#the guy he did all this for apparently accidentally fakes his own death and returns a year later

[s-guacamolearts]

So I've been trying to figure out the lore of ace attourney and in the mean time I'll offer this as my first contribution

[breadoffoxy]

Of Insults and Flowers

Summary: You weren’t sure what to expect when a hot customer comes barging into your shop, but the depletion of your flowers representing insults and falling in love was definitely not on the list.

Written for the  BTS Ghostie Writers Bingo Bash. Prompt: Florist!AU

Pairing: Jungkook x n. Reader

Genre: Fluff, one sprinkle of angst, humor, florist!AU

Warnings: Some language, cheesy flirting, kissing, an innuendo, Jin being the best chaotic friend, brother, and boss a person could ever want.

Word Count: 5,363

The day at the shop has been slow. Here you are trimming yet another thorn off yet another rose. One large pile on the left slowly shifting to become a large pile on the right. Your phone is hooked up to a little speaker playing music that's irresistible to dance to.

The clanging of the bell on the door makes you squeak as you quickly look up. Your dancing form is frozen as you hope that they didn't see your booty shaking.

A young man strides forward purposefully, large eyes intently focused on your form behind the counter. Crap he totally saw you dancing.

Double crap he is super-hot.

The brunette customer is decked out in all black from his large shirt, jeans, and clunky boots. Tattoos peek out from under his sleeves on muscular arms. Small silver hoops swing from his ears from his hurried pace.

When the man reaches the counter, his hands slam down on the surface making you jump. From their position you see more tattoos inked across his hands. The grip on your cutters tightens. The type of customer that is impatient, rude, and knows better than you have frequently entered your shop, but no one has ever entered like this. You're not sure what set the brunette off as you never seen him in your shop before. You would have remembered him if he did.

"How do you say fuck you in flowers."

"...Excuse me?"

"I need a bouquet to give to a...acquaintance. One that says fuck you, and not the good fuck you. Sure, he's good looking for someone his age but ah sorry that's not the point." He runs a hand through his dark locks. The action makes it look incredibly fluffy. "The point is, I need flowers that look pretty but are a proverbial middle finger."

The only sound is the music from your phone. Body rigid despite the tune you love, you stare at him with wide eyes.

An awkward beat passes between the two of you as you try to gauge the hot madman in front of you. He seems to finally notice the death grip you got on your cutters and the confusion in your eyes.

Black boots take a couple of careful steps away from the counter. He raises his hands in front of him.

"Sorry...I'm just really frustrated at this guy. I didn't mean to scare you."

Quickly the young man bows deeply. "Please forgive me."

Ok, now you are even more shook at the situation.

Your hand loosens its grip on the cutters a bit as you wave your hands frantically.

"It's ok, please don't bow. I was just really surprised."

The man straightens slightly from his 90-degree angle and looks at you with large eyes. The intensity of them has simmered down to a sheepish look begging for forgiveness. 

Oh god, the hot man just turned into an adorable puppy.

"Just don't walk into someone's store like that again, ok."

You place the cutters on the table gently but keep your hands lingering close to the tool. The man returns to his deep bow.

"That acquaintance must be a piece of work."

Straightening, the man huffs and smiles sardonically, "Oh, you have no idea."

"Fill me in, that way I can get the appropriate 'fuck you' across."

"Ok, so I work at Kim's." At the lost look on your face he adds "That small restaurant on the other side of the neighborhood."

"Oh, I think I've seen the sign before?"

"Seriously? Their food is to die for. Sorry, I keep getting off point. Jin, he's the head chef there. His brother is on vacation and he's been missing him which causes him to act up more. The two are a force together but on their own its a whole other story."

You learn that the man in front of you is a server at Kim's as he regales tales of his boss Kim Seokjin, head chef. He misses his youngest brother Taehyung dearly, and has been acting out as a result. Dad jokes have been at an all-time high along with bickering over every little thing with is servers. Without Taehyung there, apparently no one comes close to the man named worldwide handsome in the looks department causing him to gloat about his looks more frequently as well. Many of the stories have you laughing. Leaning against the counter you're completely invested in every word the young man tells you.

"So here I am because Tae wanted me to buy his brother some flowers as a gift. As a friend it is my duty, but I feel like this is my time to get some revenge as well you know?"

You nod sagely in complete understanding. "I think I have just the ensemble of flowers for you...ummm...sorry I didn't catch your name?"

"Sorry, I really am an idiot. I'm Jeon Jungkook."

"Nice to meet you Jungkook. I'm y/n. Just give me a minute and I'll be back with some flowers."

You ponder over the flowers in your stock for a moment before carefully grabbing some to take back to the counter. Jungkook looks over your colorful assortment in curiosity.

You pick up an orange lily from the pile for Jungkook to inspect. "If you want the biggest fuck you in flower then this is it."

Next you pick up a delicate white flower. "This is orange mock, which means deceit. I thought it would be appropriate as well."

Jungkook carefully takes the flower from you, fingers brushing against yours accidentally in the process. The touch makes you jolt slightly. It goes unnoticed as the customer appraises the flower.

"Why is it called orange mock when it's white?"

Slightly still flustered you do your best to answer. "Its um well... you see the flower looks similar to orange blossoms. if you smell it, it also smells citrusy kinda, and that is why they have that name. Fake oranges."

Jungkook tilts his head down and takes a deep breath of the orange mock. He looks up with a smile partially hidden behind the flowers. You think your heart may have stopped at the sight.

"It does smell nice."

"So, um this last one," you sputter and focus on the cluster of flowers on the counter instead of the customer who's smiling with glittering eyes over your shyness, "is a zinnia. They come in many colors but they mean thinking of an absent friend. I figured your friend would appreciate part of the flowers being partly symbolic in the way he wants."

Jungkook picks up the zennia that's a mix of yellow and orange with highlights of pink. "He would like that." With all three of the flowers now in his grasp he nods. "Plus, I get to be petty now."

"Exactly. Now how would you like these wrapped?"

"You wouldn't happen to have a small vase for these would you? Something that's not too expensive?"

"I got something that'll work."

You retreat to another section of your little shop and return with a simple and small glass vase.

"Will this do?" You tilt the vase for Jungkook to see the price tag on the bottom.

"Yeah that'll be fine."

Putting the flowers in your outstretched hand, Jungkook watches in fascination as you assemble the flowers together.

"Tada! How do you like it?" You exclaim after you put in the last flower.

"It's perfect, thank you."

Making a customer satisfied has never made you happier. Quickly you scribble everything down on the receipt pad as Jungkook pulls his wallet out from his back pocket. You give him the receipt which he quickly looks over before giving you his card.

"Alright, I hope Jin likes it." You can't help but giggle. "Thank you for your purchase."

"No, thank you y/n." He bows quickly again before picking up the vase. He walks out of your shop, but not before giving you a little wave goodbye.

A few hectic days pass after that as you fulfill an order for a bridezilla's wedding. You almost forget about the ordeal until a tall handsome man with wide shoulders enters your shop. You can't help admiring the man as you cut off a long piece of ribbon to tie around a small arrangement. That is until your eyes spot a familiar looking assortment of orange and white flowers in a little glass vase. Crap, you hope he isn't here to yell at you. Double crap because he is more attractive than Jungkook mentioned, if he is who you think he is.

He notes you eyeing the flowers he holds with wide eyes. "Recognize these do you?" He places them on the counter as he leans over it slightly. "Imagine my surprise when I thought I was being gifted this beautiful bouquet," One of his hands waves at the flowers before resting on his hip and his polite smile turns into a frown, "were part a lovely message from my brother, but also an insult from that brat."

The fingers on his other hand strum against the table, adding to your anxiousness. "You can imagine how shocked and upset I was when my beloved smart brother told me the true meaning of these flowers."

"I'm sorry about that sir." You force out your customer service voice. "Our refund policy would not cover these flowers as there are no defects."

"Oh no, I'm not here for a refund."

What is up with these hot men making you so confused.

"I want my own insult flowers to give back to him."

"...Okay?"

So here you are going over different flowers with the handsome customer who you learn is indeed Jin, mister worldwide handsome himself.

The two of you decided on monkshood, a pretty purple flower that's poisonous if eaten, among a bundle of pink and white Rhododendron. Basically, it’s a batch of flowers warning Jungkook to watch his back. You make sure Jin promises to keep the monkshood away from food and he swore on his pride a chef he would never ruin food like that for someone.

"Thanks, Flower, for the flowers." Jin winks at you with a chuckle. "Come by the restaurant sometime and I'll whip you up something good. My treat."

You stand there a bit baffled as the man makes his exit.

For some reason you're not surprised when Jungkook stops by a couple days later asking for more flowers to serve as insults to his boss. The two keep coming back and forth to your shop. You find it entertaining and honestly their feud is really good for your business. Seeing the attractive men always makes your day a bit better. However, you're starting to run out of different flowers that they would consider insults. Jungkook did just buy out all the buttercups you had left to give to his somewhat childish boss.

One day while watering your plants you receive a phone call. Cradling the phone between your shoulder and you're ear you answer, "Hello, this is Spring Day how may I help you?"

"Hello, this is Kim Namjoon from Kim's restaurant. I'm sure you're familiar with the name with your two loyal customers."

You can't help the chuckle at the tone of Namjoon's voice. "Yes, very familiar." The common visits of the two have sparked a unique friendship. It hasn't helped that the attraction you felt for the younger frequent customer has turned into quite the crush.

"The arrangements you have been making for my brother and Jungkook have been displayed around the restaurant and the customers have been noting how much they like them. We would like to hire you to supply flowers for our place sets if that is something you are interested in. If so, I have some numbers ready to go over with you."

"Ok Mr. Kim, thank you for the opportunity. Let's talk some business."

After Namjoon and you discuss prices and scheduling you eventually came to a solid agreement. When the phone call is over you can't help but do a happy dance. You're so proud of how your little business is growing.

Despite Jin and Jungkook visiting your store so often, you still haven’t visited Kim’s Restaurant until now. You stand out of the classy looking restaurant with your first delivery. Assorted colors of orchids fill the box, the simple yet elegant flower you and Taehyung agreed upon would work best to start with for now.

The youngest Kim brother emailed you upon returning from his vacation. He was the one in charge of the restaurant's graphic and interior design. He often worked as a host, greeting everyone who enters with a boxy smile. One was aimed your way just now as he helps you with the door to get inside. "Great to see you y/n, come in, come in."

Enthusiastically he ushers you into the restaurant. It's early in the morning so there are no customers yet. A lovely smell wafts from the kitchen as you follow Taehyung to a table further back. The restaurant is very chic looking with black and white pictures of various sizes and settings hanging on the walls.

"These photos are all beautiful Taehyung. Are they all yours?"

"They are." Taehyung is beaming at the compliment. "I took new photos on my trip so I can't wait to get those developed. Now let's look at those flowers."

Taehyung helps you carefully take the flowers out of the box and set them on the table. Namjoon, a couple of tables over with what looks like important papers and folders, tries to come over and help, but Taehyung shoos him away. "He'll destroy the whole batch if we aren't careful y/n." He whispers playfully to you.

"I can hear you; you know that right."

Namjoon just gets Taehyung's signature smile in return. The back door opening and slamming shut drags your attention towards the back hall.

"Yah! What have I told you punks about that door, huh?" An aggravated voice yells from the kitchen.

"Sorry Yoongi," comes a triage of voices. You're excited to see Jungkook come into view along with two other men. Your favorite customer stops with wide eyes as he notices you. A smile quickly blooms on his face and he makes his way over to you excitedly.

"Y/n! You finally came."

The two other men look at the scene with interest, recognizing your name instantly as it comes out of the youngest staff member's mouth.

"Hey Jungkook, sorry it took me so long, and that it's for work. I'm an awful friend huh?"

Jungkook whips his head side to side. "No, no, your business keeps you busy. I'm just glad you're finally here."

The young server leans close to you to get a good view of the flowers on the table. The other two servers behind him share a knowing look before approaching.

"So, you're the famous y/n, we've heard a lot about you." You turn to see the attractive men bow in greeting. "I'm Jimin." Greets the grinning blonde who gets elbowed by Jungkook after his statement.

"Hiya! I'm Hoseok, nice to finally meet you." He makes a cute sound effect as he also examines the flowers. "These are really pretty."

"Thank you, and nice to meet you too." You beam at the two servers. Jungkook's hip suddenly bumps into yours softly making you look at him questioningly. He only smiles at you so you bump your hip back into his.

"Wait, is that my Flower that I hear?" A voice comes from the kitchen as a head peeks through the server's opening in the wall that also lets customers see into the kitchen. "It is!"

Junkook frowns at the nickname as Jimin, Hoseok, and Taehyung laugh at his disappointed face.

"Hello Jin." You call out to the man walking his way out of the kitchen. He makes his way over towards you and opens his arms for a hug which you gladly return.

"Oh, it's so cool to see you in your chef's outfit." Jin's wide shoulders fill out his black chef's jacket which is tied tightly around his thin waist. The chef's ears turn slightly red at your compliment. "Oh stop...tell me more."

"Ok, that's enough back to work." The grumpy voice calls over from the open area into the kitchen. The man with dark hair, you assume must be Yoongi, nods in greeting before disappearing.

"On my way Yoongles!" 

You swear you can fell the sigh that came from the kitchen.

"Don't think I forgot my promise to treat you to something y/n. Prepared to be blown away." The tall chef blows a kiss to you dramatically before reentering the kitchen.

"Ok guys," Namjoon claps at the servers. "Let's go over today's items." He ignores the collective groans. "You're good Taehyung and y/n?"

You nod as Taehyung answers, "All set."

Jungkook hips bump into yours as he follows the others to Namjoon's table. He smirks over his shoulder and sends you a little finger wave, which you return. Straightening your shoulders, you turn back to Taehyung and the two of you get into business mode. You figure out which arrangements you want on each table, making the displays form a slight pattern based off color. Taehyung and you now stand near the host's table, eyeing the flowers approvingly.

"This look's good y/n, thank you for the hard work."

"I'd say a lot of this is a win for you. You have a really good eye Taehyung."

Taehyung playfully puts a hand on his heart and looks at you with the cutest expression. Namjoon walks from the back and nods at the flowers approvingly as well as he passes.

"Y/n have a seat please." You follow the two Kims to Namjoon's table where you discuss further business. That is until a bowl of japchae is put down in front of you. The sight and smell of it make your mouth water.

"Compliments of the Chef." Grins Jungkook, who is now changed into his server uniform of a black button up long sleeves shirt tucked into black slacks with a sleek black belt. Not used to seeing him dressed so sharp, you can't help that your eyes look him over appreciatively.

"Sorry y/n, but Jungkook isn't on the menu."

You whip your head to look at the youngest Kim brother looking slightly affronted. Taehyung's head is resting in his hands propped up on the table and is grinning at your reaction. Taehyung winks at you while Namjoon snickers as he busies himself with his papers.

"Eat it before it gets cold y/n" prods the grinning server besides you. You pick up the chopsticks ready to bury yourself into the heavenly looking japchae and pretend you don't exist. Flavor explodes in your mouth the taste is-

"I wouldn't mind if you wanted to order me though."

You're choking on the noodles, coughing to try to clear your throat. Oh god this was how you're going to die.

Hands are hitting your back trying to help you clear the food. Luckily the food gets cleared quickly and a large glass of water is placed next to you. Quickly you gulp down the water as a large hand gently rubs up and down your back soothingly. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah..." You clear your throat for good measure. "Yeah I'll be good."

The perfect server, Jungkook refills your water quickly.

"Thanks."

"Don't kill our customer and florist now Junkook." Namjoon slightly disciplines.

"Sorry boss. Sorry about that y/n."

You see the young man look sheepish and enter a deep and apologetic bow.

"You're going to kill me one of these days Jungkook I just know it." At your teasing tone Jungkook brightens up immediately.

“If that happens, I’m sure it would be from me giving you too much love.”

You roll your eyes at his cheesiness. He’s clearly learned from the best.

“Now go on, give it a try.”

You take another bite of food, and you're grateful no one says anything as you appreciate the taste slowly.

"Tell the chef this is amazing and thank you."

"He'll be glad to hear it." With a slight bow, Jungkook heads back to the kitchen. The sound of some sort of commotion starts back there making everyone at the table shake their head.

"Sorry for the trouble y/n."

"It's no problem Namjoon. I'm quite fond of it now."

Time flies by before you know it. You're busy at Spring Day fulfilling orders and spending your time at Kim's, not all of it for business. It's a lively environment, and going there has made your days so much more enjoyable. It also made your crush on the server Jungkook a whole lot stronger and into something more real and concrete. His flirting still shocks you every time much to everyone's amusement at the restaurant.

The bells on the door clang loudly making you stop your dancing to greet your customer. A loud voice greets you back. "Hello Flower! How are you today?"

"Hey Jin. Just cutting thorns off roses...again." Seriously cutting thorns off roses seems to be a never-ending task for you but that's what you get for being a florist.

"So, what brings you in today?" You glance at the calendar tacked up to the wall. "It's not delivery day."

Jin looks at you with a mockingly offended expression. "What, so I can't just come here to visit my favorite florist?"

"I'm the only florist you know Jin."

"Fine, fine you got me. I am here for a reason."

"I told you I don't have any new revenge flowers to give you. You'll have to do repeats if you want any."

"Nope that's not the reason I'm here today, but you know you really need to get some new ones in."

You raise an eyebrow at him, waiting for him to get to the point.

"What brings me here today is..." He taps a drum roll on the counter top. "...is love."

"Love?"

"Yes, love!"

"Ok, I'm getting a little offended with your blank stare of yours right now." Jin confesses.

You lean against the counter, careful not to smush any roses, and rest your head on the palm of your hand. "So, tell me of this love of yours."

Jin mimics your position and you feel like two kids gossiping.

"Well they are really sweet, and they get super cute when their shy. He li- I like their smile and laugh. Makes my heart flutter and all that."

"Uh-huh. What's their name?”

Jin winks at you. "Now that's a secret y/n."

"Of course it is." You can't help but roll your eyes. "So, does your lover know about your feelings and this is a gift, or are you needing to use the flowers to confess."

"The second one." Jin points finger guns at you.

"Alright, do you know what their favorite flower is." You straighten up and reach out for your inventory book.

"Uhh, what's your favorite flower."

The binder falls to the ground with a slap after your surprise caused you to fumble it.

"J-Jin," You squeak. "Are you confessing to me?"

You love Jin, but not that way. Your heart beats faster despite that, it feels like a hummingbird in your chest. You've never received a confession before.

"What, no no no, not me! Oh god I'm sorry I didn't mean for it to sound like that." He denies until he sees the look of disappointment in your face. You know you are not interested in him like that but his strong refusal makes your eyes sting.

"...Oh, that's fine. Good yeah, because I don't see you that way either." You try to play it off, but your voice doesn't sound that convincing. You bend down to pick up your binder. quickly trying to get your act together, you stay hidden a second longer behind the counter than you need to.

When you pop back up from behind the counter you keep your eyes focused on the inventory book you open up and avoid looking at the handsome man in front of you.

"So unlike revenge flowers, there are a lot more flowers that represent love."

Large hands cup your face and to pull your gaze to meet warm eyes that are worried yet reassuring.

"y/n there are so many people out there that love you. All of us at the restaurant," He pauses to wipe a stray tear with his thumb. "It may not be all romantic love, but you're part of our family now. So, don't be sad. I know there's someone who will give you the love you deserve. You got that Flower."

You nod your head in his warm grip. His hands stroke your cheeks before pulling away.

"These flowers are for...for someone else, but I know I can trust you to make something beautiful full of love."

You sniffle, but a smile is on your face now as you flip to the page you need. You’re lucky to have such a good friend. "Well let's get started on making the best confession bouquet that's going to knock their socks off."

Jin smiles at you reassuringly as the two of you look over your stock. You explain the flower meanings to him as you go along. After analyzing a variety of choices, the two of you decide to go with a simple arrangement of red tulips and orange blossoms.

At first Jin was wanting to go for the iconic roses, but you explained that something different with a similar meaning might be good by impressing the receiver with not the default choice. It could just be you and your high stack of roses you still have to dethorn, but you’re a little tired of the beautiful flower. Jin quickly relents and goes for the red tulips that you explain represents a declaration of love, and to believe the person giving the flowers is honest in their feelings.

He does question your choosing of orange blossoms as a filler flower to the bouquet over the traditional carnations, but you explain that they have a similar meaning as well and it would be something unique. It has nothing to do with the memory of Jungkook serenely smelling orange mock and looking at you in-between the delicate blossoms. Orange blossoms allude to innocence, eternal love, marriage and fruitfulness. You ignore the eyebrow wiggle Jin gives you at that last part.

"Do you want me to wrap these up for you, or just the bundle as is?"

"Wrap them up like one of your french flowers for me would you."

You roll your eyes as he laughs at his own joke.

"You should come by the restaurant tonight. It's dessert night." The chef sings to you.

You started the tradition of joining the staff at Kim's for a meal once a week after the store closes. Once in a blue moon, Jin and Yoongi go a bit over the top and make crazy beautiful fragile pieces of art they call desserts. When the rare mood strikes them to undergo the delicate process of creating such treats, the rest of the staff dresses up for the occasion to match the aesthetic food and to feel fancy once in a while.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Jin smiles fondly at you and carefully takes the flowers out of the shop, but not before giving you his signature flying kiss as goodbye.

Your shoes click on the ground as you approach Kim's. You glance at the time to make sure you weren't too early as it was dark inside. You peek inquisitively through the glass and you see Taehyung waving at you in dim lighting. After getting to know Taehyung better, you don't question things like why he would be standing alone in the dark at the front of his restaurant.

You wave back as the man rushes towards the door to let you in.

"Don't you look beautiful tonight."

"Same goes to you Taehyung."

Really Taehyung was dressed in rather laid-back clothes then what he normally wears for dessert nights. However, he's always beautiful no matter what he does which is so unfair.

Glancing around the dark restaurant, you don't see anyone else, though that could be because of the poor lighting.

"Why is it to dark in here Tae, and where is everyone?"

"They're out back. We're trying out something different this time."

He makes a dramatic bow and holds his arm out to you. Giggling at his antics, you link arms with his and he leads you through the restaurant.

Taehyung pats your arm reassuringly before unlinking his from yours as the two of you stop at a table adorned with a set of candles. With another flourish he pulls out one of the chairs at the table for you to sit at.

You look at him, to the romantic table settings, and then to the chair before hesitantly sitting down.

"Ok Tae, what is going on?"

He just grins that boxy smile of his before moving back into the kitchen, leaving you to sit anxiously at the table. Your fingers fiddle together before a figure steps out from the kitchen.

A quiet gasp escapes you as you take in the man dressed in black walking slowly your way. He's wearing his normal working attire just like Taehyung, the black button up shirt, black slacks with belt; but this time the top few buttons are undone showing you a tease of skin. The sleeves are rolled up showing off his strong tattooed arms that he knows you admire.

And he's holding a bouquet of red tulips and orange blossoms.

"J-Jungkook..I..what are you..."

You turn in your seat, about to stand before he motions you to stay sitting. He kneels in front of you and takes your hand in his. He brings it up to his lips, his eyes never leaving yours as he places a delicate kiss on the back of your palm.

You feel your heart trying to beat out of your chest, blood flushes to your head and it feels really hot all of a sudden. He holds the flowers for you to take without letting your hand go.

"Someone told me you like these."

You take the flowers and breathe them in. "They're perfect."

"Just like you."

Your foot kicks out at him lightly, embarrassed at his words.

"The flowers are telling you to believe me you know. Do you, do you believe in me?"

You see the earnestness in his eyes as he looks at you, remember all of those non-accidental touches as his thumb runs circles on your hands, the sweet words that come out of those perfect lips, the way your heart beats faster every time he's near you and dulls when he is gone. How you dreamed of kissing him as you lick your lips, his eyes following the movement.

"I do."

He leans forward until his lips meet yours in a soft kiss. His lips trace over yours as soft as a petal would. Shyly, you push your lips towards his, continuing the kiss. Your grip on his hands tighten as the hand with flowers seeks the table blindly as your bodies come closer together. His free hand comes to hold the back of your head, tangling itself in your locks to angle your head to deepen the kiss. You can't stop the breathy moan that escapes your lips, making Jungkook smirk into the kiss.

"Ok, time for dessert!"

The yell makes you jump, startled to remember you are not exactly alone. Jungkook groans as he breaks the kiss and glares over his shoulder.

"Jin they were having a moment!" Yells out Yoongi as Jin bustles out of the kitchen carrying two plates of dessert.

"I don't want them to have any more of a moment because I don't want my place of business to become unsanitary with their fruitfulness."

"Don't worry boss, we'll take our fruitfulness somewhere else."

"Oh no you don't, not after Yoongi and I made you these. Now sit down and eat."

You hide your face with a groan. Some things change and then some never do.

[volleychumps]

An Accidental Kind of Love (Iwaizumi Hajime x Reader)

Episode 10- Fading Nightmares 

Text Below the Cut:) 

Prev; Next; Masterlist 

I feel this needs to be described in vivid detail...

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

“What...is this that abandoned school? Isn’t it set to be demolished soon?” Futakuchi mumbles in disbelief, closing the car door quietly. Kuroo claps Iwaizumi on the shoulder, shaking him slightly. 

“As much as I know you want to kill that piece of shit-” 

Iwaizumi glances at Kuroo’s hand on his shoulder, shaking it off. “I know. The end goal is to just get her the hell out of there.” 

“The minute it gets too dangerous, we leave and wait for the police.” Futakuchi warns as Kuroo begins to stretch his arm muscles out, Iwaizumi pulling his denim sleeves up to his elbow, both serious as ever. Iwa nods once, walking ahead with trembling fists at how hard he was clenching them. 

“Ready to beat the shit out of some fuckers?” Kuroo lazily grins at the uptight Futakuchi, a dangerous glint in his eye as Futakuchi sighs, releasing the pressure in his chest. Kuroo smirks, knowing the lengths of how far Kenji would go for (y/n) than any other person. Even if he knew she would never see him the way he did her. 

Futakuchi and Kuroo both break into a jog to meet at Iwa’s side, fire on their heels. “Let’s do it.”

----

“Just how much is he paying you to watch me?” You blink at the scary-looking dude who was sitting criss-cross in front of you as you deal the cards, eyebrow quirked at the situation you were in. Kidnapped by your ex, playing go-fish with a gangster in the middle of an old classroom. Now, you’ve been in lots of weird shit before, but this?

This was new. 

“I’m not supposed to talk to you.” 

“Yet here you are, playing go-fish with me. Got any eights?” 

“...Go fish.” 

You roll your eyes slightly, surprised at the calmness in your chest at what was happening. It had been two days. Two days of staying in the same old classroom, and you’re shitty ex had only shown himself to you twice. The first time you spat at him, refusing to accept anything from him in fear that he was trying to drug you. You cried your eyes out the first night of sleeping on cold concrete, ankle chained to the wall. 

The second time he introduced you to your new “bodyguard” who was meant to keep you “safe”. By the second day, you had somehow managed to rope him in to playing a game of cards after a few hesitant conversations. You had learned about why he was the way he was and why he did what he did. Sure, you empathized with him a little. Mostly because he was no Toby. 

“I don’t agree with this, you know.” Puffy (as you named him) frowns. You remain silent, allowing him to speak his mind. “The boss told me to follow this kid. He paid enough money, apparently. It’s just to keep you here, but...it’s still not right. He seems a little sick in the head.” 

You scoff, about to reply in agreement until a new voice sounds throughout the room, sending chills down your spine and a lump into your throat. 

“Sick in the head? Is that any way to talk about your employer?” 

Puffy drops his cards, standing immediately as his scary eyes cast you a sorry stare. 

“Leave us.” 

Puffy hesitates, and walks out of the room as you refuse to tear your eyes away from the cards in your hand. Toby smirks, taking Puffy’s place in front of you as he begins to pick up the scattered cards. 

“Enjoying your time here?” 

You stay silent, pressing your lips tightly closed as your heart pounds in your chest. 

Fingers grip at your cheeks, forcing you to look up into the eyes of a monster. 

“I asked you a question.” 

----

“Ouch. That’s gonna leave a bruise.” 

Futakuchi glances worriedly over at Kuroo before kicking the thug who came at him in the stomach as he laid on his side on the floor, ignoring his groan of pain as he ensures he can’t get back up.   

Kuroo throws another thug by the shirt into the wall, wiping sweat from his brow as he glances at his best friend.  “Oh. Not me. Him.” 

The two boys share a freaked-out glance at how savagely Iwaizumi fought, taking down two of the four thugs all on his own. He ignores their stares, clicking his tongue as he slips his denim pullover off, leaving him in a black sleeveless shirt that exposed his arms as his free hand rubs at the cuts on his knuckles.

“Show-off.” Kuroo smirks as the three restart their jog farther into the school.  “They’re weaklings.” The air Iwaizumi gave off was dangerous and harsh, a promise of death in his eyes as each step he took was filled with a single purpose.

Saving you. 

----

“Yes, Toby, I am enjoying my time here.” A fake smile stretches its’ way onto your face, feeling soreness in your cheeks at how hard his thumb and forefinger were pressing into them. “I love being kidnapped by my psychopath ex that I was kind enough to take pity on.” 

Those weren’t the right words. 

He flings his wrist to the side, jutting your head to that direction as an unstable laugh slips his mouth. 

“You just never learn, do you?” 

“A real man doesn’t hit a woman.” You manage out, feeling the intensity in your ex rise. “But I guess in your case, that doesn’t matter. You monster.” 

“Monster? No, don’t get me wrong-I’m no monster.” 

You tremble as his fingers ghost under your chin, a sickingly-sweet tone seeping into his words. 

“I’m yours.” 

You clench your eyes shut when his face nears yours, fingers tilting your chin up. In a panic, you swing with your free arm, the slap echoing throughout the room as your fingers tremble at what you had just done. 

Toby freezes, head jutted out to the side. The laugh spills out of his throat, and the fear makes you shiver as his gaze falls on you maniacally. 

“So is this how you felt?” 

You shut your eyes, waiting for the impact as soon as he raises his arm. 

But it never came. 

----

“She’s in here.” 

The three blink suspiciously as the scariest-looking thug they’ve encountered motions to the door. Iwaizumi takes another step cautiously, dark eyes calculating. 

“Why would we believe that?” 

The sirens around the building begin to ring as Puffy laughs humorlessly. “I...shouldn’t live my life this way. She helped me realize that. Just...please. Save her.”

The three wasted no time, Futakuchi suspiciously accepting the key from the criminal as he begins to work the lock. Kuroo scratches the back of his neck awkwardly starting to make conversation with the criminal until a sound makes all their blood chill cold. 

A slap. 

And then Iwaizumi’s foot was inside the door. 

----

“Get the FUCK away from her if you know what’s good for you.” 

A relieved gasp makes its’ way out of your mouth as Iwaizumi’s face comes into view, black sleeveless shirt torn with a spill of blood out of the corner of his lips. But he still looked more goregous than ever as he threw the monster that haunted both your dreams and life against the wall in one solid swoop. 

Tears brim your eyes when Kuroo and Futakuchi rush up to you, looking roughed up themselves as your weak arms widen to allow both of them to hug you at once. 

“Y-You guys...” 

“Hey. You don’t have to say anything.” Futakuchi was gentle as he cupped your face, Kuroo’s arms tightening around you as he breathes out all the worry that had placed itself on his chest. 

“You’re safe. Thank God you’re safe.”

And then Kuroo was gone, running to pull Iwaizumi off a half-concious Toby. You see him spit out a tooth, crazy eyes glaring at you as Kuroo presses him up against the wall by the shirt. You rub your ankle as Iwaizumi undoes the chain with the key he had taken from Toby’s pocket. 

“You BITCH! You called all your other fuck-buddies didn’t you? I got someone to fuck with your phone, how-?!”  Kuroo hisses as his fist connects with Toby’s face, knocking him out like a light as Kuroo allows him to drop to the floor from his position up on the wall. Kuroo examines the cut on his knuckle, looking satisfied with himself.

“Man, I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time.” 

Futakuchi rolls his eyes as he walks over to your ex’s unconcious body, hoisting him up with a groan. You don’t see the sadness in his eyes when Iwaizumi embraces you as he casts you a smile. 

“Hey. We’ll bring him down to the police. See you outside.” 

“I love you guys, you know that?” You say with emotion packed in your throat as Kuroo and Futakuchi leave the room with the unconcious body. Kuroo lets out a low whistle when they make it halfway down the hall. 

“You sure you’re okay with this?” 

“Yeah.” Futakuchi smiles slightly. “She looked happy.” 

----

“I...” 

“Don’t. Just...hold me.” 

Iwaizumi’s arms are gentle as you sob quietly into his neck, ignoring the terrible state you were in as his bruised hand runs through your tangled hair.

“T-Thank you...I’m so dumb, I didn’t know-” 

“Don’t speak.”

“W-what-?” 

So, in the middle of an abandoned classroom, with tear stained cheeks and bruised arms- Iwaizumi kissed you. A cut up hand resting on your cheek with the most softest touch he had used that day. You deepen the kiss for a second before pulling away, and he rests his forehead on yours, dark eyes staring into yours as your heart returns to a steady rhythm. 

“Iwa?”  “Hm?” 

“Can we try and go on another coffee run?” 

“Yes. Idiot.” Iwa’s busted lip forms a smile as your dry throat laughs a little bit, the room spinning around you as your body faces a round of fatigue from all the previous events. 

“Be here when I wake up?” 

“That’s a given.” 

And then the room stopped spinning as your body fell into a slump, eyes fluttering shut as Iwa’s half-smile is the last thing you see. 

----

It’s not over yet, folks! It will go back to standard social media AU in the next episode<33

taglist<3:  @krxstynnn @neologyro @fernthefangirl @imconfusedanditsok @wthyuta @angsty-microwave @svtbitch @hitoshi-s-stupid-bitch  @givesoup @the-pastel-badger  @soumynonasstuff @hot-emotional–mess  @shinsvu-talks @its-onepiece @giuliana-seraphinaxx @yuiicorn @zoppzoop @bridgehampton @i-would-die-for-this @adoring-obi-wan @thenextjennaration @jiyong-kwon-881808 @bubbleteaa @bobothecircusclown @kasandrafaye @teamnicedynabitch @verysadsimp @fait-de-fleurs​ @animefan7420​ @samanthaa-leanne​

[bitch-i-migth-be]

Crash Course | Chapter 04: A Busy Queen Bee

Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Batman,  

Relationships: Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton,

Characters: Danny Fenton, Jazz Fenton, Ghost Writer, Clockwork, Observants, Pariah Dark mentions, Random ghosties mentions *boo*

Words: 2′549

Tags: BAMF Danny, BAMF Jazz, Sibling bonding, Shenanigans, Swearing

Summary: He swore his sister was trying to make him go into cardiac arrest - considering his halfa status that was quite the accomplishment-

But there was no other explanation to his sister’s stubbornness, and if he knew her at all there was just no talking her down from interning at goddam Arkham.

A/N: The academy location is what the Gotham Academy Comic brought up to the table on it’s pages. Gotham Academy IS across the road on that comic.

 Complete madmen, I’m telling you. That’s child endangerment right there and like HELL I’m passing up this opportunity HAHAHAHA.

 This is going to be a disaster.

CHAPTERS: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7

-.-.-.-

Danny was quickly writing down on his journal every single little thing that could be helpful to deal more efficiently with his workload, had been rather busy lately, and normally he would just wing it and be done with it, but this time there were some things he had to take into consideration before he started to poke bears with sticks. 

One of the most important?

When you are dealing with ghosts, you have to take into account that they have a thing called obsession. 

It’s their drive. The reason behind their actions and continual existence upon this world, and as such, a good way to guess what makes them tick.

Danny liked to pretend he was not a slave of a fucking obsession, but considering he was still fighting the ghosts, with no payment to speak of, and after the massive amount of times someone had used his face to scrub the streets-

The fake it ‘till you make it ideology only carried you so far in life.

His friends called it a hero-type obsession. 

Danny didn’t think that fit quite right. 

When he couldn’t turn a blind eye on one of his, particularly reckless, actions he preferred to describe it as a protection streak.

Obsessions were ‘born’ the moment of one’s death, after all. 

And there had been nothing heroic in the way he had died. 

He had been scared shitless.

The moment it had clicked in his head that he would most definitely die right there, all the reasons why he didn’t want to die yet flashed by his mind, all those places left to visit, his dreams of going to space, going out with his friends, his family- My god, Jazz …

He would leave his sister behind.      

He was leaving her alone in this godforsaken house with their parents. 

Even after all the years the Fenton siblings spent calling living in the Fenton household ‘survival’ they had only been playing around. It was supposed to be just a joke. Something to lighten and make fun of their weird family dynamic. 

It wasn’t supposed to escalate like this.

And now- n-now their parents had demonstrated that they were apparently more than capable of killing off — if accidentally — one of their children, what the fuck would prevent them from murdering the other one?  

Who was going to protect his sister?

The fear for his well being had rapidly transformed into dread for his sister’s future. A tremendous and sudden rush of protectiveness had inundated his being. 

And that was it for him.

The next time he had recovered some semblance of coherence he had awakened as a fully minted halfa and there was no going back. 

 Some months later, after learning more about his situation and what it meant, he had been capable of identifying what was the drive behind his ghost half. Jazz had been the catalyst, but apparently the sheer feeling of protectiveness had been what his soul had latched onto. So while his sister was a big priority, he recognized that he still felt somewhat inclined to protect in general. 

He still refused to call it an obsession, though. 

So Protection Urges it was.

Apart from keeping a constant watch on their house —for both their sake’s, truly—, when the ghosts started running wild all over the place his new ghost instincts had come to the conclusion that a safe town meant a safe sister — and a happy sister. Jazz would blow a fuse worrying about getting lynched by the town when they realized the older Fentons were at fault of the destruction of their homes. And he would worry about his sister getting skewered. An intervention was in order —, so, most of the time this protection was reserved for the humans, considering the weak things tended to get trapped in the crossfire between the ghosts and their obsession or even other ghosts.

There were also moments when humans would turn against other humans. But in a place like Amity — where the citizens felt a certain level of kinship against the ghostly invaders and tended to stick together — those tended to be scarce and far between.     

The occasions where his protection streak would show up in favor of ghosts weren’t as numerous, but they existed. They tended to be either when the G.I.W. got their imbecility involved, his parents were hell-bent on getting subjects for dissection or when other fucking ghosts insisted on being fucking assholes.

After all the time he spent dealing with ghosts it was undeniable there were good ghosts out there, and no matter the reason, when he helped these ghosts out most of them tended to be openly grateful. Some promised him their allegiance, others gave him their respect, and a good bunch of them would find subtle ways to stay under his protection. 

Once the almost disaster that had been Pariah Dark was over, some of the ghosts had started to actively request  his protection.  

Some of the most aggressive ghosts had started to back down, shit, even Walker was not bitching at him as much as he used to these days. He would think he was going soft, but he still looked at him like something the dog had dragged in — which, ok, that was true sometimes because Wulf, or even Cujo, but there was no need to be rude —, Danny didn’t really mind, Walker wasn’t his favorite person either. 

So things were a little better for him when he visited the Ghost Zone, and he could make things somewhat better for the weaker ghosts that relied on him for protection. As far as Danny was concerned he was doing fine in his protection duties. Fast forward a pair of months and the Ghost Writer was kind enough to inform him that while he was doing an excellent job with the fighting aspect, he sucked in all the others.

Apparently, when a ghost asked for the protection of another ghost they were requesting a lot more than just a ‘fight for me’. — And how the fuck was he supposed to even know that? — This, of course, also meant that they were willing to offer a lot more in exchange. But Danny wasn’t as focused on what he could get in return as in the fact that he was apparently lacking on his role as protector. 

Not on his goddamn watch.

Damn his fucking urges.

Later on, with more time and experience to sort through this wreck waiting to happen and after he finally got the chance to met more of the sovereigns of the Infinity Realms and personally witness their interactions with their people, he would start to understand what exactly this new role he had stumbled upon meant. 

For the moment the only thing he deemed as the first priority was supplying the ghosts under his care with a safe space to exist. 

According to the Ghost Writer, giving them a safe space would normally translate into welcoming them into his lair, because the weaker ghosts that normally requested protection didn’t have the proper energy levels to make one of their own.

The problem with that was that he didn’t have a lair. 

…Not necessarily.

GW hypothesized that, as he was so attached to his hometown and spend the most part of his time in there, it was likely that his ghost half recognized the entirety of Amity Park as his lair, and as such his instincts hadn’t seen the construction of one for his own use in the Zone as necessary. Or something along those lines. 

That had been a bump on the road for his plans. 

Nonetheless, a Fenton does not know when to fucking stop, so he kept at it. 

When he nagged clockwork about it the older — or younger, whatever he was at the time — ghost had said that winning a fight against a ghost king meant inheriting their lair by right of conquest. So technically speaking, Danny did have a lair now, no matter how creepy the thing was.

That was all good and dandy but didn’t quite resolve the main problem.

Because now the problem was that Pariah’s goddamned keep — now Phantom’s —,   was ‘guarding’ one sleeping murderous king, and two fucking powerful artifacts. And opening the doors to what amounted to a small army of random ghosts while those things were there was not a good idea. 

But, seeing as Danny was not about to expose ghosts or humans to each other, there was no way he was letting his ‘people’ into Amity, so the castle it was.

Considering the significance the crown, ring, and even fucking Pariah held for the zone, the Observants would have to get involved for decision making, because of course, they had to shove their nonexistent noses on everything.  

As anyone would have predicted, it was a goddamn pain to reach some kind of agreement when such uptight guys were involved. The halfa acknowledged that finding a place to these things was important but after two hours of debating back and forth over it, the situation was getting ridiculous. 

Danny, being pretty annoyed already, had asked if they could just melt the damn things and be done with it. 

The Observants nearly had a coronary. 

Clockwork would have succeeded in looking chastising if he hadn’t been so busy trying to hide the smirk blooming in his face from witnessing the eyeballs’ ruffled distress. 

They explained to him exactly why doing something like that was completely foolish, Phantom retorted that leaving two ancient artifacts of immeasurable power, and a psychotic slumbering ex-king in a creepy castle guarded by fear factor alone was fucking foolish.

The Observants countered saying that if the new high king would just fucking accept his position and wear them then they wouldn’t have to worry about the artifacts. Phantom disagreed in principle because the new high king would have to be as imbecile as the last one to let himself get possessed by a fucking ring.  

The halfa dutifully ignored most of the implications thrown in that particular conversation.

Happiness belongs to the ignorant.

In the end, they had all acquiesced 

A good thing, because Danny had been more than prepared to throw the tantrum of the century if any of them tried to get that goddamned cursed ring anywhere near his fingers, and there was no fucking way he was going to parade around wearing a fucking crown on fire — or otherwise—, he had an ice core for ancients’ sakes.   

In the middle of the ghost-catfight, Danny had stated that he would only agree to use the damn artifacts as long as they found a way to get rid of the goddamn curse of the ring and make the gaudy crown less of a fire hazard.

The Observant sniffed pompously, saying that the notion of them not knowing how to do such a simple thing was ridiculous, Danny’s eye twitched as he sneered, because ‘Why the fuck haven’t you done it already then?’

The Observants shifted nervously. Danny sneered harder. Clockwork stopped trying to pretend he was not enjoying himself. 

One of the Observants finally disclosed that the issue was not the knowledge but the power needed to pull off such a thing. With newer things, transferring powers from a thing to another was relatively easy. With millennia-old artifacts with such amount of power inside, though? Near impossible. Not even taking into account that the artifacts Danny wanted to ‘mess with’ were — however cursed  — an ancient heritage of the Infinity Realms.

“Then we ask for help.” Phantom said curtly, crossing his arms over his chest. 

This declaration resulted in a row of rapid blinking among the Observants. It was fucking weird to watch. 

“Ask who for help, exactly?” Came the uneasy reply.

“Isn’t it obvious?” he drawled, pushing his hand through his already messy white hair and massaging his aching temple while he was at it. 

“I think what Daniel is trying to say is,” Intervened ClockWork after letting Phantom loose on the Observants as long as he could get away with. The boy was a real wonder. “If we need power and permission to ‘ mess with the ancient heritage ’ then the better option would be to consult with the Kings and Queens of the Infinity Realms. Wouldn’t you agree?” the ghost of time finished sending a playful little smile to the ruffled Observants. 

At the end of the day, all this chit chat resulted in the official formation of the High Council of the Infinity Realms. 

For Danny, the best thing about this Council was that most of them, like him, had a bone to pick with the Observants.  

Which didn’t mean that they agreed with him on everything he put forward, but it still makes him quite satisfied, all things considered. 

Once established the first order of business had been, of course, dealing with the artifacts and Pariah. 

Phantom suggested from the get-go stashing pariah into a more discreet, less flashy location than his previous castle, and transferring the powers of the ring and crown into new non-cursed-or-flaming-and-better-named jewelry. 

These things had been a trademark of the ruthlessness of Pariah’s reign, after all. 

Taking into account that all of the ghosts sovereigns had either been present for Pariah’s carnage or were more than aware of the repercussions it caused, it was not much of a surprise when it was an almost unanimous vote in favor of the notion. It would have to be discussed further to decide on the precise details, but for the most part that was the general sentiment. 

The Observants had seethed for a while, but they couldn’t do more than resign themselves after the majority of the votes cast were in favor of a complete change.  

They had still insisted on keeping a goddamn crown as mandatory, and he could have kept going with his bitching but Jazz had been trying to teach him how to pick his battles, and this one was not worth more of a sore throat.

All of this hassle because he wanted to give some homeless ghosts safe heaven into his previously non-existent lair. 

Once done, with the artifacts and Pariah taken out of the keep, he realized some redecoration was in order before anyone lived in this place. He thought about asking ClockWork but decided to let him deal with the Council Shenanigans and went to bother the Ghost Writer instead.  

The dude sure had some strong opinions on color schemes and furniture. 

Danny shook himself out of his daydreaming, he had gotten carried away. 

He put his pen down, taking advantage of the little break in writing to stretch his cramped limbs and back like a cat before looking over his chicken scrawl spread all over the journal’s pages. 

If he dealt his cards well a single chat with the High Council and a visit to the castle would be more than enough to start the preparations. 

Danny’s eyes zeroed in the last column of names he had written on the page.  

That only left the more- mmh, particular cases. 

He let his chin rest on the palm of his hand, releasing a low hum while a little smirk slowly made itself comfy on his features.

Now, for the fun part.

-.-.-.-

NOTES:

You might be wondering, “Did she just made Jazz the root of Danny’s obsession?” And the answer is yes. Yes, I did. -.-.-.-

Frostbite’s name in the Latin American (Or is it from Spain? Don’t know :v )dub is “Congelación” (which means ‘freezing’) and I don’t know how to fucking deal with that. It does not sound anywhere as cool as the original :’v

Maybe it’s because I’m not used to hearing “congelación” applied to something as awesome as a goddamn ghost yeti.

Or maybe not.

Who knows. -.-.-.-

I swear I’m trying to get these two to Gotham, but It feels like I’m dragging Danny there kicking and screaming. Which is- appropriate, I suppose. -.-.-.-

There would be more details of the High Council integrants later (I think?) and the dynamic I’m going to put here, not like you can’t guess some of them already *wink wink nudge nudge*

[theladyofspaceandtime]

Robin Hood - 3x10 Bad Blood Meta

Here’s another crazy Robin Hood meta by Jamie about her thoughts pertaining to the confusing and retcon mess that is episode 3x10 of BBC Robin Hood. 

Let me know your thoughts and I hope you enjoy my ramblings once again. 

“I’ll free you, free you from the bad blood that shackles you to each other.” - Malcolm of Locksley to Robin & Guy

Where do I begin with this? No honestly, I’m not sure exactly where to start. 

I guess I’ll start with the obvious fact that while most of the fandom dislikes Season 3 in general, this episode is only one of the things that fuels it more. You can tell that the writers were trying to come up with a Surprise Mcguffin™ to keep the show running despite a good majority of the cast wanting to leave the show (all except one honestly.) Hence the retcon mess that transpires. Don’t get me wrong, I actually love some things about this episode, but there are also somethings that make me (and the fandom) scratch our head and just downright facepalm. 

Follow me through the ride that is this episode and make sure you don’t forget about that Mcguffin. There is a pop quiz on it later. 

Welcome to the first episode where Guy has become an outlaw. What there is only 3 episodes of this before it’s the end? Yeah, I feel ya. We should have gotten more of this. Anywho, Robin runs into the newly outlaw Gisborne in the forest as the two do what they do best: argue and fight with each other. It leads to a strange hooded man in the forest who shoots them down with poison darts, ties them up, and tells them a bedtime story of their past once they awaken because he wants to end the bad blood between them.

Kay...sounds legit???

Flashback to 20 years earlier! 

We are introduced to a couple kissing. Oh, don’t worry, it’s just Ghislaine of Gisborne and Malcolm of Locksley having a secret affair with each other. WAIT, WHAT?! Guy and Robin sit around the campfire as Gisborne tells him of the fact he spotted this happening. The stranger reminds Robin he was once on a different path. In fact, Guy and Robin both were. 

This episode is pretty much about the affair between their parents and is mostly a flashback episode, so the only way I can explain it all is in the characters themselves.

Ghislaine of Gisborne - Guy & Isabella’s Mother

She’s a supposed widow who has two kids, is ridiculed by the villagers for not only trying to run a manor/village all on her own, but for also being French. 

I LOVE THIS PRECIOUS MAMA! FIGHT ME! Her two children idolize her and love very much and so does her husband. Ghislaine was one of my favorites from this episode because despite her affair, it only ended up happening because she thought her husband was dead and since women (yes, even noblewomen) didn’t have many rights, the only way to secure her children’s future was to have a husband. Did Ghislaine love Malcolm? Yeah, probably, but there is also no denying the fact that even when her husband returns back from the crusade alive and is discovered as a leper, she still dearly loves him. She even sneaks to the leper colony to feed him and make sure he is well. 

As for the way she dies....by pretty much getting knocked back by Malcolm and hitting her head on the floor, I can see it, but I still call BS. 

Ghislaine was greatly loved by children so much that even once they discover the truth about her affair, they try to deny she would be capable of such a thing.

Malcolm of Locksley - Robin’s Father

THIS ASSHOLE! With all the problems I have with this episode, they all stem from this man right here. Who knows what happened to his wife? She’s never even mentioned, but it’s assumed she passed away. He’s a somewhat good father to Robin...at least he gives him helpful advice. He helps support Ghislaine while her husband is gone. 

But once everything is out in the open about the Secret Mcguffin, this shitstick says that despite the fact her husband has returned, he will declare his feelings for her, marry her or else once it’s discovered her husband is a leper, she will lose everything. Ghislaine is obviously having trouble accepting this, so he says she will have their Secret Mcguffin in secret and have it taken away for a short while until they can recover it.

Once Roger is kicked from the village for being found as a leper, probably by the hands of Malcolm since he was with the priest and bailiff when it happened. However, after the event when Robin refuses to go inside a lepers house, Malcolm at least calls his kid out on his shit. He also tries to defend Ghislaine from the bailiff who has spotted out their Secret Mcguffin, but does a wrong move by trying to marry her soon or else she will lose her lands to sneaky bailiff that goes to take the deeds at his order. 

But here’s the cake taker for me: despite fighting Roger for breaking the code to visit his wife, Malcolm of Locksley fakes his own death and makes his son think he is dead for years until he shows up to tell him this very story. Yep, the strange hooded man is none other than Malcolm of Locksley himself, much older and scared by the fire during his fight with Roger. Oh, and he only appears in this one episode to unite Guy and Robin to find the Mcguffin before disappearing again.

*sarcastic* A+ Parenting right here. Wow.

Roger of Gisborne - Guy & Isabella’s Father

This man is literally EVERYTHING Malcolm wants to be...no honestly, he’s literally trying to take his wife, and his lands, and probably his kids too. 

Presumed to have died fighting in the crusades, he mysteriously returns back with a secret (and no, it’s not the Mcguffin.) He contracted leporsy. He confides in his wife who tries to keep it a secret despite the villagers talking about the possibility of it. This man loves his wife and his kids dearly and pleads with his wife to pronounce herself a widow so his family doesn’t follow in his fate; homeless in a leper camp in the forest. Roger even tells Malcolm to take good care of his wife and kids, but still doesn’t know of the affair between them.

When Guy comes to warn his father of the fact Malcolm is trying to get Ghislaine to marry him, rules be damned. This man goes back to the village and speaks with his wife. Malcolm walks in on them and that’s when shit hits the fan. The asshole fights him for no good reason and when his wife is knocked dead, Roger refuses to leave her side and stays in the fire to die by her side. 

I mean, it doesn’t help their kids, but the kids have already lost their future at this point. 

Meet Young Robin of Locksley

He’s small, a great archer, and comes off as an irritating brat that accidentally causes trouble and ends up almost getting you hanged for it (whoops, sorry Guy.) He doesn’t listen to others that well, but can you blame him? He’s only 11.

He is assumed to be childhood friends with Guy, or at least they live in the same village and their parents know each other (a little too well.)  While the focus is on the parents in this episode, it was nice to see a Young Robin and Guy. Especially at the end when Robin finally listens to his father’s advice and takes up his bow, refusing to be afraid and fight for what’s right. 

Sure, I mean his dad faked his death and left him all on his own, but this kid will go places.

Meet Young Guy of Gisborne

Me being the big Guy fangirl I am, of course I have a lot to say about him. And of course it’s one of the reasons I love this episode: because we get hindsight into his backstory and find out why he turns into the asshole he is later on in life. This is pretty much a episode that makes you sympathize with him if you haven’t already and lets us see why he has no family as he’s told us in Season 1 and 2. 

Despite being 15-16, this boy comes off like an older brother figure when interacting with Robin. He easily shows his emotions unlike his older self and honestly just wants to protect his family. He doesn’t like that his mother is having an affair and feels she is being used by Malcolm. He also doesn’t like that his mother is visiting his father in the leper colony despite telling him not to do so himself. 

While trying to defend his parents when Malcolm comes bursting through the front door like a wild man, Guy grabs a torch, trying to scare him away. Malcolm pushes him back which ends up causing said torch to fall from his hands and start the house fire. While the parents quarrel inside, the manor burns to the ground and the parents with it. 

The other asshole (and supposedly main villain of this episode) Bailiff Longthorn exiles the Gisborne kids since the lands are his now and Guy is left to raise his little sister; homeless, penniless and without any help. He had to quickly become tough in life. Sorry, it just makes me sympathize with him more. 

Meet Archer: The Mcguffin - Robin & Guy’s Half-Brother

I love and hate this character so much. He only appears as a baby in this episode, but he is the reason that Malcolm of Locksley finally shows his face after hiding for years. Apparently he had been searching for him the whole time, but neglected Robin, wow. Okay....sure.

It’s not Archer’s fault but yet it is. When you meet an older version of him in the next episode, there is no denying he has a wonderful personality and lots of potential, but yet the reason he was created bugs me, especially since we only get to “know” him in only 3 episodes which isn’t enough honestly.

Jamie’s Pros & Cons of this episode:

Pros:

Backstory exploration showing the history between Guy & Robin that explains their conflicts with each other (Despite both losing their parents, Guy also lost his home and titles which were given to Robin by the villagers.)

Introduction to the parents (Roger, Ghislaine and Malcolm.) 

The Acting

Young Guy and Robin. Just look at how adorable they are.

A cause that unites Robin & Guy to work together for the only family they have left (Archer)

Cons:

The story can be confusing at times. I definitely didn’t understand it the first time I watched. In fact, I still question things.

The somewhat love triangle between Roger, Ghislaine and Malcolm. It feels more forced on Malcolm’s side then anything else because he is literally coming between a couple that is already married and clearly in love with each other.

Malcolm of Locksley. Mostly everything he does in this episode is stupid. Lets not talk about the fact he left his kid thinking he was dead for years only to show up once telling him the story of how he abandoned him....only to abandon him once again. Great, give this man Best Dad in the World mug. 

The townspeople who don’t help the Gisborne kids and criticize them for being French and exiling them, but giving everything to Robin because he’s the kid of an English Noblemen. What assholes. 

The fact that when you think about it: this episode is just a way to bring Guy & Robin together as well as keep the show going with Archer as the new Robin. Yep, that’s pretty much why our Mcguffin was created. I think they could have brought Guy and Robin together in a way that didn’t involve a secret Half-Brother between them....but that’s just me. 

The puzzling questions of Retcon:

Is the land that the Gisborne’s run Locksley village or is it an unnamed village? Where is Marian? How did Robin grow up fine and well if Malcolm left him behind? How did Guy and Isabella survive for the little bit they had together before he sold her as bride when she turned 13? Why wasn’t this established sooner? Oh yeah, that’s right, it’s a retcon. 

My thoughts in total:

Despite my issues with this episode, It’s actually one of the ones I enjoy in Season 3. I love that we got a glimpse into Guy and Robin’s backstories and firmly know that a character’s backstory is what shapes them into the people they are going to be later on down the road and this episode is proof of that. 

It’s a good episode in itself, but it clearly has some flaws that just don’t make sense and leave you with questions. I think if anything, this should have been revealed earlier in the season or done differently. 

[jokertrap-ran]

(未定事件簿) EVENT!「消失的黄金」 [Tears of Themis] EVENT: The Lost Gold Translations (Chapter 4-02: Seaside Ferry)

“There's an old saying; People who raise eagles have the eagle's eyes set on them...No, that's not quite right. I suppose I should say that Dong Hechuan was the only person raising eagles right from the start.“

*Tears of Themis Masterlist *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *The tracking tag for ALL Event Stories will go under: #Tears of an Event *(y/n) is your name when in direct referral; otherwise referred to as MC.

Location: Ferry’s Room

Xia Yan: Mo Yi, you mentioned Wang Xian’s “first time coming to this Island”. When was that?

Upon reaching the Ship, the five of us continued reviewing the in and outs of this entire incident of Nosta Island’s.

Mo Yi: 3 months before Lu Jinghe bought the Island. Why, is there a problem?

Xia Yan: We can leave the issue of Lin Dahai coming up to this Island seeking revenge on Dong Hechuan aside for a while.

Xia Yan: But Tian Yu and Wang Xian, their relationship with Dong Hechuan would be more complicated.

Zuo Ran: You’re trying to get a grasp on the nature of their relationship with each other based on the timeline of Dong Hechuan’s actions?

Xia Yan: That’s right. Firstly, Wang Xian had come up to this Island three years ago to scout the area. The main reason for this is—

Xia Yan: Because Dong Hechuan had given him a piece of parchment that revealed the existence of possible gold.

MC: In this case, Dong Hechuan was making use of Wang Xian with the aim of getting himself out of Prison.

Xia Yan: But Dong Hechuan had already served 10 years of his sentence in Prison. Why did he want out so suddenly? And why was he in such a rush to get out early?

Xia Yan: Based on the statement he made, he said that he saw news of PAX Entertainment buying over the Island and was afraid that they’d find the Mask during development.

MC: That’s not right. Wang Xian had already gotten his hands on the gold’s riddle before he came to the Island for the first time. Pax hadn’t yet bought the Island at that time!

MC: Dong Hechuan’s obviously lying. He must have already planned to get a commutation to his sentence much earlier on.

MC: But what spurred him into action?

Lu Jinghe: Maybe it was because the Sheriff from Country A had auctioned off one of the riddle parchments at the end of last year.

Lu Jinghe: Dong Hechuan was probably afraid that someone would get their hands on the riddle and find the mask before him.

Zuo Ran: He’s unable to solve the riddle, but that doesn’t mean that everyone’s the same. At least he’s aware of that fact.

Xia Yan: Based on this, Dong Hechuan’s cooperation with Wang Xian was only ostensibly established.

Xia Yan: But we realized on the Island that his real accomplice was Tian Yu and that he didn’t contact Wang Xian at all from the beginning till the end.

Xia Yan: Not to mention that Wang Xian had clashed with Lin Dahai for no apparent reason.

Xia Yan: This makes me doubt that there were any substantial changes to their relationship.

Zuo Ran: So, you’re saying that Wang Xian was out to seek revenge on him?

Zuo Ran: Lin Dahai had been discussing the whereabouts of where the gold might have been buried with me before Wang Xian had opened fire.

Zuo Ran: Wang Xian might have thought of Lin Dahai as a competitor.

Zuo Ran: But...for him to rush to the Cave from the Abandoned Prison at the East? Mo Yi, what do you think about this?

Mo Yi: He left the Prison in a hissy fit, thinking that he had fallen for Dong Hechuan’s ploy.

Mo Yi: Based on what he said, Dong Hechuan suffers from PTSD and often suffers nightmares related to the deaths of his buddies from that year.

Mo Yi: He came to this island to pay respects to his fallen comrades, and that very Cave was where they had breathed their last.

Mo Yi: That’s why, Zuo Ran, I don’t think that he was fighting Lin Dahai for the gold. I think he mistook him for Dong Hechuan.

Zuo Ran: I see, that’s a reasonable explanation.

Mo Yi: At that time, Wang Xian was under the assumption that he had been tricked by Dong Hechuan into going to the Prison. He was pretty agitated then, so he’s likely to shoot first and ask questions later in that state.

Mo Yi: He also panicked after managing to land that shot. In a hasty decision, he planned to finish the job, no matter how accidental, only to be shot by you…

Mo Yi: It’s a good thing that he’s got a chili bomb on his person, else he couldn’t have run away even if he wanted to.

Xia Yan: Now we can be sure that Lin Dahai and Wang Xian’s appearance at the Cave were both not just purely coincidental.

Xia Yan: This was a scenario that Dong Hechuan had prepared beforehand.

Wang Xian was smart, but he had been outsmarted this time.

MC: Dong Hechuan’s PTSD couldn’t have been faked after he had come to the decision of seeking Commutation, else he wouldn’t have pulled the wool over Wang Xian’s eyes.

MC: Lin Dahai and Wang Xian; one, someone who wants to seek revenge on him, and another, who only wishes to share the treasure with him…

MC: In other words, we can say that they’re both people that Dong Hechuan wishes to get rid of.

MC: So, instead of killing them himself, he planned to let them take each other down and get rid of each other without him having to dirty his own hands.

MC: But did he really scheme that far into things…?

My impression of him up till now was a paradox of contradictions.

On one hand, he was the sole survivor of the Great Gold Robbery that year with a murder count of 17 people behind the scenes… On the other hand, he was pretty cowardly. He might be greedy for the cash, but he also cherished his life and would reveal everything with a single scare…

Unless, was everything all just an act he put up in front of us?

Xia Yan: Don’t underestimate him. We should all keep our guards up till we safely hand him over to the Police.

MC: We just talked about the connection that Wang Xian, Tian Yu and Dong Hechuan had with each other…

MC: But when exactly did Tian Yu meet Dong Hechuan?

Lu Jinghe: Based on what Tian Yu told me, it was probably after the auction ended.

Lu Jinghe: Tian Yu had been conned by the Sheriff from Country A and someone he had hired to pretend to be a Scholar that there was treasure on the Island that would grant someone Immortality.

Lu Jinghe: That’s how he ended up looking for Dong Hechuan, to confirm if the Island did indeed, have the Golden Mask of Anubis.

Zuo Ran: Someone with as much power and money as Tian Yu would be akin to a sacrificial lamb presenting itself in front of his doorstep.

Zuo Ran: Moreover, the appeal of cooperating with Tian Yu is clear and simple. He has no conflicting interests with him and would naturally become his first choice of companionship.

Zuo Ran: With Tian Yu by his side, of course Wang Xian would no longer be of any importance or need to him.

Zuo Ran: This would also explain why Dong Hechuan would want to silence Wang Xian.

Lu Jinghe: Man proposes and God disposes. It’s a pity that he was one step slower than me in buying the Island and thus, had to turn to me for help. 

MC: Looks like we’ve got a clear timeline of the entire incident now.

MC: Dong Hechuan learnt that the Sheriff was auctioning off a piece of the sheepskin parchment late last year, so he set up a trap to bait Wang Xian into reducing his sentence; hence, releasing him early from Prison.

MC: After Wang Xian had returned from his first expedition of the Island, Tian Yu, who had previously studied the piece of parchment, approached Dong Hechuan, seeking his cooperation and the two of them eventually hit it off together.

MC: Dong Hechuan secretly abandoned Wang Xian, choosing to cooperate with Tian Yu because PAX has bought over Nosta Island's Development Rights.

MC: Lin Dahai...is just a potential threat that he wanted to get rid off along the way, as soon as possible...

MC: And as for Wang Xian, he still doesn't know that he was left in the dust by Dong Hechuan even till now...

Mo Yi: There's an old saying; People who raise eagles have the eagle's eyes set on them.

Mo Yi: ...No, that's not quite right. I suppose I should say that Dong Hechuan was the only person raising eagles right from the start.

We roughly got the gist of what had transpired on Nosta Island.

As for the Gold Robbery itself, I'm afraid it's much too difficult to get to the bottom of it since the evidence of what had happened back then within the group of robbers had disappeared along with time.

Such ugly drama of people fighting to the death over the sake of money was not something that anyone would necessarily want to hear, even if Dong Hechuan, himself, were to speak of it.

MC: (It's a pity that Yang Tiange didn't see it in him even in death.)

I sympathized a little with her experience, maybe because I'm also a girl.

MC: (But the Court's decision would probably also give her some form of justice to all of this.)

Xia Yan: Next, let’s put all four of the sheepskin parchments together and see where the Golden Mask of Anubis is truly being hidden at.

Staff Member: President Lu! Something has happened at Base Camp, I'm afraid your presence is required.

A member of the staff came knocking on the door before we could start our discussion anew.

Lu Jinghe admitted the guy in.

Lu Jinghe: What happened?

Staff Member: Lin Dahai and Dong Hechuan, both of whom have been sent back to the Base Camp earlier than others, have gotten into a fight with each other.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Previous Part: (Chapter 4-01: Seaside Ferry) | Next Part: (Chapter 4-03: Base Camp)

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 236: Mr. Stark I Don’t

Previously on BnHA: We kicked off Year Five Of This Bullshit with another Tomura flashback! Once upon a time there was a boy named Tenko. Little Tenko was very cute and happened to have a real prick of a father who forbid his kids from talking about heroes and punished them severely when they broke that rule. Like, he locked Tenko outside for hours and even fucking hit him when he found out he looked at that picture of Nana. It was super fucked up and very unpleasant to read, and on top of that Horikoshi peppered the entire chapter with hints that the supposedly quirkless Tenko was slowly developing his Decay quirk, so much of the chapter was also spent waiting for that shoe to drop. The chapter ended with a sobbing Tenko hugging his dog Mon-chan (a very good boy) and thinking that he hated everyone, as the scene slowly faded to black. After that we don’t know what happened. Presumably Mon-chan went to live on a farm with lots of other puppies where he could spend the rest of his days in cute doggy bliss. I’m sure Horikoshi will allow me to continue indulging in this theory.

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi doesn’t let me indulge in shit! Horikoshi is all “lol bitch you thought!!” Horikoshi shows us the dead dog!! Horikoshi shows us the scared and sobbing child! Horikoshi shows us the sister! Horikoshi shows us the grandma and grandpa and the mom! Meanwhile poor Kotaro is all, “I suddenly wonder where my whole family has gone,” and goes outside and sees All Of That and is horror-struck. Through a series of terrible but also hilarious coincidences he accidentally smacks Tenko with a big stick, and Tenko suddenly realizes he’d like nothing more than to just STRAIGHT UP!! MURDER HIS DAD!! and so he does. And that’s basically it, guys. That’s my summary of the chapter. I would also like to add that for some reason I ended up fucking loving it in the end, though it was a real roller coaster back and forth until those last few pages. So yeah. Might want to steer clear of me, because I’m sure that’s some kind of red flag there. This motherfucking chapter, guys. I don’t even know.

(All comments are my unspoiled reactions from my initial readthrough of the chapter. I did a quick edit for grammar and clarity immediately afterward, and added one or two ETAs in the process, but aside from that there are no changes.)

thank you anon but rest assured I’m already filled with a deep and profound dread. so we’re good

oh. heh

well that’s just. okay. sure. so a whole nother chapter of this. okay yeah that’s great

oh sweet jesus mary joseph oh shit oh fuck oh SHIT

THAT’S NOT A FARM!! HORIKOSHI!! WE HAD A DEAL! YOU SET ME UP

holy shit!?!? and this is only the start of the chapter oh god. oh god oh god. MR. STARK I DON’T

no thank you I want to return it. reason: item exactly as described. I don’t know what I was expecting. we knew exactly what was going to happen. but I still -- !!

how is the anime going to show this?? no one even wants to watch the senseless blood and violence for once. does Japan do those warning things where a “the following program includes scenes of graphic violence that may be disturbing to some viewers” screen appears before the thing airs? if not they should probably consider it. maybe change “some” to “all”, because let’s be real

anyway so guys I’m waiting for Horikoshi to email me my free shipping label so I can send this back, but in the meantime let’s continue to read I guess

WOW

THAT’S A DEAD DOG. THAT DOG IS LYING IN PIECES IN A POOL OF HIS OWN BLOOD, HUFFING HIS LAST HUFFS. HORIKOSHI REALLY DREW THAT. THAT IMAGE WAS BURNED INTO TENKO’S MIND FOR THE REST OF HIS EXISTENCE AND NOW I GET TO LIVE WITH IT AS WELL. WELL THAT’S JUST REALLY FUCKING GREAT. YIPPY SKIPPY

OH JOY

HANA GO BACK INSIDE, IF HORIKOSHI GRAPHICALLY DRAWS YOU BEING BLOWN INTO CHUNKS BY THIS FUCKING QUIRK I’M FUCKING DONE AND I QUIT. AND I KIND OF NEED TO CONTINUE UNTIL I AT LEAST LEARN BAKUGOU’S FUCKING HERO NAME, SO I’M COUNTING ON YOU HERE OKAY

by the way, this is weird though. because that didn’t look anything like the prior instances where we’ve seen Tomura use his quirk! there was no crumbling apart, no dust ominously drifting away on the breeze. it was more like poor Mon-chan just kind of fell apart into pieces. is this because the quirk is still developing and not yet at full power? or is this more AFO shenanigans in play. it at least explains why it was plausible for their hands to be intact once everything was said and done though

really I’m just trying to talk myself into believing that this didn’t actually happen and is all some grand fucked up psych out and his family is actually fine. I saw this post going around about Tenko’s mole (you know, the one on his chin) not being present in all the scenes last chapter, and the theory was that the scenes where he doesn’t have the mole were not actually real and were implanted by AFO. I personally think this is a reach, but I’m also prepared to 100% subscribe to this theory if and when anything happens to this precious baby girl when I click to the next page you guys. we shall see

okay so Hana’s apologizing because I guess she’s the one that ratted him out to their dad? girl it’s okay you were under a lot of pressure. it’s not like it’s your fault Kotaro flew off the deep end and started beating your brother

anyways but this is currently the least of your worries though oh god. she hasn’t noticed yet, and Tenko’s sobbing and trying to talk to her but his voice isn’t working??

is that because he’s traumatized, or because this is in fact a fake memory? not being able to warn a beloved person of an imminent danger is basic nightmares 101, I’m just saying. I’m actually a bit more convinced than I was just a minute ago

anyway so now she sees the dead dog, and I have a new least favorite panel in the entire series, great

hello, I hate everything about this. what the actual fuck

now she’s turning to run and I SWEAR TO GOD if Tenko instinctively reaches out to grab her... shit. I fucking...

-- WHAT DID I JUST -- !! !!!

son of a bitch. fuck. I’m literally frozen in place and having trouble willing myself to scroll down to see the rest of this. like, can we seriously just stop here. fuck!!

shit. I need a minute. holy fucking shit. I want an actual apology from Horikoshi, and an explanation for why he thought his readers apparently lacked the imagination to fill in the rest of the blanks themselves. like, I was perfectly fine with all of this just being Very Much Implied, dude. seriously

fuck me. I’m just gonna do it. power through the rest of the chapter and assess the resulting psychological damage once it’s all over and done with. okay deep breath. we’re going in

oh honey. oh baby no. oh my god the “crack crack” sound effects again, and the lines of blood appearing oh god

and of course he didn’t realize what was happening at first, didn’t realize it was him. honey it’s not your fault. but you now officially have Murder Rights to All for One, and if anyone else gets to deal the final blow I will fucking sue

hahaha, fuck

at least he didn’t go into the same level of detail as with the fucking dog. but I’m still calling the police, holy shit

if anything, Tenko’s reaction actually makes this even worse than Mon-chan’s death, though. and you know, also the fact that it was a six-year-old girl. who died terrified and in agony and not knowing why this was happening to her. fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

somewhere Ito Junji is reading this and wishing he’d come up with this shit. Nakayama Masaaki is taking notes. Stephen King is waking up in a cold sweat thinking to himself that for some reason he really wants to start reading shounen manga all of a sudden

sob now everyone is running outside except for his father. of course. saving the best for last. it’s almost as though someone fucking engineered all of this to make it as psychologically damaging to the kid as possible! but who could possibly be twisted enough to do something like that? oh hey there All for One, you sure look happy. why are you smiling so much. what do you mean, it’s a secret. you son of a bitch

hey do you guys want to see the expression of a mother seeing her youngest child screaming and sobbing and covered in blood and surrounded by the bloodied remains of a dead dog and something else that is hopefully unidentifiable because if not holy shit for real? anyways, do you? you don’t? sure you do. Horikoshi thinks you do, so here it is

t-minus five seconds before the level of Horrifying escalates yet again! five... four... three...

oh shit??

did he do that thing again?? disintegrate them without even touching?? or did we just jump-cut to right afterward? because if it’s the latter, you mean to tell me we did that with the mom and grandparents but couldn’t do it with Hana and the dog!? and if it’s the former then that’s really interesting though, because I was under the impression he’d been incapable of that until just a few chapters ago when the grown-up him awakened the ability in the middle of Deika City. maybe it’s something he can only do when under extreme mental duress

oh wait, never mind, I scrolled a bit further down and it seems like his mom is still alive. I guess that was Hana he was reaching out towards there. anyways so here’s his mom’s horrified face again

actually, wait. before we click to the next page, let me go back to the four panels right above these, because this is actually really interesting and deserves more analysis

I really like this actually. Horikoshi acknowledging that even though his mother and grandparents were very kind and loving, they were still complicit in his suffering in a way because they knew what was going on, and they let it happen. this is actually huge, and I’m really grateful to Horikoshi for calling attention to it and pointing out how damaging that was. I’m actually very pleasantly surprised to see it acknowledged

but maybe I shouldn’t be, because this is after all something that’s very important to the story’s themes of heroism. my thoughts immediately ran to Horikoshi’s own favorite hero, Spider-Man, and the whole “with great power comes great responsibility” thing. if someone needs help, and you’re in a position where you could do something but you choose to not take action, then you do bear some responsibility for what follows. “when you can do the things that I can, but you don’t, and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you”

just, this is a theme that has always resonated with me, and one of the most important themes of hero stories in general. and obviously I’m not saying Tenko’s mom and grandparents are in any way bad people, or that what happened is their fault, because it’s not! but all the same they could have done something and they didn’t, and if you were to ask me what I think is the most essential, defining aspect of what makes someone a hero, I would say it’s that. the difference between stepping in, and not stepping in. if you were to boil it down to one single point, that would be it. a hero is someone who helps

anyway. so I really like that. maybe I won’t send this chapter back after all

OR MAYBE I WILL AND NEVER FUCKING MIND!! I DON’T!! FEEL SO GOOD!! MR. STARK!!

holy shit you guys. I have no words. somewhere the person who wrote Mufasa’s death scene is taking notes. the person who wrote Littlefoot’s mom’s death is shook. the person who wrote Bambi’s mom’s death is rubbing their chin and thinking, “honestly mine is still more traumatizing, but I can still respect that”

meanwhile I, a millennial forged in the ashes of all of those childhood-defining fictional tragedies, am going to just suck it up and move on because fuck. my whole life has been preparing me for this day

oh my fucking god

fuck me why did I laugh. I fucking lost it just now. fucking gallows humor, idk

just. his entire family is being blown to little bits in the backyard, and Kotaro cracks open his fucking door and peers his head out like “hmm I thought I heard something just now. hey, where is everyone. did I miss something.” no you didn’t miss anything Kotaro, go back inside

he looks like a kid who’s not sure if he just heard the ice cream man driving by

sob. “better go investigate”

look what happened while you were taking your fucking nap, Kotaro. JUST LOOK! your son disintegrated your whole entire family and uprooted a fucking tree somehow. jesus christ

you know, the irony is I bet you that despite all of his hang-ups, he’s probably thinking “okay maybe a hero would come in fucking handy right about now”

oh shit

“you think this is a fucking joke?!” Horikoshi screams, shoving this page in my face. “you’re just going to sit there and keep making your cute little remarks?? A FAMILY IS DEAD!!” okay jeez I get it fuck

oh no, oh shit for real though I can’t

he’s so scared and traumatized and now he knows, he knows it was him who did it and he can’t bear it, and even though he hates his dad, he’s still his dad, and he’s terrified and looking for comfort from anyone at this point oh god

and for Kotaro to see his son like this, and the rest of his family dead in such a horrifying way! just!!

and fuck me, because if he reaches out to try and comfort him, if he ends up dying because his better instincts finally take over now of all fucking times; if he tries to help and Tenko knows what’s going to happen when they touch and tries to stop him but can’t...

okay but what

Tenko’s quirk is really behaving strangely though. like this is ridiculous. at this rate he’s gonna take the whole house down with him

also there’s no way all of the neighbors just sat by all la dee da and didn’t go to investigate afterwards. 100% AFO had a hand in all this. shit

now also feels like a good time to point out, before we wrap this all up, that with Kotaro being the only one still alive now, there is no one around to shout “Tenko, no...!” when that hand is reaching out to his forehead. so I’m very curious to see how Horikoshi plays this out, because now more than ever I’m suspecting that the altered memory theory is really true

(ETA: well. shit.)

anyway, so now what looks like a tree pruner is just randomly falling into Kotaro’s hands, for some reason. just like we all expected

of all the ways I imagined this actually playing out, this was not one of them

hmm, interesting

so did he disintegrate the pruner and then get pissed at his dad thinking he was trying to hurt him again? and then instinct just took over? guess we’re about to see

oh SHIT!!!

shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

just, imagine like another 7 paragraphs of me just typing out “shit” over and over again. I don’t feel like actually doing it, but that’s basically an accurate summation of my thought process right now

I bet even AFO wasn’t expecting that. I picture him whistling softly from his hiding place nearby, watching all of this go down and making that excited Andy Dwyer face to nobody in particular

holy fucking shit, holy hell

guys I just decided this is actually my favorite villain origin story of all time. just like that. holy shit. this page though

okay you know what, let me just finish this up, and then I’ll try to sort out all of my messed up feelings. one more page to go I think. probably his hair turning white

why didn’t his hair turn white. Horikoshi you’re such a fucking troll

(ETA: or did it start to change though?? it’s really hard to tell with the shading on this page tbh. but it does seem to be lighter than his shirt, and closer to the shade of his pants instead. but I can’t tell if that’s just due to the lighting here or not. anyways.)

anyways, wow. so that’s the end. let me just sit down here for a moment and try to process this

that page, though. that mental break. the idea of him being so overwhelmed by the pain and trauma of what just happened that when his dad shows up and tries (from his perspective) to hurt him again, his mind just goes !! and snaps and goes “you know what, this is better, let’s just reframe all this shit to make it a good thing so that we can cope, because to hell with that. big fat nope to the alternative, right there! yeah no thanks we are not going to do that”

and him realizing that he finally has the power to stand up to his father and stop him from hurting him. and probably a part of him is also irrationally blaming his dad for being the reason this all happened, because it’s much easier to assign blame to something tangible here, rather than it all being a freak tragic accident that no one could have prevented. (or worse, his own fault. which it isn’t, but I’m sure he subconsciously blames himself regardless, so)

and even better if the person to blame is someone you already hated. so yes, that’s much better, let’s just do that

and that whole “somewhere deep in my heart” thing, I don’t buy that for a second to be honest. but I do believe that he believes that. that for his own self-preservation he desperately latched on to this idea and convinced himself that he’d wanted this all along. that it felt good. fine, then, I’ll become a monster to save myself

I keep going back to look at his face, though. and just. holy shit. if you’d told me a week ago or even five minutes ago that Horikoshi would write out the entire thing, all of it, in all of its sickeningly detailed glory, that he would just say “fuck it” and go all out, and that I would go from “take it back” to “okay I’ll allow it” to “you can pry this incredibly fucked up chapter out of my cold dead hands” in the span of three pages, I would have thought you were insane. and yet here we are. and it is insane. and I’m fairly disturbed by my own heel-turn here actually, but I can’t deny it though

just, shit. that was so good. I’m blown away by how good that was. Deku, stop looking at me like that

you know what, you don’t get to judge me, kid, okay. shut up

anyway guys, so that was one hell of a ride. I learned some things about myself, like that I will follow this maniac of a mangaka into much deeper and more fucked up chasms than I ever expected. and Tomura learned some things about himself, and I have a lot of Concerns about those things, but I guess that’ll just have to wait until next week! all the best until then, everyone

[idktimdrake]

New Windows Update Pending

It all started with a “windows” update. You know, one of those super annoying updates that you keep clicking “wait 24 hours” until you mess up and accidentally forget and turn off your computer, only to scream in frustration and press the “esc” button about 50 times in a vain attempt to further delay the inevitable. Or better yet, one of those updates that force restarts without warning, no matter if you’re 5 pages deep into an unsaved term paper or not.

But. I digress.

Actually, looking back on everything, I’m 90% positive that it wasn’t ACTUALLY a window’s update.

The notification looked the same as usual. The orange and white box lit up my darkened room compared to the anime I was watching. I distinctly remember feeling annoyed. I had been marathoning some random gundam for hours and the notification had interrupted a particularly intense moment and didn’t give me the usual option to delay it.

Wanting to get it over with as quickly as possible, I clicked the “Update and Restart” button and walked out of the bedroom to pee and reheat a quick bowl of whatever was left in my fridge.  If I was lucky and walked slow enough, the updates might almost be done when I made it back to my laptop/

So, you can imagine my surprise when I returned to the update completed and the screen just finished with booting up.

At first, it looked like nothing had changed. Then, something caught my eye in the corner of the screen. It looked like an image of an animated….. Paperclip?

My curiosity got the better of me and I clicked it.

The paperclip’s eyes blinked and a chat bubble, not unlike those I’d see in comic books appeared over him. This scene looked familiar.

“Hello, I’m Clippy! I’m happy to be back helping everyone again. I’ve even been promoted! So long, Microsoft Word! I’m now your personal Window’s assistant!”

I then remembered where I’d seen Clippy before. This little guy had been a giant help with essays, giving tons of tips in Microsoft Word, when I was in elementary school. He had disappeared around 2007 and my 10 year-old heart was sad to see him go. But within the next 11 years of my life, I had all but forgotten about hum. I did a quick screenshot of him to make a post on social media about him later and went back to watching anime.

I guess that it was my fault for what happened next for not investigating into Clippy more, when I absolutely should have. The animation wasn’t exactly smooth, his color scheme was just off enough to register in the back of my mind, and, weirdly enough, I couldn’t find any kind of settings or something like that to disable or mute him.

However, I just couldn’t bring myself to call customer support. Phone anxiety, you know?

The biggest red flag should’ve been when my anti-virus software disappeared. I just came home from work one day to it gone. I had purchased it when I downloaded the browser, TOR. However, at the time of this discovery, I still had not finished that term paper and it was officially 2 days late by that point and I was way too stressed out over that to care.

Over the next few weeks, Clippy became more active as various updates went through and it got more functionality. I know that it's sad and maybe even cringy, but in a way, I felt like I had made a friend in Clippy. To clarify, it’s probably pretty obvious at this point, but I didn’t exactly go out very much. I went to work and I went to class. Sure, there were a few people that I kinda hung out with, but I always kinda felt like an extra. Clippy actually asked about ME and his AI updated to incorporate these answers into later interactions.

For example:

You could sync your social media with him and then use your mic to use voice command to have him update your statusesAn AI chat feature got added kinda like chatbot except much better. It could even “talk” back through the speaker. This made him feel almost like a real life friend. He even created a Microsoft account for me! I didn’t even have to go through all the confusion of navigating a new social media. Clippy was able to ask me for all the information and transfer it all over on its own. Some general stuff like birthday, address, job, interests, family to add to friends, etc. You know what I’m talking about.The coolest thing was that I could say “Clippy take a selfie and he could use my webcam to take a photo of me and automatically post it online

Clippy had grown on me. To me, Clippy was the best decision Microsoft had made in years.

Except it wasn’t.

Again, I have no one to blame for what happened except for myself.

I knew it was weird for Clippy to offer “tips” and “search options” when I browsed curiously through the other side of the internet to see if the rumors some smart-ass computer science major said were true.

I know I should’ve done more than stick a used band-aid over my webcam when I noticed the light was on, on a few different occasions, without me even opening the camera program.

And now, I’m regretting it.

One afternoon, that I will never, ever, EVER forget, while I was watching a different anime and trying to forget about the class that I had just failed because I never turned in that god-forsaken term paper, I heard the door open.

At that point, I was frozen with fear. I desperately hoped that I was just hearing things. At the very least, the robber would take the tv and games in the living room and be done with it.

Well…. I didn’t need to worry about any robbers.

I could only stare as my door slammed open. I stopped breathing as men in black masks ran in with guns. I only was able to gather my breath to scream before a blindingly hot and painful feeling assaulted my side. I can only guess that I was tasered. I’m not entirely sure about that- the pain became too much and within seconds, the world spun and went black.

As I was fading out, though, I could see the blurry outline of another man walk into the room with what I can only logically assume was a phone in his hand. I heard a beep followed by “She’s been secured” before I completely lost consciousness.

My last thought was that I recognized that voice. One that I hear everyday.

It was Clippy.

A lot has happened since then and I’ve only just now been able to piece everything together. I’ve been moved from place to place for a few months now. I don’t even know what day it is. Hell, I don’t even know what country I’m in.

But that’s about to change (I hope). Instead of my normal bed in warehouses with the rest of the girls, I woke up in what looks like an office. It doesn’t even look like the same building. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. I was one of the only ones who still had something of a complection and definitely the only one who was healthy enough to still get her cycle. Lord knows what they used to drug me…. Or how long it took to get me here, for that matter.

I wonder if whoever bought me is going to kill me. Or am I going to be lucky enough to be a mistress slave. Knowing my luck, I’ll end up one of those girls in that chat room I found one time. The one where the spectators choose what happens to the girls. Death would be a mercy compared to what they endure.

You know, I was watching the news at one of the nicer warehouses and they had a brief mention about a new type of virus. Apparently they make their way into your devices when you visit “at-risk” websites and disguise themselves as normal system updates to steal your personal information. The reporter tried to make it seem like they’re talking about identity theft. Neat. I wonder if they’ve connected what’s happened to me. The reporter followed up with some general tips for protecting your device that any dumbass knows.

Except me, I guess.

So here I am, writing this all down while I still can on a random notebook with a random pen that I somehow found. This office isn’t exactly big, but the door is locked, so I can’t exactly go looking.

A few things:

Any and all rumors about the dark net you hear….. The truth is so much worse.

Always double check that a software update is legit

Call customer support if you’re not sure, you pussy

Don’t befriend fake AI

NO MATTER WHAT, trust your gut ALWAYS

Oh shit…. The door just unlocked...

**This is a purely fictional short story.  This is not making any kind of statement against Microsoft nor am I making money from this**

[roominthecastle]

For someone who hasn't seen TBL since... early season 4? (and even then only watched a couple episodes) could you give me a quick rundown of what I have to know in order to watch the beginning of season 6? If that's too much hassle I understand but I thought if anyone can put that car crash of a show into a sorta sensible summary it's you.

“car crash of a show” well, that is… too real. like you can’t help but stare and wonder what might emerge from the wreckage. :)

Thank you for the vote of confidence, I tried my best to recall the main events from each season. If something important is missing or I misremembered, hopefully somebody corrects that in a reply or a comment, and you will be able to see those, too.

(putting the rest behind a cut bc length)

S4

Alexander Kirk is the latest contestant of the increasingly crowded “who’s your daddy” competition. He was in love w/ Liz’s mom, has a life-threatening blood disorder, and a pathological fondness for kidnapping. He takes Liz and Agnes to her childhood home that triggers some vague memories of Katarina. Kirk is sure he is her father and has a DNA test to prove it. Liz also finds Katarina’s journal in which Katarina mentions how she was assigned to honeytrap Reddington.

Meanwhile, Red uses Mr. Kaplan’s connections to learn where Kirk keeps Liz and Agnes, then tips off the task force. Despite feeling betrayed by the fake death stunt, they roll out to rescue her but Kirk gets away and they take Agnes, too (they play hot potato with that poor kid). Red takes Mr. Kaplan to the woods and shoots her for her betrayal. But she survives the headshot (not unprecedented as we learn later that she survived a head injury before and has a metal plate in her head) and is nursed back to relative physical health (but apparent psychological unwellness) by a hermit in the woods. For now, nobody else knows she is alive.

Kirk is trying to find a cure. Tom and Liz keep failing in their side-mission to get Agnes back, but Red uses Kirk’s doctor to track him. This leads him to a trap but Liz tips him off just in time. This is the first time (IIRC) that Red hesitates to trust her (kinda understandable since he’s still reeling from the fake death thing) and he almost dies as a result. Then Liz lures Kirk, gets Agnes back, but Kirk collapses and is hospitalized. He needs a donor to survive. Liz volunteers bc getting answers trumps everything. Red tells her that the DNA test proving that she is Kirk’s daughter was faked and it gets confirmed bc Liz is not a match, she can’t save him. Kirk’s goons rescue him from the hospital and Liz is taken again. Red volunteers to trade places w/ her and even manages to secure the cure for Kirk to sweeten the pot. Liz is released but Kirk, now aware that he is not the father, tortures Red. He demands Red confess that he (Red) is Liz’s father, which he finally does under insane duress, then whispers sth to Kirk that convinces him to let Red go. We still don’t know what he whispered or where Kirk is now, but this is the end of the first big arc of S4.

Liz gets her FBI badge back thanks to Red applying pressure and securing a presidential pardon. She and Tom try playing house and keep failing bc Tom will never be what she wants him to be: his meek teacher cover role from S1. Red looks for and finds a new cleaning crew but what he did to Mr. Kaplan is eating at him. Dembe gets worried about his mental state and tells Liz what happened to Kaplan, which drives Liz further down the “blame Red for everything” path but they continue working together. After Kaplan recovers, her revenge mission kicks into gear and the various ways in which she tries to dismantle Red’s criminal empire is the second big arc that lasts until the end of the season.

Kaplan tries to strip Red of his resources and connections. Her methods range from clearing out his back accounts to trying to sabotage the Task Force. She goes as far as poisoning Red, for which she tries to frame Dembe to destroy their relationship but Dembe (w/ Aram’s help) proves he didn’t betray Red and their bond becomes tighter than ever. Then Mr. Kaplan unearths 86 bodies (including Diane Fowler’s, so Cooper & Co. now know Red killed her), which launches an official investigation that threatens to expose the Task Force and its ties to Red. Mr. Kaplan also meets with Liz, tells her about their past connection (in a flashback episode, we learn that she worked for Katarina as Liz’s nanny and she handed her off to Sam after the fire, then started working for Red at his request), and tries to convince her to turn on Red but Liz refuses.

Meanwhile, Ressler is trying to get justice for the murder of Fowler’s replacement, Reven. He knows Hitchen (the National Security Advisor) killed her but he has no solid proof. Mr. Kaplan reaches out to the doctor who tampered w/ Liz’s memory when she was a child, and hires him to mess w/ Ressler’s head, planting fake memories and almost driving him to kill Hitchen. He is stopped in time, the doc is captured and he tells Liz he was also hired 2 years ago to take away some of her memories again (concerning Red) at the request of a man they both know, but we still don’t know who this person is. Red denied it was him and I, for one, believe him.

Red decides to set a trap for Mr. Kaplan, playing on her blind fixation on Liz. He hires a blacklister to kidnap Liz, feeds clues to Kaplan that lead her to where Liz is kept. Red tells Liz he is willing to refrain from killing her (Kaplan) but if Kaplan doesn’t stand down, she has to die. When she walks into the trap, Red offers truce. Mr. Kaplan refuses, the FBI also shows up, there’s a shootout and Mr. Kaplan escapes. Red visits Dom bc he needs a key he hid on his property and tells him his granddaughter, Liz, is alive. Then he meets with Kaplan, offers her that key to a remote and secure paradise in exchange for ending this war but she once again refuses. The agent investigating those 86 bodies shows up but Red escapes and Kaplan agrees to testify in exchange for immunity.

Red and Ressler reach out to the blacklister who cleaned up after Hitchen and use the evidence he kept to blackmail her into scrapping the inquiry concerning the task force, Red, and those bodies. Vague national security excuse works every time. Liz reaches out to Kaplan and they go on a drive. Kaplan promises answers but Red and his men show up and she commits suicide by jumping off a bridge. Her death triggers a protocol to release Red’s secret, aka the suitcase w/ the skeleton in it, that lands in Tom’s hands but for now nobody knows he has it. Ressler visits Hitchen and accidentally kills her when they get into an argument, so he calls the blacklister that previously cleaned up after her to clean up after him now. Cooper runs a DNA test on a sample from an old bloody shirt in evidence that belonged to Reddington, compares it to Liz’s sample and tells her it’s a match. Liz tells him she ran a test too, soon after Red showed up in her life, but never checked the result bc she was afraid to know. She now confronts Red w/ the news and he neither confirms nor denies, just lets her hug him - which is their basic dynamic in the first half of the next season.

S5

Most of the first block of this season is about Red trying to rebuild his organization from scratch in various ways - first as a bounty hunter and then once again working w/ the task force. He seems to enjoy the freedom that comes w/ hitting rock bottom. Liz helps out, too, acting jarringly happy. Meanwhile, Tom decides to keep the suitcase a secret from her and asks Nik to help him identify the human remains inside. He also steals Liz’s ID to be able to access official databases and they reach out to another guy to have the bones DNA tested. Then Nik is killed when he goes to get the results and the skeleton gets taken.

Still not knowing about Tom’s involvement or the suitcase, Liz asks Red to help find Nik’s killer and Red soon discovers that Nik was working with Tom and that he had the skeleton. Tom tracks down the girlfriend of the guy who ran the DNA test to ask for help finding him. She helps, they find him, but then all of them get captured by a US Marshall named Garvey who is v much interested in the skeleton, too, bc he has a very personal ax to grind w/ Red. Tom escapes and he takes the skeleton. He calls Liz and tells her to meet at home but reveals nothing concrete, so you know he is not long for this world. That’s where Garvey and his men find them. He stabs Tom and Liz gets badly injured, too. Red and Dembe come to the rescue and take both to the hospital.

Tom dies, Liz is in a coma for 10 months and struggles a lot after she regains consciousness. She asks Tom’s mother, Scottie, to look after Agnes, makes Red promise to keep working cases with the task force and to not follow her, then moves to a remote cabin in Alaska where she saves a witness from the bad guys who want to silence him by killing them all in a Home Alone meets The Shining manner. After this, she decides to return to find out why Tom was killed and get revenge. She works this case separate from the task force.

The blacklister, Prescott, who cleaned up after Ressler last season starts blackmailing Ressler, threatening to reveal that he killed Hitchen if Ressler doesn’t derail an investigation. Ressler refuses but with Red’s help they manage to arrest Prescott who then intends to deliver on his threat. Red kills him and removes any implicating evidence. So Ressler goes to Cooper to deliver his written confession but Cooper says he will hold onto the letter as long as the task force is up and running bc none of them are who they were before, each of them has a letter like that, so to speak, but the work they do here is too important. They will hold each other accountable after it’s done.

Liz is investigating on her own. She tracks down one of Garvey’s goons and ends up killing him when they get into a fight but she also learns that Nik was helping Tom. She then dissolves the body Stewmaker-style but leaves a piece of evidence behind by accident, so she also breaks into the evidence room and steals it to cover her tracks. She draws the attention of a detective in whom she later confides about looking for Tom’s killer and even shows him the Post Office. Red helps out w/ her investigation, too, they both want the suitcase back after all. Liz confronts him about his motives (saying he only wants to keep his secret, nothing else matters) and responsibility in Tom’s death. Red tells her Tom died bc he didn’t heed his warning and that this secret is something he has to keep, so he isn’t telling.

Liz finds some notes among Tom’s belongings that eventually lead her to Dom. She doesn’t know he is her grandfather, he doesn’t tell her, but they talk. Dom denies being a spy code named Oleander (from Tom’s notes) but tells her he used to work as an analyst and came to the US after the Cold War (he really is Oleander, tho). He also tells her he knew Katarina well but doesn’t reveal their connection other than “we worked in the same building”, and he refuses to say anything about Red.

Red learns that whoever killed Tom and took the skeleton has law enforcement ties and Liz decides to rejoin the Task Force but only to up her chances at capturing Tom’s killer. This reinstatement requires a psychological evaluation and Liz goes a few rounds with Dr. Fulton who later turns out to be a serial killer killer/vigilante. Liz corners her at a crime scene but then lets her go bc she might need her help one day, and Fulton green lights her official reinstatement.

With the help of the detective she confided in, Liz finally identifies Garvey as Tom’s killer but Garvey kills the detective. They wanna take Garvey down by proving he is not only a murderer but also has ties to drug trafficking. Liz also approaches a woman Garvey keeps visiting in a diner and tells her everything, hoping she will flip on him. This is when the woman reveals she is Jennifer Reddington whom Garvey has been protecting from her father for decades. Red wants to kill Garvey but he cannot do that as long as he has the skeleton, so he kidnaps him. Then Garvey escapes and goes to the diner. Red and Dembe follow him there. Garvey shoots Red. Liz and Dembe shoot Garvey. Garvey later dies in the hospital w/o revealing anything.

While recovering, Red uses one of Garvey’s goons to track the skeleton to Costa Rica and learns that it’s in the possession of another enemy of his, Sutton Ross. Liz follows Red and wants to find the remains first. Ross is captured by the Task Force. Liz offers a secret deal and he agrees bc he was tasked by Garvey to reveal the skeleton’s secret bc Jennifer deserves to know the truth. Together they put on a show for Red: Ross escapes, takes Liz hostage and then pretends to torture her to force Red to give up his secret. Just when Red is about to break and reveal it, the Task Force storms the place and captures Ross again. Red doesn’t seem to know he has been played but he takes the skeleton, shoots Ross, then walks away. He takes the remains back to Dom’s place where he burns them. Dom warns him that Liz is not gonna give up. He is not wrong bc it is revealed that Liz was not only working w/ Ross, she now also knows the remains belong to the real Reddington, so Red is an imposter and not her father. She vows to find out his real identity and then destroy him w/ the help of her half-sister, Jennifer.

Oh and Samar and Aram’s relationship takes a few turns over the season as well. They start dating and then Aram prepares to propose, which ends in a fight and an almost break-up. Then Samar gets abducted by a blacklister and the last thing she says to Aram is that she would have said yes. She also ends up in a coma but regains consciousness at the end of the finale, so their engagement is now official.

[phantoms-lair]

Tempo Trio Au

Now a unified post since the readmore’s are back

An info dump on what I have for my MSA, Marvel AU(mostly C&Ped from discord):

Okay, start 16 years prior to the story start with, of all people, Norman Osbourn. Norman is having a fling that's deepening into a serious relationship with a free spirited woman named Edie Ramone. His father disapproves on every level. She's not politically connected, she's a free spirit she's hispanic. Eventually it seems Osbourn senior has driven her off. Norman grieves the relationship and never starts one with Emily Lyman as in canon and remains single. Thirteen years later he learns the truth. Edie was pregnant and his father had found out and planned to abort the child so  Edie wouldn’t be able to tie herself to Norman that way. She fled to protect their unborn child. She died shortly after childbirth and their son, Lewis Harry Ramone was put into the system where he's adopted and becomes Lewis Harry Pepper.

And Norman is torn. There's a deep greedy instinct to reclaim his son. But....Lewis is happy. What if by reclaiming him Lewis resents him from taking him from where he was happy? What if Norman becomes his own father? He decides to leave Lewis happy with the Peppers, but watch over him. (Lewis totally coincidentally wins a lot of seemingly random giveaway with prizes he would like).

Lewis has two best friends. Arthur is a quiet inventive boy who lives with his Uncle following his parent’s messy divorce. Vivi is bright and energetic and loves to do things like climb trees and talk with squirrels. One day, when Lewis's class was touring an Oscorp facility an experimental spider escapes and bites Arthur. Norman, of course foots the medical bill as his best friend's father a responsible business owner. Soon afterwards Arthur begins to notices strange things. Super strength, inhuman agility, some kind of danger precognition. And he decides to tell no one.  Lance and Lewis would worry when there was nothing they could do and Vivi would be really excited and probably bad at keeping it a secret, especially from Lewis. So he just keeps a lid on it. Until the day Lance takes him to an exhibition match at the wrestling ring he won his belt in.

Arthur isn't like Peter. He doesn't want fame or money, he wants to keep  his head down. He's heading to the bathroom when he realizes there's a guy with a gun robbing the place. He may have super powers but the other guy's got a gun and Arthur's not about that life. He hides in a vent, texts Lance to tell him to keep low, and calls the police. He doesn't come out until he hears an all clear from the cops. At which point he sees Lance being loaded into an ambulance. He learns that Lance confronted the robber, who was trying to go after some other people. When Arthur bemoans "Why...?" he's told Lance said "All that's needed for evil to thrive was for good men to do nothing." And then he did something. This is going to be Arthur's 'Great power - great responsibility' analog

The hospital manages to save Lance's life  (waffling on whether Lance looses an arm and he gets the replacement), but he's not waking up. The doctors say he may never wake up. Arthur's father come down to set up Lance's long term medical care, then leave again. Everyone kind of assumes he or his ex wife stayed to look after their 17 year old son who's obviously traumatized, and Arthur lets them think that. Privacy works better for him anyway. He's never going to do nothing again.

Arthur’s first suit was made from left over wrestling things from his uncles collection, but later augments it with his own tech. He becomes the scourge of criminals all over the city. Including the secret criminal activities of Oscorp. Norman Osbourn (when not spying on his son) is trying to thwart the Spiderman that keep interfering with his schemes( and giving thanks to the small mercy that said schemes haven’t been traced back to him or his company). He managed to find some of Spiderman’s blood and decides to make a clone to kill and replace Spiderman. It seems to be going well until the clone matures and Oh fuck it’s Arthur

If I kill him, it’ll wreck Lewis

Craaaaaaap

So Norman goes to have a think on this new information. Unfortunately for him the clone is not exactly stable, mentally. (I think I’m gonna call him Mordred, bastard son of Arthur that he is). He despises being a clone. He hates Arthur for being real and Norman for making him. And wouldn’t you know it, there’s a way to wound both of them at once.

Lewis

Pretending to be Arthur, Mordred lures Lewis to an imported statue of an angel in the park and proceeds to try and kill Lewis by smashing his head on the statue. Lewis is big and strong, but Mordred has Arthur’s spider strength. He overpowers Lewis and leaves him for dead. Only the statue isn’t an angel at all. It’s Nemesis, Greek Goddess of Retribution, and she’s willing to cut Lewis a deal.

Lewis gets to come back to life and take revenge on his killer, in return for acting as Nemesis’s agent in the mortal realm. He sees Arthur the next day and is filled with rage. He tries to use his new power on him from a distance but…nothing? It won’t work. Maybe he needs some practice? Just to top it off, Arthur has the unmitigated gall to smile and greet Lewis like nothing’s wrong. Not wanting to make Arthur look like the victim, since he has no proof, Lewis suppressed his hatred until he can figure this out. In order to practice his power he create an alternate persona, Ghost, which appears as a fiery skeleton, to act a a vigilante and practice turning the sins of evildoers upon themselves. He runs into Spiderman pretty early on, and he genuinely likes the guy. Here’s someone risking life and limb to help others and expecting nothing in return, not even gratitude. He’s so naive though, believing criminals deserve mercy. One day he was going to get betrayed, like Arthur betrayed him. What else could he do but watch over the guy?

Soon Lewis learns his power works just fine, on everyone but Arthur at least. He assumes Arthur must have some supernatural protection. He starts bringing some stuff up in conversation, magic talismans, some religious stuff. And while Vivi’s eager to theorize, Arthur gives up nothing. Lewis even tries some old fashioned traps to get him and Arthur keeps just skirting them (Norman is busy trying to find Mordred and realizes none of this)

Arthur, meanwhile, has a lot of concerns about a lot of things. In addition to this new vigilante who seems to have good motivations but is far too ruthless, Lewis is mad at him, and he doesn’t know why. Lewis won’t explain when asked and he’s angry and moody all the time. He’s also asking all these strange questions about magic and old gods and …oh fuck Lewis is in a cult.

So in addition to normal high school life and Spidermanning, Arthur is trying to locate this cult so he can free his friend. He considers asking Vivi or Ghost but once again decides not to. Lewis seems to get even more angry if he tries to get Vivi alone and Ghost might decide to mindscrew every member of the cult, including Lewis! He’s on his own.

This comes to a head when Mordred thinks it’s been just enough time that Arthur might be getting over Lewis’s death. He confronts him in a park, where he’s supposed to be meeting Lewis and Vivi, wearing a black Spiderman outfit.

Mordred: You seem less grief stricken than I expected

Arthur: Why would I be grieving?

Mordred: Dude, that’s cold even for me

At this point Arthur considers himself pretty good at fighting, but that’s mostly due to his enhanced abilities and spider sense. Suddenly against an opponent with the same stabilizes who doesn’t rigger his precog Arthur is vulnerable and terrified. He manages a  quick text to the group chat that there is a crazy fake Spiderman trying to kill him and not to come

Vivi: No one tries to kill my friend Lewis: NO ONE KILLS ARTHUR BUT ME

Lewis gets there first. And sees red. Not only is this guy trying to steal his revenge, but he’s dressed up like an emo version of someone Lewis really respects. He goes to help Arthur and the black Spiderman freezes, while results in Arthur accidentally pulling his mask off trying to get him in a headlock. And neither he nor Lewis know how to react to the fact that it’s Arthur’s face under there. And while they’re still trying to parse that, Mordred has a blue screen of his own. “But I killed you!” At which point some things become crystal clear to Lewis 1)There are two Arthurs 2) His friend was completely and totally innocent the whole time and 3)The guy who tried to kill him is right there

And suddenly Lewis is fire. Mordred doesn’t know what’s going on, but he knows Lewis is still the weak spot of the two he hates the most and tries to attack him rather than Arthur. Lewis is going to take him head on but is suddenly pulled out of the way by Arthur…who’s using web slingers They simultaneous decide this conversation can wait. They gotta deal with Mordred. None of Arthur’s usual techniques work on him and he’s very good at dodging Lewis’s fire and not looking Lewis in the eyes for a Penance Stare.  

Suddenly the fight is interrupted by Vivi running to them and screaming ATTACK! Promptly followed by every squirrel in the park jumping Mordred at once.  Sensing danger and inhuman dodging ability doesn’t help when the danger is everywhere and there’s nowhere else to dodge to. So Mordred flees and Vivi is surrounded by squirrels, Arthur’s standing sideways on a tree branch, and Lewis’s heads on fire Vivi: I think we all have some explaining to do

Then a man with red and black hair wearing small yellow glasses “Yukino Viviane what in the nine realms were you thinki….” Then he notices Lewis “YOU!”

Vivi: (winces) And apparently not just to each other

So it turns out this guy, Mystery, is the Sorcerer Supreme of their world. Also Vivi’s magic bound godfather. He’s started a program helping supernatural beings blend in and live amongst normal humans (something as a kitsune he has a vested interest in). Vivi is one of those, she’s squirrel yokai (or half, still deciding). He does a pretty good job making sure there are no upsets between the arcane and mundane until someone showed up out of nowhere with his head on fire throwing around retribution spells.” He gives Arthur a gimlet eye, but Arthur just ‘Nope, I’m a mutant.“ He’s still watching him.

Lewis tentatively suggests they maybe do this somewhere less public, which Mystery eagerly agrees with. Arthur volunteers his house. Lewis: But what about your parents? When are they going to get home? Arthur: Not anytime soon

And while they’re on their way there, it really starts sinking in for Lewis that he has really been screwing the pooch. He’s spent all this time hating Arthur and trying to get his revenge on him, and Arthur was completely innocent the whole time. Hell, Arthur’s been using his spare time to help other people. (Also the realization of ‘if Arthur didn’t have superpowers, I would have murdered my best friend for no reason’ hits him like a punch in the gut)

It gets even worse when they get to the Kingsmen house and Vivi kinda pulls him aside. “Lewis…does it look like anyone else lives here to you?” Because no. No it doesn’t. “Arthur, when are your parents going to be here?” * shrugs* “Dunno, not anytime soon.” “Okay, let me rephrase. Arthur, when’s the last time either of your parents were here?” Arthur winced, then sighed. “The weekend after Uncle Lance got hurt.”

Months. Arthur had been living a double life alone in his house for months and they never knew.To be fair, he had ready made excuses built in. He never had them over, but it made sense because he famously did no get along with either of his parents. He wouldn’t spend any more time than absolutely necessary alone with them. Also why he would be out at odd hours with his superheroing. Mystery kinda explains the 'we’re trying to keep magic under wraps’. Lewis is “I didn’t know, and honestly everyone seems to think I’m a meta human’ and Vivi’s just 'BTW You’ve been fighting crime together without me how dare!’ 'We didn’t exactly know we were fighting crime with each other, Vi’ 'Oh Spirits you’re not going to get involved in this madness too?’ 'You bet I am’

So Vivi joins the team and Mystery decides to have an overseer role, trying to be strict, but the kids are growing on him. And this insane superhero thing seems to actually be a good idea. It’s a way that supernaturals have a way to act as their true selves and doesn’t even expose them as decades of comics means people don’t associate hidden worlds of magic with superheroes. It becomes a program he can institute on a wide scale. But his favorite place is with these three children. He’s known Vivi since she was a child and has helped her family ( a mix of squirrel youkai and yuki no onna) integrate with humans. And Lewis needs a lot of help suddenly going from normal human to magical. Arthur even comes with a certain relief of not needing to intercede on his behalf and he’s not technically  Mystery’s charge (Mystery tends to intercede on his behalf anyway)

And for a while it goes well. Then Mordred comes back

And it turns out his instability wasn’t just mental. His body has degraded. He’s become emaciated with green skin and eyes and black scelra. The mutation that gave him and Arthur their spider powers has also gotten a bit out of control. His limbs and digits have elongated and he’s grown extra eyes (and maybe limbs, still deciding, but if so I’m thinking an extra set of arms that split off from his and maybe some spindly spider legs coming out of his torso). There is no way he’s getting mistaken for Arthur anymore. He’s also ditched the black spider suit since it no longer fits. Between the squirrels and fire, Mordred has decided that Norman is the softer target and comes back for him. He attacks him and is interrupted by security. Mordred engages them until one declares Norman is dead, at which part he flees gleefully. This wasn’t true, but the guard realized Mordred was an assassin and figured he wouldn’t try to finish the job if he thought it was finished. Norman was taken to a secret location while they tried to save his life, while maintaining the fiction he’s dead. And that opens a can of worms no one was expecting. Because Norman’s will get’s executed and aside from some charitable donations he leaves everything to his only living relative. His son Lewis

So yeah. That’s how Lewis find out Norman is his father, after he’s been killed by a green goblin-like creature. (You see what i did there)

And Lewis has NO idea how to handle pretty much any of this.

Thankfully the lawyer executing the will is loyal to the Osborn family, and thus now to Lewis. Lewis recruits his parents and friends to try and work this out, and they finalize on an idea. They release the information that Norman had a secret son he left everything too, but as the child is still underage he’s going to remain unidentified until he’s old enough to take the helm, with the board running things until then and the lawyer acting as a proxy.There’s actually a trap in this for the board. First of all, by emphasizing Lewis as Norman’s 'child’  they imply he’s much younger than his 15 years and not going to appear for a long time. Meanwhile they’re watching the board, seeing who acts well and who’s trying to seize power.

Lewis is trying to get a crash course in business and all of them are helping him, until Norman recovers enough to be aware and finds out that his will was executed. So now Lewis knows and he has to face his son.

Lewis is MORE than relieved he no longer has to one day run Oscorp, but not sure how he feels about his bio dad who knew he existed but stayed away. Norman ends up being more honest than he liked, admitting his resentment towards his own father and being afraid he’s fall into those habits. "What could I give you? Material things. certainly. A level of luxury beyond your dreams. But could I give you a parent who was home for dinner every night? One who was available to help you with your homework? Could I be sure I would leave my ruthless behavior in the board room and never bring it home? Can I guarantee I’d never become my own father? You were loved. You were happy. You were better off.”

Of course it’s not that simple for Norman. Lewis may be uncertain, but Mr. and Mrs. Chef Pepper are clear in that Norman has to prove himself, and not in a  way that involves money at all. If he wants to be in Lewis’s life, he needs to put in time and get to know his son and let his son known him. Or else just stay away and leave Lewis alone.

In addition to spending time with Lewis, he starts working on creating a better image of himself for Lewis. It helps that he’s made his decision on what to do with his son’s being best friends with Spiderman. Namely it’s the realization that Spiderman is a strictly local hero and Oscorp is Global. Any illegal activity has been moved far away

Ironically Norman works so hard to seem like a better person so Lewis will like his he actually starting to become a better person, even slowly cutting out all activity not above board. He’s not sure how to take that

Random Things:

Vivi’s glasses are a magical trinket that make her look like a normal human and disassociates the her with the idea of being supernatural. She also has the single best information network in the city from every single squirrel being loyal to her. This makes her unparalleled at finding things. Her godfather is also teaching her spellcraft.

Mystery does the dissociation effect with Lewis’s locket, though thus far no one associated the kind and gentle Lewis with the ruthless Ghost. Lewis also discovers much later his powers can also heal if used on a good person.

The first gizmo Arthur added to the suit was a voice changer. He’s also built camera’s in the eyes so he can record things for evidence.

Arthur ends up helping Ironman at some point, including jury rigging part of the suit. Tony looks into him and Irondad commences.

Norman does NOT know Vivi and Lewis are Squirrel Girl and Ghost because of the disassociation trinkets.

If and when lance wakes up, it’s gonna take hi all of five minutes to figure out who Spiderman is.

Chloe is…well no one knows what Chloe is, but she’s a supernatural with a special gift for fabric. She ends up remaking all their costumes.

[thedcdunce]

Lobo

“I killed every living thing on Czarnia fer fun. I killed Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny an' things that don't even exist, an' so help me, I tried ta follow th' triple-fold path o' peace. I tried my best... but frag me for a bastich, even I got limits!” - Lobo

Gender: Male

Height: 6′ 4″

Weight: 305 lbs (138 kg)

Eyes: Red

Hair: Black

Skin: Blue/ White

Powers:

Czarnian Physiology

Abilities:

Genius Level Intellect

Tracking

Multilingualism

Expert Combatant

Indomitable Will

Weaknesses:

Uncontrollable Personality

Always Keeps Promises

Equipment:

Spacehogt

Chained Hook

“Frag” grenades

Various Weapons

Universe:

Earth-One

New Earth

Base of Operations:

Ferris Aircraft

Coast City

Marital Status: Single

Citizenship: Czarnian

Occupation:

Priest

Assassin

Bounty Hunter

First Appearance: Omega Men #3 (June, 1983)

Powers

Czarnian Physiology: It is said that Czarnians can only be truly killed by other Czarnians. Furthermore, Lobo has been banned from entering either Heaven or Hell. Lobo can survive unaided in the vacuum of space.

Superhuman Strength: Lobo is able to effortlessly lift far in excess of 100 tons.

Superhuman Stamina: He possesses inexhaustible stamina.

Immortality: Lobo is functionally immortal and cannot die no matter what happens. He is immune to the effects of aging and disease and has been banned from entering either Heaven or Hell.

Invulnerability: He has at times shrugged off blows with no damage, taken planet-destroying attacks without so much as a scratch but at other occurrences has had his skin penetrated by bullets and had only some resistance against most magic spells and attacks.

Superhuman Speed: Lobo possesses the ability to sharpen his awareness and increase his temporal flow, appearing to move faster than humanly possible. He can move at incredible speeds.

Self-Sustenance: Lobo does not need any food, water, air, or sleep and he can survive in the vacuum of space without any harm.

Regeneration: If Lobo does somehow sustain an injury, his accelerated healing enables him to regenerate damaged or destroyed tissue instantly, with little apparent pain. He will apparently heal from any injury.

Bio-Fission: If Lobo spills even a drop of blood, that drop can become a completely new Lobo.

Thermal Immunity

Abilities

Genius Level Intellect: As unbelievable as it may seem, despite his violent and loutish nature, Lobo seems to have a genius-level intellect in matters of destruction and violence. He can create complex virulent agents and the necessary antidotes.

Tracking: The tracking ability allows him to trace any prey across even the Universe.

Multilingualism: By his own account, Lobo can speak 17,897 different languages from across the galaxy.

Morse Code: Lobo can communicate in Morse Code.

Expert Combatant: Lobo is a proficient hand-to-hand combatant.

Indomitable Will

Weaknesses

Uncontrollable Personality: Lobo loves fighting, loses patience easily, is very arrogant and does not get along in a group.

Always Keeps Promises: Even if it means his death.

Equipment

Spacehog

Chained Hook: Lobo's signature weapon is a large hook on a chain. Aside from use as a weapon, he also uses it to tie up opponents or drag them behind his bike.

"Frag" grenades

Various Weapons: Lobo has been shown carrying countless weapons, such as a laser weapon, a large knife, and even a guilt grenade.

History

Lobo, whose name comes from a Khund dialect and means  "one who devours your entrails and thoroughly enjoys it," is the last of his people for one reason: he killed them all. He hailed from the planet Czarnia which was a virtual paradise that knew nothing of war and the Czarnians were almost immortal. When Lobo was born, his evil was so frighteningly apparent, the nurse who delivered him went insane and became the planet's first mental patient in ten millennia after the infant Lobo chewed off four of her fingers. Lobo knew he was one of a kind, but he wanted even more. Inspired by the idea of genocide, Lobo created a swarm of lethal scorpion-like creatures, he set them on his people wiping out his entire species but himself. He claimed it was a science project and gave himself an 'A'. Since then he has traveled the galaxies collecting bounties. Despite his ruthless nature, Lobo has a strict code of honor when it comes to these agreements. Along the way he has met and battled a number of superheroes.

Omega Men

Lobo played an important role in the Citadel War, in his capacity as a bounty hunter. He was hired by the Citadel's human agent Harry Hokum to capture the Euphorian known as Kalista in a bid to learn the secret behind her home world's planetary shield. Along with fellow bounty hunters Bedlam and Berserk, he raided the mothership belonging to the Omega Men, where upon he engaged in combat with Kalista. Soon after, Harry Hokum hired Lobo once again, this time to assassinate the Omega Men's interim leader Tigorr. Lobo never had the opportunity to complete the contract however.

After the Citadel War ended, Lobo was then hired by Kalista's husband Primus to help them infiltrate a Citadel prison facility and free several of Primus' captured allies. During the prison break, Lobo killed the supreme commander of the surviving Citadel military forces.

Justice League

Lobo made his first appearance on the planet Earth when he was hired by Manga Khan to take out the newly formed Justice League International. But after Big Barda teleported Lobo across the galaxy, Lobo landed on Earth smack in the Justice League Embassy. After a brief altercation with Guy Gardner, Lobo hung around, pretending to be a friend, waiting for the right moment. But before he could act, Manga Khan canceled his contract.

L.E.G.I.O.N.

For a such a fierce bounty hunter and a loner, Lobo still held a few surprises under his brash exterior. He would prove to be more a team player than anyone would think. He kept a secret pod of pet Space Dolphins that he cared for. When one of the dolphins was killed, Lobo tracked the perpetrators to Vril Dox II's newly formed band of freedom fighters, the L.E.G.I.O.N.

Lobo single handily crippled the entire team, but was halted by Vril Dox II, who offered to provide protection for the Space Dolphins in exchange for Lobo's service in the L.E.G.I.O.N. Lobo accepted and accompanied the new team to Cairn, known galaxy wide as the "drug world." There the team dismantled the drug lords' empire by sheer brains and brawn. Vril Dox II also took advantage of Lobo's ability to multiply, which helped them destroy the remainder of Cairn's opposing rulers. During this mission, Dox secretly poisoned Lobo and his clones. Lobo was depowering, lost his ability to multiply, and his clones were destroyed. It was later revealed that one of Lobo's clones escaped to the planet Kannit.

During Lobo's service in the L.E.G.I.O.N., it was clear that he held no personal love for any of his teammates. He followed Vril Dox II's orders out of some sense of honor, but did not hesitate to break both of Garryn Bek's legs. But even Vril Dox II was not immune. When Vril Dox II was raped and killed by Stealth, he too was cloned. Lobo took advantage of Vril Dox II's vulnerability and attempted to kill the clone in order to be free from his pact.

Lobo was sent on an undercover mission to bring down a formidable opponent: the space pirate Dagon-Ra of the planet Trom whose natives have the power to transmute matter. He joined Dagon-Ra's crew and lead a successful mutiny against him.

Superman

Draaga found an intergalactic taxi driver to take him to Earth to get revenge on Superman. Just as they left the bar, Lobo arrived. Lobo was boozing it up at the bar when he heard two aliens in a bar corner discussing the odds of Draaga's return battle with Superman. Lobo got involved in the conversation, and the aliens got Lobo drunk enough to where he accepted a bet that he could kill Superman. Lobo, along with the bar's delivery guy Raof and Bibbo Bibbowski, traveled to the Fortress of Solitude, but Superman wasn't there. While the three were tooling around inside, Superman arrived. Lobo attacked Superman, and the two brawled through the Fortress. Superman escaped to a Kryptonian exo-suit he had, and battled Lobo outside while wearing the suit. Lobo blew the suit up with missiles from his spacehog, and Lobo and Bibbow presumed Superman dead. They then collapsed, both very drunk. It turned out that Superman was safe inside the Fortress, and had faked his death inside the suit.

Mister Miracle

Lord Manga Kahn accidentally captured space-dolphins belonging to Lobo, who came looking for them. After an altercation, Lobo recruited Mister Miracle to help him find his space-dolphins on Mogo.

Guy Gardner

Guy Gardner had to get back on his feet after his fight with Hal Jordan for Sector 2814, so he tried crime fighting ringless. When that didn't work, he enlisted the help of Lobo to go with him to Qward to get Sinestro's ring. Guy and Lobo then retrieved the ring.

Lobo eventually got into a fight with Guy, over the events on Qward.

Breakdowns

Lobo was hired by Lord Manga Kahn to take in Despero. Despero had been currently running rampant on Earth. Lobo tried to take the monster in, but met fierce resistance from the Justice League International and the Justice League Europe. Lobo, the JLE, and the newly formed Conglomerate all launched a frontal assault on Despero, but the monster was able to fend them all off. But Kilowog and L-Ron arrived, and Kilowog accidentally uploaded L-Ron's consciousness into Despero's head. Lord Manga Kahn then paid Lobo his fee for helping take down Despero, and also offered to finance the reconstruction of Times Square.

Superman's Resurrection

At one point, Lobo went back to Earth to prove that he was still better than Superman, even though Superman was resurrected. Along the way, Lobo destroyed a planet called Thanotopsia, which attracted the attention of a group of aliens that followed Lobo to Earth where Lobo confronted Superman in Metropolis. After a battle, Superman punched Lobo into orbit, and Lobo landed on the alien ship where he was attacked by a number of robot bounty hunters. Superman took out the disintegration cannon on the ship and hauled it away from Earth. Superman then caught back up to the ship and helped Lobo defeat the bounty hunters. Lobo then decided to not fight Superman anymore since Superman helped him out.

Miss Tribb

When Vril Dox II later hired Lobo to transport a prisoner to him safe and alive, Lobo thought that the transport normally wouldn't be more than a boring job. It turns out the prisoner in question is not only the person who wrote the book on Lobo, but was also his fourth grade teacher, Miss Tribb. The Legion Of Decency, a group of old women who want to kill Miss Tribb for writing such a nasty book; a group of truckers, after an altercation at a truck stop; the Dnedia Police S.W.A.T. Team after Lobo killed their chief; and the Pan-Galactic Demolition Dance Company after having to get Miss Tribb from their show and slaughtering many of their dance troop were among the groups of enemies Lobo were being tracked by. The only people on his side were a gang calling themselves the Sons of Lobo, not that he cares or even knows.

While each of the groups have their reasons for wanting Lobo and Miss Tribb dead, he eventually falls into the hands of The Orthography Commandos who seek to remove the ignorant and functionally illiterate from the universe. They have a special way of eliminating these so called unwanted by holding a spelling bee. Lobo was smarter than he lets on, especially when he's given words to spell that he likes, such as "Genocide", for example. Things go his way until he makes the mistake of telling these people that Miss Tribb is a teacher. Eventually, Lobo loses his patience with these people and kills them all. Unfortunately, after this situation was sorted out with violence, he contacts Vril Dox II and tells him he's taking a vacation on Revel-7. He does this over an unsecured line and it draws everyone to him like flies.

One world wide riot and massive body count later, Lobo delivers Miss Tribb to Vril Dox II, alive and well, but as soon as Vril receives the old woman, Lobo fixes things so that he is, once again, is the Last Czarnian.

52

Lobo eventually turned his back on his violent ways and became an archbishop in the First Celestial Church of the Triple Fish-God. He became a protector of sorts to a massive colony of refugees from Sector 3500 and also gained possession of the Emerald Eye of Ekron.

He happened to arrive in an asteroid field just in time to kill Devilance, rescuing Animal Man, Adam Strange, and Starfire, who were stranded in space. Starfire negotiated a deal with him, in which he would help them out of their predicament if they helped him with his problems. After helping the heroes defeat Lady Styx, he brought the Emerald Eye to the triple-headed fish god, who agreed to release Lobo from his vow of non-violence in exchange. When told that the Emerald Eye was the only thing that can kill the fish god, Lobo blasted him with it.

One Year Later

After the battle on Apokolips, Lobo's soul was sent to Hell. Lobo's suffering was enough to power Neron's entire region of Hell. When the demons Etrigan and Blue Devil went on a rampage through Hell to seek revenge on Neron, they accidentally freed Lobo from his prison. In order to buy time to fully recover before battling Czarnian, Etrigan stole Blue Devil's soul and told him he would have to fight Lobo to get it back. Lobo however during his rampage through the underworld cut off the magician Zatara's head, which angered his daughter, Zatanna who engaged in an intense battle with him before paralyzing him in place to escape with her team.

Brightest Day

Lobo appeared on Earth to capture a bounty on the Red Lantern Atrocitus's head. After battling Hal Jordan, Carol Ferris and Sinestro, he left without finishing his job. The mystery of his retreat is revealed as the fight was all staged by Atrocitus in order for the latter to gain the trust of the New Guardians. As a payment, Lobo was given a Red Power Ring.

R.E.B.E.L.S.

Still using the Red Power Ring, Lobo was recruited by Vril Dox II, who requires his help battling Brainiac and Pulsar Stargrave. Due to the fact that the Space Church that Lobo oversaw was spending more money than it was taking in, Lobo needed to work for Vril Dox as his personal enforcer. Even losing his Spacehog, Lobo saves the planet Colu, but Brainiac and Pulsar Stargrave escaped.

Lobo later battled Altin Ad'Ms, the Green Lantern of Sector 2828, to a stand still. He was later tricked into thinking that there was another Czarnian still alive, but Astrild Storm-Daughter, using pheromones to confuse Lobo, for this trick he later killed Astrild.

After tracking Astrild's origins to the Psion Homeworld he would go toe to toe with Smite, her friend and ally. The fight would only pause because Lobo was winning and wanted to get drunk instead of fighting. Lobo and Smite go to a bar and share a drink and war stories. He then explains to Smite he shouldn't be mad at him, he should be mad at Starro. Lobo and Smite then attack the now helpless Starro.

Fun Facts

Lobo's favorite color is "Sepulcher Black", which he names his hair color after.

Lobo's name translates to He Who Devours Your Entrails And Thoroughly Enjoys It.

Lobo is also known as the Main Man, the Bo, Master Frag, Mister Machete, Popebo, the Thrash, and Li'l Lobo.

Lobo possesses a fondness for space dolphins, which sometimes affects his judgment. Additionally, Lobo's word is the only thing he finds sacred, and will keep his promises, even to his detriment. He is also highly susceptible to gas attacks and is extremely violent even to his allies.

"Lobo" is Spanish and Portuguese for "Wolf".

"Bob Bastiche" was actually the name of the first employer to hire Lobo for bounty hunting work. He claims to have adopted the man's name as a saying just because he liked the sound of it.

Lobo was, allegedly, hired to assassinate Santa Claus by the Easter Bunny, and succeeded.

[fatrainbowmermaidunicorn]

Nothing Like Us (Park Jimin x You ONESHOT)

Thankyou for the request anon! Hope you like it!

MASTERLIST

Lately I’ve been thinking, thinking about what we had

“Why do you want to come here so suddenly? You have been avoiding this place since…” Taehyung stop himself before he could finished his sentence, but Jimin knew what he’s about to say. Jimin stirred his steaming cup of coffee slowly, a soft sad smile appearing on his face.

“Did you know today marks the 5th year since that day?” Taehyung sighed and looks at his best friend.

“Chim… maybe we should just go,” Jimin shakes his head and looks outside the window towards the passerby struggling to fight against the cold winter air.

“Its okay Tae. I like thinking about my memories with her. Its what keeps me alive,”

And I know it was hard, it was all that we knew

“Is this really happening right now?” Jimin looks down at the ridiculous amount of vomit now staining his expensive Gucci shoes and raised his head to see the source of the vomit who is giggling. Giggling! The girl is giggling when she just vomitted the whole content of her stomach onto his shoes.

“Opps-sie!” was all she managed to say before she burst into a chorus of giggles again.

“Oh man. That stinks Chim!” Taehyung place a hand across his mouth and nose, to stifled the smell and to muffled the laugher he is holding towards his friend’s misfortune. Jimin groaned. He knew coming to the club is not a good idea. He had told the other members that he just wanted to go home, take a long nice bath and sleep, but no, they have to insist that he joins them to this busy, noisy club, filled to the brim and is surrounded by drunk teenagers who cant hold their own liquor. Like the one exactly standing in front of him. Jimin glared at the girl who seemed oblivious to how annoyed and pissed off he is right now.

“I dont think there’s any use to talk to her right now Chim. She’s drunk out of her mind,” Taehyung points to the girl, still laughing. Jimin turned to glare at his laughing friend.

“You are enjoying this arent you Tae?”

“A little bit. Yeah,” he flashed his friend his infamous smile.

“Oh fuck Y/N, what did you do this time?!” Another girl in panic appeared from behind the giggling girl and grabbed her arms. She eyed Jimin’s angry face and Taehyung’s laughing ones before turning her gaze down to Jimin’s shoes, making her eyes widen in horror.

“Shit Y/N. Why are you always such a horrible drunk!” Jimin crossed his arms across his chest and looked at the friend with less than a friendly smile. “I’m sorry. My friend cant really drink and she usually doesnt, but she had a really bad day today, so we decided to let her drink. Sooo… that is why this," she moved her finger, trying to show the misfortunate situation, "happened,”

“And how is that my problem?” Jimin glared at the rambling girl who finally is brave enough to really look towards the two of them properly and her eyes widen in shocked when she finally take their features in.

“Oh shit. You are Park Jimin and Kim Taehyung from BTS!”

“Yes, yes we are. But that doesnt matter right now. What matters is that your friend here just vomitted on my very expensive shoes!” Jimin growled, making the girl cowered in fear. Taehyung decides Jimin is making the situation worse than it should be and stepped in to help calm him down, placing a hand on Jimin’s chest, trying to stop him from cornering the two girls.

“Okay, okay calm down. She’s obviously very drunk right now,” Taehyung turned from Jimin to the friend, “and my friend here is apparently not being very nice towards a pretty girl who obviously needs to loosen up tonight,” Taehyung shot Jimin a look, which he returned by rolling his eyes. “So why dont you just give us her number so Jimin here can send her the dry cleaning bill and you can take her out from here before she ruin anymore shoes?” Taehyung suggested with a grin. The friend quickly scribbled a number on a napkin and passed it to Taehying before hastily bowing, ready to dash out from there.

“Thankyou so much. And you guys are amazing by the way. Keep up the good work!” She flee out from the scene immediately, dragging the still intoxicated Y/N behind her.

“What are you doing Tae? How can you just let them go like that?” Jimin huffed. “Now I have to either go back home barefooted or stuck in a very smelly shoes,” Taehyung chuckled and slipped the number inside Jimin’s pocket.

“You are going to thank me for this one day Chim,”

‘Cause nothing can ever, ever replace you Nothing can make me feel like you do

Taehyung was right.

After waking up in a much better mood the next morning, Jimin found the number in his pocket and decided to give it a call, smirking after he get an idea on how to make Y/N pay for ruining his night. On their first meeting, Y/N was scared to death when Jimin appeared with a death glare plastered on his handsome face. Jimin on the other hand passed her a shoe box filled with his disgustingly smelled and ruined shoes from the night before and asks her to clean it thoroughly before returning it back to him. Y/N huffed at his ridiculous request but did it anyway, grumbling on and on about how can some money making superstar asks a mere student like her to clean his shoes? Dont they just throw them and buy new ones everyday?

On their second meeting, Y/N threw the now clean shoes, complete with the box, which she spent a lot of money on to get it clean, hitting Jimin right in the face, asking him to take his stupidly expensive shoes with him and burn with it together in hell, making Jimin chuckled, fascinated by how feisty this girl is when she is not drunk and being herself.

On their third meeting, which happened because Jimin waited for her in front of her university, which he somehow found out from Taehyung’s stalking skills, hiding behind a tree, all covered up in black hoodie and mask and insisted that she should at least treat him to dinner after hurting his 'beautiful’ face after throwing the shoe at him. Y/N rolled her eyes and tried to get away, calling him delusional but ended up agreeing when Jimin only promise to leave her alone if she accepted the offer. The night ended with Jimin asking to see her again and this time she voluntarily said yes.

On their fourth meeting, both Jimin and Y/N had fun walking through the town’s carnival, discovering new things they actually had in common with each other.

On their fifth meeting, Jimin, with sweaty palms and racing heart, nervously told her he thinks he is falling in love with her.

On their sixth meeting, Y/N told Jimin that she thinks she is falling in love with him too.

On their seventh meeting, Jimin is already practically living in Y/N’s rented apartment, only going back to the dorms when he absolutely have to.

“Hey sleepyhead, wake up or you are going to be late. Namjoon and Jin oppa is going to kill you if you are late for practice again,” Y/N softly wakes Jimin up by straddling him and giving him butterfly kisses all over his face. Jimin fluttered his sleepy eyes open to see the most beautiful face smiling back at him. He immediately reached up to swiped her hair that is hanging loose around her face.

“I dont think I will ever get used to waking up and seeing your face Y/N. Its the most beautiful thing I can ever wake up to,” he smiled, showing her so much love it makes her heart soared. “I love you so much,”

“I love you too Park Jimin,” Y/N whispered back, stating straight into his eyes. “Forever and always,”

“Promise?”

“Promise,”

“Good. Because I dont know what I’ll do if I ever lose you Y/N. Nothing could ever replace you in my heart. Nothing could ever make me feel the way that you do with just one smile,” he pulled her closer and kisses her with everything he had. Jimin doesnt know a lot of things, but what he do know is, nothing is ever going to come close to the love he felt for Y/N.

Have you been drinking, to take all the pain away? I wish that I could give you what you deserve

“How are you feeling today baby?” Jimin smile softly at Y/N who is bundled up in her blanket on the couch as he removed the empty wine bottle by her side. Jimin frowned, by the looks of it, it must already have been her second bottle.

It has been more than a year since they were together and the world had not been kind to them. His fans, the company, even his family is against their relationship. The only support they ever had is from his members who understands how in love Jimin and Y/N really are. Y/N had tried her best in staying strong for the first few months of the hatred thrown towards their relationship. Always plastering a smile and repeating I’m-okays for him, hiding the hurt she felt, not wanting to make Jimin worry. But she can only take so much when it seems the whole world is trying to break them apart. The company is forcing Jimin to have a fake girlfriend, another newly rising star, where their overboard relationship is shown to Y/N everywhere from TV to newspapers to gossips site. It kills her to see her boyfriend hugging and kissing another girl everyday.

Jimin’s public relationship leads to fans calling her names and hating on her when they accidentally saw her with Jimin on multiple occasion, eating in a restaurant or just walking to the nearby ice cream store. Y/N tried to show Jimin that all that doesnt bother her at all, until Jimin finds out that she has been cutting classes when the bullying got too far, to the extend of destroying her things and hurting her.

Jimin’s heart ache whenever he came back only to find Y/N crying alone in her dark room, all bundled up in her blankets. Sometimes even with wounds all over her body from the attacks she has been receiving. She will try her best to hide it from him, quickly wiping the tears and pulling the sleeve of her sweatshirt to cover her bruised arms, flashing him a smile, pretending everything is all right, but Jimin always knows better.

Jimin hated himself for not being able to do anything for her. Y/N deserve the world. She deserve people who loves her and care for her. She deserves happy and beautiful things and Jimin wishes more than anything that he can give everything that he knows she deserve in the palms of her hand. 

You know there’s no one, I can relate to I know we won’t find a love that’s so true

“What are you thinking about?” Jimin asks Y/N who is blankly staring outside the window of her apartment at the pouring rain.

“Have you ever wonder what it would be like if I didnt get drunk that night?” she tilted her head at him.

“Well, then the most magical night of my life wouldnt have happened. I wouldnt have met you, my one true love,” he smiled softly at her.

“Sometimes I just wished that night never happened,” she turned back to the window.

“Why are you saying all this?” Jimin tilted her head to face him again. She pushed Jimin’s hand away from her face and lowered her gaze.

“Sometimes I think about how your life would be better off if you didnt met me that night. you will probably met somebody else who is better suited for you sooner or later. Someone who your fans, your family, even the world will approve on,” Y/N whispered her words, trying to hold back the tears she’s feeling in the back of her eyes. Jimin grabbed her shoulders and turned her fully to face him.

“Hey, listen to me Y/N. I love you. I dont care what anybody else is saying. There is no one else in this world who gets me like you do, who makes me happy like you do. There is no one else in this world who is better matched for me than you Y/N. I will never find another love that is as true as ours if I didnt find you,” Y/N didnt dare to say anything and lowered her gaze to her lap before he pulled her closer in his embraced, hugging her tightly, wishing the world wouldnt be so cruel towards her, towards them anymore.

I gave you everything babe Well, everything I had to give

“Marry me Y/N. Marry me and be with me forever,”

Jimin kneeled down on one knee in front of Y/N who is looking at him in shocked. Its their two year anniversary today, and Jimin had never felt more in love than he felt at that very moment. Their situation didnt get better, in fact it only had gotten worse. The hate thrown towards their relationship which increased after Jimin breaks up with his pretend girlfriend and announced their real relationship to the world has only driven Y/N driven into a state of depression. Fans accusing Y/N as a homewrecker for the perfect couple. Jimin finally decides enough is enough. Y/N has given him everything she has, and its time he gives her every part of him.

“Say yes Y/N and we will get through this together. I love you so much, I dont think I will be able to make it without you,” he held both of her hands, smiling softly at her.

Girl, why would you push me away?

Tears are streaming down Y/N’s face as she looks back into Jimin’s eyes. Every fiber in her body is telling her to say yes, and she blinked back the tears.

“This is everything I thought I only could dream about Jimin. I love you so much, but this world is not ready for our love. We are not destined to be together. Maybe in some other moment in time, you will be mine again,” she kissed both of his hands that is holding hers. “I’m sorry, but I cant marry you,”

But that is the past now, we didn’t last now I guess that this is meant to be

“Hey earth to Park Jimin!” Taehyung’s voice snapped him back to reality. Jimin just flashed a tired smile at his best friend.

“You are thinking about her again arent you?” Jimin just looked down at his untouched cup of coffee, now no longer steaming, but as cold as the feelings that is surrounding his heart.

Lost in confusion, like an illusion You know I’m used to making your day

“Yeah…” Jimin took a sipped of the cold coffee. “Sometimes everything just felt so surreal. Like it was all a dream. Like I will finally wake up one day to her voice trying to wake me up again, telling me I’ll be late for practice or how much she loves me, laughing besides me. I’m just so used to having her by my side Tae,”

“Its been five years since she left Jimin. And she’s finally truly happy and getting married again. That’s what you have always wanted for her right? To be in a relationship that wont hurt her?” Jimin kept his silence. “Maybe… maybe its time for you to finally move on too Chim,” Taehyung softly said to his friend, giving his hand across the table a pat to show his support.

“Yeah… maybe Tae. But I know no matter how hard I try to find it, nothing can ever come close to being like what we had again,”

There’s nothing like us There’s nothing like you and me, together

A/N: Feel free to suggest or request story ideas, especially those based on a song. i love writing those :)

[lucidiasansgaster]

Lucidia wasn't sure what to feel, what to think of finding out this. But the broadcast was evidence enough of it all. She thought that he had been killed, and apparently by Monitor no less. And to think, she trusted him before, long ago. She saw it with her own eye lights, the fragment that everyone presumed to be dead.

Cubesy is alive.

She felt a pulsing of something within her, her own SOUL, and the flow of emotions bottled up practically popped the top. As much as she wanted to be thankful that he survived, she still felt a grudge against him. He used her, even...if he was slowly improving. Her discussion with Doc and soon, Un afterwards came back up and tears streamed down her cheekbones. She wanted to forget about him, go back to the life that he had made for herself.

But her SOUL, spoke otherwise.

What was she to do....?

There's suddenly a small hand putting half a cinnabunny on the office desk. Boop. Saros is there with Melanie, who just waves a bit before heading out into the main area. Family business, she's certain.

"Momma, y'alright?" And no guff either, because they're used to Fleur.

She snapped out of it for a moment and turned her head, seeing both Saros and Melanie by her desk. Rubbing the tears from her eye sockets, she gives the child a weak smile, wishing not to worry them. It’s only when Melanie heads out, that she speaks.

...No dear, I’m not alright. Someone...someone I thought had passed, he’s alive. I’m unsure how to feel about it.

Squint. Hum.

"Well. Take baby steps! How did you feel about him when he was alive?" They go through this with Fleur, as well. It's almost as natural as breathing, now.

Uncertain, for sure. She didn’t want to scare the child anymore than she had before, when they were the one to find her in the state she was in. Even then, they deserved to know.

.....It’s my old friend, Trois. Or well Cubesy, as others called him. I thought he was fine but, seems not...

If they're bothered, they're certainly not showing it. They just seem to want to help her get through it a little easier.

"Cubesy, 'uh? You mean the guy Big Brother grumbled about for a while after you were sick?" That dampens things some. Now they have a bias. Gross. "Still didn't answer my question though, Momma." Talking with Emrys helps a bit...

She nodded her head. Yes, Cubesy. But they were right, that didn’t answer the question. How was she to feel about him?

....Well, despite what he’s done to me, he still is a dear friend. He helped me on multiple occasions. I just....I know why he faked his death, but still isn’t easy to take in.

They patpat the half of the cinnabunny. Take it, take it. It'll help. Sweets help with tears right? It always make Fleur smile or laugh. It should work then for her right? They scooch it closer.

"So, you still care about 'im. I geddit. That being said, what if this wasn't accidental? What if he's still tryin' to use you and others?" They're remaining optimistic, but they won't rule out possibilities if there's evidence towards them happening. Huh, wouldn't 'Uncle Emmy' be proud?

She glanced down at the cinnabunny and smiled, gently taking it into her hands. An old time favorite of hers indeed.

...Truth be told, I don’t know. Part of me wants nothing to do with him, and yet.... Her SOUL still reacted strangely. Saros, my dear, would you...blame me, if I wished to visit him?

"Blame you? Nope. Question if Big Brother's timeline is starting to make you as wacky as everyone else? Yup." They know where she was before. From stories they were told, the Void is a miserable place, somewhere that is hard to leave once you're there. It's only preferable when you're stuck in The Depths.

At that, she chuckled. Maybe she was mad for wishing to return to her former prison. But now that the timeline accepted her, maybe she could..and be able to leave on her own.

There are many things I wish to talk to him about and it maybe the only time I’ll receive answers. I am willing to try..

They're just giving her a very pointed look. Perhaps it's one she recognizes, as she'd given it to Fleur a couple times before. 'Don't do something you'll regret.'

Oh she knows that look and it’s one she knew she deserved. ....I won’t, I promise. Just a chat between us is all I wish to do.

"You goin' there alone is stupid." No punches pulled. They talk to Fleur like this and clearly it got through to HIM, so.

She sighed and knew that would be a concern. Really she shouldn’t but..

Its best if I do, this once. Trois and I need a little heart to heart. I rather not drag someone else into the void without reason.

"Don't the Hunters here go there from time to time?" They're being stubborn on this.

Why are they being stubborn right now? She’s more surprised that they weren’t trying to prevent her from going.

Saros darling, I will be fine. If I need a Hunter, I know how to summon one. Rest assure.

Staaare. They're not having it. "Take someone with you as at least back up or don't go at all." They're surprisingly good at standing their ground for a 12 year old.

Lucidia stares back before she sighed. She couldn’t argue with the on the matter, no matter how much she wanted to. They were concerned for her safety.

....Alright, I will take a Hunter with me.

Immediately they brighten. "Good! Otherwise I woulda had to make you agree to take Momma Regina with you." Lesser of two evils. They REALLY weren't pulling any punches.

Oh goddess no! Regina would have her head if she found out she wanted to go back to the Void! Lesser of the two evils sure, even if she cared dearly for the witch.

I will ask a Hunter to accompany me to the Void. What do we tell the others though?

"The truuuuth?" As if it were going to be any different from them than the usual. They're the only person in this family, it seems, that FAVORS the truth, no matter how harsh it can be. "Lyin' to people will only make it worse in the end."

That was true...

She could only hope that the others would react better to this. Then I will at supper tonight. You will assist me, will you?

"Not my news to break, momma." Simple and to the point. "I'll help with supper, but your story is yours."

She sighed and hated she had to bring it up, but they spoke true. Looks like someone’s been around Emrys a bit.

..Alright then. What should we make for dinner tonight

She could only hope that the rest of the family would be willing to let her travel back to the Void....

[justreadingfics]

To Make a Soldier Blush: Part 1

Pairing: Bucky Barnes X Reader

Summary: You’re a new avenger and you have your own mission to accomplish: making Bucky Barnes blush everytime you see him.

Warnings: I don’t know, forward reader maybe?, shy Bucky, violence. 

Words Count: 2.8k (ish)

A/N: This is my submission for Bee’s 2.1k challenge from @amarvelouswritings (thank you for also being the beta for this Bee, I love you to death). I got prompt 14- “Well, geez, if you don’t like what I’m wearing, I can go and change.” English is not my first language, so excuse any mistakes.

 Part 2

It was hard for you to focus on the projected figure of a giant rotten alien grape that apparently was the one of the possible newest threats to the universe. The reason of your disregarded distraction? How fuckable the group of super-heroes sitting with you around the table was.

Being a shameless admirer of human beauty, that assemble was just a field day for you. When you were recruited to join forces with the Avengers for being one of the few enhanced agents of SHIELD with a healing ability, you didn’t expect to meet with a full cast of super models and be all hot and bothered on your first day on the job. Well, you kinda did, since they were everywhere on the mass media and you were very aware of their looks. But the real deal exceeded all your expectations.

Your hungry eyes danced around the table while you absentmindedly chewed the top of a pencil and swayed your body side to side on the swivel office chair you were sitting on.

There was Captain America, proudly standing and giving a lecture about the Thanos guy, you almost moaned to picture that newly grown beard scratching your inner thighs… The dude had to go and let a beard grow, like Steve Rogers wasn’t already distracting enough.

Sitting right next to him rested Sam Wilson, the Falcon, paying attention to the speech of his Captain. You sighed deeply remembering how that broad-shouldered Adonis had mischievously winked at you when you were introduced earlier.

Keeping your deep analyzes of the Avengers hot squad, your eyes fixated on the two goddesses of the group: Wanda Maximoff and Natasha Romanoff, sitting side by side across from you. Drawing out your tongue to moisture your lips, you thought that, being the only girls in the group, you could dedicate some especial attention to them. While you scrutinized the two gorgeous women, you saw the Black Widow directing an intense gaze towards you, smirking lightly, like she could read your dirty mind. Wasn’t Maximoff the psychic one? You cleared your throat and averted your eyes from hers. Better not mess with that one.

Then, you spotted what you decided to call the Sugar Daddies Trinity: Tony Stark, Colonel Rhodey and Clint Barton. Together or separately, it didn’t matter; you definitely could make them sweat a little. Your inner chuckle gave room to a roll of your eyes when you noticed that even the android or something, the Vision dude, had a fit physique.

Being hot was certainly a requirement to be part of that team.

Your sinful and very unprofessional line of thought was interrupted by the noise coming from the doors of the conference room opening abruptly. All the heads turned to see what had caused the sudden sound and Hot Damn if that wasn’t the Winter Soldier himself. Your eyebrows furrowed in curious interest when you noticed his eyes widening by the attention he had attracted and hanging his head low after he quietly nod his sorry to Steve. With his shoulders curving down, he proceeded to seat on the only spot available, which, for your delight, happened to be right next to yours.

The Captain nodded back and started speaking again making everyone just focused back on him. Everyone, except you, of course. You had a much more noteworthy task to engage on.

If you were enjoying the view so far it was only because you didn’t know what was yet to come. That man sitting beside you was absolutely trouble. You rotated the chair, positioning yourself to almost face his side, tapping the pencil on your hand to the table. Your gaze started exploring the thick thighs tightly detained inside the jeans, running up to the covered massive build of his arms and chest and then, his incredibly beautiful face. The extraordinarily sharpened stubbled jaw line, the grey blue eyes framed in long eyelashes, the succulent soft lips…        

Bucky Barnes was good enough to eat. In one single bite. You almost tasted blood in your inner lips from how tightly they were pressed between your teeth.  

But what really made you squeak inside was that you could see him glancing your unashamed scan by the corner of his eyes, and the fact that he kept scrambling with his hands on the table and his cheeks were almost purple forced your face to a wicked grin.

That was the first time you made Bucky Barnes blush and, from that moment on, you made it your personal mission to get him to do that again, and again, and again...

Being an avenger would be much more fun than you thought.

As the new recruit you had to move into the compound and do lot of training with every one of the team, so you didn’t face no shorter of opportunities to achieve your goal.

~~~

The second time you made Bucky Barnes blush happened during breakfast on the morning after the meeting. You were wearing your new tactical gear, perfect for sparring sessions, since training was the next thing you would do. You were pretty much aware of the effect the tight jumpsuit could have on your curves, so you decided it would be perfect to meet with your victim as well.

As soon as you entered the kitchen, you met the place already crowded with Avengers engaged in their morning meals. Your eyes rested on your clueless prey, who took a glance at you and quickly returned his gaze to his food, apparently trying to hide himself behind the mountain of pancakes in front of him.

He was sitting next to Natasha, who took in your appearance with a cocked eyebrow and switched her eyes from your form to Bucky, then back at you with a devilish smirk curling up her lips “Y/N, you can sit here dear, I’m finished.” she proposed with a taunting expression, getting up from the chair to give you room, even if there was plenty of empty seats around the table. You eyed her suspiciously before she turn around to put her mug and plate in the dishwasher. Damn this perceptive stunning spy. You smirked back and accepted the offer.

You made yourself comfortable beside a static Bucky, making sure to brush your legs lightly on his muscular ones while you did so, feeling his body flinching at the faint touch. You picked a clean mug from the table and filled it with coffee. When your eyes searched for the sugar bowl and found it lying on the table just right next to Bucky you simply couldn’t miss the opportunity.

“Hey Bucky,” You called in a nonchalantly voice, but made it lower and deeper to continue, “would you pour some sugar on me?”

Chokes, snickers and muffled chuckles were heard all around the table coming from the rest of the team.

Given the fact that he had been frozen for most parts of the last 70 years, you didn’t know if the expression would have the expected effect on him, but for your contentment he nearly spilled his own coffee and a rush of red crept up from his neck to his kissable cheeks, giving him away.

“What?” He looked at you, eyes bigger than ever, struggling to keep a trembling grip on his mug.

A child-like innocent smile graced up your features “My coffee… would you pour some sugar on my coffee, please?” you raised your mug up and signaled towards the sugar bowl, batting your eyelashes at him.

From that episode on, the whole team started to figure out your intentions and just played along with you, to the point that an unspoken rule was settled: you would always sit next to Bucky. Meals, movie nights, meetings; if anyone were already on his side when you arrived; they would get up for you to seat without even saying a word.

You used all the cheeky moves you knew: fake yawn to put your arms around his shoulders on the sofa, accidentally brush your hands on his under the table, rest your legs on his lap or your head on his shoulders during lazy movie nights...

Also, since you were enhanced with fast healing process and were an expert in hand-to-hand combat, it wasn’t rare that you would be paired up with him on sparring sessions. Of course, you used that in your advantage too, lingering the touches, forcing compromising fighting positions and even squeezing his delicious fleshy buttocks whenever you could.

With every single one of your approaches you were able to fluster the Super Soldier to bits, eliciting endearing physical reactions, blushing being your outright favorite.

However, despite how much you were fond of his shy manners, it was kind of frustrating that he would stick with his silent and brooding behavior, not responding directly to your advances, or engaging to any kind of deeper interactions, even if his physical state showed how much he was affected by you…

You wondered if your relationship would ever get to somewhere beyond light touches and teasing remarks…

~~~

During a specific morning, your horniness level kept coaxing Bucky’s burly and lustful image to occupy every corner of your mind, so you sat up your still awakening body on your bed and asked Friday where he was, being informed by the A.I. that the man was in the gym.

Bucky. Working Out. Muscles. Sweat. You didn’t need any more convincing to get up and swiftly make your way to the exercise room, not bothering to change the tank top and the very revealing pajama briefs for something that would be considered more suitable for the place you were heading to.

As soon as you got to the gym, you saw Natasha doing some core exercises and took a long and deep breath when you laid eyes upon the object of your growing desire, working his beefy arms and chest on the fly machine, wearing a white tank top that was probably at least two numbers smaller than him, drenched in sweat, along with grey sweatpants.  

“Good Morning, Sergeant.” You greeted while passing by him, stretching your arms, heading to the place where Nat was standing, which was on a mat a few steps in front of him. His gaze following the premeditated sashay of your hips didn’t go unnoticed by you, neither did the loud sound of the weights bumping together due a sudden drop, making you giggle to yourself.

You ignored the glare coming from the redhead beside you when you put on a show of stretching limbs.

“Seriously?” she howled, making you tilt your head to her with a faked clueless expression.

“What?” you asked, keeping a guiltless voice.

“Is this what you wear for working out?” she inquired waving her hand over your front.

You placed a hand on your chest and dropped your mouth in mocked outrage before retorting “Well, geez, if you don’t like what I’m wearing, I can go and change.”

“No!” the shout coming from where Bucky had been sitting motionless on the fly machine startled both of you, forcing your widened gazes back at him.

You pitied his ruffled state. His cheeks were instantly deliciously rosy and he had averted his eyes to his hands playing with the hem of his tank top. “I-I mean, y-you’re already here, you d-don’t have to g-go upstairs just to get change.” He quietly stuttered making you wonder how much more adorable that guy could be.   

You shrugged and snickered to a rolling eyes Nat before bending over to collect a pair of kettlebells that rested on the mat in front of you to start your exercise of choice: deadlift. With your almost bear rear facing Bucky, obviously.

The sounds of a gasp from the soldier and an impatient huff combined with annoyed unintelligible words from the Black Widow filled the place while she dashed out of the room with heavy feet.

You continued your mischievous activity while Bucky struggled to work on the weights. Between every other squat you turned your head slightly, pleased by discovering his stare continuously trained on your moving body and his jaw on a permanent clench.

But, since the Avengers life wasn’t all about training and cheeky teasing, a loud alarm echoed throughout the room, signalizing that the compound had been invaded with by enemy forces.

Fight or flight instinct kicked in instantaneously and you both rushed to the door, only to find out it was too late. Before having the chance to get out you heard the steps of a number of hostile agents already marching for the room, blocking your way out.  

Since neither you nor Bucky had any kind of weapons in hand you reached for a barbell that was nearby and positioned yourself on Bucky’s left side, half shielding yourself behind his back, so you could take advantage of his metal arm’s blocks.

You thanked the heavens for having trained with Bucky all those times, because you fought in flawless synchrony. As the first one crossed the door, Bucky blocked the bullets that were shot and, using the barbell, you were able to snatch the gun from the asshole, kicking it to Bucky so he could use it against the second agent coming in, knowing there was more to come.

The avid battle made it difficult for you to count how many of the intruders you had to fight against, but you and Bucky kept the team work and not much time had passed before they were all defeated down on the floor and the only sound in the room was your panted breathing matching Bucky’s who was standing a few feet away from you, planting a foot on the back of an agent sprawled on the floor.

You frowned noticing his gaze hooked on your waist and when you looked down you saw what was locking his attention: a bullet hole, blood spilling freely out of it. Apparently the adrenaline didn’t allow you to notice you had been hit.

A grimace contorted your features and you hissed at the sight. You were starting to become aware of the pain. “Shit, don’t worry Bucky, it’ll heal in a sec-” Your attentive to ease your partner was shut by the feeling of metal cupping the nape of your neck and soft, but demanding lips being pressed against yours. Distracted by the ugly wound on your hips, you missed the murderous strut that had driven Bucky to you.

The unexpected move drew the already scarce air out of your lungs in a gasp and you let the barbell you used to take down your enemies drop to the floor, causing a loud thud to resound around the room.  His lips moved in a desperate claiming way around yours, but the contrast with the velvet feeling made you moan and wrap your arms around his neck, melting under his kiss. Soon your tongues were franticly entangling each other, and a wave of heat washed over your core.

That was when you heard the tinkling of the bullet that had injured you falling on the floor, signalizing the healing process. Bucky broke the kiss, leaving you fighting to fill up your lungs. Your mind went blank when he dropped to his knees and started to ravish the recently restored part of your skin with feverish smooches, unaffected by the already dry blood surrounding the spot, his hands slightly skimming up your sides under your top, making it lift a little. The action drawing out your completely your capacity to move.  Who was this man? Was he the same shy silent guy that blushed to every small move from yours? You didn’t know how to respond that, and it was so hard to form coherent thoughts when you were trying to gather some strength to keep your numb legs steady when his lips was grazing the sensitive skin of your hips.

He stood up again, towering over you, keeping his hold on your waist. “Are you ok?” He asked you in sweet low voice and eyes full of concern, in a very divergent attitude from his previous wild ministrations.

“Huh?” That was all you could mumble, looking up at him dumbfounded even if you had heard him perfectly.

His worried demeanor softened and he chuckled a little. “Do you have any other injures, doll?” He insisted, looking intensively at you while drawing circles on your waist with his thumbs.

“Huh?” Huh? Really? Again? Have you suddenly become deaf? Or was it the sweet pet name that made you pathetically speechless? Or was it the hot and cold of his fingers brushing your skin making your mind lost in dizziness. Hard to decide.

The object of your distress grinned widely and by the movement of your mouth you guessed you did the same, like in a trance. You could only wonder how dull your eyes were when the heat invaded your cheeks.

“Just a little flustered, then?” He leaned down his face closer to yours and winked smugly, causing a shiver to run down your spine and your mouth to hypnotically navigate closer to his. He patted your sides before depriving you from any kind of touch “Let’s go doll, the team might be needing us upstairs.” He passed by you to the door, leaving your weak form with no choice but to follow his trail like a lost compliant puppy. Not a single saucy remark rolling off your tongue.   

 Part 2

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[likeshipsonthesea]

And We All Fall Down (2/?)

[1] [2]

A continuation of Ooby Dooby, this thing I wrote where Nursey accidentally tells single-father Dex that he has a child, too. Oops. Also the title is from another children’s song (Ring-Around-the-Rosie) and is meant to signify Nursey falling even further down the hole he dug himself. Oops again.

*~*~*

Finding a toddler to borrow for a certain amount of time is more difficult than Nursey would’ve thought. Like, he thought it would be really hard to start with, but it turns out its even harder than that. None of his friends have kids, as they’re all fairly young and/or like to drink their cares away for the majority of their weekends, and it’s not like Nursey can just go to a cat-shelter type establishment and pick out a cute two-to-three year old who might possibly look like they share his genes.

He flirted, briefly, with the idea of putting an ad on Craigslist, but not only did the idea of what he’d get in response scare him into double-checking the locks on his apartment’s front door but he’s also pretty sure that someone in some kind of government room with no windows and a thousand computer screens is monitoring shit that goes down on Craigslist, and Nursey really doesn’t want to be put on any kind of list that makes flying even harder than it already is.

Dex texts him, a few days following their meeting- days Nursey has spent debating on whether or not he can die of heartbreak from a guy he’s spent not even an hour with- and he sends a picture of Parker wearing his Spider-man pajamas. It’s probably the most adorable thing Nursey has ever seen in his life, Parker looking so proud of himself with this huge grin on his face, sitting on a rug that looks old and homey, in his apparently favorite outfit. Dex captions it with he wanted me to make sure you knew how cool his pjs were. Nursey dies with cuteness and tells Dex to let Parker know that they are, indeed, the coolest pajamas in existence, and hopes that this isn’t a tit-for-tat type situation in which Nursey is expected to reciprocate with a cute picture of his own adorable, superhero-loving, non-existent kid.

Nursey lets himself into Jack’s apartment, hating himself and also craving some pie for some weird reason. He collapses on the couch with a pitiful sigh-groan-whimper and Jack, who is sat next to him, looks constipated, which he usually does when faced with emotions. He reaches out awkwardly and pats at Nursey’s shoulder, which is actually pretty nice so Nursey gives him a weak smile.

“No luck in the toddler search?” Jack asks, then winces at himself as he realizes how weird what he just said was.

Nursey sighs again. “No. It’s almost like parents don’t want to give their kids away to strange men so they can get dates. Go figure.”

“Thirdy said you could babysit his daughter if you want,” Jack says, a little hopeful. “Mostly because he wants to know how it is going to turn out.” Nursey loves Jack, he really does, because there’s only so many friends that would actually ask their coworkers if his friend could borrow their baby for a bit.

“I told Dex I had a son,” Nursey says, waving his hand for no reason. “But thanks anyway.”

“Marty has a son,” Jack says, almost like he’s thinking to himself. He winces again, momentarily forgetting that this isn’t the weirdest fucking situation ever.

Nursey gives Jack a flat look, which isn’t fair because Jack is trying to help but- “I show up with a white baby and he’s definitely going to think I’m more of a creeper than I already am.”

“I don’t see what the big issue is,” Holster says, returning from Jack’s kitchen with a giant bowl of popcorn. Shitty trails behind him, a similarly sized bowl of chocolate covered pretzels in his hands. Lardo has a three six-packs of beer in her hands, which she quickly dumps across the coffee table for everyone to grab. Nursey looks at them and whines to himself. He doesn’t even feel like drinking, he’s so upset. “You met the guy, what? Once for like an hour? Just never talk to him again.”

“I can’t just-” Nursey cuts himself off with a whine and reflops onto the couch, because he’s apparently regressed into childhood maturity once again. He briefly wonders if he could pass his own self off as his son and then hurts his head thinking about the logistics for a minute. “I- you didn’t see him. He’s the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Shitty raises his eyebrows. “More beautiful than Jack?” Nursey nods solemnly and Shitty swears. “Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“You can’t risk being arrested because he’s pretty,” Lardo says, throwing away a can of beer she’s already finished even though they haven’t even started the movie yet.

“It’s not just that,” Nursey mumbles, fiddling with the hem of his sweatshirt. “He’s really good with his kid and he’s funny and he plays hockey, and I don’t know.” He shrugs, looking up at Lardo and feeling embarrassed and vulnerable and shitty. “I just felt good being around him. I- everything was okay for a little bit.”

Lardo, who has dealt with Nursey’s shit almost as much as Shitty, considers him for a moment. Nursey lets her look her fill, baring his soul to her even though he knows she can see it whenever she wants. After a few heavy moments, she finally shakes her head. “Derek,” she says, her voice soft, “if you really do like this guy, you can’t pretend that you’re a father. It would ruin any chance you had.”

“Yeah, brah, fake babies are good for a one-and-done but long-term?” Shitty makes a face. “Not kosh.”

“But what do I tell him?” Nursey says, whining more but mostly just because why not.

“The truth,” Jack says, his voice quiet but firm, and he gives Nursey a reassuring smile when Nursye turns to look at him. “If he’s worth it, he’ll see how sw’awesome you are despite the whole-” Jack winces again, “-lying about having a kid thing.”

Nursey sniffles, wiping at a nonexistent tear. “That was beautiful.”

“Group hug!” Shitty cheers, then jumps onto the couch like a starfish. Nursey coughs all the air out of his lungs, and before he can rectify it, Holster and Lardo join the pile. Nursey and Jack are busy complaining, loudly and with much laughter, that it’s too much weight, then Shitty starts sobbing because he accuses them of calling him fat, and it’s at that moment that Ransom bursts into the apartment, grinning from ear to ear.

“Tell me I’m the best bro,” he says.

“You’re the best bro,” Holster says without pause.

“Want to know why I’m the best bro?” Ransom asks. Before anyone responds, he continues, “Because only the bestest of best bros could help his bro get a little bro to take to a bro date with another bro!”

Nursey blinks confused. What does bro even mean at this point? Holster, it seems, is better at deciphering it. “You found a toddler?” he asks, shock and awe in his voice. Nursey panics momentarily, wondering what “found a toddler” means. Like, a friend of a friend promised to lend the baby to a stranger for an afternoon kind of found, or like, someone left a stroller unattended at a grocery store and now the whole cast of Law and Order: SVU is going to be at their door in a few minutes kind of found?

“It might be cool to meet Mariska Hargitay,” he mumbles to himself. Everyone else, who is used to his mumblings, begins inquiring via yelling how exactly Ransom found a toddler.

“My sis is going on vacation and I convinced her to let me babysit my nephew while she and her wife go to Paris.” Ransom grins, incredibly proud of himself, and Nursey is thankful and he feels bad but-

“Thanks, brah, but I kinda decided to nix the fake baby idea.”

Ransom deflates. “Dude. Now I have a toddler for a week all by myself.”

“You love Wade,” Holster protests. “We can dress him up like Broadway characters again.”

Ransom winces. “Yeah, Sabrina nixed that after the Pippin ones. Gave her a bad vibe.” And he shakes his head, changing the subject physically. “And yeah, I love Wade, coolest little dude who can’t form sentences, but, like, for an afternoon, a day at most. A whole week is going to be brutal.” He collapses in the armchair, already exhausted at the mere thought of entertaining a toddler for an extended period of time.

“I could help you watch him,” Nursey suggests. “It is my fault you’ve got him in the first place, and I still need to do research for the book anyway.” Nursey doesn’t know why he’s doing this; he has no experience with kids and he’s probably just going to make the whole thing worse, but maybe a part of him is hoping that if he gets enough practice hours with a baby, Dex will be more inclined to let him into his and Parker’s lives. Possibly. Improbably. Would you let a guy who lied about having a son to look less creepy about watching children play in a park around your toddler? Nursey would, but he might be biased.

“Sw’awesome!” Ransom cheers. “Bro-parenting.”

“Bro,” Holster says, wounded. “I thought we were gonna be bro-parents.”

“That’s when we have our own kids,” Ransom says, like it’s obvious, and Holster is apparently pacified. The rest of the people on the couch exchange looks; they’re not sure if Holster and Ransom are actually dating and just never thought it pertinent to inform any of them or if they’re just planning to keep living together forever, bros ‘til death do they go off to the big kegster in the sky.

“When does Wade get here?” Nursey asks to change the subject.

“Tomorrow,” Ransom says. His eyes go wide and excited. “We can go to the aquarium!”

*~*~*

Okay, so, babies? Much cuter in the abstract than the physical. Like, meeting Wade, A+ experience. His mothers had cleaned him of any and all fluids, deceiving Nursey into thinking babies were generally clean. Guess what? Not true. They were pushing the stroller along, happily pointing out all the fish to a Wade who probably had no idea what was happening aside from colors! Then all of a sudden there was spit-up and crying (mostly Nursey and Ransom’s) and then Ransom was abandoning Nursey to “go get paper towels” and Nursey was left alone with the crying, vomit-covered toddler in his arms.

He’s hastily rummaging through the stroller, looking for anything aside from his own t-shirt for something to get the vomit off of Wade’s face, ignoring the judging looks from the moms around him. Fuck them, he thinks, at least my kid is the cutest out of all of them. He glances around to make sure and he’s totally got the cutest kid, sans-vomit. Wade’s got these huge chubby baby cheeks and a happy wide smile, with short curly hair and the most adorable button nose there’s ever been.

“Except maybe for Dex’s, kid,” Nursey tells Wade just as he finds a thing of wet-wipes. He manages to finagle a wipe out of it with some vigorous jerking that makes Wade giggle. “He’s got a very cute nose,” Nursey informs him, rubbing at the vomit, and it’s actually going away! Score one for Nursey, zero for toddler digestive tracts. “And there’s all these freckles over it, I bet you in the summer he gets thousands of them.”

“Fishy,” Wade says happily, pointing at a Nemo looking thing behind him.

“Yes, fishy,” Nursey says, proud of Wade’s developmental skills even though he has no right to be. He throws the vomit-wipe into the trash can to their left and then tickles Wade’s tummy, making him shriek with glee. “This is what fishy kisses feel like,” he says seriously, which just makes Wade giggle more.

Wade leans in and smacks a kiss to Nursey’s cheek, which is endearing even with the lingering smell of puke, and Nursey gives him a warm smile as Wade pats at the place he just kissed with his chubby baby hand.

Then Nursey hears, “Nursey!” in an excited, high-pitched voice, and he turns just in time to see Parker running up to him and stopping just before he barrels into Nursey’s knees.

“Parker.” Nursey blinks down at him, shocked considerably. Last night, Nursey and Parker’s father were texting like crazy, going from talking about hockey to books Nursey loved and Dex complained about to Marvel movies and more. It was so easy, companionable and flirty and comfortable. Nursey spent most of the night afterwards agonizing over if he was going to explain his lie to Dex or just not respond to anymore texts, and now here Parker is, bright and smiling and-and sans-Dex.

Nursey looks up and around, eyes programmed to lock onto that gorgeous fiery hair, and he finds Dex looking panicked a few tanks over. He raises a hand in the air and calls Dex’s name until Dex looks over, his eyes locking on Nursey. He jogs over, pushing his way through extended families and stroller walls. When he’s within earshot, he hears Dex asking, “Have you seen Park-”

“Daddy, it’s Nursey!” Parker cheers, bouncing on his feet. Dex instantly floods with relief, his shoulders loosening and his expression relaxing. He kneels down onto the ground and hugs Parker close, his eyes closing as he squeezes. 

“You scared me, Parker. Don’t run away from me like that.” Dex pulls back and Parker’s lip is wobbling a little.

“I’m sowwy,” he says, blinking rapidly. Then he points up at Nursey. “Nursey here.”

Dex squeezes at Parker’s shoulders for a few seconds, not able to look away from him, probably still half-panicked from losing him, but eventually he pulls his eyes away to look up at Nursey and offer a tired, almost self-deprecating smile. He stands up, taking Parker with him so now they’re both standing with babies in their arms, and Nursey almost forgot about Wade until he waves, big and obnoxious, over at Parker.

“Hi!” he says, cheerful, and Parker seems a little shy, ducking his head, but he does wave back, just a little spasm of his fingers, and it’s probably the most adorable interaction Nursey’s seen in his life.

“Oh, this is Wade,” Nursey says, remembering his manners. “Wade, this is Parker and Dex.”

“Hi!” Wade says again, and Dex smiles fondly. Nursey is almost jealous of Wade in that second. How dare a toddler get Dex’s fond eyes when Nursey doesn’t? He may possibly be crazy. I made up a toddler, he thinks, I’m definitely crazy.

Fuck, Nursey thinks as he realizes, Dex probably thinks Wade is my kid. Oh shit, oh fucking shit, how the hell is he going to dig himself out this? He was going to tell Dex he lied- or never talk to him again, he hadn’t decided yet- and it’s so much creepier to explain when he’s been spotted with a toddler that is not his own. Oh, yeah, I just like to hang out around children’s playgrounds alone during my free time and I just have this random toddler who’s my friend’s sister’s kid, a friend who just happens to not be here right now, haha, he’s totally real, this isn’t just a story I made up to explain away my kidnapping of this child, I would never make up something like, that’s almost as ridiculous as making up the existence of a child, who would do that, hahaha.

He is so fucked.

“Hi Wade,” Dex says, his voice softer somehow. “Do you like the fishes?”

“Fishy!” Wade says, which Nursey thinks is an affirmative. “Nemo,” he adds, solemnly, and Parker seems to understand because he nods back seriously. Dex shakes his head and gives Nursey a look, like kids, right? and Nursey tries to nod like a father would but he has like absolutely zero idea of what that would look like.

“My friend Chowder really likes the aquarium, and he conditioned Parker into loving sharks, so this is a weekly trip for us,” Dex says, faux-exasperated but mostly just pleased.

“This is our first time,” Nursey says, because lies fit in his mouth easily. He adjusts Wade on his waist. “We like it for the most part.” Then Nursey thinks for a second and amends, “The jellyfish exhibit was dark.”

“Dark scary,” Wade says.

“Weally scawy,” Parker agrees, and they exchange a happy, oblivious child smile.

Just then, Ransom comes bounding up to them, a wad of paper towels clutched in his hand. “I found-” He pauses, noticing the puke-less toddler in Nursey’s arms.

Nursey shrugs. “There were wet-wipes in the cart.”

“You couldn’t have texted a bro to let him know?” Ransom grumbles, throwing out the towels in the nearby trashcan.

“Jus’in,” Wade cheers, making grabby hands for Ransom. Ransom takes him easily from Nursey, and Nursey hopes that it doesn’t make it seem like his own “son” likes Ransom better than him.

“This is Ransom,” Nursey says, looking back to Dex- and God he’s pretty, how is Nursey ever going to walk away from Dex and Parker without dying inside- and seeing the amicable smile Dex offers Ransom. “Ransom, this is Dex and Parker.”

“The Dex and Parker?” Ransom has a shitty grin on his face, and Nursey feels his face warm (though it’s probably not a visible blush). Dex, on the other hand, flushes across his nose and cheeks in a pleasant, soft pink that Nursey wants to memorize. “I’ve heard a lot about you guys,” Ransom adds, probably as payback for the time Nursey helped Holster fill the pockets of his salmon shorts with actual salmon. Ransom leans in a little towards Parker. “I hear you’ve got some pretty sw’awesome Spider-Man PJs?”

“Spider-Man!” Parker cheers, and proceeds to ramble about superheros for a few minutes, to which Wade responds in kind, and as they have their own conversation (with Ransom watching and interjecting as he pleases, because both he and Holster are most comfortable in the presence of toddlers), Nursey manages to talk to Dex about the newest Marvel movie out, which leads to them talking about representation in media, and diversity and the importance of kids having role-models who look like them, and, just.

Dex speaks so carefully, choosing his words deliberately and trying to get what he means across so Nursey can understand easily, and Nursey can picture them talking about their days and Parker’s drawings and movies and pointless things and important things and he just wants, wants to have the chance to talk to Dex for- for as long as Dex will let him. And he realizes, with startling horror, that he is never going to get that. Because he made up the existence of a person and now he can’t even explain it because Dex caught him with a toddler (that Nursey once again lied about and passed off as his own), and, just. Halfway into their conversation, Nursey starts mourning the relationship he and Dex will never have.

Ransom’s phone goes off, and he tells Nursey that they need to get back for lunch with the gang, and Nursey tries not to whine pitifully at the thought of leaving Dex. Dex doesn’t seem to have the same qualms. He says, “Yeah, we’d better get going, too. But we should set up a playdate sometime.”

Nursey is going to say no, he is, but Dex looks so hopeful, and the expression is mirrored on Parker’s little face, and fuck, but, “Sure.” Nursey can feel Ransom staring at the side of his face and studiously ignores him.

Dex lights up, as do Parker and Wade. “I get off work early on Tuesday,” Dex says. “We could do around four if you’re free?”

“Sounds great,” Nursey says, thinking you’re an idiot, you’re an idiot, you’re an- “We can work out the details tonight.”

“See you then.” Dex is smiling, casual but devastatingly beautiful as always. He adjusts Parker in his arms. “Say bye, Park.”

“Bye-bye!” Parker waves goodbye, and Wade mirrors it with a big smile. Dex waves, too, and then they’re both disappearing into the crowd. Nursey deflates as soon as he can’t see the back of Dex’s head anymore.

“Dayum, Nursey, you’ve got it bad.”

“Yeah.” Nursey sighs. He’s so fucked.

“Fishy,” Wade says, almost consolingly, patting at Nursey’s shoulder. That helps.

[gguksgalaxy]

IV. Anger | Horror!Au

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›› Au: Horror / Gore (non canon) ›› Genre: Angst ›› Rating: 18+ explicit (sexual content + violence) ›› Characters: BTS + Reader x PJM ›› Word Count: 2.7k Warnings Include: Psychological distress and manipulation, character death, mild and severe injuries, member/member violence, blood, explicit language, degradation. Mentions of; sex, cheating, threesome, voyeurism, toys, exhibitionism, blowjob, fingering, spitroasting.

You looked up, everyone looked up, at the door, then to Jin. “You have 70 seconds to enter the next room.”

Then there was the sound of the clock, ticking, ticking. 70 seconds, you had 70 seconds. “UP, EVERYONE GO!” you called, stumbling up, Jimin following you as you pulled at Jungkook’s arm. He looked up at you, his face stained with tears, makeup smeared everywhere. “Kook come on.” You pulled at him wrist, and he looked at the door, where Jin was standing, waiting for the two of you. His skin was pale, and he looked out of it, but he was waiting.

The youngest followed you, standing up and coming after you as you all ran towards the door. Everyone passed through, one by one, more smoothly than last time. Jimin immediately reached for you in the bright room, arms wrapping around your waist to hold you close. He was trembling, with adrenaline and fear probably.

“Seokjin?” Hosoek spoke up from beside Namjoon.

“Hmm?”

“Are you alright?”

Everyone waited for the answer, that came after a few heartbeats. “I feel a little dizzy and tired but I think it’s down now. Let’s hope it stays that way.”

Everyone was mumbling a little after that, Jimin was holding on to you as Jin took care of Jungkook, who seemed distressed and upset. You couldn’t blame him. He’d just put a bullet through his best friend’s brain, even if you all got out, he’d never be the same. None of you would be the same. After seeing Taehyung die like that. A shiver ran up your spine at the thought, the sight of it still clear in your mind. His eyes closed, lips parted, blood seeping from his skull onto the concrete floor. Tears welled up in your eyes, at the thought of your ever so happy friend. Taehyung was always one to lift up the mood, even if it was by constantly hugging you until you had to push him off. He was clingy, but in a good way, everyone loved him.

You let the tears fall, not caring anymore by this point, as you looked around the room.

Namjoon and Yoongi were inspecting the locker that was of the same identical green colour. There was no chair in this room, the locker sitting in one of the corners, no windows, no nothing again. The temperature was weird thought, not too cold, not to warm. There had to be central heating at this time of year.

“Do you think he’s watching us?” Jimin mumbled.

“I think so.” You said. “Probably live, on his own stupid camera. All the timings are too perfect for that.”

Each and every one of you looked around, but couldn’t find any obvious cameras. But you didn’t doubt the fact that this was live, or maybe you didn’t want to doubt it. In the sheer hope that someone would call the police.

“This bastard, he’s all kinds of messed up.” Namjoon said, leaning his head back against the wall. He took another sip of the bottle, holding it out to Hoseok who took it from him. Jin was still holding his own bottle, and saw your gaze, so he held it up.

You shook your head. “You keep that one, in case you need it.”

The intercom cut in, and you all looked up silently, to the source of the sound in one of the corners. “Welcome! Did you enjoy your dinner? I made it myself!”

This guy, or girl, but you were sure it was a guy as to what Jungkook and Taehyung said. For all you knew it was multiple people working on this. It almost had to be right?

“Welcome to the room of Ira. This is a sin committed by those who chose to ignore love and opt for fury. Sometimes you’re just born that way, others…have to be spurred on. It depends really, but it’s a disgusting sin. It doesn’t only hurt others, but sometimes yourself. You don’t always have to be angry at someone else you know!

“In hell, sinners of Ira are punished by dismemberment. But I want you all to have a chance to survive, so I’ll go fairly easy on you. To atone for this sin I want the player who choses or is chosen to participate to experience the anger and what it can do to others. Meaning, all you simply have to do is get really angry! Easy right? Now the other players may assist in any way except physical harassment. You’re allowed to touch them, but harming them is out of the question! Verbally, you can do whatever you need.” How the hell, in this situation, were you going to anger anyone. You’d just get upset,

“This task is completed as soon as the door opens, you have a 70 minute time limit! This player has atoned as soon as they leave the room, there are no further tasks or consequences. However, he may not be deceived.

You looked around at the others, knowing Yoongi seemed to be easily irritable. Namjoon didn’t have much of a short fuse, but you’d heard Jin was easily to go off. Jin however, had already completed the previous task.

“The code Ira is 112! Your seven minutes decision time starts now! Stay calm guys!”

The static cut out and you looked around.

“I say randomise.” Yoongi spoke up, shrugging. “This doesn’t seem too hard.”

You swallowed thickly. “I could never do it.”

He turned to face you, eyebrows raised. “What?”

“I said, I could never to it. Get angry, like really really angry? I don’t think I can.” You really didn’t. Sure you had been angry, with your parents, or even Jimin over little things. But this was a life or death situation and you had no idea how angry you actually had to get. “I’m sorry.”

Hoseok was the first one to answer. “Me neither.”

“I’ll do it.” Jimin suddenly said. And you looked at him. “I think I can do this.”

You frowned, thinking of the times you’d seen Jimin really angry. The occasion was rare but you knew he had the ability to really blow off over certain things. “Are you sure babe?” You asked him, taking his hand.

“Yeah.” He nodded, then looked at his friends. “Is everyone okay with that?”

Jungkook frowned for a second, looking at Jimin, but then nodding. Nobody seemed to be against the idea, and you were glad you’d all lost the slightly vindictive state you’d started with.

That’s when suddenly, a beeping sound appeared. “Jimin, go!” Namjoon ushered your boyfriend towards the locker, who stumbled over and tried to put in the code with shaky hands. “Come on Jiminnie.” He spurred him on, and you knew it’d only make him more shaky. But he got it, 1, 1, 2, right before the timer ended.

Everyone let out a relieved sigh, which was strange you suddenly realised. Because what if it was all a hoax and nobody would really die if you didn’t do anything. What if you killed Taehyung for nothing?

Jimin took a deep breath, and looked around at everyone, his eyes big and afraid. “What now?”

“Get angry.” Yoongi said, sitting down against the wall. Jungkook followed him, and so did Hoseok. You looked at your boyfriend and nodded, giving him a soft smile in the hope it gave him courage. You let yourself sit next to Jungkook, who comfortably leant into you, he was warm.

The room was silent, everyone looked at Jimin, but nobody said a word. How to anger him? How to do this, you had 70 minutes. To what extent would it have to go even? Nobody knew.

Jungkook spoke up first. “Remember that vest Jimin, the one you saved up to buy for like a year? The one you lost?”

“Hmm?”

“When I was at your place, I accidentally dropped coffee on it.” He mumbled, looking down into his lap. “I … didn’t know what to do so I took it home. I couldn’t get the stains out so I never returned it.” You knew that jacket, it was over 500 bucks, the brand slipped your mind right now, but Jimin loved it. It was an army green jacket that fit him perfectly, he’d been really upset over loosing it.

But it didn’t work. He looked at Jungkook with remorse in his eyes. “Jungkook I really can’t get angry over a stupid jacket right now.” He rubbed a hand over his face, and you only now noticed the new red colour of his bracelet. You still had his jacket in your lap, playing with the fabric of the sleeves.

Nobody spoke again, and Jimin sat down in the centre of the room with his hands in his hair. “I’m sorry guys.”

You looked at him, wishing that there was anything you could do, that you could just hold him and make everything go away.

“You know.” Yoongi suddenly said. “I wasn’t going to do this, ever. But if it’s what’s necessary I might as well right.” He looked around Jungkook, at you, and pointed a finger. “You see your girlfriend right here?” you held your breath. “Your cute little girlfriend, you love her right? I heard from Tae that the sex is apparently good.” You weren’t catching on, what the hell was he going to do?

Jimin looked at his friend with big eyes, lips parted.

“Well guess what, she lied.”

You were about to open your mouth, when Jungkook’s fingers wrapped around your thigh. He looked at you, and that’s when you knew, Yoongi was going to lie his way out of this room. Jimin’s eyes were turned to you and you tried to calmly cock an eyebrow at him.

“She lied you know, to your face, every single time. I mean how I know? Because I dicked her right when you couldn’t.”

Jimin stood up, facing Yoonig. “Excuse me?”

Yoongi chuckled, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Your little girlfriend? A few months ago, we met up for dinner, I asked her, she said she was left unsatisfied, had to fake it too often with you. So I offered, she took it. Fucked her little cunt right, face pushed into the mattress. And God she was loud, I can still remember how she felt around my dick.”

Your cheeks were turning an abhorrent colour red and your hands were shaking. This was going to possibly ruin your relationship with Jimin, for good, you weren’t sure if he’d ever believe that this was a lie. He was insecure, unsure of himself, he needed validation sometimes and you never had trouble giving it. But this, you didn’t think you could fix this. It was necessary though, to survive.

Jimin walked over to Yoongi, jaw clenched, eyes narrow. Then he looked at you. “Is this true y/n?”

With a deep breath you said; “Yes, I can’t even be sorry about it. First of all,” yo paused, swallowing thickly, hoping he didn’t notice it too much. “He’s much bigger than you, and second of all, he knows how to use it properly.”

Yoongi laughed, running a hand through his raven hair. “I mean, she was tight all right, tightest I’ve ever had. God, she felt so good, to be honest I struggled trying to get her there first. But it was so worth it.”

Jimin pushed him, a single shove. “Cut it out man.”

But he wasn’t going to stop that easily. “I mean she loved it so much that she came back to me. Few weeks later, at my doorstep, pushed me right inside against a wall. Ravishing, I’d never expect something so forward from her. But when she went on her knees right in my hallway and swallowed me down in one go. I knew I had a right one on my hands. Don’t think I ever came that quickly.”

Jimin wheezed through his nose, stepping away, fisting his hair. You’d noted the tears in his eyes. It was working, and you wanted to cry, you wanted to run over to him, to hug him, whisper in his ear how much you loved him and that it was all a lie.

However, you spoke up, adding fuel to the fire. “Tell him about the third time Yoongi, I mean, it was the best one after all.”

“Oh, I remember. You came to my place right, and you had to leave early because you and Jimin were going out for dinner. You know Jimin, what she let me do to her?” Your boyfriend turned around to face him with tear stained cheeks. “I put one of those little vibrating eggs deep up inside of her and she went to dinner like that, with you. Said you didn’t even notice her squirming in her seat. Don’t you know to see when your girlfriend is horny Jimin. You need to know when you have to satisfy her. Then fifth time, at the group dinner.”

“What?” Namjoon suddenly spoke. “At the dinner table?”

“Yes.” You answered, not looking at him. “Underneath the table, fingers past my skirt, inside of me till the knuckle. One of the best orgasms I’ve ever had.”

Yoongi laughed again, and he looked at you with a smirk. “She’s a little slut, you know? Sixth time she came to me and she said, tell him what you said to me honey?”

You licked your lips, placing a hand on Jungkook’s thigh, squeezing. “I told him, that you’d never wanted a threesome, but it’d been a fantasy of mine for years. But you were too insecure to share me, so I asked Yoongi. He asked who with, I said Jungkook. Luckily, out Kookie here was easy to convince.”

Jimin looked at his best friend. “Kook?”

Jungkook looked down. “I regret it man, but it’s no lie, she is a little slut. Fucking tight at that, barely fit inside. She let me fuck her right when she sucked of Yoongi, best sight I’ve ever seen. I never thought I’d be able to get a hand on her ass. Let alone get to fuck her.” He chuckled, kicking his head back. “I regret it, but if she comes to me asking for more I don’t think I can say no.”

Yoongi grabbed Jimin’s shoulder. “Look at that, your precious little girlfriend, isn’t so innocent as you thought she was. Who knows who she’s had in this group. Hoseok maybe? Or Taehyung? He slept over a lot right? I’ve caught onto her little kinks, and getting caught is definitely high up on that list. Imagine what dirty things she did with Tae while you we-“

Jimin launched for him, fist swinging strong and connecting with Yoongi’s jaw with a loud crack. The elder staggered back, and you felt that Jungkook wanted to jump in, but you held onto him.

Your boyfriend tackled Yoongi to the ground, easily, the elder let it happen. He closed his eyes, as Jimin’s fists connected with his face, his shoulders, chest. Yoongi spat out blood on the floor, curling in on himself with each repeated blow he received to his body. You heard cracking, of what was probably his ribs. Jimin lifted his shirt, dragging the other up and slamming him against the wall. His head made a sickening sound.

Yoongi smiled, showing bloodied and broken teeth. Then he spat in Jimin’s face. “She’s better of with me.”

Jimin threw him onto the floor, and Yoongi collapsed like a rag doll, you swore he might’ve been unconscious. Your boyfriend knelt down by him, grabbing his collar to lift his head.

Then the door clicked open, you saw it in the corner of his eyes. And Jimin was about to smash Yoongi’s head against the concrete floor. If it wasn’t for Jungkook jumping up and pulling the blonde up and away.

He stood Jimin down, forcefully grabbing his shoulders as he yelled. “Listen, we have to keep moving.”

Then he swung at Jungkook, fist connecting with the younger’s already bruised eye socket. He staggered back, holding his face with a scream. “You piece of shit!” Jimin yelled. “I trusted you!” Then you realised, you weren’t allowed to deceive him.

“You have 70 seconds to enter the next room.”