#they suspect it's higher but not everyone catches it

[millerflintstone]

Gigabyte needs to buy a lottery ticket.

To date (as of 2022),  49 cases of feline PHA (Primary Hyperaldosteronism) have been reported, and it may be the most common adrenocortical disorder in this species.

I don't know if she's #50. Her vet said that there have only been 4 diagnosed in the past 6 years, but I'm guessing she meant in general. I initially thought she meant just GA.

#gigabyte #feline primary hyperaldosteronism #she has a tumor on one (or both?) of her adrenal glands that is causing too much of the hormone aldosterone #it regulates blood pressure and potassium #her level is 788 and high normal is 261 #i forget what the unit is that's used to measure but yeah it's high #my precious angel has a rare disease in terms of diagnosis #they suspect it's higher but not everyone catches it #does this mean someone from the UGA vet school will be contacting me at random

[inkdrinkerworld]

Talk Too Much

Pairing: Remus Lupin x loud but shy!reader

Cw: college!au, fluff, kind of friends to lovers, obliviousness by Remus for a while, drinking (mentioned), smoking (cigarettes), I think that’s it

Wc: 2.2k

You’re a loudmouth. Through and through. Of all your friends, you honestly think you and James would be the ones to never shut up or run out of words.

That is until Remus transfers into the school and infiltrates your friend group and suddenly you find the words can run out.

It’s not on purpose.

It seems to take you over purely by coincidence- the way your throat gets dry and your tongue seems too heavy to form the words you want to get out when Remus seems to be paying attention to only you. His gaze isn’t unwelcome- that’s the entire problem.

You like the feeling of being what he looks at, but it feels too good, too natural.

His honey eyes that are just lightly flecked with green, and his sharp jawline that’s adorned with silvery scar tissue that somehow makes him even more handsome.

He’s also always got a cigarette to fiddle with.

You’ve only seen him smoke twice, and had been mesmerised by the way his cheeks hollow and how he blows the smoke out and it seems to curl around him like it’s unable to obey his exhales in the opposite direction.

He reminds you in a way of Charlie Dalton and Stephen Meeks.

Fctional characters who Remus seems to emulate in his confidence (from Charlie) and a sort of confidence that’s self-assured yet mild at the same time (a mix of the two) and that in itself makes you fall a little more for him.

It’s overwhelming- this attraction to him. It confuses you and has you tripping over words in your head, far less for if you voiced them and all that was heard were clunky excuses for sentences.

What makes your sudden bouts of silence obvious is the fact that your friends have caught onto you.

It’s not like it’s exceptionally hard to decipher either- you’re not really good at being subtle.

You suspect James and Sirius are taking bets on when it’ll all be too obvious for everyone to walk around it and you desperately hope that it takes months while simultaneously hoping it takes only weeks.

Remus notices the way your body freezes when you realise you’ve caught his attention in your storytelling. In his mind, it’s because you don’t like him.

The way you shrink down and suddenly go silent the moment his eyes set upon you, the way you remain quiet even though he sees the way the corners of your mouth twitch with something to say.

He thinks he’s put you off somehow, especially when the second he’s gone a little ways away to get a drink or get his lunch, you seem to perk right back up and dive into storytelling once more.

It bothers him so much he asks Sirius about it- a mistake in itself, because Sirius only pokes fun at his friend.

“If you can’t realise why she goes silent the moment you stare at her Lupin, I can’t help you.” Sirius walks off leaving Remus even more perplexed, moreso when he hears Sirius says, “How’s he so thick for someone doing so many higher classes?”

It bewilders Remus for weeks, your always sudden vows of silence and then your equally sudden broken vows.

You’re all at a house party when it comes to an almost end.

You’re dressed pretty like always, a skirt that hugs all the places Remus longs to touch and a top that shows a sliver of your stomach and Remus catches a glimpse of jewellery hanging in your navel.

Your ears have a pair of hanging bat earrings, and your necklace is your standard one- he’s sure he’s never seen you without it.

You’re smiling and laughing with Marlene and Mary as you walk in. Remus wants to figure out why you dislike him so, he desperately wants to change your sour opinion of him. He’s going to at least try to do so tonight, if you can stomach looking at him.

“C’mon losers,” James’ loud voice is unmistakable, “We’re playing seven minutes in heaven.”

Remus is only approaching when he hears your teasing,

“Are we taking a blast back to Year 9 Jamie?”

James nods, “Yeah we are, and would you look at that you and Lupin are up first.” You’re sure there’s an evil little grin on James’ face when you look up and find Remus standing there in his soft brown sweater and jeans.

You can smell a little of the cigarette he’d smoked before coming in, but mostly you smell his citrus, pepper and amber cologne.

It’s heady and you swear your brain gets a little drunk on it.

“Get going you two,” Sirius teases and you sigh standing.

Remus’ mind is reeling, wondering how he’s going to get back at Sirius and James and the rest of your friends that he knows are in on this too.

Out of ear shot of your friends as you both go to the nearest room, Remus says lowly, “You don’t have to come in. I’ll just tell them we talked.”

You look up at him, eyes wide and Remus takes your surprise as a moment to admire you up close. He counts three beauty marks near your right eye, another on your neck just under your chin, and one on your nose. He’s distracted by you for a good long while that he doesn’t register you’ve spoken till he sees you walk into the room and gesture for him to follow.

It’s tense, a silence neither of you are sure how to break.

You think Remus is the most gorgeous man to be placed on the Earth, and Remus thinks you find him repulsive.

You watch Remus climb onto the bed, his long legs crossed at the ankles as his back presses against the headboard.

His casualness makes him look even more attractive and while you’re aware that you’re staring at him, you can’t make yourself stop.

‘Now or never,’ he thinks to himself before asking, “Have I offended you somehow?”

There it is, laid open and bare. The question hangs in the air, like the most tantalising yet foreign fruit you’ve ever seen.

“No?” It comes out like a question. One Remus takes as a chance to explain.

“It’s just that you’re always talking or telling a story with the others, and as soon as I’m near earshot you go silent and you can’t meet my eyes. So I’ve been thinking that maybe I’ve offended you, and I just wanted to say sorry for if I did- directly or indirectly.”

Remus’ attractiveness has been upped by a thousand- you’re sure all the love deities are having a laugh at your hopelessness.

You can’t meet his eyes now, even as you sit on the bed, so close to him that your biceps brush each other’s. “You haven’t offended me.”

Your voice is much softer than he’s ever heard it. Remus thinks this must be the softest you’ve ever spoken in your whole life.

“I haven’t?” he asks and you shake your head. Hazarding a glance at him, you find Remus leaning his shoulder down, his chin tucked as his eyes roam your frame.

“N-no,” your stutter gives you away slowly. “You’re just different from the others.” It’s not a clearer explanation, but the gears are turning in Remus’ head all the same and you can tell.

“Different how?” Remus doesn’t want to assume anything and that’s what causes the gears to come to a screeching halt.

You sigh, fiddling with the hem of your skirt. Remus has never seen you this unsure. Everything you do is with confidence and ease, like you were just made to walk, talk and move the way that you do. Like it was as easy as breathing.

Maybe it’s the way you take your time to consider your words, or the way you fiddle with your clothes or even the way your breathing changes as he leans just a bit closer that makes Remus smile a little.

“Will you look at me for a second, darling gwerthfawr?” The softness of his tone and the way his accent changes to something a little more melodic makes you more jelly-like than you usually are in his presence.

“Hm?” you hum and Remus smirks. Silvery slithers of scar tissue moving with his mouth and making him look wicked in a way that has you falling a little more in love with him.

“Why don’t you like looking or speaking to me?”

Remus doesn’t let you turn away, doesn’t let you tuck your cheek to your shoulder as you deliberate what you want to say. No, instead, the menace holds your chin and stares at you, holding your gaze and making your brain cloud even more as his cologne and attention wash over you.

“I like looking at you,” you admit shyly, the confession coming from your lips with hesitation. Like Remus will be repulsed by the fact that you like looking at him. “But you make me nervous.”

The words are suspended in the quiet of the room. All there is the muffled sounds of the party going on in the living room, and then yours and Remus’ breathing.

“I make you nervous?”

Sirius and James burst through the door, wide smiles that turn into shocked smirks at your positions.

“Well love birds, sorry but your seven minutes are up.” Remus staggers in letting your chin go, but when his fingers slacken, you leave the room, belly in knots in the almost wordy confession.

“So, how’d that go?” James asks him as you bend the corner- he’s sure that Lily and the other girls will be doing the same with you.

Remus flops on the bed, “Nothing that concerns you two gits.” His mind is racing with possibilities of finishing this conversation.

Sirius boos, “After all that planning to get you two in here and snogging each other’s faces off, that’s the thanks we get?” Walking out with James who’s shaking his head.

-

“But you make me nervous,” repeats in his head for days. He’s not dense by a mile, but Remus has a hard time figuring out what about him makes you nervous.

Sure he’s tall and a little serious, but he’s not as intimidating as he’d first thought Sirius was. Remus doesn’t want to turn to his friends, sure they’d tease him endlessly for being ‘thick,’ and then more than likely tell you and that would just make you even more nervous to look or speak to him at the very least.

What Remus does do, is consult the best person he knows that will give him impartial advice; books.

There’s always a book for any occasion, so he delves deep. Behavioural analysis books, books on people with social anxiety (which he doesn’t think you have because it’s just him that gets the selective mutism) and even at the end of it, he turns to romance novels. Something must stand out.

It comes to a head when Remus comes to the library when you’re busy typing away at your essay. You feel the presence, the warmth of his pepper and amber cologne as he pulls the seat out beside you.

Remus doesn’t say a word as he sits down. Instead, he pulls out his laptop and begins typing at the same essay prompt you’re working on.

You’re hyper aware of everything he’s doing- every breath, every sigh, every harsh backspace and enter.

Remus doesn’t seem to be half as affected as you are and it has you whispering, “What are you doing here, Remus?”

He hums, tapping his forefinger near the touchpad. He finishes his sentence and then turns to you. “Working on that essay due tomorrow.”

You frown, lips pulled downwards as you think of your next words. “You know what I mean, why are you sitting beside me?”

Remus sighs, head hanging off the back of the chair. “I want you to not be nervous around me anymore. I also want to know why I make you nervous.”

You swallow, mouth suddenly dry.

Remus turns to look at you and the amber lighting of the library makes his skin look sunkissed and supple. His honey and sage eyes blink owlishly at you, no sign of rushing you along for an answer.

That was something you had learnt while silently watching Remus. He’s always actually listening- not just listening to respond.

“Because,” you start, eyes darting all over his face in search of any insecurity in it. “You always seem so hyper focused on what it is I’m going to say next and it flusters me.”

Remus’ face morphs into a smile, his lazy expression from before melting away as his eyes warm to your embarrassed whisper.

“So it’s not dislike?” He asks, hands itching to tip your chin up like he had the other night.

“Are you going to make me say it out loud?”

“Poor girl,” he feels much more confident now. Now that he knows for sure that you don’t hate him and that you might actually like him as much as he likes you, he can be a little more flirty.

His hand reaches for your wrist, thumb running back and forth around your pulse.

You scowl, more than a little bashful to have exposed your feelings to Remus. He doesn’t mind.

No, Remus feels over the moon. Enough so that his hand moves from your wrist and his forefinger hooks under your chin so you’re making eye contact again.

“I like you too. Just as much,” it’s his turn for a whispered confession and you hope to all hell that he can’t feel the thundering of your pulse. “Maybe more.”

You feel your body buzz under his attention. Remus leans in closer, “Let me take you out after this? We can go somewhere quiet and have a proper ‘first’ conversation.”

#remuslupin #remus lupin #remus lupin one shot #remus lupin fanfiction #remus lupin imagine #remus lupin drabble #remus lupin fic #remus lupin fluff #remus lupin x black!reader #remus lupin x reader #remus lupin x you #remus lupin x yn #remus lupin x loud but shy!reader

[nereidprinc3ss]

Ok so this might be an odd request but I’ve been really sad about the fact that the network vetoed bisexual Reid so I was wondering if you could write boyfriend Spencer coming out to reader and just having it be really sweet and fluffy??

this is the cutest. great minds are bisexual reid truthers. i am honored to do this for the tumblr community and the world at large

warnings/tags: potentially VERY slight internalized homophobia from spencer if u squintttt but he's just nervous that's all!! my boyfriend has never done anything wrong in his life!! fem reader

“My type is you,” you say sweetly, angling your head up to look at your boyfriend. The two of you have been laying on the couch for the better part of an evening, (more accurately, he’s on the couch, you’re on him) talking about nothing and everything. Somehow the conversation has meandered to this—him asking you what your type in men is, of all things. 

“What a convenient answer,” Spencer teases, pushing your hair away from your face. You laugh, leaning into the warmth of his touch. 

“I mean it! I don’t think I ever really got what all the excitement was about men until I met you.”

He hums, a satisfied little smile on his face. “That’s very flattering.”

“What about you?”

His brows dart up. 

“What’s my type in men?”

An inadvertent laugh bubbles from your throat—slowly going stale in the air while you watch as Spencer actually flushes. It dawns on you with a splash of anxiety and a generous helping of guilt that maybe it’s not exactly a joke to him. You attempt to play it off casually, keeping your tone even but receptive. 

“Well, I meant in women. But, if you have a type in men, by all means, tell me.”

Hazel eyes dart between yours as his hand continues carding through your hair—and then he’s looking away, studying the wall behind you like there’s more there than faded green paint. 

Silences stretches as you chew on the inside of your cheek, worried you’ve somehow said the wrong thing. You wriggle higher up his body and gently grab his wrist, interrupting what you suspect is a self-soothing motion. 

“Hey,” you murmur, pulling his hand to your lips and pressing them to his knuckles. “Come back.”

Finally he looks at you again, mildly surprised like you’d tugged him from the very depths of his thoughts. But his eyes are soft, grazing his his fingers over your lips. 

“I’m right here.”

“You know what I mean.” The words are gentle. His thumb catches on your bottom lip and you nip at it playfully, trying to lighten his suddenly heavy mood. It’s hard to tell if it works—he continues tracing your lips absentmindedly, biting his own. When he speaks, his voice is quiet and wavers ever so slightly, the way it does in the rare instance that he’s not 100% sure of himself or what he’s talking about. 

“I was thinking about your question.” You don’t dare speak for fear opening your mouth will somehow break whatever self-hypnosis is keeping him honest. “I don’t have a specific type. In women. Or… or men.”

His voice is so fragile that you have to run it back in your mind a few times to process what he’d said. Several layers of clothing do nothing to dull the rapid drumming of his heartbeat against your chest. And your poor boyfriend looks so scared during the moment of silence while you’re thinking that it breaks your heart. He needs a sign, something to reassure him that it’s okay, before he backtracks and dissociates entirely. Delicately your hand slides up the side of his neck and jaw. You crane your neck to press a long kiss to his flushed cheek. It’s okay, you’re okay. We’re okay. The world is still turning. His chest rises and falls slowly in a deep, silent sigh. 

“I love you,” you remind him once you pull away, wiping away the slight sheen of chapstick your kiss had left. He catches your hand, wrapping it in his larger one. The guarded look in his eye does a poor job of concealing how badly he wants to please you, and everyone, and how scared he is that maybe this was the wrong answer. That maybe this is just another way he is not quite right, and you’ll tell him so, just like everyone else always has. 

“You’re not—you don’t have anything to say?”

Gentle fingers brush away invisible tears under his eyes, sweeping over the skin with the utmost care. He’s not crying, but you imagine at one point or another he had, and since you weren’t there to wipe away the tears then, maybe you can make up for it by being here now. 

“Is it something you want to talk about?” you ask, fingers still skimming over the angular plane and valley of his cheek. The darting of his eyes between yours, the slight furrow of his brow, the pressed-together lips—he’s profiling you. Trying to extract your thoughts through osmosis. 

“I… I’ve never told anyone before.”

Your stomach twists. You hate that there’s any part of him he feels he has to hide—and that he’s done it for so long. 

“Well I’m glad you told me, angel.” 

His eyes are like warm honey as he looks up at you, dulling that sharp, defensive edge as the endearment slips past your lips. Usually it’s the other way around, and you hope it soothes him even half as much as it always does for you. 

A surprised laugh is expelled from your lungs when he pulls you down into a crushing hug. Immediately, gleefully, you reciprocate, pushing your arms under his waist and tangling your legs with his, holding on ferociously and for dear life. His face is buried in the hollow of your neck, so you have to assume that much like you, he’s picked this over oxygen. 

“You are the best thing that has ever happened to me,” he breathes, lips brushing your neck and hair. Muffled, because there’s no space between you. Your eyes sting and tear up almost immediately. A joke forms on the tip of your tongue; low bar? But you bite it back, unsure if you can manage persuasive sarcasm in this moment. “And, for the record, you are the most beautiful human being I have ever met in my life. Nobody else has or will ever come close.”

You laugh tearfully into his collar. “Spencer, I’m not worried about that.”

“I know you’re not,” he says, finally coming up for air. You do the same, laying on his shoulder contentedly and looking into his eyes. “But I’m telling you anyway because it’s true and I want you to hear it.”

A contemplative moment passes, and you wonder how it’s possible to be falling even more in love with him. You’d thought you already loved him as much as any human being had ever been capable of doing. You hope love has no end. You hope you keep falling deeper and deeper forever. 

“You should know something,” you say, looking down to toy with the collar of his shirt. He hums. 

“What should I know, angel girl?”

“You should know that I’m still going to fight anyone who tries to flirt with you. I don’t care if it’s a six five body builder or a seventy year old woman with a walker. You’re gonna have to hold me back.”

A bemused smile tugs at his lips. 

“You would physically fight an elderly woman?”

“Or a six five body builder,” you agree. Spencer faces the ceiling like he’s watching the scene play out. 

“Okay,” he snorts. “I don’t love that, but okay.”

“It’s what you signed up for,” you mumble, snuggling back into him. His hand finds the back of your head and tangles comfortably in your hair once more. 

“You’re right. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

#spencer reid #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid fic #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x fem!reader #spencer reid x self insert #spencer reid x y/n #criminal minds #criminal minds x reader #criminal minds imagine #criminal minds fic #criminal minds fanfic

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Winter's King 14

No tag lists. Do not send asks or DMs about updates. Review my pinned post for guidelines, masterlist, etc.

Warnings: this fic will include dark content such as noncon/dubcon, cheating, violence, and possible untagged elements. My warnings are not exhaustive, enter at your own risk.

This is a dark!fic and explicit. 18+ only. Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.

Summary: You are a maid to the Duke of Debray, a lord of the Summer Kingdom. That is, until the king of Winter appears with his particular air of coldness. (Medieval AU)

Characters: Geralt of Rivia

Note: Another work week :(

As per usual, I humbly request your thoughts! Reblogs are always appreciated and welcomed, not only do I see them easier but it lets other people see my work. I will do my best to answer all I can. I’m trying to get better at keeping up so thanks everyone for staying with me.

Your feedback will help in this and future works (and WiPs, I haven’t forgotten those!) Please do not just put ‘more’. I will block you.

I love you all immensely. Take care. 💖

Not long after the king’s departure, Lord Jaskier excuses himself to see to his horse. Queen Jazlene sends him off with a similar quip about serious matters. You don’t quite understand her. She should be concerned with the weeks of travel ahead of her, not only of the time, but of the climate. 

She finishes the bottle on her own. Much of it went to her cup. You think of warning her but it isn’t your place. You can only watch her head wobble as that hazy look softens her features. On her last gulp, a droplet trickles down her chin. You suspect she might be as unhappy as her husband claimed of himself the previous night. They make a rather sad pairing. 

It’s early still. Perhaps once they are settled, it won’t be so tense. They will have a chance to know each other better without the stresses of a war or the road ahead. 

Your thoughts stray and your vision fogs as you stare at a blue tapestry. Jazlene continues to babble and suddenly, the clink of her cup jolts you from your trance. You look at her as she slumps against the table. Her shoulders are slack, her arms bent around her head as it droops onto the wood. You can see her breath as she hunches weakly in her chair. 

“Your highness?” You call to her. You sway on your feet as you watch her. Come on, move. “Your highness?” You take a step toward her, “Lady Jazlene?” 

She groans and slips to the side. You rush around without a thought to catch her. She garbles drunkenly as you hold her in her arms, one leg still on the seat as her other hangs limply. She’s heavier than you would expect. 

“Your highness?” You squeak as you struggle to keep her off the ground. You can’t drop the queen. 

Her head lolls as her lashes flutter. She is certainly not conscious. The acrid scent of wine rises from her lips. You try to hike her higher, slinging her arm around your shoulder as you grunt. She’s not that big, you’re just weak. You can carry a cask or a chest, but a person is a much different matter. 

You wrap your arms around her and haul her around the table. Her slippers drag and you clatter into the chairs and nearly trip on the edge of the rug. Your leg muscles thrum with the effort and your back racks. You look around. The bedchamber is too far. 

You turn and little by little, step by step, drag her to the couch. Her feet loudly scrape across the floor. You angle her around with another laboured grunt and as you do, the hinges whine and the left door opens. You look up as the king enters and your lips part in surprise. You’ve been caught. Rather, the queen has. 

He stares at you and eases shut the door. He comes around as your arms quake. He wordlessly takes his wife from your grasp and lays her across the sofa. You put a pillow under her head and back up, rubbing your upper arms. 

“Your highness, she was not feeling well,” you say. 

“She has drunk herself into a stupor,” he snarls as he backs up, crossing his arms as he glares down at her. “Do not lie, especially on her behalf. It does not become you.” 

“Your highness, I apologise. I only worry for her--” 

“You shouldn’t,” he intones, “she doesn’t worry for you. Or me. Or anyone but herself.” He turns and goes to the table. He rights the overturned cup and you reproach yourself for not doing so first. “But I do appreciate you attending to her. I’d rather not have found her upon the floor.” 

“Your highness,” you bow your head. 

He’s quiet. You’re unsure what to do next. Should you leave him with Jazlene or stay to tend to her? He will need sleep for the ride. 

“Little maid, you will send to have a bath drawn. There will be little chance to wash upon the road,” he commands. 

“As you wish, your highness.” 

“Mm, if only,” he murmurs as she sits and grabs the empty bottle, sneering at its hollowness. 

You set off to have water brought to his chamber. You assist the other servants in carrying the vessels of steaming water. All the while, the king ruminates at the table. He picks at his index finger and his cheek ticks. When at last the tub is full, you go to trail out after the castle servants. 

“Little maid, I require assistance,” he says. 

You remain and the doors close in the tension. You watch the king, your fingers twined together as you cautiously approach. He glowers at his fingers and huffs. 

“You have small hands,” he rests his palm open on the table, “please, I would have use of them.” 

Curious, you move towards him. He turns to you and holds out his large hand. He pokes his index fingers up and hisses. 

“I got it on the door. A splinter,” he explains. 

You see the dark spot, just the minuscule tip of it poking above his rough skin. The skin around it is inflamed, both from the sliver and his fussing. You bring your hands to cradle his single one and lean to have a closer look. You keep one hand under his and slip the other down the side of his palm. 

You brush your fingertips over the lines of his knuckles. He’s quiet as he lets you gently squeeze. You glance up beneath your lashes. 

“It might hurt, your highness. Apologies.” 

His cheek twitches, “I’ve had worse than a maid’s touch.” 

You squeeze until his flesh his taut. You pinch the tip of the splinter with your other fingers, using your nails to get a grip of it. You pull slowly. Very slowly, terrified of losing hold and having it go deeper. The wooden sliver slides out and before you can examine it, it falls to the floor, disappearing into the fabric of the rug. 

The king sighs, “better.” He brings his other hand over yours and covers your small ones with his, “many thanks, little maid.” 

He lets you go, his calloused skin brushing your sleeves, and he hums grimly. He bends his head forward and his white waves shift on his shoulders. He pushes his hair back and raises his head again. His eyes almost glow as he looks at you. 

“I should fetch some water for the queen in case she stirs--” 

“Later,” he dismisses, “might I ask another favour of such delicate hands?” 

You dip your chin down, “I serve you and the queen, your highness.” 

“Mm, yes, you recall, the knot in my shoulder, where I carry my sword,” he points along his shoulder, “if it isn’t trouble, I might have you loosen it before I must ride anon.” 

“Your highness,” you acquiesce, curling your fingers into your palms. You remember that first night you met him, as he sat in the steaming tub and had you touch him. You sweat at the memory. 

“It would be best before I soak,” he reaches to untie the laces of his tunic. 

You watch him, helpless. As with the queen, you can only heed his whims. At least he is gentler in his mastery. He pulls his tunic above his head and strips it away completely. He lets it hang over one leg and squares his shoulders as he sits back in the chair. 

You go around him and he moves his hair to his other shoulder. Your hands tremble slightly before you touch him. His muscles are thick and his skin taught across everyone. His arms are rounded with bulk and his neck is bullish in girth. He carries so much strength and power as if it is nothing. 

You squeeze the muscles gently with one hand, pressing the other behind it. You knead carefully, gradually putting more behind it, responding to the soft breaths and low grunts rising from the king. You hit a spot with some resistance and he growls. 

“There,” he grits as he drops his head forward. “Harder.” 

You push your thumb against the little pearl of tension you feel along his shoulder. He exhales deeply and lets out a wolfish snarl. He grips his thigh as you work his flesh. Your hands move without much thought. Lady Rezlyn often requested to have her feet done, a much less ideal task. 

“Mm, treasure...” he breathes though his words aren’t entirely clear. 

Another noise rises from him, sharper than before. You stop, frightened. 

“Your highness, have I hurt you?” You utter. 

Before you can retract your hand, he has a hold of you. He lifts his head and hangs it back, his hair spilling down. He looks up at you with his bright eyes as he clings to your hand. He presses it flat and moves it over his shoulder. He drags it down against his chest where you can feel his heartbeat. 

You’re caught in his gaze and his grasp. You just stand there, entranced by his golden irises. Each time you see them, they are more brilliant than the last. Your own chest tightens and binds up your breath. 

“You can never hurt me,” he rasps. You gulp as he lightens his hold and pets your hand. He closes his eyes and winces. “Little maid...” he sits forward and gently moves your hand away from his chest, “you must go now. You must face the road with us and you will require rest.” He lets you go completely and stands. “I trust my wife will have many a demand to keep you busy.” 

“Yes, your highness,” you murmur. 

“Now,” he insists. “You must go now.” 

He crosses the chamber and stops in the door to his bedchamber. You quickly flit over to the doors that lead out to the corridor. You pause and glance over as you sense him move. He stares at you, his eyes licking with flames. His chest rises and falls, trimmed in thick hair that trails down his hard stomach. 

“Go...” 

You obey and heave open the door. The soldiers on the other side snort. It is late, they must’ve dozed. You don’t think much of that as you harry down the corridor, not looking back. The king’s timber nips at your ears. The way he spoke; ‘go’. It was more than just a word; it was a warning. 

⚔️

You rise with the castle, quickly falling into the tumult of the impending departure. When you arrive at the king’s chambers that morning, you are sent away. You find Jazlene in her own. He must have taken her back before the sun. 

She is groggy and sombre as you help her dress. The pain in her skull leaks out in pathetic moans. You offer her lemons water and a cool cloth for her head. You see the difference as she accepts but she remains weak. It will be difficult for her to ride. 

Horses fill the courtyard and the luggage carts crowd around the stables and rear of the castle. The scene reminds you of Debray. You only hope Queen Jazlene does not cause a similar scene. You don’t believe she can. 

You accompany her to the front of the train. The king is not there. The queen clutches her throat as if she might be sick as the smell of the horses is stirred by their whipping tails. She grumbles and calls for a water skin. You find one and she shooes you away. 

“Enough of you,” she snips.  

You stay close, keeping watch should she signal for anything else. She can barely lift her head to do more than drink thirstily. Lords and ladies as good as ignore the queen as she mutters to her horse. 

“Eh, mouse, there y’are,” Bryce’s voice undercuts your pity. “I’ve been looking for ya.” 

You face him and the weight slips from your shoulders, “you have?” 

“What are you insinuating?” He challenges, “Daisy’s missing ya.” 

“Oh,” your brows raise, “well, it just so happens I miss her too.” 

“We’ll be off soon. You should come claim your place with the luggage.” 

“Should,” you agree. 

You follow him through the press of bodies. You get further down, away from the pages and soldiers, see Daisy lazily hoofing at the ground. She chews on a sparse bit of grass in the dust. As you near, you notice that her holster is thicker than it was. She is attached to a small cart. 

“What is this?” You ask as you stop short. 

“It’s yours, mouse,” Bryce says staunchly, “isn’t right you riding with the chests. Not for so far as we need to go.” 

“You... you did this for me?” You ask. "But... what about--” 

“Found a spare horse. He’s a bit less friendly than our beloved but he’ll do fine enough,” he explains, “’sides, Daisy needs a respite. She don’t needa be carrying around my hefty behind much longer.” 

“Oh, my,” you put your hand to your cheek and go to the cart, “Sir Bryce, you are a true knight.” 

“Don’t you get sappy with me,” he tuts as he follows. “Look inside, will ya?” 

You look inside the cart. There’s a long cushion and a pack. It’s a lot compared to what you came with; nothing. Bryce reaches in and tugs something from beneath the cushion. You watch the fur ripple out as he reveals the cloak. It’s thick and long and hooded. He holds it up. 

“When we get to the Hinterlands, you’ll be needing this,” he says. 

You touch the fur, it’s soft. You blink and feel it between your fingers. Your eyes sting. 

“Sir,” you bat your lashes, “it is too much for me.” 

“It isn’t very much, you are just too humble, mouse,” he folds and holds it out to you. “Now, don’t you be telling anyone this was my doin’. I got a reputation to uphold.” 

“Oh,” you clamp your lips shut as you try to hold back your emotion. 

A smile breaks through and you bare your teeth. Your cheeks hurt from the joy bursting forth. You hug the cloak and rock, looking around. As you do, you falter at a familiar face.  

The king leads a dark horse along the edge of the yard. He is looking at you, or so it seems. You let your expression slip and tamp down your glee. You bow your head in King Geralt’s direction. 

When you look up again, he is gone. 

#geralt of rivia #dark geralt #dark!geralt #geralt of rivia x reader #fic #dark fic #dark!fic #series #au #medieval au #the witcher #winter's king

[galesdevoteewife]

Gale may not be so typical squishy wizard/scholar?

-My Galeology study note-

Looking at his character sheet in the Deluxe pack gets me thinking, maybe our wizard is not exactly designed to be the typical squishy one...?

[Act2 spoiler warning]

2 things caught my eyes:

1) Great physical fitness, and good reflexes. (For your reference, Gale & Wyll are the two companions who have the highest Con: 15. I put everyone's sheets at the bottom of the post.)

His Con and Dex are... very high?? I mean, higher than Karlach and Lae'zel...????

Note 1: I suspect it could have something to do with his background as Mystra's chosen, as they are somewhat "transformed" when they agree to become the goddess's chosen. A topic for another day since I haven't quite figured it out yet, for anyone who is interested there's a chapter about it in The Seven Sisters. Also, I have little clues on how much chosen lore credit Larian was taking into account while designing him, or how Mystra's "taking back the given ability" works. Note 2: Again, Mystra's chosen are often sent on missions that involve a lot of traveling according to Elminster's series. Mystra also mentioned that Gale and she used to have adventures together, which leads to an assumption: despite his preference he might be traveling quite a lot until he was cast aside and quarantined himself in his tower. Might be the type of scholar who is very keen on field studies?

Note 3: Can someone undress Elminster to exam my theory please??xD Neh won't work I think all human might share same body model in game

Come to think of it, there was a party banter between Karlach & Gale that went like :

Karlach: Whoa! Almost slipped there. Gale: You wouldn't be the first, I'd wager. It's been some time since these walkways felt the carpenter's hammer. Karlach: You gonna catch me if I eat a brick? Gale: With my reflexes? I'd catch you before you so much as stubbed a toe.

At first I thought that was a sarcastic joke but, seems like it wasn't? Also this:

Karlach: Ready to enter the belly of the beast? Gale: It's the stairs I'm dreading. I shall close my eyes, and pretend I'm climbing my own, far superior tower in Waterdeep. Karlach: In that case, welcome home.

...So it seems when I pictured him as a homebody, I should reimagine the concept of home... His has...lots of stairs? Just walking around in the tower could be counted as a workout, sort of thing? Note: I don't think the place he shows in the Act 2 cutscene is his tower. Otherwise, aren't these neighbors pretty much doomed?

2) Not THAT smart. Well, I love him, so I will speak in his defence: [1] He has a warm(s) digging holes in his brain. [2] Poisonous magical bile running in his blood. Maybe he's just not at his best, makes sense, eh? Wyll mentioned he is nerfed after tadpole too. After all, this man obviously memorized a DICTIONARY:

Gale: You promised to stay in Waterdeep. 'Promise,' verb, meaning to swear something will or will not be done. Tara the Tressym: And I decided 'will not'. And a good thing, too. You look like you haven't had a good meal in days

Player: When I said we could be more than friends, you answered 'perhaps'. What does that really mean? Gale: If I recall correctly, the Waterdhavian Dictionary of the Common Tongue of Faerûn defines it as an adverb that conveys the meaning of 'it may be that', or 'possibly'. Gale: Sorry, sometimes I just can't help being quite insufferable. In seriousness, I'm glad you asked that question.

Along with a bunch of you-may-never-need information:

Everything about ceremorphosis? Myconid? Why in the world have him read about Cazador??? And how can he not know the distance between Waterdeep & Baldur's Gate, even Karlach ―who spent a decade, which is likely half of her life in hell― knows better geography than him. Gale either totally ignored the subject or portaled everywhere; distance meant nothing to him?? Uh, but you can't take party banters too seriously; it's buggy. How could a bug bit Karlach in the swamp? It should've been burned into ashes before it even reached her, no?

Anyway, just rambling some thoughts <3 I would have gone to Harvard if there was a major in Gale...

-DISCLAIMER- Brought to you by a brainrot wife, Galerian missionary. Be warned the article might has (strong) bias because the writer is braindead and she thinks Gale is the most awesome character in the world.

#baldur's gate 3 #gale of waterdeep #gale dekarios #bg3 spoilers #bg3 #bg3 gale #ramblings #Galeology #bg3 datamine

[ckret2]

Chapter 44 of human Bill Cipher wishing he was trapped in the Mystery Shack again:

The Eclipse: Part 2

Gravity is disappearing, and to find out why, Ford's inspecting the sites where the fabric of spacetime might have been damaged by Weirdmageddon. Dipper's glad to come along.

Bill really, really, really isn't.

"I am genuinely offering you helpful advice, that also happens to be self-serving because you idiots wouldn't trust me if I claimed I was being charitable anyway," Bill went on, as he'd been going on for the past five minutes. "This isn't a trick! I'm not running a con! I'm completely serious: being outside during an eclipse is the stupidest thing you could do. You don't want to watch it, I want to watch it even less, staying inside is mutually beneficial!"

"Do you think I should have brought my camera?" Dipper asked, determinedly ignoring Bill as he trailed behind them.

"What for?" Ford asked, also ignoring Bill.

"I've been trying to expand my Guide to the Unexplained series this summer—I've been doing longer episodes, a couple of them are ten minutes—but I wasn't sure if we'd see anything cool and my backpack was already heavy..."

"Hmm. I suspect either there won't be anything worth seeing—or, if there is, we'll be far too busy dealing with it to record footage."

"Yeah," Dipper sighed, "I guess you're right."

"This is why my journals have more illustrations than photographs."

Bill let out a loud groan of frustration before jogging to catch up with the humans. He checked the trail ahead to make sure he wasn't about to trip, then turned to walk sideways, facing Dipper and Ford as they walked. "Okay, fine, you win. So, just to be clear—the only reason you two are dragging me out here is to check a few locations for these imaginary 'micro-rips' you think are shredding the fabric of reality apart. Right? As soon as we've checked the three places you want, it's over, you admit you were wrong, and we go back to the shack?"

"Yes, Cipher," Ford sighed. "Once we've checked those locations, if we can't find evidence that any of the areas of most concern are near the one hundred thousand micro-rip danger threshold, we'll go home. Since dimensional rips could pop up anywhere around Gravity Falls, there's a possibility there could be clusters over the danger threshold away from the three areas of concern, but with no way to guess where they might be—"

"Fine. Then let's get this over with," Bill said. "Totality is in two days, if we're back home by tomorrow night we'll still avoid it. But if you try to drag me outside again after we get back, I'm hitting everyone with the Amnesia Limina curse and nobody's going outside."

With that threat delivered, Bill cartwheeled ahead of the humans, landed on his feet, and bounded ahead in long moonwalking lopes.

"Any idea why gravity's going down faster for him than the rest of town?" Dipper asked.

"Only that, if there are rips opening between us and the Nightmare Realm, perhaps they're giving Bill back some of his powers," Ford said. "Perhaps his powers are stored in the Nightmare Realm. Although I don't know how that would work." It was a better explanation than Bill's claim that he could just float better than humans, anyway.

The bracelet around Dipper's wrist momentarily tightened as Bill reached the far end of his invisible tether, then loosened as Dipper continue forward; and then tightened a second time, and a third time. From up the trail, Bill shouted, "Would you hurry up!" 

"You slow down! Some of us still have to walk!"

But even so, the slowly decreasing gravity was making the hike noticeably easier. Their backpacks sat lighter on their shoulders, and each stride seemed to carry them a little higher and farther than they expected. They startled a deer, and then the deer startled itself with how high it jumped.

"On second thought, it might not be a good idea to take him back to the shack while this is going on," Ford said. "Even if there aren't enough micro-rips in the basement, I'm not wholly convinced it won't end up the epicenter of whatever's about to happen. And if Bill wants so badly to be so close to it..."

From further up the trail, Bill shouted, "If you were any more paranoid, you'd be asking your own shadow why it's following you!"

"If you had access to any more of your powers, you'd be possessing my shadow!"

"Ha!" Bill had stopped to perch on a fallen tree that on any other day would have been far too slender to hold an adult's weight, balanced on it like a tightrope, and waited there for the others to catch up. "Fine, we don't need to go back to the shack, whatever makes you happy! As long as we get inside. Stanley's camper, a motel room, the old Corduroy cabin—hey, the Northwest place is pretty empty these days, isn't it? Is Specs renting out rooms, or...?"

"I am not taking you to Northwest Manor," Ford said. "Fiddleford's had enough trouble without letting you into his life again." Although that was only one of several reasons Ford wanted to keep them apart. For Fiddleford's safety, they couldn't risk Bill finding out that Fiddleford had been told his identity; and, now that Bill had confessed he could see through walls, they couldn't give him a chance to peer through the manor's walls and discover the ongoing paradox fuel synthesis project.

Bill laughed in disbelief. "Oh now you're concerned about somebody else's wellbeing, when it's his—fine! Fine, fine, fine! That's just fine! That's great! Terrific!" He hopped off his perch. "No evidence of self-preservation and let's not even think about respecting the triangle's wishes, but when the hillbilly might be in imaginary danger—!"

"That 'hillbilly' is one of the most brilliant men alive and the best friend I've ever known—"

"Ha!" Angrily, Bill yelled, "Some best friend, he erased you straight out of his head! You don't even know what a best friend is!"

Ford winced—he knew he'd never been much of a friend back to Fiddleford—but while he was gearing himself up to defend himself against whatever accusation Bill lobbed next, Bill turned away from the humans and stormed up the trail, leaving them behind as the weaving path took him behind several trees.

Every couple of steps, Dipper's bracelet twitched against his wrist as Bill tried to get even further ahead and was thwarted. He chuckled. "Do you think you touched a nerve?"

The corner of Ford's mouth quirked up; but he shook his head. "He's just mad he's not getting his way. As usual."

####

"I take it this is our first destination," Bill said, hands planted on his hips, looking around the forest. "This looks like the area where Shooting Star gave me the rift."

Dipper said, "You mean the place where you tricked—"

Bill shoved Dipper's hat down over his eyes. "Anyway, that aside, all the glued-shut wormholes and this are a bigger hint." He tapped the tip of one dress shoe—dusty after a walk in the woods—at the start of a long crevasse in the ground weaving through the trees.

"Yes," Ford said distractedly, taking his micro-rip scanner out of his backpack and turning it on. "This is the place." He took an initial reading, frowned, and followed the crevasse deeper into the woods.

Bill trailed along after him, gesturing at the jagged lines of bending light hanging in the air. "You did a terrible repair job, by the way. Stretching the edges of the rips to meet like that puts more stress on the reality in between the rips. You should have sutured them and let them heal naturally," Bill said. "If there are a bunch of tiny rips in the area, your own shoddy work probably caused them."

"Mm-hm," Ford said, fully focused on the scanner.

Bill's shoulders slumped. He hopped to the other side of the crack in the earth from Ford and strode ahead purposefully, ignoring him.

He glanced at a wooden sign staked next to the crack, nearly passed it, and did a double take. The sign read "MABEL'S FAULT". Bill laughed in surprise. "Who did this?"

"What—?" Dipper caught up and saw the sign. "Oh."

####

2012

Mabel's smile faded as she entered the clearing. "Oh. I... think this is the place where—Bill tricked me in Blarblar's body."

"Guess that explains all the rips in this area," Dipper said. He patted Mabel's back.

She looked down—and spotted the new crack in the ground. She gasped, immediately latching on to the distraction. "Hey, what's that! That wasn't here before!" She knelt next to the crack and peered inside. "Whoa!"

"Huh. Maybe it opened up when the rift broke?"

"How deep do you think it goes?" Mabel hopped back up, straddled the gap, and yelled down into it, "Hello!"

"Careful," Dipper said. "What if it's unstable?"

"We should give it a name," Mabel said. "It's a new geographic feature! We can put it on maps and be famous! What'll we call it?"

"Huh." Dipper stroked his chin. "Well... it looks kind of like a miniature fault line... and you were here when it formed, so I guess that kinda means you discovered it... so maybe... 'Mabel's Fault'...?"

Mabel stared at him.

Dipper's eyes widened in horror. "Oh. Ohh no."

Mabel bit her lip.

"I didn't mean it that way! I swear I didn't mean it that way—"

"Dipper!" Mabel cracked up. "We're calling it that."

"No," Dipper said, mortified. "Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. Please please don't—"

"Grunkle Staaan, Grunkle Fooord!" Mabel took off toward where they'd last seen their grunkles. "Did you hear what Dipper said—!"

"I'm sorryyy!"

####

2013

Dipper cringed. "Look, I didn't hear it until I said it out loud, okay—"

Bill burst out in shrill cackles.

"I didn't mean it!"

"Y-you're the worst brother ever!"

Dipper groaned, contemplated climbing down into the fault, and instead settled for pulling his hat down over his face again.

Ford passed by with the scanner, shot Bill a suspicious sideways look, and demanded, "What's so funny?"

Still laughing, Bill gestured at the "MABEL'S FAULT" sign.

"Oh." Ford glanced at Dipper, fought not to smile at the poor kid's embarrassment—he'd gotten enough teasing last summer—and said, "Right." He moved on.

"Hey," Bill called, "What's the score?"

Ford paused, but didn't reply.

"Well?" Bill pressed. "You're already past where the rift broke! Don't you figure that's where the most rips would be?"

Ford said, "The scanner's detecting about fourteen thousand."

Bill whistled. He meandered back to Ford's side of the fault. "Sounds like a lot. I'm telling you, the wormholes in this place should've been sutured, that's what your problem is."

"It is a lot," Ford said brusquely. He hesitated. "But."

"But?" Bill prompted.

"But... it's less than a fifth of what we'd expect to see if the fabric of reality were falling apart."

"Wow. Let me pretend to be surprised." Bill made zero effort to look surprised. "That's because the fabric of reality isn't falling apart. You idiot."

Ford glared at his scanner silently.

"You fool," Bill tried. "You buffoon."

Ford rounded furiously on him. "The more you say it's nothing, the more you just convince me that you're lying!"

"Which is stupid! If you always assume I'm lying, how do you know I'm not saying 'it's nothing' to trick you into thinking it's something when it isn't!"

"I don't know! There's no way to know with you! That's why I'm checking with a scanner!" Ford pointed aggressively at the scanner. "Because I'm a scientist!"

"You're a pretty pathetic scientist if you refuse to listen when the expert on a topic tells you what's—"

"—maybe if the self-proclaimed 'expert' weren't a mythomaniac—"

"Guys," Dipper said tiredly. "You've had this argument three times. Can we move on?"

Ford closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. "Right."

"No," Bill said. "Not until I win it."

"Can it, Bill." Ford glanced toward the sky to orient himself, looked around for the path through the trees, and started walking. "Come on. Next site—the place where the rift closed."

Bill clenched his jaw. Under his breath, he muttered, "As if I've ever done anything in my life to make me look untrustworthy..." He glanced up as well—and his gaze lingered on the sky much longer than Ford's.

####

"So I was thinking about what we could do after this," Dipper said, looking hopefully up at Ford.

It took a moment for Ford to drag himself out of his thoughts and look at Dipper. "Yes? You mean after..."

"After the ecl—" Dipper winced, "the... rips get sealed, or whatever's going on." He'd pulled out his journal and was holding it hopefully. "Maybe... I could show you the research I've been doing on the Fremont Nightwigglers? I think they've been stealing pants in town."

He gave Dipper a little more attention. "Is this one of their migration years?" 

"Yeah, I think so! One was caught on a security camera—or at least what looks like one. Here." Dipper flipped open to the two-page spread he was currently working on and held it up for Ford to inspect.

He studied the pictures, smiling slightly. "Would you look at that. Very impressive research. I only experienced one migration during my time in Gravity Falls, and they'd all but moved on by the time I caught wind of it. Never even saw one—I had to interview the townspeople to get a description of them."

"Really? I don't remember seeing them in your journals."

"Ah, they never made it in. I was focused on compiling magical spells and artifacts for Journal 2 at the time. I took some notes with the thought of putting them in Journal 1, but never felt like I'd collected enough information to write about them—especially when I hadn't witnessed one myself," Ford said. "You've already collected more here than I ever did. I wasn't even sure they were real!"

Dipper's face lit up. "Really? It's not that much—I still haven't found one yet either, it's mostly interviews about the crime spree."

"It's more real investigative work than I did on them. I only got as far as asking a couple of people at the diner to describe the local stories. You've got the dates and times they've been hitting the stores."

"I guess so." Dipper beamed proudly. "I haven't heard any 'local stories' about them, though. I only recognized them from a documentary I saw on Californian cryptids."

"That might be the Blind Eye's handiwork. Everyone recognized the name when I lived here. I'll see if I can dig up the notes I took, you might find the information valuable," Ford said. "I'm not sure where I left them, but they're probably still somewhere in my study."

"Scrapbook in your study on the top right corner of your desk," Bill said. "Under the box of glue bottles. You're welcome."

Ford threw him an irritated look. Bill had gotten ahead of them while Ford was looking at Dipper's journal, and now he was crouched beside a creek, scooping up handfuls of water, momentarily inspecting them, and letting them spill back out. The eye on the hood stared balefully up at Ford from Bill's back.

Ford asked, "What in the world are you doing."

"Communing with the dread harbingers of the coming eclipse," Bill said flatly. "You can't see them of course, they're invisible to you."

"Of course." Ford muttered, "I don't know why I bother to ask."

Under his breath, Bill mumbled, "Don't know why he bothered to ask."

Ford studied the creek and checked his map. They were hiking east toward the lake, with the town to their south and the cliff to the north; the creek ran north to south in front of them. On the other side of the creek, southeast of them, was a thicker, overgrown part of the woods, the shadows between the trees darker and quieter. "This seems like a safe place to wait," Ford said. "Dipper, you stay here while I scan the next site. Keep him out of trouble."

Dipper nodded. Bill cast Ford a sullen look, then rolled his eye and looked back at the water.

"After I've checked the next spot, we'll follow the cliffside to the lake," Ford said, pointing northeast, away from the dark area of the forest. "If there's still daylight, we can take a boat behind Trembley Falls and set up camp inside the cave."

"Sounds good." Dipper looked at Bill's tiny borrowed backpack. "You... didn't bring a tent, did you."

"Sorry, do you think I have a tent to bring?" Bill asked. "Do you expect me to slide an entire tipi out of my—"

Ford interrupted, "Dipper, you brought a tent, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Then that's sufficient. You can share my tent and we'll set up Bill's as far from ours as possible. We'll be safer that way."

Bill ignored the implicit accusation with silent dignity.

Dipper nodded. "Good idea." 

"Now, let's see..." Ford studied the creek. It was much wider than he could usually jump, but under the current gravity conditions... He bounced on the balls of his feet a couple of times, testing how light he currently felt; then took a few steps back, got a running start, and with a "hup!" leaped across the creek. He cleared it by several feet and almost ran into a tree.

Dipper gasped. "Are you okay?"

"Fine, Dipper! Just... don't know my own strength." How low was gravity now, he wondered? He could see grass swaying beneath the surface of the creek. It hadn't rained lately; without as much gravity, even water was being pulled down less, letting it rise higher and flood the creek's banks. He hoped they figured out how to reverse this before the lake flooded. When they made it into the cave, they'd have to camp on high ground. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Dipper side-eyed Bill; but when he kept gazing into the water without a word, Dipper said suspiciously, "What, no complaints about camping?"

"What's there to complain about?" Bill asked.

"I don't know, you've complained about everything else so far."

"This is the only part of your expedition that isn't a terrible idea," Bill said. "I love camping! Hypothetically. The Nightmare Realm isn't known for picturesque campgrounds. But hey, I like being surrounded by trees. And a private tent? Deluxe accommodations! It's just too bad you'll be dragging the mood down."

"Hey."

Bill laughed. "You're too easy."

Dipper scowled. "You don't seem like the type to be into camping."

"Why not?"

Dipper thought about it. "Man, I dunno, you just—seem like a city person? You're always talking about how much you want to throw wild parties, that's basically the opposite of camping in the woods."

"Is it?" Bill asked. "Welcome to the cult of Dionysus."

Given what Dipper could remember about Dionysus from the book of Greek mythology he'd read in sixth grade, he supposed wild parties and hanging out in the woods weren't mutually exclusive. So what was it about Bill that made Dipper feel so strongly that he wouldn't be caught dead roughing it?

Finally, Dipper said, "I guess it's the top hat and bow tie."

"They're not a top hat and bow tie."

He gave Bill a perplexed look. "Really? What are they?"

"Did you ever read that horror story about the bride with a velvet ribbon tied in a bow around her neck, and when her new husband unties it, her head falls off her neck and bounces down the stairs—?"

Dipper shuddered. "I'm sorry I asked."

Bill laughed.

After a brief silence, he finally dragged his eyes away from the water and impressively flicked a couple of mosquitoes out of the air with a finger. (Dipper wished he could do that. His arms were coated in soothsquito bite messages. He wondered what "BURN TACK" was supposed to mean.) Bill took off his backpack, rummaged around in it, and muttered, "I should've brought a book." He looked around the bank of the creek for a patch of sunlight, pushed his sleeves and leggings up to expose as much skin as possible, and flopped down in the light, eyes shut and hands laced on his chest over the backpack.

Dipper supposed that meant he was being ignored. He took his journal back out and flipped to the section on the Nightwigglers. He'd need some empty space to add Ford's local folklore once they got home. Was there any open space in the next few pages?

"It really shouldn't be called 'Mabel's Fault,'" Bill said out of the blue. "It's not her fault. It should be called 'Bill's Fault.' I'm the one who made it, aren't I?"

Dipper lowered his journal. "Sorry, are you actually accepting blame for something? You're admitting you did something wrong?"

Bill didn't even open his eyes. "I'm not 'accepting blame,' I'm claiming credit. Weirdmageddon was great. Can't help that you're all too boring to see that."

"But you said 'Bill's Fault.' Not 'Bill's Triumph' or something."

"Sure, because we're talking about a geological fault. Don't read too deep into it, kid."

"Pff, no, you definitely said it was your fault. I can't believe Grunkle Ford missed that—"

Bill abruptly sat up. "Hey. What's the 'next site.'"

"What?"

Bill counted off on his fingers, "Six-Fingers said there are four sites you want to hit, right? The place where the rift formed, the place Weirdmageddon started, the place the rift was during Weirdmageddon, and the place Weirdmageddon ended. The rift formed at the portal—been there—Weirdmageddon started at the fault—been there—during Weirdmageddon it was in the sky—going there tomorrow—so where did Weirdmageddon end? Wasn't it in the sky too?"

"Oh," Dipper said. "It's just. Y'know. It's just a... place."

Bill gave him a sharp look.

Dipper swallowed hard. "No big deal. Just... trees and stuff."

Bill flipped up his eye patch, staring in the direction Ford had disappeared. Dipper could see the white of his eye turning red.

"Hey!" Dipper got in front of Bill, trying to block the view of the forest. "It's nothing important. You—you wouldn't even be interested. Really."

Bill just stared straight through Dipper. And then, before Dipper could react, Bill was on his feet and bolting past him. By the time Dipper turned around Bill was already across the creek, following the path Ford had taken.

"No no no, come back!" Dipper jumped the creek and sprinted after Bill, shouting, "Don't go that way, you can't go that way, Bill—"

There was a dark, quiet knot of overgrown plant life deep in the forest, as if no animals had dared visit the area for nearly a year, leaving it to choke itself on its own greenery. Bill was headed straight for the heart of it. He moved through the trees like a swimmer through underwater ruins, kicking off trunks to propel himself forward, grabbing branches to help twist his body around and between them without slowing down—more flying than running, gravity hardly seeming to touch him at all.

He barreled past Ford and his scanner without even acknowledging him. Ford gasped, "Wait—" He turned the direction Bill had come from.

Dipper was squeezing between two trees and tripped over a hidden root. "Grunkle Ford—!"

"Dipper! You still have the bracelet!" Ford pointed, "Run the other direction!"

"Right!" He turned around and squeezed back between the dense trees.

And Ford took off after Bill.

Wild brambles tore at Bill's skin and ripped at his hoodie; he ignored the pain, letting the prickles bite into him as he forced his way through the shrubs—

And then he stood in the clearing, gasping in unsteady breaths, his wide unblinking eyes staring.

In front of him, wide unblinking eye staring vacantly into the trees, was his corpse.

"Bill!" Ford fought against the brambles, trying to figure out how Bill had gotten through. "Don't touch it! We don't know what could happen—"

Bill lunged for the statue.

The bracelet snapped tight around his wrist. Bill's fingers were inches away from his corpse's outstretched hand.

Thirty feet away, Dipper's bracelet went tight while he was trying to scramble over an ancient log. He awkwardly tried to keep his balance on the log; rather than risk toppling back in Bill's direction, he flung his weight the other way, keeping the invisible thread between them taut by leaning so far over that if it weren't for the bracelet holding him up he'd fall to the forest floor.

Bill fell to his knees, clawing at the dirt and grass with his free hand and feet, desperate to drag himself closer in spite of the completely immovable bracelet.

It seemed impossible to Ford that the thin invisible thread wrenching Bill's arm back would hold him for long; Bill would sooner dislocate his own shoulder to gain those last few inches. Ford fell out of the brambles and seized one of Bill's legs. "Bill—"

Bill tried to kick Ford in the face. "You KNEW!" he shrieked. "You knew I was here this WHOLE TIME and you NEVER TOLD ME, you ANIMALS! I could have had my body back! I COULD BE HOME!"

That was exactly what Ford was afraid of. Gritting his teeth, Ford wrapped an arm around Bill's torso and the other around his neck, struggling to get enough purchase on the torn-up ground to move Bill.

Wheezing for breath, Bill tried to kick out one of Ford's knees. Ford took advantage of the split second one of Bill's feet wasn't dug in to drag him back; he only managed to move him a few inches.

But a few inches of slack on the invisible thread was enough to throw off Dipper's balance. He instinctively tried to flail back upright, overcorrected, and tumbled off the log the wrong way. "No—!"

Bill lunged out of Ford's hold, scrabbled across the last few inches to his corpse, and planted his hand on his stone face.

He froze.

Ford froze.

Nothing happened.

"N..." Bill grabbed his arm, grabbed his hand, as though trying to shake on a deal with his own body; nothing. "No." He sounded more confused than anything. "No, no, nonono..."

He hung off the statue by his grip, pressed his forehead against their joined hands. And then he let go and slowly put his trembling hand on the dead face. And then he sat there, breathing shakily, every few seconds sucking in a hitching gasp that made his shoulders jerk.

Ford gingerly got to his feet, brushed his clothes off, and looked at Bill. He didn't move for a moment; then reached for Bill's shoulder; then stopped, curled his hand into a ball, clasped it behind his back, and turned away. "Dipper," he called. "You can come back. It's..." He cast one last glance at Bill, then forced himself to look away. "It's safe."

By the time Dipper caught up, Ford had made his way back into the overgrowth, leaving Bill alone in the clearing. Dipper started, "What...?" but fell silent when he saw Ford's face. He looked past him at Bill and winced.

Ford shoved his hands in his pockets and mumbled, "We should give him..." Dipper nodded.

Bill remained kneeling for less than a minute. Then he leaned forward, used his sleeve to wipe some of the moss off of his dead eye and the bird crap off his hat and hand, and unsteadily heaved himself back to his feet. He moved like he was very, very old. He glanced over his shoulder at Ford and Dipper. "What're you two staring at." His voice sounded like somebody was attempting to strangle him and his smile looked like a zombie had pulled its skin back on wrong. "You should've said you were waiting on me. I was just..." His eyes briefly unfocused. He shook his head. "Just taking a break." His cheeks were dry. He hadn't even cried.

They stepped back as Bill wove around the brambles. Dipper swallowed hard and asked, "Are you alr—"

"Of course I am." Bill plodded mechanically toward the path out of the dense dark woods. 

Ford asked, "Do you want t—"

"What I want is to get wherever we're pitching our tents before nightfall." Bill pulled his eyepatch back in place. "You're making us camp, right?"

They had no choice. If they wanted to get to the top of Trembley Falls, reach Gravity Peak, and get back down the same day, they had to be ready to ascend in the morning. They couldn't afford to go back to the shack tonight. "Are you s—"

"What were the readings like," Bill asked.

Ford hadn't even gotten as far as taking readings around the statue; he'd still been checking the perimeter of the overgrown zone when Bill ran past. He looked for where he'd dropped his scanner, picked it up, and checked. "215 micro-rips detected. Higher than baseline levels, but—not even as high as readings around the portal."

Voice thick with venom, Bill said, "What a surprise."

When the forest had brightened again and the creek was visible, Bill turned to travel upstream alongside it. Dipper pointed across the creek at Bill's backpack. "You forgot your..."

"Right," Bill said tiredly. He hopped across the creek. 

And gasped in shock when, instead of floating across as before, he landed heavily in the middle of the creek. He squeezed his eye shut, pinched the bridge of his nose, and took a long, silent inhale; and then he climbed out and grabbed his backpack. This time, he put enough force behind his jump to make it back across the creek. 

Dipper and Ford exchanged a look. Ford said, "Do you need a minute to dry—?"

"No."

"You could catch a cold in those damp—"

"I knew how germ theory works on your planet when your gill-breathing ancestors were still swimming around in their own feces," Bill snapped. "When I say 'no,' it's not because I don't understand, it's because I don't care. Don't treat me like I'm ignorant and don't act like you care."

Ford's jaw tightened. No, he didn't care. Bill accepted basic human decency as easily as he offered it. "Fine. Catch pneumonia."

"Fine!"

Ford pushed past Bill to lead the way to the lake. He tried not to notice how Bill was trembling.

####

Maybe ten minutes passed in silence before Ford worked up the nerve to say, "You—know why we didn't tell you." It was the closest he'd get to an apology.

Bill was silent for a long moment. "Of course I do." It was the closest he'd get to accepting it. "When I get my power back, I'm going to invent a very clumsy, easily startled species of bird whose feathers are scalpel blades. And then I'm unleashing a million in the shack, barricading the doors, and blowing an air horn."

Dipper grimaced. Ford muttered, "Thanks for reminding us not to feel too bad for you."

Bill let out a raw, broken laugh.

It was a very quiet hike to the edge of the lake. 

####

After spending the first half of the expedition trying to hurry Ford and Dipper up, now Bill was the anchor slowing them down. He trudged so slowly that Dipper kept having to stop to give his bracelet a little slack; but Bill kept moving, and Ford and Dipper agreed without speaking not to say anything about it.

By the time they reached the lake, the sun was just touching the rim of the mountain curling west around Gravity Falls. The water had risen so far, it flooded the roots of the trees nearest the shore. Far down the shore, distant dark dots, locals were doing cannonballs off the submerged pier, reveling in how high they could jump, how slowly they fell, and how their splashes hung suspended in the air.

Under the unusual conditions and with night coming on, Ford decided that it wasn't safe to try to set out for the cave under the falls. They'd camp on shore and start in the morning.

This, unsurprisingly, started another fight with Bill. "If we were falling behind, you should have said so, I'd have picked it up—!"

"I'm so sorry, I didn't want to imply you were too ignorant to tell the time—"

"The time isn't the issue, I just didn't think you'd give up for the night before it's even civil twilight—!"

Dipper just found a low hill to pitch his tent on.

When Bill noticed, he broke off the argument, flung his hands in the air in defeat, and crouched by the lake to sulk and study the water. He reflexively scratched his arm, pushed up his sleeve with a frown, and read the soothsquitos' message. "'Deeth in the mourning,'" he muttered. "What's deeth? That's not a word."

Maybe they'd been trying to spell teeth, Ford thought. Why would they warn Bill about teeth?

Ford pitched his tent, he and Dipper made a fire, and they attempted to reconstitute some of Ford's dehydrated astronaut food to mixed success. Bill stayed by the lake and tried to eat the cereal he'd brought, but gagged on the second handful and decided dinner wasn't worth the effort.

As Ford cleaned up after dinner, Dipper rummaged through his backpack. "Hey, Grunkle Ford. So..." He pulled out a portable chess kit. "I brought this to Gravity Falls back when I thought this would be a normal summer and I thought we might go camping? And, well, here we are, and I guess things are kiiinda weird, but, I mean... might as well...?"

Fiord smiled wanly. "I think that's just what we need to unwind."

They unrolled Dipper's canvas chess board and took several tries to set up the pieces on the uneven surface. Ford let Dipper take white; he figured the younger and less experienced player could use the advantage of going first.

Bill wandered over with a can of cider early in the match and crouched at the edge of the firelight to watch. He had rolled his sleeves back down, tied his bow tie, and flipped up his hood, and in the dimming flickering light he looked disconcertingly like his real self. He hadn't bothered to stuff his hair into his hood, and it gave the impression that some strange golden internal organs were spilling out of a gash beneath Bill's eye.

After watching for several minutes, Bill said, "Dibs on playing the winner."

Ford and Dipper said, "No."

"Why not!"

"Because we don't like you," Dipper said.

"Oh, come on." Bill ignored Dipper, turning toward Ford. "Remember how much fun we used to have?"

"I remember that you're an incorrigible cheat and made every game miserable," Ford said.

Bill reeled back. His face was hidden under the shadow of his hood, yet somehow the shadow gave off the impression of fury. He chugged half his cider, unslung his backpack, and dug around inside it. "Who wants to play against humans anyway." He unscrewed a bottle of cold medicine, topped off his cider, and poured the concoction down his throat. "Ugh. You're not even any good. Black's got mate in three and I bet neither of you can see it."

Ford and Dipper stared at the board, trying to find the looming checkmate.

Bill stood. "I'm gonna go hallucinate, pass out, and hallucinate some more. More fun than hanging out with a couple of nerdy losers playing a stupid game of..." He trudged off toward his tent, muttering to himself.

Ford concluded that Bill was probably making up the mate in three—although not confidently—and returned to the game with a sigh. "It will be nice to drop him back in the shack," he muttered.

Dipper nodded. "Yeah."

Ford won—not in three moves—and they started a new game. Several minutes in, Dipper asked hesitantly, "Grunkle Ford? Do you really think the micro-rip theory...?"

Ford pursed his lips, but admitted, "Out of all the locations of concern, you could argue that the spot in the sky where the rift spent a week floating has the highest probability of sustaining lasting damage, so we still need to check. But..." He shook his head. "Based on the empirical evidence—I'm beginning to have my doubts."

Dipper's shoulders relaxed; part of him had worried questioning the Acceptable Theory would be taken as disloyalty. "Then, what do you think about Bill's...?"

Ford snorted. "'Gravitational eclipse' explanation?" He propped his chin in his hand, thinking. "I'm only certain of two things: Bill knows exactly what's going on; and he's hiding something he doesn't want us to know. Everything he's told us so far is what he wants us to think is the truth, and because of that, any of it could be lies. He hasn't given us anything we can independently verify in any way—just vague claims he expects us to take his word for and refuses to elaborate on. Even if he is telling the truth, it doesn't matter. We have to act like... not like he's lying, per se; but like what he says has no correlation with whether it's true."

And thus had been the case with everything Bill had said and done since his capture. Every power he claimed he still had, and every power he acted like he'd lost. Every bit of magical, historical, or interdimensional trivia he spouted off to make himself sound smarter. Every sweet thing he'd said to Mabel, every favor he'd offered Stan—and every time he'd told Ford he wanted to be "friends."

Dipper nodded. "Mabel says that's just how Bill talks. He doesn't care about whether what he's saying is true, he just tells you what he thinks should be true."

Ford would have to keep that in mind when talking to Bill in the future. "That girl's a wizard with Bill. Maybe she's right." Still—he had a hard time believing that figuring out what Bill was really saying had actually been that simple all along. (Maybe he just didn't want it to be that simple, after all the time he'd wasted.)

Ford glanced down at the ring the Hand Witch had gifted him. The first time she'd given it to him in the eighties, she'd told him that if the ring ever turned black, he'd chosen the wrong friends and doomed himself. He couldn't tell if it was just the firelight, but as he looked in the deep blue cabochon now, he swore he saw a swirl of black spiraling beneath the surface. He wished he knew what that meant—was he supposed to trust Bill more, or had he already absentmindedly taken something Bill had said on faith that he shouldn't have? Had that swirl first appeared only now during the eclipse, or when Ford had started studying the miniature grimoire Bill had gifted him? Was it even due to Bill? Ford hadn't studied mood-ring-o-mancy.

Dipper snuck a rook onto Ford's back row. "Checkmate."

Ford huffed. "Well done." He'd been so distracted, he hadn't even noticed Dipper lining his rook up.

Dipper pushed Ford's king over. It dramatically fell in slow motion.

They packed up the chess board, put out the campfire, and slept uneasily.

####

In spite of the sedative cold medicine, Bill couldn't get any decent sleep. It wasn't even a good trip. Every time he shut his eyes for a few minutes, he hallucinated/dreamed that he was locked back in the shack staring at the high attic ceiling, or staring silently at Soos's bedroom—or watching over the town graveyard from high above; or locked like a hunting trophy in a glass display case in some local hick's darkened den; kidnapped and tied up beneath Gideon's bed; closed in a dark airless leather box; preserved like an ancient relic in the museum; hovering above Gravity Falls' valley and trees in the still night sky —

—or petrified in the middle of a quiet knot of overgrown plant life deep in the forest. 

Or still in the tent but with his head wrenched around wrong, unable to move or feel his limbs, staring out at an angle that should have been impossible—until he awoke with lungs heaving to find his body was right and he wasn't dead; only for the humanity of his shape to reassert itself and he envied the stone corpse.

He crawled out of his tent, threw up his ill-advised concoction of cider and cold medicine, and collapsed, slipping in and out of a delirious doze until morning.

####

(I have been so looking forward to inflicting this chapter on y'all. Hope you enjoyed, please let me know what you think, and if you thought that was bad then stay tuned for things getting even worse for Bill!! 🎉)

#(there's another 2 pics I might later add at the top; but I don't wanna spoil it when the chapter's new. give folks a day to read or so lol) #bill cipher #human bill cipher #grunkle ford #stanford pines #gravity falls #gravity falls fic #gravity falls fanart #fanart #my art #my writing #bill goldilocks cipher

[the-crimson]

I’m just spinning q!bbh in my mind rn I’ve got theories and analysis and bits of it are a stretch and it is rambly and long so it’s going under a cut but here we go XD

Everything he’s done since the eggs were taken has been so incredibly deliberate and he developed this plan when he was in the depths of the greatest despair. According to what he told Baghera today, he developed this plan before the anger stream when he lava cast the presidential office as that was part of the plan to draw out the workers.

So Bad blatantly lying and gaslighting and just being incredibly suspicious to everyone today feels deliberate. It feels like he’s intentionally burning these bridges. The whole gun debacle is a great example of this. I saw a post that suspected bbh took Ron to test Baghera and her loyalty to him by doing something he knows she’d disapprove of and while I don’t think that’s why he took Ron, I defiantly think that’s part of it.

The whole gun thing I feel is Bad’s test for Forever. Bad has lied to his face and changed the story so many times that even when Bad tells him the truth Forever doesn’t care. I think Bad is intentionally pushing Forever just like he is Baghera. He’s pushing him to see what it would take for Forever to cut ties. It’s brutal and is actively hurting Forever just like how Baghera was hurt learning what Bad had done to Ron.

Bad feels no guilt for what he’s done to Ron. All he cares about is what others would think of his actions. He knows what he’s doing is “wrong” but he doesn’t care. Such black and white morality is beneath him. He’s doing what he thinks is necessary.

And that includes his own self destruction. He is testing all of these relationships knowing full well that he might destroy them. He knows Baghera is so much more moral than him and has such a higher value of life so he intentionally showed her something that would shatter her perception of him. Bad knows that trust is very important to forever so he intentionally lies and gaslights him knowing full well that Forever may never trust him again.

Bad created this plan when he was at his lowest point. On an average day, Bad’s value of his own life is nonexistent. He designed a plan to uncover how the federation spies on them knowing full well that it could turn everyone against him. That sure sounds familiar doesn’t it? Bad’s proposed this exact same plan under different circumstances(“joining” the feds to make them worse so everyone revolts against them inspired by his building inspector bit”). He doesn’t care about himself and is willing to throw himself to the wolves and make everyone hate him if it means defeating the federation and getting their children back. Previously, bad never went through with the plan because he wasn’t as desperate but now… during the depths of his grief after the kids were stolen, there was nothing holding him back from complete self annihilation.

I think Tubbo discovering/catching on to bbh’s kidnapping put a hitch in Bad’s plans because now his tests for others are being influenced by an outside variable he can’t control, that’s why he spent the whole day doing damage control. He’s trying to spin the story in such a way that he’s still somewhat in control of the situation. He knows that the cats out of the bag. Everyone is going to suspect him now so what does he do? He spends the day making himself even more suspicious. He admitted to torturing foolish in the past. He admitted to imprisoning forever during the happy pills arc. He admitted to planning on abducting a player in the future. He’s making himself look so much more guilty.

Everything he does is with intent. What could be the intent here? He’s told several people that he wants to be arrested so he has access to the federation prisons/facilities. He’s told several people that he is capable of kidnapping/torturing someone. He denies he’s guilty of Ron’s disappearance while simultaneously making himself look guilty. Is he trying to push the federation? To see if they actually will arrest him? All fingers point to bbh and the federation knows this - they basically say so in the journals Tubbo found. But they continue doing nothing. The workers are warned to stay away from him at all costs but… why wouldn’t they just arrest him? They’ve done so to others for less. That’s the question I want Tubbo to be asking. He’s smart enough to realize there’s something off here. Yes bad has a guy in his basement but why hasn’t the federation done anything about it?

Maybe that’s Bad’s test for Tubbo. Bad knows Tubbo is fiercely intelligent and that he can’t bullshit has way past him so he gave Tubbo so much. Yes there was a lot of bullshit but Bad intentionally gave Tubbo more ammunition against him. Is that Bad’s test? If Tubbo finds proof that Bad has Ron in his basement and the federation continues not to act, will that clear Tubbo of suspicion in his eyes? Tubbo knows the worker Bad is trying to find, is Bad giving Tubbo a chance to unknowingly prove himself by uncovering Bad’s secret? “Has anyone ever told you your too smart for your own good, Tubbo?” It sounded like a threat but it could have been an invitation.

Fred has become an incredibly important npc and I have a feeling he is the key to unlocking the mysteries of the eggs and the great evil. I’m pretty sure he’s the one in the radio transmission that talks about why the eggs disappeared and Ron said he overheard Fred talking about the evil. Fred knows so much more than he lets on and one way or another, the players are gonna find out.

I’m also fascinated by Bad’s conversation with Bagi about Boo. Only after Bagi confessed to telling Forever about the secret did Bad put in his clipboard that she passed the test. We’ll how did she pass the test? She told someone about his secret. We’ll, she came clean about it. She told someone she thought was Bad’s best friend then admitted it. She wasn’t trying to go behind his back and thus was trustworthy. However, as the day went on and Bagi learned about Ron, this changed. Her perception of Bad changed and Bad updated his notes about her in response. She went from trustworthy to sometimes trustworthy to be careful what you tell her. She still passed the test but the level of trust dropped dramatically - which is so fascinating.

At the end of it, I think… through all of this, Bad is gonna burn all his bridges in order to find the eggs and destroy the federation. He’s accepted that at this point. He was so dismissive of Baghera’s concerns for Ron and Bad and almost felt like he was placating her, just telling her what she wanted to hear. If Baghera interferes with Ron, I don’t think Bad will accept that and he would sacrifice their relationship to continue his plans. If anything, I could see him releasing Ron into Baghera’s hands only to capture Fred in his place - and this time he wouldn’t tell a soul.

Just the sudden switch in attitude when everyone triggered his radar was palpable. “Get out of my house or die” he was so furious that this test had been interrupted but he masked it while with baghera. When Bad went flying into the hall of grim shouting at everyone to get out and attacking them mercilessly, you could feel the rage (part of that was the lore secrets being accidentally revealed but still) the entire visit with Ron was a performance for both Ron and Baghera and I feel so bad for Baghera because she’s in an impossible position.

She wants to be there for Bad she wants to support him but this… this is so far beyond what she is willing to excuse from him. This has crossed so many lines but there isn’t any turning back. She doesn’t want to lose Bad either through breaking his trust or being taken by the federation but at the same time she can’t stand by and do nothing. She needs to help him. Unfortunately, that means it’s highly likely Bad will end up immolating their friendship if she pushes too hard.

And just the way Bad acts around Ron is so fascinating. It’s all a performance. The large furnished home. The fridge full of food. The fish. The weird attachment Bad shows - almost a reverse Stockholm syndrome - while simultaneously talking over/for Ron in such a dehumanizing way. It’s so fascinating in the moments when the mask falls away. When Bad was watching Baghera talk to Ron - idk if it was just me - but I felt like Bad was a hawk observing it’s prey. He plays up the sugary sweetness and dependence but he still feels like a tiger prowling the bars of his cage eyeing the snacks on the other side. It’s the way he moves and what he choosss to look at during these scenes idk bbh’s body language is insane and I could devote an entire essay to analyzing it

Like Bad’s stream title before he started stream, there are only two sides. Either ur with him or against him and the only thing he values is finding the eggs and tearing down the federation. He doesn’t care if everyone grows to hate him. He doesn’t care if he grows to hate himself. There are no lines he won’t cross. It’s all worth it. It’s all inevitable.

#qsmp #crimson speaks #badboyhalo #ok this got really long #and rambly #idk if it’s even legible #but I have so many thoughts about his current arc #it’s masterful storytelling #and I can’t wait to see where it leads #I hope he gets worse #I hope the federations fear of him spreads to the players #I hope he burns every bridge #and at the end when there is nothing but embers #he realizes the cost wasn’t worth it #and it breaks him #I want people to be scared of him #I want a villain arc damn it!! #but if it doesn’t happen that’s okay to #I’m sure what ever direction bbh takes us will be amazing

[jellyfishandry]

Crushing on a fellow teacher

Characters: Shota Aizawa, Toshinori Yagi

CW: work place romance, gn reader, reader is also a hero, mentions of injury, mentions of death?,

WC: 620+

A/N: Wrote this in school cause I'm tired, and sick of these people

Shota Aizawa

It really just starts off with his concern for you being higher than the other teachers

He'll check in on you more often, maybe bring you tea or coffee if you're working late

He knows that hero work comes with obvious dangers, even for one working as a teacher, but he can't help but feel bad when you get hurt, thinking he should've been there to help/protect you

That's about when he realizes that he likes you more than the others

Or Present Mic mentions it

He's generally good at hiding how he feels

To the outsider, one would think that you're simply a friend he cares for a lot

He cares deeply for his friends, but everyone who knew him could see that his care for you went deeper

He doesn't really think to confess, cause it might affect his work quality (and yours), and his work comes first

So he just sticks to quietly pining over you

You'd probably have to confess if you want your romantic relationship to go anywhere

If you do confess, he'll tell you the feeling is mutual, and he'd do one of two things

1, decline you offer to start dating, but only because of the work situation, but he'll fully communicate that he likes you too

Or 2, he'll accept, but ask to keep the relationship under the radar so you both can continue teaching and working like normal, and so his co-workers don't treat either of you any different (even though they suspect the feeling between the two of you)

But

If you end up teaching somewhere else, or just stop working at UA, he'd be more comfortable with making your relationship more open to his friends

Either way, very caring and understanding, if you confess or don't confess <3

Toshinori Yagi

Reckless fuck (affectionate)

He doesn't entirely understand why he's feeling this way at first

Like, you should just be a co-worker and friend, but for some reason he's feeling more

Also thinks of it as "I'm willing to die for anyone, but why them even more???"

He really tries to play it off like he just cares for you in a platonic way

I believe that throughout his life, he was too focused on hero work, or training to be a hero to think much about romantic relationships

But he's not entirely clueless about romance

He's seen a lot of stuff in media, and might've had a few small relationships in the past, but nothing as serious or intense as the things he's feeling towards you

He tries to act casual around you, but he really doesn't know what to do with himself

He'll occasionally bake things for the staff just to see the joy on your face when eating the sweets

He feels somewhat insecure about his true form

He hasn't exactly been directly body shamed

But that generally insecurity definitely lives in the back of his mind

Can't help but check in on you more often and help you with things

Because of his past hero work, helping you comes naturally to him

The other staff notice his actions, and they quickly catch on

A few students catch on as well

He tries to keep his emotions and feelings on the back burner, so he can focus on his students and teaching

But eventually it gets overwhelming, and he forces himself to confess

It's most likely after hours when you're both tired and stressed

He just needs to get if off his chest, whether you'll reciprocate his feelings or not

You're probably not super surprised, cause of all the clear signs

He's so happy when you say the feelings are mutual

You'll probably end up keeping the relationship under the radar, cause he doesn't want villains using you hurting you or using you against him

Though the staff find out relatively quickly cause the soft looks you give each other pretty much gives it away

|| Intro || Masterlist ||

#rys writing 👾 #mha #all might #bnha #bnha x reader #boku no hero academia #mha fanfiction #mha x reader #toshinori yagi #all might x you #all might fanart #all might x reader #all might mha #shota aizawa #aizawa shouta #aizawa x reader #mha aizawa #bnha aizawa #aizawa sensei

[cherienymphe]

The Less I Know The Better XVI (JJ Maybank x Reader x Rafe Cameron)

Warnings: mentions of NON-CON, mentions of violence, manipulation, underage drinking, drug use, unhealthy relationship, one sided kiara x jj, non canon ages, pogue!reader

➥ banner by @vase-of-lilies​ | divider by @firefly-graphics​

➥ series masterlist

summary:  When you start dating Rafe Cameron, no one is more surprised than you when your best friend JJ takes it really well. However, no one is more surprised than JJ when he’s forced to see his once frumpy BFF in an entirely new light, suddenly terrified of losing what he never knew he had to the person he hates most.

~

JJ’s whole face felt like it was on fire, and the only consolation he got was that Rafe fared no better. The ice he held to his jaw stung, but he knew he needed to keep it there. His eyes were closed, and long after the fight, his breathing was even, but every time he swallowed, he winced. There’d been a loud ringing in his ears for minutes now, and only when it started to fade did he realize he was getting chewed out.

“You’re lucky if Y/N even speaks to you again, you know that right?”

JJ rolled his eyes behind his lids at John B.’s words.

“She seems to be speaking to Rafe pretty okay,” Pope mumbled, and JJ opened his eyes.

“Which makes me think that for once, maybe the asshole didn’t start this…no offense, Sarah,” John B. added.

The blonde girl threw her hands up, turning away with a huff. At his words, they all, with the exception of Sarah, turned to look at JJ. Kie looked angrier than the rest, and he wondered what you’d told her.

“He punched me first if that’s what you’re wondering,” JJ finally spoke, pulling the ice away with a hiss.

They were all at Kie’s house, her parents out of for the weekend, and he hadn’t missed the way she’d practically stomped towards the kitchen before tossing the ice at him. John B. nodded at that with a sigh, but Kie’s frown deepened.

“What did you do?”

Her tone was clipped, and everyone looked at her as she folded her arms over her chest.

“…what?”

She scoffed, unamused by how he was trying to play dumb.

“You and Y/N have been friends your entire life, and as much as she cares about Rafe, in this situation, she wouldn’t just turn her back on you without a second thought…”

“Kie-.”

“She didn’t hesitate to go after him, and it pissed me off for obvious reasons, but then she told me to ‘ask JJ what he did’, so now I’m asking.”

JJ licked his lips, looking away.

“What did you do?”

He could feel eyes on him, the heat of curious gazes, and he didn’t see a point in lying to anyone anymore…especially himself. He stood, tossing the bag of ice onto the coffee table before gently touching his face with a wince.

“I kissed her,” there was a beat of silence. “…and Rafe saw.”

He conveniently left out your reaction to the kiss which Rafe also probably saw. When he looked up, he was met with varying degrees of shock. The only one who didn’t look shocked was Kie, but instead of anger like he’d suspected, he was met with disappointment, and that actually sucked more.

“You what?” Sarah wondered, voice several pitches higher.

“Why?” Pope asked, a deep frown on his face.

JJ’s blue gaze met Pope’s darker one, his lips pressed together as he just…stared at him. Pope seemed to get the message, and his lips parted, a peculiar expression on his face as he looked JJ over.

“…oh.”

JJ heard Kie sigh, and John B. stood too.

“You…and Y/N?”

“No,” JJ hurried to correct him. “It’s not like that. She…”’

His gaze found the floor.

“You know how she feels about Rafe.”

Everyone seemed to catch on without JJ saying it, and now Pope sighed.

“Damn it, JJ.”

“You couldn’t have figured this out…oh…I don’t know, before she started dating my brother? You know how he is! Look at what happened tonight after you decided that now you like Y/N-.”

“Sarah, please.”

“No! You deserve to stand here and listen to this. I didn’t see what happened but since she’s with Rafe, right now instead of us, it’s pretty clear she did not appreciate you planting one on her like that,” Sarah continued.

“What do you want me to say? You want me to say I’m sorry? Because I’m not.”

Sarah looked shocked at that, and she swallowed.

“Maybe I should’ve figured this out before,” JJ told them, looking at all of them. “…but you’re not going to sit here and tell me I’m not better for her than he is.”

They were all quiet at that, finding no argument there, and Pope rubbed his forehead.

“Kie, please say something,” Pope begged, looking at her.

She hadn’t taken her eyes off of JJ once, and she merely shook her head.

“I don’t really know what to say,” she finally whispered. “I guess I’m just disappointed…”

JJ threw her a look, and she shook her head at him.

“You’re a lot more selfish than I thought you were.”

JJ’s jaw clenched at the disgust in her voice, and he narrowed his eyes at her.

“You’ve made these past months hell enough for her with your jealousy, and I thought…I had hoped that you’d do the right thing, the mature thing, and let her make her own decisions. Try to be happy for her or at least pretend-.”

“You and her are asking a lot-.”

“Not if you’re her friend! I begged you not to do this, and now you’ve ruined everything!”

“Woah, woah, woah,” John B. said, stepping towards Kie. “You knew?”

Kie huffed, running her hands through her hair and looking away.

“Not…for sure,” she confessed. “Just things I noticed and things I suspected, and JJ tried to make me feel like I was crazy.”

They were looking between him and Kie, and JJ looked down.

“So…none of that was because you were concerned like the rest of us were? But because…you were jealous?” Sarah wondered, and disappointment bled into her gaze too.

“No!”

They were all looking at him like he was the bad guy, and JJ hated it.

“Not at first,” he explained. “I was just worried, at first. We all were, but I didn’t… I thought it was just concern…and then I realized that it wasn’t.”

He shrugged, leaning against the wall.

“You have to fix this,” Pope told him. “Immediately.”

“She’s not going to want to come around, and who can blame her? You’re supposed to be her friend, and she’s probably realizing the same thing we’re all realizing. That none of this was because you were worried like a friend should be but instead jealous like a petty ex-boyfriend or something,” Sarah added. “…and I don’t even know how you’re going to fix it because Rafe is not going to let you near her again.”

“I can’t fix this,” JJ murmured.

“You have to,” Kie said. “Say whatever you have to say, do whatever you have to do. Hell, lie, but we can’t just-.”

“I can’t do that,” JJ bit out, and he could feel his chest tightening.

“You don’t have a choice,” Kie argued. “Are you really okay with losing her over some silly crush?”

“I love her!”

The silence that followed was loud, and JJ took a deep breath, shoulders heaving as he looked up. They all looked stumped by his outburst, and JJ pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes. He took another deep breath, dropping them, and he sighed.

“I love her,” he whispered in the quiet room. “It’s not some stupid crush or petty jealousy over losing my best friend. I’m in love with her.”

Again, no one said anything, just staring at him, and JJ bit his lip.

“Yeah, maybe I should’ve figured that out before Rafe happened, but I didn’t, and here we are,” he said, throwing his hands up. “…but I love her…and you can’t ask me to pretend. Not anymore.”

His eyes met Kie’s, and her lips parted, a small sigh escaping as she looked away.

“I can’t pretend like I don’t want to be sick every time they’re together. I can’t keep smiling in her face and pretending like I don’t want to be with her. Yes, I kissed her, and I shouldn’t have, and I fucked up, I know that, but I’m not the actual villain here.”

JJ looked at Sarah.

“Your brother almost killed her. He’s not good for her, and we all know it.”

Sarah swallowed.

“You know she should be with me,” he told her. “You know that I’m better for her than he is.”

“She’s not some kid, JJ,” John B. sighed. “Yeah, Rafe sucks, and we all hate that she’s with him.”

The brunette let out a bitter laugh, gaze meeting JJ’s.

“Trust me, I think we’d all be a lot happier if she was with you instead, but…she’s made her choice. Rafe is who she wants, right now, and we kind of have to respect that.”

JJ disagreed, but he kept that to himself.

“I don’t know whether to be happy for you or not, because Y/N’s great…and we all think you’d be great together, but…” John B. trailed off with a sigh. “She wants to be with Rafe…and there’s nothing any of us can do about that.”

“…and Kie’s right,” Pope added. “You have to fix this. I don’t know how, but…”

Pope stood, shaking his head.

“She’s our friend, and she’s probably hating your guts, right now. You know how she feels about Rafe, and you kissed her anyway,” Pope told him, frowning. “That was pretty selfish.”

JJ agreed, but he didn’t really care how selfish it was, not when your other option was Rafe. Sure, the other blond was better, now, but JJ figured it was only a matter of time before he regressed back to his old ways. Kie said that JJ ruined everything, but he didn’t agree with that. If they asked him, Rafe ruined everything. Rafe was the bad guy here, and JJ knew that you were mad, but he hoped that now that the seed was planted, now that you knew where he stood…

Maybe your mind would start to wander like his did. You probably needed some time to sort through your thoughts, but he hoped that you’d come to the same conclusion he did, and that you’d realize JJ was better for you. He hoped, but he wasn’t that delusional, and JJ knew that he’d probably have to talk to you…and soon.

They kept saying that he needed to fix this, but JJ knew that when he saw you again, he couldn’t just lie like they wanted him too. He was too far gone. He’d had you, now, in more ways than one, and he didn’t have any intention of letting you go. Unfortunately for him, he knew that Rafe felt the same way.

Things between the Pogues were tense. JJ knew it was his fault, but that didn’t make it suck any less. John B. and Pope tried to pretend like nothing had happened, but JJ could see the disappointment in their eyes sometimes. It was great to know that they’d all rather you be with him than Rafe, sure, but he knew they hated how he went about things.

Kie was the only one to really give him something like a silent treatment, but he knew it wasn’t her intention. Even if Pope hadn’t told him, it was easy to see that she didn’t really know how to talk to him or what to say, right now. JJ had acted selfishly, and he wasn’t going to pretend to regret it. Sarah was annoyed with him too, but that didn’t stop her from keeping them updated on you.

“Every time I try to talk to her about it, she doesn’t want to,” she said, throwing him a look. “She’s so confused and hurt, and if she didn’t have to eat, I doubt I would see her, at all.”

You hadn’t been home since that night. Considering the circumstances, no one could tell if that was Rafe’s doing or something you’d decided on your own. It especially sucked since JJ found himself hanging around your house a lot, hoping to talk to you. He’d even snuck in your room a few times, waiting because he knew if you saw him, you wouldn’t even get out of Rafe’s truck.

Your dad was back home now, so he knew it was only a matter of time before you felt compelled to come and see about him.

While he waited for that opportunity, JJ thought about that night. He thought about your lips against his and the saltiness of the kiss from your tears. He was surprised by how much they hadn’t bothered him, even more surprised by how much your struggle in general didn’t seem to deter him. In the moment, he’d only been focused on kissing you, showing you what you meant to him.

You getting back together with Rafe shouldn’t have been surprising, but he’d still felt like he’d taken a bullet when you walked onto the beach hand in hand with him. JJ hadn’t been prepared for how angry that would make him, and he’d been unable to stop himself from acting like such an ass. His nails had pressed into his palms so bad as he watched Rafe blow smoke in your mouth that he’d actually drawn blood.

When you confronted him, he could feel it building inside. Somehow, he knew that that argument wasn’t going to be like the rest where he could bite his tongue and swallow the truth. Somehow, he’d known that he was going to crack, and before he could stop himself, it had all come pouring out. How much he hated Rafe, how disgusted you two made him, tears in his eyes as he begged you to see that you could do better.

He hadn’t even planned on kissing you, but once he started, it was like he couldn’t stop.

It was like that night, tasting the inside of your mouth with your hands greedily grabbing at him and wanting him as close as possible. Only this time, you’d been fighting him. As much as he didn’t want to think the word, your eagerness before didn’t change what he did. Only, he could pretend and lie to himself because you’d thought that JJ was Rafe. The consent and enthusiasm wasn’t real, but when he’d kissed you…he couldn’t pretend.

It was plain to see that you hadn’t wanted it, wanted him, and as much as he’d been trying to force it down, he couldn’t ignore how angry it had made him. It had made him so angry because when you thought he was Rafe, you opened your legs and threw yourself at him like it was nothing, but with him? When you knew you were kissing JJ? It was like you couldn’t get away fast enough, and it had pissed him off.

The truth was that no. He hadn’t planned on stopping because JJ wanted to open your eyes one way or another. He really didn’t want to think about what would’ve happened if you hadn’t bit him, angrily bringing him back down to earth. Truthfully, he didn’t even know if that would’ve been enough. If Rafe hadn’t shown up, there was no telling what events would have followed.

It was like he was a man possessed, and when Rafe came in the way of that, JJ had just wanted him gone. He knew before that the urge to kill Rafe was there, but it had been at an all time high that night. He hadn’t wanted to stop, he’d just wanted Rafe out of your life forever, and he didn’t care if he had to break his neck to do it.

“I tried to talk to Rafe, just ask how she was doing, and the look he gave me was awful,” Sarah said, pulling JJ from his thoughts. “I think he thinks I knew or something? Even if I did know, it’s not like I can stop JJ from feeling what he feels. I can’t control you any better than we can control Y/N.”

“I mean…we are on JJ’s side,” Pope eventually said, making them all look at him as he shrugged. “Rafe knows that even if we know the truth…we’re sticking by JJ. He knows we don’t like him, he knows we don’t want Y/N with him, and yes, this is about Y/N, but Rafe knows that when it comes down to him and JJ…we’re picking JJ.”

“Things are back to how they used to be,” Kie mumbled.

“…and we chose JJ,” Sarah said. “…and Y/N chose Rafe.”

“Can you blame her?”

JJ looked at John B. at that, and the other guy threw his hands up.

“She’s in love with the guy, and you’re supposed to be her best friend, but instead you’ve been perving on her for months and you kiss her when you know she’s with him. She can’t stand you, right now. You’ve confused the hell out of her, and she’s going to stick beside who makes her feel…safe.”

John B. ran his hand through his hair.

“Let’s be honest here. We’re choosing JJ because Rafe sucks and because JJ’s our friend…not because what you did was actually right,” he said, looking at JJ now.

JJ looked down at that, and everyone else’s silence was telling.

“You guys know she should be with me,” he finally whispered.

“…but that’s not up to you to decide,” John B. argued.

“It should be!”

He could tell that his words shocked them, but he didn’t care.

“He almost killed her…and she defended him like he ran over a little curb or something. We all saw that,” he told them, voice strained. “She doesn’t think straight when it comes to him-.”

“…and you don’t think straight when it comes to her!”

Both he and John B. were standing now, the brunette’s wide eyes on him.

“You kissed her, without her permission might I add, when you know she’s with Rafe, and you know how she feels about him. You basically said screw that, I don’t give a fuck about what you want, and now you’ve messed everything up.”

JJ sank his teeth into his lip, looking away.

“If you or Pope had done that to Sarah…I’d kick your ass too.”

JJ didn’t want to listen to this, unable to understand why they didn’t see what he saw. He turned away, heading inside and ignoring the feel of their gazes on his back. Yes, what JJ did was shitty, but compared to Rafe himself? You didn’t know how to think clearly when it came to Rafe. You absolutely needed someone to open your eyes, and if it made him the villain to be that person, then so be it.

His eyes fell to Kie’s phone, and JJ chewed on his lip, frowning slightly.

They all knew each other’s passcodes, and maybe that wasn’t such a good thing seeing as he was currently opening Kie’s and texting you. JJ glanced over his shoulder, watching them all talk, and he knew it was about him. He couldn’t have been more relieved when you texted back, and JJ was quick to mention a party tomorrow, asking you to come so the two of you could talk.

When you agreed, he almost felt bad that you’d be coming face to face with him instead of Kie.

JJ could tell by the way you were dressed that you’d only come to talk to Kie. You weren’t exactly dressed for a party but instead like someone who stepped out of the house for five minutes. You were wearing Rafe’s jacket and what he assumed were shorts underneath. You didn’t look the happiest nor the healthiest, and there was a pang in his chest as he knew that was because of him. Kie had mentioned weeks ago that she wouldn’t be going to this party, and before he had put her phone back, he'd made sure to block your number just in case you tried to call or text her back and realized what was actually going on.

He just needed to talk to you first, that was all JJ needed, was to talk to you.

Pope paid him half a mind when he excused himself, pushing through bodies and discreetly following you around as you looked for Kie. With so many people in the house, you missed Pope too, unaware that he, JJ, and John B. were here otherwise you definitely would’ve asked one of them where Kie was. When you made your way towards the stairs, JJ was quick to shadow you, his heart racing as you walked into the dark hallway.

He could hear you calling her name, and when you opened one of the bedroom doors, JJ hurried to push you inside, quickly locking it as you yelped in shock. When you stumbled to face him, you froze, eyes widening slightly before your entire face fell. You blinked, pressing your lips together and looking away.

“Kie didn’t text me…did she?”

You sounded so disappointed.

“No,” JJ breathed, and you nodded.

Neither one of you spoke, and JJ watched you fold your arms over your chest. You looked like you weren’t getting enough sleep, but it didn’t make you any less beautiful, and JJ was reminded of the feel of your lips against his…your legs around him. He couldn’t take his eyes off of you, and he had to remind himself why he was here. Something had to give, he needed this talk to go in his favor, because he didn’t think he’d be okay without ever touching you like that again.

“I know I’m the last person you want to see…and that you don’t want to talk to me…”

“It’s not that I don’t want to talk to you,” you whispered. “I don’t know how.”

You looked at him then, tears in your eyes.

“Nothing… You’re not…who I thought you were, JJ. I’ve been putting up with bullshit for months because I just thought you were being a worried and overprotective friend,” you said. “I thought you just needed time and I told myself it was just coming from a good place.”

You laughed at your own words, and JJ could see a few tears escaping.

“…but Rafe was right. God, I hate when he does that,” you bitterly chuckled. “…but he was right. You were jealous.”

You stared at him, waiting for him, it seemed, and JJ swallowed. He eventually nodded, accepting it.

“I was…yeah.”

“Why?” you wondered, throwing your hands up. “You don’t…you’ve never…”

JJ knew what you were trying to say, and he could see how much you were struggling to say it, so he said it for you.

“Not at first,” he whispered, walking towards you and hating the way you stepped back. “…but then…it just happened. It snuck up on me, and by the time I realized it…it was too late.”

You frowned at him.

“I hated him…and I wanted you.”

You briefly closed your eyes, shaking your head.

“So…this happened once I started dating Rafe?”

When your eyes met his again, JJ could see where your mind was going, and he furiously shook his head.

“No, no, it is not like that-.”

“That is exactly what it is,” you sneered, looking at him with a look he couldn’t place. “You had our entire lives to realize you liked me and it didn’t hit until I got my first boyfriend.”

“Y/N, it is not like that.”

You shook your head, a laugh coming out, and JJ finally realized why he hated that look. You were looking at JJ like you didn’t even know him…and that broke his heart. You laughed again, taking a step back as more tears fell, and you wrapped your arms around yourself.

“It really sucks, you know…”

JJ’s heart was beating so fast, and he really felt like he was losing you. Something about this conversation felt so final, and he was desperate to keep that from being true.

“What does?”

You held his gaze as you answered him, eyes cold.

“Finding out that your best friend is just a man, after all.”

His face fell at that, and he felt his jaw clench.

“God, you have slept around with whoever you wanted…”

“I know.”

“…you don’t even like the idea of a relationship, right now, I have heard that so many times from you…”

“I…I know.”

“…and I have never been anything but happy for you, because why wouldn’t I be? You’re my best friend, and I’ve always supported you and wanted you to be happy-.”

“I know!”

“…but you couldn’t even man up for five minutes and get over whatever this is just so I could do the same!”

“It’s not that simple!”

“Yes, it is,” you screamed. “If you cared about me, you would realize how unfair this is. You would tell yourself that my happiness is more important than your selfishness.”

“I’m not-.”

“JJ, the guy who wouldn’t be caught dead with a girlfriend suddenly realizes that he wants me when I’m in a relationship,” you spat, and JJ walked towards you, reaching for you, but you slapped his hands away. “Your newfound love of commitment just happens to rear its ugly head when I get my first boyfriend and I’m happy, and you’ve done nothing but try to ruin it ever since!”

JJ knew you had every right to be angry, but he still hated it. It still made his chest hurt, and he reached for you again to no avail.

“…and Rafe is the one I’m supposed to watch out for?” you quietly asked, making JJ pause. “He’s never hurt me like this.”

JJ swallowed, feeling overheated, and he took a step back.

“At least he actually loves me…instead of treating me like his favorite toy that just got snatched.”

“That’s not how I see you,” JJ argued.

“Isn’t it?” you wondered, face even and so defeated. “You had our whole lives, JJ. Our whole lives!”

“I know that-.”

“…and what’s crazy is that…who knows…”

He looked at you as you shrugged.

“Who’s to say what would’ve happened? I know I certainly don’t know because it’s something I never thought about. I never would’ve thought to, but it doesn’t matter because you’re too late, and I love him, and you are selfish for springing this on me, now.”

“Y/N-.”

“You are so selfish,” you shakily whispered, holding his gaze. “…and you are not my friend.”

JJ’s heart sank, and even though he saw it coming, it didn’t hurt any less. He knew that you were just hurt. JJ knew that you were feeling so many things, right now, and you were saying everything in your head. You were always like that, never one to hold back with him, and even though he loved that about you, it really sucked in this moment.

You were crying again, and JJ wanted to hold you like he’d done so many times before, but you were crying because of him, and so he didn’t do anything. He watched you reach into Rafe’s pocket before patting yourself, and when you closed your eyes, he realized that you didn’t have your phone. You hadn’t even brought it with you.

“Let me…let me take you home-.”

“I am going to Rafe’s.”

His gut churned at that, and JJ nodded as your tone left no room for argument.

“Okay, well let me drive you-.”

“I don’t want you driving me anywhere,” you snapped.

This animosity from you was something he’d never experienced before, this level of anger something he didn’t even know you were capable of, and JJ knew that you were more hurt than angry. It made him desperate to make it go away, desperate to do anything to make that happen, and maybe that’s why he wasn’t thinking right.

Maybe John B. was right when he’d said that JJ didn’t think straight when it came to you.

“Use my phone.”

He offered it to you, and you eyed it and then him before eyeing it again. He could see that you didn’t really want to, but you also didn’t have much of a choice. It’s not like you knew John B. and Pope were right downstairs, otherwise you definitely would’ve declined and preferred to find one of them. There was a small sliver of hope in his chest when you took it, quietly thanking him.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said, and he watched you tense. “Not for how I feel, but…for being selfish.”

You didn’t respond, but you were listening.

“I know it’s bad timing, but it really isn’t what you think,” he whispered. “I love you.”

You swallowed, his phone still in your hand.

“I should’ve realized that sooner, you’re right…but I do. I don’t want you leaving here, tonight thinking that I don’t.”

You were still for a few moments, and you didn’t respond as you unlocked his phone. The air felt so tense, so charged with everything you’d said and everything you didn’t. JJ knew that you needed time, and he didn’t want to force anything on you, but he was almost at his wit’s end. The knowledge that you didn’t know what would’ve happened had he confessed sooner gave him something to hang onto, but your immediate dismissal of it had him second guessing.

Again, it all came back to Rafe. If Rafe wasn’t in the picture, if you weren’t in love with that asshole, you and JJ would be together, right now. He knew it, but yet… There was something in him that wondered if he would’ve even realized how he felt if it weren’t for Rafe. There was a part of him that wondered if he should be grateful to Rafe in some sick and twisted way, because if it wasn’t for Rafe… JJ might have never realized he wanted you, he might have never kissed you, touched you…felt you coming around him.

JJ might’ve never known what it was like to be with you and feel you and hear you begging for more in his ears.

Your sharp intake of breath brought him from his thoughts, and he blinked, vision centering to realize you weren’t calling Rafe. You were staring at his phone with a deep frown, and JJ frowned too.

“What’s wrong?”

Your lips were parted, and when you looked up at him, the look on your face had JJ’s gut sinking to the floor.

“What? Wh-?”

He moved towards you, but you hurried back, your eyes wide and confused as you just…stared at him. You looked back down at his phone, touching it, and JJ felt like he’d been doused with a bucket of ice water.

“Rafe…”

Your familiar voice filled the room, but it wasn’t coming from you.

It was coming from the phone in your hand.

“I know…I know that we’re not together and,” you slowly slurred, groaning. “We’re really not supposed to be seeing each other.”

You looked up again, and your gazes met, both tearful for different reasons. A sigh came from the phone.

“At least not like that…”

As the familiar voicemail filled the room, the faint sound of muffled music barely reaching his ears through the door, JJ felt his whole world come crashing down.

#dark!jj maybank #dark!jj maybank x reader #jj maybank x pogue!reader #jj maybank x reader #rafe cameron x reader #rafe cameron x pogue!reader #jj maybank #rafe cameron #obx fanfiction #outer banks fanfiction

[assistantquail]

Well damn... (Adults) 2/2

 Male reader is left with no choice but to use a female avatar, not that he minds using it on the first place, to save their best friend's life.

Characters: Tonowari, Ronal, Quaritch

Pronouns: They/Them

Warnings: Cursing, injury, mentions of blood, simps, everyone is bi >:3, gender is a social construct, idk a thing about injuries or fighting, ooc

This is obviously an au, so be warned

Tonowari and Ronal are siblings

Quaritch is going through character development

Why? Because, I said so

(None of the ff images/gifs are mine)

Tonowari

This will be a hard and gruesome battle against the sky people. It is war, the moment they attacked their spirit brothers and sister. This is a serious period for the clan and he was focused on avenging those they have lost. But he never expected to be enamored by one of them, realizing this person is “the backup” the Toruk Makto mentioned. 

The moment you appeared, on the back of an ikran he is whipped.

“I see you” You gestured towards him and his sister Ronal. You were not surprised by Ronal's wariness with you, you are used to the treatment and stares. A light smile graced your lips, raising both of your hands up just like what the Sullys did when they first arrived.

“Y/N brother, I'm so glad to see you”  Jake went to your side, and both of your hands meet each other which resulted in a clap.

“You cannot get rid of me, that easily Sully” Your lips widened, showing off your fangs as you threw a grin.

Brother? You are clearly a female though? The poor man was confused but he chose to formally greet you, throwing the question to the back of his mind. He made eye contact with you, as you returned your attention to them.

“Greetings, I am Y/N L/N, I understand that this is no time and place for warming up to each other...” You held your head up high, never looking away from him as “But I would like to thank you for taking in my brother and his family, I owe you one”

Tonowari's brain just stopped functioning correctly when he heard your voice, so he was not able to process your words and just nodded dumbly (in Ronal's perspective).

“It is a pleasure that you will aid us in this battle”

“The pleasure is all mine, to be able to fight along with the mighty Olo'eyktan and people of the Metkayina” Ronal noticed how the tail of her brother kept swishing around in delight, as he listens to your words. She rolled her eyes at this, attempting to break you both apart before Tonowari does something stupid.

“We have no time for this, we must prepare now” She gestured for you to follow her, and you nodded at the Olo'eyktan before catching up to Ronal. Jake also nodded to Tonowari,

“We shall discuss strategies in a while, yes?” His body turned to face Jake but his eyes were kept on your back as you walked away, “Of course”

Jake noticed how his full attention was not on the conversation but he suspected it might be because of the stress. “Do not think too deeply about this matter, we will be able to have a higher chance of winning with my brother here”

There it is again with you being called brother, is this some sort of nickname? He did not want to ask unless he is certain that this is a comfortable topic to be asked with you in person.

“The tulkuns have been warned by the people, now we will reassess the situation to prevent anyone from losing” Tonowari regained his ability to think clearly again, taking this situation seriously.

══════⊹⊱❖⊰⊹══════ 

Tonowari was not able to have another glimpse of you until the battle horn was blown.

It was time, all the warriors gathered with their skimwings. That is when he saw you on your ikran, you had no time to bond with any of the creatures in the reef so you had to make do with what you had.

Your eyes were focused on the ships ahead, void of any emotions that were present when you first arrived. Your mouth was moving but he was not sure  what you were saying as you pressed something on your neck.

You were wearing your visor, a chest plate out of bones with sky blue paint on your face. In your hand was a bunch of weapons.  You also had a gun at bay, but it did not worry him.

What worried him was you and the people's safety.

The horn sounded again and you were immediately flying through the sky. The wind did not bother you a bit, as you heard from Jake that your nieces and nephews were missing in action. This ignited something in you, nobody messes with your family, not while you are still breathing.

Explosions and gunshots resounded as you threw grenades at the incoming fleets, you easily took down 3 ships in a short moment as you evaded their guns. Skillfully navigating through the air as your one-man army terrorizes the invaders.

You cursed as you did not see any sign of your loved ones, pressing the communicator on your neck to give Jake an update.

“Jake, the kids are not here, they must be on that ship at 3 o’clock”

“Roger that, once you’re done there, proceed to that ship” Jake was very worried, you can hear it in his voice as he tries to steel himself.

“I’ll be there in a heartbeat, cross my heart”

You shot down a few more boats as the army of the Metaykina arrived to see the damage you caused, it was messy to describe it nicely. Tonowari watched as you shot someone with an arrow, making them fall of the ship.

The rest of the warriors marveled at the sight, some of them fell in love with your bravery and skill. You noticed that they stopped for a while making you raise an eyebrow.

“Well, they are all yours brothers and sisters” Your voice woke them up from their thoughts, and charged at the ships.

Tonowari used his spear to eliminate the survivors who managed to escape from the flaming ships that are sinking. He noticed how someone was aiming for you and immediately impaled the man from fury, how dare he try to hurt you.

He turned back to you, your face wore a smirk while looking back at him. This made him gulp as Ao’nung looked at his uncle in bewilderment. Oh, this is great material, wait till Tsireya hears about this-

══════⊹⊱❖⊰⊹══════

You flew towards the ship where the kids were being kept, thankfully you were able to shoot down the enemies before they shot at the boys.

“Uncle Y/N!”

Neteyam called out to you with a relieved smile, they knew that you were strong and you will protect them.

“Thank Eywa, you skxawngs are alive” 

You informed Jake that you found the three boys and girl are safe. The five of you went to the shore, once you got off your ikran you pulled them into a hug.

After this heartfelt moment, you hit them all at the back of their heads, except the Metaykina girl.

“Seriously, you leave your parents’ sight for a few minutes and you almost got yourself killed! What were you all thinking!?”

You proceeded to scold them for five minutes while the girl which you now know as Tsireya watched. They feel ashamed of what they did, but they also know that you just care about them and what they did could have easily killed anyone.

Thankfully everyone was safe and no one died. Jake and Neytiri proceeded to do the same thing as you, hug the and scold them enough to never forget. 

Neytiri gasped when she saw your leg, “Y/N your leg! Let us treat it immediately”

“Oh shit, uncle Y/N” The kids started to fuss over you, which made you confused.

“Huh?” You look down to see blood soaking the sand underneath you then you felt the pain. “Yeah, maybe I should not have looked-”

Suddenly your feet were not touching the ground and you were met with a teal blue chest. Ocean eyes were staring into your golden ones, masked with worry.

“Olo'eyktan, what a surprise! But you need not carry me, I can walk by myself”

“No, you are injured, you must not take this situation lightly” The Sullys and Tsireya watched this interaction, they all had wide eyes while Lo’ak almost laughed at how grave Tonawari’s expression is. Jake is trying to not laugh out loud at your bewildered expression, he knows that your pride is at stake”

“This is not the first time I was shot nor a helpless girl, so please calm down”

“Absolutely not, this is not a request but an order as the Olo’eyktan”

“But I am not part of this-”

“No buts”

Oh, this will be a great show, they thought. They wondered how he will react once he finds out that you are actually a man.

(I will probably continue this story along with Tsu’tey’s? Should I? AYO)

Ronal

She despises your kind with all her heart but she also tries to treat you in a neutral manner with the urging of her brother and niece. She should find you annoying but she is aware of how you are trying your best to not be seen by her, this is how the walls around her heart crumble little by little. She does not know how an avatar works so imagine her reaction to finding out that you have been severely injured.

Ronal is a smart and badass woman, that's your first impression of her and you respect her attitude. In fact, you welcomed it with open arms. With this fact and attitude, she was deeply annoyed with you. A demon, you were always called, yet you remain unbothered with what surrounds you.

Despite your kind being small and fragile, they have caused so much irreparable damage to Pandora. A stain that must be removed at all costs.

You can easily be trampled on by their kind yet the half-bloods insist on sticking by your side. It must be because of your dirty blood inside them, which makes them protective over you.

As a sky person, you have always believed that you should not be with the Sullys even though you are Jake’s best friend. But they see you as family, heck even Neytiri cares for you! You know that you are not worthy of such compassion after what your kind has done.

Everyone begs to differ with your belief, they know that you are different from the ones that wreak havoc. So you put your utmost effort into fixing and improving the state of Pandora to correct the wrongdoings of what the others have done. 

When the Sullys had to leave the clan for their safety, they offered to bring you with them and you immediately tried to shake your head. “I am not certain that they will welcome someone like me, my avatar has not even healed since the unexpected raid”

“It does not matter, you are family to us, if they do not accept you then we will look for another clan” Jake and Neytiri placed their hand in your shoulder. It was already a big deal that they were leaving a place full of memories, yet they could not bear to make you separate from them.

══════⊹⊱❖⊰⊹══════

So that is how you arrived at this point. When Kiri almost drowned near the spirit tree, you were just as panicked as her parents and they called for Norm and the others. You know that the Tsahik will not like this, she will be furious at the sight of the machines being brought to the marui.

You were right with your theory, regrettably enough. She was furious at the sight of all these unknown objects placed around and attached to Kiri. Ronal flipped out, wearing a more stressed expression than what you usually see.

You were worried that she is having too many things on her plate and it is affecting her health, you prefer not seeing her get worked up. The reason why? It is unknown to you but it may be related to how similar she is to your little sister.

They both have their own ways to deal with things and the strong personality is nostalgic to you. But for some reason she shows hostility against you the most, she did not acknowledge Norm or the others even if they are unfamiliar.

When nothing was happening to your niece as she was still unconscious, Neytiri also burst out. She yelled at almost everyone to take the machines away as she pleaded to Ronal, for her daughter.

“Take those vile things away, I do not want to see any sky people or their crafts in front of me” Ronal seethed, you were scared but thankful that she will heal Kiri.

“Let us get these things out of here”

You made it your responsibility to speed up the process of taking all the machines back to the ship.

You decided to leave her sight so that she will not have other problems to deal with, a Tsahik is already a big enough responsibility. As you thought about her hardships, you decided to make some of her favorite snacks.

You have a very understanding personality, which is why almost everybody has no problem with sharing their problems with you. It is almost like an unconscious routine of yours, you will be observing a person that piques your interest and do small actions to lighten their responsibilities. It is not the first time you have done such a thing for Ronal.

“She must be busy at this time, I shall give her some snacks”

In fact, she knew that you are the one who leaves meals in the front of her marui when she is having a busy day. Without you knowing, she observes you as well, to make sure that you are no threat to her people. Every day, since you cannot join the others for the lessons, the reason is obvious.

You aid the rest of the Metaykina clan through sharing your knowledge and helping with the physical work. In the beginning, they are all wary of you and avoided you at all costs. Now, they are beginning to warm up to you because of your deeds.

Even Tonowari gives you invites to join them in a variety of activities, whether it be hunting or other things. But you would always excuse yourself, telling them that you will just slow them down and take away the fun while wearing that stupid smile of yours.

“Y/N I have heard stories from Jake Sully about your ingenious works, it would be an educational experience if you could join us in our hunt” “It is an honor of mine to be invited, but regretfully we might have to reschedule on another time” You made eye contact with her for a few seconds before returning your attention to her brother.

“My physique and skills cannot possibly be able to amount even 1/10th of your strength” You held your small hand to your chest in mock defeat.

When she found out that you actually spend time with her brother when she is not present, she felt annoyed calling you a coward in her head. Were you really that scared of her or did you just dislike her?

Ronal knows that it is none of the two, but she cannot help but think that way. Both of you would have never spoken to each other unless you passed by one another, though it is only you that greets her as she just looks at you.

══════⊹⊱❖⊰⊹══════

Those small actions of yours, she started to look forward to them. Tonowari even teased her about how she is having special treatment so that she can accept you. But she knows your personality despite not being close, so she smacked Tonowari's arm in annoyance. 

“Good morning Tonowari and Tsahik!” You chirped

You treat everyone the same way. 

 ══════⊹⊱❖⊰⊹══════

You were bleeding profusely, as your body gets washed up on the shore, Ronal's spirit sister was the one who brought you there and she felt dread creep in her stomach. She wanted to come near you but the sight of the Sullys immediately hovering around you made her freeze on her feet.

The people gathered around you so she went to her spirit sister and asked what happened.

“Ugh the RDA... They're here” She heard you choke out, you are in pain yet you still gave them a calming smile. Your arm is clutched around your injured leg as you tried to even out your breathing.

Her spirit sister told her all the events that took place, how she was almost shot by a ship but you took the bullet for her.

You were at the ocean because Lo'ak invited you to meet Payakan and so happened to also see what happened. She was thankful for what you have done but this meant war...

She watched as you were brought somewhere, Jake Sully told them to warn the others before any of their spirit sisters and brothers get hurt. Since her sister is already safe and sound, she decided to look for you before she heads out for the fight.

On the other side, you are currently surviving off painkillers as you trudged out of the marui while being scolded by Kiri.

“I have to help them my Kiri, I know how those demons work” You placed your hand on her head to ease her worries, “I mean I am a demon myself so I can handle myself”

When Ronal heard what you said, she felt some guilt for how you used humor to downplay the insults. But before she can get near you, a metal compartment was pulled out by the familiar dream walkers from before.

 ══════⊹⊱❖⊰⊹══════

She was you again during the battle, but you looked different. Your form is similar to the Omatikaya clan but instead of a male, your form is a female. She did not even have the chance to fully admire your features for the first time, since you both barely faced each other properly, because you have been shot again.

This time she did not show her usual attitude of indifference and scorn, but genuinely cared for you.

“Quickly, bring Y/N to the marui!” 

Your avatar is bleeding quickly and you are already pale from the blood loss. Your eyes weakly looked at her teary ones, her expression hurt you. Ronal was too busy trying to calm herself down that she only noticed that you were looking at her when she felt your hand shakily wipe her tears away.

“Do not be sad, I will be fine”

“You should swear, I hate liars”

“I swear, Ronal, I will be fine”

This is the first time she heard her name come from your mouth and it brought her a sweet feeling, she sniffled as you finally arrived at her marui.

Needless to say, you were really fine. When you passed out in your avatar form, you came back in your human form with that same stupid smile. And Ronal wanted to be pissed at the fact she cried for you but love overpowered her as she finally accepted how she sees you.

Quaritch

He is a new man and he is going through the journey of accepting his new body and new life. But there will always be his past trying to get him. At least you are there though, the co-parent of his human son and his closest acquaintance... Oh, Eywa please help him keep his thing down before you notice. And why does his boy keep staring at him with that smug look? 

The man has done a lot of evil things, everyone knows that which is why despite losing his memories, most of the Omaticaya clan avoids him like a disease.

“He is one of those who destroyed the Hometree...”

“Stay away from him at all costs, you do not know when you will be endangered...”

But not you, not Jake, not the kids, Neytiri is still wary but there has been some progress. All of you have an understanding that this takes time, not everyone has healed from the past.

For some reason, Quaritch seems to stick around you most of the time. But you guessed that it might be because you are human, which seems less of a threat than the Navis.

You and Quaritch do not speak to each other much if the teasing is not counted. You are busy with whatever you need to do while the man just sticks by your side whenever he finishes his lessons.

“Spider was right, you do speak as a 3-year-old” You commented at his Navi, trying not to laugh but your shoulders were betraying you.

He looked at you, with an offended expression. Trying to look angry as he towered over you.

“I can literally throw you with ease, mister” 

The man may never admit it but he had some fragments of human Quaritch about you, half of the time is how much he wants to kill you and the rest is about how he wishes you do not get yourself killed. Those are very conflicting feelings that confuse him, he seems to be developing something.

“Whatever you say, old man”

Seeing you take care of Spider, the child of human him makes him imagine something with you. It will only be a flash though before it gets thrown to the back of his head.

It took a lot of convincing... And bribes... And some threatening before the people finally started warming up to his presence.

“People say, find good people and leave the bad ones...

But I say, find the good in people and ignore the bad in them...

Because no one is perfect”

That is what you always like to say. 

Which makes him wonder how you are so positive after all the crazy things that happened.

Things were finally looking up for Quaritch and you are proud of what he has achieved.  He is now really one of the people, a new life has been given to him.

Until the RDA came back for revenge. They were hunting down him and Jake, it was a mess all over again. Spider was almost taken and if it was not for your appearance near the site.

They also knew about you, as Grace's prodigy who will be in charge of the project after her. So you had to come with them for the safety of the clan.

══════⊹⊱❖⊰⊹══════

You were all leaving tomorrow morning and there are approximately 18 hours left before the trip. With Jake and Neytiri, you decided to use your avatar again for the journey.

You have only used it a couple of times (during the battle where Jake became the Toruk Makto, when Neteyam, Lo'ak, Kiri and Tuk were born to babysit them) before deciding that you are better off with your human body for Spider who you treated as a son.

The group will head to Awa'atlu and seek Uturu there, the distance is huge so you will not be found so easily. Once the plan has been made, you exited their house first to excuse yourself and walk around one last time in your human body.

Your shoulders slumped as you disappeared from the two's sight, you knew that you were being overdramatic since you have only lived here for almost two decades while the others lived here their whole lives. They are surely the ones who are being hit the most by this news.

Quaritch noticed you when you walked past him with a dazed expression without saying anything. Without saying anything he followed you, walking behind you in silence.

He just watched as your legs brought you to a familiar site, looking around this is where you brought him before.

This place is secluded in the area and only you tend to be a usual inhabitant of this place, not considering the wildlife. You told him before that this is a great place to rest whenever you or he wants to just be alone and away from whatever is troubling you both.

You did not know how your feet brought you to this place, heck you did not even notice that you were unconsciously walking if you did not almost smack your face on a tree. A familiar tail wrapped around your waist preventing you from an accident.

“Woah there, if you just wanted me to touch you, you could have just asked” He purred, pulling you closer with his tail, “There is no need to play these mind games”

As you regained your senses, you sighed in relief when you saw that Quaritch saved you from possibly breaking your mask.

“That scared me, thank you for the save”

The corners of your lips perked up as you great fully nodded at him. You gently untangled yourself from his tail before slumping onto the ground. You did not notice how his whole body tensed because you were facing the ground.

Quaritch felt his whole body want to shiver when you touched him and he took deep breaths to relax his body before placing all his attention on you.

“You know, you can go do your thing now”

Your finger drew circles on the ground beside you as you held your knees to your chest, mumbling with a dry laugh.

“I am fine here, no wild animals will come out of nowhere if you are afraid that I will get myself killed”

Quaritch knows that he is no good at comforting others or being uplifting, but he can listen. So wearing his usual smirk, he sat beside you.

“Yeah right and for your information, my thing is annoying you

”You looked at him with a raised brow that says "really?” and finally showed him a small but real smile.

“I swear, you are like a tail sometimes” 

“I am the best tail that ever existed then”

There is the hint of human Quaritch that you are familiar with, that confident mindset, and how he holds himself.

You let out an amused huff before looking at the grass again, drawing random shapes. Silence enveloped the area, it was a comfortable one, to be honest.

Quaritch kept his eyes on you, enjoying the sound of nature as you both sat close to each other. He could feel the heat radiating from your body.

“An ikran for your thoughts?”

“Well...”

You ended up telling him about the plan of leaving the clan, you were expecting him to react negatively to this news because everything was finally great until now.

Hesitantly, you took a peak at his expression to see how he is looking straight into you, there is no emotion on his face that is negative. In fact, he looks relaxed like you just told him about your day.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Did you expect me to react like a child?”

He was met with silence making him open his mouth in shock.

“Really!?”

══════⊹⊱❖⊰⊹══════

This was the morning when the group will be leaving the clan, Quaritch woke up earlier than expected. He did not get out of his bed and just stared at the ceiling, thinking of how you hung out yesterday.

You told him about your thoughts and how you feel guilty about the whole thing. It was unreasonable since nobody would have thought that this will happen.

A shuffle sounded at the doorway and there stood the little human, human him made. The two of them have a friendly relationship, almost acting like a father and son but they have not reached that part of reconciliation yet, in your words.

“Thinking about a special someone, Quaritch?”

Spider grinned at him, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned on the door frame.

“Who let you in here? I'm pretty sure this is a crime”

The man rolled his eyes as he sat up, not throwing the subject away which Spider noticed but decided not to comment on that.

“Oh calm yourself old man, I came here since you were not getting out at your usual time. We gotta go soon”

Since Spider cannot bind with an ikran since his avatar body is still in the construction phase, he will be flying with Lo'ak. You with him, Tuk with Jake, and the rest on their own.

══════⊹⊱❖⊰⊹══════

To this day, Quaritch cannot help but laugh at the fact Jake named his ikran “Bob" out of the billions of names available.

Everyone gathered at the meeting place except you and Lo'ak, it was almost time but no one except Quaritch is wondering where you are.

He tried to distract himself by tending to his Ikran, making sure that he is ready for the long flight. His ears twitched at the faint but familiar footsteps tapping from afar.

“There they are, took you long enough” Jake's voice has a hint of laughter but Quaritch still didn't turn around.

“Sorry about that, it took me a while to get a hang of this body again” An unfamiliar female voice came from the direction where you are supposed to come from. He whipped his head in your direction and it took his strength to not open his mouth in shock.

“Y/N?”

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Spider nudge Kiri with that same smirk of his. You told him before that Spider's smirk is really similar to his, you will never tell him how that smirk makes you feel inside though.

“Cat got your tongue, Miles?” Your hand is placed on your hip, above your small waist insinuating your curves as you threw him a smirk.

His voice got caught in his throat, making him look like a fish as he opened and closed his mouth.

At this sight, the family on the side who has been forgotten in this two-person world are whispering bets.

“I bet a whole month of chores that he's falling in love” - Lo'ak

“That is not possible because he already is in love. Have you been blind?” - Kiri

“I also suspect that Quaritch may be blind at his feelings, so is Y/N” - Neteyam

“Now kids, you should not be discussing this behind their backs” Neytiri went on between her children with a smile, at least the is something positive blooming in this trip “But I bet that Quaritch wants to mate with them more, now”

“Neytiri?!” Jake looked at his wife in disbelief, this was something he did not expect of her.

Back to your side.

“Just kidding, no need to take that seriously”

Extra:

Quaritch felt like hell, your arms are wrapped around him and he can feel your chest on his back. This was a test of self-control, you got worried with how tense he is.

"Are you feeling okay? Do you want me to ride with Neteyam instead? That is alright with me" Your breath hit his neck and he took a sharp inhale.

"No way, you are stuck with me the whole journey"

I will be posting the female reader version of this part tomorrow

Up next: Oh my Eywa- (Teens) ft. Neteyam, Lo’ak, and Kiri [1/2]

Previous work/s:

Well damn... (Adults) 1/2 ft. Jake, Neytiri, and Tsu’tey [Male reader ver.]

Well damn... (Adults) 1/2 ft. Jake, Neytiri, and Tsu’tey [Female reader ver.]

#avatar #avatar: twow #avatar: the way of water #avatar x male reader #avatar x reader #tonowari #tonowari x reader #ronal #ronal x reader #na'vi quaritch #quaritch #quaritch x reader

[beamergirll11]

COD Jealous Headcanons

Not Together

When he realizes his feelings he is in denial

He starts finding himself more concerned about you than usual

You belong to him despite not knowing how he feels

If your in a situation he deems unacceptable he will appear even at times that maybe are too private

You Get A Boyfriend

If you get a boyfriend Ghost will be absolutely crushed he will switch between anger and downright depression

He will make snide remarks about your boyfriend

You will definitely catch him glaring at him

He slowly starts to make it more obvious until you call him out

Your boyfriend is literally his arch nemesis

He suspects you and other member

When he suspects Soap, Soap reassured him it’s not like that and pushes him to tell you

Soap is the only one who knows for sure

Never suspects Price

Gaz? You two are a little to close for comfort

He watches closer until Gaz asks him if there is a problem

Gaz is just your friend

Gaz lets him know he’s not here for the bullshit

Gaz can and will hang out with you when he wants, Ghost has no say

But Gaz will also tell him to stop waiting around and tell you instead of getting worried about the wrong guys

Konig and you are super close

Konig is a big man and his higher rank makes him even more frustrated

He starts having self doubt and of course caring a lot more than he should

During training one day Ghost accidentally trips causing a mishap with Konig

Everyone knows Ghost DOES NOT trip like a clumsy rookie

WTF you are asking for help with the mission by someone that’s not him, he’s furious

He knows that move he knows that gun please ask him

Established Relationship

He will worry and question things

He lets you do what you want feeling a little at ease since you two are together

He watches you a lot when your around

Sometimes he gets angry especially in the beginning

This is new for Ghost

ALL HE THINKS ABOUT IS YOU but…he doesn’t want to stop thinking about you because when he thinks of you he’s happy

He thought he forgot what true happiness was but this feeling it has to be it

Despite the pregnancy risk he wants to cum in you badly

It’s practically claiming you and he can’t help but imagine it dripping out

Your insanely gorgeous and only he’s allowed to acknowledge it

Some guys were staring to hard at you

He pulls you into his lap

If you don’t say I love you back he assumes the worst but doesn’t call you out till later

He won’t go through your text messages etc he’s not that bad

He never gets abusive with it he wouldn’t lay a finger for you

#call of duty #cod #cod ghost #simon ghost riley #ghost smut #cod headcanons #call of duty headcanons #call of duty ghost #cod jealous #ghost

[ivy-loves-chocolate]

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨ N o t e ୧⋆ ˚｡⋆ Soo this is coming from a headcanon series in development. I got carried away lol. Also, this is taken from my Patreon, so if you want go check it out 🩵 As always, your feedback is appreciated 🩵

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨ P a i r ୧⋆ ˚｡⋆ Gojo x Reader

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨ P l o t ୧⋆ ˚｡⋆ He lies in bed and thinks about his latest exorcism. Suddenly, an intense feeling of loneliness struck him, and he decided to call you.

The lamp on the nightstand flickered weakly, casting away the darkness with difficulty. In this dim light, Gojo was staying in his bed, with his legs crossed, one hand under his head and the other resting on his chest, thinking about his recent exorcise. A grade 1 curse spirit was terrorizing the village of Ine, located on the coast in far north Kyoto Prefecture, disturbing not only the marine life but also the people. Its activity became noticed by the Jujutsu Society, and based on people’s descriptions, they sent Gojo to take care of it.

In his opinion, other sorcerers could’ve killed this one easily. He suspects that the higher-ups wanted to get rid of him for a while, as they probably had enough of him, or maybe they plan to do something devious to Yuji again.

As gratitude for getting rid of the village curse, one of the families let him stay overnight in their home. The bed was soft, the food was amazing, and he even got to show off in a fishing competition. The day went smoothly, and he can’t wait to return to Tokyo, to his students, to you…

A soft smile appeared on his face. Even if he was gone for a few days, he already missed you deeply. He doesn’t show his affection very often because your relationship already goes against every principle he has about the life of a jujutsu sorcerer. Yet he can’t help but wonder…what if…

Nah, he is just tired, and even more so that he is beginning to imagine impossible scenarios.

To ease the feeling of loneliness, he picks up the phone and calls you on video. It rings a few times before you finally pick it up. Around you, it’s pitch black, and your phone’s light is illuminating your sleepy, half-lidded eyes.

Stupid. He didn’t realise how late it was.

“Hello…” You didn’t manage to see the caller’s ID, you just answered on instinct. You thought it was something serious if they called so late in the night.

“Hi…did I wake you up.”

The voice was familiar, and you scoffed.

“No, I was in the middle of poker with your students.”

“Really? Please tell me they didn’t lose all their money.”

“Not yet, I had a full house when you called me. Wasted opportunity.”

Gojo chuckled softly.

Before he left, he asked you to take care of his students for him. You were one of the few he trusted, not only because he was in a relationship with you but also because you were strong.

“What’s up? Are you alright?”

You sounded a little concerned. He looked like he needed some sleep. He was pale, had dark circles under his eyes, and he could barely keep his eyes open.

“Yeah, I wanted to check on you, but I didn’t realise how late it is.”

“I see…” you yawned. “Well, we’re ok. We trained today a bit, then we went to eat something. After that, Yuji wanted to see a movie, and we all went with him. It was something  with...worms... guy turned into a worm…”

“Human Earthworm 4?”

You snapped your fingers.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, that one. I didn’t understand his hype about it, but maybe I’m getting old. Anyway, they are making progress. Yuji is very happy when we learn about techniques and curse energy, Nobara catches on quickly, and Megumi is edgy as usual.”

“I don’t know where he got that.” Gojo chuckled again.

You could see him relax as he heard about his students, so you kept on talking. His face would become brighter, and his eyes would shine with joy and pride.

“Yuji is safe, don’t worry.” You said, knowing well, that was one of the reasons he called. You were also aware of the vicious intentions that the higher-ups held.

“Everyone is safe. But you didn’t tell me about you. How was the exorcism? And where are you, by the way?”

“Some people invited me to stay overnight as a sign of gratitude for getting rid of the curse. And the job went smoothly. I mean, they sent me, what did you expect?"

You scoffed at how arrogant he was, but at least he was in a better mood.

“Ey Gojo, stop being so arrogant, would you? One of these days, your presence alone won’t be enough. You need to be more humble.”

“That day is very far.” He chuckled. “But I can’t say I enjoy the loneliness, though.”

“I know… it will work out eventually.”

A short pause followed, in which he moved his gaze away from the camera to the room he was in. It was quiet; the lamp stopped flickering, casting shadows on the wall. Through the open balcony, there was a breeze that kept shifting the curtains left and right, creating a tranquil atmosphere that he wished could be shared.

“Wish you were here with me, tho. The moon is nice.” He said it without realizing it as he watched the full moon through the open balcony. Then he took a pause.

He already feels guilty for letting you watch the students, and he also feels guilty for pulling you into his chaotic life. But again, there are few people he can trust, so he doesn’t have much choice, right?

This thinking process was done in total silence, as you didn’t say a word. But you couldn’t help smiling, as it was another confirmation for you. Gojo cared about you, but he was afraid of showing it. Who can blame him?

“I figured..." another pause. “The feeling is mutual.”

Gojo shifted in bed, trying to figure out what to say next.

“Maybe we can come back to the village one day and show me the surroundings since you seem to get along with the locals. Exorcise a curse or two on the way.”

“Sounds like a plan.” He smiled as he stared at the camera in his new position.

“Listen, it’s getting late."

“I know, I’ll let you sleep. Talk tomorrow. Text me when you wake up.”

“Sure…Good night, Gojo.”

“‘Night, Y/N.”

He tossed the phone on the bed and rubbed his face as he groaned.

He doesn’t show it, but he is scared about his feelings for you as they grow stronger each day. You manage to ease his loneliness, something that only one person was able to do before you, and it didn’t end well. What will happen if he starts to love you...? Can it be different? Can he get rid of this curse? Even if he is the strongest, he feels so powerless in front of...

“Damn it… it’s late; I should sleep too.”

He closed his eyes and quickly drifted into the land of dreams and endless possibilities, as the room wasn’t that dark anymore and the air also became warmer.

#jujutsu kaisen #jjk #gojo satoru #gojo x you #gojo x reader #gojo fluff #gojo satoru x you #gojo x female reader #gojo x f!reader #jjk gojo x reader

[blissfulip]

Dopamine

on AO3

Viktor x f!reader

Rating: Explicit

Tags: enemies to lovers, slow burn, angst, dubious science, mostly canon compliant, no use of y/n, chemist!reader, eventual smut, masturbation

Cw: Allusion to sexual themes, just general bickering on this one

Words: 1.8k

[A/N: I know this one took forever, sorry about that lmao, tags and content warnings to be updated in each chapter, updates weekly(ish). (also, let me know if you want to be tagged in fic updates!)]

Tags: @ihopeinevergetsoberr

Previous Next

Chapter 5: Rise to the occasion

“Wait,Viktor—” You said, trying to catch up to him since he stormed out of the Hextech lab, “We can’t just walk back in there together as if nothing happened.”

“Nothing happened.”

“I’m talking about us doing something well-nigh against academy rules; they will ask questions.”

“Oh, eh—you go in first."

The opportunity to counter was stolen from you and substituted by the cold touch of Viktor’s hands upon your back, jostling your body effortlessly through the library door. He came in behind you shortly after, and you thought the interval in between both of you walking in was not long enough to make a dent in the opinion of everyone watching.

“The interval in between both of us walking in was not long enough to make a dent in the opinion of everyone watching.”

“No one gives a hoot about where we might have gone; stop concerning yourself with their opinion."

It was virtually an ambuscade. When you sat back right where your book had been left and Viktor was on the chair opposite you, a friend and a foe together in liue of curiosity came without a warning and joined you. Asher seemed increasingly more annoyed than Lara, whom you suspected was simply thirsty for some quality gossip.

“So… you snuck out together, where to?” She asked with a shit-eating grin creeping up across her face.

“The dorms.” You astonishingly managed to answer in unison.

“Whose?” Asher shot at you immediately after, not leaving any time for thinking.

“Listen you—” Viktor started, and you were sure his intentions were going to take him somewhere he’d regret, so you interjected.

“We just needed to get some of our work instruments; it's not a big deal,” you said awkwardly.

“I thought your dorm was on the west wing; why did you go together?” Lara questioned you (and correctly, alas).

“You know what they say: ‘you shouldn’t count your birds before you hit them with a stone’.” You said, in the most deadpan way you could find in you.

“She needed help choosing which one of the books would be better for the presentation she is planning, and I needed help carrying some of the heavier volumes. We…killed two birds with one stone.” He said, entirely unconvinced but long resigned.

“Right, and you accepted his help with your work?” Said Asher with a cynical eyebrow raise.

“Well, the arrogance, fear of public speaking, long-term sickly obsession with work, and his careless neglect of social cues make up for an almost tolerable knowledge of many useful subjects.”

Viktor looked at you with knitted brows, his mouth agape, as if he at some point had the intention of saying something but gave up on it as the hint of faint praise in your statement made him befuddled enough to not know what to say.

“Uh, fine, just let us know you’ll be out next time; we have to make the week one report for Heimerdinger, and you two were nowhere to be found for like an hour."

“We could’ve been here earlier, but as you are both aware, she is chronologically challenged.”

"Wha—we were running against the clock because someone had to stop by the restroom on our way back.” You said, the pitch of your voice was getting higher as the irritation grew.

“I wonder why.”

“I know why, and I don’t particularly understand why you are saying it like it was my fault.”

By that point, both Asher and Lara, after sharing a look of reproach with each other, had quietly stood up and gone back to their respective work tables, leaving the two of you to quarrel in private.

“I’m sure in hindsight you can see clearly that dragging me into a small closet was regrettably ill-advised; you have such a talent for slip-ups that one could almost think you do it on purpose.”

“You think I wanted you to rise to the occasion, on purpose?” You said in a slightly mocking tone.

“You are certainly taking the opportunity to rag on me because of it.”

“If I wanted to make fun of you for that, I would've done it on the way here, Viktor, and just so you know, if I wanted to be the cause of your late-afternoon wood, a cleaning closet wouldn’t be my choice of scenery.”

“Stop calling it those names; it’s horrid—in fact, just quit talking about it; it’s giving me a tension headache."

"Oh, I apologize. Am I being too silly about the thing that you just reminded me about? I’ll make sure to talk about you b-o-n-e-r more solemnly in the future."

“I’m sorry if I thought you’d be able to take things seriously; that wasn’t my intention.”

“I am. I can take things so seriously that I will go back to my work over there, where I don’t have to hear you sniffle every two seconds, the heel of your shoe clanking on the floor, and your pen clicking repeatedly.” You said with a sour expression as you removed his journals from your bag and walked over to the other side of the library.

“Choice of scenery; who does she think she is?" Viktor mumbled quietly to himself before noticing the unintentional clicking of his pen and quietly putting it down on the table with an almost imperceptible pout.

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

Both the second and third meetings, as well as the halfway report with Heimerdinger, went sufficiently well, with your own presentation already in the final stages. It had been a particularly lazy morning; your eyes had nearly not opened, pushed closed by the heavy lids of a sleepless night, and the burgeoning symptoms of what you suspected could turn into the flu, when you decided to skip the last meeting and give your speech the finishing touches in the comfort of your own bed.

Since everything had been finished and you figured everyone would assume you were sick or had other commitments, you didn't tell anybody, hoping your absence would be disregarded. You soon learned that was a misjudgment on your part when you heard someone knock on the door to your dorm room well into the afternoon.

 “I can’t believe you got sick too!” Lara said as soon as you cracked the door open.

“Too?”

“Cirian is terribly sick as well; there must be some sort of epidemic!”

“I’m sorry… who?” 

“Cirian, from Biology.” She said, absentmindedly, as she scrambled in the kitchen for something, “Where do you keep your mugs? I’ll brew you some tea.”

"Ah, yes, top left.” So that’s his name. “I’m quite alright, though; I just needed some rest.”

“That’s good to hear because Heimerdinger said you and Viktor would have to fill in for him.”

“You have to be kidding me.” You said throwing your body back on your bed dramatically.

“I thought you’d be ecstatic,” she said as she came back with two mugs and a puzzled expression, to which you responded with one to match. "Well, you’d have an excuse to spend more time with him.”

“And why on Heimerdinger’s fluffy mustache would I want that?”

"Well, you two are dating, no?”

"No, we’re fucking not. Where did you get that idea?”

“You’re pulling my leg now, come on." She said with a small chuckle, and when you did not laugh but looked at her with concern, she continued. “Well… He seemed to be quite into you that day you were at my place, and you were very flirty.”

“I was drunk!” You said trying to defend yourself and trying to ignore what she had said about him being into you; it wasn’t a thought you wanted to consider at that moment.

“Fair, but then, I thought all that banter you two have was just playful bickering.”

“It’s most certainly not; I despise him, and he hates me with a passion.”

“With a passion, alright.” She said with a cheeky smirk that she tried to hide by taking a sip of the tea.

“What do you know that I don’t?”

“I know something that neither of you do, apparently. But I  digress." She said, gulping the last bit of tea and leaving the mug on the sink before turning back to you. “I’d go talk to Heimerdinger before he leaves for the day, if I were you."

She left shortly after, leaving you to ruminate about more than one of the things that were said.  She couldn’t possibly be making any sense, could she? Perhaps you should have asked what she meant by Viktor being ‘into you’ that night, but then again, you had noticed a slight change in his physiognomy.

You weren’t as drunk as you claimed to be, and it was this small change—the blush all over his face when he saw you—that made you look at him through your eyelashes so suggestively. It was the small gasp hitched on his throat that made you swing your hips when you walked slowly to where he stood. It was his white knuckles and his fingers clasped together in a tight fist around his vest that made you lower your voice into a purr when you said his name. You wanted to provoke him; his reaction was so akin to one of fury that you relished the possibility of making him hate you more.

There was no reason to bend over the table to write, not in the way you did, at least. You just wanted to, although you still tried to convince yourself that it had the same motivations as everything else you had done that night.

If you didn't know of further proof that backed up Lara's theory (which she herself was unaware of), it would have been reasonable to conclude that she had made an unfortunate misinterpretation of the situation. You caught yourself grinning at the memory of it—how you had been enjoying the scent of Viktor’s perfume and the feeling of his chest pressing against you—even before you noticed what the proximity of your bodies was doing to him.

Raise to the occasion was such a good one; he really can’t appreciate a good joke.

”B-o-n-e-r” You spelled it out loud to yourself with a hearty chuckle.

And even after you did notice it, a smug little voice in your head was telling you to lean closer, to see how far you could take it before he either said something unspeakably rude to you or took it the opposite way, but you had to be circumspect. You were the picture of practicality, yet he still had the gall to get angry at you. 

My fault…ha. If I had been doing it on purpose, that closet would’ve become too small for what he’d want to do with—

You had to physically shake that thought away and remind yourself that regardless of how fun it was to mess with him, Viktor was still incredibly insufferable to work in the same vicinity as, let alone with, so it’d be better to talk to Heimerdinger and get this whole debacle sorted out.

You did, however, spend the entirety of the way there thinking about the scent of saffron and leather.

#viktor #arcane viktor #viktor arcane #viktor fanfic #viktor x reader

[deepouterspacecandy]

Chronicles of Ember: Part One

Violence and sexual themes. 18+ only

Sometimes, when you’re alone and feeling nostalgic, you travel back to the memory of her simply to remind yourself it happened. It was real. Her touch engraved in your mind and hidden at the depths of your soul.

A towering pang wrenches at your chest every time you let yourself remember, really remember the brush with fate you experienced that morning.

The universe gifting you more than you bargained for during an otherwise dreadful scavenging effort. And it’s the skiff you notice first, with each trip down memory lane.

The way the pebble-strewn shore had nearly swallowed it whole. You can still taste your salt-bitten lips as you approach the small boat, gnawing at the dry skin you’d long since given up finding a consistent remedy for.

You weren’t sure what you’d find as you crept closer. History and hard lessons failed to remind you to scope it out from a higher vantage point before making your approach.

Sure, the scene appeared harmless from a distance, all wrapped up in giant swaths of dried kelp and peppered with barnacles.

A beautifully cruel trap. A stroke of dumb luck between strangers at the darkest edge of a desolate coastal town.

__________

“Holy shit.”

There were no supplies inside this boat. No ropes, no fishing line. If there was ever food, it would be difficult to find proof of it.  

Instead, and to your utter amazement, there lay two frail bodies with just enough colour left in their cheeks to prompt you to check for a pulse.

“Holy shit,” you repeat, louder this time. The emaciated forms don’t so much as twitch and you’re not as relieved as you might otherwise be.

Huddled together, they appear lifeless.

You check for obvious signs of infection and its feeble work. Something, or someone, riddled one of the motionless bodies with injury. You knew a knife wound, or two dozen, when you saw them. These weren’t bites or scratches. But maybe you were just hopeful.

“Can you hear me?”

It had been weeks since you’d seen another living person.

You climb inside the boat and lose your footing, algae thick beneath your shoes. You catch yourself before you end up in the same unfortunate condition—piled on top of them like a soggy bag of laundry.

Your knee catches the sharp-set limbs of the woman below you and you hear her groan.   

“Oh god, I’m so sorry!” you say as you kneel beside her. “I swear I’m not trying to hurt you.”

Deep-set scars paint the face of the boy curled up next to her, the rest of his body littered with lacerations, many healing badly. A side effect of a brittle immune system, you suspect, but you’re no doctor.

This world is unkind to most everyone in it, and you presume these two have survived more horrors in recent months than most face in their lifetime, based on their physical condition alone.

The harsh reality of the matter is that there’s no workable way for you to transport both to a safer location. It’s a twenty-minute hike to your current hideout, and that’s on a good day. Today didn’t feel like one of those. Rain is coming down in a drizzle, but it’s only a matter of time and you’re sure the screams you hear beyond sight belong to an unwelcome visitor or two.

“I don’t know what to do,” you say.

The bodies inside the boat offer no suggestions. Another shriek rings out from afar and your heart hammers inside your chest.

“If you can hear me, please open your eyes.” You wait for the flicker of eyelids or a cough. Anything to show there’s something left to save.

The scream you hear next sends a frigid chill down your spine. You twist awkwardly to investigate and immediately regret the decision. One hundred and fifty feet away, maybe less, you see it, extremities flailing in the distance like gangrenous, water-logged tree branches.

“I think he’s blind, but we don’t have much time,” you say, mostly to yourself. “Hey! You need to wake up. Now.”

The woman groans again as you shake her ailing body. You squeeze her shoulder harder and while you wish there was time for a gentler approach, you also recognize the abject danger you’ll face in about six seconds if you don’t make an escape.

“I really need you to get up—do you hear me? He’ll tear us all apart.”

You swear the woman mumbles something, but the sky tears open, giving leave to sheets of rain that thrash against the boat like a drum.

It’s impossible to focus through the pounding in your ears.

You lean in, close enough to feel her erratic breath on your face.  

“Lev,” she rasps. “Take Lev.”

“What?”

She grimaces and clenches her teeth, her trembling hand weakly pushing the small body next to her.

You gripe, “I can’t move him by myself,” but she falls quiet and a sobering realization dawns on you.

She may have used her final breath to save this kid. It’s worth attempting, if for no other reason than to pay tribute to her last wishes.  

You turn around once again to gauge the distance between you and a brutal death when you notice the weather has given you a leg up. Raindrops reverberate off rusty debris on the beach, disorienting the plague-ridden creatures that inexplicably travel in packs during your most vulnerable moments.

Although you’re not built for hauling the sick and wounded, you lift the boy until the boat lets out a deafening creak. It immediately draws the attention of a writhing monster, whose click-clack squalls turn your stomach sour.  

You strip the coat from your back and place it over the woman you’re forced to abandon.

“I’m so sorry,” you say. “I’ll try to lure them away from you.”

******   

Embers explode from the firepit and land directly onto your lap. You leap from the mossy log and flail around as if they have set you on fire.

His laughter booms.

“You little shit,” you say, and it only serves to make him laugh harder.  

“My bad,” Lev smirks, proud to overuse the phrase he adopted from your experience with the old world. “It was my turn. I’m just trying to be useful.”

“Oh yeah? And you figure setting me on fire is the best way to accomplish this?”

Lev giggles and drops another log onto the flames, this time with more precision. “You’re being dramatic. It wasn’t that bad.”

“Tell that to the hundred tiny holes in my pants. I think you singed my leg hairs.”

He shakes his head, but the smile hasn’t left his face. In the year or so you’ve been travelling together, this might be the happiest you’ve seen him. You’d gladly accept another bucket of embers in your lap to witness it again.

“I guess we better try that camp after all,” Lev says. “Maybe they’ll have clothes. You’re going to need new pants.”

“And all thanks to you.”

“You’re welcome,” Lev retorts.

While his sense of humour has only improved, this kid has always made you laugh with a combination of his sheltered upbringing and naturally playful disposition. There’s darkness in the experiences he’s endured, but it hasn’t altered his humanity.

Which is more than you can say for most people you’ve encountered on the road.    

“You’re probably right,” you say. “We’re running low, and I don’t think we’ll last much longer out here without better shelter.”

Lev’s smile fades. “They have tents. Good ones.”

It was the first thing you noticed. A group with large canvas tents and an abundance of ammunition, unlike any you’ve seen outside quarantine zones.

“It’s dangerous,” you say. “We’ll have to wait until it gets dark and even then, we’re walking a thin line.”

“What line?” Lev asks before shooting you another playful smirk.

He understood more than he let on sometimes.

“If we only take what we need, we should be able to get in and out of there before anyone notices.”

Lev nods, his attention lost to the pop and glow of the coals. He collects a handful of leaves, damp from the forest floor, and balls them up in his hands. They sizzle when he tosses them onto the fire, and you watch as their edges curl. He repeats it until there aren’t any leaves within arm’s reach.

“You doing okay?” you ask.

He frowns and ponders, pulls his knees to his chest to rest his chin. You figure it’s a step in a healthier direction. A few months ago, he might’ve recited the easiest answer before changing the subject. 

“I miss her.”

“Your sister?” you ask.

“Everyone, I guess. My mom. My sister,” Lev says as he reaches for the crooked stick he’d been using to poke at the campfire. “Abby.”

You resist the urge to ease his grief with a string of useless discourse, but it rakes at your soul to see his expression fall. If there’s anything you understand at your core, it’s the anguish and despair the loss of a loved one can leave behind. You find it hard to swallow as you wrap your arms around yourself and listen.

“Sometimes I play it out in my head over and over, you know? Trying to figure out what I could’ve done better or quicker, or—I don’t know,” he explains, blinking back his sorrow. “Everything always happens too fast.”

He’s right. Between survival and catastrophe, there’s rarely time to pause and even less time to calculate. It’s a breakneck world where the infected aren’t the only ones looking to cause destruction.

You wish it could be different for him.

“I’m scared something will happen to you,” Lev says. “And then I’m alone. I don’t want to be alone.”

Your vision blurs and you concede to spilling a few futile words. “Well, I’m not going anywhere. Not if I can help it, okay? We’re in this together.”

“Even when I try to set you on fire?” Lev says, rubbing his palms against tired eyes.

“Yeah, even then,” you chuckle. “But you better watch yourself, because I hold one hell of a grudge.”

Lev sticks out his tongue in mock defiance before curling up to get some rest.

You wonder where he learned it from.

Based on his stories from his life with the Seraphites, you doubt it was a tolerated form of communication, even between siblings.

“Thank you for not leaving,” he whispers, and it strikes through you.

You wait for the easeful rise and fall of his chest before letting yourself shed silent tears. One for every collective piece of heartache, neither of you will find time to heal.

“Thank you for giving me a reason to stay.”

----------

If there were such a thing as past lives, it’s unlikely you were a notorious thief or covert operative—especially since you’ve spent an excessive amount of time lurking around a camp you planned to rob with zero advancement.

The makeshift barracks are crawling with soldiers draped in military fatigues, their bedraggled boots bludgeoning the muddy ground with every step. It has you frozen in place, sweat dripping down your back against the subtropical air.

“Food, shelter, disappear,” you chant under your breath, eager to feel that surge of effective fear Lev always talks about.

Instead of valuable terror, what you discover is that it would take multiple trips from the base camp to your small plot of land to manage building a complete shelter and a fierce pit settles into your abdomen.

You kneel and observe. If you’re sneaky about it, you’ll have a better chance leaving with a backpack full of ammunition and a stray weapon or two. Perhaps a hearty meal to boost your energy reserves so you can both return in better shape.

Or maybe it’s finally time to think about moving on and going about searching for a more permanent home. Before the thought of disappointing Lev can permeate, the whiz of his arrow flies past your head and sinks into the canvas behind you.

You spin on your heels to find yourself face to face with an angry gunstock. A burst of intense pain radiates through your jaw, accompanied by the metallic taste of copper pennies and a warm trickle down your ragged shirt.

Another arrow lashes the canvas, this time with a soldier pinned to it by the bulk of his shoulder. He cries out for his comrades and if you weren’t so dazed from the blow to your face, you’d have the good sense to run.

“Don’t you fucking move,” a stern voice warns. The frigid muzzle of a pistol presses into the base of your skull, the heat of a formidable body searing you from behind. “You move, and I end you where you stand.”

You struggle to snap back, reaching an instinctive hand up to your face instead. Your chin is a throbbing, tender orb as you slip your tongue across your teeth to check if there’s been any casualties behind your split lip. Thankfully, not. Dental care wasn’t exactly abundant in these parts.

The troop gathers instantaneously, surrounding you and your captor, and your body becomes a strained rope threatening to break. You’re acutely aware of the hand at the small of your back constricting your wrists. Maybe if you just twist—

“Don’t,” she snarls before yanking you closer.

Your shoulders ache.

“Who are you with?” she asks. “How many?”

“None,” you croak. “Nobody. I’m on my own.”

A gruff soldier trudges toward you, and you’re confronted by his rancid breath. “Bullshit,” he all but spits in your face. “Someone is slinging arrows and you either tell us where to find them, or we find them and make sure it’s the last arrow they shoot.”

“Please, just let me go,” you say.

The soldier pinned to the canvas seems to have a much worse go of it, his breaths becoming laboured as his gaze loses focus. It’s a frenzy of tending to his wounds and searching for the person responsible.

Lev has the astonishing gift of becoming a ghost when he needs to make himself scarce, but this group has clear militance and strategy that the two of you lack, especially in your bloodied state.

“We need a plan, Anderson. He’s bleeding out.”

A huff of breath hits your neck, and it’s miraculous her grip hasn’t eased up. Your shoulders and wrists are desperate for respite.

“Let me go,” you say. “I won’t be any trouble. You won’t see me again.”

The woman sniffs and clutches you harder. “I’ve heard that before. Fool me once.”

Her anger radiates with every twitch of her tight restraint, and you understand. But this fury feels deeper than it should.

When a soldier calls out from the field about a boy with a recurve bow, you lose composure and resist her stranglehold, lunging yourself forward. She fumbles but uses it to her advantage, taking you to the ground.

Gravel and twigs grate the skin on your arms as she flips you onto your back.

You shout in the face of the woman holding you hostage. Wriggle and try like hell to drive your knees into her back as she straddles you.

“Relax,” she says, and it’s an order. You crane your neck, desperate to locate Lev among the bedlam. “Hey—fucking relax!”

You don’t relax and you do not stop trying to break free. She grabs your face to redirect you and it’s the first time you cry out in pain. It shocks you both, her hand retracting so fast she takes her whole upper body along with it.

“I won’t let you hurt him. I swear to God if you touch him, I’ll kill you myself,” you spit and she’s still staring down at you like she can’t believe she caused pain to a stranger that, let’s face it, she is well within her rights to accost.

“Nobody is killing anybody,” she says, her brows furrowing into an irritated arch. “But you did this, okay? You and whoever you’re with. Why the hell wouldn’t you just approach our camp like a normal human being?”

“Oh, hilarious,” you retort, back to writhing against the unpleasant grip of her iron thighs. “I’ve seen your group, and every group like it. You’d have killed us on site.”

“You’re wrong,” she says, her tone arctic and deep. “We’re not all the same.” She gestures to the injured soldier being transported into a Humvee on a cobbled together stretcher. “But this shit has consequences.”

The Humvee is past its prime, but it starts up with a roar, soldiers packing in like a clown car. Your hip bones are raw from the friction of this brawny woman on top of you, and you’re not all the way convinced she won’t knock your lights out, so you relinquish any attempt to escape.

“What kind of consequences?” you ask.

She narrows her eyes at you. “What would you do in our boots?”

“I wouldn’t be in your boots,” you grumble. “I don’t fuck with community anymore—people are untrustworthy,” you continue, giving her a once-over, “and violent.”

“Are you referring to people who roll up and steal shit for no reason, or just the ones who hold you accountable for your stupid ass choices?”

Before you’re able to retaliate, her gaze wanders into the far distance and her unforgiving grip on your body slackens. Her eyes become fixed on the only person on this planet you care to protect.

“No. No! Please don’t,” you beg, but she’s on her feet faster than you can blink.  

You scramble to put yourself upright and slip on the muddy ground before regaining composure. Your heart falls through your body as you watch this woman barrel toward Lev, helpless to prevent it.

You run toward them, fuelled by the ice-cold panic coursing through your veins and suddenly you’re clinched to her back, arms around her neck, weightless against her force but determined to take her down.

She’s agile in her movements and shrewd in combat.

You’re on the receiving end of her expertise.

The soldier holding Lev separates the two of you before the world shrinks in a way you never expected.

“Abby,” Lev chokes out. His bottom lip is wobbling, and you’re fighting to catch your breath before it clicks.

Abby is on her knees by the time Lev wraps himself around her neck, this time with no threat of bloodshed.

This is the person Lev has been holding out for all along—the person preventing the two of you from moving on to a more stable environment and you get it now.

You see why he needed to check the beach often. You understand why even after all these months and the deterioration of hope, he still dragged you down there from time to time.

What if she made it out? What if she comes looking?

You notice her for the first time when she spins to look at you. Steel-blue eyes, red rimmed and damp, raking over your form. She is rugged, and scars of every shape and size carve her face. But when she tilts her head, she becomes feather soft.

“You’re the one who saved him,” Abby says, her voice high and thick with emotion. “I thought it was a fever dream.”

Speechless, you feel yourself shrug.

She frowns at you, and then you hear it. The most melodic amalgamation of joyful laughter between Lev and Abby, while the combatants still lingering in the camp, gather in relative confusion. The soldiers murmur among themselves, and you’re suddenly overwhelmed by the worry of what to do with your hands.

“What now?” you ask.

Abby dips her head before finding your gaze. “I don’t know. We head back home.”

“What—what exactly happens when we do that?” you stammer.

“Well, we ask the boss how to handle you,” she says. “Maybe get this kid a bite to eat.” She gestures at Lev but locks her eyes on yours.

“Is your boss the scorched earth type? Because we didn’t mean to hurt anyone, and I’m not looking to walk us headfirst into trouble.”

She tucks a tuft of hair behind her ear, tidying up the mess you made of her low ponytail. Abby looks nothing like the frail human you found at the water’s edge. She is a mighty force, restored and rosy-cheeked.

Your fingers are a pretzel, and she studies the way you twist them together to soothe your nerves.

“I’ve got you,” Abby says. “Both of you.”

“What about your boss?”

“Right. Scorched earth and whatnot,” she smirks. “I think you’re safe for now.”

“You think? Well, that’s great.”

If you grab Lev and run for the hills, you might have a fighting chance at survival. Perhaps you’re overestimating your ability to outrun this absolute behemoth of a woman, but you’ve never been one to throw in the towel.

Abby orders her group to call for transportation and to prepare to move locations. They all seem to scatter in the wind, gathering supplies and organizing their gear.

Oh.

“You’re the boss,” you say.

“Yes ma’am,” she says, stripping off her sweater and handing it to you. Underneath is a tight black shirt you’re loathed to linger on a little too long. “Something like that. Play your cards right, and I might just show you how well we operate.”

Lev beams at you. “You can trust her,” he says.

Abby gave you the shirt off her back—that counts for something. You turn it over in your hands and there’s a patch stitched neatly below the collar. You skim over it with the pad of your thumb and let out a deep breath.

----------

The drive to their settlement calms your racing heart. Despite a serious reluctance to leave yourselves vulnerable, there’s comfort in an armed and disciplined group surrounding you.

Abby and Lev shift between gabbing and sharing their stressful trials and tribulations. You overhear bits and pieces about the weeks leading up to their separation and it adds up to exactly the state you found them in. You try to mind your business, but the journey Abby traversed just to get both feet on the road to recovery captivates you.

She slept for nearly a week after reuniting with the Fireflies. You suspect she battled profound grief the moment her eyes opened back up. If Lev’s own voyage is anything to go by.

“You like cats?” Abby asks. It isn’t until Lev elbows you that you realize she didn’t mean the question for him. “You know, with the whiskers and the purring?”

“No, I know,” you say. “Uh—yeah. I mean, it’s been a minute since I’ve spent time with any. Cats are alright.”

She chews on your answer without breaking eye contact.

Heat creeps up your neck.

“Cool,” she grins.

You need a quick distraction and make a point of staring through the windshield, sitting rod straight in your seat. You swear you hear Abby chuckle in tiny, quiet puffs of air, but it’s simpler to concentrate on the weathered trail nature has reclaimed.

“Almost there,” Abby says, tapping on the driver’s shoulder. “We’re going to hang back for a bit. I’ll bring them around in the morning.”

He nods and surveils you through the rearview mirror.

“Hang back where? You’re not separating us,” you say. “I’m staying with Lev.”

“Easy,” she warns, but she appears oddly gratified by your proclamation before giving Lev a nudge. “Quite the guard dog you’ve got here, huh?”

Your antics, as usual, amuse Lev. “Yeah, we’re not a bad team.”

“I can see that. Got room for one more?” she asks.

Lev grins, and before you know it, you’re the three musketeers.

The military vehicle lurches to a squealing stop, and you’re ushered onto a driveway overrun by weeds. Beyond it is a decaying structure snaked through with vibrant vines. Broken windows reveal the interior’s abandonment, but on the porch, a beautiful wind spinner catches the light.

“It’s a little rough, but it’s got potential,” Abby explains. “Good bones, as my dad would call it.”

“You live here?” you ask.

“I do. Well, sort of. I’m needed in town, so I stay there sometimes, but I’m trying to build something more permanent, I guess. I was going a little nuts without a project.”

A makeshift greenhouse rests to one side of the property, busy nurturing plants and vegetables you notice through the glass. Your stomach growls.

“Plenty of that to go around,” she says, nodding at her garden. “Venison too. We just got back from a buck hunt, so you’re right on time.”

“I could eat a whole deer,” Lev groans.

“Oh, yeah? I might be able to arrange that,” Abby chuckles. The steps that lead to her front door are rickety and she reaches her hand out for you to grab.

You hesitate before accepting her assistance.

“Thanks,” you breathe. “I’m pretty clumsy.”

“I figured,” she says, and her smile rivals the wind spinner.

Abby is a gorgeous woman, and the acknowledgment of it deposits a hard lump in your throat that you’re forced to swallow around. If you hold her hand all the way into the living room, it’s strictly for safety reasons.

“Home sweet home,” she announces, dropping her arm around Lev’s shoulders. “You’re getting tall, kid.”

“And you owe me a deer if you want me to keep growing,” Lev says. He leans into her and your heart squeezes.  

Their bond gives you hope that chosen family still matters in this world.  

Abby gives him a playful shove toward the staircase. “Go grab a shower, Goober. You stink.”

Pure excitement breaks out all over his face and he’s upstairs in record time. You haven’t set up camp near fresh water in ages and the thought of a hot bath is ecstasy.

“Any chance you’ve got a tub?” you ask, toeing at the dusty carpet.

“You bet,” she says. “I’ve gotta be honest—I didn’t take you for a bath girl, but it makes sense. Being clumsy and all.”

“You’re quite the comedian.”

“That’s what they call me. Abby, the comedian,” she titters. “The water tank is about as magnificent as this house, but it’ll do the trick if you wait a while. I can boil some water if you want.”

You fidget, and she picks up on your lack of enthusiasm. It’s a long-broken habit to accept any favours.

“It’s the least I can do,” Abby continues, and she mirrors your anxious hands.

“I tried to rob you.”

She draws her bottom lip between her teeth and steps closer. A breeze drifts through the fractured window and lifts her woodsy scent. An intoxicating blend of fresh pine needles and the sea helps your shoulders drop from your ears.

Abby raises a slow hand to your chin. “I’m sorry we did this.”

“You did nothing. I earned it.”

When she disappears into the other room, you take inventory of the few luxuries she’s placed around her home. A shelf packed with war-torn medical books. Another, littered with novels and wrinkled magazines. Oddball lamps, placed strategically around furniture to indulge her hobbies.

Maybe the two of you have more in common than you expect.

“Here!” Abby announces, and you jump nearly an inch off the ground. “Shit, sorry—I didn’t mean to spook you.”

“It’s fine.”

She flames up into a crimson red, peppered down her neck and onto her collarbone. “Sit down,” she orders, gesturing to a lonely Lawson chair. “Please.”

“Why?” you ask.

When she huffs in what you can only perceive as annoyance, you fight back a smile. Lev and Abby share characteristics only you would likely notice. Little idiosyncratic behaviours buried from the naked eye.

“I’d like to clean that up for you, if you’ll let me.”

“Is it that bad?”

Abby winces. “I don’t want it to get infected. An ounce of prevention, a pound of cure. It’s more relevant than ever lately.”

You amble past the couch and pause when you hear her slide a chair across from yours. It’s shrill as it drags across the floor, and your breath catches.

“You startle easily,” she says, and it’s to herself more than anything—reminiscent of a doctor taking notes to save in your personal file folder. “I promise I won’t hurt you, okay? Please let me take care of this. I’ll be gentle.”

“Gentle Abby. Any association with Comedian Abby?”

“They’re one and the same. I’m extremely dynamic.”

Your uncertainty fades as you drop onto the reading chair. It’s rather comfortable for a piece of furniture you suspect is on the wane. She taps your outer thighs, and you make room for her between your knees.

“Wow. You’re pretty confident for a nerd,” you tease. “Do they know their boss reads romance?”

Her mouth quirks up into a half-smile. “You’re awful nosey for a scaredy cat.”

“I’m observant,” you correct. “One of many skills I’ve gained.”

“Now who’s the cocky one?”

Lev, for an archer of stealth, shocks you both into submission with his thunderous jaunt down the stairs. His hair is a porcupine, sticking up in every direction. Haircuts have been sparse and poorly done with a dull knife until now, but it has made for some funny conversation along the way.

“Can I eat?” Lev asks, making his way into the kitchen. Cupboard doors squeak open and closed, and he hollers to make up for the distance. “Oh man, look at all this food! What’s this brown leather stuff?”

The corners of Abby’s eyes crinkle as she gazes up at you. She hollers back, “Jerky.”

“Can I eat it all?”

Abby’s glee strikes a match to your chilly skin and melts you like ice. You want her to take her time mending your wounds and the thought sets free a butterfly net of flutters between your ribs.

“Knock yourself out,” she shouts.

“What does that mean?” he shouts back, muffled by the jerky you suspect he has shoved into his mouth with both fists.

Abby wrings out the cloth she’s been using to clean the dried blood from your face. She soaks it in a basin of warm water before repeating the process, pressing it to your lower lip. Your eyelids fall as she dabs and glides the spongy cotton along your chin, collecting stray droplets of water as they escape down your neck.

“Is this okay?” she murmurs. “Does it hurt?”

It’s a concerted effort to speak. “No.”

She stops.

“I mean, yes, it’s okay. It feels good—or you know. It doesn’t feel bad.”

Hidden behind your sleepy eyelids, you avoid the embarrassment of your tangled words. Her hand cradles your jaw as her breath chills your wet skin. A deep ache blooms at your core and you catch yourself squeezing your knees against her in response.

It has been a lifetime since you’ve experienced euphoria from human connection. You gnaw on the lip she’s trying to mend, and she delicately scolds you.

“Tired, sweetheart?” she murmurs, and you’re fading fast.

Staying alive has cost you the lavishness of meaningful rest. Inside the walls of Abby’s peaceful home, knowing that Lev is safe, you are losing the resolve to combat sleep. You whimper as the heat of her body abandons you, but before you can protest, you’re off the chair and in her embrace.

“What’s wrong?” Lev asks. “What’s happening—she’s okay, right?”

Abby’s whisper reaches your ears, but your energy has drained from every muscle. “She’s okay. Exhaustion has a way of catching up. I’m going to get her to bed.”

“Good idea,” you hear Lev say. “Make sure a blanket covers her feet. She won’t stay asleep if you don’t.”

“Gotcha. Thanks,” Abby says.

The creak of the old wooden stairs and a pair of powerful arms lull you into a potent slumber.  

#abby x you #abby x reader #abby the last of us #abby tlou #tlou 2 #abby anderson #abby x fem!reader #abby x y/n

[leonhardt-simp]

The Girl Who Wrote Me Letters VI.

[post-canon/canonverse] | series masterlist

— Annie x Mute! Fem! Reader.

summary: The ungrounded mystery grows restless and tensions grow higher with every passing moment.

Author’s note: After 9 different drafts, I have this one lmao. Thank you for everyone sticking close to the story and those who have been anticipating chapter 6. Here it is! and I hope you enjoy. 🍧💕

“This one.” The Commander said pointing down at the files on his old desk, the decision creating quite a stir between Hange and Levi.

Hange looked at Levi before they approached Erwin’s desk, picking up the document to see what was beneath. They felt their breath catch in their throat, eyes widening before taking a look over to their commander.

“You— You can’t be serious…” Hange was almost speechless. After everything that’s transpired, this man was still marching on his feet.

Levi walked over, questioning the judgement… Until he saw the name on the planner documents…

“Field Medics…?” He took the paper, looking through them to see Erwin’s plans of incorporating medics beside the scouts. These plans seemed vague, but the idea was there in the form of messily drawn pictures and arrows. He wasn’t expecting this and neither was Hange.

“With all due respect, we can’t afford to pull medics out on the field… Do you really think we’ll even get our hands on even ONE?” Hange expressed, motioning with their hands while they spoke. The idea was completely ridiculous! They were practically the clean up crew. Just waiting for the dead to pile up.

Erwin knew their concerns… But, it wasn’t like he hadn’t thought about it before. He turned his back to look out the window, holding the spot where his arm used to be…. The painful reminder of time loss because of injury. Time that could’ve been spent focusing on many other things… Those days, hours and seconds.

“No…But, I know one person that they’ll likely let go.” He turned his head over his shoulder to look at Levi, who slowly went through the next page.

It was a list of names. Names of many of the more proud names within the Medical Regiment. So many good choices, but one was circled amongst these names.

ELINOR VIVIANNE. ← SECONDARY PICK.

LUTHER WAGNER. ← THIRD PICK.

Y/N L/N. ← PRIORITY PICK.

DENIS PENCE. ← KEEP AN EYE ON THIS ONE.

JOHNATHAN ADLER. ← FOURTH PICK.

Hange’s expression grew confused, “But, this one–”

“I know. However, I want this one as a mere test run.” Erwin clarified, showing that nothing was concrete yet. This was just the foundation.

Levi couldn’t seem to get behind it. The factors of this made for a dangerous situation, especially with the rumors. “…I don’t think this is a good idea.” He expressed, his eyes looking up from the papers.

Erwin found himself playing with a fountain pen he had on his desk. “We had them for the expedition. This will be no different.” He reassured, giving a head nod. He seemed to be convincing himself as he spoke along.

“We also lost Levi’s entire squad and then some. Do I need to remind you that this medic in particular is also suspected of being in contact with the titan girl that tried to run away and destroyed half of Stohess?” Hange’s voice slightly raised, a hand extended towards the door as if pointing at Stohess itself. The risks were way too high, but that never stopped Erwin.

Erwin stood up a little straighter, “Then it’s the perfect excuse to use to keep that one close… Isn’t it?” He looked between his two most trusted allies. His hand reached to the paper, pointing down to the name. Hange didn’t know what to say… and Levi? He just followed along. The idea of a on field medic fulltime was an idealistic idea… One that made any one more comfortable… That security.

But, he was not prepared of the other regiment names that would soon come in to deny the idea. They took to a vote; Pixis denied the possibility of wasting medics and soon after, Nile had also denied. His denial was more out of lack of interest than genuine concern…

Not even Zachary approved of the new idea, stating that it would be “Unwise to take away from the sub-regiment when it already lacked.”

In defeat, Erwin would place those plans in a drawer his desk. Letting that ideas seem to sink away with many of the others he had. He had to keep moving forward though, no time to waste. That was until death stopped him like a brick wall. So close, yet so far from the truth…

Y/N followed behind Levi, her eyes scanning around to hallways of the commander’s building. The wood creaked beneath their weight, making the building feel so… Hollow. That was expected though, wasn’t it? An important life was lost… One that used to fill this building.

“Y/N L/N…?” Hange questioned, seeing the young girl enter the room.

Y/N saw papers scattered around the old commander’s desk, a lot of red seemed to point to various things and occasionally the big letters. Her nervousness seemed to only grow from that. I mean, it’s not everyday you get pulled from your job.

With a cautious nod, Y/N stood across the desk, keeping her weight shifted off of her still recovering leg. The pain was dull, but she knew she couldn’t overwork it.

Levi reached over for a particular paper, sliding it in front of the nurse. She leaned down, looking over the paper with a watchful eye. The words were confusing, but when she noticed her name in bold letters… She shockingly backed up and looked at Hange and Levi with a look that asked them what they were planning.

“…A test run. And not one you can refuse either.” Hange explained, picking up another paper to slide over to the new field medic.

Y/N took a sneaking glance back, seeing Levi standing by the door. His eyes bore into her, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

There was that feeling again. That helplessness… Her eyes shifted back up to Hange who seemed to have the same look on their face. She really didn’t have much of a choice here… So, she just nodded. Hange nodded, looking over at Levi to see if he was satisfied. He just nodded his head, being the first to leave.

The weight was on her shoulders now after seeing this idea that was left behind by the old commander…

She couldn’t help but look down at her leg, shifting a bit to see if weight could be applied, but when she felt the buckle of her knee, she shook her head.

‘…I can do this…’ She thought to herself. It’s not like she had a choice here. It was either this or end up in a some fucked up situation… She had enough on her plate already. E/C eyes skimmed through the basics, finally landing on the name of the idea.

“Operation Support.” Her eyes seemed to read over and over again…

——

There was that helplessness again… That weak feeling that bubbled beneath her gut and overwhelmed her straight to the core. She even felt that pain in her leg again… Like every feeling and memory came flooding through from the back of her head…

Her eyes widened upon hearing that familiar voice call out her name… But, she didn’t see Annie… Just the monster that had ruined her…. That beast that haunted her night in her dreams from time to time. Some nights, it would stare down at her. Other nights it tried to grab her, pick her up in its muscly hand.

“Y/N…” Annie called out, her tone hushed and desperate. Hands stayed up in surrender, taking a cautious step forward but immediately stopped when Y/N’s hand adjusted around the grip of the gun. E/C eyes looked through those apathetic blue eyes, The ones that softened at the idea of this being it.

This was her chance… To settle their score. To make up for everything. This was her chance. This was her chance.

Her hand firmly grasped the gun, pointing it up higher towards Annie’s head. Her heart pounded in her ears accompanied with ringing and buzzing… Her breathing became shallow and uneven… Then she felt it.

Her vision grew blurry, her hand reaching up to touch the wetness that started to form there. She was starting to cry… Her throat had that familiar lump in it, making it hard to keep composure.

‘No… Stop…’ Her heart started to yell, but she tried to push the feelings down. Her hand wiped them away, not wanting to show this…This weakness. She wasn’t that pathetic girl writing in a book anymore. Those days were gone.

Annie felt her heart break at the sight. Her hand reaching out, but that made Y/N point her gun more firmly at the ambassador. This made her hands shoot back up to keep them visible. Annie knew that she had to work for Y/N’s trust again. It wouldn’t come easy. Not after what she did.

Annie closed her eyes tightly and braced for whatever was to come. She deserved it, didn’t she? She was the cause of all the troubles in Y/N’s life… The reason she ran away… Hell, she was waiting for her luck to burn out. And now? It seemed to be it.

This was her chance to get back for all the hurt and suffering. her breathing became uneven and her heart pounded in her ears. The white noise. It felt like she was drowning. Y/N couldn’t deny she was panicking…

But then Dakota’s voice pulled Y/N out, the writhing body on the floor let the tunnel vision clear up a bit. Her eyes looked down to the body on the ground.

“We’re… We’re here to help…” Dakota strained, holding her head in her hands from the throbbing pain that lingered. Kota couldn’t let Y/N kill Annie, not when they needed her for this whole thing… The main problem. “She’s…She’s with me… Marley’s Ambassador…” Kota stressed, seeing double when they tried to push themselves up. Hell, it felt like a brick just slammed into their head. What the hell were they feeding these doctors??

Her grip around the gun shook further, her heart telling her to stop while her brain told her it was for the best. Reluctantly, she forced her hand down and took in the sight of the newly made ambassador.

“Y/N—” Annie spoke with a calming reach out, but then they heard the sound of more people coming into the building and speaking.

BAM!

The noise made both Annie and Kota look over towards the door. Dakota was quick on the draw of her own firearm, eyebrows furrowing down.

Whoever wanted Y/N dead was very adamant on it. Especially, since it didn’t sound like just one persom this time. That alone pissed Y/N off.

The doctor had to fight with herself to keep from giving that ambassador a feel of her pent of frustration and anger… But, now wasn’t the time. All she did was give Annie a glare while she helped the bandit up from the floor, Kota taking it without much of a second thought and standing to her feet with a bit of wobble.

The glare was met with Annie’s softened expression, taking a moment to watch as the woman she once had so close to her, farther than ever before. The limp-walk past her made the weight of her actions heavier than ever. The sound of leather and metals kept Y/N’s right leg stable, helping her move properly with some minimal strain.

“She might develop a little limp… If you can convince her to stay in bed for her full recovery then maybe she might recover better... She’s always so eager to help out.”

Her hands clenched at her sides, as the memory of a bedridden Y/N laid in the infirmary bed. The way her face glistened in sweat and her head threw back in pain…. She couldn’t convince her… Not when she was trapped in that crystal…

She didn’t even notice the other two already rushing the window, Kota pulling up the window and checking below into the alleyway for any signs of a threat. It was empty. Nothing but a few stacked up crates and barrels below.

“Good enough.” The gang leader debated, shaking her head at the thought of Y/N potential falling a few feet down. Hell, they were sure she would land well… She guessed.

Annie’s mind was still dazed out. It felt like they stood on completely opposite sides of a canyon. The bridge being deliberately burned away, Y/N holding the matches that burnt the ropes thinner and thinner.

“Annie! Help her down.” Kota called, holding open the window. That snapped Annie back into the moment, her eyebrows furrowing down. She can pity herself later… Hopefully.

Without any time to waste, Annie rushed over to Y/N’s side. “Pardon my hands…” Annie softly spoke, keeping her hand on Y/N’s waist while she focused on ensuring she didn’t fall or trip. Y/N wasn’t used to the closeness, but she knew she couldn’t be annoyed about it.

“We know you’re here, Doc Let’s not make this harder than it has to be, hm?” One of the intruders spoke, a few laughing along. The sound of wood creaking beneath every step that drew closer and closer to the office.

The rugged man looked back at his men, placing a finger to his lips. He gave three fingers, signaling that on the count of three they would rush the office and take whoever was in it.

Slowly, the fingers counted down, the tensions growing higher before finally they rushed inside. Guns pointed up, sweeping before noticing that the room was empty. Nothing but a few disarrayed item and one of their own on the floor.

“Sir?” One of the goons spoke, rushing to the side of the corpse on the floor. Another goon joined beside the other, placing a hand to the fallen member’s pulse, shaking their head when all they felt was a cold vessel.

The man grimaced, putting his gun back in his belt. “I want this entire building checked. Nothing remains unturned or touched. You hear!?” He commanded, unaware of the shadows outside the windows that were already pushing through the alleyways to blend in.

“Whoever you pissed off, did not let it go.” Dakota muttered as they pushed through a wooden gate, leading them out into some cobbled street that had a few drunks walking up and down it.

Y/N just rolled eyes, taking a moment to ditch her uniform coat in a nearby bucket that seemed to be filled with a questionable liquid. Her face grimaced in disgust, turning back to catch up. She won’t be seeing that particular coat again. Unfortunate…

Annie stayed behind, keeping a look out to ensure no one followed them. “That didn’t seem like a matter of anger… More like a…” She seemed to trail off, turning her attention back to see Y/N looking back at her with a frustrated expression. “…Like a job.” She silently spoke, watching the doctor turn her head back forward.

The tension between the two even made Dakota uncomfortable. That was between them though, this bandit knew better than to try and step into a fight between a couple. Were they a couple…? Was that how it worked? She wasn’t sure.

“I wouldn’t be surprised.” Dakota rubbed the side of their head. They could still feel that sting, more dull but it was still there. “Doesn’t make sense for them to target a random doctor, though.” They added, taking a stop by some old building pub.

Dakota leaned against the brick, enjoying a moment of rest. Annie needed it too as she felt her wound from a few hours ago to feel achy and fatigue was surely pushing her.

She took a look upwards, only seeing the dark sight of the ground that lingered above… The underground didn’t have a sky… What time was it? Even she wasn’t sure… But, it felt like the days seemed to prolong. If she had to trust her gut, then she was sure that Pieck and Reiner were likely resting.

With that thought in mind, she took a moment to take a seat down on a bench placed against the brick like building, her hand rubbing at her shoulder. She even took a sneaking glance over at her old lover, watching as the young woman took slight offense to the comment. Y/N’s stance seemed to straighten up, her expression one that Annie knew all too well.

That look when she wanted to prove herself. She had it back in Trost… She had it here too.

‘I’m not a random doctor.’ Y/N signed, the look of surprise hitting the bandit and the ambassador. The blonde looked at Y/N with her eyebrows slightly raised in surprise, not expecting the change of communication. Though, that would make the most sense why she didn’t carry an old book around and a pen, wouldn’t it?…

Dakota knew there was something about how Y/N stood, her demeanor… It wasn’t like the other doctors she had been speaking to. Not Vivianne. Not even Adler..

Pushing themselves off the wall, Dakota approached Y/N, stopping just in front of her and looking down at her with an overbearing demeanor. “…Then who are you?” Dakota finally asked. There it was, the golden question. Everyone knew her as Y/N L/N above ground… But, who was this persona? This mask? Dakota was careful in approaching the mute doctors. One couldn’t be too hasty to learn the truth.

The bandit seemed to want the same answers as Annie, but even then the ambassador seemed to want to respect the boundaries her old lover clearly had. She still kept a close eye.

The doctor stood there, clenching her jaw a bit from the sudden interrogation. It even had her thinking to herself, wondering who exactly she was… But, she knew… She was a lot of things… Became a lot from nothing too.

So, seeing a smug bandit try to slightly intimidate her into spilling her life out on a map irked her a bit. It showed on her face too. Her tongue licking the inside of her cheek, she looked away briefly before she looking back up at the tall woman with more than just a little amusement. A woman who knew her position, she was. Perhaps, she picked up a few things from Dr. Vivianne.

‘The same person who slipped you a crate. Same person you want to stay on good terms with.’ She signed, her eyes challenging.

The action made Annie raise her brows, looking over to Dakota. The crate.. Then those names flashed into her mind for a few seconds. Denis and Luther…. They were all connected. The bandit seemed to suddenly have a moment of realization as well, her face contorted with a bit of confusion from that end statement though.

“…Is that a threat?” Fabel flabbergasted at the mere thought of some medic threatening to fuck off in the middle of something so important. They took a threatening step forward, feeling almost offended.

Hands started to make the argument more clear, her body turning to the two. ‘Take it how you wish. Just know you need me since I’m the only one willing to break the rules to help you.’ She reaches into her vest pocket, pulling out a letter. Her eyes stared at it before flicking her wrist to toss the letter over.

Annie watched as the letter descended gracefully down to the ground, her curiosity getting the better of her. “…What?” Annie questioned, standing up from the bench and walking over to pick up the paper from the ground. Her eyes looked up to meet her old lover’s E/C gaze, her hands gently unfolding the letter.

‘With much consideration, Main Medical has decided to postpone the distribution and cooperation with other outside parties. All medics and medical researchers are advised to stay in their offices or main buildings until further notice.

— Signed, Elinor Vivianne. Head of MM.’

Y/N shook her head, her eyes averting away at the mere thought of even getting her position revoked. ‘Everyone is completely at a standstill… Dr. Vivianne is more concerned with how much we’ve been losing because of these crates being either stolen or damaged. Every doctor, besides a few, are completely in agreement with Dr. Vivianne. They want out. This attack on my building will only solidify their stance on the matter.’ Her gestures seemed to be punctuated, her mouth moving along to mouth certain words and phrases. The doctor even started to pace a bit, needing to get some pent up feels at bay. She wasn’t happy about the decision either.

Dakota couldn’t believe that bullshit. Face contorted into frustration, feeling a bit betrayed. Hazel eyes took a look over the letter again, shaking her head in slight denial.

What ever happened to being the ones to show up for people? The heros that kept morale up? What the hell were doctors if they weren’t doing their job?

“Vivianne… That son of a bitch.” Dakota cursed under their breath, hands clenched at her side while she looked away.

Annie wasn’t sure what to make of this… “…She’s right about one thing,” Annie spoke, folding the notice back up before holding it out back at Y/N. “Those men don’t seem to be very fazed with the idea of taking lives. That crate you sent us was attacked… I… Uh.. We barely made it out. It was as if they already knew.” She watched as Y/N hesitated to reach out and take the letter back from her.

Fabel nodded, pacing a bit with a hand to their mouth as they tried to make sense of all this. “Annie here got shot… Those men aren’t afraid of any kind of consequence. Seems like everywhere we go, they’re always one step ahead.” The gang leader found themselves running a frustrated hand through their hair, stopping to look back over at the Medic.

Y/N felt her throat close up at the idea of Annie getting shot, her eyes shifting back up to meet with Annie’s gaze. Annie wasn’t sure what she saw in those familiar E/C colored eyes. It was softer than anything she’s seen all day though...

“I’ll be fine… Just a scratch…” She tried to play it off, getting a more concerned and less angry look from the other girl.

Y/N didn’t find it funny. If anything, that would make everything so much more complicated. Hell, she didn’t even know where to start… She carefully took her letter back from Annie’s fingers, pushing the paper into her vest pocket once more with a heavy exhale.

‘If they’re not afraid of consequences, then that means they’re either safe in what those consequences are… or, these people are more ruthless than I thought…’ Y/N explains with punctuated gestures. Hazel and blue eyes watched carefully as the doctor seemed a bit… Hesitant.

Dakota crossed their arms over their chest, “You have any idea what gang this is?” The gang leader asked.

Y/N shook her head, ‘Only lead I have so far is that they’re uniformed in black and red.’ Her head turned back in the direction of her medical building. She felt a little run from her own home… That was the building she used whenever she wanted to have control. She knew it would probably be burned to the ground when she came back.

“I don’t think standing around is be the best idea. More of them could be patrolling around.” Annie spoke up, standing up from the bench with a bit of a tired exhale. She cracked her neck, rolling her shoulders back as if it would relieve her.

Dakota nodded, “You’re right. Hopefully, this all starts to make sense when we’re actually in the safety of a room and not the street.” The bandit sighed, reaching for her gun and handing it over to Annie. “Try not to get this one shot out of your hand, yeah?” The gang leader teased, watching Annie flush a bit with embarrassment as she accepted it.

‘Let’s take a carriage or a wagon… I need a place to lay low… I can’t just go back to the MM if my trail is still hot.” The mute doctor gestured, fixing her leg brace a bit. The damn thing always needed to be adjusted, working and walking so much always didn’t help.

Annie waited while Dakota whistled up for a wagon, watching some old man ride up to side of the street.

“Do you need help?” Annie finally asked, getting waved off by the mute doctor. There was no direct rejection, just a wave of the hand while she approached the wagon.

“Take us Northwest. I’ll stop you when we get there.” Dakota asked as she jumped into the back, holding her hand out for Y/N to grab. Y/N took it without much of a complaint, allowing herself to be helped into their ride.

The coachman nodded, “Will do.”

Dakota got seated besides some sacks of imported goods, knee bent with an arm on it. “We’ll stop by my Uncle’s… I’m sure he’ll be glad to take up some company…” She explained, running a hand through her hair.

Y/N nodded, finding a comfortable spot near a barrel of what she believed was probably wine. At least she hoped so, a drink right about now sounded nice.

“Northwest is near the entrance to the city, isn’t it?” Annie asked, holding onto the strap of her satchel before finally getting settled up into the back of the wagon with the others. So much has changed since then… But, she couldn’t complain. She didn’t really have the right to.

‘And Main Medical. It’s some ways from it… Smack in the middle of this city… We actually cleared out one of the old brothel buildings for it… A big one. When we’re rested and ready, we can head there… Get us all on the same page with Dr. Vivianne and Dr. Adler.’ Y/N signed, her head leaned against the barrel beside her.

Dakota motioned with their hand, agreeing along with what the doctor said. “A meeting was long overdue…. She’s always avoided speaking with me directly. Dr. Adler and I are practically best buddies with how often I’ve seen him.” There was a spoken sarcasm that made Y/N shake her head, understanding what Dakota meant perfectly. Vivianne was practically a book of tasks. Always sending others to do the things she didn’t want to… Perfect example was this… Though it was deliberate, Y/N didn’t mind getting her hands dirty if it meant doing the right thing. Vivianne’s word wouldn’t stop her.

Annie hummed, taking a sneaking glance over to Y/N, who seemed to want to rest a bit on the ride to Dakota’s Uncle’s house. She didn’t want to stare, but it was strange…Seeing her again after such a long time… She looked good. Annie still liked how she styled her hair… How her E/C closed to just… Rest and breathe for a moment. Of course, she was pulled out of her moment when she saw Dakota smirking at her. That knowing glance the bandit made her way ruined it.

It made her embarrassed, making her turn her head away with her cheeks growing red flush..

With a snap of the reigns, they were on their way. Thankfully the cover of the wagon would provide them some relief from anyone who could see them pass by.

——

Adler bursted through the door, panting and pointing behind him. He was so out of breath from running everywhere, still empty handed though.

Dr. Vivianne placed her clipboard down and just waited for the theatric display to end, leaning a hand against her desk while the other rested on her hip.

“Eastern Building…. It… Phew…” He started his sentence, leant forward with his hands on his knees. He couldn’t even hold enough air in to make a cohesive sentence.

Of course, this just annoyed Vivianne. “Spit it out.” She urged, tone stern and punctual with it.

“Eastern building got raided.” Adler finally spit it out, holding a hand to his chest. The news made Vivianne’s eyes widen a bit, her expression growing a little confused.

“Raided? What do you mean "raided?” The ash haired doctor questioned, her head tilted forward as if demanding some kind of explanation.

The blonde doctor just shook his head, standing up a bit straighter. “I was doing what you said… Trying to find Y/N… So, I went to her building…But then, I noticed a whole bunch of men rush the building… I booked it out of there….” Adler explained, pacing a bit while he spoke. His conscience felt guilty. He ran off like a coward and probably let these… Rats kill one of their own.

Vivianne seemed lost for words. Her eyes looked away as she processed the news, feeling a sinking feeling in her gut at the thought of one of the original three being gone to something so…. so preventable. Her brain wanted to think logically about this, but her heart didn’t seem to agree.

“…Do you know for sure that Dr. Quil was in that building?” Vivianne questioned in a monotone voice, her head tilting slightly.

Adler couldn’t say for sure. “…I… I would like to hope not… But, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re starting to hurt the supply at the source.” He said his thoughts, his shoulders slumping slightly as he stood. His eyes grew worrisome. The idea of anyone becoming a target… He avoided the war for that reason… He didn’t want to be a target.

Vivianne felt bitter, her eyes closing for a moment. “…Start telling the staff to start closing everything up.” She says, standing up straighter. “Tell them that it’s urgent as well. I don’t want a single doctor left behind.” Her hand pulled a document from her desk, pushing it into one of the drawers with a slight of hand.

Adler looked at Vivianne with a confused expression, his eyebrows knitting together. “…What about the crates?… Surely, we can’t just… Leave them?” He asked, curious if they were going to just leave them there.

Vivianne nodded, “Don’t worry about that. Until we get definite confirmation that Dr. Quil is dead. We will proceed with clean-up here. Priority documents come first. Crates can collect dust for all I care. They’re not worth the sacrifice of the other good doctors here.” Her way of explaining the situation made Adler feel a little more at ease. He nodded his head in agreement. The earlier they got out, the better.

“Now leave me be… I need… Uh…” Vivianne looked around a bit lost, her eyes looking down at her desk. “I need to be alone for a little while…” She took a seat in her chair, her elbows resting on the surface of her cluttered desk and her hands clasping together as if in prayer. Her heart felt heavy. It felt like everything was going downhill from here.

Dr. Adler nodded his head, immediately leaving to go start the prep up for evac. There was a lot of equipment to be packed away. Transportation was also going to be a little tight, but as long as people were able to leave then it didn’t matter.

Vivianne stared at the door of her office, her eyes closing tightly as flashbacks to when she first met Y/N had suddenly triggered.

——

“Luther, Denis, Vivianne, and Adler. You’re being requested over to The Scouts Main Quarters. Please go ASAP.” The head medic spoke, flipping through a wooden clipboard as he stood at the doorway.

Vivianne pulled her mask down and looked over, her expression growing confused. “Wh-What do they need us for…?” She questioned, taking off her blood soaked gloves.

The man looked up at Vivianne, shaking his head in disapproval. “Does it matter? If I say to go, you go.” He spoke firmly, making the girl slightly purse her lips together as if to hold back on being disrespectful.

She only nodded, looking back down at the soldier that was missing an arm from an expedition… Survived, but now retired… It was unfortunate. “Rest easy…” She softly spoke, patting his shoulder before she turned and left the room.

In the hallway, Luther and Denis seemed to be messing around a bit, pushing and shoving each other. Adler stood with his hand adjusting his glasses, keeping a cocky explanation on his face as they waited for Vivianne.

“You coming, slowpoke? We’re waiting on you.” Denis said, wrapping an arm around Luther’s shoulder.

Adler scoffed, “At least try to act professional, Denis…” The blonde man spoke, his expression showing his disdain for how casual the two were being.

Luther rolled his eyes, “You act like we’re seeing the Queen. Get your breeches untangled and let loose, will ya? I swear, all I ever hear you do is complain.” The taller man spoke, Denis laughing a bit from his friend’s observation.

Adler just gritted his teeth, shaking his head. He adjusted his glasses once more, “You ready?” Adler asked Vivianne, wanting this done and over with as soon as possible.

Vivianne gave a quick nod, catching up with the three.

She remembered the debriefings they were subjected to with Commander Hange. The eccentric way the commander handled themselves made Luther and Denis more excited for this sudden call.

But, Vivianne was very… suspicious. Becoming a field medic sounded crazy… All this confidentiality also rubbed her wrong. What the hell were they hiding?

“Given the circumstances, I will give you the opportunity to back out… However, you 4 were hand picked because of your overall evaluations back when you were in training as well as your medical expertise. This is for progress… A trial we conducted a few time before. It will be the first on field medical team.” Hange explained with a more serious tone, pushing a paper towards the four medics.

Luther was the first to raise his hand, “Is it just us…? Or will there be more?” He asked, making Vivianne give him a side-eye.

Hange paced a bit, nodding their head. “I will only say that you have a captain.” They stopped, motioning towards the door. “Unlike you all, she didn’t necessarily have a choice in the matter whether she joined or not.”

Adler shook his head, standing up. “I rather value my life. I would find it a waste to leave it in the hands of some… Scout. Thank you for the offer though. Hopefully, you can find some other fool to take my place.” His reluctance made Vivianne want to leave as well, finding the idea of fighting alongside The Scouts to be so foolish. A death sentence handed down on a gruesome platter, that’s basically what it was.

As Adler left, Vivianne debated with herself. She too could live a comfortable life.. A life with no worries besides the worries that came in through doors in the arms of fellow comrades…

“Damn… I really thought I sold the idea. Anyone else?” Hange sighed, pushing up their goggles to rub their eyes. Handa landed on their hips, looking amongst the younger men and at Vivianne.

The room stayed quiet, Luther soon reaching to the table to grab the paper of the plans. Vivianne watched him debate it, soon just nodding. “Fuck it… I’m in.” He stood up, tossing the paper back onto the table. Vivianne just watched as Denis followed through too.

“Me too. I’ll join too!” Denis said with a confident fist to his chest. His lips held a self-assured smile too, pushing Luther with his arm, who then pushed him back.

‘What the…’ She thought they were crazy. Why the hell would they want to go beyond the walls? The safety was all here. They had the easy part of just sitting and waiting, cleaning and tending…. But, she hadn’t denied the offer yet… So, was she crazy too? Was it some weird curiosity?

Her eyes then met up with the commander’s, “What about you?” Hange asked, holding out a hand to her. Vivianne wasn’t sure what she was doing, but she grabbed that hand, sealing the deal of her participation.

She remembered how the team was escorted throughout the barrack building. Faces that were familiar passed by, making Vivianne stare more with interest. She didn’t expect them to be so close to such big names… Hell, she even thinks she saw Mikasa there.

“Holy hell, that’s literally Levi.” Denis grabbed Luther’s arm, shaking him slightly. As they approached the closed door that Levi seemed to guard, his back leaned against the wall.

“Is this them?” Levi asked, Hange nodding their head. “One didn’t take the offer, but we’ll still have 4.” Hange answered, adjusting their uniform coat. “Baby steps as they say.” Adding to the conversation, they looked back at the squad behind.

Vivianne saw how Hange placed a stack of papers in Levi’s hand. “Perfect.” He said, looking through them briefly before he finally opened the door.

Vivianne looked around, taking in the sight of the lab that seemed to have been built there. A lot of beakers… A lot of scrap metal too… It felt like they just walked into a madman’s science experiment.

But, it was a lot crazier than that.

The figure at the desk lifted their head up and turned to look over their shoulder, soon meeting eyes with her. And suddenly, she felt breathless.

Hange ensured the door was closed behind them, taking the initiative to walk over to the desk.

“Your captain for this operation is Y/N L/N.” Levi spoke, his hands at his sides. He kept it short and blunt, there wasn’t a need for everyone to be getting comfortable. Not yet, anyways.

Vivianne watched how the quiet persona in the room pushed back a pair of goggles from her face before turning to look at the group before her. Judgemental eyes stared, nodding as if she was satisfied.

“You’re the—” Vivianne spoke up, recognizing that face from the bulletin board. The mute doctor placed a finger to her lips and just hushed.

Y/N stood up, the sound of a heavy boot came with every step. Vivianne wasn’t sure what she felt… Was it envy? There was something in how Y/N carried herself despite being the one with the greatest disadvantage in the room.

She wanted to capture it. She wanted it to herself.

——

Annie stayed seated on a small bed that Uncle Miles provided, a hand covering her chest while Y/N took a look at the wound on her shoulder. She felt a few stings whenever the mute doctor touched the surely scarred skin.

‘Whoever did this was surely an amateur.’ Y/N gestured, looking over at the bandit that was enjoying a little meal that her uncle had provided. It felt good to be back at home eating all this good food.

“…Sorry, not everyone has experience.” Dakota said, licking their thumb from the sauce that the stew had. Nothing like a good meal to end the day. They stood by the window, looking out at the street. It was always entertaining to see people interact while they ate.

Y/N was thankful she had the proper supplies to start cleaning the wound. So, she started with that first. Having to remove stitches was a bit of a pain, but she knew it was better than letting Annie walk around with busted up looking stitches.

Annie had trouble keeping her eyes averted, always finding herself unconsciously getting distracted by how Y/N would occasionally bite her lip or how her face concentrated on cleaning the inflamed area with a washcloth. The touch enough to make Annie slightly wince and squint her eyes away.

“I just wished it didn’t hurt so bad.” Annie softly muttered, staying still while Y/N worked.

From a professional standpoint, Y/N was a bit concerned about a potential problem. The wound was definitely not correctly treated, and the old sutures were practically loose and tied too big. But, personally, she couldn’t say that Annie didn’t deserve it. A little mean, but she was allowed to be angry.

“So when are we addressing the problem with Vivianne?” Dakota asked, tossing her plate down on her desk with the others once she was finished with her meal. Her hands wiped themselves on her pants, walking over to stand over the doctor and ambassador.

Y/N finished up the cleaning, putting her washcloth down in a bucket beside them. Her attention moved over to Dakota, not sure what they were expecting.

‘Whenever I can get back. I should be able to talk to her about this… She cannot know about the attack on my building though. If she does, I’ll be stuck in the offices and I won’t be able to help you.’ Y/N explained, standing up from the bed and using a small cloth to wipe her hands. ‘She won’t be easy to persuade, but she’s never been easy.’ Y/N signed once more, sighing at the fact she needed to go head to head with her of all people. Adler, she didn’t care much for. She could debate with him whenever and wherever… Vivianne was more hardheaded. A woman bound by a weird sense of leadership. She held every nurse with an iron grip. Not her though. She could never hold her down.

Dakota hummed, “Tell me about it.” her eyes looking back over at Annie who seemed to be checking out her new sutures. However, her eyes were focused a bit more on Y/N.

Annie was stuck in a little world of her own at the moment, trying to process everything that’s happened. Everything that will happen. “Who is Dr. Vivianne?” Annie questioned, her head tilting a bit. She hadn’t heard of the name. Nor did she read about it… This was someone completely new.

Y/N could’ve answered that question in a multitude of ways, but she didn’t. She just stood there and shook her head, ‘Head of the Medical Division. She took after Henry Belis when he died after the war.’ She gestured, not very fond of the history. Especially, not when her and Vivianne had so much of it.

“…So she’s your mentor?” Annie stood up from the bed, adjusting her clothes to cover up with just the fix of some buttons on her shirt.

Y/N shook her head once more, almost finding that idea a bit funny. ‘No. If anything she’s just a person in the big chair.’ Her hand gestures showed a little more of the sadder truth of this story.

A constant shift in power always made its way between Adler, Vivianne and Y/N. Either it was a battle of different approaches to certain things, or just Vivianne putting her foot down…. Y/N always had no choice but to listen.

Dakota took a step forward, a hand gesturing towards Annie. “What she means is, she’s a hothead with too much power. Haven’t thought of one instance where she’s not sending Adler to me. A control freak. Always up my ass about quite literally everything that happens as if I don’t have it all under a watchful eye.” The bandit scoffed.

Y/N knew that Dakota and Vivianne were also on opposite sides of the fence. It wasn’t anything new though.

“…She doesn’t sound… nice.” Annie commented in a weird blunt way that made Y/N give a small exhale of amusement. The blonde’s interest suddenly hyperfixed on that little action, her mind blanking a bit.

Y/N then shook her head, ‘She’s the product of someone who lets expectations cloud judgment… Someone who let their promotion go straight to her head.’ She signed with her eyes averted, crossed her arms after while making her way over to the window. Her mind always drifted back to the past… How, she constantly felt the weight on her shoulders as she did back then. Why was it always her making tough decisions? She never had a moment to just… Be.

“Y/N, I want you to lead the Medical Research Council.”

That offer was the downfall of the bonds they used to hold. When it became more about competition than about actually helping. Who was better and who could fill the shoes that were left. Y/N remember denying the position… Wanting to live a quieter life. The occasional job here and there… But, now here she was. Fighting against her own moral compass and risking her job because she’s never been one to leave others behind. Not now, not ever. She was thankful that Luther and Denis shared that principle.

She was tired.

Dakota could see that look in Y/N’s face. How her eyebrows furrowed down, a look of lost confidence. “…You two have history then?” She finally asked, making Y/N’s head turn away.

Annie stayed quiet, just wanting to know anything that Y/N would give her… Anything that book never told. Those continued chapters. She just… She needed to know.

And Y/N told them.

‘We worked together for a while. I was under the watchful eye of Commander Hange, placed to be a field medic and soon captain for a squad … She was… my partner. Someone I could trust at the time… A voice almost.’ Her gestures were careful, her face showing a mixture of emotions. But, she didn’t miss those moments. ‘At least, that’s what I thought at the time… But, when you’re running for someone else, you forget to walk. She forgot to walk and instead took the opportunity to fly… Hasn’t come down since.’ Her way of telling the story made Annie feel like she got a good punch to the gut. Like she was too late.

Dakota was surprised, head almost jolting back a bit from the information shared. That made a whole lot more sense now…. Why couldn't they find anything based on the missing parts of this “case.”

“You were been quietly stationed…? Why the hell would they do that?” Dakota was so fucking confused. In what universe, does making someone go missing create a benefit?

Annie was struggling to understand as well, her expression contorting with its own confusion. “That doesn’t make sense…” Annie started her thought, pointing towards Y/N, who in turn turned to look directly at the ambassador.

“I was working with the scouts during the rumbling… They said they never saw you...” Annie could remember it easily. Jean didn’t know. Connie didn’t know. Mikasa was the one who told her that Y/N’s been… Armin even said the same thing….

Y/N took a step forward, ‘What did you expect the friends of a former enemy to do?… I was working and had you come after me, you would’ve been killed.’ She knew her words were coming off a bit hostile, maybe even a bit bitter… But, she was… She was allowed to be. That was the truth. She had bigger responsibilities than

Dakota stayed quiet though, taking a place against the wall with her arms folded over her chest. She wanted to see how this entire thing unfolded, but kept a watchful eye on if it got… Too heated between the two.

Annie shook her head, “You weren’t my…” She then stopped herself, because at the time… They were enemies. They fought on different sides of the walls. Y/N stood a little taller, her eyes looking into Annie. The same way they used to when she couldn’t promise anything. It made Annie speechless.

There was a pregnant pause before Y/N tilted her head, hands signing her thoughts. ‘I liked to keep my whereabouts private… That was until recently… With the war over and a lot of the members no longer here… Now, I am just a doctor and rep for medical research.’ The mute doctor’s footsteps grew closer to Annie, the two eventually standing face to face. As much as it pained her to mention the death of her mentor and practically her guardian Hange, it was true. After the war on Marley… Y/N’s squad was disbanded to focus full time on other things.

Annie’s eyes softened up, her eyes unconsciously moving downwards towards the lips of the other woman. “And what was so important?… I could think of many instances where people needed a medic and you just weren’t there.” Annie questioned with a more sharpness in her tone. Her eyes looked back up into Y/N’s eyed again, their gazes strong enough to probably light a flame.

‘Who do you think delivered the queen’s heir?’ Y/N’s response made Dakota have a little outburst, her head shaking in disbelief. She pushed herself off from the wall and approached the doctor with an accusatory tone. “Bullshit! Everyone knows that Dr—” Her voice stopped immediately, eyes showing a shocking realization. That’s when Dakota’s hand soon pointed directly at the mute doctor, the doctor holding a prideful smile.

Annie’s eyes shifted to Dakota, trying to understand what revelation they had just came upon… Then she heard it. A name she’s heard of before.

“Dr. Quil…” Dakota’s realization rang in her voice, expression showing the new information boggled her mind. The documents were shredded because Y/N didn’t exist in the corp…. Y/N and Dr. Quil didn’t exist at the same time. They couldn’t.

“Dr. Quil helped me out with my bent out leg. I’d recommend seeing her if you need a check-up.”

The memory made Annie’s body feel suddenly cold. Her eyes finding themselves downcast and her hands at her sides in the shape of fists. Hiding in plain sight… Then she remembered what Dakota said to her when she was tied up in that chair.

“Name has been dead for a long time….” Annie spoke under her breath, trying to take in everything… But, It was too… Too much.

‘Marley was lovely, by the way. I find it crazy I made it there before you did.’ Y/N was just fucking with Annie now, the tension starting to grow the more that Y/N revealed. Annie immediately grabbed Y/N by her shirt collar, staring at her old lover with a more cold gaze. Was she mocking her?

The threatening look didn’t make Y/N flinch, she wasn’t the same person she was before… Annie had to accept that… There was no journal writing, no walks through the snow, no late night visits that ended up in a tangle of limbs… They were strangers. A clean slate. They didn’t recognize each other. That’s what years did to something that wasn’t fully established.

“Amby…” Dakota placed a hand on Annie’s chest, keeping her voice steady to calm Annie’s overwhelming emotions. But, It was all just too much to take in. Her fists clenched harder, her eyes wide and she was spiraling a bit.

But, it wasn’t. They were just battle-hardened creatures now… Both had their secrets. ‘Be mad that I lied, Sure. But, you can’t be mad at me for doing the same shit you did to me.’ Y/N was right. She wasn’t any better… They were the same coin, different sides. Annie couldn’t be mad that Y/N took a more respectable route of things.

“Annie.” Dakota’s voice raised, stern and hushed as to not disturb her uncle who was probably in his own sorrows with his mourning.

“You act like I didn’t care.” Annie’s voice wavered in their justifications. “I didn’t fucking leave you because I wanted to!”

‘You left because you knew you couldn’t stand to tell me the truth. You couldn’t even be honest with me when I got hurt because of you.’ Y/N’s words struck into her like daggers. And they were right… Annie was the biggest coward. The one that ran away because it got too complicated and the fact Y/N saw that and looked down on her… She didn’t know what to say.

Dakota’s hand pushed against Annie’s chest again, “That’s enough.” The bandit wasn’t going to let this continue, making Annie finally let go of her old lover’s shirt. Y/N even swatted Annie’s hands away, the sounds of breaths heavy coming from the two lovers. Dakota pushed them away from each other, pointing a finger at the blonde then at the H/C as if they were dogs. Both just back off, staring at each other from past Dakota.

The doctor fixed her collar, dusting herself off while she took that moment to breathe. She knew Annie could easily overpower her, did she care? No. She knew she had the upper hand. They both were in a position that couldn’t be replaced. Both were important people… With powerful names…

“Let me remind you both that we don’t need this. I get it! You’re pissed off at her. She’s hung up on you… But, right now??? We have shit we got to do.” The gang leader motioned between the two, hazel eyes meeting up with the doctor’s. “Doctor?” Dakota spoke to move the attention from Annie to herself, cautiously holding out their hand to the disheveled woman. Y/N just looked down at it with a stubborn glare. A little parley on their personal matters… How fun.

“We get this done, you both can sit… Maybe, have a nice coffee above ground about it. Hell! Kill each other afterwards if you really want to! I don’t give a damn. Now, we know what we need. We need to rest, wake up and have that meeting with Vivianne with no delay.” The way Fabel spoke really showed that they knew how to keep the game fair. That’s how they liked it. Fair, sweet and short. None of this back and forth.

Annie licked the inside of her cheek, still feeling that bubbling annoyance in her gut. She was also smacked with guilt and doubt. She just nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. It’s not like she wanted to fight her. and Y/N didn’t want to fight her either… She was exhausted.

“Deal?” Dakota asked, eyebrows raising to show a more neutral face to the doctor. She didn’t want to seem like she picked a side, there was no sides.

With much contemplation, Y/N reached over to shake the bandit’s hand. She can play nice for a bit. E/C eyes met up with blue soon after, ‘I know a nice cafe we can go to when this is all over. I’m guessing you like it with extra sugar?’ The doctor signed to Annie, making the ambassador suddenly look taken aback.

“How did you—?” Annie was caught off guard, head turning to follow as Y/N walked past her to start getting their stuff together for bed. She might not have realized, but Y/N still remembered her sweet tooth. Not that she would admit it.

Dakota shook their head, rolling their eyes as they left the two to get their shit together. The bandit was expecting a cute reunion, maybe some fighting with a little bit of declarations of love… No, just got a headache. A massive one.

“Hey, Uncle. Do you have rope?” Dakota asked, coming down the stairs to see the older man at his workstation. His eye looked over to the younger Fabel, placing down an axe head he was sharpening.

“What do you need rope for?…” He asked, watching as Dakota made her way over. She stopped across the work bench, hands in her pockets with her eyes looking at all the new things her uncle had been busying himself with.

“I got two dogs that need to get along. Figured I would just tie them up until they did…” Her hands picked up a shiny blue steel knife with a beautiful redwood handle. She gave it a few practice swings, testing how the blade hid away before flicking it out again.

Miles softly hummed, “Is that what I heard upstairs…?” He turned back to his work, sanding down a handle for an axe he was making.

Dakota nodded with a dramatic head nod, folding the knife back into itself. That’s when Miles held out his hand, “Makes the place a lot more lively… Can’t say I hated it.” He said with a short laugh, making Fabel feel a little guilty. They knew what he meant, it wasn’t just him that felt that way.

She gave him the knife, watching him pull away from the desk to place it into a little sheath he had made for it. A pretty thing, lovely dark leather always looked good. “I’m sorry for not being around much, M…” She apologized, pulling a chair out from his desk that was cluttered with ideas and projects. She sat across, leaning back in it.

He took a deep breath, looking at her with tired eye. “You're all good, D… I know you’re busy with managing the gang. I gave you that responsibility after all… I know how much it takes away.” He looked back down at the wooden handle in his hand, placing down the sandpaper to test how it felt in his hands.

Dakota sighed, “…I’m working hard to stop it… I mean.. I’m not going to say much, but I’ve been establishing quite the connections.” She saw how he shook his head.

It didn’t matter how many connections a person had. For some reason, this place always took and took. It took his left eye… It took his wife… He was stagnant… Just a guy who made tools for a gang he used to run.

“Hmm… Just don’t get swept up in it, D.” He simply said, his voice quiet. It pained Dakota to see him this way… Watching him adjust that eyepatch on his face, sometimes she could see his hands shake.

“It’ll have to catch up to me to sweep me up, Uncle.” Her voice softened up, watching as he sighed and shook his head. “I’m serious.” He replied, looking up at the young bandit. Despite her being older now, he still saw that little girl that enjoyed watching him make new things.

“I know.” She exhaled, standing up from the chair. “I promise. Once this is all over, we can take a trip above ground… get some fresh air. Maybe, we can see the water too. I know you’ve always wanted to do that.” She promised, holding a soft smile. It was one of those smiles that made Miles feel at ease.

“…Sure… We’ll go see the water.” He agreed with the pretty thought. Maybe he needed to get away from all of this… But, nothing could ever fill his missing piece… Not even water. Dakota gave a wink, motioning towards the kitchen as she started to head for head. “Make sure you eat, Uncle. Don’t need you passed out on your workbench again.” She advised, footsteps echoing as Dakota went up.

The older man’s eye looks over at the urn on the shelf, “What are we going to do with this kid, Kate?…” He asked before he shook his head and got back to work on making his axe.

——

“LUTHER! RUN!” Denis yelled, sprinting down the alleyway behind his best friend. Luther was running just like he was told, looking back behind them as men started to rush them.

“I want them alive!” The man ordered, stopping his chase and pointing at his men to go after them. His lips lifted into a proud smirk, hearing the bullets fire and the feet of men running at his demand… Was this what it was like to have power Instead of being kicked to the ground?

Denis followed close behind, pulling down barrels and crates to obstruct any path. Luther knew something was fucked when they saw those bastards were starting to block off streets. They had to ditch the wagon because of it and It fucked with him, he knew what they were looking for. Their faces were well known from the papers.

BANG!

Luther found himself ducking his head, scrambling into another set of alleyways behind some brothel. Bugs and rats scurried past his feet. His heart racing in his ears made it feel as if his head was underwater. He couldn’t hear anything. Just kept running and running.

“Through here!” Luther said, finding an old building they could run through. He looked at the old doors on it, taking a step back before using as much momentum and adrenaline to kick the damn thing open. Once the door broke open, Luther pushed himself through the splintering wood. The place was dark and dusty, but he could care less…

“Denis, I think we should—” He turned behind him and saw no one. Her heart dropping instantly, all he could hear now was the sound of his own heavy breathing.

“Denis?…Brother?” He helplessly called out.

taglist; @cess02 @the-camilucha @tsukidrama @scouts-stuff

#TGWWMLs #annie x reader #annie leonhart x reader #aot scenarios #aot imagines #aot fanfiction #annie leonhardt x reader #annie leonhardt #Annie snk #annie leonhart

[kyouka-supremacy]

Who in sskk would you say has the higher IQ?

IQ as in, conventionally smart? Then definitely Atsushi does. I'm sorry. I've said it many times before, but I don't think Akutagawa is a particularly perceptive person. Or witty. Or intelligent in general. It's due to external factors, he never got the chance to have anything that could resemble a proper education; but it's also a matter of his nature, he's just so impulsive, and narrow-minded, and stubborn, he really has the thickest skull ever. But seriously, especially in a world full of geniuses, Akutagawa simply doesn't shine for sharpness of mind, and is way too impulsive and instincts-driven to be a person that relies on reflection or rationality. Everything that Akutagawa does is the epitome of irrational, it's one of the greatest appeals of the character.

Atsushi is smart,,,, I've talked about this also, and I think it's less sustained by canon than for Akutagawa, but I like to think he's a very observant and perceptive person whose intelligence doesn't show because he's constantly surrounded by geniuses, but still he is smart. When it comes to observations skills, I find it easy for him to have them due to his childhood of ill-treatment and abuse: as a defense mechanism, he learnt to be especially observative of people's behaviour in order to tell what sets people off and be able to prevent any escalation, I think that's a widely shared abuse survivor experience. Something among these lines is shown in chapter 51:

I also think Atsushi is a very fast learner. He's observant, and that results in him constantly absorbing other people's knowledge. He's often asking for explanations for Dazai and Ranpo's reasonings, and although I know more often than not it solves an expositive role in the storytelling picture, there's still the fact that it makes Atsushi a person who's constantly trying to understand the reality surrounding him. Atsushi is also shown to be very cool-minded and calculating in fight: from him sliding under Akutagawa and attacking him from behind successfully eluding having to face him front-off in chapter 4, to him retracting his tiger limbs to escape Rashomon's bonds in chapter 12, to the strategy he elaborated with Tanizaki (and his ability to catch up on that) to defeat Lucy in chapter 16, to his attempt to outsmart Fitzgerald in chapter 34 (that, although failed, was still driven by rational thinking nonetheless), and the list could go on. The way in fight Atsushi is shown to ponder over and implement the advices people like Dazai or Mori offered him further makes me believe he's really good at absorbing information. And Atsushi is probably book smart, too! He's compelled by reading to the point he would even risk the orphanage director's punishment just to sneak into the library and read (not explicitly supported by canon, but I can take a guess). According to the second guidebook, he spends his leisure time borrowing books from the library and studying. Overall, he really seems to be rational in all the places Akutagawa is on the contrary driven by impulses¹.

It's like… A physics law when it comes to sskk, that Akutagawa will have the most despicable trait while Atsushi has the trait that is conventionally considered the best; or at least that's as far as my characterization of them goes. Atsushi is beautiful, Akutagawa is ugly². Atsushi is polite, Akutagawa is rude. Atsushi is pure, Akutagawa is stained. Atsushi is smart, Akutagawa isn't. Atsushi is lovable, Akutagawa is destined to cause repulsion in everyone he meets³. In the end, none of this matters: they're no different where it counts, that is, Atsushi isn't any more morally just than Akutagawa is. Atsushi in not any more good than Akutagawa is (I actually suspect the contrary is true). But as far as appearances go, it's still important to portray them as opposites, because Akutagawa being unlovable and Atsushi receiving all the love Akutagawa didn't get for being his contrary - even though deep down they're the same - is almost everything their relationship is about. It's also a big part of why they act like they do towards each other: it's source of Akutagawa's bottomless envy for Atsushi; it's source of how devoted and loyal he will grow to be for him - reaching the point of giving his life for him -, because he can't see Atsushi as anything but perfection. It's source of confidence and of that certain justified hatred towards Akutagawa Atsushi feels because to his eyes Akutagawa is about the worst person to have ever walked on earth. It's source to their wish to annihilate the other as the opposite they can't exist at the same time of. It's the reason Akutagawa had to die, because he's not the good one. Overall it's also expression of Akutagawa's thematic struggle to be good and unavoidable failure at that because of the constraints of a narrative that never wanted him to be good.

But I also think they can make it work. More precisely, I think sskk can make it work when both of them can overcome and defeat the narrative dichotomy they found themselves stuck into: by recognizing that deep common ground of “we're the same” and that where it matters, in morals, neither of them is better or worse than the other. The Beast universe exemplifies that for us readers, but they don't know Beast, so they'll have to realize it by their own. About that, I think Akutagawa already caught on, because he was faster to call out the hypocrisy of Atsushi's good guy façade, and from that it's a short distance to realizing that, as much as he hates to admit it, at his core Atsushi is not that different from himself. It's taking a little more for Atsushi to realize, because it's harder to get down from that higher moral pedestal he believes himself to be on, but with his whole reevaluating Akutagawa after he stopped killing and sacrificed himself for him (and then saved him again. And then showed him how formidable of a team they are when they find a common ground.), I think he's getting there.

Tl;dr: Atsushi is smart and Akutagawa is stupid and yes it fits their personalities, but way more importantly it's consistent with the themes they carry that translate in what their relationship is like.

¹ For further reading on how Atsushi can be witty, please refer to @/gloomierdays's tags on this post. ² For further reading on how Atsushi and Akutagawa's looks can be used to reflect their characters themes, please refer to this post. ³ For further reading on how Akutagawa being not smart (as far as conventional definitions of smart go) ties to his character themes, please refer to this post.

#Answering this exactly one month late I'm so so so so so sorry #To be fair if I didn't set my mind on writing dissertations for every ask I get I'd probably be able to answer them faster #Seriously again I deeply apologize for taking so long /////// #atsushi nakajima #ryūnosuke akutagawa #sskk #shin soukoku #bsd #bungou stray dogs #mine #people asks me stuff #I don't even think Akutagawa likes reading lol. #I think he's so restless and impatient‚ his attention span is really far too low to sit down and read something leisurely. #This might as well be my most fandom unpopular sskk opinion of them all ajkfafliugefligwfkqwjyg