#this has been in my drafts for awhile so if it looks odd that's why | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

valorant-drabbles · 3 months

Note

Could we have a continuation of Gekko and Deadlock sleeping on the couch please? ITS SO CUTE AND FLUFFY AND I LOVE CYPHER AT THE END TAKING PICTURES

Absolutely, you may! We love seeing character arcs and continued stories here, don't we?

SO SORRY I've been gone for awhile. This has been in my drafts for like a month. Here you go!

Odds & Ends

Gekko & Deadlock

| Part 1 | Part 2 |

Word Count: 3.1k+

Hours had passed. That's all Deadlock knew for certain when she had felt a light gust of wind blowing some hairs in her face, as she groggily reached to push the strands away. As she slowly peered her eyes open, she found... quite an unexpected sight.

Jett was using her Updraft... right above her. And what looked like a camera was in her hands; and did she ever seem scared. In fact, she and Deadlock probably were just as surprised to see the other in that moment. The only difference being... that Jett knew she was in trouble as soon as Deadlock's gaze hardened to a glare. Cursing under her breath, she threw the camera to somebody who was behind the couch, supposedly.

By now, Deadlock was trying to sit up properly to assess the situation; but there was a weight holding her down. Before she could even get the chance to look down, Jett had fallen directly on top of those who were on the couch.

That was when chaos was sent loose in the Headquarters.

It all happened so fast. Several panicked creature noises squealed at the sudden impact on top of them. Gekko's critters, all frightened out of their calm sleep, had managed to squeeze out of the pile of Gekko, Deadlock, and Jett; and proceeded to run amuck throughout the building with reckless abandon. Dizzy was spinning uncontrollably in the air, shooting her blinding shots at random. Moshpit essentially made the floor a real life version of 'The Floor Is Lava'... And Thrash was zooming around on the walls, not knowing she was going in circles, but just trying to get out of where the 'danger' was.

Soon enough, those in the common room and kitchen were scrambling to catch Gekko's creatures, having little to no luck, as they remained evasive. It was clear they wouldn't calm down until somebody reassured them it was safe.

Jett was scrambling to wake up Gekko at that point, who had gone from peacefully asleep... to knocked out cold. With a possible concussion. All this for a photo... god, why hadn't she just asked for Cypher's help?!

The wake up, the fall, and now the noise proved to be incredibly disorienting for Deadlock, who seemed to be the only one with a level head in that moment. Despite the pounding headache from having Jett essentially kick her in the head on her way down, she stood up, grabbed some equipment from her bag...

"Everyone get down!" Deadlock shouted out amongst the discord in the room. The agents who had been trying to corral the frantic animals, hearing Deadlock's warning, all dove to the floor, covering their heads. They didn't know what to expect, but they weren't about to get in her way.

Activating her Nanowire Accelerator, she closed one eye in an attempt to aim properly. Usually her accelerator was only used on humans... well, and robots... but she figured it would buy them enough time to keep them in one place until Gekko could calm them down.

As sharp a shooter as ever, it only took three separate shots to each creature to successfully capture each. Panicked noises were still coming from inside the pulse of nanowires, and Deadlock felt quite bad... yet it would have to do for now.

After a few minutes, once the noise and panic had died down, KAY/O was brought to the scene to use his abilities. He was able to forcefully shut down the creatures into returning to their smaller forms, where they proved to be much less destructive.

Deadlock let out a heavy sigh of relief, collapsing back down on the couch and rubbing her face. It was all handled... for now. Sage would make her way over to ensure everybody involved wasn't injured too critically, and Brimstone would surely reprimand Jett and her assailant for the damage their stunt caused. It was most likely Yoru, Deadlock pondered, as she rested her head back against the couch. The creatures were in a nest of blankets that now sat on the coffee table in front of the couch, watching Gekko, shaking slightly and whining for him to wake up. Deadlock couldn't help but compare the sight to children waking their mom up because they had a nightmare... Quite cute.

From that point, it was only about an hour before Gekko was woken up, with the help of Sage's healing and checking-up. He'd groaned quietly, with the pounding of his head not exactly easing up immediately. Shuffling to sit up, he took in his surroundings, doing his best to recall the events that he must've missed... but he remembered nothing. Sleep, impact, then nothing.

Brimstone was there when he woke up, and did his best to calmly explain what had happened while he was unconscious. How Jett had attempted some dumb stunt, only to fall and start the chaos. Hearing his little buddies had gone wild out of fear caused Gekko's heart to sink. His poor little guys... they always got rowdy when startled, and usually Gekko was the only one capable of stopping them from causing chaos. The only one able to calm them down from nightmares...

"Wait, so how did you subdue them without me?" Gekko questioned, furrowing his eyebrows slightly.

The answer did not make him happy.

------

Once everyone had gotten word that Gekko was on his feet and discharged from Sage's care, everyone involved in the chaotic creature event was relieved. After asking a few different agents for confirmation, he'd found out exactly how his little buddies were captured.

"Are you serious?!" Gekko's voice boomed throughout the lab, where Killjoy, Viper, and Deadlock had been spending the last hour or two; tossing ideas back and forth to figure out a way to calm the creatures enough so they could be released from Deadlock's nanowires. Turning their heads collectively, they saw Gekko- who usually was as calm as a lamb... only to find flaring rage behind his eyes. And his eyes were boring directly into Deadlock, who couldn't help but freeze up at the stare.

"I... think we should take our leave." Killjoy piped up quickly as she dragged a reluctant Viper out of the lab. Knowing how vicious the creatures themselves had the capacity of being- she dreaded knowing what a furious, attacking Gekko would be like.

Once alone in the room, Gekko tore his eyes from Deadlock to the sphere of nanowires, which he could see the silhouettes of his buddies, zooming around like hamsters on a wheel, looking frantically for a way out. He stormed over, smacking Deadlock's hand out of the way as she tried to reach for him.

Despite his fury, he managed to calm his voice enough to speak to his friends. "Heya guys, it's gonna be alright. I'm right here." A small smile came to his face as he saw the silhouettes of the creatures slow down, and eventually, calm down enough to form back into their orbs, knowing Gekko would want to put them away to rest.

Deadlock was... truly amazed by Gekko's ability to communicate with the creatures, even while angry. Almost like a parent who's had an awful day, but still shows love to their child. She pressed the button on her arm, and the nanowires came completely undone around the now orb-shaped creatures.

Making sure each creature was in their correct spot, Gekko sighed. He could only imagine the damage they'd caused while he was out.

"Gekko. I... I apologize. There was little we could do to calm them down without you." Deadlock tried to start, only to be abruptly cut off by Gekko raising his hand to tell her to be quiet. "I don't want to hear it. You've severely damaged my trust with this... stupid stunt." He muttered rather coldly, vastly contradicting the warm, nurturing voice he'd used only moments ago.

"Gekko-"

"You seriously couldn't think of any other way to calm them?" His head snapped in her direction, causing Deadlock to tense up again. This was so unlike him.

"KAY/O could've suppressed them, Neon could've stunned them- Skye is great with animals, she would've been able to help too! But you just... jumped to Nano-wiring them while they were panicking? Do you have any idea how scared they must've been? They might've thought you were turning heel and getting rid of them! You think they don't know you hate them? That you would've killed them if I wasn't stopping you? They aren't stupid, they hear the things you say, and they know what you think of them."

Deadlock slowly moved her gaze down a bit, hands glued to her sides as she was left to accept the scolding. It was true there were alternative ways to stop the frantic critters... but they needed to tame them quickly, and her wires were the only thing available during the panic. "You're right. I... I acted without thinking. I'm truly--"

Her eyes moved up to try and meet Gekko's again, but she got distracted a certain... lack of color, per se.

"... Where's Wingman?" She questioned quietly. Gekko furrowed his eyebrows together as he felt around to find where he would've stashed Wingman. "What're you talking about, he's right--"

Nothing. Wingman's orb wasn't there.

And now that he was thinking about it, when he saw the silhouette of his buddies in the nanowires... he'd only seen Thrash, Dizzy, and Mosh...

"I... H-He wasn't in the nanowires." Gekko stammered slightly, turning his head around to search the room quickly, as if Wingman was just... hiding in plain sight. "Where is he?! Is he still out in the base somewhere?" His voice changed as he began to panic. He hadn't shown his buddies around the headquarters nearly as thoroughly as he should've... so there was a good chance Wingman was completely lost somewhere!

"Let us split up to find him." Deadlock placed a hand on the other's shoulder to try and ground him, looking into his eyes seriously. "I'll search the greenhouse and otherwise, you should check any small spaces he might be hiding in... maybe check bedrooms and closets as well. If we can't find him in ten minutes, we'll launch a full-scale search with all available agents in the premises."

Giving a small, stiff nod, Gekko turned and rushed out of the laboratory without argument. Deadlock exhaled shakily to herself as she followed Gekko out, only leaving to head towards Skye's greenhouse. Animals loved it there... so maybe Wingman would as well?

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

Within about seven minutes of checking behind every bush, tree, and plant, Deadlock was beginning to lose hope that Wingman was in the greenhouse. Wingman was notoriously good at hide and seek, according to Gekko... despite being bright yellow and very obvious to spot in the dark.

Just as she was heading towards the exit, she heard a familiar chirping voice from within the branches of one of the trees. Her eyes widened, and quickly rushed over to the tree, trying to peer amongst the branches and leaves to spot him. Squinting, she could just barely make out a little pear-shaped blob, with a pair of piercing blue eyes staring back at her. Huh... turns out Wingman could de-illuminate the cells of his body to hide from predators, with its eyes being the only giveaway to its location.

"Wingman, thank goodness I've found you. Gekko is worried sick. Come on down so we can return to him." Deadlock held out her hand up to the tree... only for the little creature to squeak in a panic, and retreat further up into the higher branches. Blinking back her initial confusion, she sighed heavily and began to scale the tree. She had to be careful- Skye would destroy her if she broke even a twig off.

Finding a strong branch to support her weight, she sat herself down on it to catch her breath. Running about she could do, no problem. Rushing from one site to another? A breeze. But climbing was... not her strong suit.

"Alright, that's enough messing around. Seriously. You need to come down or Gekko is going to kill me." Deadlock pleaded rather tiredly, head resting against the trunk. Only to be answered in more rustling and further branches scaled by the little guy. Groaning, Deadlock rubbed her face and let her legs dangle. Why was he suddenly being so difficult? They were napping and enjoying one another's company only a few hours ago... what changed?

It took a few minutes of thinking before it clicked.

Wingman most likely saw his friends get captured by Deadlock.

When she looked up again at the critter, she could see now that there was a clear emotion behind his eyes.

Fear.

Wingman was afraid of her.

"Oh..." Was all she could really say in response to her realization, only to exhale heavily and stuff her face within her hands. "God. Of course you're terrified. You think I hurt your friends, didn't you?"

After all, Gekko and Deadlock have fought on the same team multiple times. Wingman must've seen what happens to enemies that get caught in her nanowires. If she can land a hit, it kills the enemy by the end of the line. It only makes sense that Wingman thinks the same happened to his critter family.

"How do I explain this... I don't even know how many braincells you have in that little nucleus of yours..." She mumbled to herself. "No idea if you'd even understand. But... Ugh."

Wingman simply peeked his head out from behind the leaves he was hiding behind, and tilted his head curiously.

"Right. Well, I hope you can understand me. Otherwise, I'm just going to be talking to myself." She started, deciding that staring at Wingman and continuously searching was a fruitless endeavor.

"Your... Your friends were running ramped, causing all sorts of damage. It was potentially dangerous to any agents that could've walked in that room. We wanted to calm you all down... but we couldn't do that without Gekko, who was unconscious." She clasped her hands atop her lap, gaze glued to the flora and sprouts below.

"I acted without thinking and caught the other creatures in my nanowires... because we had very limited ways of keeping you all under control. I figured it would work to keep you all contained until Gekko awoke... but... I realize that must have been rather scary for you to witness, no?"

A small chirp of agreement.

"I thought so. Gekko gave me an earful, that's for sure." Deadlock smiled sadly to herself, at least glad that Wingman was calm enough to respond to her. So... He must've understood to some degree.

"I'm... truly, very sorry for what I did. Acting recklessly to stop the chaos... scaring you, and potentially putting you and your friends in danger. I hope you can forgive me someday... I understand if you are still afraid. All I ask is that you return to Gekko's side... I imagine he won't be able to sleep tonight without knowledge of your safety."

With that, Deadlock slid off the branch and landed on the cobblestone flooring below the tree, dusting herself off of any leaves or bugs that might've gotten on her in that time of climbing.

Before she could get a step further, there was a sudden impact on the top her head. Not exactly... painful, but surprising, nonetheless. It was soft... and somewhat gelatinous?

Whatever landed on top of her head soon rolled forward, into her arms. Blue eyes stared up at her, little arms wiggling up in the air, as if a child asking for a hug.

"Wingman...?" Deadlock questioned, unsure of the creature's wish. Wingman hopped up and hugged her by her neck, nuzzling comfortably against her shoulder, noises of happiness erupting from him.

She felt her cheeks flush slightly in embarrassment. She... hadn't been expecting to be forgiven so easily. Well, it was essentially an animal after all... she doubted it had the capacity to hate anything.

If anything, Gekko was the one she was to worry about.

"Let us get you back to Gekko, shall we?" Deadlock requested softly, petting the small metal top of Wingman's dead. Another chirp, this one of agreement.

"And maybe put in a good word for me with Gekko." She chuckled to herself... though knowing deep down, it wouldn't be nearly so easy.

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

Gekko was in the process of frantically explaining to Brimstone about his missing buddy, and how he'd need everyone's help to locate Wings. Brimstone simply did his best to calm the young agent down, as he was already near tears at the thought of his little partner gone for even a day.

"Gekko!" Deadlock's voice echoed through the empty halls, causing both gentlemen to turn towards the noise. The pure joy and relief on Gekko's face when he saw Wingman in her arms was truly indescribable.

"Wings!" He cried out happily, as Wingman leapt from Deadlock's arms into Gekko's. He snuggled the heck out of the little guy, rambling multiple apologies and appreciations to whatever god that protected him.

"I missed you so much, buddy." Gekko whispered as he finally seemed to calm down from his frantic coddling. Wingman gave one last chirp before forming into an orb, and was finally stashed away safely within Gekko's pocket.

"I found him hiding in a tree in the greenhouse. It took a bit of convincing, but... I got him to come down of his own accord. Probably the way I should have handled the whole... rampage." Deadlock smiled towards the other agent, hands in her jacket pockets as she approached. "They really do have feelings and cognitive thought- I'm embarrassed it took me so long to realize that. But... regardless, I am truly sorry for how I dealt with the situation earlier." She bowed her head slightly in apology.

The man stood there for a few moments, mulling over what Deadlock had said. He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck rather awkwardly. "Nah, I... I totally overreacted. I was just high-strung and worried about my guys. I should've just told you how my buddies felt about your technology. So, uh... You're totally fine. Dizzy and the others might take awhile to warm back up to you... but they're super affectionate lil' guys, so I doubt it'll take long." He flashed a small smile towards his teammate. "We cool?"

Deadlock laughed softly to herself. "Yes, I suppose we are 'cool'. Perhaps I can treat you to some boba? I hear there's a new location that opened up nearby that I have heard good things about from Neon."

Eyes lighting up like a child's, Gekko's usual energy sprung to life. "Boba? You know me so well, Amiga! But you're paying!"

"Deadlock raised an eyebrow with a smile. "... I believe that was suggested by my phrasing."

"Already planned on it anyways."

#valorant #valorant fanfiction #valorant agents #valorant deadlock #valorant gekko

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mayflysdie · 1 month

Text

MothThorn

Not cod related- but something I’ve been working on for awhile.

( though I am down to change it to anyone’s favorite cod character. Like swap the male lead for Gaz, Soap, Ghost, Price, etc )

I’m trying to improve my writing, character development and world building so this is just a rough draft, I guess?

I suck with dialogue so forgive me.

Word count: 3,856.

( not proofread or edited.)

Leaning against the balcony, high above the city of Moththorn, I am struck by its frozen beauty. The streets below stretch for hundreds of miles, each building and corner emitting a soft, ethereal glow in the darkness of nightfall. Despite the storm brewing above, the city remains untouched, as if protected by a veil of magic. My slender index finger traces along the rough stone siding of the balcony as I gaze towards the distant mountains. The purple lightning dances around them, caged and contained only to strike the mountain's peak. It's odd how such intense storms never touch our city within the golden walls; not a single bolt of lightning has ever touched its sacred grounds.

I've asked my mother, Queen Azola, about it but she skirts around the question, warning me sternly to keep it away from my father.

"We could be cursed," I mumble to myself as I turn back towards my chambers. Suddenly, the wind picks up, whipping my hair and gown around me. My head snaps up and I hold my hair out of my face, looking towards the mountains. Don't ask me to explain it, but I know that mountain is somehow involved in everything.

That's when I see it - or at least, I think I do. Blinking rapidly, I try to convince myself that it's just my mind playing tricks on me. But no, as I squint my eyes, I can clearly make out a giant pair of red eyes on the side of the mountain. Like a giant bonfire amidst the darkness, casting an eerie light over the land.

Gasping in shock, my hands fall to my sides as I stare at those mysterious eyes. I've seen them before.

"What are you?" I whisper softly, wishing desperately that I could speak to whatever is behind them. Are these eyes the reason why lightning only strikes this mountain?

And just as quickly as they appeared, the eyes vanish like a fire doused with water.

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Days have passed since I saw the eyes, keeping what I witnessed to myself as I don't trust anyone. Father would storm the mountain, waging war on whatever beast resides there- and I don't want that, I don't wish harm upon it.

I walk down the candle lit corridor towards the library-the restricted library. To search for answers, since no one else is eager to answer them.

My family is hiding something, and I refuse to be another clueless princess sitting atop her castle. My emerald green eyes hold a fierce determination, one which I'm sure mother would scold me for. 'princesses should look sweet, never fierce. Keep those eyes like a doe child, must I repeat myself'. I recall one of her many lectures and scoff to myself. A proper princess I will never be.

The air in the restricted library was thick with dust, making me sneeze the moment I stepped inside. I glanced around at the towering bookshelves filled with ancient tomes and scrolls, feeling a thrill of both excitement and trepidation. The answer to the mystery of the mountain must be hidden somewhere within these walls.

I approached a particularly weathered bookshelf, running my fingers along the spines of the books until I found one that seemed to call out to me. It was an old leather-bound volume with intricate golden lettering on the cover. As I opened it, the pages emitted a soft glow, illuminating the room in an otherworldly light. That's strange, all spell bound books should be in a case. My interest grows, eager for an unknown reason.

The text inside written in a language I don’t t recognize, but as my eyes scanned the words, they began to shift and change before me. Slowly, the letters transformed into a language I could understand. What the hell. but before I could read them, the sound of guards outside the door makes me snap the book shut, and I hide beside a bookshelf.

I grumble under my breath about the monstrous dresses my mother insists I wear, pulling the fabric closer to me in an attempt to hide it from view. "That's it, I'm making a wardrobe change. I look like a goofy clown".

My heart skips a beat as the guard's footsteps halt at the door. Standing there for what feels like eternity.

I exhale sharply when the sound of the footsteps fades, and the doorknob remains untouched. As I catch my breath, I lean against a nearby shelf, my gaze trailing down to the book in my hands. It's oddly warm, but not burning me.

The book seemed to hum with a faint energy, as if urging me to open it once again and delve into its secrets. And, with cautious curiosity, I cracked it open, my eyes widening in surprise as the pages shifted once more to reveal a map unlike any I had ever seen. It depicted the city of Moththorn, the surrounding lands, and the mountains in exquisite detail.

But what caught my attention most were the intricate markings around the mountain that had the mysterious red eyes. Symbols and runes adorned the area, pulsating with a soft light that seemed to match the rhythm of my own heartbeat.

As I studied the map intently, a whisper of wind brushed against my skin, carrying with it a soft, melodic hum that seemed to resonate from the very pages of the book. The symbols on the map began to glow brighter, guiding my eyes to a hidden passage inscribed in elegant script at the edge of the page.

"In the heart of the mountain where shadows dance,

Lies a secret older than time's endless trance.

Beneath the red eyes that watch and wait,

A dragon sleeps, guarding Moththorn's fate."

My breath caught in my throat as I read the cryptic words, my mind racing with a mixture of fear and exhilaration. A dragon, here in Moththorn? Could it be possible that the creature behind those fiery eyes was not a curse, but a protector of our city, warding off the storms and keeping us safe all this time? " is it protecting us, or protecting something else?" I mumble to myself, eyes narrowing as my mind races.

Determined to uncover the truth, I close the book gently and tuck it into the folds of my dress before stepping out

I quickly race down the corridor, straight to my chambers.

After checking that there are no maids nearby, I lock my door and head to the balcony. Settling into a chair, I retrieve the book. It's not as warm as before, and the glowing has diminished significantly, but as soon as I open it, the glow returns. This time, the pages transform into a new map, one that I can guess reveals the mysteries inside the mountain.

The map before me was intricate, filled with winding passageways and hidden chambers marked by ancient symbols. My heart raced with anticipation as I traced the intricate lines with my finger, following the path that led deep into the heart of the mountain.

As I studied the map intently, a sudden gust of wind swept through the balcony, causing the pages to flutter wildly. In the chaos, a faint whisper seemed to echo in my mind, guiding me towards a specific chamber marked with a swirling symbol that seemed to pulse with an otherworldly light.

I look up at the mountain, my heart pounding. “ are you trying to show me something?” I whisper to the mountain, as if it’ll answer my question. My eyes fall back onto the pages and I do my best to memorize them, taking mental notes to write down later.

As I flip through the pages, the words rearrange themselves in front of my eyes so that I can read them aloud. "The dragon, Zephyr, is known for his black and red scales in his Draconic form, symbolizing his high rank among the dragon race. Among his many powers are lightning and fire." I continue reading and learn that there is still more to discover about Zephyr's abilities.

My attention then shifts to a description of his immense height, towering over even the western tower. I shudder at the thought of how much bigger he must be compared to me. I'm not even the size of his toe-if he has any. Trying to shake off the fear, I return my focus to the book, only to see the words stop glowing and returning to their original language. Disappointed, I frown at the book in my hands.

I stand up slowly, my fingers tightly grasping the book as my mind begins to race with possibilities. "Draconic form," I whisper under my breath. Could he really have a different form, one that is human? My thoughts run wild, jumping from theory to theory as I try to make sense of even the smallest clue.

In a frenzy, I hastily hide the book in my closet, shoving it beneath an old box filled with forgotten childhood toys. I rush out of my chambers, realizing how late it has become. Surely my mother must be searching for me by now, ready to drag me to dinner. I'm sure she'll have something snide to say once I arrive.

As I approach the door to the dining hall, I nod at the guards stationed there, forcing a smile onto my lips despite the turmoil within. The doors swing open and I step inside, the warm scents of food and candlelight greeting me.

My mother's sneer greets me as I walk into the room. "How nice of you to finally grace us with your presence, Elysian." Her sarcastic tone is all too familiar, and I wish I could make myself deaf to it. I quickly take a seat. "Sorry, mother." I glance at my father, who is engrossed in whatever he's reading on his paper. It's not unusual for him to be preoccupied. "I'll have Mary meet you in the morning, so you can purchase a dress for the ball." my mother announces. My eyebrows furrow in confusion. "A ball?"

My mother's smile is anything but warm. "Yes, the annual Harvest Ball. Surely you haven't forgotten, Elysian." Her eyes bore into mine, daring me to argue. "You will dress appropriately and behave accordingly. Your father and I will not tolerate any more of your rebellious antics."

I mask my frustration with a forced smile, nodding obediently as I pick at the food on my plate. The idea of attending a ball in the midst of all these revelations about Zephyr feels like a cruel joke. How could I possibly pretend that everything is normal when my world has been turned upside down by the secrets hidden within the mountain?

As dinner drags on, filled with idle chatter and my mother's pointed remarks, I find myself counting down the seconds until I can escape to my chambers once more. The weight of the book hidden in my closet feels like a heavy secret pressing against my chest, demanding to be explored further.

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the morning comes quickly, far quicker than I want. The only delight of this morning is me giving Mary the slip as I sneak into a dress shop on my own. I giggle quietly to myself, feeling clever.

I race over to the first dress I set my eyes on, a stunning black evening gown with a striking mermaid silhouette. The dress features a strapless, sweetheart neckline bodice that is intricately adorned with delicate black lace and embroidered red roses, extends down to the hips, where it gracefully transitions into a voluminous skirt.

The skirt is the true showstopper of the gown, crafted from a luxurious black fabric and embellished with large, lifelike roses add a touch of romance and femininity.

I can’t possibly find a better dress.

My eyes all but turn into hearts. I wave the staff down, and immediately try on the dress.

As the dress hugs my curves perfectly, I can't help but twirl around in front of the mirror, the skirt swirling around me like a dark cloud. The black lace and red roses make me feel powerful and alluring, a stark contrast to the demure gowns my mother always picks out for me. This is the kind of dress that demands attention, that commands the room.

A mischievous smile plays on my lips as I decide then and there that this is the dress I will wear to the Harvest Ball. No more playing by my mother's rules, no more blending into the background. Tonight, I will stand out, a rose among wilted flowers.

Excitement bubbles in my chest as I quickly pay for the dress and make my way back to the palace. Mary finding me along the way, lightly scolding me for running off.

As soon as I'm safely in my chambers, I carefully hide the gown in the back of my closet, ready to don it later when everyone else is distracted by the festivities.

Until then, I snatch the book out from its hiding place. plopping down in my closet to read it, the book glows to life, growing warmer in my hands. I smile, “ What shall we learn today?”

I open the book, instantly greeted with pages full of context on Zephyr. How long he’s lived, the destruction he waged against countless kingdoms and villages. “ So, most certainly not a protector of all kingdoms, huh”. Honestly, how scary. Such a beast of destruction is only a mountain away from home.

I flip the page, “ His mother and Father, King Luther and Queen Abrella of MothThorn” I pause, eyes narrowing. “ MothThorn? how long ago was this? mother said our family has always ruled this kingdom”.

I desperately read more, growing more confused by each word.

"My lady, it's time to prepare for the ball," Mary's voice startles me as I quickly shut my book and tuck it away. "I'll be there in a moment!" I call out. My thoughts are in disarray and my feet stumble as I try to process everything. If Zephyr, the dragon, is from this kingdom and his parents were the rulers, then why are my parents the ones on the throne? Why is he not ruling his own kingdom?

"Hurry, my lady. Time is running short," Mary urges in her usual impatient tone. I grumble as I stomp out of the closet with my dress in hand. I forcefully pull the door open. "Help me put on this dress and then go. Don't dare tell my mother what I am wearing." I twirl around before she has a chance to voice her objections.

So help me Mary, if you utter a word to my mother I will offer you as a snack to the dragon.

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The guards escort me to the ball room, where crowds of people have already gathered. I peer down at them from atop the stairs, noticing how the music stops when they notice my presence. Peoples heads turning, women gasping.

I’m sure mother is chapped about my dress. probably will storm up, demanding I change.

I slowly walk down the stairs, my dress trailing elegantly behind me. I offer a polite smile, “ evening, ladies and gentlemen. I hope the ball is to your liking?” my voice, soaked in fake sweetness makes my insides churn. I am dodging this ball the first moment I get.

they bow to me, returning my smile with ones of their own. “ it’s wonderful, my lady”

my eyes drift across the room, spotting my mother tossing snakes at me with her glare. I can almost taste the distain from here.

I excuse myself, walking towards my mother. oh i’m too sober for this. and by some grace of the gods, a waiter passes by with a tray of glasses, filled with bourbon. “ excuse me”

I snatch one off the tray, tossing it back before grabbing another. “ thank you”.

"So, this is how you choose to behave at a royal ball, Elysian?" My mother's voice cuts through the air sharply, her disapproval evident in every syllable. I simply smile sweetly, the alcohol warming my insides and emboldening me. "Just enjoying the festivities, mother," I reply casually, taking another sip of bourbon. "I thought it might make things more bearable." Her eyes narrow, but before she can respond, a commotion erupts on the other side of the room.

The event had barely begun, but two drunken men were already brawling. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at their predictable behavior. As the palace guards dragged them away, I took advantage of the distraction to slip away from my mother's watchful eye. I thanked the men silently for providing me with an opportunity to escape her constant scrutiny.

A deep voice startles me from behind "My lady, you look stunning tonight." I turn around, trying to compose myself before facing Jared, the man who is determined to make me his wife. “Hello, Jared,” I say coldly, not hiding my lack of warmth towards him.

Honestly, who could blame me? this guy is obnoxious and a peeping tom.

Refusing to linger for his foolishness, I pivot on my heel and stride away. Snatching up another glass of bourbon, I slip out into the lush garden, already feeling a slight buzz from my earlier indulgences. The air is thick with the scent of roses, their vibrant red petals beckoning me forward. As I pass by, my fingers graze their delicate blooms, only to be pricked by their sharp thorns in protest. My gaze lifts upwards to the sky, marveling at the dark canvas strewn with billowing clouds that seem almost within reach. My longing intensifies as I imagine running my hands through their softness, if only it were possible

I take another sip, the first real smile of the day is when i’m looking up at the sky.

“ What’s a pretty Devil like yourself doing out here alone?”. The voice was rough and deep, sending a shiver down my spine. I turn to face the source, my eyes adjusting to the dimly lit part of the garden. There stood a stranger, cloaked in shadows. “Who are you calling a Devil?” I snapped back, my glare piercing through the darkness. The nerve of men, the audacity to speak whatever nonsense crosses their tiny minds.

As he stepped into the light, my breath caught in my throat. His hair was as dark as the night sky above us, contrasting sharply with his intense golden eyes that seemed to hold your soul captive. His towering figure was sculpted and powerful, straining against the confines of his black and red tuxedo. It was as if he were a lion trapped in sheep's clothing.

The air around us crackled with tension, our gazes locked in an unspoken challenge.

“you”. oh my god, my heart. I haven’t had that much to drink, right?

He smirked, a devilish gleam in his eyes as he closed the distance between us. His presence was intoxicating, drawing me in like a moth to a flame. I could feel the heat radiating off his body, and my cheeks flushed with both embarrassment and desire. "You're a feisty one, aren't you?" he remarked, his voice like smooth velvet against my skin. I fought to compose myself, refusing to let this stranger unravel me with just a few words.

"And you're quite bold for approaching a lady uninvited," I retorted, trying to maintain a semblance of control over the situation. But deep down, an unfamiliar thrill coursed through me at the dangerous edge he exuded.

His laughter rang out in the quiet garden, sending a flock of birds into the night sky. "Forgive me, my lady. But when I saw you standing here, bathed in moonlight with fire in your eyes, I couldn't resist." His

I huff, backing away to earn myself some space. every alarm in my head going off but for different things.

“ can’t blame a lady for enjoying the night”. really? is that the best I can offer? get a grip Elysian.

“ Who are you? guests are not allowed in the garden unless personally requested”. I fight myself to speak confidently.

He steps closer, just barely. His eyes locking with mine, the gold rings in his eyes shine brighter than anything else i’ve ever seen.

“ you did request me, princess”. if possible, his voice grew deeper. sending a chill down my spine.

“ I did no such thing. i’ve never requested anyones presence before, so why would I start now?” I bite back. and for some reason, my eyes drift over to the mountain, noticing the lack of lightning surrounding it. that’s strange, i’ve never seen it so calm before.

He gave me a sly grin, his eyes twinkling mischievously. "I am Zephyr, my lady. And I assure you, I have a special invitation tonight." My heart skipped a beat at the mention of his name. Zephyr, the very same dragon prince who had disrupted my world with his mere presence. My mind raced with questions, but I knew better than to trust him so easily. It can't really be him, right? Why show up now.

"Zephyr," I repeated slowly, testing the name on my tongue. The golden rings in his eyes fade to a darker color when I say it. "What brings you here, uninvited?" His gaze softened, a flicker of something unreadable passing through his golden eyes. "Curiosity led me here, Elysian. I wished to see the woman who dares to defy convention and stand out among the sheep." His words sent a thrill down my spine, and I fought to keep my composure.

"Well, you've seen her. Now leave before you cause more trouble," I replied sharply.

I almost regret my words, a part of me not wanting him to leave.

“ why come out now? does anyone else know you’re here? The red eyes from the mountain- that was you?” question after question leaves my lips before I can stop it. Nervously, my fingers come up to pick at my dress. Way to make a spectacle of yourself.

Zephyr's grin widened at my barrage of questions, clearly amused by my sudden curiosity. "Yes, that was me," he confirmed, his voice tinged with a hint of pride. "And to answer your other inquiries, no one else knows I'm here. I have a way of moving in the shadows, undetected by prying eyes." His eyes sparkled with mischief.

I should be terrified, but instead, I found myself drawn to the danger he represented. His presence was electrifying, sending a thrill through me that I hadn't experienced before.

"Why reveal yourself now?" I pressed, my voice barely above a whisper as if afraid to break the spell we were both under.

Zephyr's expression shifted, his gaze intense as he studied me for a moment before answering. "Because someone is trying to take what belongs to me”.

the kingdom? his kingdom? is he finally coming to destroy us?. I furrow my brows as my mind races for answer. “ the kingdom?” I finally ask, ripping the proverbial bandaid off.

His eyes scan the garden and castle before landing back on me. A chill runs down my spine as a gust of wind hits.

“ No, though it is mine. I’m talking about something-someone else”.

#fantasy #dragon #dragon x human #dragon majesty #dragon man #fantasy writing #writers on tumblr #my writing #female writers #reading #wattpad #Mate au #read me #My dragon lust is out of this world #not cod related #x reader #i don’t know tags

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crimson-phantom-designs · 7 months

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Um...

Well I have been writing a series of notes for a potential Francis in OFMD universe(Eb is in this universe too but it is after they separated leaving Francis extremely bitter about it and bent more toward his brutality. A parallel to Blackbeard post Stede). I didn't mean to do anything with all this but I have a story where Francis met Ned Low in a one shot just to see what happened and they... hit it off really well which suprised me. (More on Francis end, Ned was a flustered mess just excited to meet someone with similar taste in music and... other facinations...)

Then I read this...

Fuck. The real Ned Low had a friend named Francis and they were close for awhile. Now I have to do something with these notes eventually- shit, its hauntingly accurate.

Did I mention Francis signature is setting ships on fire with its crew held aboard? What similar to Ned's blend of music and torment, Francis plays a violin in exchange of his pianoforte to the screams off it as the ship sinks...

I'm not sure I will write it entirely(I have too many AUs dammit!) but the idea keeps returning to me. I have set art ideas for it but I can share a short plotline that started from a one shot in my drafts where Francis and Ned meet while on dock one night at the Republic of pirates. Ned is drawn to the beautiful music of a violin along the pier coming from a beautiful ship. A tune so well played and unfamiliar in quality normally found around pirates. Ned grabs his violin and rushes flustered to join this stranger which he is welcomes to and they continue the song. They play well and even share a conversation, all where it leads to why Francis is there having to clean up what his crew could not. He's looking for someone as Ned remarks the same thing. Ned goes pale; however, as he discovers its the same man as a wanted poster is thrown at his feet to see its Blackbeard. Same man but different reasons that intertwine, Ned for revenge of his record being broken and Francis for his 30 freight ships under his corsair contract Blackbeard seiged in order to break it. Francis is also looking for Stede Bonnet, someone Ned doesn't recognize or really care to but he obliges for the assistance in tracking Ed down.

Then months later, as the story direction is changed for this, Francis finds Stede adrift in his dingy lost at sea and rescues him- or so Stede thinks...

Against Stede's ruse of a fake name, Francis on approach, knows exactly who Stede really is; however, alike how when he met Ned low, Francis is using Stede just as much as he is using Ned to find the Revenge. Ned, who Francis treats much like a pet ironically, happily goes along with whatever Francis tells him because he feels he weilds more influence than he truly does in this arrangement, all whilst Francis picks at Stede's mind to pull information about himself, his ship, everything that fascinates him about this odd bird at sea. What Francis uses all his skills at his disposal to retrieve, including his knowledge of mixing custom pharmaceuticals blends to fit his needs from his days as a refined surgeon.

When he's not using concoctions, Francis, being a man masterful at manipulation, one seethingly charming and well cultured from his wonderous explorations that streched far beyond his days permanently at sea, works like a charm on Stede. Stede who is immediently drawn to that comfort zone of aristocraic behavior while being more so put at ease with how kind and generous Francis is to him. Since Stede was rescued, Francis has provided him the nice cloths he longed for and treats him to fine dining, whatever Stede wants essentially... except to leave. Not that Francis has openly stopped him, more an alluded persuasion if Stede gets restless; "Why would you want to muck it out there isolated and all alone? You could run into anyone out there... Someone that could seriously hurt you if you crossed them... Just think what could have happened had I not found you first barely clinging to your dear sweet life... There's alot of dangerous men out there..."

While Stede truly believe Francis is trying to help him reunite with his crew, Stede isn't completely daft. He is wary and picks up somerhijgs not quite right as he tries to be careful what he shares, at least about Ed. He's mainly worried where all this generosity could lead and remains guarded but polite because... he's also despirate with no other options. He pacifies Francis as much as he can for now yet Stede doesn't realize just what he's gotten himself into and with who... What will all come to a head when Francis meets back up with Ned one night to celebrate their crews reunion with own twisted version of Calypso's birthday that make Francis intentions become abit more clear to Stede when the ruse is dropped completely.

Meanwhile with Ned back, Ned sees all this and knows the plan, but he's too jealous and spiteful by how Francis fawns over Stede. How Francis always keeping Stese so close. Ned wanted that to be him. Them... Ned has finally found someone who 'understands him' and will be damned if some minor rich boy playing pirate takes that from him while Stede would love to actively assure him how incorrect he is and how badly he wants to leave.

While all this happening, Ed learns what is going on and who Stede has been seen with as they have monitored the ship from the security of distance in night travels. What, thanks to Izzy, who knows all too well what the dread Black King Osman is capable of, knows just how much danger Stede is in. Ed now sets his bitter resentment from Stede leaving him aside and sails to London. He is heavily outmatched in means to attack Francis on his own, but with a well placed raid along the Thames River, he plans to level that playing field with a counteraction of his own capture.

#I have too many AUs #I even had notes of a party Francis and Ned join their ships to on sea where they play violins together singing about murder.#All while their crew dance and get wasted. A twisred version of Calypso's birthday celebration.#I really want to draw that #ofmd #oc francis osman #scroogeposting #scroogeverse #our flag means death #Here be dragons verse

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jjheejz · 3 years

Text

About Internet Water Army in the case

This is an ongoing update about the case from start to development. List of all related posts can be found on this blog's pinned post (link provided at bottom of each post as well).

19 August 2021 update: Added the scale of his success for reference, before bonus below

18 August 2021 update: Added timeline of events, orange title in post, found out the official English term for Immoral Media = Internet Water Army)

Major updates since first draft: Added bonus, added disclaimer, certain info details

Originally posted on 16 August 2021

[The purpose of this post is to provide a perspective as to why the Media is raised/blamed regarding the issue. Especially for international fans, as all the encounters happened on Weibo. Also, those who were on weibo, do read through if you will. So although it's lengthy, do try to read all, at least if not the last two parts].

The Media referred by most, is not the common perception of the Entertainment Industry (celebrities, directors, shows, channels, staff etc), but the dark side of the Entertainment industry: Antis, toxic fans, toxic marketing accounts. They are called Internet Water Army💧.

Toxic Marketing Accounts is one of the things they do, these accounts on Weibo has millions of followers, each of their post likes are in the hundred thousands (buyable) to give credibility to passer-bys. Some use similar names to Official accounts, some use similar logos. Their posts are usually subjective or aims to steer view points of a certain celebrity/movie/show. Before the latest update of this post (18.08.21), I just group them all together and term them as Immoral Media*.

*Below is my original post using my original term because at point of first draft, I did not know the official term (so have changed/added the term from Immoral Media to Internet Water Army in content below but retain the content based off first draft).

If you have chased before celebrities, or just simply passed by an article about certain celebrities, recall how some title that caught your attentions were like. Clickbaits is one of the many things they do. If GZ is your first and you do not have Weibo, then this read(link) is good enough.

Just as the term Immoral Media (Internet Water Army), it’s immoral and unethical, but they exists because they are paid to do so. Who pays them? Entertainment Companies, and maybe other Organisations

Normal Media/Marketing vs Immoral Media/Toxic Marketing/Internet Water Army

When a show or movie comes out, the normal Marketing department will generate outreach and buzz so that people know a show is airing soon/know the show exists etc. Official announcements are not enough, because there isn’t much context (limited content to put up as well) so having some other Marketing accounts do the buzz in a planned period to gain awareness through posts, some articles about the casts, the plot summary, the production details etc is normal. This is Marketing, bigger companies will probably have stronger Marketing departments (aka influence) and can hire more Marketing accounts to generate buzz. Celebrities (aka casts) themselves, are also Marketing point.

Then we have the Internet Water Army/Immoral Media, these are what they mainly do:

Create Fanfiction-rumors: Creating rumors about celebrities to shift audience perception of them. [eg. XX was seen with XX leaving a hotel, XX was drunk on Event Y and did ZZZ to AA, XX is dating BB and has been in a relationship for N years etc]

Honing their brain degrading skills: Come up with titled clickbait headings/ trending topics with negative written contents. For articles, exceptionally out of heading content related to the celebrity. [Refer to Baidu, it’s a winner of these, feel free to Google Translate]

Regressing their common sense and understanding skills: Take everything a celebrity does completely out of context in a negative way and create a topic out of it [eg. XX said AA is a ---, “XX raised his finger, a sign of ---?”, XX pushed BB aggressively on Variety Show Y - A competition variety show, XX is in beef with CC because XX was caught giving CC the eye]

Using their fingers to stir shit and bathe each other in it: Escalate all smallest form of possible tension created by fans/themselves into a huge thing by acting as the fandom's fans/lurk in fandom chat groups, and voicing their disguised opinion to spread tension/exaggerate severity of the issue [eg. XX fans mocked AA - in groupchats: tbh I've never liked AA before, AA just gives off a vibe that I dont like and now this? It just disgusts me even more > Yea, i feel this way too. AA has problems / XX Lurkers expressing views on XX about NN, slowly to NNMHFXW - XX did NNMHGT - I cannot accept NNmHfHw, I'm leaving = multiply by 1000++]

Epitome of a self-deteriorate: Creating something out of nothing and react to that something negatively to gain massive attention/reaction [eg. “XX raised his hand on show Y” - dk what XX fans are thinking, are they literally blind? XX fans are tasteless just like XX hahaha / “XX did community service” - they are acting / “XX breathed” - From the start, i thought XX was NN, but I am so ZZZ that XX breathed. Goodbye fandom, i’m leaving. Those who still want to stay I urge you to rethink your life choices] - if I may add, Xiao Zhan’s fanfiction case as well.

Metaphor - Ability to use bare hands to collect paychecks from the urinal/toilet bowl where their boss/client peed in: Doing all of the above.

Apologies for any term offense, but not apologetic of the term context. This is what they do for a living. Any normal human being who do not like anything, will generally not be interested at anything about it in the first place, so to have some antis/toxic fans knowing certain things and inside jokes/references in their posts questions their goal.

On involved in Internet Water Army/Immoral Media 💧

Fans on weibo during these few months witnessed many of the above on GZ. From rumored girlfriend (spammed with articles) to mean and nasty comments on trending topics, to bouts of insults and fake emotional cryouts by certain fan accounts that GZ's office has to release a number of Lawyer’s letter to them.

Aside from WOH there were also a few other BL adaptation films that were actually released this year but they did not reach exponential success like WOH. BL adaptations are so highly followed by because this is the key to wealth. Literally. Successful BLs like The Untamed and Dao Mu Bi Ji saw the amount of wealth fans are willing to spend on the celebrity as compared to say BG or idols (younger fan groups). This is why when WOH shot up exponentially, Immoral Media start to sweat.

Major anticipated adaptations were supposed to air this year eg. Hao Yi Xing(HYX), Sha Po Lang(SPL) etc but was severely held back due to the stricter change in BL adaptations submitting their scripts for approval regulations (WOH manage to submit earlier before the change). Because of this, most final films were rejected and they have to keep re-editing, by then WOH was already months into reaping tonnes of major brand endorsements, shows/movie casting, variety show appearances etc, something that is seen as too successful in the Immoral Media’s eyes, because they have to create buzz for other celebrities, some are specific celebrity oriented and thus circulate rumors about having endorsement opportunities shifted from celebrity X to GZ (think fanfiction-rumors and shit stirrer) causes tension in celebrity fandoms. - A real event just in July:

The Untamed’s cp fandom is called BJYX which had always been in the Top 1 of Cps for 2 years dropped for awhile to Top 2, over taken by LLD. Both of them had a war and hated each fandom, one fandom is somehow not allowed to like the other fandom even casually after everything broke out because it started out with some BJYX toxics photoshopped GZ on of portraits .

Also another case of which he wore the same costume as WYB did in a previous photoshoot and it became a useless comparison of who wore better, who looks better, degrading the other. (Finger stirring shit).

Now apply all of the above things the Internet Water Army do and we have them earning money, while both fandom reacts and hate each other.

In LLD, our own fans started suspecting each other on who is a spy from BJYX and what not.

The first few months of Internet Water Army saw LLDs mostly mocking them because the average age is 30-40s, they know and see through all of their intentions so nothing was big. They were trumpeting and LLDs didn’t even care, what with all the doing tedious stats was not even important to them.

Over time, as the issues they create became more and more serious LLDs did start to care, reporting Toxic Marketing accounts/toxic fans became a daily task, go vote for GZ at certain polls etc, solo fans, and LLD fans also split apart. Solo fans think cp fans use GZ to furnish their fantasies, and cp fans thinks they are the ones furnishing their dreaming-girls fantasy with (aka my boyfriend).

There was also a period where LLD had a habit of continuously mentioning “we are in the 30-40s so we can see through everything about the media, we are all fans for the first time, we are good at spending money (because of purchase power compared to other fandoms)” it was prevalent for so long it felt odd, ‘chasing celebrities the first time’ in particular sounds more vulnerable as a weakness than a strength / sth to be proud of.

Gradually, more secretive/insider confirmed ‘sweets’ were flying around. Fans advised each other to not circulate, and the mindset of “if you know, you know, dont tell.” (This is a problematic mentality, of which fans will still be curious to know and search for it themselves, but this secretive hook is unhealthy. Over the long term, it becomes hard for existing fans to know a lot of things properly to judge for themselves, especially those who knew and publicly reacted, but blasting those who ask and telling those who know to keep quiet, this did not help some to understand why on certain things, even so for international fans, dont know and dont understand, causing misunderstandings. Yes, certain information should not be shared, so why should you react about it publicly in the first place? - Internet Water Army effect)

The last few months (for example the July fan war) created a tonne of seriousness and anger. A period even broke out with a tonne of ‘insider confirmed sweets’ (which is LLD’s daily dose of happiness), it was hard to tell what was real and what was fake. Trending topics became negative and everyone warned each other not to enter because it will give the trends ‘views’ and trend statistics, in reality entering there is to enter an exhibition by the self-deteriorates, collecting the fandom's traffic data (it's a sure lose for fans each time they enter the topic). Everyone even starts thinking that the trend’s popularity was caused by each other (it's true but it can be bought daily and not caused by fans). There was a raise in the number of fans who were getting emotional because they want to protect but Internet Water Army kept coming and got worse, because fans, tbh, not just GZ fans, every other celebrity’s fans are always fighting with an Army, getting played and plotted in that Army's calendar.

Even so, despite all of these, LLD is actually a fandom Internet Water Army may find the hardest to break because they understand GZ so much, they could tell what are fake news regarding GZ, because among everything above, there are still plenty of logical fans to stop many fans from drifting too far and debunking them. Why? 30-40s are grown up adults.

Why 13.8.21 and the Japan issue is plotted?

First of all, in the political climate of China, there are many political dates in a month that is NO-Entertainment news. Because it’s the honoring of certain important political events. It’s like Remembrance Day, thus the sensitivity is higher. On these days, there are usually no news and even the Internet Water Army zip their pants. This year also marks the 100th year of the Chinese Communist Party(link)

Secondly, he had no work schedule on 13 August 2021. A great full day to focus on any other news (because if he had schedules, everyone will turn their attention to his events, what trumpeting outside is just bird chirps).

Thirdly, when the news broke out, especially about the shrine, the reception was actually quite serious within the fandom so the scale of this might be big but to what extent in reality?

Lastly, 15.8.21 marks the 76th anniversary of the announcement of surrender of Japanese in World War 2(link). Also a day of NO-Entertainment news.

Timeline of events:

13.8.21 - [His rest day, Eve of Chinese Valentine's Day, Japan News broke out] His rest day, no schedules = increased attention about him online. Lowered guard among fans because they are getting ready for tomorrow's Chinese Valentine's sweets = Caught off guard = Huge break out of fans' reactions

14.8.21 - [Chinese Valentine's Day, Eve of the 75th Anniversary of the announcement of Japanese surrender] Keep a wishful and happy demenaor to not destroy the mood, suppressed thoughts about ZZH's Japan news

15.8.21 - [75th Anniversary of the announcement of Japanese surrender, Official announcement of ZZH's boycott and all China social media account ban] NO-Entertainment news day, Solemn day, not allowed to voice anything so the fandom can only wait for tomorrow to start voicing out/debunking but before they can wait out, the boycott and social media ban happened, every official accounts about him was gone overnight, fans had no time to react

17.8.21 - [All official fandom accounts related to ZZH and JunZhe were locked/removed]

Forced to be silent since the day his matter broke out, over the course of official news release with everything taken down in a day because of the Japan correspondence, his accounts banned overnight across the Chinese media and the overnight cancellation, fans could not speak anything about it. Overnight cancellation like this scale happened for the first time in China, leaving no time to react by the fandom, by the time they can, they are silenced.

When the period of events occured within a set of special dates, it’s not coincidence.

Conclusion

Because he was too successful and had many actually honorable past things, and a hard to influence fandom, Internet Water Army view him as a huge threat enough to want to destroy him, because it’s hard to defeat. With a chance they have, they will hold it till the end, bringing up this issue to the Government during this period also shows a sign of how scared they were of him and perhaps his fandom to plot something like this.

Updated on 19 August: Here's a screenshot of assumed calculation on the scale of GZ success for reference while chatting with a fellow fan, assuming GJ also has 27 brands, and there are 1000 brands. Rationale of numbers used: Only big brands can hire big celebrities.

Bonus

Mentioned in the first post, will mention again in case. After the news broke out within 2 days, there was a drop on his weibo followers from 18.9mil to 18.7mil. 200k+ drops, if the politics was such a big national issue, there should at least be a huge drop, even at least a million right? Because weibo is a China-Chinese majority right? Nope, we get a puny 200k drop.

What's funny? The self-deteroriates:

Translation: "Are his fans bought? Why didnt he drop fans? Those people got brainwashed to this point?" / "I've never entered his weibo and today i feel like having a look yet it showed I've followed him. All his fans were bought right? It disgusts me, i immediately unfollowed. This kind of process is worse than WYF..." / "i dropped fans because of him...no...I just reposted 2 posts and I've dropped 4 fans?"

Isn't the tone and regressing brain cells, all too familiar and same?

Added above, will remind again to read this link. It has an even more in-depth knowledge on who are paying them.

So what should we do? Link here

Related posts 🛏️:

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flashfuture · 3 years

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Characters I see most often Race Bended in the fandom:

Jason Todd to be Latino- J

Booster Gold to be Black- B

Stephanie Brown to be Black- S

Tim Drake to be Asian

Let’s take a little check list of some commonly racist stereotypes that apply to both Black and Latino characters in Media:

-Raised in poverty J-B-S

-Has a criminal parent J-B-S

-Has a parent with an addiction J-S

-Have committed crimes themselves J-B (we’re not counting general vigilante stuff)

-Teen Pregnancy S

Just interesting I think that it’s these three with some choice things in common that is leading people to think they’re Black or Latino.

The other character? Tim Drake and he’s often said to be Asian-Coded.

So now for some typical Asian Stereotypes

-Shorter than average ✔️

-Exceptionally intelligent to the point where it’s one of his core ‘personality traits’ ✔️

-Often written at least by fanon to be effeminate ✔️

-Wealthy and into tech ✔️

-Harsh, Cruel, and Strict Parents ✔️

So funny Asian coded is what is picked for him.

I’m not saying anyone who racebends is being racist I’m just saying maybe address why you think character is coded a certain way. Might reveal a lot of inherent biases.

Also odd that people would prefer to racebend their white faves instead of interacting with actual POC characters or pushing for more content with POCs but... maybe people prefer to apply their wokeness to characters who act appropriately white.

I’m sure there’d be shrieks of “racism” if Booster Gold was actually Black. His dad was a gambler who walked out on his family (oh a trope I forgot. the absent black dad) Booster’s mom raised him and his twin to the best of her ability with no money. They were incredibly poor. Booster then found his success in football (another trope actually the black kid can only leave poverty through sports) and then throws it all away when his dad talks him into throwing games for bets. Only to then hmm steal stuff (do i even need to say that’s a trope) and go back into the past.

That would be ridiculous to give a black man that plot. Seriously why are you trying to give a black man that plot?

Why can’t Bruce be black? Black Jewish people exist why can’t the Wayne family be Black?

Can perhaps Ted Kord be black instead of Booster? I mean Ted is pretty Jewish coded he uses Yiddish phrases. And do we still need him to look at a ghost of his future self and say my mom is Jewish to know a character is Jewish? Like surely we aren’t so devolved as readers that we need to be explicitly told every single thing. Anyways why couldn’t Ted also be Black. Can we only have one diversity at once?

I don’t get race bending as a concept but it’s pretty clear why people think certain characters are seen to be “coded” specific ways and others are not.

This has been sitting in my drafts for awhile and I’ve seen some posts about this issue lately and I’ve been talking with some mutuals so I thought I’d throw it out here. Because this is a pretty prevalent issue in fanon.

#dc comics #race bending #like why?

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jujutsubabe · 3 years

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“That’s such a Capricorn thing to say”

Megumi x reader

Word count: 1.1k

A/n: this is old and has been in my drafts for a month😭 it’s time to post it.

Megumi glared your way as you smugly stared back, you were teasing him... right?

You had been telling him this for days, almost a week now of you going on your astrology binge and commenting on anything anyone did as a very “horoscope” thing to do.

If only he didn’t answer you when you asked “hey what time were you born? I want to find your birth chart.”

He didn’t know answering that question would lead to where he was now. If only he kept his mouth shut instead of telling you, every day made him regret that choice.

He’d twist his head before shaking it, better not to ask.

If he slipped his hand out of yours in public?

“Ah right, Capricorn’s aren’t too into PDA.”

He furrowed his brows, about to say something before giving up and rolling his eyes.

If you caught him organizing his desk?

“Ah, cleaning and organizing in your free time? Very Capricorn like.”

He twisted his face. What does that even mean??

What’s worse was you didn’t just stop with him. Every conversation with anyone else was like this, it only got worse when you brought horoscopes up with Gojo.

It was as if the two of you only talked about horoscopes, every conversation he happened to walk into were when you and him discussed star signs.

This all led to now, you were rambling on and on about how important it was to know the planet signs, with Gojo adding onto the conversation with hums and more information.

“But that’s why I think Nobora, Itadori and you are so similar, you’re all fire signs so you’re like different fonts of the same person. With Megumi being an earth sign he’s the calm that holds the group to ground level, I think its such a fiery balanced group that...” you continued to ramble on and on.

Megumi couldn’t help but twitch. You talked about this. Daily. “Is that all you can talk about...?”

You clicked your tongue, “That’s such a Capricorn thing to say...”

Gojo nodded, “I can’t believe how accurate it is!”

Megumi considered switching schools that day.

That was until a shift occurred. A subtle change he happened to notice when the two of you were in his room.

The normal, laying on his bed and cuddling or scrolling through your phone turned into you… randomly tidying up his room. Like making his bed or color coordinating his clothes as you hung them up, something that softened him up.

It was so odd but domestic. You would pop in at times with homemade foods, and he was such a sucker for anything homemade, when you brought him a plate for dinner, his heart did a little tumble roll.

The two of you were sitting on his bed as you ate, with you glancing up at him to see his bright expression every time he took a bite.

He wiped his mouth, “I didn’t know you could cook.”

“Of course I can cook.” You recalled the way your past meals blew up in flames out of nowhere, making you reconsider your words. “I mean I mess up sometimes… but still.”

“I didn’t expect you to be so nice this week.”

“You’re welcome?” You cocked your head, how exactly do you respond to that.

His eyes followed you as you got up to take the empty plates away, “Did you want me to pay you back?”

“For what?”

“For helping me. Is there an ulterior motive...”

“Really?” You held a flat look on our face, “I like helping you every once and awhile. Since you do so much for me already.”

“Oh.”

You caught him off guard with that one. He could feel his face heat up and desperately hoped he wasn’t blushing.

“I didn’t know.” His eyes dipped down as he scratched his neck, he felt. So. Soft. Mushy. Having someone care for him this way wasn’t common. “Did you want to lay with me?”

You grinned, placing the dishes on his desk, you could deal with that later.

He adjusted his legs as you hopped between his legs, letting him bear hug you from behind and rest his chin on your shoulder.

He always managed to sucker punch the air out of you when he held you this close, his light breathing down your neck sent too many butterflies for you to catch.

“I love you.” He mumbled into the crook of your neck, placing the lightest paper light kiss onto it.

Your eyelashes fluttered shut, a content hum leaving your throat. How does anyone keep their composure in this situation?

There was a silence as he held you so close, like a question was to be posed.

“But…” he looked at the side of your face, “does any of this have to do with horoscopes…?”

You paused. “How… how did you know?”

He pursed his lips as you laughed. “It was too specific,” he knew there was something fishy going on. You turned him into an experiment, a very romantic way of turning your boyfriend into a test dummy. “Was it a love language?”

“Yes, acts of service,” you pulled out your phone, scrolling through hundreds of tabs relating to ‘how to make your Capricorn boyfriend happy.’ “I wanted to see if it worked.”

He smiled as you began to close them out, then you turned to him, “I mean did it work?”

Duh. He rolled his eyes, not even responding to your question. This man was whipped for you, and he wasn’t going to lie… you putting in that much to make him happy just bursted a confetti of butterflies in him.

He squeezed you closer, burying his head into your shoulder. To be loved this much, to have someone do anything to make him happy, it was a gentle feeling that washed over him.

“Yes.”

Of course it worked. Whatever you did always made him happy.

Extra:

“People get it mixed up a lot but your moon sign is how you are in your inner world! Not the sun sign, it’s the sun sign that shows how your zodiac personality is, like people say it shows what you want and moon sign shows what you need! It’s so interesting, and the signs are ruled by planets, so you know Capricorn is ruled by Saturn and when it gets into retrograde then...”

You looked back to see if he was catching on.

He stared back at you. Still wondering what the hell a Capricorn even was.

#jjk #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader #fluff #fushiguro x reader #megumi x reader #fushiguro megumi x reader #Megumi Fushiguro x reader #Megumi x reader fluff #bleep!!! I’m at 400🧍🏽‍♀️#wtf #how did I get to 400 #I literally just hit 300 #thanks HERES Megumi content

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selsprompts · 3 years

Text

watch your tone

*gif creds to owner*

-> pairing: Tobio x fem!reader (y/n)

-> rating: M for mature, lil sad but it’s s’cute I promise!! (Light angst, fluff and smut)

-> warnings: fingering, hand kink, choking, degrading, spanking, oral (male receiving), technical voyeurism.

-> insight: you’re worried you and Kageyama are having relationship issues so you surprise him at volleyball practice, but he’s not happy about it.

You and Kageyama have always had a healthy relationship, it’s just how you both were. But lately he’s been preoccupied with volleyball, it’s not like you were surprised. At the beginning of your relationship you had established that it was his first priority no matter what. The issue was that it seemed to be his only priority lately.

You would call and text him and he wouldn’t even care to respond and when he did, it was days later and very late, too late for you to respond in the same timeframe.

The fact that you both went to different high schools didn’t help either but being one of the managers of Shiratorizawa had it’s perks, one of them was meeting Kageyama.

You were getting impatient and you were starting to panic. Was Tobio calling it quits? why was he avoiding you so much? did you do something he didn’t like? he was always so observant..

The more your mind pondered the more you started to grow worried. After school you took your usual bus home to Karasuno instead, this would be good, right? Facing the problem head on.

You walked into Karasuno heading towards the gymnasium hoping that Kageyama would actually talk to you instead of just brushing it off like he usually does.

"Hey Y/n!!” spoke a bubbly energetic voice that could only be Hinata‘s.

You spun around and politely responded back, Hinata following close beside you.

"So what’re you doing at Karasuno?”

“I just need to talk to Kags before practice, I haven’t seen him in awhile” you said fiddling with your hands approaching the gymnasium.

“yeah I was wondering why you haven’t been around, Kageyama has been acting weird”

Hinata opened the door and you followed behind.

“Weird? What do you mean?”

Before the orange haired boy could respond Suga called out your name catching everyone’s attention... just what you didn’t want.

“Y/N!! WHAT’RE YOU DOING HERE!”

Tobio whipped his head around from the court and looked just as surprised as everyone else... but angry?

After all of the boys spoke to you, you decided to go up to Kageyama yourself. You found it quite odd he didn’t come up to you himself but oh well.

“Hi, Tobio” you smiled, you didn’t dare try to hug him after the attitude he was giving, it just wasn’t gonna happen.

“Hey Y/n, what brings you to Karasuno?” He picked up a vollyball and began to serve right infront of you.

“well I- I just wanted to talk to you. Your not really answering my calls or texts so..”

He nodded.

You looked down at the floor while he kept picking up more ball to serve. It was like he didn’t even care to just.. talk. It was disrespectful and it wasn’t Kageyama at all.

“Kageyama” No response.

“Kaygeyama could you listen to me please” no response.

That’s it, you’ve had enough. All the boys were staring at you now.

“TOBIO KAGEYAMA I AM SPEAKING TO YOU”

Everyone in the gym froze, they all looked at eachother then continued to ignore the fiasco happening.

“Yes Y/n” he turned around and dropped a vollyball.

“Why aren’t you talking to me? Did I do something? And stop calling me that” You said coming closer to him.

“Calling you what? Your real name. What else would I call you?” He bumped into your shoulder heading for the locker rooms, you following close behind.

“Are you kidding me? You seem to be forgetting the fact that I’m your girlfriend, Tobio. You’ve been neglecting me and I don’t like it, that’s not how this works”

He abruptly stopped and spun around to look at you.

“How does it work then? Mm? You get to flirt with Ushijima at Shiratorizawa and then come back to me wanting attention?”

He grabbed you and slammed you against the lockers putting his left knee in between your legs, the heat was building.

“T-tobio what’re you-” He caged his arms with you in the middle.

“You don’t think I see how you act when Ushijima is around? You’re so bubbly and touchy, I’m sick of it”

“Love you know I’d never do that to you, Ushijima just needs to open up to people.. h-he’s not very talkat-”

He moved his knee up pushing against your heat, you subconsciously grinded down on it.

“Mmm... such a bad girl, I think I’m gonna have to teach you a lesson on how to behave”

You nodded eagerly, you missed this.

He pushed your uniformed skirt up rubbed your clit.

“Use your words baby, beg”

“Please- please I want your fingers inside of me Tobio”

He then pushed your panties to the side sliding two fingers in pumping fast.

You began to moan at the stretch, his long fingers curling inside your soaked cunt felt like heaven on earth right now.

“Keep it quiet slut, wouldn’t want all of Karasuno hearing you, or would you?”

He used his other hand to choke you, you moaned at the feeling of being under his control.

He pushed his palm against your clit causing shivers to go down your spine.

“K-kageyama m’going to-”

He started to pick up the pace, you could hear the sounds of your wet cunt around his fingers.

Just as you were about to hit your high, he pulled them out of you. You whined.

“Think I would let you off that easy?”

He picked you up placing you on a bench.

“T-tobio I’m sorry if I-”

He unzipped his pants and grabbed the back of your head.

“Stop talking for once pet, if you want to make it up to me, do as I say. Now, suck my cock”

“Yes sir” you responded taking his member out of his pants.

You peered up to look at him, he was smirking. Kageyama knew damn well what he was doing and dammit it was working.

You kitty licked the tip a few times before he pulled your hair. You took that as your single to take him whole.

“Mmm fuck just like that”

You bobbed your head up and down his shaft using your hands for whatever you couldn’t reach.

“Alright baby I think it’s time for me to take control again” he pulled himself out of your mouth and grabbed your hair into a makeshift ponytail.

You knew what this meant, it was his favourite.

“Ready?”

“Yes”

He rammed his cock into your mouth fast and painfully. He kept a pace that made his thighs tremble.

“F-fuck you’re such a good girl Y/n”

You were choking and gagging, you started to see stars.

“Look at you, crying all over my cock. Such a good pet”

He finally pulled you off and you gasped for air.

“Get up and take your panties off”

You practically ripped your panties off waiting for his next move. He grabbed you by your hips and you jumped and wrapped your legs around his waist.

“So eager?”

“Please Tobio- put it in me already”

“Only because you asked so nicely baby”

And in one quick thrust he was inside you. He was ramming into you like he had something to prove; and it was insane.

You were a moaning mess for several minutes before he pulled out completely and pulled up his pants.

“Wh-what’re you doing Tobio?”

“I have practice. We can finish this later when you’re a good girl” he smirked and walked away. The bastard.

He turned around to say something else.

“And Y/n, watch your tone”

Before you had a chance to say anything else he left the locker room without another word. I mean hey, at least your on good terms now.

I haven’t written in so long so take this from my drafts xx

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metanoiamorii · 3 years

Text

❛Maybe we are not meant to be, not yet. Maybe we’re stars, waiting to collide in another life.❜

♧ Title: Be Still My Foolish Heart [BSMFH]

♧ Status: Brainstorming & Drafting

♧ Point of View: Third

♧ Genre: Fantasy, Action, Drama, Romance

♧ Warnings: Violence, War, Death of major and minor characters, nudity, past abuse, generational trauma, generational healing, racism, transphobia, homophobia, character corruption arcs, ethics vs morals, star crossed lovers, tragic endings, codependent and complicated relationships.

♧ Featuring: Diverse LGBTQ+ characters, enemies to friends to allies to lovers slowburn, complex and complicated characters, fantasy religions, plenty of symbolism, complex world building, ethics vs morals, a whole lot of moral grey can be fit into this bad boy, character redemption and corruption arcs, some found family, learning to separate one from their family's trouble and taking control of their life, soulmate trope, setting the groundwork for future generations.

♧ Setting: An Ancient Chinese inspired, fantasy setting

♧ Synopsis:

In Oidien there has always been a defined split against the Heavens and Ghost City. No one can remember what sparked the feud between them, it's possible after all these years of the fighting and endless war... they don't even remember themselves. They know it's tradition to keep fighting, to ensure the cycle of violence continues. So that is what they do; they keep fighting.

In recent years, the King of Ghost City has drawn back from the fields off battles and distants himself from politics. He leaves the affairs in his eldest children: Lianhauzi holds the crown, Lutaizi knows his way around the court, Suming’qiu is gifted with the army, and Taixuan is there to ensure everyone takes a break, to take care of her family.

A fight against children is how the Heavens view it... To their surprise, these children are more than gifted than their father. This isn't a game to them, it's a livelihood. They know how to secure a victory within minimum casualties, and they know how to balance one another's weakness.

The Heavens cannot take another loss. No matter how many battles they have lost, they have always managed to win this war. Each time. But on this account? They're afraid to admit they've been beat. So they come to a resolution: they have to take out one of the links. Take out one and the rest should crumble.

It's...

Not as easy as one would imagine. Or so their spies in court relay. The four know to keep their distance in public, and if they meet in private no one knows. They handpick their servants carefully, and they ensure each servant knows their tasks and do not overstep. They've taken every precaution necessary.

Even when it works, when one of their spies is welcomed inside that well guarded, hidden court... no one expects the game of cat and mouse to transpire. Their spy is humored until she's willing to change her allegiance and eventually is brought into the family by marriage... In the very least, she offers the weakest link to exploit to destroy the family.

♧ Tease

Of all I have done,

Forgettable they to none;

Has it now begun?

No, not forgiveness.

That I would never ask for, love.

I wish, regret comes.

You know as I do,

Games I once played, have turned you,

A pretty face blue.

I made no mistake,

You know as I do, the stakes

Required; played.

Once, for you, my rule

To survive, I broke, for you;

That forsaken dual.

My conscious it haunts;

My sleep, in dreams it will taunts

And it brings your scorn.

Pour me a wine glass,

For my sanity to last

And my wrath? To trap.

For me, preform; dance

Distract me with your nice laugh

Until I collapse.

And leave, in silence,

See to it, quiet your lips

Of the truth won't slip.

Allow me my sleep,

Don't be cruel, do not slight, cheat

You ugly she-beast.

A single night, peace,

That is all I ask for, please...

Better, just leave.

I have discovered,

Regret? No, I now confessed

Not for you, coward.

♧ Excerpt:

Her booted feet pattered against the puddles of rain droplets as she hugged the umbrella close to her shoulder, protecting herself from the storm. In a hurry she rounded the corner, following after the image of a soaked cat that had caught her attention and ran before she could approach it properly. It had been the first time in awhile since she had taken to sprinting, to follow the cat. Around the corner Xihuli came, brought to an abrupt halt when she turned into another person, as insane as she was to be out in the midst of a storm.

Her umbrella clattered to the floor, dropped as she staggered back a pace. The bright red silk was out of place, spinning upon the rain soaked ground. She gained her footing, no longer staggering to place distance between them. Her head threw back, an angry look quick to find purchase upon her features. Having yet to reach for her umbrella, the rain begun to soak the bright red and white silks she wore, drenched and sticking to her figure. "Watch—"

Her protests are so abruptly cut off. She watches the man tilt back his own umbrella, dark as the stormy sky with red spider lilies imprinted upon the fabric; the hanging tassels brush against his form, parting to expose his face. A youthful face that should have been smiling, with those eyes— so red to match the spider lilies upon his umbrella— staring at her as if she were a lesser being. The umbrella sits back upon his shoulder, head tilted forward with his chin forward, a sign he was in fact superior to her.

"Don't you know better, Zhuque?" The tone he speaks in, it's unlike that rambunctious voice he's known for, full of laughter that becomes too obnoxious for the ears. How serious it is, no jest spoken, no room for his games. He stares her down, staring through the dangling tassels of his umbrella. And how unkind that look is, a look that's no better than a wolf staring at a lamb. "You should never be out so late."

The two men, another prince and his own dog. Wine and lilac gives him away, wearing the golden lotus crown in his hair. Face unfriendly, a natural scowl he had been born with. He stands beneath the umbrella held above his head, keeping him dry from the rain. Held by that fucking bastard, smug and vain, with the bones acting as hair pins. He's uncaring if he gets wet, of course he is. When he controls the ocean why would he care about a little storm?

Lianhauzi pulls back his hood as he now stands blocking the last exit, Lutaizi and An Huli keeping the woman pinned in. He takes a step forward, Xieyuan moves with him, holding the umbrella in place. When he steps forward they all watch Xihuli push herself back, struggling to press her back into the wall, able to stare in each direction where one was coming from. "The fear in your eyes betray you... You know why we are here."

♧ Characters:

Love Interests

Shenguai Suming’qiu; Heizhao-jun

Amab • Agender • He/Him • Asexual • Reciproromantic

The Fourth Master of the Phantom Palace; that has earned the name of Black Sinister Claws. Said to be cursed from birth, as he has come to age and stepped into the politics and warfare, he has come to be their lucky charm. A conniving young man with a sharp intellect, and a shaper wit. For his family, he has taken up the role as master of intelligence and handles all correspondence, planning, and diplomacy. As a front, he appears an apathetic man, detached and void of all emotions, only hellbent on his work; only his siblings and a selected handful are able to see another side of him.

Yi Xianzi; Courtesy Name Ke’ai

Afab • Genderfluid • She/They • Pansexual • Demiromantic

The Young Mistress of the Yi Manor is a woman with high and strong morals, and lives to maintain peace for the Heavens, and secure a future for the younger generations. She bears conflicted emotions of supporting her mistress’ less than moral ambition, but often does not speak of them and turns a blind eye instead; she tries to justify these actions for the greater good, despite knowing better. Often at times, she is torn between her loyalty to her household, and her own sense of justice and morality.

━━━━━━━━━━

Phantom Paradise

Shenguai Bixie’e; Guiwang

Amab • Nonbinary • He/They • Pansexual • Apothiromantic

The King of Ghost City. Despite years and generations of war with the Heavens, he remains undefeated and stays alive. Defying the odds, many believe he is unkillable, and quite well, untouchable. He has retired, for the most part, from the battlefield, and remains within the Phantom Palace, allowing his children to helm the war. He spends his time with his concubines, or with his council. Few see his face, fewer are able to gain an audience with him.

Shenguai Lutaizi; Heige-jun

Transmasc • Genderfluid • He/They • Omnisexual • Demi-Homoromantic

The unorthodox First Master of the Phantom Palace; that has earned the name of the Lord of the Black Song. First in line to the throne, he has conceded his right to it, and would concede his own royalty if not for his siblings. Despite being a Prince of Ghost City, he is nothing like his father. Carefree and reckless, he would prefer to spend his days drinking, goofing off, and living life to the fullest, uncaring of a familia grudge that makes little sense to him.

Shenguai Taixuan; Duandaojian-jun

Transfem • Nonbinary • She/They • Demisexual • Panromantic

The Second Master of the Phantom Palace; that has earned the name of the Princess With A Broken Blade. She takes greatly after her elder brother, and refuses to partake in a war that has not personally done her wrong. Despite her heritage, she is a woman with a strong sense of justice, morals, and honour. She protects her family from harm, and she will not turn away someone in need, no matter their origins. Opposed to being a sister and a daughter in her family, she fills the role of mother and acts as the woman of the household.

Shenguai Lianhauzi; Baoli’jífeng-jun

Amab • Agender • He/They • Asexual • Akioromantic

The Third Master of the Phantom Palace; that has earned the name of the Violent Tempest. Pressed by his elder siblings, he has taken up as their father’s heir to the throne; the Crowned Prince. He is known for his bad temper and strict nature. At heart, he has good intentions, he lacks the best judgement to execute his intentions.

Shenguai Kuangre Ai Du De; Dubo'mogui-jun

Amab • Genderfluid • They/He/She • Pansexual • Cupioromantic

The Sixth Master of the Phantom Palace; that has earned the title of the Gambling Demon. He is a man unaffected by grudges, politics, responsibilities. He prefers to take a page from his brother, Lutaizi’s, book and spend his time enjoying life to its fullest. He is very much a hedonist, and a compulsive gambler. Everyone he meets, he is obligated to gamble with them, at least once. The catch? He’s capricious, he’s erratic, and he will always change the game and stakes with every person.

Shenguai Jiaxiu; Mei-jun

Amab • Genderfluid • He/She/They • Pansexual • Frayromantic

The Seventh Master of the Phantom Palace; that has earned the name of the Beauty Lord. Arrogant and narcissistic, he is a very conceited man. He enjoys simple flattery and having others fawn over him, being the center of attention. Out of admiration he has taken after his brother, Suming’qiu’s, footsteps and assists him with his tasks. Himself, he carries out the more… darker duties called for, and gathering information; assassinations and spying tends to be his expertise.

━━━━━━━━━━

The Four Calamities

An Huli; Chui Feihong

Transfem • Agender • She/They • Homosexual • Homoromantic

Little Fox, as she’s called, is the favored of Prince Lutaizi, and the oldest of the Great Calamities. She is a woman who knows what she desires, what she is determined to do, and she refuses to allow anything or anyone to stand in her way. She comes off to be blunt, spiteful, angry; a she-devil, some claim in kinder terms than a bitch. Ahead of her time, she refuses to hide herself behind a mask, to be perceived as a gentle woman when, in truth, she is a walking storm, and for that, many frown upon her.

He Ruxie; Hei Xieyuan

Amab • Agender • He/They • Demisexual • Gyneromantic

Lord Black Water, as he is called, is the favored of Prince Lianhauzi, and the second of the Great Calamities. Formally a scholar in his past life, he experienced a string of bad luck, costing him his family, his wife, his daughter, his livelihood, his freedom, and soon his sanity. When he perished in his mortal life, he returned as a malicious spirit, and soon came into the service of the Shenguai family and serves loyally and viciously

Da Chen; Nitu Guiguai

Transfem • Nonbinary • They/She • Asexual • Demiromantic

The Enlighted One, as they are called, are the favored of Princess Taixuan, and is the third of the Great Calamities. In their previous life, they lived the life of an honest priest, surrounded by corruption and sin. When they met their end, their resentment for their peers remained and thus they rose to power to root out the corruption and seek retribution. Of the four, they are the amicable. They often forgo emotions and act only in rationality. Their mind is never clouded, and each act they make are in good conscious. Good will is shown to those that live an honest life, no matter their origins; ruin is shown to those are decide to live a dishonest life.

Wusi Linghun; Bai Wulian

Closeted Transmasc • Agender • He/They • Akiosexual • Demi-Akioromantic

The White Devil, as he is called, is the favored of Prince Suming’qiu, and the youngest of the Great Calamities. Formally a young lord in the Heavens, he turned his back on a betrothed he held no affection for. Openly, he cast aside his previous life, to serve the Shenguai family, and became a quick aid to the Fourth Prince. He is said to be two-faced, in some encounters being ruthless and apathetic, and other times he is genuine and compassionate; a toss up upon which side someone will see when their paths cross with him.

━━━━━━━━━━

The Heavenly Host

Meng Zhang; Courtesy Name Amnizha

Transfem • She/Her • Demisexual • Demiromantic

The First Master of Dongbu, and the acting Qinglong. Kindness is the one rule she lives by: kindness to her family, kindness to her allies, kindness to a stranger, kindness to her foes. She sees no reason to rule with fear and hatred, and actively will not promote negative emotions. She is a stern and serious woman, she takes pride in her knowledge, her power, and securing the truth. Behind closed doors, she opposes Xihuli and the Emperor, knowing both have secrets they would prefer to keep buried, in public she maintains an appearance of being a close ally.

Ling Guang; Courtesy Name Xihuli

Cis-female • She/Her • Demisexual • Apothiromantic

The First Master of Nanfang, and the acting Zhuque. Openly, she is perceived as a compassionate woman, who puts the needs of her people before herself, and acts selfless; in truth, she is surprisingly violent and vulgar. She continues to fuel the war, slandering and starting rumors of false deeds to rile the public, and gain the support of her supposed allies. There is nothing she is not willing to do to gain fame, support, and what she desires.

Jian Bing; Courtesy Name Cixia

Afab • Genderfluid • She/They • Asexual • Demiromantic

The First Master of Xibian, and the acting Baihu. She is known for being a compassionate woman, she wears her heart upon her sleeves, and acts out of the goodness of her heart. She openly encourages peace, to cease endless war and bloodshed; to make amends. For which, she is seen as an enemy to Xihuli, but is a close friend to Amnizha. Her only downfall are her chronic illnesses that have left her sickly since birth.

Zhi Ming; Courtesy Name Lu'yongshi

Amab • Agender • He/They • Closeted Homosexual • Homoromantic

The First Master of Beifang, and the acting Xuanxu. He has a reputation that precedes him as an honorable gentleman. He is a man of his word, he acts in accordance to justice and honor, and rarely strays from it. At heart, he is a warrior, and lacks the delicacies for social greetings; he comes off as blunt, uninterested, distant, and often lacking a heart to care.

Zhi Shi; Courtesy Name Yansbi

Cis-female • She/Her • Asexual • Aromantic

The younger sister of Lu'yongshi, the Second Master of Beifang, and acting Xuanshe. She happens to be her brother’s polar opposite. She is less than honest, she lacks honour, she craves power, she will use blackmail to get what she desires. As, she is not above blackmailing and guilting her own brother to act in accordance to her own agenda. She is also a close associate to Xihuli.

Long Jianhong; Courtesy Name Canren

Cis-male • He/Him • Bisexual • Apothiromantic

The current Emperor of Zhongxin, and the acting Honglong. A prideful man that cares more of his own person than his own people. Often, he turns a blind eye to all suffering, and allows Xihuli to do as she pleases. He is a womanizer, with various concubines’ , and elicit affairs with others. He was loveless to his wife, as there are rumors he was behind her untimely death. Whether these rumors are true or not are unproven, and few challenge them out of fear.

Long Shisan; Courtesy Name Li Busengren

Amab • Genderfluid • He/She • Quoisexual • Quioromantic

The Fourteenth Prince of Zhongxin. With twelve siblings in line of succession to the throne, Li Busengren acknowledges the chances for him to be the heir are little to none; this is added by the factor of being, from birth, his father’s least favorite child. With a will to prove his father wrong, and desperate for his father’s approval, he’s ready to do anything for an ounce of recognition.

Taglist

BSMFH: @writings-of-a-narwhal, @kittensartswriting, @inkflight, @qelizhus,

General: @endlesshourglass, @writerray, @poore-choice-of-words, @alexwritesfiction, @primusesgiantmetalballbearings

Both: @cecilsstorycorner, @little-boats-writes, @hazard-writes, @egg-shark

#My writing #Wip intro #Wip introduction #Writeblr #Writeblr community #Writing community #Writers on tumblr #Writers of tumblr #Fantasy #Star crossed lovers #Original writing #Fantasy writer #Morri's collection #Morri's wips #Did Morri really say instead of being productive with new content they would just make a re-intro to this wip?#Yes yes Morri did #Original works #Original story #in the midst of chaos there is queue

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doc-pickles · 4 years

Text

the jolex college AU that literally no one asked for

Soooo I did a thing. I’ve actually had 90% of this in my drafts for awhile and I just decided to finish it today. (nina you said you didn’t have any fics in your drafts. WELL I’M STUPID SO THERE’S THAT) I’m not planning on expanding this past a one shot but it’s a fun little AU that my mind kicked up one night while watching 14x15 and drinking too much sangria. It’s not polished up or beta read but I figured something is better than nothing :)

also TW// jo swears like a freaking sailor in this fic

“A fucking fire alarm? Really?!”

Jo Wilson was not one to be inconvenienced, especially not while she was in the damn shower. She let a groan out as the water above her shut off, probably an incentive to get her out of the building in case it really was on fire.

“I’m going, I’m going,” Jo muttered to herself, reaching for her towel. After wrapping it around herself, she realized that she hadn’t brought her clothes with her. “Oh you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.”

Fuming with anger, Jo began to walk down the two flights of stairs to the ground floor and out the front door of Earl Hall. Various cat calls and whoops met Jo’s ears, but she was too angry with whoever the hell set off the fire alarm to acknowledge them.

“Wilson! You trying to give us a show here,” Jo turned at her name, staring down Andrew DeLuca as he attempted to get under her skin… or under her towel. “I wouldn’t say no to a free peep show.”

“Oh shove off DeLuca, you’ll fuck anything with a pulse,” Jo retorted, earning a howl of laughter from DeLuca’s friends. “I’ll show off the goods to anyone who can tell me who set off the fucking fire alarm while I was showering though.”

“That would be me.”

Jo whipped around, one hand coming to hold the bottom of her towel in place as she came face to face with the person who had effectively ruined her day.

She hadn’t met the man before, but Jo was instantly mesmerized. He wore a dark blue shirt and plaid boxer shorts, hair ruffled at odd angles and the beginnings of a scruffy beard appearing on his sharp jawline. The man was handsome and by God did Jo just want to fuck him right there and then.

Kill him. Kill him right there and then.

Jesus Christ Jo, pull your head out of your vagina.

“So you’re the asshole that set off the alarm,” Jo asked, eyebrow raising as if daring him to refute her words. “Well hi, I’m Jo and I’m fucking pissed at you.”

“I’m Alex and I really enjoy your talent for slipping the word ‘fuck’ into almost every sentence that comes out of your mouth,” Jo stared back at Alex, unamused by his joke. “Listen I’m sorry, I was trying to study for chem and my hot plate burned a hole through my notebook. You should be back in soon if it’s any consolation.”

As if by fate, the fire alarm stopped ringing and someone shouted that it was safe to go back in. Students began to file in but Jo and Alex kept their staring match going. She couldn’t tell if it was the mounting sexual tension between them or just plain old hostility, but Jo couldn’t tear her eyes away from the man in front of her.

“You’re on my fucking shit list Alex,” Jo stated firmly before walking away. “You better watch it!”

“Hey! You didn’t hold up your end of things,” Alex called out, causing Jo to turn back around and lift an eyebrow in question. “You said that you would ‘show off the goods’ to anyone who told you why the fire alarm went off. Well that was me.”

Jo paused momentarily, thoughts racing a million miles a minute before she moved closer to Alex and opened her towel up. Eyes wide, Alex immediately diverted his gaze away from Jo, not anticipating that she would actually flash him. With a satisfied smirk, Jo tucked her towel back into place and walked back towards the dorm hall.

“Have a good fucking night Alex!”

“If I never end up at another frat party it’ll be too soon,” Jo complained, swatting a hand away from her ass as she followed her roommate towards the kitchen. “Why’d you have to drag me out here, Hannah? You know Brandon trolls these parties looking for unsuspecting girls to trick into dating him so he can cheat on them a month in.”

Hannah looked at Jo with a bored expression, as if to say she was tired of hearing this story over and over again.

“We get it, you hate Brandon Thomas and everything he stands for,” Hannah rolled her eyes and handed a red solo cup to Jo. “But you realize that this is the Kappa house and Brandon is in Chi Omega. They’re sworn enemies, you’ll never see him here unless the planets align and someone’s sacrificed a virgin to the moon god.”

Jo rolled her eyes, lips coming to the cup and taking a large swallow of the jungle juice inside. She didn’t really know anyone at these parties, but there was always free alcohol and she had a pocket knife stashed in her bra in case she got into trouble.

“Jo, promise me you won’t kill me but Brandon is here,” Jo’s head whipped around to look at Hannah, eyes wide as she stared her roommate down. “He’s by the front door, just turn around and walk towards the backyard and you’ll never see each other.”

Jo eyed the back door, only 50 feet from where she was standing. She could definitely make it there without being noticed. Weaving through the crowd, Jo was positive she would get out without accident.

“Jo! Is that you?”

Brandon’s voice sounded over the crowd, making Jo cringe as she realized she had been caught. She looked around in a panic, almost yelling as a pair of arms slid around her waist.

“Just play along, I hate that douche bag too,” Jo looked up in shock, realizing that the person that had grabbed her was the guy who had set off the fire alarm last week. “Nice to fucking see you, Jo.”

“Oh you’re a piece of- MMM,” Jo was cut off by Alex’s lips pressing into hers. Jungle juice and adrenaline coursing through her veins, Jo presses back against him. Alex holds her against him for a minute more, one hand trailing to grab her ass while the other pulls her closer into his embrace. Her free hand unconsciously comes up to tangle in the curls at the nape of his neck and Jo swears she can feel him moan under the pounding sounds of bass music that surround them. Finally, after what feels like a lifetime, he pulls away with a crooked grin.

“Sorry, that prick Thomas was walking by, had to give him a show. You’re welcome.”

Alex walks away from Jo then, leaving her standing in the middle of a frat house party completely confused.

“Jo! I’m walking out the door but your alarm has been going off for 20 minutes!” Hannah slammed the door to the dorm room, abruptly waking Jo up. She looked to her bedside clock, groaning loudly as she realized that she had 15 minutes to get across campus to her 9:30 AM class.

“Well fuck,” Jo bemoaned as she rolled out of bed, grabbing whatever clothes were around her and throwing them on. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. I can’t miss O Chem again. Fuck!”

Rushing out the door, Jo let her worn out sneakers pound across the pavement towards her Organic Chemistry class. It was only week two of spring semester and she couldn’t risk missing class for a second time.

Skidding into the lecture hall, Jo raced past a few students and slid into the back row of her class only five minutes late. She let out a loud breath, pulling her notebook out of her backpack as she tried to tune into the professor.

“You know you might be able to learn more if you show up on time,” Jo’s head snapped up as she looked to her left, realizing that the seat she had chosen was right next to Alex. “Funny seeing you here.”

“You have a lot of nerve trying to talk to me again after what you did at that house party,” Jo kept her eyes locked on her notebook, refusing to even glance at Alex as she started writing notes. “Even if you did save my ass, who goes around kissing strangers?”

“We’re not strangers. I know that your name is Jo and we live in the same hall and you smuggle cereal out of the dining hall when you think no one is looking,” Alex shrugged, eyes trained on the lecturer at the front of the hall. “And you’ve shown me your rack, I feel like that counts for something too.”

Side eyeing the man next to her, Jo watched Alex listening intently to their professor. He had a serious expression painted on his face, one that made him look years older than he was. Today he wore a forest green sweatshirt that bore the university’s wrestling team logo. Jo thought back to the first time she met Alex, remembering the way his shoulders and arms were built up more than anything else on his lean body. His dark hair and eyes that had instantly caught Jo’s eye seemed harsher under the fluorescent lighting of the classroom. This version of Alex that she was staring at today seemed so different than the Alex who accidentally set his chemistry book on fire and kissed her at a party to help her avoid her cheating ex. This Alex… well he seemed cold and unapproachable.

“Okay that only proves that you’ve been stalking me,” Jo rolled her eyes. “What do you want? Are you expecting me to sleep with you? Or help you with your homework? Because that’s a no on all of the above.”

“Nah figured you needed a friend,” Alex shrugged, pencil tapping against the edge of his textbook. “You seem like the lonely type.”

“I am not lonely,” Jo’s voice comes out louder than intended. Her next words are softer as she glares at Alex, their teacher and lesson long forgotten. “I’m just selective about who I spend my time with.”

She does try to concentrate on her work then, but Jo can feel Alex’s eyes boring into the side of her head. He frustrates her, angers her in a way that nobody has before and she can’t decide if she wants to punch him in the face or kiss him until she can’t breathe.

Wait what?

Jo shook her head, trying to clear out the image of a shirtless and sweaty Alex out of her mind. She was not going to start fantasizing about the handsome muscular man who’s lips felt like velvet against hers and who’s hand on her ass made her feel like-

“You’re drooling.”

Her hand flew up to her cheek, wiping at the small pool of liquid as her cheeks flamed red. She chanced looking over to Alex, who wore a shit eating grin that was slightly crooked. Damn it, keep it in your panties Jo!

“I was thinking about… dinner tonight,” Jo nodded, keeping her gaze forward. “Probably going to get… take out, something fast and easy.”

“Fast and easy, huh?,” Jo could swear that Alex’s voice took on a husky quality to it as he lowered his volume. An involuntary shiver ran up her spine as she futilely tried to calm the rising sensations in her body. ”That’s my favorite. For dinner I mean, I love it fast… and easy…”

Whipping her head around, Jo locked her eyes with Alex’s. The intensity of their stares almost scared her, but more than that Jo was desperate. She wanted this complete stranger (and total asshole) in the worst ways possible, her mind conjuring up images that would send her straight to Hell if she dared to say them out loud.

“I have no idea what the professor is talking about,” Jo admitted, eyes watching Alex’s lips as her tongue darted out wet her own. “But I really wanna get out of here.”

“If I fail this class because of you, you’re never gonna hear the end of it,” Alex was hastily shoving his books into his bag, slinging it over his shoulder as Jo rose and made a beeline for the door.

The pair ignored the stares they got from their classmates as they raced out the door, jetting into the empty hallway in a fit of giggles. Before she could comprehend what was happening, Jo found herself in Alex’s embrace. He pinned her against the wall, lips hungrily devouring hers as her hands fisted his hair roughly.

“Come on lover boy,” Jo smirked, hand tangling in Alex’s own as she broke apart from him and dragged him down the hall. “My roommate has classes for the rest of the day so my dorm is empty.”

#alex karev #jo karev #jo wilson #jolex #jo x alex #jolex fic #greys anatomy #greys fanfic #greys #jolex fanfic #nina writes

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chimswae · 3 years

Text

BTS Caretaker CH33

Summary: She may think she has Bangtan Sonyeondan wrapped around her fingers. She may think it is easy to love the members equally without hurting any soul. She may think the boys wont fall head over heels for her. She assumes it is okay to show a little love and affection towards the boys, what if she gets it all wrong? What if it only brings more complication to her already complicated life? Can she survive their charms? Will she be able to resist them? What if they just wont let her go?

- Pairing: BTS x Oc ( Yoongi x OC, Jungkook x OC)

- Genre: Fluff, Slight Angst, Romance, Idol!au

- Word Count: 3,595

- Author Note: There is a small text exchange between Seul and Jin in this chapter, so i put the text up.

Previous | Next

Chapter 33

“Seul, what is the matter? Why with the sudden notice?” Wongeun placed the letter down on his lap, expelling a long sigh. Once again hesitation ripped off the confidence that she had earlier. She had given this into a thought, even Jin would give her a call without fail despite not being there physically by her side. Ever since her encounter with Mr Kwon, she had never seen him lingered around the shop. God knows, when he decided to make his appearance again.

Wongeun snapped his fingers to bring back her attention to him “Am I talking to wall? Is there something that I must know? You are a little off these days” Seul smiled meekly adding to his suspicion.

“It is nothing. I think mother needs me by her side. Her health is deteriorating, it is best to pay more attention on her” she lied. It was an established fact that she quit after finding out the truth about Mr Kwon.

She needed to- no, she must stay away from him as far as possible.

“Seul.. if this is about your mother, you know we can help you. You don’t have to resign” he reasoned.

“Oppa, I think it is about time to focus on something that is more important in my life. I have nothing against this place, hell I have been working for two years with you. It is not easy for me too, but I hope you understand” her cold lips emitted a heavy sigh. She looked at him sadly “Please?” Wongeun leaned back in his seat.

He was morose and kept his mouth shut making her anxious for no reason. “It is hard to let you go Seul. You are a good employee and a good friend of mine. Just so you know, the door is opened for you anytime. Hit me up, and you can get that apron of yours back” he lightens up the mood earning a small chuckle from the girl.

“Thank you oppa, I know I can trust you with this. Don’t worry I will come to visit once in awhile to check on you guys” Wongeun said quickly “And to buy a box brownies” she laughed softly.

“Yes, a box of brownies. I will never forget you, for all the things that you did for me. So, thank you again” Wongeun shook his head and eyed the girl closely. “Don’t sound like we are not meeting each other anymore. Seul just don’t-“ a voice spread across the room, pausing the conversation that they had.

“It is stated in the contract; all employee must give two months’ notice before resigning”

That voice again. Seul’s breath hitched when his eyes laid on her, scrutinizing her from head to toes.

Why is he here? She mentally groaned in dissatisfaction.

Surprised by their manager sudden appearance, Wongeun stood up almost immediately and bowed politely “ Sir, I didn’t know you will be coming today” he murmured while giving an eye signal to Seul demanding her to greet the important person in front of them.

She rose from her feet with so much reluctance didn’t want to appear suspicious, so she gave the old man a little bow without sparing any look at him.

Dressed in navy blue suit, he had round dark shades to cover that two pair of evil eyes which she hated the most. Not long after, he took off his shades, keeping it inside his pocket with an unreadable expression “ Miss Ji, your resignation letter is invalid. I will not accept it. Draft a new one as an advance notice, you may leave the job in two months” his voice was mocking her, to flaunt his power that he had on her.

Seul’s jaw tightened, letting the anger sipping in “I don’t remember having that kind of terms in the contract?” she snapped.

A mischievous smirk spread across his face “ Keep the job for two more months or pay the penalty, your call” Wongeun blinked confusedly sensing the tension in the air as though these two were playing with fire, getting ready to throw it at each other.

“I will pay the penalty fees” said Seul confidently.

“I reckon you can afford those fees. It may cost you fortune. I suggest the first option anyway” the tone of his voice was so snobbish making her fuming in anger. She pondered upon this matter again. If she insists on quitting the job and pay the penalties, where to find the money?

As much as she wanted to seek help from Jin, that sounded impossible. This would only make her to appear like a gold digger. She was not that desperate.

She couldn’t believe it with her ears that after so many years, he still had the audacity to pull such threat on her. This simply means she had to put up with him for two more months before freed herself from this evil lair. How was it possible to survive that?

“Miss Ji, I am waiting” he tapped his finger on his branded wrist watch.

“Fine, I will hand in the new notice tomorrow” Wongeun sent her an apologetic glance considering he didn’t have much say in this. He too didn’t understand why Mr Kwon seemed so interested in this business recently. All these years, he never showed up and would contact Wongeun occasionally through phone call.

Something is fishy, he thought.

“Good. Enjoy your last two months here, you never know what awaits you” those last sentences sent chill down her spin. You never know what awaits you, it rung inside her head in loop. She couldn’t simply forget it just because it came from the nastiest human being alive, Evil Kwon.

Without wasting any more seconds to breathe the same dirty air as his, Seul excused herself to tend her job. Wongeun watched her back leaving the scene with a heavy heart. There were unanswered questions inside his head that need to be answered soon.

Satisfied with his successful plan in keeping the girl under his radar, he was ready to leave. “I want her letter by hand and she must submit it to me personally. Tell her to come to my house tomorrow, I will be working from home” he ordered.

Wongeun nodded, trying to be optimist since the older man made Seul to submit her notice all way to his house without any solid reason. How odd was that?

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

Two more days till home. Just two freaking days, then he could recharge back the energy in him. He already missed his odeng and eomuk though, for the time being Seul would be keeping those two cuties with her during his absence.

Jin decided to laze around a bit considering the practice for their concert tomorrow had taken almost 13 hours of his time straight without break. He plopped himself on the comfy king-sized hotel bed and expelling a tired sigh. Massaging his aching shoulder, he released another loud grunt not liking the pain that took over his body.

His roommates, Jungkook and Namjoon were out to get food with Jimin. As soon as they reached their hotel, he went straight to his room without wasting more time outside. Jin prioritized his sleeps more than anything. He fished out his phone from his pocket and decided to text Seul again.

He bit his lower lips muffling the small chuckle from his mouth. Nowadays, the mere thought of Seul became the source of strength in him. Even though this feeling that he had for her started way back then, but he’s too afraid to admit it.

Someone needs a love counselling session.

Joyfully, his fingers moved swiftly against the screen and typed a quick hi to Seul.

Damn, why is he like this?

Seul was reading his last message and her eyes flew open in surprised to see his name appeared on the screen. Jin’s quick reflex was no joke, he acted as if Seul was at the brink of death. Giving Seul no time to process, Jin bombarded her with questions which almost knocked her sense out from her body.

“Where are you meeting him? With who??

“Are you by any chance alone?”

“Don’t tell me your best friend refuse to follow you there!”

“Seul don’t go! It is dangerous! The last time you’re breathing in the same room as his, he almost ripped your dress apart. Goodness woman!”

“Geez Kim Seokjin. One at a time. Your words fly faster than bullets. I am alone, no, Hwasa is working. She can’t ditch her job because there’s only her and Sera working this shift. And, about the first question, I am heading to his home” Seul swore to god Jin’s high pitch yell could be heard miles away. This was the exact reason she didn’t want to tell him about her plan meeting the old man alone. Jin would react this way.

“YAH ARE YOU INSANE? DID YOU JUST OFFER YOURSELF TO THE EVIL MAN VOLUNTARILY? ABORT MISSION. RETURN. HOME. NOW!” he yelled angrily through the speaker earning a soft hiss from the latter.

“Are you mad?”

“No. I am so happy that you are now on your way meeting Mr Kwon, what a beautiful reunion!” his sarcastic remark sounded so Min Suga. When she thought about it again, they must be spending too much times together as a roommate.

Seul snorted “I know but like I have a choice. I just need to submit this and once this reach him, I will leave immediately. I will take care of myself Jin” her voice softened at the end. Her heart skipped weirdly at the attention that he showed to her, like when he sounded so protective over her it drove her wild heart to edge.

“I know you can take care of yourself, but I don’t trust him Seul. Think about this again? His threat is empty, about the penalty fees I can help-“ she blurted quickly before Jin could say more.

“I don’t want you to help me. This is an issue that I can solve by my own. I only need your morale support and I don’t need your money. Jin, I can handle him. I will contact you as soon as I am out from his house alright?” for some reason her assurance did not sound tempting to him at all. Jin didn’t feel good about this.

The end of the line fell into dead silence worrying the timid girl. Angry Jin was not pretty, and she knew it would lead to more harm than good. “Jin..” she called him out softly meting his heart.

Aish, how can I stay mad at you, woman. Jin rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“Under one condition, don’t hang up on me until I make sure he won’t do something inappropriate to you” she frowned and stopped in front of the beautiful bungalow house. For a second, the size of the house took her breath away but realizing who’s the owner of this property, she cringed in disgust.

“That is impossible. International call is expensive Kim Seokjin, are you mad?”

“I can afford that, just listen to me, will you?! Stop being so stubborn!” Seul sighed and glanced at her phone screen before pressing it back near her ears.

“Look, my battery barely survives this phone call Jin. I will call you as soon as I am done, it wont take long. If I didn’t get back in 15 minutes, you can reach Hoon and tell him my whereabouts” she suggested to ensure Jin wouldn’t make fuss over this again.

Jin paused for a second before responded “15 minutes is too long! Why do you need 15 minutes when you can just leave the letter at his doorstep and leave immediately?” as expected from Jin, he wouldn’t take things lightly.

“Every step that I take is more than one second you moron. To add to those delay is my hesitation, can you just spare my life for 15 minutes and reconsider my offer. Gosh, you are impossible!” she exclaimed.

“Ji Seul, I don’t like what you are doing” he scowled.

Seul rubbed her head, with a small sigh “Do you trust me?”

“I always trust you but not now. It is not a good idea, you still have time to change your mind and take off from there. I..just that- I am not there for you Seul. I don’t want anything happen to you” low murmurs could be heard clearly and Seul found herself smiling shyly. This different side of Jin always make her looking forward to spend more time with him in the future.

“I promise, I will be back in 15 minutes without scratch, can you wait for me till then?” she bit her lower lips nervously. Did she sound like she’s flirting with him? Why was she worried over her choices of words and tone of voice? This is sickening.

Jin finally gave in and nodded “15 minutes not more. If you don’t give me a call within that time, I am calling cops”

“Hoon” she corrected.

“Hoon has no gun, cops have one”

Seul whined “You are not calling the cops! I forbid you in doing so, just call Hoon” he chuckled softly picturing Seul’s pout in his head.

“Fine, Hoon”

“I have to go, I will be back in 15 minutes max alright?” she hung up without bidding a goodbye and annoyed the hell out of him. He glanced at the clock in fear, 15 minutes from now Seul must be out safely from that home.

Or else, Jin..

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

Entering the luxurious lavish home, her eyes scanned the interior admiring it along her way. The maid brought her to another wing of the house which she assumed where his office would be. Taking a deep breath, she dragged her heavy legs entering the office and not to forget thanking the maid before the woman disappeared from her sight.

“You made it” the old man tore his gaze from the pile of document in front of him to Seul. She wished how earth could just swallow her right now rather than being in the same room as his. Seul mustered her courage and approached the wooden table slowly, “I am here to submit my letter as you requested” placing the letter on the table, she took a step back.

“I will get going now” she mentally screamed to quickly exit the suffocating room and normalize her breathing. Mr Kwon smug, taking his time to say this one thing that could stop her from walking away through that door.

She reached for the door knob and before she could open the door, Seul heard him chucked lowly “I know what you are looking for. It is your biological father, right? What if…” he stood up from his leather swivel chair, walking stealthily towards Seul.

Her brows flinched as he continued “What if, I know who your real father is?” he minimized the gap between them.

Seul’s eyes shot open realizing what this man tried to offer her, “Wh-at… nonsense is that…” her eyes threw daggers as she backed away, pressing her back against the cold door. The older man cackled in delight watching how much power he had on Seul.

“Not nonsense, but I do know where to find your real father”

“I don’t trust you”

“Really? Did your mother ever tell you about your real father?” he brought his face closer to her, teasing the girl in process. Her lower lips quivered in fear “I know… he is one my father’s best friend” she held back her tears from hitting the ground.

He nodded “True, but have you seen any photo of him?”

“Why does it matter?!” she snapped.

“You have such a loud mouth, it could be used for better thing in the future” he rubbed his thumb over her lips only to be slapped away by Seul harshly. “Don’t touch me” she gritted her teeth in anger, feeling offended by his sexual remarks.

“Alright, I won’t touch you. But that won’t change the fact that I know where to find your real father” he tilted his head studying her expression. It was a mixture of pain and anger. “Your dad is closer than you think” he whispered in her ears.

Seul shook her head frantically “I will never listen to a bastard like you, stay the hell away from me” Mr Kwon let out a sarcastic laugh.

“Stay the hell away from you? Even blood can’t tear us apart Seul” he snorted. “I will spare you for now but remember, my arms always open for you in case you need me” he twisted the door knob, opening the door for her.

With one final glance, she scurried off the room using the last ounce of strength in her body afraid that the bipolar man might change his mind in the middle and decided to lock her up or kidnap her. Once she felt the cold wind hit her skin, she was relieved to survive the battle with demon inside.

Thinking about his words earlier, could it be true that he knew who’s his father. Hence, there was a chance for her to find him. She realized it was too early to put a trust on his word especially it came from Mr Kwon.

Seul still had her mother, she is the key to every questionable thing in her life.

If she could dig it from her mother, then she didn’t need Mr Kwon’s help. He wouldn’t do it for free, there’s always be an exchange of something every time people seal a deal with him.

Her loud ringtone brought her out of her trance, and she answered without even bother to look at the caller id “Seul! Thank god you are alive. Have you met him? Did he do something? Are you okay?” his panic voice rose from one octave to another.

“Nothing happen so can you calm down? Save your voice for tomorrow’s concert. I delivered the letter and leave before he could say anything” it was not the perfect time to tell Jin about the things in relation to her father. She would tell him when she’s sure Kwon’s words were not a mere bluff.

Jin disagreed “I can’t stay calm knowing you are with him! Don’t do that again. You are scaring me woman. Are you on your way home?” she hummed a soft yes and started walking.

“Then I will give you a company until you reach home” his crazy ideas made her smile.

“Don’t be silly, I am perfectly fine. Go to sleep Jin”

“This woman.. It is 9PM and you are sending me to bed already?”

Her nose scrunched up in annoyance “You have to wake up early tomorrow nevertheless, it is not a bad idea to sleep at this time” she defended her earlier statement.

“I am walking you home, that is my final decision! Now, how’s your day?” her eyes were rolled back digesting his cliché side, though deep down inside she could say this was a romantic gesture. With Jin’s soft voice rang in her ears along her journey back home, she feared nothing in this world.

His voice was gentle and soothing enough that it drove a part of the fear away.

With his voice, it shortens the distance to her home. Not to mention, every time she laughed at Jin’s silly dad jokes, half of her burdened were being lifted from her shoulder. Entering her building, she climbed the stairs tiredly unlocking the door. Kicking her shoes at the corner, she promised to clean it up the first thing when she woke up tomorrow. Seul hurried inside her room with Jin voice nagged in the background urging her to head to bed as soon as she reached home.

“Are you in your room?”

“Yes, Mr Kim. I am in my room” she threw her exhausted body on the bed, throwing arm over her head.

“Good, now get changed and rest. Text me a good night when you are done” Jin let out a soft chuckle.

“You are so demanding. Not even my boyfriend but you are acting like one” murmuring with eyes closed, she stretched a little.

He argued “I just walked you back home so appreciate me” Seul’s soft giggle tickled his heart. He sunk on his bed, laying on the cold mattress with a foolish smile across his face.

“So full of yourself, why I am not surprised”

“Consider this as our first date” he muttered.

“What?” bewildered, Seul sat up trying to brain the meaning behind those shady words. She heard his heavy breathing at the end of the line, as he continued “About, me walking you back home, consider it a date” out of a sudden his voice turned fifty shades darker and romantic, enticing every part of her body.

What the hell Kim Seokjin? That is cringy! Jin facepalmed.

“Don’t say anything, pretend that you misheard that. Oh gosh, I must go. Don’t forget to text me a good night! Bye Seul!” he spat the words out like flying bullets without giving the girl a chance to say anything and hung up.

Jin rolled on his bed, screaming in the pillow blaming his sloppy and foolish action. He was worried if that scare the girl away. Grunting in frustration, he felt like he just screwed up his blooming relationship with Seul.

Just what is wrong with me, Jin was frustrated and feeling a little remorseful over his action.

#btscaretaker #bts fic #bts series #bts fanfic #bts fanfiction #yoongi x oc #yoongi fic #jungkook fic #jungkook x oc #jungkook fluff #jin x oc #jin fic #kim seokjin x oc #bts fluff #kpop fanfiction

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magic5ball · 3 years

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Nature Trail to Hell: Epilogue

Epilogue (Or should I say, EPIC-LOGUE!)

If you can believe it, camp actually got better after that. Heck, I’d ever go as far as to say it was half- decent! Now that I’d been through my crazy adventure, most of the stuff I dreaded before didn’t bug me so much (except singing in front of the mess hall. Those moments will haunt me forever.) Now, the days were filled with canoeing, fishing, and roasting marshmallows around the campfire. For the other campers, at least. Hobag put us right to work making amends for all the damage we’d done, shoveling snow and putting cabins back together log by log. We got to build a campfire, at least, but this one was made from all the evidence of Bob-Sardoth’s horrible reign.

Why she let us do the funner stuff after everything we did was anybody’s guess. Maybe Bob-Sardoth had scrambled her brain a bit.

Still, that didn’t mean there were a few surprises left in store. For one, singing the chaunt of Bob-Sardoth, even if only partway through, did some odd things to my body. My teeth were sharp triangles, and where my bog toes used to be, I now had the sharp sickle claw of a deinonychus. Yeah, my parents would probably be freaked out, but it was nothing puberty couldn’t explain.

But my favorite had to be when one day, I was picking up oars on the lakeshore, when who did I see paddling through the water but my old pal Bokrug!

“Dude! Where you been?!” I screamed, the waterfowl making his way to the shore.

Turned out, he’d retired from the whole LARP geese gig and had his bones transferred over to the lake. He’d also had a talk with Hoebag, suggesting that, maybe, just maybe, we didn’t have to spend half an hour singing in front of that stupid mess hall! And you ever happen to come across Camp Sham today, you can probably find him still there, dabbing for algae in the lake. Also, tell him I said hi. Its’ been awhile.

As for the sponge dinosaurs, I have no idea where they ran off to. Maybe they froze to death, though I’ve heard some of the campers never behaved quite right after returning home. Started roaming in heards and eating five times their weight in lettuce every day.

And Hilda…

Since our talk with Hobag, Shatner and I had kinda been avoiding her, even after our big heart-to-heart. Didn’t help we were in charge of cleaning up the mess made by Bob-Sardoth’s reign, so the more akward parts of our relationship were always fresh in the mind.

That being said, I did see her exactly one more time before the summer ended. It was the last day of camp and that dreaded blooper reel was playing on the projector, which had amazingly survived the gulag days. Not too keen on seeing my folks and spawn of Satan little brother laugh their butt off at my expense, I’d slunk off to that hard, concrete, chlorine scented cell that was the camp bathroom. There, wondering what creepy crawlies might be going about the unclean ground, I heard a voice in the neighboring stall.

“Hey, Wonky Watt.”

It was a good five seconds before I made my reply.

“Hi, Hilda.”

“Now, I-I know I’ve said this before, but I’m sorry. And goodbye.”

My heart clenched. Yeah, Hilda had done some dumb crap, but hadn’t we all, during that crazy summer?

“Goodbye, too, I guess. Where are you going, now that this dumb camp is over, anyway?”

“Well, I’m no longer chained to Bob-Sardoth, and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do without him always being on my case. Can’t go to school, being a space fart and all that.”

“Lucky. School sucks.”

“And maybe one day you’ll see how amazing it is you get an education at all. As for me, I gotta figure myself out. Probably someplace far away from here.”

“New Jersey?”

“I was thinking Jupiter.”

“How are you gonna get there?”

“I’ll walk.”

I shrugged. Made about as much sense as anything else that summer.

“And what about you? What’s your big plan?”

“Video games.”

“Knew it.”

For a spell we sat there in silence, not quite sure what to say. She broke the ice.

“How’s Shatner?”

“Still angry I left him for the tigers.”

“Figures.”

Now, the Shatster and I became friends again eventually, but for the time being, he wasn’t too keen on talking to me.

“Well, I guess this is it. Have a good rest of your summer.” She said.

“Have a good summer.” I replied.

And that was that.

Well, not quite. Before she left, I snuck back to my parent’s car, where my reward for good behavior, the one, the only, the Nintendo DS lay waiting. Returning to the bathroom, I split that thing right down the middle!

Well, Hilda did. My arms were too weak.

“Here. I know things are weird now, but maybe we’ll get over this when we’re old. And when that happens, we can play together!”

Hilda just stared at the gift I’d given her. Probably shocked I gave her the lower half of the DS, which as any kid knows is the best part.

Then she started laughing, and kept laughing until I figured her lungs might jump out her throat.

You ever heard a sentient fart laugh? Like a big bang of electric joy on a Ferris wheel. Something that feels like forever, but is gone in an instant.

Kinda like the summer, really.

“See you too, Watterson!”

One puff of smelly, smelly smoke later, Hilda was gone.

It was weird. Barely knew the girl, yet something clenched in my heart on seeing her go. Something that made me stay in the bathroom for hours, staring up at moths beating their heads against the flickering light above, until a counselor barged in looking for me.

I guess it’s’ time I told you a little truth about Hilda: that’s not her actual name. I forgot it awhile back; Hilda is just what I remember it sounding like. Yet every now and then, I’ll be sitting in my room, or riding my bike, and I’ll wonder what she’s up to, going to Jupiter and all that.

Barely even noticed when Mom pulled me to the car. I just stared out the back window as camp shrunk into a little dot on the horizon. Funny thing is, only as that wretched gulag sank out of sight over the horizon did it strike me I’d probably never see the place again. That all my crazy adventures over the summer would be forever be buried at there, never to return. Or would they? Because maybe camp wasn’t just singing outside the mess hall, or arts and crafts, or mosquito bites. Maybe it was the memories you made going through Hell with other people your age, memories that lasted long after the Salisbury Steak was chained back to its frozen tomb in the basement. Maybe people spent too much time chasing the DS at the end of the rainbow and forgot the friends right in front of them until it was too late.

Woulda made me right sappy, until I realized that there was a valuable lesson about friendship.

The exact kind of thing Hoebag woulda wanted me to learn.

I got real red in the face right then and there, let me tell ya!

That stupid bi-!

THE END!

(To all of you who’ve read this far, thank you. Nature Trail to Hell has been a passion project I’ve worked on on and off since 2017, and while this might not be the last draft, knowing people stuck with this to the end makes me really happy. That being said, this is not the last we’ve heard of Watterson Tostig and Friends, or even this story. Expect some more stuff coming in the future!)

#My writing #Nature Trail To Hell #thank you

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diary-of-deadweight · 4 years

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Being op isn’t all it’s made out to be.

Summary: you’re strong, hella strong, so strong that your aspirations of becoming a hero are dwindling until a bald hero makes his appearance.

Authors note: this is a BNHA x opm crossover fic that I’ve been wanting to write for a while but had to get some shit out of the way first, hope you enjoy this.

Ever since your were a child in kindergarten you always wanted to become as great of a hero as your idol, who didn’t live in Musutafu like most heroes but in a once populated town called City Z; it all started during recess just as Billy Beale, the class bully, followed by his nameless goons, was about to kick sand from the sand pit into your friend’s eyes for the hell of it, you stepped up to protect them by putting yourself between Billy and them as you punched him in the gut with your small chubby fist that sent him flying further then you’d expected.

Billy’s goons were left stood there, faces unsettlingly pale as they watched their group leader being punched harder then normal, scared stiff as identical dark patches expanded across their trousers from fright as they got laughed and pointed at for pissing their pants by the other kids in your class while you looked at your tiny hands in awe and shock as if they held all the answers you’ve been searching for, whilst also taken back at how much power they held without trying; that was when you found your calling to become a hero like your idol like many other quirk possessing kids across Japan and a hero is what you’d be even if the odds were stacked against you.

Even if you did get in trouble for engaging in a ,obviously, one sided fight and a scolding from your parents that were soon subsided by them not being able to be mad at you for long, especially when you were jumping up and down, waving your arms wildly screaming, “I HAVE A QUIRK! LOOK AT ME MOMMY, LOOK DADDY! I HAVE A QURIK!!”

Flash forward 13 years later and you were perched upon a wooden bench in a flowerless garden downtown just as a gust of early January air came by, making you involuntarily shiver in your heavily layered form as it brushed the honey brown leaves littering the street an inch across your peripheral vision as if it was playing monopoly with itself as a second draft of winter air ruffled the bare naked trees in the nearby area, the sounds of bustling city life just barely reached your ears, leaving you with a sense of serenity which was greatly appreciated while yet a tad unnerving thanks to your constant run ins with the League of villains that left you with less the pleasant memories and all within the spam of your first few months of attending UA none the less; they started out as nothing more then a dysfunctional group when they made their grand debut in the USJ in hopes of killing Allmight, only to find you, your classmates, Aizawa and pro hero 13 instead which lead to an all out brawl ,after standing around all stiff limbed and breaths being caught in your throats at the sight of villains somehow infiltrating a disclosed location; only to be bested by Allmight who finished off the nomu, with some minor help as you punched the brain dead bird monster off of an injured Aizawa and into a wall while knocking some lesser known villains off their feet by the blowback of the punch itself earning you some praises from fellow classmates and heroes alike which, at the time made you feel all warm inside, now didn’t make you feel as if you achieved anything really the more time that passed by and the more times you’ve ended things with a singular blow making you scream to the heavens, scaring off some birds in the process, “WHY DOES IT ALWAYS END WITH ONE PUNCH, DAMN IT!!!”

After the disaster that taken place in Kamino Ward, leading to Allmight’s retirement after giving all for one a farewell gift in the disguise of a knuckle sandwich and a unforeseen future that sent everyone in a blind panic to find the next symbol of peace meanwhile the villains lurking in the shadows took this as a blessing to wreak havoc, resulting in the percentage of villain activity to skyrocket more then ever before, unsettling the civilians even more then they already were came the introduction of the big three during a relatively calm day of school, well as calm as it could get, only for Mirio to offer a challenge to fight everyone in your class singlehandedly which peaked your interest greatly as you thought that you’ve finally found your match after defeating Midoriya, Bakugou and todoroki during the sports festival awhile back, coming out with your skin unscathed, your sports wear a complete mess of rips, punctures and burnt cloth that it was absolutely baffling to everyone in attendance, some believing that it all came down to your quirk being the solution and leaving it at that.

Turns out that not even the great Mirio Togata could take you down as you exhausted him easily with your unlimited stamina, insane durability at everything he threw at you and godlike reflexes, countering his attacks with those you’ve picked up from tv with your photogenic memory even if he switched strategies form time to time, all with a blank look on your face that left him struggling to figure out your next move as throughout most of the fight you just stood there with the patience of a saint. Needless to say that your ambitions of becoming a hero were at an all time low at this point as you found yourself becoming less and less committed to your craft to the point where even your most oblivious of classmates were starting to notice the dying fire within your heart, the loss of feeling such emotions as happiness, excitement, fulfilment, exhilarating among other positive emotions but most of all...you can’t remember the last time you’ve felt the heart pounding, adrenaline rush a fight could bring...you didn’t feel much of anything as you once did 13 years ago ever since coming to terms that you were practically unstoppable to overcome that you don’t think that even Allmight could beat you in an arm wrestling match!

Which all lead up to where you were now, sat upon that bench, now digging through your pockets for the class transfer papers just as a bald male in his 30s, dressed from head to toe in a orange jumpsuit, matching set of ruby red gloves and boots with a white cape that fluttered and swayed behind him in the breeze as he made a checklist of how his day went wrong which he spoke out loud as there was no one around to glance at him with concerning or creeped out looks “I lost sight of Genos, my phone is dead so I can’t contact him or nothing, on top of that,” he stopped his chatter to inhale air deeply into his lungs, “HE HAS ALL THE GROCERIES!!”

“Oi, old man,” you said just as you looked over your arm that was resting against the back of the bench, “mind keeping your thoughts to yourself, that would be greatly-“ your breath caught in your throat mid-way your rant as you got a good look at who you were unknowingly scolding, eyes widening as memories of your childhood flashed before you in snapshots.

A man stood before what looked like remnants of a monster dressed in a orange jumpsuit, red boots and gloves now stained with the monsters blood, white cape flapping in the wind, a shiny bald head complete with a deadpan face, after getting a little girl out of the crossfire of the monsters attack in record time, proclaiming to the self proclaimed vaccine man that he was a hero for fun before proceeding the kill him in one blow. The man you wished to follow in the footsteps of. The hero known as capped baldy...not really a name that screamed hero like names such as Allmight and Midnight but it screamed hero to you

“Oh my god...am I dreaming? Capped baldy in Musutafu!!!” You then squinted your eyes into slits as your voice dropped a octave “ you ARE capped baldy? Right?” He only grunted in response, not really expecting to find his first fan in...what did you say? Musutafu? Well...he was a looonnnggg way from home just for some sales shopping that might never happen again; You squealed for the first time in a long time since you were a child as you ran over to him within a blink of an eye, leaving him momentarily stunned as he regained his bearings as when you called him by his hero name that he became civil with overtime when he saw that there were other heroes with even shittier names then his own.

“I-I’m a massive fan of your work!” You began, already feeling yourself shake in the presence of your idol as you hoped that it wasn’t visible, “I’ve watched you fight monsters ever since I was a little child and from then on I’ve always wanted to be just like you when I grow up” you concluded as you peered up at him to notice that he had a shadow casted upon his eyes.

“Trust me kid you don’t wanna be like me...having a lot of power in your possession can only lead to a loss of many things, I don’t feel the thrill of entering battle anymore, my heart doesn’t pump as fast as it use to...I’m stuck in a constant state of melancholy.” he stated as he saw a lot of himself in you, when he was is middle school he wanted to be the strongest hero there ever was, then when he turned 23 he trained so Intensively that his hair fell out. He didn’t want you to wish upon the same fate that granted him the ability to incapacitate or straight up kill a being in one punch no matter how strong they are. He just couldn’t, you deserved better then that.

“That sucks because the second I turned 5 my quirk-“ He quirked a brow at the word, never having heard it up until now, “my power ,basically, when I punched this little asshole but ending up sending him flying further that I thought I would’ve...ever since then I’ve managed to defeat villains, students heck even heroes alike with a single punch that my ambition to becoming a hero has vanished chunk by chunk, piece by piece until nothing of it remained. It started to become less and less of a priority to me that I went and asked for a class transfer form hero course to general studies because it’s gotten that bad,” you paused as you felt the tears began to build up steadily within the corners of you eyes, inhaling deeply you asked the one question you’ve been meaning to ask him ever since you were little, “how do you cope with it?”

A silence hung between the two of you as a gust of air battered your frames, whipping your hair and his cape wildly before calming down once more, the sound of your heartbeat was just about the only thing you heard in the deafening silence besides yours and his semi-synchronised breathing, the rustle of trees and bushes; your hands began to felt more clammy as time passed on quicker and you swore you felt a bead of sweat trail past your temple, almost phasing out entirely until you saw the bald mans mouth move.

“Come again?”

“I didn’t, if anything I try to live my best life even with my overwhelming strength, I’m still looking for someone who I can take on without killing them in a single punch, I’ve met so many strong opponents who could easily surpass me yet I could still lay them out flat with out trying as if they’ve never progressed at all...but the take away from this kid is that even though you may be the most powerful person in the room doesn’t mean there isn’t someone out there who will push you to your limits, so it takes months, years, decades, try and hold out until then even if your tried from the same thing from dusk till dawn. All you have to do is have patience, until then you can kick everybody’s ass to your hearts desire.” You both shared a chuckle at his finishing statement just a monotonous voice rang out from behind the caped baldy.

“Sensei! I’ve seen to have lost you awhile back and for that I apologise greatly for” the male bowed low, letting get a right good look at his synthetic blonde strands before he stood back to his full height, his eyes reminded you of Mina’s eyes as the whites of his eyes were completely pitch black, making his golden orbs pop out, his face was smooth as a babies bottom, his cybernetic body obviously went through some upgrades since the last time you saw him on tv,unlike his sensei, Genos was wearing some casual civilian clothes so he wouldn’t get spotted in public.

“Ah no need to be so...you, anyways we should better get back to city Z in case there have been any sightings,” Saitama said nonchalantly as he waltzed over to his companion, shopping in hand, before turning back to you with a minuscule smile upon his usually bland face.

“I hope to see you again someday kid, when we do we shall see who’s stronger, sound like a plan?” He rose a brow awaiting your response,

“Your on baldy and I’ll win for sure” he smirked at your eagerness before fishing his for something before whipping out a piece a paper from almost nowhere, scribbled something upon it before hanging it to over to you just as the pair took their leave.

You looked down at the price of paper which read:

‘You’ve got spunk kid, gimme a call someday when your feeling confident enough to spar. - saitama’

Below it was a combination of numbers you presumed was his number, a wide spread grin appeared on your face as you tried to control your excitement form leaking out and making you look like a right weirdo, you pocketed the slip of paper into your coat polecat before taking out the class transfer papers out of the other one, looking at the form you remembered his words.

“Even if it takes months, years or even decades...all it takes is a bit of patience” with that you tore up the form into pieces, tossing them up in the air like confetti, watching it fall to the sidewalk like fresh snow before making your way to school and bumping into a skittish Midoriya who asked about your change of personality and all you said was as you looked up into the grey cloud clad sky with a smile.

“I had an epiphany from an unlikely source”

#opm imagine #opm imagines #opm x reader #bnha imagines #bnha imagine #bnha x reader #anime imagine #anime imagines #anime x reader #midoriya izuku imagine #midoriya izuku imagines #saitama imagines #saitama imagine #genos imagine #genos imagines #bnha #mha #opm #one punch man

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yeet-or-be-hawed · 4 years

Text

Hunters of Flesh and Money Part 7 Arthur Morgan x reader

After receiving news that Arthur is missing, you do everything you can to help Sadie keep the gang safe while Arthur and the others are on Guarma.

Pining and Fluff with *GASP* FIRST KISS?!

*Writer’s note: I cannot tell you guys how long this has been in my drafts and I’m so glad we’ve finally gotten to this point! This has been one hell of a slow burn but its so worth the wait ❤ Thanks to everyone who’s been keeping up with this fic, its such a personal story for me and I’m glad it can be enjoyed by others. Please enjoy this happy loving reunion!

Part 6

Masterlist

The busy Saint Denis square was bustling around you as you flipped through your mail rather impatiently. It had been weeks since you had last written Arthur and gotten no response. Your anxieties were getting the better of you, had you scared him off with your intimacy? Had you finally decided to open up just to have him shut you out? You remembered his face as you gave him one last look when you dropped off his supplies. You were certain there was adoration behind those eyes and even through your anxious tendencies something felt off. Relief flooded you as you identified an envelope signed in Sadie’s handwriting. It seemed odd, as Arthur was usually the one who wrote out the address and formalities on the front, considering his handwriting was much neater. You opened the letter excitedly:

Dear Fletcher,

I wish I could be writing to you in better circumstances. Something terrible has happened and I need your help. Arthur is...the truth is I’m not sure where Arthur is. Meet me in Lagras and I’ll tell you more. Come quickly.

-Sadie

Your heart dropped to your stomach as you scanned the words on the paper. You reread it over and over again. Arthur is missing? Your chest felt like someone dropped an anvil on it and you crumpled the note into your satchel and mounted your horse.

The ride to Lagras felt like an eternity, your mind moving a thousand miles an hour. What was Sadie doing in Lagras? Would it not have been easier to meet her at their camp? You nearly jumped off your horse as you passed into Lagras, scanning the small cluster of buildings. Sadie was sitting on the porch of an old beaten down house, when she saw you she ran into your arms. “Fletcher, thank god!” she gasped.

You hugged her tightly and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Where’s Arthur? What’s going on?”

Sadie sighed shakily and whistled for her horse. “I’ll tell you on the way.”

You nodded.

Sadie led the way to Lakay and you followed close behind. “Few weeks ago, Dutch had this crazy idea of robbin’ the trolley station in Saint Denis- I know, don’t give me that look I thought it was stupid too. From what Charles was tellin’ me, lawmen showed up almost immediately. Dutch, Bill, Arthur, Javier, and Micah escaped on a boat but,” she sighed. “Who knows where though.”

You were speechless. “A boat?”

“Mhmm,” she nodded. “And that’s the last anyone saw of ‘em.” She turned her horse down the trail and you could see Lakay just ahead. “Pinkertons came a coupla days later and we had to move. I managed to get everyone out safe but...”

You looked at her and she looked tired. Her eyes were sunken in and she looked like she hadn’t slept in days. “I’m here to help, don’t worry.” you rode your horses to the hitching posts and slid off your horse. “Whatcha need, Sadie? I can bring supplies, I can keep guard, you tell me what I can do for you.”

She sighed in relief and put her hand on your shoulder. “I just need an extra hand keepin’ everyone together, and guard duty would help.” She laughed weakly. “I don’t got much money right now, but a wagon load of food and dry clothes would be appreciated.”

“Keep your money Sadie, I’ll run back to camp at first light.” You looked up at the evening sky, melting from day to night. “I’ll keep guard for the night, you get some rest.”

“It’s okay, I can-”

“No,” you cut her off sternly. “You been through enough, you asked me to help and that’s why I’m here.”

She hugged you tight, you could feel just how skinny she had become since losing her home. “Thank you,” she whispered.

You gave her a gentle squeeze. “You’re welcome.”

You watched as Sadie disappeared into the small cabin, you could hear the commotion of others, the sound of conversations but you couldn’t make out the words. You pulled your shotgun from your back and sat on a bench. Your mind trailed back to Arthur, where could he be? You had never even been on a boat, you wondered what it was like. The gnawing in your stomach wouldn’t leave, it twisted and turned and showed you scenario after scenario of Arthur, dead on some beach or shot and thrown off the side of the boat into the sea. You sighed and looked up at the sky. The stars were bright tonight, you prayed Arthur was okay, looking at the same sky as you as he made his way home. You weren’t sure how, but you clung to the hope he would find his way back to you.

The nights on Guarma were cooler and less muggy than the day. This island paradise Dutch had dreamed for them was more or less a reality now, but not the reality any of them had hoped for. He looked over at the others, asleep on the ground beside of him. No matter how he laid, pressure against his burnt body made him uncomfortable. His skin was bright red, worse than any sunburn he had ever gotten. The jungle was full of unfamiliar sounds that kept him awake, everything here was so different, and even with his fellow gang members laying beside him he felt so alone. The thought of you danced across his mind and his chest seized. Would you ever find out what happened to him if he died here? Or would you just think he abandoned you and moved on to the next state? Would you grieve him, or would you even notice he was gone? The feeling of your lips pressed against his forehead returned to him and he knew he would make it home, he had to. Arthur looked up at the sky, no matter how far he was from home, he could still see the stars shining on him. He promised himself he would make his way back home, back to you. The thought of you kept him going.

You stifled a yawn as the morning sun rose over the trees. The night was uneventful, not even a single rider passed through. Your body felt heavy but now wasn’t the time for sleep, the second you were relieved of guard duty, you had to ride back to camp and get supplies. The door opened, but Sadie wasn’t the one who walked out. A woman with dark hair pulled into a bun sat beside you with a repeater in her hands. Her eyes were pink and swollen and it looked like she hadn’t slept at all through the night. “I can take over from here.”

You cocked an eyebrow at her, “you sure?”

“Yeah,” she snapped back. “Why?”

“Looks like you could use a bit more sleep, if I’m bein’ honest.”

She didn’t look at you, her eyes stared vacantly out into the trees. “Cain’t sleep.” She mumbled, her frustrated tone melted away.

You put a hand on her back. “You worried bout your friends?”

She laughed humorlessly. “I don’t know what he is to me anymore. My husband? The father of my child? A man i cain’t stand? Or a man I can’t live without?” She ran her fingers through her hair. “And the boy...” her voice cracked and she trailed off.

You could see the tears welling up in her eyes and you shifted uncomfortably, this wasn’t exactly your strong suit. “Him and the others, they’ll be back. If they’re anything like Arthur, they’re tough enough to get through hell and back.”

She looked at you and gave you a soft smile. “You’re her, aren’t you? The woman who came to camp awhile back and brought the wagon of food and furs right?”

You nodded.

“I’ve heard him talk about you- usually when he’s too drunk to know what he’s sayin’. I also heard him askin’ Hosea for advice.” She paused and swallowed the lump in her throat. “Me and John, we ain’t- we aren’t the best couple, we spend more time arguin’ and bitin’ at each others throats but I love him. Goddamn it, I love that man so much it hurts. You seem to care a lot about Arthur, I can tell. Don’t let yourself get in the way of your own happiness.”

You were speechless, certainly the heat you felt across your face and neck was from the humid swampy air. “I-“ you cleared your throat. “I need to get back to camp, I’ll be back with food and blankets. Is Sadie awake?”

The woman nodded.

You stood and opened the door. You looked over your shoulder as you stepped into the threshold. “What was your name?”

She gave you a friendly smile, “Abigail.”

You nodded and entered the small cabin. The amount of people stuffed inside was shocking, you recognized a couple of people from the last time you saw Arthur. You tried to avoid making eye contact as you made your way to the corner where Sadie was cleaning a rifle, the bags under her eyes weren’t as dark and she looked more alert. “Have a good night’s rest?”

“Bout as good as I could get.” She set the rifle down beside her. “How was it last night?”

You shrugged. “If you were lookin’ for a quiet place in the middle of no where you sure as hell found it, I didn’t see a soul.”

She nodded, “good. The less we gotta move the better.”

You pulled a piece of parchment and a pen from your satchel. “Tell me what ya need, Sadie.”

“Well, we don’t need too much-“

“Stop, don’t worry bout puttin’ me out. I got enough money stocked up it ain’t gonna hurt me one bit to help y’all out. Now tell me, what do you need?”

She sighed. “Food is the main thing, we ain’t picky anything will do.”

You nodded as you scribbled on the paper. “I got plenty of meat stocked. What else?”

“We salvaged the blankets you brought us, but just bout all of us soaked through our shoes. I know they’re a lot of work so it’s fine if you can’t-“

You gave her a dismissive wave. “Okay, shoes. I’ll also need to know how many ya got with ya, how many men and women. Any kids?”

Sadie paused briefly to count on her fingers, “six women, six men, and one little boy.”

You nodded as you jotted it down. “How bout clothes? It’s mostly furs and leather goods so I’m not sure how useful it would be during the day, but maybe when it gets colder at night?”

Sadie nodded. “If you have any spare shirts or pants layin’ around that would be nice.”

You nodded. “How bout horses? I got a Suffolk Punch that drives the wagon, I wont be doin’ any deliveries any time soon so I can let you borrow him after I get the supplies down here.”

“Nah,” Sadie said. “We got plenty, but if you have any spare hay or carrots that would be appreciated.”

You nodded and scanned over your list. “I ain’t too far from Saint Denis, you need me to grab anything from the store?”

Sadie thought for a moment. “Some more ammo would be great, if you could check the post office that would be a big help too. The guys made quite a ruckus so I ain’t let anybody outta sight. The alias is-“

“Tacitus Kilgore?”

She smiled. “Yes. But you really don’t gotta go outta your way for us, the leather goods and food is more than enough.”

You shook your head. “You’ve helped me through more rough spots than I can count. Plus,” you rubbed your neck sheepishly, “I uh, I know how much these people mean to him-to Arthur. I just...”

Sadie put her hand on yours. “I know.” She paused. “Okay you best be gettin’ on the road.”

You nodded, “right.”

When you arrived back to camp, the wagon was full and Cripps was hard at work on tanning hides. You read the list of things to him, “we got enough stockpiled or do I need to go huntin’?”

Cripps scanned the list carefully, looking up at the wagon occasionally then back down to the list. “What’s already loaded was supposed to be for the Vermont order which is mostly smoked meats and winter wear. I’ll work on gettin’ the rest if you want to head on into Saint Denis. I should have everything else ready and loaded up by the time you get back.”

You sighed in relief, the grumpy old man you used to barely tolerate was becoming one of your best friends. “Thank you Cripps, this means a lot to me. Do you think you can hold down fort while I help out Sadie and the gang?”

“Of course!” He puffed out his chest confidently. “I was gunslingin’ and robbin’ before you were born. Do what you gotta do.”

You nodded and tipped your hat as you headed towards Ophelia to mount up. The quiet ride to Saint Denis allowed your mind to wander and it fell back to Arthur. How long exactly would it take for him to come back? Weeks, or maybe months? The pit in your stomach reformed- would he come back? The thought made your chest seize, it felt like you couldn’t breath. No, you had to believe he was coming back, he is coming back. But again, how long? Cripps was right, you were confident in his ability to run the camp while you were away and you both had stashed money back so it wouldn’t hurt the business to halt production for awhile, but how long could you hold off? You shook the thought from your mind, this wasn’t about you. This was about the people you promised to help. This was about keeping the people Arthur cares about safe and making sure he had his family waiting for him when he returns. Deep down, it was also about being there when he returns. You wanted to hear his voice again, take in his scent. You needed to feel his arms around you again. You weren’t going to let the fleeting happiness he brought slip through the cracks.

There was nothing under the alias of Tacitus and you were unsurprised but disappointed that you had nothing as well. Logically you knew there was no way for him to write you, but a small part of you still hoped for an envelope with his scrolling handwriting.

Next stop was the gun shop, not far from the post office. The congested streets were a nuisance to say the least. You rolled your eyes as a man walked into the street and almost right under the hooves of your horse- then cursed you for not watching where you were going. You had to ignore the urge to respond, now wasn’t the time to get into fights and call attention to yourself, you rolled your eyes and continued.

The street that the small gun shop was nestled on wasn’t as busy, but you weren’t as keen to leave your horse out here for long, you tethered her close to the window.

“Welcome!” The man behind the counter exclaimed as you entered. “What can I help you wish today?”

“I need some ammo, regular rounds for repeaters, rifles, and pistols. I’d also like a box of slugs for the shotgun.”

The man’s thick eyebrows went up into his hairline and he pulled the boxes. “Stocking up today, eh?”

You nodded as you pulled out your billfold.

“Seems like everyone has been on high alert since the trolley incident.”

“Oh?” Could he be talking about Arthur?

“You hadn’t heard?”

You shook your head no.

“A group of hooligans tried to rob the trolley station- why I don’t know. But they damn near shot up the whole town on their way out, some say they escaped on a boat, others say they’re still ridin’ around north east of here. Apparently one got captured and is on his way to Siska.”

This peaked your attention. “Siska?”

“Yeah, I don’t know too much about the details but it was in the paper a few weeks back.”

“You don’t happen to still have it do you?”

“I might,” he shuffled around to the back of his store, and returned with a folded newspaper. “I collect them, so it’ll cost you-“

You pulled $10 from your billfold and handed it to him. “This oughta do.”

“It most certainly will.” He handed you the paper. “Do you need help carrying the ammo out as well?”

“I got it, thanks for everything!” You called back to him as you loaded your arms full.

“No, thank you.” He said as he counted his money.

You stuffed the newspaper into your satchel and loaded the supplies onto your horse. The day was passing quickly and the longer you were away from Sadie and the others, you grew more uneasy. You pushed Ophelia hard, it didn’t take long to return to camp, she didn’t even come to a full stop before you jumped off her back.

“Perfect timing,” Cripps called from the other side of the wagon. “You’re all loaded up and ready to go.”

You hugged him and he guffawed in surprise. “Hey now, didn’t I tell you you were too old for me?”

You laughed with him, “you did, I just hope you know how much I appreciate you and your help.”

“Don’t you start goin’ soft on me or I’ll have to find a new business partner.” He joked.

You rolled your eyes, “as if you could find a gun half as good as me.”

“You’re right,” his voice has a rare sentimental tone. “So you better come back.”

“I will.”

You checked the wagon to make sure everything was secured then mounted up. Cripps called to you just before you could whip the reins. “Take that damn dog with you!”

“You sure?” You called back.

“Hell yeah I’m sure, if you ain’t here I ain’t takin’ care of that mangy mutt.”

“Thanks Cripps.” You responded sarcastically. “Jake!”

Jake jumped up from his spot and ran to the wagon. “C’mere boy, jump up you can do it!”

He wiggled his butt in anticipation for the jump and lept up. He made it just barely and had to pull himself up onto the bench. You gave him a pat on the head and waved to Cripps as you whipped the reins. As you pulled onto the road you gave a sharp whistle and Ophelia wasn’t far behind.

It was early evening by the time you returned to Lakay, another woman had taken Abigail’s spot on guard. She was older with a knot of gray hair on top of her head. She raised her gun to you as you stopped in front of the worn down shack. Before you could speak, Sadie was through the door. “You’re back!”

With Sadie’s approval, the woman lowered her gun and you climbed down the wagon. “Delivery for Mrs. Adler?”

She wrapped her arms around your neck, “thank you so much.”

“It weren’t nothin’,” you said. “I also brought a friend.” You gave a short whistle and Jake jumped down and stood by your side. You gave him a pat on the head, “He’s a good boy, trained him myself. He was a hunting dog but I trained him to bark at the sign of threat so he’ll make a great guard dog.” You made a clicking noise and pointed to the porch. He immediately responded by sitting in the spot you pointed to and keeping an alert watch. “Okay, lets get some extra hands and get this wagon unloaded.”

To your surprise, it was mostly women who helped unload the wagon, the exception being the man named Charles that helped you find Trelawny. He seemed to recognize you when he greeted you with a grunt but he didn’t say much after. With the help of the others, it didn’t take long to bring the supplies inside. One of the men, a pear shaped man with a moustache went to work with the meats you brought and a rusty stew pot in the fireplace. You took a seat beside the window and pulled out the newspaper. There on the front page was a picture of Arthur. The other men Sadie had mentioned were also pictured, you recognized the one called Bill from the mayor’s party but your eyes just kept floating back to Arthur. The sketch was rough and didn’t do him any justice at all, but the sight of him still took your breath away. There wasn’t much in the article that you hadn’t already heard from Sadie, but it seemed like the owner of the gun shop was right- under the article there was a picture of a man with long dark hair. The name under the picture was John Marston, apparently he had been caught while the others made their escape. He was sent to Siska to await trial.

“Whatcha readin’?” Sadie asked as she pulled a chair up beside you. You handed her the paper.

She scanned it and sighed. “I read this the day it came out. Still cain’t believe they got John.” Her eyes shifted pointedly to Abigail and the little boy that was sleeping in her lap. “It’s got Abigail all kinds of torn up.”

You nodded, the boy in her lap looked identical to the man in the picture. “I talked to her a little bit this morning, I could tell she was upset.”

“It’s been rough the last couple months to say the least. We lost some good people, and it don’t feel like we’re gettin’ much closer to anything better.”

You put your hand on her shoulder, “I know you’ve been through a lot, but I’m here to help. I got everything arranged so that I can stay here with you guys. I may not be able to replace the ones you’ve lost, but I want to help however I can to get you all through this.”

A week passed, in that week you learned all the names of the new people you’d been staying with and began getting to know them. The more you got to know these people, the more you sympathized for them. Everyone had their own piece of the story which created the grand picture of just what Arthur’s life was like. They had lost so many recently, you could see the grieving in their eyes and hear it in their voices as they spoke of those who were gone. One thing that everyone had in common was their unwavering love and devotion to the patchwork family they had made, it left you with a bittersweet feeling in your heart. You had never even traveled with more than a few people and it never lasted long-some of these people have been together for as long as they could remember.

“Hello dear girl,” Trelawny’s singsong voice broke your train of thought and pulled your attention from the rain streaked window.

“Hey Josiah,” you said as he pulled up a chair beside you.

“I hear you’ve been making friends,” he paused to read your reaction. “I never pegged you as one for friends.”

You crossed your arms, “we’re friends.”

“We are, but how long were you coming to me for work before you trusted me?”

You shrugged, “it’s different now. I ain’t doin’ this for me. I’m doing it for-“

“I know.” He nodded his head and looked at his clasped hands. “He would ask me about you sometimes.”

“Really?” You tried and failed to keep your voice from sounding eager, you cleared your throat. “What did he-what would be ask?”

“Oh, you know...” he said as he stretched out to lean against the chair. “How long I had known you, where you were from,” he chuckled. “He was trying to be nonchalant but I noticed how much more he frequented visiting me. He would loiter around my caravan half making conversation- until they tried to take me again that is. Luckily Arthur was there and drove them off, but he decided it was best I stay with them until things cooled down.”

You nodded, “I was wondering when you had left, I stopped by a couple times. Almost got shot by the new tenant, that was the last time I went.” You smirked, “shoulda known you were runnin’ around with this group.”

“I may be overstepping my boundaries by saying this, but I think a certain few would agree. You’re more than welcome to stay with our little traveling circus if you see fit. I know it would make him happy.”

You shifted uncomfortably in your seat. “I dunno Josiah...”

He raised himself from his chair and put a hand on your shoulder. “Think about it, I know you’re more of a loner but sometimes we need others.” He looked at you over his shoulder before leaving. “We need love.”

You huffed as you leaned your head against the glass pane, the small cabin felt like it just shrunk ten sizes.

Another week passes and the food you brought was running low. After you packed your satchel with scent cover, bait, and a couple night’s rations you headed to the table where Sadie and Charles were sitting.

“Hello,” Charles greeted you.

“Hey y’all,” you said as you sat down. “I’m goin’ out to do some hunting, Pearson is runnin’ low on meat. Think you can handle yourselves until I get back?”

Sadie laughed, “course we can. How long are you gonna be gone?”

“I ain’t gonna leave ya for too long, two days at most. I want to be sure I get enough I won’t have to leave for another week or so.”

“Want me to come with you?” Charles asked.

“Nah, I got it. You stay here and help Sadie keep watch.” You rose from your seat, “want me to check the mail while I’m out?”

“We sent Pearson to check a couple days ago, you should be fine.” Charles said.

You nodded and stood, as you walked towards the door Sadie called to you, “don’t let the gators get ya!”

You rolled your eyes and waved two fingers back to her as you left through the threshold. You? Eaten by gators? It was almost as insult to assume you were that big of an amateur.

Karen was on guard duty this time, slumped against the outer wall of the cabin, you tipped your hat to her as you rode out.

Arthur clutched the note from Sadie in his hand as he pushed his spurs into his horse. Just before he reached Shady Belle, his whole body was aching and sore. Now he had a clear idea of where his family was and he felt wide awake and ready to go. He hadn’t slept since he got off the boat and he didn’t plan on resting his head until he knew his family was safe. He had gone his separate ways with the others, all following their own leads as to where their rag tag group had gone without them.

He rode upon a crossroad and his heart was being tugged in two different directions- one way was Lakay, his family and friends. The other was the way to your camp, or at least the last place your camp was set. Who knows where you were now? With a huff he headed towards Lakay. First thing he would do when he found the others would be to write you. Everytime his life flashed before his eyes on Guarma, you were what he saw. The thought of you pushed him when everything felt hopeless and even when he tried to push you from his mind, you were still there at the forefront begging him to return home to you. He half expected the boat to sink on the way back from Guarma, or another storm to end him then and there. Arthur never felt like a lucky man, but the second his feet hit solid ground he felt like he had cheated death himself.

He felt himself tense as he entered Lakay, he was certain it was Sadie’s handwriting in the letter but he wasn’t certain he wasn’t walking straight into a trap. He slowed his horse to a slow trot as he surveyed the small village.

Tension melted as he spotted Abigail and Pearson, just outside a run down cabin.

“Arthur! Arthur’s here!” Pearson exclaimed as he walked up.

“Arthur, oh thank god you’re alive!” Abigail said as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Come on inside,” she said excitedly as she led him in.

He was greeted with the familiar faces of his whole family, but he didn’t quite feel whole just yet.

The sun was setting as you led Ophelia back into Lakay, she was loaded down with skins and meats from birds and gators, you were certain you wouldn’t have to leave for atleast a week and a half with the load you had acquired. As you approached the cabin, the air seemed different. Usually there were no lights on once the sun began to fall to avoid drawing attention, but you could see the golden glow seeping between boards and could hear voices all the way from the middle of the run down little village. That’s when you saw it-the beautiful Arabian hitched to a tree.

“Arthur?” Your whispered, your voice trembling.

Arthur was bombarded with questions and information from the second he entered the threshold. He wasn’t the first, Micah and Javier had already made it back but Dutch and Bill still hadn’t arrived. He told his story, and the others told theirs. Sadie was leaned against the wall, she was hiding something and he couldn’t quite read her face. After hearing from Abigail about John, he joined her against the wall.

“Thank you,” he said quietly. “For takin’ care of everybody. I don’t know how you were able to do it on your own-“

“Oh, I wasn’t on my own.” She said smugly.

He cocked an eyebrow, “who-“

She smirked, “they stepped out to do some hunting yesterday morning, should be back soon.” She pushed herself from the wall and ingrained herself into the crowd.

Arthur huffed and crossed his arms. He took a seat beside the fire and pulled out his journal.

Arthur didn’t realize he had began to drift to sleep until the door slammed open and a sopping wet Dutch walked through the door. He was greeted excitedly, and things were finally starting feel like home again. As Dutch began his speech of hope, Arthur stepped out for a cigarette.

As his name left your lips, the door to the cabin opened and time stood still. His face was tilted downward, one hand bringing a cigarette to his lips. You didn’t need to see his face to know it was him.

“Arthur,” you repeated again, your voice barely above a whisper. You swallowed back the growing lump in your throat as your feet remembered how to run. “Arthur!” You called.

He looked up, the voice he had been aching for calling to him. His cigarette damn near fell out of his mouth. His feet were moving now too.

You were running now and you could feel the tears welling in your eyes but you didn’t care. Your heart beat grew faster and faster the closer you got, he was here, he was home. Every fear had been dissolved, every caution shooed away by the swelling of your heart. You crashed into eachother and his big arms were around your waist again. The train whistle was no more as you grabbed his face and kissed him hard.

He didn’t feel the sting of his lingering sunburn on his cheeks when you grabbed them, all he could feel was your lips against his and it was the only thing he cared about. He could taste the saltiness of tears and couldn’t tell if they were his or yours. The rain was coming down hard now, but the only thing he felt was your lips against his and your hands cradling his cheeks.

Your choked back sob broke the kiss, leaving you both breathless. Your hands clung to the wet fabric of his shirt as you buried your face into his chest. “Arthur, I-I was so afraid- I was never gonna-“

“I know, darlin’ me too.” He kissed the crown of your head and took in your scent, he almost forgot how much it intoxicated him. “I’m back now, I’m here.”

You looked up and got a good look at his face, he was bruised and his skin was bright red, burnt from the harsh sun. “I’m sorry I- I’m sorry I pushed you away, I was so afraid of losing you but...when I got that letter from Sadie saying you were missing I just-“ your breathing hitched again, and this time it was his lips crashing down against yours. You felt so foolish for denying yourself of this- of him. Your lips moved with his now, you could feel the desperation he felt through his cracked chapped lips.

Sadie noticed Arthur’s disappearance and scanned the room, he wasn’t there. She stepped to the window and scanned through the sheets of rain. First she saw Ophelia, then she saw you and Arthur. Her hand came to her chest as she smiled. “Finally,” she said under her breath. She gave them a moment, they surely needed it. But when she turned back a few minutes later and saw the two of you still kissing she rolled her eyes.

Though it felt like the world had stopped around the two of you, you were reminded that the earth was still spinning when you heard Sadie’s voice call to you. “You two better get in before you catch sickness!”

The two of you pulled apart suddenly, and Arthur chuckled. “Guess she’s right, it’s comin’ down pretty hard.”

You nodded, the drops of rain felt icy as they landed on your hot cheeks. Arthur’s hand was around yours now and it felt as natural as walking. With your spare hand, you grabbed Ophelia’s reins.

“Sadie told me she had some help keepin’ everyone together, guess you was the one she was talkin’ about.” Arthur said, his classic crocked smile was wider than usual.

You shrugged, also unable to contain the wide grin on your face. “It weren’t nothin’,” you stopped Ophelia just in front of the small porch and tethered her. Arthur helped you unload your hunting quarry. “You know I cain’t tell Sadie no, and when I got here and saw all those faces,” you looked at him. “I knew I had to stay. I thought to myself, ‘what would Arthur do?’ So I loaded up the wagon, brought some food and clothes, and I been here ever since.”

Arthur stopped and turned back to you, “you been here this whole time? What about Cripps? And your trade route?”

You shrugged, “he can handle himself. I told him I’d be back when everything cleared over. Plus,” your eyes fell to the ground. “I uh, I knew this would be the best place to find you when you came back.”

When you looked back up at him, he had a very strong urge to kiss you again- had his arms not been full he would’ve. He had never seen so much love in the eyes of a woman, not for him. You put everything on hold, stopped what you were doing to save his family, to wait for him. His feet felt frozen as you walked past him into the threshold. I love her so much. The thought was so sudden it shook him to the core. He loved you? He swallowed the lump in his throat, and through the streaked window pane he could see the rejoice of his family as you entered the shack, greeting you with smiling faces and helping hands took the load from your arms. You were smiling too, and he sighed in content. There was no point lying to himself, as he entered the threshold and your eyes fell on him, you had a smile on your lips, just for him. He loved you with his whole heart and he wasn’t afraid of it anymore.

The commotion was wearing down, and Dutch was very aware of the new face among his group. She was pretty, strong, and her hands were wrapped around Arthur’s as they talked in front of the hearth. It didn’t take a genius to see the adoration in his son’s eyes, Hosea had mentioned a woman to him not too long before the trolley job.

“I think Arthur’s finally found someone.” Hosea said as they were sitting under the gazebo. It was a fair day in Shady Belle, not too muggy for Dutch to enjoy the weather.

He shifted in his seat, “really?”

Hosea nodded. “I’ve noticed he’s been...different lately. Leavin’ our more often, distracted, he hadn’t been drinkin’ as much either.” Hosea flipped the page of the newspaper he was reading. “I had my suspicions when he started getting letters, but she came by the other day.”

Dutch sat up in his seat, uneasy. “When?”

Hosea looked at him, that scolding eye falling directly on him. “While you were out riding. She’s the one to thank for those crates of supplies.” He nodded pointedly to the crates beside Pearson’s wagon. His gaze softened. “You should’ve seen him,” Hosea said as his eyes shifted to Arthur, Dutch’s eyes followed. “He was smilin’ the whole time, his whole demeanor was just....different.”

“You think we can trust her?” Dutch asked in a hushed tone.

Hosea returned his gaze to his newspaper and shrugged. “Arthur seems to trust her, shouldn’t we?”

Dutch huffed, Hosea made a good point. Arthur knew better than to lead random strangers back to camp, once again, Hosea comforted the paranoid worries that plagued him so.

“Here’s your coffee,” Sadie said as she handed him the mug, pulling him from his memories. He felt a painful throb in his heart as his last memory of Hosea shifted back to his mind.

He nodded and took the mug from her. “Sadie?”

She stopped and turned back to him. “What is it?”

“Can I ask you something?”

She studied him, Dutch was always so hard to read. She took a seat beside him. “Sure.”

He took a sip from his coffee and his gaze went back to Arthur. “What do you think? About her?”

Sadie’s gaze followed his and she smiled. “I’ve known her for years, she’s like family.”

Dutch nodded, but said nothing. Arthur laughed, and even Dutch couldn’t question the affect you had on him.

“If she decides to stay, she’ll be one of your best.” Sadie said, and with that she was gone.

Dutch stared into his coffee. Sadie’s words were reassuring, but he could still hear the paranoid voice in the back of his mind. Without Hosea, he could feel it growing louder and more persistent every day.

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creativeskullcreations · 4 years

Text

Outside chapter 3: Food?

Third chapter is out! Not much to say about this one, expect that we finish up the day with some delicious Chinese takeout! Nothing heavy going on in here! Nope! Not at all!

When Stacy felt Scout was sufficiently distracted, she pulled her laptop out of her bag. 'Let's see, what was the group that guy was a part of? Vox I think...' She searched the group on Google, and found them almost immediately. She clicked the link to their website, and was struck by how professional it looked.

'So these guys are paranormal investigators...' From what the site said, they were a professional team that specialized in locating and researching. Specifically, they went after the newer, modern activity, like the Waygetter toys, or cursed animatronics.

'Where were you guys when I was a kid?' She shook her head. 'Focus, Stacy! Forget the past, focus on the present! You have a different problem to solve...<' She scrolled down and clicked on the contact button, which gave her an email address. She clicked over to her own email and typed in the address, but paused before writing anything.

'What do I even say to them? They didn't believe that Anthony guy, and he was one of them. Maybe if I send them proof...' Her eyes drifted to Scout, who was staring at the TV. Her attention was completely taken by the show, and she seemed oblivious to what Stacy was doing and thinking. 'A picture might not be enough, but maybe a video? But would she even agree to it? And could I even do that to her?'

Stacy shook her head, closing the laptop with a small sigh. 'I can't. Not right now. Maybe once things are settled...' She moved the computer to the side and stood up, stretching as much as she could. She then went into the kitchen and started digging through Sammy's fridge.

'Ugh, he's such a bachelor. There's nothing in here but some old lettuce and leftover soup. He'd better be buying groceries on his way back from work, or I'm telling Aunt Hannah he has no food again.' She closed the door, and then grabbed some bread and peanut-butter from the cupboard, and the last clean knife from one of the drawers. She quickly made herself a simple sandwich, cut it in half, then went back to the couch.

"Where'd you go?" Scout asked when she'd sat back down. She flopped over onto her lap, making Stacy jerk her plate up to keep it from getting hit. "You're missing the show!"

"I've seen it before, don't worry." Stacy assured her as she bit into the sandwich. "I'm not missing anything important."

"Hey, what's that?" She climbed into her lap and peered onto the plate, reminding Stacy of a cat. "Is that Host Food?"

"Yeah, it's a peanut-butter sandwich. I got hungry, and it was all Sammy had to eat, other than gross leftovers." She took another bite of sandwich, not really paying attention as Scout pulled the plate down a little. She watched the Puppet grab the other half of the sandwich 'Gross.', and examine it closely. Then, without warning, she tore a bite off and started chewing.

Stacy froze mid-chew, unsure of how to react. While she knew Scout had to have organs, she hadn't thought she actually could eat anything. It was quite surreal, watching a thing made of cloth chew and swallow real, human food.

"Hmm, not bad. Kind of sticky, though." She smacked her lips, then tore off another bite and turned back around to keep watching the show, leaving Stacy feeling like she'd smoked some of her cousin's weed. She shook the feeling off, though, deciding to come back to it at a later time. Like maybe when she'd actually had some weed.

Instead she finished her half of the sandwich(since she apparently only got to have half, now), and then pulled back out her laptop. She opened up a new doc, and started drafting up some plans.

'One way or another, I'm gonna figure this out.'

Several hours later, and Stacy had not figured it out. She had maybe one and a half pages of notes on the Puppets, most of which was on just Scout, and three different plans.

1. Go to the police.

-Too Risky for Scout

-Can lie about what's going on if needed

2. Ask Vox for help.

-Way too risky for Scout and me

-Can't lie to these guys about it

-They would know what they're doing tho

3. Arson.

-Has potential

-Can have a bon fire and roast marshmallows while we do it

-Could get arrested but might be worth it if we can get all the Puppets

-Might also be worth it just to see Scout try and eat a melty marshmallow

So far, plan number three was looking like the best one. It still wasn't the absolute best plan, but it was all they had at the moment. She'd have to talk to Will and see if he still had those gas cans in his garage.

"Hey, are you guys still here?" Stacy started at the sudden entrance of Sammy, surprised at how late it had gotten. She shut her laptop and put it to the side for now, standing up.

"No, we left and stole all of your soup." She told him. What you're seeing now is a hunger induced hallucination."

Sammy paused, the held up a plastic bag with a panda on it. "So you don't want the takeout I got?"

"Oooh, gimme!" Stacy rushed to snatch the bag from her cousin. She brought it over to the table, pausing briefly to pick Scout up from the couch. She started to set the food out while the Puppet settled over her shoulder, watching what she did. While she worked, she also pointed out what each different food was.

"So, all of this stuff is rice. We don't normally eat it, but they include it anyways with some of the meals. This is teriyaki chicken, and this is-"

"Stacy, really? Why would it even need to know what that stuff is?" Sammy tsked as he sat at the table and grabbed some noodle dish. "It's stuffed, and can't eat."

Stacy just stuck her tongue out at him and sat down. She picked up a pair of chopsticks and set about showing Scout how to hold and use them properly.

For awhile, they ate silently as Scout watched them, which Stacy personally thought was a little odd but didn't want to say anything. If the Puppet wanted to be weird, then she wasn't going to stop her. Sammy, on the other hand, soon fixed her with a hard stare and cleared his throat.

"So." Stacy looked up at him mid-chew, cheeks bulging. "What are you going to do when you get back to your apartment?"

She swallowed hard, putting on a more thoughtful expression. "Go back to class, tell Carol I can't do the article and why, maybe go tell the police about the psychopaths in the warehouse." She shrugged, digging out another bite of chicken from one of the boxes. "Y'know, stuff."

"And what about...?" He gestured to Scout with his chopsticks, and the Puppet glared back at him. Stacy, in a stroke of seldom seen genius, offered the Puppet her chicken before she could say anything.

"She's coming with me, of course. I live alone, so there shouldn't be a problem." Scout chomped down on the chicken, to Stacy's mild surprise. She quickly picked up some more food for herself. "Besides, Will is gonna love her. They're so much alike."

"Okay, ignoring the fact that you just fed that thing," Scout made an offended noise. "that sounds like a shit plan. There's no way in hell the police will believe you without proof."

"Fine, you're right. I have a back-up plan in the works, too." She thought back to her arson idea as she offered another bite to Scout. "But it needs work, so I can't put it in action yet." ‘And gasoline. Lots and lots of gasoline.’

"... Where's that food even going, anyways?" Both Sammy and Stacy turned to stare at Scout, who didn't even pause in her chewing to send them both a glare. Obviously, she wasn't going to be explaining anything, so Stacy turned back to her cousin.

"I have no idea. Don't think too hard on it."

'Don't think about why you're feeding her, either.' She ignored her own thoughts to shove some more food in her mouth. That was something to think about later. Or, perhaps, never. Never seemed like a much better time.

They finished their food, with Stacy giving Scout a few more bites, then boxed up the leftovers and put them in the fridge. Stacy then made Sammy get them a blanket because "It was too cold last night I almost froze to death!"

"It wasn't that bad, Stace." He told her, but fished out some spare bedding anyways. "It was near sixty."

"And yet, you had the air on or something. I swear it was colder than that in here." She insisted. She almost shivered just thinking about it. "You need to turn the AC off."

"The Ac's not on." He frowned at her, head tilted like he was studying one of his patients. "Maybe you're getting sick? You did spend God knows how long running around an abandoned warehouse with open wounds. I wouldn't be surprised if you caught something."

"God I hope not." She muttered, helping him spread the blanket out on the couch. "I gotta drive back to my apartment tomorrow. I don't wanna be sick while doing that."

"Well, if you do come down with something, promise me you'll go straight to the walk-in clinic or ER." Sammy told her seriously. "It could be something worse than a cold, like an infection from the stitches."

"Promises are curses." Stacy responded automatically. "But if something comes up, I will go to the walk-in. I don't wanna die after going through all of that bullshit."

"Wow, you're swearing. Must have been some pretty bad bullshit." He joked as he handed her a pillow. She resisted the urge to hit him with it.

"It was the second worst thing I've ever been through. It was horrible, and I hated it, but now it's over forever." Her eye twitched slightly as she placed the pillow on the couch, and saw Scout watching them from the side table. She was overcome with a childish urge to knock Scout over onto the pillow, which she quickly did.

"Wha-? Hey!" She pulled the blanket up over the Puppet, and heard a soft snort of amusement from Sammy.

"Are you ever going to grow up." He shook his head with a sigh as they watched the blanket covered lump move around.

"Nope!" She told him cheerfully. "I'mma be a kid forever!" She noticed the lump had stopped moving and leaned down, reaching for the blanket. "Uh, Scout? You oka-"

"DEATH FROM ABOVE!" Scout hit the back Stacy's head with far more force than necessary, knocking her onto the couch. She then bit onto the top of her head, though that didn't do much.

"AAUGH! How'd you even get up there?!?" She became aware of laughter and turned a death glare on her cousin. "Stop laughing! It's not funny Samuel!" She threw the pillow at him, but that didn't stop the almost hysterical laughter coming from him.

"Oh my God!" He gasped out, collapsing against the couch. "She just came out of nowhere! Holy shit!" He fell onto the floor while Stacy wrestled the apparently feral Puppet off of her head. She held her at arm's length, trying to simultaneously give her a disapproving look and check her over for injuries. It was hard to do, however, as she kept trying to bite her hand.

"Dude, seriously? That's not even gonna do anything to me..." She watched Scout thrash for a moment, actually struggling to hold onto her. "Okay, seriously, stop it right now, or you're going back under the blanket and I'm gonna sit on you." That got her to stop, but she kept up the death glare.

"Geez..." She looked over at Sammy, who was coughing on the floor, finally finished laughing. "It wasn't that funny..."

"It was fucking hilarious." He retorted between coughs. "Instant karma." He took a deep breath and started to pull himself up from the floor. "I like that Puppet." Stacy just sighed. "Whatever dude. Glad to know my pain is what made you like her." Unconsciously, she hugged Scout close and sat on the couch. She grabbed up the remote to turn Netflix back on, wanting a distraction from her humiliation. She let Scout drop onto her lap, and resisted the urge to drop her head into her hands.

'Defeated by a hand puppet. I'm never living this down.'

Sammy climbed up onto the couch seconds later, still wheezing. He went to speak, but another death glare shut him up before he could start. So he just shot her a smug look instead, holding out a hand for Scout to fist bump. "That was a pretty great move." He told the Puppet. Stacy ignored him, but heard a quiet "Hell yeah!" from Scout. "You should do it again the next time she does that."

"Do you want to die?" Stacy deadpanned, but Sammy just shrugged as he finally settled in to watch the show with them.

"Hey, it's just a suggestion." He couldn't keep that grin off of his face, and it was starting to annoy her.

"Whatever." She resolved to just ignore everything for now and watch the show. Sammy attempted a few more times to draw her into conversation, but quickly gave up when she didn't answer him and started watching too.

A few episodes later, however, and Sammy stood up and stretched. "Well, I need to get to bed, I have work tomorrow." He started towards his room. "I'll be gone by the time you two leave, so make sure you lock up tomorrow, okay?" "Kay. G'night Sammy." Stacy gave a halfhearted wave as he left, leaving Host and Puppet alone for the night.

"Leave?" Scout asked after they heard his door close. Stacy glanced down to see the Puppet staring up at her, a worried look on her face.

"Yeah. We gotta go home tomorrow." Stacy told her. "I gotta tell Carol about what happened at the HQ and find out what she wants me to do about that article. And then classes start back up soon, so I've gotta be back by then." "... I thought we were staying here." Scout said quietly, and Stacy felt a pang of... something. She wasn't sure what, but it made her feel bad and she decided right then that she hated it.

"Eh, it was more of a stopping point, really. Some place to get my mouth cut open and you off my hand." She shrugged, feeling uncomfortable. "And as much as I would love to hide here until I die, we can't actually stay on Sammy's couch forever. He doesn't have any food, and would expect me to clean."

"..." Scout was silent, and no longer paying attention to the show, instead staring down at her hands as she played with the hem of Stacy's shirt. The Human felt like she should say something, but didn't know what. Instead she stopped the show and turned off the TV, dropping the Puppet to the side and standing up.

"I'm gonna get ready and go to bed myself. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow, and I want to make sure I'm ready for it." She started towards the bathroom, almost missing the quiet "Okay." in reply. She hesitated at the doorway, but forced herself through anyways.

Scout would figure out it was better this way. Her apartment was even further from the HQ than Sammy's was, and thus safer than Sammy's. Plus, it would be better if it was just the two of them alone, and they could figure things out.

Things would get better, starting tomorrow.

They had to.

#hello puppets #fanfiction #outside #scout #stacy stein #sammy davis

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