#spoiler alert- I couldn’t get rid of it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

heeology · 9 months

Text

god, you're annoying | l.hs

synopsis → ever since you and heeseung have come into each others' lives, he has been asking you out and flirting with you nonstop. for years, the cycle of him confessing his feelings to you and you rejecting every single one of his advances seems as though it has gone on forever. being fed up, you develop a plan to pretend as though you already have a boyfriend (spoiler alert: it doesn’t end well). after years of continuously trying to get heeseung off of your radar, you just can’t seem to get rid of him and suddenly (to your surprise), you find yourself not being bothered as much by his presence.

feat. → yeonjun (txt), yunjin (le sserafim), beomgyu (txt), minjeong (aespa), jake (enhypen), sunghoon (enhypen), jay (enhypen)

genre → university AU, enemies to lovers, romance, smut

pairing → nonidol!heeseung x fem!reader

warnings → MDNI, kinda long but bear w me pls

w.c. → 9k

disclaimer!! → any other idols mentioned in this story (that I portray are dating) i do not ship irl; this story is a work of fiction a.k.a. something derived from my delusions and imagination, take this story lightly pls and thx.

!!DO NOT COPY OR REPOST!!

Everyday you walk onto campus and make sure you avoid eye contact with a “certain someone” and even though the outcome always remains the same, you still hope that one day it will actually make a difference. Unfortunately for you, on your campus, there is only one way to get to your morning class which makes this “certain someone” rather happy to know that you practically have to see him everyday. Although you try your best, he never fails to call out your name, even if you try hiding behind other people; he can spot you from a mile away. This, you find to be annoying. He, however, looks forward to this moment every day because what other reason is there to get up early in the morning if it means he doesn’t get to see you?

You hear him call after you as you try to quickly make your way to your first class which, luckily for you, does not include him. You can hear his footsteps hurrying towards you making you break out into a light jog to your classroom door that is just ahead. You reach for the door handle and open it just enough to let yourself in and as you are about to close it behind you, a hand from the other side stops you, forcing it back open enough for you to be face-to-face with the one and only bane of your existence: Lee Heeseung.

He gives you a cocky smile receiving an eye roll from you as you can already hear his irritating voice begin to say a bunch of sentences and words that you couldn’t care any less about because you couldn’t care any less about him. Heeseung is fully aware about how you feel about him and although some most of his actions are–-yes, he’ll admit–-advertently creepy, he means no harm. You, of course, don’t see it that way, but that doesn’t stop him.

“You didn’t hear me calling your name?” he asks, knowing that you did and also knowing that you ignored him, but he just wants to hear any snarky reply you have because that’s the only time when you actually acknowledge his presence.

“Nope, must’ve missed it.” you say in a fake sympathetic tone.

He lets out a “hmm” and you mock him. He smirks, leaning a little closer to you. You would move away, but then you figured he might take that as his chance to open the door more, so you decide to stay put.

“I was just wondering if you wanted to go out to dinner with me. There is this restaurant that my family and I only go to on special occasions and I think you’ll really like it.”

There it is, him asking you to the same stupid restaurant that you have said no to many (and you mean many) times before. You know what restaurant he is talking about, some way overpriced place that only really rich people go to. You clenched your jaw as your hand gripped the edge of the door a little tighter. He smiled at you, which you thought was him being smug, but rather it was him anticipating your answer. He meant what he said and he just wants to be given a chance to show you how much he likes you.

Him asking you out to this restaurant, always offering to buy your lunch, pay for your snacks, or buy you some other object just felt as him rubbing his money in your face, making all of his attempts seem as though they are a joke; that you are a joke. Ever since middle school, when you and Heeseung had first met, he made his “crush” on you apparent, which all of the other kids found to be funny and ridiculous. You know he doesn’t actually like you and you hate him for still acting like this even though you both are now grown adults and not eleven year old children who still ride in the car with their parent on their way to school everyday.

“Well, if you think I’ll like it, then I’ll surely hate it.” you reply.

“You’re only saying that be-”

“No, Heeseung, I will not go out with you and for the last time: stop bothering me.” you say sternly.

You scowl at him and he can’t help but find you to be adorable. He knows you’re annoyed by him, but there isn’t anyone else he would rather spend his time with other than you, even if his only way to spend time with you is by pestering you constantly.

“I’m just going to ask you again tomorrow.” he says with a smile.

You knew he wasn’t joking about that and that made your blood begin to boil. You hated having to be bothered by him, you hated feeling like a joke, you hated seeing his stupid face everyday, and you hated how it seems like he doesn't even care. You have to put a stop to this, you simply can’t take it anymore. But how? You’ve tried everything, what other way could there possibly be? Then it clicked. You stood up straighter, looking him directly in his eyes. He found himself a little taken aback by your sudden eye contact, but didn’t want to show it; to show how you make him flustered and blush just by simply looking at him.

“Heeseung, I have a boyfriend.” you say, trying not to smile.

You don’t know how you didn’t think of this before, but you’re overjoyed that the idea finally came. His smile drops–for a split second–as he felt the wind practically get knocked out of him like someone had just suckerpunched him in the gut. You were bluffing, you had to be…right?

“Pfft, I don’t believe you.” he says, letting go of the door, only to cross his arms and lean against the doorframe.

You feel your face become hot as you stand your ground, “And what exactly makes you say that?”

“I’ve never seen you with your “boyfriend”.” he says, making air quotes.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t have one.”

“Well it surely doesn’t mean that you do.”

“I know you stalk me because you have nothing better to do with your life, but that doesn’t mean you know what I do every second of the day.”

He shrugs his shoulders, not buying a word that you are saying. He keeps telling himself that you are lying, but what if that small percentage of possibility actually means you are telling the truth? He doesn’t want to think about that, he has to believe that you are lying.

“Okay, what’s his name, then?” he asks, confident that you won’t have an answer.

Shit. How do you answer that? You try not to show your worry in your expression and quickly try to come up with an answer. You open your mouth to speak, hoping the words that do end up coming out make sense.

“Yeonjun.” you reply.

Well, you said a name and that’s all that counts. Sure, it’s the name of your best friend’s boyfriend, but she won’t mind if you use him for a lie…right? Now it’s Heeseung’s turn for him to clench his jaw. He scoffs, rolling his eyes before looking back at you.

“Then how come I’ve never seen you with him on campus?”

“Because he goes to another school, idiot.”

“How did you two meet?”

“Through my best friend; they go to school together.”

You could see him become more annoyed with your answers as you tried to say them with as much confidence as possible.

“I still don’t believe you.” he says, less certain of what he is saying than before.

You’re so close and you know it, you just need to say something that will make him back-off once and for all.

“I’ll have him bring me to school tomorrow.” you said, now being the one to cross your arms as you smiled smugly.

Heeseung felt his blood run cold, terror now coursing through his veins. Were you actually telling the truth? He didn’t want to see you with some other guy, most definitely not someone who you are claiming to be your boyfriend. The thought made him both upset and annoyed. What do they have that he doesn’t? He’s the one who has been trying to show how much he likes you for years now and some rando comes in and sweeps you off of your feet? Over his dead body.

“Okay,” he says while standing up from leaning on the door, “I can’t wait to see you and a bunch of air walk into school tomorrow.”

“You still think I’m lying?”

He shrugs his shoulders, looking away before looking back at you.

“I just find it hard to believe.”

“That I have a boyfriend?”

“You could say that.”

Man, you couldn’t wait to prove him wrong (even though he is technically right). You fake laugh at his reply and stop as you grab his hand. He feels butterflies erupt in his stomach from your sudden contact and is so distracted that he isn’t even paying attention to what you are doing, which is putting his hand on the door frame. You plaster on a fake smile before quickly swinging the door shut. He snaps out of his daze and moves his hand out of the way just in time before it could have been smashed by the door.

Beomgyu didn’t think to even hold back his laughter once the words left your mouth and although the music in the club was blaring through the speakers, you could still hear his piercing voice. The others, however, were a little more surprised to hear what you had said, especially Yunjin and Yeonjun. You had a guilty smile on your face as you exchanged glances between the two and then Yeonjun scoffed. He raised his glass in a ‘cheers’ manner and Yunjin slapped his shoulder.

“It’s honestly not that bad of a plan,” Minjeong says, trying to defuse the tension, “Yunjin, you know better than any of us here how badly this guy bothers her.”

Yunjin sighs before she chugs the rest of her drink from her cup. “You can borrow my boyfriend on one condition: it doesn’t go too far.” She says, pointing between you and Yeonjun.

You both look at each other and cringe. Yeonjun puts his arm around Yunjin and she smiles. He kisses her temple, “As if that would ever happen.”

“So how exactly are you going to convince him?” Yunjin asks.

You chug the rest of your drink, wincing as the alcohol burns your throat. “Is it cool if Yeonjun takes me to school tomorrow? I was thinking all he has to do is walk me to my class and just essentially tell Heeseung to back off.”

“He’s not going to do it unless he believes it.” Beomgyu points out as he leans back into the booth.

“He’s right, him walking you into school isn’t going to be enough to convince him; he sounds persistent.” Minjeong agrees.

“The most he is allowed to do is kiss you on the cheek to make it believable, but that’s it.” Yunjin says looking at Yeonjun to make sure he understands.

“I don’t get a say in whether or not I agree to this?” Yeonjun asks, looking at everyone, but landing on you.

“No.” the rest of you say in unison.

He laughs before finishing his drink. “Okay. I’ll pick you up at seven thirty.”

Even as Yeonjun pulls his motorcycle to a stop in front of your campus, he can still feel your fingernails practically digging into his stomach.

He lifts up the visor on his helmet, “Can you please stop trying to claw your way into my intestines?”

You let go of him all together and he lets out the breath that he has been holding in.

“Sorry.” you say, it sounding muffled under the helmet. He smiles, taking off his helmet after getting off the bike. He sets his helmet down and holds out his hand for you to take. You take it, him helping you off, before he helps you take off the helmet. “Thanks.” you say and he shrugs his shoulders as a reply.

He glances over his shoulder, noticing people looking at him and you, whispering. “So, which one is the stalker?” he asks, trying to be discreet.

You turn your head to look, not seeing Heeseung anywhere, oddly enough. You scoff, “The one day he isn’t here is the day that you bring me.” you roll your eyes and Yeonjun shrugs.

“Well, see you later.”

“Woah-wait. I still need you to walk me.” you say, grabbing one of his shoulders to stop him from leaving.

“What? Why? You just said he isn’t here.”

“That doesn’t mean that I don’t need reinforcements.”

Yeonjun groans, but turns back around to face your campus. You clear your throat before reaching to hold his hand. You intertwine your fingers, looking at each other through the corners of your eyes, confirming that you’re ready to go. You walk hesitantly at first, but the further you get, Yeonjun releases his hand from yours to put his arm around you. Low and behold, once you made your way to the front of your class, Heeseung was there waiting right beside the door.

He, of course, hadn’t been there the whole time. He was pacing back and forth in the bathroom before working up the courage to actually make his way to your class, a part of him hoping he had just missed you so he wouldn’t actually have to see you with someone else. Yet there you are, walking up to him (well, your class), with some dude who looked like he was trying too hard to be cool with his arm around you. He felt sick and the closer you came, the more he felt like vomiting.

You smiled, stopping in front of your class door with Yeonjun.

“Oh Heeseung, you’re actually here, I thought you chickened out.”

He smiles, annoyed. His gaze shifts over to Yeonjun and Yeonjun smirks.

“So this is Heeseung?” He asks, eyeing him up and down.

Heeseung pokes his tongue in the side of his cheek. He looks back at Yeonjun and eyes him up and down before crossing his arms. Although he currently feels sick to his stomach, he’s still a little suspicious.

“Am I supposed to believe you’re her boyfriend?”

Yeonjun scoffs, crossing his arms, “You can believe what you want,” he steps closer to Heeseung, leaning close to his ear making Heeseung tense up, “but you better stop messing with her regardless.”

He pulls back, smiling at Heeseung and patting one of his shoulders. Heeseung scowls, wiping off his shoulder as Yeonjun turns to you. You smile at him, ignoring Heeseungs glares.

“Have a good day, babe.” he says before kissing you on your cheek. He glances back over his shoulder before snickering at Heeseung and walking away.

You smile proudly at Heeseung while he looks at you in complete and utter shock. Did he just see what he think he just saw? He couldn’t believe it, he didn’t want to believe it.

“Well,” you say, making him snap out of his thoughts, “you heard him: stop bothering me.” you say before going into your class.

“I heard from some people that he has a motorcycle and he brought her on it today.” Jake says while taking some food off of Sunghoon’s tray, earning a glare from him.

Heeseung rolls his eyes, clenching his fork harder in his hand. “I don’t get it, he’s not even her type.”

Sunghoon laughs and Heeseung scowls at him. “How would you know? You’re not exactly close with her.”

“I think it’s time for you to just leave her alone, you’ve been bugging her since we were kids.” Jay comments.

Heeseung goes quiet. Should he give up? He reminisces about the time he first saw you, laughing with your friend, and the only thing he could think about was how pretty you look when you smile. He isn’t the type to hide how he feels and he thought you would be pleasantly surprised by how open he is about how he feels about you, but when you rejected him after he bought you your favorite drink, he was confused. He didn’t want to give up, though, because all he wanted was to be able to make you laugh just like when he first saw you.

“Jay’s right, the joke has gone on for long enough.” Jake adds.

Heeseung looks up at him, raising an eyebrow. “Joke? What are you talking about?”

Before Jake can answer, a girl walks up and takes a seat in one of the open chairs at the table. Everyone’s eyes go to her as she smiles.

“Hi,” she says shyly, “Heeseung, can I speak with you privately?”

“No, thanks.” he replies, continuing to eat his food.

Jake tries to suppress his laugh and Jay kicks him from under the table. Jake’s smile falls as he kicks Jay back.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish.” Jay warns.

“You started it.” Jake mumbles.

“Well, I was just wondering,” everyone looks back at the girl, momentarily forgetting she was even there, “if you would like to get coffee with me after school.” she says, moving some of her hair behind her ear.

“No, thanks.” Heeseung says in the same uninterested tone as before, not bothering to spare her another glance as he continues eating.

She sits there, a little taken aback as an awkward silence settles. Sunghoon clears his throat before taking another bite of his food. The girl stands up and walks away, not bothering to push back in the chair; Jay and Jake watch her as she leaves.

“She was cute, why did you say no?” Jake asks.

“We know why.” Jay says, drinking some of his water.

“You’ve been turning down every girl that asks you out for years, don’t you want to at least try and date someone?” Jake asks.

Heeseung groans and sets down his fork. “What’s the point? No one else is worth the time.”

“You all should have seen his face.” Yeonjun beams as you and your friend group continue roaming throughout the mall.

“So, it worked?” Minjeong questioned and you nodded your head happily.

“I didn’t see him for the rest of the day and he didn’t say anything else once Yeonjun left.” you replied happily.

“And there was nothing more than a kiss on the cheek?” Yunjin questioned.

“Of course.” Yeonjun says, kissing her quickly.

You and the others groan as they both just smile at each other.

“Oh!” Minjeong says, grabbing your hand. You look at her and then the store she was looking at, “They finally restocked the perfume I was telling you about.”

“I can’t afford that.”

She rolls her eyes, “You can’t, but I can, now come on.” she says, pulling you with her.

“I’d rather not be stuck with you two sickos, so I’m going to go with them.” Beomgyu states to Yunjin and Yeonjun before heading off to follow you and Minjeong.

Yeonjun grimaces and mocks Beomgyu as he walks off and Yunjin laughs.

As much as Heeseung would rather have gone home straight after classes than come to the mall to help Jake pick out a new keyboard, he came anyway due to his friend’s consistent pestering.

“You’re paying me back for gas money, I hope you know that.” Heeseung mumbles.

Jake scoffs, “You’re richer than I am, besides, friends carpool other friends.” Heeseung rolls his eyes as he and Jake make their way to the store. Heeseung opens his mouth to say something, but is caught off guard by loud giggling coming across from where he and Jake are. Both of them look in the direction of where the noise is coming from to see Yeonjun and Yunjin laughing, her hitting his shoulder playfully and him scattering kisses on her face. Heeseung stops dead in his tracks. Jake stops walking and looks between Heeseung and the couple. “What’s wrong?” he asks.

Heeseung could feel anger surging through his body. Isn’t that guy your boyfriend? Why was he so publicly flirting with this other girl? Is he cheating on you? Unknown to him, Heeseung was walking towards the two, blinded by rage. Jake tries to call after him, but it just sounded like static to Heeseung. Jake rushes to catch up to him, trying to figure out what he was going to do and why he was even doing something in the first place. Heeseung stands in front of Yeonjun, making both Yeonjun and Yunjin turn their attention towards him.

“Shit.” Yeonjun mumbles.

Heeseung didn’t have the patience to ask any questions, he knew he was right in the first place. This guy had some nerve to hurt you like this, so before anyone had another chance to say a word, Heeseung clenched his hand into a fist and punched Yeonjun in the face.

“What the hell!?” Yunjin exclaims, grabbing onto Yeonjun’s arm as he falls to the ground.

Heeseung didn’t pay any attention to the throbbing pain from his hand and raises his fist to punch him again, but Jake stops him. Yeonjun touches his face, blood dripping from his nose as he looks up at Heeseung, clenching his jaw in anger.

“You son of a b-”

“Don’t start with that, you’re the one cheating.”

Yunjin scoffs and stands up to slap Heeseung. “You have some nerve to punch my boyfriend, asshole.”

“What the hell is going on?” Beomgyu questions as you, him, and Minjeong come out from the store.

You look around to see the chaos that has ensued as well as people starting to crowd around all of you.

“This idiot punched my boyfriend because he thinks he’s cheating on you.” Yunjin says shooting you a glare as she helps Yeonjun off of the floor.

“You did what?” you turn to Heeseung.

“Isn’t he your boyfriend? Why aren’t you upset that he’s cheating on you?” Heeseung asks, confused and starting to feel the pain from his hand as the adrenaline and anger start to subside.

You open your mouth to say something, but Yunjin interrupts you. “Maybe because he isn’t actually her boyfriend.”

Heeseung looks between you and her, confused.

“Bu-”

“They only pretended to be dating because she wanted you to back off.” Yunjin seethed.

Heeseung wasn’t sure how to process all of this information, let alone, he wasn’t even sure if he was.

“Yunjin-” you try to apologize, but she pushes past you with Yeonjun. You try to grab her hand, but she pulls away and turns to you.

“It went too far.” she says, trying to control her temper before turning around to walk away with Yeonjun.

You turn to look at Minjeong and Beomgyu, but they both just look at each other awkwardly.

“We should probably go with them.” Beomgyu says.

Minjeong nods her head, agreeing, but before they both walk past you, she stops, “I’m sure if you try talking to her tomorrow, she’ll forgive you.”

You bite the inner part of your cheek as they walk away. The crowd starts to disperse, still earning a few questioning glances from those passing by. You glare at Heeseung and begin to walk away.

“Look, I didn’t-” he tries to explain, but you cut him off by turning around, now face-to-face with him.

Tears sting as they begin to brim your eyes. There are so many things you could say to him right now, so many things to yell, but for once you find yourself to be at a loss. He too, is also at a loss for words. Seeing you look at him this way, tears in your eyes, he feels so ashamed and embarrassed.

“Just leave me alone.” you say through shallow breaths, trying your hardest not to cry in front of him.

You knew to him this was all some sick joke, so you doubt he would actually listen to you, but you hoped there was some small part of him that would finally see you never found any of this to be funny and that he has finally taken it too far.

You have never dreaded walking to your class this morning more than you do at this very moment; you just don’t have the energy to put up with Heeseung now or even ever again. You tried texting Yunjin, but she never replied let alone even opened the messages. You were so wrapped up in your emotions you didn’t even realize you made it to your class in peace. Relieved was an understatement about how you were currently feeling, but you also felt oddly sick.

Although you didn’t want him bothering you, you couldn’t help but feel annoyed at the fact that he didn’t even try to apologize once while you were on your way to class. It was the least he could do, afterall. He pretty much destroyed your friendships with your closest friends and now that he’s had his fun, he no longer felt the need to keep up the act? The more you thought about it, the more angry you became. You knew you hated him before, but you’ve never been this furious with him, not even at his attempts to rub his wealth in your face by buying you things. No, this was a new low, even for him, but you keep trying to tell yourself you should’ve seen it coming.

“Oh hell no.” Yunjin mumbles before standing up from the steps she and the others were sitting on. Heeseung approaches cautiously as he feels their eyes burning into him with their intensive stares. “You really are a stalker, how did you even know what university I go to?” she asks, crossing her arms defensively.

“It’s in our high school yearbooks, everyone put where they were going.” he replied. Yunjin scowls, hoping he would get the idea and leave once and for all. “I came to apologize. I just-” he pauses, looking away while clenching his jaw before looking back at them. “I’m sorry I punched you.” he says to Yeonjun.

Yeonjun looks at him, unimpressed.

“You suck at apologizing.” Yunjin states.

“I thought he was cheating! I didn’t know-” he groans, becoming frustrated. He tries to calm down, running his hand through his hair before speaking again. “All I want to say is that I really am sorry, I was just trying to look out for your friend, okay? She deserves better and when I saw who I thought was her boyfriend kissing someone else, I just…handled things poorly.”

Yeonjun gets up to stand next to Yunjin, draping his arm around her shoulders. “I get it, you didn’t know.”

Yunjin scoffs, “You’ve officially taken this joke of yours too far, so stop acting like you care about her and just admit it already.”

“Why does everyone think I’m joking?” he asks, both frustrated and genuinely.

“Everyone in school knew you were joking. I thought you took it too far back when you bought her a pair of some new, expensive shoes.”

Is that really how everyone saw it? Is that really how you see it?

“I bought her the shoes because she had her old ones for years and had bandaids for the blisters she was clearly getting. I also bought her extra bandages, did you forget about that?”

Yunjin stops scowling, “So you aren’t just messing with her because she rejected you?”

“Of course not, I really care about her. I know I annoy her, but I never thought she would think I was doing all of this just to hurt her feelings.”

Yunjin stands there for a second, questioning whether or not she believes him.

“You’re right,” she starts, making eye contact with Heeseung, “she deserves the best.” It falls quiet again for a moment, mainly because Yunjin is wondering whether or not she wants to give him a chance to prove himself to you. “We’re going to meet at the club downtown around ten, if you really mean what you say, you should come.”

Heeseung stands there, stunned. Does this mean she believes him? Does this mean they all believe him? Does this mean you’ll believe him? As they walk away from the steps, they all look at him, but not the same way they did when he first came over; skeptical. They all looked at him like they wanted what he said to be true and tonight is the night he is going to prove it.

You walked into the club, anxious, yet grateful that Yunjin finally responded to one of your messages. You wanted tonight to be like any other night that you all hang out here, like everything was back to normal; like it was before the whole debacle with Heeseung at the mall. You made your way past the crowds of people through the darkly lit club, over to the booth you all usually sit at.

“Hey.” you say, trying not to sound awkward.

Yunjin sheepishly smiles, “Hey.” she says.

“Are you guys going to kiss and make up now?” Beomgyu asks, honestly over all of the drama.

Everyone laughs and Minjeong hands you your usual drink as you all make your way to the dance floor. From there, you move your body to the music, just wanting to let go of all the stress you’ve been under lately. Dancing along with your friends, having a good time, is all you care about at this very moment. You were enjoying yourself, feeling confident in the outfit you chose to wear paired along with the light buzz from the alcohol you were drinking. You closed your eyes as you soaked it all in; it felt like nothing could disrupt this feeling.

“Wow…” you hear someone say before they trail off.

You open your eyes and freeze. You know this voice a little all-too-well. Your grip on the glass you are holding in your hand becomes tighter as you slowly turn towards the person who was speaking. Your eyes lock with Heeseungs as he looks at you in awe. You look stunning and he felt like all of the air from his lungs had escaped the second he saw you; breathless. You walk closer to him, so he wouldn’t get any crazy ideas and try to do something else to your friends, but as you got closer to him you couldn’t help but think about how nice he smells. You shake the thought from your head as you look up at him, your eyes meeting once again.

All thoughts you previously had were now gone; he made your mind go blank. Have his eyes always been this pretty? No…what the hell are you thinking? Pull yourself together.

“Do you take nothing I say seriously?” you manage to blurt out.

He smiles, happy that you’re talking to him (and just because he’s happy to see you in general).

“For all the years you’ve known me, you should know better than anyone else that I can’t stay away from you.” he replies before smirking.

That smug attitude thankfully snapped you out of whatever weird thoughts you were having earlier and brought you back to reality: he’s a prick. You roll your eyes and push yourself past him as you head to the bar to return your glass. You set the glass down a little harsher than you anticipated and Heeseung follows you as you make your way out of the club. He calls after you, but you ignore him. Nothing is going to change, apparently. But as you’ve said to yourself before: you really shouldn’t be surprised.

Heeseung stops calling after you and instead catches up to you, grabbing your hand gently so you would stop walking away from him. You turn to face him, looking down at your hands for a split second, feeling a different kind of buzz result from it. You try to shake his hand away, but he doesn’t budge. You meet his eyes, feeling your heart begin to race. As much as you tried to stop, something was happening, and you were certainly not a huge fan.

“I spoke with your friends earlier and apologized.”

He did what? Wait…have you been hallucinating this whole time? That would explain why you suddenly feel this way because you know, not in any lifetime, would you possibly have feelings for Lee Heeseung.

“How?” is all you could manage to say.

Your mind was running a thousand miles a minute, not really in any shape to hold any kind of conversation, but especially not one with Heeseung.

“I made a mistake. I have a lot of things I want to apologize to you for.”

He spoke so gently and sweetly; it was like he was hypnotizing you. The streets were oddly quiet, not too many people, but you could still hear the music from the club. You found yourself staring at him in amazement. The fluorescent lights from the signs of stores nearby and the streetlights felt as though they were shining on the both of you, like you two were the only people who matter.

“What?” is all you can think to say.

“I’m sorry I’ve been bothering you to the point where you felt like you had no other choice but to lie.” he says, taking a step closer to you. “I’m sorry I made you and your friend fight.” he takes another step closer to you. You felt your breath hitch as your eyes traveled along his figure. Has he always looked this good in a black button up and black pants? It doesn’t help that his sleeves are rolled up to his elbows and you find yourself staring at his arms.

He waits for you. He waits for you while he clearly sees you checking him out and it’s turning him on. God, you look so beautiful and the way you are looking at him, slowly taking in everything about him as if you are seeing him for the first time makes him want to kiss you; it makes him want to do a lot more. When your eyes meet his again, he takes this as an opportunity to step closer to you, placing his other hand on your cheek, gently cupping your face. He wants to be gentle because you are one of the most precious things to him. He leans close to your face, each others’ breath scattering lightly along one anothers face.

“And I’m sorry,” he whispers as he rubs his thumb back and forth on your cheek, still looking into your eyes, “for making you feel like a joke.”

You feel yourself tense up. “Was it? All a joke…” you trail off, not necessarily sure what you want to happen next.

He continues looking into your eyes, never looking away because he wants you to know that he is being serious; that he means every word he says.

“Not for a second.” he replies.

You think back to everything he has done for you in a new perspective. How he would leave your favorite snack on your desk on test days, notes telling you how well you did after a presentation, volunteering to be your partner because he didn’t want you to feel alone or left out, buying you your favorite drink if you forgot to bring money for it, and asking you out to a restaurant that holds a special meaning to him and he only wants to share it with you.

You want to kiss him, but you find yourself pulling away instead. He looks at you, confused, as you separate yourself from him, letting go of his hand.

“I should get home. You know how early my morning class is.” you say while looking at the ground.

“Are you walking home? This late?”

You step back a little bit, finally looking back at him and you smile nervously. “I usually take the bus, but I think I missed the last one, so yeah, I guess I am.” you say kind of bunched together. Are you nervous?

“I can just drive you home.” he says, not really offering, more like telling.

You shake your head as your eyes shift to one of the cars in front of the club. You recognized it as his since he drives it to school everyday. A small, small part of you would love to ride in it, but you can walk home yourself (even if you also know it’s a bad idea).

“Yeah, I’m not letting you walk home alone this late.” he says, no longer wondering why you pulled away from him, but more concerned for your safety. He reaches for your hand and you let him take it, even if you keep telling yourself you shouldn’t. You both walk over to his car and he opens the door for you to get in. You look at him and he looks back at you, not intending on budging from his offer. You roll your eyes playfully as you get into the car. He closes the door and walks over to get into the driver's seat. He gets in and closes the door before starting his engine. You sit there, a little surprised you were even in his car in the first place. “You kind of need to put on your seatbelt.” he says, nodding his head towards the seatbelt that you left untouched.

You laugh nervously, but for some reason, you still don’t think to move to put it on. He sighs, smiling to himself at your cuteness, before leaning over to grab the seatbelt, slowly extending it over your body before clicking it into place. He looks at you, your faces inches apart, and you feel your breathing quicken once again. His heart begins to beat faster, but he can’t stop looking at you; you’re stunning. He manages to pull himself away, worried he might make you feel uncomfortable, before putting on his own seatbelt and putting the car in drive.

“Do you want to tell me how to get to your house?” he asks as he pulls out of the parking spot.

Your eyes widen. Right, your house. A house that--you assume--is nowhere near as nice as his house. What if once he sees just how different you two are he will stop liking you? What if he was lying before and this was his final cruel attempt to make fun of you? You shake your head.

“I would rather not tell you.”

He steps on the brake, turning his head to look at you.

“You…don’t want to tell me?”

You shake your head, hoping he’ll give up and let you out of the car. You hear him let out a tut, making you turn your head to look at him.

“Would you rather I take you to my place?” he asks, trying not to sound nervous.

Not particularly, you kind of already planned on going to bed once you got back home, but you stayed quiet, leaving him to answer his own question. He sighs, releasing his foot off the brake.

Heeseung pulls up to a gate that guards a huge house behind it. Your mouth falls a little agape as you look at it, thinking about how the driveway is the size of your own home. He puts in the code, opening the gate, and driving up the huge driveway. He parks the car and turns off the engine, unbuckling his seatbelt before looking at you.

“Do you need me to unbuckle it for you?” he asks while smirking.

You kind of want him to, but you opt for doing it yourself. You both get out of the car and he waits for you before he begins to lead the way. You can’t stop looking around as you two walk up the stairs leading to the (in your opinion) oversized doors, to which he opens and lets you walk in first. The house is even more luxurious on the inside than it is on the outside, which you honestly didn’t think could be possible. He shuts the door behind him and you both take off your shoes. You feel out of place, starting to feel insecure. The guy with all of this money to have this grand living room with a huge television, windows covering the walls and expensive furniture littered everywhere claims to like you? And has for years? You were starting to find it hard to believe again.

“I hope this is okay.” he says, breaking the silence.

You weren’t sure what he meant, but you assume he’s hoping it’s okay that he brought you here. He starts heading for the staircase and you follow behind, still taking in your surroundings. He leads you to his room, and you decide to stand by the doorframe. To you, it doesn’t seem like the downstairs even needs a living room since he already has a couch and t.v. in his room along with a big bed laying on a platform and more windows for walls. A beep is heard and the curtains for his windows start automatically covering them and the two lamps on his bedside tables turn on. He looks back at you, smiling at your expression that he finds to be adorable.

“You can come in, you know.” he says as he rummages through some drawers.

You hesitantly walk into his room, somehow just noticing how nice it smells, and find the confidence to walk up the few steps to his bed to take a seat. You turn your head to look around some more and Heeseung looks up, stopping what he is doing upon seeing you on his bed. You are on his bed. Is he dreaming? He honestly never thought this day would come and he clears his throat to try and calm his nerves, making you look at him.

“What are you doing?” you finally ask.

He grabs what he came in for and walks over to you holding out the clothes he picked himself.

“The guest rooms don’t have any clothes in them, so you can borrow mine.”

Did he just say “rooms” as in plural, like multiple?

“Right, naturally.” you tease.

He smiles and you stand to grab the clothes from him. You hold them as you look up at him, once again meeting his eyes. That feeling starts to form again, the one where you don’t want to stop looking at him and certainly don’t want him to stop looking at you.

“I forgive you.” you whisper.

He looks confused for a second before he understands what you mean. He smiles.

“You don’t know how happy I am to hear that.”

You aren’t sure if it’s the atmosphere, the way he smells, the way he’s looking at you, or all three combined, but before you can even process what you are doing, you are tossing the clothes he handed you onto the floor and pulling him by the collar to kiss you.

Holy. Shit. You’re kissing him. You’re kissing him. One of your hands moves to hold the side of his neck while the other moves to the back of his hair as you start running your fingers through it, gripping it here and there. He moves his hands to hold your waist, squeezing them lightly from anticipation, as he kisses you back. He gains more confidence, pulling you as closely as possible to him, as he deepens the kiss. He is desperate for you, he is desperate to show you how he feels. He lifts you up and your legs wrap around his waist, him carefully carrying you and placing you onto his bed. He lays you down as you two continue to kiss, him pulling away from your lips and beginning to leave a trail of light, breathy, kisses from your jaw down to your collarbone. Your chest raises from the deep breath you take and he swears he is going to lose his mind from looking at you in your current state. The state he is currently leaving you in.

His hands roam your body, wanting to feel every inch of you.

“Heeseung…” you say breathlessly, practically sending him over the edge.

He can feel his erection growing and you saying his name like that makes his cock ache harder. He pulls away from leaving hickeys along your chest, pulling you up by the waist so he can lift your dress off of you. He pulls it over your head and you help him, throwing the dress off to the side. He rests his forehead on yours, trying to calm his breathing and you begin to palm his erection. He whines, moving your hand away before laying you back down. His eyes scan your body, now realizing you were never wearing a bra. There you are, laying on his bed in nothing other than your underwear and he has to try and collect himself before he cums in his pants at just the mere sight of you. His right hand begins to travel up your leg, his fingers lightly running along your skin as he continues to look at you, look at every inch of you. His fingers travel past your hip up to your breasts where he cups one of them, earning a small gasp from you.

He bites the inner part of his cheek, trying to contain himself as he fondles your breast, playing with your nipple, watching how your face contorts in pleasure. He leans down to leave light kisses on your shoulder, looking at your face between each one, going down and stopping at your other breast before latching his mouth around your nipple. You bite your lip, one of your hands comes to grip his hair. He moans as he swirls his tongue around your nipple, occasionally flicking it. He felt drunk and so incredibly turned on. He stops fondling your other breast with his hand and lightly trails his fingers down to your underwear, sticking his hand inside. You gasp again, his fingers feeling a little cold as he runs them along your wet folds.

Fuck he was making you feel good and you let out a moan, making him smirk. He sticks a finger in, making you grip his hair a little harder, and so he sticks in two. You moan again and he pulls away from your breast to kiss you as his fingers pump in and out of you. You’ve become so wet that you start to cover his hand in your wetness, the sound of his hand coming in constant contact with your pussy starting to fill the room. You feel yourself become close and your mouth falls agape. He stops kissing you and pulls back as well as pulling his fingers out of you. You open your eyes, the dim lights suddenly being so bright as you try to process what is happening.

He brings his fingers to his lips, licking off your arousal from them. His eyes close as he inhales deeply, consumed by the taste of you.

“Please, Heeseung…” you start to plead.

He opens his eyes and figures he can’t leave you without what you want. So, in honor of a fair trade since he feels intoxicated by your taste, he takes off your underwear and throws your legs over his shoulders as he positions his face in front of your pussy. You swallow harshly as you feel his breath on you before he licks a stripe along your core, causing your eyes to roll back a little bit and your back arch at the sudden contact. His hands grip the sides of your thighs as he indulges in you, licking up every last drop of you before making his way to your clit and sucking on it.

“Fuck, Heeseung…” you moan out breathlessly.

He’s too consumed by your taste to notice and he pulls you more into his face. He moans into you, one of his hands leaving your thigh as he starts to finger you again. He hears you moaning and gasping, prompting him to open his eyes and look at you. Just the sight of you causes him to pick up his pace, his fingers rapidly going in and out of you and the more you moan, the more turned on he gets. You feel yourself become closer, gripping the sheets as you call out his name. That mixed with the taste of you on his tongue makes him moan. You taste so good, you look so beautiful, he feels like the luckiest man alive to have you call out his name. He sucks harder and pumps faster as he moans into you, cumming in his pants.

Your head falls deeper into the pillow you were laying on as you release yourself all over his fingers, mouth, and face. His movements begin to slow down as he calms down from his high and he pulls away, seeing your legs shaking a bit. He sits back, taking your legs off of his shoulders and you look at him. His face is flushed and shiny because of your cum, which he didn’t mind. He licked his fingers again, trying to catch his breath afterwards and you find the energy to sit up.

You pull him in for a kiss and his hands land on your ass, squeezing it. You moan and reach your slightly shaky hands up to the buttons on his shirt, unbuttoning them. You pull away as you take the shirt off of him, throwing it to the side. This time, you leave a trail of kisses from his jaw to his neck, his mouth falling agape from pleasure. He was becoming hard again and so you started to undo his belt as well as the button and zipper on his pants. You can hear him let out shallow breaths, and he pulls you back to kiss him on the lips. You kiss each other with so much need, and as you start taking off his pants, he pulls away to take them off himself.

You watch as he does, seeing his bulge through his underwear along with the cum stain from earlier. You smirk, which makes him feel a little shy.

“Come here.” you say, your eyes flicking back to meet his.

He listens, and you move each other so he is now the one laying back as you sit between his legs. He swallows harshly, completely turned on by the sight of your bare self looking at him in such a sinful way. Fuck, he wants you to ruin him. You keep eye contact with him as you lightly grab the edge of his boxers. His breath hitches as he becomes increasingly more nervous and he bites his lip as you run your pointer finger over his v-line. You smirk, slowly pulling his boxers off of him and finally letting his aching cock free. You cast aside his boxers, lightly running your fingers along his length, making him let out little moans, trying to decide what you want to do next. Seeing him like this, you decide you can’t wait any longer, so you position yourself over his cock, one hand holding onto his shoulder as the other guides it into your cunt.

You both throw your heads back as you let out a moan in unison. You slowly sank onto his length and he watched in awe. He couldn’t believe this was actually happening and when you finally settled fully onto his cock, his mind felt fuzzy. You felt so fucking good and here you were, riding his dick with hickies all over your chest and neck made by him. Consumed by his thoughts, he gripped your hips a little bit harsher as he let out a stifled breath. You look at him, wondering what was happening, but feeling his cock twitch inside of you and him letting out a string of moans and apologies answered your question quickly as he came inside of you.

His breathing settled after his release and he looks at you, eyes a little hazy, but full of pleasure; he looked so fucked out.

“I’m so sorry.” he half whispers and half exclaims.

He really meant it and to be honest, he was kind of embarrassed. You shake your head.

“Don’t be,” you say, starting to rock your hips, causing his eyes to roll back in pleasure, “it was hot.” You pick up your speed and call out his name from how good he is making you feel. “Shit…” you whine as you start to lose momentum from the pleasure. He notices and adjusts himself so he is laying a little bit lower to which he slings his arm around your waist, pulling you closer to him. You let out a small yelp as he hoists his hips up, thrusting into you, fast and deep. “Fuck…” you call out into his ear, making him pick up his pace.

Moans mixed with the sound of his cock rutting into you fills the room and you grip the sheets as you feel yourself clench around him.

“Fuck-” Heeseung starts, but is cut off by his own moans from being close to his climax.

He thrusts into you faster and you clench around him harsher, your legs shaking as you cum all over his dick. He grips your waist harsher and clenches his jaw, breathy moans still escaping through his teeth as he cums–once again–inside of you. He does a few more thrusts to ride out his high before pulling out of your throbbing cunt. You both lay there for a moment, you still on top of him, trying to catch your breath.

“So…” Heeseung starts. You lift your head slightly to look him in the eyes and he smiles sheepishly, “does this mean you’ll go on that date with me?” he asks, hopeful.

You roll your eyes, “God, you’re annoying.” you say before smiling.

2K notes · View notes

quickandsilvers · 5 months

Note

REQUEST FROM THE SLEEP HEADCANON!!!¡

💤💤💤💤

peter and reader are the closest best friends can be, even having the biggest crush on each other they keep pretending they don’t.

one day, they fall asleep together at peters bed after a movie night, and reader ends up having a wet dream with him.

peters wakes up spooning asleep reader while she’s quietly moaning and rubbing herself against him…….. BE CREATIVE I LOVE ALL YOUR CONTENT 💞💘💕💖💓💕💗💖💘

UHM YES?!?!

A:N- Sorry this took so long to get out, i wasn’t liking how dragged out it was so i had to edit a lot of this!! I hope you like it though🩷🤍🩷

Wet Dream 🔥

Peter Maximoff x fem!reader SMUT

Summary: Reader has quite the raunchy dream about Peter one night. Spoiler alert; he’s right there to see it 👀

Warnings: switch!Peter, slow burn, kissing, grinding, humping, oral sex(fem receiving), unprotected P in V, fingering, hand job, porn with plot, Peter comes like 3 times before p in v even happens.. THE WHOLE PACKAGE PEOPLE!!!

Word Count: 6914 (had to shorten it sos!!)

Taglist: @kaismanwich @evpeters87 (Let me know if you want to be added or removed!!)

After a long week at the mansion, softened by your regular visits to the record store with Peter, you were finally free for a long weekend with your best friend and you had decided to celebrate with a movie marathon in your dorm room.

A glance at your phone read 11:06 PM.

Your roommate, Jean, was bunking with Scott tonight; and you had grasped the opportunity for a several hour long marathon- complete with bowls of sugary snacks and two-litre bottles of soda.

“You ready?” you asked Peter as he stumbled into your living room with a variety of cake snacks in his grasp.

“Hol’ on-” he grumbled, brows furrowing in concentration as he dumped the plethora of cake snacks onto the coffee table in front of you.

Fwip.

Your eyes trained on your best friend, who was now in your kitchen jabbing numbers into your microwave.

You watch, amused, as Peter impatiently taps his foot against the tiles, closely observing the popcorn in the microwave rotate. With every pop of a kernel came Peter’s childish explosion mimic in response. Sighing, you lean back into your seat.

You were sitting on an old, yellow 70's style vintage leather couch. Its material was ripped in various places, allowing bits of white fluff to peak through the tears. These fissures in the leather scraped across your bare legs, leaving little red marks each time you moved.

Peter was the one to ‘buy’ the couch for you when you first moved into the mansion, arguing to your horrified self that the piece of furniture had ‘character and personality’ to it.

The couch was tatty and torn apart, but you couldn’t find yourself able to get rid of it, despite Charles’ frequent offers to replace it free of charge.

It was by no means comfortable, but you found that you were able to sit back and relax soon enough.

As you heard the finishing beep of the microwave and Peter’s elated exclamation of delight, you got up to rifle through a box of DvD’s, searching for the first movie of the night.

Peter, busy with squirting a sickly amount of caramel sauce on his popcorn, gave you a bit of time to get ahead and choose the movie before he could pipe in with something like E.T. You swore you could recite that film backwards from the sheer amount of times Peter forced you to watch it.

Kneeling in front of the cabinet you began to sift through your collection.

The shining? You cringed at the thought. Granted, you absolutely adored the film, but watching it with Peter was something you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy. You were jumpy enough without Peter’s sudden ‘BOO!’ yelled down your ear just before a scare.

Pretending to be scared and cuddling into your best friend was pretty nice though; that boy had enough body heat to put Lucifer to shame.

You grab a pile, rifling through them in quick succession. Ghostbusters? You had watched that last week. Grease? No one wants to see Peter’s Danny Zuko impression. E.T? Think again, motherfucker.

By the time Peter had proudly walked in with his creation, you had narrowed it down to 2 films. You turned to smile at him, and he flashed you a broad grin as he tossed a piece of popcorn into his mouth before appearing next to you.

Fwip.

The speedster peered over your shoulder at your movie picks and cocked a silver brow.

“Can’t we jus’ watch E.T?” Crunch.

You shudder. Whether it was due to the abominable mention of that ghastly excuse for a film, or the obnoxious chewing in your ear, you weren’t sure.

You gaped up at him. “Whaddaya mean? Carry on films are classics! Better than a film we’ve seen 12 times already.”

You weren't even lying.

“I dunno, it’s jus’ the same sex-crazed people recitin’ the same half-arsed scripts for 30 films straight. Don't even get me started on the laughin’ tracks, babe.”

You shoot up and point an accusing finger at his pajama-clad chest. “This film deserves way more respect than the utta bullshit you’re tryna spew!”

Peter presses his lips into a line to avoid a snicker, smirking knowingly at you and holding up a caramel coated finger to your own chest.

“One word. Emmannuelle.” Crunch.

You whine and Peter smirks at catching you out, raising his eyebrows and walking backwards onto the couch, licking his finger and closing his eyes to relish in the sugary goodness.

“That’s not fair!” Your voice raises a few octaves as you eye his adam’s apple in motion, before continuing to search through your stack, “There’s 30 films and you picked the worst rated one!”

“Princess, don’t hate the player, hate the game.” Peter responds nonchalantly, hand reaching into the popcorn bowl that he had already ingested three-quarters of. “Once yer’ve seen one, yer’ve seen them all, really.” He shrugged.

You couldn’t really fight his reasoning, instead settling with a short huff. Finally, after a quick eeny-meeny-miny-mo, you picked one of the films and popped the disc into the DVD-player.

“Buuut it is yer turn to choose. And i guess yer did sit through the last one.”

You turn to him. “‘Sit through’? I liked it!”

“Yer eyes were glazed over not even 10 minutes in!” Peter chuckled, “It’s alrigh’, babe. It’s not to everyone’s taste.” Crunch.

“Well atleast i’m not the one geekin’ out the whole way through!” You scoffed, plopping yourself on the couch and knocking knees with your bestfriend “You fuckin’ clapped when RD-23 came on the screen!”

“R2-D2.” He corrected under his breath, his unoccupied large hand moving to rest on your lower thigh.

Peter loooved Star wars and it clearly showed. In this moment he was adorned in a plain black t-shirt and stormtrooper pajama pants, of which hung deliciously on his hips, showing off his V-line which had you watering at the mouth. God, he had such a slutty waist.

He ‘bought’ you a matching pair like ‘all best buds do!’ except yours were little shorts and a smaller black t-shirt.

“We could just watch Revenge of The Sith instead yunno?” You offer, eyeing the slither of skin where his shirt had ridden up.

Peter shook his head, his soft silver locks moving with it. He was still hung up on when you “fainted” at the sight of Harrison Ford. You wouldn’t shut up about how good he looked for his age.

For his age? Pfft! He’s got nothin’ on a mutant with his slow-agin’ genetics!

Clicking play on the remote, you settle back into the cushions with an eager smile as you subconsciously snuggle into your best friend’s right side, easing him into a lying position.

You grin up at him and nuzzle your nose in his cheek. He tickled your side in response, making you erupt in small giggles at the feeling.

Peter happily grabbed another handful of popcorn as he watched the film, looking for a piece drizzled with extra caramel.

“Oi, not gonna share?” You jokingly pout, tugging on his wrist to take it out of the bowl.

Peter froze as he realized he had just grabbed the last of the popcorn.

Whenever you had movie nights in either of your dorms, Peter always fought you for the last of the popcorn. You always acted upset, but he knew you always saved the last bite for him.

He hadn’t thought twice, assuming you left it for him, but what if you were actually angry?

But when he tore his eyes from the comedy and peeked over at you, you were grinning teasingly at him. Peter relaxed, and threw the popcorn into his mouth. When he bit down, he winced as his tooth nearly cracked on an unpopped kernel. Curse that goddamn microwave.

“Serves you right!” You snort, sticking your tongue out at him and laughing at the speedsters' screwed up expression.

“Go ahead, princess, laugh at my pain!” Peter groaned, rolling the kernel around in his mouth until he had positioned it just right so he could spit it out at you.

You shriek as it catapults onto your cheek and bounced off somewhere in the sofa. You grab the decorative pillow you had been hugging and hit him over the head with all the strength you could muster.

When you aimed another blow to his chest, Peter caught it, and easily tugged it out of your unsuspecting grasp. You huff and lay down on the armrest, snatching a quilt laying over the back of the couch and smothering yourself with it.

Peter dove down into the back of the couch beside you and pulled the quilt over his legs, his sock-clad feet sticking out of the material and over the other side of the furniture.

His mood changed quickly: energetic and playful, and in mere moments, calm and collected.

It was helpful, sure, as he could match your energy easily and keep a conversation going.

But it’s not that great having to take over as tour guide for new students when their prior escort falls asleep whilst showcasing the professor’s english lectures. Or perhaps that was a fault of Charles’ monotonous presentations?

“Ready?” You ask, spreading the comforter over the two of you.

“Ready,” Peter affirmed with squinting eyes, and you chuckled at his tone. You knew how he took movie marathons, claiming it to be an ‘olympic sport’.

Clicking play on the remote, you settled back again, this time into his chest as he wraps a strong arm around your waist.

It still made your heart all fluttery when he did so, and you thanked the lords above you weren’t facing him, revealing your cheeks dusted with crimson.

Peter tilted his head. “What’s this one?”

“One’a my favourites.” You answered quietly.

By 20 minutes in, all soda bottles had been drained (courtesy of Peter) and abandoned in the middle of the coffee table. You had intertwined your legs with him, and Peter’s arm was now slung over your hips.

A yawn slipped past your lips, which you thought was a miracle that it had taken this long for your first sign of weariness, and your best friend glanced over at you with a knowing smile.

“I thought yer said that yer weren’t tired.” He teased, tongue in cheek.

“I never said that,” you yawned again, “I said I wanted to do movie night.”

“We can do this another time–”

“I wanna do this.” You placed your hand on his arm along your body to stop him from talking. “I’ll stay awake.”

Peter gave you another knowing look and you stared right back at him. After a few moments, he sighed and gave in.

“Alrigh’, alrigh’.” He put his hand up in mock defense. After a moment more of looking at your heavy blinks, he sighed softly. “Oh, c’mere.”

As if you weren’t already impossibly close, Peter slid his left arm under your body, moving you further towards him with a grunt and practically cradling you. You rest your head against his shoulder, melting into the familiar position with ease.

Anyone who walked in on you would think you were in your honeymoon phase, but you knew better than that. What you had didn’t need a label. You didn’t even know what label you could put on yourselves. But it didn’t matter. You were best buds. And that was enough for you.

You weren't entirely sure when you had closed your eyes. The movie was like white noise in the background, unintentionally lulling you off into sleep. You heard a soft chuckle and knew Peter had finally noticed that you hadn’t kept up your end of the bargain.

“Jus’ restin’ my eyes…” you mumbled as an excuse, yet failing to open them.

“Mhm.” Peter hummed, clearly unconvinced.

You were right on the cusp of conscious and unconscious, and right as you were about to topple over, you felt his lips on the top of your head. They lingered for 5, 10, 30 seconds. Your smile didn’t fade the entire time his lips were touching your head, nor did it fade when he moved away.

‘I wouldn’t mind if you kissed me in other places.’ You thought to yourself with a sigh.

You were aware of Peter shuffling to get comfortable and pressing into your side, lingering a light boop to your nose with his finger and observing your features as you teetered off the brink of consciousness.

——————————————————————————

Soft, supple lips fluttered down the side of your neck.

You smiled and squirmed at the pleasure brought on by the teeth that slowly scraped along your collar bone and gently nipped across the front of your throat.

The hot breaths that caressed your skin with each sensual kiss and nip set your blood on fire and forced moisture to pool between your legs.

Looking up, you saw twinkling chocolate brown eyes behind sections of silvery hair staring down at you. Your eyes widened with embarrassment when you realized who was on top of you, grinding into you slowly.

Peter ran his hand through your hair and placed a tender kiss on your forehead. He ran his lips down the sides of your crimson cheeks and down the front of your neck, biting the sensitive flesh where the neck and shoulders meet. You tilted your head to the side and sighed.

The speedster ferociously claimed your lips once again. He pressed himself between your legs and teased your center with a purposeful, slow grind. You moan, wrap your arms around him and rake your fingernails up and down his back, deep and hard enough to leave proof of the sinful pleasure building inside you.

Suddenly, Peter tore his puffed lips away from you. You gazed into his eyes and watched him smile a surprisingly effective seductive smile, nothing like the attempted smolders he had sent your way before. He slid down your body and stopped by your feet. He spread your legs wide before him.

"...Peter, what...?" you began, but your words caught in your throat.

Peter arched your leg over his shoulder and began to softly place deliberate kisses up your leg. Each graze of his wet lips scorched your skin and left a trail of endless fire burning in their wake.

You laid beneath Peter's touch, flushed and writhed in torturous pleasure. Bolts of what felt like lightning shot down your spine. Heavy pants escaped your body, chest heaving, as he kissed higher and ran his tongue along the inside of your thigh until he reached the apex of your trembling limbs.

“Peter.. Ngaah- wai-!”

Without warning, Peter latched onto your swollen clit and pulled it between his lips.

You arched off the sweat slicked couch and shoved your hands deep into his ruffled, untidy hair. You cried out and yanked his hair each time you felt him wrap his powerful tongue around your clit. The pleasure he built inside you was intoxicating and frankly, dangerous. You felt as if you might burst into heavenly fire.

Peter looked up at you through heavy lidded eyes. He gently removed your leg from his shoulder and slid up your body once more. He trailed kisses up your stomach and pinched a hard nipple between his fingers. You quietly moaned, silently hoping this would never stop.

Breathing heavily and licking his lips, Peter settled himself on top of you. He kissed your bare shoulder and ran his teeth up your throat as he did prior. He pressed a soft kiss behind your ear.

"Princess..." he whispered. You could feel hot breath caressing your neck.

You squirmed beneath him, reveling at the feel of his hardness pressed against your center. You felt his dick twitch when it came in contact with the slick dripping from your core.

"Babe..." soft moaning graced your ears. He tugged on your earlobe with his teeth.

He reached between your thighs. You bucked against his hand as you felt him slide his long finger inside you.

"C'mon," Peter begged, pleading for your sweet noises.

He slid in a second finger. You arched your back and moaned when his fingers began teasing the spot that would send you over the edge. He used his thumb to push down on your clit, vibrating it delicately. You closed your eyes as you threw your head against the rough couch, Peter wrapping his hot mouth around your swollen breast.

“..-up” You furrowed your brows at his inaudible whispers, mumbled against your supple skin.

“Wake up..” heh?

"C’mon. Wake up!"

Your eyes snapped open, alarmed and chest heaving. Your body was flushed, covered in sweat. Hair was plastered to the back of your neck and your hands were fisted in your lap. Sitting up onto your elbows, you look around the room with wide and confused eyes.

"Nice dream, princess?" Peter asked, cheeks flushed, yet smirking knowingly.

Oh. OH.

—--------------

Sharing a room with you was normal. It was. Peter knew that. Sure, it wasn’t exactly a thing that platonic friends would partake in, especially comfying up on the couch together, but whats the harm in it?

So okay, it wasn’t normal by definition. But he wasn’t going to make it weird . Just because he had a small crush on you did not mean that he would let it be weird. You were colleagues, Xmen, and you even spent time together outside of work too! Peter would come to your room to watch old movies, and you would go to his so you could cook and listen to music with him. So he knew he could spend time with you alone, that wasn’t the problem.

It was the sleeping that was potentially the issue.

His little crush had been invading his subconscious almost constantly nowadays, and peter was notoriously known to talk in his sleep. He was so scared he would say something wrong whilst snorin’ away next to you. If you overheard something like that, he knew your friendship would never recover. How can you act normal around someone who said your name in their sleep?

Good thing you did it before him then.

Peter was just doing his own thing, flicking through channels on the 70’s style television on low volume so as to not wake you. Dynasty, Seinfeld, Star Trek… not tonight.

He yelped quietly as Return of The Jedi appears on the screen, changing the channel in quick succession. You had yet to watch the film with him, and Peter didn’t want to ruin it for you by watching it beforehand.

He sighed, shoving the remote down the side of the sofa, nothing seeming to catch his attention.

Nothing, before you let out a low whimper and shuffle back into the heat of his chest.

“Babe?” Peter called quietly into the dark.

You were sleeping soundly, the muted reflection of light streaming in from the TV casting thin slivers of white across your face.

Peter rarely had the opportunity to watch you as you slept, normally being out like a light long before you and not waking up until hours into the afternoon, so he took a moment to indulge himself.

Your hair was an utter mess, with it falling into your forehead and sticking out from where it was smooshed against the pillow. Your lips were slightly parted and dry, and Peter shivered as he finally attuned himself to the soft whisper of your breath hitting his shoulder.

You were beautiful, and his heart clenched with adoration for you. This wasn’t at all what he had expected when he began his job with the Xmen, but he was not complaining in the slightest. Free food, permitted to use Charles’ credit card whenever he pleases, and a smokin’ hot, funny girl cuddling up to him every night; what's not to like?

On second thought, scratch the former two benefits. Peter was quickly banned from using Charles’ card, ever since he took advantage and bought enough cake snacks to put Hostess out of stock for three weeks. He had the best four hours of his life that night.

Peter sighed contentedly, and unthinkingly reached back to brush a few strands of hair from your forehead. Your hair was so soft and smooth and he wanted to run his fingers through it, but even the gentlest touch of him moving your hair from your face had stirred you.

Peter reluctantly curled up on his side with his stomach facing your own, in an attempt to bury his desire to keep touching you. You snuffled out a breath and shifted around, and Peter held his breath, hoping you would fall back to sleep. He was pleasantly surprised when you continued shuffling until your sleep-heated body came into contact, flush with his.

You exhaled deeply and nestled your face into Peter’s neck as his arm came up to drape across your hip. He smiled into his own pillow, pleased with this development, and he relaxed back into your embrace…

…And then nearly rolled out of it again when your pelvis brushed something between his hips. Holy fuck!

Peter immediately thrust his hips forward and away from your jutting, not wanting to take advantage of you in your sleep-induced state, but you grunted in dissatisfaction and thrust your hips closer to him until the burning heat through your shorts was trapped right against Peter’s length again.

As if just feeling that you were horny and dreaming about somethin’ naughty wasn’t enough, you then began to rock your hips into his. Fuckin’ hell!

“-agh-.. princess?” Peter whispered, panic-stricken, feeling his cheeks flame in a combination of embarrassment and excitement. He groaned as his dick twitched in interest in an attempt to reach your alluring heat.

You let out a soft sigh, and the rocking of your hips slowed. Peter wasn’t sure if he was grateful or disappointed, however he ultimately decided it was for the best; he’d rather you to be conscious if you were about to make a massive jump in your platonic relationship to physical.

Despite the already raging boner that was growing and painfully restricted by the confines of his stormtrooper pajamas, Peter let his eyes slip closed, content to cradle you in his arms and go back to sleep. However the solid pressure of your heat on his thigh kept the speedster wide awake.

Then you began moving again.

You pressed your pelvis forward, rubbing your clothed core onto the muscled thigh of Peter’s mid-thigh. Then, you let out a shuddering moan that made all of his wild fantasies about the way you sounded seem entirely tame in comparison.

Your hips were no longer rocking, but they were actively grinding and stuttering against him. Peter could feel the exact shape of your pussy through the scant layers of fabric separating you from him.

Your hand moved to curl around his bicep, firmly anchoring yourself to your best friend. You were breathing raggedly and the motion of your hips was getting faster and deeper, more sensual than ever.

Peter’s own noises failed to be kept silent, as he whimpered in response and rested his forehead into your hair as you frantically humped his thigh.

Jesus fuck, how were you still asleep? And what were you dreaming about that got you this riled up?

Even if he wanted to move, Peter was effectively trapped between your weight and the back of the couch, your motions making the old thing squeak and groan in answer.

Warm, wet heat throbbed between your legs, and Peter desperately wanted to flip you onto your back, rip off your tiny shorts, and fuck you until you both passed out from exhaustion.

You were making the most devastating noises as you rutted your heat against him harder and faster, whining in desire as you worked for your release.

Peter had half a mind to reach down and give you a hand, but he instead gripped on tight to the couch cushions, eyes wide and lips parted in astonishment.

Ohh, he shouldn’t be doing this, he shouldn’t be lying here, practically taking advantage of you whilst you rubbed yourself upon him. If you were awake you’d be mortified, ohh-, but you sound so good and feel so good and, really, it would be cruel to stop you. Especially when you were enjoying yourself sooo much…

Peter lay there for a few more moments, swallowing the lump in his throat and trying to ignore the burning want in his rock hard cock.

Then, you moaned something that had him spluttering in surprise .

“Nghnaa- Peterr,” you whimpered.

Peter came instantly, covering a guttural moan with his hand.

Holy. Fuck.

You were dreaming about him? Your best bud since forever?

You whined in pleasure as you felt the surge of heat from Peter’s load. Frantically, you arch your hips into his again, once, twice, three more times, before you let out a wrenching moan and stilled behind him.

Peter shivered as he felt his cock throbbing against your core, and as he felt a wet warmth seep through your pajamas and onto his clothed thigh.

Holy-

Peter panted harshly for a few moments as he stayed tightly pressed against you, large hands coming to grip on your arms. Him, really? Of all people you decided to get off to, you chose him! Frankly, he was flattered; and clearly so was his dick.

The fuckin’ thing seemed to have a mind of its own! The sticky, burning mess that had erupted in his Pj’s made him grimace uncomfortably, knowing it would soon dry into a crusty disaster. But the thing seemed to get hard and stay hard whenever he was around you. How embarrassin’!

A glance towards the clock; 12:43. Peter hummed, turning back towards you and lightly squeezing your arm. As you stirred he put on a lazy smirk, hoping the flaming blush in his cheeks had subsided enough by now.

As your eyes snapped open, disoriented, Peter propped himself up on his elbow and wiggled his eyebrows.

"Nice dream, princess?"

Ooh, he is gonna ruin you.

—-----------------------------

Trying to collect yourself after being awoken, your eyes landed on your best friend, inches away from your own face and wiggling his brows. For mere moments you were puzzled, wondering why his cheeks had more of a reddish tone than normal, then you came to a conclusion.

Oh fuck.

You nearly jumped out of your skin as you realized what you had done, placing a hand over your chest and taking a deep, panicked breath. It took a few pounding heartbeats to get the courage to look at Peter. You prayed your demeanor wouldn't give anything away.

"H-Huh?" You replied, braving a glance at him. Oh wow, real smooth.

"I asked, 'nice dream’?" Peter repeated, nonchalantly. His fingers tickled down your arm, only aiding in the nervous sweat that dripped down from your hairline.

"What makes you think that?" You stuttered.

"Well, yer were talkin’ quite a bit, babe. There was a moan a’ two thrown in there. Oh! And a 'Don't stop, Peter!' happened, too." He winked. “I must’ve given you a hella good time, princess.”

Ok sure, maybe he was exaggerating a little. But he reallyyy wanted to know exactly what happened in your dream..

Your cheeks flamed beyond recognition. You were fucked. Or rather, about to be.

"Hmm..." He looked at you with a piercing stare as a dimpled, wry grin split across his face. Before you could react, Peter laughed.

"Oi, shut up!" you giggled, slightly relieved at the humor that came out of this.

Your giggles came to an abrupt stop, however, as Peter shuffled impossible closer to you, his lengthy erection threatening to tear his pajamas. You fought with the Gods themselves not to look down, knowing the tent in the material would expose something you have thought of everytime you’d touch yourself.

A grumble erupted from Peter’s throat, his cocky facade crumbling away with every involuntary rut of your hips.

"How ‘bout yer show me what happened in yer dream?" he suggested, hand snaking around the small of your back as Peter sat up, pulling you into his lap.

You squeaked, nibbling your lip nervously. Peter pressed himself flush to you, his cock pressing against your pelvis angrily. A familiar aching tingle took up residence low in your belly, and you huffed out a shaky sigh as you pressed the ache closer to him.

“I’m gonna kiss you now.” He whispered, his breath fanning over your lips as he said it, albeit very shakily. Before you could even nod, his lips pressed to yours.

You instantly relaxed into his lap. Peter’s lips were soft and urgent, catching your bottom lip between them.

Your hands pulled him closer by the neck, and he let his hands mold against your waist, urging you closer. Your hands roamed into his hair, pushing it off his forehead and carding your fingers smoothly through it, causing him to let out a muffled moan into your mouth. You hummed.

Experimenting, you clumsily tugged at his silvery strands with fevor. With a whimper that had your walls clenching around air, Peter’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he let his hands drop to your ass.

He squeezed and pulled you down onto him, letting his lips find your neck. You let out a loud groan as he sucked a mark into your pulse point, but you pushed him away with both hands on his cheeks.

“Not above the collar,” You reminded meekly. He smirked at the idea of everyone on the team knowing what you had done. And everyone knowing that someone like you wanted to do this with someone like him. Take that, Scotty.

“But.. what if I want people to know yer mine?” Peter asked, pressing a quick kiss to your lobe as he said so, nibbling it carefully. You grinned.

“I think you’ve got this whole thing wrong then.”

“Hm?” You smiled as you felt Peter’s brows furrow against the side of your head.

“You belong to me.”

He whimpered. Your eyes lit up, and you simply smirked at him.

“Good boy.” You whispered, and pressed down hard with your hips, rolling them once.

Peter came in his pants. Again.

With a loud groan and a thrust upward, he shot into his pajamas. You chuckled through flushed cheeks as he shuddered through his orgasm, and leaned down to kiss him. As soon as he came down from the high, embarrassment overtook him.

He had a chance with his dream girl, and he literally blew it not five minutes in. Literally and figuratively. And all because you called him a Good boy?

Peter brought his hands up to cover his face, but you caught his wrists before he could reach. He closed his eyes and turned his face away, breathing heavily, not ready for the ridicule that was sure to follow.

“Awh, did I make you cum?” You rolled your hips a few times, and he hissed at the oversensitivity. “That’s so fuckin’ hot.”

“Yer- W-What?” Peter asked, turning back towards you slowly. You were beaming at him.

“The cutest boy, all worked up, jus’ for me.” You arched your back so your clothed tits were shoved closer to the poor boy’s face, yunno, just for good measure.

He blushed again, and swallowed as he grinned back at you. “But what ‘bout yer?”

“What about me?” You asked. Peter’s hands danced along your sides, cupping your breasts and teasing your nipples through your shirt.

“Wanna make yer feel good.” He whispered while you gasped.

“What’s stopping you?” You asked with a whisper. Peter surged upwards and began kissing you again, only stopping to finally rip your shirt off and get his hands on your bare breasts.

Peter’s tongue flicked against your own as you moaned against his lips, the feeling of him kneading your tits too much to bare.

“You’re so fuckin’ hot. Such a good, good boy.” You praised, stroking his hair.

He whines, playing with the hem of your shorts and his hips rut, seeking for friction. You take the hint, shimmying your pajamas down off your legs whilst helping Peter with his own.

You salivate at the sight of his lengthy cock, slapping up to hit his abs and glistening from the pearly white release running down it. Thick veins traveled upwards, buzzing from the speedster gene and throbbing with anticipation. His angry red tip leaked, twitching and begging for your warmth.

You use a hand to grip the base of your best friend's cock, his fluid running over your knuckles and providing you with a natural lube. Peter hissed with gritted teeth, watching as you slowly jerked him off with a tight embrace, circling the tip of his dick with your other hand.

“He-hey! Too much!” Peter yelped, bucking his hips up despite his protests.

You complied, stopping your actions briefly before sitting up, aligning your dripping wet entrance with his tip.

Schweeeett.

You laid a hesitant hand over his chest, and gooseflesh sizzled across his skin, sending another bolt of heat to his already overheated cock. He bit his lip to keep himself grounded and to keep from dropping his hand to his pants and rubbing himself to relive the pressure.

He felt so shaky and on edge and so, so horny.

Your lips pressed lightly against his, and while Peter’s brain seemed to short out, his body and his hormones knew exactly what to do and took over. He wrapped his arms around your shoulders, anchoring you to him as he flipped over so he was laying on top of you.

You made a breathy little noise, and Peter’s brain finally started up again.

“This okay?” he panted between the gentle little kisses he was peppering across her jaw.

“Almost,” you teased.

Before he could ask what you meant, you looped your leg around his Peter’s and tugged so that he was fully nestled in the cradle of your thighs. He groaned as he felt his aching erection settled against your heat.

He could feel the heat radiating out from your center, and Peter grew impossibly harder.

“Princess” he whimpered, rutting restlessly against you. “Please… fuck, yer feel so good…”

You arched up into him, grinding yourself equally as wantonly against him.

“So do you,” you hissed, tightening your hold around his hips for more leverage.

Your hands wandered aimlessly, but Peter was too lost in the feel of you beneath him, so soft and warm and beautiful. The pressure in his abdomen deepened until it almost hurt.

“I need… I want… Please, babe.. I’m gonna…”

He was well aware he was babbling, but his brain was a little more occupied by the delicious friction his cock was getting against your hot and damp center.

Peter tucked his face into your neck as he focused on the pleasure burning through him, soaring higher and higher until he could barely take it anymore.

You arched up hard against him as your fingers raked through his hair once more, and he was lost.

Deciding he had enough, Peter aligned himself with your entrance and slammed into your wet cunt with one thrust, eliciting a moan from you that threatened the coil in his lower stomach to snap already.

He kissed you once more, this time taking control as his tongue glided across your lips passionately, far from the blubbering mess you made him previously. The taste of caramel and sugar invaded your mouth, trickling down your throat with the same side effect as an aphrodisiac.

With every kiss Peter sped up his frantic motions, rendering you brainless on his dick as you could only focus on the slapping of skin and wet noises of your soaking pussy.

You were about to open your mouth to tell him to hurry up when Peter’s fingers reach between your folds, circling your clit with a steady pace. A loud, shuddering moan echoes around the room.

You don't even realize the noise came from yourself until you feel Peter’s shoulders move against your own because due to his cocky laughs. Airhead.

He was going so fast you couldn’t tell whether he was thrusting in or out, you could only feel an overwhelming pleasure consuming your mind and body.

Just when you thought you were on the brink of feeling the epitome of heaven itself, a buzzing vibration echoed deep within your walls, sending you into a frenzy.

You writhed and clawed at Peter’s back, a wordless plea for him to continue. Faster, Faster. Please.

He mumbled incoherently, which would’ve made you chuckle if you had the ability to do so, as his hips stuttered against your own, hitting a spot that had you clenching his buzzing cock like a vice.

With the remaining piece of consciousness you had left, you reached up to yank on Peter’s hair, forcing his head back as the building pleasure inside you exploded.

Peter let out a wordless cry as the hot coil of tension in his belly snapped, and white hot pleasure took its place.

He was dimly aware that you let out the most beautiful, sexy noise he’d ever heard as you tightened your hold around him, but he was more preoccupied by his cock filling you to the brim of cum that splattered your pulsing walls.

His skin prickled pleasantly, his ears ringing and his vision blurred, and he felt completely weightless. His vision darkened and he held you tight and panted his release into your neck.

“Shiiit,” he gasped, lifting his hips away from you as his cock softened and became too sensitive to be touched.

His arm muscles shook as he hoisted himself away from you, and collapsed onto the couch beside you.

Staring up at the ceiling, Peter let an exhausted grin cross his face as a few aftershocks rolled through him. Gaze shifted, He admired you as you came down from your high, moving to the bathroom to wash your hands and get a rag to clean yourselves up.

When you came back you went to wipe you down, but Peter took the rag from you.

“Sit. I get to take care of yer now. I owe it to yer, babe.” Concentrated, he wiped your dripping cunt with the rag, then making his way to the bathroom to get rid of the dirty towel.

When he came back you were still sitting on the edge of the bed. You smiled meekly up at him and reached out a hand, which Peter eagerly took, gladly letting you pull him in for a hug, with him standing between your knees.

“I really like you, you know.” You said, head resting on Peter’s chest as he stared down at you.

“I know. I really like yer too, babe.”

In answer, you shifted slightly and tilted your head up to face Peter’s flushed cheeks as he pressed a kiss to your nose. You couldn’t help but giggle softly, and you felt his smile as he pulled away. You could feel his breath as he moved to the side of your face, and placed a kiss on what you were sure was a very rosy apple of your cheek.

As you settled down together for the remaining hours of the night, the tense air between you and Peter had diminished, morphing into one of that had you giddy and excited.

You needed to bring out the movie nights more often.

~~~~

When morning rose and you walked into the briefing room the next morning, you were wearing a scarf, despite the hot Westchester heat. You hadn’t quite caught Peter in time, and he had in fact left a mark.

Of course the whole team noticed.

“Hey, twinkle toes, did you guys have another movie night?” Scott asked from his seat at the back of the room. Luckily Peter was facing away from him, so Scott didn’t see how his immediate reaction was to blanche at the memories from the night before. He gathered himself quickly.

“Yer, of course, what’s it to yer?” Peter asked shortly as he turned around, stirring a coffee with six sugars mixed into it.

Scott’s attention was on you, as you were talking to Kurt on the other side of the room.

“That scarf is only there to hide something, I think our lovely lady might’ve got some last night.” Scott said with a smug smirk. “Don’t let it break your heart, you still have a chance!” He turned to Peter and clapped him on the shoulder, who was blushing intensely at the tease. You had, in fact, ‘got some’, and he was the some you got with.

Scott soon noticed Peter was off, as normally he would be granted with some teasing retort or slap against the back of the head.

“C’mon, I’m just teasing. She probably didn’t get a chance to-” While he was talking, Peter caught your eye from across the room.

You smirked at him and waved, and he smiled and waved back.

Scott cut himself off when he saw Peter’s wave, turning to see just as your face turned back to Kurt. “Oh my god. You crazy man, you actually did it!” Scott exclaimed, shaking Peter by the shoulders. Peter pursed his lips to try and contain his smile as he nodded. “My man!” Scott exclaimed, pulling him into an awkward hug.

Peter caught your eye again over Scott’s shoulder, and the smile you gave him made him smile right back.

#peter maximoff #quicksilver #evan peters #xmen #evan peters masterlist #peter maximoff fluff #peter maximoff x y/n #peter maximoff x you #peter maximoff x reader #xmen peter maximoff #peter maximoff smut #evan peters x reader #evan peters headcannons

619 notes · View notes

sunshineshobi18 · 1 year

Text

You Don't Look At Me (prologue)

words: 3.9k pairing: Joel x female!OC, Tess x female!OC, Tess x Joel cw: weapons, mention of death, strong language, injury, honestly it's all pretty mild, spoilers for ep 2? summary: During one of their runs Joel and Tess find a little thief snooping around their stuff, they didn't realise how completely their lives would change with the new addition to their "family"

note: I got some requests to do a part 2 to the other fic, but before I do that (which I am planning to do, but I'm not promising anything) I just wanted to write about how Lori met Joel and Tess and why Joel acts the way he does around her.

---

“Goddamnit, Tess.”

Tess turned around and chuckled, watching Joel crouched over with sweat beating down his face. His chest rose and fell rather rapidly as he tried to catch his breath. “As long as you don’t get bit, old man.”

“You’re proud of that one, huh?” Joel asked straightening back up. He couldn’t help but smile a little as he watched Tess turn away from him with a smile of her own on her face. She went back to scanning their surroundings, making sure they had gotten rid of all the infected that had spotted them. “I think we’re in the clear,” he added after a quick scan of his own—making sure he looked over all the places Tess wasn’t watching.

“Seems like it—”

“Hey!” Joel yelled, causing Tess to be alert. Just over Tess’ shoulder, Joel watched as someone was rummaging through their backpacks that were abandoned on the ground for a while as they fought the infected. “Get away from our stuff!” he demanded before watching the small figure run into the building near them.

With just a shared look, Tess and Joel grabbed their stuff and ran into the house—no words exchanged. They both had their guns at the ready in case someone or something wanted to come for them.

The lingering sound of a door being closed echoed from the top floor down to the entrance Joel and Tess found themselves. Joel had just caught a glimpse of the thief’s shadow on the wall, directing him where to go. Slowly making his way up the stairs, he glanced over his shoulder telling Tess to stay as quiet as possible. With a nod from the woman, they continued towards the door that Joel thought the person entered. “I’ll go in first,” he mouthed. “Cover me.” Tess nodded, pointing her gun down the hallway to make sure no one was going to sneak up on them.

Joel tried to open the door softly, but with even the softest push, the door swung open. He held his gun up, barely scanning the room when he found his thief in the corner of the room.

She was just a little girl, eyes wide and fixated on his every move, yet her small hands still moved the food she had stolen from the duo towards her mouth. She quickly took a bite, not breaking eye contact with the tall man in front of her. She must be scared Joel thought, but he couldn’t help but realise she did a good job at hiding it.

“Hey,” Joel spoke in an exhale and steadily lowered his gun. “You hungry?” The girl only nodded with rigid motions and watched as Joel started moving towards her.

“Don’t!” His voice jumped in volume as he watched the girl reach out for a gun that laid on the floor just out of arm reach. With swift movements, Joel placed his foot on the weapon and kicked it back, behind him. The little girl cowered further into the corner of the room, making Joel sigh. “If you need food, I can give you some. There’s more where that came from.”

Before the girl could even react, Tess walked into the room. “There’s no one in the build— Who’s this?” Once Tess spotted the girl, her voice softened from confusion. She hadn’t expected a little girl all on her own.

“Our thief,” Joel chuckled, but quickly straightened his face when Tess inspected the girl with serious eyes. “She seemed to be hungry—”

“Where are your parents?” Tess asked, interrupting Joel. Tess’ voice wasn’t per se kind, but it was less rough then when she spoke to other adults. That much Joel could notice.

The girl didn’t answer, but her eyes moved to the other corner of the room. Joel and Tess followed the girl’s gaze until they noticed a built in closet. One of the doors was partly open and both of them could see the grimey, greyed flesh of two left arms hanging out the closet. A collective gasp left the two adults as their eyes turned to the little girl.

“What’s your name?” Joel asked, trying to ignore the presence of two dead bodies in the same room as him. He had seen and experienced worse, but imagining what the whole story must’ve been was something he didn’t want to think about.

“Mommy told me never to tell my name to strangers.” It was the first time the girl spoke and probably had spoken in a while. Her voice was hoarse to the point it sounded painful.

“Your mom is a very smart woman,” Tess said with a soft voice, trying not to scare the girl.

Joel crouched down to eye level with the girl and nodded to her as if coaxing her to look at him. “We can take you with us—”

“Joel,” Tess called in a scolding manner. He looked up to her to find her motioning him to follow her with her head. Joel smiled stiffly at the girl, before following Tess outside the room. “Are you insane, Joel? We can’t fucking take her! She’ll die out there.”

“She’ll die in here, Tess,” Joel retaliated firmly. His voice was unwavering just as were his eyes. “Look,” he began, letting her know he was about to reason with her. “We’ll take her back to the QZ. We find her a place she can stay—”

“We can’t just prance through the front gate of the QZ with a little girl. They’ll kill her on sight and us, because we shouldn’t be out here in the first place! I would rather have her die here with her family than have her killed under our responsibility.”

“I think it’s too late for that already. She’s been here for a while.” Joel raised his brows as if telling her “you know this too”, making Tess sigh in response and throw her head back. “Those bodies aren’t just a day old and I don’t want to open that closet, but I know that those people turned before she had to kill them.”

Tess looked back at Joel, her brows turned into a frown. “Since when did you start being a father again?”

“That is not what this is,” Joel clarified. Something in his tone telling Tess to bring up such things again. “I know you don’t want to leave this girl here alone either.”

“What if she’s infected?”

“You’ll check her over and if she’s okay we’ll take her to the QZ.”

“Okay and what after we get back in? She won’t be there officially. Legally. If they find her, she’ll be dead.”

“You know people. With your connections—”

“Joel.” Once again, Tess spoke with a tone to warn him about continuing to talk.

“Tess,” Joel called her, mimicking her tone. He moved closer ever so slightly and placed his hand on her forearm. His grip was soft, barely there and he looked at her with soft eyes. “I know you can do this. We can’t leave her here.”

Tess pressed her eyes closed as if she needed a second to wrap her mind around what had just happened and how this would affect them. Joel removed his arm from hers and took a step back, watching her contemplate everything they had done up until now. Joel knew what they were about to do wasn’t ideal, but he couldn’t leave the girl on her own after knowing she was starving and had spent several days locked up in a room with her dead parents.

By the time Joel had come to terms with the situation himself, he found that Tess had already joined the little girl back in the room.

“Lori.” Joel had missed the conversation that happened before this, but realised that they had just learned the name of the small girl.

“Do you know how old you are?”

“Seven.” Tess smiled and nodded at the girl, but Joel could easily tell she was trying to hide her surprise and frankly horror at finding out the girl’s age.

Seven and already had to kill her family. Joel wished Lori’s parents were horrible people. That forcing a child to kill her parents wasn’t for nothing—beside the obvious reason for them being infected.

“And you’re sure you don’t have any bites on you?” Tess asked whilst double checking the girl’s limbs. Lori nodded with wide eyes as she watched the tall woman. There was something akin to wonder in her eyes. She didn’t seem scared at all. “Do you want to come with me and Joel? I promise you, where we’re going, there is more food.” Tess smiled sadly as her words seemed to peak Lori’s interest. “It’s not much, but it’s more than you can find here.”

Lori stood up with the help of Tess, holding the tiny bit of beef jerky she had stolen tightly in her fist. They started moving towards the door where Joel stood waiting on them, when Lori stopped and stared at the closet. “What about my mommy and daddy?”

Joel and Tess had never found each other's gazes so quickly then when Lori uttered those words. “Well,” Tess began as she must’ve realised Joel didn’t know what to say in such situations. “They’re at peace here. Together. I’m sure they would love for you to go somewhere safe.”

Lori nodded hesitantly before turning sharply at Joel. Without a second glance, the little girl walked out the room and down the stairs with the two adults following her in silence.

It was crazy to Joel, how this little girl was able to cope with the world crumbling apart around her. Maybe it was because she didn’t know any better. Because the worst had already happened to her. It couldn’t be real to see a seven year old laugh and joke around with a woman 4-5 times her age after having been found only 3 hours before stealing food to survive and sitting in a room where she had killed her infected parents.

An amused chuckle coming from Tess, took Joel out of his trance. “I’m not supposed to like you, kid.” Joel watched as Lori’s brows turned down in confusion.

“Why not?”

Tess gave the girl a pat on her back, closing the bottle of water she had shared with her. “Because we’ll probably not see each other much when you get to the people who’ll take care of you.”

If it was possible, Lori’s frown would become more pronounced. It was as if the way those words left Tess’ mouth so easily affected the girl. She eyed Tess before glancing at Joel for a second and then refocused her gaze on Tess. “Am I not staying with you two?”

“Well, me and Joel aren’t home a lot. We have to work and aren’t always in the QZ. It’ll be hard to take care of you when we’re not home that often.”

“Oh,” Lori said softly. She looked down in her lap before nodding. “Will you at least come see me when you aren’t working?”

Tess smiled and patted the girl’s back again. “Of course.”

“Fucking—” Tess ducked her head to the side as the impact of the shot reverbrated from her left side. She looked up with a scowl, watching Lori walk up to her with a grin. “Are you trying to kill me?”

Lori holstered her gun before crouching down. She tore a piece of fabric from a dirty shirt she found laying around and wound it around Tess’ leg. While securing the fabric Lori glanced to Tess’ left side, just behind her on the floor. “I've got a pretty good aim,” she chuckled and focussed on finishing up the makeshift bandage around the older woman’s thigh. Tess looked behind her to see a clicker on the floor. Bullet hole right between where its eyes should be.

“Don’t get cocky on me now,” Tess warned the girl, trying not to show her a smile. Lori saw through her though, she always did.

Some shuffling sounded from behind the two as Lori pulled Tess back on her feet. “Are you done with your girl talk? We need to hurry up before it gets too dark.”

Lori looked back at Tess with an amused smirk. The older of the two hadn’t caught the smirk yet, until Lori spoke, “what a buzzkill.” Tess hit the younger girl on her shoulder, but tried to stifle her laugh as she watched Joel mumble under his breath.

“Don’t get on his bad side now,” Tess warned, limping slightly behind the two. The cut in her leg wasn’t too deep, yet it still stung. She had gone through worse, though.

“I think I already am,” Lori joked as she wrapped herself around Joel’s arm. “He doesn’t like me very much.”

“I’m sure that’s not true—”

“She’s right,” Joel interrupted Tess and shrugged the girl off his arm. Lori just laughed, leaving Joel to roll his eyes.

“Didn’t you see, though? I shot that clicker and saved Tess’ life!”

“Still don’t know why we gave you a gun,” Joel muttered.

“What? I just said I saved her life!”

Tess rolled her eyes, skipping a little to get between the two. She looked at the young girl before mouthing, “leave it.”

Lori rolled her eyes and this time Tess could tell the girl’s mood dropped. “I’m just letting you know you owe me.”

“I know I do,” Tess said to try and lighten the mood, but from that point on Lori—and Joel—stayed silent.

They arrived at Joel’s apartment in the QZ a few hours later. Joel crashed onto the couch while Lori sat down at the small kitchen table that was so wobbly, it got everyone wondering when it would break apart. The girl laid her head down on the table, closing her eyes as if she would fall asleep there.

“Kiddo,” Tess called out for Lori, who only hummed in response. “You said I owed you right?” Lori squinted her eyes questioningly at Tess before realising what she was holding in her hand.

“Wow! Where did you find this?” Lori took the book of sudokus from Tess and Tess could see the glimmers of excitement light up Lori’s eyes.

“Found it in that house where you saved me from that clicker. It’s partly filled in, but I’m sure there’s plenty you can still do.” Tess leaned in closer, pointing at something on the cover. “It says advanced, as well. I’m sure these will keep you occupied for a couple of weeks.”

“A couple of days maybe,” Lori muttered, but she was still happy beyond belief. “Thank you Tess!” The girl jumped up from her seat and launched herself onto Tess. The latter chuckled awkwardly, but let Lori hug her.

Tess found out rather quickly after they found Lori and took her to the QZ that the girl was really smart. Besides already being fairly mature for her age, the girl seemed to be a real problem solver—literally. The second she learned how sudokus were solved—she learned this from one of the men that worked for Tess—Lori would spend every minute she could solving them. As she got older, she did them less often. Not only were the books a rare thing to find, but she had also gotten so good at them that she would finish the easy ones within only a minute or two.

“What’s so fun about those little number games anyway?” Tess and Lori turned their heads to Joel, who had uttered the question with annoyance in his tone.

“I’m not surprised you don’t know that it’s called a sudoku, which isn’t a game,” Lori answered through gritted teeth. Joel just rolled his eyes and got more comfortable on the couch. “They’re puzzles,” the young girl added, “and you’re probably too stupid to solve them.”

“Lori!” Tess gasped before she watched Joel swing his legs down the couch and glower at the teen.

“You do not talk to me like that. Understood?” Joel’s voice was low and steady. It would make anyone cower, but Lori didn’t even flinch. She returned Joel’s scowl and for the first time Tess felt nervous seeing the two act the way they did.

“No,” Lori answered unwavering which caused Joel to boil over and stand up, anger clearly consuming his figure.

Tess quickly jumped between the two, pushing herself back into Joel so he couldn’t get closer to Lori. She knew Joel wouldn’t hurt her, but she wasn’t sure what else he would do and she wasn’t about to find out. “Okay, you two can stop this,” Tess told them with a nervous quiver in her voice. She wasn’t afraid of Joel, nor was she afraid of the young girl she had been taking care of for multiple years, but it was the foreign situation that was unfolding that caught her slipping from her usual collected demeanour. “I don’t know why you are so hostile towards each other today, but let’s just stop this now.”

Lori grabbed her puzzle book from the table, stuffed it in her bag and pulled the strap of her bag over her shoulder. “He fucking started it,” she mumbled, holding Joel’s stare.

“Let’s not handle this like children—”

“I am a kid, Tess!” The older of the two women watched as Lori’s eyes shifted to Joel. She could tell Lori was biting back her words before she looked back at Tess. The look in the girl’s eyes told Tess she felt betrayed that she, Tess, was taking Joel’s side and Tess wanted nothing more than to assure the girl that that wasn’t the case, but Lori spoke before she could say anything, “I’m heading home.”

Without another word, Lori turned around and disappeared behind the front door of Joel’s apartment, likely going back to Tess’ place. Tess sighed in disappointment before turning around to face Joel. “What the fuck is your problem?”

Joel mumbled something under his breath before laying back down on the couch.

“I know Lori isn’t your daughter. I know she isn’t Sarah—”

“Don’t bring her up,” Joel warned, opening his left eye to glare at Tess.

“Lori isn’t your kid, but she’s still a kid and that gives you no reason to treat her like shit.” Tess’ voice was full of disappointment and somewhere beneath the worry she carried for Lori and her relationship with Joel, there was anger. Anger towards the stupidity of it all. “I don’t know why you’re suddenly acting like this. I just don’t get it.”

Joel sighed and sat up on the couch, leaving room for Tess to sit down next to him if she pleased. “Seven years ago we said we’d bring Lori to a family who would take care of her. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want a 14 year old following us around with a gun and making our jobs 10 times harder.”

Tess frowned at the nonsense Joel was spitting. “What the fuck are you even saying? Seven years ago you insisted on bringing Lori here. You gave me no way out and I did everything I could to give her a family, but it didn’t work out. Now she’s my family and I’m getting a little pissed off with how you are treating her.”

“Next time, let’s leave her in the QZ when we go out, she’s a danger to us,” Joel said as if trying to change the subject. Tess, however, noticed Joel’s gaze lower to the bloody bandage around her leg and it was like a lightbulb turned on inside her head.

“This?” she asked incredulously, motioning at her leg. “The kid fucking saved me, Joel! If it weren’t for her, that clicker would’ve gotten to me.”

Joel jumped up from his seat and moved close to Tess. “What if she missed? What if she shot you instead? I should have saved you! I am the one that should keep you safe!” he yelled, emphasising the I’s by pointing at his chest.

Before Joel could register the sting on the side of his face, Tess was already storming out of his apartment. “You selfish bastard,” she muttered as she gathered her stuff. “Lori and I don’t need you. It’s you who needs us and you fucking know it. So get a grip.” The door shut with a loud bang.

“Huh—”

“Shh, sweetheart. It’s just me,” Tess whispered as she climbed into bed with Lori. She softly tucked Lori’s long locks of hair behind her ear and felt her heart break when she saw her tear stained cheeks. “You can go back to sleep,” she told the girl, who immediately buried her face underneath her chin.

The two usually never were this touchy. It only happened once before that they hugged like this. It was a day that Tess promised never to talk about again, knowing how much it affected Lori. If it were for Lori, however, they would be closer, physically and emotionally. Tess just didn’t want to get too attached—it was already too late for that. The thought in the back of her mind lingering. Wondering how many days they would be able to spend together in this hellish world. Even though they spent seven whole years together, Tess was still worried she might lose Lori or Lori might lose her. If anything happened she would like it to be the latter of the two options.

“I didn’t know what I did for him to hate me.”

“You didn’t do anything—”

“Clearly I did.”

Tess sighed, pulling the girl closer. “Joel doesn’t hate you,” she said, trying to comfort her in a soft voice. She chuckled a little as she said, “he’s just being a bit of a dick.”

“That’s an understatement,” Lori mumbled into Tess’ shirt, causing the older woman to laugh warmly. “It’s just that I see all these families in the QZ and outside that, despite everything, care for each other and then I look at my d— Joel and,” Lori started to stumble over her words and Tess could feel her face heating up against the skin of her neck. “He— My real father is dead, I don’t mean— Joel… I just want him to not hate me. I—”

Tess waited for Lori to continue, but she stopped talking completely. With a sad smile, not visible to Lori, Tess stroked the girl’s hair. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I know he’ll come around—”

“Let’s just sleep.”

A sigh escaped Tess’ lips and she nodded. “Goodnight, love.”

As Lori slept in Tess’ arms, Tess thought about all the things she wanted to yell at Joel for. Her mind kept wandering back to the last words she yelled at Joel. “Lori and I don’t need you,” she remembered herself telling him. And it was true. But she also realised that Lori just wanted him. Moreover, she wanted Joel to want her. She wanted to be someone special in his life with the false hope he had given her when he insisted on bringing her to the QZ.

When Tess and Joel had found Lori, alone in that house, it was the first and last time both Tess and Lori had seen the fear, the love and the care of a father in Joel’s eyes. And that would continue to be true for Tess, because she wouldn’t be alive to see that shift again when Ellie—the girl she’d still be able to meet before her death—would start to mean something to Joel. Tess also wouldn’t be alive to see the betrayal and torment that would cause Lori.

Because all that Lori would ever want is for Joel to care.

#joel miller fic #joel miller x reader #joel x oc #joel x tess #joel x reader #tess x reader #tess x oc #the last of us fanfiction #the last of us imagine #joel miller imagine #joel miller angst #tlou fanfiction #tlou angst #joel x platonic!reader

271 notes · View notes

omgrachwrites · 8 months

Text

Traitor - Dalton Lambert

Pairing: Dalton Lambert x Reader

Warnings: angst, teeny tiny bit of fluff, spoilers if you haven't seen the movie yet

Prompt: "The worst thing is,that even after all of that, I’m still in love with you.”

A/N: If I can, I'm gonna try and post my fics for my celebration back to back! Thank you to the sweet anon who requested this, I am so sorry in advance. Hope you guys all enjoy and please let me know what you think, I love you all! xxx

You unwillingly opened your eyes as a shiver ran down your spine, it was so dark here, the lantern in your hand was your only light. It was so silent that you could practically hear your heart thumping in your chest and your blood pumping in your ears. Your boyfriend was here, and you had to find him, you had to get rid of the damn demon that was using his body.

Though, you didn’t want to call out for him because you knew it would alert all the other entities to your presence. Up ahead, you saw a light like your own and you made your way towards it. A tall man was carrying a lantern and he looked extremely distressed, when he noticed your light he made his way towards you quickly.

“I need your help,” he started in a quiet voice, “I’m looking for my son, Dalton.”

“I’m looking for Dalton too,” when the man tilted his head in confusion, you elaborated, “I’m Y/N, his girlfriend.”

The man laughed a little, “it’s good to meet you, Y/N, despite the circumstances, I’m Josh, Dalton’s dad. Now, let’s go and get our boy back.”

You nodded and you both travelled deeper into The Further. Eventually, you came across the red door and you shuddered in fear as you knew what lurked behind it. With a firm nod, both you and Josh walked up to the door and turned the handle, walking down the red corridor. As you got closer to the cave, you could hear the song. The song that almost caused you to have a panic attack every time it came on the radio.

Josh rushed forwards while you were frozen in fear at the boyfriend in the small cage, you watched Josh pull Dalton by his chains, destroying them in the process. Dalton and Josh ran back to you before the demon could come back.

“Y/N!” he called your name as he pulled you into his arms, before he pulled back to look at you slightly to look at your face, “how are you here?”

Before you could answer, Josh interrupted, “guys, we have to go! Now!”

You and Dalton nodded as you quickly followed Josh back down the hallway, heading for the door. You were halfway to the door when the demon came after you, making you scream.

“Run!” Dalton yelled and when Josh reached the door he threw all his weight at the door as he wrenched it open, the three of you spilling back into the darkness.

You and Josh stood with your backs firmly against the door as the demon wailed behind it, trying to get through. You looked at Dalton who was pale and shaking, you’d never seen him look so scared.

“We can’t hold it back!”

“We have to try,” Josh replied.

In that moment, you knew what you had to do, you shook your head and looked at the two Lambert men, “you two have to go.”

“What? No, I’m not leaving you here!” Dalton argued.

“Out of the question!” Josh agreed.

The door splintered and you gasped as your knees buckled, “you have to! Find a way to close the damn door from out there!”

Tears were flowing down Dalton’s cheeks now as he cupped your jaw, “I love you so much,” he sniffled and kissed you deeply.

“I love you too,” you whispered, memorising his handsome face, and you heard the wood creak, “you have to go! Go, now!”

Josh nodded at you with tears in his eyes as he pulled his son away, Dalton’s eyes didn’t leave yours, not until the darkness swallowed them up.

Even though it was the hour of your death, you weren’t scared, you couldn’t think of a better reason to die, or a better person to die for. You suddenly heard a faint dripping noise that made you look up, there was black ooze sliding down the surface of the door and it took you a little while to realise what it was. A smile spread across your face when you realised it was paint. You felt your eyes close as the darkness closed in around you.

The next thing you knew, you were gasping for air and Dalton pulled you into his arms, sobbing into your neck, “you’re back! I’m so glad you’re okay!” he pulled back to look at your face, “you saved me.��

You smiled and cupped his cheek, “I’d do anything for you, but we should talk about this.”

Dalton shook his head, “in the morning, we don’t have to talk about it right now,” he was cut off by his phone ringing, “dad? Yeah she’s okay,” he grinned at you, he had a quick conversation with his dad before hanging up.

“Will you stay with me tonight?” you asked.

“Of course.”

The next day, you and Dalton went out for breakfast and you knew that you had to tell him. You had to tell him everything, even if it meant you’d lose him.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you that I could travel.”

“Babe, you don’t have to apologise, it’s an amazing coincidence.”

God, he was so innocent and sweet, and you were about to shatter his whole world view, “it’s not a coincidence, Dalton.”

“What?” he asked frowning at you and you sighed as you told your story.

“I was about 13 when that awful demon trapped me in The Further. He tried to possess me but he couldn’t, I don’t know why. I struck a deal with him, you in exchange for me. I thought it was just a bad dream, until about a year ago.”

“And then, we met about 6 months later,” he mumbled, a crease forming between his eyebrows, “you knew who I was when we met?” when you nodded, he sighed as his eyes went glassy with tears, “what was the point of you even getting to know me if you were just going to hand me over?”

“Because it takes time to open the door again. When you and your dad had your memories suppressed, the door was closed to you.”

He shook his head as he ran a hand through his hair, “you encouraged me to find out more about the door, encouraged me to open it further,” he muttered.

“I cared more about my freedom than I did about you, you were just another cute guy,” your heart twisted as his tears streamed over his lips and he made no attempt to wipe them away, “and then, something changed, it was like I was seeing you for the first time. I developed feelings for you. I wanted to be with you all the time. I love you, Dalton.”

He shook his head, “you lied to me for 6 months, Y/N, if you had only told me I would have helped you get your freedom. I would have done anything for you.”

“I know, and I’m so sorry.”

“I can’t believe the woman who led me on so cruelly would be the one who was so willing to die for me.”

“You don’t deserve to be trapped there, Dalton.”

He scoffed, “y’know, the worst thing is, that even after all of that, I’m still in love with you. And, it makes me sick,” his face shut down and he got up, “I don’t want to see you, Y/N.”

“For how long?” you asked, your heart breaking.

“I don’t want to see you ever again,” he whispered and then he was gone, out of the diner. Out of your life. Forever.

#dalton lambert #dalton #dalton x reader #reader x dalton #angst #josh lambert #insidious 5 #insidious #the red door #insidious the red door

73 notes · View notes

whatlovelybones-if · 1 year

Note

I absolutely adore Salem and if you don't mind and if it's not spoilers, I have some questions. How did Salem and Mc meet and how old was the Mc when they first met Salem?

i’m just throwing crumbs from the actual book at y’all atp smh not that i’m complaining under the cut in case y’all wanna avoid spoilers

a kitten jumps over the fence with a speed so fast that it seemed like a black blur to the passersby. she runs on her little feet, scratches adorning her belly and paws and black fur slightly matted with blood. she couldn’t be more than a month old and looks extra small with ribs sticking out and her big green eyes staying on alert.

two dogs sprint after her, strays with large muzzles and jaws which could break her ribs in pieces if they ever bite down on her small body. the cat knows that turning around or stopping will not end well for her. so she runs. she runs with swift feet and a rapidly beating heart.

she would outrun them today, tomorrow, and however many times she has to. this is the price she has to pay for living in a dog-eats-dog kind of world. to survive, you must run. especially with her size, she was never going to soundly defeat those two dogs.

she knew she had made a mistake as soon as she entered the uncharted territory behind the diner. what was even more stupid was that she decided to dig through the large trashcan anyway, searching for any scraps thrown out by the diner.

it was the smaller dog which noticed her first, immediately growling and giving away his position. the sheer timing of that was the only reason why the cat managed to get out of the way when the other dog pounced on her. to her tiny frame, they were titans armed with big, sharp teeth and aggression. and she was nothing but someone trying to live another day.

the little cat did not go without a fight though. she jumped on the larger dog, scratching one of his eyes and leaving him to whimper in pain. the other dog backs away for a second, before gearing up to strike her. she uses the injured dog as a leverage to jump and leave a deep gash on the smaller one.

he yowls and smacks her away with his sharp claw, causing deep gashes on her belly. she shakes her body, trying to get rid of the sudden dizziness and pain which assaulted her at the impact. when she senses one of the dogs leaning in to smell her, she hisses ferociously with an anger of a lioness and lands another swipe of her claws.

she wasted no time in just running with no destination in mind. the little cat didn’t care where she was going, she just wanted to be rid of her two aggressive pursuers who were still on her tail.

this was when she noticed a manor in the distance, looming like a menacing shadow over its premise. she also saw someone coming out of there, walking to a car parked nearby. the little cat didn’t think any further as she darted towards them, slowing herself down to a pace.

the person stops in their track and tilts their head in interest as she walks closer, meowing and making sure to show off the slight limp in her leg. they frown and immediately crouch down, taking off their gloves to reach their hand forward so she could sniff them and get familiar. the little cat contemplates what to do just for a while before she comes closer and runs her head against their hand after sniffing.

she couldn’t understand it herself but the person exuded a protective and warm aura, despite the coldness of their hands. they coo at her as she gets more confident and rubs herself all over their white coat, purring like an engine going haywire.

“are you hurt, you sweet little thing?” they ask in a fond but worried voice, fingers scratching near her tail in a way which makes her lift her lower half up. she all but meows repeatedly in confirmation.

that is all it takes for the person to gently scoop her up in their arms while taking care not to hurt her. the kitten purrs even louder—feeling comfortable and loved like this was a new but welcomed feeling.

“it’s alright, darling,” the person coos in a reassuring voice, softly scratching behind her ear. “we’ll get you all patched up, okay?”

the kitten meows and paws at their arms, as if making tiny biscuits and it brings a genuinely amused laugh out of them. it abruptly stops when she notices, at the same time as them, the two dogs prowling and watching from a distance. they seem to hesitate, as if something was holding them back. but her nose had always been good, and she could detect exactly what they smelled of.

fear. the most primal kind. fear of what exactly, she couldn’t tell, but it wafted off of them like rotten fish. the mere whiff of it raised her hackles and she hisses at them, this time even fiercer than before.

“i think what she is trying to say here is that you should leave,” the person’s voice was colder enough to freeze hell over. “now.”

“i’m guessing they’re the ones who did this to you,” the person says, examining her and looking over the fresh wounds. “you’re a brave little girl though, aren’t you?”

the pair didn’t need to be told twice as they yelped and ran, tails between their legs in the opposite direction.

the kitten meows and nestles into them further, enjoying their embrace.

“how about a name, hmm?” they scratch her chin fondly. “what about salem? fits you quite well, doesn’t it?”

the kitten, now named salem, purrs in approval. the person chuckles, holding her close and pressing a kiss on her head. salem meows and paws at the collar of their coat playfully.

“looks like we’re gonna have lots of adventures together, little salem.”

#asks #readers from tumblr do be getting access to other characters’ POV first #but oh well #it’s not like i can keep them hidden much anyway #what lovely bones #bonnie nonnie

122 notes · View notes

cyndrastic · 7 months

Text

aight update on the future au:

polls not over yet but it’s leaning heavily at McCormick, so i’ll give you my pcov designs and some headcanons for the McCormick parents rn cause out of all the adults they’re my favs 💕💖

i love them so much you don’t understand (also surprise surprise Kenny married Butters [changed his name to Vic], no one could have ever guessed that considering one of my first art posts on this account was a bunny comic 🙄)

anyway they both have mullets cause i just really like mullets, and Vic shaved the side of her head cause that’s my headcanon of what butter’s hair is in the show (cause his little tomato puff makes no sense) and i feel like he would have kept those.

more details and explanations for some things under the cut (aka im ranting about my fav characters and how they work as a couple with little bits of au lore sprinkled in)

Vic-

you may notice i’m jumping back and forth between he and she for Vic, and that’s cause he uses she/he. Don’t get me wrong, I love Butters and Marjorine, but i’ve seen the argument between them so many times. “Butters is a Cis guy!” “Marj is a trans girl!” fuck it Vic is a gnc icon and picks whatever gender he wants depending on whatever the fuck he wants and he’s hot both masc and fem. and i mean very hot. Butters in the show gets a couple descriptive things, namely in the “It’s Butters!” song hes said to have dimples, and more importantly when his father thinks he’s wearing his mom’s makeup when he’s not. that means this kids got perfectly flushed cheeks, nice eyelashes and eyebrows, and unblemished porcelain skin even at 8 years old. that paired with his blonde hair and presumably blue eyes (i’ve never met a blondie without blue eyes), emphasized cheek bones we see in the pcov special (implying he’s got a more slender face and likely more slender and long figure in general, which is the what literal modeling agents tend to look for btw [i would know my grandma and mom were models because they were both pretty with thin frames and lanky limbs]), and the scar over his left eye makes him insanely attractive.

the scar especially gives him something to stand out with; make people remember him (sometimes he even takes out his glass eye just so people get a good look at his empty socket and that image can be seared into their brains). being androgynous also helps make everyone, whether they’re attracted to men or women, find him hot. no one even knows if Vic is short for Victor or Victoria, and that’s the point. also due to how he grew up in this au (spoiler alert, Vic’s life was awful for a lot of years between beginning of high school and when he reconnected with Kenny as an adult [that’s an understatement Vic is by far the most traumatized character in this au]), he doesn’t feel particularly comfortable with being on one perfect end of the gender spectrum; girl or boy. So no matter how he’s presenting, he’s always going to look somewhat androgynous.

Kenny-

Kenny is kinda the same, i just wanted him to look more cool and unhinged. I got rid of the full beard cause i can’t draw it and also hated it, but i added snake bites cause they’re cool. I also got rid of the beer on his shirt cause I feel like after being raised by two alcoholic assholes he wouldn’t drink much as an adult. oh yeah and he’s a he/they now cause you can’t tell me princess kenny didn’t awaken something in him. i feel like he would go to a fancy award ceremony for some massive science breakthrough in a gown. he’s the typa guy to accept some prestigious award for his scientific findings in a slutty silk dress. Basically everything I changed in Kenny’s design was to make him look more like the wacky uncle who gives children weapons (spoilers he is). i kept how the pcov specials made his stockier cause honestly i just like him a little bit bigger. I feel like that’s a treat to himself. he spent so long in a home where he’d probably have to starve some night cause they couldn’t afford to eat, so when he becomes an extremely successful adult, he can give himself the luxury of eating three meals a day or eating junk food that was too expensive for him. he can finally afford to be a little bit heavier; it’s just proof that he’s made it this far from where he came. He’s also more of a mad scientist in this au a la Dr. Mephesto, but far more ethical in what/how he runs experiments.

both-

Their dynamic and characterization in this au is by far the most fleshed out because of how much I like these two characters, and it’s genuinely my favorite couple in the au. I might make a whole separate post on how they operate as parents because they’re both so horrifically worried that they may accidentally follow in their own parents footsteps. Yknow, generational trauma and whatnot. They’re also both insanely unhinged. Both of them are just balls of the walls crazy, which stems from both of them being traumatized (i mentioned Vic is the most traumatized in this au, Kenny is the second most cause of dying thousands of times over his whole life).

Kenny has lost all grasp of physical or mortal fear cause by this time in his life he’s died so much he’s lost any sense of connection to injury, even to other people. It’s difficult for him to register that other people are mortal because it’s such a foreign concept to him, and that can lead to some issues in the lab given that it’s such a dangerous place to work. Meanwhile, Vic has the people she cares about, and has a hard time grasping that people she doesn’t care about aren’t just stepping stones. She was used her whole life, then used and hurt people as an adult (yes she was an NFT bro, no she’s not anymore), but now she has a hard time not snapping back into the NFT thing and scheming every cent out of whoever gave her a dirty look at Walmart. Kenny and Vic can and generally do help each other out with these things, but they can also be each others worst instigators (“oh yeah you should absolutely do that consequences be damned” “no he had it coming to him don’t worry” “yeah fuck him up! beat his ass!” typa shit. they support each other non-conditionally but sometimes that leads to them getting arrested).

37 notes · View notes

goldrushenthusiast · 9 months

Note

Have you read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes? 🎼🕊️🪱

If you have not read it, what do you think about the title? What characters represent birds and snakes?

*spoiler alert*

If you have read it, how birds and snakes play a part in the narrative? Also what do you think about Mockingjay role in the original trilogy and this prequel?

Thank you.

@curiousnonny

ofc!!! literally I live for BOSAS. like I’ve read it so many times I’ve lost count.

I think the second part is supposed to be if I have, even if not I’m gonna answer anyways, but I love the title, especially because Lucy Gray loves ballads.

Like she literally writes them. And this is their own story- of themselves. Which also really represents them, writing stories about themselves lol.

I think that the Coriolanus and Lucy Gray are the snake and songbird respectively. While I have seen cases made for the other way around, and some points are valid, I can’t really understand it as well.

Maybe that could be interpreted as how they’re not too different overall. How sometimes, when you love someone, you start to adopt parts of them you wouldn’t have normally, and you take parts of each other too. Idk. But Coriolanus is definitely a snake, not a songbird, and Lucy Gray is definitely a songbird although she for sure could be a snake.

Coriolanus is constantly tricking and manipulating people & things for his own gain (snakelike behavior), is in general a snob, and very ambitious. Lowkey I’m just naming slytherin behavior but you get the idea.

Of course, Lucy Gray loved to sing, but she also knew where danger was and how to avoid it, like Mockingjays did. She sang songs passed down from Covey member to Covey member and still kept her own voice, making songs of her own too. She is who she is because of something naturistic (the Covey) and something Capitolistic (the Games), like the Mockingjays.

Really I think that’s just surface level, and the most obvious (imo) but there’s many other things the songbirds & snakes could represent in the book too.

Like the fact Lucy Gray used snakes as crutch, and knew how to manipulate them (hmmm, makes you think of how she treated Coriolanus, who I’ve alr labeled as a snake), and how Coriolanus’ first military order/idea thing was to immediately get rid of Mockingjays (a songbird, which I’ve alr related Lucy Gray to) because they…unnerved him. And covered it up by saying target practice.

I think this shows how they saw each other, although both at different parts in the relationship- Lucy Gray saw Coriolanus as someone to help her stay alive during the beginning of their relationship and used him for that, and at the end, Coriolanus couldn’t handle Lucy Gray leaving him so he starts blindly shooting (remember- he wasn’t too good at catching Mockingjays). It’s why songbirds is first- she’s the beginning. Coriolanus, a snake, is what leads to the end.

Songbirds and Snakes could also be a metaphor for the capital vs the districts.

The districts, the songbirds, flocking to what keeps them safe yet never actually being guaranteed it. The snake, the capital, controlling said songbirds. It’s a ballad of the differences between the two, a showcase of what they represent and what happens when you mix two of them. I don’t think BOSAS is a love story, but it’s not not one, either.

Genuinely a case could be made for Dr. Gaul & Sejanus being the snake & songbird. The snake constantly toying with the songbird. The songbird who has a voice but is constantly confused on how to use it.

It could also be a nod to how important both songbirds and snakes are to the story, but I’ll get to that in the next question.

This is basically a testament to how all-encompassing the songbirds and snakes are, and how many things they can be interpreted as.

Ok, yay, now next question!!

The story wouldn’t be what it is without birds and snakes.

Coriolanus’ first sighting of Lucy Gray is her dropping a snake down Mayfair’s dress. This drastically impacts how the capital and how Coriolanus view her from then on- a preformer and a fighter. Without that small act of rebellion, and the performance onstage, she wouldn’t have half as many sponsors or interest in her.

Lucy Gray also leaves a small snake as a present for Coriolanus when he tries to kill her. Like a last goodbye, almost. That snake really drove the point home Lucy Gray wasn’t playing around or anything. She was fr. It shows Coriolanus who he thinks she truly is, and drives the point home she’s wrong for him.

Songbirds are a bit trickier/less obvious. Songbirds help represent the differences between them- Lucy Gray’s love of music, Coriolanus’ tolerance of it. Lucy Gray’s love of freedom, Coriolanus’ disgust of it (in large portions when anyone other than him has it).

As I mentioned earlier, Coriolanus, upon hearing them for the first time, wants all the Mockingjays dead. He literally can’t help saying how much he hates them ((as we see with him & Dr. Kay, while he usually has good control. Also good lesson on how songbirds (Lucy Gray) make him lose control)).

Songbirds provide a gruesome opportunity to show Coriolanus’ true colors.

Last question! Ok lowkey feel like that all sorta answered it, but I love the mockingjays. They’re such a vibe, honestly, and I love how crucial they are to BOSAS and the OG series.

Rue’s whistles (representing safety and codes).

Coriolanus’ hatred (representing his hatred & slowly sliding grip on self control).

Their mutative state (the capital can’t control everything, good always wins, yada yada what Katniss says basically).

Like what a W for birds all around, honestly. I’d love one that just sits outside my window all day.

As always, thank you for the question @curiousnonny, and anyone else feel free to debate but not argue these points in reblogs or replies, but please stay civil.

#thg #the hunger games #ballad of songbirds and snakes #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #bosas #tbosas #ballad of my ramblings #Coriolanus snow #coriolanus x lucy gray #Lucy gray #lucy gray baird #sejanus plinth #dr gaul #the hunger games prequel #the hunger games katniss #katniss everdeen #mockingjay #mockingbird #jabberjays

27 notes · View notes

stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale · 2 years

Text

after a year long break, I replayed TFS

I haven’t been too active in the twdg fandom for about a year now, only popping in from time to time to talk about the Clementine comic or to answer the occasional ask.

A lot has happened- I got into the Dragon Age series and created a side blog dedicated to it, got a new job, played a LOT of Stardew Valley, read Clementine Book One enough times to make me weep all for the sake of a review, gave Skyrim a second chance and that went terribly, went on the search for a good sapphic romance novel but have yet to find one, replayed Fallout: New Vegas and remembered why it’s my favorite Fallout game, and it’s November so I’m crying about nanowrimo.

I haven’t touched The Final Season, or any Telltale game, since September of last year. My interactions with the fandom on this blog have been scarce, especially when you look at the way I used to post in 2018-2021 by comparison. But I got an email the other day from tumblr telling me that this blog turned 4 years old. I began looking through all of my old content and that inspired me to boot up TFS and experience it once again to see if my opinions changed.

Spoiler alert: A lot have.

I wasn’t planning on writing a post like this when I did my replay. After all, as I’m working on this it’s nanowrimo. I may or may not be an anxious mess, it’s fine, I’m fine.

I’m aware that the fandom isn’t exactly thriving at the moment but I feel like I need to get these feelings out of my system.

Y’see, it’s fascinating. I spent years running this blog- so many themed nights, talking with you guys and answering asks, writing fics, getting into dumb arguments, saying dumb things, and streaming the series on Mixer and Twitch, and for the most part? My views/opinions on the series were fairly consistent. There are a few exceptions, like my feelings on Minerva as a character changing or why I now choose to leave Lee at the end of S1 rather than shoot him, but everything else I was rather sure of.

So imagine my surprise when I finished and many of my opinions changed.

Turns out, time makes a fool of us all and spending a year away from the fandom and the series has shifted my perspective quite a bit. I’m able to set aside those rose-tinted glasses, but not get rid of them entirely.

I still stand by TFS as being a fantastic conclusion to the series. It was the ending Clementine deserved, and it’s still my favorite.

I believe the overall plot holds up great- Clementine and AJ find a new home. They have to fight to protect the people that become their found family. Clementine potentially falls in love or finds herself a best friend. The bond between Clementine and AJ is strong but tested in each episode. And to make matters emotionally complicated, the antagonist is someone from S1.

It’s flawed, sure, but point me in the direction of a plot you believe isn’t and I’ll find something to nitpick just to spite you.

I couldn’t imagine a better continuation/end point for Clementine’s story, and I will forever be grateful that this is just as much AJ’s story as it is Clementine’s.

I think this is the best looking game of the series. The school is something to admire for how beat up and overgrown it is, and the walkers are so decayed they’re practically walking skeletons with some flesh clinging to their bones. The character designs are great. The controls are easy, gameplay for Telltale games always are. The only time I had any trouble is the section where you have to distract the walkers so that James can retrieve his mask. I died three times before I was able to complete it without killing a single walker.... I did it all for you, James!

I also prefer the over-the-shoulder camera versus the fixed camera of the previous games. A lovely change, that one.

Oh, and the collectables! I love the collectables, that was such a great feature to implement into this game. Giving Clementine and AJ their own dorm that you can decorate with things you’ve collected makes it feel like home, like this is where Clementine is going to stay. For a lot of people, the last time Clementine had a room was back in S1 at the motor-inn, and she does have a room with AJ if you stayed at Wellington. I just like collecting things, man, it’s fun! Love it, I collect every item!

A big problem I do still have with this season is it’s only four episodes. Yes, it’s still a damn good season, but it always gives me a sense that it’s this close to being the best game Telltale ever created. So many things fall short and it sucks because they were so close, y’know? If they had just one more episode, they could’ve had time to cross the finish line.

I know that some of the developers have said they only needed four episodes to tell the story they wanted to tell and that’s why a fifth episode was cut. If that’s true, then I believe that might’ve been a mistake. If they said it was just a budget thing [and knowing Telltale, that probably was the more important factor] so they cut an episode and had to find a story they could tell in four, or cutting an episode meant they could improve things previous games were criticized for. I’d be more inclined to forgive it if that were the case.

But if it was just a creative choice and they could’ve easily had five episodes, it’s one that prevented it from surpassing two games that I would consider the best they ever made: Tales from the Borderlands and Batman: Enemy Within.

However, I’m aware that adding one more episode could’ve caused the season to crash and burn. Fair enough. We’ll never actually know how things would’ve turned out had they stuck to the five episode structure the previous installments followed. It might’ve become bloated, or dragged into boring territories, or more characters would’ve been killed off to fulfill a kill count, or more choices would need to be implemented that would’ve only furthered the illusion of choice these games are often criticized about.

The pacing can feel really rushed in a lot of spots, especially with the final episode. And yes, I know the fast pace was intentional, I watched the commentaries. Just because it was intentional doesn’t magically fix anything, it’s still a problem I have with it.

Lilly and the delta could’ve used more fleshing out. Most of the Ericson crew are underdeveloped. I would’ve liked to interact with Louis and Violet more before the Marlon confrontation, as well as more opportunities to interact with the others.

Speaking of characters, as much as I would love to write these grand essays about each character and what worked, what didn’t, all that… I don’t have time. Some will get longer sections than others, and I’ll discuss any opinions that have changed, as well as things that stuck out to me as I was playing.

Normally I’d start Clementine and work my way down to the antagonists, but fuck it, let’s start with our antagonists and work our way up.

Lilly, Abel, and the delta are terrible but in a good way

Fighting the raiders in this game feels like a final stand, y’know? These delta assholes want to kidnap people to fight in their war and they feel justified in this because they see those opposing them as worse. The delta aren’t the real baddies, they’re just trying to survive by any means necessary and they need people to fight, otherwise they’ll lose everything they worked for... but a lot of morals get muddied and downright tossed out in the process where these kids they’re taking, abusing, and traumatizing aren’t really people to them until they submit.

Lilly can have Louis’ tongue cut out and not bat an eye because he isn’t a person to her, he’s a “recruit” who stepped out of line. They’re all “recruits,” but that gets complicated when she sees Clementine as a person.

The raiders are a bunch of pieces of shit, no doubt, and they deserve what they got in the end for what they did, but I do like that you can look at them and say “I understand you want to protect your home and your people, that’s an honorable goal, one that mirrors our goal.... but this isn’t the way to do it, you’ve lost too much of your humanity and it will be your downfall.”

Honestly, I think the Delta vs Ericson group dynamics and what they’re willing to do to survive is interesting to compare and contrast.

Like the delta loses Abel in ep2 during the fight, and we get to interrogate him at the beginning of ep3. He tries to tell Clementine that Lilly’s on her way to get him but we all know that’s not true. The delta cut their losses. Despite needing people to fight in their war, they’re quick to kill, maim, or abandon and it has little effect on the group as a whole. They’ll just get more recruits, Abel is expendable, replaceable. Lilly’s upset when she hears what his ultimate fate was, but I wouldn’t say she’s distraught because she cared deeply about him as a person.

But then you have Ericson where losing two members, Marlon and Brody, rocks the entire foundation of the group. It causes rifts in relationships because they value each other a lot more as individuals. They’re younger, and the group is way smaller. Marlon’s betrayal left wounds, Brody’s death scared them, and the decision of what to do with Clementine and AJ wasn’t an easy one and they fought about it. When Aasim, Omar, and Louis/Violet get captured, the group doesn’t decide to cut their losses and more forward. That’s something Marlon would do. Instead, they risk so much to infiltrate the boat and save them. They’re not just three lost bodies, they’re people, friends. They plan to blow up the boat to kill the raiders so that they can’t harm anyone ever again.

I like an antagonist who mirrors the protagonist. Lilly and Clementine, delta and Ericson, what are they trying to do? Protect their home and people against an enemy, to survive, to have food and water and a chance to live in a world where the dead roam. But their methods? Very different. They’re not on the same scale and again, the moral compasses are all over the place, and they treat their people differently.

Both Clementine and Lilly are leaders who go to great lengths to protect their communities, they’ve both suffered a lot of trauma, their father figures play a big role in who they eventually become for better or worse. They both wandered alone until they found people and a home, a reason to keep going, and now they’re desperate to protect that because without it, they will have nothing left and that’s terrifying.

Plus, there’s the bonus of realizing Clementine could potentially become Lilly if she went down the wrong path. I mean, look at some of the shit she pulls in ANF. No one wants to hear that but there is it. What’s important is Clementine makes it clear that she’s not Lilly... and I hate to say it, but if Lilly lives, there is a possibility that she could change for the better, too, and I kinda like that.

Not excusing the bullshit she pulled. The only reason she’s even alive is because she manipulated her way into murdering James before the boat exploded. It’s hard to believe a woman who forced Minerva to relive the trauma of being forced to murder her own twin sister just so that Lilly could make a point to Clementine, or as mentioned before, having Louis’ tongue cut out. Or murdering Mitch... kidnapping children in the name of survival, brainwashing.... just a lot of bad stuff- it’s hard to believe a woman who did all of that could ever possibly change. She certainly appears unredeemable.

However, in the end she’s left with nothing but the weight of everything she did and knowing she did this to herself yet again. Might be the push she needs, and I’ve seen worse characters not waste their second chance.

Or you can just have AJ shoot her and then she rots. After all, your choices do matter, yes?

I know I’ve given Lilly as an antagonist shit in the past, complained about how they could’ve picked a better character to bring back, she sucks and I hate having to deal with her, blah blah blah...

but well actually Lilly is a great antagonist, ignore past CJ, past CJ doesn’t know anything and she’s dumb.

In my opinion, Lilly was the best option for a character to make a return as an antagonist. Yeah, yeah, “what about Christa??” I hear you, but Christa wouldn’t be nearly as compelling and this whole cry for what happened to Christa is old and tired and I think we should just accept that we will never, ever know.

Lilly is such a piece of shit, she’s so terrible, I hate her but I also really, really like her as the central antagonist.

And look, I know so many people in this fandom don’t like nuance, they want a simple good or bad answer, especially with characters and other things they don’t like because it’s easier since “brain thinkies made hurt happen no like.” Which fair enough, I can totally relate, that’s an exact quote from me whenever someone tries to talk to me about Loghain from Dragon Age: Origins and I don’t have the emotional energy to deal with everything I know of him from the books that play into the game so I go sit in my sad corner and ignore everything.

but c’mon, look at Lilly and tell me she’s a poorly written, one-dimensional villain. You can’t! If you do, I will point my little finger at you and loudly declare, “I respectfully disagree.”

She’s fucked up, she’s got her head up her own ass, she really wants to be in control as this intimidating, scary bitch who won’t hesitate to put a knife to your throat whenever she feels like it. She uses her power to manipulate and cause harm so that she never has to experience the helplessness she felt when she was alone and had nothing. She waltzes into Clementine’s cell with such threatening energy, but she’s also relaxed because she knows Clementine can’t do shit. And she’s impressed. She’s genuinely impressed at what Clementine almost accomplished. She sees that Clementine is the golden goose that made this entire trip and its losses worth it. Even if the delta lost everyone they captured but still had Clementine [and AJ] then it would still work in their favor.

With Clementine, she hesitates. She shows little sprinkles of humanity and it throws her off kilter. Honestly, it almost feels like a performance in the cells, y’know? I’ve given Lilly shit for appearing sympathetic in ep2 only to turn around and be a nasty asshole in ep3 which I still do somewhat think, but this time around? Watching Lilly’s body language and the way she speaks does make me believe it’s all a part of some game she’s playing. Deep down, she’s still the scared little girl who wants to pretend she’s a tough bitch no one can hurt, and that’s the performance. And everyone buys it. It only cracks with Clementine.

To me, that shows just how far gone she is. The others aren’t people, they’re “recruits.” They’re expendable despite the fact that the delta are supposedly at war and need people to fight. Lilly doesn’t want to see someone like Louis as a person because then she has to face the reality that she’s become a monster who believes cutting someone’s tongue out is necessary. She’s become the St. John’s who definitely didn’t see Mark as a person, and justified cannibalism with “all the dead do is eat people, it’s a waste! We were brought up not to waste, those folks were gonna die anyway, we do what is necessary to survive!”

THAT is the kind of shit she’s going to have to face if you spare her and she’s alone again.

It gets worse when she goes on about her father and it gives me this eerie feeling to hear the way she speaks knowing that Larry probably did more to traumatize her than just “he let our power get cut to teach me a lesson about turning the lights off, no more ice cream” like....... what the fuck bruh

I could honestly go on and on about Lilly as the main antagonist but I still have everyone else to cover, so I want to cover Abel next.

Stinky man bad and that’s good

I think he’s another great character. The dude’s name is Abel and he smokes hand-rolled bible cigarettes. He survives losing an arm. He’s a fucking dumpster fire who spends most of his screen time getting the shit beat outta him. He’s a huge creep, and he looks like the kind of man who wouldn’t shower for a month but then drench himself in axe body spray as if that’s the same thing as bathing.

But he’s a damn good character. I love that AJ is scared of him, that Abel is what AJ has nightmares about. It fleshes out AJ’s character while also establishing that Abel is scary. We meet him and you watch him approach Clementine and you just know this dude is a creep, you know he’s hiding something beneath the false chill he seems to have, and you know he won’t hesitate to hurt Clementine or AJ over some food.

He also has no attachment to Clementine like Lilly does and he’s all “what the fuck is this??” when Lilly wastes time talking to her, trying to convince her to come peacefully. Abel is focused on the job and he’s got unfinished business with them if you pushed him out the window. Oh, speaking of which, the dude gets bit and survives because he either chopped off his own arm or he made it back in time for the raiders to do it... hate him all you want, but I’m impressed he survived. The dude’s like a cockroach- a scrawny, ugly little cockroach.

Also he has a magic shotgun that somehow misses Clementine but manages to hit AJ so that’s pretty cool.

And the fight with him at the end of ep2 is soooo good. He gets his shit rocked and it’s great! Then the shot of him realizing he’s fucked as the Ericson crew surround him is *chef kiss*

His interrogation scene in ep3 where he breaks down, begging to not become a walker is my favorite from him. Like Lilly, he’s a piece of shit, but he’s at the point where he knows he’s going to die and everything hits him all at once. He talks about how it wasn’t supposed to end up like this and things got out of hand. The dude is broken, he knows he’s lost and all he wants is to be put out of his misery so that he doesn’t turn.

He shows some humanity in the end and again, I know some of you don’t like it when antagonists do that, it’s so much easier when they’re one-dimensional and pure evil… but that humanity, that’s the beauty and horror of it! Abel’s an unredeemable piece of shit but he’s human and that’s scary.

Minerva is not only a victim of the delta but of “uwu-ification” and it upsets me because she’s a fascinating, tragic character but the Minnie crowd are more interested in sexualizing/romanticizing her because they think she’s hot

....is the title of this section too blunt? Meh, I don’t really care.

Look, If you like Minerva, great. So do I. Even if you like the uwu-ification of her but aren’t pushy or obnoxious about it, then fine. I’m not criticizing you, I’m criticizing the “Minnie crowd” who are usually found mostly on instagram, but also on reddit, sometimes they pop up on here, and there are a few on wattpad and AO3. Or in my inbox under anon... I’ve gotten my fair share of Minnie crowd anons that were rather unpleasant.

I wrote an entire post about her and why I keep cringing at the Minnie crowd who seem to either toss away her trauma [and let’s be real, her character as a whole] because they feel it gets in the way of their fanon or they romanticize it because heeeeyyyy wouldn’t it hot if she and Clementine fought and then made out? Wouldn’t it be hot if she tried to kill Clementine and Violet?? CJ, you just don’t get it! Man, it’s soooo hot that Minnie’s tortured and sad and fucked up and feral and traumatized, like she killed her twin sister, let’s give her a new girlfriend to fix her trauma or turn her into a caricature to add some questionable drama to violentine~

Hm? What’s that about “a chip on my shoulder?” His name is Tim and he hates this shit, too, what of it?

Listen, I will never not have a bone to pick with the uwu-ification of Minerva, okay? I fully admit it. I think it’s an insult to the well-written character we were given and it only happened because she didn’t meet the flowery expectations of thirsty fans.

It personally annoys me that over time fans stopped caring about Minerva as she’s portrayed in the game in favor of turning her into a caricature who’s main character traits are that she likes girls and she’s mean. She is an excellent, complex antagonist with one of the most memorable death scenes in all of TWDG. She’s a tragedy.

She’s an example of what the delta does to its recruits and.... I don’t understand how you can say you love her as a character when you erase everything about her except her sexuality just so that you can ship her with someone she canonically hates and attempts to murder more than once, or force her back together with Violet which Vi doesn’t deserve that, I’m sorry, but she doesn’t!

Actually it kinda reminds me of what some DA fans will do to Anders. Listen, I shamefully, bitterly admit to being a serial Anders romancer in DA2, okay? And uwu-ification happens to him and it makes my brain mad!

I know uwu-ification happens to most characters to some degree within fandoms and it’s usually fairly harmless. I’ve heard every counter-argument and excuse you could possibly throw at me to justify it with Minerva. And look, I’ve definitely taken part in uwu-ification of characters in the past and I’m not proud to admit that, I’m trying to be better at appreciating characters for what they are while not being overtaken by fanon, y’know? So I get it, but at the same time this is an exception where it makes me physically uncomfortable due to the attitude of the Minnie crowd and I hate it.

Minerva's a goddamn tragedy. She was traded away with her sister and the raiders broke her! They broke everything about her!

Y’all wanted her to do a 180 and turn on the delta for us and that was never going to happen! We knew that from the moment we finally met her! She’s too far gone, she’s only in two outta four episodes, there isn’t enough time to develop a redemption arc for her! She wasn’t ever going to have a change of heart! She’s not the Grinch, you can’t just say some pretty words and then her heart grows three sizes and suddenly a years worth of brainwashing and trauma are gone! She is a broken person now who would need years of professional therapy and god knows what else to recover! She considers the delta, the people who forced her to murder Sophie, her home now, her FAMILY! She is a tragedy we were never going to save!

She’s surrounded by a shit ton of walkers, shooting and chopping away as she watches the raiders, the people she now calls family, fall one by one. She’s yelling at the walkers to get away from them, she doesn’t give a single shit about the Ericson crew, she doesn’t even wonder where Tenn is.

Then a walker bites her and she keeps going! A fucking walker bites off part of her face! And she just fucking shoots it and touches the wound! This girl was so far gone from reality that she’s turning into the undead herself but instead of giving up, she wanders through the forest, singing Don’t Be Afraid, all because she wants to find Tenn so that she can murder him so they can be with their family again and y’all don’t care! Why don’t y’all care?? Erase it, none of that actually matters!!

She’s such a great, complex character but hardly anyone gives a shit about her unless it’s in the context of her sexuality. It is so goddamn frustrating that I know only one person willing to have a discussion with me about her actual character instead of just going “no, you’re wrong!” and then refusing to elaborate on why I’m apparently such a piece of shit for thinking clemerva is toxic.

I just- what else can I say that I haven’t already said? This playthrough made me appreciate her so much as a character and as a “final boss,” so to speak, and knowing in the end that she got what she wanted because I chose to trust AJ makes my skin crawl and I love it. What a good consequence to that choice, as tragic and unfair as it is, holy shit. I take back any shit I might’ve said about it being a shitty choice, I was wrong and dumb.

God, what a tragic antagonist, she’s so good and I wish she had more actual appreciation.

Dude, Marlon’s pretty great ngl

I have an entire character analysis I wrote for Marlon already, so I won’t spend too much time on him.

I believe Marlon holds up wonderfully as ep1′s secret antagonist. He’s a great character and the writers did a great job of establishing him as friendly but cautious when Clementine first meets him, then elaborates on how he handles his position as the group’s leader. He’s stressed, he’s holding a lot of guilt, fear, and shame for what happened to the twins, and now he’s brought two more mouths to feed into the group. We get an idea of his longtime friendship with Louis, how he butts heads with Aasim over the safe zone, and how he handles his frustration and anger… as in he usually doesn’t handle it well and opts for the “everything is fine” route when things are clearly not fine.

And I know I’ve said this a million times… but the final confrontation with him at the end of ep1 is perfect. The rain, the thunder and lightning, the confusion, everyone rushing outside to find AJ pointing a gun at Marlon who is covered in Brody’s blood, so many emotions and accusations being thrown around, god it’s so good.

Though there is one thing that has changed for me after doing the replay after all this time: I’m glad Marlon died in ep1.

I know that sounds terrible coming from someone who used to always go off about, “Man, Marlon should’ve been determinant! AU where AJ shoots him non-fatally and he survives the season! He gets kicked out of the school and picked up by the raiders and has a redemption arc!”

Not so much now. I think Marlon’s role as it is in ep1 is perfect. The only things I would change would be a bit more information on his friendship with Louis and the other characters commenting their feelings about his leadership. But other than that? They nailed it.

This season didn’t need a Marlon redemption arc. Sure, it would’ve been nice, and I would’ve liked more Marlon just for Ray Chase’s performance alone. However, this season isn’t equipped for something like that which would need time and great care to do well. Three episodes wouldn’t be enough, and it wouldn’t be important enough for the overall plot that it’s entirely possible it would’ve ruined an already great character, or taken away from the other great elements of the story and its characters.

Just like Minerva, Marlon was never going to get redeemed. He wasn’t built for that.

His death is great, though. He, Brody, and Minerva have the best executed deaths this season for sure. It’s built up well considering it’s the confrontation in the rain that ends with a confession, only for AJ to shoot him in the back of the head and kickstart a huge conflict within the story.

Marlon’s a great character, he serves his purpose well and once again, I found myself truly appreciating him for what he is rather than being butthurt that he didn’t get a redemption arc that wouldn’t’ve worked anyway.

James is so damn interesting, where is his spin off story? Oh wait, Skybound nO, IGNORE THAT-

Dude, I fucking love James.

This guy is fascinating as hell and if I had any faith in Skybound producing good content related to TWDG, I would ask for a spinoff story about James.... but they made the Clementine comic instead and so I’m politely asking them to keep their stinky, greasy fingers off of him instead.

God, where do I even begin with James? How about the fact that this dude is an ex-whisperer who wanders around wearing walker skin so he can blend in with herds? He keeps a barn full of walkers as a means of “protecting” them from harm? because he’s so alone with his own thoughts and memories of who he used to be that it warped his perception of the walkers? to where he now views them as “something in between” and he believes being a walker sounds peaceful? and when you consider that walkers don’t think, they don’t remember, they just wander and eat and exist? that’s something that would sound appealing to someone so lonely and full of shame?

Like… James is so sad. I feel bad for him. Even if I don’t agree with this idea that walkers have something human in them, more so because I hope they don’t, I still respect his wishes to not kill the walkers when he asks. I’m willing to listen to him explain how he thinks, and I try to respond as politely as I can while also keeping my Clementine’s attitude in mind.

And he’s STILL sad in the end no matter what his fate ends up being. Either he’s stabbed in the back by Lilly and left to become a walker, or he witnesses a child kill Lilly and it breaks a piece inside of him where he loses it and tries to separate AJ and Clementine.

Which can I just say that while I understand not liking James because he’s a hypocrite if he makes it to the cave scene, I can’t agree that it’s poor writing.

Yes, you’re right, James IS a hypocrite and that’s the point!

It makes sense with his character! He’s pulling the “I will make peace with violence” card and it’s irrational, it’s bullshit. It’s a huge breaking point for him. This whole time he’s been on about wanting peace, that walkers are something in between and that’s why he protects them, why he feels conflicted about giving his aid to Clementine to save her friends. It’s like he’s so worried and afraid that he’s going to revert back to who he was, or that others are going to become like he was that he’s overcompensating. It’s bad enough that it blinds him to the danger Lilly still possesses even if she’s down with a gun pointed at her. It’s as AJ says, James didn’t see what she did, he has little context for who she is, and he’s more concerned that AJ is the one with the gun. Though, I would argue that he’d still try to stop you if it was Clementine holding the gun, but either way.

In the end, he’s either killed as your friend, or you’re forced to confront him as a friend turned antagonist and try to convince him that his argument isn’t as cut and clear as he wants it to be.

I find him compelling and I love what they were able to do with him in such a short amount of time.

Also, in my playthrough, I spared Lilly so James died and came back as a walker and I can’t look at him like that without remembering the nightmare that was half the fandom talking about how hot walker James is and how they’d let him eat them........ that happened and I wish I could pretend it didn’t hhnnngggg-

Rosie is best girl

Telltale giving us an animal companion and NOT killing her off for dramatic effect? Nawwww but it worked soooo well in MCSM with Rueben!

Oh wait, no it didn’t, Rueben’s death was hilariously bad. Whoops.

I want to kick off getting into the Ericson crew by informing everyone that Rosie is best girl and I am forever thankful she survived to the end of the season. I love that they brought back Clementine’s trauma with dogs from S2 and allowed her to warm up to Rosie at her own pace.

I like to think of Rosie as an apology to us from Telltale for what they did with Sam in S2... y’know, forcing us to deal with a smaller Clementine getting attacked by a dog and forcing her to either kill him or leave him to suffer.

Instead of that, we have Rosie who mostly chills out around Ericson, fights off walkers, bites the shit outta Abel, and goes on a fishing trip with AJ at the end.

What else can I say? She’s a lovely addition, thank you.

Omar exists

Omar is a character who exists in TFS and really, that’s about it.

I mean, sure, he’s the group cook and he gets shot and kidnapped, and he survives to the end, which good for him.

Yeeeeeeah so I don’t feel strongly about Omar one way or the other. The most entertaining thing about him is knowing his history as The Chef God Omar and how Telltale got in on the joke by actually thanking Omar in the credits alongside Clementine’s eyebrows. That’s a lot of fun.

I do have my own backstory for him that I wrote forever ago but just Omar in-game? Meh. He’s there. He does some stuff. He survives. That’s about it.

Unfortunately Willy is a character I don’t feel that strongly about

I feel bad for not liking Willy as much as I used to while doing this replay. Really, he only becomes interesting in ep3 when we get development with him coming to terms with Mitch’s death.

I don’t have any real complaints about Willy, other than maybe the chronic masturbation joke which was pretty cringe. Though the game still got a chuckle outta me for Clementine pointing at Louis like “Don’t you dare” when AJ asks what that is, only for Tenn to lean over and tell him anyway.

I like how Willy’s reaction to Mitch’s death was handled even if their relationship was severely underdeveloped. They’re both side characters so I give it a small pass, especially with showing Willy mourn and lash out at Tenn. I do appreciate how Willy came to the conclusion that it wasn’t Tenn’s fault and that he shouldn’t have shoved Tenn down, and he knows he should apologize. It’s good to see younger characters admit when they’re wrong, be sincere in their apologies and move forward in a better way. I also like that he takes over as the Ericson crew’s bomb maker, following Mitch’s notes and doing research in books, all that.

Y’know, I would split the Ericson crew into two categories, with the first being the more fleshed out, essential characters who fill an important role, such as Louis and Violet. You can’t remove one of them without removing a huge part of the story.

The second is the category Willy falls into, which is characters who are given a bare minimum of development but don’t carry as much significance, they’re there to fill a seat at the table during the happy ending. If you wanted to, you could switch characters around, or remove them, and not much would change about the plot. Willy could’ve died and Mitch lived, and things would’ve played out the same just with Mitch mourning Willy’s death then making a bomb to blow up the boat.

Willy’s fine, he’s likable enough. That’s all I got.

Mitch is.....not great uh oh what the fuck

.........................no seriously what the fuck?

Yeah, so Mitch isn’t a great character, and as I type that I can feel myself taking a sledgehammer to a huge chunk of the foundation holding this blog up.

Aside from Louis and Clementine, y’know who was a big player in my blog content? Mitch!

Y’know what other ship along side clouis had a big impact on my blog? Jamitch!

Now I’m sitting here with a lot of questions.

He’s not a bad character, that’s not what I mean when I say he’s not great. No, he’s a fine character who fulfils his role in the game. He can be a dick, he’s the one who calls the vote to get Clementine and AJ kicked out, but he can also be quite funny at times. There is a moment of softness with him that you only get when you choose to burn Ms. Martin. It’s interesting that he knows how to make bombs... but then he dies so that we can have a kill count and it’s like.... huh. I remember being a lot more pissed about that.

His death is still dumb, don’t get me wrong. Running at Lilly like that was a stupid thing to do and it lead to a gruesome, painful death for him.

But someone had to die and Omar wouldn’t’ve impacted anyone soooo.... Mitch got some development so that we’d feel bad seeing him get killed, a true The Walking Dead death.

One thing that’s apparent to me now that I’m revisiting this after so long is how bloated my head was with canon, fanon, headcanon, “I don’t like this so it’s bad and it should’ve been this instead,” fixating on things outside of the game rather than it in, building off of each other and creating au’s....

It’s me taking off those rose tinted glasses to look at a game with characters I adore and knowing I only thought some of them were so great was because I projected my ideal version onto them. I have fics written about Mitch that explore his character because I liked him, he died, and I was like, “I don’t like that, I can fix it, I can fix everything I don’t like and then it will be better,” so I did.

But now I look at Mitch and he’s in the same category as Willy, but he’s also just another tally on the death quota. He’s not a favorite anymore and that’s kind of a bitter thing for me to swallow.

I will say, I’m still curious about the idea of jamitch as far as “what would these characters say to each other if they met?” but would I say it’s a big ship for me now...? Not really, and not just because they’re two characters who never canonically meet or because I no longer think them meeting would be interesting.... it’s just, I’m no longer attached to Mitch so any ships with him hold little appeal to me. It’s actually bizarre to go back and read my jamitch stuff because it doesn’t even feel like it came from me. I don’t think I ship it anymore.

Oh look, my foundation is crumbling, aaaaaaaahh-!

I like Mitch, he’s a jackass, he didn’t deserve to die, but he’s definitely not a favorite anymore and it gives me a lot of mixed feelings that I don’t quite know where to put yet.

Brody is… okay

So… it’s probably not a great sign when my favorite Brody scene is when she turns into a walker and hunts Clementine in the basement, huh?

Here’s the problem with Brody… you only get more character development with her if you go fishing in ep1, which I never do. Because of this, my interactions of her consist of her introducing herself, then the next day she panics and calls me stupid for pushing Abel out the window… then she tells me the truth about the twins and Marlon kills her…. So I can’t say I’m invested in her character until we get down in the basement, and by then it’s too late. She’s another character who exists in this story to give crucial information before dying.

But damn, fighting off walker Brody is one of the best parts of the game. The atmosphere, the guttural groaning, the thunder, moving through the dark with only a flashlight as a defense, wonderfully executed scene.

Other than that, though… I can’t say she really compelled me. I even watched Violet’s full romance on youtube for her section, and it obviously included everything for when you go fishing and yeah, Brody’s nice and she does have a great purpose in the episode. You get a sense of loneliness from her but this scene isn’t really about her… well, it is but the main focus is on Violet and us interacting with her to help repair the relationship with Brody more so than the scene being about Brody herself.

And yes, her being the only other person to know about the twins and keeping the secret with Marlon is interesting. You can tell she’s reaching a boiling point that Marlon’s trying to keep a lid over but the steam's rising, water’s boiling over, and Brody confesses everything to Clementine… then Marlon kills her and tries to pin it on Clementine.

I do think there’s a discussion to be had about why Brody didn’t come clean before and what that says about her character. I just wish the game wanted to have that discussion a little more before she died.

She completely points the finger at Marlon whereas he claims they’re in everything together. So, is Marlon lying or is Brody unwilling to accept she’s just as responsible for not stepping in or coming clean earlier? Did Brody keep everything a secret because she was scared of Marlon or was it to save her own ass? Perhaps some of both? I dunno, and I’ll never know because she died.

Oh, also... this is probably the point where I should mention my history as a briolet shipper.

I don’t think it’s a good ship anymore.

You can’t hear it, but I’m laughing... I’m laughing because aside from clouis, all of my other ships are just crumbling and I can’t save them.

Looking back I’m pretty sure I only shipped it because I felt pressure to give Violet a girlfriend after all the shit people gave me. Sure, I genuinely liked it at the time but let’s be real, it’s another case of slapping two pretty girls together and saying, “look, girlfriends” because we’re dumb and easy and like to pretend as if that’s enough... which I don’t believe it is. I hate when people do that and here I am... just slap a walker mask on my head and call me James because whoops, I did the thing I hate! I am shame! I’m trying not to do that anymore!

But yeah, Brody’s fine, she served the story fine, and her walker scene is bitchin’.

TWDG where everything is the same but Aasim wears a shirt that says “wasted potential”

I’m actually kinda mad about Aasim.

No, really, I’m mad. I still look at this dude in ep1 and say, “wow they really set you up as important and then did nothing with you, huh?”

Because yeah, why have a character who pointedly challenges Marlon, who you can choose to spend time with, who stood in between extremes when it came to the vote, why set up an interesting character with pay off when you can just NOT do that?

Why pay off his conflict with Marlon by having him act as leader, effectively leaving both Louis and Violet out of the leadership position to bring in more balance? I’m sorry, I know the Violet crowd hates me for saying Aasim should’ve been leader instead of her but I truly believe he was the better option.

I don’t like the direction of putting her in a leadership position because I believe that should’ve gone to a neutral party between her and Louis..... y’know, Aasim. I understand a lot of people look at that as part of Violet’s arc of a not liking people to suddenly being in charge of a group, and fair enough, it should make sense but I look at the way she's written and I can’t help but think she’s not a good leader, I’m sorry.

She doesn’t have the skillset and she doesn’t gain the skillset over time. Yelling and belittling people, not trying to level with them or see things through their eyes, not taking the entire group into consideration when having Tenn bring Clementine and AJ to the funeral, it’s not good and it unbalances things.

Aside from Clementine, no one wants to talk to her when there’s an issue. It’s actually one of the funniest moments in ep2 when Aasim and Willy are arguing, Violet yells at them “guys, what the fuck!?” and instead of telling her the problem, they immediately turn to fucking Louis who is just standing there like “I don’t... you don’t have to scream at each other? stop looking at me, I’m not in charge??” They should feel comfortable talking to their leader but they don’t and that’s a problem! And it doesn’t even get better in ep3 because Clementine pretty much takes charge from that point no matter what! So?? What are we doin’ here??

“Oh but Aasim would be a bad leader because he got mad at Willy! He doesn’t have the skillset!”

Character assassination might be too big of a term for this case... but I’d call this character abandonment, as in they set Aasim up for this position and then didn’t follow through with it so he’s left behind in a puddle of mud to sink slowly.

In ep1, Aasim does show some leadership qualities in the way he puts the group first and develops back up plans. He challenges Marlon about the safe zone, he’s not unkind to anyone other than Louis, but you get the sense that that’s just their dynamic and it’s nothing malicious. Aasim’s responsible and he clearly cares about the group’s future. The dude keeps a journal to document everything so that they don’t repeat their mistakes.

When it comes to Clementine and AJ, he isn’t blinded by his feelings of either “AJ murdered Marlon! He’s dangerous!” or “Marlon sucked anyway, it’s fine, I want them to stay.”

He votes for them to stay because he knows Clementine and AJ are capable survivors and them staying increases their odds of surviving what’s to come, but he doesn’t just brush what happened under the rug or pretend it’s all fine and dandy.

Don’t you dare tell me no one else stepped up when you made it clear Aasim was willing to stand up in ep1. His character made the most sense! Plus, he always ends up getting taken away by the raiders. If he were the leader, then that’s another blow to the Ericson crew- they’re without a leader once again, and now it’s Clementine’s turn to step up.

But noooooo, instead we get “Oh uh.... I guess he has a crush on Ruby now... and he’s mean to Willy.... that’s about it. Oh and there he goes, getting kidnapped byeeee Aasiiiiiim~”

Nonsense, I say!

I like Aasim, he had a great start and no pay off. He and Brody were characters partnered up with Louis and Violet, suggesting they’re both important. Brody’s character had a pay off, and Aasim’s didn’t.... unless you count him getting together with Ruby as pay off but rusim is a bland ship.

Yeah, I said it, rusim has very little going for it and I don’t know why any of us shipped it. I mean, they don’t talk to each other. We never get an actual conversation between them. They don’t flirt. They don’t have chemistry. He gets dared to give her a kiss and she punches him. She never shows any affection toward him and his affection toward her comes outta no where because they didn’t know what else to do with him and I think that’s a waste!

The writers just pointed at them and said, “they’re holding hands,” and the fandom went “ohmuhgawd they’re holding hands!” because we’re easy and dumb and predictable!

They could’ve had chemistry if the game didn’t wait until the last five minutes to show them holding hands and feeding each other. Sure, it’s cute that they hold hands [though the feeding each other thing is weird] but any npcs could hold hands? Ruby could’ve held hands with Omar and I still would’ve gone “oh that’s cute.”

Hell, now that I say that, Ruby and Omar getting together would’ve at least been funny after they set up Aasim liking her.... well, okay not funny for Aasim, but I would’ve laughed and I’m more important, buddy.

Aasim is yet another case of this season almost having it but falling short. Should’ve had him replace Marlon, both Louis and Violet would’ve benefited from it.

Ruby is great, I reeeeeeally like Ruby

I’ve always liked Ruby but I feel like this time around I truly appreciated her.

She’s a character who teeters between the two categories I’ve talked about. She’s one of the more fleshed out characters in the Ericson crew, but she’s not quite on the same level as Louis and Violet, y’know? We see her consistently throughout the season, we learn more about her each episode, and she lives to the end to fill a seat at the table… where she spoon feeds Aasim and I quietly judge them for it.

Ruby has one of the best introductions, too. She literally stomps up to us like, “‘Bout time you woke up! yer little boy bit me! >:[ shoulda took a boot to his head!” and then she stomps away! It’s so good! Plus, AJ’s apology scene with her is sweet.

Ruby’s a charming character with a lot going for her. She’s established as the groups nurse, she learned to patch people up from Ms. Martin and that scene where the two are “reunited” in the greenhouse is heartbreaking. Ruby was a little girl with anger issues and you feel her grief when she looks at Ms. Martin’s decayed and overgrown corpse and says, “I just wish I could make her look like she did.”

It’s a great character moment to show us how deeply Ruby feels things, y’know? She doesn’t try to hide her feelings, she wears her heart on her sleeve and there’s no shame in that.

She throws a party [”hootenanny”] in ep3 when we’re at our lowest point. She wants everyone together the night before a dangerous rescue mission so no one has to be alone and scared. Hell, she even tries setting up some games so they can laugh and forget reality for a little bit... only for it to bite her in the butt when she brings out the student records and the reality of how many students have died since the start sinks in, then Louis/Violet share their backstories and Ruby is just like “....I guess I’m not a game person, I’m sorry” like she’s so damn sweet, I can’t.

I loved having Ruby around, what a great character.

Weirdly, I don’t have that much to say about Tenn but I feel like I should since he’s one of the more important characters in TFS

I think Tenn’s a sweet kid albeit naïve and somewhat of a screw up, but I don’t think those flaws are “bad,” y’know?

Lots of people put Tenn in the same category as Ben, Nick, Sarah, and Gabe and act like the flaws these characters carry are poorly written or straight up bad just because they don’t like that character.

The character gets in the way and messes things up for the group, therefore they’re a bad character, all that. I disagree with that logic. A character can be a well-written screw up. I believe Tenn is the more well-written “screw up” of the bunch since he has a lot more time devoted to him and you never get the sense that the writers dislike him and just want to kill him off quickly.

His potential death was well-thought out and makes sense for his character- Minerva’s beckoning him to come to her so they can “go to the place where everyone gets to be a person again,” like he knows she wants to kill him and he hesitates before AJ tackles him to the ground. He refuses to cross the bridge because goes back for Minerva and fights against Louis or Violet.

And yeah, people still give him shit because it’s easy to look at this and call him stupid rather than looking at the inner turmoil he’s going through in that moment. He’s witnessing his sister- who he thought was dead- being eaten alive by walkers and he wants to save her even if she’s unsavable at that point. There is no logical thought, he’s not listening to Louis or Violet, Tenn has tunnel vision where his sister is at the end... but so is death and we don’t know if Tenn’s actually aware of that or not.

Everything happens so fast, and a quick decision from AJ seals Tenn’s fate, as well as the fate of Louis/Violet. Someone has to die on the bridge, otherwise you’re going to lose both of them and it’s not fair, it’s bullshit... and it’s great as far as a scene and consequences of your choices go.

For me, Tenn always dies on the bridge. Not only because I’m a selfish hoe who refuses to let Louis die, though I will admit that’s a pretty big part of it... but for me, it makes more sense for Tenn to die on the bridge rather than Louis or Violet. I hate giving Minerva what she wants, but my Clementine would trust AJ and that’s what leads to that decision... and it’s brutal.

Tenn left a big impact on AJ, he was his first real friend and believe me, I see the appeal of the ending where Tenn survives at the cost of Louis or Violet’s life even if it’s not for me.

Tenn’s idea that one day the walkers will be gone is a fun one, if not bittersweet. Sweet because it’s refreshing to meet a character who has an idealistic hope for the future, but bitter because that future may never happen, and if it does, it won’t be anytime soon.

He’s a neat character to have thrown into the cast, as well as a tragic addition to the kill count.

Violet and I have a long history together

Ruh roh, Shaggy, we’ve reached Violet’s section. I’m sure some of you scrolled right over everything else to get here and since you’re in such a hurry, allow me to not waste your time:

In my opinion, Violet’s okay. For me, she’s at her best in ep1, but after that she loses me. I can’t even say I like her anymore because her character falls flat, especially in Louis’ route. But her route doesn’t hold up any better. I can’t help but compare her romance with other wlw romances in games I’ve played and they beat her out by an alarming amount... well, with the exception of Chloe and Rachel from LiS. Those two are some of the shittiest love interests I’ve ever come across and Violet is leaps better than them. So... a point to her, I guess.

I don’t see the appeal of her as a love interest and it never feels like her scenes are hers. They feel more like things the writers jotted down and said, “hey that’s cute” but they don’t tie into her character well and I think that’s a waste. In fact, give Violet a “wasted potential” t-shirt, too, she and Aasim can be twins.

There it is, take it and run. For the rest of you, allow me to go more into detail.

And just as a note: when I refer to the “Violet crowd,” I’m not talking about ALL Violet fans. Like with the Minnie crowd, I’m talking about certain fans that irritate me. They’re the ones with an agenda to convince people Violet’s the only valid character/love interest/route in TFS while ignoring or romanticizing her flaws/mistakes in an unhealthy way but try to convince you they’re ideal. They’re incredibly hostile to everyone who disagrees with them. They’re the ones who have blown up my inbox for years.

Violet and I have a long history together that goes- “Oh yeah, I love Violet, I just prefer to romance Louis!” to “I like Violet, she’s a good character but she has a lot of flaws, I wish I liked her romance as much as you guys do but I get it,” to “yeah, she’s fine, I like her...” to now where I’m like, “......yeah she’s not great, I don’t really like her.”

I’m aware that my dislike of her has a lot more to do with the Violet crowd than Violet herself. Y’know, all the anons calling me names and telling me to delete my blog, the one time my discord server was spied on, and vague posts that would cause people to send me like “hey, I think this is about you :/” asks because of who it was and how the timing added up too well. Of course I’m going to associate Violet with that shit and that’s going to affect my overall opinion of her.

I tried, okay? It’s not like I looked at the surface, decided I didn’t like her, and then actively chose to be an ass. I genuinely tried to see her the way Violet fans do but I believe this is just a matter of liking different things, y’know?

It’s been a year, I went into this replay wanting to like Violet so much. I wanted to write this post like, “I finally get it, y’all! I love Violet and I love violentine! Hooray!” and then there would be peace, we’d all hold hands and sing together until dawn! ...but no, that didn’t happen, I’m sorry.

I’ve been away from the shitty side of the Violet crowd, I don’t have pressure on me to be overly nice just to keep the peace in a thriving fandom or fear that my followers are gonna be upset that my opinions have changed or the worry that I’m gonna get Violet anons yelling at me to just admit I hate her and fuck off as if it’s important to them that I say it.

Which now that I think about it, y’all really did the self-fulfilling prophecy thing, didn’t you? Thanks for that, here’s a gold star for your effort⭐I’m sure it was worth it.

And y’know, it doesn’t make any goddamn sense. In theory, I SHOULD like Violet. I should be more into her romance route but I don’t feel the chemistry and Violet’s character is another case of this game almost having it but not quite.

And in the name of being fair, I even rewatched her full romance with Clementine on youtube [sorry, I didn’t want to sit down and do another 10 hour playthrough okay I had no time] because in Louis’ route I’m obviously not going to spend as much time with her. You miss a lot of information which results in her character feeling unfinished.

But before I talk about her romance route, let’s talk a little about Violet’s cell scene in Louis’ route since my opinion has shifted on that: I don’t hate it for what it is because it does it’s job.

Violet loathes you after you let her get taken. She hates and blames you for everything, then she attacks you so that you don’t fuck up again. Because her trust in you is completely broken, the consequence is she stays on the boat with Minerva only to be blinded in the explosion after Minerva ditches her. Her end card even straight up tells you she hates you.

No, I still don’t believe she was brainwashed/tortured on the boat, I still think certain devs are full of it for that. If you wanna interpret the scene that way then you’re welcome to, just don’t get pissy when I don’t.

I feel like I shouldn’t need anyone who worked on TFS to tell me crucial information outside of the game rather than showing it in game. There are signs of manipulation from Minerva, and Violet’s clearly pissed off and in a vulnerable state after being captured. She’s been told that if anyone steps outta line, they’ll kill someone she cares about, so she complies. She’s bitter, she’s hurting, she feels hopeless and betrayed and Clementine is there to take the brunt of those feelings.

If the intention of this scene was to show us she was brainwashed and tortured just as bad as Louis [because remember, the Violet crowd will insist this is the only valid interpretation] then why didn’t it?

Why is she behaving like she’s just pissed off? Why aren’t Aasim and Omar as scared as they are when Louis’ gets his tongue cut out? Why doesn’t her end card say she was traumatized after her time with the raiders like Louis’ end card? Why does her end card say she despises Clementine? Why are you allowed to tell her off when you’re not allowed to tell Louis off in his cell scene? If Violet isn’t just mad then why isn’t that reflected in how Clementine treats her versus how she treats Louis in his scene? Why did you also need to blind her in ep4 if her torture was just as bad if not worse than Louis losing his tongue? Doesn’t trauma dumping onto Violet throw off the balance of things? Why aren’t you making it clear what happened like you did with Louis?

You didn’t need to clear up what happened to Louis outside of the game so why do you have to do it for Violet?

Oh wait, you did make it clear- she pissed at you, no longer trusts you, and she stays on the boat as a result of that.

The end consequence of not saving Louis is he loses his tongue, and not saving Violet results in her being blinded. Violet’s consequence just happens to come later, and because of that fans got pissed that Louis was maimed but Violet was “fine.” And instead of just saying, “There’s one episode left, wait and see,” certain developers got defensive and tried to appease players.

If you look at the scene the way it was written, it’s good. If you look at it the way certain developers told you to, it’s poorly done. And you can argue with me all you want, this is one of those things that you’re never going to change my mind about. We can agree to disagree.

Moving away from that, let’s talk about her romance route.

I give credit to Violet in ep1. I genuinely like her. It does a great job of establishing her character and hinting that she’s a potential love interest.

I still stand by Violet being full of shit that she didn’t know Clementine and AJ were staying in the twins room and used Sophie’s pencil box as an excuse to check on them after things ended awkwardly in the card game. I like that, it shows that she’s not really opposed to us being there even if having someone in the twins’ old room brings back painful memories.

You can tell she hasn’t had anyone else to really talk to since the twins died as she ends up saying a lot more than you’d expect. This is a rare moment where I do feel some chemistry between her and Clementine as they’re sitting on the beds facing each other, especially when you have Clementine admit that she’s not great with first impressions or people in general, too.

I’ll even give Violet a pass for being a jerk to Brody. Yeah, it’s poor behavior. It makes things awkward when Brody is just trying to be friendly with Clementine only to have Violet throw in an unnecessary, sarcastic quip, but it’s the first episode. It’s good to establish flaws so we get to see growth. You understand why there’s tension, and Violet making things weird fits in with her whole “I’m not exactly a people person” thing.

Oh, and when you appeal to her against Marlon, he tries to manipulate her with his bullshit, “they were my friends, too!” and while I heavily disagree with bringing a weapon into the mess as that just escalates things, it makes sense with her character and acts as juxtaposition with Louis deescalating things by stepping forward without a weapon.

So yeah, I actually really like ep1 Violet.... but then the rest of the season happens.

First of all, I love Minerva as a character but god does she hold Violet back. It’s always one step forward, two steps back with Violet and her deal with Minerva. The mentions of her ep1 were fine, but then it just makes me roll my eyes when I realize what they’re doing here.

And to be fair, I think I’m just sick of the whole “queer girl love interest has an ex-girlfriend who causes trouble and gets in between the couple we’re supposed to root for” plot point in games and books that when I see it, I make a disgusted noise so strong that even Cassandra Pentaghast herself would be impressed.

My grievances about that aside, I don’t care much for the star gazing. As a concept, it’s sweet but it never feels like Violet’s scene. I get that the bell tower represents the isolation Violet has from the rest of the group, and we’re supposed to feel special that she’d bring us there... but the mini-game fucks with the pacing and the scene feels disconnected from Violet. Hard to explain, but lemme try.

I made this post about how I think Violet should’ve been into basketball and how a better alternative to the bell tower scene would be her and Clementine shooting hoops together, how an activity Violet’s interested in [and I mean genuinely interested in, she doesn’t actually know anything about stars despite what the Violet crowd claims and that’s why they make up their own constellations] would’ve benefitted her. The writers never seem interested in telling you anything Violet likes, it’s always things she doesn’t like or the things she sad about so it’s hard to get to know her.

That’s the problem, I think. I feel like I never got to actually know Violet as a person during her romance and that’s a problem. I know her backstory, I know she’s conflicted about Minerva, that she’s not a people person, I know she cares about Clementine... but what does Violet like? And I swear on Andraste’s flaming knickers, if you say “chicken nuggies lmao” I’m gonna be very disappointed in you-

Ahem, I mean, what does Violet want? What aspirations does Violet have for the future? What did she want prior to the apocalypse? Why doesn’t she have anything to call her own the same way Louis has music?

It’s like they focused too much on her deal with Minerva that they forgot to make her more than just a romance... if that makes sense? She doesn’t hold up on her own and I believe that’s a waste. Louis stands on his own as an interesting character outside of Clementine and Violet should as well.

The walk back to Ericson starts strong with her admitting she was stupid about Minerva and how she tried not to care about Clementine. That felt like a good character moment... but her wanting to rename the school is meh.

Again y’all, this close to an overall great scene but then it nose dives. She says Ericson never felt like home, she couldn’t picture it as a home, because of the name and then just decides they should rename it and it’s lame. I’m sorry, it’s LAME! Hate to break it to you, Vi, but the name isn’t the problem. You didn’t want to leave because of the name, you don’t want to stay because of a new name.

I like her freak out on AJ after he shoots Tenn, because yeah Violet it turns out excusing murder baby’s actions isn’t so easy when he kills someone you actually care about huh? But, her final talk with AJ at the end isn’t as impactful as it could’ve been, especially when compared to Louis’.

Speaking of which, love that double standard of “Louis is a shitbird for being mad at AJ for killing Marlon and taking two weeks to apologize, he put them in danger, Clementine would never date him!” and “oh my god let Violet be mad at AJ! He killed Tenn and she’s really sad about it okay! She doesn’t have to forgive him after only a few weeks, stop invalidating her feelings, THIS is how Louis should’ve handled things!” yeah because they’re the exact same character in the same exact situation therefore they should react and handle things the exact same, mmhmmm, you’re not full of shit or anything, go off.

Huh? Wha- yes, I know Tim’s on my shoulder and he thinks it’s dumb too, hush-

Violet’s fine, she just isn’t for me and I don’t think that’s ever going to change no matter how much time passes. I wish I liked her more.

Louis is the best non-playable character TWDG has given us, it actually makes me emotional

Look, this post is long. I still have Clementine and AJ to cover and a final thoughts section to write and I don’t have time to give you the in-depth analysis of Louis that you deserve, but I can give you a more tame version while linking some to other posts I have.

Here’s a post diving into his actions in ep2 and why everyone hating him for voting Clementine out is really dumb, and a post ranting about how heartbroken he would be if the Clem comic were actually canon, and this T5F I did of my top 5 favorite Louis moments, and honestly just scroll through the Louis tag on my blog, there is so much that I can’t link without bloating up this entire post. I just... I don’t have time to give you everything and I don’t want to be more repetitive than I already am.

Louis is my favorite character in TWDG across all games. I fucking love him. I was reeeeally worried that I would replay TFS and not be as invested in his character or route but oh my god, his story holds up so fucking good. I’m struggling to put it into words. Even today, Louis remains one of my favorite characters across all the games I’ve played and his romance with Clementine? I die, don’t bother burying me, just toss me into the ocean to be fish food, I cannot handle it-

If I were to make a tier list of all of my favorite male romances from games that I’ve played, he would still be in S-tier with my other absolute favorite male romance, Alistair from DAO. And given that I haven’t been around for about a year, this is a TWDG blog, and I haven’t been comfortable enough to begin gushing on my dragon age blog yet, you don’t know- you don’t have ANY idea how strongly I feel about Alistair fuckin’ Theirin, okay? You have no idea, and if I told you, you’d think I were a crazy person! Which fair enough, I may be BUT that’s not what we’re here to discuss! My point is, my S-tier has two slots and in those slots are Alistair and Louis, THAT is how well Louis holds up.

Louis’ back must ache after carrying this season because without him, TFS would’ve been significantly worse... okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. In reality, Clementine and AJ’s backs must also hurt because the three of them carried this season.

I’m excited, can you tell I’m getting excited? I fucking adore Louis.

I just- where do I even- I want to talk about everything but I can’t. From his introduction to his backstory to his romance route, I have few complaints. As a character he grows so much in a way that feels like natural progression and not once does anyone have to actually say, “Wow Louis has changed so much” because no one has to, we actually get to experience it.

Louis starts off as fun but unreliable, he doesn’t take most survival tactics seriously which annoys characters like Marlon and Aasim, he values living among surviving and knows that any day could be their last so might as well make the most of it, even if that causes him to neglect chores and responsibilities. He’d rather keep his head down and not deal with conflict, he places all of his trust in Marlon, doesn’t ever question his leadership, and let’s face it, he’s a little dramatic.

But god, he breathes so much personality in every scene he’s in. Even if he’s just somewhere in the background, you feel it. He’s a kind person who doesn’t want to fight. Disagreements, sure, he’ll have those with Aasim or Clementine, but he doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He doesn’t want the life they’re surviving for to be wasted away and sees the value in enjoying it. He plays piano and music is so heavily weaved into his character and I love what that brings to his backstory and the romance scene in ep2.

Everyone gives him shit and he just takes it, y’know? This dude has self-esteem issues and that is one of the beautiful things about his character, he grows into someone you can depend on, someone who will step forward for what’s right, risk his life to save another. He begins to see the value in his abilities and it’s an uphill struggle for him.

Louis, one of the kindest people at Ericson, was sent to that school in the first place because he caused the divorce of his parents over music lessons. He was a spoiled rich kid who didn’t get what he wanted, he didn’t want to hear what his father had to say, and he was vindictive. He calls himself that, he calls himself a “vindictive fuckhead” with so much bitterness, so much disgust with himself.

For a YEAR, this little shit used his father’s wealth to make it look like he was having an affair and made sure his mom saw everything. Then when they had a big fight, he played right into it. When the divorce was final, he fucking told them everything! That’s awful! Holy shit!

And so they dropped him off at this school and that was that.

If you stay silent after he finishes the story, he even says he doesn’t know the person he’s talking about, it’s like all they have in common are the same name. He has so much shame welled up inside him for who he was and knowing that he’ll never see his parents again, never get to tell them he’s sorry. It’s so well-executed.

Shocking, too. No one could’ve predicted that would be his backstory based on what we knew of him. Hell, most assumed he came from an unkind family and that’s where his self-esteem issues came from but nope! The opposite, actually! Wealthy family, loving parents, and Louis was a brat.

I love it so much, and to get it after the build up of getting to know him for three episodes just.... to quote myself on one of my previous posts: “He finally puts it all out there and now Clementine knows what kind of person he was before he arrived at the school, what he was capable of before she met him. That wall [between them] is gone.... Louis knows first hand what can happen when feelings go unchecked, when resentment is held onto, when you don’t apologize or try to repair mendable relationships, when you’re vindictive and bitter and take it out on others. He’s been there and now he’s here, and he holds a lot of that with him. You can see he does in the way he talks about himself and struggles with confidence in his abilities.”

and then he plays Don’t Be Afraid afterward, it’s beautiful, it makes me emotional seeing how glossy his eyes are and the way he looks up as to not cry, I can’t-

Another scene that I can’t get enough of is when you appeal to him in ep1 and he stands between Clementine and Marlon, hands up, and tries to talk Marlon down... even after a year, I STILL got chills. Appealing to Louis for help is so beautiful, it’s a beautiful scene of conflict. Louis knowing what the right thing to do is vs his loyalty/fear of Marlon, the way he looks at Clementine vs how he looks at Marlon, the moment where you’re holding your breath because it seems like he isn’t going to help you only for him to slid into frame to shield Clementine. Marlon realizing Louis chose Clementine over him, that the one person he thought he had control over has turned on him and with Louis, everyone else does the right thing and steps forward.

And of course, “Your relationship with Louis has changed.” I CAN’T

Okay, another thing I adore is how much emotional depth Louis has. He can be incredibly funny, and he definitely plays into the persona a lot in ep1. Actually, one of my favorite things about both Louis and Violet are how their personalities subvert how open you’d assume they’d be with Clementine.

Violet is presented as intimidating, closed off, bad with people, so you’d think it’d take a lot to get her to open up to Clementine when that’s not the case. The first time she and Clementine are alone [well, AJ’s there but y’know] she opens up a lot more than you’d expect with little effort on Clementine’s part, something that’s a trend in her route.

But Louis is presented as friendly, talkative, and fun, so you’d think he would be open with Clementine right off the bat... except he’s not. Louis doesn’t tell you anything about his past that actually matters in ep1. He doesn’t tell you about his friendship with Marlon, his relationship with the twins, or anything really significant about him. He says small things like how he hates cantaloupe or used to like baseball. You know he likes music due to his introduction.

In ep1, he doesn’t know Clementine. While he likes her well enough, he doesn’t trust her enough yet and trust isn’t easily won from him when it comes to that stuff. But then you go hunting with him, you choose to deal with the walker with him, and he opens up about his view on survival... then he sends you away because oops, too much sharing, too much chemistry.

That’s the thing, though, you don’t get that one moment unless you choose him. Like... actively choosing him is a big point in his route. I know that seems obvious, but I’m serious. Every time you choose him after the hunting scene, he’s genuinely surprised. Appeal to him? Choose to help him with the piano? Choose to save him? Every time he gives you the sense that he’s like “...but why”

He even questions you about it in the dorms if you saved him during the raid. You can straight up tell him it’s because he’s too important to you and he’s still shocked, then pulls a face like “.........but why”

I don’t want to sound mean about Violet, but choices where you choose her feel different, like she’s not surprised you picked her. Especially after ep1, it’s like it’s a given you picked her. She never questions, she never thanks, it’s just assumed “yeah you picked me, of course you did.” and it’s probably because she voted for you to stay, and that’s very different in Louis’ route.

He rarely offers up anything further until you pursue it. That’s a trend in his route. It makes the moments where he chooses to open up unprompted even more significant, like with the piano scene in ep2 or the reveal of his backstory in ep3, and especially the walk back to Ericson in ep4, THAT scene is so fucking good because it’s him finally fully opening up and letting Clementine in and hhhnnnngggggggg sooo goood~

One last thing I wanna bring up that I love: When Louis screams “FUCK YOU!” at Minerva in ep3.... it’s so fucking good. As I said before, Louis is such a kind hearted person, he never wants to hurt anyone and he beats himself up whenever he gets emotional and lashes out at anyone...... but in the cells, he’s fucking pissed. Like, we don’t even see him that pissed off after Marlon dies, and the closest we see him get that upset again is when AJ shoots Tenn. But even then, he didn’t tell AJ to fuck off, he just said, “what the fuck!?” and that’s very different.

And I don’t blame him for being furious in that moment! He just heard all the shit Lilly said and Minerva just let everything happen. Now Lilly has AJ and they’re screwed. Hell, he might even be missing a pinky finger now! And he just calls Minerva out on her bullshit and tells her to fuck off, and her reaction is just perfect.

Oh and then of course, he shoots Dorian and it’s pretty rad... I mean, he doesn’t think so, he’s super upset about that one, too. But I thought it was great.

As for Louis’ romance route, it’s just *chef kiss* holy shit.

I actually did a T5F on the top 5 reasons I love clouis that is still accurate and covers pretty much everything so I won’t get too crazy.... but lemme gush a little more please?

Their chemistry is fantastic, they bounce off each other so well, they’re not afraid to call each other out on their bullshit, they’re not too proud to apologize and move forward together as better, stronger people. Louis is great with AJ even after what happened to Marlon and that speaks volumes for his character.

Louis never looked to the future until he realized he could have a future with Clementine and AJ and that’s why him asking her what their dream home would look like is so significant and Clementine always promised that she and AJ would have a home and they finally found one with someone who would do anything to protect them, someone willing to forgive, apologize, grow, and be emotionally vulnerable when needed, I just-

She carved a heart around their initials, he named the song he wrote after her.

I cry... I cry so much

another quote from myself on my T5F: “Their chemistry is strong, deep, and romantic, they powered through so much unavoidable bullshit, they worked hard for their relationship, they’re comfortable and not afraid to lean on each other when needed, they get comfort from being together but aren’t afraid to disagree on things because they know those disagreements aren’t stronger than they are. With AJ and everyone else at Ericson, they’re a family now rather that a group of misfit survivors, and they’re working to change things for the better for Ericson. I love everything about them and damn it, they will be happy together every single time I replay TFS because that is what they deserve.”

Now that I’ve ranted about how much I love him, what I’m NOT going to cover is the whole thing with AJ and the vote because I’ve gone on and on about that, so I’ll just say this:

If you’re mad at Louis for his vote, valid.

What’s not valid is trying to convince everyone he is solely responsible for Clementine and AJ getting voted out when he was not the only one who voted. The vote was brought up by Mitch, and it probably wouldn’t have been brought up in the first place if Clementine and AJ weren’t at the funeral. Louis is not responsible for Abel and Lilly showing up, and he’s not responsible for AJ getting shot. He’s not any less of a valid love interest for his vote, his vote makes perfect sense with what he is experiencing the morning after what he witnessed the night before. Stating that any relationship between him and Clementine couldn’t work because he voted against them as if it’s a fact is an ignorant dismissal of his character, his trauma, and his apology to Clementine and AJ, and your agenda is very clear.

The endgame stats being higher for Violet does not mean Louis is a bad love interest, and no, Melissa Hutchinson saying she likes violentine does not mean clouis is invalid. You can tell someone is desperate to have their choice validated when they use a voice actor’s opinion as evidence in their argument to convince others that their choice is the only valid option and everyone else is wrong.

We get it, you don’t like him and that’s fine, you don’t have to, but please don’t act as if people who do like him are in the wrong for doing so, and don’t try to cover it up with a “but I DO like Louis though I swear” because it’s transparent. Trust me, I’ve been there with Violet, I understand why you feel pressured to tack that on at the end of your “Louis is a shithead” post but stop, it doesn’t do what you think it does, I can tell you that from experience.

At least if people were honest, I could go into their posts like, “okay they don’t like Louis so they’re going to be more harsh/critical of him,” but when they say they do like him after not saying a single nice thing, that just tells me you’re lying because you’re afraid of getting attacked. Again, I feel that, I’ve been there with Violet. It’s not fun.

I also feel it’s only fair that I talk about the Louis crowd, too. Like the Violet crowd, they’re obnoxious and hostile toward everyone, their arguments are usually surface level, and they annoy the piss outta me. I don’t have as many bad experiences with them since we like the same character, but that’s where our similarities end.

The argument is usually, “Louis is better because Violet’s such a bitch, she BETRAYED Clementine in the cells, she’s a TRAITOR! She’s using Clementine as a rebound and she doesn’t care about AJ and that’s why she stays on the boat with Minerva.”

So y’know... lame, no nuance, no actual discussion or further explanation, nothing.

Also I feel like the Louis crowd attacks Violet’s appearance a lot which is gross and a sign that their arguments ring so hollow that they can’t think of anything better to prove “MY choice is the correct one” so they resort to things that don’t actually matter and then act like it proves their choice is the right one.

“Violet? You did her route? but I think she looks weird, so you’re stupid.”

Like... how is that anything? What is that accomplishing other than making you look stupid?

But yeah, the Louis crowd hyper-fixate on Violet’s betrayal the same way the Violet crowd hyper-fixate on Louis’ vote. It’s treated as a smoking gun of “this proves that YOU are wrong and why MY choice is the only valid one,” but it’s not, it’s not a smoking gun, you’re just being a dingus.

There is a difference between discussing how the reasons behind those choices made by Louis and Violet are a result of the inner turmoil and pain they’re going through and it causes them to make a mistake that they eventually turn around from and just.... “Louis is a shithead who voted them out and Clementine could never love him after that” and “Violet betrayed Clementine on the boat because she loves Minerva more and Clementine could never forgive her after that.”

Why y’all can’t just chill and agree to disagree, I’ll never know.

ANYWAY... I don’t wanna leave Louis’ section on a sour note so here’s a reminder that he had a pet turtle named Geoff, he lost the 3rd grade spelling bee to the word “recommend,” and he still remembers his grandma’s phone number after all these years.

God, I love him.

Boy am I glad AJ didn’t get cut from this game

AJ’s still one of my favorite characters in this game and I’m glad his relationship with Clementine is at the core of this story.

He’s a fascinating character study and I can’t get behind the complaint that “oh but he isn’t a realistic portrayal of a five-year-old!!” like I’m sorry, do you know what a five-year-old is? They’re dumb and loud and if he was written that way, you’d just complain that he’s annoying like Duck was instead.

Sorry, Duck, love ya but you cannot deny that a majority of players hated Duck for being a hyperactive child. Players would be like, “Gawwwwd when is this kid gonna die?? He’s annoying, I hate him!” when S1 was released.

This is a game about zombies, okay? and if everything were realistic then AJ would’ve died in S2. Use your suspension of disbelief.

I find AJ so interesting because he’s a child who was born into this post-apocalyptic world. He doesn’t know what it was like to live in a world before walkers. He never had a long-lasting, stable home and aside from Clementine, all of his other caretakers either died or gave him up. He’s grown up in a world that is cruel, unforgiving, scary, and where killing is normalized as a means of survival. Whether it’s walkers, animals, or other people, he learns early on that that’s just the way it is now. He knows how to shoot a gun and god, what a fucking thing to have to teach a child.

Really think about the lessons Clementine teaches him, too. Some aren’t alarming, like checking for windows or always knowing where an exit is. But then you get into “Always aim for the head,” or “Don’t hesitate,” or the big yikes of, “Save a bullet for yourself.”

I stand by the fact that AJ was in the wrong for shooting Marlon after his surrender, but c’mon, what did you really think he was gonna do the moment he got his hands back on the gun and saw the opportunity to “stop the monster” to protect Clementine and the others?

Clementine isn’t perfect and she isn’t always right, but she’s doing her best to teach AJ how to survive the way Lee and many others taught her... but she’s forgetting that AJ is so young and he doesn’t have a fully developed concept of the world before. She also misses crucial point that Lee made with her when teaching her to shoot, like how if it’s a walker, then aim for the head. But if it’s a person, that’s different. Walkers are always the same, they always have the same goal... people aren’t that easy.

Remember the fight between Javi and David in ANF? Clementine will either point a gun at David to stop the fight, or she’ll shoot him. She doesn’t aim to kill him, she doesn’t want to kill him. She’s aiming to break up the fight, that is a moment where killing isn’t necessary and would only cause more problems with those around her. Gabe would be distraught, Javi would react depending on how you play him, and Kate would freak out, too.

If you choose to shoot Kenny to save Jane in S2, same thing. She shoots him to break up the fight, but the shot happens to kill him after you share some final words.

Hell, the one time she does shoot someone in the head during a fight in ANF, it’s an accident [even though she knows better that to point a gun at anyone without the intention of shooting] and is treated as the wrong thing to do and you can either cover up her mistake or you can make her confront it by telling the truth.

But then you have AJ who doesn’t have the context, that experience. He’s taught to aim for the head, so he does, and it’s a mistake.

AJ shooting Marlon is complicated. He doesn’t realize he did something bad until everyone reacts and then he’s like, “....but I aimed for the head? Marlon was a monster? He was dangerous? Clem?” and you can either reaffirm that he’s justified, or you can teach him why he was wrong and about atonement.

AJ doesn’t want people to hate him, he doesn’t want to hurt them or make them sad. He wants to make friends and have a home. He wants to protect Clementine the way she’s protected him. He has doubts, he doesn’t always know the proper words to explain how he feels, and he gets frustrated which causes him to act out. He wants to play games, and learn, and make connections with people. But, I can see why he would be scary, too. Especially with the way he talks sometimes.

When he calls dibs on Abel, you can express how you don’t like the way he’s talking and tell him it’s not a game, and honestly I don’t think it’s a game to him. He’s had nightmares about Abel, he’s scared of Abel, he’s is a monster and AJ believes that if he can kill the monster, he’ll be gone and everyone will be safer. He’s expressing that in a worrisome way, though.

Or the one some like to point at when arguing that he’s a bad character: when he says he liked killing Lilly. Yeah, not great, and it only manages to set James off more during that whole fight. But AJ explains himself that killing Lilly made him feel powerful [not a great sign] and it made them safe and that feels good.

Plus, YOU told him to do it... I know y’all don’t like taking accountability for your choices when they backfire, I feel that, but he looked to you for what to do in that moment and you said to shoot, so he did and it set him off. Half a clip right into Lilly, whoops, betcha she didn’t see that coming.

There is a discussion to be had about that choice despite it not having a right answer, but I don’t have time to go in depth so just know that I can see both sides.

But both Marlon and Lilly’s deaths are pointed at as a “See?? AJ’s a bad character!” by the anti-AJ crowd.

Yeah funny enough there is a crowd for AJ but this one happens to be viciously hostile against him to where they go out of their way to argue with everyone that he’s “a bratty, stupid, annoying psychopath who loves murder and is badly written and that’s not even how five-year-olds act lmao you’re stupid” and just like the other crowds, they’re desperate for validation and it’s hard to watch as they make asses of themselves.

Again, you don’t have to like AJ and you can be critical of his development and choices, but maybe harassment under the guise of “well it’s just my opinion” isn’t the best outlet for your frustrations. Just sayin.’

So much about AJ gets lost on those people, usually on purpose because god forbid we don’t always deal in absolutes, and it’s a shame to see a character that the writers put so much time and effort into be so underappreciated.

Oh and on the opposite side of things, I do want to point out that flipping it so that AJ’s just a widdle uwu baby who should never held accountable because he baby and everyone else is wrong to dare be mean to him or Clementine.... is also not great. It lacks understanding and depth of the character or the characters around him.

To end on a happier note, another thing I love about AJ is how funny he can be. I mean, his apology to Ruby when you tell him to lay it on thick? When he excitedly informs Aasim that he likes fish? The fact that he interrupts your date to throw a gross ball at your head like “look what I found!!” The way he laughs at the Beat Nick joke but doesn’t understand it? When he catches you smooching Louis/Violet and is just like “what’cha doin’ over there??”

He can be so damn funny. We tend to focus on the more serious side of his character but c’mon, look at his funny little dance during the party. It’s cute as hell!

There’s so much I didn’t cover about AJ but like with the others, I don’t have the time to give you a huge analysis, I can only give you the things that crossed my mind as I was playing... which was also too much to fit in here but still.

AJ’s great, I adore that kid, so glad he wasn’t booted from the story, thanks Telltale.

God what’s there to say about Clementine? She’s complex, flawed, well-written and I adore her

Alright, last character..... but seriously, what can I possibly say that I haven’t said before?

I’ve written a lot of posts about Clementine, like this one about why I have her leave Lee in S1 and how that ripple affects her choices in TFS, or how I feel like putting Clementine up on this pedestal where she can do no wrong and saying players SHOULD agree with everything she wants [namely in ANF] is a disservice to the growth and nuance of her character, gone on and on about why I think Louis is the best option for her as a love interest and how that plays into her development, why her relationship with AJ is so important, why the damn Clementine in the comic doesn’t hold up-

BY THE WAY.... tangent, but I actually feel second-hand embarrassment for the Clementine comic which is a feeling I do not appreciate.

TFS Clementine and Comic Clementine are not the same character. I’ve experienced more depth sitting in the kiddy pool I bought my dog to play in during the summer than I experienced with the comic. My salt levels still haven’t gone down after writing that review... Amos deserved better, good god...

The comic rings hollow because it lacks everything that makes Clementine compelling in the games. You can tell it was written by someone who has only played through the games once or twice instead of a writer who worked on the games and understands the character.

But forget the comic. It’s not canon anyway and if skybound tries to tell me otherwise, I will politely tell them I’ve agreed to disagree. And that they can go suck an egg. Politely.

Back to the one that’s actually good, I believe Clementine is one of the best characters Telltale ever gave us. She’s set a high standard for me when I go into other games. We’re lucky to have four games with her, and while I can’t say I absolutely love all four Clementine’s [I still have a lot of conflicted feelings about ANF Clementine] that’s totally fine because overall? She’s had a helluva bumpy journey and it brings me a lot of joy knowing she’s finally found a home and a family to care for her it.

I feel a connection to Clementine’s personality this season. She’s come a long way from ANF [thankfully] and I love seeing her more balanced out as a hardened survivor who can be a goof sometimes. Having AJ back in her life brings out a softer Clementine that I missed.

She cares so much, y’all. Clementine cares so, so much about AJ and everyone at Ericson that she’s willing to put herself in grave danger to protect and save them. She’s fought for so long, had her heart broken over and over again, has faced death every damn day, and now she finally has a home.

And it’s not even a question. Once her friends are taken by the raiders, she doesn’t even hesitate in telling everyone that they’re going after them, that they’re going to end this.

Then after everything, she gets bit.

Oooohhhh the emotions I feel thinking about the barn scene with Clementine dying and AJ begging her to get up. But she knows, and even worse she knows that AJ now has to deal with her, either by leaving her to turn or by killing her with an axe and just

“I need you.” I CRY

Her bond with AJ is so good, her chemistry with Louis is so good, her determination to fight, her sense of humor, her moments of vulnerability... it’s all so goddamn good.

Also, the Lee flashback with little Clementine. Look, after already being emotional during Louis’ song, only for it to cut to the train and hearing Lee’s voice again... damn it, they knew what they were doing and I’m so damn easy, it made tear up, okay? I admit it!

I honestly don’t have that much else to say? This post is long enough as is so perhaps that’s a good thing. She’s amazing, a beautifully written character that I hold a lot of praise for.

Lemme quote myself once again, this time from my review of the comic because this still sums up how I feel:

“This isn’t like Clementine in TFS where you do feel she’s mature. She has to be, she has a child she’s raising and protecting. She has to be strong and smart for him. She has to be the adult in their relationship… but she has those moments of vulnerability to remind you that she’s not an adult, she’s a teenager who was forced to grow up too fast and it hurts.

In ep4 of TFS, when they’re in the caves after getting separated from the group, she and AJ get into an argument. She tells him that he’s just a child, and he throws it right back at her- “So are you.” and you can see it on her face… y’know?

You want her to be happy, you want to give back the childhood that was taken from her at the start of the apocalypse, you want her to overcome every obstacle thrown her way. You understand her feelings about Lee, why he meant so much to her and why she struggled to let him go even after accepting that he was dead.

You remember that she is a teenager who makes mistakes, she doesn’t know everything, she fucks up. She’s doing everything she can to protect those she loves. You feel that she wouldn’t hesitate to give her life for the little boy she raised. She still has a lot of growing to do but you don’t doubt that she’s gonna do it..... TFS Clementine, amputation or not, she would’ve charged that damn boat herself if it meant saving those she loved.”

In conclusion: I still love TFS, even if things have changed for me

Before I wrap this up, I do hope that everyone understands that my criticisms of characters, story elements, or of the crowds aren’t meant to be a criticism of individuals who may disagree with me. I'm not criticizing people for liking Violet or people who dislike Louis, or even people who view Minerva through an uwu-lense. I'm criticizing the terrible behavior from those crowds that make everyone uncomfortable and accomplish nothing.

Being critical of a character, plot, or of the fandom is fine. If a post is critical or even harsh toward a character, I may not agree and would argue with the points, but that's fine. I’m sure plenty of you will take issue with my points for characters like Violet or Minerva. We all have different interpretations and one of the fun things about fandom is getting to express that, to have discussion and debates, but it’s all in good fun. The point is never to intentionally make someone feel bad or to fight.

It's when people get into guilt tripping, lying, gaslighting, name calling, using accusations of homophobia/racism against people not because they’re displaying those awful behaviors but only because they do/don’t like a character, sending hostile messages to people, or trying to convince everyone that their thing is the correct thing and the other thing is bad therefore they should feel bad, that's what I'm trying to criticize here when I bring up crowds.

They’re an unfortunate part of the whole thing, every fandom has ‘em. What's sad is that crowds who would need to read what I’m saying in this section aren't going to. They're gonna scroll to the parts they know will make them mad and then leave. Oh well.

I want to say that if you made it this far into an incredibly long post, thank you. If I had another gold star I’d put it right on your forehead and then give you a cookie, but I already used my gold star in a comment toward the Violet crowd and then Tim ate all the cookies, so.... sorry about that.

The Final Season is excellent and I had a lot of fun even if I was conflicted with a lot of my previous opinions and work. I know I’ve somewhat moved on from TWDG and Telltale games, but hell, I’m still here. I’m not going anywhere for a while... after all, who else is gonna read the next two Clementine comics 9 times each to write in-depth reviews so you don’t have to read them yourself, hmm? No one, because they’re not ridiculous!

But as far as consistent posting, writing fics, and doing themed nights, I have moved on from that. Not to say that I won’t ever pop in, y’all are always welcome to send in asks but y’know. I spent a long time working on this despite it being nanowrimo and I should be working on my project, but I still have some passion for this series that I wanted to share.

It’s bittersweet, really. While I’m glad my ninja fam held up beautifully, I’m still bummed about the rest of the Ericson crew. Especially Mitch, god he was one of my favorite characters and now I barely feel anything for him, it’s sad.

I will be home all weekend, supposedly working on nanowrimo, but if this post sparked something then feel free to shoot me an ask. I’ll answer a few if any come in, and we’ll see where it goes.

If you want to follow me elsewhere, as I mentioned before I do have a dragon age side blog: @stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage, and then my main blog is @cj-writes-stuff.

Thanks y’all 💚

119 notes · View notes

pupika-samika · 29 days

Text

A King is Nothing Without His People

Chapter 9

Dive into the Unknown

CW: None

<- Previous Archive Next ->

Spoiler alert. It did not work out. At least, not how Link hoped it would. He could have predicted about a hundred things happening before he predicted what was currently happening! He stood in front of King Dorephen and Prince Sidon, mouth much too dry considering where he was. "W-What did you say?" The two Zora towered over him, making the mighty hero feel small and powerless. A mere worm compared to the giant sharks in front of him. They- he can't be serious? There's no way she planned this far!

Link looked over at Mipha, the small Zora standing next to her younger brother. She looked surprised as well but unlike Link, she was much better at hiding it.

Link looked down at the parchment paper again, letting the words sink in as he memorized the contents. He knew what they said, he knew they were important but he couldn’t get it in his head that it was real. "Father, are you sure about this? This hasn't come to light in over a century, are you sure you still want to honor that kind of contract?" Sidon asked his father, looking as shocked as Link felt.

Now you might be wondering, Link, how did we get to this point? To be quite honest, Link was wondering that himself. It started at 6 am, the time Yunobo woke up. The Goron woke up later than Link, which gave him plenty of time to make breakfast for them both. Two rockroasts for the Goron, and three omelets for the Hylian.

"Good-" a yawn broke through the sentence. "Morning, Goro! Do you always wake up so early?" Yunobo asked as he sat beside Link, picking up one of the offered roasts. The Hylian had to admire Yunobos cheerfulness so soon after waking up, even he didn't feel so happy right after waking up. Link didn't answer the question, instead watching his friend's reaction as he ate the rock.

Yunobo took one bite of the roast and lit up, chewing the rock much more enthusiastically. Taking another, much bigger bite he asked, "woah Link! Where'd you get this roast from, Goro!? It tastes delicious!" He praised, taking more chunks out of the rock.

"Oh I made it. I found the recipe somewhere and wanted to do something nice for you." Link lied. It was much easier saying you found a recipe than explaining you had your friend's dead grandfather explaining how to make it step by step. "Is it really that good? I should've made one for myself."

"It's delicious! Here, you can have the second one! You shouldn't miss out on a meal as good as this! You need strong rocks to grow big and durable, Goro!" Yunobo praised as he held out the rockroast. As tempted as Link was, he had to decline.

With a shake of his head, Link held up a hand to stop the offending rock from entering his personal space. “I already ate Yunobo, but next time I’ll make sure to make one for me too. I made those for you so you should eat them.” He explained, giving his friend a smile. With much convincing, Link was able to get Yunobo to finish both the rockroasts by himself.

They finished eating breakfast at almost 6:30, the perfect time. If he planned everything correctly then his meeting with Dorephen wouldn't take too long. Hopefully less than an hour if it could be helped. Then he could spend the rest of the day in Vah Ruta, maybe spend the night in the machine if-

"Oh, Link! I forgot about the promise I made last night!"

Yunobo cut Link out of his thoughts. Promise? What promise- Oh!

"There's been some really, really strong monsters hanging around lately! They even have gold pelts, it's crazy Goro!"

"What?" Link asked, dumbfounded. Gold pelted monsters? That's ridiculous, there's no way there's golden pelted monsters…Right? "Where are they? I'll see if I can clear them sometime soon."

"We've already gotten rid of most of them, there's just that one Lynel near those whale bones up north but no one ever goes there so it shouldn' be a problem. You shoulda see them Link, Goro! They're so strong, it's takes two Gorons to take down a golden Bokoblin!" Yunobo raved, excitement sparkling over him. If it were any other race, Link might've been worried about how many monsters were in the area. But knowing how strong the Gorons were, Link felt he could put this issue on the backburner. At least for a few days.

Link gave a hum in acknowledgement as he thought over the monsters. He could leave those be for a few days, until the next blood moon. The two spent a few minutes watching the sunrise, the sky becoming more blue and orange then black and red.

“Well, I guess it's time for me to get going. Thank you again for the gift and information Yunobo." Link smiled, briefly glancing at the crimson ribbon inside his slate before switching to his map screen. He wouldn’t wear it now, only because his current hair tie was almost broken. He’d wear the ribbon when the tie finally broke. His fourth hair tie lasted much longer than the others, being bought during the last leg of his quest and seeing less hardship than his other three. "I'll visit again really soon, in about a month. I'll even stockpile on some rock-roasts for everyone to try."

"Be careful, goro. And if you ever need help, I'll be right there! Just- give me a warning if you think you'll need my help with something," he paused, seeming to work himself up to say something. He waited, allowing Yunobo to gather his words. “And Link? You’re always welcomed here. Not just to my house but to the volcano, to the city, goro.”

Blinking in surprise, Link stared at Yunobo. The Goron looked away from him, seemingly embarrassed. “Thank you, Yunobo. I promise to come visit more often.” He promised, shooting a smile at the Goron. Yunobo fidgeted for a few seconds, making Link wonder what else he had to say. “Anything else on your mind?”

It happened so fast that Link thought he had gotten attacked. One second Link was standing, staring at Yunobo with his slate in hand, and the next he was being awkwardly smushed into a rocky chest.

The feeling of being hugged by a talus lasted for only a few seconds, not nearly long enough for Link to wonder if he should hug back. Yunobo let go and pushed Link back, stuttering out apologies for the hug. "I didn’t- I don’t- that was- I’m sorry for-" Yunobo was cut off when Link let out a laugh before giving Yunobo a hug back. While his arms couldn’t reach all the way around, Link hugged the Goron as best as he could.

"If you wanted a hug, you could’ve asked for one, big guy.” He said, not letting go until he felt Yunobo hug him back. “Thank you, Yunobo. For everything you’ve done.” He thanked as he let get of his rocky friend.

Link dragged the cursor over to the Lanayru region, then zoomed in until he saw the Ne’ez Yohma shrine located in Zora's domain.

Yunobo, watching Link get ready to leave, smiled at him. “Make sure you visit soon! We can make rock roasts together!”

"I will. Stay safe Yunobo." Link bided before clicking on the Ne'ez Yohma shrine. He looked down at Fostri, watching as his friend floated up to grab a few strands of his hair. Would that be enough contact to teleport? Hopefully it was because Link already pressed the button.

---

Link's world blipped into millions of blue particles before he was deposited on the base of the Ne'ez Yohma shrine. It had barely been a minute but Link was quickly regretting going from boiling hot to freezing humid. He threw on his Zora armor, barely registering the crimson leather that greeted him until he saw the Zora of the group floating up the overflown, watered stairs. Link looked down at his Zora armor then looked to the others of the group, two of which seemed amused by his silent panic. “Is this too weird? I could go to Hateno and redye it." He offered, feeling like his color choice could have a different meaning other than pretty colors.

"Why change it? You've already shown the Domain. Plus, I think you look good in red." Urbosa complimented, a mischievous smile on her face. Link was not reassured by that smile but seeing as he was already here (and she did have a point. Hell, Dorephen and Sidon said he looked good in red which, now that he thought about it- you know what. He’s just going to stop thinking) and he only had a few days till Impa reached Hateno. He needed to use his quickly dwindling time wisely. An annoyed huff later and he began making his way up the stairs, looking up to the sky. Unlike the first time he had been here, the sky was clear, not a cloud to be seen. The suns’ rays were beating down, gleaming harshly on the water. If he wasn’t here on borrowed time he’d consider going for a swim in such nice weather. Unfortunately, that will have to wait as one of the people he has to meet with is currently bounding his way over to the Hylian.

“Fostri, you can go explore if you want, I’ll come get you when I'm done.” Link quickly and quietly whispered to the Korok who had fixed its seating arrangements and was now sitting on his shoulder. The Korok shook his head, only clinging onto a few strands of hair to voice his refusal.

"I wonder, why does Mr. Link want me to leave so badly?" he started, standing on Link's shoulder to get a better view of the incoming Zora. "Could it be that Mr. Link doesn't want to introduce me to his friend?" He asked almost sadly.

Link sucked in a breath, thoughts conflicting with each other. "It's not that, it's-"

“Link! It’s so good to see you again!” Sidon boomed as he stood near the stairs, shark tail slowly wagging behind him.

“I can’t believe he hasn’t gotten over that habit, it’s been over a century. Surely father would’ve tried correcting him.”

“Well it took you being dead to fully correct that, I’d say it takes time. Even then, sometimes you still wag your tail when-"

“Hey Sidon,” Link greeted his friend, ignoring the loud conversation in front of him. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“It has been! What are you here for today? Some fishing? Do you want to go on a swim? Oh, maybe we can go fight that Lynel up on Ploymus Mountain! I’ve heard from some of the warriors that they’re saying it’s turned into a golden Lynel, that must be exciting to fight! So how about it, Link? What are we doing today?” Sidon excitedly asked, tail swishing faster and stars lighting up in his eyes

Link frowned and looked away from his lo- his friend. With how excited Sidon was, he was beginning to feel guilty about the topic he needed to bring up. "I'd love to but I really need to talk to you and your dad about something. It’s important- I’d rather not talk about it down here.” He explained, motioning around to the very open area they were in.

Sidon momentarily froze, before composing himself. “Ah, this wouldn’t happen to be about why Vah Ruta fired a laser about a week ago, would it?” Sidon asked as he backed up and began walking up to where his father resided. Link followed after him and nodded, idly waving to the shopkeepers and weaving around giggling groups of guppies.

“It is. That’s why I have to talk with your father. And you- since you're a prince. Don’t worry, I’ll answer any questions you have when I’m done.” Please don’t give the sad eyes. Please don’t give me the- damnit Sidon. Link pointedly did not look at Sidon as he could see the slight pout on his face from the corner of his eye. The conversation died out as the two climbed up the overflowing stairs, King Dorephen being easily heard from the bottom of the steps.

The Zora proudly stepped into the chamber, eyes flickering briefly between Muzu, who had already been in the royal chamber, and Link, before greeting his father. “Father, we have a visiter. Link requested a private conversation about Vah Ruta,” Sidon paused, glancing at Muzu. At the older Zora’s refusal to move he added, “he asked it be held privately.” Muzu looked to King Dorephen for permission to refuse but grumpily left when Dorephen asked him to leave. He left the chamber room, grumbling on how he’d be back.

Alright, I got this. Just- explain what happened. It’s not that hard and you’ve done this before… his thoughts trailed off as he saw the expectant look on King Dorophens face. He took a deep breath to steady himself before he started. “A few days ago Vah Ruta fired a laser aimed at the castle. You probably noticed by now that Calamity Ganon isn’t surrounding the castle anymore. That’s because I was able to defeat him with the help of the beasts and the princess, they both had incredibly important roles in the fight. After the battle ended, the princess was infected with too much malice to survive. Her body was safely taken to the place where I was resurrected but only time will tell if she will survive.” He summarized, thinking over if he missed anything.

“Tell them how you're king now- but don’t make a fool of yourself like you did with the Rito.”

“Revali I’m sure he was going to say that next, don’t rush him.”

Link was trying to ignore them, he really was. It was taking everything in him to not turn around and ask what the hell they were talking about this time. He must've made a face as Sidon asked if he was alright. He waved the concern aside, thinking over how to word his next statement.

"During the princess' last moments she had one request for me. She asked that after her death, in her steed I become-"

"King of Hyrule,” King Dorephen cut in. “Ah, such a shame those precautions must be used." He frowned, heaving a sad sigh. Prompted by their confusion he continued, "the princess had come to me over a century ago, months before the Calamity, and asked that I sign a contract with her. If, by some chance, she and her father were to both fall to the Calamity then I was instructed to help the next King of Hyrule. Which would be you, Link. In return I, and by proxy, the Zora, will get more contacts with the other races. Especially the Gorons, us two races have climates that challenge the other so it's difficult to arrange meetings." He rambled on, clearly forgetting the important matter at hand. "I've only met a handful of Gorons in my life, all surely dead by now. The first time I met a Goron was-"

"Father, can you please get back to the topic at hand? You said you formed a contract with the late Princess?" Sidon intercepted, deciding the rambling was not important enough for this conversation.

King Dorephen took a moment to orientate himself, abruptly realizing he had gone off topic. He cleared his throat and nodded. "Yes, as I was saying. The late Princess Zelda had come to me and we signed an agreement. If you'd like to see it, it's in the chest over there," he pointed in the general direction behind his throne. Sidon and Link made their way to the chest, King Dorephen twisting his upper body to watch them. There was indeed a chest behind the throne and inside there was a parchment paper. It was aged and yellowing, plus water damage was clearly eating at the edges. But the ink was still legible. From the signatures to the clause, even the fine print was readable. Link blinked in shock. There wasn't- she couldn't. That was the princesses handwriting, he spent too many nights up late reading her work to not recognize it.

Now that you're all caught up, let's continue.

There Link stood, Link looked down at the parchment paper again, letting the words sink in as he memorized them. He knew what they said, he knew they were important and the signatures weren’t forged but he couldn’t get it in his head that it was real. "Father, are you sure about this? This hasn't come to light in over a century, are you sure you still want to honor this kind of contract?" Sidon asked his father, looking as shocked as Link felt.

"It's a signed contract between two nations. As a King and as a friend of the late Princess it's my duty to not only honor her last wish but her last contract. Besides, no one has as much time nor experience to teach you as I do. So Link, will you allow me to help you? Will you allow me to fulfill the Princess' last wish?" King Dorephen asked, keeping leveled- as leveled as he could- eye contact with Link.

He thought over this… could it even be called an offer? It seemed more like a demand- or even a plea to him. Nonetheless, Link had to accept. Except…

"I'd love to take your help, but Lady Impa from Kakariko already offered to teach me everything. She's headed to Hateno as we speak, she should be there in around five days. I could try to bring her here so you can both teach me at the same time but-" Link started, a slight pressure building behind his eyes as he thought over how to solve this problem. He wasn't even an official King, yet he was already becoming stressed like one. He’ll be grey before he even reaches a hundred and twenty at this rate.

King Dorephen, seeing the spiral Link was headed into, cut him off. "There's no need for that. I'm sure Lady Impa can handle your training on her own. Though, before you leave for your next destination, come back here. I'd like to give you a letter for Lady Impa." He requested. If someone else offered to teach him, especially someone as close to the royal family as Lady Impa, then he figured he could offer some breathing room in his schooling.

Link nodded at the request, figuring it wouldn't be too much of a hassle especially as he would’ve come back before he left to say goodbye. Besides, he couldn’t feel the smallest bit of annoyance when the pressure to learn so much so quickly was lessened slightly. Only slightly. Not a lot. Just by a tablespoon. Or teaspoon? Whichever was smallest.

"Don't worry, Link. Even if this proves too much for you, don't forget that we're here to help you. While you might not have any memories from a hundred years ago we do." Mipha offered comfortingly, a hand moving to rub his arm but stopping just short of touching him. While the comfort never made contact it still did its job in calming him down.

"Thank you for offering to teach me. If I ever need help I'll be sure to come to you. Lady Impa is still a few days away from Hateno so while I'm here can I look at Vah Ruta? I'd like to fix him up a little, just enough to get him running if he needs to."

There was barely a second's hesitation before Dorephen nodded in approval. "I don't see a problem with that. Be careful, some Zora say they hear monsters within the beast. Who knows what's made its way inside since the last blood moon."

With little else to go over, Link was ready to bid his goodbye. “I think that's everything I needed to talk to you about. Unless either of you have anything you want to ask…?” He trailed off, looking between the two Zora to see if they had anything to say. King Dorephen is the one who speaks up, a somber look on his face.

“How did she die?” He asked softly, as if he knew the question could set him off. Sidon yelped out a quiet ‘Father!’ in response to the question, yet they knew he was curious too.

Next to him, Urbosa winced at the question, looking at him with pity. That was a sore subject for everyone, especially with how recent it was. “Well, better to be forward and get a straight answer than dance around the topic and get a misunderstood answer. I’d say that’s a terrible way to deal with a trauma victim but a good way to get information.”

“It’s also a good way to make him cry.”

“You… are an insufferable bastard. Do you know that?”

Setting aside the twos’ bickering- were they always arguing? He’s only had them around for less than two weeks and it’s already gotten old to him, was this what Mipha and Daruk had to deal with for a hundred years? He thought over what Urbosa said, specifically the last part. Him? A trauma victim? He wasn’t a trauma victim! …Whatever trauma was, he wasn’t a victim of it!

“She died- she died in my arms. She was infected with malice and wouldn’t have made it. She begged me to kill her as soon as The Calamity was taken care of. I put her in the shrine I was revived in, so now all that’s left to do is wait and see if that helps her. It may not help her but… I’ll remain hopeful until the end. The shrine worked a miracle once, I’m hoping it can work one more.” Strangely enough, he almost didn’t feel the pain in his chest whenever he thought of Ze- the princess. Nope- he still can’t even think of her name without feeling choked up.

He bit his lip as he waited for someone to speak, anxiously looking between Sidon and Dorephen. The two Zora looked at each other, the two having a silent conversation only heard to them. After waiting a while for either to acknowledge him, he slightly bowed his head and turned around, careful not to make Fostri fall while making his way out of the chamber. Right as he got to the entrance he heard King Dorephan speak up, causing him to pause his walking. “Don’t doubt yourself Link, they would be proud of you. All five of them would be incredibly proud of you, especially her.” He vaguely stated, not specifying who ‘Her’ was. That confused him- which Her was he talking about? He didn’t let himself think over it too hard, letting his body go on autopilot. He heard faint chatter from inside the chamber but he tried not to eavesdrop, he was no longer a part of that conversation.

He idly listened to Mipha talk about Ruta as he pulled out his slate, moving it from the Ne’ez Yohma shrine to the Vah Ruta teleporter. Fostri had sat himself on Link's head, his tiny feet kicking back and forth to keep himself entertained. They occasionally hit Link's forehead but he couldn’t find it in him to care too much.

“I can’t wait to see Ruta again, I’ve missed him terribly these past few weeks. I wonder if-”

"Link! Wait up!” An excited, familiar voice cut the small Zora off. "Link! Would you mind if I accompanied you to Vah Ruta? I would feel awful if you went to fix that beast by yourself while I sat around doing nothing." Sidon had jumped off the top of the stairs and landed slightly in front of Link, easily righting himself.

Link stumbled back as the large Zora jumped in front of him, almost falling over from the surprise greeting. If it wasn't for Sidons hand quickly grabbing his arm he had no doubt he’d be absolutely soaked, more than he already was. Once he could stand on his own he lightly tugged his arm away from the Zora, giving an appreciative smile. “You want to come with me to Ruta? Are you sure?” Though the question was directed at the prince he sent a side glance to the four champions now crowding the two.

“He can come with, you could use the extra set of hands. And it’d do you some good to talk with someone who isn’t dead,” Urbosa pointed out. He didn’t want to admit that she was right. The past few weeks he hasn’t really talked to anyone unless he had to- or they were a ghost who followed him around when he didn’t want them to. He gave the idea a bit more though before reluctantly nodding, Sidon cutting himself off at the action.

“Ok, you can come with me. But it will take us a while to get up there- I usually teleport there but I’ve never brought another person with me.” He explained as he looked over the area surrounding Ruta, his sentence growing quieter as he thought. How long would it take to get up there? He’s never walked up that mountain before, only glided down it and occasionally scaling the smaller cliffs.

Luckily he didn't need to think too hard for too long because the small voice of his best friend piped up. “But Mr. Link, you always teleport me with you. Can't you do the same with Mr. Prince Sidon?"

If Link knew what a lightbulb was there would have been one blinding everyone. Unfortunately I don't think lightbulbs exist in the Zelda universe so a metaphorical torch appeared above his head. Fostri was a genius! Link wanted to send a grateful look his way, to hopefully convey every positive emotion he was feeling, but he thought it'd be weird if he did that in front of Sidon- who he was sure couldn't see the Korok.

"Actually, give me a minute to check something over and I'll take you to Ruta. I'll be back in a little bit, wait for me by the shrine- '' Link quickly told the Prince, pausing just long enough to see the nod of confirmation before he felt the dizzying yet familiar feeling of being stitched and rewoven into reality. He opened his eyes to the sight of Vah Ruta looking worse for wear. He openly frowned at the beast but didn't have the time to openly study it like he wanted.

Faint chatter was heard somewhere off to the side yet he didn't want to eavesdrop. If he was meant to hear that conversation they'd be louder. He gently picked up the Korok from his shoulder and dropped him in the air. A startled yelp was heard before faint twirling replaced it, the Korok holding its trusty leaf to hold him in the air. "That was rude Mr. Link!" Fostri whined, making his way back to Link's shoulder.

"No Fostri, you have to stay here. I don't know how many people I can take at once and I don't want to risk it." He tried reasoning, thinking of anything to try and distract the Korok. "Why don't you go with the others and try to survey the damage? Then I can get to work right away and we can leave sooner. So stay here while I go get Sidon?"

The sound of rushing water, birds and faint chatter was all he could hear for a few moments, the Korok in front of him seemingly deep in thought.

A tiny, reluctant huff sounded from his friend. "I'll stay here, but I expect an apple in return for my troubles Mr. Link!" He said with a laugh and zoomed over to the now hushed group of champions who were openly watching the pair.

I'll bring so many apples. I'll even get the biggest, juiciest ones from the Hateno Orchid. He thought as he went back to the Ne'ez Yohma shrine, double checking that the Korok wasn't going to try and sneak back with him. He closed his eyes as blue consumed his vision and opened them when he felt the hot humidity of the domain surrounding him.

Sidon wasn't there yet but he couldn't be too far away- nevermind, there he is. Was it just Link or did the Prince look more handsome than two minutes ago? The Zora looked ethereal. Divine even. The sunlight streaming behind him, the soothing dripping of the water streams, his bright smile. Link had to pause, his brain refusing to process anything other than pretty Zora standing in front of me what do I do Hylia help. Luckily he was saved from further embarrassing himself by Sidon speaking up.

"You beat me. I was hoping to make it here before you," Sidon all but whined as he glided down the stairs to meet Link. Could sharks glide? Apparently handsome, tall, red ones could.

"I told you I'd be back soon. Couldn't leave you behind, not when you asked to come along." He replied back, quickly ducking his head to look at his slate. He was sure his cheeks were flushed red but didn't want to make it obvious. Well, more obvious than it was. Hopefully he could blame it on the humidity. As he spoke Sidon moved closer, leaning to peer down at the screen between them. "We'll need to have physical contact for this to work, but I've never tried this on anyone bigger than a very small child. I don't know how much is required for it to-"

Before he could finish his sentence, arms wrapped around his shoulders and pulled him into a hug, shoving his face into a toned stomach. He stilled, mind processing what was happening.

"Is this enough contact?" Sidon asked with an excited grin, tail furiously wagging behind him. Link could only nod and keep his gaze on his slate. He clicked on Ruta's teleporter and off the two went, the very fabric of their beings being torn apart and stitched back together with royal blue threads of fate.

The two reappeared on the ground before Ruta, the champions nowhere to be found but clearly heard from within the machine. He could faintly hear an argument happening along with the sound of rushing water. He could only wonder what they were fighting about this time.

"Ruta… how far you've fallen," he heard Sidon mutter off to the side. Link spared a glance at the prince, seeing the crestfallen look on his face. He then looked up at the beast, taking in its features for the first time.

The trunk, he learned that's what it was called from Mipha, sagged heavily against the ground. Its head was downturned and the bottom of its chin was barely hanging off the ground. It was truly a sorry sight. Link turned to Sidon and gave him a comforting squeeze of the arm. "He'll be alright Sidon, we're going to fix him. Have some faith in us," he said softly, giving the prince a smile before releasing his arm.

Link turned his face to his slate, looking away too soon to see the loving look Sidon sent his way. He was less than happy with how few ancient supplies he had but he'd have to make due. "Be careful, I don't remember if there were any electric monsters or currents inside. And anything could've made a home in there since I first defeated the beast." He said, swiping to his clothing section. The wind had grown frigid, leaving the Hylian to shake slightly from the cold.

Seeing as they'd be here for a while, Link decided to take off his Zora headpiece and put his ruby circlet on instead. It kept him just warm enough to not freeze, that would have to do until he got his body moving. That couldn’t be soon enough. "You ready?" He asked the prince, getting a delayed nod in response.

With some help of Revali's gale, plus a particularly strong mighty and tough elixir, he was able to get both of them to the entrance of Vah Ruta. Urbosa was waiting for him at the entrance but the other champions- and his korok companion- seemed to be further in the beast.

"No monsters in here. Even checked all the secret rooms Mipha remembered. The other four are looking over the back half but we found some areas that need fixing." She summarized, her gaze falling to Sidon every few seconds. Said Zora was looking around the machine, clearly on guard and ready for something to pop up.

Link put a hand in his tense forearm, making Sidon look down at him. “There’s no monsters in the main room so there shouldn’t be too many elsewhere. You can relax a little.”

Sidon looked like he wanted to disagree, even opened his mouth to do so, but seemed to back out at the last second. “...If you say so, Link,” he paused and gave the room another look around. “While I do trust you, I’ll keep my guard up for a little while longer. Being inside this beast gives me a bad feeling.”

"If anything dangerous pops out I'll protect you," Link promised, sending Sidon a reassuring look.

Urbosa, who had been quietly watching the exchange between the two, let out an amused buff. "Are you two love birds done or must I stand here and watch this go on for several more minutes?"

Link jumped and tried to keep the heat off his face, having completely forgotten the Gerudo was even there. "We should uh- go get started on this," he stammered, avoiding looking Sidon and Urbosa in the eyes.

The Zora prince, unaware of their audience of one, nodded and followed behind Link. While he looked relaxed and openly eyed all the mechanisms of the beast, his hand never let go of the Ceremonial Trident he used to fight with.

Link sighed as he accepted that Sidon would stand guard the whole time they were there. He followed Urbosa, occasionally running into another champion who helpfully (or unhelpfully. CoughRevalicough) told him where something had to be fixed.

Three quickly became five, then ending at seven as the rest of the champions and Fostri met up with the group. As he got to work on repairing some of the broken parts he couldn't help but listen in to the conversations around him. Although he knew they were there for almost the entire length of his journey, he couldn’t help but forget since they barely talked about it. It was times like this that he was quickly reminded of this fact when he heard Urbosa and Revali making bets in the distance. He couldn’t hear much of what they were saying, just enough to know they were making bets on him and Sidon. He opted to not listen, saving himself the embarrassment of knowing they knew about his love life- and lack of it.

They were about halfway through the day when Link remembered the topaz jewelry he'd had custom made some time ago. He only remembered after the third time he almost accidentally electrocuted himself, standing much too close to a puddle of water while working with electricity.

"Oh by the way,” pausing his work, he got the jewelry out of his slate and offered Sidon a pair of gems. "In case there's any electric enemies, this should help keep the effects from being too bad.” He rushed out, heat creeping to his face when he saw that Sidon was already looking at him.

The Zora prince gratefully took the gems, tail slowly wagging behind him. "Thank you Link! I'll be sure to return them when we get back to the domain!” He beamed, pinning both gems on his sash. The yellow gems complimented the navy fabric and stood out against his white scales.

Link shook his head, using the movement to look away from the prince. “You can keep them. I bought a few more gems for the other Zora that frequently go to areas with electric Lizalfol.”

He heard Sidon moving and before he knew it, there were two arms around him, carefully dragging him to Sidons chest. “I greatly appreciate this Link,” he beamed, . “You’ve done so much to help us Zora. Words alone can’t express how grateful I am for all you’ve done for us.”

Link started to squirm, unsure how he should be feeling about being in the Zora's hold. He only stopped when Sidon spoke up, his tone hesitant yet heavy.

“Link… I…” He started, tightening his grip around Link. “You’ve been so distant these past few weeks. Is it something I have done?” He asked, voice going quieter with each word. “Have I done something to upset you?”

The silence was thick as Link thought about the question. He slowly shook his head, deciding that now was the time to tell him. “No,” he started, unsure how to go about this. “No, you haven’t done anything Sidon. I’m the one that should be saying sorry.”

Sidon was quick to speak up at that. “Link, you don’t have to be sorry for anything. I understand that you’re incredibly busy rebuilding Hyrule and protecting her people. I just wish to know what I have done to upset you.”

Link shook his head again, more firmly this time. “No Sidon, you really haven’t done anything. Maybe we should sit down and I’ll tell you everything.”

So they did. Link sat on the side of one of the pools while Sidon floated near him. Here, Link told him everything. How he was slowly getting his memories back over the course of his journey, and with them his feelings for people long dead. He told Sidon about Zelda, how he felt about her and how she felt about him. He told Sidon about the secret dates and the research trips that always took longer than necessary. He spoke of the long days watching Rhoam berate her and the late nights comforting her. Lastly, he told him how they planned to get married and start their own family after everything was done.

It didn’t need to be said how that never happened.

Sidon was silent through everything, patiently listening and waiting for Link to finish before speaking up. “Do you still have feelings for her?” He quietly asked, no judgment in his voice. If anything, his eyes held nothing but sympathy and understanding.

He didn’t know what to say after that. Some days his heart ached to be with the one he loved, staring at his sword for hours at a time. Those days are the ones where he was Link from a hundred years ago, feeling guilty for the kingdom he couldn’t protect.

Then there were some days where he hated her. Hated her for putting this responsibility on him, this kingdom and her people. Those days are the ones where he was some random boy born into a world he had to save even if he didn’t know why he had to.

All he could do was give Sidon a halfhearted shrug, unsure of the answer himself. “I think so. I don’t know.” He whispered, looking away from the Zora. "Everything's so confusing. I feel like all these emotions I have are from the old me. But then I talk with Impa, Purah, Robbie. You and your dad. I don't know what to feel when I talk with anyone who I knew before." He ranted, frustration with himself building as he felt the tears threatening to fall.

Sidon said nothing, making Link keep his head down in anticipation. Would he be upset at him for keeping this secret? Betrayed that Link has feelings for another? Would he be mad and leave? He didn't want to know.

"Link? Would you look at me, please?" Sidon asked softly, the sound of water gently splashing as Link saw his shadow moving closer.

He didn't want to look up in fear that his fears would come true. Nonetheless he did, wanting to know what Sidon wanted to say.

Looking up at Sidon revealed none of that. Sidon had a sympathetic smile, nothing but complete sympathy and understanding on his face. “When you do figure out your emotions, do be sure to let me know. Until then, I shall wait for you for as long as you need. If you ever need a friend to talk to, please don't hesitate to ask me. I shall help you however you need, as it would be my pleasure.” The Zora stated, holding a hand over his heart. A vow he was always willing to hold.

And suddenly, Link didn't see Sidon anymore. He saw Mipha offering a healing hand while ranting talking about her day and the domain, or scolding him for getting injured again. He saw his childhood best friend who always had his back no matter what. He saw the sister to the one he loved, the Zoran princess he couldn't save.

"Link, how many times must I tell you to be careful? You Hylians are fragile, please take better care of yourself." The red Zoran princess scolded, gently holding Link's injured arm in her hands.

The knight shrugged, looking away from the princess in front of him. They were having their weekly chats, sitting on Vah Ruta's trunk this time, Princess Mipha having recently gotten crowned as the beasts pilot.

Princess Mipha sighed but held a webbed hand over the slash, letting her healing water wade over the wound. Link bit his cheek as a hiss threatened to leave him, training and desensitization being the only reasons he didn't flinch from the sting of the healing.

It was quiet, the sound of water softly swishing being the only noise until Mipha spoke up. "I worry about you Link," she said softly as her healing faded, the slash leaving barely a car behind. "You constantly throw yourself in harms way for Princess Zelda and hold no regard for your own health. I worry your duty to the princess will get you killed." She confessed, tracing the freshly healed scar with a clawed finger.

I worry too Mipha. But I have to protect the princess, it's my purpose. Link thought to the Zora, willing her to understand his thoughts.

Another sigh passed from her lips, letting go of his arm and allowing him to take the appendage back. "I suppose there's nothing I might be able to say to change your mind, is there Link?" She guessed, a sad smile on her face.

Link shook his head, knowing that even if he wanted to, being the princess' knight was his duty till he died.

"Then there's nothing else I can do but be here to heal your every scrape and wound. I promise to you that I shall always be here to heal you, even if I leave this world." The Zora stated, placing a hand over her heart. A vow she was always willing to hold.

Link stared at her until he blinked and saw Sidon once again, who was making his way out of the pool.

Sidon stood next to Link and held a hand out to help him up. “Now, I quite believe you said there was more work to be done here?” He asked, looking around the space they were in.

Relieved that he was changing the topic, Link wiped his eyes and nodded. He cleared his throat as well for extra measures. "Yeah, you're right."

Neither of them pointed out his misty eyes or rough voice.

~Bonus content~

After Link and Sidons conversation, the two spent the rest of the day working on Ruta. Link felt that he could be turned on (don't ask how, he just had a feeling) but decided not to.

Or well, he tried.

Honestly, his first mistake was saying his thoughts to Sidon. The Zora was so insistent that Link felt he had to turn the beast on. So with a warning of the noise and vibrations the beast would cause, Link set his slate to the control unit and allowed it to wake from its slumber once again.

The Zora was enamored by the beast now that it wasn't trying to flood his home, begging Link to sit atop it's back. Seeing as Link couldn't say no to him, the two watched the sunset from Ruta's back while Mipha enjoyed some time with her previous life partner.

The champions, who had been kind enough to not comment on their conversation, were spread across the beasts back to give a semblance of privacy.

Link sighed, feeling at peace for the first time in a long, long while.

~~~

It's been almost two years since Link (now known as Link Durim Hyrule across his (HIS!!!!) people) had been crowned as King of Hyrule. His rule isn't perfect, he still messes up and burdens people with his mistakes. But it's a learning experience. One he and his people are learning through together.

It's nearing the last day of the festival, the Miracle Festival some people have been calling it. On this day two years ago he defeated Calamity Ganon once and for all. The festival took place in the center of Castle Town. The once destroyed town was still destroyed but it was quickly being rebuilt into an even better version of itself. Bolson got his team together (including Hudson's mismatched band of races) and they got working on the new town.

Their hard work was truly paying off. The town was usable for the first festival, even if only the town square was able to be used. But this year almost the whole town could be used! Most of the buildings had been fixed up so store owners could store their wares or travelers could rest in one of the temporary lodges.

Seeing Link's kingdom, his people, his friends, his family. Seeing everyone come together to celebrate his victory? That was doing terrible things to his self-esteem. Hylia knows it was already too big.

The coming sunset signaled the time for the festival to come to a close. Store owners gave away the last of their wares and travelers bedded down one last time before the long journey home the next day. Link decided to go check and make sure no monsters were lurking in the shadows of the walls. After waving off the champions ("No I don't need company"), Paya ("I promise I won't rip my outfit again"), and Fostri ("I'd rather you stay safe in town. I'll bring you back some apples when I come back.") he set off to do a quick perimeter check.

He switched out his 'formal' attire (a shirt that was nice quality and ripped far too easily with pants that probably would've cost both his arms a century ago) and into his sheikah set. You could never go wrong with a classic. His Hylian shield and savage lynel sword were his chosen defense and offense for today.

As he neared the walls he got this sinking feeling in his chest.

Something was wrong.

Something was there.

He narrowed his eyes and quietly got his sword out, holding it parallel to his body. His whole body tensed up as he heard voices on the other side of the wall, every muscle in his body pulled taut.

"Does anyone know who’s Hyrule this is?”

“Fuck if I know! Four threw up on me and passed out!”

“Poor Four. Here, take this and give him to me.”

Link quickly opened his slate and downed a stealthy elixir, stalking as close as he could to the walls. He started scaling the walls, throwing his sword in his slate to make the move more quiet.

“When he wakes up he’ll be put on laundry duty. Whenever we find somewhere to settle down. Warrior, don’t you think this looks like Castletown?”

“If it is, it’s much quieter than most of ours. Could be ‘Rules?”

“Not mine, not enough magic in the air.”

“Kinda looks like mine but too big ta be. An' too quiet for the old mans.”

Link finally got to the top of the walls, peering down over the other side of it. There he saw eight people, two kids, two teenagers, and four adults. He glared, wondering if the children were taken against their will. While he didn’t recognize them, it wasn't impossible that there were some people he hadn't met yet. Perhaps they could be from out of Hyrule? But that doesn’t make sense, someone had asked who’s Hyrule they were in. Were there multiple kingdoms named Hyrule?

He didn’t question it for much longer before he grabbed his Great Eagle Bow, lined it with arrows and spoke up. “Put your weapons down and your hands up or I’ll be forced to shoot.”

The whole group spun around trying to find him, hands flying to the swords on their backs. Link was going to shoot until he saw one with a wolf pelt look up at him. Something about pelt seemed so… familiar. Pelt slowly raised his hands, making Link loosen the hold on his arrow. He didn’t harm people that were surrendering. “We don’t mean ya any harm.”

“Uh Twilight, I think he’s the one that should be saying that, not us!” One of the teenagers hissed, one with pink hair.

“You don’t question the person with an arrow aimed at you who looks like they're prepared to shoot!” The adult with a long, blue scarf hissed back.

Link let an arrow fire past Pinkys head, watching his hat swish from the sudden movement. He didn’t have time for people to question him, not when he could feel Tenk laughing at him and his lack of authority over the situation. Of course the one spirit he couldn't get rid of is the one spirit that couldn't help him. “State your name and business for being here. I have to get back and I’d rather not have to escort you to jail.”

One Eye spoke up, hands slowly coming down from above his head. “We’re here to find the hero of the land? We need to speak with him.”

“Busy. State your name and business for being here.” Link pointedly said, aiming his arrow at One Eye.

"Hey now! You wouldn't harm an already injured man, would you?" Blue scarf hissed, glaring up at Link. "Wouldn't kill you to set the bow down." He scoffed and threw his arms down, hand much too close to his swords handle.

Link decided Scarf would be a better target as he let another arrow fly, this time snagging at the edge of his tunic. A rip was heard as the arrow nicked the bottom edge of the fabric, keeping the piece pinned to the ground.

The silence was thick as Link instantly lined another arrow. "I will say it once again. State your name and business for being here."

"I bet if you threaten one of the kiddos they'll be more inclined to answer." Tenk unhelpfully offered, lazily floating next to the kid in a colorful tunic.

The kid in blue must've seen his eyes lingering on the other kid as he shouted "Don't!" Before a gust of wind knocked him down from his perch on the wall.

Goddamit Tenk, Link thought as he fell. He prepared himself to feel the air leave his lungs and his back to snap.

He didn't prepare himself to get swallowed by a swirling mass of purple.

4 notes · View notes