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art-missy · 4 months

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Overwhelmed (Gekko x Reader)

Part. 1 Part. 3

Part. 2

Third part is right here. This chapter was quite interesting to write. ^^ Once again, thousands of apologies for my bad English.

“You’ve been dating for two weeks and you haven't gone on a single date outdoors yet ?”

Gekko let out a deep sigh at Jett’s words as he looked at you debating with Iso and Deadlock from the other side of the room. You both had agreed on taking things slow and not a lot of things changed between you. You both still hung out a lot in Gekko’s room like usual but sometimes in yours. You still had the habit of drawing a lot together but you sometimes played video games together (he was still very surprised by your skills) or watched movies snuggled in each other’s arms (Gekko loved doing that and he knew you did too). He also sometimes kissed you. It was only small pecks on the cheek, your palm or the corner of your lips (he was still scared of overwhelming you) but his heart always fluttered when you responded with a light hand squeeze. As for outdoor dates with you, he was thinking of asking you to go on a boba date with him. He couldn't help but imagine the both of you with your fingers intertwined together, walking in the streets while sipping sweet drinks.

“Wow,” snorted Neon. “He’s really down bad, huh.”

“Gekko, you’re staring.” Jett chuckled and he snapped out of his daydream.

He giggled sheepishly, rubbing his neck. “Oh shush.”

He stole a quick glance in your direction and smiled broadly when he saw you laughing at whatever Deadlock just said.

Phoenix walked out of the firing range, parading like a peacock in the lounge. “Haha ! Now I’m definitely the king of this range !”

His prideful exclamation brought the attention of everyone in the lounge – even Dizzy who was sleepily floating next to Jett’s head – as he was walking towards his locker, a big smile on his face. Everyone was pretty used to Phoenix's prideful personality. Always bragging then humble-bragging and throwing up his confidence everywhere and whenever he could. It was always a bit surprising at first, exhausting and exasperating maybe, especially during missions. But despite his overly confident and very teasing personality, Phoenix was pretty far from being an asshole. You were still rarely interacting with him, though. Something about his high and burning extroversion had the scaring ability to consume your social battery at a concerningly terrifying speed.

“Sure, pretty boy.” Jett playfully scoffed. “What about what Cypher told you last time ? You know, about victories requiring sacrifices or something like that ?”

You lifted an eyebrow at Jett’s words but were not surprised. You wondered if Cypher’s words ignited Phoenix’s ego. It was very probable. Cypher had the talent to pick the best information into his vast collection of tea with an almost sadistic thoroughness and to use it in an almost diabolical way that you admired as much as you feared.

You looked at the camera in the corner of the room and you noticed it nodding in your direction as if saying a small ‘hello’.

Big brother is watching me.

“Well he raised me into the king that I am now. Like, you know, a royal councilor.” Replied Phoenix, smiling smugly to Jett. “I finally got the highest score in the simulation.”

Everyone turned their eyes towards the screen board displaying the new ranking of agents' performances and you let out an impressed whistle when you saw Phoenix on top of it. You pressed a fake compassionate hand on Iso’s shoulder.

“How do you take the hit ?”

He flicked your forehead and faked a glare in your direction.

“Ouch !”

Meanwhile, Jett was almost losing her mind, not believing it. “If Kay/O see this...”

The nanobomb couple took a better look at the scoreboard and Raze let out a surprised and excited gasp. She then pointed at you with her index finger and excitedly called your callsign.

“You never tried the simulation in the fire range. What are you waiting for !?”

Hmm. The overwhelming sensation of being the center of unwanted attention. The exasperating feeling of exhaustion swimming through your veins as the eyes of your colleagues pierced your skin. The urges to roll your eyes and to click your tongue in annoyance as everyone’s gaze seemed to ask you the same boring and predictable question : ‘Why ?’.

How unpleasant.

To that, your body let you choose between the reassuring weight of your headphones around your neck inviting you to escape, and the adrenaline twitching your fingers inviting you to be the predator instead of the prey.

Of course they would be curious. It has been two months since you became an agent of Valorant and you kept everything and everyone at arm's length. Barely present during training, ready to escape during briefings and never there during meals, the other agents hardly knew you. So secretive yet so observant.

You felt Deadlock gently nudging your knee to draw your attention and you looked at her. Her eyebrows raised slightly when she saw your fierce and sharp gaze. She silently handed you a can of juice and patted your knee. You nodded to her and chugged the drink down thankfully, throwing it in a trashcan once finished. You also felt Iso patting your back and shoving something in your jacket pocket. You internally thanked them for distracting you from the annoying curiosity from the agents in the room.

You felt like a main character of one of these multiple choice games Gekko introduced you to. Except you did not really care about the ending. Speaking of Gekko, he was currently gently smiling at you, his warm eyes sending you messages of love and reassurance that immediately relaxed you. He knew how much PDA made you uncomfortable, so he kept his distance, sending you comfort and affection from afar.

You took a deep breath and looked at Raze. “Why would I try this simulation ? It isn't even close to what we experience on the field.”

Killjoy looked at you curiously, fixing her glasses on her nose. “What do you mean by that ?”

You rolled your eyes and wondered how someone as brilliant as Killjoy could miss something so obvious. “During missions, we’re used to our enemies setting traps, ambushes, surprise attacks and engaging hand-to-hand combat while we are also under the pressure of the spike beeping each second closer to its potential explosion.” You started rambling, your eyes setting on the simulation on the other side of the reinforced glass window. “The only thing your simulation does is sending robots shooting endlessly in our direction with boringly predictable patterns, raising walls that always have the same locations and let prideful peacocks be proud for being able to do the minimum.” You shot a blank look at Phoenix. “No offense.”

“It stings a little but none taken.” The Brit smiled.

Killjoy seemed like she was taking notes, mumbling to herself in German. Raze smiled at her girlfriend, as if sensing her sudden excitement. Killjoy then looked back at you and walked towards you. She took your hands and squeezed them excitedly.

“Thank you for your constructive comments !” She excitedly leaned towards you as you leaned backwards. “Would you like to test the new simulation once I’m done upgrading it ?”

You grimaced at her proposition, your nose slightly scrunching. “Uhm…may I ask why ?”

“Well, your comments will certainly help me improve the simulation so it’s only fair you’d be the first to test it.” The German engineer answered breathlessly. “And you're always so impressive during missions. I’m curious about how you’ll handle the fire range simulation.”

You frowned a little and looked around to see that everyone was staring at the both of you. You let out another sigh, patted Killjoy’s hand, pushed her gently towards Raze who gladly took her in her arms, and took a step back. Just imagining yourself fighting in that freaking simulation while the other agents analyze each of your movements like mad scientists made you sick.

“Very sweet, little engineer but I’ll pass.” You shook your head then pointed at Phoenix. “Ask Peacock Boy instead.”

“Oh come on !” Inquired Phoenix. “We only see you fight on the field.”

“It won’t kill to keep it that way.” You coldly retorted, forcing a smile.

How irksome.

You knew that your colleagues were curious about your abilities, but their inquisitiveness made your skin itches like some kind of rash. You did not want to stay here. You had to see Sage anyway, to change your bandages. So you walked out of the room at a quick but not rushed pace, too buried into your own thoughts to notice a certain blue floating creature following you closely.

Meanwhile, some agents exchanged silent glances. They found you cold, icy even. You never meddle in the base activities, you stayed out of conversations and nobody ever saw you in the canteen.

They almost thought you hated them.

Almost.

What made them doubt was how you fought during missions, taking care of protecting each one of your teammates while fiercely fighting every enemy that had the misfortune to meet your path. You were terrifying yet so protective. It was one of the first things that made Gekko fall for you. And as he ran to join you, he smiled when he noticed you playing with Dizzy in front of the infirmary door. He loved seeing this facet of your personality. This tender side that you rarely showed. The soft chuckle you uttered as Dizzy nuzzled against your chest made his heart flutter. You finally noticed him and shook your head with exasperation.

“Where did you get this habit of running for nothing ?” You sighed as the floating critter nuzzled in your arms.

Gekko smiled, cupped your face in his hands and pressed a soft kiss on the corner of your lips. “I don’t know. Let’s say that my love for you fuels me in energy.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s those energy drinks you love to chug down.” You said, taking his hands to gently squeeze them.

He looked at your bandaged forearms and restrained a sigh. Since you came back from that almost week long mission two weeks ago, you had these burns on your forearms that required care almost daily. These burns were not regular ones. According to the other agents that were with you during that mission, you carried the spike in your arms and ran far from your injured teammates while defusing it while it was a few seconds from explosion. That was the reason why Neon heard Sage screaming in the comm two weeks ago. Your ‘dangerous and reckless behavior’ (Sage’s words, not his) could have killed you if you weren't so lucky.

“You sure you don’t want Sage to use her radiancy on your injuries ?” He asked, his thumbs caressing the back of your hands.

The grimace etching your face made him sigh. He did not know why you were so adamantly opposed to letting the healing abilities of the Chinese sentinel treat your injuries. Even after two weeks of trying to convince you, you categorically refused to let Sage heal you with her powers. At first, he thought that it was only just your pride restraining you, but the grimace of irritation and exhaustion stretching your face each time he mentioned Sage and her healing ability begged him to differ.

“Want me to stay with you while she applies the ointment on your forearms ?”

You shook your head and Dizzy made a sad gurgle noise and nuzzled in your neck. “I’d prefer you don’t look at these…uhm…injuries.”

Well now he was curious. How bad would that be ? He took a better look at your forearms and frowned a little. Those burns were proof that he indeed almost lost you two weeks ago. Gulping, he forced himself to ignore the cold shiver that ran down his spine and cleared his throat.

“I was thinking maybe we could go on a date ? Outside the base. Like, right after you’re done with Sage.”

Your eyebrows raised slightly in surprise. “How spontaneous.” You tilted your head and restrained a sigh when you noticed the camera on the wall behind Gekko, the lense focused on the both of you. “I accept but please, next time warn me a few days beforehand.”

You caressed Dizzy’s shell as Gekko smile illuminated his face.

“Hell yeah ! Join me in my room when you're done.”

He gave you a quick peck on the cheek then took Dizzy and ran through the corridors. You grimaced at the camera before turning back and opening the door of the infirmary. You found Sage sitting on her desk, reading a book. She raised her eyes from her book once she noticed you and set it down.

“You’re here.” She smiled. “How are you feeling this morning ?”

You did not return her smile, just sitting on the hospital bed while she took the bottle of ointment and a first aid kit off the cupboard.

“Alive.” You answered plainly. “I’m still breathing.”

She took a seat in front of you and proceeded to take off your bandages, humming softly.

“I heard you and Gekko are now a couple. Congratulations !”

“You’re two weeks late but thank you.”

The bandages finally off your forearms, you took a better look of your skin. Colorful burn marks decorated your epidermis, glowing softly of radiant energy and pulsating with your heartbeat. The effects of the almost-exploding spike on your skin. These marks vaguely reminded you of Jett’s ones on her wrists when she used her ult or Gekko’s tattoo linking him to his critters on his left arm. Your veins stood out the most, an ethereal touch on this beautiful chaos that is now your skin.

“Does it still hurt ?” Asked Sage as she started to apply the ointment on your derm.

You shook your head and sighed at the coolness of the liniment. “No. But it sometimes tickles.”

The healer nodded, focused. The glowing of your marks subdued once she was done with your arms and she let out a sigh. “Their glow is weaker than last week. You should be able to go back on the field in a few days.”

Well that was good news. You grew tired of staying in the base. Of course you sometimes ran errands with Iso and Deadlock, but you sometimes missed the adrenaline of missions. You will not have to wait for Gekko’s return in the hangar or in his room. You’ll be directly with him.

“Please be less reckless next time.” Sighed Sage. “I know you did this to reduce the risks of further injuries on your teammates, but know that they’re also here for you.”

A grimace appeared on your face as you remembered Iso taking you in his arms, begging you to stay awake. It was the first time you’ve seen his face so expressive, so panicked. Skye had tried to heal you without much result. Something about the raw energy transferred from the spike to your body was interfering with her ability. It was a great euphemism to say that that mission two weeks ago was far from boring. Well in fact, you did not really have time to be bored since you almost died.

“I can’t promise, sorry.” You sighed back.

Sage shook her head and rolled new bandages around your forearms. “I knew you would say that.”

Once she was done with your arms, you stood up and thanked her, walking towards the door. When the door slid open, you saw Cypher playing with a trap wire on his knuckles.

“Hello !” He said, his tone joyful.

“Optimus Prime.” You nodded, your tone flat. You let the door slide shut behind you and started walking in the corridor. “I don’t have time for a game of chess today, sorry.”

Cypher peacefully walked beside you, his pace and demeanor relaxed but attentive to yours. “Oh I know. You have your sweet outdoor date with Gekko.”

Of course he knew. You were used to it at this point. Observant but secretive, Cypher always looked after you since the day he dragged your ass out of one of your hideouts to convince you to join Valorant — while also stealing your stacks of tea. If a few months ago someone had told you that you’d be hunted down by a cyberpunk cowboy preaching the noble goals of a secret organization and how good the food was in their base, you would have peed yourself in laughter. Well now look at you, walking down the said base’ hallways with this cyberpunk Moroccan informant cowboy.

“You seem less tense these days.” Said Cypher in his usual mischievous tone. “I’m glad that loneliness isn't eating you out anymore.”

You raised an eyebrow and rolled your eyes. “Can loneliness really eat me out when you're constantly spying on me ?”

“Good point.” He giggled.

At least he was not hiding it.

One thing that you loved about Cypher : you did not need to lose your time talking to him that he already knew.

“I’m glad that Gekko is your new balance between a wanted company and a recharging isolation.” You could literally hear the soft smile in his voice. “I recommend you two to communicate, though. Especially you.” He pointed at your forearms with a knowing tilt of his head.

One thing that you hated about Cypher : you did not need to lose your time hiding anything that he already knew.

A true know-it-all.

“Does he know about the… peculiar aspects of these burn marks ?” He asked, but a slight inflection in his tone indicated to you that he already knew the answer.

You didn't tell Gekko about the oddness of these burn marks. Knowing him, he would panic, be worried sick and ask you every ten minutes how your arms felt. He already found it odd that you needed to see Sage for applying this ointment. You could not tell him that you needed Sage to inspect the glow of your forearms. He even offered to help you apply the ointment but you declined. That was very sweet and made your soul flutter but you had to refuse. You did not want to worry him. You cared about his smile and you did not want to kill it. But you suspected his radivore critters to have a slight idea of what was happening with your arms. Especially Dizzy who always nuzzled in your arms and Wingman who always patted your bandages.

Until two weeks ago, you would have never thought that you could be in love. You thought yourself too broken to feel that kind of feeling, sometimes cringing when you read it in some novels you liked to read. The only examples of that kind of love that you ever took the time to observe were from the duo of menace that were your biological parents and the sweet but spicy couple that were the nanobomb duo. Who would have thought that your heart would be in that kind of situation ? Craving for his smile, his laugh, him. You did not want to see the worry shadowing his light, even if you had to go through pain for it.

“No need.” You answered plainly to Cypher.

You heard him sighing.

“Love is not only about sacrifice. It’s also about sharing.”

“Please don’t start with your proverbs or I’ll rip your mask off your face to shove it in your ass, Amir.” You sighed, massaging your temples.

He raised his hands in mock defense but his lips didn't stop moving under his mask.

“It isn’t fair that Gekko is the only one not underestimating his partner.”

The offended look you shot at him made him laugh. You were about to retort something when the sound of a door sliding interrupted you.

“You’re finally here ! I passed by your room to– Cypher ?”

What a beautiful look of surprise on Gekko’s face !

“Greetings, Gekko. I wish you both a lovely outing.”

Gekko glanced at you, a bit lost but nodded at Cypher. “Thanks, man. I appreciate it.”

You were still massaging your temples when Cypher patted your shoulder in an odd fatherly way.

“I leave you two then.” Cypher started to walk away. “Oh, and don’t forget to use protection !”

You were still massaging your temples to relax yourself as you heard Cypher turning around the corridor. You were certain that he would spy on your outing through CCTV, sipping a cup of tea like the gossip starved bastard that he is. You let out a deep breath and your shoulders relaxed. You then looked up at Gekko and noticed his very flushed face. Flushed to the point that his face stood out more than his hair.

“You did not run for once. So why the heck is your face red ?” You brows furrowed. “Are you having an asthma attack ? Where is your inhaler ? Wingman, the inhaler !”

Gekko snapped off his daze and shook his head and took your hands. “No, no –Wings’, put that down !– I’m good. Everything’s good.” Your skeptical eyes squinted at him and he lifted your hand to kiss your palm. “I’m good, babe, really. You’re cute when you’re worried, cariño.”

He shot you his boyish smile, his face still very flushed and you raised an eyebrow.

“Then why is your face redder than a poppy flower ?”

“I– Didn't you hear what Cypher just said ?”

You walked in his room and sat down on his bed — high-fiving Wingman in the process — then looked around. Your eyes landed on a pair of shoes near the foot of the bed right beside your partner’s skateboard.

“Be precise, he’s quite talkative.” You shrugged then pointed at the sneakers. “Aren’t these my shoes ?”

You recognised the sneakers with retractable roller skate wheels.

“Huh ? Oh yeah, that’s what I wanted to tell you. I passed by your room to take them.” He cleared his throat and you and Wingman exchanged glances. “I thought that we could do our date on wheels. You know, like you on your roller skate and me on my skateboard.”

You nodded and gently stopped Wingman’s tiny cute hands from caressing your bandages, humming softly. “It has been a while since the last time I roller skated.”

“Here’s a good opportunity, then ! I wanted to see you on roller skates since you told me you used to use them a lot.”

Here we go again, your heart fluttering. In only two weeks, he showered you with so much love and respect that you sometimes wonder where he got it from. He listened, did not suffocate you in any way and always supported you. It was new for you, but not unwelcome. He was always gentle but revitalizing.

★★★

Boyle Heights neighborhood, Los Angeles, California.

Funny that Gekko grew up there, you literally had a hideout in this neighborhood. But even though you used to hide there, you never really took the time to explore it. Especially with someone so eager to show you their favorite spots while showing off some skateboard tricks or cheering everytime you did a stunt on your wheels. A thing that you discovered about Gekko : he loved taking selfies and short videos. It was a cute thing about him that made you smile.

“How did I manage to survive without these gifts from Heaven ?” You breathed out, your eyes sparkling at the dish on your plate.

After hours of showing graffiti spots and street performances, he brought you to a food spot that served one of the most delicious foods that ever touched your taste buds.

“I’m glad you love the food here.” Gekko chuckled at your enthusiasm.

You put another fork in your mouth and a delighted smile painted your face. “Woah. Even in a gastronomic restaurant I can’t have this much taste.”

Gekko seemed to perk at your words. “Gastronomic restaurant ? Didn't know you were a foodie.”

You shook your head. “I’m not.” You took a sip of your drink and sighed at the taste. “Damn. Even the drink is good.”

He chuckled at your words but he stayed thoughtful. You rarely talked about your past before Valorant. You dropped some anecdotes sometimes and when he asked more, you went silent. He suspected you already knew before joining Valorant how to fight since you barely went to training sessions (to spare your social battery, you said) but always managed to make your enemies suffer on the field. And the fact that Fade and Iso had a slight idea of you might be when they heard Valorant taking an interest in you made him curious.

“Is this plate better than a gastronomic one ?” He asked.

“Most of the time, gastronomic restaurants focus more on the quote-unquote presentation than the actual taste.” You sighed. “Which can sometimes lead to people choking on a tiny little thing sold as food that barely tastes like something.”

Gekko coughed on his food at your words. He took a sip of his drink to clear his esophagus. He then restrained a laugh as you raised an eyebrow at him.

“You’ve got beef against gastronomic restaurants ?” He coughed his laugh down.

“Oh absolutely.” You said calmly.

“What started that beef ?”

And you went silent again. Gekko restrained a sigh and kept eating, his eyes on his plate. He agreed to go at your pace, to be patient, but sometimes, it sadly felt like he was talking to a wall. You listened to his story but you never gave him the occasion to listen to yours. He heard you clear your throat and his eyes set back on you. Your eyes were on your plate and your fingers nervously tapped the table.

“I was around nine the first time I went to a gastronomic restaurant. I threw up on a waiter.”

The randomness of this revelation caught him off guard. A small smile appeared on his lips as he acknowledged your attempt at a conversation about you.

“No way !” He chuckled. “And that’s how your hatred towards these kinds of restaurants started ?”

No pressure, only encouragement.

“I think it’s just the repetition of unfortunate events that keep happening everytime I’m in these types of restaurants.” You said, your forks playing with the remnants of your meal. “Throwing up on a waiter, spilling my drink on the owner, choking on food, being sick for a week… No matter the country, a gastronomic restaurant stays the same.”

Gekko nodded. He remembered you briefly mentioning that you used to travel a lot around the world. You took a deep breath and put down your fork.

“What are we doing this afternoon ? Are we going back to HQ ?”

He giggled at your attempt at changing the subject.

“Nah, we’re not done chilling.” He shook his head. “I know a place you would like.”

“Oh ?”

After your copious meal, you two walked down the streets of Boyle Heights, digesting your food. Your shoes had their wheels retracted in their sole and Gekko held his skateboard under his arm. Your eyes were wandering on the different shops while Gekko glanced at you from the corner of his eyes. His demeanor was hesitant. His eyes sometimes landed on your hand and avoided yours when you caught his glances.

“Is everything alright ?” You asked, looking at him.

“Huh ? Everything's good. No worries.” He laughed awkwardly.

“Okay.” You resumed looking at the different display glasses on the street.

Looking down on his cross-body bag, Gekko saw the disappointed look his crew sent him, making him gulp. Slightly nervous, he cleared his throat, catching your attention.

“Actually, I’d like to hold your hand.” He said in one breath. “If it’s fine with you.”

You looked back at him and he noticed your eyes slightly widening in surprise. You then looked down at his hand, then back at his eyes and nodded. A smile immediately illuminated Gekko’s face as he intertwined your fingers together.

“Your heart is beating so fast right now.” You said.

“And who’s fault is that ?” He retorted, chuckling.

If Los Angeles did not already have sunny weather, Gekko would be the cause of it. His happiness was so flagrant that most people on your way thought that you just accepted his marriage proposal.

You, on the other hand, were slightly moved but hid it pretty well. Gekko’s blatant happiness was heartwarming and even though this kind of public demonstration of affection made you a little bit uneasy, your boyfriend's smile held your soul in a comforting embrace.

Still walking hand in hand with your partner, you buried your other hand in the pocket of your jacket. Your eyebrows raised when you felt something hard against the pads of your fingers.

“Oh ?”

“What is it ?” Gekko turned to you and looked at you curiously.

You pulled the object out of your pocket and saw that it was a lollipop with a purple packaging. You immediately recognised it as one of these sweets Iso liked to eat.

“A lollipop.”

Funny. It was as if a piece of him was saying that he was there, that you were not alone anymore, like an older sibling watching over you. Cypher, Iso, Deadlock and now Gekko and his fling of colorful and joyful critters. Who would have thought that you wouldn't be alone anymore ? Not you.

Gekko hummed as he dragged you into a store. The soft fragrance of old paper invaded your nose followed by the scent of coffee.

“A bookstore ?” You gasped.

“Yup ! And it sells good coffee too.” He looked at you, a confident smile on his lips. “Do you like it ?”

Your eyes traveled on the different shelves around you, the different covers hiding so many stories, the different seats so inviting… and then you froze, your eyes fixed straight ahead of you.

You immediately spotted a certain book on a shelf and rushed towards it. “I haven't read it in years.” You murmured, nostalgia dripping from your voice. You turned towards Gekko and handed the book to him. “First time I read it, I was a kid. I got so scared that I hid it in the farthest closet from my bedroom.”

Gekko took the book and smiled. He put down his skateboard near a couch and sat down, patting the space beside him. “Wanna tell me about it ?”

You put the lollipop in your mouth and joined him on the couch.

And that was how you spent the afternoon : remembering some moments of your childhood through books. You laughed, teased, and playfully bantered together for hours, quietly of course to not disturb other readers. You snorted together each time somebody hushed at you for being too loud and you had fun making a tier list of the best covers on a shelf. Gekko really had a talent for creating comfort zones and it was one of the many things you loved about him.

It was at the end of the day when you walked out of the bookstore, laughing, Gekko’s arm around your waist. A new level of complicity bloomed between you.

“Oh ! Before we go back to HQ I have to make you taste the best boba tea in the world !” He exclaimed.

You giggled at his enthusiasm and as he pointed to a bubble tea parlor not so far from the bookstore.

“The best boba in the world ?” You repeated.

“You heard me right !” He set his skateboard on the floor and grinned. “The first one there ?”

“Seriously ?” You raised an eyebrow.

His sweet puppy eyes took you off-guard for a second and he noticed that. “Come on !”

You rolled your eyes and quickly pulled the wheels out of your sole and started rushing towards the parlor without waiting for him, giggled at him accusing you of not waiting for a countdown. You quickly heard the wheels of his skateboard behind you. You found yourself laughing in delight. Gekko’s sunny personality could erase a storm. You both abruptly stopped right in front of the parlor, startling the employee.

“I win.” Said Gekko, catching his breath.

“You wish.” You snorted.

You exchanged a smile and Gekko handed his hand to you, which you accepted, squeezing it gently. You ordered your drinks and circulated hand in hand in the streets of Boyle Heights as the sun was slowly settling.

“Mmmh. This boba is really good.” You nodded. “But I know better.”

“Better than this !?” Gekko dramatically gasped. “Impossible.”

“I’ll drag you there someday.”

Gekko’s heart missed a beat. Did you just imply that you will organize your outing next time ?

“Did you like our date ?” He asked.

You nodded and smiled softly at him. “Yes. But please don’t organize it at the last minute ever again.”

He just laughed and kissed your cheek and laughed louder when you complained about his lips being cold because of the drink. He too liked your date. And as he took a selfie of the both of you, he promised himself to cherish this moment. A few weeks ago, he would have never thought that you two would end up dating. You were so close yet so far, always in your bubble and letting almost nobody in. He himself was so surprised that he managed to slither into your cocoon. But now that he was in, there was no way that he went out.

He wondered what Cypher meant earlier about him being the only one not underestimating his partner, though. He pretended that he heard nothing, but it still ran free in his mind. But he decided to set it aside for the moment. He was having a good time, and no negativity had the right to ruin it.

“Now that I think about it,” Gekko started as he stopped walking. “We've been dating for something like two weeks and I still don’t know your name.”

You stopped right in your tracks, your eyes widening in shock. “Damn. You’re right.” Even though you never called him by it, you knew his name : Mateo. Since the day he told you his name, it never quit your brain. It wasn't fair. The only people in the protocol knowing your name was Cypher —of course, Deadlock and Iso.

Squeezing his hand in yours, you tell him your name, staring into his warm eyes. You saw his pupils dilating as the syllables escaped your mouth. He repeated your name in a soft murmur, as if pronouncing a precious secret, squeezing your hand back. And as you returned back to the HQ, he kept repeating your name in his mind like a lucky charm.

Let's say I'm a tiny bit satisfied with the ending this time. A tiny bit. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Anecdote : A friend made me a tacos and I was eating it while writing the restaurant scene. It was so good that I almost cried. But my facial expression was so weird that she thought I was having an allergic reaction to something in the food.

Thank you for taking the time of reading this. I wish you a great day/evening/night.

#gekko x reader #valorant x reader #gekko x you #valorant imagines #★nana is writing…

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seresinhangmanjake · 2 years

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Signed Away: Part 5

Jake “Hangman” Seresin x Reader

Summary: You find out about the contractual marriage your parents arranged with Jake’s when you were a baby. You’re plently angered by it, but Jake doesn’t seem too bothered. He might even be happy.

Notes/Warnings: mentions of underage drinking (don’t do it!), typos, i’m sure, cursing, fluff, eventual smut, angst, contract marriage, loss of rights, feelings of being trapped, poor parent/child relationships.

As always, comments can make my bad days worth getting through, so i’ll never not appreciate them. Reblogs and likes make me smile uncontrollably, but no pressure :)

Masterlist

Words: 2560

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They were nice. They stared at you a lot and hung on to every word that fell from your lips, but you figured it had to do with the shock of meeting the girl their best friend was newly tethered to. Their immediate acceptance of you was just shy of overwhelming. You were far from used to it, but it was appreciated. It made flutters sprout in your belly and at the same time warmed you enough to soothe the gooseflesh that spread up and down your arms from the attention.

Rejection weaved throughout your entire life—from your mother, your ex, classmates, …Jake, at one point—and the way the devastation of it always ripped you to shreds made the genuine kindness from Jake’s friends all the more potent. You liked them, but out of the corner of your eye, Jake watched the interactions with apprehension.

He had been a nervous wreck when he told you they wanted to stay overnight. You could tell by how he softly held on to your upper arms, practically staring into your soul as he swore he wasn’t ambushing you, that he was sorry he told them the details of your relationship without informing you, and he would absolutely kick them out with blankets and pillows to sleep on the sidewalk if that was what you wanted. You had only slapped a hand across his mouth like a strip of duct tape to stop his rambling and promised him everything was going to be fine.

And it would be. Just because you didn’t have anyone to break the news to didn’t mean Jake should have to keep it just as quiet. It was his life as well. However, all of your attempts at reassurances Jake tucked deep into an inaccessible crevice of his brain. He held no trust for them around you, even after they passed out in the living room.

Coyote was on the couch, his limbs thrown around in odd positions like a limp teddy bear landing awkwardly after being carelessly tossed on the piece of furniture. Rooster slept tucked under Jake’s grandmother’s quilt on the twin-sized blow-up mattress that was taking the coffee table’s spot. And Phoenix was draped longways across the large armchair, legs dangling off one of the arms, her head resting on the other.

“I’m so sorry about this,” Jake said, his eyebrows knitted as he walked you to your bedroom door. “I can’t believe they’re going to be home for a month and a half.”

“It’s fine. I like them.”

“I don’t,” he grumbled. “They keep staring at you like you’re some kind of museum attraction.”

Shrugging, you said, “How could we expect anything else? None of your other girlfriends were sprung on you out of nowhere.”

“Yea, but—”

“Jake, I promise I’m not saying this to appease you. I genuinely like them. It doesn’t bother me that they’ll be around for a bit.”

He looked at you with a skepticism that brought out your snort. “Alright,” he said, drawing the word out a little. Then he kissed your cheek, making little tingles burst to life from the sensation of his lips on your skin, whispered ‘good night,’ and retired to his own room down the hall.

-----

One Month Later

“We used to come here all the time in high school,” Phoenix said, looking over the diner’s dinner menu. “I’m surprised you’ve never been. I should’ve brought you sooner.”

You didn’t want to tell her that in order to have a friend hangout spot you’d have to have friends, which you certainly did not, and your parents wouldn’t step foot in the shabby little building even if it meant preventing death by starvation. And then there was your ex, but he didn’t often take you out in public.

“It’s changed a bit, but it’s still a part of memory lane.”

“I like it.”

“Do you?” Her face lit up and, somehow, she managed to grow more beautiful. “Good. The rhubarb pie is ridiculously delicious if you’re in the mood for something sweet.”

She paused, drummed her fingernails against the table a few times, then said, “I wanted to thank you for letting us crash into your life. We’re all really excited about this. Had Bob, Fanboy, and Payback come with us you probably would’ve wanted to run and hide from the sheer amount of wild masculine energy, but those three don’t have the free time the rest of us do right now.”

You smiled at her kindness that you had grown so used to over the weeks. She’d become something of a sister in the short time; Coyote and Rooster, too, like overprotective brothers. And Jake had finally accepted their positive intentions.

Still, there was a lot you didn’t know about them.

“Without sounding like an ass,” you began, and her eyebrow quirked, “Can I ask why you all use names like that? I started to bring it up to Jake once, but he shot it down.”

Her head tilted, then realization took over her features and she laughed loud enough to draw the attention of the customers in the next booth. “Old nicknames from high school,” she said. “See, we all wanted to go to the Naval Academy. The nicknames are called call signs, given to pilots by other pilots, but in school as a joke we made up our own and assigned them to each other, and that’s just how we’ve addressed one another ever since.

“We were all going to fly.” Her smile fell, neck twisting to peer out the window beside you. She stared at the glass as if it were screen playing an old memory. “That was the plan anyway.”

“The plan?”

“Yea.” She looked back at you. “I mean Rooster got held back a bit because of some stuff with his uncle, but Jake was initially accepted into the academy with the rest of us.” You sensed the shift in the air. Phoenix began to pick at her cuticle. “He was thrilled, but his parents heavily encouraged a business degree, and still expect him to get his masters. And now we know why.”

She clearly didn’t want to talk more about it. Or maybe she didn’t consider it her story to tell. Either way, you didn’t press her, and based on her reaction you weren’t sure you should even ask Jake. The last thing you wanted was pry into something that demanded he access a past piece of his life he cared to leave behind. Another thing he wasn’t allowed to choose for himself. No choice in career, no choice in wife…what would be next?

“Does Jake have one? A call sign?”

The light returned to her eyes and she snickered. “Hangman.”

“What?” You couldn’t decide if you liked the sound of that or not.

“It’s a long story, but the gist…we all went to a party that the principal’s kid was throwing. When the cops showed up from a noise complaint, Jake bolted while everyone else had to deal with the consequences of underage drinking. He was the only one whose parents didn’t get a phone call.”

“Oh god.”

“He’s a very different person now though. Much more considerate of others. He’s determined to be a good partner to you.”

You froze.

You didn’t want to think about that. Not because you didn’t believe he would treat you right, but because for weeks you had been doing your best to avoid any thoughts of who Jake had been a partner to before. There was a rotating harem in high school which likely continued into college, but something about learning the exact number of his women made your throat seize up. And despite trying to deny it to yourself, he could have had someone right before you, someone he would’ve had to drop in order to pick you up. He could have had a whole life and plan and relationship, completely disrupted by your presence.

“Can I ask you something else?”

“Of course.”

“Did Jake…have someone? You know, right before this thing between he and I happened?”

Phoenix’s head flinched back in surprise. Her lips parted, eyes widened. “What, like another girl?”

You nodded shyly, fearing she was able to see through the casual nature you were trying to display.

“Not a chance. He’s been completely focused on you,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he came to Maryland to visit for the second half of his Christmas break last year and you were all he talked about. He said something about a holiday party your families threw and that he couldn’t believe his little childhood friend had turned into a fully grown woman. He went on and on.”

You remembered it. You and Jake had had your first decent conversation since you were children during that party. Maybe your first decent conversation ever. As kids, having a chat about the real things in life wasn’t exactly a frequent occurrence. But at that party, he stuck by your side all night, refilling your soda, getting you snacks, smiling every time you said something, regardless of how stupid it sounded coming out of your mouth. You’d just assumed he was tipsy and bored from having no one interesting to talk to in a crowd of investors, business owners, and trophy wives who unashamedly stared at him.

Any interaction began and ended that same night, neither of you speaking to the other again until the day you found out you were getting married.

It didn’t make sense.

“I don’t understand.” Your eyes snapped to the brunette’s. “I mean, it was just one party. Are you sure it was me he was going on and on about? Maybe he meant some girl from college."

She shook her head, “No, honey, it was you. He wouldn’t shut up,” and her lips met the glass rim of the beer bottle in her hand.

“But Christmas was eight months ago.”

She swallowed and set the bottle down. “Exactly my point,” she said. “His thoughts have been on you for a long time, so you don’t have to worry about there being some other woman.”

-----

You drove home in a daze, rode the elevator up in a daze, walked into the apartment in a daze—the whole time unable to shake off Phoenix’s words. His thoughts have been on you for a long time. She said he talked about you non-stop, claimed you were beautiful and smart and sweet, and had—unknowingly to you—thought so for longer than you could have imagined, had you even imagined he had those opinions of you at all. You struggled to believe you crossed his mind in the last decade, but Phoenix swore to it, hand on heart.

Your blood rushed through your veins, heart thumping aggressively now that you were encased within the eighteen-hundred square-foot area you shared with Jake. You inhaled. It smelled like him, with notes of your own scent. Hints of that intoxicating combination of his cologne and your perfume hung in the air. You never noticed it before. Why the fuck did you have to notice it now?

You stood under the arch leading into the open-floor plan, eyes scanning, observing, studying. The blueish-gray couch he had picked out, whose rust red pillows you had chosen laying on each end. The dining table he’d ordered with the candle sticks you’d bought placed in the center. He selected the armchair, coffee table, and rug, while you decorated with flowers, and picture frames, and throws. In such a short amount of time, you and Jake had blended so easily. He was so willing to bring you into his life to leave your mark. So, so willing. Like he wanted it.

You cursed under your breath, praying Phoenix hadn’t just cracked open a door you wouldn’t be able to close.

“Hey.”

Jolting harshly in place, you looked over to find Jake moving about the kitchen, a stunning, pearly white smile opening his face when his mossy-green eyes met yours.

“Come here,” he said.

Alarm bells went off in your head, bright red, and flashing. Close proximity to this man would not be your friend right now. “W-Why?”

Chuckling, he waved you over. “Just come.”

His velvety voice wrapped around you, reeling you in against your will, but you took care to stay on your side of the island when you reached the center of the kitchen. A tray of little cakes sat on the counter, stark against the white marble. A wide assortment of flavors spaced evenly across the silver platter.

Jake rounded the island, took one of the cakes between his thumb and index finger and broke off a small piece. “Open,” he whispered. Without hesitation your mouth opened and he slowly slid the cake between your lips, pushing it just under your teeth with the pad of his thumb. “Close.”

You didn’t blink as he stared at your mouth. Could hardly breathe. His thumb remained against your bottom lip, lingering as you chewed the chocolate sponge and swallowed.

“Like it?” He asked.

You nodded slowly, awkwardly, unnaturally. Then his thumb was gone, and you felt the loss, a chilled spot forming in its place.

“My mother made them for us. She claimed it was a belated housewarming gift but she also asked for feedback, so I have a feeling she’s trying to figure out what we’d like in a wedding cake.”

When you didn’t respond with your expected eye roll or snort, his head tilted in question. “You’re quiet.”

“…thinking,” you said. Your voice didn’t sound like your own. Too gravelly, dry. Too meek.

“Thinking, huh?” He smirked, calloused fingertips cupping your chin and lifting. Sudden heat, beautiful heat, emanated from the simple connection of skin on skin. “That’s always dangerous. What about?”

You averted your eyes and he chuckled again.

“Alright, I won’t pry…for now.”

His hand started to pull away, fingers sliding down your chin.

Your hand moved on its own when you grasped onto his wrist. No conscious thoughts other than to stop him before his touch disappeared. Any amusement in his eyes fell away to curiosity. Then realizing what you had done, you let out a little gasp and fingers splayed wide, releasing him. His hand dropped back to his side, but his gaze remained locked to yours.

Lips parted, your warm breaths danced in the limited space between you; invisibly intertwining, playing with one another until joining. Your heart was beating wilder than before; impatient, wanting, begging in a way you didn’t recognize. And it wouldn’t stop.

His chest rose and fell. The short hairs on his arms stood on end. His tongue darted out to wet his lips. But it was that action which pulled your eyes from his, snapping the tight band of tension. You inhaled deeply before exhaling through your nose, and the strength to step away from him found you.

You needed to gain some distance. Hole up in your room for the night. Feign illness and wake up in the morning with your head on straight. You nodded to yourself and your mouth parted to spit out the excuse, but the long fingers wrapped firmly around your forearm yanked your body forward. Your chest slammed against his. A hand cupped your cheek. And Jake’s lips met yours.

Wedding Countdown: 548 days

A/N: ughhh this chapter was such a pain! But luckily the rest are planned out.

Tags: @marvel-ousnesss @thespeeder @nobody7102 @marrianena @fangirlingoverfangirls @blue-aconite @my-soulmate-is-mycroft @dempy @chaoticassidy @alana4610 @hotch-meeeeeuppppp @dracosluvbot @smoothdogsgirl @smit41 @princessphilly @kkrenae @castle-bookworms-world @xoxabs88xox @blackwidownat2814 @acupnoodle @callmemana @zippitydoda @asteria33 @the-mouse27 @111angelnumbers111 @shanimallina87 @creativitybeware @roosterscock @love2write2626 @adaydreamaway08 @tcfanmania

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asocialdrone · 10 days

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posting to show im not dead just doing concepts atm! Here's my girl MD sona named Phoenix. Im trying to develop a Silly Radiation Hazard DD and absolute solver of that said type, since my sona is based off of that here's some information

(too lazy to type it here, so have a screenshot of my discord message)

The severity of the scar will have different results, a surface level being bone to it can be fully healed with spikes protruding from the scarred spot

(another discord screenshot)

have what the tails look like, them having scorpion like tails, I do plan to draw them with wings, which they are a mix type of beetles and moths.

I got a lot of work to do honestly, since im planning to make concepts of each of these barricade warnings examples, each having their unique stories/reasons on being there, Its all going for a story im developing in which "hey, instead of one solver about we get 6 more lololol"

I'll finish the radiation hazard concept and work on defective machinery next!

#murder drones #glitch productions #artists on tumblr #concept art #character concept

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potatoeofwisdom · 29 days

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Minecraft rottmnt au?? Oh please tell more

-☆staranon☆

Ok now that I’m actually confronted with the task of putting my thoughts to print I’m drawing a bit of a blank, but I’ll try and ramble about some of it here! (thank you so much for the ask!!!)

The gist is, through mystic mishap (Mikey trying to save him from the prison dimension) Leo is sent hurtling through dimensions to Minecraft. It’s a silly little doodle au I made up after playing Minecraft a few days too many.

Leo, once thrown into the world, is left injured and alone without any means of escaping. So he’s forced to travel aimlessly, searching for any information as to how to get home. He finds strange structures that sometimes contain more information about the world and what had happened before. (Kraang invasion)

This all takes place hundreds of years after the kraang had been evicted from the world so we’re following Leo as he discovers the after-effects of wide scale kraang takeover on a world that defeated them.

Creepers are actually the last surviving “kraang” left on Minecraft, save for a few exceptions we’re still ironing out. They are both self destructive and green due to a fungus based bioweapon the “old ones” (those who fought the Kraang before) used in the war.

(Zombies are also an unintended side affect of this)

They kinda plague Leo specifically because I feel like it would be funny (traumatising). They’re pretty rare normally but he seems to attract them for some reason.

There’s a bunch of other stuff we created as well, like the kinda history of the villager and illagers (the villagers live in a kind of isolated cult society) and the political connections between the different old-one societies and why each of them individually fell to the Kraang or joined together.

In all honesty I’m bad at writing story elements, or character writing. likelyhood is I’m not gonna do much with this au aside from doodles maybe every now and then.

If I was to outline a kind of story it’d be how he goes from structure to structure discovering more about the stories of those who all died during the war against the kraang whilst trying to track down more information about “the portal”.

Obviously there’s several portals in minecraft so he gets mislead into believing a portal to the nether could be a portal home, and that could lead to a certain amount of angst.

He would eventually find a way home, probably after defeating the ender dragon (it’s corrupted by the kraang)

Some facts about the dragon and the endermen:

The endermen have a kind of cryptid, assumed benevolent vibe to them in this. No one really knows their objectives aside from them trying to save(?) the dragon, which is a kind of god in this world.

The endermen are revered as a kind of holy figure due to their connections to the dragon.

The dragon works like a kind of phoenix but nobody knows this, unless the endermen do but no one knows what the endermen know or don’t know.

The dragons breath is literally the dragon dying kraang style™️ it’s great 👍

The dragon is stuck in a kind of half-death because of the kraang so it’s eternally suffering lol

Also the villagers mistakenly believe Leo to be some kind of enderman equivalent due to his portalling, and worship him accordingly, as seen in this post here

Some other facts:

A lot of the old ones religions were focused heavily on life and death and the cycle of decay (the purity or lack thereof depending on the culture) due to the fact skeletons have always just. Existed.

There is more lore about the specific beliefs of each about the life and death thing but I’ve forgotten them and will have to ask my sibling about it again

Skeletons were able to become passive but only due to religious practices of one of the old-one societies (the desert peoples)

All of them added the dragon somewhere in these religions but how exactly the dragon played a role in them was different depending on the religion and was subject to many debates (+ wars)

High-tech-kinda Machinery and magic exist. The ins and outs of both are unclear (Each society were more or less involved in the practices of either )

The underwater temples (and the underwater peoples) were extremely technologically advanced. Arguably the most advanced of all the old ones. They didn’t believe in the standard respect for the cycles of life and death and the practices surrounding the skeletons but they had their own beliefs and culture separate to the rest of the old ones.

The underwater ppl did body modding with copper and technology. Think underwater steampunk. You get me. Their zombies reflect this.

Mushroom islands are like nuclear wastelands but from mushroom bio weaponry

Mooshrooms are the only things that can survive on those islands anymore

They are like the zombies but better (somehow managed to reach complete symbiosis with the fungus. Unclear how exactly??)

Oh yea the dragon lives on the moon but the moon has an atmosphere so it’s fine

The kraang were all eviscerated by a machine created by the old ones. The only remaining kraang are those who were too far altered to be recognised as fully kraang anymore (creepers) and therefore managed to avoid whatever the old ones machine did, or were protected by plot (the dragon corruption).

The deep dark has lore and Leo is definitely gonna explore it in his search to find a way home.

#asks #uhhh #star anon #thank you again anon!! sorry for not responding until now #potatoe rambles #minecraft Leo au #this isn’t everything #me and my brother also discussed more about the villagers and what their deal is #and their deep connections to illagers #we also rewrote illagers a little #they have their own cities now which is cool #but they carry a lot of cult trauma so there’s that

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piduai · 2 years

Text

Interview with Noda Satoru from Shueisha Online

big interview from here (first 4 articles)

sharing anywhere is fine, but please credit me.

Q: Congratulations on finishing almost 8 years of serialization. As a way to welcome the last chapter, all previous volumes went into heavy reprint, and the first publishing of the last volume was suddenly increased by 100.000 copies. We are told that the total number of copies sold has exceeded 23 million. With the release of the last volume, I understand that your work on Golden Kamuy has reached it's end for the time being. Please share your current feelings with us.

Noda: What you said just now is further confirmation for me that so many readers have acknowledged this work.

Making all chapters, including the last one, free to read, countdown to the last chapter, the announcement of the live action, the exhibition - I feel like this information warfare strategy we designed with my editor, Ookuma Hakkou, has worked out very well. Ultimately all of our efforts have paid off.

Q: You also got the Japan Cartoonists Society Award.

Noda: The award has such a long history, I wanted to win it in the end in order to be able to display it as proof of my efforts.

I am happy to have received not only the Cartoonist Society award but other manga awards as well, and also about being invited to work on the anime and the live action projects. I believe it's a form of recognition from both casual readers and professionals.

Q: With the serialization over, what kind of lifestyle are you leading now?

Noda: I have to check settings and storyboards for the anime, and they also send me the scripts for the live action. Live actions work differently in terms of logic and script than manga and anime.

For example, although we strive to respect the original work, expressing the feelings of various characters who are not the main ones through internal monologue can only work until the stage of anime. I think I, being the original creator, am the only one who can organically convert that internal monologue into proper spoken lines or imagery, so it's not like I can divorce myself from this work entirely.

Q: Seems like a lot.

Noda: I feel like, during serialization, all I could do was run and run, panting and completely out of breath. But now I'm moving forward at a brisk walking pace. I also feel like if I relax too much my drawing skills will go to rust, so I'm thinking about proceeding with my next work as soon as I can. I've already started buying ice hockey equipment and my house is littered with boxes.

Q: So you've already started preparations for the full release of your previous manga, Supinamarada?

Noda: Indeed. I went to Tomakomai immediately after the serialization of Golden Kamuy ended, to take photos. I wanted to get to shoot them in spring, since nature changes colors with the passing of seasons. I've walked in the woods to the point of exhaustion. There's still the anime and the live action, but in my heart I made preparations to turn a new leaf and start everything from scratch.

Q: Now, looking back at the main story of Golden Kamuy, I wanted to ask you about the events of the last volume. Personally, Usgiyama-san's death came as a shock. Back when the official fanbook was released, you stated that you have no regrets about killing off any of the characters. Is that the case for Ushiyama-san as well?

Noda: Truth be told, he is the only one who made me go back and forth on this issue. Emotionally speaking, I didn't want him to die.

But he got to pass at his peak, so I think it was a good death. The actor River Phoenix passed away from an overdose when he was young and beautiful, but, before dying, he said that he wants to be the coolest corpse in the morgue.

From a storytelling point of view, watching the people that she loved die one after another is what gave Asirpa the resolve to end the gold hunt by herself. In other words, it lead her to the choice of pretending that the gold never existed.

The only way to make that choice a compelling one was to let the characters that both the readers and me, personally, grew to love.

Q: In other words, you made the decision for the remaining half of the gold to be abandoned a long time ago?

Noda: Yes. It was a non-negotiatible matter from the very beginning. Right off the bat my editor and I have agreed that the ending should be consistent with real history.

We agreed that we shall not use the land deed or the gold into granting the Ainu their lands restored, or creating an autonomous Ainu region in Hokkaido, or utilizing them in a way that would grant the Ainu a little more rights than what is historically true. If we did go there, the message would have been, "because the real world Ainu have not fought hard enough and didn't invest enough effort, their real history is different".

As was the case in the final chapter of the original story, the efforts of many people were behind the Ainu culture still remaining in the modern world. I wanted to convey that maybe Asirpa was one of the many whose efforts should be credited. Since there are still breeding grounds for the animals in the national parks that Asirpa helped protect, there are still Kamuy around, and therefore a way for the Ainu culture to survive; that was the idea.

Q: Indeed, some say that some ancient civilizations perished due to depletion of forest resources.

Noda: Exactly. The Hokkaido wolf and the Japanese otter are already extinct. The number of sea otters is progressively dwindling, and the tufted puffin is on the line of extinction. If it weren't for the park's protection, the Blakiston's fish owl and the Ezo brown bear, the two animals used in the highest order religious Ainu ceremony, Iomante, may have also gone extinct. I believe that the best possible fallback of this story is that Asirpa used the land deed in a way that could have staved off the extinction of Kamuy to the present day.

Q: The depictions of the Ainu in the last chapter are much more detailed in the volume than the magazine version. Are the new images referenced off your own collection?

Noda: That's part of what I personally own. Authors include Sunazawa Kura, Dr. Nakagawa Yutaka, our Ainu language supervisor, Shigeru Kayano, who became the first Ainu member of the Diet...

For example, Sunazawa Kura's autobiography was written when she was around the same age as Asirpa, so it gives us an insight on the Ainu of that time. She told stories of hunting in the woods with her family, of eating salted brains, and of not wanting her mouth tattooed.

Incidentally, Mrs Kura wrote about the discrimination of the Ainu as follows:

"For some reason, the people who bullied the Ainu predominantly happened to lack education, to work menial jobs, and a lot of them were illiterate. School teachers, doctors, forestry and coal miners, and other educated people respected and cherished the Ainu as true Japanese without a bit of arrogance."

In the end, a weak mind that seeks for a way to look down on someone is the one that will create discrimination.

Q: Any other important materials that you would recommend?

Noda: All of them are important, but if I had to pick one, it would be Makiri Research Newsletter.

It is a book by people who study makiri in museums and private collections, and I have had the privilege of interacting with one of the authors, Tobe Chiharu. Although a Wajin, Tobe has tremendous knowledge of Ainu carving patterns. Each small fragment of the pattern has a specific meaning, and so on.

I couldn't go as far as including this kind of details in the story, therefore the book is not included in the list of references, but it left us with valuable research regardless. Reading it makes looking at makiri in museums even more exciting.

Q: You also touched upon on the role the museums had in the preservation of the culture.

Noda: There is a person who is a hunter and craftsman aged over 80, his name is Urakawa Taihachi, he made the makiri of Kirawus and Cikapasi for us. We still keep in touch. When he was young and just started his craft, he used to go to museums and look at the collections. He has donated countless of his own works to museums later, believing that the Ainu that will come after will try to imitate his work after looking at it.

Other Ainu craftspeople have also been inspired by visiting the museums, or so I have been told. This is one example of how museums have a very important role to play in the preservation of Ainu culture. Another example could be Asirpa's summer footwear. Stukere are made from grape vines, and there are almost no people familiar with the craft left.

So we asked the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka to photograph the shoes that had been stored there in the presence of Dr. Saito Reiko, a researcher of Ainu culture, and Dr. Kitahara Jirota, an associate professor at Hokkaido University. They put them on mannequins to make them look three-dimensional.

It was the first time Dr. Kitahara has observed them in this way, so he approached the task enthusiastically. We couldn't have done it without the help of the museum, and we have received a lot of help from museum curators all over Japan. I'd like to add that Dr. Saito is Wajin, while Dr. Kitahara has Ainu roots. This was the meaning behind the narration in the last chapter addressing that history was able to be passed down due to the cooperation between Ainu and Wajin.

Books by Kindaichi Kyosuke, the founder of Ainu language studies, are also included in the drawing. Dr. Nakagawa Yutaka, professor emeritus at Chiba University stated that at the least no serious Ainu language researcher would ever deny Kindaichi's achievements, and we wanted to convey that. Sunazawa Kura also mentioned her encounter with him in her book, commenting on his gentle personality and on how he shed tears when it was time to say goodbye.

For my research, I tried going places myself as much as possible. Reading through books convinced me that researching anything on the internet tells you very little of the real world. Not only about the Ainu but also the Matagi, the ethnical minorities in the Russian far east such as Nivkh and Uilta, and Hokkaido during Meiji. Infomation about any of that is very scarce online.

When I'd draw stories during serialization, sometimes Dr. Nakagawa or other researches would quip about what I based them off, and it would have been so embarrassing to say that I read about it online, so I'd rather reference books.

Q: I heard that Dr. Nakagawa has quipped that nobody actually says "Citatap" aloud while making citatap.

Noda: He has. That was intended as a character quirk and as a joke. A special rule particular to Asirpa-san's household. In fact, when it was just published, none of the supervisors even commented on it, because it was understood as a character quirk. A few years later, in an interview in I forgot which publication, he ended up commenting that it was an occurrence in Asirpa-san's house only. I guess it ended up way catchier than expected, and people started believing that it was historically factual for real Ainu.

That being said, "hinna hinna" has been used as an expression of gratitude many times in the course of the story. Despite it being explained directly in the text, maybe because it's also very catchy, people have seen to come to the misunderstanding that it means "delicious". As many of the readers may have noticed, Sugimoto, being a Wajin not used to the Ainu language, can't actually pronounce "citatap" correctly, he was saying "chitatapu", on the Japanese manner. He used "hinna hinna" in a frank manner, I thought that by doing so I could express his earnestness as a person well, but it may have been the cause of the misunderstanding.

And since you've been so kind as to give me this quip, I'll try making things clear in this interview.

We have asked that they take this kind of misunderstandings into account when making the live action. My stance has always been that I will not depict things that weren't based off historical materials.

Q: Let's go back to the last chapter. It seemed to me that the positive aspects of the Ainu were further reinforced in the volume version. What were your convictions?

Noda: Of course. I received a letter from Fujiya Rumiko, a lady with Ainu roots, who is one of the craftspeople of the Ainu folk tools on display at the current Golden Kamuy exhibition. It had been several years since I had received news from her. I thought that letter was a straightforward expression of the intent behind the convictions I have portrayed, so I would like to share it with you below:

"Back in 1997, when Kayano Shigeru-san helped repel the Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act and it stopped going by that name, I was so happy. I am happy about Golden Kamuy to the same amount.

I have a friend, a grandma who is over 90, and it seems that up until now she has kept it a secret even from her grand children that she has Ainu blood in her.

But thanks to Golden Kamuy she started teaching her grand children simple Ainu words that she knows, and she was so so so so happy when telling me this. Thanks to Golden Kamuy, it has become easier for Ainu to say that they're Ainu.

I am thankful to you for spreading word of Ainu in such a good way".

Q: It is an example of how artwork has a very positive impact on the real world.

Noda: I feel that if I focused on the negative, on the harshness of discrimination that Ainu people face, the happiness of these two women would have come to naught. Though of course I understand that Fujiya Rumiko's words are not a general consensus. All individuals have their own opinions and ideologies they believe in, be it Ainu or Wajin. I know for a fact that there are many Ainu who just want a fair relationship with Wajin. That in consideration, I drew the last chapter hoping for a world in which Ainu and Wajin can live side by side. I'm satisfied knowing that there were people who were helped by that.

Even recently, however, I had the opportunity to talk with a young woman who has Ainu roots, and she told me, "Since this work began, there have been three people around me who have confided in me that they, in fact, have Ainu blood. I don't think Fujiya-san's story is just one small isolated incident.

Q: Do you think there was a possibility that, by emphasizing the discrimination aspect, many Ainu would have gone back to refusing to admit that they are Ainu?

Noda: I do. Before the series began, I visited the Hokkaido Ainu Association for an interview. What they told me was, "Don't write about miserable Ainu. Nobody wants to read about that anymore. We want something fresh. We want to see strong, bold Ainu. Don't be afraid to draw whatever you want, Satoru-kun".

I was convinced that there must be a role that this manga could play if it portrayed Ainu culture in an upbeat and fun way, rather than just them being shown as dry research material, and I took what I believed to be the right approach to this work. Of course, many people might disagree with me. There are many different approaches when it comes to fighting. If you want to take action, I think it’s only fitting to start from scratch and convey what you consider is right using your own name.

Q: But nobody can say that you avoided depicted discrimination in your work altogether, either.

Noda: It's true. It's present from the first chapter onwards.

Of course, I took my own approach to depicting the discriminatory terms and the ethnic minorities who are at the mercy of Japan and Russia without brutality. At the end of the day, the bottom point of this story is the pursuit of the gold that was supposed to be used as military funds against persecution from Wajin. My priorities were depicting aspects of the Ainu culture that I thought of as wonderful in a positive way as it is, and showing that both Ainu and Wajin are just humans, with the bad and the good in-between. What would have been the point if the serialization was cut short due to the feedback that this story is way too severe, way too serious, way too negative for an adventure manga in a mainstream magazine? How could it have served Ainu people?

What I did was make something that I, myself had interest in and thought was fun.

Q: This work is both an adventure manga and a gateway to Ainu culture, but it was not a manga that you started for human rights activities or Ainu cultural awareness.

Noda: You're right. If that was the case, I would have never mentioned any filthy nipples in such a respectable publication.

Q: Oh, you did include the filthy nipples. Also the dick-swinging onsen, the semen detective... You had such noble intentions behind all of that! (laughs)

Noda: Of course. It's all because I'm a very sophisticated fellow, you see. But I will stop giving out tasteless explanations, because I'm sure that 99.9999% of the readers have their eyes set on the "secrets" of the beautiful men that appear in Golden Kamuy.

q&a corner here, it was in-between the actual interview

Q: You once mentioned that while Golden Kamuy references a lot of movie and art through parodies and homages, there are almost no other manga references. Why is that?

Noda: Because it's a little limited as far as parodies go. During our meetings, my editor would at times reference huge manga hits, but since I haven't read them it would go nowhere. Even though there is no huge age difference between us, it seems that the manga we were into are entirely different. That's doubly true for readers in their teens or their twenties. Sooner or later, even huge well-known movies will become obscure. The difference in generations makes entertainment fragmented, we can't all know the same things anymore. I decided that I will stop referencing other works altogether from now on.

Q: I have heard that only a small portion of your materials are on display at the Golden Kamuy exhibition. I would like to ask specifically what other items you own.

Noda: There's a big model of 28cm howitzer and lightning type destroyer. The destroyer is one meter long. All was custom made of brass by a models artist.

I didn't want to yield it to the exhibition because it is really delicate and I didn't want to risk it being broken.

However, I felt that since the Golden Kamuy exhibition was such a big success, I should have put it out. There were a lot of old makiri, and I could have added them to the exhibition if they had been in the works.

Q: Hasn't most of it been bought by yourself? That's a considerable amount of money. Noda: It was all an investment. The Ainu materials alone I have purchased with my own funds from many craftspeople, totaling several million yen. Since I was allowed to depict Ainu culture, I wanted to be able to compensate and give back to those people in some way. I value the economic aspect a lot in the creation of my work. Of course, there was always the possibility of the manga never taking off and me being left empty-handed, as was the case with the previous one. I had to go to many places for interviews at my own expense, buy ice hockey gear at my own expense, rent a work place, set up desks and other equipment, get assistants, and then it got cancelled. When the serialization of Golden Kamuy has started, my savings were exhausted. Survival of the fittest is a universal rule.

Q: Tell us more about your new project.

Noda: Supinamarada! was cancelled mid-publication, and there were so many more things I wanted to show. I spent precious years of my young life on this work, and I want to keep it in this world as a finished product. I know how selfish it is. If i attempt redoing something that didn't sell once, there's a big chance it won't sell again.

But I am very grateful to Young Jump for letting me do it. I think I improved a little, with Golden Kamuy under my belt. I'm sure this time it will be more interesting, and I'm looking forward to it as well. Golden Kamuy has its fanbase, not Noda Satoru, the author. So I always try to do my best as a newcomer, with the intention of gathering new readers for each new work.

Q: At last, please leave a message for the people who love Golden Kamuy.

Noda: I am very thankful to everyone who bought Golden Kamuy until the very last volume. I wish for you to never forget it. I'd be happy if you had it as comics, kept it by the side of your bed and reread some of it from time to time. This is how I kept the manga that I loved, and my ideal was for my work to be kept this way as well.

I wish the people who liked Golden Kamuy would read my next work as well. I'm sure you'll like it, too.

Thank you very much.

#golden kamuy #noda satoru #translation

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benjaminthewolf · 1 year

Text

Star's Special Surprise

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STARLIGHT LAPIS!

@starlightgirl242

This story also features a lot of my OCs from a universe I haven't really written about here. if you guys are interested though, maybe that can change!

Also this made me realize just how few female preds I've written, so, female pred enjoyers come get your juice!

****

“Ok, let’s look over the list one more time…” Chester the phoenix-winged brown squirrel softly murmured to himself whilst glancing down onto a piece of three-ringed notebook paper in his left front paw; a pencil at the ready in his right. In terms of size, Chester was about as large as an average Saint Bernard dog, and though he was a brown squirrel, his fur was far more golden-tan than brown. He was currently flapping his flaming orange-red wings a few inches off of the white carpeted ground, as he examined the scene before him quite thoroughly, in order to be absolutely certain that everything was ready for the surprise party.

“Alright, all the birthday presents, check!” he noted to himself at a far more audible volume whilst drawing a big check mark at the end of the line with “presents” written on it. As he was doing so, Tweeteleet the robin gently sat her own birthday present on top of the ever-growing pile lying down on top of the living room couch, as well as the ottoman right in front of the couch, and the carpeted floor around those same two pieces of furniture. All of the presents in question were enveloped in wrapping paper of many different shades of blue. Chester had ensured this was the case.

“Ok then, decorations. Party streamers, balloons, ‘Happy Birthday’ signs, HEY, CUDDLES! BE CAREFUL! THIS IS THE LIVING ROOM, NOT THE KITCHEN! IF YOU KNOCK ANY FOOD OR DRINK OVER, IT’S HIGHLY PRONE TO STAINING THE WHITE CARPET!” Chester anxiously called out upon realization.

“OH, SORRY!” Cuddles the purple pterodactyl (a light lavender quetzalcoatlus, to be exact, though one which was only slightly bigger than Chester), immediately apologized, flapping his body backwards a few times, and out of the way of the table.

Cuddles had been tasked with hanging the blue streamers from the ceiling, and since he had recently finished up with this task, had now been attempting to elegantly twirl one of the extras around his body like a ribbon dancer, something which he promptly continued his endeavors of once he was decidedly away from all the birthday food and drink. Chester gave a relieved sigh almost immediately.

“So…remind me why we’re using the living room to throw this surprise party, and not the kitchen right upstairs?” Randy, a brown raccoon who was just about as large as Chester, proceeded to ask the phoenix-winged squirrel, as he cautiously arranged all the plates and utensils upon the blue-tablecloth covered wooden table.

“Well, the living room has a far more friendly and informal atmosphere than the kitchen, and we need to make sure that Star feels as welcome as possible in our great oak tree treehouse, which is why I decided to have the party down here. That, of course, along with the fact that this is the first floor, and the surprise in the surprise party won’t exactly work if Star has to walk up the stairs, or take the elevator, in order to get to where we are.”

Randy, upon hearing Chester’s explanation, merely shrugged his shoulders whilst casually nodding his head. “...yeah, yeah, I can see that.” he eventually mumbled to himself. “It’s just that I wasn’t really sure you would want to take that risk, since, well again, ya know, carpet.”

“Oh, don’t you worry about that in the slightest!” a new voice perked up all of a sudden. Upon turning their heads towards the source of the sound, both Chester and Randy were able to confirm that the voice was indeed that of Charles’, a great golden eagle who stood far taller than either of the two quadrupeds before him, walking out of one of the treehouse’s two elevators. Charles was known for his skills with inventing useful gadgets and gizmos, and wore engineering goggles with yellow rims, green glass, and a black strap. Standing to the right of him was his inventing partner David, a peregrine falcon with similar inventors’ goggles as Charles, though his rims were gray instead of yellow. On Charles’ right was one of Chester’s three kids, and the two raptor inventors’ apprentice, Einstein. He, too, wore inventor's goggles, and his rims were bronze. The three of them had come up from the considerably giant inventors’ basement down below, and were now ready at last to join the party.

“If anything from that table at all even ATTEMPTS to drop to the floor,” Charles went on to elaborate, “Our Floor-Protecting Invisible Forcefield Wrapped Up In A Tiny Ball-Like Object will take care of it just like that!”

For a moment, neither Randy nor Chester spoke a word.

“...the name’s still a work in progress.”

“Its function is pretty simple though, it prevents things from falling onto the floor, whether food, drink, or a glass cup!” David continued on explaining as Chester took a brief second to quickly check off “Decorations” from his paper.

“Yeah, it was really cool testing it! It basically just works by-” Einstein attempted to continue before Charles swiftly raised up a feather to get him to stop.

“Your dad’s really busy right now, Einstein! It’d probably be better if you waited to give the full, in-depth, detail-heavy explanation once everyone’s settled down at the table. Plus, that way, you can ensure you have everyone’s attention and can speak to everyone at once, so it's more practical to do it then, as well!”

“Oh, I see!” Einstein replied in understanding. “Yeah, you’re right! I’ll do it then!”

Nodding with a warm smile down towards his apprentice, Charles glanced up and over towards Chester, before opening up his break to ask a question. “So, is the cake going to be ready soon? I see you’ve got all the drinks ready…blue raspberry…lemon lime…cola…yep that’s all of them, but this whole surprise party scene just won’t be complete until there’s cake!”

And that was when a ding sound emulated from the other elevator to the right.

“Alright, everyone! Make way!” a voice jovially called out from said elevator. “We’ve got one humongous party happening tonight, and that will naturally require a cake of equal size!”

Peeking her head out from the door, Sara, Chester’s wife who was also a phoenix-winged light-tan-brown squirrel, enthusiastically gave the room a joyous, sparkling grin.

“...and so, per Spiritfang’s personal special request, everyone participating in all the festivities tonight can have two slices each! With this MONSTROUS, light-blue-frosting-coated, gummy-star-candy-topped, chocolate-and-vanilla-layered THIRTY FIVE SLICES BIG TWO LAYERED CAKE!” and with that, Sara gleefully rolled a silver cart out of the elevator, that which was carrying the whole of the cake upon a plate resting right on its shiny, metal surface. To her left and right respectively were Chester and Sara’s two other kids, Aura and Lucky. Aura had lost her left eye in battle and bore a great scar over the region. Lucky, meanwhile, was known for his eyes being clover green. Both of them had been helping Sara in the kitchen for the past few days, working tirelessly and meticulously to complete the giant desert in time for the party.

Immediately checking “Food and drink” off his paper at last, Chester, just as everyone else in the room, proceeded to make his way as far back into the wall, and to the side of the cake’s path, as was physically possible, whilst Sara, Aura and Lucky by her sides, wheeled the thing up to the table.

“Okay! Now, I suppose we are all very lucky that the inventors in our house worked on this cart! Or else, this moment could have ended in tragedy!” Sara exclaimed in significant gratitude as she promptly pressed a button underneath the cart, where it couldn’t be accidentally activated, prompting the machinery to boot up as such.

Charles, David, and Einstein all began to beam to the rest of the group with great pride as the cart’s thin, flat, top metal portion very cautiously rose up, extended outwards as to move the cake towards the middle, lowered itself down onto the table, and gently slid itself outwards from underneath the plate which held the astonishing cake. Now, it was safe from gravity’s clutch.

Chester gave an extremely satisfied nod now that everything was prepped for the party.

“Alright, then. Tweeteleet, you call down Tony, Daisy, and Jake, and I’ll get Madison and Selma.We all have to be in position for the surprise.”

“Hey, wait just a minute, aren’t ya forgetting about one other person?” someone abruptly entered the conversation without warning.

Everyone promptly turned to face the new arrival, whose voice was radiating out from somewhere above the party table.

Chester then nodded respectfully in comprehension and understanding moments later.

“Ah, Spiritfang, yes. I see you’ve chosen your smaller wolf form for this occasion.”

“Well of course! That’s the form Star recognizes me in!” the pure white wolf swiftly responded whilst flapping their light blue feathery wings over the cake. Spiritfang possessed a trans pride flag bandanna around their neck, with a symbol consisting of multiple black and white circles in its center. There was also a light pink halo floating a little ways above their head. “Anyway, you guys did a great job setting up! Star should be coming over soon, so this is really good timing!”

“That’s wonderful! Is there anything else we should know, then?” Chester proceeded to ask.

“Yes, actually! See, I don’t wanna mess up that glorious masterpiece of a cake that Sara, Aura, and Lucky just completed as much as any of you do, but I got this great idea of shrinking myself down even further, and hiding inside the cake as another surprise for Star when she comes! Like, I’ll use my magic to become intangible, so I don’t mess the cake up at all, and I’ll also make it so I can see outside the cake, so I know which slice Star’s gonna pick up, and then when she’s about to dig in, I’ll pop out of the slice she chose, and surprise her just like that! Does that sound good to everyone?”

For a couple of seconds after the wolf had finished explaining their idea to everyone, the room was utterly speechless, as everyone went on to attempt to get at somewhat of a firm grasp on all of their words.

Wanting to break this rather awkward silence as soon as possible, in the end, it was Sara who eventually spoke again first.

“As long as you’re not actually touching the cake that sounds fine!” she calmly told the wolf flapping above “What do you think, kids?”

“Well yeah, as long as the cake isn’t getting dirtied, I don’t see a reason why not!” Lucky approved as well with a rather indifferent shrug.

“...yes, just as long as you’re not violating our work, it should be just fine.” Aura agreed just as well.

“Aaaaaaallllllllright then!” Spiritfang enthusiastically replied with a cheeky grin of undistilled glee. “In that case...”

And then, just like that, without any forewarning at all, a shimmering aura of light immediately formed itself around the magical wolf. The next thing the treehouse residents knew, Spiritfang had disappeared into the cake.

“......................ummmmmmm…” Chester attempted to speak, a little over a minute afterwards. “...umm…right, I’ll go get Madison and Selma, then. Tweeteleet?”

The robin gave a soft, affirming nod. “Yes, I shall go get my kids.”

****

Chester was indeed quite used to being in this position, and knew how to act according to its nuances as a result. Situational familiarity, as well as adaptation on the fly, were two skills he had developed rather well over the course of the war, after all.

Without the tapetum ability (that is, the ability to see in the dark), Chester was currently relying mainly on his sense of smell, with backup from his sense of hearing. Timing was impeccable when it came to throwing a successful surprise party, and with how important Star was to Spiritfang, Chester was determined to not let either person down.

Thus, at Chester’s lead, the treehouse residents waited. Still and silent. Attention directed firmly towards the door. Said door had been left unlocked for the occasion, so that Star could get in on her own. This, she had been informed of by Spiritfang. Plus, as the treehouse lay standing firm and tall in the midst of a flat, open prairie, it was hardly a challenge to locate, especially when the prairie was the very first location a person would behold upon entering the world of Arkanaus.

Chester, as well as everyone else in the room, knew implicitly that Star could be wrapping her fingers around the cylindrical door knob at every single second that went by around them. Due to this, they also knew that absolutely none of them could afford to lose attention for even a second.

That, then, was precisely why the moment the internal mechanics of the knob’s tumblr began to echo their cranking and grinding across the walls, a palpable air of immediate tension began to smother the occupants of the room. When the door was at last pushed open rather gently, Chester knew for a fact that Star was here.

Naturally, for the first few seconds, Star bore a rather nervous face and posture, due to being greeted by silence and darkness.

“...umm…h-hello?” she softly asked the blackened room, as she cautiously took some steps inside. “...is anyone here?”

And then, Charles flipped up the lightswitch.

“SURPRISE!” the family of residents of the treehouse called out unto Star in as unison of a cry as they could manage. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STARLIGHT LAPIS!”

Practically picoseconds after the revelation shot up to her brain, Star immediately lit up with bliss. Her eyes began to sparkle with elation as her body overflowed with pure joy. Swiftly directing her arms inwards towards her chest, her folded hands right over her heart, Star could only form a smile of exhilaration on her face, as her tear ducts at last flooded over.

“...you all… did this? All of this hard work? Just for me?” she soon after sniffled from shuddering glee, whilst gazing fixedly around the living room, and all of the party adornments therein.

“None of us would have it any other way!” Madison, an orange tabby cat with a white underbelly and emerald green eyes, stepped further out from her prior hiding place behind the couch.

“Especially for someone so dear to Spiritfang!” Selma, a siamese cat with blue eyes and a missing front left leg added in.

It was only at that point after the surprise, within the one singular second after her dearest furry friend had been mentioned, that Star was, though only subconsciously due to her conscience being rather momentarily preoccupied, able to recognize that Spiritfang was not currently present within the room. She would have immediately spoken up and asked about this, however with a conscience still firmly engrossed in processing her emotions of euphoria, this was not exactly possible at the moment.

Eventually, Star would be led by her hosts over towards the table holding her cake. As her mind was significantly more functional by now, she had ultimately decided not to ask about Spiritfang, since doing so just seemed to be a little rude.

Nonetheless, with or without her wolf friend present, Star was still more than ready to engage in her yearly birthday festivities. The first of which, this year, would be the consumption of the cake. That which was always prefaced, of course, with the blowing out of the birthday candles. Star had become exceptionally more twinkly-eyed upon coming even closer to, and getting a far more thorough examination of the giant desert, though she did understand that such a humongous cake was, indeed, necessary, considering how many residents the treehouse possessed.

Star sat down on the chair located on the table’s southern, smaller side. As Star was doing this, Lucky actually became tempted to make a joke about the chair being the “Archie Bunker chair”, but ultimately decided to hold his tongue, because nobody aside from his fellow treehouse residents would understand that joke.

Meanwhile, however, Tweeteleet and Sara had both brought out one of the two number two candles, so they may be placed upon the top layer of cake for Star to blow out once they were lit. Aura then came trodding right behind them, holding a lighter in her mouth to do just this. With Sara on the left and Tweeteleet on the right, the two mothers placed down the two candles in sync, before swiftly stepping out of the way to allow Aura to come through with the lighter. Two quite expeditious flashes of fire later, and the candles were ready to blow.

Star then promptly went on to bow her head both calmly and silently, whilst closing her eyes and humbly smiling. The treehouse residents could only guess what it was she was wishing for. At last, Star rose her way back up and out of her chair, speedily took in a breath, and finally, blew out both flames.

Now, as the cheering echoed forth in both her ears, Star was only one knife and one cake shovel away from the second surprise. Spiritfang knew, then, that he had to be very attentive in order to figure out which slice Star would choose, in order for his plan to work out.

Watching Star quite intently as she was handed these utensils by Cuddles, Spiritfang was able to recognize, as soon as Star began to stand up from her wooden chair, that she was going to pick a slice on the top. As a result, Spiritfang moved his intangible body up and into that very layer, and waited to see where she would cut. Once the blue woman had cautiously made two cuts near the region which was, from her perspective, at the seven o’ clock position on the cake, Spiritfang rushed to make it to the slice before it was lifted up and placed onto Star’s plate. Proceeding to close his eyes in order to give a brief nod of satisfaction to himself, the tiny white wolf could soon sense the slice moving forwards. Thus, Spiritfang began to rise up to the slice’s top, in order to burst out of it once it had stopped. The moment he could feel that the slice had finally come to a halt, then, he immediately blasted upwards with a single, powerful flap of his light blue, feathery wings. Out of the cake part of the cake he therefore rose, forming a gleaming, excited smile on his face, turning his body fully tangible again, and lastly, emphatically howling out:

“SURPRISE!”

“..............huh?”

Rather unfortunately for the shrunken wolf, however, and naturally to their utter bewilderment, followed promptly by unfiltered shock, the second they re-opened their eyes was the second they realized why no one had responded to their cry.

“WOAH!”

As it had turned out, though poor Spiritfang upon its receiving end now had absolutely no way of figuring this out, (due to being locked up within their own body from the instantaneous mental jolt), when Star had picked up her slice of cake, she was not planning, exactly, on placing it down onto her plate before soon after taking a bite. No, she was planning on taking one giant bite first, and then setting the rest down on her plate. And Spiritfang was not even given a moment to zap out of his state of paralysis, before her jaws came crashing down together, in an echoing, deep-pitched, great clang.

Luckily, Spiritfang was located deep enough into the maw, (just about in the middle of the light purple, squishy, smooth tongue), to where he hadn’t gotten injured from the initial gnashing of the two rows of teeth. With Star’s tongue now swishing around the mushy contents of the treat throughout her maw, (up, down, around, and from cheek to cheek), Spiritfang was fortunately bound to stay that way, as his brain only continued to bind him further and further down into his instinctive state of freezing up, with each movement around the tongue took.

We have now reached the point in the story where, in order to properly address the actions which took place in the following moment in great depth, we shall need to examine it in slow motion. This will be necessary only for the next few paragraphs, but please do keep this in mind as we continue.

With Spiritfang trapped within his instincts, it became hardly a struggle at all for him to move around with the cake mush via the tongue. Currently getting maneuvered into Star’s dark purple left cheek, Spiritfang was able to witness the fleshy pocket expanding just slightly in order to fit all of the contents inside. Being located at the back of the mush blob, Spiritfang’s subconscious was able to somewhat comprehend the feeling of the slick, stretchy muscle brushing up against his back for a moment. Also due to the fact that he was at the very back of the glob, Spiritfang remained unaffected by the shiny white molars in front of him, as they rose up and slammed down twice in a row, before the tongue weaved in between the now raised up teeth within, and promptly scooped up the clump along with poor Spiritfang.

Now, feeling ready to gulp the clump down, Star raised her light purple tongue up, and towards her dark purple, hard palate above. Spiritfang was nearly scraped against the rough ridges at the roof due to this. Moments after, Star tilted her head a ways back, and motioned the food to slide downwards with the slickness of her tongue, on towards her wide open pharynx region, as such.

Spiritfang’s head gently bumped against the plump form of the dark purple uvula as he slid down along with the rest of the food. Had he been able to comprehend what he saw next, he would have noted the similarly dark purple epiglottis flipping over to cover up the larynx. Spiritfang, along with the bolus of food, was then squelched through the upper esophageal sphincter of the same color, and into the esophagus as such. Now, we shall return to normal time.

A small bulge formed itself in Star’s throat as she immediately swallowed once again for good measure. A bulge which was visible to Chester outside of the situation, as everything began to come together, in an exceedingly rapid, panic jolting matter, no less, in his brain. Swiftly glancing up and then back down again, in order to survey the faces of his fellow treehouse residents, it at last became solidified in his mind, that whilst everyone had put two and two together by this point, nobody was quite ready to say it.

Back on the inside of the esophagus, Spiritfang was still completely unresponsive to everything surrounding them entirely. The constant, squeezing motions of peristalsis shoved both them and the cake mush around them further down and further towards the stomach below.

Having made it past Star’s collarbone by now, the heartbeat deep inside of her chest began to vigorously thump against the esophageal walls and echo about, booming firmly within their canine ears. Until, all of a sudden, just a little bit of color and focus began to return to their eyes.

This would be a very slow process, of course, but since there was now no more threat of immediate harm, Spiritfang’s instincts were no longer forced to ramp up their body into overdrive of its survival mode, and as a result, gradually allowed the wolf to regain the capability to comprehend with their eyes the world around them. And just in the nick of time, too.

Spotting the ring of muscle that was the lower esophageal sphincter just below them, Spiritfang thus became implicitly prepared for the drop, breathing in and out relatively normally with just about as little panic as they could muster. Spiritfang could soon feel their legs and tail slipping down and all the way through the natural valve, due to this. Their torso and chest would soon follow afterwards. Finally, then, their head was squeezed down through the dark purple colored bodily sphincter just as well, and Spiritfang began to tumble on throughout the air.

Plunging deep down into the harmless, sloshing pool of sparkly, light blue, watery liquids lying below, Spiritfang had by now regained back enough control over their brain to be able to resurface moments after. Proceeding to doggy paddle their way over to the nearest wall and lie upon it so he wouldn’t keep having to on treadding, Spiritfang went on to allow their brain to finish up its rebooting, whilst they let out a considerably hefty, breathy sigh. He knew he’d been swallowed by Star. He knew she had eaten the cake slice he was in before he could burst out and give her another surprise. He knew that attempting to explain to Star what had happened, whether it be by himself, or one of the treehouse residents, was going to be extremely awkward. This much he had all figured out at this point.

What he didn’t know, however, was when, precisely, someone was going to attempt to do that exact last thing he had listed off. Not, exactly, wanting to be the one to do it, Spiritfang instead lifted up a pointy ear, and gently smooshed it into the lavender wall churning constantly, yet gently, before him. Aside from the natural gurgling and grumbling that was always to be present within a gut, Spiritfang could also detect the sounds coming from the outside of the gut, although at a far more muffled quality. For now, all that was merely utensil clanging, as Star picked up her fork and knife, ready to cut herself a smaller piece of her cake slice. That was, until she glanced up, and saw at last, the collective of silent, shocked faces gazing onto her with nervousness and worry.

Star’s face almost instantly dropped to the floor to match theirs.

“W-wha-what’s going on?” she softly asked the group in rising anxiety.

Now, it was time for the treehouse residents to non-verbally decide amongst themselves who would be the one to speak up and tell Star. The resulting scene of awkward eye and body movements would go on for a painful thirty seconds. Everyone knew that someone had to speak up eventually. Yet no one who sat at that table was prepared to be that one in the slightest.

This was, until at last, Daisy ultimately volunteered for the task, to the rest of the treehouse residents’ utter relief. Gradually turning her head over towards the still unmoving Star with an extremely sympathetic look in her eyes, Daisy let out a soft sigh until she finally opened her beak.

“So, umm…Star…so, Spiritfang actually had a plan to give you another surprise, involving the cake. Umm…he told us earlier today that he was going to turn intangible and hide in the cake, before moving to the slice you were going to pick, and then, bursting out of the slice right before you. But…because you started eating the cake so fast…umm, we’re all pretty sure that you………” and thus, Daisy’s voice trailed off. The room was utterly silent once more after this.

“Yup, that’s exactly what happened!” Spiritfang finally spoke up from below a while later. “I’m perfectly fine, though! No injuries on me, so, no need to worry about my safety!”

Once again, nobody inside the room felt like saying a single word at all. All of the treehouse residents were expecting Star to positively burst into panic over her friend at any moment. That was precisely why it came as such a great shock, when instead, Star reacted with a:

“Oh, phew! I thought someone was actually in grave danger for a second, or something! You guys were looking at me like I just gulped down a bunch of poison! Or like someone was dying, or something!”

None of the treehouse residents gave a peep as Star moved her gaze down towards her midsection.

“Hey, Spiritfang! I’m sorry I messed up your plans for a second surprise! Even if it was by accident. Are you feeling comfortable down there, or do you want me to bring you back up?”

Spiritfang, positively ensconced and surrounded by Star’s slick, squishy stomach walls as they sloshed all about the harmless liquids lying within, went on to give themself a warm smile, as they already knew what their response was going to be to Star’s question. Enveloped by the natural heat deep inside the goopy, soft gut, and lulled to a state of calm alleviation by the melody of gurgles therein, paired a silent nod with said smile, before finally speaking up to his friend.

“You know what, Star? I think I might just stay here until it's time to open the presents! You know I’m a crippling introvert, after all!” they chuckled out lightheartedly to their friend. “You can even go ahead and eat more cake, I’m not going to be bothered!”

Star gave a rather understanding giggle back to her friend upon this reply. “Oh, certainly! Parties can be very draining for introverts! I understand!”

Giving a few gentle pats over her middle, as a momentary goodbye to Spiritfang, Star at last raised her head back up, and once again faced the treehouse residents. Of course, they were all still quiet for the moment, but there was clearly a far less tense air to their faces and bodies. This would be something which was very soon exemplified, by the warm and exuberant reaction of Cuddles, as he promptly rose up from his seat and into the air.

“Well, alright, then!” he enthusiastically spoke out to the rest of the group. “You all heard what the little wolfie said! He’s perfectly fine and very comfortable!”

To Cuddles laying this out right before them, the rest of the treehouse residents' gazes and demeanors naturally began to soften even further. Now that they had been verbally assured one more time of Spiritfang’s comfortability and safety, they all began to calm down all at once quite significantly.

“So you know what I say?” the pterodactyl went on with a tone of rising exhilaration, whilst picking up a fork and a knife. “LET’S EAT!”

****

And so, the party continued without issue. Cuddles helped dish out everyone’s slices, before the group settled down to dig in. Einstein, just as promised, got to explain the inventors’ anti-floor-stain-and-dish-breakage device to the rest of the table, with rather enthusiastic passion to boot. Star was told many great stories about Arkanaus from a few of the residents living in its land. In particular, Chester drove on for quite a while about the tales of his experience in the war.

Yet perhaps most importantly of all, Star and Spiritfang were able to cuddle against themselves all throughout it; Spiritfang locked within the comfort of her guts, as the lavender colored pillowy walls comforted deeply the introvert wolf, and Star conversing in bright-eyed, astonishing wonder with all of her new animal friends. She had hardly known anything about Arkanaus or any of its residents at all before this very same night in the treehouse. And yet, right here and now, as the treehouse residents enjoyed Star's birthday cake right alongside her, Star was positively captivated with exhilaration to learn just about as much as she could.

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snezfics-n-shit · 1 year

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Sicktember Day 26: [Allergic] Conjunctivitis

Fandom: Ace Attorney Characters: Larry Butz, Franziska von Karma, Adrian Andrews Notes: The “[allergic]” part is my own addition because if you’re squeamish like me (no shame in that), what’s often called conjunctivitis or “pink eye” is kind of an uncomfortable image so I wanted that clarification out of the way. Allergic conjunctivitis is just the “official” name for allergy symptoms in the eyes. I lasted these many days, I think I should be allowed to bend the rules just a little as a treat. Larry gets his time in the spotlight because I love him. He’s staying at Franziska and Adrian’s house (believe it or not he doesn’t live there, though) and has managed to give Adrian quite the scare upon his return from running some errands. There’s established married Fradrian and set post-SoJ purely for timeline purposes, as always. If you like the things I write, I always appreciate reblogs and comments; they really make my day!

The nearly ten years of friendship Larry and Franziska shared taught the two a lot about each other. There were important things, like Franziska and Adrian requiring the utmost privacy and quiet whenever either of the couple said even insinuated designating an evening as a Date Night, which Larry had accidentally neglected to respect when he needed help using the air fryer. There were also small things, like Larry’s vehement denial of having any interest in the celebrity ballroom dancing show that was frequently on the Andrews’ household TVs was merely a façade he would put on before secretly enjoying the show from the corner of the room.

At this point, there was no sense in the friends hiding anything from each other. Various life details often found themselves sprinkled in when sharing embarrassing anecdotes involving Phoenix or Miles, too. That said, while hiding information was never a problem, there was always the rare instance of things that Larry would just forget.

Over the past two weeks, Larry and Franziska had actually been in a sort of lightning round of sharing information vital to have on record for an upcoming collaborative project they had planned. Adrian contributed as well, but her role would have more of an impact later on. There were even some things Larry didn’t consider important to this at all, like his higher education transcripts, that made it into the almighty manilla folder Franziska had been filling with more papers than Larry thought possible to fit in there.

This diligence on Franziska’s part was probably why Larry could feel his heart sink into his stomach as Adrian frantically led him into the living room as a visual aid for expressing her worries to her wife.

“What in the world…!?” Franziska made a face perfectly blending confusion and disgust.

Larry didn’t think he looked that bad, though.

“Do I need to disinfect everything?” Adrian wondered aloud, fretting. “I’ve never seen pink eye before, so…”

So that’s what this was about. Thankfully, Larry knew well enough that pink eye was not the problem here, and he trusted Franziska to know the same. Unfortunately, that still meant Adrian was drawing attention to the considerable swelling and visual irritation of Larry’s eyes, something he didn’t realize would be that easy to notice.

“I don’t believe that to be the case, sweetie.” Franziska spoke calmly, soothing Adrian rather efficiently. She stood up to approach Larry to better assess the situation. “What were you doing to get yourself like that?”

“Does it really batter?” Larry was about to rub his eyes, but was stopped by Franziska’s superior reflexes when she grabbed onto his hand at what felt like lightning speed. “It’s dot that big of a deal.”

“It is a ‘big deal’ when you make Adrian worry like she’s doing now.” Franziska firmly lectured him. “You will not put my wife through any more of this and you will provide an explanation for the allergic response you have on full display.”

“Allergic response?” Adrian repeated quietly. “It’s just allergies?”

“Yeah, like I said–” Larry started before being promptly interrupted.

“Yes.” Franziska nodded. “If you recall, Larry Butz, you were to inform me of every flaw in your health record. Considering the combined efforts of the three of us to keep this house impeccably clean and the gardens’ intentional lack of the flora you explicitly described as giving you trouble while living in France, I am of the firm belief that you are withholding valuable information from both me and Adrian.”

When Franziska put it like that, it almost sounded like Larry was hiding something on purpose, but in his defense, the cause of his current symptoms was something he frequently allowed himself to forget. It was only just last year when his introduction to a litter of puppies born in the home of a fellow writer went awry, something he had never experienced before. Maybe there was a bit of denial, since the dogs Larry had met in recent years were just so friendly it would be hard to just stop welcoming all that love, but Larry could swear on his life that he would never purposely pretend he forgot about his newly developed allergies. If Franziska needed someone to blame, she should take things up with Larry’s subconscious.

“Oh, I don’t think Larry would do this on purpose.” Adrian’s defense prompted a look of sincere gratitude from Larry; well, it was as sincerely grateful as he could manage in his face’s current state.

“Yeah! What she said!” Larry agreed, punctuated by some sniffling. “You see, I was picki’g up food for Shoe like you asked for, and there were just the cutest puppies brought by the local dog shelter…”

“Puppies did this to you?” Franziska sounded either puzzled or in shock of what she might have perceived as a great weakness on Larry’s part; Larry wasn’t actually sure of which.

“Hey, dod’t put it that way! They’re just babies!”

“That’s not–” Franziska stopped herself and pinched the bridge of her nose with a heavy sigh. “Just… Please explain why you waited for us to see you in this miserable state before you said anything.”

“I’b dot biserable.” The congestion heavily affecting Larry’s voice did a poor job in supporting that claim, especially when followed by a thick sniffle. “I swear I just forgot.”

“Larry Butz, you are very lucky that Adrian and I have known you well enough for us to find that claim credible.” Franziska finally let go of Larry’s hand and pulled out a pouch of pocket tissues from the pocket of her very comfortable loungewear sweatpants. The irony of the pouch having a puppy theme design was not lost on any of the three occupying the room. “Now, blow your nose, and most importantly: do not rub your eyes simply because your dominant hand is out of my grasp.”

“Alright, alright.” Larry grumbled as he followed Franziska’s command. The tissues were really soft. Maybe if he used these tissues to tend to the lingering itch…

“Don’t even think about it!” Franziska scolded.

Was Larry that predictable? He looked at his left hand steadily lifted near his eye while holding onto a fresh tissue… Maybe he was.

“I’m really sorry, guys. I’m completely honest when I say–... K'ttchshiun!! Ht'sshhiiu!! Kk'sshhnn!!” Those sneezes actually felt pretty good compared to the ones that plagued Larry at the pet store an hour ago. That last little bit of dander must have been on its way out, he figured.

The duet of barely stifled giggles from both Franziska and Adrian in response to Larry’s sneezes seemed to greatly lighten the mood.

“Adorable.” Adrian let the word slip out.

“I told you about that, didn’t I?” Franziska didn’t even attempt to whisper to Adrian.

“So, uh, I’m forgiven, right?” Larry hoped any unintentional interruption from asking that didn’t ruin his chances altogether.

“For this offense?” Franziska pretended to need a moment to think, struggling to suppress the amused smile on her face. “Yes. Especially given the improvement of Adrian’s mood.” She blew a kiss to her wife after saying that. “Now, I will fetch you a damp cloth and some antihistamines.”

“Aw, thanks, Franzy.”

“However,” Franziska added sternly, “should Adrian tell me you were rubbing your eyes again, I will use you to give my whip a proper send-off before its planned retirement!”

Larry knew then that he had better be careful from now on.

#snez attorney #my writing #my fics #sicktember #sicktember 2023 #eye allergy symptoms are the woooorst #Larry is STRUGGLING #also the Little Guy on Franziska's tissue pouch is referenced

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claudiademonside · 1 year

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@gritsandbrits Kendrix!

1- It should be noted that I drew Kendrix mostly as an 18-year-old girl xd just in case. Starting with the first design, I think it looks pretty cute xd But you can tell that I did a lot of hip lol

2-Here is the design of the creator of Kendrix but with 18 years. I find it very interesting that she has wavy hair XD

3-Kendrix Villan... Well, I think it looks good, although I'm not clear about its origin or if it's a dimension xd

4-I think this Kendrix Outfit looks really cool on him! xD I don't know! Red suits her a lot (and I put a green eye for... I don't know xd for her first design hehe)

5-Personally, the first design of Phoenix I like her hair but in the second design I like her outfit more. Although I think I should have left her with short hair xd

6-It is not noticeable but I used a brush to do the hair. She doesn't look adult but for now I don't have much information about her adulthood xd

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

and that's all! xd For now I will draw like this due to problems on my tablet XD but I hope these drawings have love despite being made on a cell phone

#art #digital art #ben 10 oc #drawing #ben 10 au #ben10multiverse #ken10oc #ibispaintdrawing #ben10nextgeneration #Kendrix

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starrymused · 2 years

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Regulus Arcturus Black is an English pure-blood wizard, born to Orion and Walburga Black, and the younger brother of Sirius Black. He attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1972 and was sorted into the Slytherin house. Regulus became a Death Eater in his youth as he grew up admiring the Dark Lord due to the teachings of his parents. However, he began to have his doubts as he grew and experienced life at Hogwarts and defected when he witnessed just what Lord Voldemort was willing to do in order to reach his aims. Regulus also learned about the existence of Horcruxes and managed to track one down. He vowed to destroy it so that it would be one step closer to Lord Voldemort becoming mortal.

Canon Divergence

Instead of dying in the cave when he retrieved Salazar’s locket, Kreacher was able to get him out before he drowned in the lake by the Inferi. After this close brush with death, Regulus decided to set his mind to hunting down the remaining Horcruxes. Albus Dumbledore makes an appearance in his usual grandiose fashion and the two strike a deal — Regulus will work as a double agent for the Order of the Phoenix (but only to the knowledge of Dumbledore.) He has to return to his position in the Death Eater ranks so that he isn’t suspicious, but this gives him a good opportunity to reveal parts of their plans to the Order. Unfortunately, this means he also has to maintain an act and do things that he doesn’t want to while among the Death Eaters...

Regulus hears talk of a prophecy and while Voldemort confides in him here and there, he doesn’t know enough to piece together information for the Order. All he knows is that something big is happening, there is traitor among the Order (he doesn’t know who), and tries to work with Dumbledore to figure it out. However, they aren’t able to conclude that it is Peter Pettigrew before it’s too late — Lily and James Potter are killed while Sirius Black is shipped off to Azkaban.

Regulus returns to the Death Eaters to find them in chaos. He sees Pettigrew among them who informs everyone that the Dark Lord has fallen. This is how Regulus realizes that it was Pettigrew all along. The Death Eaters flee and so does Regulus. He has no choice but to lay low in Grimmauld Place with Kreacher. He only hears about Sirius’ arrest through the newspapers that Kreacher retrieves for him. There’s no way for him to get to Sirius or even Dumbledore knowing that the Death Eaters are being hunted and rounded up by the Ministry. He has to tread carefully now and figures that his best way of getting about is to become an Animagus. After much practicing (and many mistakes) Regulus finally becomes one after four years (in 1985 at age 24.) His Animagus form is an all-black Bombay cat (all Bombay cats are black!) His signature striking green eyes remain.

He uses this form to get around without drawing suspicion as he continues to hunt the Horcruxes. (Please note that there are threads that have taken place where he helps @lannamused‘s Sirius escape, but this can be reset for other threads!!)

Once Sirius has escaped and returned to Grimmauld Place with Remus, he and Regulus catch up on their lost time together, try to repair their damaged relationship, and hopefully become the brothers they were always meant to be. The rest of the Order is informed of Regulus’ status as a double agent and how he’s been helping them for years. He travels a lot, but is able to meet Harry, Ron, and Hermione when they become involved in Order business. He is very intrigued when he hears that Harry has discovered that Riddle’s diary is a Horcrux and is open to working with the trio to find the rest.

#&; ( ABOUT REGULUS )

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acciokaidanalenko · 2 years

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Taking on the Universe: Chapter Six

Chapter Six: SitRep

Summary: After meeting Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams on the ground, the shore party is escorted to the dig site where the Prothean beacon was unearthed. When they arrive, they find that their target is missing, and the mission seems hopeless.

CW/TW: Graphic description of Husks (references decayed flesh)

Preview of chapter below the cut. AO3 link: here.

“What’s the situation here, Chief?” Natasha asked as she carefully studied the soldier standing before her. She seemed steady, calm, focused. Though she’d appeared untouched from afar, now that they stood so close together, Natasha could see the small scratches across her Phoenix armor. Several patches of dried mud on her arms and legs indicated she’d been forced to army crawl at some point, potentially to avoid being detected by the Geth. Her thick, dark hair rested in a bun near the nape of her neck, though a chunk of it had escaped the elastic and was now securely tucked behind her ear. It was obvious she’d been through a lot.

Williams’ dark brown eyes moved to meet hers and she held her gaze steadily, trying to offer her silent support now that things had settled for a moment. She could finally catch her breath. And Natasha knew only too well how quickly a strong facade could turn into a shattered truth once the adrenaline stopped pumping.

"Dog Squad, my squad, was sent on foot to the dig site. We found Bravo Squad... They were all dead. Slaughtered. Didn't even have time to draw their weapons."

Natasha watched her closely as she spoke, recounting the events of what had led her here to this moment. Williams' eyes glazed over as she continued.

"We lost contact with Able and Charlie. But there were... transmissions. We intercepted them, and we were able to piece together enough information. The other squads were under attack from unknown enemies. That's when Donkey put me in charge. I tried, Commander."

Her head fell as her voice broke. The reality of it all seemed to be catching up to her quickly, revealing the true damage beneath the steady exterior. Natasha reached out and gently placed her gloved hand on the chief's armored shoulder. She couldn't let her fall apart, not yet.

"Williams, I understand what it's like to live through something like this. To be the only person keeping a colony from falling. You aren't alone anymore. And I need to know what happened next." Her voice was low and soft as she spoke to the sole survivor of the 212. Williams met her gaze again, a look of understanding passing between them before she took a deep breath and continued.

"We made it to the dig site at dawn. We had a plan. We knew someone was attacking, but we never expected it to be the Geth. We tried to flank them, but some damn recon drones spotted us and opened fire."

"Yeah, we were greeted by a few drones when we got here," Jenkins interjected. Williams turned her gaze to him, looking at him for the first time since she'd begun recounting her tale.

"You're lucky to have survived," Williams commented with a grim smile. "We managed to take down a few of the Geth, ma'am. They were too much for us to handle. We started taking casualties. Jenner, our comms specialist, sent out a general warning before falling. I watched everyone go down. Except Bates. He might've gotten away, but I haven't seen or heard from him since the ambush. Been playing cat and mouse with the Geth and their Human Husks. Not sure how much longer I could've lasted. Glad you came along when you did, Commander."

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bllsbailey · 29 days

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RFK Jr. To Address His Campaign On Friday, Possibly Dropping Out To Endorse Trump

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at the Libertarian National Convention

Speculation is rising in regards to the possibility of Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announcing that he is dropping out of the race on Friday in order to support GOP candidate Donald Trump.

Kennedy announced his plans to hold a campaign speech on Friday, highlighting “his path forward,” which followed after his running mate, Nicole Shanahan,

stated that the duo was contemplating dropping out of the race.

“There’s two options that we’re looking at and one is staying in, forming that new party but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Walz presidency because we draw votes from Trump,” Shanahan said. “Or we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump.”

Kennedy’s campaign has announced that an event will be held in Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday, leading to speculation that Kennedy may be officially endorsing Trump, who will also be in Phoenix for a separate event that same day.

Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance (R-Ohio), also remarked on the ongoing talks between the two campaigns.

“I haven’t spoken to RFK personally, but I know there’s been a lot of communication back and forth between RFK, between the campaign, between this campaign,” Vance stated. “Look, our argument to RFK, and I’ll make it right now, because, of course, he hasn’t dropped out yet, is, look: If you want a Democratic Party that protected American workers and stood for strong borders, maybe disagreed with Republicans on things like tax policy, that party doesn’t exist anymore.”

Trump was asked by CNN on Tuesday if he would consider a cabinet position for Kennedy if he supported Trump, to which he replied, “I probably would. I like him a lot. I respect him a lot.”

Shanahan has stated that the Kennedy campaign has been sabotaged at every turn by Democrats attempting to keep them off of ballots.

“I will say that Clear Choice, this PAC, this DNC aligned PAC that was created specifically to take us out has spent millions of dollars to take us out,” Shanahan stated. “We wanted to win, we wanted a fair shot. The DNC made that impossible for us.”

— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) August 20, 2024

Shanahan has continued her criticism of the Democrat Party’s unethical tactics in a post on X (Twitter).

“Trump has had 6 court battles to fight during this election, while we have 9 and counting across the country. By bringing these suits against political opponents, the Democrats bankrupt the underpinnings of democracy. What the Democrats consider common course to win elections is the kind of “normalcy” that leads to famine, sickness, and civil war. The country is ready for an administration that represents unity,” She wrote.

Trump has had 6 court battles to fight during this election, while we have 9 and counting across the country. By bringing these suits against political opponents, the Democrats bankrupt the underpinnings of democracy. What the Democrats consider common course to win elections is… pic.twitter.com/VrGWO9MH7k— Nicole Shanahan (@NicoleShanahan) August 21, 2024

Kennedy also criticized the Democrat Party’s shift to Kamala Harris after ousting Joe Biden. The party who labels themselves as being “pro-choice” and “pro-democracy” did not think it would be necessary to hold any primary or public voting process.

“She went in four weeks from being the worst liability for the Democratic Party to the second coming of Christ without giving one interview, without showing up for a debate, without a single policy that anyone thinks isn’t ridiculous,” he stated. “It’s not democracy.”

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

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feenxpit · 6 months

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☁️ Intro Post ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

꒷︶꒷꒥꒷˚꒷︶꒷꒥꒷˚꒷︶꒷꒥꒷꒥꒷︶꒷꒥꒷˚꒷︶꒷꒥꒷˚꒷︶꒷꒥꒷꒥

╰┈➤ 𝓖𝓮𝓷𝓮𝓻𝓪𝓵 𝓑𝓵𝓸𝓰 𝓘𝓷𝓯𝓸 ⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

・❥・Content

Art, fanfiction (various ships and x reader), shitposts, and kinnie behavior (rambling and obsessing over the characters I relate to)

I post about Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss, Gravity Falls, and Last Of Us

・❥・Favorite Ships

Hazbin: Huskerdust, Radiostatic/Radiosilence, Adamsapple, Guitarspear

Helluva: Roosterclowns

Gravity Falls: Billford

・❥・Favorite Characters

Hazbin: Angel Dust/Anthony, Husker, Alastor, Lucifer, Adam, Lute, Emily, Sir Pentious, Vox,

Helluva: Blitzø, Fizzarolli, Loona

Gravity Falls: Bill, Ford, Stan, Dipper, Wendy, Fiddleford

Last Of Us: Joel and Ellie (duh)

・❥・Characters I Kin/Relate To

(will probably post the most about)

Hazbin: Angel Dust/Anthony, Lucifer, Lute

Helluva: Loona, Blitzø, Fizzarolli

Gravity Falls: Ford and Dipper

Last Of Us: Ellie

·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚

╰┈➤ 𝓜𝓸𝓻𝓮 𝓐𝓫𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓜𝓮 ⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

★ Name or Alias: Phoenix

★ Age: 21

★ Pronouns: They / He

★ Sexuality: Bisexual

★ Status: Taken (for nearly 2 years <3)

★ Personality Type: INFP (acts more like an ambivert tho)

★ Zodiac: Virgo

★ Hobbies: Drawing, playing guitar, playing ukulele, writing, singing, crochet, painting, makeup, witchcraft, tarot, video games (not a lot, but I loooove the ones I’m into)

★ Blurb: I came to Tumblr for the first time ten years ago (some time in 2014) as a little emo who was here for the sad quotes and also because I wanted to look at all the nerdy fandom sh*t. I’m neurodivergent (AuDHD) and a lot of my special interests are the media that I consume, so I want to talk a lot about it, but not a lot of people in my life like the same stuff as me, so I wanted to find a community here to engage with. Rarely used the site because I had no idea how to interact with it. Now, I regret to inform you all that I have breached containment. Now that I know what I’m doing, this is about to be a HOT MESS! Be not afraid >:)

·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚

Blog Created: March 10th, 2024

This post last edited/updated: August 28th, 2024

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azuramarigold · 1 year

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The Found Turnabout Ch 3

Summary: When Apollo Justice was literally shipped off from Khura'in back to his native country in America, he had issues from bouncing from foster home to foster home - that is until one day in the courthouse he met Phoenix Wright at the age of twelve years old. With a new found family and starting to learn the legal ropes early, Apollo joins Phoenix Wright on some of the earlier cases and the downfalls.

Chapter Summary: Apollo goes to a new family - they seem to be eccentric as one is really into magic tricks and the family goes to see a famous magic show.

AO3 Ch1 Ch2

Foster Home #2 – The Thompson’s

Christmas came and went for Apollo and Aria, and the trial for Emilio Rodriguez was shown on TV, where a random public Defense Attorney barely did anything to help him.

Apollo thought that was awful of the attorney; they could have brought up how Emilio was being blackmailed and forced to be part of the drug smuggling, maybe give him a lighter sentence. But the defense literally didn’t care, and the Prosecution, who was Prosecutor Manfred von Karma, showed no mercy. Emilio was given the “Guilty” verdict on the spot.

Once January hit and it was time to go back to school, Apollo unfortunately was not allowed back in the private elementary school. He was okay with that – even though the classes were very prestigious, and he was learning Spanish at a decent pace, he didn’t care for the attitude of the school. The other kids made fun of him and Sam for being in the foster system, and they also made fun of him for his accent and hairstyle.

So, Apollo studied in the small room where he lived in once before. He loved the cramp space, it felt natural and normal; the walls were covered with years of pictures and drawings, and the floorboards itself creaked with memories. It felt a lot like his and Nahyuta’s shared room in Khura’in, they barely had room to think let alone sleep in, but it was home.

�� Finally, when it was almost Mid-January there the pleasant chime of the doorbell rang through the house. The cats that were curled up at Apollo’s side while he was reading through a Spanish textbook jolted awake and bolted underneath the bed from the sudden noise. With a sign, he closed the book and made his way to the living room where he saw Aria greeting Detective Dick Gumshoe.

“So, you’re sure this will be a good place for him?” Aria questioned, her voice uncharacteristically hard.

Gumshoe grimaced. “Hey… I don’t choose the homes…” he dejected. “I usually don’t even take the kids there. But, because it was slow that day and I was the one who originally processed him… he’s just more familiar with me, it’s easier that I take him. It’s less confusing that way.”

Aria sighed, pinching the corners of her eyes with her finger and thumb, “I was wondering why a homicide detective was doing this…”

“Until Mr. Edgeworth tells me we have a case, I usually do some side runs. Sometimes it’s taking evidence to other precincts, or cleaning up Mr. Edgeworth’s office, or getting some coffee for the others at the station…” Gumshoe chuckled lightly. The scruffy detective then finally noticed Apollo. “Ah, heya, pal!” He gave a wave. “I want to mention ‘Happy Belated Birthday’! It was back in December, wasn’t it? December 7th?”

Apollo gave a shrug. “I don’t know when my birthday is…” he replied sheepishly.

Gumshoe looked taken aback. “Oh, uh… your birth certificate said your birthday was December 7th… so… you’re ten-years-old now….”

Aria looked shock at the news. She didn’t know the information, or she would have got him a gift and a cake.

“We didn’t celebrate it in Khura’in…” Apollo insisted. “It’s fine.” He then gave a depressed sigh. “But I know why you’re here, Detective… there is another home, isn’t there?”

The detective scratched the back of his head. “Yeah… the Thompson family,” he explained. “They already have a couple of their own kids, but they wanted to foster one.”

“Why not get Tyler or Sam…?” the brunette boy blurted out. “I ruined their lives, so they should get a home before me!”

Gumshoe made a pained expression. “They’ve already been processed a couple of weeks ago… they’re in new homes already,” he explained softly.

Wonder why it took me longer to find a new home…?

“If you’re wondering why it took us longer for you,” Gumshoe continued, as if reading the boy’s mind. “I put in a special request to help ya out, wanted extreme background checks and everything. The process just took a little longer…” He then scratched the back of his head nervously. “Even the Mr. Edgeworth tried to speed things up, but…”

“A Prosecutor was trying to speed it up?” Aria questioned; her eyebrow raised.

Gumshoe gave a shrug, “The man has personal matters when it comes to kids going into the system… but I’m not prying.”

Aria then gently told Apollo, “Alright, dearie, let’s get your stuff packed up…” there was a hint of sadness in her voice.

So, once again Apollo went into the small room where he was staying, the two cats greeting him on the bed with softs mews. As before, he began to pack his suitcase with the clothes and books he had brought along; this time a second suitcase was issued to him as he happened to have a few more things this time. When he was finished packing, he sighed and slowly rolled his one suitcase to the living room before going back to retrieve the second.

“Hey, an upgrade!” Gumshoe joked as he saw the second suitcase.

Apollo couldn’t help but grin at that. He had to admit, this was a lot more stuff than he was used to in Khura’in. In Khura’in he and Nahyuta shared most of their things together, and whatever reading material was in the home was Dhurke’s.

“Sí, ahora tengo más cosas,” Apollo replied in Spanish.

Gumshoe laughed again, “Hey, that’s not that other language you speak! You can speak Spanish too?”

Aria nodded. “He was taking classes at the last school and continued studying while here,” she explained.

“I may have future clients that speak Spanish,” Apollo explained brightly. “Spanish is considered the most used language in the country next to English.”

Gumshoe gave that some thought. “I guess that makes sense…” he replied slowly. “Mr. Edgeworth knows a bit of German… and a few other phrases in different languages for when he goes to Europe.” He then took both of Apollo’s suitcases in his hands. “I’ll get these in the patrol car, alright, pal?”

Apollo nodded as he turned to face Aria. Aria looked sad once again that the boy was leaving. She then wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to him.

“Just like with the detective, if you need anything, please call me, dearie…” she pleaded with him. “I don’t want you in that kind of situation ever again…”

The boy felt a wave of gratitude rush over him. He threw his arms around her and hugged her closely to him. “Thank you,” he whispered to her.

Aria then grabbed Apollo’s hand so she can guide him outside to the patrol car. She then handed him a small pack of something she had picked up from the pharmacy earlier that morning. As she helped him in the car she received a bottle of water from the detective and handed it to Apollo.

“These are motion sickness pills, dearie,” Aria explained to him. “This should help with the queasiness from the car rides you have to go on.”

“I still got bags in there too for ya, pal,” Gumshoe chimed in.

Apollo took the medication, his face twisting when the bitterness and saltiness of the medication touched his tongue. He downed the water in a matter of seconds, desperately trying to get the tase out of his mouth. Once he was done, Aria took the empty bottle from the boy.

“Remember, please call me with any issues,” Aria reminded Apollo. Her gaze then went to the scruffy detective and her eyes hardened. “You too, Detective Gumshoe.”

“YES, MA’AM!” Gumshoe shouted as he straightened up and shot his right hand to his head in a salute.

Once again, Apollo was buckled into the car. Gumshoe started the vehicle and pulled away from the house slowly, him giving a small wave to Aria. Apollo rolled down the window and stuck his head out and shouted his goodbyes, this time he did have a smile on his face, albeit small; at least he had her phone number now to be able speak with her when he felt overwhelmed.

The car ride felt a little better this time – his stomach felt less queasy from the motions, although his face was still flushed. He kept one of the plastic bags that Gumshoe had in his hands just in case though; he did notice that there was a stain on the floor from the first time he was in the car and had vomited.

“Yeah… the Chief wasn’t happy about that!” Gumshoe laughed when he looked in his rearview mirror, noticing Apollo looking at the floor. “My salary got docked a little for the cleaning, but, hey, what’re gonna do, pal?”

At least he’s very lighthearted about it…

The car ride didn’t seem to be as long as going to the Rodriguez’s home. In fact, according to the detective it was only a few neighborhoods over from Aria’s place. That also made Apollo happy… maybe he’ll see Aria around town too.

Gumshoe pulled over the patrol car to a quaint suburb, all the homes almost cookie-cutter the same. The only difference of the homes were the cars that were parked in the driveways and that the gardens contained. All the homes were either a white or off-white in color, with the roofs the same tiled red.

It felt… uneasy.

“How was the ride this time, kid?” Gumshoe asked genuinely.

“A bit better…” Apollo honestly replied. “That medicine seemed to help a lot.”

Gumshoe, like before, assisted the boy out of the car and got his suitcases out of the trunk. He gave the lighter one to Apollo and he rolled the heavier one himself as the two walked up to the door. As before, the detective rang the doorbell.

A petite woman answered the door, her blue eyes almost sparkling like the sun reflecting on the ocean. Her auburn hair was tied up in a messy bun, loose hairs framing her freckled face. As it was winter, she wore a light blue cardigan along with jeans and house slippers; she honestly looked very cozy.

“Ah, hello, are you Detective Gymshoe?” the woman asked nicely, her giving a warm smile.

“Uh… Gumshoe,” the man replied lightly. Apollo could tell that this happened a lot.

The woman then glanced down and saw the boy. “Ah, you’re Apollo, right?” she asked gently. He nodded. “Well, welcome. My name is Olivia Thompson.”

“Hap’piraki,” Apollo greeted softly. He had given a small wave.

“Well come inside, sweetie,” Olivia then said. “You must be freezing!” She opened the door a little wider and let the boy inside, her taking his suitcase from him. “You can bring his other one in, right, Detective?”

Gumshoe nodded. “Of course, ma’am.”

The inside of the home was much smaller than the Rodriguez’s large manor-like house. Shoes piled up near the door of various types, sizes, and colors. Pictures hung haphazardly on the walls, each with a different child with similar features with large smiles. The air felt warm, and the smell of something baking filled Apollo’s nostrils.

Thumping and screeching filled the home as well. It was very lively – something that Apollo really appreciated. Everything here felt alive.

“Lukas and Lila, please stop your horseplay and come meet Apollo!” Olivia bellowed, her motherly voice cutting through the noise.

Two blonde children came running down the hallway, both trying to push each other to get to the goal first. Both looked to be the same age, about eleven-years-old, so only a year older than Apollo himself. The girl, Lila, had her blonde hair in twin braids, while the boy, Lukas, had his hair almost a curtained style. Both had twinkling blue eyes, very similar to their mother, and both were wearing overall denims with Lila wearing a purple plaid shirt underneath and Lukas wearing an orange plaid shirt underneath.

They must be twins…

“Hello,” they both greeted in unison.

Oh, I am not going to like this.

“We are the twins,” they continued in their unison, their tones almost identical to each other. “Lila and Lukas Thompson.”

“Um…” Apollo whispered uneasily, his brown eyes darting toward Gumshoe. The detective looked just as uneasy. “I’m Apollo… Apollo Justice…”

Olivia gave a giggle, “Oh, don’t worry about the twins, they’re harmless.”

Another boy came from down the stairs that was in front of the door. He was older than the twins and Apollo, not by much only a couple of years – so he had to be around fourteen-fifteen.

“Mom, what is with the yelling?” the boy called. He had auburn hair like his mother, and freckles kissed almost every part of his face. His eyes were a deep gray, almost like stone. He then finally noticed Apollo. “This is the kid I’m sharing my room with?”

“You’re the one with the bunk bed, Brayden,” Olivia pointed out. “And you know the twins don’t want to be split up.” She then turned to Detective Gumshoe. “Thank you for getting Apollo here safely, we can take it from here.”

Gumshoe scratched the back of his neck. “Uh, okay,” he lightly said. He glanced at Apollo. “You still got my info, pal?” A nod from the brunette boy. “Alright, call me if ya need anything, pal.” He then set Apollo’s heavier suitcase down and with a wave left the home.

Oh… please don’t leave me here…

Apollo thought he would be better off living with Gumshoe where the scatterbrained detective was at than here. Even though the home was very homey feeling, something still felt off.

“Brayden, how about you show Apollo to the room?” Olivia suggested, breaking Apollo’s frantic thoughts and conspiracies.

With an irritated sigh, Brayden gestured for Apollo to follow him. Apollo grabbed the lighter of the two suitcases and followed the older boy up the stairs. The hallway upstairs was cramped, showing more pictures of the family doing various activities. Toys and other objects littered the hall, Apollo practically stumbling over them.

He found it refreshing compared to the blank and openness of the Rodriguez house.

Brayden then led them to a door that was covered in “KEEP OUT” stickers plastered all over the brown wood. The stickers were in bright red and yellow, a few with skulls and crossbones, others with biohazard symbols or with radiation symbols.

“Are we allowed in this room?” Apollo asked as Brayden went to the turn the handle.

Brayden looked at Apollo as if the boy grew an extra head. “Uh… yeah?” he sputtered. “This is my room.” He then opened the door to reveal a bedroom. The floor was a brown carpet, littered with wrappers and dishes, a TV on a stand was blaring a skateboarding game that Apollo was familiar with from his time at the old house, an oak desk that was piled up with books and papers that was about to fall over, and of course the wood-framed bunk bed.

“If this is the bedroom…” Apollo began as he followed Brayden inside. “What’s with the stickers?”

“So those brats and my mom don’t come in.”

Brayden entered the room, Apollo following close behind. The door slammed shut, the doorframe rattling. The bottom bunk was already filled with pillows and haphazardly flung sheets, all various in colors and styles; it looked as though it was already occupied.

“You’ll get the top bunk – so, try not to make so much noise,” Brayden declared. He then gave a sneer. “Also try not to fall, one of my friends during a sleep over broke his arm when getting down to use the bathroom.”

Apollo’s left wrist felt uncomfortably tight. Brayden’s own left hand touched his right arm subconsciously.

“I don’t think that happened…” Apollo said slowly. His brown eyes really focused on Brayden’s movements. The auburn-haired boy did touch his own arm when he mentioned the broken arm… “I think you’re trying to scare me, because you broke your own arm before.” Apollo then glanced at the bottom bunk. “That’s why you sleep on the bottom, so you don’t risk falling and getting hurt again,” he then formulated.

Brayden’s gray eyes widened. “Wh… What do you know!?” he whined. “Get your other stupid suitcase and unpack your stupid stuff!”

Apollo muttered in Khura’inese as he opened the bedroom door. He had a feeling there was going to be a lot of arguing.

And a lot of lying.

Now, Apollo always had this subtle feeling when people were lying. Everyone had a tell. Nahyuta always scrunched his face at certain times when lying, or Dhurke would fiddle with his shirt. Detective Gumshoe always scratched behind his head or darted his eyes. Aria always touched her stomach when talking about how she never had time to have her own children or her other tell for lying was tapping on her hip.

But when people are telling stories, or recalling certain memories, they often expose their own exaggerations, or lies, by subconsciously doing an action. Many people when telling stories of how they won fights would always touch a body part where they were severely hurt where they say they hurt the other person, and many movements are embellished. Apollo was always able to tell which movements were embellished, and that’s when people were lying. Sometimes it was hard to pinpoint, but slowly as he got older it was starting to become a little clearer.

Especially when it came to card tricks.

He found that particular trait odd, how he was able to spot card tricks from a mile away. When he was small, he and Nahyuta would go to a shadier market with Dhurke, and one of the stall owners would try to use card tricks to distract people to pickpocket; however, Apollo was always to see the card trick ahead of time and tell Dhurke what was happening to stop the hustle.

And that was what was driving Brayden completely nuts as the two sat on the floor of the bedroom after Apollo brought up his second suitcase. The older boy seemed to try multiple card tricks. One was the old “Is this your card?” trick, and another was a “disappearing” card trick. Brayden would be shuffling the cards in every which way to “prove” that he was really shuffling.

Except, Apollo knew that Brayden wasn’t really shuffling the cards. Apollo could clearly see him slightly using his thumb and pinky fingers to keep tabs on cards that Apollo “picked”. Or, he could see that Brayden kept his thumb tightly gripped on a card to “transform” one type of card to another, or make one disappear, which was just another card already hidden in his palm. These were all simple “sleight of hand” tricks, anyone who was paying attention could tell what he was doing…

When Brayden was first showing Apollo the deck of cards, he had asked the brunette if he knew any “magic tricks”. Apollo didn’t know the meaning of the term, so he followed along. But as Brayden continued the “tricks”, Apollo realized these were the “scams” that he recognized from Khura’in.

“You have my three of diamonds on the top and ace of clubs on the bottom,” Apollo deadpanned, almost stifling a yawn after the tenth time of going through the motions of yet another card trick.

That’s when Brayden threw the cards in his face. “Are you kidding me!?” he shouted. “How can you see that!?”

“It’s very obvious…”

“That’s not how Troupe Gramarye showed it…” Brayden almost pouted.

Apollo raised an eyebrow. “Troupe what now…?” he questioned.

“Did you live under a rock or something?”

“I lived in another country for nine years.”

Brayden just blinked at that. “Troupe Gramarye are famous magicians.”

Apollo then just… laughed. “Magicians…?” He then stood up, letting whatever loose cards that were on him fall. “That is ridiculous.”

Brayden then stood up himself. “Are you saying magic and being a magician is a hoax?” he then demanded.

The brunette nodded. “Yeah, I am. Magicians just seem to be con artists. I’ve dealt with a lot of them in Khura’in.” he stated. “Now, spirt-channeling… that is the real deal-”

“Oh, you draw the line with card tricks, but ghosts are real!?”

“Not ghosts, spirit channeling, it’s different!”

Olivia then shouted from downstairs, “BOYS! Stop arguing and come down for dinner!”

As Apollo went to go to the door, Brayden had shoved him away, him blowing a raspberry. With a groan, Apollo followed Brayden out of the room and down the stairs to a brightly lit dining room. The table was small and cramped, filled to the brim with lean meats and vegetables, and surrounding the table were mismatched chairs.

Olivia sat near the end, an older blonde man at the head of the table. The twins sat next to Oliva, leaving Brayden sitting across and the only open seat was next to him. Apollo felt his hair droop – he rather not sit next to Brayden.

“Ah, you must be Apollo,” the older man greeted. “Welcome to the Thompson family, my boy. I’m Terrance Thompson, but everyone calls me Terry.” He then gestured to the empty seat. “Have a seat, my boy. The detective mentioned that you have a specific diet, so we got chicken and vegetables for your first night with us.”

Apollo gave a small bow, something that was common in Khura’in and thanked him in Khura’inese. “Thank you very much,” he then said in English.

“They also mentioned your bilingual too,” Olivia commented, her already getting food for Lila and Lukas. “That explains your adorable accent!”

Again, Apollo felt his hair droop and his felt his face fall into almost a grimace.

Why does everyone think my “accent” is adorable? If anything, everyone else sounds weird and has an accent!

“He sounds weird to me,” Brayden sneered, him putting a few pieces of chicken on his plate. He received a glare from his father. “I don’t know what he’s saying half the time.”

Tightness. A subtle pinching of the tablecloth in front of him.

Liar.

“I’m also learning Spanish,” Apollo then offered, him finally taking a seat next to Brayden. As he went to take a piece of chicken from the center, Brayden went and snatched it.

“Brayden Terrance!” Olivia snapped. “You have enough on your plate, you need to let Apollo have some!”

“I can deal with vegetables,” Apollo stated, him not actually minding. Sometimes too much meat, even lean, made his stomach uneasy.

Terry grumbled, “Nonsense! You can have some!” He glared at his son with his own gray eyes. “You start shaping up, or do you want me to give back those Troupe Gramarye tickets to my co-worker that graciously gave them to us?”

Brayden’s eyes lit up. “Wait… you got the tickets?!”

Apollo raised an eyebrow.

“Brayden has been wanting to go to their show for some time,” the twins spoke up in their unison tone. Even when they were eating, their movements of picking up their forks and shoveling food into their mouths were identical.

This is starting to be more terrifying than the Kurain Channeling Technique…

“Have you ever been to a magic show, Apollo?” Olivia asked politely as she put some chicken on his plate for him.

“We didn’t have those in Khura’in,” Apollo replied.

Just channeling and Divination Séances from the Khura’in Royal Family … I guess that’s the closest thing we had…

“I think you may enjoy this,” Terry commented. “I did manage to even get an extra ticket since we knew we would be expecting you.”

An exasperated sigh came out of Brayden.

Apollo had to bite the urge to sigh along with Brayden.

“It’ll be fun, Apollo,” the twins said again in unison.

I have a feeling it won’t be…

The show was two weeks later, in the meantime, Apollo was registered in a new elementary school, the same one as the twins as they were in fifth grade.

This school wasn’t as prestigious as the last one he had attended, which was okay for the most part. Apollo was still able to take Spanish as an extracurricular activity, but he could tell he was already more advanced than the other students, often finding himself quite bored. In fact, he found himself quite bored with many of his subjects… often finding himself getting scolded by the teachers for not paying enough attention.

So, he forced himself to read the horribly written textbooks, but once he was done, he brought his own books from home. He read his law books that he had received from Lucy and from Aria, he finished his Spanish texts he had from his last school that was purchased for him, and he even read a homicide detective book that Gumshoe had brought by one day for the heck of it.

All in all, Apollo was bored. Even the library of the school had no other books that piqued his interest.

It was finally the day of the Troupe Gramarye show. Apollo was dressed in his traditional color scheme, a red hoodie with a black undershirt, jeans, and white sneakers. He made sure to cover his golden bracelet with the sleeve of his hoodie; it always made him uncomfortable when Brayden and even other kids made fun of him for it – even a kid tried to steal it from him.

The rest of the family dressed in warm clothes as well. The twins dressed in identical black hoodies and jeans with purple knitted hats. Olivia and Terry wore tan peacoats and black dress pants with burgundy sweaters – it almost looked as though they were going to a business meeting rather to a magic show. And then there was Brayden…

Brayden was wearing what looked almost like a costume from a pop-up Halloween store – a cheap magician’s outfit. He was wearing all black with what was almost a plastic top hat and an equally plastic cape.

Apollo made a mental note to make sure not to sit next to him – he rather sit next to the twins at this point.

“Brayden,” Olivia sighed, almost with irritation. “I thought I told you not to wear that…”

“I’m hoping they’ll notice me, and I can learn better magic tricks!” insisted Brayden.

Never thought I’d see a fifteen-year-old act like they’re ten… and I’m ten.

As they were about to pile into a silver minivan, Apollo was given the motion sickness medication by Olivia. She said to him that it was mentioned to her by Detective Gumshoe that he got carsick easily, so she had stocked up on medication for him and had grocery bags in the car for him. Apollo felt grateful for that, so he gladly took the medication.

Even with the medication, Apollo still felt queasy in the van. This time however, he did not vomit, which made him happy; he doesn’t know how he would feel if Brayden berated him for feeling carsick.

Soon the family made it to a large tent that was already having a large string of people lining up. Lights danced against the dark red tent, the chatter of people were buzzing around, and what caught Apollo’s attention was the large billboard that had the entire troupe on it.

The largest image was the patriarch of Troupe Gramarye was Magnifi Gramarye in all his glory – him dressed in his traditional black, his Spade brooch proudly on his chest. In front of him, albeit smaller, were the other three performers. To the left was a man dressed in a yellow magician’s outfit with a Heart brooch front and center, his long black hair neat and tidy under his yellow top hat, and in his left hand was a long scepter. To the right was a man with tan skin in a more salmon-colored magicians outfit with a Club brooch, his mustache and sideburns neatly trimmed. In the center was a woman with light brown hair in twin braided pigtails, her deep sapphire blue eyes almost sad looking with her soft smile, and her powder blue magician’s outfit complimented her olive-colored skin very well, and holding her cape in place was a Diamond brooch, and her final touch was a red scarf around her neck. All three had the card motif pattern on their capes and all three wore white gloves.

“Wow, that woman is so pretty,” Olivia commented when they passed the billboard.

“That’s Thalassa Gramarye,” Brayden told his mother. “She’s the daughter of Magnifi Gramarye.”

“She looks sad…” Apollo couldn’t help say, it was almost like the more he stared the more he could feel the pain in her eyes.

The family entered the tent, the crowd of people’s voices filling the tent almost to the point where Apollo wanted to cover his ears. Terry took the twins to a merch tablet and bought them a couple of t-shirts, while Olivia took Brayden and Apollo to a different table and got them a couple of things as well; Brayden got a new deck of cards and Apollo got a stamp book with various stamps of the magicians.

Apollo couldn’t help but continue to linger on Thalassa – for some reason, she just felt very familiar. Has he ever seen one their shows on television in passing and caught a glimpse? That couldn’t be it, he’s never even heard of Troupe Gramarye until the Thompson household. However, there was just something that was familiar about her…

“Alright, let’s find some seats,” Terry announced once he was back with the twins. The twins were now wearing their new bright pink and yellow t-shirts over their black hoodies.

Surprisingly, the family of six managed to find some seats at a decent height to be able to see the show properly. Once seated, the show began. An announcer bellowed into a PA system, greeting everyone, the cheers were nearly deafening.

The show began with a tuft of smoke, and front and center was Magnifi Gramarye. He gave a bow and with a wave of his hand the other three magicians appeared in a flash of feathers as doves erupted and flew away. The crowd went wild.

Valant, the yellow magician, began doing illusion tricks for the crowd. First, he had Thalassa seemingly floating in midair. Zak was then seemingly in the crowd with the patrons, Thalassa soon joining him with her small, yet sad smile.

The crowd was eating it up.

Zak’s part of the show was having Thalassa go into a box as he then set it on fire. Gasps erupted from the crowd. As the box was engulfed in the dancing flames, Zak then also proceeded to thrust swords into it as well. With three snaps of his right hand the box ceased to be engulfed in flames, and he opened the box to reveal it was empty.

“Hello, everyone!” a cheerful voice called out. Everyone turned to the spotlight that shined into the crowd that happened to be next to VIP seating, revealing to be Thalassa. She took off her top hat and gave a small bow and gave a wink as she put her hat back on.

Cheers and applause filled the tent, even Apollo clapped.

Thalassa’s trick was different than the other two’s – she required a volunteer. Many people cried out and raised their hands, begging to be part of the show. Brayden was practically jumping out of his seat. Apollo was lowering himself deep into his seat, wanting to avoid being potentially picked. In the end, a little girl was next to her.

The little girl couldn’t be no older than two or three years of age, and her outfit was nearly identical to Zak Gramarye’s magicians costume. The only difference in the costume was that her brooch was a Diamond like Thalassa’s. Thalassa then picked up the girl effortlessly, as if she had done it a million times.

“I would like to introduce you all to Trucy Gramarye, my and Zak’s daughter,” Thalassa announced proudly, a true smile on her face for the first time that night. “Tonight, she will be my special volunteer for my trick!”

“Yay!” the little girl, Trucy, cheered, her smile large and her deep blue eyes sparkling under the lights.

The entire crowd awed.

“She’s so cute!” Olivia exclaimed, her hands to her face. “Look at her in the little outfit!”

Thalassa then continued, “Tonight will be considered her debut as officially a magician for Troupe Gramarye!” She paused so everyone can cheer and clap. The mother then whispered something in her daughter’s ear and sat her down.

Trucy then ran up to the center of the stage that was set up and started lifting three large cards to stand them up, Thalassa soon joins her. Thalassa tells the audience to watch Trucy in the center as Thalassa put the giant card in front of her. The mother magician then placed one large card to the right and then to the left. Once she removed the card from the center, Trucy was gone. Then when she removed the other two cards, showing that all three cards were now on the ground, the little girl was still gone.

“Oh dear!” Thalassa feigned worry. “Now, where did my little Trucy go?” She had both her gloved hands to her face in shocked expression. A glint bounced off her right wrist from the stage lights when her glove rolled up a bit, showing she was wearing a bracelet underneath, but it was heard to see what type it was from a distance. “Has anyone seen little Trucy Gramarye?”

The audience began to whisper among themselves. Some were saying it was part of the show. Others were asking if the woman legitimately lost a toddler during a magic act.

Thalassa then raised the cards again, standing all three in a row just as she had done before. After a moment the center card was pushed forward, revealing Trucy.

“Ta-da!” the little girl cheered excitedly.

The audience clapped and cheered. Many talked on about how adorable Trucy was and how beautiful Thalassa was. A couple stated that Trucy was most likely going to grow up to be a looker just like her mother and be as talented as her grandfather in magic.

“And now, the finale!” Magnifi announced, him being front in center as a puff of purple smoke appeared. “Prepare yourselves!”

Zak and Valant appeared in center stage, both with one of their hands to their sides. Thalassa was coming to the center of the stage as well, handing off Trucy to Magnifi. As Magnifi and Trucy began to walk off stage, Zak and Valant took places on opposite sides while Thalassa stayed in the middle.

“Get ready everyone!” Magnifi’s voice boomed over audience, almost like magic without a PA system. “Get ready for ‘Zak and Valant’s Quick-Draw Shoot’em’!”

The crowd roared. Brayden was practically jumping out of his seat with excitement. Apollo felt uneasy.

“I can’t believe they’re gonna do it!” Brayden cheered. “They rarely do it at their smaller shows!”

This is a small show!?

And that’s when Apollo heard it.

Gunshots.

The popping, the banging. Those were the only sounds he heard along with his heart pounding in his ears. His blood ran cold, a cold sweat beaded on his forehead. The image of the gun in front of his face kept flashing in his mind… the bullet hole in the man’s forehead and the look of life draining from his eyes before he fell forward.

“Apollo…?” he heard from what seemed like a distance, but he couldn’t pay attention now.

He needed to leave.

What seemed to be like a mind of their own, his legs just made him stand from his seat and began to move away from the crowd. He barely saw the faces of people laughing, cheering, being happy.

I’m fine… I’m fine… Breathe in… Breathe out… I’m fine…

He felt the corners of his vision blur, and with each heartbeat it was almost pulsating along. His blood roared in his ears, but he still heard each bang of a gunshot as though it were right next to him… as if a bullet was whizzing past his ear like he was running through the house that night.

I’m Apollo Justice and I’m fine… I’m fine…

Finally, what seemed like an eternity, he was out of the stands. He managed to hunch over a trash can and vomit, feeling his knees wobble in weakness. Apollo wanted to go home… but not at the Thompson’s… not even at Aria’s at this point… he wanted to go back to Khura’in.

“Are you alright, boy?” an older gruff voice asked.

Apollo barely looked up, but he saw it was the leader of the troupe himself: Magnifi Gramarye.

“I’m… not feeling well…” Apollo rasped. He wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his hoodie, almost hitting his teeth with his bracelet that was hidden underneath.

The older man looked at him intensely, as if he were studying an insect. “I can tell you’re not lying about that…” the man admitted. “Was there something that… bothered you?”

“No,” Apollo lied, his right hand instantly going to his bracelet that was still hidden. When he lied this was his own tell he noticed, he always went for the bracelet, but he always touched it for comfort as well.

“Now, that is a lie,” Magnifi declared, a sly smile on his face. He then crossed his arms across his chest.

“I just don’t like guns…” Apollo then admitted, him then looking to the ground, feeling a wave of embarrassment wash over him. But why should he feel ashamed? The older man gave a soft nod, almost like he understood.

Magnifi then looked at Apollo very closely, as if the boy reminded him of someone. “You look a little familiar… have you ever been to one of our shows before?”

“No sir,” Apollo honestly answered. “I have not.”

Magnifi nodded with approval. “Not a lie…” he whispered. “What’s your name, boy?”

“Um…”

“Apollo!” he then heard Olivia call out. “Where are you!?”

Apollo darted his brown eyes away from Magnifi’s stoney gray. “I have to go… my foster mom is calling me…” he rushed his words as he spun to turn away. He felt his hoodie sleeve, his left, get tugged, but he managed to pull it away, but it rolled up a bit, showing his bracelet.

“Wa… wait a minute… where did-!?” Apollo heard Magnifi start to shout, a combination of shock and anger, but he never heard the rest of the sentence as he ran as fast as he could to the exit to meet the rest of the Thompson family.

Four months passed since the show with Troupe Gramarye, and Apollo couldn’t shake the feeling that possibly Magnifi knew something about him.

But it was no matter, the Troupe had packed up and left for another part of California the following day after the incident. Apollo of course got a lecture about running off by Terry, but once Olivia pointed out that he mostly ran off because of the guns the subject got dropped.

Brayden, however, made it a cruel game whenever he could during the next four months.

The teenager had bought a toy gun that made popping sounds and an airsoft gun. He hid them in the room, with the orange tip of the airsoft painted, so when Apollo discovered it one day in the sock drawer, he legitimately had a panic attack and almost fainted. Brayden would shoot the toy gun at random intervals in the night on random nights by Apollo’s ear just to watch the boy bolt up and nearly fall off the top bunk, screaming in Khura’inese nearly in tears.

During these four months Apollo would call Aria and talk to her, and she suggested about going to therapy. He preferred not to, as it would be yet another person he had to deal with. Occasionally he called Gumshoe, asked him more about gun safety and possible firearm defense protocols.

“Maybe when you’re a couple of years older, pal,” Gumshoe had told him. “I’ll show ya how to properly handle things if ya want. Safety is important after all, but right now with the laws you’re still too young.”

It all came to a head when Apollo was looking at pictures in the hallway. He did notice the twins were in pictures of course, but there were many pictures of Brayden with another boy that was his age at the time in pictures as well. At one point, the pictures just stopped being the two of them and it was just Brayden being alone, but his expression was a bit… sadder.

Olivia was walking by in the hall, a laundry basket on her hip. She said a greeting to Apollo as she walked by, but he then stopped her.

“Hey, Olivia,” he said. “Who is the other boy in these pictures with Brayden?”

Olivia looked over and smiled sadly at the pictures. “Oh… that’s Cayden,” she replied. “Brayden’s twin brother…”

Apollo felt his face twist with shock. “He… he had a twin too?” he gasped. He looked more closely at the pictures. They weren’t identical twins, but they looked similar enough at a closer glance, but they weren’t eerily similar like Lila and Lukas.

“Yeah…” Olivia sighed sadly. “He drowned about six years ago…”

“D-drowned…?” the boy echoed.

“Yeah… he and Brayden loved magic tricks,” she explained. “They saw a trick on TV of a magician being tied up and trying to escape a water tank… they tried to do it in our old pool we used to have in the backyard… Brayden noticed too late that Cayden couldn’t escape… and he couldn’t untie the knot he made.

“By the time Terry got to the Cayden… it was too late.” Olivia concluded sadly.

That explains why he has a bunk bed actually…

After the explanation, Apollo finally went back to the room that he and Brayden shared. The room was always a mess, but Apollo kept his area – the top bunk – as neat as possible, with his shelves organized with the books he had accumulated. As he walked in the door, a loud pop! sounded by his right ear.

He felt his heart race, almost like it was about to burst out of his chest. Without even thinking, he balled up his left hand into a fist and threw. His fist collided with Brayden’s face with a sickening crack and there was a loud scream. A sticky wet substance covered Apollo’s hand, and when he looked his hand was red… covered in blood.

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?” Brayden screamed, his face in his hands, blood spewing between his fingers.

“I… I didn’t… I didn’t mean-” Apollo stammered, his voice shaking, but his volume was still loud.

Olivia came rushing in, her laundry basket forgotten. She screamed when she saw Brayden covering his face and all the blood, and she the blood on Apollo’s hand. She obviously made the connection.

“What did you do!?” she demanded as she went to her son and tried to see the damage.

“I… I…” Apollo couldn’t form words.

“He just punched me for no reason, Mom!” Brayden cried, tears brimming his eyes.

The tightness on Apollo’s left wrist said otherwise, Brayden was fidgeting with his loose strand of hair as he said that – another one of his tells Apollo had noticed over the time he had spent here. Apollo had mentioned over the course of the last four months what Brayden was doing with the popping toy and the airsoft gun to both Olivia and Terry, but they both brushed it under the rug.

“Boys will be boys,” Terry had said.

And now it had escalated to this.

When Olivia had finally managed to remove Brayden’s hands from his face, his nose was clearly broken. Cartilage and bone busted through his skin, and his eyes were already starting to swell and blacken. Blood was everywhere, still streaming from where the bone and cartilage broke through and streaming out his nostrils.

The ambulance and police were called immediately – and when the police were called it was mentioned that Apollo, the foster child, was the cause of the violence. The cop that arrived on the scene was none other than Detective Dick Gumshoe, who looked extremely confused that a call like this even happened.

Brayden was loaded into the ambulance along with his mother and they were taken to the nearest hospital. Terry and the twins went and followed them via the minivan. Both the parents made it very clear to Gumshoe though – they did not want Apollo to be there when they returned, and they would try to find a way to press charges on the minor.

Gumshoe had Apollo sitting in his patrol car, his suitcases already in the trunk packed away. The lights from the other cars were blaring red and blue against the home as the police investigated inside.

“So, pal,” Gumshoe started softly. “What happened? I don’t think you would just attack another kid out of the blue.”

Apollo explained everything. From the Troupe Gramarye show with how the gun trick freaked him out, how Brayden found out that was a weakness. Brayden had then purchased items to make it look like and sound like real weapons to torment him for the last four months.

“I walked in the room…” Apollo was finishing the story. “I heard the pop in my ear… It was like that night… when I was running… I… I reacted… I just wildly punched…!” Tears were streaming down his face. He didn’t want to go to jail… did they put kids in jail in America?

Is it like Khura’in…? Am I going to be executed!?

“Am I going to jail or am I going to die, Detective Gumshoe?” Apollo cried, his voice high pitched in hysterics.

Gumshoe looked panicked. “Whoa! Look, pal, no one is dying here, okay?” he stated. “I’m making sure things are being investigated, you’re not gonna get in trouble…”

“I want to be a lawyer…” Apollo whispered. “Is this going to ruin it…?”

Gumshoe then turned his attention to another officer that called out to him. “What is it?” he asked.

“Detective,” the officer said. “There is evidence in the boys’ room of an airsoft gun with a painted tip and a popper toy.” He showed the detective the items in question in plastic bags. “We already dusted them for fingerprints, and since we already have this kid’s on file here -” he gestured to Apollo. “– we can already see his are not on these. The popper has recent residue, most likely fired within the last half hour – forty-five minutes.”

The detective gave it some thought. “That timeline is accurate to when we got the call and when the Thompson’s left for the hospital…” He took the bags from the officer. “Looks like solid evidence to me. I’ll make sure Prosecutor Edgeworth is in the loop of this.”

“Yes, sir,” the officer saluted.

Gumshoe put the bags in his car and then gave Apollo the anti-motion sickness medication. “Don’t you worry, kid,” he told him. “Mr. Edgeworth will make sure this doesn’t even get filed with the court.”

Apollo took the medication, him now knowing this means he is now going for a ride. “So… where am I going…?” he asked meekly.

Gumshoe gave a sad smile. “I know I’m gonna get my ear chewed off… but I made a call,” he whispered.

Once again, Apollo was buckled in the patrol car and the scruffy detective put it in gear. Apollo was still thankful that this car ride was not long… because he knew exactly where he was going.

As soon as the patrol car pulled up the familiar home, Aria was already at Detective Gumshoe’s driver window knocking on it. With a terrified squeal, he rolled the window.

“I thought this was going to be good home for him, Detective!?” she scolded him accusingly.

“Ma’am, I don’t pick the places!” Gumshoe pleaded.

“I heard that the woman is going to try to push charges on a ten-year-old!?” Aria screeched.

“Mr. Edgeworth is not going to let that happen…” Gumshoe promised.

“He’s a fresh Prosecutor… only a year under him,” Aria reminded the detective. “He already has that much influence?”

“He’s a master tactician when it comes to prosecution,” Gumshoe pointed out. “He is considered a prodigy. He’ll make sure nothing is going to happen to the kid.”

Aria then left Gumshoe’s driver window and when over to Apollo’s side and got him out of the car. She led him inside the house as the detective got his suitcases out of the trunk. When she noticed that his hand was still stained red from a hasty wipe from a rag, she led him to the bathroom to get ready for a bath. As she left Apollo to be alone to do his business, he could hear Aria and Gumshoe talking again through the cracked bathroom door.

“What other options does he have now, Detective?” Aria asked solemnly. It seemed like her voice was shaky, as if she was holding back tears.

“I’ll have to look into that in the morning, Ms. Commons,” Gumshoe replied seriously. “Hopefully no homicides happen over night so I can help with this.”

With a sigh, Aria replied, “I do appreciate all your help…”

“Hey, that kid had been through a lot…” There was a pause. “I feel bad for him too… even Mr. Edgeworth does too… but, he stated he couldn’t look after him right now because of all the cases he’s gonna be getting… and his age is a factor too.”

A surprised gasp escaped from Aria. “Prosecutor Edgeworth was considering taking him in…?”

“Yeah… but it’s not feasible right now.”

“… I guess that makes sense.”

“Don’t worry, ma’am, we’ll make sure Apollo is taken care of.”

A pause from Aria. “… What’s shocking to me is… I know that you’re right and you have the best intention at heart… but I can’t… I can’t keep doing this either…”

“I heard you’re unregistering yourself from the network…”

“My cancer came back… and this time it’s more aggressive.”

“Oh… I’m sorry…”

Apollo didn’t want to hear anymore of the conversation, so he shut the door completely. He took his bath, but it seemed like no matter how many times he scrubbed his hand it was like he still saw the blood. After he was done, he dressed in fresh clothes and exited the bathroom, seeing that the detective had left for the evening and that Aria prepared him vegetable rice.

“Are you sick, Aria?” Apollo asked softly.

A shocked expression crossed her face. “How… how did you hear that…?”

“I had the door open…”

“Apollo Justice, you should not be eavesdropping on adult conversations,” Aria scolded.

“I know… but if you’re sick and me being around is making it worse-”

“It’s not making it worse, dearie!” Aria cried out, her taking him by the shoulders and forcing him to look her in the eyes. “You are never a burden! Never think you are!”

“I mean… my mom left me in Khura’in, my foster dad that took me in sent me back here… and pretty much every family I’ve come in contact with was a disaster…” Apollo told her bitterly. He then gave her such a sad a pitiful look that no child should ever have, a look that was almost haunting and hopeless. “Maybe me being around is just a mistake…”

Aria embraced him tightly to her, and she felt his body shake with sobs. “Oh, Apollo… no you’re not… you’re not…”

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