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hermiones-amortentia · 3 years

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This is for people who think Ron and Hermione had no intellectual debates or Ron can't stimulate her intellectually. Here their intellectual debates in the books-

1. House elves

“They’re hats for house-elves,” she said briskly, now stuffing her books back into her bag. “I did them over the summer. I’m a really slow knitter without magic, but now I’m back at school I should be able to make lots more.”

“You’re leaving out hats for the house-elves?” said Ron slowly. “And you’re covering them up with rubbish first?”

“Yes,” said Hermione defiantly, swinging her bag onto her back.

“That’s not on,” said Ron angrily. “You’re trying to trick them into picking up the hats. You’re setting them free when they might not want to be free.”

Ron is the only one that confronts Hermione about SPEW and really engages into it (So that its clear: Hermione defends that the elves should be free at all costs, Ron says they should be aware and included in this choice = two points of view, both defended = intellectual debate)

2. Discussing the ministry

“It could be a frame-up!” Ron exclaimed excitedly. “No — listen!”

he went on, dropping his voice dramatically at the threatening look on Hermione’s face. “The Ministry suspects he’s one of Dumbledore’s lot so — I dunno — they lured him to the Ministry, and he wasn’t trying to get through a door at all! Maybe they’ve just made something up to get him!”

There was a pause while Harry and Hermione considered this.

Harry thought it seemed far-fetched; Hermione, on the other hand, looked rather impressed and said, “Do you know, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that were true.”

Ron =shows how it could have been a frame-up and presents evidence; Hermione =considers his side and changes her mind; they were discussing something and reached an agreement over facts = intellectual

3. In the creation of the DA, we see Harry behaving quite emotionally (understandable but this does not qualify, using your definition, as intellectual). Ron and Hermione make their case for why he should be the teacher and basically organize the entire thing themselves

“Let’s think,” he said, pulling a face like Goyle concentrating. “Uh . . .

first year — you saved the Stone from You-Know-Who.”

“But that was luck,” said Harry, “that wasn’t skil —”

“Second year,” Ron interrupted, “you killed the basilisk and destroyed Riddle.”

“Yeah, but if Fawkes hadn’t turned up I —”

“Third year,” said Ron, louder still, “you fought off about a hundred dementors at once —”

“Ron and I have been sounding out people who we thought might want to learn some proper Defense Against the Dark Arts, and there are a couple who seem interested. We’ve told them to meet us in Hogsmeade”

Hermione and Ron recruited and organized everything for the DA

4. Discussing Dumbledore and Snape

“I did think he might be a bit better this year,” said Hermione in a disappointed voice. “I mean . . . you know . . .” She looked carefully around; there were half a dozen empty seats on either side of them and nobody was passing the table. “. . . Now he’s in the Order and everything.”

“Poisonous toadstools don’t change their spots,” said Ron sagely.”

“Anyway, I’ve always thought Dumbledore was cracked trusting Snape, where’s the evidence he ever really stopped working for You-Know-Who?”

“I think Dumbledore’s probably got plenty of evidence”

5. Sirius death

They stayed together in the Hospital Wing for weeks and it can be correctly inferred that this was discussed given their behavior towards Harry

“Ron and Hermione left the hospital wing completely cured three days before the end of term. Hermione showed signs of wanting to talk about Sirius, but Ron tended to make hushing noises every time she mentioned his name”

6. Mad-Eye’s death and the 7 Potters mission

“Oh, Ron’s mum forgot that she asked Ginny and me to change the sheets yesterday,” said Hermione. She threw Numerology and Grammatica onto one pile and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts onto the other.

“We were just talking about Mad-Eye,” Ron told Harry.

7. Hermione’s parents and the Ghoul (they planned and prepared for the mission together)

“Didn’t realize that Ron and I know perfectly well what might happen if we come with you? Well, we do. Ron, show Harry what you’ve done.”

“Nah, he’s just eaten,” said Ron.

“Go on, he needs to know!”

“Oh, all right. Harry, come here.”

8. How to destroy Horcruxes

“Hang on,” said Ron, frowning. “The bit of soul in that diary was possessing Ginny, wasn’t it? How does that work, then?”

“While the magical container is still intact, the bit of soul inside it can flit in and out of someone if they get too close to the object. I don’t mean holding it for too long, it’s nothing to do with touching it,” she added before Ron could speak. “I mean close emotionally. Ginny poured her heart out into that diary, she made herself incredibly vulnerable. You’re in trouble if you get too fond of or dependent on the Horcrux.”

9. Hallows x Horcruxes

“Well, I don’t suppose it matters,” sighed Hermione. “Even if he was being honest, I never heard such a lot of nonsense in all my life.”

“Hang on, though,” said Ron. “The Chamber of Secrets was supposed to be a myth, wasn’t it?”

“But the Deathly Hallows can’t exist, Ron!”

“You keep saying that, but one of them can,” said Ron. “Harry’s Invisibility Cloak —”

10. Formulating a plan to keep Hermione safe

“Ron glanced at Hermione, then said, “What if purebloods and half-bloods swear a Muggle-born’s part of their family? I’ll tell everyone Hermione’s my cousin —”

Hermione covered Ron’s hand with hers and squeezed it.

“Thank you, Ron, but I couldn’t let you —”

“You won’t have a choice,” said Ron fiercely, gripping her hand back. “I’ll teach you my family tree so you can answer questions on it.

Hermione gave a shaky laugh.

“Ron, as we’re on the run with Harry Potter, the most wanted person in the country, I don’t think it matters. If I was going back to school it would be different. What’s Voldemort planning for Hogwarts?” she asked Lupin.”

11. Off page discussion

“What’s happened?” Ron asked apprehensively. He and Hermione had been poring over a sheaf of scribbled notes and hand-drawn maps that littered the end of the long kitchen table, but now they watched Harry as he strode toward them and threw down the newspaper on top of their scattered parchment.”

12. Off page (2)

“You can’t tell me you’ve stopped having funny dreams,” Hermione said now, “because Ron told me last night you were muttering in your sleep again. . . .”

Harry threw Ron a furious look. Ron had the grace to look ashamed of himself.

“You were only muttering a bit,” he mumbled apologetically.”

Yet another evidence of their connection and off-page discussions

“Neither Ron nor Hermione spoke, but Harry felt sure that they were looking at each other behind his back, communicating silently.”

Ron and Hermione have emotional AND intellectual discussions throughout the series. So if you think Ron can't stimulate her intellectually you havent read the books. 😊

#ron weasley #hermione granger #romione #harry james potter #harry potter #ginny weasley #luna lovegood #draco malfoy #ron×hermione #harry potter memes #harry potter marauders #harry potter fandom

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imagines-r-s · 3 years

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sticking it - j. farabee

prologue

a/n: this prologue just has a lot of information needed to continue the series, but i hope you enjoy!! (also the gif is a visual of what the dismount mentioned is, in the gif it’s only a triple)

taglist: @butgilinsky @barbienoturbby @sunsetholland @lovenhlboys @sortagaysortahigh @hockey-racing-fubol

warnings: mention and description of injury (very brief), sadness, pretty angsty ngl, but there’s happiness in here too

sticking it masterlist

wc: 2.6k

(gif not mine)

From the first time you stepped into a gym at the age of 3 to now, standing in this arena, you knew this was the place you were intended to be. You quickly leveled up in the sport of gymnastics and quickly excelled in the sport. Although there were many hardships - both mentally and physically - along the way, you never wanted to stop. Your one and only love was this sport, always has been. Always will be.

As you progressed in your gymnastics career, your first coach, Michelle Watson, saw great promise in you and wanted to help you move up to where she knew you could go. Her brother had an elite gym in Philadelphia and he was willing to train you, so you and Michelle moved to Philadelphia to get you the best training possible. Your family was close enough with Michelle to know that you were in good hands.

Working with the duo of Michelle and Marcus proved to be one of the best decisions of your life as you quickly became one of the top athletes in your sport. Eventually, you moved up to elite, which meant that you were in the division that would go to the biggest types of competitions in this sport. The biggest competitions with the toughest competition.

With the Olympics fastly approaching, it was the only thing on people’s minds. Even with there still being 15 months until Trials actually started, every meet from now on counted. Having to get a certain all-around score to qualify for the next meet, every skill counted. Even the smallest of deductions could set you apart from the group that qualifies and the group that doesn’t.

Your family supported all your decisions, but especially your cousin, Kevin. He was undeniably marked as your top supporter, he never once doubted that you would be able to make it to the Olympics one day and he knew that you would go through hell to get there if you needed to. When Kevin went to the Flyers, he happened to get an apartment in the same building that you did, which was also close to your gym and his rink.

Kevin was able to support you and be there for you just when you needed someone. Whenever you had the time from the season, you were able to go watch some of his games and meet his teammates, who were just as supportive of you as he was. There were more times than none that you would end a showcase or meet and have at least five hockey players waiting for you with a bouquet of roses and a good job.

Kevin was always there with a good job hug and your favorite kind of fruit snacks, TK and Karly with a simple bouquet of roses, and then Nolan with his pep and smack talk on the other girls competing.

Your teammates were always there right beside you. You made some of the best friends from gymnastics (and some of the worst enemies), Nicole Carter was the teammate that you were closest with. Always making jokes about both of you would have an equal amount of silver and gold medals to add to your collection.

Now here you were at the American Cup, which wasn’t the most important meet of the lineup to Tokyo, but you had to keep a watch out for competitors and make sure that you caught people’s eye when competing. During warm-up you did make sure to talk to some of the girls, not everyone was able to have a close teammate, so you wanted them to know that someone there was rooting for them. You were always a team player, even in such an individual sport like this, except for Kathryn Davis.

Kathryn Davis had always been one of your closest competitors, you weren’t going to say you were the best out there - you weren’t - but at least you kept a good attitude about how well others were doing. Kathryn was not like that, if you were her competition in any way, she would drag you as quick as she could. Starting rumors, talking bad about you during interviews, or distracting you before your routines were her go-to ways of getting to you and there were many occasions where you had to calm down one of the other athletes because of something she did.

Today you weren’t letting anyone get in your way. Although it was a minor meet, there was still a lot on the line. The plan for your beam routine was to bring out a new skill that had never been landed in major competition, a wack plan? Maybe. But since it was a smaller meet if you didn’t land it, the score wouldn’t affect you as much. Your plan was to go through your routine and do a 3.5 twisting dismount, the highest competed had only been a triple twisting dismount, so if you did land it today the skill would be named after you.

With the event lineup for the meet going vault, bars, beam, then floor, you were starting on floor and ending on beam. Going into auto-pilot for the first three events, you didn’t take note of your scores and you hardly even realized that you were getting ready to salute the judges on beam. Taking a deep breath before you mounted the beam, you started your routine.

The core parts of a beam routine were flight series - where you got at least some air time in whatever skill you were doing, jumps, turns, dance, and the dismount. When all three of your flight series were landed and you finished your jumps and turns, you were ready for the dismount.

Taking a few steps to do the round-off, you were now at the end of the beam and could do the twisting part of the dismount. Taking off you started twisting, keeping an eye out for the mat (even if it is a blind landing), you started opening up from the twist to make the landing. The only issue was it was obvious you didn’t get enough height, so the mat was closer than it had been whenever you had practiced many times before, and because of that you landed a triple twist while still turning.

You knew immediately something was wrong, the popping noise that you weren’t supposed to hear was kind of a dead giveaway, but you turned and saluted the judges like usual, and as you took a step, all the pain from whatever you had just done came to your leg causing you to curl up into a ball holding your knee.

You could hear Marcus and Michelle becoming louder, but the pain in your knee somehow drowned out everything around you. There was commotion all around you and you felt Marcus reach under your leg to carry you back down, away from the beam. Eventually medical got to you and you were ushered away in a wheelchair towards the ambulance.

“y/n, look at me, okay? It’s going to be alright, we’re getting you to the hospital and then we’ll get everything figured out,” Michelle said, holding your hand as you were taken towards the Emergency Room.

“I need you to call Kev, please,” you assumed Kevin had heard what had happened and you didn’t want to stress him even more since you knew he had been at a game and probably heard while he was there.

“I will, hun, I will,” the doctors got you in a hospital room where they would do what they could right now. With the pain meds, you were able to ignore the pain for a while. Your mom had called you from back home to check in while you waited on Kevin to show up to the hospital.

“Hey, short stack, you doing alright?” Kevin said as he walked into the hospital room, you took note of TK and Nolan behind him.

“You only call me short stack because you’re literally a giant,” you giggled, “hey, Tiki Bar. Hi, Patti Lapone.”

“Can I get whatever she’s having?” Nolan interrupted. The three of them stayed in your room as you waited for the doctor to come back with more information about the scans and tests that they ran. The boys were mostly enjoying the fact that you were giggling the whole time, but they were just glad that you weren’t in pain about what was going on. When some of your giggling died down, they realized that eventually you would have to terms with what happened. Kevin knew that you might not come back from this one as easily as you hope to, he had seen so many peoples careers end this way. He didn’t want you to have to go through that.

“y/n y/l/n, hi, I’m Dr. Brady and we needed to consult you about the results from the scans. Are you sure you want everyone in here when you hear?” Dr. Brady asked cautiously, knowing this was not easy news to break.

“Yeah, they’re fine in here,” you nodded taking note of how Kevin had walked over to the side of your bed, anxiously waiting to see your reaction rather than whatever the results were.

“Ok, well with the injury you got today, you will need surgery as soon as possible, which will be in about three weeks. From there it will be 6-9 months of recovery, which includes physical therapy and mobility work, the time will depend on what your physical therapist decides is best-”

“Wait, so I’ll be out for like 10 months?” you asked.

“Yes, could be more, could be less. It really depends.”

“So, when do you think I could consider going back to training?” the air in the room felt tense, you were the one out of the loop here. Everyone around you already knew what was going to happen and that you coming back might not be an option.

“It would all depend on what your trainer thinks is best right now and there is no guarantee you will be back to your old self after the surgery,” the doctor said with a solemn look on his face, as he was the one who had to break the news.

“Um, ok. Yeah. When would I be able to go home?” you quickly jumped to the next topic of discussion, which Kevin was shocked about, as were Nolan and Travis.

“Well, we have to get you pain meds, crutches, and a brace, but once we do that we’ll be able to discharge you. Okay?” you simply nodded. The room went silent as you Dr. Brady walked out.

“y/n/n? You okay, hun?” Michelle said quietly, getting more nervous when you simply nodded.

“Yeah, I just want to go home.”

Kevin, TK, and Nolan knew that you weren’t okay, so they all decided to take you home and make sure you got everything situated while having to deal with this. Finally making it to your apartment after being discharged, you decided to try and take a shower, which proved to be difficult, so you just left the issue for tomorrow. Changing out of your competition leo and into comfortable pajamas, you made your way back out to the kitchen where the guys were talking.

“Kevin said he plans on staying here just in case you need anything, but if you want us all to stay we definitely can,” Travis said when he saw you walk into the room.

“Oh, if you guys want to, it's cool with me, I’m fine either way. I just plan on going to bed right now. So goodnight, I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow,” giving them a soft smile before making your way back towards your room.

Going into your bedroom was already bound to be a difficult task. Although the room was simple, a lot of the things that you had on your wall were from gymnastics, pictures from gymnastics meets, medals and trophies littered your room in a way that usually lifted your spirits up. But walking into your room using crutches and the knee brace keeping your knee secure made you hate everything in the room at that moment.

Knocking over your crutches, you ripped down a poster that had your schedule for the next season leading up to Trials, the picture of you and your teammates was next, finally the goal board you made when you were 10 came tumbling down to the ground, the trophies that you had spent such a long time working for were in the process of being thrown across the room when a pair of arms quickly pulled you into their chest.

You didn’t notice that the guys had rushed into your room or that your vision was now clouded from the tears, but everything hit you at once. As Kevin held you, you simply sobbed into his chest. The dreams that you had worked so hard for were now crumbling down. You realized that all the time and hard work you had invested would have nothing to show for it.

Eventually Kevin realized you had stopped crying and he looked down to realize that you had fallen asleep. He gently picked you up and put you in your bed, leaving your crutches right by your bed, so if you needed them you could get them.

“Do you guys mind helping me pick up everything? She’ll regret it if we don’t,” Kevin asked the two boys in front of him who were very happy to help. All of them were glad that they had the day off and planned on staying here and doing what they could to help you out later.

You anxiously waited the few weeks before you had to get the surgery, you hardly left your room and when you did, you went right back to your room. Everyone wanted to give you time to grieve and accept the possibility that you might not have a comeback. But once you had your surgery, you actually had to go to physical therapy.

Physical therapy was awful the first month. You genuinely felt bad for Adrian, your PT, for having to deal with you. He obviously had to put up with a lot of negative energy and you just added it to it. “You know, I am aware that you were an athlete. I’m going to assume every doctor has said you won’t make a comeback?” he paused waiting for your response, and once you nodded he continued. “Ok, well I can’t promise anything, but once you actually start working, this won’t necessarily get easier, but you accept it. Now if you’re constantly dwelling on how ‘your dreams are crushed and you’ll never be the gymnast you once were’ then that is exactly what will happen.”

“Yeah, but-”

“Nope, no buts. You got hurt. It happens. But you already accepting that as the loss of a sport you love so much will not cut it in my book. That energy is not needed, especially if you ever want to go back. Now either accept the worst and get this over with as soon as possible, or actually start working towards your dream again. Those doctors try not to give people false hope, but y/n, you have to realize I know you have it in you to go back there and prove them all wrong. And if you’re doing this just to spite them, then so be it. Let’s get to work now.”

And you did get back to work.

You were able to start light conditioning about 5 months after and were able to start doing basics 2 months later. “Ok, y/n, I’m going to be straightforward with you, your knee is looking better. But don’t do anything too crazy to where that changes. So the plan now is to start easing back into training, no big skills, no big landings. But you can start working. And I know about a certain meet in March that will be your comeback meet, I’m telling you now.”

#sticking it #joel farabee #joel farabee x reader #joel fatabee imagines #philadelphia flyers #nhl imagines #nhl imagine #hockey imagines

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freeseafirefly · 3 years

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A lot of thoughts are eating at my brain... The Final Stroke RH spoilers!

Wondering about the possible resolution of the RH fight, i can't help but think we are being led the "adults must make rational decisions and it's ok" route, where at the end it's Haru who will have to accept Rin's choice and at the same time find his own motivation to swim that isn't Rin (or at least, isn't swimming with Rin on the same event.) It is too sad to think about, because competing in free has always been the most RH thing, they originate from it, that incomparable fire only they could ignite in each other has always been the essence of their relationship, and to accept that they can't have it anymore? Rin says it wasn't an easy decision, Haru denies "you always decides things lightly" and accuses him in running away, in choosing the easier option since there is no Albert in fly. They both are right and wrong in their selfishness in their own way, and for Rin this decision is indeed rational--going for a more realistic way to secure his position in the pro world, but. Rational adult decisions often mean giving up on something bigger, like your dream and passion. And ironically, it's not Haru who follows Azuma's advice to sacrifice smth first, it is Rin. Following Mikhail's advice. Which turns out to be the same, and that was really unexpected, given how he seemed to oppose Azuma's ideas. But in the essense, Rin's decision to sacrifice free, to sacrifice them in order to become stronger, is the same "you can't win if you don't throw something away." Only Rin believes that " them " means them both swimming as pro, swimming for the National team, sharing the dream and the future in a larger sense, whereas for Haru...it's not enough. He feels betrayed and abandoned again. His outbreak just confirms that this is how he felt all the previous times, suppressing his feelings either for being scared of them or believing that Rin must be free. (Continue under the cut)

So, the ultimate question, will Rin's decision be proved right or wrong? Because on the other side of rationality, there is the heart and soul of the sport, and what can RH do if they ARE the embodiment of that for each other? Is it their weakness or their strength? This codependency. Probably both. Quoting Rin, "our relationship can't be sumed up in such simple terms", and indeed, they as much motivated each other along the way as they caused each other's setbacks, with so many strong emotions tangled up that one indeed might think it'd be healthier for them to try and find a way in pro that isn't as dependent of each other. "If you're not there, swimming ahead of me, i have nothing to aim at" by Rin always kind of hinted at that, that they would have to address it at some point, and although Haru didn't explicitly stated it, it had always been the same for him. Competitive swimming always meant Rin for him, he couldn't do it without him on his mind, as his guiding light even when they were apart. So, i LOVE the new movie for actually going there and digging right into the core of RH conflict instead of inventing some artificial challenge. Gosh, i even wrote about the same thing in my RH fanfiction (my native language one), posing the same question--is their codependency their strength or their weekness? Being that guiding light for each other, how can they evolve or regress when they're forced to? Rin fails to qualify there as well, it even has the similar angsting in the shower scene, that's also why I'm wheezing because who knew they would actually go there?? I also like how this problem is addressed in In pursuit of Olympic dreams by ladyzeia, but fics have the privilege of bringing their relationship on a different level while i doubt the canon will dare go that way.

Ok, back to the point. Even though rational and mature, I strongly dislike the idea of Rin throwing free away, for a few reasons. It will mean the RinHaru as we know and love them will be destroyed. And i can't even call it evolution (not unless KA somehow manages to do it in a veeery convincing way that won't leave me any doubts that they are happy like that.) Their unique, inspiring and precious relationship getting dismissed as something immature, something they must grow out of, i just can't stand this thought. But then again, i can't help but think about MakoHaru situation from S2, where they had to separate and go different ways as a part of a natural growing up process, and Haru took it bad at first as well. Yet there and then, it felt right, their future paths had to be different, after all, and they had to take a step on their own. I can't tell if it is the same with RinHaru now. I need to actually see the movie, to feel it, it's hard to choose the side rn.

I also hate the idea of Rin giving up on free because i hate when Rin gives up. Like, since S1. (Maybe only Haru hates it more lol.) I get that he isn't a genius of Haru level, yet he's pretty damn good, and their close times speak for themselves.

So, what i think could be a compromise solution is Rin focusing on fly for the next tournament, grabbing that sponsor contract, while in the meantime Haru goes through the process of finding his own motivation, and not the desperate one "I'm scared of losing i must beat Albert before i turn 20", but a positive one, something to do with loving the competition, reconnecting with water and the nakama spirit to complete it all, maybe digging up that time capsule which probably contains those recorded messages from the beginning scene? So, what i mean is a temporary separation to figure things out, and then reunion. Rin picking up free again once he's more confident in where he stands. Haru enjoying what he does, free of his fears and assured he won't break even if he's alone. And then...no longer being alone. Please, KA. This boy has suffered enough. Let him have his Rin at last, in whatever way they both want it. Please.

So, what do you guys think? Is Haru being selfish here, kinda pulling the S1!Rin's "you must swim for me!", or is it Rin who's wrong, cutting away something that inspired him so much and connected them together? Could he do both strokes and succeed, say, if he actually swam with Haru on one team, every day, drawing out each other's full potential? And if he sticks to his decision, after all, what should they do to save their bond? Will swimming relay together be enough?

We still have that S2 ending scene with them both competing in Rome in the same event, in the adjacent lanes, though. Unless they retcon it, or unless Haru swims fly, it is them swimming free together in the future.

#free! the final stroke #fs spoiler #SPOILERS #rinharu #harurin #free!#sea rants

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a-solitary-marshmallow · 3 years

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Rewind Chapter 10 - A Well-Deserved Rest

Me: "Now that we're reaching the end, the chapters will come a lot faster" :) Me now, a month later, sweating: "Okay so that was a lie"

My bad! Been pretty busy and I completely forgot to update this fic. Welp, hope you guys enjoy the chapter <3

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Stan’s awareness came back to him in little bits. The first thing he noticed was what his skin stung all over – like when he and Ford had gotten sunburnt on the beach, back when they first found the Stan ‘O War. It hurt when he moved his face. The next thing that came to him was the feeling of sticks and leaves and snow under his knees. His breaths were rasping in his throat, and sparks pitter-pattered to the ground before him. Ford’s fingers were digging into his arm and there was a triangle-shaped sunspot in his vision where the explosion had burned into his eyes. His heart was pounding, probably full of that chemical Ford talked about one time – ad-reny-lin?

“Oh mah lord!” Fiddleford’s voice sounded, muffled in Stan’s ears, high-pitched and breathless. “Oh my – are you two alright? Stanley, Stanford? Yer okay, right?”

“Um.” Stan did a quick mental once-over. “Yeah. I’m good.”

He tried to wriggle out of Ford’s grip but his brother was holding tight, breaths coming quick and fast. Stan managed to twist around to catch sight of Ford’s stunned expression. His cheeks and nose were a sunburned pink and he stared at where the triangle had just been with wide eyes.

“Ford, let me go.”

“What?” The scientist blinked, before quickly realizing who had spoken and bursting into action. “Stanley! Are you hurt? You were so close to the explosion-”

Before Stan could speak up Ford had adjusted his grip, grabbing Stan’s shoulders to scan him for injuries. Stan took the opportunity to look around. The whole clearing was kinda scorched, snow steaming where Bill had been only moments ago. The smell of burning filled his nose and he wrinkled his face up in displeasure, which only made it sting more.

And there was someone rushing towards them – Fidds! The thin scientist clutched the rifle to his chest with bandaged-up hands as he sloshed through half-melted snow.

Ford was still fussing, like their mother used to when one of them came home with a scraped knee or bloody nose. Stan pushed his hands away (one of which was bleeding through a temporary bandage, what happened to his hand???) “Ford, getoff! I’m fine.”

Ford snatched his hands back, a weird look on his face, before his eyes lit up as Fiddleford reached them. He grinned up at his old friend with something like amazement, and for a moment he looked kinda how Stan remembered him – a kid, all full of excitement and curiosity and shiny eyes.

“It worked. I can’t believe it worked!”

“Ah’m just glad I hit the bugger.” Fiddleford’s voice was still high and reedy – at least, more so than usual. “Look, I’m happy yer okay and all but let’s take this back to the house. Who knows what creepy things are hidin’ out here in the woods.”

Ford stood and the adults started talking about boring things. Stan did not get up yet. He took a deep breath and felt his heart rate begin to slow and suddenly realized that he was very tired.

It seemed kind of… anticlimactic, if Stan was being honest. He was expecting a huge showdown, during the pouring rain or a snowstorm, with fire in the background and maybe some lasers and explosions.

Instead he got a bully of a demon, scraped knees and Ford clutching him like his life depended on it.

Once Stan stood up, he quickly realized that those warm and fluffy boots Bill had created had disappeared alongside the demon, and his feet were numb again. It figured. He could probably walk back, but it would hurt like crazy. How long did it take to get frostbite? If he lost a toe or something it would be pretty cool. Babes loved scars, right?

Then again, seeing how every bone in his body felt like it was made of lead and his eyelids kept drooping shut on their own, maybe he couldn’t walk all the way back. He rubbed an eye with his fist and cast a glance at the two adults nearby – Ford insisting that the other man needed to go to the hospital to get his burns treated, Fiddleford retorting that he, in fact, did not. Fidds wouldn’t be able to give him a lift, not with how both his hands were injured.

Stan cringed. It was his stupid fault that Fidds had been hurt at all – he’d gotten burned trying to fix Stan’s dumb mistake. If Stan had just used his brain, not been such a moron, not messed with Ford’s experiments, then none of this would have happened in the first place. Why did he ever think he could help? Stan was just a no-good ignoramus like Pa always said-

“Stanley?” Ford was looking at him now, concern in his eyes, and Stan swallowed down his shame and instead reached out with grabby hands. Ford choked.

“My feet hurt.” Stan said flatly as a way of explanation. “Gimme a lift.” If Ford really felt sorry for saying all those mean things, then didn’t he owe Stan that much? That was how the adult world worked, right?

His brother had a confused look on his face, something that would have been funny if Stan was not falling asleep on his feet and feeling very cranky. “I – I don’t want to push your boundaries. I know I haven’t been fair to you recently, and if you don’t want me to touch you-”

“Ford I’m gonna get frostbite.”

“It’s – what do you – you’re not wearing shoes!”

_______________________________________________________________

The doctors at Gravity Falls hospital were fairly used to Ford turning up with the strangest injuries. Of course, he only went there when Fiddleford insisted. The man was terrible at following his own advice though, so Ford had to bully him into getting his injuries checked out as well. The only qualified doctor there (he was assuming the pixies that worked out of the hospital’s parking lot didn’t have valid medical licenses) took one look at the party and waved them in with a sigh.

While Ford and Fiddleford faced their treatment, Stan refused to be awake. The child had fallen dead asleep on Ford’s shoulders soon after they left the scorched clearing, and proceeded to snore in his ear the whole way to the hospital. After a quick examination (made more difficult by Stan sleepily waving away the annoyed nurse) he was declared just scraped up and ‘sunburned’. Ford, on the other hand, was subjected to the time-wasting procedure of getting stitches. Honestly, the wound wasn’t even that big! Sure it hurt, but a few painkillers and he would be back at peak condition.

Stan did not wake up on the way home. He also did not wake up when Ford placed him into his bed and tucked the blankets up to his chin. Fiddleford, hovering behind Ford anxiously, peered over his shoulder at the snoring boy.

“Is – is he okay? He’s sleepin’ awfully heavy there Stanford, are ya sure he didn’t hit his head at all?”

Ford let out a snort, fiddling with the bandages wrapped around his injured hand. “Are you kidding? Stan always sleeps like the dead. He once slept through an explosion when I messed up my chemical formulas in high school. His bed had ash on it. When he woke up the next morning he asked me where my eyebrows were.”

Fiddleford quirked an eyebrow. “Well, I guess we don’t need to worry about wakin’ him up. Come on down to th’ kitchen now – I think we need to have a talk.”

“…about what?”

Fiddleford fixed him with a stare and Ford wilted. “How about the demon ya summoned? All that junk with the portal? How yer brother got turned into a kid and ended up havin’ to shoulder all this? Or about watchin’ me go half mad and not thinking that, just maybe, the whole portal deal was dangerous?”

Ford winced. Fiddleford patted him on the shoulder, lightly – an olive branch extended across the yawning chasm between them. Ford didn’t know how to begin breaching that gap.

“O’ course, you didn’t deserve what happened to you either. So for once let’s put aside the pride and stubbornness and just talk.”

His friend’s eyes were pale blue and determined, and his hands were still shaking, and Ford didn’t deserve this kindness. He nodded.

“Okay.”

_______________________________________________________________

Stan woke up and immediately wished he was still asleep.

His skin stung all over, his face hot and itchy against the pillow he was curled up against. His feet ached and there was a crick in his neck, like he’d been thrown around on a rollercoaster. The sound of light scritching filled his ears – the scratching of a pen on paper from somewhere close by.

Being awake was overrated anyway. He tried to ignore the stinging and burrowed deeper into his blankets.

…nope, he was awake for good now. Darn it.

Stan peered up sleepily, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. Ford’s room again? This felt weirdly familiar, like when he’d first woken up in the future. And like that time Ford was across the room at his desk, scribbling away in his fancy journal.

Stan rubbed his eyes and slung his legs over the edge of the bed, carefully dropping to the floor below. It was cold on his aching feet but he could stand, which was a plus! So he probably didn’t have frostbite.

Stan yawned and headed across the room to where his brother was frantically journaling.

“Mornin’, Sixer.”

“Oh! Good morning, Stanley.” Ford clicked his pen and looked around. Stan muffled a shriek.

“Oh geez! What’s wrong with your face?”

Ford’s face was green and shiny and very not normal. The scientist rolled his eyes and explained as though it was obvious, “It’s just a burn gel. I developed it to be far more effective than the regular medicinal kind. Now that you’re awake, you should put it on too.”

Stan let out a nervous laugh. “Uh, no thanks, I think I’m all better now-”

Ford caught him by the shirt before Stan could bolt. He kicked and complained as his brother produced a tube of gel.

“Don’t you dare put that on me, it looks like snot-”

Ford smeared a bit on his cheek.

It… actually made the pain go away. Stan stilled as the cool gel took effect, numbing the stinging of his skin. Ford let him go and offered him the tube. Stan wanted to smack it out of his hands just to stop Ford making that smug face, but his skin really stung…

He took the tube.

“Better now?” Ford said, annoyingly smug. Stan poked his tongue out. “Very mature, Stanley.”

“I’m not the adult! I’m not supposed to be mature.”

“That’s very true.” Ford turned around in his chair and continued writing.

Once Stan was done covering his face in gross-looking gel he stretched up on his tiptoes to see what Ford was doing. The nerd had one of his journals and he was writing in a new entry, a bunch of crumpled-up pieces of paper littering the table. Even if Stan had been good at reading, he doubted he would be able to understand Ford’s loopy scribbles.

“Where’s Fidds?” Stan asked after a moment. Ford reached the end of the page and flipped over to a fresh one.

“He’s gone home to see his family. Now that Bill isn’t a threat anymore he wants to mend bridges, so to speak. I… also need to do that.”

Ford looked around to meet his eyes and ugh, he was going to say something sappy wasn’t he? Stan reached up to try and pull himself onto the desk, but he didn’t quite have the upper body strength and ended up kicking in the air. Ford sighed, brushed his journal to the side and lifted Stan into its place. He swung his legs awkwardly.

“…I have an apology to make.” Ford said eventually. Stan tilted his head. “Listen, Stanley. I’ve recently come to terms with the fact that I – well, I haven’t been fair to you. I let anger cloud my judgment for years, I valued that anger more than my own brother. I’m sorry.” Ford lifted a head to rub at his neck, eyes darting around the room but never landing on Stan’s face. “We’ve both made mistakes, obviously, and neither of us is without blame, but… ugh, that’s not how you apologize.” He seemed to pull himself together and try again. “What I’m saying is that I was unfair to you. I was hurt so I hurt you, and I think I may have ruined your life-”

Stan burst out laughing.

He didn’t mean to laugh, honest, but the sight of Ford’s nervous, sincere expression covered in green goo was just too much to handle. He tried to stifle his giggles with his hands, caught sight of Ford’s shocked face, and burst out laughing again so hard that his ribs hurt.

“I – this is funny to you? I’m trying to apologize-”

“No, it’s not that!” The hurt in Ford’s voice made everything a little less funny. Stan opened his mouth to explain, choked on his own spit and went into a coughing fit. It turns out, it’s hard to speak when you’re hacking your lungs up. Ford seemed to take pity on him and thumped him on the back until Stan could breathe again. “It’s just-” Another cough. “You look so funny, Poindexter.”

Ford’s eyebrows furrowed, and Stan pointed at his own green face to demonstrate.

“We look like ogres and you’re choosing now to be all sappy and sorry. I mean, you gotta see that it’s a bit funny.”

“…I suppose.” The corner of Ford’s mouth lifted and he didn’t look mad, so Stan took that as a win. He paused, trying to understand everything that Ford had just thrown at him. Most of it was just confusing, and Ford really seemed to have decide that the weird dreams were memories even though Stan didn’t get most of them. He wasn’t dumb though. That science fair thing actually had happened, with Stan ruining Ford’s project and getting kicked out. Reaching out to his brother and having the curtains being closed in his face – that had really happened.

As for the rest, all those dark and depressing ones, he kinda hoped they were just dreams. If they weren’t, if they were real, he wasn’t sure he wanted to live through them.

…no, wait. He already had lived through them, hadn’t he? He just couldn’t remember it. Because these were memories he’d lost and was getting back, Ford said so. Stan wondered what kind of person he’d ended up being. Probably cool and badass. With a sword. No, knuckledusters, those were way cooler! And maybe an eyepatch.

He got the sense that a grown-up him with all those memories and experiences would be angrier, but he couldn’t imagine any version of himself turning their back on their brother.

“I mean, I don’t think you ruined my life.” Stan reasoned, making Ford blink. “It was Pa that kicked me out, right?”

“But it was my fault-”

“And probably mine too. I make plenty of mistakes. You remember that time I kinda accidentally stole Pa’s medallion because I broke the case and panicked?”

Ford let out a little laugh. Stan reached out to punch him in the shoulder.

“Look, I dunno, I’m a kid. You gotta talk to grown-up me. But I’ll always forgive ya, Ford. Otherwise I’d be a hip-oh-crit.”

“The word is ‘hypocrite’.” Ford muttered quietly, and Stan could have sworn his brother’s eyes were pink and shiny. He decided to be very cool and nice and not mention it.

“But!” Stan pointed a finger at Ford’s nose and the man went cross-eyed looking at it. “I’m still mad about you being a jerk. You gotta make up for that.”

“…what do you want me to do?”

Hm. Stan hadn’t thought this far ahead. He paused as he thought. “You have to… take me on an adventure! And I get to ride on your shoulders and be tall whenever I want.”

Ford opened his mouth to argue, and then closed it again. Stan fist-pumped triumphantly.

“Yes! No takebacks! I wanna go beat up those unicorns!”

“Sure, Stan.” Ford let out a long-suffering sigh, but not the serious kind – the joking kind that meant he was having fun. It felt nice. It felt like coming home.

#fic #my fic #gravity falls #the stans #rewind #chapter 10

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jadoue1999 · 3 years

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The X-Men and the member they lost - Chapter 4

Summary: This chapter references the 6th episode of WandaVision and the events from Wanda's point of view in my previous story in chapter 2-3-4. I recommend reading those before continuing, but the best would be to read the entire story. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Previous parts: Chapter 1 , Chapter 2 , Chapter 3 , Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8,

Chapter 4: Regrets

The episode continued with both the twins talking directly to the camera. Erik frowned at this unusual situation, was this how television worked past the eighties? Billy was dressed up as some sort of magician and was talking about Halloween. The two brothers argued about the true meaning of the holiday, one saying something about being someone else for a day and the other one saying it was all about candies and scaring people. Erik smirked, from the little time he had been with Peter, he, too, would have probably said the same thing had he been asked. Speaking of him, he had yet to appear. Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait long as the twins moved to the living room, where he was laying on the couch, sleeping. The metal bender was still feeling uneasy about the blonde hair. The boys talked, the one wearing the cape seemed suspicious of him. They argued about waking him up, but he beat them to it.

“Blood is thicker than water, I show you!” Peter screamed as he sped off the couch. The twins yelled and started pacing around the couch as Peter used his speed to circle around the sofa. Erik smirked despite himself, it might have been a pretend, but the speedster really did seem to have a good time with his fake nephews. The scene cut to Wanda going down the stairs wearing a costume she qualified as a fortune teller. Peter watched her, unimpressed.

“Wow, that is so...”

“Rad!”

“Lame”

He frowned, that was a little strange, and rude. Charles probably felt his confusion since he turned to him. His gaze was enough to inform him that he too found the line strange. It switched to a reference to their childhood to which the redhead seemed confused about. But that didn’t make sense, she had casted him as Pietro; surely, he would have his memories as well? The husband walked down the stairs wearing a frankly ridiculous costume. Peter also made fun of him by trying to guess what he was dressed as. Vision walked to his wife and seemed to challenge her authority once again. He quickly moved on and pointed out how Wanda hadn’t really talked about her brother before. The scene cut to him and the twins playing games. Then the android decided to go off on his own, to which Peter stepped in.

“Don't sweat it, sis. I got the old XY chromosome. Uncle P to the rescue, uh?”

Raven spoke up at the strange line, “is- is he referring to the X gene? I know it doesn’t make any sense since it doesn’t seem to exist in this universe, but it’s so specific...”

Erik agreed with the shapeshifter, while it technically made sense in the sitcom word; it was way too specific to just be a throw away line. Was Peter conscious to a certain degree? He secretly hoped not, he must have been suffering greatly if he was.

Peter then asked about balloons and shaving cream, something that had apparently happened at the manor before because Charles sighed suddenly in exasperation. He was vaguely whispering about the clean up it took after one of his pranks. Peter and the long-haired twin sped off at Wanda’s complaint about their lack of costumes, coming back with matching ones and spiky hair. From what Erik could gather, they were probably dressed as runners, their hair up perhaps meant that they were going fast? He had no idea; he had never really dressed up for Halloween before.

The scene cut to the neighborhood where everyone was out and trick or treating. He had never seen so many town resident active at the same time, and now there were children. Erik noted with curiosity that the ratio parent to child didn’t really make sense; not enough kids were out for the number of adults present. He suddenly had an idea.

“Charles,” he said, turning to the man, “with that many residents, perhaps Wanda’s hold is weakened; can you read any of their mind?”

The telepath put a hand to his head in concentration and stared at the screen for a few seconds. His gaze didn’t falter as he desperately tried to make contact with the poor townspeople. After a moment, he shook his head.

“There’s something blocking me from seeing into anyone’s mind; I’m betting Wanda has something to do with it.”

Erik sighed in defeat and turned back to the screen, the children were off, and the redhead was questioning Peter.

“You're testing me.” He told her accusingly, she widened her eyes at the accusation, apparently not fond of being so easily read.

“No, I'm not.”

Peter raised his hand in surrender, showing he didn’t blame her. “Hey, it's cool. I know I look different.”

“Why do you... look different?”

Erik stared at the screen anxiously, Wanda was definitely aware that something was wrong. How could Peter answer anything that wouldn’t sound suspicious? He had always been quick to find something to say, hopefully he would still have it, even mind controlled.

Peter tilted his head, acting nonchalant. “You tell me. I mean, if I found Shangri-La, I wouldn't wanna be reminded of the past either.”

Whatever that place was, he had never heard of it, but the context made it seem like a perfect place without remorse. The children came back, asking for more candies and Peter suggested to use superspeed to be more efficient. That was... strange to say the least. He was running with the boys without worrying about whiplash, they were holding on to his belt. They really seemed happy, like any uncle and his nephews. Slight worry crept into his chest as he noticed that his speed now showed up on camera; something it never did before. Was he slowing down for the sake of the show? Also, there was a little blue lingering behind him. Raged filled Erik as he realized that Wanda had changed the aspect of his speed to match her late brother’s. She had erased his name, his hair and now his speed; was there something this woman couldn’t and wouldn’t do to fulfill her fantasy world?

She went to talk to the neighbor on the left, Herb if he remembered well. It turned out that Vision wasn’t actually on duty, which meant he had broken out of her control for now. That assumption was right, the next scene showed the android walking through the neighborhood, feeling uneasy about his surroundings. He smiled to some passerby as he noticed a couple putting up decorations. Except they were not.

“Is this a common occurrence?” He questioned his friend. Both adults were stuck in a loop, the woman was in the process of hooking up a ghost, but she lowered her arm before she ever reached the fishing line. The husband in the back keep picking up and putting down a bucket.

“No, it isn’t,” said Charles. He frowned as a tear rolled down the woman’s cheek, ”they are trapped in their minds, but unable to do anything. Wanda is sidelining them because they’re not useful to her right now, but they have to keep acting as they would be if she were there.”

Erik stared at the wall, deep in thoughts. They were all suffering, that meant... “Is Peter stuck in his mind as well?” The telepath was silent, but it was enough to confirm his fears. “I wish he could have told me earlier, perhaps I would have been enough to save him from this fate.”

Charles shook his head with a serious face. “Don’t say this, old friend, even I did not sense anything amiss the night of his disappearance. As for knowing earlier, Peter didn’t tell anyone other than Raven. She’s the one that told me.”

He looked at the screen where Vision was still observing his surroundings with discomfort. “Watching this woman puppet my son on her show just serves as a reminder that I missed nearly thirty years of his life. And even now that I’m aware of his existence, I can’t do anything to save him from this nightmare.”

Charles stopped him from saying anything more as he put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Erik, Peter is a very secretive person. And as much as he rambles like his life depends on it; we never knew his real name or the fact that he had a twin sister.”

He had to give it to his friend, Peter hadn’t really spoken much about his past to anyone. But had he been aware that he had a son, could he have made a difference?

The screen now showed Vision walking away and it cut to a commercial. Erik didn’t watch much as he was contemplating what the episode had been so far. He had seen horrible things in his life, but Wanda’s little perfect life was unsettling. There was no record of how she made it in any of the files, it just appeared out of nowhere. The only other person he had seen displaying a power that was close to what the redhead was doing was, ironically, Jean; the other redhead he knew at the mansion. He had seen her unleashing hell to destroy En Sabah Nur back at Cairo and had been impressed since.

He was pulled out of his thoughts as Kurt panicked at whatever was going on at the television. The little boy was slowly decomposing. He wasn’t sure was had happened previously, but he watched in disbelief as the boy’s cheeks hollowed out and his eyes slowly disappeared. Then all that was left was a skeleton as the screen showed a picture of a yogurt brand.

‘Yo-Magic! The snack for survivors!’

What was that commercial? What did it even mean? Was there a threat looking to consume Wanda’s magic or was it a metaphor for what was happening to all the citizens? Everything in this show seemed to have a double meaning. He really should have paid attention. The screen switched to Wanda, Peter and the boys. They were walking in front of a theater that showed movies that hadn’t come out yet. Well, except maybe parents trap but he doubted it was the original one. Peter was complaining about having to return the candies and Wanda was teasing him about being a bad influence. The speedster turned to her, offended.

“I'm just trying to do my part, okay?” Erik frowned, his part? Could he be aware about his predicament? If so, why not try to escape? Or perhaps she wasn’t able to completely subdue him, and he ended up being casted as someone that knew too much for his own good. There was no telling what was going in the speedster’s head. Peter continued his rant, explaining his purpose, “Come to town unexpectedly, create tension with the brother-in-law, stir up trouble with the rugrats, and ultimately give you grief. I mean, that's what you wanted, isn't it?”

His remark earned a general frown from the viewers in the room, what did she want?

Wanda narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion, “What happened to your accent?”

Peter didn’t let her get to him as he snapped back, “What happened to yours?” That caught her off guard, though Erik couldn’t think why. Perhaps she was supposed to have an accent? Her files did say that she was from this Sokovia place in Europe.

Kurt suddenly spoke up, “I know Peter can be sarcastic, but he’s being very rude. He’s never like that normally; is that his role or is it him being conscious and trying to hide it?”

The teen had a point. The speedster was hyper and excited, but he wasn’t rude. The lines he was forced to say definitely didn’t sound like something he’d just blurt out at someone he was supposed to consider family. Peter continued talking about being shot for no reasons and hearing her voice calling to him. That was definitely the other brother’s memories, that was for certain. Erik wasn’t sure how to feel about this. Did it mean that his son would now be stuck with a double set of memories trapped in his head? Was he torn between two versions of himself? He couldn’t dwell on his questions as the children came running back. “They've got full-size candy bars a few blocks up. Mom, can we go?” Tommy was suddenly gone in a blur and back in an instant, with candy bars in his hand. He looked proud as he exclaimed, “Next stop, Cavity Town!”

The excitement on Peter’s face was something that made Erik smile. He found himself wishing that the circumstances were different, perhaps Peter could have reacted the same way to a student. The way his eyes gleamed up and his mouth turned into a wide grin seemed so genuine, so much like Peter. “Right on, little dude! Chip off the old Maximoff block. You've got super speed!”

Wanda and Peter looked at each other with pride in their eyes. If Erik hadn’t known better, he truly could have believed that they were siblings. They simply felt right together. He watched as Tommy broke into superspeed, running all around the place as Wanda slowly began to get more serious. Peter, though, was grinning like a mad man and repeatedly nodding in approval as the mini speedster raced through the street. Their fun was cut short as Wanda grabbed her son, stopping him abruptly. He frowned at her movement, if there was one truth about Peter, it was that once he started, he couldn’t be stopped by anyone. He was simply too fast. It was because of his superspeed, no one could touch him. It had to be the same for Tommy. How could she even see the young speedster in the first place? Let alone being able to grab him without any whiplash. Wanda then warned them to not go past Ellis Avenue. From her tone, he had to assume that it was the end of the barrier.

Raven turned to Charles, “he has superspeed, is he a mutant?”

The professor continued to look at the screen. “By how it manifested so suddenly, we have to assume that they are. The real question is, did Wanda steal mutant children from our dimension or are those children her own?”

The next few scenes were unexpected to say the least. Vision had found the dreaded Avenue and realized that no one was moving. He switched to a futuristic looking suit and flew in the air. The voices of the residents were echoing in the screen. Vision spotted a lone car, which ended up being Agnes’. She wasn’t moving either, that was unsettling since the woman usually was always so full of life. The robot did his best to question her, but she seemed barely aware of her surroundings.

“How can she even move at all? No one else is,” chimed in Raven.

That... was a valid question. Perhaps the fact that she was usually so close to Wanda gave her a slight immunity against the end of the barrier? He didn’t have time to tell his idea, Vision suddenly woke up the neighbor. It didn’t help much though, she confirmed that it was Wanda who controlled them and then started freaking out. He put her back under the spell and she drove away. The scene cut away as he was nearing the barrier.

Peter and Wanda were walking through the straw maze and sat on one of straw bundles. They talked a little about their parents and how she truly was living her best life. Then Peter pulled a face that was very unlike him and started questioning her. That made no sense, he was pushing for information Wanda should have known. Was there something else in this town talking through his son? She looked frightened for a moment, but Billy ran to her, screaming about their dying father. He was a telepath. Both twins apparently had mutations.

‘Don’t sweat it, sis. It’s not like your dead husband can die twice!’

This remark greatly angered Wanda and her eyes glowed red as she blasted him into nearby decorations. She turned to her son and made him focus on his claim. Judging by the screaming outside of the base, Vision had gone outside the town and the twin sensed it.

The broadcast suddenly cut off.

An alarm blared through the base, ringing loud enough to feel the vibration. Shouts outside of the bunker quickly made them aware of the situation. The barrier was expanding. The three other people with him were quickly picking up their stuff, but Erik couldn’t move. She had blasted his son away, like he was nothing. Was he dead? He hadn’t moved at all, he hoped he was just unconscious. Charles was grabbing his arm, telling him to snap out of it. The world suddenly caught up to him, they were in danger, the barrier was expanding. They had to get away.

He got to his feet, trying desperately to not think about Peter and the pain he had to be in. They ran out of the bunker; the barrier was already beginning to move towards the base. Soldiers were scrambling around, trying to get into cars and escape their upcoming fate. No one was paying attention to them, so Charles turned to the teenager.

“Kurt, you have to get us out of here,” the young man was frozen in place, staring at the approaching red wall. The professor pulled his arm, “Kurt!”

The blue mutant snapped out of his trance and told them to hold on to him. He closed his eyes in concentration, but they didn’t move. He opened his eyes in fear before closing them and trying again. “I- I can’t!” He panicked, “I’m sorry. This is my fault; I can’t do it!”

Raven gave him a reassuring smile and encouraged him to try again. He nodded and concentrated once more. After a few agonizing seconds, the world melted into a puff of smoke and they reappeared a mile away from their previous spot. Erik felt a nausea similar to the one he felt back when Peter broke him out. He looked around with a smirk. They had done it; the boy had succeeded. They looked at each other and laughed in relief, Kurt had saved them. They would live to fight another day, they were- they were-

Not far enough.

The red wall was still moving towards them with increasing speed. There was no escape now, the teen was too exhausted to try moving them again. He grabbed Charles’ hand and braced for impact. The telepath warned them to try to hold on to whatever they deemed was their story. Perhaps they would be able to remain unaffected if they could block their minds from Wanda’s control. He quickly followed his friend’s advice and focused on his life and the reason he was here.

His name was Erik Lehnsherr, he was a mutant, he had lost his family because of the Nazis and he had traveled to a different universe to find his son, Peter.

The wall crashed over them, he felt everything around him pulsing.

His name was Erik Lehnsherr, he was a mutant, he had lost his family and he had traveled to a different universe to find his son, Peter.

He felt Charles slipping away from beside him.

His name was Erik Lehnsherr, he was a mutant, and he had to find his son, Peter.

Raven kept calling for him, telling him to hold on.

His name was Erik Lehnsherr, and he had a son.

The teen he had been traveling with kept apologizing, but he wasn’t sure why.

His name was Erik Lehnsherr.

The woman had gone silent.

His name was... Erik.

He was alone, had he always been alone?

His name was...

It was...

What was his name?

***

Notes: Props to anyone who can tell me what was my reference for Erik going into the Hex (Not Marvel) Thank you for reading, reviews are always appreciated! Next chapter: Charles the Xtraordinary has a visitor

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thefinalcinderella · 3 years

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Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru Chapter 8 - Winter Comes Again (Part 2)

Glad that Kakeru matured but part of me wished he pushed Sakaki down the mountain

Full list of translations here

Translation Notes

1. The Hakone Tozan Line is a mountain railway that goes up Mount Hakone

2. The Tokyo Big6 Baseball League is a baseball league that features 6 prominent Tokyo universities and the oldest in Japan

Previous | Next

In addition to regular training, they also started to do trial runs of the actual course. Since there was a lot of traffic on all the roads, test runs were prohibited, but that didn’t mean the day of the race would come without them having run it even once.

Early in the morning, when there were fewer cars, the members of Chikusei-sou got into the van and headed out, sometimes to the Otemachi area, other times to the Shonan coast. They tried to run the course with their own feet, little by little, in small chunks. They engraved into their minds and bodies the ups and downs of the road, and what sort of landmarks were at each kilometer mark.

Kiyose already seemed to have a rough idea of who would run which leg in his head.

When they were doing a trial run near Yokohama Station, Kiyose said, “Kakeru, do you want to run the second leg?”

The second leg, which went from Tsurumi to Totsuka through Yokohama, was also called ‘Leg 2 of Flowers’ and the aces from each school were often entered into it. Even if you ran a good time in the Hakone Ekiden, whether that was in the second leg or the other legs would make a difference in the backing you got from corporations.

“No,” Kakeru answered.

He wasn’t fixated on Leg 2 of Flowers. No matter which leg he got, he was going to run with all his strength as long as there was a road.

“I see,” Kiyose said, and then silently checked the course.

At the end of October, they went to do a trial run at Hakone. The mountains of Hakone were a single, winding, narrow road. Even though it was a little early for the leaves to have changed color, it was still congested at the weekend.

Kiyose parked the van in the parking lot in front of Hakone-Yumoto Station.

“Now, let’s all run to Lake Ashi,” he said.

“No—!” The twins protested without a moment’s delay.

“On that tough slope that’s hard to even walk up normally? You’re telling us to run twenty kilometers up that?”

“Isn’t it better for only the person who’s running this leg to do the trial run?”

The leg from the Odawara relay station to Lake Ashi, the finish line for the outward route, was called the fifth leg. Most of it consisted of climbing up the slopes of the mountains of Hakone. The sixth leg return trip on the next day was conversely nothing but downward slopes. They had to ascend and descend more than eight hundred meters of altitude all at once.

Each school entered uphill and downhill specialists for the fifth and sixth legs respectively. They were legs that didn’t just require running ability, but also mental and physical strength suited to mountains; the way of doing things was different from running on a flat road. The runners of the fifth and sixth legs needed the tenacity to face the endless uphill slopes, or the courage to go as fast as they could on sudden downward slopes without getting cold feet. Naturally, it put a lot of strain on the legs, so it was preferable to have a body that was not prone to injuries.

“Shindou-san is a shoo-in for the fifth leg,” Prince said. “Upward slopes are his specialty.”

“We came all the way here together and I’m the only one running?” Even Shindou’s expression clouded over, probably thinking about all the uphill climbs that lay ahead.

“Everyone’s climbing,” Kiyose asserted. “Don’t you want to see the place we’re heading for as we hand over the sash? You know, Lake Ashi? The most scenic spot near Tokyo?”

“We’ll see it on the day of the race, so I’m fine for now,” King said.

“I don’t think there will be many people who will be able to see it on the day.” Kakeru tilted his head. “We're short on people, so we not only have to run, but also attend to the runners at the relay stations.”

“Then we’ll see it on TV the year after next!” Jouji struggled in vain, but Kiyose had already stopped listening.

“Okay, get ready.”

The mountains of Hakone were more perilous than they imagined. The zigzagging upward slopes went on for what seemed like an eternity.

Kakeru resolutely ran up the mountain together with Kiyose and Shindou. Kiyose was giving Shindou detailed instructions on where to find the places that would tell him his distance and what to look out for when running. However, the others tried to get on the Hakone Tozan Line (1) whenever they saw a chance. Eventually, their speed was no different from walking.

“Maintain your pace,” Kiyose said as he let Shindou go ahead of him. He then looked back. “What’s wrong, you’re too slow!” Kakeru also stopped and waited for everyone to catch up. From the windows of the congested cars, people were watching the jersey-clad Kakeru and the others with great interest.

After much pestering, they finally managed to reach the place with the “highest point” sign.

The highest point of Route 1 in the Hakone mountains was 874 meters above sea level. At that point, the road became wider and the view opened up. The wind was much colder than in Tokyo, making the zebra grass fields ripple like the sea. Kakeru zipped up his jersey all the way to his neck.

A little way down from the highest point, Shindou was waiting for everyone to join him.

“Oh my, that is…” Musa frowned.

Shindou wasn’t the only one there—there were several people wearing TSU jerseys gathered there. They also seemed to be doing a trial run like Kansei. When Kakeru saw that Sakaki was among them, he thought, I don’t like this.

When Sakaki saw that all the members of Chikusei-sou were gathered, he approached them. Kiyose looked unconcerned, pretending not to recognize him, but Kakeru braced himself. Not only the twins and the second-floor residents, but even Nico-chan and Yuki, who usually maintained their mature demeanour, turned toward Sakaki menacingly.

Sakaki didn’t even seem to care that he wasn’t welcome. He stood in front of Kakeru and called out to him amicably.

“Hey, Kurahara. You were great in the qualifiers.”

Kakeru felt disappointed; it was the first time in a long while that Sakaki hadn’t been provocative. Not knowing how to respond, he mumbled, “Ah.”

“Are you doing a trial run today? Kansei’s been training pretty hard too, I see. Let’s both do our best in the race.”

Sakaki looked up at Kakeru, smiling. What’s wrong with him? Kakeru wondered suspiciously. It was weird, since he only had the gift of coming at him as soon as he saw him. However, he might have been more inclined to acknowledge Kansei now that they had advanced to the main race. Maybe he realized that Kakeru was still serious about running and that had melted away his ill feelings from high school. If so, he was glad.

“Yeah,” Kakeru nodded. Sakaki was a former teammate who he once ran with—it was tough for Kakeru to always treat him with a thorny attitude.

Sakaki looked meaningfully at the members of Chikusei-sou standing behind Kakeru.

“You guys really are training hard. We were talking about it just now; about what would we do if we were Kansei runners.”

“What do you mean by ‘what you would do’?”

Kakeru didn’t know what Sakaki was trying to say. It didn’t matter what team you were on, you had to keep practicing and running.

Sakaki told him without dropping his smile.

“No matter how much you train, Kansei only has ten people, right? If just one person gets a cold and has to drop out, then it’s all over. Even if you somehow get into the top ten and get a seed, the fourth years are going to graduate, right? What are you going to do next year?”

Kakeru was taken by surprise: he was aiming to run the Hakone Ekiden with the members of Chikusei-sou; he was seeking his own running; he was so focused on those things that he didn’t even think about the future.

He knew that Kiyose had rejected the people who wanted to join the team after the qualifiers. Even if they wanted to join, they didn’t know how serious they were; there was no guarantee that they would want to join again next spring. No matter how hard Kakeru and the others ran in the Hakone Ekiden, depending on the results, they might not be able to get any new members. If that happened, the ten-member Kansei University team would be finished after only one year.

The truth pointed out by Sakaki caused a quiet disturbance among the members of Chikusei-sou. The twins’ expressions obviously stiffened, and Shindou, Musa, and King looked at each other uneasily. Nico-chan and Yuki tried to silence Sakaki with a look, as though to say, “That’s none of your business.” Only Prince, who was squatting on the roadside from exhaustion, yawned like it had nothing to do with him.

Just as I thought, Sakaki hasn’t forgiven me. He only approached me with a smile in order to shake up the Chikusei-sou residents.

Kakeru was exceedingly hurt by that, but this was no time to hang his head. It would be bad if things went on like this—there was no way they could run a good race in the Hakone Ekiden if their minds were wavering. Kakeru glanced at Kiyose. Kiyose’s face was cold and expressionless, like he was wearing an iron mask. Only his eyes told Kakeru, “You do something about this.”

Sakaki is talking to Kansei with hidden meaning in his words because I’m here. Kakeru desperately tried to think of a way to argue with him. But before he could gather his thoughts, Sakaki said, “See ya,” and went back to his teammates.

Why do I have a hard time coming up with words? If it was just running, then cheetahs and ostriches can also run. Doesn’t this mean that I’m on the same level as an animal? Kakeru was dejected, and then he felt frustrated. He was angry with himself for letting Sakaki go after letting him say whatever he liked.

“He’s a diligent guy, in a certain sense.” Yuki watched Sakaki go, looking impressed.

“Just the fact that Kakeru didn’t try to hit him is progress. Good job,” Kiyose said, his face still an iron mask.

That’s true, Kakeru thought. In the past, he wouldn't have let Sakaki get away with such needless meddling, but he had been so preoccupied with searching for words of rebuttal that he had forgotten that he could have hit him. It would have been quicker if I had punched him. Kakeru felt a growing sense of frustration as well as bewilderment at the change within himself.

I was trying to choose a non-violent approach.

He felt uneasy, like he had been defanged, but he was also a little happy because he felt like he was getting closer to Rikudou’s Fujioka.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kiyose told everyone. “Come on, we’re almost at Lake Ashi. Let’s go.”

Mount Fuji, as seen from the front, was crowned with pure white snow. The members of Chikusei-sou ran down the last slope to Lake Ashi in one go.

“Even though he tells us not to worry about it, we will.”

Kakeru didn’t miss Jouta’s mutter and Jouji’s nod.

Because of Sakaki’s words, the rifts in Chikusei-sou seemed to have become more apparent.

After resting a short while near the lake, they were ready to take on the return mountain descent. Even Kakeru was surprised.

“Aren’t we going to stay overnight?” he asked.

Kiyose answered, “Where would we find that kind of money?” Prince slowly retreated to the bus stop for Hakone-Yumoto.

Kiyose laughed and said, “Don’t worry, you don’t have to run, Prince. Mountain descents tend to cause injuries, so I’ll only ask the ones who might run the sixth leg to run. The rest of you can take the bus back to Hakone-Yumoto first.”

Kiyose designated the twins and Yuki.

“So does that mean it’s okay if my legs get injured?” Yuki didn’t seem convinced.

“You and the twins rode the Hakone Tozan Line from Oohiradai Station to Kowakidani Station, didn’t you? Did you really think you could do that behind my back?” Kiyose said. “You should have enough strength remaining to descend the mountain. And Yuki, your center of gravity is low and stable, probably because of your kendo background.”

Yuki shut his mouth. The twins were still whispering to each other.

“We’re tired, and now we have to run back too.”

“There’s no point in training this much.”

“Twins, if you have any comments, I’m all ears.”

The twins shook their heads in unison.

Kiyose was going to run down the mountain with the twins and Yuki. Kakeru was worried about his injured right leg.

“I’ll go, Haiji-san. You shouldn’t force yourself.”

“I’ll be going slow, so I’ll be fine. Look, the bus is here.”

At his urging, Kakeru got on the bus.

The bus got stuck in traffic in the Hakone mountains, and Yuki and the twins, who were running down the mountain, caught up with it. Even though he said he would go slowly, Kiyose was following the three perfectly as they ran down the mountain, seemingly giving them instructions and warnings.

Kakeru and the others watched the scene from the bus windows as they passed each other repeatedly.

“It might have been faster if we had just run,” Nico-chan muttered impatiently as the bus crawled forward.

“I’m never getting off,” Prince declared from the seat he had taken up residence in. Musa and Shindou observed Yuki running with a long stride down the steep incline.

“I see, if you do not have flexible hip joints, you will not be good at mountain descents.”

“In order to soften the impact of landing, you need flexible leg muscles and strength in your hips and knees.”

King was unusually silent, watching the running twins with a serious expression on his face. I see, Kakeru thought.

What’s the point of participating in the Hakone Ekiden if there’s nothing to connect to next? Sakaki had said. But that was wrong—running should be a pure act for oneself.

It was true that “for oneself” might extend to “for the team” in a long-distance relay race, where everyone aimed for the finish line while handing over the sash to each other. However, that was as far as it went.

In the end, it was you and your teammates who were running. The fate of the team after that wasn’t something to be considered while running the Hakone Ekiden.

The first people that came up with the idea of running a relay race between Tokyo and Hakone and put it into action—they must have done so because they loved running. There was no guarantee what would happen to the team, or if the race would be held in the same way the next year. Even so, they probably couldn’t help but start the Hakone Ekiden, because they dreamed of running. And they believed that those who shared their passion for running would continue it after them.

That was why the Hakone Ekiden was always open to all universities in the Kanto region. That made it different from the similarly traditional Tokyo Big6 Baseball League (2); since the race was not limited to specific universities, no matter which new school you were a student at, any runner who wished to participate in Hakone was given equal opportunity.

This was probably what Sakaki wanted to say: “At a powerhouse school, I devote myself to running with other members who are good runners. That is how to do sports and compete. That is the meaning of running.”

Sakaki isn’t always wrong in what he says. But it’s not the same for me; it's somewhat different from what I’m looking for, what I hope to find through running.

That’s fine, Kakeru thought. Being different isn’t bad. But it was a little sad. They used to run on the same team, and they were still looking in the same direction when it came to running, but there was a definite disconnect between him and Sakaki; it was difficult to deal with the fact that the conflict that had grown between them over the years was finally becoming clear.

Kakeru waited with everyone in the Hakone-Yumoto parking lot for Kiyose and the others to finish running. When everyone climbed into the van and departed for Chikusei-sou, it was already evening.

Inside the van, Kakeru spoke.

“When I was a kid, I used to watch the Hakone Ekiden on TV every New Year’s Day.”

“Oh, me too.” Shindou was bewildered by Kakeru suddenly talking, but he calmly responded.

“I always thought, ‘I want to run like that someday, too. I want to be in the Hakone Ekiden, too.’ I’m happy that my dream came true.”

Kakeru earnestly searched for the words, in order to convey them to everyone in the van with him. “That’s why, I think it’s fine not to think about what will happen to Kansei next year. Even if Haiji-san and the others graduate and there are no longer ten people on the team, it doesn’t mean that's the end. Maybe there will be a kid somewhere who sees us on TV and thinks running is cool, just like how I thought that when I was a kid. I think that’s pretty great.”

“Is that…” Prince spoke up. “...A Kakeru-style response to what that TSU first-year said to you earlier?”

“Yes.”

“That kind of thing means nothing if you don’t say it to him directly right then and there.” Nico-chan rubbed the stubble on his chin.

“Kakeru is too slow with everything but running. You have to train yourself to use your brain a little more.” Yuki’s cheek twitched.

“I’m sorry,” Kakeru apologized.

“But Kakeru has come a long way in being able to properly express his opinions.”

“That is right.”

Shindou and Musa kindly backed him up.

“You guys are complimenting him like he’s in kindergarten,” Jouta teased, and Kakeru felt his cheeks turning hot with shame. He always missed the timing on what he should say, and he was irritated and embarrassed at himself for that.

“But, Kakeru.” King poked his head forward from the seat behind him. “Aren’t you just glossing over the problem?”

“He’s right.” Jouji crossed his arms next to Kakeru. “It doesn’t matter how many little kids get into running, since it doesn’t have anything to do with us. Isn’t that pointless?”

You have a point, Kakeru was about to nod, but then hurriedly shook his head. Some part of him screamed, “No!”

“I think I continued because it was beautiful,” Kakeru said. “Because the running form is beautiful. That’s why the people who watch the Hakone Ekiden think, How wonderful, and support it and try their best to run as well.”

For the sake of the team, for the children watching the Hakone Ekiden on TV—and more than anything, running beautifully and powerfully for yourself; that was all he focused on.

“Kakeru really is stoic,” Jouji let out a sigh that could have been either amazement or surrender.

Kiyose wordlessly turned the steering wheel and the car pulled onto Odawara-Atsugi Road as night fell.

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#Kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteiru #kazetsuyo #kazetsuyo translations #run with the wind

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tundrainafrica · 3 years

Text

Title: A Tale of Two Slaves (7/17)

Summary: “Soulmates don’t exist. Fate doesn’t exist. Everything is a choice.” At that moment, Levi could only watch as she made the choice for him.“

Reincarnation AU. Levi remembers everything from their past life. Hange doesn’t.

Note: I was busy with fic exchange pieces for a while but will be focusing on updating my multi chapter fics now. As always, feedback is very much appreciated :D

Other Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 8

Link to cross-postings: AO3

“So you’re Levi Ackerman?” The woman who had just entered the room looked excited. Too excited.

After being kept waiting that long, Levi was in no mood for anything, especially unnecessary pleasantries. For the past thirty minutes at least, he had been sitting on the couch of a quaint office. It was spacious and there was at least enough room on the couch to elevate his knee comfortably. Probably the reason he had the self control to give a curt nod in reply.

“I’m a fan! I watched a few of your events actually and I’m so glad to have you here,” she said too enthusiastically. She paused for a second and shook her head. “No, I’m horrified about you being injured which caused you to end up here but I’m just really excited to get to know you.”

Levi didn’t feel the need to reply.

She walked to her desk and dropped her canvas bag before sitting on the couch in front of Levi. “Sorry for being a little late. I just came out from another meeting and went out to get something to eat after. Maybe I could give you my number and you could text me if you get here before I do.” She took a post-it out of her purse and scrawled a few numbers on it and slid it towards Levi.

Shouldn’t you have my number? Somehow it was hard to believe that she was a counselor. “Name?” Levi asked.

“Shela. Just call me Shela.”

Levi had met those types of people before who go by nicknames. More often than not, he couldn’t blame them, usually they had a very old fashioned or embarrassing name behind it. He couldn’t believe someone as transparent or excitable as her who didn’t look like she had much control of her filter, would have issues about how embarrassing a name was though.

“I have a very old fashioned first name.” Shela added, only confirming Levi’s suspicions. “Shela… Sierra - Hotel - Echo - Lima - Alpha.”

Levi typed the name on his phone and saved the number.

Last Name? Academic History? He set the rest of the details aside. As long as he knew her name, he could probably get through enough sessions to at least keep both his coach and Erwin satisfied. Going to a counselor was not his idea after all. It was his coach apparently who had requested it and it was Erwin who had pushed for it. Without twice a day training or even the freedom to go wherever he wanted without being completely exhausted within hours, Levi had not much of anything else to do anyway.

Shela brought out a notebook from her purse, opened it to a bookmark paged and wrote something on it before looking up at him. Levi couldn’t help but note that when she wasn’t looking ashamed or overly enthusiastic and she did look like she knew what she was doing.

“I’m going to skip the question of ‘what brings you here’ because I think we all know why you’re here.” She gestured her pen towards Levi’s leg. “Let’s start with something simple. How are you? How are you feeling today?”

“My knee hurts and I can’t train anymore. But I’m focusing on studies now so I think I’m doing okay.” He answered, having prepared that script in his head the thirty minutes he spent waiting for her.

“I’m not asking how you’re coping. I’m asking how you’re feeling today.” Shela’s piercing eyes were a beautiful shade of blue. The serious look she gave him then bore into him. In fact, it felt like it bore into his soul.

Despite the generally bad first impression she gave him, Levi was somehow convinced that she was qualified to do that type of work and his showing up there might turn out to be worth something after all. Levi found himself almost hypnotized by that look she gave him, a healthy mixture of concern, interest and professionalism.

Hiding and watching his words felt pointless and Levi found himself saying his answers as his brain came up with them.

A Tale of Two Slaves

The hospital where he was slated to have his next sessions was that same hospital he had stayed in a week ago. Conveniently, it was a five minute walk from where he had been staying since he got out of the hospital: Hange’s apartment.

Just until I can walk up stairs. Levi had told himself. There were many dormitories clustered around campus yet he had ended up staying in the least handicap friendly one. The first floor had a lobby and a common room and the actual bedrooms were only found at the second floor and the third floor. To top it all off, there was no elevator. He had to note though that it was an old building with only three floors so it would have been useless to put one.

He was on scholarship and it was assigned to him back in first year so he did not have much of a choice. He didn’t need to think too much of it either that past three years of college since he had never been injured enough to the point of being unable to climb stairs

With his leg completely immobilized and a deadweight, Levi was sure it would be a nightmare to brave that everyday. The paperwork and legwork required to change dormitories in the middle of the semester seemed daunting as well. In the end, Hange had offered to let him stay over in her apartment.

Her condominium was spacious, it had an elevator and it was walking distance from the hospital where he’d have both his counseling and physical therapy sessions.

Walking Distance. For non handicapped people, it should only take five minutes to walk the two block distance from the hospital to the apartment building. Levi took ten minutes to clear it and by the end of it he was exhausted and despite the chill of mid autumn, Levi found himself sweating as he arrived in the apartment.

It was a Friday afternoon, a week after he was released from the hospital. Nobody was pressuring him to go back to school yet. His professors had been kind enough to send him lecture slides and give him extensions. Some classmates had dropped their own summarized notes and get-well messages.

Levi settled on his bed and propped his knee on his pillow, looking through the lecture slides of his last class. Despite his self imposed week long isolation, Levi just wanted to go back to normal life.

But it never will be normal again. Although Levi did see a glimmer of hope in the possibility of feeling normal again when he went back to school, the realist in him knew it wouldn't happen.

Levi was supposed to be in the process of accepting at least that it would never be the “normal” he used to have and had taken for granted. Something inside him was rebelling the process though.

If I can't live the life I want, then I won't live at all. That something screamed inside him.

That form of rebellion left Levi with little energy for anything else. His mind was slower. His body was heavier. He was seeing little reason to move beyond the mechanical and primal movements needed to survive.

As if by magic, his body that used to carry him over two meter tall bars, suddenly felt like it weighed a ton. The weight crushed him everyday. At times Levi found himself unable to breathe. That was he found himself in that same position for sixteen hours a day, either sleeping or staring at the same white ceiling above him.

In fact, the only time he had left the Hange's apartment was for that one counseling session Hange had prodded him to go to. That was the only time she had forced him to go out of the house as if she herself understood somehow the comfort and at the same time the panic that came with a self imposed isolation.

What else was there to do?

He was alone. He had kept to his own bubble in college, only flitting between the two islands of academics and trainings.He was always either busy or exhausted and the lack of in-between had given him little time to reflect on the state of his mental health. And suddenly he had lost one of his islands, the bigger one, the one that had given him meaning the past few years. That had left him completely and utterly lost. Maybe even desolate.

That was what Shela had pointed out in their first counseling session as Levi attempted to articulate the emptiness inside him, the slight panic that came with idleness, the sudden need to turn off all message notifications and the frequent mood changes that came with Hange's entering and exiting the apartment.

And his weird dependence on Hange.

In between studying for his three subjects that semester and icing his bum knee, what else was there to do? Wait for Hange to come home? Talk to her during that one to two hour window when she wasn't working on her thesis? That was what his life had ended up revolving around anyway.

Levi found himself only replying to anything related to studies or graduating. He had received a few messages from others, suggestions to visit training, offers to visit from teammates and he had ignored them all. Somehow, the reminder of the loss of the one hobby that had kept him busy for the past decade of his life, was mocking. He became someone who waits, someone who just went with the flow of everyone's schedule. Having been busy his whole life, having been constantly needed and looked for and only recently, having been reduced to where he was, Levi felt his life was just a series of wrong choices, wrong choices that only formed a distrust with himself and consequently a refusal to engage in activity.

What else am I supposed to be doing? Levi opened his laptop. For a moment he had tried to go through his school notes at Shela’s advice.

After less than an hour of halfheartedly reviewing his notes and forgetting it soon after, Levi had exhausted his already scarce energy. With nothing else to do, he had decided to move to scrolling through timelines which displayed little to no signs of real life obligations, pinterest and reddit to pass the time. Within an hour of just scrolling through both, he had gotten tired of it too. It was a new feeling. Usually he could drown himself in hours of social media and timelines but at that point, nothing was interesting to him anymore.

Have you tried writing out how you feel? Shela’s suggestion echoed in his head. Like maybe get a journal. It’s a great way to process your thoughts and emotions.

What’s there to write. Levi asked himself and Shela’s voice as it echoed in his head. Levi could only stare at the blank screen, his emotions too non-existent to write. The blank document he had opened in front of him was the best representation of his thoughts and emotions already.

There are no right or wrong answers. Shela had brought up another good point during their session.

You think, therefore you are. You feel therefore you are. As long as you’re processing images, sounds and sensations, you’re thinking. You’re feeling something and you can write something down.

Then why do I feel so empty? Levi had asked.

Shela had compared it to a false bottom. As he continued to stare at the blank page in front of him, Levi was starting to feel for that false bottom in his mind. It was a matter of discipline more than anything, determination to dig into one’s self.

It could have taken hours but as Levi looked at the time on his laptop, he realized much time hadn’t passed. In fact, the time to the lower right of his screen, was still the same. But Levi was starting to think differently.

He did have something to look back on. Stories he hadn’t thought back to in a while, having been occupied by training, Hange’s tests, studies and recoveries. They continued to taunt him in the mornings. With the magic of worldly obligations, Levi had managed to set them aside.

His motivations particularly lay in the fact that his world was a little bigger, he was talking to more people and the idea that these same people he was seeing were the same ones he’d been writing fictional stories for had him questioning his own sanity and had him a little self conscious about having those dreams in the first place.

At that moment though, his inability to think and feel beyond that false bottom had Levi more alarmed and he found himself attempting to articulate those dreams on the word processor just to experience a semblance of something.

Levi at least confirmed one thing, that bottom was false. And the more he articulated those dreams, the more they became real. He was starting to scrape on that false bottom and the first things that were oozing out were dreams. Somehow, the dreams were more vivid that he had ever remembered them to be. He felt almost guilty for having set them aside like some sort of fair weathered friend.

“Hey not bad! Is that homework?”

Levi tensed up in surprise. He should have been able to hear the familiar footsteps and the jangle of the keys from his place on the sofa bed. He never missed it once. Levi didn’t know if he should be proud that he had distracted himself enough not to consider Hange or terrified that she was right behind him at that moment, probably reading through his work.

He quickly closed his tab and looked at the time on the lower right. It was only five. Hange usually went home at seven.

“You’re early,” Levi commented.

“It’s my apartment. I can choose when to go home.” Hange answered. “Anyway what was that? Are you writing?��

“A journal,” Levi explained. There was not much point in lying.

“Did the counselor tell you to do that?”

“Yeah. Something about processing emotions and thoughts.”

“It’s a good exercise. Especially since you seemed pretty out of it recently...” Hange trailed off.

Levi looked back at her and noticed a flicker of what looked like guilt in Hange’s eyes before she looked away.

“Out of it?” Levi knew what she was talking about. He just felt the need to keep the conversation going.

“You spent the past weekend just lying in bed. I never even saw you look through your phone or open your laptop. ” Hange explained. “I’ve seen how these types of things develop so... So yeah, I’m just so happy to see you so focused on something else.”

“I don’t really have much else to get into other than school.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Hange said.

Levi bit his lip, instantly regretting that last sentence. Hange averaged two apologies a day which was a lot given the fact that they only ever had a two hour window to talk in between Levi’s long hours asleep and Hange’s long hours on campus.

“It wasn’t your fault. I was kinda going crazy too...With the jumping I mean.” He added. “And I was the one who decided to make that last jump in the first place. And now you have to change your whole thesis topic.”

“It wasn’t too difficult. Just one week building a new proposal. It’s still the same case study, it’s just I decided to document a recovery. Erwin’s unconventional methods with the recovery makes it worth documenting.”

“At least I’m still useful somewhere,” Levi commented wryly. Hange had explained the thesis to him over the weekend. He should have been relieved at least to know that they weren’t separating anytime soon. Surprisingly though, he wasn’t even happy to hear it. Everything around him just seemed too bleak to celebrate anything. Good news that used to make him smile and celebrate internally suddenly only made him feel a slight sense of relief, the equivalent emotion of seeing a wet floor sign in an area with slippery floors.

Hange sat on the sofa bed next to Levi and looked towards him. She took a deep breath. “I know with what’s been happening, it looks like you don’t have much going for you. And I know things seem pretty dark now but things will get better. You just have to keep living.”

“I’m still breathing.”

“You know what I mean,” Hange said. “When I get up in the morning you’re asleep. When I get back we talk for an hour and half the time it’s just me talking. You barely even answer when I ask what you want. This past weekend I didn’t even see you look through your phone. It’s like you’re practically dead.”

“What else is there to do. I can’t show up for training. My professors aren’t asking me to go back to school soon.”

“Find a new hobby? Continue whatever thing you’re writing. Enjoy the food I bring home. Laugh when you see a funny meme. Or you know, at least smile and do that nose blowing thing people do when you show them a funny meme..”

“My teammates are preparing for the new season. My classmates are at least all caught up in class. I spent too much damn time on that fucking sport. Now that it’s all gone, I feel like I’m just going with the flow of life instead of actually swimming,” Levi said, having taken that last part from Shela’s book.

“Everyone is just going with the flow of life. We’re all at the mercy of time anyway. Live for yourself. See joy in the small things at least. Look at me, I’m simping for athletes like some idiot in between studies.”

“Live for yourself? You follow people’s orders a lot for someone who gives this type of advice.”

“It’s not obeying people. I’m just asking questions and seeking advice. The more relevant facts, information and experience you have, the better the decisions you can make right. So can’t I argue that having more information at my fingertips makes me freer? ” Hange gave Levi a knowing and playful smile

He could tell by the look she gave him that she expected something in return. It was a rhetorical question though, maybe even a premature victory lap for having won that argument. Levi silently looked back at his laptop, not wanting to let her win.

Hange broke the silence. “Okay now that we’re on the topic of asking questions... who’s that Squad Leader Hange Zoe you’re writing about?”

A Tale of Two Slaves

Levi could not pinpoint the exact moment he decided for certain that squad leader Hange Zoe was real, when he decided for himself that the stories he was writing out should have been real.

It came as a gradual decision after incessant questions from Hange that at first, he was determined not to answer. Hange was smart about it, keeping the questions as things that could be answered with one word, and before he knew it, he was giving her too much information, it was pointless to blatantly refuse. After he had answered her more than enough questions, she smiled.

“Looks like you got my personality down,” Hange commented. Levi somehow knew her enough to tell there was no judgement or obligation in that voice. In fact, when he looked into her eyes, he saw that same wonder, he had seen many times before when she witnessed the jumps.

That wonder only carried over from questions on the squad leader to questions on his dreams and finally, to questions on how he wrote his dreams out.

“How do you see the world?”

“How do I see the world?”

“Like what type of camera angles do you see the world in. If I asked you to imagine a tree, what kind of tree do you imagine? Do you imagine it from top to bottom, from trunk to top? Our minds are the most creative producers and cameramen you can think of.”

“Do you notice how well our body blends sensations? When the light turns off then on, there’s a split second where you see shapes when your eyes adjust from light to dark?”

“What are the physical manifestations of emotions? Do you feel your stomach drop? Do you ever get that tingling feeling in your legs and suddenly they’re jelly?”

Did you ever witness something so beautiful that you wish you could live forever just so you could never forget it?

The conversation was a little deep and a little too philosophical for him. It was a ploy to get him writing and maybe a ploy to get him to understand the same wonder she had in the world from what he could tell. Somehow he needed it. The way Hange had described the world, the way she had described reality, only made the line between what could have been his imagination and his memory a little more distinct.

It was around then did he look at Hange Zoe the medical student to see the squad leader from his dreams. Erwin Smith, Hange Zoe and every single one of the soldiers in these dreams. They weren’t just dreams or manifestations of an exhausted mind.

In another life, she could have been real. The angles at which he saw the world, the way his body processed those sensations in his dreams, the manifestations of those emotions, too vivid even more vivid than a catharsis from a good book or a phenomenal ending to a TV show.

The questions continued to echo as Hange turned off the lights and Levi lay in bed awake. That food for the thought left Levi hyper aware of his surroundings, all the way down to the small details --- the way every piece of thread on the bed covers beneath him pressed on to him, the way his breath made a sound in the utter silence late at night no matter how much he tried to quiet it, the way the palpitations in his chest could be felt all the way until his head. He was excited to sleep, dream and take stock of his dreams yet he was too excited to fall asleep.

Like a five year old the night before their first field trip, Levi did not fall asleep anytime soon.

A Tale of Two Slaves

Nobody really questions the logic of dreams.

Sometimes one can find themselves only a few millimeters tall on top of a giant donut. Sometimes they can find themselves having milk tea with their favorite celebrity. Dreams are more felt by the moments they bring to people, not by the logic. It was only natural Levi did not question much of his dreams then.

That night as he lay awake, Levi made the conscious effort to live in his dreams, to take note of every detail from the sights and sounds, to the smells, the emotions, repeating to himself the questions Hange had asked earlier that day. What he had failed to consider then, was the context of dreams.

Were Hange and the others okay?

He found himself on the battlefield and he knew exactly what had to be done. In front of him was a large furry creature which the military had dubbed the Beast Titan and around him were other naked humanoid creatures called titans.

The Beast titan was flinging rocks at them and the soldiers were dying at an alarming rate.

Commander Erwin Smith ordered a suicide mission. All surviving soldiers were to rush towards the Beast Titan while Levi flew from the side of the walls and snuck towards him.

He knew what to do. The movements were natural and Levi had flown before, the gear on his waist had only made the whole mission easier. Somehow, on the battlefield he had the luxury of stock knowledge.

That stock knowledge was what had him slicing through the arms, through the eyes, through the achilles and finally through the nape of said titan. He pulled out a blonde man and pushed the sword through the man’s mouth.

He could feel his blood boiling. From anger? Of course, the man had killed Erwin. For a second, Levi had managed to get a view of the blond commander as he flew from the wall slashing titan after titan. He knew the man was probably dead.

But there was a way to revive him. There was a serum.

Before Levi could give it a second thought, a duck billed monster tore into his view and---

Levi sat up and screamed. He found himself in no hurry to dodge that duck billed titan. He was in Hange's apartment, too injured to be flying in the air in those contraptions anyway. He ran his hands through his body and up to his face, taking stock of his reality. He didn't reek of titan blood nor was he covered in it. He scanned the dark room, or at least what was visible given the moon was his only light source.

Somehow, those few moments as captain Levi had felt so real, watching the moon from his place on the sofa bed seemed almost dreamlike.

Which one is my reality? Levi found himself questioning it all. As quickly as the questions came, they were answered. All he needed was one stimuli, strong enough to root him back into his reality.

"Hey, bad dream?"

The dark room and his own state of mind had made it difficult for him to notice that Hange had settled beside him. That voice though had pulled him out of his trance and he became certain at least that he was not dreaming anymore.

"Yeah," Levi managed to say. At the least he still had control of his voice.

Hange sat cross-legged next to him. The moon was at a perfect angle to illuminate her face and even in the dark room he could see it. Her eyes were looking right at him as if she were studying him a little too seriously.

She brought out one finger to his eye and pushed at the corner. That was when Levi felt it. The small tear spread on the corner of his eye and dried up within seconds. Levi only hastened the process by wiping it himself.

"I'm not leaving you tonight."

"Why?"

"I'll take full responsibility for this. It was my mistake that got you into this in the first place.”

"I've had them before. This is nothing new.” Levi argued. As Hange lay on the sofa bed next to him though, he realized he didn’t want her to leave. His body froze as if understanding that emotion, unwilling to accommodate the protests, the impulse inside him to argue, to force her to go back to her room.

The sofa bed was at least big enough for both of them, wide enough for a comfortable one to two feet space between them. Hange had made sure as well to lie on her side, only widening that space a little more.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve told you this but I swear I really do mean it every time. I’m sorry.” Her voice cracked as she said it.

Levi only continued to stare at the ceiling above him, listening to her disturbed and hitched breaths next to him as if she was holding back something. He didn’t want to look to his side, not wanting to further aggravate a reaction he sensed was raring to come out of her or to further tighten that knot which had settled itself on his chest. His dim surroundings only illuminated weakly by the moon, did not help at all.

Levi lay awake for a while longer, scrambling for words that could placate her.

This is nothing new. It hadn’t worked.

I’m fine. But he wasn’t.

Things happen. Had he not given that same consolation so many times before?

Eventually the rhythm of her breathing evened out enough for Levi to guess that she had fallen asleep, and as if by some special force, Levi found his breathing slowing down too. He was starting to relax.

The apartment was dark and quiet. It was peaceful, so peaceful that Levi never did notice when exactly he was pulled back into his dream. The dimness of the apartment was gradually replaced by the dimness of the forest a long time ago. The distant sounds of passing cars gradually replaced by the crackle of a fire and the rustle of leaves on a windy night.

He was surrounded by trees. A broken wooden cart lay to the side and a few feet away from it a campfire.

The soft and even breathing next to him stayed though. The same exact pattern, the same exact rhythm, the same hitched breaths--- all signs of the light uneasy slumber of his companion.

That was all Levi needed to hear to have sworn nothing much changed about her.

#levihan #levi ackerman #hange zoe #levi x hange #levi x hanji #levihan fanfiction #fanfic

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weasleydream · 3 years

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dreams are my reality - part 3

it’s finally here! This part is what happened during that fateful night and only that. Also i messed with the timeline but nothing too bad.

This may be a bit violent, mention of death and blood.

As usual, feel free to like, comment, reblog and enjoy!

Masterlist

~ i’ll see how the real thing can be and it’s not pretty ~

The muggle village - August 1983

“I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have left us, just that a good friend wouldn’t have cleared out just because McGonagall was walking in the same corridor.”

“Sirius, would you shut up?” I hissed, ready to break his neck if he added one word that wasn’t a yes.

“Of course I’ll shut up, as soon as you admit that quitting on us was a bad thing to do.”

I didn’t need to look at him to know he was smiling goofily, seemingly unaware of the fact that we were walking in an empty alley just because we were looking for a dangerous death eater.

“First of all, you could have run away too if your arse wasn’t glued to the floor. And McGonagall wasn’t just walking in the same corridor, she was coming for us! And Sirius, we were in first year and James and you had dragged me there against my will. Remember?”

And it was true; the memory of Sirius claiming I would be the coolest girl of the school was still fresh in my mind, and with the terror brought by the sound of McGonagall’s steps, I knew it would stay engraved in my brain for a very long time.

“Dragged you?” Sirius made a clicking noise with his tongue. “I’m not even sure one of us grabbed your hand.”

“Oh, not only my hand you idiot, my bag and my wand too!”

“And? You’re clearly not traumatized so-”

Sirius’ voice had died in his throat as soon as the explosion had echoed, yet my blood froze in my veins at the thought that maybe he had gotten us spotted. With the discretion of a cat with soft paws, he crossed the short distance that was separating us and placed himself ahead of me. A glance in my direction - Are you ready? - and a firm nod later, we were running silently toward the place of the village, hoping with all our heart that no one was hurt.

Obviously, the death eater had already left the crime scene. Sirius and I were the last of our group to get there. Remus and James were turning all around the place like caged lions, probably looking for any clue of where the responsible had disappeared. Lily and Peter were struggling in front of the burning church, trying to get the fire to stop and to get the survivors out of this hell. A woman ran into me and my arms wrapped instinctively around her; hers were trembling and her covered in soot hands were slipping on my skin. She was mumbling incoherent sentences in which I didn’t understand anything, and I was sure she was speaking another language. However, her frantic gestures toward the fire lighted something in me, an urge to get in the furnace without even knowing why. I looked up a second to see Lily fussing over a wounded man and Sirius and Peter still trying to control the fire. No one could help me with the poor woman.

She cried out something, a word I didn’t understand.

“Nena! Nena!”

“I don’t know what it means!” I screamed, cursing myself for not being able to understand a single word.

She pointed the finger at her belly, at her heart and finally at the fire. Slowly - way too slowly - I understood what it meant. A baby was in there. I nodded frantically and the woman fell on her knees. I didn’t have the time to check on her; instead, I went to Sirius and tried to get him to help me. He was totally freaking out, and his panic only increased when he realized what I was telling him.

“With me!” he yelled, and we joined forces to try and extinguish the fire once and for all.

Finally, the last flames died, the last proof of its presence being the ashes flying in the air. The woman rushed between the smoldering ruins and I was ready to follow her, but Sirius grabbed my wrist. A split second later, a terrible cry echoed, and Sirius shook his head.

At the very same moment, something exploded a few streets away.

“James!”

It was Lily, and she lost no time in running toward the root cause of the noise. We followed her and found a half fallen house in front of James and Remus, the both of them looking infuriated.

“The bastard!”

Through gritted teeth, Remus told us how they were sure someone had led them there before making the batiment explode and James added the death eater - because it was obviously him - had been careful to stay well hidden.

“So that means we’re running blindly behind him?” asked Peter, his voice still hoarse from the smoke of the fire.

“Running blindly and doing whatever he wants us to.” I added darkly.

Even James and Sirius knew it had been a bad idea to accept this mission, now. Both of them had their eyes wild and were glancing frequently at each other.

“So? What do we do now that he’s disappeared and we don’t know where to look?” muttered Lily before hiding her face in James’ neck, probably having a bout of nausea after everything we had already gone through. To be honest, I was still feeling sick thinking about that poor woman and her baby.

I was observing a stone on the ground and wishing it could tell us what we needed to know when Peter stiffened.

“Guys,” he whispered. “Act natural, but I think we didn’t have all the information.”

“What makes you think that?”

If Remus was sarcastic and obviously didn’t understand where Peter was going with this, something caught my eyes and the realization hit me.

“An animagus?” I questioned quietly, and Peter nodded.

I almost missed the black feathers, but I still caught the bird flying from a rooftop to another. Then the bird dropped to the floor, and it happened so fast that none of us had sketched a movement when it turned into a massive black silhouette half hidden in the shadows.

“You could have gotten out of here alive if you had just ignored me.” The voice was raspy, the tone aggressive. “Too bad you didn’t.”

This last affirmation sounded like a signal; as soon as the sound of his voice had died, the death eater drew his wand and we did the same, Sirius and Remus taking a step forward. I hadn’t seen his face, yet I was picturing myself the man with a crooked rictus and with the eyes so dark that you knew just by looking at him that his soul was rotten to the core. For some unknown reason, he didn’t attack; instead, I was feeling the weight of his eyes on us. I could imagine him looking at Sirius and Remus first because they were just in front of him, measuring the trembling of their arms - not caused by fear but by fury, which he probably was aware of; then his eyes passing from them to James and Lily, just close enough for him to guess the nature of their relationship, to Peter with his wand as high as ours and finally to me. Did he know I was looking intensely in his direction? That we were all looking right at him, our muscles tensed to make sure we would react quickly enough when the attack would come?

If he did, he didn’t care the least. It was with something that could be qualified as nonchalance that he muttered the first spell. The green light illuminated for a second his face, and his eyes were fixed on us. The curse almost hit James, and that’s when the riposte began.

The first counterattack spell came from Remus and missed the death eater by a hair. At the same time, Sirius rushed to the enemy, followed closely by James. Lily helped Remus to get up; he had dived to the floor to dodge a curse. Peter and I were making a detour to reach the death eater’s back, counting on James and Sirius to occupy him enough. It seemed like a mess, yet it was a manoeuvre well established because of years of service in the Order. It had always worked, more or less depending on the case, but it had never failed us. Never until then, at least.

I realized things were going to get even more dangerous when the man turned his gaze to me, plunging his eyes in mine and with his lips slowly twisting in a sickening rictus whereas he was being assaulted by James. A move of the wrist had sent James flying a few meters away, hitting Sirius and bringing him to the ground in the process. He lifted his hand, and as the terror was invading me, the only thing my brain was capable of was wondering if the movement was really as slow as it seemed to be. I drew my wand but like in dreams, it felt like something was stopping my arm. A glare was burning in his eyes, it was so intense that I felt it in the depths of my body. If the thought that he was doing some wandless and wordless magic on me crossed my mind, I found myself unable to express it.

His wand was now pointed on me, his eyes fixing me to the ground and his power keeping me defenseless. Second by second, I saw his lips moving, forming a word I didn’t recognize, his arm got more stiff, his rictus wider. And behind my back, second by second, Sirius was getting closer to me.

The collision caught me by surprise, not so much because it was unexpected but because of the violence of it. Sirius’ shoulder hit my lower back which sent my hips forward, and my head followed one second late. Our bodies hit the hard ground, and the scream of the death eater covered our grunts of pain. He didn’t give us a moment to recover and I heard his steps before I saw him taking great strides. Sirius was already getting up, his wand firmly held high to protect the both of us, but he didn’t need it to counter the first attack. The arm of the death eater was trembling with what I thought was rage, and he missed Sirius. Instead of its initial target, the curse flew to me and scratched my skin just underneath my neck. The shock stopped me dead in my tracks. A few centimeters higher and it was over for me; the realization erased everything else in my mind, even the painful burning sensation where my blood was now flowing.

This time, the death eater didn’t mutter the curse. He yelled it, angrier than before, and the sound of his voice masked the noise provoked by Remus, who I saw approaching in his back. A green halo surrounded the death eater and disappeared in a heartbeat, barely illuminating the scene enough for the lifeless body of our enemy to be seen falling. However, I saw perfectly well his last curse making his way straight to Sirius’ torso.

Sirius’ facial expressions changed from relief to shock and then to pain, to agony. His hands reached to his shirt, and when he removed them, they appeared red, bloody. His fall began with the buckling of his knees. They hit the floor, and his body, drained of all its strength, tilted forward. His arms had gone limp and his face crashed to the ground.

It had all happened in less than a second.

I was unable to move.

Somewhere at my right, several grunts escaped Peter’s mouth as Lily and James were helping him. I didn’t process his bloody leg, nor did I realize Lily was using only her right hand. Remus was already at Sirius’ side, and it’s only when he looked up to me with wet eyes that something clicked.

“Sirius!”

To be continued...

#Harry Potter #harry potter imagines #harry potter imagine #Sirius Black #sirius black x reader #sirius black imagine #sirius black x you #sirius black x y/n #blood

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anotherescsite · 3 years

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The Eurovision Song Contest we had to have

The journey from Tel Aviv to Rotterdam was an unexpectedly long one. Who knew that when Duncan Lawrence raised the trophy in May 2019 that another Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final would not take place for another 736 days? Having to wait such a long time between two Eurovision (excluding 2 x Junior contests) was excruciating, soul destroying and plainly depressing. And just like that, Eurovision 2021 has come and has now gone.

As the title says, it is The Eurovision Song Contest we had to have. It is a bold statement and I considered it for a day before putting it there. In reflection the song contest in Rotterdam was a wonderful event for many reasons which I’d like to discuss a bit. So this may take a while, but bear with me and hopefully, I’ll make it worth your while.

THE HOSTS

Four hosts was two too many, but let’s talk about them. Chantal is beautiful and the most professional of the foursome. Jan was the token male and while his performance was contained to a very small potion, it was nevertheless, fine. Edsilia was much more chilled than I expected and provided a warm presence amongst these people. Nikkie was probably the most down to earth of them all, possibly the most personable, but also somehow cold.

In actually effect, while there were four of them, they worked. No one took a lite load but they each had an equal presence in the show. As many other people have mentioned, everyone would have preferred more Edsilia and Nikkie to Jan and Chantal, but I’m not terribly fussed. They were all well practiced and very on point for the event and as a viewer I was pleased by this.

THE STAGE

Like most Eurovision stages, they do not look like anything unless you turn on the lights. That was definitely the case for this one. The lights were on, the stage sparkled, and the stage was alive in every way that it was asked. The screens provided everything that were needed for each of the songs and other performances. The transparent screen in the middle of the venue added so much to some of the performances and was the masterstroke that made some of them visually exciting.

There was one thing about the stage that felt like they were reminiscing stages of the Dutch past. I felt a hint of the Amsterdam 1970 stage on the sides. I don’t think it was a co-incidence, but I liked the fact that the paid homage like that. Everything else was state of the art.

POSTCARDS

The postcard films were well put together to present a place in the Netherlands, a tiny house structure with items that belong or relate to the act coming up and then a green screen appearance of the act in the tiny house.

While the postcard as a whole were well put together and cleverly created, I felt I missed out on seeing more of the Netherlands because they were focused more on what was coming and less with the airport, the canal, the lighthouse, the field, the tulips and whatever else was presented. So it’s only a small thing in a small film, but I wanted more of a Netherlands tourism experience in the films.

THE INTERVAL ACTS

It’s a funny thing about this year’s interval acts, and to be completely honest, I happy about it. If you asked a fan about Eurovision 2014, people will say that they remember ‘Love love peace peace’ and Justin Timberlake. In 1994, people remember ‘Riverdance’. In Tel Aviv, there was Madonna. I like that the intervals this year did not overshadow the entrants to the song contest. They were a time filler, a light refreshment and then it was over. For the most part well performed, entertaining and gone before you know it

I recall there was something about water in the first semi final, there was a dancer and a bike in the second, the former winners sang on Rotterdam buildings and some unifying song and dance. Nikkie did some little films about losing, and behaviour in the green room during voting. All were quality performances that were well constructed, organised and presented. They held the viewers attention while we waited for the votes to commence/announcement of the qualifiers and because they were each engaging, they seemed to go quickly.

THE OUTCOME

In most cases, things went as expected in the semi finals. Fans were disappointed with Croatia not qualifying, but I don’t think the betting had them qualifying. Romania was expected to qualify, but Roxen could not sing the song and move at the same time. Ireland suffered the same fate with an impressive staging. Semi final 2 went as expected as well; maybe Austria was expected to get through in place of Albania; i disagree.

The results/placings in the final were a bit of a surprise to me, but there was one certainty for me and that was that Italy deserved their win. There is a very simple reason for it’s success too. It’s not that it was a loud song or that the song was outlandish, or the way they were dressed. The reason that Italy won was that the performance of the song was a natural performance. I’m sure there was choreography of movement, but they were not outside of what they usually do. There was no gimmick, no dance routine, no green screen to worry about, no spinning diamond or large gimmick hanging from the roof of the stadium. It is also why the French entry was such a success and for a lesser part Iceland and Ukraine. Finland and Portugal also presented an entry that was in essence what was expected for that type of song.

Switzerland was a vast success in my eyes. They rolled the dice and they came up on top with the juries. Switzerland have rolled out a prop in the past to highlight a song, but this year they added lighting and camera work to add to the tension of the entry and it worked. Gjon looked a bit clumsy at times, but it was excellent captivating three minutes.

There were some countries that were dependent on a large prop. Some were there to attract votes as they went with the song while others to distract from it. Russia and Cyprus had several well placed props that worked well and were relevant to the song. Greece had a large invisible prop that made what was a good song appear like a joke entry. Malta had a prop that didn’t make sense to the entry being performed. Bulgaria’s rock was both inspirational and strange to me. Moldova’s revolving diamond worked for her also, but it was just a surface to perform choreography on.

I want to spend a moment of praise on Serbia and Belgium that had very different performances, but appropriately performed. Serbia took their sexy manic, hair choreographed selves all over the stage gyrating and moving like they had drunk 15 cups of coffee. Belgium, on the other hand, was very intense and sedate in their presentation mainly because most of them were playing instruments that were unmovable.

Of the countries that retained their choreography from a national final, other than Iceland, was Lithuania. They had varied it only very little from the national final and in their case, the performance was crazy perfection to match the theme of the song. I was disappointed with Norway, Azerbaijan and Sweden for retaining almost identical choreography to their songs from the film clip/national final, but I wasn’t a big fan of either song in the final. They seemed tired in appearance and in formatting. Azerbaijan needs a further slap for submitting their 2020 song with a new name.

I feel some disappointment for a few of the entrants. I’m going to start with the United Kingdom. Poor James Newman. He had a thumping good song that fans liked. There was enthusiasm from the fans that the UK would do better this year and they did worse. What I find astounding is he does not appear to be a shy person, yet he allowed someone in the United Kingdom delegation to produce that choreography, that outfit and those props for that song. To my ear, James sounded sad and dejected in the final and I was unbelievably disappointed that they didn’t score something from somewhere.

I’m disappointed for San Marino too. Senhit has showed she is a class act and has spent the last year enthusiastically covering Eurovision songs. But at the song contest, she appeared to be a forgotten entrant. Even with the addition of Flo Rida did not give the song some cred. I have a recurring image of Senhit’s shoulders slump and physically shrink on hearing that her efforts accounted for 50 points.

I’m also disappointed for the Netherlands. They most likely did not want to host again and it is a sad curse that countries that host usually end near the bottom of the scoreboard (excluding Super Sweden). But to score so terribly for what was a gloriously performed entry was unconscionable. I praise the Netherlands for choosing such a wonderful cultural performance for the stage.

At the bottom end, Spain and Germany had very different entries, performed with contrasting enthusiasm and it got them both a very low level of support. Spain had the most tired song that was boring as all hell and the presentation of the entry gave the audience nothing in return but a large grey beach ball in the sky. Back to the drawing board? Germany was destined to fail in March. The charisma and fun of their film was completely missing from the staging and it was never going to go well.

Albania had the misfortune of being ignored, given a terribly bad draw for the second year straight and not given anywhere near the appropriate amount of votes required. Anxhela gave a good stylish and appropriate performance. She was on-point vocally and in her performance on stage.

Israel, on the other hand, was a spectacle. The song was kind of meh, performed with a lot of choreography to distract from it. She did a whistle note; so? I’m sure she had to get noticed somehow with her t-shirt dress, her nude illusion reveal and the headdress she stole from reigning RuPaul Drag race winner, Symone. (Did she not no know where she was coming and who would be watching? Picked that up immediately)

IN CONCLUSION

There is one other things that I have not mentioned so far and it only occurred to me after re-reading some of the above comments. The Dutch were very time conscious. They said they were keeping the final under four hours and they pulled it in and got it done. In my opinion, it was a Eurovision that was very breezy, and very light experience because while the experience of Eurovision was 8 hours of your week watching the shows, this year did not seem like an ordeal. I felt that the shows progressed quickly without fuss or propaganda. As a package it came together well across the board.

It was a good Eurovision year and had something to cater for the taste of everyone. Some songs were not suited to everyone, but that happens. Below is how I saw this years song’s after the three shows and believe me I have changed it a few times before settling on this list. Looking at it, I want to move them around again.

So that’s it. Next year it will be somewhere in Italy; maybe Turin, maybe Rome, Milan or Bologna. It won’t matter. Feel free to comment, complain, debate. I’m happy to back myself and for you to convince me otherwise. I haven’t got anything else to do. : )

#esc #eurovision #2021 #Rotterdam #The Netherlands #The Eurovision Song Contest we had to have

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snkpolls · 3 years

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SnK Episode 62 Poll Results (for Manga Readers)

The poll closed with 314 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results for the Manga Readers’ poll. If you wish to see the results for the Anime Only Watchers’ poll, click here.

RATE THE EPISODE 303 Responses

There was an interesting contrast this week between anime only viewers’ and manga readers’ reaction to the episode. Anime only viewers overwhelmingly felt positively about the episode. But for manga manga readers, many of the cuts in the anime dampened their enjoyment of the episode, and for some ruined it entirely. Still, overall, the episode got positive reception, even if it wasn’t overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

a little rushed but still very enjoyable. it defo got the point across about Reiner's struggles

It was... Fine. I'll give it a solid 8/10 on emotional value and finally seeing these chapters animated. But accepting that the anime and manga are not the same and that there will be cuts is hard.

Wasn't very good. The cut scenes really hurt the pacing and overall story.

i thought the pacing was way too fast :(

Stunning. Beautiful

Another great episode. My only criticisms are the music that was used at the beginning of the episode, which didn't really work, and the cuts but I understand why that had to happen.

Disappointing

Impeccable. The adaption was both efficient and emotionally effective. Zero misses so far - I'm officially a MAPPA ho.

Really great! Feels different from the manga and makes me excited for future episodes, because even if it's not perfect, we will always have the original material + some fun new scenes that the anime is adding, can't wait for more

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING MOMENTS WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 304 Responses

The much-anticipated scene where we learn amputee-kun is actually Eren was the most favored of the episode, with 37.5% of the vote. Following behind that with more narrow margins were the introduction to Marley’s titans, Annie and Reiner’s fight and Reiner’s suicide attempt.

The first part was very rushed and I wasn't as impressed by it. But I was very impressed by the second part of the episode once the warrior kids made it to paradise. I also very much enjoyed how they animated the scene of Annie taking out her anger on Reiner after Marcel's death. There was just something about the use of colours that really appealed to me.

The Reiner and Annie fight and Reiner's suicide disturbed me a lot more this time around, partially because I haven't read the chapters in a while, but this is easily one of my favorite episodes now.

WE GOT THE FULL ED LAST WEEK. AFTER SEEING IT IN ITS ENTIRETY, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT NOW? 294 Responses

The majority of the fandom are enjoying the new ending, with 65.6% loving both the song and the animation. 11.2% are enjoying the song… but not so much the animation. 11.9% feel that it’s “just okay.” Some are enjoying the animation, but not the song, and a few more dislike both.

The song and the animation are truly beautiful and gorgeous. I couldn't imagine better. It is always so peaceful after the full of emotions episode.

Beautiful song, although the bit with the streaks of shiny animation look like 480p and are a little boring.

I didn't see it

Bold of you to assume I watch the EDs and don't just skim ahead to the preview.

i'm not interested in the ending

There was a half ED?

ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 5, HOW MUCH DID YOU ENJOY THE SEQUENCE INTRODUCING ALL OF MARLEY’S TITANS? 303 Responses

A very tiny fraction of voters weren’t impressed with the way MAPPA executed the scene that introduces us to the Marley titans and why each warrior was picked for the titans they received. However, the majority of respondents felt very positively about the scene, with 221 even feeling they, too, will become a titan as a result of the awesomeness.

I really liked the marley titan montage but why the hell were the female titan's boobs so big? It looked so out of poportion

It was awesome and I loved the introduction to the Titans

OUT OF ALL THE TITANS THE MARLEY MILITARY HAD 9 YEARS AGO, WHICH ONE WOULD YOU WANT TO HAVE? 299 Responses

Whether it’s for practicality or aesthetic reasons, we all have different titans that appeal to us more than others. This race was a close one, with the Female Titan holding on just slightly over the Jaw Titan in terms of favoritism. The Armored Titan came in at a distant third with the Beast Titan and Colossal closely behind. Only a very small fraction would like to inherit the Cart Titan from Piku-chan.

WHICH OG WARRIOR CANDIDATE WOULD YOU WANT TO ADOPT? 299 Responses

Overall, the majority (29.1%) wouldn’t want to adopt any of the OG warrior crew, whether because the responsibility is too much or because they don’t like kids at all (or perhaps, a missing third option being they don’t like any of them). But for those who would happily take on one of the OG warrior kiddos, 24.1% would most like to take Reiner home (and probably give him lots of hugs). 21.1% adore little Pieck and would shower her with parental love forever. 9.7% probably want to pinch little Bertolt’s cheeks, and 8.4% wish they’d adopted Annie instead of her father.

A LOT OF THE SHIGANSHINA BREACH HAS REUSED WIT ANIMATION FROM PAST EPISODES - THOUGHTS? 303 Responses

The majority of respondents felt positively enough about seeing WIT’s S1 style mixed in with MAPPA’s, with 42.9% feeling it flowed together well enough, and 26.4% understanding why they didn’t reanimate the event (despite preferring it if they had). 11.2% don’t care at all, and 8.6% think it was way too jarring. There are some who are reminded that they miss WIT’s style, and others who have a continued appreciation for MAPPA.

KAJI YUKI HAS LOWERED HIS VOICE A BIT TO DEPICT AN OLDER EREN. THOUGHTS? 301 Responses

Overall, nearly everyone seems to be pleased with Kaji Yuki’s more “mature” sounding Eren, with 76.4% feeling he is portraying an older and more jaded Eren perfectly. 11.6% are lost in their lust for a 2D drawing and are focused entirely on that (we understand lol). A few are simply indifferent to the lower tone, and a smaller percentage just prefer Eren’s voice prior to the timeskip.

Anime onlys can spot him more difficult, which I like

Made sense to me, he’s not a teenager anymore after all, plus works better for this “new” Eren who’s less angry and shouty all the time.

I didn't even notice lol

Eren is adult so changing his voice was a very good choice. I like his new sound.

It was stupid that he ever talked so low before now. He was fifteen and he sounded like an adult, well they all do that bc it's standard anime shit but it makes it even harder when they become real adults.

NOW HE REALLY SOUNDS LIKE KENMA 🔥

WE’VE LOST COUNT OF HOW MANY TIMES WE’VE SEEN MARCEL GET EATEN. BUT OF THE OPTIONS BELOW, WHO DID IT BEST? 296 Responses

Seeing Marcel get eaten 2000 times seems to be a running gag at this point, so naturally we had to include this question. Whether it’s recency bias or objectively true, 44.6% feel that MAPPA’s take on Marcel’s death was the best. 30.4% feel that Isayama’s more recent art style truly does Marcel the most justice. 14.2% liked the way WIT Studio portrayed the scene and 10.8% like Isayama’s older, more grungy art style.

RIP Marcel

DO YOU THINK THAT REINER WAS CORRECT, THAT MARLEY WOULD HAVE HAD ALL OF RBA EATEN IF THEY HAD FOUND YMIR AND RETURNED HOME IMMEDIATELY? 292 Responses

In the hypothetical scenario that Reiner hadn’t convinced Annie and Bertolt to stay on the island, the majority feel that Reiner was wrong in his assessment that they would be executed practically on-site. 55.1% believe that the idea would have been out in the open, but ultimately rejected. Though, 35.6% feel that Marley is too ruthless and uncaring toward Eldians to care what the situation is, and would absolutely hand over their titans to others deemed more capable. Very few felt Marley would be understanding by default. Many write-ins feel that Reiner is the only one who would have been executed for the failure.

Depends on if B/A emphasize that it was Reiner’s fault rather than their own.

If all of RBA got eaten then I think they wouldn’t use kids for their next attempt. Maybe teens around the age RBA were after training in Paradis military

Magath would have pointed out how wasteful it would have been, but probably even him couldn't have saved reiner

He was wrong. What would be the point of feeding them to other children, if they were the best candidates? Too much of work.

Reiner said that there's a possibility that they couldn't find Ymir even if they try. He has a point. But I don't think Marley would have RBA eaten even if they lose Jaw.

They wouldn't go through with it because they seem to lack other qualified warrior candidates.

I think Magath and maybe Zeke would have tried to convince the government to not go through with it and that Reiner might have been the only one sacrificed.

Obviously. They would have indisputable proof that sending a bunch of kids to carry out a massively important mission is the dumbest shit they could have ever done and immediately they'd put the titans into older soldiers.

They'd let them live a few more years just for propaganda and used them for other battles, then they'd have them killed around their midterm.

Possibly, but they put a lot of time, effort, and money into training their warriors. It would be a big decision to execute all of them and start over. Maybe they would have executed Reiner as an example.

WHAT’S THE FORECAST FOR TONIGHT? 295 Responses

In our least-serious question of the poll, we asked you guys to try and predict the weather based on Bertolt’s sleeping pose. 18.3% believe his legs-on-the-wall pose means clear skies, 13.9% are certain it means rain. 13.6% are confident in an overcast night. At 11.5% foresee storms coming and 11.2% think it’s gonna be snow. 18% are probably just annoyed with the question. A few write-ins pointed out that Bertolt was, indeed, sleeping in the Hanged Man Pose.

It’s gonna be partly guilt ridden old man with a 90% chance of suicide by hanging

Blood and guts

HOW IS THAT EVEN COMFORTABLE?

Let's just call it hail

Hanged man posture, dreamed about the old man

raining titans

No one can make me like the warriors even if I don't blame them for what they were forced to do as kids. idc what quirky habits they have.

There'll be clear skies for some time but don't be deceived, heavy rain is incoming

This was amazing because it's a reference to The Hanging Man on Tarot cards: he's willingly being hanged for his sins. Look it up, it's so cool.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT MAPPA CUTTING A GOOD CHUNK OF REINER’S TRAINING? 302 Responses

With only 20(ish) minutes to fit in all of Reiner’s backstory, cuts were inevitable. MAPPA made the decision to nerf most of Reiner’s struggles training as a Warrior Cadet (among a couple other more lengthy scenes during and after the wall breach). 62.9% are sad that some of these scenes didn’t make the cut, but also understand that we can’t have it all. 13.2% actually preferred seeing Reiner’s backstory in MAPPA’s condensed version, while 12.9% feel it completely ruins the characterization of the warriors.

I don't even remember what was cut 😂

Slightly ruined the warriors’ characterisations (especially Reiner’s)

I thought they could have shown a bit more about Reiner's underdog, it's something that really made me sympathise with him in the manga.

Kinda disappointed, since some scenes were essential for a little background on their lives

Honestly, even after all the cuts and the restrains it tells the story of a "warrior", Reiner.

Mappa fucked RBA backstory and I would bet it's because they are biased towards Eren and 104th...

I wouldn't say it ruined their characterisation, but it did leave it a lot more shallow. I would've loved to see those scenes animated, but I also realise that things will have to be cut to fit everything in, and I think these cuts still preserve the forward momentum of the story reasonably well.

The important scenes were animated, so it's good that way

MAPPA cannot animate every panel and the best will be, if fandom finally understands that. Every episode has limited amount of time and MAPPA is doing everything they can to make episodes good and easy to understand for anime onlies. I was fine with cutting because I know that episodes aren't long and there are more important stuff to animate than every part of training.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT NOT SEEING ANNIE PARTICIPATING IN THE FIRST WALL BREACH? 298 Responses

MAPPA completely glossed over Annie’s role in the wall breach, showing her being choked by Reiner and then waking up in the refugee camp later. 40.9% state they would have preferred seeing Annie play her part in the mission, though they accept that it isn’t there. 34.6% are concerned that those who don’t read the manga will just be confused as to where Annie was during all of the chaos (Oh no! Did RB leave her passed out in the fields!?). 16.1% are simply just disappointed altogether. A small fraction felt it wasn’t necessary anyway and have no problems with the cut.

I feel kinda iffy about it because that was one of my favorite parts of the chapter, but oh well... it is what it is.

Kenny's scene should be eliminated.

I mean it's not like the female titan could destroy the walls herself. I think nobody expects it and then her absence makes sense

Yams did an oopsie in the first place retconing

It really confused me lol for a moment I completely forgot what she even did in the manga and had to reread

KNOWING NOW THAT ANNIE IS ACTUALLY ADOPTED, DOES THE JOKE ABOUT HER BEING KENNY’S LOST DAUGHTER HIT DIFFERENTLY NOW? 299 Responses

We learn after Annie comes out of the crystal that her father is actually an adoptive parent. Annie, in an attempt to cover up why she’s stalking Kenny in the underground, claims (or jokes) that she was born to a brothel worker and is Kenny’s lost daughter. We asked if this made the joke any less funny to readers, though most of them didn’t think so at all. Only 14% of respondents say the new knowledge actually makes it a little sad. Some people forgot entirely that Annie is adopted and voiced their confusion in the write-ins.

wait,,,,, she.,,,, she's adopted ??? wha- how did i completely forget about this

Kenny's gay anyway so it's impossible! Sorry, Annie :/

I don't really get this joke tbh 😅 Do people think she and Kenny look alike?

We're all Kenny's lost daughter

It just brings into question her true parentage, like how she can scream summon other Titans and if that’s a royal blood thing or not. But probably doesn’t matter since it hasn’t come up in the manga yet

I hadn't thought about it before today.

She's adopted?!?

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT MAPPA’S EXECUTION OF REINER’S ATTEMPTED SUICIDE? 302 Responses

With such a weighty scene, execution is of utmost importance. So we were curious if you guys felt that MAPPA hit the mark. Overall, MAPPA’s take on this scene got positive responses from the fandom, with 42.4% feeling they felt about the same as they did when the scene came up in the manga. 26.5% actually thought that MAPPA did a better job with the scene, whereas 26.2% felt that Isayama’s original take on the scene is still superior.

I think that while the manga's intent is for the reader to feel Reiner's pain and emotions during what he thought were his last moments, the anime focuses much more on making it disturbing and depressing (both taking into account the same things, just choosing to highlight different aspects of the scene). Not a bad change but I prefer the manga's portayal, it made me feel so much more attached to Reiner

Actual scene was good, but the build up was lacking.

I really liked the flipping back and forth

Not nearly as emotional as I expected

The lighting was so good in the anime version.

Bruh we needed the flashbacks cause they depicted Reiner's journey and regrets

I think it was more impactful in the manga, but MAPPA did it amazing too

The scene looked more serious but the building of the characters didn't live up for the moment.

It impacted me differently than in the manga. I prefer the manga scene, but the anime's was still really good

I was worried about it being overly censored so I’m glad it wasn’t

The execution was about the same, but it had a bigger impact when you read it for the first time

The drool was a great touch

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING CUTS WERE YOU DISAPPOINTED DIDN’T MAKE THE EPISODE? 292 Responses

While we shouldn’t dwell on cuts too much, there will still be things that people are disappointed didn’t make it into the anime. The scenes which were most missed this week were Annie’s role in the wall breach, Reiner passing along a tired Annie over to Bertolt atop the wall, RBA discussing their infiltration plans in the field (also known as the tree-uprooting scene), seeing Bertolt, Annie and Marcel surpassing Reiner in their training, and Reiner breaking up Eren and Jean’s fight (noticing Annie is exhausted). Well, at least the manga still exists, right?

I wish they didnt cut some of the flashbacks right before Reiner tried to kill himself.

Really great episode, but Bertholdt looking up at the wall before breaking it was such an iconic panel, I'm a bit sad

Any cuts are a negative. I dont care how much it makes sense for the anime onlies, I just wish they somehow incorporate some of the small slice of life scenes that made the Marley arc special.

Truly loved it despite cuts and pacing, but just wish we could’ve seen that tree uprooting scene!

I still hold the sentiment that Mappa is cutting way too much from these episodes. The amount of small details getting cut from every chapter/episode results in losing out on smaller moments that in my opinion have a real impact. While I understand a 1 to 1 replica might not be possible, the amount of cuts is too much imo. Missing out on nearly all of RBA assaulting Shiganshina was a huge disappointment, and less Falco and Gabi scenes makes it tough for me to connect to them. Talking to my Anime-only friends though, they are very into this season, so I'm glad to hear it works for them.

I'm not necessarily sad they cut so much, I feel like as an Anime only I wouldn't have noticed! The only thing I wish that had been kept was Annie's involvement in the destruction of wall Maria.

I was sad they cut stuff but that’s inevitable. The only cut I’m sad about is the scene before Bertholdt breaks the wall.

some of the cuts made sense, some made other scenes kind of occur out of nowhere, like annie with kenny.

SO FAR, WE’VE LOST A FEW INTERACTIONS BETWEEN FALCO AND GABI AND SOME MOMENTS WHERE FALCO IS BLUSHING OVER HER. DO YOU THINK THIS WILL LESSEN THE IMPACT OF HIS EVENTUAL LOVE CONFESSION TO HER? 296 Responses

While the Falbi romance isn’t a major focal point of the series, it does play a big part in their storyline and overall character development as their involvement in the plot increases. MAPPA has had to let a few scenes go, so we were curious if manga readers felt it would lessen the impact of Falco’s inevitable confession just before the rumbling starts. 31.4% feel that the anime is doing just fine at portraying Falco’s feelings. 28.4% feel the impact will be lessened, but that it’s fine due to it being a minor plot point anyway. 14.5% are upset about the missing pieces and 11.8% think MAPPA will make up for it later. Smaller groups of voters either don’t understand why Falco likes Gabi or just don’t care.

I'm more dissapointed about Zofia and Udo getting cut than those two.

Kid romance is lame anyway

It's not gonna hit like the manga but it's still pretty important plot imo

What works on paper doesn't always work animated, they're doing ok

I hate gabi gahh

It is obvious he likes her anyway

Not really, they've established he has a big crush on her since he pretty much came out and told it to Eren

DO YOU THINK MAPPA DID A GOOD JOB OF HIDING EREN IN PLAIN SIGHT? 297 Responses

We failed to ask this question last week, but it still applied well to this week’s episode. When it came to anime only fans, we wondered whether manga readers felt MAPPA did a good job at making him as mysterious to anime watchers as Isayama did to us manga readers. 40.1% felt that MAPPA did a great job, as many anime watchers didn’t seem to catch on. 25.6% feel that they didn’t do any worse or better than Isayama did. 13.8% feel MAPPA did not do as well as Isayama, as some anime watchers easily caught on. 9.4% think they did completely awful at pretending it’s not Eren. Some write-ins felt we couldn’t objectively judge this as we already knew it was Eren anyway.

I think the voice gave it away the most. The sneaky animation was great!

Hard to answer because chapters were a month apart while episodes are weekly and I’ve already read the manga when it came out

well, I can't say much about this. since I know he is eren, I was just focusing on how Kaji Yuki will handle this important speech

They even didn't try to hide him. I'm disappointed because I wanted anime onlines to feel what we - manga readers - felt, when after few chapters we found that the hobo man was Eren.

I honestly didn't even realize he was supposed to be hidden from the readers/viewers at this point. It was so obviously him in the manga and the anime. Genuinely confused by how many people did not catch on.

Watching some reactors they were like "...wait...that *looks* like Eren...but his leg is amputated...his leg would've grown back??" but as soon as you heard his voice it was instantaneous

I, being a manga reader, had a hard time getting how you couldn't see that it was Eren, but some of my friend only got it at the last scene.

Hard to say. WIth the manga, it took me a few reads to catch on, but now that I KNOW, it's hard to say anything.

Yes, I'm watching the episodes with my anime-only friend and he still hasn't figured it out

I think they did a good job, but with anime being the medium it was easier to guess due to both hair/eye color and voice.

It was nice, I was actually surprised that some of my anime only friends didn't even realize that it was Eren talking to Falco this episode

When Eren was finally revealed in the manga, I was *shocked! I had *no clue that was him! I think the anime did a great job, but of course had to reveal him sooner. It was perfect both in manga and anime imo.

It's obviously him once you see his eyes, but I don't think that the animation team were trying to make it a big shock reveal, they want this scene to say "this is probably Eren, but can you be 100% sure" to keep anime onlys engaged and reassure them that the main cast is still relevant.

Yes, but the manga hid him better, it took me way too long to realise it was him while reading

HOW WAS KAJI YUKI’S DELIVERY ON EREN’S SPEECH TO FALCO? 299 Responses

The vast majority of respondents were very pleased with Kaji Yuji’s delivery on one of Eren’s most prominent speeches. 38.1% felt it was exactly as they had hoped it would be. 28.1% were extremely happy, and feel that any delivery by Kaji Yuki as Eren will be 100% spot-on. 24.7% are simply just content with it. Smaller fragments of respondents just wanted to voice their thirst, or felt that the delivery could have been better.

Better than I could have ever imagined

I don't really care

Eren is the best main character ever

Not my native language so I can't really tell how good it is, but Kaji's delivery seemed about right

It was a bit fast but good

Very good. You get a real sense of how clueless but trying to be tough Eren really is.

EREN TELLS FALCO HE HOPES FALCO LIVES A LONG LIFE. KNOWING WHAT WE DO NOW, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT HIM SAYING THIS? 298 Responses

Eren already knows he will bring destruction upon the world, so it’s a wonder why he would bother telling Falco he hopes Falco will have a long life. 64.8% believe that he truly means it from the bottom of his heart, despite knowing his future actions will likely affect Falco. 10.7% believe he said this because he has already seen that Falco will survive the Rumbling. 10.1% aren’t really sure what to make of it at all. Smaller numbers of people think Eren was only trying to gain Falco’s trust and didn’t mean it at all, or believe that Falco will take part in Eren’s eventual demise and Eren is already aware of that.

He saw him in his memories so imma believe what he says

I'm sure there is part of Eren that hopes for a good long life for Falco. Just like there was part of him that couldn't help but save the refugee kid. But that doesn't mean he isn't any less dedicated to his plan to genocide a whole lot of people. He has his conflicts, but in the end he's still going ahead with the attack on the square and later with the rumbling.

I think it's the same deal as him saving the immigrant kid when he knew that he would die in the rumbling.

In an ideal world Eren would want *everyone* to live a long life--he's been portrayed as someone who cries and disassociates while he commits his genocide so we're meant to understand he doesn't enjoy it. Sadly it doesn't matter what he hopes or wants when he's decided murdering everyone is what has to be done..

THE PREVIEW SHOWED PIECK AND PORCO NEXT TO REINER AT THE DAYTIME FESTIVAL. THIS WAS NOT IN THE MANGA. WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS MEANS ABOUT POSSIBLE ANIME-ONLY ADDITIONS? 298 Responses

Many of our respondents seem to be looking forward to Pieck and Porco’s inclusion in the daytime festival. 47% are hopeful that this will mean some wholesome bonding scenes between the Warriors and the kids. 26.5% don’t know what to make of it, but are looking forward to it nonetheless. A handful of people think it will be similar to how WIT included Sasha in the Clash arc - adding minor details without changing anything in the story-line. 7% wish that MAPPA wasn’t doing this at all, and 5% are hopeful this means that MAPPA will find a way to repurpose Pieck crawling on all fours next episode.

I still want Pieck butt

IN THAT SAME VEIN, IT SEEMS LIKE EPISODE 4 WILL ADAPT CHAPTERS 97 AND 98, ENDING ON THE FINAL PANEL OF 98. HOWEVER, THE VAST MAJORITY OF CHAPTER 97 WAS ALREADY ADAPTED IN LAST WEEK’S EPISODE. WHAT WILL THIS MEAN FOR EPISODE 4? 293 Responses

Who wants to place bets on the contents of next episode? While the largest chunk of people don’t know what to expect in episode 4, others are happy to speculate. 19.8% feel (or are at least hopeful) that MAPPA will fill in some screen time by repurposing already-skipped scenes. 19.1% feel that there will be minor additions, but not too much. A solid 16% feel that there will be a few anime only additions during the daytime festival. 10.9% are placing bets that episode 4 will actually bleed into chapter 100 before the end.

Mappa won't have to cut a lot of stuff like they did to ep 3

The title "From One Hand to Another" immediately made me think we would actually be getting Eren grasping Reiner's hand and transforming at the end (meaning chapters 100 and 101), but that's just so much. The title may just refer to Magath and Willy's handshake.

What about just enjoying the show?

WHICH SCENE FROM THE PREVIEW ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? 298 Responses

As expected of the fandom! Reiner and Eren’s reunion is the most anticipated scene for episode 4, with 74.8% having voted for that. 17.1% are most looking forward to the daytime festival, and 6% are excited to meet Willy in anime form for the first time. One commenter is very invested in the banquet and how it’s executed.

Not this ep but if they cut the Udo and Kiyomi scene I'll RIOT!

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

I'm upset so much was cut from Reiner's backstory but the cinematography is freakin' excellent I can't even complain

*cheers MAPPA animators for their hard work* ... Perfect for anime onlies, I think. Made me almost wish I hadn't read the manga so I wouldn't have missed the cut scenes.

Cuts aside, the animation was much better than the previous episodes.

"The one scene I really wanted was Bertholdt looking over the wall and seeing the EMA trio. Of all the cuts, I think that was the only one that was damaging to the story. I also kind of wish that MAPPA animated the reused scenes. I kind of like comparing and contrasting the animation styles of both studios so its a bit of shame that we didn't get anything new from Episode 1.

I'm really impressed with how much MAPPA is managing to squeeze in each episode and I'm content that Reiner's flashback was covered in a single episode rather than two. It just makes sense pacing-wise. The only real criticism I have is that in the flashback scenes where everyone is supposed to be 12 years old, they don't sound 12 at all. Their voices are way too mature, especially the males, and I understand they're voiced by adults, but I feel like they could have at least tried to sound more like kids. Other than that, great episode.

Elaborating on the missing content: they really shouldn’t have cut Annie’s transformation prior to wall Maria being breached. It makes it look like Reiner choked her out and then a minute later bert was kicking the wall through.

I'm in the boat, where i think it wouldve been better if Mappa didnt cut out so much, but considering what there is to cover, we will live,but i hope they dont end up butchering everything Also the bit with reiner’s dad would be confusing to anime-onlies since it cross-cuts between that scene and him on the parade. I’ve seen some reactors think it was a daydream, or that he left during the parade.

It was quite rushed, but I understand why they did it, the flashback wouldn't have been as impactful over 2 episodes, and I do think when the Marley arc was first introduced in the manga, manga readers were quite inpatient to get back to the main cast, so they might be feeding off that feedback.

Mappa has become my favorite studio of all time. Not just in regards to anime, but studios in general. Their discography is on another level (imo) and the fact that on top of every other masterpiece they’ve made, they’re doing an outstanding job with my favorite series of all time just solidifies them as the first and probably the only anime studio that I can truly Stan.

Lots of (I think) Important stuff cut, but the meat is still in place. I like my meat to be juicy and marbled, while Mappa cut out all the fat that makes for a flavorful meal. I completely understand why and I am apathetic about it.

disliked the fact the wall breach was so quickly glossed over, and the transition between mappa and wit style was jarring to say the least

Regardless of the cuts, i think it flows together nicely. The anime has always been more speedy than the manga so i kind of expected this. I don't think it'll get as bad as s3 part 1 in terms of pacing. I trust in Mappa, so far i haven't been disappointed at all. The animation and backgrounds are absolutely stunning. That warrior titan sequence was incredibly well done. Props to the animators!

It was a bit confusing mishmash of scenes, but there were some good moments sprinkled in like the introduction of all of Marley's titans. The emotional reactions, however, just weren't the same as they were when reading the manga, to be honest.

I’m really glad they cut the part with RBA hanging onto Female/Armoured neck by a rope. That whole thing seemed stupid to me. Doesn’t match up with previous chapters and I feel like SOMEONE would have noticed two kids hanging onto the Armoured Titan’s neck.

I think MAPPA is doing a really good job so far, can't wait to see the battle in Liberio. I'm not bothered at all with the CG titans because firstly, they look really good, and secondly, I understand why they had to do it. I also hope they don't censor many things or cut out some dark scenes that are important to the season because I would love to see everything animated.

Felt like watching a recap episode... And it wasn't supposed to be one, so

I'm really dissapointed that mappa cut so many things from manga. Reiner's backstory is my favoure part of snk. Suicide scene completly lacks impact.

I really dislike the fact that MAPPA is trying to show only bad side of the marleyan officers. They removed the gate guards, they removed the scene where Magath is telling RBA to stay safe (on Paradis). One of the best parts of the manga is showing that the both races (Eldians and Marleyans) have good and bad sides. By removing positive aspects of Marleyans MAPPA is creating totally different picture. This way the anime onlines may find the whole rumbling even more justified. The episode was pretty good and the OST has made some scenes to feel more dark and serious (especially the moment where the new titans are introduced), but sometimes I feel like the characters are speaking and acting way too fast. I was waiting for the scene with Kenny and Annie, but it took only like few second and was cut. I love MAPPA's version of Kenny. He has more serious aura and looks more like his manga counterpart. In other words; wrinkled grandpa with skinny neck :)

It honestly wasn’t my favorite, but I still loved it. I feel as though they skipped around a lot and there wasn’t a lot of scenes that actually tied together and I’m worried anime only watchers might get confused. Definitely some of the stuff I wanted to see animated didn’t make the cut, but I still love the animation style, the characters and the story!

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 285 Responses

Thank you to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again next episode.

#snk poll #snk polls #shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #snk #aot #snk spoilers #snk s4

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rwbyremnants · 3 years

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WARNINGS: FREEZERBURN: alcohol, skinny dipping, outdoor sex.

So there's been a lot going on with me. Not all of it good, not all of it bad; I won't bog you down with all the details. But I am glad to be getting back to work here! More fanfics coming soon, I promise!

=Chapter 35

The first thing Blake did the next morning was draw a bath and follow through on her promise. Weiss jokingly offered to “help” and received a glare of blistering death for her trouble.

Delicious smells lured her downstairs while waiting for the bathroom to free up. Kali made an incredible breakfast for the four of them, and her mother looked delighted with the spread - and she had a suspicion they had been working on it together for at least an hour. It was sweet and domestic… even if strange that two women were so domestic together.

Not that they were together together. Just cohabitating.

That sounded even worse in her head.

“Morning, sweetie,” Willow greeted her with a little wave, sipping her coffee. “How did you sleep?”

“Not… as well as I hoped,” she admitted truthfully as she dropped into her chair. “New room and everything. But that will probably get better soon.”

Kali arrived to set down a platter of bacon - a full platter of it, overflowing and sizzling. “Blake didn’t keep you up too late, did she?” The eye that Willow couldn’t see winked at her playfully, and Weiss was glad she hadn’t started eating yet or she might have choked.

“No,” she told her stubbornly.

“Good. I noticed when I looked in on you that the two of you were snug as bugs in a rug.”

While Weiss was busy trying not to blush - and ignoring the smirk that lingered on the other woman’s face - her mother was cooing, “Aww, that’s just the most precious thing! I felt so sad when you agreed one of you would sleep downstairs… that’s no way for two young girls to get along.”

“Mmm,” Weiss hedged as she tried her own coffee. Not that she made a habit of drinking it.

“Well, they were all wrapped up in each other when I saw them,” Kali commented casually as she finally sat, the breakfast spread complete. “Makes a mother proud.”

“A mother like you, yes.”

Her eyes danced as she raised her own cup to her lips. “I don’t follow.”

“Suuuuure you don’t.” Then she turned to smile at her mother. “How did you sleep? Does Mrs. Belladonna hog the covers?”

“No, not at all,” she reported pleasantly. “She was… this was the first good night’s sleep I’ve had in years that wasn’t because I was too drunk to wake up. Sleeping beside Jacques made that impossible; sorry, Weiss.”

“Don’t apologise to me! I know how awful he’s been, and… and I’m glad we’re away.” She didn’t sound completely convincing. What she really wanted was for her father to be a good person, to treat his family with respect and affection instead of trying to rule them with an iron fist. But that wasn’t in the cards.

“I’m glad you are, too,” Kali put in, abandoning her teasing to reach over and pat Willow’s arm. “This might be temporary, but I would be alright with hosting you indefinitely. Anything to protect you from that.”

It wasn’t clear if “that” was Jacques or from the situation. Either one worked. Weiss decided to let them have their moment of comfort and camaraderie, and focused on tucking into her breakfast.

Nearly an hour passed before Blake joined them, and she was freshly-scrubbed and in a pleasant mood. Weiss caught her eye and smiled, and she rolled her eyes, trying to avoid confronting what they both knew had taken place in that tub.

“Sorry for taking so long,” she sighed. “We’re probably gonna be late for school.”

“Probably. But I think it’s alright after yesterday.” As Blake nodded sleepily, picking at the cold breakfast, Weiss added in a casual tone, “So apparently, you were snuggling me again this morning. You’re a clingy sleeper, I guess.”

Blake paused with the rasher of bacon halfway to her lips, eyes wide.

“It was like a Rockwell painting,” Kali teased with a smirk playing around her lips. That only made Blake’s cheeks flush even brighter. “I wish I had a photograph of you two, all cozy like that.”

“Mom…”

“Aww, me too,” Willow added, and Weiss giggled. They were all going a bit overboard teasing Blake, but it was fair play after Blake had been so heated about their parents spending “too much” time together. And besides, this teasing was all in good fun; everyone knew she was dating Yang and unavailable.

“Do you want me to have breakfast here or not?”

“Alright, alright,” Kali chuckled. “Sit down and eat before I have to tan your hide like I used to.”

“OKAY, MOM! ENOUGH!”

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

Eventually, they made their way to school. It felt a little odd to be riding on Blake’s bike instead of Yang’s - especially after how close they got during the dead of night. Someday, she would have to get her own bike… but that day was going to be in the far future at the rate they were going.

Her family was penniless. Jacques Schnee no longer counted as her family as far as she was concerned; Whitley was debatable. But she and her mother were destitute, forced to depend on the kindness of a family friend to keep from winding up in the gutter. It was a bleak future. Still, at least they were alive and healthy, and had a network of strong women around them. Might as well keep her eyes on the horizon and try to make the best of a bad situation.

“Hey, uh… watch where those hands are going, Schnee.”

“They’re not going anywhere weird!” she protested, redoubling her grip around Blake’s stomach. “I have to hold on, don’t I?”

She sighed impatiently as they came to a stop at an intersection. “Yes, but you keep moving them around! And you almost grabbed my boob a couple of blocks back!”

“Oh, you’re exaggerating.”

“I am not!”

Things continued in that way all the way to the school - good-natured bickering over where the boundaries of propriety lay when they were both forced to be so close to each other. They dismounted and greeted the other Dragons with waves and smiles. Emerald was there, even though Cinder wasn’t quite recovered enough to be discharged - mostly according to Cinder, of course.

But Yang seemed to have something up her sleeve. A paper bag was clutched in one hand that was a lot larger than one for lunch, and must have been quite unwieldy to carry all the way there while driving a motorcycle.

“You bringing lunch for everybody?” Coco chuckled.

“Sit on it, Adel.” Her eyes swivelled to find Weiss, who took a step away from Blake on instinct. That was stupid; they hadn’t done anything wrong. Or at least, not while conscious.

“Hey,” Weiss said with a slight smile.

“Hiya. Wanna talk to you.”

Dread flared in the pit of her stomach. “Oh?” But when Yang opened the bag and pulled out a large bouquet of flowers, she felt the dread turn into butterflies. “Ohhhh… what’s this for?”

“For you. I, um, I wanted to ask… if you maybe… wanna go with me to the homecoming dance?”

The other Dragons sent up a chorus of wolf-whistles and cheers, punctuated with laughter, and Yang grimaced as if fighting down a blush. Weiss did feel a little embarrassed, as well, but mostly she was beyond pleased that she had been asked at all. Though one or two boys had asked before she went to the hospital, they were turned down flat - she didn’t want to lead them on, especially if they had zero chance of progressing past a polite dance.

Speaking of people with no chance…

“I’m happy for you two,” Blake said with a fairly convincing smile, clapping for them along with the rest. Weiss knew she wasn’t happy, but that she was at the same time; she would have to give her an extra hug later. “And for the extra steamy time you two are going to have in the locker room that night.”

“What?” Weiss asked in some surprise. “Steamy time? Why would we go to the locker room?!”

It was Coco who answered, smile casual and bemused. “Well, the gym is where the dance happens. And the locker room is right off the gym… and nobody will be thinking about two girls necking in there when they’re so busy watching for boy-girl couples. So…”

Weiss and Yang exchanged a bashful glance. It was the surprised princess who said, “Oh.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Emerald snorted, elbowing Coco. It seemed that now the dust had all settled, and she realised how hard Weiss had been trying to help everyone instead of actively setting things on fire, she was back to regarding her as something resembling a friend. “You two could just have a good time sock-hopping and then neck afterward. Don’t let Adel talk you into anything.”

“I’m not!” Coco protested, hands on her hips. “Just want everybody to have the best time possible. And we could all have it in the locker room.”

Blake squinted at her. “Will you stop trying to get that to happen? Nobody’s buying what you’re selling.”

“What?” Weiss asked in some confusion.

“Don’t worry about it,” Yang sighed in annoyance. But when Weiss still looked confused, she relented. “Oh, Coco wants to try a, uh… ‘petting party’ kind of thing. Been trying to talk us all into it ever since that night some of us tried Velvet on for size - which was a completely random situation! And we’re not all loose women like you are!”

Coco scowled. “Hey, I’m not ‘loose’; I am highly selective about who I pet and who gets to pet me. I just so happen to think all of you qualify, that’s all.”

The penny finally dropped, and Weiss held up a hand. “Wait, wait - are you talking about… about all of us having sex in the same room?!”

“I’m talking about all of us having sex with each other.” She glanced at Yang’s glower and rolled her eyes. “It was an idea, Xiao Long. Cool it. Pardon me for wanting to give my girl a big sendoff, okay?”

Velvet was already flushing scarlet. “Y-you do remember that I felt awful after the last time, don’t you? It w-wasn’t anyone’s fault, but…”

Her hands came to rest on Velvet’s shoulders, caressing up and down to soothe the timid little bunny. “Cinder’s fault, a little bit. But you’ve come a long way, baby. Like I said, I’m only interested if anyone else is; they aren’t, so I’ll drop it.”

“Thanks,” Yang sighed, reaching over to knock her shoulder gently. “Sorry, I’m just kinda… I dunno. Not really into that whole thing, and not into making Weiss try it on for size when she’s so green.”

Conflicting feelings rose up in Weiss at those words. She was very slightly irritated at Yang speaking on her behalf… but also found it satisfying. Yang was so protective, and always looking out for her interests. It was nice.

“Me, either,” Blake said, looking between Yang and Weiss. “Though it could be fun, it could also be really strange - and make all of us feel ooky afterward. Let’s just not and say we did.”

Then they heard the bell ring. “Back to the salt mines,” Coco sighed as they made their way toward the building. “Let’s go, spoilsports.”

But Weiss saw Blake looking morose as they moved off. She wanted to ask why, but decided it would keep until later.

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

And later arrived.

“What do you mean by that?”

Shrugging in a would-be nonchalant way, Weiss leaned her elbows back against the china cabinet in the Belladonna dining room. “Nothing. I’m simply asking if it’s really alright if she-”

“What else am I supposed to do?” Blake shot at her tiredly. She looked as if she had just run a marathon, merely because of Weiss asking the question. “You two can’t walk on eggshells around me all the time. It’s better if I start getting used to you going around together. Like I have been trying to do. For weeks.”

“But we didn’t know you were swooning over Yang when we started! Now we do- or I mean, at least I do, and we don’t have to-”

“Hey, come on. Cut that out. I’m not a baby, I can handle myself.”

“I never said you were a baby!”

“No, but you implied that I-”

“Girls, girls,” Kali laughed as she edged through the kitchen door with a meatloaf sizzling in the pan, caught between her oven mitts. “What’s all this commotion?”

Sounding even more petulant than she looked, Blake turned away and muttered, “Nothing.”

“Sounds familiar,” Weiss muttered herself.

Blake’s mother rolled her eyes. “Well, it sure is a whole lot of noisy nothing. Come on, it’s time for dinner.”

So they ate. It was a nice meal, and both Blake and Weiss could let the matter drop for the time being, instead focusing on tales from school, and Kali’s work. Willow tried to participate as best she could, but her day had consisted of either sitting around or crying, so she mostly kept her silence while encouraging the others to go into detail about their stories.

“Your mom’s nice,” Blake admitted later when they were doing the dishes.

“What?” she gasped theatrically. “Can this be? Blake complimenting a Schnee?”

“A one-time event, you jerk. But… yeah, I’m…” Handing another dish over to be dried, she relented completely. “I’m even more sorry now about telling you to stop setting her up with my mom. Especially since…”

Weiss waited a few seconds before prompting her, “Since?”

“Since you might be right. They’re close, but I haven’t seen ‘sparks’. Just two good friends, and someone your mom needs to lean on. My mom needs more companionship her age, too.”

“To keep her from trying to get the baby Dragons into bed.”

“Yeah.” They both chuckled, and Blake smiled fondly at her. It was a real, honest-to-goodness fond smile, and it was directed at Weiss. She seemed to realise it a moment later because her eyes snapped down to the dishes and she scrubbed a little harder than was necessary. “You dodged a bullet there.”

“Oh? And how did I do that? You saying your mother isn’t good company?”

“No, I’m saying she’s too good company. And she doesn’t really do… monogamy. As in, ever since Dad died and Raven cut her out of her life…” Discomfort crept into her eyes. “Maybe I shouldn’t be saying this stuff about my mom. It’s probably not nice.”

“I won’t tell her, I promise.”

“Well, okay. It’s just that I’ve never seen her get serious about any woman. Raven, she might have, but we’ll never know now because of how everything hit the fan. Any other girl she’s played with has just been that: playing. Like a toy a little kid forgets about two days after it comes out of Santa’s stocking.”

Frowning down at the dish she was still drying long after it had been cleared of water, Weiss set it down. “That’s really… sad. I’m sorry.”

“What are you sorry for? You didn’t kill my father or make Yang’s mom a bitch.”

“Blake!” she gasped, but Blake only let out a cruel little titter. “Good golly, you can’t call her that - she’s an adult, and she’s-”

“A bitch,” she repeated firmly. “If anyone deserves that word, it’s Raven Branwen. And you know I’m right.”

“Maybe. Still not very nice - especially when we both know she's been trying harder lately.”

Amber eyes rolled toward the ceiling. “You're such a goody two shoes. But… I guess that's not such a terrible thing.”

Weiss tried not to let her smile look too overly pleased as they went back to washing.

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

The weekend finally arrived. Even though everything with her father still loomed over her head like a black cloud, establishing a routine at the Belladonna household definitely helped both Weiss and her mother regain some sense of normalcy. The single bathroom tended to be a bit more clogged with four women always vying for its attentions, and Kali had to adjust her recipes to be a bit larger, but they were all such relatively easy fixes and everyone seemed more than ready to try.

That said, she still felt a bit grateful when Yang showed up out of the blue on her motorcycle, commanding her to hop on. Waving to the two mothers, she slipped on her jacket and headed out the door.

“Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise!”

“Why so many surprises lately?!”

“That’s a surprise, too!” But the gales of laughter that floated out of the blonde afterward told her that she was just playing around. As usual.

Once they got out of the city, Weiss began to truly worry, but they didn’t go much further until they crested a hill and a beautiful meadow stretched out before them in the late morning sunlight. Yang quickly guided the cycle toward a little copse of trees along the side of a lake and around it, leaving them mostly shielded from the road. Only the lake lay out before them.

“Hey, what is this?” Weiss asked with a little smile as the driver took off her helmet. “Either we’re going fishing, or…?”

“Got the answer riiiight here.” Yang reached into the copse and pulled out… a picnic basket.

“Huh?!”

Still wearing that coy little smile of hers, she carried it a little ways from the trees and opened the top, pulling out a chequed blanket and spreading it over the ground. “Well, it feels like I don’t get to see you all that much lately. Lot of crazy stuff happening. Plus if we don’t do it now, it’ll be too cold to do stuff like this pretty soon. Wanted to have a picnic with you while we could.”

Heart melting, she quickly flitted over to Yang’s side and leaned up to peck her on the cheek. “Awwww!”

“Alright, alright,” she giggled. “Help me get everything set up. Grab a couple of rocks from the pond, willya?”

Weiss complied, and Yang used the rocks to anchor the corners of the blanket against any winds that might try to upset their little lunch. One at a time, she began to take out little Tupperware containers of various foods.

“How long have you been planning this?”

“Just since last night,” she told her, popping one of the containers open. It was full of ambrosia - Jell-O mixed with marshmallows and nuts. She closed it again and reached for a different one. “I dunno, I really wanted to do something. You were pleased as punch about me taking you to homecoming, which is great, but… it kinda reminded me that everything’s been so wild around here lately. We need to fix that.”

“We definitely do.” She snuggled into Yang’s side as she retrieved chicken salad, a loaf of bread, a wedge of cheese. Then the last item emerged and Weiss gasped, “Yang!”

“What?” she laughed, reaching back in for a corkscrew. “I mean, we won’t be driving again for a few hours. Besides… I really want this to be a real date.”

Smiling even as she rolled her eyes, Weiss helped hold the bottle steady while Yang opened it. “We don’t need wine for it to be a real date. But… I suppose it wouldn’t hurt. I’m just not as much of a fan lately.”

“Yeah…” She shrugged as the cork popped out and she tossed it and the screw back into the basket. “I know, your mom and all. But we’re not her, and it’s not the wine’s fault. That was just… y’know. How she dealt with things. But I can pour it out if you-”

“No, no,” she cut Yang off quickly, kissing her cheek to reassure her. “I want to share this with you. All of it.”

So they set about making themselves little sandwiches, hacking the bread and cheese up with the knife she packed. Yang kicked off her boots, and Weiss followed suit by shedding her saddle shoes. They laughed and ate and talked, mostly about school and Dragons business. A little about their parents and Blake, but those subjects were a tad touchier so they didn’t dwell nearly so much.

By the time they were into the ambrosia, passing the spoon back and forth, they had reached the topic of Ruby and Qrow. Though Yang wasn’t thrilled with it, she was a little too inebriated from the wine to put up much of a fight.

“You’re totally right,” she admitted begrudgingly after swallowing. “I should maybe try not to be so… so mad, I guess. And I’m already trying with Ruby! Isn’t that enough?”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t. Just that you could try… getting along with Qrow, see if he’s open to starting over. He’s family, right?”

“My uncle. Doesn’t make him a good person. Enough,” she cut Weiss off before she could protest as she set the bowl down, hands on her hips as she stared out over the lake. “Promise I’ll try harder, okay? But I don’t wanna think about that right now. I want… to swim.”

Weiss was still blinking in surprise when she saw Yang tossing her jacket aside, then reaching for the waistline of her jeans. “Swim? But… neither of has bathing suits.”

“Sure don’t,” she told her, casting a wicked little grin over her shoulder as she pushed them down to her ankles, taking the socks with them. Her bare, firm ass was on display.

“YANG!”

“Come on, nobody’s around for miles. That house on the other side of the lake? It’s abandoned. Everybody moved into Vale, or down the road the other way.” Her hands unbuttoned her blouse the rest of the way and dropped it to rest in a pile with the other clothing, leaving her wearing nothing but a bra and a foxlike expression. “Just us.”

Swallowing hard, she gazed up at the perfection that was Yang Xiao Long. That hourglass figure that was only strengthened by her formidable muscles, not diminished, and legs that seemed built both for kicking down doors and modelling pantyhose at the same time. “Wowee…” Then she pushed to her feet as well. “Want some help with that?”

“Yeah, I would.” Weiss made quick work of the clasp as Yang asked, “Does that mean you’re gonna join me?”

Heart leaping into her throat, she was quick to hiss, “What?! NO! Jeepers, I couldn’t- I mean, out here in the- I would be naked!”

“That’s the idea, Schnee,” she laughed as she turned, displaying everything God had given her to the nervous paper shaker. “Let’s get you out of that dress.”

“But…” Her cheeks were already flushed from the wine, and they only got worse. “W-well… did you even bring a towel?”

“Nah. We can dry in the sun; there ain’t a cloud in the sky.”

Chewing her lip, she looked around at the lakeshore again. She was right; the only house she could spot was very far away, and looked like it had half-crumbled. “Ohhh… I… alright, but…”

Yang stepped on the toes of Weiss’s socks, reaching up to hold her shoulders. “Go on.” She walked backward out of them, trying not to giggle at the slightly ticklish sensation of their toes fighting with each other. The minute she was barefoot, Yang reached down to the hem of her dress and whispered, “Are you ready? I’ll only do it if you say ‘yes’. Not gonna throw you in the water if you don’t want me to.”

“Fine, go on,” she sighed irritably, and Yang laughed as she helped her out of it. Hands roamed instead of assisting with her underwear, so she swatted Yang’s shoulder. “Cad.”

“Hey! I’m allowed to do a little heavy petting with my own girlfriend!”

“Is that in the rules somewhere?” They both chuckled a little as Yang finally did unclasp Weiss’s little bra. She always felt so self-conscious when their chests were on display to each other, since hers was so much smaller, but Yang didn’t seem to mind at all. “I can’t believe we’re skinny dipping, I feel so childish…”

“Really? Because you look like a real woman to me.”

Pleased more than she wanted to let on, Weiss pursed her lips to keep from grinning and finally stepped out of her panties. Yang had already seen her, after all - it just wasn’t in such a public setting. “Okay, there. Let’s get in the water so I don’t feel like such a… a degenerate!”

“Wow, touchy,” she chuckled as she stuffed the clothing into the basket. Then she turned and scooped Weiss up in one fluid motion.

“HEY!”

“Okay, so,” she began as she took long strides toward the water, “I may have told one teensy… little… FIB!”

Then she tossed Weiss into the water.

“AAAAH!” she cried out. “IT’S COLD!”

“Too bad, Schnee!” she cackled, beyond pleased with herself. Of course, it wasn’t particularly deep there, so it only took a few seconds of floundering and sputtering for her to get her feet under her and stand up, shivering and glaring daggers at where Yang was wading in, taking her sweet time.

“I’LL SHOW YOU!” she shouted - as she tugged her down into the water with her.

“No fair!” Yang shouted, though she was already laughing. Of course it wouldn’t work quite as well on her - she might have known.

The two paddled around for a few minutes, just laughing and splashing. Weiss had to admit she was having a lot of fun; both because of the whole trip, and because it was such a bold and obscene thing to do. Her mother would have kittens if she knew! Yang’s mother probably would even have something to say about it, about how foolish it was to let down their guard that way, even if she didn’t care about the nudity part. It was quite freeing, having nothing between her body and the water, even though it also felt unsettling having it ripple past certain sensitive areas.

“So,” Yang asked some time later - she couldn’t be sure how much. “Great idea, or greater idea?”

Shaking her head, she muttered, “So full of yourself” before pushing at Yang’s head. The blonde only laughed more. “But… okay, this is fun. Next time, I think I would prefer a bikini, even if you don’t think we needed one.”

“Awww, but I like knowing I get to do this whenever I want,” she purred, reaching out to poke Weiss’s nipple. She recoiled instantly, covering her chest. “Hah!”

“Don’t do that!” To retaliate, she did the same, and Yang also let out a little gasp before laughing. “See how it feels?!”

Biting her lip, she fluttered her eyelashes before whispering, “Feels pretty good. Do it again.”

“No.”

“Come on…” Unable to stay mad, a smile escaped Weiss’s guard as she poked a second time. “Oooh… you really have the Midas touch.”

Drifting a little closer, she began to caress over Yang’s ample bosom more earnestly, and saw the shift in the taller girl’s expression. The playfulness remained but muted, moved to behind a wall of pure lust. Her other hand grazed past the Dragons brand in the center of her chest on its way to the other breast, grazing over the erect nipple - as if they could be anything other than erect in such frigid waters. This felt like a terrible idea but she couldn’t help herself around Yang sometimes.

“O-okay,” Yang said with a shaky little laugh. “Maybe… we should take to this to the shore.”

“What’s the matter?” she teased, grinning at being the pursuer instead of the pursued for once. “Thought this was the whole idea.”

Shoving her hands off, Yang grinned wolfishly. “Giving me a run for my money, Schnee. Nah… I really did want to swim with you.”

That made her feel all warm inside, despite the chill on her skin. “And I’m having a great time.” She pulled her in for a deep kiss, hands ghosting up her back. It felt weird with their legs swirling around each other in the water, feeling wet skin slip and dimple under her fingertips, but it was oddly wonderful. New and beautiful and full of magic.

After another hour or so, they paddled back to the shore and stretched out on the blanket. The sun beat down on them from almost directly overhead, warming their bare skin. She glanced down along Yang’s body, at her sizable mounds and the flat plane of her stomach, the thatch of golden hair that disappeared between her legs. Every once in a while, one of them would twitch their foot over to poke the nearest one of the other person, just as a way to check they were still there.

“How long did you want to hang around here?” Weiss finally whispered, as if not wanting to break the comfortable silence that had grown between them. The sounds of the birds overhead and the gentle lapping of the lake water demanded their attention.

“Don’t worry, I’ll have you home in time for Perry Mason. Or whatever you watch in Casa Belladonna now.”

“I used to watch What’s My Line? with Father. But now… I don’t know, it won’t be the same anymore. Even if I did try it.”

Yang’s hand drifted over to pet up and down Weiss’s trim little abdomen. “Sorry. I know you didn’t want life to turn out… well, like this. And it’s kinda my fault.”

“No!” she cried, rolling to face her. “Come on. I may have lost my father, but… I got my mother back. I’ve missed her so much! And even if I never met you, I’m sure something else I did would have set him off, and… and I would have had no big, strong Dragon to help protect me. You or the others. So… I mean, yes, I’ve had a few pity parties about the whole thing, but for the most part? This is for the best. Really.”

The smile on Yang's face told the whole story. She already felt the same way, but couldn't help the lingering guilt from flaring up since she had started her down this path of deviance and iniquity. She pressed a gentle kiss to Weiss's lips, pulling back to gaze down into her eyes.

“Love you.”

“I love you, too,” she whispered, reaching up to grasp her by the hair and yank her down for another kiss, and another.

It wasn't long before their nude bodies were entwined as their lips danced, enjoying the warmth and the familiarity. The warmth built until it blazed, thighs slipping between thighs and rubbing against where the heat seemed to be collecting. It always seemed like Yang's was much hotter than hers. The more their bodies shifted, the slicker the trails they left behind until it felt like they had never left the lake at all.

“Weiss…” Their lips only parted long enough for that one word to slip out, and yet it was enough to double the passion for the young Schnee, rolling to perch atop Yang's body as their hips began to slam harder and harder. That broke the kiss for good, as they were beginning to need more and more air to keep going. “Weiss!”

The few people who ever got to see the mighty Yang looking so open, so submissive and given over to her own pleasure, should count themselves lucky. Weiss certainly did.

Within a few more minutes, the two of them were completely spent and lying curled around each other, catching their breath. Nothing had changed while they let passion take over. Birds still chirped in the trees and circled overhead, and the water still moved, and the wind still stirred the blades of grass surrounding their little blanket-island.

“Okay, so…” Yang began petting up and down her stomach again. “This wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I brought you up here.”

“Liar.”

“Really! I'd be lying if I said I wasn't secretly hoping for it, sure, but… I also just wanted to have a nice day with you after all the craziness.”

Chuckling lightly, Weiss leaned up to press her lips into Yang's cheek. “Mission accomplished. I've been having a great time. Whoopee or no whoopee.”

“Who still calls it ‘whoopee’?” she chortled, earning her a hearty pinch on her ribs. “OW! Hey, hey!”

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

They took their sweet time in getting dressed and the picnic packed up. Partly because Yang kept trying to undress Weiss again, and she had to take time to swat her away - even though she spent the whole time grinning. It was exactly what the two of them needed after so much strife in their lives lately.

“Wish I didn’t have to call it a night already,” Yang said over the road noise as they got back into Vale proper. “But… I kinda promised myself I would.”

“Promised yourself?”

Yang looked a little awkward. Weiss loved seeing her that way; it made her feel less like the only fish out of water in their relationship. Seeing her girlfriend display some vulnerability reminded her that they were both human, both figuring things out as they went.

“Well… your mom has had a really rough time, y’know? I don’t want to keep you out until all hours and make her worry.”

“Oh…” Her lips turned up into a small, pleased smile. “Yang, I… I didn’t think you ever thought twice about my mom. Thank you. I mean, on her behalf. That’s really sweet of you.”

Looking somehow proud and embarrassed at the same time, she dipped her head slightly. “Awww, it’s nothing.”

“No, it isn’t.” She leaned forward and squeezed her girlfriend a little tighter. “You’re a real gem.”

However, when they turned the corner and saw someone waiting on the Belladonna lawn, their little bubble of happiness receded - not completely, but the confusion definitely intruded on their bliss.

“Ruby?” Yang asked the worried-looking girl when she arrived. “What are you doing here?”

Stepping forward, the diminutive little sister tried to speak, but it came out more like a squeak than a speak. “I’m s-s-sorry if this is a bad time… but… do you have a minute?”

#princess and the dragons #freezerburn fanfic #freezerburn smut #rwby fanfiction #rwbyremnants #nsfw-Text

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surveys-at-your-service · 3 years

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Survey #474

“nothing flashed before my eyes / no pretty angels, no bright lights / all i saw was the devil’s soul, & it looked a hell a lot like my own”

Who are you most nervous about introducing potential significant others to? My dad. He can be a challenge. He says whatever comes to his mind the moment he thinks it, and it's not always nice. What is the most exciting thing about your life right now? My relationship, honestly. It feels like the one thing that's going right, but I'm concerned if I don't take care of the things that aren't going so well, that they will creep into my relationship and start breaking it down, ex. not having a job. What was the most important non-academic thing you learned in high school? To just keep pushing and not give up on life, and that it is full of phases, be them good, bad, or bland. Have you ever had a job that deeply affected your personal life? How so and do you still work there? No. Do you have a “one who got away”? I don't feel like that anymore. If you were in a supoerhero movie, would you be the hero or the villain? Because I like to help people, I'd like to be the hero, BUT villains are waaaay cooler. If you found a mouse in your house, would you be frightened? Frightened, no. I LOVE mice. I'd of course be startled and concerned about it getting into food, but I'd just calmly find a way to get it outside. Have you ever tried to perform magic tricks? I used to LOVE getting those little magic kits when the Scholastic fair came around! I had I want to say three and was pretty good at a lot of tricks in them. Can you do more with a yo-yo than just "go up and down"? No. What is one form of technology that you wouldn't be able to live without? The Internet for sure. Did you get an allowance, growing up? Why or why not? No. An allowance for three daughters was something my parents couldn't afford. Would you rather go to a water park or an amusement park? Why? An amusement park. They're more exciting to me, and somehow water parks seem dirtier with all the little kids and just alksdjlfa;wjke What is one instrument you wouldn't mind learning how to play? The violin. What's the longest amount of time you've had to wait in line for something? Probably something at Disney World as a kid, idr. What is something that you would like to learn more about? I ALWAYS want to learn more and more about meerkats. What is something that one of your family member collects? Mom collects owl stuff. Have you ever moved to a new school before? If so, how did it feel? No, except obviously when transferring from certain age ranges, like elementary to middle school. Have you ever legitimately forgotten to do homework? Yes, at least once in middle school. I felt SO awful and had to go outside of the classroom to do it while they were reviewing the work. Do you enjoy autumn leaves or spring flowers more? Why? I really, really like both. Each are just very pretty in their own right. Depending on where you live, why might a day of school get canceled? Hurricanes or like the mere chance of a centimeter of snow. At least once, we've even had such a severe heat advisory that school was called off. If you could meet any fictional character from a book, who would it be? Can dragons be real? 'Cuz then I wanna meet Clay from Wings of Fire if we could talk, lol. He's so wise and I'm sure would have great knowledge to share about looking at my life from new perspectives. What are some common places that people tour when they come to your city? Um, people do NOT tour this city. It's trash. What's one food that you did not enjoy as a child, but do as an adult? I'm not sure. How would having no electricity affect your daily routine? Everything would change, given I'm always on the computer. Would you rather have a mermaid tail, a fairy's wings or a unicorn's horn? Fairy wings, for sure. What is an animal that you'd like to have as a pet but it's not allowed? I wish SO badly that opossums were domesticated animals, alsdkjfkaljwe. I say enough that I do want to rescue/foster one, though, but I would obviously need a license for that. I would absolutely never just snag one from the wild. What are some things that you do to make the world a better place? We recycle here, don't dare to litter, and I always try to be a decent person that spreads love and hope to other people. Has the last person you had sex with ever had sex with someone besides you? Yes. What’s your favorite store at your mall? rue21, I suppose. We have a small mall. Have you ever done a workout DVD? Oh my actual god, this is a THROWBACK. When we were really little, my sister had a BARBIE workout DVD that we watched sometimes. Who usually takes out the trash in your family? Usually Mom, but sometimes me. What song are you currently obsessed with? Absolutely "Bath Salts" by Highly Suspect, ahhhhh- When you go fishing, do you make someone else get the fish off the hook? When I used to go fishing, my dad would always unhook the fish. Do you take any prescription meds? A lot. What happens if you don’t take them? I very rarely forget to take my medicine, but when I do, I experience anxiety and my tremors get worse. Who was the last person you dreamt about? I don't remember. Do you prefer your tea sweetened or unsweetened? I hate tea in any way. How often do you honk your horn? I don't really drive, so. I'd be very hesitant to though because I wouldn't wanna piss someone off. Do you have any children? If so, names and ages? That's a hard pass from me, bro. Have your parents ever witnessed you doing something inappropriate? What? No. Did you get babysat a lot as a kid? I don't remember how frequently, but we did have a babysitter. Both my parents had jobs. If you were the principal of a school, what would you do differently? Actually pay fucking attention to bullying and do shit about it. Are you doing anything fun tomorrow? "Fun?" Don't know her. What is something you'd like to receive as a housewarming gift? I dunno. How old were you when you first experienced the effects of puberty? I don't remember. What is your least favorite holiday, and why? St. Patrick's Day because I worry about getting pinched, lol. Pinching even very lightly is surprisingly painful for me. What were some outdoor games you played as a child? Hide-and-seek was my favorite, then my sisters and I made games for on the trampoline and in the pool, etc. Did you accompany your parents on "Take Your Child to Work" Day? I never remember doing that, no. Are cemeteries peaceful to you, or do they freak you out? They're humbling, more than anything. A reminder of how equal we are and that we all end up the same. It's a nudge to cherish life while you have it. Which ancient civilization would you be interested in learning more about? My favorite is Ancient Egyptian. Do you have better long-term memory or short-term memory? Long-term. My short-term memory is absolutely frighteningly horrid. What was the last situation that made you cry? Describe. I was very frustrated with just life in general and how horribly I'm failing at it. Which forest animal would you be most afraid to encounter? A bear, probably. Do you believe in anything supernatural? (ie: spirits, etc) Yeah, like said spirits. Has anyone close to you ever gone to war? No. Have you ever experienced altitude sickness? No. Is there anything, any event, you wish you could remember more clearly? I don't know right now. Have you ever rubbed anyone’s feet? EW you couldn't pay me to. If you had to get advice from someone of the opposite sex, who would you go to? My boyfriend. What was the last new food/drink that you tried? I recently tried jalapeno-stuffed grilled chicken, and a couple days ago I tried this orange/strawberry V8 my mom bought. It was noooot good, which I figured it wouldn't be. That's not a good mix. Have you had a good day today or was yesterday better? Today was fucking awful, and yesterday wasn't exactly peachy either. Have you ever played Sudoku? Yeah, I enjoy it well enough. Do you ever take surveys for money? No; I once signed up for a site like that though because my mom used to do that, but I literally qualified for no surveys with how inexperienced I was and still am with grown-up stuff. Do you like Barbie or Bratz better? I don't have an opinion, and I didn't really as a kid, either. Do you prefer purple or green grapes? I go back and forth, but either way, it has to be a crisp grape or it's just gross. Who was the last person that made you laugh? I was watching a John Wolfe video. Where does your best friend live? Illinois. Who did you last confide in? Girt. Does your car have an alarm? Mom's doesn't. Where was your mom born? New York. What can always make you feel better no matter what? If I'm being completely realistic, nothing. Not every single tactic is fail-proof, especially these days. What is something you’ll never eat again? Why? Crab legs came to mind first. They are SO mushy and just gross. What is currently happening that is scaring you? My life, bro. Have you ever found a stranger’s note somewhere? If so, what did it say? I mean maybe at some point accidentally? I don't remember a specific occurrence.

#survey #surveys #random questions #lyrics: ''bath salts'' by highly suspect

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thefinalcinderella · 3 years

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Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru Chapter 7 - The Qualifiers (Part 3)

After this chapter I have officially finished 50% of this book...yeah that’s right after 2 years I have finished half of this book...

Next chapter is pretty long, we might be staying there for a while folks

Full list of translations here

Translation Notes

1. A “one-two finish” refers to members of the same team winning first and second place

Previous | Next

When Kakeru reached the finish line, he was handed a water bottle by a staff member and ordered to move; if he stayed near the finish line, he would become an obstacle to the later runners.

He wondered how the others were doing. He was worried, so he lingered under the trees next to the finish line to check on the situation. There was another cheer, and he caught a glimpse of a Kansei uniform on the other side of the crowd—it was Kiyose.

“Haiji-san!” Kakeru shouted and leapt out onto the pathway that the runners who finished passed through to get to the lawn. Kiyose was crouching. Startled, Kakeru ran over to him.

“Are you okay?”

He didn’t seem to be breathing too much. The runners who finished in the top rankings had that ability; they were able to run the race at their own pace and with ease. There was no way they would be gasping for breath and unable to move after reaching the finish line. “It’s your leg, right?” Kakeru judged after checking Kiyose’s breathing.

In order to lessen the burden on his muscles even just a little bit, Kakeru poured water from the bottle onto Kiyose’s shin. After Kakeru lent him a hand, Kiyose stood up and started walking with a slight limp in his right leg.

“Kakeru, good work.”

Kiyose’s first words were words of appreciation towards Kakeru. Is this really the right time for that? Kakeru felt like crying.

“Yes.”

When he hung his head, Kiyose laughed and ruffled his hair.

“Let’s go cheer on the others.”

“But, we should cool your leg imme—”

“It’s not a problem. Let’s go.”

Kiyose slipped into a gap between the spectators. Kakeru followed him, saying, “Excuse me.”

At the finish line, there was a close race for eightieth place. Since the results were decided by the combined times of ten people, everyone was desperate.

“It’s the twins, it’s the twins!”

Kakeru spotted Kansei uniforms in the tight group. On the other side of the course, Hanako was jumping up and down.

Jouta and Jouji both gritted their teeth and crossed the finish line. After them, Yuki, Musa, Nico-chan and Shindou finished in the eightieth to ninetieth places. King fought bravely and finished in one hundred and twenty-third place.

“Good. That’s a good pace,” Kiyose murmured. Prince, however, was nowhere to be seen. Among the regular schools, there were more and more that had all ten people finish the race.

“It’s not looking good for us at this rate.”

Kakeru stamped his foot. He almost wanted to run one more time himself. Is he here yet? Is he here yet? Then, from behind the trees, where Kakeru had been staring as if in prayer, Prince appeared.

“He’s staggering…” Kiyose furrowed his brow. Prince had already passed his limits, and his eyes were unfocused.

“Prince-san, run! The finish line is right in front of you!” Kakeru shouted, trying to at least guide him by ear.

“I know that.” Prince struggled forward, fighting the nausea that was rising up. Sweat was flowing from him and his fingers were unpleasantly cold. Where did the blood go? Prince vaguely wondered. My face is probably pale as a sheet of paper right now.

He was clearly anemic, but he couldn’t collapse here. There were twenty meters until the finish line. If Prince stopped running, Kansei, which only had ten people, would be eliminated from the qualifiers. If Hakone was a no-go for them because of him, his collection of books would surely be burned. He had to avoid that.

Prince summoned up all of his willpower. As soon as he did that, his stomach squeezed, and he finally felt an unendurable nausea.

He no longer cared about the several hundred people watching him. As Prince ran, he threw up with all his might. He could hear the female spectators along the route letting out cries of “Kyaa!”

“This is no time for throwing up! Run!” Kiyose’s angry voice rang out.

Are you a demon or something? This is why I hate sports clubs. Prince cursed at him in his head, wiping his dirty mouth with his hand. Of course, he had no intention of stopping his feet. He wondered why he was doing sports, something he wasn’t good at. He wondered why he had been doing all this running practice like an idiot.

It was to participate in the Hakone Ekiden.

Because I thought it would be nice to share in you guys’ muscle-headed dream for once…!

Prince crossed the finish line in one hundred and seventy-sixth place and lost consciousness on the spot.

Everyone in Chikusei-sou had fallen flat in their encampment on the lawn. Less than half of them had the energy to even check their wristwatches for their times after finishing. Yuki had given up on the attempt to clearly grasp the ten’s combined times.

The tallying and calculation of intercollegiate points took up more time than expected, so the results were to be announced at around eleven o’clock. They had to wait at least another hour after all the competitors had finished running.

“We’re in a delicate position.” Kiyose calmly calculated while icing his shin. “When averaging our positions, we’re probably in the mid-eighties. That’s borderline.”

“Depending on the intercollegiate points of the schools that are also borderline…”

Nico-chan glared at the sky with a difficult look on his face.

“It’s possible we won’t qualify,” Yuki said.

Oh no, the twins moaned. Shindou and Musa were quiet, looking like they were praying to their respective ancestors and patron gods. King was plucking at the grass. Prince didn’t so much as twitch, still lying facedown on the grass. Hanako and the shopping district people, who were surrounding them, were unable to give any careless encouragement, and could only wait for the results.

Kakeru suddenly looked at Kiyose’s hands; the ice they had brought in the cooler box was melting in the plastic bag.

“I’ll go get some ice. Maybe they’ll give us some at that store over there.” Wanting to escape from this oppressive atmosphere, Kakeru stood up. Musa seemed to feel the same way.

“I shall go as well,” he said and followed him.

They cut across the lawn and headed for the store with the red roof. It was easy to tell which schools were confident that they would qualify by the expressions on the runners’ faces; it was the borderline schools, like Kansei, that were exuding a sense of high tension, but the schools that had clearly ranked lower were generally calmly waiting for the results to be announced. Among them, there were teams that were happily picking at the multi-tiered bento boxes made by their female managers.

There are all sorts of people, Kakeru thought. For those people, their goal was to make it to the qualifiers. They knew the outcome from the beginning, so when they were finished running, they made it into a picnic-like event and enjoyed themselves. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we’re different, he felt.

I don’t want it to end the qualifiers. I want to see even greater heights. I want to be an even faster and stronger team and compete in the Hakone Ekiden. That’s what I’ve been training for, and that’s what I’m going to keep training for.

“I wonder what will happen, Kakeru,” Musa spoke to him worriedly.

“We can get to Hakone,” Kakeru assured him. Burning magma was gushing up from the pit of his stomach. Everyone had run the qualifiers with all their might today; there was no way they could lose.

Musa’s eyes widened at his forceful words.

“Kakeru, you seem to have gotten stronger somehow.”

“That’s not true.” Kakeru shook his head. “We ran pretty hard, didn’t we? So I just think we’ll be okay.”

Musa nodded. “You are correct. We are going to Hakone. All together.”

When Musa said it, it sounded like the happy ending of a fairy tale, or a reliable prophecy.

When Kakeru and Musa asked for some ice, the shopkeeper readily gave them some. Since they came empty-handed, the shopkeeper put the ice into a paper cup. “We were careless,” Musa said. A group of spectators walked by behind him.

“Another black runner. It’s pretty unfair to bring in foreign students.”

“With a bunch of guys like that, then Japanese runners won’t be able to compete.”

Musa’s face stiffened at the whispered comments that they intentionally let him hear, and Kakeru was about to turn around and object.

“It’s fine, Kakeru,” Musa stopped him. “I have heard a lot of comments like that today alone.”

“We can’t let them say something so one-sided!” Kakeru still tried to chase after the spectators that were getting further away, but Musa seized his arm.

“We must not get into quarrels. They are talking about foreign students who came here because of their talent in athletics. I am embarrassed. I am embarrassed of myself. They don’t seem to be able to tell the difference, but my legs are not fast. I am just a foreign student with no talent to be envious of.”

“That has nothing to do with this!” Kakeru was indignant. “You, me, the people who took first and second place today, we all ran the same course. And yet…”

He didn’t know how to say it, but Kakeru was frustrated. He felt like Musa, who he lived with, Kakeru himself, and the international students from other schools he had never exchanged a word with were all being insulted. That’s right, I can’t express it well, but it’s an insult to everyone who’s taking running seriously. Kakeru squared his shoulders.

“It’s just as Kurahara said,” someone said. When he turned around, he saw a lanky man with a shiny and round head. “But let it go. They’re amateurs who don’t know what running is.”

Kakeru and Musa watched as the man bought oolong tea at the store. Kakeru had seen him before. Without letting his guard down, he searched his memory in a panic. I recognize this shiny head.

“Rokudou’s Fujioka! …san,” Kakeru deduced the answer.

Rokudou University had won the Hakone Ekiden several years in a row. This was their captain, Fujioka Kazuma. Kakeru had only met him at the TSU meet in the spring, but he wondered why someone like him would come to the qualifiers.

“I’m here to observe our opponents,” Fujioka said, perhaps reading Kakeru’s question. “Kansei has become quite strong. It looks like you’re going to make it to Hakone.”

Fujioka had the complacency and presence of a champion.

“Thanks to everyone’s hard work.” Kakeru’s natural competitive spirit reared its head, and he answered back proudly. Fujioka let his gaze collide with Kakeru’s, not taking a step back, and then looked at Musa.

“You shouldn’t care about people like that. It’s a ridiculous opinion.”

“Which part of it is ridiculous?”

Kakeru stopped Fujioka, who was about to leave while drinking his tea. The way the spectators talked about Musa made him angry. However, he couldn’t figure out exactly why he was angry, but Fujioka seemed to know what was causing this annoyance.

“Please tell me,” Kakeru pleaded.

Fujioka stopped and stared at Kakeru with interest. “Alright then,” he said and turned to Kakeru and Musa again.

“There are at least two ridiculous parts. One is the reasoning that it is unfair to include foreign students in the team because Japanese runners can’t compete with them. So what about the Olympics then? What we’re doing is a competition, not a kindergarten field day where we all hold hands and one-two finish. (1) It is natural that there would be individual differences in physical ability. But on top of that, sports are about equality and fairness. They have no idea what it means to compete on the same field in the same sport.”

Musa was silent, attentively listening to Fujioka’s words. Kakeru was just simply overwhelmed by Fujioka’s quiet analysis.

“Their other misunderstanding is thinking that winning is good,” Fujioka continued. “If a Japanese athlete takes first place, if they get a gold medal, is that all that matters? I firmly believe that isn’t true. That shouldn’t be the essence of competition. Even if I win first place, it isn’t a victory if I felt that I lost to myself. Things like times and rankings change rapidly from competition to competition. Who decides who’s the best in the world? It isn’t because of that, but because we have unchanging goals and ideals within us that we continue to run.”

That’s right. Kakeru felt his hazy, pent-up feelings clear up. I got stuck on these things and they made me angry. Fujioka’s amazing. What Kakeru felt and wanted to say were extremely easily untangled and put into words.

“You haven’t changed at all, Fujioka.”

Before they knew it, Kiyose was standing behind Kakeru and Musa.

“An outsider said something unnecessary.” Fujioka bowed to Kiyose in a stoic manner and left this time.

“No, you were helpful.” When Kiyose said that, Fujioka turned his head over his shoulder and a corner of his mouth lifted into a smile.

“Looks like you’ve got quite the lineup.”

“Well, I suppose.”

“I’ll be waiting at Hakone.”

With a resolute attitude befitting a champion until the end, Fujioka disappeared between the trees. It’s like he said “I’ll be waiting in nirvana,” or something. I wonder if he’s not going to wait to see the results announced even though he came all the way here, Kakeru thought, but he hurriedly bowed towards Fujioka’s back.

Musa also said, “Thank you very much,” and bowed deeply. Fujioka’s words had energized Kakeru and Musa, like dispelling thunderclouds.

“I came after you guys because you left without taking the bag.” Kiyose lifted the plastic bag.

“Sorry,” Kakeru said and accepted the bag, then transferred the ice he got from the shopkeeper to it. Kiyose was already walking without dragging his leg.

“Is he called Fujioka-san? He is an amazing person.” Musa seemed deeply impressed.

“I guess that means you need emotional strength and wisdom in the true sense to continue winning Hakone,” Kiyose laughed a little. “Well, he’s always been strangely calm; as a high school student his nickname was ‘Trainee Monk’. It's a bit unpleasant, isn’t it?”

Kakeru and Musa looked at each other and nodded, saying, “That’s true.”

Spectators and runners were beginning to gather at the large display board near the finish line.

“It’s almost time for the announcement.”

“Let’s go.”

Musa jogged back to Kansei’s encampment. Kakeru matched Kiyose’s pace as they made their way across the lawn. He was curious to see what the results would be, but they had come this far and there was nothing they could do about it now. What occupied Kakeru’s mind at the moment was Fujioka’s figure.

The power to change thoughts into words. An eye that calmly analyzed the hesitation, anger, and fear within you.

Fujioka was strong. His running speed was extraordinary, but the mental strength that supported it was incredible. When I was just running recklessly, Fujioka must have been analyzing himself in his fast-moving head and pursuing running on a deeper and higher level.

Kakeru felt both battered and inspired with a strange kind of excitement.

What I’m lacking are words. All I do is let my hazy feelings stay hazy. But I can’t do that from now on. I’ll be as fast as, no, even faster than Fujioka. In order to do that, I need to know my running self.

That was definitely the “strength” Kiyose had spoken of.

“I feel like I’m starting to get it,” Kakeru murmured.

“Is that so.” Kiyose seemed satisfied.

A student in a gakuran carrying a megaphone climbed onto the stage. He reverently opened the memo with the results of the qualifiers. He was a student member of the administration committee from the Inter-University Athletic Union of Kanto, which organized the Hakone Ekiden. His assistant, a female student, stood by the display board while the gathered people listened attentively with anticipation and anxiety.

“We will now announce the qualifying schools for the Tokyo-Hakone Round Trip University Ekiden Race. First place, Tokyo Sport University.”

The TSU crowd gave a loud cheer. Kakeru saw Sakaki being given a spank of joy by his senior. The TSU runners hadn’t come apart, reaching the finish line in a good position together; it was a victory of total strength that displayed the depth and closeness of the runners.

The female student pulled out the first place card on the display board. The name “Tokyo Sport University” and the total time of ten people were written in the first place column: ten hours nine minutes and twelve seconds. The average place for the ten runners was forty-ninth place.

“As I thought, it was a pretty fast-paced race,” Kiyose groaned in a low voice. The expression on his face showed that they were in a difficult situation to qualify. Kakeru curled his hands into fists.

“Second place,” the announcer dispassionately read the memo aloud. “Koufu Academy University.”

Cheers erupted from another corner. “Hmph,” King sniffed.

“That announcer is putting the perfect pause between ranking and the school name.”

“Don’t act all important, get on with it,” Prince, who had finally come back to life, immediately complained.

“Aah crap, my heart feels like it’s gonna explode.” The twins and Hanako were huddled together, quivering like young birds that had fallen from their nest.

The announcement had proceeded to fifth place, but Kansei’s name was not called. Up to this point, all the schools had been Hakone regulars; if they couldn’t get into sixth place, the seventh to ninth places were likely to be different from the total time order of the qualifiers because of the intercollegiate points involved.

“Sixth place.”

“Please please please!”

“Kansei, Kansei!”

Their desperate prayers were in vain, and the announcer said, “Saikyo University.”

“Aah!”

“Are we done? Are we done?”

Nico-chan and Yuki looked up at the sky. Kiyose was staring at the display board in silence. The glint in his eyes suggested that he was looking through the white cards that still hid the seventh to ninth place columns.

“In accordance with the rules, seventh place and below are determined by subtracting each school’s intercollegiate points from their total times. Seventh place, Jonan Cultural University.”

Kakeru felt like he was losing the strength in his legs, but he managed to hold on. They still had a chance. There were two more participation slots to be filled. He felt a pain in his right shoulder, and he looked to see Shindou’s fingers digging into it. Musa’s face was half-buried in Shindou’s arms, and he was mumbling something in his mother tongue.

It’ll be okay. It’s going to be okay. Kakeru stretched out his arm and gently patted Shindou and Musa’s backs.

“Eighth place, Kansei University.”

He thought he misheard. King leapt upon them. Kiyose raised his arms to the sky with a rare full-faced smile. Shindou and Musa weakly sat down on the grass. Nico-chan and Yuki high-fived each other, and Hanako and the twins screamed as they slapped Kakeru all over his body.

While being mobbed, Kakeru looked. At the display board, where the words “Kansei University” shined brilliantly. At Prince, who shed a single tear outside the circle.

We did it. The truth finally reached his brain. We are going to be in the Hakone Ekiden.

The next thing Kakeru knew, he was bellowing from the pit of his stomach.

Kansei University’s total time was ten hours sixteen minutes and forty-three seconds. The ten’s average place was eighty-sixth place.

Jonan Cultural University, in seventh place, had the actual time of ten hours seventeen minutes and three seconds. The intercollegiate points put them ahead of Kansei. The school that just barely passed in ninth place was Shinsei University.

Their time was ten hours seventeen minutes and eighteen seconds. Kakeru looked up at the time written on the display board and exhaled with relief and joy. Kansei University had successfully obtained their ticket to Hakone on their first attempt. And they even finished in ten hours and sixteen minutes, which was good enough for seventh place.

There were cries of surprise everywhere.

“Kansei actually did it.”

“And I heard they only have ten people on their team.”

“That’s the school where the third place and sixth place guys came from, right? I already learned their uniforms.”

“Me too. It’s black with silver lines. It’s kind of cool.”

As they were cleaning up their encampment on the lawn, they were asked to give a few words to the close coverage cameras, but Kakeru’s mind was dizzy and lacking oxygen. He was more tired than when he was running and his feet were unsteady.

We've only passed the qualifiers; the actual race is next January. The Hakone Ekiden is in approximately seventy-five days. Even though he told himself that, happiness filled his chest.

Kiyose once said this: “Hakone isn’t a mountain in a mirage.” That really was true. The residents of Chikusei-sou had finally reached the point where they could see the mountain as a real entity.

While feeling excited, Kakeru swiftly folded the plastic sheet. Jouta and Jouji were sitting on the grass. They were frowning for some reason as they peered at the notes of the results they had copied from the display board.

“What’s wrong?” Kakeru called to them. The twins looked up at him.

“Haiji-san said we’re going to the top,” Jouta muttered.

“Mm? Did he?” Kakeru responded lightly, but Jouta wasn’t convinced.

“He did say that. But, this time…”

“What about it?” Kakeru put down the plastic sheet and crouched down next to the twins. “Let’s clean this up quickly and go home. I’m sure we’ll have a party tonight.”

“Kakeru, doesn’t ‘top’ mean winning?” Jouji asked with a grim face. “Our total time is ten hours sixteen minutes and forty-three seconds. TSU, who qualified in first place, has a time of ten hours nine minutes and twelve seconds; that’s a difference of seven and a half minutes. And yet, this is still the qualifiers, right? So, how fast do the runners of the schools that win Hakone run twenty kilometers?”

“If we practice, can we get to that level by New Year’s?” Jouta asked him seriously. “Hey, what do you think, Kakeru?”

Kakeru couldn’t answer anything.

Previous | Next

#Kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteiru #kazetsuyo #kazetsuyo translations #run with the wind

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datawyrms · 4 years

Text

Structure

Dannymay 2020 Day : Bones Bones were a foundation. A constant one could rely on when making assumptions about a species. Humans had theirs inside, the small insects of the world electing for the reverse.

Ghosts did not have bones. The ectoplasmic entities could vary and change immensely, even when found in similar habitats. So of course they did not feel pain, they were closer to large glowing slime molds than any living creature. To be so flexible and be so vulnerable to changes in state simply wouldn’t work if they could not do so without painful feedback.

Which sounded logical enough, but Danny was pretty sure he still had bones, or more importantly still felt the pain shuddering up his spine when slammed particularly hard into an unforgiving building.

Yet they insisted ghosts did not feel pain. The screams and reactions were fake. A ghost could only pretend. They might even fool themselves, but every ghost could be forcefully condensed to fit in a thermos and not be in agony, so all the pain was an illusion. They expected pain, so they ‘felt’ it.

Did it matter if the pain wasn’t real, if it was real to the ghost? He struggled with that argument, both wanting to bring it up and possibly have Jazz back him up with all her focus on psychology. Yet he knew it would be waved off as a silly optimistic take. Ghosts were just monsters, and not very bright ones at that. Worrying about how his parents would be ‘hurting’ the ectoplasmic fiends should be put aside for more important things.

Would they consider the heavy choking weight that fell on his chest when he heard his parents had found another ghost to experiment on fake too? Maybe it was, if he couldn’t decide if he felt that way out of pity for whatever ghost it was, or if it was only selfish terror that hissed that could be him. Would be him, if they caught him. He just had to be more cautious, act faster.

He noticed the muted sounds more often now. The bones in their fleshy prisons, moving and sliding so people could move. The cracking snap of tendons, or the audible pop of gasses escaping when he cracked his knuckles. The way his Dad put too much strain on his knees at times, forcing the half ghost to bite back warnings. A human wouldn’t be listening for that, wouldn’t notice that. He couldn’t hear a difference between his own and his family’s. They felt real enough when curiosity had him probing inside his own arm in ghost form. He was only half ghost, maybe the others were different. Yet the argument hinged on how malleable ectoplasm was. He couldn’t explain where his leg bones went if he formed a ghostly tail. He couldn’t refute that being crammed into a thermos was only terrifying, not painful, and he doubted he had any structure like that. He couldn’t be that different. Not in a way that would matter.

“Danny, maybe you should consider telling them? Even Mom’s starting to catch on that you’re always on edge lately.”

He could only stare at her. “I can’t.” Can’t she see he’s not human enough to tell them? That the green that was ever present in his blood could be justification that he wouldn’t feel real pain?

“Danny, you know they love us too much to hurt you, if they knew they were scaring you-”

He shook his head “Ghosts don’t feel pain, remember? I can’t really be scared.”

She frowned at him, trying to catch his eyes as he instead focused completely on the tiles of the floor. “You know that isn’t true, you can’t let them get to you like that,”

“What if I’m wrong?”

“You aren’t,” She forced him into a hug, ignoring the seeping cold and how he muttered a number before hugging back. “You haven’t changed that much, little bro.”

How could Jazz know how much he’d changed? She wasn’t an expert. Yet the genuine warmth was comforting, even as it reminded him how cold he’d been lately. At least his movement had made as much noise as Jazz’s had. Something normal, even if counting the sounds of bones was distinctly not.

A ghost acts instinctively. It will do anything to accomplish whatever post-human desire caused it to form. A ghost’s structure does not depend on it’s formed body, instead it’s catalyst or ‘obsession’ will be reflected in how it takes shape. In this way, it is the closest thing these beings have as a ‘structure’, and it is as chaotic, messy and twisted as one would expect from a ghost.

It was strange to him that they could say a ghost’s mind had the most influence on them, while still stating they did not truly think or feel. Didn’t they feel the obvious itching contradiction in that? Though thinking ‘the bones are in your brain’ would probably be weird. He had always checked what his ghost form looked like after the incident with Clockwork, a habit that soothed his nerves when he awoke in the middle of the night with the reminder ‘I am inevitable’ ringing in his ears. Checking more often now, wary of changes he might not notice wasn’t that weird.

He wanted to be rooted, to be grounded. Stable, consistent. Firmly in line with the bones he had always had as a human.

Even if he knew he wasn’t all human anymore. He wasn’t even sure how human he was anymore as his powers grew. He could use more, do more without changing shape. Getting punched by Dash was almost reassuring. A real pain, a noticeable if not long lasting bruise. Still human. Still terrified it wouldn’t be enough when he was found out.

Tucker was the one who noticed the change to his ghost form first. One he had not even considered, not even thought of as an option.

“Are you really okay? How deep did he cut you?” his voice was higher than usual, rushing to his hybrid friend bandage in hand.

Danny had furrowed his brow at the question, removing his hand from the gash on his shoulder. It wasn’t leaking that much ectoplasm, his glove wasn’t that stained. “It probably looks worse than it is. Doesn’t really hurt, promise.”

Tucker had still looked disbelieving, but kept quiet until the wound was out of sight. Yet something was obviously still bothering him.

“Is something wrong Tuck?” His silence basically confirmed it, leaving him to fret over what sort of thing he’d managed to do to weird out one of his best friends now.

“Well nothing’s wrong.” The stress on the word ‘wrong’ was the opposite of encouraging. “Just uh. How long’s your skin been missing?”

“What?” he searched Tucker’s face for the hint of a joke, but wasn’t able to find one.

“Under your suit, I mean.”

That didn’t help. He looked down, grabbing the edge of one glove and pulling it up, barely managing to keep down the strangled cry of shock. No wonder Tucker had thought he’d been seriously hurt, with only bright green ectoplasm clinging on to cracked, faintly glowing bone in place of a layer of skin. He pulled it back sharply, not even wanting to think about how that had happened. No idea Tuck.” he forced out, trying to suppress the panic with a laugh. “Guess I’m really oblivious.”

“You want to just go chill? I can put homework off if you need a goof off bud.”

“No, no. I’m fine.” He wasn’t fine; he had barely felt that because he didn’t have any skin, what was wrong with him? “Just another weird ghost thing!”

“Danny. I can tell when you’re freaking out dude.” Tucker grabbed his shoulders, apparently oblivious to how completely gross his friend was for having a hazmat suit for skin. “You need anything?”

“My skin back would be a start but I don’t know where that is. Guess I left it in my other costume.” He couldn’t change back fast enough, one hand instantly on his arm as if his human skin would run off if he didn’t keep a hold of it.

“Sam would approve. Very goth.”

“Gross. The word you’re looking for is gross.” Or more like a ghost. Ghost’s bodies didn’t need to make sense. Only having skin on his face absolutely qualified as not making sense.

Tucker shook his head, dragging his friend along so he wouldn’t just stress out in the middle of nowhere for hours. “It’s not like anyone can tell, if you’re worried about that.”

“I didn’t even notice! That can’t be good.” His parents were right, he didn’t feel it because of course he doesn’t feel his suit taking damage and if they’re right about that-

Tucker snapped into his thoughts, clapping his hands. “Danny, look at me.”

He did, trying to keep his fingernails from digging further into his skin.

“You know we’re your friends no matter what, right? So focus on that for me, okay?”

Tucker had been there since the beginning. Same with Sam. Even after the future that didn’t happen. His breathing finally slowed, though he couldn’t get himself to relax his hand. His friend was still waiting patiently, though he’d somehow guided them out of the way of any other sidewalk traffic without him noticing. “I’m okay.”

“Dude, it’s okay to not be okay sometimes. You need another minute?”

“...Another wouldn’t hurt.”

“Cool.” He leaned against the building, glancing upward. “Games or movies tonight?”

It was just a distraction, a way to keep him from going back down the mental paths again, but it was genuine and it helped. “Should probably play something, dono what.”

“I’ll find some new thing so we can suck at it all night.” Tucker fished out his PDA “I’m vetoing horror, since I’m a wuss.”

The half ghost managed to crack a smile. “I guess I can survive that.”

His parents might be right about ghosts. About him, not having his own structure or bones. He did have people that provided that structure though. It would have to be enough, for now. Though he did not care to dwell on what would happen if those ‘bones’ broke.

#dannymay2020 #Danny Phantom #jazz fenton #Tucker Foley #my stuff #this is just weird #i was all there will be bones breaking #but no #the bones will break the boy #sure ok brain u weirdo

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chasseurdeloup-retired · 4 years

Text

Listening to Fear || Athena and Kaden

TIMING: Before the scream LOCATION: The woods PARTIES: @athenaquinn and @chasseurdeloup SUMMARY: Two hunters enter the woods. One phobid has fun.

Knife in hand, Kaden wasn’t sure how long he stood there at the edge of the trail staring up at the trees, eyes trying to find the tops of the branches, see where one tree ended and the other began. It was impossible to tell. It was also impossible to sort through what he was feeling even though he was certainly trying to. First hunt after spilling the beans to Regan. Well, as best he could manage. Somehow he expected there to be a lot more weight off his shoulders on this next hunt, but he didn’t quite feel it. Something was still nagging at him. He let out a deep exhale through his nose. He supposed it hardly mattered. What mattered was-- People screaming? And running out of the forest. “Putain,” he muttered to himself as he took off running in the direction they came from. No time to worry about feelings and crap now. He had a job to get done and he tore through the trees to get to the scene. A flash of blonde hair caught his eye across the way. “Pipsqueak if that’s you, I swear to god,” he grumbled. The last thing he needed was Blanche out in the woods getting in his way on a hunt.

Even if she didn’t intend for them to, many of Athena’s explorations on the trails around town often ended in a hunt. Admittedly, she had come into the forest today with a partial purpose to hunt, even if she didn’t know exactly what she was looking for. Not that it mattered - this town had more than enough for her to deal with. She’d been working on her breathing recently - because reacting too strongly to fae was not about to do her any good in any sort of situation. She just had to concentrate - though she also knew that she had to welcome the feeling, to welcome how viciously uncomfortable it made her feel whenever any sort of fae was nearby. This time, however, she saw the response before she could feel the fae - a number of hunters screaming and running out of the forest. Shortly after, she could feel goosebumps rise on her arms and she took off. She only skidded to a halt when she heard someone else. “I don’t know who you’re talking to, but I don’t appreciate that nickname.” Turning a corner around a tree she spotted a man. What was he doing here? Why hadn’t he left with the rest of everyone else? He wasn't fae, not as far as she could sense. There was something vaguely familiar about him, but she couldn’t quite place it. “My name is Athena, and I appreciate being referred to as such.”

Oh. Not Blanche. It was someone else entirely. Kaden supposed that was good. “Sorry, thought you were someone else. Someone more obnoxious, about your height, maybe a little shorter, blonde hair though I guess it’s blue sometimes, and she just never stops talki--” A screaming hiker came barreling down the path right into Kaden. He cursed and grumbled as he moved out of the way, almost tossing the man to the side. The poor guy seemed so scared, it was a wonder he didn't piss in his pants. There was another scream or two not too far off. Putain, he had to figure out what the hell was going on here. There were too many monsters to name that could scare a group of unsuspecting hikers shitles. The problem was, it didn’t seem like anything big or barreling was nearby, he’d have heard it. No wolf, probably not a beast. But what the fuck was it. “You’d better clear out, ki-- Athena.” Something about her demeanor, even though she was young, told him that “kid” wasn’t going to go over well with her. “This is dangerous.”

“I -” Athena shook her head. “Well, no. I’ve never even dyed my hair. Not once. Once Lilia said we should, for bid day, but I -” her words and the man’s were both cut off by another scream. She pressed her tongue against her teeth, trying to deduce what was going on. What was causing all of this. She knew very well that some sort of fae was around, but there could have been something else here, too. Whatever was around needed to be dealt with, and this slick-haired guy was blocking her from doing that. She knew that she didn’t even always look twenty, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her. Let him stop her, either. “I’m not going anywhere.” She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. “You, however, should probably go somewhere. I’ve got something to deal with, then I’ll go back home. Don’t worry.” She could feel the knife in her boots and the two against her hips. Practically begging to be used. She pursed her lips when she noticed that he was still standing there. “I’ve really got this. I hike in these woods all the time.”

“Me? I should leave?” Kaden scoffed at her suggestion. “Right. Not going to happen. I’m trained for situations like this. I’ve got it covered. Go home.” He charged past her into the woods without a second glance at her. Hopefully she wasn’t stupid enough to follow. And if she was, he’d work around her but he had a feeling she’d be running scared like the hikers back there. Confidence and cockiness only got you so far up against a monster. In the clearing, he paused and listened, tried to use whatever senses he could to suss out the situation. He didn’t feel anything, even anything small or subtle. No beasts nearby. Had to be some other kind of monster, fae or undead most likely. And he didn’t see anything big or scary. So why were they running away like that? Kaden spun around at the sound of rustling behind him, pulling his knife out of his pocket on instinct. Putain, it was the girl “I thought I told you to leave, this is dange--” His words cut off as he heard something behind him, but as soon as he turned to look, it was gone. All he saw was the bounce of some branches and the rustle of the leaves. Fuck, what was it?

“Yes. You should.” Athena fought away the urge to cross her arms and give a less-than-polite retort back to the man. What was he doing here, anyhow? She knew that this town attracted thrill seekers, so maybe he was one of those? It was people like that who made her job more difficult. “I’m sure whatever American Ninja Warrior type of gym you belong to has made you believe that, but I’m actually trained for this.” Great, so now she was going to have to deal with some guy who was way too confident for his own good and a fae that she still couldn’t see. After another moment she felt her whole body tense up. She made a note to continue working on that during her trainings. Not that she wanted a repeat of the whole fae incident back in March, but every time she felt like doubling over when she was around fae made her wish that she had a better handle on that particular aspect of her training. Thankfully, it hadn’t done much of anything to diminish her hunting skills, she thought, a smirk crossing her face. Hardly paying attention to the knife that the man had. Just then, out of the corner of her eye she spotted something. Dark, winged, and with what appeared to be white eyes. Phobid. At least that explained why the hikers had been screaming. “You seriously want to get out of here.” The phobid’s wings fluttered as it rose up from the branch it was sitting on. “The sooner the better.” She pulled one of her knives out from its resting place against her hip. “I’ve got this handled.” She glanced over at his. “Go use that for something else. This isn’t some stupid deer. Also, if it were, I’d advise against that sort of knife. Just a helpful tip from a local!” She flashed him a grin, though it was more passive-aggressive than kind. With a small wave of her hand, she turned back to face the branch where the phobid sat, lips pursed.

“American what?” Kaden asked, face scrunched in confusion. She had to have heard his accent and had some idea he wasn’t American. Or a ninja. Warrior, well, that depended on who you asked. Still seemed a little over the top to him. Still, he found himself rolling his eyes once again at her assessment. “Girl scouts hardly qualifies as survival training but good luck.” He couldn’t stop her, not in any way that was appropriate or that he was comfortable with, so if she insisted on following, he’d work around her. And try to keep her from getting killed. Which is why in the clearing he ignored her, let her insist that he was wrong. It didn’t matter. What mattered was pinning down the location of the monster there sending people screaming. Kaden stood still, taking in the sounds, only to be interrupted by her chatter. “I know it’s not a fucking deer. And I know what my own knives are good for thank you very fucking much, Tinkerbell.” He’d missed the creature again, but he heard it flitter. He glanced at her and followed her eyeline up to the trees and saw the small black, winged figure sitting there.

By the time Kaden realized he’d made a mistake it was too late, his eyes had locked on the creature’s glowing ones and he felt the panic rising within him. A phobid. Rationally, he knew that, knew what it was, but the grass around him suddenly felt too tall, too green. His pulse was picking up, heart starting to pound against his chest, and he shut his eyes tight, trying to force the fear from flooding his senses. He heard the small creature cackling. “Ouh more big legs,” it said with a voice not so different from Rumpleskuffs’. “More fun!” it added. Run. He had to run. Get away from the grass and the plants and the green. That’s what he has to d— No. No. He could push past this. It wasn’t real. He pulled a deep breath into his lungs and held it there a moment, grip tightened around his knife. The only thing that should feel fear is the phobid flitting around. He opened his eyes a little as he could, only viewing the world through small slits. His shaking hand put his knife away and scrambled to get the crossbow off of his back. He caught sight of the wings through the trees. The wings. Made of veins connected with glassy membranes. So similar to Regan’s. No. Not now. This wasn’t the same. Not even a little. He took a deep breath, aimed, and started firing into the trees, aim shaky. The cackling continued to echo through the clearing. “Now might be a good time to get going,” he shouted to the girl.

“American Ninja Warrior.” Athena made a face. “Look, just because you’re not from around here doesn’t mean you have to totally lack awareness of pop culture. I think the show is ridiculous, but I still know what it is.” She tapped her foot against the ground, giving a small huff at his mention of Girl Scouts. “Oh, obviously not. However, I did most of my brother’s work for Boy Scouts, and I’ve got plenty of other experience.” She certainly wasn’t a fan of this over-greased man making snide remarks about her. Even though she did know that her looks certainly worked to her benefit when out hunting. She just usually didn’t have to deal with other people underestimating her, because most of them were willing to leave her be once she asked. “Oh, absolutely not.” She knew that her voice was perhaps a bit too high pitched, and that her brother might’ve winced had he been around. “Don’t you dare call me that.” She could feel her body tense up, far too many memories of teachers in early elementary school remarking on what a lovely Tinkerbell she’d make for Halloween. She’d resented it then, and she could at least acknowledge that they had meant well. This time, she wasn’t so sure. “Well I don’t need a knock-off James Dean telling me what to do, thank you very much.”

She could spot the second that the fear overtook him. Amateur, she thought to herself. This was why people should just let her handle what she was expert at. Athena averted her eyes from the creature, though that didn’t stop its awful voice from reverberating throughout the clearing. She could slit its throat simply due to the laughter. Adjusting her posture, she turned to face the other man who was now fumbling around. Fumbling to find a crossbow. Athena rolled her eyes. “That’s not going to do anything. You’ve seen the size of that…” thing. Monster. “You need to get up close and personal. Take your Robin Hood antics elsewhere.” She pulled one of her knives out from its resting place against her hips. “Girl Scouts didn’t teach me this.” She flipped it deftly between her fingers. “Also, word of advice, don’t look into its eyes again.” She ran her finger against the cool iron of the face of the knife. “I’m not going anywhere. One of us is having a bit of a time of it and it’s not me.” In any other situation, she might’ve smirked, but this guy, whoever he was, was going to get himself killed. “Would it help if I told you in French? Would that get you to leave?” She grabbed another one of her knives (from her boot this time) and threw it against the tree where the phobid sat, watching the two of them. “See? I’ve got it.” Another giggle echoed through the clearing. “Oooh, keep-a fightin’!” The phobid cackled. “Soon you’ll be all alone. Alone in the woods, what fun!”

Kaden huffed out a laugh. Something about what he said got under her skin apparently. Guess she wasn’t a fan of small obnoxious blondes, huh? Or people with wings. Oh. Oh. Well that made a whole lot more sense now. Putain. He was stuck with a warden. This was fine. He would be fine. He was a hutner. Regan wasn’t here. Obviously. He didn’t need to be worried about being around a small, probably teenaged warden. That’s what he told himself at least. “James Dean, huh? I’ll take it. I could do worse.”

Too bad his shots weren’t landing the way his insults had. Kaden grumbled about it to himself while she tried to offer tips and tricks. “I don’t need you’re fucking advice pint size pixie,” he spat back, trying to line up another shot while his hands were shaking from stupid fear. And she had to mention the eyes. He was pretty fucking aware considering he felt like everything around him was terrifying. “I know,” he said through grit teeth, trying to keep his pulse from rising. Each blade of grass looked like knives, rising up to cut him, tear him down and prick him, make him bleed. Shit, no, no, it was just grass. He had to remember that it was just a trick, not real.

The show with the knife brought him back to reality and he rolled his eyes. Why the fuck did people like to use a party trick while in the middle of a hunt? “Quit showing off. You didn’t even hit the damn th--” Kaden cut off his words with a shout as he saw something crawling up along her back. A giant spider leg creeping behind her back. Or was it a wing? He threw himself at her, pinning her down, trying to brush the “wings” off her back while the tiny fae giggled and laughed up in the trees. “Big legs, big legs, fight fight fight!”

“You could do a heck of a lot better too, though, just saying.” She had to laugh - she knew that she ought not to, but this man was being so incredibly haphazard about everything and he was going to get both of them killed if Athena didn’t do something, and quick. “Don’t call me that.” She hissed. He was shaking, and he had looked into its eyes, and she really didn’t have the time nor the patience to be dealing with this right now. Though if she thought about it like a lesson - like one of the many lessons her parents put her through - then she could manage it. If she refocused herself and centered herself - because right now the real problem was the phobid. It would be more than enough to blind it, but she found that right now she was more keen to be done with it altogether - lest she risk it accidentally causing greater harm.

“You know and yet you still did it. Maybe you should do a review lesson. No harm in that,” he had to be a hunter, either that, or an especially cocky normal human, “we can’t all know everything.” Athena shrugged at his comment, though before she could completely respond, he’d knocked her to the ground and she struggled briefly under his weight, “get off me!” She screeched, kneeing him in the stomach, hoping it would knock the wind out of him at least so that she could do something. “I was making a point. If I want to hit something, I always make my mark.” A small giggle escaped her lips. However, the fae’s voice cut through the air and she rolled her eyes. “You’re gonna regret saying that.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose!” Kaden snapped back at her. This. This was why he worked alone usually. That and when he did, there was no one around to see him make his mistakes. Like falling for a goddamn phobid’s illusions. But even if he knew the possibilities, the risks of the fae they were fighting, once they were in front of him, it was hard to remember that the illusions weren’t real. His pulse peaked as he tried desperately to get the wings off of her. The spider legged wings that were-- Not… there? His hands were going through them and before he could put the pieces together, he felt a sharp jab to his stomach and the breath leave his body. “Putain,” he wheezed out as he doubled over. The sound of cackling filled the clearing as the small, obnoxious creature flitted around. At least someone was having a good time. Kaden braced himself on his hands and knees, trying to breathe properly again. But it felt like the grass was getting bigger, like the blades might slice him raw. Not real, not real, he had to tell himself it wasn’t real as he shut his eyes tight, focusing on getting his shallow breathing a little deeper. It was hard when panic was creeping in. He kept his eyes closed, felt the ground beneath his fingers. “Catch it,” he choked out. “Have to-- Do you have,” deep gasp, “a net or..?” The giggling and glee persisted in the trees. “Can’t catch, can’t catch, nah nah nah nah nah!” Fae or not, Kaden was really looking forward to whacking this little shit over the head. Once he felt like he could breathe again, Kaden sat up and shrugged off his jacket. Not exactly a great net but it would have to do in a pinch.

“Review lessons are still of benefit.” Athena shrugged. “At least, that’s what I was always taught.” He was still trying to get some sort of imaginary something or other off of her but she was glad to see that the knee to his stomach had done its job. She quickly jumped up and dusted off her thighs, before narrowing her eyes at him. Clearly, she should have been doing this all on her own because even though she was inclined to believe that he was a hunter, he certainly wasn’t acting very much like one. Perhaps that wasn’t entirely fair, if he wasn’t a warden he couldn’t be expected to know just as much about fae as she did, but it didn’t make her any less annoyed. She’d just have to channel whatever annoyance she was feeling toward defeating the fae. “No, I don’t have a net.” She said, biting down on the tip of her tongue. Ignoring the incessant whining of the fae, the way that it made her want to claw her skin off, if she focused too much on it. “Yes. Jacket, that’ll work.” At least something useful can come of this, she thought to herself. “If we get it down here, just throw that over it and I can take care of the rest of it.” A malicious smirk crossed her lips as she looked up to the other hunter. “Then it won’t bother anyone ever again.”

“No one asked you,” Kaden hissed. He didn’t know if she was actually a hunter or even more specifically a warden, but he didn’t care. He was tired of little miss-know-it-all already. He was also tired of feeling his blood pounding in his veins, heart racing. Stupid fucking phobid. Maybe if he told himself what he was fighting, reminded himself in the back of his mind, he could push past all the illusions; he could stop worrying that the grass would cut him up and chop him to little pieces. Putain it was so stupid. “If you don’t have a net then why bother telling me my method is stupid?” he grumbled. He lined up the crossbow where he saw flittering in the trees, railing off shots one after another, hoping it would come close. It squeaked and darted back across the way, staying just out of reach. “Hey, you!” Kaden called out. “Ouh, scary big legs thinks he can talk back. What does he say? Are you going to attack the smaller one again? More more more!” it said, cackling as it darted away again. “Come down here and I’ll look right in your eyes. Think of all the fun you’ll have. I’ll make sure.” That seemed to pique its interest and the phobid peaked out from behind a branch. “You promise?” it asked. Kaden was careful to look to the side, away from the glowing orbs staring back at him. “Come closer and I’ll prom--” The fae got overly excited and swooped down. Just as he’d hoped. “I’ll promise to think about it!” he finished as he threw the jacket over the creature, pulling the ends together and trapping it inside. “Got it!” he shouted.

“Free advice. Seems like you might need it.” Athena spat back. She stretched for a moment, reaching her hands above her head. Readying her posture so that she would be able to act as quickly as was required. The man’s incessant nagging was doing her no favors in the concentration department, but every bothersome experience was a chance for greater growth, she reminded herself. Reminded herself again as he had the sheer audacity to make a remark on her not bringing a net. “I have my other ways and I could’ve gotten to it without it wreaking havoc all over this forest.” However, his teasing and nagging were good for one thing. The phobid seemed keen to cause greater trouble and with the man’s near promise - something that Athena had half a mind to give him a run-down lesson about - it flitted down through the tree branches, cackling in a pitch that even made Athena’s ears ache. The other man grabbed it in his jacket and a smirk crossed Athena’s face as she went over to him and grabbed the jacket, holding it in one hand, the buzzing of the phobid’s annoyance more pleasant now. “What should I do with it first, do you think?” She raised an eyebrow, adjusting her hands’ position so that she held tight to the jacket from below as she quickly unwrapped it and grabbed a hold of the phobid before it could fly away. “I could start with the eyes or the wings. Which do you think is best?”

Kaden wasn’t sure what he expected after he caught it. It was a phobid. They were hunters. If his suspicions were right, she was a warden. It should be easy. “What do you mean first?” he said, brows furrowed as she took the fae in her fingers. “Just kill--” Kaden’s eyes caught sight of the wings, twitching and fluttering in panic, hoping to get away, anywhere but there. He saw the wings. Bigger than any insect’s though similar enough. Much smaller than Regan’s. Nearly the same as Rumpleskuffs. “You promised! You promised! Big legs are all the same! Rotten evil tricky! I’ll make you scared! I will I will I will!” The fae’s voice sounded panicked and pathetic. It was hard to think of it as something worthy of scorn and hate or even fear. Then he heard her, the ire in her voice. “Wait what? Start with-- Why would you-- Just--” Just kill it? Should they kill it? It.. Was it harming anyone? Kaden shook his head, remembered his pulse, remembered the screaming hikers and terrified people. “No torture. Just kill it. Show it one kindness.” His voice was cold, stern. This wasn’t Rumpleskuffs. Or Regan. This creature hurt people. It-- It wasn’t the same. “No, no, no! Stop!” the phobid screamed while under her grasp. He clenched his jaw and tried not to feel.

“I mean how should we go about this?” She looked curiously at the other hunter. Athena wholly ignored the screaming phobid. It served it right, to be scared. Particularly when it had already done so much ever since she arrived in the forest, and who knew what it could have done before then. Her brother might have winced at what she was about to do, she considered for a moment. Just like back with the foireaux cat. “I think it deserves to be dealt with in pieces. Don’t you?” She narrowed her eyes for a moment. “Kindness? To this?” She half-spat. What kind of hunters were in this town? What kind of hunter would she be if she showed such a thing kindness? She grasped it harder, blue-painted nails nearly touching one another as she held it tightly. “Stop this! No, no! I’ll make you pay!” The phobid screamed. This had to be dealt with smoothly and quickly, now. With a quick movement of her hands, Athena sliced into one of its wings before running the blade across its eyes. “One kindness?” She looked up at the other hunter. “I’ll put it out of its misery.” She dug the knife right into where she supposed its heart would be, before dropping it onto the forest floor. “Just like you asked for.”

“Just kill it and be done,” Kaden repeated, voice harsher, but even in tone. He flinched at the sight of her cutting through the fae’s wings and eyes, turning away as she tore through it, like it was nothing. No, he was going to watch her, gaze hard, body still as she killed the creature. The wings twitched a moment as it fell on the ground with a small pathetic thud. Anger boiled through his blood, but it wasn’t at the monster, not now. Kaden reached out and grabbed her wrist, the one that had held the knife, and yanked it, twisted it so her weapon fell beside the creature. “Never do that again.” He stood over her, looking down, voice low and even just as before. “We kill monsters, we don’t torment them. We’re better than them.” He let go of her wrist, practically throwing it back to her. “The longer you take to kill a monster, the more time it has to kill you.” Kaden picked up his jacket and put his crossbow on its strap across his back. “Free advice. I think you might need it.” With that he turned and walked away, uninterested in spending any more time with the warden.

“No.” She replied. Athena knew full well that elongated periods of torture could cause more trouble than they could help, but there was something about his attitude that made her crave acting out. Relishing in the lack of comfort that he felt as she did so. She craved the control rather desperately, and this allowed it. He grabbed her wrist tightly and she winced for a moment before pushing the pain down. Responding with weakness wouldn’t do her any favors. She watched the knife fall to the ground, a certain sort of pain shooting up her arm. Work through the pain. “Don’t tell me what to do. I’m the only one who could manage this.” She giggled, then, too high-pitched and carefree for the given scenario. “We kill monsters, and sometimes a bit of a lesson needs to be taught.” Her voice was clipped, repeating words that she’d heard in some variation beforehand. “I know. But this thing wasn’t going to do anything to me. When I kill proper fae, I don’t let them stand a chance. Not once, not now, not ever.” She snorted. “I don’t need your advice. I’m plenty fine just on my own.” She bent down to pick up her knife, running her finger along the face of the blade, before giving a shrug. “See you around sometime, Robin Hood.”

#wickedswriting #chatzy #writing #athena #athenaquinn #listening to fear

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