#so he's the one who gets yelled at. he's the proxy for the points she's making

[cannibalisticskittles]

my builder is pissed at absolutely everyone inside this cell but they have never had any positive feelings towards yan whereas they Thought Miguel Was Their Friend (he came to their BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!) and pen was at soulmate-level, so. while yan definitely deserves a verbal beatdown, the one he receives is.... going to involve a lot of rage that is really meant for the other two that my builder isn't able to express towards them right now. but he's an asshole, so while it's technically misplaced, it's still deserved.

mentioning mi-an is also a terrible choice bc it just reminds her of how much of an ass he's been to mi-an, who is, by all accounts, a very nice girl. that just turns the rage back to full force. very "and ANOTHER thing!"

[dylan-o-yumm]

Little Moments - Leon S. Kennedy/reader

It has been a hot minute... I’m sorry I’m not making an amazing come back with DMC or Nero content, but hey at least it's still Capcom? Anyway, Leon is babygirl 

Also read here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/46338547

Words: 6.6k Summary: Leon rescued both you and Ashley from the events of RE4, now the thereof you are "relaxing" in a hotel, unwinding before Leon has to take you both home in the morning.

Part 1, Part 2

“I could sleep for a year.”

“Just a year? Rookie numbers.”

“Are you guys kidding me? I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep a wink after everything I’ve seen over the last few days.” Ashley wrapped her arms around herself and looked wearily around the cozy hotel room, as if a crazy, plaga-infected Spanish person was going to jump out from the shadows. You couldn’t blame her for being so on edge, you’d be the same if Leon wasn’t there with you.

Ashley was the president's daughter and you were… just someone who was in that damn village at the wrong damn time. Leon was a special agent of some sort, somebody the president sent to find his daughter— but Leon just so happened to find you first. He saved you. And then he saved you again. And again, and again. No matter what happened, you knew Leon would be there like a knight in shining armor.

He made you feel safe but, the poor guy looked like shit and needed to finally rest. He had done so much work, busted his ass for— fuck, was it really only a day? Two days? You can’t remember how long you were there, let alone how long Leon was there looking for Ashley — and by proxy, you as well.

“Ash, it’s fine. We’re out of the village now. And even if some of the Iluminados freaks managed to escape, well… you saw how they were after their lord and savior kicked the bucket.” You turned to face Leon, gesturing for a little reassurance to come from him. Hopefully hearing it come from Leon would calm Ashley’s nerves somewhat.

Leon blinked and his lips parted as if he hadn’t been listening to a single word that had been said since he commented on how you wanted to sleep for a year. However he snapped back to hero mode rather quickly, looking around the room while he stretched his back muscles.

“I’ll stay up and make sure you’re safe. My job isn’t done yet.”

You and Ashley both shared a look.

“I think out of all of us, you need sleep the most, Leon.” Ashley told him with a concerned look on her face and you nodded in agreement. You opened your mouth to add your insight but Leon raised his hand to stop you, already knowing that you were going to demand that he sleep before you knock him out with a frying pan.

“I dozed off a few times at the village, I’ll be fine.” He shrugged as if it really didn’t bother him but you could see the exhaustion all over his face and in his shoulders, his muscles. Hell he had an aura around him that beamed like a bright neon sign that made you tired just by looking at him.

“It’s just one night. I’ll take you both home tomorrow and then I can go home and sleep for as long as I want, how’s that sound?”

“Leon…” Ashley sighed but you beat her to the punch.

“I’m too tired to argue. Just, at least sit down or something. I’ll make you some coffee,” you sighed and rubbed your forehead where a sharp headache started to irritate you. You dealt with too many loud noises; explosions, gunshots, too many bright lights from flash grenades and fires from molotovs, and the screaming and yelling of the Illuminados or Ashley or yourself. Everything from that damn village and the island, up until the point of getting out of the ocean after a long, loud and bumpy ride on a jet ski, was all building up into one big headache.

Leon didn’t have anything else to say after that, opting to do as you said and taking a seat on the couch by the window. You moved to the small kitchen and started boiling water while Ashley said she was going to go have a shower.

The three of you were still pretty filthy. The ocean water washed some of the grime off, but the stench still lingered and you all had scrapes, cuts and bruises. Your body ached from all the running around and getting thrown about and whacked and hit and kicked by the crazy villagers. Leon took the brunt of it all though, which is why you were worried about him the most. He really needed to rest. For a week. Or in your words; a year.

You all did.

Once the coffee was made, you brought a mug out for Leon, pausing for a moment to watch as he yawned so intensely his eyes started watering. Though, when he noticed you looking at him, he quickly shut his mouth and rubbed his eyes, pretending he hadn’t just been fighting off the urge to sleep. He gave you a little half smile and went back to unwrapping the bandage from his arm to check one of his many wounds.

You could have teased him for yawning, you could have angrily told him to get some sleep. But you didn’t.

“Need any stitching up?” You asked as you placed his mug on the coffee table in front of him, holding a second mug in your hand and moving it to your lap as you sat down on the couch beside him. The heat from the mug warmed your hands and made you feel more at ease.

”No. I could do with a good massage though,” he replied with a small grunt, rolling his shoulder out and you got a good look at his bicep. There was a scratch from an ax being thrown at him that, thankfully, only just nicked him. A long, but thankfully, not deep gash from his battle against Saddler. And finally a large bruise that spanned from his shoulder down to his elbow in an odd splotchy pattern. You weren’t sure what that one was from but you could take at least a dozen guesses.

You weren’t sure if he was asking you to give him a massage or not— he sure did like his cheesy one-liners and little quips, maybe this was one of them?

“Get in line, buddy. I don’t think I’ll physically be able to get out of bed in the morning,” yeah, that was a good common ground to avoid any confusion and possible embarrassment.

“It will be tough, yeah…” you could tell he was speaking from experience. How many crazy missions like this had this poor man been through? “You handled yourself well out there. I want you to know that.”

He turned his gaze to your direction but he didn’t quite meet your eye. He sounded genuine though and it made your heart skip a beat.

“You mean by… running, hiding, screaming. Oh yeah I handled myself very well,” you chuckled sarcastically and brought your cup of coffee to your lips, taking a sip.

“Hey, just because you didn’t kill anything, doesn’t mean you weren’t tough or brave,” now he finally met your eye. His own eyes, so incredibly blue that it was hard to remember them glossing over and turning a dull red from the plagas only a few hours ago.

Was that a few hours ago? It felt like it had been days since that happened.

You didn’t know how to respond, and thankfully Leon spoke up again before you could.

“Are you drinking coffee?”

“Maybe.”

“You’re not trying to stay awake, are you?”

“I don’t think even coffee could help me stay awake at this point.” Was it a lie? No. Was it a small truth that you admitted so that you didn’t have to reveal the big truth? Possibly. You were definitely too tired for coffee to keep you awake, but you were also trying to stay awake, at least a little longer, so that Leon wouldn’t have to suffer through the night alone. You couldn’t imagine what kind of thoughts he must have when it got quiet, when he wasn’t busying himself by running around castles or villages, or killing monsters.

You were tired. But so was Leon and this was the least you could do for him… You just couldn’t tell him that’s what you were doing, or he would probably knock your ass out.

You’re not a fighter. You’re not a cool secret agent with gadgets, nor were you a military trained soldier who could turn anything into a weapon. You couldn’t do the things Leon could do, you couldn’t protect him, you couldn’t save him from monsters…

Staying awake for a night just to keep him company so that he didn’t have to suffer alone? It wasn’t grand, it was nothing like the magnitude of favors and rescues he had done for you over the last however many days. But it was something. You couldn’t really do much else.

Maybe you should give him that damn massage.

“So why are you doing all of this, Leon?” You asked, wanting to change the subject so he wouldn’t figure out your little plan. He raised an eyebrow at you over his cup of coffee and you elaborated. “You came to the village because of the president's orders, right? To save Ashley… So what made you want to work for the president of all people? Or is that classified information?” You teased, knowing damn well it could definitely be very classified.

Leon chuckled.

“It’s a little classified, yeah. But I will tell you that… I met a girl a few years ago. And I want to make sure she’s safe,” he nodded softly to himself, as if reminding himself why he just went through all the horrors of the village. His already soft features softened even more as he thought about this girl.

“Is she your girlfriend?”

“I think that’s illegal considering she’s a child,” he smirked slightly, as you looked down at your lap in embarrassment. “She escaped Raccoon City with me and another woman named Claire.”

“Is she your girlfriend?” You asked again, emphasis on the ‘she’ and a little teasing smile on your lips.

“Suddenly interested in my love life, huh?”

“Maybe I’m just trying to be a good wingman for Ashley. You know she’s crushing hard for you.”

“Oh this is for Ashley, huh?” His lips curl in amusement and you shrug, playing innocent. You both smile at one another as the world seems to stop spinning for a moment. Everything was quieter, the sound of rushing water from Ashley’s shower had even been drowned out, and now it was just you and Leon. You could breathe, you could take your time and just look at him, taking in the fine details of his face; the color of his irises, the sharpness of his jaw, the dip of his cupid's bow, the pinkness of his lips and the strongness of his chin.

Beautiful.

Inside and out, this man was… beautiful.

He was looking at you too, but it was different. His eyes dimmed, no longer shining along with his smile… it was like a part of him had left and gone somewhere else, no longer sitting right beside you. He looked through you, barely seeing you at all as he reminded himself of his job and why he was here. His smile faded and his eyes dropped, refusing to meet your gaze anymore.

You were admiring everything about him, and he was slowly drifting away from you. Like two ships passing in the night.

“Look… I can’t— I can’t have someone—“ he sighed and scooted closer to you on the couch, resting his gloved hand over the top of yours that was still holding your coffee mug. He was warm, even the leather of his glove was warm and it grounded you– it was a little prickly from where it had torn and frayed a little, from welding guns and knives all day long. His hand squeezed yours once, his pinky resting against the pulse point on your wrist. “I just can’t. Sorry...”

He was definitely not talking about Ashley anymore. You were only teasing and joking around about his relationship status, and you knew that he was far too good for you. Thanks to your low self esteem, and your confidence in Leon never being capable of looking at you the way you looked at him… that ship sailed hours and hours ago, practically when you very first laid eyes on him… But his words still felt like a knife to your heart for some reason.

You blinked once, shaking yourself out of the trance you had put yourself in, and your lips parted. You weren’t sure if you wanted to say something, or if you were going to say something, or if you should have said anything at all. But thankfully—

“Leon! Your turn! You stink. Who knew saving some damsels in distress was such tough work, huh?” Ashley teased as she burst out of the bathroom looking completely refreshed and clean. Her hair was twisted up into her towel while she wore the same clothes she wore in the village. Maybe you could go in search for some robes the three of you could wear or something— at least just for the night. You could go buy some clothes in the morning before the three of you headed back to your respective homes.

You and Leon jumped apart and refused to look at one another, as if you had been caught doing something naughty by your parents. If a hand on yours was considered naughty then you never wanted to be pure. Leon took a final sip of his coffee before placing the mug back down on the coffee table, and when he stood, he looked at Ashley, vaguely gesturing towards her. “Will you two be okay while I’m gone? I’ll only be a few minutes.”

“Leon please. The only thing we’re in danger from right now is your body odor,” she teased even more, skipping over to grab Leon’s arm and ushering him towards the bathroom. “Im stronger than I look, don’t make me wrestle you into the shower, Leon.��

You blushed at the thought of Ashley and Leon anywhere near a shower together.

“Alright,” he chuckled but paused in the doorway of the bathroom, finally looking towards you again, but you were silent and didn’t quite know how to feel or react. “Yell if you need me, okay?” It was directed towards the both of you but his eyes were burning a hole into your face.

You simply nodded. And Leon disappeared behind the bathroom door.

———————————————————

“Need me to tuck you in or something?” Leon asked teasingly as he walked over to you. Ashley was fast asleep in one of the single beds, having passed out when you went for your shower after Leon. The three of you were clean, dressed in robes (well Leon wasn't), all comfy— but very tired. No amount of coffee could help.

You were sitting on the armchair by the second single bed, (there were only two but Leon said he was fine sleeping on the couch— this was obviously before he stupidly agreed to just not sleep at all for the night) a book in your lap, one that the hotel just had laying in the small bookshelf. It was terrible and not your idea of a good time at all, but there wasn’t much else to do. You could watch tv but you didn’t want the noise to keep Ashley up.

“Tell you a bedtime story?” He offered once you didn’t say anything to his first teasing question. “I don’t know how good of a story teller I am…”

“I'm fine, Leon. Thanks though,” you smiled up at him. You weren’t mad and you weren’t holding a grudge, you were just confused and felt a little awkward from your previous conversation with him. And with you acting awkward it only made things even more awkward— it… had been a rough few days.

“Okay…” he watched you skeptically for a moment. “Are you worried about falling asleep? I had the same problem after Raccoon City.”

“No-“

“Because I don’t mind staying up, and I can sit closer to your bed if it makes you feel any better?”

“Leon-“

“Ashley’s already knocked out so she won’t mind if I’m keeping an extra close eye on you until you fall asleep.”

“I'm fine. I swear. I just don’t feel like sleeping right now is all…” You looked up at him and smiled, closing your book to lightly wack his stomach with it. He took a step back and placed his hand over the spot you just walked, looking down with a faint smile.

“Right…” he nodded, sighing as he fell back onto your bed, spreading his legs like all men do, and resting his elbows on his knees. His upper body was leaning towards you where you sat on the armchair in between the window and the bed and, feeling a heat make its way onto your cheeks, you quickly went back to reading your book.

“What are you reading?” His voice was lower and softer than it was just a second ago, it sent shivers down your spine.

“I couldn’t tell you. I haven’t taken in a single word since I picked it up,” you looked back over at him and smiled with a small shrug as if to say ‘what can you do?’

“Riveting stuff. I guess it’s better than fighting monsters though.”

“I wouldn’t know, you fought all the monsters for me,” you sassed, as if you were disappointed that you didn’t get to fight anything, when in reality, you know you would have died if you had to go up against one of those crazy villagers. And Leon was taking on half of Spain it felt like, plus those that grew into large monsters with tentacles and big yellow eyes and slime and spikes and goop.

“Well hey, you threw a flash grenade at that Mendez guy for me.”

“I forgot to pull the pin…”

“Yeah, but he looked pretty pissed off when it hit his shin. It was a good throw,”

“I was aiming for his head…” You bit your lip.

Leon sighed and looked down, not knowing how to find the bright side of that little tidbit. A beat passed before you started to chuckle, and so did he. “I know one thing you did that saved my ass.”

“What’s that?” Your tone was humorous, thinking he was going to tease you again. It wasn’t like you did much, especially compared to Leon. Just the fact that he said ‘I know ONE thing you did that saved my ass’ is proof that you obviously didn’t do enough. However, maybe that’s for the best as you definitely would have gotten into even more trouble if you started being reckless.

“Luis’ lab…” he looked down at his hands as he spoke.”I was losing it, I could hardly see, I couldn’t move my body properly. I think I even started hallucinating.” His eyebrows jumped a little as he recalled those moments in his head. It wasn’t very pleasant for you either, but Leon had a lot more of those moments than you did. “I don’t think Ashley and I would have made it if you weren’t there,”

“I think I was just yelling at you the whole time. I was scared.” It was true. You were scared of losing both him and Ashley, and having to find a way off the island on your own. You recalled yelling at Leon while he stumbled through the hallways with an unconscious Ashley in his arms. ‘Hurry the fuck up, Leon!’ and ‘don’t fall down! Get back up! Now!’

“Your yelling got me to keep moving, gave me something to focus on.”

“Well... You’re welcome,” you whispered, looking down at your lap bashfully. Your teeth worried your bottom lip, making it feel a bit tingly and numb. Once you gained the courage to look back up and meet Leon’s gaze — his eyes already on you, watching you intently — you exhaled slowly through your nose and faintly shook your head.

“You’re so annoying,” you whispered.

“Yeah,” he whispered back.

He didn’t look amused, more like... he was agreeing with your statement. He didn’t even look like a kicked puppy, he had just accepted that it was his time to be knocked back down a couple pegs.

His eyes focused on yours while yours focused on his lips. God he was so annoying. And it was even more annoying knowing that he wasn’t doing any of this on purpose. He was just... like that. It was impossible not to like him, not to dream up some fantasy of you and him being closer, more intimate. Impossible not to imagine how soft his lips might be and how his hair might feel between your fingers, and how his rough hands might caress you so gently.

A heart breaker. That’s what he was.

Even Ashley was in the same trap as you — could you even call it a trap when Leon wasn’t aware he had set it, and you and Ashley had both practically willingly jumped into it? You heard her little hints, her little compliments. Calling him dashing and trying to get him to work with her once his mission was over. And you couldn't even blame her! You wanted more time with him as well.

“I wish I never met you,” you whispered, more softly than you had previously been speaking.

“Where would you be without me?” He whispered back just as gently.

His pearly whites faintly peaked out from behind his lips, barely visible but just enough to know that he was fighting off a smile. The corners of your lips twitched upward slightly as you fought off your own smile.

You leaned in.

He didn’t move away.

You leaned in more.

The hint of a smile had left his face and his eyes dropped down to your lips. His own lips parted and his brows twitching- itching to pull together, as he fought with himself. You could see it all — how he wanted to run, how he wanted to pull away, how he was worried and maybe even a little scared. But that wasn’t all, you could also see how he wanted to lean in and give you exactly what you wanted, because he wanted it too.

Conflicting.

You moved in gently and cautiously, your eyelids slowly closing. You weren’t sure if he moved in towards you, or if you managed to get closer to him in your eagerness, but you could feel his breath against your skin a second after your eyes closed. Your noses were the first to touch.

You breathed in, and Leon let out a shaky breath that you couldn’t only feel, but hear as well since you were so close to him. You angled your head to the side slightly, feeling your way out with the tip of your nose as it slowly and gently slid down the side of his nose bridge and poked the inner corner of his cheek.

Your lips ghosted his, feeling him ever so slightly. The softness, the warmth. You shuddered.

Your lips parted, so did his. Your lips pressed softly against his top lip while his pressed against your bottom lip, delighting yourself in how soft his lips were and how inviting they felt. You could only hope you had the same effect on him. He wasn’t pulling away, he leaned in closer, much to your surprise and his hand slowly reached out to lay flat against your knee.

You applied just the tiniest amount of pressure with your lips before pulling back, needing air. Your cheeks were warm, your eyes glossy, and your lips just a little wet from where Leon’s lips had pressed.

You licked your lips, wanting to taste more of him. He did the same. The both of you staring into each other's souls, eyes flickering to each other's lips, then eyes, then back to lips. Not a word was uttered between you two before he leaned forward this time and pressed his lips against yours.

Your heart skipped a beat.

His kiss was just as, if not more, gentle than yours, thinking he would be a little rough or just— anything but so gentle. As if you were more fragile than glass, more fragile than the finest porcelain. Like you were thin paper sat out in the rain, and one little breeze would tear you to pieces.

He kissed you. He wanted this. What was he talking about earlier with his ‘I can’t’? He was doing it right now and you never ever wanted him to stop.

Keeping your lips connected to his, you slowly rose from your seat, hands coming to slide over Leon’s shoulders. He leaned backwards — only his lower body, while his lips refused to leave yours, as he gave you space to sit down with him on the bed. His large, warm hands slid around your waist, pulling you closer and keeping you close.

Your lips parted for a short breath only to close around his bottom lip a second after. But when his lips parted, he didn’t bother gaining more air, he simply worked your mouth open and found your tongue with his own. The sound of wet lip smacking soon filled the room, along with faint panting and pauses for quick breaths — gulping down air when you had the chance.

His hands squeezed your hips and yours fisted the collar of his tight shirt, pulling and not letting him go. A way to ground yourself. Just an hour ago you were so content with the idea of him being too good for you. Knowing that he would never see you the way you saw him. But now here he was, kissing your lips so softly but so desperately.

Your heart was beating so fast inside your chest, trying to explode out of you.

“Leon...” you panted breathily against his mouth, having nothing else to say besides his name. A name you never thought you’d have the opportunity to whimper out like that. You whimpered it once before when you rolled your ankle after running away from a crazy wolf-dog thing, and needed to use Leon as a crutch for a moment, but this was different.

You weren’t sure if you leaned forward or if Leon pulled you closer but he slowly fell back down on the bed, and you followed pursuit. The pillow sunk beneath his head and his hands slid from your hips to your lower back, sending goosebumps all over your skin. You’ll never understand how someone can kick open doors and barrels and people’s heads, and also be so tender and gentle behind closed doors.

He was firm, sturdy as you laid on top of him. You could feel his heart beating against your chest and he could probably feel yours as well. His heart was beating fast, but strong and mighty, and even when he was distracted like this — not alert and ready to defend, you still felt so incredibly safe.

Your tongue pushed its way into his mouth, exploring and massaging where you could. You were thankful that you brushed your teeth when you had a shower earlier, and considering the fact that Leon tasted minty and refreshing, you could only assume he did as well.

His tongue slid against yours, flicking against the roof of your mouth before he pulled back to refill his lungs. You didn’t even have time to share a look before he was back to kissing you.

One hand slid into his sandy blond hair, pulling a sweet and quiet moan from deep within his chest. Your fingers slid against his scalp and teased the roots of his hair, while your other hand laid flat over his pectoral, feeling his muscle and firmness and his strength.

Your movements were slow and steady, like liquid pouring over his skin, there was no rush, there was no danger. It was just you and Leon, sharing kisses and slowly morphing into one being. If love wasn’t this then you didn’t want it.

“Leon... hmmf,” saying his name for no apparent reason other than to just say it. Your robe slipped as you raised your leg and bent your knee, hugging him with your thighs. Leon’s gloved hand slid down to feel the soft, exposed skin of your thigh and you gasped into his mouth. The feeling of his soft fingertips with the scratchy leather sent a heat all throughout your body.

He, of course, didn’t take a robe from you earlier, opting to stay in his filthy clothes since they were more practical for if he needed to defend you and Ashley again. You didn’t think he would have to defend the two of you at all, now that you were off the island and away from the village… but neither you nor Ashley were back home just yet, so he couldn’t afford to take any risks. He was sure determined and that alone made your insides all warm and fuzzy.

His hand gripped your thigh, but his lips stopped moving. You took the opportunity to worship him; to press kisses to the corner of his lips, then two on his cheek — one right beside his ear and the other closer to his jaw as you moved down to his neck.

His skin was so soft, save for the few cuts and scrapes. He lifted his head, giving you more room and you eagerly obliged, leaving soft pecks and wet, open mouthed kisses, little licks and faint nibbles. He hummed in pleasure and it made your whole chest flood with pride.

Pressing a kiss against his adam's apple, you went to move to the other side of his neck, wanting to give his right side equal treatment, but he turned his head. You weren’t sure if he was trying to stop you or not, so you pulled back just to make sure he was okay.

He looked perfectly fine. His cheeks were a soft shade of red that you would now commit to memory for the rest of your life– probably your new favorite color.. His eyes were half lidded and a little glossy, making the different shades of blue in his irises shine brightly even in the darkly lit room. It was impossible to have a fear of drowning when you looked into them.

Though he wasn’t looking at you.

His head was turned to the side, looking over at Ashley who was still sleeping like a rock. Her lips were parted and she breathed heavily, close to snoring but not quite.

It was only when you shifted your body a little, wanting to back off a bit in case he was uncomfortable, that you felt your effect on him. Your thigh felt his excitement, he pursed his lips together and closed his eyes for a moment to focus on his breathing.

Was this really happening?

“She won’t wake up,” you whispered to him and his eyes opened, looking cautiously into your eyes, then back to Ashley, then back to you one final time. You wanted him, and he wanted you, and you had both survived the horrors you encountered over the last few days. You both deserved a break. You both deserved this.

His brow furrowed knitting together tightly. Though the slight upward angle in his brows made him look like a wounded puppy.

“My job isn’t done yet,” he swallowed, his adam’s apple bobbing. “I need to stay focused.”

You deflated.

“Right.” You nodded once and crawled off of him. Maybe it was for the best, you didn’t want to go too far with him after knowing him for only 48 hours. Though going through copious amounts of trauma together did make for a great bonding experience and therefore it felt like you had known him for months.

You sat on your ankles, hands on your knees. Your robe was open just enough to show your legs but the rest of you was covered. One hand left your knee to wipe your swollen and wet lips, basically wiping away Leon’s kiss, before you tucked your hair behind your ear.

You couldn’t tear your eyes away from your lap, feeling embarrassed and maybe even a little ashamed. Were you wrong to think Leon was into it? Into you? It definitely felt like he was, but maybe he snapped out of it once he realized you weren’t that lady in the red dress and the high heels.

As if he could sense your downward spiral, Leon’s hand found yours, the one still resting on your knee, and squeezed it reassuringly. “But I can… stay here?”

You finally looked up and met his ocean blue eyes. He had sat up somewhat, his back resting against the headboard of the bed. He looked just as unsure and nervous as you did. He obviously didn’t have much experience with this sort of stuff, which only made him even more endearing. The poor guy just fought monsters for a living and never had time to slow down and relax.

“While you fall asleep,” he added gently. He wanted to stay with you? In bed? Did that mean he wasn’t just using work as an excuse to not go further with you? He really did just want to stay alert and not have any distractions while the president's daughter was in his care.

“If you want?” He pressed one more time. He was giving you big, puppy dog eyes— knowing him, it was unintentional too. Even if you didn’t want him to stay with you, there was no way you could refuse him when he gave you that face. But you did want him to stay of course.

You didn’t need to say so.

You curled up beside him, sliding your body under the covers. Leon didn’t smell great, but he was at least clean enough— his clothes weren’t covered in blood and dirt but the smell lingered a bit. You weren’t sure if his sweat or the seawater from the jetski ride over was what rid his tight shirt of all the muck. Or maybe he washed them in the shower and dried them quickly afterwards. That would be nice.

Your hand splayed over his chest, feeling his heartbeat. Your nose pressed against his ribs, finding an odd sense of comfort in the smell that lingered. It was Leon after all, it was proof he was there with you, reminding you you were safe even when you had your eyes closed.

His arm was around your neck, letting you use his bicep as a pillow. His heart was beating rather fast as you snuggled into his side but after a few minutes it slowed back down and fell in tune with the steady rise and fall of his chest. Leon turned his head and pressed his lips against your forehead, letting them linger for a moment. And his arm, the one you weren’t laying on, moved over towards you, his hand stroking through your hair.

Cocooned in Mr. Leon S. Kennedy’s arms.

“Get some sleep. I’ll look after you.”

And there go your plans to stay awake with him.

—————————————————————

After waking up in Leon’s arms, you got up and did your morning ritual with Ashley. Breakfast, brushing your teeth, brushing your hair, getting dressed, etc. Leon stood by the door rushing you both as it got close to 9am. A tired but teasing “come on, ladies” came from him as he ushered you both out the door.

Ashley was the first to go home. Being the president's daughter and all. You said your goodbyes to her in the car, opting to not go into the big building with all the security guards. Leon escorted her back to her father — after you and Ashley exchanged emails of course, and by the time she had been delivered home safely, it was already dinner time. The flight from Spain to America chewed up a few hours.

You and Leon didn’t really have a chance to talk when Ashley was around. Though you thought that once it was just the two of you, he might mention something from last night or maybe even be a little more touchy feely. A hand on your thigh while he drove or maybe he would reach for your hand. Maybe press a kiss to the back of your palm once in a while or lean over to kiss your cheek at every stop sign and red light.

He didn’t do any of that.

He barely spoke. You barely spoke. Maybe it was because these were your final moments with him, that you didn’t know what to say or how to act or what to do. How do you say goodbye to someone who saved your life time and time again? How do you just watch him leave without somehow repaying him? Why did he have to leave at all? Why did you have to go back home?

You just did. He just did. It just had to be like this.

Finally once you arrived at your home, Leon got out of the car first, coming around to let you out of the passenger side like a gentleman. You smiled and stepped out, awkwardly hugging yourself as you walked with him to the front door.

This was it wasn’t it? The final goodbye.

You bent down to flip over the corner of the welcome mat, picking up your spare house key and unlocking the door. You hadn’t been home in weeks. Everything was dark and dusty and that homey scent had faded away until you barely recognised where you were.

The door was open but you were yet to step inside. You turned to face Leon first, your hand gripping the door handle tightly until your knuckles turned white.

“…Do you... wanna come in?” You asked hopefully, just wanting to spend more time with him, wanting to feel safe for just a few minutes longer. You wouldn’t be able to feel safe once he walked away. And that foolish little part inside you hoped you could pick up where you left off last night.

But Leon pulled a face. Not out of disgust or hatred or anything bad, he was just… his face was saying ‘no.’ The awkward smile that wasn’t really a smile, more like a ‘man, I’m about to hurt your feelings even though I don’t want to,’ smile.

“I guess not, huh?” You looked down and nodded distantly, realising that this really was goodbye then. Part of you wanted to be angry, for everything that had happened last night, for the feelings you had developed. However, Leon’s ocean blue eyes and his silly floppy hair with those pink, kissable lips... how could you be mad at that?

“It’s been a long couple of days. I should get home.”

“No, yeah. Of course,” you awkwardly shuffled on your feet, avoiding eye contact.

“I’ll probably have another mission lined up for me when I get back to work.” Leon’s voice was quiet and his shoulders were tense. You couldn’t tell what he was thinking or feeling but he definitely didn’t look comfortable.

“Yeah.” You nodded slowly, keeping your gaze on your shoes that inched closer towards the inside of your home, wanting to run away and hide.

One beat passed. A sigh left both of you at the same time.

“I’ll see you ‘round, (Y/N)...” you blinked. He was leaving already? Just like that? You finally looked up to meet his eyes, wanting a look at those pools of blue one more time... but he had already turned around and started walking away. He was clearly eager to get away from you, eager to get home and back into his work.

You wouldn't cry over someone you couldn't have...

“Goodbye, Leon.”

You stepped inside your home and closed the door behind yourself.

[creepy-friday]

Heyy, I hope you're doing fine ! I just love your prompts and your characters are always well written !

Also the NSFW is *chef's kiss* however I'm a slut for angst and I have a prompt for you when you have time :

So I'd like to know once the proxies are established with fem!reader, like they get steady-ish with her, how would they react if she dies/disappear ? Thank youuu ♡︎♡︎

Thank you so much!!Also,I LOVE THIS PROMT😭💞

Warnings: death and dark themes,angst

If you suddenly disappeared they would hardly assume a demon got you,that would be near impossible considering your skills

None would consider your death.Sure,maybe you ran away and that would make somewhat more sense.

"That stupid bitch wouldn't." Masky hissed,throwing the cigarette on the ground and smashing it with the tip of his boot.

Running away from Slenderman it's an impossible mission for all the creeps,including yourself.He would make sure to bring you back or to torment you until you break down and come back.It's only on HIS terms if he decides to let someone go,and even then he would always know where they are

"He wouldn't let..let go of h-her." Toby said,nervously rubbing the back of his head while EJ simply sighed while looking out of the window to the forest with him.

They would search your room for leads,considering the possibility of a runaway

None got any notice from The Operator,and none asked.That's why the three of them looked for you in the forest for two days before putting Smile to search for you

Masky's nerves were over the roof and he already consumed one month worth bottle of pills while Hoodie started to lose his calm demeanour,yet it was subtle,you could tell by the tapping of his foot

Surprisingly, Toby didn't get into a fight with Masky first but rather with Hoodie.

"Fucking hell guys." he suddenly snapped,taking fast steps towards the white masked man."If-If f-fucking only you would keep your m-mouth shut she-she wouldn't do this!" Toby yelled at Masky,still thinking about the slight possibility you are still alive.

Brian made his way to the younger man and held him by the collar of his jacket."Shut the fuck up,Rogers.This time-shut up." he demanded,still keeping his voice as cold as possible.

In the same night all of them got the news from Smile's owner about your death.

Their relationship would  grow significantly colder,even between the pair of closer friends

The nights of the long missions all of them stayed beside a camp fire and made passive aggressive jokes towards each other disappeared along with you

Your name wouldn't be bought up,but whenever it would be a fight would erupt.It would be Toby who would bring you up the most,almost as if he's blaming the others for your death

Did they cry?The younger man had a few breakdowns who resulted in a lot of restless nights,after all you were the only one who was there for him and now he remained alone between two psychopaths who were barely human.

Masky would have moments where he would simply stare into the void,but he would claim he's actually glad you're no longer there,that's why him and Hoodie would get violent with each other

Tim on the other hand even bought a flower to the tree both of you used to talk before,it was his way of apologising on behalf of all of his fucked up doings towards you

"Damn,you are really gone,and now things are worse than they were before"

Hoodie doesn't make an effort to hide the way he feels,it doesn't make sense to hide it.He would sit down and run a hand trough his hair and he would go back to work,he secretly drowns his feelings into it

The loss of your presence it's too obvious for their liking,almost to the point the other residents acknowledged the way their dynamics changed

I don't see them going back to normal for a few years,even then their relationship would still have a cool tone attached to it.

I can see Toby keeping an object from your room with him and if Masky would notice it he would throw a tantrum

Hoodie and Masky were the ones to empty your room,while his friend went with it quite fast and quiet,Brian took his time to notice all the small details about how you really were in your life

Masky acts like you ran away just for a reason to be angry with you,it keeps him occupied from the guilt that finally caught up to him

People cannot be replaced,even if someone similar would come in they still don't have your name attached to it,and if they do they will never be you.

[max-nico]

Super_Charlie_001

Am I (32M) the asshole for declaring a hero of our village (16M) my new nemesis?

This all started around 4 years ago. I live in a small secluded village on the coast, I'm talking about less than 100 people living here. We all do our part to keep our little town running and at this stage in my life I had just become our Village Fruit Carrier (a very important job to have). The job wasn't the most fulfilling, but it got food on the table and it was how I met my wife, so I have a bit of a soft spot for it. Anyway, the 'hero of the village' (let's call him Red) and he got me FIRED from my job. why? Because he just couldn't stop himself from stealing my baskets, dumping out my fresh clean fruit all over the ground, using my baskets as stilts, and then disappearing right before my boss came out to check on me. In the kids defense, he's a little... Slow, so I really didn't hold it against him too much. Especially because after getting fired from that job I managed to land my absolute dream job around 6 months later. I really felt like it was fate or something. I was happy, my wife was happy, everything was good.

This brings us up to speed basically.

Recently, Red got me fired AGAIN years later from my wonderful job. I worked as an archeologist/excavator and made good money doing it, especially since our little town is built on top of ancient ruins and tech nobody's really seen before. Apparently Red wasn't trying to get me fired, he was genuinely trying to make up for making me lose my job the first time. At first he seemed a little dimwitted, but well meaning so I didn't have much of a problem letting him stick around, but I also didn't have much of a backbone at the time either.

Then things got worse, between him picking up important artifact markers, breaking multiple artifacts, breaking one of my toes, and even throwing my lunch away, I just couldn't handle it. One night, he even showed up at my house before I got home and made friends with my wife, and despite telling her I was uncomfortable she let him stay. So I'm sure you guys can tell, by this point I'm boiling with rage. This kid just cannot take a hint and I have had it up to here with him.

Then all hell breaks loose. He somehow manages to brush an artifact just right, causing a laser to fire and destroy an entire dig site filled to the brim with things we haven't even begun to study. Then he has the audacity to yell at my boss for yelling at me and gets me FIRED!!! AGAIN!!! THEN HE CALLS MY WIFE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!!! AND SHE THROWS ME OUT!!!

At this point he can't just be dumb right? This has to be malicious. So I freak out at him, and do you know what he says? "Don't worry. I'll make it up to you, just as soon as I'm done making it up to you for the other thing I did." Wtf.

So I start to torment the guy. Can you really blame me? I go back to my old job and dig around for the old mech suits the ancients had lying around, like huge rocky things that shoot fire and laser and all types of things. I only use it to do things like steal his lunch money and knock him around at first, nothing super out there just protocol villain stuff.

So Red starts acting like I'M the crazy one after this. He acts like HE'S been the bigger person when he's the one who made me this way. He even made me a pie (which I shoved in his face of course), and I proclaimed myself a supervillain, and by proxy his nemesis. The whole village even gathered around to watch our fight, I felt like I was a cool kid in a school yard, and it was objectively the best feeling I've ever had.

Unfortunately I lost, not without a fight but still. Now the entire village is weird towards me (except my wife who took me back because she was proud of me for getting a new job and also a backbone) and they all act like I'm some lunatic just because I tried to destroy ONE GUY!!! so aita?

EDIT 1: Yes not even Dr.Eggman knows how this tech works I live like a couple miles away from the guy. Trust me I've asked

EDIT 2: Why does everyone know this guy and his friends? Are they famous or something?

EDIT 3: I found out that Sonic the Hedgehog, my nemesis, and their friends, are actually the heroes of Mobius and not just the heroes of my village. Small world I guess.

[whump-me]

Martyr, Chapter 21: There Always Comes A Moment

Chapter 21 of Martyr, a novel-length sci-fi whump story about a captured Martian rebel with a secret and the renowned interrogator who has waited a decade for the chance to break him. This series is best read in order. Masterpost here.

Contains: multiple defiant whumpees, cold whumper, restraints, interrogation, blood, verbal sparring, forced to watch

---

Wraith

This time, the knife slid sideways across the back of the prisoner’s wrist, just behind the wrist bone. It dug deep, parting the skin, letting dark blood flow out as the prisoner bit his lip. He threw his head back, sweat beading above his eyes. His lips grew white where his teeth pressed into his skin in an effort to hold back a cry of pain.

“Next time,” said Isadora, “he loses the hand. I am done with your lies, Wraith. They started when you told us that was your name, and they haven’t stopped since.” She flicked the knife toward the prisoner, making him flinch back. A drop of blood flew off the tip and landed on his cheek, just below his eye.

“Now finish telling me about that day,” said Isadora. “Tell me about your last conversation. But this time, choose your words carefully. You will not get another warning.”

Wraith’s breathing came heavily. Fuck her. Fuck her and all her talk about games, about strategies and tactics and rules. The only rule here was that Isadora did whatever she wanted. If she wanted to say he was lying, then he was lying, and who was going to contradict her? Wraith could yell all he wanted, and it wouldn’t stop her from cutting off the prisoner’s hand and telling him it was his fault.

Anything he said would be wrong. Anything he said would be a lie in her eyes. Was that the point? Was she trying to break his mind by convincing him to keep trying to please her, then punishing him by proxy no matter what he said? But then why bother trying? Surely she knew the only thing that would do was make him stop talking entirely.

But not yet. Not while he still had a chance to keep her from following through on her threat. And that was the trick, wasn’t it? As long as that chance existed, he would keep trying.

Even if he knew that whatever he said, the prisoner across from him would suffer for it.

Isadora stared into his eyes as if she could see every thought that passed through his mind. He couldn’t think with her watching him like that. He closed his eyes.

He put himself back in Gabriel’s office. He brought himself back to that night, after he had stormed off in a huff, after he had walked the deserted tunnels for hours—the ones only he and Gabriel knew about—and worked off his helpless fury until he found a solution. Until he realized he wasn’t so helpless after all—there was still something he could do.

He had known Gabriel would still be awake when he came back. He had thought Gabriel would be surprised to see him. Normally, when they had a fight like that, it took him at least a day or two to come back to apologize for whatever he had said in the heat of anger.

This time, he hadn’t had an apology to offer. And Gabriel had seemed to know it. There was a certain way he held himself when he knew Wraith was about to apologize to him, a light in his eyes that told Wraith he was already forgiven. Wraith hadn’t seen any light in his eyes this time. Only that deep, deep sorrow.

Wraith had outlined his plan. Gabriel had offered the expected objections. But it had felt like they were going through the motions. Gabriel must have known he wouldn’t be able to talk Wraith out of his plan, because that expression on his face had never changed. It was as if, from the second Wraith had walked back into the room, Gabriel had known not only what he would say, but how the argument would end.

It was as if he had known.

Because Gabriel always knew. He knew how Wraith would react in any given situation, sometimes even before Wraith himself did. It was how he had pulled Wraith out of trouble so many times. It was why he sometimes held certain pieces of information back, even though he knew Wraith would be furious when he found out Gabriel had been keeping secrets from him.

Like he had hidden the truth of how close Special Security was to finding him out. Until he hadn’t.

He hadn’t needed to tell Wraith the truth that night. As much as Wraith wanted to believe he could convince his friend to open up to him, the truth was, Gabriel didn’t tell anyone anything unless he thought they needed to know. Not even him. It was another thing they had argued about often over the years. Just open up to me, Gabriel, will you? Come on, it’s if you can talk to anyone about this stuff, it should be me. And Gabriel would just shake his head, alone behind his desk, with a halo clinging to his hair and the weight of the world on his shoulders.

He never told Wraith anything unless it was the right time for Wraith to know. He wouldn’t have told Wraith the truth that night unless he thought it was the right time. No matter how hard Wraith pushed him.

When Wraith had walked out the door that night after their argument, Gabriel had looked so sad. When he had walked back in, Gabriel had looked like he was grieving.

Gabriel had known what Wraith would say. Gabriel always knew what Wraith would say.

Something bubbled up in Wraith’s chest, something that seared his skin from the inside, like scalding water boiling up from his gut. He wanted to throw his head back and scream.

Gabriel hadn’t wanted him to do it. They had argued about it for hours.

An argument just like all their other arguments. A well-worn track, one they had gone around again and again. Gabriel knew all his lines, just like Wraith did.

Gabriel cared about him—cared about him enough to keep him alive for ten years. Gabriel loved him. Maybe not the way Wraith loved Gabriel, but it was love all the same. Wraith had seen it in his eyes.

Gabriel loved everyone who fought for him. It was why he looked so hollow inside every time he had to send one of them to die.

That look in his eyes when Wraith had walked in…

The boiling liquid inside him ate away at his lungs. He couldn’t breathe.

Gabriel loved him.

Which did Gabriel love more—his cause or his followers? His cause or Wraith? No one can care about both equally.

Both. He loved both. It was what made him who he was.

There always comes a moment when someone has to choose.

He opened his eyes.

Isadora was still staring at him. She hadn’t moved an inch.

“Now tell me again,” she said, “was it your idea to be captured in his place?”

She held up the knife. Blood dripped down the blade, onto the hilt, and over her clenched fingers.

If Wraith opened his mouth, that boiling liquid might come pouring out, and all his screams along with it. But he parted his lips, and he didn’t scream. “No,” he said, his voice strangely calm. “It wasn’t.”

---

Tagged: @straight-to-the-pain @soheavyaburden @gala1981 @whumpacabra @sacredwrath @suspicious-whumping-egg @sonder35 @decahedron-crabclaw @seasaltandcopper @tremendousenemyhideout @bloodinkandashes @whumplr-reader @whatiswhumpblog @delicateprincepaper

Ask to be added or remove from taglist.

[bogusboxed]

Boxtober - Day 31: "The Halloween Massacre."

Day 31: -The Proxies X GN!Reader “A Sweet Treat” x “I’m not alone, and neither are you.”

I do not own any of the proxies and do not take credit for them.

-

Trigger Warning(s): Graphic Descriptions of pain, Blood, Violence, and Fear elements.

-

When the glass shattered into your hand, you weren’t sure what you expected. You were barely hanging on when all of this happened. You had just hoped everything would clear up. You just wished you could’ve gone back in time and warned the past, even though that was far from now. You shifted as you could still hear the recoil from a mile away as a warm crimson ran down your arm. You recalled the moments that led up to this heart-pounding moment as you could hear faint yelling in the distance.

You lazily woke up from your nap, not caring about your current surroundings and just trusting that it wasn’t anything bad. You could feel yourself leaning against something warm as you felt a gentle bounce push you up. You shifted from where you had been partly laid. You muttered something, feeling your eyelids heavy on your figure. You were still filled with a tired haze, but you also had the desire to know what was happening around you. You blinked your eyes open, looking around lazily. Though your fatigue was strong, you still managed to get a grasp on your surroundings. You were in your shared van with your friends on an open, rocky road on some back road that Brian swore he knew. At that point, you were confident that the bouncing was coming from and being caused by the roadways. And for some reason, you were comfortable with seeing it as almost a regular thing. You huffed, going back to your original spot to get some more shut-eye against the metal. At least that was the plan until the van hit a larger rock, making you go into flight or fight mode. You could hear a sharp cuss come from the person behind you, the same person you had been coincidentally leaning on.

"What the fuck?" Toby cursed at the two men who were operating it in front.

You could feel your soul spike from internal regret as you pulled yourself away from his shoulder, not knowing how you’d been resting on him. You felt a sliver of cringe and pity for him, but he didn't seem all that upset, as if you hadn’t crossed a line and it was just you over-thinking. He seemed pretty contemptuous about it all, just upset at the reckless driver ahead. As you processed everything, you fully realized that you had been in a van. Though that was obvious, you had just fully taken it in. You hadn’t a clue why you were here or when you fell asleep, but even so, you’d gotten distracted by the events that were currently taking place. You exhaled, calming down from the initial high of being rudely awoken. Though, in the shadows of the van, you could see Kate’s figure sitting a good distance from the both of you, as Masky and Hoodie had been in the front. You should have been facing the masked men that Toby was currently cursing at, but instead, you were getting used to your current surroundings.

"I can’t do anything about that," Brian muttered while driving the van, occasionally glimpsing in the mirror to see the three of you.

He sighed firmly as Toby huffed in response.

"Looks like you're finally up, [Name]" Kate hummed among the chaos with a sweeter voice than the other two.

She seemed happy to see you finally up.

"What’s going on?" you yawned faintly as you could hear Toby shift to the left of you.

"Mission," she answered you as you sighed, not wanting to go on a mission.

But you were also not about to fight her words. So you just accepted what was going to happen shortly. Though it was weird how often you’d lose track of time and how much you’d end up in situations like this not remembering a single thing. But you did know one thing, and that one thing was the fact that it was Halloween night. The one night everyone was out and you’d all fit in perfectly. So, you all probably wouldn’t have to worry about sneaking, though you were sure Brian was still going to make you nonetheless. He'd say it was a good practice or use some other mentor wording.

"It's Halloween night, isn't it?" "Wouldn't that make tonight riskier?" you inhaled, just putting in your two cents' worth of effort.

"Well, I forget about that but hey nonetheless happy Halloween." Tim joined in for no apparent reason, huffing.

He seemed oddly tired with the way he spoke, but, yet again, he always spoke that way. You gazed at the man in the flannel for a moment or two. You made a noise in agreement as you could feel meaningless stares directed at you. Though still, no one answered your question, the van continued on its voyage, being driven by Brian's calculated swerving. You exhaled wanting to know what to expect but not wanting to push anything.

"The mission shouldn’t be that bad; it's just a target downtown." Tim seemed to notice your anxious glare as he tried to comfort your shaken state.

You exhaled, accepting his words with ease, seeing as how Hoodie would've given a ten-hour lecture if it had been a harsher task. And in doing so, Tim mentally told you he didn't want to be there either and comforted you about your anxieties. Afterward, the van quickly sank into silence. No one spoke, having nothing to fill the void of noise, though it wasn’t all bad. You had each other's presence, and that was more than enough. Just to have no words uttered but, only each other's shared memories to comfort one another. And you could tell that even with Toby upset, he wasn't going to be permanently angry. Because at the end of the day, you all only had each other. Because there was no sane person who could ever go down to your level or even understand what you all went through. No one could ever bond in the way you all five did, and it would probably stay that way for a while.

Though your train of thought was interrupted by Brian suddenly stopping, and as Toby's silent rage rose, you looked out of one of the nearby van windows to be met with an expansive neighborhood. But it wasn’t just any normal neighborhood. This one was covered by various Halloween decorations and all sorts of spooky treats. It looked like a neighborhood that someone would write up in a book due to how many celebrated the spooky day. The place had been covered in different blaring lights as kids ran up and down the streets, clearly on a sugar high. You could mentally hear the screaming the children let out for no apparent reason. You internally cringed watching the younger kids go ham as mothers sat back not caring about what their kids did. even if it meant stealing the entire bucket of candy. And you didn't even want to imagine the angsty teens at this time of night. And after looking at this spectacle, you suddenly remembered the burden of the holidays. You remembered why the creeps didn't celebrate them all that much. You could hear Toby let out a string of cuss words, knowing this mission just got vastly harder. You could feel the desire to just stay in the van and go back to bed burning within you.

"Alright, Kate and Toby will head toward the east side of the neighborhood while Tim will stay back to keep guard," and before Brian could finish his explanation and give his direct orders, Toby interrupted him.

"Of course, Tim doesn’t have to do shit," he complained as Tim chuckled lightly, knowing his part of the mission would be a breeze.

"Anyway, me and [name] will head north, and don't forget to use your walkie-talkie if anything gets dicey." Brian adjusted his ski mask to cover his entire face, as Kate had already made a move to leave.

It seemed that even when those two had been sitting for hours on end, they still seemed ready to go on their assigned mission. Meanwhile, on the other hand, you were exhausted for no apparent reason other than your body wanted payback for something you couldn't even remember. You could hear Toby grudgingly forcing himself to get up and follow Kate, with whom he was paired. He grabbed a few knives, knowing that it wasn't a good idea to bring a real axe into the public, even if it was Halloween night. Though, thinking about it, Brian probably put the two together so Kate could make sure Toby didn’t do anything too stupid. You had to give it to Brian; that was a pretty smart decision on his end. Because you knew that if you let Toby out on his own after being a rogue proxy for so long, he'd probably kill more than half the neighborhood. Though you were sure that Kate was comically murdering Brian in her mind for setting her up like that,

You thought to yourself as you got out as well. You bid the rest of your friends' good luck, as Toby still mentally stabbed Tim with his stares. You looked around your surroundings once again, taking plenty of mental notes. like how the van was parked on the side of the road in a darker part of the neighborhood to not draw any suspicion. Another part of it was that none of you had dressed up since you all looked right at home during Halloween. None of you would stick out, so you didn’t bother to change. The only one who might get stared at would be Tim, but he could probably disguise himself as some southern cowboy. Your shoes hit the concrete as you followed Hoodie closely, watching his stiff figure make progress quickly.

"Scouting only," his tall figure muttered.

You knew it was him speaking, but, even with his voice, you couldn't feel safe with how intimidating he looked and sounded. You could only hear the muffle that was his voice. You nodded in obedience as he stood tall, letting himself blend in.

As the two of you got into the more populated part, kids seemed to avoid the both of you. They gave Hoodie a horrified look in a discreet way, but you didn’t think much of it until a kid screamed and ran from him. You both stood still. You let out a light chuckle, not expecting to witness that, and clearly, he didn't either.

“How are you scaring kids by simply existing?" You looked at his frozen frame as he tilted his head toward you as if to say he was glad to know he wasn't the only one who witnessed that.

"I haven’t a clue," he answered disappointedly, knowing how scared he must have looked at those children.

But to you, it was pretty funny knowing his goal had been not to draw attention, and he did it by existing. He broke his own goal by just naturally looking scary. It was cute at the moment, but it eventually got drowned out by the thought of your mission. And how truly sinister your shared mission truly was; thinking about it ruined the atmosphere you two had for a moment. You mentally ignored it as you went further into the northern part, but Brian still managed to make kids run. even with your shared thought process. You assumed people thought the same way you did when you guessed his scary traits, which were his height and his mask.

The breeze was gentle as kids raced past the both of you, occasionally dropping a fun-sized candy bar along the way. And you could tell Brian couldn't tell if they were running either out of fear or because they were having great fun. He was never the best at reading social cues. You looked up at the dark sky, with only the moonlight to light the area around the two of you. You smiled to yourself, seeing how the both of you were so relaxed at the moment, even with the accidental scares. The stars twinkled as the night grew deeper, and the need to finish the mission was only growing.

"You think the others got anything?" you asked, breaking the silence, and he sighed upon hearing you not use any code lingo.

. He was disappointed in your lack of hiding the fact you were after something. He glanced at you for a moment before detaching his walkie-talkie from his belt and placing it to his ear. He seemed to agree with wanting to know any updates. You could hear static blares as well as faint voices from his end.

"Did you find them, over?" he answered to someone on your shared end, as you could hear a feminine voice. It was probably Kate talking to both of them.

You stood there listening and watching him use the walkie-talkie seamlessly with little to no struggle. And when he did so, the only thing you could think of was the last time, which was Toby’s absolute struggle to use one. You remembered that you both sat there, with you laughing and him turning like twelve things that shouldn’t have been turned. You lightly chuckled to yourself when you saw Hoodie getting anxious due to how long he’d had this thing in his ear. He was probably just nervous enough to be slightly out of place as he spoke again.

"Got it over and out." He huffed to himself as, through his ski mask, he gazed at you.

You motioned for him to go ahead and give you the news from the others.

"They overheard some party in the west region, and it's sounding like our target is there," he answered to your motion, watching your smile fade a tad.

You exhaled upon hearing that it was going to be in a public place, though you did get a sense of reassurance that it wasn’t some poor kid trying to enjoy the holiday. You had no desire to become a child murderer on top of all the other things you've committed.

"What happened to the code lingo?" You lightened up the mood, sensing he was glancing at your anxious state.

He paused for a moment as the things he just said seemed to flashback, and you knew he was going to beat himself up after that one mentally. You chuckled at his stance as he loosened up upon seeing the smile laced across your face. He just couldn't bring himself to criticize the way you attracted attention in public. After a good minute of taking second looks and making sure to retrace everything, you soon both concluded to head back to the van, seeing as the other two were planning to do the same. You passed the same over-decorated houses, now somewhat recognizing the area. You hummed to entertain yourself as you watched kids knock on different doors. even with the decorated houses. There were still some that weren’t lit with any decorations, which wasn't surprising. People had the right not to celebrate the holiday for any reason; it was all in good fun nonetheless. You and Brian soon passed a fairly under-decorated house with a Halloween-themed bucket sitting on the driveway. The more you looked, you could see a flimsy note with the words "Take one!" written on it. You could feel a spike of interest rise as you went off the path momentarily and grabbed two childish pieces of candy. He stopped for a moment, staring you down and almost wanting to stop you. But he couldn't, not wanting to draw any attention by doing so. He stood there waiting for your meaningless tomfoolery to commence so he could get back on track. Though you could feel his stare burn into the back of your neck, you just couldn't find it in yourself to care about his disapproval.

"Why’d you grab two?" he huffed as the both of you went back on task.

"So I could give you one," you muttered, passing him the other.

He took it with hesitation, almost disappointed in you, but he seemed pleasantly surprised, all things considered. He stuffed it in his pocket, just as you did the same. The house lights helped you find your way, as you could now see the van in the distance with the streetlights reflecting its lack of color. And the more you looked at it, the more you realized that it looked like the type of van that would have "free candy" carved into the side. You'd have to joke about that with Toby later, you thought as you joined Brian's side. You exhaled as you could hear noise coming from inside. You glanced at Hoodie, seeing him freeze momentarily out of despondency. You both approached the ruckus as he grabbed one of the doors, swinging it open abruptly. You could tell he tried to catch them off guard, and he did. The noise ceased as he just stood there staring. And before any of them could explain themselves, Brian started to speak.

"I and Kate will scout from behind while Tim and [name] will go in directly." And Toby can just stay here." Brian had a descending tone near the end as Toby squinted at the man.

"This feels targeted," he muttered as he sat on the van’s flooring.

not liking how Hoody put it but also not minding that he got to stay back from the mission. You sighed in envy as Tim got out of the door and made his way out. He seemed to be enjoying not doing anything but smoking. He muttered as he grudgingly put on his mask. He wasn’t a big fan of his iconic mask and had his reasoning behind it. He shifted out as he stood next to you. You both stood still, taking in any input that Brian had to put in, seeing as the both of you got the riskier end of having to be in a more vulnerable spot. as they both took off into the more isolated part of the neighborhood and back into the forest. You and Tim started to head directly north, leaving Toby alone. It wasn’t the best idea to leave him like that, but it was even worse to question Hoodie's judgment. So you sighed, not caring enough about it to pry at it mentally anymore.

You continued to walk with him, knowing he had smoked before this. Even though at first you could never stand the smell, you eventually got used to it after spending so much time around him. And maybe that’s what he wanted to happen.

"Nice costume," you muttered, testing the waters to see if he was in a better mood than normal.

"Gee, thanks!" he exclaimed with barely any excitement in his voice.

Though he had a more raspy, tired tone, you could tell he wasn’t upset. You’d managed to catch him in a better mood, which would play in your favor. Especially during a more open mission like this, And you all knew he struggled with public spaces. You followed the unfamiliar concrete, trusting Tim to call you out if you made any mistakes. It was fairly dark, as you only had minimal lighting and sound to guide you. And the closer you two got to the house, the louder the music got. And the more people there were, ranging from kids just passing by to people who were enjoying the party a little too much and weren't children.

You both were about to report back to Kate about making it to the supposed house when a kid ran up to the both of you.

"Aren’t you two too old to be trick-or-treating?" The short kid stared at Tim with a sour look.

He seemed to target Tim, seeing him as the older and more elderly of you two. The kid wore an astronaut costume that was too big for him as he stood confidently. Tim just stood there awkwardly, really not wanting to deal with this.

"I'm here for the party, actually," he said, breaking the staring contest as the kid with his bucket in hand glanced toward the house.

"You’re not cool enough to go to my older sister’s party." He snapped out at the both of you for a split second.

You wondered where this kid’s parents were, but it makes sense why they just left him here. You needed to get back on track and task, but you couldn’t with the child in the way. So, you did the only logical thing. You were going to scare him.

"Don’t you know you should be out?" "There's an evil... beaver out at this hour," you mentally slapped yourself for the terrible story you just made up.

Even with it, you could feel the apparent smile creep up on your face. And you swore you could hear Tim let out a chuckle right along with you. The kid backed up for a second, looking around him. Paranoia was visibly setting in as he felt like something was watching him. though you were sure nothing was.

"Yeah, and he carries an axe to swing at his unexpected victims," Tim added, which reminded you of a certain person. as if to point and laugh at a certain close friend of yours.

"I'm not scared," the self-proclaimed astronaut huffed, as you could tell he was just by the way his hands were shaken.

And the way he looked around, he was visibly uncomfortable. He was fearing the made-up beaver.

"You should be," Tim muttered with an ominous edge to his voice.His voice was just dripping with a campfire scary story as you watched him tense up from fear.

The kid stood for a moment, flinching. He suddenly turned around and ran for it, dropping plenty of candy on the way back to wherever he came from. You looked at Tim, who now had a small smile pasted on his face. That was probably cruel, but there were worse things you could've done to the astronaut. For example, if he were your target, that would be much worse.

"Menace." You smiled right along with Tim as you heard your walkie-talkie go off.

You quickly reached for it as you placed the cold plastic against your ear. Your carefree stance quickly turned professional, ready for action.

"Hello over?" You broke the silence, as you could hear shuffling on the other side.

"I’m bored," Toby said on the other side as he dragged his words out.

Your stance lessened as you quickly relaxed into the phone, not hearing Hoodie's condescending tone.

"Just wait; it shouldn’t take long," you answered, as you could hear Tim scoff.

"..sure." He gave up on the walkie-talkie lingo as you hear him shift in the van.

He muttered things that the walkie-talkie didn't pick up. And before you could say anything else, he cut the line abruptly. You mentally cursed him out for being upset with you for not solving his boredom.

"Guessing Toby?" Tim looked at your less-than-stressed face.

"Yeah," you answered under your breath, tucking the walkie back under your shirt.

Tim chuckled at your disappointed response as the both of you got back on task. You gazed toward the well-lit house as you could see the shadows of people dancing.

"Teenage party?" You could hear him huff, clearly not wanting to be adults at a younger party.

You lightly chuckled at his response as you kept your eyes on the entrance and once again took out your walkie-talkie. You wanted to hear the next course of action, and you knew he wouldn't mind explaining every detail to you if you simply asked. You switched to Brian's line as you placed it against your ear.

"Hello over?" you broke the silence, staring at the house in front of you and Tim.

You could hear static for a brief moment as he placed the device against his ear.

"What’s wrong over?" Hoodie’s husky voice was well translated over the talkie as you took a second.

"At the house, what's the next course of action over?" You lowered your tone, not wanting anyone to hear you.

"Uh--" Brian was going to announce something before he sharply stated "Fuck" in a whisper-like tone.

You could hear the recoil of him shifting from whatever position he was in. "What?" You didn’t manage to keep your professional talk up, hearing the panic in the other male’s voice.

"Get out of there," he stated sharply, with a certain rasp to his voice.

Your face tensed for a moment as Tim immediately realized something was wrong. Whatever had just happened on his side was major. He would never joke about something like that. Something was wrong. Something was wrong, and you could feel it only getting worse and festering in your mind. You needed to hear Brian affirm that everything was okay as Tim seemed to get closer almost in a way to comfort your form.

"A rogue proxy is in the area, Jeff." Hoodie seemed to snap out at you, practically begging you to get the fuck out.

He answered your mental question as he was struggling on the other end. You could feel your stomach contort as you froze. Your grip on the plastic increased as your heart felt like it was being squeezed. You could feel your flight or fight instinct bubble up within you.

"He's headed directly toward your area; get out now." Your hands shook against the plastic, frantically trying to process it.

"Get to the van within five minutes. If you don’t make it, we’ll be forced to leave you over and out." Brian ended the line with those words, warning you of the danger in the area.

And the danger was something you hadn't expected. It was one of the rogue proxies who worked for no one but themselves and the operator. He would kill you on sight, and you wouldn’t be able to stop him. Your heart was racing for once. You were up against an apex. You suddenly didn't feel like you were in control. You felt like prey, ready to be torn apart. You stood no chance against a rogue, especially not Jeff.

"Tim, we need to go." Your eyes widened looking at him as his eyebrows furrowed at you.

You could feel some form of cough come out of your throat. You could feel the fear the kid astronaut had gone through. You were wondering if this was it or not. Tim swallowed thickly as the both of you turned back to the van. He didn't question a word you spoke. He trusted you with his life. You both picked up the pace, not caring about bystanders. You didn't care about the eyes on either of you because their sight was going to be bludgeoned right out of them within minutes.

“What the fuck is happening?" Tim looked at you as his steps were heavy, following right along with you.

"Rouge proxy, it’s going to be a massacre in a few minutes." You got it out of your system as he cussed under his breath, following the similar way you had just been walking.

Though it made sense, the larger scene probably drew the proxy’s attention seeing that many people. Those people were just a way to add to his kill count. And the fact that it was Halloween didn't help. It was just too perfect to ruin. You should've expected this. You both took sharp turns, being under a timer that Tim wasn’t aware of. The pressure of both of your lives in your hands was just stacking up.

"Who?" Tim rushed out as you rushed up the concrete sidewalk.

"Jeff." You pushed yourself to keep up, not wanting to be next.

You could tell Tim froze upon hearing that news. You knew he hated those types of proxies. They had no care for anything and had completely lost it. But Jeff was worse than that because he dragged everyone he could along with him. And he was the reason you were here today. You could feel your straining muscles, but it didn't matter to you. A small pain or two was much better than having your brains splattered on the sidewalk. You could see the van in the distance. And for a moment, you felt like you had made it in time. You felt like you were going to make it. That was until you could hear a high-pitched scream come from behind. It was way behind you, but it was still enough to make you scared. And it ensured that you weren't safe until the van was on the move because now Jeff had made his presence known. The massacre had just begun, with no plans to stop anytime soon. And by this point, you’d all abandoned the mission, and this was life or death. If you didn’t get in the damned van, you’d be fucked. Brian couldn’t risk the lives of the others if you two couldn’t run fast enough. It was just protocol. You could feel something in your break when the van’s doors were open. Either they were waiting for you or someone else got to them first. But, luckily, as your scattered breath got into the van, Toby was still there.

"What’s going on?" Toby abruptly woke up from his nap, looking at your shared panting breath.

"Where’s Brian and Kate?" you looked at Toby as his eyebrow furrowed.

"On their mission?" He looked at you firmly before stiffening.

He could tell something was wrong. It was clear that Brian didn't have the time to warn Toby.

"There's a rogue proxy." Tim cut to the chase as Toby squinted upon hearing the name.

It wasn’t so long ago that he was one before he changed.

"Jeff," you answered the question he probably had mentally as his jaw tightened upon hearing that name.

Toby started to faintly visualize watching you two emerge from the van.

"I’ll drive." Tim looked at the both of you getting into the front of the vehicle.

You could feel your heart stop for a moment as your heart spoke for you.

"What about Kate and Brian?" you managed to say as Tim froze holding the wheel.

You'd just put that thought into his mind. He'd just realize what he'd lose if he took off right now.

“I—" He was going to say something, but he stopped.

It was almost as if he saw something that you hadn't. You could feel yourself becoming anxious as you needed to hear him communicate with you two.

"What?" Toby muttered, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He took the question right from under you as you listened.

"They took the fucking key," Tim mentally cursed out Brian.

And even if that were a terrible thing for you guys, you could feel a sense of relief wash over you. You wouldn't be forced to make that decision.

"We’ll just wait for them; they shouldn’t take long." Toby stared at Tim montonely.

. He kept his emotions under wraps in a professional way, but you could tell by his tensing how scared he was.

"I don’t want to leave them; it's just protocol," he huffed as he tried to relax, but you could see his sight go into the mirrors to be aware of his surroundings.

You knew he was anything but calm; he was far from it. The longer the three of you waited, the more screams came from the neighborhood.

The more it felt like you guys were sitting ducks waiting to be shot, "We’re fucked." Tim took a cigarette out, ready to smoke his heart out, as he threw his mask to the side of his face, revealing his fluffy hair.

"I’m not leaving my fucking friends!" Toby snapped at the man in the flannel, not caring about Tim’s last statement.

He was getting fed up with Tim's pessimism.

"It’s Brian’s order." He lit his cigarette violently, not bothering to ventilate it. almost, as if he thought that'd be his final one.

"We can’t even leave if we wanted to, so stop fighting for fucks sake." You lost your voice at the two fighting about the situation.

“We’re staying here until Brian and Kate get here." You relaxed your stance, feeling the fixated gaze of Toby on you as Tim just smoked.

You saw where both of them were coming from. You knew they were just scared, but that was no excuse for fighting while a bloodthirsty animal was off its leash.

"There's the no man behind bullshit." Tim hummed as he let the nicotine rot his mind.

You could see him physically relaxed, leaning back with a smile laced across his face.

"Tim’s high, and I’m panicking." "You're going to be alone fighting that bitch, and I won’t be able to do anything about it," you could see Toby pull his legs up to his chest heaving.

He was stressed out so badly just thinking about the situation. And your heart went out to him; you didn't want to see him like that.

"I’m not alone, and neither are you." You looked at his frantic state as you shifted your figure next to him.

You reassured him that it wasn't over, and it seemed your presence was enough for Toby to get his breathing back on track as he aggressively leaned into you. You had to be his rock. His anchor, you would say, would be the thing that kept him from floating. You had to ground him from his thoughts. You could see Tim’s smoke blow into the back of the van as he was stressed over his mind. He never led missions; he had always been third in charge under Brian and then Kate. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to leave his best friend, and he couldn't, and he knew that even with what he had said. You could smell the flumes as they ruthlessly traveled to the back of the van, having nowhere else to go. You didn’t know what you could say to Tim to just make him calm down. But he was smoking, so he was probably getting it together by getting looser.

"What the fuck do I do?" Tim lightly chuckled to himself as he inhaled harshly.

He hit the steering wheel a few times just to get some of the stress off of him, and before you could comfort him, you heard something. You could hear someone running rapidly toward the van; your stomach dropped, not knowing who it was. You peered out the window to see Brian and Kate’s forms running toward the van. Your heart swelled with relief upon seeing the others. You could tell Tim was already aware of their presence as he quickly got into gear, putting out his cigarette on the dashboard. Kate had her machete in hand, and Brian had a gun firmly in hand. They were close to the van as you swung open the doors for them. Toby pulled a decent distance away from you, feeling better about seeing them. Kate headed for the back door as Brian aimed for the front. You could tell he knew Tim was in front as he rushed in. You could see the both of them relax somewhat as they settled in the van; they were weighing the whole thing down with their sudden arrival. They were huffing as Kate practically slid in as Brian tossed the keys to Tim. He turned the ignition as the engine roared for fuel. He got it into gear, pressing down on the gas, ready to bust ass. The vehicle took off as the doors were still wide open. It seemed like you were all in a hurry. You shifted to go shut the doors as you could see two figures in the distance. As you recoiled, trying to figure out who it was even though you already knew the answer, it was Jeff and Liu in the distance. And Liu had his gun pointed right at you. You pulled it back with all of your force, shutting one of the doors as the van bounced you all against the rocky road. The gunshot broke the glass of the shutter as you sat on the floor, feeling the shattered glass rain on you. Kate quickly came to your side, grabbing the other as she was about to shut it, and you could tell he was going to shoot again. And he was aiming right for her hand. You pushed yourself up, fully shutting the door, as the glass left on your palm was stuck deep in your hand. You could feel the pain flare up, almost like you'd just burned your hand. Your pain felt like a statistic that was skyrocketing and then drastically dropping. Your hands were over Kate’s as the bullet went against the metal doors. "Get down!" Brian huffed, as Kate had already done so. Both doors were now tightly shut, with one window broken. You could feel the glass against every part of your body. You shifted awkwardly, sliding down the metal door, as none of you had expected to see his brother among them. The rogue proxies never worked with anyone, which made them the way they were, but maybe they had joined forces for a common goal. Or maybe it was something else. You panted as you sat against the frame of the van door. You held your wrist, feeling a sudden burning sensation in your hand. The sharp, burning sensation was all you could currently focus on; nothing else seemed to matter other than the feeling. The feeling of a throbbing pain rising and falling with the bonus of a disorienting haze clouding your mind. You could see the glass now tainted with your crimson liquid. The blood ran down your hand and arm as you held your hand there. Seeing the clear, crystal-like shard stick out from your palm Kate soon reached out, holding your injured arm, as you could hear aggressive shifting to your left.

"Everyone alright?" Tim managed to get out, adjusting his hold on the wheel, seeing as all of you were now a good distance away from the soon-to-be massacre of a neighborhood.

"Yeah, though [Name] got their hand injured." Kate's voice was gentle as she grabbed the medicine kit that Toby had thrown at her.

"Okay, good. "Now, wanna explain to me why you two took so long?" Tim raised his voice in a panic; he seemed to be overwhelmed by the current events.

as Toby was staring at you with a concerned look. "We got chased in the forest behind the house," Brian answered for both of them.

"Mid conversation, we saw them, and once we made our move, we had to take a long way so they wouldn’t ambush." But, they saw us in the end, and we had to run for it." Kate sighed, pulling out an antiseptic and a bandage.

She gently reached for your hand, grabbing your wrist as she poured it on. Your hand burned with intense, sudden pain, and you could feel your muscles flare up as she kept a good hold on you. You tried not to move, but it just felt impossible not to. She waited for a moment before applying a bandage to your bruising wound. She tried to be as delicate as possible which was hard due to the fresh gash in your palm. She put a second of pressure on it, which you thought was for medical purposes but was instead for comfort.

"Thank you." She admitted her mistakes, feeling bad for your wound.

You just saved her from losing her entire hand. You made a noise that sounded like "Uh huh." You were just too sleepy to answer anything else. From the sudden adrenaline rush to the sudden wound, it was getting to be too much. It was probably just the blood loss. as you couldn’t move your hand as you gently placed it down. Everything felt sharp to the touch, and your hand didn’t feel usable anymore. as Kate pulled down her sleeve, swiping away any fallen glass on your figure. She was trying her best to make it up to you which you greatly appreciated from her and you could tell she knew.

Your hand was now numb as you took the pain relief that Tim had recommended. You could now see Toby’s figure slowly sit next to you to provide you comfort, just like you had done for him. He wasn’t good at vocal comfort, but he was doing enough just by caring. You felt your breathing become more regular, and you were not feeling the wound as badly. You could feel a sense of excitement arrive just from the fact that you made it out. You've all survived Jeff and his brother. You had lived to tell the tale, but you were sure he wasn't done with you. He'd be back, but it was nice for the moment. Tim relaxed, seeming to not be as tense as he once was moments ago. Though Brian, on the other hand, had his ski mask up to his forehead trying to catch a second.

"I hate rogues," Brian muttered, thinking about the mission that had just collapsed upon you all.

Tim laughed in agreement as everything seemed to lighten up from the original stress and climax of it all. You lightly chuckled, deciding to add a comedic moment to the new voyage, as you dug in your pocket and pulled out a piece of candy, handing it to Toby. It is now much more melted and less new, but candy is candy. You passed it, knowing it was the same one you and Brian had taken. Toby seemed to tilt his head eagerly while taking it. You knew he enjoyed chocolate as you relaxed against Kate. She didn't mind your dependence on her, as she even adjusted her position to make it more enjoyable for the both of you.

 What would your life be without the adrenaline you get from your friends? What would life be without them? You couldn’t imagine it, and you wouldn't, as Tim drove while he shared his cigarettes with Brian, who insisted he didn’t want one but took one nonetheless. And Toby munched on the candy as Kate watched your wound intensively. You had a group that cared about each other. You had a group that survived the Halloween massacre, and there was nothing much that could ruin it. other than dying, but that was just part of the risk. It was just a part of the fun of working for the operator, and you couldn't imagine being stuck with anyone else but your team.

-

A/N - We finally finished Boxtober !! I hoped all of you enjoyed it! <3

-

[fanficgirly18]

X-Virus x Female Chubby Reader| Part 3

_________________________

"Well shit,"

said the hooded man. His voice broke the tense silence.

"Luckily I got back here before you could jizz on my favorite chair."

"Who the FUCK are you talking to?" came another, harsher voice. A tall man in a white feminine mask, pushed past him through the threshold. His aura was much more intimidating than the hooded guy's.

"Are you sure your taking your meds, Brian-"

He paused mid sentence. His eyes from behind the gaping holes of the mask narrow at the sight of you and your captor.

By this time goggles guy had gotten up, slumped forward, with his hands shoved in his pockets but standing protectively infront of you.

"Don't move any farther," warned the hooded guy, "I have a gun."

He pulled out a pistol.

"Who's this?" the masked one said, slyly, and you could hear him licking his teeth- it was that quiet.

His eyes were on you.

Self-consciously you tried to cover your chubby body at his unwanted staring. 

"Well, aren't you just gorgeous."

Now the goggled guy visibly stiffened, angered by this. Was he jelly-

"X-Virus," said the hooded one, clearing his throat. He must be talking to your captor. His name was X-Virus?

"I have a proposition for you."

Hoodie still pointing the gun, approached X-Virus and you.

"Masky, get the girl."

"Gladly, Hoodie."

The masked guy rushed up to you and snatched you up by the waist. He even lifted you a bit off the ground before muttering 'she's heavy' and putting you down.

"Anyhow," said Hoodie, "The proposition is for you to join...the proxies."

Hoodie pressed his gun barrel into X-Virus's forehead.

"The gun might make you consider your answer."

X-Virus shoves his hands deeper in his pockets, slumping forward further.

You could hear Hoodie's grin as he said,

"Come on, Cody."

The hand that was pushing the barrel into Cody's temple wrist was grabbed.

"Don't call me that," said X-Virus so angrily, it made you tremble in Masky's grasp. Hoodie didn't seem phased.

"Did I hurt your feelings, Cod-"

"THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO USE TO CALL ME BY MY REAL NAME- ARE DEAD!" X-Virus yelled, out of control completely, and yanked a hand out of his pocket and there was a glowing green syringe. Hoodie didn't have time to react- he was stabbed in the neck.

The serum seemed to instantly be put to work. Hoodie pulled out the needle and then started convulsing and falling to the floor.

He was having some sort of seizure- and you watched in horror.

Then he went limp.

X-Virus gave a deranged laugh before turning to you and Masky.

Masky held you in an head lock.

"Don't take another step or I snap your girlfriend's neck."

[tsukidrama]

please like this post if you read the rant because im literally just screaming into rhe void and i need literally anyone to listen to me right now

the family member i was closest to for most of my life and who basically guided me through being a teenager and coming out just verbally degraded me for 10 minutes using the exact same trigger words that my abusive dad always did.

i typed out what happeneed 3 times in 3 different ways and it only makes me feel worse. there was a point in my life where she was my safe person. she was the person that i could go to whenever i didn't have anyone else to talk to or i felt like no one would listen to me. she has always gone out of her way to offer her home as a safe space for me no matter what has been going on in my life.

very very long story short, my grandma's health is declining because she has heart failure. my aunt does not take care of her own health and has had to undergo emergency surgery 3 times in the past year (2022). she is getting a knee replacement on Monday.

i don't want to give out too much information because of privacy reasons but basically my grandma is in heart failure. she's 79 years old and has a lot of other medical problems that generally make her very high risk in general.

basically my grandma has convinced herself that she absolutely needs to accompany my aunt to her knee surgery. and my aunt is just, letting it happen? even though my aunt has told me multiple times that having grandma in a car for long periods of time is very dangerous for her health. it's the reason i take an 8 hour fucking road trip to see her as often as i can.

all i said was "i gotta say that i'm really worried about grandma coming along with you when you have used the words 'very dangerous' to describe car trips for her."

these are the exact words that i used.

immediately it's like a flip switched. i didn't even have time to breathe before she started shrieking like a banshee telling me that i'm disrespecting her by saying that she can't take care of my grandma and disrespecting my grandma by saying that she can't do what she wants. she kept saying "well i'm sorry that you feel that way" a lot more shit that i'm not going to sit here and upset myself by typing out.

i've been crying on and off for almost 6 hours now. i don't know what i did wrong. i don't know what to do. i want my grandma to be a part of my life but my access to her is entirely through my aunt. i want to talk to my grandma about all of this but my aunt won't let me talk to her. i'm so fucking scared for her and i feel really helpless and triggered about things that happened with my dad.

i dont want to get into it fully but basically my dad lied to my face for years about the status of his health and instructed his doctors to reiterate those lies so i wouldn't find out. two days after my 18th birthday he signed me up as his new medical proxy and continued to lie to me about his health despite forcing me to sign legal documents that would give me power of attorney if he were to go unconscious and i had to make choices for him. i only found out that he was dying when he screamed "you need to do [whatever he was yelling about] because i'm dying!" in my face. he was.

cut to a few years later and i have now developed crippling anxiety when people tell me they're having issues with their health. there will always be a part of me that feels like i'm being lied to, or that someone is either overexaggerating or underexaggerating how bad their illness is to manipulate me. most of the time when i feel like this i can recognize it as anxiety. i really do feel like i've made a lot of progress regarding that, because i know that nobody besides my dad would lie to me like that.

she understood how i felt like the choices that my father made took that relationship away from both of us. everyone else tried to convince me to show my dad sympathy, but my aunt made a point to validate my feelings in that his "out of sight out of mind" mindset was extremely damaging and traumatic for me and my brother.

except for my aunt, now, apparently??? which really fucks me up because she knows how much it damaged me emotionally. our relationship began to deteriorate when i hit my early 20s and it became clear to me that she doesn't even try to take care of HERSELF. she knew her knees were bad but she didn't go to the doctor until she couldn't walk. she knew she had kidney and gall bladder problems but she didn't go to the doctor or attempt to change her diet until she literally went into organ failure and almost died from sepsis. sinks, bathtubs, countertops, lights, the oven. all have broken and she just, did not fix it! she and my grandma washed their hands in the bathtub for months until my brother came to visit and fixed it for her. instead of saying thank you she yelled at him that she didnt need help . just including this to help paint the picture of how bad at managing literally everything is. oh, and there was a week in the Louisiana summer heat where the AC broke and she waited a week before calling someone to fix it. A WEEK. IN THE LOUISIANA SUMMER TIME. A 79 YEAR OLD WOMAN.

now i just feel like. well who the hell is this cunt and what did she do with my aunt? why the fuck is she talking to me like this???? i haven't felt like this since i was a teenager. i'm angry that she feels comfortable putting my grandma's health at risk. i'm horrified by the way that she spoke to me. i'm disgusted that i ever thought it could emotionally connect with someone who is related to my dad.

there are more reasons that we have grown apart (including a recent interest in alt-right conspiracy theories) but overall it was important to me to have a relationship with the people in that house because they're the only one left on that side of the family. so i would bite my tongue because i knew she wasn't actually going to change. she would just brush it off. but it's different when you're letting my grandma put herself at risk. and why? "because grandma wants to come"

well personally i would rather grandma be mad than dead. but apparently expressing this is extremely rude and i am a "nasty little girl that needs to learn her place"

if it wasn't for grandma i would have already gone no contact. it would hurt me a lot to cut them off but i feel the red flags popping up more than ever. aunt won't let my grandma talk to me for more than a minute or two and when i see her in person she won't let me back into her bedroom. i have caught aunt in multiple lies concerning covid safety, hanging around meth users, and an abusive ex-husband of the woman who lives with her (don't even get me started).

it doesn't seem like a possibility for me to stay in my grandma's life when i've gone no contact with her caretaker. all i want to do is talk to her. i don't know what to do. i don't want her to die. she's the only grandparent i have left and i already rarely see her because she lives so far away. all my other family is dead.

it genuinely shocks me how well people can hide their true colors. if this bitch kills my grandma i will never let her forget about it until the day she dies.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

A perfect succinct summation of current university expectations of minorities in America:

The soft bigotry of low expectations.

And the hard fragility of high entitlement.

The way this plays out often goes via proxy, however. Many students become represented against their will by activists with a particular ideological mindset. And often, they're "allies" demonstrating their virtuous bona fides, not members of those groups.

Note that the request that set off this shit-show was from "a non-black" student.

This (white) commentator rattles off some bogus pseudoscience to insist he "should have" complied; the same author has also decided that "divorce isn't fair" because her ex-husband isn't poor, so that tells you the mentality.

"I really wish his parents would give me that money"

As a timely reminder, Mike Nayna is releasing his Grievance Studies Affair documentary, "The Reformers," on his Substack over the next couple of weeks. Part 1 (free) and Part 2 (subscribers only) are already up, and Part 3 is coming next week.

Just today he's also released an accompaniment called, oddly enough, "The Reformers: An Accompaniment." This is essentially a re-cut of his previous three-part Evergreen State College documentary into a single film. I believe it's free to view.

Part of the way through the film, a former president of the college - who is black, by the way - is receiving an award and a building being named after him. During his speech, some entitled student barges up, takes the microphone and starts ranting like a nutcase.

Nobody does anything. Nobody cuts the mic. Nobody tells her to sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up because everything is not about her and her tantrums all the time. When she's done, the former president tries to address some of the points, and she and her pals start talking and chanting over the top, rambling about their "oppression."

Keep in mind, this is a liberal arts college in one of the most blue states in the entire US. These are extremely privileged people acting out a perverted, ideological Live Action Roleplay. They have few, if any, real issues; they're out there fighting postmodern dragons. At the time, this was shocking, and the language and mental processes were bizarre and alien. But nowadays, that language and mindset are everywhere.

The film proceeds along to the notorious takeover and hostage situation where students invade and lockdown the admin building, and the then-president tells everyone to go along with it. The students even yell at him over the placement of his hands, and laugh at him about bathroom breaks for the hostages. Nobody pushes back on this. The president even tells security to stand down.

To this day, nobody can tell you coherently what any of this complete meltdown was actually all about, and to my knowledge, little if any disciplinary action was taken against the perpetrators. If there's one person you'll see time and again through the footage, it's a guy called Jamil Bee. He was essentially the ringleader of the whole thing, but he was never expelled, he was never disciplined, and he was held up as a hero and invited to talks and lectures, Kendi-style.

So what he and his activist friends learned is that they could do whatever they wanted. He's even quoted as saying:

"Nothing is the limit to reparations." "There is no limit that can be set over us in being able to squash oppressive behavior."

The definitions of which he and similar activist types get to decide themselves: "you don't get to decide what's racism - only we do." This type of narcissistic authoritarianism has been celebrated and rewarded, rather than ridiculed and mocked as it should be, or held to the fires of the institutions policies and rules on appropriate conduct. They just let him slide.

And part of that was, as you mentioned, bigotry of low expectations. Nobody will tell these students "no." But also the fear of being called a mean name by intellectual infants: "racist," "white supremacist," "transphobic" or something similar. These words are only useful because they're not a pervasive problem any more; they're aberrational. Calling someone "racist" during Jim Crow wouldn't solicit any meaningful moral panic or defensiveness. But now the accused let them get away with this because it's easier than having to defend themselves from some baseless pro forma accusation of bigotry.

And that screws everything up for the majority of students who aren't mentally ill sociopaths.

This is something that plays out again and again and again. Colleges submit to the emotional outbursts and tantrums of students instead of doing the right thing and putting them in a time-out until they can come back and apologize - Yale and Stanford have had this sort of thing play out again and again.

What's not spoken about is that behind the scenes, it's often college administrators themselves - and particularly the apparatchiks in the DIE bureaucracies - facilitating this, teaching students this "harm" and "unsafe" and "danger" and "words are violence" mentality in the first place.

[apocketfullofstones]

The Mandalorian s3 e4 Review

I don't know how, but the show got even worse. I made a list of everything I had a problem with while watching the newest episode and put it all together into a cohesive essay for you guys. (This is a long one btw)

Spoiler Alert!!!

So chapter 20 was basically filler, but can I just point out exactly how stupid the plot of the episode is.

First, when Paz's kid initially gets taken by big bird we are told that the Mandalorians were already fully aware of the creature that was flying around (because they mentioned that others had been taken) but, even knowing that they were vulnerable to attack, they didn't bother setting up sentries or keeping a keen eye on the kids? Or how about just finding a safer spot to train since that beach has been attacked on two separate occasions now, both incidents having plenty of close brushes with death. But, no. They just stand around and let their precious little foundlings be carried off by a danger that should have been brutally executed after the very first attack. No wonder they're almost extinct, they're so fucking stupid.

Then, Bo-Katan says she followed the creature back to it's nest and then she just... came back to the covert? Like, why didn't she take care of it then, while she was there? But whatever, what do I know.

She and the Armorer round up a team and the way that they go about planning the attack irks me. The reason why they didn't just assume that the kid was already dead and just plan the entire excursion around getting rid of the pest now that they knew where it's dwelling was is beyond me. I find that, if they would've changed the stupidly optimistic rescue mission to a revenge plot, it would've been much more believable and interesting because then we'd get to see what they do to anyone or anything who hurts their foundlings.

And then, if they really wanted to, the writers could introduce the fact that the kid is still alive as a kind of surprise or something instead of his survival just being expected. Besides, having the Mandalorians just assume that the kid is still alive is dumb and unrealistic because the writing had already set up the episode with the narrative that the creature kills every Mandalorian it gets it's claws into.

So then the team takes Bo-Katan's ship and get as close to the base of the mountain as they can before walking the rest of the way in order to avoid losing the element of surprise. They get there by nightfall and then they actually SET UP CAMP. I am honestly floored. They chose to wait a whole 12 hours (at the very least) before going into the nest, and now it's just insane that any of the Mandalorians could possibly think -after over 20 fucking hours- that the kid is still alive.

Din sees a heat signature in the nest, but conveniently doesn't mention that the blob is way too big to be the kid -since the three chicks revealed to be in the nest are fucking huge and that would translate to their heat signature size- and Paz recklessly climbs in while yelling for the boy. Wow. We went from Din and his people being established as thriving, tactical badasses in the first two seasons to all Mandalorians becoming useless, floundering idiots.

The writers really went and ruined an entire fucking race in just one 30 minute episode. Now that's impressive.

The babies freak out and the creature shows up again and spits up the kid which it had apparently swallowed (okay, how the hell did this kid survive being in its stomach for god knows how long? And how is he even conscious?). Meaning that the creature had flown back to its nest, did nothing?, swallowed the kid whole at one point and left again, then conveniently came back right as the Mandalorians get there. What? That timeline makes absolutely zero sense.

Then a chase happens and Din ends up saving the child and killing the creature by proxy when he sends it careening into the water and it gets eaten. But when they return, somehow Bo-Katan is the one to get all the glory? Even though her plan went to shit beacuse they got impatient and sloppy and they were forced to improvise? What? How? I get that the show is trying to set her up as a character that the audience should root for, but does it have to come at the expense of downplaying what other characters have done?

Din obviously made the heroic save, there were other witnesses among the team (and it was right there on the screen) so why didn't anyone set the facts straight? And besides, anyone who's done even an ounce of research on Bo-Katan knows that she's a trash human being with questionable intentions at best. So no, I will not be rooting for your shitty ass character with no redeemable qualities.

Also, I was actally surprised to find that I was genuinely disappointed in Din and his questionable parenting this episode because he was so shitty to Grogu. He actually forced Grogu (yes forced since it wasn't like Grogu could speak up for himself and refuse) into a fight -despite how small and inexperienced he is- with a kid like six times his size (that also outweighed him by a good 70 lbs). Thankfully, they only dueled using paintballs but wtf Din, the kid's so tiny that a small projectile hitting him in the chest winded him.

And Din was so neglectful. We see it when, after the foundling was snatched up, he immediately left the beach to go after the creature instead of going to Grogu to make sure the kid didn't get trampled in chaos (you don't understand, he's just so fucking small) or just in case there was more than one in the area (cause he didn't know much about the creature at that point). It's been established in previous seasons that Grogu's wellbeing is Din's number one priority, so much so that he'd break his creed and remove his helmet in front of -not only strangers- but the enemy as well, without any hesitation. So you understand why I was frustrated when it seemed like Din's initial instinct was to go after Paz's kid without even bothering to secure Grogu's safety first.

Then when Bo-Katan returns with the location of the creature's nest he goes with the team in order to retrieve the kid, leaving Grogu with a bunch of strangers that have - up to this point- basically just shown how incompetent they are. Like, in the opening of the episode, various Mandalorians and foundlings were just shooting their guns into the breeze as "training" when they should've been aiming at targets.

But the main problem I have with this season is the lack of an overarching plot. There is absolutely no established drive for why the characters are doing what they do. Like, at first I assumed that the entire season would be dedicated to Din going to Mandalore, the finale closing out with an impactful, emotional moment as he goes to the desolate planet to bathe in the living waters and maybe even say the adoption rights to officially name Grogu as his son. But no, he already redeems himself in like episode 2. Well then is Bo-Katan going to be an omnious enemy lurking in the background of the story? A looming threat that she could, at any moment, challenge him to a duel for the darksaber since they left off on such bad terms? Nope, wrong again. Then it has to be about Din accepting the role of Mand'alor and deciding to use the fact that he wields the artifact that gives him the right to rule in order to round up what's left of his people in a quest to re-inhabit Mandalore, build their numbers back up to their former glory, and preserve their culture? Of course not.

Then what the hell are we doing? If you don't immediately establish a clear directive for the story, then the audience has nothing to get invested in and nobody to root for. Oh, Din rejoined his convert, cool. But I wanna know why we should care. What does it do for Din? Are there any repercussions? What is he risking? What does he gain by re-attaining the favor of his covert? And all of this isn't even touched on, what could've been a very meaningful moment is instead brushed off as yet another side quest and completed by the second episode.

We don't get to see Din struggle. We don't see the emotional aftermath of him being essentially cast out from the covert (the only family he's ever known other than Grogu) or watch him slowly realize that being a Mandalorian is more than just keeping his face covered or even confront the fact that the "old ways" that his covert practice are archaic and dehumanizing. There's absolutely no character development, so there's no reward when Din completes his mission, leaving the whole "redemption" arc (if you can even call it that) feeling hollow and lifeless.

[murder-and-mayhem]

1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 22, 40, 41, 51, 52 — Rhysaa <33333

CHEERI, I FINALLY GOT AROUND TO ANSWERING THIS. I'm sorry it took so long, but it took me forever to use my think-juice and get my backstory straight for my girl. But here we go!!

From these asks here!

1. What's the lie your character says most often?

"I'm not worried/I never worry". Plot twist, as Kova's head of security/personal bodyguard and wife, she actually worries a lot. It doesn't help that he likes to throw himself danger to make a point (not that she has any room to judge). It's one of the many things she loves about him, while also being her biggest stressor. She lies because he needs her strong, but her desire to protect him is what gives her strength.

2. How loosely or strictly do they use the word friend?

She uses it somewhat liberally, but in different contexts. If she's actually calling someone a friend then it's rare. She doesn't keep close company outside of her and Kova's crew, and Torian, Gault, and Mako are her closest friends besides her riduur. When she's serving as Kova's proxy during Syndicate business, there's always an underlying threat that comes with the use of the word "friend". It's used as more of a reminder to those she's dealing with that their ability to keep breathing is conditional to whether they live up to the term.

4. What's a hobby they used to have that they miss?

Cooking! When she lived on Vallt, she used to cook a lot for her large family. It was something that she really enjoyed doing, but she doesn't have the time or the inclination now. Most cooking isn't practical for meals in the field unless its preparing rations, and there are cooks in Kova's employ at the palace. She did try to pick it back up once, but she found that a lot of the dishes she used to make no longer brought her comfort. Instead they just dredged up bad memories.

7. What would you yell in the middle of a crowd to find them? What would their best friend and/or romantic partner yell?

I'd probably just yell her name because I'm boring 🤣

Being Kovapaqe's wife, riduur/cyare/cyar'ika are always good bets when he tries to get her attention. He'll also use meshurok (his own special endearment for her literally meaning gemstone (mando'a)--his treasure) but he uses it sparingly since he prefers to use it in private.

10. What fact do they excitedly tell everyone about at every opportunity?

She likes to tell the story of how she and Kova met. It's always a hit with other Mandalorians, especially since they met in a cantina brawl while hunting the same prey on a backwater planet. They'd patched each other up and parted ways after the fight, agreeing to turn the hunt it a sort of contest to see who could catch the quarry first. Mandos eat it up every time.

11. If someone was impersonating them, what would friends/family ask or do to tell the difference?

Kova would ask what gifts they gave each other when taking their vows, as well as what was said and where (there were no witnesses, so the only ones who know are Kova and Rhysaa). He'd also check for her tattoos, especially the one she got representing finding her life partner. Mirialan tattoos are not easily mimicked. They look simple, but that's part of the artistry. A fake can look passable from a distance, but it falls apart under scrutiny. Kova knows Rhysaa's tattoos intimately and would not be easily fooled.

12. What's something that makes them laugh every single time? Be specific!

Kova mutters to himself when he reads reports or transcripts from Syndicate meetings, and when he does it's usually snarky commentary on whatever bullshit is going down at the time. He has a dry, sarcastic wit, and that paired with his incredulous facial expressions and some wild gesturing? It breaks her every time.

17. What do they notice first in the mirror vs what most people first notice when looking at them?

Rhysaa notices her hair. It's very important to her that she takes care of it, keeping it in long braids decorated with the beads that Kova made her for their vow exchange. The first thing others notice is likely her height. Rhysaa is a very tall and very muscular. Combine that with a full set of beskar armor and it's often intimidating to both friend and foe.

18. Who do they love truly, 100% unconditionally (if anyone?

Kovapaqe, full send. She loves her crew, but she'd set the galaxy on fire for Kova with no regrets.

22. What simple activity that most people do/can do scares your character?

Swimming. She grew up on an ice planet, so liquid water wasn't about in large supply. Even if it was, freezing to death didn't seem like fun. There were some shallow hot springs that she would bathe or wade in, but she didn't learn to swim until she'd left Vallt altogether and she's still not very confident in her abilities.

40. How do they respond to a loose handshake? What goes through their head?

She doesn't respond much outwardly to a limp handshake aside from immediately gripping your hand much more firmly than necessary. Inwardly, she's labeled you as weak and/or untrustworthy. If you shake her hand like a coward, she will treat you like one.

41. What phrases, pronunciations, or mannerisms did they pick up from someone/somewhere else?

According to other Mirialans who actually grew up on Mirial, she speaks the language with a very weird, very formal cadence. And she had absolutely no idea about any of their slang, but has her own from the colony that apparently makes her look and sound batshit insane. Yay cult life...

Hu'tuun is a new favorite thanks to Kova's liberal use of the insult, and sometimes she accidentally finds herself mimicing the way he says it.

51. What's a phrase they say a lot?

Gar shuk meh kyrayc - "You're no use dead". Usually muttered under her breath when dragging Kova to their quarters to get some sleep.

Copaani mirshmure'cye - "Are you looking for a smack in the face?" Sounds threatening but is usually said in good fun.

Not necessarily a phrase I guess, but when she's talking to Kova she has a couple of pet names that she uses often. She's so used to saying them that they usually just fall out of her mouth without thought. Mir'sheb is one of her favorites--a mild insult that became a term of endearment for Kova. She also says sá vhie ("my heart" in Mirialan).

52. Do they act on their immediate emotions, or do they wait for the facts before acting?

It depends on the situation, but most of the time she waits. In her early years as a hunter she was a lot more impulsive, prefering to shoot first and ask questions later. Time and experience cooled her temper and taught her to show more restraint. It was a good change, considering her position in the Syndicate can require patience, planning, and some degree of subterfuge. That being said, she's also a bodyguard. If she gets even a whiff of danger she's on high alert, and she will not hesitate to crack some skulls if she needs to.

[robbybarnes]

~DUSKWOOD~

Hold My Hand - part 8

MC: "What?"

Alan was silent, lowering his hand with the cell phone and putting it back in his pocket. He knew it was wrong, that he couldn't give in to the ransom. He had taken an oath, as a man and as a policeman. But that was his little girl and he had fallen in love with her from the first day he saw her big eyes open to reciprocate his. He had sworn to love and protect her always, even at the cost of his life.

A: "I'm sorry MC...I don't know what to do."

MC opened her eyes wide in disbelief.

MC: "You're not really considering the exchange! They won't give you back your daughter. If they really have Jake, they'll want something from him. If they've asked for me maybe Jake hasn't given up yet and they're thinking of using me to make him talk."

A: "You really think I have not made these considerations by myself? Their plan is obvious and since the first threat they sent me I didn't respond, they took my daughter."

Things weren't going well. Alan was a policeman but his daughter was in danger. Certainly she couldn't ask him to abandon her daughter. But these guys were smart and had access to a lot of information. Surely they had found some connections between Alan and Jake, they had followed the cop probably thinking that whatever they were looking for he had it. Perhaps they had even entered his house to search it. Having found nothing and presumably having seen the little girl's room, they thought about threatening him.

MC: "Did they kidnap her from home?"

A: "No. Sarah lives with her maternal grandparents, the house I'm in is just for me. As a police chief I get a lot of unwanted visitors and it's not safe for her."

MC: "So where did it happen?"

A: "At school. The teacher said a girl came to them saying she was Julia's sister, Sarah's mom. She gave her a document and a proxy with my signature on it."

No, it didn't fit.

MC: "How old did you say Sarah is?"

A: "Eight and a half...but what does this have to do with it?"

MC: "She doesn't know her untie?"

A: "No. She saw her when she was like only a year old. But then Julia's sister moved to Paris with her husband for work."

MC: "Then it's impossible for a girl of that age to go smoothly with a stranger. Especially a policeman's daughter."

A: "If she pretended to be my sister-in-law it could be..."

MC: "Only if Sarah had seen her several times before that day though."

Alan's eyes widened in disbelief. Why hadn't he thought of it before? He was a cop what the heck!

A: "Oh my God, I'm an idiot! I assumed she trusted her without thinking that these people might have been watching me and my family for days!"

Like a fury he took the car keys and rushed to the vehicle along with MC. He got in, started the engine, and spun out of the lane of the Dare House.

MC: "Wherever we're going, let's get there alive please!"

MC yelled, holding one hand on the dashboard and one hand on the car door.

A: "We're going to Jessy Hawkins' house. I'll need the laptop once we're there. With my credentials, I can access the CCTV cameras of every building in Duskwood. Once I find that woman, I can see if she's in the system."

He hit a hole at high speed causing MC to jump almost to the roof of the car.

MC: "What if it isn't so?"

A: "Could you please be a little more optimistic?"

MC: "It's kind of hard to stay positive when you're in the car with Doc Brown trying to drag you to another era!"

A: "Are you calling me old again?"

Alan took a downhill curve and accelerated again. The car skidded sideways a couple of times giving MC the impression of being on a plane rather than a car.

MC: "You're missing the point! SLOW DOWN!"

Needless to say, they arrived in less time than expected. Alan parked the car in the driveway and once the engine was off, MC pulled out of the car at full speed.

MC: "Who gave you your driver's license!?!"

A: "A bald and short man, with big biceps and a fixation for the word 'familia'."

MC: "WHAT?"

A: "Oh, don't be so dramatic!"

Suddenly they heard gunshots and Alan raised one hand to MC, pulling the gun from his waistband with the other.

MC: "What are you doing? What do we do?"

A: "Get in the car and start the engine. I'll go inside, if I'm not the first one to get out of that door, go away!"

They heard a scream and Alan rushed into the house, not before throwing the keys to MC. The girl stood outside, instead of doing as the policeman told her. Not very smart, she thought, since she was in plain sight. She heard two more shots and then Dan shout something to Alan.

MC looked at the keys she was holding thinking about what to do.

MC: "Of course!"

She went to the car, opened the passenger door and rummaged in the glove compartment.

MC: "Come on, I know you have another one, Alan."

She closed it and went to the trunk then opened it and looked everywhere. Meanwhile, noises of objects breaking and sounds of struggle came from the house. Then MC noticed a small handle on the bottom of the trunk, she pulled it and was amazed at what she saw. There were a lot of weapons in that trunk.

MC: "...is that a grenade launcher?"

She heard Jessy scream and shooking her head she grabbed a gun, some bullets and two smoke bombs.

MC: "Okay MC. You can do it. It's just like Halo. Just point and shoot. Nothing more. Oh, and be stealth!"

In that instant he heard a shot and Dan shout Alan's name.

MC: "What the fuck am i doing!"

She ran into the house slowing down once she entered. Walking through the hall and on the left, beyond the door to the parlor, she saw a scene that made her blood run cold. Two armed men were holding her friends at gunpoint. One was pointing the gun at Dan, the other at Jessy. The girl was kneeling on the ground with her hands on Alan's back, lying unconscious.

??: "Let's try this again. Where is the girl?"

She allowed the panic to take 10 long seconds. What could she do? She wasn't a policeman and didn't know how to use those weapons that now weighed tremendously in her hands.

After those seconds she looked back into the living room and in that tiny moment, she managed to exchange a look with Dan. She raised the gun just enough for him to see it and the man lowered his face imperceptibly. He knew how to use it.

MC took a deep breath, placed the gun on the ground in front of her feet, took the safety off the grenades and threw them among those people.

??: "What the fu-"

MC then kicked the gun which hidden by the thick smoke rising from the floor came to Dan.

MC: "Hey, fuckers. I heard you were looking for me. Come and get me!"

[moonlight-cp]

Proxy in Command (Creepypasta x Reader) Chapter 51

Series Masterlist

Slenderman rubbed his temple in distress as he listened to the conversation the pastas were having in the living room. 

"What are we going to do if she doesn't wake up?" Jeff yelled at the others who were in the room.

Slenderman stared at the ground as his thoughts consumed him. She's been unconscious for two weeks, and Zalgo attempted to murder her a week ago. E.J had made it clear if she doesn't wake up today, it'll be less likely that she ever will. The pastas were slowly losing hope including Slenderman and his brothers. After all, she wasn't showing any signs that she would wake up soon.

Slenderman couldn't bear to think about her death. He knew he was the cause of it and was already paying the price. It was one thing being told she died and her dying in front of him was another. He didn't want to think what would happen if she took her last breath. 

If she woke up, Slenderman promised himself that he would set her free after Zalgo dies. He had forced her to stay and serve him, not thinking about what she would have wanted if she wasn't his proxy. He just needed to make sure she wouldn't run into danger.

He looked up at the pastas who were patiently waiting for his reply. It was another reminder he would set them free as well once Zalgo is killed. If that meant he would be living alone in the mansion, he would accept that fate. It's what he deserved after all. 

"For now we can all just patiently wait for her awakening. As much as I wish she wakes up soon, we have to prepare for the worst."

The pastas stood silent at what he had said. Neither of them was prepared to say goodbye to her for good. 

"She's known to make grand entrances," Masky broke the silence. "From her coming back from her mission after we thought she died in the explosion, from her revealing her presence when Zalgo influenced her, and then her being by the doorstep. I would be surprised if she can pull it off though."

Slenderman stood up, avoiding his gaze toward the pastas. "If you excuse me, I'll be in my office until E.J finishes running exams for Y/N. I'll be in her room for the remainder of the day." He picked up the book he was reading off the table and walked away from the group. 

The image of her dying in his arms, flooded in. For years he believed her death would mean little to nothing to him. He realized too late what was at stake though. Not only would he be miserable, but the pastas and his brothers would be too. She couldn't die. He wouldn't let her.

He rested his forehead on the office door. Taking a deep breath, he tried to get rid of that horrific image that haunted him. There was blood in his hands as he held her corpse. Her lifeless eyes stared back at him as Zalgo's laughter got louder each second.

He tightly twisted the doorknob and dropped his book at the sight in front of him once he had opened the door.

"Y/N?"

I sighed as I kept my gaze on his desk for a few seconds before turning around to glare at him.

"You shouldn't be here, you're supposed to be resting in bed."

I rolled my eyes as I crossed my arms in front of my chest and leaned my lower back onto his desk. "Last time I checked, I'm not marked by you so I don't have to follow your stupid orders."

Slenderman tilted his head to the side. He was caught off guard by my response. "Y/N you've been out for two weeks. You cannot expect your body to be as strong as it was."

"Don't pretend as if you care."

"I do!"

A small smirk formed on my lips as I recalled what I heard after Zalgo stabbed me. I mocked him, "Punish me, not them! Don't let him win! We need you Y/N! I need you." We both stood there in silence as we didn't take our gazes off each other. "For a few seconds, I actually believed you-"

"I'm so sorry Y/N."

I kept my blank expression as I let him continue.

"I made several mistakes and you paid the price for it. I regret thinking so low of you, you didn't deserve it. I let my ego get the best of me to the point I made stupid decisions." 

I gulped before taking a deep breath.

"How is it possible that Zalgo, who is my enemy, showed more compassion than you ever did? It's understandable what he did to me in the end because everyone's patience is limited but he was patient for years!" I moved my gaze to the books as I shrugged my shoulders. "I shouldn't be surprised. He had more patience when he taught me how to use weapons unlike you."

"What? He had contact with you before?"

A sigh escaped from my lips. "That doesn't concern you."

"But it does! When did he start talking to you?"

"Why did you kill my parents?" I growled, changing the topic.

"No Y/N, when did he-"

"WHY DID YOU KILL MY PARENTS!" I stomped my foot.

Slenderman stood there in silence before shaking his head. "I didn't kill them."

Closing my eyes, I felt my patience running thin. "So you're going to keep lying and claim they left me in the forest?"

"Y/N-"

"It's funny how for years I stood in your spot and bowed down in front of you because I held so much respect and appreciation, only for me to find out it was all a lie."

"Y/N please."

"Why did you kill them?" I repeated.

"I didn't kill them. Someone else did."

"Who did?" I slammed my hands onto the table.

He hesitated before answering, "I can't tell you."

"So you still don't trust me?"

"I do!"

I turned around to grab a random paper he had on his desk. Raising my other hand, I gave myself a paper cut on my pinky, only to see red blood coming out. 

"Clearly you do," I sarcastically said as I placed the paper back on the desk. "I nearly died because you didn't trust me."

Flashbacks from Zalgo whipping my back flooded my mind, making me cringe. I could still feel his whip marks on my back. His words still haunted me. 

"Don't die out of blood loss." He smirked. "Or do, it doesn't matter, I can always torture your soul and revive you. I hope that you know you won't be able to escape from here. I just have to depend that you'll someday get Stockholm syndrome."

I didn't want to imagine what would have happened if I died. Being stuck in the under realm with Zalgo for a hundred years wasn't exactly ideal, especially the plans he had with me. 

"After I killed half of his army, I stabbed him in the heart just as you said. For the first time, I felt joy but it was all crushed when I saw him smirking as he healed his wound. I grew into a state of shock. I felt so helpless, he took that as an advantage and hurt me. I nearly died because you lied to me."

He stood there silent, not knowing what else to say. He knew he couldn't say much because I wouldn't believe or listen to him in the first place.

"It's a shame really", I broke the silence. "What I'm about to do will affect the others, but I'm not certain how it'll affect you."

He stayed silent as I slowly walked in front of him, not breaking eye contact.

"You're pathetic," I spat before walking past him. Just as I was about to leave the room I turned my head to the side. "If you follow me, I won't hesitate to kill you. Mark my words Slenderman."

Once I was out, I slammed the door shut and proceeded to walk through the hall.

I couldn't stay here any longer. I had to leave and take matters into my own hands. I couldn't rely on Slenderman to kill Zalgo. I was determined to fulfill my destiny. 

Ben came out of the living room and saw me heading toward him. "Y/N's awake!" He announced to the others.

"She has been for a while," E.J added as he barely went downstairs.

I ignored them both as I headed towards the door. I was a couple of feet away when Slenderman appeared behind me.

"Y/N, you can't leave."

I turned around to look at him and saw the pastas coming out of the living room and the Slender brothers on top of the stairway.

I smirked. "Now that everyone is here, why don't you tell them how you wanted to kill us all in the end?"

Masky looked at the other two proxies. "I thought we already went through this?"

Back when I was under Zalgo's influence, we had brought this up. The pastas defended him, not realizing he was quiet for a reason. 

"You guys answered for him, he didn't say anything," I reminded them as I glared at Slenderman.

"Y/N, stop." He begged.

"No Slenderman! They deserve to know the truth!"

Slenderman looked at the ground in shame. He couldn't keep his secret any longer.

"I did, but that was before I realized-"

The pastas groaned at his response. They were frustrated that they were lied to as well. They all had defended him only to find out it was a lie.

"Let's not forget how you didn't tell them immortality didn't work in the under realm and you lied to us when you said Zalgo would die with a stab in the heart."

The slender brother looked at each other with disappointed expressions. They knew this was going to happen sooner or later. Slenderman's army had begun to fall starting with me.

I was about to twist the doorknob when Slenderman said something I never expected. Something my younger self dreamt of hearing for years.

"I love you, Y/N. You can't leave us."

I stared at the door as I remembered all those times he would yell and punish me for my mistakes back when I was younger. He wanted to turn me into an emotionless machine that did all his dirty work. There was no way I was going to forgive him this easily. 

"It took you longer than with Sally to realize that." I turned my head to look at him while I still held the door knob with my hand. "Funny how you were afraid I was going to follow your previous proxy's footsteps. I hope you're happy you lost your first two proxies due to your mistakes."

Sally came out from behind Splendor with her eyes watery. I softened my gaze when I saw her. As much as I wanted to bring her with me, I knew I couldn't. I couldn't steal her happiness away nor did I want to endanger her.

"I'm so sorry Sal. I hope one day you'll understand why I did this and you're able to forgive me."

I twisted the doorknob and left without looking at their expressions. I couldn't or else I would be tempted to stay.

It was wrong for me to leave but it had to be done. I wasn't going to put them in danger so that I could kill Zalgo. I wasn't like Slenderman.

This battle would be different. I was now prepared for whatever Zalgo was going to hit me with. The only difference was, he wasn't going to succeed this time. I was going to make sure of it.

Slenderman stared at the door before looking at his brothers in the stairway.

Trender sighed as he shook his head. "We told you this was bound to happen, brother."

"Never mind that. You wanted to kill us at the beginning!" Jeff exclaimed.

"Good thing you didn't find me," Dark muttered to Ben.

"It all changed once Y/N left for her mission." Slender tried to reason. "When we thought she died, I realized I couldn't stand the thought of losing you guys."

"That still doesn't explain what she meant by the first two proxies." Masky pointed out.

Slenderman snapped his head towards his brothers. Something had been bothering him ever since she had mentioned it.

"You don't think she's been talking to him, do you?"

The brothers looked at each other while Splendor avoided his gaze. He knew something he didn't want to admit. At least, not now.

Slenderman was about to say something but immediately felt shivers run up his spine. He turned his gaze at the door as fear struck in. 

"Slendy, what's wrong?" Trenderman asked, noticing his movements.

"Zalgo is here."

Series Masterlist---Next Chapter -> (Chapter 52)

[angelofthedark2005]

Proxies shopping day

Every Tuesday the proxies go shopping for supplies, food and other items. But this can be really chaotic as you will see.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~start~~~~~~~~~~~~~

' 'Alright everyone lets go over it again' ' Tim sighed as Toby and Kate chatted over him again.' 'So no running off on your own with out telling us again, no trying to jump out the car window and try not to get us banned alright?' ' Tim looked at the gathered proxies they all agreed to behave.

lets see how long that lasts.

' 'Ok no masks or visible weapons alright' ' Brian spoke looking right at toby. ' 'Hey I'm not going to bring a hatchet in to the store again, besides it was only one time Brian.' ' Toby huffed. ' 'Mhm and we had the police called on us that one time' ' Kate looked at toby annoyed ' 'Ok lets get going then everybody' ' Tim shot in trying to keep them from fighting.

' 'Ok we're going to the grocery store first because its the closest, then we'll hit up the mall will need to steal a car but it'll be worth it.' ' Brian went over the stores and toby looked disappointed that they where going to do the boring stuff first. When they finished the walk to the grocery store toby decided to do something a bit more fun.

Toby walked over to the carts as Tim, Brian and Jay where talking about the shopping list. He took one of the carts and started running before jumping inside. He laughed as the cart moved until it hit one of the shelves. Tim heard the ruckus and walked over to toby, he was not happy and half ran over to toby. ' 'What the fuck where you thinking toby?!' '

' 'What it was fun?' ' He had a shit eating grin on his face. Tim started yelling at him didn't really pay attention to what he was saying. After toby got out of the cart Tim dragged him over to the others who where grabbing food Tim shoved him and went over to Brian. Toby decided to stay still for five seconds.

Until that got boring

He made sure none of the others saw him(or tried)he snuck away and walked over to the staff only area. Toby opened the door seeing what he can find. He snooped around for a while until he heard someone walking towards him. He panicked and ran out with a random table.

Jay looked at him wondering why the fuck he had a random table????

Toby eventually put the damn table down in a bathroom where he hoped no one would find it or know he ever had it. After he was done with that he walked over to the others who where arguing about what ice cream they should get.' 'We should get mint chocolate chip duh?' ' Kate looked at Tim annoyed as hell.' 'Umm what that tastes like shit, get the Butterfinger one' '

He watched them for a bit before Toby walked over to Kate.' 'Hmmp this is boring, hmm wanna annoy Tim?' '

' 'Sure why not, but how?' ' Toby grinned ' 'Well how about a race in the shopping carts?' ' Kate looked at him funny for a moment before laughing.' 'Sounds crazy, I'm in.' '

The two of them snuck away from the group, or at least tried because jay stopped them before they could get away.' 'Where are you two going?' ' Toby looked kinda panicked.' 'Umm well-' ' Jay cut him off before he could make an excuse.' 'Alright what ever you two do is not of my business and you can get yourselves in trouble, but don't get us all in trouble ok?' ' Toby and Kate nodded and ran off.

They both grabbed a cart and counted down.' 'Three...two...one!' ' They both ran the carts they drove down one of the aisles toby won the first round. The rest there carts Kate won but almost ran someone over. Kate won the last race because she's faster then toby.

But there was one little problem they ran straight into Tim and Brian. By the time they realized what was happing way to late to stop it.' '...We're dead' ' Toby was very scared at this point looking at Tim.

' 'Yup' ' Kate was looking right at Brian who at this point looked like he wanted the two of them dead.

They had to wait outside after that.

Kate and toby also couldn't go in the mall and get anything, instead they had to wait in the car for hours. After ten minutes Toby decided to go off on his own out of boredom, Kate stayed in the car not wanting any more trouble. She drew the forest instead. After the hornets came back they where not happy to find that toby had left.

Unfortunately toby had left his phone on meaning they found him in roughly ten minutes. When they found toby jay was recording him in a lake trying to feed some ducks a random stale bagel, where he got it they don't know and don't care. They pull him out of the lake and get him back to the car.

He was in alot of trouble to say the least. They had gotten pizza on the way home and while they went in toby stayed in the car tied up until they got out. He couldn't even try to open the windows because they where all locked.

Doesn't mean he won't mess around next time though he always does.

love dark~✨

[infiniteholeending]

you know what infinite hole man (+ fungus) ive been thinking what is the nature of reality in the stanley parable?

the narrator is obviously telling a story but stanley doesnt need to follow it and the narrator knows this but the narrator also knows we exist and refers to us aswell. To better demostrate my point lets start with s hypothetical point in space we shall call "reality" this is the 100% acurate location of the stanley parable in space and time.

now then does this point exist in our world for the stanley parable cast ( hereby shortened to TSPC) and thus the narrator is just some random guy and stanley is like his friend and the whole thing is a dnd campaign?

does reality exist in the office? and everything outside of it is meta commentary or suddenly manifested? Thus we as the player exist outside of both space and time relative to TSPC?

Is the world Mariela is in reality and we the players and the narrator fake by proxy?/

is the narrator and us the players fourth dementional beings hell bent on making stanley dance like a demented puppet?

or am i over thinking a game where a disebodied voice yells at us for going into our funny little cages? (broom closet and infinite hole respectfully)

from your dear stanley parable fan/psychopathic obsessed weirdo

-The-Mask-Maker

i don't think it's possible to overthink tsp. there's just too much in it worth thinking about.

ramblings under the cut

so broadly my answer to this question is "yes, but actually no, but actually yes" in that i think the reality of the stanley parable from an in-universe standpoint is very nebulous and open to interpretation; it's very similar to things like stanley's actual personality or how true anything the narrator says is.

tackling your questions not quite in order but i think whatever the parable's relation to in-universe reality is would necessarily be shared by mariella, since she exists within the narrator's awareness (setting aside for the time being all potential questions this raises about beings who don't or don't seem to, like 432 or the curator); she is more "her own person", so to speak, than the mannequin wife or the adventure line, but all the same she is part of an ending, just like they are. however i do not think she is aware of this the way stanley is.

as for the player in relation to the reality of the stanley parable, i would be lying if i said this was a question easily answerable by canon but canon does have a lot of stuff to chew on vis a vis this question.

so for starters, the not stanley ending. the way the narrator reacts seems to imply that, despite the fact that he's aware he's in a video game, it never seemed to occur to him that stanley might be controlled by an actual player. many of the other endings prove he's less omniscient than he lets on but it seems kind of odd that a character who is very explicitly aware that he's in a video game wouldn't know this.

there's also the fact that the curator not only addresses the player directly but talks about both stanley and the narrator like they aren't there. we could maybe excuse the actual museum as just being a meta joke but she's unquestionably part of the story, and one that exists outside of the narrator's awareness (or appears to) at that. the theory went around back in the day that the narrator was himself a protagonist, and she narrated him as he narrated stanley. it's narrators all the way down. i don't personally subscribe to it but if we're talking about the nature of reality in the stanley parable it's worth noting.

then of course there's all the fun new wrinkles in tspud, namely the fact that the narrator is aware of every ounce of press the game gets and, in the expo, does seem to acknowledge the player and stanley as separate entities without having (more of) an existential crisis about it. and the biggest of these is 432, who also addresses the player directly, and outside the normal confines of the game to boot--they talk to you before you even get to the main menu. and they're one who canonically has a kind of tenuous relationship with the reality that is implied to exist outside the parable--i always sort of parse it as them "living in the walls of reality"--so this too is another interesting wrinkle in the whole "how real is the parable" thing

my personal take on the whole thing is that the player is a real person looking into a fiction that acknowledges itself as such (and in doing so can recognize the presence of a real person) but is implicitly contained in a fiction that, as most fictions do, thinks it's reality.

(although all this being said i still do think the "the whole thing is just a tabletop game and the narrator is a bit of a railroading dm" take holds water but more for personal reasons--as a dm myself i relate a lot to him in the confusion ending lmao)

[serenaluna15]

The Ties that Bind: Home Alone Prt 1: How bad can someone be at parenting?

30 minutes.

They said it would only be 30 minutes.

Just watch them for 30 minutes.

Ramiro was immediately regretting this decision.

(How did this happen?) He thought to himself. (How did I become a father?). This was not how he planned to spend this weekend but here he was. Ramiro looked through his fingers. The girl, he thinks her name was Clara, was staring at him. And not blinking. 

“Uhhh...” What does he do? Ramiro took a step backward to give himself space from her. She took a step forward. He took another step back. She took another step forward. Step back. Step forward. Step back. Step forward. Step back. Step forward...

(Okay, I see how it is.) Ramiro stopped moving and just stared at the girl. Said girl was staring at him with curiosity and scrutiny. Up until this point, she had never met anyone that looked like her. And that was okay! She assumed that no one looked like her, her own twin brother didn’t look like her and they were twins! So to see someone who looked similar to her was both fascinating and strange to her. She wasn’t sure if this person was real and wanted to find out. So if he moved, she moved. She scrunched her eyes, pulled her ears back, and put on her best frowny face. She wanted to show this stranger that she wouldn’t take him lightly and was trying to look as serious as possible.

It didn’t work. She looked more like an stuffed-cheek chipmunk, than the serious person she was aiming for.

“Pffft” Ramiro laughed. As strange as this situation was, at least he could get a chuckle out of it.

Grrrr...

Ramiro looked at the girl confused. The girl, Clara, startled and clutched her stomach. Grrr... (Ah) Ramiro thought to himself, (She must be hungry). “Saya ingin makanan!” [I want food!], Clara proclaimed. 

“Okay” Ramiro said to himself “she’s hungry. She needs food. I can do that. I can prepare her something to eat. At least it’s just her.”

Ramiro looked down the hall. The boy, Camilo, his son (Don’t panic! Don’t think about it!) had run down the hall into Suraya's room the minute that Suraya wasn’t in sight anymore. He couldn’t blame the boy. From what Suraya told him the twins didn’t trust easily. (Makes sense) he thought (I wouldn’t either if I had gone through even half of what they did). So the fact that Suraya had built such a strong bond with them was impressive. But, it also meant that when Suraya left, the twins became unstable. Supposedly running through halls, tearing curtains down, and even snapping at other who came to close to them. If a person wasn’t Suraya, or someone else they trusted, the twins completely lost. So the fact that the boy had made a beeline for the first thing that reminded him of Suraya, or just smelled like Suraya, made sense to Ramiro. 

“At least the boy is distracted” he mumbled to himself. He went into the kitchen to prepare something for the girl. He looked in the fridge. They were out of lunchables. “Okay.” he said to himself, (Guess I’m making something). “How abut Arepas con queso?” he jokingly asked Clara. In hopes that it would both lighten the mood and his nerves.

“Makanan sekarang!” [Food now!] Clara loudly proclaimed, her fur, hair, and feathers now puffing out to show that she wanted something. Her wings even began flapping about. An indication of how emotionally invested she was in that statement. “Got it” Ramiro said. “Arepas con queso coming right up.”

“Makanan sekarang!” [Food now!] Clara proclaimed again. This time with more wing flaps. “Easy mi hita. Be patient, arepas take time. You can’t rush them. And yelling won’t make them cook any - PLEASE DON’T STAND SO CLOSE TO ME!” Ramiro was trying his best to cook, but the child standing mere inches away from him, and by proxy the stove was not making it easy.

“Uhhh... How ‘bout we watch some TV while these cook? Is that okay?” Ramiro really didn’t want to have to explain oil burn to Suraya or even imagine what else could go wrong with a child this close to the stove. And so, he led her away to the living room to watch some TV. “See. why don’t we watch some nice cartoons? Nice, peaceful - NOT THAT CHANNEL!” Ramiro furiously flipped through channels on the TV. The one that had been on previously was explicit, and VERY not appropriate for children. “Donde estan? Where are the kid channels on this thing?”

“Jus!” [Juice!]

“Huh?” Ramiro mumbled, still focused on finding the kid’s channels.

“Saya ingin jus!” [I want juice!] Clara exclaimed holding up a glass bottle with a lime decal on it.

“Oh juice? Okay you can have some juice - NOT THAT BOTTLE!” Ramiro runs over to Clara and tries to take the bottle from her. “Jus!” [Juice!] she exclaims again pointing at the lime decal on said bottle. “Yes. Yes I know that’s a lime. But trust me that isn’t juice. At least, not juice for kids. Now please mi hita. Please give me that bottle. We don’t want it to fall and shatter every wh - What’s that smell?”

That smell was the arepas con queso. They were burning.

“Mier-”

(There is a child present.)

“-coles.” The swear dying on his lips as quickly as it was said.

“Okay” he sighed, “Time to make a call.”

“Hey Rami!”

“I hate you.”

“Oh come on Rami. It can’t be that bad?”

Ramiro felt his eyebrow twitch. Not only had Suraya dropped the bombshell that the kids they would be babysitting were his and Lara’s, but Lara had the gall to leave him alone with them for 30 minutes! She had decided to go with Suraya to buy supplies! Leaving him alone with two children that he knew nothing about. Oh! Did he mention how he knows nothing about parenting? How every adult oriented show only had bad examples of fathers? Not a single one really being a good example to base his parenting skills off of. So for her to say it can’t be that bad was really getting under his skin.

“No it fine. Everything is fine.”

Of course he says none of this and uses barely veiled sarcasm to get his point across.

“Lara just - What is the number for Dominos?”

“Oh! Uh... Do we really not have any food? I thought we had some? Are... Are you sure everything’s okay?”

“Yes. Yes everything is fine I have Clara with me right now.”

“Clara? Right. that’s the girls name. Wait. You said only Clara is with you?”

“Yes.”

‘Well where’s the boy? What was his name? Carlos? Cameron? No that’s not right - Camilo! That’s what it was! Camilo. Is he with you?”

“He’s fine Lara. He went into Suraya’s roo..”

Ramiro stopped talking. 

“Rami? Rami is everything okay?”

Ramiro ignored Lara’s question. He walked over to Suraya’s room. It had been what 10 minutes, 20 since he last saw the boy? The boy who had clearly freaked out at losing sight of Suraya. The boy who hadn’t made a sound this whole time.

Ramiro opened the door. What he saw was an empty room. No child in sight. And the window was open.

“...”

“...”

“Fuck.” Ramiro sweared.

To be continued...

Welp. Here it is. The long awaited short story has finally been written. I’m sorry it took so long to write this!. Combination of school and lack of interest, plus lack of confidence kept this from being written. Hope it turned out okay. I’m sorry in advance for any errors or misrepresentation of the Indonesian language! I tried looking up online any useful resources, but every website I found ended in either .com or .net. And while these websites probably weren’t bad, I just can’t trust the information they hold to be valid or accurate. So I had to rely on Google Translate. If anyone notices anything wrong PLEASE! TELL ME! I don’t want people to think that I’m making fun of them. I’m not, I just have bad resources. So if there is any mistakes, call me out and I will change it immediately. Other than that, hope everyone found this story enjoyable! 

(P.S. more hilarity will ensue in part 2. Along with some light angst.)