything would probably be worth it in the end. He wouldn't have to deal with Lila anymore, Marinette wouldn't have to deal with Lila anymore, and he wouldn't have to worry about being forced into a relationship with one of the most manipulative, deceitful, and downright unpleasant people Adrien had ever had the displeasure of meeting.

  Adrien spent the rest of the afternoon at Marinette's house, curled up in a cozy blanket with his phone muted as they switched between ignoring the world while playing video games and watching the unfolding news coverage- and there was a lot.

Madam Chamack had taken it upon herself to make a beeline straight over to the Italian Embassy, where she had spent the better part of an hour camped out on the steps before being allowed inside and confronting Lila's very harried mother, who clearly had heard the news and was not coping well with it. Adrien felt a little sorry for her- Mrs. Rossi's coworkers were giving her rather dubious looks from their desks in the background- but seriously, how had she not managed to pick up on the fact that her daughter was such a liar?

Across town, Alec Cataldi had managed to hunt down Mr. Damocles and had followed him for a bit, trying to get his questions answered until the principal finally was able to duck away into his apartment building. There had been a lot of "no comments" or "that's classified information" or "we'll be looking into everything on Monday" in response to Alec's comments. That had only resulted in a fair bit of speculation on Alec's part as he re-stationed himself and his camera crew right outside of the Agreste mansion, clearly hoping for a statement about how Lila had started modeling for Gabriel and if she would be continuing but not quite daring enough to try the buzzer.

There was absolutely no sign of Lila at all, which was odd considering that (at least according to social media), she had been out on the streets, soaking up the attention that came with being Adrien Agreste's "girlfriend" only minutes before Adrien's interview aired.

Something told him that she wasn't going to be bothering him for a while. Even if her mom didn't immediately ship her out of the country, the legal trouble that Lila was going to be getting into was more than enough to keep Lila occupied for the near future.

Maybe Adrien would still have to deal with his father's displeasure about the press fallout from his impromptu interview, but, well, that was a problem for Future Adrien. For now, well, Adrien was more than content enough to spend as much time as he could with Marinette and her family.

He was free from Lila at last and honestly, Adrien couldn't be any more relieved.

[pog-through-the-suffering]

ive . never made an original post on this blog besides being completely head full of thoughts regarding the dream smp these past months so, 🎉here’s to my first og post

The Traitor!!!

(yeah i know it's already been a day and none of this stuff is new hsjfhj just let me be a drama queen that really likes analysing characters)

can i just say before i get into it that i love the descent into pretty much grey morality for most of the "characters" involved in the smp. like. pretty much nobody is morally correct! other than niki nihachu because niki can do no wrong :) also i'll be referring to the characters... of these people? and not who they are

now, i've got a couple people that i think are traitors and i'll explain them a little further down but here's some things i noted when i was watching the vod that might be interesting owo

dream says, quote, "[you] may have traitors in your ranks" which,

could be a double jebait; he knows there's a traitor but he wants to sound like it's up in the air

there really is no traitor and this is just a ruse to get pogtopia to implode on itself

the traitor still hasn't made up their mind on whether or not they will betray pogtopia

and i think the last one is the most interesting, at least from a semi-meta perspective, to have a traitor that's not fully into the role and doesn't decide until last minute. idk, something about the angst really fuels me :)

either way, here's my predictions on who could be the traitor ranked (more or less) most compelling to least compelling, and i'm not accounting for realism because... this is my tumblr post and i get to pick how i order things :) i'm hiding the (long) analysis in read more because... i just realized how much i have to say and i am Not concise.

tl;dr

tubbo, while unrealistic, makes for an interesting twist and, for angst reasons, would also be cool to write about if he betrays pogtopia

similar to tubbo, tommy betraying is unrealistic, but for angst reasons would also be cool

technoblade is kind of obvious, but the continuity (if he’s the traitor) would make me pretty happy.

wilbur soot would be a little null, since he’s already planning on blowing everything to smithereens either way, but would be another step in his spiral downwards (jeez how far can this guy go) so i’m not mad.

georgenotfound would not be super surprising per say but would continue with his general characterization as an arbiter of chaos (i’ll maybe elaborate in a different post) it would be :)

badlands folks would... not be surprising. they never formally aligned with pogtopia, and aside from sam never really... offered their help? concretely, at least.

fundy already used up his secret traitor card.

same with eret, i love her, but his betrayal wouldn’t be super impactful. plus, they’re more aligned with badlands?

niki nihachu... i said i won’t care about realism but i sincerely cannot in canon imagine this. but if she did... oh the angst would be *chef’s kiss*

hbomb, ponk, purpled, itsalyssa, punz, other people? they never really were involved with this season aside from like,,, maybe helping schlatt hunt down tommy and wilbur right at the beginning. so the betrayal wouldn’t. matter.

tubbo - look, ik i said i don't care about realism, but the chances of this actually happening are... pretty slim. i love tubbo. i support tubbo. but they... like, the confused "no?" when he first came on VC with tommy makes me think it probably won't be him, unless they're really that good at acting. which, i mean, i guess would make for a fantastic surprise. but there's something deeply compelling about this kid, who largely has been relegated to third in command/less important than his friend, and who has been treated like a work horse a lot of the time (being asked to farm netherite for this upcoming war, being forced to decorate what ended up being his fucking funeral, otherwise grinding for shit in the earliest war only for it to get ruined by dteam), fucking snapping. plus, it's not like tubbo hasn't demonstrated his penchance towards chaos. also, i think there's something to be said about the lingering effects of manipulative authority/paternal figures and how that would manifest in tubbo, but that's a post for another day.

tommy - okay, yeah, maybe i just like kids my age popping the fuck off because of terrible parental figures, but shhhhhh. for real though, i think it would be really interesting for the person who up to this point has largely been the moral compass or otherwise the hero of the smp. for him to turn out to have always been as bad as the "villains" he's fighting... i dunno. also, something about him betraying because he's so fucking done with the people who are supposed to protect and lead him? mghhghh. but i like this probably mostly for the pop off factor LOL

technoblade - i mean... this one's a little obvious innit? i'm not mad at this, for sure, because techno's always made it clear he is ultimately here for chaos and anarchy. plus, i'll be able to stew in the dynamics of dream and techno fucking the server up LOL. all that aside, if techno turns out to be the villain i will be happy about the (now) fired chekhov's gun. like, i appreciate the continuity between "schlatt suggests techno is a pogtopia spy when he joins" to "techno admits he's just an anarchist" to techno's accidental or forced, depending on how you read it, betrayal of pogtopia by killing tubbo, and it all culminating in techno's final betrayal. while not the most surprising, it would be narratively fitting. and that's always nice isn't it? when things end with a nice bow on top-

speaking of nice bows on top, wilbur soot! i mean,,, as the man has said himself, there's really nothing more he can do to betray (if not pogtopia) tommy's values. the bitch wants to blow up manberg! and that's super fucking sexy. i love his corruption arc, it's *chef's kiss.* so... is he gonna be the traitor? probably not. but something about being driven to the very brink, that you've got nothing else even after you want to destroy it all that you seek out your former mortal enemy to cause even more pain and destruction... very compelling, very nice.

speaking of brunet british twinks,,, georgenotfound. even if george wasn't really on the smp or never formally betrayed manberg, i think they kind of accepted that he's on their side. and while this wouldn't necessarily a surprising twist, this would continue with dteam's (accidental?) characterization of themselves as arbiters of chaos. maybe i'll write a whole nother post about that, stay tuned :)

any of the badlands people - i mean... i love them. i love what they stand for. but they never really aligned with pogtopia, did they? so one of them, any of them, except maybe sam, would make for a pretty weak sauce twist. like, perhaps with skeppy? and it continuing the trend of enemy between tommy and skeppy? but really the most compelling is sam in that he agreed to help tommy but as a final reveal he doesn't join tommy's side when tommy does whatever with the creeper head.

as for weak sauce twists, fundy being the traitor would be pretty fuckin' weak. i'm sorry! he already used his secret traitor card, and everyone knows, once you've used it once you can never (until the next season) use it again.

other characters on the smp... yeah, i love eret! i love her! he's fucking fantastic! their gay castle? best fucking build! but like i said, already used secret traitor card. plus, she's part of badlands, so i don't think his betrayal would be surprising. and niki nihachu,,, i know i said i wouldn't care about realism, but i honest to god cannot imagine her being the traitor. i guess if she was there'd be some nice angst about her realizing that everything is shit, no matter where you turn, pogtopia's being run by a fanatical JD, manberg's run by a dictatorial senile goat man, badlands isn't even strong enough to have its own territory. so, what can a woman do when she has nothing left to lose? but for real, within canon it just... wouldn't really make sense to me. hbomb hasn't been involved in the plot, punz + ponk + purpled + alyssa + others haven't really been involved in the plot aside from. like chasing down tommy and wilbur that one time.

and... yeah! those are my thoughts :)

[kaijusplotch]

Hey remember that Jango Rights a Wrong fic WIP part?

Here’s a completed chapter 1! I probably won’t exactly post this to AO3, i dunno i haven’t decided. X3

Jango made a grave mistake. He wasn't so prideful that he couldn't admit that. He had thought; had been told by Nala Se; that the clones for the project were nothing more than organic droids. The laughter of his son proved otherwise.

“Buir!” Boba’s voice rang out from a hallway as Jango crept closer.

“No, no that’s Alpha-17, vod’ika,” a cadet said with a soft laugh.

“I’ll take it as a compliment. Come on, let’s find your Buir, Boba.” Alpha-17’s voice was soft, a near perfect replica of Jango’s own when speaking to his son.

“There’s no way we can plan a little longer?”

“No, Kote, Prime will be worried about his ad’ika.”

Jango’s heart was clenching and his stomach dropped.

He made a horrible mistake. They were human, they were his family; his sons; his responsibility. Jango Fett would not let this stand any longer. He met Alpha-17 and the cadet; he recognised them immediately as Kote; as he turned the corner. Boba was in the Alpha’s arms, smiling and giggling.

“Buir! Look! It’s Buir!” Boba was beaming and pointing to the Alpha.

Jango smiled, his heart full of adoration for his son; before he glanced at Alpha-17. The man’s face was impassable, blank and a perfect mask. Kote was having a harder time hiding his emotions; fighting a smile that was brought on by Boba.

/Sithspit...they’re the same AGE,/ Jango thought as he took the five year old, looking to Kote. He looked ten, but he had been decanted at four years old; the same age as Boba.

“Thank you,” he said softly before looking up at the other. “I...I’ve realized I’ve made a colossal mistake.”

“I don’t understand, sir.” Alpha-17 furrowed his brows only slightly. It pissed Jango off, that he was the cause of the mask, and that the man hid because of what Jango had ordered.

“Stop. I know they lied to me. You’re not some organic droid. I heard you and Kote talking to Boba.” Jango looked at the two as he cradled Boba to his chest. “I made a mistake and now...I need to correct it.”

Kote’s eyes were wide, a tremor visible on his bottom lip.

“Does-does that mean we’re getting deco-”

“No.” Jango said firmly as kneeled and pulled the boy into his arms. “No, I will never let that happen again.”

“Cody is my vod, Buir?” Boba asked with a grin as he held onto Kote as well.

“Yes. yes, Kote is your vod.” Jango smiled, glancing up at Alpha; his eyes wide in shock. “You are all my ad, and it’s time I started making things right.”

“I...of course. I, what do we need to do?” Alpha finally let the mask drop and Jango let Kote take Boba, since his son was far too interested in clinging to his brother than father for now.

“First, I need to speak with Nala Se,” Jango said, standing and sneering into the wall. “Everything needs to stop and the littles need to be cared for. Then I need to find a ship to get you all off Kamino. But...I don't want to move infants, it’ll put more stress on them.”

“Hold on, Prime,” Alpha said raising a hand. “We can take care of our own. The other alpha’s and I have been looking after littles.” He motioned down to Kote who was happily letting Boba hug onto him. “And the cadets could do well with some bonding time. We can teach them what we need.”

“Jango. It’s Jango,” Fett corrected without malice. “It still isn’t right to move them when they’ll need to be cared for. The other thing that needs to be done, is correcting the age acceleration. I don’t want to wait but, it may be best to lessen the stress on raising a few hundred toddlers.” Jango smiled looking at Boba and Kote. “I already had my hands full with this one.”

“Then we’ll take it one step at a time, Jango.” Alpha put his hand on Jango’s shoulder and smiled.

Jango nodded in return and exhaled. “One step at a time. I’m going to make this right.”

Nala Se looked up with barely contained disinterest from her work as Jango walked into her lab in his full kit. It wasn’t that unseen, after all if he was leaving for a mission he would be kitted up; but he usually wouldn’t have his buy’ce on or have loaded blasters with no safety clips on in their holsters.

“Fett, can I help you?”

“You can start by stopping all ‘production’ of clones. Then, you can tell me what you’ve done to my sons.”

“We have done nothing to your son as agreed. He is a perfect genetic match to yourself.” Nala Se had the gall to look unperturbed. “As for the production, you have no control over that.”

Jango drew his blaster and pointed it at her head. “I’m their Father. I’m talking about ALL of my sons! You lied to me. These boys are not some organic flesh droids, they have souls, they are human!”

“A soul is not a scientifically proven fact, and they are human by genetic design.” The Kaminoan looked at the blaster for a brief moment before looking back to Jango.

“I’ll kill you and get the answers from somewhere else then, bitch.”

“Wait!” Another scientist, a younger Kaminoan female walked over. “Wait please. There’s no need for bloodshed.”

Jango turned his head only slightly to look at the other, keeping his blaster leveled at Nala Se. “I’m listening.”

“Nala Se is wrong, wholly and completely, in what she has done. Her detachment from the process of raising and caring for the clones has left her...clinical.”

“Seta, you best choose your next words wisely.”

Jango snarled. “Shut up, Nala. I have no qualms with killing demagolka. Although maybe I should leave that to the ones who wronged.”

“Please, Mister Fett.” Seta pleaded, bowing her head. “Stay your judgement until myself and the others can leave?”

“Continue what you were saying, Seta.” Jango said, softly and kindly.

“Of course. She is the one who insisted upon mental discipline and training. The lack of touch for the littles, the...decommissioning of any individual not fitting the preferred outlook after the Alpha class. Her methodologies are abhorrent to everyone not in her personal class. I have argued with her and her decisions of decommissioning individuals with non-life threatening mutations or non-desirable abnormalities.”

“And to think, you are my sister.” Nala Se snarled.

“Your sister has done the right thing. I’ll give you a choice, Nala. You and those who agree with your methodologies can leave and go to another city and I never see you again here, or I let your underlings go, and have 99 and the Alpha and Null class take their rightful vengeance.”

“You dare…”

“He is giving you a chance to not have your genes erased from the pool.” Seta Se said, lifting her head proudly. “I have to agree with him. It is your choice to make.”

Jango let the satisfaction of seeing Nala Se’s usually calm and detached face twist into barely contained rage as she stood and left. He tapped on his comm.

“She and her ilk are leaving. If you see them back you have my encouragement to kill them in any way you deem necessary.”

“Yessir, BuirI,” Fordo said with a tone that Jango knew was the same one Jango had on various missions when he got to exact justice.

“What would you have us do, Mister Fett?” Seta asked, her hands folded politely over her middle.

“Any and all viable clones; ones that don’t have life threatening mutations; are to be cared for and given all medical treatment needed to ensure the best life possible. I want current Clones with abnormalities given medical treatment to correct or ensure a long healthy life. All cloning is to stop. I have to talk to the trainers next to stop any advanced combat training. Also..” Jango put the blaster away and pulled his buy’ce off, looking at Seta. “Is there any way to reverse the accelerated aging? For the littles especially. Any command, trooper, or cadet that’s nearing the age of 9 standard years or over should also be treated.”

Seta smiled and nodded. “Of course. We will begin treatments immediately.” The younger Kaminoan scientist paused, her smile turning soft. “I’m glad that...you came to your senses. It was breaking the hearts of quite a few of your trainers and many of the caretakers to see these children this way.”

“I’m just sorry it’s taken me more than six years, but it’s a start.” Jango smiled, and saw the other Kaminoans in the office turn and begin to issue new orders.

[littlekatleaf]

My heart as spent as ashes (Part One)

I couldn't very well leave Junkrat and Roadhog that way, so here I go again - this is a companion piece to Buried in a burning flame and you’ll want to read that first, if you haven’t.

Confutatis maledictis  (When the accursed have been condemned) Flammis acribus addictis  (And doomed to the searing flames) Voca me cum benedictis  (Summon me with the saved.) Oro supplex et acclinis,  (Supplicant and prostrate, I entreat you) Cor contritum quasi cinis  (My heart as spent as ashes,) Gere curam Mei finis  (Have care for my fate.) ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Requiem Mass in D Minor

Would you please sit down, you’re making me nervous,” Lena said, equal parts joking and sharp.

“Sorry.” Roadhog forced himself to sit. He didn’t want to, he wanted to keep moving. It was the only thing that gave him some measure of relief. As if he deserved relief. He’d already tried to listen to music, tried to read, but couldn’t concentrate on any of it. His gaze would skim over the words, but all he’d see were Junkrat’s eyes burning fever bright in his too pale face. The music would pound at his ears, but all he’d hear was Junkrat asking again and again, ‘what are we?’ And his own answer, designed to crush, to wound, to keep Junkat from following him, from finding out what he’d done. But if he moved, if he paced, he could outrun his own horrible fucking decision.

Lena glanced at him, then back out the window of the Orca, made a minute adjustment to one of the dials in front of her. “Not bringing Junkrat with you back to Australia?”

“No.” Maybe if he kept his answers monosyllabic she’d take the hint.

“Hmm.” Looked at him, away again. Somehow, even in the darting glances it felt like she saw more than he’d like. “You guys have a fight?”

Fuck. “No.” 

She raised a brow. “Alright, Roadie. You blew your cover over the past couple days. You are more than capable of conversation.”

The nickname surprised him. No one, other than Junkrat, called him Roadie. It felt like a punch to the gut. Should have been Rat here with him. Should have been them together against everything and everyone else. “Don’t,” he ground out.

“What?”

“Call me that.”

She swiveled the chair suddenly to face him full on, and even though she was tiny, there was steel in her. He saw, then, why Morrison made her his second despite her age. She wasn’t one to be easily intimidated. “All right, Roadhog. Clearly something’s going on. I know you don’t need me to explain why secrets are dangerous in this line of work. Hana’s opinion notwithstanding, I’m not about to pry into your relationship with Junkrat.” She waved off whatever comment he might have been about to make before he’d barely drawn breath. “But Jack doesn’t send agents out solo. Ever.” “Not an agent.”

“Now you’re splitting hairs.” She sighed. “I know not all of us were exactly subtle with our hesitation about bringing you two aboard. Some of Jack’s rolls of the dice turn out better than others, and I’ll admit to being one of the reluctant ones.”

That was surprising - unlike Torbjörn and Satya who, while not as sharp with him as they were with Junkrat, had been distant and Mei was downright rude a time or two, Lena’d always acted friendly enough. “We are an acquired taste,” he said wryly. Couldn’t exactly take it personal. Neither he nor the Rat were the usual brand of hero. Or, any hero at all. They’d gotten on somewhat better with McCree, who also inhabited the grayer area.

Lena snorted a laugh. “I eat Hana’s soondae. I like unusual flavors.” She sobered again. “What I’m trying to say, however badly, is that you and Junkrat have both proven yourselves over and over again, and I wish that I’d proven myself to you as well.”

Roadhog frowned, even though he knew she couldn’t see it behind the mask. He was still trying to process when she continued. “Look, I can’t come with you right now - the others are going to need a way back to the Watchpoint, and I’ll need to get Emily home… but after that, tell me where you’ll be and I can meet you. I won’t be more than a day behind, day and a half at the absolute outside. Whatever you’re going to do, let me help. Or at least have your back, since Junkrat won’t be there. You can trust me, Roadhog.”

His first inclination was to say no. Finding the hard drive should be easy enough, couldn’t imagine anyone else would be anywhere nearby considering how deep in the Outback Rat’s hidey hole was. But he knew how fast rumors traveled, and the Queen had her henchmen spread out well beyond Junkertown. He’d been gone long enough to not recognize them all anymore. Or have dirt on them to keep them blind, deaf, and mute. Might be prudent to have someone at his back, in case. And even though she didn’t know it, Roadhog realized, somewhat to his own surprise, he did trust Lena.  

They’d fought side by side often enough, against Null Sector, against Talon, and she was quick on her feet and sharp. Had a good head for logistics and cool under pressure. She was young, but seasoned. And she’d made Rat soup. It counted for more than he’d like to admit. 

“Don’t necessarily know what I’d be getting you into,” he said slowly, watching her reaction.

She shrugged. “Not fussed. You don’t have to face it alone, whatever it is.”

He still wanted to say no, to retreat into his solitude and silence. But he found himself nodding instead. “I’ll meet you at Bobby’s, on the outskirts of Junkertown. Bit of a shit pub and you don’t want to order any food if you value your stomach, but Bobby’s a good bloke. Known him since… for a long time. If I’m not there, he’ll know how to get word to me.”

Lena nodded once, then turned back to the controls. She didn’t ask anything more about what the mission was, and he appreciated that. Didn’t try to make small talk, and he appreciated that more. Didn’t ask anything further about Junkrat, and he appreciated that most of all.

But it didn’t mean his thoughts were occupied with anything else. No matter how he tried to focus on a plan (Have to see if the bike was still hidden out in Bobby’s garage, otherwise the trip into the Outback was going to be a good sight more complex. Have to gather some provisions. Consider where he might be able to access whatever data was on the hard drive before Morrison got a look at it. Preferably without Lena watching.) most of his thoughts circled on Rat.

50/50 of everything. Treasure’s here. Didn’t need to see the note anymore even to remember the coordinates. Junkrat’s blocky letters were engraved on his mind. Why did you have to scavenge the fucking Omnium? Completely irradiated ruins, what could possibly go wrong? Couldn’t leave well enough alone? Never could, he sighed inwardly. Leaving anything alone once his interest was snagged wasn’t in Junkrat’s repertoire. Like his namesake that way. Got them into more than one messy situation, but also got them some good hauls.

Once in a while it got them something amazing - like the fireworks display. He didn’t have the first clue how Junkrat’d made them with such intricate results. The constellations had been perfect, spread across the sky like home. How many nights had they lay side by side, gazing at the stars in comfortable silence? Well, silence on his part. Rat was always chattering about something, but never seemed to mind Roadhog’s reticence. Now the silence pressed in on him.

Jesus, was he really going to go through with this? Walk away from Rat completely? Leave him behind? His boot heels clanked dully on the floor as he crossed the room. The fear that had squeezed his chest when Junkrat brought up the treasure rose in his throat again. The absolute panic that Junkrat would find out that it was all his fucking fault had dropped a fog over his mind. It swirled with Hana’s insistent teasing and Junkrat’s pointed questions about their relationship. Never needed to make it anything one way or another until Hana started asking but then Rat’s attention had been caught. He asked, asked again, tossing the questions like grenades, unconcerned about the possible fallout. Roadhog’d felt trapped, claustrophobic, desperate, and suddenly all the awful shit was spouting out of his mouth and Junkrat just sat there and took it, with only a minor show of self-defense. Behind that anger, Roadhog had seen the hurt, the betrayal and it twisted his gut. 

Stop, he told himself. Turned that shit off before, could do it again. Be Roadhog, not Roadie. Certainly not Mako. Never Mako. 

“For fuck’s sake, Roadhog, if you can’t relax, would you at least make yourself useful and brew some tea? I could use the caffeine.” Lena was glaring at him with exasperation.

“Right,” he said. Something to occupy his hands. His thoughts for a few minutes. As the kettle whistled he thought he heard Lena talking with someone, but he couldn’t make out what they said. He poured the water over the tea leaves - proper tea, not like the bagged crap; probably Mei’s doing. Waited the right amount of time for the leaves to steep, watching the steam curl over the mugs. Fragrant, lightly floral and a hint of bergamot. Could practically taste it, just from the scent. Knew the tannins would be perfectly balanced. It wouldn’t slap him with bitterness like every single cup in Junkertown. Whoever Lena was talking to likely had nothing to do with Junkrat. No need for his heart to be hammering in his throat.

He removed the leaves and mixed in a touch of honey. The sweet would highlight the brightness of the citrus without being overpowering. Not like when Rat made it - got a sugar rush along with the caffeine high. Incorrigible sweet-tooth. 

“Thanks,” Lena said when he handed her a mug, and she sipped with a grateful smile. “Better?”

He nodded. It was true, as far as it went.

“Lucio just called.” She took another sip. 

Roadhog tried to keep his breathing steady, ignore the sudden skip of his heart. Didn’t ask. Waited.

“Jack made Junkrat an offer. Be all in with us, or take his chances with the law. Apparently Junkrat picked the coppers.”

Roadhog swallowed his tea carefully, said nothing. His stomach churned.

“Lucio said he’s not allowed to go anywhere until he gets over the virus, which buys him some time.” 

She stopped again, maybe waiting for him to say something. But what could he say? Things were spiralling out of control and it felt like everything he did only made it worse. At least if Junkrat was in jail, Roadhog could retrieve the hard drive without interruption and destroy any potentially incriminating evidence. Then maybe he could rescue Rat. Breaking him out wouldn’t be impossible, hell - they’d done it before. Even if he’d fucked things between them all to hell, breaking him out would balance the scales somewhat. Hopefully. Maybe. He nodded at Lena and took another drink of tea. It was bitter on his tongue.

She gazed at him for a long, long minute, then turned back to the controls without pressing further. Somehow it still felt like she was watching him.

He drank, and tried not to notice the oily nausea that sat in his stomach, or any of the concerns clamoring for attention behind the firmly closed door of his thoughts. He’d make this work.

Junkrat closed the comm connection and leaned his head against the wall for just a minute - how could he be this bloody knackered already -  when a voice behind him made him startle and turn.

“I’m sure I didn’t hear that right,” Hana said.

“Hooly dooley, ya sneak up on a bloke.” Tried to plaster an approximation of a grin on his face. Suspected it didn’t work when it wasn’t returned. “I don’t sneak. You just couldn’t hear me because you were too busy telling Mr. By The Book that you wanted to turn yourself in to get away from us.”

Rubbed the back of his neck, cleared his throat. “Uh, ain’t what I meant, really.”

“Really,” Hana echoed. “Could’ve fooled me.” She crossed her arms over her chest and actually glared at him. Felt a little like being menaced by a bunny, unexpected and more disturbing for it.

Junkrat sighed. “Ain’t personal, love. Finally realized I ain’t cut out for the hero thing, an’ Morrison agrees. According to The Rules, can’t just let me go wandering off into the sunset after all the shit I done. So it’s off to the cop shop for me.”

“That’s gotta be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard you say, and I’ve heard you say some outrageous stuff.”

“Cheers.” Irritation rose in response. “Does fuckin’ everyone think I’m a fuckwit?”  Haven’t you learned not to ask questions you don’t want answered?

“Maybe not everyone. Lucio, what do you think,” Hana demanded, grabbing his arm as he went to walk by. 

Lucio eyed them warily, like he might be drawn into a trap. “About what?”

“Not up for a vote.” Knew he wasn’t going to be able to just sneak away without anyone commenting, especially with everyone on top of each other in the little cabin, but he’d hoped for a bit more time to figure a cover story.

“Junkrat,” Hana stabbed him with her glare again, “wants to get away from us so bad he’s choosing jail over us.”

“Wait, what?” Lucio’s expression was almost comically surprised. “What is she talking about?”

Junkrat pinched the bridge of his nose. His calm felt brittle, like a thin sheet of ice over a deep lake. If it cracked he’d fall through… “Just tellin’ her I ain’t a hero. So… did the crimes gotta do the time is all.”

“And I told him that’s the stupidest idea in a long line of bad ideas. Now you tell him I’m right and he’s a moron!”

“I’m not sure calling him that helps,” Lucio said.

“An idiot, then. I always thought Roadhog was just a grump when said it, but I’m starting to understand.”

Could practically feel the blood draining from his face; mention of Roadhog made everything feel worse. Bared his teeth in a grin. “With friends like this, it’s a wonder why I’d wanna leave.”

“Woah woah woah.” Lucio held up his hands. “Hold on. We’re all getting a little testy. Junkrat, you look like you’re about to fall over. You’re not going anywhere until you’re better.” He looked from one to the other. Hana still bristled. “Come on, I’ll make us tea and we can talk this through.” 

“Not really in the mood for a drink,” he tried. Even less in the mood for any convo. Mostly wished he could just hide in the bedroom until Lena came back. 

“I’ll leave the turpentine out this time.” Lucio gently, but firmly, guided both of them into the kitchen where he put the kettle on to boil. Hana rummaged through the cabinets for the tea and clean mugs. 

Junkrat hesitated, perched on the edge of the window seat, half wanting to escape and half wanting the soothing warmth of a hot drink. The wind rattled the window in its frame, the bare branches of an oak tapped against the glass. Clouds scuttled across the sky, a swirl of snow floated down. A chill crept up his spine and he shivered, smothering a set of sneezes into his elbow. 

Hana, turning back with a plate of biscuits shaped like stars and candy canes and snow flakes that someone had made, caught the motion and suddenly her irritation vanished. “Bless. Still sick, huh?”

“Guess so.” Took a bickie, nibbled the edge. Sugar dusted the table and sweetness spread over his tongue.

“But that’s not why Roadhog left without you, is it?” Lucio asked, setting a steaming mug in front of him.

“Don’t know what you mean, mate.” Roadie wasn’t the only one who could play vague.

“You two are never apart, even when he was sick. Now he’s on assignment in Australia, without you? Something’s wrong with this picture.”

Damn observant healers. Shoved the rest of the bickie in his mouth, trying to buy some time. If only his brain didn’t feel like it was wrapped in candy floss, thoughts muffled and slow. Both Lucio and Hana sat down at the table and he squirmed under their attention. “Why ya always got a million questions? Ain’t it enough that things are what they are?” 

“Because for some unfathomable reason we like you, Junkrat.” Hana softened the words with a smile. “That means we want to know what’s going on with you. I know Roadhog probably skewed your experiences a little, but friends talk to their friends.”

Junkrat ran a hand over his face. “An’ I thought Roadie was complicated.”

“We want to help,” Lucio said. 

“Not much to be done. Morrison said if I couldn’t be a proper member of the team, follow the rules an’ regulations an’ all, then he’d let me do my time in jail and then be on me way. Figure I should take him up on it.” Took a drink of tea. Lucio’d made it exactly the way he liked, enough sugar to rot the teeth. Felt good on his raw throat. “Tell ya the truth, don’t really fit with you. Make a better criminal than hero. So.” He shrugged. “Lena’ll drop me somewhere in London, make sure I turn myself in.”

“You know, it took all of us time to fit in with Overwatch. It’s not an easy transition to make,” Lucio pointed out.

“Yeah, Lu kept Morrison from killing me so many times…” The look she gave Lucio was fond.

“I think we hit double digits. She had a tendency to rush into things.”

“Keeps you on your toes,” Hana grinned. “So really, I know what it’s like. If you just give it a chance…”

“Nah, given it plenty of thought. ‘Specially the way things went at the settlement. Bolloxed it up, even doin’ me best. Decision’s made.”  

Lucio frowned. “What does Roadhog think?”

‘Do what you want, stay or go. I couldn’t possibly give less of a shit.’ Roadhog’s words echoed just as clear as when he’d said them. Junkrat chuckled and it sounded dangerously close to a sob. “Said it’s on me. Doesn’t really care either way.” He sniffed and knuckled his nose. Hana and Lucio traded a look over his head. “I appreciate ya wantin’ to help. But done is done.”

“Rat,” Lucio started. He put a hand on Junkrat’s arm and the touch was firm but so gentle and it combined with the heat of the tea and the glow of their company and the kindness in their eyes and Junkrat didn’t understand, he didn’t understand at all, and he hated not understanding.

He laughed, and it throbbed in his head with the darkness of Roadhog’s laughter, and her laughter but he couldn’t stop it just pouring out of him. “Earlier ya asked about us an’ I said I thought I fucked it up, an’ I did,” he could barely get the words out through the laughter. “I did. I fucked it up. I asked him, I actually asked him what we were! As if I mattered. As if I meant anything at all. Why the fuck would I think I was anything other than a job? But I had to ask. I had to know. Well, clear as now, ain’t it.”

Somewhere along the way, to his complete and utter mortification the laughter had slid into tears and he couldn’t stop them, even with fists pressed to his eyes tight tight, they just kept falling like rain, but cold, like snow and he was shivering with it. “So he’s gone because o’ course he is, an’ I’m here an’ I shouldn’t be, an’ I don’t know where I’m going, an’ if I’d been someone else, if I’d been a right person… a good person… if I’d been… if I was just anyone else…” words dissolved into hiccuping gasps and suddenly arms were around him, holding him, bringing his pieces back together. Tethering him. Voice in his ear, low and musical. 

“Hey. Hey, hey Rat, it’s alright. It’s okay. Come on, breathe with me, okay? Slow breaths.” Lucio’s voice, calm and steady. Junkrat pressed his face into Lucio’s shoulder, and the flannel was soft on his cheek.

Eventually the tears stopped, caught his breath. “Sorry,” he mumbled, face hot.

“No worries.” 

Junkrat sat back, scrubbed his hand over his face, coughed. “Fevers tend to cook me brains a bit. Usually I just hole up until they’re over. Sorry to flood your shirt.”

Hana passed him tissues, his tea. “We’re going to Australia, too,” she said, matter-of-factly.

“Hana…” Lucio said, skeptical, warning.

“What? Something weird’s going on. You saw the way Roadhog always looked at him. You saw him give him the scarf. That is not the way someone looks at their boss. Screw Morrison’s rules, screw jail. We’re going to figure this out.”

“But,” Junkrat said.

Hana waved him off. “You said it yourself, you’ve still got a fever. Even Morrison won’t send you to jail when you’re sick. When Lena comes, she can take us to Australia and you can find out whatever the hell Roadhog is doing.”

It was a terrible idea. Going back to Straya, with the possibility of a confrontation with the Queen, the possibility of seeing Roadhog again (‘thick as a rock… batshit crazy… we ain’t shit…). It was rushing in, like Lucio said they shouldn’t do…

You are quite the glutton for punishment, Jamison. But maybe you should go back, after all the treasure is half yours - will you let Roadhog keep all of it for himself? Junkrat frowned to himself. Bint had a point, much as he hated to admit it. Treasure was half his, an’ if he was gonna be making his own way, better be sure he had what he needed. Not let Roadhog get one over on him.

 “Let’s do it,” he said.