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yandere-daydreams · 3 years

Text

Title: Learned Helplessness.

Commissioned by the very lovely, very patient @99shadowcat99.

Pairing: Yandere!Hawks/Reader (BNHA).

Word Count: 1.6k.

TW: Mindbreak, Slight Stockholm Syndrome, Themes of Past Abuse, Physical Abuse, Emotional Manipulation, Slight Gaslighting, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, and Implied Kidnapping.

Sometimes, Keigo had to wonder if there was ever a point where you hadn’t been afraid of him.

It’d always been there, even if Keigo liked to remember your anxious smiles and stuttered greetings in a kinder light. It made sense, in the moment, the way you kept your eyes on the floor when you first approached him, struggling to introduce yourself as you fumbled with the disposable cup in your hands, caught between the urge to leave an off-shift hero alone and the temptation get your favorite idol’s autograph before he could slip out of the small, back-alley bar you found him in. You’d been nervous, obviously, hesitant to admit you were just as eager as he was when he asked for your number, when he called you for the first time – hell, it took him months just to get you to spend the night in his apartment. You were shy. He liked that about you. You’d always been so timid.

The fear, the genuine fear, started later on. He remembered it, the weeks you spent holing yourself up in the smallest corner you could find, how many times he tried to lure you out and how many times he was met screaming and thrashing and struggling, but you’d always been scared, slow to adjust, reluctant to sit still and listen when he asked you so nicely to try. You wanted to be loved, but you didn’t know how to let your guard down. You wanted him, but…

But, he was making excuses. You were never shy. You’d never really been scared. Even when things went bad, he doubted you were ever really afraid of him.

You were afraid now, though, and if he’d been a better man, he might’ve been able to admit he was the reason why.

Your hands were shaking. Violently, visibly, despite your attempts to keep them folded behind your back, to keep the evidence of your paranoia out of sight and out of mind. It was enough to give you away, though, and if it hadn’t been, your posture would’ve done it, too stiff and too rigid to be comfortable, or your bowed head, or the smile you couldn’t seem to force onto your grim expression as he let himself into the kitchen, stopping to lean in the doorway. Already, it felt like an invasion, despite the fact that he’d taken you to his villa, on his property, far away from anyone or anything you’d interact with willingly. He was home too soon, and this wasn’t his territory, anymore. He wasn’t your caretaker, anymore. He’d lost the right to think of himself as such a benevolent figure.

But, he tried. You had to give him that. Out of the two of you, he was the only one trying to make this work. “No need to be shy,” He started, keeping his tone as neutral as he could. You didn’t react well when he raised his voice, and when he tried to be more gentle, to soften himself into something delicate and unimposing, you never bought the act. He couldn’t blame you. If he didn’t know how sweet you could be, how playful and how loving, he wouldn’t know to be dissatisfied with the frightened thing you currently were. “I don’t bite, (Y/n), you know that. You can calm down.”

He wanted you to correct him. He wanted you to grit your teeth, to cross your arms, to get angry. You only nodded, narrowing your eyes at the tiling. “You… you’re early.” Your voice was quiet, barely above a mumble, but it was still an improvement. Not long ago, you’d refused to talk to him at all, and when he could choke a few words out of you, he’d have to deal with the breakdown that came afterward, the pleads for mercy forced out between hitched sobs. This was better. He could tell himself that this was better, even if it was less, too. “I’m sorry, I should’ve been there to greet you. I would’ve, if I thought you were going to—”

You were rambling, again. Keigo didn’t have a problem with that, not by itself, not when so many memories he had of your absent-minded tangents were still tinted with that sparkling, rose-colored haze, but he didn’t care for this, panicked muttering only made more painful by the way you shifted your weight, managing to hold your tense smile, this time. Did he ask you to do that? Smile when he was around? Play house and pretend you were happy when your captor chose to pay attention to you? It seemed like something he would do, back when he still thought that wearing you down was the solution. Fuck, it seemed like something he would do now, if he didn’t already know how painful it was to watch you try.

“It’s alright,” He cut you off, taking half a step forward. Instantly, reflexively, you flinched back, that slight shudder suddenly more pronounced. It wasn’t just your hands, now, your shoulders were shaking too, your jaw locking into place as you leaned into the sharp edge of the countertop. “Sweetheart,” He tried, moving forward before realizing his mistake and freezing, cursing under his breath. Predictably, none of it did anything to soothe you. “Baby, I just wanted to see you, that’s all. I got off early, and I figured we could—”

A stifled gasp interrupted him, just the hint of a sob. A month ago, he would’ve taken it as a sign of disobedience, another bad habit you had to be trained out of. Now, it was all he could do to stop himself from wishing you would cry, kick and bite and scratch at him until you’re too exhausted to care that he'd be the one comforting you. At least that way, he’d get to touch you. At least that way, you’d be something, other than afraid.

“Please, I just—I haven’t done anything!” Because you’ve been good. Because so much as being near him was a punishment. Because he wanted you to love him and now, he was paying the price for hoping he could ever do something so shamelessly heroic. “I can’t— please, don’t come any closer, I don’t know if I can—”

He wanted to hold you. That was all he could think about. He just wanted to hold you, the actual you. Not whatever shell he’d gotten used to living with. “Stop talking.”

You clenched your eyes shut, then you opened them again. Like a child, trying to blink away the remnants of a nightmare after just waking up. “I’m so—”

“Stop talking.” In his defense, he didn’t yell, he knew how much you hated it. He did yell, he didn’t throw a tantrum, not like you would’ve, not like you were about to by the time he stepped forward, crossing whatever ridiculous boundary you were so convinced he had to respect. You moved to shrink into yourself, but he grabbed you before you could collapse, catching you by the bicep and latching onto your hip, refusing to let you fall and make him seem like the bad guy. You already had your fun. You’d already gotten away with enough. You had to know he would put his foot down eventually, and you didn’t have the right to seem so shocked, when he finally did. “Just stop talking. Shut up. Don’t say a goddamn word until I tell you to, fucking brat.”

Now, now, you were crying, tears welling in your eyes and rolling down your cheeks, your entire body trembling like he’d ever given you a reason not to trust him, like he’d ever hurt you a reason to think he had anything but your happiness in-mind. He couldn’t bring himself to care, not about the tears, not about the excuses you were stumbling through, and not about the way you were holding yourself, your arms crossed over your stomach and your nails embedded in your sides, a moment away from drawing blood. He just couldn’t bring himself to care.

You didn’t say anything, but he still shook his head, sighed, made a show of cupping your cheek and idly brushing away your tears. “It’s my fault,” He admitted, letting the disappointment seep into his voice, allowing his tone to dip into something superior. Compared to your whimpering, at least. “I trusted you to get better on your own, and I shouldn’t have. I thought you could pull yourself together, but clearly, I was wrong. You just can’t do anything on your own, can you?”

You looked like you wanted to say something, to argue. You didn’t, but you looked like you wanted to, and that was enough to make his heart skip a beat on its own.

“I’m tired of this.” Just as quickly as he took you up, he let you go, watching in silence as you struggled to stay on your feet. “Go to your room. Yours, not mine. I don’t want to look at you if you’re going to act like I’ve done anything but help you.”

You looked at him, at that, met his gaze for the first time since you decide doing so was a death-wish. It was only for a breath, a fraction of a second, but he still saw it – that spark, that light, that hint of something other than thoughtless, blank fear. It wasn’t positive, the adoration he would’ve liked or the resigned neutrality he would’ve tolerated, but it was something. It was something, and it had been so, so long since you’d given Keigo anything.

He couldn’t make you love him. He’d tried, he failed, and he’d tried again and made thing worse. It was over. He just couldn’t do it.

But, he was beginning to think you didn’t need to love him. Not as much as he loved you. Not at all, really.

Not if he could get you to hate him enough to make up the difference.

520 notes · View notes

ot3 · 3 years

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hey kinda heavy ace attorney question ig but I agree with you on many things about aa and feel like you have a good understanding of Phoenix and Trucy so I really wanna ask. How do you think the creation of the bloody ace was handled? I’ve seen the idea that Trucy took matters into her own hands and made it as a failsafe without his knowledge, and that he then covered for her, but if that were the case I wonder how he knew about it and planned around it at his trial. I’ve also seen the idea that he made it himself, but gave it to her for delivery to Apollo; which maybe seems the most apparent but I really dislike it because…. It means he uses her to deliver forged evidence. In much the same way he was given the diary page, really. it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I’ve also seen some people suggest that he made it but only gave it to her for use at her discretion, which does give some agency back to her but I also question whether Phoenix would be right in placing that on her shoulders and making it her responsibility. Sorry this expanded into a ridiculously long ask but I really am curious about your take on it?

eoooh yes yes yes i love talking about phoenix and trucy lets goooooo. i actually have a scene from my (still pretty rough and probably never to be finished) wip longfic covering this scene, which ill sick below the cut, but i'll just give my generic thoughts here first.

i think phoenix asked her to do it. trucy having enough detailed knowledge of the crime scene and the events leading up to it and the actual mechanical operation of trials that would be required in order to come up with this plan just doesn't make any sense to me. phoenix is really the only one who could have theoretically concocted this particular move. but since he was presumably held in the detention center until trial, trucy is from there really the only person who could have actually done the thing.

phoenix and trucy are pretty notoriously codependent; i'm headachey and melting from the heat today so rather than doing what i normally do and trawling the wiki to find the quotes that back me up on broadstrokes statements like these so i'm just gonna pull a 'dude just trust me' moment here. the fact that she helps take care of her daddy is a point of pride for her. i don't think it strips trucy of any agency for this to be phoenix's decision because it's not like trucy spends her whole life (or even the entire game) blindly following other peoples orders. her (and phoenix's ) priority at the beginning of aa4 is each other and their own wellbeing, and the decisions they have to make in turnabout trump are indicative of that.

yes, it echoes her bringing the forged evidence to phoenix 7 years ago, but it's more of an inversion/reversal (one might even say a turnabout) than a repetition of past mistakes. in the past she was an unwilling pawn in someone else's plan where her life was collateral, now she's an active and conscious participant in the plan of someone she cares about that she's doing to protect the life she and phoenix have built for themselves. She's not being forced to do it, but i don't think there's any world where she would have said no either. she and phoenix are the most important thing in the world to each other. in their own words, if one of them falls, they both fall.

was it right of phoenix to ask this of her? was it okay for him to do this to apollo, too? obviously it's not a good thing. but it was his only option at that moment. phoenix found himself in a very difficult situation. as an attorney he promised himself to the truth, and that was the principle he lived by, but as a father what he lives by is the promise he made to trucy to never disappear on her. at that moment phoenix did what he had to do to make sure the trial ended the way he needed it to. truth had to take a backseat. his priorities have shifted.

i've also spoken before at length about how i don't think phoenix was plotting against kristoph in the longterm, at least not to the degree which popular fanon seems to agree upon. so really everything he did in turnabout trump was phoenix being backed into a corner using every tool at his disposal to try and snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat. was it right of him to get trucy involved? it's no worse than bringing 8 year old pearl along to crime scenes because he needed her channeling skills. phoenix cares about people deeply but he isn't capable of shielding them from all the harm the world has to offer, and he knows he isn't. half of his capability comes from his shrewdness and willingness and ability to take help when he can get it because he knows, even if its a strain in a short term, he's fighting battles that need to be won at any cost. if that makes any sense

anyway heres the little scene i wrote below the cut.

---------- APRIL 17TH, 2026 DETENTION CENTER VISITOR’S ROOM ----------

Trucy shows up on the dot as visiting hours begin. It’s funny, she thinks. The last time she did this she had a different daddy altogether. Only it really isn’t particularly funny at all, is the thing about it, and she’s going to have quite a few stern words for the man when he gets home.

She picks up the phone on one side of the pane of bulletproof glass and he grabs the other.

“Daddy,” she huffs. “You promised me you’d stay out of trouble.”

“I know, I know, I’m so sorry, Truce.” He puts on an easy smile as he says it, and he uses the same affected tone of voice she had used to start the conversation off. Affected. Cautious, in the sense that it’s levity is entirely manufactured. A performance.

It had been like that between them for real at the beginning, both of them still unsure of each other, pantomiming something resembling a sitcom and playing the real feeling filled in as it went. Thankfully, it did, but the theatrics still lend themselves better to specific conversation.

“Well, if you’re sorry, I suppose I can forgive you! But this isn’t going to look good on your employee review, y’know. I’ll have to bring it up with HR.”

“I’m sure Charley can find it in his heart to forgive me, too.”

“He’s a gentle soul.” She nods.

“You should come watch the trial on Monday, I think it’d be good for you to see.”

“Oh? And why’s that?” Trucy doesn’t like the courthouse. Daddy knows that. She never comes when he goes to use the library there. She also hates, hates the idea of watching her daddy sit in the defendant’s chair not knowing if he’s ever going to come home again. He knows that too.

“Well, there are always interesting things to learn during a court trial. Plus, having you there would help me out a lot!” I need you to do something for me. She reads through the tone into his words’ real meaning. Her stomach clenches. A favor he can’t just outright ask for, not over the phone in the detention center, where every word would be recorded.

“Oh, daddy, no! I’m a magician, not a lawyer, although I understand the confusion.” She drapes a hand over her eyes in faux anguish. “I simply couldn’t, it isn’t my stage.”

“I disagree. I think it’s a perfect stage. Lawyers need cheering up too, you know! Back when I was a lawyer, I used to get really stressed out during cases like these. I bet one of your tricks would do the job.”

“Well what sort of trick do you want me to do?”

“Do you remember the first trick you ever did for me? It was the day we met, at the courthouse. You pulled a piece of paper out of your hat and gave it to me.”

“Yes,” she chirps, forcing a vibrant bubble into her voice. It feels like a pile of rocks in her gut and her pulse starts to quicken. “Of course I remember!”

“I bet if you did that trick again, it’d cheer up the whole courtroom! I bet I’d win my case in a heartbeat.”

----------

Her legs feel like jelly by the time the bus drops her off at the stop near the office. Daddy had kept on like that, loaded phrasing and a lopsided smile as he laced vapid banter with instructions. With warnings. She walks into the storage closet and grabs a deck of cards - one of his, the same style they use at the club, not hers for her tricks. Abruptly, she has a moment of panic as she realizes she’s not even sure what color she’s supposed to use, but then, just as fast, she forces her head clear and just grabs one of each.

They’re unopened. This makes it a cinch to find the card she’s looking for. Her stomach flips.

The worst part isn’t even what she’s doing. The worst part is that she’s doing it at all. Daddy knows well what this situation is making her feel and he’s asking her to do it anyway.

The only explanation left: he’s completely out of options.

She pulls her gloves off and grabs a needle from her sewing supplies. She pricks her finger, and lets a drop fall onto each ace.

----------

#ace attorney #i literally love them os much theyre perfect #daddy and daughter of all time

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escapewriter · 3 years

Text

Lover

pairing : vernon x reader

synopsis : love makes you do crazy things, except this wasn’t really crazy for him. he’s just a man in love who’s willing to do it all for you.

genre : fluff, like a lot of fluff, humor

word count : 3.6k

warnings : none

posted : 2/17/21

a/n : ty ty to @woozisnoots for beta reading. i really needed it or it would’ve sounded so awkward so tysm alex <3 and HAPPY VERNON AND SEOKMIN DAYYYY. tell me why this took me almost a month to write even though its like... eh. neway, I HOPE YALL ENJOY, it has that princess and the frog vibe.

TAGLIST : @vibecheckvernon @beomiebear5 @lightoflife @skylions-den @noniesgirl @woozisnoots

won’t let me tag : @pandora1834

send me an ask/dm if you would like to be on the taglist

pieces of love masterlist // playlist // main masterlist

‘Letter 355’ was written in big letters on the front of the envelope. You sat on the bed as you tore the sealed flap open. Vernon has been writing you small notes ever since your 6th year anniversary. This is the first real letter you’ve gotten because before, it was simple post-it notes, and as your 7th year together approaches, you can’t help but wonder what he has planned this time.

You took out the paper, unfolded it and scanned his messy handwriting. You smiled as your fingertips touched the ink on the paper. You began to read:

Ma Belle,

I hope you will have a wonderful day today. Are you surprised you’re getting a letter instead of a post-it note? You probably are lol. Anyway, I just wanted to say I’m sorry for the messy handwriting, I had to leave early this morning and didn’t have time to write neatly, or spell correctly so if you see some typos, you didn’t (cue the clown emoji).

Also, a heads up, I may be returning home late due to the guys wanting to hang out, so if you need me, call me. And yes, I’ll text you if I have to stay at one of their apartments and I’ll text you when I leave. I know the drill ;)

Please be safe today, and you know MY drill don’t you? It’s the exact same thing I said above, HA! So, text me when you leave the house and when you arrive at work. I can’t wait to see you again (even though we live together). I love you Ma Belle. Just 10 more days!

Love, Vernon

You smiled at the nickname he had given you as you felt the familiar rush of fireworks erupt in your stomach, hugging the letter close to your chest. You couldn’t believe how lucky you were to have a man like Vernon. He took time out of his day for almost a year just to write you a letter every morning so you could wake up happy. He is an absolute crazy man for doing this.

You folded up the letter and carefully placed it back in the envelope. You went to your desk, grabbing the photobook on the shelf and opened it, seeing where you kept all his notes for the past year. You flipped to a page and inserted the letter in an empty slot. You closed the book and placed it on the shelf once more, looking at it as you thought about how he was capable of doing something like this for a whole year, who knows what he has planned for your anniversary.

Vernon has a lot planned actually. He is going to keep writing you letters every morning before he goes to work, but on the day of your anniversary, it’s going to be a little different and he couldn’t wait for that day to come.

He walked alone, glancing into the stores that he passed as he waited for the call. He turned around and began to head back to where he came from before, feeling the buzzing of his phone. He looked at the screen and answered.

“Hey Shua, are you guys done?” He bit his lower lip a bit, hoping they got what he had asked for. He heard his friend sigh on the other end of the line.

“Hell yeah we got it.” Letting out a breath of relief, he nodded as he listened to Joshua tell him to return back to the car so they could go and eat. Hanging up, he walked quickly back to meet up with his friends.

He could not wait for the day to come.

You saw ‘Letter 360’ taped to the refrigerator when you reached the kitchen to prepare yourself breakfast. You had only received small notes like before ever since ‘Letter 355’, so you were a bit taken aback because you simply thought that he wrote a long letter due to his busy schedule that day. You weren’t sure what to expect of this though as he told you the night prior that he would be home before dinner.

You tore the flap of the envelope and took out the paper, quickly unfolding it as you began to read his messy handwriting:

Ma Belle,

Did you sleep well last night? I hope so because then I’ll feel bad for not being able to be there with you to make you feel better :( But!!! I hope this will make your morning a bit brighter if it wasn’t already. Inside the microwave are some pancakes that I made Mingyu bring for me because I would’ve burnt them. But they’re probably cold so you have to heat it up. There were 4 in total but I was hungry and ate one hehe.

Anyway, I’ll see you in a few hours, Ma Belle. Stay safe at work and text me! I love you!

Love, Vernon

You felt the warmth creep up in your chest as you grinned, rereading the letter again. Although this made you incredibly happy, you couldn’t help but think about what you could do better for Vernon in this relationship. You never want him to feel as if he was the only one putting effort.

After making a quick decision, you put the letter back in the envelope and brought it to your room, placing it in an empty slot of the photobook. You went back out to the kitchen and heated up the pancakes Vernon had mentioned, deciding that you will make a small trip to the store after having breakfast.

Unknowingly, you walked down the same path Vernon had the day he went out with his friends secretly without telling you. You passed multiple stores as you racked your brain for some sort of idea on what to get him. You already had your anniversary gift planned out for him, but that’s a secret that you have been keeping from him since day one. You just hope he doesn’t go searching for the photobook.

You walked slowly, glancing into stores to get some sort of idea before stopping in front of a jewelry store. You hesitated knowing that Vernon never wanted you to spend so much money on him, but look at where you are. You decide to tell him it’s an anniversary gift instead of just giving it to him tonight so that way he wouldn’t get mad at you. Yeah, that’s a better plan.

As you enter the store, your eyes immediately go to the locked glass cases of beautiful jewelry. Maybe you should’ve thought this through because you had no idea what to get him. Looks like guessing is the best bet for you.

You made it home from work just before Vernon got home. Quickly, you went to your room and took the box out of the bag and placed it behind the photobook. You disposed of the bag, making sure that Vernon wouldn’t spot any evidence of the fact that you spent a lot of money on him.

You were now in the kitchen, looking to prepare something for dinner before the front door opened with your boyfriend coming in with bags in his hand. You smiled and quickly met him at the door, grabbing a few bags before kissing his cheek.

“You bought dinner? I was planning to make something for you.” He smiled warmly and led you to the dining room, placing the bags on the table. He quickly kissed your cheek before holding one of your hands.

“Ma Belle~” The teasing sound of his voice echoed in your ears as you smiled widely, shying away a bit before you felt the tips of his fingers move your head to face his again, “You don’t have to cook for me tonight. Let’s just relax and enjoy the food I bought, how does that sound?” You stared into his hypnotizing eyes, the warmth in your chest rising as you nodded your head with a smile.

“Okay! Let's get some plates!”

You woke up to an empty bed, confused as to why Vernon wasn’t next to you. Sitting up straight, you looked at your night stand, searching for the familiar post-it note or envelope. You thought that maybe it was something similar to the letter 5 days ago where you found it taped to the fridge.

You stretched out your arms, yawning in the process as you heard your phone buzz on the table. Unplugging it, you opened your messages and spotted a familiar name. Boo Seungkwan.

‘You home?’ You didn’t know why he was texting you at this time, he was usually asleep. And he knows that it’s your anniversary with Vernon today, so you were confused as to why he was asking if you were home.

‘No. I’m with Vernon.’ Obviously you lied to try and get out of any sort of event he may have planned just so you can eat a small breakfast and get ready for the day. You just have to find Vernon’s note.

‘Bullshit. I’m with Vernon right now.’ Your eyes widened, a scowl appearing on your face as you questioned why Vernon was with Seungkwan instead of you. ‘Why are you with Vernon? Where are you guys?’

On the other side of the phone, Seungkwan was panicking. He knew that you weren’t with Vernon because Vernon was with Joshua setting up everything for your anniversary.

He looked around the room, thinking of an answer to come up with before Chan walked in, “Seungkwan? What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be distracting them for Vernon?” He tossed his phone to the younger, eyes filled with fear and uneasiness. Chan read the messages and laughed, “Vernon will kill you if you don’t pull this off. Good luck!” Seungkwan groaned as he decided to just show up at your home and keep you occupied.

You stared at the messages, expecting him to answer but received nothing. You sighed and just locked your phone, mind now set on looking for the letter. Every step you took to look into a room, your fingers were crossed in hopes that you would find any sort of evidence that Vernon has left for you. Plopping onto the couch, you thought that maybe he just forgot to write today, but it didn’t make sense since he wrote everyday for a whole year without forgetting. Even in previous letters, he would count down the days until it was your anniversary. It just didn’t make any sense.

You heard the doorbell ring, an ounce of hope in your heart as you thought that it could be Vernon. He has a key to the house. You sighed and got up from the couch as you went to the front door, unlocking it with a click and opening it.

Your eyes met Seungkwan’s and it immediately turned into a glare. “I thought you were with Vernon, hm?” He grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his neck.

“I lied.”

“I can see that.” You stepped to the side, making way for him to enter your house. You watched him sit on the couch as you closed the door and locked it. “What are you doing here, Seungkwan?”

“Uhm— Did you eat breakfast?” You saw his hands wipe down against his jeans, a nervous habit he had that you picked up on throughout your years of friendship.

“No I didn’t. And you avoided my question—”

“You haven’t eaten?” He stood up abruptly, determined to keep you distracted until lunch time, “Come on, lets cook some breakfast for you!” He turned towards the kitchen with you following closely after him after rolling your eyes and just letting it slide, thinking that maybe Vernon put him up to this.

Seungkwan sighed in content after finishing up his food, his eyes moving to meet your hard ones. “Seungkwan,” His eyes went to look around the room, just as long as they weren’t at you, “Seungkwan, stop avoiding eye contact.” He looked back at you, his lips pursed and throat feeling dry. “I have so many questions, but I won’t even bother at this point.” You shook your head and took your plate and his, bringing it to the sink and began to wash them.

As you were washing, you heard your name fall from his lips, “I can wash them, you have to go get ready.” Your head shot up, eyes looking to the side but your head staying in place.

“Get ready how? Where are we going?”

Seungkwan got up from his seat and stood next to you, “Don’t play dumb. Do you want your letter or not?” Your eyes lit up, nodding as you turned off the water and quickly went into your room to wash up and get ready.

“Thank you Seungkwan!”

You sat in the car with the radio gently playing in the background. A comfortable silence fell upon you and Seungkwan, who was in the driver's seat. You remembered to bring your gift as you looked at the large bag sitting on the floor between your legs. You checked the time on your phone, seeing that it was almost lunch.

“Wow, if Vernon planned a lunch, I’m glad you ate most of the breakfast food.” You out the window, giggling with Seungkwan.

“That was the whole point of me eating all the food. I had to keep you busy for a few more hours.”

You sighed and nodded your head in understanding, turning your head to look at the side of his face, “Where are we headed to anyway?”

He glanced away from the road to look at you for a split second before lifting up his hand, his pointer finger placed on his lips as he made a ‘shh’ sound. “It’s a secret.”

“Well can you tell me if it’s far? I kind of want to take a nap.”

“Go for it, but don’t get mad when I wake you up.”

Your eyes fluttered, feeling the cool breeze against your skin as goosebumps rose. You opened your eyes, seeing your boyfriend standing next to you with the car door open. He flashed his gummy smile, holding his hand out for you to take, “Ma Belle~”

You looked down at the floor as you placed your hand in his, stepping out of the car with your bag and present in hand. “Where have you been Vernon Chwe?”

You smiled cheekily at him to which he shrugged with a teasing smile, “I’ve been doing things.”

You began to smile, looking at your interlocked fingers as he led you to a familiar area. You scanned the place, seeing the light of the sun reflect off the little lake that you knew all too well. Your hand tightened in his grasp causing him to stop walking and to turn to look at you, “What’s wrong?” You pouted, puppy eyes boring into his as he smiled softly.

“You took me here? I thought this place became private property and people weren’t allowed to be here.” He laughed softly and brought up his hand, placing his pointer finger against his lips.

“Shhh, we’re not.” Your eyes widened as you hit him with your bag and he laughed, “I’m kidding, I talked to the owner and they were fine with it, come on, let’s go.”

He brought you over to a picnic setup, the tall tree providing you shade that can cool your down from the scorching sun. You both sat down on the blanket, looking out to the lake with the mini table in between. You sighed in content, your eyes never leaving the shining lake, “Vernon this is incredible. I’m so happy you were able to get us in here.” You looked over at your boyfriend, a smirk on his face as he held up the missing letter.

“I know you’ve been wondering where the final letter was but I don’t know if I want to give it to you just yet.” You rolled your eyes, crossing your arms. “You have to eat with me first and then I’ll give you the letter, okay?” You smiled and nodded your head happily, the thought of what could possibly be in the letter consumes your mind.

You finished your food with a toss of your napkin to the plate, your eyes immediately going to Vernon who was laughing softly. “I know what you’re going to ask, but first let me open my gift, please?” He pouted in which you rolled your eyes in response.

“Fine.”

You handed over the bag, biting your lip out of a nervous habit, watching him take out the tissue paper and spotting the box and photobook. He took out the photobook, looking at you with an unsure expression before opening it. Raising his eyebrows, he found every note he has written to you, and next to it is a note you have written in response.

He took a deep breath, flipping through all the pages, trying to be as slow as possible just to tease you, but no luck, “Vernon you can read it at home.” You whined next to him as he slightly glared at you,

“Hey, I just want to appreciate you.” Still, he listened and put the photobook back in the bag and then took out the box. He opened the top carefully and stared at the piece of jewelry laying inside.

He head lolled to look at you, another pout on his lips, “I told you not to buy me anything expensive.”

You giggled and nodded your head towards the bracelet, “Dig a little deeper Vernon,” He rolled his eyes at your remark of quoting the song before taking out the chain. He turned the small heart-shaped charm over and found your name next to the words ‘Your Evangeline’ engraved in it.

His grip on the chain loosened as he handed it to you, holding out his arm, “Put it on for me?” Quickly you wrapped it around his wrist and locked it in place, beaming with happiness. “I love this, I just— it’s beautiful.”

“Can I read the letter now?” He sighed in defeat as he failed to stall everything a little while longer.

“Way to ruin the sentimental mood.” He handed you the letter, watching you bounce in excitement as you prepared to rip it open.

“Wait! Read it up there, next to the lake. Pretend I’m not here, like how you would read any letter in the morning, okay?” You nodded standing up and scurried over to the lake, thinking about how weird it was that he asked you to read it at this spot. The thought left your mind the second your eyes scanned ‘Letter 365’. Your heart pounded in your ears as you ripped the flap open and pulled out the paper. You began to read:

Ma Belle,

Happy 7th year Anniversary! Can you believe it has been seven years we’ve been together? It feels so amazing. I’m sorry you had to read this through a letter, but I feel like writing it out conveyed my feelings better than when I just wing it. So, I hope you prepare yourself because this is going to be a ride full of cheese and cringe.

I remember our first date here. It was very cheesy and seemed too extravagant for a first date, but we have known each other for a few months before I asked you out, so I call it a success. Anyway, I’ll never forget the look on your face when you saw the little fairy lights light up just at the snap of my finger. You said it looked like fireflies and reminded you of Princess and the Frog. Anyway, getting back to the point, the point is, this little lake holds a place in my heart because it was all those months of me silently pining after you to finally be able to take you here, it made me realize that I love you. And I want to spend the rest of my life with you.

Oh! Which reminds me of our first here, when we danced to the soundtrack of the movie. It’s random, I know but I don’t think you remember that. You probably won’t remember me proposing to you either, would you? Turn around Ma Belle :)

You slowly turned around, the blanket and picnic table gone, all that’s left in front of you is Vernon down on one knee holding up a small box displaying a beautiful ring. The arm holding the letter drops, your free hand coming up to slightly cover your mouth now agape. From his shaky hands to his beaming smile, the love you had for the man in front of you intensified.

He cleared his throat and took a deep breath, “So, do you remember now?” The water in your eyes that have been threatening to spill finally let go as you nodded your head, “Ma Belle~” That damn grin on his face made your knees shake, “Will you be my Evangeline and marry me?” Your legs collapsed, your knees hitting the grass as you hugged Vernon tightly, whispering ‘Yes’ into his ear.

The amount of love you felt in your heart took over as you cried silently against him. He pulled away, laughing softly as he wiped your tears and brought your hand up, slipping the ring onto your ring finger. “Hansol Vernon Chwe, no wonder you wanted to open my gift first.”

He shrugged, looking into your eyes with that same teary smile before leaning in and placing a soft yet meaningful kiss on your lips. In that magical moment, you knew that this is all for you; he is all for you and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

#caratwritersclub #newskynet #seventeen #seventeen oneshot #seventeen imagines #seventeen drabbles #seventeen scenarios #seventeen reactions #seventeen au #vernon #vernon chwe #svt vernon #pieces of love #HAPPY VERNON DAY #HAPPY SEOKMIN DAY

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millakatariina64 · 3 years

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Happy Saiou Day!! 💙💜

So if anyone remembers last summer I said I'd post the complete portraits of my talentswap designs and a climactic scene from the AU with a full summary when they're finished? Well, I didn't forget!

So, below are my headcanons for Ultimate Supreme Leader Shuichi and Ultimate Detective Kokichi~!

(I'm really passionate about this AU, I hope you read it ':3)

(Tho no climactic scene unfortunately)

Ultimate Supreme Leader Shuichi

So first of all Shuichi's parents are still celebrities, move overseas and leave him with his uncle. However in this AU Shuichi's uncle is a politician who actually has a really good reputation. Problem is, his uncle is incredibly busy and is almost never home because of that. Still, he wants to be like his uncle (though the wish is fueled more with wanting to be good enough and accepted). Shuichi's personality is basically the same.

So then one day I Alligator girl's (Gonna call her Wani) alligator gets stolen by some group who're going to sell it and they threatened Wani to not call the police or tell anyone. So she asks Shuichi to help. Somehow they manage to retrieve the alligator together secretly (idk) and right afterwards one of Wani's friends is in trouble with some shady local business. So Wani suggests they make a group to stop these sorts of people and that Shuichi would be the leader. He agrees, he still wants to do something to make this world a better place like his uncle.

After that Wani starts asking her most trusted friends at school if they'd like to join (Shuichi would never have the social courage to ask someone that). When they get to 10 members (all girls) they stop growing for some time and decide to get themselves uniforms. When they're finally considering getting more people into the team since Shuichi doesn't really know these people, he decides to start wearing a mask to be safe. He also starts using the code name "Crow". The other 10 members go by flower names.

The group then grows a lot. And by the time Shuichi's officially scouted to be an Ultimate, it has around 1500 members. And it's making him very worried as Shuichi's not even sure anymore if he's skilled enough to lead it. The group started out stopping or changing corrupt businessmen, unethical businesses and other evil groups. And although that still is what they do, he's realized that the way they go about things is pretty illegal. (When he first realized this, he started wearing a hat.) Obviously he forbids violence, but they still use blackmail and steal information. Also they need money for the group to function at this point so they've had to get it through illegal means that Shuichi's not sure of anymore. So Shuichi is immensely scared of being revealed as the organization's leader because it would completely destroy his organization and it would also annihilate his uncle's as well as his parents' careers on the spot. Basically everything would get ruined and it would be a nation-wide scandal. Perhaps even an international scandal.

He gets even more worried when the police finally start realizing there's some sort of group that's blackmailing big businesses and start investigating.

When he gets scouted to Hope's Peak, the letter comes to his base and even HPA doesn't know his identity, just that he's a high school student. He doesn't think like he deserves the title at all since it's really his organization that does the hard stuff and Wani's the one that's made it grow and he shouldn't be panicking like this if he really was a "great leader". But he still decides to go due to "If you manage to graduate from Hope's Peak, you will be set for life!". But as his family can't know of him being scouted there as the Ultimate Supreme Leader, he forges a letter claiming he's the Ultimate Lucky Student which he shows to them. And at HPA he requests he be referred to by that title.

Problem is, now his year group has 2 Ultimate Lucky Students and a certain Ultimate Detective gets suspicious.

Miscellaneous: Shuichi really wants to use make-up but he's really afraid to at home since he feels his uncle would think it's really weird. So at the organization's base Wani heard about it and got him some makeup and now Shuichi wears makeup when on missions and at the base. Also the organization has a helicopter. (It's a central part of that climactic scene I talk so much about.) Shuichi thinks about becoming a detective perhaps, but he's not sure how he'd be able to leave his group anymore so...

Ultimate Detective Kokichi

For Kokichi I still have my pretty elaborate origin story. His early years are great until at some point his real father finds out that Kokichi's mother had actually had the Kokichi and his older twin brother with him and not her husband leaving him alone. And thus he murders Kokichi's mother out of spite. Kokichi and Tamotsu (my headcanon name for his twin) see the murder take place and flee. However, they were never actually able to make out who the murderer was and they knew even less of why their mother was murdered.

The murder never gets solved and this mystery stays in Kokichi's mind. Who ruined his life, who killed his mother?

(I feel they'd have like an uncle and their mother's husband lived with them obviously. There'd also be other factors like disposed evidence and the suspects vanishing making the murder so much harder to figure out afterwards.)

So Kokichi and Tamotsu end up at an orphanage, one related to the one Maki's at. It's kind of a terrible place, but it's where Kokichi meets (most of) Dice. They become inseparable friends (tho don't form a group with the name Dice. I'll still call them that here for clarity's sake though). However Tamotsu who had always been supporting Kokichi and being there for him at his side starts becoming bitter (jealous?) against Kokichi due to dice and starts turning against them. This is the time when Kokichi starts developing his lying to protect himself from Tamotsu as well as the borderline abusive authority at the orphanage. He's also started to figure out the dark secret of the orphanage training children to become assassins.

I feel like during this time a detective was investigating the orphanage. So when things get too dire and Kokichi and Dice escape the orphanage the detective ends up taking them in after finding them on the streets afterwards since he can't just send them to an orphanage at that point. So Kokichi and Dice end up staying with the detective and start helping him out. Kokichi's especially interested in the orphanage now and he and the detective with the help of the other Dice members figure out a lot of stuff. (This is also the time the rest of the Dice members "join".) Until one day the detective gets assassinated by someone from the orphanage sending them a message to stop the investigation.

So Kokichi takes over the Detective's office and to get by he starts working on all kinds of small cases with the help of Dice. And that's what they mostly do. Among those small cases are often cases that have something to do with saving children. However Kokichi occasionally also takes on homicides and investigates organizations. He wants to be prepared for when he finally investigates his mother's murder as well as the organization behind the orphanage. He wants those people locked up in jail forever.

Personality wise Kokichi's pretty much the same. He still loves pranks, lies all the time and would have elaborate stories (lies) about like for example how he was the one who managed to put the previous Queen of Novoselic's assassin behind bars. (The previous Queen was not even assassinated). He'd also jokingly blackmail people by claiming he knows something about them or could figure out something incriminating about them. He never really means it, though he would like try to find out harmless embarrassing secrets to mess with people.

Around the time he gets scouted to Hope's Peak he's specifically requested to assist in the investigation of a mysterious organization that steals information and sends blackmail and other such things. It's a huge flashy case, so of course he picks it up.

At Hope's Peak he then meets an (surprisingly mysterious?) Ultimate lucky student who seems really interested about his Ultimate detective talent and his lying.

Bonus

The original portraits from summer 2020. My laptop just broke when I finished the lineart and then I couldn't really edit them on my new tablet anymore and they were getting really old so I just decided to completely redo them. Also lmk if you want the sketch of the climactic scene since I'm not sure if I'll finish it even though I really like it. It looks pretty okay even if it's unfinished.

Also hope this is coherent and that I haven't forgotten anything aah. And damn if you actually made it this far gezus. This took like 4+ hours?? oops.

#saiouma #oumasai #shuichi saihara #kokichi ouma #danganronpa v3 #saihara shuichi #ouma kokichi #saiou #danganronpa #ndrv3 #ndrv3 killing harmony #saihara x ouma #ouma x saihara

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sirdust · 3 years

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so I Am Thinking about that thing octavia said in ep2, about stolas running off with blitz, and i have an idea eating away at me regarding it, so i’m gonna dump that theory here. it’s highly speculative and probably will end up inaccurate, but i also think it’s a plausible route for things to go, and also it is killing me, so i’m gonna share it anyways. here we go:

“Are you gonna run off with him? And leave me behind? Go away where... I can’t find you?”

SO. i’ve brought up the idea of this happening before here on this blog actually (though i also stated that i didn’t think stolas would ever abandon octavia). as a result, hearing it brought up in-show was a bit of a shock.

we can tie this back to the flashback at the beginning of the episode, where octavia has a nightmare as a baby that stolas is going to disappear and leave her behind. her father seems to be the one friend she has in the world, so this part definitely is meant to address that fear of hers. in a broader context though, it’s an interesting point to bring up, because it’s a bit of a jump. we know stolas is unhappy in his marriage, but there’s not been any evidence so far to suggest he would go so far as to abandon his current life. octavia is picking up on something here that we as the audience haven’t really had the perspective to deduce.

of course, while stolas craves room to make his own happiness outside of his role and responsibilities as a political figure and husband/father, i think he was sincere when he promised octavia that he would never abandon her. she’s the most important person in his life and i don’t think he would ever do anything that he knew would sever his connection with her entirely. he’s not the best father, but he loves her and is trying his hardest to be what she needs, even if he so often falls short.

HOWEVER. that doesn’t mean that this isn’t ever going to come up again.

“I hate that fucking clown.”

this episode establishes for us twice that blitz and octavia think similarly to one another. which is cute, and a funny gag, but i also have to wonder if it’s meant to be character-informing, or at least have a bigger idea behind it. if it does, then that definitely makes octavia’s specific fear a little more interesting as it pertains to the greater narrative and blitz’s potential character development, due in no small part to what blitz himself may fear regarding his relationship with stolas.

i think most of us who watch the show have gotten the impression by now that at least part of the reason blitz pushes stolas away is because he’s afraid of being hurt, specifically that he’s afraid stolas doesn’t genuinely care about him and sees him as a toy to be used as he likes. this is backed up by the fact that blitz is convinced nobody loves him and probably doesn’t believe he’s capable of being loved (likely due to his inferiority complex, definitely fueled by his place in the lowest ranks of hellborn society).

stolas is a figure of at least moderate importance within this society while blitz, in contrast, has been fed the idea that he’s disposable for his entire life. when the upper crust exploits the position of imps in hell to begin with, why wouldn’t he feel like stolas sees him as an object or plaything, especially since stolas is also misreading the situation and doesn’t realize how his actions affect the people he cares most about (octavia and blitz)?

but blitz isn’t going to be able to deny reality forever, especially as his own emotions towards stolas become more intense and complicated as the series goes on. and now i get to the main idea behind this post-turned-full-on-essay:

at some point down the line--maybe sooner, maybe later--it’s entirely possible that blitz is going to try and convince stolas to abandon his position and his wife so that they can actually enjoy their relationship to the fullest, and because stolas’ life now is so clearly making him miserable, and blitz has no choice but to admit he doesn’t want that for him. he also may bottle up his feelings until this point, so that he finally is honest with stolas and with himself, at the riskiest moment possible.

stolas is going to say no.

and this is going to be a CRUSHING blow for blitz, who is already so dominated by his inferiority complex and his insecurities regarding how stolas views him. if stolas is willing to stay in a broken marriage and lead a stuffy aristocratic life over leaving with blitz, then just how little must he really think of him? blitz would, incorrect as he may be, take this as confirmation that stolas doesn’t care about him, and that he’s an idiot for ever getting attached. because blitz is impulsive, he doesn’t think things through, and he has a hard time understanding his own emotions, let alone those of others.

this obviously wouldn’t be the end of things--we all know they’re endgame--but it would function as a darkest hour in their relationship, one that challenges them both and puts them in an extremely difficult and interesting position.

boom. there ya go. if it doesn’t happen, free fanfic idea.

#helluva boss #stolitz #op #this ended up longer than expected. welcome to my blog where i don't know how to summarize my ideas and refuse to learn #long post //

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ddarker-dreams · 4 years

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Yandere Giorno, Jotaro, and Bucciarati handling jealousy

Giorno Giovanna:

If by some rare chance you haven’t been kidnapped by the Don already, you should expect to at least be under constant surveillance. After the next unfortunate series of events however that limited freedom you’ve been enjoying will all but disappear in front of you.

Throughout Giorno’s life, it has been a reoccurring theme that very few people matter a lot to him. Even more so now as having people that he cares about is a liability, due to the nature of his occupation and the enemies it brings with it. But you were the crown jewel of those who mean the world to him. Invoking feelings of love that he never experienced, it holds a strong weight.

In times where he isn’t busy, he treats himself by either observing you (essentially stalking), or interacting with you. In the beginning of his obsession he still wants to make a good impression on you, so he tries not to come off too strong. That’s why he’s contenting himself with watching you at one of you favorite cafe, a rare fondness in his eyes.

He had already gone out of his way to speak to the owner of this cafe, instructing them to give you anything you want free of charge. It’s only a little taste of what luxuries you’ll have access too once you’re in a full fledged relationship with him, but Giorno wants to give you what he as soon as he can.

Settling himself at an outside table, he switches between observing the bustling businesses around him and you. It wouldn’t do for you to catch his insistent staring after all, so he appears as naturally as he can. But that’s when he catches onto a waiter that seems to be coming to your table a little too often for his liking.

The way you smiled naively at the waiters blatant advances served to irritate him deeply. It was almost offensive to him in a sense, that someone would even attempt to wriggle themselves into your life when you are Giorno’s. He isn’t one to make a public scene, but Giorno retrieves this individual’s information in record time.

Eventually he can no longer stomach watching you interact with this trash, so he walks over to your table and politely asks if you’d mind some company. Having already interacted with you in the past works off, as you readily accept his suggestion much to his relief. It’s enough to ward off the parasite from before.

If you were paying close enough attention, you’d be able to see Giorno is more on edge than he’d like to give off. His legs crossed over one another, grip on his tea cup a bit tighter than it needs to be. He still engages you in pleasant conversation, but his eyes have a malicious streak whenever he spots the waiter from earlier.

Afterwards he’ll deal with this insult himself. For now he’ll settle on removing their body parts and healing them so they can experience the pain nonstop -- but once he bores of their cries for help, he’ll have an underling take over with the torturing. No one can have eyes for you but him, after all.

This would further excel his plans of kidnapping you and keeping you to himself. Seeing how others are capable of acting around you cements the idea that they might attempt the grevious sin of taking you away from him.

Bruno Bucciarati:

Bucciarati has been working tirelessly to earn your trust and hopefully your affection. He has a dependable presence to you, always offering you guidance if you ask for it and taking time out of his busy day to converse with you. Whether it be in person or over the phone, Bucciarati makes it a top priority to speak to you everyday.

He worries about you frequently, knowing fully how cruel the world can be from experience. Someone as precious as you should be protected in his eyes, and he wants to keep you safe. There’s a silent pride to this, knowing that very few people could have the resources Bucciarati does to keep you safe. It becomes a part of his identity, being the most reliable person in your life.

When speaking to you over dinner, you express to him that you’ll be busier in the upcoming weeks and might not be able to see him as often. Bucciarati, composed as over, would politely inquire what it is that’ll be so demanding of your attention. At this point he basically feels like you’re partners, even if it isn’t official -- he treats you out so often after all! But doesn’t want to pressure you into anything... yet.

You explain that one of your best friends from overseas is coming to visit for a few weeks, and that he’s going to be staying with you. It’s ever so brief, the way Bucciarati frowns at the news instead of sharing in your excitement as he normally does when you speak to him on your plans. But he’s quick to catch himself and expresses he hopes you have fun.

Afterwards every piece of information on this “friend” is discovered, from their blood type to where they study. The thought of this insignificant speck taking even an ounce of your attention away from Bucciarati displeases him greatly, and he’s quick to think of what to do about it.

Killing this friend would be easy but counter productive for now. He hates the thought of making you sad, since you mean so much to him! So he settles on pulling some strings and having this individual’s travel visa thrown into chaos.

You’re disappointed obviously, but in this time Bucciarati does everything he can to distract you and cheer up your sullen mood. It proves effective as you grow even closer to him during this, wanting to spend more time with this reliable person in your life. He’s always so sweet and considerate of you, isn’t he?

If this pest continues to present himself as a problem though, Bucciarati will have to continue escalating the situation. Whether it be disposing of him and hiding the information from you eventually, or simply threatening him to leave you alone -- it depends on Bucciarati’s mood. If you ever got combative with him after being kidnapped though, it would be in your best interest to stop as Bucciarati’s reservations of killing this friend would immediately disappear.

Jotaro Kujo:

Jotaro choosing to be around you is typically enough to have most people keep their distance from you. No one is even sure why (including yourself) Jotaro seems to hang around you as often as he does, not that you really mind. While he isn’t the most talkative person, he seems to care for you in his own way and always listens to you. He can even often good advice and help with your schoolwork if you need it!

You’re not even fully sure how to describe your relationship with Jotaro. You guess you’re friends? He only seems to spend time with you out of everyone else at your university. But when he’s busy you hang out with your other friends.

Jotaro is always your go to when you don’t understand something, but lately he’s been busier than normal with a variety of exams. This lead you to asking one of your friends, Liam, for some guidance on a lecture you had trouble understanding.

The two of you busied yourself in the library, him explaining some concepts to you before you both got off track. Eventually it turns into more of a social meet as you exchange jokes and pleasantries about life. However Jotaro ended up needing to go to the library as well, and spotted you chatting in a friendly manner with this... lecherous looking indidual. It didn’t sit well with him.

Jotaro already has a persistent dislike of your current friends, finding them obnoxious and a waste of your time. To add to his irritation it looked like the two of you had books out that normally Jotaro would go over with you. It felt like Liam was infringing on a sacred bond Jotaro silently prided himself in having with you. Even if Jotaro would complain about you needing his help, he loved being able to assist you.

Suddenly all of the work he needed to do leaves his mind, and he walks up to you and starts talking. It’s almost glaringly obvious that he’s ignoring Liam, who stares at him in return. Sensing some strange tension in the air, you ask Jotaro if he wants to join you; to which he eagerly agrees.

Every time Liam begins to explain something to you, Jotaro finds every possible fault within his words. “That’s not how this works.” Or stuff like “Good grief. It should be evident this is a trick question.”

It’s an embarrassing ordeal for the both of you, and Liam eventually comes up with an excuse to stalk off after Jotaro humiliated him one too many times. When you ask Jotaro what his problem is, he doesn’t really offer an answer. He instead says if you need help that he can make time, and that idiots like that would ruin your grades.

He means it too. At the drop of a hat Jotaro would be by your side if you asked him to, even if he gave off the air of it being troublesome. Jotaro wants to assert himself as the most reliable person you could find, and will do anything he can to keep your precious attention on him.

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mirai-studies-languages · 3 years

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Analysis of ‘No Body No Crime’ by Taylor Swift, Part 1

Hi! As a Swiftie and a fan of literature, I absolutely love analysing Taylor Swift’s lyrics because they are absolutely phenomenal. In this post I’ll analyse some of the lyrics of Taylor Swift’s song “No body, no crime” from her album Evermore. I’ll do a line-by-line analysis, and I will elaborate more on the themes of the song, along with some further deeper analysis of the characters and semantics of the song over the next few posts. I’ll refer to ideas from other websites and sources to deepen my analysis. I can’t really provide much analysis of the actual music, since my strengths lie in language analysis. Let’s get started!

No body no crime

Straight away, our title introduces us to one of the central themes of the song: Justice. People say “no body, no crime” to suggest that as long as there is no particularly incriminating evidence, then the person being accused of the crime must be innocent. This is, of course, a rather frustrating idea, since we all know that bodies can be disposed of. The song plays with this frustration and returns to this idea as the song progresses.

Every time we hear this chorus, it is with a new layer of meaning added to it, causing us to examine the idea of evidence, or lack thereof, playing in someone’s favour, from different perspectives.

There is a sense of finality and firmness that accompanies this saying. It is the kind of thing someone might say to dismiss a person’s concerns. In the context of this song, this possibly represents how people will staunchly adhere to arbitrary beliefs, despite how this negatively impacts humanity’s ability to have a truly just justice system. This lends itself to the ever-present frustration of this song.

It is also quite a short and empty phrase, in terms of emotional depth, which is perhaps what makes it so versatile in this song. It can mean many things, or rather be seen in different lights, depending on the context of the story it is presented in.

This title can also be used to generally describe how a lack of evidence can lead the perpetrator of any crime or misdeed to walk free.

He did it He did it

The song starts with this foreboding chant, immediately leading us to ask questions. Who is “he”? What did he do?

As a listener, we already understand the cultural connotations of what is being said. When we say someone did “it”, we are usually referring to a crime, which links in nicely with the main title.

To me at least, there is a sense of anger mingled with determination in these two short sentences. They are complete short sentences that pack a lot of emotional impact with them, which emphasises our narrator’s certainty about this belief. The repetition also reinforces this. This accompanies a sense of danger and anticipation: we know he did it...now what?

Este’s a friend of mine We meet up every Tuesday night for dinner and a glass of wine

Our story begins with the introduction of the person who is arguably our plot's catalyst: Este. The way she is introduced is through the lens of our narrator, who interestingly introduces Este through the way she relates to the narrator (“a friend of mine”). It is like we are being told a story, or perhaps a confession, by an old friend because we need the narrator’s guidance on her and her character, which is strange considering we know almost nothing about our narrator.

The introduction is quite innocent, which leaves us with a sense of unease considering our morbid title and first lines. It feels like the calm before the storm, since what is being described is so normal. This initial setting adds a sense of warmth to the story. It evokes images of giggling confessions and glowing candles on a small cosy table for two. Do you know how a lot of horror films start their main story in quite a nice setting to lull the viewers into a false sense of security but also anxiety? This has that kind of energy.

We are also introduced to one of the central relationships in this story; the relationship between Este and the narrator. Our narrator (I am going to assume they are a woman) seems to have quite a friendly relationship with Este, since they are doing the activity of having dinner together. I assume that they are both women almost instantly, since friends having a get together with some wine is something I associate more with women than men.

I would also say that this also introduces a key facet of Este’s character: reliability. She makes good on her commitments, which will be more relevant later. This will give her a more likeable image.

Este’s been losing sleep

This quite swiftly moves the plot into more unfriendly territory, as we instantly wonder why on earth she is so worried. This instantly draws our sympathy, since worry is a very relatable feeling, causing us to identify with her.

Not sleeping has obviously detrimental physical effects, so whatever bad situation she is in is literally causing her to “lose” her health, which could foreshadow her death.

The fact that our narrator is being confided in by Este, this is further proof of their close relationship.

Our story so far has operated on the belief that we know who the narrator is, since it is the recounting of a story that focuses on other people (namely Este and her husband), which is strange since a single perspective is usually quite biased. The outsider’s perspective provides a sense of detachment that lends itself to the illusion of a cool unbiased narrator (which is probably not the case here). To me, it could also be indirect characterisation, and implies that the character of the narrator is not a particularly self-obsessed person, and is perhaps used to being more of a background observer. Hell, that might just be the way they are presenting themselves, in order to further justify their actions. After all, how can you fairly judge someone you don’t really know? Or the song is just quite short so you cannot really elaborate much on all the characters. There is a lot you could say about this.

Her husband’s acting different and it smells like infidelity

This, of course, instantly causes us to sympathise with Este. This misleading beginning causes us to believe that the crime in question is simply infidelity. It does not seem sinister though, since infidelity is common.

This line immediately brings up feelings of anger in the listener for obvious reasons, and anger is a pretty good motivator to keep on listening.

In saying that “it smells like infidelity” suggests that Este is something of an investigator, and is sniffing out the culprit of crimes done against her. It could also simply be a reference to smelling his bullshit (a.k.a his lies).

Also (stay with me here), maybe the use of the verb “acting” could imply that Este and her husband’s relationship has become a performance of sorts, since he is unwilling to admit that there are some obvious issues in their marriage.

This is the first post, I’ll continue my analysis in another post. I hope you enjoyed this analysis!

#taylor swift #swiftie #no body no crime #lyric analysis #taylor swift lyrics #evermore

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jalaluvsu · 4 years

Text

Interference

https://beautiful-disasters-sunshine.tumblr.com/post/631749044177403904/what-if-marinette-was-tims-little-sister-who-was

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“Y’know, just ‘cause Kori’s got a baby coming doesn’t mean you can boss us around Robin,” Beastboy whined as he stepped out of the Zeta Tube.

He scoffed at the notion, “That’s literally exactly what I can and will do, you absolute buffoon.”

“Oh, shutup.”

He sighed. There isn’t ever a moment where Garfield doesn’t wish Starfire still led the Titans. The past three weeks have gone by at an agonizingly slow pace, filled with never ending fights between him and Damian. And! Before you get the wrong impression, no, he did not start these fights. In fact, he was practically the one getting attacked!

Really, what’d you expect him to do when Damian insulted tofu during dinner at the Waynes’? Smile and wave?

Laughable.

Garfield will tell you what happened after, whether he’s proud is a matter of who asks. Let’s just say Alfred’s put him on a month-long ban from the dining room at the manor; worth it, nonetheless.

“Beastboy, earth to Beastboy,” He heard Raven chant over comms. Oh, right, the mission.

“Reporting for duty!” he saluted obediently, like the responsible hero he is.

“Stop standing there and you know, actually read the coordinates I sent to your navigator,” he grinned at her snark as he pulled out his compact. A hefty amount of unchecked notifications was in its wake.

Automated message coupons from the local pizza place at Jump City (hell yeah!)

Missed calls from Terra, he faltered at the offending contact; as if he would respond. The time for that has passed, long passed.

He scrolled down the small screen as he flitted his gaze past the hundreds of junk mail. Ah, and lastly, one lengthy preview of information regarding the mission. The text listed an address along with...enrollment details? Huh.

Garfield glanced both ways before crossing the busy street; him previously being in the too-bright alleyway.

Okay, see, he knows what you’re thinking. Someone like him- or rather someone who looked like him, would stick out like a sore thumb. Especially in a place like Paris. How common were metahumans here? Probably not as high as the rate in Metropolis, that’s for sure.

There were only so many green colored people, and a good ninety-nine percent was or is associated with heroes (vigilantes, fine) or even aliens. That being said, he was keeping it on the down-low. In Paris, he wasn’t the cool, collected, and most desired by all Garfield Logan. In Paris, he was just Grant Roth. What? It’s a good cover! And he was planning on taking Raven’s surname eventually anyways. (wink wink, nudge nudge)

A few spells and enchantments via Magical Goth Gf ™ prior to his ride in the tubes later; he practically looked uncanny to his appearance before the whole ‘failed experiment injection’ thing. You know, a mop of auburn hair, pale as paper skin, and cutesy little freckles (Blue Beetle’s words, not his) (Okay, maybe it was his too..)

Garfield pulled out his pocketed compact once he safely made it across the street. Now that he gave more than a glance at the address it looked...short. In fact, it was vague, extremely vague. He discreetly looked around for any eavesdroppers and lowered his voice to a whisper as he walked down the 21st arrondissement.

“Uh, guys? Where exactly am I supposed to go?”

He hated not knowing how to do something he was expected to, incredibly so.

“I was hoping you’d dispose of your body there,” he paused, "but since you asked so nicely, we’ll tell you.” Robin chimed in matter-of-factly.

Garfield could practically feel the next set of words. He didn’t know what they were, but they were going to suck. He just knew it.

Raven took a long swig of coffee before announcing the dreaded news, “We’ve signed you up for a foreign exchange student program,”

Ah,

“You what?!” he shrieked. A couple of onlookers gave him dirty glances, he smiled sheepishly.

Blue Beetle toggled his audio, “C’mon Gar-“ Robin interrupted,

“No names on field!”

“Shutuuuuup,” he drawled out.

“Anyways, Beastboy,’’ cue pointed glare at Robin,’’ did you really think we’d let you roam around without a leash for what? Three months? In a foreign country of all places?” Garfield could practically hear the smirk in his voice, the fucker.

“I was hoping, yeah!” Damn. He thought he would get away with them actually trusting him here alone, wishful thinking on his part.

He pouted at the idea as he scouted for a place to lounge in.

Raven huffed, “You’ll be living with a host family during your stay at Paris, if it wasn’t clear enough already.”

He froze; what other surprises were up their sleeves?!

“C’mon, be real for a sec. I’m a superhero, I don’t need to go to public school, I don’t need a couple of strangers!” he stressed as he weaved between crowds of Parisians.

Ooh, a bench. He sat with the intent of winning this argument, no matter the consequence. So what if he looked crazy, supposedly talking to himself? Priorities people, priorities.

“Doom Patrol’s strict orders, you know, ‘cause they can’t homeschool you a whole continent away,” Jamie deadpanned.

Garfield dragged a hand down his face. Stupid Doom Patrol, stupid worrying for his wellbeing. “But- it’s a mission!” he gestured rapidly, in clear exasperation.

Jaime tsked, “And? Gotta keep that brain of yours in tip-top shape, amigo!”

“Whatever, man;” he got up to dust himself off, “still don’t know how that’s related to the address on the Seine but- “

“They live there, your host family,” Raven supplied.

Garfield scratched his chin in wonder. Who lives in a body of water? That’s so- Wait. His friends were totally holding out on him!

“You guys didn’t tell me I’d be staying with Aquaman! That makes this ten times better!”

What were the chances that the man himself was in Paris too? They can bond over sea creatures, and Garfield could show him his animal transformations! This mission wasn’t so bad, it wasn’t bad at all. He had an extra skip in his step as he pranced down the pavement.

“Are you entirely brain dead?” Robin audibly face palmed,

”No, you’re not- you know what? Yes, you’re going to be living with Aquaman. At a river. In France,” quiet murmurs along the lines of ‘idiot, and ‘cómo adorable,’ sounded out from his remaining teammates.

“This is gonna be so awesome!” Garfield exclaimed giddily.

He spotted a boulangerie-pâtisserie a couple blocks away. Aha! Time to get him some sweet, sweet, treats. And hopefully, some directions.

“Robin spent weeks doing full analysis on the whole family,” Jaime grinned over the comm.

Raven cut in, “Even though it was incredibly self-destructive, “

Analysis? On the King of Atlantis? Boy, no one was safe from Damian’s wrath.

“Awww. You do care, Robin!” he cooed as he entered the bakery.

Robin gasped, affronted, “Don’t flatter yourself! I needed to make sure you wouldn’t feel obligated to blabber all our secrets, obviously.”

“Better than nothing, I suppose,” Garfield shrugged to himself, but quickly zipped his lips shut once someone came into view.

“The Couffaines are...adequate at best;” he quieted, “well, at least from what I could infer before I was so viciously torn away from my research!” was sniffed hotly.

Couffaines? Was that a code name?

“If I didn’t know any better Robin,” Jaime mused, “I’d think you were taking after Tim, especially with how many late nights you’ve had...”

A beat.

Garfield ignored the squabble taking place in his left ear, opting to chat with the kind looking, lady at the register.

“Hello! What can I do for-“ she looked up from tying her apron,

“Oh! You must be new here; I don’t recognize you,”

Garfield offered his hand, “Hah, yeah! I was just walkin’ around town. I’m Grant, by the way,’’ he silently praised himself for remembering his alias.

She shook it firmly, “Sabine.”

A warm smile was sent his way before she gestured to the variety of sweets on display. His mouth watered at the sight and contemplated his choices, no matter how hard it was. ‘’What would you recommend?’’ he whispered, completely in awe.

Sabine paused to give him a once-over before lighting up. ‘’Well, you don’t strike me as a tart kind of guy so, how do you feel about chocolate?’’

‘’Love it.’’

‘’Great! My husband just put out some fresh Pain Au Chocolates before you came in!’’ Score. His luck hadn’t completely run out.

‘’That sounds fire! I’ll have that,’’ he exclaimed cheerfully.

She blinked at his wording, ‘’Pardon?’’

What? Did she not unders- Oh.‘’Sorry, American slang. It means cool!’’ he rushed out.

She mulled it over, ‘’Ah, okay. Well, coming right up!’’ Sabine opened the glass in search of the Pain Au Chocolates.

“Don’t ever compare me to that insufferable fool, -“

He snickered, “Your brother?”

Robin fumed, “-you complete and utter nincompoop!”

“Now, now, don’t use big boy words on me,” Jaime taunted.

“I’ll show you ‘big boy’ words-! “

Garfield faux scratched his ear in favor of switching off the comm as he watched Sabine bag the treats. He grinned in thanks once handed to him.

“If that’ll be all...?” She trailed off.

He wasn’t really paying any mind as he took a big whiff of the sweets. His thoughts floated over to a haven filled with a never-ending overflow of pastries. Ah, what’s stopping him from staying here forever? A pat on his shoulder, apparently.

“Hm?” Garfield found the petite baker leaning over the counter with a patient smile.

“Sorry, I totally zoned out! Did you say something?” he rubbed his neck bashfully.

She chuckled, “I asked if there’s anything else I could do for you, sweetie.”

If there anything else she could- Right! Yes, he needed to know where the hell he was staying at. Garfield fumbled for his phone, luckily for him he copied the address into his Notes app.

“Yeah actually! Well, not food wise but, I’m here in Paris for,” he blanched momentarily, “uh, an exchange program; and I have a like host family here, right?” he gestured to his voice; the American accent evident.

She nodded.

He continued, “And I don’t really uh, like, know exactly where I’m supposed to meet them. I was wondering if you by chance knew someone who lived on the Seine around here?” Garfield shoveled a croissant into his mouth.

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

Marinette was a lot of things.

To some she was the sweet bakers’ daughter, insanely witty and clever, granted a bit scatterbrained, but she was your trophy student by all means of the word; to others though, she was someone to be wary of. A classmate’s spew of lies crawling under their skins, itching to be taken into account. Every move watched meticulously, waiting with bated breath for a slip up, for anything to grasp on to.

In simpler terms, Marinette was over it. Over being unable to speak her truth; over being villainized, constantly put under a spotlight. There was already enough on her plate, one of its regulars accumulating to a steadily-rising designer. One of her biggest flexes, if she was being honest; because really, what fourteen year old could say they constructed glasses for the Jagged Stone? Surely not the average bunch.

Oh, and did she mention superheroine? Yeah, she’s a superheroine.

The whole gig was shoved at her face, three months shy of her thirteenth birthday; and by gig she meant a brief guide, a blindingly red polka-dotted suit, a questionable choice of weapon (seriously, a yo-yo?), and an ill-timed partner.

Nonetheless, she worked with what she got. It's kept her alive so far already, why complain now?

She rubbed her eyes with a stifled yawn, ‘’Radiant....Carefree....Dreamy…’’

Marinette slammed the snooze button at the sound of that god forsaken jingle. Christ, she needed to change her alarm. All it did was make her reminisce of her former crush on Adrien Agreste; top teen Parisian model, son of fashion mogul Gabriel Agreste, and current boyfriend of future Olympiad, Kagami Tsurugi. Alas, old habits die hard, and this one was going to crash and burn any time soon; Marinette was sure of it.

A groan sounded out as she flopped to the floor, skillfully ignoring the tinkling laughter coming from her bedside. Ah, who was she kidding? It’d take some sort of absolute miracle to get over him completely. She would end up forever lonely, pining over a taken man, indefinitely getting dropped from position as lead designer for Jagged, friendless, Akumatized, disowned by her parents-

“None of those things are true, and you know it!”

She snapped her gaze up to the floating embodiment of creation, Tikki. Had her friend really thought that, that look could get Marinette to take back her spiel? She looked like an angry kitten for crying out loud!

Her cheeks reddened as she got up and dusted herself off, “Did I say that out loud?”

Judging by the narrowing of the tiny god's eyes, she’d say yes, it was said out loud. Damn, she was not looking forward to a morning lecture about her declining self esteem and her tendency of speaking her mind. Before Tikki could get even a word in, the Just In Case™ alarm for bad mornings went off. She shot the kwami a rueful grin and scurried over to the counter.

“Radian-“ the clock was chucked out of the three story building. Marinette watched from her window as it plummeted to its demise, in a heap of cheap metal and wires. Lovely.

A red blur zoomed to the front of her face, making her go cross-eyed, ‘’Marinette!’’ Tikki frowned shakily, struggling not to smile at her antics.

She shrugged and skipped over to her closet, in search for acceptable clothes,

‘’What? It was getting annoying! And besides, it’s not like it was worth that mu-!’’ They both froze at the pounding of the trap door.

Ugh, couldn’t they wait to bother her later?

‘‘You better get out of there soon, young lady! I don’t want another call from your school added to the list,’‘ Marinette was going to absolutely combust. It sucked enough that barely any of her ‘‘friends’’ stuck around, but Tom and Sabine? Really? Believing some complete stranger over her? It must be the lack of familial relation that makes it sting a bit less. It must.

She groaned tiredly, ‘’Yes, Sabine.’’

Once the descending pattering of her footsteps quieted, Tikki raced over to latch onto Marinette’s cheek. Her bluebell orbs peered up at her, filled with sympathy for her holder. She shook her head at the silent offer to talk; there’s no time for a pity party.

The kwami sighed sadly, before pecking her cheek and floating over to rest on her shoulder. Marinette plastered on an encouraging smile, ‘‘C’mon Tikks’, help me pick out and outfit for today! You know how indecisive I can be,”

After some thinking, they’ve come to the mutual decision of something completely out of Marinette’s alley. Instead of her usual pink capris, floral shirt, blazer, flats, and pigtails; she sported a plaid pleated skirt, a tucked in Queen Bee graphic tee, black two-inch heart buckled platform Mary Janes, and spacebuns. Who knew her wardrobe from Clara Nightingale’s on-set music video would come to use?

She ogled her reflection with a satisfied smirk, yeah, she was hot.

‘’Holy shit, Tikki, if I was still into Adrien,’’ she whistled, ‘’he’d drop to the floor as soon as he saw this; and that’s coming from me!’’

The kwami shook her head good naturedly, ‘’I’m glad you think so. I really like confident Marinette!’’ she nudged her shoulder, ‘’Although, I hope you aren’t doing this for your classmates’ approval...’’

She directed her gaze at Tikki; an other person’s approval? Why would she do something for another person’s approv- Oh. She actually wasn’t that far off.

‘‘Pssh. No, I would never! This is all me baby! The awesome, cool, and Pinterest board version, I mean,’‘ Marinette gave her little friend finger-guns and grabbed her purse. Enough about her, they needed to get to school before she was late again.

‘‘Get in Tikks’, if we wait any longer I’ll be,’‘ she checked the time on her phone, ‘‘like five minutes late to homeroom!’‘

She flitted into the bag as Marinette settled it onto her side. With one last look-over, she was off.

To say she struggled down the stairs was a complete and utter understatement. She almost died, multiple times. Maybe the platform shoes were a bad idea, a very, very, very bad idea. Marinette clutched onto the railing with an inhumane grip that could rival Alya’s on her phone; and that was telling you something.

Once she made it passed the death trap, or rather simply a few steps, she grabbed an espresso and a handful of cookies; the former being for her, and the latter for Tikki. She gave a fleeting wave to Sabine and Tom, not that they gave any mind.

She pulled out her phone, 8:26, she could work with that. Her phone buzzed with a text notification.

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ 𝖈𝖍𝖑𝖔𝖊 𝖇𝖔𝖚𝖇𝖎𝖙𝖈𝖍 ♥ ɴᴏᴡ

where the fuck are you

Marinette snorted and slid the cookies into her purse. She unlocked the screen and tapped the message icon.

{𝟖:𝟐𝟕} .•°¤*(¯`★´¯)*¤° 🎀 𝓃𝑒𝓉𝓉𝒾𝑒 🎀 °¤*)¯´★`¯(*¤°•.

wouldnt you like to know weather boy

{𝟖:𝟐𝟪} (っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ 𝖈𝖍𝖑𝖔𝖊 𝖇𝖔𝖚𝖇𝖎𝖙𝖈𝖍 ♥

wow ur so funny im literally laughing so hard rn 😐

{𝟖:𝟐8} .•°¤*(¯`★´¯)*¤° 🎀 𝓃𝑒𝓉𝓉𝒾𝑒 🎀 °¤*)¯´★`¯(*¤°•.

thank you, thank you, im here all night 🖤

Marinette looked both ways before crossing the intersection, Dupont just about a block away. She chugged her now-cold coffee and tossed it in the recycling bin, ‘’Score! And the crowd goes wil-!’’ the atmosphere suddenly stilted.

‘‘Dupain-Cheng,’‘ she swiveled around, and was met with the putrid swamp green slits shes grown to despise.

A snarl rolled off her tongue, ‘’Rossi.’’

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omg guys so hi. im doing this. im actually doing the thing i said i would do here cuz im a bad bitch. 3k words i think. sorry for any mistakes i literally wrote this while watching pbs kids LMAOOOASODFWOEB @beautiful-disasters-sunshine idk if u still wanna be tagged when i do this kinda stuff but pm me if u dont <3

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fandom-necromancer · 3 years

Text

Ghosts of the past

This was prompted by an awesome anon! Enjoy!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed1700 (Warnings: implied past abuse, manipulation, mentioned forced drug intake, drug abuse)

[Part2]

‘I don’t feel too good about this…’ ‘Me neither, but I can’t think of any other way, unfortunately…’ Nines swallowed, looking Connor in the eyes. It was hard to look into these eyes when he normally was the one telling Nines to forget about the mission for a while. Whenever Nines sunk a little too far into his comfort zone of code and orders, Connor was there to remind him he didn’t had to follow it. He was allowed to indulge in his emotions and listen to his wants. Now that their roles had changed it really made him think about how compromised he really was with this particular case.

‘Nines, we need that confession. You know that.’ ‘I know Connor!’, the android yelled with frustration. ‘I know, but I’m not sacrificing Gavin’s mental state, health or career, just because some criminal decides to play with us!’ Connor sighed. ‘Do you think I want that? Nines, he matters to me as much as to you, I’d rather die myself than see him hurt. I’m just saying we should ask him and not decide for him just because that makes us more comfortable.’ Nines sighed, nodding. ‘His sense of duty will make him say yes.’ ‘Maybe, but it will be his decision. He’s a grown man and we will be there for him should anything happen. Come on.’

Gavin immediately shit was about to go down as both androids exited the interrogation room heading his direction. Both their LED’s were yellow bordering to red and knowing just who sat behind that door, Gavin knew exactly what must have happened. Still, he tried to look optimistic: ‘And? What did you find out?’ Nines looked aside, arms crossed over his chest, while Connor put up a fake grin that should be calming. So they both were disagreeing about their way of action. Gavin wouldn’t dare saying he knew what was going on in their heads most of the time, but he could read their emotional state like nobody else. ‘Not much’, Connor answered him. ‘He refuses to speak with anyone but you.’

Gavin swallowed and lowered his head. ‘Well phck’, he cursed, accepting his fate. ‘Guess I’ll go talk to the asshole then.’ ‘You don’t have to’, Nines immediately stated, taking a step forwards when Gavin stood up. ‘You don’t have to talk to him.’ ‘Nines, I have to if we want to get a confession, right?’ ‘He didn’t say anything about confessing’, Connor corrected. ‘Just that he doesn’t want to talk to anyone but you.’ ‘Yeah, well, that’s basically the same thing, isn’t it?’, Gavin huffed determined. ‘It’s been years, I think I can talk to the asshole if it means I won’t see him for a long time, because he’s locked up. I’ll manage.’ ‘We’re right in the next room observing’, Nines tried to reassure him, knowing arguments wouldn’t help. ‘Then I’ll try to give you two a show, huh?’, Gavin joked and took the lead towards the interrogation room.

He heard the others following him and tried to keep his composure for as long as they saw him. He knew they worried about him. Hell, Gavin worried about himself. It had been a long time since he had last seen David Smith and he wouldn’t have complained if more years had been added to that. And his confidence in his ability to keep calm and professional around him was fragile at best. But they needed that confession and Gavin would get it. No matter the cost.

He took a deep breath before opening the door and entering the room. He didn’t spare the man sitting across the table any mind, sat down and slammed the file on the table in front of him. ‘Your name is David Smith, is that correct?’ He stared strictly on the papers in front of him. ‘Yes.’ Oh that phcking voice. That goddamn soft voice that reminded him of all the times this stupid phck had him wrapped around his finger. If he could, he would have thrown up already, but as it was, he kept up his neutral façade. ‘State your age and occupation.’ ‘Thirty-nine. Freelancing salesman.’ Gavin could hear the asshole’s sly grin in his words and narrowed his eyes. ‘Come on, Gav. Why so stuck-up? Not happy about seeing your man?’ ‘You will address me as Detective Reed, Mr. Smith’, Gavin commented sharply. ‘And I’d appreciate you staying on topic. Does “freelancing salesman” include the producing and selling of illegal substances by any chance? We found copious amounts of drugs, mostly Red Ice and cocaine in your flat. Additionally, there have been accounts of eyewitnesses depicting you handing over those substances to others. The evidence clearly speaks against you, but a confession might increase your chance at a decreased sentence.’

‘You’re still as beautiful as I remember you.’ Gavin felt himself shudder but ignored the goose bumps in his back. ‘Mr. Smith, I doubt you understand the situation you are in.’ ‘Hmm… all professional, aren’t we, Gav? I remember I could get you to be pretty unprofessional in a matter of seconds.’ Gavin couldn’t help but look up. It had been a mistake, as the man’s grin widened, and those eyes captured him once again. ‘Ah… So you remember too.’

Gavin sighed and closed the file. ‘Why the phck did you refuse to speak with my partners? David, we’re over and done with. The years with you were some of my worst and there is no way I will ever want that back.’ The man smirked at him. ‘So they are your partners? I thought so, they’re your type. Tall and strong enough to put you in your place…’ Gavin ground his teeth and stared at David with eyes that could kill. ‘Are you selling drugs again? Who are your suppliers? Who do you keep around to test your phcking new creations on?’ ‘Come on, babe, you were more than just that for me.’ ‘I asked you a question asshole. You said you’d talk to me. I’ve yet to hear a single word that’s worth the air.’

David leaned back and grinned. ‘Oh, please Gavin. You pretend to be so high and mighty. You can’t put me behind bars. In fact, I know I will be walking free in a matter of hours.’ ‘And why should that be?’, Gavin asked. ‘Charlotte 2.0.’

Gavin’s eyes widened and he had to hide his hands beneath the table because they were shaking too much. In one quick motion, he took the file and left the room. Only to sink against the closed door as his knees gave in. Not much later Nines and Connor came running to his side. ‘Gavin! Are you alright? What the hell happened in there?’, Connor asked, obviously scanning his vitals. ‘Who… What is Charlotte 2.0?’, Nines asked. Gavin concentrated on breathing first, speaking second. ‘We have to let him go’, he whispered desperately. ‘We have to.’ ‘What? Why?’

Gavin stood up and walked away from the door. ‘Charlotte was an android. Non-deviant. His fail-safe. Remember how I never wanted to tell you how I got out of that relationship? I killed her. Killed her and ran, moved and stopped talking to anyone I knew. Deleted all accounts and made new ones.’ ‘You did what?’, Nines asked. ‘Yeah, she was just a machine, okay? It was the only way out. I… David is anything if not prepared. Charlotte had the single task to gather as much information as she could. That means he can notify any gang, any lab, drug den or dealer in the city they have been compromised. With a single word from him, she can make every current operation in narcotics null and void with everyone alarmed.’ ‘Then why did you kill her?’, Connor asked. ‘Because she also keeps tabs open on everyone dear to the people he wants to keep in line. I’m not an idiot, I realised what I had fallen into a week after we first met. But I could only run years later because she was dead and couldn’t hold my family and friends at gunpoint in secret.’

Connor and Nines stared at each other. ‘So we need to find the android he uses this time.’ Gavin shook his head. ‘I doubt he will be dumb enough to make the same mistake twice. I’d guess Charlotte 2.0 is a program ready to unleash all the gathered information if something goes wrong.’ ‘Then what do we do? Search his apartment again?’ ‘Would be a good start.’

Less then twenty minutes later, Gavin, Nines and Connor sat in a car driving towards David’s apartment. ‘You did good in there’, RK900 suddenly broke the silence. ‘I worried for you.’ ‘We both did’, Connor added. ‘But it’s good you decided to go.’ ‘I just want to end this shit’, Gavin sighed. ‘I don’t want to think back to it, and I’ll sleep the hell of a lot easier knowing the asshole is behind bars.’ ‘Couldn’t put it better’, Connor nodded. ‘You want to come with us?’ They had parked the car and Gavin looked up to the apartment complex he knew far too well. ‘Yeah, I’ll come. Don’t like it a bit, but I might be of help.’

They exited the car and made their way up using the shitty rumbling elevator Gavin despised. Not only that you had to fear the damn thing giving in any moment, the memories of how he had been slammed against a wall, barely conscious with the bastard’s lips all over his body… No, he refused to think of that. He refused to think of anything but him being here to put an end to it all. He felt two reassuring hands on his shoulders as the door opened and gladly let them exit first, following the two androids towards the apartment Gavin had never wanted to see ever again.

In the end it didn’t look too different to what he had gotten to know: the flat was messy, clothes thrown around, empty mugs and take out containers stood on the kitchen counters and table. The dead plant that had been Gavin’s company throughout many drying-outs from some experimental drug high, still stood on the windowsill rotting and gathering dust. ‘Would you rather wait outside?’, Connor asked, but Gavin shook his head. ‘No. Thank you, but we need to find Charlotte 2.0. I’ll help.’ They systematically went through every corner and every drawer. Gavin found a few disposable phones he couldn’t activate; Connor was long sitting on the couch interfacing with a laptop while Nines was somewhere in the bathroom.

Gavin was waiting for the next phone to charge enough so he could try to get to any contacts or other data on it. He tried to concentrate on his task, but waiting hadn’t exactly sat right with him for most, so he ended up lost in memories he hoped to rather forget. Two years of his life just gone and wasted. Who knew how many years of his life the drugs had taken from him? The lies he had told. The things he had done to keep David safe. No, to keep those dear to him safe. He looked up at Connor. Did David know of his relationship with Connor and Nines? Did he know how happy he was with them, how much he loved and needed them? Was Charlotte programmed to cause them harm too? He didn’t want to imagine what would happen would they not find whatever failsafe David had thought up this time. If they had to let David go. Phck, no, they had to find it. They-

‘Nines!’ Connor had stood up and placed the laptop on the kitchen counter next to Gavin. ‘I found something, but you are better at this.’ RK900 hurried out of the bathroom and joined their side. ‘Better at what?’ ‘At breaching the security measures. I think I found this Charlotte 2.0, but I can’t access it. It’s protected with a password and I can’t get past it. The system looks everything like an android mind to me. Or at least the security is similar. I can’t get in.’ ‘Okay, let me try.’ Nines reached for the laptop to interface and Gavin watched how his LED spun faster and faster as his brows furrowed. It only was a matter of seconds, but that alone should have told Gavin something was wrong. When the android stepped back desperately looking at the computer-screen asking for a password. ‘I can’t get in either. We need the password.’

‘How many tries do we have?’, Gavin asked. ‘Three’, Connor supplied. ‘We can’t just trial and error the solution.’ Gavin stared at the keyboard, then turned around to look at the apartment. ‘Try Gavin Reed.’ ‘What?’, Nines asked. ‘Darling, we can’t just try it out.’ ‘Listen’, Gavin sighed. ‘I wasn’t the only one David tried his drugs on. But it… It was personal with me. In some twisted way, he really loved me. Why else pull such a damn stunt? He could have just moved to a different place and continued on with his business. But he stayed, he kept dealing right under our noses after I left. The asshole wanted to be found. And we don’t exactly have much time. Try my name, if it doesn’t work, we still have two tries left.’

Nines stared at him unmoving, but Connor took the chance and typed in “Gavin Reed” Then he hit enter. The screen cleared to give access to code Gavin didn’t understand. But from the way Nines and Connor interfaced with the device immediately he took it had worked. ‘It’s deactivated’, Nines stated, stepping back. He looked at Gavin, who had pulled his arms around his middle and looked to the ground. ‘Thank you, Gavin. Let’s get this Laptop to the police and then go home.’ ‘Forget this all’, Connor said, when he pushed the laptop shut. ‘Sounds good’, Gavin sighed tiredly and closed his eyes as both androids pulled him in a deep hug. ‘Sounds phcking perfect.’

[>next part]

#detroit become human #dbh #Reed1700 #Gavin Reed #RK900 #Connor dbh #RK800 #wow a short with plot? From me? I guess it can happen from time to time #didn't find a lot of chances to put the ship in there but I hope it still counts because I love them so much #how is this my first Reed1700 story?

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nightwingmyboi · 4 years

Note

Pt 1) I'm ngl, if this Ric Grayson arc ends with Dick finally going off on the rest of the batfam for only showing him affection when they need something, it will almost be worth it. You mentioned in the meta about his relationship with the batfam that to recover from the gunshot he cut every one off (ngl, I stopped reading as soon as his memories were wiped), and I think that means now is the perfect time (or when his memories finally return fully next issue) for him to blow up

Pt 2) I want him to go off on Bruce for never seeming satisfied with what he does. I want him to go off on Tim for running away when everything was going to shit while Bruce was stuck in time (there's evidence that he remembers pre reboot stuff with that one panel that has torque and tarantula and him proposing to Babs so I'm going to say that's all still canon). I want him to lose his shit with Babs for constantly being mad at him when he's trying so hard (I love Babs, but this is annoying)

Pt 3) when he gets his memories back I want him to finally blow up. Like??? His life has been in a constant state of falling apart since he became Nightwing (hell, even before that), but he still always put others first. And now Roy is dead, Donna is evil, Wally is who knows where after killing Roy, Jason and Bruce are back on the outs, etc, etc and people were saying they need him back to fix things when he's recovering from being shot in the head. If they let him point this out, the Ric arc

Pt 4) will have been validated in my eyes. Still fucking terrible writing wise, execution (I was excited for Talon! Dick but christ what I read of it was bad), one of the worst decisions they've made recently, and they've made a bunch of bad ones, but it will be validated in its existence to me.

Yeah, Dick takes a lot of crap from the members of his family; a lot of the things you listed are things that I am very much not a fan of, lmao. And I’d even add that, with the Ric stuff you mention, it wasn’t even that Dick “cut everyone off” so that he could recover; I should have made this clearer--Bruce and the rest of the family should take a lot of the blame for pushing Dick away. See, initially, Dick was open to the idea of getting to know his family. He visited the manor and then Bruce, impatient with the lack of progress Dick was making on regaining his memories, decided to take Dick down to the Batcave, show him the Nightwing suit (that still had the freaking blood from the gunshot wound on it Jesus Christ), and traumatize Dick with the video of him getting shot in the head in order to stir up some memories. Alfred and Damian help Bruce do this:

Nightwing: Rebirth Annual #2

And Dick is obviously horrified. After this, why in the world would Dick want to be Nightwing? Why would he want to associate with his “family”? Staying away from the manor wasn’t Dick cutting out people in his life who cared for him and were trying to help him; it was about, in Dick’s mind, staying away from people who were willing to hurt him, people who cared more about his utility and how they needed him to be Nightwing then they cared about his safety and wellbeing. It was a desperate move to protect himself from people he could no longer trust. It is clear that implanted false memories and other brainwashing was done from the very beginning (by the doctor Bruce specifically hired no less) in order to ensure that “Ric” would not be comfortable with Bruce and would be inclined to leave, but it was Bruce’s actions that had Dick running literally right into his brainwasher’s arms:

It’s also not even like afterwards Dick hid himself in some unknown location, completely out of contact. Barbara easily tracked Dick down to talk. And yet, when Barbara talks to him, she doesn’t ask Dick if he’s alright. She just tells him that they want him to regain his memories (umm...yeah you’ve made that clear), comments that he’s not acting like himself, and tells him to come back to the manor. So...it’s all about what the family wants. Dick says no, and there are zero attempts at a compromise. Maybe the family could have used the millions of dollars at its disposal to set Dick up elsewhere outside the manor so he doesn’t have to, uh, live in a cab? Maybe they could agree to occasional check-ins instead of the overbearing babysitting they were suggesting, that Dick is uncomfortable with? Maybe they could ask Dick what he wants? But, no. As soon as Dick doesn’t do exactly what they want him to, he’s on his own. People talk about how this arc is making Dick look bad, but beyond that, really it's making all of the family look like uncaring, selfish assholes.

That aside, about how I want this arc to conclude...it would be nice, as readers, to see Dick finally put his foot down and stand up for himself a little. But honestly? Him going off on everyone like you describe? I feel like that would be out of character. I could maybe see Dick telling off Batman, but I can’t even imagine Dick truly blowing up at Damian or Tim, or really even Barbara. People really over exaggerate Dick’s temper a lot; in reality, it usually takes very extreme circumstances, and often an insane amount of stress and/or brainwashing to make Dick lash out. Bruce is one of the few people that can make Dick lose his temper, so maybe. But I also think that when Dick is truly upset and emotionally compromised, his first move is to go somewhere to be alone. He doesn’t tend to lash out; he tends to retreat and isolate himself if he’s able. You’ll often see him hole himself in his apartment when everything becomes too much. Two good examples of this are in Joker’s Last Laugh and in the Outsiders. After Dick kills the Joker, he immediately retreats to his apartment to be alone, and likewise after Donna dies, he spends months isolated from his friends in Bludhaven:

Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files

And not only all that, but I really don’t think Dick yelling at everyone would be cathartic for him. If he did something like that, he’d feel terrible and guilty about it. He’d apologize. And I really don’t want him to have to apologize for anything in the aftermath of all this horrible stuff he’s been through. I don’t want any of the responsibility for making things right to be put on his shoulders. Though he’ll probably feel the need to try to fix things anyway, I’d actually prefer him to just...stay away from the family. Not avoid them, but let them be the ones to reach out to him for a change. Especially recently, Dick has had to do all the emotional work in his relationships; it would be so gratifying to have his friends and family put the work in on their own and be the ones to initiate so Dick doesn’t have to do all the heavy lifting.

And hey, I’d love even more for one of the numerous friends he used to have to step in and stand up for him instead, so he doesn’t have to. If the rest of the Titans were not currently being put through depressing arcs themselves (or being dead, RIP Roy), I think they definitely would’ve knocked some heads together. I think the only possible solution...is Uncle Clark coming to the rescue! Surely if Superman knew what was going on, he’d come down to the cave and give a good old fashioned tongue lashing to Batman for his pseudo-nephew’s sake! I’m not caught up with the Superman comics so idk what he’s up to rn, but please tell me this can happen and if not let me dream.

Thanks for the ask! I feel your pain, was pretty disappointed with Talon Dick. I really want to just reach into the comics and wrap Dick up in a blanket or something, give him rest!

#ask #dick grayson #ric grayson #nightwing #batman #bruce wayne #barbara gordon #damian wayne #negative #character analysis #meta

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dinolikes · 4 years

Text

IMPOSTER- PART TWO

summery ❤︎ Nobody has any quirks and are stuck on a ship like among us

pairings ❤︎ Imposter!Dabi x Reader

content warnings ❤︎ major character death

| prev. |

you sobbed into dabi's chest as hawks and ingeniumu covered thirteens body with a sheet, everyone looking over, some with tears, and some with just a blank look, like they were still processing it.

it was silent for a long time before ingeniumu cleared his throat and looked up, everyone seeing the ghost of tears in his eyes, "we have to call h-headquarters," his voice cracked but he stood tall, he would make a great captain one day, even with his pushover attitude.

you were crowded in the cafeteria, a computer resting on the table with headquarters on the line.

"im sorry to say this but you have an imposter."

you shook your head, you refused to believe it, how could these people, your FRIENDS, who you've lived with for a year, how could they be imposters?

though you shouldnt be surprised, the league has been gaining members, rarely any ship didnt have at least ONE imposter, some even having as much as three, you just thought you guys were the exception.

"twice, hawks, you searched thirteens body correct?" a voice came through the screen.

"yes sir," hawks quietly muttered.

"was everything in place?"

"he didnt have the vent key."

the vent key, really easy to pass through, was originally made for people to quickly go from room to rooms, but after the rise of imposters who started using it to sneak up on people, only one person was allowed to use it per day.

the voice cursed, "very well." a sigh could be heard, "well you know the drill," you did, you just didnt like it, "if you suspect someone, send them out and let them die," you gulped.

you didnt know if you could do that, even knowing that someone here murdered thirteen, you learned to care for each of them, even weirdo itchy snatch tomura. you didnt know if you could just send them into space to suffocate. even the thought made you sick.

"until then, we'll need you to finish your tasks fast, we'll have you home by the end of the day, which means the imposter will probably try to kill faster today. watch out." with that a beep was heard, signaling that you were disconnected.

a grim silence filled the room.

hawks finally spoke up, "which one of you assholes did it?"

dabi glared at the taller man, "fuck you dude, how do we know you didnt do it?"

hawks took a step closer, "bold accusations from someone who seems to hate everyone!"

"why would I kill one of the only people I actually like in this shithole?"

"because he had the vent key dumbass!"

"hey!" twice yelled.

hawks glowered at him, "oh yeah, how could we forget twice here? you found the body right? meaning you were the last one to see him? why DID you decide to check on him huh?"

"why would I come to you guys then?!"

"i dunno, to throw off suspicion maybe?"

you finally snapped "stop it!" everyone's heads shot towards you, "thirteen is dead," you choked out, "and I know thay we're all upset but we just have to finish today's tasks and then we're back home, okay?"

everyone stared, until deku started nodding, "y-yeah! just today's tasks left! then we'll go home and catch the imposter and we'll be fine!"

"what makes you so sure we'll catch him once we get home idiot?"

deku stared up confusingly at kaachan, "dont we have cameras?"

ingeniumu looked at his friend "obviously deku but whatre you getting at?"

"our cameras have memory sticks," shoto spoke up quietly, "when they're connected into one of headquarters machines, you can access all of what it caught,"

deku nodded rapidly, "exactly!"

your eyes lit up, "deku your a genius!" you grabbed his head and gave him a big smooch on the forehead, leaving him a red and stuttering mess.

dabi tsk'ed, "c'mere,' he grabbed you hand and pulled you towards him, wrapping you hands around you and resting his head on your shoulder.

you rolled your eyes playfully at his jealous nature.

"fine. we finish our task but if another person is found dead we're booting someone off." with that, hawks stormed off.

you tried not to go too harsh on him, you knew hawks looked up to thirteen, and beneath that cocky demeanor, he really was soft.

knowing that though, you couldnt help but feel some fear and resentment.

fear because you didnt think you could kill off one of your own and resentment because you knew hawks would make you do exactly that.

"we should have a plan," ingeniumu speaks up, "4 groups of two who continue on and do their tasks, and I think twice should be on security, just incase the imposter attacks again," everyone nods.

"i'll go with wonder," dabi states, already grabbing your hand,

"dont you think you'll get distracted with...other things?" tomura smirks, dabi clenching your hand in his.

"fuck. off."

"oo feisty~"

dabi glares, "yknow you dont really seem to care much that thirteens dead!"

tomura's eyes flash a dangerous color and he leans forward.

"the FUCK did you just say?"

"you heard me you fucking incel,"

"stop!" ingeniumu yells, "tomura is right, you guys do get quite distracted, wonder is with hawks, dabi your with shoto. ill go with tomura and that leaves deku and kaachan, with twice on security. let's go!"

dabi grumbles but goes with his brother as you lightly kiss him on the cheek and go with hawks.

you cant help but think about how amazing that kid is gonna be when hes older as a captain of his own ship.

you and hawks head off, both of you checking your list and stopping by rooms, the other waiting as they finish their task and repeating, until hawks sighed.

"how are you dating that asshole?"

you laugh, "hes not too bad once he likes you,"

"and what? he just doesn't like me?"

"exactly."

"what if he didnt like thirteen?" your smile drops instantly.

"hawks..."

"I'm just saying!"

"well STOP saying! I know dabi and he wouldnt betray me like that, so whatever accusations you have against MY boyfriend, I dont wanna here it," you scowl as you check your notebook, and started heading forward, "c'mon. I have to do wires in electrical."

hawks stayed quiet through the walk, as you stormed forward, wanting to get as much away from him as possible without ACTUALLY losing him. if you were being honest you were scared of going off alone.

as you walked in electrical you instantly went towards the wires, not noticing hawks standing in the doorway,

"wonder?"

"yes hawks?" you snap.

"I just saw someone vent." you pause and turn around.

"where and who?!"

"I dont know! I just saw the vent close when we walked in here and since Thirteen had the key before he died, that means that only the imposter can vent!"

"fuck! why would they vent though?!"

hawks paused. "maybe they killed someone again."

tears filled your eyes as you started searching the dark room, almost tripping over something, you only briefly looked up but you choked back a sob.

it was a foot.

"hawks!"

he came running towards you from behind the wall and saw the foot, gulping as he turned on the flashlight.

there say ingeniumu, with his throat slashed.

you couldnt hold back the cry that left your throat as hawks pulled you in for a hug, mostly to hide his own tears.

"what's going on in here?" you heard dabi's voice and you lifted you head to see him and shoto.

he looked mad but when hawks gestured with his flashlight towards the body, the brief flash letting both of the boys see, dabi understood.

"c'mere baby," he grabbed you quickly and held you tight as you sobbed into his chest, dabi looked up at his brother, "shoto can you call a meeting?" he asked softly. you assumed shoto nodded because there were no other words spoken.

there you all sat again, in cafeteria.

you were sniffling as dabi played with your hair, you holding shoto close as he leaned into you, still in shock of seeing his friend's lifeless corpse like that.

deku stood tall and didnt bother to hide the tears streaming down his face and even kaachan was caught sniffling a bit.

twice sat quietly in the corner, with his elbows on his knees.

hawks though, was red in the face from anger. and the victim of his anger was none other than tomura.

"you were teamed up with him fuckface!"

tomura simply shrugged, "I got bored and wanted to check on twice, see if he was alive,"

"well he is! but your partner fucking isnt!" hawks jammed his finger against the other mans chest, "and I think YOURE the cause!"

tomura raised his eyebrows, "I was with twice, right twice?" he did a 180 to stare hard at twice who looked up slightly and slowly nodded. that seemed to please tomura though as he turned back around, "see?"

"that doesnt mean shit! you were supposed to be with him!"

"but I wasnt."

"but you WERE! that's why the kid is dead!"

"I say we vote." shoto's voice was muffled by your neck and dabi's chest, where he was currently crammed in, but it was still intelligible.

you raise your head and wipe a few stray tears, "I think that's smart sho,"

you all nod and murmur in agreement.

"fine then. let's vote." hawks glares at tomura one last time, "who says skip?"

tomura, twice and shoto raise their hands.

"i dont think theres enough evidence." shoto explains and you nod, quietly telling him that theres nothing wrong with his belief.

hawks has a slight triumph look on his face, "who says that tomura is a fucking psychopath who likes to murder children!"

"murder a child. thirteen is practically twice my age" tomura corrects, "and besides I didn't do it."

hawks rolls his eyes, "whatever, everyone just vote."

you, dabi, hawks, deku and kaachan raise your hand, making you guys the winner.

"perfect." hawks drags tomura over to the ejecting room, usually used for heavier garbage that didnt fit in the disposal.

as you all surrounding the glass wall that separated you and tomura you cried a bit more.

sure you hated this dude but you still KNEW him!

"anything left to say sicko?" hawks glared at the smiling tomura.

"maybe you arent as much of a bird brain as I thought hawks. good job, you win," he does a slight bow like this was a performance before hawks pulls the lever, tomura's body flying out before hawks closed it again.

"he admitted to it." deku stated simply.

"yeah."

| next |

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meloncubedradpops · 4 years

Text

Repo! The Corona Opera

For every rotation that Earth has completed around the sun since the dawn of humanity, humans have created art to cope with the realities surrounding our everyday life. We weave stories in songs, movies, plays, books, paintings, and so forth, that help digest the world around us and provide an entertaining escape from the cruelties we endure. Some stories take place in abstract universes or in the future, and we rely on what we know in our present reality to build upon these fantasy societies. My favorite movie, Repo! the Genetic Opera, certainly makes this list. We are currently experiencing perhaps the most surreal year of our collective lives, and with each passing day I argue that we find ourselves closer to the world crafted in Repo. I have seen this movie, at least 20 times. If you haven't watched Repo! the Genetic Opera or you haven't seen it in a while, I recommend giving it a view. The movie is unique in that it falls under three distinct genres: musical, horror, and sci-fi. And while the jury is out on whether our future society is going to go full on gothic aesthetic, I can say that the Repo! movie experience offers a glimpse into a dystopian fascist post-plague world wrapped in unapologetically hilarity with a heaping side of camp. It doesn't offer any spiritual cleansing that our souls collectively need, but it does show us what a new normal could look like if we really go off the rails.

As things stand, right now, so much of our daily lives and culture are impacted by the coronavirus. All of our institutions have been impacted, from school, to work, to family, to the way we interact with strangers, and especially our economy. We have all felt the effects in one way or another, and honestly? Most the impacts are of our own undoing, for better or for worse. I am going to write three pieces analyzing Repo! the Genetic Opera. First I will create the foundations that bridge our contemporary life and the world of Repo! Second I will explain how the Repo! universe operates under the definitions of fascism. And third I will weave together parts one and two into our contemporary world (particularly in the context of the United States) to highlight the dark path we heading towards. My viewpoints are of mine, and my own alone. Let's dive into part one.

Part I Repo! the Genetic Opera takes place in the year 2056. Humanity was on the brink of collapse as a result of a medical crisis that caused massive organ failure.

I never gave the premise much thought, at least not until recently. We aren't given much detail beyond the fact that entrepreneur Rottissimo "Rotti" Largo solved this crisis through his company GeneCo. GeneCo provides organ transplants that can be repaid through a payment plan. Witnessing the coronavirus unfold in real time and seeing its wrath, particularly on severe cases, honestly makes me wonder if the writers had some sort of "super plague" in mind when creating this universe. For the purpose of this analysis, I will assume that humanity suffered at least one infectious disease crisis. And just to reiterate covid-19 particularly, we really *don't* know what it's going to do to us long-term. Let the parallels begin.

The world in Repo! the Genetic Opera, operates as normally as the citizens possibly can, which appears to be quite limited. I have noted how dated some the technologies look.

For a world 30 years in the future, it lacks cell phones and easy access to internet. When we enter Shilo's world (aka her bedroom!) she watched Blind Mag sing on a busted up tiny ass TV and the program itself looks like an ad on Home Shopping Network.

The Graverobber is shown reading headlines on a newspaper. The news reporters shown in the ribbon cutting ceremony during the 1st Italian Post-Plague Renaissance have old school cameras with flashbulbs.

The most contemporary technology appears to be a Wish.com version of an Apple watch, and even that looks like a leftover prop from Spy Kids.

Obviously the people who made this movie intentionally inserted these anachronisms, but why? This is a science fiction movie after all. I speculate that they reverted back because the impact from humanity's crisis resulted in an overall professional "brain drain" from the sheer volume of professionals that dropped dead. In fact every scene depicting medical procedures looks dimly lit and lacking in sanitation. We will see this as we struggle to contain the coronavirus, at least in America. Healthcare workers have already died from this thing, and I am sure many prospective college students will have second thoughts about a career in healthcare. I mean hell, look at no other than GeneCo itself. That company employs workers called "Genterns" who are most definitely not in full PPE. I don't doubt their medical expertise, but they appear to be disposable (please see: that time Luigi killed one for NO REASON in "Mark it Up").

On that note, it really was quite incredible how China built the pop-up hospital in Wuhan in under 4 days, but it was also not the most safe or structurally sound building by far (it collapsed, people were hurt!). Maybe at this point, the people in Repo! don't have much of a choice. I am sure there were likely legit hospitals, but the fact that the Renaissance had gross surgery tents is a bit unsettling.

This is a world that is completely built upon the social more of valuing your health above all else. There had to be a turning point in the GeneCo business model where they really played on up-selling organs for the benefit of "genetic perfection". "I needed a kidney transplant desperately. GeneCo showed this single mom sympathy. This makeover came for a small added fee. Now I look smashing on live TV!" Imagine signing the documents for your power of attorney while actively going into renal failure, when your doctor chimes in with an up-sell for breast implants. When all is said an done, your body is now not only functioning again, but you're hot! Even in a post-plague dystopia we are still holding value to having a nice rack. What's not to love about GeneCo? Obviously we know right away that GeneCo has a dirty side. Rotti Largo personally lobbied to make organ repossessions legal, and he does not hesitate to recollect his property. The concept itself is, of course, wild. In America, our healthcare system is incredibly broken and expensive. You would wonder how it could get worse without us backpedaling many steps on the industrialization timeline. And in a lot of ways, I could see a company like GeneCo thrive here. We already hate the poor, and we have political think tanks that salivate over the idea of cutting social programs that keep people alive. Our president has wanted to repeal the Affordable Care Act while many people are unemployed during a pandemic. In Repo! we hear about those who don't pay, but obviously there are plenty of people who do. Those who can will happily pay, either for vanity reasons or to stay alive.

And while society cites Rotti as being a "hero" for humanity, we see more and more evidence that the crisis is both not under control and life is cheap.

His son murders multiple people, in front of others, with seemingly no repercussions. In the scene where Shilo meets the Graverobber for the first time, adjacent to the graveyard and tombs owned by wealthy families who could afford grave markers, lies a poorly constructed wall hiding thousands of corpses piled on top of one another. We even get a glimpse of a truckload pouring more onto the pile. I would not be surprised if there is a disinformation campaign there keeping the public in the dark (although you'd think the smell would be unbearable at this point).

There are multiple indications that propaganda works in society (still), and no one is getting the full picture of how much of a raw deal the people in Repo! have. We see poster after poster about GeneCo, in the literal absence of other corporations.

And a lot of them bear resemblance to 20th century Russian propaganda. It would be a real shame if the goals outlined The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia were actually realized. Imagine going to visit your mother's grave and hearing commercials for hardcore analgesics play through the cemetery. Also, there's a police presence too. Apparently the police are called Genecops and have authority to execute any assumed graverobbers on site.

Imagine the hellscape it would be to live in a world where your loved ones may have died from a terrible pandemic, and you face a non-zero chance of an over zealous cop murdering you thereafter, and because their qualified immunity bypasses the judicial system entirely...oh wait. Anyways let's circle back to the Graverobber character.

Graverobber's role in Repo! appears to be minor on the surface. Rotti's daughter, Amber Sweet, appears to almost despise her relationship with him. And that relationship involves him supplying Amber with what he describes as the "21st Century cure". This cure you ask? A super effective painkiller with the clinical use to accompany GeneCo surgeries. This drug is called Zydrate, and it has a street version that he acquires and sells, with clients including Amber Sweet.

Graverobber makes his living sucking the glowy blue brain corpse goo and injecting them into people on the streets. Yum!

Not everyone who needs an organ transplant can pay for it all upfront. Luckily for them, GeneCo provides payment plan options! The caveat to this is if you fail to make those payments, legally GeneCo can come and repossess your newly acquired organs. If you find yourself past due, you will soon see the last face before your doom, the Repo Man. He will harvest GeneCo's property, and it won't matter where you are or what you are doing. There is no anesthetic, and you will likely die! This was all made legal through Rotti's lobbying efforts.

Society, as it's set up today, allows for property repossessions. This can be as straightforward as a repossession of your vehicle to as heartbreaking as a foreclosure on your home. At the end of the day, the impacts of that are difficult and life changing. Currently millions of people in America are out of work, and the threat of losing everything is at stake for many. We could lose our homes, our vehicles, and our sense of purpose. And while many government bodies have created temporary moratoriums, they have not provided any substantial financial relief to keep the proverbial repo man at bay. What went wrong in this dystopia to normalize the concept of death due to nonpayment? Fascism! Ah yes, the dreaded f-word. In my next essay, I will outline the 14 characteristics of fascism and how it relates to the universe in Repo! After I will relate that to our modern world so that we can try and stop this from becoming our reality.

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detective-keen · 4 years

Text

Confess | Agatha + Orion

When : Before Lydia’s passing Where : WCPD, Interrogation Room n°2 Who: @3starsquinn & @detective-keen What: Agatha investigates the death of the Quinn parents. The clues lead her to Orion.

Trigger warnings: death mention, child abuse mention (We can summarize if needed)

“In which room did you put him?” Agatha carried an evidence box in her hands, on top of which she had put the case file that she had been putting together ever since Linda and James Quinn had been found dead in their Harris Island home. A break in gone wrong, the newspapers headlined. Meanwhile the detectives were working behind, convinced that no, this was not just an incident. Agatha was convinced of this much, the couple had been murdered, and not on just any day, but on the day of their twins’ birthday. The detective had carefully skimmed each and every piece of evidence at her disposal, and found out that not only one of the twins had left the family home a few months ago, in a far from amicable fashion, his only alibi was being in the company of his special someone. Pathetic. Obviously, it pained Agatha to do this to Winston’s boyfriend, but she had always put work first, and eventually, Winston might even thank her.

She pressed the box against the wall before she entered interrogation room n°2, pushing strands of hair behind her ears, adjusting her shirt before turning to her coworker to ask that he brought her coffee in a minute. Looking in charge always had its effect on a perp, and she felt confident about this. There were gaps in the story, but she knew enough to suspect that he had done it.

“Good afternoon, I’m Detective Keen,” she said with an autoritary tone to her voice. This was far from her usual demeanor,but Agatha truly prided herself with how easily she could slip into her detective shoes. She truly was born for this.

Of course Orion was nervous to be around the police. Even if he hadn’t murdered his parents, he had never cared for the police much. Sitting in a room like this brought back too many memories. He remembered a room just like this ten years ago. The first time he had tried to get help. Tried to expose his parent’s for the monsters they were and stop what they had been doing to him. Obviously, that had been the last time that he had tried that approach as well. Now, he found himself in a room far too similar, alone and waiting to answer questions just like before. Only this time, things were far different than they had been before. Rio had his legs pulled up onto the chair, hugging them against his chest in a fetal position. The memories made the permanent bruises and scars along his body ache and Rio found himself clutching at them through his hoodie. The scars hadn’t been as bad back then as they were today. Rio had considered himself an entirely different person now than he had been ten years ago, but as if nothing had changed at all he found himself curled into a ball and shaking in an interrogation room just like before.

When the door opened, Orion jumped, his breathing erratic and gasping at the sudden entrance. As with most interactions Rio had since the news of his parent’s death went public, he didn’t know how he was expected to act. Even if he hadn’t been the one to end his father’s life, he didn’t think he’d be mourning their deaths. In fact, he probably would have been happier about them dying if he hadn’t been involved at all. “Hi there” Rio started, leaning forward in the seat and trying to determine if he was supposed to be shaking hands or not. Was this casual or an actual interrogation? Rio’s arm found itself on the table as it couldn’t settle between the two options. “I’m uh- Rio. Or I guess legally I’m Orion Grande Quinn. But you knew that. Since you reached out to me and everything.” Clearly, this was going to go super well. “So you had some questions about my parent’s?” Rio questioned, innocent enough, “I can’t say that I have -er had the… closest relationship with them. I’m not sure how much help I can be, honestly. But I’ll answer any questions you have.”

Agatha smiled at the boy. So this was how this would go, huh? Starting the interrogation by saying that he had nothing to tell her was really not a good way to get started. She took off her jacket, folded it neatly and placed it on the back of her chair. It was at about this moment that her coworker walked in with her cup of coffee, without a glance for the kid. She thanked him and waited for him to be gone to pick up her mug and take a sip. “Rio? I think I will stick with Orion, we’re not exactly friends now, are we?” Her lips pressed together, she grinned again. “You may refer to me as Detective Keen, or Mrs. Keen,” she certainly did not want to share her marital status with him, and so Mrs. it would be. Flipping her case file open, she revealed a page full of neatly written notes, along with a pouch of photographs, which she opened. One by one, she placed the pictures taken on the crime scene in front of the kid. She had so many questions.

The pictures went as follows : a photo of a cutting board, a photo of the mother, laying on the floor, another one showing her hand. You could notice a broken nail. The next ones were of the father, revealing the savagery that had been inflicted to him. Then, came pictures of shattered objects, and finally, that goddamn room they found in the basement, one that could have belonged in a horror movie. The room was terrifyingly clean, but what they had found in the drawers, the cupboards, had brought more than a frown to the detectives’ faces. What the fuck had happened in this house ? The night of the murder, and ever since James and Linda Quinn had had their house built in Harris Island.

“The night this happened was the night of your birthday. From what I’ve seen in your family’s photo albums, it’s a day that you usually spend with your family. With your twin sister. However, she claims that she was not with you that night,” and Athena Quinn would have found herself in this room if it weren’t for the fact that she did not have a motive. He did. He had been rejected by his parents, he had lost access to their resources, so how could he possibly be at peace. “So where were you that night?” She waited patiently for him to tell her his alibi. She already knew the story, and she found it ridiculously detailed.

Orion was nervous around most people, especially authority figures. But police officers were among those that he feared the most. His family had always talked about the police with a sort of puppy dog admiration. They were to be respected and admired, even if they weren’t able to make the same choices and do the job that their family had been forced to do. But at the end of the day, the police were there to keep normal people safe from normal things. Child abuse hadn’t been normal, but it certainly wasn’t supernatural. Rio had gone to them because he had been under the impression that they would be able to help. Even as a child, Rio had realized all too quickly that they weren’t going to protect him like he thought they would. The fear of the police had never left, apparently. Even now he found his mouth dry and his hands sweaty. “Sure. Orion is fine, Detective Keen.”

The detective pulled pictures from a file to place in front of Orion. Even though he had been there that night and caused most of that damage himself, he still found the pictures hard to look at. He found himself glancing around the room as he tried to avoid staring at the pictures too long. Whether he regretted their deaths or not didn’t seem to matter much anymore. He had taken a human life, something that shouldn’t be easy on anybody even if the person deserved it. “We used to. My sister and I had a tradition every year. At least, back when I still lived with my family.” Rio had no idea where Detective Keen was going with her questioning. Was it simply trying to get more information? Was she trying to implicate Rio for them? Or maybe his sister? Rio wasn’t completely naive. His relationship with his family didn’t look good. “I didn’t see her. I didn’t leave my house on great terms and I didn’t want anything to do with any of them. I spent my birthday with my- er well with Winston. I’m guessing you know them. I don’t know if you knew or not but I guess we’re like dating.” Rio hated even bringing Winston into this at all. At the end of this, there was a strong possibility that Winston was the sole reason that Rio would make it out of this a free man. Alternatively, if anything went wrong Rio would be the reason Winston lost their entire career. “We went camping that night. I ended up hurting my wrist and so we went back to Winston’s parents. I was there until I heard about the uh… what happened with my parents.”

Agatha took note of everything he said and everything he did. She watched as he looked away from the pictures. She could not tell for certain that he was looking away because he was ashamed. It could have been that he just did not like seeing his parents like this (unlikely, considering what she knew about their relationship), or that he hated the sight of blood (although she knew that he worked for Erin Nichols when the Sergeant had died). The thought brought a frown to her face and she had to take a second to regain her composure. It was becoming clearer to her that yes, he was ashamed. The other two reasons made no sense.

“You went camping ? Where? Did anyone see you? Do you have proof of that?” Her eyes travelled toward Orion’s forearm. She took note of what he had said about hurting his wrist. Interesting. It was obvious that his parents had put up a fight. His mother had a broken nail, fibers underneath those that remained. “Really? You were there until you were told that someone found your parents dead?” If he did not care about his parents, then why would he stay at the Danes only until he could confirm his alibi? Because this was what it was, an alibi. Nothing more. A trick, but one that she could see through.

She waited for him to answer, and then, only then, she would let the hammer fall. Getting a confession out of someone was never a piece of cake, but she never backed down either.

A tension headache was forming, a mixture of the onslaught of questions coupled with the fact that Orion knew that he couldn’t tell the truth. Rio knew what the scene looked like. The police would never believe anything he had to say now. As the headache grew and the detective’s questions became more and more invasive, Rio understood that he was being blamed for this. However it had happened, the detective had figured enough out to want to pin the blame on him. His stomach cramped at the thought. “I don’t- the woods by Winston’s parents. I go hiking a lot. You can ask anyone around the campus or anything, I spend a lot of time out in the woods.” That much was true, even if he didn’t necessarily find the place relaxing or safe. “I don’t know if anybody saw us that night. But I don’t know. They may have taken pictures but I’m not sure. We were drinking. It was my twenty first birthday so we were stargazing and I was drunk and I hurt my wrist.”

It felt like someone was driving a nail into Rio’s skull through both of his temples. Rio rubbed at them and felt that his face was burning. He must be so red. Sure, maybe he was guilty. But he wished the detective knew that he blushed at everything. This was no different than that. Rio didn’t consider himself guilty of anything, even if he had been responsible for the crime. He wasn’t ashamed that they were dead. He just couldn’t tell her that. “Yes. After I found out I didn’t want to be around everyone. Winston and I left and went home.” This couldn’t be happening. “You… you think I did this? You think I killed my parents?”

She put down her cup of coffee, and walking around the room, Agatha stood a foot behind the boy, a little bit to the side, where she still had a proper view of his face. Her own face remained blank, whatever he said, whatever she said. Silent, she listened to him talk. He was quite talkative, she noticed, much like the man who had served her at the bakery earlier. She had to be polite as she waited patiently for him to give her her cinnamon roll. She had been craving it, and of course she had to stumble onto Mr.Chatty McChatter the salesman. The thought of that pastry did bring a soft expression to her face, one that she chased away.

She was not believing a damn word that boy was saying. All of this was too elaborate. What kind of fucked up camping spot was the woods behind your special someone’s parents? How fucking romantic. “Okay, so you went to woods where no one you did not know could have seen you, to camp with someone who will vouch for you no matter what, you hurt your wrist on the night your parents died, because you were drunk, which really is convenient. Well done. No way you could remember a thing if you’re drunk. And yet,” she put her hand on the back of his chair, holding onto it as she bent closer to him, talking a few inches away from his ear. “And yet, you remember quite a lot, aside from how exactly you hurt your wrist, or why you never went to the hospital that night,” she went on, “you could not have gone to the hospital that night, could you, because you were covered in their blood. That’s why you hid with Winston. That’s what happened,” she turned her face toward him, looking from the wall to his face.

Agatha watched the shade of red on his cheeks, and she did not budge. He could be uncomfortable, she did not care. That kid had murdered his parents. And made her coworker into an accomplice. “I know you did this. You’re done, kid,” she straightened herself up and moved to the wall, to get a better look at him. “Your mother, we found a lot of things under her nails, it’s a matter of time before we figure out who is the last person she saw,” her arms crossed over her chest, she smiled, at last. “Breaking everything was a nice touch, but a thief would take things. We found the jewelry, we found the wallets, all of them were untouched. And the way their body looked, oh boy, you really hated them, did you,” her voice softened and she stepped closer, sitting on the other side of the table this time, “this kind of violence, a burglar would have never gone so far. Never,” her head tilted to the side, and she gave him a compassionate look. It was fabricated, but she could make it look real. “You know, if you confess, I might be able to keep Winston out of jail.”

The accusations didn’t get any lighter from there. She was going full force now, trying to tear down every little piece of his made up alibi. Shred by shred. He knew her strategy. She was hurling everything she had at him quickly and brutally. She wanted him to break. To go off into a rage or cower into a confession. But he couldn’t do that. Not for Winston’s sake. Or any of his other friends. Orion still had good to do. “It’s not convenient. I turned twenty one. I’ve never been a drinker. I wanted to celebrate. It didn’t take much for me to get tipsy.” Rio’s voice was shaking through his words, but he had to remain calm and level headed. “I didn’t go to the hospital because it wasn’t that bad. I just twisted it. You know from my file that my former job burned down. I don’t have medical insurance.” He raised both hands and waved them around, “If I had broken it, it would still be injured.” He had broken it actually, but hunter healing provided a pretty reliable excuse there.

“Please,” Orion pleaded with the officer. It felt wrong, lying like this. Especially to someone who seemed to have no sympathy. She didn’t believe him. But if she knew the truth, would she still be doing this? It had been self defense, right? “Fine! Okay, check. Because I don’t know what happened.” How did he get out of this? How did he gain any amount of sympathy or traction if Winston’s own testimony didn’t count for anything in the detective’s eyes. Rio wasn’t sure if the tears in his eyes were on purpose or not, but soon they stung and Rio found himself wiping his sleeves across his face. “Winston didn’t do anything because he’s not covering for me. My parents were bad people. They were awful human beings. They did horrible things to other people and horrible things to me. I hated them, but I was terrified of them. When I left my parent’s house I never wanted to go back. And I didn’t. I couldn’t have done this to them because I’m not like them.”

“If you had twisted it, it wouldn’t have miraculously gotten better either,” Agatha replied, not impressed for one second. Something just did not add up. “You are the one who told me that you hurt your wrist,” she retorted. “And yet, as it appears, it’s neither broken, nor does it look like it was ever injured,” her eyes narrowed and she leaned back in her chair. “You know, if you’re going to lie to me, you could at least try to make those believable.” Shaking her head lightly, the small smile at the corner of her mouth oozing with mockery and disappointment, the detective sighed. “I suppose we’ll have to wait for forensics to tell me what’s under your mother’s nails,” they did not have much to work on, this much was true, but everything pointed to him. Estranged, with a grudge against them, and left without ressources, unlike his sister.

“You know, it would be easier if you confessed,” she explained, her expression changing to that of a scolding professor. His tears did not make her budge, although she hardly had a heart of stone. But in times like those, she knew better than to show any sympathy. Perhaps he hated his parents, and they seemed like they were awful people, but murder was murder, no matter the motive. “To other people?” This much intrigued her, as she still wondered what that terrordome they had found was for. “What were they doing to people? To you?” Once again, her eyes narrowed at something he said. There were some that she could use against him later, but for now, his parents were what she wanted to know more about. “You’re not like them? What do you mean? Who were they? What did they do, Orion? I can only help you if you help me.”

“I did twist it. But it’s fine now I mean- it must not have been that bad. I wore a brace for a week or two you can probably ask people about it or something I don’t know.” The detective was getting to Orion. He knew that and she definitely knew that. If she knew anything about Rio she would know that he would have acted this way whether he had killed his parents or not. He never did well under pressure from authority figures. He barely did well in general. “I’m not lying.” At the core, he had hurt his wrist. That part was true at least. Though the wound had been far worse than a normal twist. He still remembered how ruthlessly his mom had snapped it. But he couldn’t explain away how quickly a broken wrist had returned to normal for him.

“I can’t confess anything because I didn’t murder them!” Again, technically it wasn’t a complete lie. Orion had only finished the job for one of his parents. If he could keep tiptoeing around the facts even he might start believing the fallacy. He just knew that if the detective knew the entire situation, she wouldn’t consider him any more guilty than he considered himself for what he had done. But how did he begin to explain that without it looking like he had made everything up?

But then, the conversation seemed to shift. Suddenly the accusations weren’t flying at home. Instead they were focused on his parents instead. This was something he could work with. After all these years staying silent and terrified because of them, maybe now he could do something to help the families that were ruined because of the Quinn’s. He couldn’t give them their lives back. Unfortunately, he could never fix those wounds. But if he could help get some closure it was better than nothing. “My parents were not good people. I don’t- I don’t know everything they’ve done. But they were scary.” In a decision that he hoped would prove his point, he grabbed at his hoodie and pulled the sleeves up, showing off the scars that riddles his arms. “If you found the basement… well then you saw a bit for yourself. That was my dad’s. He hurt people down there.” Tortured and killed them. All while he worked at the hospital fooling everyone in town. “I was terrified of them. I have been my entire life. Too terrified to try to stop them and way too terrified to go back to that house after I had already escaped once.”

“Huh uh,” it would not be hard to get a doctor to have a look at that arm and tell her whether or not that kid was full of shit. And so, she did not push it further. Rather than to repeat herself, insist, over and over again, the detective crossed her arms, and remained silent, looking at the boy curiously. What could he be hiding from her? He was nervous, but that didn't necessarily mean much. Agatha knew that if she wasn’t a police officer herself, she would be one of these people who were scared of exiting the store without buying anything because how suspicious was that?! “About which part?” Perhaps there were some things that were true in what he was telling her. A good lie had to at least include bits of truth, after all. Still she had this feeling that there was something fishy going on here.

“Really? You can’t confess anything?�� No one was that innocent. For instance, Agatha had once taken a toffee at the bakery back when she was 6 years old. Then the guilt gnawed at her from the inside, and it only took a few hours before she confessed her crime to her mother, who after bursting into laughter, took the young burglar to apologize to the owners of the shop. “Are you going to claim that you’ve never ever done anything illegal in your life? No one is that perfect,” with a sigh, she leaned back in her chair and grabbed her cup of coffee. “Oh well, if you like to tell yourself that,” she gave him a shrug and looked away from him, leaving him alone with his lies and deceptions. Without an audience to convince, perhaps would he stop threading so carefully.

“You will have to do better than that. Scary is… a broad term,” and in White Crest scary was just the most imprecise way to describe something. Still, from the scars on his arms, she understood immediately what scary entailed here. Her thoughts went to the sister. She wondered if the Quinns had been as cruel with their second child, considering how well the other kid seemed to be doing at life. “Alright,” she stood up from her chair, glancing at the camera in the corner then back at him. “I’m going to come back in a couple minutes, I need to make a quick phone call,” if what Orion Quinn was saying was true, then she might have just put her hands on the man responsible for the disappearance of too many people in town. Or at least, one of the people responsible. As effective as she guessed a surgeon to be, there were too many people disappearing in White Crest for him to be behind them all.

“No, I mean of course not.” Orion sighed. It didn’t feel like there was a good way to answer now. The detective had effectively backed him into a corner. No matter what he said, there was no answer he could give that wouldn’t immediately be tackled and dismembered. At this point he wasn’t even sure he could confess appropriately without having the actual truth undone. “I’m not infallible. I’m not trying to claim that. I don’t- I don’t know what answer you want from me. I get nervous around authority figures. Or like, anyone that raises their voice toward me.” Rio was so stressed he couldn’t even think of any examples of laws he had broken besides murder. But he was sure they existed. It was against the law to step out of a place while it was in the air in Maine, clearly they had to have a ton of other stupid laws that Rio broke without even knowing. But his brain might as well have been made up of noodles at the moment for as well as it was critically thinking.

He was getting somewhere now. He just needed to figure out exactly what he wanted to do with it. “I don’t know everything. But they’ve hurt people. Killed them even, I think. But I think there’s more at my house than you originally found. My parents weren’t dumb. The basement looks bad, but I guarantee it’s even worse. There’s got to be more proof there somewhere. Just a matter of finding it.” The detective left shortly after that, abandoning Rio to the interrogation room by himself. From the corner of his eye, Rio spotted the camera. The idea of being watched always made Rio nervous, but this time he barely paid it any mind. He leaned back in the uncomfortable metal chair and looked at the ceiling. He was barely keeping it together, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could go. But he couldn’t crack. He wouldn’t crack.

#wickedswriting #chatzy #para #para orion #confess #death mention tw #child abuse mention tw #// all is fine

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dammitadolfnomorecake · 4 years

Text

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt.50

Lance slept solidly for the first night in a week, waking to find Keith spooned around him, he still couldn’t believe his boyfriend had shown up exactly when he needed him. Naturally, he felt bad for it. Keith was always having to support him and it’d be nice if it was on the other foot for a change. The most he’d been hoping for today was lunch with Keith, and a chance to breathe a little easier thanks to distraction. Instead Keith was actually here, in his bed, snoring his head off as he held him up against him. It’d been such a long month. There were so many things he wanted to say to Keith in person that really sucked because he couldn’t. He’d learned a little in their group chat, and in their private chat, the number of messages between them would alarm some people, but Keith... he’d always reply. Maybe not right away, but when he could and fuck if it didn’t make him feel special.

Basking in being held, he wanted things to stay this way. He wanted Keith to stay. He couldn’t push those feelings onto Keith so he’d enjoy what time they did have together. Keith hadn’t had a great childhood, but he’d already known that. When Keith told him to ask, he’d wanted to, but his boyfriend was exhausted. He knew Keith would tell him, if he asked, but he didn’t want to make him feel obligated to over share. Things like falling in love was something he didn’t think he’d ever have or deserve, no matter what everyone else said. Keith made it so damn easy to fall. He was the strong silent type, not quick to trust, just like him, so he got that Lance needed thing to go slowly between them. Now if his brain could get the same message then that’d be great. Pidge was always teasing him about how much he talked about Keith. He didn’t mean to, but word vomit seemed to happen each time he thought about his boyfriend. He couldn’t help but wonder what Keith was doing. If he was safe or if he was on some secret mission to save the day. Keith didn’t know that Lance kept up his sparring with Matt. He never wanted to put Keith in the position where he was forced to protect him.

The full moon had been absolutely crazy. All three days went out the window. Matt and Rieva had gone at it hard enough that he and Curtis had to leave the house. Both werewolves a mess of hormones and lust. Matt had made a pass at him and Rieva had then thrown him into the stairs for it. His own heat came, so he and Curtis spent the night parked up in the middle of nowhere. Lance trying to sleep and ignore how damn embarrassed he was, Curtis having let his mouth get away from him over werewolves mating, but he’d meant well. Next full moon they were going to be prepared and stay in Platt.

Letting out a snore loud enough to wake himself, Lance couldn’t help but laugh at Keith, carefully wriggling in his hold to lay on his back as his boyfriend blinked in confusion, before a dopey smile came to his lips. Lance couldn’t help but kiss him, his own smile just as wide. He’d missed this. Keith’s morning breath might rival paint stripper in potency, but that didn’t matter. Sharing several deep kisses, Lance hummed happily as he broke them, Keith still looking confused, and ridiculous with his bed head

“Mmm... what was that for?”

“For you. For being here. For being a great boyfriend”

Keith scrunched his nose up, Lance finding himself laughing again

“Oh, babe. You don’t do well in the morning”

“Nmhm... good morning”

“Good morning”

As Keith started to doze back off, Lance heard footsteps on the stairs, his bedroom door flung violently open as the pair of them were rushed by Hunk and Pidge

“I knew it! You two dirty rotten liars!”

Whatever might have been happening under the blankets didn’t stop Pidge and Hunk. Climbing under the covers, Pidge hugged him as Hunk got in behind Keith, the pair essentially sandwiching them in. Keith looked even more confused, but didn’t try to argue his way out of things

“Good morning to you too”

Pidge pressed a very wet kiss to his cheek, Lance wrinkling his nose up at her, he knew what was coming

“Why didn’t you tell me you two were dating?! And you, I know you think you’ve got immunity because you’re knew to the group, but you’ve been totally hiding this you jerk”

Keith groaned at Pidge, Lance laughing as his boyfriend closed his eyes again, hand digging just that little more into Lance’s side

“Be gentle. He doesn’t do mornings”

“Nope. You kept this from us”

“Fiiiine. You’ve sprung us. I’m dating Keith”

“No shit. How could you not tell meeeeeeeee?”

“Because it’s new. Since when are you awake this early?”

“Since I didn’t go to bed, obviously”

Hunk let out a heavy sigh

“She came and woke me up. Apparently if she’s awake, we’re awake... We thought we’d grab breakfast at Sal’s”

“Sal’s?”

Keith’s sleepiness was adorable. He’d probably never been woken up like this. It get good though. The four of them all happy in their own ways

“Where we got pizza from that time”

“Ah...”

Keith didn’t remember

“Yep. So you two losers need to get up”

“We were... we were about to get up, in more ways than one”

“Ewwww! No! Don’t do that to me! Keith how can you let him lead you astray!?”

“He’s fine...”

Lance leaned in to kiss Keith’s forehead, Pidge making a faked gagging noise

“Oh god. They’re gross. Hunk, our friends are being gross”

Hunk hummed, his chin resting on Keith’s shoulder like it was perfectly natural

“I don’t think they’re being that gross”

“That’s because you have Shay. Ugh. I totally have to get out of here before you two ruin my appetite. I expect you downstairs in 10 minutes, or Hunk’s coming back up to get you”

“Why me? No offence...”

“Because I’m too young and innocent. You two owe me the biggest explanation”

“We’ll explain... provided you get you of my bed before I have to kiss you”

Lance pursed his lips, Pidge making a show of flying back out from under the covers

“10 minutes! Hunk, let’s gooooo”

As quickly as they’d appeared, the pair had left. Keith letting out a long groan as he moved his arm up to drape it around Lance’s shoulder

“What was that?”

“That was their way of saying they missed you”

“It was so loud”

“Do you really expect anything else?”

“No... I don’t wanna move”

“I know, but I’ll treat you to breakfast”

“Nah, I’ll pay”

“Or, I could pay”

“Nope. I’m paying”

“Babe, I’m pretty sure you just did. On the plus side, we can be that disgusting couple now”

“The one where we have sex?”

Lance laughed

“Not quite. The one where we can cuddle in front of them”

“Mmm... that’s true. I like that one...”

Lance’s heart swelled with affection. Keith was just too cute

“Me too. Now up we get. Shower, teeth, clothes, coffee”

“Coffee?”

That got Keith’s attention, Lance would never be so mean to deprive Keith of his coffee

“As if I wouldn’t let you have your coffee”

“Best boyfriend like ever”

“I know”

It was decided they’d all go for breakfast at Sal’s. Shiro would come back and spend the day with the others while Keith and Lance went to Platt. Lance had already pushed his luck for that morning finding the blood bag he’d went to bed with under the bed. He hadn’t forgotten it, a vampire never forgets, but it had slipped his mind. The near disaster would have meant an explanation he wasn’t sure he had. Keith kicking himself for not putting it away, even though it wasn’t his fault. Now the evidence had been disposed of, and a fresh bag sat under the passenger seat, waiting until he’d finished his human breakfast.

Piling into Sal’s, Lance could how Pidge wanted to announce Lance was dating Keith. Only the crowd there had tourists and she was forced to keep her “enthusiasm” inwards. That didn’t mean they were off the hook though. Despite the small booth size, she squashed herself in next to Lance, who’d let Keith in so he could take the corner seat and escape having to sit next to her. Yeah. He had manners. He also didn’t want Keith having Pidge hanging off him as she started her interrogations. Hunk solved the small space problem by borrowing two chairs, for him and Shiro, as Matt, Rieva and Curtis smooshed in on the opposite bench.

Lance had to give her credit, it took her all of 10 seconds before she started

“What are you intentions with my brother?”

Matt paused as he grabbed a menu, cocking his head. Lance explaining

“She means Keith”

“Oh, that brother... as in Keith’s intentions with you”

Lance nodded, Pidge nearly internally imploding. His ear copping the yell directed at Matt

“You knew?! Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“Not my business”

Lance was grateful to Matt. Sure. He was a mangy mutt and a stranger, but he was so much like Pidge that Lance couldn’t dislike him. He could have castrated him for pissing on his grave soil, but that wouldn’t have been fair on Rieva, whom he also liked. Rieva appreciated a good skin care regime. She was likeable, and knew not to take anything about his drooling over her floor less skin as flirting. She was also level headed and did a great job of keeping Matt under control. He didn’t pry on her life, and she didn’t pry when he’d wake up screaming the house down. Her attitude was very much “shit happens”, and if it wasn’t happening to her than everything was all good. She also loved reading, tolerated him and Curtis blubbering over rom-coms, and was already looking at finding work in town after declining an inviting from Pidge. She was great with Pidge too, able to steer the conversation away from the possible existence of werewolves and vampires. Her biggest plus was her “fist of love” that came out when Curtis and Matt didn’t clean up after themselves.

“How could you say that? He’s my brother from another mother, which means he’s you brother too!”

Matt shrugged at Pidge

“Maybe you’re not the super sleuth you thought you were?”

“I’ll fight you. He said they weren’t”

“He is me. And we weren’t”

“Mhmm. And how long has this secret trist been going on?”

“Just over a month... about a week before Keith and Shiro left”

“Lance!”

Lance cringed. She was so damn loud.

“Keep it down, you ferals!”

Now she’d set Sal off. Hunk looking worried as he apologised, before scolding Pidge

“Sorry, Sal! You’re going to get us banned from here”

“Puh-lease. Sal loves us. And why aren’t you telling them off. They lied to us!”

Lance felt the guilt of the lie in the base of his stomach. That wasn’t the only one...

“Uh... um...”

Hunk scratched the back of his head. Groaning, Pidge slumped over the booth table

“You knew?”

“I had a feeling... We both noticed how much Lance talks about Keith”

Lance blushed. Okay. He got it. He liked his boyfriend too much. But in his defence he bragged about Pidge and Hunk all the time. Keith leaned forward, to talk past him

“We were taking it slow... can you stop yelling? I need coffee for this shit”

“I don’t want to stop yelling, I want answers. Like who asked who out? Your both awkward as fuck”

Matt snorted, Lance kicked him under the table. Supernatural eavesdropping didn’t count. Lance picked a menu, using it to smack Pidge in the face

“We talked about it and decided to see where it went. Now stop pestering him. He’s only had one coffee today”

“But Laaaaaaaance, you’re dating. You never date. I can’t remember the last time you went on a date... Let me have this”

Lance smacked Pidge in the face with the menu again

“Not until Keith has had another coffee. You’re torturing him”

“You both deserve it. How did I not know?”

“Because I didn’t want to make things hard or complicated for him. He’s barely known us for like 2 months now. He’s not used to your crazy”

Pidge snatched the menu off him, opening it despite Lance knowing she was going to order the pancakes. She almost always did

“He’s fiiiiine. Now, can we please go back to where Keith explains his intentions with you?”

“Um... to date him... and stuff?”

Lance hung his head. Keith was out of his depth with Pidge

“And?”

“And what?”

“And... I don’t know. You’re the one who’s all “date him and stuff””

“I don’t want to hurt him, if that’s what you mean”

“Good. I will hack every media device you own if you do. He’s my brother. And if hurts you, I swear I’ll kick his arse”

If the world could open up and swallow him right now, that’s be perfect. Keith was flustered, Lance didn’t know what to say. And Shiro had the nerve to be smiling at the pair of them

“Pidge, you’re embarrassing me. Look, yeah, we’re dating and we’re taking things slow as we get to know each other. Miriam likes Keith. She knows about Keith. Now you know about Keith. Can we please talk about this without making it awkward”

“It’s only awkward if you pop a boner”

Why god? Why did he love this gremlin so?

“Pidge!”

“I’m just saying”

“No more saying! Sal, can we please order before I die of embarrassment in your booth?!”

Sal yelled back at his question

“Hey, no dying. I’ve got enough to clean up in this place without hiding a body! Pancakes for everyone. I know the drill!”

“And 6 coffees with milk, one with soy, and tea!”

“Drink coffee like a normal bum, you weirdo!”

Everyone was ganging up on him. Fuck it. Letting himself flop against Keith, Keith wrapped his arm around his shoulders

“Keith, please forgive our heathen friends and don’t judge me too harshly”

“The judgment train left a long time ago”

Lance groaned

“Not you, too!”

“Sorry. Of course I won’t judge you because Matt can’t control his sister”

Lance stifled a laugh, happy Keith was alright with everything. Matt raising his hands

“Man, I tried. Some beasts come from hell itself. One Halloween she wanted to dress up as “Satan’s sweaty arsehole”. Feel free to use it against her. I told to her to dress in brown and go as the shit she is”

Pidge groaned at her brother

“Don’t talk about young Pidge. She made a lot of mistakes”

Matt raised an eyebrow

“You were 17. Mum would have grounded you for life if she could have”

That just made it funnier. Lance got the distinct feeling he’d been too much of an old man at dinner, and talked above his age. Pidge’s mum, Colleen, was incredibly learned. Hunk mentioned he was constantly cold, Colleen then giving him a suggestion in herbal medicine that’d help with his circulation. Thank God they’d survived that night... because Colleen honestly scared him. It was like she knew... and like she was compelling him to tell her more. Never again... or maybe when he didn’t have a million other things to deal with, or a frightening paranoia of turning into a bat mid soufflé.

“Keith was too cool to go Halloweening with his brother”

Keith tensed, shooting Shiro a glare

“Don’t you dare”

Pidge said the same thing Lance was going to, maybe not the same way, but now he had to know

“Ooooh! Now you’re obligated to tell”

“Well... Keith was too cool. My partner and I dressed up, ready to scare the kids. So when a group of trick-or-treaters came to the door, he gave them all an apple and told them to fuck off. Then ate the whole bowl of candy as he downed a bottle of tequila. Threw up all over my partner, stripped down to his boxers and tried to jump off the balcony because he was mothman, and mothman is very real”

Lance snorted with laughter, he attempted, poorly, to hide it, yet couldn’t help himself

“Oh, Keith. That’s like... terrible”

His boyfriend was blushing hard

“Fuck off. Like you don’t have embarrassing Halloween stories”

“He chased a cat six blocks, while dressed as a vampire because he wanted to pat the kitty, does that count?”

Now Hunk was betraying him?! Game on

“What about you? Don’t think I’ve forgotten our first year of college at that party. Yeah, you dressed up as mummy, then started trying to clean the kitchen, while drunk, and somehow managed to set your hand on fire”

Hunk worried his pointer fingers together, Pidge was laughing so hard she was crying. His ray of sunshine mumbling

“That wasn’t my fault... Who disrespects a kitchen like that?”

Keith was obviously pissed at his brother

“Yeah, well, Shiro got drunk at a work party and had sex not so quietly while dressed as werewolf, in his office. He howled... it wasn’t fun”

Shiro looked less than amused

“How did you even know about that?”

“James”

“That little fucker... I mean... fuck. Why didn’t you tell me?”

Lance was dying to ask who James was, but the way Keith said his name stopped him. His stomach doing a hard flip, like he was jealous or something

“Because I hoped the memory would fuck off and die in a corner. You brought this on yourself. Mothman for life”

Pidge reached out, the pair first bumping. Again, Lance was jealous or anything. He just didn’t have the whole mothman thing that he now knew Keith had

“Still... Fuck... I’m glad we don’t have to go back there”

“Amen to that”

Pidge wiped her eyes

“Who knew finance could be so interesting. What about you, Curtis? Any funny stories about Lance to share?”

“There was that one time we had to leave the house because people were having sex too loudly”

Matt and Rieva both blushed. Good. But kind of not. They were only doing what their egos told them... Pidge managed to bring the conversation

“What about Lance and Keith? Any embarrassing stories about those two?”

God. Yes. Them trying to work their shit out... Curtis was struggling not to say. Lance caught the change in Shiro’s body language

“Now, now. I’m sure there’s plenty of time to embarrass them”

Curtis had to say something. His stupid curse wouldn’t let him keep quite

“Last time Keith was here he’d been drinking milk. Lance was worried about him”

Pidge blew a raspberry

“That doesn’t count. He can’t help that, so that’s not cool. I bet you two are secretly gross and talk about feelings and shit”

That’s why he loved his gremlin

“Yep. Took us weeks to figure out shit out... but, he’s a good guy for a brooding emo”

When Keith dropped a kiss on top of his head, Lance swore he’d died and gone to heaven. He didn’t think Keith, and it wasn’t even a requested display of affection. This was better than lunch. This was the friends he called family being together. He couldn’t be happier... even if it wouldn’t last.

#once bitten twice stupid #oncebittentwicestupid #ashratherose

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worryinglyinnocent · 4 years

Text

Fic: The Zombie Outbreak Response Unit

AU-gust Day Five: Post-Apocalypse AU Fandom: Once Upon A Time Pairing: Rumbelle

Rated: T

Summary: Caught up in the middle of an unexpected zombie apocalypse, Belle is rescued by an elite if unusual team: the Zombie Outbreak Response Unit. She quickly becomes close to their leader, the enigmatic Mr Gold.

Note: This is more ‘during-apocalypse’ than ‘post-apocalypse’ but enjoy nonetheless!

===

The Zombie Outbreak Response Unit

When Belle had first seen the advert in the local paper, she had not thought anything of it. She had assumed that someone had put it there for a dare or a prank, and she had left it alone.

When it appeared there again for the second week running, she took notice of it, clipping it out and storing it in her purse. She wasn’t sure why, because she still had no idea why she would ever use the service that was being advertised, but something about its persistence made her wonder. Better safe than sorry, after all.

Now, three weeks later, with the ad having appeared in every edition of the paper since, she knew exactly why she had kept it and exactly why it was there in the first place.

There had been reports on the news of strange occurrences for the past few days, but nothing weird could ever happen in a town as quiet and sleepy as Storybrooke, right? Mad, apocalyptic nightmares like, for example, zombie outbreaks, always started in big cities where they could spread quickly and easily.

Well, that was what Belle had thought until she had woken up this morning and started going about her daily life to realise that the rest of the town had been turned into the flesh-craving undead, and a crowd of them was now converging on the library that she lived above.

Never had she been so happy to have clipped out a newspaper ad on a hunch, as she sat huddled in her flat, looking at the barricaded door and listening to the moaning of the horde that was making its way ever closer, clutching at her phone in one hand and the cricket bat that her mother had insisted on her keeping under her bed in the other. The ad was on the table beside her, and it was with shaking fingers that she dialled the number. It couldn’t be a hoax or a prank, not when she really needed it.

In the event of being caught in a zombie apocalypse, call your local ZOMBIE OUTBREAK RESPONSE UNIT immediately. Our highly trained professionals are on call 24 hours a day to assist you.

The call was answered on the first ring.

“Zombie Outbreak Response Unit for Storybrooke and environs. My name is Emma. Are you in immediate danger from zombies?”

For a moment, Belle was completely struck dumb, amazed that it had worked.

“Hello, are you in immediate danger?”

“No,” she said eventually. “No, I’m barricaded in my apartment.”

“Ok. How many people in the property?”

“Just me.”

“Do you suffer from any medical conditions?”

“No.” Just overwhelming fear.

“We’re sending a team to your location. I’ll stay on the phone with you until they arrive. How easy is it for you to exit your property?”

“Well, I’ve got zombies coming up the front steps and up the fire escape… I guess I could jump out of the window.”

“No jumping will be required although we will probably get you out that way. Can you describe the zombies, are they fast or slow moving? Do they have the power of speech?”

The questions continued in this vein for a little while until Belle heard the rumbling of a large vehicle coming up the main street and Emma instructed her to open a window if it was safe to do so.

Opening her bedroom window, Belle had to gawp at the sight of a heavily armoured black van inching its way down the street, very slowly mowing down zombies as it went. At last it parked up below her, and a team of what appeared to be riot police in full SWAT gear jumped out of the back, setting up a defensive perimeter as one of their number extended a ladder up to Belle’s window and began to climb up.

“Hi!” The voice was female and remarkably chirpy considering the circumstances. “You must be Belle. I’m Ruby. Let’s get you out of here.”

Still shaking with fear and adrenaline, Belle let Ruby help her down the ladder and bundle her into the back of the van with the rest of her colleagues. For a very frightening few moments, Belle wondered if they were in fact government agents who, trying to cover up the fact that there had been a zombie outbreak in her town, were about to kill her and dispose of the evidence. Rationally, they probably would have just let her be eaten by zombies. Or firebombed the entire town with her still in it.

“Do you work for the government?” she hedged to Ruby.

“God no.” Ruby shook her head so vehemently that Belle thought her goggles would fly off. “No, we very much do not work for the government. They are absolutely not interested in saving people from zombie outbreaks. I’m so glad that you called us. We’d picked up some chatter that Storybrooke had been hit and we hoped that there were some survivors, and that they’d seen the ad and would call us before…”

A huge explosion rocked the van.

“…before the government did that,” Ruby finished.

Belle just sat in mute horror. There were no windows in the back of the van, but she knew that her theory about the town being firebombed to wipe out the evidence of the outbreak had just come terribly true.

There were several questions that Belle wanted to ask, ‘where are we going?’ being chief among them, but she couldn’t make her mouth form around the words. The masked figure sitting on the other side of her patted her shoulder awkwardly. It would probably have been less awkward had he not been armed to the teeth with more anti-zombie implements than Belle could name.

“It’s all right,” he said. “It’s always a shock when it happens. We’ve all been through it.”

The rest of the journey was made in silence, and when the van stopped and the doors opened again, Belle found herself in the middle of what appeared to be a disused aircraft hangar, filled with crates stamped ZORU in large letters. She pinched herself, but it was definitely not a dream. She had just been saved from the zombie apocalypse by what appeared to be a private army.

“What… How…” She looked around her new surroundings in disbelief.

“We’ll explain everything later,” Ruby said. “There are a few things you have to do first though.”

The few things turned out to be a decontamination shower and a full medical exam from a cheerful little nurse in heavy-duty hazmat gear named Astrid, who took off her helmet and gave her a huge hug after proclaiming her not to be infected. Having been sourced some clothes that were not a hospital gown, Belle emerged from the medical room into the Zombie Outbreak Response Unit headquarters.

“Hi!”

She jumped out of her skin at the voice, turning to see a tall woman with bright red streaks in her hair.

“It’s Ruby,” she said, holding out a hand. “Now that we’re not in quite such life-threatening circumstances, I think introductions are in order.” She sighed. “It’s quite rare for us to find survivors. Hardly anyone takes our adverts seriously and I can’t say I blame them. Zombies aren’t exactly an everyday occurrence for most people and since the government just blows them all up every time, no one really knows the danger.”

Ruby led her down a corridor into what was obviously the nerve centre of the unit. They were evidently a rather small outfit, but they were meticulously fitted out. A large table was set up in the centre of the room, and there was a control desk with several screens and phone at one end, manned by a young blonde woman in earphones.

“Everyone, this is Belle, Belle, this is, well… everyone.”

Belle looked around the table. The five others she assumed were the rest of the team who had rescued her with Ruby. The blonde at the control desk waved distractedly over her shoulder, that must be Emma who’d taken her call. Astrid rushed into the room and took a seat beside the older man at the head of the table. He had greying hair and dark eyes, and a cane rested on the arm of his chair.

“Mulan, Neal, Jeff, David and Mary Margaret. You’ve met Astrid, you’ve spoken to Emma, and this is Mr Gold, the mastermind of the entire operation.”

The older man held out a hand, which Belle shook before taking the vacant seat that Ruby waved her into. “Welcome to the Unit, Belle. We may only be small, but we do what we can.”

Emma took off her headphones and turned in her wheelie chair; Belle could immediately see why she was the one handling the phones as she rubbed her very pregnant tummy.

“All the government channels are reporting no survivors, we’re in the clear.”

“I have to ask,” Belle began, “what happens to me now?”

“Well, you’ve got a choice,” Gold said. “We can arrange for you to travel to a safe colony for survivors that’s been set up in Seattle, or you can stay here and become part of the unit.”

“We need as much help as we can get.” Jeff was the one to speak, and Belle recognised his voice as the man who’d spoken to her in the van. “It’s up to you, of course.”

“You’re welcome to stay for a few days whilst you make your mind up.” Astrid smiled. “I love it when we have visitors. I need to bake! This is a situation that calls for cupcakes.”

Jeff shook his head with a sigh of mock despair. “Only Astrid could be concerned with frosting and sprinkles in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, but that’s what we love about her.”

Belle didn’t pay much attention to the banter as the unit debriefed from their excursion to rescue her. She couldn’t exactly go back to the life that she’d led before; it was a smoking ruin in the middle of the Maine coastline. Getting as far away as possible sounded like a very inviting prospect, and she couldn’t deny that Seattle was certainly very far away. On the other hand, she couldn’t help wanting to know more about the people whom providence had thrown her in with here.

It took her a moment to realise that the talk had stopped, and everyone was filing out of the room.

“Come on, Belle.” Ruby was standing by the door, waiting for her. “I’ll give you the tour.”

There wasn’t a lot to be seen on the tour, really. The place was a large converted barn, the main area housing the van and all the myriad zombie fighting equipment, and the rest of the building partitioned off into living space.

“You’ll be bunking with Astrid whilst you make your decision,” Ruby explained, showing her into a small room with two beds. One half of the room was a riot of pink and stuffed animals and twinkling fairy lights, and it made Belle smile to see it. Even though it wasn’t her style at all, it was good to see that there was fun and life and personality in the otherwise purely functional building.

All the same, Belle was still having trouble believing that all this was happening and that the zombie apocalypse was underway, much less that she was in the headquarters of the only people who cared about rescuing their fellow humans from said apocalypse, and indeed, she was having a bit of trouble believing that such people even existed in the first place.

“How did this place even come to be?” she asked, once they were back in the main living area. Neal and Emma were there too, and it was clear that they were together. It was nice to see love blooming in adversity.

“Well, you’d have to ask Gold what possessed him to start prepping for the zombie apocalypse. He’s the one who got it off the ground, well, him and Neal. Father-son zombie hunter team.”

“I honestly never thought I’d see the day when Dad’s zombie apocalypse obsession paid off,” Neal said, “but I’m very glad that it did.”

“Anyway,” Ruby continued, “he spent years slowly building up an arsenal and now we’re here today. Apart from Gold, Neal, and Emma, we all came here in the same way as you did – we sensibly called the helpline number and got ourselves rescued.”

“Oh.” It saddened Belle to think that so many of them had lost everything.

“It’s ok.” Ruby patted her shoulder as if she could tell what Belle was thinking. “It’s not all bleak. My granny got out with me; she’s in the safe zone now with Jeff’s daughter and Mulan’s uncle. Sometimes we manage to save quite a few households. There are scientists working in Seattle looking at the causes and triggers and identifying all the different strains of zombie-ism. We’re getting more informed and better at fighting them every day, and we’re all certain that there’s a cure out there somewhere.” She paused. “I know it feels wrong to be positive about it all, and you’re probably feeling about as far from positive as possible right now considering that your home just went up in smoke, but I promise that there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

Belle was very grateful for Ruby’s hug.

Two days later, Belle made the decision to stay.

She was in the control room when it happened. Gold had been telling her the next chapter in the tale of what made him start the response unit. He’d been happy to tell her when she had asked, but it was a long story, and he was having to give it in instalments in amongst all of his strategic planning and his many phone calls with the leaders of the other units around the country. They hadn’t even got to the part of the story which involved the ZORU branching out into different states yet.

Neal was at the monitoring desk this time, and everything had been nice and quiet until an alarm started going off on one of his screens.

“We’ve got a new cluster. Newport this time.”

Belle went over and peered over his shoulder at the scrolling lines of government and web chatter as Gold settled into the seat beside him and began typing. Everything was talking about a zombie outbreak in Newport. Belle didn’t want to think about how they had access to all this information, but she couldn’t deny that she was glad they did.

“Everyone stand by, we have a new active cluster.” Neal’s voice echoed through the PA system around the building and Belle heard running footsteps as the others raced to their stations. Neal left Gold in charge of the comms as he went to get ready himself.

“We won’t go out unless we get a call,” Gold explained as he continued to monitor the situation. “There’s no point in sending the team out into danger unless we know that there’s a possibility we can save someone.”

It was then that the bright red telephone on the desk began to ring with shrill urgency.

“Zombie Outbreak Response Unit for Storybrooke and environs, my name is Aiden, are you in immediate danger from zombies?”

Belle could only watch in stunned and fearful silence as Gold guided the caller through the same questions that Emma had asked her, at the same time despatching the team and pulling up all kinds of metrics on the computer. On one screen, she could see several camera shots from the van and the team’s body armour as they pounded down the roads towards Newport. Her heart was beating painfully in her mouth at the thought of the danger that they were willingly putting themselves in, and she could only imagine what it must be like for Gold, knowing that his son was going into the fray.

He glanced sideways at her. She had so much admiration for the way he could stay so calm on the phone with the caller, and she had a hugely newfound admiration for Emma, knowing that she had been in just the same nerve-wracking position whilst taking Belle’s own call and watching her boyfriend heading out to save her.

“Ok, we’re here, we can see the survivors.” Neal’s voice came over the internal comms and Gold acknowledged.

“Ok, if you look out of the window you should see the team,” he said to the caller. “Can you confirm to me that you can see them?” He listened to the muffled voice on the other end. “Ok, you’re in safe hands now, I’ll leave you with the team.”

The call ended and Gold could give his full attention to the control screens. Belle watched the camera footage with her hands over her mouth, eyes wide. There were more survivors this time, and Jeff and Ruby were shepherding them towards working vehicles whilst the others covered the exits. She screamed as David was caught by a pair of walkers, his camera going offline.

“David!” Gold was half in and half out of his seat, fingers clutching his cane with white knuckles. “David, report!”

“I’m ok!” David sounded winded, and then Emma saw him getting to his feet on Mary Margaret’s video feed as she ran to help him. “I’m ok, I took them out, but my camera’s shot.”

Gold sank back into his chair with a sigh of relief, but Belle couldn’t release the tension thrumming through her veins until everyone was safely back in the van and they were driving away from the town with the survivors in convoy. Once they were en route, she chanced to take another look at Gold. He was leaning back in his chair, looking satisfied with a job well done, but just as exhausted with fear as she felt.

“Do you get scared when they go out?” she asked.

“Every single time.” He paused. “It does help, having someone else here.”

Belle smiled, her heartrate finally beginning to return to normal, and Gold smiled back. There was something a little shy in the expression, and she had to wonder.

Once the survivors had been brought back to the base and undergone due process, it was decided that they would head straight out to the Seattle safe zone. Three households had been saved, too many people for them to house in the unit headquarters, and there was a general air of jubilation around the place that they had managed to rescue eight people in one go.

Jefferson, who was heading out to Seattle to see his daughter anyway, was going to act as an escort for the long drive, and he came over to Belle.

“If you want to go to Seattle, this is probably the best time to come,” he said.

Belle looked around at the rest of the group who were wishing the survivors well on their way. David and Mary Margaret, Emma and Neal, Mulan and Ruby. Astrid bouncing up and down and around.

And Gold, standing alone, a little apart from the rest, happy at having been able to help save lives and needing no gratitude for it. He caught her eye, tilting his head as if to question. Are you going?

Belle shook her head.

“Thank you, Jeff, but I think I’ll stick around. You’ll need someone to man the phones when Emma goes on maternity leave, after all.”

Jefferson gave her a hug.

“Stay safe,” he whispered to her. “And for what it’s worth, I reckon you’re definitely in with a chance there.”

They both looked over at Gold, who turned away with an embarrassed cough. Belle couldn’t help but laugh.

“Take care of them, Jeff,” she said. “And of yourself, of course. And say hi to Grace for me. Well, she has no idea who I am, so maybe not. You know what I mean.”

“Of course.” He bowed low before going to take his seat in the convoy of cars that would be heading out west. Everyone gathered to wave them off, and Belle found herself going over to Gold at the back of the group.

“So, you’re staying then?”

Belle nodded. “If you’ll have me.”

Gold smiled. “Absolutely. I’m certain that you’ll fit right in. Welcome to the Zombie Outbreak Response Unit, Belle.”

“I still can’t get used to the fact that it exists, let alone the fact that it’s needed.” Belle sighed. It was going to be a strange new life, but one in which, hopefully, she could make a difference to the world. And perhaps to one person in particular.

“I’m glad you’re staying,” Gold said. “I know we haven’t known each other all that long, but I would miss you if you were to leave.”

“I would miss you, too. After all, you still haven’t told me the rest of the unit’s history yet. I couldn’t miss that.”

Gold looked at the rest of the team gathered in the hangar. “We could always resume the tale now if you want. Get away from this lot of rabble rousers.”

Belle laughed at the description. Considering how few of them there were, they were making an inordinate amount of noise. She didn’t mind at all, and she knew that Gold didn’t either. In these times, every little victory ought to be celebrated, and this was more than a little victory.

Still, it would be nice to have some time with Gold without a crisis looming over their heads.

“I’d like that,” she said, and she took his arm when he offered it to her, leading her out of the hangar and into the main living area, settling on the sofa.

He didn’t begin to speak, and for a long time, they both just looked at each other. Belle worried her bottom lip between her teeth. Would it be too forward to just go for it? They’d only known each other for a couple of days, like Gold had said, but Belle knew that there was something there, and there had been something there from practically the first moment that they had spoken to each other properly, and Gold had begun to tell his tale.

She took the plunge, leaning in closer and feeling a huge inward sigh of relief when Gold did the same, meeting her halfway in a soft, tentative kiss.

Belle broke away, looking into his eyes, and on finding only encouragement there, she went back in for another kiss. Gold’s hands came up to cup her face, and she smiled against his mouth.

“I’m so glad that you didn’t go,” Gold breathed once they finally broke apart again. “Thank you for staying.”

Belle pecked her lips to his again. “I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be.”

Maybe it was a little too soon and they were moving a little too fast, but the times they were living in were dangerous, and they had to make the most of all the opportunities they had, just like all the causes for celebration. This was not a time for holding back. This was a time for living.

#rumbelle fic #rumbelle #Belle French #Mr Gold #apocalypse AU #AU-gust #Worry does AU-gust #Fic: The Zombie Outbreak Response Unit

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