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hutahuta · 6 months

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Desparate to get away from a creep that been harassing you, you rush to pavia despite not knowing each other yet saying he is your boyfriend what will he do? Plsss?

P.AGE OO.4 — 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐔𝐌 & NOBILITY : 交 ✦ ⏱

GN ! Reader — <3

this is probably gonna be long, who knows. i'm writing before i even started LMAO <3

edit; i dont like the way i wrote this idk,, maybe i'm getting a little self conscious of my writing and jdskkdkdkd i'm so sorry.. ;;

thank you sweetie, ilysm for requesting (๑´ ˘ `๑)

Running to safety hasn't always been your only option. Mostly because your friends encouraged you to carry weapons for your own safety, especially in these streets where you can competently get snatched, stabbed, mugged or any of the sort. In this era? Please. You think people could afford low quality security cameras, with a high price?

Weak hands trembled as you kept insisting that your time was not worth being spent on someone who was firm on the decision that you must simply travel with them to see the city's night scenery.

It's been at least 15 minutes at most with you trying to brush aside him or trying to speed walk out of the way, hoping he wouldn't go bother someone else but at least spare you the chance to get away.

Infuriating.

Fortunately, you were not the gullible sort. Whether you've encountered this for the first time, or you've experienced such shuddersome and nightmarish situations for god knows how long, it doesn't matter. None of this is fucking okay.

And you knew that.

Loathsome hands traced the outer space around your bare back, and much to your disgust, it was unbearable to not break their hand as of this second. You had to wait, just so you could still walk with said person and hopefully get the chance to outrun them when you see a nearby crowd flocking up to the nearest street.

' Come, I insist. '

' You've ain't got nothin' to worry 'bout. '

' Aren't you being stubborn? This is what I get for being a nice guy.. What's so bad 'bout someone tryna' treat you out? '

The same shit you'd hear time n' time again. It isn't always the easiest, especially when you'd think he'd carry a weapon on him just in case.

Think, be smart.

Ah, up just ahead, a crossroad catered towards the corner of your eye. Your head didn't turn around too quick, but you'd have seen the elderly couple steadily cross the walk just then. Following suit, a flock of crowds parked themselves up just ahead to watch the physical activities boarded up for their enjoyment.

Fuck.. Okay. Pace yourself.. Three, two, -

Before you knew it, you dashed immediately.

Wind blew and slashed against your face as you carried your burning legs as fast as you could. You didn't know what the hell this freak carried on him and you weren't planning on finding out either.

The crowd proved no use, as he could manoeuvre his way around, shouldering past people aggressively with the occasional loud grunt you can surely figure out that it etched from him.

Dammit, alright. It's fine. It's totally fucking fine, right? You couldn't tell where you were going. You crossed and turned at every corner, and just beyond your reach —..

Stood a man near the corner shop that sold the usual cigarettes and loaded beverages. Stuff that you'd only resort to having when your shift at work really sucked.

White to black hair, black sunglasses with a lavender shirt that had intricate patterns, but not interesting enough to pay too much attention to as of this time.

Please, for whatever God is out there. Offer you some strength. Fortunately, he was quick to stop you in your tracks by halting his hand in front of you, like how one would halt a nearby bus to indicate you're about to get on. However, he essentially demanded your entire body be impacted against his hand. Regardless, it made you panic in a hurry but your uneven breathing made it impossible to speak coherent sentences.

Pretty sure if you saw someone crying and running away like your life depended on it, wouldn't you stop by to help? Pavia was a mercenary, and a merciless one at that, but he wasn't entirely soulless.

' Now, where are you running off to in such a hurry? ' He had an accent. A lollipop stuck between his lips. What is it? Cherry? Strawberry?

Words. Just use words.

' Help, please.. Creep. Following. Behind me. ' Behind your uneven breaths, and horrid panting that caused a crack in the tone of your voice, he seemed to understand.

Or, somewhat get it. If it's anything staining this world, it's filth like this random person trying to inflict damage on innocent people like you who are just trying to get by their day. You look innocent to him. Exhausted, but innocent. Like a little lamb fleeing the slaughterhouse.

If it's one thing he hates, it's seeing the poor souls who resemble the innocence he once had. The chance that they could have to flee themselves from trauma, is the chance I believe Pavia would be willing to give. He must despise seeing the fear inside eyes that used to resemble his own when he was tucked away from the rest of society, forced to grumble under nothing but the deafening silence within the basement of his aunt's home after wailing out apologies and horrid voice cracks just to plead for his own freedom.

So. Seeing yours is no different.

Regardless, you do know the impact of you being outside.. especially during the evenings where it's dark and the sky turned into a murky ocean blue haze, gradients shifting darker by the hour and minute..

Gripping onto his shirt, your pleas to beg him to act as someone you might be familiar with, or perhaps even wear the stalker off with claiming that he is your temporary boyfriend, might strike something within Pavia..

Standing still, you rested yourself against his steady arm, holding you in place. Swiftly, he moved you against the wall, whispering a soft 'Then forgive me.' And yet, here were the thudding footsteps of your attacker. With a quiet look on your face, he stepped out of the shadow, amidst his hounds that surrounded his feet by seconds.

You couldn't believe it??

' Problem, amico? ' Resonated that voice of his, something to admire. Glistening under such beautiful moonlight, you could tell how the silver lining had outlined the steel plate of the metal cutting into the familiar shape of a pistol embedded within his pocket.. Huh- Shit— was he dangerous too? You only needed protection, not some bloodied out battle to settle for your freedom?? You're not looking to go to jail this early, anyways.

' I sincerely hope that you aren't getting aquatinted with my.. beloved? Huh? Lest I take that pretty little tie of yours to add into my collection. Divertente~ '

You didn't ask for his name, but your slender hands placed itself on his shoulder, still unable to catch your breath beneath these minutes that were unbearably silent to surpass.

Behind him, your body rested upon his, one hand eagerly coiled warmly against his waist like vines on a old pillar.

The stranger didn't wish to be aquatinted with you in any sort at first, but he was a playful hound of a man. With eyes that looked at you, then back at your stalker. Maybe talking with you a little more after this wouldn't hurt, right?

' You know, amico. ' He approached.

' There is something quite thrilling to have the echoes of thuds of dead bodies fall flat against the surface when you hear that deadly gunshot linger in the back of your head, huh.. You know, my boss tried the same thing. '

And yet, it feared him in some way. Your eyes replicated that of a lost puppy. Those puffy cheeks, reddened and exhausted from running ever so much, oh my.. Something sparked inside of him.

Compared to his gaze, that had his pupils dilated so small, it reflected insanity upon them. He whispered a quiet ; ' I suggest you surrender before it gets ugly? aha.. '

All it took—; was the slow movement of his slender, yet ringed hands to reach into his lower pocket-

And by the second.

They left. You heard grumbled apologies.. and shuffling. But that was mostly it.

The stranger dressed in purple didn't bother to turn to look back around at you to see if you're alright or not, but there was a smirk on his face. A smile on it that he could only turn his head to the side which he could witness your breathing slowly starting to become tolerable; that lollipop twirled itself around his fingers.

Maybe a factor of it played into it because he just saved you, but some part of you could tell a fraction of him enjoyed teasing you with his playful gaze. As if you knew what he were to already say.

The public here avoid trouble but when they see terrible news on the media, they flock together like birds to ready themselves into war. It's nearly impossible to fight against society's norms, but you suspect that's why nobody but him offered such help.

And you were lucky.

Seems like it won't be the only time you'd meet this stranger by the looks of it. He said nothing more than patting your shoulder softly, then moving back inside the building.

Pavia wouldn't be the best at trying to offer comfort but he knows better than anybody else on how events like these tend to fuck you over. The shit people put up with on a daily basis makes him want to spit on lowly people for even thinking they have the right to breathe the same air as you.

Pavia merely reached his hand towards your trembling figure. He seemed to contemplate whether it was a good choice to get to know you, but under these circumstances, that stalker could still be lingering about. What better to do than to have him offered to sit beside you until you feel safe to go on your own again.

After all, maybe it's the safest option..

And who knows? You'll become acquainted with this stranger soon enough with time.

#reverse 1999 #pavia #pavia reverse 1999 #reverse #pavia x reader #paviarev1999 #r99 pavia #reverse 1999 pavia #imsorryifthissucksass #i love you all wwwjwjwj 😞💔💔

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miraculouslbcnreactions · 21 days

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About the Adrienette relationship and how Adrien became the therapist trophy bf… idk if I can explain my thoughts right, but I feel like this is the result of a bigger issue with where the writer’s priorities lie regarding Adrien‘s obstacles?

Adrien‘s issues with his family are kind of not that important, or at least don’t affect him that much. When Gabriel does something shitty like not letting Adrien leave the house, it either gets resolved by the end of the episode or it‘s forgotten about. Gabriel‘s abuse feels to me more like a plot device to remove Adrien from the plot until the akuma shows up than a serious issue that affects Adrien mental being and needs to be resolved with therapy and Gabriel loosing custody over him. Adrien almost never talks bad about his dad, it‘s always „oh he‘s just overprotective of me“ or something. It’s like Adrien doesn’t recognize how crappy Gabe is, which does make sense for an abuse victim, but I don’t feel like the show frames this opinion as wrong.

Meanwhile in his relationship with LB, he takes everything super personal. He acts mean and entitled when she rejects his advances (even though he comes around in the end… only to try again a few episodes later) and he gets very angsty about LB… having more than one superhero friend. I know I sound dismissive, mostly because I though the whole arc sucked, but I do understand that it happened because Adrichat has abandonment issues. It makes sense why he feels that way. And he goes off to her in the s4 finale. So suddenly he can realize when he‘s treated badly in a relationship and talk about it? It‘s not like Lb treated him worse than Gabe, not even close!!

Adrien‘s main source of problems is his relationship with Maribug. This gets resolved in s4 on the Ladynoir side, and then in s5 Adriens biggest goal is resolving the Adrienette side, aka getting with a traumatized Marinette, aka the whole point of the show and probably the writer‘s only true priority. And when Adrien actually has a problem with his dad, it‘s only in the context of Gabe trying to sabotage the relationship, because who cares that he‘s an abusive asshole regardless of Adrien‘s relationship status? We need to save the relationship you guys!!

I guess what I‘m trying to say is that Adrien is the therapist in the relationship because (according to the writers), he doesn‘t really have problems. His only problems are when things are obstacles to his relationship with Marinette, which are her trauma and in the second half of s5 Gabriel being a dick to Mari. Other than that? Nathalie dying was a little important for like two minues, Emilie doesn‘t get brought up by Adrien in s5 at all, Gabriel dying and Adrien literally becoming an orphan is cool. None of these things have any influence on Adrienette, so they don‘t bother him and he doesn‘t need to talk to anyone about it or get therapy.

Love conquers all !!

So, confession time: I often tone Gabriel's abuse down when I write him specifically because of a lot of what you brought up (there's also the fact that it makes for a more compelling story if Gabriel's behavior is actually driven by grief and not just how he's always been, but let's not get into that). I've always considered it glaringly obvious that the writer's never meant for Gabriel to come across anywhere near as controlling and abusive as he's actually written. It really is just a plot device even though there are episodes that would have played far better if Gabriel had been less controlling.

For example, Glaciator would have been a far stronger episode if Adrien chose to not go see his friends in order to wait around for Ladybug because then he'd be super clearly in the wrong for flaking on a commitment and the lesson could be "don't put romance above your friends."

As-is, I have no idea what the moral of that episode is supposed to be because Maribug did nothing wrong outside of being a little rude to the ice cream guy, but Chat Noir also isn't really in the wrong because he was banned from going out as Adrien. There's a solid argument to be made for not wanting to risk punishment by going to a very public location with his friends. In episodes like this, it really felt like Gabriel's controlling, unreasonable nature wasn't being used to develop his character, but as a way to absolve Adrien of blame.

Along similar lines, the Adrigami plot in season five feels less like a thing that was included to make Gabriel feel evil and more like the writers desperately padding things out because Gabriel actually does very little to keep Adrien and Marinette apart. He could have pulled Adrien from school! He could have demanded Nathalie give back Adrien's ring so that his commands stuck! He could have interrupted the video game date and banned Marinette from the house. But he does none of that because he's not actually being controlling as a character thing. He's doing it so that the writers can add cheap drama to the Adrienette plot.

The clearest evidence of this is the wacky season five ending. That's not an ending you give to a person you consider abusive and evil beyond all hope of redemption even though that's arguably who Gabriel was by the end of season five. The writers are either ignorant to just how abusive he actually was or they know that he got pretty bad as the seasons went on, but they didn't want to change their planned ending so we got the ending they wrote when the show had less seasons and they'd done less to make Gabriel abusive.

It's just another case of that inconsistent characterization problem I've discussed before. By letting Gabriel be whatever they needed him to be for a given plot idea to work, they created a monster and made Adrien into a victim, but that's pretty clearly not the dynamic they actually wanted to write, so it all comes across as strange, wacky, and insensitive.

This is getting long, but I'll end by noting that I fully agree on the Maribug stuff. The conflicts they give Chat Noir and Ladybug make me super uncomfortable because they tend to center around her being a bad partner for... not reading his mind. Which is a massive personal pet peeve because so many people do this shit (myself included) and it's wildly unhealthy. Not saying she behaved perfectly or that this isn't an understandable flaw to give a character like Chatdrien, but it is a flaw and the show fails to treat it as such. It especially annoys me because it's a terrible conflict to give two people who are trying to keep the world safe. I've mentioned this before, but a big reason why superhero shows aimed at kids tend to develop both the civilian and superhero sides is so that the civilian side can focus on interpersonal conflicts and learn valuable life lessons, many of which will then be applied on the superhero side. Miraculous really needed to use this tool to help Adrien learn to communicate his very valid feelings. It's just bad writing choice after bad writing choice, adding up to a mess of a show no matter how you look at it.

Quick side note: I have nothing against people writing Gabriel as abusive as the show often makes him. I hope I've made it clear that I fully agree with that take, it's just not the take I like to use in my own stuff because it doesn't suit the kind of stories I enjoy telling. I prefer the happy family broken by Emilie's death route that the show pretty clearly wanted, but failed to write.

#Gabriel deserves better #adrien deserves better #marinette deserves better #ml writing critical #ml writing salt

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prettyiwa · 6 months

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Relationship: Miyuki Kazuya x F!Reader Rating: SFW Content Tags: MLB!Miyuki Kazuya, Interpreter!Reader, Coworkers to Friends to ???, Pining, Previous alcohol consumption, Mild flirting, First kiss, Almost confessions, Slight panic, guilt, & frustration, Adult Kazuya is still awkward, Reader is a little older than Kazuya, Reader takes her job very seriously, Mixed signals at the end. Summary: When Kazuya asked his team with the NPB to be posted, he didn't think he'd end up meeting you again. When time came to choose an interpreter, he chose you without hesitation. Neither of you truly anticipated that feelings would bloom, even with the near constant proximity. Your birthday rolls around and he isn't thinking about his silly little crush until he can't stop thinking about it. Word Count: 4,590

A/N: I wanted to include the entire story for his birthday but NaNoWriMo came along and took up my attention. So I'm sharing an excerpt instead!

And thank you, as always, to my wonderful beta @tyga-lily. I'd still be floundering if not for you ♡

As soon as he steps out into the night, Kazuya’s met with a wall of humid air, thick and warm thanks to the lingering heat from the day. His clothes are already starting to stick to him as he steps further from the house and it won’t be much longer until he starts to feel beads of sweat building at the nape of his neck. When he turns to find you, his movements feel a little loose and everything seems hazy at the edges and he realizes he’s not as sober as he thought he was.

Still, he’s gotta be soberer than you, what, with the drinking games you were dragged into by your college best friend. He’s honestly lost count of how many shots he took from you throughout the night (and however many more he ended up tossing into the plant him when they became too much).

The music inside dies down a bit—probably the work of your brother, the acting adult of the evening—and he tries to listen for you, only to come up empty. No sounds of your footsteps, neither in the street nor along the staircase leading to the beach, leaving him alone with the increasingly loud beating of his heart.

It’s only been a couple of minutes. How far could you have gone? It’s not like you could’ve made it down to the shore in that time. That doesn’t stop his mind from conjuring scenarios in which you fall into the water, unable to get back up. Moving forward, he ends up tripping over that same rock he’s tripped over three times today, feeling that familiar pain shoot from his toe up his leg.

“Dammit!”

“Miyuki?”

The sound of your voice floods him with relief and he turns his head in your direction. The motion makes him dizzy for half a second. “There you are.”

You pop around the corner, confusion almost as palpable as the humidity before it makes way for your wide grin. “Are you okay? Did the rock attack you again?”

He feels a flash of minor annoyance, but he can’t ignore the way your smile pulls at his own lips. “Shut it.”

“It’s been picking on you all day.” You chuckle, coming closer, letting him see the way you bite your tongue and hold it between your teeth to keep yourself from saying much more. “Aha, sorry. I don’t get to tease you like this often.”

“Yeah, sure.” He closes the distance, grip tightening around the jacket he brought for you in case it got cool. “What are you doing around here? I thought you came outside to get some fresh air.”

“I did, but then I remembered that I left you with them and that didn’t seem like a good idea.” You both glance toward the door, lips quirking at the raucous laughter that comes from inside, almost as if to prove your point. “At the very least, you should have someone to…”

You suck air through your teeth, trying to find the words, so he tries supplying them for you.

“Should I have someone to protect me from them?” He likes the sound of your laugh, the way it bounces between you two before settling on his skin.

“I was thinking more along the lines of, ‘you should at least have someone to interpret what they’re saying,’ but sure. Protect works too.” Even when drunk, you’re thinking of him and how to include him. Even when you’re drunk, you’re thinking about working.

“You don’t need to do that. It’s your birthday celebration. You should have fun.”

“I am having fun. You’re lots of fun.”

How do you do that so easily? Heat spreads across his cheeks, settling on the tips of his ears and the back of his neck and his mouth goes dry before he runs his fingers through his hair, thinking of what to say.

“You know, you switch to English a lot when you’re drunk.”

Yep. Awesome. Awesome response, Kazuya.

He watches as the realization hits you—the way you tilt your head to the left as you’re trying to remember, the slow opening of your mouth and raising of your brows before your hand covers your mouth in surprise. “No! What? Have I really?”

A laugh escapes him at your reaction and he feels a little bad when you bury your face in your hands. It’s not often he sees you this unguarded and animated. He’s still laughing when he starts pulling at your fingers, gently prying them away from your face as you eke out an apology. He won’t admit it to you, but he enjoys witnessing these tiny mistakes from you, little hints of proof that there’s more to you than he’s yet to learn.

You once told him you’re an open book, but he’s surprised by how deep the book actually is.

“Seriously. I hardly ever hear you speak so much English unless we’re doing interviews for the media.”

“Yes, almost like that’s entirely by design or something!” Your groan turns into a laugh before you turn away from him, leaving his hand to fall away from yours. “If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go take a swim until I hit land again.”

Three steps away and his hand is wrapping around your wrist, remembering why he came out here in the first place. Glancing over your shoulder at him, you smile, pulling your arm (and him) forward. “You’re not gonna try to stop me, are you?”

“With how much you’ve had to drink tonight? You definitely need a chaperone.” You wriggle your wrist free, though you slide your hand into his, filling the spaces between his fingers with yours.

“And you wanna be my chaperone? Miyuki. Listen. You’re an absolute baseball genius but I have seen you on the sand today. I’m much better suited to be your chaperone instead.”

“Oi! It was you who assumed I was any good at soccer in the first place.” Snickering beside him, you pull toward the stairs that lead to the sand, stumbling on the first step. His left arm comes out to stabilize you and the grip of his right tightens around your fingers and all it does is make you laugh more. “Who’s tripping over their own feet now, huh?”

Your fingers squeeze his and, when he glances over, you’re sporting a wide, carefree smile, one he’s only recently started seeing more of. Warmth blossoms from where you two touch, quickly spreading from his tingling fingers up his arm, gathering in the center of his chest. It’s impossible to be around you right now.

Looking out at the beach, he finds the minuscule moonlight barely bouncing off the waves in the distance, otherwise leaving everything in the dark. Despite how clear the skies were during the day, clouds have since taken hold in the sky, making everything feel closer than it is. Despite the darkness ahead that threatens to consume everything, it’s like you provide your own source of light, just for the two of you.

All giggles and energy beside him, nearly bounding from the last step once you reach it, only stopping because you’re tethered to him. His grip on your hand loosens and he refuses to acknowledge the fuzzy feeling in his chest when you ignore his offer to let you go, keeping your hand in his. Still, you pull at him, urging him forward at your pace on the uneven terrain.

“You’re such a child,” he says.

“I’m a child? I’m older than you. What does that say about you?”

“That I’m a victim of circumstance.”

Stopping in your tracks, you pull your hand from his grasp, he thinks he said something wrong, but there’s a smile on your lips as you bend down. “You? A victim? You, Miyuki Kazuya, are a great many things, but ‘victim’ isn’t one of them.”

It takes a moment too long before he registers that you’re fiddling with the fastening of your shoes.

“Oi, oi. Don’t take those off.” Looking up at him, you stick out your tongue, not ceasing your efforts to free yourself from your shoes. “You’re gonna complain about your feet being sandy when we reach those steps again.”

“Oh, boo. Let me have some fun.”

He catches himself halfway through running his fingers through his hair, smoothing the rest of it over to stop the nervous tic. “Are you gonna blame me when your feet hurt later?”

You’re silent for a bit, biting your tongue as you think before coming to a decision. “I’ll try not to.” It’s only a second or two more before you’ve successfully freed yourself from your shoes. Looking up at him, you give him a smile that means nothing good, though you wait before stepping away from your shoes. “Miyuki? You’ll let me have fun tonight, right? I hardly ever get to do stuff like this.”

Kazuya’s not sure what it is, but something about the way you ask has his heart kicking up a gear. “Agh, fine.” A false concession, but it keeps a smile on your face. “Just for tonight.”

“Good. I’ll hold my complaints till tomorrow, then!”

And you’re off, jumping up and away from your shoes with little regard for the sand you’ve inadvertently kicked everywhere. The skirt of your dress swishes as you move, catching his eye as it does. He looks away when you carelessly bend over, grabbing your shoes before starting to skip toward the shore.

“Hey! That’s not the agreement.”

“It is now,” you call, the sound of the ocean drowning out your laugh. Only once you’ve reached where the sand grows wet do you pause, looking his way. There’s still a wide smile plastered across your face and his chest grows tight as you step closer to the water.

He picks up his pace, anxiety creeping up on him at the thought of you nearing this massive, black body of water, only spiking when he hears your sharp shriek as the cold water laps at your toes. Despite the chill, you step deeper still until your feet are consistently covered.

Kicking off his shoes, he can’t keep his eyes off of you—the way your dress barely moves with the briefest breeze and the way you subtly shift your weight from one foot to the next as you try to grow accustomed to the cold that contrasts with what little warmth remains. The clouds pass, revealing more of you to him and he’s a little surprised at how much energy you still seem to have.

The sand is cool against his feet, meaning the water is that much colder, but he doesn’t particularly care about that right now. The closer he steps toward you, the less worry he feels for your safety and the more anxiety he feels for something entirely different. You shiver and he remembers the jacket in his hand, taking a moment to place it on your shoulders.

You start, almost as if you had forgotten him, but your smile suggests otherwise. He takes his place beside you, wondering how the hell you’re staying so quiet when the water is fucking freezing.

There’s a light out on the horizon, something that goes in and out with the waves, something to stare at when he becomes too aware of your presence next to him. Clouds pass over the moon again, making everything ahead go pitch black, leaving him with naught but the beating of his heart, the light in the distance, and the burning of his fingertips.

“I like it out here, you know?” Your voice is low enough that it’s almost lost among the lapping of the sea on the shore. The clouds continue to move and the moonlight comes back, letting him look at you while you continue to look ahead.

He’s struck by the memory of you two when you two first properly met. The rain that poured, driving everyone inside while you remained outside, under the cover provided by the building. The way you watched him with a curious look on your face as he tried to make himself as presentable as possible for the start of contract negotiations. The quiet ‘good morning’ and the comment about the weather just before he remembered where he knew you from.

“You like the rain, too.”

As you turn to look at him, he wonders whether you remember it, too. Despite you working with Wynd Academy for the Tokyo Senbatsu reunion, despite you again working with Tetsu during his negotiations, despite all of the little almosts that could have swayed him… He wonders whether you remember the first words you two actually exchanged with one another. The smile that shapes your lips is softer, one that, again, reminds him of when you two stood out in the rain together.

“Yeah, I do.”

The ocean captures your attention again and he enjoys the silence that falls.

“Hey, Miyuki?”

“Hn?”

“What made you choose me?”

“What?”

“When we came back from Japan. What made you stick with me as your interpreter?”

There’s a draw, an invisible pull that makes him want to look at you. When he does, you’re already watching him, head tilted, unsure of what you’re asking. Or perhaps unsure of the answer he’ll give?

“You could have chosen anyone else from the firm, but you stuck with me. I saw you looking through the portfolios.”

“Why are you asking? It’s in the past, isn’t it?”

Your gaze shifts away from him, but he has a feeling you’re not watching the waves. “I dunno. It’s something I’ve always wondered about and… never mind. It’s fine.”

He hates when you do that. “And?”

The breeze mixes with the waves as it passes, almost taking your reluctant sigh with it. “I thought I pissed you off with how demanding I was at first. I remember you looked so annoyed and I wanted to crawl into a hole.”

He snickers, trying to apply what you’ve just told him to the woman he met in Japan two years before. From the start, you needed him to be open and to communicate in a way that he couldn’t even muster in his previous relationship. More than once you reminded him of Mei and Kuramochi with how easily you caught onto his lies, even those by omission. Imagining you intimidated by him is laughable.

“Is that funny?”

“Yeah, a little.” He laughs properly when you roll your eyes and frown. “You hardly knew me but you had no problem putting me in my place. It’s funny to think that you wanted to crawl into a hole because of it.”

“Sure, sure. So? If my first impression didn’t ruin you, what made you want to keep me around?”

“That wasn’t my first impression of you.”

“Wasn’t it?” There’s this nervous edge to your voice, accompanied by the tell-tale playing with your nails.

“Did you forget? You were one of the interpreters for the Tokyo Senbatsu. You worked with the kids more, but I remember seeing you around.” You certainly got along with Mei back then. “And then you were who the Giants sent to interpret for Tetsu during his negotiations.”

“Yeah, but you weren’t there for that.”

“I was there at the airport, and Tetsu told us that he wanted to hire you then, too. Why didn’t you take him up?”

Blowing air, you take to chewing the inside of your cheek and turning your face away from him.

“It wasn’t the right timing. I wasn’t going to be able to interpret for him and finish my program if he was going to San Francisco.”

“So if he went to the Dodgers like I did, would you have accepted?”

“No.” You still don’t face him, but your admission sparks a wave of fluttering in him, only heightened by the cold water at his feet.

“What made you choose me, then?”

At this, you turn, challenging him with a smirk. “You didn’t answer my question.”

His smile grows, knowing full well that you’re avoiding answering his question. “You made it very easy for me to trust you.”

Whatever you thought you were going to hear, it’s clear that wasn’t it. That challenge in your eyes fades, your smile losing its edge as it’s colored by disbelief.

“Why do you ask?”

He watches as you take that disbelief and pocket it away with something more tender, something you’re not ready to be seen just yet. When you meet his eyes again, it’s with the ghost of a smile playing at your lips. “I’ve always been curious.”

“Is that all?”

You pause, eyes flickering across his face before settling on his again. “Yep.”

“You’re a bad liar.”

“At least you know when I’m not being honest,” you try, starting to step away from him with a borderline mischievous grin. “Very hard for me to lie to you.”

“Yeah?”

Instead of answering him, you turn forward, allowing a silence to build between you both until he can feel the nervous energy that buzzes around you. Unable to stand it, he closes that distance again, nudging your shoulder as he settles. “Now it’s your turn.”

“My turn?”

“Yeah, your turn. You turned down Tetsu, so what made you say yes to me?” Was it because the Dodgers are closer or because they’re the team you and your dad have followed or was it timing or…?

“I don’t know. Maybe because you would be close and the timing was right or—”

“You already admitted that proximity wouldn’t have made you say yes to Tetsu. Was it because it was me?”

“Are you kidding? If I knew it was you, I probably would’ve quit working with the league and gotten a position with the university.” Your laugh is a little self-depreciating and he doesn’t know why. “All I know is that we got the call that the Dodgers needed a Japanese interpreter and I jumped at the opportunity because it was something else to put on my portfolio. I didn’t learn they were courting you until I was already on the plane.”

“You seemed just fine when you greeted me that morning.”

“Aha, yeah. I was so nervous, it kinda just slipped out.”

“Were you really that nervous? I honestly never would have guessed.”

“Good to know. I never expected—” Catching yourself, you look at him, clearly hoping he didn’t hear that. “I didn’t say anything.”

“No, you can’t just start that and then pretend like you didn’t say anything.”

“I can and I will.”

“No, for real, you can’t pretend like I didn’t hear that. Finish your thought.”

He watches as you try to edge yourself away, but he’s quick to wrap his arms around your waist to keep you from getting more than two feet away.

“Ooh, no you don’t.”

Squirming in his hold does nothing but make him pull you closer, trapping you against his chest. When he tries to get you to look at him, you hide your face in your palms again, failing this time because you’re still holding your shoes. The more you squirm, the closer he pulls you to him until you’re effectively trapped back to chest, laughing to yourself as he brings his lips level to your ear.

“What didn’t you expect?”

You shiver and he hears a muffled, “You aren’t making this any easier.”

“Why would I do that when you’re trying to hide something from me?”

“I’m not trying to hide anything.”

“Oh, yeah? Then you can tell me, right?”

“Kazuya, please—”

“Kazuya?” You freeze in his arms and his heart stutters in his chest—full-on stalling out, struggling to make it to the next gear, demanding more power to keep going. He hears the apology tumble out of your mouth in a rush, so he tells you, “I like it when you call me that.”

You stiffen for a moment before leaning into him, letting his words sink in, still feeling his warm breath against the exposed skin of your neck. “You— you are very good at making me do stupid things.”

“You mean to say that I bring out an entirely different level of stupid?”

“Shut up.” You push against his arms with no real effort to get away, but he doesn’t want to cross a boundary, so he loosens his grip. Despite the room to move, you lean into him more, staying where you are.

Is this a stupid thing?

“So? What’s this thing you never expected?”

Shuffling where you stand, he expects you to step away. Opening his arms fully, you surprise him, turning around and pressing your forehead against him.

“I never expected your stupid sense of humor or your stupid laugh or your stupid pretty face or that you would be the exact combination of stupid that would make me stupid.” Your voice is soft, lost somewhere between the night and the fabric of his shirt, but he hears you nonetheless.

“I’d be offended right now if you didn’t just say you find me pretty.” He’d be offended right now if you didn’t just suggest what he thinks you’re suggesting.

“You are pretty. It makes me mad.”

“Me being pretty makes you mad?”

“Very mad.” You move to look at him and he’s expecting a pout, not the serious look in your eyes. Your brows furrow and—yup, there it is—your lips turn into a pout as you continue staring before your gaze shifts to his lips. He thinks it’s just gonna be a moment, just a glance, but it’s not.

Shit.

Your lips part, just a little bit, just enough that he’s slowly inching forward and so are you. Just enough so he feels the shaky little exhale before you close the distance, pressing your lips to his.

You’re—soft. Really soft. Soft in the way you’re pressing against him. Soft in the way you feel when his arms close around you, holding you to him. Soft in the way you move your arms so they’re draped over his shoulders, so your shoes tap against his back, so your fingers brush against the hairs at the nape of his neck. Soft in the way your lips move against his, making him dizzy, making him feel, as you so eloquently put it, stupid.

Then there’s that sound you make, something else that’s soft, something between a whimper and a whine before you flick your tongue against his bottom lip.

Shit.

Another sound when he tries to hold you closer, when his palms spread out across your back, when all he can think and feel and breathe is you. Your fingers tangle in his hair before pulling, giving you a whine in turn and he feels you smile before pulling away for air.

Resting his forehead against yours, his senses slowly come back to him, though they’re still primarily focused on you. The feel of the bunching of the fabric of your dress beneath his fingertips, the racing of his heart in his chest, the cool of the water against his feet. The smell of the salty ocean air and that odd combination of sunscreen and your body wash. The lingering taste of you against his lips, and the little craving to taste more. The sounds of the waves, seemingly in the distance when compared to the beating of his heart and your shaky breathing. The sight of you, of your tongue smoothing over your bottom lip before they close, of your eyelashes touching your cheeks in the lighting provided by the waxing moon, of the slow opening of your eyes and the emotions that follow.

He’s never been good at reading people, especially not their emotional state, and he can’t trust himself to get it right at this moment. He wants there to be hope. He wants there to be acceptance. He wants to see the reciprocated feeling of “fucking finally” because that’s what he’s feeling. He wants it so bad that he can’t trust himself to read you right now.

But he does know he’s not imagining it the moment it hits you.

You release his hair before your hand slides back down his chest, coming to rest on your lips.

That surprise. That fear. That—

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry! I’m your interpreter! I shouldn’t—shit. That was so stupid. Please forgive me.”

All the warmth that built up in his chest leaves with the slow sinking of his heart. Of course. Everything comes back to your job.

“I’m not here as your client.”

Oof, that came off a lot harsher than he meant it to be. He hopes that your little flinch is because of the sudden breeze and not because of him. “You’re not my interpreter right now. You’re my friend.”

But that guilt written all over your face doesn’t go away. “I’m—”

“It’s your birthday, right? Happy birthday.”

You turn your gaze down before you turn your head away slightly. His grip around you loosens and this time you take the smallest step back. Dammit.

“Thank you. I—” You won’t even look at him. “Please forgive me.”

He sighs through his nose and he can feel the crease between his eyebrows as it forms. Turning back toward the shore, he slips his hand in yours.

“There’s nothing to forgive.” It definitely comes out as a bite, though (again) he doesn’t mean it as such. That doesn’t deter you from squeezing his fingers.

You trail behind him for only a minute more before quickening your pace and taking your space beside him. As you grow closer to the stairs heading back to the street, you turn, looking toward the solitary tables near the public bathroom.

“You don’t—”

“Let’s sit,” he interrupts, making it known he’s still with you, even if a large part of you seems intent on trying to move past something he’s wanted for the last year and a half now.

When you look at him, it’s with relief, with that stress and second-guessing slowly melting away. “Thank you.”

Maybe he should take the seat opposite you instead of right beside you, but he’s going to be selfish for as long as you’ll let him.

“I’m not ready to go back inside just yet.” You wait for a response and Kazuya decides it’s better if he doesn’t. “Do you mind… you don’t have to, but I’d like to sit out here for a while longer.”

Instead of offering a verbal response, he relaxes, brushing his thumb over your knuckles.

“Thank you. I think… I think I might still be a little buzzed.”

Yeah, you really can’t lie to him.

“I don’t want to go in there when she’s still awake. I might say something stupid.”

That’s more like it, though he wonders if that “something stupid” will end with your friend giving you a lecture or giving one to him. Lecture or not, he’d prefer to keep your attention for himself.

You chatter on for another ten or so minutes, mostly compelled by your wish to move on from what happened, but eventually, you give in to the silence. It’s another couple of minutes before you rest your head on his shoulder. The two of you sit in silence with the soft promise to leave whenever you’re ready.

The sun slowly rises and he still finds himself on the beach with his hand still interlinked with yours, still hoping that this sea salt flavored kiss won't be the only one you two share.

Daiya no Ace Masterlist

#miyuki x reader #miyuki kazuya x reader #daiya no ace x reader #daiya no a x reader #ace of diamond x reader #✒.ix writes #daiya.✒#tti #✒.the catcher's accomplice #title inspired by a tyler knott gregson poem:#I kiss you and on your lips I taste the sea and the sea has always been home to me.#pls their relationship is so complex and there's so much that happens but it's not ready so I have nothing to share but this little bit #;-;#the boy

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blitz0hno · 7 months

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Why I'm Voting Inno Mikoto even tho He Definitely Did It

or should I say DID i-*🏏smacked*

TL;DR like many I do not believe a word John says, but I also don't think he has the entire truth. Meanwhile Mikoto's amnesia is near undoubtable. With two unreliable narrators and solid evidence of self-defense, I think we need more before declaring him guilty.

I'm here to be Mikoto's lawyer cuz John ily but you suck at it 😭

Now onto why I'm voting Inno:

Mikoto isn't lying when he says he doesn't remember murdering those people, at least not entirely. The memory is in his subconscious, but he can't even remember the faces of his victims because they were both so out of it.

I believe what we see in MeMe is safe to assume to be his first. The first mannequin smashed onscreen is this one:

That looks like a damn FNAF jumpscare lmao this tells me that his baseball hobby probably saved him from getting jumped at that train station, but it came at a heavy price.

That's where John comes in. To handle the feelings that undoubtedly came with taking a life and having to hide the evidence.

Generally in DID alter's memories fall into one of 3 categories (my observations of myself and other systems):

That event happened. These are all the details. I feel nothing about it.

That event happened and I remember everything I felt like it was seconds ago, but I couldn't tell you specifics

That event happened??

The latter two can safely be assigned to John and Bokukoto. The first one is what we're missing.

I saw someone point out how the train could symbolize that he can never go back (credit urself in the tags if u see this it was a good one) to before he killed.

That brings me to our final scene.

Remember how John split to handle the feelings of that stressor? The feeling of unsafety, pure adrenaline, and righteous anger at the attacker is a horrific thing, but once you experience it you change. In order for an alter to handle the reality of something, it must be accepted somehow. John's way of accepting it is not remembering their faces, only his expressions and actions. That's probably why he's so aggressive; constant fight-or-flight mode.

Mikoto (Bokukoto), like with whatever happened to him in early childhood to cause DID, is unable to accept these realities because doing so would shatter his world (it turns out constant fight-or-flight isn't great for your social life).

So about John's statement that he didn't know any of the victims even though he totally did, at least a little;

John is reading the room and there it is: unsafety, pure adrenaline, and righteous anger at the attacker. That's all he needs to feel to know that it's time to protect Mikoto.

That's not the face and mannerisms of a man who bashes skulls in for kicks. This shit was personal.

I can't tell if it's one or two victims in the second clip here, but I strongly believe they had something to do with his work. His subconscious is really harping on how much his boss got on him and how stressed it made him. Something happened that pushed them over the edge. You don't call your mom after you kill for fun (or maybe you do idk). You call your mom when you know you're fucked.

John initiated the second killing but I don't think he was the only one making a conscious decision. That said, I don't have enough details to condemn Mikoto to another unforgiven verdict.

So, where will we find that info? Well remember RGB Mikoto/Trikoto theory (kudos to whoever coined those too)? Well when I broke down the compartmentalization earlier I hinted that there's a strong chance that SOMEONE remembers every detail, but feels nothing and lays dormant.

Good old green Mikoto, the only one we haven't seen speak yet the one who's given us the most detail so far (via MeMe).

Even if not and Bokukoto remembers more than he's letting on/gets in contact with John, the crime itself isn't unforgivable beyond a shadow of a doubt yet even with multiple victims. His reasons are still cloudy.

Also I like him

#milgram #mikoto milgram #mikoto kayano #mikotoposting #john milgram #TW Flashing #tw blo0d

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scintillyyy · 1 year

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so i want (finally after months of this sitting in my drafts) to say some things about dana winters-drake, because she, along with jack and janet fascinate me. and i'm going to preface this and say: yes, i know she was created and written by terrible sexist writers, a lot of her more negative traits are because terrible sexist writers don't understand or care about how to write women and write them as laughably wtf, and none of what i'm saying means that i think she deserved her ultimate fate (she definitely did not, and i am mad about it). but! she is more complex than just a generic good mom and she has some really interesting negative characteristics to me. and i'm gonna put this under a read more, because this is probably going to get long

#1 dana as the worst physical therapist in the world:

so i'm going to start with my main point of contention(? i don't know, maybe not that strong) with her: her introduction. she's introduced as jack's physical therapist, and i will not lie, this comes very, very close to absolutely ruining her completely for me and the only reason is doesn't is because i'm aware of who created her, so it's not her fault. i'm am absolutely biased about this, i will admit it. i find this personally abhorrent on every level due to personal reasons, and there is no way anyone will ever convince me that this is not that bad. there is no situation in which dana is not a total monster for this. and i am correct about this. i promise you i can argue every "but" you have about it. i'm sorry. (unless, of course, your argument is 'but this is comics and we don't ascribe that much real life morality to comics', in which case: fair. that's true.)

because i want to make it clear: jack sucks, but dana is the one in the wrong here when it comes to them getting in a relationship. i see a lot of "but she was way younger than him" kind of framing her as an innocent young ingenue to jack's older, predatory ways and i'm over here like...that's not how this works at all.

because dana was the professional in the patient-provider relationship. jack shouldn't have been weird or flirty with her, absolutely, please don't harass your health care professionals (but it also tracks! a survey of physical therapists showed that 84% reported being sexually harassed at work from a patient during their career. so yes, of course jack, a man in his 40s-50s would absolutely try to flirt with his PT, 100%) but the thing is...there's nothing actually stopping jack from trying to flirt with his PT. it's annoying and he shouldn't, but there's no laws against it. dana is the one who has the moral, legal, and ethical obligation to maintain a solely professional relationship with jack (yes, even if she is younger than him-also, i promise you, she was at least 24-25 even being introduced in the 90s. at that time physical therapy was largely a master's program following a 4 year bachelor program. she has a fully developed frontal lobe. she's old enough to know her responsibilities. you don't graduate from school for physical therapy or any other rehabilitation job knowing anything but getting with a patient is the #1 no-no, go directly to jail, do not pass go, etc). she is the healthcare provider in this relationship. jack can flirt with her until the cows come home and it's her responsibility to shut him down every time.

because!! there's a little thing called a practice act. it governs what a licensed professional is and isn't allowed to do. and look, i found new jersey's. highlighted just for you. no amount of ~but they're in love~ will help here. no excuses dana!!

i just live in a world where she loses her license to practice after she gets together with jack, okay. like, tbf, she doesn't get shown actually going on dates with jack until after he can walk again in robin #15, but this is nowhere near at least 3 months after he's done with his rehab. like. it's heavily implied that their relationship basically started while she was actively treating him. like. is he even done with his rehab at this point? he mentions he's almost there wrt his walking so is she still his physical therapist? it's never made clear when she stops. dana starts sleeping with him a few issues after this, so god, i hope so.

anyways, even if she had waited three months after terminating their patient-provider relationship, there's various other reasons why her choosing to get together with jack at all after being his physical therapist is a little morally sus even if technically legal. because here's a list of things that dana would technically probably have access to/know about jack as her patient:

does jack have erectile dysfunction issues as a result of his neurologic damage from the poison? she has access to his medications, so she knows.

does jack have depression/other mental health issues from the loss of his wife/is he getting therapy/is he on anti-depressants? it's probably in his chart as a part of coordination of care. is that mental health stuff relevant to his care at all? in this case probably, given the fact that his quadriplegia is wrapped up in the incident that also murdered his wife.

has she worked with jack at all about modifying sexual positions on account of his impairments? pts will discuss this with patients if it's relevant to their care. they actually learn in school on how to educate patients with quadriplegia on how they might have to modify their intimacy with their partners in case it's relevant to care.

patients tend to confide in their PTs a lot. a lot. since they tend to see their rehab providers a lot more than other providers, patients are far more likely to confide a lot of really personal stuff to them because of the rapport/trust that builds between them over time. has jack cried over janet in his sessions with dana? has jack talked about his insecurities about how things will never be the same for him or his mobility and how that makes him feel? has he discussed his frustration at his progress or lack thereof? i cannot stress how much dana has probably gotten to know jack over the course of their rehab together, really sensitive stuff, and then to turn around and get into a relationship with a patient after having been entrusted with that sensitive information about them? would be extremely sus on the part of that provider. would you feel comfortable if that was your dad? you shouldn't.

like, this is fundamentally a very intimate and delicate patient case given everything that jack has been through. which makes it even more important that a clear line of professionalism is drawn and maintained. and dana didn't do that, clearly.

#2. dana prioritizes her position as jack's partner over her position tim's "mom"

now, i don't think this is a bad thing, necessarily! she is, after all, tim's step-mom and she made it clear from the beginning she had no intention of taking tim's mom's place. and she and tim do see each other as family and clearly care about each other. i think she's a very good step-mom, actually! she's willing to listen to tim and she tries to be a mediator between him and his dad/advocate for tim.

that being said, she almost always will capitulate to jack's position in the end. she might try to get jack to ease up, but she never really actively fights against jack's final decision on what to do with tim. remember the tv ripping out of the wall incident? in robin #45?

this happens after dana came in and talked to tim and said she'll talk to his dad about jack hearing out tim's side of the ariana story. she does, because jack comes in hoping to talk things out and when tim is ignoring him he does this lovely move. so what does this have to do with dana? well here's the thing: dana is still only dating jack at this point. she's not married to him, she can leave at any time. if she's over at their house, there's no way she missed this happening. did she wonder why jack came back from his talk with tim with tim's tv at all? did she shrug it off when she heard him start screaming at tim (remember, drake manor is big but it's not that big)? she clearly accepted that jack grounded tim for weeks after this. she's clearly not opposed to staying in a relationship with a man who would do this to his son. which says something about her. no matter how awful jack treats tim (in front of her even) she maintains a very harmonious relationship with the man and continues to want to be in a relationship with him, so as much as she might try to surface disapprove of jack's treatment of tim, in the end she'll shrug and accept it because she won't implode her relationship with jack over his treatment of tim. she definitely prioritizes her place as jack's partner. see robin #66, jack yelling at tim for running away back to gotham city right in front of dana. she's still not married to him!! this could be a deal breaker for her and it's not!!

here's her being clearly fine and going with jack on a vacation to blizzard central chicago, il right before the holidays in the dcu holiday bash iii.

here she is being more concerned about when jack is going to ask her to marry him when he's sending tim to boarding school as punishment for no man's land in robin #74:

like none of this is mutually exclusive with her being a pretty nice step-mom to tim. just that is she's okay and is a person who wants to be in a very good relationship with jack drake, she has to be someone who accepts jack's treatment of tim. she doesn't want to actually rock the boat with jack in a way that would actually jeopardize her relationship with him, as much as she tries to soften his treatment of tim.

she's clearly okay with jack just calling tim in robin #78 to tell him they're getting married. she's popping toasting to celebrate as he does this. she never said, hey jack, maybe we should tell tim in person?

#3. dana is kind of judgemental about tim's girlfriends in defense of tim/lowkey a little sexist and she's a fair representation of a republican woman.

now, this one is fair to ignore because it was written mainly by dixon and willingham, but also the sexist things she's said/implies about them is actually fairly realistic imo because the republican older women i know have said things along the vein of things dana has said. in robin #45 she says this weird thing about ariana

by saying she is implying that she knows that ariana is actually the one at fault for this entire mess and tim has to protect her reputation and saying that ariana would have a "reputation" if it came out that she was actually the one at fault. which. maybe in the 90s, but also this is a very old, conservative viewpoint on women so.

and then in robin #124 where she defaults to blaming stephanie for corrupting tim (also, she's like "jack we shouldn't do this" but then. like. doesn't actually fight him and stop him from doing this she let's him do this. then is like sigh, guess i'll make tim's favorite lasagna rather than actually fight and stop jack from doing this).

which yea, willingham. but given that dana has defaulted to defending tim over his girlfriends in the past re: ariana, i actually think it's quite in line for a more conservative woman like dana to be super nice to their son's girlfriends up until their son potentially looks bad and then immediately turning their backs on them because or the idea that their sons ~could never~. like. i hear the following things from conservative women at least 3x/week (paraphrased):

oh, well, girls you know. they're so much more drama than boys.

my boys were so easy, but my daughter? oh god, i can't even begin with her

girls are so catty. boys are so much easier to deal with.

my son has this girlfriend. i just. i. hmmm. i just don't know about her. she's. she's. she's okay, i guess. i have some concerns.

as for how i know she's a conservative woman? she's happily and harmoniously married to jack and she's a PT in bristol township. i am 110% certain she's a registered republican. with her moral ambiguity and slighy sexism she reads as a fairly realistic conservative to me.

anyways in conclusion, i think she's actually a lot more complex than just generic good step-mom! she has a lot of failures and negative characteristics that makes her more interesting to me than just good sainted woman who puts up with jack and tim. she has her own faults. we do have to remember that she had a very good relationship with jack and saw how he treated tim and was largely okay with it. maybe jack was someone she thought she could change. maybe she agreed with him on a lot of things. jack and dana have the harmonious relationship that fandom wants jack and janet (a very volatile and ultimately ill-matched relationship) to have had!

anyways here's one final panel from robin #100 of dana saying that tim could just get a job and help out with the family finances after jack lost the company that i couldn't think of where else to put it (like, she's probably joking. but clearly this is something both she and jack find funny to joke about.)

#dana winters #jack drake #tim drake #batman #dc

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eldritch-spouse · 1 year

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Imagine with me for a sec:

You step out of your room because ur hungry as a mf and head to kitchen. As you’re in the hallway approaching the kitchen, you hear crunching. Thinking it like some raccoons or another animal, you turn on the light in the kitchen hoping it’ll scare whatever it is off. Only to be greeted by the sight of Obie just fucking up a head of lettuce right in the fucking center of the kitchen. The sheer brutality on this fucking lettuce has you mesmerized and you just watch him eat it for like 9 minutes, watching each leaf on that lettuce just get eviscerated.

Anyways, I thought this would be wacky.

[Implying it takes him nine minutes to eat a head of lettuce. Oh, you sweet innocent soul...]

It's not the first time you wake up in the middle of the night with your stomach howling angrily, demanding sustenance of any kind. Animal of needs and desires, your muscle memory is impeccable when it leads you to the kitchen without fail.

Unfortunately, you're not the only one who regularly gets the munchies. The title of hungriest hippo goes, in fact, to the glutton you live with- Obie. So when your sloshing brain manages to get you into the kitchen, and you hear that clear crunch cronch crrrack, the first thought that enters your mind isn't "Oh no, raccoons!", it's more along the lines of "Ah yes, the love of my life.".

You sigh as you flip the switch, the kitchen lights steadily flickering on, revealing none other than your boyfriend's distended maw shredding at a head of lettuce in front of the fridge. Not too soon afterwards, the demon hisses and shields his already squinted eyes.

" Bro, did you have to turn the lights on? " Is his equally sleepy, gut-punch reaction. His swirling tongue fetches pieces of the vegetable that glued onto his cheeks.

" As a matter of fact, yes. " You state, calmly poking him until he gets the hint to move away from the fridge. You look inside, it's distinctly less furnished than it was before you went to bed. A part of you considers giving Obie a dirty look, but you know it's just how his kind works, gluttons eat a whole lot- Frankly, you're just glad he's only a mid-ranker. " How courteous of you to take everything and let me starve here, Obie. " You still jab playfully.

He makes an almost offended look, mumbles something back, and fetches three separate packs of cookies from another cabinet. Oh, you have food in that one too? Huh. They're waved in your direction. You wonder why he went straight for the lettuce instead of eating those.

" I was going to use that to cook tomorrow, you know? " The scolding is half-hearted as you snatch the pack of Oreos and get busy, the others set back down.

Obie peers at the mangled lettuce he was paper shredding, then at you. He has the nerve to try and put it back in the fridge. " In that state? Just finish it. "

And he does. Morbid curiosity takes hold while you observe his jaw distend, the whole thing shoved in there. To say he looks like a chipmunk when he starts chewing is an understatement- Obie looks like a fucking pufferfish. You wouldn't know what to do with that much food in your mouth, you'd probably just sit there and drool. But the glutton steadily swallows whole chunks of it down, it's gone in less than a minute.

He has the decency not to burp in front of you.

" Was it good at least? "

He licks his teeth and makes a more or less kind of gesture with his hands.

You snort, throwing an oreo at his general direction. It's captured by his tongue near instantly, sucked into his gullet without thought. " Guess we're going shopping tomorrow... "

Again.

#Obie oc #tce rp ask #foxpillow12

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sweetheartstan · 8 months

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Uhhhhh so... bloons am I right? Alright, talked about it last post, and I actually do intend on following up on the silliness that is me talking about towers and their strengths and weaknesses, both 'cause it is indeed actually quite fucking fun AND I get to hear myself talk for awhile, so a win win really. Just know I probably won't do this very often, mostly because of how goddamn complicated this all is. Bloons isn't the deepest Tower Defence game out there, but there's still a lot to talk about with each towers, like crosspathing and synergies with other towers, and that takes a lot of brainpower for me because I am not smart in the slightest!

As some notes before I jump into all this, I wanna say that I am NOT a bloons expert. I play BTD6 pretty regularly and can play it well, but I am the type who still struggles with elite bosses (I'm bad at farming). I do however play a ton on CHIMPS, and I'm MOSTLY gonna be talking about the towers in the context of CHIMPS games. That doesn't mean I'll talk about them only in that context, but know that is the main perspective I am speaking of any tower on. I also wanna note that when I say late game, I mean Rounds 80-100, and I'll use the term "aftergame" for anything post 100.

That said, Dart Monkey! Silly creature, and suprsingly a very good tower overall! The biggest positive I can give Dart Monkey overall is how fucking cheap the bastard is, being the cheapest tower in the game to place down. Aside from middle path, you aren't really gonna be breaking the bank to get T5's (Or T4's) with the little fella. They are also great in the early game no matter what path you go, though I personally think one is the obvious pick of the bunch.

That cheapness wouldn't really matter too much if the tower didn't have good damage it could deal and honestly, only one path is kinda consistently good at that? Not to devalue the other paths or say they don'tdo at least alright damage, but there's one specific path with Dart that's very apparent in being the best in most situations, due to how well it carries into late game and it being relatively cheap for how fucking powerful it is. It's ironically its biggest weakness in my eyes, but I'll get to that momentarily; got two other paths to talk about afterall.

Top Path Dart sucks in most situations!

It's big draw (aside from being the cheapest of the three paths) is that it increases the pierce of the darts before lobbing spiked balls of death at the bloons, with each upgrade letting the ball last longer, before the T5 makes it a giant ball that explodes into smaller balls upon hutting any obstacle/the edge on the screen. I think the biggest positive is that the path overall is super cheap and is good at early game defense, and could even crush Round 63 in the right circumstances. It's also a god at smashing cermrics, seemingly making them evaporate on touch, can pop all bloon types (minus camo) with just a 500, and has some excellent pierce to it. However, there's a lot of issues with said path.

The tower does NOT scale well to later rounds on most maps. It's alright at dealing with anything but MOAB class bloons, so it starts drowning as the game goes on. It just doesn't have the raw damage to keep up overtime. It also plays best when it's placed with at the end of a straight line, which while that works out well on beginner maps, it's basically almost impossible to find on some harder maps, meaning it's gonna fail about and pray that it can hit something.

On top of that, the whole "breaking out into more balls" gimmick the 5xx Dart has is basically useless on basically all maps, due to the balls bursting in cone formation, meaning the balls quickly spread out and do almost no additional damage to shit like MOABs.

There are some positives though. This tower, if used on a map that's really inclosed (like Cornfield or Encrypted), can fucking DEMOLISH almost anything that gets near it. That cone shape doesn't matter too much in a small location, and combine that with it constantly shooting? The damage does actually quite stack up and makes it a real damn threat. It's a very situational tower in that regard, being only really good on a handful of maps, but man does it makes those maps it's bitch.

As for crosspathing, objectively speaking, Middle is 99% of the time the best way to go with this one. Sure it can't hit camo, but that's nothing some other monkeys can't help with (or just use a village). A 502 is viable in certain situations (ie its your main defence but you can’t get a village near it), but just go with faster attack speed if you really wanna melt some fuckers.

The biggest positive/negative about Top Path is its situational uses. On certain maps, it will fuck up the bloons in worse ways than the other two paths can ever dream of. On basically every other map, the other two paths are fucking LEAGUES better than it. It's really only a tower I can recommend only if you are using it on certain maps... with that said, I love this path all the same. Is it bad? Mostly yes. Is it fucking fun to use? HELL YEAH IT IS. Nothing more satisfying than seeing this really mediocre tower shread through higher layered bloons like its nothing. Personally, I think this path is very fun to use in a "can I get away playing like this?" sort of way, where you try to push yourself to the limit. And as one final positive, it's dirt cheap for a T5! Only around 18K on Hard pricing iirc, so it won't even really break the bank to get.

Overall, Top Path Dart is a guilty pleasure of mine, but can be a legitimately great tower on the right map. I wouldn't really seriously recommend it otherwise, but maybe use it to have some fun once in awhile. Could be a nice shake up to most of the bog standard strats.

I'll cover the middle path sometime later, this was a lot more writing than I expected tbh. I hope yall enjoyed reading this. If I got anything wrong or you didn't like reading it for whatever reason, I will NOT be taking criticism! (I am joking please tell me if I fucked up or how I could do better, love this sort of thing).

Thanks for reading, yall the real ones :3c

#bloons #btd6 #bloons td 6 #i speant over 2 hours writing this god fucking help me please im

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my0vershareworld · 1 year

Text

𝕙𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕤𝕔𝕙𝕠𝕠𝕝 𝕪𝕖𝕒𝕣

Pairing: None

Genre: Headcanons, Crack

CW: None

Requested by anon: Hiii can you do headcanons for the espadas (excluding Barragan and yammy) on what type of students they would be in highschool and then two arrancars of your choice please :)

Coyote Starrk

the kid that always sleep in class

tends to sleep a lot at school. in the morning, lunch, afternoon, whenever he wanted to

actually have a decent grade it just a little low because of his behavior

barely do his homework

will kept his homework until the day that he needs to sent it to the teacher

the type of kid that no one really talks with so he really don't have friend

doesn't have a favorite subject

his least favorite is P.E. too much working out it makes him too tired

after P.E. class will probably sleep for a longer time

doesn't do well with presentation

one time fall asleep while standing in mid presentation

Tier Harribel

one of the most beautiful girl in the school

people tends to really like her and confess to her but she always decline saying she isn't ready for a relationship

actually like sewing

have a good grade

always does her homework

have a lot of girl friends

girls tends to really like her and want to be as pretty as her

admired student

favorite class is art

doesn't have a least favorite. she likes them all except for art is put in a higher position

always good presentation

sound confident in herself a lot

Ulquiorra Cifer

goth

people who are into goth really into him and loves flirting with him..which he never gets why

confused and sucks at love

a very brutally honest dude

have quite a great grade

always do his homework and is the type of dude that will remind the teacher of the homework

doesn't have friends but never mind it

doesn't have favorite or least favorite class

decent..with presentation

talk and sound the most bland and boring

Nnoitra Gilga

the troublemaker of the class

always bully others

is on the verge of being expelled

have low grade

never do his homework

think homework is dumb and useless

0 friend. but if you mention it you'll be dead

don't have a favorite class. he hate them all equally

think every subjects is useless

actually is the worst in math

can't even plus or multiply, that's how bad he is

don't come to school once the class have presentation

will skip class if the presentation would be in the class and he didn't knew

Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez

seen as the delinquent but actually isn't one and it just aggressive

hate Gilga (everyone do but he's the one in specific that always try and pick a fight with Nnoitra)

the teachers that are new would be a bit intimidated or think he's a delinquent but then get used to his actual personality

surprisingly have a decent grade

do his homework time to time unless he don't understand a thing, he'll copy his friends work

have a friend group but other than his friend group he don't talk to a lot of other people

tends to always be near his friends

don't care if someone talk shit about him. but will beat someone up if they talk shit about his friends

favorite class is P.E. because he likes to think that after that class it means he's getting stronger

least favorite class is art because he don't like when he have to be so tenderly moving and be all calm and collective, it ain't him

can't spell words properly on paper and his friends have to help him a lot (even though he always deny it his friends still help him)

sound very loud and aggressive while presenting

will yell at someone if they fall asleep on his presentation

p.s. his friends is his fracciones in canon

Zommari Rureaux

seen as a quiet kid but not in a bad way

teacher like him because he's calm and collective and love justice

snitcher

will snitch to the teacher for whatever bad things someone is doing. sometimes is not even that big of a deal like..copying someone else's homework

have good grade because he always listen in class

always do his homework

is trying and still trying to befriend the 'weird kid'

doesn't have favorite or least favorite class because equal love is good or so he said

have a very old interesting kind of words in his presentation

Szayelaporro Granz

the scientist dude

tried and experiment on his brother once but got caught by Grimmjow and almost got expelled so he can't do it anymore

always act like he knows everything

think he's perfect and everyone loves him (they all don't)

have a very amazing grade

always do his homework

sadly doesn't actually have friend despite the fact that he said everyone loves him, he just think they're intimidated by him

favorite class is science. it meant he's getting closer to the perfection he wanted more and more

least favorite class is P.E. it makes him VERY tired

actually get really easily tired out by working out

have a very interesting presentation

sometimes add dirty jokes in the presentation

Aaroniero Arruruerie

it's him. he's the weird kid that Zommari trying to befriend

doesn't like physical touch and hate when someone do it or the teacher tells them to

hates group project

have social anxiety

is insecure so he always wore a mask

is the kid that everyone never wanted to talk with (excluding Zommari)

doesn't have friend because everyone think he's far too awkward and he have abandonment issue and he tends to push people away from him

hates going into the sun because it hurts his skin and he felt like it burn when he's under it

likes art class

hates P.E. because is hard to breath when he ran out of breath and he still wearing his mask

hates presentation. despise it even

stutter a lot on the presentation and tends to hurried up his sentence just so he can stop and sit down

Yylfordt Granz

funny king

it's the one that Grimmjow likes to copy his homework most of the time saying that because Yylfordt is Szayelaporro's brother he probably is quite as quite as smart as him and probably have most of the correct answers

is so relieved once Grimmjow finds him and getting him avoid from being experimented on

have a lot of friends, even from other classes

know most of the gossip

don't have a favorite class

his least favorite is science because it reminds him of Szayelaporro

is confident in his presentation but Szayelaporro REALLY likes to correct him on some information which pisses him off

Luppi Antenor

short king

likes to tease and bully Grimmjow

got punch by him after that

people tends to think he's a girl. he ain't though but he actually likes fucking with them by acting all cute and girly then later that day reveal that he's a guy

have friends but is all from the other classes

likes music class

hates P.E because no matter how much he work out he never gets taller

put a lot of effort into the presentation but no one appreciates it

#ɢɪꜰᴛ ʙᴀʟʟ ᴅᴇʟᴜxᴇ #espada #espada bleach #bleach espada #espada headcanons #yylfordt granz #yylfordt bleach #bleach yylfordt #luppi #luppi antenor #luppi bleach #bleach luppi #bleach #bleach headcanons #bleach hcs

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finniestoncrane · 9 months

Note

I'm here for a blind date I'm genderfluid (afab if you're wondering. I apparently give off Boy Vibes™)

I love dinosaurs (some of my favorites include Archaeopteryx, Australovenator, and Baryonyx, Minmi, Oviraptor, and Yi qi) comic books (mostly Suicide Squad but you already know that by now), and I'm trying to get into cars because I want to be an automechanic, since my grades weren't good enough for paleontology and I suck at art. College wasn't right for me and being an automechanic is probably like... A trade school thing, right? I also like Transformers. I got a mullet at one point, but it grew out a bit lol. I'm kinda clumsy, which is pretty evident since my glasses keep breaking lol. Not like I can afford new ones so I guess I'm using duck tape and super glue to keep the frames in... 2 pieces I guess. I guess it's just duck tape keeping the ear things on. I really got into old monster movies in Middle School because of a book called the encyclopedia of monsters. From like... The really old ones like The Blob That Ate Everything to the ones from to the slightly more recent ones but they're still decades old, like the Alien Franchise. Not too big of a fan of regular (?) horror movies. Technically I haven't seen most of the alien movies, but I really liked Alien VS Predator so I think that counts enough. I know I've already told you this but I fell down a YouTube rabbit hole of wilderness survival and eventually wound up finding a channel about boomerangs and the occasional Australian wildlife video (there's one titled Kangaroo Maggots. He finds a kangaroo corpse at the side of the road and maggots are inside of it. Really fucking gross. 0/10. Do not recommend if you hate maggots. Don't know why I watched that specific video honestly, but all the rest are good). Which lead me to another channel about Australian animals. I'm American and idk how tf I got from how to cook a cactus to watching a video on dingoes. I play a lot of simulator games. Like... If you look at my steam library it's like... 99% simulator games, the Batman: Arkham Series, and then a hunting game for some reason. And even then I think that's a hunting simulator come to think about it. Don't know why I like Simulator Games, I just do. Wait... Does the Arkham series count as simulator games? Like... Are they technically Batman simulators. I love reptiles and rats, but I fucking hate spiders. Need an Australian Man™ to help me if a spider is near lol. You know wow I'm talking about here I tend to get overexcited when myself or others are talking about stuff I'm interested in. I go on long tangents about stuff I like. I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to my semi-niche interests. I do enjoy listening to people go on their own tangents about things they like too though.

It's also quite apparent I have a thing for weird and/or disgusting fictional men ( my taste in women is better I swear. (Will fall for any tall woman who even looks in my direction. Which isn't saying much cuz I'm 4'10¾") )

💜 blind date 💜 the kitchen is now closed! 🔞minors dni🔞 • masterlist • kofi link • tag: finnie1500 (to follow or to block) a/n: hi please come in and distract this idiot, quickly, quicker, HURRY 💚

"Hi, uh-huh, welcome to the Vill-Inn. Can I just... sit you down as quickly as possible? If your date asks any of us if we want to see his big, curvy weapon one more time, we are going to escort him from the premises. Good luck!"

The moment you sit down at your table, after being rushed over by the waitstaff, you're met with a wide and mischievous grin, a signature smile from a man you recognise.

"I go by many names. Captain Boomerang, George, Digger. But you can call me daddy, if you like."

You screw your face up a bit, trying to pretend like that line didn't get you, and he's quick to try and win you over.

"I'm joking, love! Lighten up, it's a blind date, it's supposed to be fun!"

At least he's quick to... not apologise for his jokes, but to try and recover from them. And he's also surprisingly interested in you, and in getting to know you. Although, you fear it's just so he can make more risque jokes.

"Ah, mechanics. So... you're good with your hands then? You wear one of them little overall things? With anything underneath?"

The loud laugh he lets out at the end of his remarks are so endearing though, they make his lewd comments almost charming. Which you're unsurprised by, given your specific taste in men. He's perfectly strange and definitely a little bit gross, just how you like them.

He comments on your glasses, mentioning that you seem like someone who is a creative problem solver. A comment that feels like a proper compliment, not just a segue into another flirtatious remark. And it feels like he's dialing down on that the more he gets to know you. he talks to you about horror films for twenty minutes without saying anything lewd or crude. It's almost like it's a defense mechanism he uses to keep a distance, to maintain his facade.

In fact, he barely says anything at all when you're telling him about your preference for classic horror, and what video games you're interested in. Almost like he's enjoying learning about you. Almost like he can forego his usual ridiculously brazen behaviour around you. And you're more than happy to return the favour when he gets excited about boomerangs. Your fault for mentioning them.

"Yeah, you can learn a lot from a video online about surviving in the outback, but if you're ever looking for private tutoring, I'm your man."

He winks with this statement, but you can tell there's sincerity behind the offer. The fact that you're willing to listen politely, and that you seem interested in him when he's talking about subjects that are so personal to him, makes him feel very at home around you. And you're warming up to him, to the point where you can make some jokes too. I mean, no harm in joking about inviting him round to your place to get rid of some scary spiders, since he's Australian Outback Extroardinaire.

"Listen, for you, I can let myself be more of a hero than anti-hero for a change. Show me the little buggers and I'll have your house spider free in no time."

He winks again, and you're so fond of it that you can't help but imagine a life of being winked at across tables. A strange, happily ever after.

#finnie writes #finnie1500 #long post

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baconcolacan · 1 year

Note

What would happen if when Tord came back during The End and learned that Tom got married?(Both AUs)

Conference Table ask compilation, little more fluff after the Regimen ones, sob sob. > Regimen: Kill the spouse probably. Stay AU: Well...he'd be heartbroken, but Tom's the love of his life and he well and truly does love him, and sometimes loving someone just means letting them go, since loving someone means you want them to be happy, if Tom is happy with his spouse then Tord has no right to intrude on that. I don't think he can be friends with Tom again, not yet at least, so he'll leave until comes the time his heart is healed enough, maybe one day he can be friends with him again, be able to smile at him again without it hurting. For now, he just needs time.

HAHFSH YEAH I KEEP SAYING RTORD IS A WEEB BASTARD, CURB STOMP HIM IF YOU WISH ANON. And to answer your ask, they'll stay in each others' body for maybe a week or so, as is the trend with the swaps so far, and they would realize that they aren't in their universe at some point though STom is more likely of the two to come to that conclusion first as, Stay AU's world is a bit more fantastical than Regimen is (by eddsworld standards at least lol). RTom would probably think he's having a dying delusion. AK will notice that something is off about his papa, but he's just a kid so he'll just think Tom is sick in some way. I doubt Tord will tell his son anything after he confirms the swap with Bing and Larry, as he wouldn't want AK to worry so much. He'd probably ask RTom to pretend to be his husband for the sake of his son, much to the reluctance and awkward acquiescence of RTom. "I...don't have to kiss you right??" "No! No! No you don't h-have to! But, uh, you see....my husband and I are very amorous-" "Dude TMI." "Agh! Not in that way! For Guds skyld! I just mean that we're very openly affectionate! So- uh- I may have to kiss you on the cheek sometimes at least??" "Eh...fine...." "And...hold your hand....?? A lot??" RTom about to combust from embarrassment: "Only when the kid is looking. No funny business." "Of course!"

Cue RTom just internally imploding and being red in the face a lot when STord tries to be casually affectionate when AK is around.

And DW Anon! You elaborated just fine ^^

^^^^ See above but: Shocked of course, and a bit disgusted, but those feelings fade as he starts noticing the differences between this Tord and his Tord. Of course, he can't be openly hostile with him when AK is around since his body (not really his body) instinctually compels him to be protective of AK, and that includes protecting his emotional state. Eventually, he starts noticing he's also very compelled to be near STord once he's calmer, and the more animalistic part of this body says that he's his mate which OH GOD SHIT he really hopes this isn't going to be a thing, but it gets MUCH worse when he has to pretend to be this alternate version of himself in front of the kid. And DAMN THIS BODY for it! Because he gets all fluttery and flustered when Larsin smiles at him or gives him shy little pecks on the cheek. THIS SUCKS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

#asks #anonymous #blueengineercherryblossom #regimen ao3 #ew Stay AU #The Conference Table #washes down last ask with this ask

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nyalternatehellkitten · 1 month

Text

@madharemuses replied to your post “((I have a headache so I'm watching an FE:Engage...”:

[I want to enjoy Engage. I like the art design, I like the characters, I like the gameplay, but for some reason I just can't really bring myself to enjoy it. Also, it lacks replay value compared to most previous titles, so I feel like I spent too much on it.]

@gensokyogarden replied to your post “((I have a headache so I'm watching an FE:Engage...”:

ENGAGE GOOD

((Ayyyy we have the big two(tm) opinions here! Joking aside, I reply to these responses in the same post because I want to share some general thoughts. I'm not trying to pit you against each other by highlighting your opposing opinions lmao. Even though it's been a few days, Engage has been swirling around in my head for about a week or so now, and I do want to give my thoughts to you two, who responded to me, at least, so that post I made doesn't just become a big jebait or whatever the term is. So, spoilers, Zane's thoughts, and etc. etc. beneath the cut. Oh yeah, and it's long so don't read it unless you want to know what I think of a game I've not played, that a lot of people have been dismissive towards.))

I am writing this across several sittings. At the time of writing this statement, I'm watching the Avalanche map, so basically I'm right near the end. (I've also seen some supports, but the guy whose playthrough I'm watching is doing them offsceen because he doesn't want to waste his audience's time with grinding.)

This isn't going to be a structured review, it's more of a slightly-edited thought-dump.

My overall thoughts of this game so far, which is an impression unlikely to change, is this:

Fire Emblem Engage is a game unfairly criticised as worse than it actually is. It's not a super good game, but it does not fall as far below the 'average' standards of the series as much as people say it does.

Before I get into the full swing of things, I need to offer a disclaimer: I am out of touch with the series. I've played FE3-12 and Echoes, which means I'm missing FE1, the game that started it all, and Awakening and Three Houses, two immensely popular games that made big changes to the way Fire Emblem works, brought many new people to the fanbase, and generated a lot of attention. (I also haven't played Fates, but it's a bit less relevant to what I have to say.) I have never been interested in Awakening or Three Houses, but they changed the Fire Emblem 'landscape' so much that I would consider myself out-of-touch simply because I haven't played them.

Addressing some common criticisms

The two main complaints I see first-and-foremost on the internet that dominate over the better-formulated criticisms are: It's too anime and the writing sucks.

Now, the anime thing is stupid. Fire Emblem has always been anime; it's a stale and tasteless counter-argument, but it's objectively true. Most Fire Emblem games at least partially reflect the anime style popular around the time they were made, and all of them draw some influences from anime in general. The designs are too colourful and fancy for my taste, but I still find them enjoyable (Chloe and Etie are probably my favourites? Not super fond of Etie's Archer outfit but the player I'm watching made her a Warrior and she looks fine). In fact, I think this design choice was good; they clearly wanted to deviate from the grimness and seriousness of Three Houses, and can they be blamed for that? Making that sort of story can get heavy at times, so for an anniversary game I feel like going for something lighter was the right choice. Overall, the presentation in this game is excellent; not enough to make me love it like I loved Echoes (which was carried by the presentation alone for me), but good enough that I enjoy seeing it on my screen.

The second criticism is the writing, which is semi-valid. It's almost-good in a lot of places, but there's always one or two tiny details holding it back in my eyes. It's frustrating, because I feel like Engage would actually be quite well-written with a few fairly small edits that remove some of the issues or make the stupid parts (Chapter 10-11 Time Crystal) less stupid. The issue I have with the criticism is not that it's wrong, it's that people act like all of the other games in the series are god-tier writing or something. This is objectively untrue; most Fire Emblem stories are fairly straightforward or cliche plots carried by a cast of one-note, but enjoyable and likeable characters. Liking the characters makes you overlook the flaws in the plot. Just think about how many Fire Emblem games are about awakening or summoning some kind of all-powerful dragon or dark god (or both), and then think about how often that actually bothers you simply because you like some of the characters.

Let's talk about the writing for a moment, since this is an RP blog and therefore revolves around writing

It sounds to me like Engage's writing is actually really average by Fire Emblem standards (it can't be worse than the GBA games at least, if you ask me) but it's issue is that it came after Three Houses, a game which tried to be very different from the rest of Fire Emblem when it comes to writing. I haven't played Three Houses but I have seen people react to it. The amount of time people spend debating and arguing over who's in the right or wrong, beyond just which lord/house they like, shows that the game provoked more thoughts from its players than just "Oh I like this character more than this other character." Engage clearly has not done this, and parts of it that could form a good running theme just don't quite connect. The dots don't quite link up and the stars don't quite align. It falls just short.

In my head, I'm comparing it with other Fire Emblem games and I don't think it's that much worse than some (fairly well regarded) entries in the series. For example, in FE7, everything Ephidel does doesn't really make sense since he's formenting a rebellion in Lycia to gather Quintessence for Nergal to summon dragons... even though Nergal already has enough Quintessence to summon a dragon. In Sacred Stones, Eirika is supposed to be the diplomacy route, and yet everywhere she goes, stuff(tm) happens and she gets dragged into fights because Fire Emblem requires things.exe to happen so that each chapter can be a fight. In Binding Blade, the big exposition was Jahn explaining Idoun's backstory... through the medium of Roy seizing like 20 thrones in one chapter. In Monshou, the big main idea of Hardin being turned evil was great and executed pretty well, but most chapters are "So you're fighting dudes loyal to Medeus or Hardin" and the story is mostly about Marth trying to figure out what's going on in Akaneia. It's not bad, but it's hardly some god-tier story that has the player hanging off the edge of their seat at every chapter.

By comparison, Engage has an issue with build-up and payoff. The payoffs are often good, but the build-ups often don't do them justice. For instance, Morion was a good payoff because while what happened to him was quite predictable, Alchryst and Diamant's boss conversations with him are great. What's lacking is the fact that he gets captured by Hyacinth like... one chapter after he's introduced, after raising a million death flags. If he had been a green unit (or even a playable character with a big "Morion will go back to ruling his kingdom after next chapter" warning, or his stats transferring over to Diamant like with Nils and Ninian in FE7) for a while to let the player get to know him better, then his death would have been more impactful. Let Alear agree or argue with him about certain things; Alear needs to interact with Morion's pretty strong force of personality (that I think is pretty well demonstrated, even if it's quite one-note, in his first appearance).

Likewise, Lumera died too quickly. We needed a few more chapters for her and Alear's relationship to ripen. If the game had opened with Alear sent to Firine (upon Alfred's request, to help deal with Corrupted and bandits), with Lumera accompanying them but not helping them in battles to help him readjust to being awake, then it would have probably worked out better pacing-wise. Little happens character-wise in those chapters, so slotting in some Alear-Lumera interactions would have helped establish Alear's personality and motivations for the rest of the game. After Firine, they could return to Lythos for a little bit of R&R with Lumera promising to teach Alear more about the Emblems. Then the attack happens, she dies before she can, and the game proceeds with Brodia after that. It makes Lumera more impactful because the player gets to see her relationship with Alear more, and it makes their feelings for her stronger too, since they now have time to experience how she's their mother and acts like it.

One last example I will give is Zephia. Her whole death scene is kind of invalidated by the fact that she's been speaking as if the Hounds are her family for the whole game. I think a little tweak could really have fixed it. Take 'family' to be the theme of the story; a lot of Fire Emblem games place emphasis on bloodlines and family. Engage could have taken that both ways: that sometimes, blood family is important (e.g. the royal sibling pairs in the game) but sometimes your found family is just as important (Lumera and Alear) and sometimes your family can be abusive and bad for you (Sombron and Veyle, Zephia and Marni). How does Zephia fit into this? Well, imagine if her dialogue was tweaked ever so slightly. The idea is that she misunderstands how family should be because of Sombron (what he said during the time travel part). She longs for a real family, but because of Sombron she thinks that family should be abusive. Seeing Alear and Veyle helps her appreciate what family should be, and she helps them because of that. She dies thanking Griss, and hoping that Marni will forgive her in the afterlife. There we go, a villain given a better redemption than the weird one she got in the game, and completing a theme/story/lesson for the game as a whole.

Zephia also suffers from the buildup thing. The Hounds have a lot of screentime but they don't really do much with it; Griss and Zephia get their motivations and backstories infodumped as they die, and Mauvier spends the first half of his appearances being all "I am a knight I follow orders" when he should have been dropping hints that his true loyalty was to Veyle, rather than just mechanically following orders. If some of that screentime had been used to develop that Marni wants familial love, while Zephia misunderstands what a family should be, and Griss thinks of Zephia as his mother/older sister but struggles to convey that since his world is dull when he's not feeling pain, then it would have made them more compelling than the four big mooks you knock over 13 times throughout the story. Oh yeah, and of course, they do the "I must retreat" thing way too often. Fighting them feels completely insignificant because they never die until they suddenly do.

Lastly, the characters are all quirky and... oh boy. I've seen people complain that the Engage characters are more one-note crazy than usual. That... doesn't feel true to me. They feel like they're less serious than usual, but that's Engage being light-hearted. I've seen serious stuff (Alfred's illness, Hortensia's feelings about stuff) but mostly it seems to be on the lighter side. I don't mind, but I think it should have perhaps been a bit more of a balance. I will say this thought: of the supports I have seen, character motivations at least seem to make sense and stay decently consistent.

Some of my other criticisms

I would argue that there are a few things holding the game back. The writing, I have already mentioned. While there are plenty of good individual moments, there's often a lack of good build-up or connectedness that makes the whole feel like wasted potential and staleness. The gameplay, I think might actually be the most tactical in any Fire Emblem game so far; you can't just air-drop a god-unit into any situation with 1-2 range as easily because of Weapon Triangle breaking, and chain strikes mean that positioning actually matters, and tanking isn't infinite. This might not be a good thing, however, as I get the feeling that the average casual Fire Emblem player... doesn't care about gameplay much. It can't suck, but a lot of the time they do just want to make their favourite unit into a god and drop them into whatever situation.

One of the biggest problems is the Emblems, however. They're not really written as themselves. They're more like echoes or shadows or ghosts of the character they're meant to be. They often feel like they were written by someone who'd only read a synopsis of what that character was like, instead of seeing and analysing them (which... is probably what happened). The Emblem ring bond supports are bland and soulless most of the time, with often no connection between the character and the Emblem based off their commonalities (though to be fair, writing 12 Emblem supports for each character would have been hell). Regardless, all of the Emblem characters feel way too superficial to actually matter most of the time, they mostly exist to reference their own games a lot or provide the same basic statements about things. The advice they offer in the story is... logical but kind of bland and uninteresting. Sometimes they feel right, but most of the time they feel... not very good, which is not great when they're meant to be a big selling point of the game. It's like the Emblems are supposed to make you so excited about seeing your favourite characters that you don't stop to think if they're acting in-character. I won't comment on them too much gameplay wise, since I think that as much as they are meant to somewhat represent their own games (e.g. Sigurd being mobility and canter, Lucina having dual strike stuff) there's a limit to what you can do since most Fire Emblem games play quite samey.

Another issue I think that Engage has is the lack of post-game. Relying on DLC and Multiplayer to create replayability for a single-player game is just... objectively a bad idea? It's not what people are mostly there for. Watching the playthrough made me think "If I were playing this game, I'd want to run some of the other characters in side battles to see their supports and find out more about them." A post-game would be good for that, maybe with a bonus series of maps like Thabes was in Echoes. As it is, I've seen no evidence of that sort of thing.

I want to say some nice things

So I actually quite like Alear. Not a lot a lot, but a fair lot, if that makes sense. Based on everything shown about past Alear, and the way Alear loses their memories, their character makes sense for most of the game. Past Alear was emotionally stunted because Sombrero is the worst Fire Emblem dad in the series, and present Alear has a serious case of no-thoughts-head-empty at the start of the game. Given that everyone treats them super well (worships even...), it makes sense for them to develop a positive outlook on life, a strong fondness of their friends, a solid sense of duty towards everyone counting on them, and also feel kind of creeped out at being worshipped. Alear also feels a little more complete as a main character to me, oddly enough? I haven't played those games so I can't say for sure, but Robin and Corrin both often gave me a weird vibe like they're meant to be the player's self-insert but didn't commit to it enough. Like they wanted to make a self-insert character but then realised they needed to insert more character for supports, interactions, and story beats. Alear, on the other hand, feels like they wrote a complete character and then had to shove the self-insert in, to their detriment.

I also need to talk about Yunaka. I think Yunaka did something no other Fire Emblem side character (non-main character) has ever done: she immediately made me want to read about her supports to learn more about her backstory. Most Fire Emblem characters show up and I'm like "Okay, so this is this character's vibe. I'll find out more in the supports, I bet." Yunaka though... as soon as I heard her battle/crit quotes and saw how much that differed from the quirky "OwO I am cute thief" personality she was projecting, I was immediately like "There's more here. I need to know what her deal is." The game immediately shows that she's good at acting, and as soon as you put her into combat you see a side of her completely different from the one you saw before, and that sparks curiosity. That's good. Fire Emblem doesn't do that, instead it tries to establish the one note that its one-note characters are based around in a good way so that the player knows what that character's deal is. This time, it did that, and more. I haven't seen all of Yunaka's supports yet, but I will go through all of them when I get the chance to. I must know.

The music and voice acting are pretty good. The presentation and CG art is good. I don't think I need to elaborate on this, I think they're presented in a way that accentuates the atmosphere they're trying to create most of the time.

I'm hesitant about this last bit, but I think the game conveys its characters well. This is something Fire Emblem has never really had trouble doing, so it's not really a thing in Engage's favour, it's just another thing the game is not bad at. The supports (or those that I've seen at least) are good at showing what each character's deal is. That's not hard to do, though it is occasionally not done well (Vaida and Dorcas... a support that shows what their characters are like, but repeats the same joke dragged out three times in a row without really resolving anything).

Edit: Oh, and I can't believe I forgot to say that the really cheesy and campy moments are amusing rather than cringe to me. I think they just barely toe the line at times, but like... given how often the games try to shoehorn the 'Fire Emblem' into it, this really isn't even the worst.

Conclusion

This is the part where I pretend to have a conclusion so it feels structured. I already said what I needed to say at the start, so this is the part I put a bow on it.

I feel like it's hard for me to assess this game. I haven't played it, and I haven't played Awakening and Three Houses, two games that I feel like probably influenced both the fanbase and Engage a lot. But I can't help but feel like it's better than all of the hate it gets. I don't really think it's god tier, but it's definitely not as bad as it's said to be. I think if I did have the opportunity to play it though, I'd enjoy it at least as much as I enjoyed FE6, FE8, and FE11. With the others I played, I think it'd be a bit more up in the air.

If I had to say though, there's enough problems for it to be disappointing, but enough good for it to not warrant the amount of hate I've seen. I feel like the hate it gets is often an instinctual rather than logical thing; rarely do I see people fully explain how they feel, and sometimes some of the people criticising it talk like they're series veterans but it turns out they've played like... 4 games. Still, I can't help but feel like if this game came out after Fates rather than Three Houses, people would have a better view of it.

#ooc #madharemuses #gensokyogarden #((idk why I bothered with this))#((I've been unable to play games and do stuff very freely lately))#((so all of my free time has been watching an Engage playthrough))#((so I think it's been big on my mind lately))#((as I'm writing this I have reached the final episode))#((I doubt my thoughts will change))#((if they do I'll make an edit))#((but like this is a 2 and a half hour thing))#((not waiting that long to write my conclusion))#((kitty is doing his 'I want attention' wail outside my door))

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crystalninjaphoenix · 7 months

Text

Unasked Directions

A Short Horror Septic Story

(Happy Almost-Halloween everybody! Here's a short horror septics for the season. This isn't as long as the very-long story entries—in fact, it's shorter than most of my usual fic chapters at 5000 words. But I think it came out good :) Stacy is lost and not sure what to do. She finds direction soon, though)

—————

Stacy was lost.

She was sick of being lost.

She’d been walking through this neighborhood for a while now. Her stomach was growling, begging for food, but there was nothing in sight except for two-story houses with fences and nice lawns. Maybe if she got desperate enough she could knock on the door of one and ask for food, but she wasn’t anywhere near that level now. Besides, it probably wouldn’t work. They would probably politely decline then shut the door.

Maybe she should be trying to find her way back to that house where she’d left Mark. That house... where she’d left John.

The memories hadn’t yet settled. All it took was her thinking about John to remember that basement. She could see him in front of her again, both begging for help and asking her to run as his body shook. That one green eye staring at her no matter where the other one looked. And then—and then—

She looked down at her arm. The bite mark was still there, though it was no longer leaking blood. Who knew human teeth could clamp down like that?

And yet, she didn’t blame him. Whatever thing had been pursuing him... it finally caught up to him. It was with him.

But not in the same way the other one was with her.

A hand rested on her shoulder. “take a break.”

Stacy shrugged it off. “I sat down for a long time, I’ve had enough.” She sat for long enough to see the sun dip close to the horizon. Out of curiosity, she looked up and searched for the sun... halfway below. It was a pretty sunset. She’d never seen one with mountains. But that meant it would be night soon, and she didn’t want to be out in the dark.

“i’d protect you,” a voice whispered, as if responding to her thoughts.

“I’ll just call Mark,” she muttered. “He can come pick me up.” She dug into her pocket and pulled out her phone, opening up her contacts and choosing Mark’s number. The phone rang... and rang... and rang... and rang...

“it’s being blocked.”

Stacy flinched. But it was right. The call didn’t go through. It didn’t even reach the answering machine. She tried to send a couple texts, but all of them were highlighted with a red “Did Not Send” exclamation mark. “Why?” she muttered.

“phone is still under its effects.”

“That... glitchy thing that’s possessing John.”

“yes.”

“Why? We’re so far away now.”

“but you were so close.” Something leaned up against her. “don’t do that. it’s scary.”

Stacy spun around, barely catching a glimpse of its face before it disappeared. “You just don’t want to lose something you put so much hard work into,” she said.

It didn’t say anything in return. Nothing audible, at least. She could have sworn she heard some mumbled words that sounded... disappointed.

“I’ll find a way out of here eventually,” she said, mostly to herself, as she turned around and started walking again. She didn’t take too many turns. And besides, the suburbs weren’t endless. If she went straight in one direction, she would get out of here. It just might take a lot of walking.

* * * * * * * * * *

“Why aren’t any of my texts sending?” Mark stared down at his phone screen. Every single one of his messages was highlighted as unsent.

“Oh, uh, th-that’ll happen sometimes,” one of the house occupants said. Rya, right? “It can affect electronics. I tried to do my schoolwork while down there once and it deleted my whole essay.”

“Oh man. That sucks.” Mark sighed and looked around. This was a nice enough living room. A bit cheap-looking, but not enough to make a difference. Hard to believe there was a creature in the basement. The four house owners—he remembered their names but they hadn’t yet sunk in as to which was which—were all in here, too. They said they’d be happy to let him stay with them while he was in town. But he declined. He’d rather find Stacy and get a hotel room. There was just one problem with that. “Where could she have gone?”

“She’s never been here before, right?” another house owner—Diane?—asked. “There’s nowhere she would go?”

“If she’s been here, she’s never told me. And she’s told me about a lot of places she’s been to.” She got chased all over fucking Europe at one point.

“We could try driving around and looking for her,” said one of the guys—Leo? “I know you already tried but maybe you’re not familiar with the layout or something.”

“I have a very good sense of direction, actually,” Mark said. “But if you’re offering, I’d, you know, appreciate it. The more eyes out there the better.”

Eyes...

An image of a green eye flashed through Mark’s mind as he remembered what happened in the basement. Luckily, he successfully prevented the instinctive flinch. He’s had a lot of practice with that, it’s not too hard to do.

“Alright.” The last one—Michael?—clapped his hands once and headed for the front door. “I’m the one who owns the car, so I’ll be right back. I’ll do a quick sweep through the neighborhood. If I’m not back in twenty minutes and haven’t texted, be worried.” And with that, he was gone.

“So, um...” Rya shifted on her feet. “Is there... anything we can do for you?”

“Well.” Mark hesitated. There was something he wanted to do. But he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. And in his experience, erring on the side of caution kept people alive when unnatural matters were concerned. But... god damn it, if this was a trap, he was falling for it. “I want to talk to the guy in the basement again.”

Rya and Diane exchanged surprised looks. Leo folded his arms. “Are you sure? Whatever happened last time was... W-we’d never seen anything like that happen. Not with this thing or any of the others we took care of. I don’t want to be the guy who got Markiplier killed.”

Mark laughed. It felt weird these days to hear himself referred to by his channel name. True, he was very well-known for it, but he’d been so busy with other things for the past few years that it felt more like a side business sometimes. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to stay down there for too long. And, uh... I’m pretty sure that whatever happened was... at least partially related to Stacy.” That gray thing that followed her got really upset when she was hurt. “So... I mean, I’m worried about her, but at least it... clears up a variable, I guess?”

“A bit grim, but... practical,” Diane said. “Alright. But we’re going down with you again. I’ll fucking... sit in the doorway so the door doesn’t suddenly close like before.”

“I don’t think that would keep the door from closing,” Rya said tentatively. “It actually might just... make you get locked in there.”

“Hmm. True.”

“Just wait outside again, it’s fine,” Mark said. “I’m not getting too close.”

And so they descended the stairs again. Mark took a deep breath, then opened the laundry room door and peered inside. The lights were on again. The pieces of the broken chair were scattered about the floor, coating the carpet in splintery pieces. Even the washer and dryer looked a bit dented. And right where he was before... there was the figure of a man. A man who Stacy called John. He was still except for the gentle rising and falling of his chest.

Mark hesitated. Then stepped into the room. “Good luck,” Rya whispered as the three others hung back. He nodded but said nothing.

The carpet crunched oddly with every step. Mark looked down and didn’t see anything strange at first... until he noticed a faint gleam of metal. Chips of some kind, small enough to be hidden between the fiber strands, coated the floor. Where did they come from?

He stopped well outside of John’s reach and stared at him. The rise and fall of his chest was even. That was... good. The rope around his neck had been tightened while he was struggling. That was... bad? But at least he was leaning back, not at risk of choking. One eye was closed. But that green eye was open and staring at Mark. He suppressed a shiver. “Hey,” he said quietly. “You.”

John opened his other eye. Its gaze immediately landed on Mark, and he stiffened slightly. “You’re back?” His voice was hoarse and raspy. No wonder, really. The housemates told Mark that screams and laughter kept coming from the basement for the whole time he was out driving and looking for Stacy. It only faded shortly before he returned.

“I’m back,” Mark said, careful to keep his voice clear of emotion. “And I have a question.”

A moment passed. John took a deep breath. “Okay,” he whispered. “What is it?”

Mark’s throat was suddenly dry. But he coughed and continued on. “You mentioned my friend Jack earlier.”

Immediately, John perked up, interested. He sat up as well as he was able. It was a bit difficult with his arms and legs still bound. “Yeah?” he asked, a strange emotion in his voice.

“Do you... know him?”

John laughed. Mark tensed and took a step back, one hand going to his pocket where he still had his knife. “D-do I—yeah. Y-yeah, I-I know him,” John said. “Of course I do. I’m ÞžőĳĿ.”

“What?”

“I’m õ÷ĉů,” John repeated, more insistently.

Mark narrowed his eyes. It was weird that he couldn’t really understand what John was trying to say. And he didn’t trust weird things anymore. “I don’t know what you’re saying, but I don’t think it’s helpful.”

John slumped, leaning against the side of the washer. “Guess not,” he said dully.

Mark hesitated. Then he decided to continue. “What... what happened to Jack?”

“What do you think happened?”

“Wh...” Mark paused again. Should he answer that? “At first... I thought the stress was getting to him,” he said slowly. “Then I thought he was being stalked. Then... he disappeared. And I thought he ran off. And now... with everything that I’ve seen, I think something got to him. Something that... that he tried to tell the rest of us about.” Mark’s voice cracked a bit. He quickly moved on. “Something like one of you.”

John blinked, looking surprised. Then he laughed again. “You don’t think there’s a difference either...” he said quietly.

“What does that mean?” John didn’t answer the question, so Mark tried a new one. “Do you know what happened to Jack?”

John looked at him and nodded slowly.

“Is he...” He didn’t want to ask this question. But he had to have confirmation. “Is he dead?”

A moment passed. John kept staring at Mark. Then he looked away and sighed. “For all intents and purposes,” he murmured.

“What does that mean?”

“It means he can’t be saved.”

Mark’s heart dropped. He’d known that for a while. He’d known he was too late, too dismissive, too... deliberately ignorant. After all, he’d seen strange things all his life. Why was it weird when someone else did, too?

“You should get out of here,” John whispered. “Stacy, too. Just... both of you go home.” His breath hitched. “A-and more importantly... y-you should leave this room right now. Before... before it...” He was shaking slightly.

Mark didn’t say anything. He simply turned around and left.

* * * * * * * * * *

Stacy was still lost.

This was impossible. She had walked in a straight line back the way she came, how did she not recognize any of this?

Indeed, it was so impossible that she slowed her walking and really looked around. All of this was new. She’d never seen these houses before. They didn’t even look slightly familiar. And... wait a minute. When she looked behind her, there was an intersection. But she hadn’t walked across the street or turned a corner once.

This was impossible.

This was not normal.

“Are you doing this?” she whispered. “Do you not want me to go back to Mark and the others? You... you got into a fight with that thing possessing John. What, do you think it’ll still be angry with you?”

A hand on her shoulder. “it will be,” it whispered. “but this isn’t me doing this. i would not do this to you.”

Stacy frowned. She wasn’t sure if she believed it would never do something like this. But she believed that it wasn’t doing it now. Trapping people in eternal suburbs didn’t really seem to... fit with the rest of it. “Okay fine,” she muttered. “Can you... get me out of here? Like you did with that house?” She didn’t want to rely on it, but she couldn’t think of anything else. It was getting darker, and that was putting her on edge.

“i’ll try.” A pause. “go back again. turn that corner.”

Ah yes, the suddenly appearing intersection. Stacy sighs and turns back around, taking the corner.

“turn around again.”

She did. The intersection was still there.

“and back.”

She did. The houses were different.

“i understand now. walk—”

“Excuse me?”

Stacy jumped, and spun back around. The intersection was gone again, now a gently curving road. And standing on the other side of the street... was a boy. The moment he noticed her looking at him, he crossed the street. “I’m lost. Can you give me directions?”

The boy had brown hair with a poorly dyed black streak. He had blue eyes. And he had freckles. Stacy’s heart dropped at first. “Ma—” No. No, looking closer, it wasn’t Mathew. It was just... a kid around his same age, who had the same general features of him. That could be a coincidence, but given the looping suburbs... “Um, no, I’m sorry, I’m lost too.”

“Can I come with you, then?” the kid asked. “We can try to find places together.”

“Uh...” It pained a part of her to leave a kid alone. But she knew there was more to this kid than it appeared. And if she didn’t, the cautious hand on her shoulder would tell her everything she needed to know. “Sorry, I think it’s best if I just—go on my own.” She turned around—

“no, don’t!”

“Excuse me?”

Stacy spun back around. There was another kid standing next to the first one. Her heart stuttered. Dark hair, brown eyes, younger than the other—he could have been Larkin at first glance.

“So... you’re just gonna leave us?” asked the new kid.

“I’m... sure you can find your way,” Stacy said slowly. “You can ask the nice people living in these houses.”

“Why aren’t you doing that?” the first boy asked.

“Um—”

“Why are you going to leave us?” added the second.

“I-I’m not going to—” Stacy stopped herself before she finished that sentence. She shouldn’t say anything. She shouldn’t make promises.

“walk backwards.”

She jumped. “What?” she whispered.”

The grip on her shoulder tightened. “walk. backwards.”

Right. Listen to the supernatural entity that was weirdly invested in her life. Without turning around, Stacy started stepping away from the kids.

They stood there. Staring at her. “Why are you leaving us?” the first boy asked.

“You’re a grown-up, you’re supposed to protect kids,” the second said.

Stacy kept her mouth shut. Don’t engage. Don’t engage. That would probably just give them some sort of opening.

It was maddening to walk backwards, but she didn’t want to look away. She was ten feet away... twenty... thirty...

And then the kids were running up to her.

Stacy yelped. She started to instinctively turn around but the grip on her shoulder tightened, holding her in place.

“Let us come with you!” the first one said.

“Let us be with you!” the second one said.

She tried to pick up the pace but she couldn’t run while facing backwards. The heels of her shoes were catching on sidewalk cracks. She started lifting her feet higher but that slowed her down.

The kids ran until they were within arm’s reach of her—and then, suddenly, stopped. Stacy almost stopped too, just out of shock, but no! No, she can’t stop! The sidewalk briefly dips down—she stumbled a little but kept her balance. Right, that was a spot where the curb dipped down for an intersection. She didn’t trust her backwards walking skills while crossing the street so she turned instead, slowing for a bit. The kids stayed where they were.

She kept walking. Why was her heart beating so fast? Why was it—

There was whispering behind her. Not the whispers she’d come to know. These sounded different. Harsher. She started to turn, but—

“no!” The grip tightened again. “tricks. deception.”

Stacy stiffened and stayed facing the right way. Of course. They were trying to get her to look.

“If you don’t turn around and look at me I’m going to gut you like a fish,” a voice whispered.

She didn’t turn.

“I’ll kill these children.”

“Miss, help us!”

She flinched, but didn’t turn.

“I’ll do it.”

“Please! Please, miss!”

“We’re going to die!”

Tears started clouding her vision, but she didn’t turn around.

And then—screaming. High screaming, terrified and in pain, accompanied by meaty splattering sounds. She stopped walking, breathing heavily. Don’t turn around. Don’t turn around.

In a second, the sounds were gone.

She stood there. Listening. But there was nothing.

So she started walking backwards agai

Shrieks pierced the air. The two kids—the two things shaped like kids—came sprinting around the corner, limbs flailing, heads swinging.

“now run!”

Stacy didn’t waste time following its advice. She turned and ran—and the reason why she could was clear. The end of the neighborhood was in sight. The small road she’d been walking next to joined up to a busy street. Cars were passing by, headlights and street lamps providing a goal she could reach. Her feet pounded on the pavement as she pushed herself to reach it. It was so close!

“Don’t leave us!” the kids screamed, and they sounded so much like Mathew and Larkin.

Stacy didn’t look back. Thirty feet—twenty feet—ten—She paused for a moment, waiting for a clearing in the cars, then ran across the street in a move that would’ve made her real kids call her a hypocrite. The moment she had both feet on the opposite sidewalk, she stopped, breathing heavily. She could feel her heartbeat in her neck. Slowly, she turned and looked back across the street...

There was no one there.

“Oh thank god,” Stacy breathed. Some of these things were stuck in place, she was so glad these were one of them. Which reminded her... “How are you with me?” she asked the thing behind her. “I-I thought you were stuck in that house.”

It shifted slightly. “not now.”

“Why n—”

“it’s not over.”

A pair of voices sounded behind her. “Eexxccuussee mmee?”

Stacy froze... then slowly turned.

The kids were there. Their eyes were pitch black. “Ttaakkee uuss wwiitthh yyoouu,” they said in unison.

“Fuck!” Stacy scrambled backwards, then turned and ran.

“TTAAKKEE UUSS WWIITTHH YYOOUU!!”

She didn’t look behind her. She kept running down the street. Past the empty lot that was across from the neighborhood, reaching a parking lot that was near empty, running past that, approaching a small strip mall lined with shops and the occasional restaurant. She could hear little feet behind her. She could hear little lungs breathing. They were getting closer. They were getting closer. They were getting closer, she had to get somewhere safe!

The first store she reached was a small coffee shop. She didn’t recognize the name, something local, maybe, but this wasn’t the time! She reached for the door before she was even in arm’s length of it—

The door opened first.

She stopped. Behind her, the little steps stopped, too.

There was... something... standing in the doorway. It was hard to describe. Thin. Bony, even. And wearing a red hoodie with the hood pulled up. She couldn’t identify the features, but she knew what this was. “Jacqueline?” she whispered.

It grinned. “Been a while, Stacy.” Then it looked past her, at the little things behind her. It took a step forward, letting the shop door close behind it. “Why don’t you... run along? You’re too new for this.”

“Yyeess msaiarm!” The words blended together, ‘sir’ and ‘maam’ overlapping. Stacy glanced back and saw two kids—that did not resemble her sons in the least—scrambling back and running away.

Stacy slowly turned back around, staring at the thing that had once pretended to be her friend. “What are you doing here?” she whispered.

“Looking for you two,” it said, eyes flicking over her shoulder once more.

Her stomach dropped. “Was that—was that planned?! Like with that weird house?!”

“No... but it’s lucky.” It shrugged. “Now. You’re confused, right? You’ve probably been wondering for a while why we’re going to such lengths to follow you everywhere. Well... come inside.” Its head jerked back to the shop’s door behind it. “I’ll explain everything.”

Stacy hesitated. Like hell she wanted to follow this thing anywhere, to do anything it wanted her to do. But... there was a hand on her shoulder. And it was grinning at her, staring. It could go anywhere, right? Wouldn’t it just... find her again? “Fine,” she said tiredly.

“Thank you.” The thing in the red hood turned around and headed back into the shop. A bell dings as it pushes the door open. Stacy trails after it, looking around the cafe. There’s a table running along one wall with tall chairs. A small sitting area with coffee tables and leather sofas. No traditional tables or booths. Faint pop music plays in the air. It’s almost... cozy. Until Stacy looks into the decorative mirror behind the counter and sees the gray thing lurking behind her. She shivers.

“Go sit down,” says the thing in the red hood. “I’ll order for us.”

“...okay.” She probably doesn’t have much choice, does she? Besides, her stomach is growling with the scent of coffee shop pastries in the air. She drifts over to the nearest sofa and sits down.

The leather squeaks slightly. She feels something heavy get onto the sofa.

“hey.”

It sat down next to her.

Stacy doesn’t look in that direction. Instead, she concentrates on looking out the glass storefront. “Why me?” she whispered. “Why did you... latch onto me? Why not anyone else who lived in that house before me?”

Silence for a moment. “we’re alike,” it said..

“No, we’re not.”

“don’t lie.”

Stacy went quiet. No use arguing.

After a minute or two, the thing in the red hood is back. “Here we are,” it said cheerfully, setting down a coffee cup and two paper pastry bags on the coffee table in front of her. “You looked hungry.” It sat on the sofa across from hers. There was another cup in its hand, but it wasn’t drinking. “Probably best to say thank you right now. Bad manners can get you killed.”

“Is that a threat?” Stacy asked, feeling uncharacteristically bold.

It smiled. “No. I’d never do that. But others would.”

Stacy stared at it for a second. She tried to describe its features in her mind, but all she could come up with was... two eyes above a nose above a mouth. And that was no help at all. She sighed. “Thank you,” she mumbled, looking inside the pastry bags. A croissant and a chocolate muffin. And the drink was a mocha latte with whipped cream. Her usual order. She picked up the croissant and took a couple bites as it stared at her. Then she swallowed. “You said you would explain everything.”

“Well, that was a bit of an exaggeration.” The smile widened. Could smiles go that far? “Not everything. But I’ll explain what we want.”

Stacy laughed. “I think your friend has made it clear what it wants from me.” The weight on the sofa next to her shifted. “I’m supposed to... stay with it, right?”

“Misery loves company,” it said idly.

“I feel like you... people... say that a lot.”

“Because it’s true. Misery—” It pointed at the spot next to her. “—loves company. Of any kind. Living... or not. Sometimes not is easier.”

Stacy paused. “Misery,” she repeated. The weight shifted again. Something was pressing against her. “Is... is that your name?”

“close enough.”

“I-I didn’t know you... had... names.”

“We need to be referred to somehow,” the thing in the red hood said. “These days I like being Sangria.”

“Sangria,” Stacy repeated. She took a deep breath. “Alright, Sangria. If... if I already know what you want with me, why shouldn’t I leave right now?” It was a bluff. She didn’t think they would let her.

Sangria chuckled, like it knew she was bluffing and found it amusing. “Because there’s so much more going on than what you think,” it said. “Like, what’s happening with your friend ŧģùõĲ. Oh, sorry, you call him John, don’t you?”

Stacy stiffened. “What do you... Wh-what do you mean?” She stammered. “Is there... more going on?”

“I’ll assume you figured some things out.” Sangria raised the coffee cup, but still didn’t drink, just swirled it around. “You know that John was claimed—though, not in the same way as you. You know he went back to it to protect you and your kids. You know it’s with him now, don’t you?”

Stacy nodded slowly. She looked at the window again. Rain was starting to fall. Slowly, one droplet at a time.

“The one with John is too powerful.”

“Too powerful?” Stacy repeated, confused.

“it’s so new,” misery whispered in her ear.

“New?” Stacy paused. “You mean... young?”

“No, but if that helps you understand it,” Sangria said. “Usually the older ones are stronger. With some exceptions. But even those exceptions grow their power slowly.” It nodded at the spot next to Stacy. She felt the weight against her shift. “ø¡Œ©ŗ is growing strong fast. And that’s worrying.”

Stacy laughed. “What? Afraid it’ll come after you?”

Sangria stared at her until she stopped laughing.

“You... you... are,” Stacy whispered. “You’re scared of whatever’s got a hold of John.”

“It’s shown many times that it doesn’t care how strong you are,” Sangria said quietly. “Because it is stronger. Or... it will be. Soon. It’s a bit of a copycat. We’ve been stuck for so long, wondering but not coming up with an idea that could work... until it claimed John.”

“Why?” Stacy clenched her coffee cup tightly. “Are you—are you going to use him?” Why did she even bother to ask? These things didn’t care about human life or wellbeing. That was clear by now. Of course they were going to use him. “How? Wh-what are you going to do?”

Sangria smiled and said nothing.

“Y-you can’t just—you said you would explain!” she cried.

“And I did. I’m sorry you don’t like the explanation.” Sangria laughed. “Don’t worry... you’ll be fine. And so will your kids.”

“I-I don’t just care about me and my kids! John is my friend!”

“You don’t even know his name.”

“I—he’s never told me!” Stacy said defensively.

It laughed again. “He has. But you’re right. That’s not fair. It’s not his fault he was ĒŴÔľñêāŷŀÁëÀĘŞÞéŖ¸Õ. It’s »śÎÇ’s fault. Which is why you want to stop it, right? To help your friend?”

“I...” Stacy did want to help John. She couldn’t deny that. But... “If you get him killed... How is that helping?” she whispered.

“sometimes dying is better.”

She shuddered. “No... i-it never is.”

“you didn’t always think that.”

“Shut up!” She spun to look at the thing next to her. Its blackened, dripping eyes were inches from her face. And then it disappeared. But... the weight on the sofa didn’t. It merely shifted farther away.

“John, as you call him, has been through a lot,” Sangria said. “Maybe he would agree.”

“Sh-shut up, he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t.” She wasn’t sure how she knew that so strongly, but she knew it.

Sangria shrugged. “Alright. We’ll see if he can make it out of it alive.”

Stacy swallowed a lump in her throat. It was no use arguing this. “What about me? What... what part am I going to play?”

“He’s your friend. You’re his. You help each other. You’re going to help him do what he has to.”

“And what is that?”

“Well, we can’t tell you that,” Sangria said patiently, as one would be when explaining something to a grumpy child. “What if Ą®Ùßũ knew what you were thinking? It’s very good at getting inside like that. Just listen to Misery. Alright? It’s trying to help.”

“N-no, you can’t expect me to—to go with whatever you want!” Stacy tried to stand up defiantly—but a hand on her shoulder brought her back down. Its grip was tight in a way it had never been before.

Sangria stood up instead. “Thanks for the coffee,” it said, setting the cup down on the table. Then it turned and walked out the front door. The bell should have chimed. It didn’t.

Stacy stared down at the cup on the table. Out of curiosity, she reached forward and picked it up. It was empty. Had it been the whole time? Or had it been drained without Sangria drinking a single drop? She didn’t think there was a way to tell.

Then her phone chimed.

Where are you? It was from Mark.

Stacy texted the name of the coffee shop. It’s in a strip mall somewhere, I dunno where exactly. Sorry. I can check the address if you want.

A moment passed. Then: I’m close.

Stacy raised her eyebrows in surprise. Well... maybe this strip mall wasn’t too far from the house, then. Good. She could wait. Hopefully the shop wouldn’t close soon and she could wait here for Mark instead of walking out into the now-pouring rain.

She stared at the pastries and coffee on the table. Her stomach growled. As much as she didn’t want to eat or drink anything that one of these... horrors brought her... she was too hungry not to. And maybe it was a foolish thought, but she couldn’t help but feel they wouldn’t do anything to her. Not after... whatever plan they had in mind. Granted, Sangria could have been lying, but... but nothing. She was just really hungry.

After she finished the croissant and had about half the coffee left, she got another text: I’m closer.

Well... that was worrying. Was this... actually Mark? Or was it...?

Stacy glanced around. The coffee shop was empty except for her and the employees. But she didn’t know those employees, did she? What if they weren’t human? No, no. As she looked at them, she got flashes of their lives. All the bad parts. All extremely human. But that didn’t mean she was safe.

What about the phone itself? It had a camera, what if that glitchy thing could see though it? Quickly, she shoved the phone into her pocket. Good. But what about other people’s phones?

God, was this how John had been living for years? How did he get through it without losing his mind?

...Did he get through it?

Her text tone went off. Slowly, she took the phone out again. I’m here.

Here?! Where?! Who was here?! Quickly, she stood up, glancing around for somewhere to hide. Nowhere! There was nowhere. She ran forward. Maybe—yes, that plant in the corner was the best idea—at least if she didn’t want to jump over the counter—Could she jump over the counter? The employees would only mind if she was wrong—

The front door’s bell chimed. Stacy whirled to look at—Mark. It was Mark. Definitely him. She was getting the same flashes of memory as before when she looked at him. “Hey,” he said. “I, uh... noticed you standing in here looking around... I parked out here. Right in front. So you wouldn’t get wet, you know, from the rain.”

Stacy laughed. “Yeah, yeah. I—yeah. Thanks.” She walked over to him.

“Everything... okay?” Mark asked.

She took a deep breath. “A lot happened. Uh... did you send these texts?” She showed him.

“Oh yeah.”

“Why’d you make them so ominous?!”

“They’re not ominous! I was close!”

She laughed again. “You were, you were. It didn’t take you too long to get here.” The laughter faded. “Let’s... go. I’ll explain everything on the way.”

Mark nodded, and the two of them walked out to the car.

As soon as Stacy got inside, she looked down at the spot in between the two front seats... and saw her coffee cup and her muffin in the cupholders.

“you forgot them,” a voice whispered behind her.

It would’ve been thoughtful in other circumstances. As it was now, as she could feel was a chill of fear crawling down her spine.

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