#uh oh who got him mad this time? they might be dead~

[nwluxx]

I seriously miss kyuubi cloak Naruto!! I wanted to imagine an older Naruto still struggling with his relationship with Kurama, where the nine-tails chakra seeps out when Naruto feels rage.

[totally-here]

3 times Phantom's Guardian was Mentioned + 1 Time He Showed Up

One

Phantom’s introduction to Young Justice wasn’t as dramatic as Empress’ or Slobo’s, or even Arrowette’s first introduction to the cave. No, it wasn’t during the Olympics, or on a battlefield, and he didn’t come in injured and looking for help. 

Impulse just brought Phantom in one day and insisted that he should join because he’s their age, interested in justice, and now that Greta’s human again they need another ghost member. So Phantom stayed, popping in and out for missions but never really sticking around all that long. 

Today is one of the days that Phantom’s with them on a mission, that being looking around a lab of the Brain’s that had an energy surge recently, despite it being presumably abandoned. 

Kon got paired up with Phantom to check the rest out first, since they both have better hearing than Anita and Tim, who were both still in the main room working on checking the computers for previous activity. 

The room is dark except for the light green ball glowing slightly above Phantom’s hand. He waves it around enough for it to reflect off of glass, then throws it up to the ceiling. The light expands enough to illuminate the room. 

Phantom mumbles about not knowing he could do that. Kon ignores him and moves closer to inspect the glass tubes to the side of several monitors set up. 

“Looks like cloning equipment,” Phantom says, casually. He drags a finger through the dust gathering on one of the monitors. “Don’t think they’ve been activated recently, though, so that’s good.”

“What? You got a problem with clones or something?” It’s a quick and defensive answer, and Phantom puts his hands up in surrender. 

“Not in concept.” He shrugs and joins Kon near the tubes. “But not a lot of people ask before making clones.”

“So I don’t need to sic Superman on you?” Obviously Kon could chew Phantom out himself, but few can do a “not mad, just disappointed” face better than Clark. 

Phantom scrunches his face. “Why would you need to?” 

Kon stops pretending to inspect the tube and stares at Phantom. “You do know I’m a clone, right?” The blank look on Phantom’s face tells him that no, he did not. “Well I am. Clone of Superman, though we’re pretty much brothers now.”

“Cool,” Phantom says, not a bit less friendly. He hesitates for a second before continuing, “Could I maybe ask you how you got there? Me and my clone have landed on cousins, but that was also, like, given to us by her evil dad. So.”

Phantom trails off. Huh, that makes three members of the team that have been cloned. Not a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened three times. 

“You’re making sure she feels accepted, right?” 

“Yeah! Well, whenever she’s around. She,” Phantom waves his hand around, looking for the right word, “She’s a wanderer. Exploring the world and stuff. But Richard has a room for her at home, and I remind her of that whenever she does stop by.” 

“Well, first of all, don’t push it so hard,” Kon says. Phantom nods enthusiastically. “And second, who’s Richard?”

Kon doesn’t know a lot of Richards, and he doesn’t think that Phantom ever mentioned one before. Or even if he remembers his living life. 

“Oh, he’s my, uh, guardian? I guess that’s the best term. The guy I’m living with who forces me to go to school sometimes.” Phantom looks away and back to the tubes. 

Before Kon can ask for more details, Robin and Empress come in with a report of dead computers and wanting to know where they’re at with the cloning room.

They’re unimpressed with their lack of progress.

Two

Wally doesn’t really need to come by the Hamilton Lodge that often, not when that’s Young Justice’s territory and he doesn’t want to get involved in all of That.

But Red Tornado said that the team has a file on a planet that’s very quickly becoming a league problem, and he figured it might be a good time to try to check in with Bart, anyway. Make sure he hasn’t run any cars off cliffs again and all that. 

So he stops by Manchester to ask Bart about the file, then they both head East to actually find it. 

When they arrive at the hotel minutes later, Wally’s surprised to actually find it… clean? There’s no visible trash or overturned furniture or anything else he’d expect from an abandoned hotel filled with teenagers. Well, maybe not filled, lately. He doesn’t think anyone’s living here currently, with Greta at Elias’ for the school year and Slobo gone. 

Still, the room smells slightly of artificial pine scent, and Bart perks up before disappearing and reappearing rapidly, holding a teammate up by his armpits. Said teammate just accepts this, his legs folding into a wispy tail, and head rolling against his shoulders. 

“This is Phantom!” Bart holds him up higher. Phantom waves. Wally’s only heard of him through Max’s updates, the same way he would hear about Preston or Carol, but with more wariness about the supposed ghost. 

Actually looking at the pale face and glowing green eyes contrasting against the darker than dark jumpsuit, Wally’s a little more ready to accept his claim at being undead. 

“He stress cleans,” Bart explains, moving to carry Phantom under his arm. Wally bites down the urge to tell him to put him down, but only because Phantom doesn’t resist the hold, only moving to get into a more comfortable position. His hands are touching the floor. “So what happened?” 

Bart directs the question downwards, and Phantom heaves a very dramatic sigh. Definitely a teenager. It does raise the question of who exactly this kid’s mentor is. Hopefully he does have one. Maybe he’s the Spectre’s kid?

Phantom phases through the arm holding him only to lay on top of Bart’s hair. “I accidentally called Richard dad. And then fled.” 

Bart nods sagely. “Classic. One time I accidentally called Max dad, so I had to start a fire to distract him.”

Phantom sighs again, almost dreamily. “Genius.” 

Wally doesn’t have time to unpack all of that. Well he does, but he’s not going to, because there’s really only one Richard that comes to mind that might have the heart to take in a dead kid, even if he doesn’t go by his full name.

But surely Dick would have told him, or any other Titan, if he had adopted a kid. Right?

But there’s still a little shadow of doubt. Maybe Dick wanted it to be a secret, or it was really new or had a rocky start. Phantom doesn’t seem to hold himself like a Bat, but it’s not a guarantee Dick would have trained him. 

“The lodge looks nice,” Wally offers out loud, which Phantom shrugs at and wraps his tail around Bart’s head to keep secure. “Anyway, Impulse. The file on Myrg?” 

“Oh yeah!” Again, Bart disappears then reappears a few seconds later with a paper file. They really need to start digitizing more of these things. “That’s the planet where we played baseball so that they wouldn’t destroy Earth!” 

“You what.” 

The prospect of Dick following in his dad’s footsteps is forgotten in the face of what the hell Young Justice got up to on Myrg. 

Three

Tim may be in a…Predicament. 

It’s not his fault. Really. He knew what he was doing. He couldn’t let a civilian fall for the trap. But they were already so close, so he just, kinda, pushed himself into the rope instead. 

So there Robin is, tied upside down in a warehouse, with the Joker below next to an overly complicated control panel. The clown’s rambling about bombs hidden all over the city that Tim knows Batman is already tracking down with Batgirl. 

Tim’s not really paying attention to the rant because of that, more focused on wiggling enough to get the spare mini-birdarang out of his glove to cut the rope without notifying the Joker. 

“Yikes, bad time?” Asks Phantom’s voice beside him. Based on the source and accounting for the slight echo, he’s floating with his head near Tim’s, likely upside down. “Want some help?” 

Tim gets the birdarang out and starts sawing at the thick rope. They should be fine anyway, but stalling the Joker for extra time would be helpful. “Can you possess the Joker? Just hold him still.”

“The correct term is overshadow, but sure.” The voice disappears, and a few seconds later the Joker freezes. 

His body jerks forward, then backward, and a laugh chokes out of his throat. His hand claws over his mouth at the noise and he hunches over. All movement halts before he rights himself, shaking out his hands and rolling his shoulders. Phantom looks up at Tim and his eyes are glowing. 

Tim cuts through the rope, kicking and using the momentum to right himself and land on his feet. He brushes past Phantom in Joker’s body to handle the control panel. He turns off the radio broadcast and dismantles the bomb strapped to the panel.

Threat handled, he turns to Phantom and holds up some handcuffs. “Let me arrest you?”

Phantom obliges, turning the Joker’s body around and putting his hands behind his back. Tim lets him walk by himself out of the warehouse and moves the handcuffs around a lamppost. The Joker’s body jerks again, then slumps forward, just as Phantom reappears next to him, scowling down at the unconscious body. 

“That felt really slimy. Zero out of ten, would not do again,” Phantom grouches. 

“Why’re you in Gotham?” Tim asks. It’s not like Phantom makes a habit of visiting. The last time he came into the city, he complained about feeling the dead under the streets. Fortunately, that let Tim uncover a few tunnels that Talons travel through. Phantom, however, was unnerved by the Talons and left quickly. 

“Oh, Solomon Grundy’s back in our sewers. Richard said I should probably tell one of you Gotham heroes, since you keep track of those guys.” He shakes out his hands like they were cramped in the Joker. 

They hadn’t seen Grundy in a while. Tim assumed he was currently in a less violent personality. “What’s he doing?” 

Phantom shrugs. “Just chilling. Mostly underground. I tried to talk to him but he only grunted back at me. He also tried to pick me up, dunno what that was about.”

“Maybe because you’re both dead?” Tim guessed. That would be a surface level connection. Ivy and Woodrue have had more luck working with Grundy than anyone, and Phantom definitely doesn’t have the connection to the Green that’d help with that. 

Police lights turn around the corner, and Tim shoots a grapple to get to the roof above them. Phantom follows, but disappears as soon as they’re on the roof. Going back home, probably. 

Cass drops down from the roof she was listening on. “Richard?”

“Not the same one.”

They both stick around long enough to watch the Joker get put into the cop car. 

Plus one

A spaceship landed in the forests of New York, and Cassie’s team was the first to respond to it. Technically not respond, but check it out, since there wasn’t any alert or anything. 

Still, Wonder Girl has Empress, Robin, and Superboy on the other side of the ship, watching what looks like the back door, while she, Impulse, and Phantom watch the other door and main window. She has binoculars, but the windows are so tinted she can’t quite make anything out. 

No aliens have come out yet, and she hesitates to have anyone go in, in case whoever inside does turn hostile. 

Impulse has offered to run through a total of five times already, and it’s a testament to his restraint that he hasn’t, and a testament to Cassie’s that she hasn’t yelled at him yet. Phantom at least isn’t being annoying, but he’s not necessarily helpful, either. He’s not even watching the spaceship anymore. Now he’s trying to make a flower crown out of dandelions. 

“Door’s opening on our side,” Robin says from the comms. “But no one’s coming out.” 

“Alright, good enough to try to get in,” Cassie decides. She turns to Phantom, who’s closing off the circle of flowers. Beside him, Impulse has since pulled out a gameboy. “Phantom, go in invisibly through the open door and report back. Try to see what their plans are.” 

“Oh, sure. One second.” Phantom finishes the crown and tries to put it on Bart’s head. It doesn’t quite fit over his mane of hair, but Phantom shrugs and leaves it sitting there anyway before going invisible. 

“Maybe I should shave my head again,” Bart says as his game character dies. 

He gets a resounding no in response. 

Half an hour later they have a very annoyed Green Lantern lecturing them about league jurisdiction and knowing when to call someone else. 

Apparently, the alien ship was just stopping to complete some maintenance, and did not appreciate any spying on them, and especially did not appreciate who did it. Green Lantern was more than happy to explain that Wonder Girl’s team is not really a part of the Justice League and he can help with their maintenance. They denied his help and left to find a place with less people in it. 

“-and you!” Green Lantern rounds on Phantom next, but Cassie knows none of them are really listening. Sure, they messed up by freaking out the visiting aliens, and yeah maybe they should have contacted the league about it, but they’ve dealt with stuff worse than this! It’s not Cassie’s fault she thought that this would have stuck to the formula. 

“Who even are you?” Green Lantern runs a hand through his black hair, stupid green gauntlets shining in the sunlight. “Do I need to call your mentor?” He frowns. “Or do they know you mess up alien technology by just being around it?” 

Phantom scoffs and rolls his eyes. “How was I supposed to know their tech would go all fuzzy when I came in?” 

“You wouldn’t have to know if you just stayed out of the spaceship!” 

“Hey!” Cassie cuts in. “Technically that was my call. It’s not all on Phantom.”

“I still could've been more careful,” Phantom says to her, ignoring Green Lantern as they argue about blame. 

“Cut it out for a second, okay?” Green Lantern puts a hand between them and they stop to glare at him. He pulls the hand back. “Look, can I just talk to one of your adults about this?” 

Robin glares. “We don’t need an adult. We have this under control.”

“Only because I’m here now.” 

“I’ll call my mentor,” Phantom says. Kon opens his mouth, most likely to offer to call Superman instead in hopes of a lighter sentence, but Bart covers his mouth, smiling like he knows something Cassie doesn’t. Tim and Anita share a look, and don’t intervene as Phantom pulls out a phone from his chest. 

It rings once before it’s picked up. Cassie can’t hear the other side of the conversation, but Kon’s eyebrows scrunch in confusion. “Hey, do you think you can pick me up? Green Lantern wants to talk to you.” Phantom looks Green Lantern up and down then says, “No, this one doesn’t have a cape.”

Phantom says goodbye after rattling off their coordinates, hangs up, and stares at Green Lantern in silence for a few seconds. 

And then a swirling mass of black seeps into the space next to Phantom. The end of a cane steps out of it, followed by a leg, then the rest of the immaculately dressed man holding the handle of the cane that’s shaped like a bird’s head. 

“Phantom,” The man says. His voice drips with condescension in only a way a british accent can, yet Phantom smiles up at him. The shadowy portal behind him disappears. “What, exactly, happened?”

“That’s the fucking Shade,” Anita hisses to Robin, who shrugs noncommittedly at her. Green Lantern seems to recognise him too, taking a step back and clenching his hand that holds his ring. 

“Well, the team and I were staking out this spaceship–super cool, by the way–and I went inside to check it out, but my presence messed with their tech–which was an accident–and they freaked out, so I freaked out, and then we kinda got into a little fight until Green Lantern came to mediate.”

“Hm. Is that right?” The Shade asks Green Lantern, who nods slowly, still anticipating an attack. “It seems like the problem’s fixed, then.”

“Well, yes, but–”

“And it does seem about time for these kids to get home, doesn't it?” The Shade pulls out an actual pocket watch, chain and all, from his suit pocket and takes his time in checking it. “I’ll see them home.” 

Shadows grow from behind the team, swirling until they become a giant, gaping maw that swallows them up and spits them out in a different forest, or maybe just a different part of the same forest. 

Either way, Cassie has to take a moment to make sure she doesn’t throw up from the sudden vertigo the shadow portal caused. 

The Shade looks at Phantom, and raises an eyebrow. “You can’t expect me to always bail you out.” 

Phantom shrugs, looking guilty. “I know. Thanks, Richard.”

Oh, so that’s who Richard is. Annoyingly, neither Tim or Bart look surprised by this revelation.

[kinopio-writes]

Hello! Could you write platonic Dad!Adam headcanons? Thank you,

A/N: Lol. Don’t expect too much out of this guy because…it’s Adam. Heavily focused on him rather than the reader, sorry. Also, I might have gone a little overboard with this one because, uh, this was supposed to be only headcanons as you said, and the not-requested ‘drabble’ ended up being a few scenarios with a one-on-one convo with Adam and Sera at the end. 3rd POV and the reader is referred to as they/it, btw. Enjoy.

Holy sh!t I reread your request again and I don’t know if you meant that the reader is supposed to be the child or fuuuuuuuu—tell me if that’s not what you wanted, I had fun writing this nonetheless.

Words: 727 (not including the bullet points, edited)

Warnings: Very vulgar language, Sex is mentioned, Adam being Adam

———

How Adam would be as a Father (Reader is the child)

• first things first, the only way I can see Adam become a dad was because he accidentally impregnated a chick when she fucking swore that, oh, no, Adam, I’m on birth control. Oh, don’t worry, Adam, you don’t have to finish in my mouth. Oh, no need, Adam, I’ve got it covered. Oh, it’s okay, Adam—yes, this is Adam mocking her

• so imagine his surprise when he found a fucking child at his doorstep crying like a little bitch

• “What the fuck?” was his first reaction

• he’d find a note that said something-something about oh who gives a fuck about her and her sob story about having to leave the child in his care?

• what mattered was—“THAT FUCKING BITCH LIED TO ME!”

• after that whole ordeal, he would sit in his gigantic ass living room, slumping on his couch with arms crossed and grumbling complaints as if he was the child

• the first few weeks he would really just let someone else take care of the kid

• Lute would be the caretaker most of the time since she’s around Adam a lot

• the problem was that she’s an exterminator

• her purpose was to kill sinners and she certainly didn’t have babysitting on her list of skills

• so eventually, the responsibilities would fall back on Adam

• of course, he had attempted to get in contact with the woman

• he came back with nothing

• wait, nothing? Holy shit, he left the baby—

• and, if you’re wondering, I don’t think Heaven has adoption centers or whatnot because everyone is responsible when they’re thinking of having a child

• but, hey, how hard would looking after a child would be?

• probably accidentally dropped the kid once before

• will get mad that he can’t do his guitar solos because they would start to cry even louder

• has probably nearly suffocated it by leaving a pillow in their crib

• doesn’t know how to hold it properly

• eventually got it right by observing some of Heaven’s residents

• thinks he’s the best dad because of it

• speaking of residents, they most likely don’t know that the first man has a child

• dude, you really think he’d be caught dead with a kid?

• nuh-uh

• sometimes forgets he has a kid

• have left it in his—I headcanon—condominium completely unattended sometimes

• so, uh, yeah…not looking good for Adam here

let’s get on with the scenarios, shall we?

———

Adam covered his ears with his silk pillows, trying to muffle the sounds of that brat’s whining.

“Ugh! Shut up, Shut up!” Of course, it didn’t shut up.

He banged his head on the pillow repeatedly, swearing he was going to fucking throw this fucking child off the fuCKING BALCONY IF IT DOESN’T SHUT UP—

He had enough and went over to the crib in the corner of his bedroom, snarling. “Y’know, since your mommy was such a quiet whore you’d expect the brat to act the same. She should’ve been honored that she even got my dick. Mine. And this is how she fucking repays me?” The child in question looked up at their father, their cries coming to an eventual stop as he rambled on and on. “Finally.”

The moment he left their sight, however, they started to cry once more.

“OH MY GOD—”

———

Adam arrived home tired as shit balls.

“Not fucking now, bitch,” he dismissed when they reached for him from their place in the crib as he flopped himself on his king-sized bed. At least it wasn’t crying. Rather, it was babbling and flailing its hands and feet. While it was a nice change, it was still annoying to listen to.

Eventually, he decided to shut it up and lazily dragged himself over to the crib, picking it up in his hands and setting it near his shoulder.

“Ugh, there there. Or whatever.” He idly patted the child’s back, plopping back on his bed.

Surprisingly, the kid soon fell asleep without further complaints, nuzzling into their father’s comfortable robe.

Ugh, rude. It fell asleep before he could bitch about his day as he usually did. Instead, he grumbled his own day to himself, his eyelids growing heavy as time passed by.

Adam later dozed off with the baby in his arms, snoring loudly as his wings wrapped around him and the child in his seldom peaceful slumber.

———

The living room was dark. Heaven’s natural light poured through his open windows and the TV played a movie that was most definitely not suited for young audiences. At least it wasn’t anything sexual. Heaven forbid.

In the midst of the oddly serene environment that is Adam’s residence, holy light flashed from beside his couch and the tall figure of Sera appeared. Adam instantly turned the TV off.

“Adam, pardon my intrusion. You still haven’t submitted your forms and they were due yesterday—” Sera interrupted herself when her eyes landed on the baby next to the first man.

“Sera, what gives? Can’t you see I’m busy? Where’s your sense of privacy? Jeez.”

“Adam, is that a child?” she asked rather accusatorily.

“Ugh, yeah, so what?”

“I didn’t think you would—where’s your wife?” She brushed her hair back behind her shoulder, her brows furrowed. “Um, I figured that after Lilith and Eve—”

“Pshh, you’d think this guy would settle down for anyone? Puh-lease. Imagine a world where you can’t fuck the original dick. Worse than any nightmare you could ever dream of.” Adam averted his gaze as his shoulders tensed up.

“So you care for this child alone? By yourself?” Sera looked more worried than ever, which Adam instantly latched on to.

“Are you doubting me? I started humankind—I know what I’m doing.” He settled his arms on the headrest, legs raising to rest on the coffee table as he gave a lazy shrug.

“How long have you kept this child?”

“What’s with all the questions? Uh, I dunno, more than two months, I guess?”

“What is its name?”

“Oh, uh…” Shit. He didn’t really think about that. He only kept calling it ‘kid’ or ‘brat’. “Adam Jr!” he blurted out the first thing that went through his mind. “Yeah, that’s right, everyone would immediately know that this kid is from me, Adam.”

Sera only narrowed her eyes. “Very well. I’m surprised you managed to keep this hidden from me. The child—”

“Adam Jr.”

“…Adam Jr. seems to be doing fine in your hands. But raising a child is no easy feat, Adam.” She took a deep breath in and closed her eyes momentarily. “We will have our discussion regarding your work tomorrow. Have a good night.”

As the seraphim was engulfed with holy light once more, vanishing as quickly as she came, Adam was left to think if the hassle was really worth this brat.

[bubblergoespop]

My Top Milo Quotes

i wanna devour this man so bad. the original version of this is at least triple the length omfg. @mrsmiagreer it’s finally here <3

“From one pretty face to another.”

“Bedroom? Oh. Ohhh. [gremlin giggling]”

“Cute?! You’re gonna come here, into my home, uninvited, and tell me I look cute when I’m mad? First of all sweetheart, you’re damn right I’m cute—“

“Jesus Christ who taught you how to do healing magic, a construction worker with a jackhammer?!”

“Me and Ash give each other shit all the time. He calls me a runt, I call him a bitch bottom, we laugh, we move on.”

“Cuddled up with you, in front of a fire? That’s a one-way ticket to sleepytown, USA, population: this guy.”

“I do not spoil him! Well whaddya want me to do? He’s my lil guy.”

“I swear to god, if I’m lyin I’m dyin, he looks him dead in the eye and says “if concerns about the future of your relationship with Amanda are weighing on you too heavily, I’m sure I can get by with just Milo and Asher here.”

“Are you Lasky?”

“Touch me and your life will be measured in milliseconds. I can see myself out.”

“It’s back. I’m back.”

“And next thing you know, boom, you’re sitting here, a broken man, barefoot with no fucking dress socks.”

“‘So Mr. Greer, what was it that ultimately pushed you over the edge?’ Oh, I don’t know officer, might have something to do with the walking terror I call a mate.”

“So what if I am sappy? I’m running on sleepy middle of the night brain, you get what you get. Shhh. Hush. Don’t you be mean to me. I’m trying to help.”

“He’s a good little dude. Isn’t that right, bub?

“I got to hold my favorite person in the whole world. And only occasionally had to threaten to choke them out.”

“Mmm. You’re cute. Yeah, I called you cute. What are you gonna do about it? Get grumpy? Just makes you look cuter.”

“Do not call them my ‘titties’ you asshole!”

“Personally, I think I’m better at getting clothes off a ya than putting em on, but I’m ever at your service, baby.”

“No no no, don’t do that button. Yeah. Yeah, leave that one undone.”

“There’s my sweetheart.”

“Yeah. Well, it beats for you, sweetheart. A little more sappy shit for the road.”

“There ya go, that looks perfect! Yeah, what you’re wearing right now! You look fucking incredible in it. Yeah, I know you haven’t even started changing into the next look, what’s your point?”

“When I say you’re my mate, I mean it with every inch of me. When I say it, my core lights up like a firework. And when I feel your core answer it, and mirror it back, it feels like the fourth of fucking July in my chest.”

“I mean, obviously we’re gonna look fucking great no matter what, it is us after all”

“Hey, I know Ash is your mate, but would you mind if I use that choke collar you have for him real quick?”

“The power couple”

“And the energizer bunny takes a tumble.”

“And you won’t believe this next part but, uh, as a wolf, I don’t have hands.”

“You don’t have to ask, baby, I trust you. I know you’ll be gentle.”

“You feel like forever in my arms.”

“Oh my god, do they think my house smells weird?”

“I don’t want this for you, baby.”

“These muscles got more knots in em than you had wrapped around you the other night. And that’s saying something.”

“You run through my blood like oxygen, sweetheart.”

“Whose mouth is this?”

“And do not wear that belt, how old is that thing? It looks awful!”

“You’re not alone. I’m here. The pack’s here.”

“You want to see a hissy fit, bootlicker?”

“Cmon, head up. Up for me. There you go. I wanna see this pretty face.”

“Kissing my palm like that… you’re too fucking cute.”

“I just wanna feel you.”

[wynnyfryd]

Trailer park Steve AU part 34

part 1 | part 33 | ao3

Steve ducks his head against the flurries falling outside The Hideout as he makes his way for the entrance and tries really, really hard to not to feel totally out of place.

He agreed to meet Robin and her friends here separately because he was coming straight from a shift, but he’s kind of regretting that now. The only black thing he had in his wardrobe that was at all weather appropriate was a tight-fitting black knit pullover with a high collar and a silver zipper down the front, and he feels like some dorky, supportive golf dad coming to cheer on his rebellious son after a long day out on the green. The light wash jeans and silver wristwatch aren’t really helping matters.

Jesus. He should have let Robin dress him.

The guy at the ticket counter seems to agree because he gives Steve a weird look when he approaches and asks, “Are you lost?”

“Uh, no.” And if it comes out slightly more bitchy than he intended, well—

“Five dollars,” the guy scowls.

Strike that. Maybe it didn’t come out nearly bitchy enough. “The flyer says it’s two.”

The guy eyes him up with a tight, sarcastic smile and pops his chewing gum. “For you it’s five.”

Oh, my god. Operation Woo Your Man might be dead before it starts, because Steve’s about to smash the ticket booth window and pummel this fucking guy.

“I already got yours!” Robin calls brightly, jogging up behind him on the sidewalk and waving a lime green wristband. “He’s good,” she tells the guy, then tells Steve, “Eddie said to give you this.”

Ticket guy frowns, and Steve gloats as Robin fixes the bracelet to his wrist. Yeah, buddy, you heard that right; I'm with the band.

Robin drags him into the bar, and he stops her just inside the door, hugging her tight enough to lift her up on tiptoe, smacking a kiss to the side of her head. He jostles her around until something in her neck pops, and when he lets her go she groans, “Oh, my god, do that again.”

She spins around, crossing her arms over her chest. Steve grabs her by the elbows; shakes her like a piggy bank until her spine goes crack-crack-crack.

“Wow,” she sighs dreamily when he sets her down. “Marry me.”

“You can’t just marry me for my massage services.”

“I know; it’s tragic. Anyway, come on.” She takes his hand. “Everyone’s already at the table.”

“Who’s everyone?”

Robin doesn’t answer — probably can’t hear him over the loud rock music pouring through the speakers — but she weaves them through the venue, skirting the edge of the main floor.

Steve’s never actually been in here, but it’s pretty much what he expected: black walls, black floor, black leather jackets on the handful of regulars. The stage is off to their left, already set up with Eddie’s band’s gear by the looks of it, though he doesn’t see them anywhere. Must be backstage getting ready.

In front of the stage is a small, empty dance floor, flanked by rickety tables with mismatched chairs, and overhead there’s a balcony with a sound booth and more seats. To their right, the main bar: a long, ancient dark wood counter that’s been graffitied to absolute shit, covered in band stickers and beer labels and ‘so and so wuz here’s, and just up ahead, lining the far wall, Steve spots a row of wraparound booths.

Dark red leather, the stuffing spilling out through time-worn splits. Only one of them is occupied. Steve can’t make out much from this distance beyond the vague shape of the people sitting there, but considering it’s the only table with any chicks at it, he figures that’s their group.

Suddenly, Robin stops. Turns around to look at him; drops his hand and bites her lip. “Okay, so. Don’t get mad…”

Steve narrows his eyes. He knows that guilty grimace. Whatever it is, he’s definitely about to get mad about it, or at very least annoyed. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Robin.”

“Okay!” She steps to the side, and he marches toward the table to try and get a better view, Robin trailing after him, rambling, “For the record, I really didn’t do it, I swear! But, like— well, Beth is friends with Fred, and Fred is on the school paper, so I guess he just—”

The details shift into focus: tiny frame, rigid posture. Big, curly dark brown hair.

Oh, son of a bitch. No. No.

Nancy Wheeler’s here.

—

part 35

tag list in separate reblogs under '#trailer park steve au taglist' if you'd like to filter that content. if you want to be added tomorrow please comment and let me know (must be over 21; please either verify in the comment or have your age visible on your blog)

[clangenrising]

Month 14 - Newleaf

Goldenstar felt like everything was moving both extremely fast and excruciatingly slow. Time was slipping through her paws, racing towards an inevitable confrontation with Razor and his Rogues but somehow, most days, she looked around only to realize she had nothing to do that day but sit around. It was maddening, like a dream where she was being chased but couldn’t go anywhere. 

She’d gone to see StarClan, seeking guidance for what to do to help Songdust. The results had been inconclusive. Apparently no one knew where she was. Smokyrose, looking lovely with her starry coat and more energized than Goldenstar had seen her in a long time, had explained that she and several others had been looking nonstop to no success. Poppyblaze insisted she wasn’t dead but didn’t have any clue where she was either. Some cats were starting to give up on her. Goldenstar promised Smokyrose she wouldn’t be one of them but that still didn’t leave her with a good idea of what to do.

Thankfully, Mystique hadn’t been causing any trouble. At her request, Goldenstar had allowed her to start training cats in combat - under Russetfrond’s supervision of course. She wasn’t a great teacher but she was a good fighter and Goldenstar had watched Floodpaw drift from total distrust and contempt to secret admiration for the kittypet. He didn’t even get mad when he lost a duel, he just got back up and demanded to go again until he was better. Goldenstar was proud of him. It wouldn’t be long until he and his littermates were ready to be warriors. 

Before that, though, she was going to have to apprentice Slatekit and Fogkit. Poppybird was still coming by to check on them every so often, which Goldenstar was very grateful for. Thanks to her, Fogkit had come back out of her shell and was once again dragging her sister on adventures around the camp. Goldenstar had asked Poppybird what she thought about them, if they seemed to be leaning towards an apprenticeship as a healer or a mediator but Poppybird said they both seemed pretty eager to be warrior apprentices and so Goldenstar had started trying to pick out good mentors for them. 

She had been considering Ospreymask for Fogkit but according to Poppybird, Fogkit had disliked her ever since she delivered the news of Smokyrose’s death, which was a shame. Slatekit seemed to need someone who was going to be extremely supportive, and Goldenstar had a few cats in mind, but Fogkit was going to need someone who could handle her rambunctious spirit, especially given how much time she had been trying to spend with Floodpaw lately. Goldenstar was at least grateful that Floodpaw seemed to have warmed up to the idea of hanging out with her. She had seen him teaching her some of the tricks he’d learned from Mystique and while she thought he tended to play a bit too rough, Fogkit seemed to enjoy it and that was what mattered. 

Still, she wasn’t sure about a good mentor. She sat atop the Stoneperch, tail twitching, and puzzled over the different possible combinations. She was so deep in thought she didn’t notice Scorchplume had padded up beside her until she spoke.

“Busy?” asked Scorch with a slight tilt of her head. 

Goldenstar flinched and hurried to recover. “Huh? Oh, uh, no not really. What’s up?”

“I wanted to go out past the eastern border, take a look around,” Scorch said flatly. “I thought you might accompany me.” Goldenstar swallowed. She still hadn’t been able to persuade Scorch to stay and the dread of losing her again twisted in her gut like a pit of snakes. 

“Sure,” she smiled, hoping it was convincing. “Why not?” 

Scorch smiled in return. “Great. Let’s go.” 

Goldenstar stood and followed Scorch’s lead, feeling distant. She wished she could lean her head on Scorch’s shoulder and twine their tails as they walked, she ached for that closeness, but she still didn’t know where they stood. Scorch had been so reclusive since her return. She did her duties and then spent her time alone, like she didn’t want anything to do with anyone. Goldenstar wondered if she still resented her for the fight they had been having when she was taken. But then, out of the blue, she asked to go walking? Goldenstar was lost and confused. 

“I hope you’ve been doing alright,” she tried. Scorch glanced over at her. 

“I suppose so. As alright as you can be knowing an army could march on your home any day.” It may have been foolish, but Goldenstar brightened upon hearing Scorch call the Clan her home. That was a good sign. 

“Yeah,” she hummed. “It isn’t great. Have you been training with Mystique at all?”

Scorch scoffed. “No. I’d be satisfied if I never saw her again.” 

“Really?” Goldenstar asked. “I thought you two got along.” 

“As well as I get along with anyone,” Scorch huffed and Goldenstar frowned. “She’s nice enough but I want nothing to do with her. You wouldn’t understand.” She swished her beautiful tail as if to put an end to the conversation.

“Try me,” said Goldenstar. Scorch frowned at her and then sighed. 

“Fine. Razor basically made her my prison guard. I couldn’t go anywhere without her watching me. She’s not stupid. I know she saw through my happy-little-mate act but she never did anything to help me. I can’t forgive her for that.” Goldenstar listened, nodded to herself, and hummed thoughtfully. 

“I see…” she said. “That sucks. I’m really sorry, Scorch.” 

“What for?” Scorch snapped.

“That you had to go though that?” Goldenstar shrugged. “I’m not, like, guilty-sorry, just… sympathetic.” Scorch opened her mouth then hesitated. Her gaze flickered to the ground for a beat before she lifted her head confidently.

“Hm. I half expected a lecture about how I ought to forgive her.” 

“No, you totally don’t have to,” Goldenstar said. “It would be super unfair to say that.” 

“Hm,” Scorch said again. She focused on the path ahead of them again and Goldenstar squirmed in worry. Was she mad? 

“Uh, hey,” she said, hopping a step forward to catch up with Scorch’s strides, “I wanted to say, uh… I’m sorry. I never got to apologize for the fight we had.” She swallowed, the snakes in her gut twisting more violently. “It’s my fault you got caught. I’m really sorry that I was pushing you so much and that I didn’t get back in time.”

Scorch looked over at her, face nearly mournful, and said, “It’s fine. I knew you wouldn’t get back in time.” 

“Wait, what?” Goldenstar’s steps faltered for a second.

“The twolegs are always nearby when they use those traps,” said Scorch. “They got to me just after you left. I just didn’t want you to get caught too.” 

Goldenstar didn’t know how to feel. “Oh. Okay. Well, I’m sorry for the other stuff at least.” 

“It’s fine,” Scorch sighed again. “I was being stupid anyway. Can we just forget it? I hate it when you get all sorry and nervous.” That didn’t help to alleviate Goldenstar’s nerves. 

“Okay,” she said, catching up. “Whatever you want, Scorch.” 

“Ugh,” Scorch groaned. 

“Sorry,” Goldenstar laughed nervously, “I didn’t mean it like that. Just, like, ‘okay, sounds good.’” Scorch’s tail lashed a little. 

“You’re doing it again. You were doing this that day too! You keep doing that breathy little laugh and treading on eggshells like you’ve got no spine! What happened?” 

Goldenstar swallowed. She’d realized she was in love is what happened but she couldn’t just say that could she? What if Scorch balked and left? Well, she was already planning on leaving… Goldenstar chewed her lip for a second, gathered her courage, and took a leap of faith. 

“Well… Okay, this might sound weird, and don’t feel like you owe me any kind of response but, uh, that night you disappeared and came back late?”

“Yeah,” Scorch prompted. 

“Well, when you came back I realized that I uh…” This was the hard part. No turning back! she thought. “I realized I have, uh, feelings for you.” 

Scorch stopped walking. “Oh.” 

“Yeah,” Goldenstar laughed. “I’m sorry, I’m trying not to be weird, I just- I like you so much, I don’t want to ruin anything.” She shuffled her paws, not sure how to stand.

“Oh, please,” Scorch huffed. “If anything you’re ruining things by being so worried! Just be yourself, Goldie, that’s what I like.” That turned the snakes in her stomach to butterflies. 

“You- you do?” 

Scorch groaned loudly as she tilted her face skyward. “Yes, Goldie, I like you. Do I like you like that? I…” her exasperation softened and she looked away over her far shoulder. “I don’t know. I don’t really have room for that kind of thing in my life. Besides, I’m not interested in… in doing anything or-” 

“Oh, you don’t have to!” Goldenstar blurted. “I mean, if you did feel the same, I still wouldn’t expect anything like that or- or anything at all!” 

“Everyone has expectations,” Scorch glared. 

“O-okay,” Goldenstar laughed. “Fair, but I mean like… If you didn’t want to do something I wouldn’t pressure you to. I mostly just want to like… twine tails and share a nest and stuff like that…” It wasn’t like she would say no to something more… exciting, but she had always cared more about the person than any one part of a relationship. That was part of the reason she’d gone her whole life without any kind of serious partner, it just hadn’t been important enough for her to compromise on the ‘who’ in order to get the ‘what’. 

Scorch was still, her expression nigh unreadable but definitely skeptical. Goldenstar wanted to squirm but she forced herself to breathe slowly and calmly. She waited for Scorch to speak and tried to look as open as possible. 

“Let me get this straight,” said Scorch slowly. “The only thing you want… is to do cutesy garbage together?” 

Goldenstar blushed. “I guess you could say that, yeah,” she laughed. “I’d be open to other stuff but I’d be totally satisfied if that was all. But like, you can also say no, I totally understand.” Scorch sized her up for another moment.

“Alright,” Scorch said, turning to face Goldenstar directly and unfurling her tail up above her back, “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try so here are my conditions.” Goldenstar gulped and nodded, standing equally straight. “One: I refuse to use any kind of labels and definitely no sappy pet names like sweetie or anything, got it?” 

Goldenstar nodded again, “Got it.” She couldn’t believe what was happening.

“Two:” Scorch continued, tail starting to swish. “There will be absolutely no sexual advances of any kind.” 

“Of course,” Goldenstar said immediately.

“Three: This is a temporary arrangement. When I leave, that’s that, assuming you’re still determined to stay here despite my warnings.” 

Goldenstar pursed her lips. “Alright,” she said, hesitantly. “I still think you should stay, but, like, obviously you can end this… arrangement, I guess, whenever you want.” She thought but didn’t say, Even if I’ll probably die. 

“Good,” Scorch said firmly. She shifted slightly, like a bird ruffling its feathers, and let out a small breath. “‘Cause I’m not staying. I’m not letting Razor get another chance to take me back there.” She turned and started walking towards the border again. Goldenstar followed, feeling bright and bubbly and lonesome at the same time. 

“I understand,” she said sadly. “Is there anything I could do to change your mind?” 

Scorch hummed in thought. “If Razor were dead then we could talk.”

“Okay,” Goldenstar’s mind was turning. “How would we do that?”

“I don’t know,” Scorch said, “That’s why I’m leaving.” 

Goldenstar sighed, ears drooping. Scorch looked over and, after a beat of hesitation, wound her tail around Goldenstar’s. The action sent affection flooding through Goldenstar’s body and she leaned in to rest her head on Scorch’s shoulder, a small purr rumbling in her chest. Scorch stiffened slightly but eased into the gesture. Goldenstar’s heart soared. 

“We’ll think of something,” she said. “I’m gonna do everything I can to keep people safe. I’m not giving up yet.” 

“It’s not giving up to run away,” said Scorch. “It’s just a different strategy.” 

“I guess,” Goldenstar hummed. “It’s just that these territories, this land, it has a lot of significance and meaning to us. It’s just as much a part of the Clan as any member. I don’t want to lose that.” 

“Better than losing your lives,” said Scorch.

“I know,” said Goldenstar, taking a deep breath as she closed her eyes and let Scorch lead her along. “If it comes to it, I will leave if we have to. But I wanna try a few other things first.” 

“Well, it will be good to take a look at what’s beyond the border in any case,” said Scorch. 

“Yeah, I agree,” said Goldenstar. She opened her eyes and looked up at Scorch’s perfect blue ones and smiled. At least for now, she could imagine that this was a romantic little adventure to some place new. 

Scorch raised an eyebrow at her. “Goldie, are you going to stare at me like that all the time now?” 

“Maybe,” Goldenstar laughed. “Is it bad?”

“No, you just look ridiculous,” said Scorch, a touch of a humorous smile on her face. 

“What can I say,” Goldenstar sighed dramatically, “I’m ridiculously in love with you.” 

“No,” Scorch said, suddenly detaching herself from their little embrace, fast enough to make Goldenstar stumble. “No you aren’t.”

“Aww, is that not allowed?” she pouted playfully even though her heart sank.

“Yep,” said Scorch, “Rule Four: We are not using that word.” 

Goldenstar thought it sounded like Scorch might be joking but she couldn’t tell and she didn’t want to push so she just sighed and said, “Alright… Can I at least say I think you’re beautiful?”

“Hmm,” Scorch glanced over her shoulder. “Yes. Do that.” She smirked and swished her tail - definitely playing. 

“Scorchplume,” Goldenstar purred sweetly, “you are intensely beautiful. Seriously, your eyes, your fur, your voice, all of it. You take my breath away.” 

Scorchplume rolled her eyes. “You’re too soft, Goldie.” 

“If adoring every bit of you is soft then that’s fine with me,” said Goldenstar moving back in to twine tails with her. Scorch made a noncommittal noise and fell silent. Goldenstar was happy to just enjoy her presence. 

They made their way to the border then out past the territories into the wider prairie. Here, wildflowers grew in thick patches and the grass was sparser and dryer. They found a short, wide little tree and scaled it to get a look at the surrounding area. 

“Looks like a desert out there,” Scorch hummed. Goldenstar chewed her lip in thought. She’d heard old stories about deserts before but the concept still seemed alien to her, like a mystical land of suffering designed to try the cats who dared to wander across it. 

“There’s bound to be coyotes out there,” she said, mostly to herself. “Not somewhere I would want to raise kits.” 

“It’s not ideal for me either,” said Scorch. “But surely there’s something past it.”

“Maybe,” Goldenstar shrugged. “You could ask Oddstripe. He came from out this way, remember?”

“That’s right,” Scorchplume muttered under her breath. There was a storm of thoughts behind her eyes. Goldenstar pictured it rolling out across the desert and pouring much needed rain on the scraggly wildflowers and parched earth. She imagined letting that rain soak her to the skin and thought that she wouldn’t mind at all. 

Scorch leapt down to the ground and started back towards the territories. “Maybe I’ll have to see about the lake over the mountains then,” she said. 

“Or,” suggested Goldenstar, leaping down beside her, “you could stay and help us figure out how to beat Razor.” 

“No, I don’t think so,” said Scorchplume curtly. 

“Hear me out,” Goldenstar said, her own thoughts coalescing into rain clouds. She thought back to what Scorch had taught her about speechcraft and came up with a plan. “You hate him more than anyone and with good reason. On your own, there’s nothing you can do to stop him but I have a whole Clan, several Clans even, full of warriors who would gladly sink their claws into him.” Scorch hummed, unconvinced, and Goldenstar quickly continued. “You’re incredibly smart and you have first hand experience with his operation. You could teach us the best way to beat him and then we would do it. You wouldn’t even have to get close to him. Just tell us what to do and we’ll take all the risk ourselves. You’d be saving countless cats and securing your own safety all in one go.” 

“You make a compelling argument,” Scorchplume said slowly. Her eyes were narrowed, calculating. Goldenstar held her breath and tried to maintain her casual facade. This was probably the highest stakes conversation she’d had in weeks and she wasn’t about to ruin it by looking too desperate.

Scorch stewed for a few moments then said, “Alright fine. We can give it a try.” 

“Yes!” Goldenstar cried, butting her head joyously into Scorch’s side. So much for not looking desperate. “Thank you, Scorch!” 

“Don’t thank me too much,” Scorch said. “I might have an idea but it involves using you as bait.” 

Goldenstar smiled, ears perking. “Ooh, tell me.”

“Don’t look so excited,” Scorch huffed poutily. 

“Sorry, I’m just- I am excited. I can’t wait for all of this to be over with so you and I can just be happy together.” 

Scorch’s throat labored as she watched Goldenstar’s face. “Yeah… Me too, I guess.” Goldenstar rammed her with another loving headbutt. That was plenty for her. Visions of a bright and happy future were starting to form in her mind's eye, one where she and Scorch lived in RisingClan together for the rest of their lives, where Scorchplume felt happy and safe and knew just how much Goldenstar loved her. To her, there was no greater thought in the world.

UPDATES: - Goldenstar confessed her feelings to Scorchplume and they have become mates an unofficial no labels kind of thing

[hirikka]

I know you know I know too

For @steddie-week​ Day 6: Misunderstandings

Mike believes that Nancy and Eddie are dating and tries to give Eddie a shovel talk. It does not go as planned.

Read on AO3

Inspired by this post

"Can we talk?" Mike asks as soon as the door swings open.

Eddie blinks at him, glancing over his shoulder as if he's looking for someone else. "Uh, sure? You can come in."

Mike follows Eddie into the apartment, wrinkling his nose at the smell of weed. He's getting really sick of smelling it on all the older teens all the time (maybe if they'd let The Party try some, but they won't, so it's just annoying). Eddie opens a window to air the room out a little bit and then flops onto the couch, all loose-limbed and relaxed. Maybe the weed will actually help in this case; if Eddie’s chilled out enough, he might not get all intense and mad at Mike.

"Are you gonna sit?" Eddie asks.

"No," Mike tells him. He needs to keep whatever advantages he can in this situation because Eddie is older and also could very easily make his life extremely miserable if this goes badly. Honestly, Mike isn’t super sure he wouldn’t be miserable if it goes well either, but that’s a different issue.

"Okay," Eddie says, drawing the word out. "So what's up?"

"I know what you've been doing," Mike tells him.

Eddie stares at him. When Mike doesn’t elaborate, he tilts his head and asks, "What have I been doing?"

"All the dates and stuff. You aren't as subtle as you think."

Eddie sits up a little straighter, frowning. "Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh'," Mike says. "And I want you to know that if you mess this up, I will get revenge."

Eddie snorts. "You'll get revenge?"

"I've buried a body before," Mike tells him, trying to channel all the intensity and menace that he can into his tone. It's been a long time since he was a DM, but he thinks he's doing a pretty good job. "And I'm not afraid to do it again."

"Sorry, you've buried a body before? Like, for real?" Eddie looks genuinely shocked, and huh, maybe he never got the full story of what the Cali Crew was up to during spring break.

"Yes, for real!" Mike says. "And like, Hopper would definitely be on my side. So."

Eddie bobs his head in a nod, but he doesn't actually look all that impressed.

"And my girlfriend has super powers."

"I am aware," Eddie says.

"I'm so serious about this," Mike insists, because he feels like Eddie isn’t getting it. "This isn't just some kind of dramatic shovel talk; I'm not just saying shit for fun."

"No, no, I believe you," Eddie tells him, tone serious. “I hear you loud and clear; if I mess this up I’m dead for real, got it. Message received.” Mike has just an instant to feel victorious before Eddie continues, "I just didn't realize you cared about Steve that much."

Mike freezes. "What."

"Steve?" Eddie says, frowning a little in confusion. "I sort of thought you didn't like him that much."

"I'm not talking about Steve. Why would I be talking about Steve?"

"Then who are you threatening me about?"

"Nancy, obviously!" Mike waves a hand, feeling a little desperate. He has a sinking feeling that maybe he's actually wrong, but he’s in too deep to give up now. "You've been spending so much time together, and she’s seemed way happier recently. You must be— Are you not dating?"

"Dating Nancy? No, I am not," Eddie says. "I've been hanging out with her because we're friends, and also for double da—" He stops talking, eyes going wide. "Just because we're friends."

"Double dates?" Mike repeats. He needs to focus on that detail; if he thinks too much about the fact that Eddie thought he was talking about Steve, he's going to have to address what that (probably) means. "If Nancy’s not dating you, who is she dating?"

"Uh, nobody?" Eddie tries. Mike raises an eyebrow and waits. Eddie grimaces, obviously realizing how unconvincing that sounded. "You should ask her about it. Seriously, I can't tell you that."

Ugh. Great. Eddie's going to be stubborn about this. Now that he's on guard, he's probably not going to say anything else accidentally incriminating, even if he is still high enough to have less of a filter than usual. Instead of arguing, Mike changes course. He doesn’t really want an answer to this question, but leaving it a mystery would be worse: "Why did you think I was talking about Steve?"

"Hm?"

"Eddie!"

Eddie sighs. "Jesus, kid, we were waiting for the right time to tell you little twerps."

"You and Steve?" Mike feels like this is maybe actually worse. He hadn't loved the idea of Eddie and Nancy together for a bunch of reasons (including—especially—the fact that Nancy is his sister, and also they don't make any sense together), but Eddie and Steve? "Steve Harrington?"

"Is that a problem, Wheeler?" Eddie gives him one of those intense looks, and Mike is abruptly thrown back to the beginning of freshman year when Eddie was as terrifying as he was compelling.

"He's so lame," Mike whines, because even if he's still a little scared of Eddie, he can't put aside the dismay that Eddie is dating Steve. "And he's a jock! You hate jocks."

Eddie blinks at him for a long moment, and Mike fidgets, wishing this whole thing had maybe never happened. Then Eddie drops back into the couch with a sigh. "Jesus H. Christ, I thought you were being homophobic."

"What, no!" Mike denies immediately, and it's true; he's fine with gay people just. Steve? "I'm not homophobic. I just can't believe you of all people would fall for Steve Harrington."

Eddie laughs. "Trust me, it surprised me too."

Mike sighs. "I'm sorry I freaked you out."

"Nah, it's fine. I expect you to be an asshole sometimes, so that's nothing new." Eddie offers a genuine smile to soften the blow.

"Yeah, well at least I have good taste in guys," Mike says without actually thinking about what he's saying. "Wait—no—that's not—"

"Oh my god," Eddie breathes. "This is the best conversation."

"Shut up!"

"Thank you for telling me," Eddie tells him, tone solemn. "I'm glad you felt you could trust me with this."

"I hate you, actually," Mike decides. "No wonder you and Steve are dating; you both suck."

Eddie cackles, and Mike wishes fervently for the ability to turn back time.

"This is actually the worst thing that's ever happened to me," Mike announces. "And I've dealt with the Upside Down four times."

Eddie manages to get his laughter under control. "Oh, you think this is bad?" He leans in, grinning menacingly. "Just wait until I tell Steve you threatened me to defend his honor."

"Oh god," Mike breathes. "Please don't do that, he'll never let me live it down."

"I don't know, I think he deserves to know how much you care."

"I wasn't talking about him, though. I thought you were dating Nancy!" He knows protesting is probably useless at this point, but he's got to at least try. "It's actually fine if you want to mess up your relationship with Steve."

"I don't think you mean that, though, do you?"

Mike sighs and closes his eyes. "I'm sorry for threatening you, but please don't make me admit to liking Steve."

"Fine, I suppose I can be merciful," Eddie says magnanimously. "I mean, he may have heard the entire thing, since he's in the next room, but..."

"He's here?" Mike hisses.

"Oh yeah," Eddie grins. "You interrupted date night." He wiggles his eyebrows, and Mike wants to die.

"Wow, would you look at the time?" Mike glances around the room, which is completely bare of any clocks. "It's time for me to go!"

"Hey, Wheeler," Eddie says, and he sounds serious again. "Can you please keep your mouth shut about this?"

Mike narrows his eyes. He’s not going to just go along with whatever Eddie wants after all of this, and this might be his only chance to regain the upper hand in this conversation. "Why?"

"Because we want to let everyone know ourselves? We'll do it soon, so you won't have to keep it a secret for a long time or whatever, but it's important to us to get to tell people, okay?"

"Yeah, sure. I don't actually want to think about it anyway."

"Thank you."

"Sure." Mike starts to leave and then stops, turning back to face Eddie again. "And I'm, like, glad you're happy or whatever."

"Wow, that's so touching," Eddie drawls. "Thank you, though." He smiles, and Mike nods, rushing to the door—because yeah, he doesn't actually hate Steve; he can admit to himself he kind of, maybe, likes Steve (Mike will never, ever say it out loud, but Steve is pretty handsome, and he’s actually reliable in a crisis, unlike Nancy and Jonathan, who tend to disappear when shit starts going down), but if he has to actually see him right now, after all of that, he might die.

So he leaves, heading out into the cool night air and feeling much lighter than he had on his way to Eddie's house. His shovel talk may not have gone the way he expected, but that's okay, and anyway, he has a sister to pester about her new girlfriend.

Now that he's over his initial shock, he can put two and two together; he’d assumed that Dustin had finally gotten his wish for Robin and Steve to start dating, but if Steve is dating Eddie, then that means the other half of those double dates is Nancy and Robin.

He actually thinks that Robin Buckley is a pretty good match for Nancy. They make sense together, in a weird way, sort of balance each other out, and he's heard about how well they worked together during Vecna.

That doesn't mean he's not going to bug Nance for keeping it a secret. Especially since it made him embarrass himself in front of Eddie.

[aachria]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH hi how are you!

I was rereading SSSBMTY for like the 10th time and Ive been dying to know that if Robin is really the only one who knows that Ed died somehow because bestie told her- but like did Robin take that seriously?? Did Robin hear “oh yeah I was the only one who died teehee” and took it in a “mental death” or a “physical death” way. If she took it in a mental perspective which I guess makes the most since does Robin realize the implications of Ed “dying” and somewhere in her head is super worried for Ed?

Some people in the story know about the “Buster Call” that TOTALLY (didn’t) happened but we’ve only really seen Robin, Zoro and Nami question it… I guess kinda Law with him comparing a Robin and Ed but not intense questioning. and now that Ed has done their screaming match with Kidd does Kidd and/or Killer have any suspicions of what they actually meant by being so connected to death???

AHHH ED YOUR KILLING ME NO PUN INTENDED?! I like death metaphors if you cannot tell- I want to squeeze you to get this information out.. is everyone just not questioning Ed’s weird background and possible death that they haven’t been super secret about?!?!

I wrote this while having a brain freeze bc of a smoothie

Reading SSSBMTY 10 times is crazy I hope you know that. I love you but I hope you know that.

When they're all on the Tower of Law Robin makes it clear she took it very metaphorical, like she interpreted that as Ed intentionally viewing the person they were before the 'Buster Call' as someone who was dead and gone and not who they were anymore. Honestly I think Robin took that and what Ed said after about them both belonging to the crew as Ed somehow just being better adjusted than her, which is fucking hilarious if you think about it.

I've always had the thought floating around that because Luffy got mad at Nami way back at the beginning when she tried to ask Ed about it she took that as 'no one ever ask Ed anything EVER' and has just instilled that idea whenever they get a new crewmate lmao. Like she sits them down and goes "Ok so Ed is weird and has terrible things in their past but Do Not Ask Questions if you think the dramatic violin music will start playing, ok?" even if that's Not the Case.

That isn't confirmed canon I'm just putting that out there. You gotta wait and see if I write that into the story lmao.

Tbh Zoro doesn't give a shit about whatever happened to Ed because he thinks they've got — if not a good handle on it — at least a decent ability to see help/comfort when they need to. His ass has seen them cope worse with things that actively happen around them then whatever was going on with the 'Buster call,' and is content to leave it alone unless Ed directly asks him for help. (Which is also very funny if you think about Ed's 'if you ask I will tell you EVERYTHING' policy.)

Now with Kid and Killer it's more so they have no idea what is up with this weird little guy but it seems like they've got some, uh, ISSUES with the people around them or they themselves being hurt/killed by someone with a dream and no regard for casualties. Wonder how that will develop if they hear about the 'Buster Call' thing or any other weird rumor they might have accidentally sent floating around.

Overall Ed speaks in weird backwards metaphors enough there's a chance no one has ever taken a single word they've said at face value, so.... yeah.

I hope your brain is ok xoxo

[powderblueblood]

powder my love would u ever bless us with a hai universe cass finnigan bonus episode bc i’m an eddie-took-her-anal-virginity truther until i die and lord what i wouldn’t give to see that written in ur spectacular way…call it morbid fascination and also and as well additionally: me being a dirty fucking whore

sweets baby i've got good news and i've got bad news, eddie unfortunately did nort take cass's anal virginity (she and mikey b have been backdooring for quite some time now) but there were certain... differences that cass wasn't quite prepared for! minors dni as always fuck off, warnings for smut (anal, premature ejaculation), cass being an asshole no pun intended (but i believe she felt mad guilty after this), embarrassing sexual situations (cumming early is nothing to be ashamed of, but consider who we're dealing with), eddie feeling shitty :( part of the hellfire & ice universe

HAWKINS, INDIANA. AUGUST 1984-ISH, SOMETHING LIKE THAT

Cass Finnigan is having a weird year.

It's what she keeps saying, mostly because it's what people keep telling her-- because that's kind of Cass's bag. She listens to what people tell her with a keen ear and an open heart and not very much consideration for the consequences. She takes direction very well, according to her drama teacher and her choir director and her friend Lacy and, most importantly, her boyfriend Mikey B.

So, when Mikey B said they should take a break, she said, okay! And when her parents said they were getting a divorce, she was like, if you think that's for the best! And when her church elders told her that her parents' divorce would be seen as a blight in their otherwise idyllic Christian household, she agreed because He does know better than we do! And when Lacy said she should maybe think about hooking up with other people, on the level this time, not as a drunken extracurricular, Cass said, you are so right.

"Just for the... fourth or fifth time, are you absolutely, positively sure about this?"

That's pretty much how Cass ends up ass up in the back of Eddie Munson's van on a rainy Tuesday afternoon.

Shifting her hips back, she scoffs. It's a high, tufted sound because Cass is a high, tufted kind of girl. Definitely high right now, anyway.

"Munson. Are you seriously asking me to second guess you putting your dick in my butt?"

"Salient point. Roger that. Sorry. Just... tryin' not to be... like, a d-- a dick." Unimaginative choice of words for him. "Sorry."

Fuck Cass Finnigan's weird year. Eddie Munson is having a weird freakish immediate right now.

There he balances, floor of the van digging ridges into his kneecaps through the holes in his denim jeans. Said jeans are slung past his narrow hips, along with his boxers, the worn elastic of the waistband tucked pretty snug under his balls.

Eddie's holding his dick with consideration. Like he's about to give the little (hah!) man a pep talk.

Don't fuck this up for me, okay? When we get in there, fucking pace it out, alright? I'm serious, man. It might feel like you want to geyser out the second we squeeze on in--oh god--but be cool, okay?

Forty minutes ago, he'd met Cass in a clearing near the usual pick-up spot, one big enough that he could haul the van into. Eddie usually hated being near the orbit of Hawkins High during summer vacation--something about a work life balance--but then work comes calling and, y'know, it's kind of the most inconspicuous place in town.

Cass'd been nervous; Eddie noticed that, out of the rotating faces of that particular friend group, she'd never been saddled with the task of picking up for them before. Well, she and that Lacy chick, but Eddie had reason enough to believe she wouldn't be caught dead.

"Uh, you wanna hop in a sec?" Eddie'd hesitated, regarding the raindrops bouncing off Cass in her pink plastic parka, "It's really comin' down out there."

"Sure. Just for a sec."

Cass was twitchy, but keen. She and her big eggshell blue eyes darted around the back of his van, probably noting every flaw in the interior so she could report back to her clique later.

But then she sat all criss-cross applesauce and was like, "How's your summer vacation going?" Delivered in the clipped monotone of someone just making small talk, but delivered all the same.

They swapped a couple of same Hawkins, different day type sentiments, and stilted as it was, it wasn't entirely terrible.

Inexplicably, it made Eddie be all, "Would the lady care for a sample?" like he's a fucking weed sommelier.

Which, in a manner of speaking and if the manner is ditch weed, he kind of is.

Twenty minutes in, and Cass was already feeling it. Her blue eyes were closing into a squint and that squint kept studying him. Rolling him over in her gaze, kinda like he was one of those optical illusions she couldn't quite figure out.

Eddie, despite himself (or so he'd like to think), felt heat rising in his cheeks. Something about this had an encroaching sense of familiarity.

"What?" he mumbled, ashing the joint into an empty soda can.

Cass leaned back, heels of her palms supporting her and pushing her chest out just so. "You think I'm pretty, don't you?"

Admittedly, that kinda put a hitch in the spell she was attempting to cast. Jesus, these sweater monkeys and their indefatigable egos. Eddie's eyes involuntarily rolled. "No. I think you're a dog. The blonde hair and the perky tits do nothing for me, honestly. Soft as a monk."

Now, here would be an opportunity to volley back, to fold humor into one's foreplay like cheese into an omelette but Cass E. Finnigan, god bless her (and she is blessed), does not have her eye on Eddie's preferred ball.

"Yah, but you think I'm pretty like, you wanna..."

But he is still, fallibly, a guy edging toward kinda stoned and pliable.

"I wanna..."

And she is still, fallibly, a very hot, slightly stoned, inattentive girl.

"You wanna fuck me."

And instead of a gaze, it was more like a glaze, like a well-practiced Skinemax impression that Cass had whipped out as a party piece. She removed her pink plastic parka with unnecessarily seductive precision, and through the haze, it had occurred to Eddie that he hasn't ever really entered Cass Finnigan in his rogue's gallery of jerk-off material.

Maybe that was an oversight.

Because now, in this moment, in this ticking time bomb of a second, he's staring, like, right down the barrel of her asshole.

Dick in hand.

Eddie's hard, of course, even though he kind of feels like he shouldn't be? Not in a forbidden way that would usually get his blood thumping, hard in a way that kind of feels like an imposition. Like, there should have been more lead up to this. Like, Cass should have kissed him. Or he her. Or something.

I mean, she didn't even turn around to look at his dick. It's kinda rude.

She, right out of Penthouse Forum, just sort of flipped her skirt and shimmied her underwear and leaned forward and presented herself and demanded he get his cock out and then she was starting to sing his tune but now he's just staring at her. The back of her. Poised and peaches and cream and perfect, sure, but not for him, it doesn't feel like.

Eddie's an ill-chosen accessory here. An awkwardly misplaced lamp in a room that, yeah, apparently can benefit from a lamp. But not this lamp.

Cass's asshole is very pretty, though. Her pussy, too, from what he can see. Pink and petal-y in a way he'd never seen up close in person before. (The thing with Nicole Summers humping him on a log in out by Forest Hills a couple years back hadn't exactly been an all-you-can-eat-with-your-eyes kind of affair.) Looking at it long enough makes his tip and mouth water a touch, and looking at it too long makes Cass be all, "Are you, like, okay back there?"

Eddie opens his mouth to answer but is swiftly cut off by Cass chirping, "Oops! Oh duh, you're probably like, what is she thinking--"

Fascinatingly, without even changing position, she digs around in her fuzzy little backpack and tosses a tube of KY Jelly over her shoulder. Right. Right.

Eddie squeezes out what he considers a decent amount after whacking that tube against his palm a couple times. It comes out with a flatulent puff of air. Cass has really gone through this stuff. If Eddie were a more primitive man, he might be inclined to slap Mikey B on the back and/or ass the next time he sees him.

"Not your first rodeo, huh?" he mumbles, breath uneven, smoothing the jelly over the length of himself. His eyes flutter closed under his own touch, ceasing the rhumba of Cass Finnigan wants you to fuck her in the ass Cass Finnigan wants you to fuck her in the ass Cass Finnigan wants you to fuck her in the ass for all of a half second.

"Whut?" Cass caws.

"Nothin'. Um..." Eddie's got one ambitiously lubed up hand all of a sudden. Overshot that mark. First of many. "...can--" Jesus Christ. How to sexify this deeply unsexy yet sexy situation. "--can I touch you?"

"Um, yah."

Um, okehhh, he mockingly mirrors her faux-Valley Girl accent back to himself. See, blue sky situation, Eddie would say that back to Cass and she's think he's funny, and they'd laugh together and it'd be hot but the thing about girls like Cass is they have no sense of humor about themsel--fuck, his jellied thumb feels nice sinking into her little butthole.

"Is that," fuck his stupid fucking trembling fucking voice, "does that feel okay?"

"I can't even really, like, feel it-- oh my god, that's not your dick, is it?!" Cass, in all goddamn sincerity, starts to turn around, face all hitched in a grimace that Eddie can't stand.

"No, it's not," he says, through gritted teeth, hand extracting from her ass and resting on her cheek. "It's not my fucking dick. I thought you might need-- or want, I dunno--"

"Does it usually take this long with you? Like, guys don't usually take this long to just stick it in. You know that, right?"

Mouth gaping, Eddie feels something shrink inside him. He can't tell whether it's his ego or his faith in the Hawkins male populace (not that he had much to begin with), but he's learning more and more about the kind of world Cass Finnigan orbits in as the seconds tick by.

Kinda sad, he thinks, angling himself against her ass, kinda sucks that ol' JC or MB or whoever only lets her use the back door--

A jolt smites clean through Eddie as his leaking pink tip touches Cass's puckered pink hollow. "Hnn. Mm."

Eddie pushes just a little, mouth popping back open. He feels Cass tense from the extremely tentative, extremely light grip he's got on her hip. Again, he is like full Jekyll and Hyding in the way that he feels like he's intruding on his own sexual encounter yet completely turgid from tip to taint.

It's so weird. That joint wasn't laced with anything, was it?

"You okay?" he asks, voice a squeak of urgency.

"Yh--yah," Cass says, but there's hesitance. Like she's almost about to ask him if he's okay too.

"Mind if I--" Mind if fucking I?! What am I even fucking saying? Shit, God, please, anybody, please let her say--

"Yah, sure."

Not the begging or panting he hand in mind for his first time back here, but it'll do. Eddie, slowly, ever so carefully does it, eases himself a couple more mannerly millimeters into the confines of Cass's ass--and not to suck his own dick, but this is gonna be a tight squeeze, if it'll squeeze at all. If it'll squeeze at all, oh fuck, oh please...

With a high, sharpish gasp, Cass seems to register that fact as well.

"Holy shit."

Blonde locks go flying over her shoulder as she finally tries to angle back and get a look at that certain member of the party that was of no interest to her fifteen minutes ago. How the tables fucking turn! In doing so, she accidentally thrusts back a touch, edging the reddened tip of Eddie's cock further in--

"Shit, shit, shitshitshit!" Barely an inch inside, Eddie feels his balls constrict and his back seize.

Cass snickers in a out-of-body, near ironic kind of way before winding out some direct-to-TV type whimper that someone somewhere on some planet must find attractive. Mikey B, possibly. It sounds flat to Eddie.

If she's making fun of him (she is), he isn't in the room to hear it.

All Eddie can focus on right now is sensation. The fact that if Cass moves even the tiniest iota--

"Y'know, you can like, slap me a little or something. If you w--"

"No, I-I don't-- fuck, just-- please don't fuckin' move, please don't fuckin'--"

Too goddamn late! Cass, with whatever curious shifting she's managed to do, has Eddie's throbbing, space hopping over eager bastard of a cock popping out of her asshole. The grip Eddie has on himself does no good to stem what's coming, badum-tss. With a groan, a gasp and a shudder, a pull like an anchor aweigh from the base of his belly, Eddie spills in a few hot thick ropes.

He feels a drop or two of sweat drip from the nape of his neck as he watches his hot, white, premature cum roll in a rivulet over Cass's lower back. Oh... no.

"Um."

"I am so," Eddie hasn't even got a chance to re-regulate his breath yet, and he's feeling around him for a napkin or an old t-shirt or a flunked essay, something, "so sorry, I--"

"Ew," Cass sits up, holding her skirt aloft and batting away Eddie's pleading offer of a gym sock. Which, fair enough, ew, but it makes Eddie recoil a touch. He watches as she cleans herself up with a wet wipe she grabs from that weird little monster of a backpack purse type thing she carries.

Eddie sinks back to sit on his heels, wiping himself off with the stupid old gym sock and tucking himself away. A sourness has started to sting in his gut, that post-nut clarity hitting all the harsher thanks to Cass's tiny daggered glances at him.

He's really never not gonna be an object of disgust to someone like her, is he? He can't even breach guilty pleasure status.

"So stupid," she's muttering, readjusting her underwear and smoothing out her skirt, "Last time I ever listen to that uppity bitch..."

He's just a dare bored girls give themselves on rainy August afternoons.

"We could-- if you wanted, just gimme a sec and I--" Eddie starts before he can stop mortifying himself with his own words.

"Listen!" Cass snaps, flipping her hair, "This was a gross and egregious mistake. Like, please don't get attached just because this-- I mean, what was that, like, two seconds? Dude."

Eddie is an ant. Eddie feels two specks of dust tall in this very moment of white hot humiliation. Eddie also feels like he wants to toss something back at Cass, something about her stupid fake accent or douchebag scamming boyfriend or idiot made-up Christian overlord, but Eddie also feels too small to even be mean which is the suckiest fucking part of all this right here right now.

Instead, his lips stretch into a tight smile, condescending as he can conceivably make it. Rain's still thrumming like gunshots against the roof of the van.

"Okay. Freak show's over, honey. Better get going."

"Ugh, whatever. Not a word of this, to anyone. Understood?"

"Not exactly a lot to tell."

A scoff and a snarl sees Cass Finnigan retreat back out into the rain through the van's creaking doors, and Eddie's heart sinks even further, if possible. This is not what's meant to happen in these porno-like scenarios! He's meant to send her off with a buttload of cum probably still dripping out of her, and he's meant to feel on top of the fucking world! Not like he's thirteen years old and someone just played a shitty prank that he swore he was too smart to fall for.

Well, that's it. On Eddie Munson's good and apparently sexually repulsive name, this is the last time he intimately trifles with some airhead in-crowd girl.

Next person he's fucking is a straight up weirdo and it's celibacy 'til then. Freaks or nothing. Blood oath.

[lunarsun12]

The Baby Of The House

Masterlist

Let’s say there was an accident which involved seonghwa stuff. He never gets a break from people causing emotional damage to him. Wooyoung happened to see Yoesang did the deed and is so keen to see Yeosang finally get punished like the rest of his siblings (mainly him and Jongho gets in trouble the most)

How will seonghwa react?

Back At Ateez Chat

Today 19:00

Wooyoung🐈‍⬛: OLD MAN! Yeosang broke your baby monitor + your laptop

Mingi🦄: That very specific to name what Yeosang broke…are you following him

Wooyoung🐈‍⬛: I may have been spying but I never tell mingi that…who said I was! I happen to see it

Jongho🍎: Uh huh…why do I see you following every day this week! You sus!

Wooyoung🐈‍⬛: SHUT UP THIS TIME IM INNOCENT EVEN THOUGH IT LOOKS LIKE NOT

Yunho🐶: No use on arguing with him! The answer is clear it is him!

Seonghwa🌸: Yeosang broke my stuff? I have word with him! He needs to be punished

Mingi🦄: Wooyoung stop hugging me!! It’s gross ew

The happy wooyoung was doing his victory dance and singing he got Yeosang in trouble. Whilst holding Mingi, he happens to be the closest thing wooyoung grabbed.

The next day…

Today 15:00

Mingi🦄: Erm anyone seen Yeosang! He has been dead quiet since Eomma found out…

Jongho🍎: The punishment must be bad…but thanks to him…he can finally stop spying on us!

San🐱: Wooyoung! What you did was low!! YOU MADE YEOSANG CRY AND NOW HE REFUSED TO LEAVE APPA SIDE! MY APPA TIME!

Wooyoung🐈‍⬛: Very funny San…Yeosang is not like you! Who sulks when he get into trouble!

Yunho🐶: Yeah sure…definitely not getting babied whatsoever…

Seonghwa🌸: Hongjong? Can you please tell Yeosang, to stop crying! I’m not mad at him…I know it is an accident

Jongho🍎: WHAT!? Why is yeosang is getting away with it! When we do something, deep clean the whole house!

Wooyoung🐈‍⬛: San might actually be right…this is new…

Hongjong🏴‍☠️: I told you hwa! Not to yell at him! You know how he gets scared and I’m giving him cotton candy therapy

Seonghwa🌸: I didn’t yell at him! I was to say it’s okay! Then he went and find you!

Hongjong🏴‍☠️: Well he kept on mumbling Eomma is gonna yell at me. It breaks my heart to see him like that!

Yeosang🍗: I wasn’t crying…Appa saw me and immediately took away to comfort me. I was just going to the bathroom!

Hongjong🏴‍☠️: Yeosang don’t be shy! We all family here! Your Eomma is in the wrong

Yeosang🍗: Eomma has right to be mad at me! It was an accident that I forgot to clean my chicken mess!

Seonghwa🌸: Wait what? You didn’t break it?

Yeosang🍗: No! I thought you were mad as I made a mess!

Hongjong🏴‍☠️: Shhhh yeosang it’s alright

Yunho🐶: We now know…that Appa and Eomma babies yeosang BIG time!

Seonghwa🌸: I love you all equally…your Appa erm…

Mingi🦄: APPA! You now made San sulk! He refuses to remove himself from the bathroom door! I am now trapped!!

Hongjong🏴‍☠️: Well since Yeosang is fine…I guess I can go back to work…

Seonghwa🌸: No you comeback right now and fix the damage you caused to San! I know how mingi feels to be trapped

Seonghwa🌸: Wait? Who broke my laptop and that baby monitor

Yeosang🍗: It was San and I think Mingi?

Seonghwa🌸: YOU TWO ARE ON CLEANING DUTY FOR A WEEK!

San🐱 + Mingi🦄: THAT NOT FAIR!!

Yunho🐶: Oh wow Eomma really went hard on mingi and San!

[duhragonball]

Neon Genesis Evangelion 21

NERV Origins: The Clownshoes Abduction

Okay, so this one is kind of confusing, because it flashes back and forth a lot. Let's go over the present-day stuff first and then we'll cover the scenes from the past.

Admiral Clownshoes gets abducted right under NERV's nose. I gave him a silly name because I couldn't be bothered to look up his actual name, but to be clear, he's the second-in-command of NERV, after Gendo Ikari himself. So it's kind of amazing that he could get kidnapped like this, although it's also kind of stupid, because this guy has done fuck-all since the story started. Gendo's the mastermind of NERV and the Evangelions and everything else that goes on here. Misato and Ritsuko pretty much handle all of the logistics and combat stuff. All the "Vice Commander" ever does is stand beside Gendo and make wry observations to him. I don't get the sense that he has any real purpose in the organization. I named him "Clownshoes" for a reason.

Anyway, NERV Intelligence suspects Kaji Ryoji, who was recently kicked out of NERV for being a double agent working for the Japanese Interior Department. Since Misato is known to be his lover, they hold her in a detention cell just in case she's an accomplice.

Regardless of Kaji's role in the abduction, the ones who wanted Clownshows are SEELE. I was starting to get the impression that SEELE was the name of the committee of grumpy old men who talk to Gendo Ikari whenever things go wrong. But apparently SEELE is another, even more mysterious group of dipshits behind the committee of grumpy old men. They wanted to talk to Clownshoes directly, without Gendo in the room, so they staged this abduction to make it happen.

Near the end of the episode, Kaji shows up to rescue Clownshoes. Clownshoes warns him that he might get killed for this, and Kaji says that he just wants to get closer to the truth. Uh... how does this help, exactly?

Like, I really don't get it. SEELE wanted something from Clownshoes, but we never actually find out what it is. They're mad about Eva Unit 01 absorbing an S2 from that Angel it ate a couple of episodes back. Now they think it's become a god, and they've lost confidence in Gendo. But what's Clownshoes supposed to do about that exactly?

And how is Kaji connected to any of this? I think the idea here is that NERV or SEELE set him up to take the fall for the kidnapping. The fact that he's rescuing Clownshoes seems to suggest that he wasn't the one who kidnapped him, except no, Kaji's been playing one side against the other the whole time. He's totally the kind of character who would kidnap a guy to spite NERV and then free him to spite SEELE. I'm not saying that's how it went down, but this episode doesn't really make it clear to me that he didn't abduct Clownshoes.

Somebody eventually catches up to Kaji near one of those slow-moving ventilation fans, like the one that stymied Goku in Dragon Ball GT. Yes, I'm still mad about that, by the way. He asks some unseen character what took so long, and then there's a gunshot sound and I guess that means he's dead. Well, good. Kaji sucked and I hated him. Rest in piss, you smug womanizing prick.

By now, Misato's been released, and she's pretty sure that means Kaji has already been killed, but then she gets a voicemail from him, and he says his goodbyes. Also he asks her to tend his watermelon garden for him. Man, fuck your watermelons, Kaji. Nobody's got time for that shit.

Misao breaks down and sobs over the dinner table, while Shinji hears her from the bedroom and covers his head with a pillow to drown out the crying. He doesn't know what to say to comfort her, but he does understand what she's going through.

All right, I think that does it for 2015, so let's look at the flashback stuff.

In 1999, Professor Clownshoes is tasked with mentoring a promising young student named Yui Ikari. She looks... familiar. Oh dammit...

Soon after, Clownshoes made the acquaintance of Gendo....... Rokubungi. He and Yui eventually start dating, and the next time Clownshoes meets him is after Second Impact, on a research mission in what's left of Antarctica. There, Gendo informs him that he and Yui have married, and he took her last name.

Eventually, a man named Keel, working for the SEELE organization starts the whole cover story about Second Impact being caused by a meteor strike. Clownshoes knows better, that it was caused by a "Giant Man", Adam, the First Angel. He eventually figures out that Gendo Ikari and SEELE knew Second Impact was going to happen. That's why Gendo left Antarctica right before it happened. He had been working with Misato's dad's research time, and I guess they discovered Adam and Gendo left them to take the fall.

Clownshoes threatened to expose the conspiracy, but Gendo showed him something first: An underground expanse, that "someone else" excavated. I don't know what that's supposed to mean, but this is the space where the NERV base is located in 2015. SEELE and the Ikari's established a research facility here, and I guess that's what convinced Clownshoes to go along with their secrets? I don't get it.

One day in 2004, Yui was working on some sort of experiment, and she brought their son Shinji to work so he could see it. Over there on the left is Ritsuko Akagi's mother. We'll get to her in a moment.

Clownshoes didn't approve of Shinji's presence in the lab, but Yui wanted him to see her experiment, to show him how bright the future would be. Those were literally her last words, as she died shortly after saying them.

So this is where that rumor started about Gendo killing his wife. She died in an accident of some sort, but it's hard not to imagine Gendo being at least partially responsible, since he's the driving force behind everything that went on in this place.

But Gendo was cleared of any wrongdoing, and soon after her death he started working on the Human Instrumentality Project.

However, it's still possible that Gendo had something to do with it. Even if he didn't directly sabotage Yui's work, he might have manipulated Dr. Akagi into doing it for him. That's because Akagi had a thing for him, and when Yui died, she admits to herself that she had hoped it would happen. Not long after, she and Gendo make out in the lab...

And Akagi's daughter, Ritsuko sees them going at it. This is like her first day on the job, and she sees the director porking her mom. Wild.

Not long after, Gendo starts bringing some other kid to work, and he explains that he's decided to care for the daughter of some acquaintance, which is totally the sort of thing a genuine hyu-mon person with real organs would say out loud. He introduces her as Rei Ayanami and... oh fuck we're really doing this. Akagi even notices the resemblance right away, so it's not a coincidence.

One night, Akagi sees Rei wandering around by herself, and Rei calls her an old hag. Akagi warns her that she'll get in trouble with Gendo, and she says he's the one who always calls Akagi a useless old hag. Akagi snaps and murders Rei in a fit of rage. Uh... okay?

When Akagi comes to her senses, she apparently throws herself over the safety railing, dying among the three supercomputers she just finished building. Soon after this, Keel reorganizes this thing into the NERV Agency.

And yeah, I think that's everything.

So if Rei isn't some sort of clone of Shinji's dead mother, this show is working very hard to fool me into thinking so. I mean, the resemblence of Rei to Yui aside, we see Li'l Rei get strangled to death in the past. So how is Rei alive in the present? If she's a clone, it stands to reason Gendo has a few spares.

I don't know the why of it. Maybe he just desperately wants his wife back, so he's waiting for one of the clones to grow up so they can get married. Or he thinks he can resurrect Yui but he needs a Rei to serve as a vessel for her disembodied consciousness. Maybe Yui's mind is trapped inside Eva Unit 00 the way Shinji was stuck in Unit 01 recently. Or maybe Gendo just wanted a loyal follower, and he only used Yui's genes because he had a sample handy.

For my part, the Yui-Rei connection is the only part of this that actually matters to me in this episode. Kaji's death is irrelevant. I'm glad he's dead. All the stuff with Ritsuko and her mom was dumb. Like, aside from killing Rei and then herself, all Dr. Akagi did was talk about the supercomputers she named after the Three Wise Men, and how she modeled them after three aspects of her personality. It's just a callback to Episode 12, with nothing else added.

And the whole story seemed to be centered around Clownshoes, except he never actually said or did anything to justify all this attention. I don't know why he threw in with Gendo in the 2000s, or why he's in such a high position in NERV today, or what SEELE expects him to do, or what he's actually going to do instead. Kaji freed him like it was some bold play to tip the balance of this story, but I can't see how. Well, there's still five episodes to go, so maybe they're building up to that.

Oh, right, one other complaint: I was really hoping to find out about the Second Angel. Remember? Adam's the First Angel, the one who exploded and caused Second Impact. The first time we see an Angel in this show, it's called the Third Angel. So what happened to the Second Angel, who would have appeared somewhere in between? I just assumed a flashback episode would have touched on that. Oh well.

[hauerhoetime]

Disaster

Eddie Munson x Reader

Summary: sitting alone on Halloween night you find yourself longing for your best friend Eddie (based on the song Disaster by Conan Gray)

Warning: mentions of drinking

Tonight had to be one of the most boring nights of your life. It was Halloween and you would think that would lead to some excitement but you would be wrong. You were left sat on your couch watching horror movies alone. Why are you alone you might ask? Well your friend Eddie bailed on you.

You weren’t even mad. I mean he got invited to some big Halloween party and anyone would agree that sounds a hell of a lot more exciting than a night in on your couch. So here you were in your costume eating a bowl of popcorn for two alone.

You couldn’t help but be a little sad though. He may not be your best friend (Who was also at that party) but he definitely was someone you enjoyed being around. You thought he simply lit up a room and everything he said had you on the edge of your seat. Yeah okay so maybe he had you acting like a preteen talking to a boy for the first time but you let it slide. 

You were so stuck in your thoughts about Eddie that you didn’t even notice you had walked over to your phone and dialed his number.

“Hello?” You hear his voice ring through your ears and it pulls you back to reality.

“Oh- hi um why are you home already?” You wonder aloud not expecting him to get home till well into the morning.

“Hopper shut it down. Why did you call if you didn’t think I’d be home?” You heard him laugh lightly at your own stupidity though of course he would never call it that.

“Um- I don’t even know if I’m being honest.” when those words left your mouth he let out a real laugh. 

“Well there must have been some reason?” He prods lightly.

“Mmm not one I can think of- hey sorry for wasting your time” You are trying your best to get out of this phone call as soon as you possibly can. If you end it fast there is a higher chance he will forget about it right? Or at least pretend he did for your sake.

“Hey it’s no big deal I’ll call you later alright?”

Your response slips out clearly missing your filter because you respond with “Alright I love you, bye” and as soon as the words leave your mouth your blood runs cold. Did you just say you loved him? Are you serious?? 

This was an absolute mess that you just created and now he definitely wasn’t going to forget this phone call. You just massively screwed yourself I mean what are the odds Eddie will ever talk to you again after this? God why do you have to be such a disaster?

Before you could spiral any farther Eddie piped in. “Hey wait, what was that?”

Lie. Yeah that's it, lie your way out. “Ha- yeah sorry I’m uh-” you look around for a possible lie and that's when you see your mom’s bottle of wine. Bingo. “I’m a bit drunk.”

“Oh bullshit you don’t drink'' He laughs.

He laughed. Okay okay there might be a way to survive.

“You remember that? Why??”

“Because I don’t drink in front of you. Don’t think it's fair for you to babysit” You smile at his words surprised how considerate they are. He however follows it up with words you didn’t want to hear. “That’s not the point though, stop trying to change the subject.”

“Eddie” You whine out his name in hopes that he takes pity on you and leaves you alone.

“What?” He whines back in the same tone. Well your plan didn’t work did it?

“Look I’m sorry it just slipped out” You let out a sigh seeing no out. He had you cornered (metaphorically).

“Did you mean it?” His question was followed by a long silence. You didn’t want to lie and tell him you didn’t love him but you equally didn’t want to ruin any chance at a friendship you ever had with him.

“Yes” you finally spoke. The truth. You chose the truth.

“Good” you could practically hear his smile “Love you too, I’ll talk to you later.” As soon as the words left his mouth there was a faint click and the phone line went dead.

[3mutantsinatrenchcoat]

An earthquake rumbles part 4

Previously

Next

I am...PUSHING THEM AHAHA

Tw/cw for sick child and panicking caretaker

Day one of having an awake turtle child was rough, the man had to deal with waking up to crying, changing bandages...which caused even more crying because of the duct tape-

Even more crying, more crying, loud shrieking, fighting off three kraang dogs in the hall and no time to work on his machine.

The man was exhausted by the end of the night.

The next few days went about the same....until one day.

He opened his eyes, asleep on a pallet of parchment cloth, it was quiet. The man let's out a soft sigh, the last few days had been nothing but loud child tears and arguments with a child who couldn't even fester English.

He could swear he could hear his wife, Everytime he got frustrated, "it's just a little longer. Don't get mad now, the job isn't done yet"

He wondered how he could mourn someone he wasn't even sure was dead. He had left his home to New York on a business trip, then this all started.

He couldn't even make it out of the city they had barricaded the streets leading out. Nobody got in, nobody got out. No matter how hard they argued.

He sighs softly, looking at his little turtle, noticing he was a bit pale in the light. "...hey, are ya sheddin?..like a snake?" He sits up and walks over to him, gently nudging his head, watching his head roll slightly. "Buddy?" He feels his head feeling his head burning up.

"hey, hey bud?...- oh...oh no I knew I shoulda washed his shell!" He whisper shouts to himself, looking around quickly before he heads over to a cabinet, throwing open the doors and quickly digging. "Morphine- morphine- no- no- child medicine? No-"

"shit!" He slams the doors shut before going back to him. "...dammit! Okay okay-" he moves his hands slightly to calm himself before he looks around and snatched up a bookbag and looks inside. "Okay a few notebooks- whatever-" he zips it shut and scoops up the little turtle, limp in his hands. "Sorry buddy, but this is until I can get something better" he slides the turtle's legs into the backpack straps before leaning behind himself.

He tries not to fall back onto the child as he pulls the backpack onto his back, securing the child between himself and the backpack before he grabs his metal pipe. "Alright bud, survival rule uh...5 or whatever." He walks out the door and down the hall, trying to be quiet.

"If it's too quiet, somethins there. If it's a little quiet ya might survive" he turns down the hall and down the stairs. "Don' worry..ya won' die on me"

[brineffxiv]

We gather in Limsa Lominsa, awaiting the boat that will take us to Sharlayan, where we will reunite with Krile and set about attempting to solve the many problems that face us.

Hoary Boulder and Coultenet stop by to see us off and to make sure we've got everyone's well wishes and assurances that they'll take care of things while we're gone. And so, with mixed feelings of excitement and trepidation, we set off!

Be still my heart! Is that the voice of Emet-Selch!?

It is him, isn't it?? Oh, I have missed you terribly. Are you narrating this expansion? How? You're dead. Oh, I might cry.

Oh no, now I'm definitely going to cry. Why is the sad music playing!?

Goodness, Tataru couldn't spring for a cabin? Even a bunk? We've just got to sleep here on the floor? Maybe I will go for that walk.

Uh...

Oh, my God.

Hydaelyn. I... have some questions. I feel. Somewhat betrayed. More so on behalf of my friends, than myself. For while it is true you have never - that I know of - done wrong by me, I have complaint over how you have treated my fellow warriors of light and your oracles.

A hard choice, to be sure, but I wanted to know more than I wanted to rage.

And now I wish I had chosen the other answer. No, it is not clear to me why now. Why not before, any of the times before? Why not tell us yourself? Why did you not reveal the truth about yourself and the "servants of darkness" ? Why did we have to find out from Emet-Selch what was really going on here? Don't you think that was a little bit important? If you wanted me to trust in you, why have you never been forthcoming with me?

No thanks to you.

And that's another thing. I realize, as a primal, you are bound by the desires of those who brought you forth, from that moment in time. But. What would be so bad about the restoration of the old world? The way we are supposed to be? Why fight so hard to preserve the broken remnants of an accident?

Now, certainly, in the present, we are peoples worthy of living on. But why initially? In the immediate aftermath of the sundering, before we had rebuilt, why not help put the world back together? Was your drive to subdue Zodiark so strong that you could not consider anything that would bring him power?

It seems to me, that as the fight went on, the Ascians became increasingly more in the wrong. But at the start. From where I stand. You were the villain.

Why do you value me so highly. That you would expend the effort to say these words to me when you left Ardbert to languish in perpetual solitary confinement for over a century? When you allowed a succession of Minfilias to fight and die without a word? When your neglect forced the champions of the First to turn to the Ascians for help to save their world? They gave their lives and you wouldn't even speak to them!

I am so mad. I am so very angry with you. I do not understand, and I am furious that you would expend the effort to speak with me just to tell me we're in danger. No duh. We've got a rogue Ascian determined to reenact the Final Days. A problem we wouldn't have if I hadn't gone and killed off the people who were keeping him in line.

If that's supposed to make sense to me I have to tell you it doesn't. How in the world am I supposed to find out what you promised in another age.

I can tell you care about me. You maybe even love me, as a mother should love a child. And I think there is a part of me that reciprocates. That Rhesh'a loves you too. But we cannot see past the injustice of it all. A mother should not pick favorites among her children.

Ahh and now we arrive at Sharlayan. Endwalker is shaping up to be a doozy; I'm already emotionally exhausted.

I am. Unprepared.

Eeee! New city! And Emet-Selch is introducing it to me! Happy happy day!

What happens if we get refused entry? Do we have to get back on the boat?

Right, got it. No talking about the Scions. My lips are zipped.

Ah, yes, I should get around to playing Eureka at some point...

Haha omg. That was... SO long ago. Even longer for G'raha. He went away and lived an entire life and more in the meantime.

I've always wondered what was behind the placements of Archon marks? Clearly the neck is standard, but Urianger chose to put his on his face for some reason? And the pictures I've seen of Louisoix show him with his on his forehead. Hmm... Things to think about.

Trust Fourchenault to have made things difficult. At least Alisaie and Alphinaud aren't precluded from entering. Thankfully it seems that being disowned didn't revoke their citizenship.

I am an Artisan, thank you very much. I didn't level all my DoH/DoL skills to 90 by Stormblood for nothing now.

AHAHAHA! Poor Estinien. He can't think of a job.

Thankfully, Krile arrives to the rescue. Estinien is officially a mercenary. And we are now free to explore Sharlayan, myself with G'raha and Krile in tow!

And here is where I must stop the post, as I have hit my max image allotment, lol. Welcome to Endwalker.

[abbygrabska]

42

Two chapters? In one day? It must be my birthday!

The Doctor is using his sonic screwdriver on Martha’s phone.

He walks around the center console, still working, “There we go! Universal Roaming. Never have to worry about a signal again!” He throws the phone back to Martha, who catches it with one hand.

The Doctor begins to press buttons on the console.

“No way! But it’s… too mad! You’re telling me I can call anyone, anywhere in Space and Time on my mobile?!” Martha asks.

“As long as you know the area code.” I grin, glancing at the Doctor, “Frequent Fliers’ privilege.” I pull out my phone, “I’ve got it too. Go on. Try it.”

Martha begins to dial.

The Tardis jolts suddenly, throwing all three of us to the floor. The monitor is flashing red.

“Distress signal! Locking on!” With his foot, the Doctor activates a switch on the console, “Might be a bit of…” 

Another violent jolt sends us all flying again. Then, all is still.

The Doctor sits up, “Turbulence. Sorry!”

He runs towards the door, while Martha and I stand up.

“Come on, girls! Let’s take a look!”

We run after him.

The doors open and the Doctor walks out, “Whoa! Now that is hot!”

Martha and I step out.

“Whoa! It’s like a sauna in here!” Martha takes off her jacket.

The Doctor looks at a piece of equipment, “Venting systems. Working at full pelt. Trying to cool down…” He stands up straight again, “Uh, wherever it is we are. Well! If you can’t stand the heat…” He walks towards a heavy-duty door, opens it, and walks through, “Well, that’s better…” “Oi! You three!” “Get out of there!” “Seal that door! Now!”

Two men quickly seal the door, just after Martha and I step out.

“Who are you? What are you doing on my ship?” The woman asks.

“Are you the police?”

“Why would we be police?” The Doctor asks.

“We got your distress signal.” I say.

“If this is a ship, why can’t I hear any engines?” “It went dead four minutes ago.”

“So maybe we should stop chatting and get to engineering. Captain.” The computer voice announces, “Secure closure active.” A clang sounds behind the woman and she looks, “What?!”

“The ship’s gone mad.” There's another woman running down the corridor, doors slamming shut behind her.

“Who activated secure closure? I nearly got locked into area 27.” The closest door slams shut locking all of us into area 29, “Who are you?” The Doctor goes to answer, but Martha cuts him off.

She sounds distracted, “He’s the Doctor, that’s Abby and I’m Martha. Hello.” She begins to walk forward. It looks like she’s possessed.

I immediately walk over to the window where she’s headed.

“Doctor!” I shout.

The Doctor runs over and looks out the window.

“Forty-two minutes until we crash into the sun.”

The Doctor runs away from the window, over to the Captain, and grabs her arm, “How many crew members are on board?” “Seven, including us.”

One of the men starts to speak only to be interrupted by the Doctor.

The Doctor runs back towards area 30, “Call the others, I’ll get you out!”

He goes to open the door. The crew members rush to stop him.

The Doctor opens the door, and the pure force of the heat knocks him backward and off his feet. He yells as he falls.

I rush to him, but he’s alright.

One of the crew members shuts the door, dressed in breathing apparatus, while everyone else crowds around the Doctor.

“But my ship’s in there!” He protests.

“In the vent chamber?” One of the men asks.

I wince, “We don’t really get a say in where she parks us.”

“The temperature’s going mad in there! Up 3000 degrees in ten seconds, and still rising.” “Channeling the air. The closer we get to the sun, the hotter that room’s gonna get.”

“We’re stuck here.” Martha says annoyed.

“So? We fix the engines, we steer the ship away from the Sun! Simple! Engineering down here, is it?!” The Doctor begins running down a corridor.

We follow him until he stops suddenly.

“Blimey! Do you always leave things in such a mess?” “Oh my god!” “What the hell happened?!”

We all walk over to what looks like a completely wrecked engine. Wires, springs, and casing are all over the place, all steaming.

“Oh, it’s wrecked.” “Pretty efficiently too.” I say, “Someone knew what they were doing.”

The Doctor wanders over to a computer terminal, attached to the wreckage.

The captain looks around, “Where’s Korwin? Has anyone heard from him or Ashton?”

“No.” “You mean someone did this on purpose?” Martha asks.

The captain runs over to an intercom system, “Korwin? Ashton? Where are you? Korwin, can you answer?!” She leaves the intercom, “Where the hell is he? He should be up here!”

The Doctor is scanning to find out where we are. Behind us, the crew are rushing about, trying to repair the ship. He slides his specs on, “Oh! We’re in the Torajiji system! Lovely!” The screen readout shows a system of planets, circling a huge sun, “You’re a long way from home, Martha. Half a universe away.” We walk away from the terminal.

Martha speaks sarcastically, “Yeah. Feels like it.”

The Doctor speaks to the captain, “And, you’re still using energy scoop for fusion? Hasn’t that been outlawed yet?”

The captain waves dismissively, “We’re due to upgrade next docking.” She walks away from him, “Scannell, engine report.”

Scannel walks over to the computer we were at before. He scans, with everyone looking anxiously over his shoulder.

The machine beeps several times.

“No response.” He runs over to the wrecked engine. “What?!” He’s examining pieces of wire protruding from the wreck, “They’re burnt out. The controls are wrecked. I can’t get them back online.” The Doctor takes his glasses off, “Oh come on! Auxiliary engines! Every craft’s got auxiliaries!” “We don’t have access from here. The auxiliary controls are in the front of the ship.” The captain tells us.

“Yeah, with 29 password-sealed doors between us and them. You’ll never get there in time.” Scannell scoffs.

“Can’t you override the doors?” I ask.

“No. sealed closure means what it says. They’re all dead-lock sealed. We’ve got no engines, no time, and no chance.” “Oh listen to you! Defeated before you’ve even started! Where’s your Dunkirk spirit?!” The Doctor looks to the captain, “Who’s got the door passwords?”

“They’re randomly generated. Reckon I know most of ‘em. Sorry. Riley Vashti.” Riley interrupts.

“Then what’re you waiting for Riley Vashti, get on it.” “Well, it’s a two-person job.” Riley goes and fetches what looks like a huge magnetic clamp and a huge backpack, “One, it takes to answer the questions, and the other to carry this.” He puts the kit on his back, “The oldest and cheapest security system around, eh captain?”

“Reliable and simple, just like you, eh Riley?” “Try and be helpful, get abuse. Nice!”

Martha takes equipment from Riley’s hands. “I’ll help you. Make myself useful.” “It’s remotely controlled by the computer panel. That’s why it needs two.” Riley turns, and heads away from the group.

Martha goes to follow him, I grab her arm, “Hey. Be careful.” She smiles, “You too.”

She turns, and follows Riley away.

Suddenly, a male voice comes over the intercom, “McDonnell? It’s Ashton.” McDonnells back to the intercom panel, “Where are you? Is Korwin with you?” “Get to the med-center, now!”

McDonnell leaves the intercom and runs.

The Doctor and I follow her.

We run into the med-center.

“Korwin! What’s happened? Is he ok?”

The Doctor goes to the foot of the bed, “How long’s he been like this?” “Ashton just brought him in.”

The Doctor pulls his sonic out and begins to scan Korwin.

“What are you doing?!” McDonnell shrieks.

Korwin screams in pain.

“Sonic impulse.” McDonnell pushes past Ashton to the head of the bed, “Don’t be so stupid, that’s my husband.” “And he’s just sabotaged our ship!”

“What?!”

The Doctor has finished scanning Korwin and tries to talk to him, “Korwin? Korwin, open your eyes for me a second.” “I can’t!” He cries.

“Yeah, of course you can. Go on.” “Don’t make me look at you! Please!”

The Doctor moves down the bed again, picking up a dart gun off a tray, “Alright, alright, alright. Just relax.” He holds up the gun, “Sedative?”

The woman nods, “Yes.” The Doctor presses the gun up against Korwin’s neck, and administers the sedative. Korwin gives one final shout, then falls silent and still. He sets the gun back down on the tray.

He perches on the bed and crosses his arms, “Rising body temperature, unusual energy readings…” He points to what looks like an MRI scanner, “Stasis chamber. I do love a good stasis chamber. Keep him sedated in there. Regulate the body temperature.” 

The woman looks at him questioningly but rushes to do what he says.

“And just for fun, run a bio-scan and tissue profile on a metabolic detail.” “Just doing them now.” “Oh, you’re good. Anyone else presenting these symptoms?” “Not so far.”

“Well, that’s something.” McDonnell continues to stand by Korwin’s bd, looking down on him, “Will someone tell me what is the matter with him?!” “Some sort of infection. We’ll know more after the test results. Now, Allons-y, back downstairs. Ay! See about those engines. Go.” The Doctor orders.

Ashton goes to leave, but McDonnell remains static.

“Ay! Go!” He speaks to the woman, “Call us if there’s news.” 

I exit the med-center, following McDonnell and Ashton.

The Doctor talks through the intercom, “Abi, how’s Korwin doing? Any results from the bio-scan?”

“He’s under heavy sedation. I’m just trying to make sense of this data. Give me a couple of minutes and I’ll let you know.”

I then call Martha over the intercom, “Martha? Riley? How’re you doing?” “Area 29, at the door to 28!”

The Doctor puts on his glasses, staring at the readout above the comm. station, “You’ve gotta move faster!”

“We’re doing our best!”

“Find the next number in the sequence: 313, 331, 367… What?”

“You said the crew knew all the answers.” “The crew’s changed since we set the questions.” “You’re joking.”

“379!” The Doctor runs over to the intercom.

“What?!”

“It’s a sequence of happy primes. 379.” “Happy what?” “Just enter it!” He commands.

“Are you sure? We only get one chance!” I see the annoyance on his face, “Any number which reduces to one when you take the sum of the square of its digits and you continue iterating until it yields one is a happy number. Any number that doesn’t isn’t. A happy prime is a number which is both happy and prime, now type it in!” He turns to McDonnell, who is climbing down a ladder. She gives him a dirty look. “I dunno, talk about dumbing down! Don’t they teach recreational mathematics anymore?”

“We’re through!” “Keep moving. Fast as you can.” The Doctor takes off his glasses, “And, Martha, be careful. There may be something else on board this ship.”

“Any time you wanna unnerve me, feel free!”

“Will do, thanks.” He switches the comm. off, and walks away.

He notices me staring at him, “What?” I lean in and whisper, “If we weren’t in mortal danger there are so many things I’d do to you.” 

He pulls away slightly, looking flustered, “Good to know.”

The Doctor is looking at a piece of broken equipment, with the remaining crew standing around, watching him.

“We need a backup in case they don’t reach the auxiliary engines in time. Come on! Think! Resources, what have we got?!”

Martha’s voice comes over the intercom, “Who had the most number ones, Elvis, or the Beatles? That’s pre-download.”

“Elvis!” I call out, “He had 21 and the Beatles only had 18!”

“Got it!” She replies before the intercom shuts off.

“Resources. So, the power’s still working, the generator’s going. If we can harness that. Ah!”

“Use the generator to jump-start the ship.” McDonnell realizes.

“Exactly! At the very least, it’ll buy us some time.” “That… is brilliant.” “I know! See! Tiny glimmer of hope!”

Most of the crew are now smiling.

“If it works.” Scannell says.

“Oh, believe me. You’re gonna make it work.” Scannelly walks off, looking dejected.

Ashton and the Doctor look at McDonnell with respect.

“That told him!”

“Doctor, these readings are starting to scare me.” Abi speaks over the intercom.

“What’d you mean?”

“Well, Korwin’s body’s changing! His whole biological make-up, it… it’s impossible.”

There’s a bang, “This is med-center. Urgent assistance is requested. Urgent assistance!”

The Doctor runs off, “Stay here! Keep working!” McDonnell stops and goes after him.

I grab the comm, “Abi. they’re on their way.” “What’s happening to you?” There’s a deep voice, “Burn with me. Burn with me. Burn with me.” I can hear Abi’s frightened voice, “K-Korwin, you’re sick…” “Burn. with. Me!”

We hear Abi screaming.

“What were those screams?” “Concentrate on the doors! Keep moving forward!” I tell her.

“Everybody, listen to me! Something has infected Korwin. We think… He killed Abi Lerner. None of you must go anywhere near him, is that clear?” McDonnell announces.

“Understood Captain.” Ashton presses a button to change stations, “Erina? Get back here with that equipment!”

“I’m gonna go help the Doctor.” I walk off.

“Doctor, we’re through to area 17.” “Keep going. You’ve got to get to area one and reboot those engines.”

I meet up with him as he’s running down a corridor.

“Doctor! We’re stuck in an escape pod off the Area 17 airlock. One of the crew’s trying to jettison us! You’ve got to help us!”

We go to engineering.

“Why is this happening?”

The Doctor takes off his glasses, “Stay here! I mean it this time!” He runs off grabbing my hand to pull me with him, “Jump start those engines!” The Doctor and I are running at top speed trying to get to Martha.

“That’s enough!” Ashton turns to look at us, “What do you want? Why this ship? Tell me!”

Rather than answer, Ashton turns, and puts his fist through the keypad.

“Come on. Let’s see you.”

Ashton advances on the Doctor, until they are almost nose to nose, “I wanna know what you really are…”

Ashton lifts his hand to his visor.

Suddenly he doubles up and backs away before he stands upright again, heading straight for us.

He moves past us, heading out of area 17.

While the Doctor goes to the comm. I rush to the airlock door.

“Martha!” I shout, “We’ll save you!”

The pod disengages, I continue to shout, pleading now, “We’ll save you!”

The pod slowly moves out into space, and towards the sun.

“Scannell! I need a spacesuit in area 17, now!” “What for?” I take the comm from the Doctor’s hand, “Just get down here!” I stand upright and walk back to the airlock door.

The Doctor is dressed in a space suit, Scannell is trying to talk him out of it.

“I can’t let you do this.” “Just shut up! We need to get the rest of the doors open. We need the auxiliary engines.” I yell.

The Doctor presses a button on a keypad once inside the airlock, which opens the exterior door.

“Doctor! How’re you doing?” “I can’t I can’t reach! I don’t know how much longer I can last!” “Come on! Don’t give up now!”

I watch him struggle to get back inside the airlock. 

Once he’s inside, he gets on his knees, looking out to the sun.

“Doctor, close the airlock now!” I cry out.

The Doctor literally falls out of the airlock back into the corridor of the spaceship, still on his knees.

“Doctor!” I shout.

He’s on the floor, writhing in pain.

He opens his eyes, revealing whatever infected Korwin and Ashton has gotten to him too. “Stay away from me!” He closes his eyes again.

We back up.

“What’s happened?” McDonnell asks from behind us.

“It’s your fault, Captain McDonnell!”

She points away, “Riley! Get down to area 10 and help Scannell with the doors!” “You mined that sun!” The Doctor shouts, “Stripped its surface for cheap fuel! You should’ve scanned for life!” “I don’t understand.” The Doctor screams, “That sun is alive! A living organism! They scooped out its heart, used it for fuel, and now it’s screaming!” “What do you mean? How can a sun be alive? Why’s he saying that?!” “Because it’s living in me.” McDonnell seems to realize what she’s done, “Oh, my god…” “Humans! You grab whatever’s nearest and bleed it dry!” He’s screaming in agony, “You should’ve scanned!” “It takes too long! We’d be caught! Fusion scoops are illegal!”

He cries out in pain, “You’ve got to freeze me, quickly!”

I grab his arm, helping him up, “Martha! Come on!” She grabs his other arm and we drag him towards the med-center.

As we break through the plastic of the med-center, he screams.

I run to the stasis chamber grabbing the instruction manual. “Abby, where are you?!” He reaches out blindly. “It’s alright! I’m here!” I grab his hand, “Stasis chamber, minus 200, yeah?” We lift him onto the stasis chamber bed.

“No, you don’t know how this equipment works! You’ll kill him! Nobody can survive those temperatures!” McDonnell follows us in.

“He’s not human! If he says he’ll survive, then he will.”

“Let me help you then!” “Fuck off! You’ve done enough damage!” I scream. “Ten seconds. That’s all I’ll be able to take. No more!” He screams, “Abby!”

He gurgles and retches, “It’s burning me up. I can’t control it. If you don't get rid of it.” He speaks darkly as if the presence of the sun is breaking through, “I could kill you. I could kill you all.” He screams, “I’m scared! I’m so scared!”

I sob, “It’s okay.”

I let go of his hand and push the lever that slides him back into the stasis chamber, I type in 200 and press the button to start the process.

The Doctor screams continuously.

The stasis chamber hits minus 70 degrees but shuts off.

The Doctor starts whimpering. “No! Abby, you can’t stop it! Not yet!” “What’s going on?!” I shout. “Power’s been cut in engineering.” “Who’s down there?” Martha demands.

“Leave it to me.” McDonnell runs out.

I sob, trying to get the stasis chamber to work.

“Abby! Listen!” He shouts, “I’ve only got a moment, you’ve gotta go!”

“No!”

“Get to the front! Vent the engines! Sun particles in the fuel,! Get rid of them!” “I’m not leaving you!” I cry, turning to Martha, “Go, give back what they took!” “What about you?!” “I’ll be fine. He won’t hurt me.” Matha runs out.

He falls out of the stasis chamber.

I pull him up and hug him tightly. “Abby, no! It’s going to kill you!” He tries to escape my grasp.

“I’m not gonna let you go again!” I sob, holding tight.

He slowly relaxes in my grip, I can feel his temperature go down.

“Abby?” He whispers.

“Yes?”

“It’s gone. The sun’s gone. Martha did it.” I cry in relief, pulling away from the hug to kiss him.

Riley and Scannell are standing, admiring the Tardis, while the three of us walk around it, making sure she’s okay.

“This is not your ship!”

“Compact! Eh! And another good word, robust! Barely a scorch mark on her.” Martha seems concerned about the two remaining crew members, “We can’t just leave them drifting with no fuel.”

“We’ve sent out an official mayday. The authorities will pick us up soon enough.” Riley says.

“Though, how we explain what happened…” The Doctor opens the doors to the Tardis, “Just tell them. That sun needs care and protection, just like any other living thing.” Scannell nods.

The Doctor and I step inside the Tardis.

“So! Didn’t really need you in the end, did we?!” Martha asks as she walks up the ramp.

He looks sad and distant.

“Sorry. How’re you doing?” Rather than answer, the Doctor becomes businesslike, “Now! What do you say? Ice skating on the mineral lakes of Cuhlhan, fancy it?”

“Whatever you like.” She speaks unenthusiastically. The Doctor looks at her and realizes, “By the way, you’ll be needing this.” He pulls out a Tardis key on a long chain.

“Really?!” “Frequent Flier’s Privilege.” He slowly drops it into her hand, and looks at her properly, “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.” Martha smiles.

[izahare]

Chapter 01 - Meetings Past

Aizen: We're nearing the patrol that put out the call for help, Captain Suzunami.

Suzunami: You heard him, Urahara. We'd better hurry!

Urahara: Sure, that's fine. But why am I being dragged along on a Squad 5 rescue mission?

Suzunami: You were the only one available who could keep up with Aizen and me.

Aizen: This is an emergency, Captain Urahara. We hope you don't mind.

Urahara: Fine, but I'd rather leave this kind of stuff to you young folks and just devote myself to my research.

Aizen: Training young people is one of the duties of a captain, though, sir.

Urahara: I just create things. I'm no good at training people.

Suzunami: All right, that's enough griping. I sense hollows nearby!

Aizen: Six of them... No, seven? So many in one place!

Suzunami: Too many for the patrol squad to try and handle alone. I hope we make it in time!

Urahara: Where's that Yoruichi when you need her anyway?

Suzunami: No!

Aizen: All five patrol members, dead. At least they managed to lure six of the Hollows into this vacant lot and minimise the damage. They didn't die in vain.

Urahara: I don't get it, though. Hollows don't usually operate in groups. But here they all are together.

Suzunami: We can think about that later. Right now, it's time to avenge the deaths of our men.

Urahara: Yeah, we have a score to settle. Let's move! We still have to figure out where that seventh Hollow went, too.

(kill a hollow)

Urahara: Great. All we have to do now is keep it up.

Suzunami: Right.

(battle won)

Urahara: That ought to do it!

Urahara: Well that takes care of that.

Suzunami: Aizen, you stay here and stand guard.

Aizen: Yes, sir.

Suzunami: Urahara, you come with me. We'll go look for that other Hollow.

Urahara: Sure. I'll bet that one's the leader.

MC: Fujimaru

Fujimaru Kudo: Aaagh!

Matsuri Kudo: Fujimaru!

Strange Hollow: Heh heh heh. Well, aren't you the little hero? Think you can protect your sister, do you?

Matsuri Kudo: ...

Strange Hollow: What an interesting pair of souls. You're what they call "twins", aren't you?

Matsuri Kudo: ...

Fujimaru Kudo: M-Matsuri...

Strange Hollow: I'm quite the connoisseur of rare and unusual souls, you see. So I just know I'm going to LOVE devouring yours! I'll start with the eldest. Would that be you, or is it your half-dead brother there?

Matsuri Kudo: Here they come!

Strange Hollow: Tsk! The Soul Reapers are coming! And I sense overwhelming spiritual pressure from them, too! Remember my name! Mad Eater will be back someday to make a snack of your souls!

Suzunami: Darn! It got away!

Urahara: I don't sense it anymore. 

Urahara: Huh?

Matsuri Kudo: ... 

Suzunami: The Hollow got him, eh? 

Matsuri Kudo: He's still alive. 

Suzunami: ...

Urahara: (Hmm, those wounds... I don't think the poor kid's gonna make it.)

Matsuri Kudo: He's still alive! 

Urahara: I'll leave it up to you, Captain Suzunami. What do you think? 

Suzunami: ... & Matsuri Kudo: ... 

Suzunami: Urahara, you take care of the girl. I'll carry the boy.

Urahara: ! & Matsuri Kudo: !

Matsuri Kudo: Oh, thank you, sir! 

Suzunami: Don't you worry, little girl. Your brother's going to be just fine. 

Matsuri Kudo: Thank you! 

Urahara: (I dunno about this. I mean, even if an Emergency Relief Team were right here, I still don't know if they could save him.) 

MC: Matsuri

Strange Hollow: Heh heh heh. Nowhere left to run, you tasty-looking little tidbits!

Fujimaru Kudo: Uh oh. & Matsuri Kudo: ...

Fujimaru Kudo: (I have to make sure Matsuri gets away!)

Matsuri Kudo: Don't try anything stupid. We can still buy some time here.

Fujimaru Kudo: But Matsuri!

Matsuri Kudo: I can hear them. They're out there killing off Hollows. Don't give up now! We still might get some help here!

Strange Hollow: I can hear you, juicy little ones!

Fujimaru Kudo: Hey!

Matsuri Kudo: Fujimaru!

Matsuri Kudo: Unh!

Fujimaru Kudo: What did you do to my sister?!

Strange Hollow: You little bite-sized souls are too smart for your own good! The souls of twins are so rare, I was going to take my time and enjoy you, but now it looks like I won't get that luxury. Hmm? Tsk! The Soul Reapers are coming! And I sense overwhelming spiritual pressure from them, too! Remember my name! Mad Eater will be back some day to make a snack of your souls!

Suzunami: Darn! It got away!

Urahara: I don't sense it anymore. Huh?

Suzunami: ... & Urahara: (Those wounds on the girl that boy is holding... they look fatal.)

Suzunami: Did the Hollow get her, son?

Fujimaru Kudo: Gimme your sword!

Suzunami: What?! & Urahara: …

Fujimaru Kudo: I'm gonna make it pay! I'm gonna go make it pay right now!

Urahara: Oh, boy. Kids these days!

Fujimaru Kudo: Please! Lemme use your sword!

Suzunami: No. Your sister just risked her life to save yours. You're not just going to go throw it away now, are you? 

Fujimaru Kudo: But--

Fujimaru Kudo: Then, you've gotta save her!

Suzunami: ... & Urahara: ...!

Suzunami: Urahara, you take care of this boy. I'll carry the girl.

Fujimaru Kudo: ?! & Urahara: ?!

Fujimaru Kudo: Do you think she's gonna be all right?!

Urahara: (I dunno about this. I mean, even if an Emergency Relief Team were right here, I still don't know if they could save her.)

Suzunami: Don't you worry, young man. Your sister's going to be just fine.

MC: Fujimaru

Graceful Woman: He's going to be all right now.

Gentleman: His color looks a lot better. He'll probably wake up soon. 

Anxious Girl: I hope so! 

Fujimaru Kudo: Nnh... 

Graceful Woman: Oh my! 

Fujimaru Kudo: Hmm? 

Graceful Woman: Good morning. 

Fujimaru Kudo: Mmm... So sleepy. 

Matsuri Kudo: Wake up, Fujimaru! You can wake up, can't you? 

Fujimaru Kudo: Huh? Oh, it's you, Matsuri. 

Matsuri Kudo: Hey, c'mon! Snap out of it! Wake up and thank Lord Seigen and Lady Konoka properly, will you?! 

Fujimaru Kudo: Huh? Lord Seigen? Lady Konoka? 

MC: Matsuri

Graceful Woman: She's so cute, sleeping like that.

Gentleman: So she's going to be all right now, is she?

Matsuri Kudo: (Nnh... What? I...) (Huh? Where am I? Hey, wait a--!) Where's Fujimaru?!

Graceful Woman: ... & Gentleman: …

Matsuri Kudo: ...? Huh?

Fujimaru Kudo: Morning, Lady Konoka. Morning, Lord Seigen.

Graceful Woman: Oh, Fujimaru. Good morning!

Matsuri Kudo: Fujimaru?!

Fujimaru Kudo: Huh? Well, look at that! Matsuri is awake!

Matsuri Kudo: Is that all you can say?! Why don't you try filling me in on what's going on here?!

(Talk to Matsuri)

Fujimaru Kudo: What happened to me? Where are we?

Matsuri Kudo: You were attacked by a Hollow. You almost died. But then Lord Seigen and Lady Konoka saved you!

Fujimaru Kudo: Oh, wow… But, hey, thank goodness you’re all right, Matsuri.

Matsuri Kudo: You big dummy! Try worrying about yourself instead of me for a change.

Fujimaru Kudo: No way. You’re my little sis.

Matsuri Kudo: Aw, c’mon. We’re twins. That “older/younger” thing doesn’t mean a whole lot in our case.

Fujimaru Kudo: Of course it does! I’m always gonna be your big brother.

Matsuri Kudo: Yeah, yeah.

(Talk to Fujimaru)

Matsuri Kudo: Go ahead, Fujimaru. Explain what’s happening!

Fujimaru Kudo: Do you remember stepping in front of me and getting attacked by the Hollow?

Matsuri Kudo: Of course. And you’re all right?

Fujimaru Kudo: Yeah. Lord Seigen showed up right after that, and the Hollow ran away.

Matsuri Kudo: Oh… thank goodness.

Fujimaru Kudo: Thank goodness?! I thought you were dead, you know!

Matsuri Kudo: But I’m okay now, so it all worked out, right?

Fujimaru Kudo: But you could’ve died! I don’t care if we ARE twins. You’re still my little sister. You can’t go before me!

Matsuri Kudo: All right, all right! You don’t have to get all weird about the “big brother” thing!

(Talk to Suzunami)

Player Twin: I, uh…/I…

Suzunami: If you’re going to thank anybody, thank Konoka and your sister/brother. I just brought you here as part of my duty as captain

Player Twin: Captain?

Suzunami: That’s right. I’m Seigen Suzunami, Captain of Squad 5, of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads.

Player Twin: Seigen Suzunami?

Suzunami: And this is my home. You’ve been asleep for an entire day.

Player Twin: It’s only been one day since that Hollow attacked me?/A day? I’ve only been asleep for a single day?

Suzunami: That’s right.

Player Twin: Huh. It seems like I’ve been asleep for a lot longer than that./It feels like I was sleeping for a lot longer. 

(Talk to Konoka)

Player Twin: Um, Lady Konoka, was it?/So you’re Lady Konoka?

Konoka: That’s right. Konoka Suzunami.

Player Twin: Konoka Suzunami?

Konoka: Yes. It’s nice to meet you, Fujimaru/Matsuri Kudo. How are you feeling? Do you have any discomfort?

Player Twin: No, nothing at all. Huh, I wonder why it doesn’t hurt. I think I remember that Hollow really doing some serious damage to my back./Oh, that’s right! That Hollow got me… but I don’t see any trace of it anywhere now!

Konoka: Yes, it healed up nicely, don’t you think? I did my best so it wouldn’t leave a scar./I couldn’t leave any scars to mar a pretty young lady’s body, now, could I? I’m glad it healed so nicely.

Player Twin: Hey, you’re right. So you’re the one who healed me?

Konoka: That’s right.

Player Twin: Th-Thank you./Th-Thank you very much!

Konoka: That must have been such a frightening experience for you! But you can relax now. You’re safe. The only thing you have to think about now is getting better.

Player Twin: Yes, ma’am. So, what is this place?/And where am I?

Konoka: You’re in the Seireitei. This is the Suzunami mansion.

Player Twin: Seireitei?

Konoka: The Seireitei is the central area of the Soul Society, where the Soul Reapers and nobility live.

Player Twin: Does that mean you’re a Soul Reaper?

Konoka: No, no. I’m not a Soul Reaper.

Player Twin: Nobility, then?/So you’re nobility?

Konoka: Well, I suppose you could say that. Although we certainly live a modest existence here.

Player Twin: Huh./Oh, I see.

We owe our lives to Lord Seigen and Lady Konoka. Who knows what would’ve happened if they hadn’t rescued us. But mainly, I’m just glad that Matsuri is safe and sound. This is Lord Seigen’s estate, and Lady Konoka is his sister. I was seriously injured, but Lady Konoka healed me somehow. I wonder how she managed to do that in a single day. I still can’t believe it.

I owe my life to Lord Seigen and Lady Konoka. The two of them saved me. This is Lord Seigen’s estate, and Lady Konoka is his sister. It seems Lady Konoka saved me from the brink of death. But I can’t understand how I could recover like this in a single day. It’s like a miracle or something. Still, I wouldn’t be here right now if it weren’t for my brother, Fujimaru. No matter what, I can always depend on him. 

Urahara: I can’t believe it.

Fujimaru Kudo: Lady Konoka, can I have some more apples?

Matsuri Kudo: I want some, too!

Konoka: Okay, but make sure you share! Here you go.

Matsuri Kudo: Mmm, yum! & Fujimaru Kudo: I love apples!

Urahara: Wow!

Konoka: So, what do you think? Good as new, right?

Urahara: I’ll say! The picture of health, after only two days! How did you do it, Konoka?

Suzunami: Urahara.

Urahara: Oh. Well, I guess some things are better left unexplored. But I do have a suggestion, if you want to hear it.

Suzunami: A suggestion?

Urahara: What do you think about taking these two in?

Suzunami: Here?

Konoka: Of course! That was my intention from the beginning.

Urahara: Really? You’re sure it’s all right?

Konoka: You don’t mind, do you, Seigen?

Suzunami: Well, allowing Rukon District residents to live in the Seireitei is technically prohibited… But if that’s what you want, Konoka, I’m more than willing to go along with it.

Urahara: Hey, that’s great! You kids, you like Seigen and Konoka, don’t you?

Matsuri Kudo: Of course! & Fujimaru Kudo: They’re great!

Konoka: Good, then. It’s settled. You can live right here with us!

Matsuri Kudo: Yippee!

Fujimaru Kudo: Yeah! We get to stay with Lady Konoka!

Urahara: (Good. I guess that takes care of that. For now, anyway.)

Fujimaru Kudo: Are there any more apples?

Urahara: You wolfed down all of those apples already? Between the two of you?!

Fujimaru Kudo: Yeah. I’m still hungry, though.

Matsuri Kudo: Yeah, me too!

Urahara: (Hmm. A good appetite is a sign of strong spiritual power. In that case…) Hey, kids. I’ve got a proposal for you two.

MC: Fujimaru

Matsuri Kudo: So…

Fujimaru Kudo: Hmm?

Matsuri Kudo: Do you really think we can be Soul Reapers? Mr. Urahara said he was sure we could do it, but I dunno.

Fujimaru Kudo: Yeah, I know, huh? Soul Reapers…

Matsuri Kudo: He said if we become Soul Reapers, we can keep right on living with Lady Konoka and Lord Seigen. But do you really think we’ll ever be able to fight Hollows and stuff? I mean, us?

(Sure!)

Fujimaru Kudo: Sure we will! I know we can do it! We’ll live with Lady Konoka and Lord Seigen, and we’ll find a way to thank them for helping us.

Matsuri Kudo: Yeah, I like the sound of that. Okay, let’s become Soul Reapers, then!

Fujimaru Kudo: Yeah!

(Who knows?)

Fujimaru Kudo: Who knows? Maybe. But as long as there’s a chance, I think we have to try. If we go back to the Rukon District, we won’t be able to repay Lady Konoka and Lord Seigen for saving us.

Matsuri Kudo: Yeah, you’re right. We’ve got to give it our best try!

Fujimaru Kudo: Right. Let’s do it. For them!

(No way.)

Fujimaru Kudo: No way. At least, that’s my first reaction. But I’d do anything for Lady Konoka and Lord Seigen. I’d even risk my life.

Matsuri Kudo: Yeah. We have to repay them for saving us.

Fujimaru Kudo: We can do this! We’ll become Soul Reapers and stay here with Lady Konoka and Lord Seigen!

MC: Matsuri

Fujimaru Kudo: So Mr. Urahara wants us to be Soul Reapers, huh? Do you really think we can do it?

Matsuri Kudo: Gee, Soul Reapers…

Fujimaru Kudo: He said it’s the only way Rukon kids like us could live in the Seireitei. But I dunno if I can picture us being Soul Reapers, fighting Hollows and stuff. Think we can?

(Sure!)

Matsuri Kudo: Sure we can! It’s for Lady Konoka and Lord Seigen! I know we can do it! We have to repay them for saving us!

Fujimaru Kudo: Yeah… yeah, you’re right! We have to do this!

Matsuri Kudo: Let’s do it! Let’s be Soul Reapers!

(Maybe…)

Matsuri Kudo: Maybe… No, we HAVE to! Unless we don’t, we won’t be able to repay them!

Fujimaru Kudo: You’re right. We can do it if it’s for Lady Konoka and Lord Seigen!

Matsuri Kudo: Let’s do it, then! No matter what!

(No way.)

Matsuri Kudo: No way. At least, that’s what I want to say, but… We have to repay Lady Konoka and Lord Seigen for saving us!

Fujimaru Kudo: You’re right. We HAVE to do it… Yeah, let’s do it!

Matsuri Kudo: Yeah, let’s be Soul Reapers!

Several years later… I became a Soul Reaper along with my sister Matsuri/brother Fujimaru. I wanted to keep the oath made that fateful day…