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jacscorner · 3 years

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Pokemon All-Stars: A Fan Region/Game/Alternate Universe Idea

I like watching and rewatching Original Pokemon Game/Region videos. Like Mr. Buddy's "What if X was a Pokemon Region" and stuff like that. I wanna make-or, I guess, write-my own. Since Regions are kind of a character all their own and I'm a Wannabe Character Artist, I wanted to try and make one my own.

I've got no skills in coding, pixel arts, or anything, so this will forever be just some kind of dumb fanfic that sometimes incorporates Game Mechanics to justify things if it were able, for some Godforsaken reason, 'stolen' for a game. Cause, in 2021, no idea feels too big or too dumb. And, uh, trust me, this'll be a dumb fanfic of an idea. So be aware for the subpar writing talents of some wannabe writer who doesn't know shit.

Small disclaimer though:

>This region is being made with the intention that every extra feature will be available in it. Z-Moves, Regional Variants, Gygantamax, Mega Evolutions, and maybe some things I've forgotten. This probably won't matter cause it's just a dumb fanfic plot bible with mechanics peppered in. Competitive balancing be damn! Pokemon Fans can create their own balance! That's what the Battle Simulator is for! In fact, if this was a real game, then it'd have a Battle Simulator like Showdown built into it.

>This is an open source Fanfic Bible. You can take this idea and run with it if you want. You can omit all my bad ideas even!

>I won't be making my own Fakemon. I don't like a lot of Fakemon that exists out there and, trust me when I say this: I am no better than them. In fact, I'm fucking worse.

>If this WERE a game, it probably WOULD still have to cut some Pokemon. I doubt that kinda, and I won't get into why I think dexit was dumb personally, cause it doesn't really matter. But, like, my fan game/fanfic will have a lot of shit going on in it. So, like, realistically, there would probably need to be a cut, if not for data, than just cause there's a lot of work to do as is. But, like, again, under the context of a fic, this wouldn't be an issue.

>With THAT said, I'd want this game to have a Gen 2 Sprite aesthetic. My fangame, don't care if ya'll don't like that.

>I'm probably gonna copy a LOT of stuff from other Fangames I've played. My shit memory probably won't allow me to remember what I'm biting from what, so be free to call me out whenever. Cause if I stole the mechanic, I probably liked it the game. And if not, well, I'd like the recommendation.

Fuck, this was long already. The rest is under the cut, so, like, if you're already turned off, you can stop reading. I understand. I'm kind of a windbag.

Okay, so how many of you guys have seen this picture on the internet? It's a picture of a ton of Pokemon regions all...basically stitched together, since not only could this never be canon, but this goes beyond the size of even most open world games today. But this was the inspiration for this project. The map probably wouldn't, and probably couldn't, look like this, but it perfectly sums up what I'd want out of this game. Thus, it'll be our placeholder.

Our hometown of Capricorn Town is home to Professor Chestnut, and you, her faithful assistant, are about to set off on a Pokemon adventure of your own! The Professor is encouraging you to see the region of Sidus for yourself and is even willing to give you a Starting Pokemon!

Starting Pokemon

Now, if I'm not making new Pokemon, which Starter will it be? Well, the game will have the data for all the starters and will randomly select a Grass, Fire, and Water Type for you to choose from. Those will be your starters, with the option of also choosing Pikachu, Eevee, and Riolu, the two mascot mons...and Riolu, who is kind of a mascot mon, but a lesser one.

Let's say for this example, your options are Torchic, Piplup, Rowlet, Pikachu, Eevee, and Riolu. And, uh, get used to the words 'random' and 'generator', those are our keywords.

Anyway, once you get your pick, there'll be some kind of tutorial mission the Professor will send you on. This will introduce you to two very important things;

1. One of your Rival.

2. An Evil Team Grunt.

Rivals?!

Now to start getting into why this game might still be pretty big still be big despite the sprites on modern consoles.

Each of your Rivals would be one kid from each region of the 8 Mainline Games from Kanto to Kalos. How this'll be decided is that each pair of kids will be plugging into a generator and will pick between either the boy or girl version.

Ex. Brendan and May both cannot be in the game. Instead, they'll be plugged into this generator. Let's say the generator fell onto May. She'll be one of your Rival. Repeat this process 7 more times until you have 8 Rivals sprinkled throughout the world, each one given a defined personality and better AI to make them harder trainers to fight.

May will have one of the Hoenn Starters, sans Torchic. Regardless of whether or not Protagonist-San picked Torchic, May will either have a Treecko or Mudkip, again, chosen at random per kid. Whichever Starter you picked, your first rival will have a starter that beats yours. So, let's say moving forward, May has a Mudkip and you a Torchic. The other kids will have random starters of the various regions they originally hail from.

Anyway, your rivals will wander the overworld. If they see you, they'll battle you on sight. If they lose, they'll be gone after the next time you turn the game off. They won't battle you again until they respawn, but you can hang out with them. In fact, you can even recruit them to be in your party for a few days and they'll follow you around and just generally be your friend. It'll make every battle a double battle, but they'll battle you again before their timer runs out, so be prepared!

BANG! BANG! ENTER! Team Wild!

The two of you will have to face off against Team Wild! They have a Cowboy theme to them, using a mix of Ground and Steel-Types, with a few Pokemon being added in for good measure like the Ponyta Lines, Cacnea Line, and Remoraid. Cause...it's a gun.

They're an outlaw gang, they're rough and tough (or, at least, a mild threat) and will always throw down when they spot ya. Something I'm just sniping from JelloApocalypse is that they'll appear sporadically and act as Timed Events across the map.

You and your new Rival beat them and send you packing. I'd imagine May and the other Rivals would mostly be friendly, but I'm sure there's one or two that'll just be jerks to you. Regardless of personality, they'll be pretty tough and programmed to skill with you. Your strongest mon you have on hand when you fight them will be the level their entire team.

With your tutorial done, the world is opened up! Your mom gives you your running shoes, some Pokeballs, and your...I don't know, PokeCelular or something, just the regional gadget that does a bunch of stuff. From holding your map to holding your VS Seeker.

The PokeCelular will also give you notifications on where Team Wild are! You can choose to ignore the events, but if you do, then they'll start to appear in the overworld know and will get progressively stronger.

A Balancing Act

This game will be an open world, 8-Bit Sprite Game for you to explore after you leave Capricorn!

So how do we balance that?

Well, we got our Rival out of the way already, so let's move on. Gym Leaders will have a pretty linear progression. However, regardless of which Gym you tackle first, they'll all be at the same level.

It doesn't matter if you decide to go across the map and battle the Bug Gym, he'll stay at Level 10, just like the Normal Gym. Whe you get the second badge, they'll all jump to Level 15. NPC Trainers will follow the same progression; the higher your badge number, the stronger the number of Pokemon they'll be.

Wild Pokemon will also get stronger. The more badges you get, it'll attract stronger wild Pokemon because they'll see you're stronger and will come out more.

The overworld will also have various dungeons in them that'll be Level Locked. Say, you go through a forest and you're just trying to reach the end of a maze. The Trainers and Pokemon will function the same as I've mentioned before. But, you can decide to go deeper into the dungeon. These Pokemon will be level locked, usually something of a high level, because this is a more dangerous part of the dungeon. But, there'll be some goodies down there, like rarer Pokemon and some kind of really rare and good item like a TM or something.

How will you traverse? Well, first of all, HMs? They're semi-back. BUT, instead of having to deal with teaching Cut to a Pokemon, you just need the move Cut and a Pokemon that can use the move and you'll be able to use Cut. A few other Pokemon that are reasonable candidates, but don't get cut, will be allowed to do this too. Like, Gallade can use Cut. It can't learn the move, but just holding the HM will get the job done.

Controversial opinion, but I think I've always liked the idea of HMs. On paper, they give you a reason to explore the world and go back to areas you couldn't before for goodies and make for a good way to get off dungeons until you get the needed item. Even something like Cut can be used to open up new areas for exploration for your squad of mons.

BUT, well, HMs suck. As moves, they suck save for, like, 2...MAYBE and they're only for, like, a handful of areas. You either hand them out as evenly as possible, forcing mons to take moves you don't wanna use, or you just get an HM Slave or two to use 'em all. But like they, they serve their function and all you need is the Pokemon in question and NOT teach them the move. If you need a Move Deleter just so people aren't stuck having to use Rock Smash for three towns, then there's a problem with your RPG. Imagine playing Final Fantasy and you had to give your Fighter the Bronze Axe to get through a forest and still had to fight with it, even though you got a +12 Silver Sword! It's no wonder people hated these things! But I don't think getting rid of them and introducing Rental Pokemon was a good solution either and adds a different, albeit less intrusive problem.

Gym Leaders

So, how do Gym Leaders work?

Much like your rivals, they'll be randomly generated. Let's say, hypothetically, there's a pool of 60 Gym Leaders and Elite Four members. The game will randomly generate 16 to be Gym Leaders. The generator will have some kind of complicated math (at least, too complicated for me) so that you don't have more than 2 gyms of the same type. (Example: Misty and Nessa might be Active Gyms, Siebold can't be selected for a Gym cause the Water Slots are taken).

As a trade off, some Gyms might have special conditions before you can challenge them. Like, if you got stuck with Koga as a Gym Leader, than he'll only let you in if you complete a nearby dungeon and help his daughter out cause he doesn't trust her to make it back on her own. Or, like, Claire's a Gym Leader, but she won't battle you unless you've collected 7 Gym Badges prior at least.

The Gym Leaders, as mentioned before, will get progressively stronger with each badge obtained. After the 8th badge, you can go and climb Victory Road, face the E4 and confront the Champion! You can keep hunting Gym Leaders, but just remember that the E4 will always be 10 Levels above the strongest gym you beat. And they'll just get stronger with every one you beat until all 16 are slain.

Another handful, let's say 8, Gym Leaders/E4 Members will be wondering around as NPC Trainers. The justification is that this big super region is in some Alternate Universe Pokemon Game that has all the Pokemon and other important trainers in it, hence why we can have a game where Roxanne and Lenora are hanging out at a coffee shop. They're not Rivals, more like stronger NPCs you can rematch and wonder the map. They're not here to be the very best like no one ever was.

I mean, I'd like, like, 10-20 instead of 8 extras, but let's not get TOO greedy...yet...

Elite Four

And now, it's time to flip the script. Cause if E4 members can be Gym Leaders, then who are the Elite Four?

Easy. The Rivals.

All the Rival characters will be put in a random generator as well. The four that are chosen. You can have an Elite Four made up of Wally, Marnie, Hau, and Barry and you gotta deal with it.

This is excluding Brendan and May, Blue, and Calem and Serena. Anyone else is fair game.

Champion

So, the Champion. Who would it be in this? There was a funny idea I had, but this is a Pokemon Game. So there would be two versions. We'll call them Pokemon Dawn & Dusk. The difference between these games is the game Champion!

Benga would be the Champion of Pokemon Dusk, the grandson of Alder! His final Team will include Volcarona, Garchomp, and Dragonite, Pokemon he used in Black and White. I'd also include Scrafty, Rampardos, and Golurk, Pokemon used against you in White Treehollow and Black Tower areas.

Meanwhile, the Champion of Pokemon Dusk will be Zinnia, the Lorekeeper! Her team would include the Goodra, Tyrantrum, Altaria, Noivern, and Salamence she used in her original team, with her plucky Whismur sidekick becoming an Exploud and her ace.

You would've met them in the beginning of the game and would've showed off a bit by helping you with Team Wild before. They'll pop in and out throughout the game, at first amused by your tenacity, but not wanting a rookie like you to get hurt. But if you keep bonking Team Wild, they'll be impressed with how strong you are.

The show up to chat again when you beat 8 Gym Leaders, and will pop in if you White Out to give you some advice. White Out three times and they'll feel bad for you and give you an egg. Benga will give you a Larvesta Egg and Zinnia a Bagon Egg.

EXTRAS

So I don't got a lot of ideas for the Post Game, but there is one idea I thought would be cool if, if after you defeat the champion, they give you a call. They'll tell you that there are strong trainers wondering the Overworld and to be careful.

Because dotting the overworld will be Champions passed and proper! Cynthia, Blue, Lance; all of them are rocking Lv 100 Teams and are out for blood. They won't challenge you, but if you talk to them, there will be no backing out of the battle! You come with your A-Game!

sI'm not exactly in love with the idea of Team Wild. Maybe the Evil Team should go full fanservice and just be Team Rainbow Rocket. Or maybe go half-and-half; having past Evil Team members and leaders walk around in cowboy gear and acting as Team Wild executives.

I'd also would love Tournaments. Like, maybe that could be a weekly event in some town, they'll how tournaments and the characters that aren't designated as Gym Leaders and such will attend. Maybe there's a cash prize, maybe you'll win Pokemon Eggs of rare, guaranteed shines, or maybe you'll get some kind of important quest items.

Yeah, I want quests! All sorts of side quests! And can't forget what I'd do with Legendairs;

If you know Bengal's team, you'll know he's got the Lati Twins. I don't like that personally and would prefer Legendaries to be Super Bosses. Like, you gotta do a lot to find them. And when you do, their stats are boosted and they become an Uber Boss! You catch them in a cutscene after you beat them!

There's also just a ton of characters I didn't get around to or really have a place for. Emma, Looker, N, and the Stat Trainers all come to mind. Overall, I'd want them to pepper the world as well, but don't have anything to say except this: Pokemon has made a lot of memorable characters. Both good and bad. And this is probably my dream Pokemon Game; one where you can hang out with your favorites

#Pokemon #Pokemon Dawn and Dusk #Fan Game #Fanfic Bible #Plot Bunny #JAC Notes

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forkanna · 3 years

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[AO3] [WATTPAD]

NOTE: This chapter is even more NSFW than the previous, including actual sex. Reader discretion advised.

Stalemate. For ten full, agonising seconds, Rise and Ai were locked in place, staring into each other's eyes unblinking as their bodies remained flush with each other. Burning with an arousal neither was prepared to deal with.

"Morning," Rise finally managed to respond quietly.

"So… so this isn't- I wasn't trying… to… what is going on?"

"You rolled on top of me while you were asleep," she told her immediately — purely so she wouldn't spend any time worrying that she had done anything wrong. "And, um, your little friend decided to let me know she's already awake! S-so, um… so that's a thing I know now!"

"OhmyGOD," she blurted, starting to push upward against the futon beneath them. "Rise, I am so sorry, I can't believe-"

"Nnhhh!"

Well, that shut them both up. Knowing her cheeks were flaming pink, Rise turned to one side to stare off toward the door. At least Ai could only see half of her burning face this way.

"Rise?"

"I'm fine! It's all good, I… were you saying something before? About, like, being sorry… and getting up?"

"Wait." Ai shifted her hips again. This time, they both groaned, even though Rise's was higher-pitched. "W-wow, you're into this."

"I a-am not!" she squeaked.

"No, you are." But for once, Ai wasn't teasing her mercilessly about this. She just whispered, "I… could… keep going."

Rise glared up at her with a slight pout as she squirmed a little. "Don't- nnnhh -don't you dare! I… this situation isn't my fault, I was… I was trying to get out from under you!"

"Fine. Forget it then." Ai sighed and rolled onto her back. "You're free to go."

"Thanks." Rise sat up, taking a few breaths in relief. "I'm sorry, I just couldn't breathe, and… this is… I'd like to be married first, y'know?"

"Right. Because a couple of lesbians are about to get married. In this country? I doubt it."

A little "oh" fell from Rise's lips. That was a very good point; she had never heard of any same-sex couples having an official marriage under the law before. And sure, they could get married if Ai just went by what was on her birth certificate, but that presented its own downsides. "Well… that's just not fair."

"Yep. So unless you meant marrying somebody else besides me…"

"I didn't," she told her flatly, which surprised Ai into looking upward at her. "It's going to be you. I guess this just means we'll be… roomies forever? Or whatever that looks like."

Ai sighed and reached over to take up Rise's hand. "Listen to both of us, talking like this is going to last longer than the stories in the tabloids." But she was still rubbing that hand with her thumb tenderly. Words at odds with actions; that was a very Ebihara thing to do.

"They will if we try. So… I want to try, Ebi-chan. Really."

"Isn't that what we're doing n- WHOA! EXCUSE ME?!"

Rise's other hand came to a stop on that bulge beneath the sheet. "Um… yes?"

"Maybe you could ask before trying to perform the Tatsumaki with my secret joystick?!"

"The what?!"

Ai's look was so nonplussed. "How can you have never played Street Fighter? Where the fuck have you been for your entire- nevermind, nevermind — we are from a younger generation, not everybody's a retro gamer like me."

"Hey, just- just hold on before you get too sidetracked! I thought… didn't you want to…?"

"I don't know! But you could at least ask!"

"But it's all hard! I thought that meant you wanted it."

"Not necessarily," she sighed, though at least her anger was clearly abating. "I get why you would think that, and it did feel nice. I just don't know if I'm ready for all that yet."

Feeling thoroughly chagrined, Rise withdrew her hand entirely and whispered, "Wow, Ebi-chan, I'm really sorry. I just wanted to help, and to… to get closer to you, I never meant-"

"Tch." But Ai looked thoughtful, not irritated or hurt. "It's just… what if it's too soon? Or what if I like you doing that, and I get used to it, and then I don't want to go through with bottom surgery?"

"Well… so? If you like it and it feels good, what's the problem?"

"Tell that to Past Fatass Aihiko. Like, stuffing my face to the point of obesity felt good, too… in the moment. Then later I realized it wasn't the best thing for me. See also 'purging'."

Rise grimaced as she hugged her a little tighter, and she hugged back. "I get that. Not that I think this is the same thing, but maybe it is. I guess I can't know that one."

"Neither do I," she admitted quietly, accidentally grinding on her a little as they embraced. Rise tried to pretend she didn't notice. "Mmm… it is… pretty tempting."

"Do you do it for yourself? I heard guys normally do, and you used to be one…"

Ai squirmed, which only made it worse for both of them. "Well, um… I guess I have done it sometimes since I started transitioning. Not as often though; usually I just don't give a shit. But… it's been worse lately…"

"Really? In what way? Or I guess, why has it been worse?" Her girlfriend glanced up at her, then away. "Me? It's my fault?"

"No, not just you. Narukami before you happened, but… y-yeah. It's just really unpredictable; I don't get horny all the time but having people to be attracted to does make it a lot more likely."

"Mm. Makes sense, I guess." Rise tried to think of something encouraging to say, but she wasn't sure because the situation was so alien to her. Then she chanced a tiny smile. "Well, anytime it gets so out of hand you can't stand it… I'm here. Even though I don't know what I'm doing at all, I guess I could help you."

Ai smirked a little as she rolled her hips. "You just wanna hop on this dick. Little slut."

"H-hey!" she squeaked, even though it came out mostly as a gasp. That didn't help any argument against being a slut.

But she didn't have time to be angry for much longer. Ai's hips were still moving. It seemed that one provocative action, even though clearly intended to tease, had awakened something within her girlfriend that she was having trouble putting to bed. Their eyes met as they tried to suppress their desire — and they weren't doing very well. Too much tension had been building for too long.

"So… so you could keep going," Rise finally whispered — and even her whisper was shaky. "I heard what you said about… u-um, maybe not being ready? Which I totally get! Believe me! But I think I'm ready for this, e-even if this is all… you…"

Ai swallowed hard, finally looking truly distressed at their predicament. "It's weird… doing this… I mean, like… okay, you want me to be gross? It might even stop me from doing this if I gross both of us out."

"Go ahead," Rise giggled weakly.

"So… um…" Contrary to her words, she was still grinding on her with mounting purpose. "Like I said, I do jerk it sometimes. It's normal, everybody does it, but I… still feel weird about it, because of… my body. But more often than that, I'll wake up and I'm kinda… trying to do this to my bed. Like I'm having sex in a dream? Maybe? But I don't remember the dream most of the time — and a lot of the time in my dreams, I'm the one on the bottom, anyway…"

Everybody did it? Rise never had - not on purpose. A few times in the bath, or rubbing up against her teddy bear out of instinct. But that was beside the point. Licking her lips as she tried not to think about just how well Ai was hitting her in a place no one had stimulated before, she cleared her throat before saying, "On the bottom? Like… with anoth-" That was too close, but at least she tried to catch it. "With a boy?"

She could see the slight smirk of Ai recognising she tried. "Yeah. Like a boy pounding me in the pussy. Or the ass; sometimes my brain is nice and gives me what I really wish my body was like, sometimes it isn't nice. It… it usually depends on how I'm feeling that… mmhh, God I wish this didn't feel so good…"

But it did. Rise couldn't even pretend she wasn't getting off; she was on fire from nose to toes, the latter of which were clawing at the futon for purchase — trying to latch onto some kind of stability. This was too hot to be allowed.

"Is… is that…?"

"Huh?"

Ai visibly swallowed. "Are you wet?

"Wha- hey! You sh-shouldn't be asking things like that, it's so rude!"

"No, but I can feel it… through our…" She gulped and looked away. "Maybe we should stop. Like, I feel like I… I don't know, you didn't sign up for all this."

"You didn't, either, Ai-chan… I… I'm okay."

Ai drew back to look into her eyes again. "Really?"

Then they were kissing again. Both seemed to need it thanks to how fragile the discussion was making them feel. Partly because of how much they talked this out, partly because of their bodily movements below, but Rise knew she definitely was a lot less capable of pretending this was just 'friends hanging out really closely while they make it look good for the cameras' or whatever line she had fed herself in the past; this was love. It was sex. They were about to do what so many teenagers naturally do when they find themselves alone together. She almost found herself wishing that someone would come knocking at the door to interrupt them, give her an excuse to take a breather and decide if she was really ready, but…

But no. She was ready.

"Can…" Rise was having trouble due to breathing hard; they both were, considering their lips had been joined for a minute or so beforehand. "Can I see… again?"

Ai just blinked at her for a moment before she managed to hiss, "My dick? Why?!"

"I… I know you wish you didn't have one, but this is the first time I've really been this close. So…"

"God." She swallowed hard. "No, no, I get it. I don't even really mind because… it's you… so yeah, I guess that's completely fair to ask."

Rise backed off, and Ai sprawled back against the futon. That overlarge t-shirt was all rumpled and bunched up so that she could see the bulge in her panties directly, and she couldn't help swallowing as she noticed the glaringly obvious wet spot in the center. She didn't even want to check her own underwear now; it would just be horribly embarrassing. So instead, she tentatively started curling her fingers around the waistband.

"Whoa, just like that?" Ai burst out with a breathy little giggle. "I… don't get any flowers first?"

"No. But um, I'll buy you some later, if you want."

Not having expected that, Ai was so distracted that she only breathed, "Really? You would?" as her shaft was revealed to the air once again.

"Really, Ebi-chan. I… I wanna treat you right." She kept pulling, scooting backward as she dragged the garment past trim thighs and slightly-rising knees. "Like you keep trying to show me you're a girl, and I… I might be a girl, too, but I have to do some of the boyfriend things if we're gonna be a real couple. So flowers, right?"

"Well… yeah." The dazzling smile was so rare on Ai's face that she barely was aware of pulling the fabric down past her pedicured toes. "Thanks, Kujikawa. I can't believe Risette is legit sitting there, telling me she's gonna treat me like a girl deserves, it's… it's crazy."

"Yeah, for sure. I mean, the Risette?!" They both laughed as she crawled back up. And then…

There it was, right in front of her for the second time. She had been too weirded out by the whole experience then to form much of an opinion, but now… now she was starting to think it might even be cute. Weird as that was. She had always been intimidated by the idea of these things on men if she were truly honest with herself. Probably because of the stories of how some of them used those; rabid fans, subway perverts, stalkers and back-alley lurkers who would prey on innocent women. But Ai wasn't any of those things; she was a woman who didn't even want to own hers, much less had anything to prove.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," Ai grumped.

"Don't tempt me." She glanced up and saw the priss queen's face was full of mixed feelings about that, so she cleared her throat and looked back down at the tapering shaft. "You're sure… you don't mind if I play with it? I can stop if you need me to."

"Okay. Like, uh… I don't need you to now but I'll let you know."

"Cool." So she kissed the shaft. It was warm and soft, as the memory lingering in her fingertip could attest; she actually thought it felt silky smooth, perfect. Like most of Ai Ebihara. The scent of arousal she had caught a hint of before was starting to fill her anew, and she breathed in deeply as she kissed again and again, changing spots on the underside. She moved lower…

"Wh-where are you going?"

Rise's head came up quickly. "I- I'm sorry, did I mess up?"

"No, no, like… I just thought you might have been… nevermind, it's dumb."

"No way! Whatever you're feeling isn't dumb, I… I was going for these." Her lips pressed gently into the sack below the main attraction, glancing up past it curiously. "Do you not want this played with?"

"Oooh… I don't really… go ahead. Like I said, I'll stop you if I panic and need to quit."

At least she had the green light, however tentative. Somehow, the loose skin covering those little spheres was even softer; she smiled a little when she felt some tiny hair tickle her lips. Considering the varying shapes and contours, she wasn't surprised Ai had missed a hair when taking care of her personal grooming.

"Ugh, shit!" Ai burst out, covering her face with her hand. "That's horrible — I already hate having a- and now there's a hair, and you're probably really grossed out."

"I like it," Rise giggled as she kissed her again. The shaft twitched a little above her. "Oooh… did you do that?"

"N-no… I just… your breath on me, and your kisses, it's like… makes it really ready to go."

Swallowing hard, she tried to ignore the amplified feelings that was shooting down into her own tingling sex. Ai was ready to go and she was pretty sure her own body was not far off. "Um, good, that's good. And I don't mind this little pube; she's my favourite. I'm calling her… Inmo-ko-chan."

Ai couldn't stifle a little "Pffft" as her cock wobbed a little from body movements. Rise tried not to pass out then and there. "You would say Pube Girl gets a cutesy nickname."

"I would if it's cute enough!" Then she kissed it again… before sliding her tongue over the two spheres in their protective enclosure.

That finally changed the game subtly. Neither of them seemed to be able to keep bantering once she had licked Ai down there; she couldn't quite keep doing it right away, but neither was it easy to recover. So she went back to kissing, her lips parted so she left more and more wet marks on that soft flesh. Gradually, she worked her way up the twitching shaft — and tasted a slightly salty tang when she got to the wrinkled skin just beneath the tip. Did she like that?

Yes. So much, in fact, that she immediately tried to press her tongue to the same area.

"Hmmhhh," Ai sighed as she weathered the treatment, muffling the noise with her hand. Rise kept going, sliding her tongue all the way around the head… drawing it between her lips tentatively. She had heard of this so she knew exactly what she was doing — in name, anyway. Ebihara was one of two humans in the world she would have done this for. Really, she didn't even feel like a slut as most men would have made her feel; she just felt like a girl trying to please her lover.

Lover. Wow, that was where they had wound up without ever meaning to do so. As the warm head of the shaft began to find its way deeper and deeper into her mouth, touching the back of her throat, a couple of tears leaked out when it hit her fully that she and Ai had gotten past every obstacle that seemed to crop up along the way: they were together-together, and that wasn't going to change. It was only going to get better as long as they worked at this, remained open to the possibilities.

"Y-you don't have to," Ai suddenly breathed. "I-if it's that hard… I'm sorry…"

Rise didn't even bother to pull off long enough to answer. She knew it was the crying; they would get past it. Now she was beginning to bob up and down on that slender cock, delighting in how the heated skin dragged past her lips and tongue, at the pungent, oddly-satisfying taste. Yes, she could definitely get used to this.

And clearly, Ai wasn't in disagreement. She had been able to mostly just twitch and suppress her reactions until she started moving; now that she was really going down on her, she was panting and letting out quiet squeaks, trying to keep from overreacting. Rise felt like she got about halfway down the shaft before her gag reflex tried to take over, so that was about as deep as she was going to get — not that it bothered Ai. Harder and harder, she slid up and down as she felt it pulsing more often, listening to those delightful moans she earned in return. This was definitely the hottest thing she had ever experienced — and she had been in close proximity to K-Pop and Visual Kei guys.

Ai had them all beat. Easy.

The last thing she wanted to think about was how wet she probably was. Even just shifting her legs the tiniest bit, she could tell it was getting bad. But she tried to remain focused on the task at hand. Experimentally, she tried humming while she was bobbing her head up and down on the-

"NNH! FUCK, RISE!"

Paydirt. Instant reaction, and one Ai had seemed not to want to slip out. Instead of backing down or stopping to ask if everything was alright, she started ramping up her actions. Just because she had thought they might do another something this magical morning didn't mean they had to; she wanted to hear Ai finish now. She wanted to be the one that made her feel that good.

A wish that was granted after only a few more seconds. The sensation of cream spurting into her throat was so unexpected that she felt herself gag a little, her head came to a stop — but now Ai was moving. It seemed she had at least grown that comfortable with what they were doing, so she managed to keep herself from coughing for a moment or two. Probably something to do with all her vocal training over the years. However, eventually she hit the point where she couldn't hold still anymore, and…

"Oh… oh no, wha- Rise, are you okay?!"

Rise nodded as she coughed up the climax into her open palm, shivering a little while supporting herself on her other arm. Then she took a few shaky breaths before gagging out, "F-fine!"

"You don't look fine! Shit, I killed you- this is it, I'm the horrible bitch who killed Risette with my stupid little dick, and now I'm gonna have to throw myself off a bridge! Great, fucking great!"

But by the end of that, they were both laughing a little — even if Rise's were half-coughs. She swallowed hard and managed, "Just… get me a tissue!"

Ai was back with a purse-sized pack in no time at all. They cleaned off her hand and dabbed at her mouth, then Rise started using another on Ai's softening length. She shivered and she paused in her motions.

"Is… this okay?"

"Um… I don't really know. It's weird. It almost feels nice, but I also feel like I should smack you away…" Her face was more apologetic than usual as she finally sighed and said, "What a fucking spaz I am. You sure your throat is okay? You didn't have to swallow it!"

"Y-yeah, well, um… I didn't know what else to do if I didn't," she admitted with a shy laugh. Ai shook her head and smiled a little more before pulling her into a tight hug. "Oh! Awww, what's up?"

"Nothing. I just… never had that. Anything like that, so now I'm all emo." She drew back after a second or two to peck at her lips and whisper, "That was amazing. I almost thought you must have done it before, man, you just drove me crazy but you told me you haven't, so…"

Rise shivered a little as she asked, "You, um… you don't care about kissing me? After I was…"

A slight pause. "Oh, on my dick? Dude, I'm still bi; I wouldn't say my own dick is something I wanted to taste but it's not like I'm all that averse."

"Really? You sure?"

"I promise, girl." Then she kissed her deep, as if purely to prove something to both of them.

And she did. Not just that she didn't mind her own aftertaste, but that this was far from over now that Ai got her rocks off. In fact, Rise felt like they had finally moved past the trial period for this relationship and into something real. And she was ready for way more, as soon as was humanly possible.

To Be Continued…

#we'll face ourselves #saphir de lune #forkanna writes #persona 4 fanfiction #rise x ai #p4 fanfic #jess the writer

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brokenjardaantech · 4 years

Text

captain allen appreciation week 2020 day 2: college au

summary: set in early 2021 in the same universe as the previous entry. the pandemic is not over yet. america as we know it is on the brink of collapse. now that anna is in the air force academy, allen can finally go to college himself. except that everything is online cause social distancing.

notes:

this fic is the closest to reality among everything else i've written. i don't have 2021 vision, but this is what i imagine what things will be if america continues being like this in everything.

i know the space force as an independent branch of the us military is still a fairly new concept, but let's just assume that they need people so desperately that they'll pull prospecting cadets onto the path to space starting from their academy years. they used to be a branch of the air force anyway, right?

tags: brief mentions of childhood neglect and parentification

----

The high-pitched hum is driving Lou crazy, so he turns on the speaker on his laptop and plays some potato peeling ASMR to give the house some other noise. The hum disappears, but seeing the Slavic guy peeling potatoes makes him want to cook again, and cooking for himself...just sounds depressing. Not that he hates cooking alone - he takes pride in being able to prepare his own food and be good at it - but he doesn’t have much of a choice in raw ingredients; he stocked up when it was announced that a large storm is coming, and all he has is canned food - hardly something he would prepare for Anna had she been here.

He switches tabs, discovering that his new lecture is still downloading, and lets out a groan. Fucking blizzard locking him in and fucking with the internet. Now he can’t even study when he’s snowed in in his own house - yes, his own fucking house, because his Papa apparently can’t stand Alaska anymore after his wife disappeared and fucked off back to France as soon as he could, leaving his property (which had been his wife’s) to his children to distribute between themselves, and Lou, being the only adult during that time, became a homeowner. Sighing, he goes to his email and drafts an apology.

Professor, am snowed in. Internet slow. Can’t stream lecture, so tried downloading. 5 hrs in, only 70% downloaded. Requesting deadline extension. L. W. Allen

He sounds like Anna in this one, thoughts going so quickly that she omits pronouns and ‘the’s and ‘a’ or ‘an’s while she’s typing. Except that he’s typing slowly with his non-dominant hand while scooping cooling mashed potato into his mouth with his other hand. Damn it, he misses his sister.

The potato peeling video is over and he still is not sleepy, so he goes over the lectures he has downloaded and chooses the one he remembers being useful in writing his paper to be his new background noise. The drone of his professor’s voice makes him think of Anna rapid-firing her thoughts while she’s doing his homework for fun.

Everything comes back to Anna.

His Skype jumps with an incoming call, and he accepts it without reading who that is, acting in desperation for company good or bad.

‘Allen here.’

‘Lemme guess: you didn’t read the description.’

Lou is so relieved to hear his sister’s voice that he nearly cries. ‘How the fuck did you do that? It’s midnight on your side.’

‘I’m different, Lulu, haven’t you heard?’ Anna dismisses her brother’s question, proud as always. ‘Snowed alone in the house must be hard.’

He laughs. This is ridiculous. ‘Yes it is. How did you know that?’

‘You talking about the snow part or the lonely part?’

‘Both.’

‘I’m not completely cut off from the rest of the world. I read the weather forecast and report, and I lived with you and only you for four years. Enough time to discover a pattern, I should say.’

Lou takes the laptop and flops down onto his bed. ‘We haven’t been apart for longer than a day back then.’ Placing his Bluetooth headphones over his head, he lies down on their bed - his bed now - and allows himself to imagine that this is just one of their many pillow talks about nothing and everything. Oddly, he can’t imagine his sister doing the same.

‘It’s called logical deduction, bruh. Then her voice softens. ‘You spent most of your life taking care of me. I’ve got planes to fly, programs to write, labs to blow up and muscles to flex. You get to listen to some boring old man spew bullshit about our minds as if the theories he teaches aren’t outdated as hell.’

It puts a smile on Lou’s face. ‘I don’t think they’ll let you stay for long if you blow up too much shit in the lab.’

‘Details, Lulu, details. Hey - check your time.’

Lou squints at the corner of the screen where the clock should be. 17:58. ‘Fuuuuck,’ he groans. Of course Anna’s awake - it’s just 19:58 on her end. ‘Fucking storm fucking with my sense of time.’

‘Hail English,’ says Anna. ‘Though not as elegant as our father tongue. How’s the French club going on?’

‘I’m developing abs from laughing too hard. There’s one fine but thin line between normal conversation and random-ass flirting, but they don’t seem to grasp it.’

‘Not everyone has an incompetent French dad who barely speaks English but moved to America anyway.’

‘Very true,’ Lou admits. Anna turned up fine even with only minimal parental guidance, but at what cost? Himself, probably, except that he seems fine as well. ‘How about you? How’s the Academy been treating you?’

‘It’s not official but,’ Anna lowers her voice as if she wants to keep it secret, ‘I’m most likely going to be in the Space Force when I graduate.’

Lou coughs to mask his laughter. Of all the things his sister is skeptical of, the Space Force set up by that orange isn’t one of them. ‘No offence, Anna, but Space Force? Seriously? A woman of your talents?’

‘I should tell them that their efforts are successful,’ says Anna. ‘Hold on.’

Footsteps. A slam of a door. Some scratching noises, and when she turns on her camera, it shows not her face but the screen of her phone. It started as a joke, it writes. They admit to that. But something happened in the scientific field. Something so unbelievable and classified that they sobered up instantly and begged for more funding from the federal government.

‘America as we know it is ending,’ Lou points out. Sure, they didn’t let the orange continue representing the country, but the harm has been done, the virus comes back every few months and before the previous batch of patients are freed up, and everything is failing - the economy, the already-problematic medical and healthcare system, the old order governing the country for two centuries. It is terrifying but, in Lou’s opinion, a much-needed change for America to go forward. ‘You’re more familiar with them than me, but they might be doing it to preserve the old order. You know, before they lose all the power they currently have.’

Anna takes the phone away. ‘I highly doubt it,’ she says as she continues typing. ‘They’re used to whatever we now have. They already expect some things to change;’ she holds up her phone again; but not in the way shit’s going. ‘You heard about the declassified document on Alec Ryder? The guy who tried to write an advanced AI and developed it into some highly illegal and sci-fi-y shit that he can’t control?’

‘Didn’t read the whole thing. Sounds unbelievable, though, letting an AI control your body. And I thought Elon was stupidly crazy.’

‘Well, for some reason they’re still on high alert about the whole shitshow even though the AI was supposedly destroyed,’ she puts her phone away and switches off the camera. ‘Call it my instincts if you wish. Something big is coming and I’m not sure if I like it.’

Lou takes a deep breath. Anna has always said that America needs to change, but if she thinks that she won’t like it… ‘Let’s don’t speculate anything right now, okay?’ he tries to rationalise. ‘We can’t do much right now, can we?’

‘True.’ A creak. Some muffled conversation. ‘Look, I need to go now. Try not to freeze your ass off at home.’

‘With that nasty generator you built? Don’t think so. Take care.’

‘Same for you.’

The call disconnects. Taking off his headphones with a trembling hand, Lou quits the application and checks again how much longer he needs to wait for the lecture. A few minutes left. Standing up and popping all the joints in his body in preparation, he goes to the kitchen and pours himself a glass of water to clear his head.

If he’s gonna be stuck in this house for days, he at least can use the time for some studying, right?

----

spoiler: anna’s instincts are right.

the potato-peeling video

#allen art week #allen appreciation #dbh allen #detroit: become human #allenartweek #allenappreciation #groom lake aftermath

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banashee · 4 years

Text

Brewed with Love

Bleary eyed, Tony enters the kitchen at 2am. He just crawled out of his workshop because he ran out of caffeinated drinks, so he ventured out on his hunt for more. Because let's be honest, he lives on the stuff.

Lucky for him, the room already smells of coffee. Fuck yes. Someone or something out there loves him. He sighs happily.

On the table – literally on the table top and not a chair, because fuck proper use of furniture, Clint sits cross legged in his sweatpants and an ancient looking shirt, drinking pitch black coffee straight from the pot. He looks up when he notices movement by the door.

Tony moans “coffee.” and he must look pathetic, because the archer just hands over the pot, lets him chug about half of what's left and waits patiently to get it back.

“You're the best.” Tony says, sluggishly patting him on the arm, then he snatches a few cookies off the counter, which are still warm because life is great sometimes, and makes his way back down to the workshop.

He's running late for a SI meeting that he really has no interest in actually attending. But being the boss/owner of a multi billion dollar company, he doesn't have much of a choice really.

Tony sighs unhappily. Hopefully, there is some coffee left that he can grab before he needs to run out the door.

And really, half the team already sits around the kitchen table, munching on various pieces of bread and pastry. There's also coffee. He really does love these people.

“Hi, morning, I'm late!” Tony announces to the room in general, greeting them with a quick wave and he rushes past the table and to the coffee machine to grab a quick cup. Only there is a travel mug, with his name hastily scrawled onto an obnoxiously pink post-it note stuck it. Also a paper bag that contains something no doubt delicious right next to it. Tony blinks in surprise.

“Uh, thanks? To whoever packed this?” He asks a bit stunned because in all honesty, he didn't expect this.

“A little bird did.” Natasha informs him, with a small smirk and that's really all the information he needs.

When Tony takes the first sip on the way to his meeting, the coffee is pitch black and strong enough to wake the dead. It's perfect.

He smiles.

“Urgh.”

It's one of those days where Tony just feels chewed up and spit back out three times over. Caffeine sure would help (or sleep, for that matter.) but it would require him getting up. Which he really doesn't feel like doing.

Then, a hand appears in front of his face and it holds a steaming mug of coffee. The heavenly scent creeps into his nostrils, shaking awake his spirits and he blinks at it.

“Huh?”

“Coffee. You look like shit right now.”

“Charming as always, Clint. But thanks.”

“Sure thing.”

When he looks up he's already gone. Tony can't help but feel a little bit disappointed by that.

The night is cold, wet, stormy and down right gross. Miserable. It's one of those nights where no amount of blankets is enough to keep warm, and Tony shivers despite the many layers he's wearing. Despite the climate controlled tower, the chill still creeps in and leaves them cold even with the heat on, or a burning fire place flickering in the corner.

Tony stares at the coffee machine, willing it to brew faster. It doesn't. Fucking bastard.

He's tired. So, so tired. And cold. Briefly, he can make out a shuffling figure making it's way past behind him and when he turns around to look, all that's visible under a mountain of blankets are two fluffy-socked feet and a tousled mess of blond hair.

Tony pours two mugs of coffee once it's done, and pads into the living room. When he hands one of the richly scented, steaming mugs over, the pile of blankets says, “Oh, hey, thanks.” in Clint's voice and he makes space on the couch and lifts up one corner of the blanket for Tony to crawl under. He does – sharing body heat sounds like a great plan right now.

Once he's settled down next to his friend, they share the space and coffee in silence, which is unusual, but not uncomfortable.

A little while later, Clint puts his empty mug on the small table nearby, and when he disappears back under the blankets, his head comes to a rest on Tony's shoulder. He lets him, smiling a little and putting his free arm around him.

One thing that surprised him when the team first started to spend more free time with each other had been, how oddly cuddly their archer could be, especially since all of them had witnessed him not only threatening but also inflicting physical harm to pushy people who wouldn't keep their hands to themselves. But he's comfortable here, with them. With Tony. And this is a rare gift that even he recognizes, and refuses to jeopardize it.

Maybe he enjoys this more than he should. But then again, he's seen Natasha shoot him “Don't you dare fuck this up” looks more and more, and he had no idea why, but now...

Feelings. Not his strongest suit.

The noises of rain and thunder are the only sounds filling the room, that and the calm, even breathing of two people close to each other. Tony snuggles a bit closer, and lets it all lull him to sleep. It's been a while.

When Tony wakes up, he's a little bit upset to find he's alone in his own bed. But then, a very faint memory of him waking up on the couch, cocooned in a nest of blankets and the warm, steadily breathing body of his friend-teammate-maybe-possibly-crush creeps back into his head. He remembers longing and wanting this, not as a one-time thing but... More. So much more.

It scares him a bit, so last night he carefully freed himself and went to go to bed, alone and a lot colder than the place he's left.

All of this hits him like a truck, first thing in the morning and he pulls a pillow over his head and yells a muffled “Fuck!” into it.

“Good morning, Sir.” JARVIS replies smoothly to his little outburst, and gives him the date, time weather and plans for the day as usual. Another fucking meeting. Of course.

Tony sighs heavily, and remains silent for a moment.

“Sir?” JARVIS asks, and he sighs again. “Thank you, J. I'll be right up.” he grumbles, and only gets up after a few more minutes stewing over his thoughts in bed. He continues in the shower, losing track of the time and if it wasn't for JARVIS he'd have stayed in there for another three hours.

As it is, his AI pulls him out of his funk, and Tony needs to run once again.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! I'm late!” he's sprinting out of the elevator, finishing his tie and faintly hoping his socks actually match. But it's a quiet day, and the only two people in the kitchen are Steve, who is doing a crossword puzzle in the paper, and Clint, who may or may not be asleep with his eyes wide open – he's perfectly capable of that.

Tony's heart stops a beat, but he lifts one hand in greeting, dumps coffee into a travel mug and turns, taking one messy bite out of the toast that Clint is currently holding in his hand and runs back out.

Steve looks after him with a mixture of wonder and amusement on his face, then he asks Clint,

“So when did that with the two of you happen?”

But Clint just blinks and says,

“Huh?”

He nearly does a glorious spit take. Then Tony splutters.

“Blergh, what the fuck? Why? I trusted you!”

“I have no idea what you're talking about.”

Clint takes back his mug, from a thoroughly disgusted looking Tony who hands it over in horror, and drinks a long swig.

“You. You absolute fucking monster. You ruined perfectly good coffee with a ton of sugar and cream. Why? You are the only sane person around here who I can trust with the important art of brewing the perfectly dark, strong coffee and now? This? I'm hurt, I'm telling you.” he keeps complaining, and yes he absolutely is a drama queen. Nothing new here.

Tony looks at Clint like a betrayed sack of flour.

He chuckles in his mug, keeps drinking the... Uncharacteristically altered cup of coffee. If it's still in there. Somewhere. Only now, Tony realizes that Clint looks... Tired.

“It's just that kinda day, y'know.” he shrugs and turns back to the table.

“Oh.”

Like comfort food, or drink, in this case, he realizes and suddenly feels bad for making fun of it.

“Bad day?” he asks, cautiously, and gets a small nod accompanied by a hum.

“Wanna go watch a movie?”

“Yeah, sure. Why not.”

They move to the couch, and settle down with a movie. About half an hour in, Tony gets back up to refill their mugs. When he hands one over, he says,

“There is some coffee in your sugar.” and it gets him a huff of laughter, which he chooses to count as a win. In a spontaneous fit of bravery, he shifts a little bit closer to Clint and takes one of his hands. The archer freezes in surprise for a moment, then he gently squeezes the hand holding his own.

“Hey.” He says quietly, and Tony looks over questioningly.

“When the movie is over, can we talk? I think that would be good.”

“Yeah, absolutely. I, uh, I guess this is gonna head where I hope it's going to?”

To his surprise, and delight, Clint lightly kisses him on the lips.

“It is.” he says simply, but he's smiling now, looking a lot happier than before.

*+~

Prompt No. 15 – "There is some coffee in your sugar"

*+~

Another prompt list thingy with my dear friend @bananaink Full prompt list can be found here: https://banashee.tumblr.com/post/190342596571/65-random-writing-prompts

*+~

The first one is, of course, about my two favourite, caffeine addicted idiots in love. Hope you enjoy!

You can also find this on my AO3:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22318753

#banashee writes #marvel fanfiction #ironhawk #fluff #idiots in love #friends to lovers #caffeine addicted hot mess #ao3 #archive of our own

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maximumsnow · 5 years

Text

Meetings 3

Now they’re all together!

Alex swore when the power flickered and finally went out. When it didn’t come back on within a few minutes, he swore again, and stomped towards the old as hell computer that monitored the power in the bunker.

He had intentionally built this bunker to rely on lower tech because it meant he could actually hide here without some kind of ad tracker getting his location and spilling it to anyone who knew where to look.

And considering one of the people he had been hiding from was an AI that practically controlled the internet, he really couldn’t afford that. Especially since it once held the off switch for said AI.

Despite all this, it was still a royal pain in the ass to make the machine work when he was so used to much quicker response times. Even months later, he still complained about it. He had to ignore the fact that there was no one to complain to, but at least he felt better after a good rant.

He wasn’t sure how long the back up battery was going to hold up, so the longer he spent waiting for the spinny loading circle to finish, the more frustrated he got. Thankfully, the warning pop-up appeared of its own volition within a few minutes, and it gave him the information he needed.

[WARNING: GENERATOR OFFLINE]

… Well damn.

That meant there wasn’t a way to fix this problem remotely. He would have to go outside.

The mere thought made him break out in a sweat. The walls were thick enough to survive bomb blasts, but he had thought he had heard things. He didn’t know what the sounds meant, but who knew what was out there now.

He started prepping for his excursion to the surface, and he wasn’t looking forward to it. If his day counting was correct, it was the dead of winter, so he needed to dress appropriately. The warmest coat he had was way too big for a man of his stature, and for once, he thought that might not be a problem.

He grabbed ski goggles, a respirator, and as an afterthought, a portable Geiger counter he had fashioned in his rather extensive free time. For all he knew, those explosions had involved literal nukes.

First, he had to remember how to open the damn door though.

This was bad. This was really bad. Charlie risked a look over his shoulder at the giant thing chasing him, and was not happy with how quickly it had caught up with him. It screeched at him, and the sound itself made it feel as if the ground was shaking.

Too many legs carried it with a speed that his much smaller human body couldn’t hope to outrun in a straight race. If he had the time, he would have tried to figure out if this thing was closer to a spider or a crab, but all that mattered was that it was very angry and running at him.

He vaulted over the remains of a car, jumped through the broken window of the closest somewhat stable building, and dove behind a counter. Trying to control his breathing, he listened for the beast’s thundering footsteps. He didn’t think he had outsmarted it enough for it to run by, but he was still pissed when the crashing stopped close by.

Holding his breath as if that would help, he sat frozen to the ground. His heartbeat was racing, and in his ears, it sounded like a heavy drumbeat that would give him away to anything that had a sense of hearing. Which he wasn’t sure if this monstrosity had, to be honest, but he didn’t want to find out.

He nearly screamed when a pointed spidery leg crashed onto the counter.

The point of the leg dug into the fake wood, and he could feel it drag across the top. It came very close to where he was, and he dived forward before it got there.

He heard a thud and the splintering of the counter before a sharp pain shot up his calf. “SHIT!” He shouted in pain.

The sound of a heavy door opening was lost in the chaos.

Alex never expected to hear a human voice on his doorstep. It made him drop the Geiger counter, and he tried to slam the heavy door open. It wasn’t successful, given his lack of upper body strength, but it opened enough to let him see what was going on.

And that’s when he saw the thing he had been actually worried about.

All he could see from his position was a couple of legs that looked far too much like a spider’s for his liking, and that nearly scared him right back into the darkness to hide. It was only the fear reaction of “freeze” that kept him from doing that and sealing the fate of the unknown voice to doom.

His eyes traveled downwards to the end point of the most stretched out leg, and he could see it pulling something back towards the shattered windows. When that something moved, he finally realized it was a person.

Whoever it was twisted themselves around, pulled a gun he hadn’t noticed out, and pointed it towards the creature. They pulled the trigger, and that made the beast scream. The legs reflexively pulled up, and the black and white clad stranger took that as an opportunity to crawl back to his hiding place.

“Over here!” Alex shouted, hoping that the stranger could hear him over the commotion. The realization that maybe he shouldn’t be inviting the first person he had seen in months into his relatively safe spot didn’t hit him until the words were out, but his conscience couldn’t let someone die in front of him.

The person looked up towards him hiding in the doorway, but before any questions or conversation could happen, another spider’s leg slammed down between them. This caused the other person to roll away to protect himself, and Alex ducked down as if that would protect him more. His hand still firmly on the doorknob, he resolutely kept the passageway open.

He wasn’t sure how the man was going to get over towards him between the monster still trying to pull him out and the injured leg. The door was shielding Alex from sight, but he didn’t doubt that it was going to notice that potentially easier prey was hiding there.

He didn’t even have a gun to protect himself with, and even if he did, he wouldn’t have known how to use it.

The man seemed to know what he was doing, however, as he continued to take pointed shots through the window. Alex was honestly impressed at how he kept his cool in the face of danger and against the odds.

He definitely didn’t expect to hear more voices, and the beast’s legs to suddenly collapse. He peeked around the door, and he saw two more people wearing predominantly black climbing through the window.

The spider-like monstrosity was nearly torn in half.

Charlie’s relief was palpable when he saw Pi leap on top of the mutated monster and started stabbing it in the eyes with his pipe. If Pi was around, that probably meant Lucky was, and that was confirmed when the creature suddenly started to shake and split in two.

Lucky looked exhausted, but that didn’t stop them from nearly hurling themselves at Charlie to look at his injury.

Pi, as usual, stayed a bit further back, and even though he wore those weird shades, Charlie knew he was glaring at him.

Whatever. He focused back on Lucky, who was suddenly asking him where his first aid supplies were. The sight of his blood was worrying them, and he had pulled off his backpack when he suddenly remembered the extra party.

His head shot up and looked towards the still open doorway, and his companions followed his gaze in alarm. The stranger in the overly large parka, respirator, and ski goggles was still standing there, but it seemed like he was far too focused on the dead monster to pay attention to them.

“Hey, you!” Charlie shouted in an attempt to get the man’s attention.

That got the man to stumble, and the goggled face swung back towards them. The way he grabbed the door to steady himself hinted at nervousness, and Charlie couldn’t entirely blame him. “We won’t hurt you, promise,” Charlie said in an attempt to keep him calm. His leg then reminded him that it was still hurting, so he hissed loudly, and Lucky reached over to grab the bag so that they could dig through it better.

“Who’re you?” Pi asked cautiously, his head tilting to the side. He didn’t approach the new person just in case that scared him.

“Alex-” The man started before cutting himself off.

“He tried to help me during all… that,” Charlie said as he waved his hand towards the dead creature. “You showed up before he could do much.” Turning back towards Alex, he said, “Thanks for the thought, though, it is appreciated.”

“A friend of Charlie’s is a friend of mine!” Lucky exclaimed as they looked up from their search. “I’m Lucky! I would give you a better greeting, but Charlie here is hurt. We can talk later, yes?

Alex nodded slowly before slowly looking at the three of them again. “… It’s dangerous out here, why don’t you come in?” His voice was clearly nervous, but the offer seemed sincere.

Before Charlie could speak, Pi interrupted, “Let me see what you’ve got first.”

Alex flinched, but didn’t argue. “Y-yeah. Makes sense.” He opened the door wider to invite the shorter but much more dangerous man in.

Pi was intrigued by the little bunker set in the outskirts of the city, to put it mildly. He wondered how this Alex had the funds for making this, or if he had had the fortune to stumble across it early.

He was even more impressed when he saw all the electrical equipment set up to work remotely and unconnected to the old grid. However, there was the problem that all the lights were off.

“Yeah, something went wrong with a generator, and I was going to fix it when I stumbled across your friend,” Alex said in response to that unspoken question. “I’ve had power up until then, though.”

“Wait, you can fix generators? Were you some kind of engineer?” Pi suddenly asked, intrigued. That would give him a better idea of what they were dealing with.

“Kinda. I liked messing with the machine hardware, but that wasn’t really my main job,” Alex said proudly.

“What did you do then?”

Alex paused before saying, “Uh, a little bit of everything? Kind of a higher up in IT, if that makes any sense.”

It made enough sense for Pi. This person didn’t seem like a threat to Lucky or Pi. Or even Charlie. “Yeah. Let’s get the others,” he said before brushing past Alex and up the stairs.

Shit. He had almost given out who he was. Alex released a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. He didn’t know these three well enough to figure out if that was a bad thing or not yet, but they were definitely too dangerous for him to risk giving that information out too early.

He had a huge suspicion about Lucky, though. The company he had been working for had been interested in abnormal powers in humans that had been springing up.

Even if he wasn’t responsible for those experiments, he wouldn’t doubt that they would be unhappy with him.

He wouldn’t truly realize how screwed over he was until later.

Once Charlie was placed comfortably on the couch, he and Lucky started fiddling with a flashlight so that the two of them could work on patching up his leg, and Pi offered to go with Alex to watch his back while Alex fixed the generator.

When they got to where the generator should have been, they found out why it wasn’t working anymore. The area it had been in had collapsed, and without anything to dig it out with, there was no way to even see if it could be repaired.

Defeated, Alex came back and found that the duo had finished treating Charlie’s leg. This also meant that they had gotten more comfortable, and the various things they wore to protect their eyes and faces had come off. Pi joined them in taking off his shades and removing the bandanna he normally wore around his mouth.

Alex was glad he hadn’t take off the respirator yet, since it covered his look of pure shock as he recognized the three people he was now stuck in close quarters with.

Pi was, god fucking damn it, a young private investigator that he had hired via emails to find someone who had threatened him and several of his coworkers. During the course of that mission, he had gotten shot in the head, and even though Pi had survived, his memories of the incident were completely gone, and Alex had sent money in the guise of a charity to ensure he actually got treatment.

Lucky definitely was one of his company’s many experiments, and the one that was had so much notoriety, even Alex was informed about them. Something about their ability to actively screw with people’s neural links had marked them as dangerous, and Alex had pointedly tried avoiding being around them. He had gotten extremely aggravated with one of the scientists talking about Lucky as if they were some lab rat they had bred for the purposes of poking and prodding, and had snapped at her over it.

And then there was Charlie, oh boy, Charlie. AKA, the one poor sap who was forever stuck at the bottom of the totem pole in the company due to his brain being wired strangely. Alex had never figured out what made some people unable to connect, but Charlie seemed to have something that outright rejected the attempts. It wasn’t through lack of trying either, because Charlie did have records of attempting to connect and failing every time. It was also noted that Charlie had sleeping issues because the constant buzz of machinery didn’t agree with him. Due to his guilt of being unable to fix any of these problems, Alex had ensured that Charlie never got fired, and secretly approved the promotion to work as a tour guide.

He may have done a few nice things for these people, but they sure didn’t know that. And it wasn’t like him telling them would really smooth things over since it would be seen as a lie to cover his ass. As far as they knew, he was the source of most of their problems in life, or at least a convenient substitute, and he had no delusions about what they would do if they did know who he was.

So he would have to keep quiet, and hope they never found out. Which, given what almost happened earlier, he thought he could already see the writing on the wall.

#My writing #4 idiots of the apocalypse #This is definitely where it becomes obvious what their basis came from #If i ever get more creative energy for it ill revisit it and make it more original #Spider warning #mention of a slight injury #swearing

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readyplayerhobi · 6 years

Text

Starfire | 03

; Hoseok x Reader

; Genre: Sci-fi, Angst, fluff, eventual smut

; Word Count: 8.7k

; Synopsis: The schism that broke the galaxy began, as it usually does, over a disagreement. The resultant civil war has raged for hundreds of years. When a ragtag group of travellers discovers something that could turn the tide of war, for good or for worse, the bonds of friendship and love will be tested.

Previous Chapter ; Next Chapter

; A/N: For the probably 10 people who have been looking forward to this, I hope you enjoy it! For any newbies...I hope you enjoy it too. Still so easy and fun to write!

Silence takes over the bridge as everyone suddenly stares at Jungkook, his brown eyes widening in panic as he points a shaky finger to himself. “No, no you’re wrong. I’m just...I’m just Jungkook.” The space between his brows suddenly creases and your stomach turns slightly at how lifelike that looks. “Right? I’m human...you said I was human?”

He’s turning his wrists over now, staring at the golden skin that has a pale tone to it under the harsh ship lights. His fingers flex slowly and everyone watches as tendons move beneath his skin, veins bulging and prominent.

“Jisoo...are you sure?” Yoongi asks, running a lazy eye over the young man. Just as Jisoo opens her mouth, darker pink lips surrounded by smooth hot pink skin, Jimin suddenly moves in a burst of speed that has you blinking.

The black clad man moves with all the speed a Mutanis has been graced with, and yet he’s pulled to a stop when Jungkook’s hand is suddenly grabbing onto his arm tightly. Jimin’s eyes widen ever so slightly before his plush lips turn up in an amused smirk.

Even from here, you can see the way that Jimin’s biceps bulge slightly as he pushes with far more strength than a human is capable of. Yet Jungkook doesn’t move an inch, his arms not even quivering under the effort.

Relenting, Jimin pulls his arms back and twirls the silver blade in his fingers slowly. The same knife that had been in his arm and you presume, aimed at some non-vital part of Jungkook. Letting out a low chuckle that has the hair on your arms raising, Jimin slowly strides back to his previous spot and leans back against the wall.

“Oh he’s not human. Not one of you could have seen me and responded that quickly. Nor are any of you strong enough to stop me. Humans in particular are not equipped to go up against a Mutanis. Him?” He points at Jungkook with the sharp end of his blade. “I wasn’t getting through to him, no way. He’s not human.”

The soft hum of the engine and quiet beeping of the monitors is all that can be heard for a few moments as everyone takes this in. A shudder through Hoseok’s body has you looking back down at him though, taking in the slack jaw and small amount of bubbling saliva that has begun to spill out of his mouth.

Immediately you’re frustrated and annoyed, the medical scanner in your hands reporting that he’s suffering a high heart rate along with unbelievable blood pressure. Rooting through the medical bag, you pull out the only thing that can help him. Turning on the device, it connects to the scanner and you watch as it immediately starts to generate the chemical solution that will help Hoseok best.

Once the red light turns green, you press the device to the artery on his neck and wait a few seconds until the injector has released the contents and allows you to remove it. Almost immediately the scanner reports his heart rate slowing down but there’s a whole host of things it’s telling you that you don’t understand.

Despair crawls up your throat as you desperately wish the Starfire had a top of the range medical bed. They were far out of the budget of this tiny runner, but one of those would be able to monitor him and continuously inject the necessary medication when needed.

“Can we figure out whether or not Jungkook is an android or an AI or a what-the-fuck-ever later please? Hoseok is...Hoseok...I need to…” You’re not entirely sure what you’re trying to say but you give up, letting the tears close up your throat as you run your fingers through his soft black hair.

A gentle hand on your shoulder distracts you from the negative thought spiral you’d been sinking down and you blink up between tears to see Rose kneeling next to you. Her lustrous skin shimmers in soft pinks and blues as her hair and eyes practically glowed a pastel purple. Worry.

Namjoon shakes his head suddenly, breaking himself out of the stupor he’d been in and strides over to you, crouching down and resting a hand on Hoseok’s forehead. “Yeah, yeah of course. What’s his vitals?” Your captain asks, dragging his eyes away from Jungkook to pick up the scanner and read the output.

“I...I don’t know. He’s not convulsing anymore but he...I don’t think he’s okay.” The words whisper out of you, trembling slightly as your throat tightens with emotion. There’s no smart ass words from you now, not when your stomach is sick with fear for the man you love.

Nodding, Namjoon gestures towards Jimin. “Can you take him to his room?” There’s a moment where Jimin pauses, mouth opening to probably complain about being treated like a labourer but his eyes flicker down to Hoseok’s prone position and he simply nods.

Walking over, the Mutanis slides his arms underneath Hoseok and lifts with ease. It’s when Jimin does things like this that make you realise just how strong he really is, as not a hint of strain shows on his statuesque features.

As you go to open the door lock for Jimin, Namjoon’s hand catches your arm and tugs you to a brief stop. A crease on his brow let’s you see the stress and tension he’s holding and his mouth flattens out briefly. “I know you’re hurting, but I need my XO here. Get him settled, Rose can keep watch over him for you,” He glances over at Rose who nods, skin glittering at the movement. “This is big and I need you. I know he needs you too, but I need you to do your job.”

A big part of you wants to tell him to fuck off, that Hoseok deserves your care and attention given he’d just almost died for you all, but the logical side of your brain that got you the XO position in the first place kicks in. He’s right, whatever this situation you’ve all blindly walked into is huge and you can’t let Namjoon try and solve it himself.

Swallowing thickly and licking your lips briefly, you nod to him before unlocking the door. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Get everyone into the break room and we’ll...figure this shit out. This heaping, pile of ‘I’m-really-not-qualified-for-galactic-war’ shit.” You sigh heavily. The small moment of brevity causes Namjoon’s lips to twist up into what could almost be described as a smile.

“You and me both.” He mutters, letting go of your arm and waving you off.

Jimin has already left the bridge, striding through the narrow corridors of the Starfire towards Hoseok’s small living quarters. While the ship could hold a full crew of 15, it got a little crowded with that many people in it. There was enough space for everyone, but the larger living spaces were reserved for the captain and XO.

Jin and Jisoo had done some DIY engineering to combine their bedrooms together, removing a non-supporting wall to create a space twice as big to cope with them both. But everyone else had the bog standard quarters, Hoseok included.

Rose’s soft, warm fingers grasp yours momentarily as she squeezes in reassurance, giving you a gentle smile while her hair and eyes ripple with yellow for a moment. You give her a tremulous smile in response and take a deep, fortifying breath as you step up to Hoseok’s door.

Each quarters are locked with either a handprint or a unique code, depending on what the occupant chose. You, Namjoon and Yoongi were the only ones who had master keys that would override every lock on the Starfire when needed, but you had no need to use that for Hoseok.

He’d told you what his code was long ago, and as you enter in the numbers of the day you reunited on Taurii Station over 5 years ago you have to blink rapidly to try and rid yourself of the tears. The soft snort of disbelief lets you know Jimin’s seen the code and you look at him with a glare.

If he could, you have no doubt that he’d be holding his hands up to ward off any words from you but he can’t stop the sardonic smile that creeps out. “You two are sickening, you know that?” He grumbles, heading through the door and resting Hoseok on his small, single sized bed. There’s a moment of quiet as Jimin stays crouched before he places a hand on the Magi’s prone arm.

“He did good you know? Really good. We all owe him something I don’t think we can ever repay.” The kind words from someone who so rarely engages in emotional behaviour has you hiccuping on a sob that you desperately try to keep in, a trembling hand reaching forward to push through Hoseok’s thick, dark hair.

“He did. He did so well, but I want him back.” You can’t help the emotional whisper, Rose’s arms wrapping around you from behind as she presses herself against your back. There’s a moment of indecision before Jimin’s hand is rubbing your shoulder quietly and if you were in a better mental place then you’d be immediately teasing him for his slip of emotion.

“You should go, Namjoon will only wait so long.” Rose says faintly, her beautifully lyrical voice echoing with that odd sense of magnitude that you could never fully describe. You look up at her and nod slowly, leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to Hoseok’s now pale forehead.

As you leave him in Rose’s capable hands, Jimin stops at the door and looks firmly at you. Eyes that have probably watched hundreds die with detached emotion stare into your own and you shudder slightly at the coldness there, but the blue he’s chosen for now soon warms slightly.

“He’ll be okay.” Is all he says and you frown slightly, pushing past the assassin into the brighter corridor. As if sensing your confusion as to why he sounds so certain, he tugs you to a stop and you’re about to snap at him.

Why does everyone suddenly seem to think you’re a doll that can be tugged and pulled around everywhere?! “He’ll be okay because he’s fighting for you. And if there’s one thing I’ve learnt about Hoseok over the years, it’s that he’ll do anything for you. So, just wait. He’ll come back. Not for us, but for you.”

At that, he stalks away to leave you staring at his toned back that shifts under the black of his skin tight top. Sometimes you can never figure the Mutanis out. His emotional disconnect is understandable, given he has been trained to kill without a second thought. But then he also seems to be one of the most emotionally perceptive people you’ve seen.

Shaking your head, you close your eyes and inhale slowly, holding it in before letting it out just as slow. The coping mechanism is something that had been taught at flight school on Alpha Prime. A pilot who panicked during a battle was one who would quickly find themselves killed.

Finally centering yourself and feeling, if not okay, at least calmer than you were, you straighten your shoulders and head towards the break room. Everyone is already there, sat around the table while Jimin leans against the wall broodily.

Jungkook is standing on the other side and the only way you can describe his body movements is that he is cowering from everyone’s curious, confused and slightly frightened gazes. You take the moment to run your eyes over him, noting that someone has provided him with a plain white shirt and some grey sweatpants.

It doesn’t take much to notice that Jungkook is built a little more than any of the guys on the ship, with his shirt clinging to incredibly toned torso. His hunched shoulders can’t cover up the broadness that you can see and if you only looked at him from the neck down then you’d presume him to be a mid-20s human male in the prime of his life. Each shift of his arms causes what look like tendons to shift under his tanned skin.

His face though - it sends a shiver down your spine at the thought of what TAS is capable of creating if this what they can produce now. Jungkook has the face of a sweet young man; cheeks soft and supple with plump, pink lips that glisten as he nervously licks at them. His eyes are beautiful and completely non-threatening; big and wide with innocent naivety.

“Heka, no one would ever see him coming.” You don’t realise that you’ve spoken aloud until everyone is suddenly looking at you in silence before their eyes drag back to the man, or android, in question.

“No, they wouldn’t. Which makes him very dangerous. I’d have suspected nothing.” Jimin states flatly, voice almost devoid of any emotion as he continuously scans over the android as if to try and find a weakness.

“He smells like a human too, and he’s secreting sweat that smells of his unique pheromones. It’s fascinating really, how they’ve managed to do this.” It’s Yoongi who speaks up then, his sensitive senses picking up things that none of you would have even considered. It makes everyone look at him warily.

Namjoon sits at the table and rubs at his forehead wearily. “What do you remember before this Jungkook?” He asks quietly and you head over to him, hand moving to rub at his neck to try and relieve some of his stress. A soft noise of acknowledgement is the only sign he gives of thanks to you.

Jungkook eyes widen even further and you get the distinct sense that if he could, he would run away right now. Where he’d run to is beyond you, but he doesn’t seem like the fighting kind of person. His mouth opens and closes a few times, stuttering over his words before he finally speaks clearly. “N-n-nothing. I just...it’s like my life started when you woke me up.”

Looking him over again, you rub at your own temples and let out a deep sigh. Jisoo lets out a quiet laugh as she looks up from the datapad both she and her husband are hunched over. “That’s probably because that’s all he can remember. Given what you guys saw in that research station, I wouldn’t be surprised if they wiped him clean before putting him into a sleep mode.”

You frown at that and open your mouth to question it before Jimin cuts in again. “Makes sense. UIS wants to destroy him, but you can bet if they could get some information from him first then they would.” Honestly, sometimes you wonder why you’re the XO and not Jimin. He may be a smart ass but...well you have to be smart to be one of those and he sure does make you feel stupid sometimes.

Shaking your head, you rid the negative thoughts. It’s not that he’s intelligent, though it is partially, but also because he’s been trained since birth practically in the ways of subterfuge and corporate espionage. If anything, Jimin is probably the one who will have the best idea of what the fuck is going on right now.

“Well...we can’t destroy him. You heard that UIS General, they’ll be after us even if we get rid of him. And TAS...they knew. They knew damn well what they were sending us into.” Namjoon’s fist clenches and you have no doubt that you’d see his biceps flexing if he weren’t wearing his jacket.

Patting his shoulder, you try to lighten the mood a little. “No sweat Cap...but next time we, firstly, listen to me when I say it sounds funky. And secondly...we take no more freaking contracts from your contact, cos I gotta say boss man...this has been the worst contract ever. Hands down.”

Taehyung gives a slightly high pitched giggle, odd considering his natural deep voice. “Yeah, that’d be great. I’d really love not witnessing my own death multiple times again.” He nods and you realise his eyes are just a little wild right now, his starry eyes flickering constantly in a sign of stress.

You head over to him and run a hand through his thick, glittering hair to soothe him slightly. In the heat of the moment, it was easy to forget that Taehyung probably witnessed every way that the battle could have gone wrong. Which is a large thing to expect of your primary pilot.

Feeling him shudder beneath you, you crouch down next to him and rest a hand on his clothed thigh. “You okay?” You ask softly, aware of everyone watching the moment. The Cognizar swallows before exhaling slowly through his nostrils, nodding.

“I’ll be okay, I swear. It was just...a lot. I feel like I need to sleep for a year.” He mutters, bringing a hand up to rub at his eyes as he slumps over slightly. You keep your hand on his thigh and reassure him as you look over at Jisoo and Jin.

“On a scale of one to that-time-Jimin-went-to-Coitanus, how fucked are we?” You ask them, ignoring Jimin’s scowl. Shrugging at him with a slight smirk, you ignore his annoyance and instead note how it brings a touch of a smile to everyone’s lips. Coitanus was a planet in the Adrestia systems that...well you went there if you wanted a good time. And Jimin once took his entire week’s leave there.

Jin’s breath whistles out of him as he breathes out before looking at his wife and shrugging. “As fucked as you can be without a dick in you. We’ll be flagged all on all UIS and TAS system alerts now as wanted fugitives, probably with slaughter warrants so if we get spotted by someone then we’re probably dead.”

Lisa lets out a noise of protest and stands up suddenly. “That’s bullshit! Who would believe us anyway?! There’s always those shitty urban legends that someone’s made an AI. If we destroyed him then who would fucking know?! No one! We could shut him down, put a round through wherever the hell his processing core is and then space him into the closest sun for good measure.”

Looking at Namjoon, he gives you a look that you decipher as ‘unfuck this situation please’. Groaning quietly, you stand up and ignore the click of your knee as you do so. “Lisa, please stop.”

She looks at you outraged and sneers at Yoongi as he rests a hand on her arm with his own warning look. “Why?! It’s the truth and we’re all thinking it. Jimin would agree right?” She looks at the Mutanis who raises perfect eyebrows in response.

“I am thinking it, yeah. But it’s dumb and it wouldn’t work. Like Cap said, they know that we know about him. All it would take is us to record something of him, copy his software or something and send it out and then there would be proof of a functioning AI. We’re dead meat walking.” There’s silence that follows and you groan, resting your forehead against Tae’s own head for a moment.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” The words are so quiet that you almost don’t hear, and from the sudden silence of the room you assume everyone else has the same opinion. Looking up, you catch sight of the AI in question and can’t help the flip of your heart at the sight.

His eyes, dark yet wide, are filled with tears as he looks down at his trembling hands. “If I could fix this for you...I would. I’m sorry that you’re all stuck in this situation because of me.” His voice trembles with each word and you bite your lip at the panic and fear in them.

It’s so strange to know that he’s a machine, just a complex set of algorithms and numbers that combine together to produce something so realistic. And yet as you watch him cower in front of the glares of your entire crew, you suddenly realise something important.

Walking over to him, you clasp his hands in your own and marvel for a moment at how lifelike he feels. It’s like you’re touching a normal human. Rubbing his fingers soothingly, you give him an encouraging smile as he watches you closely.

“It’s okay. It’s okay Jungkook, it’s not your fault.” You tell him firmly. Immediately you hear Lisa’s complaint behind you and you turn around with a glare. Right now, you’re not her friend but her XO. “It’s not his fault. None of us asked to be born, and neither did he ask to be created. You all have to remember that he’s basically a newborn right now. He has to learn how to live and you’re just sat there talking about how to kill him.”

Looking back at the AI in front of you, you note how lifelike his eyes are and how you can practically see his emotions rippling across his face. The fear that keeps his eyes wide yet the tentative hope at your kind words.

“He’s an AI, which makes him smart. He’ll learn quickly, and most important is that he obviously has feelings. They may be artificial to you or I, but they’re real to him. God,” You give a slightly manic chuckle that has everyone staring at you strange. “Imagine being born and being cognizant of everything immediately. And then imagine being born and knowing you have two systems that will murder anything to kill you or keep you quiet, when you’re only aware of the last hour of your life. I’m sorry Jungkook, this is a lot to take on.”

He licks his lips slowly before shrugging, an action that he has no doubt learnt by observing your crewmates. “I’m sorry still. Your boyfriend would be okay if it wasn’t for me.” He pulls into himself at that, and you’re not entirely sure whether he’s expecting to get hit or shouted at.

The mention of Hoseok is a like a punch of its own to your stomach, but you gently cup the taller AI’s face. “He knew what he was doing. This isn’t your fault. We were fucked as soon as we took that damn contract on Extanis. But now that you’re awake, we’re going to have to try to figure out what to do. And fast.”

Looking away from him, you look at Namjoon before scanning the faces of everyone else. They all seem to be a little cowed by your sudden outburst, but you ignore it in favour of looking at your Captain.

“Any idea where we can go? There has to be somewhere we can go in Adrestia right? Some place that TAS or UIS isn’t going to look for us? I mean, I hope it’s not a shithole but quite frankly I’d just take somewhere where I can walk around without getting my head blasted off.” You quip, causing Namjoon to scoff a laugh.

It’s quiet again for a few minutes as people think and you take the time to focus on trying to cheer Jungkook up. Taehyung walks over at one point and scans over Jungkook with a raised eyebrow. “You’re pretty impressive looking.” He says quietly, poking at the android’s toned abdomen.

You expect Jungkook to recoil or something given how the crew have been talking about him, yet he simply looks the Cognizar up and down himself. It hasn’t been long since he’s been in your company, yet you already recognise that look as him running through his knowledge banks to put together information about this newcomer.

“You’re pretty.” He says quietly and you look at him with a smile. Taehyung is very pretty, and you note with pleasure that Taehyung’s boxy smile makes a sudden appearance at the compliment from the shy AI.

Pushing at Jungkook slightly, you tut at him as you gesture towards the pilot. “Don’t give him a big head, he’s already convinced that he’s the most beautiful one on the ship.” At that, Tae shrugs his shoulders with a mischievous smile.

“I am, what of it?” You shake your own head and roll your eyes in exasperation. Patting his shoulder, you give Tae a look that has him nodding slightly. Years of piloting with him mean that you can communicate a lot with just a single expression of your face, and Tae accepts your silent request for him to stay with Jungkook.

He’s probably the best to make friends with the traumatised AI along with Rose. Neither of them are very judgemental and both have a soothing presence that makes them pleasant to work alongside. Which makes sense really, given that alongside you, they are the ones who need to pilot the Starfire.

Heading over to Namjoon, you flop down beside him before simply staring, causing him to grunt an acknowledgement to you. “We could try Mikalia I guess. I’ve got an old contact there, they’re pretty solid and he owes me one so...I doubt he’ll hand us in.”

Rolling your eyes, you let out a suffering groan at that. “That sounds promising. ‘Hey, we’ve got an AI, please don’t rat us out and let our heads get blown off?’” He glares at you for that, lips pursing together in annoyance but you shrug in response.

“It’s better than lazing around in space smart ass. Eventually we will run out of food, so would you rather set down somewhere that is at least possibly safe or just die up here? Because if you’d rather the second, I’ll vent the atmosphere and make it quicker for us all shall I?” His irritated tone lets you know that he’s more stressed than he’s letting on and you sigh deeply, putting on your metaphorical XO cap.

“Okay, okay. Do we want it fast or slow? I can plot us a good path to Mikalia but it’ll take us at least a week and a half from here. If you want faster then I’ll need to get Rose.” He looks around the crew, taking in their concerned gazes before gesturing out towards everyone.

“What’s everyone think? Fast or slow?”

Jisoo and Jin immediately begin speaking over the top of each other before Jin defers to his wife with a doting smile. She grins back, teeth blindingly white against pink, before looking at Namjoon and you. “I think slow, the longer we take then the more we can figure out Jungkook. It might also help others to think that maybe we’ve disappeared.”

Jimin lets out a snort at that and you look over to him with a raised eyebrow. He catches your eye and winks at you. “Fast means there’s less chance of them finding out about us, we might get there before they catch word. Communications are slow to some of the Adrestia nations given they’re independent.”

Chewing your lip, you concede his point and sigh quietly. Namjoon leans forward, elbows on the table as he rests his head on his hands. “God this whole situation is so fucked. Why the fuck didn’t I just walk away? It was too good, I knew that.”

You’re rubbing his back reassuringly before you realise, leaning forward so that only he can hear you. “Don’t do this now Captain, your crew needs you and they don’t need you falling apart.” Sitting up, you look the crew over before gesturing to Taehyung.

“We’ll go slow and hope that people will have forgotten a little by the time we get there. It’s a week and half, so plenty of time for us to research into AI and look more into the history of these two fucking systems. I want people to look into the important people on both sides. We need radio silence until we get there, let’s not give them a reason to figure out where the fuck we’re going.” The authority in your voice has spines straightening, and you can almost sense the relief that someone is taking charge of this shit show you’ve all walked blindly into.

Taehyung leaves the break room immediately, heading to the bridge to begin preparations that will allow the Starfire to change destinations within hyperspace. Jin and Jisoo both stand and make their way out, ready to head to the engine room to ensure that nothing else accidentally breaks while you maneuver the ship.

Jungkook stands slightly aimlessly as everyone begins to filter out and you take pity on him once more. You know that logically you should be angry at him, but you just can’t. He’s basically a kid and you feel an odd sense of protection towards him.

Walking over, you take his arm gently and begin to lead him to the bridge. “Come on Jungkook, would you like to see how we fly the Starfire? I think you might like it, who knows, you could probably fly this better than any of us with that computer brain of yours.” You tease, smiling at him broadly.

He watches you with wary eyes for a moment before a tentative, slow smile spreads over his face and suddenly you’re cooing at him, hands reaching up to pinch his cheeks. “Oh my goodness, you have the cutest smile ever!”

It’s obvious he has no idea what to do with your sudden reaction but he’s flushing with pink at your touch, causing you to laugh out loud. When you reach the bridge you note Tae waiting for you, ankle hooked over his knee while a pale gold brow is raised.

“Are you stealing my new best friend?” He says sternly before he’s dragging Jungkook over to the pilot’s seat. You’re about to say something but instead watch as he pushes the AI into the seat and begins to point things out. They’re speaking too quietly for you to hear properly but you recognise the vibrating excitement of Tae and smile softly.

Yeah, Tae will make Jungkook feel welcome.

You’d just finished putting the new navigation coordinates into the system and letting Tae know it was ready when Namjoon enters and slumps into the Captain’s chair. There’s a slight shudder in the Starfire as she shifts in hyperspace to her new destination before you get up and head over to your beleaguered Captain.

Crouching down next to him, you note him watching your pilot and new acquisition with a tired eye. “I didn’t expect you to take him on board like you did. In fact, I thought you’d be the first one to throw him out the airlock after what happened with Hoseok.”

Looking over at the two, you eject an exhausted sigh of your own. “If he’d died...then I probably wouldn’t have cared if anyone else had died on here. No offense. But...he’s not dead and I just...it’s not his fault. Like I said, he had no control over this and it would be wrong for us to reject him. Where is he gonna go? He has nowhere to go and no-one but us and the Starfire. We’re the ones who woke him up, so we’re responsible for him.”

He watches you quietly, dark eyes scanning over your face before he breaks into a soft smile, dimples clearly visible in the gentle lighting of the bridge. “You have a soft spot for him already don’t you?”

Flushing slightly, you push at his knee. “I’m not saying I want to be his mom, Heka. Imagine Hoseok waking up to find out he’s a dad to a freaking AI. No, it’s not that. It’s just...he’s innocent and so new. He’s not just a machine or an android, he’s an artificial intelligence. Which means he’s aware, he thinks for himself, he has feelings and he has free will. Isn’t that what it means to be alive?”

Looking over at Jungkook, you watch as he in turn watches Taehyung with those brilliantly wide eyes, reflecting the lights off Tae’s holoscreen as the Cognizar begins to show him one of his favourite games. “Everyone on this ship, is in effect his parent now. We have to show him how to be good, how to live well. If we treat him badly, then he’ll never trust anyone and the old wives tale of an AI going rogue will come true. We have a chance here Namjoon.”

Bringing up a few things on his own holoscreen, Namjoon is silent before letting out a deep groan of frustration. “You’re right, you are. It’ll take time for everyone to think your way though. He’s still the reason we’re now probably the most wanted people in the galaxy.”

“They’ll get over it. I get the feeling that he is going to be desperate to prove himself to everyone, and he seems sweet enough to probably do that. I think Tae wants him as his best friend already.” You say sardonically, gesturing to where the golden man is giggling intensely.

Namjoon just watches and smiles. “I hope you’re right, otherwise we’re fucked even more than we are now. And I don’t think there’s ever been someone more fucked than we are.” Lowering your head, you nod in agreement and let the silence take over you both.

It had been a week of travelling now and the Starfire was reporting that you were still three days away from your destination. You’d be lying if you said that the thought of leaving the safety of her well travelled halls didn’t make you want to projectile vomit everywhere, but you kept a brave face on for the crew.

They still treated Jungkook with more than a little suspicion, only Taehyung and Rose accepting him and being friendly. You’d had to tell Jin and Jisoo off more than once for treating Jungkook like a science experiment but you at least understood their analytical minds being desperate to figure out the spectacle of science and engineering that he was.

When you’d taken Hoseok to his room after the incident, you hadn’t wanted to leave his side. And yet since then, you’d been so hesitant about seeing him that you’d avoided his room at almost any cost. There wasn’t a thing in your quarters that needed fixing anymore, nor on the bridge and you knew it was annoying everyone with your cleaning.

It wasn’t until Rose had pressed a hand to you today as you’d been updating the software on every data pad on the Starfire that you’d finally stopped. She hadn’t said a word, but you’d known. She was the one looking Hoseok and guilt had eaten away at your stomach until you were finally here, outside his door.

And you felt even more guilty as you wavered in whether or not you should go in. You knew that you should, but it was just so painful to see him like this, so quiet and still. The Hoseok you knew was bright and full of life, stoic but fun and playful when needed.

Inhaling deeply, you entered the code onto his door lock slowly and watched as the silver metal slides open with the softest woosh, revealing his room to you. You’d never spent a huge amount of time in here before, mainly spending time with him in the break room or on the bridge. On a spaceship privacy was rare and people became rather possessive of their own space, which in turn meant everyone respected it.

The space inside was small, which was to be expected from someone who was not high on the crew list. Your own quarters were twice the size of his, but it came with being the XO and you knew Hoseok didn’t mind. He’d spent his youth cramped with others so any space was welcome.

Stark walls met you; with the only decorations in the room being the ones you’d bought him on your various contracts. He wasn’t hugely interested in interior design, which did not surprise you at all as he’d always been a man of simple tastes. An open holo screen on the small desk was set to a reading text, and upon closer inspection you saw that he was reading a romance fiction novel. Smiling slightly, you couldn’t help but shake your head in amusement.

The galaxy had an image of Magi as being cold and ruthless, the assumption that power on the level that a Magi had meant they were unfeeling beings. Having grown up amongst many Magi on Hekasus, and being in love with one for years, you knew the exact opposite was true.

Hoseok had explained once that to be Magi was to use Magiikus, and to use Magiikus was to be in touch with something so powerful and strong it would break the minds of those not capable of coping. Magiikus was power in its purest form and he’d said that it amplified everything about a Magi.

If they needed strength, then they would fill their limbs full of Magiikus and gain the strength of a Yarin to throw boulders into the sky. If they needed to move quickly, then the speed of a Qita graced them and so forth. It only made sense that Magiikus would amplify their emotions, which was why Hoseok often glowed when he was feeling something strongly.

For a Magi to become cold and unfeeling would be for them to deny the Magiikus, which was unthinkable. As a result, Magi were quite possibly some of the most overly emotional beings you’d ever met, which made them inexplicably dangerous. When angered they could level an entire town in their fury for example.

It almost meant that they loved fiercely. They put their whole heart into their love and there were many tales of a Magi who had lost their love and the repercussions that occurred after.

If their love had been killed in some way then no one was safe from the rage of the Magi who sought to avenge their love. In turn, their grief was soul achingly strong and potent, to the degree that a vast majority burned up as their Magiikus grew more and more wild with pain.

So no, they were not unfeeling beings but instead full of the most wonderful emotions you’d seen. They just needed to maintain iron control over their power.

Which was why it was hard to look at him now, lying on his bed in a silence that chilled your bones, your body well aware that there was something inherently wrong with the man you loved. Kneeling down next to the bed, your chin rests on your arms as you simply take in his features for a moment.

He’s breathing deeply, and his face is lax and innocent with not a flicker of emotion or intelligence crossing it. Hoseok had fallen into a deep, almost catatonic, sleep and for the past week there had been no sign he was going to wake up.

With no medic on the crew, you’d all had to make do with what little medical equipment you did have on hand. The only thing you’d figured out that he was physically healthy, perfect almost. But the med-scanner had gone a little crazy when reporting his brain scans, showing activity flaring up everywhere and vanishing just as quickly.

None of you knew what was happening to him as none of you had experience with a Magi almost burning up. In fact, there weren’t many people in the entire galaxy who had experience in that either, causing fear to roil in your stomach constantly. You wanted to go to detour to Hekasus and seek help from the Magi there after the third day when he showed no improvement, but Namjoon had nixed it immediately.

“No, we can’t go to Hekasus. You know if anyone caught us there with Jungkook then we’d be dead instantly. You know more than any of us that there are Magi who work on both sides that would have no qualm about reporting us in.” It frustrated you that you’d simply had to nod and agree.

A tear slowly fell down your cheek as you watched him, soon followed by another and another. It wasn’t long before a constellation of tears dotted your face, the trauma of almost seeing him die right in front of your eyes finally catching up after the shock of everything as you watch him.

Everything had moved so fast that you simply had not had time to process it, too focused on finding somewhere safe to hide out while also trying to figure Jungkook out more. And then there was the fact that part of you was afraid to confront it, as it meant acknowledging that there was a chance he may never come back to you.

Reaching out blindly, you found his hand before tightening your grip around it. “Please come back to us Hoseok. Please come back, please come back to me.” You whispered brokenly, voice thick as you finally let you the emotions you’d been so resiliently holding back out.

Given the stress of your recent events, you were not surprised that you eventually cried yourself to sleep, Hoseok’s hand still firmly in your own and the sound of his soft and rhythmic breathing your lullaby.

It was the complete absence of noise that caused you to jerk awake though, sitting up from where you were slumped on the floor. A spaceship meant that you had to become used to constant noise, whether it was from fellow crew, the sound of pipes as water rushed through, the familiar hum of air filtering through the ship or the ever important and gentle rumbling from the engine.

Silence for a spaceship meant death for the crew.

Your eyes flickered in a panic and it took a few seconds for you to realise that you were in a pitch-black area. Not simply a room that was dark, no you literally could not see at all.

“What the fuck is this?” Just as you’re about to enter Panic Town, which would have a population of one freaked out you right now, a voice suddenly speaks out which causes your heart to stutter.

“Y/N, it’s okay. I’m here little star, don’t panic.” You freeze, before turning around slowly to meet the voice. And he’s stood there, the only thing that’s visible in the darkness.

“Hoseok…you’re…you’re awake. How? When? Where are we?” Without even thinking you find yourself lurching to your feet and staggering towards him, hands reaching out to him desperately so that you can feel his warmth again. Sate an ache you hadn’t even been aware of until he was gone.

Only he steps back and away from your grasping hands, causing you to pause in confusion and hurt. A look of frustration spreads over his face as he sweeps a hand through his black hair, gleaming somehow despite the lack of light in this place. “We can’t touch, if we do then this.” He gestures to the darkness with a finger. “Will all vanish, and I need to talk to you.”

You wish that you could understand what he was talking about but you’d be lying. The last thing you remember was falling asleep next to a very much unconscious Hoseok. And now apparently you were in the void or some weird shit.

“Hoseok what are you…what are you talking about? What is this?” You’d seen some crazy shit in the galaxy but this was currently the strangest thing hands down - and you’d been to planet Akalin before. He sighed heavily, the sound full of negative emotions, before looking down at his hands as he tried to find the right words for you.

“This is…real…but not real. We’re here but…we’re also not here if that makes sense?” You stare at him for a moment blankly before your eyes flicker to the side. His face is earnest and you so desperately want to cup those honeyed cheeks, run your fingers along his skin and just remind yourself of what he feels like when he’s awake.

But you can’t, and the knowledge of that makes you slightly waspish. “You know, as happy as I am to see you right now, it’s suddenly incredibly obvious why you didn’t want to become a teacher.”

He laughs at that, a bright smile spreading and lighting up his face as he nods. It makes your stomach cramp with longing and suddenly you find yourself crying at simply seeing him alive. Hoseok sobers immediately at your tears and his hands flex with an obvious need to move.

“I’m not awake right now Y/N, and neither are you. This is…a form of Magiikus that’s only working because you’re touching me in real life. I’m not very experienced at it; there are those who can do this without touching. That’s not my area of expertise obviously, though I seem to be doing a lot of things that I’m not good at lately.” He wrinkles his nose slightly, obviously regretting that.

“It’s basically…like we’re sharing a dream. Only we can’t touch otherwise it’ll wake us up. Or rather you. It’ll wake you up. I wouldn’t expect this to happen again either, it takes up a lot of concentration to do this and honestly I probably shouldn’t be doing it. To put it simply, it’s some more of my mystical mumbo jumbo shit you like to tease me for.”

He smirks at you as you frown immediately, mouth opening to reprimand him for putting his recovery at risk. He stops you with a hand, understanding that you’d want to rant at him for doing something that could prevent him waking up.

“I’m currently in what we Magi call a Panacea sleep. It’s a healing sleep that we use when we’ve expended too much energy or Magiikus. Usually the user will wake up within a day or two but…honestly I don’t know when I will. Or if I ever will wake up. I’ve never heard of a Magi recovering from almost burning up like I did.”

A silence fills the air between you both at that as you try to comprehend what he’s just told you. While relief fills you to know that he’s healing, despair soon takes its place at the prospect he could never wake up.

The quiet extends before Hoseok suddenly breaks it, his voice so thick with pain that you want to rush forward despite his warning. “I just needed to talk to you and it suddenly worked. I thought I was going to die you know, on the bridge. One second I’m focusing on protecting the Starfire and making a barrier and the next, the next I’m burning so hot and Magiikus is screaming through my brain. I couldn’t think properly and I couldn’t stop it. I’m so sorry Y/N, I’m so sorry.”

He’s suddenly crying, his face crumpling in emotion and you anxiously wish that you could touch him, wipe away those tears gently and cup his hands in your hands to soothe away his worries. Your Hoseok should never cry and you let out a soft whimper of distress at the fact you can’t do anything.

“I’m sorry that you had to watch that, that you had to watch me almost die and you couldn’t even do anything. I couldn’t hear anything but the Magiikus in my head and I swore I was dying. Then suddenly, I could hear you. You were calling my name and I could hear that you were crying, god the pain in your voice, and I realised that you were watching me die.” He pauses for a second.

“Do you know the only thing I could think then when I heard you?” His voice cracked and he swallowed thickly, wiping away the tears from his cheeks. “All I could think was that I’m sorry. I’m sorry that you’re watching me die, I’m sorry that I’m failing you and most importantly? I’m sorry that I never told you that I love you.”

You’re quiet for a moment, tears falling down your own face even faster as you shake your head despite the race your heart is suddenly engaged in, reaching out to him but not moving forward. “I knew Hoseok, you know that I knew.” He shook his head determinedly though.

“No, no that was the cowards way out okay? I should have told you. I should have told you years ago, then we could have spent the last few years together instead of playing that stupid flirting game we did. I was a coward because I didn’t want to tell you and potentially watch you fall out of love with me. The Starfire is your home and I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable, so I wanted to be sure of us. But I was a fucking coward, I should have just done it!” He cursed, kicking at the floor, or what constituted a floor, in frustration.

“I could have loved you properly, like you deserved. But instead you almost had to watch me die before I’d even spoken the words to you. So I’m being a coward again and I’m being selfish. I might never wake up, but I need you to know okay? I need you to know that I love you. I love the way you always tease me for my ‘mystic mumbo jumbo’, I love the way you never take anything seriously until you have to, and then it has your full attention.” He cracks a smile at that, wobbly as his eyes water furiously.

“I love how when you smile at me, it’s like I’m the only person you can see. I love your terrible cooking because even if it tastes like you’re trying to poison me, I can feel the effort you put in. I love how in a galaxy of trillions upon trillions of people, you make me feel like I’m the only person that matters. And I want you to know, my little star, that you’re the only person that matters to me too.”

He bites his lip as he wipes his face once more and your heart feels like it’s going to burst out of your chest with emotion.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get to tell you in person, but I swear if I wake up…I’m going to kiss like you I’m dying all over again.” Hoseok smiles at you, a soft look of hope lighting up his eyes and you realise with a start that his whole body has been gently glowing the whole time.

He looks away to the side suddenly before looking back at you, the corners of his mouth turning up softly. “You have to go now. I’m trying to come back to you; I swear I’m trying so damn hard. Try not to get in too much trouble now yeah? I’d like to wake up to see you there and tell you this in person.”

You go to respond, eyes closing only to find yourself being shaken awake by Rose. Blinking groggily, you frown at the brightness of the room compared to wherever the hell you had just been. You were back in Hoseok’s room, and Hoseok was in front of you again, still unconscious, with his hand in yours.

Nodding at Rose’s request for you to head to the bridge, you wait until she leaves the room before standing up and grimacing at the ache in your back from the position you’d slept in. Leaning forward, you take in Hoseok’s features up close before pressing a tender kiss on his forehead.

“I’m going to hold you to that Hoseok, you better come back to me because I want that kiss.” Smiling, you kiss his forehead again before leaving his room, a bounce in your step suddenly and tentative hope in your veins.

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autisticblueteam · 6 years

Text

Different People (Carolina/Girlie)

Chapter 4 / 4: Unexpected

[AO3] [Ko-Fi in Bio]

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Canon-typical violence, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Canonical Character Death, Drowning, Paralysis [other tags on AO3]

Girlie survived Longshore.

The sole survivor of her team, she found herself thrown out into the world with nowhere to go and nothing to cling to except the burning resentment she held towards the Freelancers. After years of aimlessness, when presented with an opportunity for revenge she snaps it up without hesitation.

But reality is never as simple as fantasy. People aren’t always what you imagined them to be.

Chapter Word Count: 5745

Notes: At the time of posting this hasn’t had my usual edits because it’s late and I want to get it up, but I’ll likely go through and edit it later. But here we go, final chapter!

The next few hours went by in a blur.

Girlie could do little but watch from the Warthog seat and then the Pelican as everything fell apart for the Chorusans. The General that owned the sword had been cornered and the reactor they were planning to set off with time to spare had been damaged. Destroying it manually was their only hope at taking out enough of Charon’s forces to even the field, but now the General would die.

Giving Felix the sword and the means to wipe out the entire planet with the turn of a key.

The idea she’d given them. The information she’d passed on.

Something twisted in her gut. A deep sense of guilt that she didn’t have the energy to process, not on top of everything that had happened with Carolina.

She could barely even look at her. Every time she did she felt sick in a way she couldn’t quite describe; it wasn’t that hatred she’d grown so used to but it wasn’t anything pleasant. Carolina had offered her mercy, she’d offered her a hand and she’d helped her come out of this with another chance. What was she supposed to do with that information?

In those few minutes on the ground in Armonia, before the city blew, she saw a side of Carolina she’d never acknowledged could even exist. Far past the one-dimensional ideas she’d built up of her and the other Freelancers, she saw her comforting Kimball and leading her to safety. She saw her scan the bay and check on everyone inside, even her. Saw her climb onto the roof of the Pelican armed with nothing but her armour, an AI and a bubble shield to deflect a nuclear blast.

The Pelican survived. Carolina stumbled back into the bay, collapsed against Washington. Everyone fell into an uneasy, anxious silence. Radio calls from other survivors came in and Kimball pulled herself together long enough to organise everyone, direct people to land in safe locations around the planet.

Their ship finally landed in a jungle canyon, connected to a crashed ship. People scrambled out as soon as the bay door touched the ground, greeted by the blue-toned soldiers she’d seen at the temple and a few others. The canyon was filled with Choursan soldiers in both types of armour, huddled in small groups.

This was what passed for a safe location. An open canyon in the middle of nowhere, isolated but unsecured.

Fuck. These people were on their last legs.

Girlie had to pull herself from her seat and drag herself to the edge of the bay. Sitting at the top of the ramp she watched everything go by. Teenagers in armour, some crying whilst others just stared at the ground. Medics checking over the injured. People coming and going from the wreckage.

No one came to her and she didn’t expect them to. Carolina had vanished with her team and Girlie sat alone, kitted out in Pirate armour. Those few who noticed her gave her dirty looks and it wasn’t like she could blame them.

This was partially her fault, after all. Not that they knew the extent of how, but…

Sighing, she lay back and covered her face with her arm.

Sure, she’d survived. But what was she supposed to do now?

Felt like she’d asked herself that question a lot in the past few years.

Time ticked by and Girlie was left there undisturbed. Silence usually welcomed spiralling thoughts and anger, but… not today. For once, she didn’t even think. Instead she just lay there, listening to the white noise of the jungle and the distance chatter of the Chorusans, until she heard shouting from somewhere else in the canyon. Shouting that echoed inside her helmet where it lay at her side.

Pulling her helmet back on, she heard General Kimball’s voice. A speech, broadcasting to all local channels and no doubt more. A speech about the Civil War here on Chorus and about war as a whole, what it does to you. A speech about fighting back and surviving. Rousing and emotional and coming from a place so genuine that she could feel it in the woman’s voice.

And as the cheers filled the canyon, as bullets sprayed into the air, Girlie found some of her words had struck a cord in her. The speech wasn’t for her, wasn’t for the ex-Insurrectionist who’d long since betrayed all of her principles or for the woman who’d made their imminent demise possible, but, despite that…

When you spend every day fighting a war, you learn to demonize your attackers. To you they're evil, they're sub-human. Because if they weren't, then what would that make you?

With a quiet laugh, Girlie let her head fall back. Yeah, what would that make you?

Carolina reappeared not long after Kimball’s speech had ended. Girlie saw her coming, heading from the direction Kimball’s speech had come from. No helmet, her face laid bare for all the world to see.

She looked… as tired as Girlie felt, she realised with another laugh. Bags under her eyes and scars on her face, signs of stress in the corners of her features and cropped scarlet hair tousled by her helmet. Girlie couldn’t remember the last time she’d looked in the mirror but she figured if she had the chance, she wouldn’t look much better.

The years hadn’t been kind to either of them.

“Girlie,” she said, standing at the foot of the ramp. “Can we talk?”

“…yeah, sure. Whatever.” Figuring it was only fair, she unsealed her own helmet and set it down beside her. “Not like I’m going anywhere. Literally, I can’t fucking get up.”

“We can have Grey examine you.” Carolina walked up the ramp and sat a few feet away, not too close. Girlie couldn’t tell if that was for her comfort or her own. “See if there’s anything she can do, about your legs.”

“Doubt you have facilities for surgery here,” Girlie said, nodding at the canyon. “That’s all that’ll fix it. Can tell you that right now.”

“I don’t know. Grey’s…” she trailed off, trying to place a word, but eventually shook her head, “…Grey. She ran maintenance on my arm in the middle of nowhere and it held up just fine.” When Girlie’s head snapped to her in confusion, Carolina peeled off her glove and waved a set of robotic fingers at her. “Prosthesis.”

“Oh, right. Guess I’m not the only cyborg around here.”

Carolina slipped her glove back on. “Not by a longshot.”

Awkward silence overcame them and they sat there, neither looking at the other, for at least a minute. Carolina idly scratched at a line in the metal floor. Girlie stared at her feet.

“…I meant what I said, in Armonia,” Carolina said, finally. “I’m sorry. We were told you were the enemy. We— I was doing what I believed had to be done. It doesn’t change what happened and it doesn’t excuse it, but it’s the truth.”

“Yeah, well— you’re fucking right, it doesn’t excuse shit,” Girlie said, still not lifting her gaze. “But— ugh, I don’t know. I don’t know. You don’t get— look, I’ve spent fucking years blaming you, Carolina. Years. Wanting to kill you Freelancers was the only motivation I had! That’s not— fucking— ugh.”

Dropping her head into her hands, she cursed under her breath. This was uncomfortable. Sitting next to the woman she’d hated for years—hell, that she might still hate, she didn’t fucking know—was fucking uncomfortable, talking to her was even worse. She’d never talked about this with anyone, how was she supposed to talk about it with her?

“You may not believe it, but I… get it,” Carolina said. Girlie dared a glance out of the corner of her eye—she looked uncomfortable, too, still scratching at that indent in the floor. “I spent years hunting down the person to blame for what happened at Freelancer. Finding him consumed my life. I was in a bad place and I made decisions I’m not proud of.”

Girlie averted her gaze again. Guess that did sound rather her past few years.

“Then I found him and— I couldn’t do it.” The scratching stopped. “The moment I had spent so long building up to and I couldn’t do it. I had to make the decision to move forward and to try and do better. Still, I’ve made choices I wouldn’t make again. Things have happened to make it more difficult. It’s… a process.”

When Girlie finally looked at her, she was biting her lip. Must have been doing so for a while; it had split. “Why are you telling me all of this?”

“Because I think you need to hear it,” Carolina said, meeting her eye for the briefest of moments. “There’s a way forward, Girlie. Take it from me, because I’ve been there. I am there.”

…Carolina was a different woman than she’d expected her to be.

She didn’t know what to say, not at first, but she knew she should say something. Silence hung over them for what felt like the millionth time, dense and unsettled, until Carolina sighed and stood up. Tucked her helmet under her arm and went to leave. Took three steps down the ramp and—

“I saw them, when you knocked me into that portal. My team,” Girlie said, before she could change her mind. Carolina stopped still. “I saw them die. All over again. Except— except the thing was, that wasn’t the thing that scared me. What fucking scared me was I couldn’t find anyone to blame. It was just me, and my dead friends. No one to aim my anger at. That was the worst part.”

“Because there had to be a clear cause for all of this. If there wasn’t, what did that mean for you?”

Girlie didn’t answer, but she figured that itself was answer enough. Guess Carolina did understand.

“…pushing you into the portal was the quickest way to finish the fight. I wasn’t sure if it would still… run the test,” Carolina said. Turning back to her, she sighed. “I’m sorry.”

Girlie shook her head. “Nah, look, if I hadn’t gone into that thing? No way in hell I’d be here right now. You mentioning Charon planted the seed of doubt but it fucking bloomed in that place. I probably would’ve kept fighting you until you had to kill me without that.” With a sigh of her own, she rubbed her face. “Fell for the same bullshit twice. Charon’s good, I’ll give them that. I don’t— this is— a lot, you know? Like my whole world’s been torn out from under me. I don’t know how to feel about any of this. I don’t even know what I’m gonna do now.”

“Well, helping us would be a good start.” Pausing, she chewed her lip for a moment and then smiled faintly. “After that, I happen to know a group that have a habit of taking in people with nowhere else to go.”

“Huh.” Didn’t know how she felt about that just now, but… “Uh, one thing at a time. I did kinda give the assholes the to genocide, literally, so yeah, sure, helping. Uh— one problem, though.”

Carolina titled her head.

“I can’t fucking walk.”

“Oh, right. That’s a problem.”

“No shit,” Girlie said with a snort of laughter. “Like I said, genius or not there’s no way I’m having surgery done in a canyon in bumfuck nowhere. And you really dealt the final blow with that kick of yours.”

Carolina was quiet for a moment, though she still moved as if she were mid-conversation. Must have been talking to Epsilon internally again. Girlie flicked her eyes around the canyon, passing the time.

“Think you could do your thing from the seat of a Warthog?” she said, maybe a minute later. “With the right weapon?”

“Yeah, sure, guess so,” Girlie said with a shrug. Then, raising a brow, “What exactly are you guys planning, anyway?”

Carolina’s lips twitched into a slight smirk. “Well…”

The plan, as it turned out, was ever so slightly crazy—but apparently that’s just how these guys worked, so who was she to question it? Wasn’t like she had any better ideas and after what she’d done, the least she could do was go along with their batshit plan and help to make sure it worked.

The Freelancers were already at the Purge Temple by the time they arrived at the Comm. Temple for their final assault. Girlie provided them as much extra intel as she can before they left, even if she still felt awkward as hell talking to their of them. They’d been shocked by the information that the Counselor was up on the Tartarus—so yeah, her hunch was right—but there was no time to dwell on it let alone confront him. They had to be satisfied with the fact their plan would kill him, quite spectacularly in fact. Ship crashes were a hell of a way to go.

(God, what the fuck was this plan.)

Girlie was driven to the temple by some of Carolina’s colourful companions—the red coloured ones, or well, warm coloured ones (seriously, one of them was orange? How did these colour schemes work?). The Orange one was actually a hell of a driver, she later found out, but the drive there was spent listening to the two Reds in the Warthog with her bickering. Kinda amusing, really, it was hard not to crack a bit of a smile and she had to cough to hide a laugh at one particular quip. It was a dynamic she hadn’t experienced in a long time.

“Hey, lady—” the orange one—Grif, she thought they called him— said as the fight finally kicked off, “—do me a favour and like, be careful firing that thing. We only got the one jeep.”

“Girlie,” Girlie corrected, casually.

She could practically hear the confused squint. “What?”

“My name’s Girlie, not lady.”

“Same difference, isn’t it?”

“…touché, I’ll almost give you that, but no.” Shaking her head, she securely balanced the alien gun on the edge of the Warthog. “And don’t worry about it, I’m not gonna shoot the damn jeep.” Pause. “How many times has—?”

“You don’t even wanna know.”

“—alright then. You’re— an interesting bunch.”

“Yeah, we get that a lot,” Grif said, shrugging. That didn’t surprise her at all.

With the Pirates so severely undermanned after they turned Armonia into a nuke the fight was easy. Grif drove, his boyfriend and Girlie shot the Pirates’ vehicles and anyone who got too close, respectively, and the Chorusans with their alien weapons made mincemeat of the remaining attackers—or well, dust. Mostly dust.

Honestly? It was almost fun. Grif was a damn good driver and the alien gun felt powerful in her hands. She hadn’t seen action like this in years and hey, the fact she was wrecking a bunch of Charon’s men in the name of a planet that was one short step from Insurrectionist? That certainly sweetened the deal.

They were inside the tower within an hour, at the most. Not long after that, the Freelancers reappeared. Armour looking a little scuffed in places, but okay. Clearly, the plan had worked. All that was left to do was for them to go broadcast their message and expose Charon; they’d have to keep fighting the stragglers in the meantime, but that was easy enough.

Until the Mantis appeared. That complicated things, just a bit.

Girlie found herself sitting in a Warthog being used as a blockade at the temple entrance, helping Kimball and some of the other Chorusan soldiers hold the position whilst the colourful assholes did their thing and Carolina did hers.

…she watched Carolina tear that Mantis apart with her bare hands and hey, look, she’d be lying if she said that wasn’t attractive as hell. Carolina was a complicated mess of emotions in her head—the woman she hated for years but also the first person to ever just talk to her about what had happened—but she didn’t need to untangle it to know how hot that was.

But then more Mantises dropped, more people died, and a call came in that her team was cornered by a bunch of Charon goons with no guarantee that they could get to them in time.

So she watched Carolina tear onto the nearest Pelican, Washington not far behind. Watched her as they returned, looking frantic as she helped take the injured to where they needed to be. Watched her scramble to make sure that her team was all okay, whilst clearly knotted tight with distress herself. Watched her take care of her team, saw that other dimension of her that she’d never imagined could exist mere days ago.

Everything had changed and she still had no idea where she stood.

But dammit, she was going to figure it out this time.

She had to.

Over the following days Carolina was all but completely absent from anywhere that wasn’t either the makeshift training hall or the equally makeshift hospital. People were slowly starting to move back towards some of Chorus’ other old population centres but the process was slow and it wasn’t worth moving the patients before a real hospital was set up. Various members of Carolina’s team were still under observation, most notably the other aqua one—Tucker?—who’d been running the suit that saved them.

(Girlie wondered how seeing that suit, that familiar domed helmet and white armour, had felt for Carolina. If it had given her pause, she couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for Carolina.)

If she was honest, Girlie had been keeping her distance anyway. Her feelings about Carolina were still a tangled mess; some days she felt that residual rage, whilst others she wanted to talk to her and hear what she had to say. Things were too messy right now for both of them to expend anymore energy discussing their past; the present was much more important.

So Girlie spent most of her time doing odd jobs around the canyon, like helping out with moving things onto transport Warthogs. They’d managed to dig a wheelchair for her from somewhere, giving her the freedom of movement she needed. Days flew by with little issue, with the most dramatic thing that happened being the time a Warthog started driving before they were done and everything fell out. Girlie may not have known anyone there on Chorus, and people were hesitant to talk to one of the ex-Pirates, but helping out had started to build a few bridges.

Things were okay. Her life had more purpose in those few days than it had felt like it had had in years. Felt almost like getting back to her roots, helping out this backwater colony where there were already whispers of not wanting to re-join the UEG. How many years had it been now since they packed up the cell and joined the UNSC? How long had she been doing their dirty work for them, because they weren’t given a choice in the matter? How long had it been since she really worked to help the people the UNSC was fucking over?

Too long, she decided, as she helped some kid that couldn’t be older than sixteen move another crate. Too fucking long.

It had been almost a week when she saw Carolina sitting alone in the rudimentary mess hall, alone. The few times she’d seen her in the week prior she’d been almost constantly flanked by Washington, almost fused at the hip, but he was nowhere to be seen. Carolina looked half-dead and was mindlessly scrolling on her data-pad, cheek leant heavily into the palm of her other hand.

Girlie hesitated in the doorway, watching her for longer than she perhaps should have. She was worrying that bottom lip of hers again, though not hard enough to split it. Bright green eyes flicked up and down her screen without really looking. The bags under her eyes had only gotten darker.

Fuck it.

Wheeling over to the old coffee machine she made two cups, one made just how she liked it—a normal amount of milk and a shit ton of sugar—the other black, then stuffed a bunch of sugar packets and creamers into an empty cup. Making a girl shitty coffee she couldn’t drink wouldn’t be a good first impression, better to let her modify it herself.

Then, with a deep breath, she approached the table.

“Hey, uh— you look like you might need this,” she said, holding up the black coffee. Carolina raised her head, looking momentarily surprised, but then exhaled with a faint laugh.

“I don’t know if I should be insulted or grateful,” she said, as she took the cup. Girlie manoeuvred so she could pull herself up close to the table and set down the cup of extras. Carolina considered them for a moment, before shaking her head and taking a gulp of the unmodified coffee.

“You’ve had a tough— well I was gonna say week, but few years might be more accurate. Point is, you’re allowed to look as shitty as you feel,” Girlie said with a shrug, sipping her own. After a moment’s hesitation, she added, “…they’ll be okay. It’s not my place to say a thing, course, but— they’ll be okay. They seem like stubborn enough assholes.”

Carolina didn’t respond at first, but she did offer her a tired smile before taking another long swig. Her eyes slid shut as she let the warmth fill her and she breathed out a sigh. “I never told you what I saw in the portal, did I?”

A little taken aback, Girlie set down her cup.

“Nah, I don’t… think we were on those kind of terms then. I mean, I told you because I was making a point, y’know?” She shrugged. “Didn’t think we were on those terms now. Y’know, seeing as I spent days trying to kill you.”

“I saw almost the same thing you saw. I had to watch my families, die.”

“…oh, shit.”

“That and— what happened to Epsilon,” she bit her lip a little harder, threatened to burst it, “has me a little more concerned than maybe I should be about a few broken bones and a couple bullet wounds.”

“That Santa guy—” she couldn’t believe she was actually calling that thing Santa, “—sure likes that trope, huh? What an asshole.” Carolina cracked a smile. Girlie called that a win. “Look I don’t know the whole story here but if those guys have survived everything I’ve heard about lately, they’ll come out of this no worse for wear.” Then, added quickly, “Physically.”

They’d lost one of their own. Girlie knew first-hand how badly that could hit a team.

“Physically,” Carolina said sombrely. They both sat nursing their coffee for a few minutes of silence that wasn’t quite comfortable but wasn’t quite awkward, before she spoke again. “You know, you’re not so bad, when you’re not trying to kill me.”

Girlie glanced up at her and found her smiling again, still tired but seemingly genuine.

“…yeah. Yeah you’re not so bad either. When you’re not trying to kill me.”

Carolina chuckled and Girlie cracked a smile of her own, shaking her head as she reached for another packet of sugar. That started an entire discussion about their respective abominations of the coffee kind, Carolina finding her heavily sweetened milky mixture unbearable whilst Girlie could never stomach coffee as raw as Carolina’s. It was kinda silly, really, but it kept their minds from wandering towards anything more depressing.

That conversation was the start of a very tentative, but growing, friendship. Things were still complicated; Girlie had years of anger to unpack but she was more than willing to work at it, to get away from the ghosts that had haunted her for years. Carolina wasn’t the woman she’d built her up to be, she could never have been that; that woman was one-dimensional, cruel and without remorse, none of which could ever describe the woman she’d come to know.

She was complex and complicated, filled with so much remorse that it seemed to eat away at her constantly, but more than that she was absolutely and unshakably devoted to the people she cared about. She always seemed like she had something to prove, like she couldn’t stop. Her laughter was rare but bright and shameless when it came. Her jokes were dry and almost always perfectly timed—almost. On a good day there was an energy that radiated from her that felt absolutely unique to her.

Girlie saw more and more of those things as time went by, as her team left hospital and Chorus was gifted aid, as everything started to move forward. They didn’t talk much during the days, where Carolina would be working with Washington and Kimball whilst Girlie worked odd jobs around the foundations of New Armonia—a repurposed population centre, being slowly expanded. But after a long day, Girlie found it refreshing to slump against a wall somewhere with Carolina and just… talk.

About the Reds, who she’d slowly started to fall into place with. About the Reds and Blues in general, their ridiculous antics. About their individual work around New Armonia. And, when their heads were clearer and most of the tension had faded, the past.

“It’s… difficult, talking to Wash about what happened,” Carolina said, one day, after a couple of drinks had left them both pliable for heavy talk. After she’d told Girlie about her side of the final years of the Project. “I’m trying—we’re trying—but… I suppose a level of detachment helps. No, detachment probably isn’t the right word…”

Girlie chuckled, elbowed her. “Yeah I wouldn’t call talking to one of the people you nearly killed ‘detachment’. But I get what you’re saying.”

“Funny how some years can be some of the best but also the worst of your life.” Carolina sighed, dropped her head back against the wall. A smile tugged at the corners of her lips and she spoke with amusement in her voice, “Have I told you about the time Maine put York’s helmet on top of one of the ceiling beams?”

“Nope.”

“Maine was the tallest, by a huge margin. No one else could reach those beams without climbing something. York tried all sorts of things to get up there but eventually he had to promise Maine his desserts for a week to get them to retrieve it.”

“Wow. What did he do to earn that contempt?”

“You know, I can’t remember. Probably some ill-advised joke.”

“Sounds like the kind of thing the Chain twins would’ve done for fun,” Girlie said, her head dropping against Carolina’s shoulder without thinking. “Always up to shit, those two. You know they used to call you guys by the wrong designations and even colours on purpose all the time? Made it real hard to keep track of who they were actually talking about.”

Carolina laughed, the kind of full on laughter Girlie had only ever been able to pry out of her when a good day and some alcohol had helped her relax, the kind that had started hitting Girlie right in the chest.

She didn’t know when the vague attraction she had towards Carolina as a fighter—as started by her ripping apart a Mantis—had become more than that and she almost didn’t want to know. The shift from hatred, to confliction, to friendship to— to— whatever this was, was confusing and had happened over the space of such a short time that she swore it had given her whiplash.

At first she’d put it down to her lack of human contact over the past few years but when her spending time with the Reds had gotten more frequent and those feelings towards Carolina had continued to grow, didn’t know what to think.

And now her head was on Carolina’s shoulder and she was laughing at a dumb story she’d told and look, there was only so much a girl could handle.

Carolina had given her a second chance—given her a new damn life by being willing to offer her that.

Despite their history, they were different people than they were all those years ago. So much had happened and Girlie was surprised by how much of their experiences were mirrored, how easy that made it to talk about even with one of the people who had caused her own pain.

So maybe being into her wasn’t much weirder, or maybe it was that much weirder, who the fuck knows. Either way the attachment was there and Girlie didn’t think she wanted to shake it. Though she didn’t know if she wanted to act on it, either.

For now she was happy enough to just sit there, head on Carolina’s shoulder and enjoying her company. If Carolina’s head dropped against hers, then that was only a bonus.

Time flew by and New Armonia started to take shape. Elections were organised. People were slowly settling into non-military jobs despite remaining technically enlisted until things had settled.

Girlie found her place helping to create strongholds and maximise their supplies, making sure they’d never be left struggling again, even should the negotiations with the UEG go badly. She was no politician, she never had been; the best way she could help these people was to share the skills she’d learned during her days in the Insurrection.

It was nice to feel like she might be making a difference.

By the end of the second month after the final fight, she’d officially been declared a member of Red Team. That was fun, they were fun. Sarge acted kind of like the grumpy old dad she’d never really had; Donut was an all around entertainer, whether he meant to be or not; Simmons was a gigantic nerd, but they’d found a little solidarity in their respective ‘cyborg’ statuses; and Grif was a great guy to relax with, they’d gotten on well since that first day in the jeep. Having a team again took some getting used to and she had to remind herself often that she wasn’t replacing her family, but it was refreshing. Feeling as if she had a home.

As she settled, she watched Carolina do the same. Blue Team had absorbed her into their number and Carolina fit in fine, once she started to relax. Everything after the Staff of Charon had been a seemingly never-ending process of handling the aftermath, of handling their loss, but time and distance let them start to heal.

They still spent many of their evenings together, wandering around the city or sitting somewhere away from the bustle of the occupied sectors. After Girlie’s surgery Carolina even helped her with her physio and then sparring, getting her back to full strength. Girlie did her best to return the favour by listening and helping her figure out how to talk to Washington.

Talking and sparring had helped her work out her issues, more than anything. Where her old resentments lingered, she knew to ignore them. They were in-built, a coping mechanism from a time long passed, but that didn’t mean she had to listen to them. Nah, she could tell them to fuck off.

Carolina was amused by her methods. Apparently she’d never thought of telling the intrusive voice in her head to fuck off quite so literally. Girlie told her she should try it some time.

If she were honest, Girlie had expected if her feelings towards Carolina to fade over time. Expected that the crush was just that, a crush brought on by unexpected kindness from an attractive woman after years of being alone. Instead, the more she got to know Carolina the more she liked her.

Still, she didn’t dare make a move.

Nah. Apparently, that was down to Carolina.

They were changing after a long sparring session, unbothered by undressing around each other as they took off their sweaty work-out clothes. They’d been bantering back and forth all afternoon and it hadn’t stopped once they left the training hall.

“You know,” Girlie said, putting her tank away and grabbing a new shirt, “I still have a massive scar from where you stabbed me with that— knife-rifle thing.”

Carolina raised a brow, glancing back at her. Girlie turned her torso so she could see the large scar that ran up the centre of her chest. It was just a joking comment, just teasing, but Carolina gained this glint in her eye and retorted with a very serious sounding, “What do you want me to do about it? Kiss it better?”

Which was the moment Girlie knew she was absolutely and truly fucked.

“I can do that, if you’d like,” she continued, setting down what she was holding and walking in her direction.

“Uh—” Girlie’s brain stalled, words caught in the back of her throat. Was this happening? No way this was happening. “…do you want to?”

Carolina’s answer was to approach her and crouch down just enough so that she could easily press light kisses up the length of the scar. A shiver ran down Girlie’s spine as she tried to process what was happening, something she still hadn’t achieved by the time Carolina stood up and kissed her on the lips.

Okay. Yeah. That was happening.

Stunned as she was it took her an age to return it, but she did. Her hands settled on Carolina’s arms, firm muscle and cold metal. Her eyes slid shut and she took in the feeling of her lips against hers, the slight bump of the scar tissue in the middle of her lower lip.

When Carolina pulled away, Girlie’s eyes remained closed for a good ten seconds longer. Processing.

“Holy shit, okay. Yeah, alright, that’s—”

“Satisfactory?” Carolina said, an amused note to her voice. When Girlie finally opened her eyes she found her smirking.

“…yeah. Satisfactory’s a word,” Girlie said, idly flicking her tongue over her lips. “I’m gonna kiss you again now.”

And she did, catching a laughing Carolina’s lips with hers, pulling her close.

If anyone had told her, years ago, that this was where her future was headed, she wouldn’t have believed them.

But hey, things never did turn out as she expected, did they?

#rvb girlie #agent carolina #girlina #rvb #red vs blue #rvb fic #my fanfiction #fic: different people

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riseofedgecrusher · 7 years

Text

shit I’ve learned about using genji’s ultimate to its full effect (and without getting killed in the first two seconds)

keep in mind I’m no expert. I’ve got about 25 hours on genji right now and consider myself just barely intermediate. I’ll likely keep updating this as I get better

so genji’s dragonblade can wipe the whole enemy team if you have good timing and positioning and the enemy team has neither of those things. if that’s reversed, you can just as easily get killed before you have a chance to kill a single person. why is that? because from the time you activate dragonblade until the time you can start swinging, there’s about a 1 and a half second delay, and in that time, genji is yelling his catch phrase and surrounded by glowy green dragon and just generally a big target for the enemy team shouting “hey I’m vulnerable for one second before I kick your asses all over this map, SHOOT ME DOWN NOW!!”

there’s two major elements to controlling the situation so you’re annihilating the enemy team instead of them annihilating you. first, you want to start from a good position. second, you want to take out any characters who can counter you easily beforehand, or engage with dragonblade while they’re separated from the rest of their team, or at least know where they are so they can’t catch you by surprise. it gets a little more complicated than you’d think because a couple characters that genji counters in normal gameplay become counters to him while he’s using his ultimate.

first let’s look at positioning. ideally most of the enemy team will be clustered together, maybe around the payload or behind a rein shield. or both. you want to be somewhere above and behind them. the first person you want to kill is almost always going to be the healer, who’s usually going to be at the very back of the cluster. if you can get above and behind your enemies using the map, like getting on top of a building the payload is near, and you’re as certain as you can be that no one saw you go up there, that’s great. you’re in a good starting position. just jump down and press q to activate your dragonblade as you drop into their back line. if you have doubts whether they know you’re there or not, press q first and then drop down on them. you might lose one swing before ult times out if you do it this way, but it’ll keep the enemy team from killing you easily in that little delay between pressing q and the dragonblade being ready to use, because you won’t be dropping into their line of fire until you’re ready to start swinging.

but you won’t always be conveniently above and behind the enemy team when you have your ult and see a good opportunity to use it. let’s say you’re on attack. you’re standing on or behind the payload with your rein, and you see four of the other team have set up a defense behind a shield of their own in the next choke point. the other two are overextended and won’t be able to get there in time to help their team. the four in your way are busy shooting at your rein and your other dps and they really aren’t paying attention to you. you have your ult and you’re ready to slice their defenses to bits.

just one little problem… you’re in front of them. if you ult while charging straight out at them from behind your rein’s shield, they’ll shoot you down the second they hear that audio cue. somehow you have to get behind them where you have the element of surprise.

this is where your swift strike comes in handy. there’s a couple different techniques to using it for positioning. you can swift strike at a steep angle to go up into the air, ult, and fall onto the enemy back line with dragonblade at the ready. this is the method you see pros using all the time, because there’s less chance you’ll swift strike directly into an oncoming projectile if you’re going up. the disadvantage of it is the angle you need to swift strike into the air at, to land exactly where you want to land, is really precise. timing it is hard since you’re going to be running when you engage with swift strike.

or, you can swift strike in a long, low arc that puts you right behind whoever you’re planning to kill first. this is my preferred method, at least right now at my low rank where I’m playing against uncoordinated teams, because there’s a little more margin for error when it comes to the angle of the swift strike, and because it doesn’t take as long for me to fall out of the air onto the target when engaging. it’s a little riskier though, since the low arc means you could swift strike directly into a projectile meant for someone else and end up dead. you need to really pay attention to who’s on the enemy team shooting in what direction so you don’t end up with a junkrat grenade in your face.

so. if you’re using the steep angle, you want to activate your ult at the top of the arc. the enemy team will hear the audio cue when it’s somewhere above them and, especially if they’re less experienced players, they’ll probably be confused for that second of vulnerability before you can start slicing away at them. when you land on the support it’ll already be too late for them to react.

if you’re using the low arc, you want to activate your ult in as rapid succession to the swift strike as possible, but make sure the swift strike comes first. so, l-shift then q, as little time in between as possible. and make sure you’re strafing when you hit the ground behind the enemy back line just in case you get that one coordinated player who knows right away you went behind them and reacts in time.

swift strike resets immediately when you activate your ultimate, so you’ll have it at your disposal once again even though you just used it for positioning. that’s great, because there’s two ways enemy teams might react when confronted with an ulting genji going after their back line: they’re either going to huddle close together and all shoot at you at once, or they’re going to scatter and make it harder for you to pick them off. if they’re staying close together and they all just turned to shoot at you, you can swift strike again so you’re on the side you started from, which will now be behind them since they turned around to face you. no arc this time, just swift strike through them and if it goes through more than one person, all those people will get hit with 50 damage before you even started swinging your sword.

if they scatter, pick a target, use the swift strike to catch up to them, and cut them down. if they do scatter, you don’t want to go after mercy, because she can fly to one of her team mates for safety and then your swift strike won’t reset again until after your ult times out. the best target to start with in this case would be either the second support, or a dps. you probably won’t get a lot of kills if they scatter, but that’s totally fine, because they’re away from the objective and easy for the rest of your team to pick off now. you lost the sick potg but you won the team fight.

now, I’m going to list characters that genji is especially vulnerable to while using his ultimate. the first three are genji counters in normal gameplay, and if you’ve been playing genji for 10 levels or more, you probably hate them already: symmetra, winston, and mei. make sure these guys are dead or far away from their team before you use your ultimate or you’ll just be wasting it. symmetra and winston can kill genji with minimal effort, and mei negates his mobility, which means any opportunistic player can kill him with minimal effort. I never engage with my ult if symmetra is nearby, and only engage with winston and mei if they’re at less than half health and I’m certain I can kill them first.

zarya is really situational. she’s usually seen as a genji counter since her beam can’t be deflected, but her beam also requires some pretty precise aim. she can also regenerate 200 of her health by just not taking damage for a couple seconds, and she has barriers that prevent her from taking 200 damage for a couple seconds. ideally, you want zarya to be dead or away from her team before using genji’s ultimate, but it is possible to work with it if she’s not. either kill her first or keep moving so she can’t keep her beam on you. (and “keep moving” doesn’t mean “keep jumping in a straight line.” all that does is put you on a predictable vertical trajectory.)

torbjörn himself isn’t much of a threat to genji, but his turret is. since it’s aimed by ai, genji can’t get out of its line of fire by moving fast or climbing walls, until he gets into a room or someplace where the turret doesn’t have a line of sight on him. some strategy guides say that genji is a counter to torb, while others say torb is a counter to genji. in my experience, it’s really situational. genji can’t take out a torb turret by deflecting, like he can with a bastion turret, because the torb turret’s rate of fire is too slow. deflect will time out well before the turret has shot enough bullets to do significant damage to itself. but genji’s shurikens are really accurate at still targets over long distances, since they don’t have arc or damage falloff, and a torb turret can’t track a target that’s too far away from it. it’s also possible for genji to position himself around corners relative to the turret so that he can hit it, but it can’t hit him. no matter who’s countering whom though, you don’t want to be dealing with a torb turret while engaging with dragonblade. if torb has a turret out, don’t use your ult, it’ll only waste it. deal with the turret first.

pharah is another situational one. if the pharah has good aim, you don’t want to use your ultimate while she’s around. if the pharah has sucky aim though, don’t worry about it, just put a little extra thought into not swift striking directly into a stray rocket. either way though, you want to pay attention to when the pharah last ulted. it is possible to deflect while using dragonblade, so if pharah does try to use her ultimate to counter yours you can negate it, but you’ll lose two seconds off your own ultimate and you’ll take some splash damage. it’s survivable but sure as hell not a good position to be in.

roadhog... don’t let him hook you. and don’t waste time trying to kill him unless he’s at low health to begin with. you’ll spend the entire duration of your ultimate hitting roadhog while he heals himself.

bastion. in normal gameplay, genji is the hard counter to bastion. if you’re about to engage with dragonblade, though, you want to make sure the bastion is down first, or far away from his team mates. you don’t want to be taking two seconds off your ultimate to deflect at a bastion, or worse, having him nail you from behind while you’re slashing at supports.

hanzo and widowmaker, again, genji is a counter to these guys in normal gameplay. but you don’t want to take time off your ultimate by deflecting, and you definitely don’t want to get sniped two seconds into your ult. if the other team is running a sniper setup, whether or not you need to take those guys out is going to depend on how good their aim is.

tracer isn’t much of a threat to genji (depending on the skill of the two players) but a good tracer will zip around an ulting genji and try to get him to follow her away from the rest of her team so he doesn’t get any kills. be wary of tracer coming up behind you, but don’t waste time chasing her either.

and one note about reinhardt: he deals damage in basically the same arc genji’s sword does, and has more than twice the health. if you’re within striking range of an enemy rein, make sure you’re constantly behind him or you’re going to get pounded into the ground.

the last thing you need to pay attention to when engaging with genji’s ultimate is what stunning or damage-negating ultimates the enemy team might have available. reinhardt’s earthshatter, mei’s blizzard, and zarya’s graviton surge can all be used to hold genji in place and make him an easy target. lucio’s sound barrier and zenyatta’s transcendence give everyone a health boost, which negates the huge damage dealing ability of genji’s dragonblade. mercy’s resurrection... enough said. this is why you try to take out the mercy first. but get as many kills as you can, don’t waste time chasing a mercy who’s too far away from her team mates to help them. if nothing else you’ll make her waste her rez. just make sure you have an escape route planned in case mercy rezzes all her team mates around you the instant your ultimate times out.

one final note about using genji’s ultimate: unless you’re nanoboosted, to kill any character in the game from full health, you need two sword swings. one sword swing and a swift strike will not do enough damage to kill (unless it’s tracer, and the only time you should be chasing a tracer with genji’s ult is when they’re a really inexperienced player). unless you’re absolutely certain that whoever you’re killing is at half health or lower, swing the sword twice to make sure you get the kill. don’t just run around and hit everyone once, if you don’t kill the enemy supports, they’ll clean that up in a hurry and you might as well have not used your ultimate at all.

a nanoboosted genji can kill any character at 200 health with one sword swing and a swift strike.

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musicprincess655 · 7 years

Text

Queen of His People, Ch. 13

Pairing: Ushiten, Semishira

Rating: T

Tags: a/b/o, royalty

read on ao3

“Make sure the watch is rotating every three hours. I want fresh eyes on the north. And put extra men on the more obscured points. If an attack comes, that’s probably where it’ll be.”

Futakuchi nodded. He wasn’t much older than Wakatoshi himself, but he took the orders willingly. The new captain of Datekou was still adjusting to his position, if his expression was anything to go by. His mate and right hand stood silently at his shoulder, eyes taking in everything but revealing nothing. If Wakatoshi hadn’t already been given a healthy respect for omegas from his mother, Ai, and Satori, Aone Takanobu would have cemented that for him.

His story was one whispered in awe. An omega considered ineligible for marriage because of his looks, he’d joined Datekou as soon as he’d been legally considered an adult by Shiratorizawa law at eighteen. He’d risen through the ranks, now only second to the commander himself, and mated to the same. His was the story omegas whispered in reverence: one of them strong enough to command the respect of fellow soldiers.

“They’re handling this well,” Eita commented. “Losing your captain is never easy.”

“I wonder if Sakusa killed Moniwa knowing he was the captain of Datekou,” Wakatoshi mused.

“He might’ve just killed anyone to send a message,” Eita countered. “Datekou doesn’t identify their captain visually. It would be impossible to tell which they are on the battlefield unless you already knew, so unless Itachiyama somehow figured out Moniwa was captain during the last war and Sakusa learned to recognize him by face without ever having been near him in battle, there’s no way he should’ve known he was killing the captain. Besides, if he really wanted to take out their chain of command he would’ve killed Futakuchi too. Anyone who knew Moniwa knew it was no secret he was grooming Futakuchi to be his successor.”

Wakatoshi was quiet at that.

“You think I’m right, but you worry anyway,” Eita sighed. Wakatoshi glanced at him. “Don’t give me that look. We’ve fought together since we were young, I’d be disappointed if I couldn’t understand you by now. If it makes you feel better, I worry too. If I thought he would agree to it, I’d ask Futakuchi to hang back from the front lines with you.”

“You don’t think he’d agree to it?”

“You think he’s not out for blood after he watched his father figure die?”

“Fair point.”

They walked in silence, Wakatoshi looking out into the frozen north. No matter that it was the end of summer, the snow never left the ground this far north in the mountains. The Iron Wall protected the northern border of Shiratorizawa, just beyond the edge of the mountains. It extended between the gap left between two peaks, Jin and Soekawa, nearly one hundred miles in length. The extra men they’d brought with them would be important for manning it; Sakusa could attack from anywhere.

“Do you really think your plan will work?” Wakatoshi asked. “Attacking first?”

The Iron Wall was, above all else, a line of defense, meant to repel, not attack.

“We have to force them to meet us in a place of our choosing,” Eita said. “One hundred miles is a lot of wall to guard, and a lot of places aren’t favorable for us. If we can force them to meet us in one of the places Kenjirou and I planned out, we can lay a trap for them. We can win this with less loss on our side.”

“Is that you talking or Kenjirou?”

“It’s both of us,” Eita said, sounding a little annoyed. “We’re not the same people we were three years ago. We decided on this together.”

“I’m sorry,” Wakatoshi said. Sometimes it was hard to shake the memory of Eita and Kenjirou screaming at each other, fighting tooth and nail for their plans to be accepted over the other’s.

“It’s fine,” Eita dismissed, almost too rude for a prince, but then, Eita had never cared much for status. He was lowborn. He considered Wakatoshi a friend, and that was all there was for him. “We didn’t exactly give ourselves a good reputation three years ago. Trust me on this, though. It’s clever, and it’ll work.”

“I trust you,” Wakatoshi assured him. “I’ve always trusted both you and Kenjirou. It’s nice that you trust each other now.”

“Worry about your own relationship,” Eita complained, but he was grinning. “Satori’s a good man. I like your taste.”

“You just like him because my mother doesn’t.”

“I like him because he looks like he won’t take shit and he’ll listen. He’ll go far with both of those. And he doesn’t look like the type to play politics. We don’t need a queen who’ll spend his time getting in pissing contests with the nobles.”

“I’m glad you approve,” Wakatoshi told him. “My mother certainly doesn’t.”

“Not much she can do about it now,” Eita grinned harder. “You already brought him up here. He’s already attached to you, and you’re head over heels for him. He’s not going anywhere.”

“You think he’s attached?”

Eita gave him a look, which was definitely too rude even from a general to a prince, not that Wakatoshi cared.

“He left his home and he hasn’t run screaming from your mother. I’d call him pretty attached.”

Wakatoshi waved him off. Courting Satori properly was something he would do once this was over. For now, he needed his attention here.

It wasn’t long before smoke from fires was spotted a few miles west of where they were stationed in the very center of the Iron Wall. They moved down to that watchtower, captained by a woman called Nametsu Mai. While women were allowed to join Datekou, they were few and far between. However, there was no doubt Nametsu deserved to be there. She was a beta who stood her ground like an alpha, weathered and lined face steady and hair pulled neatly into a low ponytail. Wakatoshi decided on sight not to cross her.

“We caught campfire smoke in that direction,” she told him, pointing.

“You can see through that fog?” he asked. She turned to him, wise far beyond his years. She was older even than Moniwa had been, and her eyes told that story as no words could.

“I’ve survived seven wars on this Wall,” she told him. “I know how to read the signs. The bulk of their army should be over there.”

“Then we’ll lead them farther west,” Eita broke in. “We’re closest to the second of the two places Kenjirou and I planned for. It’s a flat plain with a river to restrict one side of cavalry. We can use this.”

Wakatoshi looked out into the distance. He could see the line of trees, cleared miles away from the Wall to give no advancing army cover from the watchful eyes of Datekou. August was drawing to a close, and it was already growing colder. Winter was the worst time to wage war this far north, though Wakatoshi guessed Sakusa had planned it that way. Itachiyama would be used to the cold. Shiratorizawa rarely fought in the dead of winter.

They had to finish this fast if they had any hope of surviving.

Eita frantically exchanged messages with Kenjirou, now that they knew which plan they were going with. The first move was to meet Itachiyama from the west and retreat, hopefully forcing them to follow. They would go from there.

They rode out along the river that cut almost straight north, to the west of the campfire by about fifteen miles and north of the wall by over fifty. Wakatoshi was going with the smaller force to meet Itachiyama, in the back and away from the fighting but with the single eagle feather in his helmet that marked him as the crown prince. He was the bait.

He saw a scout go running as they approached, but that was fine. They’d never expected to sneak up on the other army unawares. Soon enough, they were facing down the line of the other army in a clear plain.

“Draw,” Nametsu’s clear voice rang out. She was the leader of the small archery force they’d brought with them, the best shot that Datekou had to offer. “Hold.”

Eita held his arm up, waiting for Itachiyama to move, though it seemed they were unwilling to make the first offense. Upon seeing that, he swung his arm down.

“Loose!” Nametsu cried, and a rain of arrows fell on the other army. Most got their shields up in time, but for the unlucky few who didn’t or who didn’t cover themselves well enough, arrows pierced and killed them. A shout rose up from that side. The first blood had been drawn, and now they craved blood in return. Wakatoshi couldn’t have picked Sakusa out from the crowd, but he knew the other prince was over there somewhere, thirsting for his own death.

“Retreat!” Eita called as Itachiyama started to advance. They were all cavalry but the archers, who had left their horses to make their shots steadier. They swung up onto the mounts that were held for them by others, and turned to retreat. Wakatoshi, originally in the back, was now leading the charge back for their camp, Itachiyama following.

Luckily, they’d started the retreat early enough to be out of firing range, able to focus instead on leading their enemy. It worked near perfectly, although they were forced to ride farther north than they’d intended. Itachiyama was probably aiming to cut them off from the wall, perhaps not realizing this was not the full extent of their forces in the north.

Still, they lost no one to arrows, and managed to make the river. There was just enough light left in the day to cross it, though not enough for Itachiyama to follow, giving them respite for the night.

Eita wrote furiously on a letter for Kenjirou, telling him of their current situation. Other than being too far north and on the wrong side of the river, things were going according to plan. They only needed to get farther south and meet up with the rest of their forces, and they could trap Itachiyama.

Things were never that simple, however. Itachiyama crossed the river earlier than expected, and their own forces couldn’t get away fast enough. They had no choice but to turn and face their enemy. It was a good thing Eita had written to the camp twenty miles south, early enough that some reinforcements could be sent. They formed their shield wall, infantry preparing to go against each other while cavalry took the wings.

There was little of Kenjirou’s clever planning or Eita’s brash strikes evident in their formation. This was just two phalanxes meeting as they had always done, and perhaps always would. The great push against each other, the stab of spears, as horses tried to outmaneuver each other.

They could hardly turn and run, not without being trampled. Instead, their only chance was to slowly step backwards without letting their line break, tempting their enemy to follow them farther south. They needed the large open plain by the river. With the lack of anything behind them, Itachiyama would assume no trickery for no possibility of an ambush.

Day after day, they stepped back, carefully, losing as few men as they could. This was not their final battle, and they didn’t push to end it here.

Finally, they managed to give themselves enough space to get their entire force across the river, ready to retreat the rest of the way to where the bulk of their forces had made camp. It was a comfort to be inside a palisade, more protection than they had been offered since they first encountered Itachiyama.

Tomorrow, Kenjirou and Eita’s plan would be put into action. After nearly a month and a half of riding and fighting and planning, it was time to end this. The plan was dangerous, and held the potential of annihilation if it failed, but if it succeeded, this threat from Itachiyama would be over.

“There’s something for you,” Eita told him, holding out a scroll. Wakatoshi scanned over the neat lines of Kenjirou’s handwriting to find something different at the bottom.

Come home soon. ~Satori

“Still think he’s not attached?” Eita asked. Wakatoshi’s face felt warm. He would have to talk, really talk, to Satori once all this was over.

They placed Datekou on the flanks. They were battle hardened and would not crumble. Wakatoshi himself was in the center behind the line of infantry, once again playing bait. He would not stay bait today. Today, he would fight.

Itachiyama advanced, all of their forces concentrated on the middle. Just as Eita had said they would. The middle of the line bowed in, letting Itachiyama come closer, as the sides started to wrap around. To make their lines deeper, Itachiyama had had to make them shorter.

Cavalry was useless next to the river, and the cavalry on the other flank was fighting, not that Wakatoshi was close enough to know how that was going. Instead, he focused on falling back, letting Itachiyama walk into their trap.

And then their enemy was surrounded, and they stopped retreating, instead pressing forward as chaos reigned from the attacks from the back. Maybe it was his imagination, but Wakatoshi swore he could hear Futakuchi whooping with glee.

He pressed into the fray, stabbing forward and feeling as men died on the end of his spear. Everything had gone perfectly to plan. This battle was theirs.

As he pressed farther forward with his line, Eita close to him, the Itachiyama forces dwindling, Wakatoshi started to feel numb. This was wholesale slaughter on a scale that not even the last war had been, and Itachiyama’s forces had to be much smaller. There was no way such a small kingdom could have rebuilt more than this in three years.

Wakatoshi was not a prince, not an alpha, not a lover or anything else in those moments. He thrust. He killed. That was all.

Until he heard a familiar scream. Until he turned to see Eita falling to the ground, helmet off, blood on his face. Until he saw a man with only half a helm, covering his mouth but leaving his head bare.

Only covering the scar across his mouth that Wakatoshi had given him three years ago.

Wakatoshi and Sakusa faced each other, still amid the chaos around them, before charging forward. Wakatoshi put himself between Eita and Sakusa, holding his shield in place and readying his spear. Left-handed, he was useless in a shield wall, but as a solo fighter, he was damn near unbeatable.

He wouldn’t be beaten here.

Sakusa was silent, but his eyes held hatred. Only one of them was going to survive this day. They clashed, shields ringing and spears barely missing their targets.

Sakusa was faster than he’d been three years ago.

They met, again and again, spears ripped from their hands and forcing them to draw their swords. Wakatoshi felt the fatigue, felt his mind going numb again, but he couldn’t stop now. Kill Sakusa, and this ended.

Sakusa wheeled around him, too fast to be tracked, and attacked his vulnerable right side from the back. Wakatoshi couldn’t move fast enough to stop the sword from piercing his shoulder, dislocating it and leaving his shield useless.

All he could do was spin in one last desperate move that ruined his right arm even more, swinging his sword along the same path he had three years ago.

It was all he could do.

#my writing #qohp #royalty au #a/b/o #ushiten #semishira #haikyuu!!#blood

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