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#what better way to defeat your enemies than to make them obsessed with you?
andrebearakovsky · 28 days
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TvR has the innate ability to make everyone obsessed with him, and he clearly drew the entire Rangers team right to him using that power lol
Tbh I think this was a deliberate strategy to get in their heads. “Don’t worry guys if I flirt with them they’ll let their guard down.” He’s trying to get on the inside to take them down from within. What better way to defeat your enemies than to make them obsessed with you?
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f0gman · 1 year
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Hi *taps mic*
I’m gonna try to debunk the theory I hear often of “maybe batjokes is canon, but it’s only a toxic, twisted, obsessive version of love that Joker is doomed to and Batman has to overcome”
Of course, it’s all up to interpretation and no one’s opinion has the final say, but as a (cough, cough, hopeless romantic) gay guy, I think they have much more than that! I’ll explain.
1. Joker’s love isn’t perversion, but vulnerability
Most are accustomed to seeing the Joker’s infatuation as creepy. While that’s not unreasonable as he’s suggestive and clingy amidst Batman’s discomfort, he doesn’t seem to expect anything to come of it. It’s his way of coping with strong feelings that’ll never be reciprocated; he knows they won’t be acknowledged. 
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And he doesn’t seek to violate Bruce, but rather to accept violence as a way to satisfy his needs. Yes, it’s masochistic, but it’s also consensual. He enjoys the feeling of being vulnerable; he sees it not as defeat, but intimacy, and he knows Batman finds some satisfaction in it. If he didn’t, there wouldn’t always be hand-to-hand combat. He could knock him out quickly or shoot him with a tranquilizer, but instead he gives Joker exactly what he wants and receives the same in return.
It's often about stimulation when them: two unlike people with core similarities trying to best each other. Without the dire circumstances (due to Joker's crime) in early Batman content, their fighting was much more like sparring.
Secondly, given that love is not Joker’s choice, admitting his feelings is not a ploy to make him more intimidating or powerful. It’s his weakness. The way Batman treats him directly affects his emotions and everything, really. He’s distraught if Batman’s absent for even a day when he expects him to come.
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Plus, in love is one of the most vulnerable things he can be. Pure obsession doesn't demand understanding and empathy out of your enemy. It wouldn’t wonder for decades what made him as broken as you. It wouldn’t long to see him with his defenses down, for once not shutting everything out.
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For Batman, it wouldn’t amount to hours upon hours of trying to understand and trying to find out why his enemy is broken, as if there's a missing piece to making him better. It wouldn't care about his humanity.
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A part of me thinks that Joker wants to believe it’s nothing more than an obsession. It scares him to think of Batman being unmasked—to see his human side. It would break the fantasy where he keeps his feelings...yet he knows they’re obvious and admits to them.
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I don’t think he would claim it to be love if it weren’t true. It only awards Batman more homophobic praise when he beats someone who has “no right” to be attracted to him. It doesn’t make Joker more impressive in any way, maybe more repulsive to some, but it won’t further any of his goals.
At the end of the day, he grieves over him. Even while getting everything he wants in a fight, he truly wants Batman to love him. So much so that Harley,  behind her rose-tinted Joker glass knows it.
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“He doesn’t love me. He only loves Batman.”
He’s driven crazy by it. But it isn’t love itself that makes him crazy. Joker, like Batman, is broken from trauma, and he finds understanding and excitement in someone else—the only one so far. Even a sense of solace, which is the hardest to come by. If you ask me, Joker being able to love is a human, redeeming quality.
2. Batman’s love isn’t inhumane, but empathetic
Batman is notorious for blocking people out. He’s the “master of fear” and treats his brain as if it’s a steel trap (constantly pushing himself to his limit). The fact is, he’s not sane in the way most people are; his trauma affects every part of him, and he realizes Joker is the same way. He obsesses over why. He wants to know what made him, what can change him, and what their relationship will become.
He sees someone that’s like him, yet Joker defies everything he believes as a person. It’s beyond frustrating and is the exact thing that keeps them trapped in the cycle. He takes his frustrations out in violence because Joker just won’t change.
I imagine the frustration would have started the moment he saw a glimpse at his human side. He saw him as someone just as messed up as he is, yet set apart because of what he does. Worst of all, he knows Joker wants him. At any moment, Bruce could have him, making it that much harder for him to fight and keep his morals. It makes him angrier.
But to end the toxicity, someone has to give.
Batman made this first step in The Killing Joke. He “came out” in a way. Between his denial to loving him and Joker’s fear to change, they were doomed to kill each other off in the end. Both resorted to violence to cope with their attraction and frustration, but acknowledging this was his first step toward ending the cycle. Not only that, but he wants a good relationship with Joker. He isn’t giving up on him, but changing the fight’s trajectory. He offers Joker rehabilitation to bridge the gap between them. Very possibly, that included rehabilitation for himself.
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“You don’t need to be alone...we don’t have to kill each other. Let me help you.”
He says, “let me help you”, promising directly that he will stay by Joker’s side. He realizes that he’s likely the only one that can change him. He accepted this when he accepted their relationship, and despite everything Joker’s done, he put him before everyone else. There’d be no other reason to put him above Barbara, Gordon, or anyone in the bat family. If it was only about obsession and some perverted version of love, he wouldn’t have let his guard down to speak to Joker man-to-man. He extends his hand out of empathy.
“Maybe I’ve been there too."
In that moment, both had let their guard down completely; there was a moment of peace and respect between them. Many times, Bruce has been called inhumane or even unhinged for offering this branch, but it isn’t an inhumane thing to have done. He isn’t looking at all the wrongs and horrible things Joker has done and condoning them. He’s seeing past them to the human he is—to the man he once was, to the person he could have been, and what he will become. I think that makes him more human than ever.
The problem is, Joker didn’t trust his promise. He admits to it in his joke:
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The point wasn’t that it's impossible to walk across the beam of light; Joker didn’t believe his offer of salvation to be impossible. The punchline was that the friend would turn off his light when he's halfway across. He’s afraid Batman would give up on (or even trick) him before he reached the “promised land”. He saw how effortlessly Batman jumped the gap, and knowing he can’t reach it as easily, he doesn’t dare hope that he’ll hold out for him. Even he is tired of pretending. He goes as far as to apologize.
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Of course, this isn’t the only batjokes timeline. My point is to say that despite everything they’ve done to each other, and all the pain they’ve inflicted, there is real, genuine love beneath it. In the end, they’re both human, and they can bring out the humanity in each other. They could become so much more.
Would they overcome their differences enough to be in a relationship? that’s an even longer post. but you bet your ass I think so 👍
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lesiasmadness · 2 years
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Pspsps I got a soft boy poetry lover Black Spy fanfic for y'all
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Ah, is there anything better than having your arch nemesis chained up in just the next room? Well, maybe blowing them up or tricking them into slicing themselves in half… But that aside Black Spy loved nothing more than having White as his dear prisoner. Sure, it required constant awareness on his part, since escaping was only a matter of “when” and not “if” for this guest… But checking on your victim is but a treat, not a chore, when you get to see them this miserable...
Black’s colleagues already fetched him two tickets for a train tomorrow, which the pair of forever adversaries will take to where White is to be tortured for intel and maybe killed with no interruption from the local law enforcement. Till then Black only needed to keep the menace at bay. A more sensible way to go about things is to sit right in front of the captive and not let them move an inch, but out of pure arrogance (and maybe some pity) Black chose to stay in the next room. Good thing the apartment provided by his job was terrible enough to have the thinnest walls known to man, through which Black could hear the faintest shuffle.
And shuffle he did hear, as sounds of sliding paper and scribbling reached him. With no sense of urgency Black made his way to his captive’s room, and just as suspected saw hastily hidden paper stuffed under the rug. Tracing Black’s line of sight, White recognized he’s been discovered, and spit out a short bit of pencil he grabbed with his teeth to hide seconds prior.
-How did you even manage to write anything with your hands tied? … And where were the paper and pencil hidden? - Black picked up and started looking through the discovered notes, - I searched you all over before bringing you here
-Do you really want to know it in detail? - White smirked.
-Wouldn’t dream of it. - Disgusted, Black bit back. Adding “Degenerate.” in a disinterested mumble, as his eyes darted across the pages.
Only the further down the page his gaze slid, the more horror and disbelief seeped into his expression. White originally played it cool to hide how mortified he was at being unable to hide the papers, but now the smugness partly gave way to confusion at his enemy’s reaction. In truth, White was only making notes to pass the time, so what’s there to be so upset about?
Now visibly distraught, the captor frantically looked the papers over a few times, then grabbed his catch by the collar and practically hissed at him: “Whose poetry is this?”
That’s right, poetry. Embarrassing as it was, White was only writing down a few verses, afraid to forget a good turn of phrase.
-What, this? It’s all my secret code of course. Go decipher it for an hour or two, for sure I was going to send my bosses some juicy coded info. - White mocked.
-Did you write this from memory? Where have you learned these?!- Black did not let the topic stray, sounding almost… Desperate? This sudden obsessiveness threw White off his game, who now sincerely didn’t know how to respond.
-Look, I wish I could tell you but I just came up with those, so I have no better response than “here”.
-They’ll beat the lies out of you tomorrow anyway, so tell me now and maybe you’ll die with some fingernails still on your hands. You couldn’t have written this yourself, this is unmistakably the work of someone going by Dagger, who hasn’t published a single thing in a decade! - Black threw the papers at his captive’s face, but heard no response or insult coming his way. For just a moment nobody even dared to breathe, stuck in suffocating silence. The standstill was broken with Black’s weak steps backward. He slumped into a chair behind him, looking shell shocked, defeated.
-You’re Dagger. Am I correct?
Years ago, back on Black Spy’s home turf, he was informed he’ll be sent to infiltrate White territories. From that point on he studied anything he could find on the enemy culture. Mannerisms, traditions, clothes, trends, music… Aside from one aspect he could perfectly blend in. Aside from his language skills. All the textbooks and dictionaries were so tediously, torturously dull. For a mind specifically trained for unorthodox quick problem solving and long term scheming, the school level of simple memorization was unbearable.
Desperate, Black clung to any bit of literature he could find in enemy tongue, but obviously there wasn’t much. There wasn't much in this country legally, however he said that she said that they hinted that some items from beyond the border could make their way into Black country citizens hands. And this way Black Spy found himself in possession of a small recent publication of amateur poems. Most of them flimsy and unrefined. Amongst them however, were true gems of word and rhythm, and fascinatingly they all sat under one pen name - Dagger.
As limited as Black’s vocabulary was, he blazed through every small bit of poetry belonging to this author, and remained hungry for more. Now having found a new incentive for knowing the language, Black threw himself into honing his comprehension skills, and the more he understood of the intricacies of White country's language, the more brilliance he saw in those poems. The nuance and complexity of both the form and the meaning kept revealing themselves, like a sculpture form a marble brick.
Quite some time passed before he actually made it into the enemy country, but once there Black took no time hesitating before finding every single release bearing the Dagger name. What little accent he still had was ironed out while asking the book store owners and flea market goers for specific books and magazines. To Black’s great dismay before he even got into the country, this writer had been inactive for years. His bibliography wasn’t vast, and as years went by it only became clearer to Black that it wasn’t getting any bigger. But what poetry was there was so dear and close to Blacks heart that half of it he could recite.
No name, no gender, no age was ever revealed in these works, but trusting his deductive abilities Black painted a portrait of this person in his head: it must have been someone not much older than Black himself, someone just as invested in strategy, someone endlessly creative and perhaps devious… All so obvious just from the way his words twisted and played one with another. Black dreamed of someday finding this person, asking them all about their work, their inspirations… Why must this moment be so fascinating yet so cruel?
-Answer me. - Black retorted when his whole life stopped flashing before his eyes.
-I won’t deny nor confirm having written under that pseudonym. And besides, you won’t dig up much on my identity even if I confirmed my involvement.
-…Why did you stop?
-Because snitches like you could discover me if I were to keep being published.
-So you gave it up for this rotten job.
-To chase your rotten ass around, correct. Hypothetically.
-…
-Do they even read our poetry out where you’re from?
-Not when I’m not there, I’d assume.
-Do you think what I wrote is still as good as the stuff from years ago?
-…. Even better.
A poet and his captor sat opposite each other, a million questions between them, and only one night of time before the fated train. For the first time the two felt completely disarmed.
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lunareiitic · 1 year
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Limbus Orientation #4: The Nail That Sticks Up...
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N Corp Grosẞhammer Meursault || N Corp. Mittelhammer Rodion
Welcome back to Limbus Orientation, the series where I, your host, talk about Limbus Company units, what they do, and how to use them effectively. Today, we're talking about Limbus Company's first limited banner: The N. Corp duo of Meursault and Rodya.
What do these units do?
Let's start with Rodya, who is the easier of the two to understand and utilize. She has a deck of 3 Pride, 2 Lust, 1 Wrath, which is remarkably similar to her base kit.
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Even in a different outfit, Rodya is still the unparalleled queen of Bleed, but it comes in a slightly different form this time. Nails is a persistent status effect, so it will proc bleed over and over and over again, making it quite reliable, even if she goes down after hitting it. Not the "Fanatic" on her second skill: we'll get back to that later.
In terms of Passives, she has roughly the same issue her Base kit has: One wrath card, two Wrath passives.
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However, the difference in power is obvious. N-Rodya is a Damage Carry, not a Support by any means. Her kit revolves around hitting fast and hitting hard, leaving nailed corpses for the birds. Given her single Wrath card, it may be tempting to use her as a support for Wrath teams via Rising Faith and while that isn't bad by any means, the swing defeating an enemy with Joy of Execution up cannot be underestimated, especially for a character like this.
This brings us to N-Meursault, who has a more... interesting kit, shall we say...
With a deck of 3 Sloth, 2 Wrath, 1 Pride, you may be asking yourself: Oh that looks fine! Why are you side-eyeing it? And the answer isn't in Sin composition, but damage type.
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Pierce at the moment is not an in-demand damage type the way Blunt is. He does have one solid blunt card in You Are Cleansed Of Sin, but the overall damage of his kit is lacking in comparison to his 2 star companion. But, this may have been intentional: let's look at these passives.
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Like his base form, N-Meursault is primarily a tank, able to take punishment better than he can deal it, especially with the Stagger resist on Drive and the healing on Annihilate Heretics. Obsessive Hammer only adds to that... if you can chain four reds with him on field. And while he's below half HP. That's a lot of Ifs.
Highest Honor, on the other hand, is incredible. Guaranteed Attack Up and Protection? For free? Free? With him off-field, you can strengthen your most vulnerable unit, provided you're running a Wrath team. And if you're running N-Rodya, who is the only unit who can get that sweet Fanatic buff, you are.
So, what does Fanatic do?
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Gives you even more damage against units with Nails. With Rodya on field and Meursault acting as her commander, you can more reliably give her Fanatic to do big damage to basically everything. If we ever get more N-Corp units, N-Meursault will become an even greater force to reckon with. The more N-Corp units on the field, the more likely one of them is to have the lowest HP, the more likely Meursault can stoke the fires of their frenzy and make them do a ton more damage and take less damage. Then, if everyone gets wiped out, he swoops in with your backup team and tanks through the remaining enemy, hopefully bolstered by even more Wrath to give him his own Attack and Protection.
In short: If you're going to pull for N-Meursault, you're going to want N-Rodya also. N-Rodya is a perfectly workable unit on her own, but with N-Meursault's support, she can really shine in Wrath comps.
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renyen808 · 1 year
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Fire Emblem Engage: Is It Good?
Hey everyone! Anyone that knows me knows how obsessed I am with the Fire Emblem franchise. 
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(Credit: Nintendo)
I loved every game in this new era that it is in, from Awakening, Fates, and Three Houses all building off of one another and creating amazing and engaging (hah) stories that make me want to play over and over again. Here, unfortunately, is not the case. SPOILER ALERT on the game in general along with any other one in the franchise, I am probably going to spoil it. 
Fire Emblem Engage is the latest installment in the franchise and it was…okay. 
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(Credit: Nintendo of America YouTube Video)
I mean, it wasn’t bad, but it fell flat compared to its predecessors. You play as Alear, a male/female protagonist known as the Divine Dragon who was asleep for a thousand years. They have lost their memory during their slumber, and must navigate their foggy memories while fighting in a war against the Kingdom of Elusia.
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(Credit: Fire Emblem Wikia/Fire Emblem Wikipedia)
Robin was essentially a standin for us, the player, since we could customize their appearance and have meaningful relationships with the other NPCs. Alear, however, has no way of changing their appearance, thanks to their hair and eye color being important to the story, and only has a fraction of the meaningful interactions that Awakening did. Robin’s memory loss was from them almost becoming a vessel for Grima, shattering their mind, while Alear was attacked by Sombron in a last stitch effort in killing them before dying himself. I feel that Robin’s memory loss plays better in the Awakening story rather than Alear’s memory loss in Engage. I know it is because they tried to strike magic twice with the memory loss, but Alear fell flat compared to Robin, Corrin, and Byleth.
The story is also not that great. Fates and Three Houses really stepped up their game from Awakening by having multiple storylines and alternate endings to have replayability, choosing a different path each time you play. Engage, however, takes a step back, and has one linear storyline, which is a huge bummer for me. I wasn’t a fan at first of the multiple stories, but I found myself entertained by them. Awakening is still my favorite in the franchise, and that is a linear story, but it is one that was told perfectly, didn’t feel cliche, and made me actually feel for the characters. Here, I just don’t care about what happens. I don’t care because I know what is going to happen in the end. 
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(Credit: Gamespot)
The gameplay mechanics are an improvement for the series. Once you select the character you wish to move, they will follow wherever the joystick leads them, and will stop when you press an option that is available, whether that is just stopping and ending your turn, engaging with the Emblem you have equipped, using an item in your inventory, or attacking an enemy adjacent to your spot. You can be in your engaged form for only three turns, but it will charge over the course of the battle, allowing you to engage more than once during combat. There are different objectives that you have to reach depending on the chapter, such as ‘Rout the Enemy’ which just means eliminate every enemy unit, or sometimes it will be just a ‘Defeat the Bosses’ one where all you have to do is defeat the named enemies.
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(Credit: RPGamer)
 Once the objective is reached, the chapter will conclude and you will have some dialogue before the afterbattle walkaround, something new added in Engage. After the battle, you are able to walk around the area and talk to all of your allies, regardless if you deployed them or not. You can also find ingredients, items, and animals, I’ll explain those later. Afterwards, you can leave the area and return to the World Map (in the beginning of the game) or the Somniel.
Along with that, the characters are not as memorable as in previous installments. I can name pretty much every character in Awakening, some from Fates and Three Houses, but not that much from Engage. I only remember Alear, but no other names off the top of my head. Also, the character relationships don’t play a big role here, so I do not feel the need to push relationships together. I loved choosing different relationships between my units, but ever since Three Houses, only the Avatar can obtain an ‘S’ rating, with characters having high relationship points going into relationships afterwards. As far as I know currently, the only ones who can be in relationship is Alear and whomever Alear chooses, but the conversations are not memorable and are mediocre at best. 
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(Credit: Gamer Guides)
So, I bring up the conversations because these are the most memorable aspects of Fire Emblem. The conversations this time around are not as memorable as they were back in the day, where instead of Robin and Chrom embarrassing each other with bathroom run ins, we get Alear blankly talking to one of their allies. I haven’t played Engage in weeks and I cannot recall one conversation that has been memorable. 
The Somniel is basically your base, kinda like the school in Fire Emblem Three Houses. You can do different things here, such as cooking for yourself and two of your allies, working out, and training. These are just…okay. I wish it was more like Three Houses, where it seemed exciting to do each time, but for Engage, I kind of just felt like going onto the next chapter and getting it over with. The only part I found exciting, unbelievably, was the ring cleaning section. It is exactly how it sounds. You clean rings…and that was the most fun. 
Overall, Fire Emblem Engage is okay, an underwhelming sequel to the amazing Three Houses. It is a vital game to the series as a whole, improving on gameplay, but fails to capture what the previous games did so perfectly. I did enjoy playing it, but at the moment, have no desire to pick it up and play it again. I am more of the story based player, and the tactical stuff second, so with the story being as weak as it is, I cannot just look over it and say it is a good game where it could be improved. All in all, I say you should play it for yourself and figure out for yourself if the game is for you. 
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(Credit: Game Rant)
Thank you for taking the time to read my post! If you enjoyed reading it, share it with a friend who may also like it as well. Comments are always welcome, but keep it nice. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and shouldn’t be attacked because of them. If you want to hear audio versions of these articles, you can find them on my YouTube channel ‘Screen and Joystick’. I will hopefully begin recording these first two episodes in the coming days. I will be posting two articles a week, starting next week, so I am excited to begin this journey with you all! Thank you for reading! See you in the next post!
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myread4change · 2 years
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Book #102: - Completed: Get Out of Your Own way – Mark Goulston, M.D, & Philip Goldberg
Most of the time it is us than others who get in our own way and deprive ourselves of the good life we often think about. Get out of your own ways share 40 self-defeating behavior and suggests ways to overcome them so that we can lead the life we expect and deserve. If you are familiar with statements like “I can't believe I did that again”, “I should have known better”, and “I'm my own worst enemy” this book will be of great help. Few Self-defeating Behaviors – • Expecting others to understand how you feel – "You don't understand!" is one of the most frequent accusations hurled between people. • Waiting Until it’s too late – Don’t wait for something chronic to realize you have a life better than you think. Enjoy little moments. No dying man ever wished he spent more time in office. • When People Stop Listening, Stop Talking – If you want to know if you're talking too long, keep your eye on the other person's body language. • Putting on an act to make a good impression – The next time you find yourself putting up a false front, ask yourself why you would want to be around someone who likes what you're not. • Feeling sorry for yourself – Self-pity feeds on itself. When you project a sorrowful image and a lack of faith, things tend to go wrong, which only gives you more reason to feel sorry for yourself. • Assuming the hard way is the right way – Our society reveres hard work so much that we often consider ourselves lazy or escapist when we choose what is pleasurable or comfortable. Few Quotes – 1. Obsessions and compulsions can help you get past pain and fear, but they won't help you get over them. 2. Self-defeating behavior occurs when we fail to learn the lessons that life tries to teach us. 3. If you expect people to change, you can drive yourself crazy waiting for it to happen. 4. You have more control over trying or quitting than you do over succeeding or failing. 5. Failure is not falling down, but staying down. – Mary Pickford
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seijorhi · 3 years
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Inescapable
Part 2 of Always - another soulmate au with extra angst!
Oikawa Tooru x female reader, Miya Atsumu x female reader
TW toxic relationships, implied abuse, blind reader
“Stay here,” he murmurs, soft lips brushing briefly against your cheek before you feel his warmth retreat.
It’s an effort to quell the fleeting panic that rises in his absence. Japan is your home – was your home – but Tokyo… You’re not supposed to be in the village. Only the athletes, trainers and the support crew for the national team were supposed to stay there. It kept out distractions, made it easier for security, gave the athletes the space to focus on what they’re there for; to compete. To win. 
You don’t know how he did it, what strings he had to pull, but somehow he’d managed.
A room for the two of you. Just the two of you.
“You’re staying with me,” he’d told you when you’d brought up the possibility of going home to Miyagi to visit your family, or even spend a few days with Makki and Mattsun. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
The words had been whispered, a soft, teasing purr as lips curled into a smirk at your neck, but you know what he’s like when he’s competing. The focus and obsession he’ll throw himself into. 
Especially when you both know who he’ll be competing against. 
Nevertheless, you’re here. Alone now, standing in a sea of strangers talking too loud in a cacophony of foreign tongues while Tooru left to go find his team–
Strong, familiar arms encircle your waist, a kiss pressed to the top of your head. 
– but only for a moment.
“C’mon, cutie. Let’s get going – Coach gave us twenty before he wants us at the gym.”
You know one or two of the players on the national team from San Juan. They’re friendly enough, and they’ll stop and chat with you on the odd nights you venture out into the cafeterias dotted around the village for dinner. But for the most part they’re focused on other things and Tooru–
Tooru’s possessive enough of your attention at the best of times. 
Which means that you’re either with him, tucked carefully under his arm as he guides you around the village, or you’re stuck in the room, bored out of your mind waiting for him to come home to you. And for lack of anything better to do, you have the games playing on the TV.
Just for the sound of your mother tongue filling the room around you. Just so you won’t be alone with your thoughts for too long.
It’s different, back home in San Juan. But you understand it – why he brought you. 
“Where I go, you go, always.”
“Always.”
And the loneliness is worth it, you think, when he sinks down into the mattress beside you after a long day’s training and pulls you close, nuzzling into your side. This is better than being left behind. You’re here to support the man you love. Your soulmate, the name on your arm be damned. 
His good luck charm, he hums, kissing you in the early hours of the morning before slipping away. 
But even you can’t just sit around the apartment all day long. It’s good to stretch your legs, even when you’re in strange, unfamiliar territory. You tell yourself that what Tooru doesn’t know won’t hurt him, forgetting just for one blissful moment that your soulmate and his team are not the only ones who might catch you wandering. 
Of course, that realisation doesn’t sink in until broad shoulders suddenly barrel past you, knocking you off your feet. And you would have fallen, awkwardly probably, had a pair of strong, lean arms not caught at your waist, steadying you.
“Jeeze, Bokkun! Watch where yer goin’, wouldja!”
The first voice, the thick, drawling Kansai dialect isn’t familiar, but the voice that follows is impossible to misplace.
“Thought I told you two–”
It cuts off abruptly, and in some distant part of your brain you register that the stranger’s still holding you, the warmth of his hand still braced on your hip, but all you can really focus on is the owner of that second voice.
“Iwa?”
Tooru had told you he’d be here, Hinata too and Kageyama. And of course Ushijima, but you’d assumed that – at least up until they played against one another or team Japan got knocked out of the running – they’d be busy and you wouldn’t cross paths.
There’s a surprised intake of air from your left – ‘Bokkun’, you imagine – and he asks, “Wait, you know her, dude?”
And still, the warm body holding you doesn’t move an inch. Not until a familiar, irritated huff sounds, “Get your hands off her, dumbass.”
The body behind you tenses for a split second before obeying, hands ripping themselves away from you as if he’d been scalded. “Shit, sorry!”
“Don’t worry about it, it’s fine,” you murmur with what you hope is a polite smile, only half paying attention because you can hear Iwa striding towards you. In one breath, he’s knocking back your saviour and pulling you into a one armed hug.
“Shittykawa said he’d be bringing you,” he says quietly as you squeeze him back. It’s been such a long time since you’ve been face to face with him. Tooru calls him to catch up most weeks, more often than putting him on speaker so that you can say hi, but it’s not the same. “Didn’t think he meant to the actual village, though.”
You’ve missed him, you realise. Him and Makki and Mattsun, and suddenly there’s a lump in your throat, emotions welling that you can’t name. There’s so much you want to say to him, things he knows but should be said anyway, but–
“Aren’t you gonna introduce us to your pretty friend, Iwa?”
Your cheeks heat as the two of you part, yet it’s Iwa who answers for the both of you.
“No. You two need to get your asses moving,” he says. “Back to the gym, now. Unless you wanna stay back after everyone else finishes up to run extra drills?”
It’s a clear dismissal, and the two only pause for a heartbeat before grumbling their assent – and one sheepish apology – and heading off to continue their run.
“Let me walk you back.”
Some things never change, you suppose. “Iwa, you have an Olympic team to train,” you tell him with a wry grin. ”I’m not going to risk being accused of sabotaging the Japanese national volleyball team just because you feel the need to be gentlemanly.”
It’s clearly meant as a tease, but instead of the good-natured huff you’re expecting, he sighs. “C’mon. You almost got knocked on your ass, let me walk you back.”
It’s not a suggestion, and as he takes you by the hand and starts leading you back the way you came you’re reminded of high school - he used to do exactly same thing any timeTooru wasn’t around. There’s a slight flicker of irritation at your first breath of fresh air without Oikawa’s overprotective hovering being snatched away, but you know he means well.
He always does.
So you shove those feelings down and offer him a smile. “You know I’m stupidly proud of you, right?” you tell him. “Both of you.”
And something in Iwa relaxes and he laughs, “Yeah well I’m just glad you’re gonna be here to witness me wipe the floor with Shittykawa’s ass.”
It’s late, and Tooru isn’t back yet. 
And it wouldn’t bother you except that lunch had been hours ago, and your stomach is starting to growl, hunger settling in. 
Tooru works hard, he pushes himself and stays late when he should be home resting, you know that, but even if you did want to go and find him, pull him back so that he won’t push past his limits days out from competing, you wouldn’t have a clue where to find him – not in this sprawling maze of a complex.
What else can you do but wait, as fifteen minutes turns into half an hour, then an hour, and suddenly it’s almost nine. 
He won’t be happy that you’ve left without him, but either he’ll meet you at the cafeteria, or you’ll get home before he’s back and you’ll have dinner waiting for him. At this time of the night it’s likely to be empty anyway, it’s not like you’re running off in the middle of the dinner rush.
Most of the athletes’ll be back in their rooms, you’re not gonna get knocked around in the mad scramble for food, nobody’s going to pay you any mind.
But once again, you’re proven wrong. 
It’s not quite the roaring din that you’ve come to associate with the dining hall, but you can hear a few quiet conversations scattered throughout the room. At least none of them pay you any heed as you slowly wander the buffet, shyly asking one of the servers to help you pick out something for you and Tooru both.
It’s not until you move to take a seat, hoping that Tooru will get there before you have to try and cart his dinner back to the room that you hear the unmistakable scraping of a chair being dragged back beside you.
“Ya know, Iwaizumi never did end up telling us yer name,” a familiar voice states, settling down into the seat. “He did end up making me ‘n Bokuto run extra laps as punishment for knockin’ into ya, though.”
Out of habit, your fingers fiddle with the sleeve of your jacket – Tooru’s actually – warmth flooding your cheeks. He doesn’t sound pissed off by the fact, and you suppose he probably wouldn’t have sat down beside you if all he wanted was to pick a fight. 
“Oh, I’m… sorry?” It comes out sounding more like a question than anything else. 
He laughs at that, the sound surprisingly warm and pleasant. “Nah, not your fault. Iwa’s a hardass at the best of times.”
“Sounds like he hasn’t changed much since high school,” you muse.
Oikawa might’ve been Captain back then, but that never stopped Iwa from slapping him upside of the head whenever he did something particularly stupid. He was a hard ass, but he was also incredible at keeping the rest of the team in line and motivated, and he kept Tooru grounded. He kept you grounded. Aggressive, tough love was simply a part of that. 
You wonder distantly if his new team realizes just how lucky they are to have somebody like him in their corner.
“High school? Ya knew him back then?” he prods.
He’s a stranger. Not just a competitor, but ‘The Enemy’ just like Kageyama and Ushiwaka. Out of all the teams that Tooru might go up against during the games, you know that they’re the ones he’s most determined to defeat. And you don’t necessarily buy into the whole ‘destined rivals’ thing – Kageyama was never anything but polite to you, but you know you’re supposed to back your soulmate up on this. You know he’d be pissed to find you casually chatting away with any one of them, except maybe Hinata. 
Maybe.
But it’s nice just to indulge in a conversation – even meaningless small talk – with somebody who doesn’t know you as Tooru’s. You can’t help but relax a little, the tension easing from your shoulders, a small smile creeping across your face. 
“I’ve known Iwa since I was six years old. He’s one of my best friends.”
The man hums a little, his chair creaking as he leans back, “Really? He’s never mentioned ya.”
And it’s clear from the sharp intake of his breath that he regrets the words the moment they’re said, but instead of feeling offended, you simply laugh, the sound bubbling up before you can stop it. 
“It’s fine,” you say when he tries to backtrack. “Do you often have deep and meaningful’s with Iwa about his childhood friends?”
He snorts, “Yeah, point taken, I guess. So how come yer here then? Didn’t think they allowed cheerleaders in the village, even the cute ones.”
Something flutters in your stomach at his tone; it’s warm like honey, just a hint of teasing. He’s flirting, you realise, and in an instant you know you should shut it down. Harmless small talk is one thing, but you’re–
You have your soulmate. 
“What makes you think I’m not staff?” you ask instead.
“No uniform,” he counters, and you can’t argue with that. It’s not your fault that you can’t see what everybody’s wandering around wearing. “And you don’t really strike me as the ‘athlete’ type, no offense.”
You don’t really know how to respond to that, so you just shrug somewhat self consciously. He’s not wrong; you don’t really belong here, but you find yourself reluctant to tell him the truth.
The only reason you’re here is because Tooru cheated the system, because he couldn’t bear to be without you.
Or maybe because he knows how much of a mess you are without him. Blind and helpless without him to guide you, even here, back in the country you’d both left behind all those years ago.
“I’m here to support my soulmate,” you tell him instead, and it’s not entirely a lie. No matter what, you’ll always support Oikawa – here, back home, to whatever ends. That was the promise you’d made to each other long before you’d ever left Japan.
There’s a short pause, and you take the opportunity to turn back to the plate of food in front of you – you’d forgotten about it entirely. You half expect that he’ll take it as the perfect opportunity to politely bow out of the conversation. 
You might’ve been blind, but you’re not naive; you know exactly what athletes get up to after the sun goes down in the village. There’s a reason that your welcome packs were stuffed full of free condoms. 
And you’re not interested in that. You have Tooru and he has you. If that’s all that this guy is after; some quick, meaningless fuck, then–
“Volleyball?” he asks, and you almost roll your eyes.
He’s not wrong, of course he’s not, and you suppose considering your connection with Iwa it makes sense that he’d make that leap, but still. One track mind, all of them.
“If I tell you, you might not like me very much,” you say in lieu of an answer.
He leans closer, the chair creaking once more. “So I’m right.” He sounds so smug about it, you almost wanna tell him he’s wrong just to mess with him a little. “What position does he play?”
Not what team, what position. That, more than anything else, mattered to him – and again, you understood it. The pride players took in their position within the machine.
 “You first,” you shoot back instead, because you feel like you have a sneaking suspicion. 
And with a little huffing laugh, he confirms it, “Setter.”
Of course.
And the smile on your face tugs wider, a strange trill running through you, “Ah, and here I thought Kageyama,” you draw the name out, “was Japan’s starting setter.”
He scoffs, dragged in by your teasing jab, “Yer kiddin’, right? Tobio’s talented an’ all, but he ain’t half the setter I am.”
Cocky and smug. You wonder if he has the skills to back it up. Yet just as you open your mouth to pry further, you’re interrupted by a voice.
Several actually. 
“Talking shit again, Miya?”
“Who’s she?”
“Oh hey – Iwa’s friend!”
And your heart skips a beat, your body tensing as those voices close in, more chairs being pulled out, trays of food dumped on the table as his teammates settle down around you. It’s just a name, one name. It doesn’t mean anything, doesn’t–
“Atsumu, why don’t you shut– oh. Y/N, hey. Didn’t realise you'd be here. Isn’t the village restricted to athletes only?”
Kageyama’s blunt greeting isn’t intended to be antagonistic, but it washes over you regardless. You’re frozen, heart pounding, a sick, twisting feeling settling into your gut.
Atsumu, he’d said.
Miya Atsumu. 
Two words, and your world stops spinning. 
You’d promised him – Tooru – years ago that the name on your arm didn’t mean anything. It was all just a cruel cosmic mistake because from the moment you met him, you were his, and he was yours and nothing else mattered.
And you’d told yourself that, repeated it like a mantra until you started to believe it yourself. Because Tooru loved you, you were his soulmate and what kind of horrible fucking person would you be to take that gift, that bond and shove it back in his face.
Tooru isn’t perfect, and he’d freaked out and lied to you, but he’s your soulmate. 
The name on your arm didn’t matter, it didn’t matter that you didn’t know whose it was, because you had Tooru. It should have been his.
And you told yourself that for six months, until some blowout fight had Tooru storming out, you following in his footsteps. 
It was a stranger, some random passerby in the street. You can’t remember what prompted you to stop her and ask, why it suddenly mattered when Tooru had all but convinced you that it didn’t, but you had.
Miya Atsumu. The pronunciation had been unsure, her tongue clunky over the foreign syllables, but in that moment when you’d heard his name every lie you’d convinced yourself of had fallen apart.
It was like you’d been drowning without ever realising it, and the second you’d heard that name a hand was dragging you up to the surface and suddenly air was flooding your lungs.
Miya Atsumu.
There are voices surrounding you, somebody laughing uproariously, but it’s all just white noise. 
“Y/N,” a choked, hoarse whisper that shouldn’t have been heard, but it pierces you like a knife, cutting through everything else. It’s too much. 
On shaking legs you stand, knocking your chair back as you grab for your cane. 
The name hadn’t mattered, until you’d heard it. He hadn’t mattered, until he was standing right there in front of you.
“I– I have to go,” you mutter, not entirely sure if they heard you, or if they even cared. You leave your food untouched on the table, stumbling as you step back.
And again, you hear that whisper of your name. There’s a hand that reaches for you – his or somebody else’s you don’t know, you shrug it off regardless. “I have to go.”
Nobody stops you as you skitter back towards the entrance, but for once the cafeteria is silent. The moment you burst out through the double doors, the brisk, summer night air hits you like a slap, and you don't realise that your cheeks are wet with tears until the breeze cuts through, the damp skin prickling uncomfortably. 
And the sob that follows rips through your chest like a knife.
This isn’t what you wanted. 
If there’s a god out there, he must have a cruel sense of humour, because your name is being called again, and suddenly there’s a hand on your cheek brushing at your tears, an arm wrapping around your waist, pulling you close. “Cutie, what’s wrong?”
The scent of him, all citrus and summer, invades your nose as you clutch at him tighter. You can’t speak, can’t find the words to tell him, so you just squeeze your eyes shut and burrow into him. 
“Tell me what’s wrong,” he repeats, not asking this time. 
You take a deep, shuddering breath. “I want to go home,” you whisper, clutching at his jersey. “I wanna go home, Tooru.”
A kiss brushes against the crown of your head, and you almost miss the sound of footsteps pounding on the pavement behind you – at least until the interloper speaks.
“You–” Atsumu breaks off, his breath ragged and raw, and you don’t miss the way that Oikawa stiffens, his grip tightening, fingers digging in. “Yer my soulmate.”
Three simple words, and everything, everything just falls apart.
Tooru snarls, taking a step back and dragging you with him. “She’s not your anything, Miya. Fuck off.”
“You can’t leave me! You can’t - you’re mine!”
It hurts, the grip he has on you. He’s trembling, from rage or fear you honestly don’t know, but you can feel his heart pounding a vicious beat as his arms lock around you like a cage.
“Yeah, that’s why it’s my goddamn name on her arm. Let ‘er go, yer hurting her,” he snaps. 
“She’s my soulmate, so mind your own business and run off back home.”
You can’t breathe.
“Not when yer hurting her.”
It’s like the floor’s suddenly disappeared from beneath you, and you’re in free fall, hurtling back towards god knows what. Your head’s spinning, your legs feel like jelly, and if Tooru wasn’t holding you up against him, you’re not sure you’d still be standing. 
You can’t breathe. 
“Leave, right now,” he hisses. “She’s mine. She always has been, and always will be mine!”
You’d promised him that much, hadn’t you?
“Ya don’t scare me, and I don’t give a flying fuck if yer wearing her name on your arm. That’s my soulmate, and you’ll take yer fucking hands off ‘a her.”
You can’t breathe, not as the shouting gets louder and Tooru’s grip gets tighter. 
He takes another step back, pulling you with him, and another hiccuping sob catches in your throat. You try to speak, to stop this before it gets any worse, but the words won’t come–
“You’re hurting her!”
“I LOVE HER!” he screams. “I would never, ever hurt her!”
“T–Tooru, please…” you beg. It’s little more than a whisper, and neither one of them seems to hear it.
But somebody else does. 
“Hey, hey! What the fuck are you dumbasses doing?!” 
Iwa, always your second protector, your best and oldest friend, wastes no time in getting between the two of them, shoving Miya back.
“What is wrong with you both?!” he snaps, grabbing you by the wrist and ripping you from Oikawa. And you don’t fight it when he tugs you towards him, a protective arm wrapping around your waist. 
You cling to him, like a scared child with tears streaming down your face. 
“Iwa–”
“No, shut up. I don’t wanna hear a single word out of either one of you! Not a goddamn word!”
He doesn’t bother berating them in front of you, though you know that’ll come later. He doesn’t say anything to you either, but his hand doesn’t leave yours all the way back to his apartment. Not the one in the village, but the one just outside of the city.
“You knew, didn’t you?” you ask quietly when he drops his keys on the counter.
There’s a beat of silence, and he sighs. “Yeah, I knew.”
It’s hanging in the air between you, like a dark, stormy cloud about to unleash. “Iwa,” you whisper, your bottom lip trembling once more. “What the hell am I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know,” he answers, as honestly as he can. “But you’re gonna stay here tonight, and tomorrow I’ll call Makki and Mattsun and they’ll come and take you back to Sendai for a little while if that’s what you want. You don’t have to see either one of those assholes, not until…” 
Not until you figure out how you’re supposed to make this impossible choice. 
He squeezes your shoulder as you sniffle. “It’s gonna be alright, whatever you decide to do.”
Neither one of you truly believes that, but what’s left to say?
He hugs you again before he leaves, makes you promise to call if you need him, but you both know you won’t.
Not tonight, not when he has other priorities. 
And then you’re alone, sitting on his couch surrounded by blankets with a mug of hot chocolate warming your hands. You know you should try to get some sleep, you’re exhausted, overwhelmed, but every time you close your eyes, you can’t stop thinking about it.
About the way Tooru’s voice had shook, how you’d smiled for Atsumu, that familiar warmth blooming in your chest when the two of you talked and you’d teased him.
And you remember how it was the day Tooru first told you that he loved you, the butterflies in your stomach the first time he’d kissed you, spinning you around and laughing as his lips met yours again and again and again. 
How he’d yelled and screamed and fallen apart in your arms that night, begging you not to leave him. 
You love him, for better or for worse, you love him. 
A loud knock echoes through the apartment, shaking you from your thoughts.
It’s almost 2am, and nobody but Iwa knows you’re here. Nobody should be knocking, and so you sit, frozen in the dark listening as your heart hammers uneasily.
One beat, then two, and then–
“I know you’re in there, just– just please. I need… I need–” he breaks off with a frustrated huff, and there’s a low thud, like his head’s fallen against the door. “Please,” he begs, quieter this time. 
There’s another thud.
“I need ya. Don’t lock me out, I’m beggin’.”
1K notes · View notes
rayofsunas · 3 years
Text
s/o goes on a mission with them.
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A/n: so, as you may or may not have seen by my recent “updates” I’m obsessed with genshin, and I’m pretty sure for one day I played for a solid 5 hours- my eyes hurt pls. but I did miss writing, I’ve just been unmotivated and busy with college stuff (mainly stressing, I haven’t even started my essay yet shh). n e ways, here’s an update, I hope this quenches your thirst 🙊
Summary: s/o goes on a mission with them. 
Parings: Kaeya/Reader, Diluc/Reader, Xiao/Reader, Scaramouche/Reader (all with a fem reader)
Warnings: crack, swearing, worrying Teyvat bois
Word count: 1.7k
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Kaeya
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when you’re assigned to be on a mission just the two of you, you assume he’s happy, and don’t get me wrong, he totally is!
usually you’re never on missions together, deciding it was better that way because you both get distracted (you realized after marrying, space was always nice too, space was healthy)
though the decision mainly came about because you two good around a lot... and other things 😏
no but deep down he’s worried when you go on this mission together, it’s been a while since the two of you have, a little too long, and the nerves came back
he’s always worried whenever you go on missions, and sure he’ll always be there to protect you when he’s with you (not that you need it) but anything can happen
sure taking out a bunch of Hilichurls was deemed easy, especially together, but he still worried
he never said a word about it though, he’d always keep a watchful eye on you (he does have a reputation to keep after all)
“Ya know, you did well today.” You said plopping down beside your husband, using your pyro ability to light the twigs and leaves in front of you.
“Of course I did,” he boasted, eye lighting up in the dark of the night. “What kind of Knight would I be if I hadn’t, babe.”
You groaned in annoyance, this was the ever so haughty husband you knew.
“Please, I could’ve easily wiped your ass if it weren’t for the fact that we haven’t been paired together in a while; I forgot about your skill.” You teased. The cryo user glared at you.
“Skill? Surely, I have more than one.” He snipped teasingly. Your head shook, feigning innocence. “Are you sure?” A hum sounded in your throat. “I couldn’t tell... Maybe if you hadn’t been staring holes into me every time I used my sword, I could see your progression.”
Kaeya visibly tensed, but he tried to make it go unnoticed, you saw his shoulders raise slightly. 
“Hmm?” You laughed wholeheartedly. 
“Don’t ‘hmm’ me, mister.”
Despite having been caught, a grin spread across his face, he was enjoying your teasing tonight it seemed.
“There’s a reason we don’t go on missions together, but, I did have fun with you today, despite the worrying part.”
Diluc
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um, the ever so stoic and emotionless fire boy is WORRIED AF
and he accidentally lets it show
he’s totally fine if you’re only going against a few low-rank Hilichurls and Slime, but against any of the Hypostasis’s, he’s worried for your wellbeing (after a few days of trying to beat one of the Hypostasis’s I finally did, APPLAUD ME PLS, I was crying)
the very first mission you went on together, the job was done quickly and without much trouble, but before and after, he would not stop asking you if you would like to be escorted back to the Knights headquarters
he said it was his duty to protect any and every Mondstadt Citizen
you knew he was also just particularly worried about you
despite being worried, he is happy you’re here, though wishes it were under different circumstances other than battle 
he rarely sees you, so it’s a nice change to be placed on a mission together instead of alone, you missed each others company
BUT HE’S STILL WORRIED
“I’m a Knight of Favonius, I don’t particularly need to be escorted back, I appreciate your concern though.” Poor Diluc, the face he made looked like pure defeat, you used the Knight of Favonius card on him. And yes, you were capable, but he did know a certain Knights of Favonius Captain who he loathed a little too much,
“That’s why I’m worried.”
You scoffed at his jab, though it didn’t necessarily hurt too much.  
“Please, I can handle myself. We’re not all like Captain Kaeya, but even then give him some credit!”
“I know you’re more than capable but-”
”No buts! Let me do what I know how, please. Or else I could slip up, and then actually put myself in danger.”
“Okay...” You nodded, sending a soft thanks to your lover's way, but he just stared at you before muttering, “But let me escort you back to Mondstadt.”
👁 👄 👁
“I’m sorry, did you hear a word I just said?”
“I see your skills darling, but-” He paused, noticing how your arms folded across your chest. You were annoyed. “I’d much prefer if you took care of the greatest battle of all; Kaeya.”
“Kaeya does not need my assistance.”
“He’s probably in a ditch somewhere, and it would be much appreciated by Jean if we did not leave him to rot there,” Diluc explained. 
You had seen Kaeya earlier, and yes although he usually frequented the bars and whatnot, he was surprisingly sober. He hadn’t promised he would stay that way, but it would take hours for said man to get completely drunk to the point where he was immobile. You had only left Mondstadt four hours ago. 
“Amber can find him. She did last time,” He watched in disbelief as you sauntered off towards the hill in front of you, dead set on continuing your mission. “Come on I see an Electro Hypostasis ahead.”
“Also, you could’ve just said you were worried about me, instead of trying to send me back home! Kaeya is fine, worrywart.”
Xiao
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it’s not that he’s worried about you and it’s not that he shouldn’t be worried either 
he can be both given the right moment
the only reason he doesn’t want you going with him is because he claims he focuses better on missions alone
you could understand where he was coming from, but you would’ve liked to have gone with him when he first left
you mentioned going on a mission with him in Liyue the night before he locked you in your Liyue Harbor Guesthouse room 
you were still asleep when he’d snuck out and had found a note in the sheets where he’d previously been sleeping hours ago
it read, went on a quick mission, be back soon. - Xiao
...one of the cleaning ladies had come to your rescue after seeing various lounge chairs from the hallway stacked and pushed against the door (she was supposed to clean the room that morning after having seen Xiao leaving, figuring it was empty to begin cleaning)
she was shocked to see you hurriedly throwing your shoes on and grabbing your spear, confused obviously
she’d asked if you were being held against your will or if you were in danger, but you’d dashed off before you could give her an answer
eventually after asking a few Liyue Harbor Merchants, you were able to get a rough estimate as to where your boyfriend went
when you finally caught up to him, out of breath, he was somewhat shocked to see you
“Hey!” You called after the ancient man, watching with glee as he turned around with wide eyes. “Locking me in the room seriously?”
“I didn’t think you’d catch up. I left hours ago.”
“I thought so too. But one of the Merchants gave me a shortcut to your destination.”
“Interesting.” He said, hand going to his chin in thought. 
“That’s it? That’s all you have to say?!” 
“Interesting.” You mocked 
He stared blankly, without a doubt the gears working in his brain, spinning and ticking at an unbelievable rate. 
“No, one more thing... How did you get out of the room? I barricaded it.” 
👁 👄 👁
Scaramouche
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you better be someone who can handle yourself, and you probably are, or else he would not be able to stand being with you romantically AT ALL
he’s had you practice with him, just to show him what you’re capable of, before he ever allowed you to travel with him
after deeming you a worthy opponent, he decided you would fair well with him
he would’ve never allowed you to come if he knew you’d be a burden, slow him, or get hurt
after you proved yourself, he does not doubt you so he’s not going to be worried at all
he’s only worried if you start slowing him down, then he’ll think you’re incompetent to be traveling together
if you slow him down, you’re being sent home, no questions asked
though because he does love you, you receive a bit of a less severe punishment for doing something wrong on a mission
he may ask you once or twice to keep up with him, or take your enemies out without less hesitation, but that’s if he feels particularly generous, most of the times he’s harsh and will not tolerate your mistakes, no chances given
fortunately for you, he felt extremely generous today
It was truly evident that you were slowly pissing off the sixth Harbinger and he was losing his patience with you. Yet you continued flirting with him to get a rise out of said man (yeah, same); he often reacted, and you enjoyed it when he did. You liked seeing him react and appear differently than always being so uptight and mean.
It was a common belief that he often traveled with a young woman, who had Pyro for a vision, and she was strong but often loved to distract and tease her fellow Harbinger. You were not so surprisingly, that young woman.
“Keep up, I won’t ask you again.” 
Today, you were on a mission together which wasn’t rare, but your other mission was to piss him off as much as you could. So, you purposely walked behind him, very slow. Pretending to take in the chilly scenery of Snezhnaya, although you had seen it thousands of times, acting as if it was something new. 
“You said that the last two times.” You said, cheerfully laughing to yourself when you heard him growl lowly. He didn’t pay any mind to your retort but began showing more signs that he was aggravated.
He hissed, “There’s not much to admire, you can barely see.” Yes, he was right, he’d caught onto your antics very fast, but that didn’t matter.
“As I said, if you keep slowing me down, I’ll continue without you.” Your eyes rolled. Would he?
“Leaving a member of the Harbinger behind wouldn’t be very honorary, but if I must, I will.”
A pout took shape on your lips. “Please, you wouldn’t leave your lovely girlfriend out here to freeze would you?”
“You have pyro abilities, you would fair just fine.”
“Hmm... I suppose so, but I’d get lonely.” 
“Then be quiet and walk faster.”
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1.13.21, rayofsunas
1K notes · View notes
yanderegremlin · 2 years
Note
Okay, so I got this idea from a TV show and it inspired an idea in me: So, imagine that the reader has a rival, an enemy and the reader already knew of him, the rival I mean due to a prophecy created when both of them were born. According to the prophecy, the rival dude emerges victorious in some battles but when he meets the reader, due to the prophecy he's supposed to get defeated by reader. The enemy gets to know about the reader and seeks to defeat her but when he sees her in battle, he slowly falls in love with her and grows obsessed with her. How would yandere Deku react to all this and I hope this made sense TvT
Author notes: Thank you much for your request! It was fun to write it, I hope I did your idea justice! :D I hope you don’t mind me making it a  Fantasy AU with a open ending 😈
Warnings ⛔️: Yandere themes, female reader, suicidal and reckless thoughts, abusive behavior (reader receiving), forced marriage, war mentioned,
You have prepared for this your whole life, day after day, month after month, year after year, for what you may ask? For your people? For the prophecy? For yourself? All of the above? You didn’t know but you do know that if you didn’t do this, not only your people will be in grave danger but the world at large would be ripped apart. One life or the world lives, the answer was obvious. You didn’t mind giving up your life for everyone but you just wished for a more peaceful solution. Seeing day in ‘n’ day out of death and destruction was sorrowing your soul.
The only thing that brought you joy and relief was sneaking out to play with the local children. The Elders would think you were wasting your time but you would disagree with them on that one. How can you truly help your people if you knew little to nothing about them? Your teacher Eraser had made it very clear where your focus should be, after all how could you play with the children if they were all dead.
Another battle, another bloodbath, you know the prophecy said you would lose some battles but win the war, but why does it have to be this grosome? Sometimes you question if the stupid prophecy was even true or not. Sometimes you just want to lay down and die but those old bags of bones would have a fate worse than death up their sleeves if you did. So you continue on spending less and less time with your people, your friends. Fighting and killing, trying to get to this monster who you were destined to defeat, with any luck you could make them realize what their doing is not right, to be a better person, that you are here to help.
“Chosen one, what do you think?” you snap out of your thoughts that the call of that awful ‘name’ you were given at your birth, when the prophecy was made and your fate with it. You looked at the old geezer who spoke to you “Well? We don’t have all day, speak child.”
You quickly scan over the plans and maps before you look back at him. “Everything looks good sir” he smiles at you with a nod “well everything except for this” he frowned as you point at the back of the formation. “Why is there nobody defending the rear, we’ll be defenseless”
“Because the montines are there, no one can sneak up on us that way.” an elderly woman scoffed at you.
“Yes, I didn’t see that, thank you…” looked back at the map trying to keep the bitterness out of your voice. You don’t know why they insist on you being here when all they're going to treat you is like a child.The more you thought about those montines the more unsettled you become. You had a bad feeling, no matter what you did you couldn’t shake it and did not know why until the day of battle.
Metal hitting metal, cres of sorrow and fury rang throughout the land. The taste of blood and dirt filled your senses as you dealt below after below trying your best to keep the opposing army at bay. You kept your eyes on the montines ready to call out reformation at the drop of a hat.
Meanwell a tall man with green curly hair watches from behind the trees. Eyes locked on a curtain soldier, who he swore he locked eyes with quite a few times. He had no doubt that she knew he was there, which both frustrated and intrigued him. Many questions flood his mind about her until a cry of pain from below shoots through him like a hot blade through butter. Before he could think too much into it he ran down the mountain.
As you cut through soldier after soldier, fighting with all you had. You didn’t notice the blonde gorila of a man moving swiftly towards you. The next thing you knew you were knocked face first into the ground, a shout of pain escaped you before you had time to swallow it. Quickly rolling over blocking the brute’s sword, when the ground began to shake. Surprising you and the blondy, which was enough of a distraction to knock him over and get away. You didn’t get too far though, not with the enemy's armies sprinting down the mountain.
Retreating was the only option you had if you wanted to live to fight another day. With that in mind you and your soldiers pulled back home to regroup and recover. Other battles, others lost at this rate you didn’t know how you were going to win this war.
Weeks passed by with no attacks, blood, fights, no nothing. Which unnerved you, this was unusual but it seemed that you were the only one who felt this way. Everyone else was happy, fixing what was destroyed in war, not even Elders and Eraser were bothering you as much. Which was the only plus side to this afol station, you can finally do what you wanted when you wanted to do them.
It seems that you weren’t the only one who had that notion because you were helping the local baker with refilling his stock when a man with green hair and a childish smile asked to help you. Of course you didn’t need help but it would be more efficient with an extra part of hand. So you and the baker let him join you both. As you all worked, he interdose himself as Izuku and asked you questions about yourself. At first you were wary of him but it was hard to keep him at arm's length especially when he was so polite and considerate. He made you nervous with that cute smile and kind gesture.
He had a way with words that let your guard down and you ended up talking with him long after the job was done but like all good things must come to an end and you need to go back to your duties. Izuku was very understanding and offered to walk you back, which was sweet of him but being the ‘chosen one’ had some perks, one being that no one wanted to mess with you.
With some convincing, you agreed to walk back with him, talking with him until you reach your destination. Saying your guys goodbyes as you walked through the gates, you got a feeling that this wasn’t the last time you would be seeing Izuku.
It wasn’t until two days later that you ran into Izuku again, funny enough in front of the bakery you two helped out. You were playing knights and dragons with some children around town when you ran past him. You stopped upon realizing who it was.
Izuku had the biggest grain on his face as turn to you. With a chuckle he asked you what you were up to when the children came running up to you guys pulling on your arms wanting you to continue chasing them. You quickly explain the game to him. Izuku seemed very amused by this and asked if you needed some help. You wanted to decline at first but it was hard to say no to him. Not with the way he looked at you, with innocent eyes and kind smile.
With a sigh you invited him to come play with you guys. You didn’t know why but Izuku made you really nervous. He hadn’t done anything to you or to anyone else, if anything he was just being kind to you and everyone. After a few hours of playing it starts to get dark so you send the kids home before it gets too dark. Izuku offered to walk you home which you accepted without complaint this time, after all you lived where you worked so it wasn’t like he hadn't seen this before.
After this you saw Izuku a few times a week but soon it turned into every other day which then turned into a daily activity. Not that you were complaining, Izuku was a great friend but you were more worried about the rumors that would be spared if you spent so much time together.
A couple of months after your last battle you allow yourself to relax a little and enjoy everything, but that comes to an end far too soon for you when the Elders call you for an important meeting. You had no idea why they called this meeting and that unnerving feeling came back tenfold. You were a nervous wreck the whole time walking there. Something in the back of your mind told you to run, begged you to not go. You didn’t have a choice though.
When you opened the door to the meeting room you saw the last person you expected to be there. “Izuku…” He either didn’t notice the disbelieving look on your face or he chose to ignore it. Him on the other hand looked like he had died and gone to heaven, like you were a goddess who grace their presents with your perfection.
“Chosen one, we have something very important to discuss with you.” the head of the council said with a tone that told you that you will be doing what they say no matter what. she counted on without waiting for your input. “Your mortal enemy from the Kingdom of Japan has an interesting proposal for you.” She looks at Izuku to counte.
Nodding back at her before looking at you with a love sick look in his eyes. “I talked with my council about this and they agree with me that it would benefit both of our Kingdoms if we stopped fighting and joined with one another in holy matrimony. That way…” you stopped listening as you got lost in your own thoughts.
Izuku, how did he, why? He couldn’t be who I’m destined to kill? Right? Why did I do all this? He had Multiple opportunities to kill me. So why didn’t he? Why would he come into enemy territory so casually? Most importantly, why on earth would he want to marry me??? This has to be a cruel joke.
“Love? Are you okay?” hand gently rubs your shoulder snapping you out of your mind. Locking eyes with Izuku you froze. You didn’t know what to do.
After stirring at each other for a few minutes you finally broke the silence. “You won't hurt anyone if I go with you?” on the verge of tears, the Frustrations, angers, and confusion over all the years came crashing down on you all at once.
Big strong arms put you into a warm hug. Next thing you know you were riding a horse, sitting right in front of Izuku. Feeling his chest on your back brought you both comfort and dread. Going riding right into a fate worse than death.
Izuku gave you everything but your freedom. If you wanted to go out of his room for anything he needed to go with you. You want to go out in the garden or read in the Library, he was pressed into your side like a starved leech. Izuku made it a point to eat with you, whether that was in his room or in the dining room.
Then came preparations for the wedding. Izuku didn’t want to overwhelm you so he gave you two weeks to adjust to this new life but reality was never merciful to you, two weeks came and went in a blink of an eye for you. You didn’t want to marry him, he was your friend not your lover.
Not only that but he lied to you, but you fill for it hook, line, and sinker. You felt like the world's biggest idiot but you couldn’t dwell on that right now. You had a wedding to plan, and Izuku made sure that you were the one making the plans for the big day.
As the days passed Izuku nervousness and possessiveness increased, it got to the point that he couldn’t stand you being out of his sight. It drove you mad, he was acting like a spoiled brat who couldn’t live without his favorite toy. You didn’t want to live like this, you imagine what he will be like after the wedding. So you did what you sure have done in the first place.
It wasn’t easy with Izuku’s sharp watchful eyes on you but you managed to snikch a knife into your wedding dress when no one was watching. Now all you have to do is wait for the right time to use it.
After all, what's a little more blood, you were prepared to sacrifice a life for your people whether that be your life or another, the prophecy can’t be fulfilled with both of you still alive, now could it?
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stardustprompts · 3 years
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the poppy war - r.f kuang   sentence starters change tenses/pronouns as needed !!  some lines have been edited for clarity / length / ease of roleplaying tw :   drugs , death , murder , nsfw , prostitution mention , language
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‘take off your clothes.’
‘why would anyone drug themselves before a test?’
‘you’re about to be a very lucky girl, sweet.’
‘wow that’s great. really great. Terrific.’
‘your folks are assholes.’
‘well fuck the heavenly order of things.’
‘don’t you have actual responsibilities?’
‘I don’t want to get on _____ ‘s bad side.’
‘you would make a terrible prostitute. no charm.’
‘what is so wrong with getting married?’
‘do you want to die?’
‘everything is spilling out of my head as quickly as I put it in.’
‘please do not commit spousal homicide.’
‘give me a way out of this shithole.’
‘hello, I’m praying.’
‘I seduced him with my nubile young body. you caught me.’
‘you can’t scare me into a confession, because I’m telling the truth.’
‘and that means you’re shit at your job.’
‘if you cross them—- if they even think you’ve looked at them funny—- they can and will hurt you.’
‘it’s easy to lose a language when you never speak it.’
‘you’re offending them with your very presence.’
‘they’ll make you an outsider, because you’re not like them.’
‘no matter what they say, you deserve to be here.’
‘I’ll kill you. I will fucking kill you.’
‘I went out in the sun once. you should try it sometime.’
‘oh, you’re the one ____ hates.’
‘you’d be a prick too if your family was both rich and attractive.’
‘honestly? I think he just comes in here to get high.’
‘I think you’re flattering yourself.’
‘unless you’ve got a weapon, don’t aim for the face. the neck’s a better target.’
‘we aren’t here to be sophisticated. we’re here to fuck people up.’
‘this is the only kick you’ll ever need, really. a kick to bring down the most powerful warriors.’
‘power dictates acceptability.’
‘he hasn’t done anything to earn my respect. all he’s done is act high and mighty.’
‘you’re nothing. you shouldn’t even be here.’
‘consider me bullied and intimidated, just let me sleep.’
‘he’s playing with her. he’ll end it soon.’
‘they’re good at fighting, but not much else.’
‘spend a lot of time looking at ____’s eyes do you?’
‘a betrayal of that sort would not have been out of character.’
‘come on, you belong here too.’
‘they’re not going to get rid of me like this. not this easily.’
‘I’m calm! I’m extremely calm!’
‘you’d rather kill your own people than let the opponent’s army walk away?’
‘you don’t let an enemy walk away if they’ll certainly be a threat to you later.’
‘he can’t stop raving about you.’
‘oh, don’t pretend to be bashful. you love it.’
‘you’re a walking disaster.’
‘anyone this obstinate deserves some attention, if only to make sure you don’t become a walking hazard to everyone around you.’
‘I heard he got drunk on rice wine last week and pissed into ____’s window. he sounds awesome.’
‘it’s me, your favorite person in the whole wide world.’
‘I do not have a problem. you are making up this problem for reasons unbeknownst to me.’
‘you’re killing the mood.’
‘they were weak as shit. scrawnier than you, even.’
‘you’re a real asshole. you know that right?’
‘your state of mind is just as important as the state of your body.’
‘sometimes you must loose the string to let the arrow fly.’
‘because I want to break his stupid face.’
‘he’s the most dangerous when he’s desperate.’
‘from this point on you’re just going to be a danger to yourself and everyone around you.’
‘you’re too reckless. you hold grudges, you cultivate your rage and let it explode, and you’re careless about what you’re taught.’
‘I knew I was the only one that could help him.’
‘they honed his rage like a weapon, instead of teaching him to control it.’
‘one urinating statue for my easily entertained friend.’
‘I don’t believe in gods. but I believe in power.’
‘one might say you’ve been obsessed with ____.’
‘don’t look to your left. pretend you’re taking to me.’ / ‘I am talking to you.’
‘we’re studying very weird things.’
‘I don’t actually know what I’m getting into.’
‘here is what happened: you called a god, and the god answered.’
‘you know that if you don’t get answers now, the hunger will consume you and your mind will crack.’
‘you’ve glimpsed the other side and you can’t rest until you fill in the blanks.’
‘supernatural is a word for anything that doesn’t fit your present understanding of the world.’
‘I’m supposed to take it as true that you’re a god?’
‘I’m not a god. I am a mortal who has woken up, and there is power in awareness.’
‘are we getting high? oh, wow. we’re getting high.’
‘ah. the law. so inconvenient. so irrelevant.’
‘we are not madmen. but how can we convince anyone of this, when the rest of the world believes it so?’
‘the price of power is pain.’
‘I understand the truth of things. I know what it means to exist.’
‘prey do not question the motives of the predator. the dead do not question the living. mortals do not challenge the gods.’
‘I killed for you. I would have done anything for you.’
‘I have seen the end of things. the shape of the world has changed.’
‘war doesn’t determine who’s right. war determines who remains.’
‘it’s alright. I know what you are.’
‘I thought I was the only one left.’
‘we have developed the power to rewrite the fabric of this world. if we don’t use it, then what’s the point?’
‘I don’t mess with that shit. it screws you up.’
‘I understand the appeal, I really do, but I like having my mind to myself.’
‘he’s a charmer. like a new puppy. you think he’s adorable until he pisses on the furniture.’
‘there’s no routine. no discipline. nothing you’re used to. am I right?’
‘so you’re the last of your kind. that’s sad.’
‘If you hold the fate of the country in your hands, if you have accepted your obligation to your people, then your life ceases to be your own.’
‘____ feared, and so he held you back.’
‘great danger is always associated with great power. the difference between the great and the mediocre is that the great are willing to take that risk.’
‘don’t ever let go on that anger. rage gives you power. caution does not.’
‘don’t give in... you’ve been so brave... but it takes more bravery to resist the power.’
‘the nature of this god is to destroy. the nature of this god is to be greedy, to never be satisfied with what he has consumed.’
‘so. screaming at rocks. is that, like, normal behavior here?’
‘fix this. prove your worth. do your fucking job or get out.’
‘I saved your life. doesn’t that make us at least a little square?!’
‘I was scared of you. and I lashed out.’
‘I thought I was better than you, and I’m not. I’m sorry.’
‘when I killed it, it felt like murder.’
‘look, I’m happy to discuss this, really, but I’m currently leaking life out three different wounds and I think I may pass out. would you give me a moment?’
‘well maybe ____ should get his head out of his ass.’
‘ ____ is more fragile than you think.’
‘look, asshole, I don’t need you to tell me what to do.’
‘they say he can read the future. shatter minds.’
‘you misunderstand the nature of our relationship. I am not your friend.’
‘he’s not human. he—- I don’t know what he is.’
‘but ___ was never allowed to be human.’
‘do you trust me?’ / ‘no. but that’s irrelevant.’
‘you don’t know what true suffering is.’
‘I have seen more than my fair share of suffering.’
‘that boy is beyond redemption. that boy is broken like the rest.’
‘I don’t want to be saved! I want power!’
‘that power will destroy everything you’ve ever loved. you will defeat your enemy, and the victory will turn to ashes in your mouth.’
‘we’ve missed something. something’s been laid out for us, but we can’t see it.’
‘fretting won’t make the dead come back to life.’
‘there was nothing human in those eyes.’
‘It was a nightmare, and I couldn’t wake up.’
‘I don’t need your pity. I need you to kill them for me.’
‘whatever it takes. swear it on your life. swear it for me.’
‘I won’t judge him. I don’t dare, because I don’t have the right. and neither do you.’
‘you asked me why I wouldn’t stop him. now you understand. you can’t stop an avenger. you can’t reason with a madman.’
‘I am afraid of what he might do in his quest for vengeance. and I am afraid that he is right.’
‘I am about to do something terrible. and you will have a choice.’
‘they give nothing to the universe, and the universe owes them nothing in return.’
‘you cannot survive my death.’
‘you’re trying to deceive me. you don’t get to deceive me.’
‘this is not the way. this path leads only to darkness.’
‘when are you going to stop being such a damn coward? what are you running from?’
‘you will turn the world to ash, and only demons will live in the rubble.’
‘you dress up your crusade with moral arguments, when in truth you would let millions die if it means you get your so-called justice.’
‘you have not cared about anything for a very long time. you are broken.’
‘I am terrified. but only because I’m starting to remember who I once was. don’t go down that path.’
‘your country is ash. you can’t bring it back with blood.’
‘I’m so sorry. I tried to warn you.’
‘you know the worst part? we’re so close to home.’
‘did you miss me? did you miss this?’
‘I just gave him some of his favorite medicine.’
‘resistance here means suffering. there is no escape. no future.’
‘you have nothing to fight for anymore’
‘what are you defending? you owe ____ nothing.’
‘we were disposable. we were tools. tell me that doesn’t make you furious.’
‘I am sick with fury.’
‘I will die on my feet. I will not die a coward. and neither will you.’
‘we could stay here. we could stay here forever. we wouldn’t have to go back.’
‘you’ll have to live with the consequences. but you’re brave ... you’re the bravest person I’ve ever met.’
‘I have lost everything I care about. I don’t want peace, I want revenge.’
‘I don’t need to sleep. I need to feel nothing.’
‘do you want forgiveness? I can’t give you that.’
‘we avenged him. he’s gone, but avenged.’
‘you have to believe that it was necessary. that it stopped something worse. and even if it wasn’t, it’s the lie we’ll tell ourselves, starting today and every day afterward.’
‘aren’t you supposed to be a seer? do you ever see anything useful?’
‘we have an enemy whom we love.’
‘I’m going to find and kill everyone responsible. you cannot stop me.’
‘oh I’m not going to stop you.’
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yandere-sins · 3 years
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I really really liked that chuuya drabble you did! would you be able to write headcanons for yan chuuya with a (non ability user) reader who is a detective investigating the port mafia?
Aww thank you so much! I didn’t think Chuuya would be the first one I’d write for the bunch, but I am glad you enjoyed it ^-^ Thanks for requesting, I’ll let this be the prequel to the drabble :D
»»———————— ♡ ————————«« 
 ♡ When he first got the intel, Chuuya sighed deeply. Another stupid detective trying to get on his nerves. It was clear to him that you wouldn’t last long, not with all the pressure the Port Mafia undoubtedly would put on you, now that they were aware of the investigation. However, you’re a small fish for him, nothing he cannot handle for sure.
♡ Trying to make contact with you for the first time, his underestimation hit him square in the face. Despite not having an ability, you were attentive and quick to hide as you noticed him getting active and close in on you. It’s then that Chuuya has to realize that your investigation isn’t just some half-hearted attempt from the government and that there might be more and even personal reasons for your doings. Even inspecting your hideout, Chuuya notices you are cleverer than he first thought, only leaving crumbs of information that make it seem like you aren’t deep into your researches while you undoubtedly have more clues hidden away than he just can find. It’s riling him up that he can’t even grasp yet how severe your information might be and how you seem to be one step ahead of him at all times.
♡ What follows is a classical game of cat and mouse. Every time that Chuuya gets closer to you, a rush of adrenaline and anticipation goes through him. He can taste it on the tip of his tongue how he wants more; more insights on your doings and how you are doing it, as well as a real taste of the opponent he has to deal with. It soon becomes way too personal and seemingly unnecessary that someone of his rank is using all his time and skill on hunting down a little detective, and he has to fear he might be pulled off from the case. However, it won’t stop him anymore, his reasonability seemingly thrown out of the window after all he’s been through with you already.
♡ It’s a big - but welcome - surprise when he gets an invitation from you to come meet you finally. Alone. Just the two of you. In no way would he have passed up on the chance. Who knew what the little detective still had on information, and Chuuya would rather not deal with the aftermath of having any of it leaked. So to him, this is a priority and necessity, and he will not risk it by bringing anyone along. Even though he keeps telling himself that this is first and foremost for the well-being of the Port Mafia, deep inside him, it’s already clear he is far too invested personally after you left him bits of information about him, taunting him with your knowledge. He thinks it’s only fair he gets to enjoy getting to know you as well now since you already know him.
♡ And there you are. You - who has been a mystery, an enigma even until the meeting - look better than any image he created in his mind of you. It might be the moonlight shining in through the glass roof of the warehouse you choose for a meeting place, or perhaps the feeling of accomplishment, now that he finally meets you, that is blinding him, but Chuuya is on fire. This is the best possible way to meet an enemy - downright epic. Even if outwardly he keeps his composure, asking you what you want, every inch of his skin is tingling with desire. The desire to finally take you down, to subdue you and make you submit to the Port Mafia, and most importantly, the desire to be the one that defeated you. To have you never forget his name.
♡ So he listens to what you say, your voice mellow like the ringing of bells in his ears, and Chuuya barely able to listen to the content of your words as he gets lost in the subtle gestures you make. He even likes your cocky grin as you make your proposal to him, and he almost agreed way too quickly before he snaps back to his senses. It might have been his intention to face you here alone, but he wasn’t dumb or trusting enough for such a move. This was a war between you two, and Chuuya was winning while you still weren’t aware of his advantages yet. You could research all you wanted, but you didn’t calculate his obsession - with this case and you specifically - into your doings. Inviting him was the worst you could do, and before you knew it, your lack of ability was the biggest disadvantage you couldn’t hide from him. He’d have caught on to it sooner or later anyway, and no matter how tough you made yourself seem, you simply took on too much of a risk. 
♡ Just like that, his trap snapped shut, and he brought you to your knees as you walked up and reached out for a handshake to seal the deal. Immediately you are surrounded by more members of the Mafia, Chuuya not leaving even a slight chance open of this going wrong. You can be thankful he cannot show you the way into the base, knocking you out for further transport, or you would have seen more of the mad grin playing on his lips. Not like he’d let anyone touch you, his prize, anywhere, only his own hands allowed to carry you, while his thoughts jump from one to the other. He wonders if you’ve been eating well after you two began your game of chase since you seem so fragile in his hold, or if he is just overly cautious now that he knows you don’t have an ability. Might there be more reason? Probably. But he doesn’t admit it to himself yet. He also doesn’t like the idea of having to bring you to the boss, but finally, some reason returns to him, reminding him of his duty towards the Port Mafia, even if he wished he could have just taken you somewhere else entirely, hidden you away from any pair of eyes other than his. But he had to do what he had to do, so he’d simply enjoy the time he had with you until you two had to face a new obstacle. You’ve been through a lot already though, this shouldn’t be worse than all the long nights awake, thinking of you and how to catch you.
♡  Everyone has something they want, pushing them to do things to achieve it. Of course you’d be so reckless to meet him in order to get what you wanted, but you didn’t think about what Chuuya wanted. After all these weeks of hunting you down, there was only one thing a man like him could want: You. And now that he had you, he wanted to keep you by his side a while longer, no matter what he had to do in order for that to become reality.
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What are some of your scenarios to fall asleep to? 👀
Ahhhh I’m glad you asked !! Also please feel free to share some of yours they can be specific or vague idc I’m in desperate need
I will be going into heavy detail because I can’t help myself I’m sorry and I will put in both normal ones and Harry Potter ones
Also this is just like one big ramble I’m sorry I got too excited I literally turned into that Tik tok sound where it’s like ‘you’re asking me about my theories? I’ve waited years for someone to ask me about my theories’
Update - I think I’m just going to keep updating this as well when I think of new ones because I keep forgetting some
My most recent one is a royalty one where they’re like royalty but in their really prestigious and royal school they were academic rivals and did not get along and after school they like try to go their separate ways until a couple years later their parents force them into an arranged marriage for like the good of the country or whatever I don’t really care!! You can take it wherever you want from there but in case you were interested in mine he fell for her first and kinda gave up on the enemies thing pretty early on but she still made it clear he wasn’t her favourite person and she despised the situation and there is still constant teasing until she meets his sister or friend or whoever who says that they can’t believe how happy he is with them and she feels so bad because she thinks he deserves better and ends up being much meaner to him because she’s an idiot who can’t express her emotions and he gets angry at her because she’s being super mean after they were just starting to get along and they have a big argument and are forced to talk about their feelings and then I can never decide whether they actually like each other when they get married, I feel like either way is fun
I have a thing for royalty so my other one is literally just princess x stable boy and you can honestly take that wherever you want but I will tell you where I took it for some ✨inspiration✨ so I don’t have my drivers license and get really bad driving anxiety so I self projected and made her terrified of riding horses right (I’m so smart I know) and he is like trying to help her ride the horse and feel comfortable and like obviously they end up in love but I created drama because she sneaks out to his birthday party (!!) but his friends don’t like her because they just think she’ll be a snob but he obviously defends her but like it’s a perfect opportunity for a bit of an innocent princess as well
My personal favourite is the two co stars falling in love and like thinking about doing all those stupid interviews from like buzzfeed and all that and I personally love the trying foods from different places thing (like making them try fairy bread - because I’m from Australia and we aren’t that cultured and being mad when they don’t like it because it is my favourite food) and it’s great because i can make the guy any actor I am currently obsessed with 😭 but also like the red carpet opportunities and interviews and fan reactions and it’s very fun also this keeps my brain very busy because I like making it as realistic as possible and figuring out the actors timeline so I can match the story up with it, it’s always really intense, also if you want inspiration for what moving they’re staring in I always go for the live action version of tangled even if I don’t look anything like rapunzel
Another fun one is where one of them is in a band and you have a friend who is dating one of the other members but you don’t like the band and you’re not shy in letting the other members know that and it turns into an enemies to lovers thing but I haven’t really developed it because halfway through I ended up changing it with the fact that they befriend one of the members and like fall for them but the band member like ‘gets around’ and it makes them jealous until they drunkingly confess it made them jealous this one’s a bit of a mess and is tipping into a 2012 wattpad story but it was how I got back into my 5sos phase two years ago because I felt icky about them but I’m still a slut for Calum 😭
Another one I love is moving abroad to study or whatever (idk I just always need a reason to be in America/Uk because there’s no one here in australia) and you make friends with someone who turns out to be related to someone really famous (insert whoever you want) and you meet them and you think they’re the hottest person you’ve ever seen and you get drunk to gain confidence to talk to them and you’re like unashamedly flirting with them and they think it’s cute and you’re funny but the whole little plot twist is that you don’t know they’re famous (famous people love that, trust me, I have about 10 wattpad stories in my library that can prove this) !! And the don’t believe you don’t know they’re famous !! Anyways I took it in a sugar daddy direction but each to their own!
Specifically for Harry Potter though, you ask?
Currently I am obsessed with Regulus Black and for about the past two weeks I’ve been obsessed with the idea of James potter sibling x regulus black enemies to lovers story and then about a week ago I found an actually good wattpad story about it?!?! (I have recommended it here with warnings but I really encourage you to read it if you’re not a minor) but you can also do your own version because I am still doing my own version and will continue to do my own version tonight even if I am obsessed with the wattpad one !! Currently I am up to post Hogwarts and her and regulus are trying to defeat Voldemort and regulus tells her that Peter is going to betray James and so ofc she tells James but James is like ‘how to do you even know this??’ And he is so afraid and gets angry at her and it’s really dramatic and she tells him she’s dating regulus and then he gets super mad at her because she’s dating like one of the most well known and loyal death eaters (even if regulus is sneakily trying to destroy Voldemort) and because he didn’t tell her and it’s very dramatic
My favourite Sirius black idea is also a James potters sibling one, but I never have any good ideas for it and just end up self projecting so if anyone has any ideas, I am begging you, please tell me !!!
My other Sirius black one is one I’ve been working on for like the last 4 years of my life and I probably should write it but who knows, but basically it’s a 10 things I hate about you x Harry Potter story where reader is about a year or so older than the marauders and she is like Kat Stratford (for people who haven’t watched it the best way to describe her is just an angry early 2000s feminist who is like anti dating and fun (kinda)) but she is Lily Evans sister!! And so Lily gets fed up of James constantly asking her out and makes an offhand comment that she’ll date him when her sister goes on a date with someone and James is like really?!? And Lily is like ‘sure’ because she knows her sister will never date anyone at Hogwarts so James tells the marauders and Remus is like ‘if anyone can take her on a date, it’s Sirius’ and Sirius is like ‘no, I’m stupid but not that stupid’ and James is like ‘please I’ll pay you’ and Sirius is easily bribed so he tries to get her to go on a date with him and like she doesn’t until she does and then finds out he only did it because James paid him but then they fall in love? Basically just 10 things I hate about you lol
My next one is with Draco Malfoy and all it is is that reader comes from a pure blood family and they’ve known each other since they were babies and it’s like basically destined they get married but she gets like really upset when he gets the mark which makes for a good cuddling and crying scene and like idk people are probably more creative than me but I just like reimagining scenes from hp but with this new character so like Poa when she gets angry at him about buckbeak or the bathroom scene (maybe she duels Harry?) and she’s so upset about Draco and comforts him, or helping him in sixth year and comforting him or the quidditch scene in the fifth book (weird note, but I’ve always headcannoned that my original character finds out about dumbledores army but doesn’t say anything and like the da knows she knows but she doesn’t tell Draco or maybe Draco finds out and gets angry at her?)
My other one is another Draco malfoy one where James and Lily live and she’s Harry’s younger sister (and Voldemort isn’t a thing) but like there’s still stereotypes and beliefs and such and like it’s obviously enemies to lovers and maybe they get prefect duties together ? (I am a sucker for this trope in Harry Potter) but then when they do date they try to hide it but Harry finds out but doesn’t say anything until they get into a fight at home and he is like ‘well at least I’m not fucking Draco malfoy behind everyone’s back) (in my head they aren’t fucking because they’re still in Hogwarts but you get the idea) and James and Lily are just like ‘WHAT?!’ Like idk I just think it’s funny imagining James and Lily finding out their kid is dating Draco and Lucius and narcissus finding out Draco is dating a potter - so many possibilities!
Update 6.10.21
I also have one for Charlie Weasley !! And basically you’re friends with the twins and like you go your whole Hogwarts life with the biggest crush on Charlie but like he low key doesn’t even know who you are and you want to become a healer and then after Hogwarts there is a position in Romania and you take it because you know Charlie’s there and at first he is like hmmm I think I know you and you explain you’re friends with the twins and obviously he falls in love with you I also took it in a nsfw direction where it’s like major innocence kink because Charlie is just such a dom to me and he like teaches you everything but he makes sure you’re happy and safe and it’s not really like serious sex you’re both just having fun and he kinda introduces you to dom/sub dynamics but you can do whatever is most comfortable
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algumaideia · 3 years
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An analysis of Octavian
This post was actually going to be an explanation of why I think Octavian is an antagonist, but not a villain. But it ended up being an analysis of his character. 
SPOILERS
And as always feel free to disagree with me, just be respectful. 
Sorry, because it wasn’t well-written, I’m incapable of writing good texts. 
Backstory
I think it is important to say that since we don’t have any information about his backstory most of the thing said in this part of the review are what I think is his backstory. It is a mix of the facts stated in the books, the way Octavian acts and my interpretations. Besides the things I’ll make clear that were said in the books, the rest is not canon. And you don’t need to agree with me that this was his backstory.
His family is one of the richest of New Rome- In the books he also seems to act without fearing the consequences while taking the privilege/money of his family as garented. Octavian acts like someone that is seeking attention. It is so weird how he just do whatever he wants without fearing consequences when his family is right there in New Rome. For that to happen I think or his family neglects him or they are those kind of people who think the children can do no wrong and are all my baby didn’t do that. But I think that if they were the latter, they would be more present in Octavian’s life, but they are never there. 
He is an augere and feels very proud about it. I don’t think there is too much to add about it besides that I think he likes to be an augere because it makes him important and necessary.
No one likes him and this isn’t something new. In Son of Neptune, Hazel says half of the camp hates Octavian and most of his friends are bought. So, Octavian is a lonely child. And he is aware of this. He is a bad person, people dislike him for a reason. But it seems people have been disliking him for some years and he is a child. According to his wiki he was 10 years old when he came to Camp Jupiter for the first time, and he spent his tweens and teens years in a place where people did not like him. I don’t think this was a good place to grow up.
He is really smart and manipulative. I think that those traits are a little inconsistent. Because in the beginning of the SoN Percy says how Octavian is really good at manipulating people with words, but then in the ending of the book and in MoA everyone is shutting Octavian up. Isn’t he this kind of master of words, how he isn’t answering people back? 
We also know he’s been at camp jupiter for quite sometime. I’ll talk about it in another part of the post.
He is anemic and mentally ill. I’ll talk about those things in the Camp Jupiter, Treatment and Ableism parts. 
Other thing that I would like to say is that this post is not an attempt to ignore the bad things Octavian did and pretend he is not a bad person. It is just me trying to understand his better and show why in my opinion the fandom hasn’t treated him fairly.
Camp Jupiter
Camp Jupiter sucks and it does for a lot of reasons. Some of them being the fact they have a city full of adults and most of them were demigods trained in the camp, which means they have trained adults but instead tweens and teens are the ones who fights. Hazel said that if Percy dishonored the legion they both would be executed. Hazel also says that sometimes people die in the war games. There is also the fact that people are dying all the time in missions/wars. The Camp Jupiter also expects perfect behavior for its demigods, to them all know the rules and to do not commit mistakes and I don’t have adhd but this doesn’t seem to be a good place to people that has the disorder. There is too much preassure to do not do any wrong, apperently no emotional support and the punishments seems to be crazy. It’s not a healthy place to a chldren grow up.
Other point is how they value physical strenght, hand to hand combats and offensive approache more than a lot of things. Frank said how he wasn’t treated well because he was an archer, and this was seem as cowardice. Octavian is anemic, he doesn’t have physical strenght or energy to be able to fight. The only way to be respected in Jupiter's camp is to be a good fighter, and he cannot be that because of his illness. As I said Octavian is someone that is often seeking attention and validation by his peers, and I think that this is why being an augere is something so important to him. He cannot make himself important in the traditional way and by being an augere he is necessary to the camp. People cannot just dismiss him. He buys friends, he manipulates people, he becomes a centurion, he is always dominating the senate. He makes himself impossible to be neglected. 
Yes, Octavian is power-hungry. Yes, he is bad. But a lot of things he did during Heroes of Olympus was just Roman things (he was also mentally ill and his mental health was getting worse in each book). When Hazel says that Octavian will kill Percy if the greeks atack New Rome, but in the next sentence she says that Romans take oaths very seriously. However it is all written like it is Octavian being a horrible person. But it is not. The Romans are very harsh with their punishments, they seem to be violent, physical. When Octavian says the Romans should fight the greeks, he is just acting like a Roman, like someone who was raised in a enviroment that encouraged violence responses.
Treatment
Octavian wasn’t treated nicely by the narrative and other characters. I mean, this guy was the centurion of the first cohort and an augere. But no one seem to respect him. No one enters the legion without him saying yes (I know it is acording to what he sees) but he is treated like he isn’t important. He is the one that is responsable of saying what the gods wants, but no one seems to have problems mocking him. I mean fi he decides to give you a wrong information about what a god want you are dead. 
Hazel said how “obsessed” with the sibylline books Octavian and it was framed as him being irrational and dumb. But in the end he was right, if the legion listened to him Ella would have been save way sooner. But no, it is just Octavian being  “obsessed”.
Percy acts like Octavian doesn’t have any prophecy powers, but he saw the lighting in the Jupiter Temple. Then when Octavian is mad because there are three preators he acts like he is overreacting, and Jason and Reyna do nothing. And this is weird because it was made very clear that rules are very important to Camp Jupiter. 
When he decides to attack Camp Jupiter he is always villified and not seem as a mentally ill boy that has been getting worse doing the Roman thing. 
He is always dismissed, mocked, villified, ignored.
And the fact Luke was treated with sympathy, but Octavian not. Luke, who tried to kill Percy, a childre, a lot of times. Luke, who used Annabeth feelings and emotional attachment to manipulate her. Luke, who was 19-22 years old and groomed Silena, who was 14-18 years old. Luke, who poisoned Talia’s tree. Luke, who had no regards for Grover, the satyr that saved him. Luke was treated with sympathy. But not Octavian. Not the mentally ill child who was losing the touch with reality during the series. Not the guy who was just doing what he was raised to do. 
I mean, I don’t even like Octavian and I cannot stand it.
Gwen
Guys, Octavian did a lot of bad things but killing Gwen wasn’t one of those thing. It is so no sense for a lot of reasons. 
As we talked before he is anemic and he is also smart. This intelligent man, that is full aware of his physical limits, thought it would be a good idea to get in the midle of a chaotic fight? I don’t think so.
Some pages before that Percy hit Octavian and he fell like a straw man (according to the text, the first time I read it I thought he fainted). 
Octavian always makes things because of a purpose, he isn’t just being mean because. He does bad things because his actions will give him something. Killing Gwen wouldn’t help him with anything.
Frank for some reason decided to look to Octavian during that mess and that doesn’t make any sense. He is in the camp for a month at this time the guy should’ve already known that Octavian doesn’t battle, he only commands. He saw Percy fighting for a couple of seconds during the war game and was already able to say how he fought.
Octavian was without his knive, but just minutes before he fainted, he could have lost it when he fell.
Frank said that Octavian seemed interested and not worried. But this is not enough to blame the guy, this is not enough to assume anything execpt that maybe Octavian has low empath. 
Greeks
Octavian was a roman. To the romans the greeks didn’t exist anymore, and they were the enemy. 
So, a random greek shows up, spends some days at the camp, becomes preator, and two of your most important gods appear and give a lot of attention to this greek. This is really suspicious. This greek also says that the romans should work with the greeks so they can defeat Gaea. And why you should trust this dude? He doesn’t show respect for the Roman culture. Then this huge war ship appears and this suspect greek guy says that they all come peace and the romans should not attack. Obviously you don’t believe it, and what happens they attack! As the good roman you are, your answer is to attack the greeks back. 
The romans answers things with violence. This is why Reyna asked if Annabeth was a roman after the judo flip. This is why Hazel said she and Percy would be executed if he did a mistake during his period of probatio. Octavian was being roman. He was trying to protect and revenge his Camp against a long time enemy. 
Not saying everything he did about it was logical, but this is because of his upbringing and his mental health. 
Goals
I think it is really interisting the fact that Octavian main goal was to be a hero, not more powerful. Apollo didin’t say Octavian would become preator, he said Octavian would save New Rome. 
I mean, since Octavian wanted to be preator and then became the pontifex maximum, so the logical think it would be to him wants more power. But no he wants to be a hero. A hero is someone that is respected, admired, liked and even loved. All the thing Octavian isn't. Don't get me wrong, Octavian is a bad person, there is a reason people dislike him. But he is also a lonely child that is hated by most of the camp.
Ableism
Octavian is often described as crazy, mad, insane. In his first appearence Percy said Octavian had madness in the eyes, and this was the way of the narrative warning us he was one of the bad guys. He is obviusly mentally ill, his mental health is obviusly getting worse, but everyone ignores it. Everyone ignores it, execpt when they are describing how insane his laugh is, how crazy he looks, how intense his gaze is. Everyone ignores it, until they need to remind us he is one of the antagonists. 
Ending
The ending was terrible. 
Octavian was obiously having a psychotic break, he was stumbling, laughing “in an insane” way, and he didn’t realize his jewelry was in fire. And then what happens? Michael Kahale, the person he most trusted, his problaby only friends appeared, saw the situation and did nothing.
Octavian didn’t kill himself. He didn’t know his clothes were tied in the onager. It wasn’t a sacrifice. It was an aciddent. 
Nico stopped Will Solace who was trying to warn it because some “deaths are inevitable”. Nico, also a mentally ill character saw Octavian in the vulnerable state he was and did nothing to help him. And when Nico was seeing Octavian lunch himself to the sky he thought that this was a relief. No one was sad, no one thought this was a tragedy, no one cared. Octavian was dead and that was a relief. 
The guy was so desperate to be the hero and no one even cared about his death. It is horrible.
Another sorry for the weird tense of the text.
If you want to read this is my post about Octavian and Azula and how their mental illness were treated differently.
Best regards,
Me. 
Ps. We need to start talking how the way Bryce was written was ableist.
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shadowworks · 4 years
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Look Inside
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Pairing: Overhaul X Reader
Warnings: Dubcon-noncon, medical kink, drugged sex, mention of needles, mentions of blood, bondage, fingering, this is dark! 
Word Count: 3.8k 
A/N: I decided to try some creepy themes and give second person a try. So we’ll see how it goes. This piece is dark so please mind the warnings!
Huge shoutout to @present-mel for making the beautiful banner and reading over my fic you precious gem! Also thank you @thisisthehardestthing and @hisoknen for your feedback it’s so greatly appreciated! 💜
Someone had shut off the lights in the morgue. 
You happen to notice this when your eyes toil lazily between security cameras at the right time. You freeze on the spot, and quirk a brow toward the shadow. You expect it’ll brighten any second like it usually does, but after those few seconds tick by without change, a weight of dread sinks in your stomach.
Kai Chisaki put orders in place that if experiments are up and running the basement levels are to remain lit. Chisaki and his men are already down below, and the winding pale halls near the morgue are empty.
 You haven’t been called to notify cleaners about another bloody corpse still peeling off the wall, and you can’t find motion on the surveillance camera when you rewind the recordings. It’s in the lower right corner of the camera, and you note the light flicks off without warning. No one enters, no one leaves. 
You study the harsh glow of the screen for another moment, still in denial, still waiting for the lights to flicker on, and stand up from the chair in the office. When not a soul appears by the threshold, all you can do is lean forward with your hands pressed on the desk, dropping your head in defeat. “Seriously? Fuck you.” 
You don’t know who “you” was exactly, but it felt right to say. 
It takes a bit of time after departing the small office, but you find the proper hall in Chisaki’s deeply looping maze...It’s just you don’t want to step out from the elevator. You were ready before, but when the doors split open and the cool air ghosts against your cheeks, you pause. There’s a stillness lingering in the hallway; it’s far too quiet- except for the creaks in the elevator floor from your shifting weight...But, something seems off. 
  Your steps are tentative when you do slip out, peering down the drab hallway. You clearly see which of the rooms is buried in shadow, and frankly you want to whirl back around before the doors close. But you can’t, well, not yet at least. The tap of your shoes hits off the walls, while you tread along on stiff legs. Eventually you come to a stop having reached the doorway. It’s partly open, a slice of darkness hiding what’s deep inside. 
Hold on, this can't be right. The camera— A shudder trails up your spine. It tingles coldly.
You inhale a deep breath. Okay, just do it; just switch the lights back on, it’s fine. It’s fine. Besides, if it were you (which it is) you wouldn’t want to deal with Chisaki’s ill temper over something so minor as a light. 
He’s punished his men for incompetence before, and those who didn’t listen have smeared the walls with their blood, drenching vein red across white. Black-looking goops of muscle plopped on the floor...the consequences ranged based on severity of failure or how stressed he is, really. In fact, one man had the skin of his face torn off for talking back—wait, relax. Focus
It won’t happen. Kai Chisaki is somewhere else in the maze. He’s not aware of what happened.
There’s a member with a quirk which lets him melt through walls; the tiny one with a bone white mask. He probably slipped between the rooms and grabbed something then turned the lights off. But that didn’t explain the door...
It doesn’t matter.
You stretch an arm out, gently pushing the door further open, and light spills onto the tile floor. 
It’s a cold, vacant room. There’s a pungent scent of bleach still lingering from a cleanup, but it hits your nose almost like it happened recently. You can’t see much nor do you want to. And your hand reaches around the door frame, trailing gentle fingers along the smooth surface for a switch—
Only, there’s nothing on the wall. 
“Are you serious? Really?” you huff to yourself, stepping round to search for the light. Sure enough, your fears are realized with one look. 
You let out an annoyed groan, and a, ‘stupid switch’ under your breath. Who the hell designs a room and doesn’t put a switch by the door? 
Your eyes haven’t adjusted to the dark, so you can’t see the precise details on the walls. So this leaves you no choice but to step further in, allowing the brightness from the hall to guide you along.
It’s a moderate room with a vaulted wall filled with metal drawers, all large enough to fit an icy corpse in ‘til the yakuza dispose of them. Then there’s the silver surgical table in the middle of the room. It's empty, but the thing’s embellished. There’s protruding belts attached, and a tray on wheels is parked on the side. On top of the tray is a clean towel and a neat row of surgical tools lay flat across. 
Your brows scrunch together, studying the sharp gleam of knives and the sizes of needles. Why are these out? Kai’s an obsessive clean freak, every little thing needs to be put back and organized. All his masked cronies know this rule, so who the hell did this? That is, unless someone’s using them?
Your back is turned to the glow seeping in from the hall, so you don’t see a gloved hand press on the metal door. There’s a push, and the door slams shut. 
You let out a startled yelp, cupping your hands to your mouth. What the hell…! Your heart’s pounding wildly in your chest; for some reason the room feels colder, you feel colder. 
“I must say this is disappointing.”
Light floods the room from the panels above, flickering with a buzzing noise before they settle. You take a moment. A deep breath, a slow exhale. When the initial shock stops tingling in your muscles, you slowly drop your palms. The voice is male, his tone’s calm, ominous and it carries like chill over your shoulder. You know this voice; you know you have to turn around. But fuck, you can’t stop trembling. When you do, you see a tall figure looming near the wall, a gloved hand still on the switch.
Kai Chisaki. 
“I told Setsuno I needed him in the security room. Do you think it’s hard for him to follow directions?”
You stare at him, anxiously. He isn’t wearing his green coat with the violet plumage trimming on the collar. He’s in his iron pressed, black suit and grey tie; the trademark plague mask covering half his face. 
“Setsuno asked me to fill in. He said he wasn’t feeling well...I guess,” you manage to say it as steady as you can. 
The lanky blond hadn’t given you a clear reason when he staggered towards you near dawn. But if you’re being honest, you didn’t really care.You barely looked his way at breakfast, choosing to stare into your dark coffee cup than at the katana resting on his shoulder. The sword was still wet with blood, and you knew he’d been out all night. Though right now, you sorta wish you pressed him more for details.
Kai mutters something slightly bitter, words that are muffled against the material of his mask. But you hear him sigh, then his tone turns crisper. “No matter. It’s inconvenient, but I can work around these...changes.”
His arm drops to his side, walking from the wall. And unexpectedly- those peculiar eyes you see leering at his enemies, have now fallen on you. 
You seize up in mild panic, the pupils in your eyes shrinking; not knowing what to do. You take a scuffling step or two back on reflex—and knock your hip against the table corner. 
Oww—ow, fuck. Hold on, what’s he doing? Why—Your voice bubbles in your throat as you watch him draw near. Though it’s strange, for Kai doesn’t pull at the rim of his latex glove like expected, rather, the Shie Hassaikai boss happens to steer past you instead. 
...Huh?
Your neck cranes, loose hair spilling over your shoulder. He stops a couple feet away and tilts his head downward in front of the tray, no longer regarding your presence and focusing on his work. 
You stand there awkwardly, just listening to the clinks of metal fitting together in Kai’s grip. You’re not fully understanding though, should you leave? It looks like your job’s finished now that your boss is here. Besides, you’re pretty confident Kai doesn't want you here if he’s occupying the room. 
In the long pause between you two, your mind’s made up which prompts you to retreat back and aim towards the door. They’re slow, careful moving steps. 
“Well, you seem busy...I should probably hurry back and watch the cameras,'' you say dismissing yourself. You’re partial toward the comfort of the smaller office, and any chance you have of leaving the macabre storage space you will eagerly take it. 
You don’t make it to the gleaming doorknob—because Kai’s voice holds you still. It isn’t loud, but it grips the room. “No stay. There’s no need for you to leave so soon.”
A mix of fear and confusion read across your features. Kai has never spent a moment alone with you. In fact, you aren’t actually part of the yakuza. The only reason you’re associated with the fallen crime syndicate, is because the former boss offered you odd jobs as a favor. You needed some work to keep from struggling and he had taken a liking to you, sort of how he did with Kai. But then, the leader collapsed. 
Now you aren't sure where you stand. Chisaki is in charge.
“I believe there’s something you can do for me. Will you have a seat on the table?” 
You aren’t sure if you heard him right, or fully grasp what he means. He says it so casually-  but you know better; it’s a demand. You’re just not sure why.
“I’m fine. Really. I should be going-“
“Are you defying my order?” Again, he says it so nonchalantly. This time Kai turns his head over his shoulder; the look he gives is almost impassive, yet there’s a menacing gleam in the yellow of his eyes.
“What? No, I was…! Right.”
You don’t exactly drag your feet, but you do stand hesitant before the edge of the table where countless bodies have been dissected. So much blood, so many organs harvested on this very table.
“I won’t ask you again.” 
You turn around robotically, eyes pointed downward as you hoist your hips onto the metal. The table’s surface is icy, it numbs your fingers the longer you lean on it, which only makes you fold them against your thighs. 
“Roll up your sleeve.” Kai says by your right, holding up a purple band. Your gaze flicks up immediately, nervously, a silent plea for mercy. As if somehow your glossy and delicate eyes will make a difference. But it does nothing toward Kai’s stoic stance. He simply waits, and his own steely eyes narrow back.
You drop your head with a wince; just do as he says. 
You comply, pushing up your long sleeve. Though you make a point not to help much more than that, leaving your arm limp at your side. 
Kai doesn’t seem to notice or care and proceeds to wrap the rubber around your arm. You grimace, unpleased as his fingers skim your arm, and again when he brushes you with a wet cotton swab. 
“You need my blood?” You ask evenly. 
His eyes don’t leave your skin, “Not necessarily.”
“A lot of effort for, ‘not necessarily.’” You say, not too dryly. 
“You’ve seen my work before, you should know by now I take great care in everything I do.”
Kai rotates between you and the now rolled over stand, dismissing your light jab. He sets up the port for blood to flow; all in a well practiced motion. It certainly makes you wonder how many times he’s done this before. 
“I’m curious, when was your last doctor's appointment?” He asks suddenly, hands already prepping the next instrument. The other needle probably, but you don’t want to play as his patient. He isn’t your doctor, for fucks sake.
“A while.” You answer. 
“A while,” he repeats with a subtle chuckle under his covered breath,“Has anyone told you before you’re a feisty one?”
You bite your tongue and refuse to meet his side glance. When you don’t reply back, he carries on with a sigh. 
“I’ve had quite a long day you see, so I’m afraid I’ve exhausted my tolerance for stubborn little girls.”
Suddenly, his hand is squeezing your shoulder, and all too quickly you find yourself thumping against the cold metal, your horrified eyes staring up at the bright ceiling. The next thing you feel is buckles fastening, pinning you against the table by your waist and elbows. 
You're flooded with tingling panic, voice cracking from strain, “Hol—Hold on one second. Please, just one more—”
“—You know they say you should never let the lamb see the knife? Their fear tampers the meat, and ruins the flavor,” Kai gives a sharp tug on the last belt. “But I find yours all the more intoxicating, my dear.”
You stammer, words of protest mingle together as you attempt to be heard, “I don’t understand, why are you…Just stop. You need to let me go!”
Your teeth clench together in a rage that fills your chest. You’re not thinking rationally, your nerves are unhinged. And in your adrenaline high your leg curls up, thrashing a viciously blunt strike toward the point of his beak.
 Before it can connect and batter the bridge of his nose and mark his cheekbones, Kai’s arm flexes quickly. Your foot stops mid air as he catches your ankle with constricting force. 
“Do I?” He asks with a title of his head, there're subtle creases in the corner of eyes, you can imagine his mouth settles in a cold smile beneath. 
In that moment you freeze up. Your lash lines burn, stinging with fresh tears glossing your doe eyes. You don’t breathe, you don’t dare to expand your lungs. Your only thought is begging him not to burst open your calf. 
“You shouldn’t be giving commands. You work under me now,” his nails dig in your flesh, and you know those indents will marr your flesh.“Meaning you’ll have to bear with me while I continue.”
Kai doesn’t loosen his hold, briefly watching your pained expression. But he favors dropping his gaze below to study the stretch of your thigh, your exposed and parted groin. It’s then his nimble fingers reach to unclasp the button of your jeans and he gently pulls down the zipper. You cry out, jerking against the belts, but he isn’t fazed. 
“One of our new drugs is supposed to relax its victims...recently it’s been ineffective if the heartbeat’s racing too quickly, though we’ve made modifications to counter this. My plan was to stage a fight with Setsuno, until...you graciously took his place.”
Kai lowers your leg, both hands roaming across to the edge of your jeans. He still studies you, and decides to push up your ribbed sweater, letting the cold bite of the morgue chill your hips. His latex fingers trace lightly across your pebbled skin, skimming down the dips to your thighs. 
“Yes, this will do just fine. You’re pretty enough,” he muses, softly.
He then tucks his hands into your waistband, yanking them down your legs, before they fall to the floor with a plop. The seamless panties slip off easily, as well. This sends a small prickle through you, and, no, this can’t keep going! The fight in you surges, pushing your knees together to shield your groin. Only Kai doesn’t like that. 
There’s something cold and dangerous in his glare, a threat that twists at your stomach. He’s warning you; don’t make this worse for yourself or you’ll make him snap. And you didn’t want that...You watch both his hands clutch your knees, he doesn’t waste time and he yanks your legs apart, taking in your pretty cunt.
Angry tears trickle down your cheeks in response. Your throat burns from holding back a sob, “Chisaki, please. If you would—“
 Without a moment of hesitation, Kai knowingly finds where to touch you first. A little too skillfully for a false doctor, the pad of his thumb presses against your soft, sensitive nub, stroking tight circles with focus. Your breath catches, falling heavier while he sinks his pad deeper in the forming slick, building steady pressure.
“Still so stubborn, what good will that bring you?”
A broken moan spills on your shaky breath, all against your better decisions. His other hand settles between your legs, and a finger plunges inside your heat, curling upward and massaging the rougher layer of flesh. A sharp gasp inhales into your lungs. He isn’t stopping, no, Kai’s gloved finger moves with vigor the more your pleasurably laced cries pour out from your lips, how desperate they become.
He pushes in a second finger, and then a third thrusting in, stretching you and soaking your walls with your arousal. This causes you to push your hips further against his latex hand. 
“Kai, you fucking bastard!” you sob out, formalities be damned as your back arches. You can feel the building pulses in your cunt tense up, losing yourself to your superior on an icy slab in a fucking morgue. 
“You curse my name as though you’re not enjoying this,” Kai mocks.
 His fingers pump deeper, tightening your abs and your lips fall open. His matching rhythm on the bundle of nerves surges in a crash, sending a hard orgasm that shivers through your body. For a moment, just a little moment, your cares fade away. 
You're left breathing deeply, staring up at the ceiling as your chest rises and falls. The euphoria lasts a moment longer, but only for so long. Reality sets in as you lay there, and much too soon, the warmths gone. 
Kai takes advantage of this.
With your chin tipped up toward cabinets lining the ceiling, Kai unfastens his thinner belt. It’s only when you feel him hook under your knees and pull at your thighs that you snap your head up in startlement.
Kai’s venomous eyes stare you down, “I suggest laying back down little girl, we’re not finished yet.”
“Like hell!”
A second flare of rage strickens across your features, a hard glare that doesn’t unyield, especially as he unzips and withdraws himself from formal slacks. You know he’s relishing in your disdain for him, and this makes you thrash on the belts, hoping to force them apart. Of course, Kai did a good job of fastening these fuckers and simply chuckles at your attempt. 
“You’re still not understanding the position that you’re in,” He slips a hand in his pocket, and pulls out the wrapping of a condom. Taking his time, tearing it open, rolling the rubber down his thick length with precision.
 When Kai’s satisfied, his arms reach for you and grab at your hips, giving them a sharp yank forward. He leans in with a darkly low voice, “You can’t escape me. You’re mine to do with as I please.”
“...You lean any closer and I’ll spit in your face.” There isn’t any bite to it. It’s a calm, empty threat and loses all its appeal as a single tear spills down your cheekbone.
A huffing noise emits from his mask, with his lids narrowing in mild disgust. You catch the words “filthy woman,” rasped low and nasally before he does lean back, wrenching at the skin around your hips. 
When he’s all settled Kai lines himself to your heat, in a slow motion he draws himself inside. You almost don't hear it, but from the mask you note a soft hitch in his breath. He gives shallow pushes and pulls on your hips, an experimental dip that splits you in a painful stretch before he pumps fully into you. They’re slow, long strokes, filling you to the brim.
Another strained gasp rips from your wet lips, and your hands impulsively spring out, clenching the black cloth of Kai’s sleeves. His hips snap quicker, and your breath picks up with him. Heart pounding to his thrust; you can feel the beats in your neck. 
And all of a sudden you hear the sound of plastic clasping together, the squeeze of an injection clip the shell of your ear. Your eyes snap open in horror. What—?
Kai locks on your facial features, his deep pumps lessen though the slapping of skin doesn’t stop. “You’ve been too tense. Why don’t you relax for awhile?”
When did he..? 
He prepped it. The syringe must’ve been tucked away. He did have this all planned. You were just the unlucky one who walked to the table and sealed your fate. 
The serum he injected into your bloodstream has fast results it seems. The tension in your muscles slack against his thrusts, allowing him to carry your body closer and take more of his length. You feel the tension in your wide eyes soften, slowly falling half lidded and weak. 
“That’s a good girl, you're taking to the drug faster than I thought,” he muses a little breathless. Right after he sets the syringe back down, a gloved hand reaches for the strap fastened around his head and pulls. The mask slips off.
It’s at this point he hikes his knees up onto the table and pounds in deeper, letting your walls suck him in. Your body’s folded, and Kai treats your body in any way he desires.
You manage to pull your head from his sharp eyes, your cheek bouncing slightly against the icy metal to Kai’s rhythm. The drawers for the deceased are taken in.
You stare intently. 
“You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?”
“No.” He manages between breathes, his voice is heavy and laced with lusting growls, “This is merely a precaution. In the event...ah, in the event you overdose...well. You’re in the right place.”
Your head lolls back to Kai meeting his delicate face which is now flushed. You realize this is the first time you’ve seen him behind the mask. He’s beautiful. Soft featues that compliment him so well. If only he wasn’t so cruel...
“In fact, hah, if you survive...I think this will be the start of something new in my work.” He manages the last bit with a shaky chuckle. 
You see him smirk wickedly, and all you can do is watch, because it doesn’t stop. The only sound in the room is the liquid squish of sex, your mixed heavy breaths. And you hope, god do you hope in your hazy state, feeling a numbness taking hold of your body, that you leave this room alive.
743 notes · View notes
misticloyal · 2 years
Note
You'd be surprised to know I had the same thought.😅😅😅(I mean your theory Mac following the tutor Mk)
But looking at it further, I think Mac was so desperate to get rid of LDB, that his only hope of being free and out of debt with LBD is to defeat her.😗😗😗
And what better way to defeat your enemy, than helping the hero to recover his powers.😎😎
Mac was pressuring MK so he could get his powers back (he doesn't care about Wukong because he's slowly getting them back)
Mac is literally so desperate to get rid of LBD that he had to resort to helping the hero (MK and Wukong), but he won't help them willingly (he's too proud to ask for help).
TRUE!
Watching Macaque's reaction to LBD either goading him, or telling him that he will not be able to 'mess up' on any of the tasks she gives him definitely makes me think that he's obv not in control of the situation.
He could've gone a couple of different routes for trying to defeat LBD and piggybacking off of the MC group would totally be something he would do lmao
I was about to say that in episode 8 we figure out that he didn't know about the Samadhi Fire plan because that's when he reveals to LBD that the main cast are trying to use it to defeat her, but then I realized that literally this whole time he was trying to intercept Tang for the ring so that crosses out that fleeting thought.
Pretty big brain of Macaque to withhold that information since it did actually end up helping him out and giving him another chance at surviving o7
.
Going back to what you said though, that made me think about the way even in s2 Macaque was helping MK from the start (when LBD was just starting to show up). Macaque was totally playing the long run like-
He knew LBD would come after him since he was too busy obsessing over Wu Kong so his backup plan x3 was literally to help MK out this whole time.
I'm interested to see what happens while the main gang is gonna go fight LBD post s3. If a Macaque centered episode happens, will he fight MK and Wu Kong differently?
How will MK react to Wu Kong and Macaque explaining their past (in my dreams this will happen but one can only hope. F in chat)?
Will literally any other character get involved between these three (Mei has tried briefly and then immediately got punished by having to control the entire goddamn Samadhi fire)?
Will Macaque start referring to MK as his student more than to ...
Still don't know what his true reasoning for calling MK that is??? I would say manipulation clearly, but Mk seems pretty steady on his feet about the fact that Macaque is definitely not a good person so and he never seems to doubt himself/stress about it (Other than correct him) when Macaque says it sooooo.... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Will Macaque stop referring to MK as his student at all?
And the most important question of all:
Will Macaque and Wu Kong ever sort out their differences in peace (the answer is probably not but it would be kinda satisfying to see that happen because I'm a sap for characters getting along sometimes lol)
Find out next time in LMK season 4: The time where The Bone Demon gets her ass handed to her.
BUT s4's probably not gonna happen for some time so now the only thing we can do is theorize and make head cannons B)
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folkloreguk · 3 years
Text
❥ My Sweet Evil Heart (C.Chanhee)
A/N: I wrote this as part of an angel/demon collab for The Boyz! You can find the masterlist HERE. This was really fun to write and I got to live out my alternate universe dream in which I'm a detective...I hope you like it, I'm always welcome to any form of feedback!
genre: demon!Chanhee, detective!reader, angst, fluff, reader is constantly sleep deprived, Chanhee is the sweetest demon ever
synopsis: You, a highly respected detective in your department, are investigating a case of a very strange demon who seems hesitant to do evil...but can you trust someone who is supposed to be the personification of wickedness?
words: ~ 10.6k
Have you ever met someone deeply unhappy? Someone who seems to, at all times, be fighting a war inside of themselves? Have you ever felt empathy for somebody, even though they tested you, over and over, as if the worst part inside of them was trying to make them lose you on purpose? Did you hold on and never stop believing in them? Or did you say something to drive them away, making them think they would only hurt you in the process of you trying to make them see clearer?
This is the story of a demon, whose every cell demurred at his evil nature. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and start with the basics.
Being one of the head detectives at the local police station was not an easy-going, nor an amusing job. Whilst working on serious cases, lacking proper sleep was not an uncommon occurrence for you, and in some instances, self-care came up short until the mystery had been solved and the guilty ones were locked away. Every case pulled you in and swallowed you whole, keeping you deeply invested for days and nights until your brain felt like it had turned to mush and your body worked on autopilot, until you functioned a little like a highly intelligent zombie. And yet, you couldn’t imagine yourself doing anything else in your life. The thrill was close to an obsession, and seeing justice being served thanks to your work was more addicting than any drug could ever be to you.
Most crimes in your world were committed by demons, of course. They were your worst enemies, the monsters you saw in your nightmares and the reason you never strolled down a street without a gun by your hip. It wasn’t forbidden for them to walk the earth, so long as they kept to themselves. Their evil nature made it almost impossible for them to uphold these terms, though. You wished you could lock them all away in some putrid prison cell, or better yet, send them back to where they crawled out from originally. But the law couldn’t convict beings before they had done anything wrong. So, it was on you to make sure you kept an eye on the sinister beings, figure out what they were up to and stop them before they could actually hurt somebody. Like that morning, when you were called to a liquor store to investigate a break-in.
“My name is Y/F/N Y/L/N, I am the lead investigator,” you greeted the store owner with a handshake upon arrival. “Can you tell me exactly what happened?”
“I came here this morning at around 7 to open up the store. When I got out of my car, I saw the broken glass of the window,” he explained.
“What was taken from inside the store?” you inquired further.
“That’s the weird thing. Nothing is missing from inside,” he said.
“We might just be dealing with vandalism,” you thought out loud. “Do you have security cameras?”
He did, and so you went along with him to the back of the store. It was true, the interior of the shop seemed completely untouched. You suspected whoever had done this had never even intentioned on entering. There was a college campus not too far from the store, and you recalled countless times you had witnessed careless vandalism done by some intoxicated students during a Friday night. It was a very human-like crime. Demons weren’t known to do things by halves. Their crimes were usually the go-big-or-go-home-type of crimes. But then, when you watched the security footage, you were stunned.
At precisely 3:29 am, a dark figure appeared in front of the window. They lifted their arms, swinging a baseball bat against the glass. And against your speculation, they did climb through the hole in the window. With no mask or disguise whatsoever, the demon man looked right into the camera in the corner of the room. The abyss of darkness in his pitch black eyes was unmistakable. He looked around, as if he was debating on whether he should have done more, but then, to your utter confusion, spun around on his heel and climbed right back out the window.
You assured the store owner you would be looking into this case. With nothing left to do, you headed back to the police station. You had taken the security footage with you, and the moment you arrived in your office, you played it on your computer screen. Over and over - only puzzling you more, with each rerun you saw. You worried this might only be a warning. Not seldom had you been a witness to demons playing with their prey, feeding off the fear of innocent souls. Was this one indulging in one of those little twisted games? Right away, you uploaded the demon’s face onto the database for criminals, even if vandalism didn’t compare to the serious allegations that stood against other faces on that list. While you turned your attention to other cases, his features wouldn’t leave your mind. Even when you left your office at night, he was still the most prominent person in your memory.
By the time you began your walk to your home, the sun had disappeared. You couldn’t help it, even if technically you could finish work earlier, your desire to solve your assigned cases was always higher. Had you just walked home at 5 pm, you were sure to end up on your computer at home, researching and digging around on the web to discover possible clues. This way, at least you had all resources you would need at your office at the police station.
Now, in the dark, the streets were rather abandoned, most shops had already closed, and the moon dimly cast light through the clouds. Those conditions were what made it a breeze for you to notice your shadow. The figure had been following you for 5 minutes now. Judging by how carelessly loud their steps sounded and by their not-so subtle choices of hiding spots, you could tell this wasn’t something they had practice in. Purposely, you didn’t turn around, so they wouldn’t realize you had caught on to them a while ago. Instead, only a minute or so from your home, you took a turn left into an abandoned alleyway. Your hand was on the gun in your belt.
Just as you had stepped into the alley, you turned. He was right behind you. With dark orbs glaring and teeth snarling he came at you, knife in hand. Your eyes widened – you recalled his face vividly – as you took in the situation in the blink of an eye. After all, you had watched the security tape of him breaking into the liquor store countless times only hours ago. But you had the upper hand from the very moment you had spun around. His build wasn’t particularly strong, but you knew you should never underestimate demons. You grabbed his shoulders and along with him, your body crashed against the red brick wall to your left. He struggled against your grip, but his determined and feisty expression was the by far the most intimidating part about him. His face was inches from yours but looking into the sort of darkness that were demon’s eyes did nothing to you. Your hand was around his wrist with the knife – which he was aggressively trying to bring down on you – but only at first.
Because suddenly, something uncommon occurred. So uncommon, in fact, that not a single cell in your body could believe it. He willingly dropped the blade. It hit the asphalt, the metallic sound echoing in your ears. He relaxed his arm in your iron grip. Demons never gave up. They fought until you had forcefully brought them to the ground or done worse to them. Their ironic god-complex and evilness didn’t allow them to step away from a fight – until this one had come along, apparently. And then, as if his behavior hadn’t already stunned you enough, he did the unthinkable.
“I’m sorry,” he said. Without a doubt you thought you had misheard him. Swiftly, you pulled your gun out of your belt and pointed it at his face. One thing you knew. You weren’t going to play along in his little games. In panic, he rose his hands, showing defeat.
“Quit playing games, devil’s son,” you hissed. “What is it you’re trying to achieve here? You’re sorry? For what?”
He was hesitant. With every second, your curiosity only grew. Either, he was a skilled actor or…you had no idea what else it could’ve been about him.
“I almost killed you. That’s what I’m sorry for,” he said. “Does that get me a prison sentence?”
Your eye twitched because this didn’t seem right at all.
“You broke into a shop and attacked me, but then stopped out of your free will,” you assessed the situation. “You’ll most likely get away with a fine and your name in our register.”
If you had been awaiting an evil grin or any sort of enjoyment in his face, you’d be waiting endlessly. If anything, he seemed to be…disappointed?
“But you’re a cop, right?” he said. “You can lock me up, can’t you?”
“Didn’t you hear what I said? You won’t be locked up if you don’t commit a crime severe enough. As much as I hate it, considering you demons are running free, it’s the law,” you said.
“You don’t get it,” he said. And he was right, you really had no idea. “I should be locked up. You need to get me to jail before I hurt somebody.”
His face was dead serious, but you didn’t want to believe a single word. How could you, when your daily life consisted of hunting down his kind, because all they brought upon the earth was chaos and death?
“Give me one good reason why I should believe you,” you said, unimpressed.
“I will tell you anything you want to hear,” he said. “If you bring me to a police station. You guys have these lie detectors, don’t you? I will take a test if that’s what it takes for you to believe me.”
~
So, that was how half an hour later you still hadn’t returned at home, but rather found yourself back at the police station. Almost everyone had gone home by now, so you took the liberty to choose the biggest interrogation room available. A few minutes and he was sitting in front of you, hands in handcuffs and his body connected to the lie detector.
“Okay, here’s how this works. I’ll start by asking some simple questions, and then we’ll get to the bottom of whatever your intentions are,” you explained.
“Alright. Go ahead,” he said. This was your first time seeing a demon take this sort of test. Usually, you couldn’t be bothered because you knew all they did was lie whilst smiling you in the face.
“What’s your name?”
“Choi Chanhee.”
“Where were you born?”
“In hell.”
“Did you break into a liquor store last night?”
“Yes.”
“Did you intend on killing me tonight?”
“…Yes.”
“Is that your definite answer?”
“…No.”
“How come both of your last two answers are lies?” you asked. “You didn’t intend on killing me, but yes is your definite answer?”
“I can’t stop the evil in me but I’m trying,” he said. You were stunned. The answer was the most truthful of them all.
“What do you mean?” you asked.
“I was never like the others since I came to earth. I’ve never felt a rush like they do, causing mischief and hurting humans. I don’t belong. It’s as if there was a demon inside of me, but it’s not controlling all of me, do you understand?” he said.
“I’m not sure, but go on,” you said.
“I don’t want to hurt anybody or destroy things. But on some days, I’m walking down the street and my body starts following the devil’s orders instead. I usually snap out of it quickly and stop myself. That’s why you’re still alive,” he explained.
“You’re telling me you’re some sort of good demon?” you asked. “Why don’t you go back to hell, if you’re struggling so much on earth?”
“I hate it there,” he said. “And either way, I’m banned from there forever.”
Your head raised as you stared at him.
“Banned?” you asked.
“I stopped a bunch of demons from killing a woman once,” he said. “Safe to say they weren’t happy to hear that, back at home. I couldn’t go back, even if I wanted to.”
“Can you tell me the name of the woman?” you asked. And he did. All this time, he really had been telling the truth. When you searched up the woman’s name in the computer, it only confirmed your suspicion. She really had been under attack when an unidentified person had interrupted and saved her life.
“I can tell you names of demons,” he said. “If you do me the favor of locking me up, I can sell out everyone I know about.”
You massaged the sides of your head and sighed. This guy really was one of a kind.
“I already told you, I can’t put you in jail for something you didn’t do,” you said. “That’s against the law, and then it’ll be me who ends up behind bars instead of you. I’ll have to let you go.”
“What if I mess up?” he said. The amounts of firsts you were experiencing in the timespan of an hour were giving you a headache. Never had you felt compassion for a demon before. But you were only human, and when you noticed the genuine concern and insecurity in his soft voice, you couldn’t stop yourself.
“How long have you been on earth for?” you asked.
“I don’t know, a few years, I guess?” he said.
“And in those few years, which of your deeds would you rate the most criminal out of all?” you asked. Any other demon would have been able to give you multiple answers, one more vicious than the other. He, on the other hand, took his time and even when he answered, he didn’t sound at all sure.
“I’ve broken into a house before, destroyed a car window and one time I stole a dog,” he confessed with his head tilted towards the floor.
“What happened to the dog?”
“I…gave it back,” he said. A laughter erupted from your throat against your will. In a friendly manner, you pat his shoulder before retrieving the keys to his handcuffs.
“Trust me, you’ll be just fine out there,” you said. “Whatever it is you’re doing to stop yourself from being evil, it’s working. I will let you go now."
Even though he wasn’t happy with your answer, he knew he had no choice but to comply. As you walked him through the hallways towards the exit of the station, you could only think of one thing: your beloved bed. Not only your body but especially your brain was drained from energy. You desperately needed a refill by getting a good night’s sleep.
“You’re the first person who’s been really kind to me,” he said, as you held the door open for him. The night air was cool, and you quickly zipped up your jacket to your chin.
“You gave me no reason not to be,” you replied.
“I almost stabbed you,” he said, bluntly.
“Almost.”
“For most people, me being a demon is reason enough to loathe me.”
“Well I guess I’m not most people,” you said. His smile was gentle, but his black eyes would always give him away. “I’ll be here at the station every day, if you have any concerns or need somebody to consult. But right now, all I want is my bed.”
“I understand,” he replied. “Thank you. Goodbye.”
“Good night,” you said, before you parted ways. Once more, you journeyed home. He remained on your mind until the moment you slipped off to dreamland that night.
~
The days passed without a trace of him. You followed your routine, but one thing you couldn’t help. You simply had to tell every person who worked with you about the changed demon you had met. No one really wanted to believe you. It was kind of understandable. Some thought you were testing their skills, seeing if they could figure out you were lying. Others went as far as to suspect your lack of sleep had given you hallucinations. But you didn’t let it go. And after all, you were a highly respected member of the police force. Some said they wanted to meet this demon gentleman, as they had renamed him.
But then you were called to a brand new homicide investigation and all of the jokes at the station were blown away by the intensity and buzz the case brought with it. You had a murder to solve. There was no place for sweet demon men in any part of your brain. Not for now. And as always, you slipped into old habits – staying up all night, living on coffee and quick meals – the toxic behavior was almost inescapable. Your fellow detectives tried their best to keep you healthy and most importantly, sane. They took you with them to get salad for lunch, invited you over for game nights (a futile attempt at giving you a break) and told you to go to sleep on time. After all, they needed your brain to function at full capacity for the case. You knew people were relying on your knowledge, and you weren’t doubting your capabilities. But a highly intelligent zombie was still a zombie. And so it happened that one Thursday night your boss sent you home. Not because you weren’t doing a good job – rather for of the opposite reason.
“You are allowed back at the station when you’ve caught a full night’s sleep. Do what it takes to take care of yourself,” your boss had said. Her tone displayed as much strictness as her eyes showed concern. Truth be told, you were too exhausted to even argue against her order. That’s when you knew. You really needed a rest. You dragged your body home.
“Hello sweetheart,” you greeted your pet bird, who chirped excitedly when you set foot into your apartment. “Guess what. I’m home early.”
As much as you wanted to drop into a slumber right away, your stomach growled. And you weren’t in the mood to wake up half-starved. As you prepared some left-overs from the fridge, you heard your bird call from the living room. “Peek-a-boo!” he sang. It caught your attention. He only played this game with you – when you were outside in your small garden and he was watching you through the window. So who exactly was he talking to, now?
You picked up a knife, because as a detective it was practically your job to be paranoid, and tiptoed into the living room. It would be harder for an intruder to spot you in the dark, so you pushed the light switch. Slowly, you advanced to the window and gently pulled the curtains aside. A shiver ran down your spine when you saw the figure standing between the trees. They didn’t seem to be hiding, if anything they were lazily resting their back against the garden fence. Maybe they weren’t aware you were watching them. Bold of them to assume they could intimidate you by acting so nonchalant. You cracked the window open slightly.
“If you don’t leave my property within the next ten seconds, I’ll have you arrested for trespassing,” you announced. The figure flinched. The moment he stepped into the moonlight and raised his arms, you remembered his face.
“Choi Chanhee?” You opened the terrasse door and stepped outside.
“Are you going to hurt me?” he asked, eyes glued to the knife in your hands. Quickly, you lowered your hand.
“What are you doing here?” you asked instead of answering his question.
“I didn’t know where else to go,” he admitted.
“And so you thought creeping around in a police woman’s backyard was an appropriate thing to do? Wait…have you been stalking me?” you asked. You should have cut back on the sharp tone, but you felt half-asleep and this was the last thing you needed. Plus, the immanent realization hit you, that you had not noticed him at all. You had been so caught up in your work that you had not recognized a demon lingering around your home address, watching you. It hurt your pride a little – and could have ended very differently, had it been a more malovent demon than the one standing in front of you. This one looked terrified, kneading his hands nervously.
“I thought you wouldn’t be upset with me…that maybe you would understand. Because you’ve been the only one who’s listened to me. I’m just trying to find a purpose,” he said, “And my head tells me you’re the right direction.”
Demons. They’ve always had a fondness for the dramatic. But his words tore at your heart strings. His behavior resembled a child who had done wrong and was in the process of being scolded.
“Do you have no home?” you asked, softening your voice.
“I’ve lived with other demons. But they don’t want me there, anymore,” he said. For obvious reasons, you thought. Your head was racing. There was no way you could leave him standing there in the cold. But letting a demon into your home sounded like you must have had a death wish. It’s not like you didn’t have enough space, though. With an extra guest bedroom that nobody had ever used before, he would be just fine. There was no excuse. You cursed your parents for making you get a bigger apartment “In case you got married and had children soon.” You never know what could happen, they had said. And how wrong they had been, but how right they had been on that last part.
“Would you say you’re a tidy person?” you asked. A gigantic yawn came over you, and once again your stomach grumbled.
“What? I mean…I think so?” he said.
“Are you hungry?” You were in disbelief. Maybe it was the zombie in you that had a heart so soft, it took pity on a demon.
“I’m starving,” he said.
And that was how you came to have dinner with a demon. Spoiler alert: It wouldn’t be the last time. You ate quietly, trying hard to fight tiredness but it was no use. Afterwards, you showed him the room he could stay in.
“How do I make this up to you?” he asked.
“We’ll think about that another time, alright?” you said, “I need to sleep now. I’ve got an unsolved murder case waiting on me tomorrow.”
That night, you locked your bedroom door and slept with your gun on your nightstand. Just in case. Even though you were almost fully convinced the demon in the bedroom across the hall was more harmless than a five-year-old, he was still a demon.
~
When you woke up and saw your boss’ message on your phone, you couldn’t believe it. She wanted you to stay at home for the day. Apparently, you needed the rest and she had no interest in getting into trouble for overworking you (which she obviously wasn’t, you were the one doing this to yourself). When you walked down the stairs, you had almost forgotten about the previous night. It felt a little like it had all just been one wild fever dream – that was, until you spotted the demon sitting on your sofa, your pet bird on his shoulder.
“I let him out, I hope that was okay,” he said. You were dumbfounded. “Listen, I just wanted to say…thank you. Tell me whatever you need me to do and I’ll get it done for you.”
You wanted to go to work. But you knew he would be no help making that possible. Your mind was already wandering off to your case, the tips of your fingers burning with anticipation to search the internet for clues. Your grumbling belly interrupted your eagerness.
“Um…you could go to the grocery store for me?” you asked.
~
You went back to work the next day. Unsure of what to do, you decided to keep your demon housemate a secret for now. The other detectives would have probably written you off as insane, and you needed them to take you seriously. To be fair, maybe you were a little crazy. But he had been really good on the first day. Only one incident, which involved him dropping an egg on the kitchen floor, stood out to you. Of course, that could happen to anyone. But any other person would not have apologized in the way that he did. Normal people wouldn’t have acted so guilty, had it been an accident. But as long as his malice remained to that extent, you could live with it. You almost laughed at the idea of him purposely watching the egg roll off the counter and not doing anything.
He sure was strange. But little did you know, his egg-dropping shananigans were only the beginning of his uncontrollable little pranks he would pull on you.
Once he let your bird fly out the window. When you came home you discovered him outside, talking to your bird, begging him to come back inside. Little did he know, all it took was a whistle and a few treats and you had him sitting on your shoulder, ready to go back inside. One night you returned home to find him staring at the ceiling in the dining room, a kitchen towel in his hand. When you asked him what he was trying to achieve there, he told you there was a mosquito sitting above him.
“So, why don’t you kill it?” you asked. He looked shocked.
“Kill it?” he asked, “We should probably just shoo it outside.”
That’s when you knew. Choi Chanhee wouldn’t hurt a fly. Literally. All those times you had worried about leaving him home alone with your bird vanished in an instant as you laughed.
“You’re right. Killing is one of the worst sins. But sometimes, especially when it comes to mosquitoes, you don’t need to worry about any consequences. If anything, I’ll be grateful,” you assured him.
Another instance made you think maybe you had been too quick to judge him as harmless. When you walked into your bathroom in the morning, rubbing the sleep out of your eyes, you almost jumped out of your skin. A red substance stuck to your mirror in what seemed to be random shapes. On impulse, you called his name. On second look, you realized what he had done. The red was merely ketchup, and the random shapes weren’t so random, but they spelled “meeting at 2 pm”. When Chanhee appeared in the doorframe, he already wore his sorry expression.
“What did you think you were doing here?” you said. “You know where the post-it notes are!”
“I- He- The demon in me wanted to scare you…I’m so sorry,” he said. It was difficult to be mad at him when he was so sweet. You had, after all, told him to remind you of your meeting you had that day. He was so easy to forgive, too. Whenever he went to buy groceries, he returned with a bouquet of flowers, and after he had figured out your favorite candy, he made sure you never ran out of your supply. You liked being alone, but suddenly it felt nice to have someone waiting for you at home. A warm sensation filled your heart whenever he asked you about your day during dinner.
Even if after dinner you had to argue with him as if he was your son, because the demon in him had decided to take on the form of a teenage boy who was too lazy to take out the trash. You were still seated at the table, rolling your eyes at the demon’s horrible attempt at being evil.
“Don’t make me ask you one more time,” you threatened him, although you didn’t know what you would have done had he continued to argue against you. Only when he reached for the knife that he had already put down tidily on his plate, your eyes widened. His knuckles were white around the metal and you leaned back instinctively. Your gun was still in your belt – you had sat down for dinner straight after returning home – but you didn’t want to use it. Not on him.
“Chanhee,” you spoke in a calm tone. His face was unreadable. He wasn’t making eye contact. Instead, his gaze was glued onto the blade in his hand, staring blankly. His eyes blinked, almost robotically. Something changed in his demeanor then. There was a tremble in the hand that was clutching the knife. It grew more uneasy by each passing moment. Your heart was pounding in your chest and you kept your eyes trained on him, trusting your reflexes.
“Fine,” he suddenly said in a grumpy tone. Then he dropped the knife. The metallic sound rang in your ears for seconds afterward. You let out the breath you didn’t know you had been holding on to, as you watched him get up and retrieve the full trash bag from under the sink. You had been sleeping with your bedroom door unlocked for weeks. Even though it pained you, that night you locked your door again.
~
At 3:28 am you awoke to the sound of breaking glass. You allowed yourself to yawn and rub the sleep out of your eyes for just a moment, then you were on your feet. Gun in hand, you opened your door. Across the hall, the door to Chanhee’s room stood ajar. Light came from downstairs.
“Chanhee?” you called quietly. No answer. But your ears picked up shuffling and the sound of shards of glass being moved around. You approached slowly, trying not to give yourself away. Then you heard the quiet sobs. Your arm with the gun dropped to your side when you stepped into the kitchen.
He was sitting on the floor like he was one of the shattered pieces of glass himself. When he saw you, he flinched and tried to dry away his tears. But it was no use. They kept coming, and you had already seen them either way.
“I dropped it on purpose,” he said, referring to the broken glass. Another sob went through his body, making your chest ache at the sight of him. “I’m sorry.”
“I have nine more of those. It’s alright,” you assured him. Gently, you sat down by his side. You put your arms around his hunched frame. He stiffened at first but calmed his muscles after a moment and let you hold him.
“Shh, it’s okay,” you said. Whatever it was that was hurting him so much, you’d be here to fight it off for him.
“I can’t stop the evil in me,” he cried. His weeps seeped through your skin and tugged at your organs. It felt like a thousand tiny, sharp needles in your heart.
“It’s a part of you. It’ll never fully go away. But look at you, you’re doing such a good job holding it inside of you,” you whispered. He shuddered.
“I tried to kill you,” he stated. “I don’t deserve you. You’re so kind. You do all this for me, and I tried to kill you.”
“But you didn’t,” you said. “And that’s what counts. We all have urges inside of us…but it’s what we end up doing that truly counts and makes us who we are.”
“But it’s so hard,” he cried. His face was in the crook of your neck as he sniffled. The small teardrops that touched your skin felt like ice. “And all I do is bother you. I’m an inconvenience. Why don’t you just lock me up with the other demons? Why give me another chance every time I mess up?”
You couldn’t believe he would hate himself so much. Chanhee had more compassion than a lot of the humans you knew had. Some days he sat and pet your bird for hours just because it made him happy, he always had money on him to give to the homeless people in front of the grocery store and he almost cried thinking he forgot to pay for an item at the store (which you had obviously paid for).
“How could you even compare yourself to other demons?” you said. “If you want, I will take you in to work with me sometime. Then you’ll see the atrocities others commit. Even among humans, you’d still be sorted into the best of the best. I believe in you and that you will do good.”
He only sobbed harder at what you had said, and you felt the need to pull him in just a little tighter. You softly rocked your bodies in an attempt to calm him down.
“I would fall apart without you.” Between the hiccups and tears his words sounded like a broken confession, but that’s why they hit so hard.
“You’re not alone in this. I’m here for you,” you whispered, lips right by his ear. Your hands were in his hair, stroking his head as if you could pour all your emotions into this one gesture. What else could you do to show him you would never abandon him the way his demon people had? And it seemed to do the trick. His fists that had been clutching your shirt loosened up and his sorrowful crying turned into mellow breathing on your skin.
“Aren’t you sleepy?” you asked. “Let’s get you back to sleep. Tomorrow things will be better.”
“I haven’t been able to sleep well for three days,” he said. “But I need to clean this up first.”
He let go of you and started to pick up shards of glass. There was still a haggard expression on him, and his cheeks were painted red and tear stained. And yet he was determined.
“Let me do this,” you said, touching his arm. “You can’t even keep your eyes open. Go to bed, Chanhee.”
This time, he didn’t argue. But his good behavior didn’t stop the apologetic, almost battered look at you. He knew you would be by his side no matter what – but what he needed most was his own forgiveness. And you could tell by the way he spoke about himself that it would take a while until he was ready to accept himself as he was.
You heard his heavy steps on the stairs as he walked to his room. Quickly, you gathered the biggest shards of glass and then used a hand brush to collect the tiny pieces. This wasn’t what you had signed up for when you had taken him in. You thought you’d have to argue with him daily and that you’d miss having your personal space and privacy. You knew it would be new, living with another person after living alone for so long. But nothing could have prepared you for the way Chanhee had swept you off your feet with his adorable charms. You didn’t need to fake excitement when you came home to him, nor did you ever have to force yourself to tell him about your day or have any conversation with him, for that matter. He was truly enchanting with the way he made you care so much. Especially when you had assumed all demons were your sworn enemies.
When you finally dragged your tired body upstairs, you softly pushed open the door to his room, only to see him lying wide awake.
“Can’t sleep?” you asked. “Even though you’re so exhausted?”
“No,” he spoke. Even his voice made no attempt at hiding the sleepiness. His look was pleading. “Can you please stay with me…just for a little while?”
There was no way you could say no to his lovely gaze and messy hair and outstretched arms. So, you crawled in next to him under the covers. Your faces were inches apart. The last time you had been looking into a demon’s eyes this close-up he had been lying face-up and dead on the side of a road. Those eyes had been lifeless, and yet you felt like they had still held so much ferociousness, even in death. Now you only saw concern and genuine care in the black orbs across from you. You admired his softly sculpted face. It was one that seemed like it would much rather belong to an angel.
“You’ve been working so much,” he whispered. “You must be much more tired than me.”
“I’m used to it,” you said, “I enjoy my work because I’m doing it to help others.”
“You’re a good person,” he stated. There was something in his voice you couldn’t make out. Regret? Admiration?Maybe it was both.
“So are you, Chanhee,” you said. Without second thought, you leaned forward and pressed your lips to his cheek. He didn’t flinch nor pull away. Instead, his pretty lips curled into a smile as he closed his eyes, ready to finally drift off to dreamland.
~
From that night on he seemed to improve a little, day by day. No more breaking things or having to argue about simple house chores. It occurred to you almost as if he had turned into something more human – so much that you dared to take him to work with you. People there had found the idea of your new demon friend strange, and you were sure some would take more than a little convincing to let down their guard around him. You couldn’t blame them for the prejudices – you had once been the same, after all. But Chanhee was okay with it, even when you had explained to him that some people might hate him, just because of his black eyes and what they meant to people. He had lived years of receiving that sort of treatment. Nonetheless, it pained you to think about how used he was to it. It took bravery and thick skin to walk into a police station the way he did that day. He was fascinated, looking behind the scenes. Perhaps you found it amusing how alarmed everyone was when they first laid eyes on him at the station. His ability to turn around their views of his species within twenty seconds or less was nothing but astonishing. He very willingly took it upon himself to walk down to the nearest coffee shop and order ten cups, also earning him the sympathy from the last few sceptics. When you were deep in conversation with another detective, discussing the possible whereabouts of a highly wanted demon, Chanhee suddenly interrupted you.
“I know an underground club where they like to go after…committing crimes,” he said. “Every demon in this city knows about it.”
At that moment you realized his full potential and what good he could really do. That was, if he was ready to sacrifice his people. But he just had – without even blinking. He could be an immense help to you.
“Young man I can see you have a bright future, should you ever decide to join the police force,” said your boss from across the room. Seemed like she had the same idea as you. Chanhee only smiled shyly but couldn’t hide the glint of pride in his eyes.
~
The following days you instantly made arrangements to get Chanhee an interview with the head of the station. He had been scared, at first.
“What if the other people there hate me?” he suspected.
“They might make assumptions about you in their heads, you know, because you’re a demon. They only know demons to be evil. But the moment they realize how good of a person you are, I promise they’ll change their mind,” you said. “You’ll be precious to us, and if you want to do good, the police is where you can be the most helpful. You’ll change lives, maybe even save people.”
“Yes, I want to help,” he said. “I’m done with my kind.”
“I’ll talk to my boss tomorrow,” you assured him. “If you’re too anxious to come in to the station, maybe she’ll allow you to work from home, from my office here. This is just a try, okay? If you really enjoy this work, you’ll have to learn and earn your badge.”
The way he looked at you filled you with so much pride. He seemed to have found some hope. Like he could finally spend his time in a productive and truly good manner. You couldn’t wait to see how he would do.
~
A tiring day and many discussions with higher-ups at workplace later, you returned at your home, late at always. Your fingers tingled with excitement and you wanted to yell for Chanhee the moment you walked through your door. You had managed to score an internship for him at your station. He was allowed to start as early as the following week. As you walked up the stairs, following the shuffling noise you heard, you imagined his face when you told him the news. You knew he’d be ecstatic. His smile would make you so happy, and you almost grinned at the mere thought of it. The noises were coming out of your office.
“Hi, Chanhee. Guess what my boss-,” you started. Then you fell speechless. Paper was scattered all over the floor. Drawers stood wide open. The orderly sorted piles of case files you had been working on were dispersed into every corner of the small room. Photos and pieces of paper were falling out of the folders. And in midst of it all stood Chanhee.
“Y/N- I’m so-,” he said, helpless.
“Don’t,” you said. Every ounce of excitement was gone from your voice, replaced by an ice cold tone you didn’t know you had in you. He flinched, but you couldn’t keep in what you had to say. “You’re impossible. I can’t fucking believe this! These are real cases, Chanhee! I’m trying to save real people here! This isn’t some broken mirror or a spilled cup of water. I can look past a shattered glass, but this is too much…I honestly thought you were getting better…”
Somewhere you knew you were being too harsh. But your job was your entire reason for existing. This was your life mission, laid out in front of you as if a hurricane had rampaged through the room. It would take days for you to rearrange the files. You weren’t even sure if you’d be able to find the correct places for each piece of paper.
“I’m sorry,” he said, voice cracking because he was about to cry.
“I don’t want to see you right now. Please get out. I need to clean this up and you can’t help me with this,” you said, trying hard not to scream out of frustration. Your eyes were already scanning the floor. You had no idea where to even start. With low-hanging shoulders and teary eyes that were threatening to spill over, Chanhee slipped past you. He granted you one more look before he scurried out of the office like a frightened animal.
Even though your stomach was grumbling from starvation and you could barely stay awake – as always – you needed to get some of the cleaning done. Now. Or you would go insane. Plus, you needed time away from Chanhee. While you collected the paper from every inch of the wooden floor, guilt slowly started to nag at you. You had never raised your voice at him to this extent. And he was sensitive. It wasn’t his fault, that’s what you always told him when he blamed himself for messing things up. He knew that. You cursed at yourself. How could you be so impulsive? All too well you knew how he felt about his demon half. You were supposed to be there for him, to tell him he was doing a good job and to make sure he didn’t beat himself up. Now you had achieved the complete opposite. A dull ache in your chest accompanied your hungry stomach.
Suddenly, the doorbell rang. In a haze, you stepped down the stairs and to the door. You needed to apologize to Chanhee. When you opened the door, a delivery girl from your favorite restaurant stood there, handing you an order. You were puzzled.
“Already payed for,” she checked with a beaming smile, “Enjoy your meal!”
“Thank you,” you said, voice numb. Before you knew it, she had turned on her heel and was on the way back to the car.
“Chanhee! Your food is here,” you shouted, assuming he was the one who had made the order. You got no answer. When you set the bag down on the kitchen table, you saw a note, addressed to you.
Y/N,
Words can’t express how sorry I am about what I’ve done. All my life I only wanted someone to love me. In you, I thought I might have found what I had been searching for all this time. But I messed up. I always do. I drove you away from what we had. I’ve wondered why I always end up disappointing people. Now I know it’s because it’s the only thing I’m truly good at. You deserve someone you can trust blindly, someone who will walk through fire for you, someone who will take a bullet for you. I can’t give you that. I can’t even trust myself. Thank you for giving me a home and for being the most generous person I have ever met. You will always be in my sweet evil heart. Don’t worry about me too much. I will find my way and you will find yours. Who knows, our paths may cross again. I ordered your favorite food. I know you’re always starving when you get home from work. Enjoy it and don’t let it go cold. Make sure you get enough sleep tonight, and don’t forget to take your water bottle with you tomorrow, you left it here this morning.
I’ll hold you in my happiest thoughts forever,
Chanhee
You only snapped out of your motionless state when one single tear dropped down your cheek and onto the note. A heavy blanket of sorrow and regret sunk into your whole body. The emotions seeped through your skin and before you knew it, you were a sobbing mess on the kitchen floor. You wanted to take him in your arms and tell him you forgave him. Hell, you had forgiven him minutes after you had yelled at him. You should have gone to him then. Had you only apologized quickly enough, perhaps he’d still be here. Then he’d be eating dinner with you, and although you’d be frustrated, you both wouldn’t be alone.
Your tears fell into your food while you ate it, unable to control your sadness and frustration you had against yourself. They mixed with the shower water as you stood in silence under the hot stream, overthinking everything. Your pillow was wet from the crying as you struggled to fall asleep. Like a broken-hearted zombie you trudged across the hall and into his room. Chanhee’s covers still smelled like him and you hugged them tightly, as if you could hold a piece of him and bring him back that way. But there was nothing you could have done. He had left, and it was alone your fault.
~
The next day passed like a vivid fever dream. While you were sat in your meeting, you couldn’t possibly focus on the case your team was discussing. Instead, you pondered whether your makeup was able to conceal your puffy face and the dark circles under your eyes. If it was obvious, at least people didn’t seem to point it out. Maybe they were so used to seeing you tired that it would take a lot more than some tiredness and lack of concentration to arise concern. It was the first time in years you really wanted to go home after work. In fact, you couldn’t stand the laughter and good mood at the police station for one more second. All you wanted to do was scream and cry, and seeing people joke around without any idea about your feelings only intensified your desire. Of course, you could have confided in somebody. But you were afraid they would tell you Serves you right or I told you. You don’t think you’d be able to handle those blatant assumptions and the mocking.
Your plan for the night was set: You’d sit in the bathtub for half an hour, then you’d wrap yourself into a human burrito in a blanket and fill your brain with some brutal movie that would make your life seem like it was mere child’s play. But as most things in your life lately, nothing went as planned. Because after only five minutes in the hot tub, your phone rang on the other side of the room. The first time you ignored it. You really tried. But then it rang again, and you looked up to see the caller ID. It was your boss.
You groaned and quickly stood up, not giving up on the prospects of a peaceful night just yet. But then you heard her message – a break-in at a bank, one dead bank employee, five hostages, a possible shoot out. They were calling for back up. And when there was a chance to throw bad guys behind bars, the most inviting bath or an exciting movie suddenly turned dull.
Not fifteen minutes later you had jumped out the bath, gotten dressed in your uniform, taken your gun and ammunition, and were pulling up at the scene your boss had ordered you to. The bank was in the city center, close to the main square. The police team was stationed in a side street. Some of the team had already been sent to the front of the bank, where the police was attempting to make contact with the robbers.
“They’re holding four hostages in the back of the bank. One of them is at the front, right by the glass doors for us to see. The robbers have guns to their heads. If we come closer, they’ll shoot them,” your colleague informed you.
“Demons?” you asked. Against your will, Chanhee appeared in your mind. You wondered how he was doing. Was he hiding out in somebody else’s garden right now? Had he found a bed to sleep in? Then you quickly shook your head. This was not the time for heavy emotions of any kind.
“Yes. Five of them,” your colleague added. You huffed.
“What do they want us to do? Are they demanding anything?” you asked.
“They want us to let them leave with the money,” she said. You grinned bitterly and nodded.
“What about the back entrance?” you asked. You knew the layout of this bank and had been there multiple times in the past.
“That’s our route. Besides the one at the front, the other demons are inside the bank. The entrance isn’t guarded. A team of four will go to the back and try to sneak up on them. When we have a clear line of fire on all the robbers, we’ll take them out at the same time,” she explained.
“Alright,” you nodded, fixing your bulletproof vest around your upper body. You were ready for this. To others, missions like these would have been nerve-wrecking, and you would have been lying if you said you were completely calm. But the adrenaline was already rushing through your body, and fear was something you hadn’t felt since your very first operation.
“All ready?” your colleague asked the other two members of the team who would go into the bank. You received nods and professional expressions. You had all trained together and were used to functioning like one unit. Sticking close together, you rounded the bank, using a side street so the demons wouldn’t see you approaching. In your ear, the voice of your boss was giving orders and checking in on you. The street was dark and devoid of any life except for your team. Multiple of the surrounding streets had been evacuated and shut off to the public. The scene had something straight out of a heist movie. Except this time, the robbers weren’t going to pull of the perfect theft and get away. You would make sure of it.
“We’re almost there,” you said. “Twenty meters to the entrance. Awaiting permission to go inside.”
“You have permission,” your boss spoke over your earpiece. One last look at your teammates, and you were on the move. Sneaking inside soundlessly was easy. The backrooms were all empty. As you passed abandoned offices, you saw knocked over office equipment and paper scattered on the floors. Lamps had been left on and you heard the faint buzzing of a running computer that was most certainly unoccupied. Moving swiftly, you walked along the corridors, guns pointed ahead at all times. Your teamwork was untouchable. One of you made sure the path was clear, then the rest followed.
“You are one room away from the entry hall,” your boss said.
“Understood,” you answered and slowed down your steps. A cat wouldn’t have been able to walk more silently than you did. Now your ears picked up voices. Somebody was crying. There was shuffling of feet on marble.
“Shut up!” a male voice yelled. The crying faded out into muteness. In the dark, you could make out figures. A few countertops and a good distance separated you and your team from the demons and the hostages. You nodded to your colleagues and they understood. The four of you parted ways, moving into the room and taking shelter behind the bank counters. Once again, you checked the situation. Close to you, four hostages sat on the floor. A woman was still crying, and you could tell she was struggling to keep herself quiet. Around them, four demons stood, dressed in black. Their ski masks kept their faces hidden, but their body languages told you enough. They were not to be messed with. By the far entrance, the fifth demon was positioned with the remaining hostage, and you could spot the police cars outside in the town square. From behind your hiding spots, each of your teammates had a clear line of fire on the demons. The fifth one would be taken out from police outside the bank. You were just about to send a signal to your boss to let her know you were in position. Suddenly, the scraping of feet on the floor alarmed you.
“What was that?” one of the demons barked. The noise had come from your colleague beside you, who was now flinching. You had no time to think. No time to complain about her mistake. If you didn’t act now, they were going to close in on you.
You jumped up, pointing your gun at the closest demon. Right away, the remaining demons had their guns aimed at the hostages’ heads. Your colleagues had done as you, guns held towards the demons. Now you got a proper look at them. They were towering over the hostages, who were crouched on the floor in intimidation. The one in front of you only chuckled. Humans didn’t laugh like this. It was pure malice and recklessness displayed in front of you.
“I thought we told you to stay away,” he began. The only thing you could truly note about him was his mouth. The rest was covered by his mask and where the white of eyes should have been, two orbs of darkness sat, eying you like prey.
“Let the hostages go and we won’t shoot you,” you ordered, with a surprisingly calm voice.
“And why would we do that when we can just kill them?” he asked. His gaze momentarily focused on his fellow demons, as if he was a stand-up comedian and he had just delivered the funniest punch line.
“You will die if you harm even one of the hostages,” you stated.
“Oh, is that so? Humans never learn, do they?” he said. This monster was completely insane. And suicidal too, it seemed. “Go on, shoot.”
First, you thought he was urging your team to shoot. Then you realized, he was looking at the demon closest to you. The very demon you had your gun pointed at. He was asking the other demon to shoot at the hostages. You were preparing to pull the trigger.
But then your mind started racing. You stared at him intensely as your heartbeat quickened uncontrollably in your chest. The dark eyes. The soft lips. His skinny frame and gentle hands. You knew exactly who this demon was. You’d be able to pick him out of any crowd. What the hell was he doing here?
“Shoot!” the bigger demon shouted again, but Chanhee didn’t budge.
“I told you he was goddamn useless,” one of the others said. “Get rid of him.”
“You don’t deserve any of this money,” the bigger demon snarled, and his hand went to his belt. You knew there were human lives on the line. What you were about to do could be considered not only stupid, but wildly imprudent. Emotions were supposed to be left out of police operations. But how could you not have been blind with shock? You were going to let your heart control your body over your mind, and if it was deadly so be it. The bigger demon was now raising his arm at Chanhee.
Before you knew it, you had jumped out from behind the counter. You mirrored the demon’s actions and you pointed at him, pulling the trigger. At the same time, his gun went off. Just in time, you had pushed your body between the two demons.
“Y/N!” Chanhee shouted.
The bullet hit your shoulder and you fell backwards. Burning heat spread through your insides as you stumbled and reached for anything, anyone to hold on to. You could only think of Chanhee, and how your bullet had pierced through the big demon’s skull perfectly. Then, your colleagues opened the gunfire. The shots sounded almost muffled through the intense amount of adrenaline in your blood and the initial effect of being hit. Your body fell to the ground with a heavy thud, and a wave of agony spread through you. You grimaced at the excruciating pain, hands grasping at your shoulder. All you could see was white, before you sank onto your back and the world went dark.
~approximately 18 months later~
“Y/N,” Chanhee said, for the sixth time within the last ten minutes. You pressed your phone harder against your ear, holding it up with your shoulder. Your hands were too busy writing a police report on your laptop.
“Chanhee, I promise I’m writing the last few sentences already,” you assured him. He liked it when you came home early, leaving enough time to relax on the couch with him, instead of falling into bed like a corpse. Today, he was especially insistent, urging you to stay on the phone with him until you had finally packed up your things and left the police department. You guessed he was just trying to make sure you couldn’t stop somewhere along the way and start working on something new. And maybe that fear wasn’t so far off the truth.
“I’m done,” you said. “Status report: I’m switching off the laptop. Now I’m taking my bag. I’m getting up. I’m locking my office behind me. I’ll be home in twenty minutes or less.”
His laughter on the other side of the line made you smile. You couldn’t wait to see his face and get to hug him.
“Alright. I can’t wait,” he said. “I’ll see you.”
The walk home was calm. A soft breeze went through your hair and in the distance, you heard sirens of an ambulance. Promptly you were catapulted back to your memories and into the vehicle after you had been shot. Going in and out of consciousness, you kept repeating one name: Chanhee. When you woke up in the hospital bed, you half-expected him to be sitting there, waiting for you to wake up. But of course that was not the case. He had committed a crime – or at least tried to commit one. The prosecution was in his favor. They acknowledged his compliance with the police and his hesitation to hurt the hostage. Plus, he sold out the other demons and showed no resistance at any point. His regret and sorrow was apparent, nonetheless his mistake caused him 11 months in prison – by far less than the other robbers got.
People had called you insane for standing by him. Others thought you brave and newspapers named him the first good demon in the world. Every week you visited him in prison, often more than once. You made the most of your short time to talk, and with your kindest words you let him know that you were still here for him. Every visit you learned a bit more about how he had ended up in that bank.
After he had walked out on you, he had nowhere to go. So, after strolling the street mazes for days he found himself in the very demon night club he had once warned you about. Most unsavory figures twisted his mind into thinking doing good was no use. They made him believe he would never be able to escape the demon in him, and he might as well embrace the malice. They more or less pulled him along to the robbery, while he overthought the whole thing. It hurt you, seeing him cry as he recounted how scared he was when he saw the hostages. Some of them ended up injured, but all survived. You knew he would have never forgiven himself, had one of them died.
The day you picked him up from prison was a day you’d never forget. Holding each other in your arms felt so right, and you had missed it tremendously. His months at the prison hadn’t been easy, but you made sure he felt loved and cared for when he finally returned. He almost refused to believe that you would open your doors to him again. It was no question to you. You’d always be here for him. Even when he insisted you keep your office at home locked at all times. You trusted him almost a hundred percent by now. His demon only came out rarely, especially in times of stress or intense negative emotions. But you only treated him with kindness, and he gave back just as much of it.
“Chanhee I’m home!” you shouted as you entered your home.
“I’m up here,” he spoke. You ran up the stairs, excited to see him. Your eyes fell onto the open door of your office. For a moment, your heartbeat quickened as you approached it. You must have forgotten to lock the door that morning. Slowly, you pushed it open.
“Hello,” he grinned. You only chuckled as you watched him, sitting by your desk, a book in his hands. “I hope you don’t mind me being in here. This chair is so comfortable.”
“It’s all good,” you said. “Do you know what day it is today?”
“Umm…Friday?” he asked.
“It’s been exactly two years since you first started living here,” you said. “I think we should get some take out and celebrate, what do you say?”
“I can’t believe it’s been two years,” he said. “I’d love that. And you know what? I think I’m ready to start the internship at the police station.”
You smiled proudly. He had put his book down and was getting up.
“You’re going to do good things,” you said, wrapping your arms around him. He finally had found his place. His home. And you were never going to give up on him.
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